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Monday 24 September 2012

Defining Mercury II

Mountains,  Emil Nolde
Read Part I here

In which we discover that Dickens was  Aquarian - how's that for synchronicity? I honestly didn't know.

Anyway, Mercury. Is still being squared by Saturn. And I was going to say I'll have to wing it, because I can't think of anything to say, but the fact is that actually I'm just not able to pour forth my thoughts in the usual way. What seems to be required is that I slow down, order my thoughts, consider the ideas and form them into a cohesive pattern. And this process is alien to my thinking nature.

 So. Here goes. I'm still going to wing it, after a fashion.

What is the purpose of language?

 Perhaps we should start by examining what language actually is. A form of communication. A method of expression. Communicating what, expressing what? Feelings, thoughts, notions? And where do these things arise? From inside of us, or from somewhere outside? Do these thoughts and feelings belong to us, or do they appear elsewhere and  just pass through us, the human, on their way?

And what is the method of expression? Words, music, painting, sculpture, dance, theatre. If all art is expression, then is all art language? Is nature then a language? If so, what is it expressing? What is it telling us?

I came across an idea once that language is a 'land-gauge'. A gauge of the land from which it arises, the frequency of that land. Which explains the multitude of languages, accents within a particular language, and indigenous music and art. That before people put shoes on their feet, shoes with rubber soles, they were conductors of the energies of their land, singing the music of their soul's arising. And as modern life has taken us further away from our natural sources, our song has become ever more simple, dull and uninspired. Mechanical and functional. IMO. YMMV.

And I think about languages with a form my brain doesn't recognise. Chinese, say. I listen and it sounds like music, because my mind is not able to decode it in any other way. When I lived in Wales, I used to listen to the Welsh language radio station and just experience the rhythms, cadences and tones. And what they said to me about the nature of the welsh essence. There is something underlying the words themselves that itself speaks volumes.  A right brain decoding, perhaps, rather than a left brain understanding.

But what seems to tie these notions back to the complexity and beauty of the words used by Dickens,  is speed. The faster life moves, the faster humans run through their lives, the less time and space there is for listening to and creating beautiful speech. There is a stillness required in the mind and soul to be able to receive and form.

And that, that stillness is a quality of Saturn. And now I see why so many of the people I know who write beautiful words, whose expression is poetic whether they are writing a poem or an email, have Mercury in aspect to Saturn. Mercury is quicksilver, and Saturn the container that holds and stills its reflective beauty.

A wing, and a prayer :)







Wednesday 5 September 2012

Defining Mercury I

Or: An Exercise (Possibly in Futility) For Saturn Transits To Mercury....

I wrote this back in January during the first pass of Saturn to natal Mercury. Finding myself tongue- tied now on the second pass, I thought it might be worth revisiting. Part two following.

I've gone quiet of late. Saturn is squaring my Sun, Mercury and Nodes and I've been slowed  right down, caused to think much about who and what I am, where I'm going and how I express myself.

In fact self expression, communication, writing, and words seem to have been major themes. I have Mercury in Aquarius and I think very fast, read very fast, and when inspired, have been known to talk so fast I forget what it was I was trying to say in the first place, and end up stuttering or stopping.  Often when I write, I cannot type or access the words fast enough to express the notion with which my mind is running. Zap, zap, zap.

Now the beauty of this is that the ego is often forced aside and great inspiration can appear as if from nowhere. New ideas and frequencies come unbidden through the Uranian mind working at it's highest, these being the realms in which knowledge and understanding can suddenly leap an octave and the human story begin a new chapter.

What this may lead to at the low end, though, is a style of communication that grabs at the nearest, easiest word or phrase. Linguistic fast food, if you like. The tool that gets the job done fastest. And platitudes become the norm. Which detaches the user from the warmth of human connection.

I remember a few years ago picking up a copy of Little Dorrit in a second hand bookshop. I hadn't read Dickens for years, and never that particular story so thought I'd give it a go. And I was stunned by the beauty of the language. Not so much the descriptive language, but the words that were coming out of the characters mouths. I would read lines over and over, immersing myself in the joy of it. The complexity and variety of the words and the way they were crafted. And the fact that people actually used to speak like this.

