A Shift of Solar Magnetism

This NASA-ESA-SOHO Observatory shows the Sun's magnetic flip already

in process, moving from the Sun's "north" pole down towards it's south pole.

(photo credit: NASA, ESA, SOHO, August 2013)

NASA put out a bulletin the other day on the fact that the Sun’s magnetic polarity is about to reverse.
Here’s a link to the full story in text…

Link to: NASA - Science News for August 5, 2013

…or for those who prefer the visual version, here’s a link to the YouTube version of same.

Link to: NASA Channel - the impending Sun Field Flip

(It's the exact same information, just formatted in one place as text and in the other as a voice-over with pictures.)

Before you get all worried about this, according to NASA and scientists who study such things, this reversal happens about every eleven years. Not that the Sun uses any Earth-made calendar, mind you.

But that general expanse of time – eleven years – is an interesting reference, seeing as Jupiter (the planet which had it been just a smidge bigger would have also been a star) takes 11.86 years to complete one orbit around our Sun.

 The above chart (generated by the Wilcox Solar Observatory) shows the

timing of the Sun's magnetism flips starting in 1976

The chart above is a bit deceptive in that it was evidently run starting with a January 1st date and ending with a December 31st date with each line along the bottom referring to a three year interval. So from this, it’s a little hard to get the exact dates of pole reversals…but in general, considering NASA is telling us that the next field reversal is due in three to four months (call that November-December on our watch), to date – just using the 11 year marker - these reversals would have been  during 1980, 1991, 2002 and 2013.

And just in case you’re wondering (and not inclined to read or watch any of the NASA material) the study of our Sun’s polarity only goes back to 1976 – which in astrological terms grounds this whole study in the Pluto in Libra / Gen X period…a fact I mention seeing as the next couple of posts scheduled here at the blog concern Plutonic generations.

Interesting also is the fact that at the time these solar studies started, Uranus was at the spot Saturn is now – which is in itself an interesting comment on the famous Mayan ‘wheels within wheels’ concept on how everything and every cycle and the workings of time and manifestation…how they’re all seamlessly interlocked.

Just as a preliminary conceptualization here, I looked back to the positions of Jupiter for the years of past flips. (And yes, I’m going to look for exact dates when I get a bit of time.) In 1980, Jupiter was in Virgo and by November moved into Libra. In 1991, Jupiter started out in Leo, and by the end of the Earthly calendar year moved on into Virgo. 2002 had Jupiter starting out in Cancer and ending up in Leo…and for those who get the ‘sign drift’ here, it isn’t surprising to know that 2013 started out with Jupiter in Gemini, a position which has now evolved into Jupiter in Cancer.

This is plainly another form of the ‘counter-spin’ portion of ‘spin/counter-spin’ motion which typifies the functioning of matter at the atomic (particularly electron) level, and personally I wouldn’t be surprised to hear (in time) that there is something about the Jupiter-Sun mass-gravity-magnetism which helps keep our solar system duly organized and functioning as it does.

I’ll also guess – from very far out in the field (granted) that whatever this effect is, it accounts for holding the mass of rubble (important rubble, but rubble nonetheless) which is the asteroid belt where it is. It may even account for why the asteroid belt even exists.

Astrologically, spin-counter spin is all about how the daily rotation of the Earth as an object in space…a space which remains relatively static with regards to motion (taken on a daily basis, give or take the Moon) causes the wheel of the horoscope to appear to rotate.

And as the Earth turns, effectively ‘pushing’ zodiac degrees in a clockwise motion around the horoscope wheel, that is why on any given day the Sun “rises” at the eastern horizon - the Ascendant. And it’s why that turning of the Earth causes planets (which are in motion around the Sun independent of Earth) to appear to over time move in a counter-clockwise motion through the chart.

Spin, counter-spin. Inhale, exhale. Tides flow, tides ebb.

Jupiter’s cycling through this chart seems to speak to yet another form of metaphysical ‘bringing things home’ to us, rather as the Lunar Nodes do. With the nodes being a function of Earth’s own satellite Moon around its planet, it’s not too hard to understand why the nodes tend to picture our ‘world’ – our relationships with others and our relationships with society. That the nodes also cycle backwards has always struck me as a commentary on how what we do to grow (spin) is at least in part ‘responded to’ by life either granting rewards, posing new challenges or bringing about those eventual moments of downfall we tend to call ‘karma.’ That’s the ‘counter-spin.’ We do, we get what we create by doing: cause-effect…what you put out comes back to you…and for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.

There is no question but that there’s some form of spin-counterspin within each sign plus within each pair of signs – the polarity.

As for the current solar ‘flip,’ this would seem to be an emphasis on our coming either to ‘magnetic zero’ or into balance where we can make changes which have to do in particular with Jupiterian increased understandings of all things Cancer – whether that’s our inner psyche, our personal histories, our culture, our home life, our families…whatever your Cancerian issues are.

It’s another example of the notices we are getting from the solar system (and universe) around us that indeed life is changing. More specifically, our lives are changing and they’re changing – at least in part – by our recognizing who we are. And what our potentials are.

