Start taking action now to pick up speed prior to the Solar Eclipse!
The Traveler's Well Astrology
February 2016
Dwarf Garden, Castle Mirabell, Salzburg 
Dear Friends, how have we already passed Valentine's Day?!?!   It feels like we just ushered in the New Year! 

The heavens never stand still for us and, in a couple of weeks, we will experience a Solar Eclipse that will energize events in life.  This is a complex transit with many lovely facets, which we have written about.  For this transit to go smoothly, it is important to start taking action prior to the transit!

There is also a link to the Full Moon Meditation for February 22, 2016.

It has been great to touch base with many of you and look at the year ahead. 

Thank you again for sharing this journey with us! 

Blessings and peace,

Wolfram and Sappho
The Traveler's Well Astrology     

P.S.  If you are unable to see the images in this newsletter, there is a link at the top to active the images.

P.P.S.  Our office is open each week from Saturday to Wednesday.  So, our weekend is Thursday and Friday.  On those days, we try to put up an out of office message, but sometimes we forget. 

P.P.P.S.  Our main email address is scottwolfram1 @gmail.com.  All other email address still work, but this is the best address to use going forward.  

Spiritual Empowerment

On March 8 or 9, 2016 (depending on where you live), you will experience a Solar Eclipse at 19 degrees of Pisces. A Solar Eclipse is an important, energizing transit that can bring greater stability (or instability), depending on the circumstances in your life.

I describe a Solar Eclipse as a burst of energy, which will be expressed in your life experiences for six months or so following the Solar Eclipse.   A good way to visualize how a Solar Eclipse and energize your life is to think of riding a bike. Imagine you are riding a bicycle and the hand of Divine suddenly appears to give you a push:

  • If you are prepared (meaning you have been taking action toward your goals), you will pick up speed on your journey and feel energized and confident.
  • If you are not prepared (meaning you have avoided taking action), then your bike might start wobbling and potentially tip over.
 
Start pedaling now to make this  
an energizing transit of  
spiritual empowerment in your life! 
 
 
This Solar Eclipse has the following qualities that we will discuss in this article to help you prepare for the energies, which you may already be feeling:
  • Solar Eclipse in the sign of Pisces at 19 degrees
  • Solar Eclipse near the South Node of the Moon
  • Chiron conjuncts the Solar Eclipse
  • Jupiter is conjunct the North Node and opposes the Solar Eclipse
  • The Sabian Symbol for the Solar Eclipse
 

Solar Eclipse in Pisces

The burst of energy from this Solar Eclipse will impact you in a uniquely Piscean way: watery; quietly; perhaps in secret or accompanied with confusion; or perhaps with a great degree of spiritual empowerment.   All astrological energies have a spectrum of expression from positive to negative to a blend of the two.

Positively, Pisces wants you to take a journey inward to become aware of the subtle aspects of your life. You might look at this as spiritual empowerment.

When something is subtle, it exists beyond the direct perception of your senses. To access subtle levels of your being, stillness and quiet are necessary to establish a space where you can perceive the whispers of your soul.   Meditative practices of all types are favored during this time.

To help you answer your soul-level questions, Pisces will support the dissemination of subtle messages from deep levels of your being. As you seek guidance from within and ask your soul-level questions, you generate an ascending force with your intention, and, from this, answers will flow to you more easily and clearly during this Solar Eclipse.  This is also the theme of this month's Full Moon Meditation.

If you are not ready or inclined to an inward journey at this time, you might also find inspiration in music, poetry, fiction, nature, art, photography, films that connect you to your deeper internal states.

Negatively, Pisces can create a fog where life gets very confusing and unclear or progress is illusive. This can be accompanied by an overly idealistic vision the world pulling you deeper into the unreal, the imaginary, the dream, the addictive habits and behaviors. You might feel confused or anxious about how to resolve the challenges in your life.

If you experience this, consider what that is telling you and how you feel about this circumstance in life. Is there change to be made that has been resisted in the past? Is there change to make that is scary because of what it means must be let go of?  Are you determined to eliminate this confusion? 

If you are led to a place that lacks clarity during this time, again, go inward seeking clarity and empower this question to your soul, which will create an ascending force allowing answers to flow.

If you are willing to remain in this unclear place, Pisces does not mind and will not help you out, but will just make your idealistic vision or your confusion more attractive. You must be ready to find the way out of the Piscean fog and turn this confusion into clarity so that you can begin experiencing the spiritual empowerment Pisces can provide. 

Spiritual development brings greater clarity!
 
Neptune, the ruler of Pisces.


South Node Solar Eclipse

The South Node represents the energies from the karmic past. This Solar Eclipse is conjunct the South Node and the burst of energy it provides will energize your karmic past in some way:

  • Aspects of your karmic past, as represented by the South Node in your birth chart, will come into focus during this transit.
  • Aspects of your karmic past that are unresolved and are important to you right now, at this juncture on your unfolding journey, will be highlighted.
     
Over the course of our lifetime, we experience our karmic past in two primary ways:

First, our karmic past represents the skills and habits that accompany us in this lifetime. Our karmic past is often familiar and comfortable and we utilize these habits and skills early in life because they come naturally to us.

Second, our karmic past may flow into this lifetime via experiences or circumstances in early childhood that essentially repeat some aspect of our karma. These experiences can be in conflict with the needs of our own soul and present challenges to us over time as our journey unfolds. We often re-experience this karmic energy to us provide an opportunity to form new actions, responses and understandings (more on this when we look at Chiron). In this way, when we find our way beyond these karmic experiences, we are again spiritually empowered.

