For the astrological connoisseur among us, this years Imbolc doesn't offer much in the way of exciting aspects that are particularly noteworthy, at least not at first glance. However, it does bear mentioning that this will be the last Imbolc in any of our lifetimes in which the Sun will be in a conjunction with the planet Neptune. It is a conjunction separated by ten degrees, the most two bodies can be separated and still be considered a conjunction.
It is also easy to draw a connection with current events. Many people are now in the process of losing sight of their dreams and aspirations, in some cases even their most precious hopes. Unfortunately, it is also true that in all too many cases they see their illusions shattered for good reason, in that they were never built on a solid foundation, if in fact many of them were ever based on realistic aspirations to begin with. That is the danger of illusion. By it's nature it seems more real than reality, and even if this is viewed in the negative, it can still be comforting to wallow in our own sense of despair. It makes it easy to hang it up. In today's economy, and with all of the other negative factors at work in the world today, it is all that much easier to wonder if there is really any hope.
Yet, on Imbolc, it is those childlike dreams and fantasies that we must strive to reach for, and nourish. There are in fact a string of conjunctions that give us extra energy on this night, if we but know how to tap into it.
Mercury is in conjunction in the sign of Capricorn with Mars, which is conjunct with Jupiter in the sign of Aquarius, where that last planet is in conjunction yet with the Sun, thus giving us faith, strength, and hope, so long as we but reach for it. Never should we give up on our grandest designs. We should however approach them from a more realistic perspective. They might be distant, but they are not unnattainable, so long as they are realistic goals approached in a similarly realistic manner. That then is the message of this years astrological aspects as applied to the Imbolc Sabbat.
The fact that the Moon in the beginning degrees of Taurus, in which it progresses throughout the day, adds extra energy in the form of a square to the Sun which grows stronger as the night advances, in the meantime approaching a slight sextile with Uranus in Pisces and a trine with Saturn in Virgo. The effect the opposition between Saturn and Uranus is then brought ever so slightly into play and is further heightened by a slight conjunction of Uranus with Venus-but this is so slight it is almost negligible.
Yet, on the other hand, though their direct effect is negligible, their indirect effect by way of the Moon, which forms over the course of the day a sextile with Uranus and a trine with Saturn, might well be considerable.
Finally, the solar conjunction with Neptune might seem minimal, but in this case, the slightness and seeming unimportance of the conjunction is precisely the point. It's hard to let go, even when we must do so. This year might then be the year to, as a wise man once said some time or another "put aside childish things" (okay, no hate mail people).
There is a difference of course between childish and child-like, and that latter is the one thing we should never let slip from our grasp.
