The opportunity of oppositions / weekend astrology
By Len Wallick, diviner/astrologer
Astrology started with people looking at the sky, not paper, not computer displays, the sky. It is my habit to rise early and walk to work before dawn. In the course of doing so watching the gradual development of an aspect that starts our astrological weekend on Friday – the opposition of Jupiter (in Aquarius) and Venus (in Leo) smack on the axis of the February 6, 2008 solar eclipse. Three hundred miles of thinking, hours of writing, hacked down to this. Free your mind. Observe results honestly. If you don’t like them, release attachment to what brings their repetition. Take off the mask and be genuine in intimacy. Practice business as a win-win proposition. The pre-requisite of abundance is participation. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Wore out a lot of sole for that. i would ask the readers to help note this sly aspect.
Saturday morning, the Moon in late Gemini opposes the Galactic center and squares the applying opposition (exact next week) that’s been getting all the attention, the third set-to (of five) between Saturn and Uranus.. Almost paradoxically this orientation of energies would seem to afford the opportunity to get the day off on the right foot if we can lighten up and utilize timing as a comedian would. There can be delight and surprise on a small budget (Mercury retro, remember) if we are thoughtful. Venus tracking with the Sun does not hurt a bit. Neither does Ceres separating from Haumea and Mercury leaving the review of Hygea behind.
It would seem to be a Saturday night to stay home and not just because it’s less expensive. Getting a good rest will help as the Moon slides into Cancer to find the water rather warm. The better to control your emotions at Sunday brunch when Luna conjuncts Mars. Try watching football like you don’t care who wins and see how that changes the experience. Nachos instead of buffalo wings. Probably best not to bet on these early season games either. And for Pete’s sake, remember it is a day to observe decorum and refrain from the urge to shout “you lie!” in church (no matter how much you may want to). Make nice on Sunday, the better to heal on Monday. More on that in the next episode of Opposites Attract.
Offered in Service (with a smile),
Len Wallick
Jere, jlo, bk, lw,
I grew up in lawyer-land, worked however many years in same and now I’m wanting /finding peace and beauty in all kinds of places (tho not in DC … interestingly enuf). With Mercury on my ascending, rising, I always thought this desire to find the right word was a way to keep him busy, entertain the crowd whilst my Scorpio Moon went rummaging through everyone’s pockets!
Anyway, I am blown away by the insights here, inspires me to open up to deeper level and let go of the superficial @#$%.
mm.
jlo,
That’s a great way to put it: “The past is realization, the future is potential projection, Now is the fulcrum of life”. Can’t get any clearer than that. Thanks for sharing it.
Len, in the first paragraph, I can’t recall the specific alignments that allowed me to understand what you’re saying.. (right now I’m seeing the connection of trines and sextiles in my own chart comparatively, I’ve venus oppo. jup. in libra/aries, 4th/10.) I’ve always, at least in the recesses, felt what you speak of. (This is why I truly appreciate you cats, you work on your wording. I require the verbiage, as one piece of the cosmic pie,.. I could totally get lost in the cosmic perspective… but I would have none to share with.) Ensouling has got to be the craziest feeling.. good though!
MM, BK, I’ve read probably a dozen astro books, starting with Isabel Hickey (and I totally dig Alan Oken), and grazed a lot more, but the words only piqued my mentality. I don’t grasp fully through text, only feeling/embodying those energies can I have half a clue as to understanding (I’ve been walking around feeling into space for the last four years). Only then the words start to make sense and acclimate themselves within my conversational reality.
As far as the past… 😉 , reference for adjustment.. I’m working on a clearer way to say this but, the past is realization, the future is potential projection, Now is the fulcrum of life.
There’s something more to throw down here.. can’t put a finger on it though.. I’m trippin’ a good 3rd/9th/saturn/uranus lesson trip these days.. I do find it fun to try to work the energies into concepts, and the concepts into words though!
Take care you guys!
Love, Peace, and Really Big Smiles!,
Jere
Hey Pan,
Best facebook lines this week re football:
Girl: “OU sucks but the Aggies Swallow”
Boy: “Do you have Aggie’s phone number?”
Girl: “Come on down to Texas and I’ll fix you up!”
Boy: “I should, everything’s bigger down there.”
Older female: “You freak!”
ha ha I am still laughing!
Very nice. You have got me smiling on this Saturday morning. The weather’s changed today, wanting boots and jeans instead of shorts and sandles. So it is good to relax with the slow change of season… go with the flow of it. If I can. But no football. Please.
Pan
Hey, bkoehler!
thanks for your feedback … I am comforted by your words and knowing others behave similarly. there was something that Eckhart Tolle said about labeling things that gave me pause, me and my mercury rising! I had/have always appreciated embracing the nuances of energy and labeling helped me focus and sharpen attention … but I fear (that’s the reason for my post) that I was much too much in my head.
