Solstice Capricorn 2013

A Sunspot as photographed by spacecraft TRACE shows what NASA refers to as an

'off' or 'calm' day in the life of our Sun.

Suggestion - take plenty of sunscreen if you get a hankering to visit.

(photo credit: NASA, September 2000)

There are three ways to look at the fact that Venus is going retrograde on the same day that the Sun reaches its Capricorn Solstice. We can look at it as Venus’ turn to (Capricorn) retrograde as being a factor in the Sun’s ingress and transit of that most worldly and public of earth signs, Capricorn. Or we can look at this as the Sun reaching its Capricorn Solstice as a factor in how Venus’ turn to retrograde is going to affect us – which is rather the approach I took in the last post on Venus’ station. (I’m referring to the December 18th post here.)

We can also think of this as a single confluence – a single, metaphysical Sun-Solstice-Capricorn+Venus-retrograde-Capricorn thing – which would tend to be a reconsidering, a getting real-or-realistic (even practical or pragmatic) in a way you haven’t quite gotten to until now…

It would seem likely that anyone who has lived too much in their dreams - or by what they ‘thought’ something was going to be ‘in theory’ is going to meet up with some earthy, nuts-and-bolts sort of necessities.

Then again, one would also suspect that those who get real now will be able to forge a plan now. And that plan may well take you somewhere in the (Saturn rules Capricorn) long run.

Saturn, remember? Time, dedication, responsibility to the thing you want to achieve at or as…all that Saturn stuff will manifest subtly and generally and even specifically during the month of Sun in Capricorn. And it’s all going to be colored by the Venus retrograde.

That means the core activity – which is to say that which we take on or tackle (even just mentally) which has to do with the structure of our life (physical or experiential) is done on our own. And for many of us, purely internally.

In other words, this is something of a pivot moment. And with the Sun (will, life, consciousness) moving into Capricorn obviously starting at zero degrees AS Venus begins backing down from 28 Capricorn, we get a notice that the date of all this doing (December 21st, with the Sun reaching Capricorn at 5:12 in the evening UT/+0) will feature a confluence of energetics which is likely to manifest as a feeling of being burdened with/by something which has very distinct plus and minus features. There is a desire for all to be as ‘comfortable’ (easy, maybe?) even as there is a need to grow and create an inner core of something which is going to sustain you.

And that is happening in each of our lives as the Sun moves into Capricorn on December 21st. But since your chart isn’t my chart, and my chart isn’t your BFF’s mother’s-auntie’s employer’s chart, we’re all going to be experiencing all this a little bit differently.

Courtesy of NASA and NOAA, one of the 'Earth at Night 2012' photo series, this one showing the Atlantic Ocean, the Americas (left) and Europe plus part of Africa at the right.

Let’s see…that means there are somewhere around 7.13 billion people on this planet, all of which are going to be having a ‘get real’ moment. And yet…there are those among us who have truly terrible Venus placements. Or (and?) rather rancid Saturn placements. (And to have both…? That would be particularly psyche-grinding at the moment.) A rebellion here is fine if it has been earned…that’s the premier and ultimate Saturnine rule: EARN IT.

But taking liberties? That’s probably not a good idea. Whether or not things work out in the temporal sense, this would be one of those moments when any of us could do (or realize we have done) something truly not productive. Greeted with that, some of us will go into a ‘turnaround mode’ and begin working to ‘re-structure’ things in a mode more supportive of long-term personal aims while others of us set everything personal aside in favor of concentrating on that thing which we are driven to do. Or which we know is really ‘us.’ Or that we know HAS to be the next step in the process of building a framework which will support our being who it is we know we are and need to be.

And yes, honesty counts. It’s a thing to think about that the energetic frequency which indicates responsibility (i.e., the Saturn Vibe) is also associated with honesty AND the penalties we pay for not being honest – first and last with our Self. In connection, Saturn-Venus often represents the sensible choice and the kinds of disciplined effort which in utilizing our talents and better attributes gets us places with the down side being the question of why we do any given thing. Here the combination of Sun-Venus which is very creative (often overly so) encounters Saturn’s ‘cooling’ (I know…some would say ‘chilling’!) quality asking us whether the thing we ‘should’ do is what we really ‘should’ do if we’re going to be either surrendering our individuality or not being who we really are.

