Think of the rest of this week as your time capsule, and you will have its astrology in hand. Because a heaping handful of significant astrological periods will close just as the week does. Because with those closures new periods will commence, and just as with time capsules, what you put into the next handful of days will probably be reopened later in your life.
Some of what you put into the remainder of this week will be up for review sooner than is the case with most real-life time capsules. Other decisions and/or actions will be a longer time coming around.
That’s how you should probably prioritize reaching firm decisions over taking final actions this week. That way, you’ll have both focus and flexibility when you come around to things looking a little different.
One way or another, things are bound to look different after Thursday. That’s when the respective periods of solar Libra, Venus in Libra, the Moon in Libra, the current lunation (the period from one New Moon to the next) and the current series of two paired eclipses all come to a close on the same day.
It’s a rare day when so many things happen at once on the zodiac or in the sky. Thursday will thus be a day to be conscious of what all those astrological events have in common — both with each other and with you.
With the Sun, New Moon and Venus all conjoined in the first degree of Scorpio for the occasion of a partial solar eclipse on Thursday, there is bound to be some closure for you to deal with. The key thing is to decide now not to have endings be your only focus, lest only endings fill your time capsule.
For astrological periods are nearly always being completed and initiating at the same time. In this case, you will also want to be mindful of what beginnings you put into your time capsule.
For example, following a few days of the Moon in reasonable Libra (a period that started earlier today) will come the whole new, passionate feel of the Moon in Scorpio as part of Thursday’s cluster of events, sweeping you into the weekend.
Making some firm decisions now will come in handy to help keep you from being swept away into taking purely emotional and possibly premature action at the worst possible time.
At the very least, it will not be the best time to lock yourself in with conclusive action when Mercury concludes its retrograde on Saturday. At that time, it opens a final review period of more than two weeks.
Given how thoughtful Mercury will still be in Libra when it stations direct, it will be especially helpful if you decide to be consciously aware of more than just passions as this week draws to a close. After all, when Mercury changes direction, you’ll probably want the flexibility to change your mind as passions pass.
Venus will be reinforcing the focus of allowing for both change and new beginnings to go with probable closure. Starting on Thursday, Venus begins going through some implicitly passionate changes of its own.
That’s because Venus will be leaving its Libra rulership behind to ingress Scorpio just as the Sun and Moon do, initiating a period of more than three weeks when the values that inform your decisions might well shift dramatically enough to leave you confronted by any final actions you might make.
To avoid confronting yourself in the short term, begin now with awareness of the longer term represented by the fact that the Moon and Sun will be ingressing Scorpio together, even as they come together to begin a new lunation.
That way, you will be aware enough to pack your time capsule for more than just a few days, and conscious of the entire month to follow, taking both Mercury’s subsequent review and Venus’ probable itch for something new into account as well.
Beyond that, you might want to be mindful of the even longer time periods demarcated by eclipses.
Included in all the astrological events that will come together on Thursday and extend into the weekend will be a Scorpio solar eclipse. This eclipse concludes a two-week period that started with a Full Moon and total lunar eclipse back on Oct. 8. In addition, Thursday will also be the end of eclipses altogether until another six months have passed.
What’s more, the Scorpio partial solar eclipse on Thursday will also conclude a 19-year cycle. That cycle started with a pair of eclipses in the same degrees of the same signs on the same days in October of 1995.
Nearly two decades is a long time. Nonetheless, it’s very possible you have been spending the last two weeks unpacking a time capsule opened by decisions you made, and sealed by actions you took, back then. To the extent that you can, this week is a time to show what you have learned in the interim.
Show what you have learned by what you put into the rest of this week. Keep the possibility of posterity in mind even as the passions of the moment are duly honored by your heart.
Make your time capsule something you will be proud to open (or have others open) in a few weeks, or a month, or six months, or even years from now. If you can do that, just that, you will have made as much of a remarkable week as the heavens would have you do, and have something to look forward to as well.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
i love reading your words, feeling the underlining meaning thanunderstanding the depth of our universe.thank you
Wilma: My thanks to you in turn for being so very kind.
Endings and beginnings, and what wisdom shall I put in my time capsule this week.. Oct 16th was my progressed new moon in Aquarius, and also on that day my dear friend released herself from this earthly plane. It was she who I discussed things with in October of 95 as I was debating joining my life with my then lover and his 2 children. She gave good advice, and sometimes she just listened. That’s what friends do for each other.
