Medusa: Through Our Mental Mirror, Darkly

We all know Medusa - that female gorgon of salacious tongue and twining snake hair...She who evokes such fright that human life turns to stone the moment one lays eyes on the utter perfection of her terrifying flesh.

Or at least we think we know Medusa. But neither the myth nor astrological Medusa are as simple as all that. In the general sense Medusa is about fear. But this point refers to no simple fear on our part.

No, Medusa is...more slithery than that, more frightening and less understood by that Self which in some way or form will learn to fear fearing fear.

In particular, fear of something you don't want to know...that you fear knowing about your Self or life itself. 

Which means Medusa isn't about 'that' or 'them.' Snakes and all, the Medusa in your chart says something about you.

Something intrinsic about you.

Classed as a 'common' main belt asteroid (number 149, should you need to know), we may take solace...(such as it is)...in knowing  asteroid Medusa is one of literally thousands of asteroids out there. Given how Medusa is about the sort of fear which disquiets us to the point that we will not or cannot do something (that being the 'turned to stone' quality) as humans we are going to have an intrinsic avoidance with regards to anything Medusa.

So that Medusa is merely one of thousands of life factors...that may help us feel comfortable with the 'odds' of reaching our goal(s) without facing something which will stop us in our tracks.

On the other hand, doing that very sort of 'odds weighing' as a means of getting ourselves to do what we need to do in life...isn't that also one of the ways we face the very Medusa we fear?

Ah yes, 'there is nothing to fear but fear itself,' as one American president put it.

Asteroids metaphysically represent all the many factors we face on our way from 'I'll give (this) a try...' to '...I understand now,' and in  Medusa’s case, the “cycle” period within which 'fear' or 'fearful' issues resolve whatever internal issue has been raised.

In other words, Medusa is not the solution to "the problem." The inception of Medusa cycles (which would be the conjunction in your natal chart) will refer to periods or situations which in evoking your response raises something about the difference between being driven by instinct and the honoring of that we know to be not merely true, but that which at some very deep and real level we are sworn to by our own choosing to believe...understand...stand for.
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Why all this is and would be...? That comes from the myth about Medusa, a myth which starts with three sisters.

Two of those sisters are immortal. Medusa isn't. Medusa is born mortal - just as we are - and is thus defined as "vulnerable" to things her sisters would never be affected by.

Human traits will differ. When they do, is that what makes us vulnerable to our fears? And in mythic terms, if we are reading the myth of Medusa, should we be wary if we are told that this mortal vulnerability is also described as extremely beautiful?

For Medusa is beautiful. In fact, all three of the sisters are beautiful.

But Medusa is extraordinary. Not only that, but she just loves to show off her long, gloriously beautiful hair.

As for her family, Medusa came from Titans - entities embodying the eternal, sometimes infernal and certainly uncontrollable ('titanic') forces which shape our life and world.

This being the philosophic if highly organized world of Greek mythology, it isn't surprising that such uncontrollable forces were embodied as unruly characters like the Titans. Never represented as particularly personable, wise or witty, they weren't held in high regard by the (somewhat more contained) higher ups of the Olympian pantheon.

But they were Medusa's parents. There is one version of the myth which speaks of Medusa as the child of Ixion's narcissistic lack of gratitude. Yet most name sea Titans as her parents with several names being volunteered as the parents of Medusa and her two somewhat less horrifying sisters, which because water is the metaphysical element of emotions might make it seem like sea Titans are the correct choice as the nominees for gorgon parenthood.

But if so, how is it that Medusa is born mortal and her sisters were born immortal?

That would seem to make the answer Ixion...which in turn (if true) would say Medusa began her own story as the child of Greek myth's original murderer.

And considering how the Greeks had no problem with that all-too-human habit of embodying guilt bequeathed to and embedded in our psyches less by the intent of others than by the triggering of our own internal fears...that explains a deal about the power of a myth which spells a bad end for Medusa from the moment of her beginning.

Not that the myth begins in Medusa's childhood. Far from it - the myth begins as Medusa has been sworn to serve as a priestess to the goddess of all knowledge ethical, logical and unemotional: Pallas Athena.
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Athena in Vulcan's Forge
Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574)

It was an honor to do such service in the day. So when the opportunity came to Medusa, she of course took the job of serving Athena on with pleasure.

