Dateblog: July 2014

 

Since Google was so kind (?) as to inform me that as of several days ago at least a few of you were nosing around a few of the past month 'dateblog' posts (which struck me as a bit wistful), I put together a couple of diagrams to outline the month ahead (the first of which is above).

And as you can see, once Mercury goes direct on July 1st, nothing much happens until the Capricorn New Moon on July 12th, which brings up one of those quandaries about when to do things.

Question: should you wait until there is an astrological indicator to do something?

Answer: not necessarily. While there are indicators (for instance, Mercury's retrograde periods) under which it's traditionally not a good idea to start something, since neither the Rome on the banks of the River Tiber nor any Rome in your head is likely to be built in a day, there have to be 'work times' when all that's going on is life processing life apace.

Then along comes a transit or a planet changing signs or some other event and that changes the dynamic. In other words, if you're working on some long-term project, the many days, weeks, months or even years of your ongoing effort are not likely to be 'punctuated' (or marked) by astrological transits.

But the finish is. The reward, the accomplishment, the turn of events, the reaction, the shocking motivation, the moment of decision...those are the kinds of things normally marked by transits. (And yes, generally those are personal transits to your very own natal chart, but global transits do add much to our understanding of how our individual life operates as part of the world around us.)

As for this month in particular, Mercury starts the month in Gemini and will clear its original point of retrograde on July 15th (in Cancer)...

.
...as Venus nearly mimics this pattern, give or take the fact that Venus' retrograde (thankfully) has been over now for a few months.

Basically, what this tells us is that the Sun will be in an experiential 'feeling' mode during a period when we're well attuned to [Mercury and Venus in Gemini] evaluating matters and figuring out how to proceed...and then as the Sun moves into its more imagination/image-oriented (Leo) mode...

...Venus and Mercury keep operations palatable (for us and for those who have to deal with us) by maintaining a modicum of sensibility and sensitivity in spite of Sun-in-Leo's tendency to cause us to see what we want to see and have difficulties with those who don't see things our way (and who may even have the bad taste to rain on our parade...!).

That the Sun enters Leo on the same date that Uranus goes retrograde (in Aries) asks for flexibility without promising that we'll be in the mood to flex an inch - and with Eris connecting to the North Node on the day after the Sun's Leo ingress there is every possibility of arrogance and actions which completely ignore (often purposefully) the idea that others may neither agree with us nor be particularly happy with our habit of 'lording over' others (a habit which under any Leo influence can seem particularly annoying).

And let us please not forget to note that this Sun/Leo ingress will be happening not even a week after Jupiter itself enters Leo...

That would really be the big news for this month - Jupiter leaving Cancer means a shift from 'where' to 'what' and from foundational issues to the need to build and produce for a future we may not yet know the entire parameters of. Moreover, it's interesting to note going how this Jupiter, Sun, Eris-North Node passage will be happening with Mars still in Libra just as Mars concludes the retrograde cycle it entered into back on December 25th of last year. Given that...and how almost as soon as Mars exits its shadow (as Saturn goes direct on July 20th) it will finish its seven month transit of Libra and enter Scorpio...those of us who have learned our lesson(s) about who we are to others and how they are not our 'problem' but more often our triggers and teachers...those people will now take a step forward (at least in their own life).

And of course how that happens is up to each one of us.

I've have a few thoughts about posting between now and the Full Moon though it's finally occurred to me that I'm seriously half-past exhausted.

But you never know. I have indeed noticed that the post on the 2011 Fixed Star Eclipses and the US Congress has become one of astroPPM's most-read posts - and what with the exceeding noisiness of the US political scene visiting/revisiting congressional names old and new to see how fixed stars Hamal and Schedir's being eclipsed this past April played out.

Yes, I looked - and you're right, the eclipse is in play. And yes, if as they say 'the creek don't rise and the sky don't fall' there will be posts on all of these subjects (and a few others) in the weeks ahead...leaving me to hope your July starts on a warmly productive note as in the spirit of being the rather diminutive American I tend to be (a giant, I'm not)...I simply sign off here wishing you and yours a safe and happy 4th of July.

That's right - even if you're not American. If it's the 4th of July or Thanksgiving somehow Americans always have party enough to share, so pull up a hot dog and enjoy the fireworks!
.
.
.

A 5 Cancer New Moon...and Mercury Direct

With all the (well deserved) attention astrology pays to “major” (outer) planets...which is a whole conversation in itself, as the farther from the Sun (life, metaphysical consciousness) you get, the more vast and often stunning or inexorable effects on that consciousness or life is.

Call the onset of these effects being...say, beyond Saturn, Saturn being the planet farthest from Earth which is visible with our own naked eye and therefore astrologically associated with the extent of our grasp or the greatest of our goals and achievements reached through diligence, long-term effort and all that we associate with slow, sometimes terribly challenging growth.

All of which is about what we do...or try. It’s beyond all that (beyond Saturn, that is) where the precepts of astrological evolution really reside.

Which means (you don’t have to like this, but it well may be considered true), one might thus say that evolution in the greatest sense starts where and only when our ability or sense that we can control things - or even get a grip on them - as humans simply ends.

And where said control probably never existed.

But oh...how we all gawk, gasp and gnash our desirous teeth wanting that control.

So maybe because of that...and maybe in spite of that, as much as we all tend to regard stations of Neptune, Pluto, Eris, Sedna and TNOs like Typhon Deucalion et al with something akin to instinctual alarm, there is a level at which we all know that our life is really made up of our everyday deeds, decisions and doings. And all of that is symbolized by planets inside our system’s main asteroid belt.

You know...Sun, Mercury, Venus, Moon, Mars.

And yes, the Moon is a satellite of Earth, I know. It’s referred to as a planet because astrology dates all the way back to yon very much olden times (think: 4,500-3,000 BCE) when all people could do is stare at the night sky and by doing so establish the difference between ‘wandering stars’ (objects which move in the short/observable term like the planets and our Moon) and those many, many stars which appeared to be ‘fixed’ against the night sky.

