Venus in Libra - Grace & Danger

Face of the Statue of Liberty in construction, Sun in Scorpio & Venus in Libra
Due to the destruction of much of Liberty Island’s infrastructure after super storm Sandy 2012 it seems the base on which Liberty stands is crumbling.

From October 28th, 2012 Venus glides seductively on the pleasing airs of Libra land to find fresh sources of stimulation and enchantment after her dutiful travels through the earthy terrain of Virgo. She will want to spend her time charming whoever she meets and greets until the 22nd November, 2012 when she slips into Scorpio's magnetic, mysterious water world. 

Actress/Princess Grace Kelly Sun in Scorpio & Venus in Libra

Venus would really likes to indulge normally and be left to her own pleasure seeking devices. (Venus Come Out Of Your Shell). Nourishing and anointing the body, making it look good, smell lovely and feel ‘ohh la la’ is what Venus is about. Right here in Libra, one of 'her own' signs its easy for her to make all the rules. Venus in Libra would naturally feel very much at ease, really comfortable and at home. Venus loves to be indulged, as she naturally encourages and adores beauty in all it's many forms and manifestations. It was during this Venus time in early that Libra she was haunted by a quincunx aspect, an aspect which requires adjustment. Here we have a Libra Venus with her mighty caravanserai of needs and greeds adjusting to a Pisces Chiron, dissolving everything into a fine sea mist, overcoming its losses and wanting us all to transcend just about anything. The actual reality of ocean surges and monumental flooding endured by many recently dealing with the effects of super storm Sandy. It reached its height and became a 'Frankenstorm' over Halloween and the high tides of the full moon. (Taurus Full Moon - Shelter From Hurricane Sandy) Venus in Libra is used to taking note of first impressions, she will focus on appearances and recognises the art of presentation so it is hard to imagine just what she is experiencing just now in this awkward position. 

Writer/Director Michael Creighton has Sun in Scorpio & Venus in Libra

Venus will really be weighing up what she valued and what she has lost. Naturally Venus has such an appreciation for all the finer things of life like art, music, culture and high-social life and longs for them always. Venus will also get very involved with money, fairness and justice and here in Libra, we are even more aware of her scales of justice and their symbolism. Luckily one of greatest desires of Venus is to create harmony, especially in relationships and Venus also centres on love and the Chironic Pisces wounded healer is going to like the feel of that. There are also the twin pillars of essential life for Venus, love and money, they need to be in place on the right foundations in most people lives Venus will want those pillars standing firm. Meanwhile Chiron will be off soul-searching, healing pains from past loves and a past life, happily nostalgia but needing to mourn and let go. 
As for the money bit that is all part of the pain and will need to be brought into the open air to heal. If we can delay Chiron in Pisces from limping away, feeling martyred and sad  perhaps Venus in Libra can learn some more ways just now of being compassionate, the highest form of love. This is a time for Venus in Libra to live out her fairness and justice ideals, to really share with others and to practice those random acts of kindness.

Aftermath of super storm Sandy
neighbours who have power helping others out, Hoboken, New Jersey

Venus has been tasking in Virgo for the past month and has got all of us used to this way of being. We have been making sure we get the details right, running on routines and showing and sharing our love and attention through small but very important, helpful ways. Quietly and diligently we have been of service in Virgo, where possible. Now Libra is beginning to run it's own ‘Love and Money Show’. 
OK, then lets get the Libra scales out and really get some balance into our lives. Lets make the list, draw the boxes and make the ticks. We all want prosperity, we all want love, we all want well-being and we all want harmony and we want it for everyone. Well, we have the raw materials already, we have the tools and we have got the skills. We will need some organisation and we learnt about that and saw its benefits in Virgo, last month. It still sounds like a tall order for the 'lazy' part of Libra to put into action. In some parts of the world they have not been given a choice but to really need to co-operate and help one another. 

