Venus is mak­ing her gra­cious, dig­ni­fied and pur­pose­ful entrance into Capri­corn for the next 3 weeks…only to be tripped up imme­di­ate­ly by Mr. Con­trary him­self, Uranus. How are you sup­posed to observe the niceties, uphold tra­di­tions, main­tain deco­rum (and your com­po­sure) while you are tum­bling head over heels? Real­ly, what is the Uni­verse say­ing now anyways?

Venus leaves the expan­sive, explor­ing and ide­al­is­tic sign of Sagit­tar­ius for the Earthy plea­sures (and seri­ous sen­si­bil­i­ties) of Capri­corn. The Exot­ic los­es its appeal, you want and need what is steady, re-assur­ing and has with­stood the tests of time, what endures is what appeals…No pass­ing fan­cies now, noth­ing casual…you’re mov­ing from the Sagit­tar­i­an trav­el­ling bazaar to the court­ly realms of pres­tige, posi­tion and deference…

What you need to know, where you seek to find and secure your val­ue is by under­stand­ing where you stand in the hier­ar­chy of your social order…What is your role or Title, what are your rights, and what are your respon­si­bil­i­ties towards one another?…This is what you seek to find in your­self and through the oth­er now…you need to know your social sta­tus and you want to be in a posi­tion that is wor­thy of you, a role that ful­fills you and bestows honor.

But as you try and get your bear­ings, to find what (and who) is above and below, to ascer­tain who is respon­si­ble for what and to whom, as you try to walk those ancient, prac­ti­cal paths of duty and tra­di­tion, Uranus comes spin­ning by to add his “out­sider” oth­er­ness to Venus’ sensibilities…Okay, now how do you man­age this?

Uranus is throw­ing down his chal­lenge to the sta­tus quo…to those time-test­ed, rev­er­ent­ly held hier­ar­chi­cal posi­tions and powers…he comes along, like a breath of fresh air (or howl­ing wind) and says, “Why, why must life be ordered like this? What is “right” is what is earned…and what is true to growth, to the truth of indi­vid­ual free­dom and self-realization.”

Before you can claim those rights or priv­i­leges, before you can move up in the hier­ar­chy of life, you have to earn it by ful­fill­ing your respon­si­bil­i­ties and prov­ing you are worthy…that you are “trust wor­thy”. For what­ev­er your title and posi­tion, and the pow­ers that flow from them, it depends upon you under­stand­ing, acknowl­edg­ing and serv­ing the source of that power…it is not yours, it is only yours to exer­cise faith­ful­ly by serv­ing its source.

And remem­ber, behind all such hier­ar­chies there is the One, true hier­ar­chy of the Spir­i­tu­al fam­i­ly to which you belong and with whom you journey.

Uranus, the Awak­en­er, is only remind­ing you that you must not be enam­ored or entranced by appear­ances, by the forms of posi­tion and dis­plays of pow­er. Those out­ward trap­pings are here only to serve some­thing greater…

For what tru­ly endures is found within…and is seen to grow as that bright­en­ing light of your spir­i­tu­al unfold­ment, your self-becom­ing ascent in the Hier­ar­chy of Light.

Your nobil­i­ty and worth are already with­in you…Uranus is just remind­ing you to let it shine…

Shine on!

The Ninth New Moon of the Astro­log­i­cal Year is also a par­tial Solar Eclipse. Dur­ing an ordi­nary New Moon you receive a gift of new inspi­ra­tion, a release of ener­gy to fur­ther your unfold­ment through the themes of that par­tic­u­lar sign, in this case Sagit­tar­ius. But dur­ing the Solar Eclipse the Moon’s shad­ow (rep­re­sent­ing the past) cross­es over you. This release of new ener­gy requires a trip back in time so that you can resolve some­thing old before you can move forward…Okay, so let’s see what tune this Lunar “do-si-do” is danc­ing to…

In my Overview for 2011 I wrote about this New Moon:

The Solar Eclipse of Novem­ber 25 is in Sagit­tar­ius. The release of a new ener­gy in under­stand­ing must first address the need to repair our notions of truth­ful­ness. Do you know where you are going? Oh, then you know from whence you came? Remember.

