With the Gemini Full Moon behind us, we’re really down to one major (and distinctive, as in new) event remaining in 2014 — the ingress of Saturn into Sagittarius. This is a change of pace from recent years around the time of the year-end/Yule type of holidays lately, when we’ve had all kinds of stormy weather, eclipses and inner planetary retrogrades in the vicinity (Mercury, Venus, Mars).
Spiral galaxy, looking a bit like our own home, the Milky Way,
might appear if we could see it.
I propose that this is the right moment for arranging your plans and your activities to wrap up your year-end business and to make some choices for a sane holiday season.
This seems to be an unavoidable cultural ritual for much of the Western world. Though it’s been watered down some in recent decades, there are still the associated rituals of travel, of spending a lot of money, and of obligation. Those are purely the social level. Were you willing to think through these rituals and make up your mind what you really want, I think you would find that you have more freedom than you think.
The whole topic of family obligations around the time of the holidays deserves a good airing out and I propose we have it here on the pages of Planet Waves.
On what you might think of as the psychic or environmental level, the days are very short this time of year where many population centers are focused in the U.S. — the entire Northeast up to metro-Montreal and Toronto; across to Chicago and the San Francisco Bay area. I know you may be watering your plants in Australia these days, though for many people there is an intense veil of darkness that surrounds us — sometime seeming to cocoon, sometimes to subsume and swallow.
These short days are compressed, and there is potentially the biological sensation of panic about where the heck the Sun went. As the Earth approaches solstice, there is a sensation of compression, and of something having spun out to an extreme — one that we haven’t quite reached yet but will soon.
That acceleration is compounded by the Sun’s alignment with the Great Attractor (a deep-space point, happening right now) and with the Galactic Core (the center of our galaxy, happening Thursday, Dec. 18, at 8:32 pm EST). For its part, the Galactic Core is also a supermassive black hole, which can bend time and space, swallow stars and warp consciousness.
So, take it easy. Put some jazz on the phonograph. Make a pot of soup.
Slow down and feel the energy, and move with it if you can. Use the relatively placid (planetary) astrology to pace yourself. Be grateful you’re not navigating Mercury retrograde or an eclipse (or both) on the way to wherever to visit whomever. Get ahead a bit if you can, delegate what you can, simplify and focus the intention of resolution and transition.
As for the current week: over the next few days we get the Moon in Cancer (now through Tuesday, Dec. 9, at 10:14 pm EST or the 10th at 3:13 UTC). Then the Moon moves through Leo, ending with the Virgo ingress on Friday, Dec. 12, at 10:18 am EST (15:18 UTC). It’s in Virgo for most of the weekend.
The Sun is making many aspects and exploring many possibilities in Sagittarius as it makes conjunctions to the impressive collection of minor planets there. Mars is newly in Aquarius, and Venus is about to ingress Capricorn on Wednesday. Mars can be innovative, broad thinking and egalitarian in Aquarius, though steer clear of petty tyrants. Venus in Capricorn is a return to an earth sign, and a return to the night side of Venus — where we meet her as companion, lover and confidante.
I’ve been waiting for Saturn to ingress Sagittarius. Haven’t experienced it since I was 4 years old aprox. so I don’t remember enough. All but one of my grandparents passed away during this part of Saturn’s journey through the sky and one of the biggest earthquakes my country, Chile, has experienced during my lifetine was during this path also. Many unclear and mysterious memories as Saturn has already entered my 12th house. Some time ago I was afraid of when this transit would happen but now the expectation has built up on wanting it to happen, I’m ready for it, at least I feel and think I am. Cheers!
Thanks of so articulately describing the sense of pressure around this time of year. Sometimes it feels like a rubber band just pulled to the breaking point. I will be so happy when the Solstice comes back, bringing back the sun. In our modern age it’s ‘fashionable’ to pretend that we are not creatures of the earth and stars and the rhythm of the planets.
A change of Saturn to the sign of my 4th house cusp and Neptune makes me wonder what it’s going to stir up inside of me.
I grew up with a Sagittarian father teaching me about societal conventions at an early age and how they intersected with Christmas in our household. He told me more than once that the family you make is more important than the one you come from. I recall a time my mother overheard him and she started crying. I took both of their perspectives into adulthood in various ways.
Not living in the same geographical location as my family makes it easier to separate from the perceived obligation, which was a very blatant and conscious choice on my part.
I now celebrate Winter Solstice with my chosen family, though I miss the connection with my siblings, children , and Grandchildren. I don’t have much to add to that discussion on family. I’d be welcome there, if I wanted to travel. Besides miles, the only thing separating us is religion, politics, and processed food. We don’t let that stand in the way of laughing.
