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Sunday, January 30, 2011

Eros and Sedna: The Who, What and Why of Cuddle(d) vs. Coddle(d)




 Nature - by Esteba Fort



If you were looking for two symbols which at first seem very much different, you might well choose Eros and Sedna.

Eros symbolizes just what you think it symbolizes: eroticism and erotic desires.

Sedna is all about an inner fight for maturity which has us wanting to cling to childlike (okay....maybe childish?) dreams instead of being willing to let go and grow up.

And why should we grow up?

Well, according to the Sedna myth, only by owning, accepting and developing our individual power/power of individuality (and the degree of individualization and - yikes! - separation which may be required along the way) can we become able not only provide for ourselves but also become an asset to and influence on others. Even those we don’t know and will never meet.

But plainly that means giving up being taken care of. And that part? Oh, let's be real here...! A lot of us aren’t so keen on that part!

So on the surface, who would think these two symbols have much in common? Nobody, right?
 
Welllllllll....except for… 

Yes, I’m thinking you’re way ahead of me here. The 'except for' involves looking at both of these symbols as different (or maybe not so different?) ways of expressing our desires.

Is that selfishness? With some...could be! It would at the very least involve individuation - being your own person, right? Or maybe some least sense or quality of egocentricity?

How to figure, how to figure...?

Well, 'how to figure' here most likely starts with recognizing what these two celestial bodies are - and aren't.

Astronomically, Eros is a main belt asteroid, a member of the Amor group. The Amor group is named for “head asteroid” Amor, which interestingly (at least in this discussion) represents platonic love and the loyal regard of friendship. In being  Mars-crossing asteroids, Amor objects come within the realm of our assertiveness. In other words, they represent attributes which are about that which gets past our defensiveness (Mars).

In Eros’ case, at it’s farthest it cycles just inside of Icarus (that famously dangerous habit of ‘leaping before we look’ issue) and Tantalus (being tantalized). So while Eros (desire) isn’t necessarily about leaping before we look, we do have to at least contend with what being tantalized means to us. That Tantalus gets far closer to the Sun than Eros does shows us how dangerously ‘close to the fire’ getting tantalized can be (think moths getting their wings singed). But as Eros stops short of that…indeed short of Venus, our ability to actually attract that which we want? 



 Venus photographed by NASA/JPL/Caltech as to reveal its planet-wide
shroud of sulphuric acid clouds. Long considered the planet of ease (all
I have to do is show up and be pretty?) the reality of Venus the planet shows
us that Venusian attributes are pretty sour, even corrosive. As the saying
goes, pretty is as pretty does - it is therefore what we do which generates
the reactions we want, this being why beauty is only skin deep and
goodness of being what in the end is remarkably powerful.



That should tell us something about desire.

And that just before Eros gets as close as it’s going to get to us (and our Venus)…that Eros crosses the innermost orbital points of Damocles (the danger you don’t see until you take the dare) and Atlantis (giving up what you thought you wanted for the unknown)…that really tells us what the limit of erotic desire actually is.

In a repetitive cycle (which is 1.76 years long, for those marking their calendars) Eros represents life tempting us (Tantalus), forcing us to get beyond our defensiveness (Mars) but then reveals what our temptation may actually involve (Damocles) and in forcing us to let go of the (Atlantis) known gives us a glimpse of what we can truly have and actually come to be….

So what is Eros? Yes, it may feel like desire - and if you're in the mood, erotic desire. But a better name for Eros just may be 'motivation.'

Eros is entering Aquarius on February 1st at 6:31 in the evening (UT/+0). Aquarius being about society and earning our way in the world socially and financially, we can now get motivated, be motivated or face situations which prompt us in various ways to deal with our lack of motivation.

Or even ding us for refusing to comply.

Against this we have Sedna. Eros is a ‘close to us’ precept – its something we deal with actively in our lives. All the main belt asteroids represent such things.

But Sedna?

Geez. Sedna is way, way, WAY out there in the Kuiper Belt. Earth is one astronomical unit (AU) from the Sun. Mars orbits at about 1.6 au’s from the Sun. Jupiter has a pretty oblong orbit – at its farthest it’s 11.85 au’s from the Sun (10.85 au’s from Earth) and when it’s cuddled up “close” it’s 5.458 au’s from the Sun – still 4.458 au’s from Earth.

That’s plenty far away. If Jupiter were really ‘close’ we’d see it’s big red self as bigger than the Sun. But it isn’t. Just how small the Sun really is as seen from here on Earth, that should give us a bit of sense of solar system distances.

But back to Sedna. At its CLOSEST, Sedna is 975.56 au’s from the Sun.


 
 Yes, that big yellow thing really is the Sun. Considering
how small it is in the sky, it has to actually be really, really
far away! And yet that distance is still only one (1)
astronomical unit (au) from Earth. Sedna is 975.56 au
from the Sun...974.56 au away from Earth.



