For a beautiful and timely example of life on Earth imitating the astrology in our sky, you need not look any farther than a desert in California. That desert is called Death Valley. Most of the time the name is appropriate for an arid and desolate place where simply going for a walk can be lethal.
Right now as you read this, however, Death Valley is evincing a rare phenomenon some call a “super bloom.” For the first time since 2005, circumstances have combined to awaken seeds long dormant, covering the desert with a blanket of flowers.
Death Valley’s super bloom is taking place just as you are entering what has been previously (in this space) been called an “eclipse zone.” This particular eclipse zone begins with today’s New Moon and total solar eclipse in Pisces, and ends with the Libra Full Moon and lunar eclipse on March 23.
The super bloom in Death Valley is an explicit and tangible phenomenon. Uncounted flowers have bloomed, which will then yield the seeds of another such event sometime in the future. Implicitly speaking, the astrology at this time suggests the same potential might exist in your own life. Much as with seeds in the desert, potential needs the right combination of circumstances to sprout, flower and produce the seeds of renewal. Since it is your life, you must at least be the one to get things started.
The first circumstance necessary to produce seeds of renewal in your life is awareness — that’s where astrology comes in. The Pisces New Moon and solar eclipse taking place today (or tomorrow, depending on your time zone) is happening while the Moon is very near the point of its orbit where it is closest to Earth. That’s why some call this a “super” New Moon. Because interpretations of astrology are based on observation and correlation, any astrologer would tell you that a rare super bloom in Death Valley taking place at the same time with a super New Moon is not coincidental, but indicative of circumstances everywhere.
Combine the correlation of a super bloom and a super New Moon with the fact that every New Moon represents the end of an old monthly cycle and the beginning of a new one, and the correspondence is reinforced. If you consider another (and longer) cycle that will both end and begin again before you emerge from this particular eclipse zone, the image of seeding renewal is furthered.
For the first time in nearly a decade, this particular eclipse zone will contain within it (like a seed long dormant) the end of an old yearly cycle and the beginning of a new one called the Vernal Equinox. On March 19 (or March 20, again depending on where you live) the Sun will enter Aries to begin a new astrological year. At the same time, a new season will initiate on Earth. For those of us north of the equator, it will be the first day of spring. For those of you down under, it will be the first day of autumn.
You have a new lunar cycle, a new season, a new astrological year and the implied beginning of even longer cycles combining with a seldom-seen spectacle of nature to help make you aware. Assuming that you now have that awareness, you might ask, “What next?”
What follows awareness, if anything is to become of it, must necessarily be action. In this particular case, the symbol of seeds being renewed provides you with some clues as to what sorts of action would be appropriate.
In order to sprout and bloom, any seed must receive and take in a combination of circumstances. There must be rain so that the dry seed can take in moisture, swell and crack open. Sunlight is then required to provide the energy necessary for growth. Finally, there must be grounding and nourishment from the soil so growth can be sustained long enough to produce the next cycle of seeds.
Should it be your intent to follow the example of the seeds in Death Valley, the implication is that you should be taking in a few things yourself. Beyond breathing deeply, drinking plenty of water and eating nourishing food, what you take in to foment the seeds of your own renewal at this time would probably include some information and support. For those additional requirements, you might endeavor to look beyond what you yourself can provide.
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Implicitly, you should look to further your education in some way. Additionally, you might seek to expand your consciousness.
How you do that would depend both on what you are interested in and what your community has to offer. It could be as simple as a trip to your local library, or as complex as enrolling for some sort of formal schooling.
You could even travel outside of your community. You might consider leaving the familiarity of where you live to engage with, and learn from, the life circumstances of others. In all probability, you need not go far (although that possibility exists) in order to experience different food being served, unfamiliar languages being spoken, and other ways of both believing and living.
So use your imagination. Follow your curiosity. Make an effort, however small, to emerge from who and what you are, even if you are content with your circumstances. Because if there is anything to astrology, it’s time for you start something new over the next two weeks or so. More to the point, if you have anything in common with those flowers in Death Valley (which you do), what you start will demonstrate that you and your life have a point at this time: to somehow sprout, grow, bloom and produce the seeds of renewal once again. It’s time for what has been dormant within you to come out.
