Dateblog: October 2014

October 2014 by Zodiac Sign

Seeing as I've spent more time in medical hands than I care to think about over the past few days this has to be short. But I did want to give you the charts for October 2014.

As you'll note above, there are (count 'em) two meteor showers this October - the Draconids (which come to us courtesy of comet and the Oriondis - which because of the comet which produces said Orionids (Comet Halley) brings up not only Halley's somewhat 'showy' or 'want to see...want to be seen' (and other such 'value' as in, what do I value and why do I value it? commentaries) and the interesting factoid that both of these comets were discovered while transiting Aquarius.

The Aquarius part may well be part of October's natural interactive and Libran social-socializing (maybe marketing...maybe audience) orientation as Aquarius is nothing if not about pluralities, be they notions, people, sources of income or otherwise. In the world of thinking and concepts, Aquarius is the broadest and (often) the most intricate.

Not necessarily easy, mind you. Nor necessarily practical for any of a number of though-provoking (and possibly irritating) reasons.

In any case, there's a lot of Libra to go around this month, October being a natural time for making plans and sometimes making moves. (Not always, but sometimes.) Who we relate to and why, how we relate to them and how they respond to us tells is everyday subject matter almost all month long, though it will ebb off as Venus and the Sun move on into Scorpio... which you may (or may not) have noticed is the subject of a solar eclipse this month.

You know, this eclipse...

Eclipse Map for the Solar Eclipse of October 23, 2014 at 0 Scorpio

(map generated by Solar Fire)

 

And yes, providing I can type we'll be talking more about it. But getting back to Sun and Venus, what they're a reference to is how we relate to others... and how well or not well we relate to them is based in something (and what that is). Even people who are stone tone deaf to the needs and rights of others to hold opinions come from somewhere. And the interesting thing is... which we are all learning right now ... those opinions are far (far) more often rooted in vulnerability than strength.

Scorpio fights... or produces the impulse to fight ... as a sign that the instinct of threat has come to light.

That threat is not about 'them' or 'that' or even 'this' (whatever 'this' may be). It's about how we FEEL about them or that or even this... and that's about US.

Not them, us.

It's uncomfortable and we can all expect to feel a deal of discomfort going forward at least until October 23rd, that being the date of the eclipse. Moreover, prior to that we'll be having an Aries lunar eclipse ... a time when our passions, our feelings and our ability to feel or not feel are all brought to the fore.

As always, where these eclipses fall (in what house of your chart) and how these eclipses aspect the various objects and factors in you your chart (and how closely those aspects apply) will determine how strong or weak eclipse effects will generally tend to be. With the lunar eclipse at 15 Aries, what we want may well be outstripped by our opportunity (or ability) to do such things, and that's not all that comfortable.

(Not at all comfortable.)

There's an aspect of change indicated by these two eclipses which no one wants to take on. So especially after Mercury goes retrograde we're bound to hear a lot of excuses and evasiveness. Those 'I don't want to talk (or think) about it' actions/choices are not all that productive, especially as nothing is going to in the end be entirely avoided. The productive thought here is to deal with others and your issues about/with others and to invest in examinations which will reveal not only what the strengths and weaknesses of the situation are, but what the reality of the strengths and weaknesses of others really are.

No one has told anyone everything. (Count on it.) Mercury retrograde - especially one in Scorpio - provides a natural time for interesting, invaluable and possibly important conversations, meetings, research and other interactive/interactions which provide grist for the mental mill or information needed before moving on.

That 'moving on' then begins to occur after Mercury goes direct on October 25th, but given how Mercury will have retrograded back into Libra before going direct, there will be complications and the need for more investigation, conversations and even a few (reluctant) course corrections once Mercury re-enters Scorpio late on November 8th (UT/+0).

You know, next month.

As for elements, the personal planets are moving through air (Libra) and water (Scorpio) for most of the month... and then there's just more Scorpio.

October 2014 by Element

That's a recipe for raw emotionalism and issues which raise raw emotionalism, but because of the eclipse (solar eclipses are cosmic trump cards) this is ALL about our realizing and recognizing and beginning to grasp our vulnerabilities - our internal hurts and vulnerabilities and fears and shames...all that.

