Blogpost (May 12-19): The Scorpio New Moon (+ Mars and Other Stations)

 

A photograph of the April 15, 2014 Lunar Eclipse taken in Minneapolis, Minnesota

(photo credit: Tomruen2)

As May 12th comes upon us, life [Sun] shifts us out from behind a variable set of lenses colored by contradictions which want resolving plus a smattering of just those sorts of cravings which make us feel everything or anything we have or are isn’t as good as what someone else has (or is).

Fortunately, it’s only been a day of that - a 20 Taurus sort of day which had us wanting to do whatever our way when for good or ill what we want, especially in the long run was more likely to come from an honest estimation of personal needs.

From solidity of self comes the ability to tolerate differences in others. Without that security, Taurus becomes the land of endless wanting - of whatever your “medium of choice” is, be it money, power or any of the other illustrious polarizing (Scorpio) forces which are apparently part of life not so much so that we can test or control others but so that we can learn about what works for us and...separately...for others so that we can forge a path forward which works to equally support the need/drives/aims of all.
 
With every year comes a 20 Taurus sort of day. And once we complete that task, life rolls on...time pushes forward...and we get to the next thing, the process of enacting yesterday’s realizations.

It’s something of a theme this week, that process thing. No matter who we are we’re in the middle of something, and the Sun’s moving into Taurus’ ‘third third’ (degrees 20-29) is where our more (and most) personal view(s) encounter the minds, the lives, the push back, applause, critique and support of both a few...and at other times many others.

There will be a literal highlighting of sorts which will occur around/at the time of this month’s Scorpio Full Moon. The date will be May 14th and the UT/+0 time 7:17 p.m. as this Moon takes its mark at 23 Scorpio.

And if that degree sounds familiar, it should. 23 Scorpio is the degree Saturn went stationary-retrograde at back on March 3rd.

Which yes, would be one day after Mars went retrograde at 27 Libra....which was one day after Mercury went direct at 18 Aquarius.

- link to -

Mercury, Mars, Saturn on Station

And we’re all still dealing with that. Whatever was afoot then was what we like as not stubbed our mental toes on, with the whole of the Mars retrograde and solar eclipse process slowly moving us towards a ‘bottom line’ we are just about to reach with our Self, and which all around us we hear people wanting to reach (often just so they can be ‘done’ with something).

Over this time...through whatever has happened to us over the past few months...our trajectory has changed. Why we do what we do (the way we do it) has become clearer to us - and the flaws with that, personal or social - have also become clear.

We all have been changed. A little or a lot...that’s individual. But as this Full Moon comes to be...during the time leading into or out of it (some people tend to do one, some the other - that’s natural) we’re likely to feel ourselves recognizing just how we’ve changed.

And what that means with regards to our personal  potential, alone or as part of some greater group or concern.

Maybe even as part of many groups or concerns, some of which don’t overlap so well. Energies stirred at 23 Scorpio wash through life either with a ‘scattering’ or ‘wasting’ effect or a revealing of that which has been scattered or wasted which here is ‘highlighted’ symbolically by a Full Moon - a ‘high tide’ of feelings summoned from deep within whether we really want to feel them or not.

But it’s just a phase. The Moon moves in phases...this is just another phase, and after this one will come countless others. When we make a Scorpio-Moon connection, we tend to feel the impact...of how we feel in the moment we register our feelings most of all.

It’s a lovely thing indeed...although it can get us stuck. The Moon in Scorpio fights for control; its habit and instinct are to use external sources to  stabilize anything we feel [Moon] is keeping us from ‘getting on’ with whatever it is we want to do next...and to find/use/employ whatever we [Moon] feel will support our positions.

At it’s best, Moon in Scorpio supports difficult emotional constructs and the constructing of whatever will support, detoxify, rebuild and/or regulate any force. Sometimes that means investing. Sometimes that means pruning. Sometimes that means detoxifying. Sometimes that means not doing anything and sometimes it means ripping the old construct down to whatever level lays it bare.

Scorpio is the sign of the Phoenix. We are transformed by our ability to trust our Self, whether or not others agree - whether or not we like (or trust) them. That all ‘Scorpio tests’ are internal and yet enacted through others or external circumstances will lead most of us to experience at least a moment or two (or three) of insecurity...maybe confusion or even that helpless, hapless feeling we all dislike. The Sun-Phaethon-Dionysus (in Taurus) side of things describes demands and determinations being balanced against a future and a potential we should want...and which we actually have the ability to go after if our overall priorities are in line.

If not, others will let us know. They may not even be subtle about it.

One other thing about this day or so in time...with the Moon (at 23 Scorpio) conjunct Mnemosyne (creativity) and Huya, there is something we can give - something which we have learned at hard cost long before now [Huya] through the sorts of events and experiences which try the human soul.

However we connect to that...whatever we have learned from that...it is the offering of that which becomes our “Huya Rainmaker.”

- link to -

Huya, Rainmaker: Direct at 20 Scorpio

Remember: this is your Huya we’re talking about, which in Scorpio has to do with what you have to offer others out of your own life which will ‘make it rain’ for everyone...and thus bring fulfillment to us. 

 Asteroid Eros as photographed by NASA

 

Eros station-retrograde at 19 Capricorn

As astrological Eros the ‘object’ as been covered about as well as I'm ever going to cover it in a different post, let’s start there...
 

- link to -

Eros and Psyche: Falling in

Love With Our Minds

...after which what you need to know is that asteroid Eros is going retrograde at 19 Capricorn on May 11th.

Yes, that is the same day as the Full Moon. But let’s remember, stations (be they station-retrograde or station-direct) all get 'allowances.' I'm currently using a two-day allowance, but if you may find three days works better for you, feel free.

