In spite of what an allegedly ancient Asian proverb implies, it is not necessarily a curse to live in interesting times. Perhaps more accurately, it is a challenge. The biggest part of that challenge, especially in our current and ostensibly fascinating times, has to do with information and perspective.
In an age of information glut combined with instant electronic communication, part of the challenge is separating fact from fiction. One example is how difficult it is to ascertain veracity with the more-and-more-common occurrence of hoaxes purveyed through social media.
A more subtle (and more insidious) challenge has to do with the elevation and exaltation of what amounts to trivia. Indeed, it would appear that large segments of modern culture worldwide are devoted to, and consist largely of, ephemeral (if symptomatic) minutiae.
Fortunately, the ancient art of astrology (which has survived precisely because it is not trivial, in spite of what some very unscientific scientists might say), provides both some rather compelling (if implicit) data and a very long-term, holistic perspective. The Sun’s ingress to Pisces today (or last night, depending on where you live), combined with the Virgo Full Moon coming on Monday, is one example of both symbolic representations and insight provided by a very big temporal picture.
First off, there is no bigger picture than that implied by the Sun in Pisces. Just as the end of all streams and rivers is the ocean, solar Pisces is the vast sea at the end of the zodiac that collects all of the continuum which has flowed down from the previous vernal equinox. Speaking of which, Monday’s Full Moon at 3+ Virgo (which will oppose the Sun at 3+ Pisces) is part of an unusual and implicitly indicative pattern of continuation going back to last year.
The Full Moon on Oct. 27, 2015, took place at 3+ Taurus (which is both the discovery degree of Chiron and the exaltation degree of the Moon). That opposition of the luminaries (Sun and Moon) was followed by a Full Moon at 3+ Gemini on Nov. 25, 2015. Then came a Full Moon at 3+ Cancer on Christmas day, and a Full Moon at 3+ Leo at the end of January.
The pattern of sequential Full Moons at 3+ degrees will continue with next month’s lunar eclipse at 3+ Libra. Nearly half a year’s worth of Full Moons continuously repeating in the same degree of successive signs is unusual and thus (by astrological standards) represents information. While the floor is left open here to interpret the meaning of that sequence of Full Moons, it can at the very least be said that (like all occurrences of repetition) it begs to get your attention. Provided one is paying attention and not distracted by trivia, that is.
Then there is what has been long lined up in the first several degrees of both Virgo and Pisces to combine with Monday’s opposition of the luminaries. First, there is the fixed star Regulus which, as result of the long, slow precession of Earth’s axis, entered Virgo (after more than two thousand years in Leo) sometime between 2011 and 2012 — depending on which reference you use. That’s a big deal. Big enough so that it would probably be appropriate to give Regulus a new name that does not imply Leo.
Then there is the calculated point Transpluto (explained more fully here in 2013) which, because of retrograde motion, took from 2011 to 2014 to finally end nearly 80 years in Leo, and settle into Virgo alongside Regulus. That is also a big deal from an astrologer’s perspective.
Finally, there is the slow-moving centaur object Nessus (extensively elaborated on by Amanda Painter yesterday) which took from April of 2014 to February of 2015 to complete a long tenure in Aquarius, and begin an even longer traversal of Pisces. Nessus does so with a prolonged opposition to Regulus and Transpluto in Virgo — an astrologically big deal as well.
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Finally, come Monday, the Sun and Moon will conclude months of trying to get your attention by swinging around to oppose each other in rather precise alignment with Regulis, Transpluto and Nessus. That’s quite a combination, especially coming at a time when the world of electronic information seems to be completely distracted by so much “he said” and “she said,” which nobody will care about by this time next year.
Indeed, the depths of interpreting Monday’s oppositions along the cusp-axis of Virgo and Pisces might take until next year to sort out. One thing seems clear, however: the sky is implicitly begging us to see the whole of what we are in the midst of.
We are being asked to notice that these challenging times indicate a confluence of long periods flowing into an ocean of even greater duration, in preparation for a type of vernal turnaround that implies the obsolescence of even how stars are named. Implicitly indicated is not only a change of seasons represented by the Sun in a mutable sign (Pisces), but also the concurrent turnover of entire eras, epochs and ages beyond the perspective of almost anything other than astrology. It would behoove us to at least be aware of that, and consider how lucky we are to be alive to do something about and with it while it is happening.
