As a companion to my recent blog post, On 2012, I interviewed evolutionary astrologer Dena DeCastro for my podcast, Empowering Astrology. We talk about the upcoming transits and bring a balanced view to a year that has been hyped like no other. To listen, click here.

Over the last few years, “2012″ has become this thing, this concept loaded with cultural speculation and a touch of doomsday hysteria. I’m not sure when exactly it entered mass consciousness, but somewhere, somehow — perhaps the new age community is to blame — the collective latched onto this idea that we’re entering the end of time.

Humans have had a long history of getting worked up about an apocalypse that never comes. With the Mayan calendar allegedly ending on December 21, 2012, the more fearful began to wonder what was going to happen on December 22nd. Personally I don’t think the end of a 26,000 year cycle means the apocalypse; I don’t take stock in dire predictions. But I do think the world is shifting gears. Does astrology support the idea that we’re on the precipice of something massive? Let’s take a look.

The Astrology of 2012

It’s hard to fully appreciate the planetary aspects of this year without the context of previous ones. Like chapters in a book, 2012 doesn’t fully read unless you flip the pages back to 2008, a year that marked a significant turning point on our histories. That was the year that Pluto entered Capricorn — the sign of government and structure. The following year, Saturn entered Libra and then Uranus into Aries.

All these outer planet moving into Cardinal signs created a shift in the seasons and it was as if we slammed hard into winter. Banks failed. Governments toppled. Riots in the street. Chaos. If we are waiting for some sort of end, it already happened. We’re in the new galactic calendar whether we realized it or not. This shift in energy continues and the following astrological events are at the forefront of 2012:

NEPTUNE IN PISCES
By far one of the marquee events of this year is Neptune’s entry into Pisces on February 3rd. The Neptune cycle is a 160 year cycle. I’ve touched on this in a previous post and podcast, but it’s worth repeating that Neptune in its home sign of Pisces will make for a huge shot of Neptune into the collective. Music, art, unity consciousness, compassion, and spirituality with be highlighted just as much as deception, illusions, and escapism. Despite Neptune’s less savory predilections, this is a softer energy that will round out the harsh realities of Pluto in Capricorn. Or maybe it’s that we’ll be reaching for the bottle that much more.

URANUS SQUARE PLUTO
This is the other marquee even for 2012. For those not drowning their sorrows at the pub, this is going to be another revolutionary year as Uranus in Aries makes the first square to Pluto in Capricorn on June 24th. This is the opening square (90 degrees) of a conjunction (0 degrees) that occurred in the mid-1960s. Wondering why lately everyone is protesting and taking to the streets? Uranus square Pluto! This is the next phase in an energy born four decades ago — this is the crisis phase. The world built upon the ideals and revolutions of the 60s is coming up for review. What did we learn? What is working? What is not? And with Uranus in Aries, it’s about individualism as much as it is the collective.

SATURN IN SCORPIO — SATURN/PLUTO MUTUAL RECEPTION
Another major astrological event in 2012 is Saturn’s entry into Scorpio on October 5th, forcing us to take a hard look at our finances, debt, what we share, and whom we share it with. What I find interesting about this ingress is the mutual reception between Saturn in Scorpio in Pluto in Capricorn. In astrology, a mutual reception is where two planets are in each other signs, creating this strong dialogue between the two that will dominate the last quarter of 2012. It is said that a mutual reception is like having each planet in its own sign as well as the other. Pluto in Scorpio? Saturn in Capricorn? Is it suddenly going to feel like the mid to late 1980s again? AIDS crisis? Stock market crash? Shoulder pads?? One can speculate.

Want to learn more? I interviewed evolutionary astrologer Dena DeCastro to get her thoughts on the astrology of 2012.

Intuitive Feelings on 2012

2012 feels like a boiling point. There is this sense of preparation, of movement, and continued shifts. The new age community talks a lot of ascension and 5th dimensional energy. I can’t speak to these concepts — there are channels who do it far more eloquently — but I can tell you what it feels like and what I’ve observed. I’ve seen an increasing rift between those who are on their path and getting their work done and those who have avoided making necessary changes in their lives.

