A Pisces Full Moon

 A Full "Super" Moon as it rises over the Altantic Ocean

(photo credit: Bubba73, March 2011)

Occurring at 11:41 a.m. on September 19th, the Pisces Moon will occur on the day before Pluto goes direct.

That September’s Full Moon occurs within the auspices of Pluto’s station is a sign of things to come at the same time that it is the ‘fulfillment’ point of our current lunar cycle.

Mind you, that’s ‘fulfillment’ in the cosmic sense, not necessarily in the sense of our feeling happy or content with any particular thing. In fact, it could be argued that any Pisces Full Moon (never mind one in late Pisces) is a sign of our feelings or our reactivity reaching a high water mark for reasons which may be entirely out of our control.

So…satisfying? Not necessarily, though there’s a plethora of reasons to think it could be just fine, dandy and even blissful. After all, Pisces isn’t the process of dreaming (as in REM sleep), but Pisces is the fantasy, the ‘dream’ we wish to be enveloped by, that nirvana of feeling we all so long for.

And that’s all well and good as long as we don’t try to substitute that longing for reality…or measure reality by that fantasy. That’s the Pisces premise, and to the extent that we can accept reality and see it as part of our dreams, or apart from our dreams (with both reality and the dream being fine in their own way), then we’re fine.

It’s just the resisting or denying one or the other which tends to get us into trouble.

Which leads to the idea of the degree this Full Moon is occurring in: 26 Pisces. We don’t tend to think of Pisces as a militant sign, but 26 Pisces has a sterling reputation for being willing to fight – even on the wrong side of the question. Also contrary to most general conceptions of Pisces, this degree tends to be rather materialistic, which means this Full Moon may well refer to a reality-based experience of that which is held as a belief.

And that leads us to the next highly interesting fact – the notion that this Full Moon comes complete as a grand sextile, the “magical” six-pointed star which the ancient Hermeticists referred to as the emblem of Divine or cosmic - even karmic - reflection embodied in the phrase “As Above, So Below.” 

 An Aries (non-location specific) chart wheel for the September 2013

Full Moon showing a diagram of the accompanying Grand Sextile (the

linking of two grand trines by sextile) at the center

 

On one level this is a reference to the ‘reflective’ quality of the small scale, and thus what may be happening on a world stage also happening in our lives, just in a localized manner. Seen in a more esoteric manner, the grand sextile (which is a linking of two grand trines set at 60-degree angles to each other) is where a grand set of ‘sextile opportunities’ becomes locked down as ‘fate.’ Or if you prefer, a ‘result’ – that secondary meaning going rather hand-in-hand with the idea of the Full Moon being an emblem of ‘phase fulfillment’ or the end of one part of a life effort so that we get to move on to the next.

The Grand Sextile is a highly potent and powerful figure. If your chart answers to any of the points in the above diagram you may be sure that your life will be in the process of being inexorably altered, and that this Full Moon is merely a step in a greater process.

No matter who you are or how your personal chart is laid out however, it is to be noted that the Full Moon itself is NOT part of the Grand Sextile. That tells us that this moment of experiential ‘highlighting’ is indeed part of a greater scope, a greater something going on in our world…or maybe ‘the’ world. And that there is such a difference in the scope of the degrees involved here (the Full Moon is happening in a late Pisces degree while the points associated with the Grand Sextile are all fairly early in their respective signs), that suggests an opportunity to have or gain perspective…

That in turn suggests that those whose charts center more on later numbers (say between 20 and 29 of any given sign) are likely to be ‘seeing things happen’ but be less likely to be involved. Such a concept works well with the idea of the third decanate Full Moon (the third decan of any sign being its last ten degrees) as anything third decanate tends not to be about our physicality or our actions as an originating point, though there’s obviously every chance that something going on in your environs or around you in life is going to affect you.

It’s just not ‘about’ you, per se.

On the other hand, those of us whose charts answer more to earlier zodiacal numbers are more likely to be more directly affected. What we do or how we do it may be affected. This may be or become a time of choice. We may suddenly understand why something is important and in keeping with 26 Pisces either be all for it or terribly defensive because of it.

It all depends.

In looking at this Grand Sextile, like the one which Sedna’s turn to retrograde set off the formulation of last month, this one is presented in earth and water signs. Earth and water can be the very essence of fertility. Then again, earth plus water can just equal a whole lot of mud and a muddy (or muddied) situation. That we have Pluto/Facies/Industria trine the South Node and the South Node trine Ceres/Agamemnon (which is obviously trine Pluto) involves the changing (Pluto) face (or Facies) of many (Facies) factors at (Industria) work or that we are (Industria) working on. Since Pluto is going on station atop Facies, there is an inordinate chance of our best and worst traits coming to the fore now – or having to ‘face’ (Facies) such factors particularly in any environment which has to do with the Capricorn ‘structure’ of our life.

Think home, family, job, marriage – that stuff.

