Astrology For The Revolution – by Chani Nicholas

Thank everything; earth, sun, moon, stars and Mother Nature Herself for spring. As new life emerges from the soil beneath our feet Mercury is finding it’s forward motion once again (it officially went direct April 4th at 3:11 a.m., I heard many could not sleep that night). Mars will also change directions on April 13th and plans for our lives will move forward once again. Mars has been retrograde since January 23rd and Mercury since March 12th. These have not been the best days to begin new things but they have been great days to review our lives, our desires, our direction and our reasons for doing what we do. Today, March 6th there is a full moon in Libra at 12:19 p.m., with both a full moon and a change in direction of Mercury it’s best to give major decisions at least a couple of days (in my profession opinion, wait until April 23rd if at all possible especially if documents are involved).

Let’s consider the full moon in Libra for and some other interesting astrology surrounding it. There is quite a bit in the charts these days about relationships, especially old relationship patterns and in some cases old relationships resurfacing. The formation I am referring to is a grand cross in mutable signs. A “grand cross” looks exactly how it sounds in a chart, there two points of polarity (two points opposing each other) which lay in a cross formation giving us four points all at 90 degree angles to each other. The “mutable” signs of the zodiac are Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces. Mutable signs bend and sway, they disseminate the season prior and give way to the next that is becoming. This grand cross involves Venus (who just moved into Gemini) and the south node opposing Juno and the north node (in Sagittarius). That polarity is squaring Neptune and Chiron (in Pisces) on one end and Mars (still in Virgo) on the other. If all of that sounds like Greek to you, throw it away. All you need to know is that the astrology of the moment is bringing us into some wishy-washy terrain around relationships. It may be difficult to separate past patterns from current reality and inherited relationship dynamics especially around gender roles. The full moon in Libra adds a significant amount of tension to the dynamic. Libra is the sign of the other, it is a cardinal sign that initiates relationships. Libra pulls our consciousness into the sphere of the other; it’s the first polarity we experience in the zodiac. The full moon and the grand cross are an opportunity to sit with the tension and perspective that a full moon always brings. Generally a full moon will bring some outer event that we can see (person, place, situation) so that we may get a new perspective on how we are relating to our world and ourselves. The only question here is can you sit with the tension of the truth without reacting?
On April 21st at 12:18 a.m. there is a very sweet new moon that looks to bring with it many opportunities for growth and manifesting our desires into material reality. If there are new projects that you have put on hold this is the perfect day to take an action towards your goal. Whatever we do around the new moon creates a pattern in that area of our lives for the next year(s) to come and this new moon is about bringing our dreams into real time and space. Taurus teaches us about the importance of the physical world. Do something kind for Mother Earth, for your body or for the creatures around you. Feel the abundance of the physical world and natures impulse to create life. Celebrate this.
On the world stage with Mercury and Mars moving forward we can look for more truths coming to light in such cases as the shooting and killing of Trayvon Martin. George Zimmerman’s claims of self-defense are unraveling as the clock ticks and that fact that he is still walking around a free man is beyond ludicrous. To me, Trayvon Martin is as Alice Walker put it, “ours. And I don’t mean just ours, black people, but all of ours. I mean, these children, they are our future, and they have to be protected.” What I hope Mercury direct brings to light through this devastating loss is the reality of how real and severe racism is in our country. With Venus in Libra for the next four months we get to view our relationship dynamics with some perspective and as Venus goes retrograde later in the spring we get to review our relationships to our past. As a country, America has a violent and shame-filled history of how one group of people treats another, or simply put; colonialism. This country is founded on slavery, torture and genocide. Our inability and refusal to simply acknowledge this fact, let alone make amends for it holds us back as a nation and a people to unknown extents. The consciousness of white America is desperately lacking in perspective, understanding and education on this topic. It is the job of people who are not oppressed to seek education about oppression so they don’t repeat the patterns of their ancestors. Oppression can only exist in a world where its inhabitants refuse to look at their own shame, guilt, despair, greed, lust and rage. Neptune and Chiron’s recent transit into Pisces was and continues to be an intitiation into wholeness. We cannot heal without addressing the wound.Postcolonial Psychologist Eduardo Duran terms this condition as the soul-wound, the wound that colonialism has left for all of us. Duran makes it a point to teach that there is historical trauma, but there is also historical medicine. Our greatest wound also contains our greatest potential, if we can be present with it.
Mercury and Mars retrograde have given us an opportunity recently to review our lives, our motives and our back-story and we are greatly benefited to ask ourselves the questions: Am I happy with what I see? Are there ways in which I am perpetuating violence even and especially in my ignorance? In the coming months we will see almost instantaneously that one small act of violence is enormous and one small act of kindness tremendous as the astrology speeds our evolutionary process. This month’s full moon marks the Passover and Easter holidays for Jews and Christians, both holidays symbolic of rebirth and renewal. Perhaps what we can re-birth is the wisdom of Mother’s Love, perhaps Trayvon’s passing can open us to the amount of pain his family and community (if you are not part of it) are in. How can we use this horror to renew our humanity and our kindness? How can we become better, wiser human beings? Can we walk in another’s shoes and be changed by the power of compassion?
“We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us, and make us kinder. We always have the choice.” ~ HH the Dalai Lama