And it's about the recognizing them and the owning up to them and the being able to admit them to others which leads to betterment. Our betterment.

The combination of other elements - fire and earth - being more global or worldly elements of our October, it's useful also to keep a clear separation of public versus private and personal/individual versus relationship/others in mind, in hand and (perhaps most of all) as a curb to our actions and statements, all of which carry the sort of weight/weightiness this month which may seem deliciously dramatic, but which could also cook our goose (so to speak, no offense to the geese) down the line.

All those meteors insure an interesting month to be sure. For those who are in a good place, this is a great month for being creative, providing you are willing to go through the whole of any process and not cut corners, the whole of which includes doing your up-front homework. That the Aquarius quotient resident in/with both these meteor showers is in a natural square (then trine, then back to square) with the overall purpose of the October Mercury retrograde challenges us to see how to use our more native human nature - not that of rhetoric, but of nurture.

Still, don't be surprised if you meet up with a lot of stubbornness... even within your Self. Underlying Scorpio's deep well of emotionality are its eternal questions of (Taurean) safety and self-doubt, those being the metaphysical source of all of our attempts to 'win at all cost' and otherwise weight or can't the playing field for others. The Scorpio demand of 'I want what I want' is, in other words, at its heart an extreme statement of fear - we're afraid we can't have what we want, so we'll fight for it.

Which begs the real question: what are we so afraid of being (and being known/seen as) without it?
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Eta Aquarids: The 2013 Edition

  The great comet of 1881 as drawn by Etienne Leopold Trouvelot (1827-1895)

The Lyrid Meteor Shower is already underway…and now Earth is diving into the realm of the Eta Aquarids, one of the two meteor showers produced by that most famous of comets, Comet Halley.

Halley’s other meteor shower is the Orionid shower, which happens in October. Both the Orionids and the Aquarids are rather lengthy (as meteor showers go), which is a tribute to the fabulousness (like that word?) of Comet Halley’s tail.

We might say Halley is the peacock of comets.

The astrological importance of that ‘opulence’ of duration is how both ‘sides’ of the Halley equation bridge multiple signs. And thus we might think that the Aquarids, in sprinkling their brilliance from April 19th through May 28th serve to give us ideas which connect and help us utilize the many facets of late Aries, Taurus and the beginning of Gemini.

All three signs pertain to knowing ourselves. Aries is the consciousness, Taurus is the reckoning with our abilities and Gemini is deciding what it is we really want to do, what we need to know to do it and the planning which gets us from there to there while taking care of all the rest of life’s doings.

All three of these signs are currently under strong astrological influence. With Uranus in Aries, we are being urged, inspired – or sometimes even required to change. When we don’t (or won’t) we will tend to either attract circumstances which change us – often against our will or desire.

And then there’s the other Uranus in Aries sort of energy: that which builds and builds until it explodes. Often that results in damage, though sometimes this type of Aries/Uranus energy manifests as a sudden sort of inspiration, discovery or insight which is as much like being liberated or ‘cured’ as anything could possibly be.

 Uranus and its Rings

(photo credit: NASA, JPL)

The general sense of Uranus in Aries is ‘the world is changing’ or “changing times,” if you want to be more colloquial about it. During the Aquarids we can expect to be ‘sparked’ to act or ‘sparked’ by someone else’s experience of change which may get us to thinking life’s different paths through.

Eris is also in Aries. But then, Eris has been in Aries since the 1920s. Yes, this passage is one of the hallmarks of the ‘modern world’ with all its technological wonders. But it’s not a big newsmaker at the moment. At least not on the global level.

And that, my friends, is probably good news.

Meanwhile, Sedna continues it’s slow, slow, slow wander through Taurus. Having slid into Taurus in the latter part of the 1960s, Sedna will be in Taurus until May of 2024, which marks the intervening eighty years or so as a time when we need to let go of being given and move towards what we can give, from which will come our greatest rewards.

More important and immediate-feeling is the fact that Saturn is currently in Scorpio, confronting us with various aspects about the need to get along in this world. For some this will be the need to get along with others. For some, this will be needing to get along with less than you would like. For most of us, this is a time which in one way or another is a challenge which is asking whether we are really living up to our potential.

