Sisyphus - by Franz von Stuck
In the two days that Sisyphus has been on station prior to going retrograde, Black Moon (societal) Lilith has entered Aries.
Oh, great – just what we needed…life getting even and ever more personal! (Not!)
So now what?
Today’s platter of celestial goodies (and yes, I use that term advisedly…) includes two items. The first is the anticipated Sisyphus shift into retrograde motion, a feat it will accomplish at 7:58am (UT/+0) with Sisyphus.
That Sisyphus does this at 6 Sagittarius adds a lively little note of ‘being part of the group.’ Considering how individually driven Sisyphus tends to be, this can have several meanings. One, it could mean we retreat (retrograde into ourselves) because we’re so all about ourselves and life isn’t humoring our whim. Two, it could mean we put our own aims on whole in favor of joining in or pitching in because the group we help and the world we build is ultimately that which supports and benefits us – giving us a place to be.
Right away this has some obvious implications: what all the violence in Libya, with the giant earthquake in Japan, there is a need to put our ‘personal lives’ on hold and to tackle reparations. That Sisyphus has such an evil reputation (he is one of two favorite Greek myth ‘sinners’) with his story touching on death inflicted speaks to dealing not just with mortality, but actual physical death.
Then we throw in the idea of Sisyphus as a rich kid grown up to be a big brat. And Sisyphus as a really smart human being. This implies a degree of ‘knowingness’ which in Sagittarius is heightened to a point that we should not be surprised to learn now what was ‘known’ which was simply disregarded for some arrogant reason.
As for whatever task is now at hand, that may be gargantuan. It may also seem ‘unending.’ Neither is necessarily true, but what those feelings mean to us – that’s a personal truth which is well now dealt with.
This idea of confronting an uncomfortable reality is heighted by the other dish of the day: Saturn sesquisquare Neptune at 9:56pm (UT/+0).
So what the fern is a sesquisquare?
Well, before we get there, let me just say that I’m really not delighted by terms like sesquisquare and sesquiquintile, quadranovile and quinqueundecile (don’t ask…). Way back when I got a diagnosis from a doctor which was one of these mouthfuls and I told him I simply couldn’t have that.
Why? he asked, rather surprised.
My answer: Because I can’t have anything I can’t pronounce.
I continue to feel that way…about medicine, medication and yes, astrological aspects. In that realm, a sesquisquare is however, one of the lesser demons: it’s a 135 degree aspect which carries what we might call a ‘matriculating creative’ harmonic.
(And yes, I did ultimately learn how to pronounce the medical term.)
As for the harmonic, don’t gag…I shall explain. All harmonics are a matter of what “sign distance” is implied. To use the fancy-dancy term, it’s part of the derivation (‘derived from’) theorem.
Each sign being 30 degrees, and the implied idea that wherever we start is the “subject” of the astrological sentence, 135 degrees is 4 signs (4 x 30 = 120) plus 15 degrees.
And if you were working that equation from 0 degrees (Aries) of the zodiac, that would take us to 15 Leo. The Leo part is what gives us the creative hint and the 15 “Leo” is one of the four zodiacal ‘cross-quarter’ points, all of which speak to moving from one phase to the next.
The zodiac's four cross-quarter points
Think of it as getting past your own sticking point and you should be good. There’s what we think things ‘should’ be and what they are or actually can become.
To put it more simply, this is a ‘get over yourself’ moment – we need to move beyond our emotional attachment and accept the reality, from which can be grown something good. No, things aren’t as we want them to be right now. Maybe we have to give something up. (As a matter of fact, this Saturn/Neptune connection implies just that.) But what are you going to do? We cannot turn the clock back. Things are what they are.
In this moment, some people will want to blame. Some will need to let go of what was and this may be very challenging or hard to do. Some will be ‘taken down’ by the very fact they haven’t dealt with the reality of what works and what doesn’t work. Or even their own presumed concept of invulnerability.
This is a moment of maturation (Saturn) with regards to what we think life or our world should be. Or what we really thought it was. Or should have been. This is not a death of an ideal, but of an illusion. And with Sisyphus on station, this is not likely to be a genteel experience.
Those who move on, life offers opportunities. But those opportunities can only be realized and benefited from to the extent that we balance hopes and positive objectives against a reality of how life really works. About what humanity is, about who people really are (and aren’t) and how when we buy into the compromise, we shouldn’t be shocked that we are in time compromised by our choice.
So much of what is going on in this world is about having bought into expectations. Yes, there are true horrors. But at some level we really do need to understand that things we think of as ‘terrible’ are also part of life.
That’s a really tough mental balancing act, if also a baseline truth. If you have trouble with it, the issue is not ‘it’ – it’s your inability to accept or process the greater scope of life. And while that may well be understandable, it’s not useful – and to the extent that you don’t require yourself to move on to a greater scope of consciousness it’s not the world you hurt, it’s yourself.
Black Moon (societal) Lilith and Uranus at zero Aries here clearly echoes the idea that life and our world is changing. So we need to grieve the sadness of the moment without getting lost in that moment.
Easier said than done, yes. There’s a price to be paid for what we do and don’t do, what we embrace and marginalize in this world, in this life, in our own minds and hearts. Sisyphus symbolizes our ability to do better than we may ‘want’ to – it’s about getting out of our own zone of control and that headlong desire to ‘make things okay.’ And Uranus in Aries asks us to change – or tells us we will be changed.
A photograph of Saturn shadowed by its own rings with one
of its many moons giving a good perspective on
Saturn's truly enormous size.
photo credit: NASA/JPL
With Saturn in opposition to Jupiter, lore teaches us to apply thought. Saturn being the sesquisquaring party to Neptune at 29 Aquarius, in Libra and retrograde - that suggests the whole of this time is about changing what/how we do things and recalibrating our world and life aims.
Again, if we won’t do it – if we won’t change, we will be changed.
So! In that light, let us take note: this isn’t the end of anything, no. But it could be a beginning of much.
That choice is up to each one of us – and all of us together.
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