Psyche’s Libra New Moon

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If we haven’t gotten the message about our attitude towards others and who we are to others, this month’s Libra New Moon underscores that yet again. And yes... the easy thing is always to point at others or to criticize them, but taken to the metaphysical level that thought (or method of coping) doesn’t really hold water. Why not? Well, that goes back a seriously basic metaphysical treatise, namely that ‘like attracts like.’

And when we focus on that as it applies to relationships, that ‘equating’ of people is the ‘I/thou’ thing, a ‘relating’ or ‘relationship to’ quotient we know as the Aries/Libra polarity. Metaphysically this polarity pair is all about that term ‘like,’ whether it’s about ‘liking’ or being ‘alike’...or not liking and not having anything in common. Libra is an air sign - a sign about the idea, the theory, the concept, the plan, the agreement, the negotiation, the notion of the process - and all that is right about it and all which is wrong about it...all which will lead to success and what leads to failure.

On the other hand, what Libra isn’t is emotionally based. This is a sign which even when it expresses and acts on deeply held convictions and feelings bases its decisions on the intellectual consideration, whether that’s bad or good. (Even both.) In personal terms, the ‘open enemies’ part of Libra is our own confronting of the idea that someone indeed hates us. Or that they might hate us. So we confront the problem. Or them.

Or we get someone to advise us. One of the other things about Libra is that it acts as the ‘gauge’ which defines (for us) how ‘close’ we want to be to something or someone - and part of how we judge them or their suitability to be in our life. (Usually our personal life.) And when it comes to those Libra-type counselors, teachers, advisors, advocates, doctors as so on, the success of that association is based on the equality in the association. It’s not that we’re ‘alike’ or that we’re ‘meant to know each other’ (if we know each other at all, metaphysically we’re “supposed” to know each other).

But the closer that relationships are...which is to say the more Libra “us” any relationship is, the less “I/me” Aries it can be and remain in balance unless the person (or situation) is as uninvolved as you are. In an optimal counseling/advisory relationship, both parties are focused on learning from the other and returning value for perceived worth or worth received (or perceived). That’s Libra - the equal cause/effect of relationship or conversation, the heart and soul of ‘for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction’ which is so intrinsically and essentially Libran.

And inevitable. Libra says it takes two to tango even if we have to provide both of the sides ourselves, which is what some people are going to be at this time, whether on the up side or through a bout with personal/internal conflict. Plus either way, considering how this month’s Libra New Moon is going to occur on September 24th (at 6:15 a.m., UT/+0 time)...and with that being one day after Pluto going direct... this is not your run-of-the-mill New Moon. Any time Pluto and the Moon team up that either equals focus...or a lack of focus, a breaking of concentration or some sort of recognition as to what something (past, present or future) is worth coming under the kind of scrutiny which generally indicates we want... or know we need a change.

The thing about combinations of Pluto and Moon effects is that they tend to act like we’re dumping gas on a very personal and deeply imbedded fire. For some, this will spell motivation while for others this indicates some form of obsession...and all of this is going to be filtered through a zodiacal lens known as 1 Libra.

And that makes the whole thing just a little more intense and possibly enlightening... or just possibly bizarre. Why that would be stems from two things, one being the idea that 1 Libra is very ‘self-oriented,’ a quality which in a sign like Libra, which is about relating, can easily manifest as off-putting behavior - most pointedly that which concerns ‘deciding the truth’ of some matter and not budging from that point in a manner which puts others off simply because the display of conviction is not just sturdily stable but stubborn - even arrogant. This tendency to defend, even with finesse and skill often ends badly because despite its independent qualities 1 Libra needs to learn important lessons on how to create alliances and how to go about participating in the kind of ‘team building’ efforts or activities which are so native to Libra.

Being so known for its independent qualities ’ degree in an interactive realm which speaks to ‘being separate’ or possibly ‘separated’ from something or someone...or even some sense that you know what’s happening.

Yet there’s another side to that as well - the fact that 1 Libra is the position of a super-massive black hole known as M87.

The metaphysics of black holes (which is obviously pretty new stuff) goes with this phenomena's ability to apparently work outside our physical norm. Time, light...black holes mess with such precepts just as the astrological black hole lends a quality of ‘alternative’ or ‘non-traditional’ to life’s mix. When black holes get activated we see a different side of things - which could be merely be about everything going on in the (or our) world. However it happens, it happens,

By definition, any New Moon is about a ‘start,’ a ‘beginning’ or maybe just a shift of phase where one thing gets done and another thing begins. And just as with anything else, this can be the start of something good...or challenging, depending. Considering how this is a transit which occurs in tandem with Pluto’s station (if a day after Pluto goes direct) maybe you’re someone who has come into this time with everything going wrong in your life, relationships or in what you’re doing (or have been doing) Or maybe there’s a mass of things hanging over you, none of which you control - which is a typical Pluto problem, that out of control or not in charge of things feeling.

And now that changes. Or becomes manageable.

Or even unnecessary.

Of course since this is Pluto we’re talking about, maybe you have more control than you think. Or maybe that fearful feeling you have that something you can’t quite name, define or deal with is wrong, wrong, wrong... maybe that’s just an echo of something past. Or your allowing yourself to get stirred up/manipulated by someone/something to the point where you feel things are more wrong than they actually are.

L'Enlèvement de Psyché by Oscar Pereira de Silva (1914)

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All this brings us to the other astrological event of the day - the fact that asteroid Psyche is going direct at 8 Aquarius on the same date as the Libra New Moon. Asteroid Psyche being the subject of another post, I'll give you that link...

- link to post -

Eros and Psyche:

Falling In Love With Our Mind

...then simply say for the record (in case you're in a rush) that Psyche requires of us that we deal with our Self on a factually open (non-emotional) basis, which when combined with the Libra New Moon suggests situations, notions and events which bring us to understand where we stand with that Self in terms of others.

