Sun in Scorpio: The Edict Human

  A solar prominance as photographed by NASA (September 2006)

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I make no bones about it: the following post is written in an entirely
subjective voice. My feelings are passionate, obvious and one-sided,
which is the gist of where we all start with Scorpio, a sign which stirs us
internally and which challenges us to then merge and marry that to the
world around us through the people and opportunities we encounter.

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Whether we are able to be honest with ourselves is where we start.
Then Scorpio evolves, becoming a journey through finding out
how honest we are willing to be with others - and how honestly
we will deal with them and grow ourselves to our full emotional potential.
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Wherever Scorpio is in your chart (by house cusp) symbolizes the
manner in which  you will experience Scorpio. That house describes both
the positive and negative tools you will tend to utilize in the various forms
of interaction Scorpio asks that we master and the area of life in which
you will either grow...or where you will experience your greatest
defeats - defeats which amount to self-incarceration through
succumbing to those weaknesses you refuse to face.

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A few weeks ago now, I had come to a breaking point with my own ability to deny an emotional truth. That truth had to do with my own feelings, the emotional intensity of a relationship which was a faceted ball of glittering silence, the deeply buried emotionality of the other person…and why it all wasn’t working.

Like Scorpionic magma, words forced their way up through a throat which was helpless to be constrained as his isolation translated into my torture, as so often is the undermining mechanism which manifests through Scorpio fusions. The layers of emotions melted and refrozen which had become our shroud of lies would have been our Scorpio wealth had we not converted them into a toxic source of excuses.

We had borrowed from our souls, creating an unpayable emotional debt which in the beautiful if cruel realm of Scorpio meant that instead of working on mutual compromises we were instead pitting our ideals (social, societal or otherwise) against the reality of life including the messy realities so very much a part of what life is.

And thus, instead of facing our own fears in each other's presence, allowing the understanding of ideas and ideals to bring to flower something beautiful and intimately reconciled by our very human imperfections...

…instead we ended up compromising ourselves.

Instead of conceiving our Scorpio rebirth to mutuality, we each choose our conceptualized death of Self.

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I have a Scorpio Moon, so I know from what I speak. Anyone with any significant placement in Scorpio (and you know who you are) understands how the Scorpio process will always tempt us to deny the reality of the necessity to be human.

Our temptation to run away. That will always tempt us just as surely as the ease with which - in our Scorpio fears - we can be flagrantly diverted into falling prey to someone else’s manipulated truth – a truth they generally preach while we stand there starkly afraid of...and for our naked, human, life.

And where courage can't sustain us, our fears will drive us mad.

Scorpio tempts us to be the person who preaches but does not practice, much as Scorpio tempts us to practice what is preached even though that will deny us the full experience of being human.

Sometimes I think such ‘rules’ are made up just because someone was so sorely afflicted by their own fears that they couldn’t cope. So they come up with a ‘rule’ and hope that by stamping ‘that’ out, they won’t have to think about it any more.

That isn’t to say Scorpio doesn’t support rules. Well, not rules per se, but boundaries. Rules are theoretical – and thus the providence of air signs.  “Boundaries” is an earth term, and that’s still not Scorpio, though because Scorpio is water in its ‘fixed’ mode, we do think of it astrologically as ice – and who hasn’t experienced iciness as someone’s emotional expression of their absolute solid boundary?

One of the Crystal Ice Caves in California's Lava Beds National Monument

(photo credit: National Park Service)

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(If you haven’t, please take one halo from petty cash and thank your lucky stars.)

But when it comes to dealing with the ‘you can’t, because’ power of rules, with Scorpio this becomes a duality sort of thing – which is fitting, as Scorpio is one of three zodiac signs with dual rulers.

Note to anyone human reading this: two of those three signs are water signs. That’s probably a good clue as to how hard our emotional lives are…and on a metaphysical level, how hard they’re supposed to be.

And here so many of us think feeling should just be easy. Uh, no. Apparently not.

