Sun in Leo / Mars in Scorpio / a 3 Leo New Moon

The Sun, photographed in all it's prominence glory by NASA (September 2006)

With our having just weathered two stations (those of Eris and Saturn) the Sun enters its ‘home’ sign of Leo on July 22nd (the date of this post) at 9:42 in the evening, UT/+0 time - about twenty hours after Uranus goes into retrograde motion.

This may be a surprising day...an enlightening day...an inspiring day...or even a surprising, shocking, destructive or rewarding day.

Moreover, along with the Sun entering Leo is the fact that the Perseid meteor shower will begin one day later on July 23rd. In lasting until August 20th, the Perseids cover pretty much the Sun’s entire transit of Leo - which is metaphorical right to the sword hilt seeing as meteor showers are said to be ‘sparks’ of creative thought which cut through some darkness with which our world is covered.

And considering how dark things have been, maybe that’s a good thing.

As a phenomenon, the Perseids are a meteor shower which comes to us courtesy of Swift-Tuttle. And Swift-Tuttle is on one hand a comet which by orbital range metaphysically could be thought of as tying Pluto and Venus together...and which (on top of that) has a known magnetic resonance (read: metaphysical synched quality) with Jupiter - all of which leads to a stew of desirously  transformative [Pluto], attraction laden (or by attraction attracted) [Venus] qualities which are all about needing to [Jupiter] know more about [Leo] life.

The comet itself reached its perihelion (its closest point to the Sun - or in this case, Venus) back in December of 1992 and isn’t due to reach it’s aphelion (its furthest point from the Sun, which is a bit of a leap beyond Pluto) until 2126 - a thought which when we think of it astrologically suggests a current crop of ‘insightful sparks’ which expand us or which push our vision beyond some former limit.

A Perseid meteor streak and the Milky Way

(David DeHetre, August 2012)

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The same day that the Perseids begin (July 23rd) is also the beginning of TNO Deucalion going on station at 12 Scorpio to go direct on July 25th. What would we think this influence might be?

Deucalion is - more or less - a Greek version of the Noah story...which you can read about here:

- link to -

Deucalion: Freeing Our Will 

Deucalion represents the need or ability or the inspiration to act and/or think independently when challenged by emotional situations or feelings - your own or those of others. Given that it is going direct at 12 Scorpio, we know right away that the emotionality is ours and that we are being tested (emotionally) as to whether we can handle our own emotions in dealing with others in terms of the facts - not what we want them to think, know or believe. As a second decan degree (one of the second ten degrees of this sign) the medium and goal of the situation or interactions involved will be intense, with most of our more testing issues coming from questions of whether we can ‘detoxify’ something on “our side” before we bring that to interactions with others.

Where we rise above our own emotionality (call it our tendency to be manipulated by our own emotions or mindset) then Deucalion on station and going direct becomes the opportunity - or a ‘change of winds’ which allows us to find a better way forward. Where we don’t ‘find our way to finding a way out of our own emotional corner’ Deucalion points to losses of a type which seems ‘separate from all else.’ Such losses are likely to carry some sort of moral or ethical taint which, given that this station is occurring at 12 Scorpio suggests choices or actions made without a complete understanding of parameters or possible consequences, all of which will like as not prompt emotional defensiveness until a more thought-driven form of compassion rises to the fore.

Wherever we find 12 Scorpio being emphasized (as it is here) there is also a chance that we may become so close to something or so involved that our very preoccupation may attract manipulation by others who attempt to twist or distort some truth. Given that Deucalion is turning to direct in this degree, it’s more likely that this will be a moment when such illusions will be discovered, recognized and dealt with consciously rather than this as a moment of falling under under someone’s influence, but such things can happen - if perhaps only to teach us how important it is to not be blindly swayed by others...or even by our Self.

All of that ‘takes a turn’ on Friday the 25th - and because the 26th hosts both a New Moon at 3 Leo (at 10:43 in the evening UT/+0) and Mars entering Scorpio at 2:26 in the morning (UT/+0), there are likely to be plenty of options in play.