Staten Island, NYC after super storm Sandy now coping with nor'easter winds and snow
7th November 2012

We have got what it takes to think our way forward towards what it is we really value and for us to change a few old perceptions. Venus wants to give our mind-sets a tweak here and there and to give all the things we already love and value a little face-lift. So lets put our best foot forward.The rebel yell from Uranus in Libra's opposite sign Aries, needs us to start our own personal revolution. We already value the three C's, co-operation, compassion and change, we have just got to deal with the old corporate grouse Pluto in Capricorn who is wanting to transform things in his own tried and tested old ways. Libra will want us to apply our attention to social issues and ideas, abstractions and concepts. Venus in Libra will definitely need those scales to balance fairly and squarely and will be comfortable going through legal channels. 

Actress Caroline Proust in Engrenages (Spiral)- Sun Scorpio & Venus in Libra

It will also want us to be fair, diplomatic and evenhanded in our dealings with others as well as we may have to reach compromises. An example is the New York City marathon which was due to run on 4th October 2012 but was cancelled at the last minute by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The race, which runs through the city's five borough was due to start in Staten Island, one of the places hardest hit by the super storm. With 47,500 runners from around the world and usually about a million people lining the route critics felt that the marathon, usually a cause for celebration of courage and charity would divert people and resources away from the recovery and be insensitive to peoples grief and suffering. A compromise was brought of sorts where an impromptu 'mini unofficial' marathon was run in Central Park on its first day of being open after the storm. 

After superstorm Sandy runners volunteer
an 'overwhelming sense of community'

Venus in Libra time is when we want to put on our best face and be more sociable. We will all be urged to take the air and circulate a bit more and some of us will be thrown together and just have to learn how to do it. We learning about being more enchanted by life in general. We want to please and we will want to make sure everyone and everything is all moving in harmony. Anything discordant will send us running for the hills. For the past month, to cover up any hurt or anger we may have absented ourselves and noisily ‘tidied up the kitchen cupboard’ in keeping with Virgo's nature. Now in Libra we are more likely to have a meal and wait for the turmoil to abate or just fan the flames. 

Actor Burt Lancaster - Sun in Scorpio & Venus in Libra

We will all have a month where our relationships may get more emphasised. It will matter much more how we are treated and how we treat those around us. It all becomes so much more important how we negotiate the space that we share with others. Social graces must be in place to oil the machinery because without them, of course, the social cogs would just grind against each other awkwardly leading to erosion and things would simply breakdown. Before we get too carried away with the perfection of our ideas lets remember that it may also be the case that we can get much more indecisive, perfectionist and hyper sensitive. If things don’t go our way we may even resort to patterns of passive aggressive manoeuvring and just force our way through. We may also sink into a self-indulgent spirals because we are prevaricating and avoiding making a decisions or just watch a movie.

Actor Ryan Gosling Sun in Scorpio & Venus in Libra
(from internet meme 'Hey Girl')

Key to understanding what may be going on for us is to look at where we are ‘Libra-attuned’. We all have degrees in our birth charts that looks out for and long for any wisps of Libra vibration. Where is your personal Libra antenna? It will be good to look at how smoothly the matters connected to your Libra house and planets run now. Are they functioning as well as they could or is there room for improvement? 
If you have Libra spanning the 6th zone, for example, you could be adjusting your working environment. Or try organising social events for those you work with. You could get more in harmony with your body mind rhythms. Of course you could just rush out for a sugar binge at times of stress.
Your own Venus may be in Libra. This may be a time to welcome in new arrivals in the form of people or even in the shape of notes and coins. Work it or rather just accept it. This is your time to have some ‘Wow factor’. All things must have a go at being bright and beautiful. If you are a Sun sign Libra then you know all this already.  Well maybe to a point. Because even a picture perfect, got-everything-right first time, Libra person like you can always do with an extra boost of compliments and appreciation. This month may be just the time to get them so indulge. A quick glance at the Venus list of ideals gives us a clue as to just how fundamental and central Venus needs are in all our lives. Libra can often like us to sample the delights of cultured and sophisticated taste but most of us will just go all out to co-operate and help one another more. 

