Lynda Hill's Sabian Symbols

Boundaries, Families, Duckponds & Broods: October's Aries Full Moon

Birds of a feather flock together. Proverb

Where can a person be better than in the bosom of their family? Marmontel Gretry

Always behave like a duck - keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle like the devil underneath. Jacob Braude

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings. Hodding Carter

God stirs up our comfortable nests, and pushes us over the edge of them, and we are forced to use our wings to save ourselves from fatal falling. Read your trials in this light, and see if your wings are being developed. Hannah Whitall Smith

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you can be reasonably sure it is a duck. Adage

Occurring on October 23 in Australia and October 22 in the United States, October's full Moon is the second full Moon in a row in Aries. Last month's full Moon was on the first degree of Aries - this month's full Moon is on the last degree of Aries. 

The Sabian Symbol for this full Moon is Aries 30: A Duck Pond And Its Brood. The following is from my book The Sabian Oracle: 360 Degrees of Wisdom:

Commentary: ‘A Duck Pond and its Young Brood’ can indicate issues of belonging to a family, clan or tribe. The ‘Duck Pond’ is a place where a family can live, forage for food, gather life’s necessities and be safely together. The parents, or at least the mother ‘Duck’, needs to look after the ‘Brood’ to ensure that they are kept together, nourished and protected. Guidance and direction need to be given so the youngsters grow into mature and responsible adults.

Oracle: You may feel restricted and bound in by reality, but you probably also feel safe. Every day can hold some type of adventure, but it is always within limits. Family, friends and the environment around us often set these limits. The mother figure needs to be strong and vigilant to see that all is well with her ‘Young Brood’. She needs to take great care in directing them in life so that they grow and flourish both as a family and out there in the real world as individuals. Is this ‘Duck Pond’ inviting to others, or do some ‘Ducks’ scare off others who try to come near? Who belongs and who doesn’t? Who’s invited to visit for a while, but then expected to leave when their time is up? It’s quite natural to sometimes feel threatened when people who don’t “belong” call or barge in unannounced, but an accommodating ‘Duck Pond’ should be able to have differing types living in quiet safety together. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of the comforting things around us and the people who really belong with us. Are you looking after those in your care?

Keywords: Nurturing family. Contentment. Realizing limitations. Reliability. The problems and joys in the responsibilities of having a brood to look after. Finding friends or family that enrich one’s life. Psychoanalysis. Family patterns and analysis. Family support. The family sphere. Feeling safe in one’s environs. Being the mother duck. Adoption and foster families. Communes and communities.

The Caution: Denying your own needs for others in the ‘Brood’. Narrow-minded attitudes. Not inviting others in. Feeling stuck. Not wanting to leave the nest, grow up or take risks in life. Feeling left out and alone. Smugness or exclusivity. All looking the same and no one standing out as individuals. Being lost in the crowd. Distrusting those that are “alien”. Borders erected to keep out “foreigners”.

Is your duck pond too small or is there enough room for all who want to come and share? Are you limiting your borders too much by feeling like you have to be responsible for everything and everybody? Do you perhaps feel like you're too young, ill equipped or unskilled to stretch your wings and fly away from the duckpond? Does it feel like home or somehow like a prison? Are you feeling hemmed in in some way?

The Karmic Condition (the degree before) the full Moon is Aries 29. This degree talks of being in tune with the planets, with music, with the sky, with one's self and hearing the messages that are coming out of every part of our lives. The Sabian Symbol is The Music Of The Spheres. The following are my keywords for this degree:

Voices bringing messages. Attuning to the messages inherent in astrology. Harmonies, chords, keys, octaves, tones. Things heard. Natural harmony of life. The beauty of the planets. The measurement of time. Circadian rhythms. Dancing to the wind. The humming of bees. Days of the week. The sound of water over rocks or crystals. The planets speaking through or to you. Sending love. The atomic clock. Harmonics. Musical ratios. Numbers. Numerology. Sound healing.