Things feel like they are falling apart, deconstructing, and reforming. There are those who are taking this in stride and those who feel like it’s the end of the world. That’s what I meant by a growing rift. It’s more important than ever to stay grounded and a point of calm in the midst of the growing energetic storm.

Acceleration is another aspect to this time that none of us can deny. It’s as if we’re living whole lifetimes, or the emotional equivalent, in mere months. I can barely remember 2011, but I know a lot of ground was covered, like a car speeding along a highway. And I think we’re being called upon in greater ways to express our mastery. This feels like a big test for the collective and there are those moving onto the next level as well as those who are having to go back and refine.

It all boils down to integrity. How are we in integrity with our souls? How do our beliefs and words match our actions?

Y2K12

Compared to the mainstream hype, 2012 is going to feel like a non-event; That I feel confident in predicting. We’ll wake on the morning of December 22nd, wondering what the big deal was, most of us returning to our steady diet of high-fructose corn syrup and cable news.

But something is happening. People are beginning to wake up, make changes. We can’t deny that the old ways are crumbling. Maybe this is what the Mayans predicted all along. Maybe it’s the steady hammering of Pluto in Capricorn. Maybe it’s the culmination of four years of unprecedented astrological formations. It all still seems abstract because we don’t have the luxury of time to give us the necessary perspective. But things are slowly coming into focus, measured against the rise in earth changes and structures collapsing.

Maybe 2012 is the year where it all starts to finally make sense.

I’ve launched a Blog Talk Radio show! Join me for monthly discussions on not just astrology, but spirituality and the evolution of consciousness. I’ll be interviewing astrologers in addition to mediums and lightworkers. If you can’t listen live, please download shows in the archive or via iTunes.

You can also stream shows via my Podcast page.

A Facebook follower of the Empowering Astrology page, in response to my article on lunar manifestation, asked:

“. . . what do you mean about karma? That we won’t get more than our karma deserves? What if we have past karma from previous lives that is not good? Or if we have tried very hard to have good karma in this life but have sometimes done things out of desperation because life has dealt us some bitter blows? I would be very pleased if you could answer this!”

Oh, karma. It’s one of those loaded words that means many things to many people, but often is an excuse to philosophize life’s injustices. Karma is a sanskrit word that roughly means cause and effect, both in this life and previous ones. In the West we’ve come to reimagine the word as an eye for an eye. So if I steal from someone, I will get stolen from. Cause and effect. Karma’s a bitch.

Except that’s not how I see it.

Yes, karma is a cause and effect, but it’s not a Judeo-Christian concept and so we need to stop seeing it as such. For me, karma is the sum experience of the soul in this dimension. Karma is the agreements the soul makes with other souls before incarnating; It’s the curriculum of life; It’s layer upon layer of joy, trauma, survival, lessons, epiphany, instincts, brilliance, imbalances, vows, beliefs, and wisdom; It’s is the framework upon which the soul engages the human experience; It’s neither good nor bad; It just is.

In this world we have polarity. That is to say that we see things through the duality of light and dark, good and evil. But if we see through the soul’s eyes, removing judgement as Source does, we will instead see everything as a highly unique journey from lifetime to lifetime to discover what it means to be human. And to be human is to be both connected and separated from Source. Joy comes in remembering that we came from Source in the first place. Within us is the divine spark to be the creators of everything we could possibly need.

Karma and Manifestation

Now that I’ve defined karma, how does it relate to manifestation and the Law of Attraction?

In my blog post on the lunar cycles, I wrote:

“… This is basic Law of Attraction stuff, which states that we have the power to manifest everything that we need in our lives. Yes, all it takes is getting clear about what we want. There are a couple of caveats though — we’ll never manifest more than what we think we deserve; we’ll never manifest more than is in line with our karma.”

So if karma is the sum of the soul’s experience, including what it wishes to learn in this life, we’re never going to manifest beyond the karmic framework. It is the lens from which all creation in our lives passes through. If we were a beggar in a past life and brought into this life the entrenched belief that there is never enough, then every attempt to manifest abundance in this life is going to pass through that paradigm. If the soul wants to learn what it means to experience lack, then we will manifest experiences of lack.

But there’s hope!

