I’m not sure if many Planet Waves readers are sports enthusiasts like I am, but I confess that yes, I am a baseball- and football-loving nut from the Central Coast of California. That is hardwired into my system.

I am also a writer on culture and women’s issues. The affinity for such disparate interests as sports, art, women’s issues and popular culture has always co-existed comfortably inside me, and I drew upon those wide personal preferences to self-identify as a woman comfortable and conversant in non gender-stereotypical issues and interests.

But now we live in a world where the Internet exposes humanity’s dark side on a by-the-minute basis, and the videotape of former Baltimore Raven Ray Rice and his wife Janay in the elevator where he beat her unconscious has changed the game. I can’t bring myself to watch it anymore. The tape replay or football in general.

Initially, there were two sides of this story playing out in the court of public opinion: one that cavalierly dismissed the incident, calling the Rices’ altercation a domestic squabble and responding with “nothing-more-to-see-here, let’s-move-on”; in the other, Ray Rice is an abuser whom the NFL aided and abetted by covering up the story. As the story unfolded this month, we found that the NFL lied about knowing what they knew, and lied when regarding the brutality of the Rices’ elevator altercation. The NFL was sitting on the tape for six months and did nothing until that tape was released by TMZ.

It is that story that now has center stage, and the NFL is in crisis-control mode, scrambling for answers in an attempt to save the NFL brand, and maybe doing more than a little soul searching. In the world where Ray, Janay and most of America exists, the intense scrutiny the NFL is now under is miraculous in that it’s happening at all.

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Between the Libra equinox only hours ago, and the Libra New Moon only hours after this piece has been posted, the luminaries (Sun and Moon) are making a point. It’s simple. Phases and cycles are beginning for everybody all at once. You have a place. Your place is to participate; participation means “with others.”

Just when the Sun entered tropical Libra, it was at the same time directly overhead at Earth’s equator (with relatively equal days and nights worldwide), beginning a new season. Equinox is that simple.

The Sun will appear directly overhead just South of the equator tomorrow. After that, the Sun will rise and set a bit further South each day no matter where you are until the Capricorn solstice.

At the Capricorn solstice, the Sun will appear directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn just as the Sun is entering the tropical sign called Capricorn to start yet another season.

After the Capricorn solstice, the Sun begins rising and setting farther and farther North. It appears directly over the equator again just as it enters tropical Aries for another equinox six months from now.

After the Aries equinox, the Sun’s apparent path continues North until entering tropical Cancer in another nine months, just as it appears directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer. After which, the Sun heads South again.

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By 9:03 am EDT (13:03 UT) on Sunday Venus will have advanced through Virgo to the point where it will be sixty degrees away from Saturn in Scorpio. That will be an aspect called a closing sextile. The result of that aspect will largely depend on the extent to which your participation is reciprocation.

Venus sextile Saturn will not happen in a vacuum. It will take place just hours before Mars advances through Sagittarius to precisely square Neptune in Pisces.

For all intents and purposes, astrological events that are only hours apart can be considered concurrent. Hence Mars-square-Neptune will be functionally simultaneous with Venus-sextile-Saturn.

Eric has emphasized Mars heavily this week here on Planet Waves, and justifiably so. Look at your own life and how desire, wanting, assertion and other issues associated with Mars have come to the fore since Mars entered Sagittarius last Saturday.

Additionally, the impending Martian square to Neptune has received a lot advance attention for good reason. Mars aspects tend to express significantly for days and days before they are exact. Also, Neptune is known for the width of what astrologers call its ‘orb of influence’.

Venus sextile Saturn, however, is no slouch. Venus is, in the words of Robert Hand, “a Yin planet.” As such, Venus is by definition a reciprocal complement to the “Yang” that Mars (among other things) represents.

Also by definition, the relationship between Yin and Yang is not static, it is dynamic — a matter of constant and cyclical reciprocation that (to coin a common phrase) “makes the world go `round.” Hence, there is a sense of reciprocation going on in the separate but simultaneous aspects Venus and Mars are even now moving towards.

Saturn and Neptune have a similar reciprocal relationship, albeit less familiar than the Yin-Yang dynamism between Venus and Mars. That’s because humanity was not consciously aware of Neptune until the 19th Century. That’s where you come in as a participant in the astrology developing toward its culmination this coming Sunday.

You are aware of Neptune, and more consciously so than those who have lived before you. You almost certainly learned about it in school. In all probability you have seen at least one photograph of Neptune relayed back to Earth by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989. You were at least present in 2006 when astronomers (not astrologers) made a not-entirely-scientific decision to “demote” Pluto and restore Neptune to the position of outermost planet in the solar system.

You, more than any who have lived before you, know the truth of Robert Hand’s statement that “Neptune dissolves what Saturn builds”; not as the end of a process, but as part of a reciprocal dynamic with Saturn — which (in its own way) assures that the world continues to go `round.

Now, as Venus approaches its last major aspect to Saturn before they conjoin again this coming Nov. 13, you are unavoidably part of the dynamic. You know that in order for anything on this constantly changing Earth to be sustained it must be periodically dissolved, so that it can be re-built. You know you must take part, especially by reciprocally supporting things you are passionate about (Mars), and things you are receptive to (Venus).

The dynamic cannot proceed without you. You, who have greater awareness than those who have gone before. It is not enough simply to feel desire for Mars to work with Venus, you must show your desire tangibly. It is not enough to be receptive to energy for Venus to work with Mars, you must reward energy with real-world substance.

By the same token, you must lead the way in recognizing how what was built (Saturn) in the past cannot be sustained by resisting change. Neither is it enough simply to stand aside and watch when things dissolve (Neptune). You must do your part to keep the cycle going and contribute to a better and more sustainable re-building after necessary, appropriate and (hopefully) intentional dissolution takes place.

The world does not go `round by itself. It never has. Now humanity is entering a new era when we are (like it or not, know it or not) becoming part of what has kept the world going `round.

One way or another you know the truth, and you know that participation has now become reciprocation. It remains only for you to decide how and where your participation will be expressed. Please choose wisely so as to sustain your own desires and values through the world’s next turn. If you can do that — just that — you will have done your part, which is all anybody can ask.

Sunday will be a whole new day. See you there.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.