The Lunar Nodes at Cross Quarters

This header image is based on a photo of Main Street in Old City Dubrovnik

by Alex Proimos of Sydney, Australia (July 2011)

Pretzels. That’s what first came to mind when I started thinking about the nodes moving backwards through fifteen degrees of Scorpio and Taurus. After all, the normal astro-celestial movement is forward and the idea of the zodiac’s cross-quarter points is of the infamously famous ‘move on’ sort.

(Or if you want to be more benign and Zen about it, ‘walk on’.)

Occurring at 15 degrees of each of the zodiac’s fixed signs (or on a more esoteric level, at the half-way mark in houses 2, 5, 8 and 11), the cross-quarter points are where gathering information and learning about something shifts into ‘doing it’ gear.

Or at least ‘trying it’ gear.

And yes…if you have some planet, node or axis positioned at 15 degrees of any of the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius), this may explain why – in terms of whatever that symbol is – you’re always struggling with the ‘do I know enough?’ or ‘do I HAVE to?’ or 'are they going to like/approve of me (or what I do)?' issues.

Or maybe you’re just hesitant (read: reluctant) when it comes to getting started, with once you’re in gear being a whole other thing.

Taurus and Scorpio being signs which are natively 1st quadrant and 3rd quadrant in the zodiacal sense, the stakes here are pitting the ‘learning how’ and ‘learning about how my life works’ first quadrant process against the 3rd quadrant ‘what works?’ with others, or in terms of who (or what sort of company or organization) you should be dealing with.

Basically, the first-against-third quadrants are more ‘who am I and how do I operate’ where the second-against-forth quadrants are more about what we do and whether the world likes what we do: one-three is directly personal and two-four is a bit ‘offshore,’ if you will.

That doesn’t mean we won’t get offended if someone sneers at us, obviously, but there’s a difference between someone saying ‘you baked a lousy cake’ (or you hired a lousy employee) and ‘you’re a lousy so-and-so.’

Of course there are some cross-collateralizations here, I will freely admit. Maybe you’ve noticed this and maybe you haven’t, but people who are born under 2nd or 4th quadrant signs (Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces) seem to have a bit of a harder time separating themselves from what they do. And when you add in not just Sun but also Moon, then take where each falls in the natal chart it all gets a bit complicated and everybody has sensitive spots.

But then, we are humans. And humans, it seems, were born to get real and realer as time goes along by having their soft spots poked, prodded and otherwise stimulated.

(No, don’t go there. Google/Blogger has rules, don’t you know!)

Into all this comes the Nodes of the Moon. Defined as that place where the Moon’s path around Earth intersects Earth’s path around the Sun, the nodes are the ‘intersection’ of our very personal world (the Moon) with the greater life around us (the Sun). And thus they are about how and where we interact with the world and with other people.

So now we have the North Node (the “should do” end of the nodal axis) entering 15 Scorpio as the South Node (the “what I like to do”) side of the equation is entering 15 Taurus, an event which starts on June 23rd (this Sunday, UT/+0 time) and continues on into July 8th.

June 23rd happens to be the date of a Full Moon, so we know this Nodal shift begins in a celestial 'spotlight.' It's also just days shy of Mercury going retrograde, so things, and the thought processes of various folks are going to be set on 'high' - and with Jupiter at 29 Gemini about to move into Cancer, things are likely to be pretty intense, to say the least!

Ergo...depending on how well we each do with adjusting our outlook, this will probably be a time to enjoy...or for struggling through.

And why would that be? Well just to begin with, there is that ‘fixed sign’ thing. Being that the Taurus Challenge is all about how secure we are with ourselves, anything that tends to make us feel invalidated or ‘less than perfect’ in our own eyes rouses the bullish snort and much pawing of tender ground. And since the Scorpio Challenge is all about how well we are able to negotiate with others in a give-and-take sort of manner so that we can all join forces and depend on each other as we move ahead and towards our goals, with the South Node in the “don’t invalidate me, bro!” Taurus end and the North Node in the Scorpio “we should get along, which optimally means you should agree with me” end of things, the past year and something (or so) has felt like something of a cosmic set-up which brings the worst out in everyone.

