When one door closes, another opens – or at least that’s what folks say.

But it’s nigh impossible to concentrate on the future when the past is making you feel so bad.

So how can you  facilitate the grieving process – the organic defence system designed to help you navigate through the pain of loss?

Whether you’ve lost a treasured pet or friend, beloved partner, job, or life-style, ‘mourning’ should still be as much an art form as it was for the straight-laced Victorians.  Viewed as a lineal process moving from total self-absorption (in grief) to complete reengagement with life, a formal framework of ‘mourning’ gives physical expression to emotions otherwise difficult to express in our ‘always be happy’ prozac-laced society.  Let us not forget the benefit of ceremony and ritual.   As the British occultist Dion Fortune once said, only when the table is properly laid  for tea, do we know its tea time.

Astrologically you can build such a framework using the tools (i.e. your personality traits as reflected in our natal charts) you have to hand.  The placement of your Moon helps you understand how you deal with bonding and separation issues, while your Mars shows how you deal with the anger that can either turn maliciously inward or creatively outwards.  For example, with an air moon (Gemini, Libra, or Aquarius) you have the ability to stand back from your situation and view it as an outsider would do. This is extremely helpful in gaining much needed perspective.   It can also be dangerous if you allow yourself to become too detached from life.   A air Mars has a tendency to intellectualise its anger, which if expressed through some art form (be it a diary, creative writing, painting or music) could provide a much needed relief valve.  However it could also manifest in a careless slinging of verbal arrows which could drive away the people you need most.

Finally looking at your transits and progressions, you can formulate your next steps.

For example, with Jupiter transits there’s ‘hope’ and ‘faith’ that things will get better, while with Pluto transits you’ll be stripped of all your pretensions (which believe it or not, you really do not need).   Uranus opens those precious new doors, while  Saturn teaches patience and responsibility for our your life.

Loss is an inevitable and very necessary part of of the natural cycle of life.   It may be painful to accept, but you do have some awesome tools at hand to help you through.