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| La Luna Painted by Tammy Heinz |
This week is full of transtional and powerful astrological events. As the week starts this Sunday, September 21, here is where the planets, Sun, and Moon reside in the Heavens:
Sun 28 Virgo 31'34"
Moon 29 Leo 13'32"
Mercury 24 Libra 47'45"
Venus 19 Virgo 41'50"
Mars 5 Sagittarius 10'56"
Jupiter 14 Leo 14' 3"
Saturn 19 Scorpio 38' 8"
Uranus 15 Aries 9'39"r
Neptune 5 Pisces 34'29"r
Pluto 10 Capricorn 59'47"r
TrueNode 19 Libra 21' 4"r
Chiron 14 Pisces 46' 4"r
Thich Nah Hanh says, "Changing is not just changing the things
outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all
notions inlcuding of being and non-being, creator and creature,
mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation
and healing."
Major changes and events promise to make the week ahead full of surprises, excitement, and changes. Sunday has some rich aspects starting this morning (6:04 AM PDT) with Venus in Virgo sextile Saturn in Scorpio. Renewal of relationships is in the works with this aspect. We find ourselves with a sense of feeling more grounded, pragmatic, and willing to see the truth of our intimate connections. We recognize our own needs, expectations, and desires, and realize how we create much of what we are living out in relationship with those we love. Relationships, being what they are, not what we might hope them to be, require us to look deeper into our own motivations and to discover what we are learning about love, commitment, and intimacy through the way we give and receive love and take on the responsibilities of maintaining close connections. We receive wise counsel from old friends, and renew old ties to loved ones.
The Moon is in Virgo today, and she makes some interesting aspects throughout the day. This month we have had a mutable new moon, calling us to go with the flow of changing and extremes of weather, conditions, and transformational movement in our lives.
Virgo Moon calls attention to detail in all things related to emotional balance and clarity. Being immaculate with our intentions, health, and with the order of our lives― body, mind, emotions, spirit―is an essential element of this day. The Virgo Moon forms a seisquiquadrant with Uranus in Aries, about mid-morning. We might find ourselves surprised or shocked by something in our environment, thinking, or with something taking place near us. Later the Moon squares Mars in Sagittarius, activating the energy to get something done. We can respond to the energy aggressively or put the energy to good use getting something done that needed to be done anyway.
Later, the Moon opposes Neptune in Pisces, giving us a little forewarning of the square building between Neptune in Pisces and Mars in Sagittarius. Shortly before midnight EDT/just before 9:00 PM PDT, Mars at 2/41 Sagittarius (the first decan) squares Neptune at 5/34 Pisces, retrograde. This aspect has been building to an exact square all month. We may feel some strange emotions, physical feelings, strong intuitive senses, exaggerated fears, or other unusual thoughts and concerns. We want to pay attention to how we feel our strength, energy, and emotional well being is being drained, challenged, or weakened. Mars in Sagittarius is looking for Truth in all matters; Neptune in Pisces continues to dwell on Love, and all the possibilities, dreams, and imaginative scenarios connected to that. The two together, Mars and Neptune, unite in the understanding that both/and are true, and we are both what we can perceive and what we can imagine. We cannot divorce our feelings, intuition, dreams and hopes from how we choose to behave and what we focus our lives and energy on. We are both and One at the same time. When we are aware of who we are (the complexities of multiple polarities and contradiction), we are better able to make choices and understand our own motivation.
Seeking and wanting to know the Truth (Mars in Sagittarius) can be the ultimate experience of Love (Neptune in Pisces), allowing us to be fully connected to those we share our lives with, relatively free of delusion. If we try to separate ourselves from either aspect, we dwell in illusion or live inauthentic lives-role playing, pretending, or settling for less than what is possible in love and its expressions.
We may also find this square provokes inspiration from unexpected and unusual sources. Depending where this aspect hits in your chart, you are likely to experience some profound insight, physical symptoms, or psychological/emotional energy that focuses your attention on where you need to seek greater clarity, healing, and health (wholeness).
The powerful energy of this aspect has been building for quite some time (strengthening all month), and has made you even more aware of what it is you desire. Now is not the time to allow yourself to doubt, fear, or waver from your true desires. Keep your ‘eye’ and heart on that which you know to be true, which you understand deep within is your true heart’s desire. Mars in Sagittarius has the power to ignite the dreams and desires of Neptune in Pisces. Be scrumptiously honest with yourself, especially about what you truly desire. No wishy, washy thinking at this time. Neptune can consume the energy of Mars if we allow ourselves to stray from our emotional and spiritual truth. Allow yourself to flow with the energies of this aspect, and let go of preconceived ideas about ‘standing firm’ or ‘having to know’ or ‘losing hope’. This Mars-Neptune square has the potential (since everyone is influenced by it in one way or another) to be self-destructive. Again, allow the scrupulous energy of the Virgo Moon to keep you clean and sober, calm and centered, and focused on maintaining emotional serenity amid all the movement and activity. Make amends where needed, seek to repair misunderstandings, and act from a place of love, gratitude, and kindness. This aspect is all about letting go and trusting in Divine guidance, protection, and knowledge. Some of the best ways to spend this Sunday evening is in pursuit of creative and artistic expression, taking a walk outside under the stars, or having a picnic on the beach late in the day ending with a campfire after dark. Let the energy within you flow into expressions of pure love and altruistic acts.
