Last night’s eclipse was spectacular! We had a thick blanket of clouds here, but the clouds parted long enough to expose the eclipsed Moon through a smoky light. I wish I had decent nighttime photography equipment. Of course it kept me up all night – recently I find I don’t sleep during the Full Moon and this eclipse had a power all its own.

You may remember from my article here a few days ago that the eclipse would conjunct both John McCain and Mike Huckabee’s Virgo Suns. I didn’t make much of it because McCain is undergoing a transit of Saturn to his Sun of which this is the second phase, and it has only strengthened his candidacy. But eclipses can bring about sudden changes and as one reader wrote, the “unmasking” and revelation of Truth.

John McCain wants to be president so badly that after Karl Rove spread whisper campaigns that his adopted Bangladeshi daughter was an illegitimate black child, and that his wife Cindy was addicted to prescription drugs, he still sold his soul to President Bush in exchange for his support (see photo).

Last night’s Keith Olbermann program featured a story on new revelations to come out of the New York Times today that John McCain had had an “improper” relationship with a lobbyist during the 2000 election. Olbermann is a great gossip, but his reporting of this story focused on the tittilation of the possible relationship. Reading the entire NYT article reveals other long-forgotten aspects of John McCain that are in my view more damaging:

• In 1989 the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association collapsed, and its CEO, Charles Keating, turned out to be a major contributor to the campaigns of five senators who asked the chief investigator to back off. One of those senators was John McCain. He is the only one of the Keating Five still in the Senate.
• Subsequent to this debacle McCain reinvented himself as a reformer of campaign financing with the help of Senator Russ Feingold. However, during the 2000 campaign he actively solicited campaign contributions from lobbyists.
• The Reform Institute that he founded to reform campaign financing collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in unlimited donations from companies that had business before the Senate commerce committee of which he was a member.

Regarding McCain’s possible relationship with the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, the New York Times writes:

A champion of deregulation, Mr. McCain wrote letters in 1998 and 1999 to the Federal Communications Commission urging it to uphold marketing agreements allowing a television company to control two stations in the same city, a crucial issue for Glencairn Ltd., one of Ms. Iseman’s clients. He introduced a bill to create tax incentives for minority ownership of stations; Ms. Iseman represented several businesses seeking such a program. And he twice tried to advance legislation that would permit a company to control television stations in overlapping markets, an important issue for Paxson.

In late 1999, Ms. Iseman asked Mr. McCain’s staff to send a letter to the commission to help Paxson, now Ion Media Networks, on another matter. Mr. Paxson was impatient for F.C.C. approval of a television deal, and Ms. Iseman acknowledged in an e-mail message to The Times that she had sent to Mr. McCain’s staff information for drafting a letter urging a swift decision.

Mr. McCain complied. He sent two letters to the commission, drawing a rare rebuke for interference from its chairman. In an embarrassing turn for the campaign, news reports invoked the Keating scandal, once again raising questions about intervening for a patron.

Mr. McCain’s aides released all of his letters to the F.C.C. to dispel accusations of favoritism, and aides said the campaign had properly accounted for four trips on the Paxson plane. But the campaign did not report the flight with Ms. Iseman [after a private dinner with Ms. Iseman's clients after which McCain flew home with Ms. Iseman on Paxson's plane.] Mr. McCain’s advisers say he was not required to disclose the flight, but ethics lawyers dispute that.

The timing of the release of this information, which evidently the Times had been holding for months, on the night of the eclipse is pretty interesting. The New York Times is not prone to publishing tabloid speculation, and commentators last night all said that it was likely that there was even more to the report that wasn’t published. The eclipse also conjuncts the Sun in Mike Huckabee’s chart, and wouldn’t it be an incredible thing if McCain’s campaign imploded, forcing his withdrawal, leaving only Huckabee in the presidential race! McCain has an interesting combination of planetary cycles going on right now. Saturn is conjunct his Sun, which often brings tests and challenges but also can give us the strength to withstand them and become even stronger. But transiting Uranus is conjunct Saturn in his chart, breaking up patterns and structures and forcing change, and transiting Pluto is square the Nodes of the Moon, a transit which typically denotes a course correction.

