Mercury in Gemini

A Mustard-Blue Sunset in Landers, California

(photo credit, Jessie Eastland aka Robert DeMeo, August 2012)

When Mercury enters Gemini on May 15th at 8:42 in the evening (UT/+0 time), it will signal that everything else in Gemini, all the qualities associated with any Gemini object (or attribute in your natal chart) is going to become ‘amplified.’ So the volume, even the sheer noise in life and in our heads is going to get turned up a notch.

At the same time, anything in the opposing sign of Sagittarius is going to confront us, or manifest as something confrontational which we may only have to think about…or which, as some do with oppositions, we’ll try to ‘push away’ or avoid.

Again, this applies in life, in the real-time world and in your personal world and mind, as a part of your ongoing mindset.

I could go on like this, pointing out that Pisces and Virgo are the squares to Mercury’s Gemini ingress and that Aquarius and Libra are the trines and that Scorpio and Capricorn are the inconjuncts.

And all that would be true. It’s also not unique. The idea which (in an archetypally Mercurial manner) I’m trying to get across is that an object which is in one sign sets off relationships to all other signs. Mercury is entering Gemini, yes. And it will be in Gemini until the end of May, when it will mush (or trip ever so gaily, depending) on into Cancer. And yes, Mercury in Gemini is a time for business and many new ideas and getting organized and thinking things through and making choices. All of that is true. But astrology isn’t about ‘existence in isolation’ any more than your heart rate or blood pressure exists as a thing isolated an apart from your body’s temperature or some infection you may have in your wee little finger.

So while we can start by thinking about how Mercury’s entering Gemini is likely to bring out Venus, Jupiter and Black Moon Lilith attributes because they’re all going to be in Gemini for the duration of Mercury’s transit, there’s also things like the days-ago solar eclipse which merit thinking through.

 Mercury as photographed by NASA's Mariner spacecraft

But first things first: Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Black Moon Lilith being altogether in Gemini suggests that these weeks of May are a time to get things done and for moving towards (or at least working on how to move towards) important Venus-Jupiter goals. And yet, you may have to do this in spite of what others think (that would be the Black Moon Lilith effect) because you believe in them…OR this may be a time to think through why you’re having such a problem with life (and others) in a general sense, dealing with what you may or may not have failed to take into account about them or their direction, interests, mentality …whatever… in light of how you are or aren’t being received.

The ‘informational’ or ‘mental gearing’ points which we would most associate with this process will occur as Mercury conjuncts each of these various points – and I should add here that the Sun will be joining this Gemini party late on May 20th, so the last ten days of May are surely about as Gemini as they can be.

And that can be good…or it can be challenging, as indicated by the fact that there will be a Sagittarius lunar eclipse on May 25th.

But let’s not jump ahead (that would be too Mercurial even for me, a known “long-form” text type!). Mercury doesn’t actually ‘catch up’ (conjunct) Venus until May 24th, though we will start feeling the combined Gemini Mercury-Venus vibe as early as May 18th. If you think of this Mercury-Venus in Gemini combo as the ability to see possibilities, you’re probably on the right track.

With Venus having crossed the rather vital Aldebaran-Antares axis line on May 16th and Mercury crossing that same point on May 19th, these three days ask that we emphasize the Aldebaran concept of integrity while avoiding the wholesale instinct to proselytize or demand that others see things our way which Antares (a star known for dogmatic qualities) tends to evoke.

In case you missed the blogs on these two famously stellar entities, here are the links:

Aldebaran: Royal Star of Persia

Antares: Royal Star of Persia

By the time Mercury and Venus perfect their transiting junction, they’re at 18 Gemini, an emotional degree which in airy Gemini tends to manifest as fervency, enthusiasm or excitement over some idea. That said, the enthusiasm or fascination evidenced at 18 Gemini is also thought to be problematic sometimes because it’s so focused on details and not willing enough to go along with the spirit of the moment, or the idea that life is not all about having life be what we want…but rather an experiencing of life so that we can come to an understanding of how to fit in, harmonize and contribute in a way which is meaningful to us, and others.

This is a time for learning – that we know because this Venus/Mercury conjunction is taking place within a degree of Rigel, the star all about being ‘at the foot of the teacher’ and thus embodying what we can learn, what we can teach, and yes – what we may need to learn about a subject, about ourselves, about others or about life itself before we can move on, or before we can achieve the success in whatever it is which seems so important to us at this time.

