A more appropriate way to look at this Mercury retrograde would be at the Full Moon of January 10, the first Full Moon of 2009 with the Sun at 22° Capricorn. The Sabian image makes this important point, "By accepting defeat gracefully, a General reveals nobility of character... What matters most always is inner strength." This image should be sticking with us the whole year, or at least until the day after Christmas 2009, with defeat of lost causes turning into victories by acting with nobility and inner strength. This General finally "gets" it - war is hell. Make love, not war.

As for how this might look, imagine a medical research team in a state-of-the-art biology lab trying to unlock a few secrets of a killer virus. Of course, Mercury is retrograde so a key piece of equipment "naturally" breaks down, and a series of mutations cascade that causes a cancer cell to implode upon itself, turning a once deadly menace into an industrial-grade diamond in the process. Too far-fetched for you? Make your own outside-the-box accidental/synchronistic discoveries at this eclipse.

We all know what Uranian energies arose to prominence this past November, something to do with the nature of positive change. Yes we can (!) deal with Phase Two equally successfully, except this one occurs in the middle of an eclipse cycle during a retrograde Mercury shadow. Ask not what the planets can do for you ("so below"), ask what you can do for the planets ("as above"), AKA the collective Universal will.

Let's face it, whatever weirdness is going on for us as individuals is really small potatoes compared to what's been going on for the collective well-being. The mindset of "think globally, act locally" is not only a happy-hippie thing, it is truly what the Universe is telling us in how to live our lives. The urge to revolt may be tempting for individuals blinded by their own fears and ignorance in February and beyond, but cooler heads should not only prevail - they would rock! A little Saturnian patience wouldn't hurt - sheer competence is a change we can all believe in.

Venus starts off retrograde in Mars-ruled Aries, sliding back into the last degree of Pisces for the middle two weeks of April before moving direct again. Meanwhile, Mars is moving through Pisces for the majority of this Venus retrograde, and neither Venus in Aries nor Mars in Pisces are terribly comfortable in those signs. Venus and Mars will be meeting-up twice during this Venus retrograde cycle, a symbolic couple of unions between our most essential polarities.

Venus and Mars meet up with each other in the same degrees on April 21 - 22, and again on June 19 - 23, and each time the Moon joins these two in the same degrees April 22 and June 19. A Moon/Venus/Mars combustion in the same degree is actually not that rare - such a triad occurs on average once every eight years. However, these three meeting up in the same degree - happening twice in the same year - has not occurred in our lifetimes. Let's keep our third-eyes and ears as wide open as possible for "ghosts" from the past, especially souls with shared experiences of the Great European Renaissance of the 15 th and 16 th centuries. We'll all be getting together again - one way or the other - to help become co-creators of the next Great Renaissance which will begin any day now, if it hasn't already.

Thirty degrees Pisces is also known as the last degree of the zodiac with a powerful Sabian image to boot. It's a little complex but it has to do with transforming ourselves into the gods and goddesses of the natural world, a fitting way to celebrate Earth Day. For instance, invoking the psychological and spiritual archetypes of Venus or Mars would be appropriate on this Earth Day, with fabulous karmic brownie points awarded for anyone willing and able to merge the two.

Mars is actually the first to bust out of 30° Pisces as he enters the first degree of his ruling sign Aries - on Earth Day no less - an ideal time and place for new beginnings symbolic of the new growing season. This Moon/Venus/Mars combustion coincides with the New Moon of April 24 , the same day Venus herself moves into Aries, however it will take Venus another couple of months to catch up to Mars again, a cosmic Sadie Hawkins stretch like few others.

Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune are all in the same degree of Aquarius at the same time for a three-week stay, an astronomical line-up that has not occurred in all of the past two millennia. I know, that's a whole bunch of stuff to break down, but the potentials for human evolution in May and June are not only quite spectacular, they'll find a way to make themselves downright necessary.

In other words, we simply need to acknowledge the fact that we are the end-result of all of human history - all of human evolution - we are the crown of creation. Saturn's mid-term exam begins with this premise - those of us who can take responsibility for knowing that we are the crown of creation are entitled to take the next steps - glorious ones that will open up as time goes by. This can be some heady stuff so let's please leave our personal egos at the door. This is essentially what we've been intuiting about the lead-up to 2012 and the end of the Mayan calendar, no? Or not - your call. Can we at least all try to start acting like we are the apex of human evolution? I personally don't think we have much of a choice.

Synchronistically, Saturn's station-direct classroom happens right at the onset of the previously mentioned astrological event of the year, the Jupiter/Chiron/Neptune combustion with all three in the same degree at 27 Aquarius. Again, this is the first time these three have ever been in the same degree at the same time in at least the last two thousand years - AND - remember that this rare event is beginning during a Mercury retrograde cycle. Cue up another Paul Simon tune, "These are the days of miracles and wonders..."

On the face of it, this combustion is all about bringing big-time (Jupiter) spiritual (Neptune) healing (Chiron) into the world, so we can expect to hear about global meditations along these lines from May 20 to June 10. Please join in. The Saturn/Uranus opposition is eleven degrees away from being exact at this time, allowing us some breathing space from the raw physical urgency for change. It has much more to do with celebrating the idea that - maybe there is only one God after all. Call Him or Her what you want, but there is only one "all-that-is" anything. Perhaps we can all fully appreciate the wisdom that everything is connected - every thing is sacred?

Let's have a show of hands here - how many people think that global spiritual healing is what the world needs right now? I thought so. Just keep one strong hand on the wheel during this Mercury retrograde. It's perfectly okay however to sign one particular contract at this time, a contract with our higher selves that says we'll do what we can to take responsibility for the reasons we're here.