With the South Node being trined by Pluto, there is inordinate pressure being placed on the idea of changing at a very fundamental (Taurean) level. Our very sense of values are being questioned – sometimes by others and at a very real and powerful sense, by our Self. Unlike the Scorpio-Taurus sense of challenge, this Grand Sextile effect gives us some sense that maybe we don’t know everything and maybe there is a more vital way we could live. Or a different set of parameters we could adopt which would be both more satisfying and more true to our nature, ‘arming us’ with tools with which we can live a more viable and satisfying life.

The third point in the triumvirate of earth positions is Ceres/Agamemnon, an emblem of plans which perhaps now need to be tweaked. Or amended. Or yes, even completely altered considering what we now know or are coming to understand.

Our sense of reality is changing. Our realization of what we can do…what is possible for us…is undergoing a period of intense (Pluto station) transformation which itself is a facet of the overall process of ‘breaking down’ our old ways of being and thinking reflective of the period leading into this November’s Solar Eclipse.

The second trio of points in the Grand Sextile are in water – our element of emotions and everything which tends to promote or provoke our emotionality. Black Moon Lilith/Child occupies the Cancer angle of this correlation, speaking to things (attitudes, habits, ways of responding) which may date back a very long way – to our own childhood. Given that all this traces back to Sedna’s station as the ‘ignition’ on this evolutionary phase we’re going through (which will culminate/shift gears at the solar eclipse), the Lilith concept of ‘denial’ may well be the letting go of things you were told way back when, your original concepts of what things “should be” or how they were just magically “going to be” (oh, how we all get bogged down by that stuff, right?) and some sort of willingness to ‘take a plunge’ in life which you might not have dreamed even remotely possible – never mind likely – only shortly ago.

The second part of the grand water trine presented is North Node, Saturn, Venus and Deucalion – which is (among other things) an evident and obvious sign that effort (Saturn) needs to continued (North Node) even though it’s really truly not what we like or what we want to do. This combination implies there’s something afoot which we’re not particularly enjoying, but which we understand has to be dealt with – and given Saturn/Venus/Deucalion – we’re likely to understand we have to deal with whatever that is with a modicum of grace, lest we lose out on everything we’ve been working for…or towards.

Since Grand Sextiles also come out to be a set of Magic Rectangles, that’s worth considering now as well…

If it's a Grand Sextile and thus two Grand Trines linked together, a

configuration will also yield three Magic Rectangles.

 

…with the thing to remember being that despite the fun-sounding name (anything with ‘magic’ in it tends to evoke a sense of childlike wonder) the Magic Rectangle represents things which go along rather ‘magically’ and marvelously right up until the time they don’t.

And once they don’t, then we get totally blown out of the water – sometimes with others, but mostly with ourselves. People who have Magic Rectangles in their natal charts tend to have a really rocky beginning which ‘turns out to be magic’ or they have a ‘magical’ sort of golden touch which inevitably – somewhere along the way – goes kaput.

Once a Magic Rectangle goes haywire, it’s a demon to get back on course. And why is that? That would be because – especially where something has come too easily to us, we haven’t learned how to try. So when something associated with one of these ‘golden’ configurations collapses, many get fixated on ‘how it used to be’ and flounder around haplessly because their life hasn’t taught them how to harness their own abilities.

In this case – and this is what we look to at any given moment when such configurations are an “ongoing” thing (which isn’t that often, a fact which marks this as a truly potent time in everyone’s life)…we know that Pluto is going station/direct on September 20th (the day after the Full Moon), we know that the November Solar Eclipse will occur at 11 Scorpio in conjunction with the Saturn-Venus-North Node-Deucalion mélange pictured here…and we know (or at least I know, and I’m sharing with you) that when Uranus goes direct this December it will do so at 8 Aries – setting off all all this earthy, watery energy with the plus or minus of same being how well we’ve been utilizing the energy pretty much from where it was initiated (Sedna’s station back on August 25th) into December.

Will we change…will we evolve…are we willing to grow up and be our own adult person based on our own adult capacities and understanding of life as it is, not as some ‘image’ presented by someone or something else?

And just to make this all a little more poignant (as if it needed any more piquant notes?) there’s also the fact that Venus will be going retrograde (yes, I hear you groaning) as of December 21st. And where will it be going retrograde?

That would be at 28 Capricorn – in sextile to this Full Moon, which is why I bring it up. Much as Saturn having gone station/retrograde at 11 Scorpio last February drew a metaphysical “dotted line” between events and choices back then to the peeling back of another layer of our personal façade as we’re experiencing now with the incoming 11 Scorpio Solar Eclipse, so this Full Moon will have a far fainter but still useful echo which will surface this coming December.

And if you know anything about Venus retrograde, that will be mid/late December until the end of January, when Venus goes direct again.

Energy has patterns, just as our auras have shape and that which the Chinese refer to as ‘chi’ manifests as patterns of energy in our bodies which reflect (or manifest) as our health and feelings of wellbeing.

Or the lack thereof.