Many blessings to you and yours,

Chani

Horoscopes
Aries and Aries Rising

“We have no reason to mistrust our world, for it is not against us. Has it terrors, they are our terrors; has it abysses, those abysses belong to us; are dangers at hand, we must try to love them… How should we be able to forget those ancient myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Since the arrival of Uranus in your sign last year the emphasis in your life has been about invention, or the re-invention of yourself and your place in the life you have constructed. For some of you this has been about reconstructing your life itself. Whatever the case I hope you are feeling invigorated by the changes. This month your planet Mars FINALLY goes direct, which will promote much forward motion in all areas of your life but mostly in your work, service projects and health issues/concerns. This is a time when you can make many advances in your relationship to your daily rituals, your body and how you deal with crisis. The benefit of going through a retrograde cycle is that we are given the opportunity to break new ground in that area of life, it’s woth while to make note of any transformations that have occured. The astrology of this spring and summer seems to be drawing us into some very intense reality checks. As a planet we are living well beyond our means, which most of us know but still we trudge on as if all the scientists are wrong, as if Mother Nature herself isn’t an authority on her own well-being. Judging from our actions and inactions we are a wildly imbalanced species hell-bent on self-destruction. Perhaps we will shift when we are forced to, it’s yet to be known. One thing is for sure, the creativity and inventive qualities that you are being gifted with right now are precisely the thing that we need to turn this ship around. It’s not that we don’t have enough (food, water, shelter, love) on the planet it’s that we do not use what we have so much of; our intelligence. Right now you are being gifted with the ability to see above the herd, Prometheus is with you and we need you to bring us the fire. My suggested spiritual practice for you this month is to meditate on the intersection of your greatest passion and the greatest need on the planet and then go boldly in that direction.

Taurus and Taurus Rising

“If you will stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable, those things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

I urge you to stay very close to your own nature this month, which is usually easy for you. The new moon in Taurus on April 21st is going to be the start of your astrological year, and it’s filled with many gifts, blessings and beauty. If the 21st is not your actual birthday I would like you to treat it as if it were your secret birthday. Take yourself out on a date. Invite no one else and do something that you always want to do but never get around to. Many mythologies of the Goddess in antiquity depict her taking time out to go to the river to bathe and renew herself. In this way she restores her virginity, which has nothing to do with being sexually chaste but it has everything to do with belonging to Herself. Do something that reaffirms your comittment to you, something wonderful and pleasure filled; spend the day as one of renewal and commitment to Self. At night ask for a specific dream for your year, sometimes its helpful to ask for something simple so that you can receive the message and work with the information. At the very least pay attention to your dreams around the new moon; they hold insight for your year ahead. With Venus now in Gemini you have a new outlook on your resources and what they can create for you. Pay special attention to what you find yourself wanting and know that what physical things you desire are mere reflections of inner spaces you are creating and growing into.