Representing ‘passions’ of all kinds, Eros energies tend to arise as described by the sign element in your natal chart. In other words, if your natal Eros is in an air sign (Gemini, Libra or Aquarius) you are stirred by ideas and your ‘passions’ function greatly on an idea-driven level and it doesn’t matter what the subject matter is, it’s the idea of the thing which ‘gets’ you (or gets to you).

With natal Eros in water (Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces), the drive and driver is emotional. With natal Eros in fire (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) the ‘vision’ is the thing.

And when we find Eros in an earth sign - as it is now, transiting Capricorn, it’s the reality which we’re passionate about, and life’s realities which stir our passions, however they’re individually shaped. With Capricorn pointing us to the worldly and public sections of life as well as all things/concerns ‘structural’ (and the price or penalty we pay for a lack of Eros focus) certain types of ‘standings’ (or our regard for same) take a ‘turn’ now... or don’t, depending on our individual relationship to the kind of passionate assertiveness of the interactive type this Scorpio Full Moon favors working with.

Our ability to negotiate, team up with, support or serve as a coalescing (Scorpio) force is in the (Full Moon) spotlight.

Known as least mildly pro-active (and more than a little bit determined, 19 Capricorn is a degree which presses for its goals with an unusual degree of creativity. And though advances can be made, the fullness of what one wants to accomplish probably can’t be done overnight.

Yes, patience is required. That may be the test here, as Scorpio Moons (Full or otherwise) tend to ‘freeze’ or ‘hold off’ where Eros energies tend to erupt as ‘pushing’ for what we want or need.
 
Balance and an understanding of who or what we are dealing with in its own terms (not pre-defined by us) is necessary for what is done now to endure as a supportive measure which does what we want it to correctly.

If nothing else, the Sabian symbol for 28 Virgo ('A SEEKER AFTER OCCULT KNOWLEDGE

IS READING AN ANCIENT SCROLL WHICH ILLUMINATES HIS MIND,') reminds us how in

great part the decision (and effort) to continue seeking and the remaining open to new ideas

(not the allegiance to what we already know) which provides opportunities for growth. 

Srimad Guru Adi Shankaracharya by Raja Ravi Varma (1904, Oleograph)

Byblis direct at 28 Virgo

There’s an unpleasant quality to Byblis, one which can probably be typified either as the defense of the indefensible or the attempt to defend one’s Self against that ‘awful’ thing we don’t want to think about or contend with.

But that’s the point - the metaphysics of asteroid Byblis is about us. It’s about what we will or won’t consider or face having to deal with, whether that ‘dealing’ is self-contained or whether such things ask us to take on matters beyond our Self or even our understanding.

The point is that with Byblis, there always seems to be something involved which is ‘wrong’ - or at least something which seems or feels wrong. And with Byblis’ station taking place in Virgo, the ‘lens’ through which this ‘wrong’ is being seen (or through which it is manifesting) will be the means, method or reasoning/rationales for doing/not doing things...or the means, methods or rationales being employed in the doing of things.

That Byblis is making its turn to direct at 28 Virgo (one of Virgo’s last ten degrees) also tells us that whatever the Byblis note is, it will be ‘group’ and not personal. So it’s something we can react to... or which in embodying a reaction to something we’ve already done brings out the Byblis effect (theirs about us or us about something ‘out there’).

This isn’t the sky falling. Like most main belt  asteroid energetics, Byblis represents something we ‘run into’ and thus are affected by, which may color what we do, how we think or some choice we make because of or maybe in spite of everything and anything disquietingly ‘Byblis-like.’

At the same time, seeing as Byblis went retrograde back in early February in tandem with Mercury there is some chance that an assertion made back then may fall through now. If so, it will fall through on the basis of improper choices (which of several options was taken)...  or how a choice, commitment, resistance or position has failed to take all of the details and/or universal needs (or universal commonalties) properly into account.

In other words, where we may have thought over-much of our Self (in the ‘self important sense) or even just more of our opinion in some situation which really needed to be more balanced in the ‘my’ versus ‘their’ department...such issues may arise - or even re-arise now.

Again, this doesn’t have to be any sort of costly  interruption or reprocessing of anything. For many of us these Byblis moments are just those ‘do you have to bring THAT up again?’ sort of influences.

And since we’re here...the answer to the above is ‘yes, they do have to bring that up again,’ if only because their Byblis says they have to bring ‘that’ up again for their own Byblis reasons.

How would we know who would react and who wouldn’t react to such an influence? Granting that energetics tend to have a low-level effect no matter who we are, the person who reacts now will have 28 Virgo as a sensitive point in their natal chart or a natal Byblis which is somehow emphasized, however that happens.

Also, one other item worth noting...

Astrologer Marc Edmund Jones (the original astrologer to work with Sabian symbols)

typified the image for 0 Libra - 'IN A COLLECTION OF PERFECT SPECIMENS OF MANY

BIOLOGICAL FORMS, A BUTTERFLY DISPLAYES THE BEAUTY OF ITS WINGS, ITS BODY

IMPALED BY A FINE DART' - as 'the immortal archetypal reality that a perfect and dedicated

life reveals,' validating in yet another form those many age-old sayings which warn how 

with every great honor comes some sort of responsibility and feeling of being 'pinned' to

that 'perfect beauty' we represent, stand for, have achieved or have created.

A Chinese cloisonne and enamel box (photo credit: Vassil, June 2007)
.

Haumea direct at 0 Libra

Haumea is a dwarf planet, not an asteroid, meaning it’s greater size and mass translates rather literally into the metaphorical world of metaphysics, telling us it’s effect will have ‘weight’...or perhaps ‘gravity’ in our psyche, if not our life.

