Be the change you wish to see...
Even though we are reaching the darkest point in the year, the skies are very busy. Neptune in Pisces has stationed direct after being retrograde since Jun 30. We have a New Moon at 20° 40 in Sagittarius on December, 12 (exact 4:42 pm MST) and then Mercury stations retrograde less than eight hours later beginning his backward motion in Capricorn but ending his retrograde journey in Sagittarius.
There is a lot of mutable energy in the skies right now. All the modality stories (cardinal, fixed, and mutable) take us on a journey from the lesser to the greater, from the individual “I” to gradual interaction with others. For example, in many ways, the cardinal story is about the development of conscious awareness and how we use it.
But the mutable cross? The mutable story is about the gaining of wisdom. The journey of the mutable cross is one where information (Gemini) becomes knowledge (Virgo), becomes wisdom (Sagittarius) and finally becomes understanding/universal truth(Pisces).
All of the planetary archetypes are vast within their expression. One aspect of the Jupiterian archetype is its role as the seat of consciousness. In our natal charts, Jupiter represents our higher Mind, our instinct. It tells us how we dream and what we dream about, particularly if the ninth house is untenanted. Most important of all, it shows us where we need to go, how we need to expand, and what experiences we need to have in order to grow into our wisdom.
Mercury, Messenger of the Gods and the ruler of the first two signs of the mutable cross, describes how we take information and communicate it once it is processed, but Jupiter represents the process of understanding itself. How we process the material of our life determines our experience, and our experience determines our awareness. Jupiter and Mercury are intertwined in sculpting the way in which we view the world.
Any of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that while Mercury retrograde periods might cause a few complications in our daily life, seriously he is known as the trickster for a reason, overall I view them, as I do any transit, as an opportunity for reflection and self-development.
Used well retrogrades are times of reflection, reclamation, and revelation.
I have been writing about our hidden beliefs in my past few blogs and I truly thought I was finished. And then on my morning walks this week I realized I had a little more to offer on this subject as we move from 2023 into 2024.
Astrologically 2024 is an interesting year. It leads us into the momentous change of 2025-2026. Plutio does, for the most part, spend the year in Aquarius in 2024. There is a three-month period in the fall when he has his last gasp in Capricorn, but then he won’t return there for another 248 years. Both Saturn and Neptune step into Aries in 2025 and Uranus dips his toe into Gemini. That’s a profound amount of change and transformation.
2024 is leading us there.
2024 is an opportunity.
I intend to use the next few weeks deeply reflecting on the change I wish to see in my own world. Asking myself can I embody the Ghandi quote “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Because to truly create a change within your life you have to embody the change you seek.
As 2023 comes to a close more than anything I am experiencing a profound sense of gratitude for the way I am moving through life, or life is moving through me. Which are in essence the same thing. The world I have long imagined is each moment coming more and more into being, into fruition.
Each day I now inhabit the world that for many, many years I spoke about but on many levels believed was an impossibility, although I would deny that even to myself. And because of this same denial, I created a lot of self-sabotage. Here is an example:
In my mid-twenties, Martin DeMaat, the head of The Second City Training Center was a friend and mentor of mine. Tina Fey dedicates part of her Best-selling book Bossypants to him. It is with some embarrassment that I admit I made up an excuse, a story full of drama to disappear. I am not going to share the details but I will admit it took a full ten years, including several years that I was facilitating The Artis’s Way, for me to admit to myself that I was scared and found a reason to quit.
At that time I internally felt that the future, both consciously and unconsciously, was an impossibility. So I couldn’t sustain it. Or any that was similar. I had not yet learned how to recognize the part of me, the voice of inner cynicism, that ironically was defending me against myself and my yearnings. It was invisible to me. At the time it just felt like no matter what I did, no matter what success I achieved my life was still stuck in an endless cycle of yearning for something else.
For all that I protested otherwise, I was basically addicted to the comfortable familiarity of my life as it was. It was safe. And the not-so-funny thing was that most of my friends and clients saw me as a risk-taker. I felt like a fraud.
And all of this came from my subconscious. It wasn’t like I woke up in the morning and thought “How can I sabotage myself today?”
It wasn’t quite as black and white as that but I know that many of you will recognize these feelings in at least one area of your life.
Over the past 20+ years, I have learned how to really listen and care for myself. Not just taking care of myself but actually experiencing an immense sense of compassion and caring for myself. It has become a spiritual practice. One that might be described through the lens of the mutable cross. The journey from knowledge to wisdom. Which is both epic and endless. It is a labyrinth circling into a connection with the all.
I know I have said this many times but nothing truly changes in our lives until we shift our relationship with ourselves. Learning how to love yourself, how to listen to yourself, and how to honor yourself is revelatory. It’s an ongoing practice that deepens and transforms your experience of life and within your life.
But to do this you have to surrender your addiction to your current reality. You have to let go of defending it or yourself against it. You have to forgive yourself.
Astrologically, Jupiter, and Mercury work hand in hand to transform your world.
I encourage you to turn your attention inward and explore your private world (dreams, imagination, inner vision). Let yourself be pulled toward spiritual exploration and connecting with the unseen aspects of life over the next few weeks and into 2024.
