Chiron’s Station: Check Point Critical

 Shivering Girl with a Blue Ring by Jozself Rippi-Ronai (1916, pastel on paper)

I got into an email conversation about Chiron just the other day. Here’s an excerpt…

Chiron (at it’s basic process level) is about mastering our own instincts, good, ill, selfish and altruistic. And the thing to remember is that the centaur’s body joins the human genitalia to the horses heart. (At least until they got Disney-zied in “Fantasia”.) So here’s the question: will we rise above our ‘animal instincts’ which so ‘beat’ within us as a force of life? Or not?

The optimal with Chiron is to understand how to combine our animal (instinctive) skill and strength with our mind in harnessing ourselves and our life and our abilities to the service of some truth. That we know from Chiron having been the student of Apollo (enlightenment – the light which comes from the Sun/life). Apollo was the god of truth, enlightenment, music, art and medicine. Of these, he taught Chiron – his first protégé - only medicine. That says something about Chiron (and all centaurs – mythic and in the chart) too. Apollo, in making this choice, prioritized the healing of our divisions...the reality and the projection, which brings us to the saying ‘healer, heal thyself.’

Chiron failed this test. When push came to shove he gave in to his animalistic instincts and was killed. The lesson for us is that when we know better, we should do better and hold ourselves to that.

This wonderful sculpture of Chiron instructing Achilles by Rinaldo Rinaldi (c 1817 housed in Venice, Italy) shows the original centaur construct - the human body being merged with that of the horse's power at the horse's heart and the human's genitals. (How much more poignant than that does it get?)

The 'centaurs' out there in our solar system (and thus in astrology) are all variations on comets. Comets like Comet Halley and Thatcher take anywhere between 75 and 415 years to go once through their cycles. But the centaurs all originate from a place which is far closer in towards the Sun - and even more interesting than that (at least to this brain) is the fact that centaur orbits aren't precisely governed by the Sun - they're governed by planets. So when we talk about centaurs, in metaphysical terms we need to think not in terms of 'life' as a whole ('life' is symbolized by our Sun), but rather in terms of the planets the centaur metaphorically 'connects' as a cyclic facet which is specifically representative of the combination of planets which affect (govern) that centaur's orbit.

At the outermost point in its orbit, Chiron plays something close to solar sytemic footsie with Uranus. So we know that Chiron 'brings' to us - or represents - some change, need for change, some sort of breakthrough...or the urge to cut and run. With Uranus, many of the changes and discoveries timed out by transits are sudden and startling, whether they're devastating or delightful.

But unlike comets like Halley (which come all the way into the inner solar system) Chiron only comes 'in' to around 8 AU - which when you consider that Mars' outermost orbital point is at around 1.6 astronomical units (AUs) isn't all that close. In point of fact, Chiron only comes to a point just inside the orbit of Saturn - meaning it doesn't come in as far as Jupiter.

So are we surprised that Chiron is known as something we need to do (Saturn = effort) without really 'knowing' (Jupiter) how to do it until we do it?

Chiron forces us to go just beyond the very edge of what we conceive of (Jupiter) knowing. And in doing so, it teaches us what we are capable of (Saturn) achieving - which for many a person is a huge discovery.

And yes, maybe a relief. When we realize we can get through and achieve without having 'known' how to do it going in, we feel strangely (Uranus) liberated and freed in some way which isn't connected to all the 'should's and long term planning.

In other words, we have willed ourselves to undertake and (Saturn) master the task presented without guide rails, hand book or training.

That is utterly Saturn-Uranus. And the willing ourselves part is entirely in keeping with the mythic centaurs, who all had a problem with keeping themselves under control. Thus in parallel, the challenge with any centaur, be it Chiron, Pholus, Asbolus, Nessus, Typhon or whichever, involves using the energy knowingly for a good purpose.

The enemy of a centaur was their impulsiveness, occasional disastrous carelessness and their tendency to be completely driven by overblown emotional urges.

Could that possibly be (ahem!) true of us too? 

(I'm thinking yes. Alas, but yes.)

  This diagram is just a little misleading in that it appears that Chiron's outer orbital reach

 goes beyond Uranus, where in reality, while Chiron does come fully inside Saturn's closest

approach to the Sun, Chiron's outermost reach (it's 'aphelion point') is within the inner-and-outer

(perihelion and aphelion) orbital range of Uranus.

So what does this mean for us as Chiron goes retrograde at 13 Pisces come 9:17 in the morning on June 16th? Pisces being the sign all about our internal ability (read: willingness) to adapt to realities – as opposed to the ‘what we’d like to be true’ parts of life, Chiron’s turn to retrograde suggests that we’ll be experiencing less external prodding which provokes our Piscean debates and more reasons to be a bit more challenged by why we adapt… or why we don’t adapt… and what it is in us (or our belief system) which keeps us from accepting life’s realities simply for what they are.

So many folks have such a hard time dealing with life. Those having a hard time rail about not knowing how to fix things while those for whom things are pretty good don’t want to ‘see’ anything which would cause them to feel much that they’ve tried to protect themselves (or their families) against.

Who are we really afraid of? Probably our Self - and all our Self needs to feel and understand and accept in order to grow into a fuller, most human if universal form. 

Neptune’s years-long passage through Pisces is going to erode whatever defenses we try to put up. And that – in time – is probably going to force us...singularly and by family, by community, by profession, by nation...to recognize how much more we all have in common with others (even those we think are ‘not like us’) than not.

Thinking through how our solar system is organized (as every smaller concentric orbital rings) there is both the idea that our life – the Sun at the center of our ‘life system’ – grows outward. And as we do that, forces from beyond our personal life reach (as represented by Saturn, that being the last planet we can see with our unaided eyes)…those forces shape the world around us – that which we have to work with, and the challenges that we face.

So here we are. Mercury is heading towards a station on June 26th in Cancer, which elevates our emotional sensitivity, to some degree our reactivity, and the need to think plans through as we begin to construct more of the life we want to have. We know that the days leading up to any Mercury station tend to feel a bit rushed. Some things end naturally. Some things move on to a ‘next phase’ which will take some time to work out. Plus there’s a marked tendency to feel frustrated with whatever isn’t coming to fruition as quickly as we’d like. Or as we might have anticipatedon some pre-established schedule.

