Typhon/Eurydike - Chiron/Psyche: Minding Stations

A forest of synthetic pyramidal dendrites grown using Cajal's laws of neuronal branching

(photo credit: Hermann Cuntz, PLoS Computational Biology Vol 6, August 2010)

It was something about Mercury going retrograde and the near-instantaneous confrontation with a disruption of body, car and finances which (as I lay there trying to think of things to think about while not sleeping) got me to thinking about Typhon.

(Okay, it’s terribly astrological of me. But what do you think about when it’s the middle of the night and you can’t sleep?)

Anyway, physicality, money, transportation...these are the most basic of basics in modern survival. Even with all our technology some things just come back to our Self.

And that - plus any event or thing which gets us to think in terms of basics or to experience them (recognize them, etc.) is the essence Typhon. Typhon is the object which brings us back to the ‘instinctual level’...and which in doing so asks us whether we are just instinctual creatures, what instinct is (or isn’t) good or bad - considering our truest aims - to accede to or to resist...

...or whether we are going to ‘master’ not others, but our Self - a Typhon quality which is rather easily seen and quite possibly more of an issue at the moment as Typhon transits airy Libra, sign of relating and (along with Aries) the most ‘projection-prone’ of signs simply because Libra asks us to reconcile our sense of Self to that Self through what we learn or encounter in others or life as a whole.

And this issue of Typhon transiting Libra, that isn’t any short term transit. Typhon’s orbit (around the Sun) is some 235 years in length, giving us an average of 19.5 years in any given thirty-degree sign - of which we have only thus far experienced 13 of those degrees.

...Which brings us back to 13 Libra, a degree which tends to increase focus and emphasis on others with something of an ‘all good/all bad’ sort of ‘black-and-white’ quality which when active tends to react rather purely in terms of whether the good ‘expectation’ has been met without all that much cognizance that the expectations are not only not fact, but they are one of the premier ways humans challenge their Self to be realistic - and thus to achieve that wholeheartedly Libra thing, namely the satisfying of one’s aims through others, interactions, situations and joint/joined efforts.

So as Typhon goes direct on June 19th (UT/+0) we can all expect some sort of experience which is basic. And though the reasons why we do or don’t do something may seem like the object (and may well be important in their own right) the real ‘Typhon question’ is likely to be more about our experience of who we are when all else is stripped away - and how our regards for...or our lack of regard - for others and the world around us can so color all we achieve.

Or don’t achieve, depending.

 A diagram of the orbit of TNO Typhon

(credit: NASA-JPL)

 

Where Typhon is concerned, there’s no doubt but that we will react from instinct. The question is whether we will realize it as such and - if we do recognize that fact - whether we will parse or moderate instinct through the use of more ‘modern’ (as opposed to primal) or intellectual means as we sort through that good old axiomatic metaphysical rule about life: what happens isn’t about ‘them’ so much as it’s about us.

As the old adage says, it’s not what happens, it’s how we respond to it, react to it, and what we learn from it which counts.

Under Libra we learn about ourselves through external means - and until we reckon ‘cause’ with ‘effect’ we aren’t likely to win our own respect, love or satisfaction in the long run.

Furthermore, since life seems to have a trés bizarre sense of humor (especially of late, she says with an admitted degree of personal concern) this Typhon station isn’t ‘one-and-done’ simple. No, this is not just about Typhon (just?) as Typhon isn’t going direct all by its celestial self on June 19th. Instead, as Typhon goes direct at 13 Libra, Eurydike is also going direct at 27 Libra.

Oh, what an airy, airy world - or at least it’s likely to feel like one as life becomes all about ‘the idea’ or our ‘concept’ of what’s true or not true at all sorts of interesting and variable levels throughout this (June 17-21) joint station.

And when one adds Typhon to the Eurydike ‘know the cost’ (or simply ‘the cost of’) vibe, the results are obvious - the cost of basics...and knowing them, understanding them, accepting them - whether that means having them, needing them or having ignored them...whether in past tense, present tense or something which works out to being happy or rather personally tense about the future.  

In combination, this energy can be personal and pragmatic - but that would seem to require a degree of pragmatism. Why? That would be because 27 Libra has a reputation for things which are difficult to move through in part because they flex and change at every step along the way combined with their tendency to be unmoved by short-term influence - a quality which may manifest as anything from annoyance to frustration to sheer dismay in the charts of those with 13 Libra highlighted.

