Today is Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. The Sun enters Aquarius today at 11:10 am. It joins three other points currently in that sign: Nessus, Pallas and the last moments of Neptune in Aquarius. Neptune joins Pisces on Feb. 3 after 14 years in Aquarius, so these are our parting and perhaps most conscious intervals of Neptune. However, there’s more immediate news on the event horizon.
Monday is a big day in both Western astrology and Eastern. For those of us who are fascinated by planets buzzing around the Sun, Mars turns retrograde in Virgo. You don’t hear the term “Mars retrograde” very often, but it happens. Virgo is already a sign known for its intensity and even obsession, though those who try to express masculine energy through Virgo can be a little insecure doing so. Imagine how Virgo herself feels, taking up Mars as a guest for longer than the average vacation, eight months. The peak of that time involves Mars making apparent retrograde motion between Monday and April 13.
Between April 13 and late June promises to be an interesting time in the story of the world, and Mr. Cock and Balls treading backwards through the sign of the Virgin sounds like she becomes a woman in the process. Retrogrades are often recovery missions, about claiming lost energy, forgotten personal assets, and aspects of ourselves that threatened others when we were little. Every kid does this — to some extent figure out how not to piss off the adults, however meek the insults.
Children thus embark on a self-pruning process that can leave them feeling neutered as adults. Then come retrogrades, which send us on a soul retrieval scavenger hunt. Mars in Virgo will be useful this way, helping us come to terms with what we think of as aggression (and might feel as self-aggression). I suggest being mindful of the pattern establishment quality of retrogrades. The last time anything like this happened was in early 1965, when the script was cast for the thing called The Sixties that ensued.
Everything that happened during that spell of retrograde Mars in Virgo became a thing; it was etched into the realm of potential in such a way that stuck. The music, the war, the protests — the pattern was set, as the energy crested. In personal psychological astrology, this phase is a systems check for all of the high-intensity astrology that arrives in the late spring. For some, Mars retrograde in Virgo represents a calling to impeccability. For others, it’s a deep self-inquiry. For still others, it’s about healing desire and unhooking the many hangups that make it so difficult to express desire without guilt.
You may feel a palpable calling to improve your life, your health and your wellbeing during the next few months — and it’s essential that you proceed with any such quest gently. Warm up before you stretch, and remember, it’s not how far you go or how good you look, it’s how consciously you lean into the tension. This goes for body or mind. Virgo is given to spells of harsh self-criticism without the help of Mars, or Mars retrograde. Given this it will be helpful to think of your feelings in terms of pleasure-guilt dynamics, and to consider any approach-avoid tendencies that you have in this light. On Monday, we also have a fine moment in Chinese astrology — the Year of the Dragon begins. Chinese New Year as we call it is the first New Moon after the first Full Moon after the Capricorn Solstice. That’s the formula, and the date comes up Monday — with the Aquarius New Moon. This is the Year of the Water Dragon.
Aquarius is an air sign, though its symbol is a container of water (or in early renditions, a ruler to measure the depth of the Nile). The Water Dragon is assertive and expressive in a way that comes from a feminine core. This is the year when fortune favors the bold. The Dragon of Chinese fame has none of the baggage that it has in Western mythology; in China, it’s the very essence of good fortune. Dragon is the sign related to Aries in Western astrology — cardinal (high energy) fire energy. So, be brash, bold and daring — in subtle ways too.
aquarius and Carrie, thanks for the information! interesting and helpful. I will have to learn more. aquarius, appreciate any and all direction.
jinspace, thanks for the comraderie! Ya, actually animals and I get along period -all kinds and I’ve been around many varieties. They seem to gravitate toward me with understanding. It’s cats that I live with at this time; please have a good walk-the-dog for me!
Love to all – What Jude said — what a wonderful place here at PW!
jinspace, Sarah, I am glad you found my little intro informative :-).
I understand very well that you want to know more.
I am fascinated by the Chinese Mantic Arts. I bet you tried google. If you don’t find what you are looking for I will be happy to help.
Post, topic, response, all of it — grand. I’m struck, once again, at how extraordinary PW is, how in-depth and of-heart it is, and how wonderful you all are! What a pleasure to be here among you.
aquarius – thank you: your post about Bazi Suanming is very interesting. I think I want to find out more …
aquarius – thanks for the intro to Chinese astrology, which I see you posted while I was writing (and wondering where to find something solid to read about Chinese astrology).
And *now* I will go walk the dog.
I am one of those ‘rare’ beings who loves cats AND dogs – but I am an Earth Dog Leo 😉
Eric, you couldn’t be more right about dogs in everything you’ve said. Dogs are divine.
A word to Aword (now I know why I always get you, fellow earth dog leo) – my significant other is a Wood Dragon. He’s a Sagg at that, which is excellent because we both not only need a lot of our own independence but understand the other’s need for the same. It’s taken us a long time to figure this out and find the right balance, but our time together is ‘quality time’ for real. If that’s not good luck, I don’t know what is.
Funnily enough, I met my Dragon here in Catalonia, where the patron saint is Jordi, a/k/a St. George the Dragon Slayer.
