Atropos: A Turn of Fate

 A Golden Thread by John Melhuish Strudwick (1885)

Atropos is about to retrograde. That it’s going to do so two days from now (on May 14, 2011) means that as of May 12th, we are entering a period – which extends all the way to May 16th – when things will end. Or come to a close. Or we will realize that there is nothing left which can be done.

As one of the three fabled Greek Fates, Atropos was the last in line. First Klotho (aka Clotho) would spin the yarn, as things come to be ‘spun into being’ in our life, mind, world, feelings and imagination. Then Lachesis would ‘measure out’ the length of a life.

Classically, the Fates were thought of in terms of human life. But metaphysically (which is to say astrologically) we take this to mean the life of something…or its duration. That ‘duration,’ the ‘while it lasts’ part – that’s the ‘fated period’ or ‘all we get/get in life’ which the Greeks embodied as Lachesis.

And once the thing is measured out, its duration determined, then comes the ‘cut’ which at once sets the prescribed length and separates that one thing from all the rest.

So we could in some ways say that Atropos helps define individuality by ‘cutting’ one thing away from all the rest. And that’s a nice way to think of it…except that with Atropos, it’s highly likely that we will realize how individual and maybe how special or important to us something is/was because it’s ending. Or even gone.

The days prior to any station indicate events or dynamics which have yet to play out. So news of ‘endings’ soon to come which happen prior to the actual station/retrograde are likely to give you a little time to adjust to the news and deal with how you’re going to handle things. Events and moments of import which happen after Atropos goes retrograde will tend to have more of that ‘looking back’ sort of concept.

But hey…it isn’t all bad! It could be that you look back at something your sure as heck happy is over and finally done!

In the end (so to speak) Atropos embraces the precepts of realism (that things do end) of valuation (that we should appreciate what we’ve got while we’ve got it) and that if we learn through considering the difference between yesterday, today and tomorrow, we can maybe make more of the time we have.