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Feeling a bit like that? Feeling a bit like authority is really getting on your goat and your strength and power are being compromised? So people want you to do things a different way? What business is it of theirs? This is the way you have always done it & no one has ever complained before… Bring It On!

The Sun is building to a square off against Pluto. So, we have a warlike Aries Sun flexing his muscle and polishing his ego (that’s OK Aries, it is still all about you) against Pluto standing his ground in Capricorn. Maybe, just maybe, before charging off into battle, you do need to stop & look at whether the old ways are still the best or whether you might be able to compromise on some tweaks here and there. Maybe that person you think is being a human roadblock actually has something to say that you need to hear. Maybe you really did stuff up and need to be made accountable. Maybe.

In another type of tug o war we have Jupiter and Saturn duking it out across the great divide. This energy is peaking now-ish.

Below is what I had to say about this one in yesterday’s post (which is really just a shameless excuse for me posting a token Aragorn photo):

The glare-off between Jupiter & Saturn is getting closer to a climax. Jupiter is in full warrior garb, he is oiled up & his guns & abs are flexed & he is looking remarkably like Aragorn in Return of the King…or is that my little Venus/Neptune fantasy intruding??? Saturn on the other side of the ditch is prattling on about structure & diplomacy and measured progress and relationships. Jupiter/Aragorn is becoming bored & pretty soon it will be like that scene in Indiana Jones where he is confronted by the guy showing off with a machete, becomes bored & just shoots him.

With Saturn retrograde, Jupiter has the upper hand in this showdown. Jupiter wants growth, and isn’t afraid to go after it. Saturn wants to balance it out or even put obstacles in the way. Something or someone is frustrating you now. Use the practicality of the Capricorn Moon to objectively view the situation & make a judgement as to whether what you want will either over commit you, weigh you down with responsibilities, curtail your freedom in any way or limit your ability to expand. Then flex the muscles and go for it. The only word of warning? Over-confidence is Jupiter’s achilles heel.

The only change to this I will make for today is that the Moon is in Aquarius, so substitute “practicality of the Capricorn Moon” with “the detachment offered by the inquisitive Aquarius Moon”… and remember to breathe…

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As the curry is simmering away in its pot & all bits & pieces are smashed & chopped ready to put together for my Nasi Campor, I have time to drop a quick few words on the planets for Monday.

Todays’ Venus/Neptune lovefest brought out a few newspaper articles on grand passion, Hollywood style romancing (back when glamour was still glitzy) & what ranked as the best on screen couples (Leo & Kate in Titanic) & on screen kiss (Clark & Vivien in Gone With the Wind). In true Venus/Neptune, Venus in Pisces form, these romances tended to be doomed. No two people could sustain that level of passion for that long, but oh how we love it! We understand when it dies because that is what love on Planet Neptune does. Even in real life, Venus/Neptune romances have problems lasting past bin night- how can passion survive when business as usual intrudes?

Venus is now in Pisces, so the theme continues. A little bit of fairy dust is wonderful, but at the end of the day, it is back to work, back to business & back to reality. But even so, you still believe…well, naive little Pisceans like me do!

The glare-off between Jupiter & Saturn is getting closer to a climax. Jupiter is in full warrior garb, he is oiled up & his guns & abs are flexed & he is looking remarkably like Aragorn in Return of the King…or is that my little Venus/Neptune fantasy intruding??? Saturn on the other side of the ditch is prattling on about structure & diplomacy and measured progress and relationships. Jupiter/Aragorn is becoming bored & pretty soon it will be like that scene in Indiana Jones where he is confronted by the guy showing off with a machete, becomes bored & just shoots him.

With Saturn retrograde, Jupiter has the upper hand in this showdown. Jupiter wants growth, and isn’t afraid to go after it. Saturn wants to balance it out or even put obstacles in teh way. Something or someone is frustrating you now. Use the practicality of the Capricorn Moon to objectively view the situation & make a judgement as to whether what you want will either over commit you, weigh you down with responsibilities, curtail your freedom in any way or limit your ability to expand. Then flex the muscles and go for it. The only word of warning? Over-confidence is Jupiter’s achilles heel.

The other thing Venus/Neptune hookups are good for, is being bad ie over indulging, removing boundaries, letting go…with that in mind, I will honour my Neptune ruler & force myself to have a wine while I am finishing the cooking.

a bientot.

Rice Terraces, Bali. Pic by me.