(Yes, those ‘fixed’ stars - the astrological fixed stars.)

Of those ‘inner’ and more personal points (we’re back to Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars and Venus), two never go retrograde - the Sun and Moon. But the other three do go retrograde, a fact we’ve all gotten a bit punched-drunken on this year, to be sure.

But this year’s ultra-pressure cooker aside, on an everyday basis there is nothing people into astrology like hearing more than Mercury retrograde is finally over...and when it comes to ‘getting past’ life’s awkward moments and lingering dragnets on our psyche, the monthly New Moon event has always seemed to function as a wiping down of the board and a resetting of all to approximate/current moment zero.

And here...just ahead...we get both. This month’s New Moon will be in Cancer (at 5 Cancer) and occur on June 27th at 8:10 in the morning, UT/+0 time, after which we count to three (days), then Mercury goes direct on July 1st at 12:51 p.m., also UT/+0.

Do these events overlap? Technically no, since we generally give planetary stations a two-days-prior/two-days-after ‘station allowance,’ which would only take us back to June 28th...although if you have a chart with four or five planets in Gemini (or Virgo) that may well (depending on your individual chart) indicate a heightened sensitivity to stations involving Mercury, since it rules (read: tends to excite, promote, provoke or challenge) the attributes of both Gemini and Virgo.

As the Moon comes to its New phase however, that would also be when Jupiter squaring the Nodes comes to perfection, bringing notions associated with 25 Cancer (Jupiter’s position) and those of 25 Aries and 25 Libra (the respective positions of the South and North lunar nodes).

Sappho by Theodore Chassériau (1849, oil on panel)

It’s also when asteroid Sappho goes retrograde at 17 Aquarius in opposition to Black Moon Lilith (calculated Lilith) and in an (8th-derivation) inconjunct to Pallas which suggests threads, notions and developments within this next New Moon cycle which ask of us to think things through and to use logic no matter how loud the ‘roar’ gets, no matter how tough the pressure becomes... with the understanding that 17 Aquarius is a degree which causes difficulties when ignored, whether we’re ignoring something within our own Self or life or whether we’re being ignored by others. There is a need for communication which given this degree’s tendency to ‘go off’ or act in an arrogant, obnoxious or out-of-order manner when denied can create near-cyclic difficulties where the acting out engenders restraints which then result in more eruptions.

Another note here: this is a degree known for physical manifestations, some of which cripple what are otherwise worthy or worthwhile talents, abilities or potentials.

Against these notes we have the Sabian Symbol for this degree: A man’s secret motives are being publicly unmasked - an image astrologer Marc Edmund Jones typified as ‘the difficulty for the modern individual to keep secret his private past or his deeper motives’...(a comment Jones made back in the 1970s and which would seem to apply ever more as time flows by).

For some of us, that Sappho is going retrograde will carry this point’s ‘universal and/or universalist’ within, helping them recognize the greater or ‘universal’ level of some question - and that in turn will help unite their thinking or serve as a means by which they will enter into connection and conversations with others. For some, Sappho’s often nostalgic and ‘poetic’ nature may rise to the fore, softening former ‘hard lines,’ helping foster greater willingness of some kind.

Into all of this come the degree of the June New Moon: 5 Cancer. Known for difficulties stemming from a ‘meanness’ of character which often surfaces in greed and/or miserly attitudes (or refusing to care or extend some feeling benefit) 5 Cancer is known to focus on a refusal to accept or work with/deal with various forms of human weakness - which is at some level a weakness in and of itself. There is a strong sense of ‘having to do what must be done’ which goes along with this degree as well, which since it’s poised in Cancer’s first ten degrees (degrees 0-9) refers to what we do or - again - our certainly very human individual physicality. The Sabian symbol here being ‘Game birds feathering their nests’ can reinforce the ‘borders’ and ‘boundaries’ placed between those being cared for/about and those who are remaining unrecognized at some vital, human level. Referred to as a degree which philosopher-astrologer Dane Rudhyar keynotes as ‘rationalization,’ this would appear to be Cancer at it’s a basic and instinctual level some might typify as individual (or close-held) survival and which some will internalize and transmute into ‘the survival of the group which insures my opportunities for future growth.

As for the chart...

New Moon at 5 Cancer (glyph chart)

(Aries Wheel - Location Not Specific)

New Moon at 5 Cancer (text chart)

(Aries Wheel - Location Not Specific)

The degrees of this chart fall into two rather separate ‘circuits’ - one being in the first decanate of various signs (degrees 0 through 9)...and one being in the third decanate of various signs (degrees 20 through 29). Moreover, taking just the the first decan points for the moment, these are also all in signs which occupy the left or pro-active (learning, experimental) side of the natural zodiac wheel.

What does that say? That tells us that this next month is about what we do or are doing, about what we are willing to try, learn about, say your peace on -or realize the reality of. Or to put it another way, this isn’t a month about building in the sanctity and security of our nests - whether through deed or presence, contribution of thought or concerted willingness to just be there for others...this month speaks to our all being part of this life and this world.

And how those two ideas differ.

Beyond the balancing of all that as a wash of color across the wide screen of life’s backdrop, then we add in a few configurations...

Remember Neptune sitting at 7 Pisces? It’s still there, so if you missed the first chat on same, since this now-you-get-it, now-you-don’t coming from that twitchy place inside where we all want so much to feel what we want and so don’t want to feel anything which will unsettle our secret (and secreted) sense of vulnerability...there’s still time.

- Link to -

Mercury in Taurus/Neptune at 7 Pisces

In any case...Neptune trine a New Moon which is itself conjunct Niobe speaks to pride as a self-delusional detriment - and one which has every possibility of refusing to feel and surrender to some reality now only to pay a far larger price down the line, all of which like as not has to do with some issue with emotional cost to ‘pride of standing.’

