Pope Francis I: The Papal Election Chart

The Coat of Arms for Vatican City is considered a de factor symbol of the Papacy

There’s something truly beautifully metaphysical level about a Pope being elected with Jupiter conjunct Aldebaran. Jupiter is after all, the ruler of Sagittarius (the sign of religion) and Jupiter is also the initial co-ruler of Pisces, the sign of spirituality.

Fixed star Aldebaran is the first of the zodiac’s Royal Stars – first in zodiacal order, that is. Positioned at 9 Gemini, Aldebaran is a celestial promise of success which is achieved and maintained through integrity of intent, word and deed. It’s presence in Gemini makes Aldebaran the most mentally-oriented of the Royal Stars, and though Jupiter isn’t known for being wonderful in Gemini, it would seem likely that integrity was something the Cardinals had in mind when electing Pope Francis, especially since (as it has been commented on a lot of late) the Vatican needs a Pope capable of dealing with the Curia and the ‘business machinery’ of the Vatican.

The famous white smoke went up from Vatican chimney at 7:06 on the evening of March 14th. And here is the chart for that moment:

The Election of Pope Francis I

March 13, 2013 - 7:06 p.m. (CET/-1) - Vatican City, Italy

The strong set of squares from Ceres and the Black Moon in the 9th house to the Sun and Venus in the 6th is exactly what we are talking about with regards to the Vatican’s ‘machinery.’ But let’s not be bashful here: the Scorpio Saturn conjunct Deucalion (Deucalion being ‘finding our moral way’) in trine to the vulnerability or injury point (Chiron) at 10 Pisces in the 6th house (with Pisces conjunct Kalypso) is a statement in big and bold about the money being hemorrhaged by the Church by various ‘bad acts’ on the part of the clergy (as in sex abuse) as well as the Curia.

With Kalypso being a point all about asking us whether love is about what you get or the happiness of the one (or the thing) being loved, Chiron conjunct Kalypso in the 6th house of this chart with Chiron-Kalypso in square to Aldebaran (integrity) –Scheherazade (the tale told) – Jupiter in the 9th is a poignant astrological statement about the need to bring the Church back to loving those it serves and the love of why it serves them.

Calypso (astrology's Kalypso) as sculpted by Celestin Anatole Calmeis

(photo credit Vassil, artwork c. 1853, Musée Picardie Beaux-arts)

That said, this is a square. So the task isn’t easy. Fortunately (for the Catholics of the world and the future of the Church) Saturn-Deucalion trining Chiron-Kalypso from the 2nd house says there will like as not have to be some 'threat’ installed in order to bring everybody who has gotten out of line back into line.

If you look around the ring of the chart, you’ll notice that all the house cusps are in early degrees. That tells us that this election is about doing something. And the four cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn) appearing on the prime horizontal and vertical axis points tells us that things will get done. Cardinal signs ‘act’ and learn through their accomplishments. Where modification is required, they then act again.

That of the four cardinal signs Libra comes up at the Ascendant (the Ascendant being the ‘action’ point of a chart) tells us the Cardinals have voted to act in the spirit of connection with others and with an eye to how the Church affects others.

Libra being ruled by Venus, Venus in Pisces and in the 6th house tells us that those who work in the Church are supposed to ‘exalt’ in service. That this Venus is conjunct the Sun (at 23 Pisces) says this election is about finding a man and a ‘life’ for the Church which is dedicated to that sort of service.

And yet…Venus is not comfortably placed in the 6th house. So we can expect some problems to surface inside the Vatican (whether we hear of them or not) in the years ahead. With the mid-point between Venus and Chiron being the fixed star Achernar, we can assume many problems will be found – even more than this Pope probably expects to find going into the job.

 Pope Francis I (then Cardinal Bergoglio) on official business in Argentina

(photo courtesy of the Agentine Presidency website, dated March 17, 2010)

It would seem that we can trust one thing: this new Pope is going to need all the faith in this world (and maybe the next) to deal with what he finds. 19 Pisces (Venus’ position) is known for the kind of frustrations and ‘imbedded’ problems which lead to stomach aches or with difficulties with being able to emotionally ‘swallow’ something. Add to that Achernar’s reputation for being ‘one thing after another’ and there would seem to be a tough road ahead for this Pope and the Church, starting with the necessity to deal with the ‘health’ (6th house) of the institution.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), the Sun at 23 Pisces is all about the spiritual and psychic realm. But with this degree come tests and temptations, which leads us back not to just the pock marks of world-wide sex abuse on the part of clergy, but probably also to the ‘ca-ching!’ of serious (not to mention numerous) financial scandals which we may or may not hear about.

Just ‘south’ of Chiron’s position in the 6th house we have Neptune and Mercury at 3 and 6 Pisces respectively. Mercury is in retrograde but barely in motion, heading for a station/direct point which will occur four days after this election at 5 Pisces.

Any time we see Neptune and Mercury in conjunction we know there is some sort of lie or fantasy going on. The principle ‘vibe’ for 5 Pisces (Mercury’s position) involves ‘friendship’ and that loving regard for other people and things of this Earth that Christians call ‘agape love.’ Neptune’s position, on the other hand speaks to good fortunes which may lead to weakness. Both of these degrees are so strongly associated with (read: close to) Royal Star Fomalhaut’s present position at 4 Pisces that whatever else they may be, both Neptune and Mercury here become ‘adjuncts’ to Fomalhaut’s promise of success only if one’s choices and acts are neither corruptive, corrupted or straight-on corrupt.

Link to blog:

Fomalhaut, Royal Star of Persia 

Since Mercury and Neptune are in the 5th house and not the 6th, we know the ‘fantasy’ (or lie) they indicate have to do with what the Church election would like to be true. And it’s not unreasonable to think that the Church very much wants to think that a change of Pope, a little staunchness in the homily and the bad stuff will go away.

That’s probably not true. Pisces is always about facing the truth and knowing that we can endure that and work towards better times.

