Mercury’s two-week sprint through fiery, fixed Leo begins today. Sunday, that rapid transit will gather steam with Mercury’s brief square to Saturn’s slog through watery, fixed Scorpio. In context, the square from Mercury to Saturn will correspond to evidence of your role in the cosmos as infinity’s engine. The only question is whether you are ready to see that.
If all that seems a bit far-fetched, please consider that you may have underestimated yourself. Please consider that you are neither powerless or insignificant.
If you have underestimated yourself as powerless or insignificant, please don’t beat yourself up. Doing so will just send you back into the same loop. Take solace in the fact that it’s a common condition.
It’s common for nearly every human to be superbly conditioned to think of one’s self as unworthy, inadequate and pathetic without the paternal guiding hand of authority. It’s also common for each of us to reinforce that conditioning by giving our power away to that hand.
What is common, however, is not necessarily true. In this case, the common condition hides the truth. It’s no accident that the conditioning loop exists, but it is not necessary for you to keep falling back into it. Instead, try seeing the loop as a thought structure limiting what you think you are, and what you think you can do.
Saturn is all about structure. Mercury is all about thought. Working their square for the best outcome means acting to employ the fixed quality of their respective signs and fix new thought structures into place. First, by observing how your every action has always had a consequence regardless. After grasping that tidbit, the next step is taking all further actions, no matter how small, so as to bring about the effects you want and intend to have.
It takes some practice. You have to stop before acting to evaluate probable consequences. You need to decide if the probable outcome conforms to your intent and desire. Do that enough and your life will eventually have a structure of your own choosing, originating from a thought structure that makes it possible, and that is not all. That is only the beginning.
Beyond a life with a structure of your own choosing, your actions contribute to the structure of all life on the Earth, and conceivably the structure of the universe. In order to grasp that, please consider the Sun.
Around the Sun’s gravity well, a huge number of objects orbit. The consequences of those orbital cycles is a gradual progress toward equilibrium. That’s it. No thought, no intent, no desire, no choices, no conscious acts initiating cause and effect.
The Sun also pumps out a huge amount of energy, most of which dissipates into the continuum of space-time (which is also a process towards equilibrium), but some of it is absorbed by the Earth.
The solar energy absorbed by the Earth powers other cycles. The water cycle, the seasonal cycles and the life cycles of most beings according to their nature, all have something in common with the cycles in the sky. All of them continually seek equilibrium, each in synchrony with the other, for as long as the Sun lasts.
Note that, please. The Sun is finite, as are the cycles its gravity and energy give rise to. While you are in the process of restructuring your thoughts to transcend the limits of what you think you are, and what you think you can do, please consider extending that protocol to humanity.
Almost alone among beings, humans have demonstrated a capacity to disrupt the equilibrium. Yet, here we are, demonstrably part of both the Earth, and the universe. Our every physical atom arises from the cycles we are so good at messing with, which indicates how we may be underestimating our kind, just as you may have underestimated yourself.
Please consider that our capacity to make a mess may be the indicator of a distinguishing proficiency. Just as the messes made by children at play represent the emerging talents of the adults they will become. Just as the messes you have made in structuring your life imply the ability to turn things around after first turning your perception of yourself around.
Please consider that humanity may be on the verge of realizing that our knack for disrupting the cycles from which we originate and upon which we depend, does not make us unworthy, inadequate or pathetic. Please consider us as children on the threshold of growing up to realize that our predilection for disruption may mature into a talent for transcending the finite that all cycles inherently and ultimately are.
Mercury’s impending square to Saturn is bringing you a brief glimpse of your true power and significance, and empowering you to act on that glimpse by fixing into place a new structure for your life. By the same token, the aspect is simultaneously operating on another level. That would be a level in common, revealing rather than concealing, the truth for all of us at once.
In order to see that truth, we must first see ourselves differently. If there is anything to astrology, something that happens to you this weekend will serve to do just that for you if you are prepared to see it through a restructured perception.
