The Wind at Your Back
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What lights us up
While the Sun is moving through a sign each month, it describes the activities or approach that will light us up. While it’s in Virgo, we’ll get that energetic boost from organizing, taking care of neglecting tasks, enjoying nature, and making lists. And as the Sun in Virgo meets Jupiter in a flowing trine aspect (Sep. 9, 2020, 9:04 am PDT), we’ll find our reward in a life that is not only tidier, but which perfectly supports us in the Big Picture pursuits represented by Jupiter in Capricorn. Particularly for those with the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, or other key points in the birth chart in Leo (ruled by the Sun), this week the wind is truly at your back.
Patience and conviction
Mars’ current journey through its home sign of Aries provides a good example of why planets in their rulership may not bring entirely happy results. When a testy planet like Mars is given full reign in its own sign, it’s like an energetic toddler with no discipline or restraints. And this particular Mars has collided head-on with a handful of planets in Capricorn that are determined to make him put on the brakes. This week, Mars turns retrograde (Sep. 9, 2020, 3:22 pm PDT), which gives the illusion that the faster we run, the more behind we’re getting. In fact, we’re headed straight for Saturn and Pluto again!
The message: Don’t give up on the things you’re trying to accomplish that are really important to you. But realize that your progress won’t be straightforward or even easy to see, at least until after Mars turns direct (Nov. 13). This is especially true for those of us with key planets in the Mars-ruled signs of Aries or Scorpio, or with Mars strongly placed near the angles of the birth chart. And it won’t be a walk in the park for Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn planets, either! Just try to have patience and be guided by your greatest convictions.
Lunar rewards
A listener to the podcast recently introduced me to Lunar Phase families. Beginning with a New Moon, the next major phase in the lunar cycle will occur at roughly the New Moon’s degree and sign every nine months. Astrologer Dietrech Pessin examines this concept in his article The Lunar Gestation cycle, available at Frank Clifford’s website.
At this week’s Last Quarter Moon at 18.07 Gemini (Sep. 10, 2020, 2:25 am PDT), we review and bring closure to matters that began at the most recent New Moon on August 18. But this Last Quarter is also related to a lunar phase family that began at the June 13, 2018 New Moon at 22.44 Gemini, took flight at the March 14, 2019 First Quarter Moon (23.33 Gemini), revealed the fullness of its expression at the Dec. 11, 2019 Full Moon (at 19.51 Gemini), and now reaches its concluding chapter.
If you can, think back to ideas, activities, or personal connections that were conceived in mid-June 2018. You may find they gathered more momentum around mid-March 2019 and fully developed around mid-December, 2019. Now, you should see the rewards of this 27 month cycle of Gemini learning, listening, writing, or traveling. And it’s time to begin to close down or transition what began at the beginning of this cycle.
Fathoms
A s the Sun engages in an opposition with Neptune (Sep. 11, 2020, 1:25 pm), longing is emotion that springs to mind. What are you longing for these days? A road trip? A simple meal with family and friends? Both are evoked by the Sabian symbols at this opposition, with the Sun on 20 Virgo, An automobile caravan and Pisces on 20 Pisces, A table set for an evening meal.
There’s a longing quality to Neptune, and also the quality of an emotional undertow that can suck us under if we’re not careful. This aspect reminds me of the Nietzsche quote: “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” Neptune represents those fathomless depths in us, sadness that never really goes away, nostalgia (a word whose root means something like homesickness), an aching to return to the old ways, and the haunting awareness that we don’t really know what happens after we’re gone. On one hand, we have to be willing to look at all these things and to understand about our own hidden fathoms. But on the other side of this aspect is the Sun – and the Sun is the way out of the abyss, through love, fun, creative expression, games, storytelling around the fire.
Flying the flag
Jupiter turned retrograde on May 14, just a couple of days after Venus began her retrograde journey into the underworld. My thought about planetary retrogrades is that they point us inward to find our own answers about the matters related to those planets. In the case of Jupiter, the inward journey has led each of us to rally around our individual moral compass. That’s healthy – unless we refuse to pay attention to information or ideas that contradict those beliefs. Jupiter is a societal planet, and there are some beliefs that codified within a society.
As Jupiter turns direct this week (Sep. 12, 2020, 5:40 pm PDT), it’s at 17.24 Capricorn on a very fitting Sabian Symbol: 18 Capricorn, A union jack. I don’t read this symbol as having anything particular to do with the United Kingdom or any other country. Rather, it’s about anything we feel strongly enough about to “fly the flag” for it, whether it’s a bumper sticker on our car or a social media post. As Jupiter turns direct through next June, it’s time to share those beliefs, and to test them against opposing viewpoints.
Writing and collages © 2020 April Elliott Kent
Join Jen and me for our first annual PODATHON!
Daily episodes Sep. 7-11, 2020, beginning with:
42 | It’s Our Moonday Episode!
