Apocalypse Now
January 28th
Mercury has been advancing at a fast clip through Capricorn after languishing in Sagittarius for two solid months, and early this morning squares Uranus while Uranus sextiles the Moon in Mercury’s sign of Gemini waxing to eclipse. Only two weeks ago he completed a trine to volatile Uranus from the Centaur’s sign on the Feast Of The Epiphany which made for a squall of path-shifting occurrences paired with a wonderful flow of harmonic fraught; Often Epiphanies are exactly what Uranus brings us when he passes us the torch Prometheus pilfered, as previously pictured in forecasts prior, an incendiary lightbulb above our heads that grows so bright it bursts into cascades of fire furies we follow in a chase to catch and hijack our own trains of thoughts: “This is a stick up! Reach for the Stars Motherfuckers!”, dogs bark as they board the cable car, “Keep your wallets in your pockets! We want your ideas!” And there they flow like that which spurts from quake cracked clay, the enshrouded secrets of various Pottery People, whether their Moly be Rue or Rye Rot. A vial of vitriol more volatile that venom. Vitriol comes from Middle English denoting the sulfate of many metals, this having emanated from mediaeval Latin vitriolum, thence vitrum which meant glass. A word like volatile referred to creatures that fly, from Latin volare, to fly; and with Uranus involved surely ideas can blow up in your face leaving you reaching leaps much higher than you could have expected, as we do in dreams where we learn to step on breezes like Sylphs and lift our self to precarious heights; levels we may then defend bitterly, spattering glass shatter through our teeth.
Epiphany the last had circuitry engineered like potential power; smooth harmonium respirations that could kill a cathedral if they sucked in flammable gas, but were intaking no more than regular oxygen so all went smooth for most of us; we lived to keep our labs another trine; This being a square from Capricorn, a sign that has enough tinder to kindle a lifting flame may be a mix of bonfire burst realizations and practical revolution; micro burst reforms. The tickets whiz past the moderator (Mercury) and into the microphone he recites the many lists, reviews, comment box talk and random requests that come by him in sandstorm style lashes, missing not a word, as the stenographer chisels the glyphic interpretation into lithographic stones. They fall on virgin wax and sheets of grease, rollers of crayons, shafts of charcoal, smears of white oil pods, and when the camouflaged hulls of the submarines come belly up like the vaulting whales we saw in cartographic hallucinations we read and recite out loud, under thunderous skies, new commandments that pop as sigils from the camouflage, the sky behind black and empty and ready for the Apocalyptic Epiphany of fire, lightening crackling and branching from the frames constructs variegations we recognize from herbacae, more text appears in the incinerating aether, and even in the dust and ash that befalls our windshields we find words traced with fingertips by the Gnomes that came before us and lead our imaginations like pipers do their legions.
This all is just a glimpse of what is to come. It is as real as our entire lives up to now, but happens in such a flash it holds less of our fates despite the seal of our future. We can envision burnt offerings upon the altar as we rise for judgement at the time when heaven and earth connect at last, and then we must make up our minds; what will we do? How will we decide? We are now obligated to answer, it is Judgement Day at last.
And we are overjoyed: the shadow government that scares the living shit out of everyone, the environment that has come alive in the eyes of those born of this millennia, the Scientists that now accept the Sun has a soul, the data analysts who involve astrology in their intelligences. It’s come without us even realizing, and it is Uranus square Mercury that strikes the triangle to engage the orchestra, and the choir of voices belch immortal fire, and the voices of angels incinerate all wickedness, and the world is changed, and in our prayers we are healed, and the stags that part the leafless thicket prepare the wombs for purification, and the glory we inherit is then not alien, but credited to a higher purpose, and we grow itchy in our car seats and chew through the seat belts and run fleeing from our vehicles, and all ascend the mountain, upon the top we view the Bull and Eagle and Lion, and one by one we leap into the flame of the candle lit upon the Eastern angle, and falling like Azazel we land in a shattering of yesterday and the nightshade of the forest slithers around us and holds us to our fears and desires, come now, don’t leave me behind, it says, it wants to be allowed into the new era, and we embrace it and make our pact, no, we will not neglect you, and the mother of all rises up and holds the stars like so many jewels, and some we love and others we fear, but we own this fear and do not turn away from it, and down they whisper to us and teach us how to cure every plague, and it is our time to know and to learn what we lost or forgot or ignored all along.
