Mystic Medusa is a syndicated astrologer whose witty and sensationally accurate column appears every Saturday in the Weekend Australian newspaper and monthly in In Style magazine.

Mystic Medusa’s Astroscape 2010

Sensationally Cool and Accurate Stars for the Year Ahead

By Mystic Medusa, Nigel Buchanan

Allen & Unwin

Copyright © 2009 Abnorm Pty Ltd
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-74175-906-8

Contents

Introduction,
Mercurial Bats — How Not to Let Mercury Retrograde Send You Mental,
Mercury Retro Dates for 2010,
The Mars & Venusian Weirding of 2010 — Carnal Ego & Surreal Love,
Moon Mastery,
Moons to Make Your Life Over,
Mysteries of the Void Moon,
Moon By Moon,
The Moon–Pluto Shitzone,
The Moon–Uranus Eureka Moment,
The Moon–Neptune Dreaming,
Diet Moons,
Hair Moons,
Month-by-month Moons,
signs,
Aries,
Taurus,
Gemini,
Cancer,
Leo,
Virgo,
Libra,
Scorpio,
Sagittarius,
Capricorn,
Aquarius,
Pisces,

CHAPTER 1

Mercurial Bats — How Notto Let Mercury Retrograde Send You Mental

Mercury is the mythological messenger of the gods and the planet that rules such phenomena as emails, couriers, gadgets, computers, phones, letters … In short, communications and intellect.

On three, or sometimes four, occasions a year it goes ‘retrograde’ and can produce complete and utter chaos. Mercury Retrograde rules missed calls, delayed flights, lost data and stupid, vile misunderstandings.

Without wishing to be overly superstitious and bats about it, the Mercury Retro phases are best avoided for any of the following activity:

* Signing any contract. An oldie but a goodie. I’ve done this — trying not to be too astro-goo-goo — and have always regretted it.

* Buying big items. Especially electrical appliances, phones and computers. They tend to conk out in hilarious, trickster-style ways.

* Making a significant move or huge life-altering decision. More info tends to come to light after Mercury is direct.

* Beginning a book, marriage or business. It’s not bad, as such, but it is just not optimal.

* Gossip. Très dodgy. It will create what spies call ‘blowback’. Be careful with all forms of information brokering.

But the phases when Mercury goes bung can be brilliant for finding lost objects, polishing off creative projects that have hung around forever, revision, blissful introspection and random synchronicity that reconnects you with important elements or people from your past. One often groks fabulous insights during Mercury Retro and the point is not to act upon them immediately but jot them down someplace so you can see whether they still have any form when Mercury is direct again.

A declaration made by a non-astrologically-aware character during Mercury Retro will often be reversed once Mercury is direct. It’s amazing how often someone will issue a ‘just friends’ or ‘can’t commit’ rant during Mercury Retro and then change his or her mind later. Likewise, don’t issue ultimatums during these times.

As you are bingling about your business, you’ll strike everyone by how suave and unflappable you are. They need not know that your enviable aplomb is because you’re triple-checking all communications, eschewing cryptic or perhaps-not-so-funny-after-all text messages and allowing extra time for all forms of travel, knowing the Mercurial Bats moments and having scheduled them in your diary yonks ago.

Apart from projects that are out-of-time or utterly unlinked to the work at hand, Mercury Retrograde is excellent for a wilderness retreat, zoning out at your yoga ranch, quiet bathrobe days of relaxation, reading trashy novels or re-reading adored books from your past. So, you get the idea — these times of the year are brilliant bunk-off phases, so long as you don’t overschedule the hols.

Finally, Mercury Retro is fab for laying ghosts of the past to rest, psych-consults that have to do with healing ancient angst, and even ancestor worship or research.

Mercury Retro Dates for 2010

December 27, 2009 to January 16, 2010
April 18 to May 12
August 21 to September 13
December 10 to December 31

Shove these dates into your diary and schedule accordingly, for brilliant results.

The Mars & Venusian Weirding of 2010 — Carnal Ego & Surreal Love

War-godly Mars lords it over ambitions, libido and anger. Under Mars we can fight to vanquish evil on behalf of the weak or turn into monsters of selfish rage.