You know…way deep down inside.

Anything we do now and any direction we go now is going to encounter a period of either challenge or reconciliation and reorientation next year as Mars also goes into retrograde on March 1st. Considering that date is going to be under the auspices of the April 2014 Taurus solar eclipse and how Taurus is ruled by Venus…

We would see to be at a ‘heads up’ point in time. Some of us will move towards those truths about who we really are no matter how difficult, challenging or painful that is, no matter how many dreams (our own - or maybe those projected on us by others) we have to steer clear of or let melt away into a clearer vision of what our life is – and is going to be about.

And this goes to an astrological factoids which seldom gets talked about. Part of what the ongoing shift from the Age of Pisces into the Aquarian Age does is exalt both personal achievement and social involvement, two qualities which seem oppositional until we think of them as the twin results of successful entrepreneurial (individual) spirit.

Saturn premises lay the bedrock and foundation for all things Aquarian which last.

So…how do we define ‘success’? Some will define success personally, some will define it financially, some will have a more philosophical point of view.

Venus and the Sun won’t be meeting up until January 10th. And January 10th, “coincidentally” (not really, but…) is when Mercury, having fleet footed its planet self into Capricorn on December 24th, reaches 28 Capricorn, the degree Venus is going retrograde at now.

Yes – draw a little dotted line. That which arises now, which you put off/avoid now, which you are conscious of having on a back burner (you know, that itchy thing you want to get to, sooner rather than later?) will probably resurface at that time. Or conversely, perhaps you will need to bring it up. Or ‘inject’ it into the other things which are going on at that time.

Canova's 'Cupd (Eros) and Psyche' at the Hermitage of St. Petersburg in Russia

Sometimes ingresses and solstices fling open the door to opportunity or a change of style or pace. This one, particularly with the Sun presented in conjunction with asteroid Psyche as Venus goes retrograde, asks us to think of who we really, truly are.

You know…way down deep.

And you may be thinking now about a piece you read here at the blog….about Eros and Psyche.

- Link to -

EROS AND PSYCHE:

FALLING IN LOVE WITH OUR MINDS

As we think through what these next few weeks are going to bring, understanding the difference between our Eros ‘passions’ (which while they can be sexual can also represent a passion for or about anything in your life) and our Venusian ability to generate what we want…or don’t want from others, from life, from what we do.

At stake here just may be what it takes to achieve what we need to achieve in the long term, and what that is going to require of us that we grow to be able to do, tolerate or deal with. For the Sun to be entering Capricorn now, with Venus turning to retrograde greets us with the reality of how things will work, whether or not we want it or like it.

Often thought of as the most ‘maturing’ of astrological signs, all things Capricorn offer us a choice. In this case the choice would seem to be about what we want to be, what it will take to be what we want to be, and how we feel about that investment, whatever form that may require of us or take.
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Venus: Station-Retrograde at 28 Capricorn

A Hinode Space Telescope view of Venus' 2012 Transit of the Sun on June 6, 2012

(photo credit: NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, 2012)

So no sooner does Uranus go direct on the same day as a Full Moon – then Venus goes on station to turn retrograde on December 21st.

What’s a planet to do?

And that December 21st date? That will be just as the Sun reaches its Solstice. Thinking of all this as some sort of complicated piece of machinery, we thus arrive at Venus’ going on station as a ‘slow down’ to all we might want to create or see coming of our efforts (or patience) as a result of what we’ve done…(or not done, depending.)…just as our will either ebbs to its lowest point (in the northern hemisphere) or reaches its maximal, yearly ‘high’ point (in the southern hemisphere), depending.

Now…with that said, that north/south hemisphere thing can be literal – as in, one person lives in Oslo, Norway and the other person lives in Brisbane, Australia. OR it can indicate your intellectual or logic-driven will (north) versus your emotional or ‘impassioned’ (south) perspective. And yes, both of these functionalities can be in operation at the same time in like or different situations/venues/areas in or of your life.)

December’s astrological trail seeming to describe a period of wanting to break out, innovate, share, network, rebel, escape, integrate or change (the Uranus-Full Moon) which is then followed by a period of reconciliation with Self (often as set off or triggered or mirrored in or see in the actions of others) which isn’t – traditionally – what we might want to feel.

