Pomp & Circumstance

After a week of the Moon swinging through aspects with the outer planets we enter a period of major changes for five of the Traditional seven, occurring in an obstacle course fashion, daemonic baton passings and ‘climb the underside of a rolling suspended barrel over a wave pool’ style spectator spoof sport TV showcase, that happens to affect all strata of our lives. The stakes are high and the action is fast, like a week long synthesized sequence that keys the door openings and closings of our alternate eyes and potential futures. There is healing and purifying, trial by fire, submersion in details, glint of glamour, fortune of fame, lightening charged search lamps, 20/20 vision, crossings of eyes that could lead to falls in the spotlights, steadily expanding voids, silenced tongues and rings in our noses magnetized to our individual destinies.

At 3pm on Wednesday July 19th, Mercury in Leo trines Saturn in Sagitarius, both in the third faces of those fire signs. Our spirits might engage, fueling the mechanics of our mouths to speak of philosophies not only applied in practice but driven toward their end. This is the rousing talk before a crowd, that elevation atop a soap box which leads toward action. Language bubbling up from hearts and leaping like shaken froth from tongue and lips salubrious where it is bifurcated mid air as a snake tongue flame so it may fill not one ear but two each head, kindling blazes here and there among the many. If what one describes to be philosophically true may be imagined, and that notion be made manifest and held in hand, it then is an epithet arrow, the forked words becoming single spear, like pen nib or dart, that is then set to work, flying toward its target.

And indeed, many of the astrological loose ends are getting tied up this week, and all seem to draw in some relative way toward the Total Solar Eclipse on August 21st. In this phase of the sequence we shift out of the damp walled caverns directly onto the stage beneath the Sun that Mercury has already strut out upon calling “hear yee hear yee, ready yourselves for the arrival of the King and Queen, they will bless the General who has healed and becomes pure-reborn”. From there the messenger entertained with strobe illusions to draw crowds, filled the air with uplifting allegories and heroic anecdotes, now shifting into rousing and philosophical rallying, his words precise and well chosen, throngs organizing into potent factions before him.

It works. By the next morning (July 20th 4:45 am) The Moon trines Jupiter, curious emotions expand into alliances that dare to act in spite of deepening voids. Luna continues on to conjunct Venus (7:35 am), individuals having harbored emotional disparities come to intellectual compacts and learn to love collaboration. An hour later the Warrior Chief steps from Asclepius’ cave and into the light of the Colosseum as Mars then enters Leo. The radiance of the King glows insurmountably from the cave mouth behind, masking him in blot of shadow silhouette, the crowd sees a black figure who’s arrival flutters with fate. This constriction is hard for the Sun, who labors through Cancer’s cold birth canal guiding Mars on, as the Sun completes a square to Uranus, the King’s mind fills suddenly with the awesomeness of Universal frictions, and what the active principle planets must struggle to uphold. Perhaps in that moment of light play, he is struck with a vision of the prophecy that he will be eclipsed in just one Moon. This blow he knows he must bear, and it is in harmony with the wounds of the World, that keep the stars in motion, as the Sun trines Chiron early the next morning, dutiful compassion for the all in one and one in all is clearly grasped.

Only a few hours after, at 6 am, Mercury conjuncts the North Node, Hermes headed for his own domain in the binary ocean of digitalized swaying crops is pulled magnetically toward the Dragon’s Head, like loadstone puppets they meet in passing and for a moment lock, the known world filling with faxed coordinates; a time, a date, a string of locations, an eclipse path mathematically described where the unexpected is to be expected as shadow brushes Gaia’s flesh, from liminal left field leap shades and shadows presiding over surprise plot twists and fickle fate forks. This conjunction can be seen as the exposed confidential cipher, but a code breaker might still be required to coax out predictions. It occurs only two hours after the Moon enters rulership, the visceral pulls we are subject to in this lower celestial sphere eminent, our emotional eye at full aperture, we begin to gaze in full fancy at the impressionistic picture and pause to consider what feelings it conjures, setting a mood for Venus’ stepping into Gemini’s third decan later that night, where wildly divergent lusts force us to make choices under the firmament and its parabolic plethora; In the absence of Monet’s dawns and dusks which stars do we ultimately follow?

