Mercury (and Byblis) Retrograde

Highway I-80  (the Eastshore Freeway) near Berkeley, California

(photo credit: Minesweeper, May 2005)

All those many things that the December-January Venus retrograde revealed things to us about how satisfied or dissatisfied we are with who we are and how well we are embodying the truth of who we are and can be to and with others…

All that is starting to dawn, to congeal, to become manifest realistically and in real world terms about who we think we actually are as the dark pall of Venus retrograde begins to retreat.

And now, something about ‘the idea of the feeling’ (or having had that feeling or being required to confront some feeling) at some level about some facet of our lives takes center stage.

Mercury will go retrograde on February 6th at 9:44 in the evening UT/+0 time just about as main belt asteroid Byblis (that terrible idea) also goes retrograde – this time in Libra. Call it a recipe for really terrible confrontations with our Self with regards who who we are to-and-with others.

No, we don’t (Byblis) want to have to even think about something, never mind contend with it.

But we have to anyway – and we will. Willingly or unwillingly, we will.

For those who haven’t already got a self-confrontational idea in mind, life is likely to provide you with one (actually, it probably already has…you’ve just been ignoring them or your issues with them)…and any such person will appear as ‘the problem’ in your life.

They aren’t. We are. The you, me, the guy down the street and that sovereign ruler across the ocean, we are all going to be going through something…well…here I will revert to a memo I got handed Way Back When in the Lore Days of Hollywood. Despite humble beginnings, Star Wars (the first one) had become a huge, huge, HUGE hit. So suddenly every Hollywood honcho (particularly those who had seen the project and turned it down) wanted to be worth their paycheck.

Out came this memo. I’m not sure how widely it was circulated, but there it was in studio black-and-white typeface: we want something just like ‘Star Wars’ but different.

That ‘just like but different’ idea is what I want to point out here. From December into January the planet was Venus and the sign was Capricorn. Where Venus is about feeling supported or rewarded and that had us wrestling with that working the way we wanted it to (even needed it to) versus how it did or didn’t work, Mercury is more mental. Mercury is about the idea, the text of the thing, the steps which lead us from one thing to another, through our day or through our mental processes.

So that this month’s Mercury retrograde…a retrograde which starts in Pisces (a water/emotionally evocative sign) and which then backs into Aquarius (an airy/theoretical sign) until it finally goes direct (on February 28th) at a point which incites ‘fervent determination – this would seem a time bent on making us understand that things can happen.

And that if we don’t make them happen and work to make them into the thing we want to happen, that’s not on any ‘them’ out there – that much is on us.

This is the onset of the Aquarian Age. Mercury is backing into Aquarius and heading for a station rife with mental conflict (and questions about how we feel about mental conflict) suggests we can make things happen, expect things to happen…and how the more we greet situations and people as provocations meant to get us to think.

So will we listen, consider or questions our Self or our own motivation, alienation, possible misconception, level of expertise or willingness to try?

Maybe. Then again, this is Mercury retrograde, so don’t count on it. Under this influence we often we ignore, resist, reject or otherwise avoid thinking through, about or into the ‘other side ‘of everything until it proves itself (generally at the end of the retrograde or in that week after) to be valid.

Still, our thinking does get affected – as should it. This is a time to think things through – inclusive of why we think we should be thinking what we’re thinking about anything. Others may ‘tap into’ in our heads now. And that will get a reaction – from us, at least.

Were they ‘doing’ anything? Probably not. The shift is happening in(side) us. That's how retrogrades work - they work inside us by calling our attention to some facet or factor in our life.

And that 'they' may or may not care as part of our current equation? Or that some part of the world doesn’t seem to be listening? That isn't the issue - what we think about it and what that means about us now or before or in terms of what we believe in but do or don't embody well (or not well)...

Who knows…that maybe be part of our problem. But whatever the problem is, the problem is ours. That’s the process in all retrogrades – to get us to understand that some of the issues or the reasons things aren’t working the way we might want them to is all about us. It might be about what we think something is when it isn’t that at all – for good or ill. The dream may not be dreamy at all and the monster under our mental bed may only be a personal phantasm.

