The lunar last quarter, shortly after midnight EST, relates the Sun and Moon from elemental air to symbolic water, connecting you with another way to be in the process. The connection will be echoed by Saturday’s square from Mercury (in airy Aquarius with the Sun) to Saturn (sharing watery Scorpio with the last quarter Moon).
The relationship of air to water also carries over to all three Mercury retrogrades this year, making for a subject to examine now.
There are 12 signs used by tropical, western astrology. Each one is a unique combination of quality (cardinal, fixed or mutable), and element (fire, earth, air or water).
The quality of a given tropical sign is a function of the relationship of the Sun to the surface of the Earth. When the Sun is directly overhead at the equator, moving north on subsequent days, it is an equinox and the Sun is entering tropical Aries. When the Sun enters tropical Aries, a new season initiates, which makes Aries a cardinal sign.
Approximately 30 days after tropical Aries begins, the Sun enters Taurus, a fixed sign. After another month or so, the Sun enters mutable Gemini, which is followed by cardinal Cancer (when the Sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer prior to moving South with subsequent risings and settings), which starts another season and another solar cycle through the sign qualities.
The procession of the elements through the zodiac is more subtle, and less amenable to empirical correspondence. The origin and order of how conceptual fire, earth, air and water integrate with astrology is undeniably ancient, and more a matter of speculation than elucidation at this point. Indeed, there are indications that some long ago astrologers tinkered with the system here and there much as ancient texts (like The Bible) have undeniably been tinkered with.
Nevertheless, we are left with something of how the four ancient elements relate to each other. Those relations work both intuitively and sensibly.
Earth and water, for example, have an intuitive affinity on the abstract level. The affinity between earth and water also extends to make practical sense on a tangible level, as anybody who has ever had a garden knows. The same is true for both the instinctual and demonstrable symbiosis between fire and air.
The less-than-affable and demonstrably unequal relationship between fire and water is part of everyday experience. Likewise, everyday observation yields something of how air and earth regularly meet but rarely mix for long.
For land-dwelling creatures such as we usually are, the relationship between air and water is a bit more elusive, even unnatural. The weirdness of being suspended between air and water is how even the most proficient human mariners ultimately seek any shore as preferable to no shore at all.
Likewise, the alienation of constantly existing on the cusp between air and water was probably behind the decision of Odysseus (the most accomplished of ancient mariners) to head inland with an oar, searching for someplace where nobody knew what the oar was.
Both the lunar last quarter tonight and the Mercury-Saturn square this weekend will somehow function to acquaint you with the tension Odysseus sought to relieve. Rather than avoiding or reflexively acting to relax the tension, however, take the opportunity astrology is offering to sit with the discomfort for a while. Try getting to know the meeting of air and water better, because you will feel it again.
You will feel the meeting of air and water again during the Mercury retrogrades this year, when Mercury crosses over from elemental air to elemental water, and back again, and yet again. It is into the alien and disorienting environment where air and water meet, and even mix without landmark or inherent means of discernment that we are heading this year.
It is fair to say that part of your experience this year will be that of learning to cross, and even be as a bridge, from air to water. The thin meniscus from air to water, although fragile, somehow makes all the difference. It will make a difference for you depending on how well your learn to identify and deal with it.
Through the learning you will find new means of orienting yourself from within, becoming less reliant on external means, which you may ultimately have to do without (or which may ultimately lead you astray). Astrology indicates those means of your own will come in handy as knowledge for navigating your life.
The lunar last quarter tonight will offer you personal access to such knowledge, bridging over to Saturday’s Mercury-Saturn square. So, sit with whatever sensation seems like a stranger over the weekend, and get to know it better because that feeling could end up being the best teacher you ever had.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Lunesoleil: Are you familiar with the adage which says: “Great minds think alike?” Thank you for your comment!
It seems that my article has inspired you Len, or that we have had the same idea at the same time but not expressed in the same way
Good week in the last quarter of the Moon energy 🙂
From my mobile I won easier computer and without translator I can not read and even less write…
Strawberry: Thank you. It is very gratifying to know how my service has been useful in your own work and explorations. Thank you also for affirming DivaCarla in her elevation of the subject matter.
ElizMich: Thank you for eloquently expanding on the theme so lucidly. Your own service is deeply appreciated.
be: Speaking of expanding on the theme, nobody does it with your style and skill. The question of whether the elemental themes of the astrology carry over to the proverbial “elements” of weather and the human “elements” on both a personal and political level is a very valid line of inquiry to explore. It would do to be conscious of the fact that some lines of inquiry are more valid than others, so take the time the weather affords to go down more than one path to see where it leads. Please be safe there in Kentucky.
P. Sophia: Thank you for picking up on the importance of integrating towards wholeness as a vital pursuit. Once again, your integration of erudition and intuition is to the benefit of us all.
