Medea: A Perspective on Priorities

Jason and Medea by Gustave Moreau (1865, oil on canvas, Musee d'Orsay, France)

Asteroid Medea entered Scorpio back on November 8, 2012. It conjuncted 11 Scorpio – the degree of this November’s solar eclipse, back on December 13, 2012.

By March 29th of 2013, it had moved all the way through Scorpio to 29 degrees of that sign, which put it into conjunction with fixed star Toliman, a star which in representing the foot of a centaur (which for various reasons is presumed to be Chiron). And that Medea went retrograde in that degree spoke eloquently to a process of pursuing things we love or need to learn to love… which could also be about learning how to love things we need to love. Or even learning that something we think we love isn’t all that good for us – or workable in real life.

Medea is the premise of ‘loving to the point of self-undoing.’ But since all astrological points should have both a positive and negative aspect, Medea should not only indicate where or how we are likely to undermine our best interests – or even our goals – but the process by which we can ‘undo’ our inclination or obsessions or simply our having gotten off track so that we can pursue that which will be rewarding.

The difference here is likely to be rather primal. After all, the story of Medea is about a sorceress who falls in love with a hero on a mission. Medea ‘does all’ for him and in the end loses her mind such that she kills her own children – the children she had with this man – because she is so very much overcome by the failure of their relationship.

The man is Jason – he of golden fleece fame, which tangentially brings up the whole idea of being ‘fleeced’ …in this case by our own desires, reactions and our yearning to have something we so think we need to have…or perhaps simply need to want to have.

The mythic Medea is the granddaughter of Helios – the god of the Sun, as opposed to Apollo, who is the god of enlightenment. In being THE Sun, Helios translates astrologically into the energy of existence and the consciousness of life – in particular (in our chart) our life.

Added to the Helios quality is the idea that Medea’s cousin in Circe – the sorceress encountered by Odysseus (aka Ulysses) on his rather circuitous trip home in the wake of that interminable Trojan War. Where Circe was all about turning men into animals so as to serve her at her leisure (and one assumes, to be occasionally served up as supper), Medea is more about ‘the relationship’ or the ability to have an manage our relationships, rather than the evocative (Circe-like) drives which in all of life push us in one direction or another.

Helios as the Personification of Midday

by Anton Raphael Mengs (c. 1765)

The temptation here (which yes, would be the word even when we’re talking about sorceresses) is to personify these attributes. Yet while it may well be true that we know people who either embody these energies or who embody them for us, the reality of any main belt asteroid (and yes, Medea is a main belt asteroid) is that this is one of many thousands of factors we will meet up with in life and which are about us…and about things we need to understand about the nature of being human.

In terms of orbit, asteroid Medea’s innermost point (its perihelion) is at 2.762 AU – meaning it’s just under three times as far away from the Sun as the Earth is. Probably the most important thing to understand in that sense is not so how far from Earth or the Sun Medea is, but where Medea fits in as part of the asteroid belt.

The astronomical asteroid belt occupies that space between the orbit of Mars and the orbit of Jupiter – which in astrological terms defines it as all that ‘stuff’ which lies between our ‘personal world’ and the ‘worldly world.’ We can either take that as our day-to-day life…in which case the fact that the Jupiter/Saturn ‘grouping’ beyond the asteroid belt becomes the greater growth of our life or our maturation as a person….OR we can take this all more in the sense of the astrological concept of the inner planets (Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars plus Earth’s satellite Moon) being our native mentality and habits and all that…and all that we meet up with on our way to becoming that which we can be or become – or learn how to master.

Mars’ aphelion (the outer range of its orbit) is at 1.665 AU. Jupiter’s inner range of its orbit (its perihelion) is at 4.95 AU. So that ‘gap’ between the inner planets and the next planetary ‘rung’ out is about 3.5 AU wide…which is to say, about three times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

That’s a pretty big space. And there are literally thousands upon thousands of asteroids out there – most of which haven’t even been named yet.

