Jupiter square Pluto: Overcoming Odds, Underwhelming Aspects

 

 Nature et Architecture15 by Clo Baril

The frequency with which planets meet up in zodiacal manner is referred to as their ‘Synodic Cycle.’ Jupiter and Pluto meet up once every thirteen years (plus a few days) – their last synodic conjunction was in late Sagittarius on December 11, 2007 and the one before that was in late Scorpio back on December 2, 1994.

Why care about such a thing? Well, synodic cycles are a bit like the layers on an onion. Or tree rings. Maybe a better way of thinking about it is the building up of courses of bricks in the building of a wall. They’re ‘steps in a process’ – and when we think about Jupiter and Pluto, the process being represented is building effectively and understanding how we get in our own way…otherwise known as ‘how do we let ourselves down’ – which may ring as the opposite of the ‘building’ concept a bit more clearly.

Considering it takes Jupiter 11.86 years to go once around the Sun and it takes Pluto 248.09 years to do the same thing, it’s obvious that once these two meet up in the same degree, Jupiter zooms on ahead while Pluto wends its sauntering Plutonic way along its (Neptune governed) Plutino track.

Okay…so now what’s up?

What’s up is that Jupiter squares Pluto on February 25, 2011 at 7:56pm (UT/+0) with Pluto at 7 Capricorn and Jupiter at 7 Aries.

 Jupiter's aurora's in UV

photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

To understand this concept, let's start with the 'square' part. The astrological square generally refers to a 'challenge.' Sometimes a puzzle, sometimes a choice of which of two things you want/should do or think...but whatever the situation, choice or concept, there's generally some feeling of being 'challenged.' What to think? Which one to do? How to make this work?

In this case we have have two planets with each in cardinal signs – ‘cardinal’ meaning do it first, learn from results. But sort of like two cars proceeding along two different roads which meet at a (square) intersection, this doesn’t always mean our abilities are up to par with our desires. Or maybe it’s that we’re at some sort of ‘crossroads’ with some process. Or some relationship. Or some effort (like say, getting a job) where our effort meets up with someone’s opinion of us.

Streets which intersect at right angles posing the question of who goes first (and the need to acknowledge each other, lest we go ‘kaboom!’ in an accident which benefits neither) is one way of thinking of a square.

Another – which is just as valid – is to think of the 90 degree (right angle) square in terms of its validity in engineering.

If you’re inside – look up. It’s likely that the ceiling above you meets the wall at a 90 degree, square right angle. It’s a ‘structural’ angle…and if the world’s cities are any kind of decent testimony, it would seem that the square angle is basic to our ability to build anything!

So this is the question: will you get in your own way or let someone else discourage you? Or will you deal with your challenges not as being about the ‘other’ person/part of the question and work to build towards your aims?

With Pluto in Capricorn, part of the issue is all about long-standing ‘norms.’ The question is what can be done away with without creating such a lack of structure that nothing works. We don’t want to make a difficult situation even more complicated, right?

Against this, we have Jupiter in Aries – a signal that this is the time to develop ourselves, to move ahead with plans, when by expanding our use of our talents is highly apt.

But here’s the catch: Aries, though always the sign of ‘I Am’ does not really work that well when we try to turn “I Am” into ‘all about me.’ Aries is the sign of the warrior who saves the kingdom, not who aims to have a big parade held in their honor. In opposition to Libra, the question is what you have to give and the quality of what you have to give….that being the “cause” in the phrase “cause/effect.”

This is a karmic universe which obeys the scientific laws which are so well defined in certain quarters. ‘Cause/Effect’ is otherwise known by various names…from what you put out comes back to you to the popular karma’s a bitch! version.

It all amounts to the same thing: polarities count. For who we are through what we do (or ‘offer’ of ourselves), so we become known….and that determines how others treat us or respond to us.

Pluto stands in opposition to fixed star Sirius and Polyhymnia, reminding us to think before we choose and to reflect on efforts passed (Polyhymnia) for at many a juncture, it’s not only the smallest of small things which counts (Sirius) but the need to put our own aims aside in the service of others which ultimately really does get us what we want in the end (Sirius/Pluto).

That this is an opposition means we can face this/these ideas….or maybe just be annoyed as all get-out at anyone/anything reminding us of things we really, really didn’t want to be reminded of!

In other words, we can observe these limitations and lessons learned (or maybe not yet learned) or try to blow them off and in doing so, run the risk of running into….

….into what? Answer: ourselves!

(you know, our own headstrong stubborn nature?)

