Hi there,
How y’all feeling out there, as autumn gives way to winter, and the bare tree branches are filled up with sparkly ornaments just as soon as the leaves fall?
I’m writing this from New York City, where my daughter is spending some time with her dad and my partner and I are visiting some friends and family. We went to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade last week, watching the goofy and fun vestiges of capitalism’s glorified past float by through the rain- The Jolly Green Giant, Wonderbread, the Pilsbury Doughboy, Ronald McDonald- alongside the media icons and cartoons of today and yesteryear, from Dora the Explorer to Snoopy. It was quite nostalgicly fun, after having watched it on TV as a kid, but definitely was distinctly more commerce-focused than any parade I’ve ever been to, with no pretenses to be otherwise. In a city where the average person is exposed to 5-10,000 ads daily, the slow-moving floats felt campy and friendly in comparison.
Also quite noticable here in NYC, the Christmas season and all it’s trappings took over the streets far before Thanksgiving even arrived. In such a dense, commercial city with shops and people on every piece of land, the human-made, capitalism-enforced seasonal shifts are far more obvious than at home in the desert (where you have to make the trip to Target to get the full Christmas-glitter bomb effect) It’s vibrant, sparkly, and there’s no shortage of things to buy. There’s not a moment between the falling of the last leaf and the filling up of the empty space of winter with lots of stuff to consume.
Meanwhile, though, only a few of the tree branches are actually bare; it’s quite freezing and rainy right now, but the unseasonably night temps were in the 80s here through October, so many of the trees are still leafed out in dense green.
This is a show/blog about seasons, and as I progress with this project, it’s not lost on me that the term ‘unseasonably’ is becoming more and more commonplace. Sometimes I get caught up with the irony of this- my desire in bringing this weekly forecast to you all is to show how a connection with the cycles of time, the wheel of the year, and the seasons on earth can feel grounding and centering. But occasionally, when the unseasonable weather shows its face in a blatant way, I have doubts about whether that is actually true!
I wrote a children’s book earlier this year about the Zodiac, called The Zoo in the Sky and the Seasons on Earth, and my daughter requested that we bring it on our trip to New York, so we’ve been reading the stapled-together copy every night. It’s about the Zodiac’s 12 character’s associations with the changing seasons, and to her, the story feels grounding and centering. Is it just a story? Has climate change made this age-old ability to tune in with the wheel of the year yet another thing we can’t rely on?
I do feel climate grief and recognize that tying ourselves to a notion of “how each season is supposed to be” could be quite anxiety inducing, instead of grounding. But I’m also reminded that as far we get from “how it used to be/the good old days”, we can still predict that after winter, must come spring, and after spring comes summer, and after summer comes fall. The pattern, the rhythm, is still the same, even if the timing is not exactly the same as we always remember.
This week, the sun is traveling througb the Gate of Fixed Rhythms, which is a deep reminder of that process. It’s about having patience as seasons- macro and micro- change, trusting that they will continue to do so- as long as we’re on this rock making revolutions around our friendly, campy little sun-star.
Let’s get into the forecast.
This week’s highlights:
We’re transitioning from the season of Metal to the season of Water in the Wuxing 5-Element Cycle
Friday, December 6th: Mars stations retrograde until February 23, 2025, from Leo back into Cancer
Human Design/I’Ching:
Mon-Sat: Gate 5, the Gate of Fixed Rhythms
Sun: Gate 26, the Gate of the Egoist
This week’s themes:
Time is not running out
To live an open hearted life is to live at peak health
Good things come to those who wait
“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence”- Ovid
Our Place in the Wheel of the Year
Medicine Wheel Direction: NORTH (Wind, Elderhood, Spirituality)
Wuxing Cycle Element: Water
Pagan Season: Samhain
Zodiac Season: Sagittarius (October 22-November 21)
Moon Phase: Waxing
I Ching Hexagram/Human Design: Gate 5 (Mon-Sat), Gate 43 (Sun)
5: Water over Heaven (“Patience”) or the Gate of FIXED RHYTHMS
26: Mountain over Heaven (The Taming Power of the Great”) or the Gate of THE EGOIST
This week’s transits: The Taoist Season of Water & the Gate of Fixed Rhythms
In the Wuxing Taoist 5 element wheel of the year, we are in transition from Metal to Water. This week isn’t the distinct cutoff- it is a gradient, a flow- but as we enter the month of December, it now feels more like watery winter in my body than metallic fall. In the 5-phase cycle, metal is associated with strength, discernment, independence, grief, and focus, while water is associated with rest, adaptability, depth, and renewal.
