03 Apr Seize Fate by the Throat ~ April 4th – 10th, 2016
“I will seize Fate by the throat. It will not wholly conquer me! Oh, how beautiful it is to live – and live a thousand times over!”
– Ludwig von Beethoven
This week, with the Sun, Moon, Venus, Saturn, and Uranus all in fire signs, there are many astrological aspects which will encourage you to take heart and seize fate by the throat! This is a week to take inspiration from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, feeling humbled by its majesty and elated by its triumphant power.
~First Movement~
At the beginning of the week, the Sun in Aries will trine Saturn Rx in Sagittarius, brightening the flame of your endurance. This trine will act as a support to allow you to gracefully shift your current perspective, as both Mercury and Venus simultaneously change signs.
Venus With Mercury And Cupid by Louis Michel van Loo
On Tuesday, Mercury will move into Taurus, anchoring your mind in practical processes that work towards the pursuit of material stability and comfort. Due to an upcoming retrograde, Mercury will remain in Taurus until June, so there will be plenty of time to get comfortable with Taurean logic and hone the ability to make excellent long term plans.
On the same day, Venus will be leaving her sign of exaltation in Pisces and will be entering into Aries, the sign of cardinal fire! With Venus in a sign traditionally ruled by Mars, expect to feel your heart’s desires inflamed, to take bold actions, and to be enlivened by your passions.
With Mercury influencing you to create practical stratagems and Venus playing the role of conquering hero, any projects that have been lagging under the weight of inertia may suddenly find momentum! Whatever it is you want, seize it by the throat!
Kreutzer Sonata by René François Xavier Prinet.
Just like the first movement of the Ninth Symphony, the beginning of the week will mark the genesis of new music within you. You will feel the call to unite the polarities of agony and ecstasy that quiver inside. Ultimately, this shift in consciousness will enable you to conquer your haunted past through an indelible force of creative energy, born straight from the hardships you have endured.
~Second Movement~
By the middle of the week, the Sun in Aries will square Pluto in Capricorn. Expect to confront a significant power struggle, specifically something that deals with unconscious habits that need to be broken. It may feel like you are losing control of a relationship or a situation, but know that this is a necessary tremor in your life that will break up hardened matter into fertile soil.
Cameo of Cornelian Shell, “St. Michael Defeats the Devil” – Italy, circa 1860
The first New Moon of the spring on Thursday will also be squaring Pluto in Capricorn, offering you the chance to usher in a fresh new feeling of joy and inspiration in the face of a challenge. To summon courage in the face of fear is the ultimate alchemical transmutation and this New Moon in Aries will be a great opportunity to channel your intensity through commitment to an ambition that has long felt out of reach.
Like the second movement of the Ninth Symphony, the middle of the week will be a challenge faced in the pursuit of joy. Let the momentum of galloping revelry push you ahead with the feeling of certain victory illuminating your heart!
~Third Movement~
Friday and Saturday will bring an opportunity to experiment and try something exciting and new! On Saturday, the Sun will conjunct Uranus in Aries, combining solar willpower with a taste for revolution and invention. This is a day to begin a journey (internal or external) that will expand your known universe beyond its former boundaries, offering you a chance to dream of a bright future: vivified and electric!
Terpsichore by Paul Baudry
Much like the conjunction between the Sun and Uranus, the third movement of the Ninth Symphony creates a markedly different atmosphere, engendering an entirely new soundscape. The previously thundering music becomes lilting and lyrical, evoking sensations that enchant you into believing that the world can be a place where Grace and Beauty reign supreme. Lost in elliptical melody, the third movement envisions the promise of a better tomorrow!
~Fourth Movement~
After experiencing so much ripe opportunity to seize the day and thrust yourself into actions that bring you closer to your true will, by Sunday (with the Moon waxing in Gemini) you will behold a multitude of visions that have been born from the stirrings of the fire inside you.
Like the fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony, Sunday will be a day of synthesis, where the whole arch of emotional experience in all of its permutations and meanderings reaches an apex.
Life is not fully realized by finding pleasure and avoiding pain, but is instead realized by creating nectar from the flowers of experience. . .At this crucial moment of revelation, the heart swells with Joy, feeling unconquerable and eternal.
First Performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
In 1824, on a balmy spring day in Vienna, Ludwig van Beethoven premiered the performance of the Ninth Symphony. Though he was in fact too deaf by this time to actually hear his musicians playing, Beethoven appeared as the conductor of the performance to arouse excitement in the audience.
As a recognized genius in his own time, his presence on stage made this a huge event! With the real conductor hidden off to the side, Beethoven stood center stage and wildly threw himself into his own imagination of sound, no doubt feeling the vibrations of his greatest artistic triumph resounding far into the future!
Freidrich von Schiller
At the end of the Ninth Symphony, as the operatic choir joins the orchestra in ecstatic celebration, an overwhelming feeling of destiny and purpose for humanity rises! The lyrics sung come from German philosopher/poet/playwright Friedrich von Schiller’s poem, “Ode to Joy”. Beethoven had long admired the works of Schiller and he used “Ode to Joy” to express his belief in the triumph of the human spirit over all opposition: whether that be war, oppression, or even physical ailments such as his own agonizing deafness.
Greeting Napoleon by Girodet
The inclusion of Ode to Joy in the Ninth Symphony was a subtle, yet rebellious act. In 1824, the Napoleonic Wars had ended and the monarchs of Europe had restored power. Therefore, the revolutionary and libertarian ideals that had exploded into fruition at the end of the 18th Century were again heavily censored and criminalized.
Nevertheless, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony fearlessly declares a belief that “brotherhood unites all men”, which at the time was anathema to the repressive political environment of Europe.
Dancing Nymphs by Blendon Reed Campbell
The Ninth Symphony is a bombastic invocation of the Romantic spirit: an anthem to liberty and an Ode to Joy! The Ninth Symphony is the sound and fury of human courage, whose true source is found in the swelling tenderness of the human heart.
May you find the source of your courage this week and begin to thrive!
“Joy, o wondrous spark divine,
Daughter of Elysium,
Drunk with fire now we enter,
Heavenly one, your holy shrine.
Your magic powers join again
What fashion strictly did divide;
Brotherhood unites all men
Where your gentle wing’s spread wide.”
– excerpt from “Ode to Joy” by Friedrich von Schiller
(English translation)
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