Sun in Taurus

A Monarch Butterfly

(photo credit: Tony Hisgett, September 2011)

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There’s something nice about the idea that those in power (whoever they were) decided to schedule Earth Day for an early Taurean degree. The event falls on April 22nd and the sign which goes with it is all about both the qualities of being ‘secure’ or ‘secured’ on this planet ... and whatever gives us that sort of personal security.

So Taurus isn’t ‘about’ money. Or luxury goods. Or even food. It’s about the sense of security those things give us. Our world has taught us that if we have money we have a better ability to guarantee our survival, but the money itself is not Taurean. What money gives us is the security to think in broader terms, which is why one enterprising U.S. ex-governor (whose name I don’t recall, please forgive me...) spoke of his time trying to live on welfare’s stipend for a couple of weeks as an exercise which taught him that the essential and inescapable trial of hunger and poverty is not about whether someone is lazy or a go-getter, but how knowing we have so little stops us from thinking in terms of what we can do, instead forcing us to consider what we can’t do if we hope to see another day.

That sort of insecurity is the instinct which underlies Taurus. In Taurus we learn to take care of our Self so we can develop, so we can learn to master our body, our mind, our feelings and through all those lessons, our life.

And anything that threatens that? Or which could possibly change that when we haven’t (Gemini) thought about it and ultimately (Leo) chosen it?

That which threatens to change our life without our agreeing to it stands in opposition to our ability to feel intrinsically (individually) secure about ‘owning’ (being in control of) our own life.

In other words, it stands in opposition to the basic Taurus premise. And that sign ... that influence is Scorpio.

In Taurus, we own our Self. All things Taurus are about that Self, the owning of that Self, the having confidence in that Self and recognizing that Self as our primary and most important resource ... which is why we work to determine what our abilities are and aren’t (Taurus people are famous for standing their ground and defending the value of said position in all cases and either direction!) ... from which comes our sense of valuing of those abilities (and therefore our Self for having developed them).

Against all of this is that very peculiar Taurean instinct - an instinct which, in zodiacal terms, is purely instinct since Taurus precedes Gemini, the sign of our development of conscious and useful mentality.

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From that - from that ‘pre-mentality’ Taurean state we face others, instinctively self-defensive (at least Aries precedes Taurus!)... and that’s why Taurus-Scorpio is the polarity wherein we face our fears.

Fear is instinctive. In Scorpio - an interactive sign - others test our security ... our Taurean Self ... all along the emotional border where that Self chooses to interact - and thus risk something (even if it’s just a moment of your time) with, or in the presence of others. And how well we deal with that ability to risk our feelings ... well, while the experience of the risk (being interactive) may be Scorpio, the security of the Self, any part of which might just possibly be at risk in that Scorpio situation, that part of the saga is entirely Taurus.

It’s that part of us which values us and works to keep us safe. Or which doesn’t keep us safe. Or which simply won’t risk.

Or which dares not feel what it means to fear because the loss of false security is such a fearful thing.

War - any war against others or some situation is Scorpionic, whether we're at war with(within) our Self and prone to inflicting the byproduct of that nastiness on others, whether we're in a direct contest with others, whether we're at war with some control or restriction or whether that war is against some civil entity or faction of civilization against some other faction of civilization.

And yet peace also requires a fight. That's the nature of fixed signs - to struggle to create and to struggle to contain, which here pits 'my (Taurus) reality' against what (Scorpio) makes that reality feel safe or not.

That's the fight - our fight to get us past our own instinctive Taurus fears to where we can (Gemini) understand the world and our options and choose based on our own cooler (Gemini) ability to think and be rational. In other words, if we haven't resolved our 'fear of our own fears' on an individual basis, we aren't likely to have sufficient peace all the way around.

And yet, it's so much easier to (Scorpio) vent than (Taurus) take our Self on.

Sunset on Australia's Middle Park Beach

(photographer unknown)

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You know, by moving from the second stage in the zodiacal process - the Taurean stage - into Gemini, where with our fears in check we learn to gather information, sort through our priorities and choose, plan and set about our daily (or lifelong) business.

In the case of the current ingress, the Sun is entering Taurus at 9:43 in the morning of April 20th (UT/+0 time) in trine to Pallas (still in station mode) and square an Aquarian Ceres, speaking to not just to our relationship with society or ‘social/societal forces,’ but to something which focuses on (or simply focuses) our perspective on all such matters - that being the Pallas part of things. Pallas detaches us from things so we can 'see' what they are more clearly, whether that takes accepting something else or isolating (or becoming isolated) from some group, idea, lifestyle, system or information/comprehension, and given Pallas' April 19th turn to retrograde, we are all in the process of either internalizing something or seeing something about (or possibly in) our Self.

And that process ... or just the facts we come up with ... those things are helping us gain (Pallas) perspective on our instincts. Or maybe our various forms of ‘immaturity’ (physical or emotional) in play ... or where we are quite possibly the ‘immature’ player, whether that means we (or something) is as yet not ready for something, whether someone is simply being childish or whether the reference here is to something or someone who is just ‘young,’ whether in age or their own perspective - as one might be for reasons of lack of education, lack of mental health, or any other reason which might mark someone as not capable of (or willing to) interact on a level of equivalency or as an equal.

With Venus (the ruler of Taurus) transiting Gemini as the Sun enters Taurus, this year’s ‘Taurus Experience’ is likely to start out as a slight ‘rounding’ or ‘gentling’ of thoughts (and the feelings promoted by those thoughts) initiated through general conversation and our everyday perceptions. Most of us are a little tired of - and ready to ‘give up’ or ‘get away from’ something we’ve already met up with which we’d like to respond to (or manage) with some level of panache (and if not panache, at least competency!) ... and there’s something weighing on us which we either don’t yet know how to get done, or which we don’t want to do incorrectly and which we want to get organized before embarking upon.

Maybe even before we mention it.

