The Matrix Edition
“You have to let it all go, Neo. Fear, doubt, and disbelief. Free your mind.”
Morpheus in The Matrix
Call on your inner Neo this week as the stars align to give us momentum to take the way we perceive to the next level. If we choose to seek it, we may find powerful cosmic awareness over mind-over-matter during this period, and experience increased velocity in our consciousness. The Sun and Mercury are travelling together in probing Scorpio, and their collaboratively illuminating influence shines the light on who, what, when, where and why we perceive. Scorpio is naturally investigative and when the Sun and Mercury are here we tend to go deep. Intensifying this imperative is the stimulating participation of Pluto and Jupiter in the Sun/Mercury applying conjunction. Mercury forms a creative sextile with Scorpio’s ruler Pluto in Capricorn, exact on November 10th. Rather than copping out with a resigned “That’s just the way I am” answer to everything we deep down know we could change, we may be impelled to ask the deeper questions such as “Why am I like this?” If we call in Mercury in Scorpio’s determined, penetrating nature and Pluto’s potent power to make a sustained effort to seek the truth, the answer will come. Additional support for this process comes in the form of a sextile between the Sun and Jupiter exact later in the day that will see the bright side to any darkness we encounter in all that digging for the secrets to our soul that will reveal how our mind perceives the world. The Sun and Jupiter’s upbeat rhythm will coax us into seeing the great opportunity available simply in witnessing the unconscious conditioning that dictates our perceptions and the ensuing actions that obscure our inherent light in the process. The Sun and Mercury in conjunction dancing with the energies of Jupiter and Pluto over the next couple of weeks sets an upbeat tone that resonates with the harmonies of compatible water and earth signs. Substantial and positive intelligent forces are at work using a broad range of resources to guide us on our evolutionary path of consciousness with each cluster of revelations big and small.
The New Moon on November 11th engages the Sun/Mercury/Jupiter/Pluto configuration with the new lunar cycle for the upcoming month, encouraging us to set an intention to see beyond the rational mind, knowing that we have the heart-opening courage to at once accept our limitations and also go beyond them through the process of increased awareness. The Sun and Moon united in an exact conjunction become one in purpose and action. Finding comfort with the core of who we are, as the Moon does with the Sun at the New Moon, primes us to be ready for new information, to set new course directions or in some way recalibrate how we operate in the next cycle. In Scorpio, the Sun and Moon share the profound sense of the past and the future, and how they figure into the present. Being persistently reminded of the cycle of death and rebirth infuses each moment with immense potential for growth. The great lesson of Scorpio is to allow the process of such dramatic change to unfold without fear. The proverbial “letting go” of whatever needs to die is the crux of the Scopionic mission. Keeping alive in the mind past regrets and misdeeds, as well as the negative voices of others who would pound out our light is one way we refuse to let go. During this new lunar cycle may we start asking what it is we fear if we release the past and embrace the future. What truly is the worst that can happen? The alchemical process of transformation, the DNA of Scorpio, can mean the death of who we think we are as conceived by the mind. If we can see that we are not our thoughts but simply that we have them, then we may be able to recognize that our greatest fear lies in knowing the fullness of who we really are. It is much easier to embrace the dysfunctionally familiar than it is to step into the great Unknown. Bringing in another reference from The Matrix, will you take the blue pill and believe you are leading a “normal” life, or take the red pill and see how deep the rabbit-hole goes?
After spending seven weeks refining his assertion techniques in Virgo, Mars shifts gears on November 12th as he enters Libra, attuning his drive and desires to the collective. This is not the most comfortable domain for Mars as he would rather take the less intellectual, lone wolf approach, and generally not have to think before he acts. In Libra, he is compelled to consider others before acting, and on the surface that may appear as indecisiveness, or create hesitation in his forward movement. Mars will need to align his heart with his mind to regain his sure-footedness as he traverses Libran territory and find his purpose in acting for the greater good of humanity. Mars in Libra will choose to create in collaboration with others in lieu of being the conqueror left standing alone. At this time, Mars is still in conjunction with Libra’s ruling planet, Venus, who is now pulling ahead of him after their conjunction in Virgo (see last AstroCast). Venus’ aesthetic and cooperative influence over Mars is quite strong now that he has joined her on her home turf. The Mars/Venus conjunction in effect through November 22nd also represents a new cycle in relationships where harmonious couplings of all varieties that emerge during this initial stage have the potential to develop into positive alliances that will contribute to society as a whole.
