Sun-Mercury-Spica: A Moment of Fulfilling Brilliance

 Wheat Fields in the US - source: USDA

 

It's just a passing few minutes...a momentary syncing of some of life's wheels. But it's one worth noting, whether you know the moment is coming, or reflect on it at your leisure.

As a matter of fact, sometimes reflection is the best way to learn with astrology. In a situation where you can look back a couple of hours and remember what went on, it clicks. Then when you see those planets hitting some mark yet again somewhere down the line, you know (more or less) what to expect.

And since it would be best to learn with something  useful enough to note, but not exactly earth-shattering, thus we come to today's example: a transiting conjunction of Sun, Mercury and fixed star Spica, all at 23 Libra on October 17th at 00:55 UT (adjust to local time).

The Sun is always life, will, intellect and that dynamic quality of being alive. Mercury being thought, daily activities, communication and all those objects (cars, phones, computers, mail systems, pens, shoes, limbs, etc.) which allow us to go about doing and getting things done, this would seem a moment about accomplishing something, deciding to do something, or some 'conjunctive' moment in such a process - one where everything "comes together."

You know, like with a conjunction.

Next we add Spica. Fixed stars tend to be 'qualities or subjects' which are added to any matter. Representing the wheat sheaf in the hands of that very large harvester constellation Virgo, Spica can be about being provided for, or having nothing - the good or bad 'harvest.'

And yes, it IS significant that as a constellation Virgo's sky pattern extends through most of Libra. That symbolizes not only how we depend on our interactions and relationships with others (the I/Thou of Libra) but the well considered (Mercury as ruler of Virgo) effort ...all the learning about/from, the give and take, sow-earn-reap-gain patterns which Libra is so very much all about! 

A statue of Livia Drusilla, third wife of Imperial Rome's Emperor Augustus

and arguably one of the most powerful women of her day. Livia could be

very good and very generous. Then again, she had this nasty habit of

being fickle enough to turn against a person and in doing so, become the

proverbial ill wind which marked the coming of their doom. Either way, in her

hand she holds the sheaf of wheat. Is she providing for some need? 

Or is she taunting the hungry, withholding from them the very stuff of life?

Because Spica tends to be about 'brilliance,' we would suspect this moment to be one when we understand. Or when we finish something or accomplish some aim. Or maybe we just get the point of a conversation - or the point of why something has happened.

Insight...accomplishment...comprehensive focus...contemplation...for good or challenge, these all would be apt interpretations of our symbolic trio.

But then we come to a couple of other factors.

One is that this conjunction is happening in (a not quite perfect) opposition to Eris at 21 Aries. Eris being 'discord', this adds a note of disruption - but to what end is not exactly defined. With Eris in the 'I Am' sign of Aries, it's probably about us - and therefore either what we do, how we feel, or about something we've already done. And with Eris in retrograde while Sun and Mercury are in direct moment, there is a sense of 'moving away' or 'parting from' some sort of rather more seriously disruptive moment which occurred on October 14 and 15, that being when the Sun and Mercury were actually in direct opposition to Eris.

(So why am I posting this now? Simple: because even astrologers have lives. While yours was being disrupted, so was mine! Sometimes we just do what we can do when we can get to it, y'know?)

And let's remember: Eris doesn't HAVE to be anything negative. Every heard of 'social discord'? Sometimes it is through social discord that great and positive changes occur. And maybe through what happened in your life you felt 'discord-ed' through some social or societal situation to the degree that you want to fix things. Or some 'broken' part of some system.

The opposition lends another note that this can be getting opposed by something...or chosen, willful efforts (Sun/Mercury) to get something done - such as getting 33 miners out of the ground in Chile.

That had a very good harvest, agreed? So Eris doesn't have to be bad. All it signifies is a change to the status quo.

And when the moment passes, then we feel spent, yes. Was it a good use of our efforts, time, attention, and resources? Did we handle ourselves well? Did we present ourselves effectively, whatever that means in any given moment?

This applies when we get to the 23 Libra part, as Libra is - in each and every case - an exchange. It is a 'balancing' of attributes, values, ideas. Libra is where the I meets the Thou and where Thou thus reacts to I, telling us how we're being seen...which may or may not match up with how we want to be seen. In fact, the gap between these two concepts...? That's the gap of pleasant surprise or disappointing failure. And though we so like to think it's always about 'them,' the fact is that when we don't get the response we want, it's either because we haven't presented ourselves in a manner suitable to the need or occasion...OR because we chose the wrong audience. Or maybe we refused/failed to take into account who our audience is/was.

And yes - sometimes things turn out a whole lot better than we expect they will. What is that about? Without dragging us all into a big philosophical discussion, that's pretty much about our own ability to forget the 'what I want' and the 'what they think of me/what I think of them' in favor of merely doing the job at hand correctly. Or at least with as much honesty and integrity as you can bring to bear.

In other words, Libra asks us to face others and leave our ego at home. Easy to say, hard to do.

