The Planets Align, But How Are They Mine? Quadruple Formation in Aquarius.

Have you ever experienced the sublime satisfaction of tidying up a room? Have you ever been near-mystified by the way things just “worked out?”, or how things just, “fell into place?”

This Wednesday evening, the sky display a pretty pattern of order and meaning. Three planets will line up perfectly in an ascending diagonal line, with the Crescent Moon nearby.

The faintest light on the bottom will be Mercury, followed by Jupiter, the brightest. At the height of the diagonal will be Saturn. All of them, and the Moon, will be in the existential sign of Aquarius.

Writer philosopher Colin Wilson said that existentialism was a “philosophy of intuition”. Unlike Sartre and Camus, he saw the world as inherently meaningful, with the only thing blocking us from such meaning being our own “sensory blinders”. Ultimately, his existentialism was based on optimism just as much as realism. He saw the “feelings of inner freedoms” to be intimately bound with an effective “grasp on reality”.

“It is as impossible to exercise freedom in an unreal world as it is to jump while you are falling.”

Colin Wilson, The Outsider

With the planet of optimism and intuition blazing the brightest in the center of the lineup, its a perfect evening to ponder the vital hunches of a cheery existentialist.

Our perceptions are Mercury, the faintest light at the bottom. Faintest by design, for they keep the chaos of stimulus ordered for us. We can walk down the street without feeling bombarded by sounds, sensations and sights. Our selectivity saves us, yet it also keeps us away from our full reality.

For full reality, we have to find places of correspondences; how our physical reality corresponds to us in a personal, meaningful way. In this way we can sense our interior power, which Wilson also refers to as our reality.

Sensing our interior power is to abolish the notion that we are passive creatures. In fact, he correlates passivity with an increasing sense of unreality. If we can, for a moment, embrace his maxim that “perception is intentional”, we can begin to see how passivity really can blur reality.

“The sense of order and meaning is a direct stimulus of the will, and even mere perception springs from a will to perceive .”

Colin Wilson, Existential Criticism, The Chicago Review 1959

What does this twinkly display of order correspond to in you?

Can you feel an interior power arise in recognizing this correspondence?

Can you feel… your reality?

Saturn the planet of reality winks from the top of the line.

Happy star-gazing and as always, happy astro pondering!

Astro art by Johnnie Day Durand.

https://www.happyastropondering.com/

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Metaphorcast for 10/19-25, 2020

Libra Season comes to an end this week, the colorful leaves just past their peak- The first half of the week, in a major key, sings a blissful autumn symphony.  But by Thursday at the strike of dusk, a new seed emerges from it’s husk, hungering to become more free, the music shifts to a minor key.

Scorpio, the 8th and most enigmatic sign is not satisfied to be just the minor side of the piano- it will take all 88 keys.  What more could a power-loving water sign want following Libra, the sign of duality.  What has Scorpio learned?  Surely not to settle for half of the piano!

Scorpio is hungry for power, it’s consciousness is a merging one, deep waters hold an emerging sun, providing more light from which to see, beyond the scope of just two keys.

Libra’s 7 is bound up in the objective world- in the 7 days of the week, the 7 notes of a scale, and its general airy feeling of luck and openness.  Libra lets the scenery do the talking, what does the world speak to you, onlooker?  And do you see it’s refreshing sense of order in it’s shapes and patterns?

Armed with the wide and refreshing perspective of Libra, Scorpio scuba dives down into the depths of the innermost life, with an intent, to merge two worlds.  

During this Seasonal shift your Libra hot cider sip co-mingles with a glimpse of a giant spider plastered on a door- altering the sweetness to a place more sublime.  We are entering the realm of all 88 keys, how might we navigate this terrain with ease, this terrain of infinite possibilities?

French Physiologist Claude Bernard said “Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown.”  The shift is from the 7 to the 8.  From the everyday world of otherness, to an unknowable realm of possibility.  The minor key signals the fear of the unknown, as does the eight-legged spider on the door.  But we didn’t dive down to the depths to constrict the known- we dove down to expand it.  

