I’d planned on making this post when the autumnal equinox happened a few days ago, but being sick got in the way, so I’m posting it now.
The bi-yearly equinox happened on the 22nd / 23rd, so the beginning of spring in the southern hemisphere and autumn in the northern hemisphere. I highly doubt there is anyone in this thread who doesn’t know how all this works as far as seasons and the like, but who doesn’t like a good info-graphic picture or two?
Here is another thing I thought was interesting which happened at the same time. In astrology, when the autumnal equinox is ‘exact’, and the precise moment the season changes, the sun is at 0 degrees and 0 seconds of Libra. There are astronomical ways of noting these coordinates as well, in case someone is interested and wants to look them up for their own information. Anyway, as the sun moved to this position, Mercury was at 0” and 29’ of Libra. It is currently ‘retrograde’ (which is actually simply an optical illusion from our perspective on Earth), and only 5 hours and 43 minutes later the two of them were exactly conjunct (together in one spot). “Exact” in terms of astrology, and as exact as they were going to be even though Mercury was 2.9 degrees SSW of the sun from the earth’s perspective.
Most people have heard the term “Mercury retrograde”, even if they don’t know much about it. Astronomically, as I said before, it is an optical illusion like one car driving past another, and for a moment the slower car looks like it’s not moving and then going backward from the viewpoint of the passing car. All planets have a period of “retrograde” from the viewpoint of the earth. The planets beyond Earth (superior planets) are always “retrograde” when they are in opposition to the sun.
Mercury and Venus are a little bit different because their orbits are between the earth and the sun. These two planets have “inferior” and “superior” conjunctions. The inferior conjunction is when the planet is between the earth and the sun, and the superior conjunction is when the sun is between the earth and the other planet.
Astrologically, there is much to be said about the difference, but I’m not going to go too far into that because when we start going into the meanings of these things we begin to deviate from the concrete/visible astronomy and wander more into the ‘spiritual/energetic’ realms. However, I do think that it’s interesting that the two happened together in such a short period of time. Going into a new season with the sun’s equinox and the inferior conjunction of Mercury with the sun begins a new cycle (think of the new and full moon as an example for simplicity—the inferior conjunction of Mercury being the ‘new moon’, the superior conjunction being the ‘full moon’, and then the cycle completing and another beginning when Mercury comes back to the inferior conjunction).
When viewed on an astronomical level, these conjunctions are the point where both Mercury and Venus change from an “evening star” to a “morning star”. I also think it’s kind of interesting how the planet of information and communication (Mercury) can’t be observed when it is conjunct with the Sun (which represents one’s ego), but only when it’s further away because often we get become ‘blind’ to something when we are too close to the issue, and it’s with separation and distance that we are able to see things clearly. Like how after being sober for a period of time, we can look back and realize certain things that we just couldn’t see while we were in the middle of the chaos of addiction.
But anyway, I thought it was interesting and wanted to point it out. Of course, we just had a new moon just a few hours ago, and Jupiter will be at an exact opposition from the sun tomorrow, which makes right now an excellent time to set up a telescope and take a look!
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I can return to them at a later time if you want to continue the conversation.