Awakenings: Astrology with Sarah Varcas

6 days ago

7th & 8th November 2018: New Moon in Scorpio & Jupiter Enters Sagittarius

Emotional Renewal

A new moon occurs on 7th November at 4:03 p.m. UT, in the 16th degree of Scorpio, trined by Neptune. She invites us to embrace the unknown, assured that doing so will lead us not into the mouth of danger, but the outstretched arms of wisdom which illuminates our darkness. We may feel sensitive at this Moon, both beguiled by her magic and unsure of her intentions: moved to look beyond the veil of awareness and yet strangely apprehensive about doing so. Fear of the unsettling realm of the unconscious may insist that ignorance is bliss and there’ll be no going back once we’ve seen what lurks in the darkness! What if wisdom is too much knowledge, too much responsibility, too great a challenge?

Whilst replete with mystery, this Moon is not to be feared. For those commited to waking up it hastens the journey into the sacred Self. But this journey may seem less than inviting, not full of sparkles and light! To know The Self we must know the self: the tiny, limited, fearful self which tells us we must be acceptable, ‘nice and kind’, or tough enough to ‘beat the bastards at their own game’; the self that needs to be admired or revered, protected or hidden, born of pain, separation and fear. It tells us we are at risk; that we must fight to protect our corner or betray ourselves to stay safe, accepted and loveable. It needs all the love and compassion we can muster to reveal itself: its many dark corners and sharp edges, contradictions, manipulations and fear.

This new moon allows for that compassion and potentises the power of self-acceptance which enables us to burn through the defensive twists and turns of our psyche. It reminds us we are more than just flesh and bone, opinions and emotions. Beyond and around all of that we are an embodiment of dark and light, conscious and unconscious, spirit and matter, forever immersed in a sacred dance. In the dark of this mysterious and seductive new moon we are revealed in all our paradoxical glory, to those with eyes to see and a heart eager to know.

The day after this moon, 8th November, Jupiter enters its own sign of Sagittarius providing a welcome energy lift. This Jupiter introduces an expansive and optimistic backdrop which will build in the coming weeks and remain with us until December 2019. But it’s important to remember that optimism takes effort. It’s not just a state of grace. We must do it and be it, not simply wait for our perspective to shift, liberating us from negative and fear-laden thinking as if by magic. This is not Pollyanna thinking, denial of the troubles and struggles of this world. Instead it is hope born of bone-deep knowing that truth will rise like a bubble and wisdom win the day if we honour both in our daily lives and refuse to be controlled by impotent rage or paralysing fear. If we continue to feed the hamster wheel of anxiety, our lives will change little in the coming months. But if we align ourselves with Jupiter’s expansive and visionary hope, thinking new thoughts outside the box of our tiny mind, we might just see life in such a new light it will be forever changed.

As it enters Sagittarius, Jupiter forms a Grand Trine with the North Node in Cancer and Chiron in Pisces. Here it offers to lift us out of emotional pain into clarity, where feelings are felt, embraced, honoured and released, not clung to and solidified into you and me. All emotion is in motion. It never stays the same and there is much we can do to keep it flowing like a clear mountain stream, not crashing through our lives like a mudslide swamping all in its path. Use the New Moon in Scorpio to reflect upon your emotional landscape and identify where painful hooks keep you stuck in the past or paralysed in the present. Then welcome Jupiter into Sagittarius the following day with open arms, ready to embrace a different perspective which will help you see all things anew.

