Dateblog: January 2015

January 2015 by Sign

. 

In terms of personal planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars), January 2015 begins with three of the five (and we really shouldn't count the Moon in this discussion as the Moon changes signs about every couple of days) in Capricorn - a sign known for looking ahead and working to carry out plans ... and alternately, for loses (often of stature or reputation) and the reality of life's consequences and world/worldly responses - either for what we've done prior to now or what we're in the throws of doing (or trying to do) now.

By January 4th, that 'solidity' of thrust ... that's going to begin to change. It may not be obvious or evident in any giant way, but as Venus and Mercury move into Aquarius (with Mars already in Aquarius) the emphasis (and thus our mental space) is going to stop being so absorbed by or focused on hard facts and more prone to considering (read: zeroing in on) and responding to things as being relative to other issues, matters and details - much of which is going to be  basically pertaining to those eternal things which form the basis for our life: home, family, mortality ... the land, sea and sky, and all which comes from, or abides in any such location.

Just keep thinking 'basics.'

That shift (the shift in thinking and focus) is going to alter the flow of things. Mars in Aquarius - in pragmatic terms - often represents the motivation to get something done on a broadly unified scale even as it tends to impact, fragment and break apart that which may still be cohesive, but which no longer serves a positive function in that state ... which makes what's going to happen now in many ways dependent on what  what we have come into this period doing, feeling, and being motivated by. With Pluto having just entered the shadow of its 2015 cycle there are things which are going to change or be transformed - some of which at least are going to reflect Pluto's ongoing approach to fixed star Vega, charisma's star. That Pluto isn't going to conjunct Vega (exactly) during 2015 is actually a sign that more and more is going to change and that many of the things we have been 'enchanted' or moved by in times or years past are on the move. They're going to change - and no one can stop that change, insistent though they may be.

For the Mercury watchers (that would be most of us) there's another interesting note to attach to this Mercury-entering-Aquarius moment ... namely that as Mercury enters Aquarius (Venus having already done so), that's also the same date that Mercury will be entering its retrograde shadow as the Mercury retrograde which begins on January 21st (UT/+0) at 17 Aquarius will in time back down to 1 Aquarius - and from 0 to 1 degrees (the movement of one degree) is something Mercury does rather swiftly.

The net of this takes us back to that 'subtle shift' of attitude, 'vibe' or perspective mentioned in terms of Venus and Mercury exiting Capricorn in the sense that though there is a tendency for much of the world to hit the ground running on January 2nd (even if the Orthodox Church hasn't yet celebrated Christmas, meaning their holiday season isn't over yet!) ... that this year that 'hitting the ground running' is going to be colored or affected by the fact that pretty much the whole of January 2015 is going to be a 'hurry up so we can slow down' (or stop) exercise which will manifest in any of a billion ways, hastening and hustling us through the first couple of weeks so that come the 21st, we know what we're attending to.

Or at least waiting for. (At least that's the thought.)

 January 2015 by Element

.

And it's not like we're likely to be entirely unjustified. Looking at the month by element, both planets most associated with the rise and fall of lives, regimes, religions and plans in general (Jupiter and Saturn) are now both in fire signs. Added to that, Uranus is also in a fire sign, and since all three planets are in separate signs, what we have implied here is a grand trine (ongoing and virtually immutable) flow of energies which we will be living with until Jupiter exits Leo this coming August, describing a period of time where we can change things and change our approach to life (our 'relationship' to our world) ... or we can have our world thrust change upon us.

(Take your pick.)

That Uranus is going to perfect its conjunction to the lunar South Node this month promises fractious relationships, startling news/events and a number of personal breakthroughs - some of which may be fairly breathtaking (though what that means is individual - some people gasp long before others do!) ... and that it will do as Uranus - which is now in direct motion - is going to be beginning to "close in" on slower-moving Pluto in anticipation of perfecting the Uranus-Pluto square which has been with us now for quite a while symbolizing eruptions of uncontrollable, transpersonal events which are quite literally changing our world.

That square won't perfect until mid-March. But let's just say that the closer we get to Uranus perfecting its conjunction to the lunar South Node (which occurs on January 19th), the more flexing and innovative thinking is going to be called for not just in external life and in terms of what we do (or choose to do/not do) but in who we are - and because this event is currently traversing degrees 12, 13 and 14 of respective signs (with the conjunction of Uranus/Node occurring at 13 Aries-Libra)(the South Node being in Aries and the North Node being in Libra) this entire month is likely to be particularly focal for anyone who with natal placements at one of these degrees in any sign... if particularly (she says, thinking of people in the news) those among us with primary chart indicators (Sun, Moon, Ascendant/Descendant, Midheaven/Nadir) at 13 Aries, Libra, Cancer or Capricorn, followed by those with placements at 13 Pisces, Taurus, Virgo and/or Scorpio.

The first group will face or be facing issues directly. The second group will be facing them obliquely, which is to say that because 'Thing A' happens, 'Consideration B' becomes important.