(And it’s still part of this solar system, yes. Big place, our solar system….)

Remember what we’ve said about fixed stars while wandering through the days? When we look up into the night sky we see a backdrop of stars, against which the Moon and “local” planets move. (Yes, well…that “local” thing gets pretty radical when you get into astronomy, but…)

The point is that the stars – the ‘fixed stars’ as they are known in astrology – are ‘global attributes,’ whether in our life or our world. So Sedna being so far away gives us the notion of this dwarf planet as something relatively major (Sedna is a dwarf planet, after all…) but universal – part of the human “backdrop.”






And what’s more universal than the struggle to grow up against wishing we didn’t have to? 


- full length article on Sedna -


Come February 2nd, Sedna goes direct....which is really why we would be grouping these two items together in today's celestial contemplation.

Given how all celestial stations get a two days before, two days after "station window," that means Sedna's station effects begin January 30th...

...Which means Sedna-ish qualities will be active and effecting us as Eros enters Aquarius.

Got that? So glad!

Then let's get back to the Sedna, which in going direct at 21 Taurus brings in a whole possibly sulky quotient. And definitely a sense of 'deprivation' - though how you interpret that is pretty much about where Sedna and where Taurus falls in your personal natal chart.

But twenty-one Taurus, that has a rep. As a degree, twenty-one Taurus is known for for being tainted with a lack of appreciation which is (unfortunately for us) all too easily translated into tendency to isolate, ignore, deny - or just plain go into defensive-aggressive mode.

Sounds fun, right? (Only kidding....)

Because this is Taurus we are talking about, the roots of whatever discussions (debates? stand-offs?) arise now center on worth/self worth, values, resources and talents.

And that makes this a prime moment when we're likely to ask ourselves whether we are going to walk away or tackle a problem...and really want to walk away. Maybe we'll just do the old 'it's their problem' thing - which is isolating ourselves from having to deal with it. Or maybe we'll just ignore something (or someone) because...you know...because we can!

In fact, don't be surprised if there's a lot of ignoring going around. Or it's close cousin, the 'being stand-offish' routine. Or trying to be 'useful' by not intervening or interrupting....which may be real, and then again may just be another excuse.

Let’s be real...there are SO many ways to isolate ourselves from the crux of various issues. Some do it by being so wretched, no one wants to be around them. Others do it by being (read: keeping themselves) so incredibly busy they’re always in such a whirl that while they don't actually say 'don't bother me!,' their actions are plainly saying ‘don’t bother me!’ for them.

Then there are those who use money, the lack of money, power, control or even "traditions" to build walls with... which is not to be confused with those lacks of opportunity those who would try might indeed make good with if they had the means or opportunity to move ahead.

Speaking of which, there's a whole part of the Sedna story which is about wanting to be taken care of - otherwise known as "spoiled." This may involve money or may not. Yet given the times, and the fact that stats suggest the 'late rate' on payments of loans, credit cards and the like are going up even while retail spending has generally been on a rise...

...yes, I know a lot of people will plead 'holidays.' But the truth is that gifts are not mandatory. To think so is to be self-indulgent in a particularly Sedna (or even Sedna/Eros) way.

And all this is happening a day shy of the New Moon which marks the Chinese New Year. Well, well, well!

We're about to be moving into a Year of the Rabbit. And though I’m not a full-fledged Chinese astrologer, it doesn’t take one to see that these two images occurring just before the Rabbit year takes off is both a sign of the opportunities and challenges yet to be faced.

The real Sedna lesson is that the thing we so revel in – our ‘comfort zone’ as it were – is not our personal power. We only acquire that power when we relinquish all the notions we start out with about what we ‘should want’ or what someone ‘should have’ or how someone ‘should be.’ That's very Taurus! So to have Sedna go direct in Taurus' 3rd, worldly decanate is now life, the world, society, civilization telling us (alas, in a myriad of ways...!) where and how we haven't grown up. Where we are only thinking about our desires and not in fact relying on or even utilizing our greater potential.

As we say that, we should also take a moment to caution a whole corner issue connected to Sedna - the issue of "tapes." No, we're not just talking sound bytes here...when we talk 'tapes' in the Sedna world we're  talking about 'learned habits' which act like tape, binding us in sticky wickets which we are faced with unraveling ourselves from.

Or which life at some point may forcibly sever, dumping us into the cold, cold currents of a life as yet unknown.

If this happens, when this happens, this isn't about any threat - it's really and merely how life tends to work. Life wants us to be as powerful and exuberantly prolific as each of us were born to be. Sometimes we just need…oh, let’s call it a little redirection.

But then, those who insist on acting like children will get told what to do!


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