A Live Curve Ball: Klotho Direct

Sometimes it's hard to know what growth really is,

or whether were just stuck.

'Bamboo and Rocks' - ink on silk (c 1224-1320),

 housed in the Palace Museum, Beijing, China

I don’t know anyone (including myself) who isn’t feeling like life is just being a bit of a pain in the very low back at the moment.

And now asteroid Klotho is going direct?

I’ve been mumbling ‘gee, thanks…’ ever since I realized this wee astrological fact.

Maybe you ask 'why would that be?'

That would be because I’m trying to get something done. You know - in life. Isn’t it bad (okay, I’ll be nice – challenging) enough that Venus is about to go retrograde without Klotho going direct?

Okay...I hear that somewhat 'blank' silence. So let me explain...

Klotho (one of the Greek fates) is about ‘a start.’ Or a ‘beginning.’ Even an 'inception.' Yes, in some cases it could be the proverbial ‘beginning of the end’ but in most cases Klotho is more literal: it’s the motivation or the action of starting to do something.

Klotho in retrograde would be working on something internally. Maybe you wanted to start getting healthier – that would be very Klotho retrograde. Or maybe you have some nifty idea. Or you’ve recognized you need to start running your life in some mode other than that you’ve been proceeding on.

You’ve also probably felt the Venus-slowing-to-go-retrograde effects. A friend of mine who’s usually gung ho about his job wrote me the other day to say ‘Just this morning feeling that my job sucks and that I am not getting anywhere in life...’

We’ll call him AJ. And I think we can all give AJ a big round of ‘I feel you!’ as, with very few exceptions, we’re all feeling a tiny bit beleaguered at the moment.

Me, personally? I’m a little closer to annoyed. If there’s anything I dislike in the business world, it’s people who can’t return their phone calls. And suddenly NOBODY is returning their phone calls.

Venus is going retrograde in Gemini, right? Oh, thanks.

Now to be honest here, one person I have just put “on notice” about this no-call-back thing has been evading their responsibility to return calls for…gosh, years! And they’re in a job which really, REALLY does require that they return calls.

To show you how this works, there are two signs ruled by Venus: Libra and Taurus. The general ‘subject’ of my bitch is ‘communication.’ Personally, I would hold that the Venusian Libra/Taurus connective says if it’s worth it to you to be respected in your job you’ll hold yourself to a standard of quality IN that job – which in this case requires returning phone calls.

But that I raised the issue (in writing, as is my habit) as Venus got into Gemini in preparation to go retrograde in said sign of communication?

It's so thematic.

Beyond that, there seem to be all sorts of ‘trying to get things done which matter to me’ issues afoot at the moment. Money issues, communication issues, car-transit-scheduling issues, ‘too much to do/too little time’ overbooking issues (this would be the overbooking of one’s mind and problems with priorities and personal boundaries)…oh, we’re all in it.

And then Klotho goes direct.I ask again: NOW?

My point is really simple. Most of us are already up to our tolerance level (or close to it) with things we need/want to get done. And now Klotho is going direct, indicating something starting externally?

Or our being prompted to start something through some external motivation?

All in advance of Venus going retrograde, indicating a period when we’re supposed to consider long and hard before we do?

I’m sure you see my quandary here.

In order to not lose our cookies here (or our lunch) let’s stop and think. Venus retrograde plus Klotho direct. 

Hmmmm….

(Yes, you can hum the theme from ‘Jeopardy’ if you like…)

The Fountain of Venus by Francois Boucher (1756)
(...oh, if life was only this easy...!)

There would seem to be a couple of formats to consider. IF you are trying to start something, this combination would seem to be about not plunging ahead simply because you want to get started. The rule with all personal planets when they go retrograde (that would be Mercury, Venus and Mars) is that you don’t yet have all the information.

When in doubt (astrological or otherwise), follow The Rule(s). And here the primary astrological rule is about size and position.

(Usually we would also include speed, but Venus' slowing down to take station nixes that in favor of minding the fact that Venus is going on station!)

a.) Planets are bigger than asteroids.

b.) The asteroid belt lies between personal planet Mars and operating-in-my world (or wanting to) Jupiter.

So in following The Rule, this starting, starting anew, the being put on notice by life that you need to ‘start’ doing/being something (the Klotho Factor) – in the great scheme of astrological prioritization, Venus goes first.

The overriding ‘directive,’ in other words, is that given by Planet Venus. And Klotho? That makes Klotho the ‘thing we’re running into on the way to figuring out how to reach our goal’ (the Asteroid Belt).

So okay…maybe you want to start something. Or maybe you need to start anew (make changes). With Venus about to go retrograde, something is keeping you from (Klotho) starting.

Oh, frustration! At least frustration for any of us with strong cardinal sign factors in our chart! (That would be me raising my hand, yes…) Cardinal sign (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) factors will make you want to go all Nike and Do It…(damn those torpedoes!) and see what happens.