Moreover, not everyone which is going on is likely to be pleasant or friendly-feeling all the way along the line. As of yesterday’s New Moon (that being the New Moon at 28 Aries - see previous post) Mercury - which is also in Taurus - came into orb of conjunction to Mars. Mars being already about half way through Taurus is representing all those things which we want ... which as Mars reaches the Taurean cross-quarters point (15 Taurus) is life pushing us to move from a ‘learning’ mode into an ‘application’ mode.

Mercury-Mars in a Taurus conjunction can represent determination. Then again, it can also represent frustration - even hostility towards self, others or (as we would suspect), some level of fear driven by a sense of lack or incapacity, perhaps. So while we may be wanting to be the person who determines something, this conjunction (which perfects at 15 Taurus on April 22nd, and which ends on April 25th) is also an opportunity to ‘try’ something or when you ‘determine’ what you want to do. Perhaps you’ll embody this by becoming determined to master some task, whether you’re trying to understand, work with or accept and interact some notion, value or fact.

Or maybe you’ll just be not wanting to admit to anything, right or wrong. Or you're just not in any mood to be challenged.

Any Mercury-Mars conjunction is going to provoke feelings of some sort. It's as if all we can (Mercury) think about is what we absolutely want ... or really truly don't like (a lot).

And that stirs many a feeling - and often some sort of instinctive (read: not necessarily well thought out) assertive (Mars-type) reaction.

 A rural road in northern Switzerland

(Benjamin Gimmel, April 2004)

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We are in other words, simply prone during this period to getting ourselves bogged down (or allowing ourselves to be stuck) in simply not wanting to change because we don’t want to.

And yes, this could be exactly the sort of immaturity being challenged - or which we are finding so very (very) challenging in others. This ‘planted in one spot’ quality is something all the earth signs adopt as a methodology at least some of the time, with the Taurus attempt to ‘own’ that which it opposes without having to actually ‘touch it’ generally taking manifesting as various attempts to control or manipulate without actually getting involved.

In other words, Taurus is the sign under which we often attempt to interaction with others without having anything apply to us ... which sounds like a way to protect one’s (Taurean) resources, but which inevitably leads to starving your Self of input and everything which could in the long run provide the tools and keys to inner security.  

People talk about Taurean negativity as ‘stubbornness’ often without any conception of how limiting the choice to be stubborn for the sake of being stubborn is ... and how the refusal to consider anything else is not about strength, but about a fear of our own vulnerabilities. And sure, we’d all rather have someone else carry our emotional baggage, but when we do that, we poison our own chances for the kind of long-lasting strength of security which can only be achieved through self-knowledge and self-confrontation.

Moreover, life truly wants to give us what we ask for. So when we fear others doing something to us - that’s what metaphysics says will happen ... which is something worth thinking about. This doesn’t mean we should think only happy, candy-coated thoughts as that doesn’t apply - not to mention how such sugar-coating is hardly honest, and avoidance of honesty is a sure sign of those underlying lacks of self worth which are so negative Taurus.

 Buffalo grazing on the Wyoming grasslands

(photo credit:Ron Nichols, United States Department of Agriculture) 

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In short, if you don’t want a war - with others or with yourself, deal with the fear within. The fear we don’t deal with we project - which does nothing other than offer opportunities to those who will fill in that gap and give us something to fear in reality.

It’s harder ... but ultimately probably a lot more productive to face our fears on our own. Once we do that, then we can live in the security of our own core providing validity and security to everyone else ... which in any mode and by any means is one of the better definitions of human success.
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Dateblog: October 2014

October 2014 by Zodiac Sign

Seeing as I've spent more time in medical hands than I care to think about over the past few days this has to be short. But I did want to give you the charts for October 2014.

As you'll note above, there are (count 'em) two meteor showers this October - the Draconids (which come to us courtesy of comet and the Oriondis - which because of the comet which produces said Orionids (Comet Halley) brings up not only Halley's somewhat 'showy' or 'want to see...want to be seen' (and other such 'value' as in, what do I value and why do I value it? commentaries) and the interesting factoid that both of these comets were discovered while transiting Aquarius.

The Aquarius part may well be part of October's natural interactive and Libran social-socializing (maybe marketing...maybe audience) orientation as Aquarius is nothing if not about pluralities, be they notions, people, sources of income or otherwise. In the world of thinking and concepts, Aquarius is the broadest and (often) the most intricate.

Not necessarily easy, mind you. Nor necessarily practical for any of a number of though-provoking (and possibly irritating) reasons.

In any case, there's a lot of Libra to go around this month, October being a natural time for making plans and sometimes making moves. (Not always, but sometimes.) Who we relate to and why, how we relate to them and how they respond to us tells is everyday subject matter almost all month long, though it will ebb off as Venus and the Sun move on into Scorpio... which you may (or may not) have noticed is the subject of a solar eclipse this month.

You know, this eclipse...

Eclipse Map for the Solar Eclipse of October 23, 2014 at 0 Scorpio

(map generated by Solar Fire)

 

And yes, providing I can type we'll be talking more about it. But getting back to Sun and Venus, what they're a reference to is how we relate to others... and how well or not well we relate to them is based in something (and what that is). Even people who are stone tone deaf to the needs and rights of others to hold opinions come from somewhere. And the interesting thing is... which we are all learning right now ... those opinions are far (far) more often rooted in vulnerability than strength.

Scorpio fights... or produces the impulse to fight ... as a sign that the instinct of threat has come to light.

That threat is not about 'them' or 'that' or even 'this' (whatever 'this' may be). It's about how we FEEL about them or that or even this... and that's about US.

Not them, us.

It's uncomfortable and we can all expect to feel a deal of discomfort going forward at least until October 23rd, that being the date of the eclipse. Moreover, prior to that we'll be having an Aries lunar eclipse ... a time when our passions, our feelings and our ability to feel or not feel are all brought to the fore.

As always, where these eclipses fall (in what house of your chart) and how these eclipses aspect the various objects and factors in you your chart (and how closely those aspects apply) will determine how strong or weak eclipse effects will generally tend to be. With the lunar eclipse at 15 Aries, what we want may well be outstripped by our opportunity (or ability) to do such things, and that's not all that comfortable.

