The Eclipse, the Pope, and Symbolic meanings

[Dover]

I often consult the Sabian symbols during large collective events, for a broader understanding of the larger cycles at work. I think the symbolic significance of the Pope's inaugural mass is captured by the opposing Sabian symbols which fall on today's astrological eclipse points.

First an explantation of the Eclipse by Mountain Astrologer Magazine:

Scorpio Lunar Eclipse - April 24, 2005
by Stephanie Austin, M.A.
Click here for chart.

The charts for this lunation is set on the natural wheel with 0° Aries rising. All references to Sabian symbols are from Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformations and Its 360 Symbolic Phases, New York: Vintage Books, 1973.

Now it's the Moon's turn to be eclipsed. As the Moon moves through the shadow of the Earth, we experience the Queen of the Night sans her reflection of the Sun's light. What we call moonlight actually travels 93 million miles from the Sun and is then transduced another 250,000 miles from the Moon to the Earth. During a lunar eclipse, we experience the yin, receptive energy of the Moon most directly. The less attentive we are to our feelings and needs, the more troubling eclipses appear to be, since the Moon mirrors our emotional truths and the tides of the unconscious. When we commune with the Moon, what has been allocated to the shadows comes to light.

With the Sun in Taurus, the spotlight is on our rapport with the physical world: how we hold and manage our relationship with the Earth, our body, our possessions, our requirements for security, and our need for pleasure. Taurus, as the first earth sign, draws our attention to the privilege and pleasure of being in a body. The Taurus challenge is to be neither hedonistic nor ascetic, but to cultivate a reverent and balanced relationship with the material world.

The Moon in Scorpio reminds us that everything changes, everything passes, everything evolves. Like its ruling planet, Pluto, Scorpio takes us into the Underworld, the unconscious, and into the hidden sides of human nature. As the Moon illuminates the darker corners of our psyche, it's harder to hide what we feel from others and, more importantly, from ourselves. This eclipse highlights our deepest desires and our deepest fears. Where the Sun at 4° Taurus falls in your natal chart is the area of your life most ripe for greater love and beauty; the Moon at 4° Scorpio reveals the area where you are culling and creating space for something new.

If the genie in the bottle could grant you one wish, what would it be? And if you can be ruthlessly honest with yourself, what is the main thing holding you back? What sidetracks you? What tempts you away from your path? Sometimes we have to dive in, to see what is really there, and heed Oscar Wilde's advice: "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it." Other times, we just need to stop running, to feel and face the truth.

...cont'd

http://www.mountainastrologer.com/planettracks/lunation.html


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Sabian Symbols for Eclipse Points of the Sun/Moon

MOON 4+ degrees of Scorpio:

MASSIVE ROCKY SHORE RESISTS THE POUNDING OF THE SEA.

The Inertia of all institutionalized procedures.

Slow is the rise of the land from the vast ocean, but once it is formed it develops a formidable resistance to change in spite of storms. Likewise, once a culture has expressed its basic symbols and its particular way of thinking, feeling and acting in concrete institutions, these change very slowly indeed. The individual who came to the great city (Scorpio 1 symbol) soon finds his life set by the rhythms of city living, which obliterate vaster life processes and the moving tides of evolution.

We see in this symbol how binding and resistant a communal way of life can become. In this there is strength and stability, and these are necessary factors in the social life of man - until new horizons beckon.

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The Earth's energy stands between the Sun and Moon

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SUN- at 4+ degrees Taurus:

A WINDOW AT AN OPEN GRAVE

The impermanence of all material and social bonds.

"All natural compounds decay,", said the Buddha. The most beautiful and most enjoyed substance loses its potential energy through continuous actualization and the principle of integration and form is withdrawn, leaving the Void - "the open grave" that ends all attachments. The Void is the great challenge: What next? One must begin anew, and if possible at a 'higher', i.e. more inclusive and universal, less egocentric level.

At this stage of the cycle we are dealing with root elements and basic actions and responses may seem negative, yet it opens the door to self renewal. Beyond the personal attachment rises the possibility of participating in a larger sphere of existence. The possibility rarely manifests itself except as one is ready to DISCARD THE PAST.