I'm calling the Moon lining up with Saturn a soul cycle just to make the cycle more poetic and thereby easier to remember. The Moon has a regular cycle with every other body in the solar system, and each of those cycles between one line-up to the next, of the Moon and another body, could be called a soul cycle. Why? Because the Moon is associated with soul and motherhood.
This post and the one before it focus on the Soul's relationship with the limits of existence, which are associated, or as Spinoza would say, attributed, to Saturn. Humans have been following the 27 year orbit of Saturn for well over 5,000 years, and it shouldn't be surprising that they came to associate this cycle with self control and rising to positions of responsibility in the community. The Soul learning to function within the limiting circumstances of physical existence is represented by the symbol of the cross over the crescent. The cross is a point in space and time, measured by the meridion crossing the horizon. As mortal beings, existing in bodies, we can only be in one point in time and space, at a given moment. Those are the limits of mortal existence the cross referred to long before the Romans crucified Jesus as well many criminals and other enemies of the state.
When we draw the cross over the cresent we are calling to mind this concept of an extended cycle as the crucible of the Soul's purification - the experience of becoming responsible members of the human community.
In the chart below, the blue circle goes around Saturn, Pluto and the Moon. To keep it simple we will overlook Pluto and just focus on Saturn and Moon. The Moon is about 18degrees ahead of Saturn and they are both in the sign Capricorn. Saturn, the planet of the long orbit rules in Capricorn, the sign of long nights.
I have to stick this pitiful reminder in before I go further - Many folks, including me, consider current Saturn to be in Cancer for locations in Southern Hemisphere. People in the Southern Hemisphere have the major task of transcribing this meditation to fit their radically different perspective of the solar system.
Back to our Northern Hemisphere meditation on Moon meeting Saturn. I wrote last month's post a few hours before Moon met Saturn. When Moon is about to meet Saturn, it is in Saturn's last house. At that time they are near the end of their cycle of meeting, separating and meeting again. There are twelve houses so the last house is another way of saying twelfth house. When the Moon has just lined up with Saturn and is less than 30degrees ahead it is in Saturn's first house. It is in the first step of a new cycle of meeting, separation and return to new unification.
The new cycle began Sunday night at 10:40 Raleigh time. Tomorrow morning we will be finished with the first step and graduating to the second - the Moon will be at 4degrees Aquarius, over 30degrees ahead of Saturn. The imtensity of the relationship between Soul and the God of Self Control will diminish somewhat as Soul progresses in its monthly orbit, passing in succession the various other bodies, renewing its cycle with each one before returning to check in with General Saturno.
I did make it up to Maine to visit my son. We had a wonderful 42 hours together, and I felt like a very privileged tourist being treated to an insider's view of historic boat building and sailing. My son drove back to Raleigh with me and flew back to Maine early Sunday morn. Now I am reflecting the next Saturnian challenge that life is unfolding for me.
This morning I was called maternal yet again, and I immediately said, "it's not me, it's Moon meeting Saturn." I no longer think of myself as being shaped by my childhood experiences with my mother, but as both of us being shaped by the familiar cycle of the Moon.