Pluto Direct

A Hubble Telescope photograph of WR124 (in nebula M1 67) spewing clumps of hot gas outwards from its star core at some 100,000 mph

(photo credit: Hubble Space Telescope, NASA-JPL, March 1997)

Pluto is going direct on September 20th at 3:27 in the afternoon, UT/+0 time. As noted several posts ago, it will be going direct at the exact degree of Facies – a fixed star (nebula, actually) which has a pretty problematic reputation with astrologers.

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Pluto/Facies: Moving On

Considering how Pluto’s keywords are ‘create, deny, destroy’ we can probably all expect a little of this energy to be circulating through our lives from the simple ‘I don’t want to talk about that’ to the full scale war complete with the horrors of death and destruction.

But there’s a reason why Pluto is associated with the image of the Phoenix. Whether the destruction is brought about by fire, flame or societal…even personal vulnerability or failings, that which is affected by Pluto opens the door to something new which in time will ‘rise from the ashes.’

That Pluto is making its ‘turn’ in conjunction not just with Facies but with Industria tells us the most likely place for challenges to arise…or where we’re likely to have our ‘ship come in’ (get results) is in any area of work or personal effort. This station is thus (more or less) either about what’s we’re working to build, or some structure which is in our life which is preventing us from building what we need to build or building anew.

Not that we’re likely to be all jingles about the thing, no matter what it is. People who are already in the process of ‘transforming’ their lives are going to find it’s a heavy time for details and effort. As all of us do when confronted by such a moment, it’s going to feel like the more we do, the more there is to do!

That would very naturally bring out the Facies ‘many parts, much to do’ and feeling very put-upon (i.e., like a victim). And there’s of course that fact that when we’re feeling all bogged down and overwhelmed how anyone breezing by seems callous, heartless and worthy of a big sign on their back which reads ‘villain.’

A lot of what goes on now is going to be about perspective. With Pluto in opposition to Black Moon Lilith (Lilith/Child conjunct conjunct Sirius) there are going to be a lot of people leaving the physical nest (however old they are!) and a lot of people leaving the emotional nest.

We just know it’s time to be something more real in our own minds. There comes a point when the acquiescing to others becomes less comforting and comfortable and more of a burden on that Self we know we are and which we really want to become.

This would be one of those times.

For those who don’t have anything in particular in the pot or on some back burner, this is likely to be a particularly trying passage as they see change going on all around them. Just to pick one popular harmonic to these placements, the third harmonic (representing the thought and mental attitude) to Pluto-Facies’ position would be Piscean – which is why those who achieve things in the worldly and Capricorn sense (not to mention those with important Capricorn placements) think in universal terms. Where Aquarius is ‘mass movement’ and social interaction, Pisces is the universality of emotion – and let’s face it, we all live in our emotions as human beings. Even those of us who try to avoid our emotions do so because they don’t feel comfortable to us!

The third harmonic to Cancer, on the other hand, is Virgo…telling us why those who are opposing change will now couch everything in terms of whether something is ‘pragmatic’ or ‘workable’ or even ‘healthy’ for us to do.

It’s an interesting oppositional dynamic – the common chord and the level at which humans ‘live’ (their emotional sense of Self) being the key to knowing how to achieve anything versus the localized ‘we need to deal with this right here, right now.’

And that’s pretty much the issue – universality versus localized visions on how life should be structured and what we need to do to make our lives more viable, workable, safe and satisfying at the same time.

Barring the idea that your home is being flooded at the moment (in which case, why are you reading astrological posts on the internet?) or there’s some real-time calamity going on, this gets down to one very simple idea: the safety and functionality of our personal world is predicated on the greater world in which we live.

Now, I know as I say that how there are people who think that if they earn enough money or gain enough power they won’t have to deal with anything.

That might work except for things like famine, earthquakes, world economies, plagues and all that stuff.

Oh yes, that.

Yes, that. We are all subject to the world around us, which is why the statement ‘I don’t care about anyone/anything but my own (insert term)’ tends to not just sound like folly but BE folly.

...Which rather gets back to some of what I was noting here at Ye Olde Bloggery last week when talking about Pluto-Facies (see link above). 

