The Capricorn New Moon

The Moon at dawn

(Mike Lewinski, December 2012)

This little blog piece is being posted on January 10th at 1 a.m. Pacific Time (I'm in California). And as these words magically appear on a computer (or tablet or smart phone) near you, as discussed just yesterday (i.e., in the last post) Mercury is catching up with the Sun. It's within orb of conjuction...that being (for standard astrological purposes) defined as five degrees.

As is Sun/Mercury orb grows tighter, we all will tend to focus. Maybe over-focus. Sun/Mercury conjunctions are pretty much famous (even infamous) for their lack of perspective. With this one happening in Capricorn, the subject is reality and how things really are. For you that may mean 'how things really are as opposed to how I've been wishing they were, or thinking they were.' Or you may just be thinking about the whole of the world (or your world) situation.

Or one little thing may 'become' your whole world - at least for the moment.

One other thing happens on January 10th: Jupiter retrogrades back into 6 Gemini, the degree it will be in when Jupiter goes direct on January 30th.

After going direct, Jupiter will remain at 6 Gemini until February 19th.

So that's more than a month of Jupiter at 6 Gemini, a degree known for separation of mental church and state, (which is to say emotions and intellectuality) and a certain dispassionate perspective which CAN be very shallow or 'all surface, no depth' and CAN be very productive or very unproductive, depending on what you're doing.

All of this is part of the global ambiance which heralds the January New Moon, a New Moon which will occur on January 11th (UT/+0 time) at 21 Capricorn.

And the details certainly don't stop there - not even for a moment! For one, asteroid Atropos (endings) is going direct with this New Moon. And for another, asteroid Eos (instinct, ‘dawning’) is going retrograde with the New Moon.

As the Sun clocks the whole of the year and thus the greater ‘chapter of our life,’ so each lunar cycle (or ‘lunation’) marks a ‘phase’ in our life cycle. Call it a sequence or scene in the chapter of that ‘book of our life’…or lifetime, if you prefer.

This particular New Moon, being positioned at 21 Capricorn is about what we do in the world. It’s worldly in the sense that Capricorn directs us to understand how our life operates in the greater context of the world, and how that world affects us, sees us, limits us, will support us, operates, or maybe even judges us. Hence we come to the idea of Capricorn as our ‘status’ in the world. Or our ‘status’ as the world sees us (i.e., ‘social status’ and achievements).

By being a third decanate degree (that is, a degree in the last third of Capricorn as a sign), this New Moon speaks to things which are ‘out of our hands.’ They may have left our hands prior to now, or they may just be things which it would be useful for us to be aware of. Typically, third decanate degrees are all about reactions. Or input from others. In the Capricorn sense, this may be rules you need to follow. Or what you would need to do in order to take some idea or project to fruition. This could be critique on what you have done which may be just a reaction and then again may be an indicator that you really don’t know what you’re getting into!

Whatever that is, this New Moon begins a cycle which goes from New (in Capricorn) to Full (in Leo), which is similar to the December lunation in that it describes an 8th sign harmonic (counting Capricorn as “1” it’s eight signs from Capricorn to Leo).

This is a particularly interesting sort of 8th house harmonic as it would seem to offer opportunities to us where we can motivate or interest others, or where we can free ourselves up to do more by completing some sort of (Capricorn) task or process.

That Atropos is going direct here speaks to some ‘cut off’ or ‘stoppage’ which we have felt inside, which now we can do something about. This may be something you know needs to be stopped (as in, ‘cut that out!’) or maybe more literally – as we might see with budget cuts or even surgery. This could also be some sort of situation where in finishing some obligation, you get to get rid of “that” and therefore ‘cut off’ the amount of energy, money, time, or attention you’ve needed to devote to something.

With Leo as the “fulfillment” phase of this lunar cycle, the challenge is to free ourselves up while not cutting ourselves short just because we’re restless or bored or irritated or in some need of being ‘right’ or self aggrandizement. Those who do what they do for grandstanding purposes may get their moment in the spotlight, yes. But in the long run that’s not likely to play out…UNLESS you are dealing with something which could come to fruition by the end of this lunar cycle.