Sarah Varcas astro-awakenings.co.uk/about-me

Learn astrology with me here: tinyurl.com/y76smqo2

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Awakenings: Astrology with Sarah Varcas

1 week ago

November 2018 Overview: Observing the Stories of Our Lives

At an elemental level November 2018 is all about fire and water. A Grand Trine which began to form at the end of October features significantly throughout this month, accentuating the creative force of fire and the intuitive nature of water. Fire is anger and passion, desire and resistance, inspiration and the impetus to be made new through courageous engagement with life itself. Water is the world of emotions and sensitivity, intuition and spirit, tenderness, oneness and overwhelm. We may drown in our emotions or be refreshed by them; delight in the intimacy of shared feelings or be overcome by a lack of boundaries and the impingement of the world around us. Throughout this month we must strive to balance inspiration with intuition, anger with empathy, tenderness with courage and resistance with surrender. External struggles may trigger emotional meltdown but still we must stand strong in the world and say our piece, make our mark. We may have to fight when we’d prefer to retreat or withdraw to contemplate the world rather than struggle to change it.

Attention to the subtle nuance of each moment will be necessary. The perceptual impact of heightened emotion and the fires of inspiration or anger must be carefully discerned. But most importantly we will need to connect with the subtle knowing that lies beneath all of this, steady and stable, neither you nor me nor anyone else: just the flow of energy and essence underpinning each moment from cradle to grave. It is from this flow that we can draw energy in each moment, pure and untainted by an obsessive mind or broken heart, by shame or regrets, grief or despair. Free even of the joys and delights that hook us into a worldly narrative of good and bad, right and wrong. This energetic presence that lies beneath – the source of our being – remains forever true to the moment and free of all that binds us to the world.

From this place of quiet clarity we can know what’s called for in each moment. When to speak and when to remain silent. When to act, when to step back, when to insist and when to yield. This month invites us to engage with life from a deeper place where wisdom flows like a fresh mountain stream, born of intimacy with all things and embodiment of the wise heart which sees beyond the deceptions of the world to its radiant core.

Mercury entered Sagittarius on 31st October, adding fuel to our inner flame. It will remain there all this month, turning retrograde mid-November and returning briefly to Scorpio at the beginning of December. In Sagittarius, Mercury can be a bit too confident if we let it. A tad over-zealous in its expression, it may tempt us into arrogant pronouncements where open-minded enquiry would better suffice. Consequences are often out of radar range with this Mercury. We forget they exist and make decisions with little regard for them. Sometimes there’s a place for doing this and when Mercury’s in Sagittarius it’s often the case that we simply need to speak out and see what happens. But it’s important to bear in mind that this Mercury can be liberal in its interpretation of fact and fiction, as can we. It allows for all manner of ‘creative’ truths, subjective perspectives and exaggerations, just as it provides the unfettered freedom to speak one’s mind and say it like it is no holds barred.

At its best, Mercury in Sagittarius seeks grand truths that weave all things into an integrated whole. At its less than best it fosters division through its sheer fiery force of opinion which leaves no space for difference or debate. It can broadcast opinions as fact far and wide, and so might we when under its sway. The force of resistance to our pronouncements may catch us off guard if we don’t first listen carefully to what we, ourselves, are saying. Forming part of this month’s influential Grand Trine as it shifts from the water of Scorpio to the fire of Sagittarius, this Mercury reminds us that only through deep inner enquiry can we know the truth and only through the risk of honest and open expression can we share that truth with others in a meaningful way.

Throughout the next two months we’ll have plenty of opportunity to consider the stories we project upon the world to make sense of it: how we insert our personal narrative into the impersonal conditions we encounter in our lives. Using this time to observe how that narrative impacts our experience will be time well spent. Do we weave stories that allow for creative solutions or feelings of limitation and despair? Do we forever resist the conditions we dislike, refusing to discover the power of surrender to a greater force of change in the deeper recesses of our lives? Or do we have the courage to change what we can and the wisdom to let be what we can’t? Do we project a dark and disempowered future or one of possibility – both good and bad – which we, ourselves, can shape – even by the power of our attitude in each moment? Mercury’s current cycle will reveal much about the sense we make of the world and what that sense means to our on-going experience of every day.