And maybe our life too - but first the psyche, as that is the principle realm (hierarchy of thought) around which western (tropical) astrology is organized. There are other forms of astrology which tend in that direction, but in western astrology, fate is what you are handed: what you do with it is free will and that’s what we see in your chart...which is why what happens (astrologically) isn’t about ‘them’ it’s about you and your responses, reactions and learning curve.

And why does that apply here? That applies because Haumea is a goddess of tricky manifestations, whether we’re talking about Haumea as an entity capable of ‘giving birth’ through various portions of her being (which metaphysically would suggest our ability to ‘give birth’ to ideas or efforts when various facets of our lives are triggered)...or Haumea the ultimately self-destructive shape-shifter as a representation of how we choose, do or say this or that to placate or ‘get by’ or ‘get along’ in any of the many manners which ultimately come home to us in some form of self-undoing.

In going direct at 0 Libra, Haumea drives us to understand truths even while (or because) we’re being driven crazy - or just driving ourselves crazy over something we need to deal with before moving on. There’s a ‘spin’ on complications here which suggests easy things being made more complicated (perhaps more complicated than they need to be) even as complicated issues are being simplified - and yes, maybe over-simplified. Whichever effect is encountered, the subject... interestingly... does seem to be something important, particularly in its ultimate potential with problems of the moment being linked to an undermining of momentum through improperly applied efforts.

Either the right method is not known, the right skills are not present or skills are needed but not present, all of which is complicated by questioning which in the end will tend towards lack of capacity - a quality which isn’t going to be felt as any more cuddly or cozy by any of us seeing as Venus is still in Aries (a fact which links because the Venusian drive for reward rules the Libra principle of relating).

You do remember Venus in Aries, right?
 

- link to -

Venus in Aries

Haumea and Byblis both go direct on May 18th, which means their stations (conservatively) begin on the 16th (Friday) and extend through March 20th, the actual end of Mars retrograde.

And that station (Mars’ station) begins on the 18th, the date Haumea and Byblis go direct.

Wait...let me try to make this a little easier by offering what schools the world over have no doubt taught us all to regard as a ‘visual aid.’

I’m sure to some, this all sounds rather dire - and it could be for those brining their minds in some proverbial pickle while waiting on someone or on something to happen. But the element involved here - air -  tells us that however Haumea and Mars manifest amidst all other things is of theoretical concern.

In other words, they’re arising in our mind, and whether it’s an evolving idea or some new notion about how life works or who you are in this life...with the Sun in Taurus’ latter degrees, we’re all being subjected to some level of interfaced wants and ‘security needs.’ Or maybe for you that’s the interfacing of wants and whatever allows you to feel secure (starting in your mind, evidently).

Or maybe it's just all in our mind. Sorting through that question is part of what happens now...and evidently it needs to happen as part of Mars reaching the end of its long Libra retrograde. How much of what we do in life is governed by what we think others like or dislike? How much is our life modeled or molded by ideas which may 'hold their shape' for us but which in the end are undercutting or compromising our greater ends? 

By the by...just to define here, ‘security’ in this sense is the Taurean (and/or 2nd house) version of security, which is to say that we find in our Self, making this reference ‘that which makes us feel secure as a person in life and/or in any given moment of our life.’
 
For the record here, the obvious is also true - namely that the reason why Scorpio as the polarity to Taurus is so often associated with death, birth, war and various kinds of tests of control are because where and when Scorpio functions that way it does so as a projection onto others of that we feel disquieted by ourselves.
 
Some factor which arises from this quadrant of our thinking plays a role at least in how we will tend to consider things now... and with Mars continuing to ‘sit’ at 9 Libra (conjunct fixed star Diadem), whether we’re in position to be comfortable with some sort of separateness of perspective or struggling through dealing with feelings, tales and issues having to do with separations or a ‘separating of ideas,’ isolation and/or its elitist cousin isolationism will be pushing us each and all to see the beauty, full potential and possible nasty (to our thinking) ideas to be faced amidst all.

Traces of liquid passage as recorded in planet Mars' surface

(NASA, GSFC, December 2006)

Damocles, Mars-Diadem

and Orcus on Station

 

Speaking of Mars (you knew we were going to get around to this, right?), the strangely unsecured feeling so many people are feeling, reacting to, and whether productive or not - that continues...as does the [Mercury in Gemini] pace of things in general. We often think of Mercury in Gemini as a somewhat ‘hectic’ time - and that factor may well be missing this time around, what with the overhanging Diadem/Mars retrograde effect. The net is likely to be a deal of coming to terms with Self first and then others, yet with Mars and Venus both in ‘fervent’ degrees we will need to conquer our own trepidations going in and be willing to work through a process of consideration and reconsidering (most of all with our Self) if by week’s end we are to arrive at suitable (or at least employable) combinations of [Venus in Aries] aspiration, [Mercury in Gemini] facts, choices or options and what may only be a dawning of the greater [Mars/Diadem] understanding of why (in the biggest-of-big-picture metaphysical sense) you have gone through so much of what you have gone through over these past days, weeks and months.

This period has its own function, absolutely. But it is also part of an intense and challenging period filled with personal tests which dates back to December, 2013 - just before Christmas.

Speaking of intensity...since Mars is going direct in square to Pluto (conjunct Vega) in Capricorn, apart from and yet as part of all else we go through now we are experiencing a long-term [Pluto] transformation of allure and that which fascinates us, draws and or commands us.

The longest range personal and societal shifts began a couple of years ago and won't become evident in the general sense for several years hence. However the short term effects of Mars-square-Pluto (which this would be with Pluto in Capricorn and Mars in Libra) could be explosive IF both symbols were not in retrograde.

In other words, froth if you must, but the transformational energetic is personal and wholeheartedly internal, causing us to 'work over' issues in our own way and at our own individual pace starting somewhere around May 14th.

