Taking planets... personally.
Heh. Jeff's cranky today! Rant on, astro-brother!
(Mercury decided to turn retrograde about fifty yards short of my natal Mercury - but I'm trying not to take it personally. Wait... what am I talking about? I take everything personally! Damn Mercury!)
Anyway, Jeff's entry got me thinking about my own relationship with day-to-day astrology. I confess: I like the "personal" planets, the Sun - Mars shades of the spectrum. Not that I ever use them in working with clients. No, they come for the Big Picture, and so Saturn through Pluto it is, with maybe a dash of Mars or Jupiter thrown in for timing or much-needed hope.
But man, down here on the ground, in my own little day-to-day world, I'm looking for ANYTHING that can distract me from that interminable transiting Saturn/Sun conjunction I've got happening, and that oppressively unsettling Uranus/MC/IC transit. Hell, I needed regular diversions from Pluto for TEN YEARS. I mean, it's just too bleak to spend every day examining the big picture when the big picture is an epic mural of suckage.
So, I use the lunations, and the aspects of the fast-moving planets, and whatever, as a sort of microcosmic lens to bring the big picture down into life-size, portable focus. Sort of like - and this is complete overkill, stick with me here - someone who's in prison serving a ten-year sentence, what's he gonna do, sit there meditating each day on the ten year sentence? "Another day down - 3,284 to go!" God, no. That way lies madness! So, he breaks the sentence down, compartmentalizes the experience. Looks at the next two and a half years; maybe he can finish school or write a book in that amount of time. He plans to achieve a certain definition to his muscular system over the next nine to ten months. And maybe, by next month, he'll be able to wittle a shiv out of a mousetrap or something.
No doubt about it, to go through this exercise on a regular basis is to risk losing the big picture. And, like the cereal commercials used to say, "Lucky Charms is part of this complete breakfast!" In other words, tasty though it may be, obsessing about day-to-day aspects to the exclusion of weightier outer-planet ones can lead to astrological malnutrition. So, not unlike the prisoner who goes before the parole board, we astrologers check in with a colleague every year or two, so he or she can rattle the slow-moving transits and progressions at us, help us chart our progress, and kick us in the pants as needed.
But I don't know - the fast-moving transits, for me, are the warp and woof of daily life; they let me take each day as a beautifully complete little micro-lesson, a meditation, an astrological prayer if I were the praying sort. On the days when I give up and let Saturn chase me under the blankets for a good sulk, thank God there's still a Venus kiss from the husband, or a lunar bowl of vanilla ice cream, or a mischievous, Mercurial cat ready to lure me out and provide a welcome respite.
And on that note, happy transits to all, and to all a good night!
(Mercury decided to turn retrograde about fifty yards short of my natal Mercury - but I'm trying not to take it personally. Wait... what am I talking about? I take everything personally! Damn Mercury!)
Anyway, Jeff's entry got me thinking about my own relationship with day-to-day astrology. I confess: I like the "personal" planets, the Sun - Mars shades of the spectrum. Not that I ever use them in working with clients. No, they come for the Big Picture, and so Saturn through Pluto it is, with maybe a dash of Mars or Jupiter thrown in for timing or much-needed hope.
But man, down here on the ground, in my own little day-to-day world, I'm looking for ANYTHING that can distract me from that interminable transiting Saturn/Sun conjunction I've got happening, and that oppressively unsettling Uranus/MC/IC transit. Hell, I needed regular diversions from Pluto for TEN YEARS. I mean, it's just too bleak to spend every day examining the big picture when the big picture is an epic mural of suckage.
So, I use the lunations, and the aspects of the fast-moving planets, and whatever, as a sort of microcosmic lens to bring the big picture down into life-size, portable focus. Sort of like - and this is complete overkill, stick with me here - someone who's in prison serving a ten-year sentence, what's he gonna do, sit there meditating each day on the ten year sentence? "Another day down - 3,284 to go!" God, no. That way lies madness! So, he breaks the sentence down, compartmentalizes the experience. Looks at the next two and a half years; maybe he can finish school or write a book in that amount of time. He plans to achieve a certain definition to his muscular system over the next nine to ten months. And maybe, by next month, he'll be able to wittle a shiv out of a mousetrap or something.
No doubt about it, to go through this exercise on a regular basis is to risk losing the big picture. And, like the cereal commercials used to say, "Lucky Charms is part of this complete breakfast!" In other words, tasty though it may be, obsessing about day-to-day aspects to the exclusion of weightier outer-planet ones can lead to astrological malnutrition. So, not unlike the prisoner who goes before the parole board, we astrologers check in with a colleague every year or two, so he or she can rattle the slow-moving transits and progressions at us, help us chart our progress, and kick us in the pants as needed.
But I don't know - the fast-moving transits, for me, are the warp and woof of daily life; they let me take each day as a beautifully complete little micro-lesson, a meditation, an astrological prayer if I were the praying sort. On the days when I give up and let Saturn chase me under the blankets for a good sulk, thank God there's still a Venus kiss from the husband, or a lunar bowl of vanilla ice cream, or a mischievous, Mercurial cat ready to lure me out and provide a welcome respite.
And on that note, happy transits to all, and to all a good night!
posted by April at 9:44 PM
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