Then there's the 8 Aquarius note - a quality which adds a bit of tension within and without. On the inside, we’re all struggling with things we don’t seem to be able to get past... while on the outside much is going on. Known for notes of brilliance even if the thing(s) we each seem stuck on/personally focused on seem foolish or inconsequential to others (that being the 'outside' part) - this becomes a portion of exactly that quality which makes everything so hard... which is to say it’s either our isolation in the notion (or opinion) or our insistence on individuality (or an individual course/decision) which amounts to isolation in the fact of a combination of object (Psyche) and sign (Aquarius) which intimates very strongly that though we need to know our position, that’s our Saturn-as-first-ruler-of-Aquarius “work” which allows us to 2.) be an equal among others, this being the Aquarian way.

Aquarius asks us to be an individual and as that individual to be part of a greater process, system or whole. People stumble over this Aquarian concept all the time, so here are a few examples. In a personal mode, take a scientist. In order for a scientist to make a discovery, first they have to learn the basics of science. Generally that’s not the ‘sexy’ part of the process, which goes very much with Saturn as Aquarius’ first ruler and Saturn as the symbol of time invested, dedicated effort, long term commitment, responsibility (to self, others and our world society). But it’s only after the basics are learned that a scientists can make that Uranian ‘leap’ to discovery.

On a more global scale, we see this Aquarian concept all the time in business and the world. Just as nations have individual states, departments, cantons or provinces (etc.) and despite the fact that each of these states or provinces has its own identity, work and responsibilities, so they all belong to the nation, collectively making it something which is the product of its makeup. Or think in terms of corporations, many of which have departments or divisions - each of which has their job, their function, their place in the process and their need to produce the “global” which in this case is the corporation’s product. A car assembly line is very Aquarian: each station does its work and together they build something which is generally more than the simple sum of its parts - not only does the car support the ‘whole’ (the corporation and its workers, vendors, etc.) but the product itself adds to the effective life of those who buy it.

With this in mind, there’s one thing more about 8 Aquarius which seems ripe for this moment: since 8 Aquarius often causes us to see where we’ve seen something as a ‘fact’ where said ‘fact’ isn’t true, in combination with Pluto and the New Moon this may be a whole change of outlook on something - or others coming to some very different outlook about you.

It all depends - mostly on who we are in our [Psyche] mind (and whether we're honest with our Self), how well that matches with reality (you know, the Pluto touch) with all of this oriented towards, or generated by some Libra 'Other'... sense of Other... or presentation of Self or personal deed as the Other to some other person.

All of which starts with the Libra New Moon as the start to a cycle which in changing the status quo leads us to attain a better understanding and perception of our inner, most personal (lunar) Self.

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Ixion and Pholus Station-Direct

Centaur an den Kaskaden in Kassel

(photo credit: Fingalo Christian Bickel, May 2008)

Plutino Ixion and centaur Pholus both have somewhat problematic reputations. They’re not quite the zombies of our character set, but they do seem to tempt us to act contrary to our own best interests.

How they do that is individual - which is to say described by where these points are in your personal chart and where they are going to be going direct, which is at 19 and 20 Sagittarius.

Being that I’m still having some physical difficulties, I’m not going to do a marathon fandango on the lore and astro-theory behind these points.

But never fear - we have links:

- link to -

Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

- link to -

Pholus: A Little Nasty

Either way, both Ixion and Pholus are about what we don’t want to do, though they act on that desire in very different ways. Ixion acts out (is assertive or pro-active, to use the common terms) and Pholus tends to retreat, single out, ignore or isolate.

As defined by what these points are astronomically, they will also tend to describe different sorts of influences we would meet up with (either in our own heart, mind or soul or through some external prompting). Like better-known Chiron, Pholus is a centaur - one of a number of astronomical objects which act sort of like ‘short range’ comets which unlike “official” comets don’t cycle around the Sun - our emblem of consciousness, existence and will to live.

Because Pholus doesn’t orbit around the Sun, it doesn’t represent any ‘core’ aspect of our personality. It can’t directly affect our life, will or consciousness - except in the sense that in cycling back and forth from just beyond (outside) Neptune’s orbit to just inside Saturn’s, Pholus does indeed cross over Saturn’s orbit, an event which symbolically represents Pholus as a force which can ‘penetrate’ our outer barrier (Saturn).

Pholus is about that which can get to us, or the experience of dealing with ourselves once something has gotten to us. What Pholus doesn’t seem to be is outwardly motivated.

That’s Ixion. Ixion is that ability to do the same thing over (and over) again thinking you will succeed this time. Ixion tempts us to ignore life’s realities in favor of something we believe we are - and in particular, that we are entitled to do, be or have.

And in that, we would be wrong. But that’s the point - where we see Ixion we tend to do think we can ‘get away’ with something (whether in conjunction with others or our Self).

It doesn't work. That’s the Ixion nature: to pursue some path (generally one which is open to us because of some natural talent or simply because of who we are or know how to do) in a singularly self-serving manner until our lack of respect for others and life in general becomes our Self-undoing. Ixion is a Plutino: an object whose orbit around our Sun is governed by a little invisible (to us) force called magnetic resonance - Neptune’s magnetic resonance.

And since Neptune notoriously symbolizes all the many ways we idealize, imagine and so often delude ourselves (lest we have to deal with all that messy ‘being a mortal human being’ stuff), that would be why Ixion always has to do with somewhere in our life where we tend to delude ourselves.

So Ixion tends to ‘act’ and Pholus tends to ‘withdraw,’ which makes things curious when you consider that these two points are stationing at 19 (Ixion) and 20 (Pholus) Sagittarius.

Part one: they’re in conjunction.

Part two: this is the ‘bookend’ to their having gone into retrograde in tandem.

- link to -

Pholus-Ixion Station-Retrograde

(March 2014)

Part three: there is a general traditional notion that degrees vary by nature depending on whether they’re numerically even or odd. Even degrees are ‘receptive-responsive’ and odd degrees are ‘proactive-assertive.’ So that proactive Ixion is going direct at proactive 19 Sagittarius and reactive Pholus is going direct at a responsive degree like 20 Sagittarius tell us that we should expect anything Sagittarian to move towards more polarized or ‘purist’ forms of expression bent on classic Sagittarian aims like expansion, exploration, getting the word (or anything else) “out there” and dealing with objections, blockades or errors in judgment or operational imperatives.