But back to the Scorpio duality…the operational imperatives of Scorpio in the world of ‘you can’t, because’ has the choice part of the equation (to do or not to do) which astrology sees as set off by Martian motion…and the response-reaction-implication OF the choice, that thing which comes of choosing to – or choosing not to (or which you choose) which none of us can known going in.

That would be the Pluto part.

The thing about Scorpio situations which we see pictured there is that they are and aren’t all about us. We do get choices. We can choose to opt in or opt out…and we can choose what we opt into or opt out of.

Many is the time I have said that Scorpio is all about the testing of our self worth, our security, our satisfaction with our lives and our self respect. And here’s where that comes in. Those who choose productively, grow in security and life power. Those who don’t – those who ‘play it safe’ are using some of that Scorpio energy to build a wall.

The problem with those walls is that by definition, they are limiting. And if you know anything about the power of ice…or in Scorpio’s alternative natural guise – a swamp – you know you are dealing with the power of glaciers and massive icebergs or the power of quicksand to pull you in and bury you in immobility.

In Scorpio – the boundaries you mind or don’t mind are emotional. They may be voiced as ideas (to you or by you), but we interpret them as emotional “edicts” and we respond to them – and thus decide whether to follow or not follow (aka comply or not comply) with them based on where we stand with our own emotionality.

That basis of judgment is the Taurean polarity for Scorpio – the ‘individual “learned” basis’ upon which we formulate our opinion of self, from which we derive self worth or insecurities galore. And when that gets ‘activated’ in a Scorpio situation, the ‘interactive’ quality of Scorpio forces us back on that personal basis of judgment – our inner Taurean security…and thus all Scorpio decisions and feelings about our decisions rely on our self worth and inner security…which once tapped and activated, reacts.

ENTER THE SCORPIO QUANDARY…our purpose for following or not following the ‘rule’ is also emotional – it’s all about the solidity of our convictions, with convictions being the stuff of which Scorpio determination and decision making is made.

Again, this is a two-part system. Part One is known as “how well do you know yourself?” and Part Two is “how realistic are you about what you need in order to thrive and grow as a healthy human being?”

This is where – especially in our modern, interconnected society – most of us seem to get our mental knickers in a twist (which is a really evocative mental image, if nothing else). There is so much pressure to adhere and accede to societal images and “judgments” about what matters to us that we often neglect our real Self in the process of, or effort to comply with some ‘you should want this’ or ‘you should operate in this manner’ which may not be consistent with not just our needs, but the very situation.

That brings up the Scorpio requirement to know ourselves, and to know when we can support the idea but not participate in it for ourselves. Or when we need to stop and examine the situation as so often situations look one way, but in reality are another thing altogether. If we simply look at the 'edict' ('edict' being a truly Scorpio word) we realize that as situations, relationships, interactions evolve…they may or may not be within the original scope of the most important edict of all in this lift: the one which says we need to be who we are, for that is the person we bring - and need to bring - to any situation, effort or relationship.

What Scorpio brings to bear here is the energetic which seeks to lure us with the allure to want to follow not because it's 'right,' but because it’s easier to negate, sell out and sublimate ourselves...even if that means we’re back at that Scorpio denial thing.

But being a martyr is good, you say? Well...usually not in ScorpioLand. The idea of being ‘the martyr for the cause’ is either a Sagittarian (to stand as a lightning rod for the idea) or Piscean (to embody and lead mass emotionality) thing.

Which really means that true martyrdom is done in the cause of ‘many,’ not Self. And Scorpio is not truly pluralistic. That’s the providence of the last four signs of the zodiac (Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces), not the second four signs (Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio).

In constellation Sagittarius, the star nursery of M17 reveals new stars

(photo credit: ESO)

The quadruplicities (groups of four zodiac signs) are all about just that – groupings. The first four (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer) are singular/individual, the second four (Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio) are me-and-thee or small 'group units' and that sort of thing. But ‘mass movements’ are the purview of the last quadruplicity: Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces.
 
So if you’re thinking of martyring yourself under some Scorpio banner…while I’m tempted to make a Dante-esque joke of ‘it should be labeled Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here’ type (yes, I’m a fan of Dante’s very not funny ‘Divine Comedy’ – didn’t you know?) the truth is that the the only witness to your martyrdom in the Scorpio sense is generally the same person who will pay the price of it: you.