Rooftop of 20 Jay Street, DUMBO area Brookland, NYC, artist Tom Fruin  a water tower 
 from scavenged, reclaimed, and recycled plexiglas and steel, survived storm Sandy

Our ability to negotiate and manoeuvre past conflicts and to seamlessly move through hard edged imperatives will be on the increase this month. As will our need to try and enjoy what we are doing in the moment. We will instinctively know what needs to happen to insure that our shared spaces become more harmonious. Our political instincts are clearly heightened and sharpened and we all want to get clued into what is going on in the corridors of power. (U.S. Presidential Election - Obama vs Romney) Above all we will need to and have plenty of opportunities to ‘put on our best smiles’ and use our tact and charm in the face of anything. It will feel good to help one another get through difficulties with a certain grace.

Producer/DJ Robert Miles Sun in Scorpio & Venus in Libra

credits: deviantart & dailbail & film.com & public delivery & msyPariah & pininterest 7 fanpop & Time & reuters
posteb by pippa ponton & jphibbs

Mercury In Libra - Postcards From A Refined Mind

Artist Anthony Gormley - Mercury in Libra 'Angel Of The North

Mercury has moved country on the 17th September 2012 and has now blown into the stirring, restless updraft of airy Libra terrain where it will take up residence until the 6th October 2012, leaving behind the dry and stable fields of earthy Virgo country (Mercury in Virgo - Postcards From A Discerning Mind) and moving into Libra with some savoir-faire.

Actor Alain Delon - Mercury in Libra 'The Ice Angel'/'The male Bardo' 
Actress Brigitte Bardo - Mercury in Libra 'The Sex Kitten' 
Libra is highly strategic as well as being very charming and diplomatic. Mercury in Libra, under the natural sweetness and eye-fluttering is a tough and canny negotiator. 
Libra knows exactly how to work both sides to achieve its goals and Libra has sky high standards.

Composer Gustav Holst - Mercury in Libra

Whenever Mercury changes sign, we need to learn a whole new language and adapt to completely different customs to the ones we have become used and familiar. Mercury affects the way we process and deal with information. Which of course includes how we talk and what we talk about, our style of thinking, how we write, why we Twitter, what we txt, what we like to read, or listen to and how we learn.

Writer F Scott Fitzgerald - Mercury in Libra
'I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others--young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.' The Great Gatsby

Whilst Mercury was in pragmatic Virgo during the last month,we had to switch our tuning over to ‘useful’ mode. We had to adapt to speaking and thinking more critically and more accurately and precisely. We had to learn things in more detail and often by adopting a more practical hands on approach. Journeys and communications would have probably been work orientated or connected with helping out or including doing someone else a favour. We were all more inclined to help and make ourselves available in practical ways to ground our plans and dreams. 

Actor Jeremy Irons - Mercury in Libra
played F Scott Fitzgerald in Last Call, recounting his life's memories.
'We all have our time machines. Some take us back they are called memories. Some take us forward they are called dreams.'

However, just as we have got some way used to this style of thinking and expressing ourselves we suddenly find ourselves over the border of another foreign landscape, where everyone here begins to ask us to learn to speak a little differently again. The tone here is more harmonious, we may try to say nicer things before diving in with harsher, cutting language and above all we find ourselves being fair minded above all else. Obviously we will still have to say the hard things but maybe the will be more acceptable in a kinder format. Mercury’s 'fleet of foot ways' will have found great delight in being able to examine, question and disseminate information in its stay with Virgo recently but now Mercury is looking to encourage and help us perfect our more diplomatic voices. We will all benefit from speaking a little more calmly, moderating and modulating our voice in order to make what we trying to say and the message we convey, more acceptable to the ears of the receivers. Being adaptable is Mercury's forte and it will adjust quite quickly - we will all adjust and find the new angle or is it angel at our table helping us to be effective but more considerate and kinder. 

