The Astrologer Weekly: February 27th – March 4th 2012

Sun conjunct Mars: Prepare To Get Your Way
If you’ve ever felt like getting your way, the next 12 months are what you’ve been waiting for. You’ve got a fire under you, and your energy levels are so high, you may find yourself wishing you didn’t have to sleep. This is really a time that’s all about you, and quite frankly, you’re determined to make sure everyone else knows that. As you’re scrambling your way up the career ladder — or into the arms of a loved one — remember to try to avoid stepping on people’s toes.When it comes to your career, you might as well pick a goal (or many) and go for it. Your chance of working your way to success is extremely high. You have just the right amount of ambition and adventure in you to take the big risks necessary for great achievements. Be sure to keep an eye on your temper — it could be your downfall. All the same rules apply to your love life. If you’re already with someone, your tremendous passion could very easily rekindle the romance. Just remember to give them a break sometimes, as they may have a hard time keeping up! If you’re still looking for the perfect someone, try to be considerate when you do find them — they’ve just been completely swept off their feet by you and are probably still trying to catch their breath.

Sun conjunct Mercury: Think Fast
Communication is about to become a major part of your life, in a very noticeable way. Who you are and how you think are one and the same, and will be for the entire year. From business affairs to matters of the heart, you’ll know exactly what to say and when to say it. In fact, others may have a difficult time keeping up with you mentally — but don’t worry, they’ll catch up eventually! Focus on being as clear as possible, and remember that there are other ways to communicate besides speaking. Writing a note to a special someone in your life is more than just romantic; it’s an unexpected, tangible treat that will prove just how much you care. And you don’t even have to ‘say’ a word!Writing, in general, is a great way to make the most of your year. If you ever wanted to be an author or journalist, this is your year to go for it. Keeping a diary or a scrapbook is another way to channel all your mental energy. You might consider joining a book club, as your critical faculties are highlighted. It’s romantic if you’re already part of a couple, and great way to meet someone new if you’re single. Another great way to meet like-minded people is to take a class — learn to speak Italian, and you just might find someone to travel with you to Italy!

Sun sextile Pluto: A Magnetic Transformation
The dark side of your subconscious is normally found deep within your soul, but for the next year, the boundaries between your subconscious and conscious states will start to blur. Fortunately, you’ll have such a good grasp on what’s happening in your life that you’ll be able to use this as an opportunity for positive transformation.You’re perceptive, magnetic and mysterious, and others can’t help but be drawn to you. Your relationships will be strong because of this, both romantically and in the office. In fact, most people you come across will see you as extremely powerful. In the bedroom, this will come out as an intense passion that could easily leave your partner hungry for more. While at work, your presence will be awe-inspiring, and with your drive and ambition, you’ll have no trouble impressing your boss and other higher-ups. Your ability to cut to the core of a situation is strong now; don’t underestimate your abilities, but also make sure you don’t abuse this to take advantage of others. Your mind will be extremely creative, and all types of artistic outlets, from drawing to cooking, are strongly encouraged.

Mercury in Pisces: Thinking Symbolically
Logical, rational thinking is completely overrated. Letting yourself be guided by your intuition is often just as successful as thinking logically, if not more so. Problems will arise, though, because you may not allow your intuition to guide you, but rather, you’ll follow the advice and comments of others. As you think your way through this year, you’ll need to be sure that your ideas really are yours, and not merely a regurgitation of what someone else has planted in your brain. Otherwise you could become gullible and susceptible to illusions. You will likely be quite spacey and vague, getting lost inside your own head and processing information that isn’t linear or logical. You could also turn into one of those people who is easily forgetful and unreliable. Establishing your own flow of thought that’s completely independent of anyone else will help. Fantastic imagery will float through your head, and you’ll be quite adept at describing these images and symbols. In fact, you’ll almost think better with graphics and symbols than you will with real words. This would be a wonderful opportunity to study Chinese and Japanese writing or even ancient hieroglyphs. Their meanings will come through clearly for you.

