Huya and 28 Scorpio

An artist's impression of object 38628 - the Plutino we call Huya

(image credit: Lanthanum 138, May 2001)

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It strikes me as an interesting thing that we don’t hear all that much about the astrological Huya. After all, it’s a Plutino - just like Ixion (shudder), Orcus (sigh) and Pluto (do I have to?) are.

And no - we don’t hear all that much about Orcus and Ixion, either. But maybe we should.

And maybe Huya deserves a little respect. After all, it’s not your common Plutino. (As if any Plutino is commonplace?) Defined as objects which have orbits controlled nebulously, magnetically and astrologically alluringly by Neptune - which in its role as planetary Plutino puppet master acts as the very essence of idealism and illusion - Plutinos generally represent things which tempt us oh-so alluringly: Pluto temps with the thought of being able to control things and have our way ... Ixion tempts us to think we don’t have to care about standards, promises or anyone else and Orcus - by its ability to confront us with truths which stem from things we can no longer change tempts us to frenetic denials and bluffs of various types.

But Huya? Named for a Venezuelan rain god, Huya represents that very painful thing we learn in life ... and that life can be painful ... and how by taking that hurt, by thinking through that painful experience we can become stronger and actually emboldened by deciding to either expose the pitfall we fell into to others (so they don’t do likewise) or to push past those injuries of the past in such a way that we become embodied as someone who can help others recognize there is possibility ... there is viability ... there is personal satisfaction and success to be found through standing against and working to dismantle that which demeans, which cripples, which destroys possibilities for productivity, creativity and the simple blessings of life for others.

And that’s hardly the stuff of personal allure. Where with Pluto, Orcus and Ixion we tend to be the ‘source’ of our conflict, Huya speaks to a conflict we experience but must then examine and work past, and let’s face it ... nobody’s delighted with having to pick up the pieces.

So where’s the common thread?

That thread would be in the transformational experience Plutinos signify. We associate the word ‘transformation’ with Pluto and that’s correct - but it would also seem that every Plutino times out periods of transformation when they periodically transit our chart.

To say nothing of where such points reside in our chart.

Plutinos can all become a great gift. To the extent we get our ego out of the way and become willing to accept our part in things without trying to control them, undermine them (that being the Neptune part) we can be or become lynchpin for change - and by being that lynchpin enrich our own lives and those of others immeasurably.

What we can’t do is decide that such successes (whatever form they take) are about our brilliance or greatness or ‘heroic’ stance, as that’s an egotistical stance which Huya transits (or transits to your natal Huya) will then reveal as detriments or a lessening of your ‘brand’ or sense of personal power (real or imagined).

In going retrograde at 28 Scorpio, Huya is doing two things right off the bat: it’s ‘taking a turn’ in a degree which denotes mastery (suggesting we need to master something within the situation or within our Self) ... and it’s not fully conjuncting fixed star Toliman (at 29 Scorpio).

Not conjuncting it yet, that is.
 

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Fixed stars tend to represent ‘standing issues’ and ‘the background against which everything else gets set.’ And since in the world of fixed stars Toliman is a star which is relatively close to Earth, its issues tend to be more common, prevalent or ‘obvious’ to us than other stars. Spoken of by Ebertin (a famous fixed star astrologer) as expansive and possessed of a Jupiter-Venus quality, Toliman nevertheless is associated with peculiar situations which arise in, around, or possibly in spite of standing relationships ... and all of this is part of Huya’s station in that Huya will take its turn ‘in the face of’ Toliman - which is likely to manifest in any number of lives as those who turn around and go away (or blandly excuse themselves) after having ‘stirred up’ some sort of problem.

The Huya of it all here tells us that in many cases this combination is going to manifest simply as that - someone who goes away, or a situation which gets ‘backed away from’ (or which takes a turn which is then not publicly resolved) for some time - the  amount of time in this case like as not being at least until Huya goes direct on August 5 (2015).

And of course, as with all retrograde cycles it may take even longer - a notion anyone who’s had a really rancid Pluto transit knows well (oh, how some transits linger on ... and on ... and on ...). So the truth of this may well be that what we ‘face’ now (or what we ‘about face’ in the face of now) may not come back around for dealing with on any direct level until Huya returns to 28 Scorpio - an event which won’t even begin until November 2015. Even then, seeing as Huya is a relatively slow-moving object (in terms of its movement through zodiac degrees) once Huya does return to 28 Scorpio on November 2nd and lingers there for a couple of weeks (read: through November 26th), notions and inner understandings which need to be grown in association with 28 Scorpio (that which we grow to achieve ‘mastery’ of in our own mind, choice of actions or personality) may not be complete.

Yes, some of us are quick studies .,. and some of us are resistant, especially when it comes to Things Scorpio, a sign under which we tend to think (read: insist) that we’re right and “THEY” need to change (not us). For those who learn the first (or even second) time through, Huya’s subsequent passes become opportunities to utilize and improve on and polish one’s skills. Our current experience (the one which leads to Huya going retrograde on March 2nd, UT/+0) began this year back on January 10th - and that it began with Huya conjunct Charybdis suggest a need to ‘keep at it’ (whatever “it” is in your situation) in order to achieve you goal - or even some ‘level’ situation.

And still we’re not done. After Huya goes retrograde now (on March 2nd) and direct this coming November it will return to 28 Scorpio (in retrograde motion) on July 6, 2016 and after hanging there for a month goes station/direct at 28 Scorpio on August 7th, after which Huya remains at 28 Scorpio for another month until it finally vacates the degree premises (for another couple of hundred years) on September 8, 2016.

That’s a LOT of Huya at 28 Scorpio - almost two months of it now and two more months of this influence next year, after which Huya meets up with Toliman at 29 Scorpio and we get a ‘hurry up’ course in all those things we have been resisting about our Self ... which at the moment we’re still more or less intent on getting/gaining from (or through) others ... which, if we can find the emotional strength to accept and shift with will (in time) turn into an operational benefit.

It’s just we do have to wait. And we will have to do even more work (on our Self or our ‘side’ of things  most of all) to move ahead.

