Feb 4, 2024 | by Daniel Giamario |
Imbolc/Candlemas Cross-Quarter
Today, Sunday, February 4, the Sun at the 15th degree of Aquarius is at the exact cross-quarter between December Solstice and March Equinox. Known as Imbolc, this was one of the four major pre-Christian Gaelic Festivals. The original festival had associations with the goddess Brigit and later with St.Bridget of Kildare. In most renditions she was a Solar Goddess associated with fire and protection.
My own research connects her with Venus’s stellar stand-in, the star Spica, which in ancient times aligned with the Full Moon closest to Imbolc. Due to precession, this Full Moon-Spica alignment now falls in April. In ancient times Imbolc was the radiant and Solar Feminine, with her antipode being the Spica-Sun conjunction formerly in mid-August (to this day the Catholic Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin), but now occurring in October. Secular “Ground Hog Day” (February 2) also has a faint connection to Imbolc.
In our times though, with the return of the power and wisdom of the Sacred Feminine, Imbolc regains its great significance!
All Planets in Direct Motion
With Uranus having turned direct on January 27, all planets are now in direct motion. This situation lasts a good 89 days until the next Mercury retrograde on April 25. Little has been written about the all-planets-direct phenomenon. Wave Rayne, a student of our school, was one of the first to give it any focus, some 25 years ago. See her research at https://allplanetsdirect.com/
We are still gathering data on this as to its intent and meaning. Just as retrogrades are not “bad” per se, neither is this situation “good”. That much is known now. Equally of interest in our research are natal charts with all planets direct.
Moon Wildly Out-of-Bounds and Other Wonders
From Sunday, February 5, until Wednesday, February 8, the Southern Moon will be Out-Of-Bounds. Its greatest extreme is on Tuesday, with the Capricorn Moon at 28S14 declination, nearly five degrees below the ecliptic. Key words for this important phenomenon are: outsider, outlander, divergent, out-of-bounder, and especially “unassimilable.”
With all planets in direct motion as pointed out above, this can be quite extreme indeed!
The OOB Moon occults Antares at 4:49pm PST on Monday, February 5, visible in China. Also, whilst OOB, the Moon aligns with Venus on February 7, 12:12pm PST, at 19Capricorn05, opening the descending Second Chakra Portal of the Leo Venus Synodic Overstory. Next up, the OOB Moon joins ascending Mars 11:52pm the same day, at 26Capricorn13. Not to be left out in the early morning sky, the Moon aligns with Mercury at 5Aquarius51 on February 8 at 3:25pm PST.
Be on the lookout for a separate sharing featuring this unique and rare planetary dance.
Venus and Mars Within the Significant Great Saga 10Degree Orb
An extremely interesting feature of the current morning sky is Venus’ and Mars’ visible union in the morning sky. As Mars is slowly ascending from the Underworld, Venus is on her descending journey. As of January 30 they closed within 10degrees. The exact conjunction is February 21 at 6Aquarius57. They will remain within the magic 10degree orb until about March 15.
Within the synodic Great Saga Overstory of the mutual Venus-Mars relationship, re-enacted every 32 years, this is the part in mythic stories, where Mars and Venus create a sacred marriage. TOTAMS is exploring these themes in depth in our signature “Journey of Inanna Revisioned with Mars” course currently in progress. We intend to open the group up again for new participants after the descent of Venus into the Underworld in late April.
Mercury Highlighting the Zero Aquarius Signature
Morning star Mercury entered Aquarius at 9:10pm PST on Sunday, February 4, closely followed by Mars on February 12 and Venus on February 16. This Zero Aquarius degree is quite an important signature now – among other reasons, because of the 2020 Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at that degree, as well as the Plutonian ingress and Sun-Pluto conjunction I wrote about a few weeks ago. I will touch on this in my next vlog.
Meanwhile, REMEMBER to ENJOY the delights of the morning sky. Anyone seen Mars yet?