That this news comes out as Jupiter is coming to an exact opposition with Pluto’s position in Capricorn (with Pluto retrograde) speaks to a growth of internal understandings of things and about who we are, and the ‘responding shift’ in our comprehension of who we are able to be or become.

It doesn’t guarantee we’ll do anything about it, no. But the understanding is ‘coming upon us.’

NASA and the scientists at California’s Wilcox Solar Observatory (who are doing this work studying our Sun) say this solar ‘flip’ will occur in the next three to four months – towards the end of 2013. Considering what is happening between now and then, as an astrologer I would nominate a couple of ‘influx’ points as this awareness…or our need to become more aware…is going to come upon us.

Actually, one just started. It would be clocked by the ‘maturing’ of the 13 Capricorn Solar Eclipse which occurred back on January 4, 2011. If this eclipse hit your chart you probably remember it as events which disrupted your life and sense of ‘structure’ during November and December of 2010.

There will be a post on all of these ‘eclipse matters’ coming up at the first of next month, which would be the ‘official’ entering of the ‘breaking down’ period in advance of this November’s Solar Eclipse at 11 Scorpio. In the meantime, if you felt the energy start to fluctuate a couple of days ago (actually just one short day before NASA sent out this missive), this would be the start of a process which will have it’s first big peak at the eclipse (November 3rd) and another whenever it is that the Sun finally completes its process of magnetic reversal.

Yes, it’s already begun. And if you’re feeling like there are areas of your life – especially as that pertains to a new understanding of your mentality or how Gemini mentality works in Jupiter-Cancerian terms, you understand something about the enormity of the push life is giving not just you but ALL of us when it comes to growing past our old limitations, our old definitions and beyond our old boundaries, choices and sense of personal being.

There's a reason why the number '11' has always been known as a 'bridge number.' Astrologically associated with the duration of Jupiter's orbit, eleven is all about 'bridging' the gap between what we know now and what we will understand come tomorrow.

It's about our relationship between today and all those tomorrows, just as Saturn is always and eternally about what we've built, what we've already earned and the challenge to own the responsibility we have to be who we are. Known widely as Jupiter's 'partner' in the rise and fall of societies, the Jupiter-Saturn process is that of growth and restabilization, of letting go of what doesn't work so that we can grow and how (unfortunately) so many of us restrict ourselves - and thus our ability to grow - through fear, through grief, through a refusal to deal with things on the level of Saturn reality, preferring Jupiter's hugeness of scope as our panacea for dealing with that reality.  

After we enter the ‘eclipse zone’ on September 3rd will come Pluto’s September 20th station. The current Jupiter-Pluto opposition is difficult to handle; we’re all currently growing at a rate which is almost beyond our ability to handle…process…make good on.

Right now it’s internal. But once Pluto goes direct on September 20th, we can either use what we’re learning – putting our growth to work by investing in real time, real life, real ‘terms of engagement’ which grow our life, our structures, our goals, our worldly vision and the idea of who we are in this life (who others think of us as).

This is a test. On one end of the test is what we’re comfortable being…on the other is a testing maturation of our willingness to be more of who we really are, regardless of what that means.

It’s sort of like ‘coming out’ - to ourselves, yes.

November 3rd is the actual solar eclipse. And just for the record (since we're having this conversation), this eclipse is going to be colored by Saturn, which is currently in Scorpio. So as usual, we will encounter all the 'memorable shifts’ having to do with the eclipse process prior to the eclipse itself. And a lot of us are going to make huge and hard efforts while others of us are going to wall ourselves off. (You may have already noticed this in various combinations as people, companies and nations instinctively get into this eclipse-Saturn mode).

With this period being marked as it is, it’s probable that we can expect the between-now-and-November period to be one which beats the band. The temptation (as always) is to project. To think that someone else is in charge of what becomes of us or to try to ‘protect’ ourselves from those who are different who in actuality we have drawn into our world because we need to understand that sort of ‘difference’ in ourselves.

And yes, our ability to live differently and to think about things differently and maybe even to make a different difference.

Successful relationships – whether that’s between ourselves and others, ourselves and our world or our Self and our life or our jobs or our finances - it all has to do with owning our own ‘stuff’ and using that process, inclusive of all which it attracts to us, as a means for personal growth. The most powerful and long-lasting of relationships and experiences are always interactive, and that particular quality is being emphasized this year by the Cancer/Capricorn (Jupiter/Pluto) opposition.

Our Changing Sun (photo credit: NASA)

With that said, given the current Taurus/Scorpio solar eclipse series, life is also particularly trying. The Taurus-Scorpio polarity is always about needing to accept risks on an interactive level which force us to look at ourselves.

Again, it’s not about others…it’s about who others make us feel ourselves being. Or not being. The flip of the Sun’s magnetic axis would seem to indicate that we are in for a ‘flip’ in life (Sun) directions. And since this is the Sun we’re talking about, it’s hardly a matter of total choice. Since the Sun is obviously part of the solar eclipse image, we are being slowly but steadily ‘unmasked’ not so that we can hurt or have hard times, but so that we can let go of things which aren’t working for us so that we can hopefully grow into a new and sunnier and more potently powerful auric skin.
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