Deucalion: Freeing Our Will

Scene of Deluge

by Joseph Desire Court

(1827, Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, France)

TNO Deucalion was discovered on April 18, 1999 – just as everyone on Earth was getting all excited about the new millennium, though I suspect Earth itself didn’t give a fig. That would be left to the Adam and Eve crowd – you know, all us human types who from Fig Newtons to fig leaves seem to be into-fig-gering.
 
When discovered, Deucalion was classed by astronomers as a TNO (Trans Neptunian Object) and a Cubewano, which is to say one of an entire class of orbiting objects which may sound like a Cuban sandwich (seriously, that’s always what I think when I hear that term) but which really means that the object orbits beyond Neptune and within the ‘district’ where Neptune’s astonishingly potent magnetic resonance controls a whole group of other objects (including Pluto, Ixion, Orcus, Huya and others) – but not Deucalion.

Hence the Cuban sandwich ‘Cubewano’ designation.

Astrologically, that Neptunian ‘resonance effect’ translates as all such ‘Plutino’ objects being ‘subject’ to some of the Neptunian qualities of idealizing against illusion where we are tested about whether we know the ‘boundaries’ on fantasy against our willingness to accept and face real feelings about life’s realities in realistic form and real time. So to have an object (Deucalion) which orbits within this Neptune ‘fantasy-versus-reality’ realm without being ‘colored’ by Neptunian effects tells us that Deucalion is either an object which helps us differentiate between such foggy questions or a notion – information, call it – which comes to us ‘in the midst of the confusion’ where we aren’t sure what is real and what is not real.

So if Neptune is the classic ‘blind spot’ in our chart (which it tends to be, alas) Deucalion represents one of the (Cubewano) ways we can see – or attempt to guide ourselves through or past our own various forms of blindness to…whatever. (That whatever being described in your chart by aspects to natal Neptune and the house and sign where Neptune is positioned.)

Then we get to the myth, which is something of a Greek version of the Noah story, which differs from the Noah tale in several important ways. For one, the ancient Greek concept of deity isn’t singular (monotheism) – its more about seeing life in facets, with a god (which modernists would see as a ‘part’ of the One God concept OR a facet of personality or human evolution/development) in charge of each.

All of which is a touch moot in the Deucalion tale as it isn’t God (or some ‘unknown quotient’ as in being ‘visited’ by a particular god) telling him to build a boat.

Yes, there is a flood. And yes, Deucalion is asked to build a boat. But it’s his dad (Prometheus) who is telling Deucalion to build the boat – which in strictly human terms makes the whole boat building thing not only an interesting version of parental (read: internal) discipline, but an interesting commentary on how the father who stole fire (and who in Greek myth molded mankind from clay) then has to ask his son to save this race of beings he’s created.

Deucalion: Why should I build some giant boat?

Prometheus: Because I told you to! And let's remember, I’m not only your father, I created the rest of mankind! And yes, then you. So you owe me a boatload!

Deucalion: Very funny...you’d think you were some freakin’ demi-god, the way you go on, dad! What, if I don’t built the boat? Are you going to fire me or something?

Prometheus: FIRE, is it? I’ll have you know I went to a lot of trouble to steal fire for mankind.

Deucalion: Great galloping Greeks - not THAT story!  Again, dad? Must you?

Prometheus: Maybe I must. But this time I won't, even though heavens to Hades, son, you give me a pain in my liver! Just build the boat and stop pre-pitting my olives! And by the by - I’m NOT a demi-god, I’m a titan. Very primal and all that. I don't know about your generation...but your mother sure appreciates me. At least she did last time I asked.

Deucalion: Like she's going to insult you? Look, I really don’t want to know what kind of a ‘titan’ you are with mom, okay? All I know is that building this boat of yours is going to be one titan-ic pain.

Yes, it is my theory that teenagers were always teenagers. There’s nothing in the history of mankind to suggest otherwise. So the boat got built, got stocked with animals and kin, and thus Titan father (Prometheus) passed to his son the need for not just self preservation, but the preservation of that which is both near and dear to us and necessary to survive.

The one we like…the other we need.

Being positioned beyond the orbit of Neptune, the TNO Deucalion thus represents the understanding that in the midst of whatever confusion, delight or despair (or anything between)…in spite of that lack of clarity (good or bad) we still have to survive.

