Big Sky AstroBlog: November 2004

Pretty thankful

Last weekend was a turning point, wasn't it? The news has been full of strange outbreaks of violence; in my little corner of the universe, I've heard several stories of couples who had really serious arguments - full-scale battles - over the weekend.

And yet somehow, miraculously, I received a sort of reprieve from my own violent emotions. I sang at a supper for a local peace coalition, and came away from a nice evening of soup and wise words and kind people with the sense that the world has not gone uniformly mad after all. It's a feeling of well-being that's stayed with me over the past few days, even as I struggle to stamp out the many pre-Mercury Rx bonfires breaking out around me. Somehow, I gave up the burden of feeling that the weight of the world was on me alone, that I had to make people change and save the world. Getting together with a group of like-minded people, I felt enormous relief.

Today the Sun squared Uranus, and the mounting tension of the weekend is well described by this aspect. For those who are feeling agitated but could not find a release valve of like-minded people, perhaps the pressure just built and built until it had to explode - in some cases, via their cell phones.

I'll be hitting the highways early tomorrow, a reluctant freeway pilgrim, to share the Thanksgiving holiday with my siblings and their families. It's a tough time for us, since we are far from agreed about the things that are wrong with the world, and the best way to fix them. Three weeks ago I was tempted to blow the whole thing off this year, for the first time ever. But now, I'm glad I didn't. Now I'm glad for the opportunity to sit and have a meal with the people who, for better or worse, are wedded to me through the bonds of birth. By this time tomorrow I may feel differently, but for now, I'm thankful for the cool weather and the good earth and the prospect of a big slab of pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

Blessings to you all.

Mercury Rx and the Shadow Period

Is it just me, or are things already feeling kind of Mercury retrograde-ish, even though the next Mercury Rx period doesn't begin until the 30th?

I've been noticing it for the past few days - everything takes at least one extra step that I didn't anticipate. Well, maybe not everything, but lots of things. Especially computer things. Also, after an outbreak of ants late last month - our first serious one in this house, thanks for monthly ministrations by a pest control company - was seemingly subdued, the little bastards have started showing up again, in true retrograde fashion.

This can all be explained by the "shadow period" theory about retrograde cycles. It works like this. Mercury will turn retrograde on November 30, at 27 degrees Sagittarius. It will retrograde back to 10 degrees Sagittarius before turning direct again on December 19. So according to the shadow theory, we began to enter the pre-retrograde shadow period when Mercury hit 10 degrees of Sagittarius on November 11 - a degree sensitized by a foreshadowing of Mercury's station there.

A similar shadow period is in effect on the other side of the retrograde. So after Mercury turns direct on December 19, it is said to be in another shadow period until it reaches 27 degrees - the degree where it turned retrograde. Which takes us into the early part of January 2005.

My MoonCircles colleague Pythia Peay, in her book Mercury Retrograde, Its Myth and Meaning writes,

The shadow periods preceding and following the twenty-one days of Mercury retrograde could be said to be like a wave that gradually rises, crests, then falls, melting back into the ocean.

That's right, friends: surf's up.

Mars in Scorpio: How sharper than a serpent's tooth...

Mars entered Scorpio last week and is currently squaring my natal Mercury... and of course, I started the day by charging into an argument on a message board, one where I almost never post comments. Now I feel pissed off and misunderstood. Ugh... when will I learn to check the transits before I start popping off?

Mars is strong in Scorpio, a sign it traditionally co-rules. In this sign, Mars gives us a mandate to cut, and ruthlessly; it is a measure of our strength and integrity whether we wield this placement of Mars as a compassionate surgeon, excising a cancer, or as a power-hunger warlord with a machete. Or, as I feel this morning, like a neophyte chef who has cut herself with a very sharp kitchen knife.

"Red Wall" article read on internet radio show

Was alerted yesterday that an article I wrote for MoonCircles last month, "The Red Wall," was read on Nicoli Bailey's internet radio show Your Planetary Connection on October 17. You can listen to the broadcast here.

The optimism of uncertainty

This essay was passed on to me by my splendid sister-in-law in Australia. It was most comforting yesterday, when I was in the depths of despair ( which seems to be happening at least a couple of times a day), as was this note from an Australian reader:

Yes our world seems as if it's slipping back into the days of religious persecution but my gut is telling me its like a wave of fear based fundamentalism on every level before the lightwave hits. Am I being the idealistic Pisces Ascendant too much?

Maybe, but I hope in this case that idealism is next to realism.