Uranus, Hidalgo, Nemesis: Parameters and Prerogatives

 The Wheel of Fortune

by Edward Burne-Jones (1863)

As this blog posts on March 11, Bali is on station and going retrograde. Our vision of what things should be (Bali as paradise) is under review. And yet, we probably believe in it all more strongly – as we often do when such idyllic concepts are believed in. Reality can disappoint us – the dream, the image, the fantasy of what things could (or should?) be never does.

Remember Alfred Hitchcock, the movie director? He knew this on an intrinsic level. It’s part of what makes his movies so tense, so artistic, so eerily suggestive. Our minds are far, far more capable of scaring or enchanting us than reality will ever be. So while we gain something irreplaceable when we go on vacation to somewhere beautiful or have experience some wonderful event, the place or the moment is what it is. The real elation comes from our emotional reaction…the how we ‘spin’ things in our emotional mind.

That’s Bali.

But as this ‘emotional exalting’ mechanism is at its ‘station balancing point,’ Uranus is pressing forward to the very last, nth degree of Pisces…wringing the last drop of emotionality out of the old cycle, the old way, the old life before exploding into the new Aries world which is as full of potential as it may be full of helplessness. Or innocence. Or courage.

Aries is the sign of the infant. Infants do what they do because they have no pre-conception of good or bad.

And this is the energy the Uranus clock is striking, tapping, accessing and liberating as it hits 0 (degrees) Aries 0 (minutes) at 53 minutes after midnight on March 12, 2011 (UT/+0).

But before that ‘breakthrough’ moment arrives – before the door opens on the colorful land of Oz, first comes the tornado which rips us out of a world which as Dorothy’s Kansas was in the famous story – wasn’t working for her.

I once dated a guy from Kansas. We met at work – at a magazine publishing company, to be exact. Upon learning where he was from, I glibly made the obligatory Wizard of Oz joke: oh! I thought Kansas was all black and white. 

We were both in our 20’s, so he evidently wasn’t as yet dead-tired of such, so I merely got a dignified sniff and somewhat lofty correction: actually…it’s mostly sepia tones. 

Years later I drove through Kansas – much of which is beautiful. And he’s right – a lot of it is sepia toned.

So your life may be dull. Or as people in the Middle East and elsewhere have been making so very plain, it may simply not be tolerable any more.

Even if you’re completely comfortable with and in your world, this is going to be a time when things don’t feel entirely ‘solid’ or secure. They may be fine…or they may be about to melt in your hands like ice in a tin bucket sitting on black asphalt on a hot summer day.

You don’t know yet…and you aren’t going to know yet for a while; though the Uranus clock with strike zero Aries o’clock within the next twenty-four hours, Neptune is sitting at the intensely societal, social and systemic degree of 29 Aquarius. Neptune moved into 29 Aquarius back on March 5th and will not slip-slide its big blue self into Pisces until April 4th. And until that happens, many a proverbial ball will be in the air. Or you may think that all is well – that your bullet has been dodged. Or that the status quo will hold. Or that there will be nothing new to contend with.

Or, or, or…

We just don’t know. And that’s the point: we’re in a period when one of our biggest bundles to grapple with is how to carry on without knowing.

We live in a very ‘what is it?’ world. We really like to nail things down. We like to think we know what will work.

Right now, we don’t. And if astrology’s metaphysical lessons mean anything, the more you try to ‘hold on’ or ‘nail down’ or define things, the less they are going to conform to your expectations.

 

Neptune Rule #1: 

Allow yourself not to know.

  

 .

  

Neptune Theory #1:

The thing you think ‘must be’

probably isn’t. The thing you think

least likely will probably prove true.

.

In this moment, as this blog posts there is also a point of Nemesis to contend with. Considering that Nemesis is a cosmic ‘warning’ which says just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should (and that there are consequences for many a thing you think won’t have any down side)…

Nemesis went retrograde in late January – about the time that people in the Middle East rose up in protest against their government, about the time that there was a distinct and disturbing uptick of violence in Mexico, about the time of the Arizona shooting which left six people dead, about the time natural confluences were wreaking havoc in Australia….

Nemesis went retrograde in early Libra, making its turn to retrograde a shift from ‘how can I do/get something done?’ to ‘how can anything get done?’ From all of us focusing on what others (Libra) were doing wrong, we began to think more in terms of how any of us can get what we need done considering what others are doing.

Do they know…can’t they see how what they’re doing isn’t, doesn’t, can’t work? Why do they think everyone else is there to exist at their beck and personal-financial-emotional-theoretical call?

