The Astrologer Weekly: March 12th – 18th 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.

Mercury in Aries: As Fast As Thought
Patience is a virtue that you’ll have a hard time learning this year. Your mind will be on fire, racing from one topic to the next, soaking as much up as it can before you get too bored. And get bored you will! At the same time, you’ll be exceptionally bright, and when you do take a few moments to ponder some conundrum, you’ll find you easily come up with a unique solution that blows everyone away. In fact, your quick-thinking wit could become your strongest asset these next 12 months — if you can slow down long enough to let that happen.Though slowing your mind down won’t be the easiest thing you can do, you’ll want to pay attention to make it happen. Your reactions will be impulsive and argumentative if you don’t take a moment to think about what was really just said and what your response will be. At the same time, you’ll be incredibly persuasive, and you’ll have the ability to win any argument because you’ll be so quick to understand what the real issues are. But again, your impatience could hold you back, as you’ll lose interest waiting for everyone else to catch up to your line of reasoning. Accept that others won’t be as fast as you and use that to your advantage by getting ahead at work and impressing your superiors.

Mercury conjunct Jupiter: Intellectual Pursuits
Have you ever tried to consider the size of the universe; to grasp just what it meant for something to go on forever and have absolutely no end? Normally, that’s a pretty overwhelming task, but as this year progresses, you’ll find you crave just that sort of mental stimulation. You’ll do everything you can to stretch your mind just as far as it can go.Your mental abilities will be strong this year, and you’ll have no patience for small talk or idle chit chat when you could be contemplating some of life’s most challenging questions. Immerse yourself in brainiac activities — join a philosophic organization, volunteer at a hands-on science museum or delve deeply into the debate of who we are and why we’re here. Because you’ll have such a hunger for knowledge, this will be an ideal time for travel, as well. Wherever you go, you’ll easily pick up even the smallest nuances of the culture, and with each location you visit, you’ll understand humanity that much more.When it comes to love, you’ll desire a partner who has similar intellectual interests. Regardless of who you’re with now, or who you meet later on, you can bet they’ll love your company. You’ll be so eager to try new things and expand your horizons that your mere presence will be enough to create an exciting atmosphere.

Mercury sextile Venus: Open Communication
With the way you’ll be chatting people up, it’ll be like you just took a trip to Ireland and kissed the Blarney Stone… repeatedly. For the next year, you’re going to have an incredible gift of gab. From social situations to romance, you’ll know exactly what to say and when to say it.You’ll have a natural eloquence, and you’ll easily make sense of other people’s ideas, confusing or otherwise. As you should be trying to keep the lines of communication as open as possible with as many people as possible, this ease of understanding will prove quite beneficial. Job associations and other relationships will flow more smoothly, and your ability to form new acquaintances will reach a high point. In fact, schmoozing, negotiating and diplomacy are skills you’ll master this year. Love will also be a strong point for you since you’ll be so good at saying what that special someone wants to hear. Just make sure you don’t spend so much time talking that you forget to listen. Keep your emotions flowing openly and get creative with your dates — poetry readings and museums will grab you now, and they always have just the perfect touch of romance.

Mercury opposition Saturn: A Cynical Soul
Beware of the cold and calculating soul who lives within. You know you’re generous and that you care for others, but you’ll have a rather cynical tendency this year, and if you’re not careful, others might begin to suspect that this negative person they see is actually the real you. Prove them wrong by remaining courteous and attentive in any and all situations.Battling that devilish negativity could be made even more challenging as you discover that many people around you will personify your somewhat depressed attitude. Don’t let it get you down. Remember that while it may seem like you’re trying to see how you can turn every situation into a personal advantage, your intent will actually be an attempt to put everything to good use. Unfortunately communication won’t go quite as smoothly as you’d like, so convincing others of your true intentions won’t be easy. This doesn’t mean that you’re alone though! If things start to get too tough, pick up the phone and call a friend or family member. Someone who’s been with you through the hard times will stick with you through this year too.

Mercury square Pluto: Crossing The Line Of Obsession
Once you’ve decided something is important and worth your attention, woe to anyone who tries to change your direction or your mind. You’ll become easily focused, to the point of obsession, on anything that manages to find a place in your brain. Whether this means solving a problem or convincing others to see something your way, you’ll be absolutely relentless. Folks will just have to get out of your way to avoid being lost in the shuffle of that problem-solving machine you’ve got lodged in your head.If there has been a prickly point in your life about which you’d like to come to an understanding and possibly smooth out, this will be your year. You just won’t let up until all the pieces have fallen into place — and even then you’ll still push around at them a bit to make sure nothing is loose. Through it all, the most important thing for you to remember will be to keep an open mind and remain tolerant of other people’s thoughts about your actions and opinions. Just because you think it, doesn’t necessarily make it so, and if you can’t back down just a little, every now and then, you’ll find that those you care most about will have a hard time being around you.

