Jupiter Direct

San Francisco's famous fog shadows the Golden Gate Bridge in northern California 

(photo credit: Brocken Inaglory, 2006)

Any time Jupiter stations, the status quo changes in the direction of more. We generally learn something…and even if it’s what we don’t want to know, generally just the exercise of listening…or looking beyond what you had seen up until now – literally (in physical life) or in your mind - is useful.

There’s a quality to Jupiterian energetics which asks…and which empowers us…even tumbles us into those states or situations which render us at least somewhat more permeable than we were before we started.

Jupiter’s trademark effects aren’t ‘strict’ except in their drive to perceive beyond the norm, so it’s no wonder that the concept of ‘excess’ is as familiar and Jupiterian as ‘growth’ or ‘expansion’ or ‘learning’ or ‘trial’…that last either being a trial of the personal/emotional type or ‘trial’ as in a legal procedure.

They’re both Jupiterian.

When Jupiter goes retrograde (as it did last time spare days after the November 2013 Scorpio solar eclipse) things which happen in the world or in our world in the ‘all around us’ sort of sense…then Jupiter’s turn to retrograde indicates how things which are externally generated (the ‘external’ part paralleling a planet’s direct/forward motion)…how those things are then taken in and taken under internal consideration during the planet’s ensuing retrograde.

In this case that would be last November until now – or more specifically, until March 6th at 10:43 a.m. (UT/+0 time). At that point, Jupiter will go direct at 10 degrees of Cancer, a zodiacal position which is defined as being emotional, experiential and either formative or involved with some internal emotional mind set we are, or which we need to be taking a look at.

Thought of as a degree which embraces both our human and humanitarian nature, with Jupiter at 10 Cancer there is an opportunity ‘expand upon’ something…or to go beyond where you have gone up until now. This is a degree which enhances life…yet with many a deep vulnerability feeling (Sun-Chiron-Pisces) stirred, we’re likely to resort to questions and questioning whether we ‘should’ or ‘have to’ rather than act except where we understand whatever the greater stakes may be.

At some level and in some way, we are not alone in our problems. Challenges of the moment not only require that we understand the ‘other side’ of whatever argument, question or debate is engaging us directly…but also some notion, some interest or need or position we’d otherwise think of as a ‘third party.’

It all seems to be focusing on us…each and every one…with all of the above also applying – and reviving – life’s ongoing call to change not ‘them’ but our Self.

It’s that Pluto-Uranus-Jupiter t-square we’ve spoken of now and again (and again). We are at a place in time, in history, in metaphysical shifts which only happen once every two thousand years or so where the old ‘power structure’ and old methods of ‘generating,’ ‘maintaining’ and ‘disseminating’ power are all being changed – and that’s a universal shift. It applies to humans and individual lives and family debates on the direction any given person should be going as surely as it applies to nations, trades and beliefs.

It’s just that this process isn’t easy – ever. And it isn’t fun. All the troubles…the violence, the debates over who has what right to what and whose ‘right’ is utterly wrong – it’s all about our resistance to change. We all want the same thing – Jupiter sitting in the Cancerian ‘solution’ position of our current (and ongoing) rather epic t-square says we all want to have a decent and decently secure life. We all want to be who we are and enjoy what we enjoy.

So what’s the real issue? Change. The idea that they have to change bothers some individuals just as the idea that we have to change how we see ourselves as individuals and members of a race and denizens on a planet bothers us.

The breakthroughs we seek are to be found or set into motion internally. The impetus for needing to seek those notions or breakthroughs and the pressure which will drive us past our limit to resist them? That’s external. And universal…which may suggest that one off-beat ‘universalist’ manifestation of the current Mars retrograde in Libra (Libra being a sign of relating and relationships) is a ‘pulling back’ on all parties – all the way around.

It’s just that some of us continue to project and “blame them” while many, if not most of us are attending to working on our Self – either the ‘inner’ self or that Self which exists ‘inside’ the bounds of our personal life (however that is organized) such that we are dealing with whatever it is which will allow us to move forward come mid-May (i.e., after Mars goes direct). 

There’s likely to be a deal of taking things too personally about now. Going ‘over the top’ is likely too. Both such traits are to be expected most of all in people who a.) don’t have enough to do, b.) have a spotty understanding of the truth, or c.) who are focused only on what they want to see rather on that which would work best and for the duration…which if you’re into human economics equals the choice between ‘at the least expense to all’ and/or ‘at the least cost to me.’

Everyone will have their own version of what they know, what they don’t want to believe and whatever it is they feel is so vitally important that it must be heard and heard clearly…and yet hardly anyone is listening. There is an internal stress and feeling of loss on all sides which is distracting – to say the least.

And yet…as Jupiter goes direct…all indications are that current difficulties are neither about ‘them’ nor about our current state. Saturn (also now in retrograde) is still opposing Sedna.

- link to -

Saturn, Sedna, Ceres, Jupiter:

Manifest Gearing in Motion

And now two other items have entered this picture: at 21 Taurus (with Sedna at 23 Taurus) the Moon and Kalypso, a pairing which speaks to the need to care about others and the heartfelt desire to care about the security and families of people beyond yourself…

…all of which is set at odds by economics, many of which have us pitted against questions of self-determination in our minds. Are we strong enough to make our dream our reality…or are we just dreaming?

Another aspect of the current t-square – which is to say the ongoing pressure to get over ourselves (or some aspect of our Self) in order to have any lasting foundational success – is that at the moment of Jupiter’s station what was a t-square has become a grand square.

Grand squares picture difficult ‘balancing acts’ we need to work through. We’re up against various kinds of essential naivete – and that would be bad enough to contend with without life’s complicated demands, desires and necessities.

