A Water Grand Trine in Planetary Major

Image based on a photo of water impacting a water-surface

(photo credit: Marion Felippe, January 2008)

In our last episode (welcome to my celestial soap opera) the highly attractive Venus slid her hot planetary self into Leo. And yes, Venus is hot – but not that kind of hot! On the average, it’s something like 462 degrees Celsius on Venus’ surface.

(Talk about a Sun burn!)

But Venus fluffing into Leo ‘mane event’ sort of mode wasn’t the only astral event which was of note on June 26th. No sir, not at all! June 26th was also the date when Jupiter moved into Cancer.

You might say that as Venus began to roar, Jupiter got crabby. But we won’t go there. Instead we will turn to a fact of FAR greater astrological importance: namely, that in moving into Cancer, Jupiter was not only creating a triumvirate of major planets in water signs, but – because Saturn is at 4 Scorpio and Neptune is at 5 Pisces – Jupiter also came into that 5-degree standard orb which would energize a rather grand Grand Trine in the element of water.

And this is of importance WHY, you ask?

Well, this is of importance to all those on Earth who have feelings. Or even feelings about feelings, as water is the zodiacal sign of all things feeling…and all those things we feel the most about (family, sex, money, death, birth, war, home, homeland and so on).

So to have major planets in each of the zodiac’s water signs? That’s a big to-do. To have them in aspect to each other?

That’s a big giant deal.

And on top of that, two of the three planets in question here have ‘essential dignities’ in the signs they are transiting. What’s an ‘essential dignity’? That’s astrological shorthand for saying the effects seen during that planet’s transit of the given sign is stronger than one might expect.

Think of it as turning up the volume and you won’t be far from wrong.

So we have Saturn in Scorpio, representing our efforts to grow our ‘structural effectiveness’ and the various pro and con things which happen there (representing how stable we really are with ourselves and how adept we are with the whole realm and range of forming supportive alliances with others).

‘In the Shadow of Saturn’, one of spacecraft Cassini’s most startling and beautiful images shows planet

Saturn aligned between Cassini and the Sun, the light of which is diffused by Saturn’s

multitude of rings

(photo credit: NASA-JPL-Caltech)

Saturn has no particular dignity in Scorpio, it’s just a fabulous opportunity to move ahead in life or a long series of headaches, depending on how you handle things. (Or don’t, depending.)

Then we have Jupiter in Cancer. Why Jupiter is dignified in Cancer has never really crystallized in my brain. (My alleged brain, that is.) But Jupiter is dignified in Cancer, meaning that for the next year or so there is a whole shopping cart’s worth of subjects which could go well…or simply get out of hand, depending on a.) how well we deal with and from our native emotional nature and, b.) whether we’re on a right track with our life as a whole. Cancer being the sign of ‘populations’ (national, familial and otherwise), this is a positively propitious period if you want to do something to get your name on the map.

Of course if you look around and listen to the news, it’s pretty obvious that renown isn’t always a positive thing. There are those who get known for their very worst attributes, and there are those for whom public exposure becomes a personal hindrance. Even a disaster.

Jupiter’s tendency to ‘enlarge’ everything is highly likely to result in a spate of hearing people who dreamed big and made it big…and people who got carried away in a very bad direction. There are those who will now move up in the world, and those who will find themselves swallowed up as by the ground itself. 

Planet Jupiter as photographed by spacecraft Voyager
(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

While I’m thinking about it…though I’m not fully proficient in astrological meteorology, it doesn’t take an astro-genius to guess that a grand trine in water might very well herald some pretty large events of the Very Wet Kind. Think weather, tides, rivers, ice floes, water bourn illness, boats, underwater drilling, all things fishy and otherwise oceanic – the works.

But don’t just stop there. Water signs do ‘point’ to things which directly have to do with water, yes. But they also point to everything which provokes or evokes emotion. So people will be more emotional. And there will be things to be emotional about, whether that emotion is love, lust, greed, anger, sorrow, glee, awe or anything else.

Let’s also not forget that because a grand trine of any sort represents an ‘ongoing pattern’ which is very hard to break out of, this could refer to a continuing drought. Or continuing cruelty. Or an unremitting illness.

Or – yes – continued success. On the personal level it really all depends on how water signs operate in your chart…and to some degree, the ‘condition’ of your Moon – some portion of which can probably be told by your feelings…and your relationship to feelings in general. So maybe you’re someone who avoids feelings altogether. Or you shy away from anything negative. Maybe you’re known as insensitive. Or you’ve buried something shame, some guilt, some ‘inner knowing’ that you’re not doing what you should be doing under your mental rug.