(Note: this would mean anyone with any planet/dwarf planet, axis or node between 8 and 18 Libra, Aries, Capricorn or Cancer - and/or - those with points or planets between 11 and 15 degrees of Pisces or Virgo.)

If those points are highlighted, the ‘Typhon effect’ will be strong, against which we would expect any astrologically underscored placement of Eurydike would indicate fluctuation(s) which may or may not be important, but which may well seem important - sending us back to that ‘need for internal I/thou’ balance so common with 13 Libra.

(With regards to Eurydike’s effect, look for points between 22 Libra and 1 Scorpio...22 Aries and 1 Taurus...22 Cancer and 1 Leo, or 22 Capricorn and 1 Aquarius.)

There is a ‘stability’ quotient associated with 27 Libra, there may appear to be a promise of the ability or embodiment of some sort of ‘inner harmony’ which is difficult to define if no less real for that. It’s an elusive, hard to pin down quality which when combined with Typhon and 13 Libra’s reputation for difficulties with others based on difficulties with reconciliation of desire against (life’s often rather mundane) realities.

It would seem to be a recipe which may well manifest through eruptions where at the most basic level there may well be the least to worry about - which of course will create rebuttals, reactions and responses from that which is being disrupted in theory or because of theory - much of which reflects the Typhon’s current 13 Libra placement.

Typhon entered 13 Libra (in retrograde) back on June 4th - and because the sign is Libra, and because like Taurus, Libra is ruled by Venus there is (and has been) an ongoing ‘reference’ which sort of ‘ties’ things which have been going on...not always literally, but certainly thematically...with (you know what I’m going to say, right?) the 8 Taurus Solar Eclipse which occurred back in April.

(Just call it the eclipse which refuses to go away.)

Furthermore, let’s also remember that all this not-so-merriment is occurring under Mercury retrograde, so while we need to be working through things which are already on the table (or in action, on our plate, in focus, already challenging us, etc.)...and while there may be perfectly good reasons to be investigating options which either pertain to matters at hand or something you’re thinking of doing as/once Mercury goes direct on July 1st....

In short, Mercury retrograde is yet another way of bringing things home to us as things we need to deal with in terms of how we think, how we operate, how we regard others and in all those many and varied ways we rise and fall, gain or fail, learn or reject others and/or the standards of the world (or you particular ‘audience,’ be they personal, professional, private or public).

And just to make this very plain (even in some cases unpleasantly so), Mercury’s retrograde motion will move it back out of Cancer and into Gemini exactly as the Typhon/Eurydike station comes entirely into play (as opposed to the mental roughing up it’s represented over the past several weeks).

That’s right...Mercury returns to Gemini at 10:05 a.m. on June 17th (UT/+0 time) - setting an alarm clock (of sorts) which re-emphases issues of ‘choice,’ whether that’s the choice we make or have made, whether we will choose to be involved in any given thing, or whether we have simply changed our mind.

Such things do happen, after all. And providing those changes reflect enlightenment and a broadening of the mental basis upon which choice is made, Gemini (and Mercury) generally honor that...give or take all those ongoing post-eclipse upheavals and evolutions of things we didn’t want to hear (see, say, do) and which we surely didn’t want to have to deal with when thrust upon us.

Take heart - Venus will soon (as in next week) be exiting Taurus. No guarantees are being offered on this opinion, but it would be likely that much of the toxic subterranean upwelling (internal and external) will begin subsiding about then.

(And you may be assured I will be among the grateful about that.)

As for the second station pairing of the week, that would involve centaur Chiron and asteroid Psyche. Of these two, Chiron is certainly far the more famous, astrologically speaking. Yet being that in terms of mass asteroid Psyche is fully 1% of the entire known and total mass of all the many thousands of asteroids out there...Psyche’s no slouch in the ‘importance in life’ department.

Theoretically (this being metaphysical theory we’re talking about) all asteroids which reside in the main asteroid belt refer to things we will meet up with on our way from initiation, inception or assertion (Mars) and to understanding all the many things which make things work in the Big Picture rather than in our head, among our friends or (more or less) locally - that being the metaphysical Jupiterian notion.

