and for the sun in virgo

'half of eden' ds 'o8

"While Mary the mother is swamped by the tragedy, this Magdelene stands up and turns towards the world. Her story is of the gaining of inviolable presence through traumatic initiation. She flings her right hand outwards. There may be anguish shading into horror in her face but she is rising through it. Her work will be in the world and for the world, where she will both command and nurture."

(John Carroll, The Western Dreaming, p 61)

bibliomancy for mercury conjunct sun in leo

'say it again, angel' d sinclair '07

"A soulful life is one of thoughtfulness, care, and engagement - you are present in everything you do, not just going through the motions. You give attention to the things that matter most. You take care of your body and your health. You make your home a place of comfort, welcome, and beauty. You educate yourself throughout your life in values and solid ideas. Your leisure time relaxes you, gives you a rich social life, and provides fun and play. Your spirituality is deep as well as visionary, and you incorporate contemplation, discussion, ritual, and prayer into everyday life, and you do all this in a style that suits you as an individual."

(Thomas Moore, A Life at Work, p103)

bibliomancy for the sun in leo

self, again. d sinclair '06

"How are we to take these references to the gods of Greece or Rome? Or, how are we to interpret his quaint and occasionally downright insane remedies? He advices a person lacking in the spirit of Jupiter, for example, to add peppermint to his diet. Is this legend, folklore, precocious pharmacology, or pure metaphor?"

(Thomas Moore; The Planets Within, on Marcilio Ficino)

"... Soul - psyche - and psychology, these are not merely personal things; they're about the whole world.." (me, from my paper journal)

venus, the sun and mercury: a tipping point?

I don't usually like to write about astrology in any kind of direct way - not just because I'm not an astrologer (although as part of alchemy studies astrology is covered pretty thoroughly) but also for the reason that I don't like to offer interpretations. Rather, I prefer to point people towards their own ideas of what's going on, symbolically, metaphorically, allegorically.

One of the axioms of alchemy goes something like (forgive me for not quoting the original Latin) 'the macrocosm and the microcosm are the same' or as some would have it 'as above, so below' (you could say 'on earth as it is in heaven'). Basically the cosmos, the planets, the archetypes, the whole universe; all the largest things are the same as the smallest things. Not simply reflections of each other, not copies. The same thing.

I'm not going to go into a complicated discussion of quantum mechanics here but will say that this ancient assertion of the alchemists is something that modern science supports.

OK, I could go way off course here - what I'm trying to get to is that astrology works at a very personal level, at the level of the microcosmic self - that the planets are moving in you and I too.

But looking outward into the sky, recognising that we are part of a living ball of matter and energy moving in an orderly fashion through space that there are other living, moving, balls of energy and matter existing in relation to us - this can give us some perspective on how we live our little lives.

During the most challenging times in life a refreshed perspective can really help. Its as though a part of us that we don't ordinarily tap into recognises the greater scheme of things - and seeing things differently changes things powerfully.

This morning one of my favourite astrologers sent out his weekly newsletter and reminded his readers of an pair of astrological events that rarely happen - the transits of Venus to the Sun. Venus tracks her way through the solar system in a very specific pattern in eight year cycles which form a greater cycle in relation to our Sun.

To the average follower of astrology most of all of this is going on in a way that is partly hypothetical (in that the actual position of the planets and the way western astrology presents their positions don't concur); mostly invisible (conjunctions aren't really about planets 'meeting' - they are occupying the same 'degrees' on a one-dimensional scale but are separated in space by everything else that is real) and possibly confusing. Its the often poetics of astrology, in the absence of understanding the physical energies of the planets, that give it its power.

Still, right now it transpires that not only are Venus and the Sun metaphorically conjoined, we're midway between the two greater and far more potent events - the first of which occurred on June 4, 2004 that some of you may recall. Venus was visible from here on Earth against the backdrop of the sun. The twin of this 'occultation' of the sun by Venus is expected in June 2012 and won't happen again for another one hundred and thirteen years or so.

I don't know what it means, and wouldn't dare speak for what other's may believe about this. But it does say something for itself and the perfection of the Universe, the synchronicity and beauty of life. It seems to demonstrate that even the unseen or unknowable will at some point be revealed - returned. There are some that say that this moment in time is a tipping point. Many stories are circulating about the archetype of transformation, the divine feminine, about women and the way we love. I don't know.

What I do know is that this is all happening in Gemini - the sign of the twins, ruled by Mercury (who is, of course, right there in the midst of it) and bringing to the whole picture the realm of ideas, the mind, thought and choice.

I think its worth looking outwards right now - with a renewed perspective, and with an open mind and heart. Something very special may be revealed to each of us.

We may see something that may not come around again for a while.