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Written in the Stars by Eric Francis | Mon-Tues., March 28-29, 2005

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This is the daily astrology report for Planet Waves Weekly subscribers. NOTE: I HAVE JUST GOT NEWS OF THE EARTHQUAKE AT SUMATRA. I WILL BE GOING OVER THE CHARTS IN A MOMENT. Note however that it's about 90 days after the first quake, and that this takes place close to a Full Moon. Tsunami warnings have been issued for the whole Indonesian basin. This 8.5 magnitude occurred just to the south of the original quake and occurred at 11:09 pm local time. Warnings have been issued and according to BBC, evacuations are underway.)

So were were yes? Ah the Full Moon is somewhat behind us. The Moon is now in Scorpio, about to trine Saturn and square Neptune, but not in that order.

The astrology continues to have a rather vibrant feeling with a triple conjunction in Aries happening now: Sun, Mercury and Venus. This is sextile Mars-Chiron in Aquarius. It really doesn't get better. I am aware that people are coming in and out of intense personal crisis that fits the imagery of the Aries-Mercury retrograde situation: Mercury retrograde is turning the Aries energy into a reflective mode. There's quite a bit of soul searching to do, and I think kick-starting the process of individuation, of self-awareness, and also not having it be a huge trauma. Waking up is hard to do, to paraphrase Neil Sedaka. But it's not really that hard.

Looking at the Venus, Mercury, Sun conjunction conjunction, it brings together two inner planet retrograde cycles at once. Venus conjunct the Sun is in the 'superior' or 'exterior' conjunction -- that is, the Earth is between the Sun and Venus; Venus is on the outside, and therefore in direct motion, which is exact March 31 at 4:30 am London local time. This is the exact midpoint between two Venus-Sun 'inferior' or 'interior' conjunctions, the most recent of which was the June 12, 2004 Venus transit of the Sun. The next interior conjunction is Jan. 14, 2006, exactly in the middle of the Venus retrograde in Capricorn.

Meanwhile, Mercury retrograde is near its exact midpoint now as Mercury makes its interior or inferior conjunction to the Sun. So these cycles are synchronized, which we see again on Jan. 14, as Mercury is in Capricorn close to Venus and the Sun for the Venus-Sun conjunction.

But what am I getting at here? Hmm. I'm pointing out the synchronicity. But as I ask that question, it seems that Venus and Mercury are working to share some of the workload that Venus would normally take alone. As I've suggested, we have been in some difficult, challenging times for Venus. Beginning with the retrograde in Scorpio in late 2002, through the transit or occultation in June 2004, it's been a tricky time for the only female planet recognized by traditional astrology.

Mercury is a dominantly feminine energy. Its glyph is the symbol for Venus with the crescent Moon as a hat. While the traditional books give Mercury an androgynous gender, I'm going to suggest that she represents one of the lesser known feminine aspects of deity, something akin to what the Christians call the Holy Spirit -- identified by the Kabalists as Shekinah. "The majestic presence or manifestation of God which has descended to 'dwell' among men. This is a manifestation of God that is not anthropomorphic; it does not take the 'shape of a man' but rather is a divine presence that is the feminine quality of the Holy Trinity.

At other times Mercury has shown up in charts as the presence of the soul. What is the difference? Soul is generally thought of as more personally identified; it is like the 'permanent ego' that endures death (it's really much more complex than that). Holy Sprit is more like common ground we all share that can present itself in an individual way and often when it shows up, feels like who we are. The differences are subtle and in reality we are talking about aspects of the same thing.

Here is a bit on Shekinah from the Jewish Encyclopedia. It's a bit of a patriarchal definition, but that's religion for you.

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=588&letter=S