And maybe as important (or more important) than that, whether we’re happy with the quality of our life, our relationships, our commitments, our general path.

Is it fulfilling? Who are we being: the person we are – or someone we’ve been “told” we should want to be?

Then there’s Jupiter in Gemini, which has us pushing at boundaries and overstepping a few here…and there. Oh yes – and over there, too.

We’re learning a lot, but is it useful? Can we really assemble what we’re doing into something cohesive and useful, or are we simply overbooked, overwhelmed, overstressed and overburdened and overly tired?

Think of it…the Eta Aquarid shower is spanning all these concepts. And while yes, as the Sun moves through each sign in sequence our days well may get hints and sparkles of intuition or understanding or opportunity or even genius as pertains to one sign or the other.

But as a collective?

This is just a suggestion, mind you…but considering the several years of Taurus/Scorpio Solar Eclipses we’re going through – between that and the fact that Pluto is in Capricorn (indicating changes of structure and direction) …why shouldn’t we think of this five weeks or so of ‘inspirations from above’ in terms of the radiant point from which this comet comes?

This is where Comet Halley’s two meteor showers differ. Halley the comet doesn’t actually ‘go out into the stars’ but over thousands of years, astrologers have noted a correlation between where any comet seems to be coming from – the radiant point – and the quality of the sparkle they seem to add to our mentality.

 The central section of the Orion Nebula (a mosaic overlay of 81 images) courtesy

of the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Parnal Observatory (2001)

During the Orionid shower, Comet Halley appears to be coming from the direction of Orion. And during the Aquarids, Halley seems to be coming from close by one of the brightest stars in Aquarius.

Which asks us to think global. And to think adaptively. Aquarius is the sign of acceptance and success. It’s the sign of everything which comes to us as a result of all our effort, especially that which is about understanding what others want and will ‘buy into,’ as they say in Aquarian ‘mass market terms.’

It's also the sign 'of the masses' and society, including societal events - not that meteor showers are generally known for timing ‘events.’ But they are thought of as a time when we’re more open to ‘greater possibilities.’

Or when life exposes us to the 'greater possibilities' of life, pleasant and unpleasant - which obviously points to many things, including the explosive events at the end of the Boston Marathon which in occurring at the end of Pluto's station/retrograde and just as Earth moves into this 'double meteor shower' zone would seem to be both an event and a metaphysical "stimulator" of other considerations.

But let's be clear: when people get hurt, when violence is done, there's no question but that we need to tend to the injured and deal with the facts of the matter - from who would do such a thing to what in society drives such hatred, to why people feel so alienated that they would think violence was any form of solution. The questions are endless. As are the challenges when we try to cope, or to be 'predictably ready' to respond in this unpredictable world. 

But beyond that is the realm of a greater perspective, the opportunity to contemplate what the metaphysical and karmic level of such events mean. They teach us that no matter how weak or how strong the city or nation, none of us are impervious. They teach us to feel lucky if we weren't involved. And in the sense that life is unpredictable and is always going to be unpredictable (that would be a very Aquarian quality, by the by) that we should value or prioritize or take care to how we organize our thoughts, our efforts, our aims because we don't know what's going to happen on any given day.

To say it locally: there is validity in saying 'I want to prioritize my family so if anything does happen to me, my family will be taken care of.' Then again, is that a better choice when placed against the person who wants to help people and create a better world in which fewer people will want to do such heinous things?

And to say it globally: what do we need to assure our future? Must we care about everyone's future to assure and insure our own?

With this May also bringing us a Taurus Solar Eclipse, the Eta Aquarids come to us as a 'sign' that as we move out of the old we can be inspired and ‘enlightened’ by the new. That may not be all comfortable. That may not be pleasant. But endings seldom are, which is why as a species, humans tend to greet such moments with 'look to the future!' and emphasize possibility over loss.

Sometimes that works. Sometimes that costs us.

The Lyrids and Eta Aquarids only overlap for about a week or so – between April 19th and 25th. Which means that this ‘doubling up’ on celestial sparks and sparkles ends right at a Lunar Eclipse.