Mercury squares Uranus Multiple times a year, but this year he moves into Taurus after seven years in Aries, and Mercury is in the house of Capricorn with its king Saturn installed upon his throne of cold, dry stone, and the one with the Messenger’s wand holds company to the clanging chime and records what the Outer One says; As a Scribe who receives the final words of Prometheus upon the rock, as the double of Jesus hid within a bush and witnessed the crucifixion. Its all on tape. The Lunar Lady is back in the receiving room , Gemini’s emblem blinking neon noir above the office window, the transcription of the telegram bringing tears to her eyes, she feels so curious, as one who approaches a prophetess, and she wants to know so many things, what will she ask? What will the vision show her? What will she offer on the pyre? What will she burn upon the coal? For whose sake will she light a candle for? These thoughts stream and swell as the votive brightens from the caress of a match, the blessings only a week away; hopefully this last peel of thunder ends the clamor and the storms subside until more tapers be blessed; the virgin bees in their ball of winter sleep, entranced around the central queen. Even in their state they heard the drumming of the skies and for that split second too they saw the vision, as swift Mercury leaves no creature out of the loop. In their hive halls they prepare the wax and keep the cells clear, shedding the dross and in sympathy to the menstrual mysteries they purify the womb, Mercury pied in red and white, for we hope for spring after winter’s death as well as calm after storm; the calm that is the medium upon which the dynamic of innovation may grow.
This may all sound too dramatic, but that is just what Uranus is, and in a week leading up to a Lunar eclipse on Rahu in Leo, the next in the series since the Great American last August, I think not. It is certainly this dramatic, even if it is imperceptible, but on this week we have multiple opportunities to see beyond the veil, to take the Tower Card, or the Judgement Card, and turn them around, and see instead of the printer’s design a window of the truth. The times are changing. What we experience now is transitory. There is no one to better teach us this lesson than Saturn with his Sickle. And when Kronos meets with Zeus within the Waterbearer’s sign and we transition to air sign conjunctions for the next some odd 200 years, we will understand really by then what drama really is, as we will be waking up in time to life being a great magical drama we are all a part of, as pockets are slashed and coins cascade back into the mines they were once molten from long before the mint. Uranus’ kicks in the womb of manifestation throughout his coming seven years in Taurus will revolutionize our idea of what even is material, and what we should or can do with it. He straddles the transition of the Great Chronocrators, roughly half his time spent on either side of Trigonalis. He is truly Prometheus passing the torch of consciousness to the new era, like a racer handing off the baton.
So maybe these last Uranus aspects in Aries are significant. And maybe as the Serpents mouth opens and bites down upon the Moon, reddening it, like a ripe apple, a truly menstrual phenomenon just before Candlemas with its mysteries of menstruation and childbirth and milk and the divine child, and HOPE, are to guide us through the release of poison that ensues in the alchemical circulation of the materia, the solution, the stone. This IS the apocalypse, the cover is blown, and its time to take a look at what has been hidden, and once we have seen we must decide: what behaviors advance into the other side and what are left behind in a bygone time. When all is suddenly known to be Alive, and have spirit, the entirety of nature and manifestation as conscious as we are, once that has been revealed how does that alter our Judgement?
The Age of Pisces that began almost synonymously with the birth of Christ ends relatively soon after Jupiter and Saturn’s conjunctions transition to air signs. Chiron, our mythological Wounded Healer, switches from Pisces to Aries later this year. As usual, Mercury’s sextile to Chiron should serve us to flush out some of this poison. As this is the season and these are the years we may want to contemplate what we should purge in purification before we birth anew we might want to consider logics and language that are toxic and how they can be expelled from our systems, a cleanse to bowels and brains, nervous systems and spleens, even Baudelaire’s mystical Spleen, for which we need the spirit of Artemisia to approach.
