2013’s Scorpio Solar Eclipse

 Partial solar eclipse in space taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

(photo credit, NASA, February 2012)

One of the things which running an astrology blog will teach you is that people are very into anything which we might call ‘anticipation’…which with Things Astrological very often translates into the fine-toothed leap between 'satisfaction of desire' and ‘threat.’

And yes, this is about me being about as real with you as I can be. You may think it’s callous, but astrologers know that if we say any of these three words…

Scorpio – 8th house – Nodes

…that we’re going to get listened to. Give a lecture on one of these subjects and you'll have lines around the corner and down the block.

Why? Because even astrologers are fascinated by the many forms of allure which have that delicious Scorpio ‘dangerous’ quality to them...that very special thing which prompted a guy I know to say ‘I like women who are a bit crazy. Crazy is a bit dangerous - and I like that.’ 

Granted, he has a bit more of that yen than most of us, but we all have a bit of it in our makeup.

After all, life is full of shiny surfaces. So much of life is about whether we will or won't respond to something which presses our buttons...which triggers our instincts while also turning off our mind.

Did you think the zodiac was any different? It absolutely isn't. One of the 'shiniest surfaces' around is the zodiacal gleam which so tempts people to just read the sign, read the planetary attribute and be thee on your way!

Well, actually...you can do that. You can actually do that and have it be true and accurate.That depends on you. More specifically, it depends on how willing you are to hold yourself to being thoughtful in the face of the 'hidden sides' of each and every sign...each and every object...each and every facet.

Our potentials are limitless. Therefore we are not to be limited in either the good or ill any given thing can teach us. Or the good and rancid we can experience through any given attribute.

That we know it's really possible for something to 'hurt so good' is proof that our experiences can flux. That we can simultaneously hold ourselves in positive and negative regard.

That's Scorpio.

If the zodiac was clarified in a 'truth in advertising' sort of way, Scorpio (and your 8th house) would have to be labeled ‘RADIOACTIVE.’

But wait...! If Scorpio (and the 8th) was labeled RADIOACTIVE, no one would willingly get into, get to or deal with that stuff.

Make no mistake…Scorpio is radioactive. It’s everything about human experience which could possibly twist and corrupt us. It’s everything which can melt the very flesh off our psychic bones.

And once we're burned clean, then Scorpio can recreate us…empowering our rebirth to Self as a Phoenix rising from our soul's own ashes in utter glory and living self-empowerment.

But first comes the dismantling, the bringing everything about our life which is toxic and damaging bubbling and boiling out, overwhelming us with the stench and fumes of our vulnerabilities and biases, the stickiness of our fears, the acid of our anger, the wrenching of our angst, and the painful echoing of tears uncried and those long-suppressed, unholy wails.

Scorpio is radioactive. But if you knew that, if you understood what the Scorpio arena is really like, you’d never go there. We’d all be alive on this planet avoiding each other for fear of our Selves. Not for all the power, money or orgasms would anyone buy into the kind of torture Scorpio can deliver.

No, not even for the ecstasy which might lie beyond.

 Image based on a star map of constellation Scorpio by Torsten Bronger.

And yet…the Scorpio process is one we all need to endure. As 8th sign of the zodiac, Scorpio embodies all which purifies our unrealistic lack of understanding of what it takes to be who we are. Beyond Scorpio lies the four signs of worldly accomplishment and maturity where, in disrobing our ego, in becoming willing to be nakedly who we are, we get to become who we’re supposed to be in a real and worldly sense. 

So nature tempts us with our own most basic cravings...which means that in our most human nature, it’s that very nature which tempts us. And so we walk in that door. We ignore the big sign...if we even notice it at all.

With some people the Scorpio and 8th house part of this tends to be actually dangerous. But that generally has to do with really ill-placed rulers of the 8th – or Scorpio, for that matter.

I know someone whose Cancerian 8th house is ruled by a Scorpio Moon placed at their 12th house cusp. Not only is this Moon conjunct Mars (ruler of Scorpio) but also conjunct Ixion, a combination that promises that until this person learns to walk past their fears, they will have painful periodic episodes which amount to 'sticking it to myself.' And that pattern will either continue until this person either executes the perfect self destructive act (validating the desire not to feel) or learns that Scorpionic (emotionally driven) issues are not about being led by one's emotions but by choosing to manage them.

Scorpio is a choice. It's about who or what we choose to invest in...and what stirs that choice, what causes us to crave, desire, long for something...? THAT gets to the heart of Scorpio as the concept we all love to hate…and hate, but so love.

In other words, the enticement and excitement - the sense of 'danger’ is not about them. It's about us. Its about something...some need to feel ourselves feeling which causes us to choose.

Read that last sentence carefully. If you do, you will understand why so much which is based on choices made in passion, lust, desire, excitement...why they so often go so far astray.

Before I go on, here’s a link to the salient article on Ixion:

- link to -

Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

…and remember – Ixion is in all of our charts. We all have some way in which we ‘Ixion’ ourselves, where we repeat and repeat the same mistake or format until we realize that we want something which works.

Moreover, if you were born between November 1967 and November 1996, you were born with Ixion in Scorpio, which means you will tend to experience your Ixion issues through intensely evocative Scorpionic venues, the details of which are etched in your personal natal chart.

There’s some Sherlock Holmes quote which applies here…I don’t remember it exactly, but he says something like ‘when we take away all the answers which aren’t true, what remains – however unlikely – is actually the truth.’

Our human challenge is that with Scorpio we always seem to think ‘they’ have our answer. Or that they are our answer. Or that they’ll help us feel better. Or feel how we yearn to feel.

And that’s not how it works. This sign of passion, this sign of intimacy which requires us to let go, be vulnerable and become naked to others...it’s where we tend to want control. Where we would so much prefer that others become/be vulnerable in our presence rather than going through the angst, the anxiety, the feeling vulnerable when we let our guard down in front of them.

The feeling of ‘danger’ where Scorpio is concerned, when we feel ‘they’re’ dangerous…that’s our instinct telling us that they may be dangerous TO US. To our ability to risk, to the reality of who we are.

The feeling of being in danger of feeling our own feelings on the other hand – that’s Scorpio in its utmost potency. That’s where Scorpio seeks to lead us through our own fears to where we realize that our humanity is innately vulnerable and that to have someone…anyone…with whom we can be vulnerable, with whom we can be helpless…is the most worthwhile thing we can find in this world, this life.

And how that doesn’t take getting nude in any sense. Naked? Yes. But nude? No.

The scariest thing in life isn’t what others think of us…it’s what we think of ourselves. What we fear in our Self can eat us from within.

Scorpio is not about precisely about feeling desire. Or passion in the flesh. It’s about anything or anyone which can evoke our deepest, most personal feelings…feelings which evoke a passionate response. And when we get there, then we have to think through Mars and Pluto as the rulers of Scorpio. Mars’ primary sign of rulership is Aries – the sign in which Mars energetics are all about being who we are and discovering more about who we are through what we do.

Pluto is the outcome ruler. So if you jump off a cliff without a parachute, Pluto will teach you that that’s a deadly bad lesson. And yes, it is likely to be a very hard lesson – one which makes a lot of impact on you.

The balance between Mars and Pluto reflects the necessity to understand that choices (Mars) have consequences (Pluto) and that we are most in danger when we make the choice without considering that consequence. Or, considering how Mars is so very much about the ‘self’ when in Aries’ oppositional sign of Libra, how to choose on the basis of what ‘they’ (Libra) want (Mars) is by definition an abdication of self, in which case Plutonic forces become ranged in such a way as to totally negate and smash you.