So, there will be messages here. Perhaps they're telling you to get more in touch with family, maybe it's time to reach outside of your usual confines for more compatriots to share your life with. You could be feeling rather restricted - perhaps like you're on a leash. Whatever it is, this full Moon can be one of figuring out who's in, or should be in, your "duck pond" and who isn't or shouldn't be. Further, you may want to expand your life - to push out the borders of your activities.

The Quest Symbol of the full Moon (the degree after) is Taurus 1: A Clear Mountain Stream Flows Steadily Downstream. This is a beautiful degree that speaks again of water. In this case, though, the water is flowing downstream - perhaps towards the ocean. This Symbol describes a journey, a free flowing energy, a need for following one's own path. Where is your path leading you. Is your stream going to merge with the river? Here, again, friends, partners and compatriots are found (or sought) in the quest. This Symbol speaks of choosing a course and not deviating from it. Having said that, there can be changes of plans, detours and reversals of some description as these lend to the experience. What matters is the purity and simplicity of the source.

The Sun is on Libra 30: Three Mounds Of Knowledge On A Philosopher's Head. This speaks of philosophy, wisdom that transcends book knowledge, having a knowledgeable demeanor, making wise decisions regardless of hard-line opinion, knowledge directed to intellectual or spiritual goals, wit, style, seeing potential in others... it can be analyzing things too much and a reliance on intellect or being a "know it all". 

Some twelve hours after the exact full Moon, the Sun moves into Scorpio. The Sabian Symbol is Scorpio 1: A Sightseeing Bus Filled With Tourists. This is quite a different image from the Duck Pond, but is quite similar to the Clear Mountain Stream. This degree can show us that it's time to get out into life, to mix it up, to have fun, enjoy different surroundings or to strike out on one's own. It can, however, show situations where one feels more like an observer, a spectator, rather than a participant in life. What are your souvenirs? Are you taking photographs of your journey? Are you exploring new territories or sticking closer to home?

Venus is still retrograde and it's on Scorpio 10: A Fellowship Supper That Reunites Old Comrades. This speaks of meeting with old friends and new, seeking those that you feel a sense of 'fellowship' with, breaking bread with those you care about and love, reunions and chance meetings. This degree can show meeting up with people that you feel you've had past lives with. There can be the feeling that you've known them before or know them so well. 

Dorothy Parker's quote comes to mind what with the Tourist Bus, the Clear Mountain Stream and the Fellowship Supper: We look like a road company of the Last Supper

and then...

With true friends... even water drunk together is sweet enough. Chinese proverb

Immediately after the full Moon, Venus goes back onto the previous degree. It's Scorpio 9: A Dentist Is Hard At Work. This speaks of fixing and repairing damage, drilling away at something, plugging up situations, therapists, treatments, attention to detail... perhaps being the one who always has to fix everything. Venus here is suggesting that repairs are needed for bad nourishment, wrongful thoughts, negative uses of energy or neglect from former times. How are you faring with Venus retrograde? Any people from your past popping up? Are you going over old ground? Do you need to? Are you fixing things as you go? Are you spending time with like minded others? How are your spending habits?

With Venus retrograde on the Fellowship Supper and the Dentist At Work, do you need to work on your diet - your body and your relationship with it?

Mars is on a rather Martian type of degree. It's at Scorpio 27: A Military Band Marches Noisily On Through The City Streets. This can be making music to rouse people, noisy announcements, talk of war, demanding attention, trumpeting achievements, peace rallies or war marches, precisions movements, drums and trumpets, spit and polish and generally being noisy. Talk of war, beating one's drum, banging on and on about something versus the need to rouse people to unity and cooperation and neighborly attitudes to one another.

The Quest Symbol (the degree after) of Mars is Scorpio 28, the Sabian Symbol of which is rather reminiscent of the Duck Pond. It's The King Of The Fairies Approaching His Domain. Where is your domain? Where is your base of activities? Do you feel like you're in charge of your world? Are you safe, comfortable and settled into your own space? Just as with the Duck Pond, who do you belong with and are you spending time with your rightful 'tribe'?

