EXAMPLE OF A VERY IMPORTANT SOLAR RETURN

In this year chart, Mercury, the ruler of the natal Ascendant and ruler of the Solar Return Ascendant transits in the VIIIth house of transformation, conjunct the Sun. The ruler of the ascendant represents the ego personality, the way we project ourselves in the world and the sign of the ascendant shows how others perceive us. The conjunction to the Sun makes Mercury even stronger, becoming the most dominant planet in the chart. In turn, the ruler of the Ascendant conjunct any planet makes this planet part of the dominant of the chart. In this case, the Sun is the second dominant planet in this chart.

This “technical” explanation is necessary to understand the strength of the ego personality. The fact that this conjunction falls in the sign of Capricorn makes it even more assertive. In the IVth house of the chart, it indicates a very strong family influence in the development of that personality.

In the Solar return of 2014, this Mercury/Sun Conjunction falls in the VIIIth house of transformation, and the Sun conjunct Pluto emphasizes the transformation aspect, literally, the total surrender of the ego personality, a rebirth into a completely different individual with a unified personality, the union of the    Ego and the Soul.  The “heart”(Sun)  will rule over the “brains” (Mercury), made it possible by the transformative power of Pluto and the VIIIth house., as well as the squares to Uranus. This is the “breakthrough” and it can happen during the Grand Cardinal Cross of April 15 through 29, or any time thereafter, since the influence of this Grand Cardinal Cross will cover most of the year 2014 and even beyond.

The Unified personality finds its new strength in two beautiful sextiles to Neptune in Pisces in the Xth house of the Solar Return. Neptune gives its wealth of intuition and empathy and allows a different approach to Healing and helping people, with noticeable expansion of activities (Neptune in the Xth House of Career).

In this Solar Chart, the Moon falls in the sign of Libra and is conjunct Mars in the Vth house of love. The first part of the year is difficult in this area, the presence of Mars triggering hot tempers and arguments. However, the transformation occurring as a result of the Grand Cardinal Cross between April 15 and April 29 will change the energy and decisions will be made to change the dynamics of the relationships to the satisfaction of the parties concerned.

A Trine between Jupiter in Cancer in the IInd house of money and Saturn in Scorpio, in the VIth house of work indicates increase and expansion in earnings through work and new professional responsibilities.

The IVth house of the Solar Return in the XIth natal indicates  projects regarding living quarters, a move into a new house. This could happen in August, when the Sun transits the sign of Leo in the XIth house.

In conclusion, the pivotal fact of the year is the “breakthrough” and the consecutive “rebirth” which makes everything else fall into place both on personal and  professional levels, as if a door suddenly opened, revealing opportunities and abundance.  The Grand Cardinal Cross will certainly contribute to this awakening.

Lydia Bisanti
Astrologer

MARCH EQUINOX

http://www.kyrona.com/march-equinox/

WHAT is Equinox?

Equinox means ” equal ” days and nights.

The March Equinox is celebrated when the Sun moves into Aries and crosses the Vernal Equinox point in the sky.  At this time there is usually a 2 day window during whichthe Equinox Sun makes a direct path over the Equator, creating the equal balance of Day and Night in both hemispheres of the Earth.

Equinoxes are opposite on either side of the equator, so the March equinox is:-

·         the Autumnal (fall) Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere (here people are preparing for their rebirths, as they awaken from their winter sleep) and,

·         the Spring (vernal) Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere (here people are bringing their energy inward, in preparation for the rest ahead).

During Equinox days the radiant energy from the Sun pours directly over the equator,lessening the usual strength of the Earth’s magnetic field.

The magnetic field of the Earth moves clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counter clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere creating a spiralling magnetic effect.  And twice each year, during the Equinox window, as the Sun passes over the equator the magnetic energies of both hemispheres decrease and are measured at their lowest potency!

This means for about 24 hours before and after the exact Equinox point, inter-dimensional doorways are flung open!  With these doorways open it is much easier to connect with other dimensions of reality, in order to tap into and energise otherworldly wisdom & magic that can holistically benefit the individual and our Earth.  This is one of the important reasons Equinox is such a powerful gateway for ascension into higher levels of consciousness.  

Another reason the energy of Equinox provides us with a peak ascension moment,  is that at this doorway moment we experience a time of unity, equal day & night, a merging of feminine & masculine energy, a merging of Heaven and Earth, Spirit and Matter,  an opportunity to unify duality within our selves and our society.