And if we do…if we take the task on, that helps us to survive whatever flood comes upon us.
 
As for floods, seeing that any metaphysical reference to water always means emotions or emotionality, between the Cubewano quality and the boat thing, this suggests Deucalion is all about learning how to ‘rise above an overwhelming emotional tide.’ Principally, this ‘tide’ is ours. It may be the fact we’re being swept along by some ‘current’ event, or the Deucalion need may arise through our being provoked or confronted by life.

Whatever the dynamic is, it would seem that the  Deucalion of our natal charts…by sign, by house, by degree, by aspects…represents both the possible venue of challenge to us or the means by which we rise above some flood and thus avoid ‘drowning’ in confusion or through the consequences of some ill-fated choice. But Deucalion is more than that. In being the son of titan Prometheus, Deucalion is ‘born of’ some basic (titan) instinct, which in the case is imaged by Prometheus.

There doesn’t seem to be any Olympian objection to Prometheus having ‘molded mankind out of clay.’ But when Prometheus stole fire and gave it to mankind, all holy Olympian havoc broke out. Mercury and Vulcan were sent out to haul Prometheus’ titanic self off to the top of a mountain where Vulcan chained Prometheus to the rocks so that an eagle could come by every day and peck at his liver.

Prometheus

by Nicolas-Sébastien Adam (Louvre Museum, Paris)

Esoteric traditions regard the liver as more than the physical organ, though there may be some semblance in functionality. To have a ‘good’ liver meant that you are able to function freely - that your body is unencumbered by ‘toxic’ emotionality which in turn causes us to stagnate or become imbedded in, or poisoned by, the inability to ‘process’ life’s (qi) at either a physical, spiritual or emotional level.

That an eagle is sent to peck at Prometheus’ liver suggests imagery of the Olympians (our greater mind or mindful self) feeling a need to keep this liver quality rationed or limited in scope. And when we think of this as specifically focused through  Prometheus’ ‘theft’ of fire – the giving of enlightenment to mankind, titan Prometheus’ punishment would seem to be about ‘knowing too much’ in a manner which is separate from the eternal need for ‘overseeing’ guidance.

There is the temptation to think of this ‘eternal’ concept in modern terms – as in deity. But Greek myth is all about what it means to be human, what it takes to be decent as a human and what humans face as challenges along the way. So this ‘eternal oversight’ would seem to be ours – not from some omnipotent force. And that leads us to think that TNO Deucalion either calls on our awareness of what we do not know or that which we may know about, but need to be careful about, or limit unrestricted use of. Deucalion is not about ‘sin’ as in ‘being sinful’ in the Christian sense. There’s no damnation involved…though if you’re going to talk about a flood it might have been good to have been given a dam as opposed to giving a damn.

No, Deucalion seems to be more about the discovering of better ways which allow us to function freely, but with a consciousness of the penalty to be paid if we overindulge (so to speak) emotionally – and that would be too much emotion or too much constraint on our emotions.

Moderation…finding the balance…rising above the emotional flood…that’s the Deucalion theme.  

Prometheus’ parting ways with Zeus’ ‘this is how the world is’ in giving fire to humans is another way of saying that we have and must have a say in our own fate – that thing we call Free Will. That Mercury is sent with Vulcan to chain Prometheus implies that there is a choice to be made in all things – most of all the Free Will choice whether to face our most titanic and instinctual Self.

What will we each do with our Free Will in finding our way in spite of (Neptunian) allures which, whether positive or awful, are all about tempting us to  abandon our focus on reality?

As son of Prometheus, Deucalion is all about this question of ‘embodying’ Free Will, an idea which when though of in the astronomical sense of a Cubewano (an object which functions free of Neptunian influence) seems sincerely apt. The fact that Deucalion ‘travels’ through this “Neptune zone” suggests it’s purpose and meaning in the horoscope is all about ‘independent’ perspectives – the need to have them and the need to know how to use them. Plutinos (Pluto, Ixion, Huya, etc.) re all about being subject to the allure of that which may or may not be real – the Neptunian sway. Cubewanos like Deucalion are not subject to Neptunian allure and thus represent a different ‘outlook’ on such issues.

And yes, life. And our emotional responses to life.