The Moon's north node (which is a karmic and destiny point) is exactly conjunct Vesta (the asteroid that keeps the home fires burning and is a symbol of the vestal virgins). This symbolizes a time for the feminine energy to come forward, to make a stand and claim or declare a sense of power for one's self. The Sabian Symbol is a rather challenging one: Capricorn 5: Indians - Some Rowing A Canoe While Others Are Dancing A War Dance. 

The Keywords for this degree include: Some getting on with their lives whilst others are not, vehicles of discovery versus arguing and bickering, threats and intimidation, making a show of power and mobility, cooperation bringing release from difficulties, mobilizing forces, psyching oneself up, group effort, traffic.

The Moon's south node (exactly opposite the north node and a strong karmic point) is on Cancer 5: At A Railroad Crossing, An Automobile Is Wrecked By A Train. This Symbol sounds far worse than it is. There is no need for car wrecks or accidents, it speaks about the difficulty that sometimes arises from pitting yourself against others who may have other ideas, getting in the way of others (or people getting in your way), people working at cross purposes from each other and the consequences of acting rashly, going too fast or slamming up against reality. 

Pluto is on Capricorn 4: A Group Of People Entering A Canoe For A Journey By Water - a wonderful juxtaposition to Capricorn 5 (the North Node and Vesta) where some Indians are 'Rowing While Others Are Dancing A War Dance' (considering that the Sabian Symbols were given birth completely randomly, it is astounding that these two are concurrent degree Symbols). With Pluto here, our power is to be found through cohesive effort, cooperation and coordination, people coming together with a shared goal in sight, feeling like one's on a 'Journey' of destiny, people pulling together, rowing in the same direction, vehicles of discovery, workshops, unknown destinations, setting sail, observing the weather, etc. 

The message from Mercury (Mercury is known to be the 'messenger of the gods') is coming from Scorpio 4: A Youth Holding A Lighted Candle In A Devotional Ritual Gains A Sense Of The Great 'Other World'. This speaks of affirming intention to the path, ceremonies that are pure and uncomplicated, the light of consciousness, feeling overwhelmed, enlightenment, potency, devotion to ritual, expansion of psychic talents, shining a light that brings understandings of things on a spiritual level.

It will surely help to light that candle, to affirm your boundaries, to realize your limits (or, more importantly, where you limit yourself) and to embrace those that truly belong in your Duck Pond. 

 

 

 

Paths, Labyrinths And Mazes - The Way Forward?: October's Libra New Moon

History is simply one damned thing after another. Winston Churchill

The air is full of our cries. But habit is a great deadener. Samuel Beckett

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle

Search for meaning, eat, sleep. Search for meaning, eat, sleep. Die, search for meaning, search for meaning, search for meaning. Doug Horton

As people are walking all the time, in the same spot, a path appears. Lu Xun

Men have become the tool of their tools. Henry David Thoreau

Speaking of which, this newsletter is late as I had a computer failure halfway through writing it. Taking a week to repair, we thought it was the mother board, but it was the processor. The processor certainly reflects the Sabian Symbol for this new Moon: Circular Paths.

Something to bear in mind as you're reading this is that the new Moon has an influence over the coming month and things that happen in the course of the Moon can signify new beginnings that are reflected for some time to come. We process the energies, events and issues that come up and learn from them. I mention this because I've heard some say that they think the influence is only happening close to the new Moon. 

When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. Bumper sticker

Retracing Our Steps Again: Venus Rx - The Prescription? Install New Connections

If the first person who answers the phone cannot answer your question it's a bureaucracy. If the first person can answer your question, it's a miracle. Gerald F. Lieberman

That's an amazing invention [the telephone], but who would ever want to use one of them? Rutherford B. Hayes (US president)

Well, if this is the wrong number, why did you answer it? James Thurber

I waited and waited and when no message came I knew it must have been from you. Steven Wright

Gossip is nature's telephone. Sholom Aleichem

I've suffered from all of the hang-ups known, and none is as bad as the telephone. Richard Armour

Middle age is when you're sitting at home on Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn't for you. Ogden Nash

Throughout the ages, stories with certain basic themes have recurred over and over, in widely disparate cultures; emerging like the goddess Venus from the sea of our unconscious. Joan D. Vinge 

Venus favors the bold. Ovid

Happening only every 18 months or so, Venus is going retrograde on October 8 and is turning direct again on November 19. However, the actual entire retrograde phase started with Venus going into its shadow (the shadow is when a planet goes back over degrees it's previously gone over) on September 5 and Venus will clear this shadow on December 20 when she starts her journey again on fresh ground.