But life isn’t asking. Things are happening. And at some level we understand this is the time things need to happen and how we are witnessing yet another moment in earthbound history…whether that’s on the big stage (world history) or in our personal lives (our personal history) – or maybe both.

Whatever we do, we’ll be confronting the truth and the sense of our ideals, hopes, assumptions and plans…each of us learning in our own way how beyond question none of us are even vaguely perfect - and how that’s all right, simply because we’re people. The Sabian Symbol for 10 Cancer is A CLOWN CARICATURING WELL-KNOWN PERSONALITIES…an image which invites extremes of interpretation.

Maybe that’s us…maybe people will look at us and see just one facet as our whole. Or maybe we’re doing that to others?

In the original issuing of the Sabians, astrologer Marc Edmund Jones saw the ‘clowning’ around implied in this symbol as ‘the value of humor in developing objectivity and independence of mind’ – a concept that most erudite of astrologers Dane Rudhyar agreed with heartily in his book ‘An Astrological Mandala.’* In counseling the use of laughter when or where this degree becomes activated, Rudhyar sees it as a path to perspective. ‘Humor,’ he writes, ‘or irony is a powerful tool in assessing the value of sociocultural realities, and thereby in freeing oneself from glamor and prejudice.’

At an ever expanding pace we’re feeling life being brought to light, to bear not to disturb us, but to inform, prompt and direct us along the lines of more insightful…and in due time (think: July 2014) more creative and motivational direction.

One other curious note to the above configuration – Dionysus conjuncting Uranus in Aries. That’s something of a contradiction – a need to take care even as we fling caution to the wind…a tendency to fight ourselves – a conviction that we need to fight.

True or false, that which draws us draws us with potent power. And for some of us…those who stray onto the ‘false side’ (if you will), that in itself is a timely and well-timed lesson.

After all, that’s asteroid Dionysus sitting there alongside quirky Uranus – and the mythic Dionysus is none other than the child of Jupiter.

So it would seem it doesn’t really matter what path we take – except to us.

 Dionysus by Sebastiano Ricci (1695) 

All is now rooted in the need to learn – no matter how fine or bad times are – for in the end, the Jupiterian principle is one about the expanding of what we know and understand – it’s not a ‘feeling’ premise. That Jupiter is transiting Cancer speaks to the understanding of our feelngs, and many of us have learned a lot…even too much… about ourselves and others of late.

But the Jupiter part? That’s about the maintenance of truth and functional integrity. In such a moment as this, with Jupiter’s station in square to Mars retrograde by sign we’re being pushed to confront our Self.

And as we no doubt know, that tempts some to step forward and some to step back. Whatever happens now, there is a quality of ‘spreading energy’ which happens when Jupiter passes through this sign which should be quite apparent right now.

It’s a good time to reach out, providing you’re willing to know the truth.

And if you aren’t…that says something too, for Jupiter in Cancer teaches what we don’t want as often as anything else.

Whatever you learn, think it through. Something  here will give you additional proportion – proportion you will need or find useful once Mars goes direct this coming 20th of May.
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* An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformation and its 360 Symbolic Phases
   Vintage Books (New York, USA), 1974 – c. Rudhyar, Dane (1973)
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Venus enters Aquarius:

The Birth of Venus by Gustave Moreau (1826-1898)

There seems to be a ‘move to still’ recent motion coming to us over the next few days, starting with asteroid Juno entering Aries on March 4th at 9:58 a.m., UT/+0 time.

A symbol of ‘coming home’ and the nurture, reordering or protection of said home, astrology’s asteroid Juno is associated with the energetic of management and managing…what we do in our everyday life to manage that, what steps we take within the self to govern that life (and Self) through our mentality, whatever we do to mange a physical home or manage having one (working to support ourselves).

Whether in the ‘singular’ sense – meaning Juno as a thought process we use in planning our days, weeks, years and lifetime…or in the ‘group’ sense as when Juno refers to a ‘society’ of any sort (of individuals, corporate, national, cultural, etc.).

At some level…if you think about it, what this says is that the ‘Juno instinct’ (as we might call it) which resides in each one of our lives is about our relationship to that we identify with…CAN identify with…or now…and thus how we react to that idea, person, thing, group, cause our effort because of how well we do or don’t identify with it.

The positive of Juno is to protect, nurture, organize and generally maintain as functional. The negative of Juno is to reject, disrupt, criticize/critique and to resort to whatever disruptive tool or force seems applicable.

So…with Juno entering the ‘I Am’ sign of Aries does this mean we’re ‘coming home’ to our Self?

What we can say right away is that Juno is (and will be) ‘touching off’ the good and bad as seen from a Juno in Aries (i.e., first person) point of view – which is neither good nor bad. But when we add in Mars going retrograde in Libra (as of just a day or two ago), that would seem to suggest one of several ideas, all of which may be complicated by other factors and/or by more than one factor being true:

1. We are overwhelmed by the need to act.

2. We need to pull back and regroup due to expansive expenditures previously made which to date have not (yet?) proven out their promise.

3. We’re uncomfortable with why others and are disinclined to listen or understand any priority or rationale other than their own.

4. We want to think we control life and worldly dynamics. 

That  Juno is coming to its ingress of the zodiac’s first sign just as Venus is exiting the shadow of its December-January retrograde will time out a 'starting again' or 'staring something new' or even 'starting over' for many of us. You may also experience this as a time when something which 'started' or ‘(re)started’ back then and which confronted each one of us at some very deep and vital level about who we are… our innate value as a person and how we feel about that value (whether we value our value, one might say)… we’re back where we were in December.

