By Len Wallick
“Sophisticated lady, everybody knows how she got her name”
-The Duke and Mitchell Parrish
It’s a special day folks. Venus, the Sun and the North Lunar Node are in a tight (to the degree) conjunction at 21 degrees Capricorn. Whoa, Whoa. Let’s back up a bit and take a look. Be patient now, if we want to put it all together we gotta cover some background.
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After all, it’s sophisticated.
A little over a month ago Richard Tarnas attached a comment to Eric’s blog on the subject of fate versus free will. Among his cogent comments was the salient observation that astrology is Terra-centric. That’s not because astrologers believe that the Earth is the center of the solar system or the galaxy or the universe. It’s because that’s where we are, every one of us, directly above the center of our planet. It makes sense, therefore, to start with that.
From there, it makes sense to ascertain where those lights in the sky are in relation to us. That’s where astrology started. People observing the Sun, making note of it’s location when it came up in the morning, its path during the day and where it went down in the evening. Same for the Moon, planets and stars at night.
The data was recorded, talked about, passed on. Succeeding generations added to, tweaked and passed on it turn. After a while it became evident that there were cycles in the relationship of right here to out there. Those cycles found correspondence in other events (like the seasons), hence the accumulated knowledge became useful.
Among human beings it seems that knowledge has a relationship to power. Power is a form of currency. It can get you something to eat. It can get you laid. It can get you some real estate, clothing and shelter. Beats working for a living. That’s motivation for you.
After the Sun and Moon the most observed, measured and recorded relationship cycle was probably between us here and Venus. It’s bright, difficult to mistake for anything else and its patterns mark out some very interesting intervals (more on that some other time).
The first thing one notices about Venus is that its cycles do not include it moving clear across the sky. For a while it appears in the East, rising a little higher every night until it gets about halfway up to the zenith. That’s called the maximum western elongation for inquiring minds who want to know. Then it’s rising a little less high every night until it disappears behind the Sun for a while and shows up in the West where it repeats the same shtick with a twist. Just before she disappears again by passing in front of the Sun she stations retrograde. Just after that passage (appearing in the East again), she stations forward to start it all over again. She gets around on her own unique terms. Maybe that’s what The Duke had in mind. We now know her orbit is inside of the orbit of the Earth. Hence, for us right here, Venus (and Mercury too) appear to get only so far away from the Sun and no further.
Meanwhile, back on the farm. Today we are at the part of the sophisticated cycle called the superior conjunction. We here, Venus there, Sun in between. Think of it as Sol eclipsing Venus. This time around (from our point of view), it’s on the North lunar node. The point beyond which the orbit of the Moon rises above the ecliptic. Very close to where the partial solar eclipse will take place on Friday, closing the loop opened by the partial lunar eclipse on New Year’s Eve. Concurrent with Mercury stationing forward. That’s a lot. Now that you have the knowledge, can you feel the power? Told you it would be worth the walk. Hallelujah, slip me a fin, will ya’ and let’s wrap it up.
Gravity is the curvature of space time. The more gravity, the more that curvature resembles one of Eric’s favorite metaphors – a vortex. Sun got gravity, Venus got gravity. Line them up with us and you’re punchin’ a vortex in space time. A few days later, line up the Moon (she got gravity too) between Sol and us in pretty much the same spot (the node, you knowed!) and you punch that hole even bigger.
Gets better. In his October 5, 2009 blog Eric equated the North Node (Rahu in Hindu) to the future, incarnation, the concept of dharma (“acting as if to hold the world together”) and “…a set of potentials and the feeling of a calling that, if we’re paying attention, guide us in the direction we need to be going and which feels vaguely like a calling.” In other words, beginning today and through the week we got it goin’ on just right if we can keep our hands inside the car and our eyes open. Believe it, come this time next week you don’t want to be saying “whut happen?” with the rest of us saying “oh dude, you missed it?”. Stay straight and sober for a couple days and you won’t regret it.
Now wasn’t that worth a fiver? Now that i can afford it, i’m gonna go get a haircut. Want to look sharp for the occasion. But before that i want you to put your left hand on your hip, your right hand over your solar plexus and do that samba thing while i play you something from Jim and the boys that goes like this:
“The gate is straight, deep and wide, break on through to the other side!” – The Doors
Offered In Service
Hi, here’s a wonderful Venus ritual for today (Friday-1/15); sorry for the belated posting:
http://www.bigskyastrology.com/articles/duck.html
Thank you for the awesome article Len!
