Times of renewal are not always determined by cycles of the Sun and seasons. There are rhythms that are not annual in nature. There are also patterns that do not repeat at the same time every day.

The ocean’s tides (largely governed by the Moon) are one example. Therefore, that which moves only with the tides comes and goes on a schedule of its own. The same can be said for cycles of the planets.

Among the more meaningful cycles of the planets are those that begin with conjunctions. When any two planets meet to share the same degree of the same sign, they renew a pattern uniquely their own.

After a typical one-off conjunction not complicated by a retrograde, the faster of the two planets moves on ahead to eventually catch up with the slower one again. Yet, because the slower planet also moves, the next meeting of the two is often, but not always, in a different sign, and on a different day than the previous meeting.

The renewal of such a pattern thus provides a different yet meaningful perspective on time compared to what you get from calendars. The nature of that perspective will depend on the nature of the two planets involved, and on how the astrology associated with their merger compares with the context in which the previous cycle started.

It is thus that the Virgo conjunction of Mars and Jupiter on Saturday, exact just before 6:40 pm EDT (22:39:42 UTC), will bear both watching and remembering. That’s because the immediately previous meeting of Mars and Jupiter took place on one of the most astrologically eventful days in recent memory. That day included at least one historical event that could turn out to be of far greater significance than anybody imagined at the time.

The last time Mars conjoined Jupiter was in cardinal, watery Cancer on July 22, 2013. That conjunction took place in a very precise grand water trine with Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces. Later on the same day, Venus ingressed Virgo. Then the Sun entered Leo, followed shortly by the Moon entering Aquarius to precipitate a Full Moon.

Wow. It might very well be worth your while to remember what you were doing on that day, and contemplate it this weekend. You might gain some perspective that no conventional anniversary could provide.

There was one event that might help you remember July 22, 2013. Between Venus leaving Leo by the back door and the Sun coming in Leo’s front door, Prince George of Cambridge was born. While it would be interesting to see what sort of day the young prince has on Saturday, it would probably be best if you focused on your own life.

That’s because the next convergence of Mars with Jupiter this weekend will implicitly be a more focused event than its immediate predecessor. Given how the nature of Mars is energetic, and the nature of Jupiter is to amplify, it would probably be a good idea to be focused yourself, especially as compared to the last time Mars conjoined with Jupiter.

First off, the astrological context will not be nearly as busy this time. Hence, the consequence of Martian and Jovian energies merging is a lot less likely to be lost in the din.

Then, consider how Virgo (where Mars and Jupiter will meet) is a sign noted for its association with mental concentration. Some of that has to do with how Virgo is the only sign where the ruler (mental Mercury) is also exalted. Additionally, as Eric has often pointed out, there is a thematic correspondence between Virgo and another astrologically significant object, which (among other characteristics) is emblematically representative of focus: Chiron.

Interestingly, when Mars and Jupiter come together on Saturday, both will be moving to oppose Chiron in Pisces. If the message of that near opposition does not get through to you, there will be an even tighter aspect to consider: another trine.

This time around the conjunction of Mars with Jupiter will take place almost exactly 120 degrees away from Pluto in Capricorn, forming an earth-sign trine. Trines are known for being conducive to flow. That conduction in turn tends to connect the constituents of the aspect like a good connection on a long-distance call. The implication is that Pluto’s participation will be significant even if it is not strictly palpable.

If all else fails to get your attention, Pluto will. Hence, it will be better to bring your own attention, so to speak. That’s how this will implicitly be a weekend to both watch mindfully and remember consciously. Not in spite of the fact that most of the world will neither note this conjunction of Mars and Jupiter nor correlate the last one, but because of that fact. Indeed, this could very well be one of those times when astrology really helps you to accurately perceive and appropriately respond to an ebb and flow that cycles of the Sun and seasons would never by themselves reveal.

Offered In Service

By Amanda Painter

We rarely let the people we are in relationships with know our full selves; there are always things about us that we prefer not to show others. Sometimes, we barely acknowledge these facets of ourselves to ourselves.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

Have you ever told yourself that you are “sparing” your partner from your rough edges, your dark secrets and your “unacceptable” desires?

Along those lines, do you carry around the belief that you are wholly unselfish toward the person with whom you’re in a relationship (or that you’ve been “the generous one” in the past)?