Even then we will meet up with glitches and course corrections and feedback which we could not have predicted, but which yes ... we will be all to happy to blame on someone else for not having mentioned.

Huya can represent a lot of ugliness in us, and in the lives which we experience. Then again, it can also represent the very best we have to offer. This cycle is one of many, reflecting this time and the year-plus ahead as one in which we can succeed through that which we have worked on and that which we have - and which we work to offer others. The 'Huya part' of it all lies in the idea that we have to be the one doing the offering ... and that what we offer must be, or be connected to something we learned through dint of experience. Such experience will have taught us some harsh realities ... and part of getting past them will be in recognizing how some of this world's most rewarding gifts are those we indeed need to learn ‘the hard way’ - and which we then share with all the strength of those hard-won lessons. But where we are constructive in spite of all, where we've learned that our ultimate enrichment lies in that which we do to enhance the lives of others which is the Huya notion, for Huya asks that we choose to act as a force for the enhancing of individual lives.

And it does that because Huya is the emblem of not who we started out being, but who we ultimately become.

You know... once we've mastered that Self of ours.
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Chaos-Achilles on Station

Clearing Storm

(photo credit: Rennett Stowe, 2013)

Though today’s world seems addicted to hyperbole and all things exotic and extreme (which doesn’t always equate to necessity no matter how loudly someone shouts or insists), I’m going to disappoint you by saying TNO Chaos isn’t necessarily at all ... or even vaguely chaotic.

In other words, if you’re looking to beat the drums of disaster, look elsewhere. The term ‘chaos’ as it is used today (to mean an unimaginable mess) - or rather I should say the redefinition of the term ‘chaos’ was made popular by a Roman poet named Ovid. He’s the guy who decided ‘chaos’ meant messy and unpredictable - not that the state wouldn’t exist anyway, but Ovid decided we should all use the term ‘chaos’ to describe said messy and unpredictable status.

The term itself, however, is much older. Dating back to Ancient Greece, the term ‘chaos’ originally wasn’t a negative at all - it meant a state of endless possibilities and fertile inspirations.

So what was Ovid’s problem? That, I don’t know. But the point of this point is not Roman, but Greek. In other words, all along its 309.1 year-long orbit the astrological TNO/Cubewano Chaos speaks to finding our way through various choices to that one course of action or presentation which has the lowest chance of being some ‘illusion’ which will trip us up (or compromise our efforts) and the greatest chance of being something we can either utilize well or embody as we continue about our life.

To this of course, we add the degree - which would be 17 Gemini, the degree of fixed star Rigel ... which somewhat changes the perspective as Rigel always speaks to a learning/teaching quotient of some sort. So are we looking for that which we can learn through and succeed? Are we about to meet up with some wonderful idea which we can teach/offer to others and thereby improve many things for many people?

Being that Chaos is a TNO (a Trans Neptunian Object, meaning Chaos orbits way out yonder beyond Neptune in the giant vastness of the Kuiper Belt) ... Chaos represents things which we haven’t encountered before. Effects will of course depend on how this point is aspected and positioned in your natal chart, but with its 300-plus year cycle Chaos covers only a third of the zodiac in any given century, representing what we would probably think of as the ‘general limits’ any given period ... what people think is valuable, interesting, enjoyable or (yes) possible to do at that time. 

Back in the year 1900 Chaos was in early Aquarius. So everyone alive today has Chaos in Aquarius, Pisces, Aires, Taurus or Gemini, with the change from 4th quadrant ‘big picture’/’global’ zodiac signs to the ‘learning how to be me’ 1st quadrant signs occurring as Chaos cycled back and forth across the 29 Pisces/0 Aries during 1952, finally committing to its transit of Aries as of February 20, 1953.

This is important in part because though Kuiper Belt objects are often things we have to work with individually, they’re seldom entirely personal (on an individual basis) ... something or someone else gets affected or is in mental play when we deal with TNOs. And because of that, there will be very different considerations being applied by those born before that 1953 date and those born after it, especially as Chaos moved into Aries and the zodiac’s first quadrant, splitting populations into two big groups - those born with a natural 4th quadrant ‘big picture’ natal feeling about possibilities (which would lead to  spending some, much or most of their life dealing with possibilities from a seemingly personal or individual perspective) versus those born with Chaos in a 1st quadrant sign (Aries, Taurus or Gemini) who are apt to see possibilities in terms of what they can make of their own life (as an individual) rather than what they can do to build (shape, contribute to) their world through developing or expressing their various Chaos possibilities, opportunities and inspirations.

a Cubewano/TNO Chaos orbital diagram at February 28, 2015

(diagram courtesy of JPL)

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Yet with all this nicely ‘us’ sort of thing said, Chaos is still a TNO. So its notions ... and on some level its application is always going to work best when not entirely personal - which might seem to favor those born before that magic February 20, 1953 date.

But it doesn’t ... not really. And why not? Answer: because while those born with Chaos in Aquarius or Pisces have some native orientation towards ‘big picture’ contemplations, they were also born under an astrological Age which has been phasing out for most of the past century. (Full disclaimer here: this question of when the Aquarian Age comes into force is one still being debated by astrologers. But considering how life on Planet Earth is now digital and technologically driven, that debate strikes me as unnecessary in the light of reality and facts.)

In any case, those born under the Age of Pisces may have been born with TNO Chaos in ‘big picture’ signs Aquarius or Pisces, but those born with Chaos in Aries, Taurus and Gemini were born into the Aquarian Age ... which isn’t exactly “addition is commutative” (meaning 2+3=5 is the same as 3+2=5) in terms of life experience but it does mean that in the end - give or take whether we start thinking globally or learn to think big picture and globally - both population groups will be called upon to integrate both quadrants in their (Chaos) plans.

(Does that mean part of the learning process on both sides will simply have to do with learning to respect each others’ process? Maybe. Whatever happens, this is an interesting way to think about why older and younger populations operate differently.)

