Mercury in Libra

The Hubble Space Telescope's view of the jet being emitted from Black Hole M87

(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

After Mercury in Virgo comes Mercury in Libra, which by any metaphysical name is the opportunity and need to make connections and to recognize how what we do and how we do it generates how others react.

And who we attract to react with.

And what we’re all about in this moment.

The famous Shakespearian quote about ‘all the world is a stage’ is very Mercury in Libra. Life is our stage and to some extent, life may feel ‘staged.’ Given how much energy is still being expressed through water signs, it would not be mysterious in the least to feel a bit disconnected as Mercury enters Libra (on September 9th at 7:08 in the morning UT/+0 time) or for the just-shy-of-three weeks that Mercury will be passing through this sign. After all, Libra is an interactive sign which is all about the idea of the thing and water is always the symbol of how we feel about things.

So given that Mercury is the emblem of our thoughts and choices and how well we do things…or how healthy our choice of what to do is…the ‘how we feel’ about all such issues – which are now being experienced through interactions of all kinds with others and life in general – is likely to have and reflect whatever quandaries we have as individuals with the difference between the ‘idea of the thing’ and real feelings being experienced in real time.

You know, as we go about doing whatever it is we do in life.

This may be no simple matter…at least not in the sense of what we’re doing versus what’s going on in our (Mercurial) minds, that is. With this shift into Libra happening just after we’ve entered the ‘breaking down’ period in advance of the November Solar Eclipse, anything which is outmoded in our life is beginning to shift.

Mind you, we may not think those things are outmoded. We may be just ‘fine’ with them. But whatever they are, they are not serving us well in the sense that they are not allowing us or enabling our ability to be the truth of who we are way deep down inside. We may think what we’re doing or how we’re doing it is just nifty. In fact, that’s pretty much a given. But whatever you feel shifting now – particularly as that pertains to who you associate and how you go about associating with people and your world in general?

That’s the ‘underlying’ nuance likely to continue throughout these weeks of Mercury in Libra. On the surface, we can expect the pace of life to pick up. There will be more which needs doing, more focus required on and in what we do, and the smart money is thinking through not just what our position or concept on any given subject is, but recognizing how that does – or doesn’t “fit” with those around us. 

Or how the world works.

The fact that we do have this very dichotomous inner-versus-outer energetic going on means you may feel like you’re wearing a ‘social mask.’ Or conversely, you may want to be all about living on one level while trying to ignore something else.

That wouldn’t be the best move, by the by. If you’re (Mercury) thinking you can operate as you want to and not just do what you (Libra) do to get results in the short run, that’s skating on pretty thin ice.
And since Scorpio – the sign of the solar eclipse – is “fixed water” and therefore metaphysical ice, that would be a pretty iffy bet. Yes, we are sure to see some unenlightened bulldozer brains thinking they can avoid evolutionary force, but that would be sort of like skating on thin ice.

Do you really like cold water all that much?

Libra being the sign behind Scorpio puts this Mercury in Libra passage in the 12th house position to the eclipse – so it would be natural to be either thinking through where you might do better if you changed things up (self criticism) or, if you’re one of those people who doesn’t like being self reflective, to be getting a lot of notes, critiques and out-and-out complaints from others.

Then again, Scorpio is also the 2nd house harmonic to Libra. It’s the sign after Libra, in other words, which on the zodiacal harmonic level says we may now be doing our growing through learning from others. Or through having others challenge us or evoke our deeper emotional issues.

Scary? Maybe yes. But useful? Also yes! And that we are meant to consider things differently…? That works here too, as any planet which moves into Libra immediately encounters the position of supermassive Black Hole M87. Black holes – by any account – are areas of space (the general time/space continuum) where what we think of as ‘reality’ goes through some serious alterations. One of my favorite descriptions of entering a black hole (which is referred to as ‘crossing the event horizon’ – an esoteric term if there ever was one!) …is how that which the Black Hole is on the inside is SO very different than what’s on the outside that to cross that event horizon would be experienced as being turned into ‘cosmic spaghetti.’

(For the record, I think this description came from Paul Halpern’s book ‘Cosmic Wormholes,’ but I’m not positive.)