We may be wiser, yes. Or we may simply have gotten to where we can get back to something which was of value at that time.

Seen in this light, to have Venus entering Aquarius late on March 5th (the day after Juno enters Aries and Venus exits the retrograde shadow) certainly echoes the ‘ending’ of something… though it may be more ‘thematic’ than specific.

In other words…as just one of the many ways we could look at this, if Venus is entering Aquarius, it’s leaving Capricorn. Capricorn is about social standing and who we ‘know’ ourselves to be in this world, replete with all the pluses and minuses the world may think of us included. (Or specifically excluded if you’re either narcissistic or sufficiently bullet-proof to go about… or need to go about your business regardless of what others say, think or do.) The point here is that Capricorn is an earthy ‘made real’ sort of sign… the good, the bad, the evil, personal consequences and whatever personal rewards we’ve earned (Capricorn stresses earning) have come to  reality… and to their end.

It’s been a very long four months. And considering all the trials and problems which have come to light in the world and our personal, individual worlds, maybe a few of us will have gotten the underlying concept of Venus in Capricorn, namely that the world is not ours to command…it’s ours to be part of.

Venus normally moves through a sign in a matter of weeks. That it took four months (Venus entered Capricorn back on November 5, 2013) for many of us to come to terms with ourselves or what we were doing is neither good or bad providing we’ve used our time for something.

And now as Venus enters airy, theoretical Aquarius, we get to see what we have learned. Between now and April 5th when Venus moves on into Pisces results are most easily gained through connecting or through systemic connections. The emphasis is on things which are both very basic and esoteric. With Venus in opposition to Black Moon Lilith as the ingress is made we are cued towards the experience of forces being ‘liberated,’ particularly where the ‘Self’ (group or individual) has been denied or ‘valued’ (that very Venusian thing) in a depersonalized or monetary manner.

That’s something to remember about the balance of March (i.e., Venus passage through Aquarius) – it will manifest as every form of ‘dealing in the abstract’ and many, many people are going to be offended by that.

In fact, with Venus entering Aquarius not just in opposition to Black Moon Lilith but also in square to the Nodes, we can assume the relationship created between people and ideas will promote responses far and wide. It’s going to be a big month for causes, for rejections, for wanting it all to just go away at the same time we want to be proven right or successful or validated in…in whatever we have been thinking about since back in mid-late January.

And put simply, to the extent that we have depended on others to prove us right…especially where we have hoped or ‘banked’ on them as opposed to who we can be in their presence, or in the presence of others or this world…that’s where we’re likely to be proven wrong.

In some cases, unfortunately, dead wrong.

Mental bets can be the most serious and costly. Why? Because ‘mentality’ – which is to say the astrological concept of mentality isn’t substance… and we live a physical life. Ideas have to attach to something or cause something to become manifest to be of service… another big theme Venus will be activating as we move into and through the weeks ahead. Systemic, big picture Aquarius is the sign of economics, the internet, things digital and transacting. This is the sign which embraces the theory which says what we put out comes back to us.

The trick here is that what surfaces now… that isn’t likely to be new.

With the Lunar Nodes in what astrology refers to as an ‘out of sign’ square we are being given to know that there’s a ‘mismatch’ of influences here which are currently at cross-purpose. In some cases there will be marked ‘references’ to things which happened eighteen, thirty-seven - even fifty-five years ago.

For the first part of this week we will be finding… feeling… experiencing feelings about this and that as more becomes obvious – to us, at least. Other people may not agree, they may not care, they may be totally oblivious to things we find compelling...

...even painful...

...as they continue involvement with their own world, their own priorities - their own internal dynamics.

About the best we can do is take notice, be supportive and move on. It's just a couple of days. Those of us who believe that life has an ultimate purpose will accept and do their best. Those who believe life is to be carved out in one’s own mortal image will do what they want.

Venus opposition Black Moon Lilith at an Aquarian ingress is tantamount to an outcry. For you it may be an outpouring. Or a venting. Or a reaching out, a breaking free of some sort of lethargy you have been holding yourself hostage to simply because of doubt.

Grand squares – by definition – cannot be solved. They can, however, be dealt with and learned from, which seems to be their purpose. Having sat and watched astrological software scroll through a day-by day imaging of the whole of 2014 it seems obvious that this is a huge year for challenges, many of which will fade by next year...which is akin to a lowering of pressure by 2015.

But don't get pre-relieved. Astrologically, this is a big, vast, huge year for challenges, yes. And many of them are tough, raw, painful, disappointing - even humiliating.

They're still opportunities. That's the thing to grasp. Juno coming into Aries now as Venus enters Aquarius connects the concept of Self with the world, which means it's not 'the thing' or the task or the hurdles which need jumping - it's our outlook on it which is determinative. Good, bad, destructive, regenerative, expensive to our regard or cheapening in the eyes of others, for the next few days we get to manage experiencing our Self and do a lot of gleaning of information which may not even make sense to us yet, but it's all coming in.

And what would be the reason for that, you might ask?

That would be because in just a few days...on March 6th...at the end of this time we're talking about, Jupiter goes direct, signaling an initiation of “growth” and “movement” which though slow in taking hold (reflecting the Mars retrograde which will be with us into May)... are likely to hold some very valuable, perhaps even life-changing potentials in the offing.

That part of the process is still a somewhat distant 'long run.' But things can happen now. In fact, they not only can, but are likely to.

Awareness is your friend going forward. But don't set anything in stone any time soon. We're in a development period (otherwise known as a period when developments are likely to occur) and none of us yet know what that which is already in motion is going to produce...

