TURN YOUR LIFE AROUND

Saturn in Virgo (Sept. 2, 2007 -- Oct. 30, 2009)

Everyone at some time in their life has made a negative self-judgment not knowing how truly harmful this process is. If you had critical parents or were raised in an environment where you didn’t fit in, or you just lacked validation and attention, then you have probably judged yourself as not good enough to have the wonderful things in life that others seem to get with ease. Self-judgment serves no one. What it does do is limit you in all your endeavors, instead of teach you about yourself and how to bring the gifts within you out into the world. Yes, each of you has a gift, a reason or purpose for incarnating into this world at this exact time, and if you don’t know how to support yourself with faith and love, you will not reach your full potential. The most harmful results of negative judgment is that it stops your energy from flowing, from moving through you and uniting with the life sustaining universal force that rejuvenates and empowers all those that let it in.

Saturn, master and ruler of your blocks and limitations, entered into the sign of Virgo on Sep 2, 2007 and will leave on Oct 30, 2009. Virgo is the sign of health or the sanctity of your inner temple, it has great organizational skills as well as a heightened sense of service, a need to return something to the world – it represents the give and take of life which leads to balance, represented in the next sign of Libra. Mutable by nature, it constantly changes and adjusts what takes you off-center, and if it gets over-worked because of your extreme nature, then your mind, body and spirit suffers. Remember, your body needs exercise and good food, your mind needs new challenges, complexities or puzzles to solve, and your spirit needs enough faith in itself to overcome the obstacles you will encounter on your journey. Faith is increased by taking risks and learning from the experience in spite of whether you win or loose. Having to confront your demons makes you aware of the importance of a safe and pure inner space – no negative thoughts should live inside. Like a well-made clock, to keep your parts shinning, well-oiled and free of grime and dust, you’ve got to seal off your inner space, you’ve got to have a door that opens and closes when you command it to do so. That means you need to be able to say “yes” and “no”, not to please others, but to create your world your way. It doesn’t matter how big your world becomes on the outside, if you feel good about yourself on the inside. To keep yourself positive, you need to keep out the fears, judgments and problems of others or your inner world will be lost-- it will no longer belong to you and neither will your destiny. You’ve turned it over; you are not in charge, and so why wouldn’t you be depressed and uncertain about who you are and where you are going.

Adjusting the balance between your ability to accept both the light and shadow, your virtue and your anger and pain, is the quest of Saturn in Virgo. The only way balance can be found is by going beyond your apparent limits. If you never push the boundaries of your life and step into the unknown you’ll never know what you are truly capable of achieving. Children know this, they stretch the limits we set for them all the time, and if we fill them with too much fear, they stop trying and hide. Virgo helps you push your limits so that you can know which ones are worthy of your commitment. It makes you face whatever you are avoiding – too idealistic then deal with reality – too practical and hard working, then lets have an encounter with hope and faith. Yes, our experiences in Virgo make us realize the necessity of self-discipline, and how vulnerable we are without it. Virgo does not protect, it tests your preparedness for a world filled with desire, temptation and hard choices and it does this by bringing you face to face with the magical lures of the underworld and the pitfalls of high ideals. Pisces, the opposite sign of Virgo, enticed you to follow your dreams by masking your fears in fantasies and high ideals. Early dreams lifted you up and helped you cope with hardships and struggle. Now, in the passage through Virgo, it’s time to shed those fantasies so that the dream can become real. You must stop and adjust your position in order to move forward. You have a new truth and that truth includes the realization that you need others to be strong; that you can’t take the rest of the journey alone. When you can accept others you see your own aloneness and that can either drop you into greater fear, sending you back into the boundaries that have kept you a prisoner or -- if you can hold that fear and accept it, you can call forth the divine within you and begin to feel your spirit’s connectedness to the spirit in all things. This spiritual awakening is the key to self-love, faith and confidence. Once you experience this, you will never settle for those who want to bring you down or for a love that does not give and receive. And best of all you will begin to attract all the necessary support and opportunities you once thought would never come your way.

If you want to turn your life around stop right now and make a commitment to yourself. Look at your life and see where others are depleting you or where isolation is preventing your growth. You need people you can talk to about real feelings, not just social contacts. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake, do trust your instincts and what your gut tells you and start practicing the words “yes” and “no” based on what you want, not on what others want from you. You’ll need a vision as a guide, so think about where you’d like to be a year from now, and keep your focus on it making choices every day in your life in some small way that will bring you closer to that vision and your goals.

