Dec 10, 2023 | by Silvianne Delmars |
Venus
On December 9th Venus was with the Moon in the morning sky at 05 Scorpio 40, marking her arrival at the 4th gate (associated with the 4th chakra) in her descent journey. As we continue journeying with her and Mars, here are the Sabian and Chandra symbols for this Scorpio 6 degree:
Sabian Symbol
“The gold rush tears men away from their native soil.
Keynote: The passionate search for new values which, at any level, promise a more abundant life.
It dramatizes the capacity in man to tear himself away from the known and the familiar, gambling everything on a vision or dream. A Keyword could be AVIDITY.”
Dane Rudhyar, from An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformations and Its 360 Symbolic Phases
Chandra Symbol
“A dancer with eight arms.
… It is a matter of moving beyond all guilt and shame to honor the spirit within—free of the shadow of all those pasts when she was less than whole and could not bear to be that fragmentary way one split second longer. These old patterns generate scars. The scars attract fresh patterns of still going against self evermore subtly. To uproot the self-stinging mechanism is a deep and collectively pivotal task.
Meanwhile, the actual interior condition is one of regenerative presence with no apologies or inhibitions. To be as she truly is, is all of the battle here. Just to come from the unconditional state she has attained requires her to penetrate through all the layers of shared mutual restriction of any kind.
There is a fierce clarity, a raging inferno of core intent in this frequency. It is as omnidirectional and empowered to change this world as any degree whatsoever. Yet it casts a strange lingering shadow.
Self-importance is a very hard one to track down. Sometimes it masquerades as self-negation, but the obsession is consistently with this personal soul here and her dreams of can she enter the deeper fires and stay in there to bring us all with her? So much rides on her able shoulders. She is the future borning to believe in itself ardently.”
– Ellias Lonsdale, from Star Sparks: 360 Windows into the Heart of the Zodiac
The invitation, as we stand at this Heart Chakra initiation portal, is to seek out the distortions we have held in loving and being loved, on all levels. Arguably, the primal – and oh so prevalent – misconception is believing that we can, or ought, to love others more than we love ourselves. It is simply not possible.
And what better medicine could there be to set us right, than the relentless Scorpionic determination to submerse itself fully into life experience, beautifully invoked by both these symbols. Unabashedly following the path of our deepest desires requires a fearless determination to stay true to our own, deeply personal inner promptings. And in the alchemical cauldron of this radical self-acceptance of our essential wholeness, in all its messy, flawed, human glory, lies the power to transform ourselves and the world.
Mars
Meanwhile, Mars continues his Underworld journey, moving steadily onward toward his emergence into the morning sky in early January. He will be meeting with the Moon on December 12 at 12 Sag 56. The Sabian and Chandra symbols for this degree are:
Sabian Symbol
Sagittarius 13: A widow’s past is brought to light.
Keynote: The karma of past actions as it affects opportunities presented by a new cycle.
…once a cycle of activity is concluded, much that was unclear or unconsciously motivated in the events it witnessed can now more easily come to the clear consciousness of the mind….this is a symbol of RETRIBUTION.
Dane Rudhyar, from An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformations and Its 360 Symbolic Phases
Chandra Symbol
“An embalmer at work on a mummy.
… This degree weaves a path of evolvement through some very dark, old territory and into a light that cannot arise any easier way. It is a confounding track to stay clear within. The curves, the surprises, the reversals and returns are wild to take up.
We are being asked to let go of every fixed idea and to free our past ghosts of every kind. We are being ushered into an astounding miracle we never will believe until we’re right there in that super-clarity that comes at death’s door…”
– Ellias Lonsdale, from Star Sparks: 360 Windows into the Heart of the Zodiac
The Sacred Masculine, deep in the Underworld phase of his archetypal quest to more fully inhabit the shape-shifting Gemini dance with duality, is being asked to unflinchingly face the truth and accept the consequences of decisions made under the sway of the last several thousand years of darkness. A daunting task indeed, but the reward that awaits is a whole new way of being.
The New Moon in Sagittarius
Sabian Symbol 21Sagittarius, Ruby Fumizki
A few hours after this meet-up of Mars and the Moon, the exact New Moon occurs at 20 Sag 40. The symbols for this Sagittarius 21 degree both invoke somewhat whimsical animal images. The Sabian symbol reads, “A child and a dog wearing borrowed eyeglasses,” and it reminds us of the power of imagination and imitation in attaining higher levels of consciousness.
Lonsdale’s commentary for the corresponding Chandra Symbol, “Toads singing at night,” informs us that “we are in a co-creative continuum between what is directly sense-present and our own interior resource. We are meant to tap in the fullest way the sense cues, the signals, the sings and the portents. As well, we are even more sharply motivated to reach back inside and find a creative response that shifts the pattern from potential to actual.”
If humanity is to make the evolutionary leap in consciousness that we know we are being called to in this unprecedented time of turmoil, it is essential that we remember to seek for inspiration and allies outside of the narrow confines of the sterile world we have created, peopled by unwilded humans and their articifical creations, and not much else.
It is high time to cherish and re-enter, in every sacred moment, the transformationally magical realms of our earlier selves, experienced in this life as children, and collectively in past lives in lost civilizations. From the time when we know ourselves as co-creative partners with Great Mystery, engage in this indescribably beautiful dance with all of nature – the plants and the trees, the animals, the birds and the insects, the rocks, the winds and the oceans, the planets and stars!
In this Sagittarian New Moon initiation window, I am asking myself, “How might I inform my personal vision with a fresh wisdom, inspired by the hints and whispers from the natural world all around me?” As we banish the ghosts of the past and let go of the old distortions blocking our innate experience of juicy, creative, wondrous, transformational self-love, we free ourselves to invoke more deeply the mind-boggling power of our imagination.
Neptune’s Invitation
Sounding a powerful over-arching fanfare for this Venus heart initiation portal, with Mars in the depths, we have celestial Neptune, planet of dreams and visions (as well as deception and illusion). Neptune stationed direct on December 6 at 24 Pisces 53. The Sabian Symbol for Pisces 25, “The purging of the priesthood,” calls us to dispel corruption and distortion at both the personal and collective levels.
Moments of crisis can lead us to necessary catharsis, a renewal of our true Soul connection. May these moments of heightened awareness of how we are truly held in Divine Love provide fuel for the journey to uncover and live into our truest selves. By the soulful act of imagining ourselves living into our own unique divine blueprint and the transformed future unfolding before us, we are creating it, for each other and for our future selves.