January 29th
The Sun moves into the second decan of Aquarius, a space known for being between two worlds and connecting the two, befittingly this decan is ruled by Mercury in both orders, the sign ruled by Saturn who presides over the barrier itself. The Sun then, our visions, wills and intellects, get’s to ponder being between these two epochs, and there is a beautiful cosmic choreography as Mercury later enters Aquarius at the moment of eclipse. Between the outer limits of our spirits where the orb of heaven hangs on high and the sphere of Gaia beneath our feet many find and make use of the Holy Guardian Angel, and when the two worlds meet as all becomes revealed, does then our Noble and Perfected Self, our personal Intermediary between us and the Spirit World integrate with our Conscious Mind, the one ruled by the Sun, our Ego itself? Only time will tell, but it is these kinds of thoughts that are trafficked within this phase of Aquarius, at whose center we find the Crossquarter point of Imbolc which is celebrated in the Catholic Calendar as Candlemas, the point between Solstice and Equinox, or between the Birth of Christ and the Annunciation, creating an Ouroboros out of the Mysteries, as we proceed to Easter and Resurrection, making a Mobius Strip. In Aquarius’ second decan our spirits, what we are “willing” to do, lead us to certain schemes that connect the outsides of things and alternate intellects to established patterns and status quo’s. A routine procedure involving a cutting edge technique. Uranus happens to rock Mercury’s boat with some individual impetus, setting his phone ringing with insights from the fires of the First-Mover, the Annunciation’s original Ram. Mercury, who at that point is micro-managing an empire the old fashioned way is probably ready to accept the technological update, although the sudden integration of new tools always leads to a few copies destined for the shredder, or a few test batches huddled with heinous homunculi. This could piss off the boss, but ultimately work speeds up and the line on the chart postures priapus, so the buzz going about the cluster of cubicles is not crass but creative. The Sun, almost inspired by this exchange, makes a thing of it, deciding to keep the lines open for all messages from the Outer Realms to come on through to the control center. He’s got the design team (Venus) in house so why the hell not? Might as well make a manifesto that can communicate the abstract theories to the common mind, and make it appear like nothing more than a comic strip or a simple column, like the Fables in which are hidden the inexpressible nature of divine action.
January 31st
And then it happens at 9am EST, the “Shadow-Grab”, Rahu sinks his teeth into the succulent Moon and fills her Lunar bowl with blood. The Dragon’s Head replaces the Moon over much of the Pacific Ocean. A Total Lunar Eclipse in Leo on the North Node. They say that North Node Lunar Eclipses are “good for money but bad for spirituality”, as a Lunar Eclipse has to do with substance, and the Head Of The Serpent has to do with more, increase, as it is the end that has the mouth, the end that eats, and the end that bites down on materiality. Usually its eyes are much bigger than his stomach, as these eclipses tend to bring more than we can possibly deal with, eclipses by nature being the imbalanced expressions of the alchemical process that circulates the invisible influences to the eventual visible materialization and manifestation of our lives’ themes and courses; these are the workings of those behind the curtain making it all happen, calling the cue’s and directing the actors, handing them their lines, making sure everyone is in place so things just seem to happen by chance, the drama that unfolds is because really all of those in black who rush onto stage as the lights lower or after the curtain closes to shuffle sets and prepare for the next scene. If you come and sit in a chair, they put it there when everything was temporarily in a state of suspension; while the Dragon had the Moon in his Mouth; and being in an eclipse is like being an actor who stumbles upon the darkened stage in the chaos of this black clad crew, who pay you no heed as they go about their frantic work. So stay out of their way; you want everything to be in good order when its time to play your part, and even befriend them backstage, or thank them at the curtain call, or before the show even opens, so that they are fond of you, and your props are not misplaced causing you to improvise, but instead they are put just where you want them.