With thanks to astrologer Rob Hand, who I quote here: “Use the energy wisely, lest it use you unwisely.”

Scorpio decisions (and) decisions in Scorpio situations are best made coolly. When in doubt, rely on facts and not emotions. Untruths and manipulations do very badly in Scorpio situations as they tend to stir up karma – that energy which comes back to thwack you not from the direction you put it out from, but most often the direction you were thinking you would protect.

Karma is definitely the universe’s way of yelling “SUCKER, YOU’RE SO BUSTED!!!”

(Ugh.)

What we cannot do in a Scorpio trial is sell our Self out. And that tells us why the top three “dangerous” drives are money, sex and power.

Is the light bulb beginning to glow yet?

Mind you…understanding all this (which I obviously do) doesn’t make life a snap. I understand the premise pretty well...and yet that doesn't make my walking through my fears any easier than walking through yours would be for you.

I just understand the necessity to do it. If Scorpio is about opening ourselves to our own vulnerabilities (which it is) and its an interactive sign (which it is) then however it happens, when the radioactivity begins to click, click, click then we're bound to get scared.

Trust me...I do it to. I've scared myself more than several times by taking off my brightly polished social mask so as to admit my scary truths.

And sometimes I was liked just as much for doing it. Once or twice someone has been there to witness my 'coming clean' about my life and they have liked me just as much - even more for revealing my human fears.

"I'm sure you get scared," a neighbor told me one night early in my detox when I was thoroughly weirded out. He'd spent about a half hour acting out the scenes of a book he's working on writing (much to my delight) after which we sat down to talk about our lives. "You've been through some really bizarre stuff. But when you get scared, I want you to remember who you are in the present and that your friends love you for who you are. We think you're a star."

He's kidding of course - I'm no star. Except maybe to him, I guess.

No, it isn’t easy for any of us. It isn’t any easier for me than you. I've tried to run away - just like I bet you have.

Where Scorpio is concerned, we try to preserve the status quo. But can we control it - or someone else? One of the best examples I can offer here comes from a magical moment when I heard someone say ‘I refuse to bid you good-bye. I’m going to stand here, and I hope you will keep to what you agreed to.’

That's an important Scorpio lesson - how the freedom to stay and be vulnerable is at least as important as the freedom to go…or run away. Or hide. Or deny. Or ignore.

It's all in how you phrase it, in how you present it...in the emotions you extend under Scorpio. Whatever your Scorpio thing is, the reality of it is that you would like to be welcomed in spite of it.

But there are some times when people want to you to be vulnerable and then refuse to return in kind. They're not ready to be equals – not with you, but with their own emotional nature. Sometimes its not enough to make the emotional Scorpio connection which is the initial bridge.

After that comes the walking over our own emotional gulfs. And some of us can't look down and can't walk straight ahead on faith.

It isn't about you. It's about their faith in their Self.

I've even seen this happen with a person who has read the RADIOACTIVE sign. They know what Scorpio is. But for whatever reason, they think they can solve their Scorpio in isolation. They haven't yet realized that Scorpio is a dualistic AND interactive sign yet, particularly in the sense that we never solve our Scorpio issues by ourselves…and how by definition we can never solve them by taking the ‘comfy’ way out.

Not to mention how there’s always a set of steps to even our side of the process.

The 11 Scorpio Solar Eclipse of November 3, 2013

(Aries Wheel, Location Not Specific)

 

The very best Scorpio relationships – defining this as a partnership or an intimate (i.e., sexual) relationship, or any relationship where you invest yourself, be that at a financial or friendship level – they all have to be two-way. That’s the Scorpio thing. It has to be mutual – and naturally so, there can’t be eternal compromises. If she doesn’t like toast crusts, the romantic in him may say ‘I’ll take the crusts’ but if he isn’t actually a lover of crusts and screw the middle of the bread, eventually that will result in trouble.

This is where romance…or the romantic notion…becomes the reality of life and life’s realities.

Except in Scorpio, those are always emotional realities. So many of us compromise our emotionality and security for something we call emotional security which is really giving up on ourselves.

When we will opt for the compromise of our inner emotional power for the appearance of power which might seem to validate us, we’re always skating on thin ice. That's what's so odd about Scorpio...the greater the urge, the allure, the passion, the thinner the ice. ‘Fixed’ as an astrological modality, Scorpio is the water sign which represents where we are either nurtured to emotional health, back to emotional health or where we destroy ourselves through some corrosive manipulating of the term ‘safe.’ In the world of Scorpio, not facing our feelings or refusing to face them isn’t safe – it’s toxic. When psychologists say ‘the power of the secret lies in keeping it secret’ that’s what they’re talking about.

And though we may run from the person who makes us feel, or who – because we emotionally connect with them is someone we know could end up exposing us to our own feelings…that’s not safety.

That’s death in the guise of avoidance. And yes, Scorpio is the sign of conception, birth and death.

It's also the sign of all those things which scare us half past living death - particularly in relationships.

Why relationships? Because that's where we see how Scorpio really functions as its through relationships that we confront the greatest need to tolerate our own deep emotionality and our willingness to interact with someone capable of evoking our truth of emotionality.

And it doesn't even have to be an intimate relationship to get to us intimately. Far from it - some sexual relationships are terribly shallow. Or based on a virtual agreement to ignore each other's need to hide.

Some friendships and business relationships, on the other hand, can be closer than close. 

That has been what I think has driven the rise in readership here at the blog over the past couple of months. It shows up in a graph bloggers see when they log. So I know…every time a solar eclipse looms, you and your friends and people half way around the world from you start checking the blog.

And the moment the eclipse is over…you think that the threat, the urgency, the depth of the feeling is all over.

Well, you’re wrong. The two months leading into this period are merely the start of the process. They were merely about getting your attention, about your hopefully coming to grips with what needs focus in your life.

Where you have dug into the emotional issues or the things which caused feelings to swell up like some bad emotional reaction to a cosmic bee sting, you have just embarked on a long journey through realizing that while life needs to have structure and rules, it also needs to be compassionately interactive. Those who comfort you may not be who you can comfort. Those who can witness your pain may not be those whose pain you can witness.

And those who make life easiest for you may be your worst enemy. Or not. Where they urge you to be dispassionate, they are saying ‘don’t feel yourself’ and that is the road to behaviors narcissistic...even sociopathic.

There’s a lot of it going around, you know. The sign of how high the human stakes have gotten in this time of such technological genius is the very dehumanization we are all seeing throughout society, whether in relationships or business.

Life isn’t supposed to be all happy. It isn’t supposed to be all easy. There is a difference between being allowed to work through your stuff (or do your work) and being supportive. That difference is all about motivation – another spiffy Scorpio word.

Because Saturn is involved in this eclipse (the eclipse is at 11 Scorpio and Saturn will be at 13 Scorpio) we know there is some ‘paring away’ to be done and that forward growth is going to be slow.

And it should be slow, in order to be able to ‘build in’ supports which don’t just sound good, but which will work. That ‘work’ thing is important here. The eclipse having Mercury conjunct the North Node (both obviously in Scorpio) points to to Mars as that ‘choice’ ruler of all things Scorpio. And Mars is in Virgo and in opposition to a Pisces Chiron in retrograde.

It’s a time for taking on how deeply afraid we are of ourselves. (Or our Self.) To not do that is to run a long term risk (or a risk of something which will last a long time) which stems from not having done what you think you ‘don’t know how to do’ in the emotional realm (that’s the Chiron part) which in every likelihood will surface through some Mars in Virgo facet: the in ability to do something…or get it done.

