Planetary aspects for August 2010, Australian date and times.

• AUGUST 3rd: Jupiter (3 Aries) squares Pluto (3 Capricorn) at 3:32PM
• AUGUST 4th: Mars (3 Libra) opposes Jupiter (3 Aries) at 2:19 PM
• AUGUST 4th: Mars (3 Libra) opposes Pluto (3 Capricorn) at 2:58 PM
• AUGUST 7th: Venus enters Libra 1:47PM
• AUGUST 7th: Venus opposes Uranus (O Aries) at 5:58PM
• AUGUST 9th: Venus conjunct Saturn both 1 degree Libra at 3:23AM
• AUGUST 10th: Venus opposes Jupiter (2 Aries) at 9:40 AM
• AUGUST 10th: Venus square Pluto (3 Capricorn) at 2:04AM
• AUGUST 14th: Uranus re-enters Pisces 1:36PM
• AUGUST 17th: Jupiter opposes Saturn (2 Libra) at 6:44 AM
• AUGUST 21st: Venus conjunct Mars (13 Libra) at 4:48 AM
• AUGUST 21st: Saturn (2 Libra) square Pluto (2 Capricorn) at 8:15 PM

The beginning of the month is intense for early Cardinal signs (Aries, Libra, Cancer and Cap). With Jupiter, Pluto, Mars (then Venus) Saturn and for a short time Uranus converging on those first few degrees, it’s like a party that quickly gets out of control. Perhaps a few nights in with a book and glass of wine if you are tired of the excitement? If not, expect a wild ride.

Uranus is in his final throes – one last pass into Pisces. Expect not to be hoodwinked this time by fast talkers and bedroom eyes. You’ve fallen for Charisma with Uncertainty once too often. If it’s career focussed, be sure to practice your “yeah yeah whatever” look – it will see you through.

Jupiter opposite Saturn will bring up a challenge. Will you expand into leadership or retract back into relationships? No answer is the right answer. But one will demand the other will beckon. It’s up to you.

Finally Saturn square Pluto brings immense change in finance and business. Expect a large company to collapse. One that looked secure and longlasting.

When Mercury goes retrograde (backwards) through the sky 3x a year, it’s a beautiful time to down tools, stop striving, stop, refresh.  Things only go backward if you are still pushing – anything that breaks or fails over, particularly travel, could very well be telling you something. We are  meaning making machines….

The Dates (GMT) for Mercury Retrograde in 2010

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15 Jan Mercury turns direct 6 Capricorn
19 Apr Mercury turns retrograde 13 Taurus
11 May Mercury turns direct 3 Taurus
21 Aug Mercury turns retrograde 19 Virgo
12 Sep Mercury turns direct 5 Virgo
11 Dec Mercury turns retrograde 6 Capricorn
30 Dec Mercury turns direct 20 Sagittarius (from Skyscript)

Mercury retrograde is a good thing.

This is a follow on from Mercury retrograde 2009.

All times are given in Sydney Australia times – GMT +10 hours.

Mars leaves Aries and enters Taurus on June 1st at 7:18am

Immediately the heated frustration from Mercury retrograde communication muckups cools, and an earthy grounded energy focusses on achieving practical comfort ensues. On June 4th at 2:36pm, Mars 2 degrees Taurus trines Pluto at 2 degrees Capricorn – great for solid comfortable progress, just make sure you reward yourself with home cooking and quality wines. Taurus and Capricorn both know how to wine and dine themselves and others! 

The Full Moon on June 8th at 4:12am at 17 degrees Sag brings into focus our need for answers vs the need to explore. If you find yourself handing out philosophy when someone really wants practical examples and questions or you find yourself offering questions instead of answers to some one who is struggling, stop, and read the situation. The challenge that full moons bring is the right response across the axis. In the case of Gemini vs Sagittarius its questions/exploration of a simple situation vs answers/deep exploration of Sag. 