It’s at times like this that such folly reveals itself as follow. For all the resisters and desist-ers, for the anti-change nay-sayers and control freaks of this life, if your chart answers to 8 Capricorn, you’re in for a bit of a steam-roller-ing. Life is trying to unwrinkle your contracted soul – which to you may feel like getting hit with a hot iron.

Which yes, would be two sides of the same experience. But what’s your choice? We cannot retreat from life…not that I don’t know a few people who give that their very best shot. (No, it doesn’t work.)

Thinking back to those harmonics, the universal considerations which go with the implied Capricorn-Pisces connective are certainly heightened by the fact that we are talking not “just” Pluto, but Pluto-Facies. Issues of discomfort, feelings of haplessness and being helpless to do things the way you might want to do them are probably to be expected, at the very least.

Applying this to the idea that we give celestial objects a two-days-before, two-days-after ‘station allowance’ window, with the Moon entering Pisces on September 17th that Moon – representing feelings and values and our susceptibility to them and everything which provokes emotionality – ‘triggers’ the third Pluto-in-Capricorn harmonic on September 18th at about four-twenty-something in the morning (UT/+0) time.

Of course there are twelve ‘natural’ harmonics to any placement (there being twelve zodiac signs). So why care so much about the third?

Part one: because that represents our mentality. The station is the station is the station…and the sign its in is the sign of ‘awareness’ – the first harmonic derivative. But that all-important moment of thinking through things and realizing we need to deal with them and cope with them? That’s the third harmonic.

Besides, Chiron is sitting at 10 Pisces. So this Pluto station atop Facies is going to be ‘setting off’ our Chiron-in-Pisces “no, I don’t want to have to deal with that” feelings…which the Moon is going to trigger early on the 18th (or late on the 17th if you’re in the western Americas). Chiron in Pisces is a whole sea of processes which challenge us to explore our own emotional makeup and to deal with whatever incongruities exist between our vision of reality and our vision of the ideal. Or life in real time versus the life in our head. Or the fact versus the thing we’d like to think is the fact…or how we’d like to feel as opposed to what our real feelings are about anything.

Or yes, anyone.

Moreover, as the Moon set’s off this ‘Piscean thought-wave,’ as it reaches 8 Pisces (the perfected sextile to Pluto at 8 Capricorn) this creates another Grand Sextile…

In case you're wondering, I don't color the signs in red and blue because

I'm an American, but rather to show the alternation between Yin and Yang

signs as we move around the zodiac.

 

…which but an hour later, as the Moon moves forward into 9 Pisces is re-struck by Venus moving into 8 Scorpio.

Scorpio is the 11th harmonic to Capricorn, which brings up the concept of negotiating our way through life and negotiating of/in relationships of all kinds in our life. The Sabian Symbol for 8 Scorpio is an apt one: A DENTIST AT WORK, which astrologer Dane Rudhyar very astutely summarizes as ‘overcoming the negative results of social prejudices and ego-cravings.’ Venus so often manifests as the ‘what we want’ in life and our Venusian challenges are to realize that what we get out of anything depends on what we are going into it and what we do as part of it…which in the wonderful (and as I almost typed that, ‘wound-erful’) world of Scorpio tells us that the basis of relationship with someone – be they our platonic friend, our business partner or employer or our most luscious and beloved squeeze – that relationship doesn’t happen ‘by magic.’ It has to be negotiated. Too often in life we get ourselves in trouble by ‘assuming’ we know what somebody is thinking. Or what they prefer.

Scorpio is all about showing that up as an error on our part.

So often we think we can just ‘go for the standard role’ in a situation or relationship, completely forgetting how unique we are and how unique everybody else is, too.

Scorpio will show up those miscalculations as well.

There’s a longstanding myth which people evidently want desperately to believe that relationships “shouldn’t need work.”

The ‘I don’t have to work at it’ (or me, or my relationship) doesn’t work either.

Sooner or later our not negotiating our relationships backfires. What passion may sustain starting out falls through thin Scorpio ice (which the passion has heatedly melted through, one suspects). Or we find out that beneath the shiny exoskeleton of that Scorpio situation lies something rotten.

You know…which then the dentist has to work on – hence the symbol.

