Blogpost (May 12-19): The Scorpio New Moon (+ Mars and Other Stations)

 

A photograph of the April 15, 2014 Lunar Eclipse taken in Minneapolis, Minnesota

(photo credit: Tomruen2)

As May 12th comes upon us, life [Sun] shifts us out from behind a variable set of lenses colored by contradictions which want resolving plus a smattering of just those sorts of cravings which make us feel everything or anything we have or are isn’t as good as what someone else has (or is).

Fortunately, it’s only been a day of that - a 20 Taurus sort of day which had us wanting to do whatever our way when for good or ill what we want, especially in the long run was more likely to come from an honest estimation of personal needs.

From solidity of self comes the ability to tolerate differences in others. Without that security, Taurus becomes the land of endless wanting - of whatever your “medium of choice” is, be it money, power or any of the other illustrious polarizing (Scorpio) forces which are apparently part of life not so much so that we can test or control others but so that we can learn about what works for us and...separately...for others so that we can forge a path forward which works to equally support the need/drives/aims of all.
 
With every year comes a 20 Taurus sort of day. And once we complete that task, life rolls on...time pushes forward...and we get to the next thing, the process of enacting yesterday’s realizations.

It’s something of a theme this week, that process thing. No matter who we are we’re in the middle of something, and the Sun’s moving into Taurus’ ‘third third’ (degrees 20-29) is where our more (and most) personal view(s) encounter the minds, the lives, the push back, applause, critique and support of both a few...and at other times many others.

There will be a literal highlighting of sorts which will occur around/at the time of this month’s Scorpio Full Moon. The date will be May 14th and the UT/+0 time 7:17 p.m. as this Moon takes its mark at 23 Scorpio.

And if that degree sounds familiar, it should. 23 Scorpio is the degree Saturn went stationary-retrograde at back on March 3rd.

Which yes, would be one day after Mars went retrograde at 27 Libra....which was one day after Mercury went direct at 18 Aquarius.

- link to -

Mercury, Mars, Saturn on Station

And we’re all still dealing with that. Whatever was afoot then was what we like as not stubbed our mental toes on, with the whole of the Mars retrograde and solar eclipse process slowly moving us towards a ‘bottom line’ we are just about to reach with our Self, and which all around us we hear people wanting to reach (often just so they can be ‘done’ with something).

Over this time...through whatever has happened to us over the past few months...our trajectory has changed. Why we do what we do (the way we do it) has become clearer to us - and the flaws with that, personal or social - have also become clear.

We all have been changed. A little or a lot...that’s individual. But as this Full Moon comes to be...during the time leading into or out of it (some people tend to do one, some the other - that’s natural) we’re likely to feel ourselves recognizing just how we’ve changed.

And what that means with regards to our personal  potential, alone or as part of some greater group or concern.

Maybe even as part of many groups or concerns, some of which don’t overlap so well. Energies stirred at 23 Scorpio wash through life either with a ‘scattering’ or ‘wasting’ effect or a revealing of that which has been scattered or wasted which here is ‘highlighted’ symbolically by a Full Moon - a ‘high tide’ of feelings summoned from deep within whether we really want to feel them or not.

But it’s just a phase. The Moon moves in phases...this is just another phase, and after this one will come countless others. When we make a Scorpio-Moon connection, we tend to feel the impact...of how we feel in the moment we register our feelings most of all.

It’s a lovely thing indeed...although it can get us stuck. The Moon in Scorpio fights for control; its habit and instinct are to use external sources to  stabilize anything we feel [Moon] is keeping us from ‘getting on’ with whatever it is we want to do next...and to find/use/employ whatever we [Moon] feel will support our positions.

At it’s best, Moon in Scorpio supports difficult emotional constructs and the constructing of whatever will support, detoxify, rebuild and/or regulate any force. Sometimes that means investing. Sometimes that means pruning. Sometimes that means detoxifying. Sometimes that means not doing anything and sometimes it means ripping the old construct down to whatever level lays it bare.

Scorpio is the sign of the Phoenix. We are transformed by our ability to trust our Self, whether or not others agree - whether or not we like (or trust) them. That all ‘Scorpio tests’ are internal and yet enacted through others or external circumstances will lead most of us to experience at least a moment or two (or three) of insecurity...maybe confusion or even that helpless, hapless feeling we all dislike. The Sun-Phaethon-Dionysus (in Taurus) side of things describes demands and determinations being balanced against a future and a potential we should want...and which we actually have the ability to go after if our overall priorities are in line.

If not, others will let us know. They may not even be subtle about it.

One other thing about this day or so in time...with the Moon (at 23 Scorpio) conjunct Mnemosyne (creativity) and Huya, there is something we can give - something which we have learned at hard cost long before now [Huya] through the sorts of events and experiences which try the human soul.

However we connect to that...whatever we have learned from that...it is the offering of that which becomes our “Huya Rainmaker.”

- link to -

Huya, Rainmaker: Direct at 20 Scorpio

Remember: this is your Huya we’re talking about, which in Scorpio has to do with what you have to offer others out of your own life which will ‘make it rain’ for everyone...and thus bring fulfillment to us. 