A restructured perception will, in turn, get you started towards both re-creating the structure of your life and contributing to a restructured understanding, a common understanding, of the reason human beings are here. We are not here by accident. We have a special job to grow into. The universe has a purpose for humanity. We are here to transcend all that which must ultimately end, and serve as infinity’s engine. Please keep your eyes, your mind, and your heart open in the days to come, and you will surely see.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Amanda, You are right about the self-birthday. I’ve been poking around in my charts. My natal Saturn is sq Mercury too. I also discovered there is an asteroid Carla. Natal Chart Carla is in Pisces, not quite conjunct my sun, and very opposite my moon in Virgo. Guess what. Carla is holding hands with Mercury today, no, make that spooning with Mercury today, co-squaring Saturn.
Len, I am so tickled! No wonder I am buzzing this aspect.
Chief Niwots Son: Thank you. I can see that I’m accustomed to filling my life with smallness & limitations (those crap rules, for one!) But I notice that when I fill my life with the kindness & grace you offer, my vessel expands around it, integrating it and ultimately making room for more of me. That’s kind of like restructuring 😉
I’ll keep that as a barometer by which to consider what else I welcome in. And give out.
my thanks, dear friend.
“Please consider that our capacity to make a mess may be the indicator of a distinguishing proficiency.”
“The universe has a purpose for humanity. We are here to transcend all that which must ultimately end, and serve as infinity’s engine”
This time around, I’m feeling liberated by Saturn’s restructuring my 1st house – i.e., me. You’ve done it again, Len. Perfect, helpful, and perfectly lovely. This Leo with Scorpio rising thanks you.
Strawberrylaughter: Your words set me on a hunt- “Maybe by encouraging growth and structure through clearly perceiving its potential and actual weaknesses, we are fixing the clay into a work of art; something that can contain the passions it inspires.”
My search results in some Friday afternoon Taoism-
“We shape clay
to birth a vessel,
yet it’s the hollow within
that makes it useful.”
– Tao Te Ching (poem 11)
The vessel of you is in integrity, perhaps you may consider what passions, people, ideas and experiences you are seeking to fill it with. Like that yellow sprinkler swinging back and forth, perhaps the shift is to see that rather than this being an issue of you fitting in your life less and less, your life is no longer filling you in a manner that offers genuine fulfillment.
And just whose rules are they anyway? 😉
As I was contemplating the structures of my life that seem to be dead & dying this morning, and what that meant in terms of how I honor my soul’s journey, my eyes fell on the neighbor’s sprinkler — one of those old-timey cast-iron tractor ones, adorably yellow and charmingly still functioning (the neighbor’s at least 90). As I watched distractedly, the sprinkler arms switched direction. They’d been running clockwise, & without slowing down, switched to counter-clockwise. That stunned me out of my hazy thoughts, and I began to watch more closely as they switched again. And again. And again. And I realized it was just my perception changing the direction those arms seemed to be going. I could switch them back and forth all day long if I wanted.
As I considered that little yellow tractor in my neighbor’s yard, I began to wonder about those “dead & dying” structures, and the ideas you’ve postulated here came back into my mind.
I’ve spent the past three years changing myself to better fit my life. There’s been a lot of “if I can change this, I’ll be able to love better, live better, work better, dream better.” And I really do like the changes. I am more able to be authentically me than I’d ever dreamed my world would allow. And I’ve been able to resurrect relationships with both of my parents that had seemed intractably toxic. I like me, and that has taken breaking some rules. It’s awesome. But the thing is, I’m fitting my life less and less.
Len, when you helped me explore my chart, you stressed the importance of the image of the potter’s wheel to my life–growth & expansion on the inside, working with structure & containment on the out. But when we think of a mound of unformed clay on the wheel, we don’t call the clay “wrong.” We aren’t “fixing” the clay’s aberrance as we encourage it to grow into a vase, applying gentle pressure and guidance from within and without.