Of course, there is an up side here…which would be that this is a papal election chart, and with asteroid Kleopatra exactly astride the 6th house cusp, this Pope is being elected with a ‘wise eye’ to the fact that things do need to be faced, things need to change and that – in the collective opinion of the Catholic Cardinals – Pope Francis is the man with sufficient breadth of wisdom, openness of mind, cleverness of wit and warmth of being (all those being Kleopatra qualities) to (6th house) do the job and see the job done.

If we had any doubts that there is a ‘business’ side to this election, that should be dispelled by Capricorn being at the bottom (the IC or Nadir point) of this chart with Cancer at the top. Capricorn is the sign of structure and business. It’s the sign of governance and the ‘punishment’ (penalty) side of the law.

The IC itself is presented at 5 Capricorn, a degree which is highly self-occupied and often not willing to deal with the weaknesses of others. With Industria at 6 Capricorn, Facies at 8 Capricorn and Pluto at 11 Capricorn, this is an indication that the Church is likely to go through a period of intense self-involvement. Is that before it gets to the ‘business of the people’ (pastoral attention) or after?

Link to posts:

Pluto conjuncts Facies (2011-2012)

 Pluto conjuncts Facies (2012-2013)

We have one thread of hints there: with Capricorn at the bottom of the chart and the Saturn (in Scorpio) so very involved – as discussed – in the operational imperatives of this chart, that would tend to say that this is an image of the Church dealing with it’s internal business first, with the ‘needs of the people’ (portrayed in this chart as the Cancer Midheaven) being the ultimate aim.

However! Since this is a nocturnal chart (ruled by lunar considerations like feelings, money and – one would hope – spirituality), that means Saturn in the 2nd may be unpleasant as all get-out and ugly as sin (so to speak…) but the choice of what to attend to first is dictated by the rulers of Scorpio.

And those are Mars (the choice) and Pluto (the outcome of the choice).

In this chart, Mars is in its own ruling sign of Aires, which raises Mars by a tick on the volume scale. This is also, as noted, a nocturnal chart, which raises the Mars volume a little more. Mars is also in the bottom half of the chart – even louder. And lastly, Mars is positioned in the degrees immediately preceding one of the chart’s four angles – which also amps up the noise.

Then we add in the modifiers: Photographica and (trumpets please) the infamous fixed star Scheat, which sort of operates as the Gilbert and Sullivan chorus which says we the people like what we like and want what we want. Considering that Aries on the Descendant in this sort of chart would be all about how the Church is seen – with this quality also being amplified by Photographica’s “the image of the thing” presence, it would seem pretty obvious that this election is as much about the image of the Church as anything else.

Is this cynical? Have the Cardinals nominated a man who will ‘put a good face’ on things? Or is this the ‘real deal’ Pope so many Catholics have been waiting for, a Pope who will hear the people and deal with them fairly, and care that the Church’s image is based on some sort of ethical reality?

The Sistine Hall of the Vatican Library

(photo credit: Maus-Trauden, September 2006)

That’s where Pluto comes in as the ‘outcome ruler’ of Scorpio. We already know from having talked about Pluto’s transit of Facies that we have seen maybe the worst of this transit’s intensity…but that we’re also not done yet. Pluto will be going station/direct at 8 Capricorn (in exact conjunction with Facies) during September, 2013. Will we hear of changes happening at the Vatican at that time?

We’ll have to wait and see. But this combination of Mars in the 6th house pressing on the Descendant against Pluto in the 4th house is a square by sign (Capricorn against Aries) and a sextile by house – a combination which reads making an effort to get a difficult thing done.

Meanwhile, we do have one other good ‘clock’ for this activity in the chart: Saturn. In being located at 11 Scorpio in this election chart, Saturn is in an exact sextile to Pluto at 11 Capricorn. Saturn went retrograde at 11 Pisces during February, as Pope Benedict announced he was going to step down, an act which validates our use of Saturn (which is still at 11 degrees) as our timer in this instance. So in a sense, the whole of this Saturn retrograde-and-back-to-direct motion which has Saturn coming back to (and clearing) 11 Scorpio is all about this ‘change of Popes’ or the passing on of the staff of St. Peter, if you will.

And when will that happen? Well, Saturn goes direct in July. And it will go direct at 4 Scorpio – in perfect trine to Fomalhaut at 4 Pisces and in a semi-sextile (‘ego bruising aspect’) to the Ascendant of this election chart.

I’m not sure we’ll hear what’s going on at the Vatican or with Pope Francis at that point, but the Vatican may feel obliged to ‘speak out on the ills’ of that moment.

But to answer the principle question posed here, when does Saturn come back to 11 Scorpio and clear that degree? Answer: October 2013, in the weeks following Pluto’s stationing atop Facies.

Coincidence? Probably not.

Is it worth marking our calendars? If the problems which have plagued the Catholic Church are important to you, probably yes.

Much has already been said about the new Pope’s basic conservative views on doctrine. Jupiter-Aldebaran-Scheherazade in the ‘teachings’ 9th house would seem to support that. The ‘integrity of the body of religious teachings’ is likely to be upheld. But so is the need to apply such teachings with integrity on the part of the teachers, and that’s where Pope Francis as a ‘man of the people’ probably comes into play. This 9th house of ‘dissemination’ (what the election would have the new Pope teach) has in it not just Jupiter, Aldebaran et al, but also Vesta conjunct Rigel, which is the price of teaching or the cost of what it takes to adhere to the teachings of Christ, pretty much across the board (meaning both for the clergy and for Catholics around the world).

There’s another interesting note in this 9th house which is astro-labeled “Black Moon Lilith conjunct Bellatrix conjunct Ceres.” On one hand this would seem to speak to ‘things denied’ by the Church up until now as all these objects being in Gemini points us to the Mercury in conjunction with Neptune. Bellatrix always indicating a difficulty, it will be hard for people to believe things have changed and very hard for the Church to get past damage already done.

Ceres-Black Moon also speaks to a sense of history, with Bellatrix being ‘difficulties’ of the time, most likely. We are likely to hear a lot about Pope Francis’ past and how he did and didn’t deal with various issues.