(You know…it’s amazing what lurks under mental rugs – not to mention the emotional gunk we try to flush down the psychic drain!)

This photo of Saturn’s south pole reveals a really intriguing hexagonal  cloud formation.  Whatever the planetary mechanics may be which produce this, it does remind me of the classic concept of work and responsibility which are part of the ‘sixth phase’ in the metaphysics of astrological thinking.
(photo credit: NASA – JPL)

The dynamic of grand trines being ongoing and pretty much inescapable, the up-versus-down of what goes on now because LIFE is providing such ‘consistent’ support, provocation, opportunity or lack of same (depending on where we are with ourselves) is the underlying crux of a metaphysical process which starts ‘in orb’ state on June 26th, and which never ‘perfects,’ except at whatever level we accept life’s imperfections as perfectly normal.

And that may be part of the ‘learning process’ which comes with this period: feelings aren’t perfect, life is messy, we’re always going to be dealing with something.

But is that bad? Probably not, as lack of satisfaction is one of the primary motivators of change, action and acceptance of life as reality – not some ideal we’d like to think life is.

Maybe the point is about how once we accept the glitches, challenges and problems, then we start working to improve things where and how we can without feeling diminished or having to deny, ignore or indulge in false fronts?

Maybe. Meanwhile, here's a list of days and dates which apply to this water-trine-in-motion.

In many ways, this is emotional time is embraced - or if if you prefer, bracketed - by Mercury's retrograde passage. It all starts with Jupiter entering Cancer at Mercury station-retrograde. And that's sort of akin to a metaphysical pointer causing us - by whatever means - to focus on inner feelings. Maybe it's just what we feel. But then again, maybe it's about why we feel a given way. Or...given that Mercury is going retrograde late in Cancer (while Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune are all in early degrees) – maybe that's a tip-off about how we need to be conscious of what others say, think or do.

Or don't say, think or do.

Or how or why we don't agree with them...or how, why and where they don't agree with us.

Of course this would also make sense thought of as some life factor or incident which ‘enlarges’ (Jupiter) on something in our (Mercurial) mind. And maybe that causes us to focus on new goals. Maybe we're sick and tired of something. Maybe we've reached our breaking point.

Or maybe we've just had some sort of break through. Or we're breaking out of some shell - even one we may have loved and cherished for however long.

While I'm thinking about it, if you have points in early degrees of any water sign, they're going to get 'swept up' in this grand trine formulation. For instance, my Moon is at 7 Scorpio. So as soon as Jupiter reaches 2 Cancer, that draws my Moon into a grand trine effect.

Seeing as my personal Sun is at 4 Pisces (meaning there's a native water trine in my natal chart) I'm used to trine effects. And you may be too. But a grand trine "deepens" the effect, making it something which is virtually 'inescapable' for a while. 

In essence, whatever begins formulating will represent some form of reaching for a ‘new step in the process’ as Saturn reaches its station in early July at a Cancer New Moon. Or, seeing as this is Saturn we're talking about, something coming to be. Or something ending. The idea of Saturn as 'a structure' can be something we build our life on (or within) or something we wall something out with.

And since Cancer is a sign the Moon rules, this incoming Saturn station is going to be a time when feelings come to be more clarified - which isn't to say those feelings will be all good. They could be, of course - combinations of Saturn emphasis and lunar 'punctuation' are well known for delivering rewards or results. Or getting us to move on something we've been dithering on!

On the other hand, Saturn-Moon combinations sometimes have to do with fears. Even rejection. Yet strangely, even as they inhibit one thing, a New Moon-in-Cancer combining with Saturn-in-Scorpio may signal our turning away from the old in favor of doing it the way we know (deep down inside) we should be doing it.

Yes, we may just grow up. At least a little now!

Then there's Saturn and Jupiter. Jupiter and Saturn having long been known as that combination which builds nations and brings down kings, Jupiter reaching its trine-point to Saturn on July 13th brings up where life is ‘going together,’ where things are ‘stuck’ or where they’re coming apart. Given the degrees involved, many of us will be facing ‘fateful confrontations’ which, though set off by circumstances, are really about our own willingness to take life on as an individual or on some individual basis. Like as not this is what we will all be dealing with as Neptune backs into 4 Pisces on July 15th (UT/+0 time), bringing this major planet grand trine to ‘perfected’ focus over the 15th, 16th and 17th…during which time Uranus just happens to be going retrograde.

