Sun in Pisces

As previously noted, the Sun is moving into Pisces on the same day that Saturn goes retrograde. The date in question is February 18th and the Sun enters Pisces at 12:03 in the afternoon (UT/+0), scant hours before Saturn goes retrograde at 5:04 p.m.

Any time we see this sort of confluence, we know this is not just a moment in time, but a ‘moment in time.’ In other words, we shouldn’t expect this to be just another set of days which goes by with this and that happening which we take note of but don’t think much about.

On the other hand, Piscean effects can be mysterious. Even difficult to understand – or if you prefer scientific parlance, diagnose. Pisces is all that which causes us to feel to a degree that just how we feel and why we feel and how we react to having those feelings…all that comes to the fore.

In this particular case, we have the Sun at 0 Pisces and Saturn at 11 Scorpio. Right away we know we have a (Sun) life (Saturn) lesson in progress.

But that lesson has two different versions. Or perhaps we will be tempted to take one of two paths, or to try and avoid something. What do I mean?

From Pisces TO Scorpio is nine signs. By the implied ‘9th harmonic’ (which sounds very grand but is pretty simple), the Sun’s metaphysical ‘connection’ to Saturn is one about furthering our education.

On the other side, from Saturn in Scorpio TO the Sun in Pisces is five signs – a 5th harmonic, if you please.

In astrology, nine is not a sign of ‘culmination’ as those of you who know numerology might think of it. That’s probably because astrology doesn’t work in base ten, as our everyday system of counting does. No, at it’s most simplistic, astrology works in base twelve – twelve signs. And yes, it also works in base thirty (thirty degrees to every sign) and base three-hundred-sixty (degrees in a circle).

And if you want to get really fancy about it, there’s also that ‘sixty seconds in a degree’ thing – which sounds really fussy but which is where our concept of time (sixty seconds to the minute and sixty minutes to the house) and astrology intersect.

And that concept – working in base sixty – comes from Babylon, the place all western astrology originally comes from. The ancient Babylonians worked in base sixty…which is good cause to wonder what they used after their fingers and toes.

In any case, nine – in modern astrology – is the ‘astro-vibe’ of learning. So daily life (the Sun) is going to be all about learning what this month?

Answer: Saturn in Scorpio stuff.

Meanwhile, five (and the 5th harmonic) is about ‘creativity and development.’ Many like to think of the 5th harmonic as being ‘the child’ as in ‘having children.’ But if you think about it, children are – in human terms – a primary ‘human creation’: we create more humans.

But then you have to raise them. You know…as a parent your job is to creatively develop a child’s sense of being a human being in this world?

Yet the 5th harmonic isn’t about children. It’s about the creating something from what we have. So whether that’s your physicality or that’s your talents, abilities or resources, the effort which goes into creating and developing those abilities are the 5th harmonic concept.

In fact, one of the reasons why parenting is such a tough job is because as a parent you’re not only in charge of creating and developing the life of the child, your primary job is to develop your Self so that you ARE a good parent who shows that child how to make (develop) something of your life, your abilities, your humanity, your talents – all that stuff.

And the reason all that is so important now is because what is ‘creatively developed’ through the 5th sign vibe is the Taurean or 2nd house sense of self worth, personal resources and self respect (or self worth), all of which is tested through…

Through what sign? SCORPIO.

A stained glass image of Scorpio as depicted in the

Cathedral of Lausanne in Switzerland

 
And that’s where Saturn – the symbol of reality, limits, loss, testing and slow, substantial growth through effort – is.

So this 9th house (trine) harmonic from the Sun TO Saturn is all about learning where and how our values work, and where and how our values, our self development, our efforts just aren’t up to par. Maybe with ourselves…maybe with others.

This is to be a testing month and a month of testing. And when it comes to the astro-crux of how tests work and taking them to heart, hardly anything gets to us like the combination of Pisces and Scorpio. Where Scorpio tests our values and ability or willingness to risk (or how smart or dumb we are to take on a given risk), Pisces is that boundless sense of emotionality which is not just feelings, but feeling our feelings, and feeling how we feel about our feelings.