However...! Let us not forget that if Mars is entering Scorpio at just after midnight (UT/+0) on Saturday, that means Mars has been sitting at 29 degrees of Libra coming into Deucalion’s station. Normally we would simply note that 29 degrees of any sign is considered ‘critical’ to any outcome in keeping with that sign - which in this case being Libra refers to relationships or how (even if) we relate to others or are willing to be in relationship to them... and if so, why, under what conditions and so on. But in this case, Mars has been in Libra - infusing our world with drives which were either innately weak (or taken as that) or which stirred up some sort of ‘weak’ response, whether ‘weak’ in this instance means a lack of resistance, less response that we had hoped for or greater resistance to our efforts which (in essence) put us in a ‘weak’ position...at least for the moment. Some people will indeed be caught in a ‘weak moment’ coming into Deucalion’s station and that station will be used to figure out what to do.

And then Mars will enter Scorpio...the second of Mars’ ‘home’ signs of rulership and that realm of experience where ‘the why’ behind what we do and all those ‘why’s’ which go with why we want to achieve - where all we want to get get done or claim as ours takes on something of a passionate or fascinating quality. The shift of energy is likely to be obvious: people will become more focused and energized. Conversations will spark new thoughts and opportunities.

All of this is about making a choice: what will I choose to invest myself in? Scorpio choices tend to be as much about avoiding our vulnerabilities (you know, those 'weak' points?) as emphasizing our strengths. We think we're manipulating others when what we're trying to do is to line things up so that we can achieve our aims without exposing ourselves to risk.

In particular, emotional risk - which is to say to anything which could make us feel badly about our Self.

Ah yes...the joy of Scorpio: the promise of riches with only a mild side order of poisonous paranoia. I can't think about this going wrong because I can't imagine knowing I choose this and it went wrong.

The famous Scorpio dynamic is the emotional projection: we imagine something or someone is 'all that' because we're hoping it scratches our itch (however you care to define 'itch' is up to you). 

But then we find out that thing, that person isn't perfect. (And mind you, Scorpio perfection is highly individualized so there's a million ways something can go wrong.) The natural (read: human) thing to do is to get mad - to blame it or them or whatnot. But the reality is that we know - way deep down inside - that we chose this thing, this person because we thought they were going to keep us safe...most of all from our vulnerabilities.

Unfortunately that's just not how it works.

Under Mars in Scorpio, we will seek out situations which will test our inner glitches like nobody's business. On one hand this may sound like trouble - and yes, it can be! Yet on the other this can be all about an intense period of growth which allows us to detach that 'blame game' from others and take it on with ourselves, owning our glitches, our vulnerabilities, our yucky bits...and in that, coming to see that everyone else goes through exactly the same thing.

It is from that knowledge that we then choose again: will we take advantage of them - or will we treat them as equals? Situations and dynamics from now (which is to say, July 26th) until mid-September are going to come at us from every possible evocative angle on this subject - and let's not forget...everyone else is under Mars in Scorpio as well.

Things can be wonderful or terrible under Mars in Scorpio. The instinct to go, do and make more vies during this time with the urge to control and eliminate. 

And that's just all quite very much different than Mars in Libra, a mode of going about being ourselves which began back in early December 2013. Where Mars in Libra creates a theoretical distance and tends to bring out inabilities which pit the Mars/Self aspect of life (or self) against the need to be 'part of the greater group' in possibly most unpleasant tones, Mars in Scorpio mixes it up. Under Mars in Libra, the stand-off attitude is a position. Under Mars in Scorpio, it's a stance - the fighter gathering themselves to make the lunge.

Mars normally spends about two months in a sign - as it will in Scorpio. But we've just lived through seven months of Mars in Libra (complete with retrograde, no less).

We're used to it.

So Mars in Scorpio is going to be a bit of a wake-up call.

