#224-"Urging Me to Create Space for Compassion"--Week of Sept 4, 2023

Jupiter (Teacher-Mentor) goes retrograde in Taurus for 4 months challenging you to reassess outworn paradigms and beliefs about safety and resources. Let go of fear-based holding on and open to trust deeper resources. The Sun (Conscious Self) conjoins Mercury (Communicator) retrograde in Virgo seeding a new 4-month cycle to develop new projects and offerings around service, healing and realignment. The zodiac sign Virgo honors your ability to recognize what's not working and to lean into more congruent forms of expression. The Sun in Virgo trines Jupiter in Taurus illuminating where sustainable healing can happen with limited scarcity mindsets. Lean into a healing attitude adjustment.

Podcast poem: "You Just Never Know" by Gloria Heffernan
Poet website: https://gloriaheffernan.wordpress.com

Chapters

• 0:07 Astrology Alchemy
• 9:34 Cultivating Compassion and Self-Care

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hello, welcome to Astrology Alchemy. I'm Sheila Belanger, your host for this podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:13

Alchemy is defined as a seemingly magical process of transformation.

Speaker 1: 0:18

Spiritual alchemy is the process of pursuing the gold of your true nature by transmuting the unrefined, limiting parts of yourself.

Speaker 2: 0:26

In this podcast, I'll offer you inspiring insights from current astrology cycles that support your path of turning your personal lead into gold. More resources are available at the website on theedgesofchangecom.

Speaker 2: 0:51

Hello and welcome to the podcast for the week of September 4th. I'm your host and guide, sheila Belanger. Here's a line from this week's poem urging me to create space for compassion. This week we have some strong energies with the planet Jupiter and a new cycle with Mercury. Beginning On Monday, september 4th, jupiter goes retrograde at 15 degrees of torus and will stay retrograde until December 30th, at the end of the year, when it goes forward at 5 degrees of torus.

Speaker 2: 1:32

Jupiter the teacher, the wise one, the expanded one this character, archetypal character is all about opening up and expanding our awareness. It has to do with our belief systems and also about our connection with society and belonging to a greater circle, if you will, than our personal life. When a planet goes retrograde, to remind you, it's not physically going backwards in its orbit. It looks like it is from our point of view of the solar system, from the Earth. Archetypally, it's a very important pause and timeout. It's like when you forget something. Maybe you're driving your car, oh, I've got to turn around and go back home. I forgot something. Retrograde is like that Stop and look again, review. Now, when it's Jupiter, the deepest level is about your belief systems. What do I need to reconsider Is the way I'm thinking about. Something is a habitual mindset I'm carrying, not really serving Now.

Speaker 2: 2:34

Jupiter's in the sign of torus, which is an Earth sign that is about pragmatic groundedness, security, stability and resources. So Jupiter, retrograde in torus, challenges us through the end of the year to say what really is safety? How, then, shall I really use my life resources? And, particularly in the context of the immense upheaval of climate crisis and wars and the inequities in social justice, all that churning, all of us are challenged to look at how am I spending my life energy? How am I using up earth resources, societal resources? Is it fair and just? What needs to be looked at differently here.

Speaker 2: 3:17

And this is so interesting because Jupiter goes retrograde on Monday and the day before, on Sunday, september 3rd, venus went forward after 40 days of being retrograde. So we have this shifting Venus about relationships, values, self-worth. We've had a six-week period of deep reflection on our relationships. What's important to me? Am I living my values? I'm ready to move forward with that. And then Jupiter says now I'm going to flip backwards and say, yeah, as you go ahead and move forward with everything that you reassessed in the Venus retrograde, you now know you have to go deeper and sort of pull out some of the old entrenched belief systems around security and resources that are no longer appropriate or sustainable. And with that, on Wednesday September 6th, the sun is conjunct, mercury retrograde at 14 degrees of Virgo. This begins a new Mercury cycle that goes until the end of December, and Mercury cycles last about three to four months and they really mark an excellent time for new projects.

