By Len Wallick
In most places, today dawns with the Sun having crossed the midpoint of Aquarius, the astrological cross-quarter. In the southern hemisphere, Sol is shining directly above a point halfway between the Tropic of Capricorn and the equator. Thus the energies of Candlemas, Groundhog Day and Imbolc are brought to culmination. Each day in the northern hemisphere, the Sun is tracing a longer arc, higher in the sky, setting further north each evening.
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As a point of background, we know that the year is divided into four seasons, which coincide with the equinoxes and solstices. What is less commonly known is that the seasons have astronomical midpoints, when the Sun is exactly halfway between an equinox and a solstice. There are always holidays clustered at these points as well: for example, Halloween at the midpoint of the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. Around the current holiday, Imbolc, we have Ground Hog Day, Candlemas, the Feast of the Purification of Mary (a Jewish tradition, six weeks after she purportedly gave birth to Jesus), as well as Valentine’s Day. It’s a turning point in the season and for the most part, winter is downhill from here.
As for today: Early morning finds the Moon void at the end of Libra, having formed a trine to the applying conjunction of Neptune and Chiron overnight. Before this day is over it will have ingressed Scorpio, where it will form a square aspect (90 degrees of separation, the last quarter Moon) to the Sun on Friday or Saturday, depending where you are.
If you want to have some fun, the last quarter provides an opportunity. Weather permitting, stand or sit astride a doghouse (if you live in Manhattan, you will have to improvise with an apartment house) and face the Moon as it rises in the east. Check your local newspaper for the time. Wearing goggles and a scarf is recommended. Now, imagine yourself on a motor bike, or a Pegasus or rocket ship going 67,000 miles an hour straight for the Moon. That’s exactly what is happening. At the last quarter the Moon is directly in our path. Fortunately it moves out of the way before we get there (curse you, red baron!).
Now that we’ve had some fun, let’s review the big picture quickly. In a few days Jupiter will form a sextile aspect, that is 60 degrees of separation, with Pluto. At about the same time Venus will form a tight triple conjunction with Chiron and Neptune. Mercury ingresses Aquarius on the 11th. Venus moves on to Pisces on the 12th. On Valentine’s Day the Sun and Moon make it a quad with the Neptune-Chiron thang to ring in the year of the tiger. Finally, the pair draw to exact their partnership three days later. In deep background — you guessed it! Gold star! — there’s the cardinal, serial square, 90 degrees of separation between Saturn and Pluto.
Saturn’s current retrograde will take it back into Virgo this spring where it will renew old oppositional ties with Uranus. This has been going on longer with the cardinal square having started just after the Samhain cross quarter of 2008, concurrent with the election of our current President. More on that later in the year.
Going on longer than that is a discussion beginning today and continued as opportunity and aspects present themselves. Namely the so-called mutual reception between Neptune in Aquarius and Uranus in Pisces. Since late 2003 this subtle aspect has been there watchin’ the big river flow by. Watchin’ `em come and go while playing an almost inaudible counterpoint among the orchestra of the spheres. We have grown accustomed to its face. Now the seven-year itch has come along and it is time take a last good look because, as Joni Mitchell opined when James Taylor left in that yellow cab — you don’t know what you got, `til it’s gone.
To begin, let’s roll back some thousand years to a simpler time. A time when the term “natural science” meant all science. Astrology and astronomy were the same thing. As was math, surveying and engineering. Biology was chemistry was physics. Of course, it was not a perfect thing. Aristotle had some pretty weird and demonstrably wrong ideas about how things worked. Archimedes was one tool short of being able to calculate the volume of a wine bag. The Romans could not quite get that calendar right. AND there was one really big problem that even the smartest guys were blind to, that continued on until recently, that never left us entirely and threatens to come back at any time – slavery.
So, it was not exactly the good old days. For astrology, however it was a long period of acceptance, respect, stability and development. The knowledge of generations gradually accumulated and collated into something coherent. There were the fixed stars, even though nobody had any idea what they were. Onto these the ancient cultures projected their collective unconscious, forming the great Rorschach in the sky known as the constellations. Then, besides the stars and luminaries Sun and Moon there were these lights that did not twinkle and wandered around erratically — the planets.