(Also - please note, I’m not using the term ‘generation’ here - and that’s for a reason. Astrologically, generations separate and sort themselves out by the sign Pluto is positioned in at birth and I’d like not to get anyone confused on that point. If you’re an astrologer, it’s bad enough that mainstream societies around the world guesstimate generations without any rationale arising from any real timing mechanisms - as an astrologer I’d like not to add to this messiness!)

That 17 Gemini is a degree known for qualities of planning and needing plans if things are going to go well. It’s also known as one of Gemini’s ‘handy’ degrees with a distinct emphasis on the hands and what those hands get into, recalling the old saying ‘the burned hand teaches best’ - all of which are qualities bound to be encountered through whatever we do with (or about) matters which arise now or which have become sufficiently ‘Chaos-like’ (multifaceted) as to require some sort of plan, even if that plan is to react to each thing as it happens.

However ... along with Chaos going direct (meaning we’ll now be meeting up with possibilities which exist around us, which comes to us via others and which we find out about by participating in daily activities), asteroid Achilles is going retrograde.

A symbol of skill, Achilles is going retrograde at 16 Scorpio, a degree which wants much and which is known for ‘bad actors’ and people ‘acting out’ for all those negative emotional reasons we dislike so fervently in others: denial, rage, fear, jealousy, lack of trust or that ever-popular desire to control what others say, do, have or are. Known for its tendency to be judgmental and to imagine grievances where there are none to speak of, 16 Scorpio embodies everything which people do (and why they do it) when folks would rather focus on what they see as wrong in others rather than why they feel so passionately (not to mention negatively) about it.

In going retrograde in this degree, Achilles asks us to reflect on what we’re doing and why people are acting as they are. It asks us to not judge lest we be judged ... or if humanly (or humanely) possible, to work on getting a clear(er) view on who we are to be being so upset with others.

 Asteroid Achilles' orbital diagram at February

(diagram courtesy of JPL)

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Remember: this is Scorpio. And in Scorpio, we meet up with everything which has any possibility of unsettling us as Scorpio’s primary function - that of moving us past our ‘risk sticking point’ to where we are ready, willing and able to weather life’s raucous and untamed currents, storms and occasional emotional tsunamis. We’d like to think the storm is going to abate - but it isn’t. The thing about Scorpio is that it reflects whatever ‘hidden’ emotions WE bring with us, delivering to us whatever it is which will ‘satisfy’ or elicit our most base or basic vulnerabilities so that we can deal with them and be that truly capable person able to deal with the big world ocean of society when we get out there.

And for those who truly can’t deal with deep emotional water? For them, Scorpio is a warning - and for them, Achilles going retrograde here may just say ‘you’ve reached your limit’ while posing the question ‘do you have enough (Achilles) skill to get out of this?’

For some, what they see as Chaos possibilities now are attractive. For some, they’re highly unattractive. Whichever we meet up with, our job is to be (Achilles) skillful enough at living our own life to either avoid troubles, to take advantage of opportunities or to grapple with what we need to know/know how to do, lest we exceed our (Achilles) skill level and end up paying with what would otherwise have been our means to avail ourselves of opportunities, whether that means amounts to time, respect, money, stability or anything else.

These are not major stations. Most of us will move through these days of station allowance (February 26-March 2) with a few high points and a few moments where we decide not to step up to the plate. But since anything which happens in proximity to a solar eclipse has the potential to be important and/or part of the process of ‘breaking down’ walls which we build allegedly against the world but in reality to order to wall out some part of our Self we are less than thrilled about contending with openly and honestly, some people are going to meet up with Chaos now - and through that experience come to know a bit more about what their Achilles skills are ... and aren’t.
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You Were Searching ... (the Saturn-Neptune Edition)

(left) Saturn (Kronos) by Ivan Akimov (1802, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow)

(right) Neptune by Angelo Bronzino

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This post is in response to someone searching for the term ‘Saturn conjunct Neptune’ - which is not just a subject well deserving of a search (whoever typed this one gets applause) ... it’s something I’ve done a lot of research on firstly because of that most human and obvious of reasons (Neptune and Saturn are very prominent in my chart) and secondly, because as I’ve said before, time and cycles of time have always fascinated me - and Saturn/Neptune is a known synodic cycle, said cycle being the time it takes for a pair of objects (in this case, Saturn and Neptune) to conjunct and then conjunct yet again.

Synodic cycles are interesting: they seem to mark chapters in human development, whether that pertains to us as an individual, or society in its own right. And since over the years I have looked into this particular planetary twosome, this is going to thus become the post I put all of that into - which is one of the other purposes for this blog: to record information for freely searchable future reference ... and in this case it’s my hope I get it all written down.

After all, if I don’t, there may have to be a Saturn conjunct Neptune II: Return to Impossible Possibilities.

Also: considering the many nuances to go through here, this is the only search term for today. (See what happens when you hit something I’ve studied in particular?)

And if by chance you’re thinking ‘this isn’t about me or MY chart,’ think again. Sure, you may not have Saturn conjunct Neptune natally. And you may indeed have a Saturn positioned somewhere which Neptune’s current 164-year orbit isn’t going to get to during your life span.

But you DO have a Neptune in your natal chart ... and Saturn only takes 29.46 years to toddle once around the Sun, during which time, transiting Saturn will conjunct your natal Neptune. For instance, if you were born between the years 1970 and 1984, give or take a couple of weeks at either end of this period when Neptune was either coming out of Scorpio or going into Capricorn, your Neptune is in Sagittarius. And since Saturn arrived in Sagittarius as of December 2014, at some point between December 2014 and December 2017 when Saturn moves its ringed self into Capricorn your Neptune is going to get conjuncted.

So I’m just sayin’ ... you might want to read.

Besides, 2026 will eventually get here.

That date aside for the moment (I’ll get back to it), most astrologers (or astrologists, as some prefer) would agree that to put Saturn and Neptune into the same astrological breath, sentence or conjunction is very much akin to be connecting that which is tangible with something which is intangible in real time ... which if you think about it is just a tad hard. Saturn defines everything which ... well, everything which can be defined. It represents realities and facts as things we can depend on and structure our life around (Saturn) or on.