Mercury's Libra ingress chart

September 9, 2013 - 7:08 a.m. (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel (location not specific)

 

The astrological point (and to some degree the astrophysical point) is that Black Holes basically do two things: they suspend our sense of ‘time in the space of our existence’ and they alter our sense of what is…and therefore what is true and on the more mundane level, what works and what doesn’t work in the glorious thing we know as our life.

So as Mercury – representing our thoughts, our communications, our choices and all which goes with them and which provokes them – crosses into Libra, this will reflect in…

a.) Our moving from a more personal and private mode of thinking into several months to come of focusing our our world in a less personal and more global and interactive way.

b.) Our encountering some new and different ways of seeing or experiencing things…or the need to see them in/through a different perspective…or people and/or situations which force upon us something which in turn gets us to see something in or about life in a new or different way.

And all of this will at some level refer both to a major shift in how we interact with others and our ability or willingness to balance the ‘them’ and their needs against our Self and our preferences…whatever we’ve been doing which does or doesn’t serve that need to interact fully and at least intimately within our Self (if not with others)…and the repercussions of who we are being, who we are willing to be, what we are willing to risk in terms of our own experience of being who we are – the ‘yes it’s right/no it’s not functional’ of all this as the metaphysical operand which dictates/contributes to why we’re moving ahead in life or how we’re being stymied by others.

Are we being respected for who we are is now coming ‘above the horizon’ in our own mind…and we’re beginning to grapple with why we may not be garnering the respect we truly deserve.

Generally that is going to be because we’re not willing to risk, but it could also be because our basis for risk or the values that we hold are simply too ‘me’ oriented that others (read: life) isn’t/aren’t willing to humor our self-concerned notions.

(Is that putting it nicely enough?)

Another interesting factoid here: Mercury is entering Libra in conjunction with asteroid Circe. Circe is always a reference to our being reduced to our most instinctual level until we are willing to resist the allure to give up the more challenging aspects of our human nature or life – personal or professional.

That sort of echoes the whole M87 thing. And the incoming Solar Eclipse thing.

Gosh, it’s a quorum!

Seriously…this is not quite a quorum per se, but any time we begin seeing ‘themes’ being built by various astrological factors, we know that ‘issue’ is not only likely to be on the table, but be in bas relief.

Or to put it another way, it’s one thing to ignore the 600 pound gorilla in the room, it’s another thing to ignore the multi-ton T-Rex breathing down your neck.

That this Mercury ingress occurs with a grand square being presented in fixed signs says we’re not exactly jumping to make any changes.

With this particular grand square being formed by South Node in Taurus, North Node-Saturn-Moon in Scorpio, Juno in Aquarius and Mars in Leo is a pretty good image of plain old human stubbornness. We like what we like and most of us are going to be going for the old ‘it’s working well enough’ line.

And that would be fine except for that pesky incoming Solar Eclipse. Considering that Solar Eclipses are all about taking away the ‘well enough’ compromises in our life in order to confound us by pushing us through our emotional barriers (read: emotional event horizons) so that through our experience of being emotional metaphysical  spaghetti we will at least contemplate changing the shape of our noodle…(I happen to favor those lovely little corkscrew pastas, personally) …?

Let’s just say we can resist all we like and we’re still not likely to win. Why? Because the universe is bigger than we are. That’s just how it is.

That this grand square is in fixed signs suggests that some of us would be willing to change IF we felt that what we are thinking of moving on to wouldn’t come as too big of a shock – maybe to us, and maybe to others.

May I refer you back to that ‘thin ice’ Scorpio thing? You may skate and get by for a little while, but there’s slow acclimation and then there’s the shocking, chilling plunge method. Life doesn’t really care which way you get where you need to go – life just wants us to get there. So we do have a little bit of latitude, it’s just that not getting in the water is probably not this part of the equation.

At least not if your chart is in any way seriously aspected by this incoming 11 Scorpio eclipse. So get your charts out: do you have a chart point OR axis point OR node (north or south) between 6 and 16 of Taurus, Scorpio, Leo or Aquarius? Do you have some point or node or vertical or horizontal axis which falls between 9 and 13 of Sagittarius, Libra, Gemini or Aries?

These are the signs and degrees which are going to get more or less spaghetti-ized during the coming eclipse. So look at your chart. If your chart is aspected, you’re probably already feeling a twitch, twinge or other itch. There’s been a shift in life’s vibe, a change in the atmosphere – something.

