Jupiter Square Uranus

A microscope photographs crystals of Vitamin C

(Josef Reischig, CSc, 2008)

As Uranus moves into 10 Aries on February 15th, that will just edge out Jupiter retrograding into 10 Cancer on February 16th.

Astrologically, 10 Aries to 10 Cancer is a cardinal square – and a departing square at that. What do we mean by a ‘departing square’? Well, first there’s the square part – that being an aspect between planets within 5 degrees of a 90-degree angle. All squares challenge us to grow through taking on the new, the untried, the different sort of approach.

We don’t want to.

In fact, when faced with squares we tend not to think we’d even be any good at whatever would be involved in taking on the challenge of internally integrating some ‘untried’ factor (or some approach we aren’t personally familiar or comfortable with) in solving our current situational dilemmas.

And let us not forget…that there is a square going on says we’re having dilemmas.

(Yes, we all tend to forget that part. But to get an answer implies there was a question, just as to have a challenge means there must be a problem or something else to be good and stuck over.)

As for 'cardinal' - that refers to the type of impulse of the 'let's just do it and see what happens' type, which goes rather well with a departing aspect as ‘departing’ refers to the faster moving planet (the one closer to the Sun, in this case Jupiter) and how its moving away from the theoretical conjunction with Planet Two (in this case, Uranus in Aries) isn't something we're waffling about...and isn't something we feel any need to endlessly anylize. Currently in the throes of  learning from or dealing with matters in the wake of some (Uranian) sudden change of status or realization of the rather personal (Aries) type, we're all into who we are, what we've done, what we've not done - or who we are being because of what we are or are not doing.

To go with this, we have the Jupiter being in Cancer – so we know that things surrounding the period indicated by this square are going to ‘reveal’ our nature to us through really basic qualities and considerations…things we tend to take for granted as ‘just part of life.’

Do they have to be? Should they be?

Those are only some of the questions buzzing about now…and moving forward. Given that this square is forming up at 10 degrees of Aries and Cancer we know just from the number that there is a degree of agitation in the mix. Any degree between 10 and 19 of any sign tends to manifest ‘fervently’ so with the ‘I/Me’ sign of Aries and the ‘who I am and where I come from natively on the emotional level’ of Cancer we have a recipe for anything from restlessness to outbursts to really dramatic efforts and explosions – and it would be hard to think going in that we would know which would be good or bad once the dust has settled.

And that won’t come for a while yet. This Jupiter square Uranus period arises now as yet another indicator that we are in the middle of a massive growth period which in breaking us down offers us the chance to build anew – and more realistically.

Or at least accurately.

For Jupiter to be in retrograde now should also be a tip-off that this probably isn’t the start of this process. After all, didn’t Jupiter strike a forward-motion (direct) square at some time in the (semi)recent past?

As a matter of fact, yes. (How good of you to ask…) This Jupiter square started stirring and burning away our dangling misconceptions back in August of 2013…which to jar our collective memory would be just prior to September when the two month ‘breaking down’ period in advance of the November 2013 solar eclipse began. At the time, Jupiter was direct and Uranus was in retrograde, so the ‘shaking up’ of things occurred as we were “pressing ahead” and looking to expand or working to have things happen in our ‘regular world’ life. We were doing the Jupiter-direct-in-Cancer thing of building for the future and feeling good (at least relatively) about who we were and what we were doing.

And then the uncertainty started. Or the restlessness. Or the boredom. Or the sheer necessity of it all. A long time ago the person who taught me basic astrology (and yes, you too can learn from the same text I did, it’s still in print!)…when I asked him what Uranus stood for, he gave me an answer I remember to this day: ‘Uranus is the premise which states that even if you insist on staying in a rut, that life will cause you to redecorate that rut now and again.’

That’s actually a pretty genius definition as it embraces both the idea of outward and inner change. The forces which we think of astrologically as Uranian are those which by ‘disrupting’ the harmonic or harmony in some part of life awakens us to possibilities – and the possibility that what we’re doing right now may not be all there is to do.

Or that we want to do.

Or need to do.

With Uranus we may know the parameters of what we’re doing or need to risk at least our (Aries) concept of Self through learning things and discovering more about who we are and what we’re capable of.

Or not capable of, obviously.

And then there are the specifics of degrees: back in August 2013, Uranus was retrograding back through 12 and 11 Aries, triggering ‘me/my life’ conflicts and questions. We were being tested on what we thought our individuality was worth, and whether we understood that worth, whether those around us understood that worth and where there were disagreements, whether those disagreements had to do with compromises we want to make, compromises we’re ‘expected’ to make and how each of us goes about balancing out who we need to be in our own life and life span against who and what we are ‘expected’ to be – whether that’s by society, our significant other, our family, children, boss, co-workers, friends…whomever.

Between that time and now as Jupiter and Uranus move back into position for Part II of their square we had the 11 Scorpio solar eclipse and the Capricorn Venus retrograde.

Just think through the numbers: the Jupiter/Uranus square originated at 12 Cancer/Aries. Then we had an 11 Scorpio eclipse…and then we got pretty much waffle-ironed by the Venus retrograde ending at 13 Capricorn. Numerically, every inch of that is about how or how well we deal with all things emotional. And no matter where your emotional Self is these days, in the end the question  - at least that one being posed at the moment – is who do we know we can be if we live up to the best of who we are – and does that require making any changes or some kind of owning up to mistakes made which we now need to correct?

This second round of the Jupiter/Uranus square is coming under Mercury retrograde – which automatically tells us to think things over. Mercury retrograde has a pretty fearsome reputation, some of which is merited. Certainly those who speak before they think or who choose this as the moment to bulldoze into something new without thought or reference will tend to go awry. But on the other hand, this can be a time for experimenting – when if you can ‘just try’ something out for the sake of trying you can learn a lot or otherwise benefit from the experience. As with all personal planet retrogrades, Mercurial (conversation, textual or written) matters may go a bit wry or off-track and need ‘reworking’ – just as creative and/or financial affairs under Venus retrograde may have also been a bit ‘off the mark’ or (let’s be real here) sloppy.

**a pause while ten thousand eyes glare at the monitor... **

Yes, sloppy. You know, less than what we’re capable of doing? That kind of sloppy. And it would have been fine except that everyone else was feeling…well, critical.

But that's how it works. Under Venus retrograde we're going to do less than what we know we're capable of because the whole of the cycle is about learning to value our Self on an intrinsic level - that which will become instinctual - the object there being to grow self regard, self value...self worth. That which shakes us seeks to get us to value that 'thing' in terms of the sign Venus is transiting in.

Example: the recent Venus retrograde was in Capricorn, a Saturn-ruled sign which rules (among other things), time. And perhaps you heard that actor Seymour Hoffman died as the Venus station moved through? The astrological flag here is Hoffman's having had a lunar return as the station occurred, but my point here is this: if his passing affected you in such a way to make you think 'I should value the time I have here on Earth,' then Venus retrograding in Capricorn did its job.   

Moving forward now in present tense (and for some of us, very tense) Uranus supports those ‘stop-gap’ measure and ‘temporary fixes’ which are aimed at changes being made. Until Mars goes retrograde next month the ‘doers’ among us are not likely to be fully ‘owning’ what part of today’s goings on are problems, disappointments and bigger challenges we’ve created for ourselves by NOT changing our way of doing or being…and then there are the shirkers, hiders and avoiders who aren’t likely to be getting off our duff to do what really needs doing.

And just to make this interesting, we’re all probably doing a little bit of both. (Don’t they say variety is the spice of life?) So let’s just say that moderation is more of an asset than usual; under this sort of influence we’re likely to want things, like things, not like things, want to do something or not do something merely in the moment. Especially with Mercury in retrograde, those who aren’t engaged in some sort of ‘me’ work (working on me, or on something which will allow me a more effective way of being the person I am)…those people are likely to be looking for something to do at that very level which fosters glib times and fast-track mistakes.

