Don't Lose Your Head

As the Moon enters her last quarter phase there is typically a notable downshift in energy, or at least in the inertia of events. Strands of stories slip away or seem to wrap up, and more than engage we tend to reflect; a digestion of what has occurred. This may be an atypically more physical or energetically aggressive wane, as Mars has recently ingressed into Scorpio, where he will remain in rulership until January 26th. Particularly, the early degrees of Scorpio are exceptionally dignified for Mars, where he enjoys rulership, triplicity, bound and decanic sovereignty (of both orders). This persists through the next New Moon and all the way to the 25th of December when he leaves the first face of Scorpio and steps into orb with Jupiter, calming down slightly, or at least steadying from the coherence he receives of his own situation. For now, it would be good to find a project or two that could be good outlets for his often vicious and brutal energy and resolve, as you want to fuel a few agendas in your life rather than suffer the wrath of too big a blaze. Especially in this initial last quarter waning period, active purging and elimination would be apropos. Winter is soon upon us, and for those in more northern climes, snow has done some dusting and the woodstove has been activated for some time already; you want to create some dancing space before you become cabin bound. Whether this is entirely literal for you or metaphor, Mars’ demolition and active expulsion of debris during the wane could compliment well Saturn in Capricorn’s transition later in the Month on the waxing side, when he’ll be testing for structural strength and thinking about stabilizing the skeletal; if you don’t want to be stuck with a condemned building, remove the flimsy framing before the inspector arrives; the chainsaw is already running and the sawzall’s got fresh blades so might as well cut out the extraneous scabs while the tools are on hand and there’s gas in the tank, because Saturn may be deciding to ration supplies and put limits on energy usage once he hits his domicile.

With Uranus at 24 Aries and Chiron at 24 Pisces, the planets transiting Sagittarius’ territory are set to encounter the pair as trine and square respectively. This suggests that Uranus’ evolutionary leaps may create friction in the connections and disconnections between our material manifestations and our essences of mind or soul. Whether the Tower card for you right now is a quaking storm or an ecstatic experiment or both, the ramifications and results of these individual revolutions could be triggering conflict between sensitive points where spirit and body meet, and are able to surrender to one another. For some this is a more naturally met interchange, and for others it was a bridge built with difficulty, and for some still it is a chasm separating two estranged territories; whichever it is for you, the place where you transition between what is corporeal and what is ethereal, that zone where you must let go of the one to pass into the other, may be in a peculiar, conflicted or emergency state due to mutations of individual identity and indivisible personal fire. As Mercury backs into this position, trine to Uranus and Square to Chiron early on Sunday the 10th, the revision, rewriting, revisiting and reworking logical sequences that move us through the finalizations of big dream goals is harmonized with evolutionary leaps but in conflict with the pain of passing. This is not surprising; troubleshooting what ever apparatus is in place that will take you from your old self to your new self via seizing your dreams in actuality requires you shed your old ideas and ways of thinking to accommodate the upgrade. In a sense, this rings with familiarity, and is reminiscent of the Mars and Saturn processes playing out in a more surface sphere, and indeed is right in line with what Jupiter has in mind in Scorpio for most of 2018; philosophies of death/rebirth, transformation, poison and purgation, distillation, facing darkness and becoming anew, integration with our desires. Mercury’s retrograde snags very well might double back to correct corrupted details so that we may ultimately move forward.

But that’s not all; Venus in Sagittarius squares Neptune in Pisces on the same day. The reversions and turbulence and incarnate disconnects may even go so deep to ripple over into identity delusions; the romanticized version of your modus operandi promoting misapprehensions of who you are and what your doing, the fallacious mythologizing and tall-tale-telling role-play form of you striving for what you are striving for. This can be confusing and convoluted and ultimately contrary to you winning that for which you endeavor, although, could be very motivational if handled carefully and given a place to be exercised and or exorcised. The rousing boasts of those drunk on whiskey who embark on a voyage the following day. These lofty soliloquies and homilies trumpeted from the periscope in shameless shafts of tear stranded candlelight are not necessarily delivered to one’s boss or neighbor or the clerk at the courtesy counter; they are meant for intimate ears and often best poured into fiction filled prose and poesy. Let the imagination brim and froth fall onto the pages of intent, imbuing the plans and schemes with the booming of cannon fire and pomp of marching, the fanfare and fancy of flag and banner display, just remember that you may be intoxicated with both blood and wine, and tempers of guts and glory are eulogized in particular channels, and often inappropriate for both formal and casual settings.