It might be a million lifetimes before anybody else is so fortunate as to live in such interesting times. Try not to be so distracted by the trivia that you miss it.
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Sounds a little like a centaur thing – that series of repeated full moons in the same degree of each sign which began with a full moon in the Chiron discovery degree. Doesn’t that in itself provide us useful information Len? Chiron’s repeated efforts to get our attention always has to fight against the overload of trivia that consumes so much space in our minds. By the time we are forced to pay attention, something is really hurting.
I really like the thread you are suggesting here; that in seeing the whole, we see a pattern, whereas if we focus only on the information of any one event in a series of events we are doomed to repeat the mistakes. Then there is the argument that by being too far removed from the event(s) we must lose some of the flavor/ feeling of the event’s power. That flavor/feeling would be the pain, in many cases, or the chirotic healing effect.
I wonder if these full moons sequentially in 6 different signs (opposed to Suns in the other 6 signs) aren’t somewhat obscure for a reason such as to teach us how to see truth (fact) within untruth (fiction), or as in the case of the Conservative (Republican) view that Eric wrote about, as the Illusion (fiction) and the Reality (fact) of that view.
Once again we are faced with duality and possibly a way to rise above it as well. When in October 2015 we had that full moon at 3+ Taurus, the degree where Chiron was discovered (and the degree where Chiron was when Uranus was discovered!), it was also the degree of Justice Scalia’s natal Uranus which was opposite his natal Moon at 3+ Scorpio, where the transiting Sun was. We should note that at that full moon Mars was at 20+ Virgo. That was the degree where the solar eclipse took place in the previous month of September. 3+ Taurus is also where Bernie Sanders’ natal Nessus is located.
The following month, November, had a full moon at 3+ Gemini and Jupiter was at 20+ Virgo, that same eclipse degree. December’s full moon on Christmas at 3+ Cancer was conjunct the U.S. Sibly chart’s Venus (what we value), and Jupiter had reached 22+ Virgo to conjunct the U.S. Sibly Neptune (illusion and/or divine inspiration). Then in January, 2016, the full moon at 3+ Leo sported, among other interesting aspects, the conjunction between Jupiter and the north node, both conjunct the U.S. Neptune at 22+ Virgo. Transiting Pluto and retrograde Mercury at 15+ Capricorn were trine Scalia’s Neptune and Bernie Sanders Sun, both at 15+ Virgo.
Now in February, the full moon at 3+ Virgo will see Jupiter returning to the degree of the solar eclipse of last September, and the South Node conjunct Scalia’s natal Sun at 21+ Pisces. I find this an oblique nod to (one of) the south node’s key phrase(s) of Letting Go.
The final full moon, an eclipse, in the series of 6 that all take place in the 3+ degree of a sign, is at 3+ Libra. This time the south node is still at 21+ Pisces, the degree of Scalia’s Sun, and it is conjunct transiting Chiron and Ceres, both also at 21+ Pisces. Lots of stuff to talk about in this chart, but in due time (as the President would say). I think by then much will be revealed (likely in various Neptunian modes) regarding the Scalia years – that Saturnian cycle of 30 years – which will be taking place as Saturn is in stationing retrograde mode, 2 arc minutes separating his perfect square to transiting Jupiter. That square won’t perfect until May but it is oh so breathtakingly close in March!
So we can see there are connections between events (multiple full moons) that suggest ideas (only some I’ve alluded to here) of a bigger picture in the making. The Jupiter-Saturn cycle for example, is closing in on its expiration date, December, 2020. Much remains to be done to fulfill the outline given in it’s inception chart (May, 2000) that included a square from Uranus to the conjunction of Jupiter-Saturn. Jupiter and Saturn together symbolizing a cultural/societal evolution in progress that is hard to detect from a close-up perspective. That would include Presidential elections and Presidential nominations to the Supreme Court.
I’m really leaning to the purposeful obscurity of astrology’s role in all this Len. We who are obsessed/blessed with its wisdom and sheer awesomeness are charged with sounding the call to be aware of possibilities in the making to those who are intuitive enough to relate to this language. And so we labor on with purpose.
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