One of the more impor­tant con­cepts asso­ci­at­ed with Sagit­tar­ius is the process of the devel­op­ment of your Under­stand­ing which pro­ceeds most­ly in a grad­ual fash­ion, but at times is sub­ject to a greater leap through Rev­e­la­tion.

For the most part, Under­stand­ing unfolds through the steady accu­mu­la­tion of expe­ri­ence, and that expe­ri­ence being trans­mit­ted through Phi­los­o­phy, Sci­ence and Reli­gion, cre­ates the devel­op­ment of human cul­ture and soci­ety which can be seen to unfold, devel­op and become more than it was. But this self-becom­ing does not hap­pen along one straight, sim­ple and step by step path.

The unfold­ment of Under­stand­ing is not lin­ear, it is cyclic and more spi­ral in nature, and cer­tain­ly appears to move for­ward and back­ward, advanc­ing and retreat­ing, around the world and through the ages. Often and for some time advances are seen as incre­men­tal, each addi­tion­al insight build­ing upon what has come before. But there are moments, schis­mat­ic bursts of light, which pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty to break up a set of old assumptions/constraints and cre­ate a new, hope­ful­ly more inclu­sive and wis­er world view.

Here is where the Solar Eclipse can lend a hand. For in the Moon’s shad­ow light there stand revealed some ele­ments missed in those brighter sun-lit realms. In the shad­ows you can dis­cern some of the old, under­ly­ing assump­tions that forms, that tru­ly cre­ates the lim­it­ed real­i­ty of what you per­ceive. The Moon’s shad­ow reveals, which means to unveil, to uncov­er what was hid­den, to bring into con­scious­ness what has been present but not yet per­ceived, and so your under­stand­ing of what­ev­er was before you has become truer, deep­er and clos­er to what is known as “That”.

But there is anoth­er pos­si­bil­i­ty present at such a moment of plan­e­tary cycling. When our Star­ry com­pan­ions align so that the light around is dimmed there can come a turn­ing, a recog­ni­tion of a greater light with­in. This inner bright­en­ing, this Illu­mi­na­tion is known as “Rev­e­la­tion”, a Dra­mat­ic unveil­ing often through some exter­nal agent like a Divine being (or per­haps your high­er self). The veil that you per­ceived real­i­ty through, or that cov­ered real­i­ty for you, is lift­ed, if only for a moment, and you expe­ri­ence the shock of Rev­e­la­tion, the shock of the Unveil­ing of the Greater Space you tru­ly move through…

It is not grad­ual, it is not easy (it needs to be shock­ing), but it is through this agency of Spir­it, through this quick­en­ing of your self-unfold­ment, that great leaps are made in your understanding…and you will be ever grate­ful for this help in your becoming.

More­over, this gift of Illu­mi­na­tion, this more com­plete Under­stand­ing, brings sub­stan­tial proof that your jour­ney is watched over by those who have come this way before…and they wish to help…

And it is from this, that you can know, for cer­tain, that you are nev­er alone, never…and that your jour­ney is part of a greater jour­ney too.

Pause at this New Moon, pause at this new begin­ning in your under­stand­ing. Dare to approach Isis who wears for you her Veil of Appear­ances, (the veil you helped to form)…and dare to lift, if but a lit­tle, and look beyond and into the heart of your Universe.…and gaze with new-found wonder…

Step into the shadows…and into the greater light of Truth.

Have things been sort of going awry late­ly? Missed oppor­tu­ni­ties (or just things miss­ing), upsets, sur­pris­es, con­fu­sion, doubts, frus­tra­tion? …Uh oh…

Yes, that’s right, you know what that means…Hermes has been slow­ing down and now has reached his piv­ot point, he’s turn­ing ’round for the next 3 weeks and you bet­ter go along for the ride…Of course you have no choice, but the oppor­tu­ni­ty is there if you piv­ot with him!