Lots of people staying up all night as required by their job, or because it WAS their job, over lots of years finally figured out that there was some order to these wanderers’ movements. The order was in the form of cycles that repeated and more importantly, related to each other. Finally it was noticed that the relationship of cycles in the sky related to cycles on the earth and in human life. Astrology was born. For a long time these wanderers numbered five. With the luminaries they were seven. So it went on for a long, long time. Then something happened. An unforeseen consequence of our own making. A really, really inconvenient truth.
To be continued…
Offered In Service
bp88 – long transits deserve long stories. Don’t worry, Harold Lloyd will soon be back with the Lone Ranger.
you’re leavin me hangin Len
PH, ..”thank you for showing me that…”: tell-tale of understanding.
.. I spoke words, time ago.. analysis, .. .., I retract. :[not of time, but of space].
.. A bow to the ever-flowing current of now.
Jere
Be – can I just say, cause I don’t think I’ve said it – but I think it every time – I really love what you write on here. YOU know just how to connect and how to paint a great picture of both the person and the sky. Thank you. Hazel (paletiger as once was).
message to: Len, Musicman, ashawf, Shanna, Kathy (and anyone sneaking in b/4 I get this sent)
Never underestimate or forget the power of your words on another person. As you are so good with words you no doubt give them high value anyway. This soul needed just what you have offered up today, humor and wit, useful information, love and camaraderie and hope.
To Len, never surprised; you always deliver and I always learn something new. I bet you are right about the mutual reception too, we will miss it when it’s gone.
To Musicman, you have many “gifts”, but the way you deliver your message is supurb. If you have the interest and patience you should write more storiesabout your experiences, or have you already? They would be enlightening as well as entertaining for so many beyond our PW bounderies. Like Shanna, you did my heart good today!
ashawf, your observations regarding the effects and reason of/for Uranus opposed Saturn crystalized and brought into the “real” world why we agonize over these kinds of transits and how they fit into the bigger scheme of things. For example, why I have to go back to the dentist for teeth repair . . again! I can run but I can’t hide. Now if I can just get a handle on why my computer is causing me so much grief. . . . .
Kathy, a little smile goes a long, long way; thanks!
be
I have a few words to say about Saturn opposing Uranus under the cloud of already active Saturn Square Pluto energy.
Saturn’s challenges ultimately bring out in us the sense of authentic resposibility, authority and integrity.
Unless Saturn’s job is complete, we cannot take advantage of the energy Uranus bestows upon us as we can not innvoate and create something extraordinary and unusual for the good of humanity until we have develped a sense of authenic responsibilty and integrity.
Under the influence of energy of Saturn Opposing Uranus, if Saturn’s job is not complete, one should expect Saturnian challenges and the fact that the cloud of Saturn Square Pluto is hovering over us, only means that you can run but you cannot hide !!!
In truth…I really do have to get gone……. but Shanna…. a little droplet of truth and love each day…is really all that it takes…..!!
No shifting quicksands….or reality shifts……lots of support…..and something that I learned only in the last 5 years from my West African wife…Jonfolo. She has been here in England with me for only 2 years….and has suffered from what I call the silent racism… greatly.
She simply smiles at them….and says…
“thankyou for showing me that….”
Let the children know that they have a gift….others can be frightened by it….and it is really only the others way of expressing interest…in a stunted and perverse way.
And let your love work its magic on a beautiful daughter.
My prayer is that we will all begin to see a lot of love and light this year….
Thankyou
PH
I love the way you write, Len 🙂
Musicman_1: Your words did my heart good this morning. My daughter is also an Aspie –and dear god! the ignorance out there about this! Even with the increased interested in the condition these past few years. I feel for adults who did not have the information and resources we have today. Right now my girl’s got a couple of amazing advocates at her school and she’s in a full time elementary GT program, but she still struggles with her peers and her emotions. Like you, she loves music and the cosmos –what a gift.
Safe travels, MM.
Truth can be like that……..some years ago….I discovered…at the ripe old age of 37…..that I am clinically Aspergers Autistic…….IQ circa 157. This …my Lords…Ladies and Gentlemen…may yet turn out to be something to celebrate!! Among others…Bill Gates…. also has this gift!
