Jupiter Direct

Jupiter and two of its moons, Europa and Callisto as photographed

by the Cassini spacecraft

(photo credit NASA JPL, December 2000)

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Jupiter stands for growth - and all that we do, growing in our own abilities, to achieve that growth.

That said, Jupiter is also all about excess. So in one sense, Jupiter is about learning what we can do ... and on the other, it’s about all those not-so-nice things which happen when we go beyond the limit.

After all, that’s learning too, right?

In going direct at 12 Leo, Jupiter is speaking to days ahead and a chance - the opportunity - to broaden our regard. And in that, it also stands for what we are going to learn or end up teaching ourselves about the difference between enjoying we have and are and going through whatever it takes to recognize what the difference (or differences) are between the pluses of our life (specified as pluses - our ‘fortunate existence,’ being the way one astrologer put it) and what life is like for others of differing fortunes.

Or to put it another way, this is the Jupiter Principle - the ability and opportunity to expand what we know and experience on every level being applied to Leo, which is to say, specifically to the degree 12 Leo, which simply by placement (as part of the middle ten degrees of some sign) we know to be all about how we feel ... and our about ‘things Leo.’

And what is Leo all about? On a mundane level, Leo is about doing things we like to do. Or which we want to see ourselves learning how to do, learning how to be - and (of course) being a ‘winner’ at in the long run. (Probably preferably a short term long run, but that’s just par for the course.) Leo is all about developing our Self in a more-or-less ‘applied’ way - it’s not about ‘who am I?’ so much as ‘what am I capable of doing?’.

Leo degrees embrace a breadth of latitude - Leo energies are famously all about wanting to do our things our way (and please don’t tell me that I’m wrong) ... against which we should always remember that Leo energies are energies which are not-yet-mature or matured. Some take this ‘there’s still more to learn’ as a wonderful thing, celebrating how they’re not obsolete and haven’t yet met their limit - and others are just offended that the world doesn’t, hasn’t and evidently isn’t peachy keen about the idea of having to acknowledge each and every one of anyone’s Leo opinions as regally and universally correct.

There’s an air of nobility about Leos and the attitudes and aptitudes we see associated with Leo degrees in any chart, and wherever we see Leo in the chart, that’s the area of life where we’re going to see much charm, much talent and much dynamism on display and being utilized, if intermittently at best -just like the lion on the veldt which sleeps the better part of its day, Leo degrees do require some down time.

And maybe for you, this ‘on/off’ or ‘work/relax’ rhythm is something you have learned about ...or something you need to learn about. Or maybe you’re been through a lot over these past months and are now determined to use your time or abilities more knowingly or effectively, that last term being one of the bugaboos on Leo’s list.

And why would ‘effectively’ be something Leo degrees (in particular) end up teaching us about?

Jupiter Direct (glyph chart)

April 8, 2015 - 16:58 (4:58 pm) UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Jupiter Direct (text chart)

April 8, 2015 - 16 58 (4 58 pm) UT +0 - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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That would be because Leo is the zodiac’s fixed fire sign, which means any (and every) Leo degree describes something which describes somewhere in our personality or habit patterns where we may well tend to get stuck on some personal, internal idea (image, vision) of how things should be, how they should work, or what they should look-sound-act like when they’re ‘right’ ... which is where Leo positives - the individual ability to see, create, adapt, conquer and protect meets up with the Aquarian themes of  accepting/rejection, hiring/firing, rewarding/costing, empowering against halting ... as those terms apply particularly to Leo’s desire to come up with, create or learn how to use/utilize whatever will conquer the challenge.

If that seems vague to you, think of it in simplistic real world terms: if you’re a parent, your job is not just to have the Leo fun and privilege of raising your children (which just for the ‘fun’ of it includes sleepless nights and various forms of grief, sass and teenage sulkery) ... but also to teach them enough about being a person that they are then able to survive and thrive in an impersonal Aquarian world. Or maybe you’re an inventor. Is your invention truly successful just because you’ve (Leo) invented it? Or is it successful only once it gets out there doing what its designed to do for (Aquarius) various people, individually and/or collectively?

Leo fails and falls down when and where we do not take both halves of this ‘equation’ into account. As we see with every sign, Leo has a ‘darker’ or ‘weaker’ side to its sign, which in Leo’s case is an arrogance which tends to manifest as either requiring that everyone see things your way ... or which, in failing to see how everyone else thinks or in terms of what is needed fails to fit in with the greater (Aquarian) system of life, operations, organization(s), etcetera.

Plus there’s always a touch of ‘clutch.’ All four fixed  signs have particular ‘habits’ when it comes to trying to hold things in place (which tends to be thought/spoken of as ‘holding things together’) - that’s the fixed nature. And in Leo, a fiery sign which like all three fire signs deals in inspiring visions, the thing they try to ‘hold’ onto (or keep intact) is their idea: the vision.

Wherever Leo appears in your chart, that’s the area of life where you will tend to ‘see’ things in terms of their potential: what they could be. This is no judgment on whether such a vision is right or wrong or useful versus useful - this is just about where such issues will tend to appear in your life (and unless the house cusp with Leo on it is 0 Leo, some of those Leo degrees fall in the prior house, a point many of us tend to forget!). To this we then add the degree of the station - 12 Leo - which, in being a degree between 10 and 19 (i.e., a degree in Leo’s second decanate) adds a note of fervency to the mix.

Or maybe you’d just prefer insistent. That could work too, as Leo’s ‘fixed’ quality combined with its power of ‘inner vision’ will tend to create moments where one side of the conversation is saying ‘this is the way - I KNOW this is the right way!’ while the other side of the conversation is saying things akin to ‘prove it,’ ‘did you fall off of some turnip truck?’ and that statement that irritates so thoroughly in Leo situations, ‘you must be dreaming!’ (which is probably particularly irritating because it would seem to be accusing Leo energy of being Leo energy!).

And with this station occurring with Jupiter sextile the lunar North Node/trine its South Node while being (separately) in trine to an Aries conglomeration of Mercury, Uranus and Psyche there are going to be opinions and positions being expressed ... and worth expressing. After all, just because people don’t understand a (Leo-driven) vision/idea doesn’t mean it’s bad, wrong or otherwise unworkable.

However ... let’s be real: there’s a LOT of energy which is going to go into speaking one’s (Mercury-Psyche) mind simply for the (Uranus-Mercury) sake of speaking one’s mind. Jupiter is also on station for each and everyone, so while for some the ‘let’s look at what’s possible’ means something good, to others it’s going to mean something bad.

And let’s not forget - we’re talking about Jupiter here. So that would be very, very good - or possibly evil, awful and doomsday-ish.

Jupiter magnifies. And in this instance, it’s representing the energies in our life which are doing that magnifying or expanding of our reach, understanding, our capacity, our necessity - and even our need to know or learn better. Sometimes our Jupiter moments make us feel empowered ... and sometimes they come about through our feeling helpless or over-matched against something ‘so big’ or ‘so powerful’ or against which (or in the light of which) we are caused, made or inspired to pit ourselves - learning more about that Self in the process.

Sometimes we learn how powerful we are, and what we are truly capable of doing. And yet ... if Jupiter is known for any ill, it’s known for the sorry mess we create by overdoing, over-speaking, going overboard (literally or figuratively!) ... or otherwise feeling so driven to expand, make some move or jump to some conclusion, assumption or answer that we go right past the sensible and necessary, setting off such  avalanches of activity, input and reaction that we end up learning the boundaries we trampled in our Jupiter-themed haste to get out there and make things happen (for right or wrong) our way.

