MARCH 2011
New Moon 4th March in Pisces (conjunct Mars)
Full Moon 19th March in Virgo

There are no potent eclipses this month
What follows is a simple reading of the effect the Moon placements will make during the following month (March 2011) It is hoped that eventually it would be worthwhile to produce readings for Moon Signs on this site.
Of course, a thing is only worthwhile if it helps. It does not help to read a moon reading as if it were based on Sun Sign readings. It is a completely different monster.
Bluntly, the Moon does not lead us toward an avenue for development. In fact it is much more likely to show us where we have blocked an avenue of escape, closed, with a bolt, a useful door, barred forever a window on a new world. Instead, it is showing us the way in which we have been conditioned to react instinctively and automatically as a matter of self protection, especially when under pressure or threat. Moon shadows are terrifying things and an automatic (and wearyingly repetitive) response is inevitable to terrifying things. ! No-one likes to hear that something specific is a restraint on their personal growth, but that is what the Moon represents. (See also Tarot: The Meanings: The Moon)
It helps, however, to know which things are most likely to terrify us.
Learning is a great thing.

This is an emotionally charged and, for a change in Pisces, potentially violent Moon. It begins the month in a lost state looking for alliances and, instead, quickly finding a target for an undirected sense of frustration in authority figures. Legal problems and clashes over tradition and practice will keep rising up as the Moon reaches full in the sign most likely to have a sharp and practical answer to problems – not to mention a tendency to say the unswayable and criticize those who felt themselves above such criticism. They will fight back. Well, if you were one of them...you would, would’t you?
Moon makes two striking squares to the, currently moving, vast and unpredictable Uranus (in Cancer on 13th March and in Capricorn on 26th, when it is waning, or losing its power – the Moon, not Uranus) and at these moments the path will look clear, the way ahead as bright as a sword. At these times, there seems no sense in withholding or withdrawing, right or wrong. There is, of course, no right or wrong, only your point of view. It might be worth noting that in the coming months, the point of view which will be loudest, is the vox populi. People who have hitherto kept quiet, wish to be heard.
On a personal level there are earthquakes here, from minor but violent flare-ups to groundswell waves of discontent which will upset forever (there is actually never any return) the status-quo. It would be the gravest mistake to imagine that the status-quo will not fight back. It will whether you, personally, are part of it or not. The choice is yours.

April 2011
New Moon in Aries 3 April 2011
Full Moon in Libra 18 April 2011

The Aries new moon begins fairly hedged with everything it could be which is partly how an Aries Moon likes things - being the focus of attention is vital to this moon sign - and partly the worst nightmare that could be imagined. After all, if everything going on around is important, how can they be the MOST IMPORTANT?
Well. Light the blue touch paper and retire. The trouble is, they do not retire and neither do they have anything remotely resembling a plan for what to do when the firework goes off..or doesn't go off. Got it! Light another one!
The firework is the abiding symbol of Aries moon. Oooohh...Aaahhh...oh; gone. All sound and fury. But whilst to the onlooker fire can be occasionally attractice, it also has a habit of eating up everything around it. It feeds on the destruction it has set in motion and this month a fairly large number of things are too close for comfort and may be devoured before anything can be done to stop it.
Saturn, of course, dense and forbidding (and powerful) in Libra has a restraining influence, but such is the size of the remarkable rocket set off by the cluster in Aries at the opening of the month, that that restraint may simply add yet more to the potential bonfire. The very idea of restraint is another impetus to fury and unconsidered action. And Saturn is also concentrating on looking backward to examine old injustices and past wrongdoing and errors of judgment which hark back many years. Until it goes forward in June, it may be impossible to calculate the amount of baggage it requires be shaken off.
Ah well. By the full moon on the 18th, Saturn (rather uncomfortably squaring up with Pluto) is also about to show what considered fury and law and retribution and cold, stern, facts can do. And so is the earth, which has only begun its own implacable response to the sky's mechanics. Fire and earth are already sending out signals; electrical storms at the beginning of the month will shock with their force (as Neptune makes its long awaited move into Pisces). The sea simply responds, as we already know.
On the plus side (oh, there always is a plus side) many things that apathy could not shift at all will have been successfully set in motion. Spring cleaning on this scale, however unpleasant, is occasionally necessary. The Moon doesn't like it though and what it doesn't like, it may well get hysterical about. Bite your lip.