Planet Neptune, as photographed by NASA

(As if such things happen coincidentally?)

Breakthroughs versus breakage versus being ‘broken down’ by is the Uranian note, one which as a contributor (so to speak) of the ongoing water trine suggests a shift, a realization, a recognition of our own part in the creating of our own dramas. That we think others don’t see about themselves, maybe we don’t see in ourselves. The cost of not expanding our (Uranus in Aries) scope of consideration may be exactly why we don’t get consideration (or considered) by others.

We can’t do what we say to others ‘don’t do’ and think the karma of that choice isn’t squarely on us.

And that, my friends, is one of the things this watery grand trine seems to scream over all: what we work to create defines what we earn...but how we go about doing it becomes our karma.

Even from a couple of weeks in advance of Uranus’ station (in other words, now) it would seem pretty darn likely that life will be enveloping us in circumstances which we don’t quite control, but which we also ignore to our own detriment - particularly in that oh-so karmic way. We can't shut out the uncomfortable, nor is what we want always what works best in the long run. Life will out. Life will always out! Life will find a way to prove to us that we don’t control experience, experiences control us. The integrity we live with, we need to live with because life – as Existence – is integrity in the sense that the All, the Everything is the integrity we call Existence. Our opting out of this or that for our own emotional comfort doesn’t disrupt life – it only stunts us.

And what is stunting? Isn’t it another way of saying ‘short-changing’?

It’s all so very interesting. Noodles to noodle over, maybe we should say. And noodle we will, whether that’s ramen, linguini or otherwise, in our mind, in our life, and yes – maybe even in our tummies.

When Jupiter moves to 5 Scorpio on the 18th, that marks the grand trine's intensity beginning to loosen. But let's not kid ourselves - it's not over yet! 

Not hardly. With Uranus going retrograde on the 17th and Mercury going direct on July 20th a day after Eris goes retrograde is a whole new ticket to adventure.

And let's be real here....when you put Uranus, Mercury and Eris together, 'adventure' is the nice word for it! So much energy is now coming to a head and for whatever reason the Aquarian Full Moon on July 22nd strikes me (even without analysis of its details) as a 'trigger point.' Will that mean something is touched off in real life...or in our psyches or feelings?

And still this water grand trine continues on. Considering the Uranus-Mercury-Eris relationship through all their stations we are going to be...or be put into position to respond to something. But what is that going to be? Will it be something delightful that we've set up and which like some fairy tale is now coming true? Or is it some emotion-laden cost for ‘unspent’ capital held too close for our ultimate purpose?

Whatever happens, it's going to be a noisy time. Emotionally noisy, if nothing else.

Jupiter's Rings (in False Color) as photographed by Voyager 2
(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

But as this grand trine ends come August 10th (a few days after Mercury exits its retrograde shadow) maybe we will have come to realize the difference between recognizing the need to take responsibility for our own feelings (whether they be heartwarming or challenging)…or not.

By that time, Venus will be in Virgo, a clue which suggests that where we came into this time imagining we knew what was good, maybe ‘good’ isn’t about the fun and pretty stuff. Do we use emotionality as an escape? Or is it a symptom which at some level simply expresses our desire to have everything be as we imagine it as a defense against fear of the unknown?

That leads me to one of my pet questions: isn’t ‘the unknown’ another name for what we have yet to learn and be enriched by?

What’s so scary about that? Isn’t learning more and becoming more ‘emotionally solvent’ in our own souls how we come to feel better about life itself?
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By the Light of a Ceres Full Moon

The Full Moon as photographed by Augusto De Luca in 1980

Maybe you remember the old song ‘…by the light of the silvery moon…’ and suspect that I was humming that as I came to write this blog?

If so, you would be right!

And though I’m not positively certain why such things pop into our minds at any given time, given that this month’s Full Moon (which will occur on June 23rd at a cheery 11:33 a.m. UT/+0 time) is in Capricorn, having something I heard as a child turn up for humming use seems rather apt.

After all, Capricorn always has a sense of the classic, the historical and all which has lasted through the triumphs and trials of time – which goes with its association with Saturn, the astrological time-and-taskmaster which leads to achievement. In this case, the ‘achievement’ has in part been the installing of a song in my head which evidently has lasted plural decades. But probably more to the point, the fact that the song (and the Doris Day movie which honored same) have proved memorable denote a form of ‘quality’ which is endemically Capricorn-Saturn, and thus entirely in keeping with this June Full Moon at 2 Capricorn.