Why this is so difficult for us is all about the fact the Nodes are a continuum. It’s a lot easier (not to mention more convenient) to think of them as separate things, but they’re not. So when we do what we want or like to do (embracing the South Node of it all), if – or to the degree that we ignore or don’t pay any attention to the necessity of the situation (the North Node getting along with others) we fall afoul of our own ‘but I want to see it MY way!’ sort of thing.

There are of course, places and times in life when it’s simply ducky to say ‘we agree to disagree.’ And hopefully we’ve done that rather than resorting to launching WWIII (or IV…or V…or XXVII) because someone doesn’t agree with us.

But that doesn’t always happen. I had a raucously bad week(plus) this past April when an astrologer I know just couldn’t accept that I wasn’t into their particular area of expertise and wasn’t buying into their rationale(s). No matter how many times I said ‘I’m sure there are many on your wavelength, I’m just not on the list - but I wish you entirely well with your studies…’ this person snarled, snorted, barked and snapped.

Evidently they hadn’t taken their daily does of Node Tonic. For some reason it was very important to this person that I should validate their thoughts and choices, and they aren’t the only one I know of going through this cycle. I’ve seen all sorts of people either wanting validation or getting all snarky because their choices didn’t get someone’s endorsement.

But wait…isn’t the idea to be secure in our own choices? If we are, when we are, where we are secure others thinking differently becomes interesting instead of threatening.

So if we go to war because someone is different, is that about them – or us? War is a Scorpio reaction which at it’s most basic metaphysical level says ‘my sense of safety requires that I exert force in order to restore control at a level I think of as safe.’

Question: does that define what is safe? Or does that define one’s sense of vulnerability?

That would seem to be the general lesson of the Nodes passing through Scorpio (North) and Taurus (South): learning to work with others without feeling you need to control others (or dictate terms of control to them) in order to feel secure or ‘good’ about yourself. And as with all things astrological, if we don’t do the work…or to the degree that we aren’t willing to challenge ourselves, life will bring on the situations and interactions which will promote or provoke those tests and testy situations.

It’s not about ‘them,’ it’s about us – but the human thing is (sure as shootin’, so to speak) that we’ll blame others first.

And this is where Nodal motion makes this whole idea really all the more interesting. Usually, objects moving through the zodiac go from zero to twenty-nine degrees of any given sign. With the Nodes, it’s from twenty-nine back down through the sign TO zero. So where we’re used to the ‘personal and private’ giving way to the ‘emotionally challenging and interactive’ to the worldly ‘public’ sort of process, what the Nodes represent is a different sort of life process which starts “out there” and which through the emotional process “brings things home to us.”

And that's what made me think of pretzels. It was the quirk of the twist, the way life is engineered to move us forward as part of the process of making things more elemental which got me.

(And yes, I like pretzels. Also yes, I think life is crispy and often salty!)

Since the Nodes are calculated points, they don’t have “mass” (like planets and asteroids do). So this idea, this ‘function’ is more esoteric, more nebulous in nature than other things. I always say that if the symbol has mass, we can “retrain” ourselves and eventually form a positive habit. That doesn’t seem to be true where calculated points like Ascendants, Descendants, Midheavens, ICs, the Part of Fortune (any of the Arabic Parts, really), Black Moon Lilith and the Nodes are concerned.

All such ‘calculations’ are just what the word implies: they are ideas and concepts which we calculate the effect of and which we are right or wrong about by turns…which leads (hopefully!) to learning through both our mistakes and triumphs.

In moving over 15 Scorpio and Taurus, the Nodes are moving out of the ‘operational’ part of the 3rd and 1st quadrants into their 'provocatively personal' realms. That will ‘bring home’ results of what we have or haven’t learned through what was promoted or provoked in the world around us.

And again…this is something of an esoteric experience, for all it may have a real-time manifestation such as the getting or losing of a job, the forming or loss of relationships, business successes or disasters, and so on. All around us we’re seeing folks dealing with what their opinion of ‘right’ is against what the world’s opinion of ‘right’ is and the repercussions of same.

During the days ahead…the actual processing of the two opposing cross-quarter degrees by the Nodes, we can expect a linking of very different ideas. The North Node in 15 Scorpio speaks to guilt and where some people should feel guilty but don’t. It’s sort of a psychosocial checkpoint all about the need to deal with reality, not just what we want life (or others) to be. Meanwhile, the South Node at 15 Taurus can point to a moment of realization and recognition, when we ‘listen’ to our Self and others and realize that there is an actual growth opportunity, a process we can take advantage of.