Better yet, consider the Sabian imagery for 27° Aquarius where Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune will be driving the point home to us, "An ancient pottery bowl filled with fresh violets." While this might seem like an insignificant piece of household accessory advise coming from Martha Stewart, the symbolic resonance of this image is so loaded with meaning that even the late Joseph Campbell would blush in acknowledgment.

First, think about what an "ancient bowl" would have been used for back in the day, a useful and practical vessel for carrying necessities like water or food, some things our distant ancestors couldn't live without. A pottery bowl was considered to be a much more permanent container than any of the plastics that protect our necessities of today, and here is one lesson to be learned about our throw-away culture with the need to recycle as much as we can, but there is of course way more involved here.

Think about how rare such a breakable thing is to have survived the past couple thousand years - a long line of predecessors must have found some value in it so that future generations could appreciate it. In order to preserve this ancient bowl, preceding generations would have filled this ancient bowl with only thoughts or delicate items like flowers, temporarily refreshing the craftsmanship - the ancient wisdom - of the artisan who made it so sturdy, beautiful and worthy of saving.

Now, take all the thoughts and care it took to make this ancient bowl - this ancient wisdom - and all of the thoughts and prayers it took to preserve this ancient artifact, combine it with the lineage of all the people who preserved it for so long so that we might enjoy in 2009, integrate all of the collective wisdom (and tragedies) of everyone who has ever seen this bowl, and perhaps as a last-ditch effort to honor all of everything that has preceded us, refresh those memories by placing delicate fresh violets into it.

This is aromatherapy at it's best, rekindling ancient DNA memories through one of our five physical senses via a sixth sense - represented by the ancient bowl - of karmic connections made during the lifetime of this bowl. If this bowl had been placed in a museum early on, just imagine who might have seen it and placed various thoughts onto it or even into it - folks like Jesus, Moses, Buddha, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, our grandparents, and now us. This would be the collective knowledge and wisdom of our entire species.

For bonus points, think about what physical relics we can leave behind for future generations - maybe two thousand years from now - something positive and meaningful besides our empty plastic water bottles, nuclear waste, coal sludge, wayward golf balls, you get the idea.

(Maybe this bowl is magickal, a witch's cauldron or Harry Potter's Pensieve bowl?)

The remnants of the Jupiter/Chiron/Neptune combustion are just ten degrees away from the Moon at this annular (not total) eclipse, adding additional impetus for us to reflect on where we've gone so terribly wrong, but more importantly about what needs to be done in order to fix things. Saturnian wisdom soon enough becomes the critical weapon in the Peaceful Warrior's arsenal.

It all begins in mid August as a direct Saturn forms an inconjunct with a retrograde Jupiter, exact on August 19. The next day, a testy and perhaps overwhelming Leo New Moon sees the Sun and Moon opposed the remnants of the Jupiter/Chiron/Neptune triad as Mars moves into the focus of a T-square to the upcoming Saturn/Uranus opposition, with Mars simultaneously opposed death/rebirth Pluto - whew! The UN might need to move in and call a truce with everyone.

Meanwhile, Venus and Vesta (in crabby Cancer) form sextiles to Mercury and Saturn in perfectionist Virgo, and this sextile is the foundation of a Yod (the "Finger of God") to the Jupiter/Chiron/Neptune thing. Essentially, the Universe is showing us a series of crossroads with about four or five of them laid on top of each other, and only the "Unity" arrow is pointing in the correct direction. This cosmic soup might easily seem like mental quicksand for the unaware.

Mental Mercury makes three conjunctions with the Good Professor Saturn in late September to early October, much like a teacher's aid busily handing out snap quizzes to we students, asking us how our souls have been handling whatever soul-searching needs completion. We'll need to ace those tests especially in mid September at the height of...

A retrograde Mercury is also in the mix, moving back into Virgo September 17 and conjoining Saturn on the 22 nd .

To back-peddle a bit, Mercury is Uranus' "lower" octave energetic, with Mercury constantly feeding raw data into Uranus' super-computer database for processing when they aspect each other. Mercury retrograde at this time however, conjunct Saturn, the Sun and Pallas Athene - all opposed Uranus and Juno by the 22 nd - offers new evidence as to what the Saturn/Uranus oppositions have been all about. For instance, people moving correctly with Phase Three are unafraid of change while stuck-in-the-mud folks are having the tidal waves of change rolling over them, and clear distinctions between these two camps will be sharpened at this time. Things may come to a head along these lines around the Aries Full Moon of October 4 , so always remember that embracing change is how anything or anyone ever evolves.

Uranus is still in Pisces in late 2009 when Saturn moves into Libra, giving the intensity of the Saturn/Uranus oppositions a necessary breather (their opposition is separated by nine degrees and out of bounds, not in their "correct" oppositional axis). This should be good news except we might need to refresh our duck-and-cover skills just in case.

Jupiter alone brings us back to its Chiron/Neptune combustion of the past Spring with all three within two degrees of each other at the Solstice, presenting us with yet another happy excuse for a global meditation in what unites us all. However, Mars in Leo begins his retrograde cycle opposed (180°) this second Jupiter/Chiron/Neptune combustion and we'll unfortunately be seeing plenty of examples of people (mostly male - Mars) who can't control their egos (Leo, "emasculated" by a retrograde Mars). Those dick-heads will clearly be the ones who need big-time (Jupiter) spiritual (Neptune) healing (Chiron) the most. Oh well, Master karmic badges are awarded to anyone who can defuse this increasingly marginalized minority.

I'd have to think that the foundation for the New World is shovel-ready, but will we have the courage and fearless determination to actually build a better world?

Yes we can.