When tributaries come together to make a greater river, it’s a wondrous thing. It’s also a phenomenon too easy to take for granted because it is so effortless and natural. With notable exception for the Sun and Moon acting as a counterpoint of sorts, there’s a lot of confluence going on in the sky now.
Confluence in astrology is when planets come together in the sky and on the zodiac to occupy the same degree of the same sign. Astrologers call that a ‘conjunction’ — one of many geometric relationships between celestial objects collectively called ‘aspects’.
First and foremost among all the things conjunctions represent for astrologers is a new cycle. As is the case with other aspects where retrogrades are not involved, the prototypical conjunction by which all other such mergers are interpreted takes place between the Sun and Moon — astrology’s two ‘luminaries’. It is called a New Moon.
On the day of a New Moon, you can’t see the Moon from our perspective on Earth because it is moving through the daytime sky with the Sun. On the days that follow a New Moon, we see Luna reappear, its illumination gradually growing as it separates from the Sun. At maximum separation (about two weeks after a New Moon) we see the Sun and Moon on opposite sides of the sky and zodiac. That’s a Full Moon, astrology’s template for the aspect known as an opposition.
This weekend there will be a Full Moon in Aries. Weather permitting, it will be a beautiful sight. Regardless of where you are, this particular Aries Full Moon also promises to be a momentous occasion correlating with events significant enough to be in the foreground of your consciousness.
In the background, however, a whole heaping handful of astrologically significant objects are in the process of moving (or ‘applying’, as astrologers put it) towards their respective conjunctions. As Eric and Amanda have previously noted here on Planet Waves, one of those conjunctions (between Uranus and Eris) will share the same degree of Aries with this weekend’s Full Moon.
In the meantime, Mars is applying to conjoin with Capricorn in Pluto this coming Wednesday. Mercury, for its part, is currently chasing down the Sun in Libra for a conjunction that will take place on Oct. 27 after both have moved on to Scorpio.
Finally, this coming Tuesday, Venus will move on from Scorpio to Sagittarius. There it will conjoin with Saturn on Oct. 29 (or Oct. 30, depending on where you live), coinciding with the next New Moon.
What should you make of all these applying conjunctions currently being outshone by an impending (and implicitly momentous) Full Moon? Appropriately, there is a confluence of answers to that question. First off, as big a deal as the Aries Full Moon (and corresponding events) look to be, no single astrological aspect is the be-all, end-all. The Sun, Moon and planets keep moving after even the biggest moments. Just as the world does. Just as you endeavor to do.
More to the point, astrology is both cyclical and holistic. There is no linear movement in the sky. Everything goes around to come around, just as life does. What’s more, at any given time there are a lot of cycles going on, each in a different phase of completion. It’s important to see all of those cycles as a whole, one aspect leading to the next, all coming together effortlessly like tributaries making rivers that return to the sea to begin again.
If you are fortunate enough to view the Full Moon this weekend, remember that it’s just a moment. As with every precious moment in your life, it should not be taken for granted. Neither, however, should you take it for more than it is. Seek to flow with the corresponding events in your own way, and find your own place (whether foreground or background) within them. Then, as with all other things in the solar system of which you are a part, move on.
Offered In Service
“…no single astrological aspect is the be-all, end-all…”
And that’s a good, thing indeed!
Watching the full moon rise tonight, on a rare clear but cold night in what has been a chilly, grey October, I mull over memories. There have been some helpful dreams, too, & some sadness, & some realization of lessons learned. It’s not all mopey stuff, but I AM ready to move on!
The slide into the short light of winter is always a challenge for me, & this year I am also trudging through making sense of the anxiety which has beset me. I’m keeping my life as stress free as possible, limiting my time with most people, & practicing the best self care I can manage, & I
believe I’m feeling a bit more like “me”.
Lastly, there’s that counting of blessings we so easily overlook.
I hope your weather’s manageable, Len. My daughter on Vancouver Island is huggered with her little dogs as the wind howls & rain pelts down. So far, all’s well. We’ll all get through this.
Bette: Thank you (as always) for bringing your wise (and wide) perspective to us. It’s good to know you are feeling like yourself again. As to the storm last weekend, your daughter on Vancouver Island got worse than we did in Seattle – thanks to a last-minute change of the storm’s trajectory. Even so, there was a wet basement situation to deal with at my new (as of Oct 1) residence, and a huge sinus headache when the barometer dropped as the storm front moved in. My sinuses have recovered. Still musty where I sleep in the basement.
(((((Bette))))))
Lizzy: Thank you so very much for being supportive of Bette.
“…But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only.”
was just hearing that final lyric from Bob Dylan’s song It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) — and how he conveyed/expressed/Sang those words — when reading the final thoughts of your article..
Thank you very much, Len, for your Understanding and the insights you share..
Jay: Please accept my thanks in return for the flattering comparison.
Ah, Bob Dylan – a premier poet of my generation – and now Nobel Laureate! I’m just tickled about that.
It took me about six months to come to appreciate Bob Dylan’s singing style. Then, one day when I was left to listen to the album on my own, freed from my friends’ insistence on how great this first album was, I finally “got it”. I wasn’t listening to a music LP, this was a book of socially aware and beautifully-written short stories. Noble literature indeed.
Geoff: Thank you for sharing your experience of being on the first wave of Dylan fans. I know from my own experience about how it did take the right time (and enough time) to “get” Dylan’s early recordings. Even though he was thoroughly steeped in the traditions he drew up, he has always had this knack for going great leaps beyond both the traditional and popular to produce material which goes beyond the roads less traveled and into blazing trails less than easily followed at first.