And let us not forget: this Jupiter station is occurring only a couple of days after a lunar eclipse (see previous post) ...which is another indication of our being all ‘stirred up’ with much about what is really changing in our lives, as represented by the 29 Pisces solar eclipse which occurred on March 20th.

Few of us are owning our real issues in public at the moment. But at this time, and as we move forward, we are going to be becoming more and more aware of what is (or has been) affected by matters and things which are affected by issues which mirror our eclipse. (You know, the eclipse which has exposed something about our Self to that Self which we don’t want to look at, never mind discuss with others?)

-link to post-

Solar Eclipse Scheat:

Flight against Insight 

Yet life being life, it isn’t like we should expect that those ‘hidden’ things (which may be perfectly visible to others even though WE don’t want to see any part of it!) ... we should expect them - or at least aspects of that which they affect - to come up through whatever we do as we move ahead now.

That would be part of how Jupiter works ... not to mention rather typical of any planetary station. Some of the effects, of course, are dictated by how closely Jupiter’s 12 Leo ‘turnabout’ aspects your chart ...

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... and of course there are differences in how each type of aspect functions. Sextiles, for instance, are often referred to as ‘options’ or ‘opportunities’ simply because these are things which come up in life which we may see and choose to walk by without another thought. They don’t necessarily represent good or bad, just the fact that there will be an opinion, and how we will that time make some choice even if that choice is to simply say ‘no’ and walk on by.

Against that, conjunctions tend to be so immediate that we don’t even have time or enough ‘space’ (mental or otherwise) to think through or get perspective on things. And sometimes we don’t want to! 

After all, why spoil the wonderful day or good time with all sorts of carefully dried and dusted analysis?

More to the point, conjunctions represent times when something is what we’re ‘about’ at the moment - as opposed to squares, which in testing our sense of proportion often cause us to wish we could be anywhere but where we are in the moment of our given struggle. Where conjunctions ask us who we are, who we are being and what we are doing (or going to do/not do, be or not be) while asking us to keep our heads on and not overstep our Self (or sensible boundaries), squares challenge us to keep things in balance, generally calling for a focus on methods and nuances of balance which are inconvenient and sometimes uncertainty-provoking at their best.

The general ‘rule’ with squares is that we will tend to favor one thing or one approach, and it’s that very favoring of one thing (the being imbalanced in our approach) which ends up defeating us - which differs from oppositions.

How so? Well, in spite of the common cries of square-haters (there are a lot of them), squares do have some benefits, one being how squares give us ‘wiggle room’ (and often a chance to ‘re-balance’ and save our day (because that's how we learn to master 'squared' dynamics), oppositions ‘confront’ us with things which (generally) are impossible to escape without at least admitting their existence - which is often just what we've been doing which prompts the opposition and/or confrontation (however you want to think about it).

Trines, on the other hand, are a bit more like conjunctions ... and oppositions ... in how they tend to feel ‘inevitable,’ though the trine - an energetic about things 'in process most often refers to coming into (or to) a situation with something already under way. And that ‘ongoing status quo’ tends not to change with a trine ... although since Jupiter is 'taking a turn,' so may what comes (or becomes) of said process under way.


And that’s something worth thinking about when we’re talking about Jupiter stations. For the past few months (since early December, when Jupiter went retrograde) growth - growth of the good as well as growth of the problematic - has been greatly internal or internalized. In other words, on the metaphysical level, whatever happened during this time will have affected us internally, and either in the Leo 'parts' of our life or through Leo sorts of means - all of which would have begun back at the December 2014 Jupiter station.

You know, when it went into retrograde.

- link to post-

Jupiter stations at a Gemini Full Moon

  
And now, as Jupiter goes direct, most of our reasons for doing what we do will come from external sources. We’ll listen more ... and (yes,) we’ll talk more, even if that means we’re talking about the strikingly obvious need to listen - which sounds funny, but isn’t all that unlikely, particularly around the time of Jupiter’s station as Jupiter is going through its station while in sextile to the North Node - sounding the horn about some sextile ‘opportunity’ which we (North Node in Libra) should do or consider with regards to others or in terms of others, but which we’re not likely to be all that enthusiastic about. As with all nodal indications, the ‘should’ (North Node) asks us to bite the bullet and do all those uncomfortable things like not ‘going along to get along’ (as the old expression goes).

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A North Node in Libra asks us to do the unpopular but correct thing - which being that this North Node is being affected by ongoing (trine) energy of a mental and singularly Self-revealing kind represents a time when we recognize our abilities - or confront our Self - through an expanding list of ideas which may be different and valuable, different merely for the sake of being different, or reactionary for any of a number of informational reasons. What this is likely to mean in real time and your everyday life depends on where Jupiter is in your chart natally ... and where it’s station falls.

But wherever it falls, that’s where you will learn something about yourself during these days. The issue is not what others think, and its not about making our Self ‘feel better’ about who we are or aren’t. Rather it’s about understanding our potential and where we tend not to understand or believe in that Self.

And why ... or maybe more to the point, why we are ‘stuck’ in whatever less-than-wonderful patterns or habits we’re stuck in. 

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In keeping with Jupiter’s Leo station, its highly likely that we’ve taken some want and made it into a need.

And then we add in the idea of that ‘easiest thing to do’ (or the preferred thing to do) - that South Node in Aries - is in a grand trine with Saturn/Moon in Sagittarius and Juno in Leo. On one hand that points to some who may have abstracted needs, turning them into the celebration of some abstract idea instead of dealing with something which in reality is really broken, delaying all chances to fix anything until the defensiveness behind the desire (emotional need) to abstract - a desire which centers not in others or the world but in what we are or aren’t  willing to learn about our Self gets resolved.

If it gets resolved, that is.

Of course there are those who will come into this Jupiter station with some sort of accomplishment or grand opportunity in the works. Their challenges going forward are really no different than the person who comes into this time feeling like things are totally awry.

But they will probably have learned one very important lesson - that being about the kind of Self-discipline which is really about what kind of Self we choose to be.

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Currently transiting Leo, Juno will catch up to and conjunct Jupiter during the period of May 14-18, and at that time it is entirely likely that there will be a shifting or recalibrating of personal dynamics and approaches in light of all which happens now.

As for the rest of life, with Jupiter going direct we are embarking on just over nine months of exploration, education and growth as Jupiter won’t be going back into retrograde mode until January 2016. Some of what we end up doing during that time will be a natural process of building on what we’ve already accomplished or worked out how to do - and some of it will be our capitalizing on what we learned about our Self while Jupiter was in retrograde. In returning to the degree it went retrograde in last December as of July 6th, Jupiter will complete its 2014-2015 cycle and metaphysically move us all into a new period of growth - but until July, we’re all still working on projects, efforts and (whether we know it or not) lessons about who we are and aren’t, who we should be - and never even think about being.

One more note here: as discussed Jupiter stations are astrologically famous for things we love to think are good, but which in reality are not just an ‘overstep’ but detrimental to our truest aims, goals and truths. Because of the eclipses (which is to say, the proximity of Jupiter’s station to those eclipses) even as a lot of good gets done, a lot of problems may well be being incited precisely because we’re feeling sort of ‘golden,' and we're taking more risks at the moment - some of which go over some line which ordinarily we would be sober-of-perspective enough to recognize the danger(s) of.

