Mercury enters Sagittarius

image: 'Abacus - a 12 part color wheel'

(image credit: DigiLab AVU, 2002)

Mercury is entering the Sagittarian realm on December 5th at 2:43 in the morning UT/+0 time. And that it’s doing so by hitting 0 Sag at a moment when it can be the thing shoehorned in between fixed star Toliman and universal(ist) Sappho would seem to say that everybody has stuff on their mind.

It's a bit of that Toliman thing...the what we can do but which we may or may not get around to doing (or being)?

Oh yeah, we’re all a bit at sixes and sevens with ourselves. No doubt we’d like to think we’d like things to be simple. But considering the evidence of how complicated all our lives seem to be?

It would appear that we humans don’t actually want anything to be simple. It would be antithetical to our big-brain beings to have nothing to think about, no matter what the meditation-prone think. Meditation and philosophy and all those things, those are coping mechanisms. They’re ways of gaining insight.

But for those who think any sort of silence or stillness or directed thought is going to change life? It may change their life, yes. But that’s because they’re changing the way they think.

That’s the Mercury precept. Whether we’re running through life, thinking about life or planning what we’re going to do with our lives, whether we’re using our thinking mechanism in a focused manner or merely to process our dance steps through life (I’m currently highly partial to electro swing, if you care) that’s the Mercury precept.

Mercury in Sagittarius has a reputation for lacking bounds and boundaries. So it would figure we will all have a lot…too much…the stuff we would rather not be thinking about…floating through our heads. And being that we’re humans (a mouthy species, it seems) some of that will fall out of our mouths and we will hear ourselves speak. Or we’ll hear others speak. Or we’ll have to contend with what we’re being told about ABC while we’re trying to finish up thinking through XYZ.

Yet for all that Mercury in Sagittarius tends to lack boundaries, for that same simple reason this is a hallmark of moving ahead. So you may be feeling like you need to ‘get out there.’ Or you need to throw off some shackle, some limitation, some old way of doing things because it’s just too confining.

The pitfalls during these weeks of Mercury in Sag (December 5th – December 24) are generally twofold. The all that’s out there and the wanting to get to what you want to get to can cause us to rush. Or be sloppy in some way which is going to trip us up.

Some of this is going to happen. So we take charge of what we can get ourselves to take charge of and we try and think through why we were sloppy in the moments when we were sloppy. What was so fool important and did we at least maintain enough of a sense of priority that the thing we did screw up on wasn’t something which is going to extract some life lynchpin?

A couple of days from now you’re going to hear that Mars is entering Libra. Considering that, it would seem that we have a time of opportunity.

And maybe we need it, yes. A lot of us have come to  Orcus' station with one path blocked, creating a consequence (Orcus) which is our needing to adapt... change...find a new way.

So some of us need to reach out. That quality - and minding who you're being as you reach out - all that becomes heightened once Mars gets into Libra. But there's more - the need to break through or break barriers for many of us is going to require striking out into uncharted territory of some type. That would be Mercury in Sag as the exploring and Mars in Libra as a 'conscious putting of Self (or what we do, have done or haven't done) on the line.'

Then as the month rolls forward we get into Uranus territory, which in raise tensions propels some of us into that 'new action' (creating our own 'breaking through' - namely of our own hesitation or resistance). That being mostly for those who have been having it in mind (or planning) coming into mid-December, others will find this period manifesting as new cracks in their mental asphalt and fractures crazing their nice neatly whitewashed image of things.

All of which gets us back to that Sagittarian ability (and tendency) to force the reality of the unknown on our imaginings. You know: learning differently. Or the different way. Or about the different thing. Or that your thing isn't what you thought it was, begging the examination of why you believed something so patently untrue.

(Oh yes...you wanted it to be true. You held onto its being true all during that long, long Mercury transit of that fixed emotions sign Scorpio.)

So yes...Mercury in Sagittarius is a great time for expanding horizons. Some will tell you it’s even a good time for taking a trip – which is a fine sort of idea as long as you’re starting out from the perspective of exploring what you could do.