So this conjunction is connecting the highly definite with that which is Neptune and thus quintessentially nebulous...? Yes, it is. We’re talking about conjuncting Saturn with that which not only can never be defined but which always ends up revealing some vulnerability in US when we go to rely on it ... at which point we suddenly discover what we thought was so real is actually an illusion.

OUR illusion.

That would be very Saturn-Neptune, a quotient in which the Neptunian side of the thing can never be proven - it can only be trusted or relied on in faith.

Sometimes the Saturn in this pairing represents the strength with which we deal with some Neptunian weakness or vulnerability. Sometimes Neptune represents the softening of Saturn's exacting edge, allowing for a bit of humanity all around. With Neptune around, all can be wonderful if you don’t have to depend on it, which is why Things Neptunian include the lovely dream, the inspirational moment and that universal if ill-defined moment when on the brink of slipping into slumber all is released without prejudice, care or conscious effort.

Neptune's rings (photo credit: NASA-JPL)

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And yes, Neptune can be the very essence of the haunted personality which manifests in any number of maladaptive and generally repetitive cycles even when someone knows full well that things are just fine.

If a human could be said to be spooked by their own shadow, that shadow would be their astrological Neptune. Neptunian things exist and often flourish so long as you trust them ... and Saturn represents that state of being which exists in reality. Granting that from sign to sign and house to house any set of symbols manifest differently, people with a natal Saturn-Neptune conjunction may excel in one area of their life and yet have substantial issues in another such as in the case of someone who is able to survive a lot of rough-and-tumble in their career with barely a break in stride but who at the same time is hugely sensitive. Or maybe they’d be sensitive to their own insecurities, but still perfectly capable of being hugely insensitive to insecurities in others. Seeing that on some level Saturn always refers to our ‘career’ in life, Saturn-Neptune can also indicate a Saturn career in any typically Neptunian field such as the arts, pharmaceuticals, the oil industry, charity work - or any of the helping professions which help those unable to help themselves in some regard.

Because this conjunction is going to get transited (over and over again) in any natal chart, which planet numerically comes first will also have some bearing on how the person experiences life: Saturn is all about clarity - sometimes even to the point of chilling clarity, and Neptune is a shifting, ever-present and ever-changing fog. With Saturn first and Neptune numerically second, barriers, facts and limits (the Saturn part of life) will tend to get ‘fuzzier’ or melted away as the planet which transits Saturn moves on to Neptune. So maybe everything is tough until you try it and then (much to your relief) things turn out not to be as bad as you thought they would be. Or maybe you’re someone who is diligent and uber-determined until something bursts your Neptune bubble, dream or illusion. Can you reassemble yourself? And if Neptune is transited first, will you learn to trust the process and to try as hard as you can on faith - a quality Saturn generally honors unless we’re trying to do something which is utterly Neptunian and unrealistic to begin with?

Saturn-Neptune by conjunction asks whether reality, whether or not we conceive of that as our reality or not, is worth trusting. This isn't easy; the natal square between these two symbols is known for all sorts of 'coping mechanisms' which either mimic or are out-and-out personal addictions. The conjunction isn't known for such manifestations, but the fact that the square is tells us that this intersecting of the "Is Factor" and "Maybe, if..." quotients are something natives either (Saturn) work to learn to harness responsibly (taking their 'medicine' along the way) or which they (Neptune) accept should be offered on faith but never insisted on, as insistence is a manifestation of ego (i.e., 'my way is the right way') and therefore contrary to core Neptunian values, which in conjunction to Saturn would indicate a 'dissolving' of what gets built, despite best intentions.

So this conjunction usefully asks whether we are willing to ‘see’ clearly and see beyond today. And yesterday, too - which could sometimes be even harder what with all Neptune's inbuilt-wistfulness (read: insecurity in and about time) and Saturn’s time-bound preference for the timely, the real, the proven, the status quo and certainly that which is blatantly proven by history.

Yes, even if given Neptune's presence Saturn's version of history could be include a little 'fuzzy calculus' and preferential editing in the mix.

This conjunction occurs every 37 years or so - over this past century there was one Saturn-Neptune conjunction in early Leo back in 1917, a second Saturn-Neptune conjunction in 1952-1953 in Libra, and a third Saturn-Neptune meeting in 1989 (into the earliest part of 1990) in Capricorn.

Furthermore, each one of these conjunctions came with its own special quirk. The Leo conjunction was in trine to dwarf planet Eris (discord), which on one hand marks this as a time when these planets by transit would indicate WWI ... and on the other (as a natal indicator) would speak to those who ‘came out of this period’ able to see challenges as motivation, as negatives - or as opportunities, any part of which could be used to benefit All (and therefore the Self as part of that All) ... or no one but the Self as part of a search for achievement and personal success.

-link to post-

Eris Discordant: Mastering

Our Own Weakest Moments

Those with a Libra Saturn/Neptune conjunction have been faced with a substantially different dynamic. Currently in their early 60s, these people haven’t faced the internal yea-or-nay of the Saturn/Neptune-conjunct-in-Leo group, but then their general Saturn mission didn’t include the (Saturn) long-term Leo lesson in development of Self. Instead, this Libra Saturn/Neptune group has been getting a life doctorate on the subject of how to get along (and not get along) with others ... (nicely folded into) .... how to get them to get along (or not get along) with you. This conjunction in Libra differs from the Leo version also in that Saturn in Leo is Saturn in a sign (of detriment) where Saturn tends to act pushy (even arrogant), where Saturn in Libra aims for the noble and good thing and has to hone the Self along the way to getting there.

The problem is simple - and quite understandable, actually. Ultimately Saturn asks what we are willing to make of our Self and its promise is that others (and life, and the world) will reward us for what we’ve earned. So since Leo is all about developing that Self, that leaves us to applaud ourselves - which is not only not much fun, but which when done with a bit of Leo drama sounds a bit odd.

And yes, sometimes a touch arrogant - sometimes when all that a Saturn/Neptune in Leo person is doing is having a bit of personal fun.

(And yes, therein lies the problem, on occasion.)