But this trio of factors also speaks to one other thing: that ‘female half’ of the whole, which in the 9th house would seem to represent the position of women in the Catholic Church hierarchy. Will that change?

 Lady Lilith by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Black Moon Lilith is a ‘rejection’ of that ‘shadow part of the self’ we cannot or choose not to cope with. It comes from an interesting astrological idea, that of the position along the Moon’s shifting orbital cycle where the Moon is physically closest to Earth. What this represents is a ‘reflection’ of ourselves which has come so close to us that we ‘back away’ (or reject) coping with it.

And yet, without that thing, ultimately we are not whole.

Given how the Black Moon ordinarily works in astrology, as represented here, calculated Lilith (Black Moon Lilith) would apply to question of Church attitudes towards homosexuality, birth control and whether women will be given greater latitudes of roles in the Catholic Church. And it would appear from this election(al) chart that the answer to that would be ‘no.’ But to all those who look at this and feel rejected or alienated, two comments. Vesta-Rigel here is closely enough to being the midpoint between Jupiter/Aldebaran and Black Moon Lilith/Ceres/Bellatrix to say that this Pope's tenure in office is in many ways a learning experience for the church. So there is a chance that some sort of change or shift may at least begin being talked about when Saturn reaches Sagittarius in a couple of years. 

Astrologically, religion as a codified body of teachings is a 9th house entity. (Spirituality - the emotional 'faith and belief' component is 12th house.) Considering that sexuality, birth (and thus birth control) and 'associations of the genders' are 8th house concepts, that makes such things astrologically associated with the house just behind that of religion - the 12th derivative harmonic. This means that all things 8th house (which includes money as power, by the by) are put in a karmic position which in being a '12th harmonic' has some of the Piscean quality of 'fear of what I might fear' sort of quality.

And that feeling which we know as something we all have problems with when it comes to Pisces challenges is very typical and something of a kindred concept to the whole idea of Black Moon Lilith.

So metaphysically, the Church's positions aren't about rejecting women or homosexuality or birth control per se - it's a rejection of fear of how all those 'scary powerful' things could affect a body of teaching...a religion which as an institution is ‘founded in spirituality.'

(For you astro-techy types, this would be the Piscean 12th as the derivative 4th ‘foundational’ harmonic to the Sagittarian 9th.)

As we move into the Aquarian Age, Pisces moves from the 1st house to the 2nd on the wheel of the Age.

Pisces ("Pi") is on the second house of this wheel - look for the house color coded to the picture's frame

And that means that in time, with Scorpio at the top of the native chart of this incoming age, things are going to have to change. All things secret and powerful will be flaunted, and only in being dealt with as a reality will our lives...and our world become more normalized and secure.

That's across the board. But in the meantime, we have Pisces - the sign of spirituality, on the 2nd house of the Age.

 Scorpio ("Sc") is at the top of the wheel (look for the blue which matches the frame of this picture) occupying the 10th and most worldly position in the chart of the Aquarian Age, which would be why for the next 2,000 years are so, sex is going to be out in the open and a subject for discussion - for better and worse.

And what do people do when they feel threatened? They look for ways to be secure - that's the standard 2nd house (Taurean) solution. And I'd say that this tendency is so pronounced that sometimes you'd think all those bulls were clamming up (which is an interesting mental picture) except for the fact that when things feel threatened in the world of the 2nd house/8th house axis, we tend to react with...what? Threats and aggressive stances. And since Virgo is always in opposition to Pisces, religions have (by and large) always responded to that which threatened spiritual power with moral criticisms and strictly defined "lessons" on how we should be...which is very Virgo!

But things will change. Just don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen. Considering how Pluto will enter Pisces in 2044, we should look to a time starting then for any real changes yet to happen.

Still, in the meantime, this election chart suggests we can expect discussions on this matter. They may arise in various ways from any of a variety of quadrants, and the timing on such a discussion coming up for grabs is likely to be late 2016 and on into 2017. The trip-wires here will be Saturn rolling over the election chart’s Black Moon, Bellatrix, Ceres and the Galactic Center (located at 27 Sagittarius) as Uranus arrives at the position of the election chart’s Eris (discord) as Neptune conjuncts this election chart’s Chiron.

So set your mental alarm clocks.

We may have a precursor ‘eruption’ on this subject (in some capacity) as Uranus hits the Aries degrees 16 through 18 (Moon, Pelion/asteroid Lilith) which happens in 2014 and extends through 2016. That may be framed around the concept of families, whether that involves priests having families or otherwise. Violence against women would also fit this bill as would (sorry to say) personal use of Vatican funds.

And yes, this would seem to be a good moment to mention that there are indeed two astrological Liliths (as if we needed more than one?) One is the calculated form of Lilith - the Black Moon. The other is the asteroid Lilith. For more information on them, here's a link to a blog post which will explain which is which and more about why either Lilith is what it is in the astrological sense. (You'll recognize the image in the header there, too - it's what happens when there's limited artwork on a given subject!)

Link to post: The Two Liliths 

Speaking of Uranus, it’s position at 7 Aries in this chart conjunct Niobe (pride) is plainly meant to ‘explode’ the pride of the people in their Church (which seems to be happening) and explode the image of the Church as an institution too prideful to care.

Photographica-Mars-Descendant coloring this Uranian position means though the joy may be real, the jury should still be out on whether real change is to come. But given all the low degrees involved, fortunately people will have their (initial) answers sooner rather than later. 

There’s one other interesting Jupiter-Aldebaran note worth making here…namely that Pope Benedict (now the Pope Emeritus) will evidently be returning to life somewhere inside the vastness of the Vatican soon enough. So there will be not one, but two Popes in the Vatican – how very Gemini, right?

Since Pope Benedict stepped down before Jupiter hit Aldebaran (though granted, Jupiter was well within orb of said fixed star) the onus for Papal integrity is squarely in Pope Francis’ court. But it is an interesting situation to contemplate, and no one could blame anyone for wondering what will happen going forward or if these two men will occasionally meet up for tea and pastries.

