The second Aquarian full Moon of 2021 falls in the final degree of Aquarius, a place of transition and sublimation.
This day will see a moment of hiatus resolved, so long as we allow and make room for rather than try to force the outcome – the difference being indicated here is that this hiatus is an expression of energies surrounding a gateway, a threshold across which the flow of energy is no longer under the influence of intent, but is subsumed and shaped by higher powers.
What is being marked here is the need for a very specific realisation to become grounded, one that heals by allowing the cosmos to direct a shift within, from a surfeit of mind and intended activity into the spacious receptive aspect of spirit associated with an ability to sense, rather than think things out.
This does not mean giving up our thinking, or making new plans even; this shift is a prerequisite for the most imminent healing spirit to enter into our personal and collective domain and find its own natural pathways to becoming manifest.
Where we have been gathering information and knowledge, networking through pathways of connection that have been shaped by how this knowledge and information is perceived and recieved, all deeply conditioned by human mentality, we are now at the point of allowing greater forces associated with the highest integrity and realisation of divine intent to bring this web of connectivity alive – this is a necessary ‘upgrade’ that precedes operating at a higher level.
In Life’s own desire to transcend physical limitations, expressed through connecting with each other and more deeply into life itself, humans are here recognised as one among many vessels, capable of embodying the role of spiritual receptors, the conduits in and through whom this influx of non-conditional healing influences and energy can do its work in the world. It is our place within this world, at this time, this FM tells us, to make this a priority, to supercede the assumption that “we” can ‘do it all’ on our own. Perhaps more importantly, it asks us to make as much room in our lives as we can for an evolving level of recepetive interaction with the cosmos.
This is no easy task, when in the midst of forces that seek to determine the path our lives take, and the dominance of conditions we are being subjected to, but, it is in the very act of bringing this conduit alive, of bringing the divine to bear on those forces, that the antidote to their destructive influence becomes the reality.
Neither is this wishful thinking, an abandoning of sense and reason, of human mentality or our own will to the that of the divine, but, a recognition that there is balance in life, and that the balance can be tipped in favour of that which gives us life.
This is the symbolic meaning of the Waterbearer, the human who carries the life giving waters, whose own life is shaped into the vessel that carries their potential through responsibly carrying this vital essence, and in doing so is able to respond to any situation in which this potential needs to be realised.
How this can be achieved is expressed very clearly in the commentary to the 31st hexagram of the I Ching, which came as the oracle’s response to a request for further insight into this full Moon, as seen in the image for this post.
With the Moon on the left thigh of the Waterbearer, in a seperating conjunction with Jupiter, and the Sun conjunct Regulus, one of the four royal stars associated with the archangelic guardians of the four directions, we have divine support in fulfilling this role. Regulus being associated with Raphael, whose name indicates ‘the power of the divine to heal’, is also associated with the power of leadership, especially in relation to martial affairs, and here we are joining forces with the cosmos as a means to ground our own potential, most specifically as healers and active agents of Life.
Look to the area of your chart in which the Pisces/Aquarius cusp falls and to the meaning of the houses it either falls in, or marks the beginning and end of if you use the whole sign house system. Here you will find where this tranformative dynamic is now coming to bear, and look as well as at the house opposite, to ascertain how it is balanced and and can be called upon to aid in and illuminate your own evolution and growth as you engage with the affairs of Life in the outer world.
There may be a need for more spaciousness, a willingness to accomodate wider possibilities being called upon here – make this the focus of your prayers, slow down a while, make room within your self, if only for a brief time; the still-point contains the threshold, the place of transformation, and from this place you can petition the divine to bring whatever is most needed for yourself into this open space and more fully within your life.
This will benefit us all, as well as encourage positive influences to enter and give the flow of your own life a sense of direction that is in harmony with your higher potential; it will enable this potential to synthesise more deeply and work more harmoniously with the cosmos.
As the text of H31 says, “…..one senses by openess, the other responds with fulfillment; the small goes and the great comes, the gold elixir of immortality spontaneously crystallises. This is like a high mountain being empty and open on the top and receiving the moisture of a lake; it happens spontaneously, without any intention that it be so”.
At 8:09am UTC/GMT this morning, July 31st 2021, Ceres entered tropical Gemini to join Black Moon Lilith and the Moon’s north node in the mutable air sign. The radicalisation and enhanced definition they will bring to the mental sphere over much of the remainder of 2021 are going to give the Geminian qualities of awareness, communication and thinking a more visceral potential, capable of producing much needed changes in our current life experiences.
What this means in real terms, through engaging with this energy, is that where our talk is loudest already, especially where it is aimed at the most contentious issues affecting both our immediate personal circumstances and our collective future, the noise is not only going to increase but, instead of distracting from and concealing the essential truths, will become more effective in punching through to the core of these matters, to the signal hidden within the noise.
It is the realisation of the potential that the underlying signal of our times carries which Ceres and BML are now helping us realise over much of the remainder of 2021 and an early part of 2022. This presents as both undeniable realities being brought into the open from states in which they have been obscured and obfuscated, in many instances where they have been hidden in plain sight, and through the exposure of the manner in which they have been used and manipulated to achieve certain ends and create an illusory reality in the process.
By mid-year 2022 we will be seeing the fruits of these times bear seed and it is our task now to engage fully with this powerful opportunity to not only change our focus, clarify our minds and get very real, but to seriously change gear and, in so doing, wrest our sovereign rights as ‘active agents of our own future’ back from all illegitimate usurpers of our own powers of self determination.
This is powerful medicine for these times and the combined presences of Ceres and Black Moon Lilith in tropical Gemini will deliver, if we pay adequate attention and respect to them. It is in their nature to dive deep, get into the hard core tough talking nature of the moment, and not back down. They embody aspects of commitment to our well being and self determination that have been systematically eroded within both the collective and personal spheres while we have been subjected to the “covid” phenomenon. These are now coming to the fore, as a major issue in the public discourse, but the restoration promised here is, as Ceres and Black Moon Lilith indicate, an intense and demanding process – we are negotiating not only for our future, but our ability to negotiate it at all.
Ceres and Black Moon Lilith teach hard core lessons in survival, as both a high art and an expression of raw power. There is an emphasis on material nourishment and sustenance built into this lesson – we must get very real about how well prepared we are for self sufficiency, get our supplies well stocked and know our strategies well. We must become intimate with our own territory and its boundaries and not let them be violated. Ceres in Gemini oversees the food supply chain, and Black Moon Lilith speaks directly to all aspects of non-dependency that we can realise in this respect.
Their joint transit finds three points of intensity, the first being on August 8th when their first conjunction takes place around 10am UTC in the ninth degree of Gemini. This coincides exactly with the Sun’s arrival at the midpoint of tropical Leo.
For many this is an important date in the solar calendar as it marks the highpoint of what some know as the ‘Lion’s Gate’ transit, where the Sun transits the cross quarter midpoint between the June solstice and following equinox – this one, being associated with Leo, is the astrological equivalent to the Celtic fire festival Lughnasadh, to Lammas and the Harvest festival of the northern sphere. But, in esoteric astrological lore these midpoints are also known as the Gateways of the Avatar.
What this tells us is that our highest potentials are at stake now, as well as our survival. The two are intimately connected as the one potentiates the other. At all stages of survival, in all scenarios, the embodiment of our highest potential is essential. Within the mental sphere this speaks to self leadership as the guiding voice within, being able to see, from the command position, what must be done, and assuming that position in our actions.
The ensuing period of deepened engagement, roughly through to the next cross-quarter festival around Samhain, holds the potential for us to shift our own personal position to our own advantage and in so doing shifts the centre of gravity of the collective field back towards its roots, among the people.
The second point of intensity comes with Ceres stationing retrograde in the 13th degree of Gemini on October 9th 2021. Ceres rx deepens the intensity, sharpens the focus and brings an added gravitas to the issues now under Geminian scrutiny. She brings out her chthonic nature and the unbendingly fierce commitment to embody her role as the Great Earth Mother, that makes her willing to fight her corner in protection of her children against all odds – regardless the opposition, she will not back down.