Now, on October 23 ( my SUDDENLY non-ailing Mother’s Birthday) I will help my fiend’s daughter break down her mother’s office, help her with some closure, and perhaps a vision of the future. Your words offer great counsel, I’ll keep my eyes open for the new beginnings
Mary: Thank you for sharing how my service has resonated for you. Please accept my sincere sympathy for the loss of your friend. May consolation and healing be yours as part of the new beginnings we all share at once.
I hadn’t thought about it before Len, but lately I have been forging boundaries in my life that consist of “left behind” and “taking with”. Notice that “left behind” is not “leaving behind”. The behind-ing has already taken place in most instances although that’s mostly not manifest on the physical planes yet.
Perhaps my “closure” agenda is so large because n. Jupiter resides there at 1 Scorpio (in conjunction with the TN and Neptune, so perhaps some closure of a Karmic variety and perhaps some no-longer-useful delusion?)
But as you mention, that’s only the closure side.
Life is an ouroboros and there are no endings without beginnings—sage advice to be mindful of now. (Among other things) this will be a Venus square for me (n. at 1AQ); perhaps that tension will indeed result in some passionate capsule packing.
Thank you Len for a very close and kind look at these moments which define us. But I continue to feel awkward about a certain decision. I’ve been looking over notes to myself and it became clear that this has been the case for much of the year. Perhaps Saturn’s message to me was to embrace a certain restriction in order to gain clarity and healing and then expansion, much like the Hanged Man in Tarot. On Sept 13, I ventured to make a choice to steer myself onto a new path, but because that was the beginning of the shadow of Mercury, I felt unsure and second guessed my choice in favour of letting go of my own beliefs and letting in more life which I thought I was shutting down. Now, I am approaching that same point on Mercury’s path and I feel back at where I was: unsure and awkward. All signs point toward an ending, but what exactly is ending? Because there is an external physical ending to consider, and then there is the transformation of my own beliefs which cause resistance to my own well being and the continued participation in that which is actually fine for me to stay in.
It’s the uncertainty that is propelling me toward action. I’ve always acted in accord with my intuition. But I guess what I’m admitting here is that maybe I’m wrong and don’t really know what is around the next corner.
My Question is: when is the right time to make a choice or decision, esp that Merc is standing still, changing direction, and still to traverse the shadow? If I wait, do I risk missing the opportunity inherent in the New Moon Eclipse conj Venus. Something I’ve learned with Saturn is not to wait for others to direct me, that I should act and lead my own life. But I’m a bit concerned that I’m not seeing something. How do I know if what I feel is Fear or Intuition? I suppose I could continue another year and perhaps things would be okay. But I’m not looking for “okay”; I’m desiring a more heartfelt connection.
I know that you cannot make any choice for me, but I suppose I’m asking for a bit of guidance based on your meditation of these concurrent astro events. I hope that is a fair question.
Thank you Len,
HugS
Earlier today I opened the time capsule that I put down during the last 1 degree Scorpio eclipse. That was during a two week period when life as I had known it was beginning to unravel. The key element was a two week stay in the hospital with my teenage son who was seriously ill. While I was taking care of my real business, my job began to unravel, and the weave of my marriage wore thinner. These were all things that needed to die, though I was no where near letting them go, and did not even know most of the stuff was happening till afterward. So interesting to see that now. This eclipse comes as Saturn has finally passed my natal degree until another 29 years. Still in the wake… too soon to celebrate. Len your advice to note the ends, and include the beginnings is priceless. I have the opportunity to be supremely intentional about this portal, and what I put in the time capsule. Will I be here to open it? Let me include something that will be a blessing to the ones coming after me.
Hii Hugs, I know your question is for Len – but just want to say that this is really challenging energy that brings up a lot of fear and uncertainty. I mysellf have been going theough hell in the last weeks. All my anxiety to get somewehere with a new life path has kind of disintegrated. And what i feel is that the less I try to control my life and try to go where I think I need to go – the more life will give me what I really need (for better or for worse)! Gon’t know if this heps at all. As always, it’s never easy.
