Today is Tuesday, July 5, 2011 The Moon is in Virgo all day, having ingressed Monday at 8:15 pm. In Virgo, the intuitive and emotional energy of the Moon can take on a rational cast, and you might find yourself trying to make sense of your feelings, analyze them or obsess over them like the cloistered monk copying ancient manuscripts. The waxing Moon, now clearly visible in the early evening, is gathering the solar light through this introspective and introverted sign today, meaning it is a fabulous time for catching up on quiet detail-oriented work.
Adding to this quiet, receptive energy is the fact that Mercury is now appearing in the evening as well. With the Sun in Cancer and Mercury up ahead in Leo, this means that Mercury is visible shortly after the Sun sets.
Occidental planets – those in the evening sky, or west of the Sun – take on the quality of nightfall, a reflective time when we cease our individual outward activities and join back together with family and friends. Despite this reflective quality, Mercury in Leo adds a creative, expressive flavor to that planet, giving it qualities of both inner seeing and outer expression. You may want to hang out and talk the evening away, but this is also a great time to journal, blog, draw, paint, collage, etc., in response to something you have heard, witnessed or taken part in recently.
All this Mercury energy is in the process of making a square to Jupiter today. In a square aspect, Mercury and Jupiter can be prone to exaggeration and drama, and also to shedding old mental habits. Mercury and Jupiter are associated with two different opposite pairs of signs: the Gemini/Sagittarius axis, and the Virgo/Pisces axis. Mercury is about our immediate personal understanding of events, like the news reporter who is on the scene telling us what is happening in a blow-by-blow descriptive flow. Jupiter is more like the pundit who takes what Mercury reports and then frames that within a larger perspective and context, relating it to the various other people, places and events happening on a continuum of experience – or just offering an opinion. Put the two together in a square and the two versions of the story may not make sense. Be sure to check whether your opinions are supported by the available facts, and whether you put the facts together in a way that makes some sense.
You have an opportunity to experience life in a way that is active, expansive and stretches you out into new possibilities. But it is equally meaningful to return from your experiences and work with them consciously: process them with someone, and/or creatively express what the experience has meant for you personally. Seek adventure in the daytime, and replenish this with evening re-creation.
— By Gary Caton with Eric Franics
Hey thanks Len. Yeah Asheville is a small city and the Smokies are relatively sparsely populated. When you fly in on a plane you actually see more green than anything, which is nice 😉
Hopefully I’ll have more photos of ole Quicksilver to share soon. this time of year the humidity is a serious factor, with lowlying haze/clouds affecting the view. so I’m hoping for rain first and clear skies following it !
Gary,
There is no way to adequately express my gratitude for the photograph of Mercury and Jupiter. Thank you for the inspiration of the image. You must live in an area of low light pollution.
Gary and Eric,
Thank you. As association with polarity rendered to a square with a positional hint of how to process what we are likely to experience concurrently in time. Sound and eloquent advice. Thank you also for the unspoken inference of Chiron (at once in and out of aspect with the square). There is a hint as to the subject matter with Eris in a rare trine (north) and sextile (south) with the lunar nodes.