And now I’m going to go for a long walk with my dog 🙂
I see there is a certain interest in “Chinese Astrology”, which is actually called Bazi Suanming, which means destiny calculation according to 8 signs.
Please allow me to give some information.
There are four pillars each containing one heavenly stem (tiangan) and one earthly branch (dizhi). One pillar for the year, one for the month, one for the day and one for the hour, 8 signs.
Four heavenly stems that are each put on the top of an earthly branch. Now, the earthly branch of the year is what many people would mention. I am a rat, a dog…..
This is the birthchart.
In fact the important sign is the heavenly stem of the day to which the whole chart is interrelated in interpretation. If you are born on a yang wood rat day the yang wood is your self element so you are a yang wood person born in the year of , let’s say dragon…… The earth branch of the year, this year the dragon, gives only one part of the information. Now the branches and stems interact. There are combines, clashes, three combinations, and more an example rat monkey dragon, together they form water, that would also explain their affinity. There are clashes, harms, penalties and more.
With our birthcharts and their constellations we have certain potential and of course chance to attract and repell certain other constellations. So in a course of life with its timely influence added to the birthchart we encounter yearly influences, these we share with all other people.
One more thing on dogs and dragons. These are earth element earthbranches, two out of four. If earth branches clash which dragon and dog do, there is something released, something that was hidden. This can be good or bad depends on how that released element correlates to the birthchart.
I hope, this very brief introduction shed a little light on the chinese system of bazi suanming.
Ok in the sentiment of fairness, I have to post that I am a cat person. Through and through. Cats all the way. I like dogs but I have a huge affinity to cats and they to me. Me being a Rat after all. ::::laughing::::
Rinchen རིན་ཆེན་
gem, precious, jewel, jeweled, precious jewel, very dear, valuable; jeweled, jewel, precious, gem [RY]
Ren chen 壬辰
The twenty ninth year I5 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 2012 or 2072
That said, there’s something to be said for sound synchronicity 🙂
🙂 Eric, that is EXACTLY what I have come to depend on you for — an alternative experience that puts the other crap to shame. I can’t believe that in all these years I haven’t read some positive message about Dogs and Dragons. I mean, Really! (exasperated).
I hope my tounge in cheek-i-ness (something I never post here without) came through; and as far as the experience of opposits, I embrace ney relish the Pisces Virgo thing too.
However, I have to note — all* of MY friends are Earth Monkeys. Weird. lol! (* read — “many” – ’68 was a big year apparently)
On an actual serious kind of note, I am VERY VERY dog-like, really frustrates me actually. But then this little Fish is also very very Virgo-like so I suspect there is a Dragon in here somewhere — oh, and that “ex” thing? Um…something about relationships and mirrors? ya. that thing. Looking into Self – always looking into Self.
Real four-legged dogs Luuuuuuv me! too funny. I have thing for Dragon’s don’tchaknow. Been tryin’g to draw them well for awhile and keep a shrine of a sort with sclupture and friend’s drawing….ok enough. thanks for the space.
xoxo
A very timely reading for me, born as I was in early 1965. 30 years after that time, one sunny summer day in the Great Lakes, I noticed a great white cloud scudding across the horizon. It bore a remarkable resemblance to such a dragon as depicted above. At that moment, the word “raindragon’ popped out of my mouth unbidden. It’s been my creative/email/business name ever since.
At the time I knew little about astrology. Only later did I learn of the Water Dragon and its related aspects. So this is interesting. A building sense of portent grows, as I feel both serious challenges and opportunity rise on the horizon. 2012, ye are already a watershed in many ways. May I and we transit you with courage and vision.
Thanks again to all the Wavers who offer such poetic, insightful, and affirming guidance through this unique community.
What Huffy said. I’m an Aries sun/Aquarius rising water dragon, second Saturn return. I have a lot of hope for how things will eventually turn out, but feel like it will take conscious attention and effort, every second of every day. We really have a lot of work to do in a very short time.
“That said, it’s difficult for people to find an actual dragon to make friends with, unless you sit around listening to Peter, Paul and Mary all day.”
laughing my ass off here!
Thank you Len,
please continue with your articles that make my soul vibrate in this Ren Chen year.
aquarius: Thank you for the elegant and informative elucidation of the corresponding cycles. Please forgive my errant word selection. It was not intended to express a coincidence but rather an image of cycles coming together in a pan-cultural meme. Please accept my best wishes for your birthday season as well.
Hi Len,
the Water Dragen comes back every 60 years. Each of the 60 years has a different combination of heavenly stem and earthly branch. The system is called Ganzhi system. The cycle is called the 60 Jia Zi. The combination that cycle starts with is Yang Wood Rat. It ends with Yin Water Pig.
So it is no ‘coincidence’ it comes around your second saturn return.
Happy birthday to us aquarians 🙂
Just discovered I’m a Fire Snake (I knew I was Snakey, just not which sort). Sounds exciting and resonantly like a dragon. 🙂
Well actually Saturn passed his natal Saturn and his natal Neptune…if it goes backward far enough (his Neptune is at 22 deg. and his Saturn is at 21 deg., both in Libra and both in his 9th house) it will hit them again. It is approaching his 10th house at the moment.