This is not a transit to quail at unless you have done something dishonest, wrong or wholly manipulative (i.e., without regard for consequences or who gets harmed). If that is the case, as always Pluto/Mars contacts are likely to time out matters which 'expose' your secrets and 'occulted' (hidden) matters...and something like Mars squaring Pluto through a station is certainly that kind of event.

For everyone else the latter part of this coming week is likely to feel 'constrained' or 'compacted'...or perhaps weighty but complicated in that messy if not in-obvious manner which persuades us we can get where we need to go if we will but tackle the job and get on with things.  

In this light, some of us will solve short-term problems first as greater perceptions filter down upon us...some of us will have one of those light-bulb ‘epiphany’ moments then use that to develop new strategies which apply to the here and now of today, tomorrow and next week.

Then there’s the rest of us - a vast swath of humanity which is seeing so much so fast that it will take a bit to sort out, shake out and otherwise prove out.

Which is okay too...and entirely astrologically sensible. Even before Mars enters its two-day ‘station allowance’ on May 17th, asteroids Damocles and Sabine go on station on May 16th, serving as metaphysical clockwork chimes striking new notes of recognition...

In light of Damocles going on station at 24 Aquarius ('A BUTTERFLY WITH THE RIGHT
WING MORE PERFECTLY FORMED' ) we are reminded to stay in balance with ourselves

...and just how much doing that much requires of us.

A plate of Charaxes Aristogiton from Adalbert Seitz (ed.) 'Macrolepidoplera of the World'

(published before 1930, author unknown)

...yes, we see what needs doing...it’s just that it’s [Damocles] a whole lot harder to carry through on, especially given the growing understanding that reactions may arise during the process. As the weekend of the 17th-18th comes upon us time [Damocles in Capricorn] is ever more an essential ingredient going forward...but there are distinct real-time, present tense needs too. 

And one or two of those are likely to feel a bit like volunteering to sit on a tack the ‘point’ of which is driving home our own mortality, our vulnerability to being human as both the reason we care about others (and need to be cared about) and why we need to individuate.

It’s back to that Libra thing - the knowing who we are in the presence of others and knowing how we act to, with and about them is the cause of the effect they hand back. It’s all about negotiation, most of which happens first and last with and within our Self.
 
You know, the [Orcus] consequences which come from being who we are and aren't...or who we have come to think we don't want to be or need to become in spite of all. Through others, through all we have been through and been thwarted in, so we come to realize what is possible, reasonable and - in the end - maybe not so desirable in spite of all.

 Asteroid Sabine going station/retrograde at 16 Capricorn, a degree imaged by the image
'A REPRESSED WOMAN FINDS A PSYCHOLOGICAL RELEASE IN NUDISM' representing

whatever unexpressed or denied experiences we meet up with (in our own life or that of
others) which causes us to see, become free with or 'put on display for all to see' either
that which represents our inner (Capricorn) structures or external (Capricorn) goals,
drives or aims. 

Inu (Nu debout) by Jean Metzinger (oil on carton, 52 x 35 cm., 1911) 

 
Maybe it's not our path or role in life. Maybe the thing at hand (or in mind) isn't ours to do even comment on. Why this should be - and why we will, in reconsidering our current focus arrive at considering the 'where we are now' in light of all we have done...that both holds us back [Sabine] and in getting us to [Sabine] take hold of that which is immediately available to us gets us to consider what our life should be as well as the [Damocles] difficulties we're bound to encounter whether we adjust or stay our course.

In other words...in light of all that, what is really worth doing [Mars] and/or investing our [Mars] energies in? At some level we know our choice cannot be just about what we want, nor can it be entirely about what one (or many) parties are lobbying for.

It's about any and all of us - and what we mean...at least on a theoretical level...amidst all that.

Considering we're all going through this together (which is a thought worthy of contemplation right there...) patience and thoughtfulness will count now more than usual - and though we dare not leave ourselves out of the mix (yes, a little 'be nice to me' time is in order) we also dare not neglect others, with and without regard for who they are.

Libra is about equality - a theoretical equality which on a metaphysical level must allow for differences simply because together we all balance each other out.

(And isn't that a metaphysical noodle worth thinking about?) 

The better we understand why all this is, the more likely we are to ask ourselves that we actually hear others instead of just listening (in general, read as 'tolerating') them. And once we do that, we're likely to not just hear what they're truly saying (as opposed to what we might have been thinking we wanted to hear)...from which we will begin to really understand why others choose as they choose.

Such perspectives...or our unwillingness to contemplate same...are what we carry into and through the Mars/Diadem station, wherever that may yet lead.

* * * * * * * * * *

* * * * * * * * * * 

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Manti Te’o and Princess Diana: Jupiter, Neptune and Neptune / Mercury

 Jupiter's Great Red Spot as photographed by Voyager 1

(photo credit: NASA, February 1979)

Just about the time Lance Armstrong’s two-part Oprah interview hit the airwaves, a weirdly convoluted discussion about American (grid-iron) football player Manti Te’o and his ‘phantom online girlfriend’ also erupted.
 
From an astrological perspective, is this about sports stars? Or just celebrity?

I’d tend to say maybe both. And here’s why – starting with an Aries wheel of the zodiac indicating the current transiting positions of major planets.

Athleticism and the urge to compete are astrologically two different things. The physicality is Aries – the physical body, the “I Am” of corporeal existence. But the development of the body and the urge to test ourselves against others (otherwise known as competition) is a Leo trait. The real object of Leo is as part of the fixed sign cycle: Taurus, self-worth/resources…Leo, development…Scorpio, learning the worth of your resources or the current ‘state’ of your development process…and Aquarius, finding your place in the world, in the public, in the marketplace – and earning what can be earned depending on what you’ve developed in (or about) your Self.

