Mercury Dials Up The Triple Conjunction

On Thursday, July 30, just before 7:00 am Eastern Time, when Mercury opposes Jupiter, Moon in Scorpio will square both sides of the opposition creating a T-square. Seven hours later, when Mercury opposes Chiron, Moon will still be in Scorpio, still creating a T-square. Then early Friday morning, when Mercury opposes Neptune, Moon will have shifted from Scorpio to Sagittarius. When Mercury is involved, you can be sure there will be a lot of talk. And when Moon is in Scorpio I often feel a vibe. For example I can be in a car with my friend, but I may be very aware that my friend owns the car, even if we are laughing and being silly, there is a vibe and an undertow.

My impression of Mercury opposing this triple conjunction, is we have the chance to catch ourselves at telling lies, if we want to. I think this because of the secretive veil Scorpio can cast. As Mercury opposes Jupiter there can be a lot of talk, maybe too much talk, maybe even a fake kind of optimism. As Mercury opposes Chiron someones words may strike a chord. "Ouch!" When we notice what makes us flinch, this is when the moment of awareness opens us up for honesty. We may notice our own addictions and we may notice what we wish were not at the surface of our psychology.

On Friday when Mercury opposes Neptune, twe may sense a kind of fine-tuning to ourselves, to our partners, to our children and our friends. With the moon in Sagittarius, there can be a boisterousness which has a hard time masking lies, and the truth can be set free.

As we go into the weekend, we may feel heartened by our own honesty, when Venus enters Cancer and opposes Pluto. We may want to be with true, deep and honest company, to experience the richness of friendship, love and true connection.

Sign-by-Sign Mantras for the Eclipse

Here's to security, belonging, care and nurturing during this eclipse for us Earthlings and a mantra for each sign:

ARIES - I belong.

TAURUS - I am understood.

GEMINI - I shine increasing confidence with every breath I take.

CANCER - I have everything I need inside of me already.

LEO - I am all love.

VIRGO - I have friends and community and we are a tribe.

LIBRA - I am important.

SCORPIO - I am weightless, free of heavy burdens.

SAGITTARIUS - I am in the light always (and I learned that in the dark).

CAPRICORN - I am an equal partner, relating to people, they relating to me. I am not alone.

AQUARIUS - I radiate excellent health.

PISCES - I am joyful.

A Sense of Home: Total Solar Eclipse at 29° Cancer July 2009 by Deirdre Tanton

The second eclipse this summer is a total solar eclipse which will occur on July 21 at 9:35 am Eastern time. This eclipse path will cast a shadow over most of eastern Asia. The path of totality will pass over Gujarat, the western-most state in India, move on to Chengdu, site of 2008's Great Earthquake, later pass over Shanghai and then out over the East China Sea, and over Japan's Ryukyu Islands — a path which spans half of the Earth. This eclipse could last for up to 6 minutes all together which is very long for an eclipse. The next eclipse which will last longer than this one will be in the year 2132. What these specifications tell us is this is a solid eclipse, the kind which in the past has corresponded to major change and events in our lives.

The degree of this eclipse is 29°26 Cancer which corresponds to the 30° Sabian Symbol: "A Daughter of the American Revolution". I find it ironic that Supreme court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, a Puerto Rican American is at this moment getting grilled by Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee at her confirmation hearing. Maureen Dowd, op-ed columnist at the New York Times says it well: "A gaggle of Republican men afraid of extinction couldn't root out any sign that Sonia Sotomayor has emotions that color her views on the law." Novelist Alexander Chee noted: "Nothing reminds me more of what it means to be an American quite like watching a bunch of lesser qualified, old white men try to insist a woman of color is under qualified when she had to be perfect to get even half as far as they did, inside the same institutions."

The Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization based in Washington D.C., originated in 1890, and was founded for women who, as it states on the Daughters of the American Revolution web site "felt the desire to express their patriotic feelings and were frustrated by their exclusion from men's organizations." Admittance into the DAR society is lineage-based for women who can prove they are related to patriots of the American Revolution. This organization was founded after the civil war, when millions of formerly enslaved African Americans were hoping to join mainstream society as full and equal citizens. But Washington still practiced its "southern" segregated society habits condemning some Americans of color to second-class citizenship. Certainly the Daughters of the American Revolution was no place for a black woman, even if she was related to the thousands of black men who served in the revolution as soldiers, guides, messengers and spies.

Although The Daughters of the American Revolution do much good promoting literacy and awarding scholarships, the historic disregard for equality lingers. This is not uncommon to organizations and societies all over the world who still don't come clean around issues of race or creed. I am focussing on The Daughters of the American Revolution, because of the eclipse and its corresponding image in Sabian Symbology.

