(All times are UT.)
Dear Friends,
Having already bid adieu to Aries until next year, the Sun makes its steady advance into the starry region of the Bull. As the Sun aligns with 2° Taurus, it recalls the events of 23/April/31, when Jesus (for the third time) sent out the disciples and apostles on their missionary journeys. From Anne Catherine:
Upon the [apostles], as well as upon the eldest disciples, he imposed hands, but the rest he merely blessed. By this ceremony he filled them with new strength and energy. It was not, however, priestly ordination, but only an imparting of grace and vigor to the soul. [Visions, vol. 2, p. 350]
The advent on Sunday of a synchronous square aspect between Mercury (19° Aries) and Mars (19° Cancer) supports our missionary theme—for this planetary aspect was present at the commissioning of the disciples (10/Dec/30). Jesus gave each of the twelve a small flask of oil, and taught them how to use it for anointing and healing. Because the healing power (Mercury) of the Word (Mars) worked through the disciples, they were granted the authority to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons. Jesus added, “Today ye will everywhere be welcomed, but a time will come wherein they will persecute you!” [Visions, vol. 2, p. 176]
Still later on Sunday, Jupiter enters Gemini: Toward blissful world-knowing. This is an extraordinary planetary placement! It suggests to me a community founded upon brotherhood, which is sublimely expressed in the choral movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. (It debuted in 1824, when Jupiter was—as you might have surmised—in Gemini.)
O friends, not these tones!
But let’s strike up more agreeable ones,
And more joyful.Joy!
Joy!Joy, beautiful spark of Divinity,
Daughter of Elysium,
We enter, drunk with fire,
Heavenly one, thy sanctuary!
Thy magic binds again
What custom strictly divided;
All people become brothers,
Where thy gentle wing abides.
Three days after Jupiter’s last entry into Gemini in 2013, Edward Snowden disclosed classified information from the NSA that exposed a surveillance program of global scale—one that was enabled by western governments and their tech allies. A few weeks later, his US passport was revoked, and he was charged with espionage. Snowden’s leaks exposed the dark side of this Jupiter placement: a global ‘big brother’ community, cobbled together with lies and intimidation.
As the Moon (5° Aquarius) reaches its Last Quarter on Tuesday, the Sun will align with the Pleiades (5° Taurus), its degree on 25–26/Apr/31. On this day, Jesus sailed form Ornithopolis (above Tyre) to Cyprus. There were ten boats in all, which, like Peter’s on the Sea of Galilee, had benches for the rowers that were raised around the mast. They set off during a clear, starlit night. The sea was calm. From Anne Catherine:
Shoals of fishes swarmed after the flotilla, among them some very large ones with remarkable-looking mouths. They sported around and stretched their heads out of the water, as if hearkening to the instructions given by Jesus during the voyage.
The passage was so unusually rapid, the sea so smooth, and the weather so beautiful that the sailors, both Jews and pagans, cried out: “Oh, what an auspicious voyage! That is owing to thee, O prophet!” Jesus, standing near the mast, commanded them silence, and to give glory to the almighty God alone. [Visions, vol. 2, p. 354]
Mercury enters Taurus on Friday: Weave life’s thread. Does not the loom at which we’re weaving bear the tapestry that we began countless lifetimes ago? Taurus is the zodiacal realm where the ‘nervous hum’ of Mercury finds calm in the natural world. Our cosmic messenger is very unlikely to fly off like a feather in the wind when grounded by the practical, steady ‘earth sign’ that is the Bull! While Taurus might bestow upon our thinking the capacity for rational deliberation, we must nevertheless guard against the possibility of the disinclination to give up an old idea, despite changing circumstances.
Our two ‘high-voltage’ planets—Mercury and Uranus—will align for a conjunction (2° Taurus) on Saturday the 24th. Zing! While this placement suggests intellectual brilliance, this gift, of course, can be used for good or ill. On the one hand, the conjunction might quicken our receptivity to thoughts that are streaming toward us from the future; on the other, their alliance can create mental anxiety—whereby we cannot hear above the ambient collective chatter that now surrounds us.
May the beauty of the natural world uplift our hearts!
~ Julie H.