FULL MOON IN CANCER, JANUARY 15, 2014

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Personal Peace, Collective Awakening

by

Sarah Varcas

This Full Moon could go either way. We may find ourselves mysteriously free of the troubles which have burdened us in recent weeks or increasingly weighed down by them. We may finally see their insignificance in the context of the vast universe or be unable to see around them in the context of our personal lives. This is a Moon of extremes and therefore of extreme possibilities. It could bring liberation from a viewpoint that has kept us imprisoned – mentally, emotionally, spiritually – or it could strengthen those prison bars with a dose of so-called ‘reality’ which tells us that nothing ever changes, life is a struggle and the sooner it’s over the better. It reminds us that personal experience and the collective energetic field are forever entwined and to step out of the former we can embrace the latter with reverence and awe. This Full Moon provides us an opportunity to shift perspective and consequently see things in a very different light.

Aligned with Black Moon Lilith, this Moon speaks of the need to honour our instincts whilst recognising that to follow them takes time and planning. If we have spent years building a life that meets egoic demands for status, security and acceptance but which has little to do with what lies at our core, merely deciding to change is not enough to make the past go away and the future manifest here-and-now in a totally different form. We need to exercise patience and collaborate with the new as it births itself. Many, these days, are feeling the stifling effects of previous decisions made from a place of unconsciousness and adaptation. Many live lives which do not feed the spirit or offer fulfilment but which instead promise an increasingly stressed existence that fails to honour the inter-connectedness of all things and its attendant responsibilities and freedoms.

In a world where the distribution of wealth is shockingly skewed and one part of the globe discards mountains of waste food whilst another starves, balance is needed and a deeper resonance with the lives of others must be nurtured. To do this we must begin with ourselves and a resonance with our own spirit rather than the egoic demands that tend to call the shots. Once we can recognise when our own lives are out of balance and have the courage to act as necessary to re-establish it, we can better resonate with the wider collective field that isn’t all about us as individual identities fulfilling our dreams and getting whatever we want but which, instead, forms the one life of which we all share a small part. And the better we can resonate with that, the better we can relinquish egoic pursuit of personal gain in favour of a compassionate connection with the myriad life forms on this planet.

There exists an unimaginable amount of suffering in the world: wars and conflicts continue. Famine and drought, natural disasters and plain old poverty mar countless lives. We cannot turn a blind eye to this and judge ‘spiritual progress’ only by how we’re feeling, how fulfilled weare, whether we are living the life of our dreams. We must move deeper to see into the very nature of existence and truly honour the collective unity which circulates through its energetic arteries. The fruits of awakening ripen within the collective field, shared by all things throughout the universe and beyond. It is this fact to which this Full Moon points. The more we can put ego desires in their place, acquaint ourselves with the nature of a healthy ego and call ourselves on its unhealthy expression in our own lives, the better able we are to facilitate the birth of the Aquarian Age which seeks to bring about equality and justice for all: a global community which does not tolerate famine as a by-product of greed, the atrocities of war as an acceptable form of conflict resolution or the destruction of our planet as an unavoidable consequence of ‘economic progress’.

There is yet a long way to go. That millions on this planet spend their day struggling to feed themselves and their families inevitably impacts upon the collective potential for awakening into a new age, and those of us in a position to embrace a path of awakening cannot simply turn a blind eye to the struggles of others and proclaim unmitigated progress in this respect. The biggest and most liberating change in our own life can indeed be breathtaking on a personal level, but collectively it is a drop in the ocean and we must not allow it to blind us to the plight of those who struggle merely to survive another day.

This Full Moon may pre-occupy us with our own challenges to the exclusion of all else, but it also contains within it the potential to elevate us to view the bigger picture. We have the chance now to recognise the enormity of the task ahead and the importance of every person who possibly can, committing to walking it in a state of reverence and humility, recognising that ultimately it isn’t about you and me and our own little lives, but about the life of this planet and beyond, realigning it into a state of balance and peace which can allow all of life to flourish and grow.

Enjoy the Full Moon everyone.