On June 23rd, Mars 16 Taurus trines Saturn 16 Virgo at 12:43AM, A new moon at 1 degree Cancer at 5:35AM immediately moves into an opposition with Destroyer Pluto 1 degree Capricorn at 5:41pm. Given the relationship between Saturn and Capricorn, many will experience a typical opposition challenge of balancing home, family and comfort, with leadership, ambition and career. The decision  you make on this date, will have energy and take you far – choose wisely.

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Susan Boyle’s birthdate (latest data) is 1 April 1961 at 9:50am in Scotland. 

What is immediately apparent is that Susan Boyle has a full moon chart. Her sun is in Aries, demanding she lead groups (11th house) opposing her Libran moon, in harmonious, creative 5th house. The demands of her creativity versus the demands of the group. Both are squared by Mars (ruler of the Aries sun). That’s a lot of power. 

Gemini ascendants tend to show two sides of their personality within quick succession. The chart is splitting between personal creativity and public leadership: reconciling both is challenging for anyone, let alone an artist that has been downloaded 200 million times in 6 weeks! 

The pairing continues with Pluto conjunct North Node at 6 degrees Virgo. Uranus would’ve opposed this pair (and conjunct south node) a few years ago, freeing her from past traits and negativity particularly associated with Neptunian Pisces traits. Incidentally, Pluto is moving into a square to the nodes/natal Pluto, so the massive changes are only just starting for Susan Boyle.  

A nice indepth piece by Lynn Hayes at Beliefnet here.

Sarah Brightman Birth Chart

Sorry for the delay in posting, the eclipse and mercury retrograde hit hard but all is well now on Planet StarSparkles.
I was watching a DVD of Sarah Brightman performing in Las Vegas – Harem. Convinced by her hair , cat like walk, dramatic movements and lots of Sun imagery that she was a Leo, I made a bet with the others sitting on the sofa watching. I won! Not only that but I picked Taurus as a secondary influence. She has a Taurus moon – Venus/Taurus rules the throat and voice.

A life lived large and in full view of the public. Something that Venus conjunct Pluto in Virgo would hate. My guess is that every time her personal life is dragged out into the tabloids, she works with Virgoan precision and a bit of nagging to get everything perfect for the next show.

The north node – life’s path – affirms this. Her south node of Pisces drugs and nebulous fame she worked on in a past life. Sorted in this one. Saturn is doubly powerful in it’s own sign, Capricorn which gives her great business sense and an ability to hookup with other great business managers.

Jupiter in it’s own sign, Sagittarius gives her an abiding interest in other cultures – German, Arabic, whatever. Is there anything more Jupiter in Sag than this statement that she made?

I am not quite sure where home is right now. I do have places in London and Milan, and a house in Spain. I guess I would say home is where my mother is, and she lives in Spain. (brainyquote)

Some other interesting quotes from Sarah Brightman that I think amply demonstrate that gorgeous showman Leo Sun conjunct erratic and out there Uranus:

Anything can happen to anyone at any time and you shouldn’t just live through the days, or you lose them. You should do what you can to enjoy every moment. (from BrainyQuote)

AND

Being varied is something I do instinctively and naturally. I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

Sun conjunct erratic Uranus has to be tough for an entertainer with a Virgo-everything-is-organised North Node.

This is the first time I have heard of this “logistical unlikelihood”. I mean, it’s obvious to an astrologer that a karmic group will share some aspects and perhaps a birthday.

In probability theory, the birthday problem, or birthday paradox^[1] pertains to the probability that in a set of randomly chosen people some pair of them will have the same birthday. In a group of 23 (or more) randomly chosen people, there is more than 50% probability that some pair of them will both have been born on the same day. For 57 or more people, the probability is more than 99%, and it reaches 100% when the number of people reaches 367 (there are a maximum of 366 possible birthdays).

That’s from wikipedia. How many of your friends share a birthday with  you? I must be the exception to the rule – none. Though I do have a lot of friends with birthdays around the same date as mine.