I reckon as much as I liked to not repeat the past, at least to move on and feel progress, I suspect that that fear is somewhat baseless as the past does not exist. Right?
Me too marymack; I have the need to identify the stuff that comes my way. Before astrology, it was all so mystifying. Why did I feel energetic one day but not the next? Why was that person so grumpy today when she’s usually so cheerful?
The benefit from recalling the past (and you know this!) is to learn from the past. Why keep making the same mistakes over and over? Tomorrow I am going to a reunion of folks who worked at a place that ceased to exist in 1989. Some I’ve stayed in touch with, but mostly it will be the first (and last) time I will have seen them since then. I suspect the differences between what we were then and what we’ve become will be more than just our gray hairs and expanded waistlines. Some of those folks were intimidating at the time (bosses, head nurses, etc.) and hopefully, they won’t have that power over me anymore!
Agreed too that naming the energy(ies) from the past would be of little benefit to anyone who isn’t an astrology buff. We’re just wierd that way.
Something that always intrigues me about astrology is the embrace of the uncomfortable, discordant and the labels for that energy. Whether it starts with looking to the sky or feeling the energy, I have a need to connect and name the stuff that comes my way. Memory of past eclipses fail me and I finger Neptune washing over my sun/mercury ascending for the longest time … but isn’t it possible that there’s really little benefit to recalling the past or busying ourselves with naming energy?
You got me thinking too Len, about astrology of course, and about the opposition of Jupiter and Venus and the 02/06/08 eclipse. All I remembered about that time is the Aquarian pile up of planets that was a topic of discussion, although Jupiter was still in Capricorn at the time. Also, at that time, we didn’t know yet that Hillary Clinton was not going to be the Dem’s choice of candidate for the Presidency. If we had been thinking that B. Obama had a chance we would have been examining his chart, and if we had had that chart, the correct chart, we would have known that the eclipse on Feb 6 was within a degree of his ascendant! Hindsight 20/20.
But about Jupiter and Venus; only a few days before that Feb 6 ’08 eclipse they had been conjunct in the same degree where Arachne was on the night the President gave his address. That degree’s Sabian Symbol is “An Albatross Feeding From The Hand Of A Sailor: The Overcoming of Fear and its Rewards”. Rudyher says: “. . .the communion of love and compassion can bring together the most disparate lives”, and uses TRUST as a keyword. (Kinda makes me think of your spider story!)
So from that conjunction/beginning to this opposition/”full moon”, Venus has traveled through 7 signs. Remember that long stint in Aries? Yikes, that was hard on her I know. Anyway, she’s taken that meeting in Capricorn with Jupiter and hooked up with a lot of astro bodies, spreading the love, making sure they all got a little taste of “expansion and understanding in business, government, family” (that’s all I could come up with for the moment) and now we get to see how that worked out. Or did it work at all?
As for Jupiter, in Feb’08 he had just come off of a conjunction with Pluto in the last degree of Sagittarius 2 months before (I remember only because my kitty died that day). So he must have been filled with dreams of power, or transformation, or both. Did Venus include that in her little taste to all the astro bodies she hooked up with? Hmmm? There was Mars of course, and before that, Chiron and Neptune and Uranus and Eris.. . . . . Anyway, she looks back at Jupiter now and asks “do I need to make any corrections?” That’s what I imagine anyway.
On a personal level I see a pull between doing the group think, which is a lot of fun versus doing whatever creative thing you really love to do, and trying to find a way to balance and/or combine them. Guess that’s kind of what I’m doing now.
The “yod that’s not really a yod” because there’s no 3rd planet, only a spot, but an important spot. They are all at 8+ something: Mercury at 8+ Gemini (Moon at 7+), Pallas Athena at 8+ Leo and the midheaven at 8+ Capricorn. My own Sun, Moon quincunx is irritating as hell sometimes, I guess that’s why I used the word “agitating” to describe a quincunx. It can be very productive though!
Cheers!
bkoheler,
No, i do not believe you are cracking up. Nor do i believe that you digress in excess.
Your “fascination” with asteroids makes you, from my perspective, a world-class resource in that specialty.
i would agree in general that the 4 Aries Points have been “plucked” so many times this Summer, one wonders when the zodiac will need to have it’s spokes replaced. From Pluto, to the house shifts of the personal planets, from the lunar nodes shifting, all leading up to Saturn’s Libra Leap (do you think we should copyright that?).
With all respect i do not get the same feeling from a quincunx that you do. For one thing i would say the orbit of influence needs to be tight, like a degree or less. i’d like to hear back from some of the other readers on that. Also, “looks like a yod” linchpin will require me to step back and think on it. Once again, the tighter the orbit the better in my mind.