All of this is part of the process of moving forward towards the 11 Scorpio Solar Eclipse which will occur on November 3rd. The watery grand trine from Venus in Scorpio to (Moon) Chiron in Pisces to Black Moon Lilith in Cancer (which is opposing Pluto) is a contradictory energy, one pole of which wants to dig in and forget changing anything and the other pole of which realizes changes are desperately needed even if we don’t know (consciously) how to make them.

The Chirotic answer is to allow ourselves to feel our feelings and whatever reluctance or fear or haplessness goes along with them while walking forward through our veil. Chiron always asks that we do something we don’t know how to do and through doing it, transcend who we have been in realizing we can be so much more. As it’s doing that, Venus is sextiling Pluto’s station from Scorpio, guaranteeing that we can change our place in the world and what we conceive of as our place in the world if we will only release our death grip on our current status quo.

This is one of those ‘give a little, get a lot,’ moments.

However, as I say that, I also fully believe that giving a little now means a huge personal evolution – a life transformation – yet to come.

What we need to do may not be popular. No, not even with us. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be done. Plus there is that old metaphysical lesson about energy and energetics. Energy is never lost. It changes form, it can be shifted from one place to another (to some degree) rather as you can do with water in a water balloon. But in the end, the energy we fail to use or that we refuse to utilize becomes energy which life simply brings to us in the form of something which we then have to respond to and which we have no input on.

And that’s a whole other – and more universal – conceptualization of the Facies ‘victim-perpetrator’ concept. We now have a chance to shape our world and life moving forward. If we fail to take that on or follow through and make best efforts (complete with a measure of letting go and clearing/cleaning out) could it be that we’re perpetrating some sort of ‘victimization’ of our greater potential or ability to grow with life…or in our life?

Perhaps.

As always with any such station, those who have major placements (planets, dwarf planets, nodes or chart angles) within 5 degrees of the conjunction, opposition point or squares will experience the greatest focal…or in the case of squares, challenge from these next few days at least. So that would mean anyone with any important placement between 3 and 13 degrees of Capricorn (the conjunction), Cancer (the opposition), Libra and/or Aries (the squares) are going to be most affected now.

Let’s also not forget that such stations also work in the charts of nations, companies and relationships as well.

One other thing worth noting here…on the date of Pluto’s actual station (September 20th) the Moon will be in Aries.

The Grand Sextile is still there, yes. But with Venus now at 10 Scorpio and the Moon exactly conjunct Uranus, not only are we likely to feel whatever energy is around being ‘brought home’ to us, but despite our tendency to react in very personal terms (which is natural and very Aries), those two green lines forming a “V” shape… which in astrological terms actually form the “Y” of a Yod are telling us that our answers lie not in embodying the Uranus/Moon 11 Aries tendency to over-react, exaggerate (in reality or in our mind) or get all about ‘that other person’ but instead to embrace the ‘other perspective’ which is shown through 11 Libra, a degree which asks that we think things through and work through the issue or situation at a manageable rate.

In other words, can the explosions and go for a step-by-step, more managed and interactive, even negotiated (there’s that word again!) solution to the situation. The Sabian Symbol for 11 Libra is one I’ve always liked: MINERS ARE SUFACING FROM A DEEP COAL MINE which is all about ‘digging deep’ into ourselves in how we go about being who we are in the world…which amounts to the ‘cause’ which garners the ‘effect’ from others and from life.

The implication here is that this moment and this station really are about who we are – but in the externalized sense: what we are in the world determines who we get to be in our own life. And thus this Yod is an opportunity… a trying one maybe, but an opportunity nonetheless.

Can we learn from our experiences of others and from life itself what we have the potential to become? Some changes probably need making, yes. But that would be the theme of this moment…and this season as a whole.

With all that said, I know I have left one question unanswered until now: how do we know a good Pluto thing from a "bad" Pluto thing? Be it a relationship or a hobby or a choice of job/career or anything else, the underlying issue is how compelled you feel to do that.

Pluto compulsions tend to be seriously emotion-driven. We crave this, we want to be with that person, we feel 'less than' or lessened by being involved in or not being involved in something.

In a nutshell, that statement pretty much explains Pluto's role as the lure and allure of the Scorpio outcome - and thus the reason why when we go to make our Mars choice whether to initiate or not to initiate, the underlying issue is how conscious we are of who we are and why we're doing/not doing whatever it at stake...or how much of that urgent sort of "competitive" feeling is driving us to make some given decision....the 'to do, or not to do' which in turn gets us into a 'to do' or not.

