A Water Grand Trine in Planetary Major

Image based on a photo of water impacting a water-surface

(photo credit: Marion Felippe, January 2008)

In our last episode (welcome to my celestial soap opera) the highly attractive Venus slid her hot planetary self into Leo. And yes, Venus is hot – but not that kind of hot! On the average, it’s something like 462 degrees Celsius on Venus’ surface.

(Talk about a Sun burn!)

But Venus fluffing into Leo ‘mane event’ sort of mode wasn’t the only astral event which was of note on June 26th. No sir, not at all! June 26th was also the date when Jupiter moved into Cancer.

You might say that as Venus began to roar, Jupiter got crabby. But we won’t go there. Instead we will turn to a fact of FAR greater astrological importance: namely, that in moving into Cancer, Jupiter was not only creating a triumvirate of major planets in water signs, but – because Saturn is at 4 Scorpio and Neptune is at 5 Pisces – Jupiter also came into that 5-degree standard orb which would energize a rather grand Grand Trine in the element of water.

And this is of importance WHY, you ask?

Well, this is of importance to all those on Earth who have feelings. Or even feelings about feelings, as water is the zodiacal sign of all things feeling…and all those things we feel the most about (family, sex, money, death, birth, war, home, homeland and so on).

So to have major planets in each of the zodiac’s water signs? That’s a big to-do. To have them in aspect to each other?

That’s a big giant deal.

And on top of that, two of the three planets in question here have ‘essential dignities’ in the signs they are transiting. What’s an ‘essential dignity’? That’s astrological shorthand for saying the effects seen during that planet’s transit of the given sign is stronger than one might expect.

Think of it as turning up the volume and you won’t be far from wrong.

So we have Saturn in Scorpio, representing our efforts to grow our ‘structural effectiveness’ and the various pro and con things which happen there (representing how stable we really are with ourselves and how adept we are with the whole realm and range of forming supportive alliances with others).

‘In the Shadow of Saturn’, one of spacecraft Cassini’s most startling and beautiful images shows planet

Saturn aligned between Cassini and the Sun, the light of which is diffused by Saturn’s

multitude of rings

(photo credit: NASA-JPL-Caltech)

Saturn has no particular dignity in Scorpio, it’s just a fabulous opportunity to move ahead in life or a long series of headaches, depending on how you handle things. (Or don’t, depending.)

Then we have Jupiter in Cancer. Why Jupiter is dignified in Cancer has never really crystallized in my brain. (My alleged brain, that is.) But Jupiter is dignified in Cancer, meaning that for the next year or so there is a whole shopping cart’s worth of subjects which could go well…or simply get out of hand, depending on a.) how well we deal with and from our native emotional nature and, b.) whether we’re on a right track with our life as a whole. Cancer being the sign of ‘populations’ (national, familial and otherwise), this is a positively propitious period if you want to do something to get your name on the map.

Of course if you look around and listen to the news, it’s pretty obvious that renown isn’t always a positive thing. There are those who get known for their very worst attributes, and there are those for whom public exposure becomes a personal hindrance. Even a disaster.

Jupiter’s tendency to ‘enlarge’ everything is highly likely to result in a spate of hearing people who dreamed big and made it big…and people who got carried away in a very bad direction. There are those who will now move up in the world, and those who will find themselves swallowed up as by the ground itself. 

Planet Jupiter as photographed by spacecraft Voyager
(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

While I’m thinking about it…though I’m not fully proficient in astrological meteorology, it doesn’t take an astro-genius to guess that a grand trine in water might very well herald some pretty large events of the Very Wet Kind. Think weather, tides, rivers, ice floes, water bourn illness, boats, underwater drilling, all things fishy and otherwise oceanic – the works.

But don’t just stop there. Water signs do ‘point’ to things which directly have to do with water, yes. But they also point to everything which provokes or evokes emotion. So people will be more emotional. And there will be things to be emotional about, whether that emotion is love, lust, greed, anger, sorrow, glee, awe or anything else.

Let’s also not forget that because a grand trine of any sort represents an ‘ongoing pattern’ which is very hard to break out of, this could refer to a continuing drought. Or continuing cruelty. Or an unremitting illness.

