Glaucus and Scylla
by Bartholomäus Spranger (c. 1580-1582)
In our last blog episode we began talking about Scylla and how as this asteroid was going on station we would be confronted with situations or feelings which could eat us alive or cause us to disregard others…and maybe both….and maybe for reasons we don’t even understand
The myth behind some of that commentary is probably best told by Ovid, though I’m still a little miffed with Ovid myself as that’s the guy who decided ‘chaos’ was more about ‘wreckage’ than potential. Changing innate meanings in order to incite negative emotions is a really old ploy and it’s not helpful. For whatever reason it seems dismally easy for people to be fearful and reject not merely ideas, but the people who are trying to think them through.
So not helpful…as is (similarly) the rewriting of history (which goes on and on and on) and trying to shade old facts to support your agenda. Naughty humans, naughty!
Anyway, so Scylla started life as a beautiful young lovely who inspires love in the heart of a sea god named Glaucus. Apparently she was not very thrilled with him as Scylla’s reaction was to head inland where Glaucus couldn’t get to her.
So what’s a sea god to do? Glaucus goes to a sorceress - Circe, to be precise. Living on an island and still miffed at the loss of her own mortal, Circe will understand his plight, surely!
Well, yes and no. Evidently still on the rebound, Circe falls in love with Glaucus herself – and sets about wooing and cooing at him in her most seductive manner. But seeing as spells which reduce human males to animals (Circe’s specialty) don’t work on sea gods, Glaucus did something Circe was rather offended at – namely, he told her to cut it out and stop plighting her own troth and get to his love affair problems already.
Circe by Charles Gumery
photo credit: Jastrow (2007)
Offended and enamored (a really bad combination in the world of narcissistic sorceresses) Circe goes off and finds the pool where Scylla takes a bath. Into this pool she pours a very particular poison which begins working on Scylla the moment she dips her lovely nymph toe into the water by transforming her into a monster.
The description here is very specific and peculiar…and I don’t mean the part where the monster has twelve feet and six heads with growling wolf heads protruding from Scylla’s waist. No, not that part. What is highly particular here is the emphasis on the fact that the ‘monster overcomes her’ – in other words, the monster form grows up and around Scylla, swallowing her up as she stands there frozen in horror, petrified by what’s happening to her, trying to shoo away this terrible thing which is coming upon her.
This describes a very certain kind of alienation from self and the concept that ‘that which I cannot cope with in my own life I will inflict on others, wittingly or unwittingly’ is the outcome of Scylla’s tale. Rooted in place, in desperation and horror, in loathing of all which has been thrust upon her she reaches out to and destroys everything which comes within reach.
When we think 'rock and hard place' in reference to Scylla
(which is one way to think of it, though Scylla is not just situational
but probably more importantly about our challenges and struggles
of Self...either way, Scilla Castle (or) the Rock of Scylla gives us a
clue as to why we think of it as a rock (or hard place).
photo credit: Adriano (July 2006)
Scylla is going retrograde today, asking us to reflect on where we are Scylla. So ask yourself: do I allow others to go about their business freely? Do I take out on others that I feel miserable about in my own life? Is there someone in my life who I allow to wreak damage because they can’t face “the monster” they feel was thrust upon them wittingly or unwittingly?
Some of these questions just aren’t easy. Having grown up with a fatally ill sister who was bright and talented and funny yet who knew she was dying every day I’ve watched the Scylla story. I understand how this illness affected my sister and the rest of the family, even though said family was rife with people who were otherwise afflicted by their own Scylla problems, which is why my young years were a maelstrom of abuse.
But here’s the bottom line. Certainly as children we are not responsible for what happens to us. As adults and throughout life, things happen. Accidents, illnesses, collapses of economies, tsunamis which create nuclear disasters – disasters have been happening to people ever since there were people. ‘Poisonous’ (to our hopes) situations are going to keep on happening. Why? Because they’re just part of life.
What happens we can’t always prevent. But unlike the mythic Scylla, we can decide how to deal with the results. The abused child is not responsible for what happens to them in their youth but is 100% responsible for the adult who grows up out of that abuse. Some decide to deal with it and don’t become Scylla, scourge of all who come near. Some simply give in and become the terror who justifies all through a sense of victimization.
Hmmm…feel like you’ve heard that combination of victim and ruthlessness before? Actually, you have; this polarity of the victim-and-abuser/aggressor is the hallmark of fixed star Facies, which sits at 8 Capricorn.
And where is Scylla going retrograde? At 11 Capricorn, a degree known for a determination, an ability to stay on track/in pace with things going on in their world and a forward-thinking mentality which looks for ways to build structures and how to build people and things into structures – all of which is (or can be) highly positive.
But with this comes a tendency to keep secrets and to ‘edit’ what is said in order to gain favor or advantage which can be useful and then again can be all about a simple seeking of personal advantage which comes with a total disregard for people, things and society. The power of persuasion/conviction which goes with 11 Capricorn is exalted, and as this degree stands between fixed stars Facies (the victim/aggressor) and Vega (charismatic speech or thought) it is usually the nature of the celestial object passing through this area of the zodiac (and where Saturn as ruler of Capricorn is either at the time, or in a specific person’s chart) which determines whether the total effect will be for good or…(let’s just be honest here)…the many ills of evil times, evil acts, evil intentions.
