Blogpost (June 9-16): the Sagittarius Full Moon

The May 2012 Super Moon rising above a bridge in Japan

(photo credit: Halfrain, May 2012)

Remember how in my last post I said that about the time Mercury would be moving on station to go retrograde how we’d get a Venusian ‘reprisal’ in the form of results indicated by April’s 8 Taurus solar eclipse...and to some degree, events dating back to Venus’ turn to retrograde back in the latter part of last December?

Well, other than the bushel-and-a-half of worldly and societal doings which have been going on (plus those I’m sure have been strewn through your days), for those who have followed my (mis)adventures, an update: after all which came before, last week’s surprise was ending up in an emergency room. Not to panic, though (I was doing enough of that, trust me)...upon failing the MD’s definition of ‘emergency’ I came home.

And at that point (aided by a super-doc type who took time to call and explain what I needed to do in detail) it became apparent that I can’t spend a ton of time typing posts for this next little-long while...which given my astrological history will somehow tie into Mercury retrograde. (But right now let’s not be fussy.)

All of this I freely confess. And that I do it as our symbol of ego denial - Neptune - goes retrograde seems apt.

 image based on photograph of Planet Neptune by NASA

The bottom line here is this: let’s make our time count. So...in quickest and simplest terms, here’s the outline: the only issues of serious astrological note (that I know of, anyway) between now and June 21st go line this...

With Mercury proceeding through its retrograde, just as/after Mercury moves back into Gemini (airing out thoughts while temporarily freeze-drying emotional considerations except in the abstract), TNO Typhon goes direct. This is June 18th we’re talking about with Typhon but with asteroid Psyche going retrograde on June 20th in Aquarius it would be the general astro-suggestion that various forms of basic (“primary”) or baseline (“bottom line”)  considerations will come into focus at this time, asking that we work to master our ability to bridge the thought-into-feeling gap/process - a challenge which tends to typify Gemini’s last decanate (degrees 20-29).

Then the Sun moves on into Cancer on June 21st, giving us our Earthly mid-year equinox. Metaphysically this is a moment which is more or less literally about balance - the known against unknown and our ability to build based on what we’ve learned from our past into (or towards) our future. Any time any planet shifts into Cancer we are asked to move from learning on an egocentric level into one which is more responsive...and yes, feeling. And as we make that transition - as we do every year as the Sun activates the 0 Cancer solstice degree, we either actively or responsively reflect about how our past brings us to be in or out of balance with our Self - and thus with our world and with (or through) everything we do in that world. Just feeling ourselves making this personal shift is often enough to help us recognize where and how we are out of balance with ourselves, and where or how that’s causing difficulties in our life personal or professional because we are having a bumpy time with all those curlicued emotional principles so important to our race and existence as humans on this earth living amidst a sea of humanity.

Plus let’s remember...all this is happening under Mercury in retrograde, making this a time for self-reflection and pursuit of internal understanding, whatever that may mean. Mercury’s having gone retrograde in very early Cancer on the 7th with the ensuing retrograde not edging back into Gemini until June 17th suggests levels of rhetoric (or our need/willingness to listen to or pay attention to same) subsiding... fading... or at least changing their tone or tenor as we all make more connections to our own sense of need. Of decency. Of survival, comfort, security and emotional need.

...Into which comes the Full Moon at 22 Sagittarius - an event which occurs on June 13th at 4:13 a.m. (UT/+0).

As a degree, 22 Sagittarius is about that which we do not fully control - which isn’t the same thing as what we might want to control, to be sure. Part of that comes from the idea that as a sign, Sagittarius is all about ‘putting things out there’ and seeing how things work (or whether they work) which is that most simple polarity to Gemini, the ideas we choose to follow.

We choose under the Gemini principle...we apply under the Sagittarian ‘run it up the flag pole and see if it waves’ polarity. And if or where things don’t work, we go back into our Gemini mode and make a new choice (or tinker with the old one) under the time-honored concept of ‘try, try again.’

This ‘connection’ or ‘connecting’ of idea to how things have played out (or are playing out) are likely to be ‘highlighted’ or ‘triggered’ (emotionally) by this Sagittarius Full Moon, and as with all things Sagittarius the real question is whether we are willing to learn more (or at least recognize we don’t know everything) or whether we’re stuck in some need to be right, replete with all the common emotional defense mechanisms people so often fall prey to even while protesting someone else doing exactly the same.

(This would be why no one is shocked that Sagittarius is the sign of debates, legal, scholastic, religious and otherwise.)

As a degree, 22 Sagittarius has a reputation for taking the ‘road less traveled,’ for whatever our personal reasons may be. There’s also a fervent sort of emphasis which goes with this degree where pointing out errors (perceived or real) is concerned. Those who think things through (or who have thought things through in coming to this Full Moon) will discover more positive/productive answers than those who simply go around exploding the ideas of others and acting demanding, insistent or otherwise disruptive, but this would be a Full Moon when there will be evidence of both.

And let’s remember...this is Mercury retrograde. So no matter how much we would like to think that it’s about ‘them’...it isn’t. It’s about us - specifically, how we think, how we handle or deal with our own thoughts or mentality, how and why we make decisions as we do and whether we are true to Self (not the image, the real Self) and others.

Which yes, to more than a few people is going to be one giant bother.


The Sabian Symbol here being ‘A GROUP OF IMMIGRANTS AS THEY FULFILL THE REQUIREMENTS OF ENTRANCE INTO THE NEW COUNTRY’ can be literal, yes - but considering how metaphysics speaks to things we encounter within our concept of Self (as typically happens under Mercury retrograde) this image is far more likely to represent Sun-in-Gemini ideas or situations which require discussion of ideas and possible choices or ways of meeting whatever emotional/emotionally sensitive [Full Moon] ‘requirements’ are now at hand.

