New Years, New Moon

New Years fireworks at the London Eye

(photo credit: John Turner, January 1, 2008)

To turn the calendar page to 2014 and find a New Moon in Capricorn seems almost obvious. After all, Capricorn is all about what we do and achieve and aim for in the world and January – for most of us – means a variety of things.
 
You know, like facing beginning another round of record tallying for last year as we begin this one.

You know – that stuff. The stuff which is about being in and part of this world. The stuff we have to do (like our job in life, whatever that may be). Capricorn exudes responsibility. Events under Capricorn tend to elicit our sense of responsibility (to self or others) and all that prompts us to learn right from wrong what either underperforming or excess can be and/or add or detract from life…

…it’s all so very Capricorn-ish.

But when it comes to lunations, the theory is this: Moon and Earth are in this centrifugal-centripetal orbit dance driven by magnetism and other nifty universal forces… and as planet (Earth) and satellite (Moon) go through their dances, so do we.

(Okay, so I’m still in dance-lingo mode. Give me a few days, will you?)

The point here (no, I’m not going all ballet on you) is that by identifying the nature of the cycle we can bear that in mind. Once we ‘get a (Moon) feel’ for how this month’s cycle works, we can make the most of it.

10 Capricorn New Moon - January 1, 2014

(Aries Wheel - Location not Specific)

DISCLAIMER: We are under Venus retrograde – also in Capricorn. Hard work is required – first of all on our attitude towards our abilities or aims (or dislike of, or issues with same).

Don’t plan any capering through the rose petal parties, in other words.

(Yes, I know...I'll stop now.)

In that things don’t ‘feel right’ however, that’s probably part of what we could think of as ‘temporal motivation’ – the universe’s way of bringing about that which will get us into a “January mode” for ‘taking care of business.’

As for 10 Capricorn, the foundation of this lunation, that is a degree which is defined (by being one of Capricorn’s second ten degrees) as a quality which functions through (by eliciting responses) us – either by eliciting our response or which we embody in our choices and actions…OR which manifests as some sense or feeling which gets us to dealing with our aims and place in the world – whatever that may mean in the moment.

And that last bit…? The ‘in the moment’ part? That’s maybe the hardest part of dealing with the Moon – and often life (she says in a thoroughly philosophically if ever-so-slightly cynical manner)…things which feel like forever, for most of us aren’t – and things which we don’t care about in the moment can come back to haunt us.

Being founded in 10 Capricorn, the lunation which begins at 11:15 a.m. (UT/+0 time) on January 1st is going to usher in a month of sensitivity to a bigger picture and some need to reevaluate some personal priority (big or small). The pluses tend towards an increased understanding of acute awareness while minuses come from “being depressed” (or maybe repressed or even oppressed) in some way.

There’s a reckoning of sorts to be had this month, and with Pluto at 11 Capricorn (did I hear you say ‘oh goodie’…?) there are transformational forces at work which we each will come across in our own way, place and zone. The issue is ‘challenges’ and our problem is scope. Secrets we keep and what we know is probably merely a ‘mask’…or the ‘masking’ of matters becomes something we encounter, learn from and in reflecting on, are transformed by – though as usual, since we’re talking Pluto this is likely to be a facet of a greater cyclic shaping of your life.

That cycle began about a year and a half ago (call it the mid-latter part of 2012). What happens now plays into that in an ‘another thought for that bin’ sort of way while being something which is its own ‘thing’ and of separate interest right now.

With Mercury at 12 Capricorn, thoughts and thoughtfulness count now. To be clever is one thing – to be boorish or overly proud, another. It’s not what we can do now which counts…it’s why we do it, and why those others are who they are to us.

That seems the bottom line. However…

(Yes, I hear you holding your breath.)

…of course there’s a catch.

(Oh, don’t fuss at me! When was the last time you heard of a cycle of any type without a catch?)

This particular ‘catch’ is known as a Grand Square.

This particular grand square is in cardinal (action oriented) signs. So there’s a lot of tension about things we want to do, need to do, would like to do or want to see done (or see others do – or feel them wanting us to do). That’s another part of this giant cosmic lump of energy in Capricorn. (I’m thinking outer space oatmeal lumps here.) Life, the big world, our reputation – all that seems big giant stuff this month. (So says the girl about to release an autobiography which requires content warning labels.) With Venus retrograde things could be better than we think (hear me, oh doubters!). Or, for the particularly blithe and optimistic, the floor may be about to drop out from under us, particularly as that pertains to some notion about how to ‘effect’ or ‘be effective’ in some way which now seems – or comes to seem desirable, needed, necessary…or just ours to do because we can.

Sometimes the best form of responsibility is just living up to the responsibilities of being the best human being we know how to be, y‘know?

