Greetings from the wild west!
Many of you wrote to ask about last week’s podcast, which I missed due to lack of phone reception at the place where I was staying outside of Sedona. No cell service and spotty internet! As a New Yorker, I found this extremely weird and also very satisfying. It’s been an adventuresome couple of weeks.
This past weekend, I was sitting in the Denver airport waiting for my connection, and I watched a family of four – a mom, a dad, a five-year-old girl and three-year old girl – create patterns that will (probably, though I hope not) last a lifetime.
The five-year-old was very clear what she wanted (a hamburger) but she agreed to sausage, an English muffin, and pancakes – as it was breakfast time. The three-year old got no food of her own. Instead, the mother stole the five-year-old’s food when she wasn’t paying attention – mostly ripped pancakes – and gave them, stolen piece by stolen piece, to the three-year-old. Mom would shush the three-year-old, with a finger to her lips, as she delivered each bite.
When the five-year-old periodically caught her mother swiping, she protested. At that point, the father would say that Five needs to share with her sister Three. Ah, but sharing is not stealing!
When Mom and Three went to the bathroom, Dad respectfully asked Five to share some of her food with *him*, which she agreed to.
Look at the patterns being established. Five was respected by her father but robbed by her mother or the woman in authority, and chastised when she protested. Three learned to take scraps doled out to her in very small doses rather than getting her own. And she was told to keep quiet about the stolen goods! So we know what these girls will be working on in 2041 when Saturn goes through Scorpio again.
As Mars approaches his conjunction to Saturn at 7:27 AM Eastern US time on Wednesday, August 24th – these two (often difficult) planets are trying to help us put the finishing touches on our Saturn-in-Scorpio story.
Yes, technically Saturn moved from Scorpio to Sagittarius last fall (September 2015), but the Sagittarius cycle doesn’t REALLY ignite till after tomorrow. Expect to be reminded, once more, about the lessons you learned while Saturn was in the swamp of Scorpio between 2012 and 2015. Think about all the patterns you became conscious of during that period!
We are in Eclipse season, baby. This is your chance to release those old pattens once and for all – and to welcome in the new stuff you really want to build and create.
When Mars and Saturn meet tomorrow morning, they will start a new two-year cycle around our life’s work, how we take action, our belief systems, and the structures in our lives. Take a look at your chart. Your Sagittarius House will be affected by this aspect, as will the Houses ruled by Mars and Saturn (i.e. the places in your chart where you have Aries, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Aquarius), as well as the Houses where your natal Mars and Saturn are located.
Mars and Saturn, in uniting with each other, want *us* to unite all of these parts of ourselves – all these areas of our lives – and pack them into one neatly-designed and structurally-sound edifice. The pieces need to dovetail together. Find or make room in your life for all the things you are. This is a challenge, of course, but you can do it.
The primary mythic archetype for Sagittarius is the centaur, half man and half horse. Like centaurs undergoing the process of evolution, we have to integrate these halves of ourselves – the human (intellectual) and the animal (instinctive and intuitive).
Being in Sagittarius, this Mars-Saturn conjunction happens to *square* the many plants currently traveling through Virgo, heightening our sense of the conflict between our big-picture vision for our lives and our ordinary day-to-day reality. The Sun (as of yesterday!), North Node, Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter all in Virgo right now encourage us to take the tiny practical steps that bring us inch-by-inch closer to what we love.
The Virgo planets are eminently practical. The Sagittarius planets are eminently passionate. Ideally, your humble Virgo tasks and habits will SUPPORT your Sagittarius flights of fancy, and help them come to life, grounded, in the real world. Life coach Martha Beck describes this process as shifting from “eagle vision” to “mouse vision.” We need to be able to do both – different skills are required for different moments.
The degree where Mars and Saturn have arranged to meet up, 9 Sagittarius, also happens to the home of Antares, the fixed star known as the Heart of the Scorpion. His presence at the table may lead to painful revelations, something that stings for the moment but will pass without permanent damage – like a scorpion’s venom.
The Mars-Saturn chart also contains a potent Finger of God with Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter clustered at the apex, and Pallas Athena and Uranus as the legs: this is about seeing the patterns, releasing them, create new ones that support you. Fingers of God bring “fated” events, where we don’t always have free will. Think of it as a cosmic course-correction, redirecting you to where you’re meant to go.
The chart also has a Mystic Rectangle, asking us to dust off old dreams and reevaluate them. Which ones could be good-as-new with a little TLC? Which ones are worn beyond repair, and ready to be recycled? Last chance, or they’re all going in the bin!
The critical moment has come at last. So toss your head back defiantly, like Scarlett O’Hara, and declare whatever you have to declare (even if it’s only – like Oscar Wilde – your genius). This is it. You’re down to the final decisions. Your new life is knocking at your door!
Onward and upward, tiny step by tiny step!