And then there’s Valentine’s Day, which will be under Mercury retrograde with the lunar nodes (the emblems of relating through relationship) at 0 Scorpio and Taurus. As an astrologer, I certainly can say that if what you want to do is commit to working on who you are in a relationship or through a relationship that’s fine as that’s something you can do yourself, and under Mercury retrograde the most productive clarifications we reach are those which allow us to chart a more healthy and reliable path for our Self. If you are (for whatever reason) looking to found or negotiate an open sort of ‘let’s see’ sort of arrangement, Mercury retrograde plus Jupiter-square-Uranus will help with the freedom part, making this also a perfectly fine time to throw those friendly fun greetings at friends who know your style.

But whatever that style is, you had best know what your style is now. You had best be ready to stand with yourself against all which you have done…and not done…over the days and weeks – even months and years recently past. All those things which Mercury retrograde ‘brings up’ – be it people from your past or choices/determinations made badly or even left unmade – all those are likely to rear up and bite you, either in real or simulated form.

In your mind, in your heart, in your face – it’s all grist for life’s mill going forward. We still know this is a departing square – so we’re building. And though Uranus is in Aries now, the actual point at which the current Jupiter/Uranus synodic cycle began is 27 Pisces, a degree known for promoting very odd, very quirky behaviors…theoretically so we can learn better about who we are and what it means to be human.

Jupiter and Antiope by Hendrick Goltzius (1612)

It’s so not cookie-cutter. Considering the degree and the fact that we’re talking about a synodic cycle involving Uranus, impossibilities being proven not just possible but workable and all those things we have thought really well hidden (especially from ourselves) are going to both affect things and ‘come to the surface’ every time we go through one of these Jupiter-Uranus periods.

So we all shows our quirks…and maybe even some unacceptable behavior last August. Now we’re finding out what we’ve learned. Or we’re thinking over what we learned and whether the ‘thing’ was wrong…or maybe just how we went about doing it was wrong.

Jupiter-Uranus asks us to grow. And it asks that we take on some quality of ‘new,’ whether that’s in what we do, coping with what we learn or choosing how to change things going forward. At 10 degrees of Aries and Cancer we are challenged by whatever we have not yet learned to cope with, discard or heal at the same time as we are endowed with an extraordinary insight which could limit us simply because the vision it affords is so different than what we are used to. Many of us will have problems with trying to take on the whole of a problem at once when the only sensible way to achieve one’s aims is to work through things bit by bit, freeing ourselves up one piece at a time.

Apparently there’s something to be learned by doing this piecemeal. That may have to do with a dualistic thread which pits personal aims against strong humanistic impulses. And yet...Aquarius (the sign Mercury will retrograde back into as of February 13) in combination with Uranus as part of this configuration suggests that things are neither 'standard' nor predictable.

Or maybe that's us. Maybe we're not standard or predictable, even in terms of who we claim to be in our own regard.

And whether it's Uranus or Aquarius, we shouldn't want the old, the classic, the standard or status quo. Under either influence, too much pent up energy produces eruptions - which may happen now. Such events and moments can occur in real time...or in our mind. We can have a breakthrough in real world terms – or come to some realization about how to break out of our shell.  

There is no right or wrong here…except for that which works in your life. If you know your natal chart and know that one of these two planets (Jupiter or Uranus) tends to be problematic for you…or if it is for any reason heavily ‘weighted’ (emphasized) by your natal chart, this is an opportunity to learn better – but it might come at some sort of cost.

So this could be the moment when you realize some error. Or how to correct one already made.

Jupiter’s square to Uranus perfects on February 25th…and considering that this date is about a week out from Jupiter’s turn to direct, we can expect that singular sort of ‘push’ which tends to blanket all of life as any planet approaches its station.

Ordinarily we would just see that as an escalating inner desire to achieve something. But this year, before we get to Jupiter’s station we’ll see three other stations: Mercury’s on February 28th, Mars’ on March 1st and Saturn’s on March 2nd.

That's a lot of energy...a lot of pressure...and a lot of potential. Are you doing anything which is important to you? Should you be doing something which is important to you? 
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2013’s Scorpio Solar Eclipse

 Partial solar eclipse in space taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

(photo credit, NASA, February 2012)

One of the things which running an astrology blog will teach you is that people are very into anything which we might call ‘anticipation’…which with Things Astrological very often translates into the fine-toothed leap between 'satisfaction of desire' and ‘threat.’

And yes, this is about me being about as real with you as I can be. You may think it’s callous, but astrologers know that if we say any of these three words…

Scorpio – 8th house – Nodes

…that we’re going to get listened to. Give a lecture on one of these subjects and you'll have lines around the corner and down the block.

Why? Because even astrologers are fascinated by the many forms of allure which have that delicious Scorpio ‘dangerous’ quality to them...that very special thing which prompted a guy I know to say ‘I like women who are a bit crazy. Crazy is a bit dangerous - and I like that.’ 

Granted, he has a bit more of that yen than most of us, but we all have a bit of it in our makeup.

After all, life is full of shiny surfaces. So much of life is about whether we will or won't respond to something which presses our buttons...which triggers our instincts while also turning off our mind.

Did you think the zodiac was any different? It absolutely isn't. One of the 'shiniest surfaces' around is the zodiacal gleam which so tempts people to just read the sign, read the planetary attribute and be thee on your way!

Well, actually...you can do that. You can actually do that and have it be true and accurate.That depends on you. More specifically, it depends on how willing you are to hold yourself to being thoughtful in the face of the 'hidden sides' of each and every sign...each and every object...each and every facet.

Our potentials are limitless. Therefore we are not to be limited in either the good or ill any given thing can teach us. Or the good and rancid we can experience through any given attribute.

That we know it's really possible for something to 'hurt so good' is proof that our experiences can flux. That we can simultaneously hold ourselves in positive and negative regard.

That's Scorpio.

If the zodiac was clarified in a 'truth in advertising' sort of way, Scorpio (and your 8th house) would have to be labeled ‘RADIOACTIVE.’

But wait...! If Scorpio (and the 8th) was labeled RADIOACTIVE, no one would willingly get into, get to or deal with that stuff.

Make no mistake…Scorpio is radioactive. It’s everything about human experience which could possibly twist and corrupt us. It’s everything which can melt the very flesh off our psychic bones.

And once we're burned clean, then Scorpio can recreate us…empowering our rebirth to Self as a Phoenix rising from our soul's own ashes in utter glory and living self-empowerment.

But first comes the dismantling, the bringing everything about our life which is toxic and damaging bubbling and boiling out, overwhelming us with the stench and fumes of our vulnerabilities and biases, the stickiness of our fears, the acid of our anger, the wrenching of our angst, and the painful echoing of tears uncried and those long-suppressed, unholy wails.

Scorpio is radioactive. But if you knew that, if you understood what the Scorpio arena is really like, you’d never go there. We’d all be alive on this planet avoiding each other for fear of our Selves. Not for all the power, money or orgasms would anyone buy into the kind of torture Scorpio can deliver.

No, not even for the ecstasy which might lie beyond.

 Image based on a star map of constellation Scorpio by Torsten Bronger.

And yet…the Scorpio process is one we all need to endure. As 8th sign of the zodiac, Scorpio embodies all which purifies our unrealistic lack of understanding of what it takes to be who we are. Beyond Scorpio lies the four signs of worldly accomplishment and maturity where, in disrobing our ego, in becoming willing to be nakedly who we are, we get to become who we’re supposed to be in a real and worldly sense. 

So nature tempts us with our own most basic cravings...which means that in our most human nature, it’s that very nature which tempts us. And so we walk in that door. We ignore the big sign...if we even notice it at all.

With some people the Scorpio and 8th house part of this tends to be actually dangerous. But that generally has to do with really ill-placed rulers of the 8th – or Scorpio, for that matter.

