Pallas in Scorpio

In keeping with the Sabian Symbol for 0 Scorpio ('A Crowded Sightseeing Bus On a City Street'),

the photo above is of a sightseeing bus in 1909 Salt Lake City, Utah

(Commercial photo taken on assignment, published c. 1909, now in public domain)

That asteroid Pallas is entering Scorpio but a few days ahead of the solar eclipse at 0 Scorpio describes something simple in theory...and perhaps difficult to act on.

In short, what is wanted, perhaps needed - or which is simply becoming part of some consideration or some situation is a bit of perspective. Pallas represents our more cerebral side - including something of an independent quality which may  simply describe being alone in one’s thoughts, or something you do on your own.

Then again, Pallas can signify the moment when we gain perspective on our thoughts. Or when we finally stop to think things through, thereby gaining perspective on what’s happened and what needs to happen next.

And while all that is well and good, none of it - at least on the face of it - is all that Scorpio by nature. 

As part of the zodiac’s interactive (third) quadrant, Scorpio requires interactive involvement, whether with others or in the service of some cause, aim or effort - or even just because in order to comprehend we need to dig deeper or get more involved or more intimate with some subject.

When we find ourselves pitted against our concern for our reputation, that’s Scorpio, a sign which at its heart pits us against our own feelings about, and ability to risk. We approach Scorpio situations thinking about how to make it ‘work for us,’ and we focus on the thing, the other, the plan and what we ‘need’ to do.

But make no mistake - the issue isn’t ‘them’ or that goal, it’s how we’ll feel if we succeed... and how we’ll feel, most of all about our Self, if we don’t succeed, if we don’t win, if we lose all control of what’s going to happen. Every form of investment which comes with the risk of loss, be that an investment of time, money, hope or life is intrinsically Scorpio.

In short, Scorpio involves emotional intensity and focus while Pallas is all about taking a step back and establishing calm. Particularly mental calm.

It’s something of a dichotomy.

Or is it? If we were to stop and think about how or why we feel so strongly about something, whether positive or negative. Pro or con, Scorpio is all about strong feelings - and if we stop to think about them, that act of considering, providing we think with our head and not our heart (or some other body part), that would be rather distinctly Pallas.

Of course there are many ways for this to work. As Pallas comes into Scorpio as of October 19th at 1:09 in the afternoon UT/+0 time, you may change your mind about something. This doesn’t have to involve anything earth-shattering though it could, particularly because the solar eclipse about to happen.

And of course, the fact that in arriving at 0 Scorpio, Pallas is symbolically setting eclipse processes in motion, which may prove beneficial as the negatives associated with 0 Scorpio tend to be exacerbated by frustrations and misunderstandings along with situations which allow strength and/or resources to be purposefully used for private purposes or for any gain which is perpetrated through the auspices of unfair practice.

Will Pallas entering Scorpio mean an end to so much bad behavior? It may, and where it doesn’t end disagreements it well may signal the dawning of a will to be rational and figure things out or talk them through. That may take a bit of time to come to fruition (or alternately, for anything to come of such conversations) as Mercury is in retrograde until October 25th. But there would seem to be some sort of ‘reward’ coming down the pike...

...and it’s name is Saturn.

Why Saturn?

Simply because of this: as Pallas enters Scorpio, there is a Yod in the ingress chart.

 The transiting Yod of October 19th

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This Yod doesn’t involve Pallas directly, no. However, though with this figure centered on 24 degrees of Taurus, Sagittarius and Libra, since at the time of ingress the Sun will be at 25 degrees of Libra and therefore conjunct Pallas at 0 Scorpio, there is a connection, it's just there's a little distance there.

You know...the kind of distance which allows for perspective - in this case on 'the relationship,' which may be literal (as in two people in a relationship of any positive or negative type) or which may refer to the kind of perspective which allows us to see how two things relate without any personal involvement.

That would be very Pallas.

