A New Moon Solstice: An Incoming Cancer Tide of Gemini Thoughts

 Summer Solstice Sunrise over Stonehenge

(photo credit: Andrew Dunn, June 2005)

Give or take, the Moon moves about half-a-degree per hour. The Sun moves just under a degree per day. So once you know that - and that there’s going to be a New Moon on Tuesday the 19th at 28 Gemini (28 degrees of Gemini 43 minutes, to be exact), with barely a flicker of a brain cell you’ll grasp that it’s just over a day until the Sun arrives at 0 Cancer.

The Sun's Cancer ingress will occur at 11:10 p.m. on June 20th (UT/+0 time).

And just as you get done thinking that, no doubt you'll also realize that the Moon, with it's half-a-degree per hour speed - will be arriving at 0 Cancer before the Sun does...about four hours or so after the 11:13 a.m. (UT/+0) Tuesday June 19th New Moon.

The Sun's arrival at 0 Cancer is what Earth’s northern hemisphere calls the Summer Solstice – the longest daylight day of the year. Earth’s southern hemisphere calls this the Winter Solstice – the shortest daylight day of the year.

The fact that Earth's orbital tilt remains constant as it orbits

around the Sun is responsible for our seasons

(diagram credit Tau'olunga)

Not to be partial here, astrologically it would simply be called the Cancer Solstice.

So, what does all this mean? Why should we care?

Well, with the Moon arriving in Cancer before the Sun does, we expect our feelings to evidence themselves in a Cancerian manner before our (Sun) consciousness does. Instinct leads the way - as do our feelings. And with Mercury already at 20 Cancer, our thoughts head in the emotional direction, particularly where relationships are concerned. With Mercury (in Cancer and therefore ruled by the Moon) in square to Saturn at the New Moon, new concerns are prompted.

The real question here is twofold. The first part of this question is whether we are exhibiting what we do and who we are with an eye to the quality of what we’re ‘putting out there.’ That’s the general concept raised by Saturn’s retrograding in Libra’s third decanate degrees (degrees 20 through 29) and with Saturn in opposition to Eris at 22 Aries and both planets just sitting there, the metaphysical implication is that though we may be focused on others or in some sort of debate with someone else, the real argument is with our Self.

At some level, most of us want to ‘hold out’ for what we know: Eris conjunct Lachesis (duration) and Kassandra (disbelief) is likely to manifest as the sort of indignantly stubborn thinking which says ‘I don’t think I’m wrong here’…with the Aries part of this having to do with ‘who I am’ or ‘what I’m doing.’

Whether you should hold out or whether you should change is astrologically seen through the opposition to Saturn, which in retrograde asks us to consider the precepts of Arcturus and Spica: whether we lead with our proverbial ‘best foot’ (or finest ability)forward or not. The feedback, the support, the approval (or lack thereof) is really all about that – not about who we are as a person.

It’s not easy to take it all that way (Hello? Venus retrograde) but that’s really what it is – and here Venus retrograde is the ‘softening’ agent which gets us to listen as points and objections hit home.

This thus becomes a time of measuring whether, where and why change is needed.

And then we get to the second question: should things be easy? With Uranus and Eris both in Aries (a situation which is going to continue for a good half-dozen years yet) we can change of be changed. Astrological wisdom would tend to vote for ‘change’ as opposed to ‘being changed’ because we get a vote in how we change things and no vote at all in how life changes us.

But there is – undoubtedly – some quivers and quandaries at this time. For one, as the Moon moves into Cancer the Sun will be entering 29 Gemini, Gemini’s most critical degree.  And considering Gemini is a sign of mentality and communication (among other things), that concept of ‘critical’ could be literal. Or with Moon and Mercury already in emotionally evocative Cancer, at least cranky!

Yes, we could vote for this same combination manifesting as joy and cuddly happiness, too. But with Venus still in retrograde…?

(…A brief pause while the astrologer heaves a resigned sigh…)

These weeks of Venus in retrograde seem to be wearing people down. That would be the evidence that Venus is performing its retrograde in Gemini and how mentally-driven we are as human beings.

