Sun in Sagittarius

Sautys (Sagittarius) by Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis (1907)

It’s time to get a little perspective on the Sun in Sagittarius. After all, that’s the Sagittarian thing to do, right? So out with all that Scorpio intensity – let’s just focus. And while we’re at it, we’ll angst less and lay aside our aura of allure, as we need to  consider possibilities…and possible consequences. 

\That’s the Sagittarian way to do it. After all, in a Sagittarian world, life is all about advancing the cause. Not to put too detailed an astrological point on the concept here (but I will anyway, being an astrologer)… we’ve all heard about a ‘handshake world’ where trust – as opposed to identity theft – was rampant.

It was when Pluto (the energetic of transformation) moved through Sagittarius that the world changed. That was when the realm of ‘shining forth as a beacon of truth’ converted from universal truths to what any given person (brain, nut case or otherwise) wanted to think of as their personal truth.

But that Pluto moved through Sagittarius back in the late 90s (and on into the early 2000s) and that’s what happened meant – in the most universal of senses – that we are ready to learn how to differentiate between real truths and manipulation. (Or maybe you prefer it as general facts versus ‘positions’ which amount to self serving truths.)

I bring this up because the Sun is moving into Sagittarius on November 22nd at 3:49 in the morning, UT/+0 time – and the Sun will be in Sagittarius until the Capricorn Solstice, a moment in time which falls his year on December 21st (UT/+0).

The Sun's 2013 Sagittarius ingress chart

November 22, 2013 - 3:49 UT/+0 - Aries Wheel

(location not specific)

So…it would seem likely that thinking in two directions will behoove us. One: that we should understand that the standing “example” of Sagittarian energetic behavior is the question of whether something is acting out of the nature of its being in reality, or whether there is some artificial measure or interference is causing some form of aberrant response. Two: achievement is limited by our unwillingness to tolerate being wrong.

In this last statement is an interesting hint as to how signs interact…attach…feed off one another in forming the evolution, the continuous growth cycle which is the zodiac. Scorpio – as the sign before Sagittarius – is in the natural 12th house harmonic (12th derivative position) to Sagittarius. Scorpio thus becomes what Sagittarius needs to grow out of…and this quality of ‘what needs to be moved forward out of/from’ is at some level the relationship between all sequential zodiac signs.

So where Scorpio (as part of its Scorpio/Taurus polarity) always tests our connections, our ability to connect, our willingness to be vulnerable with others, the state of our self worth and internalized security and so often falls down where we are unable to tolerate feeling ‘wrong’ (or invalidated) …that’s what Sagittarius needs to move forward from.

And considering everything which has been going on (read: the Scorpio solar eclipse et al) that’s really the measure and descriptor which applies here as the Sun (and our lives) move into a Sagittarian phase. 

There are surely some of us who in recognizing their weaknesses have already taken to growing through and out of them. There are others however, who have merely ‘excised’ (discarded or tried to ignore) whatever or whoever it is who had the ill luck to poke us in our weak points, and who have gone on from there – generally with excuses and denials in flow – to trying to do what they consider ‘the right thing’ in spite of all.

And why should that be any problem, you ask?

Because of Scorpio’s inordinate harmonic reach, I answer. This goes back to the idea of there being three signs of each element. The element being water here (and water meaning emotionality), in elemental water we have the signs of Cancer (the solo version), Scorpio (the interactive version) and Pisces (the universal version) of our emotional orientation.

 
And that implies that between each ‘pair’ of signs, the influence of the one ‘just experience’ carries over. So in other words, if you pass through Scorpio, you’re sort of on Scorpio ‘interactive’ emotional grounds until you reach the fathomless realm of Pisces.

 
And when we look at that idea more carefully, we realize that the effects of Scorpio – which is itself the central sign of the 3rd (interactive zodiacal quadrant) will carry over into the pro-active (left) hemisphere of the chart and its very worldly signs.

Which, folks, would be astrology’s way of explaining to us all why career, social standing, societal acceptance and ballyhoo – why all that means so much to us. It’s hard to understand unless you layer on the waft of Scorpio essence…but once you do, suddenly all seems far, far more instinctive and easily understood.

In any case, there are some of us who have let go of some shell or shard or denial we came to the solar eclipse with, and some who haven’t. Both sets of people will now be setting off to ‘prove their point’ with one group simply in ‘productive’ mode and the other having something to prove – at least to their Self (selves, I guess for grammar’s sake…).

And all of us will be trying to get things done and make things work. Along the way, we’re going to have to learn what doesn’t work in order to make the needed connections. And with Venus traversing Capricorn, we know that there’s a ‘tangible’ quality to what we want to ultimately accomplish.

But that ‘ultimate’ part…? Remembering that Venus, having entered Capricorn back on November 5th (UT/+0) will now – because of an upcoming retrograde – remain in Capricorn until March 2014.

