26 Feb Music and Moonlight ~ February 27th – March 5th, 2017

Love’s Philosophy

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I

The fountains mingle with the river

And the rivers with the Ocean,

The winds of Heaven mix for ever

With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single;

All things by a law divine

In one spirit meet and mingle.

Why not I with thine? –

II

See the mountains kiss high Heaven

And the waves clasp one another;

No sister-flower would be forgiven

If it disdained it’s brother;

And the sunlight clasps the earth

And the moonbeams kiss the sea:

What is all this sweet work worth

If thou kiss not me?

The week after the Solar Eclipse in Pisces will be churning with inspiration and murmuring with the myth of oceanic bliss. As Venus stations retrograde in Aries this week, any one-sided love or affection in your life will begin to dissolve. In the wake of that dissolution, a renewed fountain of reciprocal love will emerge.  

The Sun in Pisces will merge with the mists of Neptune all week, perfecting on Wednesday and trailing off into the weekend. Imagine a veil of mist and a shimmering light that dances upon the vapors. What magnificent visions are born? What effervescent love can be felt?

These Piscean days of sunlight and haze offer a swirl of supernal delights for those with an earnest desire to know the essence of creation. 

This is a week to drift away from the dead-end street of narcissism and dedicate your life’s work to the Muse: the throbbing heartbeat of human imagination.

Remember, that poetry is a devotional offering of the highest order. Thus, in devotion to her, immerse yourself in any act of poesy. Spend at least one evening composing your own verse or at least reading another’s aloud. Consider what the great lover of the muse, Percy Shelley, once said in his elegant treatise: A Defense of Poetry: (1821)

“Poetry enlarges the circumference of the imagination by replenishing it with thoughts of ever new delight, which have the power of attracting and assimilating to their own nature all other thoughts, and which form new intervals and interstices whose void forever craves fresh food.”

Now read Shelley’s wondrous poem Love’s Philosophy again, breathing in the soul of poetry and sighing. . .

 

Like all great poems, this piece illuminates a poet’s love for the muse, whose beauty is discovered everywhere in nature’s omnipresent acts of intimacy: waters mingling together… the union of heaven and earth…moonbeams kissing the sea.

Shelley is showing that philosophy, the love of wisdom, has its essential origins in the primal experience of love itself.

Love is the cosmic orgasm that vibrates within everything. . . Feel it, taste it, and offer it from your heart and soul. That is all the universe will ever ask of you.

 

Monday/Tuesday: Nothing In The World Is Single

At the beginning of the week, the Moon will pass through the sign of Aries, where a unique alloy of individuation and will-power is created. Thus, your passions may become inflamed by circumstance! Transiting Mars in Aries will oppose  Jupiter, inflating your self-confidence and bravado. In the art of war, this might be a moment where pride goes before the fall. But in the art of seduction, carpe diem!
Mars and Jupiter in opposition create a potion of courage, valor, and strength. Use it to launch something, make an announcement, or share intimate feelings with another. No matter what you do, if you use this mixture of energies wisely, there will be great rewards.

Wednesday/Thursday: All Things By A Law Divine

The middle of the week is the climax of the Sun’s intimacy with Neptune. This is a day that could be most transcendent for those who live as willing vessels for the muse. The Sun in Pisces submerged in the surreal realm of Neptune will be lost in waves of feeling. Thus, the divide between you and other will be blurred, like bleeding watercolors. You will have more awareness of the common well from which all thoughts and words and dreams are drunk from.

The influence of Neptune’s mysticism enhances many of life’s most exultant experiences, but it may also be quite disorienting. To best navigate this time, taste the sweet waters of inspiration but also offer your inspiration as a gift. Only the reciprocal exchange between the World Soul and yours will reveal the blessings of this transit.

Still immersed in intimate communion with the muse, Thursday will bring the second exact opposition of Jupiter in Libra and Uranus in Aries. The last exact opposition occurred in December as an igniting flame for the spirit of the New Year.

