Feeling the Light

By Len Wallick

Today, Ground Hog Day, Mercury in Capricorn moves out of the echo phase (also called the shadow phase), passing the degree where it went retrograde at the beginning of 2010. Also today the Sun in Aquarius forms a sextile (60 degrees of separation) with the Great Attractor in Sagittarius. Finally, the Moon moves into Libra where it will conjoin Saturn and form a square (90 degrees of separation) with Pluto. All of these aspects continue the cross-quarter themes covered yesterday.

But first, let’s pause to review the big picture.

The Saturn-Pluto square is the big background, challenging us to have the courage to engage with the vast changes taking place in the world. Even longer term is the functionally ongoing opposition of Saturn and Uranus, which will form up again when Saturn’s current retrograde takes it back into Virgo in the Spring. Retrograde Mars continues after its peak Full Moon experience this last weekend. It will continue backing up, encouraging us to figure out what we really want, until it reaches the first degree of Leo on March 10th or 11th depending on your ephemeris.

On February 17th Chiron and Neptune perfect their conjunction although it has been functioning for a while to help us to see clearly and embrace what we see. On Valentine’s Day the Aquarius New Moon will usher in Asian New Year (the year of the tiger) and take place within a degree of the barely separated Chiron-Neptune conjunction. In other words it will be a double-date, quad conjunction – purrrr, pass the chocolate and keep the lights on. At the end of this week (or the beginning of next, again, depending) Jupiter will sextile Pluto and Venus will conjoin Neptune and Chiron to warm up the bed for the New Moon.

Now back to Ground Hog Day, already in progress. This is the annual event when a rodent mythically emerges from its burrow where shadow is the rule, into the light of day where shadow is the exception, to foretell whether the weather will improve before Vernal Equinox. It is among the festivities associated with the cross-quarter reviewed in yesterday’s blog which includes themes of threshold, shadow, the increasing light, nurturing the symbol of fire and, finally prognostication.

Serendipitously, today Mercury emerges from its shadow phase at 19+ degrees Capricorn. For the first time since the year began it will be moving into new territory. The point of emergence is conjunct the North Lunar Node, the threshold crossed by the Moon as it moves from below the ecliptic to above it.

As discussed yesterday, thresholds have the quality of being in between. At this time of year, the Sun is in between being directly above the Tropic of Capricorn (first day of Winter in the Northern Hemisphere, first day of Summer in the Southern) and directly above the equator (the Vernal, or Spring Equinox). Thresholds are useful. They distinguish one side from another. They provide a place to exit and a place to enter. They are also a vantage point from which both sides can be viewed. At this time of year, the threshold is opened.

The North Lunar Node has the quality of looking forward, of dharma, acting as if to hold the world together. If the Capricorn retrograde of Mercury has been a review of our living tradition, then today is the point when we begin to evaluate that tradition for the remainder of the messenger’s long sojourn in that sign. This appraisal will provoke us to sift through the elements that have sustained us in the past and select those that will be useful in co-creating a sustainable future.

Concurrently, the Sun in a fixed air sign forms a supportive aspect with the Great Attractor in a mutable fire sign. For the most part, the Great Attractor is a mystery. It emits all sorts of electromagnetic energy with the notable exception of visible light, so we can’t see it. Uncounted galaxies, including our own, are moving towards it which implies gravity, which in turn implies mass – a lot of it. It seems to be retreating from us as fast as we are advancing towards it. In the words of Philip Sedgwick, it curves space-time so acutely “that we can get a view around the back of the universe”. Its mystery is the threshold to levels of consciousness not previously accessed and potentially polarizing, that will provide us with new tools to work with new problems.

With the Sun in sextile to the Great Attractor, there is a bridge back to the previous cross quarter point (Samhain, Halloween, etc) with its emphasis on metamorphosis and transformation. This bridge opens a portal of communication that will bring relationship between what happened in the growing darkness and what is happening in the increasing light. It holds the promise of being present to the proficiency gained so as to be aware of how our consciousness can and should be expanded to meet new challenges.

Which leads us to our final aspect of the day. The Moon’s ingress into Libra takes us back to the big picture aspect of Saturn square Pluto. Mercury is intellectually discerning what elements of tradition will serve to carry us forward, and the light of the Sun is expanding consciousness to reveal the resolution of mystery. While those things are happening, the Moon is feeling the way.

It is, after all, our feelings that are challenged as the big cardinal square is forcibly concurrent with an inevitable and irresistible shake up in our personal and political lives. We naturally feel fear as we face what seems to be an unnatural choice. To cleave and cling to an established order that has sustained us even though we feel it crumbling? To take a leap of faith to participate with and co-create the changes that are being thrust upon us? These questions will require us to feel for each other in the here and now, for those yet to come, and for ourselves. If we can do that we can, in this time of things coming together, feel the way authentically for one and for all.

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