Last night, as I was attempting to change the look of my blog, my cat raced through the front door with her catch of the day
- a mouse! The mouse made it safely behind the entertainment center. Wildthing spent the night in what my dad called a cat's "hunkered down" position, with feet under her body, to watch any action around the ent. center.

Pets and small animals are under the category of items related to Mercury or Virgo so it seemed an appropriate way to send the planet back onto it's direct route!





The moon skips along into the sign of Gemini this afternoon, after a brief Void-of-Course period. Void-of-Course is a term for the moon when it has no more 'aspects' to make before entering the next sign. An aspect is a term for 2 planets being in a certain geometrical relationship, such as 90 degrees apart or 180 degrees apart. This would be a nice time to catch up with a phone call or visit to a feminine relative like your mom or your daughter, or compose an email if not a letter.





The above image is from my newest tarot deck added to my collection, the Tarot of the Saints. A book was included in the package, The Gnostic Book of Saints. What a fantastic combination of saints' lives and symbolism with tarot!
In this time of year when the sun moves through the sign of Cancer (from our perspective here on earth), it is the most feminine expression of the solar emanations. The tarot card depicts Virgin Mary as The Moon.

"All gifts, virtues, and graces of the Holy Ghost are administered by the hands of Mary to whomsoever she desires, when she desires, in the manner she desires, and to whatever degree she desires. Mary is the dispensatrix of all the graces God bestows. Every grace granted to man in this life has three successive steps: from God it comes to Christ, and from Christ to the Virgin, and from the Virgin in descends to us.'

St. Bernadine of Sienna

St. Bernadine's statement depicts Mary as more than the mother of Jesus; she is a living presence in the world, an emanation from God."


The quotation above is from the 'Gnostic Book of Saints'.

Tonight Mercury will go direct once again. That leaves Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto retrograde until Venus joins them on July 28. Five planets retrograde isn't that unusual for the summer. The outer planets with their very slow orbit go retro every summer.

This has been a fairly mellow retrograde for me because I didn't plan on doing anything out of the ordinary. I did lose 2 different things I'd worked on today by way of the Internet. Somehow it is easier to live with knowing when I get up tomorrow morning Mercury will be direct!

I've had many thoughts about Dubya Bush and his role in the larger scheme of things.

Bush has no retrograde planets. Everything's out there. No introspection. All the planets are on one side of his chart. Concentrated on self and objectives. Ego. Not much desire to consider other points of view.

Bush has a Cancer Sun. Security - it's all there is. This claw won't let go. Leo is the Rising Sign. He sees himself as a privileged king or dictator. He's joked about his dictator-self before! Aries is on his Midheaven. He wants to see himself as a warrior leader. He stated in an interview that he wanted to be remembered as a 'war president'. He is surrounded by other Cancers and Scorpios. Cheney is an Aquarian Sun with Moon in Pisces (according to the chart I am using). Water signs were so easy to relate to by the American voters. The popular election was not successful but the Supreme Court and the electoral college saw things differently. The script is so surreal; if Hollywood produced this film in the '80s we would have howled with laughter and disbelief.

As Pluto gets ready to leave Sagittarius, perhaps the fanaticism of religious thought and belief will give way to reason and compassion. Pluto moves into Capricorn. Capricorn is material world power, refusing to step back. Will Pluto bring even more of the obsession with profits and power by corporations, industry, and governments? Bush has set the stage for it.

The neo-con movement has been around for approximately 50 or 60 years. Planning and rehearsing went on quietly to move as soon as it became possible to rebuild the world in their bizarre vision. They waited to take over. They have. How hard will the world have to push back to return to pre-neo normalcy? How long and how hard will Americans push?

Was the Bush (crime) family put into power only for this purpose? It seems obvious as far as the neo-cons go, but I mean on a deeper level. This is a critical time for humanity. Bush has acted as a mirror for Americans to see just how uncaring, ignorant, greedy, and selfish we have become since the '50s. We were prosperous but there was never enough! How much is enough? Bush has proven an ideal leader for an America that is perceived as the maverick. He spoke and too many citizens followed right along. How low will it go? Blow the cover of an agent, spy on citizens, start an illegal war after cooking the intelligence, refuse accountability. Will he leave office in January of 2009 or will we see martial law?

Is this a "cosmic intervention"? Once the truth of how far we've fallen is digested, we can tear down the old order and build again, in the positive vision of our beginnings. Will we?

Lovely Venus will be going retrograde fairly soon after Mercury goes direct. That is quite a few retrograde planets.

The expression of the energies or emanations of a particular planet seems to be recognized internally when retrograde. I think of my own beloved father, a cool, detached Aquarian. He had retrograde Venus. His show of affection sometimes seemed awkward. However, he was married to my mother for 53 years at the time of his earthly passing. He was a great provider and one of the most trustworthy, responsible men I've ever known. He loved my mother very much and I imagine he felt like the luckiest guy on earth to be married to mom. She was his almost-constant, fun-loving companion and mother of his 5 children.

Retrograde natal planets are perhaps not as visible to others. The influence on the native can be quite strong and exquisite. It is somehow, though, very subtle to others.