This is pure water sign theory. As the first water sign in the zodiac, Cancer’s metaphysical image is the surf zone. Scorpio’s image is the swamp or the ice floe. But Pisces is the wide, open ocean, replete with ‘unfathomable’ oceanic depths.

On balance, we are going to see a lot of people trying to ‘control’ (Saturn in Scorpio) what happens now so that it comes out to their (5th sign harmonic liking). And that’s okay, particularly if you are learning something in the process or are achieving what you’re achieving through applying something you have learned.

However! This combination can also be one where people will try and avoid reality at all costs. This is a combination which is a fear-monger’s dream. (With two water signs involved, maybe their wet dream!) So we are going to see people fall into two very different camps – the ‘this can’t be done’ group and ‘this could work’ tribe.

Is there any sense to knowing which is which and which represents prudence and which represents a valid road forward? Probably yes, though not in the absolute. The big indicators to the ‘turn of (Saturn) events’ now are Deucalion on the Scorpio side and Kalypso, Fomalhaut and Neptune on the Sun side of things.

The pairing of Deucalion-Saturn, though it may take many forms, is fairly direct: is XYZ being done in a moral and ethical manner?

Or maybe this, as an alternate…is everyone involved in any given situation, dynamic or question being given equal personal, ethical and moral consideration?

Sun-Kalypso-Fomalhaut-Neptune is a bit more squishy. But then, any time we see Neptune, things are a bit more nebulous – that’s the point! Fortunately, we do have two pretty obvious indicators in this quartet: Fomalhaut says ‘success depends on a lack of corrosion’ which means that we only succeed where our aims are not corrupt or corruptive.

Variations on the Fomalhaut theme: coercion, corruption, deception, obfuscation, lying.

We also have Kalypso in this mix, and Kalypso is about as Piscean a symbol as there is. (And hence, probably exalted in Pisces, though nobody that I know of is very big into signs of asteroid rulership as yet.) Kalypso is one of those beauteous babes Ulysses (aka Odysseus) encounters on his way back from the collective events known as Homer’s Iliad. His ship gets stranded on this foreign shore and the lovely Kalypso shows up to help the hero and (oh yes) his crew, too.

Predictably (this being Greek myth and all) Kalypso falls in love with Ulysses. But the thing is, he’s a married man. He’s got a wife and kidlets back home and he’s pining to get back to them.

Does Kalypso help him? Yes, she does. Why? Because she realizes that loving someone (in this case Ulysses) is about caring for them and caring about their happiness, however THEY define that.

It’s a romantic notion, yes. But it’s also a very Piscean base-line emotional truth. What we want from others is our fantasy. Our longing. Our version of hopes, dreams and fondest yearnings. But if we love them, then we want them to have a life which will make them happy – which may mean they walk away from us and we never see them again.

Ouch? Yes. But very Piscean in the sense that all the yearnings and the despair of Pisces, all the idyllic dreams and believing and spirituality…that’s all fine and good as our emotional dream…but that’s not necessarily reality.

Some of us even get to have or achieve our dreams and then we find out the reality of them really sucks! And that’s another form of Pisces – the reality of understanding that some things are better left as fantasies.

Pisces…the two fish which swim in two different directions…is about the reality of life. That life is about the dream and yet also about the reality. Accepting how different they are and how they sometimes do and often don’t mix, that is our Pisces life challenge.

 Pisces...the two fish going in different

directions connected by a golden cord.

Pisces is also a sign which has two rulers. We’ve talked about the ‘outcome’ ruler – Neptune – in its confluence with the Sun. But the ‘in door’ with Pisces, that’s Jupiter. And as the Sun reaches Pisces, Jupiter is still sitting at 6 Gemini, the degree it went direct at back on January 30th.

It seems worth mentioning that 6 Gemini was also the degree Jupiter was in when the Lance Armstrong bubble burst on Oprah Winfrey’s very public television stage…and after that, throughout the media world. The disillusionment, the fact that people were so unhappy with Lance’s having deceived them (never mind himself) that people have sued Lance Armstrong for simply not being the shining hero they wanted to think of him as? That’s so very Piscean!