Dwarf planet Pluto

photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Yes, there’s plenty of energy around now suggesting that those who don’t do well with guidance or limits may just totally run into a self-constructed (or ignored) wall.

Like, ouch!

On the Jupiter side, though this is all about moving ahead and continuing to build, it’s not all peaches and peanuts. Jupiter standing at 7 Aries is about to meet up with  Pelion (the big mountain) and Lust (fixation) at 8 Aries. So ask yourself…how well focused are you on the task ahead?

This combination favors those willing to take on a task. It really doesn’t favor those looking for a gambol in the park or the easy time, the being catered to and all that stuff.

In fact, by the time Jupiter reaches 8 Aries on March 2nd, the Pelion/Lust of February 25th will have  turned into Pelion/Orpheus – Lust having moved on to 9 Aries.

And what is Orpheus? Orpheus is great talent marred by insecurity – which is actually a pretty common human problem!

No matter who you are, like as not March is going to evoke a few twinges. And maybe that’s all it is – a twinge or two that you roust yourself out of saying ‘oh, just let it go!’

But whenever and wherever we see Orpheus, we are also asked to consider the whole of the Orpheus story – namely that with Orpheus is the unspoken image of Eurydike. And since Eurydike always (always!) tells us that we must be prepared to foot the bill and pay the cost before we volunteer for something lest we be forever lost in doing so, it may just really pay to not overstep our bounds as the Jupiter/Pluto square rolls in, lest we buy into something in haste and live to repent having done so at most disappointed leisure.

Bottom line, this is really a check point on proportion. Going into this moment, you may feel overwhelmed with what's going on...or maybe overwhelmed by some conviction. There's an intensity, a 'push' which would astrologically be expected when Jupiter squares Pluto and with this aspect being pictured in pro-active (cardinal) signs, there well be a great sense of urgency or need to act for a day - even a day and a half before this actual aspect...as energies begin to build.

Can you do what you need/want to do without chickening out OR overstepping your own limits?

Once the moment of aspect happens, there's likely to be a sorting out, a realizing what has come of what has happened - or even through what you've felt. This can be just as productive a period as the time 'going in' to the aspect as this is when we learn, when we realize, when we come more to grips with what is, what has been, what yet can be (Pluto in Capricorn) against what we can and cannot to (Jupiter in Aries)...which really leaves us to understand our limits - and our capacities.

There are many things we can't do. But many things we can do as well! And though you may not be able to choose the moment or the times you live in, or how things come to be that you have to cope with - there is a choice whether to play your hand to the positive or to the negative. That choice belongs to you.

So if you can, use Jupiter square Pluto to get a grasp on something important to you - and do something with or about it. This can actually be a moment of victory long planned for and labored towards.

And if you do have problems? Don’t give up! Learn from the moment, regroup and move on. The basic notion of what you started back in 2007 has a good ways to go still…so keep on being and learning about who you are and how to Be you most happily and effectively!

Jupiter, Drakonia and the shadow of Neptune: A Reality which Plays with our Feelings

 The Sombrero Galaxy in infrared

photo credit: NASA/JPL - Spitzer Telescope Team

 

As the 8th became the 9th, Jupiter exited the shadow of its 2010 retrograde cycle. Maybe you felt it. Maybe something you had been trying to do last year finally got wrapped up with a nice, neat little bow.

Or maybe you just stopped trying.

Known as sole ruler of fiery Sagittarius and first/initiating ruler of Pisces, Jupiter symbolizes everything about life which makes us know (Jupiter) that there’s tons out there to experience (Sag)…to feel we’re in touch with (Pisces)…to learn about (Sag)…and to be part of (Pisces).

But the 2010 version of this vision – that’s over with now. As maybe you’ve noticed, life has moved on!

So that’s all we have to say at the moment about Jupiter. Well, except that it’s still in early Aries…which puts the focus on who we are and what we’re doing or being in this world. And yes, there’s also how at this particular moment, Jupiter is wafting along through space in astrological (not spatial!) conjunction with Lust (the concept of intensity of focus) and Mnemosyne (reflection as the best teacher).

That implies we are all focused on what we’re going to become. Or – alternately – what’s going to become of us. Maybe even what we can make of ourselves in this world.

