Where to Begin

By Len Wallick

Things are falling into place for the Aries Full Moon taking place tomorrow night or early Saturday morning, depending where you are. This opposition of the luminaries has been our theme this week for two reasons. First it is the second of two consecutive Full Moons to occur in the same sign. One could consider it a variety of blue Moon — popularly taken as the second Full Moon in a calendar month. This astrological type of blue Moon takes place every two or three years and thus qualifies as auspicious, but not necessarily rare.

The second unique consideration is that Venus is in the same degree of Scorpio as it was for the immediately previous Aries Full Moon of September 23. This synchronization of placement and timing goes beyond rare, defies precedent or subsequent duplication. Sort of like you. It takes place in a year of one extraordinary event after another.

There was the simultaneous and prolonged occupation of three cardinal points by trans-personal and epochal planets — the conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus in Aries, the last of which was in July of 1927. It will not happen again for over a thousand years. And we had the first conjunction of those same two planets in Pisces; the last time this happened was over seven centuries ago. That’s just to name a few.

Now, with the major planets outside the asteroid belt in a period of transition, things are getting personal. Today is the first full day of Mercury in Scorpio, currently occupied by Venus and Mars. Those three are the personal planets. So called because they orbit the Sun many times in a typical human life, marking out the months and years. By the day after tomorrow, Sol will have joined them in Scorpio, illuminating the days in a rhythm that is at the root of astrology.

Mars rules Scorpio and is on its way out the back door of that sign. It also rules Aries, scene of tomorrow’s astrological blue Moon. Venus is retreating towards the front door on its way back to Libra where it, in turn, rules and where Sol will experience the second consecutive opposition to Luna. You thought the old cardinal T-square represented everything at once.

Now it’s personal. It’s also as complicated as politics and as simple as love. This is where we become attached but in a different way than to what we have been accustomed. Not attached to our expectations, or our conditioning, or to outcome. It is now, in this period that we become attached to the great cosmic train of events. Some are aware and in active participation, having bought a ticket and boarded intentionally. Some are running to leap on before it leaves the station, shirt tails and shoelaces flying. Still others will catch a sleeve or buttonhole and be dragged off the platform, kicking and screaming.

Just as we all are born in pretty much the same way, as we all need to eat and as we all transition from this place sooner or later, there will be no exceptions. We are on this train together and this is where it begins.

The return of Venus to within two arc minutes of where it was for the previous Aries Full Moon is evocative of progression, the practice of starting with the natal chart and moving the luminaries and planets one day (or one degree, as the case may be) for each passing year. Luna is the only progressed object that has a chance to make it all the way around the chart in a human lifetime. Tomorrow, it’s like we get a similar experience in miniature, progressing from the first degree of Aries to the last.

The first degree of Aries and the Moon have a lot in common, relating to our youth and the person we once were but never left behind. Think of what goes through your mind on the occasion of the vernal equinox, for example.

The last degree of Aries, also known as the anaretic degree likewise has a lot in common with a progressed Moon changing signs. Something like a rite of passage. This is especially so when both the Sun and Moon change signs soon after their opposition. Two cycles are being completed at once. There is implied a final evaluation in preparation for advance to a new curriculum. This can be stressful and overwrought and convoluted especially when Mars is in a square to retrograde Neptune.

But it’s the placement of Venus that is the saving grace, linking the Aries Point feel and fresh experience of the September Full Moon to this one. Venus is helping us to see that this is no end, only a transition, simultaneously personal and collective, linking the two realms of experience. As we implied at the beginning of the week, it is not a last chance, it is a second chance. A chance to see that progression is not a linear phenomenon, but a cyclical one. An opportunity to recognize and appreciate that life goes on if we let it.

With Mercury now rising ahead of the Sun, all we have to do is think ahead to get past the moment that has been building in tension over the past few days. Think ahead and let go of what is gone. This day like any other is a time like no other. It may not be entirely possible to enjoy the ride, but it is appropriate to appreciate it.

Offered In Service

20 thoughts on “Where to Begin”

  1. BK,

    HA! Thanks for the glowing support. Yes I have a venus story that is layer upon layer of change, hard to take, and surprising twists and turns both at home and at work involving the uncovering of deception and for the spouse, a success with a late in life career. Venus in Scorpio is in his 8th house.

