Post-eclipse recap; Mercury-Saturn; and Venus

As we emerge from the eclipse period and get our bearings after yesterday’s Taurus New Moon eclipse, what are you noticing in your life that seemed emblematic of that event, or perhaps has taken on extra importance because of its timing with the astrology?

Planting seeds in the last couple hours before the eclipse, I discovered this happy little worm in my half-used bag of potting soil form last year. It seemed like a good omen! Photo by Amanda Painter.
Planting seeds in the last couple hours before the eclipse, I discovered this happy little worm in my half-used bag of potting soil form last year. It seemed like a good omen! Photo by Amanda Painter.

Did you experience a ‘transformational experience’ regarding attachment, jealousy and control? Did you reacquaint yourself with physical reality — including engaging some muscle and stamina to ‘break ground’ in your life somehow?

In world news, one manifestation was the terrifying and destructive tornadoes in the Midwestern and Southern U.S. Another was Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, getting banned for life from the NBA and fined $2.5 million Tuesday for racist remarks he made. You can’t make your fortune on the backs of elite black athletes and talk like a Civil War-era plantation owner and get away with it these days.

The U.S. and the E.U. instituted new sanctions against Russia over the situation in Ukraine. At least 17 banks and other institutions controlled by four billionaires with close ties to President Vladimir Putin, plus other individuals, have been sanctioned.

Whether you experienced the eclipse as an ordeal, a release, a subtle blip or something to celebrate through ritual, we’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Looking ahead, Mercury in Taurus will oppose Saturn in Scorpio Friday (exact at 9:56 pm EDT), with Venus ingressing Aries about 25 minutes later.

Since Taurus and Scorpio are both fixed signs (the other two are Leo and Aquarius), Mercury-Saturn looks like a standoff, with both parties seemingly intractable. If you’re aware of that ahead of time, you have the option and ability to remember that you can be the more flexible party. Do the power analysis and consider the results carefully.

That’s valuable if you find yourself squaring off against someone and feel the urge to dig in your heels — especially since Mercury-Saturn can also describe a parent-child scenario. What can you personally do to keep interactions on the adult-to-adult level?

Venus in Aries is an interesting critter; we’ll have more to say about it tomorrow. Venus goes from ‘exaltation’ in Pisces (a kind of dignity) to ‘detriment’ in Aries (a kind of discomfort). Eric has described this as a “what happened?” kind of scenario.

Eric adds, “Now Venus and Mars will be (1) in detriment; and (2) in mutual reception. The concept here is to watch out for situations that are not good for anyone but about which nobody seems able to do anything. The strategy/suggestion would be to ‘see things from the point of view of the other,’ or ‘do not judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins’, — that kind of thing.”

Given the astrological ground we’re all walking these days, that could be illuminating.

11 thoughts on “Post-eclipse recap; Mercury-Saturn; and Venus”

  1. Rearranging housekeeping … sorting through decades of receipts and a lifetime of collections, trying to make room in my home for my son, daughter in law, granddaughter, cat and dog. They are doing some serious paring on their end as well, but the walls will still be bulging. “Attachment, jealousy and control” all promise to be topics of conversation in coming weeks as I learn how to live “not alone” and we define our respective spaces.

  2. Quan Yin speaking thru Yi Jing said to me (in paraphrase) the Wanderer’s hut burned down cause he was disrespectful to those above and unkind to helpful servants below.

    Boy did it and boy was I. My hut, or my room in an apartment building burned down in the summer of 2008. In hindsight I see that I could have used the compensation I received from my friend whose candle started the fire to get a passport, fix my acoustic guitar and go walkabout. Instead I tried my best to recreate the bedroom temple of my childhood, using funds for a shopping frenzy instead of healing, aping the default culture’s act and stubbornly refusing the read the signs. I’m still living out the consequences of that action, all the curses I sent flying as I felt entitled and victimized once again, flipping between panic and trying not to freak out.

    The past couple of days showed some glimmer of healing, repairing the damage, letting that old ego shell crumble: sharing music without judgment I’ve been able to bring joy to an old woman’s life and a peak experience to a woman walking to her car as I was sitting in the newly visible sun getting slightly burned and playing a cover song that happened to be from her favorite album of all time. In the past I had the tendency to diss and in that way miss the mark of my true path. The True path winds and wiggles nevertheless, but there’s some wiggle room in how smooth or rough it is based on discipline and wisdom…as far as I can tell. It’s my task now to share my gifts freely instead of dissing the not getting paid. I have some debts to settle and a formerly miserly heart to heal.

  3. ​Amanda, my heart skipped a beat when you posed the question, “did you break ground…?”  That’s because I had a dream about the water board digging trenches in my yard just as the solar eclipse was ending.  I was upset about it in the dream, but upon reflection I realized there was new construction going on in my psyche, just as there was in this highly creative phases of my waking life. Building something where nothing existed can be both stimulating and frightening. I resolved to acknowledge the fears I’ve had and plow ahead anyway. Let the Universe decide the final outcome! Thanks for putting events both personal and public into perspective.

  4. 03 May 2014
    00:56:11 UT – Mercury (20 ta 35’47”) opposite Saturn (20 sc 35’47” Rx)
    01:21:12 UT – Venus enters Aries (direct)

    Pulitzer Prize – winner Chris Hedges
    (VIDEO): http://rt.com/shows/sophieco/155268-ukraine-crisis-cold-war/

    “There are no winners when people don’t know the truth. There’s only disasters, and I think that the US policy in the Middle East is an example of that. The extremely short-sighted – to be kind to them – decision on the part of this administration, past administration, to expand NATO and to fail to understand Russia’s legitimate security interests. We would hardly react differently if Mexico or Canada was on our border and Russia was treating Mexico or Canada the way we’re treating Ukraine and the Baltic states.

