Driftwood. Pic by me.

OK, Jupiter is retrograde, so officially my wings should be clipped. But I didn’t tell the Universe and instead I am shooting off tomorrow for a long weekend in Wellington, New Zealand. For US readers, New Zealand is just a 3 hour flight across the “dutch” for us Aussies. Close enough for a long weekend, but well and truly worth a much longer visit. I love it. I love the landscape, I love the people, I love the accents, I love the culture, I love the design, I love the WOW factor. I even get off on the fact that NZ has real weather. And, whilst it pains me to say this, especially at Rugby World Cup time, there is nothing hotter than a line up of All Blacks in full flight or doing the haka. Do I get my Aussie citizenship revoked for that comment?

I have a very good friend over there, and whilst it is a long way to go for a good wine and a chinwag, I am multi-tasking and combining it with the WOW show as well. What is WOW? Completely indescribable.

Officially, it is the World Of Wearable Arts Award Show (the link will take you to last years winners), but that is where any predictability ends. It is a bladder busting 2 1/2 hour show (no intermission) full of creation. Dance, theatre, costume, art, fashion, a little kiwiana, a little drama. It can be avant garde, it can be fantasy, it is pure escapism. It is creativity gone completely mad…and it is a money spinner with all 2 weeks of shows usually selling out within hours. Pisces in a nutshell.

Anyways, there will be no posts over the weekend- unless I can con some internet time out of someone, so check out my post on Wellington from the last WOW visit…

The photo I used in this post was taken on a remote piece of coast just outside of Wellington at Easter this year.

Sydney Harbour Bridge. Pic by me.

Nan: The downstairs is clean…it’s been wiped.

Eric: I’m a Virgo, I like to be neat.

True Blood, Series 3

I have been home sick over the last couple of days and used the time productively to catch up on series 3 of True Blood (my guilty pleasure, and yes, I am very definitely team Eric, but that werewolf Alsice is pretty damn hot and as for all the other were-creatures and shape shifters…enough already?).

Anyways, back to Eric and his neatness…and is always, well, neat. By neat, I mean he keeps himself a lot tidier than the rest of the cast. Lol.

Interestingly, this is the most common phrase you hear in connection with Virgos, yet also the most common reason Virgos will cite when telling you that they aren’t real Virgos. It’s true, many Virgos, no, let’s make that most Virgos, have problems with house work- whether it is doing it or not doing it or worrying about not doing it or worrying that you think you should be worried about doing it or not doing it.

And really, that isn’t surprising- it’s sort of like painting the Harbour Bridge- it’s never actually finished. Like every day when I clean the kitchen bench of all the mail and yesterdays’ shopping and magazines and stray garlic cloves and by the time dinner is on the table, it’s a mess again. Perfection is fleeting and elusive.

Virgo has two choices- to chase the perfection and the subsequent angst with incessant cleaning or to leave it be and deal with the guilt and come to terms with any fleeting ideas of not being good enough.

I have known Virgos from both sides. At the one extreme was the Virgo who lived in a white tiled and many mirrored and windowed white walled house who was driven nearly mad by the impossibility of keeping all that glass smear free. Another removed all knick knacks from furniture so that she had completely bare surfaces and walls that she dusted daily.

At the other end of the spectrum is the Virgo that shrugs her shoulders and decides that there is no way she can make the house perfect, so there is no point in trying. One friend, a Virgo Ascendant, lives like this. Her house is hygienically clean, but incredibly messy- to the extent that she has no idea where to even start.

She feels guilty…and her space at work is exactly the opposite- because that is a space that she can control.  At home she can shut the door on her smelly teenagers bedroom and attempt to forget about it. At work, she is organisation personified.

And therein lies the Virgo dilemma, the Virgo contradiction, and the Virgo resistance…but the explanation doesn’t make any of my Virgo examples any more or less Virgo. It does make them Virgo. Pure. And. Simple.

One of the best responses I had to my Facebook request for song ideas for Virgo came from a very self aware Virgo friend: Hehehe if only there was a song called ‘Your not doing it right, here let me!’

Cook Straits. Pic by me.

Jupiter is stationary and will be retrograde by tonight all the way through until Christmas. Heavy sighs all round from this fishie.

Jupiter is known as the Great Benefic. Often labelled as the “lucky planet”, Jupiter makes things bigger. This is great if you have really good things happening- they happen even more easily, but isn’t so good if there are problems on the horizon. This also isn’t so good if he is transiting across your Ascendant (literally speaking, your physical body often gets bigger…).  Check out Dare to Dream for more of Jupiter transits.

Jupiter is generally so optimistic, exuberant and dream/ ideal/ future driven. Nobody can keep up this pace for ever, so when he turns retrograde, he does so for a few months at a time. And when Jupiter turns retrograde, the expansion… stops. Just like that. Good if you are planning a diet but not so great if you are in the middle of a project. Things that seemed to be sure may just stop. Physical energy may just dry up. Optimism and faith may falter. It can be like having a great big Jupiter 12^th house transit…and for more on that one, check out Watch Me Come Undone.