Thus did Medusa, the vulnerable offspring of titanic emotionalism, enter into the Pallas Athena, she who in springing from Jupiter/Zeus' brow expresses the conviction that an ultimate sort of 'heady' power (wisdom) is to be found in the clarity of perspective and dispassionate comprehension.

And that's where Medusa was and what she was doing when into Athena's temple came Neptune (Poseidon). As ruler of not just oceans but all water physical and metaphysical, Neptune  embodies the 'fluid dynamic' of emotionalism - and considering how life on Earth is water based, it's not surprising that Medusa was drawn by Neptune's presence.

She could hardly help herself. After all, Neptune was Jupiter's brother - which in itself is an interesting foreshadowing of modern science considering the relative roles of planets Neptune and Jupiter in our solar system. Both planets control objects through sheer power of magnetism - which is not unlike what the Greeks postulated in their descriptions of both gods.

This is exactly how metaphysics works.

And yes, the implications can be frightening, particularly as we consider how in most versions of this myth Medusa abandons her vow in willingly succumbing to unfathomable Neptunian passions, thus defiling the sanctity of Wisdom.

That was an exceptionally bad thing to do, for while the knowing of Jupiter and truth of Athena is the basis of that we call 'Free Will,' so Neptune takes us through the full breadth of emotional arc to where all dissipates into that unconscious surrender mortals tend to call 'Fate.'
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Neptune
by Angelo Bronzino

As for the 'alternate' versions of this story, they aren't any more pleasant as they have Neptune raping Medusa. Either way, Medusa is overcome.

And because Medusa is so prone to being overcome by her emotions even when surrounded by the facts of all she has sworn to serve, Athena metes out the famous punishment by transforming Medusa from a beauty into a gorgon - something so shockingly awful as to arrest us where we stand.

In most versions of the tale Athena not only transforms Medusa but her sisters as well. Is that a curious reference to how the feelings of people who otherwise like, love or admire us are affected ("punished") by what we do? Or is the reference to punishing Medusa's sisters an allusion to how often a person shamed in one area of life tends to crumple in others?

The effects of our feelings aren't isolated, after all.

In any case, three young beauties become an ugly trio, though only Medusa achieves the landmark ability to turn mortals into stone.

It's an attribute guaranteed to make it hard to make friends and influence people in any enjoyable (never mind survivable) way and soon Medusa, frightened by her own power, did what many do: she went into isolation, turning punishment into the retreat of self-condemnation.

From that comes an important note on asteroid Medusa: where we find Medusa in the chart we find something which will cause us to hide - either literally, mentally or emotionally. That we hide from created our problems to begin with and it's always emotional.

Too bad we feel too scared of our truth to face it. But we do. There is a place in each heart, mind or soul where we lose the ability to serve in our best interest. The idea of that is scary - and the reality that we can consciously or unconsciously become the instrument of our own downfall simply because of how we are made, who we are, where we come from...that's even scarier.

And yet we know we dare not abandon ourselves to our fears, whatever they may be. 

So what do we do?

How is Medusa - our Medusa - to be defeated? 
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The call here being for a 'heroic effort' in our individual cause, the story now shifts to a Perseus, a hero in the making.

Unfortunately Perseus isn't happy. And the reasons for his unhappiness are very much understandable. Not only has Perseus just been given the task of doing away with Medusa, he's been ordered to do it for not the most altruistic of reasons.

And what would that reason be?

That reason starts with King Polydectes, a rather unsubtle fellow seriously intent on marrying Perseus’ mother, Danae.

Polydectes wants Danae in the very worst way and Danae wants nothing to do with Polydectes.

Besides being king (meaning he made all the rules) Polydectes must have also had some smarts as he didn't simply order Danae to become his wife - the common solution of the time for kingly types.

Instead, he concentrates on Danae’s god-like teen son - the product of a truly immortal affair Danae had with Jupiter. If Polydectes was going to have any chance of bullying mom to the altar, Perseus would need to be dealt with. 

So Polydectes cooks up a plan any lustful monarch would be proud of. Feigning a somewhat offended shrug, he lets everyone know that if Danae isn't interested in being his queen...well, that's her problem.

Polydectes will just be moving on.
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Danae, Mother of Perseus
by Gustav Klimt

And move on Polydectes does, soon announcing that he's chosen a different woman to be his privileged wife...at which point, with his new claim duly claimed, Polydectes stares young Perseus down. What, no wedding present?