In honor of Cancer (today's Mercury and a soon-to-be tomorrow's Jupiter ingress) here's a

grand sort of photo of the Crab Nebula as taken by the Chandra Telescope in x-ray, radio and infrared

(photo credit: NASA, JPL Chandra, February 2006)

MakeMake has just moved into direct motion, so not only do we have some feeling that we need to ‘make things happen’ but life is bringing new things to the surface - in life and in our consciousness. And while all this is happening, expansive and ‘expansionary’ Jupiter is moving through the last degrees of Gemini. As this post goes up on the 15th, Chiron is already on station as Jupiter enters 27 Gemini – the degree which in opposition to the Galactic Center stirs up a lot of issues having to do with our relationship to the world around us. The “GC” (as the Galactic Center is known generally among astrologers) is a point which represents where we ‘contribute to the process.’ Sagittarius being about ‘how well things work’ (“application of information” and “viability of choices” seem two apt ways to put it) Jupiter at the opposition point can either represent the sinkhole or the jackpot, whether that’s mental, financial or experiential.

Before another week passes, Jupiter will have reached 29 Gemini. And that’s not just a really quick transit for such a massive planet (in our solar system Jupiter is second only to the Sun in size) but we can expect that to represent quick moving events, and things which ‘blow up’ quickly. Literally or figuratively, whether exciting or dismaying, this doesn’t seem to portend a settled time.

Chiron going retrograde on June 16th with Jupiter sitting in opposition to the GC in the zodiac’s chief sign of mentality may well manifest as a moment of critique – hence my calling this post “Check Point Critical.” Whether we’re doing due diligence as a matter of course or being ‘given notice’ of some problem or gap in our plans, it would be natural to take things either too seriously or not seriously enough.

Oppositions always represent balance points. And to have Chiron’s station occurring as Jupiter and the Galactic Center ask us to ‘balance’ what we’re doing, what we’re aiming at, how we’re going about living our life and all such suggests that many of us will find that we’ve either failed to ‘rise above’ our more base or basic instincts (or instinctual allegiance to something we’ve been taught) or that we’ve been all mind and not enough heart.

But while we’re doing that, it may be useful to think through what we know about 13 Pisces. The Sabian for this degree is ‘a lady wrapped in a large stole of fox fur’ which astrologer Dane Rudhyar has a very interesting interpretation of. Rudhyar points out that the symbol is about fox fur, and that foxes have long been regarded as clever and cunning creatures. To ‘wrap’ ourselves, he says, in a ‘fox fur’ is to try to garb ourselves or adopt a mask which is – again – animalistic and thus instinctive, and here used to protect the lady’s ‘soft’ flesh.

An orbital diagram of Chiron as of June 15, 2013

(courtesy of JPL) 

So given that this is Chiron we’re talking about, is this a restatement of the Jupiter opposition to the Galactic Center ‘framed’ so as to point out that the issue is really our willingness to feel vulnerable without some Gemini, Sagittarian or Piscean ‘mask’?

All three of these signs are mutable, which is to say they represent a process of learning which is incremental – an idea which in itself can be seen as an ‘echo’ (of sorts) of the native Piscean strength, that of eternal adaptability, in the form of a vulnerability?

This brings us to what may be the ultimate Piscean quandary. If there’s one thing people aren’t good at, it’s not knowing. By and large we’d rather believe a lie than not know – or to have some basic concept of how life works be proven invalid.

Yet ultimately, the Piscean lesson is to accept. This is not about accepting what we are ‘handed,’ it’s about accepting that we are who we are supposed to be, give or take our willingness to balance mind against heart, instinct against intellect and to create light through metaphorical fusion, not metaphysical fission as the difference between self-destruction and becoming a vessel of light.
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Mercury enters its Shadow

The image of Mercury used here is from a photo taken

by NASA's Mariner spacecraft.

  
It’s an interesting testimony to how human life functions…ask any astrologer and they’ll tell you that they get more questions about Mercury retrogrades than anything else.

And those questions tend to come in two varieties…the ‘when is it going to start?’ question which comes with an expression of concern, and the ‘when is it going to end?’ inquiry which more often than not is liberally coated in frustration or angst.

But it does make sense. After all, Mercury is the symbol of our mentality, and humans are think-a-lot critters. Even when we’re not thinking about what we should be thinking about, we’re thinking!

Retrograde shadows have applications when we talk about any planet or asteroid, which here we have to reference in purely technical terms as the Sun and Moon, though known as ‘planets’ in the astrological sense, never go retrograde.

Still, never in all my years of studying astrology have I ever had anyone ask me when the Uranus shadow is going to begin. Or when Neptune is going to exit it’s shadow. Having looked at such things (I’m such a curious creature!) I’d vote for discussions of Neptune as being perhaps the most interesting. And yes, perhaps perplexing.

But then, that would be Neptunian, wouldn’t it?

The idea of a retrograde shadow is that it describes an arc or ‘umbrella’ under which certain events happen, are on your mind, on your plate to be taken care of, or when you’re trying like the dickens to get them done, but for whatever reason they get held up. Maybe you don’t have all the information. Or maybe you’re having to wait on someone else before you move on.

This shadow-retrograde-direct-shadow process has become famous, almost infamous with people – so much so that people seem to think Mercury’s retrogrades are the do-all, end-all of astrological functionality. But that’s not exactly true. That you might think it’s true is more or less all about how you think…and THAT’s Mercury.

So don’t blame the retrograde, okay? In fact, don’t blame anyone – just think it over. That, Mercury retrograde periods (complete with shadows) are very good for. Asking questions, considering choices, doing research, preparing something which you will move forward with as Mercury either goes direct or exits its shadow (either may be appropriate)…the process and seeing to the ‘propriety and efficient effectiveness’ of what you’re doing or taking time to read (or think through) life’s ‘fine print’ is the Mercurial thing – not whether you do or don’t do.

Now with that said, there are certain things lore tells us are not advisable to do under Mercury retrograde: signing contracts, tendering or responding to marriage proposals (a different sort of ‘contract’), buying cars, phones, computers, sneakers – anything to do with the transporting or communicating of you or your ideas is a ‘Mercury thing.’

The 'date diagram' for this round of Mercury retrograde.

