Don't fret about skipping over the link above. If this essay captures your imagination you can go back and read it. And the chart below is really just for people who are fascinated with the kinds of maps of heaven that people like Pythagoras and Plato would have been exposed to when they studied the system of time used by the Babylonians, Egyptians and other cultures that those eminent Greeks admired. The current format is quite evolved from the one used 24 centuries ago, but the language is the same and still refers to the cycles of the same planets in the same galaxy.
So relax your mind. Take a few conscious breaths. The map below is for the moment i changed the clock on my stove for daylight savings time in Raleigh. There's a lot of information there. More than most people need, but plenty for someone who wants to formulate a very specific and accurate model in their mind of where Raleigh was in the ever unfolding cosmos. Keep in mind that to Plato's contemporaries, the Greek word cosmos meant order or arrangement; so if one of Plato's first students at the Academy were transported to the 1950's and saw news reports on television about Russian cosmonauts in 'outer' space, they might very well imagine a futuristic boat exploring the order of the heavens.
While this may be an annoying distraction, i encourage readers to at least make a note to meditate on Jason and the Argonauts, including a full study of the celestial mechanics of the northern constellation Hercules and the southern constellation Argo Navis. The story, though much older, was recorded by Apollonius Rhodius just a few generations after Plato wrote Timeaus, in which he points out that the absurd myths associated with the constellations are actually referring to the angular relationships between heavenly spheres. Though the chart below does not explicitly locate Hercules, any person thoroughly versed in the teachings of the Babylonian and Egyptian priesthood would have understood the 26 thousand year cycle between the northern constellation Hercules and the location of the spring equinox along the ecliptic. Now-a-days we refer to it as the precession of the equinox. Don't be fooled by tradition bound authoritative scholarship citing Hipparchos as the discoverer of this celestial phenomenon. Neither Plato nor Hipparchos considered themselves discoverers; Plato stated as a matter of course that the philosophy, which meant technology of nature, he was writing about had come to the Greeks from the Babylonians and Egyptians.
Enough wandering through a small segment of ancient history in a very limited region of our globe, and back to this morning's chart. Below you will see two pairs of planets circled. Each pair is in an aspect called conjunction. That means they are lined up with each other.
Aspect is a word often used in astrology to describe the angular relationship between two points. When the Moon is full it is 180 degrees in the chart circle from the Sun. We call this aspect an opposition. When the Moon is new and visible a few days after conjunction it appears as a thin crescent for a mere hour or two after sunset; then, it is 30 degrees from the Sun in the chart and we call this aspect a semisextile. A few days later the crescent is thicker and appears higher in the sky at sunset; in the chart the moon is then 60 degrees from the Sun and this aspect is called a sextile. Let's skip over the square (90 degrees) and the trine (120 degrees) and look at the quincunx which is the 150 degree aspect. The Moon reached that stage in its relationship with the Sun yesterday morning.
Aspects are a very popular shorthand for considering the relationship between two points. Many astrology sites distinguish between major and minor aspects, as though some relationships are more important than others. While it is true that some relationships grab our attention more than others the nice thing about charts is that we can use them to equalize those relationships and simply see them as a series of steps in repeating cycles. We do this by meditating on houses. Each 30 degrees a point puts between itself and another one in a cycle represents a house. When the Seventh house is reached the two points begin coming back together, with the last 6 houses marking the half of the cycle where the separation between the two points is gradually diminished.
Next is the same chart for this morning when I changed the clock, but this time i made a circle with 30 degree sections beginning at Venus/Uranus; so you can see how the Moon is near the end of Venus/Uranus' 4th house and about to enter their 5th.
