Eta Aquarids: The 2013 Edition

  The great comet of 1881 as drawn by Etienne Leopold Trouvelot (1827-1895)

The Lyrid Meteor Shower is already underway…and now Earth is diving into the realm of the Eta Aquarids, one of the two meteor showers produced by that most famous of comets, Comet Halley.

Halley’s other meteor shower is the Orionid shower, which happens in October. Both the Orionids and the Aquarids are rather lengthy (as meteor showers go), which is a tribute to the fabulousness (like that word?) of Comet Halley’s tail.

We might say Halley is the peacock of comets.

The astrological importance of that ‘opulence’ of duration is how both ‘sides’ of the Halley equation bridge multiple signs. And thus we might think that the Aquarids, in sprinkling their brilliance from April 19th through May 28th serve to give us ideas which connect and help us utilize the many facets of late Aries, Taurus and the beginning of Gemini.

All three signs pertain to knowing ourselves. Aries is the consciousness, Taurus is the reckoning with our abilities and Gemini is deciding what it is we really want to do, what we need to know to do it and the planning which gets us from there to there while taking care of all the rest of life’s doings.

All three of these signs are currently under strong astrological influence. With Uranus in Aries, we are being urged, inspired – or sometimes even required to change. When we don’t (or won’t) we will tend to either attract circumstances which change us – often against our will or desire.

And then there’s the other Uranus in Aries sort of energy: that which builds and builds until it explodes. Often that results in damage, though sometimes this type of Aries/Uranus energy manifests as a sudden sort of inspiration, discovery or insight which is as much like being liberated or ‘cured’ as anything could possibly be.

 Uranus and its Rings

(photo credit: NASA, JPL)

The general sense of Uranus in Aries is ‘the world is changing’ or “changing times,” if you want to be more colloquial about it. During the Aquarids we can expect to be ‘sparked’ to act or ‘sparked’ by someone else’s experience of change which may get us to thinking life’s different paths through.

Eris is also in Aries. But then, Eris has been in Aries since the 1920s. Yes, this passage is one of the hallmarks of the ‘modern world’ with all its technological wonders. But it’s not a big newsmaker at the moment. At least not on the global level.

And that, my friends, is probably good news.

Meanwhile, Sedna continues it’s slow, slow, slow wander through Taurus. Having slid into Taurus in the latter part of the 1960s, Sedna will be in Taurus until May of 2024, which marks the intervening eighty years or so as a time when we need to let go of being given and move towards what we can give, from which will come our greatest rewards.

More important and immediate-feeling is the fact that Saturn is currently in Scorpio, confronting us with various aspects about the need to get along in this world. For some this will be the need to get along with others. For some, this will be needing to get along with less than you would like. For most of us, this is a time which in one way or another is a challenge which is asking whether we are really living up to our potential.

And maybe as important (or more important) than that, whether we’re happy with the quality of our life, our relationships, our commitments, our general path.

Is it fulfilling? Who are we being: the person we are – or someone we’ve been “told” we should want to be?

Then there’s Jupiter in Gemini, which has us pushing at boundaries and overstepping a few here…and there. Oh yes – and over there, too.

We’re learning a lot, but is it useful? Can we really assemble what we’re doing into something cohesive and useful, or are we simply overbooked, overwhelmed, overstressed and overburdened and overly tired?

Think of it…the Eta Aquarid shower is spanning all these concepts. And while yes, as the Sun moves through each sign in sequence our days well may get hints and sparkles of intuition or understanding or opportunity or even genius as pertains to one sign or the other.

But as a collective?

This is just a suggestion, mind you…but considering the several years of Taurus/Scorpio Solar Eclipses we’re going through – between that and the fact that Pluto is in Capricorn (indicating changes of structure and direction) …why shouldn’t we think of this five weeks or so of ‘inspirations from above’ in terms of the radiant point from which this comet comes?

This is where Comet Halley’s two meteor showers differ. Halley the comet doesn’t actually ‘go out into the stars’ but over thousands of years, astrologers have noted a correlation between where any comet seems to be coming from – the radiant point – and the quality of the sparkle they seem to add to our mentality.

 The central section of the Orion Nebula (a mosaic overlay of 81 images) courtesy

of the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Parnal Observatory (2001)

During the Orionid shower, Comet Halley appears to be coming from the direction of Orion. And during the Aquarids, Halley seems to be coming from close by one of the brightest stars in Aquarius.

Which asks us to think global. And to think adaptively. Aquarius is the sign of acceptance and success. It’s the sign of everything which comes to us as a result of all our effort, especially that which is about understanding what others want and will ‘buy into,’ as they say in Aquarian ‘mass market terms.’

It's also the sign 'of the masses' and society, including societal events - not that meteor showers are generally known for timing ‘events.’ But they are thought of as a time when we’re more open to ‘greater possibilities.’

Or when life exposes us to the 'greater possibilities' of life, pleasant and unpleasant - which obviously points to many things, including the explosive events at the end of the Boston Marathon which in occurring at the end of Pluto's station/retrograde and just as Earth moves into this 'double meteor shower' zone would seem to be both an event and a metaphysical "stimulator" of other considerations.

But let's be clear: when people get hurt, when violence is done, there's no question but that we need to tend to the injured and deal with the facts of the matter - from who would do such a thing to what in society drives such hatred, to why people feel so alienated that they would think violence was any form of solution. The questions are endless. As are the challenges when we try to cope, or to be 'predictably ready' to respond in this unpredictable world. 

But beyond that is the realm of a greater perspective, the opportunity to contemplate what the metaphysical and karmic level of such events mean. They teach us that no matter how weak or how strong the city or nation, none of us are impervious. They teach us to feel lucky if we weren't involved. And in the sense that life is unpredictable and is always going to be unpredictable (that would be a very Aquarian quality, by the by) that we should value or prioritize or take care to how we organize our thoughts, our efforts, our aims because we don't know what's going to happen on any given day.

To say it locally: there is validity in saying 'I want to prioritize my family so if anything does happen to me, my family will be taken care of.' Then again, is that a better choice when placed against the person who wants to help people and create a better world in which fewer people will want to do such heinous things?

And to say it globally: what do we need to assure our future? Must we care about everyone's future to assure and insure our own?

With this May also bringing us a Taurus Solar Eclipse, the Eta Aquarids come to us as a 'sign' that as we move out of the old we can be inspired and ‘enlightened’ by the new. That may not be all comfortable. That may not be pleasant. But endings seldom are, which is why as a species, humans tend to greet such moments with 'look to the future!' and emphasize possibility over loss.

Sometimes that works. Sometimes that costs us.

The Lyrids and Eta Aquarids only overlap for about a week or so – between April 19th and 25th. Which means that this ‘doubling up’ on celestial sparks and sparkles ends right at a Lunar Eclipse.

Let’s hope that means the very best...for us all.
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