For the more whimsical of you, it is not much different; give voice to your fantasy worlds, but be mindful of privacy and place; The spirits that inspire you don’t always appreciate being dragged into the spotlight and out of sanctified space. If it be art or poetry you create, let the Muse entice and beckon listeners into consecrated chambers, rather than wheat-paste her image on the walls of your workplace or scrawl her signature in the latrines. In short: this aspect may have you totally trippin.

A repeated theme of this period is how to handle your own cephalophore form, for many reasons we may be losing our heads, and so it is our challenge to remain St. Denis and not Gorgon, or at least, aim our Gorgon accordingly.

December 11th

The Sun reaches the third face of Sagittarius, sharing territory with Mercury and Saturn; our volitional capacities, our orientations, the directions of our wills turn towards this concluding phase of Sagittarius; the pragmatic end of the endeavor, the final 10% of the project, and the determination conjured to follow through. With Saturn, the ruler of this decan co-present, and Mars in Scorpio, there will be fixed emotion (feeling like consistently expending energy) to finish up what we are looking at as well as the dedication and discipline necessary to do so. The only problem is our logic is all scrambled; with Mercury retrograde its as if the instructions are printed in a foreign language with the pages out of order, so we must do the extra work to put the steps in sequence. As noted above; these extra steps are not in vain; we end up with collated keys when all is said and done and might pick up some exotic vocabulary to enlarge our lexicons. With the Sun near retrograde Mercury, we can more easily concentrate and learn from the convoluted data, and find meaning beneath the manipulation layer of the manifesto.

December 12th

Mercury conjoins the Sun moving backwards at 8:45 pm (EST) on December 12th. Our Messenger tricks us into descending into the basement, where there are old bunkers and the headquarters of mechanical engineers who secretly ran the counterculture movement and had plans to revolutionize the city. In the drawers of the dusty desk we shine our flashlights on the blueprints of the program and the original communique of the command that was lost in the last attempt so long ago. Now the remains of the movement are able to reform and finish actualizing the dreams built on the inspiration of their foregoers. Vital material information that had been hidden or lost in the trample returns to the light to fill in the blanks. The passcode is reassembled. The speeches of the movement’s prime inceptor that had been suppressed are now circulating, and though the adversity people face is daunting, it is not enough to slow the rise of their aims being broadcast from the underground into the mass media. The greater reversals of messages and logics are sometimes those that had been once buried and upon revelation reverse a trending toward obscurity, rendering it a trending toward realization.

Inferior conjunctions of Mercury are fantastic opportunities to consult and communicate with the dead. In our personal lives, the insight and memories shared by our own ancestors provide nuanced inspiration and illuminating articulation unparalleled by any other source. It may be that your own great grandmother has the answer you’ve been looking for and is willing to help you finish your work and attain your dreams, as they are the will of her own progeny, and you are the living extension of her being.

December 13th

Following these revelations of hidden, forgotten or suppressed knowledge Mercury backs into the 2nd decan of Sagittarius and focus and determination surrounding ideas fall prey as fact and intuition hopelessly blend, all goes up for review as mishaps of communication resulting from such ontological mingling of logic and optimistic approximation. That which we dug up has the potential to confuse what is possible and what we hope is possible. Saturn’s fastidiousness and the Sun’s pragmatic focus on authentic goals should aid in navigating the further logic jumble. Although, we must not forget that Mars is in rulership in Scorpio throughout this period, and sometimes it is aggressions and aggravations that lead us into dangerous forgetfulness of what is coming from our minds and what is coming from our stirred spirits. We can expect conflicts of war shooting flares into our ability to discern fact from fear and fear from hostility. We cannot simply ask the news of world events to cool it and not get swept away, although we can resist the urge to get swept away in the bellicose and belligerent warmongering of the world at large.