Maybe the Vatican’s kitchen could come up with a new pastry for such an occasion? I know…they could call them popeovers!

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This post was begin with the full intention of getting to the chart of the man himself. It obviously didn’t get that far. But it may be worth waiting. At present, there is no time of birth available for the new Pope, though astrologers being as diligent as they are about such things, it’s likely someone will find that information and get it sent around in the next week or so.

Either way, I will post something about the man himself. If it takes too long for some enterprising soul to come up with a birth time we’ll go with a chart which looks at only the day, with no Moon or house placements involved. And having already taken a look (yes, I peeked!) I promise there is much to be discussed...and that we will be discussing it soon enough!
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Three Degrees of Unity

 Based on 'Obrazvaetvient' by Michael Kyrstek (2008)

As World War II was drawing to its destructive close, a celestial formulation took shape. Neptune and Pluto moved into sextile. They’d been dicing about with this aspect for a few years, but as the 1940s wore on, the sextile came into 3-degree orb and it stayed in that three degree orb (give or take a month or two here and there) until the mid/late 1990s.
 
This roughly corresponds to a period of time when the world realized that we really are all in this life together. Though there were competitions and cold wars and famines, diseases and despots, there was an overarching understanding realization that life is better for everyone when everyone has a better life.

That ‘grasp’ of the need to change things which was motivated by the willingness – even the ability to grasp the pain or suffering or confusion of others, that was Neptune sextile Pluto. The connecting, the understanding of another’s situation in our heart and soul, that was the Neptune part of the thing. And the conviction that we could change things – and that we grow the interpersonal fabric of support, supportiveness and productivity from helping others…that was the Pluto part of it all.

Pluto’s metaphysical management of situations where we join or don’t join with others is never about them, no matter what we like to think. The axis of polarity testing through which we learn those lessons and thus are transformed on the Pluto level is Taurus/Scorpio, a duo which when all else is said and done is very basic. We can call it survival, and it is survival. But it’s also all about the respect we gain for ourselves when we stand for what we could do – those ‘better angels’ of our nature - not just what we can do.
 
Neptune’s influence being Pisces/Virgo, Neptune always depends on and pits us against a more evolved…some would say ‘more mature’ sense of being. That’s easier to understand simply by thinking about Virgo versus Taurus.

Taurus is the second sign of the zodiac. It corresponds (on an innate level) to the years between two-and-a-half and five years old, this is about our basic ‘grasp’ on life, and knowing we are secure in this world.
 
Virgo is the sixth sign of the zodiac, corresponding more to the age of about twelve-and-a-half to fifteen or so. Virgo is about taking on the task…most of all, the task of being ourselves.

With a sextile being a sign of interaction and possibility, it’s little wonder that the fifty or so years of Neptune sextile Pluto had the world in a very dynamic, progressive, ‘we can do this!’ mode.

It’s also not surprising that once this transiting sextile (which has a maximum orb of 3 degrees) began to dissolve during the mid-1990s, things began to feel less positive and more problematic. Or maybe you see it as less fruitful and more threatening. Even less productive and more coercive.

There are (obviously) several generations whose natal charts include this Neptune sextile Pluto dynamic. All but the very first of the Pluto in Leo Baby Boomers have Neptune sextile Pluto in their birth charts, with Pluto in Virgo (the Yuppies) and Pluto in Libra (Gen X) also being part of this collective.

Once we get to Pluto in Scorpio (a generation so stealth they seem to have avoided a nickname) that’s where things begin to get in to flux – particularly towards the end of this group. Pluto left Scorpio and entered Sagittarius in 1996, beginning the social network-worthy generation which is increasingly being referred to as the Millennials.

The Millennials don’t have Neptune sextile Pluto in their chart. On one side, this reflects in the Millennial entrepreneurial bent. On another, it marks this generation as lacking expectations about the world being the ‘good’ place the Pluto/Neptune natal sextile people always hope to prove the world is.

Neptune’s symbolic marshaling of the Pisces/Virgo axis as ‘outcome ruler’ of Pisces has marked literally billions of lives with a ‘can do’ altruism which though crushed when it meets up with disappointment also weathers that disappointment to try, try again.

That isn’t about the world…that’s about us. It’s our willingness to try which is the Neptunian/Piscean hallmark, and no matter when you’re born it’s always balanced off against our ability to deal with or tolerate reality. The best of us are constructive: we accept reality and go from there.

In the years since the mid-1990s Neptune-Pluto ‘parting of the sextile ways’ we have also seen the growth of marked separations in society. We have seen Neptunian illusions overtake some lives, manifesting with a harshness of judgment as to the way things should be or how people should live at a level which seems very ‘un-Neptunian.’ We have seen the very structure of society’s values evolve and transform very strongly, if in ways which were often not universal and not geared to be universally accessible.

Thus we arrive at 2013, in the thick of a time where governments don’t seem to have any real connection to their citizenry and when the gap between ‘have’ and ‘have not,’ however you measure it, whether in wealth or access to health care or food or opportunity to climb the social ladder…a financial system which seems out to serve nothing but the finances of the financial people.

The challenges feel harder than ever with the stakes being higher than ever.

For the billions alive with charts emblazoned with Neptune sextile Pluto, there’s a dichotomy between the inner ‘knowing’ of what life should be and the outward scramble to (Pluto) survive. And that dichotomy drives us in the direction of the many pluses and minuses of Neptune – the indulgences, the fantasies, the intoxications, the abandonment of reality in spirit or spiritual form, the emotional imbalances and mental health issues…however, whatever…it’s here.

The ills which the positivity of Neptune sextile Pluto covered up for so long are upon us. So out come the scandals and the many issues which force us to deal with reality.

Does this mean we should all become cynics?

No. It means we have to learn to tolerate the ambivalence of reality, and from there to do the best we can, because to do less than that is not the world’s ‘fault’ but a lack of our own respect and regard for who we are.

From around 1995 through around mid-2021, Pluto and Neptune will fly separate. That’s about twenty-five years worth of seeing reality for what it is and falling prey to our lesser angels…and even our mortal demons.
 
