Eos Direct: Instinctual Awareness

 Eos by William Adolphe Bouguereau (1881)

As happens among astrologers, I mentioned something about studying 'new' celestial objects (new to me, not the cosmos) to fellow astrologer Alex Miller. He responded by sending me a list of non-traditional points he'd been working with for some time. 

On said list was Eos. And since Eos is going direct at 10:46 (UT) on November 12th, this seems a good time to focus on Eos (a good word to use with Eos!) as she is indeed what Alex suggested ("insatiable appetite") and yet more. And operationally, a different - in the general sense - than the term 'appetite' might imply.

And there is the fact that Alex is a chef. (And a good one, I might add...) Which brings me to a note about astrologers: the more you know about who they are, the more you can tease out what might be their natural inclination from 'just the facts, ma'am!'.

But starting with Alex' notation of 'insatiable appetite' it soon became plain to me that Eos plainly represents a fixation - or (yes,) focus.

Yet then there's the myth. The myth about the Eos of Greece (known to the Romans as Aurora) has her being none other than the Dawn. Probably most famously described by Homer as Eos 'the rosy fingered,' most of us don't know much about Eos - and those who do may well think of her as a 'minor player' in the world of myth and therefore in our lives.

Well, yes and no. The Greek/Roman gods we know the most about - Zeus/Jupiter, Apollo, Ares/Mars, Aphrodite/Venus, Neptune (and so on) - they may have just had good PR back in the day.

Then again, the 'common list' is more about our everyday lives, challenges and what we might refer to as the 'psychological facets' of our lives - how we cope, what we go through in making decisions, our personal responses to life as dished out to us so often in a muddled, squiggly heap.

But those other gods? Gods like Typhon (primal urges),  Selene (the disc of the Moon), and Oceanus (the body of the ocean) they're the backdrop against which all the other stuff plays. They're the basics of existence where  better known gods are experiences. 

That doesn't make them less important, though it may make them (collectively) the Rodney Dangerfield of gods...they get no respect! (Well, until we meet up with them and there's a problem, that is.)

With that much sorted through, back to the rosy fingered thing - one of a very few specifics we have on Eos, as it happens. Are those rosy fingers an indication that Eos has something to do with good circulation and thus health? Maybe - but not probably directly. Another of the classic references to Eos is how she goes in advance of the Sun...which in mythic terms could be a reference to either Helios (the Sun as a source of energy and life) or Apollo, god of light and truth - and thus enlightenment. 

And that 'circulation' part...that would thus either be seen as the cycle of the day or in the sense that the light, the heat, the orb of the Sun -- it 'gets around' one might say.

There is also that Eos is pictured as going before the Sun, which if you think of this in Apollonian terms has Eos running before Apollo's chariot, drawn by his fire-breathing horses.

 Apollo and Aurora by Gerard de Lairesse (1671)

And yes, that does speak to a lot of running - which could well build the level of one's circulation (hence the rosy fingers).

On the other hand, if we take the Sun as Helios - the disc of the Sun - then we arrive at the concept of 'the burned hand teaches best.' Could Eos have tried to 'touch the Sun' and have burned her rosy little fingers?

The answer well may be yes - and yes. In other words, both applications may well be correct, as suggested by the Greek image of Eos as rising out of Oceanus - the primal ocean. And therein lies a big fat clue: Oceanus is water, and metaphysical water is always a reference to emotions or emotionality. And Oceanus not being our experience of or trying to cope with the currents and tides of emotions (which would be Neptune, he who tries to rule the ocean)...this would be emotionality as a basic instinct. 

Thus we have Eos arises out of instinct. 

And once we have that in mind, then Eos as a figure which runs ahead of 'the light of truth' (Apollo) is the instinctual search to gain more understanding (Alex Miller's 'insatiable appetite') while also trying to stay ahead and not 'get burned.'

A third idea which might apply? That we are each led - by our interests, desires, needs and notions.

With Eos 'arising' out of Oceanus, she may be a figure of complete emotionality, yes. But then, the 'rising out of' may well represent a parting where we leave the emotional part behind and in 'taking to the airs' adopt and airy (intellectual, conceptual, theoretical) point of view.