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How lovely this is Len, the vision of fields of flowers blooming, not in rhythm with a calendar but through some idiosyncrasy of Mother Nature (or what might appear as idiosyncratic to mere mortals) on a lark. With that in mind I look to where Ceres appears in the solar eclipse chart and lo, she’s at 15+ Pisces trine Juno at 15+ Scorpio. Now what do you suppose these two daughters of Saturn might be trying to convey to astrologers at this time of unpredictable flowers in the valley of death?
They are in harmony with each other by sign and element as well as familial ties, and they both symbolize the feminine roles that are as ancient as the hills and valleys; valleys that don’t always bloom at this time each year. And look at all the aspects they each have with other planets. They both sextile Pluto, while each of them is either semi-sextile or square Pallas and Saturn who are of the same family, and while Ceres is conjunct the eclipse, Juno is trine the eclipse and where Ceres opposes Jupiter, Juno sextiles Jupiter….more family. There is something about this pattern that speaks to traditional roles and family ties and yet there is something different going on that would make those rare flowers bloom right now without obvious reason.
I’m remembering that other rarity of rarities, when Venus crossed in front of the Sun creating a shadow – an eclipse if you will, almost 4 years ago. Venus and Sun were at 15+ Gemini which would square today’s Ceres and quincunx today’s Juno, but Venus was no daughter of Saturn, like Ceres and Juno. Instead, Venus was, like her half-sister Pallas, the daughter of Jupiter. Today’s eclipse with sisters Ceres and Juno in their traditional roles are being challenged by the Venus occult Sun of 2012.
When I stop to think about it, was Venus being a bit brazen to eclipse the Sun? Yet today the Moon is doing that very thing. Are these feminine symbols asking for recognition, not aggressively but periodically and predictably, in tune with Nature and Tradition?
Perhaps then, these two sisters who symbolize the most traditional roles of womanhood, these daughters of Saturn who symbolizes traditional structure, are announcing – via one of those rare occurrences in Life – a time when flowers bloom in the valley of the shadow of death and when Jupiter opposes the Sun just as he is being eclipsed by the Moon in Pisces, that something in tune with Nature and Tradition, and yet totally brand new is getting ready to happen. Fear not. Perhaps it really is Hillary’s turn.
be
“Today’s eclipse with sisters Ceres and Juno in their traditional roles are being challenged by the Venus occult Sun of 2012.
“When I stop to think about it, was Venus being a bit brazen to eclipse the Sun? Yet today the Moon is doing that very thing. Are these feminine symbols asking for recognition, not aggressively but periodically and predictably, in tune with Nature and Tradition?”
Be — That is a truly fascinating connection to make. I’m not entirely sure what to make of it in light of some eclipse experiences/insights/journaling I had last night, but it adds a provocative layer to consider… Thank you.
yes! I so agree. My gut says we will see more of those who are able to operate on the feminine energy within.
love this.
m.
If we are feeling called to explore the “solar feminine”, the Shinto goddess of the sun and the Universe, Amaterasu, is worth a look. My bit of research indicates that the solar feminine is a light carried in women, and that a true and great warrior among men will develop his feminine as well as masculine powers. Let this eclipse and the imminent long (exterior) conjunction of Venus/Sun speak to honoring feminine qualities, powers and values within us all, and especially embodied as Earth and Nature. Venus/Inanna becomes a seed long buried, to pick up Len’s potent metaphor.
Here’s link to get you started with Amaterasu: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaterasu
Clarissa Pinkola Estes tells a good story in Women Who Run with the Wolves.
Diva, sorry I missed this earlier and thank you. I look forward to learning about Amaterasu and pursuing this thought line about what is in essence an attempt to eliminate or at least reduce polarization.