Or – yes – continued success. On the personal level it really all depends on how water signs operate in your chart…and to some degree, the ‘condition’ of your Moon – some portion of which can probably be told by your feelings…and your relationship to feelings in general. So maybe you’re someone who avoids feelings altogether. Or you shy away from anything negative. Maybe you’re known as insensitive. Or you’ve buried something shame, some guilt, some ‘inner knowing’ that you’re not doing what you should be doing under your mental rug.

(You know…it’s amazing what lurks under mental rugs – not to mention the emotional gunk we try to flush down the psychic drain!)

This photo of Saturn’s south pole reveals a really intriguing hexagonal  cloud formation.  Whatever the planetary mechanics may be which produce this, it does remind me of the classic concept of work and responsibility which are part of the ‘sixth phase’ in the metaphysics of astrological thinking.
(photo credit: NASA – JPL)

The dynamic of grand trines being ongoing and pretty much inescapable, the up-versus-down of what goes on now because LIFE is providing such ‘consistent’ support, provocation, opportunity or lack of same (depending on where we are with ourselves) is the underlying crux of a metaphysical process which starts ‘in orb’ state on June 26th, and which never ‘perfects,’ except at whatever level we accept life’s imperfections as perfectly normal.

And that may be part of the ‘learning process’ which comes with this period: feelings aren’t perfect, life is messy, we’re always going to be dealing with something.

But is that bad? Probably not, as lack of satisfaction is one of the primary motivators of change, action and acceptance of life as reality – not some ideal we’d like to think life is.

Maybe the point is about how once we accept the glitches, challenges and problems, then we start working to improve things where and how we can without feeling diminished or having to deny, ignore or indulge in false fronts?

Maybe. Meanwhile, here's a list of days and dates which apply to this water-trine-in-motion.

In many ways, this is emotional time is embraced - or if if you prefer, bracketed - by Mercury's retrograde passage. It all starts with Jupiter entering Cancer at Mercury station-retrograde. And that's sort of akin to a metaphysical pointer causing us - by whatever means - to focus on inner feelings. Maybe it's just what we feel. But then again, maybe it's about why we feel a given way. Or...given that Mercury is going retrograde late in Cancer (while Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune are all in early degrees) – maybe that's a tip-off about how we need to be conscious of what others say, think or do.

Or don't say, think or do.

Or how or why we don't agree with them...or how, why and where they don't agree with us.

Of course this would also make sense thought of as some life factor or incident which ‘enlarges’ (Jupiter) on something in our (Mercurial) mind. And maybe that causes us to focus on new goals. Maybe we're sick and tired of something. Maybe we've reached our breaking point.

Or maybe we've just had some sort of break through. Or we're breaking out of some shell - even one we may have loved and cherished for however long.

While I'm thinking about it, if you have points in early degrees of any water sign, they're going to get 'swept up' in this grand trine formulation. For instance, my Moon is at 7 Scorpio. So as soon as Jupiter reaches 2 Cancer, that draws my Moon into a grand trine effect.

Seeing as my personal Sun is at 4 Pisces (meaning there's a native water trine in my natal chart) I'm used to trine effects. And you may be too. But a grand trine "deepens" the effect, making it something which is virtually 'inescapable' for a while. 

In essence, whatever begins formulating will represent some form of reaching for a ‘new step in the process’ as Saturn reaches its station in early July at a Cancer New Moon. Or, seeing as this is Saturn we're talking about, something coming to be. Or something ending. The idea of Saturn as 'a structure' can be something we build our life on (or within) or something we wall something out with.

And since Cancer is a sign the Moon rules, this incoming Saturn station is going to be a time when feelings come to be more clarified - which isn't to say those feelings will be all good. They could be, of course - combinations of Saturn emphasis and lunar 'punctuation' are well known for delivering rewards or results. Or getting us to move on something we've been dithering on!

On the other hand, Saturn-Moon combinations sometimes have to do with fears. Even rejection. Yet strangely, even as they inhibit one thing, a New Moon-in-Cancer combining with Saturn-in-Scorpio may signal our turning away from the old in favor of doing it the way we know (deep down inside) we should be doing it.