We have seen these energies building over the course of this year but here we enter the crucial period in which the opportunity exists for the weight of collective and individual power to reclaim lost ground and build strong integrity, a collective empowering of individual rights. For this to be really effective a third factor must be brought into full play.
At the third point, the intensity is increased further, when the second conjunction of Ceres and BML in Gemini sees the more plutonic side of Ceres nature igniting Lilith’s equally unbending insistence on raw truth. Here we will see the search for and deepened examination of ‘the facts’ begin to manifest powerful truths. These are truths that have the power to radically undermine and bring catastrophic collapse to the deceptions and lies that have been used to justify the development of our current situation. We will see how they have been used in justification of falsity and illusion.
The facade must fall, and for this to happen the fearless energy and penetrating insights of Ceres and BMLworking together is entirely fitting, and necessary.
When coupled with Eris tightening square with Pluto, a prolonged and relentless struggle to expose and subvert the darkest aspects of the plutocracy, and with the third and final hit of the Uranus Saturn square coming up towards the end of the year, the Ceres Black Moon Lilith transit of tropical Gemini brings a much needed determination and grit to our collective mental energies and thinking and has the potential to inspire a new level of personal clarity and purpose – the astrology of the last quarter of 2021 is spectacularly peppered with ignition points which this purposefulness would do well to be applied to – this is no time to pull our punches.
To finish mapping out this period, Ceres conjuncts the Moon’s north node and subsequently regresses back into Taurus on the solstice, 21st December 2021, stationing direct again on January 14th 2022, transits the NN again on the 25th of January, this time in Taurus, and re-enters Gemini on the 9th of February.
Ceres return to Taurus will expose key elements of our relationship with Earth that need to be redressed and brought to the table – these are non-negotiable aspects of both our human and Earth rights which are under threat, aspects of our biological and physical nature that are in danger of being irrevocably damaged and changed, to our own detriments. Hard truths which must now be heard and spoken loud and clear.
Between February 9th and the 14th April of 2022, Ceres and BML resume their joint transit of Gemini, and with Ceres orbit being at its closest to the Earth during this time, this powerful little planet is accelerating fast, her journey through tropical Gemini now taking just 15 weeks.
It is worth noting that Ceres north node enters Gemini from the sign of Cancer on November 26th 2021, the day at which Ceres reaches maximum elevation in the night sky and is closest to Earth, at her Perigee. Her orbit between those of Mars and Jupiter lend her visibility at this time and you will be able to observe her close to the fixed star Aldebaran in the forehead of the Bull when she is at her brightest and opposite the Sun, at midnight UTC on 27th November.
On December 18th Black Moon Lilith crosses Ceres north node at 17° Gemini, and, although the meeting of the Moons apogee and the point of Ceres path across the ecliptic may be somewhat intangible, it is a symbolic turning point in their affairs. We are potentiating and seeding our own futures here.
Ceres meets with her own north node on February 6th 2022, just three days before re-entering Gemini – Ceres period of recapitulation in Taurus will be over. Think well on our future and make best use of these transits of Ceres and Lilith’s dark aspect, as the push for completion of their business will see this period of dynamic, meaningful and penetrative thinking begin to bear fruit – we will have to wait until mid May when Ceres enters Cancer to see first signs of what is being seeded now, through these developments, coming fully into manifestation and taking root.
The next time Ceres and Black Moon Lilith meet up is 26th May 2022 at 5° Cancer, and a wholly different context will be coming into play by then.
Throughout the current lunation a time of gathering momentum and pushback has been making itself more and more visible in the world, and this now reaches a threshold moment with the full Moon in Scorpio.
The energy which this gathering momentum embodies is seeking to act upon raised awareness, coupled with the twin powers of interrelationship and personal choice, and this is nowhere more visible than when the hearts and minds of the people are given voice and demonstrated publicly. It is also clearly reflected in the astrology of the moment.
Possibly the most spectacular example of this over the last few days was the big march in London on Saturday 24th April. This took place just as the Moon was transiting into the UK’s first house (whole sign) and transiting cj Uranus in the UK chart.
This embodiment of public power and consciousness focused on showing solidarity in awareness. It manifested a freedom of choice that goes against the grain of authoritarian conformity, an awareness that is capable of seeing beyond the ‘illusions of reality’ which such conformity relies on to prevail.
The planetary movements of the moment saw a stellium of planets in tropical Taurus reflecting a unified field of adroit awareness that is very much on the rise and on this occasion directly challenged the dictates of power as embodied in the UK’s eight house Mars.
Coming up against Mars in a ‘power over’ position requires courage, but, numbers make the difference and takes such personal power to another level.
This was a united effort bringing together the combined forces of the Sun, Mercury, Uranus and Venus in Taurus, reflecting precise embodiment in time and place through the lunar transit. But, this stellium in Taurus also squared transiting Saturn perfectly and now, as the Moon comes to fullness, comes close to the mid-point of the UK national chart’s Venus Saturn opposition.
We will see this midpoint triggered over the coming days as Venus and Mercury move away from Uranus, which brings us back to the significance of this full Moon in particular.
The full Moon in Scorpio brings these matters of freedom and non-compliance to a crucial moment, the threshold moment, upon which their effectiveness going forward very much rests.
This is the wave that must be surfed, its energy sustained and embodied, given prolonged expression, so that its effect can continue to build and fully realise its potential as the truly effective catalyst for change it seeks to become. It must be sustained to ensure that it remains strong enough to effectively oppose ‘the forces of conformity and containment’ which this collective expression of energy defies.
There is a circle of reciprocity being engendered in this moment, between the inner and the outer, between individual and collective action.
Every person aligning themselves with this energy is a carrier of its seed potential. And, even though the power of the collective manifests personal power at another level, beyond the individual, a level which can achieve the degree of change needed, it all rests on the willingness of the individual to fully embody their personal potential, and that means personal truth, to as high a degree as possible for that power to rise sufficiently.
Its been said many times before, but, this cannot be more clearly put. A collective force of empowered individuals is unstoppable, a truth the authorities know all too well.
Saturn and Uranus reflect this current dynamic well and, being triggered, they reveal the truth.
But, while the current debacle is out in the open, seen more fully for what it is, with every moment, by more and more people, this is not simply about raising a revolutionary spirit, opposing the orthodoxies of power and resisting their dictates.
This is about becoming a fully embodied protector of both the human and the planetary soul, a role which can be more fully realised and evolved into through allowing the momentum now being generated to take our awareness to yet higher levels still.
In the midst of distraction, the tension and chaos of the moment can no longer hide this underlying truth – we are, it has been said, experiencing all this for this very purpose.
The Sabian symbols for the Sun, the Moon and Saturn’s degrees resonate strongly here.
The Sun’s degree speaks of awareness funded by recognition of natural cycles and how they are the foundation of all change, including that which we are engaged with now.
The Moon’s degree tells us that this moment is about being receptive to the radiance of higher powers , of “being a soul that can reflect love’s light”, and bringing the transcendent Venusian aspect of relating into an active role in our own self realisation.
Saturn’s degree speaks of how the natural laws and facts which allow us to plan in advance for action are also fully manifest at this time, grounding the awareness we are generating.
There is an antidote at work here, to the destructive anti-soul that is seeking to dominate our future, which can be easily sensed at this time, if not given name to.
Here we are being asked to appreciate the wider sweep of time, how the great natural cycles work through present time, and how this awareness gives our perception and understanding the depth and breadth the soul needs to not only become more fully grounded in the present, but to spread its influence and become greater in its own presence.
Working with this awareness in the present strengths the soul, engenders a fuller manifestation of its own natural environment, which reaches beyond time constraints, and allows us to work in harmony with the planetary level of soul.