'Fixed' star Vega as photographed by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope
photo credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech
That we all have these degrees in our chart is one thing. That the January 2011 Solar Eclipse hit Vega and ‘let the dogs out’ is another. With Pluto rolling through this area of the zodiac right now, especially combined with Neptune’s just having entered Pisces, land of illusion/delusion as the excuse, we’re going to hear a lot of the worst out of others.
Do they own it? Are they aware of what they are doing and are they willing to dial back what they do in response to how they affect others? That’s the real question.
There’s a whole other issue going on today as well – that’s asteroid Chaldaea (aka Chaldae or Chaldea, representing all things established, traditional, venerated and ‘old’)...which is entering it’s station to go retrograde on April 30th.
The rule with stations being that things which happen before the station will play out in time and things which happen after the station will be the playing out of things which have already been decided on or set in motion, this would seem to be a time when things are taking a turn. Old and/or venerated things are facing a tide of disregard or even obliteration through desperation.
These aspects apply to all of our lives, certainly. Our lives, our nations, our global interests are going through a long term process which in biggest terms we would look back at in terms of the January 2011 Solar Eclipse (LINK to Blog), Uranus’ shift into Aries (LINK to Blog), Neptune entering Pisces (LINK to Blog) and more recently, Pluto’s having gone retrograde (LINK to Blog). I put these links in hoping those who have just joined astroPPM (howdee, by the by...!) will know to read ‘around’ those areas, as there’s just no way to put everything about a subject in a single blog.
Life…and the unfolding of same as delineated through astrology…is simply the biggest soap opera around.
And – surprise! – it’s not fiction!
(I know…shocking, isn’t it?)
But as a moment in this soap opera, I also know a lot of people are thinking in terms of the royal wedding which is slated to happen tomorrow: April 29th, 2011.
This truly is one of those moments when you know that whoever chose the date didn’t ask an astrologer. Not only do I know of not an astrologer in two dozen who would glibly say ‘Sure – get married with Venus in Aries!’ because Venus in Aries asks that we get our ‘happiness quotient’ and feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment from ourselves without external (public) support, but any modern (and western) astrologer who works with things like asteroids would look at this Scylla/Chaldaea combination and say ‘uh, are we trying to support the old-style monarchy or not?’
Obviously the moment of ‘I do’s’ (the actual time) is going to make some difference in how this all turns out. It’s also worth remembering that a wedding is about the relationship more than about the partners who are reporting to the altar. When we marry (or otherwise commit to a relationship) it is our regard for the responsibility we have taken on to that relationship which changes. And this is why the ‘partner’ in the marriage is denoted by Libra, the ‘how we get along with each other’ thing. But a marriage? That’s a commitment. And that points to Capricorn, Saturn and all things 10th house, whether you have Capricorn on your 10th house or not.
So like I say, we’ll have to see how the royal wedding times out. But that it’s happening in this sort of moment suggests that if nothing else, it’s will be, become or experience a substantial change for traditional standards of British monarchy OR as the standards and practices of the British monarchy evolve.
And for those really into this stuff, as the person with the calendar staring at them from the computer screen, it doesn’t really look like there’s an open slot for a more thorough peek at the royal wedding chart until the week which begins with May 8th.
Meanwhile, just to have this wedding now suggests that someone didn’t feel they could get out of something…even if it’s the date. Or the venue. Or the pomp and circumstance. But whether that becomes the Scylla ‘poison’ which engulfs this couple as people, or their relationship – or any one of us, that’s the question to be dealt with for the moment.
We are without question, now in the ‘breakdown period’ which precedes a solar eclipse, which in this case is the Gemini Solar Eclipse which will take place at 11 Gemini, conjunct fixed star Aldebaran. Just as the January eclipse ‘broke down’ the power of charisma, bringing out the very worst in some used to holding sway and inciting reaction against the status quo, June’s eclipse will be all about integrity – that being Aldebaran’s core concept. The six-to-eight week period prior to a solar eclipse being when ‘break downs’ begin challenging such precept, we can expect (no, I’m not going to quote Dickens – I’ll spare all of us that!)…we can expect a few, if not many people to show their colors at either end of the spectrum. Meaning what? Meaning we should expect to see the very best and very worst we would expect or could be greeted with.
A poignant July 1997 photograph by Bart Benjamin showing
Aldebaran just about to be occulted (hidden) by the waning crescent Moon
Remember: Gemini is all about choice. Thus Aldebaran is the integrity of our choice or the integrity with which we make our choice or the choice to preserve or depart from a standard of integrity.
All about to be eclipsed, mind you.
And we shouldn’t be surprised if those revealing those aspects or issues are totally surprised at what is revealed…or that we have suddenly changed our mind about putting up with old ways which amount to their getting everything they want while others get nothing. We can expect to see the ‘victim’ card played and attempts to incite fear to be rife.
Whether you react to any of this, whether you rebel against it, whether you refuse to buy into this old and possibly unfair or even manipulative, whether you stand for equality or equal responsibility or whether you simply allow yourself to want what you want regardless of whether you hurt or harm others…
…that’s up to you. And that’s probably the most important thing to remember here: it is up to you. We DO have choices, and we are responsible for those choices…in each and every moment, come each and every day…and particularly in these days and weeks going forward.
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