Perseus tries pleading financial ineptitude, but that doesn't get him very far as Polydectes accuses Perseus of sitting around on his heroically lazy butt - an accusation which angers Perseus. He's been trying. He just hasn't found the right right job yet...and while he's doing his best, Perseus would take it kindly if the local king would just stop flacking him. After all, what kind of gift was Polydectes expecting from Perseus? What could a young Perseus give the king which would be any sort of suitable wedding present?

Thus the trap is sprung. Having lured young Perseus into volunteering himself, the entirely prepared Polydectes probably waits not a moment before replying.

He actually has something in mind...something Perseus could be a good lad and go fetch for his king.

That thing?

Medusa’s head.
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The Head of Medusa
(unknown Flemish artist, 16th c, oil on panel, Uffizi Gallery)

Hearing this, Danae realizes her headstrong son is in over his headstrong head. So she appeals to Zeus (Jupiter) in the key of plaintive, and Jupiter responds by sending his go-to god (Mercury) out as chief procurement organizer.

In truly Olympian fashion this soon results in Mercury and Athena (yes, that Athena) equipping Perseus not merely thoroughly, but in the manner befitting a bastard son of Jupiter (of which there were more than several).

First Mercury hands over a cap of invisibility (on loan from Pluto/Hades). Then the god helps strap his own famously winged sandals onto Perseus' demi-mortal feet before handing the teen an unbreakable, sickle-shaped sword.

But with all this, not surprisingly it's Athena's token which will count most when dealing with Medusa. That which is provided by Athena is Wisdom's own immortal shield. Brightly polished on both its outer and inner faces, Athena's shield literally images how we come to know truth (Athena) in reflection and how that reflection is meant to clarify our perspective on our Self (our truth) as we go up against our conflicts in this world, this life, this existence. 
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 The Arming of Perseus
 by Edward Burne-Jones (1885)
 

So Perseus seeks Medusa out...(apparently her cave is in Africa). And when he gets to that cave he kills the gorgon of emotionality not on sight or by looking at her, but instead by thinking through what to do and how to do it in reflection.

Perseus was out to decapitate and do away with his problem. And as anyone who has ever tried to do something based on processing directions given to them in a mirror's reflection, it takes a peculiarly intense concentration to overcome our instincts.

But it can be done - and that's the point and solution to the Medusa question: to not be driven by instinct. Where Medusa appears in a natal chart or by transit isn't our 'doom' - it's an instruction: this is where you must not operate instinctively. Understanding the issue may be frightening to you, but the cost of not facing such a fear is likely to be far, far greater in the long run.

In essence Medusa asks us to respect ourselves enough to brave our fears, whether they be simple or complex. The image of Perseus wielding the sword of Mercury while protected by Athena is nothing more or less than the metaphysical statement about how in the most dire or difficult of situations it is through the clarity of dispassionate reflection that our mortality is protected - most off all from that instinct which otherwise will prove our undoing. 

As Medusa’s head is severed, blood is spilled. And as that blood flows out into reality, from it comes Medusa's offspring, creatures sometimes considered hers alone and sometimes seen as the product of Medusa surrendering to Neptune.

Whatever that may be, whether taken separately or together, these two creatures do seem to represent Medusa's extremes of spirit: she who serves against she who without thought takes what she wants, regardless of word or promise.

Yes, Medusa does sound a bit like Ixion.

- link to - 

Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

Medusa's first child is the winged horse called Pegasus, a the embodiment of fear as flight, replete with the kind of brute-or-graceful animalistic strength which in the human terms may well suggest that aspects to and the placement of asteroid Medusa may be an important part of astrologically understanding our individual fight-or-flight imperatives whether they be active or unneeded in an otherwise happy life.

Known as “the giant Chrysaor,” Medusa's other 'blood child' grows to become a hero armed with a golden sword upon whom Medusa's curse falls through family - echoing many a human whose family experiences alternation of generational allegiances and trials. Recalling Medusa's reptilian side, one of the Chrysaor children is Echidna, a deadly she-dragon whose upper half is all beautiful female and whose lower half is that of a serpent.

The other child is known as the Geryon - or sometimes in plural form as the Geryones. This isn't a problem of counting, but rather one of distinction - a quality which recalls the 'fuzzy' or more indecisive aspects of Neptune.