Who are we if we choose this....? Who are we if we choose that...? How to square what we [Gemini] think with what we [Cancer] feel? Though astrologer Marc Edmund Jones’ original comment on this image (‘consciously accepting the ways of a new stage of experience, in readiness for the opportunities it will present’) holds validity in the abstract, how to retain clarity with regards to our [Sagittarian] beliefs while retaining our [Mercury in Cancer] awareness that real life and the realities of past, present and future history are matters we simply cannot deny.

Or rather...matters we can deny, but most often deny at a price of expanded costs which are directly attributable to past avoidance.

Life is not lived in theory. Life is a flesh and blood and soil of the planet sort of thing. During this Full Moon time the balance between that which is flesh, blood and soil and our ever-increasing Aquarian Age human tendency to theorize and prefer to basing (couching, phrasing) everything in and as theory about who things should work is going to get a workout.

But then, it is only a Full Moon - an emotional ‘phase’ which under Mercury retrograde is one very good  metaphysical way of saying we will be presented with that which we need to respond to (Sagittarius being natively a right hemisphere or ‘responding’ sign) in terms of the Moon’s opposition by the Sun - which if the Moon is at 22 Sagittarius is obviously at 22 Gemini.

 Full Moon of June 13, 2014 at 22 Sagittarius (glyph chart with Ptolemy term rulers)

4:13 a.m. UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (location not specific)

 Full Moon of June 13, 2014 at 22 Sagittarius (text chart)

4:13 a.m. UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (location not specific)

Before we discuss that there are two other smallish (??) matters to discuss, the first being that this Full Moon comes to us complete with a metaphysical commentary known as a t-square, with this particular t-square coming to us in the form of Chiron in Pisces, a fairly direct 'announcement' (astrologically speaking) that we are uncomfortable with what we need to do even if we need to go through feeling our discomfort, sense of loss, fear or whatever else in doing it. If we don't, we'll simply be left standing in the same place - by our fears and insecurities, no less...a quotient no one likes even if it is an unavoidable part of life.

The solution here is twofold with the first message being that of Chiron - namely that we can only learn how to be the person we really want to be by becoming that person in spite of our trepidations or the allure (comfort) of being 'part of the group' or that ever-so-human tendency to (as they say) 'go along to get along.'

Here we are being told that we gain nothing by doing nothing and that clinging to the known only embeds us in our (Pisces) emotional quandary. Answers are out there, but we will only learn them in the process of doing that which seems most daunting.

It's a very human moment. Not necessarily one which feels humane...no.

But human? Yes, entirely.

Full Moon of June 13, 2014 at 22 Sagittarius (glyph chart with Ptolemy term rulers)

4:13 a.m. UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (location not specific)

Full Moon of June 13, 2014 at 22 Sagittarius (text chart)
4:13 a.m. UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (location not specific)

After that comes another important fact - namely how as the Sun and Moon are reaching 22 degrees of their respective signs (Gemini and Sagittarius), Jupiter will be at 22 Cancer and Sedna will be at 24 Taurus, creating that singular formation astrologers refer to as a Yod. 

Full Moon of June 13, 2014 at 22 Sagittarius (glyph chart with Ptolemy term rulers)
4:13 a.m. UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (location not specific)

Full Moon of June 13, 2014 at 22 Sagittarius (text chart)
4:13 a.m. UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (location not specific) 

The idea of a Yod is that there are dual (or dueling) issues which are forcing us to adjust our positions - or in the case of a Full Moon, our feelings ...or our feelings about some position we are in or have taken on some matter. While a Yod is in formation (which in the case of our swift-moving Moon will really only involve some six hours before and six hours after the Full Moon’s moment of exactness) we tend to feel ‘fated’ in some way - fated to do something, to have been brought up in one place, time or culture...something will now come to the [Full Moon] fore.

Typically we want to focus on ‘our point’ in the situation - which with a Yod is symbolized by the planet at the ‘point’ of the Yod itself (in this case, the Moon). That’s instinct - and when we speak to anything lunar (such as a Full Moon) those lunar instincts or feelings of allegiance can be strong.

However strong they may be however, lore tells us that the solution to such a situation is not found by ‘standing on our preferred point,’ as one might say, but rather through looking for middle ground - which in the case of the Yod is that point which lies midpoint between the two planets forming the mouth of the “Y”...which given the Full Moon at hand would be the midpoint or coming together or marrying of the Jupiter/Cancer precept of knowing where we ‘come from’ physically and emotionally (family, culture, national identity, home town, etc.) and that idealized [Sedna] ‘you should be/do such-and-such’ which we each will have long ago internalized early in life.

That midpoint - for all intents and purposes - is the image of the Sun (our intelligence, our consciousness of life, our willingness to be who we are as opposed to that we might have been told to be or imprinted with as ‘correct’ as expressed through 22 Gemini - a degree known for alternating qualities of light and dark or kind against mean which only serve to point out (or elicit) the need for creative thought, choice or action with attention being paid to any physical process involved, especially those which might affect/utilize limbs and the ability to see (literally or proverbially).

All of this suggests that we are now set on some sort of individual [Mercury retrograde] path which involves walking ourselves through our own thoughts and feelings on many a variable subject. Through what we do (say, choose) or don’t do (say, choose) we will be settling at least for this moment on some opinion, thought or stance.

