By the time you read this, chances are you have had your own dose of challenging Saturn energy, so highlighted by the Full Moon that initiated the month. Have a look at the accompanying Nova article for a description of the energetics of this particular Full Moon. Click HERE

Libran Moon conjunct Persephone.

As I said in the Nova article, the simplest description of this is emotional transformation. As an underworld goddess Persephone draws us down into territory the rational human in us would prefer to ignore. She is one of those energies, like Shiva and her consort Pluto, that specialise in shattering our delusions, unconsciousness and naiveté. In drawing us into the shadow realms, she demands purification, releasing the old, confronting our emotional suppressions, especially around old grief and losses not fully acknowledged or felt.

Her gifts in response to running this emotional gauntlet is that we can come out with truer emotional freedom and depth, greater psychological and spiritual acuity and astuteness, and being able to offer deeper holding spaces for others as they go through their own significant transitions.

Mercury Retrograde in Aries.

Firstly, I must admit that I’ve tended to see popular writing about the impact of mercury retrograding as being a little over-stated, compared to the much bigger transits around at any time. However, this one, which kicked in on March 23rd, has been most impressive in its challenges.

The classical interpretations are, since Mercury rules communication, thinking processes, mental focus and learning, that the retrograde period coincides with miscommunications, memory or attention lapses, lost mail, computer glitches and the general feeling that mischievous gremlins are messing with us! All of which make forward movement much more difficult, which is another real challenge to the wilful aspects of Aries.

What makes this one particularly intense is that it locks in squares from Mercury to Black Moon, Saturn and Mars, none of which are particularly pleasant at the best of times. Normally these transits would only colour a few days but the retrograde motion extending that into weeks and in the case of Mercury square Saturn, for most of the month. There will be a shift though, when Mercury does an about change and goes forward on the 15th.

Saturn conjunct Mars in Capricorn

Despite the hard aspects to the Aries Sun and Libran Moon, there is much to appreciate about this rather terse conjunction. While Mars can express as the wilful masculine, impatient, restless and wanting its own way, Saturn comes then as the wise, sometimes not so wise, patriarch who forces the warrior to slow down, get more grounded and ultimately more effective in a search to act in the world.

However while Mars will resist such modification, he can learn to better at physically manifesting and creating in the world, as well is to be able to assert his abundant energy with more patience, realism and even wisdom.

This is a rather frustrating combination but, a good analogy is the sharpening of a chisel or a knife on a stone, the resistance of which creates a cleaner, sharper and more effective tool. So we can imagine that we are having our personal will being held to the grindstone.

I’m also reminded of that scene in the early Star Wars movies when Luke Skywalker is being mentored by the patient, all knowing Yoda while in the swamp!

Shiva conjunct Mars and Saturn 

This looks like Mars being double teamed by two mature and more empowered forms of the masculine. In the case of Shiva, this god of yoga and tantra embodies what happens when you purify and refine the raw aggressive energies of the masculine, and when you connect warrior energy with spiritual power and sensitivity.

So Shiva and Saturn create an alchemical vessel in which the classical warrior energy is brewed up, purified, clarified and eventually empowered to act not just physically but spiritually in the world, with a heightened awareness.
And when Shiva is not engaged in driving the wheel of death and rebirth or in ecstatic love making with his consort, he can become rather disengaged from the material world, preferring detachment and meditation.

Having Mars and Saturn next door in Capricorn encourages the opposite, of bringing down to earth some of the heightened gifts of such refined, yet powerful masculine spiritual, psychological and creative power.

Out of the intensity of this alchemical combination and this Full Moon is the possibility of eventually being able to wield this luminous potency with vigour, supreme one pointedness and penetrating assertive drive.

Chiron conjunct Parvati, in grand trine with Jupiter conjunct Psyche in Scorpio and Hecate in Cancer

Here are two goddesses, Parvati and Psyche, who both represent the urges and the longing to be able to create higher quality relationship, both in conjunction with high-quality masculine energy and in supportive relationship with each other.

As many of you know Jupiter and Psyche have been hanging out together for months, both elevating energies that simultaneously expand our longing for soul to soul connection in our relationships, while creating a great deal of restlessness and dissatisfaction where that need is not being met. As I’ve written in earlier columns, this alone can be enough to bring some people to leave relationships that don’t meet up to that heightened standard.

While Chiron shares many of the qualities of Jupiter, both being agencies of growth, spiritual knowledge, wisdom and superb teaching ability, as the Wounded Healer his nature is to bring about deep healing in whatever or whoever he touches. While travelling with the goddess of the sacred marriage, he cannot help but to activate old relationship wounds within us that get in the way of creating such high-quality uniting, whether within or without.

On the other hand, while Parvati leads us to the highest experiences of love, she is also a very focused, tough, committed Yogini who becomes, through her own self effort, the equal partner to the great Shiva. So she brings that same profound feminine potency to Chiron, who has his own wounds alongside being an awesome spiritual master. Together they are a union of great spiritual power, that flows readily through the grand trine to Jupiter and Psyche, linking power, knowledge and grace.

This in turn gets reinforced by the presence of Hecate, the Witch Queen/medicine woman who brings her own power, magic and healing to the equation from the sign of Cancer. My sense of is that she acts as both priestess and midwife to these potentials for sacred, soul unions.

What does this mean for us in the midst of the Saturnian challenges for the month?

It means that underneath the surface manifestations, there is great spiritual and healing power available, especially around relationships, sexuality and transformation. And even if we can’t feel into this layer during the month, the grace is nevertheless still present, and the fruits of this will become more apparent in May, when the collective will allow more of the sacred marriage archetypes to surface.

In the meantime, sharpen your tools, watch the alchemical brewing of the masculine, stay focused but don’t push, being kind to those parts of you that have suffered from negative Saturn attention, especially from childhood.

It is also an important time to keep checking in on the child within through any of the classic inner child practices that allow you to do so.

Go well and take care,

Daniel