With Jupiter acting to magnify Uranus’ electric potential, an unexpected blossoming is likely to occur, forever altering some of the tropes that you use to tell your life’s story. This is a great unfolding that you will experience throughout the whole year, but observe the climax that is reached on this day. Ask yourself the BIG questions now and be fearless in the face of the universe’s response.

If you are interested to know more about how Jupiter and Uranus are influencing your natal chart for 2017, book a reading with me!

Three months into 2017, this second exact opposition will enlarge the dimensions of your first impression of these energies. In essence, the opposition between Jupiter and Uranus expands (Jupiter) your need for spontaneous creation! (Uranus) Let it be what it is…spontaneous.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday: In One Spirit Meet and Mingle

On Friday, the waxing Moon will be traveling through its exalted sign of Taurus. The inconstant Moon loves the eternal feast for the senses that Taurus provides, which reifies the body as a temple and the Earth as a garden of love. Taurus is ruled by Venus, fully embodied in touch, taste and smell. Since Friday is the day ruled by Venus and because this is the last day before Venus in Aries goes retrograde, devote this day to Venusian splendor, appreciating all love that is born from the body.

On Saturday, Venus in Aries turns retrograde, a direction she will remain in for the next six weeks. A planet’s retrograde motion always creates a new plasticity in its path, thus Venus retrograding in Aries, (and eventually all the way back into Pisces) is an invitation to really mull some things over.

Venus in Aries is traditionally considered to be her sign of detriment. This is because relationship oriented and harmonious Venus is far from home in Aries where wills collide and battle for ascendancy. But Venus, adaptable as a climbing vine, makes her presence in Aries known through the archetype of a warrior goddess: one that wins all battles with prophesies of her victory and the unerring faith in her ascendancy.

So this weekend, as Venus turns retrograde in Aries, prepare for a six week journey that will glorify your sense of independence as a heroic element of your story, one that deepens and resonates only when the wider vision of interdependence is acknowledged. Exalt the individual self as a unique ripple of creation in a vast ocean of consciousness.

Over the next six weeks, expect to feel humbled by the unshakeable union of heaven and earth, for even in their most violent storms, there is harmony and reciprocity between them. Thus, Venus retrograde in Aries will offer a six week period where you can learn to create harmony, even in times of war.

Retrogrades are times for reinvention, redesign, and remembrance. Thus, Venus retrograde in Aries is a time for a more vibrantly animated archetype to develop. In any story where you have cast yourself simplistically as heroine or villain; master or slave, expect to see a much more nuanced interpretation emerge.

And on such a day with so much immersion into archetypal story, make use of Mercury conjunct Neptune, a planetary potion of myth and song.

 

Write a poem. If you don’t know what to write about, remember that all poems are about the muse. The muse is the heartbeat of human imagination and thus, there is no way that you have not had a vision of her. Write about that vision.

On Sunday, the weekend wraps up with a stabilizing and containing force from Mars in Aries in a flowing trine with Saturn in Sagittarius. If the poem you wrote yesterday has lots of heart but no form, this supportive aspect between Mars and Saturn will give you the mind to infuse your free flowing ideas with some much needed cadence and structure.

This is perfect day to create a focused vision for the next era of your life. It also a good day to declare a goal or an important plan. Do make promises that you can keep!

If you birth a project under an influence like this, it will be imbued with both strength and strategy for the foreseeable future.

But in love’s philosophy, Mars trine Saturn represents the bonds of trust that grow between those who remain devoted to love under any and all conditions of life. This is the golden elixir of true friendship and true marriage that can not be bought by anything other than true love. In whatever form that you have been gifted this golden elixir of trust, take a moment to feel forever grateful for its continual flourishing in your life.  

All watercolor landscapes are early 19th Century courtesy of Joseph Mallord William Turner.

Special thanks to Benjamin Pixie and Leigh McCloskey for inspiring me to keep offering inspiration