As to the nature of this particular ripple in the works, this transit - Uranus/South Node - is about a 'shake up' (or shift) in how we relate to our own nature as well as that of others. And though the likes of those news makers (the two I'm thinking of being politicians) and myself (my Midheaven is at 13 Capricorn) are likely to be particularly impacted on a core and/or internal level, there are going to be plenty of things floating around for everyone to be bouncing off of (or around about) - all while possibly getting bruised by, or through the process of participating in doing all that relating, relational or relationship tra-la.

Also: none of this is optional. If you're thinking you'll just put everything on hold or hide in some mental (or other type of) hole, you certainly have the choice to do that but the world (that thing you're supposed to be relating to and working on your relationship with?) ... the world will have moved on without you, which brings this all back to the most important thing I ever heard one of my astrology teachers (Robert Hand, as it happens) say: use the energy wisely, lest it use you unwisely. 

Plus that's not all ... (she said, well aware that she may be sounding a bit like a late-night infomercial, which is ridiculous seeing as I'm about as bad at sales and marketing as any human being has ever been) ... January is also playing host to an approaching square to Neptune (in Pisces) by a Saturn which is newly in Sagittarius. That will set in virtually as soon as the new year dawns (read: on January 2nd), and it's likely to be felt as an on-and-off 'haunting' awareness which we're all going to also be contending with not just this month ... and not even just into March, as in the case of the current 'ramping up' of various Uranus/Pluto square pressures and situational anxieties. 

No ... with Neptune-Saturn, we're not getting off that easily: this transit will be with us in various forms through November of 2015, promising all sorts of issues having to do with habits and things we are habituated by - and the many forms of 'addiction' which riddle our lives and world, be that an addiction to a substance or a belief or a perspective on sex, love, work, money, power, violence, happiness, exercise, food, politics - or anything else. Saturn-Neptune contacts being always about reality versus hope and facts versus denial in favor of something "prettier" (or at least more appealing), this is the sort of lengthy square aspect which we would expect to manifest both in our lives and through things in life which effects lives on a global and somewhat 'indistinct' (or) 'impersonal' way or scale.

The Saturn side of this brings the effort to structure, restructure, limit or withstand to the table where the Neptune energetic will inspire ... and then again, also dissolve, whether 'dissolution' or 'dissolving' means eliminating that which stands between you and something (or two separate things) where the elimination of some factor, thought, issue is taken on either because of a depth of feeling which is not only not about the Self (Neptune = lack of personal or individual ego) or because that which we have been sure of comes to no longer function or serve a positive purpose.

Mind you, any of this can be positive: squares ask us to balance different functionalities, much as an engineer balances the substance and structure of a wall against the structure and function of a ceiling. Then again, any of this can be detrimental. And all of it (or any of it) can be hugely informative, most of all as to what the realities and facts really are ... as opposed to what we might want them to be, or what we were hoping they were or would become.

All of which is far more about us than others or our world ... which is probably worth a thought or two.

And fortunately (read: whether we like it or not) Mercury retrograde is going to donate just that dynamic to our universally human personal cause.

So we are going to be learning something going forward. But what are we about to learn - and learn about?
.
.
.

Dateblog: December 2014

.
I know you're expecting to see a post on Mars entering Aquarius. This would not be that - which makes this me cutting in on my own digital conversation, an act which is curious even for moi.

But the clock is striking December, so it's time for another  edition of DATEBLOG.

As for the above (the chart, I mean), it’s probably rather easy to come away from doing a survey of December’s general planetary movements with two very different impressions, one being that there’s something ‘orderly’ about December (after all, look at how neatly the Sun, Mercury and Venus are marching along through the signs!)... and the other being all about those four white blocks denoting two major planetary stations (anything from Jupiter on out being astrologically considered ‘major’) plus two notices of major planets (again) finishing their 2014 cycles and initiating their 2015 cycles.

In the most general of terms, this spells two very high energy moments during the month. The will be felt almost as soon as December begins; with Jupiter going retrograde as Saturn opens the metaphysical wrapper on its box full of 2015 challenges on December 8th what goes on the table will be about us and affect us personally, but not be exclusively about us.

(In other words, use a non-individual framework.)

The second high energy district is highlighted by Uranus going direct on the 22nd (UT/+0) just before Pluto crosses the line into its 2015 Plutonic Work Zone on December 25th (hopefully after Santa gets home).

More importantly, both of these moments occur pretty much just in the wake of transiting Uranus squaring transiting Pluto on December 15th - just as Saturn reaches 29 critical (read: intense) degrees of Scorpio.

Stand by for that - in terms of the blog post, I mean. But considering how this is a ‘break’ or ‘breakthrough’ (Uranus) in some process which seems ‘inevitable’ (Pluto), those of us who are - or maybe more importantly who have been working through what it is inside us which (Pluto) drives us to put our Self into such “inevitable” positions...