Let’s hope that means the very best...for us all.
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The 2012 Orionid Meteor Shower

 Comet Bradfield from Cactus Flats in northeast Colorado, just before sunrise

(photo credit: the Starmom, May 2004)

Since the dawn of time, humans have watched night skies. We seem to take untold delight in spotting the streak of a meteor, as if its transient beauty somehow renews the innocence of childlike pleasures.

And maybe that’s what meteors are really all about. 

Certainly astrologically, these ‘dapplings of light’ are like the sparking of ideas and moments of sparkling pleasure we each so treasure, from wherever they may come.

This year’s Orionid meteor shower will be seen on October 20th and 21st. That it falls under the auspices of a Sun in late Libra and just as Venus moves into Virgo’s third decan may indicate glimmerings of hope. Or maybe a sense that all our hard (Venus in Virgo) efforts are finally going to (Sun in late Libra) meet with approval.

Or maybe just get finished. So many of us have been struggling with too much to (Venus in Virgo) to do and a disquieting feeling that what we’re doing (Venus/Sun) isn’t paying off. Not at least the way we might have wanted it to.

But with asteroid Bali – representing the pleasures of ‘paradise’ – having just gone direct, maybe…just maybe we’re going to find our way. Maybe all we need is a sprinkling of light, a bit of joy when all else seems dark to get us all through.

That the Moon will be in Capricorn during these days cautions against haste. Yet despite feelings of needing to be practical, maybe we can afford a moment of softening hardened hearts?

Goodness knows we all need it.

Against this, we have the reminder that the Orionids exist because of Comet Halley, probably our solar systems most famous comet – at least with Earthlings!
And fame does seem to be the operative word here. Because the orbit of comet Halley pretty much draws a metaphysical ‘loop’ between  Neptune and Venus, especially considering the fact that 2012 finds these two planets are in opposing signs the pluses and minuses of notoriety and idealization stand out here. Which means some among us will find their high flying ideals being plunged into the very cold water of reality about now.

If you want to read all the details, HERE is the link to the nitty-gritty blog on Comet Halley.

But what seems important to note here is how this Orionid shower – as spectacular as any meteor shower is if you can get to a place dark (and comfortable) enough – that it’s part two of Comet Halley, 2012 Edition.

That’s right…Earth passes through the floating tail left in Halley’s passage twice during its orbit around the Sun.

Maybe that’s why Halley is such a famous comet among humans? Metaphysically that could be. If so, it would also speak to ‘frequency of experience’ as a molding force in human experience.

I’m sure advertisers will agree with that thought. As will (interestingly enough) psychologists, seeing as they use exactly this sort of ‘repetition’ to get some clients past aversions and fears in a process known as ‘aversion therapy.'

In Comet Halley’s case, its relationship with Earth is shaped by Halley’s orbit.

 The orbit of comet 1P, otherwise known as Halley's Comet
(diagram courtesy of the JLP Small Body Database)

Because Halley crosses Earth’s orbit around the Sun twice in two very different moments, the effects have come to be known by different names. The May shower is the Eta Aquarids; the October meteor shower is the Orionid.

Two things arise from this fact. One, and maybe the most important to us as individuals, is that this ties events of May 2012 (just before Venus went retrograde and our experience of a Solar Eclipse at 0 Gemini) to present-day circumstances, problems, challenges, events, victories and realities.

The other thing worth giving a thought to is that this describes a conceptual and metaphysical tie between Orion and Aquarius.

How it would do that (and what that means) is a whole other facet of spiritual and astronomical mechanics having to do with what things look like…and whether that’s the truth.

Allow me to explain…meteor showers are named for where the comet which creates them (in this case, comet 1P, otherwise known as Comet Halley) ‘comes from.’

Or, to be more honest about it, where they appear to come from. That point – the ‘radiant’ point, gets cited, and from that comes the name of the meteor shower. So here’s how it works…when Earth moves through the flowing remnants of Halley’s tail during October, astronomers look for the source (Halley) and its orbit – because of where Earth is on its orbit – appears to come from Orion. Similarly, during May, we look to the sky, do the calculations and Halley appears to ‘come from’ right near Eta Aquarii, one of constellation Aquarius’ brightest stars.

But life is a whole. Life is one thing, not ‘this’ and ‘that’ experience ‘now’ and ‘then.’ The cumulative experience of life is life. So for those of us who think that all Which Is matters, this in some ways ties the idea of Libra/Scorpio to Aquarius.

