Pandora Direct:

Pandora by Harry Bates (1891)

(photo taken by Lee M during August, 2010 while the statue was on

temporary display at London's Tate Museum)

Asteroid Pandora is about to go direct. The famous story about the girl Pandora being about someone whose curiosity drives her to do the one thing which will bring ills and evils into the world is often interpreted as a warning. Don’t do what you know you’re not supposed to do.

But is this really what Pandora is about? If we look at the degree Pandora is going direct in (13 Sagittarius) lore tells us that this degree serves as a lens through which we see – or experience – situations and moments which are testing. That being true of any Sagittarian degree to some extent seeing that the whole of Sagittarius is about seeing how well our plans, choices, efforts and decisions really work (which causes us to learn more about how life works…or could work beyond the limit of our conceptions), this particular degree evidently has a pointed references to that which we value.

Or yes, our values. There seems to be a bit of the Scorpio-Taurus polarity to 13 Sagittarius as it’s a zodiacal point which shows up…or reveals…wherever we have placed too much emphasis. Or too much belief - especially where that focus has to do with something we think is going to ‘protect’ us from life’s un-pleasantries.

Of course like all degrees (objects, cusps, etc.) this degree can embody the concept…or our efforts to prevail in our thinking, stay the course, have our way and get others to sign onto our agenda (so to speak) in spite of the fact we may not be seeing the greater picture. Or that something isn’t working. Or prevailing trends.

Even new fangled trends. 

And once we get this far, 13 Sagittarius actually seems to have a lot in common with Pandora - almost disturbingly so, wouldn’t you say?

This turn to direct is happening under Sun in Leo. So we’re all likely to be plowing along in some pre-determined mode when the ‘box’ gets opened and all the whatever jumps out. Since there are various versions of this story which say the container which gets opened wasn’t a ‘box’ and was a jar, this may be a ‘jarring’ moment in time.

Since Pandora goes direct on August 2nd, that means the ‘station allowance’ for this turnabout (which may or may not feel like fair play) begins on July 31st and runs through August 4th – at least. The more this astrologer watches stations, the more inclined I am to think the window on station effects is three days, not two.

But whatever. From the story we are given to know that when all the problems and challenges flowed out of the jar, the one thing which still kept in ‘bottled up’ was hope. Realizing what she had done, Pandora gawks long enough to let all the difficulties out, then in a moment of brilliance remembers to put the lid back on the jar, which she then clutches to her chest.

Thus, hope is retained.

Or has hope been imprisoned?

When we think of this in Sagittarian terms, can we ‘hope’ to operate with hope if hope is ‘still in the jar?’

It seems likely that situations with twinge about testing this concept – at least for the dates of station involved. And that this happens during the ongoing grand trine in water suggests the effects…or at least our feelings about the effects…are not going to be snap, crackle, pop.

There’s also the fact that Pandora’s station begins as Huya goes direct in Scorpio. So…does that mean that just about the time we’re either trying to (or making good on) putting hard-won lessons (and efforts) to work that we’re going to get a whole new chance to stub our mental toes?

Apparently so. But never fear…there would seem to be an astrological aspirin for this situation – namely Object Hierarchy. And before you finish that sentence which beings with ‘what the….?’ I’ll explain.

Pandora is an asteroid. A main belt asteroid. That defines Pandora as something we meet up with and work through on the way between ‘Start’ (Mars) and ‘Finish’ (Jupiter). Just as in life, there’s a big gap between the ‘us-in-our-personal-world’ and achieving anything in the Big World Out There. This is metaphysically (not to mention metaphorically) reflected by the giant gap between the inner solar system (in order: Sun-Mercury-Venus-Earth/Moon-Mars) and our astrological symbols of coming to understand (aka “getting the hang of it”) which is Jupiter and achievement-pure-and-simple – which is Saturn.

 All those asteroids represent things we meet up with between the point when we start…and where we achieve. And yes, there are gazillions of them – which is pretty interesting when you consider how each asteroid has it’s individual orbital track and orbital time, meaning they mix things up in an endless number of ways for us to come across as we ‘make our way through life.’

So that’s the asteroid thing – against which we have Huya, a Plutino.

Plutinos are not so very huge themselves – Pluto (the one we know best) is a bit less than 20% the size of Mama Earth. But Plutinos do all have something very special working for them: Neptune. And Neptune is mucho large – almost four times the size of our Most Dearest Earth.

At some level, Plutinos all seem to be about getting us to understand the difference between our yearnings and our ‘visions of how things could be’ and reality – our reality and the reality of who we are – which is truly the only thing we have to work with, build on and live with.

Accepting that idea is a most fine starting point. And now, as Huya’s station overlaps into Pandora’s, we’re going to all be having little (or even big) moments which test our ability to hope. Or which test our focus (perspective, perhaps?) on something we had high hopes for, but which doesn’t work.

At least not for the moment. Or in the way we’re approaching it.

With regards to Pandora, we shouldn’t get all flustered. In Greek myth, Pandora is the first woman and thus at some level embodies our innocence. Created at the order of Zeus (who we know astrologically as Jupiter, symbol of comprehension and that learning which leads to greater wisdom) Pandora is made soon after titan (instinct) Prometheus has stolen fire from the gods. Hephaestus (aka Vulcan, the Olympian smithy) is ordered to take some of the clay Prometheus used to make mankind and create the woman Pandora.

Apparently this all happens before Deucalion comes along and there’s the giant flood which wipes out all the ‘evil’ in the world, leading to a second ‘incarnating’ of mankind.

So this is very ‘early stuff’ and as such suggests that any station of asteroid Pandora has to do with ‘first steps’ and things which are new to us.

Or maybe it’s the lesson we learn in this moment which is new.

I guess that's yet to be learned.
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