Sun-kissed Reflections on the Jupiter/Venus Conjunction

August 13, 2025

For the past three days, puppy Scampi and I have been taking our four mile walks (and yes, with painful right knee, see recent posts) predawn, so as to see the spectacular Venus/Jupiter conjunction in Cancer.

Unfortunately, I don’t take my phone with me. But I did find an image online of how it looks today, Venus having just managed to squeeze by Jupiter. Yesterday and the two days before, Venus was to the right of Jupiter.

With this kind of aspect between two unusually bright planets, it’s becomes obvious what an exacting conjunction looks like in the sky.

Such an enormous difference between actually gazing at such a magnificent display in the heavens, and looking down on human-created symbols to depict the same. The first invokes wonder, awe, “Oh my god, how astonishing!”; the second merely “aha, I got it. Data entered internally.”

In other words, looking at this display in the early morning sky and looking down at a screenshot of a small part of an astrological chart invoke  utterly different attitudes. Which to choose?

Well, I’d say, ultimately, best to choose both, and integrate them. Connect right brain astonishment while gazing at a mysterious phenomenon to left brain words, images to depict such.

Behind left brain recognition, of course, exists a multitude of other words used to describe the symbolism of Jupiter, of Venus, and of Cancer, and their combinations, their connections to other symbols. In fact, is there any end to the human capacity to pour out explanations, descriptions, logical entailments, for any phenomenon, like this one: pointing to a tiny but potent (from our point of view) visual feast in the sky?

Question: Does our need to describe and explain and connect ad nauseam originate in our awe and wonder? Is this need an all-too-human attempt to give form to the awe, the wonder? To capture it? “Put it in its place?” As in, “Aha, I’ve got you now.”

In fact, how often do we — and I do not exclude myself here — simply work with these already established linguistic tokens, as a substitute for actually gazing in awe and wonder, at the sky above.

We worry about people on screens, how they are ignoring what’s actually going on both inside and around them.

Or do we?

The emotional tone of the first image says yes, the second? No, not really. Not if we introduce tiny children to screens. Plus, even if we want to keep them off-screen, they always manage to find a way. It’s like sugar, and even more so, intensely addictive. How many parents can successfully keep themselves off screen? If they can’t, how do they expect to do this with their kids?

So where are we? Here’s my question:

Is it possible to let go, not just of screens, but of language itself?

 

Well, those who experience telepathy say yes. We can. Check out the Telepathy Tapes. And once we do, the whole world changes. No longer will language, once learned, and I mean any language, from the most elementary to the most complex, be available to separate us from one another, or to corral us into specific groups.

(Not just different languages, nationalities; I think of the way academic philosophers speak a language known only to them! I think of my own doctor father, speaking to a doctor friend: again, their language, their concerns, were utterly foreign to my young ears.)

I’ve always wondered about the connection between thought and language, between the depths and the surface, and how the depths get buried to the point where only the surface counts, and then gets used, for both nefarious and exalted purposes.

And by “thought,” what do I really mean?

Well, I mean the original flow within which we are all immersed,

ideas sparking like sun-kissed drops

in the River of Life on Earth.

 

Uranus/Saturn Breakthrough: knee pain signals need to return to crucial early memory

August 12, 2025

The painful right knee continues to fester, especially when getting up from sitting down, or getting out of bed. I have to be very careful. So weird. No swelling. No obvious injury. Just this interruptive Uranian pain with any sudden switch in position. And, I’d say, it’s a bit worse today. But: I still did my four-mile walk, and early morning tai-chi practices. No problem, even though not pain free. However, the knee pain is not possible to “walk off” at this point.

Last night, I can’t remember when, I woke up with a start, and all of a sudden  saw my life differently. I saw myself as agent, rather than as victim. (A recurring theme, likely for anyone who strives to be conscious and awake). What alerted me was the pain in the knee. It felt like it was my body talking to me. Telling me that I needed to dramatically shift my perspective. That I needed to revision the way I’ve been drowning inside the protracted ending of the nearly 84-year space of Uranus. That it was time to begin again. Not just to end a cycle, but to truly begin another cycle of Uranus, leaving the old one behind. This next one will NOT be a repeat.

Reminder: I consider planets as energies of various kinds, each of which gains its “meaning” via the time it takes for it to complete one cycle through space. Planets looping as larger and larger as space/time frequency fields. 

The Mars cycle for example, two years, is likely obvious to everybody as they start and end jobs, relationships, etc. in tune with active, propulsive Mars returning to its natal place in one’s chart every two years.

Likewise Jupiter: 12 years, and therefore returning at 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, etc. Each a cycle of opportunity, growth, expansion.

And Saturn: 29-30 years, and therefore returning at at 30, 60, and 90, if one lives that long.

Now come to the one I’m currently working with, Uranus: 84 years, and its conjunction with natal Saturn. For me, this Return began in earnest this summer, and will go through 1928, moving back and forth in early Gemini all that time.

 

Why I mention this again:

Last night I was startled awake around 1:00 AM, at a time when Uranus was crossing the Ascendant. Of course! Constant synchronicities in my life . . .

But what was weird about this wakeful period: I immediately got up, turned on a light, and began taking notes:

I had a single driving question: What happened with me shortly after birth, especially concerning both Uranus and Saturn, which were both moving retrograde when I was born.

To make a long story short, last night I charted some remarkable timing of both planets, which both turned to go direct within two days of each other to return to birth positions, having retrograded for slightly over 4 months. In other words their retrograde periods were syncing with one another.

Then I looked at the exact conjunctions between Uranus and Saturn: which occurred first on July 1, 1943, again Dec 3, 1943, and for the final time on April 19, 1944.

I had known, but had, until last night, forgotten, that Mom left town for about a month, to await my sister Marnie’s birth (which came on May 4, 1944). Mom had told me she shouldn’t have done that, should not have left me with relatives at that early age.

(Remember, my Dad was already away, serving as a physician on the front in the Phillipines during World War II.)

My sense of abandonment, and of needing rescue in order to live, that I am experiencing now, as my Uranus return begins: I have a sense that my knee pain is related to that early Saturn/Uranus time; this pain makes me feel utterly powerless, needing to be either rescued, or die.

Oh, and it’s my right knee, active (vs. left knee passive, receptive), hampered from moving fearlessly forward.

In other words, my right knee is speaking to me about my unconscious Saturn/Uranus frequency field. My knee is signalling, through the body (co-terminous with the unconscious), that this sense of despairing abandonment is still poisoning the gigantic Uranian field.

What’s amazing about this discovery in the middle of the night:  It felt like an occult rebirthing process. That I am letting go of that original victimization. The final note I jotted down while the light was still on:

ARISE AND SHINE!