HOWEVER….the real issue is whether what you’re doing is the ‘end of the line’ – or whether you are dead set on the choice du jour being the end of the line as you make some sort of Mercury choice. It was pointed out to me long ago by a qualified astrological type that there are those who buy houses for the purpose of flipping them under Mercury retrograde. And that’s a perfect example of a contract which - providing you read it, do the numbers and leave proper contingencies and all such (you know, the common sense stuff) – may be perfectly okay to sign under Mercury retrograde.

Why? Because the purpose of the contract is not to create permanence.

I’ll give you another example: a Certain Member of My Family (who shall go unnamed here) has a knack for taking jobs under Mercury retrograde. But the job they take, which is to say that particular position, never lasts. Either there’s a mutual parting of the ways at the end of the standard probationary period in this person’s profession OR they get offered a different and better position once they’re inside the organization and Ye Olde Honchos can see their true native aptitudes for themselves.

Another Mercury fallacy: nothing can be ‘in the works under Mercury retrograde or it’ll be done wrong.’ Not true. Let’s say you’re a hot rod enthusiast and you want your car totally tricked out and given a paint job to make Michelangelo jealous. PROVIDING the designs and the bids and all that has been comfortably (that’s the key word here) gone through with no rush involved prior to the beginning of retrograde, your waiting while the paint-and-body wizards do their thing under Mercury retrograde would be totally apt.

Processing per se, is fine under Mercury retrograde provided that no one has ‘rushed’ to get things under way.

And that’s the issue with the shadow. Especially as the date of retrograde (June 26th) approaches, people are likely to feel rushed. That’s when you don’t want to push things. And yes, you are likely to feel pressure – everybody does prior to Mercury’s station/retrograde point, and that too is about your mentality. LIFE is not suddenly becoming more pressured…life is asking you how well you deal with mental pressure.

Think of it as a ‘leak test’ for your brain. If there is a leak, the added pressure of Mercury nearing its retrograde station will cause a blow-out.

Mercury is all about making sure we keep ourselves and our lives in order. So things which you want to do can get jumbled up with things you need to do or which you should do (but maybe don’t want to) and that’s where Mercury retrograde brings in the snafus, bollixes and breakdowns which everybody knows is about their not having done what they should have done in the order it needed doing.

Hey, blame it on the planet, you say?

More precisely, such issues would be blamed on the orbital relationship between Earth and Mercury, as it’s the relative difference in speeds and orbital positions around the Sun which causes Mercury retrograde (or any other retrograde) to begin with.

But noooooooo…! We don’t want to DO that, do we? If we did that, we’d be taking responsibility for the fact that Mercury retrograde is all about OUR relationship to the world and to our mental willingness to cope with the various vacillating vagrancies of life…which is all about our mentality.

Like I said as I started this chat…Mercury retrograde is not about what happens in life – it’s about how we mentally cope with what happens.

Or don’t cope, depending.

This particular retrograde is part of a giant long epic (and Mercurial) transit of Cancer. Beginning on May 31st, Mercury is going to be in Cancer until August – a goodly long time for us to deal with all our most personal and native issues.

Or not – again, depending. But since Cancer is all about the many ways our native experience of our own emotionality functions, we are likely to experience and be confronted with many a situation which tangles our habits, challenges our priorities and points out the cracks in our mental foundation.

Or which points the way. It does sort of all depend on how you use this time. And as always, as we of the astrological ilk say, you can use the time…or have the time use you.

 Another way to visualize the process....

One other thing to bear in mind here, and that’s the idea that Jupiter will be entering Cancer on the day that Mercury goes retrograde. Call it a recipe for flipping life’s pancakes or the brewing of change – call it anything you like. But in this thought process, the one about the shadow leading into Mercury’s retrograde, the primal importance of Jupiter reaching Cancer on June 26th (as Mercury goes retrograde) is that Jupiter will be mushing it’s giant red self through twenty-nine critical degrees of Gemini during those very days which are likely to feel pressured anyway.

That amps the issue ten-fold, at least!

Gemini being Mercury’s primary mental (as opposed to functionality) sign of rulership, we’re likely to experience some ‘overblown’ Jupiterian decisions or thoughts our outbursts or choices during this time. Some of us – to be sure – will achieve great things now based on having come to a time of achievement or culmination naturally through prior or previous diligent step-by-step effort.

But let’s be real: this is a recipe for haste, so think before you speak and look (both ways) before you leap, walk, or take anything for granted!

This may be a really interesting time for many of us. Mercury-Jupiter can be a great force for learning, even if not all the lessons are exactly what we might want to be learning at the moment. Jupiter’s association with the media, with justice, with ‘things foreign’ (to us, anyway) fit well with Mercurial dynamics. And with Mercury in Cancer and Jupiter leaving Gemini for Cancer, topics like where or how we live, national populations, family and culture and our native regard for land and life all come up as nominations for personal – and group experiences.

Whatever happens, evidently we need to learn it now so that we can have a bigger, more knowledgeable tomorrow…which I guess amounts to ready, set, know! 
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Dateblog: April 2013

If you look at the April monthly diagram, you’ll see one color dominating the scene – a bright sunny yellow signifying Aries.

(Oh - and thanks for the emails and comments letting me know you like the bar charts!)
 
Among astrologers, there’s a joke about Aries being the sign of ‘first person perpendicular’ – in other words, “I.” That joke makes total sense if you think of Aries as the sign of ‘I Am,’ but maybe a little less sense when we think of the Aries modality – the nature of Aries activity, which is cardinal. Aries is a sign which is all about DOING. And since by element Aries is a fire sign, we know Aries as a sign all about the vision, the ideal, the possibility.

Put it all together and you have Aries as the sign of what I can become. Or an ability to see what you can do if you put your Aries muscle into it.

Yes, Aries is a sign which tends to be a little egotistical and a little prone towards getting into debates replete with butting heads on any of a number of subjects.


But the argument can’t be the object. Winning – or winning through - can’t be the object. It’s that vision, the why you try which means everything with Aries. If you’re a prince, yes, you do want to slay the dragon. But you want to slay the dragon not for the sake of dragon-slaying, but so that your kingdom is protected. So that you can go home and, having learned what it takes to fight and risk and defend that you believe in, invest your Self (to the hilt, one might say!) in that world you’ve protected in order to make something of it…and of yourself.