 Asteroid Eros as photographed by NASA

 

Eros station-retrograde at 19 Capricorn

As astrological Eros the ‘object’ as been covered about as well as I'm ever going to cover it in a different post, let’s start there...
 

- link to -

Eros and Psyche: Falling in

Love With Our Minds

...after which what you need to know is that asteroid Eros is going retrograde at 19 Capricorn on May 11th.

Yes, that is the same day as the Full Moon. But let’s remember, stations (be they station-retrograde or station-direct) all get 'allowances.' I'm currently using a two-day allowance, but if you may find three days works better for you, feel free.

Representing ‘passions’ of all kinds, Eros energies tend to arise as described by the sign element in your natal chart. In other words, if your natal Eros is in an air sign (Gemini, Libra or Aquarius) you are stirred by ideas and your ‘passions’ function greatly on an idea-driven level and it doesn’t matter what the subject matter is, it’s the idea of the thing which ‘gets’ you (or gets to you).

With natal Eros in water (Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces), the drive and driver is emotional. With natal Eros in fire (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) the ‘vision’ is the thing.

And when we find Eros in an earth sign - as it is now, transiting Capricorn, it’s the reality which we’re passionate about, and life’s realities which stir our passions, however they’re individually shaped. With Capricorn pointing us to the worldly and public sections of life as well as all things/concerns ‘structural’ (and the price or penalty we pay for a lack of Eros focus) certain types of ‘standings’ (or our regard for same) take a ‘turn’ now... or don’t, depending on our individual relationship to the kind of passionate assertiveness of the interactive type this Scorpio Full Moon favors working with.

Our ability to negotiate, team up with, support or serve as a coalescing (Scorpio) force is in the (Full Moon) spotlight.

Known as least mildly pro-active (and more than a little bit determined, 19 Capricorn is a degree which presses for its goals with an unusual degree of creativity. And though advances can be made, the fullness of what one wants to accomplish probably can’t be done overnight.

Yes, patience is required. That may be the test here, as Scorpio Moons (Full or otherwise) tend to ‘freeze’ or ‘hold off’ where Eros energies tend to erupt as ‘pushing’ for what we want or need.
 
Balance and an understanding of who or what we are dealing with in its own terms (not pre-defined by us) is necessary for what is done now to endure as a supportive measure which does what we want it to correctly.

If nothing else, the Sabian symbol for 28 Virgo ('A SEEKER AFTER OCCULT KNOWLEDGE

IS READING AN ANCIENT SCROLL WHICH ILLUMINATES HIS MIND,') reminds us how in

great part the decision (and effort) to continue seeking and the remaining open to new ideas

(not the allegiance to what we already know) which provides opportunities for growth. 

Srimad Guru Adi Shankaracharya by Raja Ravi Varma (1904, Oleograph)

Byblis direct at 28 Virgo

There’s an unpleasant quality to Byblis, one which can probably be typified either as the defense of the indefensible or the attempt to defend one’s Self against that ‘awful’ thing we don’t want to think about or contend with.

But that’s the point - the metaphysics of asteroid Byblis is about us. It’s about what we will or won’t consider or face having to deal with, whether that ‘dealing’ is self-contained or whether such things ask us to take on matters beyond our Self or even our understanding.

The point is that with Byblis, there always seems to be something involved which is ‘wrong’ - or at least something which seems or feels wrong. And with Byblis’ station taking place in Virgo, the ‘lens’ through which this ‘wrong’ is being seen (or through which it is manifesting) will be the means, method or reasoning/rationales for doing/not doing things...or the means, methods or rationales being employed in the doing of things.

That Byblis is making its turn to direct at 28 Virgo (one of Virgo’s last ten degrees) also tells us that whatever the Byblis note is, it will be ‘group’ and not personal. So it’s something we can react to... or which in embodying a reaction to something we’ve already done brings out the Byblis effect (theirs about us or us about something ‘out there’).

This isn’t the sky falling. Like most main belt  asteroid energetics, Byblis represents something we ‘run into’ and thus are affected by, which may color what we do, how we think or some choice we make because of or maybe in spite of everything and anything disquietingly ‘Byblis-like.’

At the same time, seeing as Byblis went retrograde back in early February in tandem with Mercury there is some chance that an assertion made back then may fall through now. If so, it will fall through on the basis of improper choices (which of several options was taken)...  or how a choice, commitment, resistance or position has failed to take all of the details and/or universal needs (or universal commonalties) properly into account.

In other words, where we may have thought over-much of our Self (in the ‘self important sense) or even just more of our opinion in some situation which really needed to be more balanced in the ‘my’ versus ‘their’ department...such issues may arise - or even re-arise now.

Again, this doesn’t have to be any sort of costly  interruption or reprocessing of anything. For many of us these Byblis moments are just those ‘do you have to bring THAT up again?’ sort of influences.

And since we’re here...the answer to the above is ‘yes, they do have to bring that up again,’ if only because their Byblis says they have to bring ‘that’ up again for their own Byblis reasons.