Just before noon the next day (July 22 11:10 am) the Sun enters Aries, where his pursuit on Mars tightens, and now in full light the Warrior shadow is enveloped fully by the Sun who takes him into his infinite heart and purges him of all dross, a plasmic spin cycle that endures until July 26 when the conjunction goes partile, and they finally begin to separate, the Sun leaving a new Mars behind, ready at last for all new processes of power. For the afternoon and evening of the 22nd we find both luminaries in rulership, and for that brief moment accomplish perfect vision, seeing life’s chessboard with startling clarity, the grid melts as we become aware that the black and white divisions are all illusion, and seen for what it really is, the spiritual needs of all become naked statuary emphasized in volumes of crystal verse with no mistaking their momentous significance. Of course, as is the quixotic nature of our trespass through the manifest, eyes cross that squint and strain toward clarity, and the luminaries go cycloptic on July 23rd, the New Moon occurring at 5:50 am, a lunation to consider loosening our fixed identities and allowing them maneuverable flexibility, especially as the Moon touches Mars just after at 7:44 am, now newly on the wax, the combust Warrior feels the condition of purification in his sinews and craves rejuvinating yoga, stretching his limbs and preparing for future action. For this lunar stretch the Queen, King and their top Warrior can be considered to be finally in full public view upon their balcony, fulfilling the traditional and ancient role of royalty, as visible manifestation of noble virtue on in the kingdom, and in even older terms, visions of the Divine on Earth.

The following day (July 24th) Venus opposes Saturn at 10:44 am; when the logic of our own philosophies are taken to their ends the decisions we must make regarding divergent lusts become painfully clear. The result of breaking our own truths wound us with greater gravity than the dull aches we hold in our guts that long after whimsical fantasies. This might be the stage of growing pains that comes after adopting into practice the ideals Hermes transmitted from his soap box height on the 19th; doing THE WORK comes with an element of abstinence, not permanent vital libido negation, but ‘fucking around’ is never an included phase of the alchemical process, although, the Moon does provide plenty of space where transmutational work is of no use, and it is there in such terminals that we may turn to Bacchus. The current juncture offers the opposite. Focus on streamlining your routine, following your truth/dharma/orlog, assessing what you most want and what resounds with the greatest philosophical strength, your goals for self and how they fractal out into the household, neighborhood, society, world, universe. Monday sees the Moon contact the Nodal magnet, animal eyes that light in the dark face True North, as the circumpolar constellations swirl like stellar swastikas with the limbs of heraldic bears and dogs great and small, sinistrose slashed yet sunwise all the same. Then Sun and Mars share the 2nd degree of Leo, the lion mane a rose gold magma spring that blorbs oft Olympus mount like an overflowing cup of vivified pride.

Under the radar of such spectacle, Mercury crosses the border into rulership entering Virgo’s frontiers at 7:45 pm on July 25th, driving toward antiscia with Uranus in late degree Aries, almost as if the Royal rectification of military order, despite its high intensity that might blind onlooker to the truth of the sight, is translated by Mercury who sorts the myriad details of a dramatic process and publishes a vast textbook on the operation for all those academic enough to digest, meanwhile, plenty of pamphlets hit the streets compiled for more plebeian consumption. In a sense this is like a journalistic surge and period of civilization analysis; not fake news, but rather, this just in, a whole genre of books hitting the shelves and special editions streaming off the presses. What exactly can be harvested from the new regime of power? This in depth study will be applied to varying areas of life for each individual depending on personal placements, but generally, assess which channels you want to plug your power into and how much juice each circuit requires so you have everything running smoothly when the breaker box gets switched back on.

Venus sextiles the North Node at 11:30 am on the morning of Wednesday the 26th. Having adjusted her bifurcating loins some during the Saturn opposition she is ready to direct her desires toward the inevitable fate, the roulette wheel that both spills chips at our feet and sucks them up where they obliterate and dissolve into the ether. There is indeed beauty in destiny after all, and it is the energy our personal daimons feed off of, whether or not it seems a loss or win in the present. The night light eyes of the animals now dissipated by ambient day glow search the blue and cloudstrewn ceiling of our world for Lucifer until night again falls and he proceeds determined across Tartarus beneath our feet. The Sun partile conjuncts Mars finally at 4 degrees and 12 minutes Leo, 8:45 pm, during the Sun’s hour on Sun night. Having marathon burnt the midnight oil, the lengthy embrace of a most intimate council rests, the Sun begins to proceed beyond Mars, the King beginning to place his Knight in the field, where he will gather around him cycles of action that define the coming couple years. This is a “New Moon” for Mars, and should be deeply considered by each individual depending on where Mars lives in their nativity. This is the most overt articulation of clear energy, open roads, new battles, fresh blood right out of the heart.