In any case, seeing that Medea’s inner orbital distance (it’s perihelion) is at 2.788 AU, that’s about half way through the asteroid pack. So Medea is something we would meet up as we get ‘to the thick of things’…and thus it’s fairly easy to see (thinking of the myth) how the minus of Medea would be over-focus and the plus of Medea would be the seeing where or how we’re over-focused, perhaps to our detriment.

Medea’s aphelion – the farthest it gets from the Sun – is at 3.446 AU…which in astronomical terms is not all that far from Jupiter’s innermost orbital point, especially when we consider that Jupiter is the second largest object in our solar system, next to the Sun.

Jupiter has pull, in other words.

So Medea should be an object or a process through which we become wiser. Or at least more knowing or knowledgeable. Whether that happens the nice way or the devastating way, however? That’s up to us.

At the moment, Medea is roughly 4.0 AU from Earth and 3.42 AU from the Sun – which considering how it may seem that the Sun should be farther away really only makes sense when we look at an orbital diagram:

Image courtesy of the JPL Small Body Database

 

Medea is also on the way ‘in’ – which is to say, Medea is now in the process of moving from the Jupiter end of its orbit towards the Mars end of its orbit. So we’ve reached one point of cumulative ‘learning’ – particularly in ‘worldly’ terms, and now we’re moving through a phase which is about some lesson (or lessons) about our Self.

Medea reached that Jupiterian ‘learning’ point during the period between May 3rd and June 17th…which for you may have represented a point of intensity in some relationship – a point when you realized something about relationships (and the process of relating) or when you were just wicked over-focused on something or someone.

Or maybe all of the above.

All this goes back to where Medea is in your personal (natal) chart as much as it speaks to the cycles which life leads us through. But as far as that goes, it’s interesting to note that Medea’s ‘close approach’ data dates – and this would be its closest approaches to Jupiter, generator of educational energetics – occur in pairs separated by about a decade. In other words, there was a ‘close approach’ to Jupiter in June of 1937 and again in August of 1947, and then there wasn’t a ‘close approach’ (this is in astronomical terms, remember) until February 2009, an approach which will be echoed in April of 2019.

After that we move to the years 2080 and 2090, so let’s just lay that aside for now, shall we? But since in astrology we do tend to learn as much by looking back at known history as by any other means (we call this “research”…!), in June of 1937 (which would be leading into WW2, the golden age of the movie business and much else) Medea and Jupiter were in late Capricorn – which makes sense when we think of business or nations and national affairs, as both items are Capricorn in nature. By April of 1947 the world was trying to pick up the pieces in the wake of WW2, and both Jupiter and Medea were in late Scorpio.

Again.

For the detail mongers among us, this time Jupiter was conjunct Toliman but Medea hadn’t quite gotten there yet. But the Scorpio theme – the reclamation, the economics, the need to negotiate, the need for healing and caring for the injured – that seems to echo rather clearly, both on a national, international and personal level. The eclipses of 1947 were in sync where we are now – not by exact degree, but by sign. November 1947 saw an eclipse at 19 Scorpio with Chiron conjunct…there was a lot which needed doing which could not be learned except by doing it, and one presumes the process of the eclipse made that terribly evident amidst much angst and struggle.

February 2009’s Medea/Jupiter approach had Medea, Juno, the North Node and Jupiter all conjunct at 9 Aquarius, a degree which is successful when treated with in a philosophical manner which in being more or less ‘agnostic’ doesn’t rely on previous tenets. The Sabian Symbol for this degree fits rather fascinatingly with the time – which if you remember was all about the global economic collapse with one side of the discussion calling for seeing things in a new way from a global and more ‘scientific’ or ‘dispassionate’ manner while the other side was rooted in long held traditions and positions, come what may.

 Jupiter as photographed by NASA

The Sabian Symbol for 9 Aquarius goes like this: A MAN WHO HAD FOR A TIME BECOME THE EMBODIMENT OF A POPULAR IDEAL IS MADE TO REALIZE THAT AS A PERSON HE IS NOT THIS IDEAL. The keynote is ‘The need to deal with human beings as persons rather than as screens upon which one projects one’s dream and ideal.’