All that is supposed to ‘complete’ the cycle and bring us back to Taurus having learned how to earn an internalized sense of self respect and self worth. Those who go through all the steps learn a lot. Those who avoid steps along the way, or who maybe inherit a lot of money or a position in the world which ‘allows’ them to ‘shortcut’ the process have an iffier time of it.

(No, we don’t like it, but evidently humans need to strive in order to end up feeling secure with themselves and within their Self.)

Celebrity is also a Leo trait. Leo – among other things – tests and teaches us how to deal with what might be loosely referred to as the ‘narcissism scale,’ hence those who become famous for nothing or famous for being famous, or the fact that we all know the difference between the person who is just ‘well known’ and the person whose depth or artistry or ability to touch our hearts makes them someone who will be known for all time? Not meaning to slight any reality star in particular, many of them are well known – they’re celebrity. But the enduring fame of DaVinci or Gandhi, that’s another thing.

Enduring fame is Piscean, Pisces is the sign of ‘universal emotionality’ where Leo celebrity is more the ‘entertaining image.’

This matters why?

This matters because it appears that a lot of what’s going on at the moment is life getting us to separate fame from celebrity through causing us to see how mortal some of our sports heroes really are.

Uranus is currently transiting Aries. And wherever we see Uranus, our lives in terms of those concepts gets (Uranus) ‘shaken’. Uranus symbolizes change – and all the forces which get us to change or which power that change. So whether the subject is Hurricane Sandy, the terrible doings in Libya, the saber-rattling of North Korea, the shootings in Newtown or the fall of sports heroes, there is an aspect of all of these things which is decidedly about our getting ‘shaken’ at some very primal and personal level, be that totally physical or through the other general aspect of that simple Aries phrase: ‘I Am’ which is so very much the essence of consciousness.

Life shakes us up so that we become aware. So that we will recognize that we value. And that what we do – or don’t do – in or with our lives matters. We all certainly have our ‘stuff.’ We each have a ‘personal mythos.’ And how we feel and relate to that mythos is – astrologically - made up of various symbolic parts. But when it comes to how we feel about sports figures and celebrities in general, there’s the part of that which is about them…and the part of that which is about us.

And that’s absolutely Piscean. Pisces, the sign of two fish headed in opposite directions is about reflections and the tendency to separate reality from the expectation.

 One of the stained glass windows of France's famous

Chartres Cathedral pictures the image of Pisces

But the success of that? That depends on whether we are having faith or supporting someone else (a connective urge) or whether we are avoiding being realistic about life…or our life in particular.


And that’s Jupiter-Neptune, the two co-rulers of Pisces.

One of the things to recognize about Jupiter and Neptune is that as planets, these are the two objects in our solar system which astronomers and other science-types tell us influence other objects. Neptune, as we’ve discussed, has an incredible quality called ‘magnetic resonance’ which literally controls the orbits of many other objects – the most famous of which is Pluto.

Jupiter’s magnetic resonance isn’t quite as obvious as that of Neptune (at least astrologically) but Jupiter does evidently affect the orbits of more than a few objects, notably those with orbits which cross various orbital tracks of planets without ever actually circling around the Sun.

Interesting, eh? Well, that’s what we get when we have a planet – Jupiter – which had it been just a wee bit bigger, might have been a sun.

There’s much to be said about Jupiter and Neptune as co-rulers of Pisces, but let’s go with the basics: Jupiter’s basic symbolism is about learning and knowing…which in Jupiter’s primary sign of (sole) rulership – Sagittarius – is about that vast bank of data we call knowledge. Seeking to know more, learning how ideas work in the world, education, new experiences – that’s all the Sagittarian Jupiter.

But as the ‘in’ door in Pisces, because Pisces is an emotional sign all about not just how we feel, but how we feel about our feelings, Jupiter poses the question ‘do you know your own feelings and why you feel as you do? Is that a valid premise?’

Thus, Pisces becomes the sign of all experiences and things which evoke or promote emotionality, and thus test our knowledge of our own emotions and the validity of those emotions – which is why Pisces is associated with delight as well as despair, and faith, spirituality and idealism on an equal basis with abandonment, loss and rejection.

All these things are coming to the fore now in the form of dozens of issues we’re facing and hearing about. The facts, the ideas, the learning about them and being presented with things which get us to scratching our heads and thinking is as I said in last weekend’s post a demonstration of Jupiter specifically being positioned at 6 Gemini over a period of time in advance of going direct on January 30^th.

Link to:

Armstrong, Assange and O’Neal:

Illustrating Saturn / Neptune Connections

But the ‘well there’s this, but…’ factor which seems so pervasive whether the subject is Lance Armstrong, national economies, climate change or the current debacle in the life of Manti Te’o – that’s a state of emotional confusion which is being signaled by Jupiter (in Gemini) currently being in square (by sign) to Neptune in Pisces.

Both planets are powerfully placed, though what ‘powerful’ means in this regard differs. And how that differs is best seen through a handy-dandy chart illustrating what astrologers call ‘Essential Dignities.’

Here’s a version of same, showing the two basic types of planetary dignities:

Neptune is in its sign of rulership: Pisces. And Jupiter is currently in a sign of detriment: Gemini. To make this easy to understand, both planetary effects are STRONG. But rulership versus detriment? That’s more or less about ‘achieving the optimal aim.’

Neptune in Pisces is going to push us towards the optimal aim represented by the sign of Pisces: emotional realism and separating the fantasy from reality so that we know when we’re fantasizing and know not to substitute fantasy for reality. Given Neptune’s reputation for ‘dissolving’ that which isn’t ‘real,’ it’s thus not surprising that all the things we have wanted to ‘just think true’ which aren’t so true are melting away at a rapid clip.