But maybe we are. Maybe by encouraging growth and structure through clearly perceiving its potential and actual weaknesses, we are fixing the clay into a work of art; something that can contain the passions it inspires. Not correcting something that was wrong with it before, but helping it to realize the beautiful thing it is.
And so as I watch that tractor, I wonder about the perception that has me feeling like I’m no longer here — unseen, unheard, ununderstood, what’s the point? Is it, indeed, that my life has become too small & I need to move on? Have I outgrown the structures that made sense a dozen years ago? Or is there something about the way I’m seeing me that I could switch the direction of?
I don’t have any answers here. I know that walking out of my life will not fix what’s not working in it, seductive as that idea can get when you’re hurting. And I “know” there’s nothing wrong with me, though I have a few more rules to break before I can actually believe that to be true. (I hear you, Lolly K, loud and clear.)
I’m just trying to listen. “If there’s anything to astrology,” perhaps my perception this weekend can find some fertile ground for restructuring.
“One of my mentors says that the only way to change your beliefs is to give yourself a new experience, because belief seeks proof, and will recreate the proof that keeps you stuck.”
thanks, divacarla. i’ve experienced this, but needed the reminder. here’s to new experiences!
“Sounds like Merc/Saturn are giving us a great big gift with a bow on top if we’ve been trying to break free of some old stuff.”
sounds like a “self-birth”-day gift…!
Len, you and Amanda are tag teaming the current astrology to perfection. My own life and body response to Jupiter opposite Pluto has come rushing in. The dynamic between them is like a whirlwind, creating a vortex where anything can happen. Anything I CHOOSE to happen will happen. Amanda brought in Saturn as the release valve, and Pallas-Athene as the planner to help this dynamic stay on the rails. Then you remind us that Mercury will step in to transform everything if we deliberately and courageously use all the resources the heavens are giving us. Looking at the chart Amanda posted, Jupiter-Pallas-Athene, Saturn and Chiron are trining the opposition, crating the container, holding the space, like wise mentors. The energy supports creation and expansion, a quantum leap, while Pluto is saying drop the old, let it die. Your life is bigger than this.
I feel how we are all together in this energy, sharing, questioning, getting a little or a lot naked. So nice to have your company!
And that Mercury Saturn square is the dose of energy that will let the quanta jump.
This stands out on my reread, Len:
Working their square for the best outcome means acting to employ the fixed quality of their respective signs and fix new thought structures into place. First, by observing how your every action has always had a consequence regardless. After grasping that tidbit, the next step is taking all further actions, no matter how small, so as to bring about the effects you want and intend to have.”
One of my mentors says that the only way to change your beliefs is to give yourself a new experience, because belief seeks proof, and will recreate the proof that keeps you stuck. Sounds like Merc/Saturn are giving us a great big gift with a bow on top if we’ve been trying to break free of some old stuff.
Carrie: Thank you for sharing your exhilarating breakthroughs and their correspondence with the astrology. May your inspiration continue to flow.
This:
“If all that seems a bit far-fetched, please consider that you may have underestimated yourself. Please consider that you are neither powerless or insignificant.”
and this:
“If you have underestimated yourself as powerless or insignificant, please don’t beat yourself up. Doing so will just send you back into the same loop. Take solace in the fact that it’s a common condition.”
So eloquently put, Len. That’s exactly the way it feels
Bette Loreen,
You wrote: “I agree with be that this current astrology is indeed also energized by the Jupiter-Pluto opposition. In all, it supports the idea that I am indeed bigger than my problems, that my dreams are still worthy & possible despite being necessarily down-sized over the years, & that the person I am now can make wiser decisions than the ones which litter my history with “learning experiences.” ”
Yes! That’s exactly it, “I am bigger than my problems, that my dreams are still worthy & possible despite being necessarily downsized over the years….” Thanks for that!