During my 'growing up years' I was very involved with music, where one of the things I liked most was old-fashioned sheet music with all the wonderful illustrations. So since it came up today, I went hunting for 'By the Light of the Silvery Moon' and came up with this - which I thought you'd enjoy seeing.

(original publication date, 1909)

And yet…there is something of an odd juxtaposition here. While Capricorn itself is known as structural sign which encourages (even requires) that we build and engineer an external life which will support and protect our internal life (the image of the polarity sign, Cancer), 2 Capricorn is pretty early in the sign. That points us towards the idea that early degrees in any sign (those in the 0-9 first decanate region) are known for being where the sign manifests through actions and physicality. So considering this is Capricorn we’re talking about, this may be a time when all things Capricorn are in progress in that singularly cardinal manner Nike has forever embraced with the corporate slogan: ‘just do it.’

The head and torso of a statue of the Goddess Nike, she who stands for victory
of human spirit, which is part of the RMS Titanic Engineers' Memorial
in Southampton (photo credit: Marekes, May 2011)

Or maybe you’re gearing up to go out there and ‘just do it.’ Or you’re listening to others who are out there just wailing on whatever they’re involved in as they try to make things happen.

Whether you’re cake baking or sports attending or governmenting or building for your future, you’re doing what you’re doing and then we arrive at this interesting juncture otherwise known as the Full Moon at 2 Capricorn.

The image is this: the Moon – our emblem of feelings and intuition and money and habits and cultural inculcations (and thus the ‘directives’ by which we tend to live) is at 2 Capricorn, a degree known as being a bit tentative. The question is ‘what will work?’ or ‘will this work?’ or ‘am I on the right track?’ or ‘is this going to get me where I want to go?’ or any such reflection. Implied also is how our life is OUR life and how that may mimic or ‘fit’ with society or, then again, it may not.

And if or where it doesn’t, is that bad? Certainly there are some areas of life (regulations, laws, etc.) where we really do need to adhere to the ‘rules.’ And there are abilities which are basic tools in life – learning to read, write, do money-math, cook well enough to feed yourself, all that stuff. But beyond that is the where is fitting in good, and where is being your own person the way to create that ‘special’ niche which is true to you and which is the sign of human leadership?

Another side of 2 Capricorn is a sort of ‘timeliness,’ especially that which asks that we keep up with the times which may now reverberate as having to ‘update’ in some way, shape or form.

Because we don’t see a bouquet of modifiers associated with the Sun or Moon in this moment, we might think this Full Moon is straight-forward or ‘simplistic.’

But is life ever simple? How would it be so interesting if all was simplistic!

So be assured, there are at least a couple of astro-aspect notes worth taking into account!

And thus we get at it, starting with one of my handy-dandy diagrams...

Oh wait...! Before we get to that, we should note that the date of this Full Moon (the 23rd of June) is also the date that the Nodes move onto the cross-quarter degrees in Scorpio and Taurus.

Didn't catch that post? No problem - here's the link:

- link to post - 

The Lunar Nodes at Cross Quarters

Bearing that in mind, the Moon (our feelings of the moment) is in a sign which (as mentioned), is ruled by Saturn. And Saturn is at 4 Scorpio and still retrograde, though 4 Scorpio IS the degree Saturn is going to go direct at come but a couple of weeks from now. So that adds something of an undercurrent. Even a double undercurrent, considering the Nodal signal that our relationship with others and the world is in the mix.

Some of us will now experience moments of self-doubt. And it's probably a good time to check those p’s and q’s to see that all is in line...or when you may find out you forgot to dot some ‘i’ or cross some ‘t’.

(How alphabetical of me, right?)

Since this is a Full Moon we’re talking about here, if the Moon is at 2 Capricorn, that means the Sun is at 2 Cancer. So LIFE (the Sun) is in a place where we know we need to build for the future, but we also have sincere feelings of wanting to cover our vulnerabilities (and any body part you associate with that!).

2 Cancer is a bit of an odd duck degree in that it represents that quality of recognizing everyone’s needs while still wanting to vote only for your own preferences. There’s something of an emotional ‘false front’ which tends to be presented here, suggesting that justifications are easier to be put out there than actual reasons, rationales or personal motivations. And maybe that’s good and proper, maybe that’s selfish or manipulative…it just depends on who is doing what - and why.