From the very beginning of this year and until March 11, Mars is retrograde in Leo. Mars in Leo is already a show-off, given to flashy displays of lust, talent and/or ire. And Mars Retrograde is not a good time to initiate anything, particularly an endeavour that could be considered Martian: a war, fight, dispute, lawsuit, assertive seduction, attempt at a promotion etc.

With Mars going bats in Leo, the sign of the arts, photography and film, it is not an ideal time to launch anything of that nature either, until March 11. It’s not bad, as such, but certainly not optimal.

In trad astro, Mars signifies men. That’s right. All men. Your father, a male lover, the local layabout. So, until Mars goes direct, one can expect a certain degree of recalcitrance from the male gender. Don’t push them.

The astro-caution for retro Mars is thus: monitor all impulses for signs of ego-fuelled cuckoo decisions, think thrice before making your stage debut, don’t pick any fights, and give men space.

Leo is also a ‘fixed’ sign so if certain circumstances seem unbearably stuck in your life, watch them free up and flow post-March 11. There are more details regarding this particular syndrome in your individual sign forecasts.

Arieans — being Mars ruled — and Leos are most likely to feel this retrophase — something to remember as they charge around wigging in and out all over the place. Mars Retrograde frustrates their healthy ego-expression.

From October 8 until November 19, Venus, the goddess of love, beauty and sexual rapture, is retrograde. This is a time when trad astro has it that you do not schedule a wedding, huge party, shopping jags, major beauty treatments (anything that is tricky to alter) or gynae surgery, if at all possible. Nor is it considered a good time to go for a loan or try to ‘win’ anything from someone. So, what is it good for? Health spa trips, female–female bonding, analysis of ye olde love affairs, culling your wardrobe & beauty products, getting a gynae or hormonal check-up and writing the secret history of your love life to date.

Venus is also retrograde in the sultry sign of Scorpio. In fact, she spends from September 9 until early 2011 in Scorp, with a brief hiatus back into Libra due to the retrograde.

Scorpio is the sign of death & rebirth — très cosmic & passionate. If you can stand the woo-woo theory of it, all Venus Retrogrades are credited with bringing past-life lovers back together, but there is no retro Venus more fateful than that of Scorpio.

F.Y.I. the last retro Venus in Scorpio was in late 2002. There is an echo of that time in the summer of 2010. The erotic mysteries of Scorpio are such that the astro-weirding effect oozes out into late August. The signs of Taurus, Libra, Scorpio and Pisces may well sense the profound and entrancing vibe of their newly karmic-feeling love lives more than any other signs of the zodiac.

Note also that, as Venus rules females in general, don’t try to rush a woman into negotiations for anything whilst Venus is retrograde. Not even a lunch date. It is, however, ideal for a reunion with a woman you knew from a long time ago.

Moon Mastery

Lunar planning via a proper Moon calendar — à la the one in this book — is the old-school core of astrology. Knowing where the Moon is at any moment and making subtle adjustments in your life to flow the lunar energy is easy and ridiculously effective.

Everyone knows the Full Moon sends people loony — ask any fireman or emergency room nurse — but what about harnessing the startover power of the New Moon? Or bunking off with the Void Moon? Or working around the Grudge Flashpoint triggering Moon–Pluto Shitzone?

Tap into your everyday cosmic genius via Moon Mastery. Why is the Moon — a.k.a. the Moon goddess Diana/Selene/ Artemis et al. — so influential? One could pontificate about Luna affecting tides, being so close to the earth and human bodies being so watery and all but, really, why bother?

I love seeing the Moon at night and take her presence as celestial validation and (somehow) a supportive sign to me, personally. Along with seeing some of the planets — the return of Venus in Evening Star mode, Mars rising, lucky Jupiter blazing brightly in an otherwise dark sky — it makes me feel connected to all the people who’ve gone before.

I actually do think the Universe (or Multiverse, as scientists say is more correct these days) is divine. But you don’t need to be a raving pantheist to work with Moon cycles.

Moonsto Make Your Life Over

The most simple Moon ‘rules’ are as follows:

* Start things with the New Moon.

* End things after the Full Moon.

* The 14 or so days after a New Moon are a time of growth, and thus it is when you plant seeds.