Consider our ways of speaking today. Some teenagers don't seem to possess the ability to communicate at all outside of text speak. Not only is most language fast, easy and purely functional (if that) the idea that words are a beautiful thing, to be explored, examined, played with, crafted,  in order to convey emotion, passion and the inspiration of the gods, is anathema to many people. WTF dude?

So all this begs the question; what is language, and what is its purpose?
















Wednesday 29 August 2012

How Saturn Sets You Free


I've been thinking a lot about Saturn recently. It's squaring my Sun and Mercury, and will be hard aspecting my Moon and natal Saturn in the next year. People like to moan and groan about Saturn transits but these are the times when a person really has the chance to come into their own authority.

We have a serious attitude problem these days towards authority. Experiences with overly authoritarian parents, teachers, religions and governments  have given many of us a tendency to react against it, rebelling in defiance of the restrictions we feel have been imposed on us. And this is one of the words that's often bandied about with Saturn - restriction. Limitation. Law. Order.

But this kind of restriction only happens if we have refused the challenge of Saturn - to grow up, and become the author of our own life. Until we are our own authority, we will be continually subjected to that of others.

What a hard Saturn transit actually does is force a slowing down and reassessment of who and what you are, what you have and what you want, before you proceed. He's the father, checking the tyres and the oil in your car before you set off on a journey. Have you keys, money, cards, maps, have you checked the route? Do you know where you're going, and are you quite sure this is what you want to do? Making things safe. Or he can be the policeman, coming to take you away to keep everyone else safe. It depends how well you've followed his instruction.

It's easy to get frustrated because the speed of life these days is so fast and we are programmed to want everything NOW. But Saturn in mythology was said to rule in the Golden Age, a time when life was slower and easier, when men lived like gods without pain, suffering or hardship. And I think the difficulties we feel when under Saturn are partly because his transits evoke this atavistic memory, the knowing buried deep inside of us that life was never meant to be so hard.

So this is a time where we need to be kind to ourselves, to rest, be slow and to contemplate our past and our future so that we can make reasoned decisions about the next step. Saturn is the outermost of the inner planets, shielding us  from the radiation of the heavy hitting outer planets. Keeping us safe. You could say that until we mature into the lessons of  Saturn we aren't able to effectively handle the frequencies of  Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. And with the Uranus Pluto squares affecting all of us over the next few years, we are really going to need that maturity and wisdom to guide us.

And this is how Saturn can set you free. By giving you time, and a safe space to grow into your own mastery.  It's work, but the rewards are tangible.

The sign of your natal Saturn will tell you where your authority lies. In my case it's Aquarius, so I'm always looking to the future, for new ideas and visions to progress whatever it is I'm involved with. And I have a innate respect for others who do so. I'll rebel, but nowadays there has to be a good reason for it, one based in humanitarian principle and not the knee-jerk reactivity of youth.

Where is your Saturn? And how do you feel about authority?






Friday 24 August 2012

Mars Neptune...Riding the Wave


Emil Nolde, Sea With Red Sky
Mars finally moved into Scorpio today, after a month and a half in 'shall I, shan't I ' Libra. If you found yourself blocked at every turn last week with Mars conjunct Saturn, you'll have more of an ease now, particularly over the next day or two as the red planet trines Neptune in Pisces.

Mars Neptune is an interesting combination and one that needs careful managing. Left to its own devices a neptunian Mars can spend  life daydreaming or dwelling in a perpetual fog, constantly thinking up bright ideas but never having enough oomph to follow them through. Energy seems to dissolve before anything can actually get done.

What Mars Neptune people are brilliant at, if they did but know, is catching a wave and riding it. These folks can spot a trend, tune into a frequency and go with the flow in a way that others can only marvel at. They  bide their time, watching the tides while the world around judges them for their 'laziness'. But just wait. When the time is right, when they feel it, off they go. And the momentum carries them forward.

So take advantage of this energy over the next couple of days. Let yourself be moved to work, rest or play, whatever feels right, because as Mars moves on and aspects Pluto and Uranus at the beginning of next week, things are going to get super-powered. Look to the house that Scorpio occupies in your chart and see where the action is taking place.

 And remember, Mars is the joint ruler of Scorpio and particularly powerful there, so if you have a project you've been thinking about starting, this next six weeks is a great time to set it motion.

Do you have a Mars Neptune aspect in your chart? How does it work for you?