Deucalion, Rigel and Agamemnon: Reassessing Our Guides, Guidance & Guidelines

 The Flood (or) Deucalion Holding Aloft his Wife by Paul Merwait (1855-1902)

People think someone who would sit down to write this kind of blog must know everything before they start.

Yes, you should know what you’re doing pretty much before you set out to do something as technical as online astrology chat…but the truth is I’ve learned an incredible amount by writing this blog.

I’d say it was a humbling process if I was just a bit more conscious of it. That’s the way a lot of learning functions in our life. There’s the work, the effort, the typing or reading or thinking about it….then there comes a moment when you realize you just understand what you know. 

That’s the object of Rigel, a fixed star currently positioned at 16 Gemini, which sounds a bit contradictory…and which is a bit contradictory. The term ‘fixed star’ refers to a point which is more or less fixed. Fixed stars all move…just very, very slowly. And in the case of Rigel, that’s pretty darn fixed. Let’s put it this way…I’m heading towards sixty and it hasn’t moved a full degree since the day I was born. It’s about to…yes.

And that’s a big deal. But it hasn’t gotten there yet.

The lore about Rigel is that of ‘sitting at the foot of the teacher.’ And while we often take that to indicate a point in the chart which is about learning, its also about what and how we teach. It’s about the medium and the venue in which we teach.

It’s about how we learn.

At 6:37pm (UT/+0) on February 9th, Agamemnon goes direct at 16 Gemini – the current degree of Rigel. Agamemnon being about strength and determination (and sometimes stubbornness!) the shift from retrograde to direct in part talks to us about how we should take what we know or have learned (the Rigel part) and go do something with it in the world.

Direct is worldly, pro-active and/or external…retrograde is personal, reflective and internal.

Lest you think that this doesn’t apply to you – it does. And that it applies at 16 Gemini also tells us that this is a choice. Specifically, an emotional choice, which means it can be an emotionally driven choice, a choice about how to harness/use your emotional drives, or a choice which is about moving towards something which (perhaps in time) will affect the emotions of others.

You decide which one is better, okay?

Like as not, Agamemnon’s presence in this moment will for most speak to something they really believe in – making this time about emotional convictions. But with Chiron having moved into Pisces scarcely twenty-four hours ago, there is also the definite possibility that situations of the moment are very Chirotic (yes, that’s the term) in that they are asking (forcing?) you to go beyond your comfort zone.

Seeing as we just had a grand and specific chat about Chiron in Pisces in our last post, that seems enough to say. Except of course, that there is something of a Chiron note being sounded by the fact that at 5:05am (UT/0+) – also on February 9th – TNO Deucalion goes retrograde.

Still one of the lesser discussed celestial objects, Deucalion hasn’t seemed to make a ‘big splash’ astrologically – maybe because the myth of Deucalion isn’t what one would call particularly “juicy.” While it’s interesting and very much applicable to the astronomical object in astrological terms, the theme is about being a good person – finding the moral path. And frankly, most folks don’t find that terribly exciting. Risk gets people going. Doing the right thing, even when we know that in the end that’s what’s going to get us where we want to go…that’s somewhere between not so exciting and one giant yawn.

But of note here perhaps is the idea that this maybe unexciting Trans Neptunian Object, Deucalion, is a Cubewano. A lot of the TNOs we tend to talk about are Plutinos – objects which orbit under the control (aka magnetic resonance) of Neptune. Neptune is sexy. Neptune is about idealism and fantasies, dreams and despair. Neptune is an astrological patron planet of artists and sensualists alike, carrying with it all the bizarreness, the wonder, the awe, ecstasy and despair we associate with seers, gurus, martyrs, and the human artist.

Deucalion is none of that. Deucalion orbits on its own, from which we take the concept that we must find the solution to this human quandary on our own. Orbiting beyond Neptune, this is not a quotient we can ever fully define – it’s just something that we know, especially in those ‘Deucalion moments’ when finding the ‘right way’ comes to be a matter of consideration. Or discussion. Or relief. Or regret.

With an orbit 295.54 years in length (for comparison, Neptune’s orbit is 164.79 years long, Pluto’s is 248 years long) humans don’t live – at least at this point in time – through an entire Deucalion orbit. As with such points, the implication is that we can’t know everything – nor should we assume we do know everything. Or even that we can!

So Deucalion is going retrograde. It’s going retrograde at 10 Scorpio, a curious degree which embodies deception – but deception rather of a non-malicious terms, such as we might ascribe to the actor playing a part. Given this is Scorpio we are talking about, there is an interactive emotionality being referred to here, suggesting it’s hard to pin anyone down now. Or that we should accept what people say, knowing they’re ‘playing a part.’ Given that this is Deucalion we are talking about, there’s a definite theme about keeping one’s word, and with Deucalion now on station going direct, considering what that means is of the moment.

It’s also to contemplate going forward.

Given all this, what do we really know? What do we have yet to learn. Have we jumped at assuming we understand the fullness of why someone is saying or doing something…or why they said or did it?

Maybe yes, maybe no. Certainly with Chiron having just moved into Pisces there are emotional considerations on the table. And which will continue being raised until we get that feelings are truly universal – and that though its hard enough to deal with our own, one of the reason why that’s so hard is that we tend to be pretty good students and not as often good teachers.

Teachers, after all, have to put up with ignorance and bad behavior born of immaturity and not knowing any better. If we are our own teachers – which surely we are once we learn how to learn – doesn’t that mean we should always be on the lookout for better answers?

And if we won’t look…? Maybe I should mention that February 9th also features the Moon conjunct Eris, both in third decanate Aries position. With all 3rd decan positions being about how life ‘votes’ on what we are or how we’ve done, that says we’re all in for a dose of feedback. Maybe on who we are, maybe on how well our world is doing, maybe all of the above and much, much more.

What we do with it…? That remains to be seen. But with Deucalion retrograde until July, this is a season all about deciding what we believe in, who we allow to decide for us and what kinds of guidelines we think suitable to follow.

And no, that’s no yellow brick road – think again!

Oh...and one more thing. That this is all happening as Drakonia goes on station? That adds a whole dash of 'are you kidding?' to the mix.

The 'kid' reference can be the 'joshing, fooling' in a fun sense, but then again, what one person thinks of as fun may not be funny at all in your world!

Because this is Drakonia going into retrograde, these couple of days before the actual moment of station would tend to be about things which have as yet not 'played out.' But will they? Or are we being played?

That would be the question. 

 For a full length article on Deucalion (posted at Daykeeper Journal): click here