Mid-Year Review: Time To Change Course?

Change is in the air. Can you feel it?

As of the end of this month, we’re halfway through 2016. As predicted in my 2016 forecast, Astrology Year 2016: Change Is Gonna Come, we’re in a year of great change.

With all the mutable energies swirling around us from Neptune in Pisces, Saturn in Sagittarius, and especially Jupiter in Virgo, it’s also an unstable time. News reports filled with big doses of unpredictability, upsets, and unprecedented events bear witness to our fast changing times.

Mid-Year Review: Let’s Take Stock

With all that’s been going on this year so far, now is a great time for a mid-year review. That’s especially true now that the volatile energies of the solstice and recent full Moon have passed.

It’s also a great time for reflection because the Sun now occupies watery, reflective Cancer. After a month of the Sun in mutable Gemini, which kicked up all the high energies of the other mutable signs, a month of nurturing Cancer energy feels right.

So far this year, we’ve seen:

• The Sun move halfway through the zodiac. How did you do with the changing energies, as the shining Sun successively “lit up” the signs of Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, and now Cancer? Did you use each month as your cue on “when to do what”?
• Seven full Moons, including the latest on June 20, a second full Moon in Sagittarius for the year. Did your emotions run high at these times? Did you have any powerful insights or breakthroughs? And have you taken time to meditate around the full Moon each month to take advantage of this time’s powerful spiritual energies?
• Two Mercury retrogrades in earth signs. Did you see communication, travel, and tech go awry? What new insights arrived for you? Did you use the earthy energies to take practical steps when life didn’t go as expected?
• Mars retrograde in Sagittarius and Scorpio, starting April 17 and lasting until June 29. Have you seen your life slow down or projects and plans stall? How have you handled the frustrations of not being able to move forward easily at this time? Have you made time for meditation to review how you use Mars energy (drive, taking action, your “get up and go”) in your life?

If you’ve felt like the past year has been a wild ride, you’re not alone. It HAS been intense.

And it has come on the heels of all the turmoil we saw starting in 2008, with the world economic downturn, and continuing through the life-changing alignments of Uranus square Pluto from 2012 through 2015.

In our times, change isn’t just a blip or a one-year event. It’s an era, and we’re all part of this fast changing period.

My Life Is Changing, Too

I’m right there with you when it comes to change. In 2013 and 2014, my husband and I lost our mothers, one year apart. We’ve also lost all our pets, now that our last little cat, Louis, passed away earlier this month. We miss them all, as I know you all miss your own departed loved ones.

Jupiter In Virgo: Health Takes Center Stage

From the calls and comments we get during my appearances on WGN Radio, I know many of you have struggled with health issues, and I wish you all the best as you navigate those challenges. With Jupiter in Virgo for an entire year starting last summer, we currently have the best opportunity since the early 2000s to improve our health.

I must confess that a year ago I wasn’t sure if that promise of renewed health would hold true for me.

In mid-2014, a combination of high stress in my life and chemical sensitivities resulted in a severe case of eczema. By the end of that year, most of the top half of my body was covered with an itchy, red-hot rash that caused sleepless nights and plenty of difficult days as my skin endured the eczema cycle of weeping, drying, and flaking.

Fortunately, I was able to get help from a holistic physician in early 2015. It took several months, but the rash is now 99% gone. Hooray! (And hooray for the Virgo energies, which really support anything holistic right now.)

So when this same doctor recommended a dietary change last summer to support my skin and overall health, I took it seriously. After doing my research (very, very Virgo!), I decided to make the change to become pure vegetarian. Meaning no animal foods of any kind–including no dairy, no eggs. When my ruling planet, Venus, went retrograde soon after starting this, it felt pretty restrictive and not too fun at first. (When Venus is retrograde, all her gifts of pleasure, sweetness, and beauty feel like they’ve been taken away from us.)

But I started to feel better.

And then my body started letting go of weight.

And I felt so good I started having a lot more fun being more active.

Within six weeks, 10 pounds had dropped off, and by last October it was up to 20. The downward trend tended to stall whenever Mercury went retrograde. As an astrologer, that made me laugh, even if it felt frustrating: it was as if our pal Mercury was just winking at me, letting me know he was doing his job.

When I thought about it, it wasn’t a big surprise because things DO slow down when Mercury goes retrograde. Plus, Mercury rules health-conscious Virgo, so this planet is even stronger this year because Jupiter in the sign of the Virgin is expanding all things Virgo this year. And honestly, these periods did give my body a chance to rest and catch up with itself and all the changes going on in my life.

As of this month, 11 months after starting this adventure, my body is just shy of releasing 50 pounds. And I’m still true vegetarian and feel better than ever.

I hope you have seen your own health successes this year. And if you haven’t, or you’d like to make more progress, we still have a few months until Jupiter leaves Virgo in early September.

More Virgo: When Your Calling Comes Calling

These health changes have had a ripple effect throughout my life. Plenty of emotional, mental, and spiritual weight has left my life along with all the physical weight. I’m feeling lighter in general and more open to new possibilities as all these burdens have lifted.

So it wasn’t a complete surprise when the winds of change began to blow through my business, too. After all, Virgo is strongly associated with jobs, daily routines, and service. This is a great time to be thinking about “right livelihood” and our true calling in this lifetime.

How can we really be of service? What are our Sun signs truly calling on us to do and be in this lifetime?

As some of you know, my Sun sign is Libra, the zodiac sign most concerned with relationships, fairness, diplomacy, and beauty. And my Libra soul has really suffered in recent years, seeing how relationships are falling apart and people are having more trouble than ever getting along.

The world so many of us have dreamed of — where people of different signs and backgrounds find creative and loving ways to get along so they can work together to make the world a better place — seems so far away. And yet that’s just what we need to overcome the world’s ills.

So I want to share with you that my work is changing to help make that dream possible.

I’m being called to use astrology, art, and all my other gifts and tools to help restore harmony by helping people improve relationships.

I’m still working out what that means and what it will look like, but I wanted you to know that’s in the works. AND that you’ll be the first to hear an update as my calling becomes more clear and ready to bring into the world.

Thank You

Thank you for being in my world as a Living In Harmony reader. I appreciate your support and your ongoing interest in my work.

Stay tuned, and I’ll update you soon on what’s been happening in my business.

So How Are YOU Doing?

In the meantime, let me know how YOU are doing.

What’s been changing in your life over the past six months? As you do your own mid-year review, how do you see the themes of 2016 playing out in your world?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below. Let us know what’s been changing for you and how you’re doing with the current energies.

Wishing you harmony, always,