About one year ago, I released Journey to the Temple of Ra. [There is a new-ish review on Amazon…if you’re interested.] My original plan was to then release the sequel, Scribe to the Pantheon of Rome, a year later. The good new is: I am working on it. However, its not ready yet.
Within Scribe, which talks a lot about numbers, there is a discussion about the perfection of imperfection. I think this is a good topic for today.
In a ‘perfect’ world, numbers would be exact. The first of every month would start on the first day of the week. Each month would be the same number of days. And, as some would prefer, the calendar months and the astrological months would align.
But look at how we’re just off. The lunar cycle is…what…29 days and change? But 4×7 is 28. A circle is 360 degrees. The zodiac is a circle (from our vantage). But the sun takes 365.25 days to go around the zodiac. The sun and the moon appear exactly the same size, but they aren’t all of the time. Some of our eclipses are annular, when the moon is too small to cover the face of the sun. And eclipses only happen twice a year, not every month.
Some of the planetary cycles are close by not quite something ideal. For example, Jupiter takes approximately 12 years to cycle the sun, which is nearly one sign per year. That’s pretty good. Saturn, on the other hand, takes 29 years and change. If it were 28 years, then we’d have a nice and neat 7 years for each quarter of the zodiac. A 24 or 36-year cycle would be much better resulting in two or three years per sign.
Because none of our cycles are perfect, we get all sorts of combinations we wouldn’t have otherwise. How boring would it be if your birthday fell on a Monday or a Wednesday every year?
So let’s look at the imperfect perfection happening right now.
Today is a Monday—the beginning of the week by one measure. It is also the new moon (at 9:12 am CDT). It is also the first day of school for many. It’s not quite the first of September, but is just past the beginning of Virgo (sun and moon conjunct at 2 Virgo 18’).
Virgo, being ruled by curious and mental Mercury, is an appropriate sign to begin the school year. In a normalized chart, Virgo rules the 6th house—the house of work. Virgo is an earth sign, and work is physical, even if using nothing more than your eyes, ears, and mind.
The 6th house, however, is not just about work, but is also about heath and healing. This makes sense. Virgo, as mutable earth, enjoys making shifts and changes (improvements) to the physical. Healing could be defined as: moving or shifting the body toward increased heath, function, and ease. Of course, we all know that healing also applies to the mental and emotional bodies.
Let’s look at the chart for the Virgo new moon happening right now.
Mercury, the ruler of the chart, is reaching ahead of the sun. Before the sun leaves Virgo, Mercury will station retrograde. To me, this is precisely Virgoan. Virgo as both mental and physical, studies what is, thinks about how to make it better, and then gets to work doing just that. Mercury explores ahead now, and will report back his findings before Libra begins.
In modern Astrology, Chiron is another ruler of Virgo. At 16 Pisces, Chiron directly opposes Mercury (at 17 Virgo). If you ignore the sun-moon conjunction, all other aspects in this chart tie in with them: Uranus (16 Aries), Venus (16 Leo), Apollo (17 Leo), and Mars and Saturn (conjunct at 17 Scorpio). This chart is very synergistic, another thing Virgo loves!
I cast this chart as a Virgo Horoscope (or Sun Sign) chart, which means Virgo is the first house. The 6th house thus contains both Psyche and Nessus, which are indicators of wounds. Opposing that house, we have Apollo conjunct Lilith in the 12th, which can be thought of as the results or symptoms of wounds.
Mercury and Chiron do have their work cut out for them this month. There’s a lot of wounded souls struggling and bleeding and needing care. Venus and Jupiter got together recently to help, but a pairing like that doesn’t last long. Venus will help in another way when she enters Virgo, in less than two weeks on September 5th.
[By the way, Venus’ 9 months as a morning star will soon come to an end. She’ll conjunct the sun on 10/24 and then start a 10-month cycle as an evening star.]
In general, Mercury rules the 6th house (via Virgo), but also the 3rd house (via Gemini). In the Virgo chart, Scorpio lands in the 3rd house, which helps fuel Virgo’s ability for intense focus and mental stamina—two things Gemini can struggle with.
In this chart, we find the conjunction between Mars and Scorpio in the 3rd house. This defines the topic to consider. Again…I find this very apropos.
Mars is all about action and movement. Saturn, conversely, slows things down. You would think these two getting together would be complete frustration. And it can be. However, if you combine their assets, then it will be very productive! Let Saturn direct Mars. Pour your excess energy into something practical. But use Virgo’s discernment. Remember, practical does not mean mundane.
Picture it like this: Let’s say that at some time in the past (a past life maybe) we got stabbed by a stick. The stick pierced our shield…and our skin. It penetrated to the core and left one hell of a splinter there. If it didn’t kill us, then it created a scar. If it did kill us (in that past life), then we still have a scar—a virtual scar…an innate discomfort, dis-ease, mental or emotional block.
For two years, Saturn has been digging up what’s not working right in our Scorpio house(s). He knows that to heal, we can’t just cover up the wound. We can’t just medicate it. We have to get that splinter out, which means we have to find it.
There is a theory out there, which says that health problems are really mental and emotional problems that have seeped into the body. If we don’t heal our mental or emotional wounds at the mental or emotional levels, we then get to work on them as physical problems. However, even when the problem becomes physical, we still can (or still must) heal the physical and emotional.
Saturn’s time in Scorpio is slowly drawing to a close. Saturn will enter Sagittarius for the first time on December 23rd. It will fall back into Scorpio next June, then leave Scorpio for good on September 17, 2015. Saturn then won’t see Scorpio again until the 2040s!
This time around, Saturn in Scorpio has been so much deeper and harder and more painful than before…because of Pluto. Pluto is in Saturn’s sign of Capricorn and Saturn is in Pluto’s sign of Scorpio. That means they are working together—even when not aspecting. This is a unique time in history: a perfectly imperfect opportunity for true evolutionary growth.
Since this post is already long, I’ll wrap it up—though I could go on and on. If you read charts, study this one. Look at the connections. Those two Trines are oh-so-significant!
The month of September is a nine. Nine is simultaneously the beginning of the end, and the approach to a new beginning. I think that’s precisely where we are.
A Fool's Inclination 