Storytime and the Inevitability of Change
Dates and times are given for U.S. Pacific Time zone. Click them to see the date and time where you are.
A Fairy Tale
My sister and I shared a bed when we were small. We were gigglers, and mom and dad periodically lost patience with us. After several warnings went unheeded, our parents could quickly traverse the tiny gap between their bedroom and ours to make the point a little clearer via a swat to the behind. We’d be a bit quieter after that, our giggles muffled under the blankets.
They were loving parents, but as the saying goes, it was a different time. Parents were not pals; they were the monarchs of our tiny worlds, and we disobeyed them at our peril.
This week, Mercury conjoins Jupiter (Oct. 29, 4:05 am) on the Sabian symbol: The king approaching the giggling fairies’ domain. Mercury is the giggling fairies’ team leader; he likes to chatter well past bedtime, to question, to entertain ideas. Jupiter is the king (or the all-knowing parent), delivering his rulings with absolute certainty. These two could scarcely be more different. The challenge, when they meet, is to balance curiosity with belief; to balance Mercury’s chattering mind with Jupiter’s certainty; to honor both knowing and unknowing.
This is the first in a series of three such conjunctions, with the other two on Nov. 27 while Mercury is Rx, and again on Dec. 21 when Mercury is direct again. All three fall on Sabian symbols with a fairy tale air: The aforementioned King of the Fairies, An Old Owl Perched High Up in a Tree (Nov. 27) and A Theatrical Representation of a Golden Haired Goddess of Opportunity (Dec. 21). A thundering King, a wise old owl, and—for all intents and purposes—Cate Blanchett in The Lord of the Rings: Mercury and Jupiter, both good storytellers, would enjoy knitting these word pictures into a narrative.
The day after this conjunction, Mercury enters Sagittarius, Jupiter’s sign (Oct. 30 at 9:38 pm). Mercury is a wonderful mimic, and can sound grave, wise, and considered when the moment calls for it. But that’s just Mercury doing an impression of Sagittarius. Wait until next week, when Jupiter himself moves into the role.
“A man with a good story is practically a king.”
― José Eduardo Agualusa
Controlled Breathing
This week’s Last Quarter Moon (Oct. 31, 9:40 am) finds the Sun and Moon on hard-working Sabian symbols: Glass blowers shape beautiful forms with their controlled breathing, and A dentist is hard at work (whom I referenced a couple of weeks ago, to the online amusement of my real-life dentist). The Last Quarter is an ambitious phase. If there is something you want to accomplish, a task that needs completing, this phase is for you—particularly with the Sun and Moon in the fixed signs of Scorpio and Leo, respectively. Control your breathing, blow beautiful shapes, and work hard, using small, precise movements.
Persephone’s Furlough
This week’s opposition between Venus and Uranus (Oct. 31 at 1:45 am) is the second of three which began on Sep. 12 and concludes on Nov. 30. This is the Rx variation on the theme, meaning it’s probably a good idea to look back to Sep. 9-12 and ponder changes in relationships (or related to money) that happened around that time. Do you want to reclaim something that was lost then? Or is the message simply that sometimes, people want different things or need more space, and they must part?
That happens in relationships from time to time. It happens in work, too, when you reach a point where the thing you do to make money is no longer a good fit with how you see yourself. It even happens in the realm of pleasure, when what you’ve long enjoyed no longer satisfies you. At some point, change is no longer a choice; it’s an inevitability. And I think that’s the overarching message of this trio of Venus/Uranus oppositions. Tastes change, and so do relationships with others, and with ourselves.
Venus retrograding back into her home sign, Libra (Oct. 31, 12:42 pm), is a bit like a furlough for Persephone, who is not having the best time in Scorpio/Hades. She peeks her head above ground, gets some sunlight and air, and temporarily feels like her old self again for the first time since she entered Scorpio (Sep. 8). Reclaim your strength and confidence, and reinforce your alliances—you’ll need them when Venus reenters Scorpio in early December.
“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” ―
The gossamer veil
The Balsamic lunar phase is called “the dark Moon.” It calls us to rest and forego our usual routines, and it’s a truly excellent time of month to burrow into your comfortable bed with a book and a cup of tea, or lounge in front of the fire.
But what if you are compelled to interact with the world during the Balsamic Moon phase (begins Nov 3, 8:15 AM)—how do you protect yourself when the veil between this world and the next becomes gossamer thin, when you are vulnerable and a little wobbly? Perhaps the point is not to focus so much on protection; to luxuriate, instead, in imprecise boundaries, and let down your guard a bit.
I find it gets harder to do that as I get older. The temptation is strong to stay among the people I know well, who are like me. I begin to understand why folks collect in over-55 communities: to be seen as people and not oldsters.
This Balsamic Moon overlaps with a trine between the Sun and Neptune on Nov. 5, which I’ll talk more about next week. There is sleep that comes after hard effort, and there is sleep like Neptune’s, like the Balsmic Moon’s – soft, gentle, and ultimately refreshing.
Next week, gigantic shifts await. So rest up, children. Have a cup of tea. Coexist with uncertainty. Breathe.
“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.”
―
©2018 April Elliott Kent