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March/April 2010 Cosmic
Preparing for the Journey into the Gateway

by Mark Dodich

Mark Dodich

It’s time to lighten up! Many people started the new year with a sense of heaviness, anxiety, or feeling an imbalance between responsibilities and fun. Well, as Bob Dylan said, “The times they are a-changing,” and in more ways than one as we move toward a dramatic energy gateway this summer.

Think of this spring as a venturi tube, where planetary energies are slowly entering the wide-mouthed end of a tube. You begin to feel that you are inextricably being drawn into a fast-paced narrow passageway only to be shot out on the other side to a place you have yet to see in your mind’s eye. The next few months require you to make choices about whom and what will make the journey with you.

It all begins on March 10 when aggressive Mars begins to move forward after completing its retrograde cycle that started at winter solstice. You have been reviewing your activities and ambition to decide which activities and people will go with you through the gateway.

If you have not been getting enough creative or play time, then schedule a respected place for heart-warming activities into your life. No longer can you wait for an opening in your schedule — you must claim it as a priority.

The heart-opening this free space creates within you provides clarity to help you on the coming journey. In spite of your long list of worldly responsibilities, making space for free-flowing energy honors your connection to the unlimited abundance at the core of your being.

To accomplish this, you must toughen up and improve your boundaries with people who waste your time or leak their energy all over your life. It also means that the actions you take that drain you, or where your heart is simply not engaged, need to be revised, reduced, or where possible, eliminated.

The spring equinox chart (March 20 at 10:32 a.m.) for the next three months indicates internal conflict surrounding relationships. It is OK to feel confusion or mixed emotions about who belongs in your life and who needs to get less of your valuable time. Restructuring Saturn, just beginning its path through balancing Libra, stimulates you to look at all types of relationships — self, romance, family and work.

Then on April 7, Saturn temporarily moves backward into purifying Virgo until late July. It is like the universe is giving you one more opportunity to clean up your act since this process started in autumn 2007. Begin by removing clutter from your home or office, and then purify your body and spirit.

You receive further help in clarifying your priorities while Mercury is retrograde in down-to-earth Taurus from April 17 to May 11. On the simplest level, this cycle supports home repair and spring cleaning. On a personal level, you can make a budget to address financial needs and goals.

At the spiritual level, Taurus is associated with a mythical planet called Vulcan (no, not Star Trek). Esoterically, this hard-working god of the forge is both a protector and an energy that helps you find your way back to the one source of all that is.

Invest time during Mercury retrograde to reconnect with your philosophical center. When you work too hard in the mundane world, you forget that there is an unlimited source of strength and power to draw upon. Remembering this innate source helps you tap into your power, making your life easier.

Because this issue’s forecast asks you to increase the fun in your life, let’s end on a playful note. St. Patrick’s Day looks like a lot of fun. The life-giving sun and eccentric Uranus are aligned, urging you to do something out of character and out of the ordinary. The feeling-oriented moon and communications planet Mercury are both in the fiery sign of Aries.

Whether you participate in St. Patty’s Day events or not, March 16 and 17 are excellent days to express courage in pioneering a new path of exploration and confidence. Open your heart and assert yourself to meet new people or explore a new activity.

Just to make sure that you received this issue’s message: Summer brings a quickening for your path and you would be wise to lighten your load before shooting through the narrow center of the venturi tube. Consciously make room in your life for play, fun and creativity, because personal and planetary responsibilities continue to increase for the foreseeable future.

Mark Dodich has been a professional astrologer and intuitive consultant since 1980. His specialties include natal astrology, relocation astrology maps and seven ray spiritual purpose astrology. Receive his free Astromark newsletter and download a free Basic Astrology Primer at www.astromark.us or call 503-252-1558.