Transcendental Transition

By Len Wallick

There is something going on between the Moon and Mercury. Not your usual mathematical aspects of angle and degree. Something more subtle. A dance where the ideas of the conscious mind and the field of dreams come together. A convergence of the imagination and the imaginary.

But first, a look at the big picture. Today is the first Monday in September. For well over a century it has been observed as Labor Day — a national holiday in the United States. Its meaning has changed over the years. It was born of conflict and reconciliation between the government and workers who organized to bargain collectively. Over time, the meaning has evolved. It has come to represent the symbolic end of summer. A time of transition in public education, spectator sports, fashion, politics and the workplace.

This year it is synchronous with a time of astrological transition. The cardinal T-square’s new rendition started when Saturn completed its series of hard aspects to Pluto and Uranus. It continued with the retrograde re-entry of Uranus to Pisces after a preliminary reconnaissance of Aries. It will continue as Jupiter duplicates the double-dip across the Aries point, returning to Pisces in a few days. With this dual retreat from Aries, a fire sign, it is as if the heat has been turned down. The concurrence with the events of Labor Day, however, remind us that it has not gone away. The themes of relationship and the unity of personal and political continue even as they evolve.

The cardinal T-square will warm up again when the Moon crosses the Aries point later this month. There it will oppose the Sun on its first day in Libra. Yes, the Full Moon and the autumnal equinox will take place together as both Luna and Sol square Pluto, which will be direct by that time. Stay tuned for further details.

This last Friday, the ongoing Mercury retrograde in Virgo reached a transition of its own when it passed between the Earth and the Sun. This aspect is referred to as an interior conjunction. In a literal sense it represents the halfway point of the retrograde. As an allegory it duplicates the New Moon that is also just a few days away, with Mercury in the place of Luna in between our planet and old Sol. Symbolically, it represents bringing the faculties of the intellect to bear on the intuitive, a conscious introspection. What comes up for you during such a time can be a greater awareness of things that have been going on under the surface or out of sight. If some things seem to have come together so as to finally make some sense since this last Thursday, that would be a good example. Hold on to those thoughts. They may seem far-fetched now but they probably have a great deal of validity.

The indirect interplay between retrograde Mercury and the Moon continues today. Old Fleet Foot backpedals into aspects with two abstract, hypothetical objects with location but not mass. Both of them owe their imaginary existence to Luna’s relationship with the Earth and Sun.

The first aspect is an Earth trine between Mercury in Virgo and the mean lunar node, also retrograde, in Capricorn. Begin by remembering an observation from last week. Signs that share the same element are simpatico. Following that, an aspect between two or more objects in different signs that share the same element means those objects are talking to each other and the conversation is flowing freely.

The lunar nodes are the two places where the orbit of the Moon around the Earth intersects with the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. They denote the location of solar and lunar eclipses, which occur when the time of intersection coincides with the time of a New or Full Moon. That alone gives the nodes a great deal of meaning.

Allegorically, the perpetual, rotating opposition of the nodes is a choreography that replicates a basic pattern of relationships as each party moves to retain balance with the other. Symbolically, one node represents the point where the Moon’s orbit rises above the ecliptic, looking forward. The opposite point of intersection, where Luna’s orbit plunges below the ecliptic, is associated with looking back.

The lunar node in Capricorn is the point of rising above. Known as the North node, or alternatively as the dragon’s head it corresponds with the concept of dharma, acting as if to create the world. For that is in fact what we do. Whether it be compassionate parenting, contemplating our carbon footprint or a simple kind word that will be carried away to make many days better, everything counts. Everything we do contributes to the state of our world and the direction of events.

When retrograde Mercury talks to the Capricorn node from their mutual earthly perspective, our conscious intellect is waltzing with our relation to the future. Like the interior conjunction this last Friday there is a possibility that some things could congeal for us, or to use better words, an opportunity to make something real by acting with foresight.

But that would require some letting go of some things that divide us against ourselves and each other. That’s where Mercury’s following aspect comes in today, an aspect with another abstract hypothetical point of lunar origin — an opposition with Black Moon Lilith in Pisces.

Black Moon Lilith is an astrological name for an astronomical point, the mean lunar apogee. The expected point of the widest separation between the Earth and Moon. It is theoretical in that by the time Luna actually arrives there, the point will have moved.

Whether one interprets Lilith as myth or legend, the allegory is the same. When operating in a paternalistic paradigm, the autonomy of the maternal principle is impaired. This can and will lead to estrangement between male and female both within ourselves and in our relationships. The placement of the Earth between the mean lunar node and retrograde Mercury places us all in a position of mediation. That position is an opportunity to bring our conscious intellect to bear on a visceral issue in search of a creative solution. That’s tricky territory but there are rewards for those who dare.

It is interesting that Black Moon Lilith and Mercury form a mutual square to an asteroid in Sagittarius today. That asteroid is named after the mythological character Narcissus, a being whose unsurpassed beauty inspired love in all who beheld him but which also made him able to love only himself. The internal tension represented by a square aspect may well indicate that we must get over ourselves first. Only then will we be able to negotiate the axis of polarization.

It is important to realize that we can let today’s opportunities pass. Indeed we can choose not to notice them. While, in truth, that can be said about any day it is especially so now. With the heat off the cardinal T-square, the imperative to make some changes is not being enforced as much as it was. As such, this transition period is a chance to take a measure of ourselves. How much have we learned? How much have we grown up? How ready are we to seek out and take responsibility rather than just accept it?

If you are looking for meaning in the astrology today, that’s one place where you might find it. Will we choose to participate in the dialog between Mercury and the North node by working to develop a sustained consciousness of how we create the future? Will we take this chance to get over ourselves just enough to go where we are usually loathe to tread?

By reading this you have taken the first step into awareness, very much like last week when you stepped outside and gained some awareness of the sky. In both cases, the choice is now whether to act or not on that awareness with faith in yourself as an important and integral part of it all.

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