Applying To The Future

“Difficult to see…always in motion the future is.” – Yoda

by Len Wallick

Eric has averred more than once that prediction of the future is not the best application of astrology.  This plebeian correspondent fundamentally agrees. Eric’s brief blog this Sunday (with rich responses from Richard Tarnas and some of our most erudite readers) added an extra layer of contemplation by bringing in the subject of fate versus free will.

Wherever one comes down on these issues, there are times, such as today, when, at the very least, a scaffold is revealed in advance.  A vessel, if you will, that will ultimately contain and possibly (in retrospect) define the events of coming months, so let’s take a peek.

Mercury stepped onto the playing field of Capricorn this past weekend. As of today it is just coming off a resonant cardinal square to Saturn and conjunction to Pluto; and then taking a brief breath before plunging into the echo phase of its Boxing Day retrograde tomorrow. Today is the perspective between the aspect and the transit, allowing us to take it in.  That this retrograde will take place entirely in Capricorn. That it was preceded by a square to Capricorn’s ruling planet.

All told, Mercury’s time in Capricorn will be over two months. Also, because of nearly concurrent stations in opposite directions next month, the Mercury-Saturn square will not be exact again (almost, but not quite).  Now, have some fun, start to think about what may look like. Last Friday, Eric suggested this will be about getting our business affairs in order. Will the result be hermeneutic (giving us a key to understanding Pluto’s long occupation, for example) or hermetic (leaving us, to paraphrase Groucho Marx, where it’s too dark to read)?

Along the lines of almost but not quite, Mars is applying to oppose the shuffling Aquarius stellium but will never make it until after its retrograde in Leo, having only one more degree to move forward before it stations back on its hot heels the day before solstice. By the time it stations forward again (at almost but not quite the beginning Leo), Jupiter will be nearing mid-Pisces and Chiron-Neptune will be nearly conjunct in Aquarius’ 27th degree. 

Here’s where you get to test Eric’s theory (from last Friday’s “The Winter Whirl – Planets On The Move”) about how the orbs of influence are sometimes underestimated. When Mars finally catches up to oppose first Neptune, then Chiron next June (in the midst of that Jupiter-Uranus-Aries-Point stuff) and Jupiter next August, will it carry forward anything from this time or will it be a whole different thing altogether? Perhaps a moment of resolution amidst so much that seems unresolved today; or maybe we will be in a new place entirely.

By the way, the Aquarius stellium is shuffling.  Today is the day that Jupiter moves on from Chiron after exacting their long courtship with yesterday’s conjunction. This can be seen as Jupiter beginning to wrap up its business in Aquarius as it next moves to conjoin Neptune to celebrate the solstice.  Before that however, we get to feel what it’s like to have Jupiter replace Chiron as the pickle in the middle during the time we have left when all the major planets are moving forward.

Pretty cool how that all works out. Now if there really is something to this synchronicity stuff, we should be able to pick up a shift in notes of the stellium’s fragrance. Will it be significant, or will the rose remain but a rose?

Oh yeah, the Moon and Sun. Can’t forget them, by cracky. Today Luna is coming off an overnight square to Venus, applying to square the Sun within the same 24-hour period. Given the mutable theme of this pair of aspects, the energy may provide a brief window to look at shifting patterns in our personal lives,  Try an experiment along those lines today and see what the universe feeds back to you.  If intuition serves, some, if not all of us can stand to loosen up with the rigidity so that we can prepare for a new season.  Hopefully nobody has saved your voice mails.

The Sun, in turn, is applying to trine Mars in a few days.  It has long been the observation of this reporter that Mars aspects are stronger when applying than when exact or pulling apart.  Almost as if macho Mars tends to climax early.  Recent events, however, have called that into question.  Here’s another chance to suss out those orbits of influence and watch what happens between, say, the military and executive branch this week.

So there we have it. The boundaries of the Mercury retrograde period (both in time and in Capricorn) and the meaning to be defined. The near misses and postponements incurred during the long sojourn of Mars in Leo, the continuity of which is to be discovered. The shift of dynamic in the Aquarian menage, will the consequences be formidable or negligible? As Richard Tarnas adroitly observed, each one of us is to play a part “enacting a richly, complexly, co-evolutionary unfolding of reality.”  As a bonus, we have a set of frames to view it all in and compare notes from a common baseline.

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