Those who make changes now will relax and open up. They’ll be able to say ‘I understand’ and begin to remember that others may have a different point of view and that that’s not a disaster.

Far from it – they may actually have something valuable to say.

Those who make the shift will become more ‘operative’ and less about ‘digging in and holding their ground’ going forward. Those who don’t make the shift will continue attacking, sniping, being defensive and otherwise stirring up contentious confrontations where nothing of the sort needs to exist. They’ll look childish – even desperate – to some folks, and eventually (as the Nodes reach the end of their current Scorpio/Taurus traverse), they’ll peter out and be left either empty-handed or without much more to say.

Or folks who want to listen to them say it.

But that’s yet to come - next year when the Nodes cross into Libra-and-Aries. Our 'now,' is a next few weeks of the Nodes lingering at cross-quarters. And that's a time which is likely to be enlightening, even inspiring on one hand…and maybe filled with regrets and ‘why does it have to be this way?’ (or ‘why do they have to act that way?’) in the dim, even darker momentsr.

Providing we remember that the difficulties or challenges which we feel are ours – not theirs - and how their difficulties and challenges are theirs, not ours, all goes well. Or reasonably well, give or take the fact that life isn't perfect. The perfection (the theoretical 'perfectly human' part) comes in when we realize that our Nodal education - in the end - is about learning where ou responsibility ends and ‘their’ responsibility for who they are (and what ‘they’ earn or get saddled with) begins.

Is it easy? No. But it is important, especially if we want our lives to be-and-become more and more intrinsically ours and less-and-less something we feel 'mucked' with by others. So in that light...after we chew through all the reluctance will dawn the understanding that we are here to support each other, not live symbiotic live or a life in contentious alienation or isolation. We are indeed stronger together, but that relies on the unique abilities of each person to be brought to the fore.

If I love you, then I love you for being you. I don’t expect you to be me. I don’t expect you to think like I think and I don’t expect you’ll agree with all my pleasures, my treasures or my preferences. Nor do I expect myself to adore all your pleasures, your treasures or your preferences.

But if I love you…or even like you…or like the idea of getting along with you…or even just living with you on the same planet, then I have to accept that those variations and our differences have merit – an intrinsic merit and one through which I learn a measure of acceptance, the value of discordant experience and ultimately, tolerance.
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Astrologer’s Diary: Mentality, Power and Sex in the Aquarian Age

 

 Lesbia by John Reinhard Weguelin (1878)

Between sexualization of the media, gays and lesbians breaking through walls of fear and prejudice in the workplace and with regards to marriage equality and the increasing number of females we see – guilty or not – in murders which have a plainly sexual component, it seems more and more the time to be thinking about sex and sexuality in Aquarian Age terms.

Of all the astrological mechanics, the astrological ages seem the most obliquely marked and mysterious. But two things seem clear. One, the ages are a bit more of a ‘phase in/phase out’ thing than signs. (No one is born ‘on a cusp’ of two signs. That’s like saying a woman is ‘sort of’ pregnant!) Two, the Aquarian Age is now among us.

So saying, back to sex.

Sexuality – the whole of the subject is a number of things in the chart. But there’s no question as to what people think of first when you say ‘sex’ and ‘astrology’ in the same sentence. Everybody’s thoughts turn to Scorpio. And those who know the construction of a horoscope add in ‘…and the 8th house.’

We all know where sexuality has stood for the past several thousand years with human society. It’s been the subject of intriguing titillation and hush-hush giggles. It’s been the vilified at one level by many religions and yet glorified for that which sexuality so often ultimately produces.

You know, children.

All this part of the conversation is very Piscean. You know, the two fishes swimming in opposite directions?
 

The zodiac image of Pisces as pictured in one of the beautiful stained glass

windows of France's Chartres Cathedral.

Putting Scorpio aside for just a moment, there are many (many) aspects which have been ‘good-bad’ and ‘do/don’t do’ during the past 2,100 years (that being the length of an astrological age). Sex is just one of them. And the ‘why’s of this become more evident when we look at the wheel of the Piscean Age:

 All of these images of wheels of respective Ages are color-coded so the

image's frame matches the sign being discussed. Here, Pisces is on the

first house of the Piscean Age, which is the theory behind the construct of

any Age. By placing the sign of that Age on the first house of the horoscope

and 'flowing' the rest of the zodiac around the wheel in proper order, we are

able to see a lot of the cycles of development in our world during that time.   

