Libra - October 2002 Planet Waves

by Eric Francis
Image above is public domain artwork, part of a series called Astrological Bodies, believed to have been created anonymously by a devotée of Osho. There is a series of male Astrological Bodies as well -- if you know where to find it, please get in touch.
Current Weekly Horoscope - Sept. 27

Mabon: Blessing the Circle

By Jeanne Treadway
Planet Waves | ravenjets@plateautel.net

The Autumn Equinix is the time for making a new blessing circlet and burning last year's. To create a blessing circlet, braid ribbon, rope, or any natural string or yarn. As you braid, add symbols of things you hope for the upcoming year and blessings for those you love. Porcupine quills can serve as symbolic of protection. Cat or dog whiskers may be added for blessings on your feline or canine companions. As you braid, talk to the spirits around you. Thank everyone and everything that you can remember coming your way this year. Ask for health, peace, money, safety, whatever you need. When finished, tie off the ends and make into a circle. Hang the braided circle around your neck and then ritually burn last year's circlet. Use wine, beer, fruits, vegetables as part of your ceremony of thanks for the bounty that has allowed you to survive this past year.

This day sees light and dark in balance again, before the descent to the dark times. A harvest festival is held, thanking the Goddess for giving us enough sustenance to feed us through the winter. Harvest festivals of many types still occur today in farming country. Mabon falls at the Fall Equinox, or when the sun enters Libra. The Welsh name Mabon means "Great Son" and refers to the Son of the Great Mother. This Celtic mythological figure, who has many names and figures in many tales, was identified by the Romans as Mercury or sometimes as Apollo. In Christian Britain He was superseded by St. Michael, to whom churches on many sacred Pagan sites were dedicated, and the Fall Equinox became the Christian feast of Michaelmas. In medieval times, rents fell due and contracts were settled at Easter and at Michaelmas.

The Fall Equinox is associated with the classical myth of Demeter and Persephone. Persephone was abducted by Hades at this time of the year, and September was the time of the Eleusinian mysteries in ancient Greece.

