{"id":32626,"date":"2010-12-30T07:25:22","date_gmt":"2010-12-30T12:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=32626"},"modified":"2010-12-30T11:57:22","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T16:57:22","slug":"modulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/modulation\/","title":{"rendered":"Modulation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Len Wallick<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Since this is your curmudgeon correspondent’s final blog of 2010, some expressions of gratitude are in order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Profound and astonished thanks to Eric who plucked yours truly out of the back pew and put him in the choir without an audition or background check. Still don’t know what you were thinking, dude. May it come to pass that Karma reward you in proportion to your audacious, unaccountable decision. Thank you as well for your daily example of integrity, maturity, compassion and responsibility.<\/p>\n

A huge debt of thanks also goes out to Fe Bongolan and Amanda Painter, my intellectual and creative superiors, for so kindly acquiescing to edit the mundane musings of (let’s face it, folks) a functional illiterate without portfolio, diploma or degree. Their gracious and patient support helped provide the readers of Planet Waves with something readable. Fe and Amanda, you have helped me to improve. Still trying to figure out how to return the favor.<\/p>\n

Anatoly, thank you for providing the magic carpet and for the underlying presence of a true giant among men. Judith, Sarah, Carol, and other author-contributors, thank you for your inspiring words and for exquisite writing styles to aspire to. There are, for sure, others who have served me without introduction and my thanks go to them as well. To Tracy Delaney, Kirsti Melto and other great astrologers, thank you for showing how it’s done. Perhaps one shall eventually learn from your example.<\/p>\n

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And to you, the readers of Daily Astrology, thank you. It’s in your service, after all. Special thanks go out to those who comment, offering erudition, support, and keeping the old man honest. Barbara, Patty, Mysti, Lisa, Ursula, Yeti, Don, both Hazels, Lindas, Jere, Sophie, heck, please forgive me for not naming all of you. The sure knowledge that any one of you could do a better job than your unlikely hack makes one want to improve with each passing day. Please know that doing this — this astrology in service — is where the old guy’s heart is. It is a source of joy even in the darkest hours of the night. Even in the depths of fatigue it is never drudgery. It is the highest sort privilege. May you all see the passage from 2010 to 2011 safely and joyfully.<\/p>\n

On to today’s astrology. Last night, this morning or later today, depending on your time zone, we find Mercury stationing direct one third of the way back into Sagittarius. We are on the last leg of an extraordinary retrograde period. First, consider the synchrony. Mercury entered the first echo phase, crossing the point where it is now, on the same day the Sun moved into Sagittarius. It will end the second echo phase, crossing the point where it stationed retrograde, about 48 hours before the Sun moves out of Capricorn. Sadge and Cap are the two signs over which the pendulum swings of this Mercury retrograde have taken place.<\/p>\n

Even when one considers that Mercury is never far away from the Sun, those are remarkable tolerances. In terms of both the temporal and spatial boundaries of this particular cycle, Sol has been the soul inside the machine. It has opened the curtain. It has marked the stage. It will extinguish the house lights and break down the set after the last act. Fittingly, this retrograde, at least so far, has been a more luminous experience than we have grown accustomed to. Some of that may be accounted for by what came before.<\/p>\n

The three previous retro events, going back to 2009, were entirely within Earth signs. They served well to provide time for sorting things out during the cardinal point T-square. But there was also a grind, a rub your nose in it quality that made those review periods a bit drab, even a chore. Then there were the concurrent weighty matters of whether our earthly enterprises, even our existence could continue as our planet rebelled and expelled putting us into our place and very nearly out of it. What did we learn? Consciously very little, if our continued unrepentant behavior is any indicator. Unconsciously? Well it appears that something did sink in, or at least sober us up.<\/p>\n

Now, with two signs involved, our eyes have been lifted to the Sun, already mentioned as delineator. They’ve also been lifted to the center of our galaxy, thrice crossed by Mercury alone, and to a crucial cardinal point soon to be re-engaged by epochal planet aspects. We looked up to one of the two boundaries where the realm of Saturn and Jupiter meet (the other being between Aquarius and Pisces) as they manifest and meld complimentary energies of expansion and constraint. What are we learning?<\/p>\n

From the frequent and repetitive conjunctions with and aspects to Mercury we have learned to discern our way through complexity. We have been breaking longer trends down and distinguishing the qualities of each day — at once like any other and on the other hand like none ever before. In the transition from the previous pattern to a new one we started to see both the consequences and the potential. Oil, copper, cotton, wheat and corn are recently more expensive and unlikely to become less so as the constraints of a finite world come into contact with expanding population and economies. Even as Jupiter applies to conjoin Uranus one last time in Pisces, today’s Sagittarius station indicates that we — each and every one of us as agents of change and innovation — can serve as a counter balance. We can manifest an expansion of creativity and adapt to a new reality rather than resist it. We need not be subject to circumstance, indeed, we are being presented with the opportunity to shape it.<\/p>\n

Yes, there are the familiar lessons repeated at least three times a year as Mercury reminds while reversing. Patience is a virtue. Conscious and careful communication is an imperative. Attending to closure and thrift are a responsibility. We can expect to be confronted by the synchronized challenges to the electronic devices and modes of transport upon which we increasingly rely and take for granted. Therefore we can best prepare by either reducing our dependence or preparing alternatives.<\/p>\n

Finally, lest we forget, this particular Mercury retrograde contains within it another cycle. An eclipse cycle. With all the distractions of holiday season, we can be excused if we did not notice a different texture since the Full Moon darkened with a ruddy flux. We can be easily forgiven if we noticed the shift but ascribed it to a simultaneous change of season. This has been as stealthy an onset to eclipse energy as memory will serve to recall. But make no mistake, it will not feel that way on the other side. We will notice.<\/p>\n

The co-creative improvisations associated with jazz have been a touchstone in our blogs this week. One of the characteristics that distinguish the flavor and challenge of that art is the modulation. For most of the history of music that term was reserved for describing a change of key that functions to provide structure and form, discerning one part of a piece from another.<\/p>\n

With the advent of jazz, everything was subject to modulation. Tempo, timbre, phrasing, you name it, and on the fly yet. This, of course, requires not only proficiency but compatibility among the participating musicians so that the collaboration retains some form of coherent continuity. One must listen and play with no predetermined structure and no net. One must trust and be trusted. The reward is an act of true love. Love for music and for the limitless human potential that music at once inspires and represents. The really great thing is that, considering the reward, the penalties of messing up are rather negligible. The worst thing that could happen is consignment to the woodshed until humility, devotion and practice allow a musician to return to the common, creative fold.<\/p>\n

The partial solar eclipse on January 4 will represent just such a modulation. Even as the Mercury retrograde is in its final movement, the key, tone, rhythm and dynamic will change again. This time it will not be obscured or overshadowed. It will be explicit and it will be appropriate. For just as this special Mercury retrograde period has risen from the boundaries of earth to bridge sign, season and dispositor, it will also serve as a crossing from one calendar year to another. What better way to do that than by exercising the tool of modulation?<\/p>\n

Fear not, this is music. After all, would you really want to play in a new year with the same old song just because it’s safe and familiar? So, get loose, relax, limber up your fingers and prepare your embouchure. Listen, the cats are already starting to warm up. That’s where we pick up next Monday in our first blog of 2011. Can you dig it?<\/p>\n

Offered In Service <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Len Wallick Since this is your curmudgeon correspondent’s final blog of 2010, some expressions of gratitude are in order. Profound and astonished thanks to Eric who plucked yours truly out of the back pew and put him in the choir without an audition or background check. Still don’t know what you were thinking, dude. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":537,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32626"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/537"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}