I’ll report more as more news becomes available.

We’ve been talking in these pages about the generational impacts of this year’s presidential election, including the early boomers (Pluto in Leo), late boomers and generation X (Pluto in Virgo) and generation Y (Pluto in Libra). Each group as a generation carries the impulses of the sign that Pluto was in. But there is another generation, commonly considered to have born since 1982, that many writers are calling the Millennial generation, presumably because they came of age at the turn of the 21st century.

Pluto in Scorpio, the sign which it rules, brought with it the scourge of AIDS (death by sex, both Plutonian/Scorpionic trademarks) along with a flood of repressed memories (Pluto digs out debris from the subconscious) about sexual abuse. Pluto and its sign Scorpio rule over the domain of death, destruction, regeneration and sexuality and the elimination of waste products from our lives that no longer serve us. The Pluto in Scorpio generation, now termed the “Millenials,” are more prone to suicide than any generation before them. They experience the traumatic side of life more deeply – as one Millennial says:

We’re realizing early on that “everything we want” – marriage, family, a good job, comfortable finances – doesn’t come with a warranty. We watched our parents get divorced and laid off, so we’re not exactly starry-eyed about adult commitments, and don’t see many good reasons to stick around.

Plus, while we readily indulge in around-the-world adventures, we’re inundated by images of war, corrupt politics, a sick Earth, and distant family and friends. Frequent travel and jobs abroad are popular among my friends – always on to the newer and wilder thing – but the adventures are often accompanied by loneliness, disconnect, and disappointment, which often worsens upon returning.

Where the Pluto in Virgo generation tends towards cynicism and the Pluto in Libra generation leans towards pursuit of pleasures, the Pluto in Scorpio generation is seen by political watchers as being more highly engaged, more concerned about economic inequalities and the reality of war. This generation has leaned more heavily Democratic (48%) than any other generation in recent history.

It’s interesting to me that the writers (such as in the article cited above) who combine the generation born in the 1970s with the Pluto in Scorpio generation from 1982-1995 see more of a trend towards a desire for equality which is clearly the influence of Pluto in Libra from the late 1970s and 1980-1981. In any event, the Millennials are disappointed with the system of government they have inherited, and ready to change it. One interviewee in the above article said:

Through these conversations, we learned that these millennial youth not only wanted change, but they also expected to be agents of change in their own way and time. Kristen, a rural high school senior described her generation as the “actual laborers,” meaning that her generation would put ideas into action. She added: “I think other generations think about the problems that lay in the future. Our generation acts upon those problems and does things to fix or prevent them.” Matthew, also a rural high school senior, offered a similar perspective. He believed that millennials would, “grow up and see the problems” and then “try to fix them. We won’t ignore things.” And finally, George, a suburban junior, summarized many of his peers’ views about their generation when he asserted, “I can’t see why we wouldn’t be the generation that changes things. I agree with everyone that we will want to change things and make it more intimate–more of what people want.”

Pluto and Scorpio are highly tuned in to the vagaries of political power, and whereas their more self-oriented baby boomer parents wanted power to control their own lives, the Pluto in Scorpio generation is likely to discover ways to wield political power for the sake of increasing their own base of power. They’re young now so it could be a while before we see it happen, but this could be the most politically astute generation for quite some time.

Two weeks ago we looked at how the solar eclipse on February 6th would affect the remaining presidential candidates; today let’s take a look at what effect tomorrow’s lunar eclipse could have.

Tomorrow’s eclipse shows the Sun and Moon opposed at 2 degrees Pisces/Virgo, with the Moon conjunct Saturn, trined by Pluto which is very close to a tight aspect to a difficult opposition of Pluto to Chiron in the chart of Barack Obama. Obama is in the middle of a challenging cycle of transiting Saturn conjunct Pluto in his chart which began back in October. As I mentioned in the last article, this is a cycle that can bring great tests but also an increase in stability and power, and it seems to be having the latter effect for Obama. This eclipse will bring a challenge for him, and he could lose several states during this period. However, the eclipse also makes a sextile to Venus in Obama’s chart and it is likely that he will forge several new alliances during this period.