In other words, this is an influence which often causes us to sacrificing our self respect and the value we could have placed in our individuality by martyring ourselves to some cause which is either entirely temporal or doesn’t give squat about you.

Ideas usually don’t give a squat, after all. Ideas and ideals aren’t human and aren’t feeling. They’re a theoretical standard which human beings have shown to have tens of millions of exceptions, as in "the exception which makes the rule."

And now that I’ve had my chance to do the Dance of the Diatribe all over the Scorpio premise, this applies…why? 

And…to what?

Answer: to the Sun entering Scorpio on October 23rd at 6:11 in the morning, UT/+0 time.

By now, everyone who is the least bit into astrology has heard about the impending Scorpio solar eclipse. You probably felt the onset of its ‘breaking down of your situational walls’ back in early September – there’s a two-month lead-in to solar eclipses and frankly, this one has been particularly trying.

Yes, even painful.

As Venus passed through Scorpio (September 11 – October 7) our hearts were tried and tied and rent by things and situations which apparently we had washed and which now we couldn’t to a darn thing with.

Or about.

This was doubled up on – or even trebled as Mercury entered Scorpio on September 29th, a moment which is now emblazoned on my brain since in the next 48 hours I not only had of the worst headaches of my life, but got reports from at least a dozen other people about headaches and stomach aches in their lives.

In part, Scorpio refers to our ability to handle toxicity and to purge ourselves of that which is toxic. Scorpio asks that we ‘reclaim’ our lost Self (the respect and worth part) – which often…in very much a Scorpio manner… dictates that we will lose before we reclaim. So there was a lot of loss, a lot of reactions to loss, a lot of pain and anguish about what was (and maybe still is) missing in our lives…and all of it took place in this cauldron of Scorpio mentality which, according to Mercury’s schedule, is going to be with us until December.

Yes, December. And my headache, heartache and general life toxicity is so not glad to hear this.

Once Venus moved on into Sagittarius, some of us have moved into a ‘reconsidering’ mode, asking ourselves how we can make our life work better. What will it take? Have we misjudged? Did some idea get in the way of greater truths?

The Sun is the emblem of life and enlightenment; as it enters Scorpio on October 23rd our mental waters will become stiller…and yet deeper. With Mercury having gone retrograde (in Scorpio) on the 21st, this opens the door for a whole new level of intense reflection on what life is, and is for.

It will be a very personal and powerful time. During the near-month of Sun in Scorpio we are all likely to ‘break through’ to some new area of realization, some new recognition of what life is, and isn’t. We will let go of old assumptions and like children emerging from some mythic chrysalis, begin exploring our potentials, our power and our willingness to be who we are on a whole new level and in a whole new way.

I still hold some hope that this evolutionary passage will open a path for my friend and I to reconnect. Our differences are entirely about their desire to adhere to an externalized ethic which in truth we had – in simply knowing each other – eclipsed as people.

Eclipsing happens.

But sometimes the process is hard. And sometimes it takes longer for one person to work through their eclipse work than another.

Learning that what we do doesn’t define us is a primary recognition we all learn at some point. I learned that a long time ago when as a newbee astrologer I did all the busy little calculations to figure out when my Saturn Return was going to be. (Back then we didn’t have computers and astrology programs – it was all paper-and-pencil math.)

My Saturn is in Scorpio, you see…and within twenty minutes of the calculated time, I got hired to write my first “official” motion picture screenplay.

Saturn shown in a false color image as photographed by Voyager 1

(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

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Saturn: emblem of time and earning and career…I had finally hit the big time.

Or so I thought.

As I stood there on the driveway of the producer’s house marveling at what felt to me in that moment like some anointment from on high…it suddenly dawned on me: getting the job was just the start of the work.

So no, the angels didn’t sing. Apparently they were booked for some other gig somewhere else.

Now as my second Saturn return has just completed (and yes, I congratulated myself on getting this far) the real writing which is not about ‘the job of writing’ but about bringing the story I’ve wanted to tell for the whole of my life to life in text.