Mercury in Sagittarius is a great time for the possible. But it also can raise your hackles. Those who can do the cheerful ‘letting water run off your well-oiled back feathers’ do pretty well under Mercury in Sagittarius… although there is some tendency to look like you don’t care. Or like you’re flighty… irresponsible... overly self-convinced without any real reason to be so full of yourself.

A lot of what is going to happen over these next few weeks will have a societal aura connected to it. That could be direct (as in: them and me) or it could be exclusionary, as in ‘I’m getting away from all that (and them).’ Ruling factors suggest a time when we’re in our heads and we’re thinking about how we feel about this or that and it all adds up to a lot about who we think we are, a world we’re living in which may or may not be what we were raised to think it was going to be…what ‘they’ know…what (as we all say from time to time to ourselves) we’re sure ‘they’ have no idea about with regards to our world.

Looking along the path ahead, Mercury’s doubling up on the Sun’s presence in Sagittarius probably heralds a few bobbled, messy days after which Mars enters Libra and we fly a bit less intensely but not any less proficiently until the weekend of the 14th when energy really begins to (Mars/Uranus) pop.

Or for you, maybe it’s a sizzle. Or a crunch, crackle or creak. 

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

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

We need to move on. This whole time is about moving on – not in terms of other people, but in terms of who we are. This is a time of rapid-fire re-estimations and when our values are going to be flexing, fluxing and squeezing out our impurities.

Or maybe keeping the impurities and squeezing out the good – there is that chance…which may be the point.

The thing about learning is we don’t know what we’re going to find out. Sometimes we learn things and they completely revolutionize our world. Sometimes things get tossed into our life and we hate them but they turn out to be good for us.

There are famous stories among astrologers about Sagittarius – it’s a sign which can be all about the magnanimous mentor and equally all about the over-convinced person determined to set themselves up to tell you the truth.

Except the trouble is…under Sagittarius, those who talk the loudest are often not able to make much stick. They may tell you what you want to hear or what you don’t want to hear not for your benefit, but because you aren’t even part of their equation.

Some call Sagittarius the sign of ethics. The truth is, Sagittarius can be ethical, but then again – your boundaries on ethics may not be the same as that someone else has.

Who’s right?

The Sagittarian response: “They are all equally right and equally wrong.”

Why that would be, could be and should be is the difference between understanding our Self and our Self among others – or as one part of the Whole which you may call society, Existence, whatever.

Sagittarius is where the zodiac breaks out it’s boundaries in every way. Where the first four signs are about learning to be who we are and the second four are about how and who we interact with, the last four signs are global and pluralistic.

They’re where we stop looking at everybody else and begin looking at ourselves through the perspective of everybody else. Every time any planet moves into Sagittarius and from there into Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces we know life is going to be more global. Speaking astrologically, we’re currently living through a period when generations are being shaped on this global level and when many of the powers which have kept individuals apart are being melted away.

It’s to think about, surely.

In that, these next few weeks will favor stepping light and keeping pace with yourself. Knowing what you’re doing is a good thing but that doesn’t mean you should only do what you know – or what you know will end in some manner you can predict.

It’s time for us all to take a step up, lest life tell us to take a step back with Mercury’s transit of Sagittarius merely being a timer pertaining to matters we need to learn from. The major influences which go along with this transit (Mars-Uranus in opposition plus Uranus and Venus stations) are all about getting us to flex and let go of old ways, limits, patterns – even alliance which no longer function as support or even supportively.

As we all know, when it comes to life and growth, we can change or we can be changed. And sometimes those things are one and the same – an idea which in its own right is rather hallmark Mercury in Sagittarius.
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Uranus Station-Retrogrades in Aries

Andrew Jackson's Right Eye from a United States $20 bill

(photo credit: RawheaD Rex, December 2008)

If Swedish astronomers ruled the earth, apparently planet Uranus would be known as Neptune.

