Celestial Notebook Overview July 2007
For most of July the Sun, symbol of how we integrate our self, is in Cancer. Aries symbolises the start of individual selfhood, Taurus focalises and gives depth to the individual and Gemini uses the mind to interpret the story so far. Cancer is the power that roots selfhood and creates a concrete foundation for the expression of the I-am – a home for the self. What emerged rather hesitantly in Aries is in Cancer able to define experience by feeling and so becoming whole and displaying its shape, its course of action and the direction it will follow.
Cancer is a cardinal water sign: power is generated in the cardinal signs, stabilised (or made operative) in the fixed signs and distributed in the mutable signs. Water symbolises emotion which means that in Cancer feelings are generated.
In order to get in touch with our feelings we need to slow the process down. We live in busy times and use technology to lighten our load so that we may lead more meaningful lives. What has happened is that we have moved the goal posts and get even more done at super-human speed – that is if the tools we use don’t break down or we don’t suffer burn out!
Very often we use our job or our daily activities to distract us from facing our true feelings or from coming together with those we love (doing things together is not the same as coming together).
Mercury turned retrograde (seemingly reversing) on 15 June at 11 degrees 35 minutes Cancer and turns direct on 10 July at 2 degrees 28 minutes Cancer.
Mercury was named after the Roman God and is the same as the Greek god, Hermes, patron of travellers, who also accompanies the dead to the Underworld. He represents the informing intelligence that develops consciousness by connecting above and below, inner and outer, past and future. Mercury retrograde favours reflection and an inner stillness: to revalue our experiences and to come to a better idea of who we are: I experience therefore I am.
As Mercury turns direct we need to apply our insights to our daily routine – not always easy as habit is insidious. Each time you berate your self for doing things in the same way no matter how destructive it seems, you build your negative ego. Cut yourself some slack – it takes time!
At a practical level: matters pending during this time will probably only be completely resolved on 15 August when Mercury once again connects with the sun at 22 degrees 36 minutes Leo.
Venus is the planet of valuing our self in relationship to others and the world. She turns retrograde on 27 July 2007 at 2 degrees 57 minutes Virgo. While Venus is on her inner journey we need to reassess how we direct our energy and especially the aggression that arises when we are thwarted. Are we able to contain our darker processes and not spill it over others? Can we be emotionally vulnerable without being needy?
Venus is always retrograde for 40 days mirroring the 40 weeks spent in the womb and the archetypal 40 days spent in the wilderness. Once every 8 years she retrogrades in the same area of the zodiac. Her stationary points (when she gets ready to change direction), plotted around the zodiac draws a five-pointed star. The Venus cycle of 2007 is similar to the one that occurred in 1999. Stay tuned for reminders, echoes and memories of people, places and events of that time….dreams and hopes that were seeded then. The retrograde period of Venus is a time to house-clean your heart.
Pluto, the planet of transformation, entered the sign of Sagittarius in November 1995 and remains in this sign until the end of November 2008. Sagittarius is about an unceasing quest for a personal truth that may create peace of mind, a quest that involves faith, optimism, risk and adventure, finding wise solutions and, alas, overcoming the pitfalls of excess.
During these thirteen (the number of change) years the emphasis for all of us is on finding ways of getting in touch with our own unique truth, to have a clear perception of our own inner dynamics. By becoming more skilled in managing ourselves, we could understand others better and broaden our perceptions of fairness and co-operation. In this way we may be able to develop group consciousness and an individual sense of responsibility to the group and the planet.
In December 2006, for the first time in 250 years, Pluto (symbolising our unconscious motivation) moved to the 26th degree of Sagittarius, the Galactic Centre and the very source of our galaxy’s creativity. Important transformations in our cultural attitudes and the ways in which we interpret religion, literature, science and higher knowledge have occurred every time Pluto transited this degree. The last time it happened (late 1750’s and 1760) coincided with the publication of Jean Jacques Rousseau’s works, planting the seeds for the French and American Revolutions. Each of us needs to be mindful that the seeds of a new time are being planted.
On 17 July Pluto is on the galactic midpoint. Pluto is also retrograde and will be on this point (26 degrees 56 minutes of Sagittarius) for the last time in 240 years on 28 October 2007. It is the end of an era and we are part of the dismantling of the beliefs and structures that supported it.
‘These are times of vision, of connecting with purpose, renewal of direction, when we may be nourished by the awe of inhabiting a universe mysterious and grand beyond what we can ever hope to understand.’ Melanie Reinhart