The eclipse itself occurs at 11 Scorpio, a degree which tends to manifest by our being ‘married’ to some status quo or assumption of validity that we miss something vitally important – you know, that Scorpio factor which can just kill us.

Or at least the situation.

Or the relationship.

Or our career or job or whatever else we’ve decided to blindly tie ourselves to or be blind in tying ourselves to.

And Saturn? Saturn is sitting at 13 Scorpio, a degree which one book describes as a solitary existence which treats with us not gently at all, an existence where we either feel isolated or are isolated.

And yet, in this position, in this isolation there exists a potency of feeling which the Sabian Symbol TELEPHONE LINEMEN AT WORK INSTALLING NEW CONNECTIONS plainly speaks to.

The effect of the eclipse will tend to manifest as (Saturn) work or commitments which interrupt communications, the effort we put into making new connections in life…and as outlined in the keynote for this degree (“the need to establish new channels of communication”) references as a need to go outside of the established, our norm…even our understanding. By definition, Scorpionic growth isn’t easy or easily undertaken. Once you’re there, it may be perfectly easy, but getting yourself into the process can be gag-worthy.

I’d also like to be clear here, at least in how this astrologer interprets this reference: when I said ‘channeling’ to someone not long ago, they took that to be ‘working with existent energy’ which is not what I tend to think this is about at all – especially not as presented here in the form of Saturn, Saturn being the planet at the edge of ‘unaided human sight.’ To channel in the Saturn sense means channeling from beyond Saturn – which plainly means from beyond the known, the established, the regulated, the defined.

Because this is Saturn – our emblem of structures, time, career and achievements – I would also say this matters most particularly in our working lives, and doubly so if you’re anyone who works with energy, energetics or any of life’s structures…that reaching all the way from construction workers, architects and engineers through to farmers, shippers to spiritualists, doctors, mediums, shamans, chiropractors, dentists, parents, teachers and anyone in the government or military around the world.

Did I leave anyone out? (Probably not…but it’s polite to ask.)

Furthermore, acting as link (or blockade) between the Sun/Moon of the eclipse and Saturn we have a coagulation of the following points at 12 Scorpio: Sabine, Sisyphus, Deucalion and Amphitrite. Not to put too fine a point on this, these points can act as either the link OR the blockade…or both.

12 Scorpio is a defensive sort of degree known for attracting energetics to be defended against (which seems logical, right? If you’re all about defending, you’ll attract something to defend against…naturally!) Lore has it that this degree evokes feelings of compassion offset by indignation of the sort we might refer to as ‘I’ll give in when you give me a good enough reason to give in, and not a moment sooner!’

The medium all this is being poured into at the moment is a ‘having captured’ (Sabian) quality which has a bit (!!!) of snarkiness (Sisyphus) to it, which is like as not about an inability to get one’s own head high enough above the emotional high tide level(Deucalion/Amphitrite) to get proper perspective and bearings.

All of this we are likely to BOTH use to blockade others while resolutely going about our business.

Except…well, except for two things. The first is that Scorpio isn’t about the ‘other guy,’ remember? It’s about how life sets up situations so that we interact with others and thus our emotionality is evoked…which is why that the people who don’t ruffle you are often the least constructive people in your life.

I believe I put this to someone rather recently by saying ‘that’s not feeling good, that’s being numb.’

It’s not quite that extreme for most of us, but it certainly is for some. Absence of feeling is not ‘feeling good,’ it’s not feeling – and that I can assure you, having had a young life which so destroyed me emotionally that I simply shut down in my late teens, not to re-emerge as a full-fledged feeling (nervous, vulnerable if loving) person until decades later.

In the process, I pretty much lost my entire middle life. Truthfully, that’s one of the big reasons I sit and type this blog day after day after day. If I can help one person… hopefully you… to not turn away from your feelings and all the difficulty of feeling them…if I can help you through to where you can have the life which was beaten, raped and abused out of me for the whole of my young life, then what I will have gone through will not have been for naught.

I don’t want you to have the life I have. My life – whether you respect me, love me or hate me – in a sense, it’s pretty bleak. People are as off-put by my the intellectualism I retreated into during those decades of no emotions as they are of the stunted, rather overly young emotions I mostly show when I meet someone who for some reason I can afford to feel in the presence of.

My wish for you is that you find the courage to go all the scary places not in this world, but in your heart, your soul, your head and your spirit.

Which brings us to the other reason why this eclipse isn’t likely to formulate as a successful blockade against those who cause us to feel. The answer is already right there in that last sentence: it’s because what we’re talking about is a solar eclipse. Eclipses explode our myths and wipe away our defenses.

So in essence, the more it hurts…the tougher this period is, the more opportunity you have to break through to your more essential being. You just have to not go with the easy stuff…you have to go towards that which hurts the most.

And if it’s someone you’re in relationship with, may you have a better time getting them to talk to you than I’ve had. 

But it’s more than that, as we probably can best see in the following diagram I constructed after sitting and staring at the chart of this eclipse in preparation for writing this (yes, rather lengthy) post.

From the eclipse to Uranus is a 6th harmonic derivation. We obviously know we have to do something. It’s quivering our insides. The South Node in Taurus represents our longing to have things be easier, but the South Node is the road to personal dissipation, so let’s not go there.

Besides, the celestial promise (aka the ‘cause-effect’ of universal function) is that if we will do our North Node stuff, we will automatically have all the South Node stuff we could want.

Pluto in Capricorn is something of the ‘other side’ of the Scorpio coin from Mars in Virgo as Pluto is (as we’ve discussed) the ‘outcome’ ruler of Scorpio. Here poised in at 9 Capricorn, the question would seem to be between the pursuit of wisdom (which fits Scorpio’s positive side) against the pursuit of material gain (the ‘money’ reference in that Scorpio list we’ve talked about). That Pluto is at 9 Capricorn should probably be taken very seriously here, as lore tells us that efforts to opt for material gain end up in disaster…or being a disaster.

The (Plutonic) requirement is that we cultivate patience and humility…which pretty much seems to answer the Sabine-Sisyphus-Deucalion-Amphtrite at 12 Scorpio thing.

Snark not, my friends. Try to get past your hurts to where you are your most human and humane Self – to others no less than to yourself. Own your vulnerabilities as you so want others to own theirs. Beware of focusing on materialism, money and power.

You can try that route, but to use a phrase favored by a friend back in Pittsburgh, PA, it won’t go well.

Juno at 9 Aquarius is in square to the eclipse and semi-sextile Pluto and Chiron, displaying the discomfort most of us feel right now and how we must prevail in some public sense despite that discomfort.

After that comes a list of fixed stars – the real reason I found this diagram so intriguing. Aldebaran, Alhena, Diadem and Antares (and Facies, right next to Pluto) all lend an extraordinary background…an emotional backdrop to everything we’re experience composed of questions of integrity (Aldebaran), our worldly Purpose as currently tested against our personal sense of Purpose (Alhena)…that which we want to hold high and aspire to as well as be inspired by (Diadem) and the ability to lead and be the leader who leads by example even when we don’t have all the answers (Antares)…we look around and say ‘no one else can manage it – why is anyone expecting me to?’

The answer there is simple: because you’re you.

And if everyone would get over thinking it is about someone else needing to be better, if we could all just come out from behind our masks – be they shiny and android like, doused with tears, stern and unfeeling, frightened and fettered…if we could come out from behind that mask long enough to see it’s our mask and therefore about us…

…then, just maybe we’d be poised to face our own vulnerabilities and out of that grow a better understanding of others…and how to have a better life and better world.

