All the planets at one time or another turn retrograde, creating an inward-focused time. At present, Mercury, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto, Juno and Chiron are retrograde. During retrograde times, we confront the past, sort out the dross, clean, clear, eliminate and bring forth closure. Then the planet turns direct again.
Monday, after four-and-a-half months of retrograde (since April 6), Saturn—strict teacher, disciplinarian and time-keeper—turns direct (21 degrees Sagittarius). During Saturn retrogrades, we tend to things neglected and forgotten. Debts (karma) owed are remembered. Tests and challenges return, giving us time to learn the lessons again.
After Saturn turns direct once again, we are ready to assume more tasks and responsibilities, become more productive, achieve more, are on time, and apply practically what we have learned over the previous months. We have more strength, ambition, and a sense of perseverance has developed. We feel encouraged, have sounder judgment, and care for ourselves in more practical ways.
Saturn pushes us to have courage, moves us out of past habits and carefully into new rhythms. Saturn guards and guides us, teaches us to trust and assume responsibility. Saturn strengthens us and offers us failures so we can learn fortitude and patience. Saturn adjusts our abilities by offering us struggles and times when we are solitary and alone. Saturn is strict but very fair.
As the days, weeks and months unfold after the Leo solar eclipse and Saturn moving forward in Sag (both fire signs), our creativity surges and a concrete manifestation of things envisioned and hoped for comes forth.
Burning Man begins Sunday in a Mercury/Virgo retrograde. This radical, ritualed pop-up-art-culture-community-bonfire event-on Black Rock playas—where everyone is equal, nothing can be bought, and there are no rules—will have surprising events and outcomes this year. Burning Man’s principles/rules (Saturn) are on my website, nightlightnews.org.
ARIES: You find it important to have beauty, peace and harmony at home, along with nourishing and nurturing things. Look around your environments and create the needed comfort. You think about your childhood home, your parents’ marriage, the intelligence and love imparted there. You either imitate this way of living or revolutionize it.
TAURUS: You always choose to be kind, tolerant, tactful, doing no harm. This makes you very likable. You learn during these eclipse weeks that you are very creative. You also learn to provide others with more recognition. You’re sensitive, diplomatic, and often you remain silent. You have very high intelligence, which you hide. You are also, at times, mischievous and ornery. Everyone likes you.
GEMINI: It’s important to hear during these times that you are creative, intelligent, loving, cared for and appreciated. You may not verbalize these words to others often, but you need to have them spoken to you. Inform loved ones that you feel safe and secure with them. And thank them. What you seek most right now are things simple, trustworthy and genuine. Soul qualities.
CANCER: The planets are affecting you in such a way that you are more sensitive, vulnerable, aware, perceptive and intuitive. Give to yourself all that you need during this time. You may need to tend to your health and well-being with more focus. Less acidic foods, more alkaline for balance. You will feel the difference. Research Chaga (medicinal mushroom) and dried green barley grass. Use them in smoothies.
LEO: Parts of your life become more hidden for a while. In terms of love, it’s as if you closed the door and went into hiding. Secrets become interesting, you or others speak in whispers. There’s a real feeling that some essential things—people, situations, events, the past—have ended. Loss is always accompanied by sadness and melancholy. This too passes. But you realize what you are lonely for.
VIRGO: You seek someone to share your interests. You seek happiness and friendships and group interactions. You seek peacefulness, a bit of romance tinged with friendship. You waver between depth and impersonality, all the while wanting to trust. You’re here and there with your thinking. You want to feel empowered, but sometimes daily life feels wounding. Relationships change for the better.
LIBRA: A very expansive new sense of self is growing within, and you will be surprised in the future who and what you become. In relationships, you harmonize rather than challenge. In groups of friends you are the change maker, the radical social one. Someone makes you very happy. You value their love. They teach you how to love more. You protect them from harm. Safeguarding them. You don’t talk about these things. Sometimes there’s sadness.
SCORPIO: You’re recognized for your unceasing work performance. You’re seen as a bit radical, responsible, likeable, with appropriate authority, able to negotiate and be social at the same time. All in terms of your profession. There’s some ambition for something new, something managerial mixed with art, creativity and your particular talent. Opportunities come your way. Keep a sensible heart throughout. But listen to the siren calls.
SAGITTARIUS: Several things keep coming to the surface or showing up in your life. The usual things – money, sharing finances, deep intimate connections, dividing power, discussing emotional topics. All of these are important. Then there’s the unusual, where routine becomes a grave dissatisfaction. The appeal is other people, faraway places, attractive and charming and rather exotic. You are to attract and then synthesize all of it.
CAPRICORN: Pay special attention to partners, intimates, friends and those close to you. Personal, one-on-one interactions are needed by those who love you. Offer yourself, with intention and dedication, to be more present, to just love more. Observe carefully the needs of those in your life. One can radiate love yet still be unaware of the real needs of others. Do you recognize the subtle difference?
AQUARIUS: Above all other things you do this month, make sure the work environment is harmonious and peaceful, friendly and tidy, generous and a pleasure for everyone. Call for team spirit, ask everyone to be cooperative and share tasks. The outcome is everyone begins to recognize your gifts and appreciates you more and more. Wherever you are tend carefully to all resources, finances and be aware of what you value.
PISCES: There is perhaps a wounding being experienced. A feeling that a new reality is needed. The one you’ve been living in no longer serves you. This is part of the eclipse playing out, part Chiron (the wound) and Neptune (things dissolving). There is a need for change, a new environment, new ways of daily living, new rhythms, new resources and more choices. Create a magnetic field around you by visualizing the needs being fulfilled. Write, draw, paint them. Let this be your new daily creative endeavor. Then watch what happens.