And we’ll call that date straight out of the lunar tables as February 10th.

 The sun begins to dawn over Jubilee Campus

(Mattbuck, January 2012)

Yes, there is a form of ‘put up or shut up!’ going on. Those who assert without being able to produce are going to lose not points of the moment, but respect if or where they try to ‘put one over’ on others this month.

And part of that goes to Eos. If you’re not familiar with Eos, you might want to read this…

Link to “EOS Direct: Instinct as Awareness” post

How well we deal with our own instincts is what is like as not the bottom line here. And that will prove true whether you’re the one giving someone the ‘go ahead’ or you’re the person wanting to prove your capacity.

Warning: there is a tendency to think you can do something which will work only because it fits your definition of “working.”

That’s a big Leo challenge. Any time we see Leo in any astrological equation the challenge is about perspective. Is it possible that how you see things may not take a broad enough set of ‘variations on a theme’ into account? Leo always asks us about whether we have conviction…against whether we’re right, with ‘rightness’ (in the Leo sense) being about our ability to see beyond our own nose, tastes, preferences or priorities.

This month’s themes and details, especially those which are colored by or affect us emotionally (lunar-ly, if you will) connect these outer and inner ‘dots.’ Are the world’s directions and directives working for us? Are our choices working in the worldly sense?

Eighth house/sign harmonic call on our power and bring out the weaknesses. The temptation is always…which here would be “on all sides”…to try to impose your will on others. There’s far more to be gained by recognizing where and how the priorities of others differ from yours, but…

Let’s face it. People like having their own way!

Unfortunately, that’s not the way to any lasting sense of victory – which would be the other side of eighth house/sign harmonics. The thing we don’t really want to have to consider (namely that we don’t know everything, may be insecure, aren’t always right and – shock of shock – that other people have different priorities, needs, preferences and likes)…understanding those things and investing the time and effort to find solutions which if nothing else work equally well (or equally badly, sometimes!) for all are what gains respect.

And when it comes to respect and eighth house/sign harmonics, that means power potential which will lead to greater opportunities in the long run.

The fact that so many lunar cycle are constructed along this New-to-Full eighth sign harmonic isn’t stressed enough, I think. But it’s well worth considering.

With Eos going retrograde in Virgo, our instincts are all about how well things work. And if they're healthy. Errors, ideas, recognitions may now 'dawn' on us...and inspire new instinctual understandings about how life works and why things are as they are.

On the other hand, Atropos, on the other hand, is going direct in Taurus - a sign all about security, most of all that security we need in order to life a productive and happy (healthy) life living inside our own skin.

Moreover, together with the New Moon, Atropos at 24 Taurus and Eos at 21 Virgo describe a grand trine - one which evidently points to areas of 'fluctuation,' testing and change.

  
That the New Moon is posed with Europa speaks of getting 'carried away'...Sedna-Atropos-South Node tells us that it's easy to stick to our own concerns, our own group, our own beliefs, our own priorities. It's also easy to move beyond them, and the private discussion about whether that's the right thing to do goes on. With Eos positioned so close to Sabine/Lust, we know that we have the capacity to hold ourselves (Sabine) apart, or to a worthy task, or perhaps that we feel held captive by some notion, some idea which may or may not be true. 

Remembering also that Venus has just moved into Capricorn (see the previous post for info on that) tells us that this is a time which favors the pragmatic and the practical. This is a time when focusing on the Big Picture and long-term goals, aims and situational dynamics, developments or issues is prime emotional territory. We’re likely to see and hear of a lot of purges and changes this lunar (January/February) month. People are recognizing the difference between ‘good enough’ and truly functional. Gaps have been opened where quantity has outstripped quality and for many that means doubling back or cutting back or finding those weak links in the chain.