Anyone noticed how many family members share a birthday – son and mother, two siblings? Person A Sun conjunct Person B’s Sun is a powerful and stimulating influence. In addition, venus and mercury are never far from the sun, so probably they share conjunctions with those two planets as well. I have family members and friends with spouses that share their birthday or are within 2-3 days.  Sharing Sun and/or Mercury and/or Venus makes for similar life purpose (Sun), values (Venus rules Taurus), approach to money, similar tastes in art and love (Venus rule Libra), communication skills and day to day transport(Mercury rules Gemini), and everyday habits (Mercury rules Virgo).  So much for opposites attract!

Astrology and Horoscope Weekly Sparkles for Sunday January 11th until January 17th 2009.

This blog post connects to the Podcast (see here).

Podcast information – both enhanced (images) and normal audio are around 10meg. Not much difference in size, but if you have problems with the enhanced version, please use the normal MP3 version.

Please leave a REVIEW AT iTUNES – you can subscribe over at iTunes too!

Download enhanced (images) version  Astrology – Weekly Sparkles 2009 -01-11

Download simple MP3 version Astrology – Weekly Sparkles 2009 -01-11 MP3

This weeks full moon in Cancer, trine Saturn in Virgo combine with Mercury Retrograding in Aquarius for a interesting start to the week. Then we settle down in mainly moon aspects.

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Weekly astrological forecasts from Bondi Beach in Sydney, Horoscopes for Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces for the week ahead.  Take a  ten minute journey through the stars, with StarSparkles!

Stars for this week covering Full moon, trine Saturn AND Mercury going retrograde (backwards) for three weeks.

Sign	Full Moon House	Retro Mercury House
Aries	4	11
Taurus	3	10
Gemini	2	9
Cancer	1	8
Leo	12	7
Virgo	11	6
Libra	10	5
Scorpio	9	4
Sagittarius	8	3
Capricorn	7	2
Aquarius	6	1
Pisces	5	12

If you have trouble understanding my Australian accent, and I don’t blame  you! Then here is -more or less – the text:

StarSparkles 5 minute podcast
Hi you are listening to StarSparkles.com.au Astrology and Horoscope – a 5 minute look at the week ahead.

This is for the week starting Sunday January 11th through to midnight Saturday January 17th 2009. All times given are Sydney Daylight Savings times. Which means at this time of year, if it’s 11pm in Sydney it’s noon GMT at 4am in California

WEEKLY STARS

See above for houses

MAJOR Aspects
The major events occur early in the week. There is a full moon on Sunday at 1:27pm. This means the sun is in Capricorn at 21 degrees, and the moon is in Cancer at 21 degrees. Full moons on this axis will bring about tension between work and play. In fact, the Full moon is also in an exact trine with Saturn which is retrograde at 21 degrees Virgo. This trine happens on Sunday night, actually early hours of Monday morning at 4am. Is it possible that you will wake up, recognize that you have a whole year ahead of you and are now ready, nay eager to move ahead with your life’s work, your place in the world (Capricorn) and take your leave of the events and gatherings of family and friends over the Christmas and New Years break? If so, Saturn is ready to support you in catching up and re-looking at career events that happened at the end of last year. So that’s two big events over the Sunday/Monday of this week – A full moon in Capricorn/Cancer and the trine with Saturn inVirgo. If you have any planets at 21 degrees Capricorn or Cancer, I’d love to hear how the full moon trine Saturn is working out for you Please email me at StarSparkles@starsparkles.com.au or come to the website http://starsparkles.com.au . Especially if it Is your birthday Sunday or Monday this week.