At an individual level, it rests upon our ability to hold quiescence within and to embody attentive receptivity, receptivity to higher orders of awareness and intelligence as they are manifest on this planet. We can sense these and integrate with them through nature, through natural cycles and through our ability to divine the present, to ‘see’.
Together this T square shows us how adopting a future oriented imagination and our capacity to be receptive to inspirational powers are working in balanced and reciprocal relationship, and how this is mediated through a certain knowing, that “planning for the future is possible because the potential (or seed) of the future is already operating at the core of the present”.
I’ve said it many times over the years, but, humans are here to fully embody ‘seeing’, as life’s most natural gift. This can take many forms, each with a resonance belonging to a specific soul group, and there are many soul groups which we might chose to join when we are born, one for every degree of the zodiac in fact.
The soul groups belonging to the Sun, Moon and Saturn’s degrees at full Moon will be particularly activated by this energy and this is crucial to our moment.
Essentially it is about taking care for our soul’s and the planetary soul’s health and well being – humans carry such a profound potential, and in so many ways, what we are fighting for now is the right and ability to fulfil this potential.
There is one small caveat to this moment which the planetary matrix is indicating at the human level – at full Moon Neptune forms an exact semi-square to the Sun, and sesqui-quadrate to the Moon. This apsect speaks to inequalities, both in awareness and in personal reach.
The dynamic here, which is a potential source of friction and distraction in its own right if not handled with care, tends to manifest through labelling and separation, through creating real problems out of virtually nothing. This can become apparent through false arguments surrounding identity and difference, something which we are all too familiar with right now.
But, this too must be transcended, accommodated into a more inclusive view, the aim being to become bigger than the personal difference or slur, and to not at any point lose sight of the bigger picture.
Neptune’s soul vibration is both deeply compassionate and redemptive, if it finds resonance, but, here it is the Neptunian shadow that feeds small fights, which in turn feed the larger ones, and these are to be avoided now at all levels.
The higher side prevails.
While there is no escaping this reality either, this too is an opportunity for growth, if we chose to make it so, and those who know how to turn this difficulty to their own evolutionary advantage can also aid others in doing so in turn.
The twist to Neptune’s tail is in the fact that by accepting the anomaly of our own fully embodied individuality, our uniqueness, we not only disarm the insurrecting power of difference, but turn it into a movement towards home. An ensouling movement.
The point is, those who are ready to seize the day, ride the wave and are capable of leading through example, are the same souls whose actions and words will stand the greatest chance of nourishing our collective evolution. Chosing such a path will keep the momentum going and, ultimately, if grounded in the dedicated heart, will keep the sacred flame burning. There is a passion for life at work in this Scorpio full Moon.
A new lunar cycle of two very different halves sees Mars changing signs and Venus emerging from the underworld into the night skies through the waxing quarters…..this is soul time, a medicine to counter the new dominion, but, what is on the other side of full Moon?
Back in May last year I decided to let things roll in the planetary sphere, to lay off the writing for a while and focus more on just observing how things were unfolding. In itself this is not new, as a quick glance at publication dates for posts on this site will show. Alongside this, its one of the ways in which I work, that I won’t write unless there is something ‘coming thru’ and clearly wanting to be said. But, at the heart of this more intuitive and divinatory approach another astrological factor was calling for attention as well, that of just how important cyclicity and process is to the practice.
To see and engage with the astrological process as an ongoing journey is one of the most important ways in which astrology finds meaning and makes personal meaning available to us, in my opinion. It provides us with a mirror for our inner processes, not only as a transmutative experience, but as a way in which the ongoing experience of our terrestrial life becomes more deeply integrated with the outer cosmos; it not only informs our outer world, it nourishes our inner cosmos, brings it more fully alive.
Through much of the fifty years I have been practicing astrology and divination I have been aware of this understanding but in the course of time it has become more central, foundational. It has established itself through practice and experience as being much more fundamental to my personal relationship with astrology than perhaps horary concerns and specific moments in time, marked by aspects and transits.
Those aspects of astrology have always been active too, and I have an active client base, many having become good and important friends, but, once we entered ‘lockdown’ and the world appeared to be taking a more inward turn, I decided that I needed to look more deeply into the realities of cyclicity and process, to go deeper and re-appraise them.
And a curious thing happened once I started to follow this focus – the area of my work which does look specifically at and bring out the significance of aspects and transits, especially in readings and working with people on their natal and progressed charts, quite suddenly began to gather energy.
This has been one of the busiest times I have known as the energy levels in both sides of this work has risen consistently throughout the last nine months – but, what I also noticed is that there was a corresponding influx of new energy at work in the world, and nowhere was this more visible than in nature.
May 2020 also saw profound changes in the human world, for sure, but, in the heavens it was the planet Venus that really caught my eye.
Nature and Venus might well go hand in hand, in our thoughts and symbolic associations, but, Venus also has a beautiful cyclical relationship with the Earth, expressed through her phases as Morning and Evening Star. When Venus entered retrograde in mid May last year and subsequently began her journey into the underworld, to return as the Morning Star in June, Nature herself seemed to be making that increase in inner energy more visible.
I began to wonder if She was leading the way in my own change of focus – following her, in fact, proved to be an unbelievably beautiful and rewarding undertaking and, this post has in many ways grown directly out of that journey.
The current new Moon in Aries, happening as I write, is the perfect marker on that journey, as a place of emergence – some of what I experienced will find its way into this and upcoming posts, but, its the world process that is now happening that is really grabbing attention, and there is much more to it than the establishment of a ‘new dominion’. And, what is more, Venus figures significantly once again in its corresponding celestial unfoldment. What this has to tell us is, in my humble opinion, of the greatest value to us now.
The planet Venus is in an emergent state once again, travelling back into the night world, having passed behind the Sun on March 26th 2021. Their conjunction in the sixth degree of Aries signalling the end of Venus journey in the guise of the ‘Morning Star’, which began back in May last year.
As I write, Mercury too is becoming obscured within the solar radiance and as it passes behind the Sun, is also emerging from day to night role. Mercury will first be visible again, close to Venus in the skies at dusk, in the period around Beltane, at the beginning of May.
One significance for us now is that the first half of the new lunation leading up to full Moon in Scorpio on April 27th sees only three of the five classical planets visible in the skies.
This brief period of invisibility suggests that self assessment and introspective contemplation is one of the ways in which we can work with the new lunation during its first two quarters. While this might sound decidedly meditative, this might well in fact be the best time to deal with important choices, in preparation for the following lunation, as following the Scorpio full Moon there will be much more emotional energy being activated, Mars having entered Cancer on the 23rd April.
Mars transit of Cancer will trigger a square with Chiron in Aries and, towards the end of the transit, an opposition with Pluto, and the ongoing archetypal tensions associated with these planets will be hightened between then and full Moon, especially as the Moon squares Pluto on the 26th.
Mars passed over the Moon’s north node at the beginning of the month, within a few hours of Venus transit of the Sun in fact, which could have been a warning to pay heed particular to our future through the next few months. As the red planet now moves away through the arc of the zodiac that follows the Sun’s path from Cancer to Sagittarius, and from mid year is joined by the remaining inner planets, the months up to December will be peppered with oppositions to Jupiter, Saturn and the outer planets, with a monthly regularity.
The balance needed to navigate these aspects is going to be highlighted in areas of weakness found in the part of the chart opposing Mars, and this makes the next few weeks especially valuable in preparation; if only used for simplifying our burdens and building a calm centre, we will see the benefits in the near future.
The inner Venus and Mercury, now at work in sextile with Mars, become very important through this time, making of the first and second quarter of the Aries lunation an opportunity to make peace with ourselves, to create a sense of sanctuary in our lives and to make sure we are not neglecting the most important things in life, those that matter most to us personally.
There are simple if really practical things that can be undertaken through this time, and its perfect for simply ‘getting our house in order’; some of this also makes use of the current increased presence of Saturn in the planetary mix.
For example, this is the perfect time to think about inheritance, to assess the energetic imprint you are creating in life and that you will leave behind. This is certainly heavily in view in the world at large now, but, its personal aspects are really highlighted now and will become more so with Mars ingress of Cancer.
