By Len Wallick
“Joy is what happens when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are”
– Marianne Williamson
There was a Beltane a few years ago that felt like it lasted a month. This year the most recent cross quarter (whatever you wish to call it) has felt similarly drawn out. The veil was very thin for a very long time. The mystery of death was continuously with us, impossible to ignore and seemingly infinite in its manifestations. It has been a long dive into the trans-formative waters of Scorpio. Many of us have almost become accustomed to the claustrophobic feel of metamorphosis, and it’s over a month to go before the Capricorn Solstice.
Even though The Big Square (first installment of the trilogy) was (and continues to be) a cardinal point phenomenon, it was, this time even more a Scorpionic moment, taking place as it did with Moon conjunct Venus, the Sun (squaring first Chiron, then Neptune in the Aquarius stellium), Ceres (squaring Nessus, also in Aquarius) and Mercury (anarectic) ALL in Scorpio. The chrysalis was crowded, the waters cold and deep, the energy was transducing in a crystal lattice.
And then yesterday’s Scorpio New Moon brought an extra shade of darkness to the lengthening night.
What a difference a day makes. Slowly but perceptibly, Moon and Mercury are leading the way having passed through the lighter end of the tunnel into Sagittarius. Time to break surface, exhale and take in some fresh air. Time to stretch out of fixity and break down what we have been through so that we can integrate it. Time to manifest the dreams of transformation into practice. Time to cook and render the cold and raw into the digestible and nourishing. Time to blow on the coals.
With the New Moon still taking place late in a sign it’s also time to look ahead to when the Sun follows the Moon’s lead, heeding the call of Mercury, shifting into the energy of mutable fire to light up the coming weekend.
Speaking of fire and mutability, today finds Vesta in the last degree of Leo, fully fueled and aching to transit the complimentary energy of Virgo, so recently released from Saturn. For just as Vesta constantly finds itself negotiating the conflict of intimate service and chastity, Virgo, as a mutable earth sign is deeply involved with balancing the need for stability with the desire to fly. Finally, after two years, that dynamic can be flexed for a few months and with Vesta in service it should be quite the liberating ride.
No indeed, the Square is not over. Even given the commonly accepted orbs of influence it lasts for many months (or that of Cosmos and Psyche author Richard Tarnas, who suggests the effects of these aspects span years), it’s constantly there, linking our own lives to each other and to the changes being so stoutly resisted by the established order. In the greater we can see ourselves and each of us, in our own inner fires can thaw the rigid structures given to us and re-shape ourselves as a model upon which the entire planet can in turn be transformed. In service, in freedom, back in the light, feet on the ground.
If you are reading this, you made it this far. Don’t forget what you have been through is a shared experience, not yours alone. There is another few days of being folded and pressed but already we can see what good can come from it — if we allow ourselves to see how good things really are. This is us, this is we, this is doing it for ourselves as a way of doing it for each other.
Offered In Service
Fantastic stuff Len, thank you. And I love the Marianne Williamson quote.
Liz x
len: i read this this morning, then the oracle of the day, and was so happy to get straight to work…having as much fun as i could along the way. it was such a great day…so thank you. 🙂
love
bess
The image of being ‘folded and pressed’ is a good one — it suggests something quite systematic about it. I’m waiting for the chance to shake myself out and maybe see where the creases are…
Len, that bit about Vesta being at the last degree of Leo is explaining a lot of personal stuff to me right now.
Rushing around on busy city streets of Sydney yesterday – had the strangest experience:
Kept running into people – the dance steps weren’t working like they usually do in a crowded place. Wasn’t just me – stood still and watched for awhile and other folks were running into each other too. In shops in queues, people were standing on top of each other with not the usual ‘polite’ distance allowed. Hemmed in by the sheer bulk of humanity, all rushing around trying to get somewhere or do something.
In the post office, there was a queue to use the writing table. Asked the guy in front of me if he was going to use a space that had opened up on one of them. He said he was waiting for a table that had a pen so reflexively, I held out the one in my hand and said ‘use mine’. He didn’t take the pen and said:
“I’ll take care of myself and you take care of yourself.”
That was the zen moment – the Ah Ha – the name had been given for the physical manifestation of selfishness.
I walked outside and felt grateful for the SPACE we all exist within. Felt glowy all day.
So simple but so profound.
Being in the path of the remnants of Hurricane Ida on the mid-eastern seaboard was interesting. I had been working on a service for my church on The Transformational Power of Art which was to be delivered Sunday, the 15th. Needless to say, with hundreds of thousands without power and the church basement flooded to within a foot of the ceiling, we will reschedule. Yesterday on my five mile walk through the woods and around the lake, I saw a whole family of deer, which is very unusual, turtles who appeared to be kissing and a fabulous blue heron who simply stood by and eyeballed me from six feet away. And there were still some very colorful leaves that Ida couldn’t quite blow away, in spite of many downed trees. Oh, and then there was the salon on conspiracy theories I attended along with about 40 others on Sat. It’s all in there, and all a matter of perspective.
*whew*
that big square may not be over, but i’m glad sunday’s intensity has subsided. that day saw me waking up from a disturbingly violent dream (it was sometime between (9:00 and 11:00 am), and feeling edgy most of the day. my hands actually shok as i wrote the dream down, i dropped and broke a dish while washing dishes. yikes.
thank goodness i made the decision to go for a run that afternoon, stretch, and send myself a little love.
Eric, have I missed your calls for Capricorn and Pisces? I have been busy, trying to check in but don’t always get to and was looking forward to reading and contributing!
Actually, I have Saturn square my rising sign right now. I am sealing grout (can’t tell you how much fun that is) and making pot roast.
Excellent peice Len.
For a while I have felt like I am sitting on a platform waiting anxiously for the next train to start for my new journey. It is tiresome and uncomfortable. The Saturn movement, the squares, the new moon, the conjunctions and eclipses, all these aspects are as if saying to us that “you are on a very important mission that requires very intense training”. It feels like some very serious prepation going on for something very big. What is it…. I still cannot put my finger on it…!!
Namaste Brother-Scorpio-Moon,
We had a glorious couple of days and, after so much flooding and weary, it felt grand to be outdoors clearing away the remnants from my garden. Lo and behold there was a huge bounty of beautiful sweet carrots that I had given up for lost back in September. Incredible … but I suppose that was a great lesson in farming.
:: Patience ::
Things really are good … and so am I.
m.
Thank you, Len. The perfect antidote to my fulminations yesterday.
“Hello.”
Ummhmm.
M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfm0qNBZo1I&feature=PlayList&p=D694D87D404632A9&index=9
Walking in the Air – soft song for an intense sky
: )) Thank you Len, I mean it!
Len, thank you for a beautifully written piece. As a Scorpio I have found myself exhausted by the intensity of the combined planetary energies and while I feel the seed of renewal and promise springing forth within, I am also experiencing the shedding of skin as a heavy, slow process of writhing in and toward discovery. I like the way you described the collective experience of this new moon-there was a feeling of gasping and gulping at the surface in a triumphant sort of survival exercise.
I suppose somehow that metaphor made complete sense to me…and at last,
“This is us, this is we, this is doing it for ourselves as a way of doing it for each other.” <—- thank you. I am grateful for your service, and it is an honor to be sharing this journey with you and everyone here at pw.
sincerely,
OE