...and then what will come of that.

Everything we are going through right now is valid, in and of itself. It's also but a step in a process which will unfold over a number of months...about a dozen of them.

But what we do now? What we learn now? These days, this time going forward is going to prompt us to consider things which will confound us precisely because we can't learn from what we already know. So things will change. We will change.

Is it necessary? Since Aquarius in part tests our determination through confronting us with the exploration and real life puzzles, it would seem with Venus in Aquarius that there is something to explore, something to gain through the realization that reward is not merely about what we accomplish, nor about simply being someone that the world responds to.

What that is for you, no one can say. But we do know one thing...being that Venus is entering Aquarius it has something to do with the idea of being human.
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A 25 Gemini Full Moon

A dancer (name unknown) photographed at the Laban Dance School in November, 1929

(photo courtesy of the German Federal Archives)

Upon realizing that the December 2013 Gemini Full Moon would occur within hours of Uranus going direct, my first mental response was ‘uh-oh…’

Then I realized that this is a GEMINI Full Moon. An air sign Full Moon. So while the Full Moon may bring the ‘how deeply I feel about…’ to high pitch, the avenue…the means of release is going to be airy.

And that means fervency. Or perhaps distraction. Or the blinding glare of one of those ‘light bulb’ moments – which I say even if Aquarius tends to be more light bulb-ish than Gemini.

The point here is that it is the idea OF the moment which is likely to be highlighted by any such air sign Full Moon. So if we think of Uranus as not the intention to create the explosion but the energy which erupts or which is vented or liberated at the moment of explosion, this suggests that the Full Moon at 25 Gemini which will occur at 9:29 a.m. (UT/+0 time) on December 17, 2013 - spare hours before Uranus goes direct at 5:40 p.m. – is either going to be a doozie…or that it is going to indicate an event, a moment, a recognition, a decision which in turn leads to Uranian or Uranus-type energetics.

So…what is this about, this Full Moon/Uranus connection?

Associated with anything which could remotely be associated with ‘dancing’ (a fact I rather love, having during this lunation fallen back in love with dance, something I haven’t done literally for decades) 25 Gemini can manifest literally or, if we think of the whole Full Moon/air sign concept it could manifest as a moment which makes us ‘dance’ or (having fun with the concept here…) which would make our head ‘spin.’

Nimble brains, nimble (Gemini) feet and hands, deft thinking, timely statements, taking advantage of opportunities – anything which is about our mind’s ability to ‘dance’ is apt here. There is a quality of being willing to compete also present in this degree, but here the competition is much more in fun than at other times, much more about simply doing what I can do because living is so often a process of feeling ourselves operating at the mental level – that getting it done, that seeing it all come together, that seeing the advantage in some particular direction or plan.

So this whole incoming Uranus station could be a very productive time.

We can also say that, according to the timing we are being given (the UT/+0 timing of the Full Moon preceding Uranus’ doing direct) that since the Moon’s phases often tend to act like ‘timing’ mechanisms - AND since station theory tells us that anything which happens prior to the actual moment of the station pertains to something yet to come where things which happen after the moment of station tend to refer to that already done coming to fruition and/or winding up…

…all of the above tends to move us towards thinking of things yet to happen. And that there are things yet to happen.

Incoming: important changes or shifts of direction. (Flexibility suggested.)

On top of its ‘dancing’ quality, 25 Gemini is additionally known for intellectual skill, far-sighted visualization, high levels of concentration (or in this case perhaps ‘concentrated focus’).

Quite the list, eh?

One other (curious) note to add here: this degree 25 Gemini that we’re talking about? It’s not all that good in business.

 Fractured, fissured, unique and starkly impressive, moon Miranda lives up to the

iconic and unbounded reputation of its parent planet, Uranus.

(photo credit: Keele Astrohysics Group, NASA)

Which I guess means we had all best watch what stage we’re dancing on. The big challenge metaphysically seems to be utilizing the ‘broad specter’ (and generally impersonal) Uranian energy at the same time as the very personal lunar energy. How to do that?

This is indeed an odd combination. One way to handle it is to do something which affects many, remembering that when we get to the ‘general’ and ‘those I don’t know personally’ we’re in Uranus territory, which combined with Uranus as being associated with electricity gives us the perfect image of the internet.

So…knowing I’ll make YouTube very happy by saying this, if you know of any dancer with a video to release, you might suggest they consider December 17th as their release date. I have a whole other post about such things warming up, but for now, this is a definite Full Moon concept.

And remember – the metaphysical concept of ‘dancing’ is about deftness and ability, not how well you tap your toes. The lunar (feeling) idea here is rhythm. We want things to function in a rhythm, and where our life rhythm is together, all goes well. Where it isn’t, it doesn’t go well. That may be something we’re conscious of…then again, we may not be.

Which is a whole other way to see this time.

What do I mean by that? Just this: if you think things are hinky-dinky and this isn’t a time when you feel like things are opening up for you and all such joy? Then the answer is ‘think bigger.’ Think beyond the bounds of Self or the bounds of what you know now. Make your circles bigger, not smaller. Think more about the quality of what you do – don’t let yourself be distracted by what others are doing, saying or may not like.

Uranus is always about changing the status quo. So some of what happens now comes from what your status quo is as an individual. It’s an odd quirk that…how Uranus represents the very heart of the impersonal, the mainstream ‘idea’ as well as the individual and the need to be unique and differentiated. And one of the things this Full Moon may do is bring us to understand how both those qualities are important. In other words, if your life is out of balance you’ll find that out through things which happen or the ideas which now occur to you. And from that, you’ll begin to…you know…change. And you’ll do it because you know this is the (Moon) time to do it. You’ll do it because you know that it’s (Moon) the time to (Uranus) change and get more with an ‘individual program’ (there’s that Uranian and 25 Gemini ‘dancer’ sort of ‘trained stricture’ for you) which will get you where you want to go.

