Weekend of December 24-25, and Current Two-Month Hermetic Epoch: The Twitter Aviary, or Your Own

Merry Christmas!

Is Saturn the planet of cold, as the ancients observed, giving it the rulership over the coldest part of the year, Capricorn-Aquarius (late December to late February)? Judge for yourself: As I write on Friday five planets are in Capricorn: The sun, the moon, Venus, Mercury and Pluto; and one in Aquarius: Saturn itself. And guess what? The headlines are full of the suffering of those afflicted by cold and storm, and airline delays. Is astrology a superstition? I have staked my reputation on evidence that it is not. 

Also, at this time of the Winter Solstice, the moon has been at its darkest phase on Friday and Saturday, and I for one feel a lack of energy and a desire to rest. Both sun and moon seem absent!  However, spiritual awareness can increase at such a time.

I'll use this dark cold day to present to you some of my latest research results. 

The Hermetic Epochs were discovered by me. The current one, Dark or Slow, began December 12.

DHE begins Dec. 12 > (Mercury Retrograde begins Dec. 29 > ends January 18) > DHE ends February 7, when a new Bright Hermetic Epoch begins lasting until April 7.

Charts for the Epochs are set up for the middle of each Epoch at the moment Mercury and the sun appear to be exactly together, or Cazimi as the ancients termed the phenomenon. That chart for the current Epoch (when Mercury appears to be going backward to join the sun) is for January 7, 2023 at 12:56 p.m. UT. 

There cannot be a "complete" analysis/prediction of an Epoch but one can try, based on past study, which I have done in connection with more Epochs than you would imagine, in great detail. Here are some highlights of the December 12 - February 7 Epoch:

Always there is a "going backward" tendency, but this can be good. A few days into the current Dark or Slow Epoch I was walking to go to a meeting, but there was much ice on the sidewalk so I turned onto a different street. When I reached the corner I heard the voice of an old friend I hadn't seen for probably a year. Then I saw that another friend, who had just reconnected with me a week earlier (also during the DHE) was chatting with him. The three of us embraced and went into Aaron's place to have a beer together. A wonderful, magical incident such as can happen while Mercury is slow or retrograde. REconnection plus REminiscence. As for the hard side of this, you have heard of it in connection with Mercury Retrograde: Delays, seemingly pointless obstructions, daydreaming, faulty recollection, tardy action, and so on. But spiritual awareness and psychic phenomena can be heightened magically. The rational is still with us, but less accentuated, while the intuitive is more accentuated.

The "magic" could be intensified happily this time because in the Epoch chart Venus and Mars are in a trine. Romance and friendship are favored, in both normal and unexpected ways. 

Let's look at the Borelli-Sepharial symbols for Venus and Mars. Venus happens to have a male-seeming symbol and Mars a Venus-seeming one. Venus: "An archer drawing a long bow." Cupid? There is "considerable faculty for teaching, prophecy, and skill in manual crafts. As a director of thought, exponent of religious teachings, as traveler, lecturer, or handicraftsman he will show himself capable and will meet with distinction. His mind will be set upon things remote from his environment (long bow). It may be said that what is remote from the sense is ever more attractive than things corporeal, and that which is afar than that which is near. Keyword: Apperception." 

Co-operating with this Venus potential is Mars at the degree: "The figure of a woman holding a globe in one hand and a scepter in the other." "There is wide knowledge and power, and a position of importance; a mind fit for governing, and a position of security after middle life. There is pride and self-love, but dignity, conscientiousness, and self-reliance. Keyword: Dominion." 

All this is welcome because in the previous Epoch chart many factors were harsh, including Venus square Saturn while opposed to the moon and Uranus, making for intense disagreement and opposition, as in the U. S. mid-term election disputes. Mars was at high focus in a bucket-shaped chart, summed up as "looking for trouble," while now the sun is at high focus in a bowl-shaped chart, summing to dignity and self-assurance. 

The Planet of Oriental Appearance is the moon, quite rare, making for a smooth ability to mother, father, teach, coach or encourage people. You may experience this from others as well as provide it to them in various ways. Luna forms the Dynamic Aptness aspect, an opposition with Pluto; the formula gives "an intense approach to obsessions" but in a smoother manner, with more perspective, than if it were a square. What obsessions?