This kind of grand square in a lunation suggests this month will be active and maybe hectic. With Saturn (at 20 Scorpio) deposing/ruling the herd of (Moon-Sun-Pluto-Mercury-Venus) Capricorn positions we are told that the emotional-spiritual side of things (the “why” we do them) is important enough to need considering, but it should be considered along with everything else.

Hey, it’s Venus retrograde – like anything needs deciding about yet? Not likely. None of us yet have all the information, no matter what we think we’re doing.

This is a restless time. With this much cardinal energy abounding there are likely to be arguments – or at least uncomfortable confrontations or conversations. But this isn’t about any lack of constructive potential. Far from it! (So no copping out, okay?) About everything we could think of is emitting a subtle but thorough message which says if we allow the light to slowly come to us, it will come.

And if we don’t? If we deny that which is there to be learned from, it teaches us a lesson.

Our choice.

Right now the face of our internal ‘Moon’ is dark. But in a day or two, we will see how we feel.

And then that too shall pass.
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The Libra New Moon: Taking a Stand, Fighting Our Self

It will be just 36 minutes after midnight on October 5th in the UT/+0 zone when the New Moon occurs. This will be the last New Moon before November’s solar eclipse and the beginning of the lunation which will set off the ‘revving up’ which will lead to a Lunar Eclipse on October 18th.

That lunar eclipse will occur at 25 Aries, which is one thing we should consider here because Libra-to-Aries is a direct opposition. So this cycle – or at least the first half of this lunation cycle – has a distinct “I/thou” quality. You may experience that in relationships…or how you relate to someone or something going on in the world or your world.

Or in how you conceive of your world and how it works. Because this New Moon begins this experience in Libra, we know the essence of the issue is ‘how to get the results I want to get?’ whether from others or some situation…which is pretty much offset by ‘who am I in this transaction?’ – be that a human transaction, a business transaction, an emotional, financial or experiential transaction.

Yes, we’re in the wonderful world of ‘cause-effect’…otherwise known as what you put out comes back to you. Some would immediately think of this as karma, though your local (or not-so-local, depending on where you are) metaphysician tends to think karma differs from cause-effect. Cause-effect is pretty ‘directional,’ if you will – I talk to you, you talk to me. The actor performs for the audience, the audience applauds or boos.

One of the interesting things about Libra which doesn’t get talked about much…(and which applies not only to whatever house Libra falls on in your chart but also as something of an ‘undercurrent’ with regards to the 7th house of any chart no matter what sign is on its cusp)…is also the idea that Libra is not just about peaceful relationships. Or loving relationships. One of the keywords in the long Libra list is ‘open enemies’…so plainly Libra is not just a sign of cupcakes and roses.

My point about karma is that karma – which is associated with Scorpio (not Libra) doesn’t necessarily come from the direction in which you’re headed. Or which you are addressing yourself to. Karma is the emotive, the energetic side of experience. So you may do good or nasty thing (Call it “Act A”) in one place and the energetic of that emotional intent …which in true Scorpio style you may be owning OR you may be choosing to be in denial about…that will just come around through something entirely different.

With that said, Libra-Scorpio-Sagittarius is the full spectrum of the 3rd zodiacal quadrant. And that tells us that Libra – an air sign – is where we get into the idea of the thing BEFORE we commit ourselves emotionally, or commit ourselves through any of many means which in meaning something to us (or which has meaning to us) creates an emotional relationship.

And that’s what really is so tricky about Scorpio…in Scorpio the emotional relationship is complex where in the theoretical ‘idea of it’ Libra realm, things are pretty simplistic. I have a friend with major placements in both Libra and Scorpio who is forever getting in trouble because they don’t WANT to deal with the fact that the natural progression of any process…be it human or business or whatever…goes from the (Libra) idea of the thing and the talking it through into the Scorpio realm of ‘things at stake’ which they get all kerfluffled up about.

But that’s the process. Trying to avoid part of the zodiacal process…any part of the zodiacal process…by definition is limiting yourself to only getting as far as you’re willing to go.

So this person (who is one of my many Scorpio Moon friends) has a TERRIBLE time with relationships. No, they don’t have to be intimate. Anything personal…and that can be business personal or personal-personal gets them into a quagmire – not so much with the other person as their ability or willingness to take on their own feelings on the subject. And because they choose the Scorpio denial route, they end up creating no end of hassles for themselves and in essence, bogging themselves down IN the very sign dynamic they want to get past.

This is all really important to us now as we move into this Libra New Moon and this Libra-Aries New-to-Full Moon process. Since Aries is the sign of ‘I am’ and all things consciously ourselves, these weeks ahead are going to be full of situations and experiences which bring home to us (that would be the Libra-TO-Aries process) what the ‘who we are being’ (our Libra presentation, our Libra choices of who to deal with or prioritize or listen to, etc.) is…and whether that’s working for us.