Make a symbolic act of updating your will, write one if you haven’t already, but, take stock of the fundamentals and use this as a way of looking on life as a practical doorway, in the most grounded sense, to the sacred.
Its not about death so much as being about keying into your heart, its connection to source, and letting its inner wisdom be a strong guiding voice in your worldly affairs.
All things are included in this process, and its a very good habit to get into as well, but, taking this approach to life will matter even more and make a bigger difference in the second half of the year if we pay attention to it now.
Venus and Mercury’s hidden influence from Aries, and then Taurus as we run up to full Moon, will help the dust settle. By the time the shift in Mars energy lights up our emotional field, and brings home the importance of trust and the reliability of friends and family, we will be able to utilise the protective and passionate inner build up of energy that Mars transit signifies with greater confidence and clarity.
The Cancer field emphasises emotional boundaries as practical edges to our personal field of sensitivity, and Mars transit may highten that sensitivity. The ‘sanctuary of the now’ is where we can find strength and refuge from having those boundaries stressed and triggered, and that is why getting our affairs in order now makes sense – we have had a long period of emotional pollution to deal with and while cleansing this toxicity from our system is another important aspect of this work, it all becomes a lot easier when we have cleared the ‘in-box’, so to speak, and strengthened our personal position.
Cancer’s sector of the zodiac also carries memories of the ‘great mother’ aspect of life, is connected with times in which the Earth Mother was given respect and honour, was more central in how life was lived among humans.
That feeling of being in sacred relationship with the natural world, which is so heavily under stress and challenged in our times, even while Mars may bring a supressed anger to bear in response, can also be strengthened now, especially while the world shifts gear and experiences a localised lifting of restrictions. In fact, its important that we do pay attention to that sacred relationship now, and not be distracted by the appearance of ‘normality’ or return to at least a partial sense of freedoms with the lifting of ‘lockdowns’.
One of the lessons of the last year has been to pay attention to what might be on our mind more closely, a point which I made quite central to the last post and how the larger forces are shaping our world. But, for all that external pressure, the real challenge is to maintain our true nature, regardless.
One of the amazing things to experience during this time, as nature regained her vitality, as rivers and skies cleared and pollution levels dropped, was to witness how resiliant and quick to respond Nature is, given the chance. Her true nature and creative energy never falters.
Witnessing this it seemed like the most natural thing to me, in following Venus and spending more time with the land, within nature, to honour the life force, the great mother and her incredible dynamism and presence. I found myself gathering clay, sculpting simple images of the goddess, installing them at the ancestor shrine and so making deeper connections with them, the old guardians of this beautiful planet who sing at the roots of all our ancestral tree, through this – its a powerful healing technique, to speak to those ancestors who preceed the injury and suffering that has been passed down the line into the present, and to petition them to help restore to the present the power of their living relationship and symbiosis with the living Earth, the nature spirits and children of the Earth Mother.
This is a very poweful time to make offerings back to our planet, through this lunation and beyond, to get into a deeper relationship with Her in this period of transition – She will return our call, and keep open the intimate connections we create and revitalise now.
During the nine months that Venus has been in Morning Star mode she has leant herself very much to powerful sacred work in the world. She commands transformative energy in the earth plane while in this form. The transition into Evening Star mode, a return to the sky realms and more mysterious nature of the night and star light signals a sublimation of that earthly power, a call to become aware of the greater cosmos, both as an active mirror for our life experiences, and as an active inner experience.
The star mother, who may be more of the Sophianic nature of the Great Mother, as deep Source, comes into play. This is going to resonate with people who identify especially with the galactic, the star realms, in their spirit connections.
Being a manifestation of the flow between the spirit and the earth realms, the soul’s work is naturally oriented towards bringing these connections alive. Soul groups provide an indication of the nature of this link, its ‘flow’ and how it can consciously be worked with in this life.
I have found this area of ‘natal’ work coming up more and more in recent months, especially in working with friends who are returning to their charts for a deeper look. I believe that a planetary surge in soul group activation is now underway. The levels of activation are increasing, as is the conscious intent to fully manifest the purpose these soul groups embody through individual lives.
This is super important to the counter-surgent energy that Venus signalled through taking on her Morning Star role in May, and is exactly in sync with both the resurgence of Nature herself and our quieter, more inner focus. I see them as a singular process, braided into many levels of realisation, that describe a re-souling of the earth plane.
Ultimately, this speaks of reintegrating our celestial nature on earth, and in turn of finding our home in the stars. We do not need to leave here to make this a reality, in fact, Earth is deeply invested in this process, and helping us fulfil the potential we carry in being a part of it, while on Earth.
Soul work, in astrological practice, provides a bridge between the realms which Venus embodies in her twin roles, the celestial and the terrestrial, the spiritual and the physical, and I see the integration of Venus transits within the larger cosmological process now unfolding as of imense importance.
They offer us a working framework for developing the strength and effectiveness of what you could call our cosmological immune system, but, their grounding nature also means that we do so through direct manifest experience, and that fundamental necessity is integral to anchoring the re-souling process itself.
The opportunities offering themselves to us now, despite all the restrictions and turmoil, to grow soul and really turn on our true, innate power as individuals and participants in living the intent of the soul, as well as its ‘group’, are full of promise.
This is our time to rise, and to keep rising – lets make it count.
Blessed be!
If you are interested to know more about your own soul group and the means by which you can manifest its intent, I work with the method described by the great astrologer, Robert Blaschke. This effective and beautiful approach to living astrology empowers us to identify soul groups and their modus operandi through which we can manifest their intent in our own lives. Its a very rewarding aspect of astrological work, very confirmative and empowering, and takes this work as an evolutionary process to the next level.
Robert is sadly no longer with us in the physical plane, but his profound insights into the metaphysical nature of astrological work, and its practical application, live on and were one of the major grounding influences in my own practice.
What if I were to tell you that things were never going to get back to ‘normal’. You’d probably say “damn right”, and “we don’t mean them to either”, no?
Or this. That the lockdown was going to have lasting effect, will change our lives for ever, and that we may never return to the same degree of freedoms we had before 2020 began. Less appealing, that one?
How about if I said that your liberty is no longer your choice? I imagine you’d either call BS, say something to the effect of “over my dead body” or at the least feel a sharp pang of the discomfort that being in enforced ‘lockdown’ has made familiar over the last two months or more, no? No fear of, or dread at the prospect?
I mean, how many would simply go along with the third of these scenarios, willingly, even though we know that they are all on the collective radar right now.
Well, here’s the deal….in one part of the zodiac we have a triad of planets that are busy holding us hostage to making all three of the above a reality, one way or another, while another group of heavenly bodies half way across the heavens are saying “nope’, ‘ain’t going to be like that”, and between them is a third group who are setting both groups to either “put up or shut up”, and will use both force and coercion, agitation and deception, to that end, and are playing both devil’s advocate and divine provocateurs in the process.
This new Moon in Gemini has spawned all kinds of bright and shiny forecasts for the next month and the encouragement that they bring is going to help a great many people cope with the current prospects, at least for a moment.
But, tomorrow is another day, and unless you want it to be just like the one that has gone before, which is almost the normative experience now and possibly the best ‘option’ for far too many, the real and most urgent answer to all those planetary inputs is this :
“Get on your feet and stand up for your rights. Period. ‘Cos that is what is at stake here, friends and folks.”
We are not talking human rights here either – they can be changed, any time, by those who hold the power of State, legislation and economic control.
No, these are what in common law are called “God given rights” – inviolable, indigenous to you as a natural born human and the stronger of the two, by far, if you are ready and able to stand up for them and exercise them.
Thing is, not pushing those who have suffered horribly at ‘the hands of the virus’ aside, the people who have probably been least affected by the conditions surrounding the Covid19 pandemic are those for whom solitude and the opportunity and space this gives to explore that fertile inner space is in fact ‘the norm’, and a desirable norm at that; the artists, the creative and curious, the meditative, thinkers, imaginers and the lovers of nature – they at least are going to have a good chance at making something useful out of this situation, in spite of it all, no?