So burn a blue candle for Rahu and repeat his beej mantra before this goes down, asking for him to go as easy on you as he can. Generally what is happening in this nodal cycle is a redistribution from Aquarius to Leo, pulling substance and identification from the former and delivering it to the later, so if you are aware where these signs are in your chart you can monitor how things are flowing. The goal is to remain balanced while this occurs; to make use of the additional energy and resources arriving in Leo, and take advantage of the purges being carried out in Aquarius, but not go overboard in either direction. You are being readied for the next scene in the play, but you don’t want to rush out and read all your lines out of sync. Take notice if you find yourself quitting school, canceling your trip, burning all your books in the back yard so you can impress your neighbors and spend more time off roading on the ATV trails around your house and angling for smelts . Something sounds fishy there. Its these extreme lunges in one direction and retreats from another that are triggered by these eclipses if they are hitting sensitive points in your nativity or you are sensitive to them in general. This particular eclipse is an increase of substance in the Leo territory, so more selfie devices and shiny crowns to wear when you take your photo for the promo shot that will be on the poster celebrating your inauguration to the high seat of the virtuous and generous attention center. Doesn’t sound too negative right? It doesn’t have to be, but watch for inflated scepters and media blitzes in and out of the mass eye, as well as the arrival of a big load of something or other in a highly visible spot, maybe way more than you ordered, like a giant heap of sex toys dumped on your front lawn; people will certainly take notice of that and your name will be spoken at the gas station nearby.
The last eclipse in August was followed by multiple systems of devastating weather, which is pretty traditional textbook eclipse season stuff. As these are all part of a series, we may get a sequel to these inclement conditions. This Lunar Eclipse belongs to Saros Series 124, born on the North Pole on August 17th of 1152. It seems to have a centralizing/decentralizing nature and saw the forming and culminating of important societal structures such as the Warren Commission, CIA, United Nations, Vatican 2, Y2K, Beatlemania, the dotcompeak, World Bank, and the Space Age, to name a few. It seems to host important leap years, Millenia marker, era inceptions, empire consolidations and break ups, computer viruses, things falling from sky; meteors and myriad plane crashes, kidnappings/rescues, various murderer sentencings, with the general theme of a connection between heaven and earth and thusly judgement; its birth even coincided with the historical Frederick I Barbarossa inaugurated as the king of the Germans, who’s mythological legend has him arriving as the Good King, the sleeping hero who awakens during the apocalypse.
February 3rd
Despite this being a square, aspects between the benefics are almost always positive. This might be the tension of receiving two of the thing you ordered in the mail instead of one. A boon, even if it makes you say, “what the hell?”. This echoes the Lunar Rahu eclipse pretty readily. But looking at this square by sign significations we see the pleasure and beauty of connecting the abstract and experimental to the conventional and regular in a beneficial tension with the coherence and expansion of opportunities surrounding acknowledgement of depravity. This may be the lesson of Temperance applied to how much of the outside do you want to connect to the inside, all of it or some of it? As this week’s theme is certainly full system overload, it may be that we are beginning to consider spoon-feeding divinity to the profane, or even sneaking splashes of soma into the morning coffee of squares, sticks in the mud, hard line scientists and skeptics until they accept the medicine, rather than outright dosing them, as was the way, for example, in the 60s, which just led to them rejecting the drug.
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Moon of Hyldemoer Herbal Notes for Liminal Light
January 28-February 3, 2018
These notes are suggestions for herbal allies to assist with the effects of the cosmic influences of this week. As stated in earlier weeks, before imbibing any of the herbs recommended, research what is a recommended dosage, & ask yourself & research such questions as, Does this herb interfere with any medications I am taking?, Does this herb match with my constitution?, Do I really need to take this herb into my body? Be wise: listen to your own body, intuition, guiding spirits & the plants themselves.