And let’s just say Sagittarius isn’t exactly known for being all that cooperative when it comes to having people or things not cooperate. Famously associated with the legal system, Sagittarius is all about the debate rather than the punishment, punishments legal and otherwise fall under Capricorn (with the exception of guilt, shame and other such emotional torments, all of which fall under water signs).

Moreover, to have Ixion at 19 degrees and Pholus at 20 degrees is something of an indication that a ‘connection’ [the conjunction] is currently in play which links Sagittarius’ ‘fervent zone’ (its second ten degrees) with Sagittarius as a basic signature of things going on in the world.

That Pholus is ahead of Ixion may well say that some of us (those who have Pholus more prominently placed in their natal charts, one would guess) will, upon confronting whatever is going on will retreat, want to retreat... or at least function from a separate and singular perspective. What that gives us may take any number of forms: some of us just have things to do, some people will choose (for any of a number of reasons) to stay uninvolved or at a distance which allows them to be less partial, and some of us will simply ignore, deny or insist on being hard-headed in wanting to believe what we want to believe, never mind anyone else (or the facts, in some cases).

With Ixion just behind Pholus and still in an emotionally charged degree there is a deal of energy driving our needs and convictions, which against Pholus’ instinct to separate and go one’s own way is likely to manifest as various types of confusion and conflict within and without our Self and in that ‘zone’ we have defined as our sphere of operation.

Which one of these influences is strongest and therefore represents which side of this push-pull being individual will make everything a bit more messy, of course. Plus there are certainly those who will feel more of these effects going into the September 3rd (Ixion) and 4th (Pholus) station as opposed to coming out of it.

We give stations a two-days-before, two-days-after ‘allowance’ period (making the full extent of this station from September 1st through 6th), and if you follow this sort of stuff (yes, astrologers collect people stats as opposed to sports stats) what you’ll learn is that events (real time or mental, it doesn’t matter) which occur prior to the actual moment of stationing tend to refer to things which have yet to play out where things which occur after the station tend to reflect a ‘wrapping up’ of matters which have already happened. With this particular station occurring just as Mars and Saturn are parting their Scorpio conjunction things are intense and require the kind of focus which refuses to go off half-cocked, which is to say before what AND why everyone is doing and feeling as they are - before all of that is at least noted, if not well understood.

But let’s be realistic here... Ixion and Pholus are not the kind of life factors any of us like coping with. Sure, we’re all about what ‘the Other’ is doing or saying which we don’t like or maybe want to brush aside... but we’re not as good with ourselves. Their flaws and the problems with situations...? That we see. That, we’re willing to see.

But flaws in our Self? Both of these points refer to personality paths which are Self unaware - and both come from a position which speaks to where or how we tend not to take responsibility for Self, particularly as that pertains to being one human among many, all of whom are equally human.

As for the degrees involved, 19 Sagittarius is known equally for an aversion to ‘mainstream’ standards or ways of doing things... difficulties and trials which specifically test inner emotional (water sign) stamina... in a symbolic offset to the inner emotional tests, an affinity for natural water and waterways. This degree is associated with causes. Yet though having a ‘cause’ (or focus) is a plus, failing to deal with negatives, evils and any lack of inclusive thinking (which with Ixion tend to be ours by definition) is a recipe for bitter... even poisonous pain.

Not theirs, ours.

Though this is only a moment in time and the passage of a few days, what happens now can be important. Ixion has an oddly ‘fated’ quality reflective of this influence as one which brings some very ugly traits to the surface... and whether we like it or not, we’re all human and we all have some spots dappling the landscape of our thinking and personality which in the grander scheme of things are just ugly.

From Pompeii's Casa dei Vettii, a detail from a scene depicting Ixion's punishment which

features Mercury holding the famous caduceus.

(public domain)

With Pholus, personal ethics and morality count. With Ixion, social and societal contracts count. So with Mercury just crossing Virgo's massive black hole M87 (see previous post) just as Ixion takes its station turn, we are almost being invited to see things differently... to see others and our attitude towards those others in an entirely alternative light.

What we do after that... or in lieu of that, should we are so enamored of our own personal vision of things that we’re not even willing to entertain someone else’s truth as truth... that’s up to us. And because that's up to us, that means the karma which comes from what we do or not do leaves us with no one to blame (or cheer) apart from our Self.

But then, that would be the theme here: taking responsibility for what we do, who we are, how we think and feel - and what we allow ourselves to do or be because of that.

Or maybe in spite of that.

Speaking of karma, Pluto (the outcome ruler of Scorpio, sign of karma) is going direct in just a couple of weeks.

So this would seem to be a signpost.

Will we read it? And beyond that, will we heed it - or will some Ixion-Pholus impulse get the better of us?
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Mercury in Libra

A field of ripening barley in Palouse, USA

(photo credit: Victor Szalvay, June 2006)

There’s a strong human tendency to make things simply personal...or not personal...according to personal preference.

Surely you’ve noticed?

Yes, any number of us will make the good ‘ours’ and simply reject whatever we don’t like, disowning it lock, stock and responsibility - even when we’re plainly in the mix. So strong is this habit that even when we think about metaphysics, again we tend to divide our charts: the Aries “I Am” of life we stand for and take hold of.

But when it gets to Libra, so often we opt for blanket ‘thou’s, projecting and separating ourselves from things in our own chart.

In other words, in our own life - and we’re not talking about the live being lived in your town, city or state, we’re talking about every moment of that life which has us breathing or holding our breath.

It’s our chart. Libra is in every chart and is a precept in every life. So why do we project? We want a good life, surely. But how can we live a good life if we’re not willing to admit that the life we’re living (inclusive of who we attract, how others feel about us and how our work or efforts are received) how to live that  good life while abdicating the power we hold in our hands (and minds) to empower said life?

There’s a difference between not knowing and not liking, after all. Both can be equally valid in a well-balanced Libra-like world, which is why the difference between Libra’s positives and negatives can both be typified by one simple metaphysical statement: what we put out comes back to us.  

Sometimes we don’t recognize it...and sometimes we don’t want to recognize it.

Pointing at ‘them’ is relatively easy. Dealing with our Self, particularly when that Self is in the middle of wanting (yearning, longing, etc.) to feel better about the life that Self is living...that’s hard. 

