Let’s Talk About Planetary Stations
While a station is not a useful time to ask a planet to produce something outward-facing and future-oriented, it’s a great time to sit with the planet’s presence. Cuz they’re real fuckin present.
The planets are pumping blood, each according to their motion. They have their own unique pulse. A frame rate, in film, is the number of pieces of information present per second. Time is the same for all, but what can be accomplished per second changes. The human heartbeat is the frame rate of our incarnate experience - it’s defined by our physical bodies - what kind of equipment and pace is needed to oxygenate a brain of our size at the speed we need to have the kind of cognition we have evolved to have.
Mercury’s frame rate is faster than ours, - he is like a hummingbird. It’s how he performs his duty of messenger. We see this in his motion - he zips around the sun twice as quickly. He moves through time faster than us.
hawk, shot by ravyn alexa
You’re Playing with the Big Boys Now
What about Mars, Jupiter & Saturn?
When you tune into a slower planet, it adds a plodding thrum to the world - offering you a place to slow down with it and approach the scale of time on a cosmic, transhuman timescale.
An outer planet like Jupiter or Saturn has a pulse more like an elephant - slower, & it pumps more blood. At their standard pace, these planets have power - a moment for them contains multiple moments for us. Attuning to their works on the earth is like having a conversation with a creature who speaks so slowly that you might mistake their syllables for several separate noises. It is like speaking to an Ent slow, with each syllable drawn out, H R O O M. We move through them.
This can sometimes make it hard to discern what Jupiter and Saturn are doing.
But when they slow down…
Their essence FILLS the room. The heart fills the room. It pools around our feet. When they are in the same space, for 100 beats, there is a sense that they are distending time and space. Their presence is filling (and stretching) the space.
A sound that was once hard to grok becomes clear.
This is why Saturn and Jupiter stations are so LOUD. Loud in a way that the others are not, in my opinion (maybe it’s my own natal planetary rulership situation).
It can be hard to slow down. Our pace is human. But slower-than-earth planet stations strongly suggest it. We share space with these gods, and we occupy time together. When they slow, they slow time. They almost force the issue - the liquid in the‘room presenting resistance to our bodies as we struggle to keep up the pace.
While a station may not be the time for Motion, it is a moment for prayer, connection, theurgy. When a fast planet slows down to match our own pace, and a slow one floods the space.
This is my philosophy of astrology - every event can be met with prayer and observation in a way that enriches our perspective and increases our intimacy with the world. When we are with the world as it is, this brings us in tune with the All, and our individual purpose alike.