You’ve seen the memes…..artist before, artist during, artist after….showing the same image.
Yes, even the meme is a pastiche on reality, which should be obvious but tickles the mind curiously with an undisclosed truth, which can also be felt and sensed.
Those endowed with the mindset and approach to our current circumstances that will benefit the most are fortunate, if this is indeed the case, but the Gemini lunation pulls focus on this, brings it under the spotlight of our personal lives, and in so doing draws attention to the wider issues at stake and asks the question – beyond all that, WHAT IS BEING BIRTHED in this moment, in this time?
How well prepared are you to answer this question, what are your inner resources, can you turn a dream into reality, the dream you have always known was living inside you, waiting to be given its chance.
Well, this is it. In spite of everything.
Venus retrograde, with Mercury enspiriting her step, say this is where to pay attention, and what to tap into, that birthing energy of something more desirable than anything that has led to this ridiculous impasse, and any passivity with which its oppressive restrictions are being met.
Sure. But this is way deeper than is obvious from simply getting heart centred and kushti with the vision of “a more beautiful world you know is possible”.
This is not the time for romantic idealism, but for radical, anomalous, and lastingly conceived birthing, and ‘action’.
Venus in these circumstances is, actually, fucking kick-ass!
Venus is inconjunct the heavy triad of Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto centred around Cardinal earth, an aspect that makes Her energies and values, and influence on our actions, dissociated from but indirectly connected with this authoritarian trio and their orthodoxies of control and magnanimous disruption.
Its not that she ignores, doesn’t see or hear their shenanigans, how can She not? No.
Regardless, She goes deep into her own inner world and pulls up a new resource, taps into a deep vein and retrogrades through her own inner transformation and as She does so indicates the process that this new energised creative focus must take for us too.
To be focused on being unconditioned in our expression, is an essential, but, to move from the mysterious and profoundly dreaming night time universality of the Evening Star, her more romantic guise you might say, into the dream grounding sensual beauty making guardian of reality that the Morning Star brings into our skies and world over the next 10 months – that is the key to unlocking these times She offers.
That is where She’s at.
She is the undaunted amazonian warrior spirited self leader we all need to embody.
She is the fearless protector of the planet Earth.
She exists in us all, the indigenous memory and realisation of which has, in all reality, been burned, dogmatised, programmed from the core of our knowing and being by a murderous intent whose time is now up.
Except, that memory cannot be extinguished. it lives on.
It is up to each of us how we respond, but, make no mistake – there is not a person alive who can’t, who does not have the necessary spark.
Unusual times require unusual responses, and, as some wise fool once said, the world does not suffer from too much imagination, but, too little.
These are gritty times, make no mistake – this is not an illusion, and you know it. It is a challenge, The Challenge.
Mars and Neptune are converging in Pisces, squaring the Geminian resurgence.
Use the energy of Mars to roll that grit, thats stuck in the craw of your deepest knowing, into a pearl of exquisite and shimmering beauty and untold value, that illuminates the spiritual realm within the zodiac that Jupiter and Neptune preside over with the inextinguishable phosphorescence of your imagination come alive.
There is a dream waiting to be acknowledged in there, in your heart, and you know it full well.
Take this opportunity, while the planets support us, to give it the chance at reality it deserves.
There is a world crowning into existence at this moment.
Get with this beat, pick up this pulse and RAISE A COUNTER CULTURE that will eclipse the ‘paradigm of control’ that the triad of heavy hitters in Capricorn/Aquarius would see prevail.
‘They’ have their part to play in all this, for sure, grist to the mill of millennia, and shapers of the future that has now become our pressing present reality for too long, without a doubt, but the question here is, whose future and who decides?
The answer is in your hands and mine.
Blessed be!
………………………
April 10th Venus enters shadow zone at 5°21’ Gemini
May 13th 17.45 UTC Venus stations rx at 21°50’
May 22nd – 8.42 UTC Mercury Venus cj 20°12’ square Neptune
May 22nd – 17.37 UTC Sun Moon cj at 2°05’
June 3rd 17.45 UTC Venus transit Sun at 13°36’
June 5th Penumbral lunar eclipse at 15°34’ Sagittarius
June 21st Total solar eclipse at 0°21’ Cancer
June 25th Venus stations direct at 5°21’ Gemini
July 28th Venus leaves shadow zone at 21°50’ Gemini
I want to tell you a story thats happening now. It is unfolding in the sky and under the Earth. Its sheroes are the Goddesses of deep earth wisdom.
Our story begins on the eve of Orion’s advent. Since ancient times this day, which now coincides with May 11th in our modern calendar, was used by the ancients and ancestral star seers to mark time and terrestrial events, through significant risings such as that of Orion’s constellation and of Orion’s Dog Star Sirius.
But Orion is not alone here. The great hunter is looking directly towards the head of the Bull belonging to the constellation of Taurus, and beyond that, above the Bull’s horns, lies the constellation of Persius, slayer of Medussa, as the myth would have it.
As Orion sets at dusk on this day, Venus, poised to turn retrograde on the 13th, is now visible in the falling night sky shining from the very tip of the northern most horn of the Bull.
Venus, who currently travels in the guise of Aphrodite Urania, the Evening Star, daughter of Gaia, is still very bright in the evening sky, but as she turns and begins travelling back to meet the Sun, her face will darken and very quickly become a bright crescent before being swallowed up in the Sun’s rays.
In transiting between Earth and Sun she arrives at her closest point to our planet and from here enters the underworld on the way to being reborn as the Morning Star, Aphrodite Pandemos. In this guise she will journey as daughter of Dione, another name of the great Earth Goddess. Her journey through this solar gateway into the chthonic realm begins exactly on the Bull’s forehead – but, there is more still.
While all this is happening Mercury, the planet of messages and transactions between the worlds, is passing through the constellation of Taurus, running close by the Pleiades star cluster at the heart of the Bull, to emerge from between the horns of Taurus before his ingress to one of his home signs, Gemini. As he does so he meets with asteroid Eurydike and SDO Sedna, and together they will fall into alignment with Algol the brightest star in the Persius constellation.
Mercury will move on but Euridike and Sedna will remain in exact alignment with Algol on the day of Venus transit of the Sun and entry into the underworld. Algol is the star of Medussa. The goddesses are joining forces.
Mercury is alerting us to the common ground shared by these powerful women, and a deeply significant message that the Goddess is bringing in Her return journey. First let’s revisit Medussa because her story is of the greatest significance here.
Medussa, is a great seer who has become totally distorted into a terrifying gorgon. The very myth of Persius is an explicit portrayal of the appropriation of ancient feminine wisdom, of the Earth goddess and her sisters. It clearly portrays the violent methodology which the new masculine sky gods wielded, that was responsible for suppressing and destroying so much of the ancient legacy that, in truth, belongs to us all.
Such was the indigenous legacy of the great living lineages of priestesses and initiatrix, carrying and protecting chthonic wisdom. As is so often the case, the symbology has not only suffered at the hands of the masculine gods, it has been used to violate the Goddess.
But, Medussa was a seer in this tradition.
Many traditions of seership emphasise the importance of being able to hold a high degree of clarity and focus in the midst of distraction, and extreme conditions, not unlike our own, and have built excercises into the training that follows initiation that help develop this faculty. It is almost as if we are now entering the heart of that training. To do so willingly is the invitation.
Algol is associated with Medussa and placed in the hands of Persius in his constellation. But, we have been given the end result of a story that makes Persius look the hero, and it is the vilification of Medussa that enabled him to rise to this false status.
Medussa was the priestess raped by Poseidon/Neptune in Minerva/Athena’s temple. And yet it was She and not the gods who was held responsible for this violation by Athena – Athena, the motherless child of Zeus. For her ‘crime’ Medussa was given her serpent hair and deadly reputation, all in return for a violation of the sacred precincts, in which she was not the perpetrator, but, its victim. But, this too is the propagandised version, designed to justify the misogynist agenda.