Yet it may not be our last one on any subject, as Full Moons seldom mark a finality but rather some end of a phase, effort or situation.

From here we will move on - hopefully more informed about what’s truly important so we can choose to be or not be most invested in that. But how it all will yet work, none of us yet truly know.
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Ixion and Pholus Station/Retrograde

A diagram showing relative orbits and distances from the Sun for planets Saturn,

Uranus and Neptune along with Plutino Ixion and centaurs Pholus and Chiron 

Still sitting in conjunction to fixed star Ras Alhague, Ixion goes retrograde at 22 Sagittarius on March 22nd at 8:17 a.m.

Then Pholus goes retrograde at 24 Sagittarius a day later, at 3:44 in the afternoon…and as always, both times are given in UT/+0 terms.

Whatever our internal challenges are, since any station-retrogrades represents either a ‘taking in’ or ‘being stopped at’ some given point, that’s where we would expect life to be…or take us…starting as of March 20th.

That March 20th date in advance of Ixion’s turn? That allows for two days of ‘station lead-in time’…and since Pholus is going retrograde a day after Ixion, that means things can be expected to start off ‘more on the Ixion side of things’ and end more in our personal Pholus mode – whether that means we’re experiencing an ‘isolated’ or ‘isolationist’ moment or are being pushed (or pushed back) into some ‘dark place’ which uniquely our own.

Or who knows…maybe the Pholus ‘isolating it’ harmonic will surface in your life as your putting some issue aside – isolating yourself from it so you can get on with something higher on your priority list.

But however we all experience this time, there would seem to be something of a ‘trying’ notion to what goes on right now. This combination would seem to signal a somewhat trying time. Yet whether the question is someone getting in your way or our acting in some manner which someone else finds ‘trying’…whether there’s some ‘rule’ we have a problem complying with or even some ‘standard’ which causes us to withdraw (or want to withdraw)…the central issue is us.

Not them, us. Yes, you, me, that other person…each of us will face some inner urges to ‘never mind them’ and do what we want at some level which tests our Pholus notions. Will we ignore real life? The needs of others? How things work in reality? Are we prepared to face the world (or others)? Can we face what we have or haven’t done in life? Can we reconcile how we’ve used our will with our deepest convictions along with our darkest, most vulnerable-feeling secrets? 

The “they” or “that” which now irritates us feels judgmental or rude or even insulting to our sense of who we are in that curious sort of Ixion manner which triggers our determination of will, taunting us about whether we ‘can’t’ do (or be) what we want to do or who we feel entitled to be… which is probably the Ixion point as transiting Ixion raises challenges which ask whether we can control that exact impulse...or not.

Can we acknowledge to ourselves that yes, we feel we deserve something in spite of the fact we may not have yet earned it? Have we come to some point where we’re realizing that whether or not we want to do what we want to do (and have things work the way we’d like them to work)…how upon reflection, that’s not working? 

link to

Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

Ixion actions tend to be somewhat (and sometimes a great deal) shortsighted in spirit. Being a Plutino (i.e., an object whose orbit is controlled by planet Neptune’s magnetic resonance) the Ixion drive is often about some belief, some image (of Self or ‘how things should be’) which isn’t real. It may be worthwhile, yes. It may be your heart and soul’s desire – absolutely.

But is it real? Could it exist in reality and if it did, would it work the way you envision?

With Ixion – as with Neptune itself or any other Neptune-controlled object – we are far more likely to succeed in our aims if we accept our dream as a motivation and not the reality we seek. Where Neptune or any Plutino is concerned, the ‘dream’ is best used to help us get through our work…as if dulling us to the pain so that we can marshal on.

With Neptune itself, we most often achieve our dream through embodying it or sharing it with others, serving as an inspiration in their lives so that the dream can then live on.
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A computer generated image of Neptune's cloud tops

(photo credit: NASA, JPL, Don Davis, September 2009) 

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That, in human terms, is immortality. Anything beyond that is ego…ego being the fulcrum which balances our Ixion issues. Strength of ego is not abhorred…in fact, where Ixion is concerned it’s probably required, if only because Ixion moments ask us to manage a Self often armored with, by and for the purposes of ego defending ego. (Which is one of the things ego is for, after all.)

That’s where the problem comes in on the Ixion side of things. Neptune is a planet. Ixion isn’t a planet. Neptune’s surface area is nearly 15 times that of Earth. Not even classed as a ‘regularly formed’ (i.e., close to spherical) object, Ixion is less than a thousand kilometers across.

Earth has problems bigger than Ixion – at least on a physical basis. And as far as that goes, Pholus is even smaller. Yet size is not wholly determinative – very small objects or moves or choices can bring down long-laid plans, even bigger careers, a high flying reputation or lives and entire nations. And yes, this is a moment when some act or action already committed to could have some grave sort of consequence. Yet it’s far more likely that these days ahead will bring matters to light – maybe just as a glimmer or a thought.

And if that happens, this double-station turn to retrograde may be our seeing some brink ahead which prompts us to ‘go inside’ and find some way to keep ourselves from ‘going there.’

With the Sun in Aries, all feels very personal. Known famously for its focus and courage, this is just the sort of time which may well find us accepting some challenge. If taken on in the spirit of broadening our experience, understanding and effectiveness without undue focus on Self, much can be gained in due time if we remember the difference between who we are and what we can do.

Plus, let’s not forget - Mars is in Libra, the sign of the other. So though we may be feeling Mars “desire” in everything we do…in our every waking moment…we don’t ‘rule’ them. We don’t control them – nor will we ever control them. You’ve heard it once and will like as not hear it too many times to count in this life…’we only control our self.’