Yes, we may just grow up. At least a little now!

Then there's Saturn and Jupiter. Jupiter and Saturn having long been known as that combination which builds nations and brings down kings, Jupiter reaching its trine-point to Saturn on July 13th brings up where life is ‘going together,’ where things are ‘stuck’ or where they’re coming apart. Given the degrees involved, many of us will be facing ‘fateful confrontations’ which, though set off by circumstances, are really about our own willingness to take life on as an individual or on some individual basis. Like as not this is what we will all be dealing with as Neptune backs into 4 Pisces on July 15th (UT/+0 time), bringing this major planet grand trine to ‘perfected’ focus over the 15th, 16th and 17th…during which time Uranus just happens to be going retrograde.

Planet Neptune, as photographed by NASA

(As if such things happen coincidentally?)

Breakthroughs versus breakage versus being ‘broken down’ by is the Uranian note, one which as a contributor (so to speak) of the ongoing water trine suggests a shift, a realization, a recognition of our own part in the creating of our own dramas. That we think others don’t see about themselves, maybe we don’t see in ourselves. The cost of not expanding our (Uranus in Aries) scope of consideration may be exactly why we don’t get consideration (or considered) by others.

We can’t do what we say to others ‘don’t do’ and think the karma of that choice isn’t squarely on us.

And that, my friends, is one of the things this watery grand trine seems to scream over all: what we work to create defines what we earn...but how we go about doing it becomes our karma.

Even from a couple of weeks in advance of Uranus’ station (in other words, now) it would seem pretty darn likely that life will be enveloping us in circumstances which we don’t quite control, but which we also ignore to our own detriment - particularly in that oh-so karmic way. We can't shut out the uncomfortable, nor is what we want always what works best in the long run. Life will out. Life will always out! Life will find a way to prove to us that we don’t control experience, experiences control us. The integrity we live with, we need to live with because life – as Existence – is integrity in the sense that the All, the Everything is the integrity we call Existence. Our opting out of this or that for our own emotional comfort doesn’t disrupt life – it only stunts us.

And what is stunting? Isn’t it another way of saying ‘short-changing’?

It’s all so very interesting. Noodles to noodle over, maybe we should say. And noodle we will, whether that’s ramen, linguini or otherwise, in our mind, in our life, and yes – maybe even in our tummies.

When Jupiter moves to 5 Scorpio on the 18th, that marks the grand trine's intensity beginning to loosen. But let's not kid ourselves - it's not over yet! 

Not hardly. With Uranus going retrograde on the 17th and Mercury going direct on July 20th a day after Eris goes retrograde is a whole new ticket to adventure.

And let's be real here....when you put Uranus, Mercury and Eris together, 'adventure' is the nice word for it! So much energy is now coming to a head and for whatever reason the Aquarian Full Moon on July 22nd strikes me (even without analysis of its details) as a 'trigger point.' Will that mean something is touched off in real life...or in our psyches or feelings?

And still this water grand trine continues on. Considering the Uranus-Mercury-Eris relationship through all their stations we are going to be...or be put into position to respond to something. But what is that going to be? Will it be something delightful that we've set up and which like some fairy tale is now coming true? Or is it some emotion-laden cost for ‘unspent’ capital held too close for our ultimate purpose?

Whatever happens, it's going to be a noisy time. Emotionally noisy, if nothing else.

Jupiter's Rings (in False Color) as photographed by Voyager 2
(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

But as this grand trine ends come August 10th (a few days after Mercury exits its retrograde shadow) maybe we will have come to realize the difference between recognizing the need to take responsibility for our own feelings (whether they be heartwarming or challenging)…or not.

By that time, Venus will be in Virgo, a clue which suggests that where we came into this time imagining we knew what was good, maybe ‘good’ isn’t about the fun and pretty stuff. Do we use emotionality as an escape? Or is it a symptom which at some level simply expresses our desire to have everything be as we imagine it as a defense against fear of the unknown?

