By Len Wallick
Music is immediate, it goes on to become.”
— W.H. Auden
The Sun calls on us to become. We reach the Vernal Equinox at about 7:21 pm EDT this coming Sunday. Earth is reaching one of the two points in its orbit where the axis of rotation is not tilted either towards nor away from the center of the solar system. When that happens, the direction of Sol’s incident light is perpendicular to the equator. At that time the entire surface facing the Sun is exposed to the light equally. Equator, equal, equinox.
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At the Vernal Equinox, the Sun enters Aries. Proceeding from that the next seasons go on to become: spring in the northern hemisphere, autumn to the south of the equator. On Earth the experience of the equinox is equal light. Not only equality between day and night but an equal amount of radiance and dark to every inhabitant of the globe. We also see the Sun rise and set at the midpoint between the northern and southern limits of its motion along the Eastern and Western horizons.
Over uncounted millions of years, life on this planet has become as a cycle in rhythm and harmony with the seasons. Our own kind, humanity, became as a part of those cycles. We developed a story to account for the rhythm, mythology. We also formulated a method to keep track of the harmony, astrology.
In the tradition of western culture, the mythology of how the rhythm of the seasons came to be is dominated by Ceres. The rage and grieving brought on by the abduction of her daughter compelled her to abdicate her role as the goddess of earthly nourishment and abundance. It looked bad for humanity as perpetual growth and harvest became interminable darkness, suffering and want.
Fortunately, Ceres relented to mediate her grievances before human beings were driven to extinction by starvation and cold. The compromise resulted in half a year when the earth would yield nourishment. The other half, the bounty would be withheld. Thus injury would be honored. It also meant that humanity would have to adapt to new circumstances in order to survive. According to myth, Ceres helped us by teaching the arts of agriculture that would provide enough food to sustain life through the seasons of dearth. With that we went on to become something different for the most part, social and settled.
We also became responsible for our stewardship of the planet. For a long time we watched the luminaries, planets and stars so as to be in harmony with their cycles. Our cooperation yielded ever greater abundance, allowing our numbers to grow. Somewhere along the way, we became more miners than stewards. Motivated by greed and gain, we ignored cycles and the limits that went with them. Eventually, observing the sky was discredited as a lie and truth became only that which would yield power from its knowledge.
Now, like Ceres, we stand on the brink of losing one of our own children. One of the planet’s oldest continuous national cultures is being threatened by darkness, suffering and want; a culture that had spontaneously honored and cooperated with the Earth for thousands of years. This nation (in Kurt Vonnegut’s words) had the new version of the truth dropped on it and then was seduced into accepting the means of its defeat as the means of its salvation.
But the cycles are still there. The recurrence of the Vernal Equinox is evidence of that. Our task at this point is to be present to that and go on to become.
This is our task precisely as we are being challenged to expand how we think and transcend what we have previously allowed ourselves to conceive; exactly as we are required to pay attention to where we are, so that we can remain present to what we are, as one-with; as fear drives reaction and we are driven to distraction. Just as all that is happening, we are called to the moment in order to become.
By the time of the equinox, all the objects discussed this week will be in cardinal signs. The Moon will have moved on from its fullness in Virgo to cardinal Libra. Jupiter and Mercury will no longer be conjunct but both will be in Aries to welcome the Sun after Uranus does. The cardinal signs are where the the zodiac goes on to become in a new season, as we must also do.
And Ceres? The asteroid named after the goddess will observe the equinox from an auspicious place. Even now it approaches the last degree of Aquarius, where the Sun was for the Full Moon in February. The day after the Sun moves to Aries, Ceres will enter Pisces as if to mourn, as it seems we all will have occasion to do. But it will not be there forever. After observing the rhythm of its own cycle, Ceres will go on to become; just as so many, planets and people, are being called upon to do now.
Offered In Service
I will be back, I throughly enjoyed the Atlantean perspective. Thanks for your insight and time, and have an amazing week!
