Date
Feb 2 & 1, 2006
February 2, 2006
Daily Stars
Moon in Aries
Moon in Aries trine Saturn in Leo @ 3:01 a.m.
Moon in Aries sextile Sun in Aquarius @ 1:56 p.m.
Moon in Aries square Venus in Capricorn @ 5:29 p.m.
Moon in Aries sextile Neptune in Aquarius @ 7:26 p.m.
Moon in Aries sextile Mercury in Aquarius @ 11:48 p.m.
So, I suppose a “Happy Groundhog Day” is in order, or as it was called in ancient times, “Happy Imbolc, or Candlemas”.
At this time and this season, Brigit, (who later became a Christian saint) was honored as ‘The light-bringer’ which explains the ‘Candlemas’ version quite nicely. The word Imbolc is a Celtic one for the lactation of the ewes, which meant that the nurturing, life giving forces of nature were returning to the land and its peoples.
The beginning of February is thought to be the harshest time of the year. In days of yore, when there was no Whole Foods, (especially if the previous harvest had been sparse), this month was grim one. The Festival of Brigit (and later Mother Mary) was all about Hope. At this harshest time of the year, baby ewes calved, the rains encouraged tiny buds of grains to sprout, and we could all see life returning to our bleak landscape.
I heard on the news the other day that some statistical guy figured out that January 23 (so, yeah, it’s a bit earlier but not much) was the most depressing day of the year. He calculated the incoming of the Christmas bills, combined with the bills from the January sales, the cold and grey weather, and the fact that by then the ‘Diet’ plans (and no smoking convictions) have flown out the window to create an unwavering despair. Some things never change, that’s why our ancestors created Imbolc…to boost moral and to remind us that no matter how dreary, sparse, hopeless, or impossible things seem, all you have to do is wait and stay open to the possibilities. It’s Earth. Things change.
So, to celebrate Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous groundhog (who just saw his shadow today, and interpreted that to mean that yes, there would be six more weeks of winter, thank you) I have an interesting story to report.
Now, I don’t want to get too excited, but I am willing to be wrong, willing and happy to be so, should I be given cause. The reason? Did you all read that our brand new member of The Supremes, Justice Alito, cast his first vote and broke with the conservative group and agreed to a stay of execution for the next up and coming human sacrifice?
It could be a trick, it could be a ‘bone’ tossed, or it could be real, which would mean that he would be capable of thinking independently and showing compassion…
Wow, that would be Happy Imboc, Candlemas, St Bridget’s Day, and Groundhog Day all together…wouldn’t that be an unexpected turn?
I will have to remember my own advice then…..just wait and see….things change.
February 1, 2006
Daily Stars
Moon in Pisces goes Void @ 8:06 a.m. Enters Aries @ 2:46 p.m.
Moon in Pisces sextile Mars in Taurus @ 2:06 a.m.
Moon in Pisces square Pluto in Sagittarius @ 8:06 a.m.
Mercury in Aquarius conjunct Neptune in Aquarius @ 12:22 p.m.
Mercury in Aquarius square Jupiter in Scorpio @ 4:29 p.m.
Geez, I tell ya, I really had a day yesterday!
Never say I don’t take care of you all, ‘cause when I edited yesterday’s miserable glop I had written, I spared you from sharing this case of clinical depression I was experiencing. My state of mind was brought on, I’m sure, by my obsessive week of focusing on politics.
The deal is, I’m an astrologer, and all I had to do was look to the stars. The dreadfulness of the week showed up so clearly—it was a bone fide, straight out, obvious aspect, but due to its very nature, I ignored it. All week, we have been influenced by the growing, impending alignment of Mercury conjunct Neptune, which today is exact!
As so often is the case, the day it finally hits the exact degree, the spell that it weaves is ‘broken’. Yesterday I was lost in the illusion that all was lost. I had become what I so heartily disapproved of: An angry, frightened, revengeful self-righteous person. (Very negative Neptune!) Yuck. I kept imagining Alito and Bush and Rice and Cheney in situations that (shall we say) influenced their mortality, and I was fairly creative about the various ways that might occur. Truthfully, my favorite fantasy of the day was that during Bush’s speech, a spell was cast where he was forced to tell the truth! Either that, or his nose would grow when he lied. (But that one’s been done)
Anyway, you see how I spent my day! I could go on and on about all sorts of dreadful things that happened yesterday (Like PG & E came on to our property and cut down a beautiful, young and healthy redwood tree—and they said, “oops, wrong tree”) stuff like that. Now THAT is a Neptune square!!!! I won't even TELL you how many carbohidrates I consumed.
Bottom line is this: Alito was confirmed on a day when there was an exact Neptune/Mercury conjunction, and that conjunction is forevermore in the chart of his judgeship. Every ruling he makes will be influenced by this aspect, and therefore be questioned!
What, exactly, IS a Mercury/Neptune conjunction?
Mercury, the mind, being merged with Neptune, the planet of illusions, delusions, religion, confusion, addiction, and, well, ‘living in a world of your own’-ness, and it is mostly about being without a sense of “fair” or inclusive perspective. Now, that conjunction is a real piece of celestial work, but it gets bigger than that—this conjunction was squaring Jupiter, as well!
Remember, Grasshoppers, that Jupiter exaggerates everything?
What can we expect? One thing is certain—Alito will not be operating (at least, not easily) in the quiet, under-the-rock shadows that these guys prefer so much--oh no, everyone will be watching and reporting on every case and every detail about what he is doing, for the rest of his career. He will not have the automatic support of The People, and in order to gain any support at all, he will have to do something that those ‘insulated’ folks rarely do—he will have to EMPATHISE!! Let’s see if he can, I’ll be ‘praying’ for him (actually, I really will—cause his enlightenment is our salvation!).
Then, of course, there was The Speech yesterday.
I cast the charts, and if it were anyone else, I would have said how challenging these aspects were, and there would be noticeable chinks in the armor, but with the insulation that W has, I was just plain frustrated, I felt like I could not count on the press or my fellow countrymen to see past his spin.
EXCEPT—this time, they actually DID report the discrepancies of his facts! And hey, lest you think that I am not an equal opportunity criticizer; the Democratic response was (almost) worse than Bush’s pack of lies! Woe is us, WE the People really need to DO something—oh where, or where is our Democratic party?
(note….I just brought Sky to school and heard on Air America that the Democratic party is alive and well and demonstrating all over the place, and our very own Audrey Von. Hawley was demonstrating here in Sonoma!)
Back to those aspects that W is under. My friend Kendra wrote and asked about Saturn crossing W’s rising sign and his Mercury. Kendra said that she remembers going through that same transit, and it wasn’t pleasant. Then, she asked an interesting question: how much consciousness does a person have to have to respond to the aspects?
What a good question, and it reminds me of that famous Zen Köan: “If a tree falls in the wilderness, and there are no ears to hear it, does it make a sound?” So our Köan would be: “If a person doesn’t have a thinking mind, can Saturn, transits that mind, will it influence it?
We’ll probably never know the answer to that one, but I’m guessing, judging by the strain that I witnessed, that Saturn is STILL a bigger force than George W. Bush.
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