by Robert Wilkinson
Today we explore specifics of the Superior Conjunction of September 3-4 at 12 Virgo. This “fusion of life and mind” will impact the rest of the Mercury direct period, as well as the first part of its next retrograde up to the Inferior Conjunction at 19 Scorpio during Mercury’s retrograde in that sign this November.
To remind you, the superior conjunction occurs when Mercury (mind) conjuncts the Sun (life) when in direct motion, while the inferior conjunction is when Mercury (mind) conjuncts the Sun (life) when Mercury is retrograde. Each operates as a fusion of Life and Mind, but in each “Mind moves in a different direction.”
When either conjunction happens, it indicates that signals, messages, and ideas from either outer sources or subconscious sources will fuse with the life principle. This sets the tone for the lessons involving how our minds are relating to our lives during the weeks which follow the inferior conjunction.
Since its last retrograde, Mercury in direct motion has been moving faster than the Sun. It has now caught up to the Sun and making a “superior conjunction,” beginning a several week period when mind will race ahead of life, heralding things to come when the Sun transits the span Mercury will show us over the next few weeks. The degree of any superior conjunction shows how our perceptions have caught up with our lives, which can bring forth a new expression of our light.
As I mentioned yesterday, this Superior conjunction at 12 Virgo happens on a degree biseptile the last Gemini Superior Conjunction. This begins a fusion of Life and Mind in an extraordinarily favorable to Saturn, our “Spiritual Master and Spiritual Friend.” The trine to Saturn will stabilize the practical and responsible, organized expression of Self, released through the abundance of the Jupiter square. Be adaptable, and magic is yours to claim!
The Sabian Symbol for the Superior Conjunction
The Solar-Mercurial degree symbol for the Superior Conjunction at 12 Virgo is "A bride with her veil snatched away.” In the original Jones class notes Dane Rudhyar published in The Astrology of Personality, he states this is a degree of "disclosure of the hidden fruitions of nature to him who dares and who loves,” “full appreciation of life,” and “penetration.”
In the Astrological Mandala, he goes on to say that this degree symbolizes “the penetrating and unveiling power of the trained mind.” He goes on to state that this represents the Yang force overpowering the Yin, forcing it to yield its secrets. He says the marriage is a symbol of training, bringing a “sociocultural factor” into the mix, with “the teacher-guru (representing) the priest who has performed the ritual.”
He offers that here “the masculine act balanced the feminine dream visualization” (of the previous symbol) and gives us the keyword “unveiling,” which can include “an unveiling of mysteries, long protected by secrecy.” He says this degree falls in the Span of Idealization, Act of Stabilization, and it’s the second degree in the Scene of Characterization on the Individual-Mental level.
Dr. Jones says this is a degree of “life’s demand that (we) continue at all times to prove (ourselves) in accordance with the claims” we assert in our relationships. He offers this shows us the need that we “continue along the path of experiences (we) have chosen … since the fact of (our) choice indicates a capacity for profiting from the consequences.”
He offers us the keyword INVITATION. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree “is absolute purity in motive and a completely unconditioned fullness of self-giving as a prophecy of high reward.”
So we'll use the ”fusion of life and mind” through the next Inferior Conjunction to see the light of seeing what we stand for and what we are qualified to do spiritually expressed through some sort of unveiling of a mystery, or an act that reveals something hidden before now. Through proving our worth, we can express our purity of motive and reap fortunate consequences.
What’s Up After the Superior Conjunction?
At this conjunction, mind is no longer following life, trying to catch up to it. Now mind races forward as herald, catching glimpses of knowledge, perception, and understanding that shows us where life is headed in the near future.
Also remember that when Mercury outraces the Sun and moves ahead of it, it no longer "leads the light." Now "Life" leads "Mind" even as Mind blazes the trail the Light will follow these next few weeks. This is the time when we stretch out into the future, with a period of looking back coming in July at the next Mercury retrograde.
In this chart, now that Mercury no longer leads the Sun, it leaves Mars as the “entry to the Light.” Flame on! Time to take the initiative and combine imagination and engineering to become the “Imagineer” of your own Destiny! Mars encourages us to take the initiative to “anticipate the Light.
Mars will lead the Sun until the next Inferior Conjunct between Mercury retrograde and the Sun at 19 Scorpio in November, after which Mercury will lead the Sun until the Solstice season, when Jupiter will “lead the Light” until the Sun conjunct Jupiter at 6 Capricorn. The study of which planet leads the Sun is a crucial but often overlooked part of the study of how the planets work in sequence.
This Superior Conjunction can fuse foresight and life experience to see how new forms of light, life, and perspectives can come forth these next few weeks. Because this “fusion of life and mind” takes place in the second third of Virgo, we enter a time of figuring out what fits where, and how our individuality can express itself after “an unveiling.”
This will give us a chance to articulate our Light fused with “the Guide of Souls” to find how we fit into a bigger picture, and how to function more efficiently as individuals choose to look at certain realities which will lead to new forms of practical discipleship as a result of where their Mind leads their Life. This will open doors of perception wherever it falls, and many things will “come together in the Light of Mind” as we now move forward into a greater potential for demonstrating our wisdom as we dance at the intersection of Fate Street and Freewill Street on Eternity Boulevard.
As I have pointed out in the first article about the Superior Conjunction, during this Superior Conjunction at 12 Virgo we will have “a fusion of life and mind” that will help set a platform in the house where this conjunction occurs in our charts. In blending these principles we will see a shift in our affairs, attitudes, and understanding about those things symbolized by Mercury in Virgo.