In fact Medussa was an initiatrix in the spiritual path of the cthonic earth Goddess, a divine mortal possessed of extreme Beauty, Power and Grace.
The snake maned priestess decapitated by Perseus has little resemblance to this vision of the fully empowered divinity in woman; her symbols turned against her, she has been demonised to the point of dissociation from her roots.
Until our time this has been the political purpose served by the myth, a suitable repository for the ‘unacceptable’ face of initiated and empowered woman; a mirror of that which men have been conditioned to demote and despise, She is also the image of the defiled yet all powerful Earth feared of men in their separatist madness.
The curse of petrification she carries is rather a testament to the immense power her eyes radiate. It is the symbol of initiation into the very Earth herself, overturned.
She has incredibly potent vision, yes, but, it is the snakes that signify her source of power. It is the power of creation that flows within the earth realms, the lightingbolt that condenses light into plasma, that illuminates the neural pathways of the unconditioned pleroma.
Snakes are its living symbol and medicine animal. Petrification is the opposite of its effect rather than its corrollary, but it turns the symbol of initiation into the Earth mysteries into an instrument of fear, rather than empowerment of the soul.
The truth is far from that which we have been indoctrinated into believing by the myth. In the light of this knowledge, Persius looks more of a coward and fool than a hero. His name comes from the Greek pérthein, “to waste, ravage, sack, destroy”, and literally means ‘sacker of cities’. He is venerated as a hero for slaying monsters, but had been blinded, programmed by his own thirsts and needs, to the very nature of the encounter he was offered through Medussa and the opportunity it gifted to him.
The gift of Medussa is seership, of connection with the creative power of Earth herself, of her inner cycles and the endless spiral of life, the very powers that keep us vitally connected with and embedded within the cosmos beyond this world.
In the human frame this power can be sourced at the deeper centres, but, its voice is most clearly heard through our subtler senses, through our intuitive insight, and its wisdom equally accessed through gut feeling as the higher vibrational layers of our energy body.
Some call this primal, but, while it is certainly intense, it could just as easily be called sublime, trancendant even. It lives in ancient sites, waiting to be connected with. It runs throughout the Earth, a living river of many streams beneath our feet. It connects us with the stars, a truth known to many of the seeing traditions.
In slaying the Medussa Perseus was obeying the rational dictates of his goddess Athena, the myth overlaying symbolism onto the historical transference of primary feminine power and wisdom to the more secular and masculinised figure of the goddess born fully armed from Zeus forehead.
Athena kept Medussa’s head as the protective boss of her shield, ironically signifying that her sacred law was to be regarded as beyond question; she brought martial means to maintaining law. She was wise, still, but her gaze was very much on the world of men.
However, the antidote to this weapon of fear which Medussa’s gaze had become, can be found exactly facing the constellation of Perseus in the constellation of Ophiuchus, rising in the eastern night sky as Venus sets in the west in this time.
Ophiuchus the serpent bearer holds the snake in both hands and applies its primary healing powers to the mortal world. Indeed, it is said Ophiuchus, or Asclepius as he is also identified, was the greatest of healers, so much so that he angered the gods with his ability to restore life to the dead and, ultimately, paid for his abilities with exile to the star realms.
Ironically, in the end it was Athena who made the crucial difference here as she bestowed two phials of the Medussa’s blood into Asclepius possession, one from Medussa’s left side which gave the power to mete out death, the other from her right side which gave the power of to overcome death. The healer chose to use the latter and in so doing tipped the balance.
But, it is in this balance across the opposing sides of the ecliptic that we find the goddess and the primal creative wisdom represented in our times. Indicative of healing the Geminian division between the right and left brain it is Venus message to us that our encounter with the Medussa can allow this balance to be restored. Medussa’s head is the embodied consiousness of that primal wisdom which has been initiated into a deep understanding of all that creates, heals and destroys within the natural flow of life, the Earth Goddess wisdom – we must restore it to the body of our world and, trusting her guidance, follow the pathways it opens to us.
Both these constellations point to the balance of extremes, not in duality, but as a living power to be grasped in both hands.
There is a trace of this in our dowsing of the earth powers and subterranean water courses. We have the power to connect with these powers built into our human frame, the senses we need to do so are indigenous to us. But, this is a special time, in which the powers of the Earth mother, her wisdom and its message for us offer a corrective and healing for the world, and for us, Her children.
Withcare and practice, prayer and veneration where it is due, we can restore these powers to our lineage and our connection with the Earth, her soul and spirit.
The Medussa’s head and its primary state of fully awakened unconditioned consciousness is not to be feared, but, re-united with our own creative energy – in doing so the restorative healing it can unleash in our world is unlimited.
Sedna’s own story, a reflection of Medussa’s in many ways, joins forces with Medussa and with Eurydice, who was ‘bitten’ by the snake and, as the myth would have it, consigned to the underworld. We can now see that this too is an appropriated story, hidden in its core the very image of the initiates journey. This will pass on to Mercury, a message for us now. Venus will bring that message home at this turning of the tides.
Mercury will meet with Venus on the 21st May on the horn of the Bull, just as the Sun passes by the Pleiades. One day later the Moon joins the Sun in the heart of the Bull. On 4th June Venus transits the Sun between the Bull’s horns. One day later a penumbral eclipse of the Moon ushers in a new relationship to the Goddess from the constellation of Ophiucus and the sign of Sagittarius. It is time for our lives to embody a new and ancient story.
Undoubtedly, Medussa, Venus and all the representatives of the divine Earth now challenge Us to respond. Only fear and conditioning stand in the way of doing so. But, we know what is asked of us to overcome these obstacles. And the gifts we stand to gain are our own, once stolen, now ready to be restored.
…..Mars has entered Sagittarius and is sailing the rocky waters of the Scorpio constellation with a sting in his tail.
The underlying tetchy mood you may encounter over the next few days, if not weeks, is a reflection of the fact that Mars is flying beneath the radar of all the planets save Uranus, Chiron and Neptune and, in the process, is creating ripples and undercurrents that have the potential to rock all our boats.
This is a hot energy that is applying to the field as a whole and is affecting the collective overview of life. It is more than adequately reflected back to us in the image of the raging fires that are burning in nature which are impinging on human habitations – a powerful symbol of the collective human infrastructure being threatened by the flames that engulf our foundations within nature.
Take some time to reflect upon this symbol and it will throw into a sharper perspective the relationship we have with the elemental world, its powers and our ability to interact with them.
Humanity is under pressure, and this is equally reflected back to us in the now almost exact conjunction between Saturn and Pluto a sign and a half from Mars. Mars is tightening the angle.
If you encounter this in the form of pressure, take notice first, then apply a little kindness, to yourself and others….its going to pass.
If you must put your head above the parapet make sure its for good reason, and get your timing right.
Be careful, in fact, in all your dealings as we approach the exact conjunction of Saturn and Pluto on the 12th; this is not a time for false moves or rash decisions.
Mars will form semi-squares with the Capricornian stellium through this time so avoid reactions and the blame game too, otherwise you will only be throwing fuel on the fire….
….a great deal of the incendiary mayhem at large is the result of subterfuge and deliberate mismanagement of resources, but, this will out in time – for now, take Mars prompts as a heads up and adjust your inner fire appropriately.
What will come later is going to be feeding those fires further so the directive here is to get familiar with how they feel and what is necessary to regulate their emotional charge. Properly directed that charge will have the capacity to work positively for us; left to its own devices it shows its destructive nature to full effect and determines the course of events.
We can be wise to this, practical in a Capricornian way, accepting that change must come, that it may require rebuilding from the ground up, but, that it can be done with a much deeper understanding than we have become accustomed to using – this is the opportunity to shine brightly in the face of difficult circumstances. Even if it means reconfiguring who we are collectively and on a personal level.