So once the Sun and Mercury are both in Cancer? With Mercury in square to Saturn-opposition-Eris through June 24th, there are challenges to face. But the good news there is that Mercury in this position defines this period of time as a t-square.

(Yes, I did just call a t-square a good thing!)

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The reason why I would hold that a t-squares is a good thing is that by itself, an opposition is either a ‘balancing act’ (the me part against the ‘them’ part) OR a formidable challenge to grow into something other than what you start out as which integrates the principles of the opposition.

But a t-square? T-squares basically say that once we get over ourselves on the personal level (i.e., our ego issues) and get on with doing the task at hand because it needs to be done and done correctly, then we not only excel and succeed, but we end up creating situations which give that ego some positive reinforcement.

Not that it’s easy! T-squares have earned a hefty astrological reputation for difficulty for good reason. Yet statistical surveys of charts show that many of the charts of people we consider ‘among the great’ include t-squares. In fact, in the past 100 years or so, astrologers have moved from what is often thought of as the ‘Germanic school’ of astro-speak (which is couched greatly in negatives and disaster) through the sunshine and roses candy floss stage of the mid-late 1900s to a rather realistic perspective of ‘life includes challenges because through challenges we grow’ sort of perspective.

So the trine which in the early 1900s could ‘consign us to misery for all time’ and which then gave way to ‘peace and light’ in the middle/late 1900’s is now looked at as being ‘all in how you use it.’

Meanwhile, the square – and its cousins the t-square and grand square – have come to be looked at not as total malifics and not as horrible things which get in your way but the very things which in confronting us, cause us to grow. And from such growth comes the building blocks with which we build our success – external and internal.

At the moment, those challenges may look enormous. Yet Venus retrograde may play in two directions here. Either it’s worn you down to the point where you’re feisty and irritable…or it’s worn down the very resistance which has allowed you to go on refusing to change or learn something new about life (and therefore, your Self).

With Mars moving into Virgo’s third decanate as the New Moon arrives and the Sun moves on through its Solstice there’s a feeling of wanting – and wanting either to get it right or that you (still) feel within your rights. Is that about what you’re doing? About whether you should tell someone what they’re doing wrong?

Well let’s see…Venus in retrograde...hmmm…how do you think people will take to having someone sticking unwanted noses into their business?

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do so. At the time of the New Moon – and therefore as a factor moving forward into July – is a semi-sextile to Ceres. Ceres being the symbol of the kind of awareness, attention and timely action which gets the seed planted when it should be planted, the fields watered and weeded regularly – that’s Ceres. Often thought of simply as the nurturance associated with Virgo, Ceres is also the mental planning which goes with growing anything ‘from seed’ to harvest feast.

Ceres is also about ‘getting your hands dirty.’

 Farming (here being done in Indonesia) is probably the

oldest and most critical form of occupation (apart

from motherhood!) where we get our hands dirty.

(photo credit: Jan-Pieter Nap)

With semi-sextiles being noted for arousing feelings of being put upon (and sometimes embarrassed) the whole of the late June/early-mid July period may have people feeling insulted, rejected, unappreciated. Yet some of us will grow from that – just as some of us have grown from taking the Venus retrograde period as a time to harness our abilities in a productive and ultimately useful way.

The big question would seem to be about whether you’re moved to mix it up – most of all with yourself. So…can you get past your sense of ennui? Can you get past the ‘what now?’s and the ‘why do I have to do everything?’ and follow the plan of productivity?

Probably the biggest glitch here – which because this colors the Solstice implies it will be carried through as a theme during these next three months – is the New Moon’s exact conjunction with Polaris and Betelgeuse.

The degree is 28 Gemini, a degree which by its 3rd decanate position denotes input and feedback. Things are not in our control and moreover, with Betelgeuse’s position being 28 Gemini, we don’t even want control. I know a doctor with Venus/Mars (personal pleasure, a sense of wanting things to be rewarding) conjunct this position and the last thing this MD wants is to have to take control.