Learning to recognize these patters and utilize or amend not the pattern itself but our reaction to it and how we utilize it, that is our key to personal betterment…in that concrete reality we call life.

Making that link…that’s the very essence of Pisces, and thus something to highlight in our own lives...for our own benefit (and thus the benefit of others who in the end will benefit or hinder us) at this moment of lunar fullness.
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Pluto-Facies: Moving On

  A broad-scale photograph of constellation Sagittarius, including the band we know

as the Milky Way which crosses Sagittarius end to end. The Galactic Center - currently

in Sagittarius and representative of the need to give of ourselves in some way to others

and our world in order to succeed in our own right  - in this photo is located just above

above center and to the right of the thickest part of the galactic presentation. 

(photo credit: 2MASS, G Kopan, R Hurt, Caltech)

Astronomers know astrology’s ‘fixed star’ Facies as "M22" – a nebula way out there in the vastness which is constellation Sagittarius.

Any time we talk about a nebula, we’re talking about many stars...and thus, in the astrological sense, ‘many things which appear as one’ - or something which is complicated because it has many factors. Or maybe many pieces of a puzzle which need to come together. It could even signify many factors or perspectives on any given idea.

Every nebula, like every fixed star has its particular meaning. In the case of M22 (Facies), in true Sagittarian form, whatever is at stake the issue is about growing your life. Or finding out why you keep stumbling in your attempts to grow your life.

Considering that Sagittarius is the polarity sign to Gemini, it's also useful to remember that Gemini is a wholly personal sign about our personal choices, how we think (or don't think!) or our individual ability to stay organized, keep to a schedule or have productive priorities. Against this, Sagittarius is the 'testing ground' - the phase of life where we put those ideas to work. Or where people react to what we have done - which would be why Sagittarius is both a sign of the media (as a means by which "the word gets around") and a sign which has a rather unpleasant reputation for fostering judgmental (or dogmatic) attitudes.

It's in Sagittarian mode that we try our ideas out...and when we find out what needs tweaking. Or refining. Or learning better (which would be why Sagittarius is the sign of education and all things theoretical, from law to science fiction to religion and all that).

That said, Facies doesn’t have all that good a reputation. Allegedly representing the eye of the Sagittarian archer (the hunter)…this nebula has a reputation for bringing out victim-perpetrator vibes, which in real life may be our own tendency to hide or flaunt what we think of as our best or worst traits.

After all, that's how we learn better, right?

That's one of the core ideas which often gets lost in astrology...namely that astrological energetics - particularly as applied to (or in) our individual lives are about OUR growth and OUR need to - for example in this case - understand where we may be weak or asking for trouble. Or where we may be acting without regards to others and their needs.

Or maybe just where our plans or methods of going about what we're doing don't quite work in realistic terms.

Given the 'victim-perpetrator' concept which goes with Facies along with the fact that Sagittarius is a sign which belongs to the zodiac's interactive quadrant, Facies situations or issues tend not to be simply about our Self. They're about something we do in public. Or with others. Or which we want to appeal to others. Or as part of something which has to work well within an ongoing structure if we're to get ahead.

Certainly since the time when Pluto came into orb of Facies back in early 2010, we’ve seen a lot of many a person’s best and worst traits.

But the hardest part of this move into…and now the process of Pluto conjuncting Facies…has been having to see our own tendency to be victimized or play the victim…our own tendency to be a ‘perpetrator’ because we were so focused on our own goals that we didn’t fully take into account what we might be doing to others. Or to that delicate balance between moving towards change and damaging our personal or world environment might be.

And this gets to the very important thing to remember about Pluto. For whatever reason, this particular dwarf planet which wanders around way out there beyond Neptune (whose orbit is controlled by Neptune)...when its energetics reach us, even the best of us tend to go haywire.

A good part of that is because we seem to think that Plutonic energies in our life are "about them." And that's incorrect. Pluto energies in each of our lives are about our need to grow and transform and regenerate and let go of whatever is toxic or malfunctioning because whatever that is...because it's preventing us from growing. It's preventing us from using our passions and talents and abilities for something useful or good.

When Pluto goes awry, we experience obsessions. We experience addictions. We experience a sense of 'I can't help it' which draws us to do things we often know aren't all that productive, but which we just can't seem to let go of.

We think it's 'them.' But it's not. The energy in our lives is finding a way to evoke or provoke that feeling of helplessness or that tendency to abandon self control or ownership of our own feelings so that we will either get hold of what the real (and underlying) issue is, or that we will go through such a powerful (and often negative) experience that we will learn not to do 'that.'

In other words, you might say that Pluto gone wrong is nature's form of aversion therapy. That's why, when Pluto hits us by transit (which, by the by, can either be to our natal or solar return chart, just to make things more interesting...) we will tend to find things which we think will "fix" some long-standing issue. Plutonic energy often engenders the classic 'this time will be different' energy which ends up being just the same...just as wrong...and as we encounter it time and time again, maybe even worse.