In other words, to have Venus hitting its ‘turnabout’ in the traditionally ‘cool’ (or ‘cooling’ – on occasion even ‘chilling’) sign of Capricorn may be “fair play” in the cosmic sense that we in time need to learn or see or experience what we need to see or learn or experience….at the same time that things may not feel all that warm, cuddly and rewarding. And to have this turnabout happen at the Solstice is either to ‘see the light’ or to realize you didn’t see the light at some ‘maximal’ level, depending.

On Planet Venus: Maat Mons rises 8 km above lava flows spread across the Venusian plains

(photo credit: NASA, JPL)

 

All this is yours – indeed, all of ours – as of December 21, 2013 at 9:54 in the evening, UT/+0 time.

And of course the two days before and the two days after are likely to be telling in more than a few lives too.

Which is why, seeing as there IS a crossover with Uranus’ December 17th station…why one would say that if your chart answers to both 8 Aries AND 28 Capricorn. Allow for standard orbs as follows…

Conjunctions, Squares, Oppositions, Trines (+/- 5 degrees)

Sextiles (+/- 3 degrees)

…and for the getting-to-be-pretty-much-standard orbs for inconjuncts (aka quincunxes) and semi-sextiles…

Inconjuncts and Semi-Sextiles (+/- 1.5 to 2 degrees)

…then apply them to these charts of standard sign aspects.

Next, a quick run down on aspect meanings, seeing as we haven’t done that in a while…

Conjunctions always feel personal, whether or not they’re personally directed at us.

Oppositions are about being challenged, opposed or faced with issues, problems, situations or relationship dynamics.

Squares challenge us to see there is more to what we are dealing with than we thought. Can we take everything into account and make it all work as one? Can we keep everything in balance or will we be brought down by that we fail to acknowledge, deal with or manage?

Sextiles representing opportunities we may or may not take sextiles prompt us to exercise the right and personal choice and the responsibility to own which choices we make in life.

Trines: Far from being any candy-floss ‘perfection’ trines have been marketed as, trines are ‘ongoing energy’ which on one hand lowers the need to try, but which can also represent limited or inhibited circumstances.

Inconjuncts (Quincunxes) always represent an adjustment whether between the optimal and workable, the idea(l)/vision and the reality or  the personal-individual and accepted-pluralistic perspective.

Semi-sextiles manifest as ego-bruises and irritations which feel more serious than they generally are in any long run except where denials or emotional triggers are being set off.

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Now that we’re all aspected, on to Venus going retrograde specifically at 28 Capricorn. Referred to in terms of its association with ‘clairvoyance’ by both Dane Rudhyar and Marc Edmund Jones the Sabian symbol for 28 Capricorn, “A WOMAN READING TEA LEAVES,” is Venusian in its own right in that the ‘basis’ for ‘finding one’s way to the truth’ is a substance (tea) long revered and related to nutrition, health and eating – all of which suggest an association with Taurus (an earth sign, as is Capricorn) and thus the fact that at this moment it may be our ‘earthly’ or ‘earthy’ fortunes which take a turn.

December 21, 2013 – 9:54 p.m. (UT/+0) – Aries Wheel (location not specific)

 

Any degree in the third decan (last ten degrees) of any sign isn’t strictly individual, even though the effort of the woman in the symbol is personal and singular – she is attempting to read the leaves. And as we are given no one else in this image, we may presume she is seeking information for herself, though the idea of ‘a female’ in terms of gender here should not be taken literally. If you yourself have, or if you know a woman whose Sun or Moon is directly at 28 Capricorn the reference might be to her, yes. But otherwise, ‘female’ in metaphysical symbolism most often refers to our receptivity or our ability to ‘contain’ or “be a good container” for something or someone or some situation. So to have this idea embodied by Venus turning to retrograde may be a sign of recognizing we weren’t receptive enough to someone, something or the totality of a situation.

Or maybe it pertains to your ‘earthly’ fortunes.