It's now been shipped off to the press.

Publishing the book (a four-part epic fantasy) is the Saturn work of it. Having invested my time, the intensity of my spirit and my effort to believe I know how to tell this story...that I care enough about it as spend so long crafting a real life very un-fairy tale fantasy embodying all I believe and care about as a human living among other human beings…that’s the Scorpio part.

That being said, it strikes me as ironic (irony is a favorite Scorpio emotion) that in the midst of coming to loggerheads with this person, as I felt the world cracking away around me, I heard them make a reference to the book – as if its publication would compensate me for losing their companionship, their presence, the knowing they were part of my life.

About then, I knew they needed the space, the solitude, even the iciness of Scorpio isolation in which to consciously feel themselves realizing and coalescing their feeling human nature, and why our life as human beings is more important…and worth more…than any theoretical rule.

That’s the real Scorpio edict: we matter. Simply as very human human beings, we matter. And when we matter to each other, that matters more than just about anything else.

To my friend…who may at some point in time read this post…blessed be. Though we may not agree on each and every thing - or its priority - I will love you forever, inclusive of whoever you are in whatever moment. When I left, you looked scared, which reflects in me as an overwhelming fear to think that is the image of you which will forever remain, haunting me until I die my twenty-trillionth death.

I can succumb to being crushed abjectly as happens under Scorpio. I can beg and still be denied resuscitation and Scorpionic redemption through the courage you would need to have to forgive me my frailties. As a person nurtured on the sadistic milk of abandonment, I know how to grieve. As one who has been bound and tied beyond conception, I know you can condemn me to waiting and grieving, eternally seduced by wondering if like Scorpio's mythic Phoenix, our conversation can be resurrected from the ashes and our hearts yet be healed by the touching essence of each other’s emotion-laden, deeply felt, very Scorpionic human existence.

The choice ultimately must be yours, for in my mind I know I will always stand in your presence.

Lost in being found, I merge, I exist.

And without you I will forever yearn, long and wish.

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Whether you relate to the depths of feeling expressed above...

...whether you think they're real or not...

understanding how they represent Scorpio's depth of passion

and the many things in life which force us to get in touch with

our emotions and emotional status is a valid Scorpio statement.
Or it could just be me doing a Scorpio number on you.
Do you know the difference - and which would be which?
Are you sure?

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None of our lives are perfect. And while granted, some of us experience

traumas or horrible mistakes which would seem to scar us forever, the

basic teaching of metaphysics remains true. If 'unbeknownst to us, the

universe is unfolding as it should' has any meaning, it means that the

experience of good and bright of life has equal merit with that which is

dark, painful and frightening.
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I remain of the conviction that human connectivity is our best strength,

and that it cannot accomplish its goal at a shallow level. We have not

been created to have things easy - 'from those to whom much is given,

much is expected' means we have the responsibility to accept who we

are, as difficult as that may be.
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Power and potency of existence are found where they are found.

They may or may not take the shape that you think they 'ought' to

take, and sometimes our path to enlightenment requires of us that

we walk a road which tests our popularity with everyone but our Self.
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That too is valid. We need to be what we need to be, regardless

of what others say, like or find convenient

As the Zen masters say...walk on.

That is the Scorpio ethic and our edict most human.

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MakeMake in Libra

Ancestor Figure (moai kavakava) from Easter Island (Rapa Nui)

(On exhibition at LACMA - the Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

Just in case you haven’t figured out how it works yet, I’ll let you in on the skinny as to the why and why not of astrological chit-chatter about various points. It pretty much goes like this: the things we have a lot of research and data on, we talk about. The rest of the stuff…not so much.

Discovered on March 31, 2005 by the Palomar team of Craig Trujillo, David Rabinowitz and Michael Brown (of Caltech fame), MakeMake is a dwarf planet, which should put it on an astrological par with Pluto. And that it’s not is in part because there’s only so many astrologers doing collecting data…and let’s face it, there hasn’t been much time to collect that data in since 2005.