In brief, this single-plural problem stems from this entity's description as “a three-bodied giant” - a quality which is somehow supposed to come out as less threatening than Echidna.

Assigned to guarding sacred cattle at the western end of the world, Geryon has come to be associated with constellation Orion the Hunter while Pegasus has its own constellation - one marked by including fixed star Scheat, a problematic star which often speaks to ideas, matters and personalities which are 'before their time' and thus subject to rejected by ourselves or others, either as a 'flight of (Pegasus) fancy' or something which is objected to instinctively.

And yes, thus often enough, incorrectly.

Using the power of reflection, after slaying Medusa Perseus covers her head with a leather sack and carries it away. Still wearing Mercury's winged sandals, he flies north with blood dribbling from the gorgon's neck.

And as those drops fall to the sands below, they give rise to all the poisonous snakes in Africa. Yet lest we think that which is poisonous is always bad, when several drops of Medusa's blood are given to someone with the highly polysyllabic name Erichthonius along with instructions how how to use it as poison, with that also comes instructions on how to use gorgon blood in reanimating the dead.

No, not literally. Perhaps in myth, yes. But for astrological purposes this is a reference to that image we most often associate with the Phoenix - the rising from the ashes, the bringing back to life that which our disproportionate passions may have theoretically destroyed.

To finish here, ultimately Polydectes receives the quintessential lesson in why we should be careful what we ask for, lest we get it when (as most versions of the story have it) Perseus returns home to learn Polydectes has raped his mother Danae.

The young hero heads for the palace where (not shockingly), Polydectes is surprised to see him.

But for good or ill, Polydectes is still Polydectes. Whipping out his most illustrious and kingly sneer, Polydectes informs Perseus that he'd 'known' Perseus couldn't kill Medusa.
 
But Perseus did kill Medusa. And to prove it, as all the king's sycophant courtiers sneer on Perseus pulls Medusa's head out of the sack, holding it up where all can see it...and be promptly turned to stone.

Some questions shouldn't be asked and some truths are impossible to live with.

But that's just life.

With the king and court duly dealt with, Perseus returns the immortal garb and weaponry to the proper Olympian immortals.

And what about Medusa's head? That Perseus gives to Athena, who then embeds it on the front of her shield - the same shield she gave Perseus to carry.

Is it a warning? Perhaps. Often we try so hard to learn and then are sorry we know. It's the essential lesson of knowledge - that with knowledge comes power, and with power comes the responsibility to use that power properly - which means sometimes in a manner which requires us to silence the voice of instinct in thinking things through.

So sometimes knowledge is indeed a frightening responsibility. But to not know and instead act solely on instinct?

That plainly can ruin a life which could otherwise have been just...beautiful.

Oh how scary...but truth nonetheless.
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Perseus (Andromeda's son) doing battle to save his mother - the mortal

spirit of innocence before that which has given Perseus life can be

overwhelmed by Neptune (emotionality) arising in 'mostrous' form from

'oceanic depths' - the psychic sea which is humankind.

So...do we really know who Medusa is? Or is Medusa that thing in our life which keeps us from being willing to know the 'frightening reality' of who we are, or what we are capable of doing to our Self or others?

Is that... the knowledge, the possible fear of 'doing' a greater share of why humans seem so drawn to preferring a dream that we can never build on in reality to a factual reality in which we could possibly build our dream but which we cannot access without facing our inner fears?

Probably.
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The head of Medusa as it ended up, mounted at the center of Pallas Athena's

shield, facing all who would approach - a lasting mythic comment on the

connection between fear, perspective and conscious wisdom...and

probably the need for just that.

Beyond whatever else, the frightening face in Wisdom's shield is a directive telling us that our greatest truths lie beyond facing our greatest fears. Only through knowing what our fears are can we choose to learn differently and dispell them.

Yet since there will always be more to learn and be, in the end the only knowledge which will ever really set us free of instinct's rampages is that truth which allows us to accept the beauty of that fear which allows us to know everything about our Self, that being the path to a life as a human being unafraid to face anything.
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Jupiter Direct

San Francisco's famous fog shadows the Golden Gate Bridge in northern California 

(photo credit: Brocken Inaglory, 2006)

Any time Jupiter stations, the status quo changes in the direction of more. We generally learn something…and even if it’s what we don’t want to know, generally just the exercise of listening…or looking beyond what you had seen up until now – literally (in physical life) or in your mind - is useful.