So what are our challenges? Well, there is the need to temper ourselves (and our tempers) so that we aren’t SO into our own goals that we’re totally obnoxious to live with. And as part (or apart) from this, we will have a first half of April with Mercury in Pisces (purple) and Jupiter (beige) in Gemini – which is a recipe for not thinking things through…or learning the cost of not having thought things through prior to now.

This would also be a classic time to speak out of turn. Or say too much. Or become overly aggressive or defensive-aggressive. Or even evasive.

There’s also a little factor here that involves Mercury passing through Pisces as Neptune (also in Pisces) connects with Fomalhaut, that famous royal star which rewards us where we’ve been very, very good…and which unseats us where we have done anything shady, dishonest, or otherwise emotionally corrupt. As a pairing, Mercury-Neptune is known for lying and representing liars or lies. So with Mercury/Jupiter eliciting all the qualities of standing on our own tongues (or shooting ourselves in the foot, if you prefer), this is a time when we should first and foremost be careful about keeping our own slate clean.

And others? Well, this would be the time to find out that others are not the peachy types we thought they were. And yes, if (make that ‘when’) things surface, you’ll be tempted to blame that ‘other party.’
 
But don’t. At least not totally. Yes, they may be crumbs, but remember – your disappointment is all about the expectation or whatever self-illusion/delusion quotient you have cloaked yourself in up until now. Call it a case of celestial ‘buyer beware’…this is a time for being very sure of who you’re dealing with and that people really are who they say they are.

Or aren’t.

The good news here is that all is not lost, even in the most difficult situations. Some losses cannot be made whole, true. But Pluto’s going retrograde at 11 Capricorn on April 12^th tells us that the first part of April is greatly about personal structure, individual capacity, and whether we own our Self (fully) and our sense of life consequences.

If things are difficult now, try and work them through. If the ‘other party’ will not discuss things, wait a while. There is a Solar Eclipse coming up on May 10^th, which means the whole of April is enfolded in that Eclipse’s ‘breakdown’ period. Your situation in your life…and whatever the ‘joint’ situation means in that ‘other party’s life are two separate experiences of this upcoming 19 Taurus eclipse. Life is trying to tell you that something needs letting go of. The ‘size’ or ‘importance’ of this issue (and its nature) would be told by whether your chart is aspected directly by 19 Taurus, with hard aspects (the Taurus conjunction, the Leo or Aquarius square, the Sagittarius or Libra inconjunct and Scorpio opposition) being more rather than less in the ‘target zone.’

Once we get past April 15^th (income tax day in the United States – hello?) energies shift. Some planets (like Venus, which is first to enter Taurus) are very good in Taurus, picking up more or less easily on the Taurean desire to just be satisfied with life. The Sun can be good or bad in Taurus, depending on how happy you are with yourself. And with Mercury moving into that First Person sign of Aries as Venus moves into Taurus, we can expect people to be doing a lot of self assessment or development of plans they have for the future, particularly as the Sun and Mars enter the sign of the bull (or just plan ‘the sign of bull!’) on the 19^th and 20^th respectively.

Mars in Taurus is known to manifest as feelings of frustration. With Saturn retrograde in the opposing sign of Scorpio, things could get explosive, especially around April 25 when we’ll be treated (if that’s the word!) to a Lunar Eclipse at 5 Scorpio.

**An American Event Note**

April 25^th is the date of the dedication for the GW Bush Presidential Library in Dallas.Maybe it’s karma, and certainly nobody asked me, but had they asked me I wouldn’t have picked this date - not necessarily in the specific sense, but in terms of the greater 'life' of the Library.

5 Scorpio is a degree known for actions and activities which can often be typified as “good energy after bad.” With Saturn and Mars involved directly in this lunar eclipse, we are being given a recipe for high tension, vast amounts of contention and intransigent unwillingness to hear anything but what you want to hear.
 
Of course there is another possible side to this eclipse. For those who have worked hard and whose efforts are worthy of attention, support or reward, this would be a time to get good news.

For those whose charts are not directly aspected by this Lunar Eclipse, you’ll probably hear someone in your personal world or on the news who is ‘owning’ this moment. And maybe that will key you to make a move.

This is a good time for planning, working through options and self-development. Not wasting our opportunities is important, but so is our productive use of time, personal abilities and individual resources. Thinking long term and being honest with ourselves may bring some (maybe even many) of us to the realization that certain things, positions or attitudes we’ve invested in over quite a long time have to be let go of.
 
But what’s our choice – to continue doing the thing that doesn’t work?
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Jupiter Inconjunct Saturn, Neptune conjunct Fomalhaut

 The above is created from four separate images of fixed star Fomalhaut (rear)

Neptune (blue), Saturn and Jupiter (foreground), all of which were produced

by NASA, JPL, ESA, and various space telescopes.

The update on the ‘Habamus Tempus?’ (Do we have a birth time?) question with regards to Pope Francis: Yes! We now do have the Pope's birth time.

As predicted (the easy part) once the Pope was elected the search is on. And a couple of days ago one of my astrologer friends wrote to say he’d seen a time posted on line.

Then he wrote back to say he’d found a second time posted online. (No, they didn’t match.)

Then he wrote back to say that a birth certificate was soon to be posted, which being American and thoroughly tired of the ‘birther’ debate made me cringe.

This whole hoo-ha of different times and such, and various people going after them is very Gemini. And the plethora of ideas on the subject, rather Jupiter in Gemini – as is the fact that the whole subject is something people are talking about.

Of course the official (Saturn) solid answer would be the thing to want and (Saturn) wait for patiently. Anything else would seem to be hard to (Scorpio)trust.

So as I write, I just got another email from my astro-pal saying that the birth certificate data has been posted and so yes, I can now say…HABAMUS TEMPUS!

(Excuse the bad Latin, please…)

Pope Francis I (then Cardinal Jorge M Bergoglio)

(photo credit: Aibdescalzo, September 2008)

So with that now in hand I gaze at the blog schedule (read: my computer calendar) and realize there’s all sorts of time-sensitive things begging to be posted. And there is always the issue of sitting down with the Pope’s chart and doing the diagnostics, after which I need to write it all up, create the diagrams – all that stuff. And of course the astrologer has to eat and sleep and deal with the irregularities of regular life.