And if you have more than one point which falls into this list? The more points…the greater the spectrum of the effect. The closer to 11 degrees in any of the signs cited, the stronger the effects – which is to say the greater the totality of your change(s) is/are going to be.

The changes we end up going through in these next few months (and on into next year and the year after that) don’t have to be terrible. They can be pretty wonderful. Even downright happy-making! And what’s the difference between these poles?

Our willingness to change. Our willingness to own up to what is no longer viable or workable or sensible or productive and from that, the willingness to – and the making it a priority to make whatever changes are needed, no matter how unlikely or far fetched or “impossible” they seem.

There’s also this other ‘little thing’ which is set up for us to contemplate as Mercury moves into Libra. It’s called a grand sextile.

If you read the recent piece on dwarf planet Sedna’s station (which posted back on August 23rd) you already understand that this symbol is not “about” Judaism or any other religion – at least not on the metaphysical level. The grand sextile – which is six points joined in a chart so that they form two grand trines which are at sextiles to each other – is a symbol of those opportunities which come from accepting inevitabilities (those processes some think of as “fate”) and conversely, those “fates” which befall us because we refuse to move on in our life or continue growing.

In our last “grand sextile chapter” (the one we talked about in that Sedna post) the points involved were as follows:

1. South Node in Taurus

2. Jupiter in Cancer

3. Mercury in Virgo

4. Saturn in Scorpio

5. Pluto/Facies in Capricorn

6. Chiron in Pisces

I’ve list them that way because it makes it easier to simply note that positions 1, 5 and 6 basically haven’t changed. But instead of just Jupiter sitting at position #2, we have Jupiter plus Black Moon Lilith, which suggests this period is all about where we are either avoiding (denying) the need to grow as a person…or that our growth is being denied or stymied or otherwise hindered by others because we are not seeing our part in that process.

(Welcome to the wonderful world of being forced to look in life’s mirror, everyone!)

At position #3, instead of Mercury doing a swift do-si-do-and-scoot number we also have Ceres, the image of ‘the plan’ which in combination with the essence of protection for ‘our environment’ asks us whether our plans are perhaps too focused on Self or whether they focus solely on others to the exclusion of that Self, whether we even have a plan or whether – given the Libra/Scorpio divide implied in this general Mercurial contemplation – whether our plan and protective aims with regard to Self and our plans and protective aims for others are incongruous.

It could be. We might be really good on one side and really destructive on the other side. It happens.

At position #4, instead of just Saturn we have Saturn, the North Node and the Moon. As someone who owns a Scorpio Moon I can just break out here in a minor key chorus of ‘Oh joy, oh rapture…’ (which sometimes makes me think ‘rapture’ should be replaced by ‘raptor’) (yes, I’m feeling very prehistoric today – thanks for noticing).

More to the point, since I happen to own not just a Scorpio Moon but a Scorpio Saturn/Moon (and one which is natally very close to these numbers) I can tell you that this combination tends – even without the North Node being involved) to focus very adeptly on who we are to others and our ability to structure our life with regards to others…and with others as part of our lives without loss of Self. (Or self esteem, which is also important.)

Saturn/Moon in Scorpio can manifest as fear. Then again, it can manifest as the ability to walk through fear despite all (even yes, that shaking in your bones thing.) In conjunction with the North Node, if nothing else were involved we would be thinking in terms of what we should do in this regard.

But with this Saturn-North Node-Moon thing involved not just in a grand trine but in a grand sextile? With a solar eclipse headed this way which is going to conjunct this very set of positions?

Mercury in Libra is all about thinking through the ‘idea’ of what it means to be part of this world, a member of the human race and what or how you can be who you are in a manner which works not just for you because it’s what you like or prefer, but which works for you because it works for the ‘all’ of your life and everybody in that life, seeing that we all need and depend on one another.

We are learning to choose who to be on a new level. We are learning that who we choose to be with, to be who we are with and how we go about doing all of that – it matters.

Maybe more than we thought it did.
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The Sagittarius Lunar Eclipse: Next Steps

An artist's rendering of a lunar eclipse as seen from the Moon

(credit: Lucien Rudaux, 1874-1947)

Arriving at long last at the final eclipse for the first half of 2013, we are taken into the realm of early Sagittarius. The degree 4 Sagittarius is obviously one of the first ten degrees of this most worldly of fire signs. So at once we know that which happens during these few days – and particularly on the date of the Lunar Eclipse (May 25) are emotional high water marks or ‘illumination’ points, as are all Full Moons.