As a degree, 21 Capricorn directs us to a greater understanding that though we need or what what we need or want, that we don’t exist in a vacuum. The health, productivity, functionality and convictions of a society we want to support us or support our aims has to be part of our personal equations. We can’t just ‘take’ without caring about how that whole functions and the job of fixing whatever may be wrong isn’t just up to ‘them.’

The Sabian Symbol for this degree is BY ACCEPTING DEFEAT GRACEFULLY, A GENERAL REVEALS NOBILITY OF CHARACTER. On the surface, that may well be echoed by certain people in our personal lives or the public arena stepping aside, whether out of true nobility, because their ‘time’ doing something is over…or because they have been forced to recognize some level of decency demanded by the world at large.

But on a personal level – and all lunar cycles are personal, whatever else they may be, this Sabian recalls that old saw ‘the burned hand teaches best.’ Sometimes those really hard lessons are the only way we learn. Sometimes we have to lose something or someone before we realize how dearly we love them or how much they have given to our life.

This lunation may be the moment of realization, it may be when something happens. Whether it’s one or another in your life would depend in where this point falls in your chart and individual nuances.
The one thing we can all trust is that by the end of this cycle we will all know a bit more about reality and what really matters.

When I started this post, I thought to entitle it 'Our January New Moon: Looking Ahead, Looking Back, Holding On and Letting Go.' That struck me as apt, though it was obviously far too long for a blog title.

This New Moon moment is likely to stay with us as a notion in our minds, in our heart, in our days...not just because of the process of a lunation and not just because this particular New Moon is emblazoned with that very particular mark of the grand trine.

All those are apt. All those things are important. Yet beyond that, one of the emblems in that grand trine - Sabine - is about to go retrograde. That happens next week, and you'll hear about it in different post. But to have this idea of 'being held captive' against 'being held to' our better notions, spirit or standards of willingness amidst all else suggests this is a time when decisions and choices can get made. When changes may become necessary or apt. When we can acknowledge our mistakes, weaknesses and errors as well as our strengths, wisdom and caring...and in doing so, convert negatives to positives through recognizing our own humanity and that of others.

Where there is life, there is indeed hope.

There's also opportunity. So here's to the best in all things. May much good and inspiration come from your efforts, your thoughts and your caring.  
.
.
.

Typhon, Eris and Lilith: Minor Life Points Which Maybe Aren’t so Minor?

 A scale diagram (orbital shapes not exact) of the

inner solar system showing the position of

the asteroid belt between Mars (the inner

red ring) and Jupiter (the outer red ring)

Here’s the core data at the crux of today’s commentary...

1. TNO Typhon goes retrograde on January 8th at 11:57 (UT/+0) at 1 Libra.

2. Dwarf planet Eris goes direct January 9th at 21 Aries.

And a few days after that…

3. January 14th asteroid Lilith enters Sagittarius at 6:38pm (UT/+0).

All three of these signatures are about shifts of or into ‘yang’ elements. That tells us that over this next week, we will sense a ‘shift’ in - and to some degree towards – assertiveness in our lives and in life around us. In this however, are three very different types of awareness.

Eris orbits way out there…far, far beyond Neptune. In getting that ‘how far’ into focus, consider this: one “AU” (astronomical unit) is the distance from the Sun to planet Earth. And said astronomical unit is quite big enough to comfortably include two other planetary orbits (those of Mercury and Venus) without anyone feeling all that crowded.

Okay…so Eris can be as far away as 97.56 AUs from the Sun. Even at its closest, it’s 37.77 AU’s away from ol’ Sol, which makes it 36.77 AU’s beyond Earth.

 A NASA generated drawing of the solar system

showing Eris (it's position cited as being where it was in 2006. 

Considering Eris' orbit takes 557 years to complete,

it hasn't moved all that far from this point either,

telling us that we are actually at the 'low end'

of Eris' cycle of 'discord' ...something to think about! 

In other words, it’s way, way out there in space. And yet, still in our celestial “neighborhood.” (Kind of puts things in a bit of stunning perspective, doesn’t it?)