It’s rather like that old phrase: ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’

 A nursery of new stars

photo credit: NASA/JPL - Caltech

Then there’s the next thing…how as of February 10th at 2:28 in the morning (UT/+0), Drakonia goes retrograde at 17 Libra. By anyone’s estimation, 17 Libra is a second decan (emotional) degree of an airy, ‘the ideal of it all’ driven conceptual sign. Libra is highly, seriously poetic - poetry being the very essence of the idea expressed emotionally. But it’s not all that tangible. We think of it as being all about ‘relationships’ when it’s really more about the quality of relating – as in, ‘can we relate?’

The whole notion that relationships are ‘just one thing’ is about as nonsensical as saying we should match to each other merely based on Sun signs. If your Sun is your basic perspective and personal ‘tool box’ fine – that’s a vital and important aspect of who you are. But that's only part of who you are. The Sun doesn't symbolize your values - that’s Venus. It’s not your emotionality! That’s the Moon. It’s not how you communicate – that would be the Mercury department. And it sure isn’t about whether you put the cap back on the toothpaste tube unless you’re a Sun sign Virgo, in which case you’re likely to have a bit of the Toothpaste Nazi in you or simply never care what happens to the toothpaste altogether. (Yes, there are sloppy Virgos! Shocking, I know!)

Anyway…if you want to pick your ‘true love’ based only on your Sun then I want to see your chart because I’d like to know exactly why you think someone else’s values, feelings, sense of humor and ability to communicate, be all Saturn reliable and responsible….why you think that doesn’t count! 

So back to this 17 Libra thing…this is one of those Libra degrees where the two ‘sides’ of Libra are more pronounced or more apparent. You know, like the two sides of the coin – or in this case, of the scale. It’s a degree where Libra presents with great wit and facile eloquence…but to what end?

That’s what one needs to always ask, as this degree can manifest as caring or cutting, interested or quarrelsome, informative or snarky.

And when you add in Drakonia, it’s hard not to think that whatever side of this sugar-vs.-snark line things fall down on, it might not be real. Or realistic!

Making this all double-triple confusionating is that this may not be anyone else playing you! You could be just maybe, perhaps, sorta (kinda) fooling yourself! On the other hand, maybe the biggest (and certainly overarching) concept to consider here is that the third thing happening today is that Neptune is entering the ‘shadow’ of its 2011/2012 cycle.

Probably the best way to understand what this means is to consider what we were talking about in terms of Jupiter. Last year, life was about what it was about at that point. All the parameters and details of what you were doing and what the world was doing…we recognize (Jupiter = knowing, understanding, comprehending) now that all that is over. Done. Finis!

We’re in a whole new cycle of learning about life and what life can become. There’s a difference between where you are now and where you were then.

That’s a ‘planetary cycle’ of a yearly type!

So now Neptune is starting it’s new cycle. With all planets which go retrograde (Sun and Moon don’t, though granted, the Sun is actually a star and the Moon is Earth’s satellite)….these cycles aren’t set flush, end to end. Some have days or weeks between the end of one and the start of another. Time off, call it. Or a free for all in planetary affect terms!

 Planet Neptune - photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

If you work with transits, you know this idea from having seen transits – most often by Jupiter and/or Saturn – which are one-time transits, as opposed to three (or with Pluto and sometimes Neptune, five-time) transits.

The farther from the Sun a planet is, the longer its orbital cycle. The longer that orbital cycle, the fewer degrees that planet transits in any given year, and thus the more likely it is that it will go direct-retrograde-direct (or even direct, retrograde, direct, retrograde, direct) over any given point before moving on!

With Neptune, we don’t get any ‘free time.’ Actually…we get anything but! The last Neptune cycle doesn’t actually end until February 25th (happy birthday George Harrison…) of this year. But meanwhile, the new Neptune cycle has begun. This next cycle will take us to February 27, 2012.

That these Neptune cycles are overlapping suggests – among other things – that the great human desire to glue everything down and say ‘Okay! That’s taken care of!’ isn’t much in the offing. The lesson of the moment, for all that we may want to “know” what’s happening, is that we can’t…or that we at least aren’t likely to.

That ‘knowing’ thing? That’s the Jupiter part. So part of our Jupiter lesson going forward is that whatever we try to be or become, we can’t know how that’s going to turn out for us – we just have to try.

Or….seeing as we are dealing with both Jupiter and Neptune, which taken together equal rulership of Pisces, maybe the point is that we should accept. Accept ourselves for who we are and proceed from that basis, accept that we won’t know what every little thing is going to be or become and do a little bit every day to try and reach our goals…to let go of the idea that we know what things “should be.”

 Constellation Pisces

produced using Stellarium software

With Jupiter in early degrees (see it above...just past Pisces?), Drakonia in second decanate (middle) degrees and Neptune in the latter degrees of Aquarius, we have a spectrum laid out for us.

