Sophia's Children

In the film Sliding Doors, Lydia makes a frustration-laden comment that’s a fair expression of the recent weeks (or couple of months). Ever found yourself thinking like this?

“I’m standing on the platform at Limbo Central with my heart and soul packed in my suitcase waiting for the Gerry F*cking Express to roll in and tell me that my ticket is still valid and that I may reboard the train. Only the station announcer keeps coming on and telling me that my train has been delayed as the driver has suffered a major panic attack in Indecision City, “We suggest you take the bus!” ~ Lydia, in the movie Sliding Doors

Limbo Central. Delays. Shifts in plans.

The expected doesn’t quite happen, well, as expected. And perhaps some unexpected things unfold.

That’s how it can seem and be sometimes, yes?

Like you’ve managed to get to the station only to find that your train (metaphorical or actual) is running late, or has been rescheduled, or got canceled, or ends up heading in a totally different direction, requiring you to figure out new arrangements to get where you want to go.

Assuming you still actually want to get ‘there’ after all.

Doesn’t matter whether you’re in a hurry or not to get to a particular ‘place’ when delays or track-shifts are due to factors beyond your control.

If we experience delays or changes to our plans (and you know the old saying about ‘making plans’!), that doesn’t mean there’s nothing happening.

Usually, there’s a lot happening, just not quite according to our desired plan and schedule, or just not quite what we expected to be happening or how we might have expected it to play out.

The potentially cool thing about potentially high-annoyance-factor unfoldings?

This is often where a whole lot of creativity gets stirred, new ideas get born, and we get a sense of strengthened confidence, fortified resolve, and/or deepened appreciation, and more.

A lot like life in its various expressions and facets, which is why good metaphors can be helpful in how we perceive whatever set of circumstances and influences at any given moment or life-passage.

The Astro-Speak: What might we have noticed over recent months?

From the end of June until just a couple of weeks ago, we had six planets in their retrograde modes: Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto, Mars, Neptune, Uranus, and Mercury.

Of the ‘personal planets’ — which means they stand for energies and impulses that we express and notice more personally — Mercury ended its retrograde around August 19th; and Mars ended its retrograde around August 27th.

A lot of people know about Mercury retrograde, sort of. We might feel and experience these passages in various ways, according to our own ‘chart’ (makeup), including the stereotypical communication snafus and tech glitches.

Mars, though, retrogrades (Rx) every two or so years rather than every year.

Simplistically, Mars is associated with energy — Lifeforce — so when Mars is retrograde, we might feel less energized or energetic, less ambitious than usual, and in our busy-busy, push-push culture that seems like something’s wrong. Even if it’s not, really.

If Neptune is involved with Mars — and again, Astro-Speak is just a symbolic and metaphorical language for the Energies of Now, our inner patterns and makeup, and how they dance together (or how we’re dragged around the dance floor) — we’d also likely feel it as foggy energy, lower energy, and the need to be more mindful about how we’re using our energy (or having it drained).

That leaves a lot of people wondering “what’s wrong here!”

With Mars Rx, we might have noticed some people being less obnoxious, bullying, and pushy, less aggressive, and more passive-aggressive (that’d be the Aries-Libra axis; Mars rules Aries) or open to collaboration.

We might have also noticed that we felt just a wee bit more peeved, impatient, annoyed, more often.

These are all clues, potentially.

Jupiter (in Scorpio) and Saturn (in Capricorn) were also retrograde, adding to the potential impulse to gather in, concentrate our energy a bit more, and need just a bit more slow-down or actual rest and sleep than usual.

What might we have noticed during a Saturn Retrograde?

I’ve noticed that during Saturn stations or particular meetups, there’s a need for more rest, a heightened sense of more contemplative or introverted impulse.

Some people experience more loneliness or a heightened sense of a strange, underlying angst or fear, as if ‘something’ is bubbling away beneath the surface, or lurking ahead unseen (yet).

And we might notice that things seem to take longer, seem delayed, moving more slowly than we’d like, as if we were attempting to walk quickly through a thickened atmosphere, or mud, or snow drifts, or against a stream current.

Pretty fatiguing if we push forward in those conditions without some mindful assessment and use of our available energy.

Some of the stereotypical astrology quips about Saturn can be limiting — ironic, since Saturn is thought to be associated with limits, containers, boundaries.

Healthy limits, containers, and boundaries are really helpful — we need them to create things from idea to ‘manifestation’, or to maintain healthy relationships instead of relationships where boundaries are disrespected or abused.

When we experience delays or things moving more slowly, it gives us a chance to be more sure that whatever’s unfolding is okay with us, healthy, aligned with what has heart and joy and meaning for us – our purpose.

If not, these are good times to reflect on clarified intentions and the adjustments we might make or what might be a bit more desirable or healthy, and then begin moving towards just that.

Moving Forward … The Train Begins to Leave the Station

Saturn ended its retrograde just last week, on September 6th.

So with both Mars and Saturn now regaining momentum ‘forward’, we might get a sense of something like a tide coming back in, or that delayed train or plane finally getting ready to load and leave the station or airport.

Moving Forward Good-Questions Checklist

Based on the last couple of months (and you can expand that to a longer period of time):

• How have your ‘desirable story’ intentions and interests changed?

• What storylines seem to have lost energy for you (or become much more frustrating and limiting), and which ideas or possibility seeds feel more energizing and exciting to you … stir your heart and reconnect you with your passion?

• What boundaries can be shored up and made healthier?

• If your life is an unfolding and interactive movie, how might you want to change the script a bit, and what characters do you want to stick around, head for the exit, or enter freshly?

• What particular qualities have you appreciated all the more in recent months, and

• How would you like to embody and express those qualities, as well as be on the receiving end of them more often?

These and similar questions, depending on how the Energies of Now (and then, and coming soon) want to dance with you … or how you want to dance with them.

For personal mentoring and guidance

Schedule a session or series, or an astro ‘reading’, or a combo of the two.

You’ll find a couple of starter options here.

Related Inspiration – See Which Offers Timely Reminders to You:

Are You an ‘Uncommon Leader’ and/or ‘Island of Sanity’?

Uncommon Skills (Are You One of the ‘Bringers’ of These?)

Kintsukuroi: When Your ‘Broken Places’ are Golden

Enjoy the coming change of seasons (Equinox on the horizon), and be well!

Big Love,

Jamie

Featured image credit: Train station at York, U.K. Public Domain Pictures.net.

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