That "competition" is not with others: it's with our sense of Self. We're trying to win our own self-esteem and thus grow our own feelings of satisfaction...you know, all those things which are endemically related to Taurus, Scorpio's polarity sign. Taurus is the personal end of the Taurus/Scorpio polarity and Scorpio is the interactive end - the where we go to try and get what we think will fulfill us.

Whatever the good or bad is in this formula, that is shown by the placement of our natal Pluto and the placement of our Mars...and the placement of Scorpio - and whatever objects/planets we have positioned in Scorpio. Learning how those things work, learning why they tend to manifest in our lives as they do - those are our Plutonic lessons.


There's a lot more to be said about Scorpio (and thus Pluto and its lessons) during these next weeks ahead, seeing as we are not even half-way through the lead-in to the Solar Eclipse which will occur at 11 Scorpio come November. Those places where we tend to be annoyed with others are like as not where the eclipse energy is playing out.

Likewise are those places where we have 'created' something we think is going to 'transform' our lives and 'fix' our sense of self-esteem or security. Anything you have gotten involved in (or are getting involved in) which is all about 'fixing' something in your life through some sort of emotional experience (as opposed to an intellectual experience) is likely to be driven by Pluto.

That's one of the truly odd things about Scorpio. This sign of passion and desire is best handled and wrangled through all things where we are able to be dispassionate. Thus anyone with a really problematic Scorpio or Pluto natal issue (and you surely know who you are!) only solves that issue by...

a.) getting involved in something which allows them to understand the underlying vulnerability...

b.) finding something intellectual and growth oriented to be 'invested in' which will "drain off" some of the Pluto energy to the point where Pluto energetics are not going to be able to run your life...

c.) recognizing compulsive choices when they are made and recognizing that "that choice" is a bad one because it's not about how 'delicious' the 'thing' is but more about life wanting us to trigger our underlying issues so we can maybe (this time) get real about our denied (avoided) emotional/self-worth issues.

Slow growth - enduring growth - is Saturnine. Compulsive growth which tends to end up be "cancerous" on the emotional level (or at any level which 'hits' us in our emotionality) is Plutonic.

And then there's....

d.) finding a way that you can approach those obsessive energetics under the guidance of someone who you trust enough to govern your operation in said realm.

This last choice ("d.") is particularly important for anyone with a Moon in Scorpio or Taurus...OR with a Pluto in Scorpio (Gen Y - this is you!)

And yes, I say this knowing full well that any one of these placements will be part and parcel of a chart of a person who will tend to be highly resistant to that very suggestion even if (deep inside) they know they have issues.

You know, Pluto issues. We all have some Pluto "stuff" to deal with...it's just whether we can manage to dig our way out of it without creating a cave-in.

Going to get my shovel now…
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Vesta in Virgo/Saturn at the North Node

Almodo Ora (Computergrafika) by Benedek Jeno

Asteroid Vesta is about to enter Virgo. It will do so tomorrow (as posts go) on September 10th and 5:06 in the morning UT/+0 time…which would be just about when Saturn enters 8 Scorpio, the degree the lunar North Node is currently transiting.

8 Scorpio is a degree which has a reputation for creating problems when passion overwhelms intelligence. It’s one of those vibrations under which we can outsmart ourselves or think we can ‘get away’ with something which we find we can’t get away with. Life has a way of finding our vulnerabilities and blind spots under 8 Scorpio influences, maybe so that we’ll remember we’re human after all.

Saturn, of course, is the symbol of time, responsibility, repercussions and results. With anything Saturn we get what we earn and that suggests that this is a prime (or primal) moment to be minding our p’s and q’s. After all, the lunar nodes are always about relationships and what all goes into relating…or comes out of it. So it may well not be the moment to be taking on risks – especially those which could ‘cost’ you time. Or which would require you to do/deal with something you rather not be saddled with.

One would guess this is a good moment to know our limits…and to heed those limits no matter what.