And that’s the keynote for this phase of Medea growth. From that place Medea is now moving back towards Mars – the astrological ‘how and what motivates us to do things’ point. And when that point is reached in April of 2019, Jupiter and Medea will be in late Sagittarius.

Which with the exception of needing to say that Medea’s orbital period is 5.5 years in length, brings me back to what’s been going on of late.

Having gone retrograde at 29 Scorpio in conjunction with Toliman back at the end of March 2013, Medea began the process of forcing us to grapple with what we don’t know (yet) about ourselves…and maybe about how we trip ourselves up…and how we can undo our prior errors, particularly those which are based on (or in) some obsessive attitude, regard or habit. Being that this is Scorpio we are talking about, both our desires and our fears are front and center – as would be our ability to find the right people with whim to form alliances and our ability to negotiate the process of creating and maintaining those alliances (aka relationships).

Medea went direct again late on July 8, 2013. And when it went direct, it did so after a good month and a half (plus) of having played footsie with the North Node, implying that we ‘had to do’ something in order to maintain our life progress, but that we were probably being tugged in other directions at the same time.

Metaphysically, the point would be the experience of this confluence and what we learned about ourselves – for good and for uncomfortable (even disquieting) as we realized our propensity to grow ourselves in one direction while perhaps short changing our growth in another.

And that is a lesson about priorities. Having gone direct at 16 Scorpio, our questions would have pitted some measure of personally desired aims against universal dynamics and the problems we get into by aligning ourselves with one ‘group’ or another without sufficient perspective on the group (or perhaps the members of that group with which we are interacting) to know what we’re getting into. There is a reference to ‘tumors’ and aberrations of growth (at either end of the scale) which can be literal or figurative, depending on how you’re inclined – and yes, depending on where 16 Scorpio falls in your natal (and solar) chart, especially in terms of how that affects your natal Medea (which in case you need to know is IAU asteroid number 212).

The Sabian Symbol here is again an interesting one (aren’t they all when we put them in use and perspective?) in that it images A WOMAN, FECUNDATED BY HER OWN SPIRIT, IS “GREAT WITH CHILD.” The key here is ‘by her own spirit,’ which plainly removes this image from the realm of the sexual or familial and places it in the realm of someone – or our ability – to handle creative energies within our Self, and to what end we do that.

And that is very, very much akin to Medea, in that the energetic may be about wanting what one wants…or the energetic may be about what we have to give to others.

So…how to know which would have been which back there at the end of May?

Probably the better judgment calls have to do with the degree or number of finite ‘dictates’ are involved. At its best, Scorpio is about supporting growth through measured guidance. At its worst, Scorpio says ‘do it my way OR ELSE.’ There are instances where Scorpio interactions will have someone bow out of the transaction because they cannot adhere to obligations, and in this instance the question is whether they are doing so for emotional reasons, or because they have considered the parameters and are making a calm choice because of understood priorities.

Again, it’s all about priorities...which is another way of referring to how we make our choices...which is, of course, the heart of the Gemini concept and thus in a greater sense, about our relationship to the Gemini/Sagittarius polarity.

In other words, how we go about making choices in the general sense, and how we prioritize what we do, with all that feeding into whether we carry through on things or abandon them midstream (in other words, how flaky are we?) and whether we understand the ultimate importance to us and to our world (that being the Sagittarian side of the polarity) as we make our choices...which in common parlance is  another way of saying 'how shallow are we?'...particularly as that applies to our ability to choose quality over quantity or something which means something to US versus what it 'looks like' to others.

Medea entered Sagittarius late on September 30st (except for those who live in time zones more than an hour ease of UT/+0, where it would have been already been October 1st). That not only puts us now in the sign of the next Jupiter/Medea ‘close-approach’ (and just over one orbital cycle away) but in position to be experiencing things which ask us whether we know the difference between the obsession which undermines us and the opportunity which, in helping us escape that which doesn’t work, allows us to grow into our Self.

Medea is not precisely about freedom. But then, not every human wants to be free about everything, or in every moment of their life. We all like to feel secure and to some sense secured. We all like knowing there’s someone to turn to and someone we can confide in.