MAY 2011
New Moon May 3rd 6am in Taurus
Full Moon May 17 11am in Scorpio

The screaming storms of the thwarted moon in Aries are already beginning to give way to the foot-stamping of the moon of the 'terrible twos'.
The New Moon on 3rd is squared by Saturn in Libra and forming a loose trine with earth-shaker, Pluto, in the normally reassuring (to Taurus) sign of Capricorn. The Taurean moon child (and it is a child) has been feeling the tremor for some time now. The ground is shifting, psychologically speaking, and if there is anything taurus moon does not like it is unsteadiness (they don't like the feel of shifting sand on a beach). Unsteadiness represents change and change is never for the better. It usually, as they have realized - grim-mouthed and sullen with resentment - means a change for the worse. That is, some sort of alteration in their world.
The Taurus Moon it is who realizes (usually later in life than one would think) that the world is not ordered for their benefit after all, that the universe around is not theirs alone and subject only to their whim. (Aries Moon, of course, never realizes this). No, no. To Taurus Moon's horror there is denial, loss, the need to share; and sharing is quite simply, giving away part of themselves. To their credit, the surprise is often so great that they bear all this for long periods at a stretch with sturdy fortitude - though they never, ever, lose sight of the desired object removed their reach; nor do they lose the sense of their right to it - at some point, however, one too many objects are lost, taken, denied, removed out of reach and.....well, the response does not have to be imagined, it can be seen in miniature in any supermarket aisle, but in the world of adult emotionally responses, the tantrum can be terrible.
There is a difficult balance here between negotiating and surrendering and this month its effect will start to be felt. Bearing in mind at all times, that overshadowing the month is the emotional effect of the retaining fist of the new Taurean Moon and the vengeful resource of the full moon in Scorpio, it would be wise to tread carefully, even when offered a path.
Whilst Taurean Moons are very adept negotiators and handle all manner of such things with skill, anything offered by them is done only in return for something else. And besides, their eyes never lose sight of it (when I say something, I mean it). It is not yours, you understand. It is theirs; that gift they gave you in exchange - usually for a retention of love or power - was theirs; it is still theirs, even if they gave it to you.
There may be some hesitation in opening negotiations this month, but during the second part of May, as more planets move from volatile Aries into Taurus, the Taurean sense of being under too heavy a threat of loss will diminish slightly as they take ownership. It is worth remembering - when dealing with the Taurus Moon - that it is very ready to take an offered gift, or gesture (gift is better, they can touch it). They can be easily distracted in this way. Be very careful,however, what you give away. Appeasement is not recognizable here. It is now theirs, wholly, absolutely, before gods and the universe so do not expect it back.
The earth, however, has nothing to do with all this and is not in a generous mood. The ground will shift, holes will form, land taken by man will be taken back and buried, lost or torn up. Which may make the loss of the odd teddy-bear a little more bearable. But I doubt it.

