Time for Reflection? Ha!

4.5.13


Whew… glad I finally found a few moments to sit down and write a complete thought.

Been in constant motion, it feels like. Lots of personal details I could extrapolate upon to illustrate this, I suppose… though I wonder aloud whether it's worth my scarce time to painstakingly reflect on dimensions of developments not yet coalesced. Besides, there are cranking gears and whirring engines continuing to run, and I must keep up the pace.

This is no self-defensive narrative, by the way, but an actual description of the current astrology. Hadn't you noticed? When's the last time you had more than a passing couple minutes to luxuriously dissect and digest the various angles of what's been going with you? It's probably been a few weeks. The seemingly constant parade of places to go, people to see, and/or things to do has kept most of us afoot… acting and reacting rather than, say, making too many firm plans or snagging the opportunity to check in with our latest feelings.

Chalk it up to the still-active convergence of much Aries energy: As I write this, the Sun in Aries remains in relatively close proximity to both Venus and Mars, which are exactly conjunct in Aries on Saturday (Apr 6). Aries, as we know, is not an especially contemplative, inward-gazing zodiac sign. It is the quintessential 'act first, ask questions later' influence, one which learns its lessons best by launching straight into the doing and only then discovering, trial-by-fire-style, whether a favorable result has been attained. Happy with it? Great! Keep on going! Don't like it? Oh, well. Try something different… and keep on going! Too much quiet reflection feels like a futile exercise in abstractions, a circular self-indulgence, a waste of time.

Just to put this passing phase into perspective, let's not forget it wasn't so long ago that we were flooded with emotional information… and left, by a very watery astro-climate, to soak in it for several weeks. Much of February and the first half of March was dominated by Pisces energy, which heightened our sensitivities without necessarily provoking us into immediate forward action. During that time, reflection was arguably our most fitting activity. Fresh and/or reappearing emotional awarenesses were inundating our consciousness, and we had to figure out what they were trying to tell us. Indeed, for many of us, some form of 'calling' presented itself under this Piscean drenching, and we readied ourselves (as best as possible) to soon begin making moves to follow it.

But over these recent few weeks—with Pisces having given way to Aries as the dominant influence and the Sun, Venus and Mars activating the transformatively disruptive Uranus-Pluto square—the actual actions arising from that prior period of reflection have come on fast, furious and unrelenting. The culminating psychic enlightenment represented by the zodiac's final sign (Pisces) swung swiftly into the courageous initiating march of a new zodiac cycle and its first sign (Aries)… and we've haven't really slowed down since. While the extra-electrifying charge provided by Uranus and Pluto has mostly dialed itself down (though Mercury will momentarily reignite it, by conjunction and square, on Apr 20-21), Aries's onward-ho action orientation remains in effect.

A noticeable slowdown isn't expected for another couple weeks, at which point first Venus will enter the steadier sign of Taurus (on Apr 15), followed by the Sun (Apr 19) and Mars (Apr 20). Once this influx of Taurean energy arrives, we'll be better able to assess the tangible payoffs and drawbacks of these past weeks' quick-advance acts. Not only will we have a chance to pause and regroup, we may in fact be forced to do so: Each of those planets will face off, by opposition, against Saturn in Scorpio during the second half of April. To add emphasis, a full moon lunar eclipse on Apr 25—with the Moon in Scorpio conjunct Saturn opposing the Sun in Taurus conjunct Mars—will intensify these same dynamics. Suffice it to say, by then, this atmosphere of 'rapid forward motion' will be replaced with unavoidable delays from any reality-check confrontations with whatever complicating obstacles cannot be ignored if we want to continue going forward.

For now, we might as well remain in motion—and not worry so much about whether we're sufficiently reflecting upon whatever's continuing to develop—until, as this month advances, circumstances naturally slow us down and/or altogether stop us in our tracks.