Ceres in Scorpio

Beim Mahen (Le Faucheur) by Georges Seurat

(oil on panel, c 1883, Metropolitan Museum of Art)

There are different ways to think of Ceres in Scorpio. Ceres speaks greatly to all which we do and all that it takes for an idea or some other kind of ‘seed’ to develop and grow to fruition. And when Ceres enters Scorpio on August 7th at 3:44 in the morning (UT/+0 time) it will mark a time when many an effort may bear fruit.

But maybe not. As the sign of Scorpio is as likely to deny as to allow, as likely to mark times of decay, delay and loss as to reward us with opportunities, rewards and that singular feeling of having survived our own foibles long enough to find our way to the light.

So to put it simply, while these next months of Ceres in Scorpio may be all about facing what it takes to seed and grow our way to success, they may also be filled with reaping the results of what was previously sown... sometimes long, long ago. Ceres’ cycle being 4.6 years long, for some of us that’s how far back we’ll need to look to see the genesis of what we face now. For others, today merely ties back to last February.

February 3rd, to be exact. Why February 3rd? That would be because this upcoming Ceres/Scorpio ingress is actually the third in a series which began back on February 3rd.

Ceres enters Scorpio for the first time during 2014

Feb 3, 2014 - 5:20 p.m. (UT+0) - glyph chart

Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

Ceres enters Scorpio for the first time during 2014

Feb 3, 2014 - 5:20 p.m. (UT+0) - text chart

Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

In this February chart, Ceres was tightly bound up with the North Node - and so we too were ‘bound up’ with matters which raised feelings of power and impotence, posing any number of struggles on said subject. Such challenges may have come to us through others, or merely through our times - and most of them (at least those which were started back around the February period) will not yet have come to any solidly defined point where we could be said to be ‘reaping what we have sown’...a singularly Scorpio sort of concept.

After all, Scorpio is karmic. Scorpio is not the more ‘linear’ cause/effect of airy Libra. Libra’s cause/effect is akin to the scientific statement ‘for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction’...with such ‘opposite and equal’ reactions running the gamut from personal to professional and from appreciation and applause to snarls, jeers and flat-out rejection. Libra is the ‘what’ where Scorpio is the ‘why’ - and with Scorpio, all those ‘why’s always feel personal. Scorpio is all about testing our inner emotional balance and that works well with Ceres providing we’re balanced enough at the moment to contain our reactions to whatever arises now in favor of thinking things through and working calmly... even thoughtfully... towards our aims.

Ceres’ retrograde pass back out of Scorpio feel on March 22nd with the North Node having passed over Ceres indicating societal interactions which rewarded, incited, promoted and provoked in accordance with how prepared we were to be “cut off” from some emotional turf war. That turf war was something we were having with our Self and was in regards to (or because of) our relationship to  standards and opinions of [Scorpio] others.

Yes, the differences were between our Self and something or someone other than our Self. But the feelings which erupted...those were ours. The feelings which erupted between early February and March which by March 22nd had by then turned around and were forcing us to rethink or reconsider.

Having gone direct back on June 1st at 18 Libra Ceres emphasized abilities, talents and our ability to honor our own essence along with that of others...

Ceres, having just retrograded out of Scorpio into Libra

March 22, 2014 - 2:52 p.m. (UT+0) - glyph chart

Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

Ceres, having just retrograded out of Scorpio into Libra

March 22, 2014 - 2:52 p.m. (UT+0) - text chart

Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

...which may or may not have gone well in your world depending on where (and how) Libra and Ceres are positioned in your natal chart.

And now Ceres is moving back into Scorpio.

Ceres enters Scorpio for the third and final time during 2014

August 7, 2014 - 3:44 a.m. (UT/+0) - glyph chart

Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

Ceres enters Scorpio for the third and final time during 2014

August 7, 2014 - 3:44 a.m. (UT/+0) - text chart

Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

With all the (Sun-Mercury-Jupiter-Black Moon Lilith) energy currently in Leo, this ‘the third time is the charm’ passing of Ceres into Scorpio will test our ability to be our own person while maintaining connection with others and some sort of ‘relatable’ quality/quotient which provides a basis for interaction.

Plus there is the little fact that as Ceres enters Scorpio it ‘activates’ 0 Scorpio - the degree of this October’s solar eclipse.