And let’s get back to where I started with this chat…this is NOT the end of the eclipse process. We are just entering in to another just-shy-of-three-months of rapid evolution and continued shifting values.

That Ceres is entering Libra scant hours prior to the eclipse is both a signal that it’s time to make a (new) plan. Considering that entering Libra means Ceres will be passing into, over and through the rather magical ‘through-the-looking-glass’ zone occupied by M87 (Messier 87), this plan is probably going to be skewed in a new direction. Or be as a result of coming to see something from a new perspective.

Since I happen to be the astrologer here, I’ll also note that three months takes us to February 3, 2014, which will be a few days after Venus goes direct (which yes, means it’s going to go retrograde) at 13 Capricorn…a degree which is conjunct Pluto’s position here at the date of the eclipse.

So it ain’t over yet. The eclipse of November 3, 2014 at 11 Scorpio will begin at 12:47:26 in the afternoon (UT/+0) and will continue for 1.67 minutes. It is an annular/total eclipse, which means that it will be total for those directly in the eclipse path, and partial (an annular eclipse) for the rest of us.

Those of us with planets, nodes, dwarf planets, axis points or other important astrological tra-la anywhere between 6 and 16 Scorpio are going to feel a vital nuclear melting at the core. This is the remaking of Self through inexplicably difficult, soul wrenching situations which cannot be escaped from partly because they're native to one's Self and partly because (as anyone in this position knows) such issues have been ignored long enough.

It's time to face the music, radioactive though it may be.

Those with placements (as above) between 6 and 16 Taurus will feel confronted by factors beyond their control.

Those with placements between 6 and 16 Aquarius and/or Leo will be having to deal with life factors totally off the line of what they had hoped to be dealing with but which cannot be ignored.

 The path of the November 3rd solar eclipse as rendered by Solar Fire's solar map module. The red line is that of totality.

In the sky...a couple of minutes, and then all will be over. But astrologically, the fat lady (as they say) hasn't sung yet. Scorpio's essence is operatic to be sure, and the diva's name is Dame Karma.

One hopes the song she sings for you isn’t a sad one.
.
.
.

Sun in Libra / Juno Direct: Our Need to Be Who We Are

Saules Sonata Scherzo (Sonata of Sun)

by Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis (1907)

The Sun will enter Libra on September 22nd at 8:45 in the evening, UT/+0 time. Two days later, asteroid Juno will go direct at 3 Aquarius.

The Sun’s Libra ingress is one of the two days a year when day and night are in ‘balance’ - hence the idea of Libra as the scales. We tend to think of this as a time of equilibrium…but this astrologer isn’t quite sure that’s how this year’s Libra equinox is going to manifest.

For one (yes, you know what I’m going to say)…we’re in the ‘break down’ period preceding a Scorpio Solar Eclipse. So anywhere where our willingness or ability to ‘negotiate’ life’s waters – particularly in areas where emotions are either on the table or to be evoked (or provoked) – life is going to push our buttons. We’re going to meet up with things which test our inner willingness to be straight with ourselves.

In other words, are we in balance with our Self? Is what we are doing true to our nature or are our ways of coping or operating ‘out of balance’ with what we really want out of life? Are we even capable (emotionally, as in Scorpionically) of facing, dealing with or risking what it would take to get into balance with ourselves and thus have the life we want to have?

0 Libra is what it is – the point where our inner world meets the outer world and we begin to experience life as a process we do not wholly own or have the ability to work on. What we do, what we are, what we put out there, what we say or don’t say – all those things generate life’s response. And the response of people and entities and whatnot in our life.

There’s also the fact that supermassive black hole M87 sits just inside the cusp of Libra. Black holes are the ‘looking glass’ entities of astrology: whatever is going on, we either see, begin to understand – or get hit with ‘the alternative’ experience. M87 is a black hole which is about our relationship to another…and carries with it all the images of ‘fantasy love’ which go with that concept. The early degrees of Libra are all about self-and-others, making this a time when we’re ripe for projecting some image we want to project (which can be useful, say, in business or the creative arts) and at some level wonderful if we want to ‘enchant’ someone in particular.

You know…that ‘let me just Venus myself right into your world’ thing.

But this isn’t hard core reality. It always pays to remember that Libra is about the (air sign) idea of the thing, not the concrete (earth sign) reality of the thing. Heck, it’s not even about the (water sign) feelings the thing can evoke. We think of Libra as love because we like the idea of love. But Libra isn’t love per se – although at its best Libra is about the care and the caring which we exhibit when we love someone. The Venusian ‘Aphrodite’ ‘how pretty it looks’ thing which is so popularly associated with Libra is fine if you’re just looking…and MAYBE fine if you’re buying…but this is the district of the zodiac definitely marked ‘caveat emptor’: buyer beware.

UNFORTUNATELY…for some this will now be too late. How do we know that? We know that because this ingress comes equipped with a grand sextile to call it’s own.

The above is a confusing sort of drawing, I know – and yes, I’ll explain in a moment. In part it’s a definite case of astrologer-versus-Microsoft Powerpoint. But beyond that, it’s also a fact that when you look at real charts they aren’t always so ‘perfect looking.’ Because sometimes houses are small and sometimes they’re big (unless you’re casting a chart in an Equal house or Aries wheel format) we do get these out-of-kilter images.

Anyway…the point here is that this grand sextile is yet another in a long series which on a metaphysical level seems to have been set off by Sedna’s turn to retrograde back on August 25

- link to-

Sedna’s Station as Grand Sextile Herald

All of these grand sextiles have been posed as earth against water, offering us the opportunity to understand our feeling selves at an ever deeper and more realistic level while bringing to us situations which stir our emotions precisely because reality is at stake. This can be financial or familial, This can be a matter of traditions, culture or some image you’ve been carrying around in the back pocket of your brain about ‘how life is going to be’ when that may not be the way life really works at all.

That the water side of this grand sextile is composed of Saturn/North Node plus Chiron plus Black Moon Lilith is a whole litany about what we need to learn by doing and why it’s better to decide for yourself who you are whether or not others – be that your peer group or society or your culture or your family – likes it or not.

The rationale here is posed by the earth side of this proposal – the reality of how your life can change or be drastically changed by realities which come upon us.

If you’re anyone who has been through something in your life which a moment (or hour or day or whatever) later you said ‘oh, how I wish I could take that back!’ …or do that over again, this series of grand sextiles is all about that sort of reality. It’s about knowing who you are way deep down inside because no matter what you feel about someone else (which would be a Libra-Scorpio thing) and no matter what someone else or ‘society’ wants to think of you as (the Libra-Scorpio experience as thrust upon you) …in the end, we all need to live with ourselves. We need to be okay with what our life is and has become.

And that means sometimes we have to cope with a difficult situation – a feeling we don’t want to have, a reality we can’t afford to face (for whatever reason). Maybe we’re not ready to do something. Maybe we aren’t even sure of who we are or how we feel about something yet.

The Libra balance here is between the ‘what we know’ and what we don’t know or aren’t sure about yet. In all such cases, it is up to us to manage ourselves.

And how do we know that? We know that because Juno is going direct. Known as the ‘keeper of the hearth’ and defender of the household, Juno has long been thought of in connection with wives and motherhood and matriarchs and all that sort of thing.

But astrology is personal. The ‘position’ or symbol someone may seem to have in a worldly sense is just one part of astrological imagery, and in the world of western (Tropical) astrology, probably the secondary form of said dynamic.

