posted October 04, 2010 06:14 PM         

The Shape of Things to Come
by Len Wallick

Thursday we will experience a New Moon in Libra. For the next three to four days, the Moon will be in its extreme waning phase, which is another way of saying the end of the lunar cycle. Therefore, this is the time to focus on ending old cycles and seeding the new cycles. Remember that most years each sign gets a New Moon once, and which focuses maximum energy on that particular vibration. This is our Libra moment.
Libra has themes we recognize: relationships and how we do them; the concept and expression of beauty, as much for its own sake as for the sake of what it is representing; and a quality of subtlety that can give way to a creative fire like none other, under the right circumstances.

Over the weekend Mercury ingressed Libra after more than two months in Virgo. That two months included one of the most psychologically challenging Mercury retrogrades in a while. It’s unusual for Mercury to spend so long in one sign, but that’s what happened this time around. Its ingress into Libra is the covering-all-bases moment of ‘this whole mentality is over’; whatever journey Mercury retrograde in Virgo, or Mercury in Virgo, represented, is over — and now we take with us, and apply, what we learned. At the moment of the New Moon, Mercury is conjunct Saturn in Libra, which you might say is about applied creativity.

This event will take place rather precisely on the ascendant of the chart for a certain event back on Sept. 11, 2001. That event being Flight 11 colliding with the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, which creates a moment of transparency for this blight on world history.
This auspicious conjunction of Luna and Sol will be the focus of our Daily Astrology & Adventure blogs this week. To begin this journey, we will review the astrology of the past several days. Then we will look at three of today’s aspects to get a feel for developing issues.

By the time you read this the Sun will have left its conjunction with Saturn several clicks (known as degrees) behind, not to be revisited for another year; that one is also an annual event. Also, Venus and Mars are slowly departing in sweet sorrow from yesterday’s union in Scorpio. Mars is pulling away toward Sagittarius while Venus is slowing down, about to back up and head into Libra. The planets of yin and yang will next meet in May of 2011 on the lush fields of Taurus. But before then, their intricate dance in Scorpio continues; we have a Venus retrograde beginning later this week, a developing story that we’ll be following in this space.

Appropriately, this aspect of exploring gender metamorphosis is rearranging itself just as luminaries are getting into the act, applying to a conjunction of their own — the New Moon.

In addition, late on Saturday or early yesterday, depending on where you are, Mercury moved into Libra. This ended over two months of tenure in Virgo, the sign of Old Fleet-Foot’s dual rulership and exaltation. These last nine weeks included a powerful retrograde period, the third consecutive earth sign retrograde for Mercury this year, and later in the season we have another retrograde of Mercury that touches earth sign Capricorn.

Currently, Mercury in Libra aligned with the cardinal cross that has been developing all year; Mercury has been, and will be, talking to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto, those planets also having recently completed some significant chapters. As if on cue, when Mercury crossed the Aries Point, the U.S. put out terrorism travel advisories for Americans abroad in Europe.
All of the planets that took part in the cardinal cross earlier in the year are now experiencing a transitional period, both individually and in concert. If synchronicity were to be believed, such a concordance might herald something for all of us that we can create or that ‘might happen’ and in any event is worth paying attention to.

This is an invitation to partake fully in the change of paradigm, or reality framework, implied by the outer planets.
Yet, there remains a sort of drag as most of us remain to some extent invested in protocols for how we live our personal lives that are becoming less and less tenable. Many have decided that these customs just don’t work but don’t know what to do about their circumstances, or their guilt. What is up with that and how to address it are the subjects we will address with the New Moon and the days leading up to it.

Perhaps the best example of overstayed attachment is the Republican Party in the United States. This last week they recycled a promotional strategy that worked 16 years ago, as if nothing had changed in the meantime. This last year they have been falling all over themselves to incorporate an increasingly narrow-minded, radical and crackpot fringe as if this were 1980, when defeating the Equal Rights Amendment for women was all the rage. Five candidates on various Tea Party tickets are campaigning to disallow women’s right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy even in the case of rape or incest. Seemingly until last week that was just too ridiculous, stupid and unfair to even consider. Now it’s the thing that supposedly gets votes.

What makes it even worse is that even those opposed to draconian politics and governing models are overwhelmingly intimidated by prospects for its success. Buffaloed and backpedaling rather than advancing confidently against the obstruction of progress, there is no actual progressive agenda being articulated. That would not happen if there were not some internal concessions inhibiting external confrontation against that which does not work any more and, in reality, never has.

So it seems that we are revisiting a theme of the cardinal T-square, that the personal is political. In this case, personal inhibitions, conflicts and even pathologies influencing the conduct of our public (and hence political) lives.

