By Len Wallick
For an unusually long time, there has been a large, rare and extraordinary collection of planets in Aries. By this time next week, some of those objects will be following the Sun into Taurus. Starting last night and through tomorrow, the Gemini Moon is taking a sextile census of each member of this cardinal fire stellium while it lasts. Now is a good time to look back at the what and how and also consider what now.
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The precise definition of a stellium will differ depending on where you look or who you ask. In general it’s considered to be a close cluster of planets, usually in one sign or house. It happens every once in a while and brings a lot of focus to the energy signature of the host sign. With Aries, the unavoidable theme is self and the particular collection of planets has been emphasizing an unprecedented opportunity for self awareness.
It’s easy to understand how the outer planets can remain clumped together for a long time. Some of you may remember the Aquarius stellium a couple years back. It consisted of Uranus, Neptune and Chiron, each one appearing to move very slowly from our perspective. Once they had come together, it took a long time for the small differences in their relative apparent speeds to result in a separation.
It is unusual, however, for the faster moving, so-called “personal planets” (Mercury, Venus and Mars) to stay in one sign together for very long. Yet, that is exactly what has happened with with the Aries stellium. It has been an extraordinary and beautiful combination of sequence and timing.
The Aries recipe for mixing a durable and coherent stellium cocktail is slow first and speedy last, with a twist. Eris has been there for about 80 years, long enough to stake a claim as the host and hero. Jupiter joined in January after a preliminary visit last year. In the second week of March (Can you believe it? March!) the fastest moving planet, Mercury, barreled in to provide the twist with a retrograde that will ultimately keep it in the sign for over two months as opposed to the standard two or three weeks.