This week, three planetary patterns occur in direct lines of sight, which potentially enables ultra crisp attention and application of the transits.

On the 6^th, Mercury comes in between the Earth and Sun, marking the midpoint of the Mercury retrograde pattern. If you must finalize papers, agree to deals, seek grants and funding while Mercury is retrograde, this is the time. Given it marks the halfway point of the retrograde pattern, it’s a great time to reassess if the present position tracks on course with all the objectives established prior to the messenger evidently reversing course. In relationship matters, verifying that previous conversations about important upcoming events and life details that contribute to decision making undergo recollection, review and reaffirmation. This is a one day only communication window. If you cannot accomplish the communication tasks on this date, you might as well wait until Mercury clears the retrograde cycle

Come June 9^th, Venus makes a superior opposition in such a direct alignment that she is occulted - essentially eclipsed - by the Sun. Relational requirements and economic essentials line up for a focused review. But wait! Venus is on the other side of the Sun and cannot be seen! Yes, so how does one drive down a west facing road and sunset and manage to stay on course with all the solar brightness in one’s eyes? True to the nature of Venus, it’ll take some feeling out of situations, trust in one’s desires and refusing to be overwhelmed by dominant demands be those squeezes appear as the pressures of work, the egos of partners or the distractions of social importance. It is curiously odd that with the invisibility of the feminine icon that the female, self-proclaimed front runner in the U. S. Democratic Party nomination process for President seems like to step back. Not go away, mind you, but acknowledge the other guy has enough votes to win, while not stating that she’s quit, either. Funny how the news makes great sense of astrology.

In the interest of reaffirming the importance of the dwarf planets in the solar system, two of those bodies, Ceres and Pluto, stand on the precipice of direct alignment with one another. In the myths, Pluto abducted Core (Kore)/Persephone, who was Ceres’ daughter and took her to his underworld domain to be his bride. Ceres, being a mom, reacted strongly, to understate the matter. She informed Jupiter in no uncertain terms that if her daughter was not returned - and returned intact - that she would wreak havoc on the Earth and destroy all grain and crops putting the food supply of humanity and those immortal in jeopardy. Though she might also starve, that detail never factored into Ceres’ proclamation. So it was granted by the wise Jupiter that Persephone should be returned. Pluto, catching wind of the deal, enticed Persephone to chow down on pomegranate seeds just prior to her release, ensuring she was not returning “intact.” Again, Ceres did her wrath thing. A deal was cut so that Persephone was restored to her mother on a time share basis with Pluto. Depending upon the myth, the time Persephone spends in the underworld ranges between three and six months per year; evidently Ceres received more deference than Pluto. If you visit the article on my site, Does Size Matter?, why she’s so regarded becomes clear as a matter of physical fact
 

Prior to her opposition and direct alignment of Pluto, Ceres now passes through the sky opposite the Galactic Center. Ultimately, the Galactic Center seeks to pass along innovative insights not yet grasped by the collective to those who take the time to receive and recognize the progressive insights. There is a series (sounds just like Ceres) of psyche-impacting situations that Ceres addresses as a matter of course. Given her transit to the core of the galaxy, brilliant new solutions appear.

Ceres addresses the issue of the urge when raging to cut off one’s nose to spite the face. Her Gemini position as she engages the Galactic Center can intercept the destructive elements of the impulse and seek an alternative course by asking penetrating questions. Such questions would be: Is the perception of the interference of others accurate? Are you losing anything that you might not want to keep? Is this a battle worth fighting? If you fight the battle, are you at risking of losing the big picture war? What gain appears by raging, threatening lawsuits or whatever tactic that cannot be achieved by firm negotiation in which your intractability regarding your personal line in the sand is perfectly clear?

One of the upsides of Ceres is that she rallies to help the downtrodden and assist those who do not have the physical skills, emotional maturity or mental ability to help themselves in a situation. Sending grain, a Ceres commodity, to the cyclone victims in Myanmar or the earthquake survivors in China is a perfect example of using Ceres effectively in the real world. It gets complicated if Ceres assumes it has in mind a great plan for someone who has no intention of heading in the direction Ceres seeks to steer. The joke about the boy scout helping the elderly woman across the street who did not want to cross the street comes to mind. The question for Ceres: Do they want your assistance, need your assistance and will they benefit from your assistance? If not, perhaps Ceres interferes in much the same manner as she perceives derailing interference of her efforts.

A positive application of Ceres includes grasping the ability to petition the deity and propitiate without issuing ultimatums or threats or striving to bargain. The tendency to deal with God also appears here. For instance, one might decree, “Please God, if you get me off this airplane and out of this storm alive, I’ll never lobby for a bank that intentionally contributes to the mortgage crisis again.” As soon as the plane lands, it’s off to Congress to seek anti-consumer legislation. While this comment might appear to be politically motivated (and it is), it offers an incisive example of the effort to apply Pluto’s wealth/greed axis toward the completion of a global Plutocracy and invokes Ceres’ meddlesome side in a worst case, and unfortunately real world scenario.

When Ceres achieves her exact line of sight of her adversary Pluto on June 11^th, both dwarf planets align with the fastest known spinning pulsar. The message of the moment: Create an attitude in which you have no regrets or resentment for causes pursued, energy expended or resources applied, whether physical, emotional or spiritual. Should life not bear the fruitful crop intended, this can be a tricky one. The underscoring pulsar asks for a reset of energy, application of energy and the establishment of a series of “is this still worth it?” checkpoints. If the benefits prevail, the energy continues to top the willing to outlay category. Since Ceres refers to the urge to “demand one’s due,” perhaps an energetic assessment offers more than appealing to the powers with the classical stack of physical accomplishments. Within this pattern, intent may be everything.

I’m remaining optimistic that some sort of economic control can be applied to the cost of oil crisis. Truly, I do not know the solution and I figure most politicians are in cahoots with oil barons/magnates/sheiks; so they seem useless. We could conduct a test of the law of supply and demand, though not a very green suggestion. Since most people are trying to drive less as the price of crude is promised to hit $200 U. S. this year, what if we drive more, driving the price down? Sure pal, like that’ll happen. Regardless, with both Ceres and Pluto out there in a high octane mix, they can apply effective reverse psychology tactics. I doubt the supply/demand ideas I suggest is a solution. But somewhere out there a viable answer exists in the short term. Maybe somewhere someone might track Ceres to the Galactic Center and come up with a great plan.