Imbibing the herbs recommended is of course only one way of meeting the herbs. There are multitudinous manners of developing relationships with our herbal allies including sitting with the fresh or dry herbs, or a picture/drawing of the herb, making an amulet to wear or have on your altar (adhering to planetary hours/days is important here), visioning or meditating with the plant, & taking an herbal body or foot bath (In this case remember your skin is the largest organ of your body). Use your imagination & listen to the plants, they have been on this planet much longer than we have, are our Elders & have much wisdom to offer.
January 28-Feb 3
During a week that has been named “Full System Overboard”, one of the first herbal allies that I call upon is the Great Balancer: Milky Oats/Oatstraw (Avena sativa), ruled by Venus & under dominion of the Earth. Milky Oat tops/Oatstraw contains abundant vitamins & minerals in easily digestible forms. In fact, it contains more magnesium than any other plant. Even though oats have 7X the quantity of fat as rice, Oats offer this in constituent combinations that offer protection to the heart, increase circulation as well as balance cholesterol. Those who drink & eat of dear Oats are offered a nourished nervous system, digestive system, immune system, healthy skin & bones & teeth leading to physical, emotional, spiritual & mental hardiness.
Oats improve concentration, increase mental clarity, even for children, & they promote sensitivity to joy & beauty in life. They soothe nerves & enliven exhausted adrenals helping us to be ever-present to receive the subtle & expansive energies of life offered to us through our nervous systems. It encourages deep, sound sleep & reverses fatigue from immune system depletion, stress or depression. Oats allows an inner sense of calm so that we are fortified to faces life’s stresses with an uplifted spirit & is a calm warrior to call upon for daily nutrition, clear guidance & sense of wellbeing.
Milky Oats/Oatstraw calms depression & out-of-control feelings felt during transition times. Regular use of Milky Oats/Oatstraw can revive ones sexual energy. Oats can increase libido by nourishing the nervous system, moistening our mucosa & offering the sense of wellbeing in oneself. Horses fed on a diet of oats are said to be “highly spirited”.
Milky Oats/Oatstraw taken as a daily infusion, Milky Oats Vinegar added to food & drink regularly, Milky Oats tincture taken daily & enjoying a rolled Oats bath, (placing a handful in a muslin bag, letting the bathwater run over this & squeezing the nourishing milky liquid run over ones body), are all wonderful ways to call upon Milky Oats/Oatstraw as a nourishing nervine ally.
Some people’s constitutions may be too damp & cool already for Milky Oats/Oatstraw to be their ally. If this is true for you, the addition of some warming herbs, like Ginger, Cayenne, & Calendula to an herbal formula may allow for use of this incredible ally.
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), taken as a flower essence, a few drops of extract, a tea or meditating on the strength of Yarrow, is one of our best allies for psychic defense & as a filter during times of overwhelm only allowing that which will truly serve to come through. It is amazing the inner strength that rises up from ones deep well when one imagines a strong yarrow stalk around them & the creamy, moon-kissed flowers rising to the cosmos.
January 31
It is recommended to burn blue candles for Rahu during this Lunar eclipse, & as well to call upon our blue flowering herbal allies, (blue flowers often telling of nervous system nurturing), will behoove us. Borage (Borago officinalis), herb of Jupiter & Leo, Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) of Saturn, Violet (Viola odorata) of Venus, & Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata) also of Venus, are all nourishing blue flowering nerviness. Taken as tea, tincture, vinegar, or flower essence, these allies will help one to remain calm during the storm of the dragon devouring the Moon. Both Borage & Vervain also have galactagogue qualities, meaning they increase milk production in lactating mothers. These are perfect herbal allies to mediate upon for the following days of Imbolc & Candlemas, when offerings & prayers are sent out for the incoming light, for the feverish fertility of February, to Brigit, Goddess of wells, blacksmithing, herbal healing & the upwelling of poetry, & to promote lactation of ewes. Oatstraw makes excellent Brigit’s crosses as well.
Eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis), being an herb of the Sun & of Leo, is an excellent ally for this eclipse in which there is a redistribution of energy from Aquarius into its opposite Leo. The Sun & Venus being in Aquarius would appreciate this herb of Leonian herb of clairvoyance & mental clarity. Carrying the herb on ones body, drinking the tea, or placing wrung out cloths soaked in Eyebright infusion on ones eyelids would bring liminal lucidity.
References:
Cunningham, Scott. Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs Llewellyn Publications, 1997.
Wood, Matthew. The Earthwise Herbal: A Complete Guide to Old World Medicinal Plants North Atlantic Books, 2008.
Wood, Matthew. The Earthwise Herbal: A Complete Guide to New World Medicinal Plants North Atlantic Books, 2009.
Moon of Hyldemoer, Suzanne Stone, Community Herbalist.
This information is not a substitute for a health care practitioner. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Saros 124 Lunar Eclipse occurrences notes:
jan 21 2000:
—-peak of dot.com bubble,
—-Kenya Airways Flight 431 into atlantic,
—-Alaska Airlines Flight 261 into pacific,
—-bosnian croats sentance, dr. harold shipmen sentanced,
—-worst flooding in Mozambique in 50 years, Klaus-Peter Sabotta sentence,
—-Bob Collins plane collision,
—-century leap year,
MAY:
—-composite material fabricated that has physical properties never before observed, ILOVEYOU worm
January 9 1982:
—-Commodore 64 8-bit home computer launch,
—-A brutal cold snap in midwest all time lows,
—-AT&T breakup, Air Florida Flight 90 into DC 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River,,
—-1982 Thunderbirds Indian Springs Diamond Crash: nevada,
—-The first computer virus Elk Cloner, written by 15-year old Rich Skrenta,
—-The first American test-tube baby,
—-Mark Thatcher, son of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, disappears in the Sahara during the Dakar Rally; he is rescued January 14.,
—-United States Army Brigadier General James L. Dozier is rescued by the Italian anti-terrorism Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza (NOCS) force after being held captive for 42 days by the Red Brigades.
1981 date unknown (Use of crack cocaine, a smokeable form of the drug, first reported in the United States and Caribbean)
Dec 30 1963:
—-Warren commission,
—-vatican 2 second period,
—-german missile testing protested by soviets, A lightning strike causes the crash of Pan Am —-Flight 214 near Elkton, Maryland, killing 81 people.
—-Frank Sinatra, Jr. is kidnapped at Harrah's Lake Tahoe.,
—-Chuck Yeager narrowly escapes death while testing an NF-104A rocket-augmented aerospace,
—-The cruise ship TSMS Lakonia burns 180 miles (290 km) north of Madeira,
—-The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There" are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level.,
—-United States Surgeon General Luther Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous to one's health (the first such statement from the U.S. government). In his first State of the Union Address,
—-U.S. President Lyndon Johnson declares a "War on Poverty”.,
—-In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople meet in Jerusalem.
dec 19 1945:
—-By a vote of 65–7, the United States Senate approves the entry of the United States into the United Nations.,
—-A flight of United States Navy Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers known as Flight 19 disappears on a training exercise from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale.
—-Twenty-eight nations sign an agreement creating the World Bank.
—-Terror strikes are carried out against British military bases in Palestine.
—-The first meeting of the United Nations is held
—-Project Diana bounces radar waves off the Moon, measuring the exact distance between the Earth and the Moon, and proves that communication is possible between Earth and outer space, effectively opening the Space Age, what becomes the CIA is formed: National Intelligence Authority
dec 8 1927:
—-Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile. (one eclipse cycle)
—-Iraq gains independence from the United Kingdom.
—-Marion Parker, 12, is kidnapped in Los Angeles. Her dismembered body is found on December 19, prompting the largest manhunt to date on the West Coast for her killer, William Edward Hickman, who is arrested on December 22 in Oregon.
—-The United States Navy submarine S-4 is accidentally rammed and sunk by the United States Coast Guard cutter John Paulding off Provincetown, Massachusetts, killing everyone aboard despite several unsuccessful attempts to raise the submarine.
1909:
sports teams/leagues founding, canadian hockey and german soccer