Jupiter in Leo trines Uranus in Aries, so you evening may be lightened and filled with surprising and enjoyable encounters, visions, dreams or conversations. Good surprises come to soften the effects of the powerful Mars-Neptune square. The effects of this aspect will begin to lessen slowly over the next few weeks.
Late Sunday night/early Monday morning, the Sun in Libra semi-square Jupiter, may result in some vague feelings of discontent or let down. Dreams may reveal where we feel disappointed or feeling a vague lack or discontent. Much of this may be pointing our where we have allowed fear or faulty thinking to keep us from seeing where we are blessed.
All of Sunday’s aspects and energy lead us to two major events this week. Monday, Pluto in Capricorn comes out of its retrograde phase, turning direct at 5:36 on Monday, September 22. Two hours later (7:30 PM PDT) the Sun enters Libra marking the turning point between Summer and Autumn. The Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the Spring Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere open the doors to a new season. Pluto stations on Monday, bringing a major retrograde cycle to a point of stillness, just as we stand at the transition point, the balance point of the Autumnal/Spring Equinox. Since April 14 Pluto has been working its way through our unconscious minds. In the depths and darkness of the unknown aspects of our lives, Pluto has been working its way into our consciousness to break up patterns of fear, to dislodge memory, the unexplored shadow elements of our being, and to awaken unfulfilled desires. As Pluto stations and then begins its direct movement, whatever has awakened within, rises up into our awareness, feelings, senses, physical bodies, and conscious vision. Now we have a greater understanding and connection with our process rather than simply focusing on results and outcomes. We flow more from a feeling level (Pluto is the ruler of Scorpio, a fixed water sign).
One of my good friend has been surprised at how much she has been crying. With Pluto breaking up the shell that has housed her feelings for so long, the flow of tears is a positive sign that whatever has been suppressed, ignored, denied, or locked away is now ready to be released. We all are experiencing more breaking up of locked up feelings and emotions, of letting out what we have held in for far too long, or from recognizing that we are fighting against ourselves more than we need to. Some of us struggle so much to be in control, to be in charge, to fix and repair our lives and ourselves that we exhaust ourselves and fool ourselves into thinking we are the sole master of our fate. Now is the time to surrender, and allow the Divine, the Universal Sacred to infuse us and take over the reins. Allow yourself to be with who you are right now, and let what needs to flow from within, rise up to be released. Healing comes by letting go, not hanging on.
Pluto is also representative of the Base Chakra, Muladhara. What are we grounded in? Where do we feel at home? What nourishes and supports us? How are we rooted and connected to our home on Earth? What provides security and connects us to our identify? Pluto is now working through whatever area of our lives/chart is going through the greatest transition. The Pluto station occurs simultaneously to the shift of the Sun into Libra on Monday, and to the New Moon in Libra on Tuesday. This emphasizes for all of us, the need for rebuilding, redirecting, and renewing our relationships―-especially the one we have with ourselves.
The past few years have been an amazing time for my own life―a time when Pluto has been transiting my 3rd house of communications and reconnections. Reuniting with many people from my past, has awakened me to what has shaped the course of my own life, and me. One dear friend whom I have known since early childhood, reminded me of an oath we took as Campfire Girls―to dedicate ourselves to work, health, and love. As I was writing this morning, another poem I had committed to memory, came to mind. The poem, Myself, was written by Anglo-American poet, Edgar Guest. I found this poem in a Naval military handbook, so it might be something many readers are familiar with as well.
Myself
by Edgar Guest
“I have to live with myself, and so,
I want to be fit for myself to know;
I want to be able as days go by,
Always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don't want to stand with the setting sun
And hate myself for the things I've done.
I don't want to keep on a closet shelf
A lot of secrets about myself,
And fool myself as I come and go
Into thinking that nobody else will know
The kind of man I really am;
I don't want to dress myself up in sham.
I want to deserve all men's respect;
But here in this struggle for fame and pelf,
I want to be able to like myself.
I don't want to think as I come and go
That I'm for bluster and bluff and empty show.
I never can hide myself from me,
I see what others may never see,
I know what others may never know,
I never can fool myself -- and so,
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience free.”