What, we want life to come with a guarantee that we’ll never get lied to? Life doesn’t come with any permission slips which say ‘you get to be eternally naïve’ And that’s what Pisces is about as a sign…teaching us how to love innocence, but be careful of our naiveté. Naiveté as the ‘blank slate’ which empowers us to learn is a powerful thing. But naiveté which has us wanting to be blind is destructive.

That combination, that coming to grips with what life is and isn’t is the essence of the moment. Your experience of it may be large or small. It may be costly or merely inconvenient. It may be disappointing. Then again, you may feel empowered to know you are as good as the next guy and better than many.

Given the 9-5 harmonic swing (by sign) from Saturn’s station to the Sun, this could be the moment when you take a next step in the effort to build or develop your life. It may be when you stop feeling your own very human weaknesses in favor of valuing your vulnerabilities as the very sort of human strength which allows caring and compassion to exist.

They say only the very strong can afford to be vulnerable.

That may be why some consider Pisces not the strongest sign in the zodiac, but the most enduring, eternal and powerful in its potential.

And every chart includes Pisces.

It’s to think about.
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Asteroid Factors: Enter the Yang

In the next four days...

....six different asteroids will change signs and in doing so, change spatial (and space) relationships in our lives and with regards to our lives.

What exactly does this mean?

There are a couple of things to understand before we really get to the nitty-gritty of sorting that out. The first is how small asteroids really are. Thanks to media, science and science fiction, we often think of them as 'menaces from outer space.' Or just space gravel!

Truth is, most asteroids are neither menaces, nor gravel. What they are, and where most of them are - that's what I'm getting at here. So let's start with size.

Thanks to the ever-helpful folks at NASA-JPL, it's easy enough to get a pretty good feeling for how large the planets are against the image of the Sun, as we see here...

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Planets by size – NASA/JPL

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And before we go any father, just to make sure you know which of the planets is home sweet home planet Earth, I direct you to the two larger planets in the middle of the above lineup. Those are Jupiter (left) and Saturn (right) - all the planets here being in order of orbit as you move away from the Sun.

So you have the 'biggies': Jupiter and Saturn in the middle of the line. To the left of Jupiter is Mars. And just to the left of Mars is a little blue planet which – (yes…!) – is Earth.

It’s a really BIG cosmos and Earth is actually a really small planet. Kind of sobering, isn’t it?

Anyway…on to illustration #2 - a picture of the main asteroid belt's top ten largest asteroids, pictured against the size of our dear, sweet planet Earth.

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The ten largest main belt asteroids as pictured against

the Earth, using Earth used for size comparison

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Yes, asteroids are small. Even planets – when compared to the Sun - aren’t all that big. And our Sun (if you really want to get into it) is a pretty medium sized star.

Makes you think, doesn' it?

But meanwhile...back to asteroids? Asteroids are - most of them - pretty darn small, at least in the greater scope of Things Celestial.

This is why when we talk astrological metaphysics, planets refer to major human attributes – the dynamics which shape our lives. Asteroids? They’re aspects trait facets. Or personality factors we meet up with along the way.

What does 'along the way' actually mean? Well, that refers to the fact that most asteroids orbit peacefully in a mass of cosmic rubble between Mars and Jupiter. That's the 'main asteroid belt' mentioned above. 

And the fact that this belt is between Mars and Jupiter is pretty much why metaphysical though about asteroids is what it is. Astrologically, they seem to be all about the ‘facts we face along the way’ through life.

Which makes sense when you think about it. Mars symbolizes the ‘proactive’ dynamic: the urge to do, that sort of determination which gets us to get up and go.

Against this (or maybe apart from this), Jupiter is knowledge. Jupiter is understanding what things mean, knowing not just how to do any given thing, but the fact that we know we can do it!

So the space (literal and metaphorical) between Jupiter and Mars …that section of space so dappled with thousands of asteroids…that asteroid belt and those individual asteroids represent all the things we meet up with along the way between the initiating point (Mars) and the understanding (Jupiter) – whether that’s a thought process or the real-deal doing of things.