After that, with some in-and-out orbital and retrograde skips and gaps, Neptune and Pluto will come back into sextile. That will be just about the time that those born early in the separation are reaching their modern adulthood, which astrology now associates with the first Saturn return at age 29.

Yes, we the astrologers of the world know: in a long-ago day and age, people only lived about thirty years. Now we’re routinely living three times as long.

But that’s Saturn - a different blog. In the meantime, we return to the nebulous and dauntingly inspiring world of Neptune and Pluto and face the need to accept – (Neptune) – that realities are likely to get bad enough that we, the human race – recognize that our vulnerabilities, be we in the position of strength or weakness, increase proportionately as compassion decreases.

What it means that the generation born as Pluto and Neptune went out of sextile (the Millennials) will be coming to their adulthood as Pluto and Neptune renew their association is a clue to us all – a clue about human life. We are not born to simply grow up and ‘become’ something.

We are born to evolve, going in and out of universal focus, eternally learning and forgetting that what we have in common is the fact that our divergent uniqueness is the very stuff of…indeed the very strength of unity which starts within our Self and becomes our congruence with the world.
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Pluto: Changing Times Stir the Societal Pot

 Dwarf Planet Pluto as photographed by the Hubble Telescope

photo credit: NASA-JPL

Back when I got out of high school here in the US, American society was all about affirmative action. Under the guise of ‘fairness,’ the rules of that particular day had colleges admitting students of non-white ethnicity with lower grade scores before higher-scoring Caucasian students – many of whom found they couldn’t get into college at all.

That was 1971. Pluto was heading towards the end of its run through Virgo and the students in question were born under Pluto in Leo.

Pluto in Virgo fixates on “the method” with the drive being to achieve the our chosen goal. At the same time, there’s a great undercurrent of morality when it comes to Virgo – especially when we consider Pisces as the polarity sign to Virgo. That signs ‘succeed’ in their given task only when they satisfy the prime directive is why Virgo has such strong and earthy  underpinnings. In Virgo, the thing has to not only function, it has to be right. It has to be moral. When Virgo entities such as doctors, soldiers, civil servants act in an immoral manner we’re particularly offended. There is a sacred (Pisces) quality to everything Virgoan, which is probably why Virgo drives so many to be so exacting and perfectionistic – they see getting the thing right as necessary to the whole of life. Maybe even to the functionality of the universe.

(Their universe? Yes, absolutely.)

For the Pluto in Leo generation which was then trying to get into college, their native Pluto polarity is Aquarius. 

The enormous creativity and inventiveness of this generation has been both carried into the world creating (Aquarian) success and been daunted by societal (Aquarian) challenges to their ability to achieve the very sort of internal acceptance (as a personal realization) that humans are driven to strive for.

There’s a cost for being too individual. Aquarius is the sign where we must first be and become our Self and then find the place in the world where that Self fits in and is accepted and indeed rewarded for being who they are.

Pluto in Leo is something of an obsessive ‘me-myself-my creations’ sort of vibe. It’s funny but probably not a joke that the Pluto in Leo tribe has come to be known as the ‘Baby Boomers’ because Leo is the sign of children, and the Pluto in Leo generation has made having and raising children into a virtual (Aquarian) profession.

As Pluto moved on into Libra the polarity became Aries. This is ‘Gen X’ – a time tribe famous for taking the cult of celebrity and branding to a whole new level. None of this would be likely without the Pluto vibe creating a relationship between Libra (the other, the effect on others) and Aries (the Self) which amounts to ‘other-as-self.’

(And yes, a zillion paparazzi owe Gen X a whole lot of gratitude.)

During the latter part of the Pluto in Libra years, the Pluto in Virgo (Yuppie) tribe hit college. Considering the Libra focus on the other and that the idea of picking one’s personal profession when Pluto is (generally) in the sign after that you were born in…it’s not surprising that many Pluto in Virgo natives went into the ‘helping (and) process-oriented professions’ (medicine, legal, finance). And given Pluto in Libra’s natural ‘advisory’ quality – especially as Pluto in Libra gave way to Pluto in Scorpio during the 1980s it’s not surprising that we was the ‘business of business,’ the ‘business of law,’ and ‘medicine as a business’ make huge leaps and bounds.

Pluto in Scorpio (with Scorpio’s opposition being Taurus) would naturally foster a ‘merger’ sense. It’s sort of the ‘together, we are stronger’ sort of thing. At the same time, Pluto in Scorpio would naturally test not just self worth but the sense of boundaries to a far greater extent than had been seen in several hundred years. (Pluto takes 248 years to make one orbit of the Sun.)

Scorpio being Scorpio and Pluto being Pluto, it’s not unnatural that this is a time when people whose self worth was lacking felt an incredible, emotionally-driven desire to be seen as “equally worthwhile” in whatever fashion.

Its not to be shocked that these years of Pluto in Scorpio saw the rise of consumer debt. These years saw the Gen X crowd becoming adults and wanting to ‘be like’ those they saw as good or admirable or popular…even if they had to finance their way into it.

Fundamentalism of the religious type hit during Pluto in Sagittarius, a time which also saw a tsunami hit the legal system, bogging it down and boggling the public mind. That mind – represented by the opposing sign of Gemini – was asked to decide what is working and what isn’t working. Not surprisingly, a few things were crystal clear to all, a few things were crystal clear to some and a lot of people went to the Pluto in Sagittarius (Gemini polarity) maximal by trying to (en)force their opinions on others.

There is a good side of Pluto in Sagittarius – the upswing of the internet, the access to the marketplace given to the masses. Of course some didn’t know what they were talking about, and that would be the Sagittarian/Gemini polarity. Shams and falsehoods would be a hallmark of this time and not just online. The object here would be to find a way to consider how we think and to improve ways of making choices, but that’s probably yet to come.

Mostly, that is.

This Pluto in Sagittarius generation (which begins in 1996) is now heading towards and into adulthood with Pluto in Capricorn. It’s this which got me to thinking about this whole Pluto Issue, as the dotted line from where I was when I wanted to go to college…(no, I didn’t get to go – I was one of those Caucasian students whose high grades got them waylaid)…to today seems rather clear and almost startling.