Saturn of course is actually pretty good in that regard: depending on whether you work well with the ‘I need to do this in order to achieve my principal goals or not, Saturn could here act as the ‘monitoring’ energy which keeps you on track…or the devil-may-care energetic which gets you into a mess which then you have to take care of.

That all depends on you. And, of course, your natal Saturn and the condition of Scorpio in your chart. (And anything which is in Scorpio, of course.)

The ‘temptation’ factor here is (not shockingly) Plutonic. Scorpio is always about a weighing of factors – the ‘in’ door of choosing to do, or not to do (Mars), and the Pluto ‘out’ door which either transforms our life in a good way or becomes a terrible headache (or worse) as a result of our not having chosen well.

Or – as seems pertinent here – our failing to choose based on the facts, opting rather to get carried away by some passion.

You know passion, right? Passions can get the best of any of us. And the cost for passion can be…well, a downright passionately painful one.

On the other hand, there is that allure, that promise of delight which goes with all things Scorpio. The glitter of romance, the Siren call of carnal pleasure, the longing for personal power – all that.

Just do yourself a favor here: think before you do – and once you think, think again. Scorpio is always about testing our values, and 8 Scorpio is one of those degrees which is ‘smarter than we are,’ and not always in a fun way.

This Saturn/North Node exactitude of conjunction will be in effect from September 10th through September 20th. As distinct from that, Saturn has been within a five degree orb of the Lunar Nodes since August 15th - and it will remain in orb to the Nodes until October 27th. So if the issue of relationships and how you relate to others (or how they relate to you) has already come to the fore, that makes sense - and it will continue to make sense. As distinct from that however, this conjunction at 8 Scorpio is ONLY in effect from September 10th through September 20th.

Think of it as the difference between a general issue regarding relationships (and how you relate to that or your success with relationships or your need to deal with how and who you relate to - and why that would be)...and a very specific, detailed scenario having to do with a moment when some facet of relating...which may have to do with a particular relationship or may pertain to how you go about having relationships as a whole...comes into focus.

Got it?

Vesta compared to other asteroids

(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

Speaking of possible costs, there’s also Vesta to contend with. Vesta asks that we protect ourselves, lest the cost of not protecting our right to be our Self go beyond what we’re prepared (or able) to pay. Vesta is an interesting symbol in that it’s all about keeping our promises…which suggests the first promise we have to make (and then keep) is a promise to our Self to be who we are and to live our life in such a manner that we don’t…um…screw things up too badly.

(Yes, this is a g-rated blog. When I set it up, I promised Blogger on that score, so I’m sticking to my promise - which is very Vesta of me.)

Considering that Royal Star Regulus is sitting at 0 Virgo, we are all called upon to take responsibility for what we do/don’t do in particular at this moment – and by implication for the full run of Vesta’s move through Virgo, a passage which will last until November 16th, after the eclipse and just after Neptune goes direct.

If you’re not familiar with Regulus, here’s a link to the ‘master post’ on the subject here at astroPPM:

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The Royal Stars of Persia (Part Two): Regulus

Though there’s all sorts of nifty nuance connected with this star, the basic premise of all Royal Stars is that they promise success IF (and only if) you don’t fall prey to a particular human habit. With Regulus, that ‘habit’ is revenge – or vengeance, if you prefer. So as Vesta enters Virgo, particularly in this first little while (which this astrologer would think would run at least through Pluto’s September 18-22nd station window)…we are being told that we really truly absolutely kind of have to own our personal choices.

And that means we need to have made some – or be making some.

Given that Pallas is at 2 Virgo and in opposition to Neptune (read: Neptune/Fomalhaut) in Pisces, we can expect some wiffling and some soft focus thinking about now…which is not exactly what this sort of transit really calls for.

So let’s put it this way…if you absolutely, positively HAVE to fudge or break some sort of tryst with your normal boundaries for Self, let it be in some area which has minimal risk and minimal long-term cost.

And beware of anybody doing the ‘I’m so innocent act.’ Chances are they aren’t. They may be innocent but..."so innocent"? Maybe not.