Bottom line: I promise we’ll have the Pope Francis post posted before American tax returns are due.

How’s that for pithy?

Moving on, a little commentary about my cousin, the ever-busy Ms. T. She called this week, confessing she’s had a serious case of planets in Pisces and that she’s just now ‘resurfacing.’ More to the point for this post, she told me that she’s doing this and that and getting things ready for taxes (speaking of taxes) and tending to family matters and conversations at an ever-increasing rate – (shades of Jupiter in Gemini) but that nothing seems to actually be getting (Saturn in Scorpio) done.

She soldiers on. And as someone who gets tired just listening to all she does, I salute her.

This same sort of dogged doing, but not completing seems to be pervasive. I could take this comparison into politics by bringing up the current news focus on Syria. Everybody knows that bad things are going on in Syria, and that they’re probably getting worse. But no one knows for sure what the facts are.

All of these quests and questions are very Jupiter inconjunct Saturn. Saturn in Scorpio is always about ‘how it will work’ in some venue or sense which is beyond being just about us. So it’s not a decision, per se. Scorpio is a public, worldly and interactive sign. So there’s something which we are ‘interacting with’ in trying to get our Jupiter in Gemini heads straight about it. Or we’re trying to ‘expand’ our understanding to include it or (as they say) wrap our minds around it.

In the process, there will be paths towards the goal and there will be byways and diversions. That’s one of the qualities of an inconjunct. Jupiter and Saturn are always about ‘building’ something. And in this case, we all seem to be trying to build some sort of information base on which to proceed. But we’re at a place or a state in the process where we have to figure out how to get to whatever it is which we can work with.

That’s an inconjunct. Specifically, a 6th house (or 6th harmonic) inconjuncts. Being an 150 degree aspect, an inconjunct is ‘one sign off’ a direct opposition, which could be ‘off’ to either side. Remembering that we always count counterclockwise around any horoscope (or zodiac) wheel, that means we either count six signs or eight signs to arrive at either inconjunct.

The eight sign aspect is ‘Scorpio-ish’ in that it asks what’s worth what, and if we want to continue being involved and what it will take to be involved (and are we willing to risk that).

The sixth sign aspect is ‘Virgo-ish’ in that it asks ‘how to’ get at the thing. Or it may ask what we think we might want to try to do about a thing. Or whether the thing works or is workable.

With global transits (as opposed to personal transits which have your personal chart as the “bedrock”) the faster-moving planet is always ‘applying’ it’s energy to the slower moving planet. So here, Jupiter in Gemini is doing the inconjunct, and thus it represents our trying to find out what the truth is, what the information is, how to grapple with the problem…and the problem is represented by Saturn in Scorpio, the taxes, the national crisis, the life or death or birth matter, or maybe for you it’s how to cope with debt. Or how to deal with an intimate relationship which is confounding your understanding for reasons you can’t quite place.

Or maybe it’s just trying to own up to your own failings or vulnerabilities.

What I’m trying to say is that this would be natural time for all such things to be happening. And as Jupiter perfects its inconjunct to Saturn on March 24th at 2:53 in the morning UT/+0 time, we can take heart in the idea that what we’re dealing with is at some level what we should be dealing with, replete with the challenging ourselves with all the puzzles and frustrations and reflections which go with any inconjunct.

That this happens as Neptune is inching into position to perfect its conjunction with Fomalhaut on Tuesday the 26th…does that make things any better or worse?

Not worse, but I’ll go for ‘confusing.’ Or ‘nebulous.’ Or ‘ill defined.’ Or disturbing, scary or evocative in a way you’re just not quite comfortable with.

Neptune in Pisces is about emotional challenges. To whatever degree we aren’t being realistic or dealing with the ‘realities of reality as it exists’ (and not as we’d like it to exist in our hearts, heads or other parts) Neptune in Pisces presents moments, situations and (yes) realities which tend to shatter us at whatever level.

A rather imposing statue of the god Neptune aptly seated at the top

of a fountain amidst its play of waters

(photo credit: Manfred Bruckels, 2005)

Yes, you can deny the truth. But you’ll still know there is ‘a truth’ out there and in your heart of heart you’ll know you’re trying to ‘substitute’ some truth you like or you think you “should” want for the real one.

(And good luck with that.)

And in the end, the Saturn message is this: deal with reality. And Neptune’s message is: do the right thing and do it right, lest you be disappointed that life’s realities respond wrongly.

To put it succinctly, this pairing (Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces) is karma on the hoof. And as if you didn’t already know, karma is the biggest bitch in the universe.

On this score, this is either a time to experience karma or to set ourselves up for karma to come, or when we will so imbed yourself in a situation that come what may, once Jupiter moves into Cancer come late June we won't be able to escape that tottering avalanche of difficulty we’ve stacked up for ourselves.

This IS a time to clean house. Particularly our life-house. Neptune perfecting its conjunction with Fomalhaut amidst all sorts of things which are unresolved but otherwise right-there-in-our-way (or maybe in our face) is nature’s way of trying to get us all to face those painful choices which aren’t what we “want” to deal with as a reality, but which we will be better off facing as a reality, no matter what comes of the question down the line.

And this isn’t just the surface quality we’re talking about. It’s the underlying (emotion-driven) one.

Me, I’ve had a big week all about letting go of people in my life. One person I dearly care for and care about, and still I had to call them on their inability to apologize.

And what is that? To make amends where you hurt someone, being unwilling to discuss what’s happened in simple, plain words owning the truth of a situation without excuses and debate – what is so hard about that?

Oh yes...I forgot. It's that ego thing.

Well fortunately there's a cure for ego. In the big cosmic world of astrology it's called Neptune conjunct Fomalhaut.

I’m natively very into communication – I’m a writer. (Surely you’ve noticed, right?) And as someone born with Sun conjunct Fomalhaut I have seen and experienced the harm a lack of standards can inflict. I’ve get critiqued for standing up for others but to me, thinking that letting the world crumble so long as inside your own home all is gilded makes no sense. Look at history and you’ll see that the periods which have had people locked into a ‘so long as I get mine, I don’t care’ mentality precede times of chaos.