Gemini and Gemini Rising

“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the question themselves, as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

On April 4th your ruling planet, Mercury, went direct and Venus entered Gemini where it will stay until early August. During this last retrograde period (March12-April 4th) you may have been rehashing a work situation and/or your place in your social sphere or your community. There could be a conversation that you have been having internally about what to do in these areas of life, if so anytime after the 4th life will start to reveal which direction to go in. However I predict that by the end of the month, say on the 23rd of April you will be given a sudden flash of insight or help from a friend in an out-of-the blue-fashion. If you are feeling a transition coming you are right, the coming months, especially June will bring some big events for you, please remember that your idea of home, what is safe and what brings security is shifting and will continue to for another three months. You may be starting to realize that what has brought you safety is now confining you and threatening future growth and expansion. Take care of the internal before you make major external changes, there is still much confusion about your work situation, it’s OK, let it be for now. Your greatest strength and your greatest weakness weakness is your mind, and it is yours to train and to discipline. Overactive modern minds busy themselves engaging in constant social network confessions which we often mistake for intimacy, creativity or intelligence. Curb the impulsive nature of your mind and instead train it to rely on the inherent wisdom of your Self and you will find your way through this spring.

Cancer and Cancer Rising

“Everything is gestation and then birthing.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

The Barefoot College in Tilonia, India is the only college in the world that gives no certificates; the community you serve certifies you. It houses no faculty with masters or doctoral degrees and has no tuition. It is instead a school of practical knowledge and profound innovation. The school works with people in surrounding villages giving them trade skills that are applicable to their lives and to their professions, the school teaches what the community desires and needs. Students teach teachers and teachers learn from students. Grandmothers become solar power engineers and midwifery is a profession taught by those who have done it all their lives. Part of your homework this month is to watch this TED talk about it: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/bunker_roy.html I mention this because there is something in your chart that speaks to this kind of innovative spirit in your career. What ideas about your career have been percolating over the past month? How can you use what is in front of you to innovate your place in the tribe? There is something right in your midst that could both help you and others around you. This could be a new direction or it could be you understanding how to see yourself as a genius in your own sphere. There is something that only you can give the world at this time and it’s not about standing out but it is about seeing your part in the whole. What you consider your own personal common knowledge is precisely what could be revolutionary to the whole.

Leo and Leo Rising

“No great art has ever been made without the artist having known danger.”
Rainer Maria Rilke

A free mind is a dangerous mind and one that is greatly needed at this time in our history. A free mind is dangerous because it finds it’s own way to think, to observe and to draw conclusions, philosophies and most importantly a free mind questions authority ad the status quo. Looking at your chart I am reminded of the great poet, feminist thinker, advocate for women, gay and lesbian rights, peace and racial justice, educator and all around rule breaker Adrienne Rich who died this past month. Ms. Rich lived life on her own terms and made her personal life a declaration of the feminist idiom ‘the personal is political.’ In 1969 she wrote, “The moment when a feeling enters the body/ is political. This touch is political” Refusing to accept the National Endowment for the Arts award in 1997 she wrote to the Clinton administration that she “could not accept such an award from President Clinton or this White House because the very meaning of art, as I understand it, is incompatible with the cynical politics of this administration…[Art] means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of the power which holds it hostage” There is something of this revolutionary spirit being not only sparked in you but also set free, as if what ever has been holding you back be it internal or external, melts away early in the month and you have a chance to realize that you truly are free to live life on your own terms. I can also see that there is some part of your self-confidence being ironed out, some part of you that is of great value is now being revealed to you. Use it to bolster your confidence and set your mind free. Be dangerous.