Libra/Scorpio? Yes, well...the Orionid shower does often overlap the change of signs from Libra to Scorpio. It sort of depends on where we are in our Leap Year cycle.

(Don’t get me started on leap years!)

But however you see it, this does make astrological sense. After all, Libra and Scorpio are about relating to others (and who we relate to either by choice, need or inclination) where Aquarius is about what we get out of life (and how comfortable we are with and in this life) depending on our ability and willingness to fit in, contribute, appreciate others and be appreciated in turn (both for who we innately are and what we earn through what we do).

Because Libra does its relating mentally (airily, in theory and through ideas) and Scorpio does it through all means and methods which evoke, provoke and test our emotions, values and sense of self worth there is, in fact, something of an ‘easier’ time expected here simply because Aquarius is also an air sign.

It’s the idea of the thing, you see.

And yet…that can be exactly what comes back to haunt (or even bite) us now. People love to ballyhoo trines like they’re something magically pleasant, but all a trine says is that things are ‘more automatic.’ So if you’re in the midst of bad times, that can mean that more bad shows up more easily than good, which takes some doing to achieve.

Likewise, trines in the natal chart can indicate great abilities…or simply bad habits we find terribly hard to break.

There’s another thing which occurs to me here…namely that in having two totally “different” meteor showers which “appear” to come from different places in the sky, Halley is indeed living up to its own cycle – that between Neptune and Venus. Those who know even a little astrology probably can easily envision this pair in combination as idyllic love and blissful enjoyment.

It takes a little more soul searching to realize that heartbreaks, huge financial and personal losses come through these very same symbolic mechanisms.

A mosaic overlay of the central section of the Orion Nebula

(photo credit: ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Parnal Observatory, 2001)

The lesson here is that its wonderful to love, but always important to be realistic enough to know the difference between the vision of beauty and the fact that life, by its very nature, is very seldom – if ever – perfect.

And that, if all things happen for a reason and all things are what they should be in any given moment because there are things we can only learn through passing through the deepest darkness so that we can appreciate the beauty of a star…

…or the beauty of accepting ourselves as we are, or others as they are - that in that moment and essence we may have indeed discovered the path to perfection here on Earth.
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Halley’s Comet: Famous in Our Own Minds

 A portrait of Edmond Halley painted around 1687 by Thomas Murray

Comet Halley (or ‘P1’ as it’s known in astronomy catalogues) is one of those celestial objects mankind has known about for a very, very long time. Sky watchers from ancient China to Babylon noticed it. 

People started writing about it in 240 BCE, so as they say…by the time Halley came along, his comet had already been around some!

Seriously, the comet is named for an Englishman by the name of Edmond Halley. And the reason it got named after him is simply because Halley was the guy who sat down and thought about this comet which his friend Sir Issac Newton had been going on about and after looking at the records realized that the comet which had appeared in 1456, 1531, 1607 and 1682 was probably the same comet.

In other words, he figured out Comet Halley’s ‘periodicity’ (a fancy way of saying how often it shows up) and because he did this, Halley was made eternally famous by having his name given to this particular short-period comet.

And how often does Comet Halley show up? To spare you details and math here, every 75.3 years. Last seen in 1986, it’s due to reappear around the year 2059 with its next perihelion (approach to the Sun) occurring in the year 2061. So it’ll be a while yet. But when Comet Halley shows up, it’s one of the few objects of its kind that we can just go outside and watch. A lot of things about our solar system require special lenses or telescopes…not so with Halley’s Comet. It’s one of a generous handful of distant objects (in our solar system - we’re not talking about stars here) which are visible with one’s very own nicely naked eye. 

 Halley's Comet as photographed on May 29 1910 

(photo published in the New York Times on July 3, 1910)

Of all of those, it can be nicely argued that apart from eclipses (which are pretty awe-inspiring) Halley’s Comet just may be one of - if not the most famous, crowd-inspiring, news-prompting object to ever visit our sky. Halley’s is just famous.

 

And that’s something we should take note of. Halley 

prompts ‘mass attention.’ The guy who figured out its period of return became famous because of the comet. 

