For at least the last 5 years or so, there has been an amazing amount of discussion about the 2012 prophesies.  There have been countless articles written by professionals and amateurs alike that have declared the end of the world to be coming in at the end of the year.  As soon as one theory gets debunked, the calculations are re-figured and a new theory takes its place almost instantly.  When you stop to think about all this confusion it makes the whole end of the world thing seem even more hard to believe.  Which is a good thing in my opinion.  I’ve never been much of a doomsday believer and while I do think that we can predict the occurrence of certain events and energies, I also hold that a total annihilation of the planet falls outside of that realm.

What I do see for this year though is some amazing energy  flowing through the stars.  With each passing event, my knowledge and interest in astrology keeps growing and though I am no astrologer by any means, I am at least starting to understand the connections better.  With the added hype of doomsday and some unique astrological events this year, the world of the astrologer seems to be a pretty busy one for 2012.

With all the astrological events lining up for this weekend, I thought I would share a little bit about what I see is happening and how the energies may potentially affect you.  First off, we are in a period of having three planets in retrograde motion across the sky.  Venus, Saturn and Pluto all appear to be moving backwards through the zodiac with Venus being the most recent addition to the mix as of May 15th. The energies of these planets, during this time, are a bit off and screwy.  Venus, the creator, sees us bringing things into our lives that may feed our curiosity but not our highest good.  With Saturn, the teacher, the lessons we are meant to be shown may not come as quickly as usual and may not come at all.  Pluto, the transformer, has a way of tipping over our house of cards and bringing us back to square one.  As I see these three mixing together, the feeling I get is one of frivolous manifestation simply to see if its possible and then getting burned by the results.  In a way it is like the Universe telling us: “Hey, how’s that ice delivery service in northern Alaska going for you?  What, you mean you don’t have any business and you’re bankrupt?  Yeah, you probably should have seen that coming, I did.”

It is not that the heavens are dropping a bunch of jerk-y energy on us, its more of a call to actually pay attention to what it is that we are trying to create.  Put in the time and energy to research and investigate what your trying to do.  There are times in our lives that the stars line up in such a way that it seems the right doors fly open before we can even touch them.  This is not one of those times.  This is a time to be cautious of the opportunities at hand and be smart about the choices you make.  It’s your choice to dive in wherever you like, just be warned that the lifeguard is off duty right now.

For me, this is a very appropriate message to think about.  I have been contemplating a number of career and business plans to help boost my tarot work and foster the eventual transition from being a day jobber to being a full time reader.  The temptation and desire has been overwhelming at times to just dive in and see what happens.  However, this is where the retrogrades get dangerous.  I could trust in the fates and throw caution to the wind.  I could quit my day job and start marketing myself solely as a professional reader and see what happens.  But, knowing my current financial status and the obligations that I have, doing so puts more than just me at risk.  Should I fail, I risk the safety and security of not only myself, but my entire family as well.  As much as I may desire this, I’m thinking this is probably not the most appropriate time.  There’s more work to be done in preparation before I can make this dream a reality.

More specifically for this weekend, there is a new moon on the way.  With all new moons, we find that it is a great time to focus on releasing that which no longer serves us.   Throughout the waning moon cycle, we are called to think and act upon the aspects of our lives and the energies around us that are no longer productive.  It is kind of like a monthly cleaning cycle.  We accumulate and draw in energies that we think will be beneficial to us in the waxing period and filter out that which isn’t in the waning period.  It is a constant flow of energy that keeps us moving, productive and efficient and prevents us from becoming stagnant in our our thoughts and actions.  The night of the new moon then becomes the culmination of that cleaning.  Those working within this cycle have been spending the last two weeks or so occasionally dropping things into their personal energetic trash cans after they have served their purpose.  Now it is time to take out the trash and release it once and for all.

If you are new to this idea of working with the moon, you may be thinking to yourself, “what should I be releasing and is it too late?”  I’ll answer the second part first and say that it is never too late to release old energy.  To stick with the trash analogy, even if you miss getting your junk out to the curb before the garbage collector comes, you can still put it out there because you know that he will be back.  Always better to get the stale, smelly trash out as soon as possible. As far as what you should release, well that covers a whole lot of opportunities.  What I recommend to begin with is past experiences that have happened over the last month.  Take a look at times that you have missed the mark and are holding yourself hostage to your failure.  Did you learn from it?  Good, now take the lesson and store that for future use.  Once you have the lesson stored, the experience is no longer needed.  Throw that in the trash and allow yourself to move on.  Reliving and revisiting the experience serves you no productive purpose.

This practice of releasing can be useful for all areas of our lives.  Emotional, physical, mental, negative, positive, anywhere that we find we are getting trapped or bound by an experience in the past, we are keeping ourselves from moving forward.  We have all met the “Debbie Downers” that are constantly sucking the fun out of things because all they can focus on is the bad that has happened in the past.  But what about the people that are constantly hung up on the “glory days” and how good it was “back then”.  Even though they are focused on positive events, they too are holding themselves back from moving forward.  Sure, the past may have been easier than the present but focusing on the valley you just left won’t make climbing the mountain in front of you any easier.  Use the new moon to take that trash out to the curb once and for all.

Lastly on our topic of astrological events, I must also point out that this new moon is a special one.  Typically, our moon is close enough to the Earth that the solar eclipse it provides covers the full area of the sun itself.  Looking at pictures of the eclipse or using special viewing methods, you can see that the moon blocks the entire star and all we can see around it is the sun’s corona.  I see this as that sign from above that there is light shining around even the darkest times.  That whole, darkness can never overpower the light kind of thing.  This can be very helpful to think about as you are contemplating and releasing those negative thoughts and memories.  However, tonight’s eclipse is a bit different.  The moon’s orbit takes it just a bit farther away from us and a small ring of the sun itself is actually visible around the moon as it passes across.  This added bit of light and power is bringing an extra punch to the releasing process as it helps to burn away even the biggest of trash piles.

Now is the time to haul out all that old junk you have been hiding in the closet.  The fears, the anxieties, the pain, the sadness.  Drag it out of the closet, the basement, the attic, wherever you have been hiding it and get it out to the curb.  Sure the neighbors might temporarily see some of your junk, but once it is gone you can say good bye for good.  All the failed projects, all the disappointments, all the memories that are holding you back from your true potential are all ready to be released.

Do you have specific practices that you use to release old energy?  Share your stories with us in the comments below!

Here are some great additional references to help you understand what is going on in the heavens right now!

Boots Hart, CAP: http://www.daykeeperjournal.com/2012/05/venus-retrograde-solar-eclipse/

Jan, a.k.a. Astrogrrl: http://astrogrrl.com/post/23274312935/new-moon-solar-eclipse-in-gemini-may-20-2012#axzz1vQAdVkVz