I also tend to think this is one of those factors which (among other things) makes being a parent really hard. As a parent you can’t devote yourself entirely to your children. You have to care about the world. Why? Of course you’re setting an example. But beyond that, what kind of a world are you going to leave those cherished children of yours?

A lovely real-life example of the proverbial garden gate which in

the philosophical sense leads to whatever it is which gives us pleasure

or a sense of comfort or 'being at home with ourselves'...but  the serenity of

which depends on our being willing to care for and repair that which is

inside our 'garden' as well as outside that gate, for our garden always

depends on the greater world it exists in.

(photo credit: Eptalon, February 2006)

Simply put, when we retreat inside our garden gates (or home, or family, or “community”) and ignore everything ‘out there’ we allow all those who are operating ‘out there’ to do as they please.

And thus the world becomes tougher…which causes more people to build higher walls and retreat behind those.

And as they do, the world grows ever more problematic.

Neptune/Fomalhaut is a dissolving of those walls. So we can either acknowledge and begin to grapple with the problems in our world, our community, our lives, our head or our soul...or we can suffer the fear of what happens when we think we can't adjust.

You know, grow.

That with Neptune/Fomalhaut we are getting this inconjunct from Jupiter-Saturn brings the ‘outer world’ into the general construct. So this can be a time when we can begin thinking anew about how to grow our world and make it more effective. Through finding the chinks in our understanding or knowledge of methodologies we can improve our lives and the world those lives are being lived in.

As challenging as an inconjunct can be (and yes, they can be a giant ouch) inconjuncts somehow always bring us hope that the very problems and difficulties being now revealed may be the answer to bigger issues. Whether the issue is strictly how we're seen by others or how we see others or how we see ourselves, with the Neptune/Fomalhaut showing up of the spots on our mental windows comes an aura of grace through the very insistence that we do face whatever our issues are.

So though things may be trying, or frustrating, or daunting, or disenchanting, there is a sense which most everybody seems to be feeling that this is a time to be feeling these things - simply because there is a time and place for everything and this is the moment for experiencing our trials against our inspirations and all the nebulous comparisons in-between.

There is a quality of veils falling away or being brushed aside now which allows us to better hear our higher calling. It isn't just clergy who get called - many, if not most of us are. It may be to your profession, it may be to something you know you need to deal with inside yourself. Amidst the imbalance of this moment is an awareness that we can move the fulcrum.

And that's all we need to know - that we can indeed create balance in our lives if we're willing to open our hearts to the possibilities that things in our life really do need changing. 

Oh, those times they are a'changing. Even the nature of what balance means is now shifting - at least to us. We are entering a new era, a new age of how to think. And it applies to everything we do with and in our lives. 

In the Age of Pisces, the typified ‘one person does one thing, the other person does the other’ and all forms of stereotypical ‘typing’ – whether by gender or age or economic strata or ‘life career’ preference (which includes homemaking) or religion, they were all ‘fit’ together to balance each other out. That is the image of the two fish swimming in opposite directions connected by an immutable, golden cord.

But the Age of Pisces is ending. For all general purposes it has ended except that there are plenty of us around (that’s me holding up my hand!) who were born under it’s last fishy gasps and splashes.

In the Age of Aquarius, that ‘balance’ is more internal. It still has two parts - the person (the working with the idea or within 'confines') and the water - the 'outpouring.'

And considering that whether emphasized or not every chart includes all 30 degrees of Aquarius, that has to be part of each one of us and part of each person's life.

And the life of society, with success (an Aquarian astro-concept) pictured rather well in this image from the old Mercator globe as being when the 'outpouring' of Aquarius 'feeds' the Piscean 'universal chord' - which applies here in particular because Saturn is the foundational ruler of Aquarius. When it comes to success, the work, the structure and how well ideas 'work' is what ultimately create the 'quality' of that success which when 'poured out' either appeal or detract from our appeal to others.

Capricorn (at the left), Aquarius (center top), and Pisces (at the end of the

'Aquarian 'river'), all from the Mercator globe

(image in public domain) 

Part of this we already see in the upswing of fathers being more involved in the home and women balancing children and career. For some, this ‘balancing’ of home and outside-the-home or the ‘calling’ and the stuff your soul defines as ‘optional’ will be a life-long balancing act. For others – like Ms T, my lovable cousin – this will be doing one thing…then learning to do the other later and down the road. She’s one of the many who chose to have children first and now she’s developing a ‘career life.’ And that’s totally valid – as valid as doing both at once.

So what’s the hard part? The hard part is making the adjustment.

Going back to my own ‘this week in the life’ I had to walk away from one person (who may or may not still want to talk) and deal with another person who is ‘walking away’ simply because they’re moving away – and they definitely are open to remaining friends.

Both feel like a loss, and if nothing else, those feelings of loss are my emotions having to adjust to the (Gemini) idea of being without one or both of these people as part of my life. The one person has violated my trust but I’m willing to discuss it. I am willing to adjust my (Scorpio) trust through (Gemini) conversation and (Jupiter) grow not just myself but the relationship, and my understanding of relationship (Saturn) through such a discussion.

Whether or not this person responds, I have established this bedrock with myself. If they don’t respond, Saturn is the ‘I’m not going any farther’ in this conversation. If they do respond, then we both get an opportunity to grow our Saturn-in-Scorpio skills with regards to how to find ways through thorny relationship patches.

And from my other friend (the one moving out of my city) I learn a lesson about life as an evolution and evolutionary force. That gives me perspective on why I do what I do and why there are still things I want to do in this life…

…such as sharing these thoughts with you.
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A Virgo Full Moon: The Cost of Consciousness

A Full Moon over Old Square in Ljubljana, Slovena

(photo credit: Vid Gajsek, 2012, public domain)

This month's Full Moon will occur on February 25th at 8:27 in the evening (UT/+0) at 7 Virgo.

The idea of the Full Moon is a funny one in that there are so many directions you can go with it as a metaphysical symbol. Some astrologers (and nature or natural spiritualists) think of the Full Moon entirely as an emblem of ‘peak moments’ or ‘fulfillment.’ Others speak of the Moon in a more astronomically-interpretive way, with their Full Moon concept being that of ‘highest reflection’ or ‘greatest emotional or instinctive’ illumination. And I must say…I tend to be among this second group.