Or even if we really like ourselves being that person.

As I say that, let’s keep in that Libra/Scorpio difference in mind, however. Why? Because this Libra New Moon of October 5th (or 4th, for those in the Americas) is the start of the process which is going to carry our Libra concepts and conceptualizations into the wonderful if catabolic world of November’s Scorpio Solar Eclipse.

Solar eclipses are fascinating, no question. And the focus of any solar eclipse is of major astrological concern – again, no question. But the way that solar eclipses tend to function in real life and our real world life involves an ‘eclipse-flavored’ lead in (which I tend to refer to as the ‘breaking down’ period) which through testing us shows up the weaknesses or the fallacies – or yes, the denials – which we have bought into in our lives. What the solar eclipse does is force us to relinquish the false front, the cover-up, the ‘making do’ and the compromises of Self we’ve bought into in order to bring us closer to being who we were born to be to begin with.

You know, before parents and life styles and materialism and corporate advertising and our peer group pressures – before any of that got to us.

The incoming eclipse is Scorpionic. So it’s seriously emotional. It’s evocative and provocative and no doubt people in your world are stirring you up even as they feel stirred up and everybody is going stir crazy under the pressure.

Ultimately the question is all about self worth of a type which asks whether you would respect yourself if you met you. Or would you say ‘that guy has such potential, but he’s selling himself short’ or ‘that woman has every opportunity to do good in this world and instead she’s just thinking of herself.’

(Yes, these two examples have leapt to mind for a reason in my world…but they’re entirely valid, nonetheless!)

Scorpio exhibits itself through power games – so wherever you’re trying to grasp power or exert power over others, that’s the place to look first.

And the reason why I say ‘over others’ is because this month’s ‘phase in the eclipse breaking down process’ is colored by Libra. So we know this is about the idea of who we are being to others – which given the eclipse, they’re likely to be letting us have an earful about!

Another note worth touching on, before we move right along: Libra is the signature dynamic of Gen X (October 1971-April 1972; end of July 1972-early November 1983; late May 1984-late August 1984)…and Scorpio is the signature dynamic of Gen Y: early November 1983 through mid-May 1984 (plus) end of August 1984 through early November 1995.

Gen Y – as a whole – is under an enormous amount of ‘strip-down’ pressure which is aimed at trying to get this generation to get more ‘real’ in a universal sense. Gen Y is challenged by the need to balance their emotional knowing-of-self with knowing and honoring others at THEIR emotional levels. Gen Y was born to live a long and full life of not just ‘power brokering’ or negotiating for what they want, but a life which embraces the ability and willingness to be vulnerable to others on a level which engenders respect.

Really powerful people are vulnerable because real strength knows it can survive no matter what is thrown into their court. This doesn’t mean strong people don’t express themselves. This doesn’t mean the strong person doesn’t say ‘ugh!’ or ‘I’m not having anything CLOSE to a good time!’…in fact, quite the opposite.

Real emotional strength is only present when we are able to own, display and share our weaknesses…and that’s an important step in the process of being human.

This lunation is bringing home to us either the challenges or the things we need to work on…or maybe some new insights on how we’re getting in our own way because of our approach. Through the Libra situation or the Libra interaction or the Libra ‘message from the other’ (business, personal or otherwise) we are being told where we need to look.

And yes, the easiest thing to do is to project and say ‘that’s their problem.’ That’s a classic Libra response – hardly anything is MORE classically Libra, as a matter of fact!

Let's be real here...‘they’ may indeed have a problem. In which case…what is stopping you from helping them understand that problem? That doesn’t mean yelling at them or walking out on them…that means exploring the (Libra) idea of the situation with them.

In the process, if you can get that far, you’re likely to learn a whole lot about yourself, too. That’s just the way things work – especially now. The fabric of time-space seems to draw particularly dense as we move through ‘eclipse season’ and because this season is about the combination of Scorpio-Aires (the Scorpio Solar Eclipse and the Aries Lunar Eclipse) these several months (September and October – leading into November) is all about the experiencing of the Self in a very vital, even primal way.

Or as a friend of mine puts it: profound…a word which strikes me as being the desire to be ‘pro-active’ about finding that thing which will make us feel ‘found.’

By whom? By our Self.

And back to that Gen X thing for a moment…above, I said this: through the Libra situation or the Libra interaction or the Libra ‘message from the other’ (business, personal or otherwise) we are being told where we need to look.

