A-K R: 7.31.21

Astro-Kinetic Reflection: 

Temporally Conditioned Reverberative Thoughts 

Resulting from Astro-Kinetic Contemplation 

Today Jupiter in Retrograde returns to the house of Aquarius to revisit Saturn. This return coupled with our source evidence implies a return of the current order to its roots or foundations.  Across the heavens in the house of Leo, over the next few hours, Mercury will come into conjunction with the Sun.  A conjunction of two planets generally indicates a confluence or coming together, of what they symbolize.  The Sun, symbolizing the cosmic masculine, and is presenting strongly in the house that it rules, a conjunction with Mercury, the great communicator, amplifies order dictated by formula and rules, and systems of organization constructed for best practices formulated by experience and wisely applied.  But this conjunction dances across the sky oppositional from Saturn, just as Jupiter makes its return.  An opposition brings a relationship of polarity. In this case, our sources imply a revision of the current system by association with a deeper root or foundation.  This return fulfills the impetus of the current system by undercutting the crystallization of that system.

This theme of a returning undercut from the foundational root is present in both scripture readings of today’s Liturgy of the Word.  Leviticus 25 offers the Levitical law of the Jubilee year.  The Jubilee dictates, “This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you when every one of you shall return to his own property, everyone to his own family estate.”  Here everyone who is in a state of slavery through debt is set free and returns to take possession of their family land.  Systems of economic relationships are meant to queue into an experience of justice, which has an aim of harmonious life. But a crystalized systerm of justice can can end up as a tool of oppression (mass debt-based slavery) if disorder toward seeing the system as an end itself, as opposed to creating social harmony.  The Jubilee law breaks an economic crystallization by a return to the original intent, freedom, justice through the ability to partake in God’s benevolent goodness.  The land offers an opportunity for life as the original gift of God in Genesis 1-2, as opposed to our systems of regulation that are mere shadows of true benevolent justice. 

In today’s Gospel, Mathew 14, “Herod the tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus and said to his servants, ‘This man is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him.” The celestial motions show us a return to a deeper foundation of tradition against a crystallization of litigious systems.  John the Baptists can here represent the best practices of the Old Covenant, one based on a law that calls to the heart.  That covenant had become appropriated by the Pharisees and turned to an unhealthy legalism.  Christ came as the New Covenant that reaches out beyond simple Judaism to the whole human race.  This return is a radical return of God’s extension of Covenant to Abraham (Jupiter: The current order) even further back to Adam (Saturn: the primordial order) through the person of Christ. Herod in his blindness could only see a return of the same structure, But God’s wisdom and mercy run deeper.

The last return we have is Ignatius of Loyola.  Our complex celestial dance happens on Ingatius’ feast day exactly 500 years after he was wounded in war and returns home as an invalid.  He waits in convalescence to return to his former life.  But, through discernment, he comes to understand that his skill set is being wasted in arrogant pursuits of glory through pomp, pageantry, dominance, and violence.  In his convalescences, a profoundly deep inspiration that can only be brought about by sitting silently with one’s self is poured into his soul.  We can undoubtedly see this as the craft of Saturn, abiding in Aquarius.  That is, deep wisdom poured into the soul.  Ignatius returns to his most basic skill set, order, discipline, fortitude, focus.  But, he reapplies them to a more suitable goal, the foundation of a company of men, this time not soldiers for terrestrial glory, but soldiers “For the Greater Glory of God”.

Over the next few months, Jupiter retrogrades back into Aquarius to pay a visit to Saturn and then returns to its normal course.  During that time, we may wish to revisit our foundations as well.  Are the systems we have put in place in our lives working for us or have they crystallized in an unhealthy way, no longer serving their intended function?  Is there a need to reroute those systems or create new systems with a fresh approach to the original premises? If so, perhaps it is time to revisit our foundational roots and reassess our structures.

--For more Astro-Kinetic Reflections see the  Astro-Kinetic Reflections: Date Log