But since that Self is probably feeling a bit frustrated about now (Mars retrograde in any sign tends to spell an undercurrent of floating frustration), that sets us up for willfulness. Yet that isn’t likely to mesh all that well with current convictions as we’re all likely to come down (hard) on the side of what we want.

And thus the question becomes to be on what we can do which others will react to positively.

All of which would be just fine and thrilling except for the fact Aries is all about our focus on Self.

So some of us will assert ourselves in our own cause and go overboard as others are getting so annoyed with someone else that they give up and walk away – only to end up focused on what they know they should have been doing all along.

Then again, since all of astrology operates in that polarity…and because you may have a natal chart in which Pholus and Ixion represent periodic triggers which stop you from living life in the dark or getting too willful.

If (or where) things do go awry now, whether the gap in your road is mild, moderate or the Grand Canyon, disappointments and feelings of defeat or rather more than half-likely. Moreover, they’re bound to center on some subject which seems more important to you than anyone else – which is neither good nor bad as long as care is taken to how you proceed, sharing rather than telling or notifying.

This is not the best time to be too insistent, as the energy of insistence (like that of critique) tends to promote defensiveness at any time and right now people feel buried somewhere in their lives whether they really are or not. Assertion will tend to be seen as a need to validate Self (or your desires) which be harmless – and then again, can create enmity and rejection. Ixion’s going retrograde in conjunction with fixed star Ras Alhague intensifies everything we talked about last month…

link to post:

Ixion–Ras Alhague

...while mixing in some of our Pholus ‘in or out of the light’ issues…meaning ours: what we may regard as the bad or less ‘approved’ in our character against the lighter or more positive notes. There’s a ‘turbulence’ implied here which expressed through fire sign Sagittarius suggests things we are struggling to be clear on – some of which ‘looks’ like it’s about others or something going on in our world.

But it’s not. Astrologically, a double turn to retrograde can only be ‘taking in’ or ‘retreating’ at some level which is ‘into the Self’ (however we understand that in our individual life) – and since the ‘psychological wavelength’ of 24 Sagittarius tends to run darker than some, it’s to be expected that we may not like what we know now.

That doesn’t mean we don’t know it…and doesn’t mean it isn’t true. We’re just not happy about it.

But with Ixion in the mix here, why is that? Is it possibly just because we don’t want to be interrupted or otherwise ‘inconvenienced’ as that pertains to what we’d “rather” be doing – or even in how we’d “rather” think of our Self (or someone else) despite evident truths of necessity?

And yes, we may see all these things in projection – happening in the lives of those around us or in the world at large. It would be natural to want to ‘turn away’ from news good or bad now, simply because something about the moment…the subject, the timing, the comparison with what’s on our mind, the person delivering the news…something about it doesn’t fit.

Which is fine. A station like this one can indicate ‘taking a break’ in order to regroup, recalibrate, retool or rethink. In the middle of all, some of us are bound to look up, experiencing inner revelation.

Then again, some of us will simply look inside and come up with a more worthy (of us) level of determination.

What we do with any of this is up to us, of course. Yet considering how Mars is in retrograde…and that Mars is going to be in retrograde for another two months during which a solar eclipse at 8 Taurus promises provocation of our inner sensitivities…

…Let’s just say that it would seem we’re not seeing the world as it truly is and in all its glorious potential – at least not at the moment.

Evaluation is probably needed as there are questions here about what we need to protect – or what we’re actually protecting. Where our answers lead back to strength of ego Ixion’s Neptunian quality may lead to confusion…even mistakes which we regret by the handful.

During these years of Ixion and Pholus in Sagittarius it will always be easy to sell ourselves on the idea of something, only to find a bit down the line that theory is not reality.

What we do from there…? That determines not merely our worldly success, but whether when all is said and done we feel we’ve lived up to our potential – a feat which satisfies best when that within is ultimately balanced with all which in reality, surrounds us.

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Ixion in Sagittarius:

December 1995 – December 2020

Pholus in Sagittarius:

January 2005 - January 2018

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Mercury Direct at 18 Aquarius

In accordance with the Sabian image for Mercury's station degree, a photo of a forest fire in Russia's Yugansky Nature Reserve taken by Tatiana Bulyonkova (July 2012)

One of Aquarius’ interesting qualities is its dual rulership by first Saturn, a symbol of solidity…then Uranus, the energy of being freed, which is about as theoretical a notion as any – and therefore capable of being molded in any of a thousand ways.

Of the three signs of the zodiac with such dual rulers, two (Scorpio and Pisces) are water signs – water being the symbol of all things emotional and emotionally insightful, provocative…or otherwise educational if trying when it comes to the subject of trying to live the lives we really want.

Only Aquarius differs – and it does so by being an air sign. Aquarius is also fixed, which is to say its operations tend to be particularly ‘calculated,’ whether that means a goal is predetermined, why that goal ‘works’ (or is fitting) and/or how the ‘style’ of one’s methodology tends to be determined as well as in some measure determined by moment-to-moment facts at hand.

But Scorpio is fixed too...although Scorpio is about the sticky parts of emotions - the parts of emotions and emotional experiences which 'stick' with us (and which sometimes even stick it 'to' us...) - as opposed to the Aquarian wrangling of the idea - be it complex, incomplete, universal, rewarding, acceptable or unacceptable. The difference is very much with us at the moment seeing as the end of last year was all about that sort of uniquely Scorpio feeling of getting emotionally wrung out even as - and strangely enough - in virtual diametric opposition to all the difficulties, doors seemed to open.