Heck, Venus won’t even go direct until the end of January. And sometimes the overarching energetic felt throughout life in all we do is going to be differentiated to us simply through the lingering on of an affect until it utterly and thoroughly becomes us. And in a sense that is what we would anticipate the upcoming (December 2013 / January 2014) Venus retrograde to be about.

However….(you knew there was a ‘however’ coming, right?)…if Venus in Capricorn (ideally) is the accomplishment of a life or life structure or situation we want to come to life (and be ours) the way we want it to be, then Sun in Sagittarius is rather poignant. Think of it this way….given that Sagittarius is as sign about the boundless latitude to climb, excel and explore we want AND how Sun in Sagittarius (which ends late afternoon UT/+0 time on December 21st) is the sign through which we will experience life’s “run up” to the Venus retrograde…

…Wouldn’t you think that the next few weeks are likely to play host to many an effort which then is more or less worked through during the December 21st – January 31 Venus retrograde?

Quite frankly, as an astrologer…I would think so. Since the retrograde is in Capricorn, that brings on thoughts of Saturn as ruler of Capricorn.

And wasn’t Saturn just involved in that rather dig-a-hole, share-a-helmet Scorpio solar eclipse we all just waded through?

Hmmm…this, in astrological terms ties where life (the Sun) is going (Sagittarius) to the sign just behind (Scorpio)…which sounds like efforts to come based on the needs shown up by experiences and emotional summations recently passed.

In this case, the ingress also comes to us as a t-square, that formulation which forces us to think in terms bigger than just our Self. The core influence on the Sun here is Toliman, which in shining out from the tangible emotionality which is 29 Scorpio – hopefully motivating us to try different things in different ways.

If we want to grow, something needs to changes. We can’t wait for the changes we want to come to us right now. For whatever reason (it will vary in every life) we don’t have time to waste.

The ‘goal’ of this t-square is (interestingly enough) Neptune in Pisces. Hardly the thing one would think of first with regards to a Sagittarius solar passage, but evidently any number of us want some psychic peace. Some emotional comfort with and within the Self we are so busy being.

As for where the energetics going into (and most likely, through) this solar transit are coming from, the chart refers to Pallas (intellectual perspective) and Atlantis (acceptance after getting used to something) plus Sphinx (patience, endurance).

And that sounds like a bunch of start-and-stop efforts. Or carefully considered steps in some greater process. The signage here would seem to say that we want things to go smoothly and teach us something other than what we might suspect is probably true….

…but we just aren’t sure, and we aren’t comfortable with not being sure.

Oh rats, oh fooey.

The good cheese would seem to be on looking ahead now…looking to the turn of the Solstice (December 21st) as a waxing of lengthening days and some sort of ‘waxing’ in each of our lives as we try to improve on something we have committed to working through with our Self. (Note that last part please: with your SELF.)

In astrological terms the idea of Venus going retrograde at the Capricorn Solstice is an interesting marker. Though nothing to get particularly excited about in and of its own accord, this is sort of where astrology-as-theory takes a page from real life, real time calendars.

December 21st, the date that Venus goes retrograde (and the end of the Sun-in-Sagittarius hike we’re about to undertake) is the Saturday before Christmas. And that makes it a significant economic marker, whatever else may be true.

I’d expect some pretty interesting post-holiday sales. And with Venus retrograde by the time those sales happen, that’s about all I’m going to say on that subject.

Let’s just say that week between the 21st and the 28th of December is evocative astrological terrain and leave it at that for the moment.

We’ll get back to it soon enough – promise.

Another interesting oddity of this ingress chart – the Moon and Jupiter are conjunct at 20 Cancer, which is one of those unmistakably ‘wet’ sort of astro-signals. Bypassing everything else for the moment, that Black Moon Lilith is at 18 Cancer with all of this in opposition to Venus, one wonders about the readiness of somewhere to some influx of water.

From where, I cannot tell you.

The Omega Nebula (Messier 17, or NGC 6618) in Sagittarius

(photo credit: ESO/European Southern Observatory, July 2009)

Here’s the thing about astrometeorology, a subject I once had a delightful sit-down chat with Rob Hand about. (We were in Seattle at the time, if you care.) What Rob pointed out was that astrometeorology is totally ‘local’…meaning the chart has to be localized in order to look at the weather.

Which isn’t much different than what regular weather people do and what mainstream weather maps reel out in terms of data.

What we (the astrologers of the world, I mean) need is a program which would allow us to ‘move’ the chart just like a cursor moves across one of Google’s maps.

With today’s computers, I’m sure that’s possible. Will anybody care enough to program such a beast? Unlikely.

But there’s my fresh new thought for Sun in Sagittarius. And I’m going to keep exploring from here.