I know someone whose Cancerian 8th house is ruled by a Scorpio Moon placed at their 12th house cusp. Not only is this Moon conjunct Mars (ruler of Scorpio) but also conjunct Ixion, a combination that promises that until this person learns to walk past their fears, they will have painful periodic episodes which amount to 'sticking it to myself.' And that pattern will either continue until this person either executes the perfect self destructive act (validating the desire not to feel) or learns that Scorpionic (emotionally driven) issues are not about being led by one's emotions but by choosing to manage them.

Scorpio is a choice. It's about who or what we choose to invest in...and what stirs that choice, what causes us to crave, desire, long for something...? THAT gets to the heart of Scorpio as the concept we all love to hate…and hate, but so love.

In other words, the enticement and excitement - the sense of 'danger’ is not about them. It's about us. Its about something...some need to feel ourselves feeling which causes us to choose.

Read that last sentence carefully. If you do, you will understand why so much which is based on choices made in passion, lust, desire, excitement...why they so often go so far astray.

Before I go on, here’s a link to the salient article on Ixion:

- link to -

Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

…and remember – Ixion is in all of our charts. We all have some way in which we ‘Ixion’ ourselves, where we repeat and repeat the same mistake or format until we realize that we want something which works.

Moreover, if you were born between November 1967 and November 1996, you were born with Ixion in Scorpio, which means you will tend to experience your Ixion issues through intensely evocative Scorpionic venues, the details of which are etched in your personal natal chart.

There’s some Sherlock Holmes quote which applies here…I don’t remember it exactly, but he says something like ‘when we take away all the answers which aren’t true, what remains – however unlikely – is actually the truth.’

Our human challenge is that with Scorpio we always seem to think ‘they’ have our answer. Or that they are our answer. Or that they’ll help us feel better. Or feel how we yearn to feel.

And that’s not how it works. This sign of passion, this sign of intimacy which requires us to let go, be vulnerable and become naked to others...it’s where we tend to want control. Where we would so much prefer that others become/be vulnerable in our presence rather than going through the angst, the anxiety, the feeling vulnerable when we let our guard down in front of them.

The feeling of ‘danger’ where Scorpio is concerned, when we feel ‘they’re’ dangerous…that’s our instinct telling us that they may be dangerous TO US. To our ability to risk, to the reality of who we are.

The feeling of being in danger of feeling our own feelings on the other hand – that’s Scorpio in its utmost potency. That’s where Scorpio seeks to lead us through our own fears to where we realize that our humanity is innately vulnerable and that to have someone…anyone…with whom we can be vulnerable, with whom we can be helpless…is the most worthwhile thing we can find in this world, this life.

And how that doesn’t take getting nude in any sense. Naked? Yes. But nude? No.

The scariest thing in life isn’t what others think of us…it’s what we think of ourselves. What we fear in our Self can eat us from within.

Scorpio is not about precisely about feeling desire. Or passion in the flesh. It’s about anything or anyone which can evoke our deepest, most personal feelings…feelings which evoke a passionate response. And when we get there, then we have to think through Mars and Pluto as the rulers of Scorpio. Mars’ primary sign of rulership is Aries – the sign in which Mars energetics are all about being who we are and discovering more about who we are through what we do.

Pluto is the outcome ruler. So if you jump off a cliff without a parachute, Pluto will teach you that that’s a deadly bad lesson. And yes, it is likely to be a very hard lesson – one which makes a lot of impact on you.

The balance between Mars and Pluto reflects the necessity to understand that choices (Mars) have consequences (Pluto) and that we are most in danger when we make the choice without considering that consequence. Or, considering how Mars is so very much about the ‘self’ when in Aries’ oppositional sign of Libra, how to choose on the basis of what ‘they’ (Libra) want (Mars) is by definition an abdication of self, in which case Plutonic forces become ranged in such a way as to totally negate and smash you.

With thanks to astrologer Rob Hand, who I quote here: “Use the energy wisely, lest it use you unwisely.”

Scorpio decisions (and) decisions in Scorpio situations are best made coolly. When in doubt, rely on facts and not emotions. Untruths and manipulations do very badly in Scorpio situations as they tend to stir up karma – that energy which comes back to thwack you not from the direction you put it out from, but most often the direction you were thinking you would protect.

Karma is definitely the universe’s way of yelling “SUCKER, YOU’RE SO BUSTED!!!”

(Ugh.)

What we cannot do in a Scorpio trial is sell our Self out. And that tells us why the top three “dangerous” drives are money, sex and power.

Is the light bulb beginning to glow yet?

Mind you…understanding all this (which I obviously do) doesn’t make life a snap. I understand the premise pretty well...and yet that doesn't make my walking through my fears any easier than walking through yours would be for you.

I just understand the necessity to do it. If Scorpio is about opening ourselves to our own vulnerabilities (which it is) and its an interactive sign (which it is) then however it happens, when the radioactivity begins to click, click, click then we're bound to get scared.

Trust me...I do it to. I've scared myself more than several times by taking off my brightly polished social mask so as to admit my scary truths.

And sometimes I was liked just as much for doing it. Once or twice someone has been there to witness my 'coming clean' about my life and they have liked me just as much - even more for revealing my human fears.

"I'm sure you get scared," a neighbor told me one night early in my detox when I was thoroughly weirded out. He'd spent about a half hour acting out the scenes of a book he's working on writing (much to my delight) after which we sat down to talk about our lives. "You've been through some really bizarre stuff. But when you get scared, I want you to remember who you are in the present and that your friends love you for who you are. We think you're a star."

He's kidding of course - I'm no star. Except maybe to him, I guess.

No, it isn’t easy for any of us. It isn’t any easier for me than you. I've tried to run away - just like I bet you have.

Where Scorpio is concerned, we try to preserve the status quo. But can we control it - or someone else? One of the best examples I can offer here comes from a magical moment when I heard someone say ‘I refuse to bid you good-bye. I’m going to stand here, and I hope you will keep to what you agreed to.’

That's an important Scorpio lesson - how the freedom to stay and be vulnerable is at least as important as the freedom to go…or run away. Or hide. Or deny. Or ignore.

It's all in how you phrase it, in how you present it...in the emotions you extend under Scorpio. Whatever your Scorpio thing is, the reality of it is that you would like to be welcomed in spite of it.

But there are some times when people want to you to be vulnerable and then refuse to return in kind. They're not ready to be equals – not with you, but with their own emotional nature. Sometimes its not enough to make the emotional Scorpio connection which is the initial bridge.

After that comes the walking over our own emotional gulfs. And some of us can't look down and can't walk straight ahead on faith.

It isn't about you. It's about their faith in their Self.

I've even seen this happen with a person who has read the RADIOACTIVE sign. They know what Scorpio is. But for whatever reason, they think they can solve their Scorpio in isolation. They haven't yet realized that Scorpio is a dualistic AND interactive sign yet, particularly in the sense that we never solve our Scorpio issues by ourselves…and how by definition we can never solve them by taking the ‘comfy’ way out.

Not to mention how there’s always a set of steps to even our side of the process.

The 11 Scorpio Solar Eclipse of November 3, 2013

(Aries Wheel, Location Not Specific)

 

The very best Scorpio relationships – defining this as a partnership or an intimate (i.e., sexual) relationship, or any relationship where you invest yourself, be that at a financial or friendship level – they all have to be two-way. That’s the Scorpio thing. It has to be mutual – and naturally so, there can’t be eternal compromises. If she doesn’t like toast crusts, the romantic in him may say ‘I’ll take the crusts’ but if he isn’t actually a lover of crusts and screw the middle of the bread, eventually that will result in trouble.

This is where romance…or the romantic notion…becomes the reality of life and life’s realities.

Except in Scorpio, those are always emotional realities. So many of us compromise our emotionality and security for something we call emotional security which is really giving up on ourselves.