The issue is not 'them.' We'll think it's them, or something we did. But the real issue is that we're in "denial" of something we don't want to have to deal with...that being why Pluto's keywords are create, deny, destroy. When we have a Pluto problem, we 'create' something we think is going to make everything about our life better, and in doing so we 'deny' the real problem...and we end up experiencing the 'destruction' of our illusion.

At some point - hopefully - we get to the real issue. That issue is read through our natal Pluto, and specifically (beyond its sign, placement and aspects) wherever Scorpio is in our chart, whatever objects are in Scorpio in our natal chart...and at some quintessential and important level, the issue of how we/why go about choosing to get involved 'here' (or not get involved 'here') - that being the Mars 'instigation' level of Scorpio.

You know, the "I want that" part.

Where Pluto is concerned, we also have to care about Mars - which is why one of the best ways to deal with a problematic Pluto is to keep ourselves invested (a good Scorpio keyword: invested) in something which is for a known benefit...in other words, by investing in our Self in some way which we know (not hope) will turn out well.

With all that now noodled over...in this case, in this moment, since there's also said to be a ruthless quality to Facies, you can see why this might just go very bad. And with the Sun currently in Virgo, there is a naturally 'obsessive' quality to our thinking at the moment.

In other words, gawd forbid anyone try to interrupt us with facts...we're so invested in wanting what we want to be true to turn out true that some of us (read: those with problematic placements in either Virgo, Scorpio, Taurus or Pisces - with an emphasis on the first two) are going to be acting up or acting out in pretty unproductive...even de-structive ways.

(Note: those who qualify under these signs are most likely to find someone who also qualifies under these signs to have issues with. Why? Because life is very efficient: your triggers match their triggers and why would energy miss a trigger which needs triggering?)

How things (Virgo) work is likely to be of issue at the moment. Mental and emotional health - inclusive of long-standing emotional wounds are likely to get stirred up by this energetic. Our spirit, our psyche is trying to get us to work on where we are over or under functioning...and thus its wherever we tend to function - or through something which relates to 'functionality' where this energy is likely to surface.

Whatever shape it takes, the thing which gets out of joint or which is the thing we're refusing to discuss - that is pretty much specifically the thing which will point us towards the greater issue.

You know, our Pluto issue.

Now, if we only will just go there and deal with it!

(Easier said than done, yes.)

During the time that these two objects (Pluto and Facies) have been playing astrological footsie there's been a greater-than-average tendency to think in terms of the optimal (or the 'idea of the thing') while forgetting that real life doesn’t work exactly that way.

Way to go, Sagittarius...right?

On the other hand, this combination has another side entitled 'going by the book may not work either' which is also Sagittarian, since Sagittarius is all about learning and learning better.

That means as an individual.

Sometimes what we've learned from others isn't us. Or maybe we've internalized some tradition or early 'way of doing it' which life has simply outpaced or grown beyond. Society changes. Morays change. People change. Economics change. What's acceptable and even possible changes.

So sometimes we get to a place where we get confused because 'what we thought' (the "old way") doesn't fit. Or maybe we've grown up to be a person who just doesn't think the way our parents did...or in the 'mold' of our native culture.

Are we allowed to change? Life seems to say that weighing up what works for the many against what works for us is important. And in the light of Pluto/Facies, that can mean  ‘nebula/nebulous’ factors. If we try to 'adhere' to what we thought we were supposed to do (or the way we thought we were supposed to do it) we may just end up being a square peg trying to fit ourselves into our own round hole.

(So to speak.)

The point is, sometimes it doesn't fit, not even when we push, shove, insist or sulk.

And sometimes that's exactly what we're supposed to learn at a time such as when Pluto conjuncts Facies. Through experiencing defeats and confrontations and feeling aggrieved and being forced to take stock of who we are (the energy being ours and inside us) we end up learning something very vital about who we really are as opposed to who we thought we were.

There's a lot of just that going around, as it happens.

Pluto began it’s full-on conjunction of Facies last year around the end of January. And from January 2012 through early July it just sat at 8 Capricorn, with a nice little station thrown in for good measure during April 2012. Theoretically, that turn from direct to retrograde motion at 8 Capricorn would have started bringing home a realization that it isn’t ‘all them’ and that life isn’t what we think it ought to be simply because we have this vision for what life is supposed to be.

This is probably a good way to think of the metaphysics of the Sagittarian hunter with it’s eye in early Capricorn: it’s the reality of what we do which counts…it’s the hunt for the thing which will be the lasting answer which counts. Remembering that the hunter which is constellation Sagittarius is a centaur, it is up to us to balance our ‘animalistic power’ with our human capacity for reason.

So are we going to – as one might say – look ourselves in the eye now?

Maybe yes. Pluto’s passing over Facies has been one heck of a long process of forcing us to look inside. We've met up with situations and people who have pushed our Pluto buttons. Typically when such a thing happens we become 'the victim' of our emotions even as we get aggressive with anyone who tries to tell us that we're about to jump off a cliff without a parachute.

Ah, Facies at work. How unpleasant!

