Today is Tuesday, July 19, 2011. The Moon is in Pisces all day, and the Sun is in the last few days of Cancer. We’ve been enjoying a fairly watery sky, but the astrological dew point average is about to drop a bit when the Sun moves into Leo July 23. You can see the shift beginning to manifest in the mood of the country, even if your interior landscape still vibrates with the wetter energy.
Outside, we have: a heat wave stretching across the U.S. and killing crops (Dallas, TX has reached 100+ degrees for 18 days); the stalemate over the debt ceiling (aka “big battle over nothing” according to Eric); religious zealotry clamping down across the country; the ongoing glare of a media scandal. In other words, the Sun’s heat and Leo’s impending sense of ego are beginning to take center stage, reflecting the spotlight off the water back at us, blinding many of us. It’s disorienting, which makes sense: The Sun is entering a rather long void of course phase before it changes signs. A Sun VOC imparts the sense of a lack of direction, but it can also feel like a door opening up to something unusual.
You may be starting to feel this shift in ways you might not have noticed were connected, since that Pisces Moon is about forming a direct relationship with the intangible spirit world. Listen to your instincts, even if it doesn’t seem logical to do so. Unless it’s downright crazy, try it out and see how it feels. Getting some beauty into your life today is also really important, whether this is through social principles of loving-kindness or through direct contact with nature, like a vase of fresh flowers.
Adding to the quiet receptive energy of Pisces — in contrast to the external chaos — is the fact that Mercury is now making its maximum elongation from the Sun in the evening sky. This means that today Mercury is at its highest visible appearance after the Sun sets. Prior to this it was stretching the distance between the Sun and itself and getting higher in the sky each evening. After this it will be pulled back as if on a rubber band, getting lower in the sky each evening and closer to the Sun in each day’s charts. This also means it will be slowing down.
Mercury is now not only in the degrees of the Zodiac it will eventually dance backward through, but it is also slowing down and will soon begin to appear lower in the sky before disappearing altogether. So we are at a turning point of sorts. This is essentially the “calm” before the “storm” of Mercury retrograde. See if you can feel this stillness inside you and allow you mind to hover or float over something without trying to move forward or backward over it. Perhaps you can let the Sun VOC assist in this sense of not pushing in any particular direction. And perhaps if you do, you’ll feel your way toward that big door to the unusual.
The bright star that Mercury is hovering near is Regulus, the heart of the Lion. This is a royal star that can confer great benefits and success, but it also has a shadow side. The temptation to take revenge can turn these successes to dust; and Mercury in Leo can easily become a big ego trip. So with Mercury hovering near Regulus it is a time to be mindful of counting your blessings. Do not let greed tempt you to take revenge on, or engage in petty squabbles with, those who would seemingly keep you from further blessings or success. There will still be planets in water signs; dip in and cool off if you notice the heat getting the better of you.
Gary Caton with Amanda Painter and Eric Francis
It’s nice to know that I am not the only one who doesn’t always get to “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” each day’s sumptive feast of astrology that PW offers. Like shebear, I often don’t get quiet time to read the day’s posting until the next one. Even still, as a pendulum swings, it’s interesting to observe and note the astrology of the day with both foresight and hindsight.
The references to marbles reminds me that I have a triangular shaped kaleidescope; the tube made of pieces of white and blue stained glass. The open end has a loop to hold a marble which you turn to make the kaleidescope pattern. I think it is a good day to sort through the marble to see if I have ones that can represent the planets and see what patterns and colors emerge.
Seems like a good thing to do on a too hot day in Michigan – temperatures and tempers rising all around me. Thanks to all who post here – lyrical writing, stellar insights, all moving toward oneness. JannKinz
all of that is great to hear, shebear. i got a kick out of the fact that in yesterday’s post i mentioned picking flowers and in today’s Gary suggested a vase of flowers too. we were describing the same aspect completely independently of each other. 🙂
Oh, and I forgot to add that I did get in a dip in this hot summer’s evening in the open pool in the nearby park, and floating on the water was just heavenly.
These posts are thoroughly uplifting and enlightening. I am most grateful for the alerts and explanation of the cosmic energies that either start my day or make sense of it as it all winds down.