Virgo and Virgo Rising
“And your doubt can become a good quality if you train it. It must become knowing, it must become criticism. Ask it, whenever it wants to spoil something for you, why something is ugly, demand proofs from it, test it, and you will find it perhaps bewildered and embarrassed, perhaps also protesting. But don’t give in, insist on arguments, and act in this way, attentive and persistent, every single time, and the day will come when, instead of being a destroyer, it will become one of your best workers–perhaps the most intelligent of all the ones that are building your life.”
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Every great thinker, writer, poet, dancer, artist, scientist, composer and architect has had profoundly adept skills of discernment and criticality. Your sign is of course famous for these very traits. Discernment allows us to weed out truth from misconception, illuminates deception and helps us to understand our souls greatest desires. These past few months have given you days upon days of opportunity to understand these topics and others such as shame, guilt, worry, doubt and fear. Many of you have had to look at those demons square in the face and I hope you have been able to cultivate more compassion for yourselves in doing so. The truth is never free and looking at your horoscope I am reminded of the Great Ones across time who have had the strength of character and the powers of critical thought by their side when they have chosen their own path over the less turbulent often-tread ones. By mid month the internal pressure will subside as Mars in Virgo finally goes direct, and by the 23rd your planet Mercury will come out of the shadow period of its recent retrograde transit. All this is to say that life should start to move forward with a bolstered confidence, and with what I hope has become a greater reliance on your abilities to own your truth.

Libra and Libra Rising

“But this is what … people are so often and disastrously wrong in doing: they (who by their very nature are impatient) fling themselves at each other when love takes hold of them, they scatter themselves, just as they are, in all their messiness, disorder, bewilderment…

And what can happen then? What can life do with this heap of half broken things that they would like to call their happiness, and their futures?

And so each of them loses himself to the other for the sake of the other person, and loses the other. And loses the vast possibilities … in exchange for an unfruitful confusion, out of which nothing more can come, nothing but a bit of disgust, disappointment and poverty.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

The full moon in Libra on April 6th at 12:19 p.m. PDT suggest that something in you is at once coming to a head and trying to perfect itself. Mastery is on your mind and this moon may expose some missing piece to truly becoming your own authority. Your kind is so fascinated by others that this past couple of years hanging with Saturn as it’s transited your sign has been a wake up call to what you yourself need to be bringing to the table. This full moon is part of the farewell party to Saturn in Libra, and one thing about Saturn is for sure; he may not be the most fun but when he is through with us we are never the same. If we have worked under his influenced, taken our lives and self seriously than when he leaves we feel like more competent, more mature more autonomous human beings. This moon is a reflection of your progress, a report card of sorts. Take stock of all that you have accomplished and above all else be kind to you. You deserve it.

Scorpio and Scorpio Rising

“For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other.
This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love: the more they give, the more they possess.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

One thing I have noticed about you lately is that you are the most practical of all the water signs. There is a steadfastness to you that is stabilizing to those around you and lends you a wicked sense of humor. You are the guardian at the gate, you understand the underworld and have the intensity of the entire zodiac in your little finger, but it’s no big deal to you. You are not impressed by drama; instead what you seek is a sensible perspective to some of the most difficult of life’s journeys. This month I would use that sense of humor in all your relationships. There is a beautiful new moon brewing on April 21st in this sector of your chart and I know I have been emphasizing this aspect of your life for sometime but I promise that I am pretty close to being done with it. What I suggest when forming, dealing or optimizing your relationships this month is to listen to Rilke. You may be good at being a down to earth, stabilizing force but you can always work on letting go. Let your other(s) be who they are and make mistakes as they go, finding their own messy way to the finish line. Therefore for you, and only you I will bookend your horoscope with words from The Master: “We need, in love, to practice only this: letting each other go. For holding on comes easily; we do not need to learn it.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Translations from the Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke

Sagittarius and Sagittarius Rising

“Were it possible for us to see further than our knowledge reaches, and yet a little way beyond the outworks of our divining, perhaps we would endure our sadnesses with greater confidence than our joys. For they are the moments when something new has entered into us, something unknown; our feelings grow mute in shy perplexity, everything in us withdraws, a stillness comes, and the new, which no one knows, stands in the midst of it and is silent.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