By the time I actually discovered the Internet in the mid 90s…and started to research this phenomena….I had already pretty much socialised my self out of the peripheral diatribe that was others response to my behaviour. Ascendent conjunct Great Attractor(thank Eric for that one). Transits of the Moon over Natal and Transiting Saturn are also particularly difficult. As is any spike activity affecting Cancer… the Moons’ ruler. Having Natal Uranus in there in the 7th…opposite Chiron in the 1st…..( currently being lovingly tendered by Pluto)…..has seen a lifetime of Uranian incidents that have left me transcendent of the emotional realm…. and a pretty damn good decision maker…..but there have been some close calls…! And rivers of tears…if not oceans…!!
Studying music for 40 years has also given me an awesome arsenal of analogies…. algorhythms(sic)…. and simple examples with which to explain why I was paraphrasing the learned gentleman…by pretending to be a parrot. I was only exercising my right to free speech and studying drama.
By early 2002, I decided to seek out the advice of someone who I assumed would be up to date on developments in Autism diagnosis around the world. The available literature has established that there are at least 500,000 Aspergers sufferers in the UK alone…who dont even know it.
” Problem child!! Behave youself…its the Victorian punishment block for you”
One should remember that it is only in the last 20-30 years that 80-90 year old women were released from institutions and asylums…for committing the heinious crime of becoming pregnant in the 1920s… Queen Victoria rules the waveform my dears.
I thus plucked up the courage after 18 months of soul searching….to visit my local doctor….and after discussion…. was referred to a specialist psychiatrist….at my local hospital.
The appointed hour arrived…..In I went….! Scared shitless….!!
He was a big burly no-nonsense kind of guy who looked like he knew how to knock ’em out with Valium in no time at all. For my sins….I have total recall on conversations that I have had 20 years ago….2000 jazz tunes in any key in my bass player locker….and a 100 year history of world music is up for grabs in exchange for an expresso….and yet…to this day I remember that he only asked me one question….!
“Have you ever tried to damage yourself….?
Now the thing is….I was at Island records in 1976 when Bob Marley went global….the climax to the marijuana harvest was celebrated across the planet as Africans everywhere suddenly struck up a pose!
“Yo …. dignity….self respect brother…..!!” “Lively up yo self…”
Is that what he meant…damage….comatose too often…..?? I mean the ambiguity of the Enlglish language is determined by how many floors your elevator goes up to. I have always used 128 as a euphemism….and climbing! So after appearing to pause…(evidence of normalised thinking)…for in truth my brain goes in like an IBM 4330 processor…savant…precognitive…and psychic…all before I have blinked…..I then answered in a measured tone….
“Errhh…no…!
“Well thats it then ” he responded..”there is nothing wrong with you….!!
“Oh gee doc…what about Aspergers? I asked as I flushed with my new found confidence in talking to the learned gentleman….! He opened a small black book…a dictionary of mental illnesses……and replied quickly “It does not exist….!!
I couldn’t even manage to be a success with this…it didn’t exist…I was a nothing….me…a complete failure….again…!! The journey of hope ended in that moment!! Crash … Slam…Bang…!!
Now one of my symptoms…is that I get explosive…volcanic emotions…when people lie to me…Ha Ha…. so over the years….I have learned….if I get explosive volcanic emotions…. then somebody… is lying. Da Daaah…..Who needs a polygraph…..??
In an instant….I was raging…..but visualising the future….as only I can….wearing a prison cell and a pill strapped lock down……motivated me to transcend the emotions one more time.
“Thankyou Doctor….for your wise council……I shall soldier on….!!” escaped my breath as I headed for freedom and fresh air….!! Fast….greased lightening was I…!
Never had the world looked so good as I removed all trace of this savage…stone aged neanderthal from my database!!
Now…. I read a lot…..allow Planet Waves and the Monthly Transits to guide my travel plans…. and generally try to gently inform others of this quite amazing….but extremely inconvenient truth….!!
And yet….as I climb up the Capricorn mountain of experience….. surveying all before me…..and consolidating each cycle……I wouldn’t change a thing…..!!
Many thanks Len…..your expression of the little balls of va va voom is the map for the journey…!! The Music….of the Spheres…!!
Big Love
PH