How would we know who would react and who wouldn’t react to such an influence? Granting that energetics tend to have a low-level effect no matter who we are, the person who reacts now will have 28 Virgo as a sensitive point in their natal chart or a natal Byblis which is somehow emphasized, however that happens.

Also, one other item worth noting...

Astrologer Marc Edmund Jones (the original astrologer to work with Sabian symbols)

typified the image for 0 Libra - 'IN A COLLECTION OF PERFECT SPECIMENS OF MANY

BIOLOGICAL FORMS, A BUTTERFLY DISPLAYES THE BEAUTY OF ITS WINGS, ITS BODY

IMPALED BY A FINE DART' - as 'the immortal archetypal reality that a perfect and dedicated

life reveals,' validating in yet another form those many age-old sayings which warn how 

with every great honor comes some sort of responsibility and feeling of being 'pinned' to

that 'perfect beauty' we represent, stand for, have achieved or have created.

A Chinese cloisonne and enamel box (photo credit: Vassil, June 2007)
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Haumea direct at 0 Libra

Haumea is a dwarf planet, not an asteroid, meaning it’s greater size and mass translates rather literally into the metaphorical world of metaphysics, telling us it’s effect will have ‘weight’...or perhaps ‘gravity’ in our psyche, if not our life.

And maybe our life too - but first the psyche, as that is the principle realm (hierarchy of thought) around which western (tropical) astrology is organized. There are other forms of astrology which tend in that direction, but in western astrology, fate is what you are handed: what you do with it is free will and that’s what we see in your chart...which is why what happens (astrologically) isn’t about ‘them’ it’s about you and your responses, reactions and learning curve.

And why does that apply here? That applies because Haumea is a goddess of tricky manifestations, whether we’re talking about Haumea as an entity capable of ‘giving birth’ through various portions of her being (which metaphysically would suggest our ability to ‘give birth’ to ideas or efforts when various facets of our lives are triggered)...or Haumea the ultimately self-destructive shape-shifter as a representation of how we choose, do or say this or that to placate or ‘get by’ or ‘get along’ in any of the many manners which ultimately come home to us in some form of self-undoing.

In going direct at 0 Libra, Haumea drives us to understand truths even while (or because) we’re being driven crazy - or just driving ourselves crazy over something we need to deal with before moving on. There’s a ‘spin’ on complications here which suggests easy things being made more complicated (perhaps more complicated than they need to be) even as complicated issues are being simplified - and yes, maybe over-simplified. Whichever effect is encountered, the subject... interestingly... does seem to be something important, particularly in its ultimate potential with problems of the moment being linked to an undermining of momentum through improperly applied efforts.

Either the right method is not known, the right skills are not present or skills are needed but not present, all of which is complicated by questioning which in the end will tend towards lack of capacity - a quality which isn’t going to be felt as any more cuddly or cozy by any of us seeing as Venus is still in Aries (a fact which links because the Venusian drive for reward rules the Libra principle of relating).

You do remember Venus in Aries, right?
 

- link to -

Venus in Aries

Haumea and Byblis both go direct on May 18th, which means their stations (conservatively) begin on the 16th (Friday) and extend through March 20th, the actual end of Mars retrograde.

And that station (Mars’ station) begins on the 18th, the date Haumea and Byblis go direct.

Wait...let me try to make this a little easier by offering what schools the world over have no doubt taught us all to regard as a ‘visual aid.’

I’m sure to some, this all sounds rather dire - and it could be for those brining their minds in some proverbial pickle while waiting on someone or on something to happen. But the element involved here - air -  tells us that however Haumea and Mars manifest amidst all other things is of theoretical concern.

In other words, they’re arising in our mind, and whether it’s an evolving idea or some new notion about how life works or who you are in this life...with the Sun in Taurus’ latter degrees, we’re all being subjected to some level of interfaced wants and ‘security needs.’ Or maybe for you that’s the interfacing of wants and whatever allows you to feel secure (starting in your mind, evidently).

Or maybe it's just all in our mind. Sorting through that question is part of what happens now...and evidently it needs to happen as part of Mars reaching the end of its long Libra retrograde. How much of what we do in life is governed by what we think others like or dislike? How much is our life modeled or molded by ideas which may 'hold their shape' for us but which in the end are undercutting or compromising our greater ends? 

By the by...just to define here, ‘security’ in this sense is the Taurean (and/or 2nd house) version of security, which is to say that we find in our Self, making this reference ‘that which makes us feel secure as a person in life and/or in any given moment of our life.’
 
For the record here, the obvious is also true - namely that the reason why Scorpio as the polarity to Taurus is so often associated with death, birth, war and various kinds of tests of control are because where and when Scorpio functions that way it does so as a projection onto others of that we feel disquieted by ourselves.
 
