Sun in Pisces

As previously noted, the Sun is moving into Pisces on the same day that Saturn goes retrograde. The date in question is February 18th and the Sun enters Pisces at 12:03 in the afternoon (UT/+0), scant hours before Saturn goes retrograde at 5:04 p.m.

Any time we see this sort of confluence, we know this is not just a moment in time, but a ‘moment in time.’ In other words, we shouldn’t expect this to be just another set of days which goes by with this and that happening which we take note of but don’t think much about.

On the other hand, Piscean effects can be mysterious. Even difficult to understand – or if you prefer scientific parlance, diagnose. Pisces is all that which causes us to feel to a degree that just how we feel and why we feel and how we react to having those feelings…all that comes to the fore.

In this particular case, we have the Sun at 0 Pisces and Saturn at 11 Scorpio. Right away we know we have a (Sun) life (Saturn) lesson in progress.

But that lesson has two different versions. Or perhaps we will be tempted to take one of two paths, or to try and avoid something. What do I mean?

From Pisces TO Scorpio is nine signs. By the implied ‘9th harmonic’ (which sounds very grand but is pretty simple), the Sun’s metaphysical ‘connection’ to Saturn is one about furthering our education.

On the other side, from Saturn in Scorpio TO the Sun in Pisces is five signs – a 5th harmonic, if you please.

In astrology, nine is not a sign of ‘culmination’ as those of you who know numerology might think of it. That’s probably because astrology doesn’t work in base ten, as our everyday system of counting does. No, at it’s most simplistic, astrology works in base twelve – twelve signs. And yes, it also works in base thirty (thirty degrees to every sign) and base three-hundred-sixty (degrees in a circle).

And if you want to get really fancy about it, there’s also that ‘sixty seconds in a degree’ thing – which sounds really fussy but which is where our concept of time (sixty seconds to the minute and sixty minutes to the house) and astrology intersect.

And that concept – working in base sixty – comes from Babylon, the place all western astrology originally comes from. The ancient Babylonians worked in base sixty…which is good cause to wonder what they used after their fingers and toes.

In any case, nine – in modern astrology – is the ‘astro-vibe’ of learning. So daily life (the Sun) is going to be all about learning what this month?

Answer: Saturn in Scorpio stuff.

Meanwhile, five (and the 5th harmonic) is about ‘creativity and development.’ Many like to think of the 5th harmonic as being ‘the child’ as in ‘having children.’ But if you think about it, children are – in human terms – a primary ‘human creation’: we create more humans.

But then you have to raise them. You know…as a parent your job is to creatively develop a child’s sense of being a human being in this world?

Yet the 5th harmonic isn’t about children. It’s about the creating something from what we have. So whether that’s your physicality or that’s your talents, abilities or resources, the effort which goes into creating and developing those abilities are the 5th harmonic concept.

In fact, one of the reasons why parenting is such a tough job is because as a parent you’re not only in charge of creating and developing the life of the child, your primary job is to develop your Self so that you ARE a good parent who shows that child how to make (develop) something of your life, your abilities, your humanity, your talents – all that stuff.

And the reason all that is so important now is because what is ‘creatively developed’ through the 5th sign vibe is the Taurean or 2nd house sense of self worth, personal resources and self respect (or self worth), all of which is tested through…

Through what sign? SCORPIO.

A stained glass image of Scorpio as depicted in the

Cathedral of Lausanne in Switzerland

 
And that’s where Saturn – the symbol of reality, limits, loss, testing and slow, substantial growth through effort – is.

So this 9th house (trine) harmonic from the Sun TO Saturn is all about learning where and how our values work, and where and how our values, our self development, our efforts just aren’t up to par. Maybe with ourselves…maybe with others.

This is to be a testing month and a month of testing. And when it comes to the astro-crux of how tests work and taking them to heart, hardly anything gets to us like the combination of Pisces and Scorpio. Where Scorpio tests our values and ability or willingness to risk (or how smart or dumb we are to take on a given risk), Pisces is that boundless sense of emotionality which is not just feelings, but feeling our feelings, and feeling how we feel about our feelings.