The first image for anything astrological in the western teaching is about US. It’s ALL us, because its OUR nativity and these are energetics which are manifesting as waves of time/space in OUR lives and affecting what WE do or don’t do, what WE EACH need to confront and how we will pursue our lives as individuals.

And at that level, Juno is all about ‘managing our individual household’…which is to say, managing our individuality. Or to put it another way, Juno is self discipline. Juno is the ability to know ourselves and to keep ourselves in ‘order.’ It’s about protecting the hearth of our being – our sense of safety and security…and to the extent that we live a life which is not defined by us, but by someone else or some societal or cultural force…that’s where Juno issues surface.

If you don’t know by now, I’m a somewhat counter-cultural person. For all that I’m very into human standards, I don’t tend to hold a standard vision of what’s “right” and “wrong” apart from the obvious: killing people is bad, pedophilia is bad, rape is bad – all those things are the obvious. But apart from that, I’m not much for traditions as a guideline. If they fit you because that’s who you are, fine. But if they don’t, the need to be who you are – providing that doesn’t interfere with someone else’s need to be who THEY are – is generally, to my thinking, the optimal choice.

From there, let me just say that being an astrologer for plural decades will get you to consider all sorts of different walks of life. If you’re a professional, you’re going to see and hear about it all, either from clients or when you’re hobnobbing with other professionals.

Lets face it…astrology itself is still pretty ‘not so mainstream.’ But it’s getting there. Twenty years ago western medicine was anti-acupuncture and chiropractic. Today, both are pretty well accepted and well on their way to being mainstream.

In part, this goes to speak to exactly what Juno is: the minding of our individuality at a level which says ‘I need to be who I need to be, whether or not society understands this yet.’ Valid is valid. Real is real. Thirty years ago most gays were in the closet. Now in a lot of places they’re able to get married just like anybody else. This ‘de-genderizing’ of partners is part of the incoming Aquarian Age, and who better than Gen X (the Pluto in Libra tribe, which represent an evolutionary trine to the Age) to usher in such things. Another form of wiping out the old was the Gen X ‘friends with benefits’ routine. And it was when the front end of Gen X started coming of age that we saw the whole matter of interracial marriage sort of fade away as a question. Between Gen X and Gen Y, give it a couple of decades more and it’s highly likely that the ages old ‘he’s older/she’s younger’ thing with regards to marriage and marriage partners is also going to go by the wayside.

Granted, there are always some people who will remain rigid traditionalists. Populations are their own bell curves and while some are at the front breaking ice, others are at the tail end being sticks in the mud.

So where was I going with this whole ‘traditional/non-traditional’ thing? I was going to tell you something about Juno. Never let it be said that I don’t live up (and down) to my chart’s native abilities: my Saturn/Moon in Scorpio plus a Sagittarian Mars in the highly emotional (and intimate) 8th house has pushed my astrological research in a couple of different directions. One is business – specifically business products and the success and timing of that.

The other…(have you not guessed yet?) is sexuality. Specifically, “non-traditional sexuality” – from fetishes to S&M to D/s (Dominance and submission) to polyamory, you name it.

And yes, it’s really interesting. (Did you think otherwise?)

Anyway...the point about this for today is that wherever we go in this non-alternative lifestyle thing, Juno plays a part. Juno represents our ability to govern ourselves just as much as Juno represents the ability to know who we are…and to manage that in a real life, real time, realistic way.

So with all that said, Juno’s opposition to dispassionate Pallas (the intellectual wisdom symbol) suggests there is a real need to see things for what they are at this time. There’s a need to know ourselves during these days going into the Sun’s Libra ingress and coming out of it.

Remember, planets and asteroids et al get ‘station window allowances.’ So that Juno is going direct two days after the Sun enters Libra says that Juno’s station begins AT the solar Libra ingress…which will have the Sun setting off that M87 ‘alternative’ quotient (which in your life can mean any of a million-zillion “non-traditional” things) as Juno goes direct.

And let's not ignore the fact that Juno's station is not just in opposition to Pallas but also in square to the (relationship oriented) Nodes. Just that gives the very difficult, very challenging image of a grand square, one which in this case is being presented in fixed signs.

PLUS that Nodal axis...that Nodal axis is where the grand square and grand sextile intersect.

 Juno as pictured in a detail from 'The Origin of the Milky Way'

by Tintoretto (c 1575, oil on canvas, National Gallery)

This marks these days as a period when it's hard to understand the full parameters of things, when stress may run exceptionally high, when your aims and those of other people are likely to be at odds...it's just a tough moment.

Then we get to the degree of Juno's station, which pretty much echoes this whole energetic. Juno is going direct at 3 Aquarius, a degree which is all about how hard it is to get where you really want to go. This degree stresses the fact that life is not all lollypops and cuddles. In fact, it’s more along that line I like to quote from the masterful writer Kahil Gibran: “out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

To be complete here, this degree is known for the loss of loved ones – which is interesting indeed at a moment when the Sun is entering Libra, a sign all about relationship. Probably less likely (but still informational) is that 3 Aquarius has a reputation for things having to do with legs (and which relates to the metaphysical ability to 'get to where I want to go') and in a more general sense, accidents.

No, the nature of those 'accidents' isn't defined. They could involve anything...and that's the BIG 'anything.'

And with all this happening in that ultra-vibrational period prior to a Solar Eclipse?

Let’s not forget that Pluto has also just gone direct, which makes this whole event sound a bit like a cosmic recipe, and thus fertile ground for that ultimately useful saying coined by honcho astrologer (and nice guy) Robert Hand: use the energy wisely, lest it use you unwisely.

So…what will you ‘make’ of your life now? Or will life be making you over without your (conscious) consent? Will your life be ruled by your compulsions or are you willing to see things as they are in reality and deal with what we might want to be true, separating that off from what the truth really is?

One of the things about Scorpio is that good or bad, it’s effects tend to stay with us. And part of Scorpio’s fame (and that delicious shudder we all grin guiltily at when the subject of Scorpio comes up) is that there is part of all of us which is attracted to dangerous things.

Why is that? That’s because life wants us to learn what we can survive…and what we can’t live with. With the Sun moving into Libra, we are all going to feel a further ‘ratcheting up’ of pre-eclipse effects. The stakes are getting higher and they are specifically now focused on relationships, whether we relate to others truthfully for our own and their parts…and whether we know who the fern we are to be putting ourselves out there.

The less we know, the more afraid we are, the more unwilling we are to be honest, the more difficult life will tend to be. Because there is a grand sextile associated with this ingress with the Sun moving into the cause-becomes-effect sign of Libra, this would be a classic time to ‘get the news.’

Then again, it may well be a time when you let go of all ‘that’ and all the old presumptions in an effort to…

…well, that would be the question: are you trying to live your mask? Or are you willing to get psychically naked and be who you really are?

The former…inevitably…leads to self-imprisonment, which in this moment would be your handing your Juno power to someone else. The latter? Well, ultimately, knowing and being who we are is our path to personal freedom. Not everyone will like our choices, but they will – to the degree that they respect themselves for their own honesty – be able to respect us in turn.

Which is what we need for ourselves...and that which is like as not now in the forefront of our needs.
.
.
.

Astrologer’s Diary: Mentality, Power and Sex in the Aquarian Age

 

 Lesbia by John Reinhard Weguelin (1878)

Between sexualization of the media, gays and lesbians breaking through walls of fear and prejudice in the workplace and with regards to marriage equality and the increasing number of females we see – guilty or not – in murders which have a plainly sexual component, it seems more and more the time to be thinking about sex and sexuality in Aquarian Age terms.

