by Benjamin Bernstein

When I forecast that we would be experiencing such challenging astrological energies around Christmas, I interpreted them in terms of human-to-human interactions. But, as many of us experienced, the most obvious effect of these aspects (including the Sun conjunct Pluto and square Saturn, Mercury turning retrograde and an imminent eclipse) was human versus nature!

Many of us had our Christmas plans hampered by massive snowfalls. In my own case, I had planned to travel from Asheville, NC to Oklahoma City to have Christmas with my family. But the universe threw one monkey wrench after another in my path. First my car broke down on the highway, causing me to miss my flight (the last one of the day). One new radiator later, I boarded the next available flight the next morning - a one-stop scheduled for Kansas City and then Oklahoma City.

We made it to Kansas City, only to have the Oklahoma City airport closed by a blizzard just as we were about to take off again. Everybody off the plane! Four of us Oklahoma City-bound passengers talked about renting a car together and driving there instead. However, I bailed on that idea after seeing on Weather.com that the blizzard would last all day and into the night, fueled by 50 mile-an-hour winds.

My decision to immediately turn around and fly back home was a good one, as it turned out. The closure of Oklahoma's interstates all that day and the next meant that I would never have reached Oklahoma City by car!

I felt especially bad for my sister Anna, who had flown in from Seattle before the blizzard hit hoping to spend time with her two brothers. Not only was I absent, but my older brother David - who can usually drive to my dad's house in 30 minutes - couldn't make it either because of the road closures.

There's a specialized branch of astrology called astrometeorology, which deals with long-term weather prediction based on planetary positions. (This is how the Old Farmer's Almanac is able to forecast the weather so far in advance.) While astrometeorology is not one of my specialties, the obvious correlation between our recent Christmas weather and the challenging transits of the time serve as an important reminder: everything on earth, including the weather, is affected by the movements of the planets!