The Sun enters Aries at 7:02 am EDT tomorrow, returning to the beginning of the zodiac. It will be a vernal equinox — it’s like the personal solar return on your birthday, only for the entire Earth and everyone on it. The astrology of the Aries equinox anticipates the year to come, and you can keep tabs on that year to come as it develops by following the prescient horoscopes of Eric Francis and Genevieve Hathaway (also known as Brother Sun and Sister Moon) available through a Planet Waves membership every week.
Just as with every year, the vernal equinox will take place at the same time for every being on Earth. Furthermore, during the days on either side of that moment, the Sun’s day and light will be equally allotted to all.
Each return of the Sun to the Aries Point (as the first degree of cardinal Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn are known) also precipitates a new season. While the nature of each season is consistent from one year to the next, the astrology that accompanies each solar re-visitation is unique. On the Aries equinox this year, the emphasis on what you have in common with every other being on the planet will go beyond a concurrent and equal experience of daylight to include water, as symbolized by the position of the Moon.
The Moon’s watery Cancer position when the Sun returns to Aries will amplify a major theme of this year’s astrology — elemental water. For ancient natural science, water included both its literal and archetypal manifestations. Literal water is what you drink, as well as the clouds in the sky, the ice on the poles, and what defines the rivers, lakes and oceans of our planet. Without it, your life would be impossible.
Without archetypal water, it would be impossible to describe your life. Fluidity, ebb and flow correspond to your emotions. Consistently finding the lowest spot represents equilibrium. Assuming the shape of a container is emblematic of how human beings abide with, and within, each other. That which never wears out and which is indomitable in all of its forms connects with your ability to adapt and prevail with patient perseverance. Among all the objects in the sky that most freely associate with archetypal water, the Moon — in its varying phases and its impressionable milieu — is most prominent.
Most of all, it is in complement to archetypal fire that water works in astrology. As the Sun enters its fiery Aries exaltation this year, its luminary complement, the Moon, will emphatically occupy the cardinal water sign it rules, Cancer. That does not happen every year, and this year there is a lot more to it than just mutually powerful placements.
The Moon’s placement at the Vernal Equinox will be emphatic not only because of its position in Cancer, but also because of the aspects it will make and the proxy it will perform. During the days of equal day and light, the Moon will move through brief but meaningful water trine aspects to the current occupants of fixed Scorpio and mutable Pisces. In doing so, Luna will anticipate longer aspects of the same sort from Jupiter’s tour of Cancer, beginning in the latter half of 2013, that will (as Jupiter does) expand upon this year’s water theme.
Fittingly, during the last hours of solar Pisces, the first lunar water trine by any object will be made to the modern ruler of Pisces and the mythical lord of all the waters: Neptune. The symbolism of that trine is impossible to overlook. That even on the very day of a solar exaltation and seasonal celebration, the Sun should first be caught up in the current of a water trine, sets an elemental pattern for the entire year. Later in the day that pattern will be confirmed repeatedly.
Just before the solar ingress to Aries, and following its trine to Neptune, the Cancer Moon will form the same aspect with Mercury (now in direct motion, but still in the throes of its recent Pisces retrograde). Because Mercury represents the mind, the flow of a watery lunar connection concurrent with equal day for all serves as a reminder for all. It will be a reiteration that all three retrogrades for Mercury this year will traverse the same element, educating the intellect in the wonders and ways of water by rote, to definitively reform how you think (if nothing else).
Even later tomorrow, when the Sun finally has an Aries Point toehold, the fluid lunar pattern will take on a more definite form because of Saturn. The Moon will complete its grand water trine of the vernal equinox by aspecting retrograde Saturn (methodical backstroking through fixed Scorpio). Just as with the opening trine to Neptune, the brief but wide open flow through to the ringed one will be difficult to dismiss. It will be as if to say that this is the shape of things to come. What is to come, the Moon will not miss either.
At the same moment of the lunar trine to Saturn, the Moon will also complete the circuit of water signs with a trine to Chiron in Pisces, and a consequential, hand-holding, semi-sextile to Jupiter’s current placement next door in Gemini — all to the degree, all at once.
The concurrent grand trine from the Moon to Saturn to Chiron while the equinox is still young will be as if to say that water is at once the detailed focus and the big picture this year. How it will play out, nobody can say, except that it will somehow be the same for everybody without exception. The simultaneous and suspenseful square from Chiron to Jupiter won’t inform us as to the ‘how’ either, but it will give us an idea that we may expect some sort of climax when Jupiter eventually takes the Moon’s place.