...let’s just say that where Uranus is concerned, flexibility is always key - and that applies whether you’re someone working to create/recreate your (Uranus in Aries) Self or the life that Self is living.

Let’s also say that between Jupiter going retrograde on the 8th, Uranus squaring Pluto on the 15th, Uranus going direct on December 21st and Pluto entering its 2015 Transformation-in-Progress work zone, we probably shouldn’t plan on doldrums until about a-quarter-to-New-Years.

Of course before we lock that thought in cement, we should at least consider December’s astrological flow of the more elemental kind...



.
Yes, there’s a whole lot of fire going on. Visions, being a visionary, our ability to envision and (on a more everyday basis) the simple idea of the thing, the seeing of anything (physical vision) and the passion, the fervency which fire signs are so known for...there’s a whole lot of December ‘that’ which will be going around.

That could be great. It could also be awful. And whatever it is, with one planet (Mars) and a Full Moon early on in the month in air, this isn’t a month likely to be known as much for the idea of the thing as for that which inspires.

Yet around the 17th, things start getting elementally earthy - which is to say a bit more pragmatic (and for many a bit less frivolous). Using holiday terms (which would seem to be apt, this being December), we aren’t necessarily talking about anything unpleasant, but more like a shift from joy to warmth - even if Saturn changes signs (into fire) on the 23rd (UT/+0), promising boundaries and barriers yet to be broken.

But that’s after New Years. which is not what December is about...and that being my last comment for the moment, I'll now return us both to my previously scheduled conversation.
.
.
.

Accountability: Running with Astrological Scissors

Hall und Schährer by Adolf Wolfli (1926)

The subject of accountability has been coming up a lot of late. I hear it casual conversations, as part of discussions in the media...and of course, on the political stage.

That got me to thinking about accountability as an astrological concept. And just to prove that life is synchronous (not to mention ironic), as I logged into Blogger to begin typing this post I found a comment from 'Anonymous' (ah yes...Anonymous by any other name...) telling me I'd gotten the day of a week wrong when specifying a date.

Personally, I have no problem owning the fact that I have flaws. (Oh, let me count the ways...) One of my flaws is the ongoing battle of the disconnect between the thinkery and the fingers doing the typing.

If I was a magician, I'd call it slight of hand. But I'm not. And as an astrologer (as in everything else I do) I feel my responsibility to do the very best job I can do...which unfortunately doesn't mean I won't make mistakes. 

However...I am willing to own up to those mistakes, rectify those mistakes (whenever possible) and to try and do something about what I do and how I do it so that if possible, I won't ever do it again.

So when I saw Anonymous write ...'you meant Tuesday the 8th, right?' ...I looked the comment right in its digital face, posted it, then wrote a reply owning my mistake.

(And yes, I corrected the copy.)

With apologies to all concerned, the process I went through is one version of accountability. And I bet you've noticed how there's a marked lack of same going around. You'd think the world had the accountability flu or something. I'm sure you know someone in your world who is eternally evasive, right? Someone who seems to treat avoidance or escapism as a way of life? And let's not forget those masters of deflection and PhD's in subject-changing.

I had been giving this accountability issue a bit of thought before coming to the blog (ah, karma...such a lovely and fascinating thing!)...and what I came up with was this: accountability differs from denial by being a matter of mental focus on the realities (or a lack thereof) where denial is straight-on emotionally different.

That's important in the astrological sense because it tells us that on the astro-elemental level, denial is more of a water sign thing and accountability is either air or fire. (Which fits, as the two signs associated with denial are water signs Scorpio and Pisces.)

Accountability is also not responsibility as it's not what we need to do - it's about what we've already done. So Saturn isn't the symbol here. Saturn our symbol of time and all we need to (yet) do or get done. It's about what we build or what we refuse to take part of (or acknowledge), not the quality thereof.

Accountability is also not karma or repercussions, which lets Pluto off the hook. (Not that I think you can put a dwarf planet on a hook, but...) Both karma and repercussions are things we don't control and which affect us...but which we plainly can't control or entirely change (much as we might want to!).

Though the term 'repercussions'...that does connect us along a clickity-clack train of thought 'consequence.' And accountability does seem to have some relationship to consequences.

But this is not consequence in the Orcus 'what is done is done' sense. Coming from Orcus being a god of facing what we did in life once we die, there aren't any chances of changing anything which is astrologically Orcus in nature. 

So accountability isn't on the Orcus list. But we do have a winner in this theoretical category for why we seem to be seeing so much lack of accountability and (not surprisingly) a desperate need for accountability. 

Okay...so maybe they're not 'winners,' but at least we have astrological candidates, namely Ixion and Pholus.

And in case you don't know much about these two points, here are the links to articles on same here at Ye Olde AstroBlog...

Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

Pholus: A Little Nasty    

In the article about Pholus, as a matter of fact, there's a whole discussion of how Pholus and Ixion are currently transiting in tandem. So that you don't have to read the whole post (although I don't know why you wouldn't want to know all there is to know about the ever-toxic Pholus thorn in the human paw)...here is an excerpt from that post which is specifically about Ixion and Pholus in connection:

********************************

(From 'Pholus: A Little Nasty')

Pholus is going to be playing footsie for Ixion for quite some time, so issues which at their heart pertain to 'committing the same mistake over and over again' are going to be with us, and part of our personal lives for some time to come. The years 2013 and 2014 have Ixion and Pholus conjunct. This is either a great time to rid yourself of personal and/or psychic baggage or a time when you may embody the famous Rhett Butler ‘frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn’ attitude in all the most unpleasant and unsubtle ways.

Come 2015, Pholus will begin to move ahead of Ixion.

Then as 2019 rolls around, Pholus moves into Capricorn as Ixion moves over the Galactic Center.

On one hand, this doesn’t sound like peaches and cream. On the other, since the Galactic Center speaks to the necessity to make a contribution in this world and the perils we run when we think first and last of ourselves (or 'our group') this may spell the height of ills and the 'coming to light' of a necessity to change our ways.

Then again, maybe not. Pholus spends a good long time in Capricorn and as noted, Pholus lingering in a sign seems to spell times when we most want to influence that other sucker into the ground if they don't agree with us.

It's probably worth remembering that Capricorn is also the sign of regulation, laws, governments and the business of commerce, too.

Yet maybe awareness will count for something. If so, maybe the fact that you're learning about Pholus and how these cycles work will help you do better where your own life is concerned.

Plus you never know - if enough people come to understand the concept, maybe enough of us will figure out that the pressure without which triggers the pressure within is about our tendency to feel pressured, and deal with matters from that perspective.

A better perspective, we might say?

Orbital mechanics being quirky things, Ixion will continue trailing Pholus for a while. But Ixion will catch up. And that it does with both points in Capricorn is fair warning to us now in an era where we are experiencing the Pluto shift from Pluto's residence in the receptive/reactive signs to its evolutionary transit through worldly-if-personal proactive signs.

Once Pholus gets in front of Ixion (as of 2015), with all this still flowing through the Sagittarian lens we are likely to see the cost but have a harder time seeing our own fine hand in the cause. Passive or participant, this combination of Pholus and Ixion is big on wanting to see things our own way.

Then 2019 rolls around. Pholus hits the Capricorn ingress ‘reality’ quotient as Ixion passes over the Galactic Center (the Galactic Center being the black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy).

Let me put it this way: in the realm of theoretical celestial one-upmanship, while Ixion is 'closer' to us (i.e., more "native" to our sense of individual life and wanting what we want), there's no question but when the fight is billed as Galactic Center (Black Hole) versus Ixion, Ixion loses.

One assumes that those most 'Ixion-ish' (who do what they want or what will benefit them without regard for morals, morays, laws or ethics) will find someone lighting a fire under their tails about then.

We don't know who (or what) will be striking this match. But since the mythic Ixion ends up tied to a rotating, flaming wheel for all eternity for having ignored the opportunity to learn better...these stories do seem intertwined.

And intertwined in our time. So we'll all do well to remember that where there's a difference between what we want to be true and what works in the greater reality, our wants don't win, no matter how many times we try to make them win.

******************************** 

The Pholus post goes on in this vein discussing time frames all the way out to some twenty years from now. And though a lot of what I'm saying here may be theoretical (...of use to the many who read this blog as students of astrology - yes, I know you're there and I'm complimented...) but there's an applicable side to all this as well. The approach, encounter and intertwining of Ixion and Pholus does seem to coincide with the upswing of need for accountability along with the increasing lack of it in society and our individual lives to the point where now it's all around us....the bullying, the spouting of  falsehoods here and there - on the internet, television and in everyday life. And that seems to define the sort of systemic or societal lack of accountability being seen as a confluence of 'lack of self-reflection' (Ixion) plus 'lack of proper respect for the consequences' (Pholus).

Currently transiting Sagittarius since 2005, Pholus pretty well marks the social-societal 'going off the rails' quotient I'm talking about. Sagittarius being all about the 'dissemination of ideas'  and 'the spread of influence' fits perfectly. Sagittarius being a fire sign which among other things rules education, media, the idea of medical practice or legal practice, travel and things foreign (and foreigners), religion, publishing and...I particularly like this part...science fiction - all that gives us an interesting insight on why so many think it's okay to 'disseminate' information which amounts to "science fiction."

(Or if you prefer, pure fantasy!)

The Ixion part of this mix seems to be the 'again and again,' 'over and over' part of the problem. The mythic Ixion simply learns in the moment, but doesn't learn until the sky (quasi-literally, in his case) falls in on him.

