Ixion and Pholus Station-Direct

Centaur an den Kaskaden in Kassel

(photo credit: Fingalo Christian Bickel, May 2008)

Plutino Ixion and centaur Pholus both have somewhat problematic reputations. They’re not quite the zombies of our character set, but they do seem to tempt us to act contrary to our own best interests.

How they do that is individual - which is to say described by where these points are in your personal chart and where they are going to be going direct, which is at 19 and 20 Sagittarius.

Being that I’m still having some physical difficulties, I’m not going to do a marathon fandango on the lore and astro-theory behind these points.

But never fear - we have links:

- link to -

Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

- link to -

Pholus: A Little Nasty

Either way, both Ixion and Pholus are about what we don’t want to do, though they act on that desire in very different ways. Ixion acts out (is assertive or pro-active, to use the common terms) and Pholus tends to retreat, single out, ignore or isolate.

As defined by what these points are astronomically, they will also tend to describe different sorts of influences we would meet up with (either in our own heart, mind or soul or through some external prompting). Like better-known Chiron, Pholus is a centaur - one of a number of astronomical objects which act sort of like ‘short range’ comets which unlike “official” comets don’t cycle around the Sun - our emblem of consciousness, existence and will to live.

Because Pholus doesn’t orbit around the Sun, it doesn’t represent any ‘core’ aspect of our personality. It can’t directly affect our life, will or consciousness - except in the sense that in cycling back and forth from just beyond (outside) Neptune’s orbit to just inside Saturn’s, Pholus does indeed cross over Saturn’s orbit, an event which symbolically represents Pholus as a force which can ‘penetrate’ our outer barrier (Saturn).

Pholus is about that which can get to us, or the experience of dealing with ourselves once something has gotten to us. What Pholus doesn’t seem to be is outwardly motivated.

That’s Ixion. Ixion is that ability to do the same thing over (and over) again thinking you will succeed this time. Ixion tempts us to ignore life’s realities in favor of something we believe we are - and in particular, that we are entitled to do, be or have.

And in that, we would be wrong. But that’s the point - where we see Ixion we tend to do think we can ‘get away’ with something (whether in conjunction with others or our Self).

It doesn't work. That’s the Ixion nature: to pursue some path (generally one which is open to us because of some natural talent or simply because of who we are or know how to do) in a singularly self-serving manner until our lack of respect for others and life in general becomes our Self-undoing. Ixion is a Plutino: an object whose orbit around our Sun is governed by a little invisible (to us) force called magnetic resonance - Neptune’s magnetic resonance.

And since Neptune notoriously symbolizes all the many ways we idealize, imagine and so often delude ourselves (lest we have to deal with all that messy ‘being a mortal human being’ stuff), that would be why Ixion always has to do with somewhere in our life where we tend to delude ourselves.

So Ixion tends to ‘act’ and Pholus tends to ‘withdraw,’ which makes things curious when you consider that these two points are stationing at 19 (Ixion) and 20 (Pholus) Sagittarius.

Part one: they’re in conjunction.

Part two: this is the ‘bookend’ to their having gone into retrograde in tandem.

- link to -

Pholus-Ixion Station-Retrograde

(March 2014)

Part three: there is a general traditional notion that degrees vary by nature depending on whether they’re numerically even or odd. Even degrees are ‘receptive-responsive’ and odd degrees are ‘proactive-assertive.’ So that proactive Ixion is going direct at proactive 19 Sagittarius and reactive Pholus is going direct at a responsive degree like 20 Sagittarius tell us that we should expect anything Sagittarian to move towards more polarized or ‘purist’ forms of expression bent on classic Sagittarian aims like expansion, exploration, getting the word (or anything else) “out there” and dealing with objections, blockades or errors in judgment or operational imperatives.

And let’s just say Sagittarius isn’t exactly known for being all that cooperative when it comes to having people or things not cooperate. Famously associated with the legal system, Sagittarius is all about the debate rather than the punishment, punishments legal and otherwise fall under Capricorn (with the exception of guilt, shame and other such emotional torments, all of which fall under water signs).

Moreover, to have Ixion at 19 degrees and Pholus at 20 degrees is something of an indication that a ‘connection’ [the conjunction] is currently in play which links Sagittarius’ ‘fervent zone’ (its second ten degrees) with Sagittarius as a basic signature of things going on in the world.