The sign which is on the “I Am” (or more broadly, the terms in which we conceive of ourselves) is represented by the sign on the first house of any age. So with Pisces on the first house, we’ve all had various versions of this ‘what I am on the outside’ (or in public) and ‘what I am on the inside’ (or in private) sort of thing going on.

The world was ripe for it. Anyone who tried to be their ‘inside person’ in public probably got in trouble with it and anyone who never took off their societal mask when they got home probably ended up rather imprisoned by it.

You know – in that psycho-singular ‘iron mask’ sort of way.

Those two fish, in being two fish which manifest in an inner/outer, try/surrender sort of way also have left us ripe for societal judgment. Pisces being the sign of ‘mass emotionality’ or the ‘universal unconscious,’ as humans we’ve all been subject to wanting to be, well, not accepted per se – “accepted” is more of an Aquarian word – we wanted to fit in. We wanted to belong. We wanted to not feel like we were being emotionally left out in the cold.

That’s plenty potent enough to get people to shut down (or hide) their true sexual nature.

But now we’re in the Aquarian Age:

The wheel of the Aquarian Age

Aquarius is also a ‘societal’ sign. But it’s primary means is not emotionality, it’s ‘the idea’ of the thing. Aquarius is the marketplace and the ‘mass market’ – and thus marketing. Aquarius is also the sign of any sort of ‘electronic system,’ be that the electrical grid or the internet and Twitter and all such electronic means of communication.

So it’s natural that whatever is being communicated, it’s going out through electronic means. And that just happens to include sex.

So saying, back to Scorpio. (We’ll get to the 8th house in a minute). Scorpio is a sign with two rulers. There’s the decision to get involved which is really all about our having the courage to risk whatever we’re going to risk – our physical intimacy, our finances in some investment, our reputation in a partnership, whatever. That “courage quotient” is represented by Mars as the ‘in door’ in all things Scorpio. Will we ‘get naked’ physically, financially, emotionally or otherwise?

Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes that answer is no. BOTH are expressions of our personal relationship to Scorpio and its polarity opposition sign, Taurus – the sign of security and satisfaction.

And just to make a point here…though we often don’t get involved in something “Scorpionic” because we are afraid and because we don’t feel secure in our Self (the fear part being Scorpio and the security issue being Taurean), there’s also a perfectly secure level at which anyone can say ‘naw, that’s not for me.’ We are allowed to have preferences. We are allowed to have areas of interest and lack of interest. We are allowed to want to try this and not try that.

To be cowed into something is just as bad as being afraid of it. It’s just one force is internal and one is external.

You know, Piscean.

The Pluto part of Scorpio that everybody seems to drool and pant over is actually the Scorpio outcome. Scorpio’s ‘function’ on the astrological level is to cause us to learn more about ourselves…specifically the state of our security of Self and satisfaction with our life or self-development…through interactions with others and things of this world.

At this level, Pluto is the exultation when the investment pays off or the risk taken comes out the way we “wanted” it to …and the disappointment and pain we feel when we get taken, manipulated or maltreated.

Hence one of the big Scorpio rules: don’t risk anything you can’t afford to lose. Why? Because you just might – lose it, I mean.

(And not just emotionally, but that too.)

The ‘power’ of Scorpio – and hence the control and submitting to control we associate with Scorpio, is all about one person risking more and one person trying to risk less. That can work, especially IF the boundaries of all use of power have been pre-negotiated (and if they are adhered to). And let’s face it…some people like the power of control and some people like not having to make decisions.

Both can be expressions of (Taurus/2nd house) security which are expressed through whatever kind of (Scorpio/8th house) relationship. And contrary to what most bullies, abusive types and deal-welchers think, when they overstep their bounds, they’re NOT strong – they’re showing a weakness of character which they’re evidently just too weak to take responsibility for.

(Yes, I’ve met a few such people. I bet you have too. In the end I feel sorry they have such internal frailty.)   

So…in the Age of Pisces, Scorpio was on the 9th house.