In a nutshell, that’s pretty much the core of the Gen X thing. Gen X (Pluto in Libra) creates a massive attraction to others so that through others Gen X’ers can learn who they are…and aren’t. The Plutonic tendency (which goes with Pluto’s association with Scorpio) to ‘merge’ and be ‘part of the group’ is generally the way this instinct functions. But successful Gen X’ers (which is to say, Gen X people who are successful as being their own person) in time discover who they are supposed to be as distinct from the group or as an individual which is part of some group (or profession) but who has their own very individual way of doing things which has to do with who they are as an individual and what talents and resources they bring to being who they are….that’s the Gen X ‘object.’ As Gen X’ers develop, they may or may not drift away from old friends and ‘the old group’…but as surely as Scorpio follows Libra, the Gen X’er who comes to be their own person and secure in being the person they are will in time find a group which is aligned with their inner energetic – not the sexual one or the societal one, the human one.

Learning how to be human and who they are as an individual human is a seriously Gen X thing.

The Libra New Moon

Oct 5, 2013 - 00:34 a.m. (UT +0) - Aries Wheel (Location not Specific)

So with that all now toodled and noodled, we’ll wrap up with a few astro-technicals. The degree of this New Moon is 11 Libra, a degree which by “decanate definition” (i.e., which ten degrees of the sign it falls in) is emotional. So the ideas of the moment are fervent. Or maybe really ‘important feeling.’ With the overhanging solar eclipse energetic in the air, even the most theoretical thing is going to evoke more feeling (and feelings) at the moment – so we can all expect more frustration, more elation, more dancing off on a whim and more calling people on their…um…stuff. (Yeah, we’ll go with ‘stuff’ here as the generic.)

That said, this is not a degree known for consistency, constant anything or steadiness of effort, conviction or ‘the ability to transmit.’ This last is particularly important as this New Moon also takes place  in opposition to Uranus (in Aries) – so the nervous system and “fits of nerves” (anxieties, flare-ups, etc.) are to pay attention to.

Given the opposition (Libra to Aries) that ‘flaring up’ may also signal ‘something in the air’ either literally or on a more philosophical level. Being thrown ‘off’ by something sudden or some sudden change would also not be unexpected.

This degree (11 Libra) is known to have an association with physical activities – particularly those of a sports or athletic nature. This may serve to be the venue through which other events happen (or other facets of the degree come to light) or it may simply be an interest you run hot or cold on during this period.

Responsibility – a concept often associated with Libra as a facet of “honesty” (with one’s Self as part of this world) is also stressed by this degree and problems having to do with lack of responsibility may well surface. Being that this is an opposition to Uranus in Aries, this may be your irresponsibility which is focused on, or it may be your realizing that someone else is being irresponsible.

Or at least not responsive (as a sidebar conjugation of ‘responsible’) to others. This is, after all, Libra we’re talking about, so very little is going to happen in true isolation here. Someone else is involved or implied or associated with everything, whether they’re in the room or conversation or actively involved in any specific dynamic or not.

How we treat others is also up for grabs here. By itself, 11 Libra speaks to the polarity not so much between good and evil (that’s more emotional and therefore more Scorpio-ish) but between kindness and cruelty as stemming from our regard for how we interact with others.

For whatever reason, I happen to like the Sabian Symbol for this degree very much. (And no, it’s not highlighted in my natal horoscope, so go figger.) The symbol reads like this: MINERS ARE SURFACING FROM A DEEP COAL MINE and its keynote is ‘The need to carry on at ever deeper levels the quest for knowledge which keeps burning the fires of the collective mind of a society.’

As I type that, I can’t help but think about how exactly I’ve been led to this time to be publishing my favorite manuscript of all time. It’s called ‘Reality and Mind’ and I expect it to be out in…oh….maybe a month or so, give or take. It’s ‘high’ (quest) fantasy, which a lot of you love, and it will be coming out as a series of four books – much like ‘Lord of the Rings’ is published as three books.

Ebook publishing formats having not yet caught up with what this manuscript requires, it will be out in print only – at least for a while. But that’s okay…who doesn’t like curling up with an engrossing book?

No, it’s not precisely astrological. But if you think about who wrote it, what do you think the chances are that it doesn’t have in its weaving a goodly measure of metaphysical thought?

Just sayin’…and yes, that keynote and the Sabian does remind me of this work.

More on that, later – as I get more information on when it will be available initially through Amazon and shortly thereafter through any bookstore near you.

In any case, this Sabian Symbol is plainly about ‘things coming to light’ and ideas which we have ‘dug out of the darkness.’ And yet, even while this symbol speaks to going within and digging ever deeper, it also refers to ‘surfacing’ – which is not just bringing whatever ‘jewels’ we have found to the light but our own ‘coming up for air.’

And that's a very interesting idea, particularly here at a Libra New Moon under the auspices of a Scorpio Solar Eclipse. If we understand the idea of a solar eclipse as ‘peeling away’ those layers or that part of our daily life which has hidden or prevented us from being who we really are inside…underneath…within…then this symbol makes a good deal of sense as part of a far greater metaphysical process. Astrologer Dane Rudhyar, in writing about this image, uses the term ‘EXTRACTION’ and in a sense, that’s exactly what a solar eclipse does – particularly when it hits our charts (or more exactly, points in our charts) with any exactness.

