Jupiter's Quiet Joy and Mars' Epiphany of Retreat

I consider the cosmic changing of guard with Mercury mincing into Aquarius, just as Venus settles into bittersweet Capricorn. As well, I propose the audacity of Jupiterian joy in revolutionary times.

The Ice Maiden - Edmund Dulac

“An orphic engine revs but floods
Choked on its ardent weight.
Disjointed anthems dip and bob
Down time’s defrosted spate.

Over its pools of greeny melt
The rearing ice will tilt.
To make rhyme chime again with time,
I sound a curious lilt.”

-         Denise Riley, “Death Makes Dead Metaphor Revive”[1]

I’ve been deep in meditation about how to thrive, and maintain one’s center, in the sound and fury of revolutionary times. In a recent post I mentioned how we can be kidnapped, like Ganymede (a mythic avatar for Aquarius), by these trans-human planetary forces, latching into the hive-mind and perhaps straying from the quiet dignity of our own souls.

I’ve also been thinking about societal volatility, and how that same eruptive energy plays out in nature: I had the great privilege of witnessing the spring ‘break up’ of the Yukon River in 2008, when I worked in Dawson City as a chambermaid. Over the winter, old timers place wagers on when they think she’ll break, and the actual moment is met with great fanfare and joy: an air horn siren heralds the first cracking, and folks run with their pints from The Snake Pit and the Downtowner. Work is called off for the day. Someone wins a pot of money for their prescience.

The event is nothing short of a miracle: winter’s implacable scar of ice becomes, in an instant, a lively rushing of bergs in teals, and jades and indigos. The sound of it thunders in the marrow, and flings open even the hardest heart. Though a Yukon winter is endlessly dark (a true psychological marathon), there’s the promise of spring painting the poplar trees practically overnight, and pollen felting the air with its powdered gold. Lupine and fireweed swiftly trim the river banks. Cabin fever alchemizes into heady bacchanal.

This is the allegory I find myself returning to for Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius squaring Uranus in Taurus over 2021: a collective joy and release, as murky as things can get leading up to these epiphanies. Jupiter leads the charge in terms of these revolutionary squares, and his cymbal clash with Uranus perfects on January 17th. The Saturn-Uranus square will perfect in mid-February.

I wonder if we’ll see a more expansive and epiphanic antithesis to the anguish and strangeness of Capitol Hill—a collective catharsis of creative release. Perhaps ideological barriers will dissolve for a moment, and we’ll see how plague, endless lockdown and financial worry unites all of us—regardless of political affiliation—in a shared grief, trauma and desire to reform a chronically broken system.

There will continue to be eruptions of discontent, and cris de couer on part of the collective over this year, but between the contractions there are also these sweet velds of calm: small arcadias and oasis that offer an opportunity to re-calibrate, and perhaps even detach from the increasingly hectic etheric realm. Increasingly spirit has been urging me to settle into entire days of cyber-retreat.

An Arcadian Landscape - Ferdinand Knab (1897)

Today is one such day with Venus in Capricorn trining Mars in Taurus this morning, and the Sag Moon sending a cheerful flare to Jupiter. In a recent talk, Acyuta Bhava Dasa of Night Light Astrology, (do check out his YouTube channel), spoke to the importance of keeping secrets, and how the soul is nourished by these lacuna of a sweet and private joy. With Mars in the sign of its exile, and supported by Venus, we can withdraw from the acceleration in the political realm, and seek refuge in our rituals, our gratitude, and our unsung breakthroughs and victories.

Mars’ recent square of Mercury, earlier this week, may have ratcheted up pressure in terms of stating our unambiguous political allegiances, to the point of swift condemnation of folks on the ‘other side’. The furor around Trump being banished from Twitter was very much an expression of Mars severing channels of communication. Though I will have more to say about freedom of speech, and the Saturn return of the internet, for now we actually have Mercury in quiet good shape in Aquarius. Calmer heads may indeed prevail.

Venus in Capricorn can be a melancholic transit, and we will have a Venus retrograde in this sign much later this year, entangled with Pluto. It could do us well to pay attention to chthonic susurrations of the heart this month, which may be rooted in the nostalgia manufactured by Covid isolation, and the entropy of Pluto’s co-presence.

These themes may return, and intensify, later in the year, though under completely different circumstances (one hopes!). With Venus’ host in the midst of an intense awakening, we may be called to consider the false refuge of expired romances, or the danger of casting back to the dim golden age of a relationship that fell apart for a reason. My Cancerian Venus struggles with this lesson, but the vice-grip of my crab claws is loosening, one day at a time.

Victor Vasnetsov - Alyonushka (1881)

Later tonight Mercury, and his host, Saturn, join at 2 degrees of Aquarius, triggering the degree of “an unexpected thunderstorm”. Will there be revelatory pronouncements tonight around Saturnian themes of controlling channels of communication? The Big Tech crackdown is gathering momentum, with app Parler already cut, by martian steel, from the Google app store. These are troubling machinations. Exiled journalist, Glen Greenwald, recently unlocked a Substack post that breaks this all down with nuance, and sensitivity.[2]

On a personal level, we may experience breakthroughs around cutting through the current emotional static, and speaking our own heart’s truth with a calm authority. We choose our words carefully, from a place of reflection and sobriety, rather than the dopamine rush of algorithm-rewarded pile-ons. Perhaps within Mars’ retreat, we simply tune into our own wise inner elder, and subtle messages from our bodies.

To wit, eye strain is telling me to stahp already with the doom scrolling, and take the time and space I need in bringing my thesis to completion. This January, there’s no need to rush to action, or to a particular ‘hot take’, or certainly righteous condemnation: the chaotic break down is a part of nature, and we can take comfort in the fact that spirit’s Satanav always re-calibrates to find the path again.

We might even have the audacity to experience this opening of fertile spaces as a process of joy and revelation. Jupiter is walking this wryd path with us, and he’s got all the best hiking rounds and songs. Val-deri,Val-dera, Val-deri, Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha—

Also, here’s some Aquarian ASMR that is haunting, alien and deeply beautiful. I’m going to try a meditation to this recording tonight—it feels timely. How have you been processing these rapidly shifting times? Where are you finding refuge?

Works cited:

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/jun/13/poem-of-the-week-death-makes-dead-metaphor-revive-by-denise-riley

[2] https://greenwald.substack.com/p/violence-in-the-capitol-dangers-in-67f