Venus is retrograde for 40 days. This reminds me of the "40 days and 40 nights" story from the Bible. Jesus wandered in the wilderness fasting, after which he is said to have been tempted by Satan. It was the number of days in Noah's flood. For more information click here for a Wikipedia page on the number 40.

Retrograde Venus can feel like a time in the wilderness. Whether it's around the issue of money, spending, earnings, direction, possessions, integrity, beauty, attractiveness, marriage, love, romance, or all of those things put together - it's a time for changes, reflection, going inward, revisions of attitude, revising the past and plotting the future. It's a time when things come up for some kind of inspection and realization. Second thoughts can come up, with things you previously thought were on a sound footing feeling like they're crumbling away under your feet. Here are two conflicting quotes about "second thoughts":

Second thoughts oftentimes are the very worst of all thoughts. William Shenstone

Among mortals, second thoughts are wisest. Euripides

So which way to go? Believe those second thoughts or see them as retrograde steps? It's interesting to note that the glyph for retrograde, Rx, is also the glyph for prescriptions. Sometimes the way forward is startling clear with no alternatives, so - no choice. Other times you can find yourself having those second thoughts and realizing what made you happy in the past is no longer relevant, possible or rewarding. Relationships sometimes end, others will start and some will go deeper into working out issues that are inhibiting true relationship. However, the main thrust is to make sure you're traveling on the path with the sound footing. 

Venus is going retrograde on Scorpio 14: Telephone Linemen At Work Installing New Connections. The following is from my book The Sabian Oracle: 360 Degrees of Wisdom*

‘Telephone Linemen at Work Installing New Connections’ shows people working and concentrating on laying the ‘Lines’ for ‘Connections’ so that people may communicate with each other easily and effectively. They are laying cables to allow for the smooth functioning of the ‘Telephone’ system. They have a clear understanding of how the equipment works and how necessary and valuable it is to enable people to link up with each other.

This Symbol reflects an increase in the forms of communication that you can have access to, or that you have more communications coming to you. You may find that there has been a failure in communicating your thoughts, ideas or emotions lately. Something is being (or needs to be) done or laid down, in order to solve, repair or patch up the situation. There is nothing to be achieved by worrying about any recent “connection” failures, however something should be done to set about making or repairing the necessary ‘Lines’ of communication. Sometimes advice and help must be called on for all to be resolved. This may need to be expert advice, but it can also be gathered from your own common sense. This can symbolize expansion into areas like the Internet, faxes or business lines. It can also represent the spiritual connection to the “other side”, even channeling. Sometimes, however, in the ‘Installing of New Connections’ problems of crossed-lines occur. It’s important to listen for the real truth in the communications that are being made, not to all the faint chitchat that surrounds what’s being said. Networking and new lines of communications often open up after this Symbol is revealed.

Keywords: Acupuncture and other therapies that work on the body’s meridians. The nervous system. The Internet. Forming new lines of communication. New connections taking place. Linking people up. Making sure that messages get through. Mobile phones, faxes, email. Networks and networking. Switchboards. Satellites. Wires. The ability to reach far distances. Getting on other peoples’ wavelengths. Contacts. Hooking up with the system. UFO experiences. Mobile phones.

The Caution: Failing to see the necessity for repairs to personal communication. Becoming involved in other people’s lives. Gossip. News, thoughts and ideas spreading rapidly and getting out of control. Constant chatting. Being fickle. Sabotage. Engaged signals.