Or maybe they are real.

The point is, our ability to confront our own demons is the heart and soul of Pisces – and however it happens, as Mercury goes retrograde on February 6th at 3 Pisces, we’re all going to be experiencing a little taste of mental traffic.

‘Heavy car traffic on a narrow isthmus linking two seashore resorts.’ That’s the Sabian Symbol, one which Marc Edmund Jones typifies as ‘the mobility and intensity of interchanges which make possible and characterize complex social processes.’

The thing which is easy to miss here is that the whole is us – our Self. And thus all that ‘traffic’ refers to the many things in our (Mercurial) mind. That Mercury’s retrograde begins in early Pisces starts us into a three-week period of internal reflection and growth of self understanding on a feeling note. As an early (first decan) degree, 3 Pisces is all about what we are doing about our feelings or even our willingness to own that our feelings are ours and not anything someone else is ‘forcing’ us to have…at the moment, things are personal.

We’re just not entirely in the personal mood. We think we are – there is going to be a lot of ‘leave me alone’ going around now…but part of all that is our blanket mortal tendency to prefer projection.

You know, particularly when the emotional water gets warm. Or very, very cold. And because Mercury will quickly back into Aquarius (as of February 13, UT/+0), we can expect – at the best – to be working on clarification, realization, effective efficiencies…and a variety of understandings with our Self that if we are going to be who we are we don’t just get to be part of us.

We have to be the whole Self and nothing but the Self…(you hate that I took U.S. history, I know)…but that’s so help our Self.

That’s the thing to understand here: we either help ourselves now or we put ourselves in a place which is guaranteed to get slippery. Remember Sedna? Didn’t Sedna just go direct – in Taurus – with Venus, ruler of Taurus, having given us the pressure-cooking and Plutonic-transformative time of our lives?

Yes, we need to reconsider something. That 'old' or preconceived notion...that unrealistic dream...that unwillingness to face who we're proving to others we really are (or aren't)...that's in play.

You did hear the stakes change, didn’t you?

If you didn’t, plan on a bad time going forward. If you did, proceed on that basis, but no leaps off tall buildings. The lunar nodes will be changing signs very soon. Remembering that the nodes (as a function of what nodes are) cycle backwards through the zodiac, this means that the last two years of Scorpio-Taurus is finally coming to a close.

It also means that we’re working…or if you prefer, functioning (either may apply) at a very basic and  baseline level. This can become something to build on…or it can be experienced as a limitation. 

Moving forward into two-and-a-half-years of societal connections based more purely on the ‘I/thou’ principle of Libra-Aries (and thus what we are to others and what they see us as) being free of connections which clog the works is as important as whether we’ve built the right alliances.

And since this Mercury retrograde overlaps that shift of nodal (social – societal – relating/relationship) energetics, it would be implied that we’re up against a series of decisions.

No, not about them – about our Self. It’s another of those ‘who are you’ moments…which in this case is going to lead us (along a garden path or otherwise) to Mercury’s station at 18 Aquarius on February 28th which will be immediately followed by Mars…then Saturn going direct.

Let me say that again:

Mercury goes direct February 28th.

Mars goes retrograde March 1st.

Saturn goes retrograde March 2nd.

That is a major large sized astrological helping of emphasis. Mercury will be in Aquarius, land of economics, income, all things digital, societal, marketplace elitist and everyman… Saturn will be in Scorpio, testing our ability to deal with how we are tied to others whether we want to be or not because we absolutely have to exist on the same plane as everybody else (whether we like it or it scares the willies out of us)…and Mars is going to be in the latter part of Libra, confronting us with the essence of the Whole until we get it – we’re not alone but we do have the choice whether to be who we are or not.

How long it takes us to understand that is individual. How long it takes us to accept what that (Mercury in Pisces) really means in terms of what we’re going to have to deal with meeting up with in life…that’s up to us. Life isn’t about our cuddly comfort – it’s about being who we are. We can’t have the sense of existing without doing the existing and the interface between the idea of what we want to do and the doing it is all about our willingness to give both of what we can do – and what we feel.