This is pure water sign theory. As the first water sign in the zodiac, Cancer’s metaphysical image is the surf zone. Scorpio’s image is the swamp or the ice floe. But Pisces is the wide, open ocean, replete with ‘unfathomable’ oceanic depths.

On balance, we are going to see a lot of people trying to ‘control’ (Saturn in Scorpio) what happens now so that it comes out to their (5th sign harmonic liking). And that’s okay, particularly if you are learning something in the process or are achieving what you’re achieving through applying something you have learned.

However! This combination can also be one where people will try and avoid reality at all costs. This is a combination which is a fear-monger’s dream. (With two water signs involved, maybe their wet dream!) So we are going to see people fall into two very different camps – the ‘this can’t be done’ group and ‘this could work’ tribe.

Is there any sense to knowing which is which and which represents prudence and which represents a valid road forward? Probably yes, though not in the absolute. The big indicators to the ‘turn of (Saturn) events’ now are Deucalion on the Scorpio side and Kalypso, Fomalhaut and Neptune on the Sun side of things.

The pairing of Deucalion-Saturn, though it may take many forms, is fairly direct: is XYZ being done in a moral and ethical manner?

Or maybe this, as an alternate…is everyone involved in any given situation, dynamic or question being given equal personal, ethical and moral consideration?

Sun-Kalypso-Fomalhaut-Neptune is a bit more squishy. But then, any time we see Neptune, things are a bit more nebulous – that’s the point! Fortunately, we do have two pretty obvious indicators in this quartet: Fomalhaut says ‘success depends on a lack of corrosion’ which means that we only succeed where our aims are not corrupt or corruptive.

Variations on the Fomalhaut theme: coercion, corruption, deception, obfuscation, lying.

We also have Kalypso in this mix, and Kalypso is about as Piscean a symbol as there is. (And hence, probably exalted in Pisces, though nobody that I know of is very big into signs of asteroid rulership as yet.) Kalypso is one of those beauteous babes Ulysses (aka Odysseus) encounters on his way back from the collective events known as Homer’s Iliad. His ship gets stranded on this foreign shore and the lovely Kalypso shows up to help the hero and (oh yes) his crew, too.

Predictably (this being Greek myth and all) Kalypso falls in love with Ulysses. But the thing is, he’s a married man. He’s got a wife and kidlets back home and he’s pining to get back to them.

Does Kalypso help him? Yes, she does. Why? Because she realizes that loving someone (in this case Ulysses) is about caring for them and caring about their happiness, however THEY define that.

It’s a romantic notion, yes. But it’s also a very Piscean base-line emotional truth. What we want from others is our fantasy. Our longing. Our version of hopes, dreams and fondest yearnings. But if we love them, then we want them to have a life which will make them happy – which may mean they walk away from us and we never see them again.

Ouch? Yes. But very Piscean in the sense that all the yearnings and the despair of Pisces, all the idyllic dreams and believing and spirituality…that’s all fine and good as our emotional dream…but that’s not necessarily reality.

Some of us even get to have or achieve our dreams and then we find out the reality of them really sucks! And that’s another form of Pisces – the reality of understanding that some things are better left as fantasies.

Pisces…the two fish which swim in two different directions…is about the reality of life. That life is about the dream and yet also about the reality. Accepting how different they are and how they sometimes do and often don’t mix, that is our Pisces life challenge.

 Pisces...the two fish going in different

directions connected by a golden cord.

Pisces is also a sign which has two rulers. We’ve talked about the ‘outcome’ ruler – Neptune – in its confluence with the Sun. But the ‘in door’ with Pisces, that’s Jupiter. And as the Sun reaches Pisces, Jupiter is still sitting at 6 Gemini, the degree it went direct at back on January 30th.

