Fortune, good night, smile once more; turn thy wheel! (Shakespeare, King Lear)
I created a ~three-minute video of the transiting solar system bodies for 2014, which I call the Cosmic Wheel of Fortune. You can see it on YouTube: 2014 Cosmic Wheel of Fortune
Known in ancient and medieval times as the rota fortunae, the wheel of fortune is a metaphor of the turning world. It is often depicted by several wheels within wheels signifying the various celestial spheres. One layer of the wheel is made of the rotating signs of the zodiac which are believed to reflect the fortune and fate of the world. A similar concept is found in the Buddhist bhavacakra, the symbolic wheel of cyclic existence known as samsara or the wheel of illusion. Bhavacakra is also the Vedic name for the sidereal zodiac.
From the geocentric perspective of the earth, the luminaries – Sun and Moon – along with the planets and lunar nodes, are continuously moving around the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun that follows the zodiacal wheel. In astrology, these celestial movements are known as transits. As you can see here, the transiting heavenly bodies continuously move and morph into a never-ending array of geometric shapes signifying their shifting relationships with one other.
The transiting bodies are almost always moving except for brief segments of time when the planets appear to station (stop) before their apparent change of direction, whether retrograde or direct. The transiting aspects can be dramatic and intense, sometimes harmonious, and at other times, quite inharmonious. As above, so below; as within, so without, and thus the heavens mirror our world.
I made this video with the Solar Fire Gold astrology software program, and Ezvid video recording software. My video reveals the daily changes of the heavenly bodies throughout the year 2014. I created this as a mini-moving yantra, a meditative device.
As an expression of the phantasmagorical play of consciousness in which we exist, the cosmic wheel of fortune never stops turning. The secret to living in alignment with our full divine power and highest purpose is to stay centered within the true Self which underlies the ephemeral flux…at the center.
We can train ourselves to be centered in this way by using meditative devices like this moving yantra. As the wheel rotates, focus your attention on the center. At the same time, with your peripheral vision, observe the constant motion of the changing celestial shapes around the center. I hope you enjoy it!
If you want to see the transits for a particular day you can just pause the play button. Please note that these are not following the tropical zodiac in use by most western astrologers. Instead, these transits follow the sidereal zodiac which is aligned with the starry sky. However, no matter what the zodiac backdrop we choose, the geometric relationships between the celestial bodies remain the same.