Pluto, the slowest moving planet, was named by Marc Edmund Jones "obsession." It was at the degree 26Capricorn27 (appearing in charts as 26 but in symbol books as 27 because the first degree in charts is 0) from August 4 through December 8, and that degree according to Charubel is "two men running a race." Many were "obsessed" with the U. S. midterm elections during that whole period, with endless commentary about whether the Democrats were really the winners despite the Republicans taking back the House, and there was a run-off election in Georgia, and the Kari Lake-Katie Hobbs Arizona battle still rages. "A race" indeed. 

Now, however, and during the current Epoch, Pluto is at 27Capricorn 28, according to Charubel "An indescribable scene; chaos, confusion, dissolving views." "A marked defect of intellect, or maybe insanity or idiocy." And so I re-issue my warning about the Dark Epochs: Do not assume that you are "losing it" or going senile. It's Mercury's doing when you walk into a room and wonder why you did, or forget to buy an essential item, or drop something, and so on. And now you can blame Pluto, or his zodiacal degree, as well. You may also wonder frequently if associates or strangers have gone berserk. Yet "an indescribable scene" can sometimes be exhilarating even to the non-perverse. 

But wait a minute. The glory or curse of the degree-symbols is that there are three very good sets, and they sometimes contradict each other, giving latitude in judgment. The Borelli-Sepharial symbol for Pluto now is "A sextant and compass." "Learning and rectitude make one a reliable and useful guide to others. One is a cardinal person who cannot fail to become famous. There is study of navigation, astronomy, exploration or mathematics. There are successful ventures. One will never lose his way, nor fail to attain his end, for all undertakings will be regulated by rigid and exact principles and carried out with precision. It is a degree of Definition."

One might say that we are trying to cure the Charubel symbol by the Borelli one, overcome utter chaos, which continually threatens, by means of definitive principles. 

Then there is the Sabian symbol for the same degree: "A large aviary." The common sparrow may seem to jump chaotically, yet the rara avis knows what she or he is doing. We tolerate the "other birds" even when they are of a different or seemingly incompatible species. 

Oh, is this Twitter?! Elon Musk tried to be the wise owl moderating the aviary but now says he will turn over his job to any cuckoo foolish enough to volunteer. 

Or if you are not in the Twitter aviary, you have neighbors, or a group you attend, or family and friends, and this is your Community (the keyword). "The administration of human potentialities on the social level is self-fulfillment." We, like Elon, look out over those with whom we associate and see "an indescribable scene; chaos, confusion, idiocy." Then we look again and find ways of defining or regulating all that with "a sextant and compass." Good luck, Elon.

This is in accord with Charubel's symbol for the sun-Mercury conjunction in the Epoch chart: "A man with a large pair of scales in the act of weighing." "He will like working with weights and measures and be apt in matters of detail." The Sabian symbol is sweeter: "A girl surreptitiously bathing in the nude." "There is an irresistible desire of all life to strip back to essentials, and gain self-renewal by some immediate and close intimacy with the accepted roots of all-being." "The human body is a temple of the spirit, an archetype representing the total potentiality in a personal existence." Through "psychological renunciation" or "immersion" we "achieve a new dimension of conscious reality." 

Senior Borelli symbolizes the same degree as "A lyre lying upon a wreath of flowers," representing, according to Sepharial, "remarkable powers of expression." "By the power of poetry or music one will persuade where others cannot compel by force." "One's nature will be docile, tractable, and inoffensive. One will be constant in attachments, undergoing tests of fidelity and emerging therefrom victorious and undismayed." "One might enunciate harmoniously and persuasively a new body of doctrine or phase of philosophic truth."

The Sabian symbol for Saturn's position is "A man turning his back on his passions and teaching from his experience." The keyword is Serenity.

Merry Christmas!

Lunar Data:

Saturday 24 December:

Moon in Capricorn-->Aquarius

/moon goes void-of-course at 7:12p PT | 10:12p ET | 3:12a(Su) UT

until it enters Aquarius at 11:15p PT | 2:15a(Su) ET | 7:15a(Su) UT

Sunday 25 December:

Moon in Aquarius (see early times above)

|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week begins at 6:51a PT | 9:51a ET | 2:51p UT (until Tuesday evening)

Cosmic Piper