The eclipse ‘extracts’ us from the surrounding matrix of life details as surely as the miner extracts the metal or gem and brings that out – as the miner (as a person) is also extracted from the mine.

There are many layers, many facets implied here…rather like one of those sets of Matroyshka dolls where one doll fits into the next.

 Matryoshka dolls

(photo credit: Jeff BelMonte, February 2007)

Last thought…the opposition is not the only figure imaged in this Libra New Moon. That the opposition seems so vital may just be me. Or it may just be the most personal side of the configuration. But that opposition is merely half of a grand square (or grand cross) which comes with the founding of this lunation cycle.

That the Sun/Moon part of this (at 11 Libra) is conjunct Diadem (“the crowning glory”) speaks to our aims, relationships we care about and how important it is to care about the nature and quality of interactions along with who we choose to interact with.

Nemesis on the Uranian side of this configuration says we may now choose to stand up and embody some deep conviction which isn’t particularly popular…or that something we have been told or warned about comes to pass.

Industria-Pluto-Facies in Capricorn is a collage of effort and boundaries and restrictions and needs which can either frustrate us or which we can take on as the guiding principle by which we reach our goals.

And then there’s Black Moon Lilith plus Alhena/Lachesis in Cancer, a combination which starts with Alhena-Lachesis as a ‘duration of purpose’ or maybe even ‘biding our time’ against which Black Moon Lilith is a denial mechanism on a scale which goes beyond our Self. We may be doing the denying of others or society itself…or society may be ignoring us, even if we have discovered the cure for the common cold.

The trick is to hold all these thoughts in your head at the same time and to utilize them with balance and measured applications. Grand squares (aka grand crosses) are notoriously difficult – which in this month of heading into a Scorpio solar eclipse probably isn’t news to anyone. That this particular grand square is in cardinal signs (indicating action) makes this sort of a ‘taking the plunge’ sort of vibe, but being that the degrees are both in 0-9 first decan degrees (indicating something personal that we do) AND in early ‘teen degrees (indicating our feelings on or about some subject, effort, person, relationship, etc.)…that says we’re moving ahead at least with harnessing or understanding our motivations.

And then we add in a few 'other' points…

Chiron-Vesta in opposition (trine Saturn) speaks to the need to keep our commitments to ourselves…but most of all at a level which we can live with emotionally. So there’s a hint of morality, a hint of the need to care thrown in here. (As if we needed any more reminders?) But maybe even more to the point, Saturn and Vesta are each sitting in signs to either side of this New Moon’s position in Libra. And that adds a whole new layer of…well, maybe frustration. Or feeling offended… criticized… unappreciated. The semi-sextile between Saturn and the New Moon is very much about calling our priorities or values into account and considering that Saturn is very much tied up with the incoming solar eclipse, that’s likely to refer to something which is pretty darn uncomfortable.

Solution: feel your discomfort, grumble if you must - then cope with the reality. The long term reality...which is to say, the one which matters to you (honestly/Libra) as a human. 

You know, a person.

The same goes for Vesta’s semi-sextile relationship to the New Moon. Practicality is great. But who or what are you prioritizing – and is that working for you sufficiently that it ‘works’ at a level you can live with emotionally at the ‘way deep down late at night’ sort of level…never mind what anybody else says.

It’s a complicated time. But then, life isn’t supposed to be simple. If it was, we’d all be cardboard cutouts.

And we’re not.
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Pluto Direct

A Hubble Telescope photograph of WR124 (in nebula M1 67) spewing clumps of hot gas outwards from its star core at some 100,000 mph

(photo credit: Hubble Space Telescope, NASA-JPL, March 1997)

Pluto is going direct on September 20th at 3:27 in the afternoon, UT/+0 time. As noted several posts ago, it will be going direct at the exact degree of Facies – a fixed star (nebula, actually) which has a pretty problematic reputation with astrologers.

- link to -

Pluto/Facies: Moving On

Considering how Pluto’s keywords are ‘create, deny, destroy’ we can probably all expect a little of this energy to be circulating through our lives from the simple ‘I don’t want to talk about that’ to the full scale war complete with the horrors of death and destruction.

But there’s a reason why Pluto is associated with the image of the Phoenix. Whether the destruction is brought about by fire, flame or societal…even personal vulnerability or failings, that which is affected by Pluto opens the door to something new which in time will ‘rise from the ashes.’

That Pluto is making its ‘turn’ in conjunction not just with Facies but with Industria tells us the most likely place for challenges to arise…or where we’re likely to have our ‘ship come in’ (get results) is in any area of work or personal effort. This station is thus (more or less) either about what’s we’re working to build, or some structure which is in our life which is preventing us from building what we need to build or building anew.

