Note: For the past several weeks I have been standing in for Eric on the Monday Astrology Diary so he can make efficient, relaxed headway on your soon-to-be-incredible Vision Quest annual readings for 2016. Read more about Vision Quest and pre-order these year-ahead readings (written and audio components) here. — Amanda
Earlier today I was reading a section of astrologer Robert Hand’s book Planets in Transit to get some extra insight on the Sun-Jupiter square that is exact today (Monday) at 10:02 am EST, with the Sun in Sagittarius and Jupiter in Virgo. At its best, this aspect can signal tremendous growth and expanded opportunities; particularly spiritual growth or opportunities to serve humanity, given the signs involved.
Like COP21, its bark is worse than its bite… Photo by Amanda Painter.
Yet a particular passage by Hand stood out for me:
“Basically this transit is a test of your discipline and self-restraint. If you are not a restrained person, you will react to this influence by going overboard in some way, overextending yourself or living in a fool’s paradise where you think nothing can go wrong. Or you might squander a valuable resource, only to find on another day that you do not have enough of what you need.”
Does that passage remind you of anything? For example, the agreement reached at the COP21 climate summit in Paris that, unfortunately, does not really accomplish anything meaningful toward slowing global warming?
I realize that many are celebrating that an agreement was reached at all. But take four minutes to watch this interview with Paul Oquist, lead envoy from Nicaragua to COP21, who describes why the mechanisms agreed to at the summit are a path to failure: “We don’t want to be an accomplice to taking the world to 3 to 4 degrees and the death and destruction that represents.”
Or read this interview in The Guardian with former NASA scientist James Hansen, who called the COP21 summit “a fraud really, a fake” — adding that, “It’s just bullshit for them to say: ‘We’ll have a 2C warming target and then try to do a little better every five years.’ It’s just worthless words. There is no action, just promises.”
All this is not to bum you out on a Monday morning; rather, I want to make the connection between what it looks like on a collective or public scale to “live in a fool’s paradise” or “squander a valuable resource,” and the idea that you can choose to express this astrology very differently on a personal scale. You can choose to live your life with some restraint in how you use natural resources such as electricity, fossil fuels and water; you can choose restraint regarding the disposable paper and plastic items you use.
There’s also the question of how much attention you’re paying to the details of your circumstances and choices, how broadly or how far in the future you’re willing to look in terms of the consequences of your actions. The archer of Sagittarius taking aim and shooting his arrow is a metaphor for guiding your spiritual or intuitive progress; you might not know exactly where the arrow will land, but you do have to see clearly where you are, and then aim well ahead of that position — something the leaders of developed nations at COP21 seemed unwilling to do in any meaningful way.
Meanwhile, speaking of archers, the Sun encounters in exact aspects three of the first four centaurs this week: it conjoins Ixion in Sagittarius, opposes Asbolus in Gemini, and then conjoins Pholus in Sagittarius — all on its way to conjoining the Galactic Core on Saturday. For the Sagittarius Sun to engage with those centaurs in such close proximity tells us that the overall theme of the week has to do with healing old patterns and taking generational effects into account (both from the past up to now, and from the present moment far into the future). Again, the climate summit is a perfect example.
More specifically, Ixion has the key phrase, “anyone is capable of anything.” In Sagittarius, conjunct the Sun, you might notice a new level of awareness for where your inner guidance system might be a little weak or unclear. In a shadow interpretation, it could signify what one is capable of doing in the name of religious beliefs that is not strictly ‘humanitarian’; or, perhaps, the intent of fossil-fuel-loving developed nations to keep their beloved ‘freedom’ of lifestyle, regardless how global warming affects everyone else.
But the Sun and Ixion are opposite Asbolus in Gemini. Asbolus literally means ‘carbon dust’, linking it with the idea of ‘the gift of life’ and also ‘survival’. In reading Eric’s description of Asbolus from Small World Stories, I started thinking about the two sides of ‘surviving’ something traumatic: that, on the one hand, one carries the memory and effects of that pain; yet, at the same time, one still has the capacity to appreciate the gift of life — and that with deep healing, one may move beyond surviving into thriving.
The Sun aligning with the center of our galaxy (and its cosmic message) and opposing Asbolus in the very mental, duality-oriented sign Gemini is an image of your intuitive orientation on spirit being confronted with the idea of survival and its dual nature: the pain and the beauty, the anger and the joy, the fear and the love.
