By Len Wallick
At 5:18 am EST, the Sun left the cardinal earth sign of Capricorn where it has been since shortly after a total lunar eclipse last month, and is now in Aquarius. Aquarius is a fixed air sign as oxymoronic as the combination of element and quality would imply.
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The traditional ruler of Capricorn and Aquarius is Saturn, so there is potential for some continuity. Over the two centuries or so since its discovery in 1781, Uranus has been somewhat arbitrarily and sometimes controversially designated as ruler of Aquarius. The book is not closed on this. For those of you who have gotten to know and tolerate those of us solar Aquarians, the designation might make sense when you consider that the axial tilt of Uranus is over 97 degrees — in other words, the poles are roughly parallel with the plane of the solar system, where other planets have their equators. That’s how we roll.
Where Saturn and Uranus come together is in the designation of Aquarius as the sign of the collective. The cooperative assumption of common purpose leading to agriculture and civilization is Saturnalian, while the term “We The People” is definitely a Uranian expression. There’s your oxymoronic quality again as well. On one hand, subordinating individuality to serve the common good, while on the other, taking note of when “…it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another.” It makes perfect sense and it doesn’t.
Preceding the Sun into Aquarius are the largest-asteroid-become-smallest-dwarf-planet Ceres, as well as our red friend Mars. There are also two bodies soon to leave after long tenure. Neptune will try the waters of Pisces this April, then return later in the year to pack its bags to make a long-term commitment in 2012 to the sign it co-rules. Chiron, having dipped its toe last year is preparing to swim the distance when it dives into Pisces early next month.
And then there is Nessus. Like all centaur planets, Nessus is associated with the psychological concept of shadow material. This is residue of past injurious experience, carried forward either as toxic behaviour or as the source of healing and empowerment. With this particular object, the shadow is often one of abuse absorbed while still young, impressionable and defenseless. The karmic push-back is one of the primary sources of grudge. Moving slowly through the sign of the collective for what seems like an interminable period, it is something we have all come to feel for a few years. Even more than Neptune and Chiron, Nessus has become the identity of the sign and vice versa. In this little planet is all the peril and promise of the Aquarian experience in this era that bridges the end of second millennium and the beginning of the third.
This brings us back to the current immigrants to Aquarius. Ceres has a lot in common with Saturn in that the mythology of both included instruction of the human race in the life-giving practice of agriculture. From both we learned to work with the cycle of the seasons to create food surplus during the growing season, making possible collective survival during a season of dearth. Being Persephone’s mother, Ceres also has something in common with Nessus in that both know about abject pain and toxic response.
Having both Ceres and Nessus present in Aquarius at this time presents a synchronicity every bit as double edged as the conjunction of Mercury with Pluto and the retrograde station of the asteroid Juno over the past couple days. Recently, and resulting from a combination of reasons, some basic commodities have become quite scarce and expensive. This would include staple foods such as wheat, rice and corn. Copper and cotton have also come up short. How we respond to this as a collective will go a long way towards determining what edge of Ceres we will experience during its time in the fixed air. Will the circumstances be abused by speculators and those whose agenda is to sow the seeds of discontent? Or will the situation become the mother of compassionate necessity, ushering in an age when Uranian innovation is leveraged to meet the challenge of Saturnalian limits? It’s up for grabs. The energy of Mars, soon to conjoin with Ceres, can be used creatively and constructively just as it has the potential to inflict further pain and deteriorate the social order.
Think you are helpless? Use that Mercury-Pluto conjunction from two days ago and think again. Just as with every other trend in these cardinal point times, we can make a difference with our own choices. Think anew about the food you buy and where it comes from. Not just the cost to you, but also the cost to others by figuring in the expenditure of resources and the burden placed on the planet. Locally and organically grown becomes more than just conversation. Also, think about those with whom you can share, even just a little bit. One box of oatmeal adds up to so much more at the local food bank. It all adds up. It’s like exercise. The little bit every day that you can manage works out to more than the big amount you never get around to.