Relaxing into the abyss, the vision expands. Two worlds.  The life of the imagination and the life of the world outside.  How can they better serve each other, better enhance each other.  What new life can emerge?

Mercury the planet of mind treads mysterious water in Scorpio’s realm of the unknown.  Rene Magritte said “The mind loves the unknown.”  The trickster is somewhat at home in the unknown.  With stream of consciousness magnetized the energy gets galvanized!

Venus moves deeper into Virgo, that second brain called of the gut, the most regenerative place in the body.  Her full body thinking is one of leisurely contemplation.  She makes a friendly trine to a trio of Capricorn planets; Jupiter Saturn and Pluto.  This trio has been hanging near each other for quite some time, perpetuating serious themes of hope, striving and transformation.  With the bigger questions and concerns this upcoming week, don’t forget to consult the constantly refreshing oracle, of your gut!

Mars in Aries approaches that Cappy trio with tension instead of ease, making a square aspect, and in retrograde.  The Will is likely frustrated and feeling blocked.  Remember to train those eyes to synthesize your creative vision with the life your livin’!  Build some imagination into your world.  As architect Frank Gehry said “You’ve got to bumble forward into the unknown.”

Uranus in Taurus, reawakening to the flow of known to unknown to known

Neptune in Pisces- the churning Seas of what’s unseen

The Moon

The Moon begins the week a waxing Crescent in spirited Sagittarius, who’s knowingness comes from the heights of enthusiasm.  A growing Sagittarius Moon is an invitation to feel that spirited sensation of heights, whether in the moment, in the memory, or in the imagination, and become accustomed to it, as your faith-filled steed! 

By Wednesday she matures into Capricorn, the planet of constriction, of focus and maturity.  This Moon, at dusk will welcome in the New Scorpion King.  Confront any troubles with the wisdom of all 88 keys.  As Niels Bohr said, “Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.”

By Friday and through most of the weekend, an Aquarian Moon browns beyond its first quarter.  The Aquarian Age upon us in the Season of infinite change, this Moonlight will highlight that full piano range.  How can you get started, on expanding the known?

By Sunday evening, as Mercury closes in on the Sun, a Pisces Moon sets sail.  The trickster of mind lit up with Neon Scorpio Sunshine, and the Pisces Moon is blissfully happy to make poetry of whatever it finds.  Beyond the land of opposites, into the realm of something else.  Do you know anything of this realm?  Isn’t that you at the quantum sea ship’s helm?

As always, happy astro pondering! 

https://www.happyastropondering.com/

Weekly Astrology Metaphorcast 10/5-11, 2020

Into the middle of Libra Season, the sign that celebrates the middle itself.  The riddle of the middle, balancing extremes, that quantum pinpoint between reality and dreams. 

Libra’s sword divides the mind, separating the hemispheres to create more awareness.  In the creation of new awareness life strives onward and upward to better understand itself.  Libra is romantic reality, the relational nature of consciousness itself.

Writer philosopher Owen Barfield sees consciousness evolving with a shift from the outside to the inside.  Primitive man’s thoughts were, as he called it an “original participation”, an immediate experience inside the world’s unity, where as we are now outside of it.  When we think now, we think about something, and the very definition of about is “to be outside of”.

Libra and her liberty thrives on this outsidedness- from here she is free to find new connections and form new thoughts.  Yet, ever the romantic, there is a longing.  A longing to be embedded once again with nature.  A longing to return to the world’s unity.  Barfield saw this only to be possible through metaphor.  What was once the “principal of living unity” now lives in the poetic vision of the individual, with all it’s romantic yearning.

As the poet Yeats said, “Nothing that we love over-much Is ponderable to our touch.”

As Mercury moves through the powerful currents of Scorpio, the mind is aware of the power that comes from synthesis.  The rebirth of new life into the present moment from the synthesis of memory, sensation, thought and reflection.  The wealth of memory in your bank, from which vital currents can emerge, as new, as powerful, as magic?

