Happy Equinox, dear friends, whether you’re entering Spring or Autumn today on our magnificent planet Earth.
Revisiting the first degree of Aries through the lens of the Sabian symbols — I’m always strongly reminded of the mythical Selkie with this one:
A WOMAN JUST RISEN FROM THE SEA. A SEAL IS EMBRACING HER.
“…The possibility of success and that of failure is implied throughout the entire process of actualization. Every release of potentiality contains this two-fold possibility. It inevitably opens up two paths: one leads to ‘perfection’ in consciousness, the other to ‘disintegration’ – the return to the undifferentiated state (the state of humus, manure, cosmic dust – i.e. to the symbolic ‘great Waters of space,’ to chaos)
This symbol characterizes the first of five stages which are repeated at three levels. This stage represents the initial statement, or theme, of the five-fold series which refers to the first level: IMPULSE TO BE.”
(From Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala)
Like the Selkie, we’re nothing without our seal-skin: our mythical, magical, shapeshifting, enchanted cloak. And at all beginnings (the first degree of Aries is the threshold of a new start, a birthing) we’re embraced by the powers of Earth and Heaven. Even though the outcome is not written in stone yet, we’re surrounded by powers who delight in our becoming.