Thanks for writing this, Len. Already things are being restructured. I am writing about my life. I have tried many times but since Lammas (Aug 6th) something shifted and I am writing like never before and with depth. I went out on a limb and cancelled my classes this semester so I could enjoy my favorite seasons with my family. It meant giving up the student loan money we rely on but things have happened that have meant I can do it without stressing over bills just now.
It is scary and exhilarating all at once. For some reason, I am compelled to write about my life at the threshold of adulthood and that time I spent in Palestine, a stranger in a far away land awakening to love, life, sexuality, and the world. I met with my ex-husband’s extended family (cousins) a couple of weeks ago and realized how huge that time in my life really was when I talked with them. I am who I am because of that time.
Things are changing everywhere and though there seems to be negativity all around us, there is also great hope and quiet change among us. Building on that hope is the way.
Diva Carla: Thank you for your kind appraisal, and apt metaphor.
Lolly K: Thank you for the perspective from your own transits. The combination of aspects you describe should provide you with the means to connect, relate and explore your family connections if you are simply open (and curious) enough to go where you have not gone before. May the weather be good. May the food be better.
be: First off, thank you for the link to Michael Meyer, a good and informative read. Yes, Mercury’s brief closing square to Saturn is but a glimpse, and part of something bigger (which includes Jupiter’s monumental opposition to Pluto), as the interconnections become greater (perhaps a reflection of asteroid 407 Arachne slowly approaching conjunction with the unapproachable Great Attractor). It give me joy to know that my service has been useful for you today.
wandering_yeti: Welcome again. Your wisdom is accepted as true wisdom here. Not value in the way of the established order, but valued in the recognition that you actually live your values so very well.Thank you for your grounded and compassionate observations and connections.
Chief Niwots Son: Your generous assessment is humbling considering your distinguishing grace. Thank you for your perceptive encouragement.
Bette Loreen: It is for me Iand the rest of us) to thank you for your exemplary focus and gentle persuasion. Your words brought me a sense a peace which others surely share.
sophiejester: Welcome. Your words are gratifying to an extent that words cannot describe. So very grateful for your participation today.
P.Sophia: Your concise and cogent perception with its inspired offering from ACIM is deeply appreciated. Thank you so very much.
aword: Thank you for sharing your good news. May we continue to serve and support your initiate towards evolution.
Hazel1: It is an honor to be perceived as a support for Amanda’s superior work. Thank you for that.
Lyd: Though my bulb may well be the most dim in the Planet Waves lamp shop, you are so very welcome to what small and poor amount of light i can offer in service.
Gosh Len, my heart simply says thank you for the light you offer.
This is wonderful, Len. For me it dovetails nicely with Amanda’s piece on Psyche and Vesta earlier this week. I’ve been thinking about that and now I can add this in. Thanks!
Len, you laid it all out so beautifully! With so many other insightful responses, I’ll simply say “thank you”;
I am literally living what you have written – and turning my horse to the sunrise (or shifting the gears of my standard) not looking back.
I’m restructuring my relationships, my life. I’m receptive to knowing why I am here.
I know why you are here. Thank you.
Yes Len, your way is decided at the branching of the road. ACIM passage upon waking I read this morning holds true:
“This veil you lift together open’s the way to truth to more than you.”
The common understanding, as I understand you suggest: To receive together and give as you received is the only truth, infinite.
“Standing before the veil, it still seems difficult. But hold out your joined hands and touch this heavy-seeming block and you will learn how easily your fingers slip through its nothingness… only an illusion stands between you and the holy Self you share.”
Len, this is beautiful story telling woven with astrology. Thank you for this lovely piece of celestial mirrors dancing through consciousness. I was rapt by it’s resonance. Made less uncomfortable by the intuitive dissonances-these are what stellar maps and ephemeris are for. =) Beautiful interpretation.
This all resonates deeply for me; I am one who was schooled in that “conditioning loop” to be helpless because I am female, to look to some male “authority” to have my needs met & my life organized. It took many, many “messes” to realize I can SO do it, as I used to say as a child, “mineself”.
