Astrology of October 2009 by Henry Seltzer (www.astrograph.com)

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The Astrology of October features Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto with also a fading Mercury retrograde shadow period and an important mid-month New Moon that aspects both Neptune and Uranus. The Mercury retrograde period that just finished up at the very end of last month is still with us, in a way, through the first two weeks of this month, since Mercury has yet to regain its lost zodiacal ground. In this regard, things will ease by the 10th when Mercury enters Libra, and again by the 13th. While Mercury remains in Virgo over these first nine days of October it hovers around its third and final contact with Saturn, and its opposition to Uranus, bringing back a touch of the Saturn–Uranus opposition that is still well within orb. This means that not only will we be experiencing some of the usual symptoms of the Mercury retrograde period such as missed and mixed messages as well as mechanical and communication outright breakdowns, but we will also see a rare form of enlightenment emerging from in between the rough spots when we can allow ourselves the grace to see it.

Although the October 3rd Full Moon makes a wide T-square to Pluto, and is therefore likely to stir us up in some fashion, emphasizing the amazing changes that our lives are bringing us right now, this period of time might be felt as more of a subtle shift and a harbinger of things to come rather than a sudden breakthrough. Since Saturn is drawing ever closer in its forming square with Pluto, representing the rock and the hard place, there could be the beginning phases of strenuous events that reveal where something major has to give. This relatively dire outlook is significantly ameliorated by the presence of Neptune in Aquarius, which is the focal point of a very exact Yod or Finger of God formation from Mercury and Mars. Our ideas are melding into altered thought forms that partake of grace.

The New Moon of Sunday, October 17th is dramatic, with a close quincunx aspect to Uranus from the Sun and Moon. Uranus and Saturn are still widely opposed, with further exact hits still to come in April and July of 2010, and therefore the push–pull of polarization of this combination is still to be felt all through fall and more extremely by the springtime. This is the opposition of stand of stodgy conservative approaches versus the clarion call of the new and yet untested. In any such contest the smart money is on the new idea, constantly breaking through in spite of every obstacle, but it can be very intense working out the details. Since this New Moon also squares the nodal axis, this mid-month period could in fact represent a time of tension in the process of integrating these factors that continues through the following year.

The big astrological event in October comes at nearly the end of the month, when Saturn enters Libra and closely squares Pluto. There might be fireworks, as in the most recent prior instance of a powerful alignment between Saturn and Pluto, when we had 9-11, the war in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq. As a culture a nation and as individuals, we are being tested in these important years leading up to 2012 and beyond, and the good news is that everybody passes. How gracefully and with how much skin left on our elbows and knees is up to us.

The best way to look at these climactic times is that something major in the collective is ready to shift, and shift for the better, and that this same dynamic applies to individuals also. We can choose to rise to the occasion or languish in the doldrums of an outworn and outmoded past, and it is really up to each one of us how we choose to move forward.

Transits to the U.S. Chart

Last month I had indicated that in the "week beyond the Full Moon on September 11th" there would likely be some further information coming to light regarding deception and the military. This was because that Quarter Moon and subsequent difficult New Moon triggered the radix Neptune–Mars square in the United States chart.

This prediction jibes nicely with the unexpected release of a new book on the life and death of Pat Tillman, football star turned war hero and poster boy for the military in the months following the invasion of Iraq. The new Tillman biography by Jon Krakauer, was released on September 15 and discussed on television on September 11th. In it there are serious allegations and even further layers to the famous cover up. Of course, Pat Tillman is one of the most serious and well-documented cases of deception in high places regarding the military, when his death in an incident of friendly fire was blamed on enemy action. Amazingly, this book reveals that when he was first deployed in Iraq – before being transferred to Afghanistan – Pat Tillman was also involved in another famous incident of deception on the part of the military; the staged "rescue" of Private Jessica Lynch. Original story on gaurdian.co.uk.

Another incident that was big news regarding the military first came up in mid-September. This is the issue of whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. The general in charge of U.S. forces there is asking for 4500 more troops, but the White House doesn't feel that this idea would fly very well with an American population increasingly opposed to either war. This story was breaking on September 16th: "The nation's top military officer told Congress Tuesday the US will likely need more troops in Afghanistan. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the comments in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee." – Democracy Now.