That's a challenge for a doctor, granted. But it can be made useful if and where we remember that we are a participant in life and merely called upon to do our part as well as we can. Some things – yes, they happen. For this doctor, some of his patients will get well, others will die. That is the way of life. Hopefully he rests easily with the fact that he’s not in charge of the universe.

At the same time, this configuration also asks that he should take delight in doing all he can as an intelligent being with regards to his patients. He can't just 'do what he likes' and ignore the rest.

So he shouldn't expect himself to know everything. Who does?All any of us are called upon is to do is the best we can. And that, my friends, is where enters Betelgeuse at 28 Gemini, a degree which the great astrologer Dane Rudhyar typified as being about ‘the creative exuberance of the human soul in response to basic life experiences.’

We are talking Gemini here – the third sign of the zodiac. The first four signs of said zodiac, the first round through the elements – they’re all about the basics of life and the basics of our life. They’re about learning. Gemini is our mental facility. So no, in Gemini we are not supposed to know everything...we are merely supposed to learn, be willing to learn, and to never buy into (nor settle for) the idea that we’re stupid. Or ‘less than’ someone else because we do not yet know something.

 Red star giant Betelgeuse

(photo credit: Hubble-NASA-ESA, 2004)

Betelgeuse challenges us here, as Betelgeuse drives for the 'easy,' which in Gemini would have us wanting things to be 'easily learned' or 'easy to come by' or do.

And that's why this star is such a challenge to the essence of Gemini. Gemini is wholly about learning. So if you're someone who is a workaholic, you should learn to relax. But if you're someone who likes the luxurious life, you need to learn to apply yourself.

Betelgeuse in Gemini is all about learning how to 'be' in this world, yes. But it's our world and Betelgeuse is in our charts. So in the end, it all comes back to learning about ourselves. And what we think of ourselves. And learning more, so we can be more and maybe even achieve those rewards we all seem to want!

So this New Moon...set exactly conjunct Betelgeuse...that combination heralds a month in which to learn about learning and in doing so, to learn more about ourselves….and probably how we make things harder for ourselves by being set in our ways, by pre-judging who we can be, by coping out – whether that involves saying I’m stupid or I can’t learn that or (adding in a bit of Cancer here) I don’t know how to get along with my family or I can’t see living in some other house.

We are probably not meant to know all ends. Our life is an exploration – a learning process. Gemini is with us always. And here we are given a New Moon to remind us of our innocence, and hopefully of our vulnerabilities. We all feel hurt, we all get angry. Harsh words get said, mistakes get made.

Can we move beyond that and indeed be and become a family of mankind?

Polaris – Earth’s current pole star – is sitting conjunct Betelgeuse and the New Moon. Known as a star of leading or leadership, let’s hope that this lunation and Solstice season to come leads us all towards greater understanding of ourselves, of each other, and the willingness to ‘take the lead’ in turning difficulties into good times yet to come. 

Chiron Retrograde: Unwilling, Yet Needed

 Centaur Chiron and Achilles by Giuseppe Maria Crespi (c 1695-1700)

When Chiron goes retrograde at 9 Pisces on Wednesday, June 13th at 5:14 in the morning UT/+0 time, most of us won’t even flinch. We won’t look up, we won’t stop, we won’t give it a thought.

We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing. Those sleeping will sleep on, those busy doing will keep up the pace of their doing and nary a person will care.

Except that we will - care, I mean. We will like as not already have begun caring days in advance, given how run-ups to station/retrogrades seem rife with pressures of whatever sort fits the object about to go retrograde.

With Mercury, our minds are busy, busy, busy trying to get things done.

With Venus, we're trying to get to whatever it is that at the moment seems most meaningful and gratifying.

With Saturn, we aim to stabilize things and make sure they're on course.

And then there's Chiron. So...what is Chiron about?

The story of Chiron involves a centaur who as it happens, was a friend of the one and only, heroic Hercules – the guy who harnessed the bulls which could not be harnessed and who cleaned out some stinking stys without a scoop of poop ever crossing his shovel.