As any planet (in this case, Sun and Mercury) move(s) through Libra's last ten degrees (Libra's 3rd decanate) things are not entirely in our control. And it's worth remembering here that they're not in anyone else's control, either!

In any 3rd decan (or decanate) of any sign, the idea is that we now receive input on something we aren't precisely in control of. And how do we react to that? We react to it in terms of the planets involved and how they focus in our personal charts.

Granting that we can't do the 'personal chart' part here on the internet, what we can say is that 23 Libra as a specific degree adds a note of restlessness...and at the same time, success through proper application of knowledge. There's also a note about kidneys and urinary tracts associated with this degree, which obviously won't apply to everyone, but IF you're having a problem with same (or are perhaps prone to such things or even in some sort of connected field as a professional), this could well mark a moment when things in that area begin to evolve.

No matter what, we would assume this moment has a quality of its own and that lingering 'left over, but moving away from' the events of the 14th and 15th.

Those who use this as a moment of learning - even just learning about this zodiac degree or some portion of Spica's lore or whatever...that's a good enough use too. Considering life offers us tools which often become of use later, those who learn now are likely to be grateful down the line that they are better 'armed' (Mercury) to deal with some intellectual (Sun, Libra) situation.

A Hawaiian sunset. Why? Because we all hope for happy endings!

.

News Flash: Chilean Mine Rescue

 Chile's national flag

As the people around the world watched on live TV, a rescue capsule painted in the red, white and blue of Chile emerged from the tube dug 2/3rds of a mile down into the earth.

One of 33 trapped miners had returned to Earth's surface.

The chart for that moment is illuminating...

The first miner's emergence 

(Copiapo, Chile/AST +4)

Positioned at 16 Gemini, fixed star Rigel is just behind the Ascendant - the degrees just behind each angle being known as some of the most powerful and potent in any chart.

Known as a position of 'knoweldge' (or knowing) and being 'under the foot of the teacher,' Rigel says a lot about this moment. Of course seeing the capsule and the living person in it allows us all to 'know' that the rescue was no longer an attempt - it was a reality.

Gemini is about choices. About finding the information and putting it together in order to 'construct' something in your life or in greater life itself. The specific degree of the rising being 17 Gemini, there is a lot of planning and enthusiasm, and...interestingly...a 'weakness of hands.' Things at this position cannot thus be done manually.

As they weren't. Drilling experts had been brought in by the Chilean government to help in the rescue and in this moment their cumulative information (knowledge) proved fruitful. And that the polarity (Descendant) degree (17 Sagittarius) is about one's the great and simple gratitude to God (or fortune or however one believes) also seems apt.

Going back to Rigel's image of 'being under the teacher's foot' for a moment, those who watched the live telecast will probably remember seeing one of the operators of the winch and cable rig literally using his booted foot to knock the guide pulley a bit back into position just moments before the capsule emerged. It seemed an odd gesture at the time - but apt when you look at the chart of the moment.

Any base of the chart represents the foundation and what we stand on. It's the 'innermost point' of the chart and thus in this picture, the mine, deep in the Earth, still holding the other miners far from light.

This IC/Nadir point is in Virgo, an earth sign to be sure! Pictured at 28 Virgo, this point is a degree which promises little more than hard work, unless 'enlarged upon' by some other force.

A mine? That is certainly one form of 'enlarging.' And that this chart is about breaking through from the surface to a chamber which might otherwise have been a tomb for 33 hard-working men? That's enlarging in many a positive sense. 

With Virgo ruled by the Mercury (in green) in the 4th and foundational house of the chart conjunct Sisyphus (knowledge used either to help or kill people) and Rhadamanthus (dispassionate fairness) we know that the miners understood why they were there. They had taken a job, there had been a disaster.

Pictured with this Mercury we see the Sun - life and human will. With both these symbols opposition Eris Discord conjunct inventive Edisonia in the elevated 10th house we are also given a really useful lesson about Eris as a symbol of celestial 'discord' which simply changes things. 'Discord' isn't bad! Fighting tyranny is discord, but is it wrong? Digging a hole in the Earth technically disrupts the Earth's structure, but in this moment, it was certainly far from a terrible thing to do.

But again, back to 28 Virgo, the IC/Nadir point of this chart. Standing at the Nadir was Typhon (primal forces) and Bali - the longed for thing. For those men pictured by Mercury, for their families and for many millions watching, was this rescue not the longed for moment?

The last 'note of note' to be cherished in this chart is the position of the Moon. Any time you we are looking for the 'picture of the moment' we look particularly to the axis points (as we have) and the Moon, which basically moves a full degree in about two hours.

Here the Moon was at 29 Sagittarius, a critical (intense) degree which speaks first and foremost to physical fitness. With the Moon stands Eurydike, an astrological symbol of personal rescue.

The first man chosen to be rescued was selected based on several criteria - one of the first on the list being that he was particularly physically fit.

So does the chart of a moment tell its tale.