Sometimes it’s purely annoying.

And still, after all the projecting is done, there we still are with whatever problems, refusals to see (think, hear, etc.) we came in with...which is a whole other issue. After all, those among us who don’t want to deal with their issues are surely not going to be a cheerfully jazzed to know that they not only still have to deal with things, but that their ‘problem child’ is looking at them from the mirror.

No one likes that. (But it is terribly Libra.) Yes, Libra is about everything we encounter in life because it’s our life. Such things inform us. They test us to see if we really know what we think we know. The Libra Principle becomes active in our life, so that we will learn what works...and what doesn’t work...which isn’t ‘about’ them, but rather about our experience of them or something in our wide-ranging world...or their experience of us or what we do.

By those reactions and responses we learn more about our Self - what parts of it work or don’t work and why.

Dealing with all those ideas, from the ‘what’ to the ‘what happens’ (complete to everything between), that’s Libran too.

It’s to think about. And lucky for us, Mercury (symbol of thought, communication and mentality) is about to enter Libra.

So once Mercury enters Libra on September 2nd at 5:39 in the morning (UT/+0) time, feel free to think up, folks. Think hardy, think thoroughly, give things some thought or think nothing of it - whatever be your personal choice.

You know, a personal choice you’ll make which will then affect others who will let you know if your idea works in their Libra framework and thus in their equally individual Self-driven world? As Mercury enters Libra we are symbolically being told that our communications, our thinking, our experience and estimation of today and tomorrow (and all they may contain) will be moving from a personal orientation to a more worldly one....how what we do, what we are doing will become more visible to others and more apt to be commented on or responded to.

We are also coming to a moment when our thoughts may well change as Mercury moves through Libra’s earliest degrees, that being the position of giant black hole M87. Being that Mercury moves very quickly (its ‘fleet-footed’ orbit around the Sun takes a mere 87.9 days) this contact will be felt rather immediately, raising alternate views (and viewpoint) from September 2nd through 6th, when Mercury exits M87’s orb of influence.

Some of us will be inspired by thoughts and events which occur during these days. Some of us will recognize how we may have been too short-sighted about something - or how we didn’t know, see or listen to something which may at first blink not have been our taste...but which is in reality seriously important to our aims short term and long.

That Mercury is coming into Libra aspect-free and  on its own speaks to a free-wheeling quality in thought and conversation which though perhaps not overly obvious is there to enjoy...and to employ. However, please be advised: the farther into September we get, the less options we’re likely to have as things seem to acquire a life and momentum of their own. Still, many will be likely to be ‘in their head’ or ‘lost in thought’ or simply preoccupied (mildly or otherwise) for at least some part of this transit. For them, Libra’s interactive quality will reflect in consideration of how to exist with others, among others, in this world or at some other level which has to do with ‘getting along’ in life, though Mercury in Libra by itself isn’t the kind of indicator we would think of as defining times good, bad or indifferent.

What this transit says is that our thoughts will be about others. Or situations others are connected to, or that we (or they) may need to discuss with someone - and because Mercury will be going retrograde come October 4th (September 14th being the date Mercury crosses into its retrograde shadow) the latter part of September is likely to be filled with our feeling pressured and frustrated as we try to get something done with life (and people in that life) resisting, not getting things done as they focus on how annoyed they are with others or whatever is getting in their way or being otherwise entirely unsatisfying.

(Yes, its that projection thing again. We’re not happy, so it or they must be to blame, right?)

(No, not right - but as an example of human nature in function, often accurate.)

More to the point, as Mercury moves into the shadow of its upcoming retrograde Jupiter is just reaching 13 Leo, setting up a sextile. And since Mercury retrogrades (inclusive of their pre-and-post retrograde shadow periods) are periods which will have us catching up with ourselves and sorting things out (or tending to re/organizing of various mental or mentally-governed [Mercury] factors)...to have Mercury sextiling Jupiter as we trip the light-footed fantastic into Mercury’s pre-retrograde zone?

Well...that would seem to be a positive sort of note.

Mind you, just as sextiles offer opportunities, sextiles require work. And after we accept that much, then we add the concept that retrogrades require going through whatever it is we need to go through to get us into position with our Self to take life on come retrograde’s end, when (oh, incidentally...) things - or at least our perspective or thinking about things - takes a turn.

In Libra, this is all going to be about, in conjunction with, and concerning things we experience at the level of interaction - which is to say, they affect our thoughts about who we are (and aren’t) and what we’re doing or why we’re doing it and how that affects our place in the world, just as it’s affecting everyone else in the world at the very same time.

We will all be thinking. And given the Libra effect, we may be more focused on the Other than our Self, but why we would do that would be part of the Mercury in Libra process. Why we care, why we don’t care, why we pay any mind or don’t mind ignoring others if or when they don’t suit what we want to think about our Self...that would be part of the Libran process.

And wherever Libra falls in our natal chart, that tells us what we will experience through that Libra process and how we will pursue our Libran experiences...all wrapped in Mercurial questions, answers, ideas and choices, many of which will prove either harder to make or harder to have work once Venus (ruler of Libra) moves into Virgo on September 5th (UT/+0 time).

Once Mercury enters its shadow (which it will do as Mars enters Sagittarius, heralding new efforts, new actions and new discoveries of every type as a result of actions taken) it will be just over a week until Pluto goes direct. During that time, will something trigger a change in our [Mercury] thinking - and if so, will that guide or control us?

One more thing to toss in the mental stock pot here: Mercury enters Libra on September 2nd, Ixion goes direct on September 3rd, Pholus goes direct on September 4th and Venus ends this cavalcade of shifting on September 5th with its own move from Leo into Virgo.

Yes, Ixion and Pholus went into retrograde together last March...and now they're going direct together in early September.

Is this a hint?

- link to -

Ixion and Pholus Station-Retrograde

From the Mercurial perspective, this would seem to be a recipe for situations which bring out some of our less caring aspects - and end up disliking the results.

Maybe in knowing that we can resist the lesser aspects of this passage? We can use this time to think about others and how to share our space, our ideas, our needs, desires and aims. We can use this time to improve our ability to relate to others and thus our relationships with others...and maybe more importantly (at least to us), their relationship to us.

