Amelia’s Blog

Mars and Mercury

“As the overlapping rhythms of Mercury and Mars blend past, present, and future, we are reminded that life is anything but linear, and that progress isn’t always a straight line with a discernible beginning, middle, and end. For the time traveler, the current warp is simply another opportunity to witness the Great Mystery as it unfolds.” Ralphee Finn

One time a friend phoned me after a harrowing experience. She had been late getting started one morning and a busy morning it was. She had to stop and get gas on the way to dropping her daughter off at school and then she had to get to work. On the way to the gas station though she realized she had forgotten her wallet and had to turn around and return home to retrieve it.
As she approached the gas station on her way back she was surprised to see the flashing lights of police cars and law enforcement officials surrounding the scene with yellow tape. There had been an attempted robbery, shooting and fatality.
“If I hadn’t forgotten my wallet I would have been at the gas station at the time of the shooting,” she said.
I tell this tale not because of the violent component but because of the element of timing. For the next few weeks as Mercury slows down, stations and starts to move direct (March 1) and Mars slows down to station retrograde ( March 4) things are likely to go awry with planning and execution. It is wise to anticipate complications, delays and snafus.
The meaning of events is often best understood from the vantage point of the future rather than at the time of occurrence.

Ralphee Finn quote from her column Aquarium Age on Star IQ

The Sun & Mercury

“Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.” T.S Eliot

The Sun is now in Pisces and Mercury is square Saturn. Under the influences it bodes well to revisit any views that may have become rigid or crystallized over time and imbue them with imagination and possibility.

quote from T.S. Eliot’s Burnt Norton

Mystic Rectangle and Full Moon

“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree I would spend six sharpening my ax.”Abraham Lincoln

The Moon waxes full on Valentine’s Day, February 14 at 6:53 PM EST at 26 Leo. One of the Sabian symbols associated with this Moon is, “A tree felled and sawed to ensure a supply of wood for the winter.” This Full Moon is a good time to consider your personal evolutionary process and what part planning, personal autonomy and self definition play in the process.

With Mercury now in Aquarius it is wise to consider how you use the power of your conscious mind. Does your thought process support you in your movement forward? Or do you get derailed in doubt, self criticism and confusion?

There is a Mystic Rectangle at the time of this new Moon – meaning there is support and assistance from higher forces for moving things forward. It is best to keep intentions clear and to commit to using your mind with clarity and focus.

All quotes from Lynda Hill’s 360 Degrees of Wisdom

Dreams and Mercury in Pisces

“Redeem
The time. Redeem
The unread vision in the higher dream
While jeweled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse.” TS Eliot

One of my favorite Sabian symbols is “An Old Sea Captain in a Rocking Chair on the Porch Of His Cottage ….. An Ancient Pottery Bowl Filled With Fresh Violets Sits on a Table Near Him. ” I like the feeling this symbol evokes – an older person with time to sit on the porch overlooking the sea , perhaps, with the time to review his life from a place of wisdom – wisdom which is both ancient – symbolized by the pottery bowl – and renewed – as with the fresh violets.
Throughout the month it bodes well to revisit dreams from a place of increased wisdom. Like the sea captain it is likely that we can – with time – view dreams from a place of wise pragmatism – that can reveal how to build a solid structures for them through patience and perseverance.
Look also for information about how to better handle obstacles as they appear in the process – how to inspire and support dreams through life’s challenging moments.

Sabian symbol quote from Mac Edmund Jones, Ts Eliot quote from Ash Wednesday

Saturn squares the Sun

“The process of transforming fear isn’t pretending that we have no fear, but embracing fear as a tool for learning and growth.” Kay Gilley

Saturn is squaring the Sun now and (through the 18th) and Mercury stationed retrograde yesterday in Pisces. These planetary alignments bode well for considering or reconsidering how our actions in the world support our spiritual and creative aspirations. It is also a good time to consider what role doubt and fear play when encountering obstacles and to consider striking a better balance if necessary.

Quote from the book The Alchemy of Fear by Kay Gilley from Divine Sparks by Karen Speerstra

Neptune, Mercury and On Golden Pond

This weekend I was up at Lake Winnipesaukee. There is an old mural on the side of a pizza parlor there that I have wanted to photograph for awhile. Yesterday I finally managed to have my camera with me when I stopped for lunch.

The mural is a painting of a man and a golden retriever sitting on a dock. The man is fishing and an old wooden motor boat is tied up near him. The painting is faded and weather beaten but captures a slice of life in that small lakeside town where scenes from On Golden Pond were filmed.

I ordered my lunch and went out to shoot the photo of the mural but my camera made a weird beeping noise and would not work. I tried several different options for correcting it to no avail. I figured I would take it to my friend at the camera shop the next day and ask him to deal with it.

When I got up this morning and was preparing to go out and gathering my things together, I thought I should put the camera in the car so I didn’t forget it. But then it occurred to me that maybe I should try to replace the batteries and see if that would make it work.