Remem­ber, this is just a func­tion of Mer­cury catch­ing up to Earth and pass­ing us by on the “inside”, com­ing between us and the Sun. He is actu­al­ly at his clos­est to us so you could say those Mer­cu­r­ial Ener­gies are stronger than ever!…And, he is not going “back­wards”, he just looks like that from our perspective…which is real­ly what this is all about or for anyways…Mercury ret­ro­grade is an expe­ri­ence and les­son for you about your ori­en­ta­tion or perspective…you are being offered a won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty to “think about how you think”!

So piv­ot, piv­ot now with Mer­cury and turn your mind’s eye back on your­self and reflect on how you think. Question…everything! Seek to root out the less func­tion­al or dys­func­tion­al ways you approach the under­stand­ing of your life. Ques­tion what under­lies your point of view, what do you “stand upon”, what are your assump­tions? Do they lead you to answers…do they take you to a good place?

After all, Mer­cury is doing his con­trary cadence in the sign of Sagit­tar­ius, danc­ing through the realms of Sci­ence, Phi­los­o­phy and Religion…exploring the Halls of Truth, the Tem­ple of Under­stand­ing. There is rarely offered a more oppor­tune moment than this!

Turn and open your mind to a greater, more inclu­sive under­stand­ing of how your very approach to real­i­ty cre­ates that reality…and you only need shift your focus just a lit­tle bit to see the way beyond these dim lit lands, to move beyond your shad­ows of doubt and fear…and move clos­er, into the Light.

…and the only offer­ing you need make is your attach­ment to dog­ma, to the ordi­nary, accept­ed assump­tions and answers which can no longer sat­is­fy your need to know, your ever grow­ing need to “Stand Under” and expe­ri­ence the greater truth of your journey.

Open your mind, be hum­ble and self-for­giv­ing (laugh too) and know that this is what it means to move towards Wisdom…that the clos­er you come to Truth, the more you come to realise that it is even more pro­found than you could ever have imagined…

Pivot…and open your mind to Wisdom!

Quin­tes­sence…

There is only one…only one of you…growing, unfold­ing, releasing…ever becom­ing more true and per­fect­ed through self-real­iza­tion, through self-unfoldment…

Today the Sun (The Self) aligns beau­ti­ful­ly with Uranus (The Awak­en­er) to help you dis­cov­er and release just a lit­tle bit more of that spe­cial­ness that is you. Today is a day to let your “self” shine just that much brighter and so light the way for those around you too!

You have moved through many stages in your jour­ney, and in each stage moved through many forms of self-ful­fill­ment. Each stage and each form was, for a while, per­fect­ly true to what­ev­er was pos­si­ble for you at that time…

Yet the fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ple, the core of your Spir­it, is to become…to move…to Grow. And so your present form, hav­ing served its pur­pose, must be laid aside so that your spir­it may be free again to find a more fit­ting form to con­tin­ue its journey.

You may delay, you may resist and so hold to an out­worn form out of fear, out of uncertainty…But there is no pow­er on Earth or in the Heav­ens above that will pre­vent your even­tu­al growth…And today the Uni­verse offers a help­ing hand, a gen­tle reminder that there is noth­ing to fear for it is in your nature to grow beyond the beyond…You are made of Star­ry Stuff and your home is beckoning…always.

Uranus comes to aid you now, to remind you that there is a greater you to be found with­in and expe­ri­enced with­out. Uranus shines his light of under­stand­ing, bend­ing round the cor­ners of your real­i­ty so that you may find an undis­cov­ered facet…you see in these refract­ed rays of your high­er mind an illu­mi­na­tion, you see what had been mere­ly dreamt of, a whis­pered hint, and so what was unre­al­ized is seen to be true and nec­es­sary because you must…you must con­tin­ue your jour­ney of self-unfoldment.

