Dateblog: April 2014

Three planets – Mercury, Venus and Neptune – are all in Pisces as April begins, lending a note of belief-based emotionalism, whether that’s sacred or secular. And by the end of April’s first week, that fervency begins to become more theoretical. Pallas going direct tells us that less passion works better- and that as of April 9^th passionate attention is there to be stirred by those practiced in stirring attention (it is a talent, after all…) and how In keeping with the mirroring of Mercury’s shift through signs and elements there’s a hunger for considering basic things.

With Pluto’s station-retrograde occurring on April 14^th in tandem with a lunar eclipse (with all in advance of the April 29^th Taurus solar eclipse) we can expect to be imbedded in some experience which among other things tests our underlying sense of personal self-worth, value and respect…particularly through others.

Unique to each one of us, barely will this cluster of mid-month events have influenced our perspectives (or methods of approach) when an entire series of strangely inter-related ideas, facts and events come up for consideration. Reflective of overlapping meteor showers (the Lyrids and Eta Aquarids), such facts may fit with whatever round of forks-in-the-road now present themselves.

Then again, with Mars still retrograde in Libra there may be a ‘rejection of involvement’ which is more about the need to attend to personal needs than anything else but which may come off as unpleasant, separatist, dismissive, selfish or otherwise self-concerned to others.

There’s an interestingly subtle pattern set forth by the timing of all which happens now: the first two thirds of April 2014 seem designed to test us, most of all in areas where our ability to tolerate how we feel (inside) when it turns out things aren’t precisely as we were thinking they were going to be…even how they “should be” (in our opinion). In keeping with true semi-sextile form(at), we will all have most of a month where an opportunity exists to learn from difference between what is and what we were expecting.

And beyond that, there’s even more to be gleaned by anyone brave or insightful enough to take on thinking through why motivations differ.

It’s just we’re not likely to be in the mood – which is what it is, pro and/or con.

Then the celestial clockwork clicks into ‘opportunistic’ (Sun-Mercury sextile Venus) mode. But as this happens as we move into and through the April 29^th solar eclipse…?

That suggests a period which sets off, reveals and ends various ineffective, immoral- even indecent use(s) of power, be that personal power or power as in electricity, gas or anything else.

April is less than likely to be a month of destinations and not unlikely to elicit moments of defiance amidst a determined sort of calculated desperation.

We know what we need to do. We just have to do it – in spite of the fact it’s antithetical to who we generally are.
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Pallas Retrograde at 13 Virgo

 Pallas Athena by Gustav Klimt (1898)

As of January 7th asteroid Pallas is going retrograde at 10:21 in the morning UT/+0 time at 13 Virgo, inviting (or prompting) us to either see/consider things dispassionately or to use/utilize some sort of dispassionate understanding or ability some effort, a situation - or maybe just in formulating the decisions of the day.

Whatever is afoot doesn’t have to be earth-shattering (and we will certainly hope it’s not Earth shattering). It’s just another influx rolling through as we are going through our Capricorn paces about where we’re going in life and how to get there.

However…(yes, that is the magic word in astrology, isn’t it?)…this is happening at 13 Virgo. And 13 Virgo is a very particular degree.

Aren’t they all?

Answer: yes. But 13 Virgo has always piqued my interest as it’s a degree which tends to manifest through what one astrologer refers to plainly enough as ‘a love of fine arts.’

And yes, this could mean the obvious arts. On the other hand, what finer art is there than the art of being a human being? Taken from that position, the experience of or reflection on 13 Virgo takes an additionally poignant quality - beyond the fact that by definition, any degree between 10 and 19 of any sign is going to be where that sign manifests emotionally. Considering how (also by definition) 13 Virgo is an earthy and earthly degree, that means that we're likely to be focused on what realities are, what reality is (or could be) and what our realistic regard is - for ourselves and others...

...into which comes Pallas, the third largest asteroid known. Like all asteroids, Pallas represents things we get confronted by or end up working through 'along the way' between some initiation (Mars) point and the "Jupiterian" moment when we have mastered the goal - and in that comes to symbolize our 'mindset,' if you will.

So! When Pallas shifts its perspective through going on station and going retrograde (which more accurately is a change of perspective on Pallas from here on Terra Earth changes), we tend to change too.

That this particular Pallas station occurs under Venus retrograde theoretically suggests much going on inside of us. Having started at 28 Capricorn, Venus has now reached 24 Capricorn and that's a subtle (maybe even not-so-subtle) undercurrent which questions sophistication as truth.

- Link to - 

Venus Station-Retrograde

at 28 Capricorn

 

Is sophistication and the 'striving life' better than one which is plainer and, perhaps more simplistic or coarser truths? Can both be relied on equally? Can both be built with to our own satisfaction?

Falsehood, artifice, pretense – call it what you will, the station period between January 5th (or so) through the 9th (give or take) is likely to be something we ignore more than react to. There is a genuine need and longing for common honesty now which has nothing to do with taking stands or making any declarations – it’s about being realistic enough about who we are and how our world works so that we are able to go about the business of being our Self learning and teaching as we go.

There is some chance that someone will step up to help you – or that you will recognize the need to extend support or assistance to someone else during this time. Whether that effort is “successful” or not (however you might define success in that situation) is what it is, and so long as you handle your part of the matter with integrity your proverbial hands should be ‘clean.’

Generally where Pallas is concerned, woe comes only to those who take advantage or manipulate others for personal gain or unwarranted pleasure. Interpersonal relationships could get a little strained now as well as Pallas stationing under Venus retrograde suggests ‘revelations’ or provocations which have less to do with the passion of expression than the inability to understand.

Patience is now required – and all you know going in may be a natural byproduct of what you find yourself being or becoming exposed to. Listen, think, Pallas often asks us to ‘balance’ things out, so try to understand how what you hear and what you’re going through now applies to you…and equally to others.

Sometimes focusing on who we are is a matter of looking within. Sometimes it’s a matter of holding that image in our minds while we simultaneously recognize through life and people around us who we aren’t.

It’s in the synthesis between those two things that Pallas occurs, granting us wisdom of perspective – from which comes the clarity, that sureness of mind which allows us to achieve with sufficient grace to know for sure what track we’re on, lest we defeat ourselves.

By the time Pallas goes direct again this April at 24 Leo we will have thought through our personal ‘bag of tricks’ and come to recognize that some of them don’t work.

Or that the only person we’re tricking in ourselves.

And since we can look ahead and know that April is when we will be running through one of those transformational (Pluto station) periods plus another set of eclipses, it would seem pretty certain that there are dotted lines which begin here...(yes, that’s a big red “X” under your feet)...and which end in April.

Whether April means anything to you now or not is not the point. You may read these words and say to yourself ‘okay – I’ll do “that” in April.’ Or you may be absolutely, positively sure that April 2014 is going to be just another month of clicks, clatter and life’s regular symphony.

The answer to all that is ‘yes.’ But there’s more – and that’s the educational part. At the very least we’re in for a lesson in how to be educated. Or the cost of not being educated – by which I mean either school learning or ‘being informed.’ The quality here may be as simple as whether we listen or don’t listen to someone else – or whether we (or they) are willing or even able to hold opposing ideas fairly and equally in mind.

One last idea here: that of ‘right and wrong’ being relative. The nature of the Virgo-Pisces polarity being what it is, the idea and the details (style, method, tools, etc.) count less than the intrinsic intent.

This is a very plainspoken time which keeps us rooted in a reality we thought we had sorted out to our ‘standards,’ values or tastes while showing us a few errors in our equations. That physical poverty can embargo some in the security of affluence for which they pay with the truths of their spirit and soul is the real loss.        
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