Thank you as well Mary for your instinctive perception. Regarding the Venus-occult-Sun event of June , 2012, when Mars at 16+ Virgo squared the Venus-Sun at 15+ Gemini, be aware that transiting Jupiter in retrograde motion will conjunct that degree (16 Virgo) by March 19th, 9 days from now.
Transiting Saturn at this very moment is square that degree which Mars occupied in the 2012 chart, from his position at 16+ Sagittarius. It is also where he will station retrograde on the 25th this month. Saturn and Jupiter aspects to one another always mark points of activity in their 20 year cycle regarding cultural and societal adjustment.
On the 25th as Saturn turns retro, transiting Venus will oppose trans. Jupiter, she at 16+ Pisces, he at 16+ Virgo. Hours later she will square Saturn, who (at the time of the upcoming lunar eclipse on March 23rd) will have made an exact square with trans. Jupiter. That exact square between Jupiter and Saturn will be the 2nd of 3 exact squares during this last leg of their cycle that ends in December 2020. The 1st was last August and the 3rd will be in May.
Transiting Venus was involved with that square between trans. Jupiter and Saturn in August 2015, as was trans. Mars and Mercury, but it is this one in March where she insinuates her presence so dramatically as if to remind us all of her occultation of the Sun in 2012.
All this would have escaped me if it were not for Len’s noting of the blooming flowers in Death Valley and everyone’s comments regarding that event. Bless you all!
On another note, I said in my original comment that Venus was the daughter of Jupiter (and Dione). That is one of 2 versions of the story of Venus’ birth, the other involving her rising from the sea full grown as a result of some brutal action by Saturn upon his father (and one presumes Venus’ father too) Uranus.
I’m wondering of these two conflicting myths might have something to do with the patriarchal desire to eliminate the direct feminine contribution in the arrival of Venus (the indirect being the sea itself), much the way the patriarchy took over the mythology of Pallas-Athene, who before she was a warrior goddess was a matriarchal moon goddess. I remain a bit skeptical of the foamy Neptunian arrival!
be
Thank-you for a beautiful, meaningful message today, Len, & for the link to the glorious Death Valley flowers. Wow!
There’s a personal smile for me in noting it’s been eleven years since conditions were just right for those flowers to appear, for I spent eleven years in a relationship that was both arid & toxic – it felt like a long desert trek. It’s coming up seven years I’ve been “out” ( aha – about a square of Saturn, often a timer in my life) – & I have felt like I’ve begun to bloom in those years. I’m working on my fourth floral painting in a row, which is a first for this land/sky painter, & I’m having fun.
The sense of emerging often arises with imminent spring, & becomes literal as I plant & tend indoors the veggies & flowers that will go out into my now-snow-covered garden in a couple months’ time.
This eclipse (in my 10th) has been very quiet & reflective. I continue to sort & eliminate things I no longer need, give away books I don’t expect to want to read again. It’s all about giving myself space, & more pleasant, comfortable space. Perhaps my internal “clutter” is settling down also. This is an old, ongoing effort, but it feels a lot like “something new”.
May this eclipse season be blessed & useful for all.
Awesome Len, thank you!
Beautiful! Thank you so much! This is timely for me as I’ve been thinking of a visual image for my family that in a way reflects my vision….and what had come up for me was a beautiful desert!
Amazing isn’t it Len. Thank you for sHaring this.. It makes me smile your comment, witin all humility knowing, .. just simply how wonderful it is we have something in common with those flowers. Your reminder of that to us is a continuting, flowering gift. Everything truely is in God’s perfect timing, the seen and particularily our noticing the unseen. This is the overall message of this New moon for me.
Among all else, and Len connecting with your reading, is a little, often unnoticed planet that anyone might miss. In it’s position in the New Moon chart, is Eros in a quiet way in it’s symbol and degree, said much to me, of the emotional watery energies at hand (ascent and descent) of love.
CAPRICORN 26°: A NATURE SPIRIT DANCING IN THE IRIDESCENT MIST OF A WATERFALL.
KEYNOTE: The ability to perceive the hidden and creative spirit of natural phenomena.
