The Solar/Lunar rela­tion­ship is the arche­typ­al cycle, the mas­ter cycle, upon which all oth­er Astro­log­i­cal cycles are based. Every month we see the beau­ti­ful pageantry played out before us of the New Moon, First Quar­ter, Full Moon, Last Quar­ter and back to New Moon rhythms of the month­ly cycle.

At each moment of the cycle, at each turn­ing of the wheel, a very spe­cif­ic ques­tion and answer is offered to us by “the lights” in sky. The New Moon rep­re­sents a begin­ning, when a new impulse and ener­gy is released into our real­i­ty. The First Quar­ter rep­re­sents a turn­ing point, the turn­ing of a cor­ner or cross­roads, of the work­ing out of that orig­i­nal impulse. The Full Moon is the moment of rev­e­la­tion, the point at which the orig­i­nal impulse or idea has come to full, objec­tive man­i­fes­ta­tion for all to see. The Last Quar­ter is anoth­er turn­ing point, but this time, instead of a choice of which way to go in order to build out from and ful­fill the orig­i­nat­ing idea, now the issue is to take the real­iza­tion expe­ri­enced at the Full Moon and incor­po­rate that under­stand­ing into the unfold­ing cycle of life. Final­ly, we come to anoth­er New Moon, anoth­er release of poten­tial which will guide us dur­ing the next month­ly cycle.

We are able to take this basic cycle rela­tion­ship, and the mean­ings gen­er­at­ed by each cycle moment or phase of the Sun/Moon cycle, and apply those inter­pre­ta­tions to the oth­er plan­e­tary pair cycles. The basic tem­plate pro­vid­ed by the Sun/Moon cycle can be our guide for the under­stand­ing of each plan­e­tary combination.

At the same time, we must be aware that the inher­ent mean­ing of each com­bi­na­tion of plan­ets will deter­mine the con­tent, that is, it will denote the theme of what is devel­op­ing in the var­i­ous phas­es of any cycle. But the pur­pose and mean­ing of each phase in the cycle will fol­low this tem­plate found­ed by the exam­ple set forth by the Sun/Moon cycle.

Astrol­o­gy is, in part, a sci­ence of cycles. The pri­ma­ry cycle with­in Astrol­o­gy is the cyclic rhythm of our jour­ney from Dark­ness to Light. As we look at the var­i­ous com­bi­na­tions of the plan­ets day after day, we can always come back to this fun­da­men­tal truth that is revealed to us by the dance of the Sun and Moon.

My pre­vi­ous post exam­ined the gen­er­al prac­tice of deter­min­ing the Astro­log­i­cal con­di­tions that are cre­at­ed by plan­ets as they form angu­lar rela­tion­ships, what we call aspects, to one anoth­er. These aspects are the ones that are con­sid­ered gen­er­al, that is, they hold for every­one equal­ly since they are formed by the plan­ets mov­ing in rela­tion­ship to one anoth­er with­in the Solar Sys­tem. They are what astrologers call “Tran­sits to Tran­sits”, that is the var­i­ous bod­ies form­ing aspects to one anoth­er as they move through their orbits. By exam­in­ing these var­i­ous aspects astrologers can make fore­casts that are true for everyone.

But there is a whole oth­er class of aspect rela­tion­ships that are formed and fol­lowed in Astrol­o­gy, the aspects that are cre­at­ed by those same tran­sit­ing plan­ets to any par­tic­u­lar astro­log­i­cal chart. This is what astrologers call “Tran­sits to Natal”. These are the aspects formed between the bod­ies mov­ing through the Solar Sys­tem and cal­cu­lat­ing the angu­lar sep­a­ra­tions that are formed between those bod­ies and the natal or birth posi­tions of those bod­ies in an astro­log­i­cal chart. In this case the tran­sit­ing bod­ies are mov­ing, the birth or natal place­ments are fixed or unchanging.

In fact, it is these align­ments or aspects which are of most con­cern to astrologers and their clients. That is because it is these per­son­al aspects that are most tru­ly indica­tive of what any one per­son, or orga­ni­za­tion is expe­ri­enc­ing. Rather than being a gen­er­al “weath­er” fore­cast, these tran­sits to natal posi­tions reveal the most inti­mate details of the influ­ences affect­ing the per­son or enti­ty in question.

When plan­ets come to a sig­nif­i­cant align­ment to one anoth­er, Astrologers seek to inter­pret what that align­ment or aspect indi­cates. Aspects are the angu­lar sep­a­ra­tions of the bod­ies or plan­ets formed by tak­ing the 360° of the cir­cle and divid­ing that by a number.

