Sun in Sagittarius

Sautys (Sagittarius) by Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis (1907)

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

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

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

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

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

The Sun's 2013 Sagittarius ingress chart

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

(location not specific)

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

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

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

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

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

And why should that be any problem, you ask?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh rats, oh fooey.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From where, I cannot tell you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I hope you do too.
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Weathering Eclipses/Plutonic Gains and Losses

 Hurricane Sandy as photographed by NASA's Terra satellite (MODIS) on Oct 28 2012 at 16.00

(NASA image courtesy Lance Modis Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC)

 
While people and companies and government agencies go about cleaning up after the storm which hit the east coast of the United States, something else has happened which seems of astrological note.

The New York stock exchanges closed down for two days. Without question, Wall Street (the place, not the industrial complex) was in an evacuation zone. And without question, the heads of financial state wanted (read: needed) investors to feel secure about the functionality of the exchanges. They didn’t need people to get freaked out by having power cutting out or rain, wind or water wreaking damage to undermine confidence in the markets.

But what’s interesting is the general aura of not just Wall Street, but everyone around the storm zone. Let’s keep people safe, they said. As someone who listened to the news for days and days on end after 9/11, there seems a huge distance from what happened then to what is happening today.

Yes, there will be business losses. And yes, the United States is gagging on debt personal and national.

But it seems that life – and the valuing of life and the simple dignity of life is coming to the fore.

October 30, 2012 - A train sitting at Metro-North Railroad's Croton Harmon Station in New York

(photo credit Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York)

Pluto’s conjunction of Facies has meant many things. Facies being a nebula, it’s a reference to ‘many things which together seem like one.’ That can be our life, it can be the way a governor or mayor or individual sees their country and all their fellow countrymen.

Facies has a reputation for ‘evil times’ and selfishness. Pluto represents how we experience the results of our choices and priorities and feel about what results. That Pluto is known as ‘transformative’ is here brilliantly shown by the difficulty, the ‘evil moment’ arising and attitudes reflecting a better value.

That Plutonic ‘outcomes’ always come from our experience in action and interaction with our life is the signature of Pluto being the ‘outcome ruler’ of Scorpio. And Scorpio is famously about (among other things) finance and investments.

Meanwhile, Facies is in Capricorn, the sign of worldly doing and commerce. 

And let’s throw in Saturn. As ruler of Capricorn and currently transiting Scorpio, Saturn is simply always representative of the ‘extent of our human reach.’

So in caring about human beings in the face of a giant storm, in prioritizing the safety of employees without complaining about profits lost, everybody has faced that evil thing which we cannot control and done all ‘within human reach.’

That all this is happening in advance of a Scorpio solar eclipse suggests there’s a lot about this moment which reflects the evolving of our feelings. The eclipse’s position in the last third of Scorpio, an area of the zodiac which brings external forces to one or all of us in forcing us to recognize what’s really important to us…that seems very much part of the moment.

Hurricane_Sandy's damage in Summit, New Jersey

(photo credit Tomwsulcer, October 30, 2012)

As someone who has lived with metaphysical symbols for plural decades it’s hard to express exactly how apt it seems that this moment would come along. Capricorn being all about structures added to the linking of Capricorn/Scorpio as ‘what we structure our lives on and place value to’ …the fact that Saturn often manifests as slow, tough growth even while it represents the limits of life, the limits life places upon us, how we are challenged to live up to our responsibilities as humans which in interactive Scorpio would ask whether we value our fellow man…

I’ve typified Scorpio as ‘cold water’ and metaphysical ice. What I haven’t mentioned lately is Neptune’s position. Neptune is currently sitting at 0 Pisces, still in retrograde, having arrived at that degree back on September 22nd/21st, depending on what time zone you’re in.

And let’s remember, planet Neptune literally controls the orbit of Pluto. There are many threads here, it would appear…as there are whenever and however you talk about Facies.

 Hurricane Sandy's track as generated by NOAA (October 29, 2012)

This storm occurred with Neptune ‘stirring the depths’ of Pisces – which is the image of deep water. Saturn is always cold – and in Scorpio indicates a ‘change.’ The storm came to shore as a hurricane born in the tropics – and once there did the Scorpio thing (interacting) with a colder system, turning rain to sleet and snow.

The storm moved on shore with a Taurus Full Moon in opposition to Saturn…and trine Pluto. That signifies an enormous amount of energy. Untamed, that much energy can be destructive. When harnessed by human beings it can be determined. Organized. Firm and willing to pay the Scorpio/Saturn price.

I mentioned astrometeorology in a prior post. In astrometeorology, Mercury is an indicator of wind. Some thirteen hours before the storm made landfall, Mercury entered Sagittarius, the sign in which Mercury makes it’s most ‘sweeping’ statements, sometimes revealing the unknown or unanticipated, and sometimes overstepping known, even acceptable bounds.

Even safe bounds...and bounds of safety.

 Some of the flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy in New York City, this photo of Avenue C

in Manhattan's East Village was taken on October 30, 2012 by David Shankbone.

But when you take it all in...when you think through what this storm has done, if you put the dollar cost and the inevitable human tragedies which come with such events aside, on a purely metaphysical... philosophic... even spiritual level, this storm seems to have been a good deal.

After all, it showed that we still care about life, limb and our fellow human beings, rich and poor, pretty and plain, young and old.

And that enriches us. That gives us hope. That’s the process by which we feel ourselves feeling, be it sadness for what we lose or gratitude that things weren’t a whole lot worse.

Astrologically, that says Neptune wins – which seems to be our lot and incredibly proper. For if we care not about knowing we exist and that our connections to others mean far, far more than our differences, we have already given in to having - and being - nothing.
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Astro-Weather(ing)

Rain drops on a window (Frank Vincentz, Dec 2007)

I went to sleep last night thinking about the storm about to move onto the east coast of the United States. And when I woke up this morning, I was still thinking about that storm. I know a lot of people who live in its proposed path and hope all goes well for them.

It led me to the inevitable question about why astro-meteorology isn’t more useful. After all, since the universe is contiguous (it’s all energy of some sort) that we can use celestial objects as ‘markers’ in time space and judge aspects by relative 3-D positioning (which is very Star Trek and all that…) astro-meteorology can work.

The problem is that the current state of software makes working with charts less flexible than – say – Google Maps. Horoscopes are terribly place-specific. If you want to move the ‘spot’ for which your chart is cast twenty miles down the road, you need to cast a new chart.

What we need are chart adjuncts which allow you to move your chart’s location by increments – as you can on Google Maps by 'grabbing' the map and shifting it slightly. We need a way to be able to shift a chart between the totally localized wheel you know so well and the astro-cartography maps of the world.

There has to be a better way. An interim version.

The time thing? That we have licked.  Astrological software already allows us to walk chart forward and backwards through time by seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years.

But location? Not so much. So far we're either in this mode...

A horoscope wheel cast for the time and place of writing this post

 (Los Angeles, CA - 11:05 a.m. October 29, 2012)

Or this mode...

 The same chart as above, here cast as a world astro-cartography map

But if we could…once you found that place where the chart ‘works’ (or centers on) a given idea, to be able to click a button and get the data for the ‘where’ of it all (longitude plus latitude plus real-world town-county-state location), that would be super-spiffy.
No one’s done that yet, no. And I’m no programmer, so it isn’t likely I’m going to be the one to fill this gap.

But when that day comes, I’m going to grow up to be an astro-weatherman.

And in the interim, it just plain annoys me that I can’t know more and - in light of that, be more helpful!

With best wishes to all those enduring hard times and difficult moments whether due to weather or any other cause, here in the USA or abroad.

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