Mercury conjunct Mars: Verbal Sparring And Witty Repartee
Uh oh. Looks like your foot is making a beeline for your mouth. From now until your next birthday, you’re going to have to work extra hard to keep both feet planted firmly where they belong. You’ve got something of an aggressive motor-mouth mentality that will help improve your persuasive reasoning, but it could also get you into some trouble if you’re not careful.This astral climate encourages a ‘speak first, think later’ approach that’s great for a quick and witty repartee, but it’ll also bring out your argumentative side. You’ll enjoy every minute of it — you just need to make sure that the person on the receiving end of your verbal sparring is equally pleased. Remain polite at all times, regardless of the willpower that may require. You’ll find that the calmer you are, the more persuasive your words, but if you let yourself get too abrasive, others will be easily turned off. Partake in word games like Scrabble from time to time in an effort to take some of the edge off. Your mind will be working in double time, so anything that requires you to focus and use that energy in a friendly manner is highly recommended.

Mercury sextile Pluto: A Detective For The Soul
Mystery surrounds you at every turn, no matter what stage of your life you’re in, but far too frequently, it’s easier to just ignore the unknown and notice only what’s familiar. That’s all about to change. From now until your next birthday, you’ll get strangely bored by the familiar, and find you prefer uncovering and solving mysteries and puzzles.Your mind will be in top form and only the deepest of topics will interest you this year. That goes double for problems that take a great deal of mental strength to solve. Anything difficult will interest you, from uncovering the secrets of the universe, to understanding the innermost thoughts of a lover or friend. You won’t be satisfied with partial answers; you’ll dig deep to find the absolute truth to every question and proposal brought to your attention.As such, this has the potential to be a very good year for your career and love life. You’ll be so focused on knowing exactly what’s going on and getting everything done perfectly that your boss can’t help but reward you. Those same traits will be ideal for making the special someone in your life feel incredibly loved. If you’re single, you’ll find your ability to penetrate deep into another’s soul will make you a fascinating partner to anyone lucky enough to find you.

Venus in Capricorn: A Mountain Of Love
Love, for you, is like a mountain. A tall, towering mountain that must be climbed with great care and precision. You can see the summit and you will have a strong desire to reach it, but your way will be slowed by many obstacle and difficulties. If you are making the trek because it’s what’s expected of you and you believe others will think better of you for finishing, then you probably won’t finish. However, if you go to all the trouble because you have such an appreciation for the beauty at the top, then the odds are on your side.You’ll need to open yourself up to the true power of love this year. In the past many (and possibly even you), have gone into relationships for all the wrong reasons. Achieving status or money through romance is hardly the way to true and deep love. Instead, you must break through to the passionate and caring soul who’s inside you and let it out. Even on the easiest path to deep affection, you may have problems, but at least you’ll know that your own heart is true, and that will leave you much higher up that mountain than anything else you’ve tried so far. If possible let your partner (one you with now or one you’ll meet soon) help guide you along the trail. Working together will produce great results.

Venus sextile Uranus: A Unique Take On Others
Flashes of brilliance, intuitively knowing what others want — you’re golden, and your intelligence will shine brightly in the coming months. Your mind will sharpen and it will become easier and easier for you to relate to people. You’ll get to the point where you almost seem to psychically know what others need. Sexually, this will make you a very enjoyable partner. You’ll likely get bored easily, though and find you move on to someone new at a more frequent rate than you’re used to — not necessarily in a promiscuous way, but on a more intellectual level.Your keen mind won’t settle for anything less than the smartest types you can find, and you’ll be drawn to interesting and unique folks. Social situations will provide you an opportunity to be more open, as you’ll be able to wander through the crowd getting to know all sorts of new people. The inspiration you receive during these interactions could help you further some sort of creative pursuit you’ve been working on. If you find your values differ from others, try to explain them more clearly. With time, you’ll find that people tend to come around to your way of thinking.