Seriously.

When William Herschel discovered the-planet-which-would-be-Uranus back in March of 1781, he did what any loyal Brit would do: he notified the Astronomer Royal, one Nevil Maskelyne.

At the time, Herschel wasn’t even sure this object he had ‘discovered’ was a planet – he evidently referred to it as a ‘comet’ until an astronomer from an entirely different quadrant of the globe (Russia) did the math and – at least on paper – proved that this blueish-green object wandering around out there beyond Saturn did indeed orbit the Sun.

And yes, it fit the definition of the day to qualify for planet-hood.

It took a few years, but Herschel was eventually convinced that he had indeed done a wonderful thing – he had carved a niche in history for himself as the discoverer of a whole new…and as has came to be known…highly unusual world.

In honor of this accomplishment, Nevil Maskelyne asked Herschel if he would ‘do the astronomical world a favor’ and name his find – to which Herschel obliged by naming it after Britain’s current king, King George III.

The name didn’t stick. Evidently it struck folks outside of Britain as a bit too idiosyncratic. Or maybe aristocratic.

So other astronomers threw their planetary naming hats in the ring. One John Lalande suggested this find be named after its finder. But calling the planet ‘Herschel’ also didn’t stick. Apparently everybody outside of Britain kept saying ‘Who???’ 

It was at this point that Swede Erik Prosperin stepped up, suggesting that the new planet be called Neptune. It could even be combined with some variation on King George to celebrate some Royal Navy victories which came about in the course of fighting those feisty, pesky New World would-be Americans during the Revolutionary War.

After all, Neptune is the god of the sea, right?

Yes, but the war was ultimately lost. So out went ideas like Neptune George III and up stepped German astronomer Johann Bode who, after pausing to check and make sure that Anders Lexell (the Russian) had indeed done the orbital math correctly (lest it not bode well for Bode to stand up for an out of position planet), came out with a rather sterling and inventively logical suggestion, one which draws on the long-established hierarchy of Greek myth.

Bode’s premise was that as the mythic Saturn (Kronos) was the father of Jupiter (aka Zeus), so this new planet should embody that which Saturn came from. Thus he put forth the idea of using Ouranos, the Greek sky god, taking us back to more primordial times.

In the Greek beginning there was the sky… Ouranos… and Gaia, the earth. From them have come Saturn (the fact of hard reality) and Jupiter (the idea of all which may yet be or become).

With a little astronomical tinkering, we thus arrive at Uranus.

And about Herschel…not to worry. Though the astronomers (the factual group) went with some theoretical naming methodology, astrologers (the allegedly theoretical group) memorialized the guy who actually discovered the planet by coming up with a glyph to represent Uranus which is a Herschel “H” atop a circle/globe representing a planetary world.

 As the Uranus glyph has evolved, the 'H' for Herschel has

become more stylizes - at least in the world of astrological

fonts. But it's still there!

Funny how these things work, isn’t it? I actually got involved in this fracas when a couple of years ago planet hunter sublime Mike Brown was taking public votes for what to name a newly discovered moon orbiting dwarf planet Orcus.

It was absolutely an exercise in futility, but I wrote a long and impassioned email to Mike Brown asking that the astronomical community consider breaking with its long-held tradition of using symbols of difficulty as moon names for objects named for difficult premises.

No, I didn’t ask him to name the moon Candy Floss or anything so banal, but I threw our a handful of options.

And I was summarily bypassed – which to me only proves that metaphysical theory which says we learn what we need to learn when we need to learn it. Despite best efforts and Mike Brown’s subsequent public statement that he has no problem with astrologers or astrology as good astrologers (note the qualification, please!) know their stuff, do their research and don’t act on whim.

So Orcus’s moon got named Vanth (an unpleasant little Etruscan spirit assigned to shepherding souls off into the underworld) and the world got a public statement by one of its honcho astronomers that astrologers aren’t all full of hooey.