But if we think of the Full Moon in the ‘glass half empty or half full?’ mode, since lunar cycles are cycles, there are unquestionably those among us who go from New Moon to New Moon, and those of us who think of life as being only a matter of Full Moon to Full Moon.

In other words, how we react to the “everyday” cycles generally timed out by the Moon is greatly a matter of who we are. Or…is that really about who we choose to be?

There’s a lot of ‘sloganism’ (my term) about this ‘attitude makes reality’ thing and what we hear most often is ‘hold a positive attitude – that will make things happen for the better.’ But is that really true? If it was, wouldn’t we all be sassy-happy by now?

The Virgo Full Moon is about practicality being pitted against emotionality…Virgo Moon, Pisces Sun. And this goes (to my thinking) what the Full Moon is really about stretching us beyond what we already know. The ‘knowing’ part is enlightenment (illumination) and the ‘stretching’ comes from the astro-idea that any opposition asks us to hold two diametrically oppositional ideas in our minds, hearts or lives at once.

In other words, Full Moons are about life (the Sun) being in one sign (in this case, the ‘life is going to get you to feel whether you want to or not’ Pisces life-phase) and the Moon ‘lighting up’ or ‘illuminating’ those things, those factors, those opportunities or challenges we haven’t thought of. Or experienced yet. Or taken into consideration.

Pisces-Virgo is about doing the thing which will work for me in the long run (Virgo) which HAS the greatest affect (and effect) BECAUSE it touches others and thus garners their approval, support and respect. THAT is what leads to my emotional satisfaction, because whether I like it or not, I’m not living on this planet by myself and the more people understand, accept and are with my right to do what makes me happy, the easier my life is going to be.

I’ll put it another way: if Virgo is the effort, the work, the efficiency and effectiveness of our physical life and life or lifestyle (how we go about living), Pisces as the indicator of ‘end of life circumstances’ (retirement/old age pensions, hospitals, emotional acceptance) is the indicator of how well all that works out. When I say that Pisces represents all those things which involve people being scared of feeling their feelings, Pisces is about anything – including late-in-life finances – which refer to anywhere where they might feel helpless. Or where they might be at the mercy of others.

“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” wrote Tennessee Williams in A Streetcar Named Desire. That line very much embodies the Pisces concept. And every time we have a full Moon in Virgo, we are presented with something of a ‘checkpoint’ on how well we’re doing not only in our effort to balance depending on kindness (ours and that of others) but not depending on them too.

Tennessee Williams in 1953 arriving at the service for Dylan Thomas

(photo courtesy of the US Library of Congress, Prints and Photography Division;

source - New York World-Telegram and Sun, Walter Albertin, photographer)

Which yes, may be a gesture of kindness of a whole other kind – not burdening others.

On a whole other tact, Full Moons often represent a climax or a fulfillment (or failure) of something we’ve been working on. But as they say in the world of parenting teens, it’s a phase. What happens now isn’t the ‘end of all things.’ It’s a phase. If this was the moment when your Significant Dating Other (a whole other meaning for SDO beyond Scattered Disc Objects) “pops the question,” that may mean the ‘undecided’ portion of the courtship phase is over. But the real work of a marriage? That hasn’t even yet begun.

(Come to think of it…having someone ask you to marry them is sort of SDO and Kuiper Belt, isn’t it? All Kuiper Belt objects, SDOs and otherwise, are about getting us to experience things in life we couldn’t otherwise experience. I’m thinking marriage is among them!)

So Full Moons can be the manifesting of a goal. Or maybe even the letting go of a goal. Or maybe it’s just shifting gears.

On to other, pickier facts.

This is the last in a the series of three Full Moons at 7 degrees of respective signs. However – we’re still pursuing a series of 5 New Moons at 21 degrees of successive signs.

 
That the Full Moons have been in 1st decanate degrees (degrees between 0 and 9 of any given sign) tells us that these past several months have led us (New to Full phase) to issues which are personal level. They may be about the nature of our life. Or our physicality or health. Even our actions, whether that means taking action or the results or consequences of some action.

But others are involved. That much we know because these lunar cycles have originated in New Moons which are all at 21 degrees of respective signs, 21 being a 3rd decan degree (between 20 and 29 of some sign) indicating something we don’t control or that others have a right…even a need to have input on.

This…by the by…is one of the great and easy and interesting things to look at in the charts of people you know. The 1st decanate of any sign is always about the person or something personal. The 2nd decanate is always emotional (yes, even when the Sun or Moon is in an air sign!). The 3rd decan is always about a level of life which involves your having to interact with others or work with others, connect to others or accept/work with input from others.

And here’s the kicker: this isn’t just about YOU in the sense of what YOU want to do or your personality or personal nature - this is also about your life lessons. So life, in its infinitely dispassionate if ever-so-personal way is going to teach you what you need to learn whether you want to learn it or not.

Example: I have a friend with both Sun and Moon in the 2nd decanate. The one thing this person hates is having to deal with emotions and emotionality.

Guess what - that’s because learning to deal with emotions and about their own emotions is a core part of this person's purpose, path and life lessons. (Hint: one of the lights being in a decan gives us a direction. To have both Sun and Moon in a single decanate speaks to directions, lessons, and the general 'shape' of one's purpose.) The sooner this person gets on with dealing with their own feelings and those of others, the happier (2nd decan, right?) they’re going to be.

But just try telling them that.

Example #2: I have a Sun and Moon which are both in the 1st decanate. My life is all about figuring out what to do and not to do. It's about life as it exists, life as it manifests, and it's about my life in particular (including my physicality) and the world around me.

Another part of this? Much to my eternal irritation (and water sign upsetted-ness) I never get help with doing anything until I prove I either figure out how to do it or don’t need help any more.

Go figure.

So looking purely at decans, the months from November (actually last August, but who’s counting) through April 2013 will have been and continue to be – at some level – about recognizing what the world values and is willing to do or not do (or put up with or not put up with) and how we act accordingly. Or how the world responds to how we have acted.

But within this longer cycle there have been mini-phase-cycles. November through March have all been New Moons at 21 degrees of respective signs. And at some level, 21 degrees is always about starting something in the world, doing something a new way in order to create greater effectiveness, or dealing with a ‘new’ tide of sentiment or opinion which is going to effect what we do.

