Nemesis, Ixion, Sisyphus, Pholus

Is the glass which you are operating in a half full or half empty mode?
(photo credit: Derek Jensen, December, 2005)

.

There are a couple of ways to look at a group of astrological ‘bad boys’ being clustered immediately in the wake of an eclipse. They could indeed indicate the final tipping of a situation or the crumbling of some inner resistance we’ve been trying to ‘wall’ ourselves away from something with.

But if you’re already in the middle of eclipse processes - and yea verily right at the moment when, with the eclipse hardly having left our skies, we would expect things to change, happen, transform, be revealed or otherwise have us in the process of dealing with the energies of the eclipse, many of which we don’t like.

How do we know we don’t like them?

Answer: because it took an eclipse to get us to move off some previously established way of thinking, seeing, acting, choosing, doing, feeling and yes, even thinking.

Besides, these stations have to happen sometime ... so why not now, while we’re all primed to make a few changes now that eclipse forces have pried up a couple of our normally welded-and-reinforced emotional positions, principally those which are all about what we don’t want to know about our Self lest we have to feel things we don’t want to (or are afraid to) feel about our Self while we’re dealing with newly revealed facts. And considering how eclipses are the impactful and global transits that they are, surely all of us are going to be grappling some of our own things even as life is asking us to deal with others who are either asking their own questions or just beginning to see or recognize various facts others have known (or known specifically about them) for some time.

Years, maybe. Even decades.

All of this currently centers on the idea that there are four celestial objects going on station and changing direction within the space of four days (from Sunday through Wednesday) after the previous Friday’s eclipse.

.
Not that any of this is necessarily a one-and-done sort of thing. Any one of the objects being discussed here (Nemesis, Ixion, Sisyphus and Pholus) may manifest independently. Plus, who is to say that the less than delightful reputation earned by these points isn’t part of a greater eclipse which in many cases is about revealing ills and errors of judgment so they can be corrected or properly eliminated?

How these four points are going to manifest will also vary. For instance, of the four, Nemesis and Sisyphus are main belt asteroids, which like all of the asteroids which orbit between Mars and Jupiter merely represent those things we encounter in the course of everyday life. Known for its quality of ‘forewarning’ (or being forewarned) Nemesis often simply represents something we have heard about, though it certainly can be that thing we have been warned about - or the fact that we may be called upon to issue some warning to others. In the wake of the eclipse, this Nemesis could represent that ‘they told me so’ moment when yes, we do finally ‘see’ what someone has been trying, trying, trying to tell us.

Nemesis
by Gheorghe Tattarescu (1853)

(re-colored for posting purposes)

.
Then again, it could be a moment when we undertake something which will teach us why we shouldn’t do something - or at least in the way we’re approaching it - so that we become the essence of Nemesis for others down the line. In fact, the chances of ‘being’ the Nemesis party are increasing, not decreasing as Nemesis’ March 22nd station is Nemesis going direct: moving from a personal and more private or ‘internal’ mode into a more public, worldly and external mode - to which we add 4 Leo as the degree.

But wait ... do you recall Juno’s turn to direct at 3 Leo just a bit ago?

- link to post -

Mercury in Pisces/Juno Direct

That was March 13th. And now, nine days later, Nemesis is going direct at 4 Leo with Juno just behind, still at 3 Leo. Juno will arrive at 4 Leo as of March 28th, increasing the ‘volume’ of issues having to do with managing some sort of information for two days, after which Nemesis will move ahead and the volume will slowly, slowly drop - at least in our mind.

As for Sisyphus, Sisyphus differs from Nemesis by the fact that it is an ‘inner system’ comet-type object with an orbit which at its farthest from the Sun is at 2.9 AU (AU = astronomical unit: the mean distance from Earth to the Sun) ... which puts it right in the thick of the asteroid belt, and which at its perihelion (the point closest to the Sun) is only at 0.87 AU, which means that in the course of its orbit, Sisyphus comes past Mars and past Earth, ending up just shy of Venus.