That discordancy, that gap between the longing or the ‘idea of the thing’ and the reality of whether it works or whether anyone will be willing to meet you even part way (never mind half way) is very Black Moon Lilith. Black Moon Lilith is that which others aren’t willing (or “ready”) to hear about or from us…and often enough what we don’t want to take into account about ‘them’ – which could be the big societal “them” or the relationship partner “them” or the boss or supervisor “them” or those running your country or (if you’re in power) your citizenry, which about now is probably not listening.

At least not with their tolerant and open ear.

Study for the painting 'Lady Lilith' done in 1866 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The underlying energetic of Lilith involves something far more potent: that part of ourselves often referred to as our 'shadow' which, in not accepting and working to understand we so often end up attracting - literally or qualitatively - from others. Typically referred to as a 'woman' because of this symbol's origination in ancient scriptures dating from a time when women were thought of as 'less than' (which is rather Lilith-like in itself, don't you think?) Lilith has everything to do with that part of our persona, generally the emotional persona, which we don't like dealing with and don't like anyone else evoking in us.

When they do, we blame them. But while their acts or actions which we find so provocative are certainly their, the reaction to that is ours. And it's that reaction which Lilith is all about: the darker side of our emotional nature which is reactive at some level or in whatever way which we find so difficult to deal with.

The metaphsyical lesson here is that life will continue to provoke us until we learn to deal not with life, but with our Self. To the degree that we don't, Lilith (in either form, as the Black Moon or as the asteroid Lilith) represents that part of us both that we reject and which we will be rejected for.

Not to put too fine a point on this, that there has also ended up being two forms of Lilith says a lot to how problematic this tendency is in human beings.

The asteroid form (which we are not talking about here) tends to be more about things we don't want to deal with in ourselves which only apply to what we don't want to admit to ourselves. The calculated form of Lilith - the Black Moon - has to do with the Moon's orbit around Earth and thus manifests with more of a 'relational' or me-and-my-world sort of quality.  
 
Black Moon Lilith sitting at 28 Gemini as all this is going on has the Black Moon in conjunction with another famously infamous fixed star, Betelgeuse. And since Betelgeuse either wants things to be easy or seeks to take the easy way out (or through the problem) while that may be our problem, we’re more than likely to think it’s everybody else’s problem.

Why? Because that’s the easy thing to do, of course!

(Yes, I know…how annoying!)

Besides all the above, I am coming to think that perhaps Betelgeuse, especially in the presence of a 'relational' or 'societal' symbol like Black Moon Lilith doesn't also represent those who have it easy...or those who think the easiest thing to do is "go with the flow" or join some 'prevailing idea.'

But then, Jupiter and Venus in Gemini as a chaser to a strong draught of Taurus solar eclipse does sort of encompass that idea. So as Mercury moves into Gemini, might we not hear more on both sides of this 'having it easy' coin?

Maybe the real answer is the difference between what comes easily to one person and not to another and how what is given to us by dint of fortune is an ease that may also blind us to some very real and very emotionally evocative part of life.  

With our having just passed through a vital solar eclipse which is so testing to our sense of ability and desire to persevere, it's likely that some of us will be tempted to just say ‘screw them’ (so to speak). Or even ‘I give up!’ now, which may come to a head as the emotional peak of the lunar eclipse rambles through. From when Mercury conjuncts Venus the gap between Mercury/Venus and Jupiter – the power of ‘blowing things up big’ (or expansion) only increases not just until the eclipse but beyond it, reaching a mental/psycho-social peak twice – once on May 26 (when Mercury conjuncts Jupiter) and again on May 29th, when Mercury conjuncts Black Moon Lilith.

As this happens, asteroid Atlantis joins the grouping as if to say if you’ll just let yourself understand and get used to how things work instead of how you WANT them to work, you can achieve everything you want to achieve…maybe even more.

But it’s not going to be easy for everybody to get there. Between the moment of the lunar eclipse (May 25th) and this Mercury-Black Moon conjunction the Moon will of course be moving on from its eclipse point (4 Sagittarius) through the balance of Sagittarius (testing our willingness to see new truths and act to improve things in the general-and-operational sense) …and then the Moon enters Capricorn.

Moon in Capricorn is always hasty. I don’t know if you’re into Lord of the Rings, but when I think Moon in Capricorn, I always hear a line from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers where Treebeard the Ent chides one of the Hobbits (Merry) for being so hasty.

