By Len Wallick
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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.
Offered In Service
Liminali,
NOW I know why we have such a connection around flowers/nature and many other things besides it seems! Thank you very much for your reply, it helps me a great deal. Not just that we share the sun/moon square and that infernal internal combat and we’re born under the sign of Virgo but that your response to *coping* with it all really gives me heart…..”smile, guard against despair and love myself today.”
Beautiful; Go raibh maith agat Liminali!
I took Len’s advice last night and this morning and I thought about the dichotomy of the sun/moon square and I pictured the circle with the yin yang symbols and that if I give them equal space, equal weight, the precise boundary where they nestle against each other in compliment, seems to glow with a combined synergy. That seems to ground me AND gives me the space to explore a host of new possibilities.
Nice one Len!
My b’day is coming up this Friday when I will celebrate being on planet earth for 51 years. I’m a Thursday’s child who “has far to go” – HA – but that expression is taking on a wider meaning this year, moving on from just the physical sense to a boundless existential plane………oooooo-eeeee, lucky me. Also my moon is in Sagittarius. I’m guessing we’re two years apart, what with your Chiron return approaching? How on earth did you cope/survive Saturn in Virgo…..yikes and I also have a heap of other squares on my chart that I’m sure I will be exploring down the road π
Be well today Liminali, it sure is good to know you!
shebear13, I also have sun square moon, and sun square saturn, too! “Internal tension” barely begins to describe this aspect. We all experience Luna’s return to her position at our births once a month. For me, this usually brings up how I feel about my original patterning(i.e. birth chart), as all the natal aspects to the Moon are being triggered by the moon’s current transit.
I have a lot of squares and other “difficult” aspects. They all reflect who I am in this time and place; and I am grateful for the difficult as well as the less difficult “easy” aspects. The current Mercury retrograde? Mercury stationed retrograde directly opposite my natal Mercury. And transiting Pluto trine my natal Pluto has had his ever-transforming butt parked on my natal Jupiter squared by transiting Jupiter since I can’t remember when. Toss my Chiron return in this year, too, LOL.
All I can do is smile, guard against despair, and love myself today.
If you are a Virgo and have sun square moon, your moon is either in Saggitarius or Gemini, first quarter or third quarter, yes? Your solar return is perhaps next week? If you were born on a Tuesday, I suspect we share a birth year as well. In fact, if you were born a Tuesday child (full of grace) with a third quarter Gemini moon, we do have the same birth year.
And we still have a date with white flowers on August 6, 2011.
Len: Oh… I meant in a natal chart. Twas me that wasn’t clear! And the triggering is amazingly constructive.
m
Ah Len you are so kind and I thank you. I shall indeed ponder the word “dichotomy” and see what turns up and I have to add, that I am quite charmed to be considered “an excellent wordsmith” by one whose compositions never ceases to enthrall and amaze me. I think some of your magical literary dust might just be sprinkling off your postings and out through my computer screen, to enlighten and guide me!
Again I thank you but this time in Irish!
Go raibh maith agat
(pronounced something like “gur ive my agat.”)
π
michele,
The north lunar node and Black Moon Lilith (mean lunar apogee) are in fact not in the came sign. The north node is in Capricorn. The mean lunar apogee is in Pisces. Sorry if this was not clear.
Hopefully, the triggering you experienced is not entirely unpleasant and will serve some constructive purpose.
Oh… I was a little obsessed. I also meant to say this piece triggered a whole whack of business. Thanks, Len.
Question… Are the North Node and Lilith always paired in the same house/sign?
Thanks,
Michele
shebear,
Knowing you to be an excellent word-smith, please allow me to be so bold as to show you one corner of the square (pun intended) with an etymological approach.
Consider the word “dichotomy” and see where that takes you. Hope that helps.
….and if any one out there could offer up some tips, advice etc on living with a natal sun square moon, I would be most grateful!
Ta muchly!
Jeez, but I’m feeling quite bogged down today in the “tricky territory” that you say one might have to traverse Len, if one can find the courage and seize the “opportunity to bring our conscious intellect to bear on a visceral issue in search of a creative solution.” This one is gnawing away at me today and as I’m such a greenhorn at this school of astrology, it is only today that I have become fully cognizant of the source of tension that forever torments me, this dueling aspect that exists between my head desires and my heart needs, precisely because I have a sun square moon in my natal chart. Well lucky me, eh? That sure explains decades of unbearable internal strife at times.
It’s hard work for me to acknowledge, accept and most importantly, to find the way forward that will bring me a deeper sense of fulfillment and contentment. I know these past few weeks have been a very steep learning curve and the biggest lesson I have had to learn and integrate, is that I CAN go after and express what lies deep at the very heart of me and I do NOT have to suffer and succumb to those overpowering insecurities that pop up as a result. I will take that hammer and as each weaselly negative thought that dares to pop up through its little hole (you know the carnival boards I’m imagining); why I will firmly whack it back down and out of sight!
It is already such fracking hard work at times being born under the sign of Virgo (yes Virgoans you know what I’m talking about) but here I am, determined to breathe it in and go with my unique set of dynamics and taking those ingredients that I have been served with, I will create and bake a most delicious and savory delicacy and be proud of it.
So bye for now from the land of sticky tricky as I try and find a sol-ution to my lunar square.
π
wow. this really works for me. thanks, Len. What I got from reading this is/was/is an affirmation of the highest degree although there remains a palpable sense that my understanding is not complete. I have mercury square the moon natally and I think the thing to know is that although I (we) can not go back in time, we can contemplate the past and accept change consciously or said differently, cooperate with time.
“Will we take this chance to get over ourselves just enough to go where we are usually loathe to tread?” Oh Len, you scamp. Now I have to think about getting over myself. And on Labor Day, no less. When I’m NOT supposed to be working. Too bad I think you’re absolutely right, I’ve hemmed myself into an idea of myself which I find quite depressing. They say if you want to get over yourself, go learn something new, so today I will. I don’t know what, but I will. Thanks!