Assisting the less evolved

This week’s Horoscopes are coming out under the light of a Capricorn Moon, a moon that will turn void-of-course and remain in that mode until Tuesday morning, Aug. 16, at 7:52 a.m. After that, as the next 72 hours unfold and the moon reaches fullness in the late degrees of Aquarius on Thursday night, Aug. 18, all kinds of seemingly inconsequential changes will unfold, according to the way we choose to respond to external influences.
On any other day this would be no big deal, nothing that calls for anything more than perhaps an increased awareness and the ability to roll with the punches. Things happen to be different this time because Saturn, the planet that rules over birth, death, and every significant milestone in between, having been retrograde since March 25, resumed its direct motion at the 9th Degree of Sagittarius, at sundown on Aug. 13.
If what comes up in our lives in the next few days takes on a harder, more serious edge than usual, it’s because whatever the stakes have been until now, the moment of truth that arrives whenever Saturn makes a move is already here, taking stock. This isn’t just your average week, and as the full moon brings everything to a head, all of us are about to get a good look at where we’re at with ourselves.
The things that matter, the stuff that outlives the nonsense that deceives us into thinking we have to keep step, and keep toeing the line, is about to come face to face with how far we’ve strayed from the path to fulfillment that was outlined in the contracts we signed at birth. Regardless of what we are up to, it feels like it’s time to grow up enough to move into a bigger pair of shoes.
Let’s see what the Sabian Symbols have to say about it: “Sagittarius 9 Degrees: A mother leads her small child, step by step, up a steep stairway.” The keynote here is the need in any social situation to assist the less evolved in their management of the problems which society requires its members to solve.
A staircase does not present a natural difficulty to a very young child. Man builds stairs and, therefore, is responsible for assisting the child to climb them, step by step. Social and cultural living is not “natural.” The child must first be taught by example, then helped along as he imitates as well as he can the grownup’s behavior. Climbing stairs is only an illustration of a general process. Every generation must involve itself in teaching the next even the simplest skills needed for social existence.
“…here we see parents encouraging a little child to walk. Walking is a natural human function; climbing stairs is a skill made necessary by the building of several-storied houses—a product of civilization. What is implied here is social concern for the less evolved of society’s members.”
I won’t patronize us by assuming that I know what this means: I only know what it means to me. All of us can read what we want into these words. If we know enough to take them to heart and bring them home to roost wherever they find a nest in the fabric of our lives, I am pretty sure the business of loaning a helping hand to those in need has a lot to do with sharing whatever we have with everyone, everywhere, in all things, all the time, with no thought given to what will be received in return.
Heads up folks: This is the new method of exchange. Give that some thought, and take what you can from this week’s ‘scopes.