Metaphysically that says Sisyphus represents that which can breach our personal will and get ‘behind’ (or inside) our sense of individual assertion - which is part of the rather raggedly sorry story which is that of the mythic Sisyphus.
.

Sisyphus by Bernard Picard (1731)

.

Sisyphus was a well-born young Greek with basically everything to live for and not a lot in the way of problems ... except for his peculiarly twisted nature. Considered exceptionally intelligent, Sisyphus used to go out into town and befriend travelers, sometimes inviting them to be a guest in his house - as was the custom in those days.

But once those travelers accepted Sisyphus hospitality, all bets were off. In spite of customs of the day which very clearly held that host should not harm guests (in return for which, guests were forbidden to bite the hand which was feeding them), Sisyphus was convinced he was so clever (and indeed, so much more clever than anyone else) that he could do what he wanted - which in this case, included murder.

Moreover, Sisyphus was not even deterred from his trail of ill deeds when the Olympian gods stepped in, resulting in a not-so-delicate dance of crime-and-Olympian-punishment which ended with Sisyphus being condemned not just to Tartarus (the Greek form of Hell), but to a special little niche - one of two - just at the very gates of Tartarus where as an example of what not to do and who not to be, Sisyphus now spends his eternity rolling a rock up a hill ... only to have it roll back down the hill so he will then be forced to roll it up the hill again.

In this way, the mythic Sisyphus stands as a warning: don’t think the fact that you’re clever and can do something means you should do anything. Talents and privileges of status are gifts some have and some don’t have, making this ‘non-standard equipment’ precious - which is different than something which would make the person with the talent intrinsically precious.

All of which makes the idea of Sisyphus as something we encounter which ‘penetrates our (Mars) defenses’ quite apt. And when add on a little considering of Sisyphus as a member of the Apollo group of asteroids, Sisyphus should have some ability to ‘enlighten’ us (in the best Apollo tradition), even if that enlightenment comes through finding out how wrong something is in some fashion which could be termed “the hard way.”

Not that this has to be disastrous. After all, there are all those little lessons we learn in life - often about things which someone ‘warned’ us about (shades of Nemesis...) or which they told us should be done XYZ way, but we didn’t listen. Or we preferred to do otherwise.

And sometimes we learn that our ‘better’ wasn’t better at all. How all we did through our stubbornness was ‘kill’ some chance for our own success or happiness.

Voila: Sisyphus.

Not that Sisyphus is going on station alone. As Sisyphus goes direct at 29 Cancer (a degree known for various kinds of weaknesses, vulnerabilities or lacks) Ixion will be going retrograde at 23 Sagittarius, speaking to emotionally-driven positions, challenges and/or suspicions which are either projected or possibly completely groundless.

Ixion by Hendrick Gottzius (1558-1617)

.

Moreover, this probably isn’t the first time such emotional positions have arisen - not in present tense, and not in terms of the whole of our lives.

Why would that be? That would be because Ixion is part of this conglomeration, as with Ixion, part of the point is that it’s not the first time which gets us ... it’s the fact we simply don’t learn. For some, they can’t be bothered. Others are sure they can do (read: get away with) something which might be a problem for others but not for them ... which with Ixion in play is often wrong, more wrong and most painfully incorrect.

- link to post -

Ixion: Our Conflict of Mind

However this manifests, the combination of Ixion and Sisyphus is likely to indicate a personally trying period which some will deal with by ‘bulldozing’ through, and which others will experience as a chance to really see what has happened, what we have done and what we may be poised to do or choose, all of which will be tapping on the lock-box of our conscience - that being in the end where the turns and twisted fates associated with these two points to first and last.

In other words, do we have a conscience? Do we listen to that conscience? Does that conscience take only our position into account, or is our conscience willing to be accountable for the position we put others (and maybe everyone) into?