That Pholus is ahead of Ixion may well say that some of us (those who have Pholus more prominently placed in their natal charts, one would guess) will, upon confronting whatever is going on will retreat, want to retreat... or at least function from a separate and singular perspective. What that gives us may take any number of forms: some of us just have things to do, some people will choose (for any of a number of reasons) to stay uninvolved or at a distance which allows them to be less partial, and some of us will simply ignore, deny or insist on being hard-headed in wanting to believe what we want to believe, never mind anyone else (or the facts, in some cases).

With Ixion just behind Pholus and still in an emotionally charged degree there is a deal of energy driving our needs and convictions, which against Pholus’ instinct to separate and go one’s own way is likely to manifest as various types of confusion and conflict within and without our Self and in that ‘zone’ we have defined as our sphere of operation.

Which one of these influences is strongest and therefore represents which side of this push-pull being individual will make everything a bit more messy, of course. Plus there are certainly those who will feel more of these effects going into the September 3rd (Ixion) and 4th (Pholus) station as opposed to coming out of it.

We give stations a two-days-before, two-days-after ‘allowance’ period (making the full extent of this station from September 1st through 6th), and if you follow this sort of stuff (yes, astrologers collect people stats as opposed to sports stats) what you’ll learn is that events (real time or mental, it doesn’t matter) which occur prior to the actual moment of stationing tend to refer to things which have yet to play out where things which occur after the station tend to reflect a ‘wrapping up’ of matters which have already happened. With this particular station occurring just as Mars and Saturn are parting their Scorpio conjunction things are intense and require the kind of focus which refuses to go off half-cocked, which is to say before what AND why everyone is doing and feeling as they are - before all of that is at least noted, if not well understood.

But let’s be realistic here... Ixion and Pholus are not the kind of life factors any of us like coping with. Sure, we’re all about what ‘the Other’ is doing or saying which we don’t like or maybe want to brush aside... but we’re not as good with ourselves. Their flaws and the problems with situations...? That we see. That, we’re willing to see.

But flaws in our Self? Both of these points refer to personality paths which are Self unaware - and both come from a position which speaks to where or how we tend not to take responsibility for Self, particularly as that pertains to being one human among many, all of whom are equally human.

As for the degrees involved, 19 Sagittarius is known equally for an aversion to ‘mainstream’ standards or ways of doing things... difficulties and trials which specifically test inner emotional (water sign) stamina... in a symbolic offset to the inner emotional tests, an affinity for natural water and waterways. This degree is associated with causes. Yet though having a ‘cause’ (or focus) is a plus, failing to deal with negatives, evils and any lack of inclusive thinking (which with Ixion tend to be ours by definition) is a recipe for bitter... even poisonous pain.

Not theirs, ours.

Though this is only a moment in time and the passage of a few days, what happens now can be important. Ixion has an oddly ‘fated’ quality reflective of this influence as one which brings some very ugly traits to the surface... and whether we like it or not, we’re all human and we all have some spots dappling the landscape of our thinking and personality which in the grander scheme of things are just ugly.

From Pompeii's Casa dei Vettii, a detail from a scene depicting Ixion's punishment which

features Mercury holding the famous caduceus.

(public domain)

With Pholus, personal ethics and morality count. With Ixion, social and societal contracts count. So with Mercury just crossing Virgo's massive black hole M87 (see previous post) just as Ixion takes its station turn, we are almost being invited to see things differently... to see others and our attitude towards those others in an entirely alternative light.

What we do after that... or in lieu of that, should we are so enamored of our own personal vision of things that we’re not even willing to entertain someone else’s truth as truth... that’s up to us. And because that's up to us, that means the karma which comes from what we do or not do leaves us with no one to blame (or cheer) apart from our Self.

But then, that would be the theme here: taking responsibility for what we do, who we are, how we think and feel - and what we allow ourselves to do or be because of that.

Or maybe in spite of that.

Speaking of karma, Pluto (the outcome ruler of Scorpio, sign of karma) is going direct in just a couple of weeks.

So this would seem to be a signpost.