Tapping into a desire for stability, Venus sextiles Saturn in Sagittarius on November 13th and is rewarded for her sense of fairness and balance, as well as her willingness to put the effort needed into making a relationship work. This duo will take relationships seriously, seeing great value and strength in their commitment to each other that will last long beyond the end of the honeymoon. They understand that time is needed to experience progressive change and that open feedback between partners creates traction for growth. Their commitment creates a total immersion, both feet in environment that includes all the conditions necessary to lower entropy in the alliance, which is the real object of the evolutionary process.
Also on November 13th, Mercury reinvigorates his conversation with the power players in our outer solar system that he began on November 10th and invokes the intentions set at the New Moon when he sextiles Jupiter from the same degree in Scorpio as the lunar event. Reinforcing his imperative for a mind-expanding experience, Mercury’s alignment with the planet of philosophical panoramas may help to free our consciousness from the confines of limiting thoughts. Able to see the bigger picture with HD clarity, Mercury will have the potential to take a leap of Jupiterian faith that, to quote The Matrix again, “There is no spoon.”
As he pulls away from Jupiter, Mercury has a culminating experience when he forms the superior conjunction with the Sun in Scorpio on November 17th. While the Sun/Mercury duo may initially make us feel identified with our rational mind and our thoughts as if they define who we are, the collective forces of the cosmos are showing us the limitation of that concept via more and more scientific research that corroborates what The Matrix visualized back in 1999 – that we are living in a virtual reality. Since new ways of thinking precedes new ways of being, it is only a matter of time before we truly begin to master our earth experience and can start bending or breaking the rule set that keeps us under lock and gravitational pull.
On November 18th, Neptune in Pisces stations direct, creating a highly subtle vibration that will probably be perceived only on a psychic level. However, the planet that rules the dream time is less than a degree away from an exact square to real-world Saturn in Sagittarius, a tense formation that will become exact later this month (more on that in the next AstroCast). As cosmic synchronicity would have it, The Matrix was theatrically released during the last Saturn/Neptune square – the first quarter “crisis of consciousness” alignment of this latest cycle. Now we’re in the third quarter “crisis of consciousness” square between the planet of reality and the planet of the dream world. This crisis is all about conscious perception. As Morpheus put it in the The Matrix: “Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?” As Neptune hangs still in the sky over this next month, barely moving as Saturn approaches their rendezvous point on Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., we may be inspired to have a Matrix marathon rather than watch football, and have a refreshingly authentic discussion with our loved ones how we determine what is dream and what is reality.
Mercury surfaces from his deep dive in Scorpio and launches into the far reaches of perception when he enters Sagittarius on November 20th. Quite happy reaching for the stars, he’ll enthusiastically search for meaning in everything, in the field of dreams or reality. Mercury here will seek philosophical experiences, higher learning, and basically be gung ho to explore all things foreign sure to expand his horizon. Maybe now is the time to take that red pill!
Venus in her socially conscious domain of Libra activates the waning yet still potent long-term fractious square between Uranus in pioneering Aries and Pluto in patriarchal Capricorn when she squares Pluto on November 20th. The pressure to transform our very engagement with life is heightened while this configuration is in effect from November 16th to the 25th. Being true and deeply committed to self as well as to other is actually a liberating experience. No more running in fear seeking any distraction available to avoid direct contact with our own or another’s soul. Venus represents the sacred feminine and when she confronts Pluto’s source of elemental power she summons up our collective destiny to bring patriarchal society back to a balanced state where the feminine is once again honored and cherished on par with the masculine. Surprising developments in this arena may erupt as Venus segues from Pluto to Uranus over the next few days. (Her opposition to Uranus, exact on November 23rd, will be covered in the next AstroCast.) It is the choices we make when disruptions occur that define who we are. As the options reveal themselves may we think of the wise Morpheus’ words once again: “I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.”
Here’s the data (using Pacific Time and planetary positions rounded to the nearest whole degree, unless otherwise noted):
November 10 – Mercury sextile Pluto at 14° Scorpio/Capricorn at 4:12 a.m.
November 10 – Sun sextile Jupiter at 18° Scorpio/Virgo at 6:17 p.m.
November 11 – Moon conjunct Sun at 19° Scorpio at 9:47 a.m.
November 12 – Mars at 0° Libra at 1:41 p.m.
November 13 – Venus sextile Saturn at 6° Libra/Sagittarius at 9:12 a.m.
November 13 – Mercury sextile Jupiter at 19° Scorpio/Virgo at 10:18 a.m.
November 17 – Sun conjunct Mercury (Superior Conjunction) at 25° Scorpio at 6:53 a.m.
November 18 – Neptune station direct at 7° Pisces at 8:32 a.m.
November 20 – Mercury at 0° Sagittarius at 11:44 a.m.
November 20 – Venus square Pluto 14° Libra/Capricorn at 5:59 p.m.
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