BTW, as of 11:30 pm PST 2 December, Mercury is Retrograde, till 22 December. It backs across the last half of Sagittarius. That’s the Gemini half of Sadge, promising more Change. Mercury in Scorpio (16 October through 6 November) would have had us researching some topic exhaustively. Then Mercury in the first (Sagittarius) half of Sadge, 7-15 November, would have us trying to shake ourselves loose from the conclusions of our research. Sagittarius is about Burning Away what’s Unnecessary.
Mercury in Scorpio wants Answers, but we know that it’s Wonder that Liberates us, not Understanding. So we may have wrestled with ourself in early November, part of us Wanting Freedom, and the rest of us Craving Clarity. This is what’s particularly educational about Cusps. It’s an Either/Or, which always means it’s about Politics, Power, Judgment. Which feels better, which is best – Freedom or Clarity. With Either/Ors we always look for the “Coin,” right? An Either/Or sticks us in one Dimension, a line, where we bounce between the two ends of the finite line.
If we’re talking about something like Scorpio and Taurus, an Opposition, the Dance between Emotion and Matter, between Fearlessness and Beauty, it’s easier to find the Coin – it’s just Manifestation. But Scorpio and Sagittarius are adjacent. What’s the Coin between Ice and Fire? We could say Water, but Water isn’t really a Dimension with Ice on one end and Fire on the other, it’s just what you get when Fire attacks Ice. What if Ice wins. What would you have then – Smoke? You can see the Confusion. But that’s what’s special about Cusps – Confusion is the first stage of Growth.
There’s a sense in which each Sign is a Reaction to the previous Sign. Scorpio feels Compulsive, Sagittarius just Shakes It Off. The Coin there could be Attachment. There aren’t any Rules or Conclusions for this, you just make it up as you go along, because it’s your Growth and your Edges. No one else’s. And it’s different every time. But when you move from an Either/Or to a Both/And, from a line to a “Coin,” you’re moving from Judgment to Inclusiveness. That’s an important step toward Unconditional Love, toward Wonder and Mystery and Collaboration with the Universe. Is there a sense in which you struggled with Attachment to something in the second week of November?
Then at the Ides of November we moved into the Gemini half of Sadge, till 2 December. Chances are we didn’t know that we were being set up, that it was the first of three Adventures with these Degrees. Usually when this first third of a triple Dance happens, we’re presented with what feels like a Problem, something that makes us nervous and inspires us to try to “Solve” it, or “Fix” it, or Change it, so we aren’t troubled by Anxiety anymore. In Real Life, rather than in our mind, this is just Curiosity. Western Culture trains us to need to squelch Curiosity, to come to some Resolution. But Wonder is akin to Love, as they both Eschew Judgment.
So if we’re able to exit the Dualistic mind, we get to Wonder, to Detachment from needing it to be one way or the other, Letting it be both way at once, or even three or four ways at once. Like watching a bonfire, watching the Flames Dance, uninhibited, as if no one was watching. Now we’re getting somewhere. How do we Feel while we’re watching the Flames? Where is our Identity? Are we the Wood? The Fire? The Air that the Fire needs to keep Dancing?
That’s where we are today. Mercury has reached the End of Sagittarius, the End of the Gemini half of Sadge, and it’s slowed down and Stopped. Our minds have Stopped. Gemini’s about to go back and see what we’ve learned about Detachment, or about whatever Coin applies to your own recent Experience, your own recent intellectual Ruminations. Can you tell the difference between your Experience and your Thoughts about your Experience? Are you actually Living, in the Present Moment, or are you Thinking about it? How many of your Senses are Engaged? What does Identity Smell like? Is Detachment Comfortable, or does it make you Anxious?
So for the next three weeks, while Mercury is Retrograde, we get to Explore these issues. The movie has Stopped, and we get to get up and walk around in the Hologram, look at Attachment and Identity from many different Angles. Try new things or Roles, things we’d never ordinarily Do or Be, just to see what happens when we do.
Meanwhile, Mercury has been Out of Bounds. That means it’s Stronger than usual. It went Out of Bounds on 9 November, and comes back In Bounds on 7 December. So we’re doing some extraordinary Identity and Detachment work here. We won’t put it all to bed till 10 January – once Mercury turns Direct again, it will be Dancing for a third time over this second half of Sagittarius – this Zauberisches Theatre, as Herrman Hesse called it, where we’re Free to Act Out any Role we Want to. Try to Avoid Conclusions – we’ve barely begun to Explore.