Sarah Varcas

NEW MOON IN CAPRICORN - JANUARY 1, 2014

http://spiritlibrary.com/sarah-varcas/1st-january-2014-new-moon-in-capricorn-messages-for-2014

1st January 2014: New Moon in Capricorn – Messages for 2014

a message from Sarah Varcas

Tuesday, 31 December, 2013  at Wales, UK  (posted 1 January, 2014)

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Spiritually Naked for the New Year

A New Moon conjunct Pluto and Mercury to start the New Year. What a powerful symbol of what’s to come in 2014! The chart for this Moon is full of energy, pulling in many different directions. Do we strike out to make our mark or withdraw to the safe familiarity of where we already know acceptance? Do we stand our ground and do what’s best for us or compromise and work with others to bring about a win/win scenario?

Do we lean on those around us for support or rely only on ourselves to get us through? There are a lot of ‘either/ors’ in this chart, telling us we stand at the threshold of a year in which we may have to make some very significant choices and then stand by them no matter what. 2014 is a year of decision like no other.

Pluto in Capricorn opposes the Black Sun throughout much of it, reminding us that there are two fundamental ways to use our power – for creation or destruction – but in order to grasp the significance of this decision we must be prepared to find the place where destruction becomes creativity and vice versa. We may learn, this year, that creation is not always best if what we create no longer serves the greater good, and destruction is not always bad when what we destroy blocks the light.

This coming year is one of paradox and contradiction. There are deep truths to be revealed, about the nature of this path we’re on and our relationship with this beautiful planet upon which we walk it. The paradigm of extremes is expanding exponentially, in our lives, our emotions, our relationships, in the ecosystems around us, the weather, political and economic systems around the world. Polarisation is increasingly occurring and this very dynamic of opposites, each reflecting the other, demands that we recognise our contribution to it, locate it within ourselves and assess how best to move forward from here.

When we’ve spent many years on a path of spiritual enquiry it can be easy to lapse into the notion that it should be getting ‘easier’ by now, and in some ways it may well be. But this coming year is one in which we will all be shown the next level of work to be done to bring about a fundamental shift in the collective consciousness on this planet.

It entails looking into the shadows and recognising there is still much we have yet to address. For if we continue to seek measurable rewards from our spiritual practice. If we still have ‘shoulds’ and ‘oughts’ about what makes someone ‘spiritual’. If we still pretend we’re not a certain way, don’t feel a certain feeling, when, deep down, we know we do, there is still much work to be done.

This New Moon, in one sweep of her mighty hand, brushes away our stories about who we are, how special, spiritual, wise or awake, how we have come from here or there, to do this or that to save the world. She tells us none of this matters if we don’t do the dirty work and clear out the corners of our psyche which feed off those very stories and tells us we’re special. When we look into the darkness of the Black Sun, a choice point in the timeline of the cosmos through which we can pass into light or deeper shadow, we must do so naked, in order to know ourselves without any story or idea, any assigned value or worth.

Just you and me as a force of nature, looking into the very vortex of creation or destruction from which we originally came. 2014 is the year of dropping our stories and identities and getting to grips with the fact that this planet needs us now like never before. If we are to rise to that call we may have to face the deepest challenge of letting go all we have believed ourselves to be in order to become what we essentially are: pure energy, no more no less, flowing through the cosmos, around this planet, through time and space.

So at this powerful New Moon which begins the New Year, we have an opportunity to sit and reflect upon the identities we have chosen and the stories we tell. They have had their place and played their part, but right now it may be time to let them go in favour of a nakedness the likes of which we have never experienced, which renders us merely a tiny speck in this vast cosmos, but one full of power to bring about change.

Sarah Varcas

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

May this year 2014 be the best so far

for all on Planet Earth!

Lydia

NEW MOON IN SAGITTARIUS - DEC. 2, 2013 - 7:23 PM EST

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Lighting the Lamp of Hope

By

Sarah Varcas

 
This New Moon in Sagittarius (occurring at 00:23 GMT on 3^rd) provides a perfect opportunity to embrace the wisdom gifted to us at the weekend. Whatever response we received to our questions the Moon invites us now to have faith in them, no matter how unlikely or outlandish they may feel, because in due course, as these truths begin to live out their destiny, we too will find ourselves embracing our own. Not destiny in terms of a pre-determined path ahead, unavoidable no matter what, but destiny in terms of the power we each have to influence the global awakening to the realities of our age and the challenges and blessings ahead.

