by Robert Wilkinson
Following up on the general meaning and function of the "Inferior conjunction" between the Sun and Mercury, today we explore specifics of the recent Inferior conjunction of April 9, 2011 at 20 Aries.
Because this particular Inferior Conjunction is an extremely important event due to when and where it's happening, this is a long article that will pull together a comprehensive overview of what's been going on for the past three years.
The inferior conjunction is when Mercury (mind) conjuncts the Sun (life) while retrograde. This indicates that signals, messages, and ideas from either outer sources or subconscious sources will fuse with the life principle, setting the tone for the lessons involving how our minds are relating to our lives during the next four months. Since Mercury is retrograde, the degree of the inferior conjunction shows how our lives will merge with our perceptions and bring forth a new understanding of our light.
This degree is said to be "A young girl feeding birds in winter." Rudhyar says this symbolizes "Participation of self in a life larger than any conception of selfhood," and "protection, or the need for it."
He goes on to say in The Astrological Mandala that this refers to "Overcoming crises through compassion" through linking with others, using creative imagination so that all may "survive through crises." This is where our compassion for other living beings allows us to assist them through rough patches in life. He states here "we witness human activity motivated by sympathy overcoming the seasonal phase of impotency," where we see "the transmutation of life into love."
Dr. Marc Edmund Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this is a degree of "self-assurance as regained by giving nourishment to forms of life other than (our) own" where our receptivity to experience allows our "deep generosity of spirit" to show our youthfulness, maturity (paradox alert!), aspiration, and how we've balanced our inner male and inner female. He says the keyword is HOSPITALITY, and when positive, this degree "is a naive genius in the administration of both the powers of nature and the potentialities of selfhood."
So this is a degree of how we must find ways to help self and others get through grim times so we can find our proper part to play in a greater life than we've previously conceived. We can see how to protect or be protected while being truly hospitable and generous, demonstrating our maturity and ability to be a good administrator of power to actualize the highest potential.
The next four months are a time to embrace a physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual "compassion regime," and consciously learn to be receptive to experiences where we can show our youthfulness, ability to share and care, and transcend any tendencies to waste resources in efforts to win approval through merely materialistic means. Or conversely, through the retrograde lens see how this has shaped what has happened in your life before now.
Mercury introduced these energies when it first crossed this degree on March 21-22. The Inferior Conjunction now makes this a "hot spot" for months to come. Of great importance is that this degree is activated in an on-going way for the next several weeks. Jupiter will offer us its lessons as it transits this degree April 17-21, Mars will activate its energies on April 26-29, and Venus, along with Mercury for the third time, will cross it simultaneously May 6-7.
We will find that the next 4 months are very important around this set of lessons and challenges. It will definitely have associations to the long wave events and major lessons that are being launched by Jupiter's transit and multiple conjunctions near this point. So consider this a preparation phase for what's coming in the near future that will last a long time.
The Inferior Conjunction between Mercury and the Sun is the second step in a two-conjunction process. The first step is when Mercury conjuncts the Sun in forward motion after its retrograde period. Most recently this occurred at 7 Pisces on February 25, 2011. As Mercury is faster than the Sun, after the "Superior conjunction" Mind again outraces Life, gets ahead of the Sun, and explores ideas and perceptions of experiences yet to occur.
Then Mercury goes stationary retrograde, and moves into the second step when Mercury again conjuncts the Sun while retrograde. This is when Mind is being absorbed by Life, or Life takes on the results of subconscious or collective ideas returning to source. Eventually Life gets as far from Mind as it can, Mercury goes stationary direct, and begins to speed up preparing for the first step anew in a different part of the zodiac.
In an interesting "co-incidence," many of the stationary points and the Inferior Conjunction points trine other points in previous Mercury retrograde periods. Perhaps by studying the sequence of retrograde, conjunction, and direct points we can see how Mercury, a.k.a Hermes, the Cosmic Magician and Guide of Souls, is steering our long range perceptions, understandings, and coordinations toward Soul understanding.
