"Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.'"

— Bob Marley

This week begins with the arrival of the Sun into Gemini as it makes a highly creative trine to Pluto, boosting our confidence. With Mars now out of Cancer and into Leo, the sometimes irrational focus on protecting boundaries and borders in the name of security finally begins to subside. Self-expression and self-reliance take on much greater significance. Security is still on our minds but we are more inclined to focus on protecting our resources — especially when we believe those resources will help us to maintain our freedom. Upon the entrance of Mars into Leo at the beginning of this week, a powerful fixed T-square is formed with Jupiter and Pluto. This precipitates [...]

"The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, 'Thus far and no farther.'"

—Ludwig van Beethoven

There are striking and unexpected shifts quietly unfolding this week as we approach the stationing of Mercury to go direct. Venus has been in 'mutual reception' with the retrograding Mercury and the important connection between the two planets has helped to alleviate some of the stubbornness and 'stalled thinking' sometimes associated with Mercury in Taurus. Venus breaks the mutual reception 'connection' at the beginning of this week when she leaves 'vivacious' Gemini and moves into the demure and compassionate sign of Cancer. The initial effect of Venus in Cancer [...]

"Everyone knows that the yielding overcomes the stiff,
and the soft overcomes the hard.
Yet no one applies this knowledge."

—Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

As we ride the wave of last Wednesday's Aries New Moon (9:12 PM PDT 29° Aries), themes of stabilization and security are drawing a great deal of our focus. In some way or another, we can see the need to plan our course in a way that lays a foundation that is stable and secure. However, we may feel such a strong emotional imperative to feel secure that there is a significant potential for irrational responses. We may find ourselves focused entirely on amassing or even hoarding resources, instead of methodically assessing what resources are already at our disposal. As well, we run the risk of becoming too rigid in our individual determination to lay out a plan and follow through on it, while missing the opportunity to [...]