Shedding Skin ~ 23 Oct 2009

In the theme of the recent discovery of Saturn’s newest and hugest ring, astronomers seeking out exosolar planets (planets around other stars) revealed some 30 + newly discovered planets, bringing the total of known planets outside our solar system to more than 400. From where I sit this kind of news is ho-hum. We’ve physically known of other planets since 1995. While some new ones are super large, earth-like or what have you, it is now known that other “worlds” exist and other life might be out there. This idea stands out as one of the biggest no brainers in thinking. There are 70 sextillion stars, according to estimates made in Australia by some evidently OCD astronomers. Despite this week’s failed attempt to conjure up images of UFO’s by Balloon Boy’s reality-starved parents in Colorado and the onslaught of trailers noting the upcoming release of the remake of the alien are here to get us television series, “V,” logical deduction provides there must be other life. The underlying and important theme of the scientific announcement of a “break through” in other world discovery rides the wave of it’s all bigger and more expansive than we ever imagined. Saturn. Our solar system. The number of stars known to have planets. Our imagination is challenged to stretch beyond the known and include all sorts of things previously not considered.


This week within a short number of minutes to an exact alignment of the current position of Saturn to my own, I discovered a shed snake skin under a palo verde tree. This skin, with no Jupiter embellishment at all, is four feet long. From the shape of the head and the lack of diamond traces in the skin, it is likely the skin of a bull snake, quite common in these parts. The head and skin veil that once covered the eyes of the reptile were amazingly intact. At first I concluded that since my Saturn transit was in progress, this was a symbol for me. Sitting with it, though, and building up last week’s Saturnian theme, Saturn is changing signs for everyone. Symbolically, every two and a half years or so, Saturn gives everyone an opportunity to shed the skin of recently acquired structures and grow into new dimensions of life exploration without restriction of previous constraints. Such releases support carrying no idea further than its time or function. Evolve into the new and stretch beyond all known limits whenever the skin is inclined to shed - by personal astrological patterns or during collective shift signatures. Either/or; with both being preferred.


I seem to remember an axiom that a body sheds its skin completely every seven years - or at least that’s what the door to door vacuum cleaner sales guy told me in the late 1970's. In doing an online search I cannot find current science that supports that claim. The recycling of skin occurs much faster according to Internet facts. No matter. It is still true that people refer to the seven-year itch, astrologically associated with both Saturn and Uranus, as the urge to jump out of one’s skin. Of course, Saturn and Uranus are in a long term dance and invited Jupiter and Pluto to the dance next year as well. For all intents and purposes the effects of the Saturn-Uranus oppositions, now six degrees apart and increasing in separation, should be considered to be on a hiatus.


Many folks report a general malaise and angst as if many are sensing an upcoming shift in the wind. Most likely that’s Saturn. Within ten days Saturn sheds the skin of Virgo, slipping into the socially conscious fit of Libra. Preceding this shifting of gears, Saturn asks a pile of questions:


Can you locate the place in your being where the inner angst is located?

Do you have an opinion of what the angst might be?

Can you feel the itch?

Do you want to scratch something off life’s to-do list in hopes of satisfying the itch?

Can you wait?

Do you feel like you have to get on with it right now and wait for nothing?

Can you accurately assess all resources, material, energetic and emotional that new steps require?

Do you have your ducks in a row?

Can you migrate into Saturn’s new signship with commitment to your cause and a lack of regard for popular opinion and the commentary of friends and family about your efforts?

Do you know how to turn off the comments section in all your social networking sites?

Can you sense those things drawing your attention, demanding that you include those things and allow those things to include you?

Do you have your imagination and aspiration intact?


Maybe the restlessness and uneasiness swirling about can be eased by answering such questions; maybe not. A pattern between Mercury in Libra, Chiron in Aquarius, Eris in Aries and Sedna in Taurus now apexes. This planetary combination touts the unpopular idea that if one quests for popularity, compliant conformity and seeks the status quo of what social standards indicate one is supposed to derive from life, one might actually miss the boat. “That’s right,” declares the foursome, “You’re getting a three-day reminder (of which today is the middle) that it’s time to do what suits your soul and serves your spirit. Let us not forget that as Saturn takes on Libra, he nears the center of the local group of galaxies that tout getting psyche and spirit on the same page of the script of life.”


Key in this three planet/one centaur pattern is the opposition between Mercury and Eris. When Jupiter commissioned Eris to work with him regarding a political wrong - as he saw it - Mercury was dispatched to approach the leader in question with a question whose answer held evidently physically impossible conditions and results. Mercury queried the leader of Mycenae with the question, “If the Sun rose in the west, would you relinquish your throne?” Seemingly, Mercury posed a no risk question. Now to spin this idea into present day applicable terms with a positive outcome, consider that when arbitrary questions are posed to you - whether originating from your internal editor or a real, well-intentioned person challenging your reasons - Eris and Mercury might be working together. The plan might just be one of working with you to warp around brain cramps, plausibility problems and limits of imagination to make impossible outcomes possible, presuming you’ve shed any constricting skin, of course.