It seems worth mentioning that 6 Gemini was also the degree Jupiter was in when the Lance Armstrong bubble burst on Oprah Winfrey’s very public television stage…and after that, throughout the media world. The disillusionment, the fact that people were so unhappy with Lance’s having deceived them (never mind himself) that people have sued Lance Armstrong for simply not being the shining hero they wanted to think of him as? That’s so very Piscean!

What, we want life to come with a guarantee that we’ll never get lied to? Life doesn’t come with any permission slips which say ‘you get to be eternally naïve’ And that’s what Pisces is about as a sign…teaching us how to love innocence, but be careful of our naiveté. Naiveté as the ‘blank slate’ which empowers us to learn is a powerful thing. But naiveté which has us wanting to be blind is destructive.

That combination, that coming to grips with what life is and isn’t is the essence of the moment. Your experience of it may be large or small. It may be costly or merely inconvenient. It may be disappointing. Then again, you may feel empowered to know you are as good as the next guy and better than many.

Given the 9-5 harmonic swing (by sign) from Saturn’s station to the Sun, this could be the moment when you take a next step in the effort to build or develop your life. It may be when you stop feeling your own very human weaknesses in favor of valuing your vulnerabilities as the very sort of human strength which allows caring and compassion to exist.

They say only the very strong can afford to be vulnerable.

That may be why some consider Pisces not the strongest sign in the zodiac, but the most enduring, eternal and powerful in its potential.

And every chart includes Pisces.

It’s to think about.
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Saturn times…

In our last episode, we went all Jupiter. Jupiter entered Aries. And now some of us are just bounding along, some are looking around and considering (or reconsidering), and some of us are setting about changing the world.

Well, at least our world. And yes, maybe the world.

With that shift now in progress and it’s prompting being felt far and wide, the next thing on the cosmic menu is that which happens but a couple of days from now: Saturn going retrograde.

Part one, that this is going to happen around dawn UT time on Wednesday means we are now heading into the pre-station ‘station zone’ which is so famous for its effects.

The last couple of stations have been helpfully illuminated by worldly events: Jupiter went direct and as we came into that station, the UK’s Prince William announced his engagement. We came into the Uranus station. In the US, President Obama cast his tax proposal upon governmental waters and up boiled a fracas. In London, Parliament voted to raise college tuition and riots broke out in the city streets.

This is exactly what stations are about. They don’t cause anything – they’re alarm clocks telling us when things will happen. What happens is delineated by the planet going on station, the degree in which the station happens, and (where you have a chart) how that station affects said chart.

And not all charts are going to be aspected by all stations. But if the station does aspect your chart, the event will happen to you, or in your life. If it doesn’t, you’ll hear about it happening to friends or in the world.

I’ve had clients (and yes, even family) who protest, but if I hear about it, isn’t it happening to me? My simple one word answer to this is “boundaries.” Though we may enjoy Prince William’s engagement, it’s not our life being affected. And even if you live in the US where you’re going to be affected by what the President and Congress does, this is not your life.

And to those who say but it’s my taxes! It IS my life! the astrologer answers evidently not. We are people. Money is, in essence, a tool with which we all have agreed to barter for things. They may be essential things like food, they may be unessential things like the latest electronic toy.

This may strike you as a metaphysical splitting of hairs, but at some level metaphysics just says we are not a concept. We are flesh and blood and life force. Money may help us, but it is not who we are. It famously cannot buy us love, nor can it in the end often even buy us health.

Learning where we end and where the ‘outside’ begins is a very Saturn thing. Astrologer Robert Zollar once wrote that Saturn, in defining our individuality, dooms us to loneliness. With that privilege of individuality comes all the cost of being individuated.

All that becomes more apt now with Saturn going retrograde at an emotional degree of Libra, the question is how’s the world treating you? Personal or professional, we are the ‘cause’ in our personal ‘cause/effect.’ So are things good, mediocre, luke warm, bubbling hot, painful, lonely, filled with joy, iffy, exciting, rewarding, daunting, paralyzed, giving you a giant Excedrin headache…or another variation on some exotic but in the end, all-too-human theme?