December 14th

The waning Moon conjuncts Jupiter midday on the 14th, providing an embodying of what is physically and emotionally at stake in the Scorpionic process. Reflections and ruminations that turn and tumble the philosophers stone in the gate-locks of classical anatomy sections, ultimately aiming at the pylorus; the gatekeeper (etymologically, from GK) leading what is in-taken to the bowels where nutrients begin to be circulated through the blood. This nexus point of expansion, digestion, elimination, and circulation; passing from one system to another more subtle where it not only is broken into purer, smaller constituents but also absorbed, delivered into the whole tissue, is much of what occurs in the Scorpionic, and Jupiter is there expounding on and explaining these phenomenons to us. As stated in previous forecasts, when Jupiter is in Scorpio there tends to be resurgence of general interest in the occult; but the mass culture is inherently uncomfortable there, so they quickly move on, although, having some of the basics explained to them every twelve years stimulates the motivation of new philosophies that plume out of subculture into the mass strata the following year when Jupiter reaches home in Sagittarius. The hits of the Moon to Jupiter each month bring what Jupiter is doing back to our streaming minds, our cycles of emotions, to our very bodies. If we want to get the most out of this process it is worth observing them. At first we may not know what we are looking for but over time we may receive direct transmission of what opportunities this can provide; thus Jupiter fulfills his role as Guru.

December 15th

Then Luna continues on to Sagittarius, which marks the height of Sagittarius season as five planets at once are in the Centaur’s sign. Our sympathies will be with the Sagittarian struggles much discussed throughout this forecast; and with that much Sag. going on what is foreign and exotic will very likely be topic on the table. Venus’ romantic mindset, her aesthetic of endeavor and adventure, her fantasized and starry-eyed disposition comes into contact with Mercury’s discombobulated mixture of data with motivational jargon and persuasive parables that push toward revamping collapsed or corrupted campaigns. This maybe looks like the blockbuster sequel eminent before the premiere is even released. Not unlike the wildfire of 77’ Britain and punk’s death basically simultaneous to its birth. I need not stretch to describe how romanticized images of what your striving for mixing with impassioned propaganda prone to semi-truths is problematic. Venus and Mercury in combination tend to express artistically, and Sagittarius loves to synthesize, so maybe brace yourself for politicized art mid month. Political art may or may not be your cup of tea, but if you wish to tactfully embed your agenda in an image or other expression, this might be a good moment to do so. There is always room to experiment with the subliminal, and with a Trickster Mercury in the house we should at least take the opportunity to pull a few fast ones.

It really must be stressed that part of Mercury’s retrograde role is that of the Trickster, and for those that wish to prank, to spread subterfuge, to go in guise, appear otherwise, and undermine, this is a very fine time; and even there is an element of violence, sexual excess, poison and genuine danger to enrich the experience. For the born clowns and contrarians among you, this is a perfect retrograde; you have Venus nearby to amp the saturation, the Sun in the house, to direct people’s attention, Saturn in the far end readying to transition, setting some rules to the game, the Moon coming to visit and begin a new cycle, inception and catalyst, and a pretty malleable sense of truth. Despite how passionate people may sound in this season about their beliefs, keep in mind that they may be more easily convinced otherwise than you’d expect.

December 16th

This week seems to have a very sequential nature to it, one aspect a fitting reaction to the one that precedes it. This seems like the case on the 16th when the Sun hits the sensitive spot that puts him in trine to Uranus and Square to Chiron, as Mercury had been on the 10th. Then it was trickster doublespeak that might have agitated our upheavals, but here it more appears that the quaking tower shakes the foundations of our visions, challenges our identities and perhaps alters the course of our wills. The same dynamic occurs as with Mercury; evolutionary leaps and paradigm collapses can’t occur without a psychologically uncomfortable letting go; forced to find or create new bridges between the mundane and the subtle; but here it is not in the wake of a slew of technical reversals, but in a moment of understanding that the way we once saw it is no more and that because of what we now know, or what we now understand of what we know, we can no longer be the same, and neither can the world.

So in this sense I welcome the Trickster; as always the harbinger of change; the Ragnarök that must continually occur to keep life from falling into flat stasis; but remember that he as freely pulls ploys on your enemies as he runs gambits on you and fills your head with lies.