News
To the Stars
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Post by Jane Lewis
On 16th November 2022 NASA succeeded in a third-time-lucky launch of its unmanned Orion spacecraft headed for the Moon and beyond as part of its Artemis programme. This is the first of a series of Artemis missions in the coming years whose aim is to build a community on the Moon, thus driving a lunar economy and inspiring a new generation of people. It also aims to land the first woman and the first person of colour, with the long term aim to get to Mars and beyond.
The Launch Chart contains much Leo-Aquarius energy: Leo Moon forms a fixed grand cross through opposition Saturn and square Uranus and the moon’s nodes, so capturing the energy of the Saturn-Uranus before it finally breaks apart.
Orion flies past the Moon on 21st November on the day when the Sun moves into the explorative sign Sagittarius. Mars retrograde in Gemini applies to conjunction with the midheaven which perfects at the full moon on 8thDecember when it is also conjoins the Moon on the Launch Chart midheaven. By then the Sun is mid-way through Sagittarius applying to square Neptune-Jupiter in Pisces. Most of the mission takes place when the Sun is in the explorative sign of Sagittarius and the aspects with Jupiter-Neptune speak of an unimaginable expansion of boundaries into the no-thing-ness of space.
Mars in Gemini on the Launch MC sextile the Moon symbolises the fact-finding nature of this bold mission for Orion will take up 10 small satellites which will carry out lots of scientific investigations. Launch chart Mars square Virgo ascendant and exactly quincunx Sun suggest challenges and perhaps some real problems that will confront the mission team, indicating the need to be open-minded, inventive and flexible in tackling problems. Mars retrograde could indicate that this mission will need to be driven forwards in a less competitive and more inclusive way than what is normal for Mars in order to succeed. It also poses the question whether the mission isn’t a repeat of another one made in the distant past? Might this be another brave attempt to get to Mars, spring-board into even deeper space? In which case, success would be achieved only if the very important lessons from those very distant times had been properly learned, applied and put into action with universal love as the true motivating power.
As mankind literally reaches for the stars, we find the star Rigel in zodiacal conjunction with the Launch Chart midheaven. Located in the constellation Orion, Rigel is the brightest star in this group on his left toe. In mythology Orion is linked with Osiris and is an early Christ figure. Rigel relates not only to ambition (like the Mars-MC) but also to the drive for learning and education for the benefit of the many. With the grand cross pattern in the fixed zodiac signs we might imaginatively see the Mission as the cross upon which the Christ figure is crucified at the end of the old Age, thus enabling rebirth, resurrection and ascension into the new dispensation of Aquarius when mankind’s inner consciousness is predicted to expand exponentially, just as is happening outwardly.
Our drive for scientific and technological knowledge in order to discover what’s out there in space and to learn how we fit in with the bigger picture of life in the universe is the outer manifestation of our inner, individual yearning for a deeper understanding of our inner space and how we are linked with the greater whole. The Mission will greatly expand human knowledge and holds the promise for a great expansion in consciousness, helping us to know more deeply who we are as human beings whose origin come from the stars and whose destiny is to return there.
At one level, the Mission will have to overcome past tendencies towards rigidly fixed ways of thinking, and become much more open and receptive to new ideas and attitudes which can take us forwards into that new eon. Whilst fierce wars are being fought on the ground in eastern Europe and the world has polarised into distinctly oppositional, combative camps over political, economic and religious doctrines whose adherents on both sides have extremely fixed mindsets, the heavens are trying to teach us to integrate those opposites and harmonise them in the outside world and, as an urgent imperative, within ourselves. That elevated retrograde Mars in Gemini on the MC speaks eloquently of this.
The Jupiter-Neptune conjunction in Pisces, both retrograde in the Launch chart’s 7th house trine the Launch Sun holds promise for a harmonious resolution of old-way thinking patterns that linger from the outgoing Piscean age. The grand cross involving Moon opposition Saturn square Uranus gives hope that humanity might successfully enter the new dispensation of Aquarius even if the path is going to be strewn with challenges.