Some factor which arises from this quadrant of our thinking plays a role at least in how we will tend to consider things now... and with Mars continuing to ‘sit’ at 9 Libra (conjunct fixed star Diadem), whether we’re in position to be comfortable with some sort of separateness of perspective or struggling through dealing with feelings, tales and issues having to do with separations or a ‘separating of ideas,’ isolation and/or its elitist cousin isolationism will be pushing us each and all to see the beauty, full potential and possible nasty (to our thinking) ideas to be faced amidst all.

Traces of liquid passage as recorded in planet Mars' surface

(NASA, GSFC, December 2006)

Damocles, Mars-Diadem

and Orcus on Station

 

Speaking of Mars (you knew we were going to get around to this, right?), the strangely unsecured feeling so many people are feeling, reacting to, and whether productive or not - that continues...as does the [Mercury in Gemini] pace of things in general. We often think of Mercury in Gemini as a somewhat ‘hectic’ time - and that factor may well be missing this time around, what with the overhanging Diadem/Mars retrograde effect. The net is likely to be a deal of coming to terms with Self first and then others, yet with Mars and Venus both in ‘fervent’ degrees we will need to conquer our own trepidations going in and be willing to work through a process of consideration and reconsidering (most of all with our Self) if by week’s end we are to arrive at suitable (or at least employable) combinations of [Venus in Aries] aspiration, [Mercury in Gemini] facts, choices or options and what may only be a dawning of the greater [Mars/Diadem] understanding of why (in the biggest-of-big-picture metaphysical sense) you have gone through so much of what you have gone through over these past days, weeks and months.

This period has its own function, absolutely. But it is also part of an intense and challenging period filled with personal tests which dates back to December, 2013 - just before Christmas.

Speaking of intensity...since Mars is going direct in square to Pluto (conjunct Vega) in Capricorn, apart from and yet as part of all else we go through now we are experiencing a long-term [Pluto] transformation of allure and that which fascinates us, draws and or commands us.

The longest range personal and societal shifts began a couple of years ago and won't become evident in the general sense for several years hence. However the short term effects of Mars-square-Pluto (which this would be with Pluto in Capricorn and Mars in Libra) could be explosive IF both symbols were not in retrograde.

In other words, froth if you must, but the transformational energetic is personal and wholeheartedly internal, causing us to 'work over' issues in our own way and at our own individual pace starting somewhere around May 14th.

This is not a transit to quail at unless you have done something dishonest, wrong or wholly manipulative (i.e., without regard for consequences or who gets harmed). If that is the case, as always Pluto/Mars contacts are likely to time out matters which 'expose' your secrets and 'occulted' (hidden) matters...and something like Mars squaring Pluto through a station is certainly that kind of event.

For everyone else the latter part of this coming week is likely to feel 'constrained' or 'compacted'...or perhaps weighty but complicated in that messy if not in-obvious manner which persuades us we can get where we need to go if we will but tackle the job and get on with things.  

In this light, some of us will solve short-term problems first as greater perceptions filter down upon us...some of us will have one of those light-bulb ‘epiphany’ moments then use that to develop new strategies which apply to the here and now of today, tomorrow and next week.

Then there’s the rest of us - a vast swath of humanity which is seeing so much so fast that it will take a bit to sort out, shake out and otherwise prove out.

Which is okay too...and entirely astrologically sensible. Even before Mars enters its two-day ‘station allowance’ on May 17th, asteroids Damocles and Sabine go on station on May 16th, serving as metaphysical clockwork chimes striking new notes of recognition...

In light of Damocles going on station at 24 Aquarius ('A BUTTERFLY WITH THE RIGHT
WING MORE PERFECTLY FORMED' ) we are reminded to stay in balance with ourselves

...and just how much doing that much requires of us.

A plate of Charaxes Aristogiton from Adalbert Seitz (ed.) 'Macrolepidoplera of the World'

(published before 1930, author unknown)

...yes, we see what needs doing...it’s just that it’s [Damocles] a whole lot harder to carry through on, especially given the growing understanding that reactions may arise during the process. As the weekend of the 17th-18th comes upon us time [Damocles in Capricorn] is ever more an essential ingredient going forward...but there are distinct real-time, present tense needs too. 

And one or two of those are likely to feel a bit like volunteering to sit on a tack the ‘point’ of which is driving home our own mortality, our vulnerability to being human as both the reason we care about others (and need to be cared about) and why we need to individuate.

It’s back to that Libra thing - the knowing who we are in the presence of others and knowing how we act to, with and about them is the cause of the effect they hand back. It’s all about negotiation, most of which happens first and last with and within our Self.
 
You know, the [Orcus] consequences which come from being who we are and aren't...or who we have come to think we don't want to be or need to become in spite of all. Through others, through all we have been through and been thwarted in, so we come to realize what is possible, reasonable and - in the end - maybe not so desirable in spite of all.

 Asteroid Sabine going station/retrograde at 16 Capricorn, a degree imaged by the image
'A REPRESSED WOMAN FINDS A PSYCHOLOGICAL RELEASE IN NUDISM' representing

whatever unexpressed or denied experiences we meet up with (in our own life or that of
others) which causes us to see, become free with or 'put on display for all to see' either
that which represents our inner (Capricorn) structures or external (Capricorn) goals,
drives or aims. 

