Mercury's station

Before we jump to our topic, I wanted to continue on a thread from last time.  We spoke about the USA's natal chart having a Sun (identity, image) in square (90 degrees) to planet Saturn (constriction, depression, responsibility) and that transiting Saturn (that is Saturn in the sky) was very close to our natal placement.  (Yes the USA is having a Saturn return for those who know that term -every 29 1/2 years Saturn in its orbit around the Sun, comes back to where it was in a nativity. )

Today I just saw the NYTimes headlines "Nations mood at lowest level in 2 years" .  To me that is a correlation of us being made of one substance, as Marcus Aurelius says, as what is happening in the sky is mirrored below. The USA has a natal predisposition (Sun) to resist (square) any form of self discipline (Saturn).  That innate characteristic will be on view as long as Saturn is in Libra until October 2012.   We will be watching this unfold in the upcoming months.

Onto Mercury... as we all know Mercury does not actually stop, change direction, stop again and turn around.  Mercury appears to do this because of our perspective from earth  (our perspective is everything!).  Mercury is the fastest planet orbiting around the Sun and we rarely see it.  Only at dusk when the planet is at its eastern elongation do we see him as an evening star, as it passes between the Earth and the Sun;  and again about 3 weeks later, Mercury is seen rising ahead of the Sun in the morning sky at its western elongation.  We see Mercury has come from setting behind the Sun in the evening to rising ahead of the Sun in the morning.  And what has happened in between?  Mercury has connected with the Sun.  Our thought patterns, information and ideas (Mercury) have reconnected with our purpose (Sun). 

This is the true meaning of any planet retrograde-it must reconnect with who we are, with our purpose.  As mythological Mercury could go from Olympus to Hades (the only god who could) to bring out new information from the underground, so in modern times we use the Mercury's retrogrades to rethink, reedit, redo, everything in fact with the word re in it.  The good news this weekend is that Mercury has finished this part of its cycle and as of Saturday the 23rd will begin its direct journey away from the earth.  The going is slow at first as Mercury prefers faster speeds, but the tide is on our side.  Whatever information has been gleaned from its underground journey can be used to move ahead.

Off the Full Moon

I am wondering how you feel after the "ah ha" moment of the Full Moon?  The Full Moon this week had an added attraction yesterday, as the two planets Mars and Saturn formed a 180 degree aspect to each other, exactly as the Sun and Moon did.  Mars and Saturn were the only 2 planets that the ancients had to explain the bad things that happen. Mars and Saturn  were always present at deaths, fires, accidents and other life threatening or life annihilating situations.  Today we have the "outer planets" (beyond Saturn) Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, those planets who symbolize those affairs that we have no control over, to watch for an explanation of the unexplainable.  But nevertheless Mars and Saturn can still  knock a powerful punch.

Yesterday the Standard and Poor's rating agency finally did some accurate rating  and downgraded the US and its ability to pay back its debt.  Immediately the amount of interest the US will pay on its debt will rise and the deficit will rise faster.  Why here and now? Well we know a Full Moon always bring issues to light that need to be uncovered and a "full moon", so to speak, of the 2 "heavy" planets Mars and Saturn along with the Sun and Moon Full Moon, bring news of a life threatening or worrisome nature.  In the USA's natal chart the Sun is at 14 degress of Cancer and Saturn is at 14 degrees of Libra.  So the Mars/ Saturn aspect hit directly on the image of the US (its Sun).  Saturn among its other characteristics is downsizing, shrinking and Mars adds an extra verosity to the punch. 

Maybe in your life yesterday you noticed that whatever got started (Mars) met a wall of resistance (Saturn) and you had to take more time (Saturn) to turn the effort (Mars) to a positive outcome. Mars and Saturn were last at their conjunction ( together in the same place) on July 31st 2010, at the very prominent 0 degree of Libra. If you think back to then and remember a beginning effort, you would be experiencing now, with the 2 planets 180 degrees from each other, a "full moon"  -a revelation or culmination of that beginning.   This could easily be in a work related area, as Mars rules our work or where we put our energy. 

I hope this helps you on your journey.  The next planetary event we will look at is Mercury's direct station.

What Might Be

Maybe we should look a little forward now to the full moon weekend.  The trouble with looking ahead at what might be is that it could limit the possibilities of what could be.  The nature of astrology is looking where the planets are and reading the symbolism.  But as we know symbols have a mysterious quality.They are multidimensional in interpretation. They can transcend time and place.  Think of Carl Jung's famous dream interpretation case which he recorded in Memories, Dreams and Reflections.  When analyzing the dream of a client with a scarab beetle in it, the very same kind of bug hit the window of the therapy room and became part of the interpretation of the dream. 