So in this natural opposition between the Sun and Moon, it would be natural to question: why are we doing what we’re doing? Why are others saying what they’re saying about what we’re doing? Are they speaking fact and truth – or are they just trying to ‘sell’ some sort of agenda?

To make this all a bit more exotic, we add in four more factors, the first of which is that the Black Moon (societal form of) Lilith is sitting right beside the Sun at 1 Cancer, registering a bit of a ‘threat’ that what you’re doing (or what you want or need to do) may cause some social or relationship waves. And that may be the real crux of what this Full Moon is – life asking you whether you’re willing to do what you need to do to move ahead in your own life or as a person even though that might rock some sort of status quo. For all we know, that might be the ‘status quo’ of what you had thought coming into this time which now simply changes. But yes, it could mean you’re rocking some boat at home or at your office or in your ‘group.’

So why are you doing what you’re doing? Is it willful or is it necessary? Is it leadership or selfishness? Are you willing to move ahead (“modernize”) where someone else isn’t, or are you in some mode where you’re rejecting some evidence of how the world works simply because it doesn’t fit your mold or suit your fancy?
The next thing to think about is the fact that with this Full Moon we get a healthy heaping helping of Jupiter at 29 (critical) degrees of Gemini.

Every time I type ‘critical’ degrees, a little voice in my head says ‘someone is going to go overboard with that word “critical”’ So lest that be the case, let’s remember that critical in the astrological sense only means ‘to the max’ in terms of that sign. If you think of the degrees of any sign as being from 0 to 29, then zero is where the sign begins its ‘work’ (or process) and 29 is where its process culminates or where life pushes really hard to get us to dealing with the matter(s) connected to that sign.

In this case, the sign is Gemini: thought, mentality, communication, mental health, priorities and all those life details and operations which keep the ‘whole’ of life on track and functioning on a day-to-day basis. Gemini is known as the sign of ‘choice’ because we make a choice to deal with things…or to not deal with things. (And for those who think they don’t have to make choices, think again: making no choice IS making a choice – it’s a choice to exert no influence into the process, which is sort of a ‘choice to be helpless’ and let others run your life.)

Jupiter at 29 Gemini is a time of making choices and when choices (or non-choices) become very important for whatever reason. So, in combination with the Full Moon, we may now have plenty of good reasons to pause as something we have ignored may turn up to haunt us. Or maybe something we’ve done thinking we could get away with it…or maybe that ‘this was the way’ to handle something turns out wrong.

Then again, this may be where everything begins paying off. This may be a ‘critical juncture’ where Jupiter as the emblem of ‘expansion’ and learning brings you to where you ‘see the light’ whether at the end of the tunnel or otherwise. It may be where some long period of (Saturn) effort begins paying off.

It all depends on what you’ve been doing with your life of late. And even for the past year or so (which I say because it takes Jupiter just about a year to pass through any given sign).

Factor Three: Mercury is about to go retrograde. And since it’s SOP (standard operating procedure) for life to feel all pressured and flurry-ful just as we close in on Mercury’s station/retrograde point, that heaped atop Jupiter being at 29 ‘critical’ degrees of Gemini (a sign that Mercury rules) says decisions and conversations and having thought through situations and choices is probably of mucho importance just now.

As always, that we refuse to deal with in life gets thrust upon us. If we need to learn something and we don’t want to go there, life will ‘send’ someone to provoke and evoke that dynamic in us – or in our lives. And let’s remember…

…since Gemini is the sign which leads us to the foundational (Nadir or IC) point in the horoscope and the zodiac, that which we are (Aries), that which we seek in order to feel good about ourselves and our lives (Taurus) and that which we do or don’t do, learn or don’t learn (Gemini) is now coming to…well, not a heady turn – that sounds more like the top of the horoscope wheel.

But maybe you’d go for it’s a ‘nitty gritty’ time?

Jupiter tends to overblow and overdo and underestimate the repercussions of things while in Gemini. That goes to the good and goes to the not-so-good.

But once Jupiter crosses over into Cancer, then we have Jupiter in a sign of grace. Or at least grace for many. Those who aren’t moving ahead and aren’t planning and building for the future often experience Cancer as being ‘overwhelmed’ by Cancerian issues. I know one person with Cancer – which is normally the sign of home and family – on their 12th house, a house which asks that we face our fears in this realm. This person is totally overwhelmed by family demands and swamped by the ‘expectations’ that have been heaped upon them about the lifestyle they ‘should’ live and the kind of house they ‘should’ own and all that.