Sisyphus represents that place in our personality where others seem so unimportant that we become able to treat them as inconsequential, just as Ixion represents that place in our personality where we think rules, standards and realities don’t apply to us. And here they are taking stations in degrees which speak to vulnerabilities and emotional jealousies.

Plain and simple, this is not terribly positive combination unless utilized as part of a greater process of self-reflective discovery. Why we are victims, why we are perpetrators, why we think its okay to treat anyone or anything on this planet (or elsewhere) simply as we please without any regard for others and long-term effects on life in specific and general - those are Sisyphus-Ixion questions.

Moreover, because Ixion comes to the party with Neptunian magnetism as part of its essence, a significant number of people will be more likely to create problems and deny that they are part of some problem (or making the problem far worse) than we might expect at other times.

It depends on how clear we are not just on who we are, but who we aren’t - and why either-or-both things would be true.

Especially now.

(Suggestion: think eclipse)

- link to post -

Solar Eclipse Scheat: Flight against Insight

There is another group here, of course - those who have come to some form of miraculous (or perhaps crunch-worthy) realization as the eclipse has reached full potential. For them, Ixion-Sisyphus will like as not indicate some sort of ‘further unfolding’ of things past and present, with the eclipse representing all those things we go through and think through whenever we change course or change our personal ways.

A couple of days elapses before Pholus goes on station, which given the Pholus-type tendency to withdraw or pull back from ‘the fray’ (or the point of some issue) may be anything - a time of reflection, a time of working behind the scenes, a time of regret or even mourning.

Like Ixion, Pholus’ orbit has its farthest point from us (and the Sun) out beyond Neptune in the Kuiper Belt. So Pholus always represents something which isn’t ‘commonly’ met up with or known. Unlike Ixion, however, Pholus is not a Plutino - i.e., an object whose orbit is controlled by Neptune’s magnetism, and which therefore in part embodies Neptune’s astrological magnetism. So there isn’t the kind of idealism or the chances for disillusionment (and disappointment as to the reality of one’s life) which seems so much a part of Ixion’s transits - and its position in our natal chart, along with that. But that doesn’t mean Pholus is an ‘easy’ astrological influence - it isn’t. For one, Pholus is a centaur. So with Pholus we know there is always some sort of lurking internal/interior ‘battle’ between the ability (or willingness) to think things through calmly, logically and rationally and that sort of hot blooded emotionalism (of whatever flavor) which can get us into trouble - or even killed (literally or metaphorically, as in the ‘killing of an idea’ or the ‘killing’ of some effort).

-link to post-

Pholus: A Little Nasty

Having gotten as close to us (and the Sun) on June 3, 2012 as it is going to get over the course of its 91.3 year-long orbit, Pholus is currently headed away from us. And as the Sun represents our consciousness, that suggests Pholus is astrologically ‘standing in’ at present and serving as a marker for a retreat from consciousness ... or perhaps a conscious retreat from something (depending on your personal Pholus). Furthermore, with Pholus going retrograde in 26 Sagittarius there is an ‘invisible’ suggestion that this ‘retreat’ - for positive or otherwise - is going to be most seen or more often adopted as a mode of operating (or coping) by those whose birth charts would have the Galactic Center at 26 Sagittarius.

And that would include just about everyone born roughly between the latter part of 1938 and October, 2010.

Currently positioned at 27 Sagittarius, the Milky Way’s Galactic Center (‘GC’ for short) is a point which functions as a form of astrological ‘gateway’ through which we project what we are and what we have to give in this life to this world. Since it is in Sagittarius for everyone (that part being all about where our solar system is vis-à-vis the center of the Milky Way) the positive is judicious expanding of knowledge or opportunity through what we do ... and the negative is the injudicious limiting of knowledge and/or opportunity, however that functions in your life and personal world. Where your Jupiter is natally, the sign it is in natally, and how the planet which rules that sign often gives us an indication of how we’re going to feel about giving to the world - and how we define ... or how well we define what we have to give, and the mode through which we will end up giving it. 