Personally, I also think that MakeMake is its own kind of TNO (Trans Neptunian Object) is part of the reason too. After all, it’s not a Plutino…which is to say, MakeMake’s orbit isn’t in any ‘mag res’ (magnetic resonance) relationship with Neptune. Objects like Pluto are...which explains to us why the association we have with dreams, illusions, fantasies, ideals and entertainment which so Neptunian evidently benefit from that association in that big blue Neptune passes its qualities along.

And if we can see how Neptune vibrations - the stuff which blurs the line between real and unreal - gives the Plutinos governed by Neptune all that great-or-terrifying Neptunian PR, then its easier to understand why MakeMake - a dwarf planet which doesn't have that Neptune attachment also lacks the Neptunian allure.

I tend to think of MakeMake as the startup of dwarf planets. I have faith it’s going to make a hit with us yet…but it hasn’t happened yet.

So far all we know is that MakeMake is named for a god who was part of the Easter Island culture. This god was the god of creating (as opposed to  Creation) and thus seems associated with an almost Venus-like ‘bringing things to be’ quality – except that it’s a TNO.

Venus is a personal planet. It is thus our personal attribute and part of our daily life. MakeMake? Not so much. MakeMake is a ‘way out there’ sort of object. 

Everything beyond Neptune (in a realm technically known as the Kuiper Belt which at some unknown reach becomes the Oort Belt) is not only subject to strange spelling, but being strange to us. It simply is. The ability to surprise us (for good or bad) is a quality we associate with all TNO objects - from the Eris, Sedna and Pluto end of things to the Deucalion, Makemake and Huya class of things. Beyond what we (Neptune) can know lies the realm of that we cannot predict with any clarity.

And that just drives people crazy. So though there's a mysteriously intriguing quality to Plutino types like Ixion and Pluto, there are also a whole slew of hot diggity objects out there which don't seem to fascinate us, but which represent the timing mechanisms by which we will learn lessons nonetheless.

That's the list which includes MakeMake.

So! To use the Sherlock Holmes deduction method as applied to astrology, if MakeMake is about creating or the thing which has been created, and MakeMake also resides in the Realm of the TNO, then MakeMake is about creating something unexpected or which affects us in some unanticipated manner, or having to deal with something which come to be which we don't have experience with, and therefore probably don't know how to deal with.

To say nothing of all that water. Easter Island is a dot of land way out in the middle of an ocean. With water being the medium of emotionality, that may mean that MakeMake moments leave us feeling isolated or 'stranded' in an ocean of emotions. Or maybe we're just 'awash' with feelings we've never felt before.

Then again, maybe MakeMake something has to get made which we have no idea what it would be like or how it would function.

Currently on its way back towards us from the zone where Sedna comes closest and Eris and comet Swiff-Tuttle (which brings us the Persied meteor shower) are at their greatest distance from the Sun, MakeMake is also another of the objects with an inclination of orbit (orbital tilt) which is decidedly “off the level” – at least of our world and the inner and ‘orderly’ section of our solar system is. (Not that things are so orderly here on Earth obviously…) That’s another indicator that like Pluto, MakeMake represents things which happen in a sort of ‘off the beaten track’ sort of way…which in ‘regular’ terms would suggest it pertains to things which are out of our norm…

…AND which are unexpected (that being the TNO part of the whole affair).

So what has that got to do with your personal pile of peanut brittle? Just this: as of this Sunday, October 20th, MakeMake is moving into Libra. Considering it has an orbital length of over 300 years, that’s means we’re both in for a lot of MakeMake in Libra…and that we’re now leaving a bunch of years of MakeMake being in Virgo.

Just talking through my (imaginary) astrolabe here, but this sort of bodes all sorts of things for relationships and how we relate…and new kinds of relationships, plus bringing things into being (or revealing them) within relationships.

That this is happening just as the Orionid Meteor Shower (which started on the 16th while I was busy lunar eclipsing) is reaching its peak AND Mercury goes on station seems auspicious.

Many new ideas...many sparks of thought...many realizations coming to light - an some of those have their seeds, their origination in acts and moments dated long, long ago.

