Astrology of Now: Storm Damage and Waiting

JMW Turner. Snow Storm.

Let me tell you why you haven't heard from me for a few days.

This is how it was meant to be. I was meant to go out to France on Wednesday and come back Sunday, having graced my elderly parents with my presence, and caused as little disruption to the smooth running of my own household and work routine as possible.

Here's what really happened. I got there all right, then things began to slide out of order.

On Friday, Neptune roared out of Aquarius, plunging Europe into a deep-freeze.The water in my parents'  house was cut off because the pipes froze. No joke when you want to flush the toilet and you're having seven guests to lunch. By then I'd already lost the internet access, but that seemed negligible beside the loss of water.



On Sunday I tried to leave. The day started fine, and I arrived at the airport in good time and said goodbye to the Aged Ps.

But then the snow began to come down heavily. I realised as I watched the blanket of white thicken and the air turn dark, that I should have paid heed to Mars retrograde. You can't do anything quickly under this transit, especially if it's opposite your own Mars. This was never going to be a quick trip.

Moon was opposite Pluto on the first day I tried to get home.

I had been waiting for the plane for seven hours or so by the time it was cancelled. And Mars retrograde was squaring my Moon (home): it was never going to be straightforward.

My philosophy is though, in general, don't let astrology stop you from doing things. You will just experience them in a different, less linear way and you might learn something interesting. And so it went...

My parents, insisted on coming to fetch me back from the airport, a short drive from their house. But they simply did not show up. The airport staff phoned the gendarmerie. They explained that there had been so many accidents on that stretch of road in the past hour that they weren't sure who had been involved yet.

A few minutes later, the hospital phoned the airport. There was my mother: in one piece, but upset. My father: a head injury. Tr Mars (accidents) was opposing his Saturn (bone) from his first house (head).

Mars was also opposing my own Saturn (Dad). We have a Saturn conjunction, which is quite common in parents and children, because people often have children at around the age of 30.

Reader, he's OK.

But the car is unfortunately also under Mars, as ruler of his natal third house. It's finished. And interestingly, it's lasted exactly one Mars cycle since he bought it two years ago.

So I got them home in a taxi, up the mountain, through the snow, back to the house with no water. My mother was heroic. (Saturn rising, Uranus just past return, and, tr Saturn conjunct Mars.)

Saturn teaches us patience. Mars makes us take action. Saturn teaches us discipline. Mars is moving forward. If you can get these two energies working together, you have a perfect soldier. If a Mars retrograde involves your natal Saturn or Mars, watch out or wait it out.

What it Beckett's play Waiting for Godot really about?

Waiting, waiting at the airport, in the hospital. Mars retrograde in Virgo, the healer's sign. Saturn stationing in the sign of balance.

But do you know what? Despite the series of unfortunate events, all of us still felt lucky. We felt as if a guardian angel had been watching, because, believe me, it could have been so much worse. Both my parents have Jupiter (said to be the guardian) on their ICs, one of many aspects they share. My mother has the big J in Pisces at an exact angle to her Sun-Mars.

My journey home the next day was an obstacle course: roads blocked by snow, a strike on the railway, a credit card that failed, passport control, an airline strike, security checks, frisking, dead mobile phone. I got past everything, running, but only after I prayed wholeheartedly to the mother goddess and goddess of mothers did I begin to swim with the energy correctly.

I prayed for a taxi and a delayed plane. The taxi was waiting and the plane was delayed. If it had not been, I would have missed the flight by two minutes.

Where, you ask, was Mercury, ruler of flight, in all this? Mercury was still combust the Sun, which is in detriment in Aquarius. I'm going to remember that next time I book a flight.

And who was my guardian angel? And what was the correct energy?

The correct energy to get something done, seemed to be violent bursts of activity (I nearly had a heart attack running through the airport) punctuated by total calm and submission to the circumstances. Driving through snow can only be done at the snow's pleasure.

Venus in Pisces, the most mother goddess of them all, was conjunct my Mercury. My feet truly did have wings as I flew home to my children.

The Virgin of the Lilies by Bougereau.
courtesy Wikimedia Commons