Crossing the T

By Len Wallick

This week we will experience a Libra equinox like no other. It will follow and take place in the midst of several planetary aspects, slow moving events that shape and guide the story of our lives.

The cumulative synchronicity of personal and political events promises to be climactic, complex and potentially overwhelming. At the least, for those who are attuned to the energy, it will be revitalizing and brimming with energy.

Events come on fast and in a surprising way: Uranus is involved. The vibe is friendly and protective, involving Jupiter and Pisces; if you ride this energy consciously, you will be able to come out on the creative side. This will involve taking some chances, one of which is feeling safe and another of which involves an idea.

We are coming off a weekend that featured the first conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus in Pisces since 1334. Back then, the true orientation of our planet in relation to the Sun was not common knowledge — in the western world, at least. If there was anyone who did know they were keeping it on the down-low.

Consider that it was not until 1543 that Copernicus published his theory of heliocentric cosmology. That’s over two centuries after the previous Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Pisces. Add on another hundred years or so and we find a fellow by the name of Galileo was tried and convicted of heresy in 1632 simply because he supported the Copernican theory.

Consider that it has been only about 300 years since somebody, anybody, could say or write “the Earth orbits the Sun” without being placed under arrest or worse. Given the state of politics these days, it would not be out of line to ask how much longer that simple statement of fact will continue to be allowed. So, please, do not take this knowledge for granted. Remember it, hold it dear, pass it on and stand up for the truth.

The Earth orbits the Sun and, by definition, it completes one orbit in one year. In addition to that the Earth spins on its axis, like a top. One complete spin, by definition, is one day. The axis, in turn, is tilted. In the process of completing a single orbit, the orientation of the tilted axis continuously changes in relation to the Sun, forming a set of cycles. Those cycles are the seasons.

Please note, it is the orbit around the Sun that changes the orientation of the axis to the Sun. The tilt of the Earth is relatively constant, it does not flip back and forth like a fish. The axis does wobble, but this motion is subtle and slow, accounting for things like the North Star becoming a different star over thousands of years.

Each of the four seasons begins when the Earth reaches a point in its orbit where the tilt of the axis is at one of three extremes: when the North Pole of the axis is pointed as far away from the Sun as it will get; when the South Pole is pointed as far away as it will get and twice in between at the equinoxes, when the axis of our planet’s rotation is pointed neither towards nor away from the Sun.

When the Sun is shining directly above the equator (the line that divides the upper half of our globe from the lower half), the length of day and night are equal everywhere on the Earth. Equal, equator, equinox, that’s how those words fit together. Astrologically, the equinox we’re experiencing this week will take place when the Sun moves into the sign of Libra.

Libra is one of the four cardinal signs. The other equinox, when the Earth is on the other side of its orbit, is when the Sun moves into Aries. When the North Pole is pointed furthest away from Sol, that is the solstice when Capricorn begins. When the South pole is pointed as far away as it will get, it is the first day of Cancer.

Because the seasons are experienced by every resident of the planet, the first days of cardinal signs represent the intersection of personal and collective experience in astrology. This is especially true at the equinoxes when one of the most fundamental facts of life, the length of day and night, reminds us that we are equally in this existence together. The Earth is the only place where we can live. As it goes, so we all go. No matter how wealthy in material goods, no matter how powerful, no matter the gender nor the system of belief, as the Earth goes, so we all go.

That’s where the astrology of the cardinal points comes from. The personal becomes political and vice-versa. Over the last two years or so, four planets have crossed back and forth across three of those cardinal points where Libra, Aries and Capricorn begin. What Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto have in common besides this concurrent orientation is the fact that they take a long time to go around the Sun. As such, one complete orbit marks an era in history.

For Jupiter it is a decade, for Saturn three decades. Significant periods of time in a human life and also history. This makes these two planets trans-personal. In other words, bridging the personal and the political.

For Uranus one orbit around the Sun is over eight decades. No human being lives to see that cycle repeated twice. For Pluto, the orbital period is nearly two and a half centuries. These two planets, then, are decidedly historical.

The long time that these four planets held a common, cardinal point orientation implies that those of us living now are creating more than just our own personal futures. In our everyday lives of everyday choices it is our privilege and responsibility to create the future of our planet for decades and even centuries to come. That is what the cardinal T-square (which occasionally has become the cardinal cross) is interpreted to represent.

Now Saturn, long a crucial and focal participant in the T-square, is steadily moving deeper and deeper into Libra. As it does so, the influences it represents are gradually diminishing and the focus of cardinal point aspects is shifting to Uranus and Pluto. We are in the days of transition.

The Libra equinox this week is shaping up to represent a climactic point of that transition. First, and most obviously, the Sun will ingress Libra. That will take place Wednesday night or Thursday morning, depending on where you are. Beginning last weekend, and until the end of the week it will be covering the same territory covered by Saturn in its repeated process of aspecting Pluto three times and Uranus five times.

In other words, in the course of less than a week, Sol will reprise what Saturn did over nearly two years. It will oppose Uranus and Jupiter and square Pluto, even as it is positioned directly over the equator bringing us equal hours of day and night. If one is to grant credence to synchronicity, this period of time may well include personal and common experiences serving to reprise, condense and focus our recent individual and political histories.

As if that were not momentous enough, six hours after the Sun moves into Libra the Moon moves into Aries to oppose it. The first concept to grasp is that not every change of season is closely accompanied by a Full Moon. It is rare for the two events to take place at the same time. In astrology, rare is meaningful. As auspicious as this equinox is in reference to the cardinal T-square, Luna at the climax of her own cycle makes it exponentially more so.

Just as the Sun is retracing the steps of Saturn in the days before and after its ingress into Libra, the Full Moon will be covering the same ground previously and currently held by Jupiter and Uranus. Years into days, months into hours. Get the picture? This is concentrated stuff. It is the luminaries that, respectively, represent our conscious expressed ego and our unconscious, emotional selves bringing about the focus. And these two luminaries will be in opposition to each other in the very first degree of the two cardinal signs that represent equality of experience.

It is precisely that mutual position that gives us a clue as to how we may best handle the challenges this week seems to hold. Wherever you are, the length of your days and nights will be pretty much the same as anyone else. Whatever fears you have, you can bet that you have a lot of company. Whatever inspirations you have, you can feel motivated knowing that you are not the only one to glimpse a ray of light. Whatever form of faith you cling to you can feel comfort in the certainty that you have more in common with everyone else than you think. Whenever you find yourself diametrically opposed to another, you can know that there is a seed of common resolution.

We shall find these truths to be self-evident. Our planet orbits around the Sun. That we have reached a point of the orbit that implies our equal creation and equal destiny; that we are one in the co-creation of that destiny. May we bless each other as we would each have ourselves be blessed.

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