A VISTA photo-mosaic of the Milky Way's central district, which lies in constellation of Sagittarius.

Some million stars are in this photo.

(photo credit: ESO VISTA, Dec 2009)

.
And since this is a cause-effect, ‘for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction’ sort of universe, this also helps us understand how well our efforts to give work, and - oh by the way - why Pholus going retrograde can be problematic.

Put simply, Pholus stations can mark a moment when our unwillingness to give or our efforts to give go awry.That may be ‘give’ as in “giving a present,” or it may be ‘give’ as in “giving an inch” or even “giving in.” Whatever it is, when a Pholus station aspects your chart, things may take a turn for the worse or better, depending on what we’re doing in that moment - and why we’re doing it. Pholus often backs away from the ‘strong move’ and that which will benefit others more than the Self, which metaphysically speaks to the classic sort of self-concerned emotional (centaur) challenge we see with Pholus, Chiron, Nessus, Pelion, Ceto, Asbolus, Typhon and all the other centaurs wherever emotionality gets stirred up.

More to the point here however, is the idea that Pholus is going retrograde at 26 Sagittarius, the natal position of the Galactic Center for everyone born between late 1938 and October, 2010. Known as a degree imbued with creative flexibility and a wide array of abilities and interests which causes many people and many things to be either marveled at or completely misunderstood, those born with their Galactic Center at 26 Sagittarius are asked to be selective about personal and intimate alliances if generous with social contributions - all of which may now be on the wane (with Pholus going retrograde) ... OR which may now be brought to the forefront of discussions as we reflect on how we have or haven’t utilized our talents properly due to some sort of personal, internal (Pholus-type) ‘separation’ which causes us to not identify with others, or which inspires us to actively choose not to ‘fight that fight,’ even if something will be lost because of that choice.

With Mars in the third decanate of Aries, a lot of energy is flooding towards motivational ideas which, with Mercury in Pisces, may be either not that well thought through (yet) or in need of revisions, editing, validation, research, discussion and in general, a cool, collected and sober review of much going on.

All of this is still being driven by the eclipse. So as much as we will still be wanting to think all the flaws and ‘faults’ are ‘theirs,’ some are bound to originate much closer at personal hand.

Considering that, are we willing to look not only at what we we are holding on to, but why - in reality - we’re holding onto it? Is that choice really about ‘the good’ - or just something we want others to think is good because it benefits us and validates what we want to think - most of all about our Self? 
.
.
.

The Capricorn Full Moon and Mercury in Cancer

Crater Apollodorus and part of Pantheon Fossae on Planet Mercury

(photo credit: Messenger Spacecraft - NASA, JPL, Johns Hopkins Univ Physics Lab, Carnegie Institute of Washington, July 2011)

.

With July’s Full Moon being in Capricorn and that Capricorn Full Moon occurring a mere day before  Mercury enters Cancer, we might well think these two items are connected.

After all, everything happens for a reason, right? The unfolding of life, the inter-meshing of schedules and cycles... ultimately they all have a purpose for we are what we have come to be in this very moment.

You know... this moment when we’re looking ahead a couple of days to July 12th, when at 11:26 in the morning (UT/+0) a Full Moon at 20 Capricorn signals the cresting of some effort or the fullest monthly extent of solid, dependable growth. The Full Moon is always a ‘high tide’ time emotionally, whether good or bad. We cry, we rejoice, we mourn, we wonder...

...and then the moment ends. The Moon moves on, as do we, proving in that procession of processes how all things, all moments, all thoughts are but phases of much larger, longer passages.

Crucial, even pivotal though they may be, moments are transitory. That we know that as humans reflects in how hardly a soul born of this Earth will pass through the whole of a full-phased life without pausing to recall... reminisce... to for one moment be engulfed in some vivid robe of memory which like a spell falls upon us in that moment when we lift our eyes and behold the poignancy of the Moon in one of uncounted moments when as we stand reflecting on it, the Moon rides high in the sky positioned exactly so that for that short time we are able to witness the full reflection of our stellar Sun - astrology’s image of life, consciousness and our very capacity to be and become aware.