With Neptune squaring Phaethon, there’s a headstrong ‘I can do this and get away with it’ quality to many a choice now...but if you remember Phaethon’s story, that may not turn out well. After all, Phaethon was the world-be-heroic teen who insisted to Apollo that he was strong (mature) enough to control the horses which drew the chariot of the Sun across the sky...which most of us (providing you’re not still in the ‘it can’t get me’ stage of life) know is a recipe for trouble.

And when you add fuzziness of emotional standing (with Self most of all) to the need/desire to get out there and prove you can do something simply because you think you ought to be able to (never mind those pesky realities)...we shouldn’t be surprised if Phaethon in Gemini’s tendency towards hasty thinking, shooting off of one’s mouth (aka the tendency to make declarations) and other ‘immature’ ways of working through challenges drive some of this month’s questions and quandaries.

As for Venus in Gemini squaring that Pisces Neptune, this is a combination which promotes friendliness of expression - if not always genuine friendliness. This isn’t likely to be much of a problem unless we are either promising or choosing to believe something out of our personal and basic desire not to have to ‘go through experiencing’ some other choice.

In other words, it isn’t about what ‘they’ do - it’s about why we’re doing what we’re doing. If we’re doing it to evade or avoid something in us we’re likely to unconsciously create ripples in our own pond through others.

This really does give us control, though most of us are (despite what we all like to think) not all that big on controlling ourselves. Others? Yes, indeed. But control our Self? That’s a harder, if more respect-worthy thing.

To finish up here, Juno-Sisyphus is a particularly quirky combination as Juno speaks to self-discipline or the management/conservatorship of one’s resources, possessions, talents...or since this is Gemini, our minds, mentalities, choices and chosen ways of getting things done. Against this we have Sisyphus, an indicator of the ability to do what you want with a warning that if you go that direction, no matter what you think...it just isn’t going to turn out well.

Sisyphus always speaks to something we know we have the capacity to do but shouldn’t...which in combination with headstrong Phaethon is purely an argument with Self. Will we adhere to the standards of treatment, specifically those which deal with how we treat other people (a Sisyphus issue) or simply amuse, assuage or enrich ourselves at the expense of others?

Circuit number two in this New Moon horoscope concerns a series of three semi-sextiles which connect the first four signs of the zodiac (Aries, Taurus, Gemini and Cancer) in a jostling energetic speaking to how easy it is to merely be disrupted or disruptive [Eris/South Node] based on some ‘image’ we have implanted in our brain about how life ‘should be’ but isn’t.

All of that filters (uncomfortably...maybe even annoyingly) through our [Mercury] mental faculties, with all of this coming together as something we [Jupiter in Cancer] need to [25 Cancer] establish or take on, whether in our personal life or in the world around us.

Plus let’s not forget, we do have the Jupiter-Node t-square just now coming into high focus.

Balancing the need to be who we are in our own mind and in this world (so much has to do with proving something to ourselves, have you noticed?) the North Node being in trine to Mercury (which should be marked as retrograde, sorry)...this is the ‘should do’ of the North Node (which automatically comes with a side order of ‘do I have to?’) in trine to Mercury as Mercury nears but is not yet at it’s degree of station.

That will be 24 Gemini, not 25 Gemini.

Meanwhile, there’s a ‘squaring’ of our own need to grow in our own ability to comprehend and handle things with others - all of which plays into personal and public success through our [Eris] ability to deal with things we never imagined in a thousand-million years.

Will we react? Or will we, despite hesitations, misgivings, other things we’d rather be doing and a clutter of misunderstandings old and new which seem to be haunting our waking dreams...in spite of all that, will we persevere?

25 Libra is a degree which acknowledges difficulties and yet which retains a clear, indefinable yet eternal sense of hope. This is not the hope of any miraculous salvation but rather that which holds out that what we earn, we shall in time be rewarded with.

Are we impatient? Are we just tired and looking for a break?

Maybe one...maybe all. We are all just human, you know. Disappointments, trials, defeats, exhaustion and losses...they do happen. Sometimes they’re outside of us and tangible, sometimes they’re to some cherished notion we’ve been toting around despite life’s evidence to the contrary.

As for Mercury...

Le Traité d'Angoulême by Peter Paul Rubens

...Mercury will be going direct on July 1st at 24 (not 25) Gemini, a degree for which the Sabian symbol reads as follows: ‘A gardener trimming large palm trees,’ an image which can be well thought of not only through Marc Edmund Jones’ concept of ‘bringing under control nature’s power of expansion’ but through the more naturalistic idea of the palm tree itself, the palm being a fairly ubiquitous species (something we all know or have in ‘common’) which uses its own dead leaves to shield itself and its fruit (‘the fruit of its labors’) from the intensity of exposure to dry (unemotional) heat (friction, change, conflict).

Mind you, as Mercury goes direct we’re not out of the weeds just yet...

...that which is on our plates and on our minds, they have a bit of time to get worked through - until mid-July when Mercury exits its shadow (which is just prior to Mars exiting its shadow and Saturn going direct).

As Mercury goes through and emerges from its station, attitudes, opinions, conversations open up. Information we have been waiting for finally arrives. People finally look at their phone messages and that which has been back-ordered seemingly forever comes back into stock. So yes, we begin to move forward as Mercury goes direct - but we’re still tying up, settling out and dealing with that which we’ve been focused on for weeks... maybe even months now. Known for its own qualities of generosity and willingness to share (as opposed to those signaled by the Venus/Neptune square, which may amount to too much friendliness or putting those who deserve little but ‘look good’) 24 Gemini benefits us all by being an energetic which encourages open minds and a willingness to listen, hear and discuss - though to be honest, not all such discussions are in earnest. There is some ‘showiness’ which goes along with this degree, so to have Gemini’s ruler (Mercury) going station-direct at 24 Gemini speaks of this entire June 29th through July 3rd period as a good one for parties and hijinks, if also one when we may quite literally hear about grandstanding or someone ‘taking the stage’ so as to have their say.