Venus, the Seasonal planet in Virgo, the sign of the scientist.  In the Season of relational synthesis, she sees herself as incomplete, and yearns to unite her science with art.  As Einstein said,  “After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are artists as well.”

Mars still retrograde in the late degrees of Aries and coming into a square with Pluto later this week.  As Libra weighs her options Mars finds a way.  With subterranean pressure, explosive outbursts may occur- Unite your science with your art, and transcend any despair, find the facts of your heart and the love in the air.  With such balance, you’ll find a way. 

Jupiter Direct along with Saturn in Capricorn- inspiration and ambition moving forward in the sign of natural law.  A further look into the nature of human evolution, with it’s own laws.  Laws that by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s definition are anti-entropic.  These laws march uphill, with the aid of the Sun’s energy, producing increased variety and a higher degree of organization.  At this advanced state, awareness becomes the most important characteristic of life.  

Uranus in Taurus- awareness at the heart of evolution.

Neptune in Pisces- the growing value of what is within.

The Moon 

The Moon begins the week waning gibbous in Taurus, the sign of Earth beauty.  A mood of holding, a craving of attainment.  Put that wallet away, the only bank you need is that of your memory! To synthesize with sensation, and lovingly attain a dose of new awareness.  

Tuesday and Wednesday host a Gemini Moon, with Mercury opposing Uranus.  Quaking trickster energy, like the bubbling up of a laugh.  Follow your silly side during these two days, it just might lead you to your genius.  As Libra-extradinaire Arthur Rimbaud said, “Genius is the recovery of childhood at will.”

By Thursday midday we cozy up to a Cancer Moon that sails us into her last quarter by Saturday.  A family Moon, a memory Moon, formative with the magnetic pull of the past.  A living water that loves to be reshaped.  An anchor made of water.  Changeable, electric, healing and refreshing.  With Libra’s joy of choice, how will you reshape this water into matter, that is, moments that matter?

By Saturday night a Leo Moon wanes on, illuminating the power of the affirmative.  In Libra’s power of choice she structures an an ultimate attitude, that follows her like a love-struck atmosphere.  Will she look for the way, or be weighed down by dismay?  Will she be alive in the striving, or just passively surviving?  

Once a part of the apple, she had to go ahead and bite it. Once on the inside looking out, she is now on the outside looking in- deep deep within- to that uncharted terrain- of the imagination. 

As always, happy astro pondering!  

https://www.happyastropondering.com/

Weekly Astrology Metaphorcast 9/28-10/4, 2020

’Tis the Season of the Sunset, as the leaves turn warm and harmonious one by one.  Libra is the sign of the setting Sun, a theme of rest when the day is done.  Too see a sunset not only inspires rest, it also inspires a special type of union, between yourself and the wider world.  Illuminating the horizon, that wide dividing line, the stretch becomes contagious- our own minds stretch with it, in question and dream.  As Lord Byron wrote, “Between two worlds life hovers like a star, twixt night and morn, upon the horizon’s verge.”

In the Season of the Setting Sun, a Full Moon becomes a night of Dawn.  Eyes wide open on the horizon this week, as the Harvest Moon approaches.  Low in the sky for days surrounding the event, the Moon will appear huge and likely tinted orange.  Like a pumpkin, to celebrate the first day of October.  Like a Sunrise, as it will be in Aries, the sign of the Dawn, at the time of Dusk.  Twilight skies and bright Moonrise.  Eyes wide open, to the horizon.

Expect nothing less than these type of paradoxes during Libra Season.  Her scales are balanced yet always scaling new heights, in order to view wider horizons.  Balance is not static, in her spirit of rational thought, she is aware also of infinity.  The numbers that never stop.  The imagination that is wide like the horizon.  The Moon River that is wider than a mile.  To cross it is to cross it in style, someday.   