You know, as a knowingly mortal human being.
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Mercury Direct and an Evolutionary Yod

The photograph upon which this blog header is based was taken of 
Mercury by spacecraft Messenger on a second flyby.

(photo credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Lab,Carnegie Intitute of Washington, January 2013)

Mercury will be going direct at 5 Pisces on March 17th at 8:04 in the evening, UT/+0 time.

As we have spoken of many a time, fixed (and Royal) star Fomalhaut is positioned at 4 Pisces, a degree which asks us to live in this world but see the greater importance of what we do. When we do that, and when we are able to see that what we do matters, yes – we may get ‘shaken’ (or stirred, she says in her very best James Bond voice) by sensing the vastness of time and our own ability to ruin things (for ourselves and others) even when we don’t mean to.

And with Neptune at 3 Pisces, there’s a lot going on. 3 Pisces happens to be one of my favorite Sabian Symbols. Why, I’m not sure, but I think I just love the clarity and geography spoken of in the image: HEAVY CAR TRAFFIC ON A NARROW ISTHMUS LINKING TWO SEASHORE RESORTS. However you think of this Sabian Symbol, it seems to imply a.) a lot of other people, b.) some sort of congestion or a circumstance which is ‘tied up’…and those seaside resorts? They may represent choices or destinations or sources of pleasure. Or you might go with the more metaphysical concept of ‘where land meets water’ and the intersection of solid ‘mental ground’ and the tide-tossed waters of emotionality.

This image can also be thought of as something which ties two things together. For you that could be something as simple as a road. Or some philosophical concept such as your place in the great chains of human generations as the parent which ties your parents to your children - be that a cultural measure or as someone recognizing how the world changes, and has changed.

You may even think of this in terms of people (or positions) such as that of the newly elected Pope, who on a theoretical basis ties the Beyond to the Now - and how such people stand for more as an examples to us all, whatever you believe or don't believe in Catholic doctrine.

We are each and every one of us a link. We are each where the All of Existence becomes the One person - the 'us' - who has a chance to do good or fall into ills, or to serve witness in this world.   

However you think of it, Neptune’s presence in this degree denotes a time when our ‘reality boundaries’ about all such matters ‘dissolve.’ So where you may have had great clarity, you may now not feel so sure. Or maybe you haven’t felt sure at all but have been all angst-ridden about something. Now you may learn to do what you need to do without caring what it ‘looks like.’

This all connects rather well to Mercury’s position in 5 Pisces, as 5 Pisces is a degree which is at some level about ‘presenting an image.’ Yet with Neptune close by, why that image is presented may be the question.

Neptune is often associated with gurus, charity, spirituality and healing because it is a symbol of ego-denial. That ‘dissolving’ spoken of above is exactly that. Whatever your thoughts are, or your positions are or what you think you ‘know’ (all those things being symbolized by Mercury)…wherever you have fears connected to those things, or hopes which are just about wanting things to be ‘nice’ (or okay or devoid of strife) simply because you can’t bear to feel those “terrible feelings,” that’s where your biggest ‘tests’ are likely to occur.  Though I’m not trying to say something truly difficult or painful might not happen (it could, let’s face it), there’s a difference between dealing with the inevitabilities of reality and the fear connected to having to feel whatever feelings we attach to the idea of the thing.

That’s Neptune in Pisces. And when we throw in the mentality and communications side of Mercury, we get those who would escape reality and those who will realize that as was put by a far greater human being than myself (Franklin Delano Roosevelt), “there is nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Fear is…our greatest fear. I know that sounds funny, but if you think about it, it’s true. What is going to happen will happen. How we feel about it is what makes some things so horrifying. For all the blood and gore in today’s movies, one of the best stories (and truisms) in all of Hollywood’s history comes from the master of tension himself, Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock knew that if you don’t show the act itself you can scare the audience in ways showing something on film will never reach. Why? Because each of us are afraid of different things. The functionality of our imagination (Neptune/Mercury) is far more powerful than reality.