When we will opt for the compromise of our inner emotional power for the appearance of power which might seem to validate us, we’re always skating on thin ice. That's what's so odd about Scorpio...the greater the urge, the allure, the passion, the thinner the ice. ‘Fixed’ as an astrological modality, Scorpio is the water sign which represents where we are either nurtured to emotional health, back to emotional health or where we destroy ourselves through some corrosive manipulating of the term ‘safe.’ In the world of Scorpio, not facing our feelings or refusing to face them isn’t safe – it’s toxic. When psychologists say ‘the power of the secret lies in keeping it secret’ that’s what they’re talking about.

And though we may run from the person who makes us feel, or who – because we emotionally connect with them is someone we know could end up exposing us to our own feelings…that’s not safety.

That’s death in the guise of avoidance. And yes, Scorpio is the sign of conception, birth and death.

It's also the sign of all those things which scare us half past living death - particularly in relationships.

Why relationships? Because that's where we see how Scorpio really functions as its through relationships that we confront the greatest need to tolerate our own deep emotionality and our willingness to interact with someone capable of evoking our truth of emotionality.

And it doesn't even have to be an intimate relationship to get to us intimately. Far from it - some sexual relationships are terribly shallow. Or based on a virtual agreement to ignore each other's need to hide.

Some friendships and business relationships, on the other hand, can be closer than close. 

That has been what I think has driven the rise in readership here at the blog over the past couple of months. It shows up in a graph bloggers see when they log. So I know…every time a solar eclipse looms, you and your friends and people half way around the world from you start checking the blog.

And the moment the eclipse is over…you think that the threat, the urgency, the depth of the feeling is all over.

Well, you’re wrong. The two months leading into this period are merely the start of the process. They were merely about getting your attention, about your hopefully coming to grips with what needs focus in your life.

Where you have dug into the emotional issues or the things which caused feelings to swell up like some bad emotional reaction to a cosmic bee sting, you have just embarked on a long journey through realizing that while life needs to have structure and rules, it also needs to be compassionately interactive. Those who comfort you may not be who you can comfort. Those who can witness your pain may not be those whose pain you can witness.

And those who make life easiest for you may be your worst enemy. Or not. Where they urge you to be dispassionate, they are saying ‘don’t feel yourself’ and that is the road to behaviors narcissistic...even sociopathic.

There’s a lot of it going around, you know. The sign of how high the human stakes have gotten in this time of such technological genius is the very dehumanization we are all seeing throughout society, whether in relationships or business.

Life isn’t supposed to be all happy. It isn’t supposed to be all easy. There is a difference between being allowed to work through your stuff (or do your work) and being supportive. That difference is all about motivation – another spiffy Scorpio word.

Because Saturn is involved in this eclipse (the eclipse is at 11 Scorpio and Saturn will be at 13 Scorpio) we know there is some ‘paring away’ to be done and that forward growth is going to be slow.

And it should be slow, in order to be able to ‘build in’ supports which don’t just sound good, but which will work. That ‘work’ thing is important here. The eclipse having Mercury conjunct the North Node (both obviously in Scorpio) points to to Mars as that ‘choice’ ruler of all things Scorpio. And Mars is in Virgo and in opposition to a Pisces Chiron in retrograde.

It’s a time for taking on how deeply afraid we are of ourselves. (Or our Self.) To not do that is to run a long term risk (or a risk of something which will last a long time) which stems from not having done what you think you ‘don’t know how to do’ in the emotional realm (that’s the Chiron part) which in every likelihood will surface through some Mars in Virgo facet: the in ability to do something…or get it done.

The eclipse itself occurs at 11 Scorpio, a degree which tends to manifest by our being ‘married’ to some status quo or assumption of validity that we miss something vitally important – you know, that Scorpio factor which can just kill us.

Or at least the situation.

Or the relationship.

Or our career or job or whatever else we’ve decided to blindly tie ourselves to or be blind in tying ourselves to.

And Saturn? Saturn is sitting at 13 Scorpio, a degree which one book describes as a solitary existence which treats with us not gently at all, an existence where we either feel isolated or are isolated.

And yet, in this position, in this isolation there exists a potency of feeling which the Sabian Symbol TELEPHONE LINEMEN AT WORK INSTALLING NEW CONNECTIONS plainly speaks to.

The effect of the eclipse will tend to manifest as (Saturn) work or commitments which interrupt communications, the effort we put into making new connections in life…and as outlined in the keynote for this degree (“the need to establish new channels of communication”) references as a need to go outside of the established, our norm…even our understanding. By definition, Scorpionic growth isn’t easy or easily undertaken. Once you’re there, it may be perfectly easy, but getting yourself into the process can be gag-worthy.

I’d also like to be clear here, at least in how this astrologer interprets this reference: when I said ‘channeling’ to someone not long ago, they took that to be ‘working with existent energy’ which is not what I tend to think this is about at all – especially not as presented here in the form of Saturn, Saturn being the planet at the edge of ‘unaided human sight.’ To channel in the Saturn sense means channeling from beyond Saturn – which plainly means from beyond the known, the established, the regulated, the defined.

Because this is Saturn – our emblem of structures, time, career and achievements – I would also say this matters most particularly in our working lives, and doubly so if you’re anyone who works with energy, energetics or any of life’s structures…that reaching all the way from construction workers, architects and engineers through to farmers, shippers to spiritualists, doctors, mediums, shamans, chiropractors, dentists, parents, teachers and anyone in the government or military around the world.

Did I leave anyone out? (Probably not…but it’s polite to ask.)

Furthermore, acting as link (or blockade) between the Sun/Moon of the eclipse and Saturn we have a coagulation of the following points at 12 Scorpio: Sabine, Sisyphus, Deucalion and Amphitrite. Not to put too fine a point on this, these points can act as either the link OR the blockade…or both.

12 Scorpio is a defensive sort of degree known for attracting energetics to be defended against (which seems logical, right? If you’re all about defending, you’ll attract something to defend against…naturally!) Lore has it that this degree evokes feelings of compassion offset by indignation of the sort we might refer to as ‘I’ll give in when you give me a good enough reason to give in, and not a moment sooner!’

The medium all this is being poured into at the moment is a ‘having captured’ (Sabian) quality which has a bit (!!!) of snarkiness (Sisyphus) to it, which is like as not about an inability to get one’s own head high enough above the emotional high tide level(Deucalion/Amphitrite) to get proper perspective and bearings.

All of this we are likely to BOTH use to blockade others while resolutely going about our business.

Except…well, except for two things. The first is that Scorpio isn’t about the ‘other guy,’ remember? It’s about how life sets up situations so that we interact with others and thus our emotionality is evoked…which is why that the people who don’t ruffle you are often the least constructive people in your life.

I believe I put this to someone rather recently by saying ‘that’s not feeling good, that’s being numb.’

It’s not quite that extreme for most of us, but it certainly is for some. Absence of feeling is not ‘feeling good,’ it’s not feeling – and that I can assure you, having had a young life which so destroyed me emotionally that I simply shut down in my late teens, not to re-emerge as a full-fledged feeling (nervous, vulnerable if loving) person until decades later.

In the process, I pretty much lost my entire middle life. Truthfully, that’s one of the big reasons I sit and type this blog day after day after day. If I can help one person… hopefully you… to not turn away from your feelings and all the difficulty of feeling them…if I can help you through to where you can have the life which was beaten, raped and abused out of me for the whole of my young life, then what I will have gone through will not have been for naught.

I don’t want you to have the life I have. My life – whether you respect me, love me or hate me – in a sense, it’s pretty bleak. People are as off-put by my the intellectualism I retreated into during those decades of no emotions as they are of the stunted, rather overly young emotions I mostly show when I meet someone who for some reason I can afford to feel in the presence of.

My wish for you is that you find the courage to go all the scary places not in this world, but in your heart, your soul, your head and your spirit.

