In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” There have been moments in recent years when that sentiment has been in evidence, as the Uranus-Pluto square has shaken up the established order with heartening events like the Occupy movement.
As we’ve celebrated the 50th anniversary this week of the March on Washington and Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech, however, it’s clear that we’re still traveling that long arc and have much work to do.
Our awareness of that work is signified and emphasized by today’s opposition between Mercury in Virgo and Chiron in Pisces (exact at 7:12 pm EDT) — which is occurring against the backdrop of the Virgo Sun opposing Neptune in Pisces (the art and craft needed to manifest creativity). This is an imperative being issued by the cosmos. Yes, it can be experienced more like a dance than a struggle — but that means you have to lift your gaze out of your own navel and engage with the process.
As much as we (culturally) talk about the power of positive thinking and the law of attraction and visioning processes, sometimes you simply have to roll up your sleeves and do something. As in, get your hands a little dirty or make a mess. Virgo is an earth sign, after all. And while it is noted for its neat-freak tendencies, at the end of the day Virgo is not so much about abstract thinking — that’s Gemini territory.
Virgo is about the ability to remain aligned with your personal integrity as you strive to understand life through what you do. At its best, it’s about digging in and trying out tangible solutions and experiments; with Chiron in Pisces balancing Mercury’s presence in Virgo, you have a lot more access to the imaginative side of the equation.
Chiron also indicates that if you can tune in to a vision and lean on Mercury in Virgo to plot out steps and document your progress, you can actually get somewhere real in terms of healing something.
We have some legitimate astrological resonance right now with the 1960s astrology that provided the context for Dr. King’s famous speech. The Uranus-Pluto conjunction of that era was warming up in Virgo, and that was also the last time Chiron was in Pisces. That the human rights struggles and advancements of that time were related to this astrology is well documented.
So why did all those people put on their Sunday best and brave 15-hour bus rides to that important march back then, while we send email petitions and share links and ‘likes’ on Facebook? Why can we as a culture witness 20 kids getting shot in their school and still not manage to pass gun control laws?
In his speech, Dr. King proclaimed, “We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.” But two short months ago, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the central enforcement mechanism of the Voting Rights Act — which was passed just two years after the March on Washington.
It’s happening in a political climate in which the extreme Right is trying to pass more laws designed to keep low-income people, elderly people, people of color and young people from voting. The New York Times recently reported that, “freed of federal election supervision by the Supreme Court, the North Carolina legislature passed a bill that combines every idea for suppressing voter turnout that Republicans have advanced in other states.”
Are we really that collectively fat and happy that we can’t roll up our sleeves, get our butts on a bus and make some concrete, tangible steps toward what we know is right? If the arc of the moral universe is to bend toward justice and not break before we get there, we might want to start ‘thinking’ with our actions.
My references were gnostic and the gospel of Mary isn’t in the bible. I was only referring to spiritual growth. Even the apostle Paul states that we are all one. Negative references to the bible tend to create divisiveness and polarize opinions, which is why it is a risky topic. Yet Paul’s comments at the time were meant to save the lives of slaves and women, who were regularly murdered for little reason. Out of context, the words take on different meanings.
Aword – That’s quite a dance partner for the GC, creatively speaking.
Patty and Be – isn’t that Magdalena I see at 28 Geminii today?
Opposing GC – Eric’s Nuclear Axis.
Thanks for your conversation. Something there to be sure.
Natal Magdalena trine natal Chyron. Something for everyone……
xo
I’m thinking now Virgo should be thought of as the sign of service in this case, more so than restored health. I believe you are on to something re: Magdalena’s placement in the chart Patty. So many of the mythical characters used in astrology take on full blown personalities but the symbols based on biblical reference come across as very two-dimensional, or maybe I’ve just seen too many movies.
Anyway, I love your inference that Mary Magdalene was, how shall I say it, resented because of her position or relationship with Jesus. Yet another example of patriarchal suppression of the power of the feminine. She bears watching for what her aspects tell us in our charts. Thanks again Patty!
be
Yes – maybe tears, maybe not. After everything I’ve read about Mary Magdalene, I’d guess she was one who understood the message and was therefore a leader. Some of the apostles resented it. Maybe where we have Magdalena in our chart we have spiritual awareness or a big karmic lesson to teach or learn. Spirituality means different things to different people. In the case of Martin Luther King, the mantra could definitely have been, “I am vehicle” instead of “I have a dream.” The rest was up to the world. Perhaps when we see all of our lives as one, we can begin to give up the physical plane. I just read an article about changing the brain when you hate someone by placing a mental image of someone you love over the hated one’s face. Apparently the neural pathways alter to adapt to our hate, and the cure is found in love. Makes sense to me.