This can mark a time of great contention or physical-emotional tension...or it can mark a time of breakthrough. With Mars, Saturn and Vesta already in Scorpio that which is failing to bear fruit is doing so at substantial [Vesta] cost. With Mars (in Scorpio) squaring Jupiter (in Leo) at Ceres’ ingress suggests spectacular things, but such moments are likely to be positive only if and where the awareness of others, long term repercussions and the truth of the moment (the cold truth, not some heated ‘my truth’) are being taken into account.

We know our own plan - that’s what got us here. Now we need to [Ceres] consider the plans of others, and how we deal with that...theoretically, that would be what determines the measure of emotional profit and loss as part of our months to come.

Ceres entering Scorpio is the first part of a series of shifts to happen over the next week or so - and that Ceres is the leading factor speaks to qualities which will call our focus to things we don't control but which may well make us want control...which in Ceres terms speaks to the need to think through how to proceed coolly, as Scorpio succeeds best when our Scorpionic choices are rationale as opposed to passionate or passion/desire-driven.

If we believe all things happen for a reason and things happen as and in the order they should, then Ceres bringing even more attention to Scorpio speaks to what we cannot deny (whether we want to or not) and how that which confounds us most is less about the 'thing' (or person) and more about why we respond as we do.

We may not like that. And certainly this ingress will signal a rise in the intensity of many and a blind instinct on the part of some to try and stop or limit certain efforts. These efforts may be ours. Then again, they may be efforts being directed by someone or something totally disconnected or separate from our Self. Whatever happens, the message of the moment would seem to be that things we meet now require plans which consider the needs and aims and feelings of others.

Ceres does not represent our essential sense of generosity or miserliness. Neither does Scorpio, except as a signature of what we are able (or willing) to tolerate emotionally. Scorpio's karma - as opposed to Libra's 'cause/effect' is the essence of all we love to (and know to) quail at in Scorpio as it isn't predictable and won't 'come back to us' from the direction or from the area of life in which we have earned our karmic response.

Some of us will heed this reminder, some won't. Some of us think we can plan for contingencies and some of that will bear fruit...but some of it won't. Leo against Scorpio is the challenge to express one's truest nature while inspiring others - or learning why our nature is, or has become not so very inspirational.

Why that is, what that represents in our character - all the notes about that which we need to take stock of, that's what Ceres' transit of Scorpio is likely to time out, bring out, point out and root out. Throughout 2014 (to date) our plans have gone back and forth between the theoretical and practical, from the idea of the thing to the reality.

Now our feeling consciousness is coming into focus...a focus which is likely to underlie much (if not most) of what we do for much of the balance of this year. Letting go of what hasn't worked and recognizing our own feelings on the subject, or how those differ from values held by others is a process of this moment and moving forward.

It's also the basis of that which, in true Scorpio form, will point to the necessity to nurture our Self and - to some extent - to confront that Self in the spirit of understanding where our standards of security (personal or otherwise) come from, lest our denials or choices be based on that which is past and no longer applicable. 

Where we opt for things which no longer hold validity, this passage of Ceres through Scorpio is likely to manifest in the dismantling of what we had thought of as our plan, our defense, our means of pushing ahead. On the other hand, for those who learn from history or past events without remaining "married" to the literal will like as not see and avoid at least a few stumbling blocks during these months to come...allowing them to arrive at some moment of fruition without having some short term cause shrivel the long-term efforts we had hoped for and worked towards as our harvest.
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Ixion and Pholus Station/Retrograde

A diagram showing relative orbits and distances from the Sun for planets Saturn,

Uranus and Neptune along with Plutino Ixion and centaurs Pholus and Chiron 

Still sitting in conjunction to fixed star Ras Alhague, Ixion goes retrograde at 22 Sagittarius on March 22nd at 8:17 a.m.

Then Pholus goes retrograde at 24 Sagittarius a day later, at 3:44 in the afternoon…and as always, both times are given in UT/+0 terms.

Whatever our internal challenges are, since any station-retrogrades represents either a ‘taking in’ or ‘being stopped at’ some given point, that’s where we would expect life to be…or take us…starting as of March 20th.

That March 20th date in advance of Ixion’s turn? That allows for two days of ‘station lead-in time’…and since Pholus is going retrograde a day after Ixion, that means things can be expected to start off ‘more on the Ixion side of things’ and end more in our personal Pholus mode – whether that means we’re experiencing an ‘isolated’ or ‘isolationist’ moment or are being pushed (or pushed back) into some ‘dark place’ which uniquely our own.

Or who knows…maybe the Pholus ‘isolating it’ harmonic will surface in your life as your putting some issue aside – isolating yourself from it so you can get on with something higher on your priority list.