Which brings us to the other reason why this eclipse isn’t likely to formulate as a successful blockade against those who cause us to feel. The answer is already right there in that last sentence: it’s because what we’re talking about is a solar eclipse. Eclipses explode our myths and wipe away our defenses.

So in essence, the more it hurts…the tougher this period is, the more opportunity you have to break through to your more essential being. You just have to not go with the easy stuff…you have to go towards that which hurts the most.

And if it’s someone you’re in relationship with, may you have a better time getting them to talk to you than I’ve had. 

But it’s more than that, as we probably can best see in the following diagram I constructed after sitting and staring at the chart of this eclipse in preparation for writing this (yes, rather lengthy) post.

From the eclipse to Uranus is a 6th harmonic derivation. We obviously know we have to do something. It’s quivering our insides. The South Node in Taurus represents our longing to have things be easier, but the South Node is the road to personal dissipation, so let’s not go there.

Besides, the celestial promise (aka the ‘cause-effect’ of universal function) is that if we will do our North Node stuff, we will automatically have all the South Node stuff we could want.

Pluto in Capricorn is something of the ‘other side’ of the Scorpio coin from Mars in Virgo as Pluto is (as we’ve discussed) the ‘outcome’ ruler of Scorpio. Here poised in at 9 Capricorn, the question would seem to be between the pursuit of wisdom (which fits Scorpio’s positive side) against the pursuit of material gain (the ‘money’ reference in that Scorpio list we’ve talked about). That Pluto is at 9 Capricorn should probably be taken very seriously here, as lore tells us that efforts to opt for material gain end up in disaster…or being a disaster.

The (Plutonic) requirement is that we cultivate patience and humility…which pretty much seems to answer the Sabine-Sisyphus-Deucalion-Amphtrite at 12 Scorpio thing.

Snark not, my friends. Try to get past your hurts to where you are your most human and humane Self – to others no less than to yourself. Own your vulnerabilities as you so want others to own theirs. Beware of focusing on materialism, money and power.

You can try that route, but to use a phrase favored by a friend back in Pittsburgh, PA, it won’t go well.

Juno at 9 Aquarius is in square to the eclipse and semi-sextile Pluto and Chiron, displaying the discomfort most of us feel right now and how we must prevail in some public sense despite that discomfort.

After that comes a list of fixed stars – the real reason I found this diagram so intriguing. Aldebaran, Alhena, Diadem and Antares (and Facies, right next to Pluto) all lend an extraordinary background…an emotional backdrop to everything we’re experience composed of questions of integrity (Aldebaran), our worldly Purpose as currently tested against our personal sense of Purpose (Alhena)…that which we want to hold high and aspire to as well as be inspired by (Diadem) and the ability to lead and be the leader who leads by example even when we don’t have all the answers (Antares)…we look around and say ‘no one else can manage it – why is anyone expecting me to?’

The answer there is simple: because you’re you.

And if everyone would get over thinking it is about someone else needing to be better, if we could all just come out from behind our masks – be they shiny and android like, doused with tears, stern and unfeeling, frightened and fettered…if we could come out from behind that mask long enough to see it’s our mask and therefore about us…

…then, just maybe we’d be poised to face our own vulnerabilities and out of that grow a better understanding of others…and how to have a better life and better world.

And let’s get back to where I started with this chat…this is NOT the end of the eclipse process. We are just entering in to another just-shy-of-three-months of rapid evolution and continued shifting values.

That Ceres is entering Libra scant hours prior to the eclipse is both a signal that it’s time to make a (new) plan. Considering that entering Libra means Ceres will be passing into, over and through the rather magical ‘through-the-looking-glass’ zone occupied by M87 (Messier 87), this plan is probably going to be skewed in a new direction. Or be as a result of coming to see something from a new perspective.

Since I happen to be the astrologer here, I’ll also note that three months takes us to February 3, 2014, which will be a few days after Venus goes direct (which yes, means it’s going to go retrograde) at 13 Capricorn…a degree which is conjunct Pluto’s position here at the date of the eclipse.

So it ain’t over yet. The eclipse of November 3, 2014 at 11 Scorpio will begin at 12:47:26 in the afternoon (UT/+0) and will continue for 1.67 minutes. It is an annular/total eclipse, which means that it will be total for those directly in the eclipse path, and partial (an annular eclipse) for the rest of us.

Those of us with planets, nodes, dwarf planets, axis points or other important astrological tra-la anywhere between 6 and 16 Scorpio are going to feel a vital nuclear melting at the core. This is the remaking of Self through inexplicably difficult, soul wrenching situations which cannot be escaped from partly because they're native to one's Self and partly because (as anyone in this position knows) such issues have been ignored long enough.

It's time to face the music, radioactive though it may be.

Those with placements (as above) between 6 and 16 Taurus will feel confronted by factors beyond their control.

Those with placements between 6 and 16 Aquarius and/or Leo will be having to deal with life factors totally off the line of what they had hoped to be dealing with but which cannot be ignored.

 The path of the November 3rd solar eclipse as rendered by Solar Fire's solar map module. The red line is that of totality.

In the sky...a couple of minutes, and then all will be over. But astrologically, the fat lady (as they say) hasn't sung yet. Scorpio's essence is operatic to be sure, and the diva's name is Dame Karma.

One hopes the song she sings for you isn’t a sad one.
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A Pisces Full Moon

 A Full "Super" Moon as it rises over the Altantic Ocean

(photo credit: Bubba73, March 2011)

Occurring at 11:41 a.m. on September 19th, the Pisces Moon will occur on the day before Pluto goes direct.

That September’s Full Moon occurs within the auspices of Pluto’s station is a sign of things to come at the same time that it is the ‘fulfillment’ point of our current lunar cycle.

Mind you, that’s ‘fulfillment’ in the cosmic sense, not necessarily in the sense of our feeling happy or content with any particular thing. In fact, it could be argued that any Pisces Full Moon (never mind one in late Pisces) is a sign of our feelings or our reactivity reaching a high water mark for reasons which may be entirely out of our control.

So…satisfying? Not necessarily, though there’s a plethora of reasons to think it could be just fine, dandy and even blissful. After all, Pisces isn’t the process of dreaming (as in REM sleep), but Pisces is the fantasy, the ‘dream’ we wish to be enveloped by, that nirvana of feeling we all so long for.

And that’s all well and good as long as we don’t try to substitute that longing for reality…or measure reality by that fantasy. That’s the Pisces premise, and to the extent that we can accept reality and see it as part of our dreams, or apart from our dreams (with both reality and the dream being fine in their own way), then we’re fine.

It’s just the resisting or denying one or the other which tends to get us into trouble.

Which leads to the idea of the degree this Full Moon is occurring in: 26 Pisces. We don’t tend to think of Pisces as a militant sign, but 26 Pisces has a sterling reputation for being willing to fight – even on the wrong side of the question. Also contrary to most general conceptions of Pisces, this degree tends to be rather materialistic, which means this Full Moon may well refer to a reality-based experience of that which is held as a belief.

And that leads us to the next highly interesting fact – the notion that this Full Moon comes complete as a grand sextile, the “magical” six-pointed star which the ancient Hermeticists referred to as the emblem of Divine or cosmic - even karmic - reflection embodied in the phrase “As Above, So Below.” 

 An Aries (non-location specific) chart wheel for the September 2013

Full Moon showing a diagram of the accompanying Grand Sextile (the

linking of two grand trines by sextile) at the center

 

On one level this is a reference to the ‘reflective’ quality of the small scale, and thus what may be happening on a world stage also happening in our lives, just in a localized manner. Seen in a more esoteric manner, the grand sextile (which is a linking of two grand trines set at 60-degree angles to each other) is where a grand set of ‘sextile opportunities’ becomes locked down as ‘fate.’ Or if you prefer, a ‘result’ – that secondary meaning going rather hand-in-hand with the idea of the Full Moon being an emblem of ‘phase fulfillment’ or the end of one part of a life effort so that we get to move on to the next.