This Moon lights the lamp of hope within her own darkness. In doing so she reveals that the greatest wisdom can be found in the shadows where we may fear to look, shadows cast all the darker for the illumination she provides. We cannot know the light without knowing darkness, she reminds us, and in knowing darkness we come to know it as just another aspect of light: that aspect which has absorbed everything, every resonance, frequency and vibration, rejecting nothing, providing a home for all. Darkness, this New Moon reminds us, is where we come from, as much as from the light. It is not to be feared but embraced, known and loved as another face of the very essence of all that is.

The comfort of darkness comes to us with this Moon: the safety of being hidden, the security of life in the womb, the peace of restful sleep. She reminds us that the light and dark of our calendar day reflects the very nature of the universe. We cannot have one without the other and both contain their opposite. In unifying these opposites we come to truly appreciate the blessings of both and the gifts of wisdom contained within their embrace. Today the Moon reaches out to us in reassurance, with the message there is nothing to fear if we will only look into the shadows and discover the light they contain; light born of wisdom, courage, fearlessness, resolve and commitment.

This is an inspiring Moon. She has such faith in us and urges us to have that same faith in ourselves, for she sees our potential and what can be achieved once we turn to face our challenges and apply our insight to the winding and rocky path ahead. As we do this, she assures us, answers will come and strength will be found to endure and enjoy, to embrace and overcome. At the time of this New Moon the cosmos is replete with hope and inspiration, faith and forbearance. If we need to refill on these qualities of being this is a great time to do it. Stand beneath the blackened skies knowing that the darkness itself makes known to us the starlight from whence we came. Without it we would be without a guide, lost in a vast universe beyond our comprehension. Instead the darkness gives it form and frames the light which guides us ever onward.

Happy New Moon everyone.

Sarah Varcas

FULL MOON IN PISCES - SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

http://astro-awakenings.co.uk/blog

Reaping the Inner Harvest

by

Sarah Varcas

Today’s Full Moon occurs at 11:14 a.m. GMT in the 27^th degree of Pisces. The Sabian Symbol for this degree is ‘A Harvest Moon’, (nicely appropriate for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere!) and this Moon shines her light upon the harvest we can now reap. This is not, however, a material harvest of conditions created around us. Instead she invites us to consider an inner harvest and where we now find ourselves on our path of spiritual enquiry.
It can be a rare thing, to contemplate ourselves aside from the conditions of our lives. We can easily feel an unnerving dissolution of self when we remove the external trappings of our identity and turn within to see what’s left in their absence. But today the Full Moon bids us to do exactly that: to turn towards and embrace the truth of who we are aside from anything created around us. To embrace what is left when our identification with things, circumstances, experiences, wealth (or lack of it), role (or absence of it), is released. She encourages us to let even our name go, to move beyond the ‘I’ ness of existence, in order to experience the essence which energises us from the heart.
This essence has been given many names over the years. It has been conceptualised and theorised, denied and held up as a carrot on the stick of the spiritual path. Some believe it to exist, others cannot conceive that it possibly could. We each have our own relationship with our very core and today we can encounter it in its rawest and most pure form by turning away from everything that divides us from others, that identifies us with individuality and selfhood, and turning towards the pure energy flowing through us from the earth, from the cosmos, from everything around us and back out again into the world at large. This energy forms the harvest of which the Moon speaks today.
An encounter with this pure force within is not always a pleasant experience! Many have spoken of the trauma of awakening to the truth of who we are, of the destruction that doing so can wreak in our everyday lives where truth can no longer exist alongside the everyday deceptions of mundane consciousness. This is not a path for the fainthearted, and it is fair to say that the transformations occurring in our world now as we enter the Aquarian Age are not all about sweetness and light! But a willingness to experience the essence of who we are, beyond identity and ego, is essential to the process of awakening. Whatever we use to bolster our sense of self must also be placed willingly upon the sacrificial altar in case it, too, requires release at some point.
This Full Moon in the final sign of the zodiac reminds us that the true harvest of our path is experienced within, in the very core of our being, not externally in the trappings of our lives. If we fail to connect with our essence we may miss the harvest, forever seeking it outside of ourselves, which can be a more seductive and absorbing path, but also a distracting and deceptive one. As with all Full Moons, something comes to fruition at this point, but today the harvest is within us awaiting our inward gaze in order to be known.
Wishing Full Moon Blessings for everyone.
Sarah Varcas