If so, do you base that belief partly on the fact that you have not “imposed” the seemingly unpleasant or needy parts of yourself onto them?

Friday’s astrology features a pair of oppositions that are combining to bring your awareness to these dynamics and questions. The first is the Sun in Libra opposite Eris in Aries, exact at 9:13 am EDT (13:13 UTC). The second is Venus in Virgo opposite Neptune in Pisces, exact at 10:53 pm EDT (2:53 UTC Saturday).

In Sun-Eris, we get an image of your “relationship self” being confronted with some fragments of yourself that you have perhaps cast off, hiding them in the shadows. The things is, even the parts of ourselves that we try to hide or deny are still, in the end, part of what makes us who we are. If we do not consciously choose to acknowledge and integrate these identity fragments, sometimes they get our attention in less-than-healthy ways that stir up inner chaos.

So here’s another question: how can you bring these fragments of you to the table, in a way that lets you feel whole — rather than assigning these pieces of yourself onto a partner, or blaming them on your relationships? Or put another way, what are you afraid might happen if you let your partner see all of you? If roles were reversed, could you see and accept a lover or spouse in their full light and shadow?

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Dear Madame,

I’ve been rethinking my close acquaintance with a man I see regularly when I come to his town. (I’m a traveling rep.) The last time I was in town he invited me back to his place, where I met his mother. It turns out she lives with him, which sort of surprised me.

He’s been helpful to me in the past, introducing me to new clients and making my time more comfortable in his town by recommending restaurants and the like. We get on very well. I’ve known from the first that he was interested in becoming more than being my host, though. Neither of us are spring chickens, so I’ve been cautious about this attention. As a woman who’s worked hard for her independence, I’m not sure how I feel about settling down anywhere, or with anyone.

But honestly, it’s the fact that his 82-year-old mother lives with him. I think my reluctance to get further involved comes down to the recognition I’d be taking on an elderly woman as well as a lover, if I pursue this. When I see him, I can’t help but picture his mother there, too.

I have an early Sagittarius birthday. Is there anything in this Saturn business about Sagittarians finally settling down? I feel like this is going to come up again the next time I come into town. If we have to part company, I’d be sorry for it. Not sure if I want to.

— Saggi Blu Knows Not What To Do

Dearest Saggi Blu,

It’ll take more than a few kind words and helpful tips to conquer the locals if you wanna tame a Saggo. So it’s clear to me that if he’s turned your head and dropped you to a trot, you’re intrigued — or simply road-weary and ready to park it in a friendly stable.

Indeed, that Saturn piece does play a part. According to your chart, you are nearing what astrologers call the Second Saturn Return (SSR), which kicks in around age 58 and lasts a couple of years.

The SSR sounds like the Second Coming, and is surprisingly similar: if you’ve been doing your Saturn well, the SSR is like a liberation. Twice-liberated from the things that make us work for wisdom, we’re ready to change the tempo of our lives after the second Saturn cycle, and kick off a few residual restraints imposed on us by others. This is because, unlike the first Saturn return that arrived when we turned 30, the Second Saturn Return can be the beginning of a new season that releases many of those responsibilities that claimed the second 30 years of our lives.

Don’t confuse this with the AARP card that arrives in the mail. Your SSR arrives with a cosmic Master Card, and the pre-paid benefits of wisdom, experience, and (hopefully) some change in your structure of work. No interest, no fees.

Unless you failed to pre-pay. If you’ve not copped most of life’s essential lessons, the arrival of Saturn on your doorstep smells as bad as sulfur, and his rates stink even worse. Even if you’ve paid up, many find years 58-60 a spiritually and emotionally difficult threshold in our youth-obsessed culture. We have no clear status markers for 60 that help us feel significant to others.

But it wasn’t always thus. In ye olden days few reached the age of 60, but if you did, you were an Elder. Respect? Usually, if only for reaching such a ripe old age. With the support of surviving grown children and grandchildren, you could reduce your personal workload and instead take on the task of mentoring the young people who need additional guidance or supervision. Or you’d have the luxury of time for personal pursuits. However you chose it, it was time to give back and share whatever you’d gained through the years. And reap a few bennies, as well.