Treebeard and the Hobbits by TTThom (2007)

The Moon will enter Capricorn on May 26th at 9:30 in the evening UT/+0 time. And during the next two days, while it transits Capricorn, we will have less of a tendency to ‘hold on’ and hesitate and more of that urge to get it done.

This process will become particularly strong as the Moon conjuncts Pluto, a process which initiates late on May 26th (UT/+0 time), which ‘perfects’ or comes to its peak early in the morning on May 27th (UT/+0 time) and which will fade back into a more ‘normal’ Moon-in-Capricorn busy pace by 6-7 pm on the 27th.

For some of us, that will be the energy which gets us past a sticking point. For some of us, this period will mark a time of revelation. For all of us, considering that the height of this Pluto/Moon takes place in opposition to Vesta (the ‘cost’ of keeping our commitments, whether to others or ourselves) and that the ‘exit’ from Pluto-Moon’s intensity occurs in opposition to Ceres/Charybdis, our questions are more likely to be ‘how to do that?’ rather than the total denial of what needs doing.

And that’s good, as that is part of the unfolding process of the solar eclipse – which though it is an event which takes place at a particular time is also, and more importantly on the astrological front, a long-term transit.

We are just beginning to grow into and through the energetics of this May’s solar eclipse. We’re about seven months into incorporating shifts denoted by last November’s solar eclipse into our lives. We’re about a year into the process of grasping the shift of mental emphasis spoken to by the 0 Gemini solar eclipse of May 2011.

Solar eclipses ‘evolve’ over a period of three years. Often we don’t really understand what they’re about until almost the whole of that period has passed us by. Sure, we think we know what they’re about…we get a ‘message’ and we make a shift. But it’s what that leads us to knowing or doing or understanding which is the real and shining jewel of any eclipse. So right now we’re really just finding out – or coming to find out – what the solar eclipse of July 2010 at 19 Cancer was all about.

- link to post -

 The 2010 Solar Eclipse at 19 Cancer

This year’s eclipse builds from that place. And of course each eclipse in its turn is more or less important or vital in an active sense in our lives depending on how the position of the eclipse aspects our chart. For instance, that eclipse in my world hit my personal natal Uranus in the 4th house. The standard ‘breaking down’ period which preceded it was a time of restlessness and turmoil in my life which caused me to burst forth on my Uranian own, taking on the development of this blog, which first appeared in May of 2010, a little less than eight weeks prior to the solar eclipse.

And that’s what we always say: when you get inside that eight weeks prior to an eclipse, you begin to change. Now, with the current eclipse, I’m building on that which I’ve come to understand through three years of blogging (and for a time, not blogging). And as we’ve noted in the eclipse post, there is something to be said for this May’s eclipse (at 19 Taurus) sextiling the (19 Cancer) eclipse which is just concluding it’s work.

All that comes back to these weeks of Mercury in Gemini leading directly out of the Taurus solar eclipse as a time when though we aren’t comfortable with everything we need to think through, deal with, try to understand or figure out how to do, we still need to do it. Gemini and Taurus are signs right next to each other, so they’re of differing ‘modalities’ and element. Gemini’s mode of operation is to try and to see what happens – hence the idea so many people have of Gemini as the ‘try this, try that’ sign, which really only works if you stay on course with a single goal. Gemini is not about spreading ourselves too thin. It’s not about giving ourselves excuses for not getting anything done. Gemini is about figuring out how to get to where you want to go. And it’s opposition to Sagittarius warns us that if we focus on the results too early, or if we go out into the big world with our big ideas before they’re properly assembled, we’re likely to find some ‘back to the drawing board’ glitches. Or at least some ‘I need to tweak this’ moments.

Taurus, like its fixed sign compatriots (Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius) wants to get things right. In fact, these are signs which would tend not to want to try unless they know they have it right…even though you have to risk being wrong to confirm ‘rightness,’ as it were.

 
Both of these signs are part of the zodiac’s first quadruplicity – the first four signs. Aires (fire), Taurus (earth), Gemini (air), Cancer (water) describe the basic life learning processes which go on through life no matter how old we get. Wherever you see these signs in your chart, whenever planets or other objects are in transit through these signs, we know that area of life is in for some development. It’s time to learn, the universe says.

The solar eclipse in Taurus is a ‘destabilizing’ energy in our security and satisfaction arena. Humans being humans, we don’t like changing the comfy status quo too much, so every 19 years or so (the eclipse cycle) Mother Nature shakes us awake with primal sorts of shifts which force us to grow and adapt. We get forced to let go of that which is no longer useful, no matter how much we love it.

No matter how much we love them.