But will we?
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Sun in Libra / Juno Direct: Our Need to Be Who We Are

Saules Sonata Scherzo (Sonata of Sun)

by Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis (1907)

The Sun will enter Libra on September 22nd at 8:45 in the evening, UT/+0 time. Two days later, asteroid Juno will go direct at 3 Aquarius.

The Sun’s Libra ingress is one of the two days a year when day and night are in ‘balance’ - hence the idea of Libra as the scales. We tend to think of this as a time of equilibrium…but this astrologer isn’t quite sure that’s how this year’s Libra equinox is going to manifest.

For one (yes, you know what I’m going to say)…we’re in the ‘break down’ period preceding a Scorpio Solar Eclipse. So anywhere where our willingness or ability to ‘negotiate’ life’s waters – particularly in areas where emotions are either on the table or to be evoked (or provoked) – life is going to push our buttons. We’re going to meet up with things which test our inner willingness to be straight with ourselves.

In other words, are we in balance with our Self? Is what we are doing true to our nature or are our ways of coping or operating ‘out of balance’ with what we really want out of life? Are we even capable (emotionally, as in Scorpionically) of facing, dealing with or risking what it would take to get into balance with ourselves and thus have the life we want to have?

0 Libra is what it is – the point where our inner world meets the outer world and we begin to experience life as a process we do not wholly own or have the ability to work on. What we do, what we are, what we put out there, what we say or don’t say – all those things generate life’s response. And the response of people and entities and whatnot in our life.

There’s also the fact that supermassive black hole M87 sits just inside the cusp of Libra. Black holes are the ‘looking glass’ entities of astrology: whatever is going on, we either see, begin to understand – or get hit with ‘the alternative’ experience. M87 is a black hole which is about our relationship to another…and carries with it all the images of ‘fantasy love’ which go with that concept. The early degrees of Libra are all about self-and-others, making this a time when we’re ripe for projecting some image we want to project (which can be useful, say, in business or the creative arts) and at some level wonderful if we want to ‘enchant’ someone in particular.

You know…that ‘let me just Venus myself right into your world’ thing.

But this isn’t hard core reality. It always pays to remember that Libra is about the (air sign) idea of the thing, not the concrete (earth sign) reality of the thing. Heck, it’s not even about the (water sign) feelings the thing can evoke. We think of Libra as love because we like the idea of love. But Libra isn’t love per se – although at its best Libra is about the care and the caring which we exhibit when we love someone. The Venusian ‘Aphrodite’ ‘how pretty it looks’ thing which is so popularly associated with Libra is fine if you’re just looking…and MAYBE fine if you’re buying…but this is the district of the zodiac definitely marked ‘caveat emptor’: buyer beware.

UNFORTUNATELY…for some this will now be too late. How do we know that? We know that because this ingress comes equipped with a grand sextile to call it’s own.

The above is a confusing sort of drawing, I know – and yes, I’ll explain in a moment. In part it’s a definite case of astrologer-versus-Microsoft Powerpoint. But beyond that, it’s also a fact that when you look at real charts they aren’t always so ‘perfect looking.’ Because sometimes houses are small and sometimes they’re big (unless you’re casting a chart in an Equal house or Aries wheel format) we do get these out-of-kilter images.

Anyway…the point here is that this grand sextile is yet another in a long series which on a metaphysical level seems to have been set off by Sedna’s turn to retrograde back on August 25

- link to-

Sedna’s Station as Grand Sextile Herald

All of these grand sextiles have been posed as earth against water, offering us the opportunity to understand our feeling selves at an ever deeper and more realistic level while bringing to us situations which stir our emotions precisely because reality is at stake. This can be financial or familial, This can be a matter of traditions, culture or some image you’ve been carrying around in the back pocket of your brain about ‘how life is going to be’ when that may not be the way life really works at all.

That the water side of this grand sextile is composed of Saturn/North Node plus Chiron plus Black Moon Lilith is a whole litany about what we need to learn by doing and why it’s better to decide for yourself who you are whether or not others – be that your peer group or society or your culture or your family – likes it or not.

The rationale here is posed by the earth side of this proposal – the reality of how your life can change or be drastically changed by realities which come upon us.

If you’re anyone who has been through something in your life which a moment (or hour or day or whatever) later you said ‘oh, how I wish I could take that back!’ …or do that over again, this series of grand sextiles is all about that sort of reality. It’s about knowing who you are way deep down inside because no matter what you feel about someone else (which would be a Libra-Scorpio thing) and no matter what someone else or ‘society’ wants to think of you as (the Libra-Scorpio experience as thrust upon you) …in the end, we all need to live with ourselves. We need to be okay with what our life is and has become.

And that means sometimes we have to cope with a difficult situation – a feeling we don’t want to have, a reality we can’t afford to face (for whatever reason). Maybe we’re not ready to do something. Maybe we aren’t even sure of who we are or how we feel about something yet.

The Libra balance here is between the ‘what we know’ and what we don’t know or aren’t sure about yet. In all such cases, it is up to us to manage ourselves.

And how do we know that? We know that because Juno is going direct. Known as the ‘keeper of the hearth’ and defender of the household, Juno has long been thought of in connection with wives and motherhood and matriarchs and all that sort of thing.

But astrology is personal. The ‘position’ or symbol someone may seem to have in a worldly sense is just one part of astrological imagery, and in the world of western (Tropical) astrology, probably the secondary form of said dynamic.

The first image for anything astrological in the western teaching is about US. It’s ALL us, because its OUR nativity and these are energetics which are manifesting as waves of time/space in OUR lives and affecting what WE do or don’t do, what WE EACH need to confront and how we will pursue our lives as individuals.

And at that level, Juno is all about ‘managing our individual household’…which is to say, managing our individuality. Or to put it another way, Juno is self discipline. Juno is the ability to know ourselves and to keep ourselves in ‘order.’ It’s about protecting the hearth of our being – our sense of safety and security…and to the extent that we live a life which is not defined by us, but by someone else or some societal or cultural force…that’s where Juno issues surface.