Part of what goes wrong now has to do with everyone (that’s the BIG everyone!) is emotionally sensitized at the moment - not just because of the lunar eclipse, but because of something far bigger and far more ugly: our desire not to be (or get) caught up in the inevitable disgorging of ills ... in this case, self-denied if long-harbored ills ... which are now being raised as part of the recent eclipse, and which are going to continue oozing out like some particularly distasteful infection.

Our feelings got us into whatever is wrong here. And it's to remember: we don’t WANT to know the part of all these ills which aren't holding on to or quite possibly in favor of - even though we are - that being one of the most essential parts of our Jovian, learning life.

Jupiter - among other things - is the primary or "in door" ruler of Pisces. In that role, Jupiter opens the door for us to learn, but not about 'things.' No, in Pisces Jupiter represents our emotional lessons - and those lessons we need to learn ... truly for our own good ... about who we are in spite of the fact we have been hoping we were something different.

And yes, usually something or someone better. Wherever we see a connection between Jupiter and Pisces playing out on the metaphysical field, we have to conclude that life is attempting to teach us about the difference between who we would like to think we are - and who we're really being. Where we think we know more about life or our Self than we actually do, Jupiter represents that tendency we will have at such Jupiter/Pisces times (as we're going through now, seeing as we've just had a 29 Pisces solar eclipse) to become involved in - usually quite knowingly - something where we go in thinking we're just fine and where we come out knowing we've been living in our own little emotional pond, either without sufficient information to inform our Self about who we are (or are acting like) - or without having taken into account who others are and how they feel.

And yet ... as bad as such moments may feel, the truth is they're also part of our Jupiter education, an education which will always end up teaching us not just those things we want to learn, but how we need to learn many things we don't especially like as only by seeing errors can we ever hope to correct them ... and how that breadth of understanding - the understanding of light and dark as two edges of a single sword - is an indispensable part of all intrinsic ... and human ... life processes.
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The 14 Libra Lunar Eclipse

A crop circle as photographed by Sphoenixee in April 2007 here stands in to image

Sabian symbol number 195 (for 14 Libra) which describes this influence as 'Circular Paths,'

a reference to life's cycles and - perhaps more important to the emotionality of a lunar

eclipse - the issue described by astrologer/philosopher Dane Rudhyar with regards to

how life's cycles can either be boring or peaceful depending on where we are in our own

life and whether our lives are being lived openly and honestly not just with others, but

with and within our Self.

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Lunar eclipses promote and elicit our feelings. They mark times when things happen to lift our hearts and dash our hopes, depending on where they are presented in a chart.

Your chart, that would be.

And yet eclipses have their own nature - which with this eclipse begins with the idea that the ‘Moon side’ of this dynamic is occurring in Libra a sign all about how we feel about others and how they feel about us, and what that may mean about us or the fact that we even know them.

That this is a lunar eclipse also says that it’s a specialized Full Moon (just as a solar eclipse is a specialized form of a New Moon) - an idea which tells us that something is being “fully highlighted” with a special sort of ‘eclipse nuance’ which may highlight someone else, may highlight some act or attitude we have taken (or are thinking of taking with regards to others), or which may put some sort of emotion-promoting spotlight on something which is either being offered or asked of us - as individuals or a group.

With this being a Full Moon and the Moon itself in Libra, the Sun is in Aries - at 14 Aries, to be precise. And 14 Aries, as a degree, is known for something of a ‘hands off’ perspective which may simply be the signature of an observer, the habit of a loner, the sign that someone either isn’t involved or doesn’t feel they can be involved ... or some other form of separation or being ‘walled off’ or split off from some whole which may be what is being emotionally responded to by the eclipse, or which may be part of how the eclipse itself manifests - by separating, by putting up some sort of barrier which separates, defines or provides boundaries, by making it plain that being too close to something (or someone) is ... well, not always a positive.

Or maybe just not a place to be working from when we want to do things un-emotionally.

Lunar Eclipse at 14 Libra (glyph chart)

April 4, 2015 - 12 07 (UT +0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Lunar Eclipse at 14 Libra (text chart)

April 4, 2015 - 12 07 (UT +0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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But to count the signs and signals here, just to have a lunar eclipse speaks to a relationship, whether that’s between our Self and a job, a person, our finances, that squirrel which won’t let your garden alone or some life challenge ... it is our relationships to that which is the essence of the lunar eclipse because eclipses are a function of the nodes.

And then we add the ‘Libra’ note, making our heightened lunar eclipse relationship to ‘it’ a Libra thing, that being what makes this eclipse more or less about our relationship to relationships... and whatever (or whether) our situation is vis-à-vis relationships and our ability to relate, our style of relating and how that is working for (or against) us in this moment ... to which we add the specific 14 Libra ‘flavoring,’ which in this case has to do with whether we are or aren’t separated in/from others in how we relate to people in general, or maybe just in one relationship or in how the world views relationships and the need or issue of relating to one another - and whether we have the capacity to know anyone at all ... ever ... and what that may say about us.

A diagram showing the positions of Sun, Moon and Earth

during solar and lunar eclipses, respectively

(diagram credit: Tomruen)

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All this comes to us through a lunar eclipse - which as shown above is the ‘opposite’ of a solar eclipse in that with the solar eclipse the Moon comes between the Earth and Sun, where with a lunar eclipse it’s the Earth which stands between Sun and Moon, casting an ‘Earthly’ shadow on all things lunar.

And that’s the point. Where with a solar eclipse something in or about (the Moon) everyday life is eliminated or ‘blacks out’ something which we have held as part of our (Sun) life or conception of life. Solar eclipses force us to look at life a different way because we aren’t seeing ... or can’t see as much of it as we did, or we’re seeing something totally differently than we did only a short time ago.

That process - the solar eclipse process - speaks to a long-term evolution of our life which evolves from the moment of the eclipse: something changes, and we reorient our lives to account for those changes.

But with a lunar eclipse, it is Earth - us - which is ‘casting a shadow’ on something (Moon) personal and feeling oriented. Being that this lunar eclipse is occurring in Libra, that ‘personal’ thing may involve any of the “Moon things” (women, memory, money, home, childhood, culture) ... and then again, it may involve any of the Libra qualities of being about relationships or manifesting through a relationship, and by ‘relationship’ we mean any kind of relationship - that you have with a lover, a parent, a co-worker, your dog, your homework, your car, your ambitions, your relationships to time, life and even Divinity. Where an actual other person is involved, we tend to think the lunar eclipse is about ‘them,’ but it seldom is - it’s our eclipse and therefore the issue is our feelings ... how we feel about them, or what they’re going through, what they’ve said or done to us, with regards to us - or something like that. And then there’s the fact that some of us (a good number of us) will be coming into this lunar eclipse with some kind of strange-feeling matter already knocking about in the back rooms of our psyche due to the solar eclipse which just blew through a few Piscean circuits as of March 20th.

- link to post -

Solar Eclipse Scheat:

Flight against Insight

So a lot of us are all stirred up right now. We probably won’t be admitting it openly, or wearing our uncertainties on our sleeves (as it’s said), but our world and each one of us living in it (which is to say on it) is coming to this week already very much in feeling mode.

And then comes the eclipse, a lunar eclipse which has the shadow of the Earth - our shadow - being cast on the Moon, that thing which metaphysically symbolizes and manifests as all those things which matter so much: family, home, traditions, feelings, memories, values ... and yes, that thing we associate so much with that list, money.