Which may give us yet another metaphorical reason why Jupiter is SUCH a big planet. It’s a big deal to know you can do something. Jupiter rules knowledge and belief (as ruler of Pisces).

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Jupiter, as seen by Voyager

photo credit: NASA/JPL

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Together, these are the empowering factors which allow us to try…and in doing so move past Jupiter to Saturn, the symbol of achievement through effort. Then of course, we take our comprehension and burn our way through the rest of the work to the achievement of our aim, goal or task – the Saturn of it all.

OKAY! So now we know why it might matter that all these asteroids are changing signs. It’s a signal that the quality of what we are going to meet up with – in the world and in our own minds – is changing.

Collectively, here’s the list of shifts taking place: Eos is moving into Aries (December 8), Echo is entering Sagittarius (December 9), Hebe and Dionysus are entering Aries (December 10) and come December 11th, Kalypso will enter Scorpio and Nemesis will enter Libra.

For those of you who know astrology, this may ring a yin/yang bell.

Remember yin and yang? Often thought of as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ (and thus easily mistaken as ‘male’ and ‘female’) what yin and yang  really represents is the difference between ‘pro-active’ and ‘receptive-reactive’ modes of being. That people have come to call them masculine and feminine (and thus think in terms of male and female)…that’s just modern culture’s habit of abbreviating everything.

The truth is we all embody both sides of this natural duality. We are all in some moments pro-active and in others, receptive or reactive. And where the asteroids tend to be…that tends to tell us a general mode of attitude. Yes, it is somewhat modified by whether these objects are in yin or yang signs of your personal natal chart. Yet in spite of that, the overall effect still stands.

So here’s the zodiac (shown as a ‘natural’ wheel with Aries on the 1st house rotating counter-clockwise around to Pisces on the 12th)…here’s the zodiac with the signs labeled as yin and yang.

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Now…if you look back at that list, you’ll get my point: of the six asteroids changing signs just in the next few days, five are moving into proactive (yang) signs.

That tends to say that in the next few days we will feel like we need to get ‘into action'. Or that life will be ‘requiring’ that we ‘do’ something. Or we may hear frustration and/or activity levels rising around us – locally, personally, nationally or internationally.

Some of this is just Eos instinct. We talked about Eos just recently, so you may want to go back and read that blog if you missed it. But suffice it to say, Eos is our instinct to stay ahead of things so as to learn better or to not get ‘burned’...and the general/overall awareness of all our instincts, good and bad, valid and invalid.

LINK to article on Eos.

Echo is entering Sagittarius, the Jupiterian land of knowing how, knowing that you know how and understanding the meaning and consequences of things. Echo seems pretty obvious as a symbol: monkey see, monkey do, no? But it isn’t quite that simple. The real story of Echo is about a servant in the house of honcho Olympian Zeus (aka Jupiter) and his strong-minded wife, Hera.

Very much like his Jupiter-in-Sagittarius namesake, Zeus is always out seeing what (and who) he can stir up a little…fertility with. Zeus/Jupiter is always into pushing his limits.

Hera? Not so much. Hera is the protector of house, home, family and ‘the rules’ and she’s not subtle about insisting that things be done the right way (which is to say, the way SHE wants them done).

So Echo is servant to both Hera and Jupiter. And Jupiter gives Echo an order: ‘just tell the wife such-and-such…’ when she asks where he is and Zeus is out philandering.

Echo does as ordered. And when Hera finds out what Jupiter is really up to, she not only has a word (or three) with Zeus, she punishes Echo big time.

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Echo by Alexander Cabanel (1887)

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The moral of this story is about knowing the difference between truth and lack of same. It’s about personal integrity versus cooperation. And with Echo moving into Sagittarius, this may signal a lot of lying going on…or a lot of finding out being found out, complete with retribution. Probably both.

Bottom line, this is a signal of stress and strain and a tendency to accuse others not of not understanding and ‘feeling for you’ (which would have typified recent times) but actual living up to our word and such.

Staying with this House of Olympian service theme, we next come to Hebe. Known for bringing cups of immortal ambrosia to the great and mighty of Olympus (evidently being a Greek god is thirsty work) she was also known for drawing baths and for embodying the premise of youth – hence the ‘draught of eternal vigor’ (ambrosia) being hers to pour for others.