Not that we’re likely to be all jingles about the thing, no matter what it is. People who are already in the process of ‘transforming’ their lives are going to find it’s a heavy time for details and effort. As all of us do when confronted by such a moment, it’s going to feel like the more we do, the more there is to do!

That would very naturally bring out the Facies ‘many parts, much to do’ and feeling very put-upon (i.e., like a victim). And there’s of course that fact that when we’re feeling all bogged down and overwhelmed how anyone breezing by seems callous, heartless and worthy of a big sign on their back which reads ‘villain.’

A lot of what goes on now is going to be about perspective. With Pluto in opposition to Black Moon Lilith (Lilith/Child conjunct conjunct Sirius) there are going to be a lot of people leaving the physical nest (however old they are!) and a lot of people leaving the emotional nest.

We just know it’s time to be something more real in our own minds. There comes a point when the acquiescing to others becomes less comforting and comfortable and more of a burden on that Self we know we are and which we really want to become.

This would be one of those times.

For those who don’t have anything in particular in the pot or on some back burner, this is likely to be a particularly trying passage as they see change going on all around them. Just to pick one popular harmonic to these placements, the third harmonic (representing the thought and mental attitude) to Pluto-Facies’ position would be Piscean – which is why those who achieve things in the worldly and Capricorn sense (not to mention those with important Capricorn placements) think in universal terms. Where Aquarius is ‘mass movement’ and social interaction, Pisces is the universality of emotion – and let’s face it, we all live in our emotions as human beings. Even those of us who try to avoid our emotions do so because they don’t feel comfortable to us!

The third harmonic to Cancer, on the other hand, is Virgo…telling us why those who are opposing change will now couch everything in terms of whether something is ‘pragmatic’ or ‘workable’ or even ‘healthy’ for us to do.

It’s an interesting oppositional dynamic – the common chord and the level at which humans ‘live’ (their emotional sense of Self) being the key to knowing how to achieve anything versus the localized ‘we need to deal with this right here, right now.’

And that’s pretty much the issue – universality versus localized visions on how life should be structured and what we need to do to make our lives more viable, workable, safe and satisfying at the same time.

Barring the idea that your home is being flooded at the moment (in which case, why are you reading astrological posts on the internet?) or there’s some real-time calamity going on, this gets down to one very simple idea: the safety and functionality of our personal world is predicated on the greater world in which we live.

Now, I know as I say that how there are people who think that if they earn enough money or gain enough power they won’t have to deal with anything.

That might work except for things like famine, earthquakes, world economies, plagues and all that stuff.

Oh yes, that.

Yes, that. We are all subject to the world around us, which is why the statement ‘I don’t care about anyone/anything but my own (insert term)’ tends to not just sound like folly but BE folly.

...Which rather gets back to some of what I was noting here at Ye Olde Bloggery last week when talking about Pluto-Facies (see link above). 

It’s at times like this that such folly reveals itself as follow. For all the resisters and desist-ers, for the anti-change nay-sayers and control freaks of this life, if your chart answers to 8 Capricorn, you’re in for a bit of a steam-roller-ing. Life is trying to unwrinkle your contracted soul – which to you may feel like getting hit with a hot iron.

Which yes, would be two sides of the same experience. But what’s your choice? We cannot retreat from life…not that I don’t know a few people who give that their very best shot. (No, it doesn’t work.)

Thinking back to those harmonics, the universal considerations which go with the implied Capricorn-Pisces connective are certainly heightened by the fact that we are talking not “just” Pluto, but Pluto-Facies. Issues of discomfort, feelings of haplessness and being helpless to do things the way you might want to do them are probably to be expected, at the very least.

Applying this to the idea that we give celestial objects a two-days-before, two-days-after ‘station allowance’ window, with the Moon entering Pisces on September 17th that Moon – representing feelings and values and our susceptibility to them and everything which provokes emotionality – ‘triggers’ the third Pluto-in-Capricorn harmonic on September 18th at about four-twenty-something in the morning (UT/+0) time.

Of course there are twelve ‘natural’ harmonics to any placement (there being twelve zodiac signs). So why care so much about the third?

Part one: because that represents our mentality. The station is the station is the station…and the sign its in is the sign of ‘awareness’ – the first harmonic derivative. But that all-important moment of thinking through things and realizing we need to deal with them and cope with them? That’s the third harmonic.

Besides, Chiron is sitting at 10 Pisces. So this Pluto station atop Facies is going to be ‘setting off’ our Chiron-in-Pisces “no, I don’t want to have to deal with that” feelings…which the Moon is going to trigger early on the 18th (or late on the 17th if you’re in the western Americas). Chiron in Pisces is a whole sea of processes which challenge us to explore our own emotional makeup and to deal with whatever incongruities exist between our vision of reality and our vision of the ideal. Or life in real time versus the life in our head. Or the fact versus the thing we’d like to think is the fact…or how we’d like to feel as opposed to what our real feelings are about anything.