We tend to think of Libra as the person we relate to. But it’s more about the functionality of relating and relationships. Libra is as much about the relationship as the person we relate to and with MakeMake moving into Libra a new relationship may present itself…or you may bring a new phase of relationship into being.

If so, if that happens now, it will present you with something new and totally unexpected – which should get you thinking a bit before doing whatever you do with regards to relationships, as they’re likely to come with a few truly shocking surprises.

Could this be good? Or is it necessarily or bad? 

That depends on where MakeMake falls in your chart natally…and where 0 Libra falls in your chart along with which cusp wears the Libra emblem (or whether it’s intercepted).

Detail of Ancestor Figure (moai kavakava) from Easter Island (Rapa Nui)

(On exhibition at LACMA - the Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

The challenge here is to remember that whatever happens in relationships and the process of relating now is about something new…your ability to deal with the new, create the new, tolerate the unfamiliar, step outside prescribed ‘boxes’…all that stuff. Through that, you will come to know more about your Self.

Or at least you should. Going forward, because Venus is about to enter Capricorn – the sign it will go retrograde in come December – because Venus rules Venus we are all of us on a path towards building in a worldly sense, but growing in an otherworldly sense.

Since ‘tis the season…(Halloween, I mean)…I’ll go ahead and ask whether any of this scares you.

If it does, deal with it and take it on anyway. Apparently you need to, she said, picking up a haunch of raw meat so as to go out and feed the griffins…and remember – the worst spell to be caught in is the one you didn’t mean to bring into being. But once they're there, you have to deal with them - and all which they mean to your ability to relate to life and how you go about relating to that which you have either directly created, or which your being-ness has caused to come into existence because after all...it's meant to be part of your life.

Can you relate?

Do you relate?

Will you relate?

If you can't now...you will soon.
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The 25 Aries Lunar Eclipse

A Lunar Eclipse (photo credit: Abdallahh, February 2008)

Surely you’ve felt it - the rising tide of vibration… the subtle increase of intensity… the ratcheting up of life’s processes and the need to focus on who and what you’re supposed to be, do, aim for and want?

Why all that would be is rather simple: it’s lunar eclipse time.

October 18th will be the date – at least if you’re in the UT/+0 zone or anywhere west of there. Considering that the eclipse occurs at 11:39 p.m. in that zone (which seems a good sort of time for anything lunar…) it will already be the 19th in points east – true.

But the effect will be what it is, and that’s why we’re discussing it.

First of all, any lunar eclipse is a variation on what otherwise we would call a Full Moon. And what is a Full Moon? Astrologically, that’s when the Sun and Moon are exactly opposed to each other’s zodiacal positions – an even which happens once (at least once) every month.

We do get months now and then which include two Full Moons, and when that happens, the second such event is colloquially known as a “blue moon,” as in the expression: once in a blue moon.

Personally, as an astrologer, I’ll raise that ‘blue moon’ concept to eclipse status by pointing out that we have two (not 12) eclipse ‘seasons’ every year – and every once in a while one of those ‘seasons’ includes a pair of lunar eclipses.

So what would we call that 2nd Full Moon – a blue eclipse moon? A blue moon eclipse?

Whatever that may be, in this case this eclipse is occurring with the Moon at 25 Aries, we know the emotional core of this eclipse is all about tests of emotional realism. The ‘standard’ sort of lore on this degree speaks to a tendency for there to be such pride and arrogance that it’s really hard to stop and make ourselves really think through who we’re being and who we need to be.

So we may cling to some position or insist something is right just because…well, because it’s easier to ‘default’ to that position than anything else.

HOWEVER…(yes, there’s a ‘however’ in this mix!)…because the Moon is pictured as being conjunct Eris (aka Eris Discord) it’s likely that if we just knee jerk our emotional way through this time without really considering the parameters and (since the lunar eclipse is a Full Moon format) the ‘other side of the coin’ which in this case would be Libran – if we don’t think things through, we’re likely to experience Eris as Discord instead of Eris’ ‘higher power,’ which is the ability to get us to think outside our (Aires/Self) box and in doing so, grow, enhance and otherwise empower our life through recognizing that though things aren’t quite as simple as we thought them to be…well, better is better and the life is actually a whole lot richer and more enriching when we don’t deal with things in abstract, but in the reality of human life.

