Friends, Readers, Comrades:
Today as the California Supreme Court hears arguments for and against Proposition 8 — the referendum from last year which bars same-sex couples from marrying in that state — Mars is conjunct Chiron in Aquarius. I introduced this conjunction in a brief entry last night (see Dante and Virgil making out below), though on a night’s rest I can feel that it’s an aspect that is perfectly apropos of the individuality and guts needed on these issues where a very personal matter (who you can choose to be with) becomes as public as a parking garage project. It would seem to have no place, and need no place, except for the incursion of people telling us we cannot feel a certain way, or that those feelings don’t matter.
This occurs within hours of Venus stationing retrograde in Aries, a six-week journey that feels to me like self-knowledge. It seems like a confrontation that is precisely the opposite of denial, which so deeply characterizes so many relationships-with-self. I think that this particular pair of events coupled within 24 hours of this crucial high court argument in California is brilliantly archetypal, and I will save my full commentary for the Friday edition of Planet Waves Astrology News sent to subscribers — as much to write it just once and incidentally to encourage you to try a subscription if you haven’t done so. The real work of social progress is individual growth, and that is precisely what we are talking about here.
Mercury is still closely conjunct Neptune, though the conjunction (in Aquarius) is now separating.
The Moon is in Cancer in the second quarter phase, heading for new gibbous. In the next 24 hours it will square Venus in Aries, then trine the Sun and later tomorrow square Eris in Aries. The Cancer Moon has something to say about comfort, nourishment and nurturing. So too does Ceres opposite Sisyphus, reminding me that many people relate to food as a lifelong struggle: what they can eat, how much they can eat, what constitutes a sin and what is allowed, and the use of food for things besides eating and simple pleasure. Given the proliferation of both toxins and heart disease, we have nearly come all the way into thinking of food as poison rather than thinking of it as the thing that helps keep us alive — and this is a very deep struggle, between that which we might feel nurtures us and that which we might feel kills us — but isn’t that the story of the world in so many ways, for so many people.
The combination of aspects today suggests that food needs to be a conscious, intentional act every time we involve ourselves with the stuff. I suggest that the whole stuggle be cast as one of awareness.
Pat…. “I had an image of nettles ever so briefly last night, and my skin felt different – like it was prickling, especially on my legs”
Yeah, me too. And more.
On it.
M
Mystes,
Curious that you said ‘nettles’. I had an image of nettles ever so briefly last night, and my skin felt different – like it was prickling, especially on my legs. Have had the sensation for two nights. I don’t have any physical problems and normally sleep soundly. Back in the 80s I had a lot of flying dreams, which I later realized were out of body experiences. That is how I have felt the last two nights, like spirit is struggling to make an exit. Everytime someone dies (that I know) I feel this shift and tug of will.
It feels like death.
Dreamers,
I don’t quite understand what is up in the Oneiros (Mercury/Hermes dream orbit), but things are off there. I am a pro dreamer – in my 20s and 30s I developed and gave a series of workshops called ‘Dreaming on the Double’ based on James Hillman’s work. I *know* how to move around in that space, and since yesterday afternoon there’s been a feeling of violation — like a blanket of nettles woven throughout the entire realm.
Achtung, my gentles. Or, as my friend Angel says: Priestess Out.
(smiling, breathing, fingering the nock)
M
My dreams are usually vivid and I often “dream” outside of myself watching my dream (if that makes sense), but the last few days I have had vivid AND troubling dreams…many times I dream of going from room to room through a house, but last night I dreamed of going from house to house (they were connected) through twists and turns and tiny little alice doors, and in the last one, before I was “saved” by my alarm clock bell, several dogs had burst through a doorway and was confronting me…every house did not feel “right.”
Guess it is because there is a lot of stress in my “real” life lately.
Yes~~so weird how I have felt the last few days. I paid bills, cleaned up my email files and deleted browsing history of visited websites just in case I croaked.
I have had a lot of ‘visitors’ the last couple of weeks, but my aunt is dying so various family members are hanging out to help her home.
It has been a freaking out kind of week, but I stayed grounded – and that is what’s weird. Moon is cancer before the full moon (we are in the dark of the moon) so it is a good time to start seeds – today and tomorrow.
Fe writes… “By the way, the little voice inside is getting louder and smarter…much smarter than me. Focused on staying out of her way from here on out.”
(chuckling slowly… heh-heh-heh . . . then just grinning like an idiot for a minute) Y’asm…
And Hazel goodwitch, you just keep th’owing that china. You’re bout to break into something else here, a little more truthsome.
Kissies,
m
Mystes:
Slept like a baby, but Mars and Chiron are conjunct in the sign of my sun and to the same degree as my Jupiter. Not doing too badly, despite the slight twitch in my left lumbar, which says loudly, “Fe, go get a massage”.
By the way, the little voice inside is getting louder and smarter…much smarter than me. Focused on staying out of her way from here on out.
I did not have a great night Mystes (and it’s funny when I reflect what got ‘triggered’ for me reading your great piece re mom and son etc). I find that I often get what I call tremors around certain powerful aspects, (a bit like the echoes before and after a mercury retro), so it can seem like I feel it twice as much!
Dreams have been plain old weird for the last day or two. Last night I was resorting to breaking plates (and any china I could get a hold of) over my sisters head in a bid to get her to leave me the fuck alone…(in dreamland obviously). In fact most of the dreams have been (unsually for me) family oriented, the women particularly. And boy have I been mad at them!!! H.
Ho… Did anybody else have kind of a Big Night in the dreambody? I still humming like a kazoo in a hurricane. Mars conjunct Chiron. That is *not* what I would call a comfortable aspect, even under Mommy Moon.
Whew.