Discovered in 1999, TNO Deucalion has an orbit of just over 295 years long. It entered Libra (i.e., it left the zodiac’s most personal and introspective signs for the more worldly realm) back in July of 1980 – pretty much as the face of society began shifting into technological mode. Ever since then we’ve been dealing with escalating questions about the use of our mind, whether it’s how children learn in school to whether technology burdens or frees us – and whether that, in and of itself, is a good or bad thing.

Going back to that flood thing again, unlike the biblical flood, the Greek one isn’t caused by rain but rather by that Greek god of oceans himself, Neptune.

(Funny how these Greek gods get around, isn’t it?)

At Zeus’ command, Neptune raises the ocean’s level and floods everything - an interesting comment of late seeing as how we humans are discussing ocean levels now in connection with global warming. The term ‘global warming’ evidently dates back to 1975 (and an article in a publication called Science) which was then ‘popularized’ in 1979 – shortly before Deucalion moved into Libra. And whether you agree or don’t agree with the concept of ‘global warming’ (with its implication that changing temperatures are due to something humans are doing) or whether you’re more of a ‘climate change’ person who thinks Earth simply has patterns of climate and we’re moving into a planetary hot seat period, we’ve been discussing (a typically Libran activity) ever since.

And then the Kyoto Protocol (an international agreement dealing with this question) ended on March 15, 1999 - a scant month before Deucalion’s discovery.

Coincidence?

So what happens during this Greek flood idea being floated in this story?

(Yes, I said that.)

Remembering that water is not only emotionalism but everything and anything which evokes those emotions of ours prime and primal (sex, family, money, death, birth, war, finance-credit-debt, threat, control, manipulation, fear, etc.), Deucalion having appeared in our collective metaphysical consciousness with Deucalion at 24 Libra, a degree which focuses on our ability…and our willingness to ‘own’ where and how we do or can affect others, leading to the positives and negatives which result. That this was (and to date, remains) the position of Earth’s current pole star Arcturus (leadership) underscores 24 Libra’s meaning while also suggesting that to utilize Deucalion is to ‘discover’ your power to direct others, or in a greater sense, your life – and through that (thinking of Libra as the cause-effect mechanism), others.

That as Deucalion shifted into Scorpio on October 28, 2003 (UT/+0) our world moved into a time of red-line stress seems (painfully) apt. But maybe that’s apt as the myth tells us that Prometheus’ instructions to his son were about building an ark in which to ride out a storm meant to wash away all forms of evil…the ‘ills’ which would plague mankind.

And in our very mortal life, knowing what is an ill takes a perspective. It’s not just what we don’t like. Nor is voting for the ‘tried and true,’ whether that’s a tradition or way of living, going to work. Thinking that any of us know ‘the way’ for everyone is probably a mistake in a life where a ‘standard’ thing such as a horoscope is sufficiently individual to only repeat once every 26,000 years or so (the length of Earth’s precessional ‘pole’ cycle)…and that’s only if we take just the objects in our own solar system into account.

At some level metaphysics seems to always come back to that which is truly an eternal reality – the fact that while its vital and important to understand ourselves as individuals, we cannot succeed (nor can our world) without everyone taking into account everyone and everything around them.

The ancient call of the Hermeticists – ‘As above, so below’ probably needs updating as by now we think of life as being more about the ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ world, the ‘me and mine’ versus ‘them and all the rest of it.’
But it all means the same thing. And what do we need in order to balance the seemingly endless offsets and diametric oppositions of our individuality against the world and that ‘personal world’ we live in?

Perspective. Dispassionate perspective.

You know, that Deucalion ‘morality’ which is not so much about some ‘rule’ imposed upon us, but that which we know is right, honest and realistic. That which will allow us to have a decent, productive and reasonably fruitful life.

In the myth, the oceans rise and Deucalion and his family ‘rise above the flood’ until finally the waters recede. Depending on which version of the story you read, the ark ‘lands’ (so to speak) in either in Greece or Italy, whereupon Deucalion goes to have a chat with an oracle of Themis.

(Don’t ask me why  no one’s left on Earth but Deucalion, the wife and one oracle. I don’t write these myths, I just report on them.)

And what does the oracle say? Proving that oracles of every age are oblique, this one tells Deucalion to ‘cover your head and throw the bones of your mother behind your shoulder.’