Be: Love what you’ve said and how you reconnect this to the Venus’ Eclipse of the Sun 2012. I also noticed the Pallas and Juno and Ceres aspect to Saturn, as I am personally working the aligmment with Juno conjunct natal Neptune Scorpio 15+ degrees.
Tie in to Len’s article astrologically, and your feeling observations, is another (huge restart) renewal I just learned from reading Nick Fiorenzia’s comments. His alturistic view of the new Lunar phase with the Sun’s opposition to Jupiter which also means a Sun-Earth-Jupiter alignment that initiates the new 399-day Earth-Jupiter synodic cycle, which actually occurred just hours before the eclipse today.
I spent Monday back in DC calling voters in MI to get out the vote. I can’t tell you how satisfying this is for me, doing what I love. The icing on the cake was hearing that Bernie took MI. Pay would be good, too. 🙂
To Bernie and me and all those who went out to vote. I applaud you from deep inside where blooms take root 🙂
Love the flora reference, Len. Lights me right up.
m.
Dear Len,
One weekend at the end of February, there was a house concert with three musicians. The flautist, whom I know, a cellist and a pianist at a huge grand piano.. The home has a cathedral ceiling and was probably built with house concerts in mind.
One piece in particular awakened my inner eye. Poco Allegretto by Bohuslav Martinu. I leaned back on the couch and saw beautiful landscapes full of mythological animals, fairies…wolves, birds, ballet dancers, pine trees…I could go on for along time because the list is endless. To call it a moving picture is faint praise. Unfortunately, I am not able, to put what I saw on paper, or silk…
wondering what I would do with this gift, I happened upon your writing and saw, first, “So use your imagination.” I immediately understood that an abstract work of art on a large piece of paper using pastels would suffice.
Then I read the rest of your work about the flowering desert. That was the icing on the cake for me too. Thank you, Len.
Hi Len! “More to the point, if you have anything in common with those flowers in Death Valley (which you do), what you start will demonstrate that you and your life have a point at this time: to somehow sprout, grow, bloom and produce the seeds of renewal once again. It’s time for what has been dormant within you to come out.”
This is spot on for me today thank you. Read this last night and shared the super bloom link. Just now bought a piano! Uranus in action… it’s a digital roll out keyboard and I am over the moon with delight! Had been searching for my Visionboard Book which I made in 2006 – found two days ago only to realize there’s no music in it…so here I am sparking again! 🙂
Thank you, Mary, for your service to the progressive movement. Bernie’s MI win is a game changer, much as is so much we’re seeing right now. Following our heart to do what FEELS important and productive is the easy way through the confusion … and certainly giving a lot of us brain-cramp, trying to make logic fit a window that has little to do with mental agility.
I’m fascinated by the loss of ‘comfort zone,’ the insistence of some that what has always been will continue to be, and the demand for ‘flex’ we’re seeing with this eclipse … and amazed at how many people around me have bumped their nose against old rules and ways of gaming the system they haven’t yet released, or perhaps even acknowledged. The instruction is upon us!
Thank you, Len, for making us aware we should be on the look-out for the unexpected (flowers!!!) and thank you P. Sophia for the Sabian Symbol. Amazing times, my dears!
Thank you, Judith, for your appreciation! … I hadn’t realized that MI had open primaries, thus I was on the phone with many more Republicans than I had engaged with since … I was a kid! Really, Judith, I am happy to be a part of any conversation that brings everyone into the voting booth. As far as T-rump, I’m going to pass on that one. Oy.
m.
Nor do I know what to make of it Amanda. Sometimes I believe it is enough just to be aware of patterns without coming to conclusions. The awareness will light up when something triggers it in Reality . . . an ah-ha! moment.
And thank you P. Sophia for noting the new Jupiter-Earth cycle and that Earth will always be opposite the Sun. Sabian Symbol for this new cycle: A SWIMMING RACE The Stimulation that coms from a group effort toward a spiritual goal. (An Astrological Mandala by Dane Rudhyar)