At least in our minds, hearts or spirits.   

But now we're in the Aquarian realm. A very ‘big picture’ sign by nature, the biggest Aquarian challenge seems to be getting from the idea of what needs doing to the 'done' point with all in order and on time without emotional frizzles.

Aquarius teaches us that we can't have it all...but we can have what we really value providing it's an honest expression of who we really are. When Aquarian influences run thick in life's Mercurial mix (such as over the next few days) we will tend to think down the road, around the corner and into that next dimension no one’s thought about thinking up yet – although this 2014 Aquarian passage of Mercury has been anything but glassy slick or smooth. Comfortable and profitable have not seemed to exist in the same breath – at least not all the way around.

We've all had to surrender something. It was something of a lesson in humility - which Aquarius is also about in the sense that it's a universal/universalist dynamic both about the individual human and the whole of humanity, which perhaps you'll pardon me for saying...I found a particularly intriguing thought while the Olympics were going on in Sochi while not so far away fires were burning in the Ukraine.

I mean no criticism here...it's just...these two events were happening at the very same moment. That's the level at which astrology functions on a global level.

I just wanted to point that out. The combination of Mercury's retrograde starting in feeling Pisces seems to have pulled emotional energy into our Aquarian thoughts. It challenged and exhorted us, reflecting the onset of Ixion conjuncting fixed star Ras Alhague at 22 Sagittarius - the call to attend to our injuries lest we be injured by sheer self-motivated insistence. 

It’s definitely been one of those times when no matter how ‘fine’ things are, something – and something unexpected at that – is turning desires, hopes, plans and other such personal cravings for whipped cream and sprinkles into a not-so-merry-go-‘round of conflict.

And all this has been highly encompassing if also something of a ‘backdrop’ against which we know life is playing out…a life which is our motivation, challenge and glorious disappointment often all in one whether you’re dealing with the fires of war or fires on the personal home front as you work out personal problems.

To the extent we have based our hopes on others – or what others ‘do’ (or don’t do) and not on what WE do to interface, connects to or contributes to the overall environment…or which affects capacity to function or functional capacity…to the extent that we have spectated on our own life we are being tumbled. Sometimes thought of as substances metallic or crystalline, there’s always a strong positive in any Aquarian issue or drive which serves to clarify our thinking.

Yet even as it does that, even as the Aquarian ability to parse, fissure, factionalize and factor finds ever greater comprehension, so it also raises new questions.

That’s just the Aquarian way. Understand that one idea and you’ll understand why Aquarius is the sign of modernization, upgrades and all the ruptures – social, mechanical, economic and individual – which in breaking something down…or in breaking us down to ourselves or someone we love, or in some plainer fashion leads to greater potential, power and plain old everyday likeability.

Acceptance, call it.

Or maybe success.

All this – all the challenges and enhancements to our ability to understand and utilize any such notion or focus which began back in January issues returned  by mid-February. And from there…as Mercury backed down (retrograded) through Aquarius, so life backed us down in one or another way, starting in the public (third decan/degrees number 20-29) arena.

By February 20th (the 19th in some time zones) Mercury backed into Aquarius’ most fervent, most driven second decanate (degrees 10-19). And since Mercury was in retrograde (where energy is internalized) we pushed internally towards goals – which yes, in the case of a couple of nations meant civil unrest (the push on a nation’s ‘internal’ affairs).

Mercury goes direct on February 28 at 2:01 in the afternoon, UT/+0, which means there will be an uptick in activity between February 26 and March 2nd.

March 2nd is the date for Saturn going retrograde, by the way. It’s doing so in a degree known for dissipating Scorpionic energies – which we can hope will mean a ‘dissipating’ of ongoing violence.

The truth is however, such a dissipation – especially in the wake of Mars’ March 1st Libra station – could just as easily represent the ‘dissipating’ of pent up (or controlled) energy in some sort of “explosive action.”

The degree Mercury is stationing at being 18 Aquarius, there are likely to be highly quirky challenges which arise from ‘turnabouts’…(large and/or small; singular and/or as part of a greater action, movement or process)…wherever our plans, actions, hesitations, methods or responses to others and the society in general are derived from false information, presumptions, diversions or incomplete (and/or) overly simplistic reliance on ‘socially accepted’ answers as opposed to reality, or the facts of the matter.

The Sabian Symbol for 18 Aquarius (which is numbered phase 319 for those looking it up) gives us the following image: A FOREST FIRE IS BEING SUBDUED BY THE USE OF WATER, CHEMICALS AND SHEER MUSCULAR ENERGY – an image astrologer Marc Edmund Jones typified as the skill and courage necessary to bring under control the destructive potential of carelessness of karmic ‘visitations’…which is a curious sort of comment when applied to airy, theoretical Aquarius (metaphysically karma is generally thought of as watery or emotional) ….very curious except for how the days may affect how we operate.  

Or maybe they’ll just end up turning us in a whole new direction.

The reference to karma also tends to remind us of Scorpio, karma’s ‘home sign,’ if you will. And that’s a bit of a reminder that Saturn…which is, after all, the primary ruler of Aquarius…how Saturn is about to go on station in Scorpio.

Things aren’t a joke right now. They don’t even feel like a joke right now. Between the seriousness and our (Sun in Pisces) sensitivity to our inability to escape our feelings of limitation, anyone can get to feeling terribly raw now. So kindness counts – to yourself equally with others. A cross-collateralization of some type may be possible if you’re willing to wade through choppy waters…and for those who realize those waters are their own feelings, things will become manageable.