Hercules’ part in this story comes later, but it’s worth noting that these two were buddies simply from the like attracts like perspective. That they were friends suggests to us that their potential and their strength of heart and being is meant to be equal in our eyes.

Because it’s important to understanding Chiron, those of us raised in the Age of Disney generally have a slightly skewed perspective on centaurs. We think of them as artistic and graceful where the Greeks (a rather bawdy group) thought of them differently. Before Disney got around to cleaning up the centaur act, the body of a centaur joined the two bodies (human and horse) at the horse’s heart and human genitals.

Providing it doesn’t make you blush (and maybe even if it does), that image makes the nature of centaurs a whole lot clearer. The centaur is an image of great physical strength (the horse) and great mental strength (the human) with the question being which is going to dominate in service of the other – or can these attributes be made to work together?

In the chart, Chiron is often the point where people say but I don’t know HOW to – I have no IDEA how to do that!

Plainly – if unfortunately – those of us who say that are out of balance. Either we’re living more on our animalistic (purely physical or instinctual) side and thus lack a clue…or we’re living too far over on the intellectual side, without any idea of how to do things physical, instinctual and primal.

All centaurs had this challenge. Chiron we merely know about because he met up with Apollo (Mister Olympian Enlightenment) one day and Apollo offered to share his gifts with Chiron. He’d learn him a thing or two, one might say.

(I know…I just turned Apollo into a down home farmer boy. But can’t you see it? Apollo standing there chewing on the tip of a strand of hay, his blond curls all tousseled, that Olympian nose a bit sunburned?)

Apollo, being a versatile sort of Olympian, could have endowed Chiron with many sorts of gifts. After all, as god of light (not the sun – that was Helios), Apollo was, in Greeks philosophical theory, in charge of healing – which in Greek and mythic terms comes down to three central (spiritual) themes: medicine as physical healing, music as emotional healing and truth as mental healing.

So Apollo gifts Chiron with the spiritual gift to heal physical wounds. And for a while, Chiron pours knowledge and ability into his tasks. But then comes a fateful day when…

There are various forms of this story, the most common of which begins with Chiron’s immortality having been long ago given up to save Prometheus – who had been chained to a rock and left to die for the utter sin of stealing fire (another form of light) from the immortals to give to mankind.

 Prometheus by Nicolas-Sebastien Adam (Adam the Younger)

Housed in the Louvre, Paris (France)

(photo credit Jastrow 2008)

Every version of Chiron’s story ends in tragedy. Drink is always involved and though who gets intoxicated and who fights whom changes from version to version, Chiron ends up dead.

Chirotic Moral #1: Passion can undermine, defeat or kill the spirit of enlightenment.

Chirotic Moral #2: Those who abandon that they have worked so hard to learn often pay the ultimate price.

And this, dear friends, would seem to be one of the reasons why we all have such issues with our natal Chiron placement…by which I mean this: wherever you see Chiron in your chart (replete with aspects, sign, modifiers, etc.) that ‘totality’ of whateverness is something “you don’t know how to do.” Why? Because instinctively we each know that place, that issue is one which would ‘unleash’ us and expose us to our innermost, baseline feelings.

Remember – this isn’t someone else we’re talking about. In your chart, symbols are about your life. So sure…if your Chiron is in the upper (public and “visible”) half of the chart it could involve others. But that just means that you probably have some sort of ‘defense mechanism’ you put up from time to time.

Or always, yes. As in all things, it depends.

Chiron’s going retrograde in the week hours of June 13th (UT/+0 time) means we have a ‘station allowance’ which starts on June 11th and extends through June 15th. June 11th being the date that Jupiter moves into Gemini suggests much is in the wind, in the process and on our minds.

Since this turnabout is occurring at 9 Pisces and Pisces has such a well-deserved reputation for pitting us against our feelings in such a way as to create doubt, confusion, insecurity and their more physical cousin exhaustion, it wouldn’t be at all shocking if so much was going on that at one point or another you simply shut the door and say ‘eeee-NUFF!’