JUNE 2011
New Moon 1st June Gemini
Full Moon Sagittarius

If Taurus Moon becomes tongue-tied under pressure, they should develop friendships with someone with the Moon in Gemini. Here is the Moon with an answer for everything. And a question for everything, as well.
The Gemini Moon is a phsyco-child: composed, neat, effective, smart, opinionated. Emotional response may be lacking, but information is not. Anyway, what have feelings got to do with it? The mind is all. There is always an answer, always a paradigm, always an alternative, always other possibilities, always another opinion. Before you argue with them, kindly make sure that they have not already read a library on the subject you've raised. This is a mind like a hoover. There is little distinction between information on the meaning of the universe and information on the properties of a banana. Information is information.
This is NOT, you understand, clutter. Dear me no. There are memory banks here quite equivalent to the suction of the hoover (though they don't always sleep soundly; too much sorting and de-fragging going on). And beware, they may not actually be engaged in conversation with you to be engaged in your conversation - they can usually listen to at least three at once...and read a book. Neither can they be engaged in conversation without an opinion. To the Gemini Moon, opinion may, of course, change. But change of mind is not contradiction. On the contrary, to this person, certainty is itself a symptom of madness and the ability to change your mind - or, even better, to hold two opposing points of view at the same time! - is a sign of sanity and intellectual rigour.
This month, therefore, starts with much intellectual speculation and argument. The facts unearthed by the last full moon in secretive Scorpio are grist to the mill of many a smart answer to questions - deep or shallow - answers which will in their turn raise a new level of questioning. As noted above; as much as Gemini Moon prides itself of giving smart answers, it is as adept at raising questions and refusing to accept a slick or inadequate response. "Because..." WILL NOT do at all. They will rephrase the question. After all, if the answer does not satisfy, clearly the question was the wrong question. Ask another.
The New Moon on 1st June is an eclipse, which is forming a perfect trine with ponderous, back-tracking Saturn in Libra. This demands a rethink of previous, unresolved issues. Old certainties are on the line here. They are being looked at with the cold eye of that phsyco-child. We all know the look from horror films. The twelve-year-old blank stare that questions the right to authority; that tells the teacher they are being challenged; the doctor that they seem to have overlooked the copious new research available; the politician that they lie and their lies are remembered; the trusted leader that he has just lost face; the emperor that he has just run out of clothes. The look that contains a massive, unnerving disregard for achievement without talent, status without merit or power without responsibility.
Tradition, bluster, boasting will not do from here on in and the year remains that way whilst Saturn retains its position. Gemini Moon has an answer for your answer. This is the moon of the whistle-blower. Usually, no-one is listening very much because the challenge is swift and the response to it slow. Gemini Moon has moved on to another subject. It would not be safe to wait for that to happen whilst the internet (the natural home of these moons) is still up and running, however. There is a baleful insistence on re-examination, on repeated challenges to those in authority. Skeletons may as well advance and be recognized, before the new moon's perfect square to earth-moving Pluto forces the ground heave up its dead.
If Gemini Moon ruled the courts, there would be no such thing as injunctions to protect hurt feelings. Feelings have nothing to do with it. Facts are facts. The Sagittarius full moon, which is much concerned with its own authority and also with having been right, will highlight the troublesome aspects of the Gemini questioning. It would be more to the purpose if it allowed the possibility that the answers are not always the ones that have previously been written in stone. Ants, you know, may undermine the stone courtyard of a palace, if there are enough of them. A single virus, unchallenged, can do quite as much damage as a tsunami. And look at genes.... one defect...
And then there's string theory. Well, "the chief defect of Henry King, was eating little bits of string...".
Yep. They read poetry as well.

July 2011
New Moon Cancer/Eclipse :July 1st
Full Moon : July 15th
New Moon in Leo: July 30th