Inu (Nu debout) by Jean Metzinger (oil on carton, 52 x 35 cm., 1911) 

 
Maybe it's not our path or role in life. Maybe the thing at hand (or in mind) isn't ours to do even comment on. Why this should be - and why we will, in reconsidering our current focus arrive at considering the 'where we are now' in light of all we have done...that both holds us back [Sabine] and in getting us to [Sabine] take hold of that which is immediately available to us gets us to consider what our life should be as well as the [Damocles] difficulties we're bound to encounter whether we adjust or stay our course.

In other words...in light of all that, what is really worth doing [Mars] and/or investing our [Mars] energies in? At some level we know our choice cannot be just about what we want, nor can it be entirely about what one (or many) parties are lobbying for.

It's about any and all of us - and what we mean...at least on a theoretical level...amidst all that.

Considering we're all going through this together (which is a thought worthy of contemplation right there...) patience and thoughtfulness will count now more than usual - and though we dare not leave ourselves out of the mix (yes, a little 'be nice to me' time is in order) we also dare not neglect others, with and without regard for who they are.

Libra is about equality - a theoretical equality which on a metaphysical level must allow for differences simply because together we all balance each other out.

(And isn't that a metaphysical noodle worth thinking about?) 

The better we understand why all this is, the more likely we are to ask ourselves that we actually hear others instead of just listening (in general, read as 'tolerating') them. And once we do that, we're likely to not just hear what they're truly saying (as opposed to what we might have been thinking we wanted to hear)...from which we will begin to really understand why others choose as they choose.

Such perspectives...or our unwillingness to contemplate same...are what we carry into and through the Mars/Diadem station, wherever that may yet lead.

* * * * * * * * * *

* * * * * * * * * * 

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A Revisionist Aries Moon

 
There’s a New Moon which will occur on March 30th at 6:46 p.m. (UT/+0 time) at 9 Aries. As it occurs, instincts stir in keeping with this beginning of a last cycle of daily lunar doings before our life and planet shifts through an inexorable eclipsing of value.

Becoming who we are…the reason we would raise voice, or feel ourselves being motivated by a conviction finding voice within us, the making strides not out of the need to assert what we believe in but as a demonstration of our ability to believe in it –such will be the commonly held virtues of a New Moon moment in Aries which in its own vibrant way urges us to prove our point.

And yet…that point is often not as we think it is…which is a noteworthy concept found through many a doing now and moving forward. It’s as if this 9 Aries cycle is prompting us to ‘answer a call’ precisely so we will learn not to respond to emphasis or ‘volume’ alone, but rather the reality of need.

Aries is always personal and lunar cycles are the heart and celestial clockwork timing of daily life and doings. Given our current Mars in retrograde opposition effect (from Libra) many if not most of us will feel pre-occupations alternate with a thoughtful sort of longing which estimates the distance between ‘us’ and ‘them’ (or where we are and where we were or want to be) as not being what we want it would be.

And that means whether we wish we were closer to that whatever ‘it’ is would either just go away or stop standing there and fix things.

Either way, we’re not picky. We just want not to have to think about ‘that’ any more – and by ‘that’ we don’t mean the thing or person, we mean the feeling inside your soul which is motivating you to feel that something is so peculiarly important.

Something needs proving. We want to prove it – at least to ourselves.

That’s the crux of very issue: we’re all about us now. Whatever passes between us amounts to prompting, setting us up…or off…wherever we’re dissatisfied with ourselves. Yes, we may think it’s the other person (or ‘side’) which is at fault.

Those feelings though…the ones in our gut? They’re ours.

This is an Aries lunation: it’s a cycle having to do with understanding our very existing, our very flesh and blood human life.

And we feel alone. Even if surrounded by others or being ogled by millions, in our soul we will come to this time feeling an isolation which in some very unique and personal way affords us the opportunity to watch.

And watch we will, as if condemned to stand on principle – ours. We see the damage. We are passionate about how things should be and how they must be done.

We’re just missing the human part. That would start with breaking through either our reluctance or incapacity… and in some cases, the reluctance to deal with simple lack of capacity. With ‘blame’ easily exteriorized and assigned, fewer of us than might be useful will get past however they ‘see it’ to that place which in respecting truly universal parameters earns respect.

That would seem the path to eradicating ills of old and disunity within and without, but…we are so very human. It’s just so, so easy to blame someone else for the respect for Self we lack, finding in that projection sufficient justification to prevent any consideration of why someone else’s defeat will never salve our most painful, long-standing wounds.

And that would be our aim. Aries is always a personal sign, and with this lunation we are brought closer than ever to those things we’ve always feared were true not in terms of what we need to become, but what we need to correct in order to be the person we claim we are on the inside.

You know, to ourselves.

The above image – the t-square – is centered on the New Moon itself (Sun conjunct Moon) with Uranus and Juno, symbol of ‘managing the household,’ whether that would be our home, our life, our mentality, our accounts, a company or whatever else we’re currently involved with.

