I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
— J.R.R Tolkien, from The Fellowship of the Ring
These are not easy times, as today’s tragedies in Belgium remind us yet again. As often as not, public events raise weighty private concerns. Frequently, living through and coping with those concerns feels like anything but a heroic and triumphant journey worthy of story and song.
Even so, there will be other people and other times to follow your life. From their perspective, sometime in the future, what you are living through now will not provoke the fear or uncertainty you may now feel.
What people unborn will perceive of your times is the choices you and others make, and how those actions influence the nature of times and lives yet to come. Admittedly, there is little comfort contemplating posterity during trying times. It is entirely appropriate to be involved with what is happening to you now.
You need to eat. Your wellbeing requires adequate shelter and clothing. In all probability, there are also others depending on you to do your part in order to get their needs met.
Yet, it is part of being human to understand that cause and effect is just as much a long-term as it is a short-term phenomenon. With that understanding, you have the means to rise above the times given to you and transcend your immediate concerns. That is no small thing. While we cannot be certain, it is at least possible that only humans who are actively ‘being’ can consciously conceive of, and work to create, times that represent an improvement on what has landed in your lap.
Creating tomorrow is no abstraction. In one way or another you do it every day. Admittedly, nobody changes the world by themselves. The result of your life is a collective and cumulative thing. There is no doubt, however, that you do your part. What is in question is whether your part will be done in conscious awareness and with conscience.
As regards to long-term consequences, the most crucial choices are often matters of timing. It is not only your daily routine that adds up to determine what those in the future will find in their laps. Indeed, the actions that usually serve as turning points are those taken when you are faced with an unexpected or inconvenient situation. Given the astrology concurrent with this moment in your life, your most important choices may involve whether or not to abandon your routine and respond to something out of the ordinary.
The astrology now is anything but ordinary. Observing comparable examples of exceptional astrology in the past, and correlating those examples with events taking place at the present time, often reveals that extraordinary astrology corresponds with extraordinary circumstances. It’s an indication that people at any given time are indeed part of something more than just their life and times.
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Of course, anything out of the ordinary can seem like nothing more than a pain in the neck at first, especially when your hands are full already.
With hindsight, however, unusual moments often prove to represent a chance to pick your spot and make it count for more than usual. Among the more specific implications of the approaching lunar eclipse and Libra Full Moon tomorrow is that timing will be crucial. In order to see an applicable situation, be alert for anything happening that seems like bad timing for you — at least on the surface.
If you catch yourself saying something like, “Oh no, I don’t have time for that right now,” let that be your cue to look again. What you see may be a more important moment than usual. What you do, especially if it requires you to change your plans against your wishes, could very well make more difference than you can foresee.
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Thank you Len, this is hitting a cord that rings clear. I especially was struck by your opening, ” I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
— J.R.R Tolkien, from The Fellowship of the Ring
Pondering the last weeks being here in this moment and knowing I chose. Thank You for the sage advice. Much gratitude to all here at PW!
Jeanne: Thank you so very much for being so kind as to post such a supportive comment. Apologies to all readers for not being on the ball enough to acknowledge your comments lately. It is a course in the process of being corrected. You might say i have been digging out of a hole of my own making. Fortunately, your comments along the way have shown a light down the hole to help me find my way out.
One of my favorite quotes, Len — and I presume if it’s all happening on our watch, it’s because we’re ready for it. Perhaps we’ll look back and remember it as an awesome adventure! Thanks for helping us through it.
Jude: Please accept my thanks in return.
Hey Len, so sorry to hear about that futile dig; been there and know how demoralizing that can be. Just so you know, your responses to our comments are just as important as your wonderful writings and perspectives on what it’s all about. Hang in there. This perspective you give us today is no less important and supports my belief in a continuum of our species; digging out of holes our predecessors endured which we, the living, must try to escape for the sake of those who come after us.
Still, personal situations can demand attention, sometimes to the point where one must devote all of oneself to those matters. Life can be demanding, but still, you pique my curiosity as to why you say “timing [a Saturn thing] will be crucial” regarding matters brought forward by the lunar eclipse and equinox I presume. When you say “With that understanding. .” re: cause and effect being both a long term as well as short term phenomenon, I look to Jupiter. Jupiter and Saturn together describe a cyclical pattern (involving group participation primarily), a process that moves us in 20 year steps toward “improvement” from the past 20 years and from there to a better future for all.
My own interest in connecting the past to the future finds comfort (and answers) in looking at cycles such as the Jupiter-Saturn cycle and seeing how they relate to other cycles over time. This particular Jupiter-Saturn cycle for example began in 2000 at 22+ Taurus where they were conjunct one another and square Uranus at 20+ Aquarius. The present one-year cycle of Mercury and Jupiter began with Uranus at 20+ Aries (sextile his own position in the 2000 Jupiter-Saturn cycle start) and making a trine to the centaur Pholus at 22+ Sagittarius (who is quincunx the degree of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of 2000).
Might that mean that the 2000 Jupiter-Saturn cycle’s suggested Uranian challenges (square) could (through this particular annual Mercury-Jupiter cycle) find solutions through communicating (Mercury) and understanding (Jupiter) by way of some radical approach (Uranus in Aries in the annual Mercury-Jupiter cycle) stemming from some small cause that becomes out of control (Pholus in Sagittarius in that same annual cycle )? A radical approach that would require some adjustment on the part of the group participants (Jupiter-Saturn 20 year cycle) as indicated by this particular Mercury-Jupiter cycle’s position of Pholus (quincunx the 2000 Jupiter-Saturn conjunction)?
Say the group participating was the U.S. and the Saturn-Jupiter process referred to the election of a new president. The Uranus (square the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction) challenge might be accomplished via a radical approach (conveyed through communication and understanding) due to some small event that gets out of control such as voters abandoning their traditional choices in said election. It could happen and I can see how that might make a difference for future generations.