And how very, very human.

Pluto’s passage over Facies has manifested in bringing out many of those irrational out-of-balance things which we may like very much…but which don’t really work. Given that there’s a ‘blindness’ (real or figurative) associated with Facies, Pluto’s conjunction to this ‘fixed star’ has represented a time when we haven’t seen, haven’t wanted to see and when we have been forced to not see some things because others really needed our focus…and when some of those very things we haven’t seen have proved to be our deepest vulnerability.

Messier 22, located in  in Sagittarius

(photo credit: Jose Carlos Castro, July 2007)

Pluto will enter 8 Capricorn – a degree known for various forms of ‘separation’ and ‘isolation’ – on September 14th. Pluto will go direct about a week later, and then roll back through and out of 8 Capricorn as of September 27th.

Count on this as being a time of revelations. Considering the nature of the degree 8 Capricorn, you may realize you have been thinking too “esoterically” and now get more realistic. Or you may realize that your aims are too narrow, too overly defined and that you need to broaden them so that your efforts will lead to lasting results. There is a ‘doing without’ and a not caring about opulence which goes with 8 Capricorn which is in the nature of the degree and which may not reflect at all in your life. But those who are into opulence may now realize they don’t need ‘all that’ as much…while those who have been purists and minimalists may now decide they like a few niceties.

Pluto’s passages represent the transforming of our values at a very deep level. Plutonic evolution is all about what we allow ourselves to appreciate and what we appreciate about ourselves. It’s the balance which is really important here…and how we go about manifesting and achieving that balance in a world we don’t occupy all by ourselves, but which we also exist in as an integral, uniquely individual and viable human being.

That some ‘facets’ of our personal nebula may not be functioning well? That some may be dominating our personal landscape to the detriment of personal balance – or balance as a person among other people in this world? That’s Pluto-Facies. The ‘out-of-whack’ now comes out…maybe to others, maybe to ourselves…and the danger is that our efforts to correct same may be just as (Pluto) obsessive as anything else.

For Pluto’s final pass across Facies (for this round of the zodiac) to be happening under the auspices of a lead-in to a Solar Eclipse in the sign Pluto rules (Scorpio) says there is a lot about us on an integral and individual level which is going to change.

Actually, which is pretty much in the process of changing, even as you read this.

Given that in about a week Pluto will make its station as Venus continues transiting Scorpio (read: fixations run high) as the Sun reaches Libra (really testing our balance) in preparation for Mercury moving into Scorpio - a sign it will then go retrograde in during October...

...yes, we have the opportunity to balance ourselves out. The more out-of-balance we are, the more life and energetics and feelings and situations are likely to unsettle us and cause us to think 'they' are to blame.

But they aren't. Most likely they aren't. Oh sure - they may have their Pluto issues, but if we're all reactive now and if our life feels like it's hit the spin cycle (or the wringer) it's highly likely that we're out of whack. With ourselves, I mean.

On the world stage, we should expect that much will be in flux. There will be a lot of questions about 'what's worth it' being floated for this next little while. We may be asking ourselves lots of questions about ‘what’s worth it’ and who matters - and ‘why.’

Evidently it’s time for that to happen.

It’s always struck me as an interesting metaphysical factoid that Scorpio has more images and more totem animals than any other zodiac sign around. The animals are the scorpion, the gray lizard and the eagle, representing the emotional evolution we make as human beings from the level of living on instinct, striking out at anything we even suspect might hurt us (the scorpion) through the cautious, self-protective lifestyle (the gray lizard) to the most noble of Scorpio formats, that of the eagle which sees all, which takes only what it needs and which serves as an inspiration to cultures around the world.

Scorpio is also the sign of fixed water – which in the real world we know as ice. Ice can be solid enough to walk on…or thin enough to fall through. So too are our emotional assumptions, and this is…probably more than in the totem animal sense…where Pluto tends to operate. The allure of Scorpio, that glittery ice with its silken watery (emotionally provocative) gleam which lures us in then drops us into icy waters is both the Scorpio vulnerability and the tendency to be the (Facies-type) victim, whether to someone else or to our own tendency to be attracted by that which looks good…or as they say in the vernacular, that thing which is so very ‘shiny.’

Thick ice, the emotional structure which can bear us, the negotiation which can support our position in the world and our relationships with others takes time to build. And when ice gets thick enough to walk on, it often isn’t all that super shiny.

But it’s safe.

Pluto’s conjunction with Facies has been a long process of teaching us that while shiny is nice, safe and durable and lasting is better. And that is very much a Capricorn type lesson.

So let’s hope we’ve learned it.

A sky map of constellation Sagittarius. M22 is just at the center of the

constellation, where the centaur's 'head' would be.