Today, the Sun provides a clue in what might be called a co-dependent relationship with the centaur planet, Thereus. Philip Sedgwick interprets Thereus as having to do with an attitude commonly applied to relationships — comparing ourselves to others. Status, in other words, which usually comes in the form of feeling superior or inferior to another based on image and appearances is the path of least resistance.

There is also a theme of getting the word out.

Taken in combination with Sol as the representation of how we express ourselves, we find it challenging to develop and live by our own values because there seems to be more security in accepting those handed down to us. Even if we know good and well that they don’t work. Even if we can feel more whole and less conflicted by bucking trends sustained only by an inertia derived of coercion.

In an interesting parallax, the Moon forms an aspect of its own today that is geometrically identical with Sun-Thereus but with a completely different feel.
A few hours before leaving Leo behind, Luna develops a fire trine with the core of our galaxy. The Galactic Center in Sagittarius is a powerful indication that we are more authentically distinguished by what we have in common than by our differences.

The Moon connecting with our emotional and intuitive component, culminating in a sign ruled by its counterpart is well positioned to open us up to the flow of that truth. While our egos may be preoccupied by keeping up with the Joneses, our hearts are better served by being open to what it’s like to actually be them.

Which leads us to Mercury’s first substantial aspect in Libra. Mercury and its progress through the zodiac finds itself associated with how we think. Today, it briefly stands in the shoes so long occupied by Saturn. In a cardinal square to Pluto in Capricorn there is tension. How we think confronted by the imperative to transform it. But there is also some common ground. Both are recently in direct motion again. Their brief encounter today may not have profound consequences but it is at the very least indicative. If we can resolve our inner tension by moving forward and revising our reasoning process we can avoid having to deal with the same problems over and over again.

So those are the first few steps on our way to getting a grip on the week. Topics are already developing that will influence our interpretation of the New Moon. The equivalence of our personal and public lives is taking on a Libra flavor. How we define ourselves needs to be balanced with an evolved reality. What we are invested in and attached to is feeling less sustainable, both within and without.

The definitions and the practices of relationship that we have inherited are not working so well. The goals no longer serve. The resolution of these things begins by transforming how we think, and how we respond to what we feel.

Albert Einstein once defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That would seem to be the issue we are faced with this week.

http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/2010/10/04/the-shape-of-things-to-come/#more-29433

posted October 05, 2010 08:02 AM         

One day closer to the New Moon and we can feel it. It’s almost like a new year, or an anniversary, or an edge. Your ephemeris says the Libra Sun has moved its obligatory not-quite-a-degree since yesterday. Yet somehow it is still winding up to its air guitar stroke with the how we/they think of us/them feel of the centaur Thereus in Gemini. On the way there Pholus, of small cause, big effect fame, pops up in Sagittarius like the lamp post we didn’t see and my, that was close. It is as if the greater luminary is driving under a yellow flag, cautiously holding a place, preparing to advance.

The Moon meanwhile is feeling no such compunctions. Speed reading the span of Mercury’s Virgo retrograde in a little over a day, gathering thorns there while it may. Speaking of Mercury, it’s no slouch, accelerating to join Saturn on Libra’s big couch.

How we think and what we feel are in concordance on this deal, let’s get over the edge and start Libra for real. But our expressed self, conscious and creative is not so sure. There might be more than we bargained for beyond that door.

Every conjunction of the Sun and Moon extinguishes the light of the previous lunar cycle while igniting a new one. The spark for that ignition is the energy of the sign in which the luminaries find concordance. Focusing that energy as a magnifying glass focuses light. With Sol and Luna coming together precisely on the the ascendant of the 9-11 chart the imperatives of Libra are being brought to the front door of that event. Striving for balance, justice and seeing the other side.

No wonder the Sun seems to be dragging its feet. How would you feel approaching a threshold anticipating a stranger with your face on the other side?

And what of the world, that collection of me’s that’s really one we. What precipitated from the events of September 11, 2001 has not been confined to the United States. Perhaps more than anything before or since, the whole world was watching. The empathy, fear and confusion moved the planet like a stand-sit wave around a stadium. It created a vortex in which most of us were caught up. Out of the loins of that vortex, the 21st century was born.

And what chart better represents the world than the chart of the world, the Thema Mundi. Apparently developed as a teaching device over two thousand years ago, it has some things in common with 9-11. What really took place to bring it about is shrouded in mystery. It is appears to be where a new age and its distinguishing characteristics had its origin. But most of all it is in axis of quad-ration that the most chilling correspondence is to be found.

Every astrological chart for an exact time and place has a outer wheel of solar houses and an inner wheel of houses that begin with what degree of what sign was on the eastern horizon. That’s the ascendant, also known as AC. The cusp of the first house. Opposing the ascendant is the descendant, or DC, their axis runs East-West. There is also a North-South axis from the Imum Coeli (IC) to Medium Coeli (MC).