A map of the shadow being cast by the April 4, 2015

lunar eclipse (diagram credit: NASA-JPL) 

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The Moon represents money - in particular, business money: the money which cycles through business and which is used to build businesses - money as a resource and the measure of the flow (or lack thereof) of success ... that success being defined by each one of us individually through our feelings.

You know, the astrological Moon.

But here - with the image of the lunar eclipse, we are given to know that the Moon ... our feelings ... are under a bit of current stress which astrologers would refer to as a t-square.

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The difficulty here - and thus what those of us who run into problems or challenges now may well encounter - is the idea that there is something (represented here by Pluto/Vega) which is challenging us, standing in our way or existing as an issue we have to get over (past, around, etc.).

If we don’t get past it, given how t-squares work, then we’re going to end up back where we started - in that feeling puddle of ours, or that puddle of feelings we really were wanting to put to good use (or possibly put behind).

And why would we be going through anything - what’s the ‘object’ here? As imaged by the t-square’s end point (Uranus, Sun, Alpheratz and Psyche at 14 Aries) we want to ‘be alone’ ... or possibly be left alone to do what we need/want/intend to do ... or considering 14 Libra as Aries in its emotionally determined/determinative mode, there’s something which we want to be free to be or get done, whether for our own sake, its own sake, or for the sake of someone else.

So what is the problem? The ‘hurdle’ here being presented as Pluto-Vega, the Pluto part of the equation points to some change or transformative quality which has already had some sort of effect, which is part of that which is holding us back or as a reference to something which needs to happen. Pluto is doing the transiting, which on one level makes Pluto’s energetic (and that of transformation) the quality which is being applied to that which already exists (that being the Vega quotient) - and let us not forget how obsessive and controlling Pluto energies often tend to be.

Will we be obsessed with something we believe - or something about others? Or some goal we think entirely necessary?

Is what we are so obsessed with even real?

And if our issue is control or controlling others, is that sensible to ask - or even possible? Is the control we think so necessary about protecting others, or do they refer to some feeling we feel threatened by to the degree that we can’t even deal with our Self, resorting instead to trying to control others so we don’t have to be responsible for our own feelings and fears?

Plus when we get to Vega, then we’re talking about a fixed star which has long stood for all which holds appeal, that which holds sway through loyalty, allegiance or respect and all which exudes charisma, which persuades or is persuasive.

Together, these symbols stand for things which need to change, things long respected which we may have lost respect for, things loved with that love now lost ... and on a somewhat different trajectory, that which we either hold out to others (or) adopt as our own because they seem so attractive and charismatic ... or because they seem to hold or embody a promise of appealing changes yet to come. And when we add in what lore says about the degree this conjunction is occurring in (15 Capricorn), then we get a picture of something or someone (or perhaps some group, organization or other entity) which has ... or which has had (which may be the issue now)... a distinct leaning towards softness or passivity - and how that may be what is now changing.

Or which has already changed.

Or which needs to change.

The quality of Vega means some will resist change because they found what came before so pleasant. 

But was it really pleasant? Or was it pleasant on one side because the cost (responsibility, effort, ignorance, fear(s), etcetera) of such pleasant things were unkindly ... even unfairly shifted onto others?

However this works, some fleck or nuance of this eclipse will color every life. But that doesn’t mean we’re all going to be feeling this eclipse to the same degree (no pun intended!). With the lunar eclipse occurring at 14 Libra, some of us will be affected and some won’t be affected - just as some of us have been more-rather-than-less affected by what the 29 Pisces solar eclipse may have revealed about some rather unacceptable lack(s) of clarity we have on our Self.

How did we get there? We’ve been so careful, and yet somehow we have ended up not wanting to know how unrealistic and ultimately unkind to our Self or our own cause we have ended up being.

(Oh yes - and if you’re over say ... age twenty, that may be ‘... we have ended up being again.’)

This eclipse (like any eclipse) occurs in all charts. But it isn’t going to necessarily be focal in every chart, just as the recent solar eclipse hit some like a gentle raindrop and others like a tsunami. Some of us will have been born with charts which are sensitive to the solar eclipse, some to the lunar eclipse, and some to both - which bespeaks the greatest sensitivity of all.

But I probably don’t need to tell you that. If your chart answers closely to both eclipses, life is already on the move, whether your body and psyche are keeping up with it (yet) or not...  

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... and with the eclipse occurring this Saturday, we would also be quite reasonable to think the whole of this week is likely to be one when we feel our own sensitivity more acutely than other times.

Again, ‘they’ (or ‘that’) may promote, provoke, support or be asking or prompting us to let our feelings out, most of all so that we can learn what those feelings are and learn from our feelings as they stand.

Why do we feel the way we do? Where do our feelings come from? Why do we hold the (Moon/lunar) values that we hold and do they reflect us as (Moon/Sun) individuals, or are we saying what we’re saying or feeling what we’re feeling because we think our (lunar nodes) society or family or culture requires of us ... or even urges us <wink> to think or act or be a given way.

Neither one is bad, mind you - it’s just evidently important that we know what is what and where things come from, for reasons which are individual to you and your life.

But understanding and knowing do figure large at this time, as do ethics and the ability or availability or willingness to learn, teach and share ideas - all of which reflects the fact that Jupiter (symbol of enlargement, expansion) is already on station at 12 Leo, having taken up temporary residence in said degree on March 24th, bringing much about the stations of this past couple of weeks into big, bold, bas relief sort of focus - which would fit a Jupiterian 'bigger, grander ... even to the point of being aggrandized' sort of theme.

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Nemesis, Ixion, Sisyphus, Pholus

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Niobe Direct

The combination produced much which was obviously overblown and some things which deserved being enlarged upon or ‘made bigger’ so that they could be looked at in detail. And that quality of ‘making things larger,’ whether that’s a benefit or negative, that basic ‘Jupiter essence’ will continue to and through Jupiter’s station-direct moment on April 8th.

And that means things may well become VERY emotional over the weekend of April 4th, since that would have lunar eclipse effects overlaying and combining with the standard Jupiter manifestation, that being one of ‘enlarging’ which - given the lunar eclipse - could get out of hand. This can be a wonderful and joyous combination. Then again, it could represent the toppling of not just some personal house of cards, but things which we have been working towards for many a moon.

Plus there’s also Mars and Venus in Taurus against Mercury in Aries to think about. Mercury in Aries is thought and communication sitting in the oppositional sign to the nexus of all the emotional hoo-ha of the moment.

Is that helpful? Does this mean that as the lunar eclipse moves through the Jupiter quotient is going to help us see (read: learn) something we didn’t see - or maybe didn’t want to know or see, but will benefit from in the long run? Is this the moment when some opportunity we have dreamed of (or even better, which has been beyond our wildest dreams) suddenly reveals itself as possible? Or is this a moment when life breaks out in rashes, rash arguments and other forms of arguably irritating things?

That Venus and Mars are themselves not in aspect to the eclipse makes this less intimately personal. And with Mercury at 8 Aries, Mercury isn’t quite in opposition to the eclipse itself (the heart of the matter). Yet because the lunar nodes (which are part of eclipse mechanics) are at 10 Aries and 10 Libra, Mercury at 10 Aries does conjunct the South Node which in turn is conjunct the Sun.

Mercury-South Node is wanting to keep one’s opinion or position ... and/or the fact that not changing or not ‘caring’ about input (or whatever else) is easier to opt for than other options.