Karma isn’t a prison sentence. What I neglected to say in my lunar manifestation article — because it was a much bigger conversation — is that karma can be healed, modified, and redrawn. When we bring karma to the surface for healing and integration, we can start to manifest different things in our life because we’ve changed the energetic framework, like a key changing to fit another lock. We heal karma by dismantling outmoded beliefs and patterns, learning our soul lessons, and finding balance once again. And as long as we’re still working through our karma, we’re going to keep manifesting experiences that help us heal our karma.

Remember, we’re powerful souls capable of manifesting anything that we need to grow, love, and transform. If we have limiting beliefs, we will limit our possibilities. If we expand our thinking towards limitless possibilities, we will manifest limitless possibilities!

Confession time, astrology style.

I come from a family that is not physically demonstrative. Hugging and other spontaneous forms of physical affection is something I taught myself slowly and awkwardly. I’m still a little weird around overly touchy-feely people, as if they are some alien tribe determined to test my boundaries, but this is my issue and I’m working on it.

One of the ways this manifests in my natal chart is Chiron in Taurus in the 4th House. Chiron is the core wounding. Call it karma or improper childhood programming, but Chiron is a point in our chart where we’re deeply sensitive about an inadequacy or perceived lack. It gnaws as us unconsciously until a transit brings it to light and we realize just how much the wound was a filter for experience.

In my case, Chiron in the 4th house shows the wound expressed through the mother/family/nurturing, perhaps even ancestral. Chiron in Taurus? There’s a need to heal improper programming regarding touch, sensuality, worth, and values. Taurus is a physical sign and deals with the body — how we view the body, how we treat the body, how we feed the body, how we gather soft things for the body to enjoy. Remember when I said my family wasn’t very emotionally demonstrative? It’s there, written in the stars.

Make no mistake, Chiron will take you to the deepest parts of your psyche, much like Pluto will, but without the horror show and scary music. As transiting Jupiter approaches my natal Chiron in Taurus, I’ve become hyperaware of my chironic wounds. Jupiter expands; The healing journey seems overwhelming. And while it expands the wound, it also expands awareness of available options to heal it, especially aided by transiting Pluto trine my Chiron. (Cue scary music.)

Despite the fact I’m an astrologer, I was amazed to realize how literal this transit has been manifesting in my life. A lot of core level issues have come up for examination and I’ve been prompted by this discomfort to explore all avenues towards healing. One such avenue was a lecture and workshop conducted by Inna Segal, an Australian healer and author who wrote The Secret Language of Your Body: The Essential Guide to Health and Wellness.

Segal spoke to a group of 20 people recently at the Sacred Center New York, one of those events that found myself attending on a whim because it seemed like a good idea. Having not read her book, I was instead drawn to our shared idea that we are our best healers and that the body will tell you what is wrong with it if you listen.

I was ready to listen.

Engaging and funny, Segal taught of divine intelligence, synchronicity, and how illness and ailments show where we are out of alignment with body’s natural truth. She also made pop culture references to highlight that healing work can be fun and should be fun.

“How will Lady Gaga heal you?” Segal asked, turning on a stereo behind the podium in our 19th Century church surroundings. We all stood up from our pews, shook out our hands rhythmically, and moved our hips to the song Born This Way. The dance beat filled up the church as much as our flailing limbs; energy swirled out of our formerly stiff bodies. How very Chiron in Taurus.

Did I feel self conscious dancing in front of a room of strangers? Yes. Did I feel like I was moving stagnant energy from old wounds? Absolutely. Who knew Lady Gaga was so cathartic?

But while healing work can be fun, exploring the Chiron wound can be uncomfortable because of its nature. More than once I nearly burst into tears when Segal said something that was a laser to my soul. At one point she motioned her her hips and explained that our hips and midsection is where we store a lot of old family energy. Hip pain reveals that we’ve been holding onto this energy for too long. There’s Chiron in the 4th House for you.

Towards the end of the evening Segal told a story about meeting someone that she formed an instantly deep connection. She explored this connection with him in a three hour marathon hugging fest. (Hugging?? See first paragraph.) As she told the story I got a sense that she was building us up for something.

“I’m going to play a song. I want you to find a partner,” she said, “and see how long you can hug each other.”

Panic!

Suddenly people were pairing off and everyone in the goddamned church had a hugging partner except for me, which in its own way is great, but really just made me feel like the last girl picked for kickball. Ugh. Chiron.