Venus also retrograded into Libra on 31st October where she will remain until the beginning of December, turning direct on 16th November. Since turning retrograde on 5th October she’s revealed where we get lost in obsessive desire, allow past hurts to dictate the course of the present and seek unhelpful interpersonal drama to feel connected. As Mercury now highlights the dramas we create out of life’s twists and turns, Venus’s return to her own sign softens the edges of these realisations, allowing us to share with others insight seeded in recent weeks. If relationships have revealed their problematic sides of late, it doesn’t necessarily mean an end is called for. The solution may be far more subtle. Better communication may be necessary, or a deeper understanding of the different ways in which we express love. We may benefit from an agreement to air grievances as they arise, not let them fester for a later date. Or perhaps committing to quality time together as a priority, not a luxury, will help us connect at a more intimate level once more.

Venus retrograde in Libra allows us to find love for self and others. She relights the flames of intimacy and the warmth of appreciation, recasting difficulties in the light of busy lives, stressed-out minds and troubled hearts in need of gentle care. It is always true that some relationships simply don’t survive Venus’s retrograde cycle and were never meant to. Their time has come and moving apart is the only way. But for many, gentle and more nuanced shifts of time and attention can release the healing balm of acceptance and forgiveness which forges a more loving and intimate path ahead.

Throughout November, Venus reaches out her wise and gentle hand to any and all who seek greater intimacy and a more heartfelt exchange with life itself. She wants us connected – with each other and ourselves – guided by the heart and relaxed in the warm embrace of love. Together with Mercury in Sagittarius she reminds us that love really does make the world go around, but it comes in many different forms. The more open we can be to giving and receiving it in all its guises, the safer and gentler the world will be. Which is exactly what the North Node’s shift into Cancer on 6th November is all about. So stay tuned for more on that soon!

Sarah Varcas astro-awakenings.co.uk/about-me

Learn astrology with me here: tinyurl.com/y76smqo2

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Awakenings: Astrology with Sarah Varcas

3 weeks ago

A full moon in the 2nd degree of Taurus on 24th October 2018 (16:46 UT) illuminates the power of questioning who we believe ourselves to be. Conjunct Uranus and opposing Venus, it provides the courage to stand strong in the face of self-delusion and denial, exhorting us to look beyond self-deception. This is a moon of profound change and radical disruption of the status quo. It threatens to test even the strongest attachments if they compromise our freedom. Squaring the North Node, this moon can either propel us forward or hold us back, depending upon how we use it. Refusing to budge can be as radical as letting everything go if that’s what circumstances require.

Wise discernment is key to managing the energy of this moon and we may well experience its ripples throughout the rest of the month. Things long ripe for change may shift exponentially around this time, most likely just when we’ve gotten used to living with them as they are! Likewise projects we’ve pursued because we thought we should may suddenly seem too burdensome to continue, auguring a return to a simpler life previously sacrificed on the altar of progress. What this moon means for individual life circumstances will of course vary, but the end result can be a powerful and positive recalibration of our energy and intention if we let it.

A sextile between Saturn and the Sun from 24th to 31st October provides some more grounding support. What seems like a burden may prove to be far more satisfying as we discover creative ways to access a deeper and more authentic current of instinct and emotion. If the full moon illuminated inner conflicts that we struggle to reconcile, Saturn and the Sun provide the courage and creativity to live in deeper alignment with apparently opposing drives and desires.

With Venus conjunct the Sun in Scorpio between 24th and 28th October, accepting the shadow self becomes an act of love which demonstrates the depth of our commitment to fulfilling our potential whatever form it takes. We don’t have to achieve great things, make a name for ourself or develop some amazing new power! The core challenge of life is to simply be who we are without guile or shame: without the denial and suppression that distorts the human drive for expression into something altogether less edifying. As October comes to a close and the Moon begins to wane we are, each and every one of us, called to risk being a bit more who we actually are and a bit less who we think we’re supposed to be.

Read the rest of my report for October here: astro-awakenings.co.uk/october-2018-astro-energy-re…

Learn astrology with me here: tinyurl.com/y76smqo2

Sarah Varcas

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