Or at least our veneers are. The ‘thing’ probably won’t change. But our regard for it? That will.
And that’s what begins to shift our regard for celebrity. That’s where ‘famous’ can become ‘infamous’ and where notoriety becomes somewhat tarnished in the light of real ability and fame which is earned.

By the by…we tend to LOVE (love, love, love) people who have been one thing and evolved to be the other. Princess Diana, for instance, was initially a celebrity. But through the oh-so Piscean experience of ‘marrying the Prince’ and finding out that life as a princess is not a fairy tale, Diana’s disappointment didn’t stop her from turning around and going out to work with people dealing with the darker Piscean manifestations: poverty, illness, abandonment by society to a life among land mines.

Princess Diana in Bristol at the official opening of the Whitehall Road community center

(photo credit: Rick, May 22, 1987)

The ‘detriment’ of Jupiter in Gemini is that the Jupiterian tendency to expand on what we know may go in the wrong direction. Or overstep bounds of decency or legality or anything else. Through sheer mental (Gemini) strength we may decide and determine to make a choice or to hold onto a choice – even one which patently doesn’t work - come what may.

We may even learn too much. With Jupiter in Gemini, decisions tend to be big. Ideas are big. We’re all pushing ourselves to do more, and maybe too much. Or maybe we won’t listen. Jupiter in Gemini can turn what you want to hear into all you’re willing to hear. And when we add in the square to Neptune and the Piscean quality, in come the feelings. So ideas become convictions and we’re so afraid that we might be wrong that we may end up nailing ourselves to our own proverbial cross.

Pisces has a weird astrological reputation for a reason. We’re all about what we feel, but WHY we feel what we feel? Where that comes from? Why we something scares us? Why something turns us on? Why we deny this or ignore that and give in when we know darn well we should be standing on our own? Those are Pisces questions.


And Pisces being Pisces, the easiest thing to do is point at something or someone, whether it’s your parents or your culture or your faith (or scripture) or something and avoid working to understand your own feelings on the subject because…gosh, that’s so darn scary.
 
Admitting that under the skin being human is hard and challenging and far more so the more technological and complicated things get? That’s Pisces in a nutshell. (Or clamshell, if you prefer.) And none of this is made any easier by our living in a period of shifting astrological ages.

The Age of Pisces is ending. So being virtuous is on its way out.

 In the Age of Pisces, Pisces (color coded to the

picture's border) is on the first house.

But that doesn’t mean virtue and Pisces values are gone. Far from it.

 In the Age of Aquarius, Pisces (color coded to the picture's border)

is on the 2nd house

In the (incoming) Age of Aquarius, Pisces moves to the 2^nd house of the wheel. In the Age of Pisces, Pisces on the first house of the wheel was the manifestation of humanity as being a vulnerable species. Now, in the Aquarian age, Aquarius – the sign of technology – is on the first house. We are our technology. We are our universality. To be elitist or apart or alienated is the vulnerability of the next 2,160 years (that being the length of an astrological age.) And with Pisces on the 2^nd house, the Piscean ability to understand our own emotions and emotionality and to (2^nd house) value that and utilize emotionality as a resource becomes the basis of the new ‘fixed house’ cycle.

I’ll write a blog just on that sometime. But at the moment, back to the current transiting Jupiter/Neptune square.

Neptune is where inspiration meets fantasy, where faith meets foolishness, where charity meets self-abandonment. Jupiter in Gemini wants to know. And the square between them says that where we can’t know, the high road is tolerance, ambivalence and caring interaction. But let’s face it – this is tough stuff. So in the absence of hard facts, people are going to try to make them up. With this Jupiter squaring Neptune with Neptune in Pisces, life is conspiring in a hundred different ways to get us to feel what we feel and why we feel that way. Or why we feel we need something. We’re being challenged (that’s the square aspect) to not just ‘go with our normal flow’ but to reconsider. 

And yes, maybe to change.

Adding in Saturn, planet of reality and hard facts, passing through Scorpio and we know that most of what is going to happen is going to come at us through others. Manti Te’o’s situation is a really good example of how things can be personal, social and societal all at once. That’s the combination we can expect since Gemini is in a purely personal sign (Gemini), Saturn is in Scorpio (an interactive sign) and Neptune is in Pisces, a global, universal, mass quotient sign.

If you didn’t read the blog on Saturn in Scorpio, you might want to read it. I got a lot of mail on that post, all of it saying it explained a lot of things. So here’s the link:

Saturn enters Scorpio

As of last Friday (January 25, 2013) Saturn moved into 11 Scorpio, the degree Saturn will go stationary-retrograde at come February 18th. This means we have had Jupiter sitting at 6 Gemini and going direct on January 30^th while Saturn in now at 11 Scorpio, about to sit there for something just shy of two months, in the middle of which it will go retrograde.
 
This IS a significant overlap as Saturn and Jupiter as signatures of what we do and build in this world and in our life. Their retrogrades don’t always overlap. But sometimes they do, as shown in this diagram.

Right now we’re in a section of the Saturn/Jupiter synodic cycle which has the ‘expansive spin’ of Jupiterian lessons (Jupiter being just about to come out of retrograde) overlapping Saturn’s moving into position to go into retrograde. So this is a time where the (Jupiter) lesson is being brought into (Saturn) reality focus.


And then (she said, feeling a bit like Rod Serling narrating an episode of The Twilight Zone), then we add in a bit of celestial hocus-pocus. What’s that? That’s about 11 Scorpio – Saturn’s station degree – being the degree of the November 2013 solar eclipse.

