My 12th House Progressed Moon
by Steven Forrest
Saturn is transiting over my natal Sun, so I am trying to walk my talk – working like a maniac, in other words, trying to keep my eye on the prize.
At the same time, my progressed Moon is passing through the twelfth house. True to form, I don’t know exactly what I am doing.
It is a strange astrological combo-platter, as you can plainly see.
At times such as these, my appreciation of astrology really goes through the roof. I look into that bright mirror in the sky and, among other benefits, I feel a whole lot less crazy than I might feel without astrology.
I bet that you feel that way too, or you wouldn’t be tuning into my monthly astrological ramble.
I wish that everyone on the planet knew about the simple comfort our sacred craft provides, along with all the practical guidance about what we are learning, how to do it in the most harmonious way, how to time things in our lives, and so on. I think we are making good progress in that public relations direction, as astrology slowly becomes more widely accepted. Still, I look forward to the day when more people know about it.
Putting a Planet in a Sign and House
Students often get confused by astrology books that equate planets, signs and houses. Which comes first? Which takes precedence? Do they mean the same things?
Find out how Steven sorts through these common conundrums.
A while back, when I saw that my Moon was about to start progressing through the twelfth house, I knew that many “contracts” in my life were about to expire. It is a time to let things go – or to expect them to fall away naturally.
Much wisdom lies in accepting that fact rather than fighting it.
Meanwhile, during a twelfth house Moon time, if you keep the faith and make some space in your life, a new vision begins to take form – and that new vision is something you will really run with, once the Moon starts its new cycle. That happens when it hits Ascendant. For me, that will not happen until the middle of the coming year – so for now it is a time of overt endings, along with subtle new beginnings. Those beginnings are unfolding more at the energetic level than in the realm of the obvious.
In writing these words, I am talking about myself – but, hey, simple statistics suggest that I am also talking about approximately one out of every twelve of you. Those are the odds that you might have your Moon progressing through the twelfth house at this moment, just as I do. In other words, my hope – as always – is that this newsletter proves to be of general benefit to our community, and does more than provide me with a chance to yack about myself.
This newsletter will be a little more personal than usual though.
Seeing my Moon making a bee-line for the twelfth cusp, I gave notice on my annual teaching trips to Europe and Australia. This past April, I missed seeing Italy and all my friends there – and I know I will miss being “Down Under” in August. That marks the first time in twelve years that I won’t see a kangaroo in that month.
This month also marks my last annual visit to North Carolina, my old home state.
That’s three Apprenticeship Programs wrapped up after all these years.
Every summer, I’ve been making two cross-country runs to New York state, one to Omega Institute and one to the Fellowships of the Spirit in Lily Dale. I love both places, but getting to them is rough – usually that’s meant three airline flights, with two connections . . . what could possibly go wrong, right?
I’ll be teaching only at Omega this summer. I plan to alternate it with Lily Dale. Less stress, more time . . . and yet another example of the twelfth house Moon making space in my life for – what?
I do have some answers to that question, and I will get to them in a moment. But my best answer is: om – I don’t know . . .
I am planning to continue my yearly teaching trip to China, along with my two bi-annual Apprenticeship Programs here in California, but bottom line: my travel commitments are now much reduced. That extra time has opened up possibilities for me that did not exist a year ago. Some of those possibilities are things I can describe – but some are still mysteries to me. Back to my mantra: om – I don’t know . . .
For all of us, the beginning of wisdom with the Moon progressing through the twelfth house is to create exactly that kind of space for serendipity to happen. Unless that space exists, there is no place for the new vision to take hold.
By “new vision,” I really don’t mean anything like a specific business plan. It is a lot more subtle than that. I always think of my old friend, Robert A. Johnson, the Jungian who wrote the He, She and We trilogy, as well as many other fine works. He spoke often of how he had followed “the slender threads” all his life. By that expression, he meant signs, synchronicities, clues in his dreams, and strange coincidences – and how by paying attention to those kinds of guiding omens, surrendering to them, the new vision forms and is nurtured.
For me, the astrological situation is somewhat confused by the fact that Saturn is transiting over my natal Sun at the same time that the Moon is in my twelfth house. That is a bit like accelerating with the brakes on. Normally, Saturn times have the stamp of “Just Do It” on them. And that is quite the polar opposite of the more patient, reflective energies indicated by any big twelfth house (or Neptunian) influence.
All astrologers are accustomed to wresting with these kinds of dilemmas – life is complicated and full of paradoxes, and astrology simply holds a mirror before life. All of us are constantly balancing differing, contradictory testimonies in our own charts and in everyone else’s.