Put most simply, Eris is the dynamic of ‘discord’ – the disturbing/disturbance of the status quo. It’s not a planet like Uranus, so it’s not the symbol of actual change or real discoveries or personal breakthroughs. Planets are attributes. Asteroids are mental facets and life factors we meet up with along the way. Fixed stars (stars being the suns of other solar systems, galaxies and such) they’re a metaphysical ‘backdrop’ against which our local solar system or the ‘system of our life’ plays out.

So beyond the planetary ‘attribute’ but not part of the ‘backdrop’ or ‘eternal scenery’ …what’s that?

That’s the realm of the unanticipated and unexpected. That’s the realm of all which is part of our life…but not part of our daily mentality. Like Eris – the sense that something’s up. That we are about to be faced with a decision. Is it something overlooked or forgotten about to clonk us on the head? Or are we about to clonk others with something they’ve forgotten – or maybe refused to take into account?

Like all astrological factors, Eris has a positive-negative and a passive/pro-active component. So we may be the fiery social reformer…or the person getting the bad news that the ‘thing’ we had hoped would never happen is actually going to happen.

When Eris becomes active, it’s ‘the moment’ to decide whether to act or not. That it’s going direct on January 9th makes the whole weekend, and by implication all of Venus’ transit of Sagittarius, a time to act or be acted upon. That Eris is going direct tells us that the impetus comes to us from outside. From life. From others. What we do in to respond to that – or whether we respond at all – that’s up to us.

To this we add Typhon. With TNO standing for ‘Trans Neptunian Object’ we automatically know that Typhon occupies the same ‘unanticipated’ realm as Eris. But that’s only during part of Typhon’s orbit. Classed as a Centaur (a blending of two natures), Typhon is 37.6 AU’s away from us at the farthest.

Does that ring a bell? Didn’t we just say that Eris was at 37.7 AUs at it’s closest? Yes, we did. That would tend to connect these two concepts, it at very different parts of our psyche. Where, or maybe as that feeling of the status quo being disturbed comes to us, that’s about when Things Typhon are at their least effective.

So what is Typhon? Typhon is one of the most primal of Greek mythic entities – ‘primal’ being the operative word here, seeing that Typhon is all about our most instinctual Self. Survival, sex, hunger – these kinds of biological urges and how we handle them (or don’t handle them very well) are our Typhon arena.

This thus gives us…what? An interesting psychological reality: when we are threatened with disturbance of the status quo, suddenly all the ‘other stuff,’ even some of the most basic of ‘other stuff’ gets shut down. It simply ‘goes away.’

True? Too true – especially in the light of how this helps differentiate between Eris and Typhon as symbols.

Typhon is our ‘primal life’ urges. But Eris is that which comes and in acting upon us, causes us to deal with or defend the life which is having those urges!

Many of us are likely to interpret this moment as something ‘happening’ to them. And while that may be true in the purely temporal sense, maybe the more interesting question is why is this happening to me?

What can I learn from it – particularly about me? Given that we all have an Eris and a Typhon in our charts, and because the zodiac degrees implied in this celestial switch-o, change-o are in each and every chart, there is something for each of us to learn from this time.

Eris direct says the ‘stimulation/stimulus’ comes from outside…Typhon speaks to an inner urge or instinct.

That Typhon makes the ‘first move’ here may give us a clue as to what the ‘cause’ in ‘cause effect’ over these days really is. Or it may simply mean some particular attribute of personality is meant to be (or just will be) more accessible and ‘on deck’ as discord (Eris) gets into motion.

Does that mean we should react instinctively? Or that we need to be mindful of how instincts may rule our day? Or how instinct may get in our way?

That’s individual. But to think about now – and going forward - certainly!

It’s almost a week later that Lilith enters Sagittarius, which may make the discussion of Lilith unnecessary here except for Lilith moving into Sagittarius on January 14 does tell us that Lilith is moving into ‘critical’ Scorpio territory just prior. As Typhon and Eris are going retrograde and direct, respectively, that is.