I know I sound a bit like a broken record on this subject, but there’s also the fact that this Vesta-Virgo ingress, which at some level is about working to be the person you will respect yourself for being in the long run (i.e., the person you really are on the inside, regardless of expectations and desires – your own or those of others)…is happening under the auspices of the ‘breaking down’ period heading towards November’s Solar Eclipse at 11 Scorpio. Being that this ingress will raise something of a 3/11 harmonic (it being three signs from Virgo to Scorpio and an eleven sign count from Scorpio to Virgo)…the viability of how we relate to others and what we think relating is about in the fullness of our presence in this world…that’s a natural thing to be talking about.

Or even doing something about, should you need to clean up your act! Let’s face it – Virgo is always about how clean our act is, and when we’re discussing astrology, though the temptation is to project it and think of astrology in terms of what ‘they’ are going to do or be to us, the reality is that the cause/effect principle rules. So if YOUR Virgo whatever needs work, this is a time to consider what that means and the (Vesta) cost of whatever your promises are in regards to those concepts.

Third harmonic: the thought. Virgo's 3rd harmonic being Scorpio speaks to the need to purify or to have control of what's going on, lest it not function well. This combination tends to eliminate rather than add on.

Eleventh harmonic: questions of acceptance and acceptability which generates a sense of satisfaction. With Virgo being Scorpio's 11th harmonic, the thing which works is easiest when it's not scary...but if it's not genuinely who you are, and about who you are at your core, it will ultimately undermine you, feel "toxic" or be a burden to your life.

The challenge here is really about an inner-outer perspective. In other words, there’s the ‘what’ or ‘who’ we each want to be, and the what we think others will like, appreciate or (to some of us) even ‘let’ us be or become.

Reconciling who we really are – on the inside – with what others think of us as, or want to think of us as is a big, big step in our lives. We all have someplace in our world or life where we don’t really ‘feel’ the “popular” thing. Or where we really don’t want to go with what everybody else does. Many of us have faced that moment of dealing with the truth of what our parents have hoped for us and who we really are. My father, for instance, was dead set against my being a writer and someone who thought metaphysics is for bubble heads.

So here I am, a full-fledged professional astrologer about to release a four-volume epic fantasy.

My father and I had a testy sort of relationship, no question. But before he passed, he certainly knew who I had become. Production finance person… astrologer… writer… he saw it happen and wasn’t enthralled that I hadn’t relegated myself to cooking, cleaning and saying ‘yes, dear’ to my hubby (ask the guys I know best how often I say ‘yes, dear’ in a dutiful tone and you’ll hear laughter)… but when he saw that I was good at what I did and was doing the thing which fit my psyche, he realized that there’s a difference between raising a child for whom you have hopes and seeing the adult you raised from a child become their own person.

My dad had many (many) flaws. He was a Hollywood tyrant par excellent (there are still people in LA who don’t want to talk to me because of who my father is) and before that he helped build a paperback book empire. Here’s a little post I wrote about him:

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Saul David: My Father the Producer

That he was able to get past his own “rules” for me and finally (!!!) agree that so long as I worked to be the best I could be at my chosen thing is one of my dad’s greatest personal accomplishments. (Yes, he was that stubborn!) And at some level, that embodies this Vesta/Virgo ingress, particularly seeing as it is conjunct the ‘dispassionate perspective’ symbol we call Pallas and in opposition to Neptune/Fomalhaut in Pisces, a combination which at its best is all about letting go of the dream as a dream and getting used to a reality which may be just FINE…it’s just not the dream you’ve been holding onto, maybe for a long, long time.

One other little tidbit… As Vesta is entering Virgo, the Moon is moving through Scorpio. The Moon enters Scorpio on September 9th at 1:45 in the morning and exits Scorpio on the 11th at 6:37 in the morning (both times UT/+0). In fact, as Vesta moves into Virgo, the Moon is just crossing over 15 Scorpio – one of the zodiacal cross-quarter points.

This reiterates…or if you prefer…reinforces the idea of choices begetting consequences at every level and whether what you’re dealing with now is going to help you get where you want to go in life…or whether (Saturn/North Node) it could just screw you up royally.

(No offense to Royal Stars intended with that “royally,” of course.)

Sometimes something must be given up so that something else can be earned. Life isn’t always the way we want it to be or as we were ‘taught’ it would be, or as we have imagined it to be. Life is just life. And this is one of those moments when life is not a ‘game’…it’s a reality which we see, we feel, we sense and which we have the opportunity to learn so much from that it’s absolutely breathtaking.