Maybe that’s just the point. We can do what we do wanting or looking for some effect or response, but when we do, Neptune defeats us. In all things Neptune, the thing you are most sure of is likely to prove untrue while that you think least likely most often proves out.

And that, my friends, would seem to be a perverse little lesson on how not you, not me, no nobody runs this world. ‘What Is’ is far bigger and more complex than anything we can conceive of. Our egos demand and crave that centralized sense of centralized, viable importance, but when you look at the universe, how big or important are we – really?

And given that, who is really getting played and isn’t the biggest and most consistent form of being or getting played that which comes as a response to having a mortal ego?

So do what you can, but don’t figure that’s all you can do. Know who you are, but figure on learning more as you go along. It’s probably a bad idea to figure you know what ‘should’ be as none of us really have the capacity to know.

Is it us against the world? Us against our world? Or maybe it’s the human race living on its world, gazing out at the stars realizing…

…Realizing what? Playing who?

Maybe it's all about our feelings...and our inborn, human need to feel.

Saturn goes Retrograde: The Rock, the Hurt and the Harm of Convenience

 Artists's rendition of a Huygens probe floating in a methane-ethane

lake on Titan, with parent planet Saturn looming above the horizon

image credit: NASA's Cassini-Huygens collection

Let’s just start with a freeze-dried version of the basic concept here: Saturn goes retrograde at 17 Libra on January 26 at 6:11am (UT/+0).

And Saturn will continue to be in retrograde until it goes direct on June 13 at 3:52am (UT/+0).

What a nice long time to have a nice long Saturn nice time of it!

Or maybe...not so much?

What exactly does this whole 'Saturn going retrograde' mean? And why would this Saturn retrograde adventure be any different than any other Saturn retrograde adventure? After all, don't all the major planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and...well, give or take being a dwarf planet, Pluto) - don't they all go retrograde once a year?

The answer to that is yes. But seeing that the universe (ergo, our solar system) is not a static thing, every moment in (Saturn) time and thus certainly every station and every year's retrograde is different.

Entirely different.

But let's start at the beginning, taking that very first announcement as the simple statement it is: Saturn goes retrograde at 17 Libra on January 26 at 6:11am (UT/+0).

For those of you who know and love grammar, the subject of that sentence is Saturn. As a matter of fact, the subject of the sentence is Saturn even if you don't like grammar!

The point is, all things apply to Saturnine principles in this moment.

The verb here is the 'going retrograde' part. That’s an  indicator: what happens now (and for a wee bit shy of  five months yet to come) is the examining of Self in Saturn detail, the challenging of Self in Saturnine style, and the growing and developing of our capacity as that pertains to creating a world (personal and general) that is lasting, workable and practical. Or at least pragmatic. And possible. And acceptable. And structurally sound.

Because Saturn is going retrograde all this starts on the inside. So we can challenge ourselves to grow, develop, get over ourselves and get to doing what we should do...or we can figure on life presenting us with situations, events, puzzles and relationships which cause us to be challenged at some very internal, personal Saturnine level.

That would be the good ol' basics here. Anything we add to that is a modifying clause - the lettuce and tomato on the burger...the chocolate sauce on the ice cream.

But looking at the list...? Well, it is quite the list! So let's go for the ice cream concept and say we're just having a heaping helping of sprinkles. LOTS of sprinkles!

(And not to worry - in the planetary world, extra aspects don't add calories. Asteroids don't go to you....well, never mind - you get the point!)

So here's the list - and thus the real un-freeze-dried version of the original sentence:

Saturn will go retrograde at 17 Libra on January 26 at 6:11am (UT/+0) in conjunction with Drakonia (at 17 Libra) and Haumea (at 18 Libra) while in opposition to Eris, Tantalus and Dionysus (at 21 and 20 Aries, respectively)...all as Eurydike enters Pisces, Hera enters Aries, Lust enters Aries…and with Medea going direct a few hours later at 12 Gemini.

Does this sound like a waltz in the park to you? At the very least it’s a complicated dance number. Much choreography and intricate movement involved...lots of attention needing to be paid to not swinging one’s arms and hitting someone else in the nose!

You know, the simple matter of exotica.

Okay…now since I don’t want to repeat all of the last blog, let’s just pay lip service to Saturn being a symbol of working for achievement, earning and/or the concept of walls as things which can limit, things which can support (say, a roof) or things which can for plus or minus protect us from stuff…out there (wherever ‘out there’ may be).

