Tuesday Subscriber Letter
Face to Face: The Mystical and the Mundane

Dear Friend and Subscriber:

Good evening from Josie’s Cafe in Saugerties.

There are some paths of growth and self-development that consider everything a spiritual experience: nothing is special. Buddhists suggest you handle dishes you’re washing like the baby Buddha. A Course in Miracles has you paying attention to people you don’t recognize who you may meet in an elevator; you can resolve lifetimes of karma with a glance.

We are in such a moment. We are being challenged to pay attention and to treat each moment and each decision like it matters: to treat each person like they matter. There are ways to test the unusual new trance that society is in. How do you respond to the people you meet? How much fear do you feel from hour to hour? How is your cortisol level?

Sunday’s Full Moon in Aquarius describes a scenario where the mundane affairs of the world come face to face with a high-order spiritual initiation. What we usually think of as different things are shown to reveal one another. Today is the 52nd anniversary of the Woodstock Festival. All those participants consciously knew they were at such an event.

Second Full Moon in Aquarius Sunday, Aug. 22

First, the astrology. I’ll cover it here, and I’m developing the story in three parts on my STARCAST channel.

The prior Aquarius Full Moon took place July 23, with the Moon and Sun lining up in the second degree of their signs. When there is a Full Moon in the first or second degree, the next Full Moon will be at the end of those same signs. While this always feels a little special (especially if it’s your Moon sign), the closing degrees of Leo and Aquarius tell an unusual story. This is partly told by the positions of the planets and points involved, and also by the degree symbols (called the Sabian symbols).

Let’s start with what those last degrees of the signs are about. They have a name, which is the anaretic degrees. Traditionally, it’s the last degree of any sign, though contemporary interpretations often include the last two degrees. In a natal chart, any anaretic planet describes potent transitions and transformations. They come with unusual responsibilities and pressures, and can function a little like Chiron: as an inconvenient benefic.

These last degrees feel like something is on the edge, about to transform.

The Moon and Sun both form squares (90-degree angles) to a very unusual contemporary planet called Sedna (discovered 2004). Sedna, now in late Taurus, has an orbit of 11,400 years (for comparison, Pluto’s orbit is 248 and Eris’s orbit is 559 years). Sedna is currently 84 times the Earth-Sun distance (a warm and toasty 84 AUs), and is at the close side of its orbit. At its furthest, Sedna is 937 AUs away, or about 30 times the distance from the Sun to Neptune. It’s amazing anyone found it, though its principal discoverer is hilariously talented (and loves astrologers).

Sedna in Taurus Since 1965, Ending Soon

Sedna has been in Taurus since 1965 (see ephemeris) and is now at the end of its run; it’s currently in the anaretic degree. It enters Gemini in 2022, where it will be till 2065 (Sedna is currently running 50 years to the sign, in parallel to Chiron’s approximately 50 year orbit).

To my perception, Sedna is itself about transitions that happen on a scale so long it defies our understanding of history. Recorded history does not go anywhere near when Sedna was last in its current position. A geological period called “The Younger Days” ended about 11,500 years ago: that was basically the last retreat of the most recent ice age.

Sedna, a creation goddess of the Inuit people, is the goddess of the frozen waters. And now it’s about to change signs, another indicator of transition on an incomprehensible scale.

This week, the Moon and Sun align in a very unusual Full Moon, exactly square Sedna, so this Full Moon is really about her. The local planets draw the distant planets closer, making them palpable to the senses and presenting themselves in experience — if anyone takes the time to notice. There is something on Earth being stretched to a limit, though we’re reminded that on a cosmic scale, what is happening is fairly small. Yet life on Earth matters. We often treat it like it does not. We often miss our best opportunities for growth, to our detriment.

Those Sabian Symbols: 30 Leo-Aquarius — and Taurus

Nearly a century ago, an astrologer and a clairvoyant created a degree symbol system called the Sabian Symbols. It happens that the final degrees of Leo and Aquarius are my two favorites of the bunch.

The Sun’s degree for the Full Moon, 30 Leo, is “An Unsealed Letter.” This is about the transparent nature of all human affairs. It is a reminder that everything will be revealed, unless you lost the account keys to your Bitcoin wallet. We tend to be obsessed by privacy, though in truth it does not exist. What can exist is the sense of one’s inner being, an inner life, which is often mistaken for privacy. Both have been decimated in our time of history, though there is a difference between them.

The Unsealed Letter degree is about a confrontation with the documented truth. It is a reminder of how pointless denial is. It is a reminder that living your life in secrecy only burns energy and creates a needless sense of division between you and others. Minds are joined, whether we recognize it or not.

The 30th degree of Aquarius has a long description; follow the link to look it up. The upshot is that a soul passes through its initiation, emerges as an individual, and is met by a group of others who are ready to meet it.

This is an important message for our times, where individuality and autonomy amounts to being like everyone else. Going through your initiation into self-actualization is the perfect message with which to end the sign Aquarius, which is about where the individual consciousness meets that of the group. This is not about “being unified.” It’s about accepting yourself for who you are, and then finding yourself accepted by others in that state.

The 30th degree of Taurus, the position of Sedna, is a peacock on parade.

There is a cosmic reminder here. Don’t make such a show of everything.

I will be back with an extended 12-sign horoscope on Friday. Coverage of the second Aquarius Full Moon continues on STARCAST.

Faithfully,