But the bottom line here for most of us is just this: as Mercury goes direct again, at very long last we are at the end of the seemingly endless slog which began last December when Venus went retrograde. The whole of the time since then has been marked (some would say marred) by one or another of the personal planets being in retrograde...or about to go retrograde.

That’s over. We have a few weeks or sorting out the mental paperwork to do yet while Mercury and Mars both work back and out of their retrograde shadows, but there is cause for optimism in knowing we have now experienced facets of our beings we would never have dreamed of walking ourselves through - and that having done that, we are now better prepared to face our future...directly.
.
.
.

Venus in Gemini / Jupiter Square Nodes

Venus by Simon Vouet (1590-1649, oil on canvas)

As opposed to Taurus, a sign all about the useful against the ill of our values, sense of personal (individual) security and all motivations which arise from such notions, Gemini is our individual experience of mentality, replete with whatever will teach us to use, tolerate, moderate, organize or prioritize in the interest of achieving our goals. Taurus - being a ‘yin’ sign by nature tends to manifest as our holding onto what we have and the desire to grab hold of whatever we think we need which is entirely different than Gemini, a yang (pro-active, generally curious) sign all about our human mentality at work - which of course begins with our thinking, but since thinking is what gets us to do anything...that’s the Gemini way: get the thought or idea...develop it...then try it out.

That’s the Gemini/Sagittarius polarity. Gemini is where we get the idea and work it through and plan things out...Sagittarius is where we learn what works, what doesn’t work, why things work or don’t work and from that - both information on how to improve our tact, effort or thrust along with information on the world around us.

All signs have polarities. Going around the wheel of the zodiac they alternate: Aries is yang, Taurus is yin, Gemini is yang...(etc.) - and that holds no matter where the sign falls in your chart, despite the fact that horoscope hemispheres have their ‘yin/yang’ quality as well.

(To those of you who are students of astrology, yes - I know this can give you a headache when you first encounter it, but trust me - bear these simple facts in mind when you’re delineating charts and you’ll bless your lucky asteroid.)(Providing you have one, that is.)

So then we get to Venus, the energetic which signifies the turning of cause into effect. Venus will be entering Gemini on June 23rd at 12:35 p.m. (UT/+0) and remain in Gemini until the early afternoon hours (UT/+0) of July 18th.

Just as a notion, Venus in Gemini speaks to all we go through in order to achieve our best results - which yes, sometimes includes thinking through our failures, failings and all those simple mistakes which we might say under the heading ‘no harm, no foul.’

Often a sign of connecting (or recognizing, or thinking through) how and why cause becomes effect, Venus in Gemini is often associated with financial transactions as well as discussion economic, relational or of the relationship type...and by this last (‘relationship type’) we would mean either the relationship of some cause to some effect in your life, or the value(s) expressed in or felt about relationships you may be involved in - or may want to be involved in.

Or maybe not. (There is always that option, surely...)

Priorities will seem to matter more during this passage - even to the point that it may become a subject of Gemini-like conversation, debate, confrontation or decision.

Is “it” (substitute your subject for the word “it” as needed)...Is “it” worth my time? The effort? Is it worth whatever might need to be (re)organized, changed, sacrificed, implemented or built...is “it” worth it?  Should I prioritize this...or that?

Do I even care which - and if I do, what makes one thing [Venus] worth more in my [Gemini] mind or thinking?

Because we know this particular Venus/Gemini ingress is occurring under Mercury retrograde, a fact which may manifest as wanting to hold back on saying something or making a choice or making some change until the information you for some reason need until Mercury goes direct (on July 1st) - or at least until we reach June 29th, that being when the two-days-prior/two-days-after ‘station allowance’ for Mercury’s station will begin.

Moreover, it would be typical of this not-unfriendly-if-not-excessively- (personally) -outgoing Mercury/Venus combination to say that  until July 1st most of our considering and thinking through things...in the truest sense will be personal (which is not precisely an invitation to talk to yourself, but that might work, too.) (It might even be profitable.)

Yet let’s be real: no one lives in any vacuum. So we should expect that with Mercury still in retrograde, until July 1st life will be filled with all those quirks and interruptions which prevent us from operating on our ‘schedule.’

And that could be frustrating even where we ultimately learn that those interruptions or corrections or recalculations...or that reformulating of our plan was part of a greater process which works not just in this next while, but as something of a new ‘tool’ in our tool bag - something which we will use time and again as time goes by.

Unfortunately, none of us can know in advance if that annoying, awful situation will prompt us...or of something someone says will trigger some sort of internal, brilliant epiphany.

You don’t know, it just could happen - not that acting in haste would seem advised, as hasty, as eager, as loudly as some may demand that decisions get made and plans get pushed into motion.

All that means listening versus not listening, the valuing of our own thoughts against those of others is the first place we’ll start - a concept pictured rather adeptly by Venus being conjunct Sisyphus, Phaethon and Juno upon entering Gemini. Juno is about ‘management’ - hence the organizational and priorities theme, though Juno is also about ‘tending the hearth,’ ‘guarding the home’ and since this is Juno in Gemini, minding and managing what we say so that it [Venus] functions properly.

As for Juno itself, as Venus enters Gemini Juno stands in a square to Neptune indicating some matters which are at the ‘highly optimistic’ or ‘holding to the ideal’ end of the spectrum while at the other stands the experience of haplessness, insecurity and possible (perhaps probable?) confusion. The more positive outlook here comes through allowing ourselves to be sensitive first to our Self and whatever internal questioning we’re going through (this being under Mercury retrograde) with that notion of ‘being sensitive’ being slowly but surely extended to others as/once Mercury goes direct.

One other note on this Neptune square: because Neptune will be in opposition to Pallas [logical perspective/perspectives based on dispassionate thought], Atropos [endings] and Apollo [truth, enlightenment] as Venus enters Gemini with Gemini’s ruler (Mercury) still symbolically representing ‘inward insight’ because of the retrograde...in each of our lives something has gone wrong, gotten off track or out of hand or even escaped us.

And yes, about now we know exactly what happened - not that we can change it.