We are given the chance to take personal responsibility for what we chose for ourselves and what we accept from others. We have the opportunity to take action to say - no more! In doing so, we reinforce the awareness of our own soul and learn to live skillfully in life beyond the restrictions and constraints of others.

Toward dharma....  With time, as our journey unfolds, we are asked by life to move beyond this zone of comfort and explore our dharma, our highest potential, via our North Node. This transit might well represent one of those times for you. The circumstances of life may present situations that ask you to take actions that generate new karmic patterns that will serve you in the future. This can have many forms: pursuing a different career, learning new skills, forming new responses to life, eliminating unhelpful relationships, releasing repetitive material from early childhood or releasing fear.

You may find that you are suddenly aware of some aspect of your past and your past life karma. This might be a positive experience or it might contain a bit of challenge. If you have been considering change, this might be just the burst of energy you need to push forward! 

Now, let's look at how Chiron can support this process.
 
Chiron Conjunction

Chiron is a complex mythic and astrological character and his role in this eclipse is to remind us of two truths.

First, Chiron introduces the concept of paradox or contradiction that exists in the world. Aspects of life can seem unfair and that is part of the paradox that Chiron wants us to understand.   Chiron was a healer and he reminds us that to heal means that pain exists, to be wise means we understand that ignorance exists. To be fully aware of the love and beauty in our own soul, we may need to be blocked from that for a time.

There is a purpose to this contradiction: life wants us to grow and understand that we need to embrace a degree of complexity and sophistication in dealing with life's experiences.

Second, this evolving sophistication leads to new levels of wisdom. Each of us is being asked to recognize where the challenges of the past have led to the wisdom budding with this Solar Eclipse. With Chiron, life's circumstances are often complicated, sometimes messy, but they hold the potential for new wisdom. With Chiron being conjunct the Sun and Moon, his complex and demanding path to wisdom are being illuminated.

When we think of re-experiencing karma early in life via experiences with family and society, we can often feel as though this is unfair, as though the beauty of the love and innocence inside was violated. The memory of this can remain and grow to the point where it demands resolution and can lead to Chironic wisdom and healing.

By the way, for those born in the mid-60's, Chiron is opposing your Pluto and Uranus conjunction and you have just experienced or will experience your Chiron Return. You might just feel Chiron's energy agitating you in some way, asking you to pay attention.

"Know Thyself"
 
 
Jupiter conjunct the North Node

While the South Node reveals aspects of your karmic past, the North Node reveals the quality of the journey we are meant to walk in this life. The North Node is concerned with what comes next, so that you can make progress, resolving old challenges and embracing potentials that were not available to you in past lifetimes. The transiting North Node provides insights into the path that lies before you today and highlights areas of life that can lead you to the future and indicate how you can embrace your highest potential - your dharma.

Additionally, for this eclipse, transiting Jupiter will be conjunct the North Node. Jupiter and the North Node share a common theme: the future.

The North Node points you forward on the long and winding road of life. Jupiter is the Guru Planet, whose flashes of lightning suddenly illuminate the opportunities in the future. When Jupiter's flashes of lightning occur along the North Node's path that lies ahead, we have both a greater degree of clarity about our future and feel a greater sense of purpose and optimism. We feel more confident that we are being guided. 

In the sign of Virgo, Jupiter and the North Node want your path to the future to be a practical one. Since Jupiter and the North Node are opposed to the Piscean energies of the Sun, Moon, South Node and Chiron, they are a reminder to bring the idealistic inspirations of Pisces into reality in a practical, patient way. This requires discipline and love at the same time. This also demands that we release the influence of guilt and doubt and any feelings that we are not yet good enough.
 
Sabian Symbol

The Sabian Symbol for this Solar Eclipse is: 
 "A master instructing his disciple"

The themes of guidance (Jupiter) and wisdom (Chiron) are a central theme for this eclipse. Whether it is Jupiter, the Guru Planet, or the North Node showing the path you are to walk, or Chiron revealing the emergence of new wisdom, or the Sun god, Apollo, reminding us to "Know Thyself", each of these symbols is a representation of "the master".

You are meant to recognize that you are being guided and that "the master" will only guide you to what you are capable of attaining.

Yet, the preparations must precede and the disciple must follow the master's instructions. You must make the Virgo-like efforts to bring the Piscean whispers into reality. When you recognize the instruction and begin taking the steps to master them, know that those that guide you in the Piscean silence will be watching you and smiling.

May you embrace the next steps on your journey and bring a smile to those that guide you.
 
Just the Key Points to this Solar Eclipse - Summing it all up:
  • The Solar Eclipse in Pisces is energizing the non-material and spiritual aspects of your life.
  • The South Node is asking you to recognize aspects of your karmic past.
  • Chiron reminds that the path to healing and wisdom is to move beyond the contradictions of life.
  • The North Node, Jupiter and the Sabian Symbol are the whispers from life that you are being guided. Pay attention to the guidance and bring the next phase of your spiritual life into reality
 
 
 
Full Moon Meditation
For this month's Full Moon on February 22, 2016, here is a 10 minute meditation.


Photos From Our Bavarian Adventures
Here in Bavaria, you will often encounter an apartment building with the signs of the zodiac represented in some way.  We have found about 12 such examples and we try to catalogue each one.  The lovely blue backgrounds with the golden constellations made this one particularly fun!

In January, the Witch Hazel (Hamamelis) blooms in either bright yellow or dark red.  It is such a celebration of nature's beauty and nature's apothecary!  It is used in lotions and creams to promote healthy skin.  One of our favorite photography subjects!


Dwarf Garden, Castle Mirabell, Salzburg


The Traveler's Well Astrology | E-mail | Website


Copyright © 2016. All Rights Reserved.