For exam­ple, 360/2 = 180° (360 divid­ed by 2 equals 180), is where bod­ies are said to be oppo­site or opposed to one anoth­er. Or, 360/4 = 90° which is called a square or “right angle”. If we instead divide 360/3 we get 120°,  the trine aspect, or 360/6 we get 60° or the sextile.

Each of these angu­lar sep­a­ra­tions or aspects cre­ates a cer­tain har­mon­ic vibra­tion or ener­gy sig­na­ture between the bod­ies or plan­ets. It is said that the 90 or 180 is more chal­leng­ing or dif­fi­cult, where­as 60 or 120 is eas­i­er. But all are tru­ly part of a com­plete cycle that moves from the zero degree align­ment of bod­ies, the con­junc­tion, to the oppo­si­tion and back again. The arche­typ­al exam­ple of this occurs every month as we watch the Moon go from a New Moon, to a Wax­ing First Quar­ter, to a Full Moon, to a Wan­ing Third Quar­ter, and back to a New Moon.

Each cycle sta­tion or aspect rep­re­sents a tran­si­tion­al moment in the unfold­ment of what­ev­er was released at the begin­ning, that is at the con­junc­tion or “New Moon” moment. The oppo­site point, what would be in our exam­ple a “Full Moon”, is the point of rev­e­la­tion, the time in which we can observe most objec­tive­ly the cre­ative ten­sion that always exists between “poten­tials” and “real­i­ties”.  

By fol­low­ing each pair­ing of bod­ies, whether it is the most arche­typ­al and obvi­ous cycle of the Sun and Moon, or any oth­er pair­ing such as Mer­cury and Jupiter, or Venus and Mars, we can see the work­ing out of the var­i­ous ener­gies and lessons to be learned in our physical/psychological/spiritual spaces. By hav­ing knowl­edge and under­stand­ing of what each rela­tion­ship pair moment is ask­ing of us, we can align our­selves to that. And, by being so aligned, we will find it that much eas­i­er to real­ize and ful­fill ourselves.

The com­bi­na­tion of all these influ­ences, of all the plan­e­tary aspects one to anoth­er, cre­ates a pat­tern that we could call our Astro­log­i­cal Har­mon­ic, or our Astro­log­i­cal Weath­er pat­tern for that time. Cer­tain­ly, we have all expe­ri­enced, col­lec­tive­ly, days in which the mood seems soft and easy, when life seems to go smooth­ly. And, we have all expe­ri­enced days where con­di­tions seemed very far from that.

The advan­tage offered by Astrol­o­gy is that it allows us to under­stand what the uni­verse is ask­ing of us at any one time, to under­stand how we should approach and act in this moment, and to be at peace with that.

Astrol­o­gy reminds us that the series of events that we call “Life” is part of a greater plan, that it is con­di­tioned and shaped by the ener­gies around us. The unfold­ment of the poten­tial for each of us, indi­vid­u­al­ly and col­lec­tive­ly, is sup­port­ed and quick­ened by the stars themselves.

Each of us is devel­op­ing from our “New Moon” (at birth). We are bring­ing out from with­in our pure poten­tial, and from that begin­ning, we are cre­at­ing a life that stands as a tes­ta­ment of our poten­tial. We can all take com­fort in the knowl­edge that, along the way, we are always guid­ed and sup­port­ed by the ener­gies of the uni­verse around us.

Mer­cury trines Jupiter on Thurs­day. This means that we will find a bal­ance now between our mind and our prin­ci­ples, between our low­er mind and our high­er mind. Mer­cury rules the oper­a­tions of our intel­lect, our inquis­i­tive and crit­i­cal fac­ul­ties. Jupiter rules our belief sys­tems, the way we relate to the world and thus informs or cre­ates the frame­work that deter­mines what and how we think.

The trine aspect cre­ates a rela­tion­ship between these two func­tions that encour­ages a bal­anced inte­gra­tion of our beliefs, and a way of think­ing or com­mu­ni­cat­ing. We will find that our mean­ing and mes­sage are in har­mo­ny with­in and can find a bet­ter con­nec­tion to one anoth­er without.