Probably resisting a reply to the effect of “NOW you tell me I should have brought along the bones of my mother?” Deucalion has a moment of thinking through the fact that Themis is a primal sort of god whose name translates literally as ‘law of nature’ (a reference to ‘mother’ and hence Mother Earth or Gaia). And once he gets that far he understands that Earth’s ‘bones’ are rocks and stones. So Deucalion and Pyrrha do as instructed to, and by doing so (re)create the human race. The rocks thrown by Pyrrha become women and those thrown by Deucalion become men.

Pyrrha and Deucalion

by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1655, oil on canvas)

In this process, Themis not only empowers the repopulating of Earth after it is cleansed by an emotional flood, but reminds Deucalion of the interconnectedness of all life and what it means to be a human being replete with all the privileges, obligations, gifts and responsibilities which having the power of creation implies. In this, the ‘covering of the head’ is a metaphor for not over-thinking things – which in the astrological sense seems reasonable with Deucalion as to ‘overthink’ would be to invite the kind of second-guessing which would tempt us to be confused and lead us away from Cubewano independence and more into the magnetic resonance of Neptunian sway.

Deucalion is now in Scorpio and will remain in Scorpio until November 19, 2026 – when at 6:01 in the morning (UT/+0 time) it will move on into Sagittarius, having spent the last couple of months of its Scorpio transit in the company of Typhon (another titan) and fixed star Toliman.

This is likely to be a trying time as Typhon symbolizes life’s most basic needs: sleep, food, air, water, sex…against which Toliman a star representing the foot of a centaur (theoretically Chiron). Thus is raised the general question regarding centaurs, that being whether we are able to integrate our conscious and unconscious natures and balance impulse against conscious control. Will we ‘rise above’ our animalistic nature, abandon reason to animal instincts or marry them in a mélange of potency which in this case speaks to the gift given Chiron by Apollo.

And what was that gift?

Enlightenment. Specifically, the curative power to heal…which sadly enough speaks to the ongoing propensity we have for injuring ourselves.

Half a Deucalion cycle before now, Tolstoy was drafting War and Peace and Abraham Lincoln was beginning to fight the Civil War. Both of these are substantial examples of men grappling with the need to gain and understand perspective not only on their life, but the life on a greater plain – and with a greater purpose. Lincoln would ultimately write the following: “The will of God prevails — In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God cannot be for, and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is somewhat different from the purpose of either party — and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect this.”

At the time, Deucalion was in Taurus. Seeing as Taurus is ultimately a sign about learning that satisfaction comes only from harnessing our talents and resources in such a way as to earn the respect of others whether we succeed fully in our efforts or not, this may be good news for us. Both Tolstoy and Lincoln confronting man’s least humane aspects (war, a decidedly Scorpio thing), and to do that they risked all they had – their resources of talent and their time on this Earth.

So if those men achieved their lasting satisfaction and the security of knowing they had done what they were born to do through the trials of the sign in polarity to that Deucalion was traversing, that means that now, as Deucalion transits Scorpio the risk is more about our physical, material security. To feel emotionally safe and ‘above water’ (Deucalion in Scorpio) we probably need to be willing to share. We need to be able to risk our ego in having less, or being ‘less in charge’ so that we're able to do…and know we’ve done more.

Which yes, takes a very 'freed will' to accomplish.
.
.
.

Mercury in Pisces

The VLA (or) Very Large Array of Socorro, New Mexico

(photo credit: Hajor, August 2004)

Mercury is said to be not ‘weak’ in Pisces, but…well, maybe indecisive. Undecided. Overly flexible, she says, bringing her best natal Pisces Mercury to the post...

As ruler of Mercury and Virgo, Mercury is all about thinking it through and doing the right thing. The thing which will work for you in the longest of long runs. Thus in Gemini we choose carefully and think things through, assembling our understandings, scheduling our time and communicating with sufficient care to be properly understood and to get the information we need to further our thinking.

Maybe even more to the point, Mercury as ruler of Virgo is all about that famous Virgo sense of functionality. 
No, we’re not talking about the Virgo nitpicking critique quotient. Nor are we talking about Virgo’s ability to not see the forest for the trees. Those two ideas represent the Virgo negative of over-focus where the detail gets focused on so specifically that…as they say…we get all overwrought about the alligators trying to eat us and totally forget that the original prime directive was to drain the swamp.