People seem to think that Saturn in Libra is about relationships. That’s sort of right…but it’s really about the attention, effort and focus which gets put on relating. Or not relating. Or putting up walls. Saturn symbolizes all we build, all which we are limited by, all we limit ourselves with, all the effort we put into getting past our personal challenges. Saturn is the symbol of time – and all we do with our time in this world.

And all we don’t do, too.

Saturn is associated with fear because we fear that we can’t have. Or that we won’t make time in our lives to do and thus never end up being, having or experiencing. We fear our mortality – it’s an insurmountable limit. We fear deprivation, however you personally define that kind of term.

And of course there is that individuality versus loneliness thing cited above – which is very much why Saturn is not only the sole ruler of Capricorn (sign of individual achievement) but has always been the primary ruler of Aquarius. The individual who much define themselves in order to fit in somewhere in society must then transcend that aloofness in order to become part of their society or their work world or their social network…or whatever.

And if only by being part of that world can they then reap the benefits of that world - including income, acceptance by others, support/assistance of others in this world be that personal or professional…

…that rather tells us why Saturn effort, dedication and self-discipline both in the ‘self development’ phase and the networking/integration phase (replete with all the social morays, habits, hierarchies et all which may be) is so essential.

That’s important to us why, what with Saturn going retrograde in Libra?

That’s a good question, to which I have a good answer. That answer is that Aquarius being the 5th house/sign from Libra makes Aquarius – and all arenas Aquarian – where we express ourselves.

To figure out what zodiac 'harmonic' you're dealing with, 

start with the first sign and count counter-clockwise

around the wheel (that being the direction of the natural

zodiac pictured on a horoscope) until you reach the

second sign. The originating sign counts as "one."

And this, fair friends, is why as the incoming Aquarian Age has dawned among us, that such Aquarian things as computers and networking and corporations and social groups – all Aquarian things – have come to be such primary outlets for relationship and relating (Libra) expression.

Those of us who are doing well in either the Libra or the Libra/Aquarian departments (relationships versus relating to/in one’s world) will tend to ‘regroup’ and consolidate as this time come upon them. Those who aren’t doing so hot in these arenas will either meet up with challenges, be confronted by problems OR be presented with situations which force them to reconnoiter not necessarily as much in the world as in their own psyche.

Direct motion: things happen in the world, we respond in a worldly arena. Retrograde motion: things shift inside, we challenge long-term standing ‘personal realities’ and notions.

This is also one of those curious moments of station. There will be another post on Saturn coming up in a couple of days, but that being then, the now of the conversation is how tomorrow (at 9:11am UT/+0) there will be a conjunction of Hera, Lust and Scheat.

Approaching this like a painter might, the broad brushstroke is fixed star Scheat. All stars being part of our solar system’s celestial background, astrologically, they a ‘bright points’ which like stationary traffic signs along the highway of life, we are called upon to heed.

In Scheat’s case the term ‘bright’ may be a bit misleading however. Scheat is not about brilliance or a ‘bright spot’ in life – far from it! Scheat is ‘bad receptions.’ And in (very) late Pisces, it’s emotionally driven bad receptions – or at least a reception which sets you up to feel badly. Scheat can be disappointments, disapprovals or out-and-out rejection.

This being part of the Saturn station, the question becomes whether the station represents your meeting up which makes you feel like rejecting something…or what you’re doing or how you’re going about being you – having that trigger someone else’s negatives.

To have Lust (focus) and Hera (leadership/power over a personal group/relationship) conjunct Scheat tells us something more about the area(s) of life most likely to be triggered. This ‘lust’ being not carnal but being totally focused on something (‘lusting after’ a goal, aim or focus, whatever it may be), to combine it with Hera and Scheat suggests this may be a turn in relationships with someone…and not for the better! Or that the (Hera) protection of a singular focus (Lust) provokes a nasty reaction.

The other end of this dynamic may be that something which has been difficult or on-the-outs in your world may take a turn and become more palatable. Or more functional.