(Orbital diagram generated by the JPL Small Body Database)

The story on today’s news was one of many about how entitled undocumented foreigners are (or aren’t) to go to US colleges and universities.

I’m not arguing the yea or nay here – I’m only thinking about the fact that Pluto is now in Capricorn (the sign about ‘status,’ about governance and about consequences national, political, and commerce-oriented)…and how Capricorn is in opposition to Cancer, the sign of one’s homeland and a national population.

Pluto in Capricorn has a natural tendency – as we already see – to ‘split’ the top from the bottom, the few from the masses, if you will. Ultimately, Pluto in Capricorn will be more than that; it will show us that structures must be solid and that the tide turns on those who skim cream off society’s top.

Some ten-plus years from now, Pluto will move into Aquarius. At that point the challenge will likely be about getting people to be truly creative and not just innovative.

Yes, there’s a difference. Creative in this sense is ‘whole cloth creation’ where innovation is an improvement on the system already in place. For those who care, this will like as not be when societies around the world get around to realizing that they really do have to deal with infrastructure man-made and natural. Until then, (under Pluto in Capricorn) there’s likely going to be a lot of finger-pointing at the top and a lot of ‘just get out of my way while I do my OWN thing’ going on at the bottom.

Those who are ‘movers and shakers’ in world society always seem to be focused on Pluto in its current sign. Everybody else (and those folks, when they’re not on the clock) seems to be living to fulfill their natal Pluto drives through the challenges and opportunities described by the sign that Pluto was in during that oh-so-important late-teen, early 20s formative time.

There is no good or bad here, only awareness.

And thereby ends this Plutonic tale!

A Full March Moon...plus a Jupiter-Mercury Look Ahead

A Full Moon over Amman, Jordan

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What to do, how to make one’s efforts count, how to move beyond the basic problems we know exist in life and which have plagued us – and maybe all of humanity – throughout time?

With Ixion having just gone retrograde showing up the shadowy underbelly of our minds and the world around us, it’s not the most frivolous and lighthearted of moments. What’s wrong and what needs doing are so apparent. We need to take on all those ‘things’ and no one is cheering us on.

Can’t life just be easy for a change?

Full Moons always being the ‘highlighting’ moment of the month, the good part is that the Full Moon does actually point out the thematic center to current doings. It may not be a happy note, but it is the overall central concept.

And that may be the best place to start, especially if you have the proverbial “bunch of stuff” going on – which a lot of us do!

Try to find the commonalty. What is the dotted line which connects your various points of (dis)pleasure? It may be one word, one issue….like money or getting a job or an illness or a relationship which has really hit the ‘this no fly’ zone. Then again, it may be something more nebulous, like feeling very iffy. Or feeling depressed. Or recognizing that nothing you are doing is going anywhere.

Any Moon in Virgo is always about how we feel about functionality and ‘how things work’ or the ‘state’ of life or our home or the state of our state, if maybe you’re of the political ilk! And yet, with this Full Moon occurring at 28 Virgo, by definition this isn’t about the ‘news’ coming to you. You’re in the position of reacting, not controlling the reaction.

With 28 Virgo also being the current position of Typhon and Nemesis, there’s also a big ‘I told you so!’ (or possibly ‘I’m warning you’!) quality to this whole event.

Mind you, this could be when your wished for, hoped for, longed for ship actually does comes in. But if it does, don’t expect it to show up without ancillary issues. You might be welcoming your sweetie home, but then there’s all that dirty laundry which needs sorting out. Or the fact they’ve been away so long there’s a whole settling in process which needs to be waded (and waited) through.

All that is emotional. The Moon reflects the Sun and so at the Full Moon we tend to react or reflect on the moment. Or in the moment, depending. With the Moon side of the Full Moon usually describing all the emotionalism of this moment, we tend to look to the solar (more concept-oriented) side for definitions and ‘what’s on the table.’ But with this Full Moon having the Moon in an earthy earth sign and the Moon in a watery emotional sign (Pisces) that may not be the case.

Then again, the matter OF how you deal with your emotions…that may well be the crux of current goings on.

This combination suggests (among other things) that being practical and pragmatic about what you do and choices du jour is pretty darn apt. With Virgo Being a mutable sign, you may need to change your tactics or course of action, and providing you do so for reality-oriented reasons (as opposed to emotionally evasive ones) though you may get a bit of flack in the moment that shouldn’t be a ‘points off’ issue in the long run.

Mutable signs support learning as you go and making course corrections and refinements to master plans, no matter what anybody says.

 A dhoni on the waters of the Maldives (2006)

photo credit Lankan Fushi (tokyohead.com)

And yes, they tend to say it. Virgos get called nit-picky for trying to get things right, Pisceans get called wishy-washy for not being emotional stoics, Sagittarians get called dreamers for their enjoyment of developing the idea and Geminis have heard a thousand times how they’re scattering their efforts and aren’t ever going to get anything done.

Mind you, there’s a little bit of sensibility to each of these finger-pointer-slogans. When Virgos nit pick instead of getting anything done, that’s a negative.

When Pisceans get nothing done or make emotions their excuse, that’s a negative. When Sagittarians want to eternally discuss and never do ‘for real’ that’s not a positive. And since Gemini is about making a choice and following it through, never focusing, never choosing, never making that concerted, long term effort is not the finest Gemini moment.

And let’s remember: we all have all of these traits in our charts. Sure, the person with a Gemini Sun or a Sagittarius Ascendant or Virgo Moon will deal with them as a focal point, but sign qualities are activated by planets moving through signs, or when planetary pictures (such as a Full Moon) come into formation, combining sign/planet attributes.

Or more on the scientific side of it, when planets in positions give us notice of time/space ‘disturbances’ plus attributes particular to any given celestial body are going to be generated so that like ripples, they can then roll towards Earth.