The New Moon is when the Sun and Moon conjoin. The Full Moon is when the Sun opposes the Moon. Hence the intensity. So things come to a head with the Full Moon and then calm down as the Moon begins to wane.

The days just before the New Moon are known as the Dark Moon. A really good time to relax, apply some productive nostalgia and unclutter.

Ideally, only shop for items such as clothes or music when the Moon is Waxing, between the New and Full Moon. If you do it on the Old (a.k.a. Dark) Moon, you’re likely to make regrettable purchases.

If you use the lunar planner in this book to make resolutions for the month ahead bang on the actual New Moon time, they’re extra potent.

If you want to know the truth of a matter, especially a love affair, wait until the Full Moon when people polarise and/or inadvertently reveal themselves.

It’s especially important not to start big things in the days just before a New Moon. It’s a totally low-ebb time and is meant for self-nurturing, sooky, Zen-sloth-out bathrobe days. Or to finish off projects from the last cycle. Once you observe this cycle for a few months, you will feel how it resonates.

Mysteries of the void moon

The Moon changes signs every two-and-a-half days. The moon is in Aries, and then it’s in Taurus, then Gemini and so on. It’s the same cycle as the Sun only sped up.

The Moon is considered void after it makes its last major aspect in one sign and before moving into the next sign. Don’t worry about the technicalities. It’s a zone that can last two minutes or a whole day. The former is like ‘so what’ — nobody gives a crap about the Moon voiding out for a teensy bit. The longer ones are absolutely worth noting and working around.

The Void Moon is not bad. Not at all. But it’s like a never-never phase. If you have a meeting during one, there is a lot of fluffing about with very little emerging from it. Ditto a pitch made during a Void Moon. Or a proposal. Essentially, it’s a time when anything assertive is likely to have little consequence — good or bad. I guess if you were a media flack it would be a fab time for releasing dodgy info.

But it is a time when tangential activity, like stopping your work and going for a random stroll, or cleaning the bath or phoning a friend, seems to be absolutely brilliant. It’s difficult to stay on mission when the Moon is void so why bother? Seriously, I know it’s not always possible to schedule around such cosmic factors but if you can it’s hugely beneficial. You time things so you turn up when the Moon goes into the next sign and the energy suddenly lifts. It’s like the sudden clarity and high vibe is linked to you!

Moon By Moon

As the Moon changes signs every two- and a half days so does the tone. It’s akin to a subtle backdrop for our days. The Moon in Aries feels completely different to the dreamy Piscean Moon, for instance.

Without being at all prescriptive about it, here are some moon-appropriate activities. Just to get you thinking. The Moon in Virgo is like gold for getting tasks done that you have been putting off for yonks. It makes you in the mood for administrivia. So, it’s good to schedule errand-days around the Moon in Virgo. Whereas if you attempt administrivia when the Moon is in a sign such as Saggo, you’ll be restless and resentful the whole damned day.

During the Moon in Aries: * Grandiosely brainstorm a list of technically impossible goals * Boast * Compete * Eat garlic * Find something to be the boss of * Cook a meal over a fire * Do something new to challenge yourself * Go wall climbing * Stick up for the weak, Do one intense hour of full-on cardio work-out * Drive a racing car * Sharpen knives * Sign up for martial arts * Give someone a motivational pep talk * Wear red * Skim-read a self-help book * Ask for a raise * Champion a cause * Tell someone who always talks over you to S.T.F.U. * Eat to fuel your body — not for pleasure * Trust your ability * Enter a marathon * Get a vigorous scalp massage * Sit in front of a fire * Wear metal * Stay up late being busy

During the Moon in Taurus: Download, buy & compile new music * Eat cake * Get off on common sense * Get an old-school remedial massage * Go to the museum * Book in for a singing lessons * Count your money * Cook a gourmet dinner * Buy a box of wine * See your accountant * Have sex * Change your bedsheets * Look at jewellery * Visit antique shops * Dance * Put bunches of daisies or gerberas around your house * Clean out your purse Throat gargle * Have breakfast in bed * Give someone needy some cash in an envelope * Give good advice * Look after your assets and possessions * Weed the garden * Look into your investments * Be bourgeois * Clean your oven * Vibe ultrapragmatic and self-assured in biz and at work * Practise your snogging skills