It’s about us and about our conscious, everyday life as a means by which that life experiences change – that which is astrologically so very Uranian. How this happens is individual…the measure of change you experience through realization may come to someone else through getting a new job. Or through letting go of some hope, some plan, some relationship or ideal. Maybe you’ll move physically.

Or maybe you’ll move off a position or decision held since half-past before you started forever.

It could happen. And if it does, providing we are giving something up which has held us back, then all begins falling in line.

Not instantly, but eventually. Give it a year…or three.

That’s how eclipses work.

Those who will not change – either in this moment or as a matter of stance or principle are the most likely to experience problems as this is not a lunation which deals well with rigidity. Even the most staunch of positions – or the person embodying such a stance – is likely now to meet up with unexpected considerations.

As with all things Uranian, flexibility is advised. Wherever a ‘vision’ or aim can be revised, updated or innovated, look there for facts and the sort of inspiration which cleaves a natural path through challenges while creating minimal disruptions.

Uranian moments either explode upon us, in our hands or through our mindsets, blowing out that which whether new or old, flimsy or time-honored, has outlived its functionality.

And no, we don’t get to control such things. We may or may not like the march of time. We may protest the passing of years and supplanting of ideas all we like and yet discover we haven’t changed a thing.

Except our outlook, that is.

And that…or something about how the world works is confusing. Or, as the weeks wind on and Mercury moves from Pisces into Aries, even daunting. Differences between perspectives will stand out now, and many of us will feel compelled, especially as the Lunar Eclipse of April 15th draws closer – to try to insist.

On what?

On something which means a great deal – even everything - to us.

Magic rectangles imply grace under any and every circumstance, even if the sort of ‘magical’ effect we associate with this image astrologically is only occasionally solely about ability, talent or resources. Here pictured as something of a societal setting or a ‘global’ sort of personal challenge, we move forward now through our determination and almost in spite of (Venus/Damocles trine Mars in Libra retrograde) difficulties. Such difficulties may well be (Eris/Pelion) huge and ‘expertise’ may be required to compensate where (Aries) individual incapacity is involved. ‘Damage’ and ‘damages’ requiring an enormous amount of effort may be experienced locally, universally and in the present…or they may now surface and be presented as legacies from some past, perceived or otherwise.

Not knowing what we know collectively and not wanting to believe what we know in our hearts instinctively as true (Pallas/Kassandra opposition Venus/Damocles) now vie against a reality which is only as dangerous or disappointing as our expectations and presumptions.

Which can be highly problematic, granted – which is the other side of this entire month’s dynamic. There are those who have lost or who are lost. There are those who feel threatened by the idea of something broken or broken down which they don’t know how to put back together.

Nobody said life was ever easy, even for those we suspect live a life of ease. No matter who we are, no matter where this lunation finds us, the difference between some long held idea(l) and an incontrovertible and bluntly realistic limit is forcing us to reconnoiter and rethink not for some future action, but for a future we will necessarily face.

In that arena, today’s theoretical advances go most readily to those revisionists willing to take on whatever abstractions have caused them to be so reluctant to be human – but to those willing to do so in public.

We are our own best …or worst tool now, depending on how we utilize not our opportunities, but our greater, most ethically human abilities.
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An Aquarius New Moon

Glucose crystallization under 1650x magnification

(photo credit: Josef Reischig CSc., 2008)

If you looked at the image chosen to head up this blog and thought ‘gosh, that’s different!’ then you’re on the right track. Aquarius is all about that which is different and the energy of change. Anything which changes the status quo, anything which gets us to change, any moment in which we see things differently or get a new perspective on something – that’s Aquarius.

The February 2013 Aquarian New Moon takes place on February 10th (UT/+0 time) at 7:21 in the morning. It’s position? That would be at 21 Aquarius, a continuation of the series of New Moons at 21 degrees which started last November with the Solar Eclipse (a form of New Moon) at 21 Scorpio.

Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn and now Aquarius, this is the fourth of five New Moons which will be at 21 degrees of successive signs, with the series ending next month at 21 Pisces.

There isn’t all that much written about these ‘sequences’ of New Moons, but being one never shy in the postulating department, I will start out by observing the obvious: 21 degrees is a degree between 20 and 29 in all signs, meaning this is a ‘3rd decanate sequence’ which is about input and feedback. Some of that will be as obvious as the oft-heard statement in American politics, ‘elections have consequences’…and some of it will not be so obvious, as any New Moon sequence is about initiations and starting anew, or starting a new phase of something, whether that something is a new plan, a new job or something more esoteric like starting to consider that maybe you’ve been wrong all this time about something.

Backing up a bit (perspective-wise, which seems apt given we’re talking about Things Aquarian)…this is also a sequence which begins in the zodiac’s 3rd quadrant of all things personally interactive, and ends in the zodiac’s 4th quadrant of those things global and while affecting the ‘me and everyone else’ part of life are also those things which draw us into…or exclude us from that life around us.