Which is it? That's probably told by where Eos is in your natal chart - by sign and house, just as what you are 'fixated on' or trying to understand or trying to get away from in your life seems to be well told by aspects to Eos in the natal chart.

Here I add an astrologer's note: in the charts I have looked at, most likely because Eos is a 'primal' background figure of instinct, the being bedeviled and the blessing this point can be in our chart seems to be told maybe by standard planets but more often by the greater plethora of the modern and rather encyclopedic list of astrological objects.

So! If you want to know where your own Eos is, hopefully your astrologer uses updated software. If not - or if you're working on your own, I suggest using Serennu.com. It's free, its accurate and best of all, Serennu offers a dazzling array of literally thousands of celestial objects you can inquire on by using their 'extra point' numerical list.

Just a couple of cautions here though: You may be better off asking for a '360 sort' and a 'list' rather than a chart. Depends how you see things, but I find for a quick reference it's much much easier. Also - if you live in a land of dates formatted like this (mm/dd/yy) remember to turn it around when you use Serennu. On the Serennu site, dates have to be entered as (dd/mm/yy).

But all that said, such details are a small price to pay for so much calculating power offered free of price. Though Serennu does - like astroPPM - take donations.

(What, you think astrologers live on starshine? Pffft!)

Okay...! Now....where were we? Oh yes - we've just come to the point of summarizing Eos as a point which focuses on what we want, need or desire (and thus focus on) in accordance with where it is in your chart by house, sign and accompanying celestial factors. By implication, as Alex Miller has noted, this is an insatiable point; one day follows another, life's quests continue. And thus Eos becomes the instinct, the motivation which drives us to find out more, learn more and not get burned by what we know. Fire (knowledge) and water (emotion) do not mix well - either water quenches fire (extinguishing our light or life) or there is a hissing cauldron of conflict, or just a fog...which is when Neptune gets you!

So Eos represents a life-long focal point: a figure of personal drives.

And where is Eos now? In Pisces. So are we shocked that all things Piscean (to name a few: faith, oil, pharmaceuticals, charity, fear of self/fear of self as projected onto others, intoxication, imprisonment, addiction, toxicity, sexual fantasies, spirituality, abandonment of reason, helplessness, the Jungian collective)....that these are all involved in 'issues of the day' personal and global?

 The zodiac sign of Pisces as pictured in the stained glass

of Chartres Cathedral (Chartres, France)

We shouldn't be. And as with any celestial object, as Eos goes direct, starting with the couple of days prior to the event and extending to two days after the station, Eos dynamics are going to be at their best...and worst. 

Or to put it in more Eos-like terms, needy and motivational.

 And remember - we've just been through a week of having Chiron, Damocles and (the biggie), Neptune go direct. So we are probably all a little worn down and a little porous. We are subject to being led astray - and maybe most of all (in that sense) by our own desires to escape (stay ahead of) some internal driving curve. We don't want to get burned. We don't want to get drowned. 

But burned by, what? Drowned by what? This is Pisces, so though we think the issue is the 'other' nine times out of ten it is us - and the tenth time its how we are letting others use us because we have some fantasy about what surrender really means.

There is chemical intoxication and there is spiritual intoxication and there is emotional intoxication. There is physical incarceration and/or abandonment, financial incarceration and/or abandonment, emotional incarceration and/or abandonment....all these are what we will hear about from people who don't want to feel it in themselves, who don't want to see themselves as 'part of the problem.'

And yet we all are.

The good news is that since this is the only Existence we have, and since Existence continues to exist, none of this is precisely fatal in the grandest of all schemes. Could it be damaging to an individual, system of thought, activity, nation or relationship? Of course that answer is yes.

All may be highly exacerbated now as the degree Eos is going direct in (27 Pisces) has a known reputation for 'non-reality' which runs the gamut from simple naivete and innocent ignorance to a dangerous (to self and others) lack of inhibitions which leads one to personal perversions and behaviors which are not only unacceptable but ultimately self-damaging. Things undertaken, delved into or demonstrated at this time will bear this hallmark. People will, like as not, cling to some form of immaturity as a way to protect their sense of internal security.

It's a mish-mosh of a moment and made none the easier here at Eos' 2010 station/direct by this occurrence happening under Venus retrograde.