This week my daughter became a teenager, I threw my left shoulder out (again) big time & contracted a very nasty PC virus on the work laptop. In regards to the last, I don’t know whether I was angrier about it breaching my defences, the fact that I unwittingly let it in or that the threats were so badly spelled. A friend of mine figured the whole viral breach of defences was some sort of metaphor for my boundaries & the breaching of personal defences. Hmmmm, just a tad too deep & meaningful, methinks. Another friend told me it was because I have been touching things I shouldn’t have been touching. Trying to take a Jupiter “half full” mentality:

• At least the rabies vaccinations are complete & I can travel to cool places if I wanted to without fear of contracting that particular disease (not that I intend fighting any more monkeys for empty water bottles)
• The virus on the work PC highlighted one on my daughters’ PC that I otherwise would not have detected that would have caused the home network to come crashing down
• Having my left arm virtually hanging useless from the shoulder has highlighted just how much therapeutic weights work I need to do (& should have been doing L given that this is the 3^rd injury to this shoulder in as many years) to strengthen those supporting muscles & has made me grateful yet again for the ability to work from home. 

On the Blogs

Aside from the Daily Planets, which haven’t actually been daily this week:

• The Style File- Venus in Aquarius
• The Stars & the Sun Dance to Your Drum and Now It’s Pandemonium- The Sun in Aries…it’s all about you!
• How to Piss off An Aries & Other Questions

 On Your Career & the Cosmos, 2 new Aries posts:

• Kicking Goals- Aries has a reputation to be great starters, but with the attention span of an active toddler on red lollies, are not the worlds’ greatest finishers. So how do they achieve their goals?
• Stress Busting for Rams- What happens when Mr Perpetual Motion stops? 

What’s Happening Up There?

Venus is about to move across into Pisces. For all those who would like a User Manual to the Pisces woman in your life or anyone with Venus in Pisces, this is essential, but sickly sweet reading: La Vie En Rose.

Also this week, Mercury goes retrograde from March 29- April 23 (or thereabouts). The usual rules apply. Check Out Going Backwards for a refresher (that’s another retrograde word). Other retrograde posts can be found on the Rx tab at the top of the menu bar. 

Anyways, I am preparing my version of a Balinese dish Nasi Campor for dinner. Like the Malaysian favourite Nasi Lemak, it consists of tasting portions of a curry and other accompaniments. My version will be Rendang Beef, steamed rice, peanuts and 2 sambals- sambal goreng buncis (green beans Indonesian style) & sambal goreng telor (a traditional egg sambal). So, the ipod is plugged in, the mortar & pestle is at the ready to smash & grind chillis, garlic, turmeric, ginger, lemongrass & other spices & the ironing basket can wait. 

Nasi Campor, Bali. Pic by me.

Have a great week!

Jo

As I write the Venus/Neptune conjunction is almost exact. And I am dreaming of travel…hardly surprising given that natally Neptune is in the 9th for me & trine Jupiter…I dream of travel a lot.

Fantasy and day dreams are wonderful in that no one else can own them or destroy them. You can do anything, go anywhere, be with anyone. The whole point about fantasy is that it isn’t real. And don’t we all need a little unreality every so often? This is particularly the case under a Capricorn Moon when duty and responsibility are so incredibly front & centre. Growing up, growing old, being mature, doing what you have to, thinking of your responsibilities and commitments and roles…that is all Saturn and Capricorn stuff. It is all real life. The structure represented by Saturn, the recognition that hard work is essential in order to achieve is what turns dreams and fantasy into something concrete. But today, for now, while Venus is holding hands and smooching Neptune, I want to forget about practicalities and indulge in possibilities…what isn’t now, but possibly could be…and what is best left in the head locked away (yep, this is happening in the 12th house for me ). The Capricorn Moon is perhaps a timely reminder that some dreams are best kept as dreams.

Over on Facebook, my friend AstroSparkles is moderating a discussion on fantasy men & women- the partners that you dream about. It has been a bit of fun to read, even though I have never really done the whole celebrity crush thing myself. My contribution was not in relation to the celebrity as such, but the characters they played- how on earth could Julia Roberts think of “keeping her balance” when Javier Bardem is offering her a ride in a boat to some island in Bali??????

When I engage with a movie or a book, those characters become real…and I guess that is the whole point. Hollywood is really a Neptune concept- the glamour is both illusion and delusion, with the reality being something very different. Point in case being Elizabeth Taylor whose beauty and self destruction always represented Hollywood and tinseltown to me. A very Neptunian Piscean, she played roles all her life. Her chart is below (source is Solarfire), but the biggest thing that strikes me is Neptune at the very top of her chart opposing her Pisces Sun.  She was Hollywood…may she rest in peace.

SolarFire

A Fairytale in the middle of New York. Pic by me.

Once upon a time there was a magical movie about a chauffeurs’ daughter who had made an occupation out of being in love with her employers’ son. He is handsome and mega rich and exciting, but he doesn’t know that she exists. So she runs away to Paris to forget him and find herself.

When she returns home, with a new wardrobe and a new haircut, even though he is newly engaged he finally notices her and she feels that all her dreams are finally coming true. His crusty and even more mega-rich older brother attempts to distract her in order to preserve the potential business partnership that is a by-product of the engagement.