An Alligator on the St Johns River

(photo credit: Mwanner, December 2007)

 
As ludicrous as that last example sounds, it’s a pretty good outline for how Virgo’s tendency to be ‘localized’ can get too local. Every sign is a polarity, and thus with Virgo, we need to balance that ‘entirely local’ with the ultimate in emotional universality: Pisces.

Thus, to deal with the alligator problem, you drain the swamp. If you drain the swamp, the alligator will go away AND you can walk safely, spotting the dangerous quicksands of life without sinking in up to your hoo-hah’s.

(Yes, hoo-hah’s. They’re north of your whatzis and south of your whatever.)

But to return to the esoteric (yes, laugh here) when we approach the converse and think about Pisces, the issue is being localized enough. It’s all about balance. The classic Pisces/Virgo (and Virgo/Pisces) error is embraced by the all-too-often-popular theory of ‘try, try again’ when we merely repeat what has already been thoroughly tried with a thorough failure as a result. You know this one as ‘the definition of insanity is doing the same thing the same way, thinking you’ll get a different answer.’

Mercury is a symbol which is always – at every level – about the ‘thinking portion of consciousness.’ It’s how we think and what we think about. It’s what we do to further our thinking, the process of thinking itself and what we do once we’ve thought thing through.

Pisces, on the other hand, is about feeling. It’s about feeling our feelings and feeling how we feel ABOUT our feelings.

So let’s start the astrological conjugating…this means that Mercury in Pisces is every form of Mercury thinking which is either about our feelings, about how we feel about our feelings, about how to integrate our emotionality into our everyday life more effectively, how to express our feelings – and since Pisces is universal, thinking about how others feel and what bearing we have on their feelings and what effect their emotionality or (Mercury) communication has on our thoughts or emotionality.

Or our feelings about our feelings, yes.

And that’s just the start of it. Pisces is a sign about that part of life where ‘bounds’ of reality are removed, allowing us to experience spirituality and faith and idealism and fantasy and daydreams and the power of inspiration and imagination…and which, by then bringing us to understand the difference between that and reality forces us to face our humanity.

That’s a rather shattering gap, and some of us fall right into it, becoming those addicted to rose-colored glasses strategies…or maybe self-abandonment to some belief or activity we adopt as our ‘world view’ believing that’s the whole of our ‘life’ with so much vigor that we won’t have to feel our discomfort when it comes to dealing with the realness of reality.

And, of course, there are those who are truly addicted to whatever it is which allows them to not be reality-grounded.

And there are those who do what they at some level – conscious or unconscious – so that they can ‘remove’ themselves from the whole of reality and just occupy some little part they can deal with. (This group would be populated by hermits, isolationist elitists and inmates and those who flip out not because they can’t cope, but because they can’t cope with the effort of coping. Such people do exist.)

Mercury in Pisces can also be glorious. In Pisces, that ‘thinkery’ which is so Mercury can serve to ‘ground’ the oceanic and boundless quality of Pisces, reeling the fish in to solid ground, producing great insight. Or art.

From 'Photographs from Amasra'

(photo credit Nevil Dilmen, November 2009) 

Many writers have Mercury in Pisces. Inventor of the telephone Alexander Graham Bell had Mercury in Pisces – and boy, didn’t he figure out how to communicate? Abraham Lincoln’s stirring words and ability to touch so many of us at our core is a very good example of Mercury in Pisces.

But this door swings both ways. Lincoln is a good example of this – for all of his orating and writing talent, Lincoln seems to have been an internally self-bedeviled soul. As was Kurt Cobain, another Mercury in Pisces sort.

Sometimes we bridge the gap with Mercury in Pisces – or when Mercury is in Pisces – and sometimes we fall into it. The Mercury choice to do one or the other depends on how well balanced we are at any given time. Granted, this is a bit of a different task for those with Mercury natally in Pisces against those who will merely experience the transit, but whatever the scale of your experience, the question of balancing and grounding in reality, replete with your ability to accept that reality, is always the crux of the question.

It’s fine not to like things. Pisces just says that you can’t ignore, deny or abandon reality in order to avoid them. In the end, that just hurts and limits you.

Apparently we need a deal of this experience at the moment as the Year 2013 Mercury transit of Pisces is going to be a long one. And why would that be? For those of you who are guessing there’s a Mercury retrograde about due, you’re absolutely, pozzolutely right!