There’s a quality to Jupiterian energetics which asks…and which empowers us…even tumbles us into those states or situations which render us at least somewhat more permeable than we were before we started.

Jupiter’s trademark effects aren’t ‘strict’ except in their drive to perceive beyond the norm, so it’s no wonder that the concept of ‘excess’ is as familiar and Jupiterian as ‘growth’ or ‘expansion’ or ‘learning’ or ‘trial’…that last either being a trial of the personal/emotional type or ‘trial’ as in a legal procedure.

They’re both Jupiterian.

When Jupiter goes retrograde (as it did last time spare days after the November 2013 Scorpio solar eclipse) things which happen in the world or in our world in the ‘all around us’ sort of sense…then Jupiter’s turn to retrograde indicates how things which are externally generated (the ‘external’ part paralleling a planet’s direct/forward motion)…how those things are then taken in and taken under internal consideration during the planet’s ensuing retrograde.

In this case that would be last November until now – or more specifically, until March 6th at 10:43 a.m. (UT/+0 time). At that point, Jupiter will go direct at 10 degrees of Cancer, a zodiacal position which is defined as being emotional, experiential and either formative or involved with some internal emotional mind set we are, or which we need to be taking a look at.

Thought of as a degree which embraces both our human and humanitarian nature, with Jupiter at 10 Cancer there is an opportunity ‘expand upon’ something…or to go beyond where you have gone up until now. This is a degree which enhances life…yet with many a deep vulnerability feeling (Sun-Chiron-Pisces) stirred, we’re likely to resort to questions and questioning whether we ‘should’ or ‘have to’ rather than act except where we understand whatever the greater stakes may be.

At some level and in some way, we are not alone in our problems. Challenges of the moment not only require that we understand the ‘other side’ of whatever argument, question or debate is engaging us directly…but also some notion, some interest or need or position we’d otherwise think of as a ‘third party.’

It all seems to be focusing on us…each and every one…with all of the above also applying – and reviving – life’s ongoing call to change not ‘them’ but our Self.

It’s that Pluto-Uranus-Jupiter t-square we’ve spoken of now and again (and again). We are at a place in time, in history, in metaphysical shifts which only happen once every two thousand years or so where the old ‘power structure’ and old methods of ‘generating,’ ‘maintaining’ and ‘disseminating’ power are all being changed – and that’s a universal shift. It applies to humans and individual lives and family debates on the direction any given person should be going as surely as it applies to nations, trades and beliefs.

It’s just that this process isn’t easy – ever. And it isn’t fun. All the troubles…the violence, the debates over who has what right to what and whose ‘right’ is utterly wrong – it’s all about our resistance to change. We all want the same thing – Jupiter sitting in the Cancerian ‘solution’ position of our current (and ongoing) rather epic t-square says we all want to have a decent and decently secure life. We all want to be who we are and enjoy what we enjoy.

So what’s the real issue? Change. The idea that they have to change bothers some individuals just as the idea that we have to change how we see ourselves as individuals and members of a race and denizens on a planet bothers us.

The breakthroughs we seek are to be found or set into motion internally. The impetus for needing to seek those notions or breakthroughs and the pressure which will drive us past our limit to resist them? That’s external. And universal…which may suggest that one off-beat ‘universalist’ manifestation of the current Mars retrograde in Libra (Libra being a sign of relating and relationships) is a ‘pulling back’ on all parties – all the way around.

It’s just that some of us continue to project and “blame them” while many, if not most of us are attending to working on our Self – either the ‘inner’ self or that Self which exists ‘inside’ the bounds of our personal life (however that is organized) such that we are dealing with whatever it is which will allow us to move forward come mid-May (i.e., after Mars goes direct). 

There’s likely to be a deal of taking things too personally about now. Going ‘over the top’ is likely too. Both such traits are to be expected most of all in people who a.) don’t have enough to do, b.) have a spotty understanding of the truth, or c.) who are focused only on what they want to see rather on that which would work best and for the duration…which if you’re into human economics equals the choice between ‘at the least expense to all’ and/or ‘at the least cost to me.’

Everyone will have their own version of what they know, what they don’t want to believe and whatever it is they feel is so vitally important that it must be heard and heard clearly…and yet hardly anyone is listening. There is an internal stress and feeling of loss on all sides which is distracting – to say the least.