Then again, I’m not sure anyone would blame you if you simply closed down the thinkery at the beginning of this station while hanging out a sign which says ‘Gone Fishing.’ (Pisces – get it? Fish?) In fact, with the closest modifiers at 5 Pisces (asteroid Lilith) and 12 Pisces (Bali) this last seems rather apt: for the moment, I’m done with people poking and prodding me (Lilith=emotional denial or denial of emotional access). I just need some time to do what I want to do. I need some fun! (Bali in Pisces = an emotional vacation.)

Okay...so maybe I should learn how to fish!

Bali Club Med (photo credit Tatsu66 June 2008)

Commonly, whenever we arrive at a station, thematic situations well up like violins swelling at the beginning of a love scene. Unfortunately with this being Chiron, it’s probably not going to be a love scene, since Chiron always pits us against our Self –mostly against some sort of unnamed and unnamable emotion which leaves us squirming (at least in our throat) not knowing quite what to do, say or feel.

Not to put too fine a point on it here – but don’t let anyone kid you…there isn’t anybody who has mastered their Chiron. Personally, I loved Barbara Hand Clow’s book on Chiron (The Liquid Light of Sex) and I’ve read several other books on the subject I also respect. But when it comes right down to it, the nitty gritty of Chiron is all about doing the thing we don’t know how to do.

And the answer to that is (gag) simple: do it anyway.

Yes, I said that. Why? Because in the end, Chiron is about learning by doing. When the situation is Chirotic, there isn’t any way to get it done except by doing it.

(If it’ll make you feel better, I know all this from stem to stern and Chiron is just as hard for me to manage as you.)

That Chiron is going retrograde while Venus is in retrograde may bring about a ‘what now?’ sort of vibe. 

You may feel impossibly wearied by having to ‘do everything’ all by yourself. You may feel  unimaginably put out. Or incredibly betrayed.

The truth is, you may have reason to be put out. But maybe not. You may have been betrayed. But maybe not. And you may be doing something all by yourself because someone else (that person you imagine should be helping you?) is busy doing something all by themselves and thinking the very same thing.

The obvious 'piling on' of reticence and discomfort atop stress and malfunction (or heaven forbid, malfeasance), it all seems so very too much. Then again, it reminds me to remind you that transits don't happen in isolation. This isn't just 'Chiron going retrograde' here in June after May's eclipse and after Venus has gone retrograde. They're all intrinsic to the evolutionary process. Astrologers are only human, so we can only tackle 'x' amount of the pie at a time. For me, it seems sensible to tackle each thing as it comes along. But if Venus in retrograde is red and the solar eclipse is yellow, we came into an orange-y hue before a blueish Chiron browned everything.

Life is a flow. Transits don't happen in isolation any more than your life of yesterday is isolated from your life of today. It's a continuum. It's a building of factors into something like a recipe does...except there aren't many cookies going around. (Apart from on computers, that is.)

Beyond this, a note of note which may give you hope, which may give you the creeps - depending on what's going on in your life. And, of course, what you know (but may not like 'knowing') way deep down inside. Chiron's extremes do often manifest in an 'instinctual knowing' likely to be prominent particularly in charts where Chiron aspects the Ascendant/Descendant axis, Mercury, Uranus or the nodes.

The fact which needs conveying here is that come June of 2015, Neptune will take station at 9 Pisces - the same degree Chiron is stationing at now. That draws a metaphysical 'dotted line' between today and June, 2015 with lots and lots of room for this to mean a whole assortment of things based on what's going on right now. A difficulty of today may melt away come 2015. Something you don't want to deal with today may come back to haunt you in 2015. Something you're trying to bring into being today may succeed wildly - but only once June 2015 rolls around.

It all depends. So much is under pressure at the moment it's hard to tell good from bad sometimes.

And in the world of Neptune - that's just the point. Just as Venus symbolizes our relationship with the concept of quality as something to embody, not to merely be enrobed in, Neptune asks that we accept and in accepting, give up the ego-position that 'it's all about me (and mine)' while not giving up on ourselves.

