Celestial Notebook Overview February 2010

‘You have to give up the life you have to get to the life that’s waiting for you.’ James Hillman

At the end of October 2009 Saturn (), Lord of Gravity, went into Libra (), the sign of relationships. Saturn attracts heavy, sobering learning experiences into your life and then it either crystallises these experiences into constructive structures – wisdom, depth, maturity, true grit – or else it crystallises into obstructive structures – bitterness, resentment, guilt and general doom and gloom. The choice is yours.

Since November Saturn’s glare has been on the balance between your inner male and female and how that is reflected in your external environment. And with Saturn turning retrograde on 13 January and exacting a square with Pluto, Lord of Transformation, this process has intensified. The spotlight is on relationships and how your conditioning and belief system thwarts your efforts to find a balance between your head and your heart. (More about relationships in The Daily Guide).

Life goes on and we’re near the midpoint way between winter and spring: as the Sun moves through Aquarius (), daylight grows in the Northern Hemisphere, associating the sign with the increase in light, not only a symbol of hope and progress but also a growth in consciousness. This is also true for the Age of Aquarius, an age concerned with ideals and innovations affecting the collective.

And yet as earthlings our greatest barrier to evolution is inertia: the first law of physics is that an object will not change its velocity spontaneously - you can only change the velocity of an object if you place a force on the object.

There is little doubt that environmentally, politically, financially and socially we’ve reached a critical time and a critical mass and that personally and collectively we are experiencing the forces that are necessary to produce a quickening of our evolutionary pace.

The challenge of the time (and especially during February) is to surrender to the Divine: to intuitively know that your traumatic experiences are traumatic because they are contrary to how you envisaged your role. The spiritual purpose underlying heart ache is to allow you to accept opportunities you would once have dismissed. Once you surrender yourself in hope and trust to a higher source of wisdom, you open a deeper process of empowerment. (Caroline Myss)

Aquarius is the eleventh sign of the zodiac: the ancients named this master number Strength. The 1 meets the 1 – facing yourself, integrating your higher and lower nature, takes inner strength. 11 is significantly 5 (the microcosm) + 6 (the macrocosm) showing us the strength of being in harmony.

The eleventh card in the Tarot is called Strength and the step in your archetypal process where a collision with the lion within is inevitable and where a creative handling of your own rage and senseless pride is on the cards, so to speak. Through such an experience you not only get to know the inner beast but also meet up with the hero who can subdue and channel its energy constructively. This card is ascribed to the astrological sign of Leo () and a perfect fit with Mars (), Our Inner Hero, still retrograde, in Leo.

Mars represents your will to action and during its retrograde period misplaced aggression could bleed indiscriminately into your life – yours or someone else’s and probably someone close to you! This boundary-less state creates indiscriminate discord and conflict and you might find obsession and aggression in the most surprising places – it could also indicate where you or someone else has been harbouring animosity.

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The entire Mars retrograde period (21 December – 11 March) is characterised by rocketing subjective, inner tensions. The dubious up side is that with a bit of awareness and compassion with yourself you will be able to explore your less obvious inner conflicts, get to know yourself a bit better and create less defensive habit patterns.

With both Mars in Leo and Saturn in Libra retrograde and burrowing deeper into your innards, you will be uncovering buried feelings such as rage, suppressed memories, old passions, infantile or knee-jerk reactions or vengeful fantasies – particularly if they are transiting sensitive points in your chart!

Saturn in Libra brings reality checks into relationships. All unfinished business with your parents, siblings or other significant relationships will interfere with your present relationship. You bring every unlearned lesson forward to be learned now in your present relationship. Becoming aware of where problems in your present relationship originates helps to bring healing in your present relationship and lays the past to rest.

The square between Saturn () in Libra () and Pluto () in Capricorn () remains firmly in place creating space in your life to build new opportunities: what is tired and outworn will be torn down. What is built new is fresh and ultimately more suited to your current needs.

However accepting this as a matter of faith is never going to be easy even with Jupiter (), the planet of expansion, hope and optimism in its own sign, Pisces (). Pisces is a mutable water sign and a water-sign Jupiter will stimulate faith in a higher power. With Jupiter, ideally, we are able to rise above pettiness and display a generosity of spirit. Where Jupiter is transiting in your chart is where you are to find your greatest reward at this stage of your development.

Jupiter’s zeal can, however, be excessive at times and we have to guard against escapism, bending personal philosophies to suit the situation, self-deception, restlessness and, frankly, unwillingness to face issues directly.

A New Moon is yet another conjunction of the Sun and the Moon – another ending and beginning in the river of time. We actually see no Moon during these darkest star-filled nights, times to reflect on the past and contemplate the future. How can you envision the future if you do not know how you have created the present? The New Moon on the 14th is at 25° 18’ Aquarius and is closely conjunct Chiron and Neptune, hopefully softening the self-centred fires of Mars in Leo with compassion and concern for yourself and others.

Chiron () symbolises part of us that has been split off, a part that has become dissociated from our consciousness because of trauma or suffering or just a lack of understanding. Neptune () brings a subtle, often confusing, inner unfolding which facilitates the opening of the heart of compassion.

In its highest expression this configuration supports the theme of the month: to connect to spirit as an answer to our woundedness - if you can bear your wounds and issues, you are directly connected to your soul. Through this conjunction you have been and will be encouraged to love the lost, disowned, denied and otherwise negatively judged pieces of yourself and bring them lovingly back into the light.

The glyph of Aquarius is the wave. The word ‘abundance’ has its roots in the Latin meaning ‘to move in waves, undulate, flow’. This month get in step with ABunDance: it’s a dance that requires flexibility, fluidity and, above all, willingness to flow with life’s changing rhythms.