And that this particular eclipse occurs in Sagittarius, that is about our ‘vision’ for ourselves and how well things are – or maybe aren’t going. Sagittarius and the 9th house which is native to Sagittarius is where our ideas reach the ‘application’ stage. It’s where the rubber meets the proverbial road and we our efforts either gain traction or our wheels begin to spin.

So the next time you hear someone in the media (a Sagittarian business) talk about ‘political spin’…now you know how apt that term is, right? Everything about the media is Sagittarian and 9th house in nature as the 9th house is all about ‘getting out there’ or in the case of information, ‘getting the word out there,’ which is what connects Sagittarius to travel, publishing, formalized religion, the media and education all in one. And since fire signs are at their heart about the ‘right thing’ (i.e., the honest and correct thing), thus we come to law and legal proceedings as a sorting out of what’s true or not true, otherwise known as ‘letting everybody know whose guilty of lying’ or breaking some law.

I love understanding why concepts which sound so different fall under the same sign, don’t you?

In particular, 4 Sagittarius is a degree known to carry peace as its core and basic aim. But be forewarned! When there’s ample provocation, the normally sunny and cheerful 4 Sagittarius energy flips, becoming fraught with righteously ‘right-driven’ energetics.

One of the things to reckon with here is the fact that in a season of evolutionary earth-and-water (Taurus-Scorpio) change and growth, this is the “odd element out.” That’s not to say fire is an ‘odd’ element (they’re all odd sometimes!) but rather that Taurus and Scorpio are a polarity.

So the Scorpio lunar eclipse against the Taurus solar eclipses have been part and parcel of the same sort of process, namely that of getting us more in touch with our inner self at a more realistic and tangible level.

Then we add in Sagittarius. In terms of zodiacal order, Sagittarius represents the next step in the process. So things which have been afoot or getting started now proceed. Some of us will try and ignore the possible glitches and find that the glitches don’t ignore us. (I hate it when a glitch bites me, don’t you?) Then again, some of us will proceed with caution and recognize the glitch as it appears, reflecting on what has been learned of late – thus avoiding the pitfall.

Or at least grappling with it, preparing to cross the pit without getting clobbered by the pendulum.

Harry Clarke's illustration for Poe's 'The Pit and the Pendulum' (1919)

(Yes, I’m in an Edgar Allen Poe mood.)

It’s decently easy to see this lunar eclipse as inspiring us to get our get-along into gear so as to get things done. And some of us will do just that. Those who have experienced the intensity of April-May’s Taurus/Scorpio energetics as oppressive or constricting may well now feel liberated and go bounding off along their path.

And sometimes that’s just the idea.

Then again, sometimes that’s just foolhardy.

Considering this is Sagittarius we’re talking about, it would seem to all depends on whether you’re properly prepared and willing to ‘see’ your way through the problems, the challenges, the places where your ‘truth’ meets up with a world which has a few truths of its own. How do you fit in? Are you willing to fit in? Can you swim in a ‘big pond’ with the big fish? Or maybe you’re a big fish encountering small fish hoping they’re not going to flounder.

(I’m guessing flounders really hate that expression.)

 
The semi-sextile between Scorpio (the April lunar eclipse) and Sagittarius is generally some challenge to our ego. Call it feeling offended with the fact that some idea of yours doesn’t work…or that someone has called you on some inconsistency which amounts to having traipsed out into a crowded street without remembering to get dressed.

(And you’re not a nudist.)

It may be simply that you realize you’ve been on the wrong track. Or that your ‘right track’ is more wrong than you thought.

That’s the lunar/lunar eclipse side of it. And then we have the solar (Taurus)/lunar (Sagittarian) side of this evolutionary process. For some, this will be the 210 degree yes, I get it shift into positive gear. For some this will be the oh gosh, now I realize I still have work to do (also known as ‘I’m not as free as I thought I was going to be’) moment.

But never fear…lunar eclipses are truly emotional signposts. Their effects have an ‘acute’ cycle which lasts about three months. Then what we learn (or – ahem! – don’t learn) fades back into the woodwork. When all goes well, the evocative moments which occur around the time of any lunar eclipse ‘meld into’ the greater shift denoted by the solar eclipse – in this case the issue of Taurean self recognition, self valuation, re-evaluation, recognizing how much more you can grow – all that stuff.