Venus and Mars are conjunct (next to each other), with Mars on Scorpio 16. The Sabian Symbol is A Girl's Face Breaking Into A Smile. This is a wonderful degree which shows the need for smiling and radiating happiness which allows you to draw others closer to you. For some, with Mars on this degree (which can be a positive or a negative, depending on your circumstance), there may be a lack of happiness, warmth, sincerity or desire to reach out to others. Certainly this is a very strong Venus retrograde with Venus and Mars together in Scorpio. Scorpio brings up strong feelings and emotions including passion, rage, jealousy, envy and the desire to relate on a deep level.

The Quest Degree of Mars (the degree following and the degree that Mars moves quickly onto) is Scorpio 17: A Woman, Filled With Her Own Spirit, Is The Father Of Her Own Child. This can show single parenthood, being proud of one's individuality, feeling capable of anything, spiritual experiences that fill one with one's own spirit, self-reliance, the lack of a father figure, invitro fertilization, the complications of adoption, self sufficiency, facing the world feeling whole (or not), having the right to determine one's own future. It can also be uncompromising feminism or chauvinism, feeling like one has to be responsible for everything, unrealistic independence, being left alone and abandoned, having no one to turn to for support, being an adult before one's time.

Mars moves forwards through Scorpio, while Venus goes backwards over the degrees. The Karmic Condition of Venus (the degree before) is Scorpio 13: An Inventor Performs A Laboratory Experiment. This can show the need to make some experiments in your life. What's not working? What might work if you try a new set of ingredients? What changes can be made? This degree is sometimes about taking risks and looking for answers. 

The next degree that Venus retrogrades over is Scorpio 12: A Brilliant Assembly Of Dignitaries At An Official Embassy Ball. This speaks of partying and having fun, manners and protocol, dressing and looking right, who knows who and what it's worth, social and political standing, the Cinderella story, sparkling occasions, international relations, the "My Fair Lady" story, social engineering, speaking the right language. It can be gate crashing or feeling like you'll never get an invitation to 'the ball', having to sit at home while others are out socializing or having to do all the housework and cleaning up after others.

Venus goes retrograde smack on the new Moon in Libra. Libra (the sign that rules relationships) is ruled by Venus (the planet that rules relationships), so this is a very strong Venus retrograde story. Further, Mercury and Saturn are conjunct (together) in Libra. Plus, Venus will retrograde back into Libra. So, relationships are definitely in the spotlight.

Mercury and Saturn are conjunct on Libra 9: Three Old Masters Hanging In A Special Room In An Art Gallery - Sometimes They Seem To Speak To Each Other. This speaks of reverence for art, form and tradition, images bringing messages (this is the Sun degree of Marc Edmund Jones, the astrologer who gave birth to the Sabian Symbols), it's about the art of placement, the Sabian Symbols as images, animations, portraits, faces. This conjunction of Mercury and Saturn can show loneliness, alienation and feeling like one can't speak one's truth. A remedy can be getting your life in order (perhaps doing the filing, taxes or paperwork) throwing things out that don't work, being discriminating about what you allow into your life. 

Although Venus goes retrograde on October 8, in reality it's been in its shadow period since early September. Venus goes direct (forward) again on November 18 on Libra 28: A Man Alone In Deep Gloom, Unnoticed, Angels Are Coming To His Aid. This speaks of feelings of finally not being totally alone, awareness of spiritual forces in times of need, salvation versus depression, feeling like one's luck is about to change, changes in the "weather", helpers arriving just when they're needed, brightening influences, angels and spiritual forces for good, guardian angels. Hopefully, the message of this Venus retrograde period is one of coming out of difficulties, finding friends and helpers (or being that for others) and feeling a release of energy. 

Venus is then in its shadow period (passing back over the degrees it's previously transited) until December 20 when it's back on Scorpio 14: Telephone Linemen At Work Installing New Connections. So, it will be Christmas before Venus really gets going in forward motion over new ground.

How are your connections? Do you have friends you can talk to? Are you in alignment with the people in your life? Are you feeling loved and appreciated? These are Venusian issues and likely to be some of the questions that arise to be considered during this retrograde period of Venus.