I took the compliment as intended and went my way, ne’er to darken Mike Brown’s email ‘in’ box until there came the day when I needed to ask about the rate at which the center of our Milky Way Galaxy (a black hole which is currently at 27 Sagittarius) moves for my 2012 book on travels through the land of the Maya, Travel Gossip. (Here’s a LINK to where you can pick up an eBook copy of same.) And yes, Mike-the-Gemini was very helpful.

Now that you know more about how planets get named than you had planned to ever know, back to Uranus.

But don’t think all that was not Uranian. Uranus is all about the unusual. The thing you never knew before. The surprise. The shock, the breakthrough, the discovery, the leap of faith, the flight of mental fancy. And when Uranus goes retrograde at 12 Aries on July 17th at 5:21 in the evening UT/+0 time, its likely that life will be showing us all just what we didn’t expect. Big or little, delightful or horrifying, Uranian stations always offer something unexpected.

That’s just the way Uranus rolls. And it does roll, you know. While other planets spin like tops, twirling along their orbits around the sun, Uranus rolls. All the other planets are relatively upright; Uranus is on its side. With an orbital period of just over 84 years Uranus spends just over forty years with one pole aimed at the Sun and the other forty-plus years with the other pole aimed at the Sun.

And yet…according to scientists (those astronomical types and their cousins the astrophysicists) Uranus’ equator – that part of the planet which is never aimed directly at the Sun – is still the warmest place.

Uranus and its rings (photo credit: NASA, JPL)

Of course, warm is relative. Uranus is a big thing – it’s about 63 times the size of Earth. And it’s quick. While Earth (which is tiny in comparison) manages one full revolution in 24 hours, it takes Uranus only 17 hours or so to spin itself around.

Somehow that makes me think of Uranus as the solar system’s Roto-Rooter device. Apparently life around this part of the galaxy periodically gets constipated and Uranus has to shake things loose.

Anyway…back to that temperature thing. According to NASA (who knows if anyone knows) the average temperature on Uranus is around 59 Kelvin – which to us Earth types is minus 350 Fahrenheit. So if you decide to visit Uranus, take warm socks.

Take ALL your warm socks. And some serious mittens.

The next factoid is astrological. Seeing as we give any planetary station a (minimum) 2-days before, 2-days after ‘station allowance,’ that means that while the Uranian ‘turning point’ is on July 17th, the ‘Uranus station’ starts on July 15th (maybe even the 14th) and extends through the 19th…maybe even the 20th.

And dwarf planet Eris is going retrograde on the 19th.

Plus Mercury is going retrograde on July 20th.

And let’s not forget that ongoing Jupiter-Saturn-Neptune grand trine in water. The ‘core’ period of that configuration ends on July 17th, just in time for Uranus’ station.

All this with Mars in Cancer. Mars will not have yet even entered the orb of opposition to Pluto in Capricorn, but as we talked about in the ‘we’re in for a crabby time!’ Mars in Cancer post, there’s a vibe which is going to be pretty pervasive for the entire six weeks or so that Mars is transiting the first of the water signs.

- link to post -

Mars in Cancer

It’s so going to ‘stir up’ the Jupiter side of things. And the emotional side of things. And the money and family and the general life-or-death side of things.

All things.

Into all this comes change-provoking, dynamite-like Uranus?

Gee. If I could, I would take a quick bus to another solar system for a week or two. (Or three.) But if I did that I’d miss out on all the doings here.

And life here on Earth is nothing if not in constant need of keeping up with. With Uranus going retrograde at 12 Aries, life is bringing us to where we have to make peace with ourselves about who we are…and aren’t. Some of this will be in spite of what others want, or despite our own misgivings. There are times when we have to fail one thing in order to succeed in another, and with Uranus taking station in the zodiacal company of Medusa, Nemesis and Orpheus, embracing our fears and abilities in all their naked primacy seems inevitable.

Being true to our capabilities is often a very far cry from what’s convenient. Or comfortable. The dual t-square presented at this station (with Uranus at the ‘t’ of both configurations) is a pretty sure sign that we need to stand (and stand up) for the necessary, not the popular.