Today is another beginning for the Sun, the symbol of our highest willful expression of self, shining our light out into the world. Just as with the extraordinary series of anaretic Full Moons or the closely concurrent transition of sign by the personal planets, Sol is part of a bigger picture in both its timing and placement. For today it is in supportive aspect to the Aries Point, the point where the personal and political intersect. This is the same exact place that the second biggest object in the solar system — the planet Jupiter — will occupy less than 48 hours from now. That will set some bigger wheels turning and all of it will reflect the light of the Sun.
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Brendan, well, I’m glad to know that I am not in the company of Ms. Palin! – and you’ve enough ‘smarter’ BD mates to compensate, for sure. Apparently my Planet of Math was out of orb for that solar return day count!
Aword – Not that late! No, 2/11 is my day. Thomas Edison, a kindred spirit in some ways, was also born on the 11th, and not to mention Mr. Lincoln the day after. Good company around those days. Semi-good company: Bert Reynolds was born on the 11th too, and worse yet, Sarah Palin (UGGGHHHH!).
Mind you, Keith Olbermann’s birthday is almost upon us: it’s in the last week of January, the 27th.
Thanks Len, a great take on the aquarian adventure from this aquarian from down under, still hung out to dry after a good scrub down from recent heavy flooding and endless mud everywhere, still pouring off and on with no end in sight.
Interesting about the shortages over there, farmers markets are a sad sight here with prices through the roof due to the huge amount of crop and fruit damage, but being an aquarian I may be one of the first to notice the huge change in peoples attitude where everyone are helping those in need and there are many in desperate need here right now, maybe it takes a severe case of extreme adversity to break the negative materalistic cycle.
Don down under.
A lot of Aquarius here – very communal 😉
I left it until today to say hi to all my dear Aquarian pals here at PW as the sun returns to your sign. Learning Aquarius’ unique “axial tilt” (great one again Len) explains why you come across just that wee bit, mmm, shall we say “off kilter!” 😉
— and Fe, that says off *kilt*er, not off all your clothes!
Heh.
My one and only sister has her solar return today and is probably having a grand ole’ time of it as I write, in some neighbourhood pub in Ireland — slainte Sis– along with a dear, dear school friend celebrating her b’day today as well.
I will cautiously admit here to having some difficulties *reading* Aquarian energies at times, or shall I say, translating them into thoughts and words. Please don’t take offense! My cut and dry Virgo finds them enigmatic but in the nicest possible way! Suffice to *attempt* to say it though, I feel you possess an altruism that is immeasurably generous and for which I am always grateful.
The “water” that flows from the Aquarian water-jar is for me an elixir of life, or a liquid that fills our hearts full of love, or perhaps the glue that hold and inspires communities of all strips and colours to band together and make awesome things happen.
Yeah I’m liking the sun moving through Aquarius this year. It just feels spot on. Lead on dear peeps, lead on!
and Fe – you run, girl! you run! (especially if you continue to be smart with alec) Seems February’s already out of the gate and off to a great start 🙂
Brendan — are you a 02-21 baby? I am aquainted with – second degree of separation – only one other. Not many of us early Pisces swimming around my neck of the woods. I would be pleased to discover that we share a solar return day.
and….OK – so call me blind as a bat but I only just noticed that the sun was on my venus for this eclipse. (and my natal venus opposite natal uranus).
My natal venus also is exactly opposite my long-time partner’s natal mars.
Sun on venus/moon on uranus, synastry moon on mars, eclipse. (that’s what synastry is, right? different charts compared?)
Um – I’ll bet there’s some astrological stuff going on there, eh? And must say, the most um non-traditional ‘relationship’…..but with an intimacy and strength of partnership that evades all explanation. (welll, and our saturns trine too among many other things – but one learning experience at a time……..
(BTW important disclaimer!! I’m not a “oooo are we soul mates”..that’s a big sore point for me- call me Ms. Untraditional … …… just having a great time learning astrology – thanks for allowing me that disclaimer. Whew.)
Kelly:
My Moon’s in Gemini (in the 3rd), so I’m a pre-disposed smart alec.
I thought you to be a Gemini. Close.. yes..in the family of mental signs !