The universe is neither kind nor unkind – it simply is. We project all sorts of priorities on existence which existence simply – and quite obviously – doesn’t uphold. Our loves, our prejudices, what is important to us as a human being, as a sentient creature, is evidently not what decides how the universe is run. Or how it unfolds. When we get “too” secure we seem to run a risk of thinking of ourselves as inviolable. That’s a form of ‘resistance to change’ which life will inevitably test, as the walls we put up – like all else – are merely formats of formulated energy. And for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. Our attempts to control merely prompt the universal mechanism to meet our power with equal or greater power.

After all, the universe will out. The whole is mightier than the part - which may be a secret in itself to why anything which separates us from each other, whether that's selfishness, discrimination, elitism...why the simple act of accepting is the ultimate and hardest zodiacal act to achieve and the hallmark of the emotional wisdom which is the challenge and glory of Pisces.

If you think this through – and Mercury in Gemini is a perfect time to do so – the success of Gandhi’s non-resistance and the logic of the peaceful and accepting ways spoken of in Buddhism become clearer.

And once you get there, you realize that all the force and violence is at some level our desire for some lesson.

Which says…what about us?
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A New Moon Solstice: An Incoming Cancer Tide of Gemini Thoughts

 Summer Solstice Sunrise over Stonehenge

(photo credit: Andrew Dunn, June 2005)

Give or take, the Moon moves about half-a-degree per hour. The Sun moves just under a degree per day. So once you know that - and that there’s going to be a New Moon on Tuesday the 19th at 28 Gemini (28 degrees of Gemini 43 minutes, to be exact), with barely a flicker of a brain cell you’ll grasp that it’s just over a day until the Sun arrives at 0 Cancer.

The Sun's Cancer ingress will occur at 11:10 p.m. on June 20th (UT/+0 time).

And just as you get done thinking that, no doubt you'll also realize that the Moon, with it's half-a-degree per hour speed - will be arriving at 0 Cancer before the Sun does...about four hours or so after the 11:13 a.m. (UT/+0) Tuesday June 19th New Moon.

The Sun's arrival at 0 Cancer is what Earth’s northern hemisphere calls the Summer Solstice – the longest daylight day of the year. Earth’s southern hemisphere calls this the Winter Solstice – the shortest daylight day of the year.

The fact that Earth's orbital tilt remains constant as it orbits

around the Sun is responsible for our seasons

(diagram credit Tau'olunga)

Not to be partial here, astrologically it would simply be called the Cancer Solstice.

So, what does all this mean? Why should we care?

Well, with the Moon arriving in Cancer before the Sun does, we expect our feelings to evidence themselves in a Cancerian manner before our (Sun) consciousness does. Instinct leads the way - as do our feelings. And with Mercury already at 20 Cancer, our thoughts head in the emotional direction, particularly where relationships are concerned. With Mercury (in Cancer and therefore ruled by the Moon) in square to Saturn at the New Moon, new concerns are prompted.

The real question here is twofold. The first part of this question is whether we are exhibiting what we do and who we are with an eye to the quality of what we’re ‘putting out there.’ That’s the general concept raised by Saturn’s retrograding in Libra’s third decanate degrees (degrees 20 through 29) and with Saturn in opposition to Eris at 22 Aries and both planets just sitting there, the metaphysical implication is that though we may be focused on others or in some sort of debate with someone else, the real argument is with our Self.

At some level, most of us want to ‘hold out’ for what we know: Eris conjunct Lachesis (duration) and Kassandra (disbelief) is likely to manifest as the sort of indignantly stubborn thinking which says ‘I don’t think I’m wrong here’…with the Aries part of this having to do with ‘who I am’ or ‘what I’m doing.’

Whether you should hold out or whether you should change is astrologically seen through the opposition to Saturn, which in retrograde asks us to consider the precepts of Arcturus and Spica: whether we lead with our proverbial ‘best foot’ (or finest ability)forward or not. The feedback, the support, the approval (or lack thereof) is really all about that – not about who we are as a person.

It’s not easy to take it all that way (Hello? Venus retrograde) but that’s really what it is – and here Venus retrograde is the ‘softening’ agent which gets us to listen as points and objections hit home.

This thus becomes a time of measuring whether, where and why change is needed.

And then we get to the second question: should things be easy? With Uranus and Eris both in Aries (a situation which is going to continue for a good half-dozen years yet) we can change of be changed. Astrological wisdom would tend to vote for ‘change’ as opposed to ‘being changed’ because we get a vote in how we change things and no vote at all in how life changes us.