DivaCarla: Thank you for your own line of inquiry, which is more refreshing and conducive to clarity than any earthly champagne. You have given us a wonderfully evocative symbiosis of things as they are and things as they could be when neither should be neglected.
nilou: What you have shared is likewise evocative, and provocative as well.
“Air and water mingle, desiring one another. Air stirs the surface of water to gain admission, and water reaches up to swallow air and breathe.”
Oh my god, Carla! This is so gorgeous! I wish you ease and total suspension of gravity–you know the quantum shifts can be as real as the duality-based ones. Allow your crystal to shift, and soar, my dear.
DivaCarla, if it was just me and you in the room I know what I’d say to you. Ride the rainbow, just imagine it’s a tiger, or lion, or whatever kind of ride works for you..you know exactly what to do…nilou
Fine Champagne for thought, Len!
As a Fish, a swimmer, and deep diver, I sometimes envy the ones who soar in the air, though my fear of falling leads to failure to rise. I read the elements in a gravity based world. To move from air to water is a fall, or a plunge. Ospreys bomb the water, and emerge already in flight, claws laden with food. A miracle!
From the air the miniscus is a solid as concrete. When Icarus fell from so great a height as the Sun, did his impact ripple and multiply to cause a tidal wave on distant shores? Or did the water open and swallow him without a trace. Or did he bounce, pulverizing his bones before sinking to be fish food.
Air to water. Splash!
What happens if I imagine this transition in a virtual reality, a quantum reality, not ruled by gravity but by a state change. What validity do my fears and limitations have in this world? What potential can I access now?
Air feels so foreign to me, and I laugh, because my natal chart matches your reading and Mercury’s coming journey. I have a passel of personal planets and significant minors in Aquarius, 12th house, by sun sign, all but invisible to my Pisces consciousness.
Air and water mingle, desiring one another. Air stirs the surface of water to gain admission, and water reaches up to swallow air and breathe.
Perhaps this year of air to water retrogrades will help me make champagne of my personal air to water mystery.
Cheers, Len! *clink*
Just driving back home this morning I was struck by the beauty of the Sun’s light reflecting off the water. The Sun was pushing through and at the same time recreating a release, and such a feeling of love, appreciation and joy I felt in me. Now I find after reading your article here Len, it is the air that transports that light back and forth to/from water. Air is the power that integrates the emotion I felt. The retrogrades I hope may bring a time of greater recognition of the elements transforming power, integration and learning that’s available and at hand, from without and also within.
Thank so much Len!
Len,
You might be interested to know that today an article was posted called The Polar Vortex: A Physical Manifestation of the Chilling Effect of NSA Surveillance? In it the author says this:
“Each of the 4 elements in traditional astrology – water, earth, fire and air – has a story to tell in terms of natural disasters. Water reflects emotion – and particularly grief and sadness. Sudden abundances of water, such as floods and tsunamis, can occur in response to powerful, sustained sorrow in a majority of the people in that area.” He goes on with this line of thinking through the other elements, ending with “Hurricanes and tornadoes – explosions of air – reflect an over-abundance of mental focus, particularly of stress and anxiety.” You can read more at http://www.divinecosmos.com
I can attest to the chilling effect of the Polar Vortex here in Kentucky as this is the 3rd dip in about 10 days into single digits with wind chills below zero and 2 more coming within a week. Snow too is part of the mix and this particular combination of air and water requires adapting to the unaccustomed and developing new skills heretofore unnecessary. I have 30-something (years old) neighbors who have never experienced weather like this in their lifetime. Most of us are now “orienting from within” our homes (and psyches), “becoming less reliant on external means” and “doing without”. Safe to say that these lessons would not have the impact they are having if not for the repetitive nature of the cycle. Practice makes perfect I reckon.
So safe to say that mixing the elements, specifically air and water is indeed a learning experience, and if you just don’t get it through daily life experiences, then Mother Nature will gladly provide a sure-fire technique for making it clear to you. Stay safe my friend.
be
Great advice, thanks Len! I like the idea of using these energies as a teacher, easing into things that may seem uncomfortable. And what better combination to delve deep (Scorpio) but still maintain rationality (Aquarius)? The signs involved support that search for transformation and mental freedom, despite the obvious tension the square aspect brings about, sort of like a rugged honesty that we can have with ourselves.
Len, I am so happy you chose to write about this aspect; I’ve been anticipating this square a great deal, and looking for a handle on it. Handle, delivered! And with such richness of perspective. I’m going to spend some careful time taking this in fully.
I’ve been feeling a lot of the meeting of air & water lately, and one thing is beginning to coalesce for me: fighting either makes me crazy, but allowing both creates space for the pure bliss of floating.