By Len Wallick
Welcome to Monday. It’s been an eventful weekend that included several astrological developments of significance. Mercury formed a sextile with Uranus, which hopefully meant fast thinking and not thinking too much. Jupiter formed a sextile to Pluto, which hopefully allowed a closer look at something mysterious and not a magnification of fear. Finally Venus conjoined Chiron and Neptune, preparing the ground for the New Moon / Asian New Year on Valentine’s Day.
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All those events are still functional but in separation as we leave the weekend behind, flowing seamlessly into the aspects and transits to come.
Today begins with the Moon (in Sagittarius since late Saturday) conjoining the largest main belt asteroid, Ceres. Luna then goes on to close the day with a conjunction to the Galactic Center. The Sun comes off a square to the asteroid Pallas to receive a good morning sextile kiss from the Moon. Venus forms a sextile to the Galactic Center.
Collectively, all of this has the feel of what Eastern thought refers to as yin. It resonates with the aspects of mid-December 2009, before the Mercury retrograde, before the eclipse cycle, when the Sagittarius new Moon conjoined the Sun, Venus and the Galactic Center, a week before the winter solstice. The quality of yin has to do with being grounded while also being open and present to the forces of creation acting upon us, to be a part of the creative process and not just subject to it.
Now in its waning crescent phase, the Moon’s aspect to Ceres reminds us to attend to the subject of nourishment. When we are busy we all too often focus only on that which will keep us going for the short term. The coffee, the sweet snack and the power nap are no substitute for taking the time to have well-rounded meals and a good night’s sleep. As the Earth approaches the time of equinox, we need to prepare ourselves to be equal to the time. That means taking the time to take care of ourselves.