But there is – undoubtedly – some quivers and quandaries at this time. For one, as the Moon moves into Cancer the Sun will be entering 29 Gemini, Gemini’s most critical degree.  And considering Gemini is a sign of mentality and communication (among other things), that concept of ‘critical’ could be literal. Or with Moon and Mercury already in emotionally evocative Cancer, at least cranky!

Yes, we could vote for this same combination manifesting as joy and cuddly happiness, too. But with Venus still in retrograde…?

(…A brief pause while the astrologer heaves a resigned sigh…)

These weeks of Venus in retrograde seem to be wearing people down. That would be the evidence that Venus is performing its retrograde in Gemini and how mentally-driven we are as human beings.

So once the Sun and Mercury are both in Cancer? With Mercury in square to Saturn-opposition-Eris through June 24th, there are challenges to face. But the good news there is that Mercury in this position defines this period of time as a t-square.

(Yes, I did just call a t-square a good thing!)

/

The reason why I would hold that a t-squares is a good thing is that by itself, an opposition is either a ‘balancing act’ (the me part against the ‘them’ part) OR a formidable challenge to grow into something other than what you start out as which integrates the principles of the opposition.

But a t-square? T-squares basically say that once we get over ourselves on the personal level (i.e., our ego issues) and get on with doing the task at hand because it needs to be done and done correctly, then we not only excel and succeed, but we end up creating situations which give that ego some positive reinforcement.

Not that it’s easy! T-squares have earned a hefty astrological reputation for difficulty for good reason. Yet statistical surveys of charts show that many of the charts of people we consider ‘among the great’ include t-squares. In fact, in the past 100 years or so, astrologers have moved from what is often thought of as the ‘Germanic school’ of astro-speak (which is couched greatly in negatives and disaster) through the sunshine and roses candy floss stage of the mid-late 1900s to a rather realistic perspective of ‘life includes challenges because through challenges we grow’ sort of perspective.

So the trine which in the early 1900s could ‘consign us to misery for all time’ and which then gave way to ‘peace and light’ in the middle/late 1900’s is now looked at as being ‘all in how you use it.’

Meanwhile, the square – and its cousins the t-square and grand square – have come to be looked at not as total malifics and not as horrible things which get in your way but the very things which in confronting us, cause us to grow. And from such growth comes the building blocks with which we build our success – external and internal.

At the moment, those challenges may look enormous. Yet Venus retrograde may play in two directions here. Either it’s worn you down to the point where you’re feisty and irritable…or it’s worn down the very resistance which has allowed you to go on refusing to change or learn something new about life (and therefore, your Self).

With Mars moving into Virgo’s third decanate as the New Moon arrives and the Sun moves on through its Solstice there’s a feeling of wanting – and wanting either to get it right or that you (still) feel within your rights. Is that about what you’re doing? About whether you should tell someone what they’re doing wrong?

Well let’s see…Venus in retrograde...hmmm…how do you think people will take to having someone sticking unwanted noses into their business?

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do so. At the time of the New Moon – and therefore as a factor moving forward into July – is a semi-sextile to Ceres. Ceres being the symbol of the kind of awareness, attention and timely action which gets the seed planted when it should be planted, the fields watered and weeded regularly – that’s Ceres. Often thought of simply as the nurturance associated with Virgo, Ceres is also the mental planning which goes with growing anything ‘from seed’ to harvest feast.

Ceres is also about ‘getting your hands dirty.’

 Farming (here being done in Indonesia) is probably the

oldest and most critical form of occupation (apart

from motherhood!) where we get our hands dirty.

(photo credit: Jan-Pieter Nap)

With semi-sextiles being noted for arousing feelings of being put upon (and sometimes embarrassed) the whole of the late June/early-mid July period may have people feeling insulted, rejected, unappreciated. Yet some of us will grow from that – just as some of us have grown from taking the Venus retrograde period as a time to harness our abilities in a productive and ultimately useful way.

The big question would seem to be about whether you’re moved to mix it up – most of all with yourself. So…can you get past your sense of ennui? Can you get past the ‘what now?’s and the ‘why do I have to do everything?’ and follow the plan of productivity?

Probably the biggest glitch here – which because this colors the Solstice implies it will be carried through as a theme during these next three months – is the New Moon’s exact conjunction with Polaris and Betelgeuse.

