She Thinks Astrology

 A mosaic pavement from a 6th century synagogue at

Beit Alpha (in Jezreel Valley, Israel) representing the zodiac.

Here in the pause between celestial doings, I've been thinking about how Neptune is evidencing its transit of Pisces. As many times as I define Pisces and speak about Neptune here on the blog it doesn’t seem to say enough. And we have some twelve years yet to go with Neptune in Pisces.

I suspect we're all going to get tested - most of all against our own willingness to accept reality for what it is, and to feel ourselves really existing. Neptune teaches that life throws things in our path so that we will feel and we will accept reality...and Neptune symbolizes all those things we do to escape, deny, avoid - and everything we use to escape, deny, avoid.

Known as a symbol of dissolutions and dissolving, Neptune draws us into our escape then melts away the sense of having escaped. And in doing so, it teaches us that maybe we don't really want to escape, because its so painful to realize what isn't real, true and valid.

Then there's the fact that Jupiter is transiting Gemini at the moment. This is a concept by itself, of course, but its made even more important by Jupiter being the ‘entry ruler’ of Pisces.

As ruler of Sagittarius, Jupiter represents the search for and the acquiring of knowledge. Or understanding. It's everything we do and everything we use to push back boundaries, explain our perspective, learn to learn and to test our our ideas.

Big red Jupiter is about increasing our world so that we have more of a world real, mental and spiritual to live in.

As ruler of Sagittarius, Jupiter represents the idea, the experience, the understanding of knowing. But in Pisces, Jupiter represents how much we know about feeling. Thus with Neptune, Jupiter serves up the 'one' of the one-two 'punch' which is Pisces. First question: do we know our emotional selves? Or how to deal with emotionality? We think we do, of course - but do we?

The saying 'oh, I can deal with this' is the Sagittarian sort of 'Jupiter knowing' we think about as we get ourselves into something. Then comes the Piscean education - the test of how much we really know about how we feel, how we could feel, how we deal with feelings (or try to escape from them), and what comes of that which we choose.

Life is after all, full of choices. And most of those choices end up about being what we 'do' to ourselves - our emotional selves.

That would be why Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac, allegedly. Some call Pisces the 'trash can' and where all the 'refuse' of life ends up being thrown. I tend to disagree (and no, not because I'm a Sun sign Pisces!). My take on this is that in the "end," humans are emotional animals. How well we deal with emotionality and our own relationship to emotions (that pesky Piscean thing) ends up defining everything from whether we end up in jail, end up poor but peaceful and happy or whether we end up dissatisfied.

There are no finite answers - only how we feel about our own answers.

So Jupiter is in Gemini, a sign where Jupiter tends to represent the overstepping of bounds, or the talking too much, or the taking on too much, or the over-thinking of the thought. Jupiter in Gemini can be all talk no action, doing things totally unthinkingly, being thoughtless, not thinking things through...it's a test of excesses in whatever direction we go.

Natively, Gemini squares Pisces. So this is a true time of testing for us, greatly on an emotional level. Or about how we handle (or don't handle) our emotions or emotionality. Life will tempt us to overrun or overestimate or even think we can “get away” with things. Or maybe underestimate ourselves. Or our ability to cope.

It sounds rather like a test of both our humanity and our maturity, don't you think?

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I was also thinking about Pluto and Uranus. With it’s orbit of 84 years, the last time Uranus was where it is now (in Aries) was the late 1920s…another time of world economic upheaval. Aries is a sign of the physical and the "I Am." And whatever sign Uranus is in, it tends to give us the quivers. 

I can see that. A lot of us feel insecure. And that does seem to go right along with that Neptune-Jupiter, Pisces-Gemini thing.

That last time around, a number of people jumped off the bridge...

Seinebrücke bei Asnières by Van Gogh (Summer 1887)

...that was their reaction to not being able to cope with feeling their lack of stability and "worth."

But back in that day (the late 1920s) Pluto was in Cancer. Today it’s in Capricorn - the opposite sign to Cancer.

So if you’re thinking WWIII is about to erupt? I'd think probably not. But I would put good candy money (candy is my wagering medium - I usually use bubblegum) on a 'war of economic stratas'....otherwise known as ‘class warfare.’ I think we're seeing that now - or at least the rumblings of the discussion of the discomfort with that sort of thing.

And its interesting that it all comes down to money. I'm not knocking money...it has its place. And goodness knows it's necessary to survive with now that it seems to have moved from a "placeholder" for value to a thing which people seem willing to trade their very soul for.

But again, that's about security. That's about identity. That's about a sense of personal worth which ultimately comes from our ability to deal with our own feelings.

The problem with being human is that humans are fallible. It doesn’t matter what we do, if humans are involved, there’s a vulnerability quotient built in. That old rule – complete power corrupts completely – strikes me as really applicable here.