And yet...those who recognize that this isn't about what we want but what we can learn if and where we are willing to bring our Oceanus-nurtured instincts into the realm of rational conceptualization (Venus being at this moment retrograde in Libra)...

With Venus conjunct Sisyphus, there is a temptation to use our power to just please ourselves, as corrupt a sentiment as that may be. Those who follow this path will ultimately bring themselves to eternal harm - but sometimes that what people want. And here, Eos pictures the temptation to literally drive ourselves to defeat so that we can be free of the need to keep trying.


As a member of the main asteroid belt, Eos is something we have to contend with on an everyday basis - in that space between the Mars urge and the Jupiter/Saturn realm of knowing/understanding (Jupiter) and achieving/fully realizing our goal (Saturn). That Eos' orbit is pretty much in the middle of the asteroid belt and that it varies not a lot suggests this its drives are intrinsic and that we have to (or at least should!) take our 'Eos quotient' into account in most everything we do seems plainly stated on the astronomical/metaphysical level, too.

With an orbit of 5.23 years, Eos theoretically spends just under half a year in each succeeding zodiac sign. This 'quick cycling' quality may well have implications with regards to public attention spans (never mind our attention spans!) suggesting how and why the popularity of products, politicians and everything from celebrities to 'hot button topics' go in and out of favor.

Worth noting too is that at it's farthest point from the Sun, Eos' orbit is very close to that of Psyche - the asteroid symbol of our mentality as something we have to deal with, lest we (as they say) live to regret and repent at leisure. So these symbols seem metaphorically 'joined.' And that Psyche's orbit brings it even closer to us than Eos would seem to suggest that it is a human necessity to at least understand (and "own") our own personal instincts and drives.

At the moment, this station is colored by fixed star Scheat (lack of approval and/or public popularity) and Byblis/Uranus (old ways - particularly those which are 'inherent' or 'inherited' which need to change). So it's a turning point at which we should expect to hear, see and feel lot of dissatisfaction surfacing on many a front.

And yes, dissatisfaction with people being so  dissatisfied - and dissatisfaction with our own lot and probably also with the way we personally feel about things.

Which may...In the end...ask us to go back to that first image of Eos as the dawn, as that which precedes the light of understanding: Apollo, a god not just of light and truth, but also the spirit of medicine (taught by Apollo to Asclepius for passing on to humans)....and music.

In other words, just as the old expression tells us that 'the truth shall set you free' so Apollo also embodies two other attributes (music and medicine) which in 'healing  us, body and soul' also set us free.

And yes, Apollo is yet another asteroid - one which the above chart shows is not far closer to us than either Eos or Psyche, and thus by implication tells us that...whether we like it or not, truth, personal 'enlightenment' and knowing ourselves well enough to live on our 'light' and not 'dark' side is intrinsic to our nature. That asteroid Apollo crosses both the orbits of Mars and Venus tells us that real enlightenment may get in the way of ("cross") our desires, longings and lusts, but that's the way the cosmic cookie crumbles.

Or maybe how we stand to crumble ourselves if we don't deal with ourselves at a truly honest and intrinsic level.

The other side of this is of course how the myth of Apollo and Eos, in being connected becomes how  Eos can be our being both 'chased' ...and in a sense 'backed up' by our ability to heal ourselves, which recalls that  famous phrase: healer, heal thyself. But does that not mean that first we have to recognize that it's not the world which is injured, that the injury lies in us? And that through us, through our unwillingness or inability to bring ourselves to deal with our own injuries we thus injure our world and compound our own problems?

Alas...probably yes! So what are our real motivations and desires? Are we in this life to lead ourselves to a better way? Do we just spend our lives running away from ourselves in this or that way?

At the moment, that's a really good - not to mention really apt question as situations and people around us prompt our instinctual reactions.

Maybe you'll discover some new fascination?

Or maybe you'll react to something (or someone) with some knee jerk response echoing your long, long ago?

Or maybe instincts and instinctive (re)actions will become a whole category of experience, thought and broadening of experience.

In all likelihood, 'new' versus 'old' isn't what separates profitable from costly now. The real question is why you're doing what you're doing.

So be aware, lest you end up living in a Eos directed dark of your own instinctual making.