Actress Sigourney Weaver - Mercury in Libra, got her name from F Scott Fitzgerald 'The Great Gatsby'

However, it may well be with Mercury in Libra, some of our efforts to avoid conflict and undue upset may work against us as we can end up being the very cause of trouble and frustration we are trying so hard to avoid. In our attempts to get to a point of balance we may lean a little too heavily to one side or the other. Too sweet and too weak or too sour and way too much power.  

 Welcome to Mercury in Libra the sign of the scales. It shrewdly weighs up the pros and cons of everything in it's path continually striving for unity and balance. As the dissecting and hyper-analysing of the past month in Virgo falls behind us we want things to go much more smoothly, thank you. While Mercury is in Libra we really need to understand ‘honey catches more flies than vinegar’. Yes, sweeten the pill and your message may be easier to swallow but sweeten it too much and it will become sickly. Highly refined sugar is not good for us and it can often take the bitterness of dark chocolate to provide the much needed balance we are all looking for.

Writer Roald Dahl - Mercury in Libra
'So when you meet a musician or a writer, you shouldn’t be surprised that they look exactly like ordinary people, because in that part of their lives they are. They are ordinary people who have a secret compartment somewhere in their brain which they can switch on when they become quite alone and go to work.'

We are all noticing the change from Mercury in Virgo to Mercury in Libra and the difference is as clear as the difference between earth and air. The mutable, 'consider all the myriad options and then check them out again' of Virgo is being replaced by the 'there is a committee in my head but the minutes suggest that we need to do something', stylised thinking of Libra.

We are all feeling this  Mercury shift and you and those around you will want to be more sociable and more inclined to be amenable or perhaps even more charming than usual perhaps even swept away with some stylish romanticism. 

                                
Actress Catherine Deneuve - Mercury in Libra & Actress Susan Sarandon - Mercury in Libra
Politically, on many levels, the energy surrounding decisions and interactions will be more inclined to working towards mediation, reconciliation or at the very least, a lot more effort being put in to appear unified. For the next couple of weeks then lets hope that people on this precious planet of ours will be mentally processing in smarter more tactical way. Much needed are calm and clear heads in order to, take down a notch and dissipate, the volatile charge that has been building and establishing a more peaceful climate. Unfortunately we will also be easy prey to a teeny weeny bit more passive-aggressive behaviour. We have all seen the iron fist in the velvet glove with our own eyes before now. 

UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - Mercury in Libra

Thankfully, Mercury in Libra is ultimately intent on creating balance and fairness and we all may have to learn that peace is the only sane outcome of conflict.
Your partner, your children, your friends, your Twitter followers, your teachers, your pupils, even bosses, next door neighbours, the person sitting next to you on the bus and heads of state begin to show subtle changes. We will all feel a little more ambitious but trying to avoid conflict and confrontation, at the same time and being so much more pleasant..aah. We may also have the urge to soak up as much ‘culture’ as we can absorb, no harm in that or for that matter lovers, urged to whisper sweet nothings a lot more. We will want to write or speak about art and creativity because we will be draw to the more aesthetic parts of our psyches and attracted to beauty in all its shapes and forms.With Mercury in Libra our communictions are about to get a lot more sophisticated for good or bad.

Singer/Writer Leonard Cohen - Mercury in Libra
'ring the bells that still can ring forget your perfect offering
there is a crack in everything, thats how the light gets in'

This mental shift changes the general tone for us but how does it play out specifically? The sign of Libra sits somewhere in your birth chart, even if you do not have any planets in this sign you always have Libra county somewhere in your psyche and its symbolism plays out in daily life. It is this Libra zone which is having Mercury as a house guest. This is where we will have to become more accommodating and welcoming until your mercurial visitor begins to feel at home.