This evening as I end it Amanda, I put the flowers I purchased at your suggestion in a vase and now I have an eye fetching display of six deep orange gerbers, a bunch of small pale white/lime green chrysanthemums and one stem of white lilies!!! Thank you for the thought you sowed in my heart. I carried it around with me all day and now I have the beauty of nature to behold and a sigh of contentment to release ;-))
Speaking of flowers. Liminali, we wrote last year about the time of the anniversary of Hiroshima and I remember that we were toying with a notion of making white flowers for peace, or something to that effect? If you read this, can you help me out and let’s see if we can work on a creative project that illustrates a worldwide desire for a planet without nuclear warfare *and* no more wars whatsoever.
Day after day I read in these articles words that describe what I am experiencing. Thank you so much for that! I too, am hovering in one place, not the future, not the past, just here now but with future and past a part of the mix in some way. This morning I understood that it is my nature to approach life in unusual ways – and rather than just intellectualize that point and use the intellectualization to compartmentalize it and thusly do away with it, it feels like I finally understand to embrace my unique approach/es to ilfe in some esoteric way.
And so, hovering here, like a fairie over your lake, awaiting the next unusual impulse/pulsation to speak with me.
And yes, Blessings Counted – they include you:
Thanks Amanda, Thanks Gary, Thanks Eric. You bless me every day.
“See if you can feel this stillness inside you and allow you mind to hover or float over something without trying to move forward or backward over it.” So my mind is hovering over a fear of being ‘seen’ in the form of the possibility of publication of some of my artwork. I have been letting myself feel that fear, not moving forward yet, just noticing how fear really is Future Events Appearing Real, and knowing what an illusion that is. My artwork involves the both the past and the future in that it chronicles a path to healing but triggers fear of what others will think of it…So what about now? What can I do now? I can get behind my work; I can trust that it’s worth sharing; I can take some guidance, look some things up, and try some things out. Easy does it, as Amanda says!
Well yours is the best ‘mix in’ ever. Beats oreo cookies hands down.
ha ha, we have that kind of ice cream here in asheville too. and that’s kind of what it feels like to be in a 3 way collaboration, part of an ice cream scoop with a couple of mix-ins 😉
hey, i just realized that Mercury is also at the mid-point of the Uranus-Pluto square (made sesqui-squares to both of them around the Full Moon)
thus the double media circuses right now
i’ll have to watch for his other crossings of that square and its midpoint as we go forward
hey man — i just posted a picture of a lake! no ice cream within sight…
and michele — hang in there. believe me, we’re all have our moments lately of feeling like re-arranging marbles is about the most we’re doing. but i have a feeling even that new bit of beauty or perspective can ripple out. easy does it….. 🙂
Ps This trip down memory lane is all your fault, Amanda. xx
I’ll never forget the customers who wanted oreo cookie icecream with oreo cookies mixed in! (had never met an oreo before then…).
Yes, the mix-ins! It seems like such an obvious idea now, but back in the seventies when Steve started, it felt kind of mind-blowing. There was something really liberating about being able to choose and watch all those different kinds of candy getting combined with the ice cream. It was a whole new kind of creative snacking!
Thanks so much for the info dear LD! So it didn’t close down all that long ago. Yes – it was amazing icecream – and it was great fun doing those ‘mix-ins’, remember?
Hi Liz –
Steve’s (also known as “Herrell’s”) shut down the Harvard Square location almost two years ago now. They still have a location in Northampton, MA, which is around a two hour drive west from Boston, in case you are inclined to visit New England again. Closing that Harvard location was really the end of an era – so sad! Amazing ice cream.
Thanks all you wonderful guys. The photo reminds me of many many years ago, when I spent a summer in Boston (first and only time in US)and worked in Steve’s icecream, Harvard (does it still exist, does anyone know?). Me and a friend went round New England, camping in a tent, on our days off – and I remember visiting a lake just like this. I left a piece of my heart I New England, I really did. Have never been able to make it back since…(sigh, sigh).
Love
Liz xxx
All this busines is roughing me up. Cancer 12th, with Mercury/Pallas conjunction there. Leo is loaded on the AC. Neptune and whatnot… Etc etc. Saturn. Play my strings, Saturn.
I appreciate the insight. Likely, BA (Before Astrology), I would be losing my marbles. At least I can play with the pretty marble and re-arrange them.
I AM re-arranging them. Slowly.
But I sure do miss the days when solar returns were carefree… Wind and sun and travels and water. And no threats of drowning!
Thanks, you guys. Your insight help, even through this fog.