Decisions, decisions...

As a person that has Mercury and Venus in Aquarius along with a Libra moon, it is amusing for me to even be writing a post about flakiness.

I admit, I have problems with decision making. In fact, often, I wait until the last minute to decide.  I like to think, “it can go either way”, while I know that this probably annoys the person (or persons) that need to know what’s up.

I’ve heard that our “weaknesses” is one of the negative things that we notice in others.  It’s funny how all of that works!

Let me list some personal examples:

Going out to eat and trying to decide where to go. This is a typical discussion with a friend or my significant other:
Friend: “Where do you want to eat?”
Me: “Oh, I don’t know, where do you want to go?”
Friend: “Well, what do you want to eat?”
Me: “I’m not sure…what do you want to eat?  You know what, why don’t you decide? I won’t be able to make up my mind.

Along with deciding where to eat, let me tell you–I’m not a big fan of menus with a huge selection!  Often, I have to get recommendations from others.

Friend:  “I want to go out and do something.”
Me: “Okay, let’s go and do something.”
Five minutes later.
Friend: “Nevermind, I don’t feel like going anywhere.”
I can’t say a lot about this, I am completely guilty of doing this as well!

Those are just a few examples that immediately come to mind.  What are your experiences with astrology and flakiness?

Image courtesy of vikush from sxc.hu

Leo rules the 5th house

I mentioned in my last post (Taurus Rising is back!), Saturn has entered my 6th house.  My 5th house, ruled by Leo, is now housing Mars retrograde until March 10, 2010.

Although, Mars retrograde is transiting through 5th house, my 5th house is free from the restraints of Saturn.  Saturn is a planet that teaches lessons, such as how to survive within certain restrictions.

Saturn‘s transition from one sign to another lasts around two and a half years.  In the last two years, my life has undergone several changes.  The 5th house is the home of self-expression, children, and sex!   As Leo is the natural ruler of the 5th house, I believe that Saturn’s power was amplified.

Some of the changes in my life (mostly things that were out of my control), put a restraint on my “me-time”.  With Saturn’s move into my 6th house (the house of daily chores, scheduling, health, and fitness) , I feel that I’m managing my time better.  I have been “scheduling” time for creative projects.

Now, Mars is the planet of ambition and vitality.  It represents what “drives us”.   With Mars retrograde, the energy is focused inward.  As I said in my previous post, this may be the cause of inward aggression.  Anger.  The key to dealing with Mars retrograde is to channel that energy into something other than anger (Mars is also the god of war!).  For me, I have been focusing this energy into creativity – art, music, and writing.  Self-expression!

Although it sounds odd, I believe that Saturn has taught me about the lack of self-expression.  I had been prone to writer’s block and often avoiding art and music – even though they were things that I wanted to work on.  I am grateful for Saturn transiting into my 6th house – teaching me that even though I still have restrictions, there is a way to balance things (how appropriate with Saturn being in Libra!).

Image courtesy of josecarli from sxc.hu

Mercury Retrograde - it can do some nasty things!

Mercury Retrograde.  Oh yes.  It’s here and it’s going to be here until September 29, 2009.  Can you feel it?  I’ve heard so many people grumbling and mumbling about the Mercury Retrograde.  It’s the time when we expect things to break, things to fail, or delays in general.  But, I mean, we were all expecting him to show up unexpectedly for dinner, right?

Of course, I’m probably testing Mr. Mercury just by writing this post.  This week, so many things have gone wrong or “unexpected” – that I can’t help but laugh to myself.  Electronic things going haywire?  Mental fogginess?  Yes, these are a few influences during a Mercury Retrograde.  Also with this retrograde being in Libra, a few people from my past have came by to grace me with their presence.  Not necessarily bad things – just time to revisit old relationships and if needed, work on their “unfinished business”.