Hillary Clinton was hard hit by the February 6 eclipse, but tomorrow’s eclipse will have little effect on her other than a square of the lunation (Sun and Moon opposition) to her natal Jupiter. Jupiter shows our confidence level and how strong our sense of our own abilities is, and Jupiter squares can inflate our sense of our own importance and make it difficult to see reality. This is a minor problem overall, and Mrs. Clinton has survived some very ugly planetary cycles over the past few years. She’s not going anywhere any time soon.

I’m still getting over the fact that John McCain is still in the race. But like Clinton, he is a survivor and the transit of Saturn over his Sun which began last October and November has only increased his strength in the primaries. The eclipse, since it conjuncts Saturn in the sky, adds a revelatory component to this cycle for McCain. I suspect we will see a little more of the “real” John McCain over the next two weeks as the unmasking process continues.

I never did a profile for Mike Huckabee, but with his Sun at 0 degrees Virgo, the eclipse aspects his Sun directly. This may be the time that he decides to exit the race, since he has no chance outside of a miracle to attain the nomination.

Mark your calendars! Mercury turns direct tonight and will begin to pick up speed next week to help things move forward a bit. At that point only Saturn will be in retrograde motion and it’s a rarity for there to be just one planet retrograde.

The eclipse on Wednesday night is a total Lunar eclipse at 1 degree Virgo.

See the NASA site for visibility maps and tables and other useful information.

Lunar eclipses occur at the Full Moon when the Moon and the Sun are in opposition, and when the lunation conjuncts the lunar nodes. Because the lunar nodes signify the evolutionary journey of the soul, the astrological symbolism of an eclipse is very significant. These are times of reckoning; of course correction.

The eclipse finds the Moon at nearly 2 degrees Virgo and conjunct Saturn. The Sun will have just left the Aquarius stellium where revolutionary ideas have captivated the attention of the masses; now the Sun enters Pisces where it is more sensitive and with a deeper orientation. The Moon eclipsed in Virgo demonstrates a new focus on the mundane details of life, and the conjunction to Saturn which is also in Virgo enhances this.

This revolutionary fervor has swept the globe ever since the solar eclipse of February 6th – with the Obamalypse in the US (™ JM) and the revolutions in Kosovo and Kenya, and there has been an explosive energy in the air. With the conjunction of the eclipse to Saturn and the trine of Saturn and the Moon to Pluto, we are likely to find a push for more stability and a more serious approach to the matters at hand.

Jupiter, the planet of possibilities, is heading towards a sextile with Uranus over the next month and the process of change and breaking away from the status quo is likely to continue. Still, the presence of Saturn so tightly aspecting the lunation of the Full Moon suggests that challenges are likely as Saturn exerts its role as Celestial Taskmaster.

Art by the marvelous Willow Arlenea

Robert Wilkinson has a great article today on planetary events for the end of February:

A quick look at the patterns occurring now in late February shows a distinct quickening, with more and more of the old peeling away or falling back in our rear view mirror. Mercury is speeding up, preparing to go direct, Venus is changing signs, and of course the big news is the Lunar Eclipse [on February 20.]

We also have another significant factor occurring in the near future. The Sun opposes Saturn on its way to its conjunction with Uranus, portending the future long wave Saturn opposition Uranus which will polarize energies even more than they already are. This is one reason things are quickening, in some places phenomenally violently. Even nature’s various superstorms are getting beyond whatever they used to be.

In our world, this is a clash between polarized views and ways that must be resolved. It will manifest as two energies vying for power, pitting willful erratic Piscean forces and people against evolved Saturn energies and people, as well as regressive, controlling, and fear based Saturn forces opposing progressive evolved Piscean forces.

As this is the first time the Sun in Pisces has opposed Saturn in Virgo this Solar transit activates the opposition for a long time to come. I’ll write more about this in the future as well, since it’s a long wave influence we must learn to maneuver within so we are not caught up in the larger breakdown.

