Planets positions at 3:50 pm ET, with the horizon poking into New Jersey.

The Moon entered Virgo this morning and opposed Jupiter. I’ve been holed up in New York City, still sleeping off Cosmic Confidential, so I can’t tell you what that aspect felt like. The Moon is trine Pluto at the moment (Virgo to Cap) and to me that feels emotionally lazy, like I’m reaching for motivation that I can’t quite access.

The Moon is about to make a series of 150 degree aspects to many planets in Aquarius, which I will include for illustration purposes. The first will be the Sun overnight, followed by Venus, Nessus, Chiron and Neptune.

This is the waning gibbous Moon, about 80% visible on the left side for most of night and morning. The thing that’s exact today is Saturn square Pluto. This is the second of three exact contacts of these two worlds, which form a square three times about every 18 years. This aspect is emblematic of all the political contention that is flying around lately; the tension, the pressure to change. In a world where so much changes meaninglessly, and where so much that needs to change cries out for significance, this aspect is going to be helpful, though it’s suggesting that we take one step at a time and be as gentle as possible in the process of making adjustments.

Looking at this chart I’m noting it’s sunset so that means: get motivated and get outside, brave the cold and take photos in lower Manhattan.

In case you’re into the Kinks, here is a little gift from Dave Nick, my old editor at Cainer.

Photo by Anthony Cheng.

The Leo Full Moon is overnight Friday to Saturday in most timezones in our readership. It is exact at Saturday at 1:17 am ET, Saturday at 6:17 am GMT and Friday at 10:17 pm PT.

This is an unusual Full Moon in that it’s conjunct retrograde Mars. My sense is that it’s going to shake out some of the sentiments hidden inside the retrograde, which means speeding up the emotional or growth process.

Mars retrograde in Leo is about the working out of one’s true desires. This can be complex. Often we fear that if we say what we want or need, we’ll cause problems. There the potential for plenty of resentment revealed, and perhaps the inner revelation of secrets that one is keeping from oneself. Those secrets can have a tendency to come out all at once; or we can (if we apply awareness) ease off the pressure slowly. I would say, take it easy, particularly in emotionally charged situations.

Spot any passionate or violent emotions brewing before they surface in unwholesome ways. This is not a good night to out drinking; you need to be letting everyone else be the ones to go out of control, while you keep your eyes peeled and make sure you’ve got a handle on yourself and your posse. This link takes you to the chart.

– Eric Francis

Good evening, critter.

There’s some good writing showing up on planet waves tonight and tomorrow, just thought I would pass that on.

efc

For the past four months I have been working night and day, on holidays and weekends and days that don’t exist, to create your 2010 astrology reports. The project is called Cosmic Confidential. I’ve been writing annual astrology for 12 years. Each year I take up the astrology for each sign, for the whole year. By the second year the project was getting elaborate, and by the fourth or fifth year it was an institution. But I’ve never quite felt good about calling it an astrological reading. This year, I am confident that’s exactly what it is.

These reports cover relationships and sex, profession, creativity and money. Yes, I don’t just cover “romance.” I know you care about actual relationships and actual sex. I don’t cover “career” — I write about developing your creativity and getting paid for it.

People travel halfway around the world and pay me hundreds of dollars an hour to read their charts. But I can’t work with that many folks. I wanted to create a way to reach more people with the nearly same quality astrology. I know that reading something is not quite as good as a conversation — though I promise you, this is close. In some ways, it’s better: you get more astrology in these readings than I give in person. I suggest you get all 12 signs, so that you can read for your Sun and rising sign (if you don’t know your rising sign I will help you figure it out) — and read for the important people in your life.

Yes, you can print it out and give it to them.

For those not familiar with my work, I write horoscopes that will give you a feeling for the tone of my interpretations. Here is February 2010’s monthly forecast. Here is the January 2010 ‘short annual edition‘. It’s a sample of what you get in Cosmic Confidential — only in the full-length report, you get many specific details.