Finally, in a tacit admission of governmental false advertising in action, there was this story, also from the same mid-month period:

President Obama has decided to abandon the Bush administration's so-called "missile-defense" system in Eastern Europe. The Wall Street Journal reports the White House based its decision on an assessment that Iran's long-range missile program hasn't significantly progressed. The move marks one of the Obama administration's sharpest reversals of a major Bush administration foreign policy to date. The Bush White House claimed the missile system was intended to thwart a potential Iranian attack. But critics widely denounced it as a first-strike weapon for hitting Iran or other targets.

All these stories are very revealing of where there is talk for the sake of appearance and where there is actual action in the role that the U.S. military plays in American foreign policy.

In the current month, the October 3rd Full Moon makes a T-square to the U.S. Sun degree, indicating that from the very start of the month the beat goes on, as far as troubling incidents are concerned. The mid-month New Moon squares U.S. Pluto – Mercury opposition, but as it does so it also trines transiting Neptune and the U.S. Moon, so that we might feel the potential grace in the revelations that continue to unfold at this time. The truth could set us free. Probably the most significant time in all of the next 31 days is the entrance of Saturn into Libra at almost the very end of the month. This is likely to be a time of great crisis in the affairs of the nation as whatever has been overlooked, ignored, or swept under the rug begins to catch up with us as a society. On into November there will be some very interesting news stories surfacing accompanied by necessary readjustments to the national consciousness, as the outer planet configurations leading up to 2012 continue to develop.

October 3rd Full Moon
This is an Aries Full Moon and as such it widely squares Pluto in Capricorn making a T-square. We will definitely feel the transformative pressure somewhere in our lives, the feeling that something has to give. Usually what needs to change is the outmoded behavior that we have inherited from prior conditioning. Letting go is the challenge and also the reward. There is at the very same time a Yod or "Finger of God" pattern that forms momentarily to Neptune in Aquarius, with the agency of Mars in Cancer and Mercury in Virgo. This symbolizes that we are seeking adjustment in more practical terms of all our dreams and illusions, and as well our hopes for a more inclusive and just society. Since transiting Mercury is regaining its lost zodiacal ground there is a reflective element that is also involved at this time, as we continue our journey toward a better level of integration with ourselves and with each other.

October 11th Last Quarter Moon
This is traditionally a time of in-gathering of intelligence, preparing for the next cycle. We are well aware by now of what part of the impulse from the previous month has not worked out and ready to cut our losses in certain areas and move on. Since Mercury has also finally re-entered Libra by this time there is also very likely the feeling of a shift in what we have been holding back and not allowing into action. This week before the New Moon reveals itself could be viewed as opportunity to visualize what might be allowed to manifest in the following four weeks of the next lunar month.

October 17th New Moon
This Libra New Moon is an exciting and powerful time, when fresh energy is emerging for relationship with others, and when we also feel an idealized sense of possibility for the fulfillment of social goals. We are being gently or not so gently nudged into including Spirit as an important part of the equation. This is due to the trine that this New Moon makes to numinous Neptune and expansive Jupiter, in Aquarius, and the quincunx to volatile Uranus in Pisces. Uranus and Neptune have been in mutual reception for many months now, meaning that they each reside in the signs of the other's rulership, and we are pulled once again into the rosy glow of possibility for a freer and more spiritually coherent future, even if only for a little while. With four planets massing in Libra we are feeling very inclusive of the opinions and the thoughts of others, and this might even turn out to be a Good Thing.

October 25th First Quarter Moon
This First Quarter Moon, which Rudhyar called the "crisis of action" is likely to represent a moment of tension in the development of the ideas that were born in the New Moon time, and is truly the marker for when the rubber meets the road in our progress. We are filled with the desire for action now, and the need for change. We might have to move mountains in order to achieve our still very idealized objectives but we are prepared to do so. We can bask in this concept of future glory, represented by Jupiter and Neptune, but other energies are also in the mix at this time in the form of Saturn which is in the last degree of Virgo and about to move into Libra. The hard-nosed and difficult side of life comes along to collect the dues that we owe to practical necessity. This will be especially true during the last days of the month.

October 29th Saturn in Libra
As it does so it squares, within one degree of longitude, Pluto in early Capricorn. This combination reads fireworks and the potential for confrontation and polarization. Venus in Libra makes close aspects to Jupiter and Uranus, indicating that relationship has a surprising power to heal us at this time. May it be so, helping us to take the important steps that are necessary now, as we truly begin to birth the new millennium.