So! Yes, this would be a great time to release a horror film which doesn’t show the gore, but ‘shadows’ it…letting us ‘know’ something terrible has gone one while letting us each fill in the blanks in our own gruesome way.

On another level, this ‘implying but not showing the whole truth (Neptune/Mercury) can be deceit. Or propaganda. Or lying.

Into all this comes Deneb, a fixed star greatly overshadowed (astrologically, at least) by Fomalhaut. Situated at 5 Pisces and thus exactly conjunct Mercury’s station, Deneb is part of the constellation Cygnus – the Swan.
 

  A Cygnus constellation map, including Deneb in the position of the swan's tail

(credit: copyright 2003 Torsten Bronger, used by CCR permission)

In the Greek stories, Cygnus is connected to Pisces through the idea of Zeus (Jupiter) having taken the form of a swan in seducing Leda, wife of a Spartan king named Tyndareus and the mother of none other than Helen of Troy…which apparently proves that even Greek gods are subject to Karma.

The swan is of course, a water bird. And through this Jupiterian-swan connector, we see that the Jupiter ‘wisdom of the choice’ (which is highly Piscean) can have huge, universal consequences.

But Cygnus – as a constellation – goes back beyond Things Greek. This means that when we move back to a time before the Hellenistic separation of intellect and emotionality into a time when there was no ‘science’ per se, just spiritual philosophies…the attempts by mankind to understand their world. All of this time has come down to us conceptualized as ‘early religion.’ But back then it seemed to have operated more as a unifying and universal shamanistic theory - an understanding of how Existence works as opposed to ‘rules, rituals and regulations’ to live by which is more akin to today’s rather codified religions.

Anyway…back then the image of the swan was somewhat akin to what we think of today as ‘the phoenix,’ if less in the death-and-rebirth ‘rising from the ashes’ mode (which would be Scorpio) and more in the ‘understanding you are part of Something Greater and that in being part of that Greater Thing have both the power to work good and the power to destroy.’

 Another amazing Hubble Space Telescope photograph, this one being of one of the stars in constellation Cygnus. Here the star is in one of its late phases of 'star life,' a stage where the star sheds its atmosphere into nearby space

(photo credit: ESA-Hubble-NASA, July 2010)

And to know that? To understand that in being part of the Whole and so very much a valid part of that Whole that you can really affect the whole – that we ALL can?

That’s pretty daunting. Even scary.

…There is nothing to fear but fear itself…

In the constellation of Cygnus, Deneb is the tail. With a bird, tails serve as stabilizers and rudders – they keep the even keel and help determine where the bird (our power) is headed. In Pisces, that’s the Jupiterian ‘in door’ decision to do something or not do it, to recognize the truth of it or to deny it, to relinquish the control and feel the feeling or to deny reality through the power of our ego.

And of course the tail is the last thing to leave ground. So we can remain rooted…or we can be grounded.  Which is it?

Deneb has a reputation for strong wills and strong tempers. With Mercury going direct here with Neptune so close by and with Chiron (vulnerability) positioned at 10 Pisces this would be a time when your own relationship to will and displays of will are likely to play out. Are you afraid of confrontations? Or maybe you’re someone who speaks their mind and lives to regret it?

Foot-and-Mouth is an animal disease. Foot-IN-Mouth is an all-too-common human habit!

Having Chiron in orb (within 5 degrees) to be conjunct Mercury and in the first of Pisces’ emotion-meets-emotionality degrees tells us this is a time when we will at least feel some sort of vulnerability. It may not be in present tense…meaning, this could be about guilt rising up to stick in your craw like a pill which won’t go down.

With Mercury going direct on the 17th, that means its ‘station window’ opens on the 15th, as the Moon moves into Taurus, rousing our feelings about self worth, the values of our values and our general security about our lives, whether that ‘security’ plays out on a physical, emotional, financial or whatever other level.
But then…just because the universe is a fun sort of place, then we get a little Yod thrown into our Mercury station party.