As to the Yod, this particular Yod will like as not occur with a lot of people trying to hold their position while cutting off (rejecting, eliminating, ignoring, etc.) others, specifically those whose knowledge (i.e., raw information, facts) feel threatening.

Presented in Taurus as a confluence of Sedna and fixed star Capulus at 24 Taurus, these threats do not have to be real. Or extreme. They can be, mind you, but they’re just as likely to involve something totally everyday, such as the parent who tells their child that it’s time to take a bath and go to bed in just the right way or at just the right moment to trigger that child’s budding instinct to be their own person - a situation which every parent has probably seen erupt into dire protests even when nothing truly dismal is seriously at stake.

Meanwhile, as with all Yods, the ‘solution point’ is in opposition to the ‘tail’ of the Yod, that ‘tail’ being what we all instinctively seem to grab hold of in trying to steer some Yod-like situation. So the answer is not Taurean - it’s not actually about security even though it may be described in seriously insecure security terms. Instead, the answer is posed at 24 Scorpio, a degree which though known for difficulties (even tragedies) and the appearance of negativity is actually highly directed and fully capable of respectable (and respected) tangible achievements which though presented on a time-table (and/or in an order) which may mystify others, proves viable and virtuous over time.

Saturn arrives at 24 Scorpio on November 2nd (UT/+0) and will remain at this degree through November 10th, stirring up all the standard Saturn themes of responsibility, limitations, achievements, age, stability, career, work and effort...which because Saturn will be opposing Sedna at that point spells either resistance and denial or the acceptance of truths which don’t ‘fit’ some image or notion we have come into this time believing in.

 Pallas enters Scorpio (glyph chart)

October 19, 2014 - 1:09 p.m. (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel (Not Location Specific)

 Pallas enters Scorpio (text chart)

October 19, 2014 - 1:09 p.m. (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel (Not Location Specific)

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Saturn-Sedna speaks to how ‘should’ be - not that there’s any ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ here, though there is a question of maturity and wisdom. And for this combination to come into any relationship which may represent challenges to what motivates us as Mercury re-enters Scorpio (activating the 0 Scorpio eclipse degree again) speaks most of all to where we stand with/within our Self.

Do we have perspective? Are we willing to see beyond some natural conviction or personal horizon?

Whether things are working well or off track is hardly the Pallas question as what Pallas in Scorpio asks us is:

a.) Whether we even know how to see our Self and the life around us without any passionate coloration,

...and...

b.) Whether we are willing to endure the internal trepidations which may come from our choosing to set various outlooks, orientations and biases aside as we decide to risk our ego standing with ourselves in exchange for an opportunity to gain some sort of greater or more honest understanding.

And at the moment - which is to say as Pallas enters Scorpio, that ‘understanding’ is (like as not) going to expose some factor or facet relating to how we are none of us as innocent as we’d like to think we seem.

Again, that’s not about what we are, mind you...it’s as we’d like to think we seem.
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Mars in Cancer

A Spider Crab shows its very not camera shy self at the Atlanta Aquarium

(photo credit: Lecates, November 2006)

Roughly every two years or so (a bit less, but who’s counting?) the hot dry world of Mars moves into and through the sign of Cancer. This tends not to be our most graceful or gracious time as Cancer asks for planning and caution in the executing of all we do and Mars energy tends to be unbounded.

Or at least pushy.

The result is a time when we are either pitting against trying tasks which trigger frustration more easily than we think they should (which leads to more frustration) or a time when all we do – even that which clearly leads to a reward – seems less than calming in that sense we think of a relief, contentment or satisfaction.

If you have Mars in Cancer natally, you know some of its tendency to indicate a ‘bottling’ up followed by a bursting forth…although you’re also probably more ‘immune’ than the rest of the world is to Mars in Cancer as a transit as natal placements indicate qualities that we’re so ‘used to’ (or habituated to, perhaps) that we don’t rail against them when periodically they sweep through life like some particularly virulent flu.