Moreover, since Mars is entering Scorpio in square to Jupiter, the Moon and the Sun, big things are afoot. Big moves, big problems, big gaffs, successes, achievements and undertakings - some of which will be highly (Jupiter/Moon) extravagant either for the very good or terrible. With this trio in a square, it’s easy to opt for either the work or the pleasure...and not as easy to put both those things together.

But that is the challenge - and since this ingress happens just hours in advance of the New Moon, what comes up now may be the end of what we have been doing (allowing us to embrace the ‘new’)...or something may be coming together which becomes the heart and heat source for the next lunar cycle.

All year long we’ve been counting down New Moon degrees...January gave us two New Moons, both at 10 degrees, February didn’t have a New Moon (January took care of that), March’s New Moon was at 9 Aries, April gave us that thrilling New Moon we call a solar eclipse at 8 Taurus, May’s New Moon was at 7 Gemini, Junes was at 5 Cancer and now July’s New Moon will occur at 3 Leo - all of which on a metaphysical level represents ‘steps’ in a process which will by this October 23rd have us arriving at zero highly base line degrees of that most well-known (and sometimes least respected) fixed zodiacal water sign, Scorpio.

You know...Scorpio, sign of karma. Sign of wars fought - first and last with our Self. Scorpio, sign of desire... Scorpio, sign of domination... Scorpio, sign of taxes and anything which can simultaneously tax, excite and leave us helpless to the experience of our own sense of mortality - a moment which may be terrible or wonderful (or both), depending.

Doesn’t that just make your toes curl and a certain sense of warm trepidation tingle through your neural circuits?

But not to worry...first comes the New Moon at 3 Leo, a seeming declaration that the next month will test us (internally, at least) as to whether we are courageous or merely willful...even while our actions are being adjudged as either egotistical or creative. Imaged as ‘A FORMALLY DRESSED ELDERLY MAN STANDS NEAR TROPHIES HE BROUGHT BACK FROM A HUNTING EXPEDITION’ by the Sabian symbols, our ‘trophies’ may be of any type, just as the ‘man’ may represent an actual male or merely the more assertive or pro-active (courageous vs. willful) part of anyone’s character. In an 150-degree aspect to royal star Fomalhaut’s position at 4 Pisces, the position 3 Leo is automatically ‘subject’ to the ‘adjustment’ power of the inconjunct aspect between these two zodiacal points... (at least currently, which is to say until Fomalhaut moves to 5 Pisces in the year 2080)... which given Fomalhaut’s reputation for rewarding only that which is or hasn’t been corrupted (or is corruptive) may well explain how (or why, if you prefer) 3 Leo is written about as an internal/external experience of one’s own relationship to society and social accomplishment (you know, success - tangible or otherwise).

For some of us, this year has been like some very long exercise in wading through much which was far harder than we thought it would be. Where some have felt truly fortunate, others have spent each successive lunar month feeling like they’re just dodging some bullet.

Then there are those who have ‘worked’ each lunar cycle reflecting the world around them without ever having done what lunar cycles are really all about: reflecting on our Self. On life. On how we’re living our life and living in this life. 

As for that societal experience of social accomplishment (real or fanciful...past, present or future),the essence here is astrologically fiery - which is to say, about the essence behind the idea, the choice, the act...that thing we mostly think of as motivation. This degree is known for ‘showing off,’ whether that means ‘showcasing’ something, demonstrating (showing) what we are capable of or (or even willing to do) or displays of human drama. It is also known for strange combinations of brilliant insight, utter oblivion (or obliviousness to others) and inventiveness which may be inordinately helpful...or which may display a marked lack of understanding, including (in some cases) the simple inability to understand, whether that’s due to something simple like a difference in language or something truly incomprehensible.

Being an early degree in a sign which refers to not just physical children but the innocence of perspective which fosters imagination and the creative instinct, 3 Leo (and thus this New Moon period plus - to some degree - the whole of this next lunar month) seems to be about bringing us closer (or back to) some less ‘defined’ way of thinking - the ‘unhardened’ phase of personal experience wherein we are (or were) willing to befriend others without judging them because we feel less judged ourselves.

