The Sun will reach the midpoint of Aquarius on Friday. According to Zhongxian Wu (in his book The 12 Chinese Animals), the “JieQi” system of Chinese cosmology considers the new year to begin when the Sun reaches “the celestial longitude of 315 degrees” — which corresponds to the middle of Aquarius in western astrology.
Interestingly, the middle degree of all four “fixed” signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius) is also meaningful for western astrologers. That’s because the Sun in the middle of a fixed sign corresponds to the exact midpoint of the current season.
Hence, on Friday, we will be precisely halfway between the Capricorn solstice (when the Sun first entered the cardinal sign Capricorn) and the vernal equinox (when the Sun next enters cardinal Aries).
For many ancient traditions, and most modern astrologers, the tipping point of any given season is an auspicious time. Even today, such “cross quarter” days still receive vestigial, albeit trivial, recognition. Halloween (correlating closely with the Sun in the middle of fixed Scorpio) is one example. Upcoming Groundhog Day observations will represent yet another instance.
There is a reason cross-quarter days were sacred to our ancestors. If you have to grow your own food (as has been the case for nearly all human beings until relatively recently), keeping track of the seasons is absolutely vital. Now, even though the cultural context has changed, the implications of where the Sun is remain important.
When the Sun enters a cardinal sign (Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn) all beings on Earth are connected through a common experience of the Sun. The Capricorn solstice in December, for example, featured both a sunrise and a sunset taking place as far south as they will ever get.
Every day since the Sun entered Capricorn, the Sun has risen and set farther and father north — regardless of who you are, or where you live. Similarly, the upcoming Aries equinox will find the Sun rising precisely east and setting exactly west, with a corresponding equality of day and night for everybody.
It follows, then, that cross-quarter days resonate unavoidably with the turning of the seasons. As with any other halfway point, the theme is one of both perspective on the past and anticipation of the future. This year, the astrological context of the Sun at the midpoint of Aquarius implies something even further: the importance of how you think and what you feel.
As of today, all of the traditional sign-ruling objects except for the Sun and Saturn are in, or will soon be in, cardinal signs. The Moon enters Aries today and will remain there until late Thursday or early Friday (depending on your time zone). Mercury is in Capricorn. Mars has been in Aries since the weekend. Jupiter is in Libra. Finally, before Friday is over, Venus will be in Aries too.
Throw in Uranus (continuously in Aries for nearly six years now) and Pluto (continuously in Capricorn since 2008), and it’s plain to see that the sky is full of cardinal energy. This energy corresponds to both new beginnings and common connections.
As the Sun’s emblem of consciousness moves toward the point of essentially bringing all of that cardinal energy to fuller awareness, the Moon (correlating with your feelings) and Mercury (having to do with how you think) are playing especially important roles. The Moon, for its part, is waxing. With every passing night this week, the illuminated portion of the Moon will grow larger and larger, implying feelings getting stronger and stronger. Jupiter opposing the Aries Moon indicates even further amplification.
In the meantime, Mercury is moving faster by the day. A fleeter Mercury implies a more active mind. A rapidly reactive mind is great for quick thinking, but not so good for careful and patient reflection.
You don’t need to look very far into current events to see how the combination of reactive thinking and strong feelings are playing out. As this week goes on, so likely will the trend. Fortunately, when it comes to how you think and what you feel, you have a choice.
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Being aware of your choices when it comes to sharing your thoughts and feelings will be especially important this week. In the days to come, every rush to judgment will implicitly have the potential of initiating events that could easily get out of hand before they run their course.
While there is little or nothing you can do with regards to the decisions others make, you explicitly have it within your power to regulate and direct what you think and how you feel. In doing so, you can support (rather than undermine) both your intent and your interests.
It is almost certain everybody will not be exercising the same degree of care. Some will set unfortunate precedents. Others will sabotage themselves. You, however, need not be among them. If you have simply retained what has happened for you since the third week of December, you will have the information you need to keep your perspective solid and sound.
With a firm grasp of the immediate past, you will be prepared to go a crucial step further. For it is those who concentrate their energy on what they can change who will be most effective when it comes to both anticipating and defining seasons yet to come.
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Wise and wonderful words, dear Len. Thank you so much for this precious advice.
As I watch & read & listen to people, it has occurred to me that the intensely reactive behavior we see is rampant these days may in part be due to how we’ve been taught to think.
What I refer to here is the heavy emphasis in our culture & education upon strictly linear, left-brain “logical” thought. Feelings have been discounted, but feelings WILL erupt, & without the experience of integrating or consulting the feeling nature, we get the often explosive bursts of feeling energy, in individuals & crowds.
I’d like to say I can make all my choices based upon both “facts” & feelings, seeking a congruence between them before I choose – but I’ve run into brick walls & hard lessons as much as anyone. Nonetheless, I do feel it’s a balance worth working toward, at both a personal & a cultural level.
Thank-you for this food-for-thought, Len. Much is indeed about what we CAN change.
Len – Thank You again for a thoughtful and inspiring piece of writing.
What I have to share may not be popular but I’m not a politician, trying to win any popularity contests. So here goes.
Our current situation isn’t surprising, in view of what has preceded it over the past few decades. We’ve had a steady and consistent march to emotional self indulgence over the past few decades, discounting the value of emotional and social coping skills.
We had the “power of positive thinking” fad, which disguised a fear based control effort to create only positives in our future. Little realizing that “positive” was a quantitative judgment, just as much as “negative”. The judgement being a creation of our perspective, values and understanding. All That Is includes both what we call “positive” and what we call “negative”. Life is about embracing both in appreciation of the experience.
We also had a President that sniveled through his terms talking about “security”. “Secure” is a psychological state of mind and issues involving “security” can only be resolved through using psychological means. Rather than receive counseling for his neurosis, he was given guns and marched off to war, with our country along for the emotional ride.
One of the things that would be of benefit is to recognize that our feelings are our own. My feelings are mine, yours are yours, his are his, hers are hers, etc. They are directly created by our perspectives and what we’re thinking. After every thought there will be an energetic impulse in sensitivity set into motion. This is what we call e-motion and we are each, individually, responsible and accountable for setting this energy into motion. No one makes anyone else feel anything. We all are born fully equipped and response-able. It is empowering to realize we are in charge of those responses.
I point to our coping skills and desires to keep Reality and our world at large locked inside the tiny boxes of our skills. When Wisdom guides we start learning how to cope. We might take a deep look at our ideals.
If I described an environment with a gate and a security guard that was tightly controlled to suit the emotional and coping skills of its residents, I could be describing a mental health facility, some religions idea of “Heaven” or a gated community in Florida. In terms of coping and social skills, they’re all the same limited patterns.