Weekly Astrological Insights: October 18-24, 2010

Monday, October 18

I had been thinking and re-thinking what to write for today, what it would be that would capture some of the day’s energy. Nothing solid was coming to mind.

And then, I decided to stop pursuing thoughts and ideas and instead to let them flow. I just sat there and let my mind go, sail where it wanted to. This process took a while, and took me here and there. At first I felt like it was taking a lot of time, and I wasn’t sure of where it was all going. But then I just surrendered and went with it.

And in that time, I experienced this sense of knowing. Visions came to me. Words came to me. I had a sense of the connection of things.

Not all of these things were particularly related to what I would write, as many streams took me off of the path of the initial question. Yet the journey was delightful, inspiring, and transformed some of my knowingness.

And then I realized maybe I intuitively knew to do this because this is part of the essence of today. After all, the Moon is in free-floating and unitive Pisces while Neptune, Pisces’ ruler, aligns with Mercury, the planet of communication.

Potentially what the day may portend and inspire is to inform us of the benefits of diffusing the rules and boundaries of where we let our mind travel. To let it go more into the poetic realms. To see what we find when we let it wander into the waves of our conscious and unconscious. To be open to what may come and see what we may create.

Just as I did with this blog post.

Tuesday, October 19

Do you know the story of Persephone?

In the myth, Persephone is abducted by the god of the Underworld, Hades, to become his consort. Her mother, Demeter, goddess of fertility, asserts her provocative maternal powers to demand the return of her daughter. In the end, Persephone ends up spending half the year upon the earth (spring/summer) and half below the earth (fall/winter).

Today, Pluto (the Roman name for Hades) and Ceres (the Roman name for Demeter) conjoin in the sky. The two who desired Persephone’s love dance together.

While this conjunction occurs every 5 years or so, this one strikes me as really unique. That’s because it’s the first one since these two celestial bodies were both assigned the same status; in 2006, the International Astronomical Union reclassified both Pluto and Ceres as dwarf planets, making them equal in status and stature. During the previous conjunctions of these two—with the last one taking place on November 25, 2006—Pluto held the “upper hand” as it was considered to be a planet with Ceres considered to be an asteroid.

But now they—the one who brought Persephone the riches of the hidden and the one who fought her resurrection—are equals.

I think that the meaning of this is profound, and not clearly known. I think that it will continue to be revealed as time goes on.

For now, though, here is my initial thought/hope:

I look to this as ushering in a feeling of greater confidence in the safety of journeying to our own personal underworld, the place where our deep desires, feelings, and passions live. Ideally, we will collectively and individually feel that we can travel to see the hidden, that which we have kept out of view and don’t want to discuss, with a knowingness that we won’t get stuck in the darkness. If this is true, then it may signal a time of great healing as we mine the riches of our minds, hearts, and spirits, embracing our shadows and becoming more whole.

I see this metaphorically as part of the way to understand the Chilean miners’ “story.” The miners were captured by Pluto, which then inspired them with the powerful Plutonian qualities of fortitude and survival. And then Ceres (in the form of the miner’s spirits as well as the Chilean government) demanded and was awarded their safe return. Their saga captured the world for so many reasons and I can’t but help wonder if it also helped to plant the seed within us of the magic that can be evoked via the dance of equality of Pluto and Ceres.

I find this conjunction particularly interesting. If you have any thoughts to share on it via the Comment section, I (as well as other readers) would love to hear them.

Wednesday, October 20

Today Mercury moves from Libra to Scorpio, from the sign of let’s-not-say-anything-to-upset-anyone to the sign of let’s-stir-the-pot-with-words-and-see-what-happens.

During its short-of-three-weeks tenure in Scorpio (it goes into Sagittarius on November 8), we may feel called to get to the heart of the matter. Words take on an incredible amount of transformative power, as well as the ability to heal, or to hurt.

With the Moon in quick-to-the-draw Aries most of the day and a harmonious alignment between assertive Mars and far-reaching Jupiter, there’s a sense of spirited movement and action. If there is a committed goal to go after, we may be able to harness a deeper sense of courage to undertake the journey.