I hope you do too.
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Venus in Sagittarius: Relief in Release

Song of Songs (Cantique des Cantiques) by Gustave Moreau

(1893, watercolor on paper, Ohara Museum of Art)

When Venus enters Sagittarius on October 7th at 5:55 in the afternoon (UT/+0 time), we’ll all feel some sense of release.

It’s not the answer to all our prayers, but it’s something. Everyone has been feeling a deal of intensity in their life. That intensity has been growing rather steadily…actually for quite a long time now. Back when Saturn entered Scorpio (this is now October of 2012 we’re talking about) we all felt life enter some kind of ‘new phase.’ We understood it was there, and we knew we had to deal with it whether or not we liked all of it.

Sometimes that’s just how life is. And that quality – the ‘dealing with the reality of life’ is the core of all things Saturn. So that fits.

More recently, two things occurred. One was the early September (September 3rd) onset of this November’s Scorpio solar eclipse effects…the ‘prep for evolution,’ call it.

Then Venus moved into Scorpio on September 11th, setting us all up for all those contentious little moments when whether or not we were ‘picking sides’ in any real sense, we felt what we felt and we wanted everyone else to comply with what we felt about things.

Venus in Scorpio is famous (if not infamous) for a bias of preference. Actually, Scorpio is famous for a bias of preference, and Venus in Scorpio just brought that out of us…marking three (plus) weeks when we have all wanted what we wanted, which everyone else having their stuff center stage in their mind elicited in them – at least as far as we were concerned. They may have been totally focused on whatever we realized they were focused on all along. But by gum, Venus in Scorpio brought that out in them…which in turn brought our stuff out in US.

No, it wasn’t graceful. Nor was it all terribly ‘Scorpio-ish’ in the sense that one generally thinks of Scorpio. What it was, however, was a time when through bringing the least satisfying aspects of our own life out in others – or in conversations or situations, we got the opportunity to recognize our weaknesses. Often these came through challenging or even unsatisfying (read: ridiculously lousy) interactions with others. Venus passing through Scorpio ‘evidenced’ and ‘elicited’ facets of the pre-solar eclipse ‘breaking down’ mode so that we could have the chance to see how to (Venus) improve how we do things (or how we grapple with the idea of doing things) in order to get better reactions, responses and opportunities.

Not that most of us responded all that well.

But being that this was Venus – and with Venus being totally ‘at home’ in Scorpio’s polarity sign of Taurus, it was natural to have everyone projecting their desires and emotional lessons onto each other…and that applied individually, depending on who we are. The whole structural dynamic of that time was Venus in Scorpio – the projecting and interacting and trying to get our own approval for our own position through others (often failing utterly)…and even as a Pisces astrologer I can say it wasn’t all that easy to remember that when my Virgo friends were telling me to have faith that was THEIR lesson while as a Pisces I was trying to find the information and be pragmatic and practical, which was MY lesson.

I’ve been thinking about all this in the past few days, which is maybe less helpful than it could have been (had I gotten this into my head a month ago) but now we’re here and since September 29th Mercury has been in Scorpio with Venus now moving on into Sagittarius.

That’s the point here. Mercury and Saturn are both in Scorpio. Being ruler of Virgo and Gemini, Mercury will now be ‘evoking’ (or bringing to light) thoughts, situations and conversations which present questions of Virgo functionality and ethics in a very intense light as it ALSO (in being in the 6th derivative sign to choice-oriented Gemini) forces us to focus on whatever choices need to be made…or maybe remade. The combination of Mercury and Saturn in Scorpio as the sign of the incoming eclipse is the signature of a time which is sobering in its realities and emotionally trying in that it is forcing us to recognize what really ‘isn’t’ about “them” and is really our affair.

Or our responsibility.

Or our choice.

Or the ‘price’ of being the person we need to be in our own life if we are to feel fulfilled and satisfied in the (Saturn) long run.

INTO WHICH…comes Venus in Sagittarius. Simply as a combination, Venus in Sagittarius tends towards the fun, and often towards the hilarious and frivolous and fascinatingly exciting.

Except for the solar eclipse. Because all this ‘weight’ is sitting in the sign behind Sagittarius (yes, we’re talking about Scorpio) this is like having the proverbial 600-pound gorilla poking us from behind. (And no, gorillas aren’t known to be either very gentle or picky about where and how hard they poke.) Any time any heavy energetic is in the sign ‘behind’ anything in the metaphysical sense, we’re talking a 12th house harmonic.

At the same time, we could also say that Venus being in Sagittarius is in the 2nd derivative sign to Scorpio.

And this difference probably outlines a good portion of the choice or ‘balance’ which is going to be going on in all of our lives from the 7th through the 23rd of October, when the Sun moves into Scorpio.

That’s a bit of a game changer.