If you don’t know by now, I’m a somewhat counter-cultural person. For all that I’m very into human standards, I don’t tend to hold a standard vision of what’s “right” and “wrong” apart from the obvious: killing people is bad, pedophilia is bad, rape is bad – all those things are the obvious. But apart from that, I’m not much for traditions as a guideline. If they fit you because that’s who you are, fine. But if they don’t, the need to be who you are – providing that doesn’t interfere with someone else’s need to be who THEY are – is generally, to my thinking, the optimal choice.

From there, let me just say that being an astrologer for plural decades will get you to consider all sorts of different walks of life. If you’re a professional, you’re going to see and hear about it all, either from clients or when you’re hobnobbing with other professionals.

Lets face it…astrology itself is still pretty ‘not so mainstream.’ But it’s getting there. Twenty years ago western medicine was anti-acupuncture and chiropractic. Today, both are pretty well accepted and well on their way to being mainstream.

In part, this goes to speak to exactly what Juno is: the minding of our individuality at a level which says ‘I need to be who I need to be, whether or not society understands this yet.’ Valid is valid. Real is real. Thirty years ago most gays were in the closet. Now in a lot of places they’re able to get married just like anybody else. This ‘de-genderizing’ of partners is part of the incoming Aquarian Age, and who better than Gen X (the Pluto in Libra tribe, which represent an evolutionary trine to the Age) to usher in such things. Another form of wiping out the old was the Gen X ‘friends with benefits’ routine. And it was when the front end of Gen X started coming of age that we saw the whole matter of interracial marriage sort of fade away as a question. Between Gen X and Gen Y, give it a couple of decades more and it’s highly likely that the ages old ‘he’s older/she’s younger’ thing with regards to marriage and marriage partners is also going to go by the wayside.

Granted, there are always some people who will remain rigid traditionalists. Populations are their own bell curves and while some are at the front breaking ice, others are at the tail end being sticks in the mud.

So where was I going with this whole ‘traditional/non-traditional’ thing? I was going to tell you something about Juno. Never let it be said that I don’t live up (and down) to my chart’s native abilities: my Saturn/Moon in Scorpio plus a Sagittarian Mars in the highly emotional (and intimate) 8th house has pushed my astrological research in a couple of different directions. One is business – specifically business products and the success and timing of that.

The other…(have you not guessed yet?) is sexuality. Specifically, “non-traditional sexuality” – from fetishes to S&M to D/s (Dominance and submission) to polyamory, you name it.

And yes, it’s really interesting. (Did you think otherwise?)

Anyway...the point about this for today is that wherever we go in this non-alternative lifestyle thing, Juno plays a part. Juno represents our ability to govern ourselves just as much as Juno represents the ability to know who we are…and to manage that in a real life, real time, realistic way.

So with all that said, Juno’s opposition to dispassionate Pallas (the intellectual wisdom symbol) suggests there is a real need to see things for what they are at this time. There’s a need to know ourselves during these days going into the Sun’s Libra ingress and coming out of it.

Remember, planets and asteroids et al get ‘station window allowances.’ So that Juno is going direct two days after the Sun enters Libra says that Juno’s station begins AT the solar Libra ingress…which will have the Sun setting off that M87 ‘alternative’ quotient (which in your life can mean any of a million-zillion “non-traditional” things) as Juno goes direct.

And let's not ignore the fact that Juno's station is not just in opposition to Pallas but also in square to the (relationship oriented) Nodes. Just that gives the very difficult, very challenging image of a grand square, one which in this case is being presented in fixed signs.

PLUS that Nodal axis...that Nodal axis is where the grand square and grand sextile intersect.

 Juno as pictured in a detail from 'The Origin of the Milky Way'

by Tintoretto (c 1575, oil on canvas, National Gallery)

This marks these days as a period when it's hard to understand the full parameters of things, when stress may run exceptionally high, when your aims and those of other people are likely to be at odds...it's just a tough moment.

Then we get to the degree of Juno's station, which pretty much echoes this whole energetic. Juno is going direct at 3 Aquarius, a degree which is all about how hard it is to get where you really want to go. This degree stresses the fact that life is not all lollypops and cuddles. In fact, it’s more along that line I like to quote from the masterful writer Kahil Gibran: “out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

To be complete here, this degree is known for the loss of loved ones – which is interesting indeed at a moment when the Sun is entering Libra, a sign all about relationship. Probably less likely (but still informational) is that 3 Aquarius has a reputation for things having to do with legs (and which relates to the metaphysical ability to 'get to where I want to go') and in a more general sense, accidents.

No, the nature of those 'accidents' isn't defined. They could involve anything...and that's the BIG 'anything.'

And with all this happening in that ultra-vibrational period prior to a Solar Eclipse?

Let’s not forget that Pluto has also just gone direct, which makes this whole event sound a bit like a cosmic recipe, and thus fertile ground for that ultimately useful saying coined by honcho astrologer (and nice guy) Robert Hand: use the energy wisely, lest it use you unwisely.

So…what will you ‘make’ of your life now? Or will life be making you over without your (conscious) consent? Will your life be ruled by your compulsions or are you willing to see things as they are in reality and deal with what we might want to be true, separating that off from what the truth really is?

One of the things about Scorpio is that good or bad, it’s effects tend to stay with us. And part of Scorpio’s fame (and that delicious shudder we all grin guiltily at when the subject of Scorpio comes up) is that there is part of all of us which is attracted to dangerous things.

Why is that? That’s because life wants us to learn what we can survive…and what we can’t live with. With the Sun moving into Libra, we are all going to feel a further ‘ratcheting up’ of pre-eclipse effects. The stakes are getting higher and they are specifically now focused on relationships, whether we relate to others truthfully for our own and their parts…and whether we know who the fern we are to be putting ourselves out there.

The less we know, the more afraid we are, the more unwilling we are to be honest, the more difficult life will tend to be. Because there is a grand sextile associated with this ingress with the Sun moving into the cause-becomes-effect sign of Libra, this would be a classic time to ‘get the news.’

Then again, it may well be a time when you let go of all ‘that’ and all the old presumptions in an effort to…

…well, that would be the question: are you trying to live your mask? Or are you willing to get psychically naked and be who you really are?