 
Apart from the fact that this Mercury station is happening on this astrologer’s birthday, what this means is several things. The first – and most obvious – would be that this is a full two months under Mercury in Pisces.

That’s a lot of emotional thinking. Or having our feelings evoked or provoked. It’s a lot of opportunities to get inspired, and a lot of time in which to get real. (Or realer, depending!) One would suppose this is a good time for getting past our own fears and when the rather standard (if regrettable) tendency to think that ‘it’s their responsibility to fix it’ (or change, or to take up the slack or whatever) is best served by owning our own stuff.

That’s one of the most magical things about metaphysics, incidentally. When you’re in the tightest of squeaky places, when you feel most unfairly put upon, that’s the time to deal with what in you has helped create the whole giant mish-mosh.

(Don’t ask what goes into a barrel of mish-mosh – you don’t want to know!)

All kidding aside, you’ve no doubt heard of that old saying it takes two to tango? In the big world of metaphysics (‘meta’ meaning ‘bigger than big’) ‘two to tango’ is a parallel to the standard concept called ‘what you put out comes back to you’ or the ultra-science version of same, ‘for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction.’

This isn’t quite the same thing as Karma. Karma is more or less akin to ‘do unto others’ in that your karmic energy doesn’t always come back in the same way, shape or form as you put it out in. Chocolate does not always beget chocolate in the world of karma, one would say. It doesn’t even have to be food. Give someone a box of chocolates (check to see if their name is Forrest Gump first) and you may have some total stranger help you load that awkward box into your car. Karma is about the quality of the energy where metaphysics (astro-metaphysics, in particular) looks more to the connectives and contiguous quality of the interaction. Hence ‘two to tango.’

A fight can’t be a fight if one person doesn’t care, after all. They’ll just shrug.

A really good example here is Mahatma Gandhi’s belief in passive resistance.

Gandhi with textile workers at Darwen, Lancashire England (Sept 26, 1931)

 
Gandhi had an exciting life. And despite the fact that so many think of him as smiling and peaceful, he was no shirker. Gandhi was absolutely willing to stand up and fight...until he found out that not fighting was more powerful.

I’ve written about Gandhi and his chart, so if you’d like to read about him more in depth, click here.

My point here is that natally, Gandhi has Pisces on his 3rd house. The 3rd house of the chart is the native house of Gemini, and is therefore the house of mentality, thinking, planning, communicating and the priorities and choices we each make. So once Gandhi chose (3rd house) to make a universalist, accepting (Pisces) choice, his choices began to really work.

(That, by the by, is the most basic of basic ways to look at any house of your chart. If you know the sign which is native to the house, that’s the ‘area’ of life you’re concerned with and the first step in understanding how it works then takes into account the sign on the cusp of that house.)

Going back to the diagram of Mercury’s passage through Pisces, the first part of Mercury’s transit is with the Sun in Aquarius as Saturn slows to its stationary point and (from our Earthly perspective) goes retrograde in Scorpio. This is a recipe for difficult priorities and decisions which are tough enough that in all likelihood, only some of them will…or can get made.

The Sun moving into Pisces scant hours before Saturn’s turn to retrograde motion is a ‘realization’ or ‘reality’ point. Now some things ‘hit home,’ whether that means you’re on the receiving end of a long-brewing problem, something out-of-the-blue, a reward for hard work done (probably unanticipated) or the grappling with something which simply needs doing, straightening out or reconciliation.

(Reconciliation here can be personal, emotional, financial, spiritual or in any other sort of form.)

Connections/understandings/input with/from others remain highlighted until Venus also enters Pisces on February 26th. After that, we will all feel more space to deal with things in our own way and at our own pace, though some of us won’t like that very much!

(You just can’t please everyone, y’know?)

Those who take advantage of the next couple of weeks as a time to ‘do their own thing’ and get straight on their own standards for their own life, work, efforts and standards do well, especially once Mars enters Aries on March 12th. From there until Mercury’s station/direct on the 17th is likely to be a time of push-and-pull, some of which can be pretty raucous. Dealing with emotionality is going to be a necessity now; knowing who you are and what you really believe in (not what you ‘stand for’) is the dividing line between carrying your own day and earning your own respect and…well, probably setting yourself up for a fall.