    “So I think you can’t make astute foreign policy and you can’t prevent disaster if you operate on myth, because you’re not actually having a dialog. One side is seeking to speak a truth or a concern, and the other side essentially fills their ears with wax and creates their own narrative, which is not grounded in reality. And that’s, again, not an uncommon phenomenon, but it’s extremely dangerous because then you make judgments based on this mendacious narrative.

    “So if we create a kind of false narrative about Ukraine, and act upon it, you’re fuelling a crisis, in the way that we’ve acted upon supposed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, when there weren’t any…

    “The closer you get to any situation – and I speak as a foreign correspondent – the kind of murkier and [more] opaque it becomes. But the job of a good journalist is to expose that opaqueness to show all the multi-faceted sides of it. You know, the varying experiences people have to reality. And I think the failure to do that, the creation of a stereotype, or the creation of a narrative where facts and images are confined to this very narrow vision that is peddled, then we’re talking about a lie.

    “And oftentimes – and I speak again as a reporter – the lie of omission is still a lie, and oftentimes in these conflicts it’s what you don’t say and what you don’t tell that is as pernicious as the lies that you echo by those in power.”

  5. well, it’s a high quality, organic, maine-made potting soil, and i think i bought it late last summer or in the fall. so not a whole year, but it stayed moist (i’d closed the bag) and there are little air holes in the bag, and i kept it in the stairwell in my building just outside my door — so it was not outside during the deep freeze or anything.

    and muddpi — how fun that your moonflowers have sprouted! they’ll be lovely this summer.

  6. wish I could post picture, but the moon flowers I planted on the lunar eclipse, came up with the solar eclipse 🙂

  7. I think what I learned about massive, all-inclusive astrological events like this rare grand cross is how subjectively they are experienced, at least this one. It’s a lot of energy coming from 4 different directions all at the same time, and, if I think of it as a battlefield and 4 non-unified battalions are aiming at the center (you!), the target subject has little recourse but to act instinctively or spontaneously, at least at the onset. So that might be the “goal” of such an event; to test or measure our responsive behavior to multiple simultaneous conflicting situations/problems.

    Since the cardinal grand square was accompanied by the water grand trine, the experience of being pressed by the cardinal energy resulted in some measure of instinctual response (for example denial by Donald Sterling) provided through the available resources in water signs, Saturn in Scorpio, Chiron and Neptune in Pisces, and Jupiter in Cancer. We appear to have been coerced into using our instincts and/or feelings to defend or handle or respond to the situations brought about by the multiple cardinal actions we have been confronted with. Many examples of that were seen in the destructive tornadoes you mentioned Amanda. Thinking things through was not an option and people responded with their feelings (hearts).

    By engaging all three of the (accepted as) cosmic or universal symbols of astrology, Neptune, Pluto and Uranus, along with the symbols of social movement, Saturn and Jupiter, and the one personal planet of action (at his most disadvantaged through sign and by direction) Mars, a picture begins to appear. Mankind (thinks and senses it) is in a vulnerable position at this time.

    With Neptune having just arrived at 7 degrees of Pisces (on the 23rd) and Chiron at 16+ Pisces, the midpoint between them was about 11+ Pisces. Chiron was within orb of a trine to Saturn at 21+ Scorpio and Jupiter at 13+ Cancer. Neptune formed a decile (36 degrees with Uranus and a tri-vigintile (54 degrees) with Pluto, 2 aspects of a group of minor aspects based on the division of a circle by 5, 10 and 20 representing harmonious use of spiritual will. Together, Neptune and Chiron appear to have facilitated (or manipulated or coordinated or orchestrated) the various combinations of these energies for individuals and societies alike. Here is the Sabian Symbol for the midpoint between Chiron and Neptune:

    IN THE SANCTUARY OF AN OCCULT BROTHERHOOD, NEWLY INITIATED MEMBERS ARE BEING EXAMINED AND THEIR CHARACTER TESTED.

    Personally, I will be studying this event to see if the picture (a sense of vulnerability) bears out the resulting experiences (individuals, governments, societies) as they develop. I’m also grateful that you mentioned Eric’s comment regarding Mars and Venus in mutual reception starting Friday, as it suggests a mutual dependency; neither is dominant over the other. That should make for some interesting relationship developments! Thank you Amanda for bringing this event into focus for us all.
    be

  8. Hey Amanda,
    Mercury opposes Saturn, OK, but it’s not just regular old Saturn, it’s Saturn trine Jupiter … so how might that shake out the experience of, say, a parent-child confrontation?
    mm.

  9. A truly Taurean picture, Amanda! I’m glad you’re lving n a sunny apartment with happy plants, Eric.
    Little time to write as usual -but, perhaps because I have moon and rising in Scorpio, this eclipse has been really tough – particularly on a physical level, in fact I got very sick. Seems to be a very powerful emotional and physical detox, Interested to see if others are experiencing this (cos I’m still reeling…). And a lot coming up about jealousy and control. Many thanks.

  10. Really? A worm survived all year in a bag of potting soil? That is persistence that is similar to a plant. I guess they are rather closely intertwined with the plant dimension.

    Now that I have a sunny apartment I am noticing how resilient and amazing plants are.

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