That leads me to one of my pet questions: isn’t ‘the unknown’ another name for what we have yet to learn and be enriched by?

What’s so scary about that? Isn’t learning more and becoming more ‘emotionally solvent’ in our own souls how we come to feel better about life itself?
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Mercury Direct and an Evolutionary Yod

The photograph upon which this blog header is based was taken of 
Mercury by spacecraft Messenger on a second flyby.

(photo credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Lab,Carnegie Intitute of Washington, January 2013)

Mercury will be going direct at 5 Pisces on March 17th at 8:04 in the evening, UT/+0 time.

As we have spoken of many a time, fixed (and Royal) star Fomalhaut is positioned at 4 Pisces, a degree which asks us to live in this world but see the greater importance of what we do. When we do that, and when we are able to see that what we do matters, yes – we may get ‘shaken’ (or stirred, she says in her very best James Bond voice) by sensing the vastness of time and our own ability to ruin things (for ourselves and others) even when we don’t mean to.

And with Neptune at 3 Pisces, there’s a lot going on. 3 Pisces happens to be one of my favorite Sabian Symbols. Why, I’m not sure, but I think I just love the clarity and geography spoken of in the image: HEAVY CAR TRAFFIC ON A NARROW ISTHMUS LINKING TWO SEASHORE RESORTS. However you think of this Sabian Symbol, it seems to imply a.) a lot of other people, b.) some sort of congestion or a circumstance which is ‘tied up’…and those seaside resorts? They may represent choices or destinations or sources of pleasure. Or you might go with the more metaphysical concept of ‘where land meets water’ and the intersection of solid ‘mental ground’ and the tide-tossed waters of emotionality.

This image can also be thought of as something which ties two things together. For you that could be something as simple as a road. Or some philosophical concept such as your place in the great chains of human generations as the parent which ties your parents to your children - be that a cultural measure or as someone recognizing how the world changes, and has changed.

You may even think of this in terms of people (or positions) such as that of the newly elected Pope, who on a theoretical basis ties the Beyond to the Now - and how such people stand for more as an examples to us all, whatever you believe or don't believe in Catholic doctrine.

We are each and every one of us a link. We are each where the All of Existence becomes the One person - the 'us' - who has a chance to do good or fall into ills, or to serve witness in this world.   

However you think of it, Neptune’s presence in this degree denotes a time when our ‘reality boundaries’ about all such matters ‘dissolve.’ So where you may have had great clarity, you may now not feel so sure. Or maybe you haven’t felt sure at all but have been all angst-ridden about something. Now you may learn to do what you need to do without caring what it ‘looks like.’

This all connects rather well to Mercury’s position in 5 Pisces, as 5 Pisces is a degree which is at some level about ‘presenting an image.’ Yet with Neptune close by, why that image is presented may be the question.

Neptune is often associated with gurus, charity, spirituality and healing because it is a symbol of ego-denial. That ‘dissolving’ spoken of above is exactly that. Whatever your thoughts are, or your positions are or what you think you ‘know’ (all those things being symbolized by Mercury)…wherever you have fears connected to those things, or hopes which are just about wanting things to be ‘nice’ (or okay or devoid of strife) simply because you can’t bear to feel those “terrible feelings,” that’s where your biggest ‘tests’ are likely to occur.  Though I’m not trying to say something truly difficult or painful might not happen (it could, let’s face it), there’s a difference between dealing with the inevitabilities of reality and the fear connected to having to feel whatever feelings we attach to the idea of the thing.

That’s Neptune in Pisces. And when we throw in the mentality and communications side of Mercury, we get those who would escape reality and those who will realize that as was put by a far greater human being than myself (Franklin Delano Roosevelt), “there is nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Fear is…our greatest fear. I know that sounds funny, but if you think about it, it’s true. What is going to happen will happen. How we feel about it is what makes some things so horrifying. For all the blood and gore in today’s movies, one of the best stories (and truisms) in all of Hollywood’s history comes from the master of tension himself, Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock knew that if you don’t show the act itself you can scare the audience in ways showing something on film will never reach. Why? Because each of us are afraid of different things. The functionality of our imagination (Neptune/Mercury) is far more powerful than reality.