You who are strongly fixed sign types? (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) You’re a lot better with waiting this developmental period out. In fact, you probably like not needing to face making a change.

For that I’d say ‘lucky you’ except for the fact that there’s about to be a 0 Gemini solar eclipse followed by a Sagittarian lunar eclipse. So you can wait all you want. Just don’t plan on things being all that comfy in your spirit, soul or gut. For you, either a great silence will fall or life will keep poking and poking and poking, trying to get you to deal with something that if you weren’t quite so ‘fixed’ in your ways, you’d see is absolutely obvious.

Reality is sometimes such a pain, isn’t it?

As for the strongly mutable among us – the Geminis, Virgos, Sagittarians and Pisces, you’re probably busy making your plans and you recognize that while it may not be ‘out with the old’ time, it is ‘in with the new’ time. You may not like this pause in the action and you’re likely to be inundated with a million versions of ‘how it could work out’…but remember: the solar eclipse is in a mutable sign. Venus is going retrograde in a mutable sign.

And in the end, the rule of retrogrades is the true bottom line: all the facts, parameters and/or possibilities are not yet on the table.

Yet here we have Klotho is going direct at 4:44 in the afternoon on May 12th (UT/+0 time). (You knew I'd get around to the specifics at some point, right?)

That it’s going direct in Virgo speaks to ‘ethical functionality’ and that it’s at 25 Virgo says others have a ‘say’ in what that term ‘functional’ means (probably ‘ethical’ too!).

25 Virgo is a degree which has a certain…allure. It beckons us with possibilities. And maybe that’s what’s required here – you know, to get us past all the ikky stuff we truly need to endure and make decisions (choices) about if we’re ultimately going to get where we want to go?

Apparently none of this is supposed to be easy, either. Just behind Klotho (indicating a ‘past’ you may yearn for…reaches for a Kleenex and has a bit of a sob…) is Eros at 24 Virgo. Astrologically, Eros is the sort of passion which translates to do it, do it, do it. People like to think that Eros is merely about sexual passion but it’s not – it’s about the passion we feel for anything or anyone or any path in life.

Just ahead of Klotho is Pandora. I won’t say ‘abandon all hope ye who enter here’…(Yes, I am a big fan of Dante, thanks for noticing…)…but it’s pretty apparent that where we see Pandora we have a whole ‘cloud’ of difficulties that we need to unleash and work through while holding hope (for ourselves and the situation) safe in our…jar.

 Pandora by Odilon Redon (1840-1916)

 

Okay, our minds, maybe? Heart? Soul?

I don’t know where you keep your hope. Maybe in a safe deposit box, maybe in the glove compartment of your car. That’s up to you – just keep that bit of hope safe, as moving ahead under any circumstances means you have to accept a stretch of rocky road (and I don’t mean the ice cream) before things level out.

This configuration also suggests that others will be urging you to start something. Of course! They don’t have to suffer your consequences, so what the hey, right?

My suggestion: think about who they are and whether they’re willing to move ahead on their own Venus retrograde-solar eclipse-Klotho type issues. If they’re hemming and hawing in their own life, their urging you is a very natural form of human projection. Irritating? Maybe. But human.

We humans can be irritating. It’s part of our charm!

With Cubewano (maybe-a-dwarf-planet?) MakeMake also at 26 Virgo (with Pandora) really does underscore that there is some ‘bringing to be’ which needs to happen. I rather like the fact that not even the Big Dog scientists have decided whether MakeMake is “just” a Cubewano or a dwarf planet – it so echoes the sort of indecision and 'lack of definites’ we’re all likely to be dealing with at the moment. But bottom line, MakeMake is a creation element. And though not a lot of study has been made on MakeMake (it was only discovered in 2005) my personal observations is that MakeMake is more about ‘things’ than people. Call it ‘less corporeal and more about the external factor,’ maybe.

MakeMake is also a Cubewano. Even if it gets promoted to dwarf planet, that still means MakeMake is at some level about independent determinations...which in this case, apparently we need to make independently.

(Grrrrr....)

So okay...something lies ahead. Do we know how to get there?

Considering Eros’ position behind Klotho we are in some sort of struggle with our own ‘passionate’ feelings about something which we just don’t want to let go of. No, not even if they’re not working! No!

One figures that during Venus retrograde we’ll learn more about that.

I know…we’re all looking forward to the answer. We just aren’t in love (speaking of Venus) with the process of getting to that answer.

Life is throwing us a curve ball of necessity. This is the time for moving forward, but…

The complexity of our feelings and this moment are pretty much guaranteed to have us focused on the situation. Whatever it’s multitudinous facets are, we’re more aware of them than we’d like to be and less capable of making them work (in this moment) than we’d like.

Out of such turbulent cauldrons comes growth. The reason we use the expression ‘growing pains’ is that growth isn’t easy. It’s just necessary.

And maybe that’s the point?