The former…inevitably…leads to self-imprisonment, which in this moment would be your handing your Juno power to someone else. The latter? Well, ultimately, knowing and being who we are is our path to personal freedom. Not everyone will like our choices, but they will – to the degree that they respect themselves for their own honesty – be able to respect us in turn.

Which is what we need for ourselves...and that which is like as not now in the forefront of our needs.
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Mercury in Libra

The Hubble Space Telescope's view of the jet being emitted from Black Hole M87

(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

After Mercury in Virgo comes Mercury in Libra, which by any metaphysical name is the opportunity and need to make connections and to recognize how what we do and how we do it generates how others react.

And who we attract to react with.

And what we’re all about in this moment.

The famous Shakespearian quote about ‘all the world is a stage’ is very Mercury in Libra. Life is our stage and to some extent, life may feel ‘staged.’ Given how much energy is still being expressed through water signs, it would not be mysterious in the least to feel a bit disconnected as Mercury enters Libra (on September 9th at 7:08 in the morning UT/+0 time) or for the just-shy-of-three weeks that Mercury will be passing through this sign. After all, Libra is an interactive sign which is all about the idea of the thing and water is always the symbol of how we feel about things.

So given that Mercury is the emblem of our thoughts and choices and how well we do things…or how healthy our choice of what to do is…the ‘how we feel’ about all such issues – which are now being experienced through interactions of all kinds with others and life in general – is likely to have and reflect whatever quandaries we have as individuals with the difference between the ‘idea of the thing’ and real feelings being experienced in real time.

You know, as we go about doing whatever it is we do in life.

This may be no simple matter…at least not in the sense of what we’re doing versus what’s going on in our (Mercurial) minds, that is. With this shift into Libra happening just after we’ve entered the ‘breaking down’ period in advance of the November Solar Eclipse, anything which is outmoded in our life is beginning to shift.

Mind you, we may not think those things are outmoded. We may be just ‘fine’ with them. But whatever they are, they are not serving us well in the sense that they are not allowing us or enabling our ability to be the truth of who we are way deep down inside. We may think what we’re doing or how we’re doing it is just nifty. In fact, that’s pretty much a given. But whatever you feel shifting now – particularly as that pertains to who you associate and how you go about associating with people and your world in general?

That’s the ‘underlying’ nuance likely to continue throughout these weeks of Mercury in Libra. On the surface, we can expect the pace of life to pick up. There will be more which needs doing, more focus required on and in what we do, and the smart money is thinking through not just what our position or concept on any given subject is, but recognizing how that does – or doesn’t “fit” with those around us. 

Or how the world works.

The fact that we do have this very dichotomous inner-versus-outer energetic going on means you may feel like you’re wearing a ‘social mask.’ Or conversely, you may want to be all about living on one level while trying to ignore something else.

That wouldn’t be the best move, by the by. If you’re (Mercury) thinking you can operate as you want to and not just do what you (Libra) do to get results in the short run, that’s skating on pretty thin ice.
And since Scorpio – the sign of the solar eclipse – is “fixed water” and therefore metaphysical ice, that would be a pretty iffy bet. Yes, we are sure to see some unenlightened bulldozer brains thinking they can avoid evolutionary force, but that would be sort of like skating on thin ice.

Do you really like cold water all that much?

Libra being the sign behind Scorpio puts this Mercury in Libra passage in the 12th house position to the eclipse – so it would be natural to be either thinking through where you might do better if you changed things up (self criticism) or, if you’re one of those people who doesn’t like being self reflective, to be getting a lot of notes, critiques and out-and-out complaints from others.

Then again, Scorpio is also the 2nd house harmonic to Libra. It’s the sign after Libra, in other words, which on the zodiacal harmonic level says we may now be doing our growing through learning from others. Or through having others challenge us or evoke our deeper emotional issues.

Scary? Maybe yes. But useful? Also yes! And that we are meant to consider things differently…? That works here too, as any planet which moves into Libra immediately encounters the position of supermassive Black Hole M87. Black holes – by any account – are areas of space (the general time/space continuum) where what we think of as ‘reality’ goes through some serious alterations. One of my favorite descriptions of entering a black hole (which is referred to as ‘crossing the event horizon’ – an esoteric term if there ever was one!) …is how that which the Black Hole is on the inside is SO very different than what’s on the outside that to cross that event horizon would be experienced as being turned into ‘cosmic spaghetti.’

(For the record, I think this description came from Paul Halpern’s book ‘Cosmic Wormholes,’ but I’m not positive.)

Mercury's Libra ingress chart

September 9, 2013 - 7:08 a.m. (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel (location not specific)

 

The astrological point (and to some degree the astrophysical point) is that Black Holes basically do two things: they suspend our sense of ‘time in the space of our existence’ and they alter our sense of what is…and therefore what is true and on the more mundane level, what works and what doesn’t work in the glorious thing we know as our life.

So as Mercury – representing our thoughts, our communications, our choices and all which goes with them and which provokes them – crosses into Libra, this will reflect in…

a.) Our moving from a more personal and private mode of thinking into several months to come of focusing our our world in a less personal and more global and interactive way.

b.) Our encountering some new and different ways of seeing or experiencing things…or the need to see them in/through a different perspective…or people and/or situations which force upon us something which in turn gets us to see something in or about life in a new or different way.

And all of this will at some level refer both to a major shift in how we interact with others and our ability or willingness to balance the ‘them’ and their needs against our Self and our preferences…whatever we’ve been doing which does or doesn’t serve that need to interact fully and at least intimately within our Self (if not with others)…and the repercussions of who we are being, who we are willing to be, what we are willing to risk in terms of our own experience of being who we are – the ‘yes it’s right/no it’s not functional’ of all this as the metaphysical operand which dictates/contributes to why we’re moving ahead in life or how we’re being stymied by others.

Are we being respected for who we are is now coming ‘above the horizon’ in our own mind…and we’re beginning to grapple with why we may not be garnering the respect we truly deserve.

Generally that is going to be because we’re not willing to risk, but it could also be because our basis for risk or the values that we hold are simply too ‘me’ oriented that others (read: life) isn’t/aren’t willing to humor our self-concerned notions.