The third major event on those days is Mercury retrograde at 7 degrees Aquarius. This occurs at about ¼ to 3 early on Sunday morning, so right in between the full moon and the trine with Saturn. Rolling backwards through the heavens, this planet won’t go direct again until February 1st at 5:10pm. Intriguingly, the degree that Mercury goes direct is at 21 degrees Capricorn. The same degree as the full moon trine Saturn this weekend. I’d say whatever comes out at the full moon will be in full force until at least February 1st. Mercury retrograde has a habit of slowing us down, taking away our cars, and technology and travel to ensure we spend some time inwards, going over things in our minds instead of rushing around, always communicating, always connected. Nothing like sitting at the airport for a few hours, or a traffic jam, or stuck at a bus stop to allow our minds to wander. If something does happen to slow you up over the next three weeks.

# Mercury Retrograde 7 AQ 45 Jan 12 2009 2:42 AM
# Mercury Direct 21 CAP 44 Feb 1 2009 5:10 PM (Mercury retrograde dates for 2009)

MOON ASPECTS
For the rest of the week, we are looking at quick moon aspects. The moon is in Cancer until it finishes with the full moon and Saturn trine early on Monday morning. At around 3:30am the moon will enter Leo forming over the next two and ½ days oppositions with Jupiter, Mercury, Chiron, and Neptune. By Tuesday night those oppositions will have you ready for an early night. Because the moon in Leo wants to shine as a star, and the planets in Aquarius are requiring you to work in groups, being back at work, back in the social swim could be tiring. Why not have a quiet night on Tuesday?
Wednesday the moon pops into Virgo, so no more drama queens, it’s back to duty and civility that a Virgo moon needs to feel secure. The moon will trine Pluto in early Capricorn on Wednesday, oppose Venus at 11 degrees Pisces and trine Mars 13 degrees Capricorn early hours of Thursday morning. If you are sleeping, well and good. If you are not, well, lets just say that energy could be … interesting.

Later on Thursday the moon, still in Virgo, opposes Uranus, and conjuncts Saturn so you are going to be wishing that Thursday was actually Friday. By the time Friday does roll around the moon will trine the Sun at 25 Capricorn and then go into Libra. Make sure your chores are done during the Virgo moon period that I mentioned between Wednesday morning and Thursday night. Because a Friday Libran moon is perfect for shopping, dating, dinner, romance, and friendly drinks. Once we get past the Libran moon squaring Pluto at 1 degree Capricorn, which may cause you to try and back away from a confrontation that was building early in the week, you can concentrate on the moon trining Jupiter at 2 degrees Aquarius and trining Mercury (retrograde) at 5 degrees Aquarius. There’s no point asking you to take it easy with a Libra moon making you compliant to others wishes, Jupiter egging you on drink and party more and MORE and Aquarius bringing the strong attraction to large groups but for goodness sake, with Mercury retrograde leave the car at home. Drinking and driving, losing keys, ending up as chaffeur to a bunch of partyiers will be part of the package. You’ll have a good time though.

Until Saturday lunch time that is. For those of you who weren’t out on a bender on Friday night – and that moon Jupiter Aquarius makes it likely you were, in one way or another – Saturday lunchtime will be a time of great energy that needs to used constructively, as the moon forms a square to Mars. Saturday night has the moon trining Chiron and Neptune – great for the healing through theater and cinema and creativity. If Friday night was about romance and parties, Saturday is awesome for imagination and connecting with deeper relationships that move you spiritually.

And that is it for the week ahead of January 11th to January 17th 2009. Come back later in the week for next weeks astroweather overview.

I hope you enjoyed the podcast and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask!

Australian times as usual:

• Mercury Retrograde 7 AQ 45 Jan 12 2009 2:42 AM
• Mercury Direct 21 CAP 44 Feb 1 2009 5:10 PM
• Mercury Retrograde 01 GEM 44 May 7 2009 3:00 PM
• Mercury Direct 22 TAURUS 52 May 31 2009 11:21 AM
• Mercury Retrograde 06 LIBRA 13 September 7 2009 11:13 PM
• Mercury Direct 21 CAP 47 Dec 27 2009 12:37 AM

The one that starts in a few days is going to be powerful. Jupiter, Uranus, Aquarius – Mercury backwards in an eclipse season will reveal more depth than you thought was possible. Expect BIG secrets to come out. Real shockers!