With Saturn in the mix the real question is what you have been doing about/with the question at hand. If you’ve been all about you…or disregarding the rules or maybe even the morays of those in your community and family, things could get tough. But if you’ve been standing for standards and fair play and someone else has been being a miserable so-and-so, things may turn forward.

Either way, this becomes a moment in which you realize or recognize what works and what doesn’t/won’t/hasn’t work(ed). And since Saturn will soon be retrograde until June 2011, this is either the start of a ‘working out’ and moving forward in areas where you’ve ‘got it right’ or the start of a long period of bumps and knocks, all of which are meant to cause you to reflect.

No, not on others – though that will be what you probably want to do. Saturn in Libra, whether we like it or not, is for good or ugly, ultimately all about us. 

So ends part one of this Saturn station chat. Since the planet of honor hasn't actually pulled into the station as yet, we are still standing by. But if you listen, I pretty much guarantee you that you can hear the Saturn dynamics coming down the track! 

       

Sun in Aquarius

 John Singer Sargeant's Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (1889)

There are really a couple of ways to look at this year’s month-long Sun in Aquarius transit. What we do as astrologers is looking at ingresses to see what they can tell us...an ingress gives us a marker of influences at a certain point in time, when the cosmic clock strikes whatever it strikes...

...If you know where the rock fell in the pool, if you have some sense of when that rock fell and how big the rock was, that gives you a sense of what sort of ripples you will face if your body and your life are part of that pool

Which it is. We are all part of what exists - that's the big message delivered by E=mc2'd and all the rest of astrophysics.

What happens out there matters. What happens here on earth matters.

It's all part of the self same thing.

So saying...

....As the Sun enters Aquarius, we have asteroids Sappho and Hel just ahead and the Moon at 7 Leo, meaning it’s just passed the ‘Full Moon’ mark.

(Which yes, we know because yesterday’s post was all about the Full Moon!)

We also know that Aquarius is an air sign. So this month is going to be a month where we tend to think in terms of the ideas, concepts, trends, statistics, and likelihoods instead of the facts, evidence, current status and needs of the moment. This Aquarius tendency to postulate instead of consider the reality means we’re going to hear more about income as part of an economy than your landing a job.

What does this mean personally? Though irritating to listen to for many of us, this actually lightens our load because we now get the green light to postulate: what might I do? What could I learn? What kind of benefit should I be able to bring to your company if you give me the chance?

Doors are open now to theoretical discussions. Expect to have them, expect to hear them. And remember - theory gets wacky. Not everything everyone is likely to come out with is going to make sense.


And yet it's always rather revealing - about them, about us, about a world in which such things get said.

Against this, we all will need to put across or demonstrate our willingness to work. Some of us have dedicated track records - and tracks record of dedication. Then there are those who ‘skate by’ or who shuck or jive their way through life. On both sides - the validated and fake, some end up mighty and some end up with a life which is merely flighty.

The dividing line is whether we are found or found out. And whether we are willing to take the time and put in the effort to find ourselves and find out what we are truly capable of doing and being...not merely to or for ourselves, but for others. Maybe even for our world, for people we will never meet.

There are validations for doing big and doing little. There is a necessity to be who we are as individuals and be part of our world - however big or small - around us.

All this is likely to now take another step forward in the realm of getting shaken and sorted out. It may not all come about instantaneously, but it will happen...maybe to a big degree, and maybe as just a chip of one stone on a very large mountain face...but it will begin happening now. You may not recognize anything all that instantly. The changes may not be all that immediate. But they will happen in due time.

How do we know that? Well, that we know because of a

little TNO named Rhadamanthus you might remember reading about a couple of blogs ago (in the Astro-Factors blog for WE0122).

That Rhadamanthus goes retrograde at 20 Libra at 3:41am (UT/+0) means it’s already going into retrograde (reflective) mode as the Sun reaches Aquarius at 10:20am (UT/+0) on January 20th. And given that Rhadamanthus is an emblem of ‘consequence’ (that which now done, cannot be undone) we know that all sorts of things which have been ‘done’ are now becoming clear to us.

