“So now, as the Maiden form of the Goddess whispers to us of hope and new beginnings at the festival of Imbolc, it is on a cold February morning that you are invited to step onto the ‘Wheel of the Year’.” CAROLE CARLTON
I’m writing on 2nd February and it seemed fitting to begin with a quotation about Imbolc. It’s a time associated with, “…stepping onto the ‘Wheel of the Year'”, awakening from winter slumber, clearing out and making plans for the future. And I’m finding myself going over old ground, wondering how to move forward…
For those of us with important planets in the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) there are still three ‘heavyweight’ planets affecting the energy. Pluto in Capricorn is helping us to dredge the unconscious contents of our lives, Saturn (also in this sign) is showing us where the work needs to be done and calling for a greater integrity, and Uranus (still in Aries and due to move into Taurus for the first time since he left in May, 1942) continues to throw his periodical ‘spanners’ in the works as he prods us towards greater truth and ‘revolution’.
Saturn will be in Capricorn the next couple of years or so and both he and Jupiter meet with Pluto in 2019-20. I mentioned Roy Gillett’s words back in July last year: this combination of planets is likely to be ‘a rare confrontation with reality’ (this threesome hasn’t met in Capricorn since 2866 BCE)! Palden Jenkins also sees Saturn/Pluto cycles embodying heaviness, showdowns, and hard, cold truths (amongst other things – in his ‘Historical Ephemeris’).
This quotation from Ursula K. Le Guin (quoted in my social media post about January’s Capricorn new moon) seems to address the ‘reality’ of this energy and reminds me of the biblical ‘narrow way’: “…the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do.”
For those of us with mutable planets and angles (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces), we still have the passage of Chiron (working on those ‘knots’ that need untying) and Neptune (bringing confusion and compassion in equal measure) through Pisces – and Mars moved into Sagittarius recently, adding some fiery passion into the mix.
Lest all this sound rather heavy, the wheel of the year keeps on turning and we now have sun, Mercury and Venus in the sign of Aquarius, helping us to move and think, network and find ways to make the world a better place for all.
And remember that the outer planets in particular are working through the unconscious and as we work to bring light to the dark places of our own psyches we enable the process of integration (and Jupiter’s presence in Scorpio is a good one for aiding this). Don’t beat yourself up for things that are out of your control and, remember that we’re all in process!
Blessings of Imbolc and love as always!
*The photo displayed above is courtesy of Ben Schonewille at freedigitalphotos.net
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