A Yod, you say?

Yes, a Yod.

Maybe you remember our discussing a Saturn Yod as part of the Saturn-going-retrograde discussion back in February?

Link to post:
Saturn Station-Retrograde (Part 2)

Well, let’s just say that the first thing to consider with this next Yod moment includes the fact that Saturn is STILL sitting at 11 Scorpio.

So yes, that brings in all that energy we could associate with the fire aboard the cruise ship in the Caribbean…

Link to post:
Carnival Triumph: Sparking
a Corporate Firestorm?

Pope Benedict XVI announcing he was going to step down…

Link to Post
Pope Benedict XVI Gives Notice

...anything which would in any way call our attention to a lack of ability or having reached our limits, or tests of tolerance along with our individual and collective sense of standards, all that is Saturn in Scorpio, which is now retrograde, or working from within.

Saturn's energy isn’t going to be quite as potent or focused now that Saturn has actually gone retrograde, but it’s still pretty darn thick. How you feel about it and what part of your life is being affected a lot or a little will depend on where Saturn is sitting in your chart and what it may aspect, of course.

But if Saturn is 'on' in your life, Saturn's having gone retrograde may actually feel even more intense. It may feel isolating or increase your sense of being burdened. Considering the sign here is Scorpio, there is an interactive quality to life which tests you - as all 'things Scorpio' will. And now, as Mercury goes direct, and especially as Mercury moves forward into orb to Saturn (which will start on March 21st and end on April 3rd)...this all becomes emotionally provoking.

It may not be overt, but the feeling's still there.

All if this effects us all at some level. Even if your chart isn't aspected directly by 11 Scorpio or by Mercury's going direct at 5 Pisces, you're living in a world which is being affected by the values - or lack thereof of others. You may feel some part of your life is being threatened in some way...or you may merely have to deal with others with grave concerns of some kind.

That's the funny thing about Pisces...at one level, Piscean issues are incredibly clear, and totally present. At another, they're impossible to define or pin down. And just that can be frustrating and upsetting, if not for us, to those around us. Many of the difficulties and isolation, the desperation and 'giving up' which is associated with this most universal and 'deep water' oceanic of water signs is the nebulous inability to convey ideas and feelings with clarity.

Or in some form others can deal with.

Acceptance lies at the heart of all Piscean situations. The accepting of love, the accepting of loss, the accepting of differences, the accepting of gifts. The acceptance that we have a responsibility to see and feel that which we know is true whether or not it 'feels good' or is popular. Accepting that no matter how close we will be to others than they're always someone else and that at some level we're all alone.

That's one of the hardest things we encounter with Pisces. And yet...we do have a chance to work our way through the 'traffic' of our thoughts or feelings or habits. 

Considering what's seems to be afoot now, we are all likely to be feeling a little separate...and perhaps in that be causing someone else to feel a bit more alone. And yet, it is when we are alone that we can so benefit from feeling ourselves think...exist...and feel.

Ah yes, another Piscean dichotomy.  

We should expect what we think, feel and hear to test our faith, our trust, our sense of reality, our capacity.

And just where ego gives way, that's where we'll find our greatest strength. But let's face it - the desire to know to define to predict is incredibly strong.

 
And then there's the Yod:

 

Obviously the fact that Saturn is involved in this Yod is why we should be drawing the mental (Mercury) line between now and Saturn’s mid-February station.

On the other hand, considering that Saturn and Mercury are both in water signs suggests emotionality. Or maybe emotional reactions which stem from realizing what we perhaps simply cannot do. Or cannot do anything about. Or maybe it’s about what we could do, but haven’t done.

With Jupiter being the ‘in’ door to Pisces and involved in this Yod, that brings all the Pisces questions up for grabs. So how well do you (Jupiter) know how your (Pisces) emotionality works? Do you (Jupiter in Gemini) really understand your mental capacity – or how emotions affect our ability to think things through, whether that’s you or someone else? How do your (Pisces/Scorpio) emotions and emotion-driven values affect what you choose to do or not do…or judge others or their opinions?