So! Yes, this would be a great time to release a horror film which doesn’t show the gore, but ‘shadows’ it…letting us ‘know’ something terrible has gone one while letting us each fill in the blanks in our own gruesome way.

On another level, this ‘implying but not showing the whole truth (Neptune/Mercury) can be deceit. Or propaganda. Or lying.

Into all this comes Deneb, a fixed star greatly overshadowed (astrologically, at least) by Fomalhaut. Situated at 5 Pisces and thus exactly conjunct Mercury’s station, Deneb is part of the constellation Cygnus – the Swan.
 

  A Cygnus constellation map, including Deneb in the position of the swan's tail

(credit: copyright 2003 Torsten Bronger, used by CCR permission)

In the Greek stories, Cygnus is connected to Pisces through the idea of Zeus (Jupiter) having taken the form of a swan in seducing Leda, wife of a Spartan king named Tyndareus and the mother of none other than Helen of Troy…which apparently proves that even Greek gods are subject to Karma.

The swan is of course, a water bird. And through this Jupiterian-swan connector, we see that the Jupiter ‘wisdom of the choice’ (which is highly Piscean) can have huge, universal consequences.

But Cygnus – as a constellation – goes back beyond Things Greek. This means that when we move back to a time before the Hellenistic separation of intellect and emotionality into a time when there was no ‘science’ per se, just spiritual philosophies…the attempts by mankind to understand their world. All of this time has come down to us conceptualized as ‘early religion.’ But back then it seemed to have operated more as a unifying and universal shamanistic theory - an understanding of how Existence works as opposed to ‘rules, rituals and regulations’ to live by which is more akin to today’s rather codified religions.

Anyway…back then the image of the swan was somewhat akin to what we think of today as ‘the phoenix,’ if less in the death-and-rebirth ‘rising from the ashes’ mode (which would be Scorpio) and more in the ‘understanding you are part of Something Greater and that in being part of that Greater Thing have both the power to work good and the power to destroy.’

 Another amazing Hubble Space Telescope photograph, this one being of one of the stars in constellation Cygnus. Here the star is in one of its late phases of 'star life,' a stage where the star sheds its atmosphere into nearby space

(photo credit: ESA-Hubble-NASA, July 2010)

And to know that? To understand that in being part of the Whole and so very much a valid part of that Whole that you can really affect the whole – that we ALL can?

That’s pretty daunting. Even scary.

…There is nothing to fear but fear itself…

In the constellation of Cygnus, Deneb is the tail. With a bird, tails serve as stabilizers and rudders – they keep the even keel and help determine where the bird (our power) is headed. In Pisces, that’s the Jupiterian ‘in door’ decision to do something or not do it, to recognize the truth of it or to deny it, to relinquish the control and feel the feeling or to deny reality through the power of our ego.

And of course the tail is the last thing to leave ground. So we can remain rooted…or we can be grounded.  Which is it?

Deneb has a reputation for strong wills and strong tempers. With Mercury going direct here with Neptune so close by and with Chiron (vulnerability) positioned at 10 Pisces this would be a time when your own relationship to will and displays of will are likely to play out. Are you afraid of confrontations? Or maybe you’re someone who speaks their mind and lives to regret it?

Foot-and-Mouth is an animal disease. Foot-IN-Mouth is an all-too-common human habit!

Having Chiron in orb (within 5 degrees) to be conjunct Mercury and in the first of Pisces’ emotion-meets-emotionality degrees tells us this is a time when we will at least feel some sort of vulnerability. It may not be in present tense…meaning, this could be about guilt rising up to stick in your craw like a pill which won’t go down.

With Mercury going direct on the 17th, that means its ‘station window’ opens on the 15th, as the Moon moves into Taurus, rousing our feelings about self worth, the values of our values and our general security about our lives, whether that ‘security’ plays out on a physical, emotional, financial or whatever other level.
But then…just because the universe is a fun sort of place, then we get a little Yod thrown into our Mercury station party.

A Yod, you say?

Yes, a Yod.

Maybe you remember our discussing a Saturn Yod as part of the Saturn-going-retrograde discussion back in February?