So take a deep breath, and then remember who you are. Peel back the trappings and assumptions and think of what can be gained by accepting that the fantasy illusion is inspiring, but a satisfying reality, the life we really want is not about what things look like…they’re about the honesty and honest quality with which we go about existing. 
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Niobe’s Moment, Photographica’s Image, and a bit on the changing of the Ages

 The children of Niobe being slain by Apollo

and Diana by Pierre-Charles Jombert

Niobe goes retrograde at 10:18 (UT/+0) on March 14th at 9 Scorpio, a degree known to test and elicit basic emotional weakness.

If pride goeth before the fall as the myth of Niobe tells us, what we are being confronted with is more than mere pride in self, but rather a moment in which we are brought to question why we are proud and what pride means. 

There’s no question that when we do something well we earn certain rewards. We work, we get a paycheck. We clean the bathroom, we have a nice place in which to take our next shower. We tend to call this ‘pride’ but these sorts of feelings would seem to have more in common with ‘satisfaction’ than pride.

It’s one thing to be pleased that you’ve lived up to your word. That you’ve done what you set out to do. It’s another to strut or primp, to require that others acknowledge or compliment you beyond the simple transaction of work-for-pay already mentioned.

The kind of pride which Niobe represents in the pride which is boastful, the pride which in needing to say ‘I’m better than anybody’ is really a reflection of insecurity and self-worth issues. After all, if you’re truly happy with yourself, who needs to brag?

In going retrograde at 9 Scorpio, this would be a time when we question why we value things as we do. What needs are really driving us? Certainly coming on the heels of Uranus entering Aries, this would be a time to be discovering things about ourselves.

In fact, that’s the up side of Uranus/Aries! Those who will not change, who will not deal with who they are honestly, who simply act out of entitlement will find life turning the tables on them. It may not be instant, but it will happen. Uranus in Aries is the essence of change or be changed…and the Aries side says while self consciousness (vanity), self proclamation (ego) and entitlement (insecurity turned inside out) is easy, so is courage. So is discovering better ways and the truth of our capacity, our ability, our intelligence.

Bottom line, if you’re going to toot your own horn now – you’d better either be a virtuoso tooter or willing to admit you’re working on it!

But getting back to Niobe…given this turn to retrograde at 9 Scorpio this would be a classic time to have a moment of embarrassment. Or when you may look up and have one of those twinges of would’a, should’a, could’a….but (oy!) didn’t!

Do you need to beat yourself up? No. Do you need to admit whatever ‘it’ is? At least to yourself – absolutely!

And to others…? Well, maybe that too. With TNO Deucalion just ahead (at 10 Scorpio) and Kleopatra just behind at 8 Scorpio while you may be able to avoid the ‘moral cost’ (Deucalion) you may do yourself a huge giant cotton candy favor by being knowingly gracious in approaching others (or whoever) being openly ‘knowing’ (Kleopatra) of the whole of the situation…your side, their side, what has gone down, what maybe should have happened…

 A statue of Cleopatra (the astrological Kleopatra)

housed at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum

photo credit: E. Michael Smith (2007)

Let us not forget here that all this happens as we are still under the station influence of Hidalgo, which went retrograde on the 12th at 4:23 in the afternoon (UT/+0). That station extending at least until 4:23 in the afternoon on the 14th, the whole idea of nobility and nobless oblige is certainly underscored…as would also be the temptation to be proud. Or to become aware of the cost of pride, be recognize someone else setting themselves up to pay a heavy price because of their pride…there are so many ways to conjugate this idea!

But the point is we have overlapping influences. And while both are about objects going into retrograde, telling us we should reconsider how we come to be in the spots we are in life feeling the way we feel…the truth is, such stations often call out the best and worst in every one of us. And yes, that’s why we might see or recognize these less-than-lovable qualities in someone else – because it’s so pronounced at this time.

Seeing such things in ourselves? Well, that’s probably not as easy. Nobody likes to see themselves in anything but a sterling, rose-scented light. It horrifies many to realize it, but not one of the great monsters of human history has gotten up in the morning thinking about how to be a more terrible person.