Do you even know what you think about something…or whether some subterranean (or submerged) emotional bias or emotional (Chiron) vulnerability or emotional (Pisces) fear is driving your (Gemini) choices?

And let’s remember…Jupiter in Gemini is FAMOUS for overstepping the bounds, going a little too far, talking out of turn, saying too much, leaping before we look – all that stuff. While we can use Jupiter in Gemini to force us past our own ‘I don’t want to go there boundaries,’ and in doing so perhaps discover important and useful things about ourselves or our world, this Yod, replete with its floating Plutonic sense of doom-versus-salvation can be a tough time.

In the above diagram, I’ve given you the dates of all three planet’s positions for the full duration that the Yod will hold, and the thing to understand is that the Yod isn’t a Yod UNTIL the third point (Jupiter) gets into 9 Gemini.

And yes, that was back on March 11th. But because Mercury rules Gemini, Mercury’s station is highly likely to ‘set off’ or evoke the issues involved.

Hence my noting it now, not before. But now the effects we would associate with the Yod are building - and being built into many daily moments of many kinds. So this would be the time to really consider it. This is a time to 'make a turn' in our thinking - that would be a primary image we would associate with Mercury going on station.

So what happens now we should probably consider long term. Or at least longer term.

The ‘rule’ with a Yod is that you solve the issue presented (whatever it may be) by going to the opposition of the point in the Yod.

That ‘point’ is Jupiter. And this is where this gets really interesting, as the Yod starts with Jupiter at 9 Gemini, the exact degree of Aldebaran, the fixed star which stands for integrity.

So it’s likely most people will simply get all stuck on the ‘integrity’ concept. But the point in opposition to 9 Gemini being 9 Sagittarius, that’s where we really should be looking.

Part One: 9 Sagittarius is occupied by another Royal Star (one of the four): Antares. Antares promises success IF and only if we avoid obsessions or becoming fixated. So obviously getting ‘fixated’ on integrity isn’t the way out of whatever happens now, even if Fomalhaut-Mercury-Neptune-Deneb-Chiron may manifest as our wanting to get up on our high haunches about the ‘right’ thing to do.

With Antares is Hebe, the sacred servant of the gods, which sort of gets back to that shamanistic bent we were talking about earlier. What this amounts to is a calling upon ourselves to feel the right thing and to know it’s right without insisting on it. Thus this Yod – and the Mercury station is greatly about being that which we are, that essence of universality.

For the more astro-technical among us I’ll point out why this would be: Antares/Hebe in Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, and Jupiter is in Gemini, which is ruled by Mercury. So in essence this station in particular is a flowing back and forth of an energetic which is about who we are, who we can be and how what and who we are and what we do affects the world that we – and ultimately those we love – live in.

Interpret that as you will.

This is where the Mercury station information – as such – ends. But for the sake of being thorough, it’s worth noting that as Jupiter moves into 10 Gemini on March 20th, Hebe will be moving with it.

Hebe by Laurent Marqueste (1848-1920)

This is a very subtle metaphysical idea of ‘service’ and our ability to (Gemini) choose what to ‘serve’ up to others in this world and in our lives, and that in doing so, we need to (Sagittarius) learn what works and what doesn’t work and correct our methods, course of actions and (yes,) choices accordingly.

By the time Jupiter reaches 11 Gemini, the opposition point is unoccupied – Hebe will be going retrograde at 10 Gemini on April 3rd (meaning its on station on the 1st), Which is rather a message in its own right.

That would tend to say this Yod, and what develops out of the lee of Mercury’s station (including what we learn as it goes direct) is all about recognizing who we are. That may happen through others. That may happen through assumptions melting away or rationales being debunked. To the degree that our egos get a workout (read: a dunk in that ghost pepper sauce) that may feel like it’s ‘about them’ or that ‘they did it’ or whatever. And whatever the acts or actions which spoon that salsa onto your tender ego may well be something you didn’t ask for and which you’re not in control of.

