As we near the end of the year of tumultuous change, the year that the Shamanic Astrology Mystery School had attempted to prepare us for, as far back as the “Preparing for 2020” Summit at the end of 2017, unknown potentialities and possibilities are now emerging.
The Shamanic Astrology Mystery School has been experiencing a time of unprecedented growth, with many new students, a recent group of 6 who have graduated with their Foundational Level one Certification, and an enthusiastic new outreach team. A rebooting and a rebirthing into a higher octave of the school is well underway.
As part of this re-visioning, I will be doing monthly Vlogs at each New Moon. You can find the first one from the October New Moon here. At each Full Moon time, I will be contributing my Ramblings, Reflections, and Ruminations articles, of which this is the first.
Spica Rises from the Underworld: October 31
In addition to the fine articles from Mary Kern and Sheridan Simple, relating to a remarkable Full Moon and Samhain, a lesser-known phenomenon is now connecting with Samhain and Halloween, and only during this current time period of a great Turning of the Ages.
Spica, the brightest star of the Priestess constellation, and generally seen (depending on the region of the world), as an ear of corn, a shaft of wheat, or even (as in Bali), as a rice paddy, will rise from the underworld on October 31, reemerging as a morning star. Taking into account the slow precessional movement, Spica is now found at 24 Libra 08.
As with all first magnitude stars, there will generally be a time frame of 15 degrees before and after conjunction with the Sun, when the star or planet is not seen, being obscured by the glare of the Sun, and from an earth-centered perspective, having passed into the underworld.
During our current time, Spica reaches the 15 degree threshold around October 1, leaving the evening sky, and descending into the underworld. Conjunction with the Sun takes place on October 17, and then the heliacal rise on October 31. Why is this of importance?
Spica is often perceived as the most sacred star of the Feminine; of the Mother Goddesses. In fact, many of the named stars of the Priestess constellation have stories related to different “women’s mysteries”. However, Spica as her brightest star, at the center of her body, has the most prominence.
Spica was often used as a stellar stand-in for the planet Venus. The yearly cycle of Spica’s relationship with the Sun has been used in much the same way as the varieties of mythic stories that connect with the movements of Venus in and out of the underworld, over the course of her 584-day Synodic cycle.
Amazingly, the Catholic Christian holiday, known as the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, that has been fixed on the seasonal calendar at August 15 each year, has a connection with Spica. Christianity has had a quite well known and well documented ability to superimpose its holy days on top of pagan pre-Christian ceremonial timings.
They would do a similar thing with placing churches atop ancient ceremonial sites. While it appears that 4000-5000 years ago, Spica was conjunct with the sun around August 15, due to the slow movement of precession, the conjunction date is now in mid-October.
In pre-Christian times, going back closer to the Age of Taurus, the great mystery teachings associated with death and rebirth, the eternal return, and of the celebrations and ceremonies concerning harvest time, were connected with Spica. These included the stories of the Kore, Pluto and Persephone, of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and are all connected with this ancient star knowledge.
To recap, at this time in precessional history, Spica, as the stellar symbol of the Primordial Mother goddesses, enters the underworld October 1, joins the sun around October 17 (the “Assumption” in the Christian version when Mary dies and then reunites and with the heavenly father, a veritable “Easter of the Feminine”). And then is reborn as a morning star on October 31. This just happens to be our secular Halloween and Samhain!
In ancient times the “mystery teachings” of the eternal return were connected with harvest season and the continual renewal of life out of death, and death out of life. In pre-Christian times, similar themes are also seen with the monthly Lunar cycle in the time period just before new moon up until the appearance of the first crescent (the three days of the dark of the moon). And, of course, the brilliant ways that the synodic cycles of Venus also convey the same death and rebirth themes, including an underworld phase. So we have Spica, the monthly Moon cycle, and the 584-day Venus cycle, all conveying similar messages.
This is just a bit of speculation here now. Is the Christian Assumption of Mary at the conjunction of the Sun, a hijack of the original teachings? This is something I suspect.
And furthermore, now at this amazing time of the Turning of the Ages; where so many cycles converge: The bottoming out of the Kali Yuga, the end and beginning of the 26,000 year precessional cycle, the end of the 4th Turning, the Pluto return of the US, and possibly even the end and beginning of 12 precessional cycles, over 300,000 years of humans having the same DNA strand (the 6th mass extinction?).
What is the message that the heliacal rise of Spica, the “rebirth” of the Sacred Feminine, should occur exactly at Halloween, exactly at Samhain? Samhain is luminal space, an in-between place. Many are seeing our current time as a Zero Point, where absolutely anything can happen. It seems extremely synchronistic that Spica, the most sacred star of “Women’s Mysteries”, should be so perfectly aligned with her rising at Halloween and with this most unique Full moon.