That eventually Hebe decides to marry Heracles (Hercules) and get out of the ambrosia serving biz (leaving that to Ganymede) tells us that we are in service for a time in order to learn what service is – but then we move on to other things. So while youth (and the innocence or naiveté which goes with youth) may be eternal, it is not eternally ours.

Dionysus being about ‘sacred celebrations,’ the combination here – both moving into the ‘I Am’ (or who am I?) sign of Aries is a whole ‘grounding’ mechanism. What is the reality of our life?

That this particular shift happens as Mercury goes into three weeks of retrograde tells us that we are in for a little (3 week) think/reconsidering period about who we are and what we really want to do – or need to do in, and with our lives. We obviously have responsibilities to others. But what do we have to give if we don’t know who we are? Or if we haven’t lived up to our personal need to be the person we want or need to be?

It’s sort of an odd restatement of Echo: who are we? Are we made to simply take instructions or do we need to be someone reflective of the person we are inside?

Expect to hear and feel a lot of these questions floating around.

The last pairing is Kalypso and Nemesis…which is cause for a little pause. Why? Because Kalypso is the premise which teaches that loving someone is about them. If we love thinking its about what we get from them that isn’t about them, that’s about us!

And sometimes that means we have to let go. Or turn away. Or simply walk away. Loving someone else does not imply we have to simply serve their needs (Hebe) in any way which will do harm to us or our (Echo) integrity. And this we know – at least at an (Eos) instinctive level.

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Nemesis by Alfred Rethel (1837)

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Of the six symbols changing signs in these next few days, Kalypso is the only one which is moving into a ‘yin’ receptive/reactive sign. That sign is Scorpio, the sign Venus’ recent retrograde worked over so thoroughly and stickily. Hopefully we all learned something more about the Scorpio premise during that time – that no matter what we want, when we choose either (only) my way or (only) your way or what I think you should do (or want or need)…things don’t work. Like it or not (which for most of us is ‘not’!) the only Scorpio answers which really work are when EVERYBODY gets at least some part of what they need. Not want, need.

Yes, yes…Scorpio’s water sign element is all about the feeling. But given that it’s an interactive (3rd quadrant) sign which is followed by Sagittarius – a sign all about functionality – the want has to work in the larger venue. So when we want something which is only about our ‘want’ we’re still in a lurch.

Scorpio is thus all about everybody getting what they need to move forward to that goal that they desire. 

Got it?

Okay…so with Kalypso here, we can all expect a little bit of the ‘bleeding heart’ syndrome and a lot of push-pull about what need-versus-want really is.

Against this we have Nemesis, a curiously misunderstood symbol. People seem to think Nemesis is the ‘bad guy’ who rises up before us to foil our fun and frolic.

Uh, no. Nemesis is that notice (whether from a person or rule or that wee small voice in your own head) which warns you about the possible consequences of running afoul of the rules. Or morality. Or your budget.

Or…or…or….

In entering Libra, Nemesis is going to surface as warnings to us about what we’re doing. Or how we’re acting. Or who it is we’re dealing with. Or what we really need to do in order to get the reaction we’re hoping to get. That’s the ‘I-to-thou’ side of Libra.

Of course, there is that other side of Libra: who we are to others. In every Libra situation there is the tendency to project. Or to not own our own issues and thus (yes) attract that person apparently intent on raining on our parade with dire warnings.

How to know what’s true?

Well, that would seem to be the cumulative question of this moment and as we move into these next few weeks of Mercury retrograde and a Lunar Eclipse, all of which leads us into the January 2011 Solar Eclipse.

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A partial lunar eclipse

photo credit: NASA/JPL (2000)

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What we want life to be and what life really is…that would seem to be the question. What we want to do and what’s easy to do versus what we need to do in order to be the person and have the life we really want to have…that’s another question.

Those who make the effort and ‘use’ the energy productively – theoretically that prevents more of it coming back to haunt you.

And that’s where how human we really are shows up, yes. How we deal with so much of ourselves really on the line with ourselves…that’s the question of the moment.