Saturn in Libra is entirely different. Libra being the sign all about our relationship to others (and this world) and how the world (and others) react to us depending on who we really (Saturn) are and who we have (Saturn) worked to become ... Saturn in Libra becomes the hallmark and essence of what you put out comes back to you - which underlies why Saturn in Libra is a positive if the native is honest with themselves about who they are and what they are doing with the understanding that they are only going to get back what they put out there.

'Shadow of Demarcation' - In this photograph, Saturn's upper hemisphere is tinted

in green and blue and its lower hemisphere appears in

more creamy, warm-hued tones

(photo credit NASA JPL)

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And then we factor in Neptune, which in Libra - a sign ruled by Venus - emphases the ‘hands off’ side of relationship, namely that which is platonic in the highest humanistic sense of the term. With Saturn, such a Neptune can indicate a negative blindness or a positive willingness to (Saturn) work interactively on (Neptune) faith - of some sort.

The tendency with Libra involved is to think that we need to have faith in them ... where the reality is that we need to have faith in our ability to be our Self in spite of whoever ‘they’ are - or in spite of whatever happens.

We don’t want to think that.

It’s true anyway.

As for what interesting modifier this conjunction is connected to, that would be Ixion.

Yes, Ixion the Plutino.

 

- link to post-

Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

The thing about saying Ixion is a Plutino (for those who don’t want to go read the whole Ixion saga at the moment) is that while yes, the term ‘Plutinos’ is a reference to Pluto, what it means in terms of our current conversation is how like dwarf planet Pluto, Ixion’s orbit around the Sun is controlled and modified by Planet Neptune’s magnetic resonance.

So it’s back to Neptune.

Also unlike the Eris-to-Neptune/Saturn connection: that was a trine. Ixion to Saturn/Neptune is by conjunction, and that’s a whole other animal. Trines are about things already in motion where conjunctions refer to embodiment or being so directly confronted with something as to be either ‘saddled’ with it, unable to see it for what it truly is (good or bad), or so much in sync with/part of it that it is easy to (Neptune) assume that (Saturn) you’re the only party (Saturn) responsible for anything. Or maybe even everything ... (Neptune) imagine that.

This ‘Neptunian loop’ (or ‘echo,’ if you prefer) may  seem to make it harder to recognize some (Saturn)  realities as the realities they are - a situation which can simultaneously lead to insecurity on the inside and difficulties on the outside even while the ‘double helping’ of Neptune may well lend an ability to endure a lot even while you’re (as they say...) crying on the inside, knowing there’s nothing to do but surrender to the reality of whatever is going to (Saturn) be/become the (Saturn) reality you’re going to be (Neptune) inspired by next.

Probably more than either the other two conjunctions during the 1900-1999 period, this Ixion - Saturn - Neptune conglomeration is probably ripe to be affected more by house placement as well. The strong houses for Saturn will be the 7th, 10th and 11th, meaning effort is easy to summon up and/or maintain as required. The difficult houses for Saturn will be those in opposition to the above - namely the 1st, the 4th and/or the 5th, reflecting a Saturn placement which will tend to test the boundaries of any personal (1st house) agreement, long (4th house) term responsibilities and sort of as we discussed with regards to Leo (Leo being the natural sign of the 5th house) issues with frustration and often enough, rates of gratification.

But strength isn’t always a good thing. If we equate strength to loudness, there is a point at which your ears hurt, after all. So where Saturn may trend towards ‘overdoing’ either through action, insistence or restriction when positioned in the 10th or 11th (its  houses of natural rulership, challenging us to set limits as a measure of discipline on the Self), Neptune in the 12th represents a tendency to be very hard on one’s self with regards to ‘measuring up’ if  simultaneously unrealistic when it comes to the distinct probability that the dreams being held so dear would not be so wonderful in reality ... or that they are merely ill-conceived or unfeasible, all of which is a variation on the Neptune in 12 tendency to place faith in ideals to a greater degree than others in such a way to risk (and incite) greater disappointments and a greater sense of overall vulnerability which in Leo would be about the Self, in Libra would be about the validity of the relationship (whether it’s based on anything real) and/or whether others can be trusted.

And all that is without Saturn even being part of the picture.

As for the 1989 Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Capricorn, that one occurred in conjunction with Facies, a nebula long referred to in astrology as a ‘fixed star’ simply because astrological names come from a time long before telescopes could differentiate between a distant single star and the sort of distant star cluster known to us as a nebula.

Whatever name used, Facies has a reputation for presenting ‘complications’ and complicated scenarios, which in a sign about achievement and worldly standing (Capricorn) speaks to challenges neither easily dismissed nor easily worked through.

Two of Saturn's moons, Rhea in the foreground and tiny Epimetheus in the background

orbit with Saturn in the background and Saturn's rings all around.

(photo credit: Cassini Spacecraft - ISS, JPL, ESA, NASA)

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With Neptune in Capricorn evoking everything from powerful illusions to illusions of power amidst a general questioning of what ‘world standing’ means ... with all this cast against Saturn in Capricorn’s strictly structural (and structurally strict) standards for achievement, most of the ‘fallback’ positions became all about holding into (or reverting to) some a status quo, sometimes even when said status quo was plainly outmoded. And all of which has ... and is likely to continue playing out in the lives of those born during this time as experiences which are as introspective (Saturn-Neptune) as speculative (Neptune-Saturn) ... with plenty of questioning between.

And then, about the time these people reached twenty-two (which for the record would be just after their first Chiron square), along came 2011 ... and Pluto’s conjunction of Facies - which would also be Pluto conjuncting the Saturn/Moon in the chart of any person or other entity (businesses, products, nations, organizations, etc.) ‘born’ during this time.

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Pluto Station/Retrograde in the Face of Facies

If you’re one of these people (or you own or are part of some company or whatnot founded during this 1989 time) you’ve probably noticed how messy these past couple of years have been. The worst of it would have been in 2011 through January 2013, but Pluto has only exited the orb of conjunction to this Saturn-Neptune conjunction as of November 2014.

And now Scheat is going to get eclipsed - which means anyone with this conjunction is going to have their Saturn-Neptune eclipsed, a three-year process which is bound to strip away many built-up walls (physical, emotional and otherwise) as we all learn that though life may not be what we want it to be, it still can be good. Productive. Worth being part of.