That’s a persistent theme which has…and which will continue to carry for a couple of months yet: the projection of power on others. We have the ability to walk some longer road ourselves. We just want…and hope…and dream of somebody helping us.

According to that which lore says about this 'Mercurial presence,' help is now to be found in our friends, in our societies, in our wits. Those of us who think in terms of connectivity between self and others or in the sense that any system of any type has to be connected to work…those people will see a path forward. No – it isn’t simple.

Nothing which is both Aquarian and high quality is ever simple. It may LOOK easy…but it’s never simple.

And there is the fact that by the time Mercury goes direct a couple of days from now, other things will have happened. The time between now and the 28th will present us with all sorts of moments which ask us where we’re going and what it will take to get there – which rather automatically ask if it’s worth all that effort…which may be another way of seeing the symbol for this degree, as all astrological symbols are first and foremost about our relationship within our Self.

From that, all else flows…which is why people say ‘life is what you make it’ – which in the case of an Aquarian Mercury station starts with what we conceive of as our current status quo, and what needs bettering from here.
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Ixion-Ras Alhague

At the center of the Swan Nebula (M17) in Sagittarius, new stars are wrapped in dark hydrogen

(photo credit: NASA, Holland Ford, ACS Team, ESA - April 2002)

If Ixion is the Neptune-controlled…(or perhaps we prefer the term ‘guided’?)…which tests our ability to know the difference between that we can do and that we should do (and the many reasons both positive and negative for such)…then Ixion’s conjuncting of Ras Alhague, a fixed star of some repute is likely to be a period of some upheaval.

Internal upheaval at least…and if we avoid such recognitions of/within our Self, through externally-driven ‘life lessons.’

Sometimes thought of as a ‘non-spiritual’ Greek and philosophical personification of the biblical Cain, Ixion is the universal tendency to have a point or place in life where we tend to repeatedly undermine ourselves (or our efforts) through ‘wrong’ thinking specifically of the ‘dis-connective’ type. In other words, where Ixion is concerned we may insist on having our way…or simply not do ‘that other thing’ (good or bad) we might have had in mind.

With Ixion, we act in haste and repent at leisure…or we choose, in spite of Self and less ‘personally appealing’ options, whatever they may be.

And then there’s Ras Alhague, a fixed star of varying repute. Known sometimes as a great force for healing and in other situations as a ruthless engine of harm, Ras Alhague’s current position at 22 Sagittarius will bring out polarities of either good or ill or show up great efforts along with shocking abdications of responsibility (for what would be indicated by the star’s house and aspects in an individual chart).

As of February 22nd (2014) Ixion will move into Sagittarius, telling us that on some metaphysical level these two sometimes righteous, sometimes raunchy energies will now ‘fuse.’ Considering how slowly fixed stars move – and how Ixion has an orbital period of 249.95 years (about a year longer than the orbital period of Ixion’s fellow Plutino Pluto) – it’s obvious the ‘melding’ of these influences has been coming on for some time. The standard orb of conjunction being 5 degrees, that takes us back to 17 Sagittarius – a degree Ixion entered back in October of 2011.

Seeing that Ras Alhague and Ixion both tend to make things a lot easier or a lot better, part of the question would be how does each object work? Ras Alhague is a fixed star…something which is more like a backdrop than a detail or akin to an ambient feeling in society which you’re aware of needing to be aware of. How to fix things? Are things past fixing? How frustrating is it to have to deal with so much which seems so wrong when so much which is so good could be accomplished?
Against this we have Ixion, a Plutino of ill-repute which may simply serve (ultimately) to show us the folly of such labels as ‘ill-repute.’ Where Ixion is concerned, the folly is ours…and where Ixion is concerned, we will do almost anything not to admit that fact to ourselves – until we get burned.

Totally burned.

So at a fixed star level, what we have to work with (or the times we’re dealing with) include both the opportunity for great healing…and great harm.

(Why am I not liking this post all of a sudden?)

Meanwhile, we have to decide what we’re going to do…and we are likely to do something simply because we want to. Or because it appeals to us. Or will give us what we want in this very short-sighted moment.

For some of us, ‘doing’ is better. For some of us, ‘not doing’ is going to be better.

How to tell them apart? Astrologers would look to your Ixion and Ras Alhague in the natal chart…and again in the solar chart. We would look to see if either point was under any long-term influence by something like Sedna or Eris. We would think about whether your Ixion is located where it’s going to be hit by either of the 2014 solar eclipses, one of which will be at 8 Taurus and the other of which will be at 0 Scorpio.

And then we’d ask you if you have any decided history which applies…which is your clue in thinking this conjunction through without someone like me sitting there gazing at your chart. Ixion involves patterns. Ixion speaks to something we have done at least several, if not many times and never really to our lasting betterment.

This encounter of Ras Alhague and Ixion is likely to end up being a time a time when many of us ‘see’ or begin to understand our ‘patterns.’ Some of us will simply make course corrections. In embodying Ras Alhague’s healing force we may even become someone others look to as an example of what can be accomplished if we just put our Ixion towards  some greater purpose instead of our own desire for gratification.

Then again, some of us will jump wholeheartedly into something thinking it’s all about us and what we can ‘get’ from the situation…or out of, considering the situation. Those who follow this path and prioritize servicing vanities ahead of necessities personal, ethical, moral, spiritual or integral are very likely to hit some sort of very hard wall as Saturn rolls into and through this area of the zodiac early in 2017.

And 2017 is another big year for global economics.

Situated in the Ophiuchus, the quandaries posed by Ras Alhague are very much in keeping with the constellation’s image – that of a hero wrestling with a snake, an obvious image of the wrestling we do with and within our Self...and which Ixion often has us falling prey to.

