Mercury continues traversing mutable Sagittarius until Christmas Eve, representing (among other things) a messenger. One message is scheduled for delivery shortly before midnight EST today when Mercury squares Chiron, which is paddling through mutable Pisces. What Mercury delivers with its brief but timely square to Chiron will be more of a gift, actually — making this whole year about to end something you can grasp.
Those who vilify square aspects may find it counter-intuitive for gifts to be found within them. After what’s happened this year, just the idea of being able to grasp it holistically might seem futile.
Yet, the trials you typically go through when one planet is separated from another by 90 degrees on the zodiac circle (one definition of a square) often leaves you capable of doing, being and understanding what you could not manage before. That’s a gift anybody can grasp.
Another definition of a square is when the two objects in aspect occupy the same degree of two different signs that share the same quality (cardinal, fixed or mutable). Since a solar sojourn through a mutable sign (such as is taking place now for the Sagittarius Sun) represents the closing of a season, it’s possible to grasp how a mutable square has some of the same cachet.
The sense of closing is reinforced when you consider that tonight’s (or tomorrow’s, depending on where you are) square from Mercury to Chiron is a “closing square,” the last such aspect between the two before they conjoin late next March. That anticipates the last major lunar aspect of 2013, the “last quarter Moon,” a closing square from the Sun to the Moon on Christmas Day. That in turn is followed by a New Moon on the first day 2014.
There are other reasons the quick, closing square from Mercury to Chiron captures and conveys so much about this year. It’s a temporal and spatial counterpoint to the single most dominant aspect our era — the long, slow, recurring continuum of the cardinal square that has opened between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn since the long, slow, recurring continuum of their mutable Virgo conjunction during the mid-1960s.
What’s more, just as the revolutionary character of Uranus and the evolutionary attributes of Pluto connect our era to the world 50 years ago, Mercury and Chiron have between them a similar capacity to cohere the disparate events of the year now passing and combine them with a bigger picture.
For a small planet, Mercury holds a lot of meaning. It emulates your mind’s ability to absorb an education that represents the net experience of humanity, and add more of your personal experience every day. That’s how Mercury has retained the time-honored interpretations of ancient astrologers corresponding it to the mind and its means of expression, while integrating modern associations manifested by electronics, communication, transportation and information technology.
In addition, for the first time since 1967, all three of Mercury’s retrogrades have this year taken place entirely within the three elemental water signs of Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio. That’s how this year Mercury (and, by implication, all that Mercury accords with in your life) has further extended its reach to symbolically grasp and integrate elements of experience with which it is not normally associated.
The three segments of the zodiac distinguished by water combine to add up to the same number of degrees as in a square aspect. In sum, they also correlate with irrational emotion; subjective intuition; unspeakable depths of feeling; and your unimaginable, but natural, recurring, continuous and inevitable dissolution into an incalculable but palpable whole.
While Mercury’s six months of stitching through 90 degrees of elemental water are now past, the corresponding experience is now sewn into you. Inevitably, like a square, the trials that went with that experience will add to, rather than detract from, your ability to grasp the future being initiated by the cardinal square from Uranus to Pluto — a process in which Chiron is playing a reciprocal role.
Chiron was the first centaur object to be named. Like others of its kind, Chiron is (in the words of the astronomer who discovered it) “a maverick,” and the science of astronomy actually uses terms like “eccentric” and “deviate” to describe how orbital characteristics of Chiron, and other centaurs, in effect stitch together the outer solar system by crossing the orbits of more conventional planets.
All of that oddly subjective scientific terminology carries over to help you grasp the astrology of Chiron and how its closing square from Mercury serves to capture concisely so much of 2013.
Like Mercury, Chiron is properly interpreted as complex and nuanced. Just as with Mercury, Chiron is reenacting its (unseen at the time) performance of the 1960s by repeating a long sail through watery Pisces, while Jupiter (currently retrograde through Cancer), Saturn (now swimming Scorpio) and Neptune (in its Pisces home port) reboot their grand water trine of the same decade.
Finally, by virtue of the fact that Chiron crosses the orbits of Saturn and Uranus, Chiron is also connecting the Uranus-Pluto aspects of both half a century past and the present with the water trine redux. Yet, the trials of this year appear to be one trial short of helping us to do better, and be more, while managing to understand with greater depth an experience of history — one which we are, all together and at once, now updating and putting to a crucial test.
Therein is the complex and nuanced, but comprehensible, interpretation of Mercury’s mutable square to Chiron tonight. It’s the gift of a second chance. It’s the message not to squander it. It also appears that it’s you who must do your part to complete the delivery.