Will we read it? And beyond that, will we heed it - or will some Ixion-Pholus impulse get the better of us?
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Hebe Goes Retrograde

Hebe

by Francisco Javier Ramos y Albertos (1784)

About a week or so ago I got an email from someone who reads this blog. She wrote to ask me about an asteroid named Hebe, wondering what it meant specifically with regards to Hebe in Virgo. Here is part of what I wrote back:

Hebe would have entered Virgo (this time around) back around October 19, 2011.

The general idea of Hebe in Virgo would be two-fold. The first (and more obvious) form of Hebe in Virgo would be how doing service (or holding one's self to standards) in this world does more than help others - it helps us. The second would be about how the investing in doing the job well increases the benefits ultimately reached. 

Because she had offered the lovely and poetic idea of Hebe in Virgo as a 'perfect offering,' I added this:

I hesitate to use the word 'perfect' with Virgo as that would seem to encourage Virgoan over-focus.

The mythic Hebe is the servant to the gods of Olympus. It is Hebe who brings cups of ambrosia, that (apparently delicious) and highly regarded immortal draught which when consumed, endowed one with immortality and which apparently was brought to the gods whenever they wanted a bit of eternal drink.

Hebe is also regarded as an embodiment of youth, and as one of the attendants to Aphrodite (Venus) is part of the mythic Greek nexus about beauty.

Her mother is Hera (known to the Romans as Juno) which, seeing as both Hera and Juno are asteroids on their own has given us to understand that there are (at least) two different sides to the ‘mothering influence’ from which Hebe comes. Hera is the keeper of the hearth and more of the nurturing side of this duo where Juno is the organizer, the self-modulating and self-disciplining concept which keeps us on track. (Or doesn’t, depending!)

Interestingly, Hebe is the female version of Ganymede, an asteroid astrologer Alex Miller thinks of as being associated with male sexuality, and often male homosexuality. I can’t say I’ve seen a corresponding bent with regards to Hebe and lesbianism, but I have seen Hebe in various configurations which speak to how people of either gender deal with submissiveness as part of their sexual natures, or as a component of their ‘doing service’ (or just plain having to do what needs doing) in daily life.

As asteroids go, Hebe is quite a notable one. It’s the 5th brightest of all the asteroids in the main asteroid belt which falls in that big gap between the personal planets (in order: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth/Moon, Mars) and the generational or social/societal planets (Jupiter and Saturn). Hebe is also quite large – it’s mass is estimated to be one-half of one percent of the total asteroid mass which is out there.

(I know…when we talk about asteroids you hear me say such things fairly often. How can everything be that big? Well, what that’s really saying is how small a whole lot of those asteroids out there really are – and not just when compared to planets, but in comparison to each other!)

Hebe’s position in the asteroid belt tends to be ‘a bit on the inside.’ The belt being composed of a space which starts at 1.665 astronomical units from the Sun (Mars’ farthest distance from the Sun) and 4.95 astronomical units (Jupiter’s nearest approach to the Sun)…in all of this Hebe orbits our Sun at a distance which is at it’s nearest, 1.937 astronomical units and at it’s farthest, only 2.914 astronomical units.

Hebe's orbit

(diagram generated using JPL's Small Body Database 

So Hebe never goes more than half way out through that big giant ‘slot’ between the personal planets and the generational pair, a space we think of astrologically as containing all the things (asteroids) we have to deal with, learn about or learn to utilize while on the way to achieving our worldly and social/societal (Jupiter/Saturn) goals.

Thus in the personal sense, Hebe has to do with service to ourselves and the service that we do. And for that, evidently we nourish ourselves, our lives or our souls, however you want to phrase it.

And that fits, seeing as the mythical Hebe furnishes eternal nourishment …ambrosia, which we probably think of as ‘the fruits of our labor’ in the greater and lesser senses.

This becomes additionally interesting when we think of Hebe as one of Venus’ attendants. Yes, we could think of what we do as being all about what we get out of it…which would be the more baseline Venus concept. But Venus being really about the hinge which turns cause (what we put into something or how we present ourselves or what we do) into effect (our rewards of whatever kind)…that means that Hebe, as some form of ‘doing service’ is that part of the ‘personal aim’ which helps us reach our (Jupiter/Saturn) goals.

Who knew, right?

With an orbital period of 3.78 years, Hebe averages about three to four months in any given sign. And at the moment, it’s in Sagittarius, sign of learning, of law, of things and ideas which are foreign to each one of us, of education and of religion.