Kepler's Drawing of Ophiuchus made in the wake of a supernova in 1604

in the constellation's 'foot'

Are we going to repeat our pattern? Or will we finally see something as a pattern and deal with it more effectively?

Whatever our habits…‘vices’…or weak points are, these months and couple of years ahead represent a time when we can finally own up to our ineptitudes (our repeated ineptitudes, in some cases) and in owning our humility, move on.

Or we can reinforce our sense of entitlement – most of all to do that so-very-Sagittarian thing of seeing flaws in the other person’s thinking…even if it’s none of your business. Sagittarius can be a bastion of mental entitlement, the sign which represents and the energetic under which sweeping pronouncements get made which allow for no variety, no differences of opinion or priority.

And with this energetic coming from Sagittarius’ third decanate (the last ten degrees), there is no way to shut others out.

They will have their say.

If that’s a problem, buy earplugs. You have, after all, no more of a right to tell them who they are and what flavor of ice cream their tongue likes best than they have to tell you what sort of music twinkles your toes.

And that – to some great degree – is the heart of this period. During the months of Ixion and Ras Alhague conjunction we’re all going to feel pushed and pulled by our feelings and aims and how they do (and often don’t) work with the priorities and goals of others.

Even people we like.

Even people we love. Or thought we loved.

This is not about ‘giving in’ or ‘giving up’ anything to anyone other than our Self – but that…? That we may well have to do. Or learn to do. All of our choices remain ours.

This is also not any ‘constant’ – that we know because Ixion’s yearly direct-retrograde-direct cycle includes periods from now through to the end of 2015 when our challenges and frustrations will seem stronger or weaker as Ixion moves in and out of 22 Sagittarius.

And what would Ixion represent in those other degrees? Ixion in 21 Sagittarius generates situations through which we test our boundaries of self-assurance in new ways and through new things – which with Ixion is likely to result in some sort of ‘acting out’ or overstepping of bounds (even if that’s just the bounds of good taste on occasion) in an effort to cause us to become more aware of/willing to take on questions of internal balance.

Then there’s Ixion in 23 Sagittarius, which is likely to bring out many a frustration and the kinds of feelings of defeat which can be heedless and uncaring, either to others or with regards to whatever isn’t suiting our Ixion fancy.

Yet put simply, all of this is about where we are out of balance. Such areas are arenas where we don’t maintain stability because our tendency is to go for a solution instead of a restructuring. As with all other astrological signatures, Ixion isn’t about “causing us trouble” – it’s an opportunity to learn about ourselves, often through those standards held by others. But on its own? Wherever you see Ixion in a chart, you know that’s where the person who ‘owns’ that chart could get themselves into trouble – first and foremost with their Self.

All of this is why this encounter with Ras Alhague holds such promise. In Ophiuchus not being on the ecliptic and therefore not being a constellation of the ‘zodiac’ there is no astrological slighting. Yet about every two, three (…ten or twenty) years or so the spirit of fighting for constellation equality seizes people and a huge debate gets started about Ophiuchus as the thirteenth zodiac sign.

The argument is ridiculous – the zodiac is defined as constellations on or across the ecliptic (Earth’s path around the Sun) and Ophiuchus isn’t there.

But that this ‘fight’ keeps getting waged with regards to a constellation which images a hero wrestler wrestling a snake? Without getting coiled into metaphysical snake lore, the quest to overcome and the need to ‘wrestle’ with something can be internal or external.

Either way, during the periods when Ixion and Ras Alhague are (by zodiacal degree) in absolute conjunction we would seem to have a chance to get past a few of our own sticking points.

Whether we have to set them off so as to become aware of them…? And just how that might happen? Those notes are individual.

And maybe we can’t know. Then again, there are the words Ixion is compelled to cry out once he has had but lost his way: 'I should be grateful to my benefactors.'

If nothing else, that would seem to be a clue...though what it means to you is likely to be very different than what that statement means to me.

As well it should.
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Pholus + Ras Alhague @ 22 Sagittarius

Binary star Alpha Ophiucus (known by it's older name, Ras Alhague, to astrologers) is about 400 Light Years from Earth. Near the top of this photo, the yellow star is royal fixed star Antares and at top left is IC 4592, the Blue Horsehead nebula.

(photo credit: Rogelio Bernal Andreo, September 2012)

'It’s all in what you do with it,' people say. And since that’s probably a keyword for a period starting December 27th when centaur Pholus perfects its conjunction to fixed star Ras Alhague, I'm fine with people saying it.

(Like they asked me?)

Ras Alhague – also known as Alpha Ophiuchi (and apparently ‘a Oph’ to its friends) - is a binary star located in the constellation of Ophiuchus with a binary (self-orbiting) period of about 8.62 years.

(I do love it when scientists give you this ‘about’ thing and then list things out to infinitesimal fractions. It’s so geeky!)

Over twice the size of our Sun, Ras Alhague’s astrological meaning goes along with it’s placement in Sagittarius, a sign which is as much about finding out about what is wrong (so that you can correct it, or at least consider it) as learning or trumpeting the right, the truth, the opinion and that which is a touch over-opinionated.

You know…just ever so possibly over-opinionated.