Link to post:
Saturn Station-Retrograde (Part 2)

Well, let’s just say that the first thing to consider with this next Yod moment includes the fact that Saturn is STILL sitting at 11 Scorpio.

So yes, that brings in all that energy we could associate with the fire aboard the cruise ship in the Caribbean…

Link to post:
Carnival Triumph: Sparking
a Corporate Firestorm?

Pope Benedict XVI announcing he was going to step down…

Link to Post
Pope Benedict XVI Gives Notice

...anything which would in any way call our attention to a lack of ability or having reached our limits, or tests of tolerance along with our individual and collective sense of standards, all that is Saturn in Scorpio, which is now retrograde, or working from within.

Saturn's energy isn’t going to be quite as potent or focused now that Saturn has actually gone retrograde, but it’s still pretty darn thick. How you feel about it and what part of your life is being affected a lot or a little will depend on where Saturn is sitting in your chart and what it may aspect, of course.

But if Saturn is 'on' in your life, Saturn's having gone retrograde may actually feel even more intense. It may feel isolating or increase your sense of being burdened. Considering the sign here is Scorpio, there is an interactive quality to life which tests you - as all 'things Scorpio' will. And now, as Mercury goes direct, and especially as Mercury moves forward into orb to Saturn (which will start on March 21st and end on April 3rd)...this all becomes emotionally provoking.

It may not be overt, but the feeling's still there.

All if this effects us all at some level. Even if your chart isn't aspected directly by 11 Scorpio or by Mercury's going direct at 5 Pisces, you're living in a world which is being affected by the values - or lack thereof of others. You may feel some part of your life is being threatened in some way...or you may merely have to deal with others with grave concerns of some kind.

That's the funny thing about Pisces...at one level, Piscean issues are incredibly clear, and totally present. At another, they're impossible to define or pin down. And just that can be frustrating and upsetting, if not for us, to those around us. Many of the difficulties and isolation, the desperation and 'giving up' which is associated with this most universal and 'deep water' oceanic of water signs is the nebulous inability to convey ideas and feelings with clarity.

Or in some form others can deal with.

Acceptance lies at the heart of all Piscean situations. The accepting of love, the accepting of loss, the accepting of differences, the accepting of gifts. The acceptance that we have a responsibility to see and feel that which we know is true whether or not it 'feels good' or is popular. Accepting that no matter how close we will be to others than they're always someone else and that at some level we're all alone.

That's one of the hardest things we encounter with Pisces. And yet...we do have a chance to work our way through the 'traffic' of our thoughts or feelings or habits. 

Considering what's seems to be afoot now, we are all likely to be feeling a little separate...and perhaps in that be causing someone else to feel a bit more alone. And yet, it is when we are alone that we can so benefit from feeling ourselves think...exist...and feel.

Ah yes, another Piscean dichotomy.  

We should expect what we think, feel and hear to test our faith, our trust, our sense of reality, our capacity.

And just where ego gives way, that's where we'll find our greatest strength. But let's face it - the desire to know to define to predict is incredibly strong.

 
And then there's the Yod:

 

Obviously the fact that Saturn is involved in this Yod is why we should be drawing the mental (Mercury) line between now and Saturn’s mid-February station.

On the other hand, considering that Saturn and Mercury are both in water signs suggests emotionality. Or maybe emotional reactions which stem from realizing what we perhaps simply cannot do. Or cannot do anything about. Or maybe it’s about what we could do, but haven’t done.

With Jupiter being the ‘in’ door to Pisces and involved in this Yod, that brings all the Pisces questions up for grabs. So how well do you (Jupiter) know how your (Pisces) emotionality works? Do you (Jupiter in Gemini) really understand your mental capacity – or how emotions affect our ability to think things through, whether that’s you or someone else? How do your (Pisces/Scorpio) emotions and emotion-driven values affect what you choose to do or not do…or judge others or their opinions?

Do you even know what you think about something…or whether some subterranean (or submerged) emotional bias or emotional (Chiron) vulnerability or emotional (Pisces) fear is driving your (Gemini) choices?