You can grow again beyond what had been into what you will become…Uranus quick­ens your growth by free­ing you from forms which can no longer sup­port or con­tain you.

Uranus, the Avatar of Free­dom, is light­ing the way…

All you need do is to let go of the lesser…

And move into the greater spaces of Freedom!

Remem­ber, those beat­en paths are for the beaten…

Arise, be an exam­ple, be true to your self…and be a Soul Blazer!

You start­ed 9 months ago and you start­ed in Fire…Aries is always your begin­ning, the time when what was the un-man­i­fest became man­i­fest, where your non-being became your being­ness. You, as Spir­it Desired to move into the Spaces of Space again, and what you came to be was through Spir­it descend­ing and join­ing with Mat­ter. These were your first delight­ful steps in this Dance of Life, your In-Spirit-ation…

And your jour­ney con­tin­ued as Spir­it mov­ing into Mat­ter through Fire, Earth, Air and Water, then again as Fire, Earth, Air and Water…and now…

Now you come back one more time to Fire…You make one last turn of this Ele­men­tal Wheel before you start again in a new Astro­log­i­cal year…This, your Cycling-Spi­ral-Dance of Spir­it and Mat­ter, is the nev­er-end­ing jour­ney of your Becom­ing the Becoming.

Now you emerge, out of the Waters, out from Scor­pio where you encoun­tered the Mys­ter­ies of Life and Death, of Union and Sep­a­ra­tion and you expe­ri­enced, you felt… some­thing Pro­found…And so you must seek now to Under­stand…“What, what was That, What Is This?”

So, the Sun moves into Sagit­tar­ius, the third and final Fire Sign and you return to the realm of Ideals…to the Halls of Wis­dom where you look to Law, to Phi­los­o­phy and to Reli­gion to explain…You turn to the Age­less Voic­es that are behind all the of these, the Peren­ni­al Phi­los­o­phy known and passed down from the begin­ning as the Ancient Teach­ings.

You seek to relate what you have expe­ri­enced to some­thing beyond your own expe­ri­ence, to put it into a larg­er con­text and so find Mean­ing. You seek to put your life, your dis­cov­er­ies and mys­ter­ies, your tri­umphs and defeats, you seek to under­stand it All. You turn your gaze out­ward, seek­ing the con­nec­tion to those who have come this way before you (and they have).…and you find that they have left you guid­ance, com­fort…Wis­dom. It is a gift, a bless­ing and you must do your part too…

And so you can build upon this, upon their gift of Under­stand­ing so that you may stand with and lean upon those who came before you…and so advance The Becom­ing a lit­tle bit more. But you also add…you add your expe­ri­ence, your under­stand­ing to this Greater Under­stand­ing and so it becomes even greater still…This is your sto­ry, your Jour­ney of Becom­ing the Becoming.

So turn ’round now, round that round and acknowl­edge the great Sac­ri­fices that were made to give this Gift to you. Know, that you must make your sac­ri­fice too as you get clos­er and clos­er, clos­er to the cross­ing point between the dark­ness and the Light. And as the days grow ever dark­er, as the shad­ows deep­en around you, let the Light with­in burn ever brighter, your Light that will nev­er go out…

Turn now, look at Your Sun who stands in this spe­cial part of Space…Then look beyond and know that behind that Solar space you are look­ing out into the heart of your Galaxy…you look out into the ori­gins of Life and Spir­it in this Cos­mic Wheel­ing won­der we call our Milky Way…It is at this time of the year that your Sun is aligned with the Cen­ter of your Galac­tic home.

Turn and know that you are look­ing homeward…that there is a nev­er-ceas­ing, stream­ing of Life-Con­scious­ness-Spir­it going out and in from that Cen­ter, from the One to all the ones of the One and beyond…

Bow your head down…Feel your Spir­it soar…Sing your Celes­tial Song.…Dance…

You are a Shin­ing One…

Shine On!