During the Moon in Gemini: * Gossip amusingly * Read up on all the latest news * Call a sibling * Reconsider your advertising * Answer all emails * Arrange and fix a fabulous & unusual night out Make a list of everything you want to study * Eat a big salad for lunch * Buy a new book and read it at once * Revamp your desk space and/or computer * Be flippant in love * Learn three new jokes * Book a short trip * Love thy neighbour * Send someone flowers * anonymously and with a cryptic, funny note * Teach someone a new skill * Stroll around the shops * Blog or write a long witty letter for the hell of it * Go to a lecture at the library or an author talk * Get a manicure * Subscribe to a mag * Reorganise mail arrangements * Be happy but non-committal in love * Make a new friend on the spot Drink only spring water * Buy or upgrade gadgets

During the Moon in Cancer: * Hang out in your fluffy bathrobe * Take naps * Tip generously * Take a bath with calming oils * Bond with your babies * Consult with a herbalist or buy herb teas Bake scones * Get a gorgeous gift for a child * Plant seeds * Call your mother or a mother figure * Walk around tide pools * Clean out your fridge and restock it so it is an installation of bliss & comfort * Get a boob check * Research your ancestors * Play calming classical waltzes * Read Proust or Colette * Dab real vanilla essence behind your ears * Cheer up a sad or overwhelmed loved one * Cuddle * Buy a kitten * Drink a gin &tonic whilst listening to country music * Reread a favourite book from your childhood * Have a warm &reassuring manner in all circumstances * Edit your undies drawer * Purchase new lingerie

During the Moon in Leo: * see avant-garde theatre * Get your hair done * Play gin rummy * Give generously to the Cat Protection Society * Wear the colour gold * Sunbathe * Take someone to a flash lunch * Buy sunflowers * See or buy some modern art * Compose or play music * Be conscious of your posture * Eat oranges & lemons * Have your chakras balanced for a more radiant aura * Your attitude at work is noblesse oblige * Learn a poem off by heart * Read the autobiography or biography of someone madly inspirational * Creatively devise a new look for yourself * Think about heart health * Have your windows cleaned so they sparkle * Use O.T.T. endearments with everybody * Buy some hair & skin enhancing vitamins * Play golf, tennis or badminton * Have your photo taken professionally

During the Moon in Virgo: * Work like a maniac * De-flea & worm your pets * Unclutter at least one drawer * Have a macrobiotic meal * Big laundry day * Book dentist/doctor/osteo * Clean your entire house * Get off on your scheduling skills * Do your books * Read through any contracts * Clean your pantry and restock with only health food * Correctively nag someone who needs it * Assess your vitamin needs * Write a constructive complaint letter * Dust all your books and cull where appropriate * Mend clothing * Do a Pilates or yoga class * Update your map books (street directory, atlas etc.) * Wear navy blue * Go on a parasite-zapping cleanse * Listen to jazz Stock up on practical imperishables — loo paper * dishwasher powder * Exfoliate thoroughly * Eat bitter, leafy-green vegetables to aid your digestion * Candle your ears * Floss your teeth

During the Moon in Libra: * Get a facial * Read a classic romance novel * Weigh everything up and take no sides * Eat only elegant food * Resolve a conflict * Buy incense * Have beautiful roses in your house * Have high tea with a woman you love * Cleanse & rearrange your bathroom shelves aesthetically * Light fragrant candles day & night * Be beautifully mannered * Drink champagne Get a new signature scent * At work and in biz: be sweet & reasonable * Refuse to take sides * Smell divine * Be diplomatic in relationships Do a proper table setting * If you need to have an ‘us’ talk, rehearse eloquent ways of saying your piece concisely, turn up looking fab and get it over with * Think iron-fist-in-velvet-glove * Moisturise your body * Get Reiki * Listen to piano music * Walk in lovely gardens

(Continues…)Excerpted from Mystic Medusa’s Astroscape 2010 by Mystic Medusa, Nigel Buchanan. Copyright © 2009 Abnorm Pty Ltd. Excerpted by permission of Allen & Unwin.
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