 The Age of Pisces with Scorpio on the 9th house of the Age

And since the keywords which apply here are create, deny, destroy, the easiest way to generalize how this has worked is to cite the issue of a prime 9th house institution: religion.

We’re NOT talking about your spirituality or your feelings of faith. That’s 12th house and Piscean. What we’re talking about here is codified religion, complete with rules and rituals which, when it comes to sexuality, over the past couple of thousand years have pretty much been the denial of sex for pleasure, touting sexuality (certainly liberal sexuality) as the destruction of the human value and sex as pretty much ONLY good when used for the creation of children.

Various religions have their own twists on this, to be sure (I would say ‘their kinks,’ but that would just be a bit over the line…). But the idea of sexuality and all that is involved in sexuality when it comes to the physical body (human genitalia, a woman’s menstrual cycle, etc.) being glorified in art but not acceptable in person…what part of the ‘good/bad’ Piscean fish do we not understand here?

For good or bad, all this is changing. (How Pisces of me to put it that way, right?) Indeed, the change is upon us, we just have to adapt to it. That isn’t to say that control (per se) isn’t going to be something people reach for going forward – they are.

 The Aquarian Age, with Scorpio on the 10th house of the Age

Wherever we see Scorpio on the chart of the age, that’s where the greatest emphasis for ‘control of sexuality’ and the missteps and misbehavior which go along with that are going to occur.

With Scorpio on the 10th house of the Aquarian Age, sexuality is officially a word commodity. So is power. It’s there for everyone to use and to be used by. We will see it traded as part of commerce, and much as many won’t like it, such practices are going to become more and more open (and openly accepted) as time goes along. The flaunting of and  seemingly endless discussions of sexuality we see in the media are just the tip of the iceberg, folks.

One other thing which should get mentioned here… Scorpio, that sign of sex? Scorpio is also the sign of war and control of others through violence. 

The Aquarian Age, with Taurus on the 4th house of the AGe

This Scorpio/Taurus vertical axis which puts Scorpio at the top of the wheel of the age and Taurus at the bottom is a sure sign that moving forward the whole trend of my home and family as my security zone are going to continue.

Meanwhile, real security is the ability to give and take. Real security is found through finding or having the internal willingness to face INDIVIDUAL fears we have, fears which are mostly about ourselves.

Or about the reality of who we are.

The Aquarian Age with Pisces on the 2nd house of the Age

That we know because with Aquarius on the first house of the Age, Pisces goes to the second.

The Aquarius part of this is hard enough. Aquarius is another two-part sign, though it’s not quite as ‘inner-outer’ as Pisces. Belonging to the element of air, Aquarius is about whether we understand the ‘thing’ or others and where they are coming from. This is the hardest part of Aquarius, as not being ‘feeling’ by nature (comprehension differs from compassion) Aquarius isn’t intuitive.

Pisces is. And that’s another value of the Age we’re entering into: those who can develop their compassion and develop an ability to intuitively understand those who come from a different place are going to have much more to work with going forward.

On the other hand, what Aquarius is …Aquarius is all about equality. Specifically, universal equality. And that makes all the fighting for freedom of any kind – around the world – apt to this time.

Every time the astrological ages change, humans go through a period of pretty serious upheaval which lasts a couple of hundred years. So…take this with a grain of salt…we’re right on track.

With all this said, I know I haven’t answered some of the more delectably delicious questions about astro-sexuality.

But whether you realize it or not, I’ve begun to.

How so?

Well, I have been talking about Pisces, right?

Pisces (and its associated 12th house) is the other big component in sexuality. Often merely fluffed off in the rush to experience mental orgasms over Pluto, the astrological truth is that the Neptunian quality of Pisces is the emotional seduction which triggers the physical passion.

And as I’ve said sooooo many times, Planet Neptune controls the orbit of dwarf planet Pluto.

You thought it was going to be any different this time? Uh….no!

As a born spectator on life (all writers are), I’ve been watching the shifting surges in society with…well, not exactly glee, but an astrologers amusement as more and more the trappings of success have become part of people’s allure.

That would be part of the incoming fantasy of the Age: success equals emotional comfort.

Wrong!