Consequences. Ah, we humans really do need to do a lot of growing-up in order to see the consequences of our decisions & actions. I read recently the idea that we live in a “pathoadolescent” culture, & there does seem to be abundant evidence which supports that view. I do, however, see signs that many are awakening & becoming more grown-up,
& there is hope in that.
I agree with be that this current astrology is indeed also energized by the Jupiter-Pluto opposition. In all, it supports the idea that I am indeed bigger than my problems, that my dreams are still worthy & possible despite being necessarily down-sized over the years, & that the person I am now can make wiser decisions than the ones which litter my history with “learning experiences.”
As a conservationist, a painter, & a gardener, I am acutely aware of the environmental degradation even in my isolated area, & the unpredictability of the new “normal” in weather. Sometimes grief weighs heavily, but I also see evidence of this beautiful planet’s generosity & resilience. Faith. If anything can both test & support & refine that, perhaps it’s the Mercury-Saturn square. It touches my 2nd & 5th houses. For me, that’s my sense of “what matters” & my creative energy. Work. And that’s okay.
Thank-you, Len, & to all who have shared thoughts/experiences. I feel heartened.
So vast, so intimate, so personal, so true. Your very words, and the vision they depict, form the seed crystal of the re-structuring. May It Be So.
Messes made by children: systems appear to naturally go through chaotic beginnings before they settle into a mature groove and go from competition to cooperation. Good point. Authoritarian societies seem to me to be trapped in teenage emotions, desperately trying to differentiate themselves from the children they used to be. Teenagers make some of the biggest messes since they have adult sized bodies, drive cars, and eventually vote. This would be fine if our culture were more mature and kids had good mentors: all kids, not just the rich ones. The media blitz of the default society tries to block us into teenage emotions for our whole lives cause teenagers spend the most money on frivolous things. There’s the money again. The money always seems to edit our intelligence effectively rendering us stupid compared to what we could be if we could act from our sense of need instead of doing useless things whose sole purpose is to get money to pay bills. A mature species doesn’t need money to inspire its actions.
This sounds very Jupiter-opposite-Pluto Len. Yes, yes, you are speaking of the Mercury-Saturn cycle but the expansive view you give us regarding this Mercury square Saturn aspect has a greater overtone within which it participates. I find it breath-taking in it’s clarity.
When Jupiter conjoined Pluto in December 2007 it was a heartbreaking end of one era for me and the beginning of a new one that is now at its half-way mark. You have diverted my thinking process (with the help of Mercury’s move into Leo) into a more creative mode that is more suitable (and enjoyable) for this half-way point in a cycle I was (up to now) oblivious to.
Michael J. Meyer writes about human evolution cycles taking place during 500 year periods (approx. the length of a Neptune-Pluto cycle). He puts these 500 year periods into groups of 7 and says that the last 3 are evolutionary steps. We are in the 6th step now and about the 20th century he says: “The individualized will and mind can act either as a slave to the ego and its selfish cravings or as a lens giving existential form and meaning to a spiritual Quality – one’s true Higher Self – which is an inseparable aspect of an all-inclusive cosmic whole.” This sounds to me like what you are saying here. I’m thinking bigger already!
be
http://www.khaldea.com/articles/ct2.shtml
Currently I have Mercury conjunct Ascendent & square natal Mercury. Saturn is in my natal sign, less than 2 degrees off my Sun, which today is sextile Moon which is sextile Uranus. The annual family reunion weekend camping trip will be starting in 24 hours. This promises to be an interesting few days.
In order to see that truth, we must first see ourselves differently. If there is anything to astrology, something that happens to you this weekend will serve to do just that for you if you are prepared to see it through a restructured perception.
I believe you just set up the restructured perception with this forecast, Len.
I like it. Could hardly read past the first paragraph, it landed so hard. But in a good way. Firewalking with Mercury!