Mars in Pisces: Compassionate Power
You are filled with a soft and compassionate energy. You will have the ability to see other people’s weaknesses, but you’ll be too empathetic to try to take advantage of them. Your methods of asserting yourself will be sensitive and thoughtful, and others may not even realize you’ve taken control of the situation. You, however, will know the truth. You’ll move through the year with a quiet confidence and power that will help you get what you want, without doing so at the expense of others.Your sexual drive will feel scattered, but then you’ll prefer a more mystical connection to another person than raw sexual energy. All of your being will be about living in a higher level. Take time to make sure you are completely clear about where you stand on things, but when you’re certain, you’ll have complete confidence in your convictions, and you’ll be a silent force to be reckoned with. Your power will come from your heart, and therefore, you won’t need the same level of aggression that others will to accomplish the same things. You will be able to easily balance your own needs and transcendence against the urges of others.

Mars conjunct Neptune: Energy Evaporates
Under normal circumstances, it’s good to follow your dreams and believe that you can do whatever you put your mind to. However, this year, you may not be quite as in tune with what you’re actually capable of doing as you usually are. Your dreams will be undeniably powerful, full of action, aggression and possibly even violence. This will be how your subconscious comes to terms with the aggressive energies flowing through you. But your aggressive energies could become quickly overwhelmed by your dreamy, diffuse subconscious. Energy evaporates, or is squandered trying to find a firm surface to kick off from.Anger is certainly present, but unable to find an outward expression. It turns inward, creating depression or bitterness. Unable to be straightforward when you’re mad, you adopt a passive-aggressive approach, leaving your victims impotent and furious in your wake, after you’ve wrecked something when you were ‘only trying to help.’One area where your passion finds expression is your principles. You could easily be swept off your feet by a newfound leader or belief. Unquestioning, you become a foot soldier in the ground war. Beware the fanatic, and try to channel your urge to do good into channels that will actually be effective.

Mars sextile Pluto: Self-transformation
Your sexually energy is about to run rampant. You’ll be fortunate enough to not only enjoy that with a partner (either someone you’re with now or someone you’ll meet soon), but you’ll also be able to channel it toward necessary self-transformations. This is the perfect kind of energy for spicing up your love life and for making major changes to the rest of your life. Prepare yourself for some action this year!Normally, acting as you see fit, regardless of collective opinion, can lead to trouble, but in this case, you’ll be focused on a worthwhile result; self-improvement. You may push this to a rather obsessive level, but as long as you use it to create something positive, something positive is what you’ll get. The changes you put in place in your life will come easily to you, as will the changes that just occur naturally. You’ll be able to adapt well to whatever is thrown your way, and you’ll find that the more challenges you face, the more resilient you become. Nothing is going to get in the way of you doing what needs to be done. Your ability to transform yourself for the better — and in the face of pressure and adversity — will be quite impressive.

Jupiter in Aries: Major Breakthroughs
Seeing your big ideas turn into reality will be no problem for you. You will have an incredibly fresh and innovative way of viewing the world, which will help motivate you to kickoff new projects this year. As you embark on whatever new path you choose, you’ll intuitively know how to push your old methods aside to make room for the new ideas and people that will be coming your way.Breakthroughs will be a major theme in your life for the next 12 months. Your enthusiasm and eagerness will help you get started on projects, and the growth and understanding you develop as you move through the year will allow you to see these projects through to the end. In fact, individual growth will be one of those breakthroughs you’ll experience, and once you get past any ego hang-ups that may be slowing you down, you’ll be on a direct path to knowing exactly what and when things need to get done, as well as knowing how to do them. Are there any negative sides to this? Well, realizing that you’re right so often might make you a tad arrogant, so you’ll want to watch out for that, but on the whole, this will be your time to make something great happen with your life.

