Jupiter Stations in Gemini, Part II : Connecting the Dots

January 30: I don’t know about you but I’m noticing a rash of nitpicking going on “out there” today, which probably means I’m doing a little interior nitpicking myself which would explain how loooooooooooong 20 minutes of meditation was this morning. Nitpicking seems to be a flavour of the day, for which we have a few suspects, prime among them Jupiter’s station in Gemini about which I was so encouraging yesterday. It’s true in the long run that most of us feel a lot better under a direct Jupiter than a retrograde one, so Jupiter’s return to direct motion for the next 9 months was certainly something to cheer about. But of course nothing exists in a vacuum.

For instance, the Sun is square Saturn today and that’s one unhappy customer. And the Moon is in Virgo, a sign which can be an Olympic class nitpicker. But the thing is that JUPITER IS STATIONING TODAY WHICH MEANS HE GETS TO TALK REALLY LOUD. So he’s a prime suspect today when it comes to making his feelings known. Being in Gemini is hard on Jupiter because Gemini is a magpie whose eye is caught by every shiny object, but Gemini is not so great when it comes to standing back and seeing the big picture. This makes Jupiter uncomfortable because the biggest planet is all about the big picture. So let’s help Jupiter out by connecting the dots so we can see the big meaningful patterns Jupiter loves. Look up. It’s a big sky out there.

Newflash – January 30 : JUPITER TURNS DIRECT

Jupiter has been playing statues all month, contemplating his navel in preparation for the big turnaround this week. The Jupiter-inside-of-us is preparing to turn around too. Some of us have already felt it. A big sigh of relief. Jupiter’s direct station tells us it’s time to leave behind the fevered inner questioning that’s been bedevilling us since October. Jupiter invites us now to open the window and look outside to a future full of adventures. Jupiter says it’s time to BREATHE. Anticipation is back in style. Things really start to pick up speed in March/April, but as of tomorrow, it’s officially Game On for Jupiter direct! Long journeys begin with but a single step – forward.

FIRST NEW MOON of 2013: Capricorn 22 degrees

Following today’s infusion of Solar juju, the Moon, in Her Dark Maiden of the Wild Things (new moon) phase, immediately sails into an uncertain sea. That is to say, She becomes void-of-course, has no more aspects to perfect in the sign in which the new cycle is born. No more engagements dictate the course of her day. Nothing is certain. Her jam-packed appointment book dissolves and is reborn as the enigmatic whispers of the Dreamtime.

It’s anybody’s guess what happens next.  Nothing, it seems, is fixed. According to the Sabian Symbols interpretation of the image symbolizing this New Moon, there will be a defeat of some kind, but never fear, for the image is elaborated to explain that, “Apparent defeat … spells real spiritual victory.”

Another image associated with the degree of this New Moon, in the Kozminsky system, is said to denote “one whose power is directed to the uplifting and advancement of his race.” Kozminsky goes on to say that this degree ”is a symbol of Renewing.”  When we weave together these two images, we are led to the impression that the first New Moon of 2013 is a harbinger of apparent failures which are in fact spiritual victories which will renew the strength of an ancient race.

Here Be Dragons: Saturn and North Node in Scorpio

Just as I was anticipating a gentle carriage ride into my sunset years, I found myself beset by dragons. Multiple dilemmas have come crashing my way with the transit of the north node and Saturn through bad-ass Scorpio.

Now I spend some part of too many nights crouched stupidly below an imaginary line of fire, anxiously stonewalling the possibly inevitable. The battle is underway, and as antidote to hysterical self-dramatization I must keep in mind that all over this world of ours people are suffering A LOT more than me. I must not exaggerate my passing troubles.

It was when Saturn entered Scorpio (Oct. 5) that the shit hitting the fan took on a whole new level of intensity. Found myself in the hospital that day with everyone acting as if I had just had a heart attack, which I hadn’t but it was a serious scare which lasted a couple of weeks. A week before that the north node had transited over my scorpio ascendant, heading for its rendezvous with my natal south node which will occur on New Year’s Eve. Karma’s a bitch. Time to do Vajrasattva practice. Or is Medicine Buddha the better practice for such times?

Fear is the enemy and so I am doing my best to empty my emotions of the power to hold me hostage. Thank whatever gods there be for the dharma practice which is indeed a refuge. All the best to you who are no doubt battling your own dragons in these far too interesting times.

Deborah Houlding's Horary Certificate Course 2006

How Astrology Works – Planets in Particular

Planets affect us through resonance and correspondence. The constellation of qualities particular to each planet can be found in a host of related earthly phenomena. For instance, Saturn is associated with ancient ruins because everything old, traditional or historical resonates with Saturn’s nature. 

Many things are mixtures of planetary influence but usually one attribute will stick out and it is the planet most strongly associated with that attribute (eg, old = Saturn; gold = Sun) which is said to “rule” that object, process, creature or event. 

Astrology subscribes to the “everything is interconnected” worldview which dominated Western thought until the end of the 17^th Century, when so-called “Natural Philosophy” stripped creation of its sentience and nature of its living web of interdependence. It took modern physics to rediscover the web of interconnection. We are all – humans, animals, plants and angels – interconnected. What affects one, affects all. 

It is a profound democracy.

Moments Out of Time: On Eclipses

Long ago, when the skies darkened under a solar eclipse, our ancestors shot arrows at the sky and banged drums to scare away the dragon who was eating the Sun. Today we’ve traded the hungry dragon theory of eclipses for the understanding that eclipses are perfectly natural phenomenon involving synchronized path crossings of the Sun, Moon and Earth. We have wrested this much from the corridors of superstition. The evolution of our understanding of eclipses is a victory of light over darkness and we should celebrate it. 

At the same time, the atmosphere generated by eclipses is just as uncanny as it ever was. Just ask anyone who has been called from sleep in the middle of the night to stare up at a lunar eclipse, or who has witnessed the eerie progression of a solar eclipse turning day into night. The sense of being under a magically altered sky during an eclipse is just as real today as it ever was. Although we now know the how and why of an eclipse, there is much that remains a mystery about these cyclical interruptions of light.