It does not, however, guarantee success. The ‘should’ side of the lunar nodes is the North (not South) Node, and the North Node is positioned at 10 Libra, a degree which speaks of a kind of individuality, ‘aloneness’ or distinction/differentiation (from other things or people) which more often than not follows a difficult path for reasons which are not always apparent. From this comes a subjective perspective based on those difficulties, and that perspective, if not corrected, may well become a motivation for, or means of limitation either on the part of the native (the individual) or someone else.

That all of this is happening just in advance of Jupiter’s station also suggests that this ‘nesting’ of events is a form of double-play. In other words, while the lunar eclipse is setting up the circumstances we will take into Jupiter’s station, Jupiter’s moving towards/into that station represents all of those life forces which are bringing so many things to light, some of which we are responding, acting on or reacting to with the ‘high water’ energy timed by the eclipse.

And let’s also remember how things which happen going into a station (we’re talking about Jupiter here) are things which are yet to happen - which with Jupiter could be a lot of things, especially if your natal chart ‘answers’ to the degree 12 Leo.

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Just to run through the basics, an eclipse (or planetary station, if you’re also thinking about Jupiter) which conjuncts your chart generally manifests as feeling totally involved with the matters described by the eclipse on a personal basis. This is you having to decide something about your life.

If the eclipse (or station) is in opposition to something in your chart, the qualities or area(s) of life described by that natal object as it appears in your chart in a given house ...something about such matters will into focus in such a way as to create a sense of challenge - or perhaps reward.

Squares and lunar eclipses seldom mix well, as what results may be exciting, if also frustrating (to some degree) at the very same time. Maintaining the balance and proper sense of determination which squares requires of us isn’t going to be the easiest thing to do at the time of any lunar eclipse, and one which is ‘backed’ (or influenced) by Jupiter will make it that much easier (or more likely) to go overboard or to think too positively or too negatively.

The inconjunct and semi-sextile are likely to follow this pattern to a certain degree, though inconjuncts are aspects which ask us to adjust something - be it our outlook, methodology, timing, perspective ... and semi-sextiles are aspects which test our ability to get past our own ego about something even if we don’t want to.

And for those with some axis point, planet, node or dwarf planet in semi-sextile aspect to the lunar eclipse, no - you probably don’t want to!

That would be the given. Figuring out whether you need to get past that and change ... or whether you need to simply get past your annoyance and remain classy and cool ... that’s another thing.

Eclipses (or stations) which trine positions in your natal chart generally refer to things which are already in progress, or which you may want to think about changing (or building on) but which aren’t yet at a place where you can make some move. Sometimes this can be problematic, particularly where the effect of the trine means you can’t cut and run on some unproductive situation. But the other side holds true as well, so if you’re in a good place doing what you know you should be doing in life, a trine from a lunar eclipse - uproar or no uproar - will generally end with little if anything changed.

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With all of that said and mused over, there’s one other ‘message’ which comes with this eclipse, that being simply the astronomical notice that as the Moon reaches Full (at the lunar eclipse) the first phase of the March 20th solar eclipse is now closed out. That doesn’t mean that ‘the worst is over’ or anything quite as definite as that as the 29 Pisces solar eclipse - being in Pisces - operates basically on an internal, super-personal (not to mention individual) level in opening us to ourselves so we can let go of that which is truly no longer appropriate (or perhaps necessary) in favor of becoming who we are supposed to be at this point in our life so as to stay on track with who we were ultimately born to be.

Solar eclipses evolve over a full three years, often starting off with very intense periods riddled with various events, few of which ultimately have any direct bearing on where we will end up going, or who we are destined to become. Lunar eclipses on the other hand, tend to be very immediate, prompt and timely, with events of the moment - though emotionally important - being more ‘situational’ than intrinsically personal, if you will.

And maybe even more importantly, the evolution of lunar eclipses is swift. This one - the events or situations which are associated with it, in other words - may ‘spill over’ into other things of lengthier duration because of this 14 Libra eclipse’s proximity to Jupiter’s station, but most lunar eclipses mark events and moments which after a space of just three months become part of the fabric of our memory.

Still, they can be exciting. And this one - in particular - would seem to hold the potential for great inner personal discovery.

Will we like what we find?
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Dateblog: April 2015

 There are a lot of things I could say about April 2015 even if we’re just limiting that to the astrological in nature. For instance, I could point out how all that fresh green in the ‘April 2015 by Sign’ graphic - an increasing green which increasingly asks ‘how Taurean is my outlook?’ as the month goes along.

And for the uninitiated (or merely forgetful), ‘more Taurean’ means stubbornly peaceful on the positive side ... and perfectly placid about anything and everything up to (and possibly including) that which grows out of nurtured resentments and steadfast (even stubborn) allegiances to judging everything on a physical basis to the negative side. (Aren’t you happy you asked?)

I could also point out how the whole of April’s second half - as always - is going to be sprinkled (literally, on the metaphysical level) with asteroids, those ‘sparks of insight or inspiration’ and on occasion those ‘shots in the dark’ we not only take and see others taking but associate with the two meteor showers (the Lyrids and the Eta Aquarids) which happen every year about this time.

But no, that wouldn’t be where I would think we should start with considering April, as a personal astrological ‘ranking’ (i.e., how my big dog brain sees it) would start with the Lunar Eclipse at 14 Libra which will occur on April 4th with barely a hiccup in time passing before Jupiter goes direct four days later, on April 8th. And while I was saying that, I would point out that Lunar Eclipses represent ‘feeling’ or emotional times, and how while they’re neither as magically life transformative if spectacularly hard to see (in our own lives, at least for a while) as solar eclipse effects, lunar eclipse are at least polite enough about our time and effort to exude their effects downright promptly - which means that anyone with a major (planet, dwarf planet, node or axis) point between 4 and 24 Libra, Aries, Capricorn or Cancer (the cardinal signs, in other words) ... those people should not be expected if something arises or originates in the area(s) of life associated with those lunar eclipse “sensitive points.”

And then there’s Jupiter, for which the same suggestion goes, with the difference being that Jupiter is going direct at 12 Leo, which means the degree spread is from 2 to 22 degrees of Leo, Aquarius, Taurus or Scorpio should take special note.

More on both subjects in individual posts, of course - but that’s where I was thinking we should start. While not precisely a symbol of emotions or feelings, things which are associated with Jupiter  ... the effects, the opportunities, the encounters, the challenges, the news, the discoveries and enlightenments ... those Jovian (Jupiter) things tend to be associated with emotionality.

So how interesting that these two things are laid out (eclipse first) so that as we enter April things get more interesting and expressive, whatever else that may mean!

Plus Pluto will be going retrograde this month. And that Pluto does that (on the 17th) as Planet Earth (our lives) moves into the ‘meteor zone’ suggests a time when many things are being considered, parts or pieces or segments of which has us the (Taurus) necessity or value involved in doing or even thinking that we need anything other than the being content in any ... or every ... or various given moments.

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Maybe with so little in the way of air sign influence in this month’s mix (not to discount the Libra lunar eclipse or Venus’ impending transit of Gemini - shown above in light blue) ... maybe that will cause people to stop talking about the ‘idea of the thing’ or spending time and energy dissecting notions in favor of dealing with (earth sign) facts, evidence and history.