We just have to get past our Self ... and ourselves.

In conjuncting Facies, Pluto would also be conjuncting the Saturn/Neptune conjunction in these charts at a time when the young adults living those lives were just realizing some things (Chiron) can’t be learned in advance: you have to live through them and work with them in order to learn from them - or about them.

Some members of this natively Pluto-in-Scorpio generation will have reacted well enough. Others will have reacted by running scared (fear being the negative side of Saturn’s energetic) and still others will have felt discouraged or confounded by something unexpected altering their plans. Whichever group they belong to, much of their positions on things and overall priorities will begin to change as we move through 2017 into 2018 - the period during which this group will arrive at their first Saturn return and become (as we all do) more real, realistic and practical about life as a whole.

As for the next Saturn-Neptune conjunction, Saturn will begin catching up to Neptune (i.e., it will enter the five-degree orb of conjunction) during April of 2025  with Saturn and Neptune perfecting their conjunction (initiating another 37 year Saturn-Neptune synodic cycle) on February 20, 2026 - which I told you I would get back to (and now I have). Since this conjunction occurs in Aries, this will have Saturn in the sign opposite that (Libra) in which Saturn is exalted and where Saturn’s ability to ‘require’ standards manifests as a need for integrity of thought, in one’s words and with regards to agreements, lest all one does come (in time, time being Saturn’s byline) to nothing.

Or at least nothing you intended it to be.

Furthermore, in occurring at 0 Aries this conjunction is accompanied by not one, but two fixed stars: orange star Deneb Katos (Beta Ceti) in constellation Cetus and famously fixed red star Scheat - which in being at 29 Pisces is in line to be hit by this March’s 29 Pisces Solar Eclipse with exacting exactitude.

Said to bring a harshness and qualities of restraint and limitation, the first of these stars (Deneb Katos) isn’t written about much. But its constellation (Cetus) though popularly depicted today as a whale, originated with the idea of a classic ‘sea monster.’ And yet, this is the first star in the zodiac lists (by degree order). So is this star about the process of ‘being born,’ or ‘giving birth’ to something in one’s life, making the ‘whale’ more of a ‘whale of a job’ and the ‘sea monster’ the oceanic depths of Pisces just ‘behind’ and our instinctive desire to avoid and (if possible) deny our own vulnerabilities?

As for Scheat, Scheat is a star which in most general terms is about being denied or denying something ... generally to, or about others. And for good or ill, that fits certain modes of both Saturn and Neptune. Neptune effects are often said to ‘veil’ us - or the truth, depending on how willing we are to face our own feelings (and where they come from), particularly with regards to lingering feelings of vulnerability, that being what often sets Scheat dynamics off, whether in us or on the part of those we are interacting with - which is a good part of Scheat’s Piscean, critical degree presence.

When Scheat is triggered, nobody responds as you think they will - or as you think they should, or as you would hope they would because right is right and facts are facts and all that. That doesn’t mean things will work out badly, but it does virtually ensure that we will feel badly. And since Pisces as a sign is all about getting us to feel, and in particular about getting us to explore our most human and problematic human, mortal feelings, that’s about reality.

And reality is symbolized by Saturn.

Also to consider with any such conjunction: the state of the planet ruling the sign. Obviously the Sun (ruler of Leo) never goes retrograde, but Venus (ruler of Leo) does, Saturn (ruler of Capricorn and co-ruler of Aquarius) does and so does that spicy little ruling planet associated with Aries named Mars.

If the planetary ruler of this conjunction is retrograde in the nativity, in the return chart for that planet (anywhere along the lifeline) or a solar return chart, this conjunction will be turned inward ... or at least need to function/be functional 'internally' before anything which is going to (Neptune) satisfy the native is going to be (Saturn) done. Matters which pertain to this conjunction will also tend to be somewhat delayed or require/be in the process of getting a restructuring, some 'reconceiving' or some 'reinventing' during periods when that planetary ruler of the conjunction goes retrograde. 

Also ... as touched on earlier, transits to Saturn conjunct Neptune depend in part on which planet numerically comes first, as that’s the planet which is going to be transited first, sort of ‘setting the scene’ for that which follows. conjunction can be problematic. Currently in Sagittarius, Saturn itself will be entering Capricorn in late 2017 - just as Saturn comes into orb to sextile Neptune, representing an opportunity.

Will we take advantage of that opportunity when it comes along? Or will we not realize that the reality we’re resisting is meant to be our own?

That’s an answer well worth searching out - which in this case would mean searching within.

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To the Person who searched for "Saturn conjunct Neptune,"

Are you still glad you asked?

Seriously, I hope this is of some help to you ... and others. It's not the world's easiest configuration, but some very accomplished people have this conjunction in their chart (which among other things proves that we can get past the Saturn-Neptune habit of creating some 'reality' in our mind which turns out to be OUR reality ... but not that of anyone else!).

But some people with this conjunction do find ways to use it well. In fact, it may be that very separation - that of success (which is a Saturn quotient) from satisfaction (which is far more Neptunian) which lies at the heart of many of the challenges you (assuming this is your configuration) will experience. So if you can keep those two things separate as you utilize the strength and grace of this configuration while doing each to your level best within the astrological boundaries provided (no running afoul, please), there is much to be (Saturn) learned and gained - which whether you (Neptunian) know it or not will (Saturn) earn a satisfaction few who do not spend a lifetime wrestling with the finer points of (Neptune) infinite (Saturn) finality will ever know. 

All the Best,

Boots

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Mars in Aries, Venus in Aries, Neptune into Shadow

Venus and Mars by Botticelli (c.1483)

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No sooner do we dive into our second month of Aquarian mental sparking (and barking) which embodies our best and worst mortal and oh-so lunar  instincts than the Sun enters Pisces.

That was yesterday ... February 18th.

And by now, barely twenty-four hours later, it’s already old hat because now we’re not entering the Piscean solar mode, we’re in it. Okay, we tell ourselves. I can make it through ... whatever lies ahead.