Will we [Neptune in Pisces] accept some loss, some mistake, some end with inner grace - and if we don’t, why won’t we do that? What in us (or in our history or ego structure) causes us to react as we do? 

Once Mercury goes direct, the pace of conversation and the present-tense value of what’s being said will surely pick up. But more on the ‘short-run’ side of things, where is another configuration...Jupiter squaring the Lunar Nodes...which is going to be coming into focus all week, coming to exactitude on Friday, June 27th (UT/+0).

The great basic keyword for Jupiter being ‘expansion’ (be it of our experiences, feelings,  knowledge, waistline, debt or anything else), when ‘squared’ against [Lunar Nodes] all the ‘intersecting’ we do with others and our world comes up for questioning. How far is too far? Why shouldn’t I do what I want to do if I can do what I want to do?

Strengths and weaknesses are likely to be shown up as the days go along, with the fact that this Jupiter/Node relationship (all puns intended) will culminate at the moment of the June New Moon (at 5 Cancer). Because this square is occurring at 25 degrees of cardinal signs (Jupiter is in Cancer and the Nodes are in Libra/Aries) we can also expect a lot of energy will be being expended ‘out there’ and by others.

And yes, by our Self. Instinct will tend to lead us towards a focus on Self, personal preferences and basic (traditional) orientations with regards to land, agriculture, family, real estate and any of a plethora of matters surrounding culture/nationality past, present and future.

(No, I don’t know how many are in a plethora, but it’s more than a handful, that’s for sure.)

As for that Self Focus concept, because Jupiter is sitting at the apex of the t-square (at the ‘t,’ if you will) that’s not likely to work. Why not?

Simply put, that answer would be because t-squares aren’t “solved” by putting anything in purely personal terms. T-squares ask us to see the bigger picture. They ask us to go beyond our cause or that thing so desired by our ego to where the idea itself is universal.

Where we don’t do that, or where something we have already participated in has fallen short of that ‘greater group’ nodal standard, problems - or at least unwanted details - now arise.

Considering that this happens at the moment of a New Moon, one would suspect this week will be filled with various sorts of ‘pushes’ (and pushiness) arising from the desire to get things done.

And some things will get done.

Other things will merely serve to show us where things have been undone...or where we are undone....or where we have yet not done that which will open a path into the future.

Any time the Nodes are involved in any configuration we should expect the unexpected. After all, the Nodes represent where we ‘intersect’ people and the world around us, which means input sources are virtually unlimited. So when we combine that with ‘expansive’ Jupiter....?

For happy and sad, for productive or destructive, this Jupiter-square-Nodes connection speaks to a lot of energy. Positive use requires directed focus - which may be a challenge particularly in any group [Nodal] situation/interaction seeing as much which goes on now has roots in the days around/after June 8th as the Nodes and Jupiter came into orb of each other.

And of course June 8th is just after Mercury went retrograde on June 7th - which would seem to make lovely metaphysical sense as Jupiter perfects its Nodal square at the beginning of our ‘next month’ New Moon cycle which leads directly to Mercury’s station and our ‘emerging’ from our mental time-cocoon of retrograde reflection.

* * * * * * * * * *

A short personal note...

Thank you all for bearing with me. These last several months have been hugely stressful in ways I can’t yet even begin to describe and I am grateful for your supportive comments, your emails and donations.

They are all appreciated more than you know. Things are still no-kidding difficult: physical limitations and financial problems are what they are until they heal - and as we all sadly know, dealing with the loss of anyone (never mind multiple people) takes time.

And that flood? Well, suffice it to say I have a whole new reaction to waking up in the middle of the night wanting a drink of water, all of which starts with the fact that said water shouldn't be on the floor.It also shouldn't be coming out from under a wall or be brick-colored.

And drinking water definitely shouldn't twitch.

Frankly, my life has been dizzying since last October - and of late it's been honestly half-past panic attack. So I’m really touched by your support.

And yes, I care about you and your life as well. But then, you know that...I keep coming back to write, which is my other way of saying 'thanks so very, very much.'

.
.
.

Sun in Cancer

Sun on Rails

(photo credit: Herbert Smith, October 2004)

The Sun enters Cancer on June 21st at 10:52 in the morning (UT/+0). And as it does, astrologically life moves from six months (and six signs) of overall pro-active or experimental mode into a six month (six signs) period where all of the signs...Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius...at some level all speak to that which ‘responds’ or which causes us to take stock, build a better understanding of how to be or become more effectively based on experience - which is to say ours.

Cancer is all about feeling that ‘experiencing’...either in the most basic ‘who we are and where we come from’ sort of way...or in the receiving, containing or utilizing the emotional motivation we either get from our past or as we look to our future.

And yes, sometimes where those two things overlap...you know, where we get ‘motivated’ to work towards a better future, be it that of ourselves or in any more general or worldly way?

Cancer tends to have two very different modes - the emotionally confidence which comes from feeling at home with being ourselves in this life...and the insecure side of Cancer, that which most know as an ability to nudge, nag or get snippy, impatient or frustrated. Wherever we find Cancer in the natal chart, that house describes where and how we will experience some very ‘under our skin’ as well as ‘salt of the earth’ Cancerian moments.

And now all that comes to the fore as the Sun enters Cancer.

 2014 Cancer Ingress (Aries Wheel/Location Not Specific)(glyph chart)

2014 Cancer Ingress (Aries Wheel/Location Not Specific)(text chart)

Seeing that this ingress happens with Mercury still in retrograde suggests that from the time of the Cancer Solstice (June 21st, UT/+0) we are all likely to be wrestling just a bit with internal matters, be that in our mind, our heart...in some tug-of-war involving both...or  in any other ‘behind-the-scenes’ sense.