Lilith is always a symbol of all which we don’t want to deal with. That we’d rather not hear about. Or those things we really would like to ignore in Self or life.

 Lilith by John Collier (1892)

In the astrological sense, Lilith is not 'sin' or 'evil,'

but rather all those things about ourselves we

may be reluctant to admit to accept. That being true,

who is judging who? Who or what is 'entwining' or holding

us in 'mortal bondage'?

There being two forms of Lilith - one pertaining to the Moons aphelion point and thus ‘societal,’ the other an asteroid and thus ‘personal factor’ oriented  - this is the asteroid. One of thousands of main belt asteroids which cycle in the truly large gap between Mars and Jupiter, Lilith at its farthest from the Sun (and therefore Earth) orbits at 3.187 AU - pretty much at the center of this gap. There it keeps company with Lachesis (duration) Psyche (our consciousness of our own mind and mentality) and….(surprise!) Eos, another asteroid about instinct.

Have you not met Eos? Well, then, here’s the link to a little BLOG ON EOS.

Just on the surface of it, that may say that while it may be ‘instinctual’ to evade, avoid and deny certain attributes of our own personalities (or life, lifestyle, etc.) it doesn’t last forever. Sooner or later the ‘duration’ described by Lachesis ends. How long that is…that’s an individual chart issue. But there’s evidently only so long we can pretend.

At the near end of its orbit, Lilith comes just inside of the outer orbit of Dionysus (‘sacred celebrations’) making Lilith an indicator of real life and the totally mundane. Sort of a “that’s just what life is, and eventually we all have to deal with realities.”

And what comes between us and this willingness to deal with Lilith? Hybris: arrogance. At it’s closest, Lilith is at 2.14 AU. At its closest, Hybris is at 2.127 AU. It is therefore suggested that to own our life takes some dealing with the arrogance that we don’t have to deal with our life as a whole – or the whole of our life, whichever way you want to look at it.

To have Lilith in last Scorpio as Typhon and Eris go on station implies that our ability or willingness to deal with the issues which are emotionally evocative are here tested by Typhon and Eris dynamics. Apart from whatever else we have said – astrology being perfectly capable of stating many things in a symbolic string – apart from all else, our ability to feel for others (and not just ourselves) our ability and willingness to design solutions to problems which takes everybody’s needs into account, separating need from desire …that is in itself a Lilith test. A Lilith-Typhon-Eris challenge.

When Lilith moves into Sagittarius, all which we have designed goes ‘on trial.’ But in a sense, so do we. It may be a literal ‘on trial’  and then again, we may also be trying things out…having a ‘trial period,’ if you will. Sagittarius being the sign of expansion and a fiery sign which is either willing to find out what is true or highly resistant to any challenge (don’t confuse me with facts – I KNOW what I want to know!) …Lilith moving into Sagittarius may also cause many of us to actually expand that which we refuse to deal with.

Will that last? Can that last? For a while, maybe. But as Lilith meets up with the North Node in late 2011, we are likely to see repercussions and consequences breaking through many types of denial.

In the meantime, there are those who will now have a ‘dawning of the light’ as they stop fighting their personal battles with and through other people. These people will, in coming to understand themselves more innately, become more relaxed, happier, and greatly empowered by knowing how it wasn’t life holding them back – they were holding themselves back.

And kudos to them!

   

Eos Direct: Instinctual Awareness

 Eos by William Adolphe Bouguereau (1881)

As happens among astrologers, I mentioned something about studying 'new' celestial objects (new to me, not the cosmos) to fellow astrologer Alex Miller. He responded by sending me a list of non-traditional points he'd been working with for some time. 

On said list was Eos. And since Eos is going direct at 10:46 (UT) on November 12th, this seems a good time to focus on Eos (a good word to use with Eos!) as she is indeed what Alex suggested ("insatiable appetite") and yet more. And operationally, a different - in the general sense - than the term 'appetite' might imply.

