Vesta in Virgo/Saturn at the North Node

Almodo Ora (Computergrafika) by Benedek Jeno

Asteroid Vesta is about to enter Virgo. It will do so tomorrow (as posts go) on September 10th and 5:06 in the morning UT/+0 time…which would be just about when Saturn enters 8 Scorpio, the degree the lunar North Node is currently transiting.

8 Scorpio is a degree which has a reputation for creating problems when passion overwhelms intelligence. It’s one of those vibrations under which we can outsmart ourselves or think we can ‘get away’ with something which we find we can’t get away with. Life has a way of finding our vulnerabilities and blind spots under 8 Scorpio influences, maybe so that we’ll remember we’re human after all.

Saturn, of course, is the symbol of time, responsibility, repercussions and results. With anything Saturn we get what we earn and that suggests that this is a prime (or primal) moment to be minding our p’s and q’s. After all, the lunar nodes are always about relationships and what all goes into relating…or comes out of it. So it may well not be the moment to be taking on risks – especially those which could ‘cost’ you time. Or which would require you to do/deal with something you rather not be saddled with.

One would guess this is a good moment to know our limits…and to heed those limits no matter what.

Saturn of course is actually pretty good in that regard: depending on whether you work well with the ‘I need to do this in order to achieve my principal goals or not, Saturn could here act as the ‘monitoring’ energy which keeps you on track…or the devil-may-care energetic which gets you into a mess which then you have to take care of.

That all depends on you. And, of course, your natal Saturn and the condition of Scorpio in your chart. (And anything which is in Scorpio, of course.)

The ‘temptation’ factor here is (not shockingly) Plutonic. Scorpio is always about a weighing of factors – the ‘in’ door of choosing to do, or not to do (Mars), and the Pluto ‘out’ door which either transforms our life in a good way or becomes a terrible headache (or worse) as a result of our not having chosen well.

Or – as seems pertinent here – our failing to choose based on the facts, opting rather to get carried away by some passion.

You know passion, right? Passions can get the best of any of us. And the cost for passion can be…well, a downright passionately painful one.

On the other hand, there is that allure, that promise of delight which goes with all things Scorpio. The glitter of romance, the Siren call of carnal pleasure, the longing for personal power – all that.

Just do yourself a favor here: think before you do – and once you think, think again. Scorpio is always about testing our values, and 8 Scorpio is one of those degrees which is ‘smarter than we are,’ and not always in a fun way.

This Saturn/North Node exactitude of conjunction will be in effect from September 10th through September 20th. As distinct from that, Saturn has been within a five degree orb of the Lunar Nodes since August 15th - and it will remain in orb to the Nodes until October 27th. So if the issue of relationships and how you relate to others (or how they relate to you) has already come to the fore, that makes sense - and it will continue to make sense. As distinct from that however, this conjunction at 8 Scorpio is ONLY in effect from September 10th through September 20th.

Think of it as the difference between a general issue regarding relationships (and how you relate to that or your success with relationships or your need to deal with how and who you relate to - and why that would be)...and a very specific, detailed scenario having to do with a moment when some facet of relating...which may have to do with a particular relationship or may pertain to how you go about having relationships as a whole...comes into focus.

Got it?

Vesta compared to other asteroids

(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

Speaking of possible costs, there’s also Vesta to contend with. Vesta asks that we protect ourselves, lest the cost of not protecting our right to be our Self go beyond what we’re prepared (or able) to pay. Vesta is an interesting symbol in that it’s all about keeping our promises…which suggests the first promise we have to make (and then keep) is a promise to our Self to be who we are and to live our life in such a manner that we don’t…um…screw things up too badly.

(Yes, this is a g-rated blog. When I set it up, I promised Blogger on that score, so I’m sticking to my promise - which is very Vesta of me.)

Considering that Royal Star Regulus is sitting at 0 Virgo, we are all called upon to take responsibility for what we do/don’t do in particular at this moment – and by implication for the full run of Vesta’s move through Virgo, a passage which will last until November 16th, after the eclipse and just after Neptune goes direct.

If you’re not familiar with Regulus, here’s a link to the ‘master post’ on the subject here at astroPPM:

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The Royal Stars of Persia (Part Two): Regulus

Though there’s all sorts of nifty nuance connected with this star, the basic premise of all Royal Stars is that they promise success IF (and only if) you don’t fall prey to a particular human habit. With Regulus, that ‘habit’ is revenge – or vengeance, if you prefer. So as Vesta enters Virgo, particularly in this first little while (which this astrologer would think would run at least through Pluto’s September 18-22nd station window)…we are being told that we really truly absolutely kind of have to own our personal choices.

And that means we need to have made some – or be making some.

Given that Pallas is at 2 Virgo and in opposition to Neptune (read: Neptune/Fomalhaut) in Pisces, we can expect some wiffling and some soft focus thinking about now…which is not exactly what this sort of transit really calls for.

So let’s put it this way…if you absolutely, positively HAVE to fudge or break some sort of tryst with your normal boundaries for Self, let it be in some area which has minimal risk and minimal long-term cost.