Plus there is one other little Mercury notion: because this ingress shows Mercury at 27 degrees of Gemini, part of the questions and self-questioning conflicts we will all face not just in the next month but over the next zodiacal quarter (the months of Sun in Cancer, Sun in Leo and Sun in Virgo - call it until mid-late September)...all of that time will have flecks and quirks of how well we have (or haven’t) reconciled our Self to the idea of what we give to the world against what we get from the world, some of which is likely to concern our home, home life, cultural heritage and the very Earth we call home - replete with it’s many other denizens, furry, fishy, feathered and otherwise and inclusive of anything good or bad about our very human life on said Earth.

27 Gemini is known for utter loyalty to some ideas as well as the utter rejection of others - which is very much in keeping with it’s position exactly in opposition to the Galactic Center (the center of our local Milky Way galaxy at 27 Sagittarius), a point which is all about needing to give (or make something of one’s self which ‘gives’ to others merely by nature) in order to fulfill one’s personal potential.

As Mercury goes direct on July 1st, some degree of questioning or discussing (with our Self or others) ‘takes a turn’...and we’ll feel a bit more clarified as the days roll forward until Mercury exits the shadow of its retrograde on July 15th. Add to that the implied (sign-to-sign) square implied by the Sun transiting Cancer against Mars in Libra and there will be distractions. And yes, there will be situations and reactions/commentaries (on our part or coming from others) which test our ability to merge or mesh our interests/perspectives with those favored or indeed needed by others. With Mars still in Libra and our notion of life [the Sun] being in Cancer, some of these messages will be purely about ego and need internal compromise while others will bring us into an awareness of (or the need to understand) some particular weakness which, in being expressed by Mars, is mental, conceptual or theoretical in nature.

All this will come to a head as we pass July 14th and move towards July 20th, that being the date when Mars finally (finally!!) wraps up its retrograde cycle in a conjunction with the Sun - which is something of a guarantee of a red-letter day.

What kind of a red-letter is up to us.

Jupiter and Io photographed in thermal-infrared from the Paranal Observatory

(photo credit ESO, November, 2000)

With that said, done and experienced however, then Mars heads for the end of its transit of Libra (read: the raising of personal issues through interactions/lack of interactions with others) which began back on December 7, 2013.

As for the Sun/Mars transiting conjunction, that can mark a finding of peace on any individual or collective level (even both). Then again, it can signal a moment in time when sheer stubbornness wins out.

Yet best beware: the ‘win’ of this moment doesn’t necessarily indicate success. Nor does it mean that which is done couldn’t be undone. Much of the good and bad of all here depends on us - on how well we handle the experiencing of our Self through our emotions. Mind you, this isn’t about ‘happiness’ per se, but rather more about our ability or willingness to ‘own’ our emotions in a world where everyone else has equally valid feelings.

As for the chart of this ingress...though you may be looking at the red lines (indicating square aspects) and think you’re looking at a Grand Square, you’re actually not - which is good, as Grand Squares tend to manifest as situations which need to be balanced and handled and pursued without any clear sort of resolution. Instead we get two t-squares, an idea which may produce a few groans (even more than a few) but which also speaks to a period of time (both the next month and the whole of the quarter) which asks whether we are able to operate for the good of all and not just in our own interests, be they defined by family, race, culture, heritage, affiliations individual or group, private or public, financial status or...well, you know - simple personal preference.

Both of these t-squares are in cardinal (pro-active) signs, with the Pluto/Vega t-square indicating the need to ‘get real’ in order to deal with some sort of powerful, even ‘controlling’ idea, ideal or allure (that being Vega’s charismatic touch) in order to affect some needed change...lest we experience change which is driven by someone else’s allegiance to some sort of ‘dream.’

Against this we have Jupiter at 24 Cancer - the expansive or expansion of will in overcoming others which when done without sufficient regard for others and/or care for human values and human beings fails utterly, whether in the short or long run. There is a decided Moon-Eris-South Node tendency to take the road known and to listen to those who are prone to agreeing with us simply because we feel so invested in our perspective that to (Sun in Cancer) experience anything which would tremble, however gently, our convictions feels intolerable.

Welcome to Sun in Cancer. That feeling? That reaction to the notion of needing to feel or being forced to feel who we’re being or what we would feel like if someone was doing-saying-acting as we are...all that would seem to be the point here. The ‘goal’ of this second t-square (the one in blue) being described as Ceres/North Node, we know the goal is a stable and productive relationship with our world, with life and with others.

It’s just that getting there is rather challenging - particularly to those who prefer to function in theory.

One other notion here: Capricorn against Jupiter, when split as it is in this image is often a signature of ‘those in power’ against ‘those who follow,’ be that a simple matter of parents with children or the more esoteric (if no less real and certainly no less important) concept of a government and its citizens. This is not so much a ‘power play’ dynamic as it’s likely to display a difference in orientation, with the Capricorn side stressing rules and/or consequences against a Cancerian need for continuity, lest that which needs to be done fails to hit its mark. Some manipulation of facts is to be expected. Yet where such tactics are used, chaos and destruction of that which is most cherished is likely to occur.

To some extent we are all likely to want to avoid some issues this month...but if we do, we’re only compromising ourselves.

So...do we want to do that?
.
.
.

Typhon/Eurydike - Chiron/Psyche: Minding Stations

A forest of synthetic pyramidal dendrites grown using Cajal's laws of neuronal branching

(photo credit: Hermann Cuntz, PLoS Computational Biology Vol 6, August 2010)

It was something about Mercury going retrograde and the near-instantaneous confrontation with a disruption of body, car and finances which (as I lay there trying to think of things to think about while not sleeping) got me to thinking about Typhon.

(Okay, it’s terribly astrological of me. But what do you think about when it’s the middle of the night and you can’t sleep?)

Anyway, physicality, money, transportation...these are the most basic of basics in modern survival. Even with all our technology some things just come back to our Self.

And that - plus any event or thing which gets us to think in terms of basics or to experience them (recognize them, etc.) is the essence Typhon. Typhon is the object which brings us back to the ‘instinctual level’...and which in doing so asks us whether we are just instinctual creatures, what instinct is (or isn’t) good or bad - considering our truest aims - to accede to or to resist...