Part of me wanted to be hugged. The other part was deeply uncomfortable. Crisis!

Segal pushed the play button on the stereo and I had a vague sense of a Justin Beiber song amongst the race of my thoughts. Around me couples embraced deeply and lovingly; I stood there alone. Every issue in my life could have been summed up in that moment.

Then a nice woman named Barbara, even though she had her own hugging partner, offered me a hug with a grandma-like smile.

After an awkward yet strangely satisfying minute of hugging a total stranger, I heard her say, “You are loved.” My heart felt soothed.

When I left the church that night, I felt different. I felt exhausted. Something had definitely happened on an energetic level. And what the underlying message here is that sooner or later we’ll have to stare our core issues in the eye. Be your own healer and just make sure you do so armed with some Lady Gaga.

Like most people who live in large cities, I have a fairly long commute each day to and from work. The round-trip hour and a half of subway time is devoted to higher learning via spiritually themed podcasts. My commute is sacred. It’s my God time. I listen to my teachers and absorb what spirit has for me to learn.

This morning, as I listened to an archived version of one of my favorite internet radio shows, I energetically tuned into the first woman to call the program for a reading. She was intimately familiar with her own natal chart, so much so that as the guest astrologer, Marguerite Manning, tried to give a reading, the caller threw up blocks to every piece information. More specifically, the information was not connecting with the caller because it didn’t fit into her narrow view of her natal chart and its potential.

These podcasts cause my psychic abilities to kick in, enabling me to play along at home. I could see this woman’s energy in my mind’s eye and the chains, knots, and walls she had constructed. Every time Manning and host Rhonda Hohmann tried to empower her or lovingly correct her, she would reject it because it didn’t support her victim consciousness. I felt the doors slamming in her energy; I felt her anger; I felt her years of resentment, loneliness, and pain. But I also felt a good lesson to be shared.

I’m not picking on this lady; I actually want to thank her for being a teacher of what happens when we limit our energetic potential with rigid thinking. To her, her natal chart was a prison of intersecting aspect lines and planets forming the bars of what was possible and what was not. The only reading she wanted was one that affirmed her prison, not one that gave her the key. And this is the heart of Empowering Astrology — using the natal aspects as a key to learning, evolution, and empowerment.

Let’s say a woman, for example, has a Venus/Pluto square in her chart. If I say to her, “Wow, this Venus/Pluto square is pretty intense. You’re learning soul lessons about power, attraction, and what it means to feel safe with what you attract into your life, especially in regards to relationships. You have the potential to be a powerful master of attraction, intimacy, and sharing. But you gotta work at it.”

To which she says, “No, my Venus/Pluto square means that I always have abusive relationships.”

Do you see what happened there? She just threw up an energetic wall that affirms a negative pattern. By doing so, she doesn’t allow any growth or new energy to come in that supports a higher expression of the Venus/Pluto lesson. Worse, she keeps feeding her victim consciousness that says, people always hurt me, I’m never loved, there’s never enough, etc.

But there’s no judgement in spirit. It waits patiently and lovingly for us to learn and integrate our lessons, which can take a year, a lifetime, or even multiple lifetimes. It’s our choice. When we empower ourselves, we step out of the dense cycle of our lessons and gain an altitude of consciousness that allows spirit to show us another path. Our energy then shifts, creating new energetic receptivity to higher expressions of our lessons.

A better response to my Venus/Pluto example would for this woman to say, “Well, I’ve had a bad past with relationships and abuse, but I am willing and ready to experience something different.” All she has to do is open the door to a different experience. That’s all it takes; the willingness deep down for something better.

Whether we have Venus square Pluto, Mercury opposite Neptune, or fifty-thousand Saturn squares all making us question getting out of bed each day, we have to realize that there is more. We have to work with the lower form of the energy and transmute it into something higher. We create our own reality. Our natal chart is not a prison.

So God bless you, unhappy lady, wherever you are. Thank you for being a teacher.

On April 4th 2011, Neptune quietly slipped into its home sign of Pisces for the first time in a century and a half. I say quietly because Neptune’s ingress didn’t pack the punch of Pluto’s entry into Capricorn nor Uranus’s into Aries. No, gossamer Neptune transitioned into Pisces like a gentle breeze announcing a shift in the direction of the weather. You’d be forgiven for not noticing.