Now, as Nemesis retrogrades back into Virgo, those questions become more systemic, more ‘realism’ oriented. From being more or less about ‘how can they THINK that?’ (think being a Libra/air sign conceptual world), now the question will be more about how we can do that. Or how others can do that to us. Or how they think we can do anything if our basic needs aren’t being met.

And yet, with Pluto in Capricorn, this also reminds us that this is a long-term (decade and a half) period which is all about becoming pragmatic. It’s about scaling back…focusing on what necessity really is.

That will now be what a lot of debate is really about.

It is also to remember that we are also in a Hidalgo station period. Hidalgo will go retrograde about sixteen hours after Uranus goes retrograde, suggesting that a lot of the push, the urgency, the pressure and stress(ed) points of this next day or so will best be dealt with more or less nobly.

 Das Paradies

by Jan Bruegel (c. 1620)

And yet there is that little danger here…that some will take the Hidalgo ‘nobility’ concept and turn it into ‘elitism.’ The same ‘class/caste’ system which populations are rebelling rather literally against in the Middle East have come to be more of a financial class/caste system – and (yea verily) a raison d’etre for many in many other parts of the world.

So….?

Hopefully you will take it on credit that there’s a reason why I would now ask you to gaze into the magical historical crystal ball….and to think about  how through the decades, centuries and millennia, when the divide between rich and poor gets too immense it always comes to a crunching, crashing end.

And one of the big problems in this epic opera is how those who are secure literally have no idea of what its like to do without. It’s not malicious – it just is. Marie Antoinette had no idea of how poor the poor among her French citizens were and for that (and a couple of other things) they cut her head off. On a little less drastic scale, I’ve had many a conversation with perfectly nice, sensible, well-educated, caring people here in LA who amaze me with how little they know about what life is for those who must do without. Try to talk to them about life on that scale and they get not vaguely uncomfortable, but really truly seriously uncomfortable.

And that’s probably what’s really most offensive in the split of fiscal classes. It’s not just what those who Have have and what those who Don’t Have don’t have – it’s that those who Have don’t even what to KNOW what those who Don’t Have go through in trying to survive.

  Morning Fantasy 

by Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis (1904)

That’s enough to drive a person crazy. Or incite hate. Or get people with nothing into a real frenzy of you don’t know what it’s like? Well let me just burn your house down and reduce you to where I live so you can SEE and FEEL what it’s like! 

It will not take much ignoring to create the friction now. And I do mean friction (as in, lighting a fuse), not fiction – the thing I can ignore, should I wish to.

Privilege is an odd thing. I think one of the greatest privileges I have had in my own life is to spend time scratching by, counting pennies. And since where I came from was just financially solvent enough yet surely emotionally deprived enough to teach me that people really matter those two things have coalesced into a readiness to experience pain. Those who have never felt it are scared of it. Those who have been through a lot of pain – in the end – often realize how pain can be incredibly educational. It not only teaches you that you can survive, but that in the end, survival depends not just on the Self - but on those around us, and whether they're willing to deal with their Self.

Think I’m just getting into some sort of mushy moral proselytizing here? Surprise – I’m not! This is actually part of the grand amalgamation of the processes going on. We're all being made to feel more. Those who are used to it shrug more, grumble a bit and move on. Those who have been able to have a 'nice' life will find events more shocking.

In the end, this becomes a vast and global method of beginning to level the playing field or simply break it into two. That's pure Aquarian Age stuff - as we've been talking about in other posts. Bottom line, pretty much precisely to the degree and in areas of life where we think we have it ‘good’ where we are more than likely going to take our tumble.

But that’s the way of Uranus entering Aries - and yet another blog. Tomorrow’s, as a matter of fact…so not to worry...none of us have all that long to wait!

  

Seeking our Bali

 A Martinique coconut palm...ah, paradise!

Oh, how we all so want life to be good! However we define that term, we wish life would just be what we want it to be.

That image is our Bali.

Yesterday’s blog was all about Mercury entering Aries – an ingress which happens on March 9 at 5:48pm (UT/+0). But since Bali will be going into retrograde on March 11th at 12:56pm (UT/+0) that means Bali enters its station ‘window’ just before Mercury enters Aries.

So first a ‘Bali essence’ begins to enfold us. Then Mercury enters Aries, focusing our thought on who we are, what we can be, what our life is in this moment, what we have, what we lack, what we think, what we want to do…

You can see how this might go together, right?