So having said, we get back to the Sun’s side of this particular picture by pointing out that Sun - (fixed star) Scheat – Black Moon Lilith all clumped together in Pisces is a sure sign of what society doesn’t see. Or what you don’t want to know about the Big World. Or what you may not have taken into account (because you didn’t want to) about said Big World. Or about what that world doesn’t want to see about what it does in any given arena because that would force said world to realize it was wrong. Or out of its mind for doing/not doing various things.

And just a thought here...Scheat - the star - is part of the constellation Pegasus. The mythic Pegasus is a descendant of....do you remember who? Medusa!

Medusa - in case you haven't read much about She of the Thoroughly Frightening Countenance - Medusa is our fear of what we learn...or our fear of having to learn something we might not want to know. Medusa is all about our emotional desire not to have to face things.

Obviously that doesn't work so well for us human types - at least not on the mythic/metaphysical level!

(And yes, there's an ARTICLE on MEDUSA should you care to read more fascinating and hairy facts about her!) 

Meanwhile, Scheat is a star in the shoulder of flying horse Pegasus - a symbol of the power (ability) to escape by flying away, or the emotional 'taking flight' (as in 'fight or flight') depending on who you are and what the issue is.

Or maybe not! The famous example of Scheat-in-action being the Catholic Church's reaction to Galileo (of all people!) announcing that he had figured out the Earth revolved around the Sun, not vice-versa...for whatever reason the Church felt so threatened by Galileo's discovery that they had him put under house arrest and let it be known he was a bad, bad man.

So...what difference would it have made to the Church or Catholicism that Earth revolves around the Sun? The simple answer (of course!) is power. No Power-in-power likes being upstaged by some yahoo. (Can you imagine? Galileo...a yahoo!) But if you dig around for information of the time (which is pretty consistent through history) there is the point that when you're running some large group (a religion, a country...) the thing you want least of all is to have your thousands or millions of minions to panic over/about something.   

Putting that aside like a half-munched cookie, of course when we put this all together, our March Full Moon may be a mutual or group (or mass) rejection of effort. Or position. Maybe because the world is so hostile (or seems so hostile) we may not feel like it’s ‘worth’ trying something. Or we may be encountering rejection in action. Or be actively rejecting something because it just doesn’t fit our agenda.

With this Full Moon in square to the Lunar Nodes, it’s likely there’s a whole yes/no ping-pong quality to this day. North Node in Sagittarius says we should be trying anew or trying the new. But South Node in Gemini will tend to like the already known – or at least to not have to commit.

Of the four points central to this chit-chat (Sun, Moon, Nodes North and South) two are in signs ruled by Mercury (Moon and South Node) and two are in signs either ruled outright or ‘going in’ by Jupiter (Pisces and Sagittarius).

Didn’t we just talk about Jupiter and Mercury in conjunction? Ah yes – we did…on March 16th, as Ixion went into its station.

(Which yes, is still in effect.)

At this point, Jupiter is now at 12 Aries – a degree known for focus on one’s home or ‘home court’ point of view, sometimes to the point of rebelliousness.

Mercury is now at 16 Aries, a degree about the greater ‘nature of things’ and evolution of thought so as to become more in sync (harmony) with life around us.

Granting that Mercury moves along its orbit around the Sun far, far faster than Jupiter does (one Mercury obit takes a 87 days (some sources say 88); one Jupiter orbit takes over 11 years!)…what this amounts to is the fact that the distance between Mercury (thought) and Jupiter (knowledge) is increasing. 

Should we figure there is a parting of mental ways in the process? With Ixion having just gone retrograde, probably – and not because we’re all so lovely, cooperative and pliable!

But this is more curious than one might think… because Mercury is going to go retrograde at the end of the month, there’s going to be a second Jupiter-Mercury conjunction come April. On April 11th, to be exact. That one will take place at 17 Aries with Eurydike in conjunction and shape shifter Haumea in Libra opposition.

Seeing this will be Mercury in retrograde, that suggests things are being thought over. Contemplated. Discussed. Looked into. You may be doing something, yes - Jupiter is always about the expanding of our world, our understanding, our boundaries, our horizons.

But for those who are in the 'doing' mode here, it's not the 'final' step. It may be a step in a process...but it's not the goal, not the seal on the deal which ends this 'run' of effort.

You're just not done yet.

Oh…! And we should mention that Saturn will have been lurking in opposition all this time. So the whole issue is what we are willing to give in order to get…. 

….get what?

That’s probably the problem. Or maybe what we’ve got (or are getting from others) is not okay with us. That’s an inverse of the same sort of dynamic.

In the 1904 St. Louis Summer Olympics, the tug-of-war was

fought valiantly. Remind you of anything?

photo source: US Library of Congress Archives

With Eurydike being ‘the cost we pay’ in the moment and 17 Aries being about imagination and or wealth which is gained then lost through extravagance, one thing this entire cycle may be about on the world stage (never mind entirely different issues in your personal life) may be oil. More precisely, the cost of oil, the supply of oil and the viability of alternative energy. Health (health care, decent food/water) is another possible world venue for this Pisces-Aries-Virgo-Libra sort of combination.

To be understood here is that because we’re talking about signs which in a ‘natural zodiac’ surround the horizontal axis, we’re taking less about who we are as individuals (the vertical axis) than who we interact with and what we get from others (the horizontal axis).

It’s a somewhat different slant – but because it’s not intrinsically ‘us-oriented’ it does fit with the social, societal vibe symbolized by the Lunar Nodes. And with Ixion just having gone retrograde, it’s likely that part of what’s going on is the intrinsic tug between our desire to have things the way we want them to be personally (Ixion) and how life works on the bigger, grander scale.

So maybe another question is this: is my way really the best way? This doesn’t question what you might want…but does that work? Is it really a ‘workable’ (Virgo) position to take?  

If you’re really into this whole solar systemic orbital thing, knowing Mercury’s zippiness and that it conjuncted Jupiter once when direct and once when retrograde will pretty much automatically imply that there’s yet another Mercury/Jupiter conjunction to come even after the April 11th event. And you would be right – said third conjunction (third time’s a charm?) happens on May 11th with a planetary party being held at 24 Aries…

...and one other Object of Note at 22 Aries deserving of (dis)honorable mention.