But it's not about what we do - that's not the power I'm referring to. I'm talking about that grit-teeth, clenched fist thing we do with ourselves when we want to get past those feelings or emotional dealings we really don't want to face.

Astrological squares are defined as challenges. The square from Uranus in Aries to Pluto in cardinal signs now...as back in the 1920s asks us what are you willing to do about it?

Both eras made us vulnerable through hard economic times. But I'd say that's not as much about money as survival. For some, it's their plans or their self image which gets shaken. For others, its that sense that life is just going to go along reasonably pleasantly and they don't have to try. They don't have to care. They don't have to pay attention or be involved.

Squares represent times which can beat us down or which can motivate us like nobody’s business. And here we have two of them - Pluto against Uranus and Jupiter against Neptune.

My money (mental and bubblegum) is on Neptune-Jupiter. For one, the Pluto-Uranus square is going to be over long before Neptune's done transiting Pisces.

Again, it's that Pisces thing. Apparently we live in a time when though we are moving into the airy and theoretical, technical Aquarian Age, we need all the connection to our emotionality to get there.

And in fact, that makes sense. Why so? Because of the wheel of this incoming Age...

 

In the wheel of an Age, the sign of that Age goes on the Ascendant. That puts Pisces on the 2nd house - the house of security, self worth, talents, self respect and investment in self.

But as I say that, lets remember...Pisces can also be a sign about insecurity, dissipation, addiction, evasion, denial...and the 2nd house can be the house of selfishness and materialism and all those things we try to do or have instead of having self worth and any real sense of human security or personal satisfaction with the person we are.

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A friend of mine (another astrologer) wrote asking what I thought of having Saturn and Neptune in trined water signs. (Saturn is currently in Scorpio and as we've been discussing, Neptune is in Pisces).

I wrote her back that I thought this was a time when the (Saturn) realities about what we're doing as individuals was going to be coming out. Saturn being the ruler of governmental Capricorn and co-ruler of corporate, economic and income-ruling Aquarius, I also said I thought this would be a time when we would be seeing what societal and social mechanisms (as above) are doing doing or not doing to help, hinder or collude with us when it comes to how well we do or don't deal with our emotions.

There are certainly enough flaws to go around, too. I worte a piece the other day on my 'other blog’ (Writings from the Hart – it’s linked in the sidebar) about  prescription painkillers, and there's one factor in all that which I think pertains in particular to my girlfriend's question. We're used to blaming addicts. We're not so good at people who are part of groups or employed by or running organizations or corporations acknowledging they have any blame.

There is this squicky edge where profit... wealth... politics... status...insecurity...becomes the trip-wire which ends up committing murder.

I think we're going to see a deal of that.

But the faster we can learn, the faster we do recognize that we do need to have feelings and feel them? The more human we are, the more humane we're likely to act.

So I'm all for this difficult confluence. Not that I'm not having my share of angst and headaches - I promise you, I am! But if this is the passage and the growing pains I have to do endure and which others are going to have to flail through so that we all come out the other side better and more caring, responsible, attentive human beings?

Then I'll bite. I'll eat a bowl of Neptune and Jupiter and even sprinkle some Pluto-Uranus on top.

Danse de Nomades by Vanecha Roudbaraki

(2007, Acrylique)

Saturn connecting to Neptune often indicates addiction. In Scorpio, Saturn is likely to turn up everything from sex to debt to issues of power (and abdication of same) to issues of corruption, badly managed responsibilities, the whole maggot-ridden enchilada.

(No insult meant to enchiladas, obviously.)

I’ll take two helpings of societal exposing, please.

Saturn moves faster than Neptune, so this is reality ‘catching up’ with whatever illusions or delusions or simple mistakes have been made. There’s no way to compensate lives or time lost in lives...that, I know only too, too well. And that cost is sincerely tragic – as it is whenever lives get compromised when they didn’t have to be.

Still...hard times do teach compassion. And that gets me back to thinking about Pluto/Facies. The complications we each face are very real. The problems we each are each going to encounter going forward are also real.

Hopefully we can remember that life presents us with situations which are about reality and the world and how life works on its surface...but also about what we need to learn inside.

And if we learn that inside part, no matter what happens on the outside, we win.

These times aren't all that easy. Nor - evidently - are they intended to be. Still, the answer isn’t quitting. I learned that a very odd way…and no, I’m not telling you how that happened.

Why not?

Because your way has everything to do with you and how you experience your feelings, whatever they may be.

What I will say is this: I’ve ended up learning far more from facing my feelings than by running from them. I’ve learned the most from recognizing the difference between those two very things.

And that to get past the problem, first I have to accept that the problem is truly real.

Then again, I am a Sun sign Pisces.

So that's all for today. And not to worry...by the end of the week the astrological parade you're more used to will have recommenced.

Final word for today: astrological squares teach that by teaching ourselves to take things in hand equally and evenly, we can build for the future. Two positives build well, one negative undermines all.

I wish you all the positivity you need.
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