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| On a Journey Catherine Al-Meten The Sun moved into Sagittarius this morning just before 9:00 A.M. PST. Mercury, Chiron and Neptune are all now direct, and Jupiter has begun her four-month retrograde passage, reminding us to count our blessings and appreciate what fill sour life with joy, abundance, meaning, and purpose. |
Moon in 15/37 Cancer
Mercury 10/46 Scorpio
Venus 14/43 Capricorn
Mars 21/26 Virgo
Jupiter 10/9 Cancer, retrograde
Saturn 16/3 Scorpio
Uranus 8/2 Aries retrograde
Neptune 2/36 Pisces
Pluto 9/56 Capricorn
Chiron 9/7 Pisces
North Node 8/33 retrograde
As we fly out of Portland, Oregon, looking out at the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, we see the clear, wide open skies and the land, hillsides, and trees stripped of the last vestiges of Autumn. The morning chill’s icy edge found us warming up our cars, scraping ice off the windshield, and bundling up for our journeys in town and out. Tonight as the Full Moon shows her first signs of ebbing, the Sun enters Sagittarius, the symbol of wide open spaces, and vistas and visions of the future. The symbol of Sagittarius is the archer, bow raised, arrow steady and aimed high towards that which lies beyond the the present. We dream of far off places, conjure up new plans and goals, and set our sites on the bigger picture. A good time for envisioning visions to satisfy our newly found dreams.
The Sun enters Sagittarius on a Thursday, the Day of Jupiter, and symbolically, Sagittarius brings us into a time of bounty, abundance, and gratitude. The Archer, Sagittarius’ symbol, is half horse, half man, representing the struggles, challenges, and gifts of integrating our animal instincts and physical nature with our minds and ability to use abstract thought and reasoning. With our hearts and minds drawn to far horizons and distant callings, we also must ground ourselves in where we are and what we have already created in our lives.
The call of the wild that is awakened through the Sun’s passage through Sagittarius, can be strengthened if we are willing to take this time to integrate, synthesize, and incorporate what we have already learned, into our visions and intentions for the future. Sun in Sagittarius stirs us to seek greater understanding and knowledge, often lighting a fire within us to learn something new, expand our education, or dive into an entirely new field of interest--one we may have been avoiding or denying for far too long. Listen to those inner urgings at this time, and avoid dismissing those flashes of insight, hunches, or yearnings for they speak from your heart now.
Feelings of generosity and a desire for more personal freedom may present somewhat conflicting urges. While we seek to merge in deep connection, we need a high level of independence to maintain our equilibrium. The constellation Sagittarius lines up with the core of our Galaxy, and the energy that represents both physically and mentally, a door into another dimension. Sagittarius sparks a type of energy within us that finds it difficult if not impossible to define or pin down what it is we seek. We may sense resistance from others, and/or feel within ourselves, an ambiguity about any type of commitment, follow through, or clear definition of what we seek or expect. Emotional commitments and emotions in general, seem more difficult to deal with as what we feel may escape clarity or clear focus.
Stumbling blocks to our spiritual growth now appear, and are found in just those things that we are feeling strong emotional reactions/responses to. Recently, a person in meditation described going into meditation seeking calm and peace, but instead discovered herself feeling fidgety and uncomfortable. Such fidgety feelings may signal the internal breaking up of blocks, or may be early warning signs to some external danger, threat, or challenge. If we could get over seeing anything negative as ‘wrong’ or a mistake, we might better be able to use the signal to understand what we need to pay closer attention to or acknowledge.
Change is part of all aspects of our lives, and yet we humans want to find that mythical balance as if it were a static spot. When things don’g “go right”, we somehow think we can fix it or take the blame, and bring some kind of balance back into our Universe. Instead, the movement is needed in order to open new doors that we say we desire. Sagittarius time shakes us up and wakes us up to this part of our behavior, emotional patterning, and experiences with our practices and relationships. Scorpio reminds us of our emotional and sexual nature, and Capricorn connects us to our worldly aims and the points where our leadership skills may connect us, Sagittarius transits shine light on what philosophical, spiritual, religious, and intellectual constructs shape and inform our dreams and life journeys.