Last Saturday/Sunday, December 1, we experienced the new moon in Sagittarius, which was in the Gate of Focus (Gate 9), evoking the mental image of an archer shooting their arrow toward the place they want to go. When pointing this arrow, they are making the decision from their current vantage point, their present moment, with their current, updated values and desires in mind. This energy of Gate 9, as my guest Jaye Marolla attested on her birthday episode last week, felt more metal than water, even though she described this time as a transitionary season.
I was down in the Subway yesterday and there was a mosaic about water and the underground, highlighting the quote by Ovid: “Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence”. This made me feel like the Gate of Focus could certainly be attributed to the season of water. The next gate in the sequence, the Gate of Fixed Rhythms, certainly fits that bill. This gate, Gate 5, is known in the ancient I’Ching as Water over Heaven or “Patience and Trust”. The slow drip of Gate 5 is also quite aligned with the other major transit of the week: Mars stationing retrograde in Leo.
Friday: Mars stations retrograde in Leo
The planet of war, drive, and assertion stationing retrograde in Leo back into cancer until late February will encourage us to be patient, as we prioritize inner work around self-image, how we assert ourselves, self-confidence, purpose, sense of security, and how we care for others. Mars retrograde periods can feel frustrating, as the planet of action loves to move forward more than most, but consider this next few months a time to slow down, trust the process and reflect on Martian themes. Look to the houses in your chart that contain Leo and Cancer to get a sense of how this retrograde might affect you personally. (For example, Leo is in my first house of self, appearance, and identity, and Cancer is in my 12th house of spirituality, intuition, and my inner world, so I know to focus my energy this retrograde on reconsidering how I show up in the world and how my inner world expresses in my outer identity.. woo! Stay tuned for that!)
The hexagram for this week’s transit through Gate 5, Water over Heaven, provides good guidance as we begin this Mars retrograde period. Revisiting themes of assertion and drive as it relates to our personhood can be quite vulnerable, and this week’s energy reminds us that we can emerge strong and victorious if we commit to resisting the temptation to act prematurely.
A fisherman can cast the line but still can only wait for the fish to bite. Your catch will come in its own good time; you cannot make it come sooner—neither by working nor by planning nor by wishing. Though you may have a need to provide nourishment, it is only through patience that you can become the bridge between the fickle fish and the eventual feast. Strength in a time of trial waits quietly, resolutely. Weakness grows agitated, abandoning the effort before the fish start biting. Periods of waiting are most fruitful when used for quiet contemplation. This is patience. (Divination Foundation)
Quiet contemplation, here, makes sense when we think the Human Design phrasing of Gate 5: “Fixed Rhythms”. I’ve also seen it named as “Fixed Patterns”, “Patterns”, “Waiting”, “The Time Alchemist” (Christy Inge). The cool website 64 Doors describes the archetype of Gate 5 as “The Rhythmic”, saying:
This archetype experiences rhythm deeply, like the natural pulse of his heart and in his cells. He enjoys fixed rhythms and tempos that he can rely on. The Rhythmic therefore finds great satisfaction in mundane rituals and routines that attune him to the vibrations of all life. He stays true to his own inner rhythms which keeps him vital, healthy and always in his flow. For the Rhythmic, even intimacy and work has a pattern, consistency, and rhythm.
In the bigger perspective, the Rhythmic fixes the pattern of all life, holding all creatures and humans together in a wider universal rhythm, creating resonance through his heart and breath, and naturally adjusts the tempo and timber, so the rhythm is harmonized and not forced. Out of this archetype emerges a deep sense of security that comes from knowing that everything is following a universal flow.