Of all the astrological mechanics, the astrological ages seem the most obliquely marked and mysterious. But two things seem clear. One, the ages are a bit more of a ‘phase in/phase out’ thing than signs. (No one is born ‘on a cusp’ of two signs. That’s like saying a woman is ‘sort of’ pregnant!) Two, the Aquarian Age is now among us.

So saying, back to sex.

Sexuality – the whole of the subject is a number of things in the chart. But there’s no question as to what people think of first when you say ‘sex’ and ‘astrology’ in the same sentence. Everybody’s thoughts turn to Scorpio. And those who know the construction of a horoscope add in ‘…and the 8th house.’

We all know where sexuality has stood for the past several thousand years with human society. It’s been the subject of intriguing titillation and hush-hush giggles. It’s been the vilified at one level by many religions and yet glorified for that which sexuality so often ultimately produces.

You know, children.

All this part of the conversation is very Piscean. You know, the two fishes swimming in opposite directions?
 

The zodiac image of Pisces as pictured in one of the beautiful stained glass

windows of France's Chartres Cathedral.

Putting Scorpio aside for just a moment, there are many (many) aspects which have been ‘good-bad’ and ‘do/don’t do’ during the past 2,100 years (that being the length of an astrological age). Sex is just one of them. And the ‘why’s of this become more evident when we look at the wheel of the Piscean Age:

 All of these images of wheels of respective Ages are color-coded so the

image's frame matches the sign being discussed. Here, Pisces is on the

first house of the Piscean Age, which is the theory behind the construct of

any Age. By placing the sign of that Age on the first house of the horoscope

and 'flowing' the rest of the zodiac around the wheel in proper order, we are

able to see a lot of the cycles of development in our world during that time.   

The sign which is on the “I Am” (or more broadly, the terms in which we conceive of ourselves) is represented by the sign on the first house of any age. So with Pisces on the first house, we’ve all had various versions of this ‘what I am on the outside’ (or in public) and ‘what I am on the inside’ (or in private) sort of thing going on.

The world was ripe for it. Anyone who tried to be their ‘inside person’ in public probably got in trouble with it and anyone who never took off their societal mask when they got home probably ended up rather imprisoned by it.

You know – in that psycho-singular ‘iron mask’ sort of way.

Those two fish, in being two fish which manifest in an inner/outer, try/surrender sort of way also have left us ripe for societal judgment. Pisces being the sign of ‘mass emotionality’ or the ‘universal unconscious,’ as humans we’ve all been subject to wanting to be, well, not accepted per se – “accepted” is more of an Aquarian word – we wanted to fit in. We wanted to belong. We wanted to not feel like we were being emotionally left out in the cold.

That’s plenty potent enough to get people to shut down (or hide) their true sexual nature.

But now we’re in the Aquarian Age:

The wheel of the Aquarian Age

Aquarius is also a ‘societal’ sign. But it’s primary means is not emotionality, it’s ‘the idea’ of the thing. Aquarius is the marketplace and the ‘mass market’ – and thus marketing. Aquarius is also the sign of any sort of ‘electronic system,’ be that the electrical grid or the internet and Twitter and all such electronic means of communication.

So it’s natural that whatever is being communicated, it’s going out through electronic means. And that just happens to include sex.

So saying, back to Scorpio. (We’ll get to the 8th house in a minute). Scorpio is a sign with two rulers. There’s the decision to get involved which is really all about our having the courage to risk whatever we’re going to risk – our physical intimacy, our finances in some investment, our reputation in a partnership, whatever. That “courage quotient” is represented by Mars as the ‘in door’ in all things Scorpio. Will we ‘get naked’ physically, financially, emotionally or otherwise?

Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes that answer is no. BOTH are expressions of our personal relationship to Scorpio and its polarity opposition sign, Taurus – the sign of security and satisfaction.

And just to make a point here…though we often don’t get involved in something “Scorpionic” because we are afraid and because we don’t feel secure in our Self (the fear part being Scorpio and the security issue being Taurean), there’s also a perfectly secure level at which anyone can say ‘naw, that’s not for me.’ We are allowed to have preferences. We are allowed to have areas of interest and lack of interest. We are allowed to want to try this and not try that.

To be cowed into something is just as bad as being afraid of it. It’s just one force is internal and one is external.

You know, Piscean.

The Pluto part of Scorpio that everybody seems to drool and pant over is actually the Scorpio outcome. Scorpio’s ‘function’ on the astrological level is to cause us to learn more about ourselves…specifically the state of our security of Self and satisfaction with our life or self-development…through interactions with others and things of this world.

At this level, Pluto is the exultation when the investment pays off or the risk taken comes out the way we “wanted” it to …and the disappointment and pain we feel when we get taken, manipulated or maltreated.

Hence one of the big Scorpio rules: don’t risk anything you can’t afford to lose. Why? Because you just might – lose it, I mean.

(And not just emotionally, but that too.)

The ‘power’ of Scorpio – and hence the control and submitting to control we associate with Scorpio, is all about one person risking more and one person trying to risk less. That can work, especially IF the boundaries of all use of power have been pre-negotiated (and if they are adhered to). And let’s face it…some people like the power of control and some people like not having to make decisions.

Both can be expressions of (Taurus/2nd house) security which are expressed through whatever kind of (Scorpio/8th house) relationship. And contrary to what most bullies, abusive types and deal-welchers think, when they overstep their bounds, they’re NOT strong – they’re showing a weakness of character which they’re evidently just too weak to take responsibility for.

(Yes, I’ve met a few such people. I bet you have too. In the end I feel sorry they have such internal frailty.)   

So…in the Age of Pisces, Scorpio was on the 9th house.

 The Age of Pisces with Scorpio on the 9th house of the Age

And since the keywords which apply here are create, deny, destroy, the easiest way to generalize how this has worked is to cite the issue of a prime 9th house institution: religion.

We’re NOT talking about your spirituality or your feelings of faith. That’s 12th house and Piscean. What we’re talking about here is codified religion, complete with rules and rituals which, when it comes to sexuality, over the past couple of thousand years have pretty much been the denial of sex for pleasure, touting sexuality (certainly liberal sexuality) as the destruction of the human value and sex as pretty much ONLY good when used for the creation of children.

Various religions have their own twists on this, to be sure (I would say ‘their kinks,’ but that would just be a bit over the line…). But the idea of sexuality and all that is involved in sexuality when it comes to the physical body (human genitalia, a woman’s menstrual cycle, etc.) being glorified in art but not acceptable in person…what part of the ‘good/bad’ Piscean fish do we not understand here?

For good or bad, all this is changing. (How Pisces of me to put it that way, right?) Indeed, the change is upon us, we just have to adapt to it. That isn’t to say that control (per se) isn’t going to be something people reach for going forward – they are.

 The Aquarian Age, with Scorpio on the 10th house of the Age

Wherever we see Scorpio on the chart of the age, that’s where the greatest emphasis for ‘control of sexuality’ and the missteps and misbehavior which go along with that are going to occur.

With Scorpio on the 10th house of the Aquarian Age, sexuality is officially a word commodity. So is power. It’s there for everyone to use and to be used by. We will see it traded as part of commerce, and much as many won’t like it, such practices are going to become more and more open (and openly accepted) as time goes along. The flaunting of and  seemingly endless discussions of sexuality we see in the media are just the tip of the iceberg, folks.

One other thing which should get mentioned here… Scorpio, that sign of sex? Scorpio is also the sign of war and control of others through violence. 

