Foundations of Progress

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.

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.

When the Moon and Venus join in aspecting the Galactic Center, this encourages us to move beyond ourselves to attend to that which we all have in common. All too often in the struggle to meet our own needs we forget that we are one with other human beings, other living things and with the Earth itself. The connection with the ebb and flow of our emotions is enhanced and informed by staying in connection with the lunar cycle.

In a harmonious manner, Venus brings a passionate intelligence to the emotions, enhancing their communication and contributing to the development of compassion. Add in the Galactic Center and we connect, in the words of Philip Sedgwick, ‘with whatever is behind all this’ allowing us to understand that as we nourish others, we unavoidably nourish ourselves. Conversely, taking care of ourselves contributes to the well being of others.

This link from the personal to the trans-personal is further expressed with yang energy in the continuing story of Mars’ retrograde in Leo. Today finds Mars entering another chapter of that process in an applying quincunx (150 degrees of separation) aspect with Pluto, which will exact at the end of the week, and an applying sextile (60 degrees of separation) with Saturn, which will exact a week from today, just after the New Moon.

Speaking in broad terms, the tenure of Mars in Leo is all about its retrograde. After all, it was only one day after Mars entered Leo mid-October that it entered its retrograde’s echo phase, with full retrograde beginning just before winter solstice. In broad terms, the retrograde has been about the process of individuation. This is a challenging journey of integration undertaken individually and ultimately, collectively.

First we are called upon to get clear on what we want, differentiated from what others want from us. Next we are called upon to be present to the passionate energy of Mars so that we can grow into directing it rather than allowing it to run us, or used by others to run us. Finally, it is combining the clarity of our motivations with the conscious control of our passions, expressing them in a mature and responsible manner. This allows us to be in harmony with others regardless of where others may be in their own process.

Here we see the progression from the Full Moon in Leo that occurred the end of January, when the Sun and Moon opposed each other in conjunction with the opposition of Venus and Mars. This was an opportunity for each of us to integrate the most fundamental division in the human race (between male and female) into an authentically compassionate whole. Here we also see the progression from the recent experience of the cross-quarter where we became aware of the dual purpose of the in-between as both boundary and point of perspective for either side.

Here with the aspects of Mars to Pluto and then Saturn, we combine those previous experiences into a new one, integrating the personal and political in a conscious way instead of having it thrust upon us. In doing so we allow ourselves access to finding, seeing and appreciating ourselves in others. Perhaps more challenging, we each have the opportunity to reveal and make known our own individuality — as frightening as this can be — so that others can see themselves in us. The result can be a new and stronger form of love that will allow us to see ourselves and each other through the mutual transformations we’ll all need to make.

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