On the occasion of this year’s vernal equinox, the Moon will be in proxy. It will hold place for Jupiter’s year-long Cancer tenure that will begin on June 25, only days after the Sun enters the same cardinal waters for a solstice, initiating the season to follow the one now impending, and just hours before Mercury’s second retrograde station of 2013 in the same sign.
It is therefore reasonable to say that what we glimpse this week by the equal light will indeed anticipate what Jupiter will expand upon when it, the Sun and Mercury all return together to the sign of the Moon.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Be – you and Popeye!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PCExU3dVfo
Lunesoleil: Thank you for your own beautiful description.
Strawberry: Thank you for your sharing your perceptive take on the ambient energy. You have the ticket – no drugs are necessary to handle this reality – only remembering to breathe, a sense of wonder, and a willingness to be connected with the Earth and all beings under its sky. That is all we have ever needed.
aword: Thank you so very much for your concise perception, and your kind words.
Chief, happy to hear that. aword, I appreciate your clarification as I never remember the endings of those fairy tales. Let’s see there was a baby bear, a poppa bear . . and a princess with hair long enough to climb up, and another princess who could feel a pea under her mattress (how it kept from squashing I’ll never know), but I think they all had happy endings.
be
Dear Len & be: Thank you for your kind and helpful words. I feel supported by you both presenting me with a skillful orientation to this big event. This fits with what I am working towards in my profession for this year, and my speaking and writing are keystones.
Ah Be! I heard that Hansel and Gretel dropped the breadcrumbs in order that they might “find their way home”. That finding, of course, came via a different path (since they had inadvertently fed hungry birds along the way). H&G and “home” were all transformed when they finally arrived.
Thank you. And as always, thank you Len, for writing a “Path…With Multicolored Splendor”.
You, Chief, will reign supreme this coming (personal) solar year in the talking, writing world, and the rest of the world will be listening to you. Judging by your sensitive and wise contributions here at PW, that will be a good thing. Happy soon-to-be solar return!
As for the world’s well-being, another connection from the past to the “now” is via Mercury from the chart for the last Saturn-Jupiter conjunction, the start of a cycle devoted to the evolution of societies. That day in May, 2000, Mercury was at 27+ Gemini, making no major aspects to other planets in the chart, although it was quincunx the south node (the path to get off of) at 25 Capricorn (2 degress from the U.S. Sibly Pluto at 27 Capricorn). Next week’s Libra Full Moon chart has Ceres (food, plant life) at 27+ Gemini, so it too is quincunx the U.S. Pluto as well as being opposed the Galactic Core at 27 Sagittarius 2.
Ceres also symbolizes something precious taken away which could represent a lot of things in the “Natural Science” world. This quincunx aspect to U.S. Pluto symbolizes adjustment; a shift in order to accommodate change. The 2000 Jupiter-Saturn chart’s Mercury was also conjunct Kronos (aka Saturn = Time) at 27 Gemini, which (should have) told us that a time would come when we would get the message. That would be now.
By the same token, the 2000 Jupiter-Saturn Conj. chart had Mars at 17 Gemini. Besides opposing that charts Chiron at 14 Sagittarius (and conjunct the Great Attractor), Mars in May 2000’s chart is quincunx the north node (path to follow) of next week’s Libra FM chart at 17 Scorpio. That Sabian Symbol is” A Path Through Woods Brilliant With Multicolored Splendor”, or as Dane Rudhyar put it “TRANSFIGURATION”.
Was it Hansel and Gretel that dropped the breadcrumbs to follow on their path in order to be rescued?
be
I actually have two big grand water trines, a grand earth trine, and a grand air trine going on right now. And the planets opposite the trines, “kite”-ing them so to speak, are my Pluto, my Ceres, my MC and la Luna. That’s a LOT of fluidity. I feel a little like I’m in a slow-motion gyroscope this morning. So. To make use of all this flow I go within, to the depths, and learn that under all that water is a Mother Earth nature that’s central to why I’m here. Or something. Unpacking all this metaphor at once requires more poeticism than I generally have access to. And if the Sun’s position on the Aries point during all this suggests this is how my year will feel, I should be able to pass on the psychotropic drugs for a while. Breathe, Kari, Breathe.