And yet…as Jupiter goes direct…all indications are that current difficulties are neither about ‘them’ nor about our current state. Saturn (also now in retrograde) is still opposing Sedna.

- link to -

Saturn, Sedna, Ceres, Jupiter:

Manifest Gearing in Motion

And now two other items have entered this picture: at 21 Taurus (with Sedna at 23 Taurus) the Moon and Kalypso, a pairing which speaks to the need to care about others and the heartfelt desire to care about the security and families of people beyond yourself…

…all of which is set at odds by economics, many of which have us pitted against questions of self-determination in our minds. Are we strong enough to make our dream our reality…or are we just dreaming?

Another aspect of the current t-square – which is to say the ongoing pressure to get over ourselves (or some aspect of our Self) in order to have any lasting foundational success – is that at the moment of Jupiter’s station what was a t-square has become a grand square.

Grand squares picture difficult ‘balancing acts’ we need to work through. We’re up against various kinds of essential naivete – and that would be bad enough to contend with without life’s complicated demands, desires and necessities.

But life isn’t asking. Things are happening. And at some level we understand this is the time things need to happen and how we are witnessing yet another moment in earthbound history…whether that’s on the big stage (world history) or in our personal lives (our personal history) – or maybe both.

Whatever we do, we’ll be confronting the truth and the sense of our ideals, hopes, assumptions and plans…each of us learning in our own way how beyond question none of us are even vaguely perfect - and how that’s all right, simply because we’re people. The Sabian Symbol for 10 Cancer is A CLOWN CARICATURING WELL-KNOWN PERSONALITIES…an image which invites extremes of interpretation.

Maybe that’s us…maybe people will look at us and see just one facet as our whole. Or maybe we’re doing that to others?

In the original issuing of the Sabians, astrologer Marc Edmund Jones saw the ‘clowning’ around implied in this symbol as ‘the value of humor in developing objectivity and independence of mind’ – a concept that most erudite of astrologers Dane Rudhyar agreed with heartily in his book ‘An Astrological Mandala.’* In counseling the use of laughter when or where this degree becomes activated, Rudhyar sees it as a path to perspective. ‘Humor,’ he writes, ‘or irony is a powerful tool in assessing the value of sociocultural realities, and thereby in freeing oneself from glamor and prejudice.’

At an ever expanding pace we’re feeling life being brought to light, to bear not to disturb us, but to inform, prompt and direct us along the lines of more insightful…and in due time (think: July 2014) more creative and motivational direction.

One other curious note to the above configuration – Dionysus conjuncting Uranus in Aries. That’s something of a contradiction – a need to take care even as we fling caution to the wind…a tendency to fight ourselves – a conviction that we need to fight.

True or false, that which draws us draws us with potent power. And for some of us…those who stray onto the ‘false side’ (if you will), that in itself is a timely and well-timed lesson.

After all, that’s asteroid Dionysus sitting there alongside quirky Uranus – and the mythic Dionysus is none other than the child of Jupiter.

So it would seem it doesn’t really matter what path we take – except to us.

 Dionysus by Sebastiano Ricci (1695) 

All is now rooted in the need to learn – no matter how fine or bad times are – for in the end, the Jupiterian principle is one about the expanding of what we know and understand – it’s not a ‘feeling’ premise. That Jupiter is transiting Cancer speaks to the understanding of our feelngs, and many of us have learned a lot…even too much… about ourselves and others of late.

But the Jupiter part? That’s about the maintenance of truth and functional integrity. In such a moment as this, with Jupiter’s station in square to Mars retrograde by sign we’re being pushed to confront our Self.

And as we no doubt know, that tempts some to step forward and some to step back. Whatever happens now, there is a quality of ‘spreading energy’ which happens when Jupiter passes through this sign which should be quite apparent right now.

It’s a good time to reach out, providing you’re willing to know the truth.

And if you aren’t…that says something too, for Jupiter in Cancer teaches what we don’t want as often as anything else.

Whatever you learn, think it through. Something  here will give you additional proportion – proportion you will need or find useful once Mars goes direct this coming 20th of May.
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* An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformation and its 360 Symbolic Phases
   Vintage Books (New York, USA), 1974 – c. Rudhyar, Dane (1973)
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Venus enters Aquarius:

The Birth of Venus by Gustave Moreau (1826-1898)

There seems to be a ‘move to still’ recent motion coming to us over the next few days, starting with asteroid Juno entering Aries on March 4th at 9:58 a.m., UT/+0 time.