Then again, with as much fire sign energy (above, in golden yellow) being present in the mix, maybe what we need to deal with is how many people are simply unable to deal with realities - and why that is, or has come to be true. Fire plus earth influences tend to trend either towards the highly dynamic and often creative, or forms of what we might call ‘scorched earth’ policies as we simply discard or disregard all manner of facts, realities and necessities as, blind to all else, we follow some notion which may or may not have any real world basis or application.

How all these things are going to work out in - and through each one of our lives is still a mystery, of course. And in the wake of the 29 Pisces eclipse, some part of that is likely to be lived out through the (lunar eclipse) relationship venue or through how we (do or don’t, can or can’t) relate to someone. With the solar eclipse having occurred on March 20th, as April begins a good number of us are going to be coming to the ‘end’ of some alliance, relationship or  need to attend to a particular issue. Or their tolerance is wearing thin. Or they’re disenchanted (disappointed) with someone or something for having not lived up to some internal standard which isn’t about them at all, but rather about something we long to delude ourselves about as if we don’t ... well, then we’d have to feel all some sort of negative we really (REALLY) don’t want to feel.

That ‘thing’ ... if there is one ... we will project and ascribe to being about ‘them’ or ‘that.’

But it isn’t. It isn’t about ‘them’ - it’s about us ... which would be why this month being so Taurean holds so much promise, and a chance for much insecurity - not with ‘them,’ but as (or because) we finally figure out how the security we seeking so ardently is never solidified or damaged by things or people on the outside.

It’s all about who we are - and how we got that way, which is plenty to think about (and live the experiencing of) throughout April.

Bon voyage to us all!
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Solar Eclipse Scheat: Flight against Insight

The Solar Eclipse of January 4, 2011 as photographed by Hinode

(photo credit: NASA)

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Solar eclipses are highly individual beasts. And the eclipse of March 20th - the totality of which will occur at 9:46 in the morning (UT/+0 time) - is no different.

This isn’t to say solar eclipses don’t have some ‘guidelines’ we can go by. Time-wise, they last a full three years (36 months), and often (particularly if the eclipse hits your chart with any acuity) there will be a ‘turn of events’ at around the 30-month (2.5 year) mark.

Eclipses also follow a metaphysical ‘reflection’ of the event we see in our sky. As the Moon (the astrological emblem of everyday events and feelings) ... crosses in front of the Sun (general life around us and our mental consciousness) ... and ‘blacks’ the Sun out, something in life “goes away.”

It too gets ‘blacked out” or lost.

What the thing is which is has to do with where the eclipse falls in your natal and solar chart, and any planet/dwarf planet, node or cusp point ‘hit’ by eclipse transit (take this to mean all the attributes you would associate with that planet/dwarf planet, node or cusp point in your own life) will also lose all semblance to what they were not but a short time ago.

This eclipse has been coming ‘towards’ us for several months now. If it’s aspecting your chart, you’re long past beginning to feel something ... you’re either in the thick of it, or you’re sufficiently overwhelmed by it that you’re not necessarily thinking of other things, but...

... you’re thinking of other things.

Total Solar Eclipse of March 20, 2015 at 29 Pisces (glyph chart)

9:36 am (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Total Solar Eclipse of March 20, 2015 at 29 Pisces (text chart)

9:36 am (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific) 
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So what we are dealing with now is 29 Pisces (the eclipse occurring at 29 Pisces), and that ‘other thing’ you’re thinking about is either connected to what happened to ‘waylay’ you two-and-a-half years ago, or it is whatever you were doing which got waylaid two-and-a-half years ago.

In eclipse terms, that would be the eclipse which occurred towards the end of 2012, which would be another total eclipse, that one having been an eclipse at 21 Scorpio which occurred on the same date that Uranus went direct at 4 Aries.

(It was also my personal Saturn return, but that’s besides the point - except for the fact my writing in all genres is nothing if not of an unusual nature and therefore Uranian.)

The 4 Aries part of that equation does mean something to us now: 4 Aries is perfectly trine 4 Sagittarius - and 4 Sagittarius is the degree Saturn went retrograde at last weekend (on March 14th).

The meaning of that much: in a moment, the lesson became real. If an eclipse hadn’t been involved at both ends of this equation this would merely be a moment of discovery. Instead, there is a deep and deeply personal lesson for those whose charts answer (by orb) to 29 Pisces, 21 Scorpio, 4 Sagittarius and/or 4 Aries.

Also: the more of these points which affect your chart, either the deeper or the more problematic the situation is going to be or become.

To those who were affected by the 21 Scorpio eclipse (back in 2012) but whose charts are NOT affected by 29 Pisces (see the chart below), your life will proceed based on what has developed over the past two-plus years which will now ‘blossom’ into new things and a more determinative direction over the next six (6) months.

To those with charts which were affected by the 21 Scorpio eclipse and the current 29 Pisces eclipse, you are now at a turning point which will start you off in a new direction which from here will evolve and develop for a full two-and-a-half years before you will encounter another ‘twist’ in the plan. It may be similar to what you are encountering now, or it could be entirely different, and whatever is ‘lost’ now - this being a lesson of all eclipses - was something which you may have loved and cherished, but which in reality was something which was standing in the way of your learning how to do something you will need to do now and in the future for reasons you cannot yet know.

The degree 29 Pisces is one known for strong intuition and by some accounts, psychic ability. Either quality can be a benefit, according to this influence, yet there is a danger of falling into (or falling for) some notion which either isn’t true or simply isn’t what it appears to be - either on the visual surface (as it ‘appears’ to be in person) or as ‘veiled,’ imprecise or ‘rumored’ information.

If this eclipse aspects your chart, some form of this 29 Pisces dynamic will be present (at the present) in your life, whether it’s your ‘notion’ which is in play, someone else ‘owning’ the 29 Pisces quality, someone or some situation which specifically embodies the 29 Pisces concept or some influx or sudden happenstance which creates a 29 Pisces-type confluence where that which has “been” is now against that which can be, will be or could be, creating an intermittent conflict between various factions in your life.

For many, all of the above (the 29 Pisces theme) will cause the ‘abandoning’ of one situation for another - and that ‘other’ situation is the ‘twist’ provided by the eclipse of 2.5 years ago (at 21 Scorpio) as it now closes in on maturation.

And for good or bad, the essence of 21 Scorpio has a few things in common with 29 Pisces - not the least of which being that its concerns where we live in our human emotions. Something ‘back then’ (late 2012) ended - if not in fact, in our heart or mind. And in the space (psychic space) which arose as we let go of (or closed out) something which had gone before, a conflict naturally arose. That conflict - which was the seeming ‘cause’ of much which was “on the surface” back then just as the 29 Pisces issues (and all which have prompted them) are now - that conflict pitted  your own desire to have a stable home or a good home and all the warmth and love of family against your own instinct to be freed of responsibilities in order to live out your promise and/or some particular concepts or potentials.

In the case of 21 Scorpio, back in 2012 (and to some extent now) there was some ‘status quo’ which was “exploded,” either through the ‘blacking out’ of the eclipse process or as the end of something brought about some release or breakthrough which may well have (at the time) felt highly liberating.

And now, because of something in the 29 Pisces vein, many of us - in particular those whose charts would be aspected by 21 Scorpio and 29 Pisces - will find that there’s something nebulous or seemingly impossible to sort through (at least at the moment) which we have in some way, or by some method, managed to put ourselves into position to avoid (avoidance being a prime coping mechanism employed in many a Pisces situation) ... which we will now do in connection with something which harkens back to 21 Scorpio matters.

All of which doesn’t even begin to address the subject of Scheat.

