A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of watching a presentation by a fine local astrologer, on the current transits and the state of world events. As she talked, I noticed something interesting.
When she talked about a planet’s effect, she was invoking, and embodying, the energy of the planet she talked about.
So, when she spoke of Uranus, her speech was sharp, pointed, abrupt, fast-paced, with quick insights.
Then she started talking about Neptune… and her voice got softer and dropped in volume, her body and facial tension smoothed out, her speech got a bit vaguer and slower paced… and there were longer pauses between words…she would occasionally lose the thread, or drift off to another subject.
I’ve noticed that phenomenon before, at an astrology meetup group I sometimes go to. When discussion turned to a specific planet, the tone of the discussion fit the planetary energy we were talking about.
It’s very hard to have a focused discussion when you’re talking about Neptune… things tend to get vague.
And, it seems to be hard to discuss Saturn much at all. Among other things, Saturn represents your fears, your limitations, the things you’d just as soon not deal with. So, in that meetup group, whenever someone mentioned Saturn, the topic would switch to something else in a couple of sentences.
That even fit the sequence of topics that were chosen for the meetups. In October we discussed Libra and Venus; in November it Scorpio and Pluto – oh, how people love to talk about dark, mysterious, vague and transformative Pluto! December it was Sagittarius and Jupiter; and come January it was Capricorn and – professional ethics, or something like that. Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, was conspicuous by being avoided. I recall mentioning Saturn a couple of times at the meeting, but the conversation kept turning away in other directions.
By February we were back on track, discussing Aquarius and Uranus – the rebel, the outsider, herald of change and freedom, and so on…
It gives me a new respect and sense of the planetary energies. By talking about them – or even thinking about them – we are invoking them, calling forth their energies, embodying and expressing those energies.
That gives me pause, since I spend a lot of time reading astrology charts. That means I am invoking the planetary energies I am focusing on as I read. I call forth their presence in the person I am reading for… and I call forth an answering presence from within myself.
This gives me a healthy reverence for the potent planetary intelligences that are at work in our lives, and that I work intimately with as I practice astrology.