Venus post-retro

Venus will be retrograde between March 2 and April 13, between 10°50' Aries and 24°37' Pisces. It will thus do an about face in its sign of exile and return into that of its exaltation.

Naturally, beneficial magical operations involving the planet's forces should be avoided during this time. Unless you're a money hungry wannabe who sells stuff made irrespective of astro times. Anyway, Venus' return into Pisces shouldn't raise our hopes too much either.

Ominous Christmas astro forecast

The chart is set for my location at noon sharp, but take heed of this aspect even if you're living further to the west or east. Moon in Scorpio is not such a pleasant time for a holiday. I imagine families getting together in larger or smaller numbers and instead of enjoying themselves, they may end up remembering old grudges and settling old scores.

Additionally, this Christmas will bless us with a not so beautiful Moon square Mars retro. Mars in Leo can be tyrant or at least extremely bossy and the fact it's retro will probably cause people to boil with rage. They will probably release that rage in the form of venomous stings toward others so you can imagine this isn't the best setting for a holiday gathering. I wouldn't exclude termpers to flair as well, but I suspect the former scenario is more likely to play out. Nevertheless, do be careful and try drinking yourself to sleep instead of into a fight (like someone I know).

To complicate matters even more, the Moon's transit through Scorpio begins with a harsh square with Pluto. This should cast an underlying uneasy feeling of compulsiveness over people, somethig totally not good to begin the festivities with.

The aspect will be exact around late afternoon, early evening my time, just when people are usually in the midst of thir Christmas dinner, hence why I've chosen this timezone for the chart. But be aware of it regardless of timezone, especially if you start partying early on or party well into the night.

Eclipse effects

You can find out more about this phenomenon in our article on eclipses as well as in Asteria 1, as well as in an article in Asteria 2.

On April 8 this year there was a total solar eclipse over North America. I remember telling Señor Shaman and Mr. Farrell at the time I foresee a tremendous change for the US for the long run. That change seems to have manifested with last month's elections, but I'm sure it had been brewing ever since the ominous event.

A solar eclipse is said to cause the death of kings, or at least their fall from power. In our day and age this would translate to people in power, such as presidents or prime ministers depending on the constitution. Suddenly, some time after the eclipse the president in office announced he would not run for the upcoming elections and instead his VP would run instead.

Soulmates, you say?

Over time I've been hearing of the term "soulmates" and its association with romantic relationships. The dictionary defines a soulmate as being "a person ideally suited to another as a close friend or romantic partner" so we see it covering more than just romance. Friendship too involves feelings, especially love, but it's closer to the ideal concept of love than the more selfish, sexual attraction type of love people involved in a romantic relationship usually experience. Therefore, many modern astrologers' use of the term soulmates to define certain pairs of individuals based on whatever synastry and/or composite aspects they may share is shallow to say the least.

True, people can think about finding their soulmate when casting a Venus spell to bring their significant other. That doesn't mean, however, the person the spell would bring forth after successfully manifesting is actually their soulmate. Neither does it mean that any pretty astro aspects the two share make them soulmates. In the appropriate article in Asteria 2 I talk about compatability and although some astro aspects between people can be considered as alluding to the two meeting and sharing certain experiences as being fated, that too does not make them soulmates.

Against, but still according to

"When 'the above' says 'no': Reasons spells go bust" is an article that's given me quite the headache back when I was writing for Asteria 2. The reason for this is that even though I had a glimpse of the essence of what I was fucking my brains out to explain in words, I couldn't quite put my finger on it and so the image that usually forms in my mind on such occasions was fuzzy. 

Luckily, I appealed to Raziel to help me make sense of that fuzzy image and, because he's such a great guy, he came through big time. When all was done I was very pleased with how the article turned out. Little did I know at the time that somewhere in an old work laid the piece of information that would've made me have an instant epiphany had I came across it while struggling with the article. But I'm uncultured so I had no idea of what that book contained haha.

Until recently! Book III of Liber Astronomiae has a small yet very interesting chapter, Chapter IX. Thanks to my reader Nacho who's got the Spanish translation I came across this two paragraph chapter. In itself, it is quite insignificant and merely discusses things any astrology enthusiast can observe by studying the charts. Its title, however, and one of the phrases it contains represent the very essence of my article.

Case study: lunar nodes

Recently I've talked with a lady who studies Vedic astrology. She told me in regards to the lunar nodes "with Rahu and Ketu you can define a whole man". I went on to tell her that imo Rahu and Ketu, the North and South Node, define the person and the rest of the chart represents strengths and weaknesses when it comes to them dealing with their nodes' influences. She agreed.

We've discussed the lunar nodes in Asteria and I've written a special article on them in regards to magical operations in Asteria 2. We've also discussed the nodes from the perspective of eclipses in this free article.

What follows is a few examples of people I came to meet over the past year who stood out to me as manifesting their natal nodes' influences in certain houses. In some cases I'm not aware of their birth data and even in many of those cases I don't know their birth times. But despite their charts showing certain placements and aspects, what they've told me of their lives so far made me identify certain patterns that probably represent their nodes' influences.

On transits

Magick Pills for Hard Transits is aimed directly at helping people in regards to whatever difficulties they may encounter when experiencing difficult planetary transits over their natal chart. We've also talked about transits in both Asteria and Asteria 2.

But how do transits affect us? 

Firstly we need to understand that the celestial energies at the moment of our birth become internalized. That is to say, the macrocosm becomes a microcosm. Thus, each of us has a particular set of celestial energies embedded into our personal sphere of consciousness. Those energies are highly complex by themselves, not to mention their interactions.

Planetary weather unfolding

There's quite a few things going on for the seven classical planets in the near future. This article is thus meant to help those who also consider astrological factors when planning their planetary spells and rituals.

Possibly the main event is Jupiter being a few days away from entering Taurus. It'll leave behind its dignity by triplicity so people would have to check whenever it transits its terms in Taurus in order to get a bit more potent Jovian energies. It will encounter the lunar North Node quite soon though, so it'll receive a short boost in strength, but people can also use that configuration for a North Node talisman we've discussed in Asteria.

Prediction

A partial solar eclipse will occur on the 25th, next week, in the second degree of Scorpio. It will be followed by a total lunar eclipse in Taurus (the sixteenth degree, I think) some two weeks later. Both eclipses will be visible in a part of the world where a leader has overstayed his time in office and I will detail on this forther on. 

I predict these two eclipses will cause said leader to lose his power within six month to an year. I'm saying this because the solar eclipse will occur in his twelfth house, which will likely stir up plots from hidden enemies, while the lunar eclipse will occur in his seventh house. Given his bellicose nature, I think that eclipse will put a stop to his fighting ways while at the same time conceal his open enemies from acting against him.

Lunar nodes in action

Earlier this year I was contacted by a man seeking my magical services to get a job. I told him he can get my ritual for employment and do it himself because a) it's much cheaper and b) most of the times these things work better if you're doing it on yourself rather than having someone else do it for you, especially since the link used is only a picture and not something stronger like handwriting. He insisted I do it and paid my usual fee of $75.

While I could've used the aforementioned ritual for employment, Jupiter was still strong in domicile and direct at the time and I selected a pretty good election for the ritual. Besides the force I'm detailing in that ritual, Jupiter is also very good at such things, especially for promotions and getting a job basically means you're getting promoted from being unemployed to becoming employed. But before I did the ritual I told him he should not rely solely on the spirits and instead be proactive. I give this exact example in Magic Words and it was written way before I encountered this person.