There’s an old expression which seems rather apt here…the freedom to go is at least as important as the freedom to stay. It is the journey from obsession and reactivity to that of choice which seems important here – and which ultimately saves us from our potential for human tragedy.
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Deucalion Direct: The Giving Within

The Deluge (name disputed) by John Martin (1834)

When I sat down to write about Deucalion a couple of days ago (that would be the post for Monday, July 22nd) it just turned out to be too much of a jumble to discuss the point and the point of its station. As with many ‘new’ (to us) points discovered in the last ten to fifteen years, our astrological understanding of Deucalion is still evolving.

Metaphysically, the idea is probably that we should evolve with that understanding. Though it would seem unlikely that nature would ‘expect’ us to know the unknown – one of the sidebars to the greater concept that unbeknownst to us, the universe is unfolding as it should (a cousin to everything happens at the right time) is that as new ideas come along we should at least consider them.

And being humans, we obviously don’t always do that. We get busy, we’re tired, it isn’t our cup of tea, we’re not in the mood…you’ve heard all the same excuses that I have.

There is (of course!) the argument to be made that if we’re too tired to read or think something through, it isn’t the ‘right’ time. To that – as a person I say ‘sure…let’s make popcorn and watch a movie.’ But when I have the astrological hat on, I realize that to bypass, delay, ignore, (fill in with your favorite excuse)…that’s just inviting life to teach us why we really DO want to know that thing or things we are sloughing off like so much water off the proverbial duck’s back.

(I wonder…do ducks get royalties every time we use that expression? Who would we pay them to, the Universal Union of Duckery?)

Whatever that amounts to, Deucalion is going direct as this post hits the feed – on July 24, 2013. It is doing so at 11 Scorpio, the degree which was the degree of Saturn’s mid-February (2013) station-turn-to-retrograde.

- link to -

Saturn Retrograde at 11 Scorpio (Part 1)

-link to - 

Saturn Retrograde at 11 Scorpio (Part 2)

 (Yes, it was important enough to get two posts)

And maybe even more importantly, 11 Scorpio is going to be the degree of our next Solar Eclipse.

Said eclipse will be on November 3rd (when the Sun reaches 11 Scorpio – duh!). And that means the six-to-eight week period prior to the eclipse during which we will experience that ‘quivering’ in our hearts and under our psychic feet as life begins ‘shaking out’ those things we don’t need any more…and those things which need to be changed (whether we like it or not)…all that starts in early September.

I can’t remember the last time I saw a year as clearly marked by something like Saturn’s turn at 11 Scorpio in February casting a straight if dotted line to this November’s eclipse, and I’ve been noodling around with astrology for a rather very extremely long time now.

(Thirty-plus years, give or take. So much for a hobby I took up to keep myself busy while I was healing from having broken my pelvis…which by the by, is nothing I suggest you EVER do. It hurts like a supernova explosion inside your body – trust me!)

By decanate definition a degree which is emotional (not to mention being a degree which is part of a deeply emotional sign), 11 Scorpio points us to those things which are ‘native’ to us, and which in particular tie back to our childhood. The central question posed by this degree seems to be whether whoever we have come to be because of or in spite of that background has created a closed circuit, a set of walls or a tendency to retreat to some ‘cave’ – principally for reasons which are emotional. Like all degrees of Scorpio, this one tests not so much whether we’re right but whether we’re willing or able to tolerate being not as right as we thought we were. Maybe there is a better way. Maybe we should be willing to risk that feeling of safety and security which comes with defining our own status quo.

As demonstrated by the trail of stations at 11 Scorpio, to some evocative extent, this ‘degree dynamic’ (as we might call it) underlies a lot of what goes on in our lives – and in life in general – during 2013. And now, with the grand water trine shifting from Jupiter-Saturn-Neptune to Jupiter-North Node-Chiron, evolutionary forces are shifting from ‘who am I in this world and what am I making of myself and my life?’ into a secondary phase of that exploration, growth and education (all symbolized by Jupiter) which is more about ‘how am I going to do this North Node thing I don’t really WANT to do, and which in typical Chiron fashion I feel totally ill-equipped to even know HOW to do or be?’ 