The degree is 28 Gemini, a degree which by its 3rd decanate position denotes input and feedback. Things are not in our control and moreover, with Betelgeuse’s position being 28 Gemini, we don’t even want control. I know a doctor with Venus/Mars (personal pleasure, a sense of wanting things to be rewarding) conjunct this position and the last thing this MD wants is to have to take control.

That's a challenge for a doctor, granted. But it can be made useful if and where we remember that we are a participant in life and merely called upon to do our part as well as we can. Some things – yes, they happen. For this doctor, some of his patients will get well, others will die. That is the way of life. Hopefully he rests easily with the fact that he’s not in charge of the universe.

At the same time, this configuration also asks that he should take delight in doing all he can as an intelligent being with regards to his patients. He can't just 'do what he likes' and ignore the rest.

So he shouldn't expect himself to know everything. Who does?All any of us are called upon is to do is the best we can. And that, my friends, is where enters Betelgeuse at 28 Gemini, a degree which the great astrologer Dane Rudhyar typified as being about ‘the creative exuberance of the human soul in response to basic life experiences.’

We are talking Gemini here – the third sign of the zodiac. The first four signs of said zodiac, the first round through the elements – they’re all about the basics of life and the basics of our life. They’re about learning. Gemini is our mental facility. So no, in Gemini we are not supposed to know everything...we are merely supposed to learn, be willing to learn, and to never buy into (nor settle for) the idea that we’re stupid. Or ‘less than’ someone else because we do not yet know something.

 Red star giant Betelgeuse

(photo credit: Hubble-NASA-ESA, 2004)

Betelgeuse challenges us here, as Betelgeuse drives for the 'easy,' which in Gemini would have us wanting things to be 'easily learned' or 'easy to come by' or do.

And that's why this star is such a challenge to the essence of Gemini. Gemini is wholly about learning. So if you're someone who is a workaholic, you should learn to relax. But if you're someone who likes the luxurious life, you need to learn to apply yourself.

Betelgeuse in Gemini is all about learning how to 'be' in this world, yes. But it's our world and Betelgeuse is in our charts. So in the end, it all comes back to learning about ourselves. And what we think of ourselves. And learning more, so we can be more and maybe even achieve those rewards we all seem to want!

So this New Moon...set exactly conjunct Betelgeuse...that combination heralds a month in which to learn about learning and in doing so, to learn more about ourselves….and probably how we make things harder for ourselves by being set in our ways, by pre-judging who we can be, by coping out – whether that involves saying I’m stupid or I can’t learn that or (adding in a bit of Cancer here) I don’t know how to get along with my family or I can’t see living in some other house.

We are probably not meant to know all ends. Our life is an exploration – a learning process. Gemini is with us always. And here we are given a New Moon to remind us of our innocence, and hopefully of our vulnerabilities. We all feel hurt, we all get angry. Harsh words get said, mistakes get made.

Can we move beyond that and indeed be and become a family of mankind?

Polaris – Earth’s current pole star – is sitting conjunct Betelgeuse and the New Moon. Known as a star of leading or leadership, let’s hope that this lunation and Solstice season to come leads us all towards greater understanding of ourselves, of each other, and the willingness to ‘take the lead’ in turning difficulties into good times yet to come. 

Earth: A Very Attractive Planet

Taken from Ehrenburg, Walberia, a 45-minute time exposure centered on Polaris (photo credit Udo Kugel - September 2001)

It just ticked me pink to see on of PSRD’s latest 'Cosmo Spark circular.

Link to: Cosmo Spark

Who the heck is PSRD – and what did I find so scintillatingly amusing?

PSRD stands for Planetary Science Research Discoveries, and the team which is behind all that PSRD-ing are a flock of planetary geoscientists at Hawaii’s Institute of Geophysics and Planetology.

(Planetology? Like you’re going to tell a planet to open its mouth and say aaaaaah?)

In any case, they’re a pretty cool group. And every once in a while they sends out a missive. It could be on gas captured in ancient rocks (I know – you’re excited, right) to this week’s thriller, a Cosmo Sparks message on the subject of how popular our watery blue planet really is.

On a celestial basis, that is.

Evidently our lovable Planet Earth has fans. According to PSRD, “At any given time there are at least one or two meter-sized asteroids and about a thousand smaller centimeter-sized rocks also orbiting our planet.” PRSD calls them (oh, shades of Austin Powers!) “minimoons.”

Evidently not all such asteroid-Earth love affairs last all that long. Most of the time, after a brief and chaotic orbital fling (say, after two or three times around) most asteroids go their space-bound ways.