(Not at all comfortable.)

There's an aspect of change indicated by these two eclipses which no one wants to take on. So especially after Mercury goes retrograde we're bound to hear a lot of excuses and evasiveness. Those 'I don't want to talk (or think) about it' actions/choices are not all that productive, especially as nothing is going to in the end be entirely avoided. The productive thought here is to deal with others and your issues about/with others and to invest in examinations which will reveal not only what the strengths and weaknesses of the situation are, but what the reality of the strengths and weaknesses of others really are.

No one has told anyone everything. (Count on it.) Mercury retrograde - especially one in Scorpio - provides a natural time for interesting, invaluable and possibly important conversations, meetings, research and other interactive/interactions which provide grist for the mental mill or information needed before moving on.

That 'moving on' then begins to occur after Mercury goes direct on October 25th, but given how Mercury will have retrograded back into Libra before going direct, there will be complications and the need for more investigation, conversations and even a few (reluctant) course corrections once Mercury re-enters Scorpio late on November 8th (UT/+0).

You know, next month.

As for elements, the personal planets are moving through air (Libra) and water (Scorpio) for most of the month... and then there's just more Scorpio.

October 2014 by Element

That's a recipe for raw emotionalism and issues which raise raw emotionalism, but because of the eclipse (solar eclipses are cosmic trump cards) this is ALL about our realizing and recognizing and beginning to grasp our vulnerabilities - our internal hurts and vulnerabilities and fears and shames...all that.

And it's about the recognizing them and the owning up to them and the being able to admit them to others which leads to betterment. Our betterment.

The combination of other elements - fire and earth - being more global or worldly elements of our October, it's useful also to keep a clear separation of public versus private and personal/individual versus relationship/others in mind, in hand and (perhaps most of all) as a curb to our actions and statements, all of which carry the sort of weight/weightiness this month which may seem deliciously dramatic, but which could also cook our goose (so to speak, no offense to the geese) down the line.

All those meteors insure an interesting month to be sure. For those who are in a good place, this is a great month for being creative, providing you are willing to go through the whole of any process and not cut corners, the whole of which includes doing your up-front homework. That the Aquarius quotient resident in/with both these meteor showers is in a natural square (then trine, then back to square) with the overall purpose of the October Mercury retrograde challenges us to see how to use our more native human nature - not that of rhetoric, but of nurture.

Still, don't be surprised if you meet up with a lot of stubbornness... even within your Self. Underlying Scorpio's deep well of emotionality are its eternal questions of (Taurean) safety and self-doubt, those being the metaphysical source of all of our attempts to 'win at all cost' and otherwise weight or can't the playing field for others. The Scorpio demand of 'I want what I want' is, in other words, at its heart an extreme statement of fear - we're afraid we can't have what we want, so we'll fight for it.

Which begs the real question: what are we so afraid of being (and being known/seen as) without it?
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Venus in Gemini / Jupiter Square Nodes

Venus by Simon Vouet (1590-1649, oil on canvas)

As opposed to Taurus, a sign all about the useful against the ill of our values, sense of personal (individual) security and all motivations which arise from such notions, Gemini is our individual experience of mentality, replete with whatever will teach us to use, tolerate, moderate, organize or prioritize in the interest of achieving our goals. Taurus - being a ‘yin’ sign by nature tends to manifest as our holding onto what we have and the desire to grab hold of whatever we think we need which is entirely different than Gemini, a yang (pro-active, generally curious) sign all about our human mentality at work - which of course begins with our thinking, but since thinking is what gets us to do anything...that’s the Gemini way: get the thought or idea...develop it...then try it out.

That’s the Gemini/Sagittarius polarity. Gemini is where we get the idea and work it through and plan things out...Sagittarius is where we learn what works, what doesn’t work, why things work or don’t work and from that - both information on how to improve our tact, effort or thrust along with information on the world around us.

All signs have polarities. Going around the wheel of the zodiac they alternate: Aries is yang, Taurus is yin, Gemini is yang...(etc.) - and that holds no matter where the sign falls in your chart, despite the fact that horoscope hemispheres have their ‘yin/yang’ quality as well.

(To those of you who are students of astrology, yes - I know this can give you a headache when you first encounter it, but trust me - bear these simple facts in mind when you’re delineating charts and you’ll bless your lucky asteroid.)(Providing you have one, that is.)

So then we get to Venus, the energetic which signifies the turning of cause into effect. Venus will be entering Gemini on June 23rd at 12:35 p.m. (UT/+0) and remain in Gemini until the early afternoon hours (UT/+0) of July 18th.

Just as a notion, Venus in Gemini speaks to all we go through in order to achieve our best results - which yes, sometimes includes thinking through our failures, failings and all those simple mistakes which we might say under the heading ‘no harm, no foul.’

Often a sign of connecting (or recognizing, or thinking through) how and why cause becomes effect, Venus in Gemini is often associated with financial transactions as well as discussion economic, relational or of the relationship type...and by this last (‘relationship type’) we would mean either the relationship of some cause to some effect in your life, or the value(s) expressed in or felt about relationships you may be involved in - or may want to be involved in.

Or maybe not. (There is always that option, surely...)

Priorities will seem to matter more during this passage - even to the point that it may become a subject of Gemini-like conversation, debate, confrontation or decision.

Is “it” (substitute your subject for the word “it” as needed)...Is “it” worth my time? The effort? Is it worth whatever might need to be (re)organized, changed, sacrificed, implemented or built...is “it” worth it?  Should I prioritize this...or that?

Do I even care which - and if I do, what makes one thing [Venus] worth more in my [Gemini] mind or thinking?

Because we know this particular Venus/Gemini ingress is occurring under Mercury retrograde, a fact which may manifest as wanting to hold back on saying something or making a choice or making some change until the information you for some reason need until Mercury goes direct (on July 1st) - or at least until we reach June 29th, that being when the two-days-prior/two-days-after ‘station allowance’ for Mercury’s station will begin.