The Aquarian Age, with Taurus on the 4th house of the AGe

This Scorpio/Taurus vertical axis which puts Scorpio at the top of the wheel of the age and Taurus at the bottom is a sure sign that moving forward the whole trend of my home and family as my security zone are going to continue.

Meanwhile, real security is the ability to give and take. Real security is found through finding or having the internal willingness to face INDIVIDUAL fears we have, fears which are mostly about ourselves.

Or about the reality of who we are.

The Aquarian Age with Pisces on the 2nd house of the Age

That we know because with Aquarius on the first house of the Age, Pisces goes to the second.

The Aquarius part of this is hard enough. Aquarius is another two-part sign, though it’s not quite as ‘inner-outer’ as Pisces. Belonging to the element of air, Aquarius is about whether we understand the ‘thing’ or others and where they are coming from. This is the hardest part of Aquarius, as not being ‘feeling’ by nature (comprehension differs from compassion) Aquarius isn’t intuitive.

Pisces is. And that’s another value of the Age we’re entering into: those who can develop their compassion and develop an ability to intuitively understand those who come from a different place are going to have much more to work with going forward.

On the other hand, what Aquarius is …Aquarius is all about equality. Specifically, universal equality. And that makes all the fighting for freedom of any kind – around the world – apt to this time.

Every time the astrological ages change, humans go through a period of pretty serious upheaval which lasts a couple of hundred years. So…take this with a grain of salt…we’re right on track.

With all this said, I know I haven’t answered some of the more delectably delicious questions about astro-sexuality.

But whether you realize it or not, I’ve begun to.

How so?

Well, I have been talking about Pisces, right?

Pisces (and its associated 12th house) is the other big component in sexuality. Often merely fluffed off in the rush to experience mental orgasms over Pluto, the astrological truth is that the Neptunian quality of Pisces is the emotional seduction which triggers the physical passion.

And as I’ve said sooooo many times, Planet Neptune controls the orbit of dwarf planet Pluto.

You thought it was going to be any different this time? Uh….no!

As a born spectator on life (all writers are), I’ve been watching the shifting surges in society with…well, not exactly glee, but an astrologers amusement as more and more the trappings of success have become part of people’s allure.

That would be part of the incoming fantasy of the Age: success equals emotional comfort.

Wrong!

Money truly cannot buy us love. But the commerce of fantasy and the allure of those who have ‘made it in this world’ – that’s going to be bigger than ever going forward. Right now, with Pluto transiting Capricorn, we have a perfect picture of the 12th house as the 'universal emotional chord' (Piscean in nature) which is being 'struck' through all means Capricorn: social status and business, hence the commercialization of achievement and that entertainment/commerce mix which is so very much a part of branding and reality TV (and other such vehicles) as a means to create 'power of commerce' through emotional mass appeal.

But there's a whole other side to this. Pisces on the 12nd and Capricorn on the 12th house of this incoming Age makes it both more and less necessary to get straight with our inner fears. Capricorn being ruled by Saturn, and Saturn being the growth through fear, growing through our fears and loss through fear gives us a full range of how this is going to work. Those who are afraid they can’t ‘be’ someone will more and more look to ‘market’ their ‘public’ allure to someone successful, thinking that will solve their problems.

Meanwhile, many will seek success in their careers or some sort of worldly status or renown (hello, reality TV?) and try to plaster that over their internal emotional (12th house) misgivings, thinking that will keep the twitchy midnight misgivings at bay.

(And good luck with that to them, I say!)

One great take-away of this past 2,100 years and its huge, HUGE emphasis on religion…religion is aimed at getting us to face ourselves and be better people. Religion does urge us to be honest and not lie to ourselves or those we love.

In that sense, religion as a 9th house (and Sagittarian) has pointed us to our Piscean insecurities and fears and flaws and denials. And those who have dealt with those have been oh so better off in the sexual realm, a realm which automatically (Scorpio always trines Pisces) brings up our internal weaknesses.

Which – oh, by the by – means that anything Scorpio does that. War isn’t about the other guy: it’s about your fear. Monetary investments and the internal tensions in a business partnership or a marriage (they are sort of similar) are both meant to get us to face the ‘why’s and ‘what’s of who we are and why we choose or have chosen as we have.

It’s all about getting honest. It’s all about facing the fact that we are human and we are going to make mistakes and that when we make them, denying they’re there doesn’t make them go away.

Admitting our flaws and fixing them – that makes for strength. And emotional strength and a willingness to have emotional clarity with ourselves is a universal quotient across our characters. There is no sexuality which is all Scorpio and no Pisces. There is no ‘all 8th house’ and ‘no 12th house.’

So if you want a great sex life, get honest with yourself about your fears. Stop denying what you are and aren’t as a human being. Don’t think you’re ‘all that’ because you have a great career or some sort of ‘social status’ and don’t assume that someone who doesn’t have that (or all your material stuff) is any less of a worthy person than you are.

After all…going forward, guess what’s on the 8th house of the incoming Age?

Answer: VIRGO.

 Virgo is on the 8th house for the duration of the Aquarian Age

On one hand, that means that STDs are with us to stay. It’s not like they haven’t always been there, but sexuality transmitted diseases are going to be a sign of our time.

Heck, they may even become an ‘under cover weapon’ (so to speak). (Talk about dirty tricks!)

Virgo on the 8th house is also the sign of mental health as a subject for much investigation, a fact which needs to be understood, a factor which can (and unfortunately, will) be exploited - and a drive which leads to murder, be that on the part of the mentally unbalanced person as the murderer or someone trying to 'kill the crazy person' (as it were).

So yes, we are going to see more mentally unbalanced people committing heinous crimes. But we're also likely to see some pretty terrible things done to mentally unbalanced person. Virgo being the sign of health workers, civil servants and the military, we are likely to see all these areas exercising the prime 8th house keywords (the choice to create, deny, destroy) being challenges faced by these groups - and which may well be misused by all such groups because the 8th house is such a test of our internal balance.

And considering the balance/imbalance which is the test of the Virgo/Pisces polarity wherever it appears, this is also (on one hand) one validation of the book Fifty Shades of Gray in the sense of the Piscean fantasies and the Pisces-on-the-2nd house valuing of variations on sensuality which are hard for many to own up to...at the same time that it tells us that there will be many - in all walks of life and in any number of guises - who will 'sell' (8th house = power/control) us on 'surrendering' or maybe just 'valuing' what they say we should because they say it's 'good for us.'

The 8th (and Scorpio) plus the 12th house (and Pisces) being natural areas of the chart (and signs) which at various levels prompt or test our fears and insecurities, there is every reason to think that exploitation of those factors is a way that those who have what we might call a less-than-savory-hold on their own 8th house, Scorpio, 2nd house or Pisces issues will push others who maybe don't want to think for themselves or who are afraid to stand out or who are for whatever reason believers (Pisces = faith, faithfulness) in "just taking the word" of those who allegedly know more.

There will be some hard, hard lessons and may lives lost through war and other means through the prompting of fantasies and manipulating of beliefs or weaknesses in the years ahead.

And maybe even as you read. 

But there's a whole other side of this as well. While it may be easy to ignore the mentally ill or the poor or those too scared to think of themselves, as we have begun to see, there is a 'bounce-back' effect from those who are ignored or even just merely marginalized by society, be they mentally ill or not - which goes back to the 8th as the house of violence.

And ultimately, one of the offshoots of this area of the Virgo-on-the-8th-house-of-the-Age against its Pisces polarity is going to be the understanding that captivity is at many levels not that far from being captivated - and that while on the 'captive' side there may well be physical bonds, ultimately the greatest restraints - pro or con - are those which are instilled in our minds.