(image credit: Grum, September 2004)

Given that Facies is positioned at 8 Capricorn, Pluto won’t be out of the five degrees of ‘departing orb’ until the end of November, 2015. And by then, Pluto will be in the middle of conjuncting fixed star Vega – a symbol of charisma and charismatic connectivity. That these two symbols/concepts (Facies and Vega) are currently positioned so that Pluto will move from one to another with several years of ‘overlap’ involved says a lot. And since fixed stars (including nebulae) do move, if you believe that the whole of What Is functions as a whole and thus is what it is not so that life can be destroyed but so that life and existence can continue to evolve…and that such evolution will at times ‘wipe out’ things that we like but which are not productive to the whole or in the longest of long runs…then we have to think this Pluto (plus) Facies/Vega combination is part of the many signs of our times.

To have charisma is the essence of a gift. What we use it for…and why we are attracted to it…that may well be the measure of our blindness. And as this all comes to us through the Capricorn lens, that we learn or don’t learn is on one side the ability to succeed…and the measure and durability of what we succeed at - and sometimes the benefits or costs of that great human gift we call charisma.

Good luck to us in that, I say. For some of us, the ice is about to crack and a cold, cold plunge will surely follow in time as others – those who have allowed their inner solidity to form while working towards their achievements - will move forward and find that their bridges built so very patiently now not only bear weight, but bear them on to greater achievements.

I hope the engineering of your life is entirely sound. With Pluto, the idea that using the energy lest it uses you reaches a maximal level. If you have a problematic Pluto, you probably know it. Hardly anyone who has one has gone more than a couple of decades without some sort of fall from personal grace.

The issue can be what happens to you...but is often more or less about how you feel about yourself. Pluto often makes us feel really lousy (or ashamed, or hurt) so that we'll turn away from 'that' and devote ourselves to something which (oddly enough...!) is challenging enough to keep us fully invested and which, over time, leads to being a different person.

Which was Pluto's object to begin with. Facies has just been the energetic of complications which have forced us to grow...and forced us to realize that we're more complicated and uniquely special than we thought. 
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Venus in Scorpio, Pallas in Leo

A Pulsar's Hand

(photo credit: P Slane/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA et al, CXC, NASA)

Venus begins just over three weeks of transiting Scorpio on September 11 at 6:17 a.m. (UT/+0 time). Hours later – at 1:49 in the afternoon, asteroid Pallas enters Leo.

These two positions are about as much in square to each other as they can get, which is the first indicator that September 11th is going to be a day when we can be challenged…feel our challenges…or when by getting ourselves not to hold onto attributes associated with one side or the other of the concepts expressed either one of these concepts, we empower ourselves to move forward in (Scorpio) sync with our world and in a (Leo) manner which can lead to great things.

That said, neither one of these placements is a bowl of ice cream with a cherry on top, so that bears a little thinking through.

But let’s start with the square. Long regaled as the bad guys in the world of aspects, a whole lot of astrological research and gathering of statistics and life stories has shown that the ‘difficulties’ often associated with squares is a matter of imbalance.

On our parts, I mean.

Think of it this way…the 90 degree square angle is the angle used most often in construction. But in order for that ‘construct’ to hold together and bear weight, the substance and internal structure – the very nature of the ‘materials’ (i.e., what we invest in a particular attribute) have to be within – as architects and engineers might say – within tolerance.

And that tolerance isn’t about preference – it’s about the very nature of the materials involved. If the ceiling is some massive slab of lead and the walls are made of cardboard, it’s unlikely those walls are going to support that ceiling.

Each thing needs to be proper for what it is, and when we do that, the joining of the two structures becomes something which is a very good example of that proverbial expression ‘greater than the sum of the parts.’

In a natal chart, squares are what we build with. They ‘feel’ inconvenient to start with, but when we master the precepts involved, often we are led to those things which form the actual “building blocks” of our life – that which with we engineer the structuring of our life and our world.

As for Leo and Scorpio, these are two of the zodiac’s four fixed signs – the signs of processing the business of that part of the zodiac. Leo is part of the 2nd quadrant, a quadrant about learning how to operate within ‘our realm.’

Scorpio is part of the 3rd zodiacal quadrant, a quadrant all about learning how to operate in an interactive public realm.

Here’s a diagram of the ‘natural’ zodiac wheel which gives a visual in this regard…

The 2nd quadrant is localized. It’s about growing into our abilities and learning how to manage or operate them to the best of our abilities. Water sign Cancer is the first sign in this quadrant and it’s about the operating of our basic emotionality. Leo is a fire sign all about what we are able to envision ourselves being or doing – and taking our first steps (or our thousandth step!) in figuring out how to bring that ‘vision’ to life and make it ‘be’ what we want it to be. A lot of frustrations are experienced in the world of Leo because in ‘practicing’ terms Leo follows Cancer and Cancer is the first water sign of the zodiac. So we’re talking about basic reactions to our own ability to have things be what they want them to be as we go into Leo.

Being focused through Pallas, this Leo ‘striving’ and desire to make things come into being or be as they want them to be encounters a bit of a cooling off as Pallas (short for Pallas Athena) refers to the sense of ‘dispassionate wisdom’ which we might otherwise think of as ‘perspective.’