...or whether we are going to ‘master’ not others, but our Self - a Typhon quality which is rather easily seen and quite possibly more of an issue at the moment as Typhon transits airy Libra, sign of relating and (along with Aries) the most ‘projection-prone’ of signs simply because Libra asks us to reconcile our sense of Self to that Self through what we learn or encounter in others or life as a whole.

And this issue of Typhon transiting Libra, that isn’t any short term transit. Typhon’s orbit (around the Sun) is some 235 years in length, giving us an average of 19.5 years in any given thirty-degree sign - of which we have only thus far experienced 13 of those degrees.

...Which brings us back to 13 Libra, a degree which tends to increase focus and emphasis on others with something of an ‘all good/all bad’ sort of ‘black-and-white’ quality which when active tends to react rather purely in terms of whether the good ‘expectation’ has been met without all that much cognizance that the expectations are not only not fact, but they are one of the premier ways humans challenge their Self to be realistic - and thus to achieve that wholeheartedly Libra thing, namely the satisfying of one’s aims through others, interactions, situations and joint/joined efforts.

So as Typhon goes direct on June 19th (UT/+0) we can all expect some sort of experience which is basic. And though the reasons why we do or don’t do something may seem like the object (and may well be important in their own right) the real ‘Typhon question’ is likely to be more about our experience of who we are when all else is stripped away - and how our regards for...or our lack of regard - for others and the world around us can so color all we achieve.

Or don’t achieve, depending.

 A diagram of the orbit of TNO Typhon

(credit: NASA-JPL)

 

Where Typhon is concerned, there’s no doubt but that we will react from instinct. The question is whether we will realize it as such and - if we do recognize that fact - whether we will parse or moderate instinct through the use of more ‘modern’ (as opposed to primal) or intellectual means as we sort through that good old axiomatic metaphysical rule about life: what happens isn’t about ‘them’ so much as it’s about us.

As the old adage says, it’s not what happens, it’s how we respond to it, react to it, and what we learn from it which counts.

Under Libra we learn about ourselves through external means - and until we reckon ‘cause’ with ‘effect’ we aren’t likely to win our own respect, love or satisfaction in the long run.

Furthermore, since life seems to have a trés bizarre sense of humor (especially of late, she says with an admitted degree of personal concern) this Typhon station isn’t ‘one-and-done’ simple. No, this is not just about Typhon (just?) as Typhon isn’t going direct all by its celestial self on June 19th. Instead, as Typhon goes direct at 13 Libra, Eurydike is also going direct at 27 Libra.

Oh, what an airy, airy world - or at least it’s likely to feel like one as life becomes all about ‘the idea’ or our ‘concept’ of what’s true or not true at all sorts of interesting and variable levels throughout this (June 17-21) joint station.

And when one adds Typhon to the Eurydike ‘know the cost’ (or simply ‘the cost of’) vibe, the results are obvious - the cost of basics...and knowing them, understanding them, accepting them - whether that means having them, needing them or having ignored them...whether in past tense, present tense or something which works out to being happy or rather personally tense about the future.  

In combination, this energy can be personal and pragmatic - but that would seem to require a degree of pragmatism. Why? That would be because 27 Libra has a reputation for things which are difficult to move through in part because they flex and change at every step along the way combined with their tendency to be unmoved by short-term influence - a quality which may manifest as anything from annoyance to frustration to sheer dismay in the charts of those with 13 Libra highlighted.

(Note: this would mean anyone with any planet/dwarf planet, axis or node between 8 and 18 Libra, Aries, Capricorn or Cancer - and/or - those with points or planets between 11 and 15 degrees of Pisces or Virgo.)

If those points are highlighted, the ‘Typhon effect’ will be strong, against which we would expect any astrologically underscored placement of Eurydike would indicate fluctuation(s) which may or may not be important, but which may well seem important - sending us back to that ‘need for internal I/thou’ balance so common with 13 Libra.

(With regards to Eurydike’s effect, look for points between 22 Libra and 1 Scorpio...22 Aries and 1 Taurus...22 Cancer and 1 Leo, or 22 Capricorn and 1 Aquarius.)

There is a ‘stability’ quotient associated with 27 Libra, there may appear to be a promise of the ability or embodiment of some sort of ‘inner harmony’ which is difficult to define if no less real for that. It’s an elusive, hard to pin down quality which when combined with Typhon and 13 Libra’s reputation for difficulties with others based on difficulties with reconciliation of desire against (life’s often rather mundane) realities.

It would seem to be a recipe which may well manifest through eruptions where at the most basic level there may well be the least to worry about - which of course will create rebuttals, reactions and responses from that which is being disrupted in theory or because of theory - much of which reflects the Typhon’s current 13 Libra placement.

Typhon entered 13 Libra (in retrograde) back on June 4th - and because the sign is Libra, and because like Taurus, Libra is ruled by Venus there is (and has been) an ongoing ‘reference’ which sort of ‘ties’ things which have been going on...not always literally, but certainly thematically...with (you know what I’m going to say, right?) the 8 Taurus Solar Eclipse which occurred back in April.

(Just call it the eclipse which refuses to go away.)

Furthermore, let’s also remember that all this not-so-merriment is occurring under Mercury retrograde, so while we need to be working through things which are already on the table (or in action, on our plate, in focus, already challenging us, etc.)...and while there may be perfectly good reasons to be investigating options which either pertain to matters at hand or something you’re thinking of doing as/once Mercury goes direct on July 1st....

In short, Mercury retrograde is yet another way of bringing things home to us as things we need to deal with in terms of how we think, how we operate, how we regard others and in all those many and varied ways we rise and fall, gain or fail, learn or reject others and/or the standards of the world (or you particular ‘audience,’ be they personal, professional, private or public).

And just to make this very plain (even in some cases unpleasantly so), Mercury’s retrograde motion will move it back out of Cancer and into Gemini exactly as the Typhon/Eurydike station comes entirely into play (as opposed to the mental roughing up it’s represented over the past several weeks).