We hear our voice telling our Self some form of that. And yet the truth really is ....well, if we didn’t need to hear those words, we wouldn’t be muttering them, either verbally or mentally.

And no, we don’t know what’s ahead - which is one of those special Piscean quirks. Under Sun in Pisces, we either live in the moment and deal with each thing as it comes for what it is ... or we drive our Self (and often enough, others) batty by fighting some inevitability we’ve conjured from some inner fear.

Of Self, that is - specifically of what we might have to experience ... or to put the Piscean twist on it, to feel ourselves experiencing.

Fear of how others feel about you ... or what they could do to you, that’s Scorpio (and you know how we all feel about Scorpio, right?). But fear of what you could do to you - principally through your mind and emotions?

That’s Pisces. People talk about Pisces as a ‘trash can’ ... but if it is, it’s our trash can - it’s where everything we’d like to throw out (but can’t) gets put.

But since it’s out of sight, since we’re refusing to deal with it ... that doesn’t mean that it isn’t true. Or it doesn’t exist. We just don’t like admitting it - which is (in Piscean terms) why it literally haunt us.

The reality here is that ‘it’ isn’t haunting us - we’re haunting us. We’re haunted by those things in and about our Self we dread to know, deal with or embody.

But life is life, so occasionally we have to - and that would be part and parcel of the Sun’s passage through Pisces, a passage which this year is going to be barely a day old when Neptune, the ‘outcome’ ruler of Pisces which determines whether we’ve won, lost or deluded ourselves ... when Neptune enters the shadow of its 2015 retrograde cycle.

Mind you, we haven’t yet reached the end of the 2014 cycle. That doesn’t happen until March 6th (UT/+0), which means we’re still wrapping up a Neptune sub-cycle which began  when Neptune went retrograde last June (2014) ... and which some people will identify better as having begun on April 24, 2013.

Not that we’re any of us in any position to have real perspective on that yet. That’s one of the things about Neptune: while it times out periods of overall clarity, it’s not a fabulous influence when it comes to hard judgments in the moment - unless what you’re deciding is to not care ... in which case, you may care later.

Or not at all.

The practical and positive side of Neptune’s several weeks of overlapping cycles (which ends March 6th) is likely to be an ability to correlate and relate for reasons you can’t quite define. The impractical and negative side of Neptune’s several weeks of overlapping cycles (which ends March 6th) is that we may ignore something which seems obvious to others, but not us. It may be important. Even very important. Then again, it may matter not at all.

Now you know why Neptune is associated with romance. It’s genuine ... if often genuinely naïve and richly innocent. And more to our point here, Neptune is that ‘force of nature’ (read: our nature) which teaches us how unwise it is to romance our Self.

In other words, knowing our Self requires being honest with ourselves about who that Self is, and said quotient - without exception - includes some good and some bad, all of which we have to know, own and work with (or against, or in spite of) if we want to be truly fulfilled.

And here the reason why is simple: life wants us to be whole. For us to think that some point of our nature has no reason for being part of our nature is to question Nature itself - an idea which as curiosity is just fine, but when embodied as a matter of judging or judgment runs counter to Neptunian principle.

Neptune stands as a symbol about the fact that life is always ready and well equipped to prove (to us) that we neither know everything ... nor are we even up to having a full list of things we should be wanting to know about.

Existence is simply bigger than we are. And periodically, we humans forget that.

Neptune’s crossing into 2015 Cycle territory isn’t anything you’re likely to feel, sense or point to as part of your day. It’s something we’re all likely to slowly pick up on (if we bother to, that is) in the week or months to come as our orientations change, as things which were important yesterday fade into our mental woodwork.

However, there is another influence to talk about here - and that would be Kalypso. 

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Kalypso is going retrograde on Saturday, February 21st at 28 Libra, a degree known for the ability to inspire not just listening, but hear what people are trying to say (which is not always the same thing) with something of a built-in ability to discerning fairly well between real and faked needs.

In combination with Kalypso (an asteroid which confronts us with the idea that real love is not about ‘getting’ or being loved but rather about caring about those you love in terms of what they need, whether that makes you comfortable or happy (or not), this points to a period of days (February 19th through the 23rd) when it occurs to you - as it will to others - what projection and judgment really are.

And how terrible (even guilty) we can feel when we see or come to realize that we haven’t been listening.

Or at least we haven’t heard - some of which may simply be about not having any reference or experience with something.

So maybe you’re coming to such a realization about someone or something you’ve been involved in as Neptune crosses into its 2015 shadow. You may feel bad ... and at the same time you may feel inspired because you finally understand what it is you need to know - whether about yourself, something you’ve said, done or felt, or some situation which you have “judged” to be a certain way when maybe everything isn’t quite so cut and dry.

All of these energies sweep into our life and life’s atmosphere as Planet Earth moves through Thursday, February 19th.

And then on Friday (February 20th), Mars and Venus finish their transit of Pisces and head into Aries ... which means Mars will be moving through 29 Pisces (the degree of the March 20th solar eclipse) on the 18th and 19th before reaching the border of Aries-land at twelve minutes after midnight on the 20th (UT/+0 time).

Why is that worth stopping to think about?

Thought (and bearing this Mars factoid in mind) will be useful as emotional things happen on the 18th and 19th as things of this moment fall into two very different metaphysical groups: that which we are owning as our own feeling amidst all ... and that which we respond to, like as not blindly.

'Les Parques' (the Fates) by Alfred Agache (c. 1885)

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Pisces being about the experience of Self, either version can lead us to the reality which is the metaphysical purpose here. But to be exact, that purpose is the exploration of Self, not doing or getting anything from anyone else. With Venus following Mars into Aries at 20:07 (8:07 p.m.) on that very same day, Venus’ presence in Pisces speaks to depth of feeling which is surely genuine even as Mars at 29 Pisces evokes, promotes and provokes our feelings through processes and situations which tend to make us feel more or less ‘accepted’ by some Whole ... some of which will surely stir reactions, responses and a few instances of swallowing-of-one’s-words (or gum) for any of a bevy of unscheduled reasons.