Where Bali is going retrograde is also worth some ponder time. The degree is 17 – which means the two days prior to Bali’s going retrograde and the two following will be filled with whiffs and wafting emotionalism.

And what sign is Bali going retrograde (at 17 degrees) in? Scorpio.

SCORPIO?

 Arizona bark scorpion photographed under black light

photo credit: Bryce Alexander (2008)

Well…that surely puts a bit of a spin on the whole thing, doesn’t it? Scorpio is an interactive sign. And ‘interactions’ can be with other people…or institutions, companies, situations, groups – you name it, if its you and something you are involved in or are thinking about getting involved in or are unavoidably connected to, Scorpio is the water/emotional sign which governs how the ‘stuff’ which happens in and as a result of that connection affects you.

Oh sure…we all like to think that Scorpio is what’s being done to us. And yes, there are a very few situations where things are definitely and truly beyond our control. But 90% of Scorpio doings are because we choose to be involved. We choose to invest in such-and-such a stock. We choose to take that job. We choose to have sex with…uh…you know – them. 

We chose. We choose to get involved and out of that involvement (which would be Scorpio Part One) comes the emotional results (Scorpio Part Two).

Objects in direct motion indicate situations in life which are thrust upon us, creating the described dynamic. The first two days here (March 9-11) Bali is still in direct motion.

Then it goes retrograde. Bali retrograde at its best is our ability to be happy with and within ourselves. It’s the ability to not need others or to become someone we actually are happy with, at some very essential, everyday-basis.

Obviously this is an optimal. Bali as a concept is one of those ethereal ideas – paradise – which are not ever really a lasting factor in human life. We have happy moments. Blissful days and periods of time. But let’s face it – eventually the trash has to go out.

Particularly the emotional trash!

As Bali goes retrograde, it’s also within celestial hoo-ha distance (e.g., mere minutes of longitude) of Huya.

Remember Huya? Huya is the rainmaker…by taking something we have learned the hard way and turning it into a positive for others, we make their lives better and more fertile (rain as life-giving water) and thus we are fed.

We love Huya people. We respect Huya people. John Lennon…Oprah Winfrey…Abraham Lincoln…Martin Luther King, Jr….these are people who took things which hurt them or hurts thrust upon them or those they loved and turned that into a gift given to others. And in return, they are loved for what they have done.

That’s Huya.

The “dotted line” between the Bali and Huya concepts is not hard to see – the difference being that one is something you want for yourself (Bali) and the other is something you realize others need to have a right to experience (Huya).

Tanah Lot (Bali) sunset

photo credit: Kris Martin (2007)

 

With Mercury entering Aries, this would be the time to think about it. Those who refuse to will probably have situations arise which make them wonder why their life isn’t happier (the ‘anti-Bali’ effect) or why what they so want continues to be denied them (the ‘anti-Huya’ life situation).

Maybe it’s because they think only about themselves (Mercury/thought …in Aries/Self, ego)?

And maybe this is the time when they should think more in terms of how to be someone who does something so that good things happen to them?

Just in case this sounds too altruistic for cupcakes, one more little note on the astrological bulletin board…namely, that come the 11th, Nemesis (already in retrograde), moves out of Libra back into Virgo. This is about the input of challenge coming not from other people in specific moments, but from more all-encompassing situational functionalities.

Considering all which is going on around the world, it would not be surprising to hear of systems becoming problematic and both health care and civil service personnel (including militaries) are in focus.

The theme of Nemesis – the warning, the willingness to stand up and say no, this is not okay even when it’s not a popular thing to do is likely to pop up in any number of ways.

'A Glimpse of Paradise'

by Marie Ballan 

And one more thing here. We are in a period of flux. Those in areas of the world where trouble is evident are feeling it, but even if everything around your block, your town, your city seems normal enough – something is going on. Things are shifting, changing, feeling unpredictable. Uranus at 29 Pisces represents this instability; it’s a time for all of us to be feeling more and learning from our feelings…learning what is worth something and what is simply vanity.

The changes are not over yet. In celestial terms, they’re under way, but not nearly yet done.

That just means we have more to learn and more to realize about life and about ourselves; by our willingness to learn our lives will be empowered or not, crippled or not, enhanced or not, stripped down or not.

Clinging to the status quo is not going to be allowed until that status quo has itself changed. So let go. Learn to rely on yourself instead of some external standard and like as not you will come out – in time – with Huya/Bali in spirit, if not in life or hand.