JoJo
Not even remarkable – in light of all that has been mind-bogg’ling lately in my astrology –
that my Persephone should be conjunct my daughter’s Sun. (she’s more a mother figure than I am? could be)
Her Persephone opposes my Sun. (same notation as above)
my Ceres is conjunt her Venus/Pholus. (I nurture her at a level that is different than what ‘most moms’ do? absolutely)
Her Ceres is on her AC and conjunct my Quaoar and Ixion which are on my IC. (Well, That’s interesting.)
Every astro-idea I go looking deeper into has so much mega-Stuff going on that my head is spinning.
So for now – Thank you Len – and I give my focus over to the Global Need right now of Light and Life for us all. Especially as my daughter is near San Fran, my son and I here in LA…may the Light Be with Us All.
My mother is a Virgo, the classic Demeter type, and I a Scorpio. The Ceres/Persephone archetypal energy is played out between us these few months of the year, every year, as we head to winter. A cosmic pull to share oodles of time together is understood by each of us and we address this by doing common sense shopping, just to stop for extended lunches. And, together we delve into dark subjects, the type that would scare the bejesus out of man for fear of what they may find; death, grief, sex. Steadily she grows younger during these months and I grow older, losing an aspect of myself that I long to find again during the summer. This is how we are drawn into the chthonian seasonal energy.
It just always FEELS right to spend my time here with ya’ll (as they say) … bless you guys for providing the background music to my day(s). Something about Persephone has been tugging at my sleve, not quite sure what it is yet but your words and the discussion here helps me focus at bit.
As a little time off of all the nuke-news, heres a great site that celebrates the magic of the season. Enjoy.
http://www.wvec.com/marketplace/microsite-content/eagle-cam.html
mm
Be, I was in new orleans a year before Katrina and had visions of the whole place being flooded. it scared me a lot. Then we went to Florida, and the same thing happened – horrible visions and it totally ruined my vacation because I knew somethign bad would happen. The house we stayed in at Florida was destroyed by the hurricane about a week after we left, and video footage from the hotels across the waterway showed the entire waterway lifted up and crashed down. I expected New Orleans to suffer a similar fate, but Katrina was a year later. It has only just occurred to me recently that it is the victims that need to do the forgiving, not the other way around. In rebirth, you become either a perpetrator, or a victim, or both. We have it in our power to withhold punishment of those we perceive as enemies, and we have it in our power to forgive those who harm us. It is much harder to forgive those who harmed us, and it keeps going generation after generation. There are people in the south who are still angry over the loss of land from the Civil War. My husband’s mother’s family was harmed in this way – government took everything they had. It should be water under the bridge, but I suspect the family is still suffering because they can’t let it go and they continue in poverty!
This sort of thing brings to mind bible quotes, like “from him who has little, more will be taken away.” I’m starting to get what Jesus was trying to say. I see picture images of events that play out in from of me, and it is always a little bit scary. My daughter was born with the Sun 28+ degrees of Gemini and she is going through hell right now, with that eclipse in December and the south node at the same degree. South node is karmic. I hope she gets through it. She is the one I put up for adoption, and as soon as we met it was like we had never parted, but I knew she had deserted me in the past life. I want to blame her for abandoning me, not the other way around!! It is like I am angry because she chose to be born under circumstances where I couldn’t be her mother. Weird? Yes Maybe.
Thank you all today.
Len, your words are like music for the soul.
gwind, many years ago, a mockingbird made her nest in the tree just outside my bedroom window. She would imitate the sound of my old school windup alarm clock every morning.
be, I was once gifted a card that showed two field mice together with a dragonfly aloft above them. The caption said, “Of course there are dragons!” Still makes me smile to think of it.
During the past week, one overriding thought has been “hold onto your humanity”. Act in ways that support humans and the home we have on planet Earth. All we can do is what we each choose to do. Choose wisely, know that your choice is one of many, change is constant, and that every day we all make today’s choices today.