The Grand Sextile is a highly potent and powerful figure. If your chart answers to any of the points in the above diagram you may be sure that your life will be in the process of being inexorably altered, and that this Full Moon is merely a step in a greater process.

No matter who you are or how your personal chart is laid out however, it is to be noted that the Full Moon itself is NOT part of the Grand Sextile. That tells us that this moment of experiential ‘highlighting’ is indeed part of a greater scope, a greater something going on in our world…or maybe ‘the’ world. And that there is such a difference in the scope of the degrees involved here (the Full Moon is happening in a late Pisces degree while the points associated with the Grand Sextile are all fairly early in their respective signs), that suggests an opportunity to have or gain perspective…

That in turn suggests that those whose charts center more on later numbers (say between 20 and 29 of any given sign) are likely to be ‘seeing things happen’ but be less likely to be involved. Such a concept works well with the idea of the third decanate Full Moon (the third decan of any sign being its last ten degrees) as anything third decanate tends not to be about our physicality or our actions as an originating point, though there’s obviously every chance that something going on in your environs or around you in life is going to affect you.

It’s just not ‘about’ you, per se.

On the other hand, those of us whose charts answer more to earlier zodiacal numbers are more likely to be more directly affected. What we do or how we do it may be affected. This may be or become a time of choice. We may suddenly understand why something is important and in keeping with 26 Pisces either be all for it or terribly defensive because of it.

It all depends.

In looking at this Grand Sextile, like the one which Sedna’s turn to retrograde set off the formulation of last month, this one is presented in earth and water signs. Earth and water can be the very essence of fertility. Then again, earth plus water can just equal a whole lot of mud and a muddy (or muddied) situation. That we have Pluto/Facies/Industria trine the South Node and the South Node trine Ceres/Agamemnon (which is obviously trine Pluto) involves the changing (Pluto) face (or Facies) of many (Facies) factors at (Industria) work or that we are (Industria) working on. Since Pluto is going on station atop Facies, there is an inordinate chance of our best and worst traits coming to the fore now – or having to ‘face’ (Facies) such factors particularly in any environment which has to do with the Capricorn ‘structure’ of our life.

Think home, family, job, marriage – that stuff.

With the South Node being trined by Pluto, there is inordinate pressure being placed on the idea of changing at a very fundamental (Taurean) level. Our very sense of values are being questioned – sometimes by others and at a very real and powerful sense, by our Self. Unlike the Scorpio-Taurus sense of challenge, this Grand Sextile effect gives us some sense that maybe we don’t know everything and maybe there is a more vital way we could live. Or a different set of parameters we could adopt which would be both more satisfying and more true to our nature, ‘arming us’ with tools with which we can live a more viable and satisfying life.

The third point in the triumvirate of earth positions is Ceres/Agamemnon, an emblem of plans which perhaps now need to be tweaked. Or amended. Or yes, even completely altered considering what we now know or are coming to understand.

Our sense of reality is changing. Our realization of what we can do…what is possible for us…is undergoing a period of intense (Pluto station) transformation which itself is a facet of the overall process of ‘breaking down’ our old ways of being and thinking reflective of the period leading into this November’s Solar Eclipse.

The second trio of points in the Grand Sextile are in water – our element of emotions and everything which tends to promote or provoke our emotionality. Black Moon Lilith/Child occupies the Cancer angle of this correlation, speaking to things (attitudes, habits, ways of responding) which may date back a very long way – to our own childhood. Given that all this traces back to Sedna’s station as the ‘ignition’ on this evolutionary phase we’re going through (which will culminate/shift gears at the solar eclipse), the Lilith concept of ‘denial’ may well be the letting go of things you were told way back when, your original concepts of what things “should be” or how they were just magically “going to be” (oh, how we all get bogged down by that stuff, right?) and some sort of willingness to ‘take a plunge’ in life which you might not have dreamed even remotely possible – never mind likely – only shortly ago.

The second part of the grand water trine presented is North Node, Saturn, Venus and Deucalion – which is (among other things) an evident and obvious sign that effort (Saturn) needs to continued (North Node) even though it’s really truly not what we like or what we want to do. This combination implies there’s something afoot which we’re not particularly enjoying, but which we understand has to be dealt with – and given Saturn/Venus/Deucalion – we’re likely to understand we have to deal with whatever that is with a modicum of grace, lest we lose out on everything we’ve been working for…or towards.

Since Grand Sextiles also come out to be a set of Magic Rectangles, that’s worth considering now as well…

If it's a Grand Sextile and thus two Grand Trines linked together, a

configuration will also yield three Magic Rectangles.

 

…with the thing to remember being that despite the fun-sounding name (anything with ‘magic’ in it tends to evoke a sense of childlike wonder) the Magic Rectangle represents things which go along rather ‘magically’ and marvelously right up until the time they don’t.

And once they don’t, then we get totally blown out of the water – sometimes with others, but mostly with ourselves. People who have Magic Rectangles in their natal charts tend to have a really rocky beginning which ‘turns out to be magic’ or they have a ‘magical’ sort of golden touch which inevitably – somewhere along the way – goes kaput.

Once a Magic Rectangle goes haywire, it’s a demon to get back on course. And why is that? That would be because – especially where something has come too easily to us, we haven’t learned how to try. So when something associated with one of these ‘golden’ configurations collapses, many get fixated on ‘how it used to be’ and flounder around haplessly because their life hasn’t taught them how to harness their own abilities.

In this case – and this is what we look to at any given moment when such configurations are an “ongoing” thing (which isn’t that often, a fact which marks this as a truly potent time in everyone’s life)…we know that Pluto is going station/direct on September 20th (the day after the Full Moon), we know that the November Solar Eclipse will occur at 11 Scorpio in conjunction with the Saturn-Venus-North Node-Deucalion mélange pictured here…and we know (or at least I know, and I’m sharing with you) that when Uranus goes direct this December it will do so at 8 Aries – setting off all all this earthy, watery energy with the plus or minus of same being how well we’ve been utilizing the energy pretty much from where it was initiated (Sedna’s station back on August 25th) into December.

Will we change…will we evolve…are we willing to grow up and be our own adult person based on our own adult capacities and understanding of life as it is, not as some ‘image’ presented by someone or something else?

And just to make this all a little more poignant (as if it needed any more piquant notes?) there’s also the fact that Venus will be going retrograde (yes, I hear you groaning) as of December 21st. And where will it be going retrograde?

That would be at 28 Capricorn – in sextile to this Full Moon, which is why I bring it up. Much as Saturn having gone station/retrograde at 11 Scorpio last February drew a metaphysical “dotted line” between events and choices back then to the peeling back of another layer of our personal façade as we’re experiencing now with the incoming 11 Scorpio Solar Eclipse, so this Full Moon will have a far fainter but still useful echo which will surface this coming December.

And if you know anything about Venus retrograde, that will be mid/late December until the end of January, when Venus goes direct again.

Energy has patterns, just as our auras have shape and that which the Chinese refer to as ‘chi’ manifests as patterns of energy in our bodies which reflect (or manifest) as our health and feelings of wellbeing.

Or the lack thereof.

Learning to recognize these patters and utilize or amend not the pattern itself but our reaction to it and how we utilize it, that is our key to personal betterment…in that concrete reality we call life.

Making that link…that’s the very essence of Pisces, and thus something to highlight in our own lives...for our own benefit (and thus the benefit of others who in the end will benefit or hinder us) at this moment of lunar fullness.
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Eclipse Effects Begin

The August 1, 2008 Solar Eclipse as photographed by NASA

Beyond being the most spectacular astronomical event we the People of Earth get to see with our unaided eyes is how solar eclipses mark a moment of vast metaphysical potential.

What we have to gain through this process is huge…even though achieving those gains often forces us to let something go.