Photographer Annie Leibovitz - Mercury in Libra

If you know where your ‘Libra country' is then try to slow down and really put your full attention onto it for a moment. It is here that you may be trying to find the right  balance and restore beauty in your life in order to make peace somehow. Take time regarding the issues affected in that part of your chart. For instance, Libra may be in 11^th house of ‘Associations and Helpers’ in which case Mercury here will probably prompt you to think about and plan those changes to your friendships or groups that you may be attached to. Or is Libra on your 4^th house or zone of ‘Home and Family’, here your plans could be on a major home interior decoration make-over or planning a family social gathering. Making the arrangements will now probably go more smoothly if we are aware of our thinking around these ideas and issues. Or is Libra pulling at your Jupiter, if so maybe these few weeks will get you researching your next ‘Big Idea’. Is Mercury conjunct a planet like Mars who will want you to action everything. (Mars In Libra Land)

Saturn the planet of 'hard work learning all the hard lessons' is also in the sign of Libra and will be until 6th October 2012. Saturn will want us to work out what we really want, not what we are told to want and not what we can't say 'yes' or 'no' to. Saturn will drag us right down to the basics and in Libra a lot of it is going to be about relationships, about the other or others.

Mercury's presence in Libra will help those of us facing up to any injustices, unfairness, selfishness by thinking through commitments fairly and with perspective and balance. Ideally, that may work out but not at any cost. Saturn will not need 'you speak and I hear violins', wishy-washy approach to relationships because to commit can be two sided, to rely on and trust or restrict and imprison. Mercury in Libra will want to 'play among the stars' but Saturn's shadow may try to keep both feet well on the ground.

Writer/Actress Carrie Fisher - Mercury in Libra

So are we all going to make the most of our charm and flash those lovely smiles as we glide effortlessly forward, we can hope. We can also act on those creative, artistic urges now clamoring to have outward expression. The way we can communicate will also have the potential to really arbitrate conflicts and upsets. We all want a more beautiful, fair and just world and making it a little more cultured in the process is just fine. We are going to want to connect with the part of ourselves that deeply wants justice and feels strongly about issues close to our higher ideals and values. As we become clear what matters to us and also to others perhaps we will develop the strength of mind to get to the heart of what truly matters.

Singer Nina Persson has Mercury in Libra

credits: wikepedia & theatlanticwire & theplace2 & kesseljunkie & jp5746a & magforum 
posted by pippa ponton & jphibbs   

Mars in Libra Land

Action For An Ideal World

The Dalai Lama has Mars in Libra 
3rd December, 2012 Channel 4 Dispatches - The Chinese Are Coming has suggested the Chinese government has lobbied aggressively to prevent foreign ministers meeting with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader on any occasion and that many political figures have backed off for fear of upsetting business and loan deals.

Mars has been in Virgo for these past few months, since the 11th of November 2011, to be exactingly Virgoan about it. Mars usually spends about six weeks in each sign but it has been over seven and half months with Virgo. Hard Work or Hard at Work - how has it been for you?

Every few years Mars retrogrades and this time, it had to go over and over things in Virgo. This has been quite a hard work-out for Mars but he does like a challenge, after all. About three months going over things, well hopefully all this effort will result in important transformations for us. 

Mars has had an extended stay in the Earthy wheat fields of Virgo then but he hasn’t exactly been idling it has been hard at work – and I expect, so have you. He has been gathering, sorting, refining and categorizing stuff for you. Getting things ‘just so’ and striving for perfection all this time driving you on to IMPROVE –‘go on you can do better’ he urges, making you do things over and over until you get them 'right' - or get more labels and storage boxes - or get more particular. 

He has been making you sit and do your sums, checking your homework and cleaning your kit so that you are fit for purpose and making sure you don’t rush out without your keys/mobile/notes/picnic - no maybe not the picnic - but supplies of one sort or another - I  wonder if those stationary stores have done good business. How many pens have you bought, for example?