(That ‘fall,’ by the by…will be Karmic in nature. So don’t waste your time looking over your shoulder, lest something hit you in the gut and don’t just run, lest something bit you in the…whatever.)

After Mercury goes direct, Mercury will be working its way back through Pisces as Venus and the Sun both move into Aries. This is a call for doing what needs doing while remaining in touch with your own feelings and those of others.

All of which brings us to the beginning of April – which is the onset of the rumbles we expect in the weeks leading up to any solar eclipse. That the next solar eclipse is going to be positioned at 19 Taurus is a big scrawl on the celestial wall.

And considering the sign and degree of said sign, what’s being written on that wall?

 
So maybe that’s the reason for this long transit of Mercury through Pisces.

And yes, that would be Karmic.

And since Scorpio is the sign of Karma, that spells Saturn…which again speaks to reality, and whether we like it or not, how well we deal with that reality in real, realistic and responsible ways. 
.
.
.

CHART USA (Pt. One): A National Divorce

 

The Signing of the Declaration of Independence by John Turnbull

 

I want to go on 'instant record' here saying I’m not a historian. Frankly, I kept my high school US History textbook for years simply because it was the one thing knew I could just look at with the guarantee I would be asleep very, very soon.

Five minutes, max: no drugs required. 

Yet after listening to umpteen astrological debates I began to puzzle. No one seems to know what the chart of the United States really is. There are several charts for July 4, 1776 - that famous date of declaring independence. But should the chart be cast for the moment when people began signing? Or when the last quill hit parchment on that date, leaving its inky scrawl?

And maybe you're not aware that all those signatures at the bottom of the document didn't sign that day.

Fed Ex being a century yet to come, it took months to get everybody signed on.
 
Then there are those who like the idea of a US which became a nation while bewigged forefathers were dunking crumpets into tea while chatting over  Continental Congress doings. That was an even less official occasion, so good luck with that chart.

Into all this comes Robert Hand, esteemed astrologer, good guy and fine scholar.

Being his usual pithy self, Rob pointed out (during a lecture to a packed auditorium) that every one of the 1776 charts has Mercury retrograde and/or a Void of Course Moon - which would describe the US as a hesitant, even shy nation which never gets anything done.

Shy? Hesitant? Does this sound like the US you know? Okay, so we don't always like what the US does. But we gotta go with the concept that the modern US we know and sometimes cheer and sometimes groan about is generally neither subtle nor shy about things. There are even days when we think it might be better if it was.

As for Rob, he had similar objections to all the other charts as yet proposed, too.

Still, when one looks at the premises under which the U.S. was originally founded, the 1776 ‘we’re gonna sign this here-now document’ let's-begin-to-sign-this-thing chart is pretty darn good. It's elitist Aquarian Moon and a self-editing Mercury retrograde really fit the time and day.

How's that, you ask? Well maybe you don't know but back then the United States-ians were really grand about talking freedom, but not so good on delivering it. Considering that slavery was allowed, obviously not everybody actually got to be free. And then there were those rules which said only some could own land. And only some being allowed to vote.

It was plainly not the nation of today.

So what happened? To answer this fine question we should start by considering what a US national chart is really about. The United States is not a single entity: it’s a unity of individual states - a marriage of separate entities.

And when we consider the United States in that light,  the whole thing slowly begins making sense.

Look at it like this...try thinking of the US as a (poly-state) marriage. A marriage chart is calculated for the time and place when a ceremony ‘fixes’ the bond and two people ‘become one’...even though plainly they still remain two separate people.

So if we look at the US this way, its bond is all about a  ‘federal marriage’ or national fusion – a joint acceptance of risks and possible rewards being taken on by each and every state (allegedly for better and for worse, in sickness and in health, etc. etc.).

That being mutually invested this is a very Scorpio idea. In light of that, it makes sense that a lot of astrologers favor US charts with Scorpio Suns or Scorpio risings.

But if the US as a national structure is akin to a marriage, that means we have to also consider the 'traditional' marriage exit door - meaning divorce. How does that work?

When a marriage fails, the date of the final divorce decree indicates when the two partners become free to marry other people. But the reality of the marriage (the emotional commitment to the union) is over long before any judge's gavel hits decree. As anyone who's been through (or around) the process knows, the marriage as it was is over when the parties first file for the divorce.