The three planets which will be at 24 Aries will be  Mercury, Jupiter and Venus. The party at 22 Aries is (ahem!) Eris...which by Greek definition is a party crasher of the finest (or worst, depending) caliber.

24 Aries is a degree known as highly creative and maybe even ‘pro-creative’ in the sense that it promotes sexual interaction and has been associated with the rights of women (who obviously are very key in the procreation process!). So for individuals, this appears to be an opportunity to express an opinion, be heard or discover more about how you can become more effective.

The ‘Eris touch’ here (which let’s face it, sometimes feels like a club!) speaks to an ‘excitable energy’ which can be fractious, even destructive…or innovative and socially liberating, whether on a small or large scale.

That this cycle happens as events which so mirror its dynamics unfold in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere is the proverbial ‘sign of the times’ and why we look to astrological patterns to decipher when things might be just right for us to ‘catch that wave’ and ride to success in whatever it is we’re doing.

Right now…as this post goes up, this is a touchy moment. In fact, it’s a touchy moment with a side of soured desires. But it’s also part of a process. We’re all up to our proverbial ‘high water mark’ with angst, discouragement, lack of control in our life and a general feeling that no matter what we do, something always gets in our way.

That would be part of what’s going on. And there is no one thing which is going to make things fine and ducky by tomorrow.

I got an email from a dear friend of mine out in Texas. She was feeling very discouraged and depressed. She was feeling like a really old person in not that old a body and all the struggling was getting her nowhere (or at least it felt like nowhere) and it all was getting pretty old.

Mind you, she’s about half my age. But I resisted going there, seeing as I was going through the same thing.

And that’s one of the good parts of being an astrologer – everybody writes you and calls you to bitch, moan and ask why. So even if you have a blanket answer they really don’t like (“sorry, that’s just what this moment is…”) it is pretty evident we’re all going through it.

As I put it to my friend, we’re all in the trenches – it’s a trenchish sort of time.

But if you accept that life…evolution…experiences all have some merit, maybe the question becomes what do we learn by being in the trenches? 

My suggestion to her was that maybe we’re all in the trenches so that in feeling so terribly and inordinately bogged down we’ll simply shed some stuff out of desperation.

When things are good, people are loath to cut anything out or let go of something they think they ‘might’ need. But when things get down and out, people pare back. They let go of non-necessities in favor of what they really need and value.

Back in 2008, Pluto moved into Capricorn. Yours truly began writing about paring back and cutting down and in general, getting over our Pluto in Sagittarius addiction to ‘having it all.’ That’s a great idea and while Pluto was in Sagittarius, the idea was the thing. But now that Pluto is in Capricorn, reality is the thing. And the reality is that we’ve all dug ourselves some pretty big holes, whether by putting things on credit, letting social and national leaders get away with bad behavior or maybe just taking it easy on ourselves, expecting life to be ‘good’ if we just willed it to be.

Don’t get me started on that one, okay? When was it we forgot that reality is just fine as long as you are okay with reality? Optimism is a motivation, not a goal.

And I’M the Pisces? Sheesh! (Okay…so I have a Scorpio Saturn/Moon. But really…!)

Anyway…maybe the difficulties of things are meant to get us to be more realistic. Pluto’s movement through signs marks the generations and defines the emotional subsets of our ages. We pay attention to this Dwarf Planet…why? Because it registers emotional outcomes – and humans are nothing if not emotional creatures!

If we look at history, those who keep trying, who keep at it, who keep building through the hard times are generally in the right place when again the good times roll around.

And they will. But will you be ready? Will your life be sufficiently functional (Moon in Virgo) to be able to take advantage of whatever opportunity comes along?

For some of us, this is likely to be a day or two (or three) of realizations. For others, it’s just going to be something to get through and hopefully forget about.

This Full Moon is a moment of its own…and also a stumbling start to a long(ish) cycle which will take us on into and through May. And once we’re there, we’re all set for two 2011 mid-year Solar Eclipses.

Or maybe not so ready – that depends!

One other thing this Full Moon also images: the final moment of a highly emotional quarter dating back to last December. Tomorrow – March 20 – brings the Sun’s Aries ingress.

We finish…we start…we stub our toe and hopefully through that, learn a wee bit better. It’s a process – the human process. Annoying? Yes. The child in us wants everything to be magical and easy.

But if it was, we’d be bored. Face it…we’re all doomed to grow and strive and in time, be and become better people.

Oh yes! There is one more hint as to how to handle this moment. Just before the Full Moon comes into all its reflective fullness, Amor enters Taurus.

Amor is an 'inner circle' asteroid. At its farthest, Amor orbits at 2.754 AU - a bit past Mars...call it on the near side of the asteroid belt. But from there, Amor cycles inward, crossing the orbit of Mars into the 'personal' zone as we consider our solar system metaphysically.

There are two asteroids named for Cupid - Amor is one of them, and Eros is the other. Of the two, Eros seems to be the 'passion part' of Eros (i.e., eroticism) where Amor functions in the chart on more of a platonic basis, making it more about the love of friends and family (or possibly chocolate - though some would argue that's a passion!).

Amor and his bow - a Roman copy of a Greek statue by Lysippos

photo credit: Ricardo Andre Frantz (2006) 

Thinking of this another way, Eros is more about desire where Amor is more about loyalty and fealty.

So as Amor enters Taurus, we may well find advantages by turning to our friends or family. Or by approaching matters more openly, calmly...with the Taurus 'taste' for long term benefits which provide comfort. This may be physical and this may be monetary - but it's more likely to be personal.

Amor will be in Taurus for yet a while, and it's a nice combination. As it moves out of Aries we well may see people being so insistent that others must, must, MUST agree with them and more willingness to discuss, negotiate and see if some common ground can be found and thereafter built on.

What we build is, of course, up to us. But maybe this will help us build something which works for all, not merely for those who think as we do. Whether we like it or not, that's really the way forward into the years ahead.
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