Planetary Transits and Cosmic Interplay for the week of Aug 11–17
Once again, this week I’ll be talking about eclipses because, believe it or not, we have another eclipse coming up. This time around we have a partial solar eclipse happening on August 11. If it seems like we’ve been having a lot of eclipses of late, you are correct. We are in a period in which we had a total lunar eclipse on the full moon on the evening of July 27 and in both the previous and the following new moons there are partial solar eclipses.
In a general sense, solar eclipse times (especially having three in successive fortnights) can earmark a time of instituting new changes and taking mental inventory of the direction one is headed—sort of like a time of course correction. This stems from the combination of the Sun and the Moon being conjunct which happens every new moon period, but gets accentuated during eclipse times.
Whereas this is most certainly the case, in this article I am going to focus on a couple of other influences that are happening and how this energy can add to this. The factors I will speak of are the mutual influence of the Moon and Mercury as well the influence of Mercury to Mars.
The Moon & Mercury Dynamic
The Moon and Mercury have a very fascinating relationship according to Vedic Astrology because the Moon is said to be helped in its natural functionality by the influence of Mercury, whereas Mercury is hindered by the Moon’s influence. The Moon is related to the mind, one’s personal needs, and adapting to the environment. Mercury is related to the thinking mind, investigating, and decision making. In the vein of investigating, Mercury does so in a fashion of seeing where all the evidence points to with no specific outcome in mind and of letting the facts dictate the results. It is akin to being objective. On the other hand, the Moon is our subjective experience. This is an overly simplified definition of these two planets but is also the crux to understanding their mutual influences to each other.
With Mercury influencing the Moon, it is a time of really being able to see all the possibilities that are available for one to get one’s needs met. Some may even find new opportunities or develop new skills to achieve the ends that they desire. It can be a time of being able to adapt better to their surroundings because they see all that they have to work with. This is the positive side of the coin…and now let’s look at the opposite side of this coin.
With the Moon influencing Mercury, we get a situation where one’s investigative nature is not objective but subjective where they are more invested in one possible outcome being the case and only are aware of the facts that help them to arrive at their desired result. It’s like having a skewed view of how things should work. It can lead to times of disappointment because one ends up expecting results that just aren’t practical. Now, also throw Rahu in the mix with its tendency towards extremism and we can have times of disillusionment because of expecting things to be a lot better than they ever could be. It can be a time of revealing where one was completely off the mark in their expectations.
To counter the potential pitfalls of this time, list making and Venn diagrams are a great help. Firstly, I recommend trying to really look at how you expect a situation to work out and list what it is that you want. After doing this, and only afterwards, you should then take a step back and look at the reality of the situation and what the results are and have been. Basically, for Mercury to work effectively with the Moon influencing, information must be separated from opinion and expectations. Writing things down can be an incredible tool to help to see these differences and how they may be playing out.
The Impact of Mercury on Mars
Now, let’s look at the influence of Mercury to Mars. Firstly, unlike with the Moon, Mercury is not hindered nor helped by Mars’ influence. It is a one-sided affectation where Mars becomes hindered by the influence of Mercury. Mars is our energy of initiating activity and especially in an immediate context of doing the thing that one inherently knows is the next logical step. Mars represents the energy of moving forward without regard for the consequences. This type of energy really helps in dangerous situations where one needs to take an action without consideration. Mercury, on the other hand, is the planet of considering the possibilities. Casting this influence on to Mars we can see where frustration can ensue from being slowed down from thinking instead of acting when necessary. It can really make one frustrated and confused, especially with the presence of Rahu involved, because they may feel like they don’t know which direction to channel their energy at a given time. Another tendency with this energy is for one to become overly critical in their examination to the point where they start ruling out logical possibilities or of just spending too much energy making one decision.
Just like with before, I recommend separating one’s Mercurial nature from this equation. With the Moon influencing Mercury I recommend more thinking, but with Mercury influencing Mars, I recommend the opposite. Ultimately in the end when it comes to taking action, you can only travel in one direction at a time. During this period, I recommend to just do the damned thing and be done with it. Thinking and assessing can be done later. With this being said, it is important to realize that failure can happen because of two reasons: from trying a course of action that doesn’t work or from not choosing to take action at all. The difference is that we tend to learn more from taking action and failing than we do from not taking action. This energy of Mercury influencing Mars is notorious for causing indecision and then throwing in the effects of Mars being with the naturally inhibiting force of Ketu, who is conjunct Mars in Aquarius, we can see this being the case even more so.
Now, tying it back in with the partial solar eclipse, and this eclipse period in general, we see that this time is really about not just starting something new or a finding a new viewpoint or something in this manner, it’s about wanting to put the thing into action. This is what the influence of Mars brings to this situation. The dynamic now with Mercury and Mars factored into this equation is of needing to act and of needing to think about it. Overall, I really recommend meditating and becoming more in tune with one’s innermost driving forces and aligning with what one naturally feels impelled to do that will benefit the greatest good. The key is to not think too much nor to be too impulsive, but to connect with one’s intuition to guide the way. Starting each day with one’s mediation practice is the best way to counter this polarizing time because finding one’s center makes it easier to see where one needs to go next.