The Fates Gathering in the Stars by Elihu Vedder (1887)

In all of this, Deucalion’s turn to direct motion at 11 Scorpio not only tells us that this time is a 'touchstone' or a 'step' along our metaphysical path to the November Solar Eclipse, but that Deucalion's turn at 11 Scorpio is one ‘key’ to this moment...and perhaps the key to the  entirety of our (Scorpionic) evolutionary, transformative processes for the year.

So does that mean that each and everyone of us - individually and collectively - have much to be gained by referencing, recognizing and understanding our ‘native’ early imprinting?

Probably so.

And yes, the results or responses to same should also be on the table.

Since Deucalion represents the energetic which helps us find our way through whatever it is (and however we manage) to opt out of the greater reality because of longings, fears, over-idealization, self-deception, hurt, cravings, self-absorption… all those Neptune-fostered ‘you think it’s perfect but it’s not’ things, this would be when we need to ask or require of ourselves that we rise above the emotional tide. Whether it’s our (internal) tide, or that which is washing over us courtesy of life or others in our life, this is a moment when we need to allow all the ‘evils’ of our preconceptions to be washed away so that we can re-create and re-populate our lives.

That this sounds more than a little bit like an echo of the Persied Meteor Shower (see yesterday’s blog) only suggests that life is truly “conspiring”…or maybe a better word is gathering momentum to move us out of the old and into something new.

Is it easy? No.

Is this process likely to be instantaneous? No.

But it is what it is, and those of us who resist this shift are likely to feel unseated, even abandoned (at some level) when November’s Solar Eclipse comes along.

As you read this, you may be thinking ‘gee, why wouldn’t my “native” way be the better way to go? Couldn’t Deucalion be indicating that?’

At some level, yes. (And you’re obviously thinking as I did upon thinking this through if you came to that quandary.) Two things only argue against the whole ‘holding the status quo’ and ‘doing things as I’ve been doing them’ thing. One is the Solar Eclipse. Sure, solar eclipses have been known to create something good out of something mediocre…in fact, that’s something of the nature of this most gigundo of transits. Solar eclipses are all about getting us not to compromise, but getting us to be the Authentic Self we were born to be.

Sometimes that means stripping away our coping mechanisms, a process Solar Eclipses are notorious for. They aren’t gentle, they aren’t subtle. When a Solar Eclipse hits your life you KNOW it.

This painting, known as "The Flood" by Paul Merwart (1855-1902) gives us the image of

Deucalion holding his wife Pyrrha above the flood, protecting her as her own. We can see

this image literally, of course. But it may be even more important to see this idea on the philosophical 

level where Deucalion and Pyrrah are our dominant and more subtle or recessive life or

thought processes. In that light, Deucalion is the clarity of thought which carries our less

robust and perhaps more emotional nature - that which holds us above the flood which is all

we have been 'flooded' with which may or may not be applicable to our lives in this moment...

or as we move on. 

So that you have degrees for reference, anyone with any point, node or axis between 6 Scorpio and 16 Scorpio is having a very personal year all about remaking who you are in this world and what your life is built around. (And you already know that. Sorry about the headaches.)

Those with points, nodes or axis cusps between 6 and 16 Aquarius OR Leo are feeling a bit broadsided because things they haven’t considered are knocking them for a loop. (Again, my sympathies.)

Those with points, axis cusps or nodes positioned between 6 and 16 Taurus are either having a hard time standing up for themselves or being opposed by a life which just won’t get out of your face. (Such confrontations with Existence are absolutely exhausting, and you can’t win. My advice is make the change and get past it.)

Two other groups are having the hardest times: those with ‘stuff’ (by now you know the drill) between 9 and 13 Libra OR 9 and 13 Virgo…and those with ‘stuff’ (yeah, I know) between 9 and 13 Aries or 9 and 13 Gemini. Whatever is represented by such Libra and/or Virgo points (always remember – the WHAT is being ‘hit’ by a transit shows us which attribute, habit or area of life needs our attention)…those parts of your life are being challenged in such a way that feels very unfeeling. Even brutal. That bruising is going to continue until you realize the information isn’t personal. WHY you think it IS personal is the core of the issue: solve that and you’ll be on your fluffy way.