With Mer­cury in Scor­pio, our minds are focused upon the issue of union, of how we can com­bine our dis­parate thoughts with oth­ers. Jupiter, shap­ing Mer­cury from Pisces, says the way to do this now is by the use of our great­est gift, the imag­i­na­tion. By hav­ing faith, com­pas­sion, and most impor­tant­ly imag­i­na­tion, we can sur­mount the dif­fer­ences, that can and do at times divide us one from another.

We need Jupiter to inspire us now to see the deep­er com­mon val­ues, the shared dreams and hopes, that can be a bridge over our dif­fer­ences. The mes­sage of this moment is to make use of this oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­nect or re-con­nect to one another.

We are remind­ed that the high­er truth that should guide our think­ing about one anoth­er is that we are all one with each oth­er in this life’s jour­ney. The great illu­sion we live in is our sep­a­rate­ness, the greater real­i­ty we actu­al­ly reside in is our one­ness in Spirit. 

The plan­et Venus has been mov­ing ret­ro­grade since Octo­ber 8 and tonight reach­es the halfway point of its ret­ro­grade cycle. This is known as Venus mak­ing its Infe­ri­or con­junc­tion to the Sun. This is because we find Venus now at its clos­est approach to the Earth, posi­tioned between the Earth and the Sun.

This align­ment makes this phase of the Venus cycle sim­i­lar to a New Moon, where­in the Moon is also posi­tioned between Earth and the Sun. And, just like a New Moon, this moment in the Venus cycle cre­ates an oppor­tu­ni­ty for us to make a new begin­ning. In this case, since it is Venus, a new begin­ning in our under­stand­ing and expe­ri­ence of Val­ue is offered to us.

All ret­ro­grades of plan­ets cre­ate a peri­od in which we can and should go back and review, reflect and repair our expe­ri­ence of what­ev­er that plan­et has ruler­ship over. Venus only ret­ro­grades every 18 months or so, (it ret­ro­grades the least of all the plan­ets!), mak­ing this time a very spe­cial time indeed. And the actu­al length of its ret­ro­grade peri­od is quite prophet­ic, Venus ret­ro­grades for 40 days! There are numer­ous ref­er­ences in all major reli­gions and meta­phys­i­cal sys­tems to the num­ber 40 as being sig­nif­i­cant, but the ques­tion is what are we to do with Venus retrograde?

Venus rules val­ue, it rules the feel­ings we have as regards our attach­ments, our wants…it rules what we call Love. What Venus ret­ro­grade asks of each of us is this, it asks us to look with­in our­selves and see what are the val­ues that are unique to me and make me me?

Of course, we must and will share many aes­thet­ic, cul­tur­al and spir­i­tu­al val­ues with our fel­low human beings. How could we not? We are social beings, we are nur­tured and unfold our giv­en and unique poten­tial with­in a par­tic­u­lar fam­i­ly, with­in a par­tic­u­lar vil­lage, town or city, with­in a par­tic­u­lar cul­ture. All of these cre­ate and rein­force the essen­tial lan­guage of val­ue in our life.

Yet we also find a need to be spe­cial, to be our self, and to com­bine in our own unique way the var­i­ous themes and forms of expres­sion of val­ue that are in and around us. We take what is pro­vid­ed by our envi­ron­ment and mix it with the essence of our self that comes from with­in, our spir­it, our soul, so that in the end what we make is a life of val­ue that stands as a tes­ta­ment to our own soul’s journey.

Along the way, the Uni­verse pro­vides moments to pause, to reflect and if nec­es­sary adjust our jour­ney. With Venus ret­ro­grade we have all been doing this, most­ly uncon­scious­ly, dur­ing these last 20 days. And now, an answer is offered. The con­junc­tion of Venus with the Sun releas­es a mes­sage, again, for most, a very deep and prob­a­bly unseen answer to our prayer for guid­ance and help. But it is there, tonight.

Do not expect fireworks…expect a breath, a feath­er, a hint of anoth­er way. To hear the mes­sage we must be still and open to the Wind of the Spir­it in which we live and find the true mean­ing of our lives.

And Venus will keep mov­ing back­wards for anoth­er 20 days, till Novem­ber 18. At that moment the ener­gies will shift again. We will be able to take that seed of a new under­stand­ing and begin to act on it, still unsure of its true impor­tance. The rev­e­la­tion of our new under­stand­ing comes lat­er, much lat­er, when Venus again aligns with the Sun and Earth around August 16, 2011.

But we can be com­fort­ed tonight in the knowl­edge that the Uni­verse is offer­ing us help, as always, if we can take a moment and be still and reex­am­ine what is good, what is beautiful…what is love to me…tonight.