Don’t be fooled by Neptune’s hazy nature; this transit is a big deal not only because of the length of its 14-year trip through Pisces, but because no one alive has experienced Neptune in its home sign. The years 1847 through 1862, when Neptune was last in Pisces, correlated with photography becoming an everyday element of the then modern world, the rise of the temperance movement, wars in China over the opium trade, and the advent of spiritualism. These are all Neptunian concepts — an image snatched from the ether and fixed into form via a chemical process; the use or abstinence of alcohol and drugs; and a peering beyond the veil via mediums and seances.

So what can we expect during this transit? Well, one of the main concepts behind Neptune is a dissolving of boundaries. When Neptune was in Aquarius, we saw a dissolving of boundaries between individuals in the collective via the likes of Facebook and other social media. Now with Neptune in Pisces we can expect a dissolving of boundaries between individuals and spirit. I believe, especially as more and more people are experiencing awakenings, that psychic phenomena will become less fringe. Humanity will realize that it is not alone and will seek to communicate with others in non-traditional ways or communicate with spirits, guides, angels, animals, and plants. Neptune also rules compassion and we will be learning lessons over this period on what it truly means to open our hearts.

One can’t explore the high minded, rose colored glasses side of Neptune without acknowledging the deleterious reality of the “blue-green vapors” (to quote Marguerite Manning). Let’s be honest, Neptune rules drunks and illusions as much as it does pie-in-the-sky spiritual visions. Are we going to be singing Kumbaya into our cocktails for fourteen years? Maybe, just maybe. Think “double rainbow” as you pour yourself a drink.

Learn More about Neptune in Pisces:

Listen as I interview evolutionary astrologer Dena DeCastro about Neptune in Pisces and other aspects in a podcast episode titled Demystifying 2012.

I also recorded a segment on Neptune in Pisces for the Astrology Show, episode no. 13. Click below to listen.

More Neptunian/Piscean Concepts:

Anesthesia • The Subconscious • Hypnosis • Altered States • Photography • Movies • Glamour • Cults • Psychics • Hospitals • Things that Literally and Figuratively Imprison Us • Mediums and Channels • Spirituality • Deception • Con Artists • Illusions • Poisons and Toxins • Alcohol and Drugs • Oil • Oceans • Divine Oneness • Compassion • Unconditional Love • Martyrs • Meditation • Selfless Service • Devotion

Imagine you’ve walked into the home of someone you’ve just met. There’s clutter everywhere, nothing is organized, and it’s physically hard to navigate between rooms because of furniture and stuff piled everywhere. How would you imagine the energy of that home feels? Unpleasant? Stagnant? Dense? The energy can’t move because we have a hard time moving in the house. It accumulates everywhere much like the stuff piled on every surface. The energy feels low and inhospitable. Worse, if household is prone to fights and outbursts, the emotional energy can get stuck in the house.

Now imagine you’ve walked into the same home, except the person has moved out. Once busting with clutter, the rooms are now clear of any physical trace of the previous inhabitants. How would the space feel to you? Would you want to move your stuff right in? This is the moment where you trust your gut. If the space doesn’t feel right intuitively — if it still feels low, dense, dark, stagnant, unwelcoming — it’s time to clear the energy, which lingers long after the physical stuff has moved.

Most people have heard of burning sage leaves or smudging a smoking sage bundle throughout the house. While burning sage is a great way to clear energy, it’s not my personal favorite. For one, sage produces a very strong smell. Also, it doesn’t burn clean. I instead prefer to burn Epsom salts, which is a trick I learned from Denise Linn in her book, Sacred Space. This is a great purification ceremony for someone who has not only just moved into a new home, but someone who wants to clear the energy of their current home.

Doing a salt burn is a powerful tool, but it also demands a level of great care that comes with working with fire. The instructions below paraphrase what I learned from Linn, but the warnings and cautions are very much my own. Safety first!