Light a candle for your prayers, yes, but accompany it with sweet medicine and waters of the spirit to heal and soothe.
This is, however, by virtue of exactly the same ingredients, a very good time to burn off the crap adhering to old and worn out views on Life, philosophies that no longer cut the mustard in the light of everyday living, and to use the emotive drives that arise through each day as reminders that life can be lived to the full, so long as you don’t take the slaps and cuffs too personally…..
…this is also a time in which high voltage healing can be given in the personal realms; regulate that energy and it will work wonders. Take care and….
On 24th November 2006 Jupiter entered Sagittarius, conjunct the Sun. With Mars, as it is now, in Scorpio, Pluto was close on transiting the Galactic centre. Over the next year and 25 days Jupiter journeyed through its home sign, finally crossing the solstice cusp on 18th December 2007. What was set in motion through this time is still with us and now, twelve years on, Jupiter once more completes its term of home rulership within the mutable fire sign and prepares to enter Capricorn on December 2nd 2019.
So, what’s the story? What’s your story?
If during the 2006-8 period the everyday world was marked by one defining feature it was possibly ‘the culpability and deception that financial collapse exposed within the global banking and trading system’. How did that look? What was the punchline to its story?
If the finger was pointing in one direction it exposed the ugly truth, that “Greed rules”, that its lying dictators, priests and minions act with impunity, even when its hegemony implodes.
But, if we claimed to already know this, as we surely did, with these events its reality must surely have begun to hit home.
Have we learnt? Have we moved on? Does anything in this time tell us, reassure us that we have? With Jupiter again about to enter Capricorn we should be wary of the consequences of not answering, and not answering truthfully, more than the answers themselves.
Pluto finally entered Capricorn late in 2008 with Jupiter at that time in the degree now occupied by Saturn. If the enormity of the reality we faced then did not in fact fully come home to us, the exposure of it’s underlying superstructures has, if not transformed the financial system, certainly transformed our perceptions and awareness of it and its consequences. The reality of ‘our’ mythos is exposed.
Some might attribute such a role to the outer planetary triad, but, Jupiter rules our mythos, the narrative we collectively run through our systems, the meaning we both give and seek within the justifications we bring to buying into it, as well as in attempting to look beyond it.
When it comes to the 2007/8 “Crash” and its consequences, which began with the US sub-prime mortgage debacle late in 2006, this mythos is magnified and put into hard perspective; we know the nature of the world we live in, the slavery and servitude its plutocratic tyranny ensnares us in. There is no escaping our awareness of the truth within this narrative.
With Jupiter now cusping Capricorn this awareness and the question it still begs of us, “the response we have yet to bring to it”, is the reality that looms large in our current world. With the awareness we have gained, so long as the same hegemonic ‘system’ remains unchanged we know, and are reminded on a day to day basis, that we are living at odds with it and our awareness. We can no longer justify the mythos – our knowing, if not our acts, tells us so.
In a nutshell, this is to describe the dilemma that must be resolved during Jupiter’s coming transit of Capricorn. It is a transit that will culminate with the meeting of Saturn and Jupiter in the first degree of Aquarius on the December solstice in 2020.
It includes the most talked of transit and conjunction since Uranus and Pluto squared off between 2011 and 2017, the meeting of Pluto and Saturn in January 2020. This conjunction by itself marks this as a ‘crunch’ year, and there will be a mix of faster transiting planets, including Jupiter, along with the Sun adding to this intense primary power source as this conjunction resonates through the year. But, the writing has been on the wall for at least 12 years, in fact, for a very long time we have known that it must come to this.
When the Galactic cross was precision formed and completed by our central Sun on December solstice 2012 the impulse for evolutionary transformation brought ‘events and consciousness’ into sync in a way that initiated a spiral dynamics of exponential acceleration. The consequences of this are initially chaotic, but, will transition to another phase of order, the shape of which is, in significant part, in our hands – we have a window of time in which to determine this.
The knowledge of this synchronisation of inner and outer realities is millennia old, but, its stimulation in our times, by orb of 1˚, began in the 1940’s and was fully marked by the so called ‘end of hostilities’ at the close of WW2 – from here the healing of an ancient self destructive trauma that world wars, and atomic psychosis, had brought to insane pitch must now begin and that same orb marks the years up to 2074 as the closing phase of this 144 year period of transformation. This fractal of the great year has its resonances at different scales. At the personal level, we should be thinking ‘seven generations…..’
…..when Jupiter left Sagittarius in 2007 it was amidst an evolutionary seed conjunction with Pluto, Mercury and the Sun around the galactic centre that set the stage – we have just seen Jupiter and Venus meeting in the same degrees. Now is a time to expand our creative energies from the heart. This is a part of the healing we must not miss – why?
Where Uranus held the mid degrees of Pisces opposing Saturn in Virgo at that time in 2007, Neptune now sits and becomes outwardly active, having turned direct.
That Uranus Saturn opposition was magnified, exacerbated even, by Jupiter’s transit of Uranus on the Aries cusp, an astrological event coinciding with the Gulf of Mexico disaster, ultimately finding expression in March 2011 at Fukushima.
This too is a part of our current terrain. But, how are we to navigate it?
The shock of ‘collapse’ and its potential catastrophism has now become homogenised and dangerously familiar, if dulled into a vague semblance of reality, “actual” reality, one might say. And this in spite of the current state of the world and our perceived collective contribution to, participation in and provocation of its symptoms. So, whose narrative are we following here?
The evolution that the marriage of events and consciousness might have seeded then has become our prerogative now. The ‘new age’ maxim that we ‘create our own reality’ has, in this sense, its head on the block and, if we can, in or after the fact, make our own reality come to be, the rules of the game are now exposed – simply put, reality happens, whether by direct engagement or not. Our input remains, regardless, conscious or not. And, conscious or not, we face the consequences.
We are here to know, yes, but such knowing is useless without the ability to act upon it. What is stopping us? That is perhaps the big Jupiterian question at the time of its ingress into Capricorn.
If the Saturn Jupiter cycle bookends Jupiter’s ingress into Capricorn, it points up the fact that, if we have not learned how to do just this, meet knowing with action, it will almost certainly be being decided for us by then. By other humans, our circumstances, or some other ‘presence’ – who knows?
Jupiter’s reminder is that we too are myth makers – we weave and bind with what we have and know, and find meaning in the patterns we make, as we do.
The period between the Taurus full Moon on November 12th and the new Moon in Sagittarius on November 26th sees Mercury station direct, and three planets plus the Sun change signs. Mercury will clear the retrograde zone on December 8th, just three days before a Gemini full Moon, by which time the prevailing atmosphere will have changed considerably.
Mars entering Scorpio on the 19th augers an intensification of inner drives and focus – for longer term projects the sustained intensity indicated here is invaluable and prevails into the new year.
Although Mars energy is in stealth mode here it is powerful and effective and, by its covert nature, this suits in-depth work, study and a powerful focusing of intrinsic energies. The nature of this energy is also inherently personal and best suits solo activities.
In magical workings this can be a profoundly rewarding time, especially after Mercury goes into direct motion in the skies on November 21st.
Talismanic work keeps coming to mind as does the making of fetishes and symbolic workings with a long term intent; whether it be concretely or literally, with bind runes for example or ‘simply’ prayer and affirmations, this is about working with your chosen magical language in a way that will help your energy to be more deeply invested in your work, to stay on track and repeatedly find its mark over the coming year.
In apparent contrast to, but very much aiding and abetting this combustible and intense inner force, the conjunction between Venus and Jupiter and their transits of the Galactic Centre speak of an atmosphere of joy and magnanimity that reaches right into the heart of creation. They meet on the 24th November in the penultimate degree of Sagittarius, a degree that the Sabians associate with bringing a visibly high degree of accomplishment to simple everyday tasks.