Jupiter opposition Saturn: Choosing The Right Path
You’re coming up to a fork in the road: Should you take the road toward expansion and optimism, or the path that leads to responsibility and achieving goals through hard work? Unfortunately, it’s not really a decision that you’ll be able to make. During the next 12 months, this dilemma will pop up over and over again, mostly resulting in confusion. Your options will be completely polarized and finding a middle ground could start to feel impossible.You’ll find yourself torn between grand life schemes and the details and effort that will be involved in bringing them to life. It would be nice to just be an idea-person, but your ideas can’t turn into reality without a lot of hard work. You’re going to have to try to find a balance between these opposing forces. And then you’ll also be faced with deciding when to fix past mistakes and when to forge ahead with your future. This will require great mental strain and possibly even physical effort, but if you succeed, you could be on the track to great prosperity. This probably won’t happen immediately, but rather, by the end of the year, you could be much wiser and on the path to personal, professional and romantic prosperity.

Jupiter square Pluto: Unplanned Successes
Struggling to work effectively with people in power will start to feel second nature to you. You’ll have a strong drive to succeed and to reach high levels of power yourself, but it will begin to feel like others are purposely trying to hold you back. That may or may not be true, but what your true focus should be on is your own personal growth. If someone blocks one path, then you must decide whether to defend yourself or find another path. You may be tempted to choose the former, but look carefully at the situation before making a decision. Either this person is really out to get you, or they’re stopping you for a reason, and in either case, you may want to step aside and let them have their way.That could be the hardest lesson for you to learn this year. Your own desire for power and your tendency to overreact will make it extremely difficult for you to just step back from your plans because someone else said so. Avoid becoming too obsessed about a particular plan or goal, and try to remain open to change. Your challenge will be to find a common source between your goals and those of others. When you’ve achieved that, you’ll know you’ve accomplished what the stars had in mind for you this year, and that could result in some unplanned successes.

Saturn in Libra: Hard Decisions
Indecision is waking up, shaking itself off and getting ready to rear its ugly head. You might want to prepare yourself for a lot of unpleasant decisions in the coming months. That doesn’t mean that you’ll have to choose between a rock and a hard place, but choosing between something like two people with whom you’re in love is never a fun choice to make either. As you struggle to deal with whatever options are placed in front of you, you may begin to suffer from feelings of self-doubt.The first step toward fixing these issues will be to accept that they exist. If you’re in denial about any of your fears — and those include fears of compromising yourself or losing your balance in life, as well as indecision — your world will only become more complex. On the other hand, if you can face your fears and come to terms with them, you’ll have a much healthier approach to the decisions you have to make, which will help make your future choices much easier to deal with. Taking on a responsible perspective with your options will also allow a natural balance to come back to your life, almost without any extra effort from you.

Saturn retrograde: Back To The Drawing Board
The drawing board is where it’s at this year, and that’s where you should try to spend most of your time. You could turn into a planning machine if you give yourself half a chance. And these won’t be what-to-do-on-Friday-night plans, but rather, what-to-do-with-the-rest-of-your-life plans. Keep in mind though, that the year is about plans, not so much about taking action. You’ll have the rest of your life to figure out how to turn your ideas into reality, so, for the time being, you should just focus on coming up with those ideas.One of the problems you’ll face — and this would be especially true if you were to try to go big with your plans — is that you’ll feel inhibited by some sort of authority figures or societal rules. Whether your boss isn’t in the mood to listen to your proposal, or you can’t get a permit to open a store in your neighborhood, you’ll start to feel like you’re being blocked every step of the way. So relax a bit and follow the rules for now. The time will come soon enough when you’ll know that your planning needs to turn into action.

North Node in Capricorn: The Foundation Of Life
A structured life is one that can progress forward at a pleasant and constant rate. In order to achieve this, you’ll need to learn to ground yourself and build a reliable foundation, which you can use as your base. That could involve adding more to your savings account, working to establish a healthy, balanced relationship with your family or making yourself even more valuable at work. You may have displayed a certain level of dependence on others in the past, but this year you will work to become much more self-sufficient.To do this, you will need to set goals for yourself and become a stickler about following through with them. You must be disciplined and hardworking, and you’ll want to prepare for both short-term and long-term plans. Take your time establishing your goals and then working towards them; none of this needs to be rushed. Instead, a slow and steady pace will help guarantee that you achieve your ambitions without accidentally throwing a stick in the wheel. As you reach a level of greater responsibility, you’ll find that not only will you achieve your goals, but your position in society will improve as well.