And that’s not likely to be all that popular with us. But evidently talk (Vega) isn’t going to get us to any sort of lasting state of (Sphinx/Bali) happiness. Nor is not (Industria) tackling the (Facies/Pluto) intricacies of dug in situations going to help. We want to be who we know we can be…and yet so much and so many voices and warnings and challenges are standing in our way.

Besides, to really be as potent and powerful as we can be, to own our potential and not just go with sufficiency is strange. As Marianne Williamson said so well, it’s not the idea of being weak which scares most of us – it’s recognizing how powerful we really are.

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Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

- Marianne Williamson

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Power scares a lot of people. The idea of wielding power and being powerful sounds great. But with great power comes the greater responsibility to control what we do with that power, a test which is about our internal sense of entitlement - and whether we're a good judge of that...or even capable of holding ourselves to those limits we know in our hearts we truly believe in. Some of the scariest people to ever walk this earth are those who aren't scared of power at all simply because they lack sufficient conscience to care whether they do hold themselves to those limits.

And because we are scared of what we might do if given that 'absolute power which corrupts absolutely' we are afraid of that power which resides in each of our souls. It isn't about 'them'...it's about our willingness to take on the responsibility to govern ourselves. To many of us, that’s scary. And yet...how many of us think of having children as a total blessing? Isn't the responsibility for a helpless young life unable to stand on its own the greatest responsibility of all?

Medusa in this Uranus mix virtually guarantees we will all be meeting up with some sort of truth about ourselves that we’ve (Nemesis) always known but not wanted to (Medusa) face.

However these days…and those which have gone before…and those which are soon to come play out for you, the real question is whether you will break through your own resistance or not.

Retrogrades symbolize times when the work is done on the ‘inside.’ They’re when – in this case – we will do our changing on the inside, whether that’s voluntary on our part or driven by (in response to) external circumstances. Those of us who can use the next five months to work through or free ourselves from those invalid assumptions and the difference between the hope we aim for and the dream we think will magically ‘become’ reality will ultimately gain ground towards that which we (Alhena) purposefully strive.

Well, as long as that aim reflects our genuine Self, that is. And if it doesn’t, you’ll know as the uproar around you will increase. The debates and general sense of fracas will become overwhelming.

And yet…that could also be your challenge. So many of us give up and run away (another Uranus symptom) when the going gets tough.

So what’s the difference? How are we to know we’re headed in the wrong direction as opposed to simply meeting up with ‘normal’ challenges or interference thrown at us by those who may be less willing to challenge themselves and live up to their potential?

That is a very big problem, you know…the metaphysical rule known as ‘like attracts like’ is a 100% sort of thing. And when we’re not living at our potential level – or even striving to be what we have the capacity or capability of becoming as opposed to what we are willing to settle for because it’ll suit someone else’s fancy (or image or dream) – at that point in our lives we tend to get hooked into other people who are living at that less-than-sterling level in their lives.

And as we’ve all heard, misery loves company…which in the world of ‘like attracts like’ becomes a tendency for people to puddle together based on their weaknesses as opposed to their strengths. And when one person says ‘Gosh this puddle is muddy! I need to find me some fresher waters to swim in!’ everyone who isn’t ready to strive or let go of their own fears will generally try their hardest to keep you from excelling and moving on.

We see this all the time in relationships: one partner wants to grow and change and the other likes things just the way they are. Business, intimate or platonic, relationships need to have room for people to grow. They need to support our growth, not hinder it. Uranus in Aries is in the sign of Self – Aries. And this passage, whether internal or experienced as something happening ‘to’ you is often most destabilizing because you don’t want to change, because you’re afraid of shaking ‘the’ status quo or your personal sense of the status quo.