A symbol of ‘coming home’ and the nurture, reordering or protection of said home, astrology’s asteroid Juno is associated with the energetic of management and managing…what we do in our everyday life to manage that, what steps we take within the self to govern that life (and Self) through our mentality, whatever we do to mange a physical home or manage having one (working to support ourselves).

Whether in the ‘singular’ sense – meaning Juno as a thought process we use in planning our days, weeks, years and lifetime…or in the ‘group’ sense as when Juno refers to a ‘society’ of any sort (of individuals, corporate, national, cultural, etc.).

At some level…if you think about it, what this says is that the ‘Juno instinct’ (as we might call it) which resides in each one of our lives is about our relationship to that we identify with…CAN identify with…or now…and thus how we react to that idea, person, thing, group, cause our effort because of how well we do or don’t identify with it.

The positive of Juno is to protect, nurture, organize and generally maintain as functional. The negative of Juno is to reject, disrupt, criticize/critique and to resort to whatever disruptive tool or force seems applicable.

So…with Juno entering the ‘I Am’ sign of Aries does this mean we’re ‘coming home’ to our Self?

What we can say right away is that Juno is (and will be) ‘touching off’ the good and bad as seen from a Juno in Aries (i.e., first person) point of view – which is neither good nor bad. But when we add in Mars going retrograde in Libra (as of just a day or two ago), that would seem to suggest one of several ideas, all of which may be complicated by other factors and/or by more than one factor being true:

1. We are overwhelmed by the need to act.

2. We need to pull back and regroup due to expansive expenditures previously made which to date have not (yet?) proven out their promise.

3. We’re uncomfortable with why others and are disinclined to listen or understand any priority or rationale other than their own.

4. We want to think we control life and worldly dynamics. 

That  Juno is coming to its ingress of the zodiac’s first sign just as Venus is exiting the shadow of its December-January retrograde will time out a 'starting again' or 'staring something new' or even 'starting over' for many of us. You may also experience this as a time when something which 'started' or ‘(re)started’ back then and which confronted each one of us at some very deep and vital level about who we are… our innate value as a person and how we feel about that value (whether we value our value, one might say)… we’re back where we were in December.

We may be wiser, yes. Or we may simply have gotten to where we can get back to something which was of value at that time.

Seen in this light, to have Venus entering Aquarius late on March 5th (the day after Juno enters Aries and Venus exits the retrograde shadow) certainly echoes the ‘ending’ of something… though it may be more ‘thematic’ than specific.

In other words…as just one of the many ways we could look at this, if Venus is entering Aquarius, it’s leaving Capricorn. Capricorn is about social standing and who we ‘know’ ourselves to be in this world, replete with all the pluses and minuses the world may think of us included. (Or specifically excluded if you’re either narcissistic or sufficiently bullet-proof to go about… or need to go about your business regardless of what others say, think or do.) The point here is that Capricorn is an earthy ‘made real’ sort of sign… the good, the bad, the evil, personal consequences and whatever personal rewards we’ve earned (Capricorn stresses earning) have come to  reality… and to their end.

It’s been a very long four months. And considering all the trials and problems which have come to light in the world and our personal, individual worlds, maybe a few of us will have gotten the underlying concept of Venus in Capricorn, namely that the world is not ours to command…it’s ours to be part of.

Venus normally moves through a sign in a matter of weeks. That it took four months (Venus entered Capricorn back on November 5, 2013) for many of us to come to terms with ourselves or what we were doing is neither good or bad providing we’ve used our time for something.

And now as Venus enters airy, theoretical Aquarius, we get to see what we have learned. Between now and April 5th when Venus moves on into Pisces results are most easily gained through connecting or through systemic connections. The emphasis is on things which are both very basic and esoteric. With Venus in opposition to Black Moon Lilith as the ingress is made we are cued towards the experience of forces being ‘liberated,’ particularly where the ‘Self’ (group or individual) has been denied or ‘valued’ (that very Venusian thing) in a depersonalized or monetary manner.

That’s something to remember about the balance of March (i.e., Venus passage through Aquarius) – it will manifest as every form of ‘dealing in the abstract’ and many, many people are going to be offended by that.