Thursday, October 21

While there may be a challenge to face today, and we may be able to connect in with a more committed sense of ardor and initiative, stumbling blocks may present themselves. Instead of reflexively perceiving them as obstacles standing in the way of your getting what you want, consider whether there is wisdom inherent within them. For example, are the blockages actually guiding you towards a different path, one that may prove more efficient? Is the task too large for just one person, requiring the cooperation of others? Is there an alternative tact that can be taken that will inspire an outcome that may be more beneficial to not only yourself but to other people involved? These and related questions may serve helpful in trying to re-envision stumbling blocks as potential carriers of insight and wisdom to help you carve out a more graceful manifestation.

Friday, October 22

It’s Friday, the end of the workweek for many.

And the end of a special month-long celestial cycle for all of us.

That’s because today we have a Full Moon that features the Sun in Libra and the Moon in Aries. Sound familiar? It likely does since we’ve just recently had a Full Moon with the lights in these signs (on September 23).

Mind you, this isn’t usually how it works. In general, we have Full Moons in subsequent sign order, but given that the September Full Moon fell in the cardinal degree of these cardinal signs, and Full Moons occur about every 28 days, this allowed for this one to also occur in the Libra/Aries zodiacal pair, in the concluding degree.

The Libra/Aries axis emphasizes the balance between the I, You, and We. Therefore, on some level what we have been touched by this month is the Alpha and Omega of Relationship Full Moons. In September the cycle opened ,and today this cycle concludes. Looking to see what occurred over this time period in terms of relationships, including an awareness of how you accommodate your needs versus another’s, may illuminate great wisdom within.

What’s also really interesting about this Full Moon is that just an hour after it occurs the Moon moves from initiating and self-focused Aries to slow-going and sensually oriented Taurus. What may end up happening is that there may be a burst of awareness or even an influx of inspired crisis, which then quickly settles down. It seems important to allow for any letting go to occur and yet, at the same time, to not lose our connection to insights that may come to light. It also seems paramount that if we feel rattled by anything on an emotional level to be careful of a tendency for the energy to get converted somatically in the body when the Moon moves into Taurus. Gentle exercise—or even a walk around the block—may help to do the trick so that the energy can move through rather than getting crystallized as body stress.

For more details about this Full Moon, including wellness suggestions, please read this article.

Saturday, October 23

The Sun joins Mercury, Venus, and Mars in Scorpio today, where it will stay until November 22.

The Scorpio energy is powerful, captivating, and intense. And yet, it is something that we often shy away from, turn our proverbial backs towards. As much as we can try to avoid it—thinking that if we don’t look it will scamper away—it often clings to a position in our psyche, wanting to be granted acknowledgement. This seems to be part of its point, and an inherent aspect of its beauty and the inspiring lessons that it can bring.

Scorpio wants us to take a holistic view, to see and not cast away the things that we may have judged as too dark, too unseemly, too intense. It calls to us to feel the range of what we are feeling, and to descend to the underworld where we can gain incredible riches, but where we—like Persephone—don’t need to stay full time. It helps us to re-integrate our Shadow, taking ownership of the aspects of ourselves that we don’t want to admit we have, and yet which are fully an inherent—and likely OK—part of ourselves. These are facets of our selves that oftentimes have to do with our personal power—including our desires, our generative abilities, our sexuality—that we have not embraced, oftentimes as a result of messages from society.

Likely we’ve been dealing with this area of life in the past few weeks since the planetary consorts Venus and Mars entered this sign. On Wednesday, we may have even started to notice this energy more when Mercury, the planet of communication, moved into this zodiacal position. But now with the Sun residing here, we will likely find this arena even more illuminated.

With so many planets in Scorpio, our emotions may take on great gravity. We may feel pulled to purge and transform. We may feel attracted to get to the heart of the matter.

Scorpio energy likes to stir the pot. This causes the things that were buried at the bottom to rise up and swirl in an emotional eddy. And while this may cause a sense of discomfort at the beginning, the beauty here is that only by things getting dredged up are we able to see them with the light of day, acknowledge them, and deal with them. So that we can heal from them.

Sunday, October 24

Thinking of the Moon in sensual Taurus—making aspects to Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus—the first word that came to my mind was luxuriate. Wanting to get a deeper sense of this feeling I did a quick synonym search on Thesaurus.com and found these other related words that also seemed like inspired activities for the day:

• Delight in
• Derive pleasure
• Enjoy
• Indulge
• Relish
• Revel
• Savor
• Take comfort

Given that the-force-to-get-my-desires-met Mars aligns harmoniously with take-a-different-path Uranus today, consider an approach to invoking these activities to which you may not be readily accustomed, as part of the journey of expanding the ways in which you luxuriate your mind, body, and spirit.