The situation that seemed to start off so clearly in April looks to be losing its edge and focus. The burning heart of the coppery eclipse last month was a clear warning that rebellion has a long way to go and that despite the uncovering of some spectacular injustices, forces are being mustered to make people accept that the causes and perpetrators of old difficulties are the only means to secure a path out of those difficulties. ( I did suggest that the old guard would fight back ....a Libra or Capricorn Moon, I give you fair warning, are no mean warriors themselves).
The solar eclipse on 1st July is the last eclipse until November this year; a last warning for a long time that the clear polarizations of events and positions is a necessary evil. The eclipse establishes the lines of equal and opposite power (and emotion) at all four angles of a cardinal grand square (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) and involves some big guns: Sun/Moon opposite Pluto and Uranus opposite its Nemesis, Saturn (well, everyone's nemesis really).
So with Aries still screaming for attention, Taurus edgily stamping the ground to test its suspected lack of firmness and Gemini pouring poison into the wounds, Cancer Moon arrives to pick angrily at the scabs and prevent them healing. This may sound a sorry situation, but no-one wants a scab to cover septicemia.
Unlike the cancer ian sun, which can often find itself wallowing nostalgically in a lost past (real or imagined) it professes to love, Cancer Moon hates the past; it has a morbid fear of old things and ways because they carry the patina of disappointment, resentment and anger with them. They often talk of their obsessive scab-picking at old wounds as "clearing them out". Well, yes. There is that. But fear of a thing can cause some odd behaviour and the Cancer Moon tends to keep the past as a hidden secret behind bars, in the dark, locked away. This can often cause it to take on a much more terrible shadow than it really has. This is not 'clearing out'. Nevertheless, locked away it must be and just to make sure, Cancer Moon constantly revisits it, checking that the old horror is still there, that it is still under constraint, that it is neatly confined, like the madwoman in the attic. This means that the prison guard can no more leave the prison that the prisoner; this knowledge is not always lacking, but whether it is or not, the result is a build up of resentment and unappeased anger that is often out of all proportion to the situation (see Rochester in Jane Eyre). Sadly, movement and rebellion are the greatest desires of a moon which has built in its own shackles.
There is a logic to this, of course: (cancer Moons hate talk of logic - what is logic to do with the way they feel? after all, they never asked for this; they never asked to be born, for heavens sake!) the logic, however, is this; like most rebels, the Cancer Moon needs the presence of something to rebel against. Leaving the past behind to move on is not an option:the past shouldn't BE THERE. (it is; check the locks again). The past is the status quo which informs the future. Without the status quo, what is a rebel? The maintenance of the status quo is, therefore, the sine qua non of rebelliousness. The stable world which Cancer Moon craves for the future and rejects with equal fervour in the past (constantly retracking to ensure that its break for freedom has not destroyed the prison it is trying to fly out of) is the stable world of a hamster on a wheel.
How long, under the powerful pull of a square which involves Uranus, planet of magic, surprise, innovation and Pluto, the volcanic transformer, the secret destroyer of worlds, can the status quo be maintained in your world for you to rebel against it? The war has begun against inevitability. This is a fight that can only keep us in the same place.
Okay then, the stage is set. The thing is clear. If rebellion worked and enemies were defeated, the past brought low and the road to the future lay uninterrupted ahead......what then?
Before the month is out, we may know. After much thunder and lightning, the sun comes out....with a leo moon....on the 30th.
Ah, Leo Moon: courage is not lacking here, but it is the wrong kind of courage. It is the courage to fail. The noble courage of the unrecognized Prince; the great heart of the stalwart 'second attendant' as he waits to be picked for the lead role; the courage to stand bloodied on the battlefield and call a pyrrhic victory, a victory of a sort. The courage to stand outlined against the glaring sun whilst seeing only his lengthening shadow running before him.
But more of this next month, when we have seen the switch in moon patterns this year and start with the full moon in Aquarius whose fear of being bound would see them cut off their feet to ...er ....escape.

Leo Moon 2011
New Moon July 30th
Full Moon August 13th

The fall of kings has been the bas-relief underlining this year, as is beginning to make itself known by now.
Leo Moons tend to think that they are Leo suns. Unrecognized, but leo suns nevertheless. This might be mildly sad, but it brings with it a burning resentment that requires enormous self-control. These moons often hide their bitterness at being overlooked with a dark and often humorous charm, but it does not do to forget that it is there.
With the sun in Leo, those blessed with actual kingship have warmer wishes than they perhaps deserve, but good wishes are a fabric of the air. People often send good wishes when they haven't sent a more material gift. In their loftiness, kings occasionally do not regard this oversight.
The man (or woman) who would be king, however, does regard it. The Leo Moon, sense of entitlement written on his ever-lifted forehead, is waiting in the wings - perhaps over-eager, perhaps going a battle further than absolutely necessary, perhaps taking a step nearer the footlights than required or desirable;certainly plotting more subversion than a true Machiavellian would consider entirely safe. Forever putting desire over experience, they often pre-empt their cue and have a tendency to forget that the gemini moons are still in the crowd, watching the naked emperor take his fatal walk. They know who sold him those clothes; they know who arranged the ill-fated procession; they know who convinced him he could turn back the tide. So do the capricorns, quietly changing their stocks and shares, moving out of of invisible clothes and hedging every bet (capricorns have a sneaking admiration for leo in all his forms, but never forget, if a capricorn puts money on you, they do not feel obliged to say whether they backed you to win.)
The new moon on 30th July starts conjunct the Sun and Venus, which augurs well, but by 5th/6th August it has become squared by both, plus massive Jupiter in opposition is suggesting gambles may not pay off. As Neptune slips back into Aquarius, it might be worth pondering again whose version of the truth is being presented here, in whose magic mirror are we all watching events unfold? By 13th August, the cold full moon in Aquarius will be throwing a dark light and the impulse to chaos (which they do so LOVE) on the issues. Also care must be taken that events do not fall at that point into the hands of the mob, which Aquarian moons can lead with cold passion into very destructive behaviour. Mobs very rarely act in the interests of the various courts in which Leo Moons gather.
At this moment regardless of other portents, Leo Moons and the month ruled by it, will be checking their followers (they don't have friends, really, only followers as, sadly but perhaps fortunately, they tend to gather in places where aggrandizement is possible: parliaments, boardrooms, quangos and the outer courtyards of princes and tyrants, where they end up stabbing each other in the back): as to followers, aries and Sagittarius moons will be content with food and robes and honours;capricorn can be bribed; taurus threatened with bankruptcy and scorpio...well, best left on the battlefield, supping on horrors. If this is the time, the time is now and yet...one step too early, before the head that wears the crown is fallen...one step too late and the gold has rolled past in the dust. There is much negotiation going on, a great many backroom deals, ego-stroking and quiet silencing of opposition; much exchanging of favours, reneging on oaths, division of spoils not yet won; banking of bribes. And many, many petty arguments, sudden heart attacks, stabbing's in the back, broken toys and promises and smashed furniture. Even the odd house burned down. Certainly the odd kingdom.
No matter; for now the Leo Moon feels his courage rise. His own time in the spotlight has come. As Richard III, that most egregious of such moons, says, " Shine out, fair sun, 'til I have bought a glass, that I may see my shadow as I pass".
However, a shadow depends entirely upon the sun, or whatever other light there is. The aquarian moon may cast other shadows in front of that mirror and show the skull beneath the skin, the glow of dawn to be a bonfire of the vanities, the rising sun to be a searchlight, the longed-for crown to be a tinsel trinket.
And still. There is something admirable here. So much courage in the wrong cause. Thank god there were better men; but .....still.