Not that anything in the Taurus-Scorpio neighborhood of our lives is done or anything. Hopefully you’ve heard me when I’ve said that this Taurus-Scorpio who I am and who I am with regards to others cycle (which includes the ever popular ‘how to get ahead in life without falling flat on my face or otherwise getting embarrassed lastingly and beyond belief’)…how that cycle as denoted by our yearly ‘eclipse seasons’ (two each year) began in November of 2012 and are going to be with us through October of 2014.

That means there’s a total of five ‘eclipse seasons’ which feature either Scorpio or Taurus solar eclipses, of which we’ve now gone through two.

Get the picture?

With this eclipse, as with seemingly every eclipse, we get a couple of planetary pictures. The first is a t-square which features the Sun and Moon – the stars, the ‘us’ in this celestial drama.

Sun – Hel – Aldebaran is pretty plainly a challenge to integrity. Phaethon-Chaldea is ‘quick to choose the old way’ whether that’s the old way out, the old way of doing things, the old way as in ‘traditions’ or just some stick-in-the-mud thing…in the mental sign of Gemini this could even be the old way of viewing mentality or wanting to go with what you know instead of learning something new, and so on.

But then again, this is a lunar eclipse. So with Sun - Hel - Aldebaran being in Gemini and in opposition to the Moon's position in Sagittarius, might this also be 'finding the flaw' in someone's thinking? Or the plan? Or the means and methods currently being employed?

In this scenario, Moon in Sagittarius would represent the finding out (or learning) the truth about some thing...or how life (the Sun) has been made harder (Hel) by some (Gemini) idea or thought which can no longer be held as having (Aldebaran) integrity. 

This seems particularly apt considering how this 'Sun and friends' grouping is positioned as the goal of the t-square. So we want to probably make it hard to be challenged, perhaps? Or maybe that which we have been insisting on doing has actually been making our life harder? Perhaps in our efforts not to have our integrity challenged, we've put ourselves in a position to be our own worst enemy to our own integrity?

And yet…and yet…this is Moon-Hebe in Sagittarius we're talking about. So the Moon-motivation is emotionally driven. It may be convictions. Or some monetary goal. We may be driven by habits or that fervent need to be right which is sometimes the 'down' side of Sagittarius. Hebe being the the idea of being of service (and optimally, being rewarded by being of service), maybe the question is whether our aims are misdirected in trying to get the world to work for us rather than being of service in the world and thus earning our rewards. 

If you want to get all gnat’s derriere about this diagram (which I tried to get in constructing it, and man – there’s a whole bunch of gnats who are ticked off at me!) ….you’ll notice two separate t-squares drawn in the image. That’s because squares and oppositions have a maximum range of 5 degrees. So while Hebe (at 2 Sagittarius) squares Fomalhaut, Neptune and Deneb (which by now I’ve typed so many times I’m beginning to think it’s either a law firm or a singing group)…and Hebe also opposes anything between 2 and 7 in Gemini (which here would be Phaethon, Chaldaea, Sun and asteroid Hel), Hebe is not in opposition to Aldebaran.

AHA! Integrity is not opposed by Service. A good thought indeed. And one which would seem to imply that there is some merit to be being of use and doing something useful while going forward in this world.

The Moon, on the other hand does oppose Aldebaran. So there’s something emotional which is being confronted by questions of integrity.

In short, what I tried to do is color code this drawing so you’d see the two slightly different t-squares. (You can let me know if I get a passing grade on this effort – just leave a comment.)

Either way, the “t” to this t-square is Fomalhaut Deneb and Neptune. Fomalhaut says we succeed only where our aims, our means, our methods and our ability to face ourselves as part of the process is neither corrupt, corrupted or corruptive.

Oh…and by the by, this has nothing to do with whether you like something. In the land of Pisces (read: Piscean ocean) it is the greater Creation Manifest which sets the terms, standards and lines which must be face and not summarily crossed.

Deneb, which gets less press than it probably deserves, is a shamanistic energetic. But since shamanistic energies have to do more with nature and time and evolution and existence than mankind and our Earthly lives, this may be why we talk less about this star than we might otherwise.

People – understandably – get very routed towards Things Earthy and Materialistic. It never ceases to amaze me that people will ask why they don’t feel like they’re living a ‘spiritual’ life when all their attention is on Earthy or Earthly means of understanding.