But I couldn’t find the camera. I looked and looked – having downloaded photos from it the night before
I knew it was in the house. But it was nowhere to be found.

I have a good friend who has a strong Neptune in her chart. She uses the term, “like being lost in a fog bank off the coast,” to describe the kind of confusion that can occur with mundane affairs when Neptune is a strong influence as it is now.

But Neptune also connects us to the eternal and the divine.

This little story about my camera is a thumbnail sketch of the kind of the kind of hazy territory we are in with Mercury in Pisces preparing to station retrograde near Neptune. It is a good time to say, ”whatever” to malfunctioning equipment and general confusion – to take events like this in stride – with faith in the future that things will get straightened out eventually. Neptune also rules faith.

Mercury Retrograde in Pisces

“Proceed from the dream outward.” Carl Jung

Mercury stations retrograde February 6 at 3 degrees of Pisces. Mercury in Pisces is a dreamy, intuitive placement and it is stationing in close proximity to Neptune the planet of dreams, of imagination and spirituality.

Dreams are the seeds of manifestation and it is a good time to dream and spend time with poetry, films and books that inspire and elevate the mind.

It is also a good time to consider what role inspiration and imagination play in your thought process. Can you can strike a better balance?

As Dr. King reminded us in his “I Have a Dream” speech, dreams can be the origin and motivating power behind significant action and accomplishment.

Time can feel distorted when Neptune’s influence is strong. Double check the pragmatism of any decisions that need to be made this month.
Also make an effort to be very clear in communication as confusion can more easily occur.

Mercury will enter Aquarius midmonth and then station direct the first of March.

Venus Stations Direct

“The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” Eden Phillpots

Venus stations direct on Friday 1/31 following the New Moon at 10 degrees of Aquarius on Thursday 1/30. One of the Sabian symbols of this New Moon is, “During a silent hour a person receives new inspiration which may change his life.” It bodes well to provide some quiet time to take an inspired approach to new aspirations – particularly those related to self esteem, relationships, finances and ways to bring more pleasure, harmony and joy into your life. Venus has been retrograde since Dec 21 and will station conjunct Pluto and opposite Jupiter- supporting efforts to transform underlying belief systems which inhibit growth and making wisdom and hope more accessible.

Quotes from Lynda Hill’s 360 Degrees of Wisdom

Amelia Shea specializes in issues of relationship, family and children as well as life path and career. She can be reached at 603 654 1043, amelia.shea@comcast.net, www.ameliashea.com. Her readings start at $30.

Venus and Vulnerability

In mythology it was Venus – the goddess of love – who was often responsible for creating enemies and starting the occasional war. Venus governs diplomacy as well and is a reminder of the need to reconcile warring or polarized factions – both inner and outer – diplomatically, enabling eventual progress and evolution.
As Venus prepares to station direct a good thing to consider is the process of how we come back from difficult relationship events and traumas and what degree of vulnerability we are capable of or would like to be capable of as a result. It is a good moment in time to reassess this and work on changing it if needed.
David Whyte in his book, The Heart Aroused, Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, writes eloquently about this process.
“Everything we do is determined by the hopes and fears we bring to a situation…
As the enemy that has frightened us melts away, so does the requisite need for the weapon of attack, simply because human nature being what it is, the inner arms procurement industry eventually becomes a law unto itself, integrating itself within the personality as a defense against life itself, like an enormous inner Pentagon, institutionalized, literally into the life of the body politic.
Blake wrote of his guardian angel attempting to visit him while Blake fought him off, mistaking him for just another aspect of that wider world he had already turned into an enemy.
‘So he took his wings and fled:
Then the morn blushed rosy red:
I dried my tears and armed my fears
With ten thousand shields and spears.’”
The ability to remain vulnerable or vulnerably wise is a matter of appropriate boundaries – a Saturn affair – as well.

More on the Full Moon

“Don’t waste our time on trifles. You are dealing with that immensity out there.” Carlos Casteneda

On my computer’s astrology program there is a link to what is called the “Real Time Clock” which shows the evolving chart of the moment. I am often amused when I see that link and wonder, “which clock is the real time clock?” as there are so many ways of viewing time.

Tonight’s powerful Full Moon on the Cancer/Capricorn axis echoes the eclipses in the same signs which occurred between July 7, 2009 through July 1, 2011. Eclipses are evolutionary in nature and it would be wise if this particular time frame was significant to you to revisit your own evolutionary process from then to now.

Information about this process may be more readily available now with Pluto’s transit through Capricorn and can emerge through the dream life, spiritual work and intuitions as well as through transformative events in your everyday life.

Chiron’s influence suggests that evolution may occur through the discovery of missing pieces which leads to healing fragmentation.

Castaneda quote from Divine Sparks by Karen Speestra.All times mentioned are EST