Sun in Sagittarius…and the Echo, and the Child

 
Though the post's full title sounds seriously philosophical (not to mention psychological!) it really isn’t.

Well, not at least in astronomical terms.

Here’s the scoop: asteroid Echo is going direct on Tuesday, November 20th at 5 Aries. Then on Wednesday, November 21st, the Sun enters Sagittarius as asteroid Child goes direct at 0 Aries.

(Being that the Sun does this at 9:51 in the evening UT/+0 time however, for those living in a time zone three hours or more east of Greenwich this Act II happens on November 22nd.)

Sagittarius against Aries as a ‘general influence’ is the urge to grow, the moment of trying out something new and (alas!) the learning that we just don’t know everything. Nor are we in charge of the world, what others like, what others believe (or believe in) or life’s ‘rules of the road.’

So this can be a very good time or a very gnarly time, depending on your attitude….and since we’re still only a few days past a solar eclipse, whether you’ve been a good boy or good girl in times past.

Why that part? That part would be because Sagittarius is the sign of ‘learning better’ (or more) and thus the sign of trials and the judicial system and (oh, incidentally) being found out when you’ve been naughty, over-the-line or otherwise so out of step with the world around you that the bright light swings your way for not all the very best reasons.

With Echo going direct at an early degree of Aries, we know this is about what we (Aries) do. Or maybe don’t do, yes. But in this case, considering that Echo is the price we pay for blindly following instructions or someone else’s lead without thinking through the right-or-wrong of it all for ourselves, whether we do or don’t do is really about our choosing to go along with it. So we’re “doing” that much.

 Echo by Alexandre Cabanel (1887)

And that’s not the only fly in the personal ointment. Unfortunately Echo has a nasty habit of pointing to areas of life where we should have acted with a bit of gumption and personal backbone. And thus it points to having taken ‘the easy way out.’

Not all of us will have a moment now which ‘Echoes’ of deeds or choices past, but a lot of us will hear of things others are going through which either warn us of the pluses and minuses of listening/not listening to others…and we’ll hear some tale and cringe.

Some will (undoubtedly), now pay the price for having not done the right thing to begin with – right meaning ‘acting with independence and internal integrity’ in this venue. And 5 Aries? Given that it’s Sabian image is A SQUARE, WITH ONE OF ITS SIDES BRIGHTLY ILLUMINATED, we are dealing with ‘challenges’ (the square as a challenging astrological aspect) to ‘being a square,’ or the idea of being settled, solid, respected, respectable – all that stuff.

And that ‘one of its sides brightly illuminated’ part? That goes along with only seeing one idea. Or being put in the spotlight. Or having the whole of your ‘stable square’ not equally illuminated. There are a lot of ways this Echo moment can manifest. But more generally, what we know is that in going from retrograde into direct motion as of November 20th, Echo is telling us that we will be hearing more ‘Echoes’ out there and we’ll be seeing what happens when the ‘Echo Effect’ gets bought into.

Which means we’ll probably be challenged not to buy into it, of course. That’s the classic effect of something – be it planet or asteroid (or come to think of it, human) going or getting into direct motion: we experience its ‘directness’ as life handing us something to deal with. Or confronting us, whether with something new or something already done.

For all our coloring outside the lines over these past months…we can now expect to hear that we need to clean up our act.

Wherever we have glissando’ed past something in life (while pretending we’re a trombone, no doubt) we may well find out that we hit a sour note with someone.

That Echo goes direct pretty much as the Sun enters Sagittarius (and very specifically as the Sun is moving through 29 Scorpio) signals moments of confrontation with self. At least with our decisions and choices, made and unmade. It’s entirely normal not to want to have to take responsibility for every little thing. And maybe the issue is picking which things we really do need to be in charge of…and which we can safely leave to others.

But those ‘others’? Do they have our best interests at heart? That’s another Echo/Sun question of the moment. Believing what we want to believe probably won’t work. Learning that we did believe in someone who didn’t deserve our faith, our loyalty, our putting our good name on the line for them…? That would be fitting…and maybe downright likely.