To borrow from today’s sports theme, that’s a bit of a celestial lay-up. Put most plainly, those who say ‘that can’t happen to me’ are kidding themselves – a fact underscored by the fact that in going direct at 6 Gemini, Jupiter is activating the ‘Aldebaran Quotient.’

Link to...

The Royal Stars of Persia (Part One): Aldebaran

That means this moment is not just about Lance Armstrong or Manti Te’o’s integrity. Or the integrity of those they have dealt with. It’s about what integrity is. And Manti Te’o is a premier example of how you can get in trouble for trying to play the ‘integrity card’ blindly.

 Manti Malietau Louis Te'o

January 26, 1991 - (no time) AHST/+10 - Laie, Hawaii

By all accounts, Manti Te’o is either a spiritual or religious person. I make that clarification because religion is Sagittarian: it’s a body of doctrine, a codification of ideas (and rules) which in theory are supposed to help us to learn about being human and being better humans.

Spirituality is Piscean. It’s emotional. Some people are very spiritual but not particularly religious. Some people are by-the-book scrupulously religious. They’ll follow every calendar date and ritual, but the spiritual part of religion, the carrying the idea in their heart – that’s not their orientation.
 
In Manti Te’o’s chart, a couple of things leap out at us in this regard. One is that his 20 Scorpio Pluto is in opposition to a 17 Taurus Vesta. Scorpio – as we all know – is the sign of sexuality. (Pisces is also related to sexuality, but it’s more of the sexual fantasy or sensuality quotient we think of as sexual.) Vesta is what it takes to keep our promises. In Taurus, Vesta is about tests of self worth and self respect. So it’s easy to see Vesta opposition Pluto as a person who questions who the right sexual partner is, and what sorts of alliances (sexual and otherwise) to get into.
 
But with Medea conjunct that Pluto, we have the signal that this is loving the idea of control to the point where it undermines your control. And with Echo within a degree of Vesta’s position, there is going to be a quality of following that you are told to do which ends up creating trouble.
 
Mind you, Princess Diana also has an opposition to Vesta, but hers is from Neptune. 

 Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales

July 1, 1961 - 7:45 p.m. (-1:00) - Sandringham, England

The challenge here is different. Diana’s Neptune is conjunct Atlantis, and Atlantis is the signature of that we have to give up fighting before we can find our bliss, our happiness in what we find through letting go of – in this case Neptune, the dream.

The opposition to Vesta is also from Scorpio, but Diana’s Vesta in Taurus is conjunct Polyhymnia and Menkar: reconsidering (Polyhymnia) the cost of bad advice or unworkable associations (Menkar) which in her case would have been driven by Neptune, so long as she was ‘clinging’ to the idea that ‘all would be well.’

Once Diana accepted her Neptune quotient – the fame and the fact that the royal commitment wasn’t working – she got her divorce, got her (Taurus) self-regard back on track and that was when she began owning her power.

Menkar is a challenging star. Until we own its temptation to do the easy thing or take the easy way out and convert that power to doing the right thing and standing with those who deserve our support instead of those who merely like it…until then we stand to stumble from one difficulty and rejection to a next. But once we become willing to ‘divorce life’s trappings’ and take on doing what we are truly capable of instead of what others might like us to be, then Menkar becomes a great symbol of the power to do good.

Manti Te’o’s Sedna is at 10 Taurus and his Vesta is at 17 Taurus. With Sedna being the ‘stormy waters’ we each encounter before we ‘take the plunge’ and live as we should, not as we had expected to, between these two points lie Echo, Sappho (universal poetry), Chaos (the endless supply) and Menkar.

As someone who has watched a lot of charts over a lot of years, at a guess, Manti Te’o will probably stub his toe a few more times before figuring out how to let go of thinking he can control life. But it won’t come easily. With Niobe (pride which precedes the fall) at 9 Taurus and conjunct Sedna, this is a proud man who may well express his pride through humility.

The current fracas seems to have come to its raucous head late last year (prior to being exposed now) as we came into and experienced last November’s solar eclipse at 21 Scorpio (conjunct Manti’s Pluto).

That, plus transiting Pluto’s trine of his 9 Taurus Niobe and 10 Taurus Sedna coinciding with this very public debacle may indicate the turn in Manti’s affairs.

But there are at least two more very potent figures in Manti’s chart to be aware of.

The first is that he has Saturn/North Node in opposition to Chiron/South Node. This is a very hard lesson about the practical and pragmatic realities of life which in all likelihood Manti is not going to begin realizing the full parameters of until Saturn approaches and makes its return to its natal position. And that isn’t due to happen for another six years or so.
 
Before that happens, Pluto will arrive at what may well be the core configuration in Manti Te’o’s chart – though that’s hard to say in the absolute sense, given that we don’t have a birth time. Manti Te’o has Neptune, Mercury, Tantalus and Vega ALL positioned at 15 Capricorn.

Vega is a fixed star all about the powers of charismatic speech. Or powerful ideas. When Vega is activated, we are moved deeply – at our core. In Capricorn, Vega is ruled by Saturn. Hence we know that Manti’s Saturn return (like all Saturn returns) is hugely important, and probably more important to him than others as it’s to-the-degree conjunct his North Node.

Tantalus being ‘temptation,’ the real issue here is Neptune – the ideal versus the illusion – being conjunct Mercury, the symbol of mentality.

This is what everybody is asking about: is he lying? Or was he just lied to?

Neptune conjunct Mercury in the natal chart – in any sign – is a thought process which is ‘ruled’ by whatever sign, house placement and aspects are in play. We don’t know the house, but we know the rulership by Saturn. Manti will have a tendency to idealize and idealistic expectations for himself; how well that works/works out for him would be astrologically told through the house in which the Saturn/North Node fall. But with this Neptune/Mercury configuration trine to the natal Vesta (not the Pluto, just the Vesta) we do know Manti will spend some percentage of his life dealing with internalized ‘expectations’ for himself (fostered by others or societal forces) but that with Pluto opposition Vesta, at some point that mechanism is going to be – or get - altered.