(A fine time to get a new Pope, right?)

Hebe entered Sagittarius on January 31st, 2013 – right around the time that Jupiter went retrograde and so much trouble was going on in our world. We weren’t thinking of others, we (as human beings) obviously haven’t learned to live with each other…or even ourselves!…and we seem to think everybody exists to serve our needs.

And that may be the Hebe point. Hebe will be in Sagittarius until November 17, 2013. And during that time, not only are people likely to be more demanding than usual (wanting others to serve their needs) but every sort of thing ‘put out there’ is going to be tested to see if it serves some purpose. And for the remaining months of Jupiter in Gemini, where we are perhaps going over the line or pushing too hard or saying too much (or not the right thing), where we may be speaking before we think and discovering what our limits are (and therefore what we need to learn in order to move ahead) as much through what doesn't work as what does...

That may be the Hebe point. Hebe in Sagittarius will be about what we can do which works for others and for us...and what may work only for one side and not the other.

To be frank here, my astrologer's guess is that we’re likely to see and learn a lot about human flaws and bad behavior of these next few months.

But let’s not get all gloomy here…once Hebe goes retrograde (at 10 Sagittarius) it will back up all the way to 24 Scorpio, and that’s an interesting span. First of all it suggests that between April 2nd (the date Hebe goes retrograde) and July 16th (when Hebe goes direct) this is a great time for trying things out and all sorts of research and ‘test models’ which will help us sort out what works from what doesn’t work – and why.

If you need some sort of personal ‘prep time’ for something yet to come, April through mid-July looks like a goodie. Why? Because Hebe in retrograde is all about helping ourselves. Or even helping ourselves help ourselves. So this may be a time when you do something about you…or when you get help in something you need to do about some situation in your life.

A bronze of Hebe by Robert Thomas in Birmingham, England

(photo credit: Elliott Brown, August 2009)

It’s all good. So long as you approach the subject with a reasonable amount of humility and an awareness that the real goal is the accomplishment to be reached down there a bit further along the road, a lot can get done.

10 Sagittarius is a degree which seems to confuse ability with genius, ‘ability’ being used here as the idea of the action verb which gets something done and genius being the internal vision or inspiration which gets the idea and sees how things could work (or how they might work) IF they were put into action.

The positive here lies in listening and absorbing what isn’t yet at the level where it serves your purposes or will carry you on to your goal (or goals, whatever they may be). Though you see the gap or the lack, to know that you are able to change things and able to make improvements – that’s your spark of genius, whether you recognize it or not. Sagittarius is a fire sign, so there’s lots of ‘envisioning’ which happens through whatever object passes through this sign. So now we’re seeing how we could make things better for others and how that could move us closer to our goals…maybe in terms of who we are as a human being, or maybe in terms of some worldly aim.

Whichever – both work. And they may work even better in your soul as a course of action to follow going forward if I tell you that the other end of this retrograde run (24 Scorpio) is a degree all about building our personal world and an internal ‘knowing’ how to deal with others so as to gain their support.

One more interesting item to note here: come the end of May there will be a second ‘eclipse season’ Lunar Eclipse. It will be positioned at 4 Sagittarius and happen on May 25th, exactly one month after the April 25 Lunar Eclipse at 5 Scorpio.

When that eclipse happens, Hebe will be at 2 Sagittarius, a sign that how we do things is of that moment and (particularly for anyone whose chart has a planet, node or axis point at 2-6 of any sign) germane to what happens then.

By and large, Lunar Eclipses are very emotional moments. Some people (those not very good with their feelings) will tend to create situations where someone else has to ‘own’ their emotions. But that’s not good for either one of you…and at this particular point in time (May 25th, I mean) you may actually come to understand why foisting your feelings off on others doesn’t work.

We’ll talk more about that then, of course. But for now, Hebe is about to go retrograde. Since it’s going retrograde on April 2nd, it’s ‘station window’ begins on March 31st and ends April 4th: any and all issues which happen during this time which bring to light the idea or issues of ‘service’ and what it means to serve others or feel good because you’ve helped someone – or even what ‘serves your purpose’ are worth paying attention to.

All this said because someone sent me an email.

Obviously yes, I respond. But that’s part of my Hebe thing: I believe in being of service in this world. It works for me.

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