And here’s the kicker, take that two thousand-plus year old chart, rotate the ascendant clockwise 90 degrees and you have the 9-11 chart. And conversely, the ascendant on the 9-11 chart is the Imum Coeli on the Thema Mundi.

Here is where things get a little counter-intuitive for most of us so please bear with a paragraph to overcome a misconception before it forms. Most of us think of the geographic direction North as corresponding with the word “up”. It is not uncommon to refer to the North Pole at the top of the world. But in a hoary chart it’s just the opposite. The Imum Coeli corresponds to North and it is at the bottom in every sense of the word.

The IC is like the North in its winter season. In the dark. It is like the bottom in that it is the lowest point, the nadir, if you will. It is the cusp of the fourth house and represents not so much home, shelter, privacy and security as the need for those things. When the Rolling Stones sang “Gimmie Shelter” (and you should listen to it) that was as good a tribute to the IC and the fourth house as you will ever want to hear.

So the world chart’s need for shelter, privacy, security, stability and nurturing rose to dawn over the horizon just as flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center on New York City on 9-11. And now the Sun and Moon are conjoining in precisely that sign, at precisely that degree for the first time since the world was turned on its side by 90 degrees.

posted October 07, 2010 07:34 AM         

http://www.planetwaves.fm/current_sky/

He posted a note about this particular podcast:

Dear Friend and Reader:

Today’s podcast is ready. It addresses the charts for the Sept. 11, 2001 incident. The occasion is that Thursday’s New Moon falls within the very degree rising of the main Sept. 11 chart — what I call the North Tower chart. This is the first time this has ever happened, and the conjunction is remarkably close — just two arc minutes from the Sept. 11 ascendant at 14+ Libra.

In this podcast, I introduce a topic that I cover in-depth in Friday’s subscriber edition of Planet Waves. You will hear a discussion of the North Tower chart, set for 8:46 am, as well as another chart, the one for the mysterious collapse of WTC 7 that afternoon. We had a brief discussion of that chart on this page on Sept. 11. Here’s a link back to the chart and the conversation.

I make reference to two videos in the podcast. One is of Larry Silverstein, the landlord of the World Trade Center, describing what happened to WTC 7. Here is that video, which is from a PBS broadcast. I have personally confirmed that this segment was in the broadcast, as I’ve purchased a copy of the original from the station.

The second is a BBC World broadcast wherein the reporter, Jane Stanley, announces that WTC 7 has fallen down — while she’s standing in front of it, and it’s visible in the frame. She was 25 minutes ahead of her story. That video is longer, but even watching five minutes will give you a clue.

I take on these issues and others in Friday’s subscriber edition of Planet Waves. See you there.

posted October 07, 2010 07:38 AM         

Formless
By Len Wallick

New Moon in mid-Libra today. That means the Sun and Moon will be at the same longitude at about 2:45 pm EDT. That¡¯s a conjunction and it¡¯s why you can¡¯t see Luna. It¡¯s walking next to Old Sol.

Tomorrow, about 12 hours after the conjunction of the luminaries, Venus stations retrograde in Scorpio. Of all the planets, Venus goes retro the least often and spends even less time doing it. That¡¯s a big event too, and we will get back to it. But this New Moon has been our focus all week long for good reason. Or should we say, reasons?

The ¡°everything at once¡± quality of that outer planet alignment we called the cardinal T-square is very much a characteristic of this New Moon. Let us reiterate our previous blogs this week and count the ways. We will start with general elements, consider the sign and then narrow things down to this particular conjunction.

Most of what we call astrology comes down to two things, cycles and patterns. The most familiar cycles involve the Sun and Moon. A year is defined by how long it takes us to make one trip around Sol. Luna does her own thing but her orbital period around the Earth is very close to being a month on a solar calendar. Because the Moon¡¯s rotational period is the same as its orbital, the same face is always turned towards us.

Try this experiment. Put a chair in the middle of the room. Stand a few feet away and face the chair directly. Start moving in a circle around the chair while continuing to face it at all times. That means you will be moving sideways. By the time you have finished shuffling the circle, you will have also spun around once. Think about it. In the process of your ¡°orbit¡± you have faced every wall and every corner in the room just as if you stood in one spot and spun around.
Because the Moon keeps the same side to the Earth at all times, it is constantly presenting a different side to the Sun. Those are the phases we see. Today at the New Moon, the side that is lit is the one we never see. In about two weeks the side we always see will be lit, which we call a Full Moon. And so on in between. That is what makes the lunar cycles happen.

The New Moon takes place outside the awareness of most people. Out of sight, out of mind. Because of that, and because we are very visually-oriented critters, this moment is more of a concept than a reality. The main concept is that this is the end of one cycle and the beginning of another.

It is assumed that all cycles are synchronized with each other on some level. Because the Moon is such a big part of earthly life, a new lunar cycle is interpreted as the start of other things as well. What those other things are depends on the sign where the monthly conjunction takes place.

