Astral Weeks
July 22-28
Sunday, July 22nd sees a lot of movement
as the Sun at the final degree of Cancer moves into Leo at 2pm Pacific / 5pm
Eastern / 12am (Monday) Israel time. The day starts out with the Moon in
Scorpio, but by mid-afternoon and early evening in the US and early morning
hours in Israel, the Moon has moved into Sagittarius. We start the day with
Water/Water energy and end it with Fire/Fire.
Venus in Virgo sextiles Jupiter
in Scorpio, expanding the capacity for deeply analytical introspection which is
just about what the doctor ordered as today is the Fast of Tisha b’Av,
commemorating the destruction of both the first and second Temples in Jerusalem
as well as other devastating historic calamities which befell the Jewish
people.
Morning is the best time to look inward and perform an extremely thorough,
if not ruthless, moral inventory. By evening it’s time to forgive yourself and others
and re-calibrate your inner compass to your own True North. Those who have not
yet discovered the location of either their own inner compass or their own True
North are left at the mercy of the direction and opinions of others.
By Monday, you’ll be so glad Sunday is over you’ll
just be grateful to take a deep breath and exhale. The Moon enters Capricorn on
Tuesday, shortly after Venus in Virgo opposes Neptune in Pisces. Neptune
is sometimes called the “higher octave” of Venus, and this opposition tests Virgo’s
practicality against Neptune’s idealism (read: fantasy). It may be beautiful, but
is it useful? Moon in Capricorn comes down squarely on the side of material
manifestation.
Wednesday the Sun in Leo squares Uranus in Taurus.
Leo/Taurus is a “power square” (the two signs are at a 90-degree angle). Queen
Elizabeth II and Barbara Streisand are both Taurus Sun / Leo Moon. and Mick
Jagger and Bill Clinton are both Leo Sun / Taurus Moon. Fixed Earth Taurus is indicative
of wealth, stability, and status-quo, while Fixed Fire Leo is pride, royalty,
and a dramatic/theatrical flavor. Uranus is the planet of instability, unpredictability,
originality, and erratic behavior. In Taurus, Uranus brings disruptive change
to the status quo. Squared to the Sun in Leo, this may be a challenge to
existing leadership. Communicative Mercury stations Retrograde late Wednesday /
early Thursday morning at 23 degrees Leo, making an uncomfortable Quincunx (150-degree
angle) to power-player Pluto in Capricorn. The right hand doesn’t know what the
left hand is doing – in this case, the right side of the mouth doesn’t know
what the left side is saying.
Thursday might be the best day of the year
to take a temporary vow of silence, maybe just until Friday, which starts
out with Sun in Leo opposite Mars in Aquarius in the wee small hours, followed
by the Lunar Eclipse / Full Moon at 4 degrees Aquarius.
The Lunar Eclipse / Full Moon is the longest (104 minutes
total) of the 21st Century. Retrograde Mars in Aquarius conjunct the
eclipsed Moon fuels the moral indignation and public passions of “the people.” Mercury Retrograde in Leo will surely roar when
pride is wounded, or gravitas offended. Fresh on the heels of Wednesday’s
Sun/Uranus square, likely manifestations are rebellion, revolution, and
revulsion against perceived threats to personal and corporate freedoms. Soundtrack?
“Blows Against the Empire” by Paul Kantner and the Jefferson Starship. Play it
loud. This will NOT be a quiet day for anyone.
Friday is also Tu b’Av (the 15th of
the Hebrew month of Av). The Mishna in Ta’anit 4 tells us: “There were
no better (i.e. happier) days for the people of Israel than the Fifteenth of Av
and Yom Kippur, since on these days the daughters of Israel/Jerusalem go out
dressed in white and dance in the vineyards. What were they saying: Young man, consider
whom you choose (to be your wife)?” The Mishna continues: “On those days, the
daughters of Jerusalem would wear borrowed white dresses -- everyone would
borrow someone else's dress, to not embarrass someone who didn't have one --
and dance in the vineyards.” The Talmud in Ta’anit 30:b fills in some of
the backstory, telling us that “tribes of Israel were permitted to mingle with
each other.” Men from every tribe were free to marry women from other tribes
after the restoration of Benjamin after Israel’s civil war (Judges 21).
The
democratization of the daughters of Israel (Moon in Aquarius) who borrowed
white clothing from one another so that none would be embarrassed by her
poverty while dancing in the vineyards under the full moon (Leo), on display
for potential husbands from various tribes is a perfect symbolic antidote to Friday’s
frenetic energy.
Just in time, Shabbos Nachamu begins Friday night. We’ll
read Parshat Va’etchanan on Saturday, hear the repetition of the 10
Commandments, and during the Haftarah, the magnificent verses of Isaiah: Nachamu,
Nachamu Ami (Comfort ye, Comfort ye my people) will lift our souls and
revive our sagging spirits if the rough-and-tumble celestial energies of this
week have left us feeling forlorn or just plain worn-out.
A Deeper Look into Friday’s Full Lunar Eclipse
Friday’s lunar eclipse occurs at a very sensitive point (4
Aquarius), within a -3-degree orb of the upcoming Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction at
zero degrees Aquarius in December 2020. This is important because in classical
astrology, the Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction above is thought to reflect changes
in religion below. The role of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in world history
as understood by the great 8th century Persian astrologer Abu Ma’shar
was brought into medieval Jewish thought by 11th century Spanish
commentator Abraham Bar Hiyya, who emphasized the religious implications of
this transit in historical astrology.
Important:
This Friday’s lunar eclipse is the energetic prequel to the Jupiter-Saturn
Conjunction of December 20-24, 2020, which itself is preceded on December 14,
2020 by a Solar Eclipse at 23 degrees Sagittarius – the companion Solar Eclipse
to the Lunar Eclipse of June 14, 1946: the day Donald J. Trump was born.
Yes, let that sink in. Trump was born on the Lunar Eclipse
of June 14, 1946. The Sun in Gemini at 23 Degrees opposite and eclipsing the
Moon in Sagittarius at 23 Degrees. During the Solar Eclipse of December 14,
2020, the Moon at 23 degrees Sagittarius will eclipse the Sun at the same
degree. Bookends? Portends of a parenthetical beginning and ending? The Full
Lunar Eclipse this Friday, July 27, 2018, is the kick-off which climaxes in December
2020 – six weeks minus one day after the Presidential Election on November 3rd,
2020.
The greatest conjunction between Saturn and Jupiter, the conjunction
maxima, (Hebrew: ha-dibbuq ha-gadol), was thought by medieval Jewish
astrologers to be the indication of new religions ascending to prominence. Bar
Hiyya links the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Aquarius and Pisces to the emergence
and re-emergence of Israel, just as he associates the conjunction of the two
planets in Virgo/Libra to portend the birth of Christianity and the conjunction
in Scorpio to signal the birth of Islam.
Bar Hiyya explicitly associates the dibbuq ha-gadol
with messianic expectations in his Megillat ha-Megalleh. Yehudah ben
Nissim ibn Malka (13th century Morocco) and Abraham Zacuto (14th
century Portugal) both wrote about the conjunction maxima as a prophetic
messianic portent. Friday’s Full Lunar Eclipse at 4 Aquarius as a kick-off to
the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at zero Aquarius in December 2020 escalates the global
and ever-growing sense of urgency underscoring the common understanding that a
profound change of some sort must happen and happen soon.
May we only
hear good news, and may the One Who created the heavens and the earth and
everything else imbue us with mercy, grace, and love for one another and for
ourselves.
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