    I’ll have to think about the venus aspects. It’s been so stressful, but on the other hand it has been wonderful. My son has enjoyed enormous financial success, but it was his hard work and willingness to study, learn, do, do without and save that earned him the rewards. Son is a Leo, spouse is Sag, both are aries rising. Daughter is Aries rising. Lot of fire. My daughter has made friends with the county commissioner, who buys my soap at market (she puts up the booth). So now I have an inside ear when the time comes to ask to ahve a walk in business at my home. I could tell a million tales about the last 6 months. But really, the biggest deception is still that oil gusher and the corexit cover-up. Our gardens in my county failed and looked like they’d been hit with weed killer until the well was long closed. It turns out that the corexit could make its way into the atmosphere and come back down in the rain. I am convinced our gardens were poisoned. I saw some video from a station in Mississippi and it showed gardens that looked just like mine. It was about 4 weeks after the oil was finally closed that our plants started looking normal again – and 28 days is the breakdown period of corexit. My son said at the beginning that we would have to grow gardens in greenhouses with air conditioning, and I believe he was right. We started lettuce and greens in the house in the air conditioning in Juloy and put the plants outside in late august and they are thriving. It’s been a weird year. We had little rain. The apocalypse is in discerning the truth and tellling the tale. That might be my venus story. I’ll have to think about it.

  2. Bless you Patty! With your Pisces Sun so attuned to the Neptune influence, you have managed to avoid what most of us have been encumbered with during this silly season. With a laser-like ability to focus on the facts, your no-nonsense approach to decision making is admirable, both in your garden and as well, it appears, in the voting booth! I wouldn’t dream of protesting your views either (not with Mars only 5 minutes from exact square to Neptune right now), but trust me, candidates are not wasting their advertising $$ on folks like you, but rather on the poor gullible and naive voters who wait until the last minute to make their choices on November 2. How easily some are persuaded. . . .or are they just lazy?

    What I would really, really love to read is your interpretation of Venus’ story. Does her double dated full moon position have a special meaning for you? Is it the sign she’s in or is it some aspects she makes or has made? Please share if you would, and thank you for reminding us of the importance of the local C of C’s and how we could benifit our communities by speaking up and of course, listening. Be well my friend and thanks for being out there.
    be

  3. I don’t think the political season has been deceptive at all. Quite the contrary. We’ve seen with our eyes and heard with our ears, all we need to make sound election decisions, and isn’t venus tellling the story? Even the democrat candidate from Indiana was given a higher rating by the NRA than the republican, an interesting turn of events in a state where individual rights are holy ground. More people should be interested in their local chamber of commerce. I plan to join mine this coming year to take an active role in local business and public event planning. It is surprising how much influence one person can have, or is it? We influenced our farmer’s market quite a lot this year. So interesting to learn that people listen and try to make ideas work in a way that benefits the entire community.

  5. Hm. And the elections and politics seems to be on everyone’s tounge in some form or another even elsewise non-politically interested people.

    Interesting train.

  6. i might add however, that I am not just sitting on said train waiting for it to take me somewhere. I think it might be more like being a working part of a living train…:-D

  7. Len, your train metaphor is so apt! It is such a simple and interesting exercise to watch people right now – falling into each of your categories. I am grateful to feel at ease with myself and a few friends and observe that we are nicely squared – or rounded – into our train seats, tickets in hand.

    Toot toot and whooo whoooo!

    hahah – I love trains!

  8. Len and Don,

    Speaking of hanky panky, elections and a thread of return, this election day, 11/2, transiting Venus will be conjunct the U.S. progressed Saturn at approx 3 Scorpio. I’m torn between what Saturn means in this case, “the party in power” or the “conservatives”?

    As the transiting Moon will conjunct the U.S. progressed Neptune as well as the natal U.S. Neptune that day, and then oppose the transiting Pisces planets (Jupiter and Uranus), what do you think is up with all this Neptune/Pisces, huh?

    As if that ain’t enuf, the progressed U.S. Moon is still in orb of being conjunct the natal U.S. Neptune, while transiting Neptune is still in orb of a conjunction to the U.S. Moon!

    I agree with Len, Venus harping on that degree, 9+ Scorpio, for 2 Full Moons in a row, is drawing our attention to something. The Sabian symbol for 10 Scorpio is A FELLOWSHIP SUPPER REUNITES OLD COMRADES. At the same time, Don seems to intuit a connection to the 2000 November election and this election, via this Full Moon chart.

    With both September and October’s full moons in Aries (and Libra Suns in both) it would seem to emphasize for these times, the independence of the “people” (Moon) vs. the balance and harmony gained through partnership. The fact that Venus sits where she sits; in both cases, on a degree that represents “fellowship”, “reuniting” and “old comrades” I’m inclined to think the voting (of the people) will produce a balance between the D’s and the R’s.

    On the other hand, with so much Neptune involved on election day, it could very well have similarities to the 2000 election, hanging chads and all.

    For the record, Mars will sqare Neptune in a few hours from now, so I suggest we all have a drink and toast the end of of another confusing and deceptive political season.
    Cheers!

  9. I think I may have fallen off the train and banged my head in the process…disoriented in the middle of nowhere.. forgetting where I was somebody keeps tapping me on the shoulder, when I turn and face them they dissolve.