And since this is Leo...? Well...we are talking about a sign which while brilliant in essence can also be a bit blinded by that brilliance - which makes that ‘less judged ourselves’ quite possibly a statement on how we judge our Self, regardless of what anyone else says. There will surely be those this month who are unwilling - or even incapable of seeing that Self for what it is.

As the Sun enters Leo it will 'set off' a lot of Leo/Jupiter energy which as yet hasn't been accessed. Between that, the Leo New Moon and Mars' entering the sign of Scorpio we are bound to be aiming at something we want.

It consistent with who we need to be...or who we want to be? Therein lies our current quandary, one we won't all be successful with, but through which we will surely learn.
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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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Sun-Node Connecting

Atlas Turned to Stone by Edward Burne Jones (1882)

 

From October 25th through November 4th, the Sun will be in conjunction with the North Node.

Why would we care about a little thing like that?

We would care because all nodal locations (and every planet has nodes, which gives you an idea of what you don’t know is operative out there…) …all nodal locations represent connections. And since they (by the definition of what a node is) represent where the orbit of the planet’s moon intersects the orbit of the planet itself around the Sun, planetary nodes represent where the ‘essence of the thing’ (the planet) where that intersects or attempts to work with the ongoing processes of life.

And when you consider that ol’ Luna Moon up there represents our feelings and memories and money and all we hold dear…(including but not limited to the positive stuff)…those lunar nodes represent the ‘stirring of connections’ and some of our prime or primary energetic opportunity ‘nodules’ (if you will) to create, work on, change, reinvigorate, alter or otherwise hone our relationships with anybody and/or anything in our world.

Which is why, oh you who read, nodes are of such infinite interest – even to astrologers. They represent our connections, our interactions with our world…and why we intersect others – why we attract certain people to interact with.

You know…as we’re also interacting with everybody else. And as they’re intersecting with and interacting with everybody else in their world.

The particular set of days I’m talking about here would be greatly present tense because we’re talking about the Sun rolling through the North Node’s position. So matters of the moment are pretty much how we’re going to handle things in the moment, though the repercussions of what we do now may have extensive or expansive meanings up and down our personal food chain.

(Take a bite out of that, why don’t you…?)

And as we discuss all this, it is worth noting (and bearing in mind) that anyone with planets/dwarf planets, node or axis cusp points in the early-to-middle degrees of Scorpio are probably liking this period less than the rest of us due to the solar eclipse. Things in their lives (and others whose charts are being fixated on by the eclipse as well) seem intent and intense enough, thank you. They’re busy feeling more…and dealing with whatever it is which causes them to feel more – which in the case of some also causes them to consider why they try to avoid their feelings all the time.

It just depends. In general, this is a period all about feeling ourselves succumbing to our own feelings.

Okay, and that’s just what it is.

As for this passage, it starts with the Sun crossing 2 Scorpio, thereby entering the 5-degree standard orb to the North Node, which are at this October 30th point is at 7 Scorpio, a degree about an almost mystical depth of strength capable of dealing with flexing situations. 7 Scorpio is a degree which has an unquenchable draw which requires complete surrender to the experience of experiencing whatever this degree (or matters associated with its activation) stirs up…and that’s tough for a lot of us. We’re intrigued, but we are wary. And let’s face it, it’s easy to think that the person who invites us to experience something 7 Scorpio is doing it for their own reasons, their own gain.

That’s part of the vibe as well – and this is a degree I happen to know a particular amount about as it’s the degree of my Moon.

'Motherless' a young child in loving arms

(by Luke Fildes, c 1914)

So trust me: this degree tends to cause people to think you’re doing things for reasons which haven’t even occurred to you. What they’re reacting to is an odd ‘mirroring’ effect which goes with 7 Scorpio which causes them to think that what is going on in them because their psyche has been tripped has anything to do with the intent of your psyche.

It doesn’t. But that isn’t going to stop them from thinking it does…and that you have some devious, underhanded plan which is bent on taking advantage of same.

