By Henry Seltzer

The coming Last Quarter Moon, taking place on Tuesday, February 14th, Valentine’s Day, brings an interesting slant to this romantic holiday. This is because Venus, planet of relationship, is square to Pluto on this day, bringing up the dark side of relationships and of our human motivation in general. This lunar phase is traditionally in any case is a time for deep reflection, a time when we will search our souls for a better take on the meaning of recent events and for what is truly going on with our lives. This of course applies to the more obvious and surface meaning of events, with plenty to look at even in this regard. But then there is the underlying meaning – and several different aspects of that meaning – and it is this deeper level that might in the early days of this week become more readily available to consciousness and reflection.
We are accustomed to the importance of dream life and inner imagination, and what clues these complex messages from the subconscious can provide us for better understanding ourselves. And it is helpful to note that so-called real life can also be interpreted in much the same way, at a symbolic level; providing thereby necessary clues to understanding. Our deepest desires are seldom really known to us without extensive examination, and this time period therefore provides us with some necessary fuel for that journey of exploration. This needn’t be so dire but it might be that issues do arise for us to look at more closely within the area of relationship: issues such as possessiveness, jealousy, or the fierce currents of desire represented by compulsion and obsession.
If untoward events associated with the important relationships of our lives do transpire it will be for the useful purpose of bringing to greater consciousness some of the deeper areas of our psyche. This is especially true with the coming week’s events since Mercury crosses into nebulous Pisces on Monday, the day before the Quarter Moon, there to conjunct Neptune and to begin to conjunct Chiron, reaching it by Thursday. Therefore from Tuesday onward a process is initiated revealing to our conscious minds the places within us where we might exhibit behavior patterns resulting from earlier wounding, perhaps going as far back the parenting we received in early childhood. And these patterns can color our relationship experiences in the present moment.
The prescription for this time period then is to watch and wait; to let our unconscious process reveal itself to us without judgment and with as little drama as we can manage. Taking the largest possible picture into account we can begin to see where the value is, in providing the necessary raw material for advancing our progress. We go notch by notch and step by step, spiraling upwards around the mountain of our inner soul-assignment in movement toward the spiritual destiny that we secretly crave.