Hi Patty, Thanks for the question. I would think it safe to say that Magdalena’s meaning in a chart would be open for interpretation as there are few that I’ve seen used. In the context of this chart’s occasion, the original march on Washington, I would think/feel it meant tears of sorrow (Magdalena) combined with a brave fighting spirit (Pallas-Athene) within a message (Iris) delivered through the sign of restoring health (Virgo). All of these symbols represent the feminine half of the polarity we live in, while Saturn and Jupiter, symbols of a society and the power behind the release of this expressed feminine energy that day, represents the masculine half of the polarity. The yod was a way of combining the two polarities and restoring a sense of wholeness. You have taken it to a whole new level though by bringing in the Sabian symbols. I’m glad it stimulated that much interest for you and no doubt the rest of the chart would support your line of thought. Most certainly Martin Luther as apostle is fitting, and what about the fact that Venus was conjunct the Sun, also in Virgo. Making us conscious (Sun) of the love (Venus) in healing the wounds (Virgo), and the mere fact that there was a stellium of planets in Virgo brings to mind the mother of Jesus, Mary.
Good work!
be
Hi BK (Barbara). I’m intrigued by the information you provided about the yod. If the yod point provides the answer to Saturn and Jupiter, how do you interpret it? How are you interpreting Magdalena? The apostle to the apostles? A lot of historians refer to Mary Magdalene in such a way.
Aqu 18 The masquerade has been long in progress and laughing young ladies at last have forced the final male to unmask. (Who is the Christ?, or what is?)
Aries 18 the empty hammock lays between two trees (the empty tomb?)
Virgo 18 – two girls with the Ouija board.
The messages in the sabian symbols have always seemed to me to be completely of a spiritual nature. In the 2nd century gospel of Mary M, the pages where she describes an encounter with Jesus in spirit is missing, pages ripped out. Martin Luther surely qualified to be at least an apostle. 🙂
Society’s planets, Saturn and Jupiter, were sextile when MLK gave his I Have A Dream speech; Saturn at 18 Aquarius retro and Jupiter at 18 Aries retro. It was an excellent time for all societies to find a way to work toward expanding and yet maintain their structure. There were major planets transiting in Virgo that day, notably, Venus and the Sun both at 4+ degrees with Uranus at 5+ degrees and Pluto at 11+ degrees. But it was a little asteroid transiting at 18+ Virgo called Magdalena who was the star of the day. She was the focal point of a yod she formed with Saturn and Jupiter, and she had with her transiting Iris the Rainbow Messenger at 17+ Virgo, and Pallas-Athene, Warrior and Strategist at 21+ Virgo. There was also, transiting at 22+ Virgo, the asteroid Karma who that day was conjunct the U.S. natal (Sibly) Neptune at 22+ Virgo.
You don’t have to know a lot about astrology to figure out what – in hindsight – the pattern of these symbols were saying about the USA then, and what they tell us about who we have become. If not, then think about this. That day the north node (move forward) was in Cancer and the south node (the way we were) was in Capricorn, and transiting Mars (action) in Libra squared (challenged) those nodes and also opposed (find balance) Jupiter (expand understanding) in Aries who also squared those nodes. Mars also trined Saturn (contained and stable) in Aquarius.
At the time the bells rang that day, transiting Mercury was at 1+ Libra, and conjunct the U.S. Sibly midheaven, where all the world would hear and see this event take place. Transiting Moon (the People) in Sagittarius, having crossed the ascendant (self-aware) of the Sibly chart earlier, would now be sextile Mars (action) as the bells rang. The Moon would also be square transiting Pallas-Athene, symbolizing the work that was to follow.
It is possible to learn from past mistakes and as well, from past glory. Progress is a process.
be
Yes, aword – “fat & sick” seems to characterize a sad majority of the walking unaware. It’s a sort of path of least resistance, I suppose – & the medical system is supposed to “fix” us when the toxicity of our food, water, environment, or thoughts overwhelms such that it manifests physically/mentally.
I live in a farming area, & as I drive along the roads I see beautiful (looking) fields of wheat & canola. They look like “abundance”, but I know the toxic secrets they hold. The soil has been poisoned with herbicides, injected with anhydrous ammonia (source of nitrogen), laced with various granular fertilizers, sprayed for weeds & bugs, then the crop will be sprayed with glyphosate to do in the last weeds & “dessicate” cereal crops, essentially to kill the plants so there are no remaining green kernels in the harvest. The resulting straw is often too toxic for animal bedding, but the grain is considered “safe”. After harvest, most stubble fields are burned, further destroying organic matter & microbial life, & then the cycle begins again. This is what is called “farming” now. I disagree.