That said, the other side of this Full Moon format is Libra. And the whole of this Lunar Eclipse is being shown to us in a 3rd decanate, ‘it isn’t all about us’ sort of degree format. So between the 3rd decan thing and the interactive Libra quotient, this moment (or period) plainly isn’t just about us.

It’s about who we are and what we bring to life…or our life…or the lives of those around us – and how (aka how well) all that works.

The solar side of this metaphysical equation is poised at 25 Libra – a degree which tends to be inconsistent and manifest as being compromised until we learn how to live with that level of compromise which is truly part of life. Libra being an air sign, the ‘idea of the thing’ is paramount – and the ‘purist’ aspect of whatever ideas are now at hand are likely to be the highlighted issue.

25 Libra is also a degree about the quality of relationships. Here we are challenged to at least know the difference between surface relationships or those which are more shallow (or even one-sided) and those which are deeply important to our being, our understanding, our vital experience of life. Oddly enough, the ‘test’ of this seems to be all about how we react to flattery and what ‘sounds good’…or even what ‘looks good’ – which is probably particularly important in today’s media-driven, “lookist” culture. While physical beauty has always been prized, it has hardly ever played so much of a ‘ticket to success’ role as it has been playing of late – hence the old expression ‘don’t judge a book by its cover.’

Getting back to the Moon side of things, there is also to consider the idea that Aries is ruled by Mars.

In the image of this lunar eclipse, Mars is situated at 2 Virgo, a degree which is about analysis of a type which is the very antithesis (opposing factor) to the kind of headstrong energetic we are told the Moon at 25 Aries may well put in play.

So…are you meeting up with that energy now in the form of someone else or some situation? Or are you embodying it? Have you embodied it and are you thinking it over? Are you thinking of some decision which depends on some quality in this mélange – or something which perhaps you’re realizing is valuable simply because it doesn’t to ‘any of the above’?

Considering how astrology works, you could be running into all of the above. Or you could be involved with someone or some situation which is manifesting or demonstrating all of the above.

And then there’s Regulus.

Royal star Regulus promises success ONLY and IF we don’t embody one very important principle: revenge. That being true, whether this moment turns on something which shows…or very much avoids the concept of revenge (vengeance, spite, etc.) show be highly revelatory.

Certainly if we’re going to think through the ruler of Aries (which we just did) we should also think through the ruler of Libra, which is Venus.

Ruling the Sun’s side of this equation, Venus is at 12 Sagittarius, which being a 2nd decanate degree (a degree between 10 and 19 of any sign) emphasizes the emotional value of learning (learning something, learning about something, learning why something does or doesn’t work) … but which at the same time tests our ability to understand that we may be barking up a wrong tree or be needing to face that we’ve invested time, energy and though in some goal or some process which isn’t going to get us where we want to go.

Considering that 12 Sagittarius is a sensitive…yea verily passionate degree, there can be much frustration or much altruism involved in dynamics of the moment – particularly I/thou situations or relationships. Interestingly (seeing as this is Sagittarius we’re talking about) lore also says there’s a pronounced ‘health’ quotient to 12 Sagittarius which tends to focus on bodily health but which can also be an outgrowth of psychic or emotional or psychological factors.

Doesn’t sound exactly like a calm and unbiased moment so far…does it? I think not!

Even so let’s continue…

Now that we’ve looked at the points and the rulers of said points (and gotten a bit of a headache doing so), then come the aspects – the first and most obvious one being Neptune (at 2 Pisces and retrograde) being in perfected opposition with Mars.

(I’m not sure whether I should utter a heartfelt ‘oooh-ahhh’ or a ‘yikes!’ here.)

Neptune retrograde – under any and all circumstances, is the disillusion or dissolving of that which has either kept us from reality or the truth…or our ability to deal with same. Positioned in Pisces, we know the game which is afoot (Watson) is whether we are willing or even able to tolerate dealing with how we feel about our feelings – whether that’s present tense, past tense or cumulative.