Virgo Moon 2011
New Moon August 29th
Full Moon September 12th in Pisces

This is the moon of the whisper which pours the poison of confusion over the clarity of the facts, turns bold ideas into a string of drivel, expands the principles of an action until it pops like a balloon, insists there be independent investigations, a judicial enquiry, an autopsy, an independent review, a parliamentary hearing, a re-examination of all the relevant ...etc., etc. Anything at all, really, just so that it prevents having to make a decision. Or take a step forward.
In no time at all everything is off-key, not quite right, out of kilter, heading for hell in a handcart - or that is the perception. But that is always the perception of Virgo Moon; yearning for clarity, they create confusion; desperate for simplicity, they weave a fabric of cobwebby disorder; longing for ringing sanity, they produce a honking bedlam. And then blame everyone else.
On 29th August there is a grand trine of Jupiter (Taurus), Pluto (Capricorn) and Moon (Virgo) highlighting the years' continued themes of deep-seated secrets and traumatic explosions, buried treasure and excessive responses. Although Jupiter/Pluto is often associated with a spiritual awakening, in an earth trine it seems more likely that underground movements (real and theoretical and political) of all kinds are the general tenor of the the flow, shaking the ground beneath ones feet into a trembling jello - metaphysically or otherwise. Elemental gambling on grand, jupiter-like scale.
Preceded, as it always is, by the mad bugger that is the full moon of aquarius, why would Virgo Moon not feel that chaos is come again? Whilst this is normal for the Virgo Moon, a perception of life in which the possibility that the end of the world is one step in front of you, naturally can keep back the step - keep one a perpetual onlooker.
And some of what they say has merit. After all, the world may have turned upside down, but, yes, let's take an inventory of the spoons shall we? And exactly just who owns those knives sticking in peoples' backs? We need to know.
We have already been getting a sense of the effects of the forthcoming moon for a week or two: the troublemaker, the doubting Thomas, the moon of tremulous dissent and trepidation; the moon of paranoia and, frankly, fear. With it comes the constant questioning of action, the dissection of results - real and imagined - the meticulous taking apart of the dream. This is not a moon for help with the building blocks of the future, but it can certainly produce a useful map of every potential pitfall. To say "this merit hath the worst, it cannot be again" is not relevant to the Virgo Moon, which can very readily imagine a worse worst.
There is also a tendency, which can irritate, to make pronouncements from a place of safety. These are not the great travelers of the zodiac (the baggage allowance in preventative medicine would be prohibitive). Instead, the virgo moon can often never leave home for sensing the dangers outside that could kill them, only to choke to death on a surfeit of bleach fumes in the bathroom. They are, however, great filing cabinets of half-remembered details and facts and have an absolutely psychic grasp of the checks and balances of the soul's journey. This moon could be a useful companion to restrain the impetuosity of the fire moons and the heady coldness of the air group. Restraint only truly becomes a 'bad thing' when it prevents any movement at all.
It would be comforting to offer a moment of counterbalance under the full moon in Pisces, but alas, it makes a perfectly useless trine with mars in cancer, only heightening a sense of grievance as events fail to unfold in perfect harmony.
One could feel sorry about this sense of uncertainty in the virgo passage, were it not for the tinnitus of querulous questioning that takes the skin off the inner ear of the listener. The answer is to tune out a little until they eventually bore themselves and stop.