May I gently suggest something about your current Saturnian dilemma? Could it be that hanging around too much with Ma will only serve to remind you that you, too, may one day be that age? That you are nearing 60, even if in your head you’re 47? That age and limitation are not anything you’ve ever willingly embraced before?

I say this regardless of your future with said out-of-town gentleman and his mother. Resisting the Saturn experience is fruitless and exhausting. If there’s anything you don’t wish to face, it certainly finds you anyway. This is tough medicine for Saggos, who love the open road. But with Saturn in your natal 9th house for the next two years, he may force the point. You may need to pick a neighborhood and hang close by rather than fly the friendly skies.

Give this some thought, and some time before you decide with this man. Do you have a year, dear? Get to know the mother better. Observe how your fellow treats her, tips service staff, keeps his bathroom tidy. Observe the small things, because right now, the small things count more than usual. If you married, yes, you’d inherit the mother. When you marry, you marry the family, too. We all do. Sometimes, that’s actually a blessing.

Galloping away,

Madame Z

I dwell in Possibility – A fairer House than Prose
— Emily Dickinson

Even with all the bemusing, worrying, sad or annoying things undeniably going on in the world, there is at least one reason to be consoled. Much is possible and little is certain at this time. It is not always that way. Nor can things continue to be that way forever. All of which makes this a blessed, if exasperating, era to live in.

It is as though your life is contributing to the composition of an epic poem. Less is explicit. More is open to interpretation. Rarely is one definition indisputable — just like poetry.

Gender is no longer necessarily defined by genitals. More people are practicing unconventional domestic relationships. What a person is — or even what life is — is increasingly becoming a subject of dispute.

A self-described democratic socialist is contending to be the nominee of the Democratic Party in the U.S. Leading the pack for the Republicans is a reality television star. Those looking for a conventional job are finding such positions harder to come by. The examples go on and on. Nearly anything formerly taken for granted in the 20th Century has now become optional, or even exceptional.

It seems nobody knows any outcome for sure right now. It’s all most of us can do to take in and evaluate all the alternatives and their consequences. Yet, with alternatives now more the rule than ever, boundaries on consciousness and what you can be aware of have, as result, expanded. Just as poetry expands the boundaries of language, and what you can express with it, possibility is throwing open metaphorical doors and windows previously closed.

As one might expect, the fairer house of possibility is symbolically showing up in the astrology right now. That’s especially true if your focus is the sign-ruling planets. With the exception of the Moon, which changes signs about every third day, all of the major planets (and a great many of secondary importance) have evacuated the fixed signs of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius.

In astrology, fixed signs have the quality of conferring definition and resisting change. Those with fixed signs prominent in their personal astrology do indeed tend to demonstrate such admirable qualities as stamina and perseverance. Yet, the same personalities also often cling to routine for its own sake, and potentially limit themselves and others with an insistence on order and a proclivity for rigidity.

People with cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) dominating their astrology, on the other hand, can become very restless if they are not initiating something new. For their own part, folks who are born with a rich component of mutable planets (in Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius or Pisces) tend to get a charge out of stirring things up.

None of the slow-moving outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto), which correspond with the political and public realm of society and history, have been in fixed signs since Jupiter left fixed Leo and entered mutable Virgo back on Aug. 11, and Saturn entered mutable Sagittarius on Sept. 17. Since Jupiter spends more than a year in each sign, that means the world as a whole will implicitly be dwelling in some significant possibility until at least next September.

Additionally, since Venus left Leo behind to ingress Virgo on Oct. 8, and until the Sun departs cardinal Libra to enter fixed Scorpio on Oct. 23, all of the faster moving ‘personal planets’ (Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars — once again, making exception for the Moon) will also be expressing themselves through emblematically expanded boundaries.

For you, that means two things. First, it will be implicitly as difficult to keep the changing world outside of your life as it is to keep the wind from entering open windows and doors. As if in compensation, however, it will be easier for you both to contribute to and to accept what is creatively ambiguous, entertaining the possibility of an entirely new life for yourself.

Just as some people are uncomfortable with how poetry requires one to bring definition rather than receiving it, there are those for whom the next ten days will be more distressing than entertaining. Try not to be among them.

Consider giving possibility a chance. Contemplate going even further when something unusual but interesting presents itself for you to define. These moments do not come often, and you will never know how you feel about dwelling in them unless you give yourself a fairer chance.

Offered in Service

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