Moreover, it would be typical of this not-unfriendly-if-not-excessively- (personally) -outgoing Mercury/Venus combination to say that  until July 1st most of our considering and thinking through things...in the truest sense will be personal (which is not precisely an invitation to talk to yourself, but that might work, too.) (It might even be profitable.)

Yet let’s be real: no one lives in any vacuum. So we should expect that with Mercury still in retrograde, until July 1st life will be filled with all those quirks and interruptions which prevent us from operating on our ‘schedule.’

And that could be frustrating even where we ultimately learn that those interruptions or corrections or recalculations...or that reformulating of our plan was part of a greater process which works not just in this next while, but as something of a new ‘tool’ in our tool bag - something which we will use time and again as time goes by.

Unfortunately, none of us can know in advance if that annoying, awful situation will prompt us...or of something someone says will trigger some sort of internal, brilliant epiphany.

You don’t know, it just could happen - not that acting in haste would seem advised, as hasty, as eager, as loudly as some may demand that decisions get made and plans get pushed into motion.

All that means listening versus not listening, the valuing of our own thoughts against those of others is the first place we’ll start - a concept pictured rather adeptly by Venus being conjunct Sisyphus, Phaethon and Juno upon entering Gemini. Juno is about ‘management’ - hence the organizational and priorities theme, though Juno is also about ‘tending the hearth,’ ‘guarding the home’ and since this is Juno in Gemini, minding and managing what we say so that it [Venus] functions properly.

As for Juno itself, as Venus enters Gemini Juno stands in a square to Neptune indicating some matters which are at the ‘highly optimistic’ or ‘holding to the ideal’ end of the spectrum while at the other stands the experience of haplessness, insecurity and possible (perhaps probable?) confusion. The more positive outlook here comes through allowing ourselves to be sensitive first to our Self and whatever internal questioning we’re going through (this being under Mercury retrograde) with that notion of ‘being sensitive’ being slowly but surely extended to others as/once Mercury goes direct.

One other note on this Neptune square: because Neptune will be in opposition to Pallas [logical perspective/perspectives based on dispassionate thought], Atropos [endings] and Apollo [truth, enlightenment] as Venus enters Gemini with Gemini’s ruler (Mercury) still symbolically representing ‘inward insight’ because of the retrograde...in each of our lives something has gone wrong, gotten off track or out of hand or even escaped us.

And yes, about now we know exactly what happened - not that we can change it.

Will we [Neptune in Pisces] accept some loss, some mistake, some end with inner grace - and if we don’t, why won’t we do that? What in us (or in our history or ego structure) causes us to react as we do? 

Once Mercury goes direct, the pace of conversation and the present-tense value of what’s being said will surely pick up. But more on the ‘short-run’ side of things, where is another configuration...Jupiter squaring the Lunar Nodes...which is going to be coming into focus all week, coming to exactitude on Friday, June 27th (UT/+0).

The great basic keyword for Jupiter being ‘expansion’ (be it of our experiences, feelings,  knowledge, waistline, debt or anything else), when ‘squared’ against [Lunar Nodes] all the ‘intersecting’ we do with others and our world comes up for questioning. How far is too far? Why shouldn’t I do what I want to do if I can do what I want to do?

Strengths and weaknesses are likely to be shown up as the days go along, with the fact that this Jupiter/Node relationship (all puns intended) will culminate at the moment of the June New Moon (at 5 Cancer). Because this square is occurring at 25 degrees of cardinal signs (Jupiter is in Cancer and the Nodes are in Libra/Aries) we can also expect a lot of energy will be being expended ‘out there’ and by others.

And yes, by our Self. Instinct will tend to lead us towards a focus on Self, personal preferences and basic (traditional) orientations with regards to land, agriculture, family, real estate and any of a plethora of matters surrounding culture/nationality past, present and future.

(No, I don’t know how many are in a plethora, but it’s more than a handful, that’s for sure.)

As for that Self Focus concept, because Jupiter is sitting at the apex of the t-square (at the ‘t,’ if you will) that’s not likely to work. Why not?

Simply put, that answer would be because t-squares aren’t “solved” by putting anything in purely personal terms. T-squares ask us to see the bigger picture. They ask us to go beyond our cause or that thing so desired by our ego to where the idea itself is universal.

Where we don’t do that, or where something we have already participated in has fallen short of that ‘greater group’ nodal standard, problems - or at least unwanted details - now arise.

Considering that this happens at the moment of a New Moon, one would suspect this week will be filled with various sorts of ‘pushes’ (and pushiness) arising from the desire to get things done.

And some things will get done.

Other things will merely serve to show us where things have been undone...or where we are undone....or where we have yet not done that which will open a path into the future.

Any time the Nodes are involved in any configuration we should expect the unexpected. After all, the Nodes represent where we ‘intersect’ people and the world around us, which means input sources are virtually unlimited. So when we combine that with ‘expansive’ Jupiter....?

For happy and sad, for productive or destructive, this Jupiter-square-Nodes connection speaks to a lot of energy. Positive use requires directed focus - which may be a challenge particularly in any group [Nodal] situation/interaction seeing as much which goes on now has roots in the days around/after June 8th as the Nodes and Jupiter came into orb of each other.

And of course June 8th is just after Mercury went retrograde on June 7th - which would seem to make lovely metaphysical sense as Jupiter perfects its Nodal square at the beginning of our ‘next month’ New Moon cycle which leads directly to Mercury’s station and our ‘emerging’ from our mental time-cocoon of retrograde reflection.

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A short personal note...

Thank you all for bearing with me. These last several months have been hugely stressful in ways I can’t yet even begin to describe and I am grateful for your supportive comments, your emails and donations.

They are all appreciated more than you know. Things are still no-kidding difficult: physical limitations and financial problems are what they are until they heal - and as we all sadly know, dealing with the loss of anyone (never mind multiple people) takes time.