September-October 2011
New Moon 27 Sept Libra
Full Moon Oct 12 Aries

One can always thank the gods for small mercies and the smallest mercy possible this month, is that the new moon does not rise in conjunction with the implacably righteous Saturn. That honour is left to the full moon in Aries which, in exact opposition leaves the strong smell of burning bridges in the air.
Instead, the moon rises (with the sun and mercury in its bright train) in direct opposition to the shockingly unpredictable Uranus and in a tight, threatening square with dark-matter Pluto.
There is a suggestion in this formation of a convulsive movement in the fortunes of the earth's riches, or, our perception of them.
This is of worthy of mention because the the earth's riches are of very great importance to Libra Moon. Who has them; how close can they get to who has them and how much is then filtering down to themselves. Libra Moon is not the ultimate schmoozer and people-pleaser for nothing. They are that for what is in it for them. Of course, when all this 'people-pleasing' doesn't pay off (pay-off being determined by the sun sign) a spiteful, judgemental side takes over.
Like Taurus, this is a venus-moon and it is always worth bearing in mind what Venus actually is, as opposed to what we think of it as being. It is a sulphurus,choking, hostile world totally antipathetic to life as we understand it. It may look very beautiful in the early evening or early morning sky, but that is simply a matter of smoke and mirrors, because we can't actually see it at all, only light bouncing back off its bright veil of filth. This presents the difficulty of being the loveliest star in the firmament whilst pouring poison over all-comers - especially its enemies. This is possibly why Libran Moons seek out natural warriors to do their fighting - and other dirty work - for them (warriors, it must be said, are easily taken in by a bit of slap). These moons are very drawn to the thug with a gun - especially in a smart uniform. Walt Disney had them bang to rights from the stepmother Queen in Snow White to the cold beauty of the Snow Queen and beyond. "Mirror, mirror on the wall..".
The underlying theme here is an absolute horror at the shuddering vileness of the ugly, the competitive, the off-balance, the deformed. And, in case any such likelihood might be imputed to them, they tend to arrive with a partner on each arm, as if unable to support their own fragile loveliness alone. Also, of course, to distract the possibility of a critical eye landing squarely upon them.
Unlike their country cousins Aries Moon, who expect opposition where it is not, Libran Moons expect rosy compliance - where it is not. Like other air moons, these people exist in an intellectual bubble that can leave them quite shaken by the impact of any emotional, practical or unexpected disagreeableness. It can quite scramble their brains. Watch their expression as they lose at roulette for example. An unfair universe does not compute. They give a whole new meaning to "all of a flutter" under pressure, One must be aware, however, that this masks a steel trap rationale. It may not be a very clever one, but a trap is a trap and steel is steel - and a rationale depends upon one's world view "...who is the fairest...".
Beset all round this month by greater forces, Libra Moon is in a spin; that graceful, cold killer-of-dreams, Saturn, determined to undermine the value of their nest-egg, is suddenly looming on their shoulder. Saturn is very relaxed and cerebral in this sign, but the cool fingers on the back of one's neck barely disguise the the bloody scythe in the other hand, nor the karmic debt list up the sleeve. From the point of view of the libran sun sign, this is only justice; but to the moon, it is the deeply unfair appearance of a death's head at the party. Saturn, however reasoned on its own, is itself under pressure from the solar system's mad magician, Uranus, suddenly acting like a child discovering superpowers as it picks up the fire of Aries. And in the blue corner, depth-bombing Pluto, currently in Capricorn and quite happy to shake the pillars of the earth in mini-reminders of its techtonic muscle.