Of course as we say that, it bears reminding that ‘purely’ individualized Uranian energies can be disruptive. And that’s a fact which speaks well for that which we have planned over time, but is a little more iffy for those spur-of-the-moment things. They may be innocent enough, but will everything they touch off or which you encounter along the way be so benign, pleasant or easy?

Mind you…none of this has to be even vaguely problematic, nor does it have to be productive. With Mercury traipsing through Sagittarius there is a lot going on whether that’s in the world, in your life or merely in your head.

With Venus about to go on station in Capricorn this Full Moon moment may indicate a ‘breaking’ with what you’re doing – a stepping back, a taking your leave, a going on holiday vacation. Seeing this is Venus we’re talking about, everything which goes into the transacting of our social/societal mode is on the table now. And with Uranus in this mix, that would seem to start with suggestions about electronic banking (digital finance) as well as things like power grids, electronics in general and deeds of commerce, tracking and travel.

But it’s more than that. There’s an aura which comes with this image of the Full Moon which suggests the need for careful planning and how plans carefully played may have gone astray – and how now is the time to embark on a little reworking, refining, making sure things are working at they should, particularly at any ‘structural’ level.

And with that notion we get a few particulars which are probably best seen by starting with a chart of the Full Moon itself.

So we have Moon opposition Sun here with the Sun at 25 Sagittarius, a degree which in simplest human terms is most easily defined as our ability…and maybe our tendency to get carried away by ‘the idea of the thing,’ whether that’s personal or societal or maybe having to do with some ideal, some story, some proposal, something you’ve heard, some foreign culture or image, some body of theory or law - anything Sagittarian.

Given this, we’re either ‘dancing’ because we’re “faced” (opposed) by someone who is carried away with something… or perhaps by the results or consequences of our having gotten carried away…who knows. There will be some tendency to (Gemini) mentally isolate our (Moon-ish) selves in what we would like to (Moon in Gemini) THINK is true…and if that means we have to ‘blame’ or project onto someone else in order to square things with our Self…?

Yes, some of us will do that, much to the consternation of others who will – of course – see them as the person who is getting carried away. (See how that works?) Then again, some of us will examine our own (Moon) thinking (Gemini) in order to see what isn’t working and not whether it could work, but whether it’s likely that it will work, given ‘other’ parameters.

In other words, it’s not unlikely that some clarity or perspective which wasn’t apparent before will now crystallize. This would be very in keeping with Uranus (and therefore Uranus’ station), though the more sudden and ‘bubble-bursting’ your ‘clarity’ is, the more that will tend to ‘shatter’ (shatter being a Uranian term) some piece of your status quo.

 
Juno in Aquarius trine (blue line) the (Full) Moon at 25 Gemini asks what we have surrendered in ‘dancing’ for society. What this trine represents is a lever, with the question being whether life is controlling you and where you are or aren’t using and/or embodying your most universal appealing or ‘profitable’ attributes. Not highlighted (but certainly in this image) is the trine from Juno to Saturn at 18 Scorpio, an unfortunate notice where and if you have preserved or protected moral cowardice.

Meanwhile, the Sun is also trine Eris.

With Discordia (Eris) at 21 Aries, this brings the ‘carried away’ energetic into an unimpeachable connective with “a disturbance or shakeup” which has to do with the desire to be open (so as to be appreciated and validated) against a sensitivity which can well be detrimental and a naiveté prone to…well…getting carried away (over influenced would be another way of putting this).

Eris is in Aries. That’s personal. That’s about us. That ‘me-ness’ will surface in whatever ‘department’ of the chart 21 Aries falls in natally for you. (And if your astrology skills are up to adding in where 21 Aries falls in your solar return and current lunar return AFTER you relocate this Full Moon chart to your own town to see where the Moon falls, so much the better.)

But this is no ordinary Eris in Aries moment. (As if there is one?) No, this Full Moon has Eris in a t-square.

 
This t-square originates in Eris (in Aries), squares at Jupiter/Lilith in Cancer (which sounds like a rejection of/by others - or perhaps rejection of some factor regarding one’s family, culture or upbringing) and is ‘rewarded’ by Ceres at 17 Libra – a ‘plan’ with regards to others personal or impersonal (Libra).

And that plan involves some sort of communication – which itself is very Gemini. Said communication can be kind or snarky, loud or soft, giving or demanding. It can encompass anything. With Eris in the ‘I/Me’ sign of Aries, chances are there is a ‘need to do’ or ‘act’ involved here though there is a chance that this t-square could involve waiting until some sort of something which has been ‘denied TO you’ is made available, arrives, is delivered or…(yes!)…connects to you or communicates with you.

Or until you are willing to deal with it. Those who are in a ‘dealing with it’ position at the time of this Full Moon are particularly likely to feel restless or distracted, barring anything else. Through this time, knowing you have attended properly to the ‘basics’ that life requires of you or ‘demands’ is also important.

Note: the term ‘demands’ does NOT refer to finger wagging or deadlines, rather that which you need to do in order to keep life in decent order. You know…like turning off the bathtub faucet so you don’t cause a flood. 

(Yeah…that stuff. Mucho mundane.)

