By Len Wallick
In every community there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it.
– Marianne Williamson
For most of you reading this, the Sun enters Gemini early Saturday at 5:22 am EDT. This experience has a double-edged quality: as the Sun methodically moves north, the days lengthen above the equator, gradually becoming shorter in the Southern Hemisphere. In parallel, the Moon and personal planets elaborate on that same theme as they make several aspects, preparing us for a new solar ingress. The remaining hours leading up to the Sun’s change of signs can thus function as steps or rungs. The ambient astrology represents an ascent that will allow us to come up for air together if we each do our part.
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By the time the Moon moves into Capricorn later today, we may already be feeling the weight of that cardinal earth sign like a firefighter climbing a ladder. Working up from safe ground into challenge is counter-intuitive, requiring an informed and motivated response rather than reaction. Bearing with the dual weight of equipment and responsibility is an encounter with paradox. The gear that protects also isolates and inhibits communication while you prepare to confront yet another elemental force. In the context of this metaphor, that element is fire.
On the way up the ladder, fire is encountered in the form of a cardinal square. The Capricorn Moon forms this tense aspect with the unpredictable volatility of Uranus in Aries late today – and you may find you need to reconsider your planned responses and instead improvise to deal with the unexpected. This encounter prepares us for the mutable energy of Gemini, which dismantles the current season so that summer may follow. If we are able to remain present and centered enough, we will be rewarded with a sense of growth that re-acquaints us with how we were attracted to challenge in the first place.
The corresponding aspects involve the planets Mercury, Venus and Mars. Still in the early stages of their joint Taurus venture, they join Luna in successive sextiles to Chiron in Pisces. In a literal sense, a sexile is the relationship between two signs separated by one sign between them. Symbolically, it represents encouragement and support. Subject to the influence of Neptune, the flow of elemental water from Pisces is brought to bear early in the game. But as any firefighter knows, water can do as much or more damage than the flames. This is true especially when the Taurus planets and the Capricorn Moon indulge each other in a series of earth trines. As distinguished from the sextile, the trine is more the enabling type, soaking the fire fighter’s clothing, further adding to the load being carried up the ladder.
As Luna moves on, we get a chance to realize that trines are not necessarily bad and the duality represented by Gemini is not inherently duplicitous. That opportunity comes as the Taurus triumvirate of Mercury, Venus and Mars triangulates with the Pluto-Charon binary — two planets orbiting a common center of gravity. In terms of transformation and duality, this rung of the ladder is the most crucial of all.
With a new century, we were presented with a new perception of Pluto as part of a pair rather than as a single planet. This shift transforms the symbolic energy from a grim monolith to an unexplored dynamic, allowing us to appreciate metamorphosis where before we had only seen destruction. It corresponds to a second wind of sorts, giving us the boost we need to finish our climb. But it also brings us to an edge.
Part of astrology’s pattern for 2011 has been stress destructively released just before a change of sign. The earthquake and tsunami in Japan just hours before Uranus’ ingress to Aries is just one example. Fittingly, two planets take us to the edge of Solar Gemini with a choice. Just hours before the Sun enters the mutable air sign, on the very cusp of our weekend when we are tired and vulnerable, Mercury catches up to and conjoins with Mars. How we handle this will set a pattern that will last and come back to visit. It is for us to choose whether we create further burden or whether we give each other a hand over the top where the smoke has cleared.
It is for us to decide whether our desires will quicken our minds or sharpen our tongues. It is a mutual choice of how we will apply a fresh energy. After so much of the heavy and hot, we could afford to take a load off some body’s back and have the favor returned. After being held under and having it held over us for so long we could use some relief. The good news is that we can do it for each other. The real question is whether we will consciously direct the power in our hearts to get it done.
Offered In Service
Jere,
Anytime, great poet. Wish i could give you this hug in person. Hope you can feel it from here.
I’ve got a shitload of work to do, Len. Too much, I feel at times, but I’ll do it all. I know I will.
I need to take a break with you for a few seconds, to recharge my spiritual batteries. I get into these ‘funks’, and sometimes I just need some cat to speak truths regarding soul, (you’re my go-to guy at the moment,.. don’t take pressure, just the compliment.)
Anyway, thanks for letting me kick it in your reality for a few.. (one thing I always notice is that my lungs open up..?)
Peace bro,
Jere
Len again you have given me much to consider. Taking new perspective and then applying that to each moment has become a constant exercise. Muscles aren’t exactly atrophied, but still need much workout to meet the challenge/s.
Carrie, I thank you for sharing this. I am still blocking dealing with dad; that you are working through it gives me encouragement and a willingness to take my power in hand.
Be, One of my challenges is to not put fear into my Hades placement (at MC conj Pallas in TA opposite Nep/NN/Jup…ya that one) but rather keep the searchlight lit – the light in dark places – so that darkness is not greater than light. I will have to check on Arachne….I like weaving stories. I hope your birds return to take care of their eggs and continue with their nest-weaving.
As the Moon prepared to leave Sagittarius, outside my bedroom window I saw a bird hanging by a thread..something he or she picked up to weave into the nest which is located up under the eaves of my roof. I took a shoe horn that had a real long handle, opened the window and wrapped the long thread (really a string) around the handle and gave it a mighty jerk. The birdie went flying off looking much like a kite with the string trailing behind him. Poor baby.
When I first saw the bird it looked like the Hanged Man card with birdie upside down and dangling. Opposite the Moon was Hades (hate to look at it) and Arachne (weaver extraordinaire). I hope the birds come back to the next eventually because there are probably eggs in there ready to be hatched.
be
Len; Beautiful as always. Yes, I will be giving a hand up to someone this weekend, someone who has wronged me but not intentionally. He wronged me through youth and ignorance which is to say he did the best he knew how with his programming and the times. In forgiving him and helping him, I maintain my own integrity and repay the universe for his gift of love and life. He is my Dad; and this year I am working on issues regarding him so it isn’t surprising that he is suddenly back in my life and in a position where I can not only forgive him, but actively help him when he most needs it. This harkens back to the previous article about victims, perpetrators, and the pain they both carry. My father carries pain and transferred some to me but in growing as a person, I am able to transfer love and healing back. A lot of that is due to what I have read from your hands, Len, and from others here at PW.
As another said elsewhere, I love you Len for your gentle touch and clarity and I am not afraid to say it. Love and peace to you for being who you are.