Against this we have had another mini-cycle (yes, we’re in the realm of the many interlocking cycles of time the Mayans called ‘wheels within wheels’) composed of Full Moons at 7 degrees of respective signs.

Seven is the number of ‘the other’ not as that which ‘fits’ with us (which would be 2, the opposition or duality) but which is the corresponding energetic. You know: for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. The tide comes in, the tide goes out. We breathe in, we breathe out. Seven is a corresponding otherness.

And just to be clear here, it’s not karma. Karma belongs to the greater concepts associated generally with the number 8. Karma’s slogan is more do unto others as you would have done unto you…implying that what you do for Person A may come back to you (maybe totally unexpectedly) through Person Q.

Seven is more logical against eight being emotional. Seven says if I do something nasty to you, you’re likely not to like me for it. Eight says if I do something nasty to you, my life is going to become difficult, possibly for reasons totally unconnected to you.

Numbers tell us a lot. Just remember, they need to be  put into context - like everything else!

Okay…with all this now duly said and discussed, 7 Virgo has a reputation for a shyness or a reticence which can be gotten past but which can become overly polarized by 7 Pisces, a degree known for confusion – up to and including levels of mental confusion we would associate with mental illness.

The question at it’s most basic this is: will we connect to the greater message or feeling implied here? Don’t think that you can avoid anything but holding back. The act of doing so may be your 7 Pisces factor, not “theirs.”

Being that 7 Virgo is the current position of Thuban, we should also consider that everything implied by this Virgo/Pisces moment of ‘illumination’ may just possibly be the fixed star “backdrop” against which our own drama is playing out.

Thuban is one of those stars we don’t hear a lot about, but which is active in astrological history. Between about 3,900 BCE and 1,700 BCE, Thuban was actually our pole star (instead of Polaris, which has the job at the moment). Known astronomically as Alpha Draco, Thuban is the ‘head’ or ‘alpha’ star in the rather large constellation of Draco, which today we think of as ‘the dragon’ but which way back when was associated with the infamous snake of Adam and Eve fame.

Constellation Draco as envisioned in a long-ago manuscipt

And that is an interesting cross-reference, seeing as dragons are a positive in Oriental culture and we all know how western culture has villainized snakes. (I’m surprised they haven’t organized as a union and conducted a mass slithering in protest.)

Just to clarify here: Thuban is not in the ‘head’ of the constellation – it’s in the tail. (A whole different tale, yes.) But probably more to the astrological point, this is a constellation which by any measurement is a large one. It also appears in the sky as to seem 'wrapped around' our planet's north pole in a rather 'protective' posture. So it isn't surprising that Thuban seems to be about ‘something precious’ and sometimes the protecting of that ‘something precious.’ In fact, modern archaeologists and metaphysical types both note with interest that in Giza, Egypt, the Great Pyramid (that of Khufu) seems to have been built with one of its internal 'sighting tunnels' aimed at Thuban's position of the day. 

 A New York Times archive photo of the Giza pyramids taken from a

nearby oasis in 1917 (Brown and Dawson)

And that the head of a snake is tucked in the middle of the coil where the muscular tail is left out as the first thing an attacker (or unwary soul) would deal with...that says something about Thuban too.

One other item about Draco should be touched on: because it is a 'polar north' constellation, it isn't visible from all global latitudes. This raises a question you hear of now and again in astrology: whether something which isn't visible in the sky when and where you were born is a viable influence.

My vote here is 'yes.' Why? Because there are plenty of unconscious or 'unseen' attributes in our world and in our lives. Not everything is obvious or evident. Nor - probably - should it be, for reasons both good and bad.

That said, on with the show. The modifiers on the Moon’s side of this Full Moon are Achilles (strength, daring, deft ability), Eurydike (enduring the cost) and Orcus (consequences). So…are we too shy to do what needs doing until the costs become too much to bear? Or is this about doing something about something which we know we need to protect ourselves (and maybe others) from, never mind the cost?

Of course…seldom is life a simple choice between difficult options. Or even a difficult choice between no-brainer, simple options.

Yes folks, this Full Moon comes equipped with a handy-dandy t-square just ready to pickle your puzzles!

Anyone for sour puzzles? Or half-dill puzzling?

This t-square is an interesting one, too. Having finally moved its big red self off 6 Gemini (headaches, anyone?) to 7 Gemini, a degree noted for the following polarity: good luck versus taking the easy way out. Which let’s be real – is very much akin to and therefore part of the whole Aldebaran ‘integrity’ theme.

So here are the ‘rules’ in play here: t-squares work in zodiacal order, passing ‘through’ the “t.” So this one starts in emotional Pisces but has to jump the Jupiter-Aldebaran (thought of integrity) hurdle in order to get to the point where Virgo effectiveness and deft solutions can be put into place. And that the ‘t’ in a t-square is ALWAYS about ego, there’s likely to be a lot of decrying and self-righteous chest pounding about now.

That means…if you are dealing with someone who is indulging in a bunch of huffery-puffery ‘I have a right to my own opinions!’ you may as well let them puff. Your job at the moment is to get past thinking this is ‘all about you’ to the ‘doing something about providing a good basis for proceeding’ on the general level. The puffers are going to be out there, absolutely. And if you can recognize that they’re not coming from a position of strength but really coming from fears of impotence and rejection, you’ll be that much farther ahead.

Appealing to others in terms of integrity is one good idea of the moment. Certainly phrasing things in dispassionate terms and working to get egos out of the discussion while the problem or challenge gets examined for what it is – that’s a great idea to keep in mind.

But remember: ultimately, this Full Moon – like everything else astrological – has a generalized meaning and a meaning which is particular to each person’s chart, life and outlook. This Full Moon in your world is part of the machinery of time-space which is moving you through the process of learning all you need to learn while teaching others things which may be entirely different.

And maybe that’s the point. As we learn to accept our ‘stuff’ as OUR stuff, maybe we can learn who others are without projecting on them all the time. Maybe we can be more supportive…or at least understanding of what their challenges are.

At that point, maybe the Full Moon of the moment will become a ‘Fulfilling Moon.’ And isn’t that what we all want?
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