The Sun conjunct the Galactic Center, the solstice, and options

Well now. The universe seems to be serving up quite the brew of tragedy and comedy this week. You’re not alone if you’re finding it difficult to navigate, whether in your contact with others or simply within yourself.

Simplified chart section showing Mercury (green glyph with horns) in Sagittarius opposite Jupiter (orange ‘4’) retrograde in Gemini. The Sun in Sagittarius is within a degree of its exact conjunction to the GC, which is in effect and being amplified by its trine to the Moon in Aquarius.

On the one hand, tomorrow the Sun aligns with the Galactic Center, the core of our Milky Way galaxy — just as it does every year, and as it will again around this time in 2013. Honest. So don’t go telling the Milky Way this is the last week of the Mayan calendar; it already made vacation plans with the Andromeda Galaxy to go skiing in Tahoe in February, and those reservations are non-refundable this time of year.

Yes, all the talk of the apocalypse really is that ridiculous.

On the other hand, we’ve just witnessed one of the most heartbreaking, least understandable mass shootings in recent memory — and it’s only one of several this year alone in the U.S. Here we are in the final lead-up to the fabled Age of Aquarius, that era of enlightenment we’ve been singing about ever since Hair opened Off-Broadway in 1967. And what are we doing about it? Shooting and grieving, joking about the apocalypse and secretly worrying we might be right.

I think, perhaps, the idea of the world ending (or instant mass enlightenment) on the Capricorn solstice is ludicrous for one main reason: as horrific as things can be now, they are always met by astonishing love and humanity. At the same time, no matter how many of us ‘get it’, we still get tripped up in our day-to-day lives. Neither the dark nor the light has this world wrapped up and labeled as solely its own.

Meanwhile, as we continue onward, today begins with the Moon in Aquarius making a sextile to the Sun and the Galactic Core in Sagittarius (air to fire). Sextiles offer energy that flows easily, though you have to make the effort to tap into it. It could be that the air of detachment the Aquarius Moon has offered our emotional body yesterday and today has opened the door ajar just enough to ignite our spirits with whatever cosmic truth the Sun and GC are cooking up for us — though it’s subtle. With all the heaviness around, if you don’t go looking for it, you might not notice it.

The Moon enters Pisces at 7:48 pm EST today, where it will be until Wednesday. The Moon conjoining Neptune and then Chiron tonight could spell heightened sensitivity and an urge to escape if that starts to feel like too much. If you can stay with the sensitivity, channeling it into something creative, it’s likely to be more rewarding than escapism.

Tomorrow a trine between the Pisces Moon and Saturn in Scorpio brings some common sense and contented introversion to the workweek after a weekend busy with holiday preparations layered on top of the shock and grief — though with Scorpio involved, you can expect to feel things deeply still. A grounded, earthy trine from the Moon to Pluto and Mars in Capricorn brings an ability to work with changes and upheaval with a surge of constructive energy as we head into the middle of the week.

That could be just what we all need to propel us from this past weekend of grief and chaos through to the solstice, as we invite the light back into the darkness and it responds in kind, inviting us to join it in brightening the world, beginning with our own hearts.

Mercury in Sagittarius and Jupiter retrograde in Gemini have been occupying each others’ signs, and today oppose each other exactly. Mercury-Jupiter is reminding us that we have options. And we do: in how we respond to horrible cruelty, in what we invite into ourselves and in what we offer to others. We have options in the words we choose and how we speak them; in the questions we’re willing to ask and the answers we’re willing to entertain.

Philip Sedgwick once wrote that, “According to the non-ending energy of the Galactic Center, progress is at hand. Progress is always at hand.” Options, too, are always at hand — even on the eve of the solstice, at the end of 2012.

7 thoughts on “The Sun conjunct the Galactic Center, the solstice, and options”

  1. for sure, hcohen — “how we speak them” encompasses all of that (timing, emotion, etc), and the idea of having all the options mentioned extends far beyond this incident, and far beyond this week and the solstice, and much deeper than “what do i choose to post on Facebook today?” although that is a first step in mindfulness in the digital age. it extends into understanding that we have options in what we choose our entire life to be about, and to be guided by.

  2. “We have options in the words we choose and how we speak them; in the questions we’re willing to ask and the answers we’re willing to entertain.”

    The tricky this is events like these bring out the knee jerk response in all of us. We tend to speak louder, bang the table harder, and those with opposing views tend to bang just as hard. Specifically, I am speaking about those who favor more rigid gun laws and those who do not. Yelling and self righteousness won’t get it done.

    So, in addition to options regarding choice of words and how we speak them, I think the timing of our words, and being aware of how much emotion ( both positive and negative )our words may convey, is very important as well. Because it might be difficult to put out a fire with words if the words that we speak are hot and burning with anger. So, count to ten, or some equivalent, and then speak. Perhaps then, when passion is replaced with reason, can we listen and work torwards a safer world.

  3. Amanda- thank you for this grounded message of balance, hope and sanity in the midst of the swirling chaos (Uranus chugging forward post-station). Doomsday has been canceled due to poor ticket sales.

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