The Sun In The Eyes of The Archer

Mercury conjunct the Sun on 29 November

The Sun in the Eyes of the Archer

November 29^th Mercury in Cazimi (0.16 degrees) direct in Sagittarius.

I cannot help but think of an archer and the mercurial shining arrow ready to be released. Under the glare of the bright Sun, it is impossible to see our target. We cannot hesitate or the quarry escapes, the moment passes as quickly as the brilliant fortitude of cazimi, so we must trust our aim and release the bowstring. It will be a whole 8.5 degrees of separation from the Sun before we can get an idea of where the arrow will land.

All planetary cycles are conceived in the heart of the Sun, the old star dies and is reborn unburdened and renewed through the Solar Father.

Like children conceived in the heart of our bodies, we watch them grow under the beams of our care. Not separated from the impressions of the guiding parent, yet all the while they are pulling ahead in their own life’s path. Likewise, the quick, chatty, inquisitive planet Mercury skips around the sun at speed within a maximum elongation of just 28 degrees – that’s not quite a zodiac sign in distance from his parent star.

Following this analogy, Mercury cazimi during retrograde is much like a confident swagger giving way to uncertainty, reflection, reconsideration, a need for re-calibration. Here the accumulated dross, the mistakes, and erroneous ways are burned off in the light of truth and experience so that one might surge forwards again with a new start, when direct. Mercury represents children aged 4 – 14.

If Mercury Cazimi at 7 degrees of Sagittarius has relevance to your chart, there will be things that need to be let go of as the Sun devours our thoughts, our ability to say, to logic our way forwards, and the sharp glare of truth strips us of mental dross; the half-baked ideas and opinions, the unfounded conceptions and untested beliefs. Yet Cazimi marks a spark of mindful brilliance. An inspired gift from the Sun, a new clarity that has yet to take shape, although when it does it will do so in the manner of Sagittarius. New thoughts, beliefs, opinions, enthusiasm will need to nest in the heart of our being before they are ready to be born as fully fledge ideas, words, or intentions.

The eclipse that follows closely underscores the need for ballast dropping as we move forwards on this journey. In Sagittarius, this might center around our philosophy for life, our religious or spiritual beliefs, what values we hold, and there might be a moment of the dark night of the soul.  Thoughts not fit for purpose will be shed like old skin, like cargo from the moon ship’s hull. She will follow Mercury fast, with her own take on how we might advance before that arrow lands.  

A recap:

Mercury Cazimi retrograde: revisiting and revising, returning to something we thought we had moved on from or progressed through.

Mercury Cazimi direct: releasing what has been reviewed as hindering our progress.  Renewal of perspective.

And now for something special (it always, always makes me cry!)

 On Children by Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children
They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself
They come through you but not from you
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you

You may give them your love but not your thoughts
For they have their own thoughts
You may house their bodies but not their souls
For their soul’s dwell in the house of tomorrow

Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams
You may strive to be like them
But seek not to make them like you
For life goes not backward, nor tarries with yesterday

You are the bows from which your children
As living arrows are sent forth
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite
And he bends you with his might

That his arrows may go swift and far
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness
For even as he loves the arrow that flies
So he loves also the bow that is stable

^{Title image: Phanes receiving fire from the sun, Jung’s Liber Novus}