Strength/Two of Wands reversed. Strength (Fire, hot/separates and dry/shapes; Leo, “I am,” passionate, dramatic, noble, egotistical; Teth, sieve or basket, digestion; and the Path between Tiphareth, the hub of the creation process where energies harmonize and focus to illuminate and clarify, and Chesed, which crosses Da’ath, where forms and structures are challenged or affirmed) is about not physical strength but emotional strength and the ability to control and make use of feelings and emotions. Often this card warns that I will need to rise above my emotions, in order to tame “the beast within,” and this can only be accomplished with courage and patience. The Two of Wands (Mars, action, spontaneity, drive, aggression, in Aries, “I want,” action oriented, pioneering, assertive, and Mars rules Aries, so this may be intense) in an upright position tells of the power of the Will to shape the world. Because the card is reversed, I am being told that forcing my Will upon a situation will not allow me to rise above any emotions that could cloud my judgment; I may be better off trying to rise above the issue in order to get the big picture.

My Thoth card is the Three of Cups reversed. In an upright position, Crowley sees this card as the Lord of Abundance. This Three of Cups corresponds with Mercury (intelligence, reason, skill, education, communication) in Cancer (“I feel,” sensitive, family and home oriented, nurturing), and represents abundance and pleasure, but more of a passive enjoyment. Because the card is reversed, serenity and an awareness of my connections to others may not be a large part of my day.

My Legacy card is the Two of Wands reversed (again!), flavored by the Three of Coins reversed. The Three of Coins (Mars in Capricorn “I build,” ambitious, cautious, competitive, authoritative) has a similar astrological correspondence to the Two of Wands, except one is about action and one is about creating. The Three of Coins reversed, which tells of a lack of attention to detail (and that may not be a bad thing), could be letting me know just what I am not doing well today. If I can work to turn that Three to an upright position, I may be able to more easily access my own Will.

Twos and Threes today! Let’s look at those numbers, both individually and together. In order to best do this, we need to start with the One of Crowley’s Naples Arrangement. In order to understand the number One, we must first talk about the concept of Zero. Crowley sees Zero as (among other things) nothingness without limit, or as the absence of any means of definition; of course, to us this is an abstract condition that is hard to visualize, but bear with me. If Zero is nothingness, then the number One brings us the concept of the Point, which has to quote Crowley “neither parts nor magnitude, but only Position.”

Now, in order to understand Position, we need to compare it to something else (think of the Law of Opposites, which tells us that we use the opposite of a particular thing to describe that thing; dark as the absence of light, for example). The only way to do this is to have another Point, and that means that we now have the number Two, and the creation of the Line.

Still, the Line does not mean very much because we don’t yet have a way to measure it. The limit of our knowledge so far is that there are Two Points; however, we can’t say that they are near each other or far apart, but just that there is distance between them. In order to determine the distance between the Two Points, we must have a third Point. We now have the number Three, and we have created the Surface, or the Triangle. We can now say that “A is nearer to B than A is to C,” because we have a comparison point, and we can now understand the concept of a flat plane or a surface. The number Three is the first number that offers a sense of completeness.

Perhaps I am being told that today I may not be able to make effective comparisons. The element of Earth and the suit of Pentacles is not to be found in my cards today, and perhaps if I add an awareness of the messages of my physical senses, I may be better able to interpret my emotions, my feelings, and the needs of my own Will.

My 6-digit date number is 3, the number of new creations. Okay then, another Three!

My horoscopes: “Romance and creativity are the driving forces in your life today, Sagittarius. You might find that feelings for a special person provide lots of inspiration for creative projects. Your creative energy makes you that much more attractive to the one you love most. This could prove to be an emotionally and aesthetically satisfying day. Make the most of it!”

And: “You're likely to be looking and feeling beautiful and sexy today, and you're also likely to be "feeling your oats," as you are particularly aware of your own inner power. If you've been thinking about asking for something that you want, do it now. If you've been hoping for a romantic getaway, this is the day to plan it. Whatever you start right now is likely to be successful -- more because of your own determination than anything else.”

Well, I am very glad that I went back to Point Park yesterday, because the difference was amazing. The monarchs were back to numbering in the hundreds rather than the thousands, and there were other butterflies, lots of moths and dragonflies. Sunday was vulture day; I saw many turkey vultures, and circling high above the bolder turkey vultures were several black vultures. I also saw a golden eagle again, circling high up. Once you’ve seen the huge majesty of one of these incredible birds, you can’t mistake them for anything else. This one circled and circled, and rarely flapped his wings; he was so good at gliding that he looked as if he was mechanical.

Observers say that over a million monarchs left Point Park at dawn on Sunday, heading south across the Delaware Bay. What an incredible journey these delicate creatures undertake!

What I like the most about the two very different days is that they highlighted for me the energies of the Fall season that are associated with Antares. This energy is soooooo vibrant, but it is different from the energies of the Spring (which are about birth and sex and reproduction). These energies let you know you are alive, and they awaken you to your full potential in order to maintain the cycles of life. These Fall energies are about the fullness of the harvest of all that has been worked towards, but they are also about the important task of laying down the seeds of the next generation. The fullness of the manifestation of Summer and the pause that allows us to feel that manifestation are important, but that is not the focus of the Fall. The harvest of today will bear fruit after the long dark Winter, and preparations need to be put into place now to support the new life to come.

Often we think of the beginning of the new cycle as happening in Winter, but in actuality the process is begun now, with amazing foresight and hard work, and with optimism for the future. Many of the creatures who are doing all the work now will not survive to see that new life to come, but this does not stop any of them from doing what has to be done. The monarchs are a wonderful symbol of this optimism: creatures with wings the texture of tissues, flying hundreds of miles, some thousands of miles, sometimes over open ocean.

Fall seems on the surface to be a pause before the degeneration to come, and I have always seen it that way. But this weekend, my thoughts have changed. The power, the active power, of this Watcher is amazing!!

A bit more on the Royal Stars (a bit of a repetition, but I am trying to compartmentalize what I am learning):

Regulus (the star of kings), known as being the heart of the lion in the constellation of Leo, it is the most important of these four, and corresponds to the healing Archangel Raphael, the Watcher of the North.

Fomalhaut, known as the fish’s mouth in the constellation of Pisces, and corresponds with the Archangel Gabriel, the Watcher of the South.

Alderbaran, known as the left eye of the bull in the constellation of Taurus, and corresponds with the Archangel Michael, the Watcher of the East.

Antares, known as the heart of the scorpion in the constellation of Scorpio, and corresponds with the Archangel Oriel or Uriel, the Watcher of the West.

Coincidence that I begin my Journey of understanding Watchers by working with the Watcher that corresponds with Scorpio, which is in my own chart twice (I am on the cusp of Scorpio and Sagittarius, and my Moon sign is Scorpio), which is my husband’s solar sign (and thus connected to my own heart) and with Archangel Uriel? Prolly not.

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