Be that as it may, people often reject the esoteric then wonder why they don’t understand it.

Anyway…since Deneb and Fomalhaut appear from our Earthly perspective to be so closely aligned (which holds true even if you go back a couple of thousand years) it’s likely we simply interpret Deneb’s rather ‘other worldly’ intuition and potency as part and parcel of Fomalhaut.

But with Neptune in the mix? Personally, I’ve been wondering if this isn’t why we’ve been seeing more and more investigation into the paranormal (at least we’re seeing more of it here in the US) as Neptune has moved through the end of Aquarius and into Pisces, ‘awakening’ the ‘mass consciousness’ which is so very Neptunian to energies which are beyond the norm – and yes, very much Denebian.

Will this ‘expanding of our knowledge’ which is so Sagittarian mean that we will see something more in the way of thinking of the world and our universe in a more – dare I say – whole or holistic sort of way?

Maybe. On the other hand, it may bring challenges to same…which is fine. One of these days human beings are going to wake up and realize that E=mc2’d means we are all contiguous. And then they’re going to realize what that means, and that those who are able to release their egos are not (almost by definition) the people who are limited.

That’s my Sagittarian eclipse statement for the day!

But in the t-square? That Neptune-Fomalhaut-Deneb is what we have to get past. And those who can’t get past it are going to be taught a lesson by it (probably through the auspices of someone or something which can embody that energy)…and that will set them back on their Moon/Hebe derriere.

At least their emotional one.

And from there the question becomes, how do I make this work?

Ah, life…ain’t it grand?

Moving on to t-square number two…

 
Where t-square number one focused on the ‘us,’ the Sun and Moon of this eclipse, this next t-square focuses on the Nodes. The nodes, as we remember, are groups and collectives and relationships…and our relationships with groups, others and collectives.

Read this starting point as: North Node-Psyche in Scorpio as the ‘you need to’ (North Node) deal with the mind or mindset (Psyche) of the Scorpio (joint) dynamic.

Then we get to Vaticana, Sualocin, Juno and Icarus, all in Aquarius, the land of results, acceptance, income and finding one’s place in the world, the community, amongst your peers – all that stuff.

Juno-Icarus is a straight-forward need to manage impatience and not to jump the gun. So no gun-jumping. Evidently haste will lead to waste now – that, or a hole in your shoe.

Another fixed star with an ineffective PR firm, Sualocin is totally of this world, though it describes that which charms us and maybe 'enchants' us, but which we can't quite put our finger on.

So maybe we’re being tempted to try to get past some challenge by saying we don't understand? Or maybe we'll try to charm our way out of something? Maybe we’re realizing that real self-discipline (Juno) is that which requires that we think not of ourselves as the object, but that which drives the success of the project or aim.

Ah yes…maybe so. (I’m moving into my Charlie Chan imitation now.)

Vaticana, which I have been doing some research on, is not the Vatican. By that I mean, while the Vatican is related to the same idea which gives us the astrological symbol Vaticana, Vaticana does not say “Catholic Vatican.”

Think of it as something akin to a 'which came first, the chicken or the egg?' sort of thing. 

The original concept behind Vaticana comes from the Etruscan name for the hill upon which the Vatican stands. And while I could bore you with a bunch of history about who did what when and how that hill came to be where the Catholic Church built its global "HQ," I won’t. What's important here is that the Vatican has come to be the name for that place where the Catholic church has centralized itself - and the not-unsubstantial amount of power ceded to it by various Italian heads of state along the Roman way (which is not to be confused with the Appian Way, which is a whole other Roman way.)

A section of the Via Appia  - that most famous of all Roman
roads. This section, replete with ancient stones, runs through
a section of Rome itself.

(photo credit: Kleusky, September 2005)

Vaticana, main belt asteroid number 416 is a very main belt asteroid – by which I mean it’s an asteroid which pretty much stays near the center of the asteroid belt. That 'centrality' relates very nicely to the idea of the hill the Catholic church built upon, centralizing its power.

We all have Vaticana in our charts. So where we see Vaticana, by sign, by house, by association with other asteroids, planets, nodes et al that points to where or how we will build our power.

Or perhaps resist building power. That can happen too. 