Venus moving out of Capricorn into Aquarius can help us to elevate our likes and dislikes and become more impersonal and dispassionate wherever it transits in our charts. It also can give us more of an Aquarian approach to Taurus and Libra houses and planets, as well as the houses they rule as well. As it approaches Neptune in March, it will trigger the Grand Irrationality, which I’ll be writing more on in the Spiritual Astrology articles coming soon.

Mercury is showing us how to prune things back, shaping our expression in ways that demonstrate what we actively care for. Some things must be trimmed, some radically cut, so that in the future productive period what we care for will be allowed to grow unencumbered by overgrowth.

It’s now conjuncting Venus, bringing fusion of mind and likes, giving us a great ability to blend ideas with pleasant or agreeable ways of expressing them. This particular conjunction can help us see the beauty of broader points of view integrating many facets of whatever is being perceived.

As Mercury and Venus both move forward through Aquarius, when they conjunct Neptune it will trigger the Grand Irrationality spoken of earlier. So in addition to what was said there, include Gemini and Virgo houses and planets. The good news is that Mercury has already been in this span of Aquarius for awhile, so we’ve been able to pick up a lot of information about this sector of reality in our lives. Due to the retrograde, we’ve been able to take multiple looks at our Aquarian areas and so should be familiar with how to see, understand, and coordinate whatever major choices and changes are set into motion when Mercury and Venus both conjunct Neptune in March.

Many people have commented ever since the eclipse about the heightened rage, anger and arguments in the air. Jill wrote asking “Is Aries in Mars or something”? Evidently the political blogosphere had heated up with diatribes and blogroll deletions, and her comment threads had turned into dogfights. I responded to her that Mercury was conjunct Chiron at that time, evoking painful discussions and hurt feelings. The Mary wrote, “There seems to be a madness going on. I’m witnessing so many arguments… on the subway, even at my acupuncturist and personally as well. Maybe people are desperate to get their point across and the violence is one way people are doing that. After it passes I hope we can all learn how to communicate our truth in a better way.” So I took another look and noticed the inconjunct to Uranus.

Warning: geeky astrological details ahead: There are all kinds of appellations for the 30 degree and 150 degree angles between planets, but the ones that make the most sense to me are the inconjunct (30 degree) and quincunx (150 degree). Some astrologers call the 30 degree aspect the semisextile and the 150 degree angle the quincunx or inconjunct interchangeably, and some say that the 150 degree angle is only an inconjunct if it is between two fixed signs. Some say that an unaspected planet is inconjunct.

The geometric angles that planets form to each other describe the way the characteristics of those planets work together. Most commonly we talk about the harmonious aspects, where planets work together easily, or challenging aspects which promote crisis and change. In both the 30 degree and 150 degree aspects, or planetary relationships, the planets are in signs that don’t understand each other.

For example, Taurus and Gemini are 30 degrees apart. Taurus wants stability and a solid footing; Gemini wants to be able to float like a balloon through a variety of different experiences. These two signs have nothing in common and no basis for communication. Gemini and Scorpio are 150 degrees apart, and Scorpio’s intensity and drive for power also has nothing in common with Gemini. There isn’t real conflict here that can result in a resolution; there is just irritation and misunderstanding.

(Calling the 30 degree aspect a semisextile implies that it is a weak sextile or harmonious aspect, and this is clearly not the case. However, at 30 degrees the planets are wide of a conjunction and for this reason the appellation “inconjunct” means the most sense to me.)

At the time that Jill was experiencing conflict in the blogosphere, and Mary was encountering arguments, and we had five shootings in one week, not only had we just experienced an intense eclipse with the Mercury/Chiron conjunction in Aquarius, but that conjunction was also inconjunct the Aquarius ruler, Uranus, and frustration and hurt feelings exploded into confrontation with no real resolution.

This is a good lesson to me for my Skywatch articles where I typically don’t include the inconjunct or quincunx unless it’s between Mars and Uranus where it is much more visible. But the eclipse energy sometimes has a tendency to be burned into our consciousness for days or weeks afterwards, intensifying the experience for many of us.