(Pisces, like its 4th zodiacal quadrant companions Aquarius and Capricorn, is like that.)

But the greater reason that life is handing you grapes divine or grapes sour now (or both) is about YOU. It’s about your learning more about you, including why you may not have recognized whatever until now.

All that in a nice, neat little Mercury station.

From which and through which we will evolve, yes.

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The Royal Stars of Persia (Part Four): Fomalhaut

Once known as Haftorang, the fixed star known as Fomalhaut is known to many as ‘the star of dreams.’

There’s just one thing you should know…that’s a little bit misleading. Yes, Fomalhaut represents our fondest, most longed for dreams coming true. But to get there…?

To understand what the issues are here, let’s start with Fomalhaut being the most brilliant star in the constellation we know as Pisces. As a zodiac sign, Pisces often gets a bad rap – I’ve heard Pisces called everything from “the trash can of the zodiac” to “the distance by which we fail our own expectations.”

Frankly, I’m thinking that whoever said that had some issues with their emotions. Notice that I didn’t say emotional problems…that’s more like saying someone’s neurotic or unstable. And that’s not the point. What I’m getting at is that because Pisces is all about owning our emotions, the fact that everyone has emotions and that emotions are a healthy and necessary part of life, that suggests that the folks who came up with those labels…well,…maybe they aren’t so friendly about the whole ‘feeling thing’?

There are twelve signs in the zodiac. There are also four ‘elements’: air, earth, fire and water. That means that there are three signs in each element.

The first sign of every element is that element at it’s most basic (Aries/fire, Taurus/earth, Gemini/air, Cancer/water). These are the signs through which we learn what it means to have a life (Aries) to be sustained in that life (Taurus), to think (or not to think!)(Gemini), and to be connected to your family and other people (Cancer).

The second sign in each element is the interactive phase. Leo is interactive fire – we’re learn that others exist. Virgo is interactive earth – we learn build our own life through working with others. Libra is interactive air – finding where we agree, disagree and maybe can or can’t put up with the differences. Scorpio is interactive emotionalism: everything which can provoke our emotional reactions which we don’t do by ourselves or through which we connect to others is Scorpio.

The third set of signs are universal, public and global. Sagittarius is universal fire – envisioning how things could work and finding out how to make them work, bringing things into being.

Capricorn is global earth: commerce, societal transactions and traditional methods of operating, social standing. Aquarius is the universal air sign in which we learn which groups we want to belong to, which we fit into and what it takes to be appreciated out there in the world.

Then there’s Pisces. Pisces is universal emotions. It’s all that we have in common with each other as human beings. It’s what we wish we were and what we don’t like (even loathe) about ourselves. It’s instinct and the ability to connect and ‘know’ without speaking. It’s the emotion of fantasy, the grief of loss, the anguish of betrayal, the ecstasy of reverence, belief, awe and success.

 

 The image of the Pisces symbol in stained

glass at France's famous Chartres Cathedral

 

Pisces rips away that 'barrier’ that ‘holding emotions in check’ we all think is so important.

So Pisces is the sign of dreams – among other things. But all things Piscean, including those dreams…? They require that we bare ourselves to all that can be felt.

Into all this comes the lore of the Royal Stars: success can be yours if you avoid one PARTICULAR human trait.

In Fomalhaut’s case, that ‘trait’ is corruption. By ‘corrupt’ we mean a dream which is ethical and moral, a dream which doesn’t have you succeeding at cost to others. It’s the quality of Pisces as a universal sign which makes it so important that your dream be ‘universally’ acceptable. In one of the interactive signs, the question would limited to just you and whoever you were dealing with – your lover, your boss, your bank, your project. But when you get to the third sign of every element, somehow the questions isn’t limited. Even if it’s a secret and only two people know that secret, there’s a universal level of ‘acceptability’ which is involved.

The zodiac is congruent…one sign leads to the next. So Pisces inherits the question of ‘acceptability’ from Aquarius - as Aquarius has inherited from Capricorn and so on and so on.