(No, we don’t know what they’re saying about Earth once the attraction cools off, but we can hope they proceed on in stony silence.)

A few find their attraction for Earth truly deadly, plunging to a fiery death in our resistance-laden atmosphere. We call those meteors.

And while all this goes on, our Luna Moon continues serenely on her way, securely captured by Earth’s gravity and eternally capable of tugging on Earth’s watery mantle. (Sounds like a lot of marriages I know.)

So why am I bringing all this up – apart from the fact I obviously got a big charge out of thinking of asteroids as planetary suitors?

Ah yes. Now we come to the interestingly astrological part. It seems that these asteroids take up this madcap courting of our planet at two very specific times of the year. And those two time periods happen to be a week or two after Earth’s perihelion and aphelion – what we the astrologically inclined tend to call the Summer and Winter Solstice.

This part where it happens after the solstice got me to thinking…after all, part of that solstice thing (or at least its affects) has to do with exactly where Earth is in its seriously complicated tilt-wobble-precession sort of process.

Believe me – it’s hard work being a planet.

We talk more or less often about precession. It’s a 25,920 year cycle which is about the fact that the imaginary ‘stick’ we think of as being stuck through Earth’s polar axis orbits clockwise as earth rotates in a counter-clockwise direction.

(At least that’s the way it looks if you’re looking down on the North Pole….so for you in New Zealand, Southern Africa and Australia, g’day and switch the terms around!)

 Planet Earth, showing it's Axial Tilt, the circle of precession

 its poles describe over 25,920 years and the difference

 between Earth's celestial equator (the thing we think of as an

 equator) and the plane of the ecliptic - the path Earth takes

 around the Sun each year. 

(diagram credit - Dennis Nilsson,, December 2007)

The tilt thing? Well, Earth’s tilt is pretty stable – between just over twenty-two and twenty-four and a half degrees off vertical. At the moment it seems to be at about 23.44 degrees off vertical and apparently people are still able to walk around without looking entirely cockeyed (or drunk) so all’s well.

And listen – it could be worse. Uranus rolls. That’s right…Uranus’ axis is at 90 degrees off vertical. And because of this, it presents one pole to the Sun for about 40 years then turns the other way. (No, don’t’ ask me which one its its planetary tush! I have no idea!)

The more science comes to know about Uranus, the odder Uranus really seems. Despite this pole-to-pole toasting it gets from the Sun, the “equatorial” regions of the planet still register as being warmest. No wonder astrology associates Uranus with the ‘non-status quo,’ the change, the discovery, the innovation, the breakthrough. As a planet, Uranus seems to break all the rules.

Isn’t it interesting how astrologers figure these things out in advance of science and yet the science backs the astrology up? Says a lot for research and testing points on a whole lot of charts!

Just to wrap up here before we get back to those asteroids…the wobble thing. Yes, Earth wobbles. Here’s a diagram made by the International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS)…a project overseen by the Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) (Yes, they skipped a few letters.) This is the group which keeps track of Earth’s orbit and the syncing of clocks, including the need to insert ‘leap seconds’ and such.

In any case, here’s their diagram of Earth’s polar motion from 2005 to the present.

 Polar motion from 2005 to present

(credit: hpiers/obspm, France)

So what’s all this got to do with asteroids which get the hots for Planet Earth?

It’s just all part of the celestial mechanics. Some of the above is a bit of karmic veggies I’m slipping in before we get to the astrological dessert, and all of it is good for us to know.

The part which got me to thinking was why do these asteroids hook up with Earth AFTER the solstices?

That answer...in the metaphysical sense that I'm thinking of it, has to do with precession. (And who am I to not share factoids I find so fascinating?)

That ‘circle of precession’ we talk about…which currently has Earth’s north pole ‘pointed’ at Polaris? That picture looks pretty much like this:

 Time diagram of Earth's north pole precession

 by  Tau'olunga (June 2006)

Polaris is the star at the very tail of Ursa Minor - the constellation known as the Little Bear. On this diagram, it's located just beside the marker for the year +2,000, meaning 2,000 CE.

There were pole stars before Polaris and there will be pole stars after Polaris. And that’s what PSDR’s Cosmo Spark sparked in me. The fact that Earth is attracting its latest batch of suitors after the solstices made me wonder if Earth is already sort of ‘over’ Polaris. Obviously on a scientific platform this wouldn’t be the case – Polaris is 434 light years from Earth. But metaphysically, this ‘disparity’ speaks to us.