And beware of anybody doing the ‘I’m so innocent act.’ Chances are they aren’t. They may be innocent but..."so innocent"? Maybe not.

I know I sound a bit like a broken record on this subject, but there’s also the fact that this Vesta-Virgo ingress, which at some level is about working to be the person you will respect yourself for being in the long run (i.e., the person you really are on the inside, regardless of expectations and desires – your own or those of others)…is happening under the auspices of the ‘breaking down’ period heading towards November’s Solar Eclipse at 11 Scorpio. Being that this ingress will raise something of a 3/11 harmonic (it being three signs from Virgo to Scorpio and an eleven sign count from Scorpio to Virgo)…the viability of how we relate to others and what we think relating is about in the fullness of our presence in this world…that’s a natural thing to be talking about.

Or even doing something about, should you need to clean up your act! Let’s face it – Virgo is always about how clean our act is, and when we’re discussing astrology, though the temptation is to project it and think of astrology in terms of what ‘they’ are going to do or be to us, the reality is that the cause/effect principle rules. So if YOUR Virgo whatever needs work, this is a time to consider what that means and the (Vesta) cost of whatever your promises are in regards to those concepts.

Third harmonic: the thought. Virgo's 3rd harmonic being Scorpio speaks to the need to purify or to have control of what's going on, lest it not function well. This combination tends to eliminate rather than add on.

Eleventh harmonic: questions of acceptance and acceptability which generates a sense of satisfaction. With Virgo being Scorpio's 11th harmonic, the thing which works is easiest when it's not scary...but if it's not genuinely who you are, and about who you are at your core, it will ultimately undermine you, feel "toxic" or be a burden to your life.

The challenge here is really about an inner-outer perspective. In other words, there’s the ‘what’ or ‘who’ we each want to be, and the what we think others will like, appreciate or (to some of us) even ‘let’ us be or become.

Reconciling who we really are – on the inside – with what others think of us as, or want to think of us as is a big, big step in our lives. We all have someplace in our world or life where we don’t really ‘feel’ the “popular” thing. Or where we really don’t want to go with what everybody else does. Many of us have faced that moment of dealing with the truth of what our parents have hoped for us and who we really are. My father, for instance, was dead set against my being a writer and someone who thought metaphysics is for bubble heads.

So here I am, a full-fledged professional astrologer about to release a four-volume epic fantasy.

My father and I had a testy sort of relationship, no question. But before he passed, he certainly knew who I had become. Production finance person… astrologer… writer… he saw it happen and wasn’t enthralled that I hadn’t relegated myself to cooking, cleaning and saying ‘yes, dear’ to my hubby (ask the guys I know best how often I say ‘yes, dear’ in a dutiful tone and you’ll hear laughter)… but when he saw that I was good at what I did and was doing the thing which fit my psyche, he realized that there’s a difference between raising a child for whom you have hopes and seeing the adult you raised from a child become their own person.

My dad had many (many) flaws. He was a Hollywood tyrant par excellent (there are still people in LA who don’t want to talk to me because of who my father is) and before that he helped build a paperback book empire. Here’s a little post I wrote about him:

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Saul David: My Father the Producer

That he was able to get past his own “rules” for me and finally (!!!) agree that so long as I worked to be the best I could be at my chosen thing is one of my dad’s greatest personal accomplishments. (Yes, he was that stubborn!) And at some level, that embodies this Vesta/Virgo ingress, particularly seeing as it is conjunct the ‘dispassionate perspective’ symbol we call Pallas and in opposition to Neptune/Fomalhaut in Pisces, a combination which at its best is all about letting go of the dream as a dream and getting used to a reality which may be just FINE…it’s just not the dream you’ve been holding onto, maybe for a long, long time.

One other little tidbit… As Vesta is entering Virgo, the Moon is moving through Scorpio. The Moon enters Scorpio on September 9th at 1:45 in the morning and exits Scorpio on the 11th at 6:37 in the morning (both times UT/+0). In fact, as Vesta moves into Virgo, the Moon is just crossing over 15 Scorpio – one of the zodiacal cross-quarter points.

This reiterates…or if you prefer…reinforces the idea of choices begetting consequences at every level and whether what you’re dealing with now is going to help you get where you want to go in life…or whether (Saturn/North Node) it could just screw you up royally.

(No offense to Royal Stars intended with that “royally,” of course.)

Sometimes something must be given up so that something else can be earned. Life isn’t always the way we want it to be or as we were ‘taught’ it would be, or as we have imagined it to be. Life is just life. And this is one of those moments when life is not a ‘game’…it’s a reality which we see, we feel, we sense and which we have the opportunity to learn so much from that it’s absolutely breathtaking.

So take a deep breath, and then remember who you are. Peel back the trappings and assumptions and think of what can be gained by accepting that the fantasy illusion is inspiring, but a satisfying reality, the life we really want is not about what things look like…they’re about the honesty and honest quality with which we go about existing. 
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