Currently positioned at 29 Pisces, the astrological energetic which is Scheat is part of - if also separate from - the meaning for 29 Pisces. Like other fixed stars, Scheat functions somewhat akin to a ‘background’ note: oftentimes fixed stars represent things like currently “accepted” (or acceptable) societal standards, methods or notions. As we talk a lot about royal stars here at astroPPM, it’s worth noting that Scheat is not a royal star so there is no specific ‘warning’ about some quality or thing we must avoid in our Scheat “encounter.”

Why this is Scheat’s ‘theme’ however, is a bit more complicated. Often “short-handed” astrologically as a form of denial (generally a blanket denial which is as often wrong as right in its rationale and/or facts) Scheat is one of the stars in the so-called ‘great square’ of constellation Pegasus ... which would be complicated enough except that as a constellation Pegasus is connected to (intermingled with) constellation Andromeda.

 constellations Andromeda (top) and Pegasus (bottom) imaged

using Stellarium software

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And yes, the myths behind these two points are connected as well.

What connects them?

The answer there is a ‘who,’ not a ‘what,’ - and her gorgon name is Medusa, an astrological emblem of all those things which frighten us at an earnestly visceral level about our Self, and how we may well have done that Self - in capacity or reality - sincere harm.

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Medusa: Through Our Mental Mirror, Darkly

Pegasus is not Medusa’s child, per se. But when the young hero Perseus cuts Medusa’s head off, from the blood which flows forth (whether from the head or body isn’t noted) springs two creatures, one of which is Pegasus.

Is Pegasus the part of Medusa which would have wanted to ‘fly away’ from the fate she brought upon herself - and which (it might be argued) she was fated to bring upon herself by being born mortal? Maybe so, for in Pegasus is an animalistic potency (strength of instinct, speaking of 29 Pisces) which Medusa was born with, and which Medusa herself fell afoul of while in the course of serving the goddess of logic and dispassionate wisdom, Pallas Athena.

Medusa’s crime against Athena was the breaking of her vow to adhere to the teachings of wisdom and logic. And that she committed this crime by getting ‘carried away’ with Neptune makes it curiously fitting that Pegasus - literally the embodiment of ‘getting carried away by animalistic energies’ came into being as one of Medusa’s most captivating legacies when Perseus cut Medusa’s head off, reminding us of that common mortal instinct to ‘cut off’ that which is scaring or plaguing us.

Does it die? According to the myth, that ‘thing’ may die - but it may also become other forms of expression, such as Pegasus and the Chrysaor are as the literal blood of Medusa. In our lives, such attributes sometimes seem to be embodied as other people - but that’s exactly where we deceive our Self: we attract others not because of who they are, but because of something we are trying to solve or access or understand about our Self ...  hence the ‘harkening back’ to earlier eclipses and the intricately intertwined ways in which we fight to grow and be who we really are even as we deny things about (or even to) that Self which ultimately will not ... and cannot be denied because we are our Self.

We want to project even though its our feelings which we’re projecting. We want to exteriorize, even though anything which is in our life is something which we consciously know is there because we are connected to it. All of this may well be part of the nebulous ‘slippery-ness’ of the current eclipse - and hence of our desire to ‘take flight’ into, or away from something, even if what we’re running from now is the very thing we were running exactly towards not even three years ago.

And it’s all about us. Whatever happens now, whatever form or sort of inexorable change is functioning in your life, recognizing and accepting that something is indeed over (done, gone, lost, etc.) is the first if perhaps most gut-wrenching step any of us can take on whatever internalized emotional path we are being called to walk along.

And we will take that step. We will because that’s what solar eclipses do: they alter life’s ‘playing field’ such that we have no choice but to swim or sink into an oblivion which is only composed of our own unwillingness to learn anew or differently.

The Birth of Pegasus and Chrysaor

by Edward Burne Jones (1876-1885)

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As for the Andromeda side of this ‘connection,’ Andromeda was the daughter of queen Cassiopeia - the queen whose story (and energetic) was provoked when last April’s solar eclipse (at 8 Taurus) conjuncted fixed star Schedir.

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April’s 8 Taurus Solar Eclipse

(Part 3: Stars and Patterns)

Does this mean that if your chart was also aspected by last April’s eclipse this current eclipse would be stronger or maybe more complicated? That can be the case, though from season to season eclipses may not be ‘connected’ (in your life experiences) even if sequential eclipses do aspect your chart.

Sometimes all it means is that good or bad, you’re going through a lot of changes as your life evolves from one set of standard quos to another. Eclipses don’t take away things we don’t need, but they often eliminate something we really and sincerely like, love and depend on. Sometimes they seem to eliminate things only to have life bright that which we thought was lost back around - often at the 2.5 year ‘twist’ moment of the given eclipse.

When that happens, we may be assured of one thing: we have learned something more (or new) about not living a compromised life. We are meant to do certain things in our lifetimes. We have certain purposes. The thousands of years of solar eclipse lore (as separate from lunar eclipse records) strongly suggests that solar eclipses are about keeping us from that which works ‘well enough’ but which in the end will prevent us from doing those things or knowing those people we were created to know, do or be part of.

So there was Cassiopeia, the mother of the gracious and beautiful Andromeda. As Queen of Ethiopia, Cassiopeia was of a mind to say and do pretty much what she wanted to do, so it never occurred to her (it never does) that her boastful claim that her mortal daughter Andromeda was more beautiful than the sea nymph Nereids would annoy Neptune, but it did.

Yes, it’s that mortal-versus-god thing again. Any time a mortal (or even a demi-mortal) starts bragging about beauty and comparing themselves to the gods in Greek myth, you know there’s trouble coming ... and this story doesn’t disappoint.

No, disappointing is a Neptune thing, and when the sea god heard about Cassiopeia claim, said god sent along Cetus, a sea monster to attack Ethiopia.

Understandably, King Cepheus (Cassiopeia’s husband and Andromeda’s father) was seriously concerned. But was he so concerned that when an oracle told Cepheus and Cassiopeia that they should sacrifice their daughter to Neptune’s monster he stopped to object?

No. Just the monstrous threat of Cetus, an oceanic monster which in representing the worst water can deliver metaphysically translates into the worst that emotions and/or emotionality can delve out - that was quite enough to frighten Cepheus and Cassiopeia, who promptly had Andromeda taken down to the shore and chained to a rock so as to await the monster’s arrival.

Andromeda by Gustave Dore

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And Cetus - that terrible emotion which rises from our depths - did indeed soon approach the Ethiopian shore. But as that happened, Perseus, who was flying towards his own homeland (with the head of Medusa carefully hidden in a sack), spotted the maiden and swooped in to do the heroic deed.

Thus was Cetus slain and Andromeda rescued from an emotionally benighted fate her own parents had left her to be swallowed up by.

Lest we forget (or miss this point),there is a real piece of psychology wrapped up in Cassiopeia - the woman referred to as ‘chained’ in her own right, seeking to chain and sacrifice her only daughter to pay for her own bad act. In real life, parents are of course never supposed to do such a thing - and yet they do, all too often to all to ill a lifetime effect. But myth is not real life, and since when we read myth metaphysically we treat the various parts of the story as facets or aspects of personality, situation or mentality which we ourselves will encounter, all these questions of family and emotionality, loyalty, blood and morality refer to us and whether we have learned not to embody and/or ‘pass down’ (or ‘pass along’) restrictions which have been handed to us, or restrictions as a legacy - as restrictive measures which have been foisted upon us.