On a greater scale this t-square is, at some level, an expression of the need we all have to ‘get over ourselves’ about something. What that is? That’s up to you. On the whole though…if we deal with this Full Moon-Uranus time not so much as something so (Aries) personal as akin to a rite of human passage, we stand to benefit at least by understanding what we need to do and why we need to do it. After all, Uranus (plus) Moon on the astrological level means nothing less than ‘profitable mortal evolution.’

You know…ours.
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Jupiter Stationary-Retrogrades

Solar system image courtesy of JPL (November 2013)

Here we’re all barely in the wake of the solar eclipse a few days ago...all still trying to figure things out...when, as of November 7th at 5:04 in the morning (in the UT/+0 zone) Jupiter goes retrograde.

Did we ask it to? No. Are we in the mood for it? Maybe not. But Jupiter is going retrograde anyway. And that means (whether we like it or not) that as of now - or to be extremely persnickety about this, as of when Jupiter moved into 'station' mode - which would have been yesterday (November 5th) at about the time Venus slid into Capricorn....

...As of then (or tomorrow, depending on how much of a purist you want to be here), we have run the full course of expanding our understanding, our scope of activity, our ‘gaining of ground’ in our life as a whole.

At least for the moment - and on the outside, that is. Planets (or anything else) going retrograde indicates a shift of scope or effect, not that the principle is going dormant or anything like that.

Heaven forbid. Humans, our lives, the Existence we exist in…there’s no time ‘off’ in any of it. We continue…it continues. And as that happens, throughout the year and throughout the years there is a steady but insistent shift which pulls us back and forth between external development and internal sorting through, reordering, integrating and paring away of ‘old parts’ (of life). Jupiter is the energetic which in flowing through our lives prompts us to push beyond what we know today and to learn how to apply that we learned yesterday. Jupiter’s premise teaches there is much to learn and how learning is just a phase in what it indeed a lengthy walk which only ultimately leads to comprehension and the ability to harness power slowly, easily and ethically.

A cucumber sprouts. Like it or not, we're all - in our own way - cucumbers.

(photo credit: SaKuRa, October 2006)

The first part of Jupiter so often seems easy. The second part? Like much of the ‘follow through’ implied by life, we humans don’t seem to like the follow through part very much, if that’s the part of any given process which leads to true empowerment.

Having power means very little until you learn how to use it…is a Jupiterian idea. And it’s true as well: power lies not in the possession, but in utilization. The attempt to control things – which we are all in the thick of yet another round of learning about through that we have to (Scorpio) deal with in life – is not about building, but about maintaining as guiding is control in its active and constructive mode.

So Jupiter is now going retrograde at 20 Cancer, a degree we discussed a bit here…

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Jupiter at 20 Cancer

…and which is imaged by both the Sabian ‘price of success’ reference to cultural rewards but a set of lore threads which speaks to not just enslavement, but a need to be secured by that we are ‘enslaved’ by, be it our image, our job, the social circles we run in, our lifestyle – whatever.

Yet in going direct at 20 Cancer in this time, Jupiter is also ‘highlighting’ fixed star Castor – one of the two stars we think of as the Gemini twins. And Gemini, as you probably know by now, is all about the willingness to make a choice and follow it through. There may – under Gemini – be many choices all of which get made which all succeed so long as they all are followed through on. And since this lead us in one direction to multi-tasking and in another to priorities, where we end up with this ‘multi-part’ offering is the twin prongs of Gemini challenge.

With Jupiter going station/retrograde atop Castor, it is more than likely that we all have many ‘things’ we are attending to and we need to have priorities in dealing with them. At the same time, we also need to see them through. Whether you’re getting ready for the holidays, dealing with family, building a company or career or anything else, it’s one thing to simply say ‘I don’t have time for this’ and another thing to say ‘this isn’t easy, so I’m not going to deal with it’ or ‘I’m going to bail or take the easy way out.’

At the moment, Pholus and Ixion are across the zodiac from Gemini – specifically in opposition with Rigel, the star of the teacher, the teacher/student relationship and the student as teacher (‘grower’) of the Self which is in the process of learning more or better. This means that we are going to hear a lot about the teacher/student relationship – some for good, and some not so very much about good.

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Pholus: A Little Nasty

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Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

But this isn’t just about ‘formal’ classrooms, considering that life itself is the greatest learning process of all. Ixion and Pholus are two of the more obvious symbols having to do with ‘thinking about or for our Self’…which we would like to think is about being independent, but which far more often has to do with self-involvement or the being involved with ego and the price we pay for being so Self-oriented at various points in time and life.

THAT's more of what this station would seem to be about. The real-time choices will be there. We will have them, we will take them, we will recognize we will have to deal with ‘these’ choices for a while, even if we think (or know) they’re wrong.

Oppositions mean facing ugly or trying dynamics. So that Pholus and Ixion are not only in opposition to Rigel, Gemini’s primary totem star of learning but also in an inconjunct to Jupiter’s station.

Pholus/Ixion’s in an 8th sign (8th harmonic) derivation to Jupiter tells us that learning the hard way and needing to learn (the hard way) that life is not always about what we like is part of this period. Looking at this from the alternate perspective, Jupiter’s 6th derivation (6th harmonic relationship) to Pholus/Ixion tells us that this is also a time when we come to be aware of...or maybe even come to entirely comprehend that we have chosen certain things in life to make our lives difficult - even painful. 

And yet, that neither lessens our potential nor takes away the need to fulfill that potential to the best of our ability.

  

Okay…let’s just say that it’s easy to say ‘this is how it has to be’ and a whole lot harder to figure out whether we’re seriously short-changing someone by taking that declarative stance. And here is how that would seem to work: Cancer is the first of the water signs and thus the primal water sign. It’s about learning what emotions are, what they mean and how to handle them on all those very basic levels.