But it's not all that simple or something we consciously grapple with until it hits. Any object classed as a TNO refers to events, incidents and realizations we don't normally deal with. So as concerns Rhadamanthus, the question thus becomes not just 'what have you DONE for me/us lately?'...but 'what have you done which shows you know how to do what you do'...

....AND...
 
'whether you should have done what you did. Or still do.

It can even be....'in choosing what to learn, what path to take - or what people to associate with, did you choose correctly?'

Where we haven’t done what in retrospect would seem to be the 'right' thing...or where we haven't dealt with live realistically, perhaps even where we thought only of ourselves and not of those we would/could affect or how our actions might affect them....that's where the Aquarian ‘know the rules, learn the facts – then choose. Then move on!’ comes into ultimate play.

Aquarius is hell on those who don’t deal with realities. While known as a sign of ‘hopes, dreams and wishes,’ what Aquarius really embodies are those ‘if I do xyz, then I can….’ frameworks which require that yes, we DO the ‘xyz’ part first. In other words, you can’t have the party to celebrate the new job until you get the new job. And you can’t get that new job without applying for a job that you have the qualifications/willingness to do.

Yes, this is one of those fixed signs which tests our ability want the result so much that we put ourselves through the hassle of doing. And learning how to do. And honing our skills. And proving our worthiness –first and foremost to ourselves!

And that’s where the ‘fakery’ can come in. Saturn is Aquarius’ first ruler, Uranus the second. So you have to make the Saturn grade before you get to fly to the Uranus stars.

And Rhadamanthus retrograde, that just puts us in a place where we get what that means. Who we have been has gotten us to where we are. Like it or not (which for many of us would be ‘not!’), that’s where we start from now.

Okay. So that’s sort of the ‘usual’ approach to this Sun entering Aquarius thing. But the other part of the astrologer’s-astrological equation would be what happens while the Sun is in Aquarius? 

Yes, I know…you wanted me to do that ‘what it means to my Sun sign thing’ – what astrologers, for better or worse, call “cookbook astrology.” And here’s the deal with why you think that sounds a little funky. It is.

Why? Because what you ask for when you say ‘what does that mean to my Sun sign?’ is ‘what does that mean to – not my life – but to my life force. The Sun is energy. Call it will, call it vitality…it’s not your “life” per se. Yes, it can represent career – but only as a field. Saturn represents the accomplishment. And yes, the Sun can represent intellect – but Mercury is the thinking part: what you do with your intellect.

So though do the cookbook thing once in a while I don’t do it all the time. It bothers me that you would think that's the whole picture - it isn't. So today...? Maybe to honor the quirkiness which is so Aquarian or the Aquarian ‘new conceptualization’ vibe, today we’re going to look at the what else happens thing.

(And yes, you can comment and/or gripe all you want – no problem!)

But really…

...To the point of much of what we have been talking about, not only is the Sun entering Aquarius in the wake of a (duly blogged about) Solar Eclipse about changing times and changing life structures, but the two symbols OF societal, social and personal ‘structural’ growth, enlightenment and learning (Saturn and Jupiter) are both doing a celestial number while the Sun is passing through Aquarius.

On the Jupiter side we have a big red planet – the biggest planet in the whole solar system – moving into Aries. That means a couple of things:

One: Jupiter is currently at 29 Pisces, the last degree of the zodiac. The question thus becomes “what have we learned/what have we yet to learn?” You will hear and see this everywhere you go right now.

Two: In being in the last degree of the zodiac, Jupiter is revealing some pretty big chinks in our armor, holes in our plans and everything else you might go “OH NO!!” about.

Three: Once Jupiter commits to its transit of Aries on the 22nd, a natural whole-sign sextile will be set up between Sun in Aquarius and Jupiter in Aries. There are two basic concepts thus set up – the first being the 3rd sign harmonic set up from the Sun to Jupiter which asks us to choose, learn and to speak up about what isn’t working. This does not favor complaining, though there’s plenty of that likely to be going around! Yet the real point is that of seeing an opportunity in wherever you find or spot a gap, weakness or lack.