 Tantalus by Gioacchino Assereto (circa 1640)

As the Sun moves into Sagittarius, it will there encounter Tantalus – the symbol of all we are tempted to do which we will mightily regret having done. And this combination of Echo/direct and Tantalus? That’s a recipe for doing the wrong thing for a reason you’d like to claim is right – but which isn’t right.

And you know it. Or at least you know it once it flaps you in the face like a three-day-old fish!

(To all my Piscean brethren, my apologies. I’m sure you know the reference. You probably even know of a few fishy stinks!)

And of course, there’s Child. In going direct at 0 Aries, Child (which – ahem! - is conjunct Echo) speaks to our innocence. Or our wish that we could be innocent. Or that life didn’t require us to be other than innocent.

 Children playing on the beach in Cairns, Australia (JalalV, July 2008)

And yes, we will wish that we didn’t feel like we were dealing with a bunch of children. Can’t people get a clue?

Answer: no. Why not? Because at this point in time it’s highly likely that the reason you’d like other people to get a clue is because YOU want the space and ease to be the one skipping trippingly through life as though all was a field of lovely, blooming flowers.

(Good luck with that.)

There is another side of Child going direct though…if others are showing their ‘innocence’ this is an opportunity to be someone who doesn’t just ‘Echo’ what you know but who invests themselves in changing things for the better.

And that ‘changing’ factor? That cones from Uranus being at 4 degrees of Aries as all this other gnarly foo-foo takes place.

Thus Uranus at 4 Aries becomes a centerpiece for our (Sun) explorations of how to make life work better in general – and better for ourselves…and the hall of mirror-effect which Echo and Child going direct are likely to have.

The good Uranus news is that things can change.

The bad Uranus news is that with Uranus in retrograde, the indication is that we have to change on the inside…and as we do, whether that’s how we do, what we do or merely some recognition about how life works…as that changes, so life will change to.

Following the chain of ruling astro-factors here, Uranus in Aries is ruled by Mars, which is at this moment at 4 Capricorn (adding to our sense of necessity, pragmatism and motivation).

Again, there is good news and bad news. Mars is conjunct Europa (getting carried away, moving too fast, etc.) and in opposition to Ceres, which also in retrograde is all about ‘do you have a plan?’ and ‘how well is that plan working?’ and ‘maybe I need to rethink my plan before things get (Europa) out of hand?’

All that, yes. And more? Probably!

 Europa and the Bull by Walentin Alexandrowitsch Serow (1910)

Taken together, these symbols – among other things – suggest that during this year’s month of Sun in Sagittarius we may get tempted to overbook ourselves or overload ourselves. And that as part of that, we may think we can get away with making certain sacrifices we really know we shouldn’t make…but which we really want to make seeing as what that will give us (in the moment) is some sort of feeling that we’ve done what we think others expect of us, or what we plain old everyday want to do.

For some this will turn into wanting to give themselves ‘treats.’ Do you deserve it? Probably yes! But should you do it? Maybe not. The ‘why’ in this ‘why not’ could be any of a scad of factors…but in the end it all comes down to whether we want the whole of our life to be workable or whether we want one little corner of it to seem fun while everything else goes to Hades in a hand basket.

(I’m not sure who takes a hand basket to Hades, but…)

With lunar eclipse due next week, things will feel feisty, exciting, jumpy, itchy…name your own pack of emotional seven Dwarves! That aside, life is also challenging us to think long (or at least longer) term so that we don’t trip ourselves up.

And that makes sense. We all work and strive and try so hard without stopping to enjoy those moments of being together. Or when all is quiet and – even just for a minute – peaceful.

Maybe this is when we stop and think about the idea that we need to enjoy the who we try for and the why we try hard so that we go forward internally realigned and with our inner Child feeling refreshed.

That sense of refreshment is worth Echoing. But we’re not talking about the generic of ‘my family’ or ‘my home’ here. No, we’re talking about the value of feeling not so all alone. Or of feeling secure when you lay down to sleep at night.

Or that there’s a Purpose for our being alive at all.

Those are very personal things. Things which, with or without all the trappings or relationships in this world are what you and I…and everyone else – it’s what we really live for.
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