Now Mars in his Virgo suit of armour is ready. Now Mars in his chain mail of paperclips doesn't need any more tiny paper-cuts. Now Mars in his Virgo role is confident that the job has been done well. Now Mars as an adventurer is setting his sights on an all-together different target. Have you had good days at the office? Time to stretch your legs and open your mind to possibilities and expand into the realm of infinite possibilities.

From the 3^rd July 2012 Mars moves through the cool breezes of 'Libra Land' occasionally resting on pastel fluffy clouds and taking in the Air. Mars is thinking while he is up there, be assured his energy is being put to good use. He is busy working out plans and strategies, forging and tempering his metal with a steely intellect, as sharp and cutting as any other perfectly grafted tool. What are we going to do with those pens. What are we going to write about now?

John Lennon has Mars in Libra

While Mars is here he may get some of his best ideas, as Libra is an air sign and functions brilliantly with the intellect and utilizes calculating rationale as its weapons, all expertly hidden behind smiles, charm, and sweet diplomacy. 

Expert social skills coupled with masterly strategy are a potent foe and these are in the toolbox which Mars will be carrying with him until 24^th August 2012. 

Whether it is in astrology, sociology or psychology the terrains of ideas and idealism will supply plenty of opportunity for battle and the showing of skill and talent that Mars craves.

Sigmund Freud - Mars in Libra

Mars prefers to flex his muscles by movement, he wants to run, jump and charge. He wants to express his aliveness through pushing through, initiating and carving out fresh paths. Sure he has been busy in Virgo, but to be honest he has begun to feel a bit housebound and stagnant, spending so long as he has recently, lingering in the one sign for nearly 8 months.

Nelson Mandela - Mars in Libra

Now he is chomping at the bit to race onwards, and race onwards he does, he may feel he has done his time and now he wants ‘me time’. Except the new country he is about to explore is Libra the sign of partnerships, mergers, deals, co-operation and compromise  - “what” shouts Mars, “where is the fight the grit the sweat, toil and muscle? How can I pit myself against someone who so easily appears to comply, disarms and charms? 

Prince William & Kate Middleton -  Both Mars in Libra

3rd December, 2012 St James's Palace announced the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton was pregnant after she was admitted to hospital with hyperemesis gravidarum, a severe morning sickness. 

Where is the sport in that?” Ha - don’t be fooled ‘matey’ Mars, don’t be fooled. Libra has it’s sights as firmly fixed on winning the prize as you, only the techniques and tactics will have to change. In other word you will have to ‘box cleaver’. Brute force meets the velvet glove, a really winning combination. Think about it, plan it then action it - pioneer new territory.

Liz Greene - Mars in Libra

Don’t worry Mars you will fully face your challenges and for these weeks the weapons in your tool kit will be super-sharp, super tactical and super-duper-disarmingly sweet and full of expression.

Actress Anna Paquin - Mars in Libra

         
Everyone will have this shift of Mars moving through Libra, we will notice and take note to varying degrees the different skills and techniques which will work best when we want or need to express our drive and self-assertion. We can now develop what it may take to thrust and take off, to try and to love what we find we can do.

Actress Kirsten Dunst - Mars in Libra

Kirsten Dunst Mars in 7th house

The house which has Libra on the front door will be the one where much of the activity will take place. If there are any planets which are programmed to pick up the Cardinal degrees (any planets in Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) they may experience the coming breezes as a bit more of a squall.

Film Director Alfred Hitchcock has Mars in Libra

Me? I have a 4^th house Libran front door, and this house is all about, among other things, Home & Family, umm is that my family I see in the distance running for the hills...

John Lennon Mars in 6th house

And in the End the Love You Take Is Equal To The Love You Make - John Lennon 2012 London Olympics

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994/1999 who died on the 5th December 2013. Actress Naomi Harris has Mars in Libra 

(Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom)

posted by pippa ponton & jphibbs

credits BBC & silbert studios