It's a touchy balance, that meeting of craving and altruism. And astrologically, we have another name for that debate in a nutshell. We call it Chiron.

It would be lovely if we could sit down and like Chiron with Apollo have an honest chat. It would be wonderful if we could be the healer in each other’s lives.

But this week…maybe it’s enough to take care of ourselves. Plus we do always have that option of being honest with that first-person-personal we all call 'me.'

Who knows...maybe by doing a bit of that we’ll realize it isn’t so hard to be the healer and reach out after all. We all have a Chiron, we all live in the sunlight (and because there is sunlight).

Will we choose to fight - or be enlightened?

Jupiter in Gemini

Since the sign where Jupiter is the sole symbol of expression is Sagittarius, that means the sign in opposition to Sagittarius would be Jupiter in a sign of “Fall.”

(Don’t blame me for the term. It’s ancient…I just put up with it and kick it around from time to time.)

What does ‘Fall’ mean in regular people-talk? That part’s not hard. Planets are associated as ‘rulers’ with signs where the symbolism of the planet is in harmonious sync with the sign. Jupiter is about having learned (that’s past tense, folks – learned). Sagittarius is about knowing and putting what we know to work in applied form, seeing if it works in reality the way we think ought to.

You know, in theory.

Gemini is that sign on the opposite side of the zodiac from Sagittarius. So if in Sagittarius we know and work on application, in Gemini we learn…including choosing what to learn.

With me so far?

Jupiter’s orbit around the Sun takes 11.86 years. The math here isn’t hard: Jupiter spends just shy of one year in every sign. And as of 5:33 in the afternoon on June 11th, it’s Jupiter in Gemini time (again).

So if Jupiter is in its sign of Fall while transiting Gemini, is there any good use for Jupiter in Gemini? As someone born with Jupiter in Gemini I’ll say ‘yes.’ Although I’ll admit – there are a few drawbacks. In the communicative sign of Gemini, Jupiter’s expansive ‘more is always better!’ can go overboard. It’s like Gemini’s airiness channels Jupiter’s expansive spirit, but doesn’t necessarily have enough guidance or sense of boundaries. That thing which so many Sun sign Geminis get into that...I’m a Gemini – I'm always doing a dozen thing. I get bored. I…

You know, that thing - the Gemini challenge. All signs have challenges and probably the biggest one with Gemini is simply that – making a choice, sticking with it, and seeing it through. To choose, to be organized, to priorities, to have a plan and follow that plan from A to B …all the way through to X, Y and Z - that's the Gemini challenge.

(Hint: all sign challenges come from an element associated with the polarity sign.)

So here we have Jupiter entering Gemini: the ruler of Gemini's polarity entering Gemini the sign. For some, this is akin to adopting the enemy. But for those with a more forward-thinking perspective, this is exactly the chance we've been looking for. Yes, this could turn into a year of mega-frittering and scattering of mental assets. But it doesn't have to be. Jupiter in Gemini (or Jupiter transiting Gemini) can be a time of ENORMOUS accomplishment simply because it's as much about focusing on our mentality as using it...as much about learning about ourselves as taking ourselves out into the world.

But this is Gemini we're talking about. So first up is probably the communication thing. Jupiter in Gemini can be much communication or communication on a plethora of subjects. It can be you being bombarded with information or you broadcasting information to others, far and wide.

A brief story from someone with a natal Gemini Jupiter (me): when texting came in a year or two passed (I’m never hasty about technology – let others suffer the outrageous chinks and electronics errors, I say!)…at some point I said to one of my girlfriends, ‘I’ve never used text.’

Her reply: text isn’t for you. You shouldn’t text.

I was both puzzled and yes, a trifle indignant! Why shouldn’t I text?

She heaved a great sigh. Because text is meant for SHORT messages. You’ve never sent a short message in your LIFE.

Well, she had a point there. Yet despite her objections, I got a text phone. And I’m sure you’ll all be happy to know I don’t actually use the texting feature that much. (Email is a whole other thing. I’m very into email!)

