The Astrologer Weekly: March 5th – 11th 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 quincunx Saturn: Compromising True Individuality
To function in society, you sometimes have to compromise total individuality, at least a little. This is not the end of the world. In fact, it’s the start to an entirely new, fresh world. Everyone out there has given up (or hidden) some little aspect of themselves in order to live a more full, enjoyable life, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with you doing the same. The coming year will be a time of self-assessment. Have no fear, however, for if you do have any qualities that could use a makeover, it will be easy to do. None of this will require much effort, nor will it be in any way painful. It will simply be a matter of doing it. However, if you don’t take the time to evaluate who you are, you’ll find that all your efforts — to do just about anything — are stifled. Since you’ll also find yourself with some rather perfectionist tendencies, you’ll become easily frustrated if thing aren’t going as planned. Take the easy road; get to know yourself a bit better and make whatever minor adjustments you think will help you adapt to life outside your home. You’ll be glad you did.

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 Uranus: Speedy Brilliance
Who needs caffeine when they’ve got you around? Your mind is going to be so fast, the people around you won’t know what hit them. From witty retorts to crazy, futuristic ideas, your brain will be coming up with out-of-this-world thoughts that no one will be able to keep up with. You’ll have occasional run-ins with pure genius, but most of time you’ll just be coming up with some of the most original concepts around. This could be an exciting year!Conformity probably won’t be your thing. In fact, you’ll be much more likely to shun the norm and come up with your own creative approaches, especially when it comes to communication and travel. Plot out your ideas on diagrams and flow charts to allow others a visual description of what you’re thinking — it could help them understand what’s going on in that head of yours. When in doubt, visit a new location. With your mind working so quickly, slowing down to mull things over is unlikely to happen. Instead, a trip somewhere, where your focus is on something new, could inspire new thoughts and a new way to look at a specific problem. If you feel the need to just keep going and going, do so. This is your time to enjoy life.

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 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.

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 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 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 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.