Dance In The Dark In 9 Steps

Sunday April 8th

The Sun reaches its highest degree of exaltation at 19 Aries and here shines most radiant other than in Leo. This is the Sun of burgeoning spring, a Sun vitalizing the land and penetrating it with light and warmth. Venus is in Taurus emphasizing fecundity and fertility and Mars and Saturn are still co present in Capricorn with aims of stabilization and monumental construction. Mars is in its exaltation in Capricorn, and is there co present with Capricorn’s ruler, Saturn. Mars rules Aries, where we find both the Sun and Mercury, benefiting by the Sun’s exaltation and Aries’ ruler also in exaltation. Jupiter as well is in a Mars ruled sign. This is certainly a time of doing and of action, but of a particular kind of action that stresses maneuvers rather than belligerent attacks. With an exalted Sun aiming our focus on the Individual and the impulsive fire of the individual spirit, the personal impetus, we reach highest exaltation enacting pivotal strategic moves towards engaging and expressing our inner fires, to manifest our wills in the world, to establish or assure our own star-fire.

Sunrise on the 8th might culminate with us bearing crowns, and striving to gather the courage to wear them. We might rise through rings of gold into personal consecration, or focus on a specific emblem that represents our self and arrange to anoint it with a most solar ointment. This piece we might carry on us through the year, a point of courage, of strength, of purity, of cleaning, of vitalizing, to support our heads and connect them to our hearts, to radiate our best selves to those we meet, to retain alignment with our truth, and the truth of our virtues, to be generous enough to ourselves to operate and act, to feed our own fire and not neglect or forget and later find our flame has died to a flicker or merely a smoky smolder with only wet wood around. Today go light your pilots so that you might cook cleanly and continually all year. Scour the tarnish and rub away the resin and find beneath the dull stone a particle of gold.

Venus has advanced into Taurus’ second decan today, focusing her attentions on even more refined tastes. She is attracted to luxury in Taurus, her domicile, and luxury is attracted to her, but where she is able to feel her way toward what she wants and the wealth to acquire it already in the first face, in the second decan she sidles up even closer to the sustained source of fecundity itself and closer to the central pole she enters an even more focused awareness of entitlement and indulgence. The bear that sat in the sunny patch all day gorging on berries now eats instead caviar and wears diamonds. Comfort food becomes fine cuisine. The best things in life are no longer necessarily free, and are worn to feel the weight of their value. This is only a problem when we can’t have them, when we can’t afford the five star restaurant and are forced to eat at the diner. Venus in Taurus generally hands you gifts and takes you out to eat, so it will generally go in the way of epicurean elation, but with the trine to Saturn only now separating, this might have its limits, at least as far as falling into certain time slots, and with her immediately applying to Mars it might be that we can purchase the pleasure we desire as long as we work it into the plan. Either way, it is very worth paying attention to the presents Venus passes out as there could easily be other factors involved that keep us constrained to our workbench, and it might be these material merriments that maintain our machinations.

Monday April 9th

Briefly after reaching his traditional degree of exaltation the Sun moves into the third decan of Aries where the fires of the heart pump and pound to perform passionately and ignite the spirits of others, stirring their embers, lighting things up and catalyzing inspiration. Sometimes these performances are brief, as such passionate displays and spirited recitals require considerable energy, and fuel can be consumed rather quickly. Again it might be wisest to take advantage of Saturn and Mars’ strategic inclinations in Capricorn to achieve our visions when showing off, as well as Venus in Taurus’ offerings of material generosity and abundant delicacies. Keep grazing on the greens and observe natural limits as well as stores of supplies as you attempt to personal sustain star power. This might be more like a slow tempo-ed and sultry dance where seeming exhausted or out of breath detracts from the spell; so keep your cheeks naturally rosy and aglow with a combination of indulgence and careful steps so as to keep grounded and not over-exert. The easy pleasure of organic control could appear most radiant and spark chain reactions of kindled hearts.

Between the fire found in our hearts, and that within our heads and then the one which stabs into the ground from the most base bone of our bodies, a final/first spinal spike that solidifies the channel of flame on a broader spectrum, and filters to focus in our minds. Saturn guides the stylus with a skeleton hand along stone tracks with Mars in charge of where the point is pushed and plunged through the wall like wax, spreading the cobblestones like flower petals to reveal the pistols— in there is another flame, thin and white, and it coagulates in the whole of earth as a magmic force, akin to that found in the heart of the hive, where honey is held rather than blood, somewhere between the plasmic inferno of the Sun and the lava kept in the center of the earthly sphere. We have these points and places as well, and it is in the style of dance we choose, the poise of posture and motion which align the elements so as to juggle them in the most excellent combination for the moment, to the subsonic rhythm, rather than drop them in fright or rush through their volley in dead operation. In this particular combination of planets, we might attempt a schema of functional management that is somehow also earth-wise, decadent, sensual and inspired.

Wednesday April 11th

Just past midnight the calendar tears into the territory of the 11th and the Sun squares Pluto. Something about our impassioned performance, the spiritual drive to act and the individual volitional vision for which we strive clashes with the unknown, approaches the void with friction, comes before unparalleled power in tension. Our path is not necessarily lit before us, we may be charging into darkened territory that our torch does little to penetrate. To pull off this performance we must cross a stream of fear blindly, both an ordeal and a leap of faith. We must act without predictable results and do that which we had never before considered, or at least stuffed into the closet, hid inside the wall, sandwiched in the stacked stones, forgot in the framing. Now we pull the old portal back out, or for the first time unfurl it and lay the black circle onto the floor then leap below. Its not that this is a diversion from the safety of the strategy, its just that success requires that we swim into the cave to reach the rest of the course; there’s no alternate route.