Wherever Scheat falls in our chart, that is where we become tempted to put aside being who we are in some ‘cause’ described by that house. We will feel societal pressure - perhaps on both, or every side. That alone is enough to push many (if not most) of us off course with our Self - which is really the cause in which Scheat and 29 Pisces are united. Somewhere in our psyches we each have somewhere where we have been resistant or reluctant to cross some ‘line’ - not with others, but with our Self. And now, with Scheat being eclipsed, anything and everything which has been denied is going to come out. Even if you won’t discuss it, others will - even seemingly out of thin air.

Many of us are already gills deep in such situations. Yet some ... a relative few, but some ... will run into Scheat challenges as the solar eclipse moves through - say, in the two or three weeks which follow the eclipse, which is generally the period during which we change in response to recent events, pressures and other sorts of input.

That Scheat so often astrologically represents an accepted social, public or personal position on/about some ‘thing’ which may be wrong (but which is unlikely to change even though a lack of change equates to standing in one’s own way) ... that all that is being set off at all by this eclipse implies that there is ... or recently has been a ‘testing’ of some standard - perhaps with new information or some sort of challenge. For the past several months things have been unsettled in some area which may touch on ‘general feelings’ (intuitive or otherwise) going around ... or which may seem to be crumbling the very solidity upon which your concepts are built.

That’s the eclipse as a ‘package,’ so to speak. Within that, Scheat is the element which tempts you to ‘run from’ the (Pisces) feelings which would be associated with facing something in/about your life - or the loss of something in/about your life. And since there is hardly anything astrological any more global, basic and potentially disorienting than a solar eclipse, every single one of us (particularly those whose charts are aspected by orb) ... every one of us is going through these internal ordeals regarding external/externalized issues which are (or have) raised uncertainty and indecision in whatever area would promote/provoke an awareness of the difference between fantasy and reality, and how to relinquish our hold on that - to blindly believe something simply because it is or isn’t presented as ‘good’ or ‘the norm’ or however else ... is a  sacrifice of Self and a compromise of potential.

Solar eclipses evolve over the full three years associated with their passage. That means the coronal inspiration - that special thing about each one of us which we will do well to utilize in this eclipse’s passage - will be with us until February, 2018. The ‘twist’ in this eclipse’s Scheat tale however, that falls around six months prior to said date in August 2017, when on the 21st of the month there will be a total solar eclipse at 28 Leo - a position which is in orb of conjunction with Regulus, the royal star which says that success cannot be achieved if we have indulged our Self with regards to revenge or vengeance.

That may well have bearing on what some people do now. Or what they deny (or deny to have any part in) which come late 2017 returns as an issue to trip them up or haunt them.

Of course with an eclipse at 29 Pisces, the Sun is a scant degree away from 0 Aries, which in the case means that the Sun will be moving through its Aries ingress (which is otherwise known as the Aries Equinox) at 22:46 in the evening (10:46 p.m., UT/+0), only some twelve hours after the eclipse reaches totality. Some might say the Sun's exit out of Pisces so soon after an eclipse underscores the eclipse message about letting go or leaving something, someone or some situation behind, either consciously or unconsciously. But whether you feel that's apt in your case, what we know from the astrology is that if the Sun (signifying our consciousness) moves out of Pisces, that puts everything about the eclipse into the '12th harmonic' position vis-a-vis where we are as of 10:46 on that evening. (And obviously, on into Aries from there.)

There is a difficulty sketched in here - namely that the 12th harmonic is where we tend to do all those self-compromising, emotionally-driven things which are associated with ... with what?

With Pisces.

What this says is that most of us will fall (broadly) into two very ill-defined groups - the group which is going to take its issues on (emotional though they may be) in a more 'behind the scenes' mode ... and those who will, virtually as fast as they recognize their part in some problem (or the fact they are part or party to a problem) begin to deny it - either the problem, that the problem is a problem, or that they have, or have had anything to do with the subject. Once the Sun enters Aries, a natural grand-fire-trine-by-sign will be 'ignited' in day-to-day matters by virtue of the Sun's 'generality' quotient. And that will bring out a lot of Jupiter (in Leo) - Saturn (in Sagittarius) - Uranus (in Aries) postulating, projecting, promising and pontificating which with Mercury entering Aries as of March 31st and the 14 Libra Lunar Eclipse on April 4th promises a couple of high-powered, highly motivated and interestingly imaginative weeks, much of the subject(s) of which will - despite what people might want you to think - be reflective of unsettled feelings just below many a surface about where one's life or efforts are really headed.

NGC 7319 in constellation Pegasus

(photo credit NASA, ESA, July 2009)

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So ... as I started out by saying, eclipses are mysteriously squirrelly beasts. They’re beautiful and they’re awe-inspiring in their ability to remind us of something which otherwise we don’t tend to think about much: namely how we don’t control much in, or about this universe and Existence. At 29 Pisces - the last degree in the whole of the zodiac - it may be easy to get lost in the idea that everything is over simply because one thing has run its useful or even some theoretically eternal course. Moreover, the way eclipse cycles work, this isn’t 29 Pisces as the ‘end’ of the zodiac round at all, if simply because eclipses - being a function of the lunar nodes (you can’t have an eclipse without those lunar nodes!) - because the nodes cycle backwards.

And if we think of the entire cavalcade of astro-events leading into this eclipse ... Saturn's station, Lilith's station prior to that, Mercury entering Pisces as Juno went direct ... it all very much speaks to that process which has been coming upon us for the past few months which is about being led to, forced to, exposed to that which we fear most about ourselves, not so we can be destroyed by it, but so that we can finally recognize something about our Self which WE have been denying (or simply not seeing about our Self) for a long time.

Probably too long a time.

That means we may be fooling our Self about what we really want - which is one of the tougher parts of this solar eclipse. As fast as we recognize what we need (or really want), whether we have it in our hands or not are we likely to be giving up one denial for another because we haven't yet accepted (the challenge of Pisces being emotional acceptance) those parts of our Self which we don't really like.

Not like doing ... LIKE. The person we back away from (lunar nodes cycle backwards). The thing in our Self we habitually deny (asteroid Lilith) doing or being. The thing hard times may have us thinking we should retreat from trying to do in or about or with others in our world because (Scheat) we don't understand or (Scheat) they don't want to listen.

Or maybe they want to listen. Or they want to talk to us or hear from us or understand us ... and we have been denying our need to be heard, felt and witnessed in our soul. Beyond the days and trials and relationships and commitments, beyond our hopes and without the motivation of plans we are simply ... who are we?

And are we really who we think we are - or want to be?

That's the level at which the person you are is most likely to be affected by this eclipse.

So that's one part of it, with the other part of the process - the 'critical' part of the 29 "critical" degrees of Pisces which speaks to the societal, plural ‘we,’ the mankind 'we' as well as the individual 'we' - WE are already past another zodiacal transition. WE are feeling (and witnessing) the feelings which have resulted from actions which themselves are reactions (in particular) to things which have come to be or taken place over the past 4-5 years.

And now WE ... and we (as individuals) will just have to decide who we are - and who we’re willing to be, considering we can neither be everything nor (in most cases) even everything we expect of ourselves, noble though our intentions and efforts may be. That's just part of being mortal, and Pisces - as a sign - is nothing if not about not just weathering the experience of being mortal, but experiencing both the turbulent and sunny times - each for what it is in the whole of what is supposed to be a widely varied and variable life.
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