Gate 5 in the Gene Keys: Impatience > Patience > Timelessness
In the Gene Keys, the Shadow of Gate 5 is Impatience. There is a fear that there is no underlying order to the universe, and your body will never feel safe. All distrust concerning the timing of life manifests through this shadow, which is quite prevalent in human nature.
Impatience can goad you into action, so it can be seen as a positive trait, but this is not true because impatience causes us to act out of agitation, wherein your nervous system is not regulated. Impatience is always in the mind, and to be impatient simply means that you have fallen out of trusting time. To escape impatience, you must escape the mind’s fear that time is running out.
Life itself sets the pattern of evolution, and we are merely the agents of this pattern. The 5th Gene Key connects all life forms, where everything is connected to everything else. The themes that punctuate your daily life are felt by all creatures simultaneously- our entire species is undergoing a quantum leap, and you confronting your fears means that life itself is confronting it’s fears as well.
The 5th shadow of impatience is a response to environmental conditions- time always moves according to your perception- if your breathing is rhythmic and deep, then time seems to dissolve.
Pessimism is one way this can come through- when a person has lost rhythm in one’s life, an expression of a deep seated fear that nothing can or will get better. This spirals out and there is nothing that they can do to get out of it- only a crisis created by life can help you gain perspective. Another way this can manifest is pushiness- an angry manifestation of pessimism, also related to being out of sync with time and rhythm.
Acceptance of the natural rhythms of life bring people to a natural turning point. The gift level of Gate 5 is Patience. Acceptance = patience. Ironically, it takes patience to learn patience. The more patient you are, the more obvious it is that patience pays off. Patience does not equal waiting, though. Patience is about trusting in life, so that you may trust in the challenging moments as well as the positive ones.
The gift of patience allows you to hear life’s music, to breathe deeply into your belly, to keep your heart and mind open, and not be swayed by your external circumstances, and instead paying attention to natural rhythms.
The shifting of the 4 seasons is an example of the natural rhythms, and is very grounding. Spring always follows winter… and in life, we have stages of winter, where there are not many resources, for example. But if we trust that after winter, must come spring (to quote Lauryn Hill), we can increase our openhearted acceptance of the natural rhythms.
The siddhi of Gate 5 is Timelessness. Impatience and patience are both rooted in the existence of time, opposite poles on a spectrum, each waiting for something. The siddhi is about jumping out of the Game, existing in an unborn and undying realm, transcending time, and existing at the frequency of consciousness itself.
I have every other Sagittarius gate except Gate 5 active in my Human Design bodygraph, but my partner, my daughter, my ex husband, have this gate quite dominant, so it’s been interesting to me to see how the polarity of impatience and patience play out with those closest to me, and also to note how routines and schedules seem to benefit these folks in a way that is not quite as needed for me. They say that people with Gate 5, being in the Sacral center, have a recharging supply of energy to maintain day-to-day workflows. Knowing them, I'd say more than a strict routine, it is about finding out which habits give you vitality and sticking to them (regardless of how quirky they might be).
Sunday into next week: The sun is transiting through The Gate of the Egoist (Gate 26), otherwise known as “The Taming Power of the Great”, or “The Salesperson”. This is my south node gate, aka an energy I’m ready to release in this life… so I’m curious to dig into it this week!
I’d love to hear if you have the Gate of Fixed Rhythms or any of the other Sagittarius gates active in your chart and how you resonate with them! Here’s an Insta post that goes through all of them for your reference. Let me know in the comments, Sag friends!
Steadily onward we go toward the horizon, toward the season of rest, revitalization, and depth.
Sending you care and warmth as the days get shorter,
Alison
Stay in touch!
Follow @cyclesoftimepodcast and @astro.somatics on Instagram, or subscribe for free at astrosomatics.substack.com to get the pod in your inbox every Monday. And don't forget to click the subscribe button on your podcast player and add comments- I absolutely love hearing from you!
Thanks for listening!
Share this post