Note: I said NOTHING about this being simple. Why? Because it isn’t. If you think dealing with human emotions is simple, you aren’t dealing with them – period.

Cancerian emotionalism starts out as being purely about us. Cancer is the first of the water signs and therefore alludes to how we were first ‘patterned’ or molded my the emotions and emotional habits we encountered in early childhood. At that point we literally emulate what is going around us – maybe by copying it, and maybe by cooperating with it…and maybe both.

But now…and every time that Jupiter swings through this Castor-Pollux (20 to 23 Cancer) area of the zodiac we get to review whether that works and/or get better perspective(s) on how we learned to be someone then…and how that may or may not work for us now in our more adult life.

(Note: since Jupiter has an orbital period of just under 12 years, using an 11.5 estimate is pretty much the cycle on which Jupiter moves through this area of the zodiac. So where were you 11.5 years ago?)

Is it time to 'grow up' with regards to something? Or maybe things are happening which in their own peculiar and very special sort of way (yes, that was me being snarky) go to show us that said ‘early phase’ of life is over and how we really need a new plan for growth and a new way of relating to people as the current one is either not getting us where we want to be…or it’s only attracting the sort of people we really don’t want to have orbiting us quite so very closely.

With the Sun moving across the Scorpio cross-quarter points as Jupiter turns to retrograde on the 7th, the whole of Jupiter’s November 5th – 9th station window is about getting us to see that life is not only about what we build or what we get or get access to, it’s how we affect things. This is the sort of combination guaranteed to give us flashes of insight on how the surface world is indeed run by money and appearances…but while all that is happening, the truer connective – the energetic we all manifest as and through – is blind to everything but that which influences that connective.

You know, that ongoing conversation about Scorpio power, specifically that which is unlocked when we get past the exoskeleton to where we all are unformulated, to where more often than not, we not only don’t have backbones, we have no idea cartilage – never mind real bones – even exist.

The Scorpio-Cancer connection can teach us that even fear is a positive. If we think of fear as that thing which goads us to be aware and to use our time wisely, then we understand fear as a motivation.

The real question is whether those fears are about something real…or something we have imagined because we were taught to perceive it like that at some time in the past.

Jupiter’s turn to retrograde also occurs just a few days shy of Mercury’s station/direct (on November 10th) and Neptune’s station/direct (on November 13th). Those stations have their own integral meanings to be sure, but especially since both stations are occurring at 2 degrees of respective signs…and in part because both Mercury and Jupiter are in water signs, there is reason to think of this as a triad…or a wafting sort of overarching harmonic which will evidence through feelings and emotional gestures, decisions and…

…unfortunately…

…ineptitudes, willful delusions and plain old every day garden variety excuses.

But make no mistake here: when we see Neptune and Mercury lining up in any sense we have to think there is some illusion involved. That can be just fine, fabu and frolicsome as in ‘we’re going to Disneyland – put reality on hold!’ …or it can be the bold faced lie you tell someone – or (maybe even worse) your Self.

We’re also likely to see a lot of the squirmy stuff right now…the ‘oh, I don’t want to spoil their day.’ Or the ‘they’re already having a hard time…I shouldn’t make it harder’ stuff.

Wherever possible, canning the noblesse oblige is probably the best bet. Not the easy bet, but the more effective one. In essence, this moment is all about deciding how to move forward replete with all the ‘which’ and ‘when’ and ‘why’ questions. So while someone may not LIKE the truth you need to hand them, they’re better off dealing with the hand that bites.

Not that the hand necessarily bites them, but the news it may be passing along…? That may bite.

Given Venus’ shift into Capricorn just as Jupiter is moving to ‘open the station window’ (as it were…which is an interesting thing to think about watching from out there in space)…there are many of us who are going to be very aware of risk/loss possibilities and how to effectively get through what may be some tough sledding ahead. The Venus/Capricorn ingress will have ushered in some ‘cooling’ influences and though there is an aura of realism settling on us all, that does not (and will not) necessarily translate into stability for each and every one of us. And since about the time Jupiter goes retrograde, Venus moving through the midpoint between Neptune and Mercury gives us good reason to suspect that at least a few of us will admit (at least to ourselves) that the masterminding of our own personality and psyche is OUR job…not anyone else’s. I know there are some in society who think their ‘job’ is to not think and to be led, but that seems illogical.

(Yes, I hang out with Vulcans and inter-galactic guru types in my off hours.)

Put simply, if you aren’t willing to own you, you aren’t likely to develop much about who you are. So if you put your (under-developed) life into the hands of, or under the direction of someone else, given the 100% rule “LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE” who they fern are they? Wouldn’t that be the blind being led by those with highly advanced mental glaucoma?

Whether we are willing to see this truth or any other truth depends on how well we deal with our Jupiter (the natal one in our individual chart) and where 20 Cancer falls in that chart. It also gets down to a funny part of astrological theory I will impart before closing out for the day.

We all know the order of the solar system, more or less. And for those who have struggled with the order of the planets, my sympathies. Me too. For whatever reason, I had a very hard time knowing where Venus was for the longest time.

(Yes, I did finally commit the proper list to memory.)

The thing to remember here is that the ‘human world’ – the direct part of it – is symbolized by the Sun (our life) being the center of our life with the whole of ‘our existence’ flowing out from there. But since Saturn is the planet farthest from Earth which is visible with the unaided human eye, metaphysically that’s as far ‘out’ there as we can built – to the point where we work (Saturn) to earn (Saturn) those worldly (Saturn) achievements which give us a durable (Saturn) and lasting (Saturn) structure to stand on or operate with/through in life.