But however we all experience this time, there would seem to be something of a ‘trying’ notion to what goes on right now. This combination would seem to signal a somewhat trying time. Yet whether the question is someone getting in your way or our acting in some manner which someone else finds ‘trying’…whether there’s some ‘rule’ we have a problem complying with or even some ‘standard’ which causes us to withdraw (or want to withdraw)…the central issue is us.

Not them, us. Yes, you, me, that other person…each of us will face some inner urges to ‘never mind them’ and do what we want at some level which tests our Pholus notions. Will we ignore real life? The needs of others? How things work in reality? Are we prepared to face the world (or others)? Can we face what we have or haven’t done in life? Can we reconcile how we’ve used our will with our deepest convictions along with our darkest, most vulnerable-feeling secrets? 

The “they” or “that” which now irritates us feels judgmental or rude or even insulting to our sense of who we are in that curious sort of Ixion manner which triggers our determination of will, taunting us about whether we ‘can’t’ do (or be) what we want to do or who we feel entitled to be… which is probably the Ixion point as transiting Ixion raises challenges which ask whether we can control that exact impulse...or not.

Can we acknowledge to ourselves that yes, we feel we deserve something in spite of the fact we may not have yet earned it? Have we come to some point where we’re realizing that whether or not we want to do what we want to do (and have things work the way we’d like them to work)…how upon reflection, that’s not working? 

link to

Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

Ixion actions tend to be somewhat (and sometimes a great deal) shortsighted in spirit. Being a Plutino (i.e., an object whose orbit is controlled by planet Neptune’s magnetic resonance) the Ixion drive is often about some belief, some image (of Self or ‘how things should be’) which isn’t real. It may be worthwhile, yes. It may be your heart and soul’s desire – absolutely.

But is it real? Could it exist in reality and if it did, would it work the way you envision?

With Ixion – as with Neptune itself or any other Neptune-controlled object – we are far more likely to succeed in our aims if we accept our dream as a motivation and not the reality we seek. Where Neptune or any Plutino is concerned, the ‘dream’ is best used to help us get through our work…as if dulling us to the pain so that we can marshal on.

With Neptune itself, we most often achieve our dream through embodying it or sharing it with others, serving as an inspiration in their lives so that the dream can then live on.
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A computer generated image of Neptune's cloud tops

(photo credit: NASA, JPL, Don Davis, September 2009) 

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That, in human terms, is immortality. Anything beyond that is ego…ego being the fulcrum which balances our Ixion issues. Strength of ego is not abhorred…in fact, where Ixion is concerned it’s probably required, if only because Ixion moments ask us to manage a Self often armored with, by and for the purposes of ego defending ego. (Which is one of the things ego is for, after all.)

That’s where the problem comes in on the Ixion side of things. Neptune is a planet. Ixion isn’t a planet. Neptune’s surface area is nearly 15 times that of Earth. Not even classed as a ‘regularly formed’ (i.e., close to spherical) object, Ixion is less than a thousand kilometers across.

Earth has problems bigger than Ixion – at least on a physical basis. And as far as that goes, Pholus is even smaller. Yet size is not wholly determinative – very small objects or moves or choices can bring down long-laid plans, even bigger careers, a high flying reputation or lives and entire nations. And yes, this is a moment when some act or action already committed to could have some grave sort of consequence. Yet it’s far more likely that these days ahead will bring matters to light – maybe just as a glimmer or a thought.

And if that happens, this double-station turn to retrograde may be our seeing some brink ahead which prompts us to ‘go inside’ and find some way to keep ourselves from ‘going there.’

With the Sun in Aries, all feels very personal. Known famously for its focus and courage, this is just the sort of time which may well find us accepting some challenge. If taken on in the spirit of broadening our experience, understanding and effectiveness without undue focus on Self, much can be gained in due time if we remember the difference between who we are and what we can do.

Plus, let’s not forget - Mars is in Libra, the sign of the other. So though we may be feeling Mars “desire” in everything we do…in our every waking moment…we don’t ‘rule’ them. We don’t control them – nor will we ever control them. You’ve heard it once and will like as not hear it too many times to count in this life…’we only control our self.’

But since that Self is probably feeling a bit frustrated about now (Mars retrograde in any sign tends to spell an undercurrent of floating frustration), that sets us up for willfulness. Yet that isn’t likely to mesh all that well with current convictions as we’re all likely to come down (hard) on the side of what we want.

And thus the question becomes to be on what we can do which others will react to positively.