Together, especially as media and communications become so pervasive in daily life, we get the picture of repetition of information and Twittering and ad buys and news cycles...as good and useful as they can be, they may also be part of the problem. We aren't just talking about violence in video games and movies, but also the Youtubing and endless recycling of video online and in the media when something bad does happen. Is it sheer chance that with the rise of media as a pervasive force that when one act of mass violence occur and the media goes to work covering every splinter of it that we see similar acts breaking out in other places? Is there even a point at which focusing on some victims stirs those less celebrated and more unsupported to acts of violence?

Who is 'responsible'? Is the media responsible for what it puts out or are we responsible for what we take in?

And what about mental health, you say? Well what is mental health, I ask? Who defines it - and how healthy are they mentally in this Pholus/Ixion time? Can anyone be immune to the times in which they live? Should we be heeding first the voices of those who have paid the greatest prices - and if so, what exactly does that mean? 

Many of the questions we may ask include the term 'responsible.' In the Saturn representation of consequences for laws broken and societal bounds breached, yes, there is a 'responsibility.' To get someone there...just to even get people to admit there's a problem in the ranks, whether you're talking about the media or school administrators or doctors (who are legendary for refusing to admit one of their fellow MDs are coloring outside the lines) or on Youtube or in the Twitterverse, getting to the Capricorn/Saturn point of being able to nail the problem down is hard.

That would seem to be all about the fire sign quality of Sagittarius. Metaphysical fire is the idea, the inspiration, the motivation. But to use the old expression, there's no 'there' there.

Holding on to that idea for yet another moment, in thinking of the Pholus story, that a 'slip' is all it takes to bring down this powerful centaur says we can be undone - apparently with all innocent or best intentions. We can slip up when we deal with toxins or...thinking of Sagittarius as the sign of expansion which is in opposition to Gemini...when we allow ourselves to 'push those boundaries' to the point where they become toxic behaviors, toxic speech - whatever.

And this would seem to be where many of the discussions about the media, about violence in video games and movies, about gun control are coming from.

The question is always who went too far? Who's hand is slipping?

That we see so much of this happen in the skies aboard airplanes, in the schools, in the media and even in places where things are being said or shown (I'm thinking of Gabby Giffords in Arizona who went out to meet constituents and the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting)....these incidents seem to be the very sign of our times.

And thus we can draw from them that whatever else they may be, that they are raising the questions which need to be asked at this time. We can't expect concrete answers - we're talking about fire signs. But we do know that in time, objects like Ixion and Pholus move on. We know that by the end of this decade, Pholus in Sagittarius will give way to Pholus in Capricorn, which is a suggestion that by then these problems will have been worked out (to some extent) as new questions are raised. 

Not all of us are on the world stage (or want to be on the world stage) taking these issues on at a societal level. But there is our daily life. Fire signs ask that we imagine not just the possibilities but the consequences and that we be motivated sufficiently by that to do whatever needs doing to improve things in how we live our own lives, whatever that means in the moment.

And that's probably the best news we're going to get here, because what that says is that by paying attention and by not running with metaphysical scissors we can stop doing ourselves and others such harm. Be they pharmaceutical, environmental or merely mental, we can stop treating toxins so lightly.

As if we really know how to use them and the full range of what they can do to us?

And yes, it is apropos to bring ecology, toxic waste, the gas and oil industries, pharmaceuticals into the conversational bucket. Why? Because Jupiter is a ruling influence in both Sagittarius and Pisces, and Pisces is the realm of oil, ecology, pharmaceuticals and such, which brings Jupiter into the discussion.

With Jupiter currently loitering at 6 Gemini (and about to go direct) we know this is a time to be thinking things through and making choices - as individual people and collectively, as societies.

The thing about Gemini - as any Sun sign Gemini will tell you - is that it's a whole lot easier to dabble and scatter your efforts than make a choice and take a stand, first and foremost with yourself.

And who are we 'accountable' to first? Ourselves. And where does that accountability function? It starts in our mentality. This is not about 'the thought police,' this is about policing our thoughts. It's about heeding the fact we know what's okay and what's not okay. It's about knowing that there is a difference between fantasy and reality and that real life is not role playing - not with ourselves and certainly not with the lives and understandings of others.

Livre de comptes de Jean Martell, fondateur de la maison Martell, Cognac, France
(the Book of Accounts from Jean Martell, founder of the House of Martell, Cognac, France)

(photo credit: Rosier, Sept 2012)

Jupiter is going direct in Gemini at the end of January, 2013. Given that Pholus and Ixion are in the low 20-something degrees (the early 3rd decanate) of Sagittarius, this means that it will be May 2013 before Jupiter makes an actual opposition...first to Ixion, then to Pholus.

But we'll feel the effects prior to that. Jupiter will come within standard orb (5 degrees) of its Gemini-Sagittarius opposition to Ixion by mid-April.

And I just know you're going to love this part...that will be during the distant-rumble-of-thunder period which precedes the May 2013 Solar Eclipse at 19 Taurus.

