Note, Inner Space horoscope for October will be mailed to subscribers this morning. — efc
This week, four planets change signs. Mercury and Saturn ingress Scorpio, Venus ingresses Virgo and Mars ingresses Sagittarius. Planets changing signs means changes in our lives. Even one planet making a move can freshen things up, though four changing signs in close proximity means that many things are cycling to a close and new things are beginning.
As planets move through the last degrees of their signs, they can take on a pressured, rushed or even desperate feeling. Notice when you’re feeling this pressure or sense of being moved against your will, as if you have to get it all done for some reason you don’t understand.
Actually, there may be an element of truth to that — notice what’s currently on your radar that is ready to be wrapped up, over and/or done with. Notice what you’ve been delaying and ask if you’re not actually experiencing an opportunity. This is an excellent time for completions. However, given the pressures involved, and the sense of inevitable movement, and the fact that many of these planets deal with sex and emotions, if you’re going to have conversations about significant topics, please do so in a clear state of mind: rested, sober, and not physically in bed (in bed is one of the least helpful places to discuss sex and sexual relationships; the kitchen table is much better).
It’s also time to think about what you want that’s new and different, or that you feel you’re ready for. Each of these sign changes brings a different energy into the mix, though the interesting thing is that all of the planets are in aspect to Neptune when they change signs. Neptune is about imagination, vision, sensory experiences and creativity, though it’s also easily corrupted. It’s one of the most challenging energies out there, more often associated with delusion than with anything spiritual or pleasant.
Yet just about everything we experience that is pleasant to the senses, connected or creative has Neptune as its source (or at least a strong enhancement), so we do need this quality of the spirit, and we need to master it. Planets aspecting Neptune provide the opportunity to do just that. I’ll go over the sign changes one at a time.
Venus ingresses Virgo Tuesday, Oct. 3 at 2:59 pm EDT. Conjunct Transpluto and opposite Neptune, this is about focusing your efforts and your resources. It’s also about being realistic when it comes to love, ‘love’, infatuation and affection. Love is all you need and love, reduced down to a certain set of emotions, is a drug not unlike refined sugar. Clue: if you’re feeling self-critical, it may may be something other than love.
Thursday is St. Francis Day. Bring your dog, cat, bird or llama to church!
On Friday, Mercury and Saturn form a conjunction, not just in the last degree of Libra but also in the last few arc minutes of that sign. Mercury then goes into Scorpio, followed a few hours later by Saturn. It’s as if Mercury the messenger speeds along and opens the way for Saturn to change signs — and also reminds us that Saturn arrives with a message. (For those watching the election, this sequence may come with some interesting revelations, since both planets will be right where Mercury stationed direct on Election Day 2000.)
Saturn changing signs is a major event, as Saturn will remain in Scorpio well into 2015 — through the final contacts of the ongoing Uranus-Pluto square. There are many interpretations to this, and it will represent a sea-change in our emotional lives — and indeed in collective life. One basic, obvious interpretation is that it’s time for some integrity in areas of sexuality, which means conscious growth and focusing on reality (though embracing imagination — Saturn is trine Neptune) and time to get busy with all that sexual healing we know is necessary and overdue (Saturn trine Chiron).
The last sign change in this sequence is Mars, which ingresses Sagittarius on Saturday, Oct. 6. This is probably the most challenging of the lot, because Mars squares Neptune first thing when it ingresses Sagittarius. This is the kind of aspect that suggests there’s a potential strain or leak in integrity somewhere. It can also be lusty and imaginative and visionary, but where Mars and Neptune are involved in an aspect of this type, it’s potentially a fine line from there to self-destructive.
Many people believe that being self-destructive is necessary for creativity. Could that really be true? Also, this is when to question the veracity of what you hear — and to wait for an answer. Something isn’t necessarily not true because it doesn’t seem to be true, nor is it untrue if it’s coming from a source that’s unreliable. However, Mars square Neptune is a big hint to ask questions, slow down a little and proceed with caution.
There are many reasons to do that in a moment of change, and I just listed them all. Caution and awareness doesn’t mean hesitation or needless delay. It means waking up and proceeding with clarity, intention and a conscious process of making decisions.
Hi to everyone and wandering _ yeti: yes, yes, yes.
Eric: Thank you for the brilliant threads in both your blog today and in the photograph that accompanies it.
wandering_yeti: Thank you for a beautiful interpretation of Neptune.
Yeti: “The only way Neptune can get through all this noise for most inhabitants of the empire is denial, drugs, delusion, and dreams. The audio space is so packed with discordant vibrations that attempts to expand awareness into the oceanic are met by a web of noise. Neptune then goes the route of numbing instead of expanding.”
And don’t forget dubstep, drum and bass and pure hardhouse. 20 foot high speakers positioned so that they create a crosswave that cancel each other out. I’ve stood in that quinx (where a LOT of people 15-20 are hangin) and it is both crushing and empty. It deafens *every* sensory channel with pure wattage. Uber-Neptune. Add a few chemical enhancements and you are no longer singing the body electric, but the body radiopassive.
Wanderingyeti, I am fortunate to have such a space and retreat there as often as life will let me! ~~ My weekend with the turkeys (real ones, with feathers still attached and a gobble inside) was the filling between last week (when the city trucks sat outside the house, running pumps or something, 8 hours a day for four days in a row) and this week, where I’m supposed to be in Chicago before the morning meeting (in some skyscraper full of power using and vibration emitting equipment and lots of electronics) where I’ll be re-trained for the training I was trained in at the solstice. I’d rather listen to the turkeys!
