Grand Cross with Saturn in Sagittarius square Neptune in Pisces, square Jupiter in Virgo and opposition with Sun, Venus and Vesta in Gemini.
If you have a look at the current Nova article, you will see that it is a particularly tricky month with the title of teacher Saturn appearing to rule the roost at the highest point in this month’s chart, along with Mars who continues to retrograde in Scorpio.
Anytime we have zodiac signs, planets or asteroids that rule the operation of the mind in opposition to Saturn, we come face-to-face with the inner critic, the judgmental authority figure, the tough taskmaster and many negative beliefs about the nature of ourselves, about life and about how we should be in the world. Many of these beliefs were absorbed into our subconscious from mostly patriarchal sources, whether our personal fathers, the unconscious masculine within our mothers, authority figures in general and 4000 years of patriarchal culture.
This confrontation can be quite a downer, showing us that despite our more conscious enlightened beliefs and our positive affirmations, we are still ruled in many ways subconsciously by beliefs that belong to other eras, other people’s belief systems that may or may not be accurate for us as unique individuals.
The gift in this though is that it forces us to do some serious work in sorting out our own authentic voices, authority and wisdom from that which is been absorbed and one of the paradoxes of Saturn energy is that he will actually help in the sorting if we accept his calls to delve deeper into our mental constructs, have the discipline and moral commitment to face our negativity and to be available to having our self-delusions, woolly thinking and unconsciousness challenged.
So it is important not to fall into adolescent rebelliousness, however attractive that may be, as we then lose some important opportunities. And especially with Saturn energy, that which we avoid bounces back in the next stages of our life-cycles. Ouch!
Saturn has an understandable reputation for being very tough on us, something often exaggerated when our fathers model its more negative expressions, but ultimately he is concerned with what is actually real, so that we can create on every level from a firm base. He is not anti-development as some tend to believe, he delays proceedings so that we can firm up the foundations of what we plan to create, whether lifestyles, careers and our more exalted visions.
Moon in Aries
This is something I didn’t have space to include in the Nova article and one which alleviates or attempts to balance out the ambiguity of the above grand cross. While the latter describes the psychically turbulent atmosphere that makes it hard to get moving, this moon in Aries offers some fire and traction by sextiling the Sun, Venus, Vesta conjunction and shining Saturn. If we can invoke the fiery extrovert and independent aspects of our emotional selves it will support us to link our thoughts, emotional energies and capacity for manifestation in ways that make things doable.
Eros conjunct Medusa in Pisces
Eros and Medusa, a strange duo of very different energies, have been hanging together for the last months and now are in hard aspect to Mars. The first two could be considered as significant enemies, the lightweight mischievous, seductive and playful god of love and all things erotic is likely to invoke some of the antagonism of Medusa towards potentially abusive aspects of the masculine. On the other hand Eros tends to take flight when threatened by deeper aspects of the feminine, let alone from the ferocious Gorgon!
In their entangled unhealed form this can attract and create experiences of the dark side of seduction and romantic attraction (online daters be cautious!) The same combination though represents opportunities to link the deepest sacred sexual power of the feminine with this light filled expression of playful masculine sexuality.
Obviously this takes a great deal of purificatory and transformative work, as few people on the planet have fully healed Medusas and, as we all know sexuality in our culture has taken all sorts of unhealthy directions. But this is one of those times when we can do some significant and powerful healing on this territory.
Mars in Scorpio squaring Medusa and Eros
Given what I’ve just written above, this aspect represents another confrontation between the equally warlike Mars and Medusa, one that easily invokes the images of the Roman Empire clashing with the cultures of the old religions. In the here and now then, power struggles are common, as are experiences of intense frustration, and for some unfortunately, accidents, physical and sexual violence.
Mars is the action arm of spirit and the energy of the Sun, a more conscious part of ourselves that seeks to act in the world, attain our desires, and express our passion. He doesn’t have much of a problem with Eros who is actually his son. With Medusa in Pisces though he will meet with not necessarily her fierce and frightening face but more likely a deep underlying toxicity that seems to devour light and drive, the stuff of deep and classic self-sabotage stemming from ancient and unreleased emotional trauma.
This is obviously not such a good scenario for outer accomplishment but is the perfect storm for therapeutic intervention around ancestral rage and trauma, its past-life sources and the collective agony from old culture wars between masculine and feminine. Time for good emotional purging, primal and breath work as well as detoxing meditations.
Jupiter conjunct North Node in Virgo
Once again we have this magnificent transit for opening to our higher or soul purposes, the generally benevolent Jupiter opening up the North node’s vision of our collective and personal future, peaking on June 21. We have the same conjunction in the last weeks of January and first weeks of February, so we’re getting another look in to these great mysteries.
Any major astrological body crossing the North node seems to open up portholes into this visionary point. So it is a good time to be meditating regularly, being more conscious of our dream lives and on the alert for spontaneous flashes of vision and insight. We can expect many synchronistic events around us, a reflection of the magic of the occasion and especially when the visitor is Jupiter.
The other common manifestation is that significant individuals can appear in one’s life who have the effect of opening us to greater possibilities, who actively assist in getting more aligned with our souls voices and/or who act as role models.
Classically, this can come in the form of a teacher but the truth is these individuals can come in any guise. At the very least, voices of grace within each of us will be strong and more available.
Be awake, magic is afoot!