So far with this Mercury Retrograde…

• My DH’s job “lost” his paycheck.
• Forgot to pay rent for this month.  This is crazy because I’m pretty insane when it comes to paying bills.
• My camera stopped working.  I went somewhere and wanted to snap some photos, but my camera stopped working.  It’s a digital camera and the display wasn’t showing anything. After I left this place, I decided to fiddle around with the camera but alas, it was mysteriously working again.
• Message board woes!  I posted on a message board by e-mail, however when it posted- it was showing up as post from a text message… from somebody else!  The funny part was that this person didn’t even have a cell phone.  I had to change some settings on my profile, then it was posting like normal.  It was probably some silly error on my part, but funny nonetheless.
• This guy from my past reappeared right after Mercury went retrograde.  Mainly, he wanted to tell me that his wife had left him and he wished he pursued me instead of her… errr, what?
• Another guy that I hadn’t talked to in a while… he messaged me to just “say hi”, but I knew that it was more than that.  How often do you get people that haven’t talked to you in years or months, messaging you to just say hi?  Ahh, I don’t that often… but it turns out that he was having problems with his woman and needed advice.
• On another Libra/relationship note, there was some family drama.  It really upset me, but I was able to calm down my Scorpio stellium (including my wonderful, Mars in Scorpio).  Around this time, you really have to realize that this retrograde may influence some more than others.  This means that people will blurt out things- sometimes hurtful- (clouded Mercury communication!) without thinking.
• Cell phone problems.  The signal has been on and off.
• My Internet connection has been flaky, as well.

Of course, these things could happen any other during the year… they just happen to fall on the Mercury Retrograde.  So, whenever something happens, I can’t help but laugh.

Mercury Retrograde is also great for creativity!

On the positive side, this is what the Mercury Retrograde has helped me with…

• It’s given me time to reflect on things.  I’ve been able to slow down and take a look around at everything going on.  It’s helping me understand what’s working and what isn’t working for me.
• I’ve had time to do some cleaning – and not just house cleaning (if you follow my Twitter account, you know what I mean!), but thinking about the people that I surround myself with.  Along with the reflection, I’ve felt the need for a “spiritual cleansing”. This has helped me weed out negative people/influences in my life.  This is something that I’ve needed to do for a while.
• I’ve also felt a wonderful wave of creativity.  Although I have slowed down on some things, I feel like my creativity is in high gear.  I love it!

—

Now, my question to you is: What has Mercury Retrograde done for you so far? Please post your answers in the comments.  I’m interested in seeing what everyone else is going through.

Image of “breaking down” courtesy of BeverlyLR on sxc.hu
Abstract image courtesy of ba1969 on sxc.hu

There’s this game I like to play whenever I’m watching TV.  It’s called “Guess the Sign”.  I only play this game when I’m watching late night talk shows or sports shows.  Birthdates and times of real people are easier to verify than fictional characters.

Of course, there are some downsides – for some celebrities, birth times are unknown or not made to the public… but for practice, I like to see if I can guess their signs or if I know the signs – if I can guess their rising signs.

For example, a few weeks ago, actress Gwyneth Paltrow was a guest on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.  I don’t know a lot about her, but there was a noticeable way that she carried herself and spoke, she seemed like a really classy type of gal.  Immediately I thought, she must have a Libra sun or Libra is prominent in her chart.  I searched for her birth information online and I found a website (astrotheme.com) that had a page about her birth chart.  I was able to find out that she had a Libra sun along with a Gemini moon and Pisces rising.  She also has the planets Uranus, Mercury, and Pluto in Libra.

Former NBA player, Charles Barkley is another person that I’ve tried in the “Guess the Sign” game.  I knew immediately that has a Pisces sun (we have the same birth date!), but I noticed that he is a lot louder than your typical Pisces.  I looked up his birth chart, but unfortunately, found that there was no birth time.  But by his mannerisms and reputation for being a bit aggressive, I think that he may have a fiery rising sign.  What do you think?

Courtesy of the Official Brett Favre website

An athlete whose sign I guessed correctly is NFL quarterback, Brett Favre.  Last year, he made an announcement that he was going to retire from the NFL and as quarterback for the Green Bay Packers.  A few months later, he decided to unretire and get back in the game.  Unfortunately for him, the Packers had already decided to work with their new quarterback, Aaron Rodgers.  Favre was later traded to the New York Jets and became quarterback for their team.  After the Jets failed to make the playoffs last season, Favre decided to retire again.  He spoke with the press and told them that he was retiring, but, he had the right to change his mind.  Following this, there was a lot of drama surrounding the former quarterback.  Would he play?  Would he stay retired?  Finally, a couple of weeks ago, Favre made the announcement that he would be returning to football and playing for the Minnesota Vikings.  Now if you read all of this, you can probably go ahead and guess his sign.  After looking up his information, I wasn’t surprised to learn that he is a Libra.  I also found this blog post:  21st Century Astrology: Brett Favre: Libra in Crisis that detailed more information about his Libra indecisiveness.  His birth time is unknown.

So, that is how I play the game, “Guess the Sign”.  Are there any astrology games that you like to play?