Venus in Aquarius: Unconventional Love
Though your love will be quite desired, you may be slow to hand it out. Yours will be an almost untouchable emotion, keeping all those who want you at bay. You may be willing to share your love with many, from time to time, but you will become very detached when it comes to offering your affections to just one special person. You might be better off channeling your feelings into assisting the community, where many can share your warmth. This will also offer you a great sense of self-worth. Devote yourself to creative projects that will require enormous amounts of vision and originality. Your mind will be unique and unpredictable, and anything you create will be equally fascinating. One of your major weaknesses though, will be a lack of staying power. You’ll pick up an exciting project, but you could lose interest in it very quickly. This same issue will likely pop up in the romance department too. Few people will be able to hold your attention long enough for a real relationship to form. Or, if you’re already part of a couple, you’ll struggle to not get bored with someone you once found so fascinating. Try to hang on and wait this out before making any rash moves or decisions.

Venus trine Saturn: Stable, Long-lasting Love
In a world of constant changes and unreliable people, you’re becoming a rock. You’ll be one of those dependable, loyal people that everyone loves to have around this year. You won’t be particularly social, but you’ll accept anyone who comes to you. Relationships will begin easily, mainly because you won’t feel like dealing with anyone who doesn’t connect well with you. These same relationships will also be much more likely to last longer because you’ll just naturally have a stronger connection to people who are reliable. So romantically, you could find yourself with a strong, stable partner.Though you won’t be overly social, you will find yourself concerned with appearances. You’ll be very much aware of the public image of those with whom you associate yourself, as well as what others think of you. Try not to let this go to your head; let your grounded nature override any shallow tendencies. Help someone (or many someones) in need this year. Simple things like making soup for a sick friend or volunteering at a homeless shelter will go a long way toward helping another and feeling good about yourself. On the financial side of things, if you have a bit of extra money, this year will be a good time to invest as you’ll be likely to see a pleasing return.

Venus sextile Jupiter: Your Lighthearted Side
There are times in your life when you need to throw out everything serious and challenging in your life, and focus on having some lighthearted fun. This whole year will be one of those times. That’s not to say that you should eliminate everything you don’t like, but more that you’ll be naturally drawn to anything enjoyable and won’t notice the harder aspects as much. It will really come down to the fact that you’ll have such an optimistic energy that something negative will hardly even register with you.Relationships of all sorts will bloom during this year, with your friendships taking the spotlight. You’ll also have excellent rapport with anyone you work with as well as with any romantic interests. People will be drawn to your positive outlook, and they’ll appreciate your uncanny ability to connect with them, especially when they need it most. Money will also come to you more easily, and you’ll likely do well if you invest in some sort of creative endeavor. In fact, your own creativity will do well, especially in the realm of education. Whether that means learning or teaching is entirely up to you — or you could just do both for a bit more variety.

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.

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.

Saturn square Pluto: Challenging Learning Curve
Ugh! You know exactly what it is you have to do to get ahead, and yet it seems like everyone and everything around you is trying to slow you down, stop you or even push you backwards. From your disgruntled boss who doesn’t want to promote you to getting stuck in terrible traffic on your way to an interview, you’ll begin to feel as though the universe is in a conspiracy to hold you back — even worse; you’ll be right. The planets have aligned themselves in such a way that these next 12 months will be about learning to deal with severe adversity.Resisting these forces could become your only goal this year, but if you find that happening, you might want to rethink what you’re doing. This is a time for you to learn. These dilemmas and challenges will pop up for a reason and you need to pay attention to them and see how you can work with them. What might they be telling you? Are you trying to head in the wrong direction? Are your expectations too high? Should you try to make an even more dramatic transformation in your life? The obstacles will inevitably be frustrating, but they could lead to changes that are necessary for you to progress with your life. So try to take everything with a grain of salt and a level of detachment.

North Node in Sagittarius: Personal Belief Systems
Yours is an expansive future, one in which you’ll have the most success when you can look around you and put everything into a larger perspective. There is a holistic nature to all things, an inherent connection between everything you do and see, and it will be up to you to try to find the purpose and meaning to these events. Create your own belief systems that take everything you understand and use that knowledge to make sense out of the world. This will help you push forward with your own personal development. Intellectual studies, education and travel can all assist you to pursue that elusive goal of the meaning of life. Your ability to collect facts and information will be strong, and you’ll be able to piece together ideas and systems of thought and turn them into principles to live by. Once these are in place though, you may discover you have tendencies to stick so strongly to your beliefs that they become dogma. However, it will be your openness to new ideas that will be one of the most crucial aspects to enhancing your life experience and your view of the world. Be spontaneous, optimistic and broad-minded as you venture down your journey of life.

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 Aries: The Energy Of Life
All beings, all forms of life, everything that moves — it all requires energy to keep going. Humans are special in that they can choose how they use this energy. This year, your goal, should you choose to accept it, will be to transform yourself and possibly the world with the pioneering and radical energy that will bubble up from within you. Creative and original currents of ideas will course through you, and it will be up to you to see them through to creation. Your mind will be active and engaged, and your inner urges will encourage you to move into action. Any challenge placed before you will be one you will happily meet, but remember that there’s more to overcoming adversity than just meeting it: You must follow through, as well. Once you’re able to overcome your difficulties, you’ll find that your progressive nature is able to bloom on its own. Basically, this all boils down to figuring out the most effective uses for your mental powers. Fortunately, you’ll be practically fearless about change and about your approach to life. When you know where to point your aggression and intelligence, a powerful, progressive transformation will begin.

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.