The horizon is the sense of the beyond, which is bound up in the nature of reality itself.  As theoretical physicist Brian Greene says, “Sometimes the true nature of reality beckons from just beyond the horizon.”

Mercury, the planet of perception has moved into the intensified waters of Scorpio.  Seeing is more like seeing-through.  A twilight week, a Full Moon with high tides, perfect for detective work to see where meaning hides.

Venus the Seasonal planet in the dramatic sign of Leo until Friday.  Trining her lover Mars in Aries, passions are a brewin’,  and what will you be doin?  Good thing that giant Moon will be tracking you down, in case you forget to leave room for Romance.  As the world widens so does the Lions stride.  Funny how much more powerful we can feel in the presence of such beauty.  Must be that dawn on the other side of the dusk, the true relationship with the Will.

Jupiter has been moving direct in Capricorn for a couple weeks,  Faith found its forward groove in a temperament of pragmatic striving.  But what’s this, after 6 months of retrograde, both Saturn and Pluto will be moving direct as well.  Saturn, the planet of perseverance will go forth on Wednesday, just before that full Moon, and Pluto the planet of empowerment moves forward on Sunday.  These strong archetypal characters will be Scaling new heights with fervorous momentum, to see wider vistas.  Not only can the SeaGoat scale, he owns scales himself!  As a creature of the Sea, who can see the importance of imagination in this worldly endeavor.   Imagination that stretches, like the sea, like the horizon.  As Michelangelo said “Your greatness is measured by your horizons.”

Uranus in Taurus, the energizing of our own abilities.

Neptune in Pisces, the romantic essence of what’s so far away.

The Moon

The Moon will briefly be in Aquarius on Monday before it slips into Pisces midday.  A potent morning ripe with sudden understandings.  She will wax more and more gibbous in Pisces, and likely cause traffic to slow for the next few days with her arresting beauty.  In the spirit of Pisces, this low-sitting Moon is all illusion in size, as our eyes trick us by comparing her to familiar surroundings.

Wednesday night she slips into Aries and by the following evening she is Full with the promise of a new Dawn, and traffic comes to a full stop.  Likely tinted red or orange as we perceive her through a thicker atmosphere.  As you surrender to the romantic atmosphere of this year’s Harvest Moon, do you feel within you, your vital forces strengthening?  Moon-illusion or not, which world is real?  That of this moment, or any given Monday afternoon, when these forces may get scattered about?  Is the world of the Full-Moon-moment more real as we perceive ourselves whole in such surroundings?  e.e. Cummings was born under a Harvest Moon. He said “One’s not half of two, two are halves of one.”  

She will begin to wane in Aries through Friday, carrying all of the energy of a new dawn in her midst, and by the weekend we have a Taurus Moon.  A Taurus Moon in Libra Season is a double dose of Venus energy.  The world is wide, in dream, in aroma, in time, in truth.  Venus will newly be in Virgo, the sign of the Harvest.  The Romance of the Harvest shines on.  Bounty in the width of life!  The serenity of a sunset!  The invigoration of a new dawn!  New heights bringing wider widths.  Maybe that’s how the smile was born.

As always, happy astro pondering!

https://www.happyastropondering.com/

Metaphorcast for the week of Monday August 24th through Sunday August 30th

Virgo Season has begun, with its specific charm so homespun.  In the evenings you may notice an increase of space between the crickets chirps as the temperature starts to drop.  Count the number of chirps in 15 seconds and add 37- the number you get will be an approximation of the outside temperature.  The complexities of nature become astonishingly simplified by Virgo and her science.  From her close-up and studious vantage point, she peers into eternity.

Teilhard de Chardin describes evolution as process that leads to increasing complexity, and with this increase of complexity also comes an increasing of the “within”, a certain interiority, which forms the basis for all our knowledge- a consciousness, a spirituality, call it what you may.  On Virgo’s opposite end swim the fish of  eternity- the place of poetry and dreams.   Science measures the treasures of mystery- and the complexity finds its unity in simplified understanding.  Poetry does a similar thing but in reverse- as it takes the likeness of a moment, simple as it may be, and elevates it to what feels like a rightful divine status.  From mundane to miraculous.