But all of that basically describes the challenges involved with Jupiter’s transit of Gemini: choice, priority, organization, having a plan (and following it) and making sure not to ‘overstep’ your bounds.

Conciseness counts.

But so does getting the information across. After all, Jupiter is still Jupiter – it seeks to inform, whether the one being informed is you or someone else.

 A postcard of a woman using the phone (they were called "candlestick phones")

back around the year 1910. Can you imagine someone making a postcard 

 of someone using a phone nowadays? Most likely it would be a picture of

 someone taking a picture of themselves using their own cellphone!
,

Allowing for the obvious (that means if you’re going to talk, knowing what you’re going to say before opening zee mouth is eine good idea!), the associated thought is how Jupiter in Gemini tends towards haste and sloppiness where crafting what you say, who you say it to and how you say it may well be the difference between success and someone staring at you with that glazed-and-dazed expression which you just know isn’t in your favor.

To say nothing of (speaking of texting, as we were) the dangers of distraction. And careless spewing of information. Jupiter will be in Gemini until late June, 2013. During that time, it’s a bet that not only with many a mouth runneth over, but also that the web will be alive (…ALIVE! IT’S ALIVE!!...) with hackers and spammers and all that nastiness. Counterfeiting, piracy, even plain old regular run-of-the-mill honesty is likely to not just come to the fore, but be the cause of many a slip-up.

Oh, how many of us will say ‘but I thought they were just…’ when something bad happens because no one was paying attention?

For those of you who are would-be Mayanists, though it seems to now be getting around that December 2013 is not the end of the Maya calendar but rather one of the sub-cycles of the Maya calendar (aka the Long Count, which ends in the year 4772)…there is a point of interest to be noodled over – namely that come December 20th, the end of this current Maya cycle, Jupiter will be conjunct Aldebaran: star of integrity.

Yet Jupiter will be retrograde. That makes it about us, not someone ‘out there’ or in regards to what ‘they’ do.

More in present-tense terms, as Jupiter enters Gemini it will of course immediately conjunct the position of the May 20th Solar Eclipse (0 Gemini). A lot of us are going through changes and contemplating changes we yet need to make. All of that is emblematic of a solar eclipse, and if you know where Gemini is in your chart you probably know how that pertains to changes you’re in the process of contemplating…or maybe already making.

With regards to that subject, Jupiter’s conjuncting the eclipse position is either very positive or negative, hardly anything between. Facing what needs to be done in order to move ahead would seem to be the order of this moment. And considering Jupiter’s native association with Sagittarius (and that Jupiter is Jupiter no matter what sign it’s transiting), education, foreign(er) affairs, legalities, news, religion or the necessity to know more before you precede may be the order of these days.

And lest you not get it, woe be to anyone who gets told you really need to know about this…who blows the effort off.

With Neptune having just gone retrograde and this Gemini ingress being in square to that position, the challenge is sort of ‘aimed’ at our natural ego needs. The object is to serve the drive without thinking in terms of your ego.

Like, huh?

Yes, I know…very odd. And particularly so in this instance because when it comes to Pisces, we’re talking another of those signs which is generally considered to have two rulers.

No, not if you’re a “strict traditionalist” who doesn’t even use Neptune in your astrology work, and not if you’re a total “modernist” who poo-poo’s the idea of Jupiter having any connection to Pisces. But for the rest of us, absolutely.

With every sign which has two rulers (currently there being three of them, but I suspect more to come) …the idea is that the ‘first ruler’ is the symbol of the process by which we approach or get into the “sign’s subject matter.” In Scorpio, that’s emotional investment (or investment which has the potentials of provoking our emotions)….in Aquarius that has to do with knowing how to operate in the social-public-group-societal-work environment so as to be accepted and achieve your aims…and in Pisces, the question is how well you know (Jupiter = knowledge) yourself emotionally, and whether there is any problems with your emotional makeup being part of the greater human emotional quotient.