Or yes, anyone.

Moreover, as the Moon set’s off this ‘Piscean thought-wave,’ as it reaches 8 Pisces (the perfected sextile to Pluto at 8 Capricorn) this creates another Grand Sextile…

In case you're wondering, I don't color the signs in red and blue because

I'm an American, but rather to show the alternation between Yin and Yang

signs as we move around the zodiac.

 

…which but an hour later, as the Moon moves forward into 9 Pisces is re-struck by Venus moving into 8 Scorpio.

Scorpio is the 11th harmonic to Capricorn, which brings up the concept of negotiating our way through life and negotiating of/in relationships of all kinds in our life. The Sabian Symbol for 8 Scorpio is an apt one: A DENTIST AT WORK, which astrologer Dane Rudhyar very astutely summarizes as ‘overcoming the negative results of social prejudices and ego-cravings.’ Venus so often manifests as the ‘what we want’ in life and our Venusian challenges are to realize that what we get out of anything depends on what we are going into it and what we do as part of it…which in the wonderful (and as I almost typed that, ‘wound-erful’) world of Scorpio tells us that the basis of relationship with someone – be they our platonic friend, our business partner or employer or our most luscious and beloved squeeze – that relationship doesn’t happen ‘by magic.’ It has to be negotiated. Too often in life we get ourselves in trouble by ‘assuming’ we know what somebody is thinking. Or what they prefer.

Scorpio is all about showing that up as an error on our part.

So often we think we can just ‘go for the standard role’ in a situation or relationship, completely forgetting how unique we are and how unique everybody else is, too.

Scorpio will show up those miscalculations as well.

There’s a longstanding myth which people evidently want desperately to believe that relationships “shouldn’t need work.”

The ‘I don’t have to work at it’ (or me, or my relationship) doesn’t work either.

Sooner or later our not negotiating our relationships backfires. What passion may sustain starting out falls through thin Scorpio ice (which the passion has heatedly melted through, one suspects). Or we find out that beneath the shiny exoskeleton of that Scorpio situation lies something rotten.

You know…which then the dentist has to work on – hence the symbol.

All of this is part of the process of moving forward towards the 11 Scorpio Solar Eclipse which will occur on November 3rd. The watery grand trine from Venus in Scorpio to (Moon) Chiron in Pisces to Black Moon Lilith in Cancer (which is opposing Pluto) is a contradictory energy, one pole of which wants to dig in and forget changing anything and the other pole of which realizes changes are desperately needed even if we don’t know (consciously) how to make them.

The Chirotic answer is to allow ourselves to feel our feelings and whatever reluctance or fear or haplessness goes along with them while walking forward through our veil. Chiron always asks that we do something we don’t know how to do and through doing it, transcend who we have been in realizing we can be so much more. As it’s doing that, Venus is sextiling Pluto’s station from Scorpio, guaranteeing that we can change our place in the world and what we conceive of as our place in the world if we will only release our death grip on our current status quo.

This is one of those ‘give a little, get a lot,’ moments.

However, as I say that, I also fully believe that giving a little now means a huge personal evolution – a life transformation – yet to come.

What we need to do may not be popular. No, not even with us. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be done. Plus there is that old metaphysical lesson about energy and energetics. Energy is never lost. It changes form, it can be shifted from one place to another (to some degree) rather as you can do with water in a water balloon. But in the end, the energy we fail to use or that we refuse to utilize becomes energy which life simply brings to us in the form of something which we then have to respond to and which we have no input on.

And that’s a whole other – and more universal – conceptualization of the Facies ‘victim-perpetrator’ concept. We now have a chance to shape our world and life moving forward. If we fail to take that on or follow through and make best efforts (complete with a measure of letting go and clearing/cleaning out) could it be that we’re perpetrating some sort of ‘victimization’ of our greater potential or ability to grow with life…or in our life?

Perhaps.

As always with any such station, those who have major placements (planets, dwarf planets, nodes or chart angles) within 5 degrees of the conjunction, opposition point or squares will experience the greatest focal…or in the case of squares, challenge from these next few days at least. So that would mean anyone with any important placement between 3 and 13 degrees of Capricorn (the conjunction), Cancer (the opposition), Libra and/or Aries (the squares) are going to be most affected now.

Let’s also not forget that such stations also work in the charts of nations, companies and relationships as well.

One other thing worth noting here…on the date of Pluto’s actual station (September 20th) the Moon will be in Aries.