The Full Moon at 20 Capricorn (glyph chart)

July 12, 2014 - 11:26 a.m. (UT/+0)

The Full Moon at 20 Capricorn (text chart)

July 12, 2014 - 11:26 a.m. (UT/+0)

As for the concept of connection, that’s relatively simple: as Mercury enters Cancer (on July 13th at 4:46 a.m. UT/+0 time), because the sign of Cancer is ruled by the Moon, that connection becomes not just automatic... but axiomatic.

And knowing the difference between those two things - especially as that may (or may not) apply to your personality and tendencies of choice, that is likely to make a difference not just during these couple of days, but either through the whole of this next day-to-day lunar cycle (July 12-August 10)...or during the whole of the time that Mercury transits Cancer, which would be from July 13th until late on July 31st, UT/+0 time.

The thoughts and all the choices to do, not do, do this (then that) or that (and then this) - all that is the Mercury side of this equation. And let’s not forget, we’ve already felt Mercury’s influence in Cancer this year. Back on May 29th (of this year) Mercury entered Cancer as Venus entered Taurus. In that ‘first part’ of Mercury’s 2014 Cancer transit we mostly just got time to focus and get mentally directed...and then Mercury went retrograde. That was back on June 7th, with the theory being that whatever we came into that period focusing on...that by working on, working past and through the details of life in general over the next few weeks (of Mercury retrograde) we would come to a better perspective on what our choices are, what they entail, why they work the way they do...

...and through that a clearer understanding of our own (Mercury) thinking (and like as not our Venusian values) will have emerged in a more clarified and precious or viable...even enduring state.

So these cycles would seem tied together - and not only in that their horoscopes, being but a day apart are not going to vary by much.

And yet, they do vary some - so we should start there.

The Full Moon itself is positioned at 20 Capricorn, a degree which by decanate - in being part of Capricorn’s last ten degrees is without reservation about our world, how we react to that world and how what we put out into our world affects or fails to affect us...with the specifics of this degree being focused on where we have all failed our own expectations (not the task - our expectation of our own ability with the task) with for better or worse some ‘degree’ of self-critique being encountered along the way.

This is not to say this degree is about failure - it isn’t. The tangible result may well result...and yet we thought it would be more. Or better. Or more satisfying.

And it’s generally not.

With the Moon the functional symbolism of our feelings, the Moon in a grand cross well may be (if I may be pardoned this untoward reference) our feelings are ‘hung up’ on something, with the other three corners of the cross being undecided, un-reconciled factors we must contend with.

On one hand we have the Aries effort - the willingness to make the effort to hold onto [Pandora] hope while dealing with the [Eris] untoward and unexpected occurring in [Industria] connection with some effort, be ours or someone else’s. It will surely feel [South Node] simpler...even convenient to stand our ground and know only our own position. Yet in beneath the hardest of hard veneers there will be anywhere between an inkling and a certainty that there is a reason for the actions, statements and positions [Mars-Ceres-Vesta] of [Libra] others.

We [Spica] know we [North Node] should consider the other side of every coin. We know that the person we [Arcturus] would like to know we were being would do that.

And yet, there is another side of things to consider...the [Sun] recognition that sometimes we have to pay the [Castor] cost, whatever that involves and in spite of all the reasons in the world. It’s our passion - and here I refer not to the passion of lust but rather those many [Amor] passions ignited by the simple emotional [Cancer] experience of being alive in this life. Plus or minus, this life as well as our life has an effect on us - and in that, spurs us to learn from the experience and the emotions experienced during the experience as both data and motivation.

That’s just Cancer. And into and through every life, a bit of Cancer will wash, time and time and time again.