Why that would be is simply human nature. We humans are masters of self-compromise. Though we know who we are, what we’re capable of and that person we “should be” (in spite of our foibles, weaknesses and all) deep inside, we do tend to ‘make do.’ We compromise. Society, life, people, economics…there are a variety of reasons why we tend to cut ourselves short.

Some of them even advocate doing just that. We get thousands of messages thrown at us from when we’re small to when we’re old which urge us to do the ‘approved’ thing and to ‘carry on’ some tradition.

Yet we’re not always born to do that. On the purely metaphysical level we are born to be who we are simply created to be. So fortunately or unfortunately for us, the universe has ‘ways’ of pushing us to be that person. And if it takes stripping away whatever it is we’re using to temporize or compromise with – or our excuses or defenses or whatever – that’s what life is going to do.

And the astrological ‘timing device’ which most often clocks this process is the solar eclipse. Yes, there are transits and transits come and go. But that’s the point. If your planets are all clustered (numerically) at one end of the zero-through-thirty degree scale it’s possible to go as much as a decade without encountering a major Pluto ‘get your head out of your…’ transit. Or a squishy smack-down with Neptune’s abilities to disappoint and amaze us because we’ve been believing something which was utter bunk. Or some discovery or disruption which signifies that singular energy which is Uranus.

But we get two ‘solar eclipse’ seasons every year. Those eclipse numbers (the degrees at which eclipses take place) cycle over and over again throughout our life on a 19 year (Metonic) cycle...moving ever, ever so slowly with each successive 19-year turn, representing  (theoretically speaking) the time we need to learn our lessons and thereafter make good on our potential.

Even the eclipse which doesn’t aspect your chart within orb or planet, node or axis is going to be reflected in the life being lived all around you – and thus in your life.

Solar eclipses are an affect of the Sun, and in astrology, the Sun equals life. So in keeping with solar eclipses as nature’s most dramatic display, they’re also the most metaphysically active in our world.

You know, our lives and our sense of life.

It’s also worth considering how eclipse ‘seasons’ (that period of time which as a whole is under the auspices of an impending solar eclipse) are so prevalent in our lives. On the average, we experience two solar eclipses every year – though there are years when we get two solar eclipses during one eclipse season (with a lunar eclipse sandwiched in-between). But it’s the time factor which seems so striking here, as each eclipse season begins with a two-month (8 week) ‘break down’ season which precedes the solar eclipse.

That means we’re spending approximately four months a year – a third of each calendar year – under solar eclipse effects.

And you thought life was supposed to be about a process which is peaceful and calm? Apparently not!

But maybe the most evocative – and illuminating factor with this ongoing solar eclipse cycling is how as transits, solar eclipses evolve over a full period of 36 months (3 years).

And during that time, other eclipses occur.

Through the centuries, astrologers have noticed two interesting (if somewhat peculiar) patterns about how the eclipse transit matures. The first involves that ‘break down’ period which precedes the eclipse. Events which occur during this time are what we tend to remember about that eclipse period, and yes, there is a ‘dotted line’ between those events and the eclipse theme. But to really understand the native process we have to remember that solar eclipses are all about taking away that thing which is preventing us from being the person we are created to be. So while the ‘created to be’ symbolism will be denoted by where the solar eclipse hits in your chart, what or how you’re compromising your ability to BE that person may seem totally unrelated.

The symbolism of the solar eclipse has the Moon (everyday life and our feelings about that life) aligning to ‘block out’ the Sun – which is why whatever we’ve been doing to compromise our Self will get ‘blocked’ or ‘blacked out’ (taken away or eliminated) as life moves to ‘reveal’ to us the need to be or become that special person we were created to be - as symbolized by the solar corona.

The second factor in the solar eclipse pattern is the one far less talked about, even if it’s as important as the first. This second factor has to do with the overall purpose of the eclipse.

Before the eclipse happens, that thing which we are doing which is temporizing, compromising or even avoiding that part of our life which we know (deep down) we should be dealing with but which we’ve put aside in favor of things which are easier, more acceptable (to others, certainly) or whatever else… that ‘thing’ starts to feel very ‘intense’ and often problematic. We tend to project the problem onto others because goodness knows, we’re happy with our temporizing, our blockading our own growth, our “acceptable” (or “accepted”) pattern of personal compromise.

But the problem isn’t ‘them’…the issue is that we are not living a life which is authentically in keeping with who and what we are and we need to deal with being or becoming.

Not surprisingly, there are a lot of relationship and job problems which crop up during eclipse lead-in periods. Financial issues will pop up, health issues will arise. And some of these can be utterly devastating – certainly on the level of our very mortal day-to-day established concept…our built-up ‘habit’ as to how we live our life.

But solar eclipses don’t take anything we really need away from us. That would be counter-productive to life’s process. So no matter what we think our life is “supposed to be” (and how we’re “supposed” to go about living that life) the eclipse takes away whatever we’re temporizing with in order to force us to use those tools or attributes we’ve been ignoring (or covering up).

As we go through life…as eclipse cycles pile up…slowly we begin to recognize who and what we’re really supposed to be. So the eclipse break-down rolls through and another layer of our mask is peeled away and depending what has been hit in our chart we shudder at our utter nakedness before our Self.

But then we start to move through the processing of the eclipse and the coping with what we need to do now that ‘that’ has been taken away. This period lasts a good two-to-and-a-half years, at which point something happens. And that shift, that opening of a new phase of development, that’s the most interesting part of any solar eclipse. Whatever happens then could not have happened (or “gotten to us”) if we hadn’t gone through having some portion of our temporizing or blockading mask stripped away.

Thus is revealed the ultimate “purpose” of that eclipse.

Nineteen years after any major eclipse, life will revisit the issue of whether we have grown. I describe this to my clients as the difference between going around in circles and climbing a helix. If we got the message and learned our lesson the first time around, then life hands us an opportunity to move on and take what we’ve learned to a new and higher level. That may be a little inconvenient, to be sure (who said life was convenient?) …but it will tend to not be as utterly painful or disastrous.

Truth is, it could be rather wonderful…but only if we’ve really learned whatever lesson is associated with the aspected symbolism in our chart.

You know, the what we need to be in life because that’s who we really are underneath all the conditioning and compromise.

But meanwhile, other eclipses have been rolling through, bringing us to the point in our program where we have to discuss a few celestial mechanics. Eclipses are a function of Sun, Moon, Earth and the intersections of the Moon’s path around the Earth (our personal life and inner psyche) and Earth’s path around the Sun – the ecliptic or ‘path of life.’

Where those two ‘paths’ intersect are two points known as the Lunar Nodes.

The symbols of the Lunar Nodes. The emblem which opens at the bottom is the North

Node, representing something which takes a great effort to do and which we probably

don't really want to have to be dealing with. The node with the opening at the top is

the South Node: the thing we find easy to do and which we are all about wanting to

do instead of our North Node work. Many a large life problem can be tracked to our

reluctance to do whatever it is our North Node is asking us to do  - and those

problems are often 'set off' (triggered) by solar eclipses.  

In essence, a solar eclipse is a New Moon (just like we get every month) but because this New Moon happens within fifteen degrees of the Lunar Nodes, what is indicated is a lining up of Earth, Moon and Sun such that we end up having the eclipse.

Because the nodes represent this idea of ‘intersection’ they represent how our life intersects with those around us…and with the world we live in. And that’s why eclipse effects tend to affect everything and anything – relationships, jobs, health, money, family - which has to do with how we go about ‘intersecting’ and ‘operating’ in this world.

The idea which is important here is the fact that the lunar nodes cycle backwards through the zodiac, a directive of motion which I have likened to “bringing things home to us” a couple of times. (A couple of times at least, I’m guessing.)

What that means in the timing of eclipses is that the yearly eclipse seasons also cycle backwards…which gets into that 3-year thing we were talking about.