But, don’t be deceived by the charm and etiquette of Venus and Jupiter, for all the socially sanctioned pride implied here, there is also a high degree of potency involved in this work as well and, as next year looks set to be the time when we really want to knuckle down and get stuck in to what we know to be ‘the most important work we are here’ for, Mars along with Venus and Jupiter are here seen to be helping us develop a more deep seated yet higher level of determination in preparation for that period, no matter the level at which we are working.
This is about integrity and impeccability, about work in the world and between-the-worlds that is seamless, undaunted and effective to the max. We will see this come into effect in the mundane world regardless, whether the result of magical workings or not, but as an opportunity to be capitalised upon it is peerless.
The interactions of Jupiter and Venus with the Galactic Centre, prior to their conjunction, also have a deeper level to them, potentially drawing the primal source of creative power into our work. Tapping into the primal levels of creativity is visionary work and will benefit that intense focus, and Mars generative fire here becomes the fire at the centre of a spiritual alchemy which will benefit us all. We can make this a focus too, if it is appropriate to our calling. And, as with all such processes, there is an intrinsic process of purification at work.
We will be tested through this time and these magical workings for weaknesses in our integrity, both moral, ethical, physical and emotional. When our work takes us into areas where our knowledge is ‘thin’ this can be especially risky now, as befits engaging with potent forces – this is not a time to ‘act as if’. Think of it as a time in which to perfect our craft, to fine tune our power of intent and practice purity of purpose, and likewise to identify those areas in which we know we could deepen our understanding and inner resource.
By the same token this is a profound time to make offerings, especially in gratitude for the road ahead and the means we are being given to navigate it. We can trust the knowing we have of why, where and to whom these are to be made, but, we need to make them as meaningful as possible. Here again a deeper knowledge of ‘prescriptions’ and ‘protocols’ is de rigour.
Conserving focus, use divination sparingly, only should the need arise, and to this end work to strengthen connections to allies and guides. Places of power and beings that are a strong source of inspiration are favoured now and will come into their own if worked with in this way – working with water sources, sacred springs and fast flowing subterranean water courses our well chosen prayers can be disseminated far and wide within ‘the fabric of things’.
When the Sun enters Sagittarius on the 23rd of November we might begin shifting attention back to the outer world. And we may be surprised by sudden insights and things falling into place as we do – Mars opposes Uranus shortly after the Sun’s ingress and between then and the new Moon on the 26th there is also potential for major distractions in the mundane world. This is a false flag territory! Use your ‘seeing’ effectively.
New Moon sees Venus enter Capricorn and this will bring us further down to earth. We won’t lose sight of the magic or the reason we have been so pre-occupied through this time but the shift into a more sober frame of mind begins to form with this lunation. It is not a downhill trend or somber atmosphere that is brewing here, however – the object of our ‘true’ work, the primary focus which will occupy us through the coming year, is beginning to materialise.
There is a beautiful process of inner and outer alignment at work in all this which has been developing by stages over the last few months. This now presents an opportunity to raise our game, to capitalise on adjustments to our focus that we have made and for getting ‘in the zone’. This will make perfect sense by the time the next Full Moon arrives in the twentieth degree of Gemini on the 11/12th of December.
The underlying tension of these times is coming to a head and there is a purposefulness to everything that occurs now. But, see this time as a period of adjustment, a preparation, that will serve us immeasurably, further down the road we are all travelling. Being ’In the zone’ is associated with being totally turned on, tuned in and performing at our peak.
To give the longer term period a context the celestial matrix indicates that the planets are aligning to create a break from the past which will be decisive, fuelling a fracturing from prevailing dominant modes of authority, this being commensurate with a deep shift ‘within’ which increases individual autonomy in line with the innate ability we all have to connect with the creative source. Jupiter enters Capricorn on December 2nd, grounding the core galactic connection just as Venus transits the Moon’s south node.
With both Saturn and Jupiter in Capricorn, along with Pluto, Venus and before the year is out, the Sun and Mercury, this is the final run up to the meeting of Saturn and Jupiter at zero degrees Aquarius on the December solstice 2020 where they will begin a new cycle of reality building, initiated in a new element for the first time in centuries, the like of which we have probably not seen for millennia, if at all.
The full Moon in Taurus carries a blessing of a rare nature that brings much needed balance into our midst. But, this is no ordinary corrective to prevailing conditions: imagine…..
‘a mirror of polished stone hewn by supernatural forces within the deeply rooted bedrock of an ancient cliff face’
….the Taurean energy delivers a subtly shifting reflection of ancient oceanic light emanating from the depths of Scorpio, quietly grounding its energies within the earth plane.
This is a profound reminder that death furnishes all life with life. It is a meditation on mortality, yet here the emphasis is not on the ‘impermanence of all things’, but on the eternal nature that resides within their essence; this is the foundation within which this Moon invites us to rest.
Both sides of this symbolism are reinforced by the Sabians which accompany the Moon and Sun; the Moon’s degree speaks of ‘an awareness of blessings being bestowed upon us by supernatural forces’, the Sun’s degree of ‘the sacred way being revealed to us by the divine feminine’. To enter that path is to receive the blessing.
The message is furthered through the fine tuning and nuances that smaller astral bodies and galactic energies are here bringing to each of the classical planets. They ask us the fundamental questions that enable us to enter into communion with our essence.
“Who are you, when all is stripped away?”
This reminder of how well developed our sense of self and self knowledge is comes directly through Saturn conjunct the centaur Amycus in the 17th degree of Capricorn.
“How capable are you of holding to your own truth when met with complete disbelief and denial?”
This asked of Jupiter conjunct with the asteroid Kassandra in the 26th degree of Sagittarius.
Pluto is conjunct the centuar Chariklo in the 22nd degree of Capricorn and asks if you are “capable of reconfiguring reality, finding growth through defeat”, Chariklo being a specialist in questioning what is real.
Uranus asks us if we are “willing to enter the void in order to find our higher self”.
The void, as source of all possibility, resonates with Uranus predilection for anomaly and invention. Within the darkness is infinite potential.
And Neptune’s oceanic realm is endarkened further through the Black Moon in the 16th degree of Pisces – their question is perhaps the most psychically charged of all – “what are the powers, concealed from common sight, that live within you in whose grace you are gifted with sight and craft beyond the norm?”
These are powers which we can only gain knowledge of by acknowledging their presence and entering into dynamic relationship with their energetics – the powers which dwell within the deep psyche are autonomous, belonging to the natural matrix, unavailable to complete integration, yet the interactive awareness we may bring to their presence is also a profound gift of incarnation.
Mercury has asked for a deeper look, to open our mind and use our inner faculties in seeking an answer. The gateway of Samhain has aided the inner communion with ancestry and the non-physical worlds.
Mercury’s cazimi transit of the Sun has invigorated the genetic coding we have carried forward through lifetimes, supporting a conscious intent to bring our ancestral DNA into commission.
As the Moon and Sun come into opposition across the Scorpio Taurus axis this impulse is disseminated throughout the matrix of nature. There is no need of rationality in this moment – it is within the grace that humans know as trust that the answers arise.
We are in the thrall of mystery yet, as Venus reminds us through conjunction with the Great Attractor, the unseen is a powerful shaper of life, necessary for the blessing of life to continue.
Venus having moved on from the great star Antares, whose energies balance Mars drives for action with a centring balm of peace, is on her way to conjunction with Jupiter at the Galactic Centre and developing a useful sextile with Mars as the next lunation opens. These are positive aspects we can look forward to now.
Here, at this full Moon, while Mars degree speaks through the Sabians of the power of Adept abilities to act through the unified power of Yin and Yang, Venus degree speaks through the Sabians of our own spiritual ancestry. She invites us to reflect on our own path through the knowledge of our own soul’s past which has come into our possession in this lifetime through a higher level of achievements.
Let your being rest in the lap of this full Moon, bath in moonlight and open yourself to the mystery of mortality from the spirit’s point of view.
There is much to be thankful for. Meditate in peace.
ROOT MEDICINE OF THE STARS ON EARTH 