Thanks Len to celebrate the vernal equinox under a beautiful triangle of water, energy of the fish will still continue to help us perhaps realize our dreams
I wish you all 🙂
Chief Niwots Son: Thank you for the grace of your comments once again. As for your May Mercury return conjunct transiting Jupiter and your natal mid-heaven, please consider approaching it with confidence instead of wariness – that alone may make all the difference, and there is no reason not to be confident that your self-image and public image may realize a big boost by that time.
paola: You are very welcome.
‘Precision is a human invention’: ha! Len, thank you – for the article as well, of course.
The members of the Virgo tribe need costant remainders of that! We always forget.
Len: Thanks as always for the insight into cosmic happenings. All this water, and me with a Cancer Moon soon to be awash in the water trine. I am praying that these events will bring clarity for all of us, since they are in the flow of the Equinox.
be: Thank you for the early notice of the May 27th Mercury – Jupiter conjunction at 23+ Gemini. My natal Mercury is 21+ Gemini and my Midheaven at 24+ Gemini, and this congress occurs two days before my solar return! I cannot begin to wrap my mind around all this (which for Mr. Mercury is a good thing).
I thank you too Lizzy for your observation and website link.
Thanks too to you jinspace for sharing your remarkable first-hand observations.
Friday, March 22, 2013 is World Water Day. (Mars will be conjunct Uranus!!!)
be
Len, don’t be jealous. There’s still the rest of my chart to contend with, and it’s no bed of roses. But it sure is interesting. I realize I needn’t be so precise with my timing, and probably will get to it later in the day, or even the day after – but I was just amazed at my own precision (natal Merc in Virgo), and figured that must bode well.
I did read Amanda’s piece today and it resonated, too, and *just* as I hit the button to post my comment, I lost my internet connection. Storm phase, indeed! I’ll have to go back and add my comments.
Thank you for the reassuring pep talk and for making me smile. Now I’m going to go enjoy that free beer 😉
Thank you for your kind words, dear Len!
Just read your comments, be.
I recently learned what an angry sea really looks like. Here on the northern coast of Spain, on March 1st and then again on March 6th, there were two unusually violent storms that savaged the coastline – just swallowed it up and washed it away – and took at least one life that I know of. The Mediterranean doesn’t have high tides or violent waves; it’s usually like a bathtub, but on these days the water was washing inland one to two hundred feet. It was so unusual, people who’ve lived their entire lives here lined the beach and stood in awe. This has never happened here. Up the coast from us, a woman was taking a photo from what anyone would have considered a safe distance, but a huge, swift wave surged out of nowhere and dragged her away.
Cosmic order indeed.
Lizzy: Thank you for the link regarding the current events at Fukushima, and thank you for your kind appraisal. Your emotional intelligence leads the way for the rest of us.
Thank you for this beautiful and inspiring piece, Len. “It will be a reiteration that all three retrogrades for Mercury this year will traverse the same element, educating the intellect in the wonders and ways of water by rote, to definitively reform how you think (if nothing else)” – hallelujah!
be, not long after reading your moving comment I saw this news item on the BBC website:
“A power failure at Japan’s tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant has affected cooling systems for spent fuel ponds”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21840205
jinspace: Thank you. First thing – don’t sweat the precise timing. The functional equinox (equal day for all on earth, sunrise/set absolute East/West for all on Earth) lasts for at least three days. It is functional now. Precision is a human invention, even my good friends of the Virgo tribe must admit that. You are not only in the ballpark with your timing, you are in a box seat with a free beer. Next: Aries point on the 5th house cusp is good. So good, i’m jealous. Finally – yes- focus on positive manifestation. Astrology does not happen to you. You make it happen Please see Amanda’s blog today for a great example.
bodymindalchemy: Thank you for the supplemental log from serennu do com. And thanks to Tracy Delaney for her great work putting together the information for you to share with us.
be: Exactly, precisely, and thank you. Vast areas of the United States are having their drinking water put into harm’s way by the oil extraction going on right now. If it keeps up, the Great Plains will be useless even to Monsanto. Thank you especially for the information about Rachel Carson’s nativity.
Well, my thoughts have definitely been more fluid lately, and it’s been nothing but refreshing – another positive trait of water.
Wow, Len, this is so interesting. For on thing, my Moon’s in Cancer so its being there always feels right to me. By coincidence (or not?) I’d planned on taking a big risk to announce a creative and potentially lucrative project tomorrow afternoon, knowing I’d get to it around 1pm (my time), which I now see is an hour past the arrival of the vernal equinox. (Ego-wise it’s risky; I’ll forge ahead with the project no matter what the reception.) And I’ve only just realized that the Aries Point sits right on my 5th house cusp. Goodness.