You can do your part by seizing upon how the brevity of the aspect is indicative. It indicates that you (and everybody else at once) are but a brief moment, perhaps even a single act, away from closing this year more whole than you entered it. If there’s anything to astrology, it’s within your grasp.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Ishmael: You are always very welcome. It is for me to thank you (and Strawberry) for your participation in proving that miracles can be made to happen, just as astrology can be made to happen – by human beings being humane.
oh, ha, nice comments i see…
yes, Mr Wallick writes astrology so beautifully, so hard to find that, so appreciated,
as for the day dec 10… ahhh. (well im a aries, we’ve been taking all this on the chin for a
couple years..) I like elias lonsdale… how the planets drive you crazy… Lonsdale says so dificult lately because we’re learning what its like to be dieing all the time… learning ..because new heaven.. we will pass away into this … the heavens themselves rejuvenated..and we have learned of it, and when we return (reincarnate) we will carry seeds of new earth… This resonates with me as the last few years truly so powerful spiritual experiences — the explanation of new heaven , new earth resonates .. just so desperate for some helpful way of understanding last few years, really seems every lunation just gets stronger in effect… Imaginative writers like mr. so appreciated therefore.. its imagination thats important, thats the new way… lonsdale fascinated by uranus lately, ahh, these aspects.. some just seem so strong its awful.. i’ll try to come back and comment again if Im welcome, thankyou (so very much..)
equilibrium and good will, thankyou. It is difficult at times it seems for many lately,
and i must apologize myself for falling out of those two. You can take heart in fact, its absolutely good advice i realize a bit later… the planets do not ‘abandon’ you and there are always ‘2nd chances’ actually… always. Astrology teaches wisdom and heals, (but can take time, but just stay with it, yes..) The planets are so strong these days… it is amazing.. surely it means we are in it together, yes.
peace above all, please
cam
bethesda
Ishmael, thank you so much for referring back to this article.
Like you say (if I understand you correctly) Mercury trine Uranus as the Moon conjoins Uranus is a lot of damn energy. I’d been looking backward when I read this the first time — taking note of where I’d been. Your bringing it back into focus today helps me see just how much all that Uranus-themed energy has opened up in my life over the past two weeks, and also to look forward, with the intention of directing the way this closing square between the Sun & Moon on Wednesday manifests in my life. Second chances are worth nothing if you don’t take them, right? This lunar cycle has been so compelling and confusing and primal in my life, I’ve felt a little like I’ve been tossed about, just keeping up with the madness — which is not the point of astrology, as I understand it.
You’ve reminded me (LOVELOVELOVE the name, BTW) that, as complicated as the math and the mythology get, none of this means anything if I don’t use it to effect the future (and the present) I desire.
I appreciate your speaking up, and want to say that although I may not have understood you completely, what you said mattered to me.
love to you.
Ishmael: Thank you for feeling safe enough to share your thoughts, which are received with gratitude. My mind is open to your ideas, and your words are being taken to heart so as to offer you service you may find useful in the future. May you share in and receive validation from the blessings of the solstice, when the Sun itself pauses on the horizon at its rising and settings, finding reason to reverse its inertia and take a new direction. May all of us take inspiration from the Sun. May all of us take inspiration from each other, and move together towards equilibrium and good will.
the very powerful sagitarius new moon from previous dec. 2 manifested this day also because first time sun made any aspects since dec 2, qx jup… mercury trining uranus while moon
conjuncts uranus
Articles like this amaze me in retrospect… 2nd chances? got any clue at all about uranus
and chiron… any? just anything…. Maybe helpful something like this a day or two in
advance perhaps…. take heart? – thanx.
Astrologers drive me mad…. the only one who gets it , gets anything.. is Lonsdale,
“within your grasp” – you want to know something? – you’re right. It was! And it was pretty obvious just from sagitarius n.m. so powerful… So thanx for your um, brevity. hm.
I could write a book on dec 10. Do you know what uranus does? I mean… uhh
– you want to know what it really means? if you want it to know, listen to Lonsdale, you want to help people? serve people? almost maybe, but not quite.. take heart, okay-
same to you Mr Wallick… take heart ok?
thats ok. It doesnt matter. uhhh
c
bethesda
In hindsight (and after a 2nd read since I didn’t have time to respond yesterday), your observations regarding Mercury’s square to Chiron are even more enlightening. I’m finding that to be true so often now since my memory bank is filled up and therefore “new” stuff doesn’t get saved. Low battery life (on my unsaved memory) can’t be depended on to always retain the wisdom you share ahead of events (or for that matter, what I had for lunch yesterday, or whether I even had lunch!?). Hey I can grasp, I just can hold on to!
I was especially fond of your correlation between the 90 degrees separating planets square one another (Mercury and Chiron this time) and the combined degrees of the 3 water signs where Mercury did his retrograding this year. Astrology affords us so many clues, if you will, to convey the universe’s messages, and little jewels like this are rarely picked up on. Thanks for passing it on to your fans like me. Had I left a reply I would have commented on your “stitches” theme by noting the trine between master weaver Pallas-Athene in Virgo to Pluto in Capricorn, or the recent opposition between web-designer Arachne and the ruler of Networks Jupiter. Alas, my stitches weren’t in time for your blog or the President’s roll-out.