If you’re in position to finish something up and move ahead into a newer more “authentically you” stage of life, this Jupiter at 29 Gemini Full Moon with Mercury about go to into retrograde will like as not be an exciting time of seeing yourself moving towards wonderful new opportunities and a broadening of your vistas. Against that, if or where you’re just knee-jerking yourself along through life (did I put that politely enough?) this will be a nerve-wracking time of personal challenges.

And let’s not forget: it could be both. In one area of life all could be just spiffy and splendiferous while in another everything could be sinking into the floor.

The last and final note here (and here we thought this was just a simple Full Moon, right?) is that Ceres – the symbol of planning how to get from seed to the riches of harvest – is about to enter Leo.

Leo is a sign of visions, of creativity, of taking risks – not all of which always pay off. The Leo Principle includes the idea of competition, and let’s face it – we don’t always win. But that which we love with a Leo fervor, we love with all our heart. It’s what we do or what we’ve created, and whether others love it or not, that which is Leo to us is something we love.

Of course, sometimes we love something just too much. (I know…shocking, isn’t it?) Or sometimes we just get a vision of how things should be or could be and life just doesn’t measure up. This is the big Leo challenge: to understand motivation as motivation and ‘what could be’ as that we’re shooting for, not what reality necessarily is.

So as Ceres enters Leo on June 23rd (as this Full Moon lights our skies) we do need to see what can be, and motivation which leads to planning is decidedly a good thing.

Just let’s not think the road is always smooth. That it isn’t, that sometimes ‘stuff’ happens (as they say…ahem!) and we have to think on the fly or bite our tongue and go with the ‘oops – I didn’t think about that!) also comes with this mix.

If this is a moment when your dreams come true, God bless you! And if this is a moment when you see your way through some sticky life thicket to solutions which may yet be and become, good luck!

 The Moon

(photo credit: Simon Wedege Petersen, April 2009 - color altered for post use)

Like any Full Moon, this one is something of a check point and very much a step in the process. As the Moon reflects the light of the Sun, so we look skyward and reflect on this moment…this life…our hopes for tomorrow...

...and then we move on into a new phase, just as the Moon does.
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Chiron: Station/Direct in Pisces

 The Tetons and the Snake River by Ansel Adams (1942)

It's to be suspected that there are at least two very different perspectives from which we can view Chiron’s transit through Pisces.

As a sign, Pisces is all about our need to confront not just what we feel about things….but how we feel about feeling about them as we do.

And Chiron is that thing we have to learn before we can really be effective in this world (and in our lives)…but which we are likely to forget about now and again. And when we do, we take a hard hit for having done so.

So together, they spell soul-prodding times. Emotionally trying, even painful times. Situations are going to set us off. We’re going to get confounded, disappointed and frustrated. People are going to do things which cause us to confront our vulnerabilities, hurts and ego-glitches.

And apparently it’s all just part of the natural process. Of course you’re going to feel those provocations most of all in whatever sign your natal Chiron is posited in. (And yes, the house and aspects to your native Chiron count to.)

But this isn’t all bad news. Not by a long shot! Ever hear the expression ‘healer, heal thyself’? When Chiron times are trying times, that’s when we get maximally confronted by our own feelings.

And that’s when we learn the most about our Self – if we don’t just do that Pisces denial-avoidance-rose-colored-glasses thing, that is.

So to my thinking, Chiron in Pisces is (yes, I’m going all Dickensian now…) the very best of times…the very worst of times.

If we face why we feel the way we do and where those feelings come from and maybe even discard the stuff which has been ‘ruling’ our psyche without our even having consciously signed off on it, then we can clear our mental decks of things which end up wounding our feelings. We can heal a bit and be more successful because we’re in a better place with ourselves – we’re being more about who we are when we’re not being driven by compulsions we’re trying to run away from by doing or saying or trying to believe X-Y-Z.

 In this painting called 'Dickens Dream' by Robert William Buss, Dickens is depicted as sitting at his desk surrounded by the haunting images of his characters (1875)

But in the meantime? Yes, Chiron’s passage through Pisces can be a mucho giant headache.

(And yes, you can choose a different body part if it seems more fitting. I’ll leave that up to you.)