As for those 9-through-13 Aries or Gemini points, those areas of your life either need re-tooling, refreshing, refocusing or some out-and-out change. Letting go of what’s easy and taking on your inner core is the crux of things.

With all that said, one other note worth mentioning: Klotho (initiations, beginnings, ‘bringing to be’ energetics) will be going direct on July 28th.

That means that as you read this post, Klotho is just moving into it's July 26-30th station, a fact which makes Deucalion turn to direct something of 'a first domino to fall.'

In turning to direct motion, Klotho represents new things coming to be in the life/world around us and how this is a time when we can bring new and valuable things to life through our own decisions and efforts, which evidently are an adjunct to the representative 'purification' of whatever our 11 Scorpio predisposition, habit or reactive-responsive ‘structural defense’ may have come to be.

In terms of Klotho's station, Deucalion going direct first tells us how to the degree that we have done the work to rise to a level of clarity will we be able to successfully bring what we want to be into being.

Flipping this around, we would also say that Klotho's station happening after Deucalion's makes this rising 'above the emotional flood' something which can lead to new situations, opportunities and a new grace of comfort with others - and life itself.

That Klotho is taking station at 3 Sagittarius emphasizes the good we do in this world and – curiously – again references our ‘native programming’ by speaking to “skeletons in the family closet”…which for some may be systemic, but for many if not most of us tends to be the imprinting we got from our growing-up years.

A note on that: having met up with a whole series of people and situations involving family dynamics (and the results of same) during 2013, it’s well worth understanding that who a parent is in their own right is NOT necessarily who the child internalizes. The child may internalize a perfectly sane parent as ‘a crazy person’ because that child was born (as we see in their chart) as someone who sees things in a new or different or non-traditional light.

Then again, the reverse may be true. We may think our parents are just a little odd when in truth they’re really off the rails. Those differences can be seen in the chart; the well-schooled astrologer will be able to tell you the difference between who you think your parents are and who your parents are for real.

You may not like it. You may not even believe it. But if someone else was sitting in the room during the conversation (or reading the report on such given to you by the astrologer), providing they know your parents they would recognize that difference.

It’s to think about.

In this somewhat less 'traditionally Greek myth' version of the fates known as 'Le Destin' 

or 'The Destiny' by Henry Siddons Mowbray, we see four 'Fates' (not three, as there are in

Greek myth) sitting at a table planning what will yet come or be attempted, all under the omnipotent

watch of nature. Mankind plans, the universe corrects those plans, teaching us the pros

 and cons of life - and our thinking - in the process.

No matter where you are on your journey, the tides of time now seem ripe to force us to give within or to become more willing to be giving from within.

At the moment, insights may well help us ‘rise above the emotional flood’ in our souls.

But whether that helps us sail into brighter and calmer waters? That remains to be seen, as that's the process of the which starting in September leads us into November's Solar Eclipse at 11 Scorpio. The question is always going to be Scorpionic and thus challenging to us at a very deep and intrinsic level.

And it's to remember that though we may be scared of being left to 'drown' in our own emotions, that very statement is about becoming more of who we are. Human beings are emotional creatures. Any effort to escape our feelings only means we're abandoning our Self. Only once we realize that can we begin to understand that it doesn't matter what we have, what we achieve, how fit or pretty we are...none of that matters if we're afraid of the magnitude of our own feelings.

Water is thought to be the most powerful of the astrological (metaphysical) elements. It can quench fire, slowly but surely dissolve the hardest stone and turn what might be only a wind into a hurricane.

Yet water - emotion - is the very stuff of life. Water is the essence of nurturance which turns dessication into fertility. And just as water is a primal force in natural  transformations, metaphysical water - the power and potency of emotions - is creative or destructive. It is the essence of human liberation and the driving force behind all which is devastating to our lives and all life on Earth.

In emotion lies the power of healing, but that power is never generative in and of itself as water contained goes stagnant - which is why from time to time, nature topples our inner walls so we will not...so that we cannot go on alone.     
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