All of which would be just fine and thrilling except for the fact Aries is all about our focus on Self.

So some of us will assert ourselves in our own cause and go overboard as others are getting so annoyed with someone else that they give up and walk away – only to end up focused on what they know they should have been doing all along.

Then again, since all of astrology operates in that polarity…and because you may have a natal chart in which Pholus and Ixion represent periodic triggers which stop you from living life in the dark or getting too willful.

If (or where) things do go awry now, whether the gap in your road is mild, moderate or the Grand Canyon, disappointments and feelings of defeat or rather more than half-likely. Moreover, they’re bound to center on some subject which seems more important to you than anyone else – which is neither good nor bad as long as care is taken to how you proceed, sharing rather than telling or notifying.

This is not the best time to be too insistent, as the energy of insistence (like that of critique) tends to promote defensiveness at any time and right now people feel buried somewhere in their lives whether they really are or not. Assertion will tend to be seen as a need to validate Self (or your desires) which be harmless – and then again, can create enmity and rejection. Ixion’s going retrograde in conjunction with fixed star Ras Alhague intensifies everything we talked about last month…

link to post:

Ixion–Ras Alhague

...while mixing in some of our Pholus ‘in or out of the light’ issues…meaning ours: what we may regard as the bad or less ‘approved’ in our character against the lighter or more positive notes. There’s a ‘turbulence’ implied here which expressed through fire sign Sagittarius suggests things we are struggling to be clear on – some of which ‘looks’ like it’s about others or something going on in our world.

But it’s not. Astrologically, a double turn to retrograde can only be ‘taking in’ or ‘retreating’ at some level which is ‘into the Self’ (however we understand that in our individual life) – and since the ‘psychological wavelength’ of 24 Sagittarius tends to run darker than some, it’s to be expected that we may not like what we know now.

That doesn’t mean we don’t know it…and doesn’t mean it isn’t true. We’re just not happy about it.

But with Ixion in the mix here, why is that? Is it possibly just because we don’t want to be interrupted or otherwise ‘inconvenienced’ as that pertains to what we’d “rather” be doing – or even in how we’d “rather” think of our Self (or someone else) despite evident truths of necessity?

And yes, we may see all these things in projection – happening in the lives of those around us or in the world at large. It would be natural to want to ‘turn away’ from news good or bad now, simply because something about the moment…the subject, the timing, the comparison with what’s on our mind, the person delivering the news…something about it doesn’t fit.

Which is fine. A station like this one can indicate ‘taking a break’ in order to regroup, recalibrate, retool or rethink. In the middle of all, some of us are bound to look up, experiencing inner revelation.

Then again, some of us will simply look inside and come up with a more worthy (of us) level of determination.

What we do with any of this is up to us, of course. Yet considering how Mars is in retrograde…and that Mars is going to be in retrograde for another two months during which a solar eclipse at 8 Taurus promises provocation of our inner sensitivities…

…Let’s just say that it would seem we’re not seeing the world as it truly is and in all its glorious potential – at least not at the moment.

Evaluation is probably needed as there are questions here about what we need to protect – or what we’re actually protecting. Where our answers lead back to strength of ego Ixion’s Neptunian quality may lead to confusion…even mistakes which we regret by the handful.

During these years of Ixion and Pholus in Sagittarius it will always be easy to sell ourselves on the idea of something, only to find a bit down the line that theory is not reality.

What we do from there…? That determines not merely our worldly success, but whether when all is said and done we feel we’ve lived up to our potential – a feat which satisfies best when that within is ultimately balanced with all which in reality, surrounds us.

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Ixion in Sagittarius:

December 1995 – December 2020

Pholus in Sagittarius:

January 2005 - January 2018

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Pallas Retrograde at 13 Virgo

 Pallas Athena by Gustav Klimt (1898)

As of January 7th asteroid Pallas is going retrograde at 10:21 in the morning UT/+0 time at 13 Virgo, inviting (or prompting) us to either see/consider things dispassionately or to use/utilize some sort of dispassionate understanding or ability some effort, a situation - or maybe just in formulating the decisions of the day.

Whatever is afoot doesn’t have to be earth-shattering (and we will certainly hope it’s not Earth shattering). It’s just another influx rolling through as we are going through our Capricorn paces about where we’re going in life and how to get there.

However…(yes, that is the magic word in astrology, isn’t it?)…this is happening at 13 Virgo. And 13 Virgo is a very particular degree.

Aren’t they all?