How To Do an Epsom Salt Burn

You will need:

• A heat safe bowl such as Pyrex or an old coffee mug
• Isopropyl rubbing alcohol (high percentage alcohol)
• Epsom salts
• A long stemmed match or taper
• A pot lid or something that can quickly extinguish the fire if it gets out of hand

Place 1/4 cup of Epsom salts into your heat safe vessel. If you’re using a bowl, make sure the surface beneath the bowl will not be damaged by heat. I personally use a Pyrex measuring cup that I can hold by the handle and carry through the rooms of my house.

Gently pour isopropyl rubbing alcohol onto the salts. You want your salts to be damp, not soaking. If you’ve poured too much alcohol, add a little more salt. If you try to light the salts and the flame burns weakly, you’ve added too little alcohol. The ratio is about 2:1 Epsom salts to alcohol. Take caution you’ve not accidentally poured alcohol on your hands or clothes.

Make sure everyone at home is part of this ceremony. There should be a firm intention to clear through any stagnant energy. Ask for assistance from your guides, angels, ancestors, or God.

Open windows to assist old energy in leaving the home.

When you’re ready to begin, light a long stemmed match or taper. Touch the flame to the salt/alcohol mixture. It will instantaneously ignite and burn blue with a little bit of yellow flame. If you’re getting too much yellow flame, you’ve put too much alcohol into the mixture. If you feel as if the flame is burning unsafely high, smother it with a pot lid, which will extinguish it. Add a little more salt to the mixture and try again. The good thing about the burn is that there’s no smells or smoke.

When you’ve successfully lit the salts, imagine the blue flame eating up all the dense, stagnant, and negative energy. Affirm that it’s leaving the home. The flame will burn as long as it has to and when it is done will simply sputter out. If your vessel can be carried safely through out the house, move through each room you want to clear, affirming again that dense energy is leaving the home.

Afterward, discard the cooled salt down the toilet to flush away negative energy. Say a prayer of thanks to your deity of choice or spirit protector for helping you clear the energy of your home. Ask that the energy be sent back to source with love and forgiveness.

The results of this cleansing ceremony are immediate and powerful. Sounds are sharper and clearer and the energy feels lighter.

Good luck and be safe!

Ritual plays an intrinsic part in the human experience. Through ritual we find comfort and meaning in actions or words. A few years ago, when I was in a particularly dark period on my life, I started paying close attention to the lunar cycles within the context of astrology. There was comfort in the marking of the new moon as if I had another chance at a new beginning.

Somehow, probably due to the power of the internet, I learned about new and full moon manifestation rituals. At the time, I was unbelievably broke. My life looked like a bomb had gone off and I needed the reassurance and focus that came with these rituals. I needed to feel like I was in the driver’s seat of my life again. And so during the new moon I wrote out a list — pen and ink to paper — of the things I wanted to manifest in my life. I dated the piece of paper, folded it up, and tucked it away. Two weeks later, during the full moon, I took the piece of paper out of its storage place, placed it in a bowl, and carefully lit the piece of paper on fire, scattering the ashes to the wind.

I remember the first time I did this ritual and the feeling of energetic release that overcame me as the paper was consumed by flames. Through my written intentions, which took my thoughts and brought them into the physical, I gave the Universe a list of what I needed. Low and behold I started to manifest my intentions.

New and Full Moon Rituals

The new moon marks the beginning of a cycle and the full moon the release. During the new moon we plant our seeds of intention and during the full moon we watch them grow fruit. To manifest with the power of the waxing and waning moon, here’s what you need to do:

1. Look at a calendar of the moon phases. Find the dates of the new and full moons.

2. On the day of the new moon, take a sheet of paper, date it, and write the following: “I accept these things into my life now or something better for the highest good and the highest good of all concerned.” This is called the karma free clause. Basically you’re saying to the Universe, I want these things, but only if they are in my highest good and the highest good of everyone I know. And by saying “or something better” allows for the Universe to create something that is beyond what we can possibly imagine.

3. Below your karma free clause, begin to write out what you want to manifest in your life. Nothing is too small nor too big. Write your statements in the affirmative “I am” and not “I need” or “I want.”

4. When you are done with your list, put it away until the time of the full moon, which always happens two weeks later.

5. At the time of the full moon, find a bowl or vessel to safely burn your list in. (I use a large bowl from my kitchen.) Burn your list and when it has completely turn to ash and cooled, take the ashes outside and scatter into the wind, thanking the Universe for being a co-creator with you.