And there is the fact that Alex is a chef. (And a good one, I might add...) Which brings me to a note about astrologers: the more you know about who they are, the more you can tease out what might be their natural inclination from 'just the facts, ma'am!'.

But starting with Alex' notation of 'insatiable appetite' it soon became plain to me that Eos plainly represents a fixation - or (yes,) focus.

Yet then there's the myth. The myth about the Eos of Greece (known to the Romans as Aurora) has her being none other than the Dawn. Probably most famously described by Homer as Eos 'the rosy fingered,' most of us don't know much about Eos - and those who do may well think of her as a 'minor player' in the world of myth and therefore in our lives.

Well, yes and no. The Greek/Roman gods we know the most about - Zeus/Jupiter, Apollo, Ares/Mars, Aphrodite/Venus, Neptune (and so on) - they may have just had good PR back in the day.

Then again, the 'common list' is more about our everyday lives, challenges and what we might refer to as the 'psychological facets' of our lives - how we cope, what we go through in making decisions, our personal responses to life as dished out to us so often in a muddled, squiggly heap.

But those other gods? Gods like Typhon (primal urges),  Selene (the disc of the Moon), and Oceanus (the body of the ocean) they're the backdrop against which all the other stuff plays. They're the basics of existence where  better known gods are experiences. 

That doesn't make them less important, though it may make them (collectively) the Rodney Dangerfield of gods...they get no respect! (Well, until we meet up with them and there's a problem, that is.)

With that much sorted through, back to the rosy fingered thing - one of a very few specifics we have on Eos, as it happens. Are those rosy fingers an indication that Eos has something to do with good circulation and thus health? Maybe - but not probably directly. Another of the classic references to Eos is how she goes in advance of the Sun...which in mythic terms could be a reference to either Helios (the Sun as a source of energy and life) or Apollo, god of light and truth - and thus enlightenment. 

And that 'circulation' part...that would thus either be seen as the cycle of the day or in the sense that the light, the heat, the orb of the Sun -- it 'gets around' one might say.

There is also that Eos is pictured as going before the Sun, which if you think of this in Apollonian terms has Eos running before Apollo's chariot, drawn by his fire-breathing horses.

 Apollo and Aurora by Gerard de Lairesse (1671)

And yes, that does speak to a lot of running - which could well build the level of one's circulation (hence the rosy fingers).

On the other hand, if we take the Sun as Helios - the disc of the Sun - then we arrive at the concept of 'the burned hand teaches best.' Could Eos have tried to 'touch the Sun' and have burned her rosy little fingers?

The answer well may be yes - and yes. In other words, both applications may well be correct, as suggested by the Greek image of Eos as rising out of Oceanus - the primal ocean. And therein lies a big fat clue: Oceanus is water, and metaphysical water is always a reference to emotions or emotionality. And Oceanus not being our experience of or trying to cope with the currents and tides of emotions (which would be Neptune, he who tries to rule the ocean)...this would be emotionality as a basic instinct. 

Thus we have Eos arises out of instinct. 

And once we have that in mind, then Eos as a figure which runs ahead of 'the light of truth' (Apollo) is the instinctual search to gain more understanding (Alex Miller's 'insatiable appetite') while also trying to stay ahead and not 'get burned.'

A third idea which might apply? That we are each led - by our interests, desires, needs and notions.

With Eos 'arising' out of Oceanus, she may be a figure of complete emotionality, yes. But then, the 'rising out of' may well represent a parting where we leave the emotional part behind and in 'taking to the airs' adopt and airy (intellectual, conceptual, theoretical) point of view.

Which is it? That's probably told by where Eos is in your natal chart - by sign and house, just as what you are 'fixated on' or trying to understand or trying to get away from in your life seems to be well told by aspects to Eos in the natal chart.

Here I add an astrologer's note: in the charts I have looked at, most likely because Eos is a 'primal' background figure of instinct, the being bedeviled and the blessing this point can be in our chart seems to be told maybe by standard planets but more often by the greater plethora of the modern and rather encyclopedic list of astrological objects.

