Today we explore the Superior Conjunction of November 28, 2021 at 8 Sagittarius and what it promises for December, January, and February. This “fusion of life and mind” will impact the rest of the Mercury direct period, as well as the first part of its next retrograde up to the Inferior Conjunction on January 23 at 4 Aquarius during Mercury’s retrograde between 11 Aquarius and 25 Capricorn.

Of note is that the January Inferior Conjunction at 4 Aquarius is exactly tredecile the last Inferior Conjunction which was the exact degree of the Sun conjunct Mars at 17 Libra. That set a new Sun/Mars cycle into motion with a Mercury retrograde flair! Anyway I’ll give you more about that as it draws near.

All previous superior and inferior conjunction points, as well as Mercury’s retrograde and direct stations, are triggered by subsequent transits long after Mercury was there. This Superior Conjunction will be activated in a big way when Mars transits 8 Sagittarius!

What’s A Superior Conjunction?

As we covered in part 1, the superior conjunction occurs when Mercury (mind) conjuncts the Sun (life) when in direct motion, while the inferior conjunction is when Mercury (mind) conjuncts the Sun (life) when Mercury is retrograde. Each operates as a fusion of Life and Mind, but in each “Mind moves in a different direction.”

When either conjunction happens, it indicates that signals, messages, and ideas from either outer sources or subconscious sources will fuse with the life principle. This sets the tone for the lessons involving how our minds are relating to our lives during the weeks which follow the inferior conjunction.

Since its last retrograde, Mercury in direct motion has been moving faster than the Sun. It has now caught up to the Sun and making a “superior conjunction,” beginning a several week period when mind will race ahead of life, heralding things to come when the Sun transits the span Mercury will show us over the next few weeks. The degree of any superior conjunction shows how our perceptions have caught up with our lives, which can bring forth a new expression of our light.

The Sabian Symbol for the Superior Conjunction

The Solar-Mercurial degree symbol for the Superior Conjunction falls at 8 Sagittarius, and it is said that the first third (decan) of any sign deals with the physical and material levels of life. Being the first decan of Sagittarius, it has a sub-influence of Sagittarius with an additional Mercury tone. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.

The symbol for the 8th degree of Sagittarius is “Rocks and things forming therein.” In his notes from the Marc Jones class, Rudhyar says this is a degree of “Irresistible determination to be,” “Infinite capacity for hard work,” and “Crystallization of purpose and will out of experience.”

In his Astrological Mandala he goes on to say this is a degree of "the alchemical fire which both purifies and transforms the very substance of man’s inner life.” He says this symbol involve forces “in the deepest layers of the psyche” which respond to our group interactions and the stirring up of a greater intensity of love. He offers that this creates “an alchemical process” which leads to a “kind of mutation” where we reach “a new level of awareness.”

He states this degree deals with “the basic rhythm of growth” and our reactions to other experiences which aroused our emotions. He says “the very substance of (our) nature undergoes modifications, on the basis of which a new step may be taken,” and we must become aware of the deep inner changes and the “Psychic gestation” taking place. He says this degree falls in the Span of Receptiveness, Act of Group Integration, and is the synthesizing degree of the Scene of Abstraction on the Social-Cultural level.

Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this is a degree of “the necessity that (we) create (our) own reality out of the actual situations in which (we) become involved” by taking control of circumstances. He offers the stability we find “be taken as a foundation for all consequent and individual initiative.”

He offers “each person in accepting his roots and capitalizing on (their) own endowment is enabled to proceed to high achievement, and offers us the keyword COMPOSITION. He states that when operating positively, the degree is an “exceptional ability to mold or remold the course of events.”

Given the themes of this degree, we'll use the ”fusion of life and mind” through the next Inferior Conjunction to see the light of deep transformational forces at work within the psyche of each of us. This fusion of Life/Light and Mind requires that we become aware of the changes going on below the surface, and be ready to use them as we learn and/or teach whatever we are called to do in the house where we have 8 Sagittarius.

Who Leads the Great Light Now That Mercury is Ahead of It?

At this conjunction, Mind is no longer following Life, trying to catch up to it. Now Mind races forward as herald, catching glimpses of knowledge, perception, and understanding that shows us where Life is headed in the near future.

When Mercury outraces the Sun and moves ahead of it, it no longer "leads the light." Now "Life" leads "Mind" even as Mind blazes the trail the Light will follow these next few weeks. This is the time when we stretch out into the future, with a period of looking back beginning mid-January at the next Mercury retrograde.

In this chart, since Mercury no longer leads the Sun, we now have Mars as “the entry to the Light” until the Moon is past its conjunction with Mars in a few days when it will temporarily “lead the Light.” After the coming New Moon Solar Eclipse at 13 Sagittarius on at 17 Leo on December 3, Mars will again be the “entry to the Light.” So basically, mobilize to see the Light or initiate power to see things vitalized soon thereafter. While the Moon is there for the few hours it leads the Light, be aware of what you’re sensing, what you’re feeling, and the personal relevance to find your Light, and after that, trust that no matter how intense, frictional, or accelerated the pace becomes, whatever it is will lead you to illumination.