Great piece as always Len. When the astrology is interesting like this I always hope to see life become a little more interesting. Doesn’t usually happen, but I hope, in your words, things will look different after Thursday. I could use a little “different”. The same old same old is getting really old lol
Len, your message is both timely and comforting. For me, there has been quite a mix of energy this year that has felt both confident and unsure (hear you HS). I am alert to the fact that Oct 23 may be a preview of sorts of what I have really shifted/learned over these last 12 months. My birth day is on November 1, both natal sun and moon in Scorpio, also born during an eclipse. I am curious about memories that will perhaps be speaking. And am comforted by your suggestion of a time capsule. This I will create. Thank you so much for what you share.
Linda: Thank you! You have my empathy from experience as regards to how you eloquently explain this “left behind”/”taking with” phenomena. And, WOW< your natal astrology uncannily resnates with transits once again. That's quite a Pisces-invoking stellium you have at Scorpio's front door. Having the Sun, Moon, and Venus all conjoining right there should be not only passionate, but inspirational in a transcendent (as well as karmic) way. If anything, more stable than 1995 when Venus was not part of the party. Yes, definitely look to beginnings with this particular solar eclipse.
Hugging Scorpio: Thank you! Without knowing your natal chart as a holistic entity, i con't be sure of how to address your evident question(s) properly, but let's give it a try, shall we? Whenever one uses the word "awkward" there may be a quincunx in the neighborhood (either natal and being transited, or transiting and stimulating the natal). Please keep that in mind. Next, what limits which go with transiting (i take it you mean transiting Saturn are usually accompanied with your being better defined. The nature of that definition (or re-definition, as the case may be), and whether it equates to clarity and/or healing, i can't say without more information to work with. Neither do i know enough about Tarot to speak to whether it's appropriate to cross-reference a particular card. You are not alone in being unsure, many of us are in the boat with you right now (hopefully you find us good company pulling oars). Unless there is pressing need for action (to either relieve you own tension, or because of some sort of externally-imposed deadline), perhaps you can tend to nourishing the clarity you referred to in relation to (transiting?) Saturn and cultivate greater certainty there. By all means, if you sense an ending, yet don't know what is ending, be careful of anything resembling self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, act on what you know while cultivating greater awareness of what you don't know. As far as the right time to make a choice, once again, you have me without adequate information. However, the first week after the Scorpio New Moon/Solar might be better devoted to cultivating the clarity you sense coming from (transiting?) Saturn, so perhaps after the first quarter Moon on October 31 (unless you must act sooner, in which case, carry on). As regards to discerning between fear and intuition, you would do well to have an external reference point (like some sort of oracular consultation) to discern authentic intuition from your personal story. Please, how does all of that work for you?
DivaCarla: Congratulations on opening your personal time capsule to a greater understanding, and thank you for sharing that significant achievement. Congratulations also on (worthy of celebrating) Saturn return – looking forward to celebrating the next one with you in some sense, so let's both stick around – what say?
Lizzy: Thank you for supporting "Hugs". Yes, this is challenging energy we are all going through at once right now. As Eric put it so eloquently yesterday "We're pulling a lot of G-force, with many changes concentrated into a small (amount of) time." You have my sincere empathy for what you have been going through. The experience of disintegration in any form is no picnic. Please be assuaged (at least a bit) by knowing for certain that you are not going through this alone, something you can see by your participation here in the Planet Waves community. Please consider how continuing to pull an oar with "Hugs" and others here may result in re-integration with less regret and greater strength than before.
Lyd: Thank you. It's immensely gratifying to know my service is comforting to you. HAPPY BIRTHDAY you beautiful spirit of eclipses! Memories may well be speaking – probably those you have heard from recently (given Mercury stationing direct on Saturday), except perhaps more clearly as benefit of speaking to you a third time. Think of a memory (or memories) revived twice since the middle of September and there apply your intent to resolve (and heal if appropriate), possibly by releasing attachments as seems appropriate.
Dear Len, thank you for taking the time to help me sort out my feelings with additional information and advice. I value your words very much and what you offer here to others and myself.
Lizzy, always thankful for your support too, thank you!
Lyd, have a wonderful upcoming Birthday!
Jennifer: Apologies for missing my thanks to you on the previous post! Please remember that astrology does not simply happen to us. With awareness of astrology, each of us are empowered to manifest astrology on Earth (or not). If there is less of the “same old” after Thursday, it will be because somebody made it happen. Your participation is eagerly anticipated.