Len! My husband is also a Water Dragon experiencing his second Saturn Return! Synchronicity indeed!
as a (virgin) dog i can relate, two of my bestest are both dragon (leos). one of them claims the same, that she’s not easy to make friends with, and both can seem intimidating to some. find the concepts that bridge. makes for a deeper connection.
Thank you for a fascinating and resonant treatment. Speaking as a Water Dragon by birth, it is interesting that the lunisolar solar zodiac comes back around to Water Dragon again just as i’m going through my second Saturn return. Actually, between last year and this, i will be the lucky recipient of three Saturn returns in one year (or one, long continuous event) because of the impending Saturn retrograde in Libra. If i survive 2012, i will thus end up being 120 years old.
Taken together, the return of my Chinese birth character coincident with my triple Saturn return is reminiscent of he trochoidal structure of the Mayan calendar. It all seems to be coming together for something. Hopefully, that will be continued service to Planet Waves. It probably also means that i should look for any chance to piss off the adults and scare the straights. Now, there’s something i’m good at.
Well that explains a lot.
About the dog-dragon thing. Okay whatever. Take a lesson from the Animal Spirits school of thought and make friends with your opposite medicine. I am a dragon and, aware of the alleged dragon-dog thing, I worship dogs. Meeting a dog can make my day and I do mean turn a difficult day into a fun one. I respect dogs for their whole history and heritage with humans — how much they have made possible. If you get lost in a difficult situation, the sensation that you are going to live to see another day is going to be the feeling of a dog’s nose squished against your cheek (she’ll immediately leave and come back, so don’t worry about that part). No human can chase 200 cows or sheep — but a dog or two can keep up like it’s more fun than a Frisbee. One alert Yorkshire terrier would protect a family better than all my dad’s guns and burglar alarms combined.
That said, it’s difficult for people to find an actual dragon to make friends with, unless you sit around listening to Peter, Paul and Mary all day. Or read Planet Waves, or call up Chelsea. She’s a dragon too.
another ps — which is to say the “avoid chinese astrology” was a joke because of course putting one’s head in the sand does not change the jist of the world revolving around one’s butt (see the visual?) nor the butt of one’s jokes. thx for the wry humor upload.
Interesting – this aword is an Earth-Dog not a wood-dog –(for some reason I insisted on typing “wood” although I had already corrected myself. Must be my wooden head. Or maybe it’s because wood floats and that’s the boat that’ll take me through this dragon year. lol.)
I try to avoid the Chinese seasons simply because I have read -everywhere I’ve read – that the Dog is the only year that does NOT get along with the Dragon – and the Dragon is in opposition to the Dog’s “good luck”. Experientially, the “ex” was a Dragon and very much an “evil force” let loose (perhaps one that I unwittingly unlocked).
If I stick with Western Astrology, I find that this Piscean Wood Dog has at least a fighting chance of something “good” coming of this upcoming year.
So then, let the games begin.
Need to take this all in, slowly, as it unfolds. Identifying with so much already! Thank you 🙂
Interesting about Ren Chen — I’m making friends with a Tibetan woman who works at the sushi place I frequent — her name is Rinchen and she’s quite the watery dragony type — born in Tibet, studied with HH DL and truly positive outlook on life.
And weepy for no reason. Ok maybe it is because I have had less sleep than I need.
Talk about tension!
Today, after his full teaching day, my husband drives to a small town on the rez and will not return until tomorrow night. That means driving on a desolate road…at night…on Friday night….on the rez. Do I have to say it? Drinking is a problem on the rez. Then, a storm is forecast to be coming which means he may be driving home tomorrow night in a storm. Flagstaff is high altitude which can mean snow and black ice and he won’t hit town until after dark. So I am feeling a bit anxious.
If anyone here is into praying, sending energy, or whatever to ease my mind and keep him safe, please don’t hesitate (unless it involves any sacrifice of any kind :::said in jest:::).
Ever since my brothers had a serious accident in 1984, I have not felt relaxed when someone I care about is driving on long trips away from me.
Yeah I know….I have to work on that. And I have been; for over 20 years. Maybe Monday’s Mars Rx in Virgo will help with that. Until then…..I feel tense and anxious.
The Chinese calender is a lunisolar calender based on calculation of position of Sun and Moon. Months of 29 or 30 days begin on days of the astronomical New Moon, with an intercalary month being added every two or three years.
Although the Gregorian calender is used in the Peoples’ Republic of China for administrative purposes, the traditional Chinese calender is used for setting traditional festivals and for timing agricultural activities.
To calculate a Bazi Suanming the starting time of the year 2012 will be Feb. 4.
The Water Dragon, Ren Chen, is a constellation of “Kuigang”, it has priority when coming up in the day of birth. Amongst other this person is very intelligent and has a brave heart…..
And, heck, I can feel that fiery tension already – works well with the Wands article too.
Thank you!
“…it’s not how far you go or how good you look, it’s how consciously you lean into the tension”. Thank you for this precious advice and wonderful blog. Time to ride the dragon. xxx