Thank you also for expounding on the Aracne myth. i’m one of those people who grew out of fearing spiders to the point that i will go to a great deal of trouble to save one from a sink.
Finally, i think you are on to something of growing auspiciousness as regards to weaving in general and Pallas apecifically. i was thinking about it last night (while looking at Jupiter) on the walk home, still ruminating – i’m not as quick witted as you are.
i want to thank you for once again stimulating me to really think about the astrology. You are a blessing to the Planet Waves community.
Please, do you have anything to add on the Venus-Jupiter opposition this morning?
With Utmost Appreciation,
Len Wallick
Good, good, good Len and Patty! You both have put a smile on my face this evening. Thank you for that. And thank you once again, Len, for your well turned phrase(s) and what a witty “sole” you are!
I was reading about the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act which established 9/11 as the Nat’l Day of Service and Remembrance. A day where millions of Americans offer their services to help improve the lives of those in need, as a memorial to the victims of 9/11. I marveled at how astrology has fine-tuned our perceptions to see the symbols of this art in special events or days or even in everyday life. This Serve America Act for example had asteroids and the goddesses for whom they are named written all over it.
Because of my fascination with the asteroids, I stumbled onto a ‘coincidence’ that made me smile and I’d like to see if it affects you in a similar way.
The Summer Solstice is a pattern that is in effect until the Fall Equinox is my understanding, with or without eclipses. I dug out the 6/21/09 chart, set for Washington DC, remembering the remarkable way the asteroids had added emphasis to the major planet aspects. These were Sun and Vesta conjunct on 1 Cancer (Aries Point), Ceres and Saturn conjunct in Virgo, Uranus and Juno conjunct in Pisces and Pallas Athena sextile the Moon/Mercury conjunction.
Feeling as I do, that Vesta was a prime player in the healthcare reform project, along with Ted Kennedy’s many years of devoted work, I wondered if she would be finished when the equinox arrived in 10 days. Then I noticed something I’d not seen before.
In the sextile between Moon/Mercury in Gemini and Pallas Athena in Leo, both were quincunx the midheaven of the DC chart at 8+ Capricorn. Now I won’t go so far as to call it a yod, but the fact is, we would recognize the quincunx between Moon/Mercury and the MH, and perhaps the quincunx between Pallas and the MH as separate aspects. I’m thinking: if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck . . . . . .
Cut to the chase you say. Okay. Turns out that 8+ Capricorn is opposite the Mars in the address chart on the 9th, at 9+ Cancer, and Mars was the ruler of that chart. Opposite Mars in that chart was a little asteroid called Arachne at 9+ Capricorn. Now I haven’t checked to see where Arachne was at Summer Solstice time, but before Arachne was a spider, she was a really good weaver. So good that she challenged Pallas Athena, Queen of Weavers, and Patterns, and strategy. A contest was held and Pallas was very upset when Arachne wove better than she herself. She turned Arachne into a spider, but later she repented (a little) and allowed Arachne to keep her weaving talent. .as in spider webs.
The moral of this tale is don’t challenge the gods/goddesses, even if you’re really really good. But what if Pallas Athena (8+ Leo), in her role in the “looks like a yod” aspect was agitating Arachne (as is the nature of a quincunx) while at the same time working with the Moon (feelings)and Mercury (thought process) from the “pattern” of the Summer Solstice (chart) and “projecting” on to her fellow goddess Vesta at 5+ Leo in the address chart?
Might not “weaving patterns” be something like weaving together the parts of a bill that would please the gods? Do you think I’m cracking up? Even so, Mars in the chart for the address is the ruler, and Arachne is opposed him in the 10th house. They must find a balance.
Jeff Jawer says in Mt. Astrologer (Aug/Sept ’09) about the “autumnal equinox” “This is one of the major pivot points of the year, a time of choices, even if Libra loves to sit on the fence. Equivocation is not an option now; decisions must be made.”
Well, at least we can all agree on that!
Patty,
Ho yeah. Actually the Eurythmics’ “Would I Lie To You?” has a sharper irony. It’s a shame, really. Watched Jupiter on the way home last night. Witnessed Venus grace the dawn this morning. pposition, yes, but also inspiration. Is there a way we could do that? Contesting not as aggression but as a form of inquiry into the state of grace?
Yep. Sounds better than Liar Liar Pants on Fire, eh?
Patty!
i was beginning to think i would not smile today, thank you for bringing one. Maybe that should be the soundtrack for Mercury retro in Libra.
But just to make sure i’ve got the song straight, Fleetwood Mac?
-Len
How about sweet lies? Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies…tra la la…