Currently in Aquarius and in this figure atop the cross quarter line at 15 Aquarius, Vaticana suggests very strongly that part of this lunar eclipse is about moving from a ‘thinking about’ or ‘planning phase’ into an active phase which by its nature is public, worldly and maybe even global.

The question would be whether Vaticana supports aiming for personal gain in Aquarius…or whether this asteroid is one which says power built only for the benefit of the self will come to grief.

If you look at Vatican history, that would seem to be the tale.

Anyway…the goal of this t-square is also interesting, as it’s expressed by South Node/Menkar, a making it easier to intersect with the collective in such a manner which makes MY life and MY relationships to those I interact with easier.

Apparently this is all about whether you require others play along with you based on YOUR rules…or whether you’re willing to be part of the greater standard and submit your ego to the ‘greater good’ out of which will come your benefit.

Still with me?

Last figure…a grand trine in water signs.

 
Chiron is that thing we don’t know and which we desperately want to know…but which we can’t stand the idea of having to go through learning. In Pisces, Chiron represents all the touchy, disquieting emotional moments we’ve all had which have been set off through dealings with others and the general state of life itself.

Evidently that’s not letting up. (Huzzah - not!)

The North Node/Psyche in Scorpio we discussed just a minute ago. The only thing I’d add here is that of all the asteroids out there, Psyche is one of the big ones. Really! Asteroid Psyche is about 200 km across, which means its mass is about 1% of the entire asteroid belt (that’s an estimate, mind you).

But if the asteroid belt, in lying between the personal planets and most specifically Mars (motivation, impetus, action) and Jupiter (knowledge, gain, expansion) represents all that we ‘go through’ on the way to gaining that Jovian knowledge (from which we move on to Saturnine accomplishment, then knowing our Psyche is one of the big things we meet up with along the way.

So maybe this is a moment when you either get to know your own mind…or in not knowing your own mind (or whether your mind is being mindful) you continue to meet up with problems or pleasures.

This is a grand trine in emotional water, after all!

The most personal side of this emotional equation is Cancer – our experience of emotion on a very basic, humanistic level. Scorpio is about us and someone else. Pisces is about the world and life and all the ‘ugh!’ or delights which go with that. But Cancer? Cancer is our native, inborn feeling base. Once we knew we were alive as little kidlets, we started having feelings. That’s Cancer.

Vesta-Pappos is the shape (or nature) of the cost. Of what? Of being who you are and that involved in doing what you want, or maybe even need to do. Especially when combined with Charybdis - the requirement that we keep trying (and trying) lest we get eaten up by some monster – this raises the specter of this Sagittarius lunar eclipse as a time when we’re all dealing with something. Or some things. For you, that may be bills. For someone else, that may be some sort of feeling of failure. Or anticipation about what lies ahead.

Maybe all at the same time. That’s the thing about Sagittarius…there are many possibilities and our challenge is to find the one which works.

Then we add in Ceres – the idea of having, making or following a plan. In Cancer, Ceres asks that we keep our emotional ‘feet on the ground’ as we go about doing what needs doing. And in point of fact, in this grand trine, Ceres is a help in that it serves to keep us grounded – which may or may not be comforting for those of us who want to soar among the clouds.

Evidently it’s not yet time to soar.

The last symbol in this grouping is a much-loved on, fixed star, dog star Sirius. To have Sirius in any grand trine implies a touch of brilliance in the mix. But is that the brilliance which leads us on – or the brilliance of not going too far too fast?

Uh, yes. Whichever.

And maybe both.

That’s the thing about lunar eclipses…they evoke an understanding. When all is said and done we get a lot of celestial commentaries on the nuances of the situation, but the ‘solution’ to the question is that which we just ‘know’ is there.

It may not be what we like. Or maybe not what we want to hear from our guiding angels.

(But if they're our better angels, can it really be for our worse?). 

Those of us with Suns or Moons in early Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius or Pisces are going to get the strongest ‘hits’ from this eclipse. The Pisces are trying to move on from something, the Virgos are getting into something, the Geminis are dealing with realizations and the Sagittarians are coming to a whole new understanding.

However this eclipse affects you and those you love, Iet’s hope it’s an enlightening and inspiring time. At it’s best, this is just the kind of eclipse which opens a doorway to a greater understanding of things which were beyond us mere weeks ago…

…and which now provide us with beacons of light, by which we walk into a more honest and wholly productive future.
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