Today, I choose to find ways to honor our wounded world and all her creatures. I read this article a few days ago. The story of the Japanese sun goddess, Amaterasu has strong parallels to the Persephone stories. Another interesting thing in the article is where people in Nihonmatsu were taken to be tested for radiation, Nihonmatsu’s Gender Equality Center.
http://www.humanflowerproject.com/index.php/weblog/sakaki_and_other_offerings/
Mitake Oyasin
Jude, I’m sure one will be posted any minute now here on PW, but here’s one for you just in case . .
http://www.starlightnews.com/springequinox11dc.gif
shebear, Patty, Burning River,
I’m so glad that this symbol resonates with you too. Patty tell us more about your feelings about Katrina and its associations sometime. It sounds very interesting!
be
Persephone has been on my mind these last months, Len. Thank you for speaking so profoundly on the topic and soothing us.
And be — wonderful bit of intuitive insight. Dragonfly is a favorite with so many of us — and the link you sent has this bit, which is spot on:
This property is seen and believed as the end of one’s self-created illusions and a clear vision into the realities of life. The magical property of iridescence is also associated with the discovery of one’s own abilities by unmasking the real self and removing the doubts one casts on his/her own sense of identity.
As to the chart, I welcome the implications for balance between the opposing vibrations within individuated self and collaborative self [first, seventh — me, we.] That feels very much like a necessary conversation between the big energies that, opposing one another, represent integration into our wholeness. I’d like to take a look at these Sabian Symbols — do you have a link for the chart handy?
Here’s an ACIM mantra for the moment: “Today belongs to love. Let me not fear.”
Bkoehler–noticing the dragonfly is brilliant. My granddaughter’s totem “animal” is dregonfly. Ted Andrew in ANIMAL SPEAK links it to metamorphosis, integrating the emotions with the rational (water and air insect), maturing, bearer of light and magic and interestingly he notes that in Japanese paintings they indicate new light and joy. Also your link, bk, was great, and Ted’s comments corroborate and add his flair to what the link says and to what I truly believe you have seen. I am filled with hope, no matter what things might appear–that is also an attribute of dragonfly–life is never quite the way it appears, but can always be filled with light and color when one’s perspective changes, as the iridescence of the dragonfly’s wings comes and goes as it flits in the sunlight. The letter from Sendai March 15 that Eric posted is a vivid, heart rending example of that. May it continue and grow, not only in the Japanese, but in us all.
Be that is it exactly. My father was at Pearl Harbor when the japanese attacked, my husband’s uncle lost his arm in a Japanese POW camp,and there is overall a lot of ancestral anger to lay to rest, once and for all – in this an all other situations where we were either victim or perpetrator in a past life. I always had the feeling that Katrina was about the slave auctions, particularly since the majority of victims were African American. Forgiveness is overdue, and once you forgive a situation, the blessings come in abundantly – have you ever noticed? It’s the hardest thing in the world to learn, but once you get the hang of it your life changes forever.
Len and Be, you have lifted my spirits.
I am going to find a picture of a dragonfly and carry around with me and imagining the possibilities from here on it.
Thank you both so very much.
Hi Len,
This Equinox chart has much to study and could well cause apprehension for astrologers, what with the conjunction of the Sun to Uranus on the Aries Point, but when I first saw this chart set for Washington DC, I was struck by the appearance (to me) of an overriding symbol that made me feel calm and peaceful. I mentioned it last month here and it is not an astrological “symbol” in this case, but is created by them.
The 2 planets in the first house opposite the 2 planets in the 7th house had just enough spread to appear like wings on a dragonfly. Later when I thought about the sets of wings I was struck by the coincidence that each set represented a polarity in astrology; Saturn ruling Capricorn and Moon ruling Cancer on one side and Jupiter ruling Sagittarius with Mercury ruling Gemini on the other side. The symbols in themselves have much to reflect on and study, but taken together they seem to represent balance and a blurring of extremes in order to perform. With Saturn and the Moon they no longer emphasize their differences or opposites, they are working together. And they are working with their “other wing”, of Mercury and Jupiter who are doing the same thing, working together.
