Natural State
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The Gift of Curiosity
This Gemini First Quarter Moon (March 2, 2020, 11:57 am PST) falls on the Sabian Symbol A great musician at his piano. The great musician in this Sabian symbol didn’t emerge from the womb a great pianist (unless, perhaps, he’s Mozart, who came pretty darn close). With a certain talent, yes. But without the great desire to sit down in the first place and noodle around with it, how would he know how to proceed?
A Gemini First Quarter Moon brings the gift of curiosity that leads the 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. Without your interest being hooked, you’ll never develop the passion, the unstoppable urge to do what’s necessary to become really great at something.
Retrieving the lost gift
Now retrograde, Mercury eases back into its previous (Jan. 16-Feb. 3) sign, Aquarius (March 4, 2020, 3:07 am PST) through March 16. Which might feel something like this: Imagine you’ve left your house to meet a friend for coffee to celebrate his birthday. You’re running late, and you know parking will be difficult, and you’re stuck behind a car going very slowly… and then you remember you left your friend’s birthday present at home. So you have to turn around, go back and get it, and start the whole process over again.
This week marks the point in the journey when you’ve turned around and you’re heading home. What did you leave behind that needs to be retrieved? Once Mercury turns direct again on March 9, you’ll be on your way again.
Natural state
Venus, which last week squared Pluto, takes on Saturn in a square this week (March 3, 2020, 8:44 am PST), on the Sabian symbol 29 Aries, Music of the spheres. On one level, it’s a callback to the Last Quarter Moon idea of the musician at his piano and his 10,000 hours of practice, since Venus in combination with Saturn speaks of refining and exerting discipline toward attaining beauty or reward.
The Sabian symbol, though, refers to an ancient concept that relates the movements of the celestial bodies to a conceptual harmonics. In other words, “the music of the spheres”refers not to actual, audible sound, but to a philosophical relationship between the planets that’s like music in its beauty and precision.
Here’s how I’m going to read this: There a comes a point in our learning where we’re ready to throw out the book and pare our tools down to just a few. Venus square Saturn here supports refining things down to their essence, removing artifice to reveal their true, honest beauty. Some things are more beautiful in their natural state – and Venus and Saturn working together can make them stronger and more compelling.
Such riches as these
Venus is happy in Taurus (entering on March 4, 2020, 7:07 pm PST). Here, after a couple of recent trying squares to Pluto and Saturn, it can simply relax and be itself.
So can we. There is a time and place for self-improvement and for striving. But Venus in Taurus celebrates the beauty that’s simply ours for the taking. The beauty of a shaft of morning sunlight on a dozing cat; the sound of a loved one’s voice; the smell of bread baking. What need have we of money, when we have such riches as these?
What the world takes away
Sometimes, the Sabian symbols are starkly literal. My mother, born with the Sun on 5 Taurus, A widow at an open grave, was indeed suddenly and tragically widowed at the age of 36. Her second attempt at marriage was thwarted by the untimely death of her intended on the day before they were to elope.
Yes, sometimes the Sabian symbols are quite literal. But mostly, they’re suggestive, poetic. Venus with Uranus, the great awakener, on this degree (March 8, 2020, 12:38 pm), may speak of being startled awake in our relationships, or of suddenly finding out we owe the tax man more than we’d expected to, either of which is in keeping with the symbolism of Venus and Uranus together.
The widow in the symbol is alone, and the open grave suggests it’s a fresh condition. In grief, the consciousness is a gaping wound. The assemblage point has shifted. So close on the heels of the gentle satisfaction of Venus entering her own sign, we learn as if for the first time that enjoying what the world offers us also means accepting what it takes away.
Cats of a different color
Our tabby likes to nap at the foot of the bed in our east-facing bedroom, which has a stained-glass window. When the morning sun hits it, it illuminates Spike with richly saturated colors… purple at first, maybe, then deep green when he changes position. He looks like the Horse of a Different Color in The Wizard of Oz.
This week, the Sun makes a conjunction with Neptune (March 8, 2020, 5;23 pm PDT). Sit and watch a cat change colors for awhile some morning, and you’ll get a pretty good idea of how Neptune works when the Sun shines through it. Today, the world looks prettier, more fantastic. Who cares that your common sense knows a cat can’t change colors, when you can see it with your own two eyes. Who cares that it’s not real; it’s weirdly uplifting, food for your imagination. It’s what we look for when we drink alcohol or use drugs or eat desserts or make love – it’s a shift in consciousness. A brief one, in this case… just long enough to change your way of looking at the world a little bit.
© 2020 by April Elliott Kent
Jen and I explore all the week’s highlights on this week’s episode, 015 | Venus + Pie: 0-29 Degrees of Separation!
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