Are you getting dizzy thinking about all these relationships? The yoga sutras remind us to focus on just one. You enter the mandala seeing the many points and lines connecting them - there are so many it is impossible to make sense of all of them - but you can ponder a few and as you proceed in meditation allow your mind to settle on one relationship considering only the two points involved and the signs they are in. For instance, let's consider the relationship between the Moon and Venus/Uranus. The Moon is in the very beginning of the sign Virgo which is the step in the zodiac associated with study, learning and apprenticeship. The Moon, because it is so near to us, proceeds very quickly through the zodiac in less than 29 days. Meanwhile, Venus is lining up with Uranus in Taurus. Uranus is fairly distant and slow in its cycle, we will not see it pass into Gemini until summer 2025, while Venus will enter Gemini in less than four weeks (April 3). So, since it involves the Moon and Venus, we know this relationship is changing very rapidly. We are talking about psyche, that strange word in classic Greek literature that is invariably translated into English as soul. Psyche is impossible to grasp, but infuses everything. Psyche is most certainly associated with breath and the human ability or inability to control it. A person with a disturbed psyche is unable to control their breath. They are under control of emotional forces for better or worse. Like an infant blessed with good health, well nurtured and fed on a regular schedule, the Moon in Virgo translates as the psyche in a very regulated step in the zodiac cycle. It is only there for 2 and 1/2 days, but this morn marked the beginning of that short period.
An informative aside here - a very experienced astrologer would have in the bottom pool of their mind an awareness that Mercury is now stationary in Aquarius, its sign of exaltation. They would not need to distract their mind to gain an understanding of how this placement of Mercury strengthens the refined energy of the Moon in Virgo. Come along with me. Let that pass as we return our focus to the one relationship under consideration.
The Moon in Virgo is at the end of Venus and Uranus' 4th house. The 4th house is the most tender step in the process of one sphere separating from another sphere. The 4th house is the house of children and dependents as opposed to the 10th house of parents and responsibility. Any planet from 90 -120 degrees ahead of another planet is just beginning to stand on its own two feet independently of the planet in question. In this case the studious Moon is finishing the tender segment of its evolving relationship with Uranus and Venus. The previous 2 and 1/2 days while Moon was passing through bouncing Leo, in addition to all the other relationships it had with the various points in heaven, it was looking back at Uranus and Venus in Taurus steadily going through their respective paces like a couple of blinded horses driving a grindstone from the bars strapped to their halters. Remember Venus is just passing through for a month of helping Uranus in its 7 year indentured servitude. But what a wonderful partnership. No planet is more disposed to accepting the weight of a heavy load than Venus. Venus bears weight as though it were merely a puff of water vapor hesitant to evaporate and take leave of such kindness and equanimity. So Moon in bouncing Leo looks back at Venus and Uranus driving their load as though they are stepping to some happy tune humming in their heads. Venus near Uranus in Taurus brings kindness to this vulnerable period in the Moon's monthly cycle with Uranus. Most other months, as the Moon circles from Uranus in Taurus to its 4th house (bouncing Leo is 4th house from Taurus) it looks back and sees only the powerful planet of revolution (Uranus) moving a heavy load like a solitary ox yoked to a plow. The hard working beast may be humming a happy tune or hearing "Old Man River" repeating in its weary mind. What must it feel like for the Moon to be at a sock hop learning the latest dance while Uranus seems stuck for almost ever yoked to the plow in the sunny field?
But this morning the Moon neared the end of that 4th house step with Sweet V and and Mighty Big U. Now it is entering school. While not driving a mill or pulling a plow, the Moon is doing its own work filling out forms or studying data. It is in a calmer place after the party and by now, as i have spent most of the day composing this post, it is at 6Virgo21. Can you see it in the chart below getting ready to rise? Counting 30 degree sections starting at 4Taurus01 can you tell that is has crossed into Venus/Uranus' 5th house?
Can you tell that I am having fun composing a very involved post? It is hard work. I have worn blinders most of this day, determined to finish what could seem like a very boring task. And i have only just begun. There is still a conversation with my husband about a dream he barely remembers. That took place yesterday when the Moon was in the bouncy sign of Leo but at the same time in 4th house tender step of its cycle with Uranus. Who knows when i will return to work on this page exploring the connection between astrology and how i see dreams as riddles, sometimes playful and nearly always baffling, tossed up from the pool of darkness.
This is the chart for ending this post, with fond hopes of returning soon to further this project about Dreaming in the Dark.