Oh, I know you’re right Len. Good traditional wisdom. I’ve discovered that the battle for change is a hard fight against the immense power of equilibrium. A lot of force is needed. So may the force be with us 😉
Hugging Scorpio: You are most welcome.
Thank you Len for responding with the ‘memory’ and ‘resolve/releasing attachments’ …oh, oh, bingo! Another thank you for the B’day wish.
Hugging Scorpio, thank you for the B’day wish. A wish for a grand B’day to you toooo!
Thanks for waiting Len, read this last night but needed to think about your words for a while. I’m sure now that the 1995 version of this eclipse refers to an “undiagnosed” disorder (which I now think was a prompting from the Universe to change course direction- which I did) despite much testing, including an MRI. Today my friend is having an MRI (looking for cause of dizziness that caused a fall) and she is quite fearful (won’t admit to that) of the results. She has Neptune at 0+ Scorpio, and it is quincunx her Gemini Mercury which squares her Pluto. Hard to approach someone with any assurance when they don’t “believe in astrology”, but still I tell her this is just a procedure to rule out such things as brain tumors (and to make money for the health care industry which I don’t mention since she’s locked in to that old mind set just as I was 19 years ago.)
For me the eclipse falls in my 8th house so I can see how it relates to my visiting family (or my bank or my condo association or all 3!). For the U.S., the eclipse falls in the 7th house (when chart is set in DC), and the ruler(s) of Scorpio – Pluto on the MC and Mars in the 9th who sextiles the U.S. Sibly Moon (symbolizing the People, in Aquarius – point to election outcomes that appear to transform the country’s image. That the U.S. natal Hades is also at 0+ Scorpio pleases me, and the fact that transiting Neptune trines the U.S. Venus and the Eclipsed Sun+Moon, Venus and Pallas (and my friend’s Neptune), and that Eris is on the ascendant of this eclipse chart when set in DC, assures me that the pundits don’t know which end is up.
Thanks for this great perspective and I will be thinking about all this as I pack up my time capsule Len, but where to bury it so I won’t forget where I put it. Hmm.. .. .. ..
be
Thank you so much,, dear Len, for your ever-present kindness and gentleness, for your sweet and wise words. (((())))
LOL! Be, US Hades on my IC at 0SC (with Scorpionic stellium of Jupiter, TN, Neptune) opposes my natal Hades who conjoins my MC at 0Taurus and n. Hera (Jupiter’s wife of course)at the tippy top of my n.chart. With natal Pallas in a looser conjunction with Hades and Hera yet still opposing her father Jupiter, It’s a family affair – but made national in some way by Hades oppositional transit?
Ha, keeps life in the underworld hopping’.
Hello, Len & all PW contributors – I’ve been silent (in terms of comments) for some time, though my thoughts have been anything but. I’m still in a holding pattern re impending decisions from others, even though the astrology often seems to be saying “outcome imminent!”. Considering both this column plus Eric’s advice surrounding the eclipse/Mercury station, well – I’m cultivating patience, & focusing as best I can on the smaller stuff that needs doing.
Looking back at 1995, I had choices then which I don’t have now, but the reverse is also no doubt true. Some reviewing old journal entries will be appropriate.
Challenging times indeed. In the bigger picture, we in Canada learned this morning that there have been attacks in our capital, Ottawa, & reports of gunfire in the parliament building. Perhaps predictable, given the increasing militantcy of our current government, but deeply troubling, & tragic for all affected. With trepidation, we stay tuned.
This is such a beautiful comments thread. I don’t have much more than that to add, but just wanted to express how happy I am that all of you exist and are interacting in such honest ways with the energy of the times…
Re events in Ottawa, Canada. Just had a look at a chart for the reported
time of first gunfire, 9:52 a.m. EDT. I’m not proficient in interpreting event charts, but this one looks quite dynamic, with a lot of aspects/contacts.
Ottawa is at 45n 27, 75w42, if anyone in PW land would like to check it out.