But let’s remember…you were born to be who you were born to be. That’s the Alhena part of one of the two t-squares presented at this station. Positioned at 9 Cancer, Alhena is all about learning to be grateful for the graces and talents we each have and our ability to make something of our life, no matter what that becomes. Modified by Mercury being at 13 Cancer with a little Sirius ‘brilliance’ added on top, this t-square asks us whether we are willing to have a reason for working as hard as we do to become ‘someone in this world’ beyond the obvious.

Our humanity, not our things, define us. And with Nemesis-Orpheus positioned with Uranus and Medusa at the ‘t’ of this station’s double ‘t’ square, it is to be guessed that a lot of people…a LOT of people…are going to be going through things which will lead them to realize that in the end it isn’t our image but our reality which fills us with happy motivation or stress, regrets and a feeling of instability and loss.

Orpheus in the Inferno by Mihail Ştefănescu (c 1870)

Loss itself is a two-sided thing. There is of course, the loss of a person. Or a 'thing' (or things). But our experience of that loss is the destabilization of our sense of status quo. Our security about who we are in this life and what we're doing in this world.

You know, the Aries part of our life.

Having the ability or the talent is one thing. Learning to use it is another thing. Realizing that our gifts are only gifts when they’re given to those whose lives we can enhance…and that it is for that action, that choice, that ability that we are rewarded in the most worldly and ‘life’ sense…that’s an ultimate sort of recognition, one which takes place inside us, and which at some point either changes the trajectory of what we’re aiming at in life – or doesn’t.

This is not a stable moment. It may be exciting, it may be a headache, it may be tragic, it may be motivational, delightful, confounding or anything else.

In the end it’s meant to open us to that we have not experienced yet. It’s meant to break through our hard shell so that we can feel that part of ourselves we haven’t yet allowed to come forth and become our ticket to new experiences.

Uranus doesn’t represent the subtle. At it’s most gentle end, this is the energy we know as ‘flexibility.’ But as anyone who has been made to tolerate a period of not knowing understands, that’s a trial of its own.

At it’s most volatile, Uranus represents sudden eruptions and breakages. A great earthquake which wasn’t in motion a second ago and which is destroying my status quo in the next is a Uranian event. The Uranus part for Earth is the shifting of Earth’s crust…that thing science refers to as plate tectonics. But in my life, that moment can be devastating. Or it can merely provide me with a wakeup call, a reminder that I’m not in charge of this world, life is.

Ultimately, all events which occur around any Uranus station pertain to this idea. We tend to get complacent. People are fond of thinking they’re in charge of this world and ‘masters of all they survey.’

Then life comes along and shows us that there is far, far more to life than we had suspected. An earthquake can hit. An economy can fracture. A marriage can end. We can get hit by a train. Our home might get burglarized. We might have a child. And that child may grow up to be a genius despite our thinking they were nobody.

Or they might turn out to be a mass murderer.

Everything ‘out there’ which orbits beyond Saturn is by definition ‘beyond human limits.’ We talk a deal about everything beyond Neptune (our solar system’s last full-sized planet) being that which we hadn’t experienced before, or suspected.

But between Neptune and Saturn…there orbits Uranus, which at some level represents exactly that – the ‘break’ between what we fully understand (Saturn and everything within the orbit of Saturn) and that which we can never fully predict or know until ‘the effect of it’ (the ripples caused by objects moving through space) comes past Neptune heading for that Saturn boundary where it enters our reality.

Along the way, such ‘unknowns’ pass through the realm of Uranus. And in doing that, they pass through a ring energized by a planet which operates in a manner entirely different from any other planet in our solar system.

Uranian effects are about a liberation of perspective. And for that to happen, sometimes the crust – be it of our earth or our thinking – has to be broken through.

This 2013 Uranus station-retrograde is part of a greater collection of processes. But it is vital on its own, representing a moment when what the Maya called wheels within wheels click into place to change us – maybe a lot, or maybe just a little. Changes don’t have to be massive in size. Great trees grow from small acorns. Huge discoveries have come from a minute, spur-of-the-moment thought.

With every moment we are given a Uranian opportunity for change.

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