Another aspect in reading planetary symbolism is looking at the geometric relationship of the bodies.  A Full Moon, like the one we will have at 10:45 PM EDT Sunday night, means the Sun and Moon are 180 degrees from one another.  The Moon, the planet of our subconscious and emotional needs is lite up completely by the Sun, the source of all light in the universe. Our emotional needs and feelings come to light.  Often people get emotional around Full Moons as they can no longer hide what has been kept in the dark.  It is the time to let it all out.  Because the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides, like a seesaw with the earth in the middle, we can feel pulled in 2 different directions and must be aware of someone or something else that we might have not taken into consideration before. This is very much accentuated this week because the signs the Sun and Moon are passing in front of "so to speak" are Aries the sign  of me, me, me and Libra the sign of you, you, you. Cooperation and balance are called for.  Full moons are felt 2-3 days before and after the exact moment of the Full Moon.  There is an intensity that builds up to a breaking point and then slowly subsides as the crisis lessens.  Watch for it.

So how was your weekend?

Did anyone notice an unusual amount of adamancy in people they encountered?  Maybe someone was very demanding or more inflexible than usual?  It might have been hard to reach consensus or come to some agreement because someone dug their heels into the ground and would not budge. This was as a result of the simultaneous planetary event of Pluto the planet of our base chakra, or survival instinct coming to an apparent rest, before he apparently starts moving backwards in space.  Although Pluto was downgraded this past year from planet status (and there still is controversy over this) the symbolic effects of any planetary station (the apparent standing still) can be felt.  Now remember we are not saying that Pluto is causing us to feel a certain way, but a planets changing position comes at the same time as we feel an intensification of the symbolic meaning of same planet. 

This is to confirm our thesis that, as Marcus Aurelius said, the universe is one living being, made up of one soul and one substance;  one thing, more poetically said.  What is happening in the depths of space cannot be separted from what is going on inside us humans.  We want to look to experiences that confirm a unified world theory, that recognize and support the interconnectedness of all life. One of the ways to do this is to watch what the planets are doing.  The key is to notice and observe; what is happening in the world and in our relationships.

This weekend would have been especially significant to people born any year around the 27th-30th of March, June, September and especially December.   It might have been important to others of you, or you felt it more strongly, if you have an angle or another planet, besides the Sun, at 4-8 degrees of the cardinal signs, the signs that begin the seasons.

Still thinking...

So as I wrote last time I have been wondering about what makes people want to come see an astrologer, or not.  I have a sense that some people feel that there is someone out there who knows more about them, or what is going on with them than they do,  they want to be told what is in store for them.  But that is a misunderstanding of how things work.  If we look into the new paradigms in the various fields of new thought, with theorists like David Bohm, Fritjof Capra, Pierre de Chardin, Rupert Sheldrake, Stanislav Grof, and Brian Swimme whose work present a new understanding of the nature of reality, we can see that they are all disputing the orthodox scientific view of the duality in nature.  Instead of the subject, object view all these writers present more unified world views, a more holistic view of the nature of reality where there is an interconnectedness of all phenomena.  This world view that we will explore in this blog is very much what Marcus Aurelius wrote in the quote from Meditations from the 1st Century on my blog head.

And the planetary correlations- the planet Mercury, the planet of thought and communication, although retrograde and as a result of being retrograde, will meet up 3 times with  Jupiter, the planet of the philosopher and our belief system. During the time period from mid March through mid May we should all be thinking about our belief systems.  It is a time to expand how we think and what our perceptions and perspectives are;  what we believe to be true about our world and the nature of reality. There is ample time to reflect and we might find we will change our position.  Because all this is happening in the sign Aries, the sign of new beginnings,  we should all be looking for a new approach. 

Using Today

Today the planet of expansion Jupiter is aligned with the Sun.  I am using this planetary coupling to initiate my blog as writing a blog widens my world, making me bigger. Jupiter, being the largest planet in our solar system, symbolizes in all our lives the need to increase and go beyond that which we already know, as today in my case, being here at my kitchen table.

Since this not my first attempt to do this I do not mind that Mercury the planet of comunications is retrograde. I am redoing a project and so this time until April 23rd is an excellent time for all endeavors with the prefix "re".

My thoughts today center on using the day and the question: What is arising in a person who decides to go see an astrologer?

more tomorrow...