So Chiron is going direct at 4 Pisces on November 15th at 8:35 in the evening UT/+0 time….which among other things means it’s going direct on my Sun. Part of me can’t wait to see Chiron be off and about its way. Then again, I’m also highly aware that this is a time to find those places in my (Sun) life and consciousness where I'm afraid to really feel. Through finding those things, through requiring of myself that I brave my own vulnerabilities and whatever fears I may have, through being willing to BE me more thoroughly, Chiron says I will find my higher, better, more fulfilling human path. 

That brings me to a problem with blogging about astrology. Chiron is going direct on November 15th. And we know that planets and asteroids and such deserve ‘station allowances’ which we’ve “shorthanded” to two days prior and two days after the event. During this time, the precepts of the stationing point (in this case, Chiron) will be particularly strong. But that doesn’t mean that you reach the station and the Chiron switch gets flipped. Especially since this station is occurring within a couple of days of a solar eclipse, the eclipse’s six-to-eight week ‘breakdown’ period prior to the eclipse will have been making us ripe for Chiron’s station. In fact, many of us will have been doing a lot of our Chiron work during this time.

Those who have been doing their Chiron-in-Pisces work will, come station time, begin recognizing a change and reaping the benefits. Those who don’t will begin feeling Chirotic circumstances arising in their life and through their relationships.

So…does this mean I should have said something like this two months ago? That’s the blog problem I was alluding to – there’s no way to say everything you might want to say as an astrologer, and have it seem pertinent to someone tuning in to the blog.

I used to post blog data on the date of a celestial event. Then I got prodded by some worthy soul (whose email I can’t dig up at the moment, sorry!) who pointed out how useful it would be to get notifications of events prior to their occurrence.

But how far in advance should I go? If Chiron is going direct here in November, would anyone really take it seriously for me to talk about it in mid-September? And for those who just check in now and again, wanting to see ‘the latest news’ know to look back at a September post in November?

You understand the challenge, no doubt.

I’ve settled on something nearer to the mark – the actual date, that is. But that doesn’t mean I’m not aware that many people (including myself) got a definite ‘Chiron note’ in daily doings-ville ever since the eclipse window opened.

Or maybe even before.

In going direct at 4 Pisces, Chiron evokes the essence of Sabian Symbol 335: A CHURCH BAZAAR, which Marc Edmund Jones refers to as The value of giving a spiritual or transcendent sanction to even the most commonplace interchanges between social persons and individual minds. 

Now that you know my Sun is at 4 Pisces, my belief that all is connected and that all gives rise to all else probably makes sense. Astrologer Dane Rudhyar regards this degree as one which “stresses the possibility of the ‘Presence of God’ in even the most material human activities”…with its influence being where societal ‘wholeness’ is achieved by treating that society as ‘holy.’

The mundane as sacred. If anything is important, all is important. If anything counts, everything counts.
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As Chiron is going direct, it is doing so in a perfect trine to Saturn at 4 Scorpio, a degree imaged as A MASSIVE ROCKY SHORE RESISTS THE POUNDING OF THE SEA. This representation of a Scorpio degree as a ‘rocky shore’ is particularly interesting as in the water (emotional) triumvirate, Scorpio is the sign of fixed water.

The three water signs are Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. Cancer is of the cardinal modality: Cancer acts and learns from the results. Pisces is mutable: it tries, learns from that effort, adjusts its aim and tries again or a bit more.

Of the three, Scorpio is fixed. And like any fixed sign, Scorpio strives to know all before it makes a move. We thus delight in intimacy just as we are afraid of baring our soul.

To put this more physically, what is water when it’s ‘fixed’ in real life? We call that ice, right?

There’s a saying in astrology…if you find a chart which has no planet positioned in an earth sign, look for planets in Scorpio.

The reasoning there is that ice can bear weight. Think about the polar ice caps. True, ice can be deceptively thin. And when it’s thin, it can be dangerous.

 A brave little fox talks on a frozen lake by Melton Hall

(Matt Buck, February 2012)

But so is the Scorpio nature and Scorpio risk. I have come to think that those who seek control the most, those who demand, threaten or are the most abrasive or abusive…they’re probably just trying not to fall through thin ice.

It can be darn cold inside that there psyche, y’know?

Water has been said to be the strongest element of all: it can put out fire, when mixed with air it can obscure…and it can wear down the tallest mountain, which brings me back to the Sabian Symbol for Saturn’s position at the time of Chiron’s station (4 Scorpio). That ‘massive rocky shore’ and the pounding wave are both part of that degree.

They’re both part of us.