Mars will continue to lead the Sun until Venus goes retrograde and makes its “Inferior Conjunction” on January 8 at 19 Capricorn. This will last for several weeks, and shows our “reflective interactive appreciation” will become the gatekeeper for the Great Light (until Mercury makes its next Inferior Conjunction in late January, when it will again lead the Sun). As you can see, we’re in for a few shifts over the next weeks! The study of which planet leads the Sun is a crucial but often overlooked part of the study of how the planets work in sequence.

What’s Ahead?

This Superior Conjunction can fuse foresight and life experience to see how new forms of light, life, and perspectives can come forth these next few weeks. Because this “fusion of life and mind” takes place in the first third of Sagittarius, we enter a time of moving forward into an intensified future and greater vision on the social and emotional levels of life.

As Sagittarius is “Fire By Friction,” we are now offered ways to distribute our love and inspiration to light up our world! Because Sagittarius is associated with the archetype of the Questor/Magician, if there’s any question about what’s rumbling deep inside, regard it as new elements of your personality are being forged to assist you on the next chapter of your Quest.

This will give us a chance to articulate our Light fused with “the Guide of Souls” to find how we can BE the Light we are, expressed in new developments, new intensity, and new inner elements of Being. The house this conjunction falls in shows where Mind now leads Life, and will open doors of perception wherever it falls, with many things “coming together in the Light of Mind.

We can now accept “the necessity that we create our own reality” by “taking control of the circumstances which provide the matrix for our existence.” We now begin a period of “an exceptional ability to mold or remold the course of events, with powerful expression of the deeper elements being forged within us when Mars transits 8 Sagittarius on December 23 and 24.

This “fusion of Life and Mind” at 8 Sagittarius sets a platform of new discoveries, new understanding, and new focus in the house where this conjunction occurs in our charts. In blending these principles we will see a shift in our affairs, attitudes, and understanding about those things symbolized by Mercury in Sagittarius. These will open us to wider truths and futures as part of the larger transfiguration process in play all this year as we dance at the intersection of Fate Street and Freewill Street on Eternity Boulevard.

Summing Up

This superior conjunction will show us that we’ve got some new parts of our lives cooking deep within our being. This will be the natural expression of the heart strengths resulting from the last Superior Conjunction, which helped us feel that we have “made it through the night,” and have been experiencing greater heart strength which we’ve learned to express in both soft and hard ways.

Because this is Life and Mind fusing in Sagittarius, see it all as a Divine Dance, or Divine Quest, teaching us to pay attention to what’s going on as a result of the intensification of Love we’ve been through the past few months. This will help us deepen and broaden our experience of the expanded spiritual work already in motion. This one helps us use our will power productively, with manifestations of divine power to come forth.

From here, even though Mercury will outrace the Sun for the next few weeks, it’s going to begin to slow down in speed, and will go retrograde on January 14 at 11 Aquarius, beginning a time of review and reflection on the 11 Libra theme of getting a new inspiration and a new sense of what we have to contribute as individual spiritual Beings. With the aspects in play right now, mobilize productively, remembering that you’re at a fork in the road of your destiny, with many things quickening in the next few weeks.

All significant Mercury events give us a chance to check in with our inner Mercury to make sure we’re listening to its knowledge so we may be guided to our Souls. By how our Mercury works, we are led to the “Active Intelligence” of Divine Mind, or scattered confusion because of the lower mind’s inability to know anything.

As I explained in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend, Mercury’s duality is “Life/Death,” so we can get a new look at how our consciousness and responses are either creative, destructive, or both, to cite the venerable Kabalistic Arhat Paul Foster Case. Mercury is where we learn if our mental processes are creating chaos and disorganized scattered conditions through ambivalence, and thus come to see how to use discernment to coordinate various functions to bring forth perfect knowing how to do whatever needs to be done. Understanding its influence as a factor for weeks to come is crucial to the smooth operation of what moves forward from here.

Because we’ll be dealing with Mercury retrograde energies beginning December 28 when it enters its shadow zone beginning at 25 Capricorn, you should also take a look at the appropriate chapters in my book A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. You can find out all you need about the coming Mercury Retrograde in Aquarius and Capricorn or any other sign, as well as the houses it occupies in your chart. Of course I'll give you a lot more about the coming retrograde in early January.

Here's the Amazon link to where you can order your paperback edition of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. You can also find it on Kindle or Nook. It’s a great reference source where you can check out possible ways the coming Mercury retrograde effect could play out between September and November 2021.

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

© Copyright 2021 Robert Wilkinson

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