Thoughts for February 2007 -
Plus ca change...

7 February 2007

I had an email from someone with a similar chart to Tony Blair asking if he should shut up shot until the end of the summer. This made me think that I should write something about what this means to ordinary people. What ever the conditions we find ourselves in, we have to carry on with our lives. we can't stay curled up in bed till the coast is clear. There are stories and symbolism which can enlighten us about the deeper meaning of these difficult configurations.

From now until the end of the month we’re in serious Saturn Neptune territory. Tomorrow – 8th Feb.– gives us the Sun Neptune conjunction, then Saturday – 10th Feb.– gives us the Sun Saturn opposition. Next week gives us Mercury retrograde in Pisces and the end of the month will see the second of three exact Saturn Neptune oppositions.

This is heady stuff. The essence of Saturn Neptune is the undermining of structure. Neptune erodes, obfuscates, confuses, dissolves, undermines, glamorizes, enraptures and covers in illusion what ever it touches or represents. Saturn brings rigour, discipline, structure, duty, responsibility, hierarchy, hard work, rules, foundations and consequences. The most common manifestation is Neptune undermining the Saturnian functions. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

Saturn also represents things which have dried up, aged and withered. He is the grin reaper. Saturnian death represents things which have outlived their time, are without fresh potential and worn out. This fits well with the traditional symbolism of reaping and autumn. Crops are dried out and are cut down. Only through this process can they move on to the spring and new growth.

2nd February 2007

Graphic Ephemeris February 2007

Graphic Ephemeris Mercury Jan - March 2007

Full Moon 2 February 2007

New Moon 17 February 2007

Greece

Tuesday, 30 January 2007 sees the start of the Mercury shadow. Mercury has now reached the position that it will get to when Mercury stations direct after it goes retrograde on 14 February. It finishes this shadow period when it catches up with the position it was at when it went retrograde. This will be on 28 March. The key positions are 25 Aquarius and 10 Pisces. It turns direct on 8 March. You can see this more easily if you look at the Mercury graphic ephemeris.

Mercury retrogrades have a bad name. Anything and everything gets blamed on a retrograde Mercury which isn’t entirely fair.

Mercury goes retrograde three times a year for around three weeks each time. These retrogrades are also in the same element each year. This year they’re in water. Or should I say water and a bit of air as it crosses sign boundaries.

Retrogrades in air bring classic Mercury Retrograde stories: the phones don’t work, postal strikes, computer networks implode, email is late. This is due to the close affinity between Mercury and air – they’re very close symbolically. Retrogrades in the other element’s have a slightly different emphasis.

Air – disruption in communication
Fire – disruption in meaning, hope, faith, vision
Earth – disruption in practicality, productivity, resources
Water – disruption in feeling, motivation, trust, belonging

This year we have three Mercury retrograde periods in water. The watery theme is continued with the Saturn Neptune opposition which reaches the second of three exact aspects at the end of February.

These times do not tend to be conducive to the way we live modern western lives. We expect everything to happen at a moments notice, we do not give due regard for the different qualities of time and the season’s and we don’t allow ourselves or others time to renew, review and regenerate. It’s supposed to be go, go, go all the time.

Mercury retrograde periods demand that we do pay due attention to these things. We are stopped from charging forward by misunderstanding, delays in travel, delays in everything for that matter. The essence of the misunderstandings and disruption follows the element, as mentioned above. This doesn’t mean that the trains won’t be late but that we react to them according to the element: we may feel betrayed by delays, for instance.

Please don’t put your life on hold for three weeks. Something in the sky is always less than perfect but you have to get on with it. Developing an awareness of what’s going on in the sky helps us to become aware of what we should be taking greater care over. There is a traditional stricture over signing contracts during Mercury retrograde periods as intentions will be confused and not all information will be disclosed. There’s nothing to stop you signing contracts if you can cope with the consequences. I have a history of accepting jobs when Mercury is retrograde and they’re never what you expect but I would stress that this is not always a bad thing. By all means save your once in a lifetime decision for the best celestial line up but do you really need to wait before you mow the lawn?

Saturn and Neptune perfect their opposition late this month and the crisis in structure, law and authority continues. Not only is Saturn conjunct the 1801 Saturn – Solstice Article Link – which is dragging many things out but the opposition from Neptune is blurring boundaries, creating scandal and deceit and undermining authority. What ever the stink actually is, it wont clear until at least the end of March – also the end of the Mercury shadow? – and probably not until the final opposition in late June.

What went on in January?

Right on cue with the Mars Pluto conjunction came the strike on the US embassy in Athens, Greece. The Moon is also tightly sextile Pluto.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1988854,00.html

And we should remember the Guardian's reputation for typos. Why would they put a time in a BST equivalent in January? While creating the chart I put in GMT by mistake and found a chart which described the situation very well. Searching for another source I find the BBC give the time in GMT.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6254399.stm

Strike on US Embassy

We also saw a reworking of the US policy on Iraq and a State of the Union address which appeared to take on board the issues and concerns surrounding climate change around the time of this conjunction.

Appropriately enough for Jupiter in Sagittarius square Uranus in Pisces that the first pagan ceremony for many centuries was performed in Greece on the day of the exact aspect. Doubly appropriate is the position of the north node: conjunct Greece’s Jupiter at 17° Pisces.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2003096,00.html