And that flood? Well, suffice it to say I have a whole new reaction to waking up in the middle of the night wanting a drink of water, all of which starts with the fact that said water shouldn't be on the floor.It also shouldn't be coming out from under a wall or be brick-colored.

And drinking water definitely shouldn't twitch.

Frankly, my life has been dizzying since last October - and of late it's been honestly half-past panic attack. So I’m really touched by your support.

And yes, I care about you and your life as well. But then, you know that...I keep coming back to write, which is my other way of saying 'thanks so very, very much.'

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Mars in Aries: Who Me?

An Eruption of Italy's Stromboli volcano in 1980 taken by Wolfgang Beyer

On March 12th, at 6:27 in the morning (UT/+0), Mars enters Aries.

As an astrologer I’m very happy I’m not required to get up and sound any trumpets about such things as 6:27 in the morning is way to early for brass fanfares. But apart from that, once Mars does enter Aries it’s likely to be a good thing.

Well, at least on some levels.

The ‘good’ here would be how Mars in Aries tends to be a time when people are spunky and filled with energy and a will to get things done.

Of course, Mars in Aries is also a time when people can get so full of themselves that they ignore everybody else. There is that.

So the energy part of Mars in Aries is useful. The willful conviction part? Well, that depends on who you are. I’d like to say that if you’re the shy, meek type Mars in Aries could give you the gusto to go out and be all you could ever want to be. But even if Mars in Aries is known for conquering goals, if your goal is to never (ever!) have to do anything or expose your vulnerabilities, Mars in Aries can just have you doubling up (or down) on that very sort of determination.

Under the best of conditions, Aries is the sign where Mars represents a rise in consciousness. We should size up what needs doing, what we can do about it and go do just that. But for some, Mars in Aries becomes a time of self-consciousness. Or even inflated ego. Which you are (and which those you care about are) depends on the natal chart…and probably where Pluto falls in that chart natally and by current Capricorn transit.

Why Pluto?

Because Mars has two signs of rulership. And any time any planet which has two signs of rulership enters either of their ruling signs, qualities related to both signs get stirred.

The atmosphere of Mars  as photographed by the Viking Orbiter

(photo credit: NASA, 1976)

That’s a whole subject of its own which I’ll explain in a different blog (it’s kind of annoying and kind of illuminating), but for the moment, let’s just stick to the Mars stuff. (It’s sticky enough!) But just to touch on that here, given that the ‘other’ sign Mars is a ruler in is Scorpio, that’s the big clue to why Mars in Aries can be so hard-headed.

Aries is a cardinal sign. Cardinal signs learn through doing. In other words they do, look at the results and decide what they did right, and what they should probably do differently next time.

Scorpio is a fixed sign. Fixed signs would like to understand everything about how the thing works before they dip their toe in even a thimble of the possibility that they might get involved, never mind DO anything.
Therefore, that Mars is a ruler of a primary cardinal sign which is about BEING and DOING and MAKING THINGS HAPPEN…which at it’s emotional (Scorpio) core should be about making things work better for everybody but which often turn into an exercise in wanting to be ‘seen’ a given way or wanting to ‘win’ approval or support or NOT wanting to end up being told you’re wrong about anything…

Yeah, it’s a bit of a contest. And a contest we each will contest in our own sweetly (or not so sweetly) personal way between March 12th, when Mars enters Aries and April 20th, when Mars moves on into Taurus. (Let’s not get me started on the Mars in Taurus stuff yet…that will just lead to a lot of discussion of the May Solar Eclipse in Taurus, and we’re going to be discussing that at length soon enough!)

What seems important to think about here is how March 12th through April 20th is basically five weeks.
It’s an interesting oddity, this Mars orbit we live with. What do I mean by that? Okay…consider this: Mars’ full orbit of the Sun is 687 days (1.88 years) long. And when you divide 687 by 360 (degrees in the zodiac or a circle), you get 1.908333333…(add as many ‘3’s as you like).

What this says is that the mean average movement of Mars through any given degree should take almost two days, meaning thirty degrees (a sign’s worth of degrees) should take sixty days.

But if you look back through an ephemeris, what you’ll find is that apart from the years when Mars is retrograde in Aries (which will next happen in the year 2020) Mars generally does only spend about five weeks in Aries.

Maybe that is a key to why we do so much and get to hopping on things when Mars is in the most basic of cardinal signs?

It’s probably not just that Aries is cardinal which applies here. Aries is not just cardinal, it’s also a fire sign. In fact, it’s the only cardinal fire sign. There are four cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) and each one belongs to a different element. Aries is fire, Cancer is water, Libra is air and Capricorn is earth. This is true of every ‘modality’ – or ‘triplicity’ as cardinal, fixed and mutual are collectively known.

And this is part of the genius of the zodiac – and of understanding life and other human beings as it happens. I’ve heard people say ‘I’m an air sign, I only get along with other air signs,’ to which I say “Really?” Since the modality (the ‘mode of activity’) of a sign is the general description of how someone works, why would whether they put things in airy, theoretical terms trump whether they go for it (the cardinal way of doing things) versus whether they hem and haw and try to make sure there are no other options (as fixed signs will do) or start and stop, learning as they go and changing their plans accordingly as mutable signs do?

After thirty-some years of listening to this ‘I like earth sign people,’ ‘I like water sign people’ and so on, I tend to think that it’s just easier to grasp the nature of elements (earth, air, fire, water) than it is to grasp modalities.

But in the end, modalities probably make and break more relationships - personal and professional. If she’s really a cardinal sign gal and he’s really a fixed sign guy, she’s going to get tired of waiting for him to make up his mind and he’s going to feel like she’s nagging him. If the lawyer is a highly mutable person and their client is a seriously cardinal person, that client is likely to think the lawyer is flakey, no matter what flavor of flake that comes out being.

Yes, we do need to be tolerant of each other, and under Mars in Aries we can either not do that and get all frustrated and impatient (which happens a lot) or we can grow into some personal insight about what individuality really means. About who that “I” person in your head really is, and how it’s foolish to expect anyone to be ‘just like you’ or to know who you are if you haven’t been that person yet.