Or, perhaps more specifically in the case of Mars in Cancer, anything wet and whirling. A tornado? A whirlpool? A typhoon (which in some other hemisphere would be known as a hurricane)? Even an emotional uproar, that swirling of feelings and positions on some matter would fit the bill.

Taking from a boat which takes people in close enough to see, a photo of a Naruto Whirlpool

(photo credit: Hellbuny, April 2008)

Does this mean our world is in for just over six weeks of mob activity and bad weather? Maybe. But let’s remember: Cancer is also the sign of family and real estate, agriculture and basic finances. So even if your life isn’t hit directly by some whirlwind, chances are good that you’ll get hit by some sort of spin-off coming from somewhere.

When Mars enters Cancer on July 13th at 1:23 p.m. UT/+0 time, it does so with Chaldaea at 1 Cancer, Black Moon Lilith at 3 Cancer and Pallas at 25 Gemini – a conglomeration which speaks to being faced with that we knew would happen.

Maybe we just didn’t want to believe it. Maybe we have done all we could to prepare ourselves for what we knew was coming. Maybe we’ve cleared our mental decks in preparation for taking on something which requires determination and that inner sort of courage which tests our tolerance.

Sill…even with whatever preparation we’ve done, who likes feeling contained by circumstances? Who likes that moment when we pass a threshold where choice gives way to an inability to opt out?

By sign, that passage is symbolized by Mars leaving Gemini (the idea of the thing) and moving into Cancer, the reality of the thing complete with emotions weak and strong. But there’s something even more elemental about this shift, something which comes from a very important factor which happens with only two particular sign transitions: that from Sagittarius into Capricorn and that of Gemini into Cancer.

Because celestial objects move in a counter-clockwise direction around the zodiac wheel, in moving from Gemini into Cancer the leave the proactive left hemisphere and enter the responding right hemisphere – just as objects moving from Sagittarius into Capricorn move from the world of the reacting into the world of the initiating. So when Mars moves from Gemini into Cancer, it not only enters the sign of all we feel about (and in) life but does so while entering the first of six signs all about responding to what happens in our world. Mars being all about assertiveness and going for the gusto, this is sort of like a headstrong teen being stripped of car keys, cell phone and every right, choice and privilege they’ve ever conceived of.

Ergo, begin the complaining. Not in reality…(okay, maybe in reality)…but certainly in the sense that between July 13th and August 28th (that being this year’s dose of Mars in Cancer) we’re all likely to be itching to be doing something.

You know…something other than what we’re doing. It’s like every morning we’re getting up and someone’s putting a spoonful of impatience into our coffee. (And you thought you had caffeine problems?) Mars in Cancer can be goofy in its irritation, too. That thing you said sounded like a grand idea just last week (under Mars in Gemini) now sounds ridiculous. That great plan you mapped out in your head down to the itty bitty nitty gritty under Mars in Gemini now seems too much trouble and WAY too complicated.

Who could be bothered?

You. Me. All of us. We’re ALL bothered. Not by the same thing of course…or rather, all by the same thing – Mars passing through Cancer. But it will take a different shape in each of our lives – and yes, we’ll all be annoyed with that, too!

Person #1: Why can you just understand me?

Person #2: You just don’t understand why I don’t understand you! If you understood me, you'd understand that and we wouldn't have this problem!

Oh, how futile things sometimes are, right?

But there is a good side of all this. No passage is without its benefits, and Mars in Cancer is no exception. Yes, it tends to mark a time when our external life seems unreasonably uncooperative and ‘all those people’ aren’t acting even remotely like we think they should.

So what do we do? We do our own thing.

And that’s what Mars in Cancer is for. By showing us what we don’t like, it asks us what we do like – and why we like it. At some level we do a bunch of comparing and sorting under Mars in Cancer – and sometimes we even change our mind. Or our priorities. Or goals.