Because of the preponderance of planets in Virgo, we will see an effect in the houses ruled by the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Mars. This involves Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio. As you can see, this will create movement in 2/3 of our reality!
As I noted in part 1, natal points in harmony with 12 Virgo will see productivity, understanding, stabilization, and unique qualities come forth in that chart house. Natal points in friction with 12 Virgo will see turning points, blocks, braking action, and release of potential.
These are the primary “Life-Mind” fusion lessons through the next Inferior Conjunction coming November 11 at 19 Scorpio, a degree which will give us techniques to transfer our faith into a power to hear “higher utterances.” This will yield the ability “to hear higher voices” as the months progress.
The Lunar Influence and the Backdrop to What’s Happening
The Moon is at 16 Scorpio for this Conjunction. That means the focus is on the bursting forth of faith in forms of action. As this is the same degree as the November 2018 New Moon, no doubt this will bring further developments of themes begin then. Perhaps the Lunar focus for the coming weeks will be on concentrating the energies to fulfill some ambition set into motion 10 months ago?
As it falls in the second decan of Scorpio, it configures extraordinarily well with Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto, generating power to four of the six points in the Great Sextile of Earth and Water. This is great for all planets in the middle of Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces.
This Superior Conjunction is entirely stabilizing because of what it reveals. There are gardens to attend to, trials to be endured, and possibilities to be surveyed. What do you need to move forward? This is an extraordinarily practical Conjunction as it’s trine Saturn and opposed Neptune, generating very positive energy in our Cancer zone. Be sensitive to what you need and if you need it, and growth is in personality integration as a feeling of wholeness within.
The Superior Conjunction falling in Virgo makes Mercury the worldly ruler of the conjunction. As Mercury is in one of its home signs in Virgo, it is its own dispositor and very secure in its own self-awareness and self-expression. Mercury, “the Guide of Souls” which allows us to coordinate the visible and the invisible in our lives, weaves the spiritual into the material so we are the perfect fluid expression of our Soul. Mercury, being very well aspected in this chart, offers us an adventure in adaptation as we move forward into the next adventure.
Summing Up
Because it falls at 12 Virgo, this Superior Conjunction is very detail oriented, and focused on finding the proper place for everything, and plans that can be easily executed. This begins a period of bringing our ideas to life, with tremendous ferment in the air over the next few weeks as Venus and Mercury move into Libra and herald what will be brought to life by the Sun after the Equinox on September 23.
From here, even though Mercury will outrace the Sun for the next few weeks, it’s going to begin to slow down in speed, and will go retrograde on October 31 at 28 Scorpio, the same degree it went SD at in early December 2018. This implies that in some way, the coming Mercury RX period will in some way give us a review or returns related to late 2018 and early 2019.
All significant Mercury events give us a chance to check in with our inner Mercury to make sure we’re listening to its knowledge so we may be guided to our Souls. By how our Mercury works, we are led to the “Active Intelligence” of Divine Mind, or scattered confusion because of the lower mind’s inability to know anything.
As I explained in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend, Mercury’s duality is “Life/Death,” so we can get a new look at how our consciousness and responses are either creative, destructive, or both, to cite the venerable Kabalistic Arhat Paul Foster Case. Mercury is where we learn if our mental processes are creating chaos and disorganized scattered conditions through ambivalence, and thus come to see how to use discernment to coordinate various functions to bring forth perfect knowing how to do whatever needs to be done. As it is the ruler of the conjunction, understanding its influence as a factor for weeks to come is crucial to the smooth operation of what moves forward from here.
Because we’ll be dealing with Mercury retrograde energies beginning October 11 when it enters its shadow zone, you should also take a look at the appropriate chapters in my book A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. You can find out all you need about the coming Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio as well as the houses it occupies in your chart. Of course I'll give you the details in October.
Here's the Amazon link to where you can order your paperback edition of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. You can also find it on Kindle or Nook. It’s a great reference source where you can check out possible ways the coming Mercury retrograde effect could play out in November 2019.
Copyright © 2019 Robert Wilkinson
Hello Robert,
The Sun-Mercury conjunction continued at the 13th degree of Virgo. Shouldn't the Sabian symbols of the 13th be taken into consideration ?
Kind regards
Vassilis
Posted by: Vassilis | September 04, 2019 at 06:12 PM
Hi Vassilis - Well, the exact conjunction was at 12. From that point they are separating, and while each of course has an influence on other planets as they each moved through 13 Virgo, they both occupied that degree for only a few hours. The actual conjunction was 11 Virgo 15m.
Using a method of a conjunction being a general time when two planets each occupy the same degree would make it impossible to compute charts for most outer planet conjunctions since one could never get a fixed time. Jupiter and Saturn occupying the same degree (1 Aquarius) will last about 5 days. During that time, the Moon will span Pisces, Aries, and Taurus. If you don't take the exact time of the conjunction, then you literally have no fixed Ascendant or inner planet position.
However, since an aspect seems to be most powerful when it is within a degree and a half separating, it would imply that a conjunction at 12 would set things into motion during the span when those planets were still within a degree and a half separating. So the conjunction is at 12, but manifests powerfully through 13. And to note, 13 is the midpoint of the Superior conjunction trine to Saturn.
Posted by: Robert | September 05, 2019 at 06:39 AM
Thank you.
Posted by: Vassilis | September 05, 2019 at 12:14 PM