Luckily, Venus trines Mars around this time. Yes we plunge into unknown territory, performing moves we never before attempted in venues we never imagined even existed, but its probable that though scary and unpredictable it feels really good and might even be quite a turn on. The erotic power of the well played pursuit of luxury, both ruthless and nuanced enough to avoid belligerent blows or vicious slashing, but instead sensual dominance games, wrestling for best placement, for most powerful position, for most complete grappling lock. As we pass into the black hole and find our way by other senses than sight we encounter new sensations that are deeply satisfying. These resonate with our pursuits and come to harmonize with our critical as well as crisis responses. When we move a heavy chess piece to a new place on the board we gain the opportunity to caress it and fondle it as its passed. When we do this blindfolded the contours of the piece become even more important to how we play, and when we play with a new and mysterious partner the game becomes even more stimulating, even though we have no idea what to expect.

Thursday April 12th

By noon on Thursday Venus sextiles Neptune, so the erotic luxury of these material power pursuits might easily lead us into a dreamlike fog of fantasy and illusion, which could have us feeling intuitive in a hands on way; when our imaginations are so strong it feels we can reach out and touch them, and maybe we can. This occurs with Neptune on the fixed star Achernar, which can lend to a situation the solution of sweeping something away by crisis, as in a fire or flood. This reminds us of the Sun’s square to Pluto and Venus’ harmonization with Mars. There is an intensity lurking in all these aspects despite the rhythmic pace and material pleasures. We might find that during our dance steps we inadvertently stomped our problems away, even if that means kicking and crushing our frozen computer which is now reduced to cracked plastic. Our computer is gone but at least its no longer frozen. Rather than a computer we are more likely to lose some emotional issue; some old mood that swells up like the tides but this time sloshes over the edge of the cup in the swaying of the sashays and then flows down the floor drain. This can seem like a crisis at the time, but it might be worth considering that we now have our hands full and can’t put out every old fire, there’s only so much water in the hose; instead, it might be time to rotate our crops.

Saturday April 14th

Just before sunrise (EST) slow moving Jupiter in Scorpio finally perfects his sextile with much slower moving Pluto in Capricorn. This aspect has been applying over the course of the past couple weeks and will continue to color things as it separates over the next few. We might want to look back to mid January and consider what nature of our deep understandings we are coming into greater clarity. Then it might have highlighted growth of our internal labyrinths, the expansion of our shadow selves and the enlarging territory of our soul’s pools. The network of caves which is the infrastructure of our souls becoming deeper, bigger and more elaborate. We could have initiated ourselves into mysteries and pulled dark elements of ourselves out of chasms to submerge in alchemical filtration and purification processes. This round, as Jupiter is retrograde is more likely to find us coming to find deep wisdom from this growth and alchemical change. We might understand a whole new system and source of power in light of what initiations had been begun in January. Here, it might be important to feel that things are expanding by enlarging our coherence and knowledge of these dimensions of ourself rather than trying to build more parts or construct more chambers for our souls. For now, until Jupiter returns to direct motion in July, become bigger by knowing more about what is present and established rather than mutating to a larger size or adding more complexity. This is a consideration of what exists beyond limits, but of those elements beyond limits you have recently crossed.

Only a few hours later at 8am the Moon conjoins a Mercury who has slowed down almost to a stop and is preparing to station. Over the week Mercury has been steadily separating from the Sun, having been recently purified and is collecting his thoughts. Upon waking up on Saturday morning we might be geared to not only reflection deep into our souls and selves but also into the minutia of our thinking, as many of our logic systems here having been recalibrate get ready to reboot; tossing up definitions of what we feel we can release (exhale) as we begin to come to a stop in thinking in order to engage new personal logic.

Two hours later Mars conjoins Vega, a prominent star of Orpheus’ Lyre, which bestows the charismatic power of mysterious enchantment, in this case infusing Mars’ stratagem actions; seeing beyond the limitations circumstances may apply to a situation, Mars might utilize personal gifts and nuanced abilities to maneuver beyond restrictions and persevere in his endeavors. . Certain people are likely to be celebrated and glorified for their charismatic inventiveness and their mysterious talents and knack, their peculiar skills or abilities to achieve sheerly through constructive focus. They play it like a tune and its enchanting to watch. Listen for the sound of music and try to anticipate the melody as it comes around.

Later that evening at 8pm Mercury Stations direct. The review of personal logic and expression is complete and our new or freshly edited logic may now be engaged. New thinking, new identity language, expressing ourselves anew, fresh personal perspectives, speaking out, voicing our opinions, shouting out our attendance, making our presence known by communicating and talking about ourselves, who we are and what drives us. There is an abundance of Mercurial fire here as its also Mercury night, making for some very chatty hours chock full of boisterous communication. Arguments and disagreements are likely, but maybe more refreshing and self-assertive than previously, as Mercury has passed through this territory twice already and has had the dross burnt off by the Sun. You might find yourself saying things you’ve been meaning to say for weeks but augmented by new understandings and crackling clarity.