Shortly after 4:22 pm EDT (21:22:19 UTC) on Monday, the Sun will enter the mutable fire sign Sagittarius. At its most fundamental, every annual solar ingress to Sagittarius is a reminder that we have but 30 days left in the current season. In the Northern Hemisphere, it’s getting colder. South of the equator, it’s getting warmer.
When the Sun moves into Sagittarius this year, it will be distinguished as it has not been for more than two and a half centuries. That’s because the Kuiper Belt object 20000 Varuna has recently changed signs for the first time since its discovery almost exactly 16 years ago.
Right now, Varuna is in the first one-third or so of the first degree of fixed and fiery Leo, and it is retrograde. That retrograde will temporarily return Varuna to the sign in which it was discovered (Cancer) next month, but not before the newly Sagittarius Sun forms a precise fire trine aspect that has been a long time coming back around.
As with all objects discovered by astronomers, Varuna is without the legacy by which we know planets visible to the unaided eye. The traditional objects of astrology (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) are at least culturally, if not physiologically, part of who you are. Their names were not simply given, they evolved with language itself. We thus know these co-called classical planets well, and some astrologers think they are all we need to know. Experience with Uranus, Neptune and Pluto alone clearly says otherwise, however.
So it is that the astrology of Varuna is a work in progress, but an effort worth undertaking nonetheless. By reading these words you become a part of that endeavor. Therefore, you can start with the fact that you can’t lean on Varuna’s name (or the mythology behind it) to the extent that we can with the objects sky watchers have worked with since before history was recorded.
If you grant that some sort of serendipity is at work with the naming of objects discovered by telescope, you can cautiously begin with a nominal interpretation of Varuna’s astrological meanings. Among those meanings might plausibly be the incomprehensibly large and the unimaginably old. Given that Varuna has not been in Leo since the 18th century, such a correlation is consistent with observed reality.
Another thing to consider is that Varuna was discovered while the Sun was in Sagittarius (on Nov. 28, 2000). Just as with any person born with the Sun in Sagittarius you can now say that Varuna is soon to experience a birthday (or, as astrologers put it: a “solar return”).
Add to that the fact that Varuna has at long last returned to the single sign ruled by the Sun (Leo), astrology’s emblem of consciousness awareness. Finally, include the fire trine aspect Varuna is about to receive from the Sun upon its own return to Sagittarius, and you might get a clearer sense of inner (and possibly, outer) environment accessible to you come Monday.
At the very least, it would appear that the beginning of solar Sagittarius this year would seem to represent some universal, ancient and enduring realities flowing into your ‘here and now’. Foremost among those verities might well be the importance of integrity and the inevitability of cyclical change. At least as likely is the possibility you might soon be more able than usual to make some discoveries regarding your place in history and your personal connection with the very grand and the very old.
The most important factor come Monday will be you. As a rule, astrology does not happen to you — you make it happen, or not. If you begin with a conscious awareness that the Sun will be making a once-in-several-lifetimes aspect upon entering Sagittarius this year, you will have taken a valuable first step. If you combine that awareness with a will to do some personal and practical research into the immense and ancient, there is no telling how far you will be able to go.
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Beautiful. Will follow your advice. Thank you Len.
Here’s an extract from the Planet Waves 2003 ‘Small Worlds’ Annual on the subject of Varuna that may be pertinent in the coming months.
Eric writes: ‘Tracy Delaney, whom I sent scurrying around the network looking for information on Varuna, recently wrote to me, “There is plenty of stuff about Varuna as a higher remote power which is beyond question or understanding, and this divine power being allowed to manifest through individuals (like the Pope or a Supreme Court Judge), also emerging in charts as arrogance or dogma (with square aspects).
‘”Juan [Revilla] suggests an avenue of inquiry. He points out that Varuna was exactly conjunct the Sun in Cancer at the birth of Islam (’16th July 622 at Sunset in Mecca, sunset occurred at 16h05m38s’), and that this should cause self-expression to become like the conjunct planet, which ‘looses its independence and becomes too absorbing, too central and excessive’. Thus the nature of Islam may give some clues about the nature of Varuna.”‘
Perhaps each of us should examine exactly how we relate to Islam at this time. Remember that Varuna carries a noose to punish liars and those who break contracts or don’t keep their word.
Thanks Len and Geoff for intriguing information about Varuna. Geoff’s description in the final para draws similarities with Orcus. And I wonder what this says about Islam’s relationship to water.