Answer: yes. But 13 Virgo has always piqued my interest as it’s a degree which tends to manifest through what one astrologer refers to plainly enough as ‘a love of fine arts.’

And yes, this could mean the obvious arts. On the other hand, what finer art is there than the art of being a human being? Taken from that position, the experience of or reflection on 13 Virgo takes an additionally poignant quality - beyond the fact that by definition, any degree between 10 and 19 of any sign is going to be where that sign manifests emotionally. Considering how (also by definition) 13 Virgo is an earthy and earthly degree, that means that we're likely to be focused on what realities are, what reality is (or could be) and what our realistic regard is - for ourselves and others...

...into which comes Pallas, the third largest asteroid known. Like all asteroids, Pallas represents things we get confronted by or end up working through 'along the way' between some initiation (Mars) point and the "Jupiterian" moment when we have mastered the goal - and in that comes to symbolize our 'mindset,' if you will.

So! When Pallas shifts its perspective through going on station and going retrograde (which more accurately is a change of perspective on Pallas from here on Terra Earth changes), we tend to change too.

That this particular Pallas station occurs under Venus retrograde theoretically suggests much going on inside of us. Having started at 28 Capricorn, Venus has now reached 24 Capricorn and that's a subtle (maybe even not-so-subtle) undercurrent which questions sophistication as truth.

- Link to - 

Venus Station-Retrograde

at 28 Capricorn

 

Is sophistication and the 'striving life' better than one which is plainer and, perhaps more simplistic or coarser truths? Can both be relied on equally? Can both be built with to our own satisfaction?

Falsehood, artifice, pretense – call it what you will, the station period between January 5th (or so) through the 9th (give or take) is likely to be something we ignore more than react to. There is a genuine need and longing for common honesty now which has nothing to do with taking stands or making any declarations – it’s about being realistic enough about who we are and how our world works so that we are able to go about the business of being our Self learning and teaching as we go.

There is some chance that someone will step up to help you – or that you will recognize the need to extend support or assistance to someone else during this time. Whether that effort is “successful” or not (however you might define success in that situation) is what it is, and so long as you handle your part of the matter with integrity your proverbial hands should be ‘clean.’

Generally where Pallas is concerned, woe comes only to those who take advantage or manipulate others for personal gain or unwarranted pleasure. Interpersonal relationships could get a little strained now as well as Pallas stationing under Venus retrograde suggests ‘revelations’ or provocations which have less to do with the passion of expression than the inability to understand.

Patience is now required – and all you know going in may be a natural byproduct of what you find yourself being or becoming exposed to. Listen, think, Pallas often asks us to ‘balance’ things out, so try to understand how what you hear and what you’re going through now applies to you…and equally to others.

Sometimes focusing on who we are is a matter of looking within. Sometimes it’s a matter of holding that image in our minds while we simultaneously recognize through life and people around us who we aren’t.

It’s in the synthesis between those two things that Pallas occurs, granting us wisdom of perspective – from which comes the clarity, that sureness of mind which allows us to achieve with sufficient grace to know for sure what track we’re on, lest we defeat ourselves.

By the time Pallas goes direct again this April at 24 Leo we will have thought through our personal ‘bag of tricks’ and come to recognize that some of them don’t work.

Or that the only person we’re tricking in ourselves.

And since we can look ahead and know that April is when we will be running through one of those transformational (Pluto station) periods plus another set of eclipses, it would seem pretty certain that there are dotted lines which begin here...(yes, that’s a big red “X” under your feet)...and which end in April.

Whether April means anything to you now or not is not the point. You may read these words and say to yourself ‘okay – I’ll do “that” in April.’ Or you may be absolutely, positively sure that April 2014 is going to be just another month of clicks, clatter and life’s regular symphony.

The answer to all that is ‘yes.’ But there’s more – and that’s the educational part. At the very least we’re in for a lesson in how to be educated. Or the cost of not being educated – by which I mean either school learning or ‘being informed.’ The quality here may be as simple as whether we listen or don’t listen to someone else – or whether we (or they) are willing or even able to hold opposing ideas fairly and equally in mind.

One last idea here: that of ‘right and wrong’ being relative. The nature of the Virgo-Pisces polarity being what it is, the idea and the details (style, method, tools, etc.) count less than the intrinsic intent.

This is a very plainspoken time which keeps us rooted in a reality we thought we had sorted out to our ‘standards,’ values or tastes while showing us a few errors in our equations. That physical poverty can embargo some in the security of affluence for which they pay with the truths of their spirit and soul is the real loss.        
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