That’s right...Mercury returns to Gemini at 10:05 a.m. on June 17th (UT/+0 time) - setting an alarm clock (of sorts) which re-emphases issues of ‘choice,’ whether that’s the choice we make or have made, whether we will choose to be involved in any given thing, or whether we have simply changed our mind.

Such things do happen, after all. And providing those changes reflect enlightenment and a broadening of the mental basis upon which choice is made, Gemini (and Mercury) generally honor that...give or take all those ongoing post-eclipse upheavals and evolutions of things we didn’t want to hear (see, say, do) and which we surely didn’t want to have to deal with when thrust upon us.

Take heart - Venus will soon (as in next week) be exiting Taurus. No guarantees are being offered on this opinion, but it would be likely that much of the toxic subterranean upwelling (internal and external) will begin subsiding about then.

(And you may be assured I will be among the grateful about that.)

As for the second station pairing of the week, that would involve centaur Chiron and asteroid Psyche. Of these two, Chiron is certainly far the more famous, astrologically speaking. Yet being that in terms of mass asteroid Psyche is fully 1% of the entire known and total mass of all the many thousands of asteroids out there...Psyche’s no slouch in the ‘importance in life’ department.

Theoretically (this being metaphysical theory we’re talking about) all asteroids which reside in the main asteroid belt refer to things we will meet up with on our way from initiation, inception or assertion (Mars) and to understanding all the many things which make things work in the Big Picture rather than in our head, among our friends or (more or less) locally - that being the metaphysical Jupiterian notion.

In going on station at 20 Aquarius, Psyche represents the bridging or separating (the ‘divides’) between the individual and the group or some sub-set of a whole and the whole itself. If you have any planet, dwarf planet, nodal or axis point positioned between 15 and 25 Aquarius, Leo, Scorpio or Taurus...(or) 18 to 22 degrees of Virgo or Cancer, there is likely to be a notable ‘Psyche effect’ in your life about now - not that everyone else won’t be affected, but Psyche does seem to have a quality which works most effectively (in terms of long-term growth and productivity) through hard aspects.

(Translation: tough moments.)

The Sabian symbol for 20 Aquarius (‘A DISAPPOINTED AND DISILLUSIONED WOMAN COURAGEOUSLY FACES A SEEMINGLY EMPTY LIFE’) being less about gender and more about our individual ability/need to respond or accept - which Psyche and Aquarius (in being an air sign) plainly states is about some mental process, concept, thought or judgment (decision) - all of which operates on some societal or social level. And when we add in astrologer Marc Edmund Jones’ comment on this image (‘the capacity to meet emotionally upsetting experiences in human relationships with strength of character and personal integrity’) there would seem to be a ringing echo of Typhon at 13 Libra, if from a more mental and less visceral perspective with some emphasis on the experiencing of our own vision or expectation against why it won’t (or hasn’t) worked - or proved true.

With Psyche going retrograde, thoughts turn inward. And seeing as Psyche is going retrograde in tandem with Chiron doing the same thing in Pisces, the Aquarius/Pisces (Psyche/Chiron) combination describes an uncomfortable ‘encounter’ of that which can be conceived of in the abstract and the experience of the human reality, replete with all that often inconvenient (and uncomfortable) emotional vulnerability being human requires.

In this combo, Chiron represents the ‘wounded healer’ - or that we can do, but which we don’t want to (and don’t know how to) get ourselves to move through, even if that’s the only way we can learn our Chirotic truths. Chiron always asks that we ‘own’ something about or in our Self, and that something is always something we feel terribly inept about.

Are we inept? Maybe yes, maybe no - that’s not the Chiron issue. Chiron always involves something we love to tell others how to do but which we’re less than adept with in our own life - and sometimes that can manifest as looking hypocritical. Or even manipulative. When we ‘act out’ in a Chiron manner people tend to wonder why we don’t understand that all we have to do is....(insert concept)...to which we tend to react to with frustration.

Speaking of which (frustration, that is) because Chiron going retrograde at 17 Pisces says we will never be able to depend on others until we find our own inner independence. Those with axis points, nodes or planets/dwarf planets positioned between 12 and 22 degrees of Pisces, Virgo, Sagittarius or Gemini (along with those with chart points between 15 and 19 degrees of Libra or Leo) will feel the Chiron side of this dual-station more acutely than others, but everyone is bound to get a ‘dose’ of need to act which is strangely confronted by not being quite sure that you know what to do just to that degree which knocks you off your game.

With Chiron, it’s that inner insecurity with ourselves which gets to us...and not making this any more simple is the fact that 20 Aquarius is generally thought of as a problematic degree which needs a constructive outlet, lest pent-up energies, frustrations and in particular, the sense that you’re not being heard manifest as physical illness. 20 Aquarius has a reputation for connections to spinal nervous system (one I can vouch for personally and currently), so if problems arise, have them checked out. Given the centaur nature of this point there is always a tendency to ‘do what’s easy’ and resort to physical assertion (even aggression) rather than requiring ourselves to temper our willfulness with a healthy dose of thinking things through so that we will assert thoughtfully when and where necessary.

These days we are moving through are the last days of Sun in Gemini for 2014. As noted before, there is a common ‘descent into mental pressure’ which occurs at this time as part of the shift from Gemini (the last sign in the natural zodiac’s first quadrant) into Cancer as the first experience of having to (or needing to learn now to) move from mentality into emotionality and from the more egocentric world of personal learning (the I-Me-My Idea orientation towards life) into a world where we need to respond to others as part of learning how to get along - and ultimately achieve in life.

Against all this, 0 Cancer is the degree of the mid-year Solstice: Earth coming into a moment of ‘balanced illumination.’

So all of this...the earliest part of the week with its coloration of Typhon/Eurydike going direct (indicating facing things in the world) against Psyche/Chiron turning retrograde (indicating the need to think through why things mean what they do to us) is all about coming into balance - most of all with our Self.
.
.
.