It seems to sum up what the transit of Pluto in Capricorn is teaching all of us―a reminder to live every day with integrity.
The Sabian symbol for Pluto at 11degrees Capricorn is: “A pheasant hidden in the underbrush of the forest suddenly displays its brilliant plumage. Perhaps this symbol speaks to the beauty of life which will be revealed to us in some manner. I think we all need to see something beautiful and positive now so that we remember why we strive to change our priorities in life.” (Astrologer, Cathy Lynn Pagano).
This month, the New Moon is in Libra. On Tuesday evening at 8:13 PDT/6:13 AM GMT, we will be celebrating the New Moon, the first of the Autumn season. Summer is officially over, and we move ahead into the darker days of fall, and into the lessening of the light here in the North. At the same time, the Southern Hemisphere experiences the rebirth of Spring with the days of light ahead. Recently returned to Southern California for a brief visit, and was shocked by the Sun rising brightly on the horizon, awaking the Earth with the blazing Sun’s light. It was amazing to me to be in that light again, and for me, it was too much as it had been when I lived there long ago. My home is in the North, where the light is different and where I feel at home. This is a Pluto, first Chakra type of experience or awakening. Notice where you feel ‘at home’ and where you do not. That is Pluto calling you to awareness, in part, of what you need to nourish and energize your being―body, mind, emotions, and soul. This powerful New Moon comes in close connection with both the Autumnal Equinox, the entry of the Sun in Libra and Pluto’s movement direct in Capricorn. These events mark a time of major change and transition, and the New Moon in Libra offers us a perfect time to set forth intentions, make plans, and plant the seeds for creating beauty, peace, equity, and fairness in all relationships. By honoring our personal gifts and using them in service to others, we work together to build a stronger, healthier, more kind and loving world. Relationships, especially the one we have with ourselves, are crucial to our being able to bring our intentions to fruition. The Sabian symbol for the Libra New Moon at 2 degrees is “The transmutation of the fruits of the past experiences into the seed realizations of the forever Creator Spirit.” It is a time for honoring and respecting the good fruits of the past, letting go of that which brings dishonor or death, (loss of life energy), and embracing our part in the Oneness of All. We surrender to the Creator Spirit, and live with greater awareness, respect, and in harmony with All that is.
The New Moon in Libra (partnership, love, beauty, art, creativity, divine soul connections) forms a sextile with Mars at 7 degrees of Sagittarius. A perfect time to be receptive to the arrows of love that are directed right at your heart. It is also a time to act with full, heart-felt intentions on that which we desire and treasure. Putting our ideas for peace and justice into action is part and parcel with beginning a new era based on universal principles rather than selfish, mysogynist, and us-them thinking and behavior.
The New Moon in Libra also forms a fuzzy 150 degree angle (in-conjunct) with Neptune in Pisces. Pay attention to dreams, visions, intuition for signs and messages that enable you to adjust your thinking, behavior, and intentions according to the Highest Good. Trust your heart, listen to your intuition, and make decisions based on what is good, true, and right. Jupiter in Leo is squaring Saturn in Scorpio. This signals the need to go beyond dogmatic beliefs, values based on selfish and narrow-minded understanding, and behavior focused on pleasing others while ignoring the Light within. Awaken to the Truth within you, accessible through insight, meditation, prayer, contemplation, and emotional truth. Rather than worrying about fixing everyone else’s life, work on your own. Take responsibility for your actions, decisions, and choices. Spend time facing the truth of what you feel, believe, desire, and do, take care of your own business. When you do that, you can love and serve others with greater integrity and more authentic love. As Christ’s disciple, Luke , the physician, counseled, “How can you say to another believer, 'Friend, let me take the piece of sawdust out of your eye,' when you don't see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye. Then you will see clearly to remove the piece of sawdust from another believer's eye.” (Luke 6:2, from God’s Word Translation of the Holy Bible).
And as Christ Jesus himself taught in Luke 6: 27-36: , "I tell everyone who is listening: Love your enemies. Be kind to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who insult you. If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other cheek as well. If someone takes your coat, don't stop him from taking your shirt. Give to everyone who asks you for something. If someone takes what is yours, don't insist on getting it back. "Do for other people everything you want them to do for you. "If you love those who love you, do you deserve any thanks for that? Even sinners love those who love them. If you help those who help you, do you deserve any thanks for that? Sinners do that too. If you lend anything to those from whom you expect to get something back, do you deserve any thanks for that? Sinners also lend to sinners to get back what they lend. Rather, love your enemies, help them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then you will have a great reward. You will be the children of the Most High God. After all, he is kind to unthankful and evil people. Be merciful as your Father is merciful.”
Some thoughts on transition and change;
“Never too old, never too bad, never too late, never too sick to start from scratch once again.”
~ Bikram Choudhury
“March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life’s path.”
~ Khalil Gibran
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