Midwinter (Imbolc) 2009

[summer_lotus]

Midwinter Chart

Tuesday, February 3, 2009
10:49:37am CST
San Antonio, TX

This chart is for the moment the Sun hits 15° Aquarius, the midpoint
between Solstice and Equinox. Traditionally, this corresponds to
Groundhog Day, Imbolc, St. Brigid's Day, Aztec New Year, Roman
Hedgehog Day (no lie, they did the groundhog thing with hedgehogs
instead), Candlemas, etc.

Mercury is direct (yay!) although still slow. It takes about a week
for its apparent speed to catch up to normal from our viewpoint. This
means there will still be communication and travel issues dogging the
next six weeks until Equinox, and with Mercury on the Midheaven,
they'll be very high profile issues. Happily, Mercury is getting good
support from Moon and Saturn energy, so these conversations may turn
out to be very productive.

Emotions are running high, but in a good way. People are finding
common ground and inspiration in their shared feelings.

The emphasis on women in this chart is enormous. I'm expecting
Michelle Obama to step out in a leadership role as a professional mom
rather than as a fashion plate. The media will likely be unkind, or at
least have no idea what to do with an active First Lady who has a
brain, a heart, opinions of her own, and looks fantastic, too. She's
likely to draw some heat. All women in power positions may find
themselves drawing fire, for that matter. If I were to guess, it'll
come as fallout from the new Lilly Ledbetter equal pay law. The
discrepancy between what women earn and what they deserve may get
ugly. Also, Venus is just moving into Aries in this chart, but she's
located in the 12th house -- karma, institutions, things we don't
understand -- so expect a lot of people (especially men) not to
understand what women, collectively, are so angry about.

The culture war (aka our multiple-year-long Saturn-Pluto opposition)
is reaching another point of near exactness in this midseason chart.
Saturn is retrograde (in conservative Virgo), so we'll see a trend
among traditionalists to raise up the examples of their
ultraconservative forefathers as idealized examples of The Way To Be.
Also, when planets are retrograde, they represent a time of
self-analysis, so everyone is prone to looking at the traditional
establishment and trying to discover what about it works and what has
outlasted its usefulness.

Meanwhile, over in boundary-eradicating Pisces (in the 12th house
along with Venus), Uranus is pushing forward like a tidal wave caused
by an earthquake under the ocean. Institutions that withstand the
upset will last; those that crumble are due for a major overhaul.

In terms of the culture war, it's like a tug-o-war game between two
teams who are equally strong but who have two entirely different game
strategies. Neither will ultimately win. That's important. Neither the
traditionalists nor the progressives will defeat the other. They will
argue and fight and shout out their grievances, though; and they'll
keep doing it until the planetary opposition finally moves out of
range (never to return in our lifetimes, yay) and we find ourselves in
a new normal.

Economic change is going to be slow coming. It is coming, but I doubt
we'll see any immediate results from the relief effort in the next six
weeks. The timing on that looks better suited to come after Equinox on
March 20.

Other difficulties: confusing healthcare news regarding breast cancer
and women's bone health, significant conflicts with/in the Church,
power struggles (possibly violent) involving women and men, and yet
more discussion of both the changing ideal female body image and what
sort of power society ought to assign to people with that ideal type.

At root, it's a season for talking and nesting. Do some early spring
cleaning and try to channel all this blocked up potential energy into
small productive outlets. Rearrange the furniture or the pictures on
the wall. Paint a chair. But this is no time to remodel the entire
house! Small, incremental adjustments are just right.

In the US, Daylight Savings Time begins March 8, 2009 at 2:00am.
Spring begins March 20 at 6:44am central time.