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Barbara: Thank you for your kind words, and your always-important, erudite, deeply appreciated and informative perspective to go with your inquiry about timing. Indeed, you supplied part of the answer with the Jupiter-Saturn square (with its back story). That square aspect between Jupiter and Saturn not only represents the uncommon choices and extraordinary actions referred to in my piece, but also part of the timing. As your own shared observations today clearly indicate, major aspects between Jupiter and Saturn are not a routine, everyday occurrence. Thus, to have an exact separation of 90 degrees between Jupiter and Saturn take place literally minutes before a lunar eclipse and Full Moon being exact is extraordinary timing. Add to that the superior conjunction of the Sun with Mercury just hours after the lunar eclipse and Full Moon, along with the alignment of the Sun-Moon opposition so close to the cusp of the axis between Aries and Libra; and timing is written all over this astrological event (and concurrent earthly events). i sincerely hope you found my reply to have satisfied what piqued your curiosity. It may take a while before i’m back to being more confident in what i can offer in reply to comments, but i hope this is a good start.
Wow! That more than enough satisfied my curiosity Len; for now anyway. But you know how these eclipses wait and then sneak up on you when you are least prepared. As you suggested the Belgium attacks were indicative of the astrology of the eclipses and the Equinox energy, and I know you guys at PW are already analyzing the charts for answers. I’ve not seen a chart for Brussels yet but I do know that in the Equinox chart set for Washington DC, Mars at 4+ Sagittarius was on the ascendant. That’s the same degree where transiting Saturn stationed retrograde a year ago on March 14th.
That station-rx by Saturn was just days before the total solar eclipse in the last degree of Pisces, which was only hours before the Aries Equinox for 2015. Now this might not seem important at first, but following that March eclipse and equinox, transiting Mars and Mercury made a conjunction in July that was exactly opposite transiting Pluto. Transiting Mars and Mercury were also conjunct the U.S. Sibly Sun and square the U.S. Saturn.
Here’s what gets me; at the time of that Mercury-Mars conjunction in July 2015, the transiting North Node was exactly conjunct today’s Libra lunar eclipse at 3+ Libra. I suspect the attack on Brussels was initiated then (July, 2015) due to the Mercury-Mars conjunction opposite Pluto. Or maybe even further back when Saturn stationed retrograde (March 2015) in the degree where this past Sunday’s Equinox Mars was located. The attack was less than 48 hours later.
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Barbara: Thank you for your excellent astrological detective work. Your correlations do result in what seems to be a very plausible conclusion that would explain a lot. As for this most recent tragedy in Belgium (and not so long before in Turkey), it’s too soon for me to be fully analytical. i’m still in a space of letting the feelings of overwhelm process. One thing i can say, however, is that there is an issue of timing which implies that these tragedies were not as simple as portrayed by the news media.
Thank you for this beautiful piece, dear Len. Take good care of yourself. You’re precious to us all.
Lizzy: It is for me (at least equally) to thank you.
I swear this eclipse/Jupiter-Saturn/Mercury-Sun astrology today (and all week) is acting like a Mercury retrograde almost, and not just for me. Good grief! I’m trying to hang loose with things, but I keep feeling my Saturn rising stepping in to impose order. And I don’t think it’s having the intended effect — at least not on other people around me.
Amanda: You have my empathy (and my gratitude). There is indeed a sensation which one might well correlate with Mercury retrogrades. There is a difference though. Unlike times of actual Mercury retrograde, it is possible (as per the example you are currently setting) to express difficult concepts with significantly cogent clarity. May the rest of us see our way clear to emulate your good example.
Thanks, Len — I hope you are faring well through this fascinating wave! From what I can tell, it’s been challenging. Oh well — I guess that’s a Full Moon plus some squares for ya, eh?
…Yet I can’t help but think why do I feel so good? Am I supposed to feel good? Of course, I am saddened and feel deep empathy for those who suffer great loss right now, especially those in Belgium. But yet, I feel such a high vibration, and sense deep clarity and optimism right now. I know from you Len that I was born between a solar (only a few days thereafter) and Lunar eclipse and that they are meaningful to me. Perhaps this is why I feel good but I also generally feel good during Mercury in Retro once I came to accept them and not flow against the current. Presently my natal Neptune is trine the solar Neptune and the solar Neptune is in my Sun sign, Pisces, also the modern ruling planet of Pisces. Maybe this is it? I really don’t know what it is only that I am content and grateful, especially grateful and more clear-headed (strange for Neptune) than I have for a while. Maybe such an abundance of Neptune can have the opposite effect and just provide clarity vice illusion, or perhaps I am fooling myself? But I don’t think so because I am actually achieving tangible things with effort on my part. Who knows?
Pisces Sun: Thank you. i do not believe you are fooling yourself. For every astrological scenario, there is an entire spectrum of how things will play out for any given individual. i suggest you consider giving yourself some credit for being consciously aware and doing the right thing at the right time in order to have put yourself on the upside of circumstances. One must also note that the highly evolved practice of compassion you so often evince in your comments has (in all probability) gone around and come around for you. There is no need to feel guilty or inappropriate because you have taken what you know of astrology and applied it to make the astrology happen well for you rather than letting it happen as it may. From this point, continue to observe and correlate. Take note of what astrological motifs are not so pleasant for you to live through and apply what you know to see if you can get a different outcome the next time those tableaus come around. Finally, when you are on top of things it is always a good time to extend your hand in some meaningful way to those who are not.
Thank you Len, your words are gracious and always inspiring and particularly so now for you convey so much truth: one should always give selflessly when one is able, especially when “on top of things.” Thank you for the reminder and a wonderful narrative.