Tying these two contrasting streams – Saturn and the Moon – together does not require any real voodoo. I am staying Saturn-busy, building some foundational pieces that I sense instinctively will be important for the future, even though the future is not totally clear – and I am celebrating that lack of clarity because of the space it leaves in the equations for the unexpected to appear, as it certainly will.
It is actually as easy as walking and chewing gum at the same time. It just takes some faith.
Specifically, I have joined forces with two of my students in order to create a School of Astrology. We will make a formal announcement when we are ready – and when we know exactly what we are doing, which we do not at the moment . . . at least, not exactly.
>Here’s what we do know so far: with all my books, videos, and recorded lectures available at forrestastrology.com, we have a gigantic mish-mash of material that, taken all together, constitutes the building blocks of a fine education in evolutionary astrology. Unfortunately, it is like a library that was hit by a tornado – it is in total chaos, in other words. In establishing our School, we are working toward putting all of that information into some kind of order – and figuring out a way to present it in an online form so that it is widely accessible.
At the same time, we do not want to ignore the “human” component that has been so central to my Apprenticeship Programs, so this whole program will be integrated with mentors and live classes.
One of my co-conspirators in this School project is Dr. Catie Cadge, who is a tenured professor at DeAnza College in Cupertino, California. She is also a fine astrologer – http://www.caraevolutionaryastrology.com. She brings a lot of skill and experience in online education to the table – something about which I know almost nothing.
My other co-conspirator is Jeff Parrett. Along with generous philanthropic support, (http://risingfoundation.org) he is providing us with his enormous knowledge of business and financial structures, plus some basic visionary perspectives that lie outside the realms of experience that Catie and I inhabit.
The three of us are a good team, and together we are feeling our way through the fog, twelfth-house fashion.
If it weren’t for astrology, all my Capricornian mental circuitry would be worried about all our unanswered questions regarding this School project. Now I know that those questions just leave some cracks “for the light to get in.”
I will of course keep you posted as the School takes shape and eventually opens its digital doors.
The other deal I have made with Lord Saturn lies in the “Elements” series of books that I am writing. As most of you probably know, The Book of Fire came out earlier this year. I said a few words about that in a previous newsletter.
As you read these words, I have just finished work on the manuscript of The Book of Earth. With The Book of Air up next, then The Book of Water, I’ve still got a long road ahead. But, God willing, I will finish this project in the next couple of years – and then these four volumes will provide basic texts for the School, as well as being available to support anyone who practices the kind of astrology I do.
In them – and they will probably total about twelve hundred pages – you will be able to simply look up the meaning of any planet in any house or sign, or in aspect to any other planet. For each combination, you will find a few seed paragraphs of basic interpretation.
These Elements books are essentially a compendium of the first thoughts in my head when I look at any configuration in any chart. They have served me well in countless thousands of astrological consultations.
It feels like it is time to share them.
Ultimately, one must go beyond such “cookbook” astrology – but most of us find such seed-ideas helpful, especially in the earlier stages of astrological study.
Meanwhile, with the time I have provided for myself by letting those travel commitments go, I am working on a third project. This one is a synastry-based cell phone app called Lila. My students and dear friends, Ricky Williams and Linnea Miron are my partners in this one, along with Jeff Marinucci, who is helping us out with the marketing end of the project. Ricky, as many of you probably know, is a former National Football League great who is now a fine astrologer as well as an herbalist and practitioner of Chinese medicine. Linnea is – or was – an attorney, so she now brings that legal skill-set to the table.
Together, Ricky and I have already written the text for the app, which is currently in technical development and getting established on a financial basis.
Again, I’ll keep you posted about all that as the wheels turn. Lila will be simple astrology, at least at first – but it will be far from “stupid” astrology. There’s a difference! We’ll be proud of it, or we would not do it. The details are under wraps at this point, but, fear not – it will not just be “Sun signs.”
At a practical level, I am hoping that Lila will finance my ability to write some more books and to devote more time to the School we are developing. But who knows? We’ll see – with my Moon progressing through the twelfth house, I know better than to make any assumptions or even any promises. I’m in the hands of the Universe now, trusting it to remove what I do not need – even if I think I need it. At the same time, I have faith that the universe will slowly feed me the “slender threads” that nourish the new vision – the one that will guide me when my Moon finally enters the first house a year or so from now.
Once again, I am so grateful to hold the mirror of astrology before my life. I spend so much time teaching it, writing about it, and helping other people with it one at a time in my counseling practice – I wonder sometimes if anyone realizes how much I use it myself and what a difference it has made in my own life.
So: even with Saturn dancing on my Sun, I may be tired, but I am grateful to be alive now – and doubly grateful that I will be able to leave something meaningful behind me in the world.
-Steven
Join me in a new webinar - Putting a Planet in a Sign and a House. Sign up here.