Between the two, it’s a pretty safe bet that Comet Halley the astrological object is about mass attention, the ability to generate mass attention (whether in the form of notoriety, fame, infamy or however else) or an attentiveness to those who themselves are famous or notorious.

In thinking about this, let’s take that periodicity number and divide it by common astrological numbers. When we do this, we find that dividing 75.3 (years) by four equals 18.825 (years) - which is right in there with 18.6 years as the full cycle of the lunar nodes and the Metonic (eclipse) cycle, which is 19 years or 235 lunar months long.

 

The point here is that those cycles (those about the lunar nodes and eclipses) are well-known socio-individual cycles. In other words, they’re about how we interface with society, our feelings about society and the nature of how society reacts to each and every individual one of us.

Yeah, fame. The eclipse cycle in particular has been known since ancient times for the ‘rise and fall of kings and societies.’ So comet Halley (and its 75.3 year cycle) seem tied into our relationship to mass attention, whether we’re part of the crowd or the object of love or hatred.

 

One more item on Halley’s orbit before we move on. Comet Halley will reach its aphelion - the point farthest from Earth - on December 9, 2023. Does that ring a bell? It should if you read the post on Sedna of a few days ago…..

LINK to post on SEDNA 

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…as that cited 2023 as the year when Sedna will move from Taurus into Gemini, to be followed by Pluto’s 2024 move from Capricorn into Aquarius.

 

Both air signs, yes.

In solar system terms, where does Halley hail from? In astronomical terms, Halley’s farthest point from the Sun, the ‘where it will be’ on December 9, 2023, is at 35.1 AU (astronomical units). That’s just beyond Neptune’s aphelion point, which is 30.44 AU. So in metaphysical terms, Halley brings to us a ‘Neptunian’ sort of quality - which again, goes with fame. In the chart, Neptune is often a symbol of fame (as distinct from ‘celebrity’ which is in astrological terms more about “acting famous” or “working to be famous.”) Eternal fame, like infamy, is really about someone who is terribly involved in what they’re doing - be that mass murder, scientific discovery or incredibly delicious, amazingly inspirational artwork.

 

As for how far in towards the Sun Comet Halley comes, the answer there is 0.586 AU, which is just inside Venus’ orbit, nestled between the perihelion points of asteroid Apollo (0.647 AU) and Daedalus (0.56299 AU).

 

Basically then we could say Comet Halley connects Neptune with Venus. And anyone who knows anything about astrology knows that would be, for better and worse, a pretty good description of ‘stirring the imagination (Neptune) and getting a response (Venus).’ On the positive end, that would be fame. On the negative end, that would equal notoriety. There’s probably a lot of very interesting astrological research to be done on Neptune and Venus plus where Halley is in its orbit both in the natal chart and as time goes on - whether that times the rise and fall of fame. Or the discovery of human monsters who have long gone about their work in secret.

 

So much to do! So little time…

What else do we know? We know that because of the path Comet Halley follows, it crosses Earth’s orbital path (the ecliptic) at two different places. And as Earth passes through Halley’s comet tail twice a year we get those magical sky shows we call meteor showers…little glimmers of light streaking across the sky - the metaphysical ‘sparking’ or ‘sprinkling’ of ideas from…from beyond our knowing.

 

That’s exactly what we think everything beyond Neptune’s orbit represents - the Unknown. And whether those meteor showers come to us as inspirations or motivations or perking of instinct, they seem to us truly unanticipated and ‘unbidden.’ What shape these ‘meteoric’ thoughts take in your life depends on which shower we’re talking about, where the yearly time period associated with said meteor shower falls in your natal chart…and the comet’s radiant.

 

What’s a radiant? That’s the point in the sky the comet appears to come from. For instance, this May meteor shower (occurring around the 5^th and 6^th) happens every year as the Sun passes through Taurus. Yet the shower itself is known as the ‘Eta Aquarids,’ and is so named because at that time of year Halley’s comet tail appears to be coming from near one of Aquarius’ brightest stars, Eta Aquarii.

Halley’s other meteor shower occurs in the latter part  October - often under the Sun sign of Scorpio, though sometimes just at the tail end of Libra. Known as the ‘Orionid’ meteor shower, its radiant lies in the constellation Orion.