Len Wallick:
As your fellow Aquarii, I feel it my obligation, nay, my DUTY, to run naked through all the comment threads on your posts this next month!!
Thanks ever so much, Len.
I’ll have to re-read this several times, so that I can absorb it to the fullest. A very nice way to start off the Sun in Aquarius festival. Hmmm, an Aquarian, mid-winter Festivus? An “Airing of Grievances” certainly goes along with the current aspects.
My solar return is in 22 days. 😉
Sorry that link wasn’t typed correctly so I’ll try again
http://chirotic.wordpress.com
Thank you Len. Your gentle words never fail to weave a design from the stuff of planets, mythology and geometrics, and true to the Aquarian reputation, sometimes they are quirky or even shocking, but always unique. Here’s another gentle man who has a respect for goddesses that I thought you and your followers would enjoy. He also understands how important our choices are, as do you. From his article “Goddess Power!”. . . . .
“Whose power then [gods or goddesses] is the greater? if the Goddesses are, for you, not honoured enough in the world, then do your part: honour them.”
“Every moment of your life is metaphysical. Understand this and you have the key to your true power.”
htt;://chirotic.wordpress.com/
Wow, Len. Just yesterday I donated a lot of food to the local food bank, some of which included freshly picked huge lemons from my FIL’s tree in Phoenix. They were amazed to get the fresh lemons.
Though we also struggle with lack of income (we are STILL on Medicaid and food stamps, meh) we give anyway because others have even less than we do.
I hope your message about giving (along with the rest of this really good article) gets out to many people. ::::sharing on FB right now:::::
I bow to your spirit, Len and send my gratitude for the everyday wonder that you write about here. Bless the folk who invite all us Aquarians into the mix … as I’ve written before, nobody does Aquarians like Planet Waves.
I sat bolt upright at the very word “grudge” and thank you for giving me that little word to pull me into the whole mess of stuff that holds me back. I will remain in the past reckoning who did what to whom until I dump the whole lot for the now … a bit of a Saturn/Uranus battle within. Key into the now and all that old stuff falls away and isnt that what this day brings? each new day is a grand opportunity to celebrate now.
mm.
Patty, I like what you have written here, thank you very much.
Nice take on Aquarius, Len. Having been raised by Fixed Air and surrounded all my life by solar Aquarians, i have come to see them as rainbows.
yeti,
Thank you. Quite right. i was trying to be tongue-in-cheek about the feedback i (a solar Aquarius) get from other people. Please forgive me for not being more clear about trying to take a light-hearted approach. Thank you for the benefit of your excellent mind once again. Always learning something from you and grateful for it.
There’s no oxes or morons if you consider fixed air along with the water bearer. What bears the water and is made of air? The atmosphere. Thankfully it remains solidly fixed by gravity to the face of Gaia. It moves within the very thin limits of its expanse. It’s invisible, but hits you like a mountain when the wind blows and it’s solid enough to hold rivers of water to carry them from the oceans across the continents. It’s responsible not only for the air we breathe, but the water it bears is what enables life on land that breathes air to exist at all. It’s fixed enough to repel many waves and particles that would otherwise clobber the planet surface. The fixity of the atmosphere is why the Wind trigram has two yang lines on top. The yin line on bottom is a paper bag or a mountain, taken apart and blown about by the solidity of the wind. Aquarius is social because the atmosphere is shared by all creatures who breathe.
“Now Bart, since you broke Grandpa’s teeth, he gets to break yours.” Homer Simpson
The logic of war and child-rearing.
The FBI used to estimate that one in three women in the US were victims of rape, based on studies. With the more recent disclosures about male victims and children, i often wonder if the truth is closer to 100 percent of us being victims. Donne wrote that we were all from one book, not separate pages. Authored as one.
Does it follow that what happens to one happens to all? For whom the bell tolls…it is all of us. Time to heal the wounds.
Extraordinary stuff, Len. “The karmic push-back is one of the primary sources of grudge” – so very very helpful all that you’ve been saying about releasing a sense of grudge. Would say so much more if I had the time…
Thank you Len
Liz xx