Pallas is going to be in Leo until it moves on into Virgo late on November 9th. So these next few months are a time of ‘getting perspective’ on things. Or maybe for you it’s about doing the Leo thing (creating something in your life) while employing a greater sense of perspective…a cooler passion, if you will.

As soon as I say that, it may occur to you (as it did to me) that this may surface in some lives as more of a tendency to ‘operate things’ with an eye to getting what we want from them…or getting what we want from others. If you jump to the term ‘manipulation’ you’re not incorrect. But this could also refer to guidance – the providing of it, or being guided by someone in the learning of something new.

Or maybe it’s just about support and being supported through something or by someone who has walked the same path before you.

Scaling this back into the next three weeks (plus) however, there is the Venus-in-Scorpio thing to contend with. Scorpio is the fixed sign which sits in the middle of the zodiac’s third and interactive quadrant. This is the quadrant all about ‘getting ahead’ in whatever you’re aiming to do, which is why questions of and contests of power are so vibrantly (illustriously?) connected with Scorpio. Whatever the scale…whether we’re talking about friendly competition, the interpersonal emotions we all experience through relating and relationships, the vying for dominance in business or the full fledged war complete with bullets, bombs and missiles, Scorpio essentially is the realm of having our personal relationship with ourselves tested. Yes, we tend to think Scorpio is all about ‘the other guy’ (or gal) but it isn’t – it’s about what we want and that ‘want’ as a sign of the values we hold in general and for our Self. We contest others when we’re either convinced they’re wrong or when we don’t want to admit (to ourselves or anyone else) that there’s something amiss in our thinking.

Or, since Scorpio is a water sign, in the internalized imperatives of the emotionality we bring to any given relationship or situation which calls for us to relate to someone else and where they’re coming from.

Our greatest Scorpio successes occur when we find the right people or the right ‘formula’ which gets everybody to agree to go forward with an equal amount of give and take on all sides, an equal measure of ‘getting what I want’ granted to all parties and when everyone is on the same page as to what the goal(s) are. We don’t have to all be aiming for the same thing in a Scorpio situation – but we do have to be honest about it. The simplest example of this is the all-so-frequent differences in intimate relationships where one person is all about sex and the other person is all about security and being in a relationship they can rely on. Or where one person is all about money or social status and the other person is all about love.

None of these are ‘bad’ combinations so long as we are honest about where we are coming from and what our priorities are…and so long as the person who is agreeing to be in relationship with us understands that what’s important to them is their thing and what’s important to us is our thing and that we are both equally responsible when it comes to respecting the other person as an individual with priorities we should accept – not judge – and that by entering into any relationship of any kind we are accepting…in other words CHOOSING TO ACCEPT the need to honor that other person’s needs AS THEY HAVE BEEN NEGOTIATED GOING INTO THE RELATIONSHIP.

Business is very Scorpio. In fact, high finance and investments are one of the hallmarks of Scorpio. We all know that there has long been a problem with ‘fine print’ and not fully disclosing many facts in the financial world…but on the other side of the coin there are a whole lot of people who want to get into complex financial transactions without bothering to get educated in how they work.

Asteroid Pallas as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope

(photo credit: NASA, September 2007)

This is very much part of the Scorpio issue. While trust is a lovely thing and yes, there are people in this world who are entirely trustworthy, the person who wants to get into relationships in the Scorpio realm had better be willing to pay the price for their unwillingness to own their own personal power.

When things go wrong in the Scorpio world we feel hapless. Stupid. Unworthy. The instant tendency is to retreat.

Not so instant – or automatic – is the necessity to understand not what they did…but what in US caused us to pick them to ‘get into bed’ with - be that physically, emotionally, in business or any other way. We also need to think through what it is (specifically) in us which is so hurt…and whether that part of us has truly (honestly) been badly treated, or whether we are simply so sensitive or maybe unrealistic or perhaps just underdeveloped/underutilized that we are unable to stand the “normal” amount of daily rough and tumble which is part of human life.

Those who ask themselves these questions, those who are willing to learn and grapple with that they need to learn often return to the Scorpio foray and do very, very well the next time out.

Those who don’t, repeat their mistakes – sometimes until they refuse to emerge from their shells ever again.

There are aspects of these lessons which are about the ‘crucible’ process of being a human. The heartbreakingly tough time so associated with Scorpio loss, Scorpio defeat, Scorpio miscalculations, Scorpio abandonment – even the experience of being the object of Scorpionic abuse – these are all ‘shaping experience’ which cause us to realize what life really is…as opposed to what we want to think it is. In his masterful book “The Prophet,” Kahil Gibran wrote ‘out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars’ and that is a poignant Scorpionic statement. 

No matter who we are, respect – including that we have for ourselves - is earned.

And often the greatest amount of that respect is not earned through being the naif who ‘lucks out’ but through being the person who has felt the pain and been knocked down and who has gotten back onto their feet. ‘Older but wiser’ as we say, they learn more about who they are and about how others are and how to value both…and how to work with both…and the dangers of ignoring one or the other.