Hi Mandy, then there’s a course in miracles (ACIM) by the foundation for inner peace – you can buy it on Amazon and follow it at home. I’ve had it for several years now and decided to just take a year to do what it says – a page a day. May be it’s the beginning (luck) but it makes sense to me (everything so rooted in past things that the present is no longer conscious, so it makes a good idea to change orientation, and here’s how) and yesterday I felt that immense relief (physical emotional mental) of looking around peacefully without fear or stress. Nearly 40 years I’ve been on the look out…
Another possible option if you like (courtesy of Eric et al again)…
Hi Mandy – it’s me again. This is one of the best books ever on how to meditate – really straightforward and wise, no messing about: Change Your Mind: Practical Guide to Buddhist Meditation by Paramananda (Paperback – 4 Nov 2005)
Liz xx
Congratulations Linda! Fantastic news. Mandy – you’ve got some excellent advice and addresses now. Buddhist meditation really changed my life, turned it round. One of the things that is probably causing you so much suffering is the resistance to your suffering, the desire to CHANGE the way you feel. The paradox is that it’s only when one lets go of the enormous desire to change, to feel better that things ultimately start to shift. A large part of meditation is just sitting in ones shit and letting it be. Over a period of time one learns to detach from painful feelings. It’s a tough one, I know – and it’s a lifelong process. I know exactly where you are right now, cos I went through it for a long time.
Start now, don’t wait any longer – light a candle, buy some flowers, maybe a crystal, set up a sacred space in your home – sit in front of them and just count your breath from 1- 10, over and over. Every time your mind wanders, bring it back to yuor breath, and start counting from 1- 10 again. Start with 20 minutes each day, and see how your mind begins to clear and calm down a little each day. You’ll walk through that door, I promise you!
Good luck!
Love
liz
Linda/word… Big highfiveslappyhappyhug on the Film school acceptance. This Merc retro has contained some curious ‘accidents’ that have worked out better than intention.
***
Thank you Len for the wonderful news 🙂 Today is the first day I’ve felt clear in a few weeks. Decisions are becoming easier and more exciting. Gotta love that vortex!
Mandy – I was where you are for the past few months, I swear, it gets better! Best of luck and lots of love to you.
Congratulations, Linda. One should consider a samba as opposed to a bow. Break (dance) on through, aword, and hold that gate open.
OMG?! Len could it be more “true”? School app turned in electronically Friday pm; Merc Retro took its turn with things and jumbled some stuff; Monday morning first thing received phone call accepting me to program with open arms — ? Can “WOW!” get any bigger and bolder? Awesome. I bow humbly to the powers that be.
xo
Linda
Mandy H – ditto for Findhorn. It’s by the sea, lovely location – people great. It’s about half an hour from where I live. Hope you get a breather whatever you choose to do. All best H.
“Stay straight and sober for a couple days and you won’t regret it.”
Curses. There’s always a catch…
Mandy, my dear…
I’m back, as I threatened earlier, bearing more ideas:
First, Findhorn. http://www.findhorn.org Wm Irwin Thompson’s community, 100% dogma-free, and I am pretty sure you can work out a trade-for-space agreement with them. And you get Fae folk with the visit!
Foundation for preservation of Mahayana Tradition may have a retreat ctr. in your neck of the woods. Swell people, they have a hand in my Bone Bikini project.
And ahhh, the bad boys of New Kadampa Tradition… NKT. Well, these people are just flat-out odd, but Kelsang G’s long-running argument with HHDL has yielded some good fruit. It’s a long story, but their wares are actually very powerful – despite their prissy-my-buddhism-is-better-than-anybody’s demeanor. Ah, the joys of dogma.
NKT tries to be very affordable, and FPMT trends to the well-heeled. Still, I think people can be flexible with their fees. I know it is kind of bizarre to steer you toward the equivalent of bible-thumpers in Buddhism (buddha-thumpers?), but the retreat space itself is energetically-immune to the worst of those excesses. Believe me, buddhas are much more tolerant (and funnier) than buddhists.
Hugs,
M
Mandy, my dear…
I’m back, as I threatened earlier, bearing more ideas:
First, Findhorn. http://www.findhorn.org Wm Irwin Thompson’s community, 100% dogma-free, and I am pretty sure you can work out a trade-for-space agreement with them. And you get Fae folk with the visit!
Foundation for preservation of Mahayana Tradition may have a retreat ctr. in your neck of the woods. Swell people, they have a hand in my Bone Bikini project.
And ahhh, the bad boys of New Kadampa Tradition… NKT. Well, these people are just flat-out odd, but Kelsang G’s long-running argument with HHDL has yielded some good fruit. It’s a long story, but their wares are actually very powerful – despite their prissy-my-buddhism-is-better-than-anybody’s demeanor. Ah, the joys of dogma.
