By Len Wallick
Today the Sun conjoins with Vesta in Scorpio. That will be our primary topic. Not so long ago we had a pretty respectable stellium in that fixed water sign, but it flew apart pretty quickly, for the most part.
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Mars conjoined Venus in early October to start the whole party. Then Mars picked up Eros and left its home sign early via the back door. Some host. Sure, the red planet avoided the fixed water traffic, but only to find that Sagittarius is at least as congested and considerably hotter.
After its second rendezvous with Mars in successive signs, Venus stationed for a rare retrograde. After that it greeted Mercury, Vesta and the Sun on their way in to Scorpio, even as Venus was on its way out through the front door. Over this last weekend it returned to Libra where it will reprise its status of resident ruler until the end of November.
Yesterday, Mercury joined Mars in the mysterious cauldron of mutable fire. It was on a quest to re-define its role in Sagittarius as Venus did in Scorpio. That leaves the Sun and Vesta wasting no time, alone and together on the same day. For most planets and both luminaries, the time in Scorpio is a fertile period of discovery. It is a revelation and reconciliation of that which does not fit comfortably — in need of integration to be and remain whole.
With Venus this was and will be the case in regards to sex as well as politics. For Mercury it addresses things unspoken or unspeakable while still a matter of discretion. The exercise of volition is usually a challenge but worth the effort — always better before than after when there is no longer any choice in the matter.
The Sun’s time in Scorpio is now more than half over. The threshold has been crossed. Sol’s apparent motion is steadily South towards its solstice station over the Tropic of Capricorn. It has been noted by the wise and observant how serendipitous a choice it was for the United States to schedule its major elections during this time. Politics sells high aspirations and buys raw power, consolidated in vain or harnessed for gain. If it were not so fundamentally human to participate, if the consequences of abdication were not so bleak, the game would have worn thin long ago.
That’s what Scorpio brings out in the Sun, the representation of self shone forth. It brings out facets normally hidden — the ulterior and anterior, if you will. But the cost of suppressing and hiding these qualities are self loathing and mistrust, eroding our personal and public relationships. On the other hand, realization and integration of what we have in common contributes to understanding.
To stand under the Sun at this time of year is to witness its progression towards the South, where the hot winds and deep waters evoke passion and the primal. It’s a good time to understand each other and our selves as well — not for how we would like to be and be seen, but as whole beings, purging stereotypes and hypocrisy and getting comfortable with the complex dynamic that gives us a fighting chance.
Combine that with Vesta, likewise expressed under the influence of the sign. The integration of asteroids in astrology has thus far been amazingly straightforward. More often than not the serendipity of their placement can be expressed as ‘what you see is what you get’. Vesta seems to carry a quality of character that defies being dismissed as well and good. Scorpio has a way of taking things deeper than that.
Fires need fuel, even sacred flames. This is representative of the fact that even the most profound is inextricably linked to the mundane. The sacred is sustained by the profane, not opposed to it. It would be a mistake to put Vesta on a pedestal. Passion is the fuel for the flame of devotion and service, but what is the object of the devotion? What is being served and what is the spirit in which the service is rendered? Like music and mathematics, on and of themselves these qualities are pure and indifferent but their conscious application is not.
Combine Vesta and the Sun in Scorpio and we have our highest aspirations with our darkest motivations, providing us with the opportunity to understand that the highest is not necessarily good and darkest not necessarily bad. As if to underline this theme, today Luna intersects its Capricorn node, rising above the ecliptic, directing our intent towards the future. First, the near future when not quite two weeks from now, the Moon and Sol will each attain ripe fullness while paradoxically in opposition.
Speaking of opposition and paradox, what ruminates across the zodiac from the core remnant of the Scorpio stellium? Why it’s Asbolus, the dark and sooty one in the lush fields of Taurus. If centaur planets represent our psychological material, Asbolus most literally resembles that remark. The astronomical object seems to be coated with carbon dust, making it very difficult to see for as little light as it reflects. In mythology it seems to have been a centaur of color, so to speak, hence its name.
Once again, in the the dark there dwells a light. In myth, Asbolus had a gift of inner reflection uncommon amongst centaurs. That gift made him an oracle of sorts, distinguishing him from his brethren. In the astronomical object there is a parallel. As its orbit crosses that of Saturn and Uranus (but not quite Neptune’s) it traces a shape expressed mathematically as one plus the square root of five, divided by two. Known a Phi, or the golden ratio, it’s a number that shows up again and again here on Earth as well as in the cosmos.
Asbolus, therefore, is in harmony — its tune and its opposition to the Vesta-solar conjunction may not be what it seems on the surface. But taking a moment to stand under and understand reveals a supportive resonance within that hard aspect and the contextual and functional sextile lying beneath.
So take this day to be like Asbolus as well as the sacred marriage of Sol and Vesta in Scorpio. Humble yourself for just a moment as you stand beneath rather than presume to stand over. If the Moon has anything to say about it, it could be a valuable lesson that will come in handy about the time Venus returns to Scorpio.
Offered In Service
Oh Len what you wrote here put a smile on my face, thank you, and especially your last comment: “there must be somebody hangering for something that’s not insane.” I smiled, because I am about to undertake some research on therapy and came across a book on a list just been forwarded to me this afternoon, titled “Committed to the Sane Assylum!” That’s surely got to be all of us, like those that make up the bulk of the PW community for example, out there groping our way through new modality try outs, holding theoretical notions while trying to also feel and sense the nuances of the new, with their “gradient and flow” hopefully pointing us in the right direction.
shebear13,
Thank you for being so perceptive. Trying on a new modality for size is a bit of a challlenge. Given what the personal planets are doing now, however, it seems worth a try to supplement geometry with gradient and flow. It’s definitely not in the cookbook, but in an age when people are drinking alcohol that tastes like meat (boosted with caffeine to boot), there must be somebody hangering for something that’s not insane.
The alignments today seem full of subtleties for me (wonderfully explained here Len, thank you) and I’m really finding it challenging to get an honest feel on their energies and how I should be in it. It feels something like pixie dust prancing in and around an autumnal fog, ebbing and flowing and popping out thoughts where you least expect them. With a Sagg Moon and Sagg ascendent, I think Mercury is being quite *mercurial* for me — the bloody rascal — and messing wit’ my head.
😉
Ah well let’s see just where he leads me and how Vesta and the Sun in Scorpio play alongside him. Onward toward integration shall we?!!!