These two sets of wings, blurring their opposites into one beautiful, functional device create balance for the whole; the dragonfly itself.
The 2 cardinal rulers in the 1st house are half of the representation of the other 2 cardinal signs of Aries and Libra which are reflected by the wings themselves. The rulers of the 2 mutable signs represented are in the 7th house and those 2 signs are where the north node and south node are. Those nodes are on the midheaven and nadir of this chart, or “the body” of the dragonfly.
The symbolism of the dragonfly is primarily “change”, and because the dragonfly “rises above” , I feel this is what the symbol is telling us, more than any details found in the analysis of the chart. Rise above, (the differences, problems, crisis); make change and create a thing of beauty. The north node of opportunity is conjunct the Galactic Core where the “motor” might be; toward the bottom or rear(4th house). The south node of release is at the top or head (10th house). So what we the world see, what we examine . . .the grief, tragedy, evil of this period in time is what is being let go in order for the GC to, at a later time, have the space to deliver new inspiration, knowledge and perceptions into the vacuum .
This is not the time for fixed energy; that will come later. What this time is for is transition, or mutable energy, and new beginnings, or cardinal energy. Can you see it? Below is a link to some more info on the symbolism of dragonflies.
be
http://www.dragonfly-site.com/meaning-symbolize.html
Thank you, Len. I always look forward to the poetry of your analysis of the very material realm that we live in and to which astrology is relevant. This morning, your speaking of Ceres’ reaction to the abduction of her daughter struck a deep personal chord/wound in me. As I mused on my feelings I began to wonder if the Ceres/Persephone situation is not related to the rise of patriarchy and the concomitant outworkings of that paradigm that have darkened society inexorably over the millenia. That Ceres in Pisces is the mourning Ceres right now is only as it should be at this time of nuclear “possible” meltdown. How fitting. That she will then move on into Aries to be strenghtend in her “I-ness” forebodes well to me. The Feminine I/We is slowly but surely being strengthened again on this planet and I do beleive, as Gwind was pointing out, that all these “current events” are meant to continue shifting us back to center, to balance, to yin/yang reality and harmony and productivity and true beauty. Thank you again for your inspiration, clarity and direction.
“This nation (in Kurt Vonnegut’s words) had the new version of the truth dropped on it and then was seduced into accepting the means of its defeat as the means of its salvation.” I am contemplating where else this applies … harmful means masquerading as a mission for heart and mind.
Thank you for responding to a message in a bottle.
Len eloquently wrote: “The Sun calls on us to become. We reach the Vernal Equinox at about 7:21 pm EDT this coming Sunday. Earth is reaching one of the two points in its orbit where the axis of rotation is not tilted either towards nor away from the center of the solar system.”
and then: “This is our task precisely as we are being challenged to expand how we think and transcend what we have previously allowed ourselves to conceive; exactly as we are required to pay attention to where we are, so that we can remain present to what we are, as one-with; as fear drives reaction and we are driven to distraction. Just as all that is happening, we are called to the moment in order to become.”
Maybe that four inch shift in the earth’s axis that the earthquake caused, along with the actual shift in “measurable” time, brings us closer to the “center.”
Are we willing to be still enough, forgo the screaming ego and suspend what we think we know?
As the world’s events amp up calling us to dig deeper, what if we really could have a beginner’s mind? What if we could suspend our fear? What if we believed that “attack” was not possible? What if from that center point we simply could observe, knowing fully that neither good nor bad existed?
What if in that moment, we not only saw ourselves, but the truth about our brothers and sisters?
My morning mockingbird just arrived. It is not a moment I want to miss. Love to all.
The essence of unconditional love…..”Love does not kill to save.”
You’ve written some truly great stuff on this blog, Len. But for me, this is eloquence and relevance utterly personified.
Brilliant!!!
Half