Money truly cannot buy us love. But the commerce of fantasy and the allure of those who have ‘made it in this world’ – that’s going to be bigger than ever going forward. Right now, with Pluto transiting Capricorn, we have a perfect picture of the 12th house as the 'universal emotional chord' (Piscean in nature) which is being 'struck' through all means Capricorn: social status and business, hence the commercialization of achievement and that entertainment/commerce mix which is so very much a part of branding and reality TV (and other such vehicles) as a means to create 'power of commerce' through emotional mass appeal.

But there's a whole other side to this. Pisces on the 12nd and Capricorn on the 12th house of this incoming Age makes it both more and less necessary to get straight with our inner fears. Capricorn being ruled by Saturn, and Saturn being the growth through fear, growing through our fears and loss through fear gives us a full range of how this is going to work. Those who are afraid they can’t ‘be’ someone will more and more look to ‘market’ their ‘public’ allure to someone successful, thinking that will solve their problems.

Meanwhile, many will seek success in their careers or some sort of worldly status or renown (hello, reality TV?) and try to plaster that over their internal emotional (12th house) misgivings, thinking that will keep the twitchy midnight misgivings at bay.

(And good luck with that to them, I say!)

One great take-away of this past 2,100 years and its huge, HUGE emphasis on religion…religion is aimed at getting us to face ourselves and be better people. Religion does urge us to be honest and not lie to ourselves or those we love.

In that sense, religion as a 9th house (and Sagittarian) has pointed us to our Piscean insecurities and fears and flaws and denials. And those who have dealt with those have been oh so better off in the sexual realm, a realm which automatically (Scorpio always trines Pisces) brings up our internal weaknesses.

Which – oh, by the by – means that anything Scorpio does that. War isn’t about the other guy: it’s about your fear. Monetary investments and the internal tensions in a business partnership or a marriage (they are sort of similar) are both meant to get us to face the ‘why’s and ‘what’s of who we are and why we choose or have chosen as we have.

It’s all about getting honest. It’s all about facing the fact that we are human and we are going to make mistakes and that when we make them, denying they’re there doesn’t make them go away.

Admitting our flaws and fixing them – that makes for strength. And emotional strength and a willingness to have emotional clarity with ourselves is a universal quotient across our characters. There is no sexuality which is all Scorpio and no Pisces. There is no ‘all 8th house’ and ‘no 12th house.’

So if you want a great sex life, get honest with yourself about your fears. Stop denying what you are and aren’t as a human being. Don’t think you’re ‘all that’ because you have a great career or some sort of ‘social status’ and don’t assume that someone who doesn’t have that (or all your material stuff) is any less of a worthy person than you are.

After all…going forward, guess what’s on the 8th house of the incoming Age?

Answer: VIRGO.

 Virgo is on the 8th house for the duration of the Aquarian Age

On one hand, that means that STDs are with us to stay. It’s not like they haven’t always been there, but sexuality transmitted diseases are going to be a sign of our time.

Heck, they may even become an ‘under cover weapon’ (so to speak). (Talk about dirty tricks!)

Virgo on the 8th house is also the sign of mental health as a subject for much investigation, a fact which needs to be understood, a factor which can (and unfortunately, will) be exploited - and a drive which leads to murder, be that on the part of the mentally unbalanced person as the murderer or someone trying to 'kill the crazy person' (as it were).

So yes, we are going to see more mentally unbalanced people committing heinous crimes. But we're also likely to see some pretty terrible things done to mentally unbalanced person. Virgo being the sign of health workers, civil servants and the military, we are likely to see all these areas exercising the prime 8th house keywords (the choice to create, deny, destroy) being challenges faced by these groups - and which may well be misused by all such groups because the 8th house is such a test of our internal balance.

And considering the balance/imbalance which is the test of the Virgo/Pisces polarity wherever it appears, this is also (on one hand) one validation of the book Fifty Shades of Gray in the sense of the Piscean fantasies and the Pisces-on-the-2nd house valuing of variations on sensuality which are hard for many to own up to...at the same time that it tells us that there will be many - in all walks of life and in any number of guises - who will 'sell' (8th house = power/control) us on 'surrendering' or maybe just 'valuing' what they say we should because they say it's 'good for us.'

The 8th (and Scorpio) plus the 12th house (and Pisces) being natural areas of the chart (and signs) which at various levels prompt or test our fears and insecurities, there is every reason to think that exploitation of those factors is a way that those who have what we might call a less-than-savory-hold on their own 8th house, Scorpio, 2nd house or Pisces issues will push others who maybe don't want to think for themselves or who are afraid to stand out or who are for whatever reason believers (Pisces = faith, faithfulness) in "just taking the word" of those who allegedly know more.