That is the Scorpio process.

All of this now comes into play with Venus’ entrance into Scorpio. That the first couple of weeks of this passage will have Venus in Scorpio against Sun In Virgo suggests that providing we are willing to be invested in knowing our own values and what we are getting into…and how that may affect us and thus our feelings about ourselves moving forward. Virgo being a sign about improving who we are, how we do what we do and our ability to grapple with our Self while taking the needs of others into account in an honorable manner, this is a period when the Venusian cause/effect. Why? Because Venus in Scorpio is all about the ‘what we do’ turning into ‘into how we are received or responded to’ – which with the Sun in Virgo can be all applause and ‘thank you’s or critiques which can feel very harsh.

Once the Sun moves into Libra on September 22nd the aura of life becomes more airy and that leads us to reflect…and contemplate…and think through and over what is going on. And what we think we should do. And what we need to understand before moving forward…or what we need to understand before making a choose to move forward in one direction or another.

This is a good time to get input from others. It’s also a good time to have as open and honest a conversation you can muster with people whose experiences mirror yours (or your proposed path forward). Understanding the thinking of others is important during the second half of Venus’ transit through Scorpio as this is where we have the greatest opportunity to understand the values of others (which we need to take into account and treat honorably) and where/how we are invested, under-invested or over-invested in one aspect of our life or another.

Given Sun in Libra against Venus in Scorpio, emotional investments are at the top of our list – and that doesn’t just mean personal or professional relationships, but rather our relationship to emotional investing (in ourselves and others)…AND our involvement in any situation which affects us emotionally.

And let’s face it…that’s just about everything!

Which calls to the fore another Scorpio issue: priorities. Scorpio is the land of emotional priorities and prioritization of emotions and emotionality. Understanding what (and who) is more important to you now can be challenging. But on the other hand, this well may be the challenge you need to face. Scorpio is the land of reconciling through negotiation with nothing ever being 100% what we want it to be.

And that calls out the best from Sun in Libra – namely, the Sun in Libra as the insight which ALLOWS us to negotiate and strike a bargain with ourselves and others which all parties can live with.

Still…don’t plan on any Libra/Scorpio love fests. These are sequential signs and sequential signs always feel a little bit awkward. Moreover, if your personal chart is very air-born or very water-logged (logged into this life as watery and therefore emotional) your tendency is going to be to ‘favor’ on thing over the other – which with Venus in Scorpio may mean ‘fighting’ for the right to splurge however you tend to splurge, whether that means ‘doing too much’ or ‘doing not at all.’

As photographed from space, an orbital sunrise with Venus and Mars just visible in the glow

(photo credit: NASA, Aug 1995)

Both are splurges in the metaphysical sense. Any time we ‘polarize’ and indulge, that’s a splurge!

Going back to Pallas…hopefully Pallas’ dispassionate nature will help us think things through. With Mars also transiting Leo throughout this time there’s no lack of will to operate…but there may be some unwillingness to see any perspective other than your own.

And that is just the nature of the beast…and hopefully not the beastliness of this time.

That all is not going to be totally cool, calm and collected is to be anticipated going through these next few weeks if only (only?) because Pluto will be going direct on September 20th and – though you might be bored with hearing me say it – we are in the auspices of the approaching Solar Eclipse.

Some things will be insecure now. Some things will be crumbling even as we try to hold onto them. Why they are no longer stable - that's the question to ask. That which is not working is not working because it has outlived its function at least in the format which it now exists. Maybe you can reinvent it? Venus in Scorpio would be good for that. Maybe you need to reorganize your priorities - the 'investing' of your time, your feelings, your regard for self-versus-others?

Maybe. It all depends.

Speaking of which, Venus will hit the degree of the eclipse ON September 20th or 21st, depending on where you live. The days around Pluto’s station – considering Pluto is the ‘outcome’ ruler of Scorpio – is going to tell you a lot about the choices you have already made, and pose a few new choices which need making.

Hopefully you will employ your very best Venus in Scorpio in making them. The combining of Venus in Scorpio with Pallas in Leo which will deeply color September's mid-section and lead us into the Pluto station is all about what we might call 'dispassionate passion' - the ability to care about the internal functionality of something and its integrity as much as 'what it looks like' or how that relates to some other thing (or how someone else relates to it).

The more we remember that what we want has to be gotten from someone else, the more we are likely to realize that what we do and how we go about doing it has a far, far greater chance for success if we remember that others have feelings and needs and aims which are quite as strong and quite as valid as our own.

We don’t need people to be like us…we need people who will be fair and caring about who we are.

And that starts with our being fair and caring about who everybody is. We change our world by changing ourselves and our relationship to that world. We can’t shut it out and expect it to take us in, we can’t dishonor ourselves and expect to be respected and we can’t be our best Self except in the company of others who are dedicated to being the best human being they know how to be.

There are lots of posers. The conservative bet now and moving forward however, goes to those and that which embodies lasting quality.
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