As it stands, two partners may be too few to navigate this month's red carpet and a sequence of shifting alliances and changes of sugar-daddies is on the cards.
And talking of cards - or gambles anyway - the full moon in Aries reaches its hot apotheosis of April's appearance on the scene in direct opposition to Saturn, indicating a cold, restraining hand on October 12th. The question is : will the brave Horatiae defend the bridge? Or will they storm the breach only to discover that a quantity of sly negotiation behind the curtain has left them holding the Joker in the pack? And not a bullet left.
That smell of burning is getting closer on the wind of change.

Scorpio Moon November 2011
New Moon 26 October
Full Moon 10 November Taurus

Scorpio Moons are not villains; they are not vampires, nor the scourge of the earth; they are not full of a strength like inner steel. They'd just like to be. They are not, either, the consummate poker player their sun signs can be. They'd just like to be. They are not particularly good at hiding their feelings or wearing an acceptable social mask (unless they are also Scorpio sun signs, in which case - best to lock them up). On the contrary, to an observer, their inner feelings can be read in their manner of walking (awkward, as if trying not to leave footprints) and a tendency to hunch their shoulders ever so slightly (as if protecting the contents of an imaginary exam paper from thieves and copyists). Oh, and a singularly odd need to look at you sideways, which they can manage to do from any angle.
Before you start feeling either slightly sorry for them, or (heaven forfend!) finding them just a bit funny, let me give a word to the wise. You are an enemy to a scorpio moon before anyone has introduced you. Don't make a bad situation worse. Scorpio as a sign rules many things; one of them is other peoples' money. That means your money. Another two are death and transfiguration. Just telling you.
They fear and suspect everyone and everything; in or out of existence, hidden or overt, alive or dead, in the past or the future. Their imagination of possible horrors is boundless and in the child can bring on night terrors quite early. They have, however, an answer to this. Make themselves (at best only in their imagination) more fearful than anything. If fear is the key, then make fear the key...
There being no horror that is alien to them, no possible terror that they have not conjured and defeated, they are matchless in situations of chaos....of which there have been many this year ....a calm point in a whirlwind. This is what draws them to the battlefield, to surgery, to the fire service, to bomb disposal, to the dark arts, to spying to ...er...banking. And if they cant find a battlefield, they'll invent one. This ability to find the centre of the storm and be unmoved is what draws them acolytes. They do love an acolyte. Acolytes are their favorite things. Like everything else, if they haven't got any, they'll invent them. Feeling beings subject to their whim. Beset on all sides by the hounds of hell, scorpio moon needs people around who believe they can defeat them. It's all a question of power - and there's nothing up front about it. This is power wielded not from behind the throne but from a dark corner of operations somewhere to the left of an unaccountably deep, dark cellar.
Do not question this. Do not question anything. Say nothing. They will merely add you to their roll-call of personal adversaries. These people invented revenge. They can draw almost an eternity of perverse pleasure out of the contemplation of your downfall and ruination. You cannot tell them to "get over it". You cannot win them over, neither with threats which they scorn, nor with smiles and charm. Scorpio moons are very wary of those who, for whatever reason, exercise easy charm. They have no charm. Contempt overwhelms their every attempt at it. They regard Leos (and even blameless libran's) from an unblinking maelstrom of disgust.
You may for the rest of your days do a thousand lovely services for a scorpio moon, but it will not outweigh the ugly itch of the one slight - real or imagined - of which they consider you guilty. They enjoy it, this bitter patience. If it takes a thousand years....thus they live, "dark, dark, dark amidst the blaze of noon". Even the ancients knew that the cellar passageway may open during this month. The new moon opens in opposition to the largesse of Jupiter. It may be readier than usual to step out and wave its black wand, having slipped by Saturn in the moon's dark phase.

Whatever: the huge, luminous and deadly (to prey moving at night) Hunter's Moon in Taurus, rises just a little too far away from a conjunction with Jupiter to cause the exaggerated chaos it could have done; though the odd gamble taken earlier in the year may well be coming home to roost. If it involves money, it certainly will. Taurean moons are feeling already the horror of an insubstantial footing, they feel the ground shifting beneath them. They are already out buying new shoes. Taurean moons always wear shoes. Not for them dancing across the grass barefoot. Shoes; jackboots, if they're given the option. Any government on shaky ground this month may be eyeing the price of jackboots; great for kicking through the bones of ones' enemies and exercising the resolute vengefulness for which Taurus is famous.
The new moon also heralded the return of Neptune to forward motion, away from a frustratingly imaginary anarchy in Aquarius, to its home of Pisces, which it reaches around March next year. A massive sea change in allegiances is on the cards by then. It largely depends on the power of the imaginary enemies conjured by this month's moon.
Thankfully, that new moon made no really complex aspects, though this may well leave us in the dark about what, exactly, those years of planned vengeance may bring forth. Lock the cellar door!