Here’s a diagram of the ‘precessional circle’ Earth’s north pole would appear to ‘trace’ in the heavens.

The ‘dot’ in the center here is where the ‘axis’ of this (Earth’s) precessional circle would be. Positioned within what some might call a ‘protective’ circle of constellation Draco (which others might feel is our inner spirit ‘surrounded by Draco) 

Anyway…here’s a few astrological concepts to chew on while you’re not living such an apparently tilted life. (I guess Earth’s tilt is why we say we’re inclined to do this or that? Would we therefore be prone to doing things if on Uranus?)

Our current pole star – give or take exactness here – is Polaris. Astrologically, Polaris is the leader. The director. The one who points the way. Given how e metaphysical ‘north’ is always a reference to intellect (just as ‘south’ is metaphysically a reference to emotions or emotionality), Polaris thus becomes exactly what it says it is: the leader versus the director…the one who inspires and who is part of the effort, or the one who tells others what to do but who isn’t intrinsically ‘hands on.’

Is there a good or bad here? Maybe, maybe not. It’s probably all in how you handle your Polaris (so to speak). Currently positioned at 28 Gemini (conjunct Betelgeuse, a star all about aiming to have things ‘work well or easily’) there is great portent for good and great possibility for selfishness from anyone as they attain a position of leadership.

Of particular interest this year (2012) would be knowing that Thuban was Earth’s pole star between 3,000 and 2,700 BCE (give or take)…which would make it the pole star for the Egyptian and Mayan civilizations, among others. Very much linked to the constructive/destructive ideas of the dragon, Thuban is a symbol of value, worth and ‘the treasure.’

Back when Thuban was the pole star, it was in Gemini – just about where Polaris is today, though Betelgeuse and Polaris were then in Aries (at around 19 Aries or so).

It’s all rather curious, seeing as we have the Mayan ‘creation calendar’ drawing to a close this year with the Galactic Center now positioned at 27 Sagittarius, in direct oppositional alignment with where Thuban was then…and where Polaris (and Betelgeuse) are now.

Was the Galactic Center in Sagittarius back then? No. Back in the year 3,000 BCE our Milky Way’s center (and its resident Black Hole) was at 15 Libra, rather in opposition to…(yes!)…Betelgeuse and Polaris.

With Polaris having been in Aries back then, survival was the key and trying to make it through the day or year with a modicum of ease (Betelgeuse) was the rather simplistic optimal and learning (Thuban) was the treasure, the symbol of one’s value. Being someone of learning has lasted through the years since then as a guiding precept.

And maybe that’s what the Mayans (and the Egyptians, as others) wanted us to know – that learning and choosing to learn and to use what we know (thought, thoughtfulness)…that those Gemini precepts would be our ‘guiding light.’

With Polaris now our guiding light and in opposition to the Galactic Center we would appear to be polarized by the need to be ourselves and to learn enough…and yet to remember to contribute. That’s the requirement of the Galactic Center. The GC (as it’s known among astrologers) is always a point which describes where we have to give and wherever 27 Sagittarius (the position of the Galactic Center in 2012) falls in your chart, that’s where you will rise and probably also fall to your highest and lowest nature.

In a sense, that’s the price we pay for living in a time which combines the challenge of being with that of leading. For the Maya and the Egyptians and other great cultures of their day, the aspiration of learning (Thuban) was something other than the struggle to survive and to be a head of household or society.

Not so now. It’s just another sign that the Age of Aquarius – an age which stratifies, separates and distinguishes and requires that we treasure our differences asks that we join together in making things work.

 Aquariusurania as pictured in Urania's Mirror,

 a set of 32 constellation cards published by

 Samuel Leigh (London) in 1825

No, we don’t all have to like each other. But in the Aquarian Age we’re going to need to recognize that as different as we are and should be…how that doesn’t mean one person, one idea, one culture, one gender, one profession, one way of living is any better than any other. Those who don’t…well, like those Earth suitors which come along and end up going off on their own, we’ll be ‘deep spacing’ ourselves. That’s pretty cold.

Meanwhile, Earth goes on collecting it’s minimoons and leaving most behind. Our lovely blue planet remains in its monogamous relationship with Luna Moon while making friends along the way…just as many of Earth’s inhabitants do. For a minute there, I wondered whether Earth was just plain fickle.

Then I realized that when you’re a charismatic planet with a lot of magnetism and local space mass, you’re bound to pick up fans along the way!

Yup, I guess it’s all good...live and learn, right?