A Quiver of Curiosity
Dates and times are given for U.S. Pacific Time zone.
A Quiver of Curiosity
This week’s Gemini First Quarter Moon (Feb. 27, 2023, 00:05 am PST) falls on the Sabian Symbol A quiver filled with arrows. The archer behind this Sabian symbol didn’t emerge from the womb with the ability to hit a target, and certainly not with a quiver full of arrows. With a certain native talent, perhaps. But without the curiosity to pick up a bow in the first place and play around with it, how would that talent ever be developed?
The First Quarter Moon insists that we take intuitive, indiscriminate action toward something that has been, up to now, the tiniest kernel of an idea. Gemini’s quiver is filled with arrows of interest and possibility. Better still, the First Quarter Moon doesn’t insist that we have the end game figured out – so if you can’t make up your mind, let several arrows loose, and see where they land, and which one sticks.
A Gemini First Quarter Moon offers the gift of curiosity that leads a nascent musician to pick up an instrument and noodle around on it, the fledgling writer to write a first story on loose-leaf and staple it together, the future programmer to compose a first, simple algorithm. Unless your interest is hooked, you’ll never go on to develop the unstoppable urge to become really great at something.
An Incendiary Combination
Venus rushes impulsively into a conjunction with Jupiter (March 1, 2023, 9:36 pm PST) this week, at 12º08’ Aries. It’s on the curious Sabian symbol 13 Aries: An unsuccessful bomb explosion; suited to incendiary Aries, maybe, but an odd match for Venus and Jupiter, which brings to mind fantasies of romance and winning lottery tickets. Venus symbolizes our heart’s desire, and Jupiter brings more of it; so it’s a very fortunate combination, at least potentially.
But, planets in Aries can also be a little bit impulsive, and Venus in this sign can set its cap for something before it’s really had time to think it through and make sure that what we want is what’s right for us. Add Jupiter to the mix, and it’s like having a close friend who is supportive of even your most wrongheaded decisions.
In the days leading up to this beautiful, fortunate conjunction, we might find that there is a lot of passion and a lot of fire and excitement, but also a little bit of frustration and impatience because of the Aries factor. In fact, it may not feel very positive at all – more like a bomb getting ready to explode! But after the conjunction is complete on the evening of March 1, it’s time to relax and enjoy the very positive influences, such as joyful enthusiasm and satisfaction, that the conjunction is very likely to bring our way.
In particular, this is a wonderful aspect for anything related to relationships, but also for any new projects that you’ve been wanting to launch and get out into the world, this is a really fortunate combination to have on your side. Take a look at the house of your chart that contains 12°8’ Aries, that describes the area of your life that is just going to get a nice little energetic boost from this conjunction.
Tedious Taming Tasks
Recently, I gave my office a thorough straightening out. It’s really been a pleasure going in there to work each day. There’s just one fly in the ointment: a single basket filled with papers and file folders that I still haven’t put away. These are troublesome drips and drabs, oddballs and one-offs with no clear home in my filing system, but which can’t be thrown out.
I’ve been putting off tackling it – but I have a plan. Today, as Mercury conjoins Saturn (March 2, 2023, 6:34 am PST, 29º24’ Aquarius), I’m tackling that bad boy. I can’t think of an aspect better suited to the tedious task of taming errant papers and setting up a civilized home for them in my filing cabinet.
Maybe you’ve got your own personal Bermuda triangle that Mercury and Saturn could help you out with today. It might be a disastrous hall closet, a pile of junk mail, or the kitchen junk drawer where you toss twist-ties and those packets of pepper flakes that come with your pizza. Whatever it is, turn this dynamic duo loose and watch things get shipshape and Bristol fashion. (But you’ll probably get more done before Mercury enters Pisces late this afternoon!)
Unwinding your thoughts
Is your brain tired? If your days are an endless, repetitive loop of chores, tasks, analysis, and wordslinging, you could benefit from a little unstructured dream time about now. Enter Mercury in Pisces (March 2, 2023, 2:52 pm PST), which favors a more poetic, less linear form of processing and communicating with the world.
Pisces speaks to us in images, music, and art. My Pisces-rising godson, when he was a toddler, couldn’t walk by a television without stopping in his tracks and becoming immediately enthralled by the images on its screen. A dear Pisces friend spent as much of his adolescence asleep as possible; when he wasn’t napping, he was playing music. I’ve got Mercury in aspect to Neptune, the modern ruler of Pisces, in my birth chart; as a kid, it took herculean effort for me to pull myself out of my daydreams.
Ideally, we’d absent ourselves from the mundane and spend Mercury’s Piscean seasons at the easel, or maybe at Esalen, seated in the lotus position overlooking the Big Sur coastline. Unfortunately, most of us can’t get away for ten-week retreat at an exclusive meditation center. We can, however, make an effort to loosen our grip on schedules and to-do lists a bit more than usual for a little while. A little time reading a novel, walking in nature, meditating, and otherwise unbending, is time well spent while Mercury is in this sign. A little time to unwind your thoughts, following the thread that connects them back to its origin, so you can come up with a different dream for your future.
Writing and images © 2017-23 by April Elliott Kent
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