There will be some hard, hard lessons and may lives lost through war and other means through the prompting of fantasies and manipulating of beliefs or weaknesses in the years ahead.

And maybe even as you read. 

But there's a whole other side of this as well. While it may be easy to ignore the mentally ill or the poor or those too scared to think of themselves, as we have begun to see, there is a 'bounce-back' effect from those who are ignored or even just merely marginalized by society, be they mentally ill or not - which goes back to the 8th as the house of violence.

And ultimately, one of the offshoots of this area of the Virgo-on-the-8th-house-of-the-Age against its Pisces polarity is going to be the understanding that captivity is at many levels not that far from being captivated - and that while on the 'captive' side there may well be physical bonds, ultimately the greatest restraints - pro or con - are those which are instilled in our minds.

And that would be Aries (I Am) on the 3rd house of the Age. We are our mentality. What becomes of that mentality through whatever means it is affected...for better or for worse...is going to drive this age.

(And yes, it's also going to drive many of us bonkers - if not simply crazy when we realize the implications of same.)

Aries, the sign of 'I Am' is on the 3rd house of the Aquarian Age - a broad-scale indicator that while that 'I am what I eat' thing may be true in terms of our bodies, who we ARE in this incoming age is all about what's in our mind and the state and operational functionality of our minds.

Beyond all that, we’re also going to see women catching up with men as the perpetrators. That ‘men are generally the perpetrators’ thing which has been with us for so very long is very Piscean. Yet the same ‘universal’ and ‘everyone is equal’ quality which in the Age of Aquarius means rich and poor are equal as humans (and thus, quite honestly, as sex or life partners) extends beyond that to just just leveling the playing field between gay and straight, but also between men and women – and not just in the work place.

An ugly thought? Yes. But Aquarius is not a sign into 'prettiness.' In Aquarius, facts rule.

Thinking this all through, it's easy to see that what we're dealing with now is a vast but steady 'dissolving' of the ‘old ways’ which when you look at it in the relationships-sexuality court starting with the Piscean Age image of the “he man” and “she little lady” sort of stuff (and who leads the sexual dance). Going forward, he may stay home with the kids. She may work. He may ask her out on a date...or she may ask him. She may ask her out and he may ask him out and either partner may be a whole lot older or younger than the other. Women will learn how to handle power with more ease (they don’t have that much practice) and men will learn a bit more about how their 'maleness' and 'masculinity' (hetero, gay or bi-sexual) does not automatically translate to domination, being domineering, having the last say or being head of household.

Maybe more to the point, through challenging themselves to be people (without reliance on gender roles) everyone will learn that gaining access to our own highly individualized inner Piscean insecurities and coping with that is what leads to enhancing our lives as a whole.

But with all this comes the down side of realization that women are not all dainty and good. In fact, women are likely to prove to be just as awful as men can be - and that has nothing to do with physical beauty or petite-ness versus brawn. Somewhere along this line our race will face realizing that beyond the fact that not all mothers are saints lies the idea that the dualistic Piscean model of mothering or fathering needs to be ‘degenderized’ into more of a concept of ‘parenting’ – an idea which is less about gender needs (yours or of the child) and more about the human part of any human being, be they parent or child.

Virgo on the 8th house of the Age also tells us that sex – in time – is just going to be another bodily function. And though the 'thin is in' thing which showed up in the 1960s as the earliest glimmer of the 'dawning of the Age of Aquarius' (as they sang in the song) is quite Aquarian (Aquarius carries a lanky and often wiry build when seen in the chart as a physical attribute), by and by we are going to separate 'thin' from 'sexually fit' - or even 'sexually desirable.'

After all, Aquarius is the sign of the unique and individual(ized) as being part of the whole. That means we are all different and we should be different, whether that means what we look like or what we prefer in a personal partner.

We see those struggles going on even now. Aquarius is the sign of the 'mass market' and universality and the easy thing to do is to excise or isolate when someone doesn't 'fit your bill.'