It’s a reminder that even in our seeming separation from each other — and from plants, and other animals, and minerals — we’re still all connected in these physical forms through our common carbon-based structures. You don’t have to get all ‘woo-woo’ to see our unity in the science.
On the way to conjoining the Galactic Core, the Sun conjoins Pholus on Thursday — the planet of ‘small cause, big effect’, the cork popping out of the wine bottle. We let the global warming Genie out of that bottle generations ago. It won’t go back in; rather, it’s time to let our awareness of that situation affect how we aim our arrows. Those arrows can fly far this week. You cannot know its destination; all you can do is be as honest and ethical as possible as you pull the string back, and set your sights on this gift of life.
Once again – thank you, dear Amanda. will be flying back to my family in a few days to help look after my mother, who is very sick, and your words help me to deal with all the stuff that’s coming up right now.
Lizzy — I’m grateful to know this was helpful. I wish you well as you tend to your mother, and as you tend to all that is arising within you.
Thank you Amanda1 And I wish you all the best as well, with your current relationship struggle, I find that giving less attention to the chattering mind often helps the bigger picture to emerge.
And thanks for the links giving information on the climate deal – from the little I’ve read, had gathered that there was much ado about nothing.
Thanks Amanda. I want to acknowledge how much I love your art, your writing, editing and art are such wonderful gifts, thank you!
Nothing can be changed without awareness, thank you for writing about this important topic. Awareness is the stillness we crave, although in many ways, we do no know it. It is an acknowledgment of life: the scent of a rose, the hum of a bee, the sparkle in the eye of a loved one. Awareness brings feeling and true awareness also has empathy. It is an allowance to know how another feels. This is important for reconciliation. It is also important for self-healing. I expect it is to some extent important for the earth’s sustainability and healing.
Many of us want more from COP-21 but we can get nothing without first achieving the world’s leader’s awareness, something we did not have in Brazil, not fully, not while we still had an active agenda of climate-change deniers. As we sit in our awareness, we have raised the bar of knowledge and can now move forward on an agenda, that is my belief. Not by enforcing anything from this recent meeting of the world leaders but rather by using it as a spring board for the next meeting of world leaders where enforcement of world regulatory initiatives will be negotiated. It has to occur. I expect that behind the scenes negotiations were taking place before they even left Paris. Setting up working groups and scheduling milestones and followup meetings over matters that could be enforced. Discussing where they needed to work the most (likely power plants, coal, and transportation). Likely, too, is a discussion as to how to better incorporate the non-governmental organizations and contributors, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who want to put funding into renewable energy alternatives. The work never ceases and I am certain it didn’t.
So back to the topic of awareness and choice. We can choose also not to get drawn into an illusion that nothing came out of COP-21 because something was achieved. It wasn’t what we wanted, which was an enforceable treaty. But it was much more than what we had prior to the November and I believe, a real shift from where we were before because the energy of debate will not be focused on whether climate change is happening but now can focus on what to do about climate change.
“Awareness brings feeling and true awareness also has empathy. It is an allowance to know how another feels. This is important for reconciliation. It is also important for self-healing. I expect it is to some extent important for the earth’s sustainability and healing.”
Pisces Sun, I could not agree more. And it is that lack of empathy that seems to be lacking in an inter-personal situation I am struggling with lately. Step one for me seems to be detaching from the emotional triggers enough to be able to express myself clearly. Hopefully if I can do that, the other person will find their empathy, and I might find some for her. At the moment, it just seems to be a mother-daughter trigger-fest, and it seems to keep rocketing straight out of my 12th house. Tricky stuff to bring full awareness to.
Got to say I love that caption 🙂
Thanks for this one, Amanda. (Well thanks for all of “them”, but today “this one”.)
Of late, survival seems a distant aspiration and to thrive not even a dream. But survival to some extent happens of it’s own accord if we follow simple natural impulses. Thriving will come with concerted focus upon much of what you offer.
We are at the time of year half-way round from my Gemini daughter’s birth and death. Looking through the lens of astrology and your thoughts offers much to contemplate; “Gemini is an image of your intuitive orientation on spirit being confronted with the idea of survival and its dual nature: the pain and the beauty, the anger and the joy, the fear and the love.”
Yes – I was very touched too by those words of Amanda that you quoted, dear aWord. And am deeply moved by your comment. Much love to you. ((())))