Speaker 2: 4:28

Mercury is the communicator archetype, the messenger. It's about your mind and your ideas and your expression. It doesn't have to be verbal. It can be written, it can be embodied, dance, it can be art. And Virgo is an earth sign that is about healing and sorting things to become whole. It's like fixing what's broken and bringing things into greater harmony.

Speaker 2: 4:52

Now, with the new Mercury cycle in Virgo, mercury loves being in Virgo. It's one of its key signs and this is as we move into the fall in the Northern Hemisphere. This is a really fabulous time to roll up your sleeves and say what is some kind of project or communication process I want to be in through the end of the year that has to do with greater alignment with myself or a gift to others, healing, fixing what's broken. And also Virgo challenges us in a healthy way, not to do rescue operations, not to try to fix something that can't be fixed or to try to take care of something that really doesn't need your help. So just consider this week if something's been sort of brewing for you. But I really want to kind of roll up my sleeves and get into this, pay attention to this and really consider seeding something this week.

Speaker 2: 5:42

Even though Mercury is retrograde, meaning it's in its own call to us to review our ideas and our communication patterns, it's still in a very potent place with the Sun, the archetype of the conscious self, illuminating deeper, more mysterious underneath ideas that want to come forward. And then on Friday, september 8th, the Sun is in Virgo, trining Jupiter and Taurus at 15 degrees of Virgo-Taurus Trine means the two planets are in a harmonious energetic alignment. They are 120 degrees away from each other and archetypally it symbolizes that these two inner and outer characters are really working together. So again we have this Virgo-Taurus theme this whole week. The Sun in Virgo is shining the light. It's the conscious self, the hero, the heroine, the conscious one on the journey in life shining in light on Virgo. What wants to be healed now in my life? What wants to be brought into a greater harmony, what forms need to be changed and shifted. And then you align it in a positive way with Jupiter just having gone retrograde in Taurus, and it really says the work right now is to heal your paradigms, heal your belief systems. The wounded side of Jupiter is kind of a pompous no at all dogmatic one you know my way is right, I'm on my soapbox and the wounded side of Virgo is about trying to critically make everyone do what you think things should be. Now, with the Sun in Virgo trining Jupiter and Taurus, it's really a great blessing to say drop it, let go of it. You know what you think is happening is not what's really happening. Can you just pause and do your own healing work and recognize it's a great time for a paradigm shift which will actually bring you greater healing and bring you more into alignment with your true soul, and it's also a gift to the world, right? So just notice how some of this is stirring for you this week In the poem I want to bring you. I think really honors and invites you to this paradigm shift and to pause and to be really open to what greater healing is, what greater compassion is when do you really belong? Where do we all really belong? It's called you Just Never Know by Gloria Heffernan.

Speaker 2: 8:18

My mother never practiced yoga, she never studied comparative religions or sought to find herself in the silence of rustic mountain retreats. Her mudra was a cigarette poised between the fingers of her right hand and a coffee cup cradled in her left. Her mantra was simple With a slow exhalation she would bring it forth from the silence. You just never know. I invoke her wisdom when a driver cuts me off in traffic and I want to feel compassion instead of rage. You just never know where he's going or why he's racing to get there. I seek her grace when I feel inclined to roll my eyes at the woman in the supermarket holding up the line while she fumbles with a bundle of coupons. You just never know if her children had enough to eat last night. I think of her when I look at myself in the mirror stretching my limbs in a sun salutation, her voice urging me to create space for compassion.

Speaker 2: 9:34

So this week, dear ones, may you hear that gentle mantra. You just never know when you are tracking perhaps some of your habitual quick to judge, quick to criticize yourself or others. We all do it. You just never know what's really going on and maybe you can take a breath and do an inner sun salutation and make more space for compassion for yourself and others. As always, thank you so much for your continued support of the podcast. I delight in getting your emails. Thank you for those that can support me financially. You can do that by looking at the podcast website and also come check out my website on the edges of changecom. I have so many resources for you, many free resources, many wonderful astrological courses. You don't have to know astrology to get a lot of support archetypally for me. So take good care of yourself this week and may you have space for compassion.