As Saturn prepares to leave the sign of Virgo it has a gift for those who have done the work. Yes, it has the magic to flip you from the bottom to the top and yes, it can do the same in reverse. We’ve all watched our financial guru’s topple from their pedestals and are still amazed at how quickly it all happened. Those that are stuck and not growing need to step aside and make room for those that are. So now is a time rich with opportunity, especially for a big leap of faith. So take the risk and accept the offer that is on its way – it’s your chance to turn your life around.

A LEAP OF FAITH REQUIRED

The most wonderful thing about astrology is the insight it gives you into your feelings and events in your life. The world has been going through some great changes for the last year, most of them caused by a planetary configuration we astrologers call Pluto in Capricorn. The sign of Capricorn represents the world you have built through your choices, values, ideals and fears. Your fears and those that you have accepted from society are your boundaries and limitations-- the structure of your life and these boundaries have been moved without your consent. This aspect does not accept a mere make-over, a piece of new furniture or a coat of paint, what is required is a structural change that affects the very foundation you are standing on. You need both the practical and the hopeful to be happy. Too much reality makes life dry and unexciting; too much fantasy keeps you isolated and unable to manifest anything real. And now Pluto enters that reality and shows you where the imbalance in your life and in your community and country lies.

Pluto entered the sign for the first time January 27, 2008. It regressed back into Sagittarius on June 15, 2008 and on November 27, 2008 it reentered Capricorn just in time to announce our new president Barak Obama. And his election was a symbol of the new world order that lies before us. Yes, the world, the way you once knew it is gone. The last time Pluto was in Capricorn the United States entered the world arena as a slave owned nation and America’s entry certainly shook the international arena. That is why I new that Obama would win, it would represent the end of a cycle and our quest for true independency and democracy. So, how does all of this translate into your personal life? It has shifted your position of power within you, and in so doing it has revealed where you are stuck, the part of you that has worked in the past may actually be the part that is bringing you down or causing you trouble. Pluto will be at zero degrees of Capricorn August 6, 2009 for the last time, which means that the new beginning we have all been struggling to build since its first entry into Capricorn last year will finally have some staying power. So now what you put out into the world in regards to effort and work will begin to hold, instead of being uprooted, changed or collapse due to the necessary support and finances.

We have all watched the world obsess over Michael Jackson. Part of this obsession has to do with nostalgia for the past that is quickly disappearing. We are holding on to our old idols as they leave us and make way for the new, and so we raise them even higher so that no one can take them away from us. It is our inner yearning to not let go that keeps us rehashing the past -- one way to not face the now and our uncertain future. So yes, things that symbolize the past will increase in value. Nostalgia is in big time. The changes that are happening around us and within us are frightening, because the markers in our lives have moved and we don’t know how to measure ourselves, where we stand and where we are going, any longer. What is also in now is anything different and that brings me to Sarah Palin. Talk about a perfect environment for an uncommon common person. She does everything different, everything that one would see as political suicide and she gets away with it. I believe it represents just how much we all want change; some of us are not even looking at what that change means as long as it feels different. Stepping down as Governor of Alaska gives her the title of “Renegade.” Now that’s amazing.
With so many new emotions and uncertainty surrounding you what should you do? The answer is to go within and listen to yourself; reconnect to the magic of your own inner voice and let that lead you. As a struggling new nation, that’s all we had to rely on, along with common sense and natural intelligence, a rarity these days. Comfortable times have allowed us to loose touch with ourselves. Whatever is happening to you is happening for a purpose, find that purpose and you will move through the difficulty. Learn the lesson and you won’t feel stuck. Change brings great opportunity and opened unwatched doors, and if you are prepared and ready to make a move, chances are you’ll get the opportunity. Gather together your confidence, talents and faith in yourself and offer that to the world. Isolation is not a good choice now. Rather, put yourself into the stream of life, and learn how to swim with the current as well as express your own individuality as you keep your head afloat. There is an audience that is eager to see something new, something real, something that doesn’t deceive but offers both hope for the future and insight into the present struggle. So take a leap of faith, it is truly the safest path.