In all three of these signs (Scorpio, Aquarius and Pisces), the secondary ruler either governs…

1. …the ‘outcome’ you will get from planets transiting that sign, the “natural house” associated with that sign (Scorpio = 8th house, Aquarius = 11th house, Pisces = 12th house) in your natal chart…and wherever that sign falls in your chart, should it not fall on its ‘natural’ house in your natal chart.

2. …the lesson you will learn if you aren’t well enough informed (Pisces) or make a bad-or-overly-risky choice (Scorpio) or aren’t up to par, speed or snuff (Aquarius) when you take on issues associated with that sign (planetary ruler or house).

3. …the nature of the ‘short cut’ you will attempt to employ in any situation which involves the sign, native house or sign placement in your natal chart.

With Neptune being the ‘outcome’ ruler of Pisces, the ‘short cut’ is generally one of a couple of things. People with Neptune (and Pisces) issues are notorious for a.) evading, avoiding and vanishing b.) citing some “unassailable” truth, belief or obscure fact you can’t possibly call them out on in the moment, and c.) playing the victim card.

When the subject is Piscean (or 12th house), any or all of these methods will like as not be used…and the really hard thing is that sometimes it’s valid. Sometimes they say their peace and have nothing more to say, so they seem to vanish, but in reality all you have to do is take up the conversation. Sometimes they truly hold some belief which is unassailable or inconvenient. But is it applicable? Often not.

As for playing the victim card, this can be the really hard call as Pisces is a sign all about not just feeling our feelings but feeling what we feel about our feelings. In other words, you may get angry as all tarnation at someone, but if you would stop to think about it you’d feel ashamed that you were being so petty, cruel, self-indulgent or even unprofessional.

So sometimes the victim card being played on you may be correct. But since no one likes looking in the mirror and saying ‘don’t I look cute in tyrant mode?’ the victim card thing is generally pretty hard to sort out.

(Insert: heavy sigh…been there, haven’t liked that.)

Anyway…because this is Jupiter entering Gemini just after Neptune goes retrograde, this is a fine time to get some perspective on ourselves, since hardly anyone is floating around in this world with an absolutely perfectly clean mental drain system. No, we all have some grunge in our emotional brain pipes, and this would be a likely time to encounter the clog.

Or maybe you already know what the clog is (or has been). If so, the ongoing Venus retrograde may well be nature’s way of giving you time to realize how and why you do such things – with a chaser of opportunity hereabouts when you can straighten things out (in your own head and with others).

It all depends on perspective. Together, Jupiter and Neptune (and the process of feeling our own feelings) gives us perspective on life. From that, we have an opportunity to learn more about ourselves and decide to be ‘better’ – more of what we want to be – not for others, but so we get a little closer to some semblance of peace in our own mind, heart and soul.

Peace is the ultimately Piscean (and Neptunian) aim. We sometimes (Neptune) kid ourselves that this or that short cut or belief or evasion of the ‘ikky’ stuff will get us there, and sometimes that works for a little while.

But in the long run?

In the long run peace depends on knowing who we are and being okay with that. Peace is not security – security is tangible (and Taurean) where peace is emotional and Piscean.

 A detail from the painting 'The Arts of Industry as

Applied to Peace' by Frederic Leighton (1870-1872)

Jupiter entering Gemini is an opportunity to build or build anew through making choices (some of them hard choices) and building – or rebuilding – for a future we would like to create. More or less, these opportunities are always with us. But with Jupiter’s entrance into Gemini, we now know this is a time ‘designed’ for such a process.

And when life has gotten complicated enough or boggled enough or clogged enough that we really do need to break through or break out of our self-designed limitations. Some will be Piscean and emotional, some not. But the metaphysics of this moment, and in all the days which follow until Jupiter moves into Cancer on June 26, 2013, every challenge, ever situation, every puzzle, every choice is an opportunity to learn both about the issue at hand and the person make the choice: you.

 Providing we don’t go too fast or build less than carefully, Jupiter in Gemini can be our key to achieving personal peace. We just have to keep ourselves on track – and take it from someone with a Gemini Jupiter…that much is very much possible!