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September '13
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by Terry Lamb

September brings a forward-moving and friendly reckoning, one we’ve been dragging ourselves toward since early October last year. This is brought to us courtesy of Saturn’s meet-up with the North Node on the September 25. The Moon’s North Node (the point we’re moving toward in fulfilling our destiny) moved into Scorpio last August-September at the tail end of the sign (since it moves in reverse through the Zodiac).

When Saturn entered 0° Scorpio in October 2012, karma and destiny began to vibrate together, creating an ever-intensifying magnetism toward something in our lives. Mysterious and compelling, this new thing tickled and tantalized, goaded and pushed. We may have wanted to push it away, but gradually, inexorably, we have seen its value and accepted it. For many of us, it is so new that it requires the greatest courage to face and fulfill this path, but as this conjunction occurs we find ourselves as ready as we’ll ever be for The Plunge into the unknown depths of this experience.

We have a unique set of circumstances to support this process, in the form of an intermittent Grand Sextile that became available by grace of Jupiter’s entry into Cancer at the end of June. When open spaces in Virgo and Taurus are filled, as they are periodically by the Sun, Moon, and inner planets, a sacred hexagon is formed, a Star of David or Solomon’s Seal. And when these points are vacant, we still have a Grand Trine and a Kite, available to us constantly.

Patterns show planets that vibrate together and are active at the same time. Just like two guitar strings when they resonate at harmonious frequencies, each planet’s “sound” is louder when it is part of a pattern. The closer the planets are to the same degree, the louder they are in our life. Just like the guitar strings, they feel like one complex sound, a chord of energies coming to us all at once, affecting us in several areas of our life at once.

We have two patterns available to us now, the Fourth Harmonic of the Cardinal Grand Cross (dividing the wheel by four) and the Sixth Harmonic, which incorporates the Grand Trine, Grand Sextile, Kite, Cradle, and Mystic Rectangle. The Sixth Harmonic patterns are calming, flowing, and harmonious; but the more planets and points involved, the more challenging a pattern becomes. A Grand Sextile is more dynamic than a Grand Trine, which could be tied to the fact that three oppositions are buried in the Grand Sextile pattern, while there are none in a Grand Trine.

Sixth-Harmonic patterns are identified by their Element (Fire, Earth, Air, Water) or their polarity (Yin/Feminine or Yang/Masculine). This pattern is focalized in Water with high points in Earth (both in the Yin/Feminine polarity). The oppositions represent something are we reaching for. On the outside, all may look fine and dandy, but on the inside we are focused on the challenges. Oppositions make things appear as though they are far away, even inaccessible. We may feel isolated or out of touch, or have that infamous FOMO experience (Fear of Missing Out), a longing for what others appear to have but we lack.

The Grand Sextile and its brethren ask us to create our field of dreams. If we build it, they will come. But we have to work. Sextiles are connections of opportunity, but they don’t land in our lap without work. Opportunity implies risk and effort. Sextiles are risky because they are either at the beginning of a cycle, when we can see that something is sprouting but we can’t tell what it is; or at the end of a cycle, when we are asked to start building something for the next cycle before it even begins.

The trines that are by nature part of the Sixth Harmonic help a lot, but we still have to use them. Fortunately, the oppositions goad us into doing something about it. We find ourselves unhappy with our conditions, and so we reach out toward what seems remote, that carrot on the stick across the heavens.

Watch what occurs in your life as we experience the current buried oppositions of this pattern: the Sun opposing Neptune on August 26 and Chiron on September 3. Check back to its oppositions to Saturn on April 28 and to Pluto on July 1. How did you feel? What did you do with those energies? Chances are, it was a mixed bag and one that is still unfolding in profound and mysterious ways through every situation or dilemma we can identify. Grand patterns are global (as in affecting everything) in experience and expression, and for that reason they can feel overwhelming—even the "easy" ones.

In September, we receive the benefits of a persistent Cradle (a Grand Sextile with 1-2 consecutive points missing) as the Sun and Mercury move through Virgo’s relevant degrees (until September 7), coming off a Grand Sextile that occurred on August 25–26 as the Moon populated Taurus. For the remainder of the month, we have to be content with the Grand Trine and Kite—and perhaps that’s a good thing!

One of the foundation stones of the current Grand Sextile is Saturn’s sextile to Pluto, which becomes exact for the third of three times on September 20. Since this has been continuously in orb throughout the past year, we have to tune in closely to feel this sharpening of their resonance, but the third pass is significant because after that, the two begin to disengage in their courtship. The rubber band that connects them stretches thin, reinforced periodically by the fast planets until Saturn changes signs (when the rubber band snaps so a new one can form).

This Saturn-Pluto sextile is the waning one, as Saturn moves toward its next conjunction to Pluto, which comes in 2020 (in a stunning triple conjunction involving Jupiter as well). This means that we use this energy best now to peer into the future of the next Saturn-Pluto cycle (and the next Jupiter-Saturn cycle!) to see what needs creating, then start it now based on the wisdom we’ve gained since the last one passed through Earth’s sphere in 1980-82 (~28° Libra). Even if you weren’t alive then, you were affected by your parents’ experiences and the tracks of history that were laid at that time.

The bottom line? We are required to take a huge leap of faith that our inner knowing will guide us right, that we will be able to attune to the right forces to lead us forward to genuine contribution and self-support, connection and upliftment. Fortunately, we have time to get it right, to adjust to conditions, to test and retest, reflect and learn. Experimentation and compassion in the face of mistakes—both others’ and our own—will get us there.

So this is the context for Saturn’s tête-à-tête with the North Node. It’s no wonder we feel pressure and pull as we head toward this moment of truth, another unfolding of our daring new path.

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