And that would be Aries (I Am) on the 3rd house of the Age. We are our mentality. What becomes of that mentality through whatever means it is affected...for better or for worse...is going to drive this age.

(And yes, it's also going to drive many of us bonkers - if not simply crazy when we realize the implications of same.)

Aries, the sign of 'I Am' is on the 3rd house of the Aquarian Age - a broad-scale indicator that while that 'I am what I eat' thing may be true in terms of our bodies, who we ARE in this incoming age is all about what's in our mind and the state and operational functionality of our minds.

Beyond all that, we’re also going to see women catching up with men as the perpetrators. That ‘men are generally the perpetrators’ thing which has been with us for so very long is very Piscean. Yet the same ‘universal’ and ‘everyone is equal’ quality which in the Age of Aquarius means rich and poor are equal as humans (and thus, quite honestly, as sex or life partners) extends beyond that to just just leveling the playing field between gay and straight, but also between men and women – and not just in the work place.

An ugly thought? Yes. But Aquarius is not a sign into 'prettiness.' In Aquarius, facts rule.

Thinking this all through, it's easy to see that what we're dealing with now is a vast but steady 'dissolving' of the ‘old ways’ which when you look at it in the relationships-sexuality court starting with the Piscean Age image of the “he man” and “she little lady” sort of stuff (and who leads the sexual dance). Going forward, he may stay home with the kids. She may work. He may ask her out on a date...or she may ask him. She may ask her out and he may ask him out and either partner may be a whole lot older or younger than the other. Women will learn how to handle power with more ease (they don’t have that much practice) and men will learn a bit more about how their 'maleness' and 'masculinity' (hetero, gay or bi-sexual) does not automatically translate to domination, being domineering, having the last say or being head of household.

Maybe more to the point, through challenging themselves to be people (without reliance on gender roles) everyone will learn that gaining access to our own highly individualized inner Piscean insecurities and coping with that is what leads to enhancing our lives as a whole.

But with all this comes the down side of realization that women are not all dainty and good. In fact, women are likely to prove to be just as awful as men can be - and that has nothing to do with physical beauty or petite-ness versus brawn. Somewhere along this line our race will face realizing that beyond the fact that not all mothers are saints lies the idea that the dualistic Piscean model of mothering or fathering needs to be ‘degenderized’ into more of a concept of ‘parenting’ – an idea which is less about gender needs (yours or of the child) and more about the human part of any human being, be they parent or child.

Virgo on the 8th house of the Age also tells us that sex – in time – is just going to be another bodily function. And though the 'thin is in' thing which showed up in the 1960s as the earliest glimmer of the 'dawning of the Age of Aquarius' (as they sang in the song) is quite Aquarian (Aquarius carries a lanky and often wiry build when seen in the chart as a physical attribute), by and by we are going to separate 'thin' from 'sexually fit' - or even 'sexually desirable.'

After all, Aquarius is the sign of the unique and individual(ized) as being part of the whole. That means we are all different and we should be different, whether that means what we look like or what we prefer in a personal partner.

We see those struggles going on even now. Aquarius is the sign of the 'mass market' and universality and the easy thing to do is to excise or isolate when someone doesn't 'fit your bill.'

But that's not the fulfillment of this Age. Yes, rejection of that which is different is a common human reaction, but learning that differences are interesting is more usefully Aquarian. Ultimately, the ability to embrace differences (your own and those of others) as part of a whole which IS whole is the Aquarian way.

So yes, we do have a goodly long way to go yet.

With Virgo being the sign of ‘jobs,’ it is likely that during the next 2,100 years (give or take a decade or two) sex workers are going to become more commonplace, with a definite place in the world of human health.

Of course that does imply that ‘sexuality’ – not just at the sexually transmitted disease level – is going to be more of a problem to drive the need for such sex help. So everyone is going to have to get more realistic about body functions and the realities of physical functionality... and pleasure. Is that ikky? Is something that one person likes that you don't like "bad"? Is your liking something in the intimate realm which not everybody around you likes "bad"?

If we look at the signs involved, the answer there would seem to be arrived at through astro-mathematics of the rather philosophical kind which we might well picture as Virgo + 8th house + Mercury (as Virgo's ruler) + Mars and Pluto (as native rulers of the 8th).

So...that answer would seem to be 'no, not as long as everything is moral (Virgo) and well discussed (Mercury) between the two parties with both parties being in freely given (Pluto/Mars), self-owning (8th house) agreement. Relationships, be they marital, professional, familial, between friends - they're each and every one of them individual. And the healthy thing in a relationship is to be secure enough with yourself (that Pisces on the 2nd house of the Age quality) to be able to be you without selling your real Self down the river in the process of trying to have a relationship...or to be accepted by others.

And yes, that means that others need to get with accepting people who vary from their personal and emotional 'norm.' You don't have to be someone to accept their right to be who they are so long as they're living their life and you're living yours, right?

But with Neptune now in Pisces, it's understandable that getting to this level of comfort with ourselves isn't all that easy. The 'easy' thing to do is to say 'that's wrong' or 'they're bad' when like as not the difficulty is not that they find snakes fascinating and you find snakes horrifying - but why you're so frightened of snakes.

Or whatever else, if I may be allowed to simply 'allude' here and get away without violating any of Google's 'adult content?' inquiries. 

Neptune is that ever-odd quotient in our life which represents how we all get so disquieted as something begins melting away the walls of denial or refusal to deal with certain ideas. There are many things in this world and life which we don't like and we are entitled not to like them. But that doesn't make them wrong OR bad.

Preference does not equate to evil. But after 2,000-plus years of Piscean Age, such biases do not melt away easily.

Yet they will melt away. If we were (or become) able to come back to where we are some four or five hundred years from now, a lot of today's concerns are likely to be nothing to those people of the future. We see versions of that now, with young folks growing up in a tech world which is still a foreign land to some of their parents (never mind the grandparents!). 

And so it will be as time rolls on. The normalization of all that and the accepting of sexuality as something which is part of human physicality is on the rise. Yes, with that we will surely run into more problems with inappropriate sex and sexual boundaries. But all of that is very much part of the fact of sexuality, the ‘reality of the fantasy’ which sexuality is in human life.

You know…the Capricorn on the natively Piscean 12th house with Pisces on the natively Taurean 2nd house of realistic, rationally-driven security? What this asks us is what our values really are.

And maybe more to the point, what we think is valuable about our Self, and whether we're willing to risk our feelings of vulnerability in sharing our innermost treasured beliefs about ourselves with anyone else.

  Libra has been on the 8th house of the Age of Pisces, giving us that

obsessive longing and urge to find our 'soul mate.'

Sexuality, which has been for so very long about finding 'my other half' - Libra on the 8th house of the Piscean Age - is now evolving. Now we will learn how important and enriching it is to grow through the Virgo challenges which come as part and parcel of any relationship, platonic or intimate. The difficulties will often feel like they're 'about them' when the truth is that relationships reveal - most of all to us - the quirks of our own personalities.

That being true, that may in time come to redefine the good and bad of relationships. And those of us who want to get a jump on that eventuality can perhaps benefit by letting go of the old 'it's supposed to be easy' image in favor of understanding that the richest relationships are those which challenge us by revealing to both (or all) parties that which they need to learn about themselves.

That the physicality of sex - the 8th house/Scorpio dynamic - is the same astrological house and sign of war, birth, death and power struggles should tell us something.

Life isn't easy. It's not all roses. But then, is it really supposed to be all roses and no thorns?
.
.
.