But that's not the fulfillment of this Age. Yes, rejection of that which is different is a common human reaction, but learning that differences are interesting is more usefully Aquarian. Ultimately, the ability to embrace differences (your own and those of others) as part of a whole which IS whole is the Aquarian way.

So yes, we do have a goodly long way to go yet.

With Virgo being the sign of ‘jobs,’ it is likely that during the next 2,100 years (give or take a decade or two) sex workers are going to become more commonplace, with a definite place in the world of human health.

Of course that does imply that ‘sexuality’ – not just at the sexually transmitted disease level – is going to be more of a problem to drive the need for such sex help. So everyone is going to have to get more realistic about body functions and the realities of physical functionality... and pleasure. Is that ikky? Is something that one person likes that you don't like "bad"? Is your liking something in the intimate realm which not everybody around you likes "bad"?

If we look at the signs involved, the answer there would seem to be arrived at through astro-mathematics of the rather philosophical kind which we might well picture as Virgo + 8th house + Mercury (as Virgo's ruler) + Mars and Pluto (as native rulers of the 8th).

So...that answer would seem to be 'no, not as long as everything is moral (Virgo) and well discussed (Mercury) between the two parties with both parties being in freely given (Pluto/Mars), self-owning (8th house) agreement. Relationships, be they marital, professional, familial, between friends - they're each and every one of them individual. And the healthy thing in a relationship is to be secure enough with yourself (that Pisces on the 2nd house of the Age quality) to be able to be you without selling your real Self down the river in the process of trying to have a relationship...or to be accepted by others.

And yes, that means that others need to get with accepting people who vary from their personal and emotional 'norm.' You don't have to be someone to accept their right to be who they are so long as they're living their life and you're living yours, right?

But with Neptune now in Pisces, it's understandable that getting to this level of comfort with ourselves isn't all that easy. The 'easy' thing to do is to say 'that's wrong' or 'they're bad' when like as not the difficulty is not that they find snakes fascinating and you find snakes horrifying - but why you're so frightened of snakes.

Or whatever else, if I may be allowed to simply 'allude' here and get away without violating any of Google's 'adult content?' inquiries. 

Neptune is that ever-odd quotient in our life which represents how we all get so disquieted as something begins melting away the walls of denial or refusal to deal with certain ideas. There are many things in this world and life which we don't like and we are entitled not to like them. But that doesn't make them wrong OR bad.

Preference does not equate to evil. But after 2,000-plus years of Piscean Age, such biases do not melt away easily.

Yet they will melt away. If we were (or become) able to come back to where we are some four or five hundred years from now, a lot of today's concerns are likely to be nothing to those people of the future. We see versions of that now, with young folks growing up in a tech world which is still a foreign land to some of their parents (never mind the grandparents!). 

And so it will be as time rolls on. The normalization of all that and the accepting of sexuality as something which is part of human physicality is on the rise. Yes, with that we will surely run into more problems with inappropriate sex and sexual boundaries. But all of that is very much part of the fact of sexuality, the ‘reality of the fantasy’ which sexuality is in human life.

You know…the Capricorn on the natively Piscean 12th house with Pisces on the natively Taurean 2nd house of realistic, rationally-driven security? What this asks us is what our values really are.

And maybe more to the point, what we think is valuable about our Self, and whether we're willing to risk our feelings of vulnerability in sharing our innermost treasured beliefs about ourselves with anyone else.

  Libra has been on the 8th house of the Age of Pisces, giving us that

obsessive longing and urge to find our 'soul mate.'

Sexuality, which has been for so very long about finding 'my other half' - Libra on the 8th house of the Piscean Age - is now evolving. Now we will learn how important and enriching it is to grow through the Virgo challenges which come as part and parcel of any relationship, platonic or intimate. The difficulties will often feel like they're 'about them' when the truth is that relationships reveal - most of all to us - the quirks of our own personalities.

That being true, that may in time come to redefine the good and bad of relationships. And those of us who want to get a jump on that eventuality can perhaps benefit by letting go of the old 'it's supposed to be easy' image in favor of understanding that the richest relationships are those which challenge us by revealing to both (or all) parties that which they need to learn about themselves.

That the physicality of sex - the 8th house/Scorpio dynamic - is the same astrological house and sign of war, birth, death and power struggles should tell us something.

Life isn't easy. It's not all roses. But then, is it really supposed to be all roses and no thorns?
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