Meanwhile, first things first. Venus in the 2nd derivative sign to Scorpio tells us that this is a good time to try out new ways of doing things – or that by doing things in a new way (or simply by doing new things) we will at the very least be able to get some perspective on what’s going on in the rest of our life.

That the Sun is still in Libra during this October 7-23 period highlights matters social and societal specifically in the sense of jobs and incomes and being part of ‘your group’ and making all that work.

Or not.

And that ‘or not’ part comes from the Scorpio thing, which no, we don’t get to get away from. Remember – with Saturn in Scorpio, reality is reality and our reality isn’t just ‘what we work for’…it’s how we go about working towards it and who we choose to go about trying to work towards it with.

That last little phrase is the glitch-maker, most likely, as the whole of this evolving solar eclipse pressure-fest comes down to are you invested with the right people doing the right thing? We each are going to have to sort through both parts of this equation. In other words, you may be doing the perfect ‘right thing’ but be doing it in conjunction with the wrong people. Or maybe you’re connected to a lot of really wonderful folks, but your function or your abilities aren’t working for you or otherwise fitting into the mix.

Either one – or both – can be wrong now. And the Venus in Sagittarius part of this is, first and foremost, the recognizing that there’s more to the world (and your world) than you had suspected. Somehow, through some means, by some mode, through some tweak of chance we each and every one of us will encounter something new…or maybe just some unexpected response to something we’ve been doing the same way for ages and ages…which cues us in to realizing there are options – valid options – which could make our life a whole lot better than it is right now.

This isn’t easy because right now there’s a HUGE amount of energy invested in our emotional status quo. You may be in the middle of changing your house, your career, your marital status, your health status – whatever….and all of that will make you want to preserve your emotional status quo so you can “get through” whatever you’re doing.

That’s the Scorpio part.

But then comes the glimmer. The understanding. The realization. The opportunity to have life be even better. Or more effective. Or more of what you really want it to be though you hadn’t imagined doing it quite that way…

And just that much, just that little idea is going to get a really touchy response from you, from me and from everyone else we know. (And don’t know, for that matter.) Why? Because with Venus in Sagittarius, all the Scorpio ‘stuff’ is in the derivative 12th sign position. And since anything having to do with a derivative 12th anything presents us with the need to not just feel our feelings but feel ourselves feeling our feelings, this comes down to how we equipped we are emotionally…and self-reflectively.

And yes, these are two different things. I have a friend who is just sterling when it comes to self-reflection but who sucks when it comes to getting emotionally intimate with their Self, never mind anyone else. Point taken?

Another side of Venus in Sagittarius is the idea of ‘gaining perspective’ – whether that’s on yourself, what you’re doing or life in general. Things we learn at this level can be motivational, even inspirational.

Then again, they can bring on a perfect deluge of doubts.

It all depends on where Sagittarius…and yes, Scorpio…fall in your natal chart.

It also depends on your natal Venus – if it’s a happy Venus or a Venus which just never seems to get what it wants. (You unhappy Venus people know who you are, no question.)

One other thing we should remember about this Venus in Sagittarius passage is the fact that Mercury – representing mentality and communication – goes into retrograde on October 21st. On the face of it, that ratchets up the rate or pace of everything coming at us as of around …say, October 12th. That Mars will move into Virgo (one of the signs Mercury rules) on the 15th adds a note of ‘necessity’ to the balance of October and on into November.

 Venus as photographed by the Hubble Telescope in August of 2010 (NASA-ESA)

Were you planning on this month being humdrum? So sorry to disappoint…

Venus will be in Sagittarius until November 5th. And though Venus and Mars will never come into direct square aspect during that time, the ‘aura’ of being out-of-step with what we consider our normal Self or our desired aims…or at least what we came into this period thinking of as our desired aims…is not likely to congeal.

Being that Mars will have come into Virgo from Leo, that suggests a sort of ‘running at full steam’ from the 7th through the 15th only to have a series of things pop up after the 15th which present new problems, challenges, ideas or questions (all represented by ongoing meteor shower) stir our thoughts about whether something is workable.

Or even desirable.

Or whether there’s maybe something even better out there.

Venus in Sagittarius – in its most optimal form – is like seeing the universe…the ‘everything which is out there’ to choose from for the very first time. It can be daunting. It can be wondrous.

Sometimes just knowing how much there is makes us feel very small. Sometimes it allows us to understand that we’re part of everything around us, and that we can indeed gain from allowing ourselves to be guided by the good idea…while being realistic about where it takes us.

This is Venus’ last shift of sign before November’s eclipse. About the time Mars enters Virgo on the 15th, Venus conjuncts Antares, reminding us that with our every choice we have the opportunity to do good…or just to get things done. To do for ourselves or to enhance the whole, thereby creating a better future.

Which matters more to you?
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