Think of life as a marketplace. Those gaps and lacks are exactly where a ‘new product’ success can be achieved.

The other harmonic here is from Jupiter to the Sun – and that’s an eleventh house dynamic…the very essence of Aquarius and Things Aquarian. For those looking to be (more) “successful” in whatever way, this pair of indicators is your ticket to adventure.

However! With that adventure comes some endeavor, courtesy of Saturn – a Saturn which come the 26th will go retrograde. More specifics will be forthcoming on this to be sure, but given that Saturn is going retrograde in Libra, that sets up a Sun-to-Saturn whole-sign 9th harmonic which would be all about (1.) moving ahead with new plans, working through the glitches and challenges which will surely surface along the way, and (2.) expanding one’s knowledge base and point of view.

One of the big tests during this next little while is going to be theory against fact – optimism against proven results. And guess which one is going to look foolish and which one is going to win?

Uh-huh….credibility now goes to the doers and provers, not the pie-in-the-sky believers and postulators. A lot of people are going to get called out on a lot of stuff this month. A lot of plans will fall through, a lot of vows will be shown up to be merely empty promises.

It is our job to learn from mistakes and move on. Wasting one’s time being furious is just that – a waste of time. And who are we really mad at? Once Saturn is in retrograde, the suggestion is that we’re really mad at ourselves for not having been more careful, more realistic, more savvy, more discerning.

Still, those who sit and fume stand to waste a relatively short (five month) window of bonafide opportunity.

The other side of this Saturn/Sun relationship is from Saturn to the Sun, a fifth sign harmonic which with Saturn in retrograde indicates a need to polish our skills and bone up on whatever ‘tools’ we need to move ahead.

As the Sun moves along though Aquarius, the tone of day-to-day life will change as the Moon, Mercury and Venus change signs. But nothing compares to the two celestial signposts we call Jupiter and Saturn.

No matter what Sun, Moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Ascendant, Nadir…or anything else you have in your chart, these concepts will hold. So ask yourself – what do YOU want to do with this month ahead?

After all, in the end, yours is the only answer which in your life, really counts...

 ...and so drops the rock into the pond.

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Sabine direct

 Airglow: the refraction of city lights along with natural  atmospheric incandescent properties as photographed by the Space Shuttle  photo credit: NASA

It’s an interesting celestial ‘comment’ for asteroid Sabine to go direct the day after a Solar Eclipse. And yes, that's what's happening: Sabine goes direct on January 5th at 11:47am (UT/+0).

The degree of Sabine’s station is 12 Taurus...which those who are astrologically inclined will probably recognize as being in very close to perfect trine to the eclipse Sabine's station/direct is following so closely.

Could that suggest that this station is ‘part of’ the eclipse process?

Maybe. But being in a 5th harmonic (departing trine) to the eclipse, whether or not it's 'part of' the eclipse process, it's certainly sensible to think of this as a 5th harmonic "commentary" on the Solar Eclipse.

And what's a 5th harmonic, you ask? The basic concept of all astrological 5th harmonics involves what I want to do. Or sometimes...how I hope/want things to be.

Into this comes Sabine. And what is Sabine, you ask? Taking its name from a nasty bit of invading, pillaging and raping of 'the Sabine women,' Sabine the asteroid is about being taken or held captive...or the desire to hold others or something captive.

Obviously this combination describes 'will' and 'willfulness,' wherever you go with it. And it’s that kind of ‘willful’ quality which marks the great pluses and minuses of all things 5th harmonic. On one hand, it is the artist's strength of will which brings great works into being. Anything we 'make' - be that a work of art or a child or an assertion - bear with it a form of 5th harmonic.

But let's be real. Whenever we step out there, there's a risk. If you choose to compete, you may win. If you demonstrate your talents, you may win an Oscar. But it's also just as possible that not everybody is going to cheer.