  10. I feel like I’ve come so far in the past several weeks that I can’t feel how I relate even if you’re right on Len. I’ve left so much behind lately I feel like a new being in this world getting to know the me I’ve always wanted to be and exploring her sphere of influence. Even the fear of being thrown back there to the past by losses or other life events is blunted somehow. My fears attach more to the future, worrying about the exponential scale that ‘man’s inhumanity to man’ seems to be racing toward and the ‘apparent’ loss of what I used to think of the best of American values. Truth to tell we’re already running concentration camps, known as the ‘prison industrial complex’ that include incarceration of those we consider ‘aliens.’ Besides imprisoning ‘aliens’ we imprison the un/under-educated, learning disabled, mentally ill, under-employed, etc., ad infinitum, and all for profit. How is it that the profit of doing this is more than the profit we could make from investing in human beings by doing what it really takes to teach a learning disabled child how to read or get a mentally ill person the treatment they need? These are the kinds of things that are on my mind lately.

    As for this statement of yours: “Just as we all are born in pretty much the same way, as we all need to eat and as we all transition from this place sooner or later, there will be no exceptions. We are on this train together and this is where it begins.”

    This is where my mind is too. I read an article this am on FB that people have miscalculated the projected apocalypse of 2012 by 50-100 years and responded this way to my friends:

    Armagettiton!!!! Bang a gong!!! Get it on!!! Stolen from Thom Hartmann’s dad. I wonder if all this apocalypse bullshit is how we humans externalize our fear of death. After all, we do all face personal apocalypses. Or is it apocalypsi. Externalizing it with all these predictions of corporate Armageddons is a way to face death in the company of the human race. If I’ve gotta go, everybody’s gotta go…hopefully all at the same time because I’m gonna hate all you bastids that outlive me cause I’m a jealous mothafukka! On the other hand it could be that we carry genetic memory of past extinctions from our former lives as amoebas? Or is it amoebi? Whateva….

    Just a little humor about death, God’s great practical joke.

  13. Don,
    Thank you for your observation. You make an excellent point, very worthwhile. When i write these blogs i need to cut a lot of information to retain focus. It is a great service when readers like yourself append comments to add what i needed to leave out.

    As Eric has pointed out, the timing (and hence placement) of the Mercury retrograde was a very big deal for the November 2000 election as regards to whether there was some sort of hanky-panky going on.

    Here’s one other thing for you to consider. The position in the Full Moon in the last degree of Aries is where Jupiter was for the Harmonic Convergence way back when i did not know an ascendant from my posterior. Some would say i still don’t know.

    Following from Venus there seems to me a thread of “return” to this Full Moon although i prefer “second chance”.

  14. Len,

    I apologize. I meant to say that the Venus retrograde this year began in mid-Scorpio, roughly where the Mercury retrograde began in 2000. It seems to be beyond coincidence, especially in light of Venus’ position for this full moon, and last in September. Like I said, maybe I’m looking too closely here, but…

    Don

  15. Len,

    As always, excellent insights. I realize I may be reading a bit too much into things here, but what do you see as the significance, if any, between this chart and that of the election chart of November 7th 2000?

    That chart had Mercury retrograde in the same degree as Sol will occupy for this full moon; with that Mercury retrograde beginning roughly where Venus and Mars conjuncted, prior to her retrograde for this year (13-15 Scorpio, give or take).

    Is there no correlation at all, or will this be a repeat of the election that took place a decade ago, almost to the day…alternatively, is this the coda to that period?

    Thank you again,

    Don

  17. Len — I’ve made the correction you cite. I’m afraid I did not a chance to look over piece before publication due to my own constellation of rare events (though I have to say, I do not have the astrological knowledge to have caught that).

    Please give that paragraph a look to be sure it is as it should be now!

    thanks,
    amanda

    🙂

  18. NOTICE OF ERROR

    It is with regret that i must report an error in the third paragraph of this blog. The last conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus in Aries was in July of 1927. It will not happen AGAIN for over a thousand years.

    i have not had a chance to read the text i submitted before editing but i do not believe the way it was published was the way i wrote it.

    Nevertheless i must take one hundred percent responsibility for what appears beneath my name and i ask all readers to accept my apology for this error. i also would like to extend my eternal thaniks to the members of the Planet Waves community who have done such a great job of making my blogs more presentable and readable.

  19. Hmmm. I must be the kicking and screaming type ’cause if I remember correctly that last little darling of a full moon kicked my butt. A fiasco of major proportion. I’m hiding under the blankets for this one. Or maybe I’ll just fling myself onto a snowbank and make snow angels. Tough decision.

  20. Well done Len. I’m watching the sunrise on this perfect Chamber of Commerce day, as they used to say, when C of C was not a bad thing. It is very much a start of something and also an end to something kind of day. And yes, it is related to my youth and something like a rite of passage.

    It also feels a little dramatic; is that supposed to be? Probably just all that Scorpio happening. I’m glad it’s finally here. It feels like freedom.
    be

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