Mars in Aries is the heart and soul of by our actions we shall be known. That starts with being conscious that we are…and conscious of who we are, both of which are the process and outcome of Mars in Aries. It’s a time for learning more about ourselves through what we do and what happens or what prompts us to get off our duff or open our eyes…and it’s a time when by choosing or not choosing to act, and the quality of our actions we reveal ourselves and our capacities to ourselves – never mind to others!

You’ve heard me talk about the first zodiacal quadrant as being about ‘the self.’ Aries is what starts that off. The sign progression here being Aries, Taurus, Gemini, you can’t respect your Self or have self worth invested in that Self if you have no idea who that Self is, or what they are capable of or willing to do.

And without both of those, who thinks you can make a decent (Gemini) choice about anything?

I’ve also said this before (and yes, I’m going to say it again!)…but it’s also as important to understand what zodiac quadrants don’t contain as what they do contain. The first quadrant is cardinal, fixed and mutable (triplicities repeat in each quadrant)…AND the first quadrant is fire, earth air.

The four elements – the quadruplicities of the zodiac also repeat. The sequence is fire, earth, air, water…right round the wheel. But when you have four elements and only three signs per quadrant, one element is going to get left out.

And in that first quadrant which is all about the Self and learning who and what we are and that we exist and how we feel about ourselves and what we’re able to do if we’re capable of doing anything?

That first quadrant of the zodiac does NOT have water in it. So though we may think (air) fervently. The sheer emotionality and all the instinctual qualities we metaphysically attribute to water don’t show up until Cancer – and Cancer isn’t part of the first and most primary quadrant of the zodiac.

It’s part of the second quadrant (and the right side of the wheel, as opposed to the left). That second quadrant is about interaction. Call it learning to be social and interact with others. Where the first quadrant (and first three signs) embody the idea of the infant through toddler into childhood stages (ages 0-7.5), the second quadrant embodies ages 7.5 through 14. Thus the zodiac defines emotionality as responsive…the whole right side of the wheel (and the signs associated with that right side of the wheel) are reactive and responsive.

And that leaves us with a greater understanding of why Aries – and thus Mars in Aries can be such a self-involved time. You may use that as getting to know yourself. Then again, you could be more egocentric than usual. (Who, YOU? Egocentric?)

At the same time, all signs are part of dualities – you know, the ‘oppositional polarity.’ With Aries, that opposition is Libra, which is not precisely the “you” of it all. No, Aries/Libra is what I do will affect you so that you will respond to me…HOW?

And yes, I’m putting my money on the awareness ticket this time around. At least on the value of the awareness ticket for this Mars-in-Aries quadrille. And why would that be? That would be because as Mars enters Aries, it’s going to be doing so in the company of Photographica, an asteroid which appears to be about ‘the image.’ In Aries, the sign of the physical self, this may be about your looks. It could be about a health problem. It could be a focus on what others think of you or what you want to work on in order to shape what people think of you.

Given that the Moon is going to follow Mars into Aries within less than five hours of the Mars ingress, we can also bet there’s some sort of sensitivity involved. And yes, some cause for sensitivity, whether that’s in-built ego vulnerability, some actual cause for physical concern or a simple desire to change. With Mars changing signs pretty much in the dawn of day after the Pisces New Moon, Eris is still conjunct Pallas too.
But just perhaps of note here is that in the hours between that New Moon and this Mars ingress, Eris and Pallas have changed places. As the New Moon occurred, some ‘dispassionate wisdom’…maybe better put as ‘perspective’ occurred to call our ‘Pallas’ attention to something in such a way which we hadn’t suspected (Eris) and which forced us to choose between the easy and challenging ways forward.

And that isn't always easy - a fact which the following piece of art would seem to show has been something people have been thinking about for a very long time! 

This 1771 painting, "The Combat of Mars and Minerva" by Joseph-Benoit Suvee will seem far more apropos to today's discussion if we remember that Minerva is the alternate name for Athena...also known as Pallas Athena, she who sprung full grown from the thoughtful brow of Zeus (aka Jupiter).

This can be just a little thing. Then again, if your chart aligns with 21 Pisces (the New Moon) or 21 Aries (Pallas-Eris) or even 0 Aries (the Mars ingress), you could be going through a whole period which is at some level about understanding your own capacity. And what you may need to do in spite of the fact you’re not exactly jollied at the prospect of doing it (Pallas/Eris).

There’s more to this period…it’s continuing to evolve. But we’ll get to those factors as they become more likely to be active on the backgammon board of life. (Or Monopoly, if you prefer.)

But right now, we know that as of March 12th (which would still be late on March 11th for those in the western Americas or eastern Pacific Basin) there’s something of a celestial starting gun being sounded at the energetic level.

Ready…set…go where?

Be what?

Good question!
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A Virgo Full Moon: The Cost of Consciousness

A Full Moon over Old Square in Ljubljana, Slovena

(photo credit: Vid Gajsek, 2012, public domain)

This month's Full Moon will occur on February 25th at 8:27 in the evening (UT/+0) at 7 Virgo.

The idea of the Full Moon is a funny one in that there are so many directions you can go with it as a metaphysical symbol. Some astrologers (and nature or natural spiritualists) think of the Full Moon entirely as an emblem of ‘peak moments’ or ‘fulfillment.’ Others speak of the Moon in a more astronomically-interpretive way, with their Full Moon concept being that of ‘highest reflection’ or ‘greatest emotional or instinctive’ illumination. And I must say…I tend to be among this second group.

But if we think of the Full Moon in the ‘glass half empty or half full?’ mode, since lunar cycles are cycles, there are unquestionably those among us who go from New Moon to New Moon, and those of us who think of life as being only a matter of Full Moon to Full Moon.

In other words, how we react to the “everyday” cycles generally timed out by the Moon is greatly a matter of who we are. Or…is that really about who we choose to be?