On the astrological level, it really couldn’t be any more plain: this is a time which is about, or which asks us to consider life in terms of others, what we are doing in this world, how our world is operating, what opportunities may exist ‘out there’ and what the problems and challenges are – not just ‘out there’ but in terms of how I’m interacting with others and that whole giant ‘out there-ness’ of life.

Also interesting to note…as noted, this sequence began with a New Moon/Solar Eclipse at 21 Scorpio. When this sequence ends, we will then get one month (April) with a New Moon at 20 Aires (still a 3rd decanate ‘worldly’ degree) and then we will get into the wonderful world of 2nd decanate emotional degrees beginning with May’s Taurus Solar Eclipse at 19 Taurus.

If you’ve been into astrology for a while, you begin to see its many patterns. We have four elements: fire, earth, air and water, but only three modalities (methods/habits of action): cardinal (directly active), fixed (conditionally active) and mutable (variably active).

We also have the two upper/lower hemispheres of the zodiac…

 
…and the left/right of the zodiac wheel…

 …which when overlaid give us the four quadrants and their basic meanings.

Similarly, we have the 360 degrees of the entire wheel broken down either into twelve signs of thirty degrees…

…or the eight phase lunar cycle where each phase is 45 degrees long…
 

…which when overlaid gives us the zodiac with it’s horizontal and vertical axis plus the four ‘cross-quadrant points’ at 15 degrees of every fixed sign indicating where we move from the learning phase into what we might call the ‘doing’ phase.

(Just to pause here…if you’re someone with any planet or axis at 15 degrees of a fixed sign, you know that attribute as an area of life indicating an ongoing internal discussion we might as well entitle ‘should I?' Your tendency is to say ‘no,’ but that isn’t always the right course, right? I feel your pain, trust me!) 

The reason to bring this theory into the discussion is because this idea of what signs (plural) a sequence may fall into (or even connect by transit) has everything to do with understanding what area of life it’s going to affect and what the dynamics are. They will certainly change for you on an individual basis as you may not have Aries rising. Your Scorpio (for instance) may fall in the lower half of your chart, which becomes another ‘layer’ to add on to the interpretation.

But in this case, what I was really getting to was the idea that a lunar sequence, this series of New Moons we’re in is not just a matter of moving from a ‘personally interactive’ 3rd quarter mode into a more ‘universal’ arena (personally or professionally, individually or as part of a group)…it’s also about the idea that ongoing lunar cycles have a pattern of their own which here I’m typifying by decanate, or ‘thirds’ of every sign.

The first decan (degrees 0 through 9) of any sign is where the sign manifests physically and through  actions taken or not taken. The second decanate (degrees 10 through 19) are where any sign manifests itself on the emotional level. (And yes, this does include air signs!) The third decanate is where we have to let go of (emotional) control and deal with reactions, input and where what we do (or are) fits in the ‘big world out there’ of others and their opinions, works and whatnot.

This ‘decan theory’ (which I promise can get even more exotic if we get into Vedic astrology and dasas)…the decanates alone, that ‘one-third, one-third, one-third’ of every sign, against the whole of the zodiac is very much like the difference between four elements and three modalities.

The patterns repeat. As it happens in astrology, so it happens in life. Whether we’re talking about microcosm/macrocosm, those who do not learn from history who are thus bound to repeat history or the solar eclipse cycles of our life, whether it’s the integrated geometry of a sunflower…

The spirals of a sunflower

(photo credit: L Shyamal, 2006)

…or the artistic dance of electrons or a Foucault pendulums which in its measured swings responds to Earth's every revolution.

The Foucault pendulum in Valencia

(Daniel Sancho, November 2005)

No matter where we look, patterns repeat.

And thus they are there for us to learn from.

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IF in all of the above I have caused you to think about astrology or existence or time’s passing even a little bit differently, you have just experienced Aquarian energy. And even IF I have annoyed you all to tar with all of the above and you’ve been sitting there saying ‘will she just get ON with it?’ I have also stirred the Aquarian quotient.

The energy which would create change, whether it presses on us (as impatience) or it’s experienced as discovery is Aquarian.

Lunar cycles – like the Nodes of the Moon – cycle backwards. If you were to look at the year 2012 you would find it started in with New Moons in the first decanate which then moved backwards into the 3rd decanate, making 2012 a year which we started very much ‘in our Self’ but which evolved to become all about that greater world, asking us what we were doing in that world and testing how well what we were doing and who we are works in a world which itself evolves day by day by day by day.

The planets (life) move up the number scale…our experience of life takes us through a series of experiences which ‘bring it home’ to us and which are represented astrologically by cycles which move “backward” or down the numerical scale (and if you’re talking about the lunar nodes, our symbol of relationship interactions moves backwards through the signs).

The poetic way to say this is that the more we see, the older we get, the more we understand how young we really are.

Doesn’t that remind you of some of the older (and wiser) people that you know?

And for those who are a bit more scientific, the counting down while counting up theorem is familiar to you, too. You call it spin-counterspin. Like breathing in and breathing out, this simultaneous entwining of time and space and movement and counter movement is the thing of electrons, of generational interactions, of the very double helix which makes up DNA.

There’s even a Double Helix nebula.