 

LINK to blog post on the ORIONID METEOR SHOWER

With regards to the Aquarids, not only is the combination of Taurus and Aquarius telling in the sense that both are fixed signs, but the meteor shower itself occurs just where the Sun is crossing the half-way point in Taurus - a point which is also the first of four zodiacal ‘cross-quarter’ points.

In the abstract sense, cross-quarter points do two things. For one, they end up dividing the four ‘quarters’ of the 12-part zodiac into eight ‘phases’ which are mimic the eight phases of the Moon. That alone gives the cross-quarter points an aura of ‘humanness.’ And so they are - these four points are where we are tested and asked to move from abstract learning into operational application vis-à-vis the meaning of that sign and quadrant.

 

Taurus is the second of the zodiac signs, one of three signs which make up the first quarter or quadrant of the zodiac. The first three signs are about a very basic sort of learning. The essence of Aries is “I Am” and anything (or anyone) Aries is all about learning what it means to exist, to be alive, to be able to ‘do.’ Taurus - commonly known as ‘I have’ is about discernment of worth, and that we can have…and what we do have. It’s sort of the ‘toddler’ sign. In Taurus we see the joy of discovery, the trials and errors of selfishness versus generosity and a learning to operate independently and stand alone - all those efforts which together combine to build self-confidence and internal, intrinsic worth.

 

Aquarius, on the other hand, is far from Taurus’ here-and-now ‘touch it, grab it, value it’ vibe. Bracketed by Capricorn and Pisces, Aquarius is a fourth zodiac quarter sign and all about the world and worldly things. Aquarius embodies the idea of ‘universal functionality’ and is about as far from the ‘me/mine’ as one can get. Only when the whole of the ‘system’ works does everyone win in Aquarian terms. Individuals count and are nurtured under Aquarius because the truly Aquarius system involves everyone - and when everyone counts, then everybody has to support everybody in finding their niche, the place they fit best for their own (individual) purposes as well as in the benefit to the whole.

 Tapestry of Bayeux (c 1077) records the appearance of

 Halley's comet in 1066 (NASA-JPL photo archives)

So these signs are compatible - in the sense that they both need us to be who we need to be to fulfill our greater purpose for Self and finding our Aquarian place in the world (which benefits us and the world too!).

Optimally, that’s what the Eta Aquarid period should ‘spark’ in us - new ideas on how to be who we need to be to find that place and be whole and wholly fulfilled in our Self.

 

All of which brings us back to Halley and that ‘famous’ thing. Eta Aqaurii - the star closest to Halley’s May radiant is sometimes called Hydria, a name taken from the Greek ‘hudria’ for water jar. Remembering that water is the metaphysical image of emotions (and everything which matters or is of value to us, as those are the things which evoke emotionalism), in airy Aquarius and its associated 11th house the pouring of water out of a jar is the idea of our pouring ourselves into the into the world.

And that the Hebrews called this star ‘Deli’ (meaning hard) fits with the Aquarian/11th house idea of 'making it work.' With sign and house both associated with income, the warning is that though millions have tried to 'get rich quick,' ultimately that doesn't serve to fulfill us. Aquarius is the 'worldly' side of the create-and-profit from Leo/5th-Aquarius/11th house polarity and to 'make it all work' takes effort.

It's our life and as humans, given that Saturn is the farthest planet we see with our mortal eye, striving - working to build or learn, improve or achieve satisfies some internal need we have to strive. In testing ourselves against our ability to do and do better, we come to appreciate ourselves...

...and that - ultimately - is satisfying it and of itself. The riches of human nature are not measured in money, they’re measured in that most precious of Aquarian-11th house commodities: self respect.

 

Self respect is what inspires us to pour forth our goodness into the world. Money may tempt us, but in the end, if whatever we do for money isn’t satisfying, our ‘thirst’ for self respect only grows greater. Good or bad, when we do what we feel we were made to do, we exhibit that confidence which, whether misplaced or not, fascinates others.

 

There’s just nothing like someone who’s found their place in the world, is there?

 

Halley found his place. Maybe he had been wishing on a star and ended up being famous for a comet? Stranger things have happened!

post blog note: for those who aren’t regular readers here at astroPPM, this post is related to the May Full Moon post which you can link to HERE.