But while there’s still a little life in the square between Mercury and Chiron, and as I await today’s offering, there’s a transit today between Mars (2 Libra) sextile Hera (aka Juno) at 2 Sagittarius that could relate to the seasonal partnership (Hera and Libra influenced) between charitable drives for the disenfranchised (that Hera/Juno supports) and the public. Hera is square charitable trans Neptune (2 Pisces) and action oriented Mars is quincunx (adjustment needed) Neptune. Since Neptune (like Chiron) transits the 3rd house (neighborhoods, communication, info) of the U.S. Sibly chart, there will be a lot of (U.S.) shoppers coming face-to-face with their consciences regarding the meaning of this holiday season. If they can grasp that need while they pursue the fulfillment of various wish lists, then Mars, Hera and Neptune will have done their job. I will have provided a belated little something to grasp that will hopefully make up for my tardiness.
be
Lizzy: Thank you for sharing your triumph (and the hyperlink). Thank you especially for your support of Genevieve’s “Moonshine Horoscopes” – yest another benefit available to Planet Waves subscribers.
vince, DivaCarla, Rob44: Take heart, please. Cycles are fundamental to astrology. So is awareness. Just because the Cosmos sneaks a curve ball by you does not mean you have struck out forever. It means you are aware of your status in relation to the Universe. The awareness puts you ahead, not behind, and prepares you for the next time the cycle comes around. So, no despair, y’hair?
aword: That’s the ticket! Thank you!
strawberry: Good work! Thank you! Letting one pearl slip is no peril, it is to find it again.
abc123: Thank you for a perfect example!
I sense I’ve missed this ambiguous second chance. Perhaps there is some small lesson to be gained in that lost opportunity as well, one to take forward into a new year likely to be more uncertain and challenging as this has been. Be well Len…
Thank you for this lovely piece, dear Len. A light went on as I read it and realised that I’ve been fighting the pain brought up by this square, bringing painful buried stuff to the light to heal, and I’ve been lashing out in all directions. Am able to find the peace to deal with it now. Was also so helped by Genevieve’s wonderful Moonshine horoscopes, which arrived in my inbox yesteday. Thank you, both of you.
Strawberry, this is wonderful, “rather than being dumped or rejected, this shadow feels like it needs to be expanded, opened up, filtered, sifted, until I can find the pearl at its heart & allow the pain to wash away.”
For all the pearlfishers,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAU0Iyib2SE
Len,
Re: “It’s the gift of a second chance. It’s the message not to squander it. It also appears that it’s you who must do your part to complete the delivery.”
I thought you might enjoy this: I worked late tonight and didn’t hear my phone, but noticed within a few moments that I had a new voice message. It was from a 90 year-old relative who I met for the first time (since I was a baby) in October.
I was separated from that side of my family when I was five years old, and this past October drove ten hours each way to spend a weekend with people who knew my grandparents and other relatives who were very special to me before they passed on.
I am not normally a phone person, but I called her right back and we had a lovely chat about our visit, some photos I’d sent, and our separate plans for the holidays.
Who knows how many more times we’ll have the opportunity to chat? I am so grateful for this wonderful connection and I know that it will warm my heart for many years to come.
And yes, it was up to me to complete the delivery of this lovely gift!
It’s the gift of a second chance. It’s the message not to squander it. It also appears that it’s you who must do your part to complete the delivery.
Len, this is playing out for me tonight already, and I am still working.
There is a since of needing to slow down, be still, and feel myself, while actively engaging in the second chance, etc. Everything we’ve learned all year gets distilled in a Chiron moment?
Len, the “nuanced complexity” of this is brilliant; I can only take it in in bits. I have to start by saying how illuminative I find the idea that a mutable square can have the feeling of closing the season represented by the two planets. When I think about where I was when this season between Mercury & Chiron began this past February, I see the beginnings of making peace with my shadow — my journals contain the note, “rather than being dumped or rejected, this shadow feels like it needs to be expanded, opened up, filtered, sifted, until I can find the pearl at its heart & allow the pain to wash away.”
And so when I ask myself whether I’ve grasped the pearl, I feel like I’ve gained a whole basket overflowing with them. And yet — is there one I’ve let slip through my fingers? That originating conjunction of Mercury & Chiron was also conjoined Mars. Considering all the Mars in my life lately, I think I’ll look in that direction for clues to what I’d best hang onto. As always, you bring so much to light.
It is all too often that we pursue the coming year with a list of things we plan to accomplish at that future time, forgetting that there is opportunity yet to leave a mark or make a message in the time that is still now, in the current year.
Thank you Len, for your reminder – as you so beautifully interpret our sky – to seal the year consciously, intentionally – and to weave a little healing magic into the aspects of our lives.
a love of a lifetime – a moment so rare – yet i’m unable to be real – its breaking my heart – i had no idea how complicated i’ve become