The Grand Sextile is still there, yes. But with Venus now at 10 Scorpio and the Moon exactly conjunct Uranus, not only are we likely to feel whatever energy is around being ‘brought home’ to us, but despite our tendency to react in very personal terms (which is natural and very Aries), those two green lines forming a “V” shape… which in astrological terms actually form the “Y” of a Yod are telling us that our answers lie not in embodying the Uranus/Moon 11 Aries tendency to over-react, exaggerate (in reality or in our mind) or get all about ‘that other person’ but instead to embrace the ‘other perspective’ which is shown through 11 Libra, a degree which asks that we think things through and work through the issue or situation at a manageable rate.

In other words, can the explosions and go for a step-by-step, more managed and interactive, even negotiated (there’s that word again!) solution to the situation. The Sabian Symbol for 11 Libra is one I’ve always liked: MINERS ARE SUFACING FROM A DEEP COAL MINE which is all about ‘digging deep’ into ourselves in how we go about being who we are in the world…which amounts to the ‘cause’ which garners the ‘effect’ from others and from life.

The implication here is that this moment and this station really are about who we are – but in the externalized sense: what we are in the world determines who we get to be in our own life. And thus this Yod is an opportunity… a trying one maybe, but an opportunity nonetheless.

Can we learn from our experiences of others and from life itself what we have the potential to become? Some changes probably need making, yes. But that would be the theme of this moment…and this season as a whole.

With all that said, I know I have left one question unanswered until now: how do we know a good Pluto thing from a "bad" Pluto thing? Be it a relationship or a hobby or a choice of job/career or anything else, the underlying issue is how compelled you feel to do that.

Pluto compulsions tend to be seriously emotion-driven. We crave this, we want to be with that person, we feel 'less than' or lessened by being involved in or not being involved in something.

In a nutshell, that statement pretty much explains Pluto's role as the lure and allure of the Scorpio outcome - and thus the reason why when we go to make our Mars choice whether to initiate or not to initiate, the underlying issue is how conscious we are of who we are and why we're doing/not doing whatever it at stake...or how much of that urgent sort of "competitive" feeling is driving us to make some given decision....the 'to do, or not to do' which in turn gets us into a 'to do' or not.

That "competition" is not with others: it's with our sense of Self. We're trying to win our own self-esteem and thus grow our own feelings of satisfaction...you know, all those things which are endemically related to Taurus, Scorpio's polarity sign. Taurus is the personal end of the Taurus/Scorpio polarity and Scorpio is the interactive end - the where we go to try and get what we think will fulfill us.

Whatever the good or bad is in this formula, that is shown by the placement of our natal Pluto and the placement of our Mars...and the placement of Scorpio - and whatever objects/planets we have positioned in Scorpio. Learning how those things work, learning why they tend to manifest in our lives as they do - those are our Plutonic lessons.


There's a lot more to be said about Scorpio (and thus Pluto and its lessons) during these next weeks ahead, seeing as we are not even half-way through the lead-in to the Solar Eclipse which will occur at 11 Scorpio come November. Those places where we tend to be annoyed with others are like as not where the eclipse energy is playing out.

Likewise are those places where we have 'created' something we think is going to 'transform' our lives and 'fix' our sense of self-esteem or security. Anything you have gotten involved in (or are getting involved in) which is all about 'fixing' something in your life through some sort of emotional experience (as opposed to an intellectual experience) is likely to be driven by Pluto.

That's one of the truly odd things about Scorpio. This sign of passion and desire is best handled and wrangled through all things where we are able to be dispassionate. Thus anyone with a really problematic Scorpio or Pluto natal issue (and you surely know who you are!) only solves that issue by...

a.) getting involved in something which allows them to understand the underlying vulnerability...

b.) finding something intellectual and growth oriented to be 'invested in' which will "drain off" some of the Pluto energy to the point where Pluto energetics are not going to be able to run your life...

c.) recognizing compulsive choices when they are made and recognizing that "that choice" is a bad one because it's not about how 'delicious' the 'thing' is but more about life wanting us to trigger our underlying issues so we can maybe (this time) get real about our denied (avoided) emotional/self-worth issues.

Slow growth - enduring growth - is Saturnine. Compulsive growth which tends to end up be "cancerous" on the emotional level (or at any level which 'hits' us in our emotionality) is Plutonic.

And then there's....

d.) finding a way that you can approach those obsessive energetics under the guidance of someone who you trust enough to govern your operation in said realm.

This last choice ("d.") is particularly important for anyone with a Moon in Scorpio or Taurus...OR with a Pluto in Scorpio (Gen Y - this is you!)

And yes, I say this knowing full well that any one of these placements will be part and parcel of a chart of a person who will tend to be highly resistant to that very suggestion even if (deep inside) they know they have issues.

You know, Pluto issues. We all have some Pluto "stuff" to deal with...it's just whether we can manage to dig our way out of it without creating a cave-in.

Going to get my shovel now…
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