Even if they overcome their differences, the innocence and purity of intent which gelled in that original bond...that's gone. Indeed, if things have gone far enough that the court has become involved, the marriage is re-established not when they kiss and make up (or whatever they do) but when on that date when the court approves dissolution of the suit.

Astrologically, this means a new “marriage chart” is required once any original pledge is quit (i.e., broken). Yes, the original vows become a romanticized ‘shadow’ chart the partners always remember (that being here perhaps that Aquarian Moon/Mercury retrograde 1776 chart)…but the reality of the marriage lived from that time forward is built on a new agreement.

And hopefully wiser people, yes.

So how would this apply to the United States? There seems little debate about whether the country started out as that Mercury retrograde and Aquarian Void of Course Moon kind of place. That's all over the history books.

But then came the Civil War: divorce American national style. And a bloody divorce it was too.

Civil War uniforms, flags and weapons Union and Confederate.

Now there are some who will argue that it wasn’t really until the passing of the Civil Rights Act (some hundred years after the Civil War) that the US really became the nation (or even began becoming the nation) it claimed to be in its original Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Yet astrologically, that just doesn’t work.

Why not?

Because said Civil Rights Act was not part of creating a nation. It thus therefore cannot generate a new national chart. It's a 'working inside the given’ sort of document, which astrologically means it should coincide with a transit to any valid US chart. The Civil Rights Act was a big deal so the transit should be a major transit. But it isn't the sort of motion which creates a new chart.

No, the United States only broke apart once - with the beginning of the Civil War, a national divorce action if there ever was one. The South filed and moved out. And to be sure, the North contested said divorce. But the moment that the Confederacy declared itself and established its capital, leader and constitution, the 1776 ‘marriage’ – for all astrological purposes it was over.

And no, there is no divorce court for nations. It might be better if there was, but there isn't.

Following the 'it was over' logic, the union we now call the United States would have been be ‘born’ when war ended and the nation was officially remade into one - the ‘remarriage,’ if you will.

And when was that? That chart would be timed by General Robert E. Lee approving the document of surrender at war’s end, an event which took place in a private home borrowed from a gentleman named McLean in a little Virginia spot known as Appomattox Court House.

McLean Residence in Appomattox Court House

Records show the meeting between Lee and Grant began at 1:30 p.m. on April 9, 1865. But Lee didn’t finalize his (the South’s) side of the peace treaty until ‘just before 4 p.m.’ - the delay being due to rewording Lee required before signing on.

According to reports by persons in the room, after surveying the document one last time, Lee approved, accepted the stated terms then stood up to have a short conversation with Grant. After that he left, with the time of his departure being noted as 4 p.m. In light of these reports (with additional checking of events against both resulting chart axis) the reasonable rectification therefore puts the time of signing at 3:53 in the afternoon.
 

Actually the Treaty was not actually signed at this moment, due to (of all things!) a lack of ink and paper to recopy General Lee’s requested changes. And this for some may recall President Obama taking his Oath of Office twice. The answer to 'which is right?' here lies in the moment of commitment: when when we actually commit to something is the moment for which the chart should be erected reflecting that event. The Obama Administration thus began when the President took the  Oath of Office the first time - just as the Civil War ended when General Lee accepted Grant's terms for peace.

And never mind the ink...in that moment the South laid down arms. In that moment, soldiers on both sides rushed to embrace each other as country and kinsmen once again. In that moment the North’s supply corps began moving in to feed an estimated 25,000 hungry Confederate troops. That's the end of a war.

But if we need more validation, we have that too - in the form of a governmental nod from President Lincoln. Upon returning from Richmond to news of Lee's  surrendered, Lincoln walked out onto the White House balcony and with fireworks exploding overhead, made a short speech acknowledging that as the South surrendered at Appomattox, war had ended and the nation had again become one.

That unity bond in federal marriage is reflected in the chart below, horoscope erected for 3:53 on that fateful afternoon in Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

Chart USA(ppomattox) - End of Civil War 

It's an interesting chart, this Chart USA(ppomattox). And yes, the events of a nation in years since are seen reflected by transits to its various points.

Starting tomorrow we'll start walking through just what this chart says. But in the meantime, to Robert Hand: 'look Rob - no VOC Moon and no Mercury retrograde!'  

See you all tomorrow back here at astroPPM.