Neptune in Aquarius: Cyber-enlightenment
Enlightenment and technology will come together for you this year, as you seek to achieve a higher state of human connection through the use of global technology and advancements. You will desire a spiritual unity of all people, and you will use such progressive tools as the Internet and computers to achieve your goal. This is the first time in recorded history that such an enormous human connection could even be considered, and you will be at the forefront, helping to make it all come together.Even more exciting is the possibility to experience such large-scale communities and interactions, while still maintaining your individual space. You will break down older New Age concepts and begin establishing entirely new ones in which the individual can connect and remain alone at the same time. If you haven’t already, join some cyber-organizations and start chatting. You can also use the coming year to familiarize yourself with, or improve your skills at graphic design. That’s a great channel for combining your creative imagination with the complexities of computer technology and ability. Just be sure all of your experiences are your own and that you don’t get too influenced or disillusioned by some of the other people out there.

Pluto in Capricorn: Societal Transformation
Your mission for the year will be a total overhaul of all the outmoded forms of society that can no longer measure up or function as they’re supposed to. Sound like a big job? It is. But you can start by just focusing on the structure of your own life and trying to transform that before you even attempt to tackle societal issues. One of the key areas you might want to look at improving, though, will be your social status. The higher you can raise your social standing, the more freedom you’ll have to make more necessary changes later on.In fact, if you can increase your social status, you’ll actually be on the path to breaking up some of society’s most useless structures, which involve placing power in a small minority. Your goal is to work your way into that minority and try to break it up from the inside. Again, this is by no means a small task, and you should only focus on your own life this year. Maybe a promotion at work can help you reset some of your corporate structures, giving you practice for a bigger job later on. If you want to jump right in to freeing society from the power of the social elites, then see what kind of luck you can have in your own town. Volunteer for an elected official or get your own name on the ballot for the next election.

Uranus in Pisces: Voice Of Your Subconscious
Dreams are sometimes tossed aside as overactive mental residue from the day. However, they represent a powerful tool for progressing and moving into the future. Your dreams are the voice of your subconscious. And for these next 12 months, the inner workings of your mind will come through most effectively while you sleep. Keep a dream journal by your bed, and be prepared to write anything and everything down — you never know when the next great idea for improving our culture might flash by in the night.You must be flexible and intuitive as you use your mental powers to help move society forward. That’s a very tall order for one person, but you are not alone. Far from it. Your powers will be especially effective when it comes to health technology and spiritual awareness. If you’re not already in the health industry, you can certainly volunteer your time at charity organizations like the Red Cross and offer up your creative and compassionate services there. Or you might want to focus more on the spiritual side of things. You’ll have a very influential side, and you’ll have no trouble assisting others as they make their way down their own spiritual paths.

Uranus square Pluto: Pressure Buildup
Imagine a tea kettle. You’ve put the water in, and turned up the heat. Then you wait as the water begins to boil, and that’s when it starts to get interesting. The pressure builds and builds until so much steam is being forced out of a tiny opening that it begins to whistle — and then it screams. And if you leave it long enough, the lid might just pop off. Now, imagine that’s your life. Some or most of your life is building up a lot of pressure and it’s about to explode. Things could get really messy for a while, but the relief you’ll feel when the pressure is off of you will be well worth it. You’ll finally be able to move on to something else.If you want to make things a little easier, you can find aspects of your life that clearly need improvement and begin to make the changes yourself. That will help release some of the pressure early, so you won’t deal with quite such a big eruption. Something you’ve depended on for a long time will suddenly disappear — your car might die or your computer might crash completely — and you’ll need to simply accept that as fact and go out and get something better.