In fact, with Venus entering Aquarius not just in opposition to Black Moon Lilith but also in square to the Nodes, we can assume the relationship created between people and ideas will promote responses far and wide. It’s going to be a big month for causes, for rejections, for wanting it all to just go away at the same time we want to be proven right or successful or validated in…in whatever we have been thinking about since back in mid-late January.

And put simply, to the extent that we have depended on others to prove us right…especially where we have hoped or ‘banked’ on them as opposed to who we can be in their presence, or in the presence of others or this world…that’s where we’re likely to be proven wrong.

In some cases, unfortunately, dead wrong.

Mental bets can be the most serious and costly. Why? Because ‘mentality’ – which is to say the astrological concept of mentality isn’t substance… and we live a physical life. Ideas have to attach to something or cause something to become manifest to be of service… another big theme Venus will be activating as we move into and through the weeks ahead. Systemic, big picture Aquarius is the sign of economics, the internet, things digital and transacting. This is the sign which embraces the theory which says what we put out comes back to us.

The trick here is that what surfaces now… that isn’t likely to be new.

With the Lunar Nodes in what astrology refers to as an ‘out of sign’ square we are being given to know that there’s a ‘mismatch’ of influences here which are currently at cross-purpose. In some cases there will be marked ‘references’ to things which happened eighteen, thirty-seven - even fifty-five years ago.

For the first part of this week we will be finding… feeling… experiencing feelings about this and that as more becomes obvious – to us, at least. Other people may not agree, they may not care, they may be totally oblivious to things we find compelling...

...even painful...

...as they continue involvement with their own world, their own priorities - their own internal dynamics.

About the best we can do is take notice, be supportive and move on. It's just a couple of days. Those of us who believe that life has an ultimate purpose will accept and do their best. Those who believe life is to be carved out in one’s own mortal image will do what they want.

Venus opposition Black Moon Lilith at an Aquarian ingress is tantamount to an outcry. For you it may be an outpouring. Or a venting. Or a reaching out, a breaking free of some sort of lethargy you have been holding yourself hostage to simply because of doubt.

Grand squares – by definition – cannot be solved. They can, however, be dealt with and learned from, which seems to be their purpose. Having sat and watched astrological software scroll through a day-by day imaging of the whole of 2014 it seems obvious that this is a huge year for challenges, many of which will fade by next year...which is akin to a lowering of pressure by 2015.

But don't get pre-relieved. Astrologically, this is a big, vast, huge year for challenges, yes. And many of them are tough, raw, painful, disappointing - even humiliating.

They're still opportunities. That's the thing to grasp. Juno coming into Aries now as Venus enters Aquarius connects the concept of Self with the world, which means it's not 'the thing' or the task or the hurdles which need jumping - it's our outlook on it which is determinative. Good, bad, destructive, regenerative, expensive to our regard or cheapening in the eyes of others, for the next few days we get to manage experiencing our Self and do a lot of gleaning of information which may not even make sense to us yet, but it's all coming in.

And what would be the reason for that, you might ask?

That would be because in just a few days...on March 6th...at the end of this time we're talking about, Jupiter goes direct, signaling an initiation of “growth” and “movement” which though slow in taking hold (reflecting the Mars retrograde which will be with us into May)... are likely to hold some very valuable, perhaps even life-changing potentials in the offing.

That part of the process is still a somewhat distant 'long run.' But things can happen now. In fact, they not only can, but are likely to.

Awareness is your friend going forward. But don't set anything in stone any time soon. We're in a development period (otherwise known as a period when developments are likely to occur) and none of us yet know what that which is already in motion is going to produce...

...and then what will come of that.

Everything we are going through right now is valid, in and of itself. It's also but a step in a process which will unfold over a number of months...about a dozen of them.

But what we do now? What we learn now? These days, this time going forward is going to prompt us to consider things which will confound us precisely because we can't learn from what we already know. So things will change. We will change.

Is it necessary? Since Aquarius in part tests our determination through confronting us with the exploration and real life puzzles, it would seem with Venus in Aquarius that there is something to explore, something to gain through the realization that reward is not merely about what we accomplish, nor about simply being someone that the world responds to.

What that is for you, no one can say. But we do know one thing...being that Venus is entering Aquarius it has something to do with the idea of being human.
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