The perfecting of this Venus-Mars conjunction won’t occur until just over a day after Mars hits its symbolic home sign - which, considering this means Mars will be at 0 Aries (a degree Mars is well suited to) as Venus moves through 29 Pisces (which exalts the Venus side of this equation) ... it would seem that we are in for at a day (or so) of personal confrontations with who we really are - and how that may differ from who we think we are, or who we want (or think we deserve) to be.

As noted, the conjunction follows after both ingresses (at 5:15 a.m. on the 22nd, UT/+0) and won’t even occur at 0 Aries, a degree which though thoroughly willing to stand up for what it believes is often not yet fully informed, which can lead to all sorts of ‘iffy’ moments (hence some of the Mars actions we will see on the 20th and 21st). Instead it occurs at 1 Aries, a degree which tends to ‘push’ (or be pushy) simply because there is a recognition that more does need to be known or understood for whatever reason.

And why would we be wanting to know whatever it is we want to know? Given that asteroid Klotho (beginnings) will be at 1 Aries as Venus and Mars meet up by conjunction, it would seem we need to know something or have some information in hand before we start something or commit to some course of action or stance.

And with this ingress also in trine to Saturn and Juno we have a grand trine in process coming into this time which will have begun ‘setting up’ (‘coming into force’ being a more astrological way of putting it) exactly as Mars reached 29 Pisces, from which position Mars would be in an out-of-sign trine to Saturn at 4 Sagittarius.

Alone, Mars-Saturn connections often refer to strengths. Badly aspected, they can refer to a militant attitude which can be violent, but which can also be entirely contained, trained and disciplined through (Saturn) efforts, training or structures which prevent acts an actions being taken ‘out of turn.’
Also alone, Venus-Saturn contacts often refer to  stability and the ability to act or interact in such a manner as to advance one’s aim or goal, particularly in business.

However ... while Mars in Aries is ‘at home’ in its surroundings, Venus in Aries is not - which either suggests that ‘business’ (be it personal, financial or otherwise) may already be... or it may now become something of a problem.

Metaphysically, this is an issue all about Self - you know, that integral and singular Aries Self (or in some cases, the ‘thing’ you identify with). Yet because Venus is a symbol all about what we get back in response to that which we have put out there ... or which we have been to others, there’s every chance that during this ingress-to-conjunction (and beyond) point we aren’t going to be happy precisely because we aren’t ‘getting’ what we want to be ‘getting’ from others - be that the answer we want to hear or otherwise.

Some part of us knows that we’re not in the ‘free and clear’ when it comes to why things aren’t going perfectly at the moment ... but we aren’t going to be in the mood to get all moody and philosophical about such things now. Throughout Venus’ traipse through Aries (which ends March 17th just after Saturn goes into retrograde) we’re going to be asking a lot of ‘why couldn’t things just work - just this once!’ and no doubt muttering other more decorative if possibly less polite commentaries from time to time.

Sisyphus by von Stuck

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And yet, is it really that we aren’t getting what we want to get from others and life which is really at stake here?

In this grand trine, Juno - standing for the ability to ‘manage’ things - being conjunct Sisyphus will ask whether we can ... or can be bothered to avoid our own most perilous nature. Perilous to others? Yes, on occasion - as the story of Sisyphus makes clear, Sisyphus is one of those impulses which says ‘if I can ... why shouldn’t I?’

And the answer there is simple: because you shouldn’t. Not all of Sisyphus’ intelligence and cleverness could save him from a Self which was determined to think he didn’t have to follow eternal and incontrovertible rules - the most basic of which (in the original story) involves the killing of those who are a.) going about their independent business doing nothing to harm anyone, b.) those we are in a previously promised alliance with, and c.) those who we are taking care of or in charge of in some capacity.

In the story, Sisyphus is a person of advantage who uses his advantage to do harm to people. And when taken to task, Sisyphus doesn’t bother denying what he’s done - he just turns to trying to avoid paying the price for what he’s done, working his way up the Olympian god ladder as Sisyphus diligently works to evade and avoid inevitability.

It doesn’t work. For his pains, Sisyphus ends up not merely being assigned to a particularly futile end rolling a rock up a hill it will always roll back down. But perhaps because of Sisyphus' demonstrated love of drama, he's also given a prime position at the entrance to Tartarus (the Greek underworld) where with fellow sinner Tantalus, Sisyphus stands as eternal warning to all who would attempt to and take fate - that which should never be the decision of any human - into their own mortal hands.

Juno-Sisyphus will work both ways in this grand trine: it will represent the (Juno) ‘management’ of destructive (Sisyphus) impulses ... and the efforts and lengths some will go to so as to (Juno) ‘manage’ to do what they want because they (Sisyphus) feel entitled to.

And yes, because they can.

That Venus moves more quickly that Mars is evident if you just look at the length of time it takes each planet to go once around the Sun: Venus takes 224.7 days and Mars takes 687 days (1.88 years) - which is just over three times longer than the Venus cycle. So even though Venus reaches Aries after Mars does, from their conjunction point on the 22nd Venus will continue moving ahead until the orb of conjunction between Mars and Venus ends on March 6th-7th (the date depends on where you are) - which is a couple of days after Mars’ trine to Saturn ends on March 4th-5th.

Most people will experience this as feeling like they have more latitude of choice ... and a lessening of preoccupation(s) with desire-based notions. With Saturn slowing (in terms of zodiacal movement only) in anticipation of taking its station on March 14th we’re all reaching a point where we have to reorganize and catch up with ourselves, all of which is part and parcel of Saturn’s passage through Sagittarius, a transit which is sure to chop a few outmoded items off of each one of our ‘to do’ lists in life.

Some of us will change priorities in the weeks ahead as Mars’ transit of Aries (which doesn’t end until March 31st) continues emphasizing the realities of our day-to-day, life-on-Earth life.
Some will merely ask why others won’t be who we want them to be.

Who we are between these two paths is going to be defined by whether we are trying to base today on yesterday ... or whether we live our todays with an eye to building better tomorrows.

You know ... without killing anyone - including our most precious and preciously human Self.
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