For way too long, my questions to the universe have been answered with “Not yet”. Dare I hope that these sign changes that are happening will bring me closer to “Soon”? Doesn’t matter since I will be hoping anyway! I’m unaccustomed to not being the mover and shaker in my own life.
I just flashed on a possible reason why Neptune gets such a bad vibe in present culture: Just as Neptune was discovered the noise level of humans with machines was revving up. I had an experience over a few days leading up to the full moon last week that gave me some clues about Neptune, now trine my Saturn and squared my Moon. It started on Thursday night on Alberta Street where the monthly celebration of art, culture, and commerce was raging. I stood behind a group of multicolored drummers including the 3 tone Bata, a bass djembe, a couple of other small djembes and a lead djembe player who slithered around and crackled like a flame on top of the solid wood of the groove keepers. As soon as the drums started up I felt like a purring cat, the sound waves changing the space around me such that as my brain tracked the polyrhythms and my body felt the sound waves my consciousness expanded into a more open multi layered perception. The lead djembe player’s sounds felt like he was playing with my energy as his accents seemed to respond to my motions.
Then I walked down the street and stopped to hear-feel a group of Native Americans with drum and voices. Where I felt like a purring cat inside the space shaped by the African drums, I felt like a growing cedar tree in a soft rain, the drops in the groove leading the downward flow of qi in spite of the blacktop road under my feet. I could hear thunder echoing in mountain valleys, rain falling, trees singing in the wind, roots expanding in the sound of their drum and in their voices I could feel the water and fire of their bodies, powerful voices, free and in love with life.
Then on Friday and Saturday I rode in 2 bike swarm protest/dance party rides that both ended up in high car traffic areas for the whole ride. We stopped on freeway overpasses with sound systems bumping the funk, hanging signs and dancing to the beat, drawing attention to how much fun you can have on a bike. In contrast to the cat and tree experiences on the ground level street after about the 3rd freeway overpass I felt drained, closed off, sleepy, and feeling overwhelmed by the whoosh, hiss and growl of the machines under foot.
I think Neptune is poisoned by a culture that tries to make so much noise as to drown out the voices of our homeworld, humans so obsessed with our own reflection that we’re willing to chop down all the woods to transform everything into something shaped by humans or machines made by humans; a narcissistic culture. The only way Neptune can get through all this noise for most inhabitants of the empire is denial, drugs, delusion, and dreams. The audio space is so packed with discordant vibrations that attempts to expand awareness into the oceanic are met by a web of noise. Neptune then goes the route of numbing instead of expanding. Alcohol is easily available; just try finding a patch of Earth where you can’t hear any machines.
Paolo and friends, I’m so with you on feeling like I’m ready to graduate. Glad to know it’s not just me. Feeling like a (winged?) horse champing at the bit…but also mindful via Len’s reading above about the value of timeliness, discernment, and recognizing the need for a transitional phase/approach into what feels like not only a new chapter of life, but a whole new book. Thanks again Eric and the PW family–you all rock.
Beautiful photograph Eric. I thought it was a blanket. But also more, vibrating with light. The colors and the swirling, melding of it feels like such a visual component to your article. Very nice complement.
Saturn ingress Scorpio marks the official beginning of my 2nd Saturn return, which straddles 12th and 1st houses, as Saturn is conjunct my Ascendant in the middle of Scorpio. I’ve made a sticky note with your commentary, Eric, as I believe this will guide my passage.
And it is about time, on many dimensions, to get this work done… Saturn trine Neptune and Chiron in my sun sign. Yup. Thank you.
Saturn changing signs is a major event, as Saturn will remain in Scorpio well into 2015 — through the final contacts of the ongoing Uranus-Pluto square. There are many interpretations to this, and it will represent a sea-change in our emotional lives — and indeed in collective life. One basic, obvious interpretation is that it’s time for some integrity in areas of sexuality, which means conscious growth and focusing on reality (though embracing imagination — Saturn is trine Neptune) and time to get busy with all that sexual healing we know is necessary and overdue (Saturn trine Chiron). /
I totally relate to your ‘stuck in a grade way past my age range” Paolo – I also hope for change enough to make that clip real.
Wow! Genius!
“I had a feeling the other day like I was so ready to “graduate” from where I am”. Yes, me too! Had one of those exam dreams last night, where I was back in school and hadn’t a clue how to answer the exam questions. And then the scene changed to cooking a meal for friends, and I din’t have a clue about what to cook…
Don’t be afraid of those fears, Paolo! Change is scary – we desperately want to change but we hang on tight to the devils we know…
Photo is a backlit Guatemalan blanket — strong morning sunlight coming through. It is hanging like a curtain; I started photographing it directly and then I looked down and saw the perspective — that is the photo you have here…
Love the clip, Paolo – this house sure ain’t clear yet! Gorgeous photo Eric, what is it?
I remember Len’s article back in January I think, where he wrote about Saturn turning retro right on the brink of changing signs to Scorpio, and incidentally not long after Neptune entered Pisces. He described this “almost but not quite” feeling. Now with all these concurrent sign changes, integrity does seem to be the message, particularly since January as we traversed lessons for the second or tenth time. I had a feeling the other day like I was so ready to “graduate” from where I am. As if I’m stuck in a grade way past my age range. And yet, I have fears. Of being judged, of not getting it right, of failing. Am I ready? I hope the message that arrives with Saturn is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu5JdmsLWVk