Taurus is a sign all about our security. Sun sign Taurus spend a (Sun) lifetime learning that security is all about how they feel about themselves, not what others think of them or about what they have (material possessions). An eclipse in Taurus' second decanate is all about a wiping of the emotional clean slate where certain concepts about emotional security and personal values are concerned. And since this eclipse is going to happen pretty much as Jupiter opposes Ixion and Pholus (there's about a week of time span involved, which is pretty much nothing in cosmic time)...its a safe bet that at whatever level, we are each going to be challenged in some area of accountability.

Ixion's involvement tells us it's something we have refused to see. Ixion's tie-by-orbital-influence to Neptune (yes, Ixion is a Plutino like Pluto) tells us that while we may not be in complete denial, we're probably kidding ourselves rather thoroughly about something. The Neptune 'rule' here is: the thing you think most likely is bound to prove incorrect while the thing you think least likely will in the end be the truth.

Over and over again we have told ourselves or done something which has ended up not serving us well. We obviously enjoy it in the moment...or at least we enjoy not being made to do otherwise...but it never works for us.

That's Ixion. When you hear from people in alcoholic or drug addiction recovery you tend to hear variations on this Ixion theme which speak of people 'needing to hit the bottom' before they get real.

For some of us...and I'll guess for some organizations and institutions (I haven't done any chart surveys, so I'm not naming names)...that 'hitting bottom' is going to be the Taurus solar eclipse.

But there is hope. Much hope! Though...well, this hope comes with a set of teeth like you wouldn't believe!

In this case, the metaphysical hope is held out by the presence of fixed star Ras Alhague on the Ixion/Pholus side of this equation. Ras Alhague is a star with a pretty fierce reputation. But when you boil it down to gravy, this is a star which indicates great harm or great healing.

Jupiter arrives at 22 Gemini, opposing Ras Alhague's position at 22 Sagittarius, on May 22nd. And if you have your ephemeris out (or have committed all the eclipses to memory) that will ring a bell, as May 25 is the second of two lunar eclipses which will grace our skies during the April-May season.

The May lunar eclipse will be at 4 Sagittarius, a degree I happen to know (because of one particular person's chart) is active in the charts of lots of folks born in 1972 through that being where Neptune was at the time.

But there are oodles of other people who will be affected by this eclipse as well. As will our world.

We're not going to get into this eclipse thing too deeply - at least for now. The only thing I will add (as part of this discussion) is that the April lunar eclipse occurs at 5 Scorpio, which creates an April/May period where we have two 'high tide emotional' events in successive signs.

Astrologically, aspects struck between successive signs are called 'semi-sextiles.' It's an energy which tends to feel a bit irritating or offensive. Given that the venue producing this energy is a pair of lunar eclipses, it's likely that many of us (those whose charts would be aspected by one or both of the lunar eclipses) will be dealing with some degree of 'give and take' emotionality which feels like it's "about them" but which, given the overarching Jupiter-Ixion-Pholus-Ras Alhague dynamic (not to mention the solar eclipse, which pretty much trumps all) is greatly...hugely...primarily about us.

Solar eclipses always (always, always) indicate life events and situations which, in eliminating something which has been part of our life's "status quo" makes room for something which is truer to our overall life purpose.

And that would seem to be not so far off the idea of  becoming more accountable to ourselves.

Meanwhile, there is also another thought to be taken 'into account' here...namely that Pholus is a centaur, and Sagittarius is a constellation (and sign) represented by the image of a centaur.

A Russian coin featuring representation of Sagittarius

(in public domain per regulations of the Russian Federation)

All such references go back to what the mythological essence of a centaur is: the joining of the human to the animal at the human genitals (instinct) and the horse's heart. How we 'rise above' what might be referred to as 'animal instinct' or how we harness our greatest strengths through 'a higher perspective' (the human mind) and all the challenges which go with that, whether you go towards the Ixion story of betrayal of human standards or the Pholus story's point about remaining aware about what we do in even our smallest actions, these all seem to be coming together during these years. The result is a tide of events which show how some people fall prey to their 'lesser natures' or inattentiveness...call it callousness, malice, selfishness or whatever else up to and including insanity...

It's on display in the world and through what happens in the world we are each getting tested in our own lives.   

This first half of 2013 is beginning to look like a pattern alluding to opportunities to deal with our own 'accountability issues,' whatever they may be. If we go with the idea that the idea of accountability seems very Pholus and that Ixion is merely raising the stakes and priming us to make that same mistake over and over again until the roof (sky, Olympus) falls in, then we do have the opportunity to use the Ras Alhague dynamic on ourselves...and in healing ourselves, be able to help heal our families, communities, society and world-planet-connective psyche.

It won't be convenient, it isn't likely to be fun - that's the very nature of the issue we're dealing with.

Thus I close, hoping that this post has given you some useful insights. Or even something to think about or toss out to baffle friends and family. For myself, I'm going to work on keeping dates and data straight and make myself more accountable from there. But that's peanuts compared to what's going on in our world, so let's all hope that we each become more wiling to account for ourselves and our own accountability, and in that, to create a situation wherein others are held to account for their own choices in kind.