Who Am I? What Am I Doing? It’d be a great time to read Steven Levine’s Who Dies, the quintessential Examination of Identity and Attachment.
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Oh, did I mention there’s a Full Moon tomorrow? I saw it last night through the Clouds. Here’s the chart of the 3 December (8am PST) Full Moon…
You can see how strongly the Energy flows toward the Moon, toward Authenticity and Manifestation. How can we be Authentic if we’re auditioning new Roles every few minutes? That’s easy. Authentic means Authentic in the Current Moment. Consistency and Continuity belong in other Realms, not this one. This is the Dance of Freedom, of Freedom to Be who we Want to Be in each Moment.
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In addition to the Big Emphasis on Freedom to Change that we’ve been discussing here and in the previous post, the chart tell us…
Grace and Effortlessness flow from Trusting what lies beyond Ego Death…
The Full Moon makes a Grand Trine with asteroids Nemesis (Ego Death) in Aquarius (Community) and Eurydike (Trust) in Libra (Meeting Other). That puts the Sun (Essence) in Sagittarius (The Way Out is Letting Go) at the head of a Kite (Directed Grace, here Directed toward Essence).
We’re being Challenged to Open new doors into the Unconscious, into what lies beneath and behind our Limiting Beliefs, to Let Go of the Restraints that keep us from Respecting All Things, to be Present and Loving with the Truth of Memories that force us to alter our Self-Concepts…
Nemesis (Ego Death) Opposes asteroids Aletheia (Truth) and Mnemosyne (Memory), and the Opposition is T-Squared (Challenge to Mastery) by the Stellium (group of planets) of Jupiter (Expansion) and asteroids Vesta (Limiting Beliefs), Hopi (Respect for All Things), and Karma (Inertia).
Grace also flows from the Truth of these Memories…
A second Kite is formed on the Moon-Nemesis-Eurydike Grand Trine, this Kite focused on Aletheia-Mnemosyne.
And Greater Grace yet flows from Following our Guidance…
The two Kites make up five corners of a six-cornered Grand Sextile (Ease at Manifesting). When a major Configuration like a Grand Sextile is formed but for one of its corners, that Vacant corner becomes the Most Important Point in the Configuration, because it’s up to us to provide the Energy of the Vacancy, in order to unleash the Full Power of the Configuration. The Vacancy here is 11 Aries, “The ruler of a nation.” We’ll ignore for now the implications of that Symbol around the Antichrist, and reframe it as Our Guidance.
However, the Stars won’t let us be so casual about it, as there is a Fixed Star sitting in the Vacany. The Star Alderamin completes the Grand Sextile for us. Bernadette, in Brady’s Book of Fixed Stars (p.104) tells us…
Alderamin “would relate to the concept of the successful king, raised to the heavens as an example for others to see and learn. This star, therefore, could well talk of a different role model for male sovereignty. At the moment the model, as a collective statement, is one of aggression. At best it is simply out of step with planet Earth and the laws of nature and is thereby a destructive influence. However, Alderamin could represent a balanced male energy in harmony with the feminine and the Earth but focused and concentrated, in contrast to the more intuitive energy of the feminine.”
We’re told that the essence of Conservatism with its focus on Separation and Me First (and often Me Only), is Attachment to Authority. Conservatives are lost without someone to tell them what to Do and Believe and Say. Authority can come from many sources. If we render unto Mammon what is Mammon’s, we can seek our own Authority elsewhere. This Full Moon will point each of us toward our own Authority.
Our “left brain” or analytical side likes to Believe that it thinks for itself, and enjoys following the Authority of Logic. Logic, however, is a house of cards built upon Assumptions. The nature of Karma is such that we often do not even know what our Assumptions are, we simply follow the Rules that we Believe will keep us Safe, without looking to see who is actually driving our Vehicle. This Full Moon is a test for Authority of all sorts – the Authority of our Limiting Beliefs, the Authority of our Defining Concepts and Philosophies and Religions, and not least the Authority of our Communities and their Political Systems.
We may even get to see whether the Ruler of a Nation is subject to the Authority of the Laws of that Nation, or vice versa.
jbuss Astrology 