08 Jan Moment of the Rose ~ January 9th-15th, 2017

 “What we call the beginning is often the end

And to make an end is to make a beginning.

The end is where we start from. And every phrase

And sentence that is right (where every word is at home,

Taking its place to support the others . . .”

– excerpt from Little Gidding by T.S. Eliot

A New Year is the beginning of a new era, but it is also an ending to a familiar way of life. Ready or not, it is time to release whatever you are still clutching from last year.

This week, there will be a T-square between the cardinal signs of Jupiter in Libra, Uranus in Aries, and the Sun and Pluto in Capricorn. This emphasis on cardinal energies will build a rhapsodic rhythm, where beginnings and endings interpenetrate one another in an exuberant intermezzo.

Thursday’s Full Moon in Cancer will catalyze a Cardinal Grand Cross, offering the perfect moment to release the remainder of 2016 into the flames.

The paradox of beginnings being endings makes it quite common to feel the unrealized potential for 2017 as a knotted braid of melancholy and excitement. In 2016, there were many agonizing moments where delusions were dissolved and many heavy burdens were borne by those strong enough to carry the weight of collective crisis. You may be exhausted still, not feeling spirited enough to make any plans.

In 2017, there will be a continuation of the cycle of breakthroughs and breakdowns, but it will be infused with a fiery spirit of revolution. Whether that is cause for great celebration or mourning in your life depends upon where you stand in these shifting sands.

This week, the planets will be making tense aspects in all the cardinal signs, igniting an initiation! Thus, over the next few days the pressure will be felt to initiate upon a path that will remain inspiring for the duration of the coming year. Since 2017 overall is going to involve some very radical changes to many familiar things, begin the year by dedicating to virtue and discipline so that you will be strong enough to undergo trials without being crippled by fear.

Fortunately, while the Sun is traveling through Capricorn it is quite auspicious to make long-term plans that adhere to proper principles. Why? Because Capricorn is the sign that represents the search for personal sovereignty through the cultivation of inner strength and willpower.

Capricorn knows that in order to embody virtue with any kind of consistency, discipline must be prioritized before any other worldly achievements. So even if you don’t know what you want for yourself this year, by Thursday’s Full Moon in Cancer, you should do what you can to recalibrate your moral compass back to true north, making a vow to take excellent care of your body, mind and spirit.  

Monday/Tuesday: Every Poem an Epitaph

“Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,

Every poem an epitaph. And any action

Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea’s throat

Or to an illegible stone: and that is where we start.

We die with the dying:

See, they depart, and we go with them.

We are born with the dead . . .”

 

At the beginning of the week, the Sun in Capricorn will make an exact square with Uranus in Aries, bringing nervous tension to accompany your sense of future possibility. The future you are working towards which contains all your wildest dreams is also that which leads to your ultimate end.

Thus, this square between the Sun and Uranus will be humbling to the ego and may catalyze a deeper sense of soul which is beyond this material existence.

After all, as Eliot says, “We die with the dying”, meaning that our soul is transformed by every loss. Thus, as you release the past at this new beginning, you will see how many threads of your soul have retreated from the influence of the mundane world and have woven themselves into eternity.

We are born with the dead.

We are born of the past and our ancestors. We are born of traditions and historical memory. We are born to die and this is what makes life’s crystallized moments of clarity and feeling so sweet.

Wednesday/Thursday: The Voice of This Calling

“. . .The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-tree

Are of equal duration. A people without history

Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern

Of timeless moments. So, while the light fails

On a winter’s afternoon, in a secluded chapel

History is now. . .”

The middle of the week will be quite energetic and confrontational! Wednesday brings a square between the Sun in Capricorn and Jupiter in Libra, which will ignite an expansive sense of questioning and possibility!

However, this aspect might tempt you with the glimmering roads of excess, so it is advisable to remain as judicious as possible with indulgences. This includes being too indulgent in your assumptions about your own importance in a situation.

Add to this the concurrent sextile between Mars in Pisces and Pluto in Capricorn, and you have a day fit for some penetrating contemplation about what your philosophical conception of time really is.

With this Plutonian influence, contemplate T.S. Eliot’s imagery. The moment of the rose (life’s bloom) and the moment of the yew-tree (death’s canopy) are of equal duration.

See the rose… most mesmerizing mystical symbol of life: blooming and fading in glorious beauty. The rose is a symbol of divine love in poetry and Western mysticism. The rose reveals the reality beyond the illusions of the senses: that life is eternal.

In alchemy there are many texts which are called “Rosarium” such as, The Rosarium philosophorum or Rosary of the philosophers.

See the yew-tree, gnarled canopy of branches reaching towards the sky. The yew is known to live thousands of years and is thus a sacred guardian of all graveyards. (And the ancient churchyard of Little Gidding) Its roots dig into the ancient wells of ancestral histories, drinking from the layers of time buried deep beneath the surface. Time devours all.

Every life contains the rose and the yew in equal measure. Both are a necessary part of incarnation. Love blooms in glorious beauty leaving the memory of that fragrance behind for eternity.

On Thursday, the Full Moon in Cancer catalyzes the Cardinal Grand Cross. The Moon is at peak strength in its sign of rulership, which in this cardinal configuration will pull some of your most primal emotions to the surface.

You may be confronted by grandiose insecurity, the internal architecture of which may be something that winds around the labyrinthic realization that the resistance to death (Pluto) is a rebellion (Uranus) against growth (Jupiter).

If you are having a hard time on this day, write out a list of everything that you know you need to let go of including jobs, people, and addictions. The fortunate thing about this moment is that it offers an opportunity to powerfully alter the emotional reactions that you have to traumatic memories.

This powerful healing potential is largely due to the Venus/Neptune conjunction in Pisces which offers an exultant and transcendent communion with the divine. If you can resist the narcissism of over-identifying with your personal narrative, Venus/Neptune can lead you to the reality beyond the senses which can only be perceived by full immersion into love, beauty and compassion.

Pray. Meditate. Sing. Dance. Write.

Follow the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling.

And all shall be well and

All manner of thing shall be well

Friday/Saturday/Sunday: All Shall Be Well

And all shall be well and

All manner of thing shall be well

When the tongues of flames are in-folded

Into the crowned knot of fire

And the fire and the rose are one.

The Moon’s waning will traverse the signs of Leo and Virgo, dragging the lunar light into visions of warm-hearted pleasure on Friday and Saturday, followed by a conscientious connection with your work on Sunday.

The weekend is best spent integrating the many yearnings you feel to grow, initiate, and begin. With proper meditation and calm, a path will open for you to begin your new travels upon.

But your temporal perspective will continue to be intensely transformative, ever-conscious of circular eternity hiding within the perpetual string of days, months, and years.

In the closing lines, of Little Gidding, Eliot ushers us into that timeless moment evoked by poetry but forever flowering in the heart as the fragrance of eternity.

So as you embark upon a new year filled with temporary pain and temporary pleasure, fleeting sorrow and fleeting joy, remember . . .

      And all shall be well and

All manner of thing shall be well