Venus’ journey through earthy Capricorn between November and early-March, 2014, provides us with the impetus to get our lives in order. What do we value, and how are we consciously and concretely putting our intentions to work for us? Time to connect with those who affirm and support you in a concrete way, worthy of your skills, experience, expertise, and value. If we do not value ourselves, let others treat us with less respect, concern, and we end up dishonoring our own value and self worth. Spending time nurturing relationships, and finding mutual ways to honor and support one another’s work and life paths, are ways that Venus in Capricorn expresses herself in our lives. A false sense of pride or a self-defeating style of behavior, doing business, or forming and conducting relationships, leads to the steady erosion of our dignity, self worth, and value as a person. Venus grounds us solidly in seeking tangible ways of living out our greatest gifts and receiving the respect and accolades that we deserve. We must first, however, feel this for ourselves on some level, and rid ourselves of the critics, wet blankets, and shame agents that live in our heads or speak through those around us.
Venus is semi-square the transiting Sun in Sagittarius from November 21-23. This indicates a time when our inner inhibitions, uneasiness, insecurities, or whatever else ails us, may come out in our projections onto those around us. Watch how you communicate with and respond to others for what we say reflects more about ourselves than it may on someone else. From November 23-24, Venus is semi-square Saturn. Perhaps because the previous days have caused us to be more self aware, we now can view our relationships, modes of communication, and perspectives in a more realistic light. We seem to have our ‘heads on straight’ during this transit, enabling us to be more pragmatic in our relationships and in our perceptions. Our relationships grow to a deeper level of awareness and sensitivity. As we develop more fully, so do our relationships, opening the doors for more stable, mature, and affectionate types of relationships (all kinds of interactions).
Mars in Virgo has been making its passage since October, and will complete this cycle in a couple of weeks. Right now, we may find ourselves working harder to “dot all the ‘i’s and cross all the ‘t’s as we communicate, organize, plan, and begin implementing projects, goals, and work. The positive aspect of all this hard work is in finding ourselves feeling a great deal of satisfaction because we are aware that we are doing our best work and/or that we find great satisfaction in doing a job well. Hopefully, you are doing work you love; if not, you may find this a more trying period than it needs to be.
Saturn moving direct in Scorpio remains plumbing the depths of our Unconscious, psyche, and inner being until September 17, 2015. Saturn’s journey is a long term one, and taking about 2 1/2 years of its 30 year orbit of the Sun, in each sign. Our natal Saturn makes many aspects as it moves through 3 and sometimes 4 signs during a typical life span. Depending where your natal Saturn dwells, there are certain areas of our lives where we have greater lessons to learn than others. If you are between 28-30, or 58-60 (sometimes older), or 88-90, you are experiencing a Saturn return. There are many other times in our lives that Saturn triggers or highlights a part of our journey as well. When we befriend our teacher, we learn our lessons with greater grace and less struggle. Saturn, the Great Teacher, is that aspect of ourselves that is always aware of what we need to do to mature, develop, and deal with in order to live more purposeful, whole, and integrated lives. How is this being awakened in your life during this passage? How are dreams, intuition, emotional feelings and blocks, and mental and psychological challenges calling you to pay attention and respond? With Saturn having already passed through the North Node (gateway between past and present), we should already have a significant change taking place in our lives. Watch for Mercury’s passage through the North Node and then the conjunction Mercury makes with Saturn in the next few months, and you should find this a very informative, exciting, and clarifying time for awakening, learning, and perceiving what may have been beyond your grasp before now.
Mercury’s direct motion in Scorpio, has released some of what may have been blocking us from receiving or discerning the gifts of the inner awakenings trigger by Mercury’s trip into our deep unconscious and less-accessible sub-consciousness. With this forward, upward movement, we are more aware of what might have been hidden, mysterious, or confusing before.
Uranus’ transit through Aries, continues to jolt us with one opportunity after another to achieve a greater sense of freedom, release, and disconnection. With the Sun in Sagittarius, trines to Uranus throughout the next month, should result in some very positive changes, departures, disconnections, changes. What seemed impossible to rid yourself of, now happens almost magically. Let go of your need to control how things change, and let what need to go go, what needs to come into your life, come. Ground yourself deeply in the practice of trusting the Divine to bring you into whatever you need for your greater good and for your highest fulfillment and joy. Allow yourself to live in gratitude and grace, aware of the abundance of your life. And let Jupiter’s transit in retrograde, help remind you of what you have already achieved, received, accomplished, experienced, and be grateful for the gifts you alone have to live life and to touch the lives of others in a very special, kind, and compassionate. way.
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