Beyond Fear, a Bounty of Love

By Jenny Singer
Planet Waves | jenny@ericfrancis.com

Mabon is the last great harvest of the year, a time when the Earth prepares to rest and lay bare for the coming months of winter. This is a time of celebration and we eat one last great feast from the bounty of the fields. Soon darkness will cover all and we return to the womb of the Great Mother Goddess from whence in Spring we will all be reborn. Western culture teaches many to fear death. To fear judgement. To fear Hell, the Devil and even God. Now more than ever we are being fed a constant diet of fear. Why not partake of a different kind of food? As Pagans, we go around the great wheel of the year knowing that death is not to be feared because what we call death is a time of rest and renewal that can lead only to love. Love leads to birth and birth leads to life. On this Equinox, at a time when the world holds such uncertainty, plow deep into the Earth all that you are willing to let die in your life. Let it go. Experience grace. And never forget through the cold months ahead what the fruit of human kindness and decency really tastes like. For even as we die to life we are the seeds of next years harvest. ++
Aries (March 20-April 21)
Issues you didn't even know were holding you back are about to emerge on your radar, and thankfully so. There's nothing worse than a problem you don't know you have, and given that this will resolve itself easily if it's confronted directly, what you know is better than what you don't. The complication is that you need to honor the feelings of someone you respect, but whose take on reality -- particularly in relationships -- is not quite up to your speed. It may be easier and threaten no actual loss of integrity if you admit to the basic facts (if they are true) but demonstrate through your actions that there is a better way. One of the challenges we face at our point in history is teaching one another to get along with one another. It is, however, better to show rather than to tell in this particular lesson.
Taurus (April 21-May 20)
No matter how much you may change in the next month, or how much may change in your life, this is just the beginning of something truly momentous. A kind of chain reaction or sequence of events probably became apparent last month, and in the coming weeks, the process picks up a lot of speed. Well, speed isn't the right word exactly, because there are changes that will feel like getting pulled through a vortex; they will seem like, and rightfully are, singular events, but they fit an accelerating pattern. The change happens in the context of another person; there is an important attribute of your life that releases itself to what may feel like an entirely new universe of the Other. But I would say that in the history of the world, this is nothing new. We are not generally changing unless we're changing in the context of our relationships, scary as this may seem.
Gemini (May 20-June 21)
Have I said this before? Art is a huge risk, art, as in daring to express something you feel inside yourself, which by definition changes the world because it emerges from a unique inner place. So the necessary exercise of the hour is not studying the definition of art, but rather exploring the connection between your inner life and what you finally do express to the world. I work for many artists as their astrologer, and there is none that I know of for whom the process of expression is not directly and vitally linked to their journey of healing, integration and growth. Art is the expression, the definition process for, and the most daring test of the reality of soul. Let it take you to the edges of who you are, and, through what you create, you may relate that experience to the people with whom you share the world.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
You are approaching a rare moment of putting thoughts into action, that great hope of the human race. The only cause for concern is applying too much force. You are a magnet for power right now, particularly that of the mental, organizational and communicative type, and that's power like a satellite telephone call: so subtle we barely feel it, and can easily take it for granted. But do tune in. Be aware of the temperature of your emotions at all times -- the word temper being inherent in that particular measure -- and you'll be mindful of how you may direct your anger and passion in constructive ways. By all indications, you're soon to discover that constructive means physical, be it splitting logs, martial arts or impassioned sharing with others. But as for the mind part, that strange abstraction. Think of your life as a puzzle in its box, with not a single missing piece.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 22)
There are fireworks going off in the deepest, most personal angle of your solar chart, down in your secret garden. This may have started with what seemed like a supposedly professional issue, one of those "what shall I do with my life" questions. But that has led to something else, toward a more ominous and utterly personal discovery. What you learn may shed some light on your motives for doing what you do, and reveal a particular set of childhood circumstances that are influential in the ways you choose to express yourself in the world. Every discovery will lead directly to change, because the information that surfaces is highly reactive: change in how you feel, in what makes you feel safe in the world, and what motivates you to act. If perchance you're scared, pluck yourself up for an adventure. If you see two roads, take the darker one.
Virgo (Aug. 22-Sep. 22)
It's been a busy, intense time and I don't doubt you're unsure about many things that seemed certainties just back down the road. These are not the casual indecisions and revisions before toast and tea; it may be that no time has seemed like one more pressing to get clear within and about, to know the way, to sift out the clumps. From the look of your solar charts, I see a concern about being motivated by "baser instincts," shall we say, a message coming from below, or from the lower chakras. But we are not truly enlightened, or even cultured, people until we're not worried about lust, or survival. The good-girl complex is as rampant and self-righteous as ever in these quivering days, and the male equivalent is pandering to it, pretending that desire is not an issue. There is nothing demure about how you're feeling right now, so why fake it?
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
I want to offer a philosophical notion, which is that a great part of what makes us human is our relationship to pain. Pain seems to be inherent in all regions of life, to a greater or lesser degree, as does another quality known as soul. Soul seems to be less about what we do with love and more about what we do with all the ills that we have suffered, where we arrange them in our reality structure, and how we ultimately judge them. We have heard again and again that pain is the greatest teacher. But why is this? I think, ultimately, it's because our values are so rigid, suffering is the one thing that we can use to push us past the places where we are stuck. But it's also possible to grow and change by volition, by the independent choice of our minds. And that in itself is an option you have wide open to you right now.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
You're serving as a profound catalyst in the lives of those around you, whether you intend to be so or not. Scorpio often serves as an evolutionary accelerant, as anyone familiar with Pluto is aware. But two of the six named Centaur planets are right in your region, Pholus and Hylonome. For those new to the concept of a Centaur planet, they are the subsequent discoveries since Chiron, and they are about deep changes and healing the most serious issues that plague us both as individuals and as a civilization. In the case of these two planets, healing addiction and the grief of loss are (respectively) the subjects at hand. Centaurs represent abandoned or neglected parts of the soul coming back to life, and in the current setup, this may happen with surprising speed and clarity. Venus, now in your birth sign, speaks of how intimately others are involved in your process, and you in theirs. As A Course in Miracles teaches, "When I am healed, I am not healed alone."
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
In about two months there is an eclipse of the Sun in your birth sign. I haven't said a word about this eclipse and this is about as good a place as any to start. Eclipses take a couple of months to synchronize with; I'll be focusing on this with increasing interest. For now I am seeing a situation involving the politics of love and desire. Someone in the situation feels like the hunted. Someone else is the one desiring. You may actually be neither of these people, but have more than a trace of envy in any case; and that envy is probably based on your boredom with, or difficulty with, one particular situation in your own life. Now, eclipses are volatile moments. The charts for Sagittarius have been quite reactive for months, even years, and this is yet another peak moment approaching. Be fair, be honest and, as people are so fond of saying these days, be careful what you wish for.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
You may not be aware of it fully, but an entirely new energy has taken the helm of your life. An analogy might be the idea of a harbor captain. When ships pulls into most seaports, the port shuttles a locally-trained sea pilot to steer the ship through the channels within that particular harbor. It is still the captain's ship, but an expert is at the helm. But at the moment, it's more like you're leaving familiar shores and entering higher, deeper seas, and for that, you've been given a new sense of presence in the world, a special gift of perception and a consciousness through which you can experiment with different ways of making decisions. Though we all know the old way isn't necessarily the right way, we also know choosing again can be quite the challenge. Become the right way, in other words, identify fully with it, and failure is impossible.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
There are major planetary movements that will be shaping the lives of Aquarians next year, and I wonder how you're experiencing the ending phase of what's been happening over recent years -- a cycle of two years and another of seven years come to mind. Remember, this is the ending phase, not the end. Resolving these changes will take time. I suggest sticking with what you think you're finished with, and I don't say this because I think a Boy Scout leader or minister would agree that it's the right way to life. The point is, there's a payoff. That payoff will require persistence. And things are not as stuck as your antennas may be suggesting, nor are you as bored, nor are there as few opportunities in your current environment as you may think. They are, admittedly, strange opportunities, but I can't imagine a single reason why you'd object to that.
Pisces (Feb. 19-Mar. 20)
Watch business negotiations carefully this month and, for that matter, personal negotiations. Keep a notebook and keep track of what you exchange, how your worth fluctuates on a day-to-day basis, and how what you believe about money fluctuates probably a bit more frequently than that. Keep track of how your notion of your worth in the lives others changes. And do observe your thoughts. Have you ever had the notion that 'one idea is all it takes'? This is actually true. Most of the great things that we see in the world, the helpful, the profitable, the ingenious, the true breakthroughs, are all born of a single idea. I would add, one idea, the right idea, for which you will need to be attentive and keep sifting, and listening to your intuition; that one idea is all it takes, and just the right quantum of energy to give it life.
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Space graphic above from the Rosette Nebula in Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur.
Credit: T. A. Rector, B. Wolpa, M. Hanna.