I have chosen to grow as much of my food as I can in my garden, organically & I speak of the insanity of expecting to have nourishing food & good health, given current “modern” agriculture/ food “manufacturing” practices. Beyond that, & withdrawing as much of my support as possible from the greed-based industrial system that is destroying Life, there is not a lot one isolated person can do. Denial is a powerful wall, & it seems to me that it must be exhausting to keep holding it up in order to remain willfully unaware. I guess that’s where the insatiable appetite for distractions comes in.
I have no planets in Virgo, but it’s on my 4th house cusp, & the Mercury-Chiron opposition occurs on the 4th-10th axis. My mind has been running off in a number of directions like an unschooled filly, so I need to rein it in & focus on my garden harvest. But the soil/farm/food/health issues have been where I’ve been ending up often of late.
Someone once said that the world changes one heart at a time. Pray that we (collectively) manage it in time.
I recently found some journals of mine from the 90’s. Wow. Talk about sick. I can feel the sugar buzz coming off the pages, the boom and bust emotions, the anger. I had hikes in the woods, but it was before Taoism was anything to me but The Tao Of Pooh. Pooh only showed us some of the qualities a person in touch with Tao embodies, but doesn’t teach us how to get there when we’re already wound up. For that I had to find the Tai Ji masters who have the inner water dissolving practices. Seeing where I was though I realize I couldn’t have learned from a Tai Ji master; I was convinced no human had anything to teach unless I encountered their ideas in a book. The hikes in the woods at least kept me cool enough to survive until the right teachers found me. I had to hurt myself and weave all sorts of hellscapes to learn enough humility to be a student. Or at least, within the walls of ignorance the culture and my fear generated it was the only way out. Freeing oneself from the matrix is never easy.
yes, aword — “sick” is more like it, and i think complacency/apathy counts as a form of mental/spiritual/emotional sickness. many people seem to equate “numbness” with “happiness”, or for some, it’s more like “distracted = happy.”
sad…
Thanks for the pitch for Virgo, Amanda. Insightful and helpful.
Maybe it’s not so much fat and “happy”, as fat and sick. We are still in the learning phase (as guinea pigs) of what the tampering of our food and water supplies have done to our ways of thought and action.
Referencing Eric’s podcast and the Miley Cirus Uranus/Pluto conjunction – I can now see both of my children differently and realize that they are actually DIFFERENT (from generations prior) in vast and amazing ways. It is not possible for them to accept the world as it is. They may not strike out in their Sunday Best for places afar to unify their cause, but they are finding their personal best through the eyes of shifting us into the new – and not ‘believing in’ or holding-to the old ways.
(I knew my natal Uranus on AC in Leo square the NN/Jupiter/Neptune in Scorpio on my 4th house cups had something to do with me creating change, but I Loughed Out Loud yesterday when I realized that I had created change…Change One and Change Two as it were; my two children!! 🙂
Virgo energy … I’ve got no planets there, it’s intercepted in 7th house, and I bump into this wonderful piece w/ comments as I am searching out/witnessing integrity within/without.
thank you all so much
You make a very good point Amanda, there is another old cliche’ I’m reminded of about Virgo not being able to see the forest for the trees. This is how I was experiencing the Virgo energy until it hit me that the challenges I was facing didn’t mean it was the end of the road but – upon closer inspection – a bend (or arc maybe?) in the road leading to a whole new place. It is very easy to get lost in self-or other-pity, what with all the water trines surrounding us these days. That would be the wrong way to utilize the water influences though. How very prudent to have Virgo’s influence, especially today with Mercury affecting our mental ability, to sort out (Virgo style) the practical (Virgo) from the impractical thoughts. Hopefully, the generals and other advisors to the President and all his men, will utilize this brilliant gift as they have seemed hopelessly lost in the Neptune fog recently.
be
“Virgo is about the ability to remain aligned with your personal integrity as you strive to understand life through what you do.”
I love that…
ps: that is a great photo of Dr. King.
Excellent post, Amanda. wish I could do it justice with an equally profound and provocative reply … but … but … those mofos have it all wrapped up and my vote doesn’t count … I’m not happy (fat maybe) but amassing large groups to vote isn’t going to work now and I’m frustrated and at a loss for how we take back our process.