After Mercury turns direct it will conjunct Chiron again on March 2, again inconjunct Uranus. At that time Mercury and Chiron will be exactly conjunct the degree of the February 6 eclipse which some astrologers might say will bring the return of that intense eclipse energy. I have not found this to be true in the past, so this will be an interesting experiment. Please mark your calendars and send in your reports!

Mars is preparing for its third and final opposition to Pluto where it tends to foment rage and inspire explosions, and one might think the opposition has already happened. School shootings, mall shootings, shootings in the city council – people are clearly under stress. Although the opposition will not be exact until the new moon on March 7, we are clearly in its shadow now.

I’ve been trying to find the birthdates of these shooters to see if any of them are tied in to the eclipse on February 6, but unfortunately that data is not available.

And I’m seeing lots of explosions from unknown causes in the news as well:

• An explosion at a machine shop in Alberta Canada sent three workers to the hospital;
• An explosion at a sugar refinery in Georgia killed at least six people;
• A huge explosion in a Chinese fireworks factory caused tremors throughout the city;
• Explosions at a scrap yard in Malaysia sent gas tanks flying through the air;
• A south Texas gas pipeline has exploded.

Tensions are clearly high now, and we’re heading towards the second in the pair of eclipses which will occur at the Full Moon on February 20. So keep your eyes and ears open!

When you’re wondering what your Valentine is looking for, don’t bother looking at his or her Sun sign. When it comes to relationships it’s Mars, Venus and the Moon that rule. Look up your beloved’s chart on astro.com and see where these planets fall in their charts and you’ll get an idea of what they want for Valentine’s Day.

Venus in the birthchart reveals our relationship needs – how we express our affection, and how we would like to be treated by our partner. It also describes our aesthetic preferences and the type of art or furnishings we enjoy for our home.

Venus in water signs tends to desire emotional closeness and connection; in the air signs Venus wants to think and talk about the relationship. In fire signs Venus wants a bolder and more adventurous expression of love, and in earth we see a Venus who enjoys staying home and enjoying the fruits of their labors.

Mars shows our physical energy and drive, and describes the kinds of experiences that we desire. The sign that Mars falls in gives us a clue as to the needs of the sexual drive.

When Mars is in fire signs, there is a need for excitement and pure sexual energy. In air, the brain becomes the major sex organ. Mars in water wants to feel connected and nurtured, and in earth Mars is more sensual and physical.

The Moon is the Inner Child – it identifies the types of emotional experiences we need to be secure and to feel safe. If the Moon isn’t fed, the relationship will not go well and feelings will be hurt.

An airy Moon needs to be listened to; in fire the Moon needs adventure and new experiences. Earthy and watery Moons both need to feel secure and safe, but the watery Moon also needs a sense of emotional connection and the earthy Moon needs a more practical and material kind of security.

Unless you have a summer home in your loved one’s head (® Jill) it’s often hard to know what they really want. Astrology takes away some of the guesswork and makes it easier to understand each other. Happy Valentine’s Day!

For you Hillary fans out there (and judging from the comments there are a lot of you!), Leslie Zemenek gives a great look into the palmistry of candidate Hillary Clinton entitled “Will the real Hillary Clinton run for president?” Leslie writes:

Her gifts of insight, empathy, focus and passion are clearly etched in her palm, but she seems unable to integrate her softer side into her public persona. The lack of a clear fate line confirms the difficulty she faces in allowing her true gifts to shine. Like many women in positions of power, she is criticized for being too masculine, but not allowed to be at all feminine. . . .

No one, male or female, should have to contend with the level of vitriol that has been directed at Senator Clinton. As the first serious woman candidate for president, Hillary Clinton has taken on a pioneering role, and with it a heap of psychic and emotional abuse.

Perhaps it is part of her karma to change the way the US looks at strong women. But in order to stop being seen as polarizing, Hillary must integrate her own polarly opposite strengths and allow all of herself to show up on the campaign trail.

read more about the palmistry of Senator Clinton here…