And you may have some devious plan and you may be planning something underhanded. But it’s not a definite, and where 7 Scorpio is concerned there is a quality of ‘revelation’ which arises… unbidden… from the unformulated depths of this energetic.

The North Node is going to be at 7 Scorpio throughout this period. In fact, the North Node is going to be at this degree until mid-December – which should tell us all this is a time to be using our relationships to plumb our own depths and elicit those revelations and realizations which will allow us to clear out our mistakes and avoid some of our more poignant karmic errors.

So there’s the North Node, and along comes the Sun. And when we combine 7 Scorpio with the Sun at 2 Scorpio we get the sort of energetic which promotes the ability to do more than tread water. Real accomplishment can be promised here, specifically to those who though influenced by their surroundings (lifestyle, life path) and whatever else are not ruled by any of it.

This could also be a time when those who are ‘stuck’ in the material or the manifest see the trick…the veil which material focus throws over greater purposes and power which is not detracted on by having come into the limits of fixed, materialistic form.

The conjunction of Sun and North Node occurs on October 30th just shortly after dawn, UT/+0 time. The Sabian Symbol here is not unlikely: A CALM LAKE BATHED IN MOONLIGHT (keynote: a quiet openness to higher inspiration - keyword/Dane Rudhyar: quiescence)…as the image of his degree suggests that it is one where the different ‘levels’ of Scorpionic experience separate enough to be noted.

Though the ideal in this symbol is calm, do we know what every person brings to this degree in their natal chart? No. So perhaps this is not a time of calm in (Nodal) relationships (platonic-intimate or business-personal) in your (Sun) life? Maybe it’s a moment in which relationships or your ability to relate is face to face (in conjunction with) situations which serve to evidence things which calls your attention to vulnerabilities and therefore your (Scorpio) attitude towards and ability to handle power.

Okay…so maybe this is when you are finally getting in touch with those unexpressed little pock holes in your most feeling (Scorpio) makeup. And maybe that’s making you feel somehow (Scorpio/Taurus polarity) sensitive to your own standards and thoughts about (Taurus) self worth/vs/”worth.”

Not you? That’s okay too. There’s something in your life where the tar is seeping out from under the tiles, where, try as you may, you know you aren’t in control.

Something could still get you.

Ah yes, Scorpio. The sign which asks us to accept the risk and walk right into the emotional realm which governs how…or whether…we react to what we feel.

How we can feel secure or be secured…which includes but is not limited to manipulation.

And maybe why we fear…as distinct from feeling fear, of course.

Or maybe our instinct regarding instinct.

Given such concepts, it would seem likely that as October closes out a new sense of our own awareness seems likely. You may well have been reading these columns for weeks now…and you may be absolutely, pozzolutely certain you know what these energies are ‘about’ by now.

And then comes along an innocent day or two and…well, let’s just say your outlook may change. This is a time when many changes become upon you because for whatever reason, you have arrived at a moment when you benefit from getting a different perspective.

Thus, one is magically provided.

Will you look at what is shown? Could you dare to stand in a hall of mirrors where every surface reflects your suppositions, your assumptions, your yearnings, your hungers, your instinct to survive?

Hope in a Prison of Despair by Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919)

If you had to spend a day or two experiencing things which would cause you to realize that life is – at some level – that very hall of mirrored aspects, all arranged so that you would encounter them without (generally) recognizing at first glance that what you were seeing was your Self….

…how would your opinion of knowing you change?

By November 4th the eclipse is over and we start feeling not the experience of life’s energies but our feelings about who was doing all that experiencing.  We come to some greater feeling of freedom to be who we are and respect for the world.

Or at least we recognize how to have our freedom and be responsive too once we accept that whatever we have attracted we have attracted because we needed to respond as we have.

And we needed to do all those things and respond as we have so that we can mix all our thoughts about who we are, who we aren’t, who we could be, who we’d like to be…we can mix all that in with the next phase of building our own recognition of the beautiful beast and beastly beauty of being part of a world, a life, an existence which we help manifest for better and for however we think we’re cursed.
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