Saturn being at 4 Scorpio therefore suggests that this Chiron station – and the period around it – are times when reality (Saturn) ‘hits home.’ Or maybe when we stand strong against a pounding. Or what we learn about ourselves (Chiron in Pisces) because we can deal with that disappointment, that hurt, that betrayal, that abandonment, that loss.

Because Niobe is with Chiron at 4 Pisces, this may be the time to take some personal pride in your ability to have faith – most of all in your Self and its ability to grow, cope and evolve. The caution would, of course, be not to fall afoul to the self-defeating sort of pride which brought the mythical Niobe to emotional ruin. She dared brag that her children were more beautiful and more talented than those of Leto – Apollo and Artemis. Niobe also bragged that the sheer number of children she had borne (she had seven sons and seven daughters) made her a better mother than Leto.

Apollo and Artemis slaying the children of Niobe

by Abarahm Bloemaert (1591, oil on canvas)

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In essence, Niobe made the assertion of quantity over quality while setting her very mortal self up to be the equivalent of the Sun and Moon and that which had made them – that which in today’s world we would call Eternity, Divinity, Existence, God…

In the myth, Niobe’s children and all shot down to teach her that sternest of lessons, that we are not made to measure ourselves by external trappings, but by the essence of who we are and how we go about doing what we do.

And yes, I could sit here and say my Sun is at 4 Pisces. I could sit here and say I have seem many things in my life which bear out these ideas. I think we all have.

And that is really the point. The history of humanity, the tale of society, it all tells us that quality trumps quantity. That’s why money doesn’t buy (or guarantee) happiness. That’s why when people feel empty on the inside they so often try to cover that pain up with work or sex or money or drugs or shopping or alcohol or religion or….

…Or simple denial.

If there is an inference to be drawn from Chiron turning direct not but a couple of days after the first of a series of Scorpio solar eclipses we’re going to have, it would seem to lie in this direction.

Above all, we need to be honest with ourselves about who we are. Not who we think we ‘should’ be…not who our parents dreamed we might be…who we are.

Chiron will be in Pisces until April 2018, when it starts transitioning into Aries – a shift which will not be complete until February 18, 2019. And it’s worth noting (particularly because we’re going to be spending the next couple of years going through solar eclipses in Taurus and Scorpio) that Uranus will be shifting into Taurus in May of 2018 – just under a month after Chiron first crosses into Aries.

If you have not done your Pisces work, the combination of Uranus in Taurus and Chiron in Aries will manifest as events and circumstances which rattle your security. If you have done your Chiron-in-Pisces (and Uranus in Aires) work, you will arrive at that time having done the difficult task of freeing yourself from projections, personal misconceptions and emotional evasion, deflection, denial (etcetera) in favor of accepting who you really are.

You know…that You which exists deep down in your soul. That You which frets in the dark of night and when you think nobody’s looking.

That this really can happen to everyone on the planet all at once is brought home to us by knowing that Chiron takes around 50.5 years to go once around the Sun and Uranus takes 84 years to complete one solar circuit. So nobody under 84 years old has even been through Uranus in Aries yet. And those over 84 years old? Well, may you live 84 more years, but you were but young’uns the last time Uranus transited Aries.

The point here is that the last time Uranus was in Aries was the end of the 1920s. A world which wanted to live the bon vivant life…(and who could blame them, what with the world having just survived WWI)…that world stumbled and fell into the Great Depression.

Sound at all familiar?

Crowd gathered for free food outside the McWhirters' building in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

(Qld) on Christmas Day 1933 (Daily Standard, December 27, 1933 p. 5)

Those people learned a huge and devastating lesson about money and what’s truly valuable in life. As we are learning now. They went on to become a group known today in America as ‘the Greatest Generation.”

Is this what difficulties make of us as people?

Maybe.

As for Chiron, the last time Chiron was in Pisces was back in the 1960s. There was a lot of soul searching and a lot of people looking for ways to ‘find themselves’…and just as many looking to escape any semblance of same.

In short, it’s a choice. One we all make once or twice (or a half dozen times).

Where I stand with myself is merely me. What matters to you is where you stand with that You that you may not yet even know how to be.

As Chiron goes direct, the level of self-questioning will go down and the prompting will become more external. With Chiron having gone retrograde back in June of this year (between the lunar and solar eclipses, while Venus was still retrograde), we’ve had about four months to reflect and – more or less – be on our own.

Now we re-engage with external forces. Or more likely, they return to take us on precisely in those areas which we find most difficult to face.
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