Water, Water, Water: Everywhere in the Sky

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to … miss.

It feels that way with half of the solar system residing in the water element through November. The Sun, Mercury and Saturn are moving through Scorpio, while Neptune floats and goes uber diaphanous in Pisces. And Jupiter just stationed several days ago to make a long retrograde through Cancer, until early 2014. The perfect time to contemplate exactly what the water element translates to in astrological terms, in human terms in other words.

Well, you can start by watching this video*. Pay attention to the silkiness of the creature’s movements. The glide, the way everything seems still on one hand, but then in constant motion on the other. We take water for granted, thinking we know it, remember it, from our childhood days of swimming and playing in it — or standing in awe as we watched the deluge of a storm or cowered at the news of an impending tsunami (well, at least I did while living in Hawai’i.)

Like the other three elements in astrology (fire, earth and air) the magnitude for creative or destructive power is equal. And when you think about it, the way the Greeks and Indians did when they declared the four elements to be the very foundation, the components that composed our reality, both visible and invisible, the totality of our lives move through, within and without, the four elements. Meaning we reside in a world composed of the elements as we ourselves are composed of the very same essential parts.

Astrologers will talk a lot about emotions and feelings when it comes to the water signs, and that is true, in a vague sort of way; but I’ve found, more specifically that the water element — when highlighted in a birth chart or predominate by transits — presses upon our consciousness the unseen realm of images and symbols, and the ability to work with metaphor, poetry, song, or any creative medium that requires stillness and movement simultaneously.

Dreams and dreaming become more emphatic, the unconscious more crucial in honing the inchoate, the unformed. Creative solutions abound in myriad forms, shapes and expressions. The rewards are plenty, though the test, (the condition of being a kind of medium for transmission), involves a vulnerability that can be difficult to allow. This is the gift and the riddle of the water element — the capacity to create is dependent upon a condition of openness that is both delicate and fierce; working that riddle requires the wisdom of a poet and skill of an artist.

From my perspective, this is more what the water element alludes to.

Drift in that notion awhile and then share your ideas with me below, please. I’d like to hear your experiences and impressions.

*(Apologies re the treacly song that accompanies the video. I recommend turning the volume down when you watch. At least that’s what I do)