All by itself, Sabine going direct at 12 Taurus is a ‘being held captive by our feelings of self worth.’ Or lack thereof, yes. So whether we feel okay about ourselves now is core – and that which is supposed to be evoked so that we deal with whatever our strengths and weaknesses really are. 

That this is Taurus means it’s vitally and totally about us at a very tangible level. That 12 Taurus is a degree between 10 and 19 (a ‘2nd decanate’ degree) adds a whole emotional vibe to the situation. So emotions are stirred now.

The lore on Taurus tosses in an issue with reticence (in particular, liking someone else to make decisions) against which we work with/within ourselves about our ability to be positive or negative as a productive part of the process. Optimism is not a mandate; recognition of realities is the ticket.

An additional comment from the Sabian Symbol for 12 Taurus tosses in a comment on a ‘heavy load’ which amounts to be ‘indebted’ which, considering this is when a lot of folks will be balancing the books after the year-end holidays is a sobering thought.

And let’s not forget that this would be a moment when governments will be getting to work on Matters Economic local, national and international.

What is cited here is the need to shoulder the load and to move on with an eye on societal productivity. Yet with Medusa (fearful knowledge) just ahead at 13 Taurus, the thing in our face is some need to learn anew or learn something new or some sort of recognition about how had no idea what we were doing when we committed ourselves to something. We are disquieted by the prospect of merely just knowing the truth.

 The Rape of the Sabine Women

by Peter Paul Rubens (17th century)

But that’s the point. The fear is ours, the fear is also ours and the recognition or knowing remains the truth there to know whether we like it or not.

Because Sabine is an asteroid, the difficulty It’s not the ‘thing’ per se, it’s us. It’s that honesty clause, that realism thing. But what it isn’t…it isn’t any sort of ‘doom.’ It’s uncomfortable – maybe. But if we can get past the discomfort, beyond that lies a more ‘productive’ time.

Still…talk about another shoe dropping after the eclipse! And with that eclipse having delivered unto each of us a serious dose of clear understanding that things can't go on as they have...do you now feel like a captive? Do you feel like life is trying to rape you and make you captive? Are you thinking to try to subdue something in life to your will?

This all sounds very dramatic and variably dangerous. But remember, these terms are mythic. With Sabine going direct, this is not an 'internal' discussion (read: argument, debate...) which you are having with yourself since last September 15th or 16th, depending on where you live.

No, now the struggle is external. And that may mean you're standing up against Sabine - you are saying 'no more will I be captive!'

Or you may be asserting the necessity to 'take' something captive. Maybe run-away expenditures? Being someone who lives in California, I listened to Governor Brown being sworn in amidst discussions of 'hard budget cuts' a-coming (allegedly a-coming, I should say). And when those cuts show up, everyone in California is going to have to 'share the pain.' Putting aside whether 'everyone' will have to share that pain is an actual truth of those proposals, the concept is very Sabine. And thus to hear such a 'news flash' out of California's state capital (Sacramento) as Sabine came into its station was very apt indeed.

And yes, when (if?) such cuts get proposed, some (no doubt) will scream that some important program is being 'raped.' Hello, Sabine?

When you think metaphysics - in particular in using astrology, think not literally...think figuratively! Sabine is all about the pain of struggle, the pain of asserting one's rights and what you think of as right. And that, considering this station/direct happens just a day after the Solar Eclipse at 13 Capricorn...that may be the dotted line those who are dotted line hunters may be looking for.

If you are someone whose life is in transition, you know it by now. If you realize that some part of how you have been living cannot go on the way it has been...you know it. That part of your life is getting eclipsed.

And now - as Sabine goes direct, what needs doing, what has to be done and resisted is becoming plain. It's not a discussion in your head any more...or in your kitchen. It's something which now requires action. Something which is going on in your reality or your world.

What is happening...the question of what is being 'eclipsed' is affecting what you can and cannot do. What you want and yearn to do. Or have. Or be.

And thus maybe...just maybe Sabine is also about the degree of discomfort it takes to make us stand up, take on, prioritize, and get to doing what needs to be done.