So! If you want to know where your own Eos is, hopefully your astrologer uses updated software. If not - or if you're working on your own, I suggest using Serennu.com. It's free, its accurate and best of all, Serennu offers a dazzling array of literally thousands of celestial objects you can inquire on by using their 'extra point' numerical list.

Just a couple of cautions here though: You may be better off asking for a '360 sort' and a 'list' rather than a chart. Depends how you see things, but I find for a quick reference it's much much easier. Also - if you live in a land of dates formatted like this (mm/dd/yy) remember to turn it around when you use Serennu. On the Serennu site, dates have to be entered as (dd/mm/yy).

But all that said, such details are a small price to pay for so much calculating power offered free of price. Though Serennu does - like astroPPM - take donations.

(What, you think astrologers live on starshine? Pffft!)

Okay...! Now....where were we? Oh yes - we've just come to the point of summarizing Eos as a point which focuses on what we want, need or desire (and thus focus on) in accordance with where it is in your chart by house, sign and accompanying celestial factors. By implication, as Alex Miller has noted, this is an insatiable point; one day follows another, life's quests continue. And thus Eos becomes the instinct, the motivation which drives us to find out more, learn more and not get burned by what we know. Fire (knowledge) and water (emotion) do not mix well - either water quenches fire (extinguishing our light or life) or there is a hissing cauldron of conflict, or just a fog...which is when Neptune gets you!

So Eos represents a life-long focal point: a figure of personal drives.

And where is Eos now? In Pisces. So are we shocked that all things Piscean (to name a few: faith, oil, pharmaceuticals, charity, fear of self/fear of self as projected onto others, intoxication, imprisonment, addiction, toxicity, sexual fantasies, spirituality, abandonment of reason, helplessness, the Jungian collective)....that these are all involved in 'issues of the day' personal and global?

 The zodiac sign of Pisces as pictured in the stained glass

of Chartres Cathedral (Chartres, France)

We shouldn't be. And as with any celestial object, as Eos goes direct, starting with the couple of days prior to the event and extending to two days after the station, Eos dynamics are going to be at their best...and worst. 

Or to put it in more Eos-like terms, needy and motivational.

 And remember - we've just been through a week of having Chiron, Damocles and (the biggie), Neptune go direct. So we are probably all a little worn down and a little porous. We are subject to being led astray - and maybe most of all (in that sense) by our own desires to escape (stay ahead of) some internal driving curve. We don't want to get burned. We don't want to get drowned. 

But burned by, what? Drowned by what? This is Pisces, so though we think the issue is the 'other' nine times out of ten it is us - and the tenth time its how we are letting others use us because we have some fantasy about what surrender really means.

There is chemical intoxication and there is spiritual intoxication and there is emotional intoxication. There is physical incarceration and/or abandonment, financial incarceration and/or abandonment, emotional incarceration and/or abandonment....all these are what we will hear about from people who don't want to feel it in themselves, who don't want to see themselves as 'part of the problem.'

And yet we all are.

The good news is that since this is the only Existence we have, and since Existence continues to exist, none of this is precisely fatal in the grandest of all schemes. Could it be damaging to an individual, system of thought, activity, nation or relationship? Of course that answer is yes.

All may be highly exacerbated now as the degree Eos is going direct in (27 Pisces) has a known reputation for 'non-reality' which runs the gamut from simple naivete and innocent ignorance to a dangerous (to self and others) lack of inhibitions which leads one to personal perversions and behaviors which are not only unacceptable but ultimately self-damaging. Things undertaken, delved into or demonstrated at this time will bear this hallmark. People will, like as not, cling to some form of immaturity as a way to protect their sense of internal security.

It's a mish-mosh of a moment and made none the easier here at Eos' 2010 station/direct by this occurrence happening under Venus retrograde.

And yet...those who recognize that this isn't about what we want but what we can learn if and where we are willing to bring our Oceanus-nurtured instincts into the realm of rational conceptualization (Venus being at this moment retrograde in Libra)...