In going on station at 20 Aquarius, Psyche represents the bridging or separating (the ‘divides’) between the individual and the group or some sub-set of a whole and the whole itself. If you have any planet, dwarf planet, nodal or axis point positioned between 15 and 25 Aquarius, Leo, Scorpio or Taurus...(or) 18 to 22 degrees of Virgo or Cancer, there is likely to be a notable ‘Psyche effect’ in your life about now - not that everyone else won’t be affected, but Psyche does seem to have a quality which works most effectively (in terms of long-term growth and productivity) through hard aspects.

(Translation: tough moments.)

The Sabian symbol for 20 Aquarius (‘A DISAPPOINTED AND DISILLUSIONED WOMAN COURAGEOUSLY FACES A SEEMINGLY EMPTY LIFE’) being less about gender and more about our individual ability/need to respond or accept - which Psyche and Aquarius (in being an air sign) plainly states is about some mental process, concept, thought or judgment (decision) - all of which operates on some societal or social level. And when we add in astrologer Marc Edmund Jones’ comment on this image (‘the capacity to meet emotionally upsetting experiences in human relationships with strength of character and personal integrity’) there would seem to be a ringing echo of Typhon at 13 Libra, if from a more mental and less visceral perspective with some emphasis on the experiencing of our own vision or expectation against why it won’t (or hasn’t) worked - or proved true.

With Psyche going retrograde, thoughts turn inward. And seeing as Psyche is going retrograde in tandem with Chiron doing the same thing in Pisces, the Aquarius/Pisces (Psyche/Chiron) combination describes an uncomfortable ‘encounter’ of that which can be conceived of in the abstract and the experience of the human reality, replete with all that often inconvenient (and uncomfortable) emotional vulnerability being human requires.

In this combo, Chiron represents the ‘wounded healer’ - or that we can do, but which we don’t want to (and don’t know how to) get ourselves to move through, even if that’s the only way we can learn our Chirotic truths. Chiron always asks that we ‘own’ something about or in our Self, and that something is always something we feel terribly inept about.

Are we inept? Maybe yes, maybe no - that’s not the Chiron issue. Chiron always involves something we love to tell others how to do but which we’re less than adept with in our own life - and sometimes that can manifest as looking hypocritical. Or even manipulative. When we ‘act out’ in a Chiron manner people tend to wonder why we don’t understand that all we have to do is....(insert concept)...to which we tend to react to with frustration.

Speaking of which (frustration, that is) because Chiron going retrograde at 17 Pisces says we will never be able to depend on others until we find our own inner independence. Those with axis points, nodes or planets/dwarf planets positioned between 12 and 22 degrees of Pisces, Virgo, Sagittarius or Gemini (along with those with chart points between 15 and 19 degrees of Libra or Leo) will feel the Chiron side of this dual-station more acutely than others, but everyone is bound to get a ‘dose’ of need to act which is strangely confronted by not being quite sure that you know what to do just to that degree which knocks you off your game.

With Chiron, it’s that inner insecurity with ourselves which gets to us...and not making this any more simple is the fact that 20 Aquarius is generally thought of as a problematic degree which needs a constructive outlet, lest pent-up energies, frustrations and in particular, the sense that you’re not being heard manifest as physical illness. 20 Aquarius has a reputation for connections to spinal nervous system (one I can vouch for personally and currently), so if problems arise, have them checked out. Given the centaur nature of this point there is always a tendency to ‘do what’s easy’ and resort to physical assertion (even aggression) rather than requiring ourselves to temper our willfulness with a healthy dose of thinking things through so that we will assert thoughtfully when and where necessary.

These days we are moving through are the last days of Sun in Gemini for 2014. As noted before, there is a common ‘descent into mental pressure’ which occurs at this time as part of the shift from Gemini (the last sign in the natural zodiac’s first quadrant) into Cancer as the first experience of having to (or needing to learn now to) move from mentality into emotionality and from the more egocentric world of personal learning (the I-Me-My Idea orientation towards life) into a world where we need to respond to others as part of learning how to get along - and ultimately achieve in life.

Against all this, 0 Cancer is the degree of the mid-year Solstice: Earth coming into a moment of ‘balanced illumination.’

So all of this...the earliest part of the week with its coloration of Typhon/Eurydike going direct (indicating facing things in the world) against Psyche/Chiron turning retrograde (indicating the need to think through why things mean what they do to us) is all about coming into balance - most of all with our Self.
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