Here’s some of what our clients have said:

“It is beautiful, elegant, and with what I have read of the Taurus section so far, is more useful my therapist appointment was today,” one reader wrote.

“I’ve read all the signs (I’m Pisces Sun with Aquarius moon rising) and even though I’m not a Scorpio or a Leo or an Aries, they still touched me and gave me great ideas of things to do in my life. I was amazed at how well they described people in my life – my boyfriend, my parents, my roommate, my best friends,” said another.

“I’m just dumbfounded at how accurate this is. I always thought I was abnormal for a Pisces. Thanks Eric, you outdid yourself this time,” another wrote.

Here are the rest of the reviews.

There are many more features in Cosmic Confidential, including a section called Everything Old is New Again — great old ideas for sustainability.

Subscription options are at the top right side of this page. The best buy is to get the bundle, Cosmic Confidential all 12 signs combined with Planet Waves Astrology news.

I’ve been doing astrology on the net since the beginning. I’ve seen all kinds of products. This really is the best product at the best price. Have fun exploring Planet Waves, and there is lots of great stuff in this Cosmic Confidential Diary.

Yours & truly,

There is a whopper of a Full Moon on the horizon: the Leo Full Moon, conjunct Mars retrograde. One of the ways astrology works is that events involving the Sun and the Moon precipitate or bring out the influences of aspects or placements that are already standing. This is a good example — Mars is doing a long, slow (and rare) retrograde, and the Sun and Moon are about to show up and oppose and conjoin Mars, respectively.

So this is going to bring out the nature of that Mars retrograde. There are a few ways to take this aspect: for one thing, it’s going to take everyone for a ride. It’s the chart of a news event, before the event. Part of that news event is on the human level: the Moon and Leo are about human feelings; human emotions. The Moon is amplifying the rather mixed, inwardly searching emotions of Mars retrograde. And on whatever scale, those feelings are poised to come out. The extreme polarization of the Full Moon nearly guarantees that emergence. It’s a question of how whatever comes out, comes out.

The problem with this Full Moon is that personally, we have the potential to over-react, and have suppressed feelings burst out. I suggest that it would be efficient to ask yourself what you want, and they state what you want. They are two separate processes. My take on Mars retrograde, as explained yesterday, is about figuring out what we want.

Yet the Moon applies an emotional overlay to what we want: it’s like a veil of denial, that we’re trying to remove and get to the heart of the matter. Leo represents the heart. Mars represents desire. The retrograde represents conflicted desire, or the search for what we want. This is deeply personal stuff; sometimes seeming too personal for personal acknowledgment (that is never really true), but certainly too personal for admission in a relationship.

This Moon makes things more complex because while the relationship could be seen as personal (Sun/Moon, Venus/Mars involved), Aquarius is a collective entity of some kind. It’s not just one relationship partner who may have an interest in knowing how you feel; it may be a group of people who have this interest. I know this may be difficult, but I suggest checking in with how much you may have to say, and rather than letting that feeling well up, you know, the one that helps you empathize with throwing something through a window, or worse…make some decisions.

Get real with your feelings: first with you, then, calmly and directly, with those who matter.

Dear Cosmic Confidentialist,

We have just opened up all pages on the Cosmic Confidential member site to comments without having to log in another time.

You are invited to enter comments and questions.

Also, if you would like to offer feedback to the public about CC, there is currently a blog entry on the front page of Planet Waves where the comments are collecting.

To those with unresolved access issues, we are working through the backlog as fast as possible. The timing was such that both Chelsea and Sarah were traveling the week of publication. Amanda is doing her best to get to you, and Chelsea will be back on tonight and tomorrow responding to your queries.

One last: for those with a blog who would like to review the project, you’re invited to do so. Please write to me directly at dreams@planetwaves.net with the word REVIEW in the subject header, and I will send you some information.

Many thanks for making this project such an amazing success.

Yours & truly,

Eric Francis