.
.
.          

Klotho/Lust Direct: Wanting Anew or Not

 The Greek Fates

by Alfred Agache (c. 1885)

Klotho is one of the three Greek Fates. Like many Greek concepts, the one of 'fate' as the Greeks saw it was not what we tend to think of today - i.e., "fated." That's pretty simply demonstrated by the concepts the three Greek fates embodied, too. Klotho is 'the beginning,' Lachesis is 'the duration' and Atropos is 'the end.'

Everything pretty much embodies these three qualities, and with a few exceptions (God, the Big Bang) we all understand that how that works. Everything starts somewhere, whether it's a relationship, the decision to bake a cake, a plague, a tectonic continental shift...there is a source, there is a process, and there is an end. They go by a lot of names (for instance: source-start-beginning; process-growth-maturation; end-result-conclusion) but it all amounts to pretty much the same thing, give or take the situation you're discussing.

This totality of a cycle...this is what the Greeks called Fate. And thus the three fates (Klotho, Lachesis, Atropos) represent stages in a process.

Klotho is the start or beginning or inception, decision, initiation...however you want to refer to it. And since that list of words is very much like a set of keywords for Aries, we would guess that Klotho in Aries is when initiations come more naturally to us than at other times.

OR...when they're maybe supposed to? And if they don't...is that about Klotho, or is that about us?

Oh go ahead...no one's looking, go ahead and sigh at yet another thing you're supposed to be dealing with in life. After all, if you don't get off the Klotho mark and  Klotho/start dealing with things as they should be dealt with, they won't get dealt with and that's your not having utilized your Klotho power, right?

Yes well...you could put it that way. And yet...there are those people who Klotho themselves right into a corner. We can decide not to do anything. Or we can quit trying. That's Klotho in a whole other guise.

And what follows from either....? That's the (Greek) fate we create (Klotho) depending on how we handle the doing/not doing of our lives.

Love Sacred and Love Profane

Giovanni Baglione (1602)

On the other hand, Lust is not about existing or the grand cycle of existence. It's about the drives which shape that which will manifest. 

So when we think of Klotho and Lust in the same breath, Klotho is the 'theoretical determinative,' of the thing. Will it be? Will it not be? And Lust is the nature of that being - which against the idea of Klotho as a fire sign-friendly entity would tend to make Lust emotional and thus more at home in waters signs - and perhaps most at home in Scorpio, the fixed sign of learning how emotions work (ours and those of others) through choices which at some level are forcing us to risk personal values.

As it happens, Lust is not going direct in Scorpio - it's going direct at 29 Pisces, a sign all about how we feel about our feelings. Or, in this case, maybe more about how our fixations (Lust) in having created expectations (a typical Pisces issue) are rewarded or defeated.

Or maybe how rewarding they are in general...or how through either giving in to or avoiding our Lusty fixations - how those (Klotho) decisions do or don't get us where we want to get in life.

That Klotho is going direct in Aries says 'yes, what we choose to do and not do determines what we get out of life.' And that may be in this moment - or in general. How have our lusts and decisions over the course of time led us to where we are today, in this moment, with or without whatever expectations of success or failure we do or don't have?

Now, as I'm sitting here typing about Klotho and Lust going direct, are you asking yourself 'why are there so many direct and retrograde notices going up lately? It used to be so simple!' 

The answer to that is sort of simple too - and it's all about the 'information age.' Certainly the internet and blogs like this one have allowed astrologers to get out there and broadcast information. But let's not forget that the advances in science (astronomy and astrophysics in particular) have just added a whole bunch of new objects to the list of what we can now follow and explore as clockwork cogs in this vast Existence we are part of.

And it's fitting that we have more points. Why? Because with every passing day we learn more about how biology and physiology and how psychology is it's own thing and yet connected by dendrites (body workings) to the physical side of life! Every day brings us advances in the understanding of geo-magnetics, gravity and how solar flares and storms affect so many things Earthly - like communication technologies.

But yes...it does get a little mind-boggling, which is why it's good that handy lists of articles are available to you in blog sidebars, allowing you to remind yourself of what's been going on. And as you learn more astrology, then you're able to see the patterns in your life and in life in general ever more clearly.

As an astrologer, let me assure you this will not (repeat, NOT!) solve all your problems! But they will give you an understanding of what's going on. And in time, that understanding will allow you both to cope with the present and to look ahead...gleaning from patterns yet to come what happens when, and how the chiming of those cosmic hours sing out when you can be most effective in one or another part of life.

Okay! So enough for the commercial. Back to our Lustful, Klothonic program.

Of these two objects, Lust goes direct first - that even happening on November 15th at 7:35 (UT). And why talk about that now? Because remember - all stations, be they stationary/direct or stationary/retrograde (and whether of a planet, dwarf planet, TNO, asteroid, wandering comet or anything else) - they all get a two day 'station allowance' before and after station exactitude. So Lust's station effects begin on November 13 in the early-ish morning and extend to November 17th in the early-ish morning.