As the Moon has phases, Cancer manifests through the display of moods others see and which we appreciate ourselves being impressed by.

Seen from the lunar cycle ‘side,’ July-into-August is a time for achieving - and indeed, considering the reputation of Moon in Capricorn for promoting haste, we may reach for the stars and at least arrive at the top of some very tall mountain.

But when we get there...how will we feel? Will we want to be there?

Less than twenty-four hours after the Full Moon - a highlighting of our feelings - Mercury moves into Cancer, initiating a more thoughtful... even analytical examination of why we feel (or have felt) the way we do. What do such things mean to us... and why do they mean that personally and culturally (which may be two very different things)?

By the time Mercury reaches Cancer, the Moon will have reached 0 Aquarius where, in conjunction with Medea it represents moments and situations where  though we know ‘should’ from ‘preferred,’ not all of us will opt for doing not that which is hardest but hardest for us... and not all of us will hold ourselves to being worthy of our own ability to find and work through all the challenges which lie between us and those [Aquarian] all-encompassing and most universal (and/or universally responsible) of all solutions.

Our reactions to such things - in the most general sense will be the source of most frustrations and feelings of restraint during Mercury’s three week transit of Aquarius... and perhaps because of this,  some of us will divide our time between ‘things of the world’ and a natural here-and-there contemplation which examines why things affect us as they do - and how useful it may be to understand ourselves in the context of others (and our world) as within our design for our life.

As for the grand square created by the Full Moon, that will have faded in every effect apart from memory by the time July 12th becomes the 13th. However... given that the Sun will still be at 20 Capricorn as Mercury enters Cancer, the Sun will still be in opposition to charismatic fixed star Vega - an emblem which is evidencing its ongoing conjunction by Plutonic obsession through disruptions and displays throughout our waking world.

As Pluto ‘transforms’ the norm, so Pluto coming upon Vega in an era when Vega has long shone as a conceptual light of inspiration will naturally turn many a positive to negative... and some negatives to positives. History is rife with such tales.

And perhaps - as with so many things Mercury - it’s all about our choice. Will we combine our [lunar] feeling intentions with our [Mercury] thoughts and work to mesh their purpose? Will we be so frustrated as to refuse all overtures of kindness?

Things are [Arachne] neither simple, nor uncomplicated - but they’re not impossible, although [Vesta now at 24 Libra], we can expect to encounter flecks of defensive-aggressiveness either in our Self or others. Such feelings (and the attempt to bluff your way past them or avoid them altogether) are basic... they’re just about how vulnerable humans feel when - in short - they’re made to feel their Self feeling.

Given current [Mercury in Cancer] dynamics, the easiest fallback point is ‘protection’... or perhaps ‘self-protectiveness,’ depending. From there, some of us will recognize that our approach (the challenge of the t-square, a figure which requires that personal ego be subjugated to a greater-than-personal purpose) has been too limited and too ‘exclusive’ to ourselves and ‘our own’ - and among them, some will step forward and make the leap from the exclusive identified as ‘mine’ to the all-embracing which acknowledges no boundaries.

For those who come through this period having grown, their reward will be the opportunity to try.

Meanwhile, those who don’t grow will interrupt.

One other thing to be aware of over these next few days in particular: Jupiter is about to change signs, and because of this is currently resident at 29 Cancer, a degree deeply enamored of beliefs, traditions and perspectives of substantial heritage. Spoken of in the Sabian Symbols as ‘A Daughter of the American Revolution,’ there is a side to this influence - as typified by Dane Rudhyar - which well may be typified as ‘glorification of the past,’ regardless of our national origin.

Over the next few days we will all experience, witness and be exposed to many things which reflect Jupiter’s ‘expansion’ principle. Will we grow only in our [lunar] personal sense where will (ego) is our divining rod...or will we summon our native strength of belief to the task of bettering our life through a [Mercury] thoughtful embracing of the whole of life, however that is defined?
.
.
.