Astrology Quarterly - Astronomy - Heavens Above

A S Morton

Heavens Above - April 2008

The Sun has been reborn into our northern hemisphere skies, Spring has finally sprung the annual trap of winter, and as the rejuvenated Sun ascends ever higher through the diurnal motion of our ‘magic roundabout’ then the fresh shoots of new hopes begin to unfurl in expectation. “Boing!” says Zebedee, as if to somehow underscore the seasonal point.

Following the last couple of months of heightened celestial excitement, what with eclipses and equinoxes and the like, this month the ‘heavens above’ appear to be in more tranquil mood. But don’t be fooled by casual appearances, the Sun having set the scene the firmament is now readjusting itself to this new scenario with all the seasoned smoothness of an eternity of experience.

The planets, that happy band of ‘wanderers’, are also repositioning themselves for the coming months by moving to their new markers on the celestial stage. JUPITER, ever the showman, if not occasionally tending towards the show-off, has been making an absolutely fabulous job of performing a Venus look-a-like ‘morning star’ routine and triumphantly heralding the advent of the new Sun in the pre-dawn twilight skies low-down to the south-eastern horizon for some weeks now.

Not content with a mere supporting role he starts to stretch himself out from the Sun, rising earlier as the month progresses such that by April’s end he appears over the southeast horizon in the wee small hours and climbs that bit higher into the night skies although, perhaps frustratingly for him, never quite attaining the elevation he probably thinks he deserves as he remains domiciled in the southerly constellation of Sagittarius.

He may have doing a sterling job as a morning star, and at first glance it certainly has been quite impressive, but he could never quite be considered the real deal in that regard since the yellowish hew of his, admittedly, bright light does not have the same freshness and youthful allure of bobby-dazzling VENUS, and is somewhat a giveaway indicator of a rather more mature masquerader.

JUPITER’s particular forte is to ride the night skies whilst surveying what he might deem to be his earthly kingdom and in that regard his lordly transit through our ‘heavens above’ is generally without challenge, other than a short-lived biennial one from a periodically robust MARS, and over the coming warmer months he continues to rise to that station although, as previously mentioned, not quite hitting the high spots of some years.

And what of our glorious shining example VENUS, where is she these days? We haven’t seen her in our skies, morning or evening, for over a month now. Unfortunately she’s nowhere to be seen at the moment as along with MERCURY, URANUS and NEPTUNE she is positioned too close to the Sun for observing with the naked eye. And furthermore we won’t be seeing her for some months to come as, having put in a whole winter’s long shift as a spectacular ‘the ice-maiden cometh’ morning star she is now having one of those well-earned, and entirely essential for her and our well-beings, rest periods tucked into the embracing warmth of the Sun, a little gentle defrosting won’t go amiss just at the moment perchance.

Her legendary companion-in-arms, of both martial and anatomical varieties, MARS, is not quite his highly energetic self either these days. Having achieved maximum power and brightness at the back end of last year, the long haul of a winter spent fighting a rearguard action against the unrelenting and inevitable flow of events have clearly taken their toll and it is a chastened MARS that appears out of the gloom of twilight in the falling western evening skies.

At the beginning of April, on the 4th, he returns to the point where it all started to go wrong for him last November, at that time he was bold and brash and looking for trouble. Well, he certainly got what he asked for and now when faced with the same set of circumstances his approach is quite different, a lot less demanding and a lot more mindful of the consequences of rash decision making. This time he slides through the constellation of Gemini in almost chameleon-like fashion doing his best not to disturb the equilibrium of those celestial twins, Castor and Pollux. Such is his new found sense of discretion, evidenced by diminishing brightness, that by month’s end he manages to almost merge with the heavenly pair to form a neat little trio. Old dog, new tricks.

Meantime aged SATURN, who somewhat surprisingly turns out to be the star turn of this months’ night time skies, brightly visible all night long, has been doggedly inching his way back towards Leo’s primary star Regulus, but still comes up a fraction short of his apparent target and grinds to a halt by the end of this month. Regulus is quite clearly in the visible constellation of Leo but interestingly it now marks the cusp of the tropical signs of Leo and Virgo, such are the continuing effects of ‘precession’. So why might SATURN have been taking such a slow and studied approach to the ‘heart of the lion’ over the course of the last four months?

SATURN last passed this way at the beginning of September of the previous year when, after a two plus years stay in the sign of Leo, he crossed the border and into the sign of Virgo. Had the lessons of his sojourn in tropical Leo been fully learned by then? Did we get the essence of the message about how to best manage ‘specialness’, how to dispense with the foolish and ultimately self-undoing side of pride? Well, perhaps not. Perhaps here is a reminder writ large in the ‘heavens above’.

Something rather curious becomes apparent when looking upwards into our night skies and seeing SATURN and Regulus side-by-side, one shining the other twinkling, both brightly. The asterism that is the Lion in the heavens is often portrayed as being at rest, crouching or sitting, but certainly poised and regal. With SATURN moving alongside this is no longer a restful lion but a potentially active one, the two bright celestial objects appearing like the feet of the two front legs of the lion that are now upright. Something is happening, the lion is up off his haunches and is now ready to take positive steps towards whatever his desired objective might be, no longer passively waiting for the world to arrive at his feet.

And perhaps that is part of the message of the transition from Leo to Virgo, that ‘specialness’ is more readily achievable if we get up off our haunches and set about the task in hand rather than simply sitting there waiting for it to happen to or for us without us having to make the required efforts. If Regulus is referred to as the ‘heart of the lion’, Cor Leonis, then the one thing about foolish or misplaced pride is that it usually comes before the proverbial fall, the results of which are often quite deflating and disheartening.

SATURN’s role here is then, perhaps, not so much the stern taskmaster but as a sturdy and dependable support, he has come all this way back to lend a helping hand, to help raise one up to attain the heights of what can be achieved by applying one’s own unique gifts and talents. If life is seemingly littered with the fragmented hearts of insubstantial and unsupported pride then perchance SATURN’s application may yet help unbreak a few along the way.

© A.S.Morton – March 2008