Virgo Season is ripe with moments- small little droplets of time- measurements of life itself.  As novelist Cesare Pavese wrote “We never remember days, only moments.”

Moments are absorbed into memory, as sure as nutrients are absorbed into the body.

Moments are classified by the most authentic of scientists, who are in touch with the sacred privacy of their own interiority – their own inner space- constantly expanding as an appetite for learning increases.

Virgo days are comprised of complexity and simplicity.  In the most modest of moments may come floods of understanding- in the most complicated of scenes may come tranquility of thought.  Simple and complex- she wouldn’t have it any other way.  As Virgo Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe said “Everything is simpler than you think and at the same time more complex than you imagine.”

The science of that space between the crickets chirps may measure the temperature, but the poetry of the space elevates the moment- as the silence caresses a busied mind.

As Rumi said “In silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves.”

Mercury, the planet of mind is strong and adaptable in its seasonal sign of Virgo.  Moving into a supportive trine aspect with the great awakener Uranus- a flexible outlook may lead to a breakthrough in understanding- as you make headway with the powers of Virgo-adaptability.  As writer Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand wrote “Like a kingfisher I have made my nest on the waves.”

Venus moving deeper into the waters of Cancer and receiving supportive aspects from both Jupiter and Neptune- the Goddess supported by Sky and Sea- is there nothing that love can’t do or be?  Chardin saw Love to be the agent of universal synthesis- and that with every increasing evolutionary complexity comes the growing unity of Love and consciousness.    

Mars representing the only fire in the sky- burning hot in the late degrees of Aries and making a dynamic square to Saturn.  An eager Will in a barroom brawl with Time itself.  Who will win? Maybe time will tell.  Maybe will will will.  Will ultimately comes out pretty strong over the dominion of time as long as we hold true to the power of the moment.  As Abraham Maslow said “I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act.”

Jupiter Saturn and Pluto all in Capricorn and retrograde- Pattern, Law, and Transformation all in the sign of Standards. A growing human race of complexity, a growing center of compassionate unity- Laws and Patterns that are in need of timely transformation.

Uranus in Taurus- the value of a moment

Neptune in Pisces- the growing space of within.

The Moon

The Moon starts the week off a waxing crescent in Scorpio, the sign of magic.  In the Season of the Maiden, this is simple magic, everyday magic, the beyond-logic realm of connectedness- encircling everyone with its web homespun.  Choose a thread, any thread, look at it but don’t tell anyone!

By Tuesday the Moon reaches its first quarter in Sagittarius, the high-flying horse of zest.  The sense of unity that comes form these elevated vantage-points, when patterns are perceived in full, and the business and noise seem so far away.  Such  a lifted perspective encourages optimism and sense of unity- The upward nature of fire and the cohesive nature of Love. 

By Thursday afternoon the Moon continues to wax gibbous in Capricorn, the sign of time and mastery.  Thomas Mann said “Order and simplification are the first steps towards mastery of a subject.”  In these late days of Summer, Virgo lights our sight with a snap of attentiveness- deeply absorbed in her orderly instincts- she flows naturally towards a goal of mastery, just as water molecules form beautiful hexagons under the influence of the cold.    

By Saturday night the Moon goes into Aquarius- the only air in the astrological line up!  The sign of Man- the water bearer- the consciousness sharer- the awakening awarer- Separating from the crowd while at the same time merging with a greater humanity- Complex with originality, simple with a shared human flame- As an interiority increases so does a range of response, an expanding spontaneity, a freedom of vision. Maybe in moments, we can experience shifts towards the Aquarian Age, as Consciousness grows and unites.

As Colin Wilson wrote, “Man does not yet exist.”

As Always, happy astro pondering

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