Sydney at Midnight, New Years Eve 2009

What will the year ahead bring for Australia?

With a horary chart like this one – actually it’s an event chart but never mind – it’s best to pay attention to the angles. Libra on the ascendant for Australians means a year of dealing with partnerships and allies.  Aries on the descendant brings a focus on war around partners. I think Iraq and bringing home our soldiers will be a huge focus. This is reinforced by The Sun in Capricorn at 10 degrees exactly on the nadir. Cancer rules the fourth house of home and is the exact reverse of Capricorn. There will be a public bringing home (to the fourth house) of those who are away. Capricorn on the nadir will probably also keep the focus on business and the economy at home. Australian exports may do surprisingly well, considering this is a global crisis.

Mercury conjunct Jupiter – expect a lot of news around media plus travel by our politicians. Again, allies and partners overseas may cause a lot of discussion.  I always look for a rule of three, and we have it here (Sun on Nadir, Mercury conjunct Jupiter, Libra ascendent).

Anyone else fed up with Saturn oppositie Uranus yet?

So what are the major aspects for 2009?

Here are the dates and times (Australian – AEST)

• Saturn retrogrades at 21 Virgo 46 on January 1st at 4:07am
• Jupiter enters Aquarius on January 6th at 1:40am
• New Moon eclipse at 6 Aquarius 29 on January 26th at 6:69pm – Australia Day!
• Saturn (retro) at 20 Virgo opposes Uranus at 20 Pisces on February 6th at around 8pm
• Full Moon eclipse at 20 Leo on February 10th at 12:30am
• Pluto retrogrades at 3 Capricorn on April 6 3:30am
• Saturrn goes direct at 14 Virgo May 17 at 12:06pm
• Jupiter/Neptune conjunction at 26 Aquarius on May 28 at 6:06am
• Neptune goes retrograde the next day, 26 Aquarius May 29th at 2:29pm
• Jupiter retrogrades 27 Aquarius June 16 at 6:50pm
• Uranus retrogrades at 26 Pisces on Jul 1 at 6:35pm

Then we enter the second eclipse season

• Full Moon eclipse at 16 Capricorn July 7th at 7:40pm
• Jupiter conjuncts Neptune again (both retrograde) at 26 Aquarius on July 10th at 7:12pm
• New Moon eclipse at 29 Cancer on July 22 at 12:35pm
• Full Moon eclipse at 13 aquarius on August 6th at 10:39pm
• Pluto direct again at the beginning of Capricorn ( 00Cap39) Sep 12 at 2:56pm
• Saturn (24 Virgo 42) opposes Uranus (24 Pisces 42) on September 15th at 10:51 pm
• Jupiter direct at 17 Aquarius on Oct 13 at 2:34pm
• Saturn enter Libra on October 30 at 3 AM
• Neptune goes direct at 23 Aquarius on November 5 at 4:09 AM
• Saturn (1 Libra 42)  squares Pluto (1 Cap 42) on November 16th at 1:19am
• Uranus direct at 22 Pisces on December 2 at 6:27am
• Jupiter and Neptune conjunct at 24 Aquarius 17 just bfore Christmas, December 21 at 6:50pm

There we have it, eclipses for 2009, a couple of major aspects this year and the retrogrades and direct motions of the outer planets.

In particular watch for Jupiter in Aquarius expanding dreams, fantasies and good old fashioned self deception all year – Jupiter conjuncts Neptune THREE times.  Saturn opposes Uranus twice – that’s a lot of Saturnian hard work thrown away on a Uranian whim.  I get the feeling that Pluto is on Uranus side  -wants to upset the status quo – and squares up to Saturn to show whose boss. Might be best to put structure on the backburner. The Saturn vs Uranus/Pluto combines with airyfairy Jupiter/Neptune means you can’t be sure what you are building is what is good for you anyway.  Don’t believe me? Check how Jupiter and Neptune meet in May and immediately start to head backwards.