This is especially true if Jupiter is strong in your chart. Generally speaking, in my case, my wings tend to be clipped and if I am going to feel less than exuberant (in mood or in health), now is the time.

So, who is impacted? Jupiter rules Sagittarius and Pisces (as traditional ruler). You may be regarded as strongly Jupiterian if:

• you have your Ascendant, Sun or Moon Pisces or Sagittarius
• If Jupiter is in close aspect to the Sun, Moon, Ascendant or Midheaven (especially conjunction, square or opposition)
  • If you have Jupiter in Cancer, the sign of his exultation
  • If you have a number of planets in the 9th house or the 12^th house.

Look also at the houses which Jupiter rules in your chart- those houses with either Sagittarius or Pisces on the cusp- this area of your life will feel the Jupiter influence the most. For this particular retrograde you will also be impacted if you have planets in the 1^st few degrees of Aries, Libra, Capricorn and Cancer, or in the last 7 degrees of Pisces, Sagittarius, Gemini & Virgo.

Jupiter also represents integrity and honesty, so the retrograde period is a great time to look objectively and realistically at what you are doing. Are you really investing enough of yourself in what is important? What do you do out of fear or because it is expected of you? How do these actions impinge on your real life goals and where you are meant to be? Have you stopped believing? Are you dwelling too much on coulda woulda shoulda?

Jupiter has a habit of removing those things from your life which you think you need, but actually are doing you no good at all. But with Jupiter, there is no maliciousness- anything you lose now, or anything that stops now is simply not necessary to your growth and will usually be for the best.

What else is there to say? Firstly, the Taurus things in life will be intensified (for more hints on this one check out the post- Too Much is Never Enough. And the affairs of the house Jupiter is transiting and, in particular stationing, is exaggerated. For more info on where this may be for you, check out the Jupiter tab at the top of the page.

This retrograde will have Jupiter back-tracking through the first 10 degrees of Taurus- all the way back to 00Taurus. The key points of this transit are at the station points ie 10 Taurus and 0Taurus, so if you have planets or chart points here, check out what else may be raised as the station will magnify the impact of any natal patterns already in you chart. Eg say you have the Moon at 10 Taurus opposite Pluto natally. When Jupiter stations at this point, that natal Moon-Pluto will be brought out into the open in a pretty big way.

Oh, and another warning. Whilst Jupiter can be very much be careful what you wish for, during the retrograde period, everything should come with a don’t count your chickens before they hatch warning- what is promised during this period may never actually happen. So that sure thing may not be quite as sure as you think it is.

So, what to do? Look inward and be honest with yourself. Now is not the time to embark on any activity that requires material expansion- unless it is a new charity or spiritual retreat or something that is of a higher purpose, so to speak. Whatever you do this Jupiter retrograde- don’t stop thinking about tomorrow…it’ll soon be here and it will be better than before, so don’t you look back!

If you wake up and don’t want to smile,
If it takes just a little while,
Open your eyes and look at the day,
You’ll see things in a different way.

Don’t stop, thinking about tomorrow,
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here,
It’ll be, better than before,
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.

Don’t you look back,
 Don’t you look back.

Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow, by Fleetwood Mac

queenstown. pic by me.

Got a Virgo boss? Wanna be a Virgo boss? You need to read this- my latest post for astrology.com. The link is here.

Boats in Noumea Harbour, Pic by me.

This week has been a mixed bag.

At my paid partition job, we are at the pointy end of some pretty mega changes and I am rapidly losing sight of priorities under a wad of post it notes. At home TTM (Taller Than Me) has a wad of assignments due over the next week and we are in New Zealand next weekend- which mean they all need to be completed over the next few days.

On the health front I am feeling incredibly manky (and going further downhill by the hour), which isn’t helping the “running” training at all, and on the blog front those pillock spamsters are still bringing my site down with their incessant offers that I am still well and truly able to refuse.

On the up side, I can’t wait for Wellington next weekend and the WOW show, and TTM now appreciates the importance of music as a cultural guide after using a Goanna song in her assignment on Aboriginal Australia & the Invasion….which led me to reminisce on some other classic Aussie protest songs…But it might be best not to dwell on stuff like “Let the Franklin Flow” which hasn’t stood the strength of time quite as well, but was definitely something worth fighting for at the time.

It has been a busy week on the blogs- largely because of the spamsters I am having to post a lot more to try and bring readers back who haven’t been able to get through because of the instability. Extremely heavy sighs:

White is the New Black: Venus in Virgo

Its Got to be Perfect- links to last years Virgo posts

Your Career & the Cosmos: A Place for Everything- Virgo stuff

It’s all in the fine print: Cancer Moon, Virgo stuff

A recipe: Apple & Sour Cream Slice

Take my breath away: A very mini lesson in medical astrology

Are Your Planets Keeping You Fat? Virgo

Integral (to the project): Virgo in the body and other health related Virgo stuff

What About Me? New Moon in Virgo tomorrow morning- what will your New Moon wish be?

Anyways for now, I have a teapot full of witchy brew and various herbs & spices which I am hoping will bring about the miracle recovery I need in order to get through the next few days at work, the trip to Wellywood and a recommencement of training.

So, until next time…