There’s a lot of ‘sloganism’ (my term) about this ‘attitude makes reality’ thing and what we hear most often is ‘hold a positive attitude – that will make things happen for the better.’ But is that really true? If it was, wouldn’t we all be sassy-happy by now?

The Virgo Full Moon is about practicality being pitted against emotionality…Virgo Moon, Pisces Sun. And this goes (to my thinking) what the Full Moon is really about stretching us beyond what we already know. The ‘knowing’ part is enlightenment (illumination) and the ‘stretching’ comes from the astro-idea that any opposition asks us to hold two diametrically oppositional ideas in our minds, hearts or lives at once.

In other words, Full Moons are about life (the Sun) being in one sign (in this case, the ‘life is going to get you to feel whether you want to or not’ Pisces life-phase) and the Moon ‘lighting up’ or ‘illuminating’ those things, those factors, those opportunities or challenges we haven’t thought of. Or experienced yet. Or taken into consideration.

Pisces-Virgo is about doing the thing which will work for me in the long run (Virgo) which HAS the greatest affect (and effect) BECAUSE it touches others and thus garners their approval, support and respect. THAT is what leads to my emotional satisfaction, because whether I like it or not, I’m not living on this planet by myself and the more people understand, accept and are with my right to do what makes me happy, the easier my life is going to be.

I’ll put it another way: if Virgo is the effort, the work, the efficiency and effectiveness of our physical life and life or lifestyle (how we go about living), Pisces as the indicator of ‘end of life circumstances’ (retirement/old age pensions, hospitals, emotional acceptance) is the indicator of how well all that works out. When I say that Pisces represents all those things which involve people being scared of feeling their feelings, Pisces is about anything – including late-in-life finances – which refer to anywhere where they might feel helpless. Or where they might be at the mercy of others.

“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” wrote Tennessee Williams in A Streetcar Named Desire. That line very much embodies the Pisces concept. And every time we have a full Moon in Virgo, we are presented with something of a ‘checkpoint’ on how well we’re doing not only in our effort to balance depending on kindness (ours and that of others) but not depending on them too.

Tennessee Williams in 1953 arriving at the service for Dylan Thomas

(photo courtesy of the US Library of Congress, Prints and Photography Division;

source - New York World-Telegram and Sun, Walter Albertin, photographer)

Which yes, may be a gesture of kindness of a whole other kind – not burdening others.

On a whole other tact, Full Moons often represent a climax or a fulfillment (or failure) of something we’ve been working on. But as they say in the world of parenting teens, it’s a phase. What happens now isn’t the ‘end of all things.’ It’s a phase. If this was the moment when your Significant Dating Other (a whole other meaning for SDO beyond Scattered Disc Objects) “pops the question,” that may mean the ‘undecided’ portion of the courtship phase is over. But the real work of a marriage? That hasn’t even yet begun.

(Come to think of it…having someone ask you to marry them is sort of SDO and Kuiper Belt, isn’t it? All Kuiper Belt objects, SDOs and otherwise, are about getting us to experience things in life we couldn’t otherwise experience. I’m thinking marriage is among them!)

So Full Moons can be the manifesting of a goal. Or maybe even the letting go of a goal. Or maybe it’s just shifting gears.

On to other, pickier facts.

This is the last in a the series of three Full Moons at 7 degrees of respective signs. However – we’re still pursuing a series of 5 New Moons at 21 degrees of successive signs.

 
That the Full Moons have been in 1st decanate degrees (degrees between 0 and 9 of any given sign) tells us that these past several months have led us (New to Full phase) to issues which are personal level. They may be about the nature of our life. Or our physicality or health. Even our actions, whether that means taking action or the results or consequences of some action.

But others are involved. That much we know because these lunar cycles have originated in New Moons which are all at 21 degrees of respective signs, 21 being a 3rd decan degree (between 20 and 29 of some sign) indicating something we don’t control or that others have a right…even a need to have input on.

This…by the by…is one of the great and easy and interesting things to look at in the charts of people you know. The 1st decanate of any sign is always about the person or something personal. The 2nd decanate is always emotional (yes, even when the Sun or Moon is in an air sign!). The 3rd decan is always about a level of life which involves your having to interact with others or work with others, connect to others or accept/work with input from others.

And here’s the kicker: this isn’t just about YOU in the sense of what YOU want to do or your personality or personal nature - this is also about your life lessons. So life, in its infinitely dispassionate if ever-so-personal way is going to teach you what you need to learn whether you want to learn it or not.

Example: I have a friend with both Sun and Moon in the 2nd decanate. The one thing this person hates is having to deal with emotions and emotionality.

Guess what - that’s because learning to deal with emotions and about their own emotions is a core part of this person's purpose, path and life lessons. (Hint: one of the lights being in a decan gives us a direction. To have both Sun and Moon in a single decanate speaks to directions, lessons, and the general 'shape' of one's purpose.) The sooner this person gets on with dealing with their own feelings and those of others, the happier (2nd decan, right?) they’re going to be.

But just try telling them that.

Example #2: I have a Sun and Moon which are both in the 1st decanate. My life is all about figuring out what to do and not to do. It's about life as it exists, life as it manifests, and it's about my life in particular (including my physicality) and the world around me.

Another part of this? Much to my eternal irritation (and water sign upsetted-ness) I never get help with doing anything until I prove I either figure out how to do it or don’t need help any more.

Go figure.

So looking purely at decans, the months from November (actually last August, but who’s counting) through April 2013 will have been and continue to be – at some level – about recognizing what the world values and is willing to do or not do (or put up with or not put up with) and how we act accordingly. Or how the world responds to how we have acted.

But within this longer cycle there have been mini-phase-cycles. November through March have all been New Moons at 21 degrees of respective signs. And at some level, 21 degrees is always about starting something in the world, doing something a new way in order to create greater effectiveness, or dealing with a ‘new’ tide of sentiment or opinion which is going to effect what we do.

Against this we have had another mini-cycle (yes, we’re in the realm of the many interlocking cycles of time the Mayans called ‘wheels within wheels’) composed of Full Moons at 7 degrees of respective signs.

