05 Mar The Well of Life ~ March 6th-12th, 2017

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

1.

AWAKE ! for Morning in the Bowl of Night

Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:

And Lo ! the Hunter of the East has caught

The Sultan’s Turret in a Noose of Light.

This week is in the heart of Pisces season with the waxing Moon building a wave of emotional intensity. Adrift in a haze and lost in a maze, this a time best suited for musing. Mercury transiting through Pisces will be making the most significant aspects, thus your mind will be illuminated by enchantment.

In a half-lit world, the gloaming between waking and dreams, thoughts will be like evanescent vapors rising into form and then fading into black. By the time the Full Moon in Virgo arrives on Sunday, some much needed order and clarity will be restored.

But until then, allow your destination to remain unknown while you let some poetry work its primal magic upon you.

2.

Dreaming when Dawn’s Left Hand was in the Sky

I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry,

“Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup

Before Life’s Liquor in its Cup be dry.”

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is a collection of Medieval Persian quatrains most famously translated into English by the Victorian poet, Edward FitzGerald. Though much of Omar Khayyám’s meaning was surely lost in translation between the vast divide of centuries and civilisations, Fitzgerald’s elaborate interpretation of these poems are yet extraordinary. Whatever literal meaning was lost, the  spirit of Persian poesy captured in ornate Victorian verse still offers something very beautiful and mystical, worthy of immersing yourself into in this surge of Piscean waters.

FitzGerald’s interpretation takes the reader upon a sensual journey from day to night, birth to death. He described the poems as “A progression, tracing in vague outline a soul’s history.” In a letter he wrote to Alfred Lord Tennyson, Fitzgerald characterised these verses as “savage against Destiny.”

“Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup

Before Life’s Liquor in its Cup be dry.”

There is an urgency throughout that calls for the reader to relieve the anxiety about fate, by drinking Life’s Liquor, so intoxicating that the past and the future are forgotten while the pleasure of the present moment remains.

20.

Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears

TO-DAY of past Regrets and future Fears –

To-morrow ? – Why, To-morrow I may be

Myself with Yesterday’s Sev’n Thousand Years.

These verses may be mystical, but there is also such an honest perception of life, which rises upon the waves of wonder and then crashes into the depths of despair.

31                                                         

Up from Earth’s Centre through the Seventh Gate

I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate,

And many Knots unravel’d by the Road;

But not the Knot of Human Death and Fate

Just as Pisces encompasses a whole ocean of feeling, the Rubáiyát delicately describes the multitudinous mixtures of emotions which emerge between life and death; light and dark.

14.

The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon

Turns Ashes – or it prospers; and anon,

Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face

Lighting a little Hour or two – is gone.

You know from your own experience that feelings can be like complex alchemical elixirs. There is joy that aches with melancholy. There is fear scorched with excitement. There is love that seethes with envy. To accept death is horrifying and yet is also so deeply comforting.

47.

And if the Wine you drink, the Lip you press,

End in the Nothing all Things end in – Yes –

Then fancy while Thou art, Thou art but what

Thou shalt be – Nothing – Thou shalt not be less.

During this week of swirling feelings, you can expect to be blessed and cursed with more subtle perceptions of your unique states of emotion.

Monday/Tuesday: A Veil

32

There was a Door to which I found no Key:

There was a Veil past which I could not see:

Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE

There seem’d – and then no more of THEE and ME.

The week begins with a conjunction between the Sun and Mercury in Pisces, which will bring transcendent thoughts to the surface. You may feel less individualistic and much more empathic as your thoughts and feelings easily blend with those around you. You will likely feel more talkative about the aspects of life where a veil is normally drawn, including dreams, deep secrets and perhaps some long forgotten memories.

Your mind will continue to traverse even more obscure territories on Tuesday as both the Sun and Mercury in Pisces sextile Pluto in Capricorn. You will become more probing and penetrating in your questions, gathering new momentum to seek answers that satisfy your craving for truth. You will be gifted with an especially active mind for research that it fueled by instinct and intuition.

If you have an opportunity to speak or teach on this day, your presence will be especially powerful. If you compose any kind of writing or music, your work will be graced with more impact.

Wednesday/Thursday: Dawn of Nothing

38.

One Moment in Annihilation’s Waste,

One Moment, of the Well of Life to taste –

The Stars are setting and the Caravan

Starts for the Dawn of Nothing – Oh, make haste !

Pluto’s influence bleeds into the middle of the week, imbuing you with such powerful instinctual urges that you may veer off into obsession or escapism. A wild sense of urgency may become even more pronounced on Thursday as Mars makes an uncomfortable shift into the sign of Taurus.

Mars, moving from the hot quickness of Aries and into its detriment in Taurus can feel like a sudden stop on a freeway. There is a bit of a whiplash, followed great frustration at the slowed down pace. In Taurus, Mars ends up cultivating much stronger and more stable willpower. But in order to do that, obstacles must be confronted and problems must often be solved the hard way. Prepare to work patiently and deliberately for this six-week transit of Mars through Taurus and you will emerge feeling quite fruitful and productive.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday: Moon of Heav’n

74.

Ah, Moon of my Delight who know’st no wane,

The Moon of Heav’n is rising once again:

How oft hereafter rising shall she look

Through this same Garden after me – in vain!

Over the weekend, Mercury, still blended with the Sun’s light, will add to the mixture an exact conjunction with Chiron. As Chiron represents a bridge that extends the universe beyond Saturn into Uranus, expect Friday to be a day of highly acute perceptions. You may see beyond your known world, beyond time and into the infinite. Though these perceptions may be fragmentary and elusive, expect your horizons to be expanded by an element of mystery.

On Sunday, the Full Moon in Virgo will swell with healing light. The many complexities of feeling which you have been processing throughout the week can finally be assimilated and organized.  The many loose threads and wild images will be woven into a tapestry that tells a tangible story, expresses a theory, or illuminates a worldview.

The Virgo Full Moon’s ruler, Mercury, will be in a tense square with Saturn in Sagittarius, summoning a tide of pessimism and caution. You may feel a lot of anxiety about limitations, about time, and about your ultimate destiny, but with Virgo’s intelligent influence, you will at least be busy formulating a reasonable response to this heavy pressure. Thus, a viable solution to a nagging problem may actually emerge.

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At the climax of this Full Moon, remind yourself that this was the second to last week of the season (winter in the north). So whatever sense of inertia you may have experienced, don’t linger on it. There is a great surge of fresh energy coming at the equinox!