The degree, 29°26, is the last degree of the sign indicating issues which are or nearly are overdue. Cancer is the sign of patriotism, a sense of home, be it a small apartment or a large country, home is where we feel safe. This Sabian Symbol for 30 Cancer, A Daughter of the American Revolution, provokes us to notice where we belong. Who accepts us whole heartedly and unconditionally? Who offers us our rights stated in the Constitution or Bill of Rights where we live? Where in our lives is it absolutely overdue to maintain a daily sense of safety and for that do we need a revolution?

Photo above: Marian Anderson, world famous contralto and celebrated singer. Photo taken when she was 43 years old in 1940. Photographer: Carl Van Vechten. In 1939 when the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow Anderson to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D. C., first lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her D.A.R. membership. Next Photo: Marian Anderson receives the Spingarn Medal from Eleanor Roosevelt. Silver gelatin print. NAACP Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, photographer un-named.

Leo Season: Initiating Fearless Actions Now for Winter's Mars Retrograde by Deirdre Tanton

Leo season is coming up and indeed when Sun enters this sign, it does so with dramatic flair. This particular Leo season will radiate greater depth than usual for several reasons:

— Sun enters Leo on the heels of a turning-the-wheel-of-fate solar eclipse on July 22, 2009.
— There will be a lunar eclipse on August 6, 2009.
— But mostly what I am thinking of is that from Fall 2009 to Spring 2010 Mars will be spending seven whole months in the sign Leo as Mars stations retrograde and then forward. We can get a head start now on taking action before the retrograde begins because re-acting works better than acting when Mars appears to be moving backward.

From July 23, 2009 until August 12, 2009, Sun will be passing through the first 19 degrees of Leo, one degree per day as usual. What is so extraordinary about this is that the Sun will be shining on the path Mars will be on from October 17 2009 - May 17 2010. What this means is we can pay close attention to what is going on this summer and align our intentions because the first 19 days of Leo can hold a microcosm or framework regarding the Mars retrograde. This is why I am writing about the Mars retrograde now, because fixed energy like Leo, is conducive to planning a pounce, the way a cat does so still until she has found her line of attack.

Although the sky is packed with rare events this summer, like the eclipses and the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius, there is no Mercury retrograde activity until August 18, when Mercury will enter the shadow of its retrograde. Cosmically there is clarity for us to imagine what creative actions we want to be accomplishing this coming Fall through Spring.

Just to compare, the last Mars retrograde period spanned from September 16, 2007 until April 4, 2008. As Mars dipped from Gemini into Cancer at that time, many people may have been concerned with family and housing issues. Some people moved far across the ocean during that time; others tried to. This year, as Mars passes through the degrees of its '07 - '08 retrograde, we may get some recall on some issues, and again we may work on them again during this coming retrograde. The upcoming Mars retrograde season will be solely involved with the sign Leo. Mars in Leo is about taking fearless, creative action. Mars enters its shadow on October 19, 2009 at 0° Leo and stations retrograde on December 20, 2009, at 19° Leo. As I said, it's much better to initiate actions now, compared to on December 20 when Mars may seem inside-out and backstage.

At this station, Mars will be opposed the triple conjunction. Actually, it will be a quadruple conjunction, because Moon will be there too -- at 13° -- which is the same degree as this next lunar eclipse on August 6, 2009, a clear link between the lunar eclipse and the mars retrograde.

There may be some issues around where we belong, if at all, in a group whether it be friends or family. I think this trigger will add more insight into how the Chiron - Jupiter - Neptune conjunction is playing out in our lives. Mars will station forward on March 10, 2010. MEOW! And when Mars leaves its retrograde shadow on May 17 2010, the triple conjunction will be astrological history, Jupiter will have left Aquarius and will now be conjunct Uranus in Pisces. Now that's a Lion of a different color.

A conjunction of Uranus and Jupiter is innovative, suggestive of an optimistic, forward thin king collective movement. It is as if Jupiter moves from the triple conjunction to resolve the Mars retrograde and the eclipses with Uranus in Pisces.

I will give you an example of how this can play out: If we take the sign Aries as an example, the Mars retrograde will be in their solar 5th house, which means this winter they may dealing with issues around children, and or creative projects. For Aries, their solar 11th house is Aquarius, where the lunar eclipse this August will fall, and where the quadruple conjunction will oppose Mars as it retrogrades in December. Because Chiron and Neptune are involved, a friendship issue, fitting into a group, or a reversal in the feeling of obtainable goals may come to the fore as Mars in Leo is saying MEOW at the retrograde station. When Mars leaves its shadow in May 2010, Jupiter and Uranus will be conjunct in Aries' solar 12th house, an optimistic kind of energy in the house of spiritual psychology. Group therapy or a new kind of therapy may have extremely positive effects on the original 5th house issue. This is a great chance for Aries to bring creative projects into the collective.

As Leo season is fast approaching we can all get a headstart planting creative seeds now which will come to fruition in the spring.

Leo Flag Design: Deirdre Tanton
Photographs Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons;
Illustration of The Cowardly Lion
by W.W. Denslow who died in 1915