Whatever happens, Mars in Cancer is a period of life which notoriously deluges us in details and noise and encounters and input which, while it gets to us also drives us inward. And there we recognize that which is truly important to us.

Meanwhile, back at the hemisphere switcheroonie…

You remember Pluto entering Capricorn, right? Pluto committed to its transit of Capricorn (and everything which comes after Capricorn) back at the very end of 2008. And in changing hemisphere from the responding side to the proactive side, Pluto did a couple of things. For one, it moved the ‘unexpected results’ of the world, the ‘unpredicted and transformational moments’ into the proactive side of the zodiac wheel. This marks a whole change of dynamic. 

 
Not quite a hundred years ago, Pluto did what Mars is doing now – it moved from Gemini into Cancer. When that happened, Pluto’s ‘transformational’ energy moved into a period marked by six successive signs and six successive astrological generations which would produce things of great power…and also stir up many an unanticipated result.

As soon as Pluto moved again moved into the proactive side of the zodiac, people began yelling we have to do something about this…(fill in the blank). The focus, the obsession moved from what we can do and what we can make into what we can do for ourselves or get for ourselves.

And though this is something I find interesting to think about on its own, there are two other really good reasons to mention this while talking about Mars moving into Cancer.

First reason: Capricorn is the opposition sign to Cancer. That means that during the weeks of Mars transiting Cancer, things are going to be intense. Unusually intense – especially while Mars opposes Pluto by degree, an event which is exact occurs on July 27th, but which you will probably feel ‘coming on’ as of a week prior, on the 20th.

Mars-Pluto contacts can be very volatile. Even violent. Given the signs here, and the fact that Mercury will be going direct (in Cancer) ON July 20th just as the Mars-Pluto opposition energy begins building, this sounds like a doozie of a time.

Let’s just say it’s not a moment to be careless. And maybe you don’t want to start any arguments. Those people who tend to carry grudges are would feel more actively grudge-ful during the this Mars/Cancer transit…but then add an opposition to Pluto?

Don’t be surprised. I’m just saying…don’t be surprised.

But since astrological doors always swing both ways, there is a flip side to Mars-Pluto which is available. It’s signaled by Hebe – servant to the Olympians, going direct on July 15th at 24 Scorpio.

That brings me to that second reason for bringing up the Pluto shift of hemispheres that Mars is now setting up an opposition to. After all, Mars and Pluto are co-rulers of Scorpio.

Many of the paintings and statues you see of Hebe have her pictured in the presence of an eagle.

 The Celestial Hebe (c 1886) by Jean Coulon

(photo credict David Monniaux, 2006)

I’ve never read anything which specifically discusses why Hebe keeps company with an eagle. But I do know that the eagle is one of Scorpio’s three totem animals (the scorpion, the gray lizard and the eagle). The scorpion is Scorpio at it’s most instinctual level. It’s about survival and all it takes to survive and preserve life in this world. The eagle is Scorpio at it’s most noble level, that being a place where Scorpio is just and disinterested in taking any more than it needs.

Or anyone taking any more than they need.

Being that Hebe is the bearer of ‘the drink of the gods’ (ambrosia) to the Olympians, the idea of taking more than one needs may be connected to the eagle as Hebe’s companion. And there is also the fact that Hebe is going direct in Scorpio, a degree which is speaks of being more aware than usual, more sensitive than usual (particularly in the psychic sense) and more prone to recognizing a need for thrift.

Connecting these points, apparently there needs to be a reason for what we do in this world, one which is measured and not ‘taking too much.’ But what that means, and how you get there?

That’s probably the rub. And where there is good reason…as well as where there isn’t…it doesn’t seem to far an astrological stretch to say we’ll be hearing about it in the days…and week or so ahead.

Some of that will be what causes us to turn into ourselves, where we come into the presence of that one person we are most responsible to serve so that they can focus on how to transform their life – lest it be transformed by forces beyond their knowing.
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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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