We are told by Rudhyar that 20 Aries is the fifth and culminating step of POTENCY on the Emotional, Social, and Cultural level of experience within the span of EXAMINATION. Here we can find fulfillment of social-emotional functioning that helps us open to examining how our Soul life operates in compassionate ways.
This prepares us for a period of seeing how our power of sympathy and caring for others works in our social existence. This will be a part of the tremendous wave of new expression and experience wherever we have late Aries in our charts.
This Inferior Conjunction of mind "looking back" into life will help us reinterpret experiences we've had which showed us what we needed to do to embrace a new future. This would imply that either a) we can examine how we can be fulfilled through compassionate linkage with others, or b) we need to get back on track through examining how others have compassionately linked with us that demonstrated how a Soul expresses compassion in a social setup.
The fact that the Inferior Conjunction falls with the Moon at 30 Gemini would imply that through the "looking back" and alternative views and understandings, we will feel our way through various standards to come to a more ideal one. This is about seeing a "beautiful ideal" we can use to move from curiosity into decisions that will reorient us, leading to a more effective personality integration.
This shows a need to examine our intellectual values to see if they're feeding our Soul life or impeding it. Here restlessness can be turned to solid expansions, and the consequent assurance we feel will help us "stand radiant and reliant" among others.
This expression of our individual type of charm will allow us to bring "familiar desires and interests" to a form of worth. Here the Moon brings growth through showing us an ideal we can externalize, and feel our way into a more fulfilling form of ideals we can admire.
The Moon brings forms through reflection. The Inferior Conjunction is about seeing how we have linked or need to link with others in a compassionate role of reaching out to those who need our help. Interestingly, this Lunar degree is the exact one it occupied at the Lunar Eclipse in December 2010 which is in strong effect through early June 2011. As the Moon is in the sign that Mercury rules, no doubt we'll be reflecting back on old ways of doing things and reorganizing our efforts to prepare for these new social roles.
The Inferior Conjunction is ruled by Mars, making Mars a very powerful factor in coordinating events so we can be led to our Soul. As Mars' duality is "Grace/Sin," we will see how our responses bring us error or truth, maladjustment or beauty. As the backdrop to how our mind and life relate to each other, perhaps we can learn how to deal with Mars energies in ourselves or others from a different angle of view, severing what must be severed, and furthering what must be furthered, quickly and directly.
Mars is conjunct Jupiter, opposed Saturn, and square Pluto. This energy will dominate as backdrop for the next 4 months. This will bring tremendous expressions of power, clarity about who we are and who we aren't, in a search for distinctness that often will exclude more than it includes.
Get behind inhibitions, be patient with obstructions, and find a balanced perspective on how to use the past to "feed the future." Allow imitation to show you what's coming, and find a justification for pursuing a cherished idea that can help you overcome any feelings of discouragement or that success is not worth its price. Do not get involved in disputes that deflect you from your best efforts, and if you find yourself out on a limb or pursuing that which leaves you feeling directionless or misdirected, pull back, see the need, focus on what you truly care about, and play defense rather than keep pushing.
Forming aspects show future conditions. This Inferior Conjunction has several significant aspects, including a very important biseptile to Pluto and septile to Neptune, triggering the Grand Irrationality and making that very powerful configuration highly active during the next 4 months.
This will again put all of us at critical "forks in the road of destiny" through Solar and Mercurial events and people. This is the next important step in a sequence we can track to last October and December, and when Jupiter (and then Mars!) joins the party and crosses over the degree of the Inferior Conjunction, we shall see forces of "Destiny" on the move in all our lives in very big ways!
You can find more about this irrational, obsessive-compulsive hard edged weirdness by going to Astrology in March, April, and May of 2011 - Mercury and the Other Planets Activating the Grand Irrationality that elaborates on what we can expect due to the Sun and Mercury triggering the Grand Irrationality.