In opposition to Mars/Regulus, the simple ‘read’ is that there’s no one to blame in particular and that we simply have to grapple with the facts. At the same time, it’s likely that this combination will spell some tendency to exhaust ourselves emotionally – or physically because we’re exhausted emotionally and cannot support the ‘weight of our functional necessities,’ to be all philosophical-sounding about it.

2 Pisces as a degree is a wavering sort of influence which waxes and wanes unpredictably and which is at its best when we are willing to do what needs doing as determined by us…which means everybody else should keep their mitts to themselves (physical, financial, psychological, emotional and otherwise) and that we should both require that AND require of ourselves that we take whatever separations and solitude we come up with as the moment in which to think for ourselves, decide for ourselves and to accept that whatever our choices are, they’re ours.

This very much echoes Neptune in Pisces in general, as Neptune in Pisces is all about raising the specter of ‘perfection’ in order that we can learn that it’s the thing we humans aspire towards while we’re living a true and human life. Learning that we are not alone in our fears, in our disappointments, in the recognizing that we’re mortal is essential – as is the sometimes hard-won lesson that good is good no matter what it looks like or whether it “fits the mold” you have somehow adopted as the ‘way things should be.’

Neptune is never in favor of that sort of emotional expectation. Its symbolism – by sign – is always about the area of life (in the case of Pisces, our experience of our feelings) where we will construct that ‘perfect life’ image and then realize that’s a dream and that reality – the reality of something which makes you happy or satisfied or comfortable with your life and Self…that whatever that ‘looks’ like (physically, socially, economically, etc.) is less important than the business of being who you are.

Being human…and a human being who understands being human, in other words.

One more piece to this puzzle...

Neptune trine the North Node at 7 Scorpio (a degree which is mystical, strong and unwavering) speaks to our need to understand the underlying process of our essence and who we really are instead of what others project as what we ‘should be.’ You may be a lot or a little of that ‘should’ thing, and where you subscribe to ‘should’s, understanding why you have done that and whether that is truly valid – whether it matches who you truly are – is truly important.

After all, 7 Scorpio is part of the complex which is involved in the solar eclipse soon to come. So it’s flux and shaking up of our lives and assumptions and assumed ‘bedrock’ constructs is in full progress.

Sometimes the lunar eclipse occurs before the solar eclipse. Sometimes it’s the other way around. When the lunar eclipse comes first, we would guess that we’re needing to be ‘shook up’ so that we will let go of whatever life is telling us is outmoded or no longer applicable or just plain not in keeping with who we are.

Lunar eclipses tend to show up right on schedule and fade out pretty quickly. If your natal chart has some important placement either between 20 Aries and 0 Taurus or 20 Libra and 0 Scorpio, you’re likely to feel this eclipse very much as an ‘experience’ which – though it may be ‘garbed’ in the form of someone else is really about you.

For those with placements between 20 Capricorn and 0 Aquarius or 20 Cancer and 0 Leo life is throwing something new into your mix or tossing you a curve ball. Think it through and work through the challenge and all will – in time – be more workable.

The time frame given for lunar eclipses is generally about three months – as opposed to three years for a solar eclipse. Though lunar eclipses often represent moments which feel like tidal waves, and while they may represent a ‘change of course’ in the doing-this-not-that sort of thing…they very seldom change your life, life standing or life force – that’s a solar eclipse thing. Yes, given this is an Aries lunar eclipse (which by definition faces off against a Libra Sun) others may well be involved in what goes on now. But – to choose an extreme sort of example here…lets say you decide to marry or not marry someone at this point. The issue is still whether that marriage or that person fits your life…and if they do (or don’t) why that is.

This lunar eclipse is about us, and about our experiencing how we feel about who we are and who we’re being in that world we call ‘my life.’

Whatever happens, it’s a reflection – but whether that’s of who we are or what we do or don’t want to be? That’s individual.

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P.S. If you understood the above theory-building process, you've

just learned how astrologers formulate interpretations.

In other words, yes, you too could be an astrologer.

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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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