Self determination is the goal here. But what that means is going to be – and to some extent remain - in flux. If and when there comes a day when Manti Te’o makes the same sorts of self-discoveries Princess Diana made, he’ll start working towards his goals for different reasons.

And those reasons will become his fulfillment.

 In a moment of playing weather satellite, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft

photographed clouds at about 29 degrees north on Planet Neptune

(NASA- JPL August 1989)

Few notes on Jupiter’s current cycle. In going direct at 6 Gemini, Jupiter is obviously activating Aldebaran (at 9 Gemini) but has not yet reached Aldebaran’s position. After going direct on January 30th, Jupiter will slowly begin to pick up solar systemic speed (relative to Earth’s position), and that means it will reach Aldebaran’s celestial position in mid-March of 2013.

We can all look for ‘Edition 2’ of this ‘outing’ of ourselves at that time.

One of the things we may do well to remember is that with Neptune in its ruling sign of Pisces, our current Jupiter-Neptune cycle (the synodic cycle of how these two planets interact with each other as timers of our personal growth) is going to be ‘ruled’ by Neptune, as Neptune is always the ‘outcome’ ruler of Pisces and is currently doing a resident transit of Pisces.

That transit won’t end until 2025, which is the year of Jupiter’s next transit of Gemini.

But getting back to essential dignities, it’s this 2012-2013 Jupiter-in-Gemini and the 2015-2016 Jupiter-in-Virgo transits which are going to have everybody overstepping the(ir) bounds. But if we remember that the whole of Neptune’s transit of Pisces is about creating circumstances which promote those feelings and emotional situations through which we learn the difference between expectations and realities (or maybe the possibilities as opposed to unrealistic impossibilities) maybe we can all accept life with a little more grace…and in that, be kinder to ourselves and others.
 
At the moment, between Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter and Neptune, it would seem that we’re getting something of a lesson about fame – and about how famous people are just as human, just as insecure as we are…and just as frail when it comes to making good choices.

Which leads to the other part of the question: is the fact that being human is to be imperfect any reason not to try our hardest or hold ourselves to standards?

That’s one of those Neptune/Jupiter questions we each have to ask and answer for ourselves. But it surely is part of the cycle. And for us to be finding, witnessing and experiencing our flaws, our vulnerabilities, our mistakes now? That’s entirely apt, as Neptune is at this point moving forward and rolling over royal star Fomalhaut.

Remember Fomalhaut? You know, the star which promises success ONLY if our dreams and efforts aren’t corrupt, corrupted or corruptive?

Link to...

The Royal Stars of Persia (Part Four): Fomalhaut

The Jupiter-Neptune synodic cycle is 12.7 years long and the last conjunction was on December 21, 2009 at 24 Aquarius. As a degree, 24 Aquarius speaks to tragedies we experience (or witness) which are caused by not thinking things through.

Or maybe…since this is Neptune and Jupiter (the co-rulers of Pisces) we’re talking about, could that be because we don’t want to know?

There is a quality of ‘experience is the best teacher’ which goes with 24 Aquarius. But those experiences? They create hurt and harm and trauma and sometimes just more avoidance.

You know…avoidance which is going to deepen and get routed out in the next Jupiter/Neptune cycle.

The date of this last conjunction (December 21, 2009) was also when royal star Regulus was still at 29 Leo – in direct opposition to Jupiter-Neptune at 24 Aquarius. That adds in the lesson of Regulus, a star which says success will happen (or be lasting) ONLY if or where we avoid vengeance or revenge.

Considering Aquarius’ association with the internet (hello? Manti?) and income (anyone for a down-and-dirty economic discussion?) my thoughts point to the sense of perspective…the learning to feel dispassionately which difficult economies and hard moments like that Manti Te’o (or Lance Armstrong, for that matter) are going through.

This Aquarian idea also brings in why we should be keeping Saturn and Uranus (the co-rulers of Aquarius) in mind when we discuss any sort of current Jupiter-Neptune connections.

It all begins making sense. Strange, startling, evocative success. Where Aquarius is universality and humanity, Pisces is the humanness of our human condition: our vulnerability, our sheer mortal fallibility...and our willingness to forgive, accept and grow from what we learn not so much about others, but about ourselves.

If you care, the Jupiter/Neptune cycle prior to the current one began on January 12, 1997 in the late Capricorn. And yes, this does mean that these conjunctions go forward sign by sign by sign. So the next one will begin

Yes, it does. And that means that the next Jupiter-Neptune conjunction will be in Pisces…which would be with both of Pisces’ co-rulers in Pisces.

Think about it.

To accept reality is the Neptunian lesson. Wherever we see Neptune, we experience tests to see whether we can appreciate life’s most essential qualities. There is – and will be - no black and white here. You can make real friends and never meet them, or see someone every week and end up betrayed.

In the big blue world of Jupiter-Neptune, the question isn’t what happens, its whether you have faith enough in yourself to go on, accept the truth and be a bigger and better person for the experience. Neptune denies ego just as dearly as Jupiter teaches us to utilize our ego in the pursuit of ever-greater understanding. What other people think of us is never as important as what we know we feel about ourselves.

And what we’ve learned about why we feel that way, and that our feelings are real, valid and eternal. Being famously happy is not just the only real kind of fame which works, it’s the only kind of fame Neptune honors – and apparently it has to be earned through the effort to grow in appreciating the value of that which pushes us to the edge with ourselves.
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