The last three of those “Saturns” by the by, could also be listed as “Saturn and/or Capricorn.”

But as soon as we build this Sun, Mercury, Venus, (Earth)Moon, Mars, Asteroid Belt, Jupiter, Saturn  pattern as the natural manner in which to see our life and the natural progression we think of life as being build on/as…then we can turn it around, you know.

Oh yes…we can indeed!

Before I get you to stand on your mental head for a moment, let’s just look at hat list in its more ‘attributable’ form:

• Sun (life)
• Mercury (thought)
• Venus (cost/reward)
• (Earth)Moon (feelings)
• Mars (motivation/action)
• AsteroidBelt (life factors)
• Jupiter (comprehension/mastery)
• Saturn (reward/achievement)

We exist (Sun) and therefore we do. We learn to consider (Mercury) what we’re doing so that we can do the parts we either like doing or need to do as they need doing (please note the genuinely natural split of rationales in the Mercurial cause!).

Then we realize that how (and how well) we do things governs – at least in part – the response or reward (Venus) we get for doing them. And that in turn generates our feelings and our emotional responses.

Voila…we have now reached the (Earth-Moon) Cancer stage of the process: the indoctrination of our character with what feels good, what feels bad and what allows us to opt out of feelings altogether – all of which can be good or bad, depending.

That is then followed by our efforts to escape (flight), defend (fight) ignore (deny) or make things into what they should be – all of which are the typical Mars responses. I’m now energized about this. What should I do about it – anything?

Considering Mars is the sole ruler of “I Am” Aries and the Scorpio ‘how and where I interact with others,’ this is the level at which the recent solar eclipse has – in part been operating to show us how what we choose to get into or not get into ‘is’ or ‘isn’t’ a developmental force in our lives, making it abundantly clear to us which parts of our life are functional and growth-oriented, and which aren’t.

The tendency will be to put all the effort into what’s going right, but that would be a mistake, since it will define us as someone who will arrive at our ‘understanding’ and Jupiterian ‘comprehension’ state…the state at which we want to move into mastery of things…in an unbalanced condition.

At that point we will either have to turn around and go BACK to the Mars stage and catch up with ourselves or we will – as many do – go on through our lives hounded by the internal knowledge that we are impaired either on the ‘human’ part of our being or on the ‘being’ part which has everything to do with doing something with our humanity, our time and the fact that we exist.

But this list – as suggested – can be seen the other way around: Saturn-Jupiter-Asteroid Belt-Mars-(Earth)Moon-Venus-Mercury-Sun. In essence, when we look at life metaphysically, we are all ‘pinging’ off Saturn. (Which helpfully has a whole bunch of moons and all those rings for us to aim at.) But at this level the question becomes akin to what was once known as the ‘Descent of the Spheres’ where the macrocosm becomes the microcosm.

And that really is what we’re describing here. When we start with the Sun we’re starting at the ‘individuality’ end of things: we are going from the microcosm of the one, the you, to All Which Is…or at least all that is in your personal world (Saturn).

But when we start with Saturn, we are looking at what your personal world is, and what it can provide for you to build on, and with. And all those premises about relationships to “planetary traits” begin to hit home when we look at things in this sort of large-to-small sort of manner. The Saturn which symbolizes time and responsibility in “regular” life, under this perspective comes to be our tendency or willingness to choose that one method of going after our (Saturn) goals which will – inevitably – reflect our own attitudes towards (in this case) responsibility.

Thus the person who cannot handle responsibility tends to pick – regardless of their own ability to recognize their issues with responsibility – other people or places to work where the hierarchy, bosses, product or whatever will also fail to embrace the full scope of Saturnine responsibility.

This will go on down through the ‘decent’ through planetary rungs…which at this point would tend to say something is in ‘flux’ with regards to ‘Things Jupiter.’

It’s impossible of course, to know where you are with your own Jupiter issues. But if things are tough right now as you think about ‘how things can move forward from here’…IF you have any sense that you are in the wrong place or dealing with the wrong people or not doing things in the order you need to do them in order to be YOU – that entirely unique individual that you are…then the next (oh, about) four months of Jupiter being in retrograde is a good time to clean up your act, starting with your most primal and primary relationships with others. This is not about the specifics of the ‘who’…this is about why you respond to one person one way and another person another way.

Our answers always like in our past in this regard. That’s simply how it works as human beings. Some things are valid for a time but terrible and detrimental if we hold onto them as habits – particularly emotional or emotionally-driven habits – for too long a time. So this isn’t about recrimination…this is about enhancing our ability to be free in our own lives. This is about the understanding that when we try to bully through life, the person we’re bullying – and being bullied by (more often than not) is our Self.

Self-sacrifice is only okay when it’s a gift consciously given. Yet even then, we must make sure that the reason we are making that sacrifice is worthy of our inhibition.

That can be a very complicated question indeed, a quest which is only wrong when we refuse to care enough to understand.

When we refuse to learn or comprehend the fullness of the implications of our choices all becomes very dark indeed in spite of whatever 'bright spots' we choose to focus on. Inevitably they become too small or too lacking in illumination for who we really are, as the light which needs to be shined on that life...our life...comes from understanding that no matter how great the burden, there is a reason to carry it and a reason to carry through on it, for even the worst beginnings can be made to serve a better purpose.

That's something I happen to know about. So I'll suggest it's worth thinking through. That which we feel 'cursed' by is often the very energetic we need to confront, for in the confronting and in the managing of that confrontation comes the truest harnessing of Self - and thus the key which allows us to unlock our truest power and become that human most beautiful.

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