Klotho will go direct at 8:42 in the evening (UT) on November 15, giving it the same November 13 through 17th station effect window.

As noted, Klotho will go direct in Aries. 4 Aries, to be exact. This being a degree noted for 'indiscriminate growth,' it's important to chose what you get into, as whatever started is likely to go somewhere whether you want it to or not.

On the Lust side, going direct at 19 Pisces adds a distinct challenge which is said to be of a 'physical and material nature.'

Together, is this something getting out of hand? Going too far? Having unanticipated repercussions? Probably that and more.

Moreover - and maybe most importantly - this is not just about life's situations: this is about us. These symbols appear in each and every chart, and like all main belt asteroids represent qualities in perception which lie between what we want and aim to do (Mars)...and the actual understanding and knowledge which governs not only just how to, but whether to will or should do any given thing (Jupiter).

Lust and Klotho - by main belt definition - denote issues which manifest in us. They're part of our thinking. Or maybe more to the point...whether we think. Or think things through. Or think better. Or consider all the parameters. Will we think only in terms of ourselves...or will we take others into account? And what are our thoughts based on...imagination? Feelings? The reality of now or possibilities, future and consequence? 

What do we focus on? Are we capable of overcoming our own focus with greater perspective and parameters....or are we overwhelmed? Has being overwhelmed or overcome (i.e., fixated) become a norm?

There are a million ways to conjugate these ideas and obviously given how unique charts are (they only repeat once every 26,000 years or so without using any of the 'new fangled' asteroids, dwarf planets et al!)...we obviously can't come up with every permutation possible in a simple, two-dimensional blog log.

But what we can say is this: a couple of weeks ago, Nessus went direct. When Nessus went direct, we all became a little more aware of difficulties in interpersonal dynamics. Then Chiron went direct - and we all realized we would have to go outside our comfort zone in order to achieve that we yet don't know how to do...but really want as part of our lives.

Then Damocles and Neptune went direct, throwing in a whole bucket filled with not just confusion, but the recognition of how confused we may actually be. Or maybe how confused we've been. Or how we tend to confuse ourselves.

After that came Eos going direct, bringing in all the questions of instinct, good and bad, proper and unproductive, noble and undermining.

Now with Lust and Klotho going direct, we have a chance to 'fix our fixations.' Attention may be good. But a fixation? And lest we deny that we know what our fixations are, chances are life will provoke us! Yes, either we'll get dragged away from something we're fixated on...or something will get tossed in our face, lap (or wherever) forcing us to deal with some fixation we have...or maybe even a fixation against getting involved in something! You know...like fixations? Or doing something about something which needs fixing instead of just being a life fixation?

And whether our fixation is on starting, or on not starting. Or starting but never carrying through because we're so dependent on the urge and not the understanding of what's at stake to be gained or gone without.

The Chinese character for love looks like this:

The image of this letter-character-sinograph is explained as being a heart surrounded by acceptance, and  'feeling/perception.' In that, like in astrology, it is a picture of an idea which is a fusion of various factors and internal personal forces.

We have a chance to begin anew now, through every interaction and situation which fills our coming days, weeks and months. Back on August 23, 2010, Klotho went retrograde at 16 Aries, an emotional degree of a sign all about the Self. Retrogrades being all about our internal life, we've all been struggling with who we're supposed to become since that time.

Even before that (on July 23rd to be precise) - Lust went retrograde at 3 Aries...in tandem with Jupiter. Same day, same degree: Jupiter (knowledge) and Lust (fixated focus) went retrograde together. That signaled a July which for many a reason in many a life had us turning inside.

And by mid-August - when Klotho went retrograde - we all realized we needed to begin making internal (retrograde) changes. Events were unfolding to reveal that the old ways weren't going to make it any more. We needed to expand our perspective, our horizons our world. We needed new answers.

All very Jupiter.

So we began to focus on what wasn't working. And the more it didn't work, the more it bugged us, niggled us, made us feel itchy and twitchy, in need of release from this...confined wrongness.

How very, very Lust. Or Lustful, if you prefer.

And yes, we'd all like to think the process of change is easy. Once you realize you need to change, can't you just go do it?

Unfortunately, evidently not. Jets hold their brakes on while building up thrust before they roar down the runway and take off. Chicks struggle to break out of eggs. Runners build up momentum before taking their leap in the long jump.

This is the other side of the retrograde. Retrogrades manifest as periods when we look inside, see what's wrong, figure out what we should-could-want to try next then force us to build up enough momentum (and maybe sufficient frustration to translate into determination) that when celestial symbols go direct, we're primed for action. If it takes letting go of something, we find the courage to do so. If it takes getting past our ego, we're so sick of being held back that we toss ego aside.

And yet...as we say that, we also know there will be resisters. Spoil sports. Stick-in-the-muds.

Yet life does seem to evolve, doesn't it?

Some want. Some want not.

What are you focusing on?