Seven is the number of ‘the other’ not as that which ‘fits’ with us (which would be 2, the opposition or duality) but which is the corresponding energetic. You know: for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. The tide comes in, the tide goes out. We breathe in, we breathe out. Seven is a corresponding otherness.

And just to be clear here, it’s not karma. Karma belongs to the greater concepts associated generally with the number 8. Karma’s slogan is more do unto others as you would have done unto you…implying that what you do for Person A may come back to you (maybe totally unexpectedly) through Person Q.

Seven is more logical against eight being emotional. Seven says if I do something nasty to you, you’re likely not to like me for it. Eight says if I do something nasty to you, my life is going to become difficult, possibly for reasons totally unconnected to you.

Numbers tell us a lot. Just remember, they need to be  put into context - like everything else!

Okay…with all this now duly said and discussed, 7 Virgo has a reputation for a shyness or a reticence which can be gotten past but which can become overly polarized by 7 Pisces, a degree known for confusion – up to and including levels of mental confusion we would associate with mental illness.

The question at it’s most basic this is: will we connect to the greater message or feeling implied here? Don’t think that you can avoid anything but holding back. The act of doing so may be your 7 Pisces factor, not “theirs.”

Being that 7 Virgo is the current position of Thuban, we should also consider that everything implied by this Virgo/Pisces moment of ‘illumination’ may just possibly be the fixed star “backdrop” against which our own drama is playing out.

Thuban is one of those stars we don’t hear a lot about, but which is active in astrological history. Between about 3,900 BCE and 1,700 BCE, Thuban was actually our pole star (instead of Polaris, which has the job at the moment). Known astronomically as Alpha Draco, Thuban is the ‘head’ or ‘alpha’ star in the rather large constellation of Draco, which today we think of as ‘the dragon’ but which way back when was associated with the infamous snake of Adam and Eve fame.

Constellation Draco as envisioned in a long-ago manuscipt

And that is an interesting cross-reference, seeing as dragons are a positive in Oriental culture and we all know how western culture has villainized snakes. (I’m surprised they haven’t organized as a union and conducted a mass slithering in protest.)

Just to clarify here: Thuban is not in the ‘head’ of the constellation – it’s in the tail. (A whole different tale, yes.) But probably more to the astrological point, this is a constellation which by any measurement is a large one. It also appears in the sky as to seem 'wrapped around' our planet's north pole in a rather 'protective' posture. So it isn't surprising that Thuban seems to be about ‘something precious’ and sometimes the protecting of that ‘something precious.’ In fact, modern archaeologists and metaphysical types both note with interest that in Giza, Egypt, the Great Pyramid (that of Khufu) seems to have been built with one of its internal 'sighting tunnels' aimed at Thuban's position of the day. 

 A New York Times archive photo of the Giza pyramids taken from a

nearby oasis in 1917 (Brown and Dawson)

And that the head of a snake is tucked in the middle of the coil where the muscular tail is left out as the first thing an attacker (or unwary soul) would deal with...that says something about Thuban too.

One other item about Draco should be touched on: because it is a 'polar north' constellation, it isn't visible from all global latitudes. This raises a question you hear of now and again in astrology: whether something which isn't visible in the sky when and where you were born is a viable influence.

My vote here is 'yes.' Why? Because there are plenty of unconscious or 'unseen' attributes in our world and in our lives. Not everything is obvious or evident. Nor - probably - should it be, for reasons both good and bad.

That said, on with the show. The modifiers on the Moon’s side of this Full Moon are Achilles (strength, daring, deft ability), Eurydike (enduring the cost) and Orcus (consequences). So…are we too shy to do what needs doing until the costs become too much to bear? Or is this about doing something about something which we know we need to protect ourselves (and maybe others) from, never mind the cost?

Of course…seldom is life a simple choice between difficult options. Or even a difficult choice between no-brainer, simple options.

Yes folks, this Full Moon comes equipped with a handy-dandy t-square just ready to pickle your puzzles!

Anyone for sour puzzles? Or half-dill puzzling?

This t-square is an interesting one, too. Having finally moved its big red self off 6 Gemini (headaches, anyone?) to 7 Gemini, a degree noted for the following polarity: good luck versus taking the easy way out. Which let’s be real – is very much akin to and therefore part of the whole Aldebaran ‘integrity’ theme.

So here are the ‘rules’ in play here: t-squares work in zodiacal order, passing ‘through’ the “t.” So this one starts in emotional Pisces but has to jump the Jupiter-Aldebaran (thought of integrity) hurdle in order to get to the point where Virgo effectiveness and deft solutions can be put into place. And that the ‘t’ in a t-square is ALWAYS about ego, there’s likely to be a lot of decrying and self-righteous chest pounding about now.

That means…if you are dealing with someone who is indulging in a bunch of huffery-puffery ‘I have a right to my own opinions!’ you may as well let them puff. Your job at the moment is to get past thinking this is ‘all about you’ to the ‘doing something about providing a good basis for proceeding’ on the general level. The puffers are going to be out there, absolutely. And if you can recognize that they’re not coming from a position of strength but really coming from fears of impotence and rejection, you’ll be that much farther ahead.

Appealing to others in terms of integrity is one good idea of the moment. Certainly phrasing things in dispassionate terms and working to get egos out of the discussion while the problem or challenge gets examined for what it is – that’s a great idea to keep in mind.

But remember: ultimately, this Full Moon – like everything else astrological – has a generalized meaning and a meaning which is particular to each person’s chart, life and outlook. This Full Moon in your world is part of the machinery of time-space which is moving you through the process of learning all you need to learn while teaching others things which may be entirely different.

And maybe that’s the point. As we learn to accept our ‘stuff’ as OUR stuff, maybe we can learn who others are without projecting on them all the time. Maybe we can be more supportive…or at least understanding of what their challenges are.

At that point, maybe the Full Moon of the moment will become a ‘Fulfilling Moon.’ And isn’t that what we all want?
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