Or the fact that in light of other things your attention is ‘turning’ or ‘being turned’ to more Venusian matters OR to the questioning of your personal Venusian values. This is not typically a ‘lighthearted” sort of metaphysical energetic level, as it clearly concerns responsibility – specifically that we take on when (and where) we aspire to achieve. Success or burden here can be one and the same as this degree promotes a clarity of logical thinking which owns up to the long-term necessity to be to ‘chart’ a responsible (not merely safe) course. All of this ‘questioning of quality’ (and qualities) is itself more than a little Venus-Taurus - and with 28 Capricorn being a degree assigned to an astrological Term (Ptolemaic) ruled by Mars, with Mars in Libra the aims of the moment would be Self-driven but dependent on others.

It’s just one of those moments. Business or personal, family or friendship, some relationships will be fine now. But some will be more meaningful to us at the moment. They’re on our minds.

And the reason they’re there is not about ‘that person’ but how we feel about that person – and all our feelings about those feelings. Isn’t that just what you want around the holidays?

Apparently life isn’t going to be cut-and-dried and simple right now.

But then, apparently we need this. If life provides that which we need, this next six weeks of Venus retrograde is going to have us learning a good deal about who we really are. And aren’t.

Who we are kidding. And who we’re not kidding. The overarching Capricorn quality of not meeting the world but being met by and concerned with the world and its worldly way of operating is going to catch more than a few of us judging ourselves short (that would be the retrograde thing as opposed to ‘judging others’ being direct motion) or paying some penalty large or small.

Tangible, monetary or heart felt, if it’s ‘real’ to us, if we can feel it – it’s up for re-examination. Much as the recent eclipse broke through many an emotional defense and denial by putting us all through wave after wave of challenging, trying, tolerance-testing experiences, now Venus’ turn to retrograde asks us if…considering all we’ve learned since the last time Venus went retrograde (in Gemini during May-June of 2012)…if we really are investing ourselves in being the person WE will respect ourselves for being, regardless of whether others respect us or not.

Well…okay, maybe that’s not entirely square. The ‘we’ part stands. But there is a part of how others act and react which counts now…and which may be bothering us now. Such concerns will come where we’ve (in essence) “bet” on someone who now proves – at least to our thinking – to be ‘structurally’ unsound. Or a least not of the caliber we expected.

Or were promised, guaranteed, led to believe as a condition of support, and/or where some sort of ‘fraud’ in essence has occurred.

Some of us (notably those more-rather-than-less affected by the popping of energy throughout the early/mid December Mars-Uranus passage) are virtually primed for a secondary release on the 25th  by virtue of December 25th being Mars perfecting its opposition to Uranus. How that happens is highly individual (isn’t everything Uranian?), but the net is likely to carry some sense of wistfulness about ‘the way things used to be.’

You know…at least in our heads it was like that. Strong Uranus-Mars connections can manifest as any sort of ‘separating’ from who you are in the moment – which on the genteel edge is nostalgia (thinking about who you were ‘then’) and which on the more esoteric and long-term level suggests the triggering of gains in perspective where you are suddenly able to see yourself as someone else does…or perhaps where you find yourself ‘standing’ in another’s shoes, experiencing their perspective on life.

At the time of Venus’ station, very few aspects are in force. On its own this hints at a subterranean wishing (which may be pretty constant at the moment) that we had the way or the means to just do what we want to do.

 

December 21, 2013 – 9:54 p.m. (UT/+0) – Aries Wheel (location not specific)

The Sun is at 0 Capricorn in this chart, with Mercury at 26 Sagittarius some four degrees away. The thirty degree semi-sextile – an indication of irritation or ego annoyance – theoretically falls right between Sun and Mercury at 28 Sagittarius. Metaphysically this is an image of ‘the Venus energy’ “standing” between what you have been able to accomplish or get to thus far (Mercury) and what your aim or aims really are.

In other words, this is a picture of annoyance – be it mild or frothy. Frustration maybe. Venus doing a turnaround in the Sun’s ‘sign of aim’ (if you will) suggests that there’s some need to wait because something isn’t yet in place…at least not as solidly as you (Mercury) think it needs to be in order for you to get to what you REALLY want to do.

And to make this all a little more annoying (to us as individuals, I mean), this Venus-Mercury also suggests that we’ll be going back and forth a bit on the like-not like, second guessing, wanting to be extra-special sure…all that.

