Our Eyes are Glowing
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Every picture tells a story
Mercury, still retrograde, takes center stage this week as it backs up and encounters planets it recently aspected while direct. In turn, we here on the ground are likely to be confronted with a series of vignettes related to unfinished business.
The Disseminating Moon that starts the week (Nov. 26, 6:43 am) is the storytelling lunar phase. It’s in Cancer, so the stories that need telling are related to family, tribal connections, and ancestors. But not all stories are easy to tell or to hear, and that’s the message of Mercury retrograde in candid Sagittarius, colliding with Mars in Pisces on the same day (0:06 am). We must clear the air to move ahead, and any anger, hurt feelings, or misunderstandings that arise stem from conflicts that have been brewing for awhile—perhaps dating back to Oct. 19, when Mercury in Scorpio squared Mars in Aquarius. The conflict then may have been related to secrecy or power-struggles among friends or groups. And the next Mercury/Mars contretemps, in Capricorn and Aries, respectively (Jan. 2019), attempts to balance cool, strategic thinking with unfettered, impulsive action. All three of these Mercury/Mars events illustrate what happens when tensions arise in communications; only the field of battle and the weaponry are different.
“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should’ve behaved better.”
― Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Old friends
On Nov. 27, Mercury retrogrades back to conjoin the Sun (1:15 am) and Jupiter (2:27 pm). The Sun and Jupiter have not been together in Sagittarius for many years, and they’ve got a lot to talk about, big dreams to dream and adventures to plan. Mercury might act as a nuisance, an awkward, slightly too-loud friend who plunges in and derails the discussion. Or it can serve as a sort of recording secretary who remembers the old times, was there for the last rounds of dreams and adventures, and can remind us of why some of them didn’t come to pass—and help us understand how to avoid old mistakes in new endeavors.
Sweating the small stuff
The fundamental disagreement between Virgo and Sagittarius goes something like this: Sagittarius doesn’t believe in sweating the small stuff, and Virgo lives for the small stuff. The Last Quarter Moon in Virgo (Nov. 29, 4:19 pm) inclines toward introspection and navel gazing, perfectionism and the terror of being exposed in public as inadequate. Meanwhile, the Sun is at 7.43 Sagittarius on the Sabian Symbol, Deep within the depths of the earth, new elements are being formed. So the Virgo in me says to the Virgo in you: Don’t focus so hard on perfecting something that is already nearly obsolete. Just focus on making sure you’ve learned everything you can from it before you let it go.
“Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.”
―
The duck pond
On Nov. 30 (6:13 pm), Venus meets Uranus in the last of three oppositions that began on Sep. 12 and repeated on Oct. 31. All three have offered opportunities to evaluate what we have, who we are, and who is there for us in times of change, upheaval, and loss.
This last opposition occurs with Venus on the Sabian Symbol 30 Libra, Three mounds of knowledge on a philosopher’s head and Uranus on 30 Aries, A duck pond and its young brood. This installment in the Venus/Uranus series is about how we regard and appreciate knowledge and experience, qualities which are easily overlooked or underappreciated when all those adorable, newly hatched little ducklings are splashing away in the other end of the pond. This is a moment to enjoy new energy coming into your life, but also to appreciate the people, institutions, and concepts that have been there for you year after year.
“You don’t have to have anything in common with people you’ve known since you were five. With old friends, you’ve got your whole life in common.” – Lyle Lovett
Eyes in the corner
After a month of Mercury in philosophical Sagittarius (since Oct. 30), Mercury retrogrades back into Scorpio (Dec. 1, 3:12 am). This is the mind at its most instinctual, primitive, and feral. As Eleanor of Aquitaine says to Henry II in The Lion in Winter, “We’re jungle creatures, Henry, and the dark is all around us. See them? In the corners, you can see the eyes.” But as Henry reminds her, “…And they can see ours.”
The very next day, Venus passes Mercury going in the other direction, moving into Scorpio (Dec. 2, 9:02 am) after its recent retrograde foray into Libra. Scorpio has an negative reputation among the uninformed, but it’s one of those signs that really shines when we need to look out for ourselves against falsehoods, manipulation, or sabotage. I’ll bet you’re better at detecting those than you were a month ago. Thank Scorpio for it.
“My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.”
― Pride and Prejudice
Enlightenment
The Sun in Sagittarius squares Mars in Pisces on the same day (Dec. 2, 4:34 pm). Any battle between a planet in Sagittarius and another in Pisces is ultimately arbitrated by their shared ruler, Jupiter. They last squared each other on March 24, in Aries and Capricorn, where Mars—ruler of Aries but exalted in Capricorn—had a conflict of interest; we could call that a draw. This time around, the Sun is allied with Jupiter, so it’s not even close: the judgment will come down on the side of Sagittarius’ certainty and beliefs rather than the faith of Pisces.
But it’s a fine line that separates the two, and fittingly, the Sabian Symbols at this square are both about enlightenment. The Sun is at 11 Sagittarius, In The Left Section Of An Archaic Temple, A Lamp Burns In A Container Shaped Like A Human Body, and Mars is at 11 Pisces, People traveling a narrow path, seeking illumination. We share the same narrow path with people who see things differently than we do—and the nature of a square is that both sides must be expressed. We need to embrace and honor our hard-won beliefs, while also having the humility to acknowledge that there are things we don’t and can’t know with certainty. That in the end, we all contain the fire of enlightenment.
The dark is all around us—but our eyes are glowing.
“Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret,
for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true.”
― Robert Brault
©2018 April Elliott KentI may not be able to post my updates for the weeks of Dec. 3 and 10, but I will definitely send out a simpler version by email to my subscribers. If you are enjoying these updates and want to be sure you don’t miss any, be sure to sign up for my mailing list!