This is basic Law of Attraction stuff, which states that we have the power to manifest everything that we need in our lives. Yes, all it takes is getting clear about what we want. There are a couple of caveats though — we’ll never manifest more than what we think we deserve; we’ll never manifest more than is in line with our karma. But those caveats aside, it’s a very powerful ritual and a surefire way to get stagnant energy moving in your life. If you want healing in your life, ask for healing. If you want a job, specifically outline the sort of job you want. Take time to mentally examine any blocks you might have to manifesting what you want in your life. Dismantle any feelings of unworthiness or anything that cancels out your manifestations such as saying, “I am getting a new job,” in one breath followed by, “No one will ever hire me,” in the other. You’ve just canceled out your manifestation!

So get crackin’. The Universe is waiting for us to be co-creators with it.

Last week the world freaked out when a Minnesota astronomer sent out a press release stating that the zodiac signs had shifted over time and, surprise, you’re not the sign you thought you were. Even more shocking, there was now a new zodiac sign — Ophiuchus.

Thanks to the power of the internet, the press release went viral and people whom I never thought would care about astrology were suddenly losing their stuff. Mainstream American news like CNN and MSNBC even devoted prime time to this allegedly new revelation. Well known astrologers like Susan Miller breathlessly went on air to refute the ill conceived press release. I fielded emails from friends and colleagues who wanted to know if it was true.

“So now I’m a Pisces?” an Aries sun sign incredulously asked.

First of all, it’s not true. IT’S NOT TRUE! Your sun sign has not changed. Ophiuchus is a hoax. Astrologers have known about the precession of the equinoxes since the 2nd century AD. I could explain further in detail, especially how this myth pops up every few years, but frankly I spent all my energy last week calming the panicked masses. Instead I will defer to the following excellently written rebuttals:

“Attention All Astronomers — The World is Flat” by Eric Francis of Planet Waves

“Ophiuchus puts his foot in it but it’s Cox who sticks the boot in” by Deborah Houlding at Skyscript

“Ophiuchus – the 13th Sign of the Zodiac” by Deiter Koch at Astro.com

Second, an astronomer shouldn’t be making definite statements about astrology without understanding what it is. After all, I don’t write press releases about quantum physics and cosmology. Just sayin’.

Once the dust settled, I had a realization. More people were emotionally invested in astrology then I would have previously assumed. Curious.

It’s not that I don’t think astrology has a place in prime time discourse, but it was a telling barometer of how many people followed their sun sign. It also made for a surreal moment when really talented and erudite astrologers were on cable news to explain exactly why western astrology doesn’t follow the precession of the equinoxes.

In short, this was astrology’s biggest moment in the spotlight since former First Lady Nancy Reagan was outed in 1988 for consulting an astrologer.

Okay, the world asked, if western astrology doesn’t follow the precession of the equinoxes and doesn’t shift the signs, then what does it do? What is astrology?

Now that’s a big question to ponder. How does one distill astrology into a short soundbite?

• Astrology is a language that conveys the human condition.
• Astrology is the study of the heavens as an archetypal reflection of our inner selves.
• Astrology is the understanding that we are are one with the universe.
• Astrology is a tool used to unlock the secreted parts of the soul.
• To study the stars is to study ourselves. To look at the stars is to pull back the curtain and see the inner workings of Source.
• Astrology is the study of natural cycles, whether it be day to night, spring to summer, or the planets in shifting relations to each other. To study astrology is to respect the natural timing of life.

In the words of astrologer Steven Forrest in his book The Inner Sky:

“Astrology is just a finger pointing at reality. Like any other language, it only provides a way of ordering our perceptions. At its best it aids us in seeing ourselves more honestly. At its worst it drops a wall between us and the rawness of our own experience. To be of value it must not only reflect the actualities of living; it must hone the cutting edge of our growth. If astrology does not give the mind the sharpness of a laser and leave the heart an open nerve, then it has failed.”

Although the glare of the spotlight is fading, we still have a chance to be ambassadors for astrology in the face of misinformation and ill informed skepticism. This is astrology’s big moment. Let us teach the world that as above, so below. The macrocosm is the microcosm. We are the stars.