A First Quarter Moon of Distinctive Discernment

Tuesday's First Quarter Moon is interesting in that it shows where stumbling blocks might emerge in whatever it is that we are attempting during this lunation cycle. Since Mercury is still retrograde until nearly the end of the month, or for two weeks into December when you consider its retrograde shadow period, the most logical ambition that makes sense for us currently lies in creating greater awareness within ourselves. As Marcel Proust has it, "We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us, or spare us." The Sun and Moon in square this week also highlight Venus, in its own sign of Libra, just as Venus is getting ready to enter transformationally-oriented Scorpio.

At the moment of the quarter moon, the Sun is closely semi-sextile to Venus while the Moon is inconjunct. Venus is in the 29th degree of Libra, and preparing to enter Scorpio, a Mars-ruled sign. By the time of next week's Lunar Eclipse on Wednesday, November 28th, Venus will also sextile Mars, in combination with Pluto, and conjunct Saturn in aspect to Uranus. Of course Uranus remains in orb of its powerful aspect with Pluto, putting us squarely in the vice of social as well as personal transformation - heating up again next spring for the third of seven exact hits that will take us into the late 20-teens. In the current month, what are we to make of all this Venus emphasis, just as Venus is leaving its own sign? One way to look at it is that we are having to face the realization that we are dependent on each other in ways that we at times but dimly perceive, and that our mutual interdependence has lessons for us as we continue to negotiate the enormous and potentially painful realities of this climactic decade.

This is certainly true at the level of the collective, especially regarding the dilemmas of these times that we must as a society embrace. The prime example could be our national acknowledgement of the immanence of climate change, a recognition that has been thrust into the spotlight by the devastation that we all recently witnessed on the New York area in the wake of the so-called frankenstorm; even skeptics are acknowledging this as the strange fruit of global warming. In an important correlation to the oncoming freight train of the Aquarian Age bearing down on 21st century world culture, a most salient fact is that, regarding the carbon emission problem of modern society, we are all in this together, every country on earth and as well each person.

On the individual level also, we might be at the point of reckoning that there is something vital that we absolutely need, and that we can only get from our relationships with each other. Given the tenor of this Quarter Moon, between two eclipses, we may well be forced by the pressure of events or by difficult or even painful circumstances to new realizations. The Sabian Symbol of the Venus degree is "Humanity seeking to bridge the span of knowledge" with the keyword from Marc Edmond Jones of Rationality. This is certainly very apropos. In his The Sabian Symbols in Astrology he goes on to state that this symbol represents "the gift for every inspiring or unusual contribution to human well-being," versus on the other hand, the descent into mere egotism. We might want to inquire in our own lives where we are, and where we are not, measuring up to this high standard.

A First Quarter Moon of Distinctive Discernment

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Chart for the First Quarter Moon on November 20, 2012

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