OK Len. Let’s have a crack open the time capsule date. I’ll show you mine, if you’ll show me yours!
ahhh, the autumn of 1995: i was too busy beginning my senior year to keep a journal, apparently (if i did, it’s at storage at mom’s house); calendar from that year is in storage at mom’s house, as are any notebooks for classes that i may have kept. so i can’t pinpoint what was happening for me on or near the exact date of that eclipse. but, i have some recollection about a couple features of that season and semester, the short-term ripples and, i *think*, what has rolled along for the last 19 years (if i think in terms of broad themes).
it’s driving me nuts i don’t have easy access to a journal or calendar (or even my old college emails — practically stone-age carvings compared to email now) from that time, but oh well!
1995; yep, big things, big changes and major upward mobility at that time–but with a decidedly less venusian quality (as always; among other things). 😀 I’m definitely exploring the Venus square in the mix as well as that Hades opposition (esp whilst Pluto is still hovering on natal Mars and Mars is deadset on n.Saturn — oh, as I said, “among other things….)
…as long as the lid to the canister isn’t rusty, eh, Diva? That’s often the key…(makes me think of a Spam can; the key affixed the the container–sometimes you just have to pry it loose to get at the meat of things.
Thank so much Len for the intriguing piece. Even tho the last few days before Mercury’s stationing have appeared at a stand still, there is a reason and purpose to this plan. I am practicing to keep this in perspective as you offered in your last report.
I am personally reading tomorrow as starting out a bit rocky, emotionally, so will have quiet one in meditation. Moon will be conjunct n. Moon (three hours prior to the Eclipse) still in Libra in my 1st. Yet, as you made me look, I now understand the advantage found in moving from the 1st house (or, to any next house around the wheel) all the work that’s been tilled there, especially through this eclipse season, the solar eclipse will quicken with the New Moon and solidify and ground whatever was birthed in the previous house to the next.
Also with the awareness of Mercury’s review as he moves direct and eventually follows behind in the path of the Sun on into the next, we have the perfect ground for our natural gifts must be used.
For example in my rotation, the self discovery of the 1st house, grounds in the 2nd. Offering possessions, allies, resources, and assets to have the potential to be extended in the world, to transform there.
Dane Rudhyar says: We must transform this territory to suit our individual purpose and destiny. If we don’t, we’re merely servants of the past, agents of ghosts, our lives being lived by our ancestors. He also advises we dedicate what we have to who we are, for it’s being, that gives meaning to having.
“Nothing is more futile and spiritually empty than having without being, and this is true of all kinds of possessing.”
I read Modern astrology grants Venus rulership of the 2nd house. Is that true Len? If so, in a way it’s a 2nd homecoming tomorrow! And I’ll bet the real grounding/stabilizing force will be offered from Taurus, when opposite Saturn in Scorpio later in the month. For me Saturn is conjunct n. Pallas and n. Juno, in opposition to n. Jupiter 20+ Degrees. We’ll soon see..
Lyd and Lizzy: You are very welcome.
Jennifer: The power is with you.
Barbara: Thank you so much. Your insights are always worth the wait. May both you and your friend promptly recover from disorder and discover a new order of well being. Please take care of yourself – we all love you. Thanks especially for the encouraging perspective of how the Scorpio solar eclipse transits the US chart in this season of election.
Linda: Thank you for riffing on Barbara’s insights with some very cogent insight of your own.
Bette: Welcome back. May your new options open abundantly. May old options close without regret. Thank you for reminding us that there is great meaning in attending faithfully to small matters. Thank you also for the chart data regarding the tragedy in Ottawa, which is no small matter as indicated by the precise Martian conjunction with the Galactic Core. May the friends and families who lost loved ones find support in their mourning.
Ms. Moreno: It is for all of us to thank you for setting the example with your honest and inspiring spiritual insights every weekend here on Planet Waves.
DivaCarla: Let us be an example of optimism by setting that date for our next Saturn returns, when Pluto will also be winding up its traversal of Aquarius.
Ms. Painter: Go with what you have, it’s always been enough to clear our heads and fill our hearts in your own offerings here at Planet Waves.
P. Sophia: Thank you for once again bringing your Chironic gift for integration, as well as depth of insight to share with us again. Your invocation of Dane Rudhyar’s aspiration for astrology is both timely and pitch perfect. Yes, by the way, it is perfectly reasonable for Venus to be correlated with all things corresponding to the second house. May transiting Saturn oversee the development of an ever more transcendent order in the wake of your homecoming and groundbreaking.