Other forming aspects of note besides the ones already pointed out are Moon quintile Sun and Mercury, biseptile Venus, biseptile Saturn, and out of sign square to Mars and Uranus and opposition Pluto. Then we add Mercury conjunct Jupiter and opposed Saturn as well as Venus triseptile Saturn and quintile Pluto, and clearly we have a lot of major activity coming the next 4 months!
Besides the lessons I outlined 5 paragraphs back, the fact that the Moon, Venus, and Saturn all link up in septile series aspects shows that beside the fundamental weirdness and compulsions run rampant due to the Sun and Mercury triggering the Grand Irrationality, we have another degree series that is equally powerful in setting irrational energies into motion! One involves Sun, Mercury, Neptune and Pluto, while the other involves Moon, Venus, and Saturn ruled life areas.
Obviously these two configurations will affect us all in many important ways, since they involve planets in Aries, Gemini, Libra, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces that rule Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Aquarius. Since we all have all the signs in our charts, expect a lot of "destiny producing" choices and forks in the road over the next 4 months!
I've given you the "hot zone" degree spans of the Grand Irrationality in the article I linked to 4 paragraphs back. The Moon, Venus, and Saturn also make the following zones active +/- a degree or two to either side of these spans: 16-18 Pisces, 7-9 Taurus, 29 Gemini-1 Cancer, 20-22 Leo, 12-14 Libra, 4-6 Sagittarius, and 25-27 Capricorn. Expect non-stop pressure the next 4 months shifting the focus of what we believe our "destiny" really is!
Generally, the 11 days before the inferior conjunction (fusion) of mind and life is a good time to take a new look at how you can bring out your inner wisdom by adjusting to a future vision or broader perspective that's opening for you. It's also good for getting a new point of view regarding what your imagination is willing to consider and how to coordinate your life to reorganize it productively.
It's great for intuitive flashes, insights into the larger collective consciousness and unconsciousness, and seeing how you're being led to see elements of your Soul you may not have recognized before now. So think back on what's happened in the past two weeks, and find a new way to view how those things may symbolize the future somehow.
And as usual, here are links to recent articles on what this April 2011 Mercury Retrograde in Aries is all about:
Astrology and Mercury Retrograde April 2011 in Aries - What Is Mercury Retrograde?
Mercury Retrograde in Aries in March-April 2011 - A New Look At A New World Already Happening
Copyright © 2011 Robert Wilkinson
ps - In answering a client today, I thought I'd pass this on: The funny thing about retrogrades is that often things that don't turn out one way lead directly or indirectly to other things somewhat related manifesting down the road. It's like nothing can be taken at face value, and often what we do or think during Mercury retrograde creates odd echos in the future that take different shapes, or different functions related to the original intention.
A truly inspirational read & re-read.. ;-) The 'ps' is intrigueing. Belated Happy Birthday Salutations Robert. I've said it once & no doubt will do again... so glad to have found your site... it lights up my life. H :)
Posted by: H | April 12, 2011 at 03:02 PM
I have been rereading your past retro articles still trying to make sense of a retro from 2005. I am a Libran, Virgo rising and Pisces moon who sent an ultimatum email to an Aires, Cancer rising with Leo moon seriouv love on 4/11/05. I never heard from again. Is there ever a possibility of a reconnection in such circumstances and after all this time?
Posted by: Sunshine | April 13, 2011 at 09:22 AM
Hi H - Glad you checked in. The ps was something I realized while answering an email so figured it would be good to post it here while it's still timely. And of course, glad to be a light in the midst of the Grand Irrationality!
Hi Sunshine - Did you check the ancient archives back when I was a blogger on Salon.com? If not, you can find more about what was going on back in 2005 by going to this link and check out the articles from the first 2/3 of that year. August 2005 I migrated over to this blogware, and so you can also go to the specific months in 2005 listed in the archives on the left links.
As for reconnections across space and time, well, that's something involving too many facts, variables, and inclinations to discuss here. I certainly never appreciated ultimatums. In 99% of relationships, by the time it gets to that point, it's usually a deal breaker. That said, people do change, grow, and alter habit patterns...
Posted by: Robert | April 13, 2011 at 04:34 PM