Libra, which is so often so annoyingly (to me) talked about as a sign of romance and marriage partners when it’s really about personal OR professional relationships and our ability to relate without any emotional intimacy implied…

Yes, you heard me – Libra is not about romance. At least not romance as I conceive of it, meaning emotionality. Libra is an air sign. It may thus be the idea of romance, but it’s not true intimacy. So if you’re someone who has this whole ‘romantic notion’ about love and SOs (Significant Others) in your head, Libra may be your idea of romance.

Then again, that may be why so many marriages fail – which also works, since Libra is the sign of ‘open enemies’ and lawyers.

Anyway, Libra isn’t about romance per se, but it is about relationships and our ability to relate. With Saturn in Libra, our concepts of same, our ability to relate and how we go about relating to others and our world is going through a Saturnine, slow-motion examination. (And for some, an exhumation, but let’s not go there!)

Saturn symbolizes ‘that which we earn we shall in time, achieve’ to the nth degree. It also symbolizes how that which we try and get away with (or avoid) ends up biting us in some fleshy part of our anatomy.

That Saturn is going direct at 17 Libra adds a note of ‘theoretical emotionality,’ whether that’s conviction about something, enthusiasm for something or objection to some idea. This is ‘a meeting of the minds’ or a clash of ideas, ideals or priorities. At it’s best it’s an agreement to disagree or a willingness to negotiate.

But don’t be too sure about that ‘willingness’ thing. Not even mentioned in the list above is the fact that at the moment of this change of direction the Moon has entered Scorpio, a sign which asks us to find solutions which take everyone’s needs into account but which tends to (unfortunately!) be our desires to have our own way.

And if you look at this – a chart of the station…

Saturn's January 2011 station 

(Aries wheel/location not specific)

….you may well notice the Grand Trine (in green) with two light blue sextiles reaching up towards the top of the chart. It’s a ‘planetary picture’ called a kite. And with kites, it’s the tail which guides the kite.

That ‘tail’ is the south node at the bottom of the chart. And since South Nodes are about ‘the easy way out’ and what with this one being in Moon-ruled Cancer, we end up back at that Scorpio Moon. 

But it could be okay, you say. 

Uh, yes, I reply. It could, but it probably won’t. Did you happen to notice that this Scorpio Moon is conjunct Niobe?

I get called down fairly regularly for being an astrological pessimist when what I’m doing is simply reading the celestial signs. What’s wrong with being realistic (she said in her most cranky voice)? Given that Niobe is the pride which precedes getting shot down, though this (yes) could be calling others on their bad or irrational or selfish behavior, let’s be real! The likelihood is that this is pride challenging us all to be more inclusive, more charitable, more caring about the emotional needs and points of views being expressed by others…but the reality is that this it’s highly, highly unlikely that those – particularly those in who have the Scorpio power (or power over money, sex or convention) in hand – it’s really unlikely they’re going to do whatever the “hard” or “unpopular” thing is. That would be the Moon ruling the South Node part.

And yet….and yet and yet and yet….The North Node, the ‘highest’ form of this figure is in Capricorn. And we are talking about a Saturn (ruler of Capricorn) station. So maybe some people will actually do the hard (North Node) thing, come what may.

Maybe. I’m not betting any mental pizza on it…but maybe.

So back to that list. With Saturn going retrograde conjunct Drakonia, the question is who is the player and who is being played? With Haumea at 18 Libra add in ‘shape shifting’ in order to get one’s way.

Is that you or someone else? And if it is you, did you play yourself or someone else? Maybe even both?

The opposition to Eris (discord), Tantalus (temptation) and Dionysus (sacred celebration) gives us a whole aura of that which is sacrosanct…which casts all sorts of questions into the fog.

 Dionysus - a 2nd century statue (Louvre, Paris)

Taken together, this is is a big giant mish-mosh of ‘what’s right? what’s wrong’ which is complicated by personal desires and (like as not) personal alliances….which….well, are they real? Are they an ‘alliance of convenience’ and dare you pay the price for that?

A lot of these questions will ultimately only be answered once Saturn comes out of retrograde this June. But the road we choose now – that definitely defines how smooth or rocky the path between here and there is going to be. And since this is Saturn – what the price for said choice is or isn’t going to ultimately be.

Personally, as I think this celestial equation through, I keep coming back to that Nodal issue with the easy way out being the Scorpio Moon. Considering Scorpio is debt, that says it’s easier to take on debt than pay it off.