There may be no greater pleasure to an astrologer than telling thier client that they are free to do what they do best, and for you it’s to move forward in all the ways you wish. Though you are venturing into the great unknown once again, the above words of Rilke urge you to bring some of the humility that the last few months has taught with you. Revel in the silence, perhaps in awe, perhaps in joy, perhaps in the sheer pleasure of moving about the cabin once again in your professional life. Anything that has tripped you up, held you back or been slower than you have wished in recent months is coming free. This may have had more to do with a parent or family issue than with your job, or even a mix of both. Now it’s time to forge new pathways in the mind as well as in the world for these are especially available later in the month for you. These inspirations can come through a lover, a creative pursuit or some activity that brings you great child-like joy so make sure you leave some time for play and abandon yourself to the joys of the day.

Capricorn and Capricorn Rising

“That is the principal thing-not to remain with the dream, with the intention, with the being-in-the-mood, but always forcibly to convert it all into things.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

There is something happening late in the month during the days surrounding the new moon that is stirring you into what you do best; make manifest your dreams and visions. This new moon on April 21st harnesses your powers of practicality. Above all else Capricorn respects the laws of time and space and utilizes the power of both. Applying your steadfast and grounded nature to the creative energy that is brewing in your charts will help with any instability that you are feeling around living situations, family dynamics, issues you have with your current neighborhood or parent. There could very well be some news or revelations concerning one or many of these topics this month but I would say stick to your creative endeavors and let the rest work its own self out. One last thing I want to mention that is shifting in your chart has to do with publishing, laws and broadening your mental horizons. Move forward in any of these areas boldly but with the lessons of humility that the past few months have brought you in your back pocket.

Aquarius and Aquarius Rising

“…. most people come to know only one corner of their room, one spot near the window, one narrow strip on which they keep walking back and forth.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

By the looks of your chart there has been movement into unknown territory inside of yourself reminiscent of James Cameron’s successful underwater expedition to the deepest known part of the ocean, the Marina Trench. Most of us have heard that as a people we know more about outer space than we do about our oceans, I would add that this is true on a symbolic level as well as a literal one. In an interview on Democracy Now! about Trayvon Martin’s murder, Alice Walker explains it as a “symptom of our illness . . . We are a very sick country. And our racism is a manifestation of our illness and the ways that we don’t delve into our own wrecks.” Our personal journeys to our own version of the Marina Trench are only as good as they can serve our communities and our world. As humans we are all meant to dive deep into the experience at hand, and I believe we are meant to surface again to tell the tale of our journey to those who have yet to venture down to light their way. All of our societal ailments are due to a refusal to “delve into our own wrecks”. I would say that you will be doing this into the summer season. The new moon on April 21st invites you to begin a new at home or in your family. My suggestion is to take what you have learned about your inner seas and erect an altar to it, or refresh your altar with something from your latest expedition. Honor the deep.

Pisces and Pisces Rising

“I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone.”

― Rainer Maria Rilke

By mid month the doubts and questions you have been facing in your intimate relationships resolve themselves, for now. Look for signs of clarity and how you may have been adding to the confusion. Even though there has been and continues to be a lot of activity in the relationship area of your chart there is still so much emphasis on your own personal growth that I urge you to not loose sight of yourself if you are involved with another. Instead look to see if the people you have drawn in can keep their own boundaries; do they have their own life and self-development practices in tact? Do they know secret things? From April 21st to about the 25th (give or take a day) my homework for you is to go out into a part of your city or town that you rarely go to but always think about. It may be an art gallery, a restaurant or a hike that you have been dreaming about lately. While on this excursion I would like you to ask yourself what is one simple thing that you could do to better support yourself and then I want you to listen deeply for the answer.

Chani is available for
Astrological Readings (by Skype or in person) and
Workshops
Reiki (Hands-On Healing) sessions or
Private Yoga Sessions

For more information
please email her at
chani@chaninicholas.com
or visitwww.chaninicholas.com