A New Season of Contemplation

By Len Wallick

If yesterday’s Full Moon in Libra was an occasion for reflection, today’s aspects may well be an indication that we should direct ourselves towards contemplation. Contemplation of thresholds. Since it is not the intent of this blog to engage in semantic discussion, please, for the moment, be open to your correspondent’s posit that reflection is the more passive and contemplation the more active and forward looking. Let us contemplate the intimations of three thresholds soon to be crossed.

Today begins with the conjunction of Mercury and the slow-moving minor planet known as 1992 QB1 in the 25th degree of Aries. Perhaps the most distinguishing thing about 1991 QB1 is that it has not yet been assigned a name beyond the cryptic code that designates the year of its discovery, the type of object and the numeric order among others of the same classification. This despite the fact that many subsequently discovered bodies have received their monikers.

Perhaps this is because astronomers can place it into more than one group. It is an object in the Kuiper Belt, a huge ring of rocks and ice cubes in the region of Pluto that resembles the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter except that it’s about 20 times wider and at least 20 times more massive. It is also referred to as a trans-Neptunian object, which includes all the objects in the solar system that orbit the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune. Finally, the “QB1” part of the name gave birth to a group of objects called cubewanos, defined as Kuiper Belt objects with orbits not controlled by the orbital resonances of Neptune.

It may also be speculated that the developing astrological personality for 1992 QB1 is outside of the normal boundaries of our culture’s awareness. Anyone paying attention to the International Astronomical Union’s recent reorganization of the solar system must reasonably infer that astronomers (predominantly men) are at least subconsciously influenced by or in denial of astrological archetypes. Last year, Eric wrote of 1992 QB1 “I believe that this is a feminine archetype associated with people, predominantly women, who assist…at threshold moments:…”. This group would include midwives, hospice workers, orgasm coaches and tantric practitioners. Eric goes on to say, “I have a word for them, which is thresholders, and i believe they come under the guidance of and are significated by, this small planet.” If we accept that Mr. Francis nailed it as he usually does, one can readily understand how our culture as a whole and astronomers specifically would steer clear of putting their finger on it by assigning a name and giving it a place in our consciousness. That might threaten some prejudices and preconceptions and we can’t have that, can we?

One other thing about 1992 QB1 is that it was discovered on the first degree of Aries. That brings it and today’s conjunction with Mercury squarely into line with the cardinal point activity that has been continuous since the Vernal Equinox and predominant for the last two years. Mercury itself is about to cross two thresholds. Immediately after April Fools Day, it ingresses into Taurus. A few days later it crosses into the echo phase of its next retrograde which begins on April 18th (or 17th, depending on your ephemeris — noon or midnight — and your time zone). Now is the time for contemplation.

What will it look like for Mercury to retrograde in a fixed earth sign? A sign ruled by Venus? A sign in which Mercury is neither in exaltation nor in fall? Use today’s conjunction for contemplation outside the proverbial box and prepare yourself for this impending threshold. This is an opportunity to bring your own imagination and creativity to the big picture.

Speaking of Venus, today finds it on a threshold of its own. It is entering a brief period of in the last degree of Aries when it will not be in substantial aspect to other astrological bodies. This is sometimes referred to as a void. It’s been a long and eventful transit through the first solar house of the zodiac, repeatedly referred to here as a heroic journey. It has endured the labors of a series of monumental aspects over three short weeks in a sign traditionally considered to be its detriment. It has joined into the pattern of cardinal point events becoming a continuum. It has served to foreshadow future transits and aspects (Jupiter conjunct Eris, to name just one). It has broken the trail for Mercury and the Sun. It has linked last year’s astrology to this year’s. Well done. It is a new and changed Venus that will begin the month of April with a transit into Taurus. Let us take the opportunity afforded by this void to contemplate how this goddess will express her hard-earned heroic status in a sign that she rules.

And finally, speaking of April. Next month will bring us to a threshold five years in the making: the first of two Chiron transits into Pisces. This will constitute both a retrospect and a foreshadowing of its own. This year, Chiron will not make it past the first degree of Pisces before going retrograde in June and re-entering Aquarius in July for the remainder of 2010 and a good part of 2011. The long void that Chiron is entering is cause for contemplation of the long term.

As for retrospect, Chiron is slowly concluding a transit of Aquarius for the first time since 1961, when it last entered Pisces. How have we been informed by the planet of awakening in the sign of the collective? How have we been changed by its energy of gentle and patient transformation? How have we been prepared for the forceful and insistent metamorphosis that will accompany Pluto’s transit in Capricorn? How have we defined our tribe and our relationship to it? How have we identified other tribes and set the groundwork for the day when we will be obliged to recognized that we are one with each other?

As for the foreshadowing, Chiron will re-enter Pisces synchronous with the cultural and astrological phenomenon now taking shape known as 2012. It will be in transit of the last sign of the zodiac during the series of seven Uranus-Pluto squares beginning shortly after the Solstice of that bellwether year. That is a whole lot to contemplate. Today is a good time to begin.

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