If you’ve listened to the news of late - you may be listening to politics, sports, human interest, entertainment…and the process of life is at this moment shaking things up, separating the ‘wheat from the chaff’ as it were. There are literally thousands of stories of the banal-looking person next door who turns out to be a truly terrible – or wonderful person.

This wanting to think well of everyone is a very Piscean Age image. The two fish headed in different directions tied by the (singular) golden cord which is the sign of Pisces among other things describes an age where things tended to be good or bad, pro or con, dominant or submissive – a plus or minus, positive or negative.

In reality, a lot of things are sometimes one thing and sometimes another. If you’re a seven year old and you’re sitting at home studying history at the kitchen table, that’s good. If you’re a seven year old and you’re on a rollercoaster at Disneyland studying history, you’re probably a bit odd (not to mention nauseated. Or maybe that’s just me…).

Some would say this one/other thing duality which is Pisces is because the sign has two rulers: Jupiter and Neptune. So would Aquarius be any different?

Answer: yes. Aquarius is very different when compared to Pisces – just as Pisces is very different when compared to Aquarius. Even if we look at the pictographs or glyphs commonly used for each sign they describe two very different scenarios.

In Pisces, we have two fish going in opposite directions.

In Aquarius – ruled first by Saturn and then by Uranus – we have layers of water.

 

It’s really a great analogy for what the sign is about; Aquarius asks that we build towards success and earn acceptance not just in this world, but in our own life. You know, the idea of being able to ‘live with yourself’ and all that.

We’re all being tested in that regard. If we have been fine with ourselves, wrenches are probably being tossed in our real or mental works, challenging either our personal status quo (who we are) or life in the world around us, challenging us to grow or adapt.

And the point? (Yes, there is one.) The point is that Aquarius is not about good or bad or even ‘shades of gray’ so much as it’s about reality and realism. The reality is that a bee sting can really ouch and a scorpion sting might be able to kill you. But the reality of that toxin is that it holds medical promise. Someday your life could be saved by a medication derived from scorpion venom.

Is it good? Is it bad? Or is it all in how you use it? That’s one bit thing Aquarius – as an Age – asks us to consider.

But at the moment? Hey, things are primal! That they are, that things are hitting us where we live (as the saying goes) is indicated by Typhon (basic instincts) retrograding into Virgo, the sign which asks can it work? will it work? how to do it so that everything works out well? 

That question may be physical or about our physicality (health). It may be about schedules, jobs, getting food into the house – all those basic how can I make life work? sort of questions. It can be what you should do for others or what you need to do with (or for) others in order to ‘earn’ a place ‘in line’ when it comes time to divvy up opportunities in days, weeks or months yet to come.

The myth of Typhon being about a primal Titan (corresponding to mountains, oceans, rainfall) and that Typhon retrogrades back into Virgo on March 14th at 3:05pm (UT/+0) after having rolled over giant Black Hole M87 tells us we are confronting basic considerations as a result of our concept of ‘what’s going on’ having changed.

And considering Typhon is a TNO, this suggests there’s an actual ‘event’ triggering your thinking.

Plus, all of this is happening not just as Niobe is going retrograde but as we come into the two-day ‘station allowance’ before Photographica goes direct. And that’s an interesting combination. After all, for those who are suffering from a terminal case of pride what often gets them biggest and mostest? Their image.

And Photographica is the astrological concept of ‘image.’ It can be literal – “what do I look like?” It can be our reputation. It can be taking on something new (which might be nicely Uranian/Aries) in order to create a new image for yourself.

Or could it be others trying to make you think they are what they're not? That may now be quite as likely.

 

'Ascending and Descending' by MC Escher

It would be suspected that we’d hear a lot of proposals during this time, whether true or untrue. People will be looking ahead, painting ‘images’ of what could be. These next few days would be a time for social networking and social networks to be in the limelight or getting your attention, all of which is fine, so long as no one ‘banks’ on anything which might be merely an image….or vote against something again, without knowing the reality. It may be tempting to bet on a dream, and if you’re willing to work for or towards that dream, that’s a whole functional consideration.

But to merely say ‘oh, that sounds nice’ is probably not all that useful. What we want to be true and what is true or workable may well be two different things.

And that’s the real point de jour – don’t buy the packaging, buy the content. Better yet, rent first, then buy. And yes, read all the fine print!

More to come...