Because Libra is a cardinal air sign, it is associated with new beginnings in the realm of thought, which is where a lot of things start. Before you achieve, you must first conceive. Think about it, all the other signs are represented by some sort of living being. The symbol for Libra ¡ª the scales ¡ª is inanimate and therefore unique. This gives Libra a quality of detachment and objectivity.

The scales also imply a quest for balance as a value, a cause of its own. Fairness, justice, and consideration of other points of view are part of this sign¡¯s expression. Bringing the luminaries together in this sign is like bringing your whole self to not only accept but seek a new beginning incorporating those characteristics.

But it¡¯s where the conjunction is taking place that makes this a day like no other and this is where that other part of astrology, pattern recognition, segues with the cycles. When more than one event happens at the same place on the zodiac, a pattern of relationship is formed. The middle of Libra is a very special place.

Mid-Libra is the location Imum Coeli (or IC) on the ancient astrological artifact known as the Thema Mundi, or chart of the world. The IC is the darkest hour, the middle of the night, when the need for shelter is most vital. To have the Moon at its darkest where the world¡¯s own chart is likewise implies a deep mystery that tests our courage and our faith.

The middle of Libra is also the ascendant of the chart for Flight 11¡äs collision with the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2011. The events of that day were a nadir like no other in recent decades, still shrouded in mystery, still a dark mine of fear. An assault to our security and a reason to assail our privacy, stealing the hope from dawn and replacing it with ignorance.

Just over nine years later, the Sun and Moon assemble at that spot to talk of many things. And they are not alone. Joining them are two asteroids. One named after a luminous god. Th other named after the darkest of dark souls. Apollo and Sisyphus.

And so we find another synchronization of cycle and pattern. For nearly a year, nearly every time the luminaries opposed or were conjoined, they have had company. Remember the lunar eclipse back on June 26? Sun and Mercury opposing Moon and Pluto, all four square to Saturn, Uranus and Jupiter. And that¡¯s just one example. The urge to merge in mass quantities continues today.

While asteroids are relatively new tools for astrology, the indication so far is that their interpretation is pretty straight forward. In other words they seem to be serendipitously named so as to represent their interpretation.

Apollo, the Sun god. Driving his chariot across the sky every day, lighting and warming the Earth. Patron of music and other arts. Practitioner of medicine. His rise over the horizon every day brought renewed hope and vitality to the all living things.

Sisyphus, incorrigible, greedy, deceitful. Concerned only with acquiring, consolidating and expanding the dominance of his will. Unrepentant and irredeemable, he flummoxed the gods to no end. It is thus that he brought meaning to the phrase ¡± a very special place¡± in the afterlife. Condemned to the eternal futility of rolling a stone up a hill only to lose control of the situation before attaining the crest, having to start all over again from the bottom.

One could hardly imagine two more different beings, but they had something in common. They were both defined by the repeating cycles of their eternal existence. The same thing over and over. Now together at the point of the New Moon in Libra, the indication seems to be a window of opportunity in thought.

Here is a chance to conceive of something besides the same-old, same old. See in your mind how the cultural ideals of relationship have been transmitted to us through imitation and do not constitute a value just because they are repeated over and again, generation after generation. How about looking at it from another point of view? Do these ideals work or do they fail again and again? Have they been leading us to a heritage of futility with which we identify and to which we become attached? Is it not a hellish heritage that we pass on as if it was some precious heirloom?

This is a chance to think about repeated lessons not learned. When your safety and security are threatened what do you do? Do you give away your own freedom so that others can be equally suppressed? Or do you create a renewed balance that leaves nobody without, accepting everyone within? Do you place sandbags at the top of the levee even as the rising waters are cutting away at the bottom? Or do you seek higher ground?

Finally do you see that, for all our differences, we have so much more in common? These cycles and patterns, some of them are natural. We are all born here, we all die here and on this plane the fundamental circle of life is entirely appropriate. But these other things, these cycles of fooling and getting fooled, of attachment and conditioning. Those are not necessary to life on this earth. We can do without them. That¡¯s what today, a day like any other day offers. A glimpse, a chance, for another story. A new beginning of useful effort and lessons learned. We may not achieve it today, but we can conceive of it.

Since ancient times, people have looked at the Full Moon and invested its features with story. A face, our own image in the sky. Or a rabbit, tasking the eons away. But the New Moon has no story, no face. The rabbit is in the hat. In the dark and mysterious recesses of potential, formless and without limit. Waiting for us to reach in and pull it out.

While we are still reaching into that place, Venus is preparing to demonstrate how to turn things around. After spending all year as the glory of the western twilight, it will station retrograde and in three weeks it will be crossing the face of the Sun, on its way to a new dawn. Dare we follow?