Stepping Forward, Stepping Up

By Len Wallick

Today the Sun enters the sign of Sagittarius. Mercury, which has been in Sagittarius for two weeks, crosses the point where it will station direct once its December retrograde ends. The Moon in Gemini wants to talk about it, but making sense of it all just yet might be too much to expect. These subjects will be the focus of our Monday astrology.

It might be fair to begin by asking if there is any focus to be had at all. Yesterday’s Full Moon took place in the last degree of Taurus, opposing the Sun in the last degree of Scorpio. The anaretic or last degree of a sign, for the luminaries especially, is a territory that carries a sense of accumulation and culmination, the release of which is felt upon crossing the cusp.

The Full Moon has very much the same interpretation regardless of its axis. It is generally recognized as the climax of Luna’s monthly cycle and has all the dynamic that one would expect of an opposition between the two brightest objects in the sky. So, we had something of a perfect Sunday storm. Both luminaries in the last degree of their respective sign, opposed to each other at the same time. There was only one problem, the nature of the accompanying anticipation was not clear to most, if any. In addition, what most surely must have in some way precipitated yesterday with the Moon and then today with the Sun changing signs has not found expression for many. That may have something to do with a conjunction in late Aquarius.

Neptune and Chiron are the remnants of a stellium that goes back several years. They have what could be called a history. Neptune is challenging at best. If it expresses as confusion and delusion, the result is frustration. Chiron on the other hand, can see the forest and the tree, but, as antidotes go, it verges on the emetic. In reluctance and necessity the best-known centaur and outermost gas giant have formed a perfect storm of their own, publicly expressed as private tension. Unlike that of the luminaries, however, this storm has seemed to be without end.

Place the conjunction in Aquarius in geometrical tension with the Scorpio-Taurus opposition and you have a perfect storm colliding with a perfect storm, all in fixed signs. Nothing wants to give no mater how much it’s gotta. Then it all falls off the edge of the table. Less than two hours after perfecting the Full Moon, Luna floats off on a mutable air sign. A day later, the Sun goes up with the convections of a mutable fire sign. Neptune and Chiron go back to their own business. And all this on Monday, not known for the clearest of thinking.

So something happened and we are now in the process of sorting it out even as we experience it. As with last Thursday’s blog, the protocol is taking it one step at a time, starting with the Sun. Like all other astrological bodies, the quality and emphasis of Sol’s expression changes with the sign and house. Moving from the fixed water of Scorpio to the mutable fire of Sagittarius is about as abrupt a transition as one can find on the zodiac. While contrast and comparison is an excellent tool for dealing with other adjacent signs, it would not seem to work so well in this case.

When it comes to these two signs, the key is the segue itself — how one prepares us for the next. In Scorpio as the eighth house we are confronted with the irresistible forces of transformation and metamorphosis on a visceral level. It is in our face. That perhaps accounts for how we deal with it. Compartmentalization and specialization keeping the everyday realities of sex, death and taxes out of our everyday lives. Confidence and secrecy in contracts, exchange of money and genetic material. When faced with the subject matter, this reactive reflex serves to perpetuate it and the reaction in turn creates a perpetuity that profits few at the expense of many.

With Sagittarius and the ninth house it is as if we have gotten out of bed and gone out amongst them. There is exchange and access to knowledge through shared repository and travel. The private transformation becomes public education. The metamorphosis in the dark becomes matriculation in the light of day, beheld and acknowledged as part of the transition. Of course, for everything gained, something is given up. In the process, things can become a bit abstracted and the ‘”for show” can supplant the “sho’ `nuff.”

That’s what has happened to the Sun. Since it is a Monday it may take a while to sink in. So, go through the motions and let the awakening come at its own speed. Soon enough, it will become apparent that our conscious awareness is simply expressing itself in a different, more open and more widely shared place.

Luna, for its part is having its own unique difficulties adjusting. Because the Full Moon took place in the last degree, that means the Sun and Moon are in the process of spending over four days in opposing signs — twice as long as usual. It’s as if the Full Moon is going on and on and on. But because it actually took place in a different sign from where the minor luminary is spending today and tomorrow, what we are feeling may not be so easily expressed. And nothing wants to express feelings more than a Gemini Moon. When we can’t express our feeling in words, that can lead to acting out, sometimes violently. This does not lend itself to the getting along that is necessary for Sol to find its bearings in Sagittarius.

Adding to the awkwardness of the situation is that in addition to an extended virtual opposition with the Sun, the Moon is beginning the week by going through a series of very real oppositions to major and minor planets as well as the huge mysteries of the Great Attractor and Galactic Center. How to address all this? First of all, don’t stuff it, don’t shut down, don’t clam up. That will only build both the internal and external pressures that need to be released.

On the other hand, the vital communication that takes place needs to be thoughtful, as in responding after thinking, and not reacting in haste. This will be the challenge for our feeling, emotional, intuitive selves for the next few days. To let it all out in a manner that is creative, constructive and satisfying. Thankfully, Gemini and the third house are a natural place to express what was felt and believed in Taurus and the second house. The main thing is to be aware of your perceptions so as to see the reactions coming and head them off at the pass.

Speaking of pass, that brings us to Mercury, passing the point where it will turn direct five weeks from now. That’s another way of saying the fleetest planet has just entered the echo, sometimes called “shadow” phase. This is when we indeed hear the echoes of sounds not yet made and see the shadows of images not yet beheld. Like the unnaturally extended opposition of Sun and Moon, this can find us with an urgent need to express what is coming up without the means of easily doing so.

Just as the Neptune-Chiron conjunction made the Full Moon more complex, there is another complexity developing that we have not seen in a year of Mercury retrogrades. This one will be taking place in two signs instead of one. Starting in Capricorn on the first day of December (incidentally, or not, the same day Venus returns to Scorpio) Mercury returns to ultimately trace the last third of Sagittarius three times. A portion that includes, among other things, the Galactic Center. It will be a back and forth ride between the energies of two signs and over the center of our cosmic consciousness.

So what does it all mean? As always, some of that answer will be left to hindsight. If the concurrence of Sun, Moon and Mercury’s experiences mean anything, however, it is that we are being called on to grow up. Yes, the baby steps protocol from last week will continue to serve us well, but the challenges this week are elevated, more prolonged, increasingly complex. Our task would seem to be to improve our ability to gain our bearings, sustain our focus, enhance our awareness and regulate our behavior when confronted with the unusual and complicated. If we can do that just once a day, just enough to break a pattern of reflex, we will be in a much better spot to accomplish something constructive.

One other thing. Nearly five decades ago, the United States lost a president before it was his time to leave his office or his life. This event has remained a critical moment in the lives of those who experienced it. It has also shaped the lives of those who were born thereafter. We may never know to our satisfaction what really happened on that day. As time goes on, the fact that it did happen is what really seems to matter. Given the tenor of our current political times, we can only wonder how this imperfect man would fare today. All we are left with are his words. Whether or not we consider the words to be reflective of the man, we could do much worse than to conclude today’s blog with a few from his inauguration speech: “So let us begin anew — remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us…”

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