Maybe this means Pisces is difficult because it’s the accumulation of everything in the zodiac? Maybe that’s what was meant by ‘trash can’?

(Hmmm…still not nice though. Of course, I am a Pisces.)

Pisces or no, I’ll go more with the notion of my Sun sign as the spiritualist or mentor, as inspiration, disappointment, illusion, disillusionment, compassion, abandonment…any sort of emotion or framework which results from emotional challenge. Let’s face it, emotions are hard for everybody and when it comes to what you long for, most of us would tend to say ‘hey, I didn’t PLAN on falling in love with that – it’ just happened!’

Why it happened? That’s the Pisces question – and not everybody wants to go there.

And when we don’t…? Then it’s likely that the reason we don’t is because we have some internal feeling (instinct? fear?) that there is something ‘wrong’ with what we want.

Then…into all this comes Fomalhaut, Royal Star of Persia. The dream of success or the success of the dream promised by Fomalhaut is all about our willingness to face our own emotionality through emotion-provoking experiences.

So much for those who avoid. And good luck to the ‘rose colored glasses’ tribe. Emotional realism is the Pisces challenge and the metaphysical equation here is solved by accepting your own emotions and those of people around you. From that comes realism and…remarkably…calm.

It’s the games we play with ourselves about what we ‘don’t have to deal with’ which end up tripping us up. Fomalhaut is one of the celestial mechanisms which we trip over…or make our slip-ups on.

Ah yes…Royal Star as banana peel.

 In looking for this photo I found  out that the humble banana is the

 subject of much photography. There are two full pages of banana photos

 posted in Wikipedia's Media Commons section - including (as you see)

several of banana peels.

(photo credit Benutzer Priwo August 2010)

Fomalhaut is roughly in opposition to Regulus – just as Antares is in opposition to Aldebaran. As the ‘Watcher of the South’ it’s position in Pisces is very fitting as ‘south’ – as a direction – is indicative of emotionality. (And I’m not just talking about romantic love here!)

Having moved into Pisces back in the year 1725, Fomalhaut is only now at 4 Pisces. (Like Regulus, it moves very slowly.) Probably the greatest number of people alive today were born with Fomalhaut at 3 Pisces - a degree reached in June of 1938. As a degree, 3 Pisces tests our ability to deal with luck, to deal with goodwill and to monitor our various ‘appetites.’ All the Piscean tests of emotion will surface through these issues.

Well, except if you were born after June 22, 2009. On that date, Fomalhaut moved from 3 to 4 Pisces – and 4 Pisces is mystical yet severe, intelligent yet at times, too judgmental. About the only thing harsher than the 4 Pisces hard line drawn with regards to others is the super-critical judgment of Self which goes with this degree.

Fomalhaut at this degree spreads a subtle fear of not ‘measuring up’ through the world. But the karmic intent here wouldn’t appear to be about making us feel bad, rather to get us to mind what we’re doing. For those born prior to June 2009 (and thus born with Fomalhaut at 3 Pisces) there will be a vacillating back and forth between the confidence that if I do right, all will BE right…which goes along with their nativity and a sense that maybe, just maybe their chance is already gone.

  Fomalhaut 

(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

 

Meanwhile, those born since June 2009? They understand the lay of the land. There’s going to be a pragmatism built into the lives of those born with Fomalhaut at 4 Pisces…they may not all do good, but this is a lengthy generation which when confronted with the truth is less likely than their predecessors to try to explain things away.

In the world of Fomalhaut, that’s a plus. And their ownership of their feelings – warts and all – is a lesson to the rest of humanity. Feel it, own it, realize what it is. If you can’t be proud of it, change it or pay the piper when the bill comes due.

Fomalhaut will be positioned at 4 Pisces until June of 2080. So this is part of our backdrop for the foreseeable future. It’s a realism about who we are as humans which we probably can learn a lot from.

And considering this is Royal Star Fomalhaut we’re talking about, we probably will!