Sagittarius Moon 2011
New Moon Sagittarius: November 25th
Full Moon Gemini: December 10th

With Sagittarian Moons the phrase 'all mouth and no trousers' comes to mind...they talk a good talk...well, they talk.
It's always difficult to know what a Sagittarian moon will do, however. They'll say the most outrageous, rude, provocative and, probably, truthful things that hit their mouth - before, during or after the engagement of their brain - But what they'll do, could be quite other.

Supernaturally clumsy, color-blind to a comical degree (excuse me - you're wearing what?) monstrously arrogant and far more interested in animals than humans anyway; there's only one thing that prevents the Sagittarian moon galumphing off into the distant horizon on which their eyes and mind and imagination are constantly turned. A morbid fear of the tyranny of the status quo. Oh...and a chronic lack of money for transport. Which is because they gamble. These people stepped over the edge before they could walk and spend their lives trying to draw everyone else into the abyss. Draw or drive, because they really do have the most awful mouth on them. In the end you might jump, just to find silence.

This month all the acolytes, heretics, disciples and martyrs are splitting into their various factions, and very acrimonious it is becoming. Now we are listening to a great many contradictory, pompous and inflammatory pronouncements. The air is thick with them.
Sagittarian Moons do not represent the instant passions of an Aries or Leo - easily aroused and easily extinguished. These are older moons. The passion is more ingrained. So too is the anger at being thwarted and the impatience with argument - or with fools; which is, by the way, everyone else. These people do not argue; they pronounce. Or pontificate. Depends on your point of view. Which they can never see. Which means that they are the patron saints of argument - argument they are quite capable of ending by cutting their own throats. The expression of self is all and everything which thwarts that expression is expendable, loathsome, infantile, the enemy.
The trouble with all the intelligence of these moons is that it is unearned. There is no backup databank; they cannot prove

what they think they know. And hence the fear of the status quo. Of all the moons of the zodiac, these are the least likely - despite the evidence - to actually act rationally on what they think or say. This means that an already high blood pressure gets higher and has no outlet except in violent (or verbally vicious) outburst.

It is always a mistake to suppose that the destructive outspokenness, of Sagittarius in general and Sagittarian moons in particular, is spontaneous - or not meant seriously. It isn’t (spontaneous) - and it is (meant). What you heard was what was said. Alas, volatile Mars is squaring Sagittarius this month and sets off a nasty mutable T square at the full moon. This is the kind of argument which leads to war. Things are being said which cannot be unsaid.
Buoyed always by the sweeping and impassive generosity of Jupiter, Sagittarian moons feel extremely short-changed when they do not receive equal generosity from all the world of men around them. They and their sign are ruled by luck. The sun signs are more open to the idea of 'good luck' than are the moon signs. With these, Luck is considered a mortal enemy, since it is, in their minds, always bad, always against them and the sole reason that they are not masters of the universe.
There is much chaos abroad under this moon. These gamblers and freebooters are supremely confident that there can be no criticism of them for their behavior and yet...at their backs they always hear the dry, disapproving cough of older, cannier and better prepared enemies.

Sagittarius' own planet, Jupiter is moving backward through Taurus and Mercury also turns retrograde on the new moon. Whilst the sun grinds on with sweating optimism, the moon has a darker agenda now; throwing tantrums and threats (and stones) in all directions until at least one stick and the universe hands out what it wants. Since, of course, they feel no need to offer anything in return, this may not happen.
Amidst all this blustering, bullying and posturing, the glittering full moon in know-it-all Gemini is gleefully ready to turn up the houselights and reveal the whole tawdry show for the cheap and shoddy parody it is. The world may not be ready for this (and this most steely and critical of full moons is actually in eclipse) but, as we learned earlier in the year, Gemini moons are not without an awful patience... no doubt learned in the looming shadow of saturnine Capricorn, whose moon will rise on Christmas Eve.

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