Grounding
Things have really been moving quickly for me and I’m finally able to slow down…a little…
This morning I had a brief moment to look at the rising sun in the sky. It occurred to me that I hadn’t paid attention to him for at least a week. I’ve been staying downtown for a dog sit. I also started my new job and have now worked four days. I have not had nearly as much time to be outside for a sit. I miss already the calmness of my unemployed days.
Its funny to me that all of this action in my life coincided with the beginning of Eclipse Season and just after Easter. As Mercury turned retrograde and now as Pluto will do the same, I feel like I am finally breaking the horse. I’ve been thrown several times but I was finally able to stay on for more than 8 seconds. The reigns for me are my faith practices.
Somehow I have found time to continue with this routine since Easter Sunday. I remember when two meditations a day seemed excessive. I’m really not sure why but when I was doing the Waking Up App it felt like ten minutes, twice a day was a huge commitment to something. I spend 10–20 minutes in my meditations., four times a day now.
All the evidence I have tells me that I will change and will become something different if I continue this practice. It’s like feeding myself a completely different mental diet. Just like when I switched from Android to Apple devices. My mind began to work differently. Just like when I took a course for SCUBA certification and one for a Wilderness First Responder. My mind shifted and began to work differently upon receiving the download.
I imagine a piece of taffy being stretched. That’s what its like to meditate during the day. It stretches the day out longer, inserting some air. It makes my automatic response a grounded and centered one instead of an unstable and volatile one. That’s the sensibility we develop by creating space in the day, attuning our nervous system to a more relaxed state. This becomes the baseline from which we respond to something out of the ordinary.
The Astrology
A message is coming through, which could be blindingly obvious.
Mercury: Ground Control to Major Tom
Just after the Solar Eclipse in the sign of Aries, Mercury turned retrograde in the sign of Taurus. After about 14 weeks of all planets moving direct, we finally get a break in the action. Maybe it hasn’t felt like quite that long because Mars moving back through the shadow phase of his retrograde was a little sluggish. There was a false start at the very beginning of Aries season and a second opportunity to get moving with the recent Eclipse.
Mercury is now moving retrograde, which gets a bad reputation for causing disruptions in our communication, short distance travel, and local environment. It is a great time to review documents, budgets, and any sort of paperwork or protocol. If you need to take inventory on anything, this is a great time to do so. Mercury will be approaching the Sun.
Currently, the Sun is conjunct the North Node at the point to where Mercury will retrograde in the sign of Taurus. This will occur at 5° of Taurus. Gene Key 27 or Hexagram 27 is about Nourishment, which is a major theme of the Venusian sign of Taurus.
For me I begin to visualize the recent failed launch of Starship because I was thinking of this eclipse as the final safety check. Nothing wrong with a failure, we always learn from them. The bigger you aim, the harder you fall. For someone like Elon Musk, he can fall pretty hard and has the means to get back up.
For most of us, we have to build up to the strength with slow steady progress. Maybe in an effort to bring Elon down to Earth a little, we can presence the fact that it took a lot of time and effort for him to build up to the power he has. Taurus is not rushed, it is firm and fixed. It is certain before it takes action, which is very different from Aries, the sign which precedes it. It is often stated that each sign contains within it the antidote to any shortcomings of the sign before it.
Pluto: Ground Hog Day
Not only is Mercury Retrograde in full swing, Pluto will turn retrograde this weekend. He will begin to move back through the final degrees of Capricorn to revivify themes around our money and structural systems. Pluto is all about power so I find it interesting that the headlines quickly shifted from “AI is the greatest threat to man kind” to “Joe Biden has announced his bid for re-election”. That is Pluto moving from Aquarius (Technology) to Capricorn (Structure). All I can say is that 29 degrees of Capricorn sounds a lot like crumbling infrastructure to me. Maybe it's the scaffolding coming down. We’ll see.
In terms of what does Aquarius resolve with regards to Capricorn. For me, I’d say it is the restrictive tone of Saturn. Saturn rules both signs, and is associated with time. When it comes to Aquarius, that is into the future; future technologies, science fiction, artificial intelligence. When it comes to Capricorn, it is looking to the past for answers. “The way things have always been is how they work best.” “If it ain’t completely broke, there’s nothing to see here!”
Aquarius introduces innovation, invention, a new method. It has respect for wisdom of its elders, and has no desire to be fake to gain followers. For a Saturn ruled sign, Aquarius has the potential to be somewhat hopeful. I think of the SolarPunk movement. Slightly cynical but artful and productive with their messaging.
I think that this final lap of Pluto in Capricorn is going to feel like a bizarre re-run. The fifth time they air the same episode of Golden Girls. How many times did you watch it before you knew every line? Remember how bored we used to be to consume that sort of programming? There was so much time to review, to read, to exist.
All of this power in Pluto has been moving through this Earthy sign of abundant resources. If there is one thing that Capricorn will do its provide. The shift for Pluto themes, as we have seen during this first ingress into Aquarius, will likely be surrounding A.G.I and other technologies that might have us wondering what exactly it means to be human.
Originally written in Collective Journaling at The Stoa
