Awaiting a sailboat
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Ready to roar
It’s a busy week for the Sun, and the lion’s share of this week’s highlights belong to him. But the story begins with an aspect that, while it may seem relatively trivial, is the match lighting a fuse that will go off later in the week.
Mercury stationed and turned retrograde (July 7) within spitting distance of a conjunction with Mars. The two met up previously in mid-June at 21.21 Cancer; remember that degree, because it becomes important later in this story. Mercury and Mars make another conjunction on July 8 (3:27 pm PDT) at 4.25 Leo. Mercury is an instigator, a messenger, a trigger; and Mars in fiery Leo is ready to roar. Any other time, this might bring a lot of bluster without much substance, but the Sun – Leo’s ruler – is under a lot of pressure this week. When a poorly chosen word or a disrespectful comment provokes the lion’s roar, you’d be well advised to stand back and keep your fingers away from the cage.
Whether it’s worth fighting for
Imagine – or you can recall? – being a sunny, creative, and uncomplicated child who wants to share something with the world. Maybe it’s a song, or a joke, or a dance step. You tug at mom or dad’s sleeve, desperate for attention, but they’re distracted, or critical. If it happens once, you’ll usually bounce back. But if you’re routinely shut down by those you love, you’ll learn to hide your true self.
The Sun opposes Saturn this week (July 9, 10:07 am PDT), pitting sunny optimism against criticism or censure. The several days leading up to it will probably be the toughest, but it’s a rough week generally for launching something from your heart out into the world. If you do, and the world is unreceptive or negative, you will need to figure out whether this thing is worth fighting for.
We don’t want to let Saturn stop us in our tracks altogether, but he’s not necessarily wrong for suggesting that refinement, discipline, or hard work would make our creative, loving efforts more effective. But with the Sun in a conjunction with the North Node on the same day (8:37 pm PDT), there’s no question that the joyful, creative spark is the true thing, and Saturn should only be listened to if its message is constructive.
Loving what’s imperfect
The Sun’s secret weapon this week is its trine to Neptune (July 10, 9:31 pm PDT). If things get too rough, there are always the comforting arms of Morpheus. Or a day at the beach, or singing, dancing, or stories. The challenge is to use Neptune wisely. For most of us, a glass of wine at the end of a particularly stressful day can be relaxing; more problematic is a bottle of wine every night, for then the world loses its focus.
The Sun is on the Sabian Symbol for 19 Cancer, A priest performing a marriage ceremony. There’s always a bit of an irony when a priest, vowed to remain unmarried, joins a couple in matrimony. He’ll analogize the sacrament of marriage to God’s love for his church, which is a fair interpretation. But that may be a lofty one for a couple embarking on the day-to-day, year after year, clear-eyed, warts-and-all business of loving. Just as courage doesn’t mean there is no fear, love doesn’t mean we think someone is perfect.
Wishing, dreaming, imagining
When the Sun opposes Pluto (July 14, 7:51 am), their trouble stems from a fundamental disagreement between determination and knowing when to give up. The Sun in Cancer is at 21.51 on the Sabian Symbol, A woman awaiting a sailboat – on the heels of the Sun’s trine to Neptune a couple of days ago, dreaming, wishing, and imagining are the watchwords of the Sun on this degree.
Meanwhile, Pluto is on the Sabian Symbol, A general accepting defeat gracefully. This degree, where slow-moving Pluto will spend a certain amount of time this year, speaks of knowing when to stop fighting. Are you waiting for something that’s not meant to be yours? To hearken back to the Sun/Saturn opposition earlier in the week, are you still tugging on some phantom sleeve, begging for attention?
Shifting constellations
Mars and Uranus are an explosive and unpredictable combo, particularly when they are square (July 11, 11:01 am PDT) and in the stubborn, inflexible signs of Taurus and Leo.
And yet… Mars is on the Sabian Symbol 7 Leo, The constellations in the sky. The planets wander, but the constellations remain more or less constant. So what looks like stubborness from one angle appears as constancy and dependability from another. In Leo, Mars wants to devote its power and its sword in noble pursuits, and will not be swayed in those pursuits; in Taurus, Uranus is willing to move the very earth itself to move what needs to be moved. Uranus is on the Sabian Symbol, A woman of Samaria, which suggests the biblical story of a woman changed by her encounter with Jesus.
The tension of this aspect, then, may have something to do with the power of knowing when to stay constant, and knowing when to let ourselves be changed. The Sun’s journey this week, encountering the difficult challenges of Saturn and Pluto, informs the struggle. So does Venus (ruler of Taurus), which makes a sextile to Uranus (July 8, 8:32 am), indicating unexpected fortune. Maybe it’s as simple as saying that in this week, between two eclipses, the constellations seem to shift a bit in the sky – the stars still form consistent patterns, but they’ve moved to a slightly different point in our consciousness.
©2019 April Elliott Kent
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