NKT tries to be very affordable, and FPMT trends to the well-heeled. Still, I think people can be flexible with their fees. I know it is kind of bizarre to steer you toward the equivalent of bible-thumpers in Buddhism (buddha-thumpers?), but the retreat space itself is energetically-immune to the worst of those excesses. Believe me, buddhas are much more tolerant (and funnier) than buddhists.
Hugs,
M
Mandy,
My last post got stuck in the moderation queue. Might turn up in a few minutes. Has a bunch of links. WordPress is sticky like that sometimes.
M
Mandy, my dear…
I’m back, as I threatened earlier, bearing more ideas:
First, Findhorn. http://www.findhorn.org/whatwedo/community/iona.php Wm Irwin Thompson’s community, 100% dogma-free, and I am pretty sure you can work out a trade-for-space agreement with them. And you get Fae folk with the visit!
http://www.fpmt.org/retreat/default.asp Foundation for preservation of Mahayana Tradition may have a retreat ctr. in your neck of the woods. Swell people, they have a hand in my Bone Bikini project.
New Kadampa Tradition… http://kadampa.org/ NKT. Well, these people are just flat-out odd, but Kelsang G’s longrunning argument with HHDL has yielded some good fruit. It’s a long story, but their wares are actually very powerful – despite their prissy, my-buddhism-is-better-than-anybody’s demeanor.
NKT tries to be very affordable, and FPMT trends to the well-heeled. Still, I think people can be flexible with their fees.
Hugs,
M
Len,
Yups – why I’ve stuck around for a lot of years …. I feel the energies of transformation in the air but they just seem to be just out of reach – which as you can realise is soooo frustrating. One day it will be my turn to go through the door – just hope its sooner than later 😉
Mystes,
Thank you so much for your reply to Mandy H. Sharing support and information resources is what the people in the Planet Waves community can do for each other. What Bertrand Russell called “events” (which includes most anything in our conscious tenure on Earth) take place in space-time. When space-time changes its shape, events follow. This is NOT destiny, it is an opportunity to participate and co-create. You, young lady, set an excellent example for us all.
Mystes,
I’d love to go on a retreat! I’m in the UK – have been eyeing up a Buddhist retreat centre for 2-3 years. I promised myself out loud today that once the current chaotic situation irons itself out even a little, I’ heading off into the blue yonder for a week on my own, either to a close friend in the States – just to veg even if her and her husband are both at work or to a very lonely cottage somewhere in the deep yonder.
You’re also right about the selfhood stories I have to move away from 😉 I feel as though I’m the lynchpin around which everyone is linked to and draws from in my immediate connections…
Part of my feeling stuck is the draned feeling that this produces on so any levels… But it is interesting that the eclipse is on the Cancer / Capricorn axis as my nodes lie along this (even if not at the same degrees…)
Thanks for the thoughts – it helps 🙂
Mx
Mandy H… you sound like you could use a vacation — from language, time, selfhood (which doesn’t mean a vacation from existence, just from the self-stories by which you are surrounded). Maybe you could visit a retreat center, one that lets you work off part (or all) of the fees with service? and spend the rest of the time reading, walking, making something or in contemplation.
The one that comes to mind is Christ in the Desert in New Mexico. They are ecumenical, the Abbot is a good friend of the Tibetan Bon Po tradition, and I hear they are deep in the Silence right now. http://christdesert.org/Visiting_Us/index.html
This isn’t to push you toward Christianity (I am not a believer), but to help you find some relief. Will post more ideas/places as they come to me.
All love,
M
Sigh Len,
As much as I want things to be uplifting, positive and transformative – oh how I would love to work withe energies like that for a change all I get is the churning of the endless vortex and more negative motion than positive motion, no matter how much I try…
Just stuck I guess but have been in the vortex so long that right now I can’t envisage anything different ever coming about. That doorway remains ever shut to me.
hooboy —
“I have been feeling that vibe Len, hot on the heels of some painful days – so great to have it confirmed by your uplifting blog”
yeah, liz, i’m right there with you. it’s been feeling a bit like a meat grinder off & on this past week, between mars and merc and everything len’s talking about above. pressure’s feeling a bit like a crisis of dharma, if i understand it correctly… a real fear of that sense of “whut happen” as you put it, len.
it was suggested to me that since i was in the midst of a road trip during the new year’s eve eclipse, that activity may be in store for me this year. i’m actually hoping so — this little bull needs to get a serious move on.
thanks len… i’m off to yoga class to see if i can settle and focus a little of this churning, or start transforming it into a more useful energy by the time the solar eclipse hits.
— amanda
I have been feeling that vibe Len, hot on the heels of some painful days – so great to have it confirmed by your uplifting blog – especially as it’s got so much rhythm, found myself tapping my feet and swaying as I read it.
Thanks a million.
Liz x