A false-color image of the Double Helix Nebula

(photo credit: NASA-JPL-Caltech/M. Morris (UCLA), March 2005)

As opposed to 2012, year 2013 is beginning with New Moons in 3rd decanate worldly degrees, but which as of May will shift into 2nd decan degrees, a pattern which will endure through March, 2014. Extrapolating from what we know about 2012, this suggests that while the first couple of months of 2013 (including this February-March lunar month) are going to have us very concerned with the ‘condition’ of our life as a whole, both as ‘our’ life and as we think of that life in terms of people and the world around us.

Once we get to May (actually beginning in late April, but…) the issue will be all about how we feel about life: our life in particular and life in general as it’s going on around us.

And now for the astrological specifics, which I trust will expose greater value in all we’ve discussed.
This month’s Aquarian New Moon is at 21 Aquarius, a degree which as we’ve discussed is all about dealing with life, the world, input from others and so on. The lore for this degree refers to difficulties which stem either from lackadaisical attitudes, lack of understanding/qualification and/or plain old exhaustion – all of which can be ours, or be encountered in others. 

There three asteroids clustered around this New Moon: Nessus, Eros and Damocles. Nessus and Eros are in the same degree, so they should be treated as a unit which fuses passionate focus (Eros) with lingering ill will (Nessus). Are you focused on some sort of ‘unbridled’ ill will felt by someone else? Or are you the source of this ill-will? Perhaps you see others – maybe family, maybe your government, maybe other people in this world – as being sources of ill-will, or at least actions and choices which will turn out ‘ill’ for you?

Damocles is somewhat in the same vein, but different in that Damocles always refers to a situation which like a lovely crystal lagoon looks so good from a distance. But as soon as we jump into deep water the sharks appear. 

One of the intriguing qualities of astrology is its capacity to manifest in different ways. So as I say all of the above to you about 21 Aquarius and Nessus, Eros and Damocles (and by the by, the nature of Eros ‘passion’ changes with the sign it’s in, so this is ‘the idea of it’)…and that all sounds difficult.

The co-rulers of Aquarius are Saturn and Uranus. Saturn asks how well we know who we are, what we’re doing and what is required in order to get the acceptance, appreciation and (oh yes) income we want from the world and Uranus is either the changes to the status quo which improve things or which create fractious, even difficult situations….or which has us wanting to just give up, walk away or not deal with ‘that’ (or ‘them’) either because we don’t want to, don’t like them or don’t want to consider anything but our own cherished ‘norm.’

Saturn is in Scorpio, so we know this month is going to bring questions which test our ability to know our own values and know-understand-appreciate the values of other people or the value of some situation or opportunity which arises, or ‘threatens’ us (emotionally) with some form of, or need to change.

Uranus in Aries is the very essence of personal innovation. Uranus asks who are you – really? and its passage through Aries throws all sorts of tests at us so we can recognize the difference between who we may want to be, who we think we are and who we are actually…and maybe how changes are needed.

(There’s a lot of issues about change in this New Moon mix – have you noticed?)

One last thing to consider – namely that this New Moon comes to us as a t-square.

With the New Moon at the ‘t’ of this square, this is something of a universal notification that (to use the vernacular) we need to get over our big, bad selves! There is something about how we are seeing life and others and this world which is getting in each of our ways. Maybe we don’t know enough. Maybe we aren’t treating others…or even ourselves with the warmth those kids in the nursery with the bug denote.

Maybe we don’t respect money. Or the natural differences between people and how they are just as apt to be strengths as debilities.

Given that t-squares move in zodiacal order, the ‘starting point’ is the North Node, Scheherazade and Huya, a combination which is all about what we need to do in order to be in functional, viable and supportive relationships with others, whether that’s on a personal or professional basis. Scheherazade is a curious image here as it’s a reference to ‘the story we tell’ which in Scorpio is most likely to be the necessity to listen to others so that we do understand what their (Scorpio) needs are and why those needs are as important to them as our needs are to us.

Huya is a reference to that which is learned at some cost, often great cost. The North Node being a reference to ‘group dynamics,’ this may be all about learning from what’s happened…or again, just listening to what others have learned.

Or maybe you need to open up with someone and tell them what’s hurt you, what’s harmed you, what you’ve learned at great cost.

The difficulty implied in this North Node complex against the New Moon is that the rule with t-squares is that if we don’t ‘get past’ our own blockades, we end up back at the beginning of the t-square. And that implies more problems, more hurt, more difficulties.

The ‘object’ of this t-square is described at South Node-Sedna in late Taurus, a pairing which is likely to be about our desire to feel good with our place in the world and the relationships we have in this world.

But…Not to rattle your chains (not much, anyway), it is worth noting that this South Node/Sedna position is in the zone of this May’s eclipse.

Are we being told that what happens now will be reflected in what happens then? Probably yes. This is something we see rather often in astrology, particularly when it comes to eclipses. First there’s a little nudge, then there’s an elbow to our ribs, then life clonks us over the head!

So maybe it’s time to start listening. What do you think?
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