As for the star, Ras Alhague (and no, I wouldn’t Ras you about this) is about two associated, if very different things: harming and healing. Wherever we see Ras Alhague – or wherever and whenever we see it being set off by some other energetic, we know that whatever is at ‘stake’ (the other object’s energetic) will either flow in one of the two stated directions…OR there will come to be a very Sagittarian sort of learning about which is which and what is appropriate when considering some fact or known parameter. Additionally, that these ideas – the healing and harming concepts – are associated with a star in Sagittarius should tell us that we are talking less about the actual incident of a physical injury than the idea of it. Or the theory about what to do to a.) cause it…or b.) fix it. And that very much goes along with the fact that Sagittarius is also the sign of law and medicine as bodies of knowledge.

In Sagittarius, we think, we talk, we discuss, we muse, we explore. We grow our understanding of what works and what doesn’t work – and from that, we make choices which will be most productive and effective for us.

You know, everything that the Sagittarius/Gemini polarity is about - and exactly what Ras Alhague embodies as an overall or ‘backdrop’ to some of our various live situations. Located in the head of the Ophiuchus wrestler fighting with a snake, the star Ras Alhague symbolizes our choosing to use what we learn or learn about to ‘heal’ or ‘harm’ ourselves or others. Ras Alhague is also about how others ‘heal or harm’ us…and theoretically about what happens to us in life as we’re going about trying to reach our (Capricorn) aims - so that WE learn something.

Pholus meanwhile, represents our cyclic processes of retreat specifically from others or from what we are able to do but choose not to do - inclusive of asking why we choose what we choose to do or not do. Next to Ras Alhague, Pholus comes off more as the motivation next to the action. And thus, since conjunctions signify times when we are so ‘close’ to something that we don’t see it (but tend to embody it) OR times when we become highly aware of a certain attribute, whatever this Pholus-Ras Alhague period means to you you’re going to see, feel and probably hear a lot about it. That conversation or ‘sense’ may be wholly internal – or it may be between you and someone else. Or you and some life circumstance. There is no ‘rule’ here about whether we’re the actor or the witness, so what we could learn now spans the gamut from how we may have harmed our own efforts to how others have – knowingly or unknowingly - helped or harmed us.

Mind you, this isn’t an ‘instant’ process. It hasn’t been hasty pudding getting here and it won’t be ‘just add water’ changing anything. Coming from Sagittarius as an emotionally-driven centaur and (more to the point, perhaps) a fixed star, Pholus and Ras Alhague probably represent mindsets more than anything else, though in this case we are given to know that said mindset at least in part concerns a “centaur-type” conflict. Any time we see an astronomical centaur the astrological meaning is described as being challenged by one’s willfulness or more emotional/primal nature.

Does this mean we’ll learn more about such challenges and our willfulness (and/or lack of same) at this time? Probably. And if we decline the invitation to do a little mind-searching on our own, chances are life will provide a few…uh…incentives.

You know, those charming little incidents which mean so much to us in all the most ouch-ish of ways?

But again…this isn’t anything we’ve arrived at overnight. Pholus came into (standard 5-degree) orb of Ras Alhague back in January 2011, pretty much right in the wake of a Capricorn solar eclipse at 13 Capricorn – a degree Pluto is going to conjunct and ‘transform’ during 2014. For those whose charts answer to 13 Capricorn whether by planet, node, chart axis (horizontal or vertical) or dwarf planet, you probably remember the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 very well. (And maybe not all that fondly.)

Put simply, IF at that time you ‘initiated’ (or began) to pull back or pull away or ‘shut something out’ of your life, you now have the ability – again, if you choose – to understand more about what happened then now and turn things around. At the very least you may now see ‘how you got here’ and thus become able to ‘heal’ something in your own life and going forward, profit from that rather nicely.

Kepler's Drawing of Ophiuchus, one made in the wake of a supernova in 1604 in the constellation's 'foot.' For those who may hear of the often-circulated rumor that constellation Ophiuchus is (or should be) made a sign of the zodiac, that answer is 'no' by the simple definition of what the zodiac is: a list of constellations which lie on or across the ecliptic, Earth's path around the Sun. Pure and simple, Ophiuchus doesn't quality. But that doesn't stop the rumor!

Even if the end of 2010/beginning of 2011 doesn’t mean a lot to you, this here-and-now time still matters. (When doesn’t time matter?) Pholus’ initial conjunction to Ras Alhague will only last through January 17th, though it will retrograde back into 22 Sagittarius (the degree of Ras Alhague) next May 27, after which it will remain at 22 Sagittarius until early December, 2014.

And that’s a long time.

These two periods may represent two different situations or aspects of your psyche. Then again, it may represent the ‘inkling’ of an awareness now which comes more into focus – for clarification or  rehabilitation (of your own approach), or for the ‘switching’ of sides – come next year.

A lot of the diversity (some would say the conflict) involved here comes from Ras Alhague. More comes from the internal emotional testing we experience through the energetic we call Pholus. Apart from this, some also from the nature of 22 Sagittarius, a degree known variously as sympathetic and supportive and unfeeling, manipulative and perfectly willing to take advantage of others.

And what divides these two extremes? That would be an interesting and seldom spoken-of Sagittarius concept: the need for attention. We often think of Sagittarius as a place where we excel and ‘shine’ but few of us talk about the very real and human need for attention. Ras Alhague’s various pluses and minuses react to and are driven by the need for attention (whether that’s too much or too little attention) meaning that we manifest from this psyche quadrant, positive or negative aren’t always…or even generally about who we’re dealing with. They’re about us and our ability to cope or respond to situations which trigger our better or lesser natures.

In other words. Ras Alhague – the star which arrived at 22 Sagittarius in 1968 and which will be resident in this degree until 2040 – is all about our Self. And thus Pholus, in conjuncting Ras Alhague asks us whether we are ready to take a step back so that we can heal as opposed to taking a step back because we haven’t.
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