Given we’re all hanging in the balance with this one, I’m choosing to focus my fluid thoughts on positive manifestation.
There’s something else about the Moon’s travels that is educating the intellect these days Len. In her series of 19 monthly occultatons to trans. Pluto, starting March 6th through May 27th, she will be doing this while Pluto sits on the 11th degree of Capricorn. The Sabian symbol for that degree is An Illustrated Lecture On Natural Science Reveals Little-Known Aspects Of Life.
Would you believe that Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, was born on May 27, 1907, the same day of the last pass over Pluto (occulting) by the Moon at 11 Cap 7, within a degree of where Rachel’s natal Uranus was, 12 Capricorn 6 retrograde, and opposite her Jupiter at 11 Cancer 46, which is conjunct her Ceres (10 Cancer 5) and Neptune (10 Cancer 58)?
Huh? Do you believe that? You know what else? It’s the same day that trans. Mercury and Jupiter will be conjunct at 23+ Gemini, and that’s the degree where trans. Venus stationed retrograde just before she occulted the Sun last year! Trans Venus trined trans. Saturn from that degree in July last year too. Rachel’s natal Pluto was 22 Gemini 48.
And you know what else? May 27, 2013, comes right after a solar eclipse in Taurus (May 9th), the 3rd Uranus square Pluto (May 20th), and a Sagittarian Lunar Eclipse (May 25th). The Lunar Eclipse degree is the same as the Mercury station retrograde degree on Election Day last November (4+ Sagittarius) that happened right after Hurricane Sandy.
I’d say that all this water stuff that’s happening is trying desperately to get us to rise to a level needed to make us and our government(s) stop the destruction of our water and all the other natural science subjects. I’d say that Uranus is gonna rise to that occassion when he transits 11+ Aries. Sabian Symbol: A Triangularly Shaped Flight Of Wild Geese. Dane Rudhyar calls it a symbol of Cosmic Order. I’d say it’s about time, wouldn’t you?
be
Wednesday 20 March
02:38:45 UT – Moon (3 cn 49’2″) trine Neptune (3 pi 49’2″)
06:54:11 UT – Moon (5 cn 55’28”) trine Mercury (5 pi 55’28”)
07:32:25 UT – Moon (6 cn 14’24”) square Mars (6 ar 14’24”)
11:01:54 UT – VERNAL EQUINOX – Sun enters Aries (direct)
11:05:19 UT – Moon (7 cn 59’59”) square Uranus (7 ar 59’59”)
16:30:16 UT – Moon (10 cn 41’27”) trine Chiron (10 pi 41’27”)
16:40:49 UT – Moon (10 cn 46’42”) trine Saturn (10 sc 46’42” Rx)
18:01:39 UT – Moon (11 cn 26’56”) opposite Pluto (11 cp 26’56”)
Thursday 21 March
11:38:31 UT – Moon (20 cn 15’59”) trine Eros (20 pi 15’59”)
11:40:32 UT – SATURN (10 sc 44’24″ Rx) TRINE CHIRON (10 pi 44’24″)
15:09:26 UT – Moon (22 cn 2’19”) square Eris (22 ar 2’19”)
22:46:05 UT – Moon (25 cn 53’32”) trine Psyche (25 sc 53’32” Rx)
23:13:32 UT – Moon (26 cn 7’29”) square Pallas (26 ar 7’29”)
Friday 22 March
03:15:09 UT – Venus enters Aries (direct)
03:54:01 UT – Moon (28 cn 30’16”) square 1992 QB1 (28 ar 30’16”)
06:49:42 UT – Moon enters Leo (direct)
07:13:54 UT – Moon (0 le 12’23”) trine Venus (0 ar 12’23”)
10:40:31 UT – Moon (1 le 58’15”) trine Sun (1 ar 58’15”)
12:34:04 UT – Moon (2 le 56’35”) opposite Juno (2 aq 56’35”)
18:17:20 UT – MARS (8 ar 7’49″) CONJUNCT URANUS (8 ar 7’49″)
22:37:42 UT – Moon (8 le 8’26”) trine Uranus (8 ar 8’26”)
22:53:37 UT – Moon (8 le 16’42”) trine Mars (8 ar 16’42”)