He recognises early that material wealth means nothing to her- she can’t be bought. Instead he plays to her sympathies- he confides in her invented tales about how lost he is, how misunderstood he is, about how he wishes he could escape to Paris, how he dreams of being saved. Referred to as the worlds’ only living heart donor, his idea of a relationship is letting his date order dessert, yet, as he talks, he realises that what he is saying is actually true. As she listens she feels sorry for him. As she gets to know him she realises that her childhood love was a fantasy. She sees in him her reality and saves him from himself.

The movie is Sabrina- originally made with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart and later re-done with Harrison Ford as Linus Larraby and Julia Ormond as Sabrina Fairchild.

Sabrina had been in love with a fantasy all her life- Venus in Pisces. To escape reality she flees to Paris- the ultimate Piscean city. We see the romance of long walks, fairy lights and the Bateaux-Mouches as they glide along the Seine.  We hear the Edith Piaf classic La Vie en Rose- loosely translated living life through rose coloured glasses- playing from a Parisian cafe.

Sabrina was named for Sabrina Fair/Fayre, the character in a poem by Milton who came to save the Mariner. As Linus finds himself falling under her spell, Sabrina shows him an escape from his dry, dusty and emotionless life. Sabrina the Saviour is Venus in Pisces. Sabrina saves him.

Venus in Pisces is romantic idealism, but can heal through love. Venus in Pisces is devoted, super sensitive, yet can also be evasive and reluctant to commit. Venus in Pisces will love you like you have never been loved before, but will have difficulty in telling you how she feels. Venus in Pisces will place you on a pedestal and love you forever, yet may still find it possible to be unfaithful on a physical level. To Venus in Pisces, nothing matters more than how it feels deep inside.

Incredibly intuitive, Venus in Pisces will express herself with meaningful glances, a hug that lasts just a little longer than usual, a kiss that grazes ever closer to the lips. She will rarely make the first move, but send you sign after sign, lying in bed at night building fantasies in her head about what she should have said, but couldn’t. This is why water signs work so well with each other- they can understand the concept of “more than words”- even though the actual getting together may involve months of hidden messages, cryptic conversations and meaningful looks. Air is frustrated by this, seeing it as an inability to communicate. Earth sees it as a waste of practical effort and Fire just wants to get down to the shagging part…OK, I am simplifying…

While she may not say much, Venus in Pisces has a way of insinuating herself into your life and before you know it that friend who has meant so much as a fun companion suddenly means so much more. Venus in Pisces often doesn’t know what she wants, but goes with the flow until the feeling is given definition by another. She has the ability to morph easily into whatever and whoever you need her to be, but will wiggle out of your grasp and off the hook if you attempt to control her. Whilst she is happy to be taken care of and yearns to be looked after and loved exclusively she will seek to escape any traps you set for her.

 Venus in Pisces can also be the quintessential damsel in distress – the little girl lost who needs to be rescued and looked after and the helpless man who needs to be mothered and picked up after. This one dimensional view is the shadow side of Venus in Pisces- a tendency to not take responsibility for your own actions.

Venus in Pisces has secrets- deep, emotional secrets. Twelfth house secrets. Secrets that you can only find out with the right key for the right door. In this way she is a mesmerising challenge- just when you think you know her or understand her, the shutters come down and another mask goes on. This is all part of the mystique and frustration associated with being involved with Venus in Pisces.

All of these qualities are shared by Pisces women and anyone who has Venus in close aspect to Neptune- in particular the conjunction, or Venus in the 12^th house.

Men with Venus in Pisces will be looking for a woman with Piscean characteristics. She may be Pisces, she may have planets filling up her 12^th house, she may have a Pisces Moon or other planets closely aspecting Neptune. She will be emotional, sensitive and intuitive… someone who will see into his soul and understand him without him needing to say the words.

He wants someone to share his dreams with and someone who will dream with him. He wants someone who will share her emotions with him and who he trusts enough to open his heart to. He will understand that sometimes you just need to cry and need to be held until the tears have stopped and left mascara stains on his shirt. He wants someone he can feel with. He wants someone who he can save and who will save him.

Above all, Venus in Pisces believes in fairytales, trusts that there can be a happy ever after and wants to live the dream- La Vie en Rose.

Hold me close and hold me fast

The magic spell you cast-

This is la vie en rose

When you kiss me heaven sighs

And though I close my eyes

I see la vie en rose.

When you press me to your heart

I’m in a world apart

A world where roses bloom.

And when you speak

Angels sing from above-

Everyday words turn into love songs.

Give your heart and soul to me and

Life will always be

La vie en rose.

Lyrics from La Vie En Rose- although I used the Tony Bennet & KD Lang version, so even if the translation is incorrect, it is oh so beautiful.