With Venus conjunct Sisyphus, there is a temptation to use our power to just please ourselves, as corrupt a sentiment as that may be. Those who follow this path will ultimately bring themselves to eternal harm - but sometimes that what people want. And here, Eos pictures the temptation to literally drive ourselves to defeat so that we can be free of the need to keep trying.


As a member of the main asteroid belt, Eos is something we have to contend with on an everyday basis - in that space between the Mars urge and the Jupiter/Saturn realm of knowing/understanding (Jupiter) and achieving/fully realizing our goal (Saturn). That Eos' orbit is pretty much in the middle of the asteroid belt and that it varies not a lot suggests this its drives are intrinsic and that we have to (or at least should!) take our 'Eos quotient' into account in most everything we do seems plainly stated on the astronomical/metaphysical level, too.

With an orbit of 5.23 years, Eos theoretically spends just under half a year in each succeeding zodiac sign. This 'quick cycling' quality may well have implications with regards to public attention spans (never mind our attention spans!) suggesting how and why the popularity of products, politicians and everything from celebrities to 'hot button topics' go in and out of favor.

Worth noting too is that at it's farthest point from the Sun, Eos' orbit is very close to that of Psyche - the asteroid symbol of our mentality as something we have to deal with, lest we (as they say) live to regret and repent at leisure. So these symbols seem metaphorically 'joined.' And that Psyche's orbit brings it even closer to us than Eos would seem to suggest that it is a human necessity to at least understand (and "own") our own personal instincts and drives.

At the moment, this station is colored by fixed star Scheat (lack of approval and/or public popularity) and Byblis/Uranus (old ways - particularly those which are 'inherent' or 'inherited' which need to change). So it's a turning point at which we should expect to hear, see and feel lot of dissatisfaction surfacing on many a front.

And yes, dissatisfaction with people being so  dissatisfied - and dissatisfaction with our own lot and probably also with the way we personally feel about things.

Which may...In the end...ask us to go back to that first image of Eos as the dawn, as that which precedes the light of understanding: Apollo, a god not just of light and truth, but also the spirit of medicine (taught by Apollo to Asclepius for passing on to humans)....and music.

In other words, just as the old expression tells us that 'the truth shall set you free' so Apollo also embodies two other attributes (music and medicine) which in 'healing  us, body and soul' also set us free.

And yes, Apollo is yet another asteroid - one which the above chart shows is not far closer to us than either Eos or Psyche, and thus by implication tells us that...whether we like it or not, truth, personal 'enlightenment' and knowing ourselves well enough to live on our 'light' and not 'dark' side is intrinsic to our nature. That asteroid Apollo crosses both the orbits of Mars and Venus tells us that real enlightenment may get in the way of ("cross") our desires, longings and lusts, but that's the way the cosmic cookie crumbles.

Or maybe how we stand to crumble ourselves if we don't deal with ourselves at a truly honest and intrinsic level.

The other side of this is of course how the myth of Apollo and Eos, in being connected becomes how  Eos can be our being both 'chased' ...and in a sense 'backed up' by our ability to heal ourselves, which recalls that  famous phrase: healer, heal thyself. But does that not mean that first we have to recognize that it's not the world which is injured, that the injury lies in us? And that through us, through our unwillingness or inability to bring ourselves to deal with our own injuries we thus injure our world and compound our own problems?

Alas...probably yes! So what are our real motivations and desires? Are we in this life to lead ourselves to a better way? Do we just spend our lives running away from ourselves in this or that way?

At the moment, that's a really good - not to mention really apt question as situations and people around us prompt our instinctual reactions.

Maybe you'll discover some new fascination?

Or maybe you'll react to something (or someone) with some knee jerk response echoing your long, long ago?

Or maybe instincts and instinctive (re)actions will become a whole category of experience, thought and broadening of experience.

In all likelihood, 'new' versus 'old' isn't what separates profitable from costly now. The real question is why you're doing what you're doing.

So be aware, lest you end up living in a Eos directed dark of your own instinctual making.