It’s one of those driving other people crazy because you know you’re driving yourself crazy sorts of moments. We’ve all been there…it’s just that this one is sort of universally universalized by the station – which (oddly) is likely to be the hard part to remember. How could all those people be having ‘their moment’ while we’re having one of ours?

Answer: maybe because we’re supposed to learn something from the fact that we even have such moments? That sort of mortal, in-built vulnerability to one’s humanity isn’t something most of us tend to think of all the time. We so often get caught up in the temporal doings and how things (or people) look on the surface.

Then life comes along to remind us that we are all just human creatures experiencing the process of being human.

Yes…that is part of what Venus stations are for.

And about.

Just to make this a bit more poignant and poetic (you did know all of this was highly poetic and insanely poignant, right?), while on station Venus is also in trine to dearly beloved dwarf planet Sedna.

(Yes, I doth wax sarcastic.)

December 21, 2013 – 9:54 p.m. (UT/+0) – Aries Wheel (location not specific)

 

Here’s the bad news…Sedna is all about the need to mature. And thus ironically (or maybe logically) wherever we find it in the chart, that’s where we find someone’s immaturity. Right now (and for quite a few years to come) Sedna is in late Taurus, which is one of those really nifty notices about the materialism in society – which could make this whole station (on an entirely universal level) very much a statement about income gaps and the plight of those in truly terrible need, the suffering of children and all such.

It also could speak to generosity wasted and where greed or selfishness has overcome human and humane standards.

Considering that Sedna hangs out in a given degree (or set of two degrees) for years at a time, that means this Venus-Sedna trine is a process – one described by Venus trining Sedna by direct motion as Venus came towards its station (on December 3rd), again in retrograde as Venus ‘backs up’ and trines Sedna from 23 Capricorn (January 7-8, 2014)…and again after Venus goes direct on January 31st. That pass – which happens on February 23rd or 24th, 2014 (depending on what time zone you’re in) will finish moving us through dealing with certain facets of what we do and why we do them, causing us (in essence) to ask whether the ‘prize’ is worth the cost or price to our lives or dignity or self regard. That ‘prize’ is an image in our mind – some righteously wonderful “billboard” of some facet of life we think should ‘be’ or ‘work’ XYZ way – and we have that way all mapped out and perfectly if soulfully airbrushed in hues of personal satisfaction we are loath to give up.

And yet…and yet and yet and yet…somewhere between here and February, each and every one of us is likely to have a bit of a quease as we realize that maybe…just maybe ‘the image’ isn’t the real deal. Maybe there is greatness and great satisfaction to be found in owning our power and doing what we can do – replete with putting ourselves out there and getting bumped and bruised on occasion – so that the final ‘image’ of who we are is one which isn’t given to or us or provided for us, but rather something which is organically about who we are.

December 21, 2013 – 9:54 p.m. (UT/+0) – Aries Wheel (location not specific)

 

One final comment here: Mars will be going on station March 1st, with Saturn adding an either sobering, stabilizing or structural note by going retrograde a day later on March 2nd. That Mars station will be square Venus’ current station from Libra even as Saturn opposes Sedna from Scorpio gives us a kind of 'framework' within which we will be challenged to invest rather seriously in working through what kinds of standards we hold, what we stand for, and what that asks of us.

Astrologers often think of Venus and Saturn as having a harmonic likeness as both energetics are about what one gets for what one is or puts out there. The Venusian 'action' tends to be personal, creative and evocative where Saturn's tenor tends to be more intellectual, logical and productive. If this was Saturn's station we were talking about we would think of how 'Saturn things' (our achievements, our physical stature, our societal standing) affects us personally (in our Venus quarter). Instead, this is Venus' station - so this is a time when the issue of how Venus and our Venusian nature...the love of ease, beauty, creature comforts, appreciation...affect our ability to achieve or create (Venus) any structure (Saturn) which sustains our long term hopes.

This may feel like a sobering time. Venus retrograde is one of those times when we have to support ourselves, when we need to not expect others to give us the answers we want or to feel good about it even if those golden 'right words' come falling out of their mouth. Venus retrograde tends to feel cool...which for some becomes a feeling of disappointment - even depression. Certainly that Venus is going retrograde in a sign ruled by Saturn tells us that what we really want we need to work for - and that means with all that we are, not just the parts we tend to like.
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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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