And let’s remember…Jupiter in Gemini is FAMOUS for overstepping the bounds, going a little too far, talking out of turn, saying too much, leaping before we look – all that stuff. While we can use Jupiter in Gemini to force us past our own ‘I don’t want to go there boundaries,’ and in doing so perhaps discover important and useful things about ourselves or our world, this Yod, replete with its floating Plutonic sense of doom-versus-salvation can be a tough time.

In the above diagram, I’ve given you the dates of all three planet’s positions for the full duration that the Yod will hold, and the thing to understand is that the Yod isn’t a Yod UNTIL the third point (Jupiter) gets into 9 Gemini.

And yes, that was back on March 11th. But because Mercury rules Gemini, Mercury’s station is highly likely to ‘set off’ or evoke the issues involved.

Hence my noting it now, not before. But now the effects we would associate with the Yod are building - and being built into many daily moments of many kinds. So this would be the time to really consider it. This is a time to 'make a turn' in our thinking - that would be a primary image we would associate with Mercury going on station.

So what happens now we should probably consider long term. Or at least longer term.

The ‘rule’ with a Yod is that you solve the issue presented (whatever it may be) by going to the opposition of the point in the Yod.

That ‘point’ is Jupiter. And this is where this gets really interesting, as the Yod starts with Jupiter at 9 Gemini, the exact degree of Aldebaran, the fixed star which stands for integrity.

So it’s likely most people will simply get all stuck on the ‘integrity’ concept. But the point in opposition to 9 Gemini being 9 Sagittarius, that’s where we really should be looking.

Part One: 9 Sagittarius is occupied by another Royal Star (one of the four): Antares. Antares promises success IF and only if we avoid obsessions or becoming fixated. So obviously getting ‘fixated’ on integrity isn’t the way out of whatever happens now, even if Fomalhaut-Mercury-Neptune-Deneb-Chiron may manifest as our wanting to get up on our high haunches about the ‘right’ thing to do.

With Antares is Hebe, the sacred servant of the gods, which sort of gets back to that shamanistic bent we were talking about earlier. What this amounts to is a calling upon ourselves to feel the right thing and to know it’s right without insisting on it. Thus this Yod – and the Mercury station is greatly about being that which we are, that essence of universality.

For the more astro-technical among us I’ll point out why this would be: Antares/Hebe in Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, and Jupiter is in Gemini, which is ruled by Mercury. So in essence this station in particular is a flowing back and forth of an energetic which is about who we are, who we can be and how what and who we are and what we do affects the world that we – and ultimately those we love – live in.

Interpret that as you will.

This is where the Mercury station information – as such – ends. But for the sake of being thorough, it’s worth noting that as Jupiter moves into 10 Gemini on March 20th, Hebe will be moving with it.

Hebe by Laurent Marqueste (1848-1920)

This is a very subtle metaphysical idea of ‘service’ and our ability to (Gemini) choose what to ‘serve’ up to others in this world and in our lives, and that in doing so, we need to (Sagittarius) learn what works and what doesn’t work and correct our methods, course of actions and (yes,) choices accordingly.

By the time Jupiter reaches 11 Gemini, the opposition point is unoccupied – Hebe will be going retrograde at 10 Gemini on April 3rd (meaning its on station on the 1st), Which is rather a message in its own right.

That would tend to say this Yod, and what develops out of the lee of Mercury’s station (including what we learn as it goes direct) is all about recognizing who we are. That may happen through others. That may happen through assumptions melting away or rationales being debunked. To the degree that our egos get a workout (read: a dunk in that ghost pepper sauce) that may feel like it’s ‘about them’ or that ‘they did it’ or whatever. And whatever the acts or actions which spoon that salsa onto your tender ego may well be something you didn’t ask for and which you’re not in control of.

(Pisces, like its 4th zodiacal quadrant companions Aquarius and Capricorn, is like that.)

But the greater reason that life is handing you grapes divine or grapes sour now (or both) is about YOU. It’s about your learning more about you, including why you may not have recognized whatever until now.

All that in a nice, neat little Mercury station.

From which and through which we will evolve, yes.

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