Yesterday in Maine, we had a clear sunset, and I spotted Venus in the evening through binoculars and telephoto camera. With sunset at 3:56 pm her light is welcome in the evening. She’ll be fully visible by solstice.
I think that without real love, this season’s festivities will always ring somewhat hollow.
As you say, it is the right moment for arranging plans and activities, and that goes for the U.S. government’s release of the long-awaited CIA torture report too. Although the timing has a lot to do with Jupiter (understanding) stationing retrograde today, at 22+ Leo, it is mostly because it has triggered the yod in the Scorpio solar eclipse of October 23. With Eris (discord) at 22+ Aries (aggressive) under pressure (quincunx) from both Saturn (gov’t) at 22+ Scorpio (hidden) and the U.S. Sibly Neptune (deceptive) at 22+ Virgo (detail) in the eclipse chart, transiting Jupiter (ruler of Sagittarius) is exactly trine Eris and has been for almost 3 weeks now.
It would also be tied to transiting Chiron (painful) stationing direct four days before Thanksgiving (35 hours after the Sagittarius New Moon) at 13+ Pisces (secret) which was exactly trine the U.S. Sibly Sun (consciousness) at 13+ Cancer (family). Not exactly the kind of discussion one would prefer at the dinner table, the report’s release this week has happened right in the thick of the culture’s annual social ritual. Talk about “family obligations” needing to be aired out, this sounds like an attempt to sweep much of the most offensive news under the rug. With Congress going home for the holidays, some of the anticipated discord (Eris) will have dissipated by its return next month. That’s what I call planning ahead.
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I worked a spell last night in cedar smoke, smudging my entire house and backyard labyrinth of some heavy, heavy energy, sucking the smoke into my lungs with a prayer that the healing might be from the inside out; the last few days have felt like moving from one world to another, specially this last Saturday and Sunday. Suddenly my sick younger sister seems so much older, laying in hospital, wearing our mother like a glove; my son who’s not talking, a different kind of not talking or maybe it’s much the same for him, just different for me; my daughter-in-law and son fighting, dumping their problems with money on my husband and I, still I choose to trust them again. Everything is changing, even putting the same foot in front of the other feels different. I am haunted by ghosts passing through my peripheral vision, the scream of a mouse dying over and over again in the squeak of the door that killed it closing. This old world, we not so old humans, stuck in our ways of wars, greed, abuse and power struggles. I’m tired and not tired at the same time; I don’t know how many more times I can reinvent myself, maybe the best thing to do is stop counting.
Wow. You described it so eloquently. I could copy and paste and say “that’s me.” Thank you, most deeply.
Susy, That was a beautiful expression of the haunting I feel myself. The shift is inevitable and seems never to actualize. Time of emotional freedom – then reactive patterns return. Knowing I control my perception of the world but realizing it wont shift. Being in control in an out of control way. Feeling a hopeless optimism. Floating in an energetic stream of conflicting currents but moving quickly – somewhere.
Something huge is happening here. Nice to have a community unafraid to look at this from the inside.
I’m making the soup from the sacrificial turkey bones today, reflecting on how fortunate we are to have all that’s offered here at PWaves. Having just listened to the Sadge b’day preview with it’s FABULOUS graphic (Go Chelse!) and WONDERFUL music (who WAS that?) and Eric pronouncing Saturn’s arrival as exciting and pivotal, I’m counting my Lucky Stars to be in such AWESOME company!
Speaking of Saturn — and taking responsibility — it’s kind of poignant that poor ol’ Sadge John Kerry was sent to try to tamp down progressives demand for the Torture Report, pleading for a later release (when Pubs rule? when pigs fly!) because the world is in such chaos right now. Takes real appreciation of Saturnian principal to understand that this is snake bite medicine for the nation, not something that can be put off longer.
And be, did you see that the Bushies have come out, preemptively positioning a defense against the revelations of the Torture Report? Since Dubby and his cohorts aren’t being tagged for accountability, it appears that it’s the CIA ‘patriots’ they’re worried about — and they’re focusing on efficacy as their defense, rather than the erosion of ethics. As long as it worked, it can be forgiven and forgotten? They haven’t changed their tune much in the last few years. And I hope this gets lots of attention on the Interwebs, so we can get a refresher on Bush energy and the glory that his administration wasn’t well in advance of Jeb’s decision to run.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/us/politics/bush-and-cia-ex-officials-rebut-torture-report.html
The music was composed & performed by Casey Smith who is the music editor of Planet Waves FM. Fabulous!
Thanks Jude, doesn’t surprise me much that the Bushies would miss the whole point of the study. Oh well, he probably won’t be further tarnished as his Venus at 21+ Leo is conjunct transiting stationed retro Jupiter at 22+ Leo and trine trans. Eris.
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