For ease of discussion’s sake, here’s a chart of the past few year’s worth of eclipses…

 
To orient you, the solar eclipses are in yellow (noted by degree), lunar eclipses are in blue (ditto) and the colored bars around them indicate the break down periods which precede each eclipse, color coded by the zodiacal element in which the eclipse will occur. Green is earth, indicating a ‘structural’ element of life, the teal color is water, indicating an emotional element of life (or our orientation towards emotionality), blue is air, indicating the ‘idea’ of something as we have been working with it and the orange is fire, representing the method or ‘vision’ we have for our lives.

One other note for accuracy’s sake…we had two mid-year solar eclipses in 2011. Obviously the early August solar eclipse at 9 Cancer would have begun its break down period in the latter part of June, as the first solar eclipse (at 11 Gemini) and the 24 Sagittarius lunar eclipse were rolling through.

Lets just with the fact that charts are useful, but not perfect.

Anyway…a you will notice, the solar eclipse sequence (in yellow) has been slowly rolling back through our calendar months. And that brings us to the magic question of ‘which eclipse is now nearing its end?’

The answer to that question is: the January 2011 solar eclipse at 13 Capricorn is now coming to it’s ‘fruition’ point as we are moving into the break down period preceding the November 2013 solar eclipse which will take place at 11 Scorpio.

This being where the 3-year eclipse timing gets a little spongy, new structures (earth/Capricorn) are now coming into being. So is it about six months prior to January 2014 we should be thinking about as the ‘finalizing’ point of the January 2011 eclipse? Or should we be thinking about six months prior to the November 2013 eclipse since eclipses – even though they operate in independent cycles (known as “Saros cycles”) are also part of the ongoing and eternal unfurling of time and manifestation?

Answer: both. So to put this in more or less calendar terms, six months prior to this November’s eclipse (which would be early, early May 2013) a shift occurred. This shift would have been particularly notable in the lives of anyone whose chart “answers” to 13 Capricorn… which is to say, anyone with a planet/dwarf planet (even Plutino), node or axis point between 8 and 18 of Capricorn, Libra, Aries or Cancer, between 11 and 15 degrees of Sagittarius, Aquarius, Gemini or Leo.

Using this photograph of a relief in Egypt's Temple of Luxor which Hedwig Storch took

in 2009 purely as an illustration, the Sabian Symbol for 13 Capricorn is as follows: AN ANCIENT

BA-RELIEF CARVED IN GRANITE REMAINS A WITNESS TO A LONG-FORGOTTEN CULTURE

which astrologer-philosopher keynoted as "The will to unearth, in our culture as well as in

any culture, what has permanent value , and to let go of non-essentials" which in a greater

scope of thinking asks us to consider the importance of being who we are in a world which

is all too easy to get over-involved in, or molded and seduced by. 

We all will get some effect in our lives. But those whose charts include objects at those degrees? You know who you are and the whack you felt back in late 2010 is now evolving into a whole new thing you wouldn’t have gotten into had that not happened.

How well (or badly) have you coped with that process?

Well, lets just say that if your chart also answers to 11 Scorpio, chances are you either need some modification on your ‘coping strategy’ OR you’re now being given the opportunity to rebuild “that thing” in a new and more genuine (to you) manner.

What degrees are affected by 11 Scorpio, orb-wise? This list includes 6 through 16 of the fixed signs (Scorpio, Taurus, Leo and Aquarius) as well as 9 through 13 degrees of the semi-sextile and inconjuncted signs: Libra, Sagittarius, Gemini and Aries.

The more items/objects in your chart which are affected (cumulatively) by these two eclipses point at where on what we might think of as the human sliding scale of personal earthquakes your life effects will be…and will have been.

Oh yes – and IF your Sun, Moon or natal Lunar Nodes are involved in either list by degree, double that quotient.

If you’re only affected by one eclipse, fine. If you’re effected by both eclipses, get ready for a roller coaster ride.

With that said, we DO have the option of utilizing the eclipse voluntarily. Like all other astrological transits, eclipses operate as something akin to a 100% pie graph.

When any transit comes along, especially if you can spot is as something difficult, your using the energy in a directed manner ‘eats up’ whatever portion of the pie, leaving less of that energy to come back and bite you. Famed astrologer (and all round nice guy) Robert Hand put this best: use the energy wisely, lest it use you unwisely.

Six months prior to the “official” end of the January 2011 solar eclipse cycle rolled through at the start of August, 2013. Did you realize something important was shifting? Did you feel yourself growing or beginning to ‘reopen’ yourself to possibilities with regards to whatever ‘broke down’ in that November-December 2010 period?

With all that in mind, we turn to the two degrees of the solar eclipses involved in this discussion. The first is 13 Capricorn, a degree known to manifest through strength of character and the willingness to take on the difficult challenge…which yes, may be with regards to others but which intrinsically – and especially when we speak of 13 Capricorn as being the degree of a solar eclipse has to do with being challenged to be that Self that you are, and to do so in such a way which ‘owns’ your Self on a true and valid level of integrity while not walling everyone else out.

Not the easiest thing to do, that.

Bringing 11 Scorpio into the mix by solar eclipse brings out questions of childhood and cultural experience and “conditioning” – those ‘messages’ we get which we either accept or reject. And yes, sometimes we reject the message and become the messengers – which is to say, in spite of all our dislike of someone who acted a given way or who foisted their agenda on us, we may tend to do that to others. (Being human just isn’t ever easy!) There’s a tendency noted with 11 Scorpio to get SO involved in minutia that qualities of the ‘bigger picture’ get ignored…and this is also one of those Scorpio degrees which raises those Scorpio issues of jealousy and possessiveness which are really about some fear of loss, abandonment or marginalization.

Called 'Hofball in Wien,' this 1900 painting by Wilhelm Gause (which is housed in Austria's

State Museum at Vienna) suggests one of the many ways to think of the Sabian Symbol

for 11 Scorpio, which reads as follows: AN OFFICIAL EMBASSY BALL. Again drawing from

Dane Rhudyar's writing in 'An Astrological Mandala' we are given the keynote about this

degree as 'Group-consciousness, as it flowers at the highest level in cultural interchanges

between representatives of the elite of the ruling class.' The thing which seems important

here, especially in light of the tying together of these two eclipse symbols is our potential

- as individuals - to be some sort of 'elite representative' of something in our own life, and

how important that is to develop without losing sight of the fact that we learn in order to invest

our learning in a world which rewards us for our efforts to be the better and even best person we

can be, and how in doing that, we shift our sense of 'where I belong' to the company of others

who are "elites" in their own right by virtue of having done their work, and the rewards

we thus achieve through building our world in conjunction with those willing to invest effort in

their humanity and human potential, not merely in the pretense of appearances.

Put the two together and it would seem that this is an important time to work towards ‘owning’ our Self while not blocking others out in spite of the fact that situations – be they centered in career ambitions or relationships or financial security – are not about the job or the career or the money or that one person you may be so close to.

They’re about us. The Sun is the Sun in our life for us and in the life of someone else as they go about being who they are.

What this may open up – especially for those who have access to the charts of other people – are opportunities to share and discuss how we’ve felt about things which have happened to us…and how we feel about what’s going on right now. Scorpio has a strange way of getting us to make ‘presumptions’ about someone else, be it the good or the bad in them or about their life path.

Great alliances can now be forged. But we have to choose to forge them without losing our Self...and without losing what we've learned through whatever happened back in 2010 which forced us to reassess or relearn how to deal with our sense of structure (or how to structure our lives) which happened in the wake of the January 2011 eclipse.

Call it a sharing of pies…which means it may go nicely with ice cream, or maybe just a nice cup of coffee or tea. You know...to go with sharing our lives with others, be that through conversation, emotional (Scorpio) commitment, personal example or chosen deed - all of which are daring in that they ask us to risk what we are afraid of most in the search for inner security and ultimate contentment and satisfaction.
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