Following a different cosmic chain – that which has Saturn’s position in Libra ruled by Venus and Venus in Sagittarius leading then to Jupiter in Aries and ultimately Mars/Sun/Sappho/Hel in early Aquarius, there’s a whole Aquarian and rather ‘group’ or ‘societal’ flavor to this station which would seem to be either the difficulty of majority rule or the difficulty being experienced by the greater group (or the economy OR the masses)…or that there’s simply universal (Sappho) Hel to pay which is coming from one of those arenas.

 Sappho embracing her lyre by Jules Elie Delaunay

What you may not know about this post is that it’s being written way far in advance of the actual date. Good astrology should be able to be read right off the charts, with no current news bulletins involved. So when I say my non-Sherlockian-trained instincts of deduction take me back to the South Node/Scorpio Moon/Niobe thing, especially seeing as the outcome ruler of Scorpio (Pluto) is sitting in Capricorn just out of orb to the North Node tells me that there has already been some emotional upheaval. North Node at 0 Capricorn (a whole other message we’ll get to in a moment) and Pluto at 6 Capricorn says that six months ago the ‘society’ took a turn.

Six months ago was late August. August 2010 saw fires in Russia, Bolivia and Canada, devastating floods in Pakistan, an oil spill in China, political scandals in Denmark, Italy and the Philippines, BP getting the Deepwater Horizon well sealed, and swelling debt and economic destabilization prompting labor unrest in China, President Obama’s signing of a bill to help US States and Europe dealing with debt and (in paritcular) the further  destabilization of an already overstressed Greece.

Choose your subject – it wasn’t a pretty global month and everywhere you go this would seem to be a playing out of what happened then, whether it’s dealing with death (Scorpio) of citizens (Cancer), national (Cancer) or systemic (Aquarian) debt (Scorpio) – or the Deepwater Horizon rig blowout, which has been blogged about ad nauseum and which fits this picture pretty darn well, right down to the kite, which in having the Nodes lined up vertically is a great picture of oil drilling.

A metaphysical picture, of course.

With Eurydike entering Pisces…well, I’m not sure what to say. The mythic Eurydike martyrs herself for her lover who then can’t save her because he’s either too curious or too insecure to proverbially resist opening the oven door to see if the soufflé is actually puffing up. Of course the minute you open the door, the soufflé collapses.

Talk about your self-fulfilling prophesies! Yet that could be one of the flavors of the moment; Eurydike entering Pisces is a terribly plaintive cry of agony which would apparently be because one can’t deal with their own (bad) choices (...which strikes me as somewhere between ‘eeewwww!’ and ‘ouch!’).

Hera (internal emotional guidance) entering Aries is a pointed directive to care for our human selves and all that we hold as human about ourselves. With Lust (focus) also entering Aries, this could be some being so focused on themselves and what they want that everyone else in the area is left to fend for their own needs…or it could be a very natural (re)determination to take on what one really needs to do: I guess no one else is going to help me, so I ‘d better help myself! 

The kicker is this Medea going direct in Gemini a few hours later. Tricky, tricky….

Medea by Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (1868)

Medea’s story has her using her powers as a sorceress to help her lover Jason. She will do all and anything to save him...help him...to shower him with advantages, fair or not.

Anything!

This is a woman who would even murder her own children to be with Jason, to have him, to be able to love him.

And yet...there's this one little problem:Jason's not quite as much in love with Medea.

Thus it's rather predictable (especially since this is a Greek myth) that we come to an end of the story where Medea is...betrayed. (read: dumped)

But the real issue is not that she loved the wrong guy, but that the very power of her love for someone, in the end, destroyed her.

(I think I’m now voting for the ‘ouch’ outcome.)

Taken all together, this is a rather grand set of ruffles atop the basic Saturn-going-retrograde concept. For various reasons, we had all better get more realistic about now just what we do in life or how we handle life, but what we expect out of life.

This is about proportions, not ability. This is a picture of the grandiose on all sides being unrealistic. It applies up and down the line – from among the high and mighty to in the souls of the meagerly provided for and ignored.

Saturn is perhaps the greatest symbol of ‘leveling’ we have. And in Libra, we can get leveled, be on the level or get more level headed. All this starts with and within ourselves, no question. But it’s also about what we’re willing to work for, the reality of our standards and life and the world all around us.

Pass the pizza, please. I need to have a serious think. And yes, a slice of something before I face all that ice cream and all those scads and mounts of sprinkles.

Did I mention that Saturn is known for not just durability, but cold?

See you around the old cosmic sundae!