(Is that putting it nicely enough?)

Another interesting factoid here: Mercury is entering Libra in conjunction with asteroid Circe. Circe is always a reference to our being reduced to our most instinctual level until we are willing to resist the allure to give up the more challenging aspects of our human nature or life – personal or professional.

That sort of echoes the whole M87 thing. And the incoming Solar Eclipse thing.

Gosh, it’s a quorum!

Seriously…this is not quite a quorum per se, but any time we begin seeing ‘themes’ being built by various astrological factors, we know that ‘issue’ is not only likely to be on the table, but be in bas relief.

Or to put it another way, it’s one thing to ignore the 600 pound gorilla in the room, it’s another thing to ignore the multi-ton T-Rex breathing down your neck.

That this Mercury ingress occurs with a grand square being presented in fixed signs says we’re not exactly jumping to make any changes.

With this particular grand square being formed by South Node in Taurus, North Node-Saturn-Moon in Scorpio, Juno in Aquarius and Mars in Leo is a pretty good image of plain old human stubbornness. We like what we like and most of us are going to be going for the old ‘it’s working well enough’ line.

And that would be fine except for that pesky incoming Solar Eclipse. Considering that Solar Eclipses are all about taking away the ‘well enough’ compromises in our life in order to confound us by pushing us through our emotional barriers (read: emotional event horizons) so that through our experience of being emotional metaphysical  spaghetti we will at least contemplate changing the shape of our noodle…(I happen to favor those lovely little corkscrew pastas, personally) …?

Let’s just say we can resist all we like and we’re still not likely to win. Why? Because the universe is bigger than we are. That’s just how it is.

That this grand square is in fixed signs suggests that some of us would be willing to change IF we felt that what we are thinking of moving on to wouldn’t come as too big of a shock – maybe to us, and maybe to others.

May I refer you back to that ‘thin ice’ Scorpio thing? You may skate and get by for a little while, but there’s slow acclimation and then there’s the shocking, chilling plunge method. Life doesn’t really care which way you get where you need to go – life just wants us to get there. So we do have a little bit of latitude, it’s just that not getting in the water is probably not this part of the equation.

At least not if your chart is in any way seriously aspected by this incoming 11 Scorpio eclipse. So get your charts out: do you have a chart point OR axis point OR node (north or south) between 6 and 16 of Taurus, Scorpio, Leo or Aquarius? Do you have some point or node or vertical or horizontal axis which falls between 9 and 13 of Sagittarius, Libra, Gemini or Aries?

These are the signs and degrees which are going to get more or less spaghetti-ized during the coming eclipse. So look at your chart. If your chart is aspected, you’re probably already feeling a twitch, twinge or other itch. There’s been a shift in life’s vibe, a change in the atmosphere – something.

And if you have more than one point which falls into this list? The more points…the greater the spectrum of the effect. The closer to 11 degrees in any of the signs cited, the stronger the effects – which is to say the greater the totality of your change(s) is/are going to be.

The changes we end up going through in these next few months (and on into next year and the year after that) don’t have to be terrible. They can be pretty wonderful. Even downright happy-making! And what’s the difference between these poles?

Our willingness to change. Our willingness to own up to what is no longer viable or workable or sensible or productive and from that, the willingness to – and the making it a priority to make whatever changes are needed, no matter how unlikely or far fetched or “impossible” they seem.

There’s also this other ‘little thing’ which is set up for us to contemplate as Mercury moves into Libra. It’s called a grand sextile.

If you read the recent piece on dwarf planet Sedna’s station (which posted back on August 23rd) you already understand that this symbol is not “about” Judaism or any other religion – at least not on the metaphysical level. The grand sextile – which is six points joined in a chart so that they form two grand trines which are at sextiles to each other – is a symbol of those opportunities which come from accepting inevitabilities (those processes some think of as “fate”) and conversely, those “fates” which befall us because we refuse to move on in our life or continue growing.

In our last “grand sextile chapter” (the one we talked about in that Sedna post) the points involved were as follows:

1. South Node in Taurus

2. Jupiter in Cancer

3. Mercury in Virgo

4. Saturn in Scorpio

5. Pluto/Facies in Capricorn

6. Chiron in Pisces

I’ve list them that way because it makes it easier to simply note that positions 1, 5 and 6 basically haven’t changed. But instead of just Jupiter sitting at position #2, we have Jupiter plus Black Moon Lilith, which suggests this period is all about where we are either avoiding (denying) the need to grow as a person…or that our growth is being denied or stymied or otherwise hindered by others because we are not seeing our part in that process.

(Welcome to the wonderful world of being forced to look in life’s mirror, everyone!)

At position #3, instead of Mercury doing a swift do-si-do-and-scoot number we also have Ceres, the image of ‘the plan’ which in combination with the essence of protection for ‘our environment’ asks us whether our plans are perhaps too focused on Self or whether they focus solely on others to the exclusion of that Self, whether we even have a plan or whether – given the Libra/Scorpio divide implied in this general Mercurial contemplation – whether our plan and protective aims with regard to Self and our plans and protective aims for others are incongruous.

It could be. We might be really good on one side and really destructive on the other side. It happens.

At position #4, instead of just Saturn we have Saturn, the North Node and the Moon. As someone who owns a Scorpio Moon I can just break out here in a minor key chorus of ‘Oh joy, oh rapture…’ (which sometimes makes me think ‘rapture’ should be replaced by ‘raptor’) (yes, I’m feeling very prehistoric today – thanks for noticing).

More to the point, since I happen to own not just a Scorpio Moon but a Scorpio Saturn/Moon (and one which is natally very close to these numbers) I can tell you that this combination tends – even without the North Node being involved) to focus very adeptly on who we are to others and our ability to structure our life with regards to others…and with others as part of our lives without loss of Self. (Or self esteem, which is also important.)

Saturn/Moon in Scorpio can manifest as fear. Then again, it can manifest as the ability to walk through fear despite all (even yes, that shaking in your bones thing.) In conjunction with the North Node, if nothing else were involved we would be thinking in terms of what we should do in this regard.

But with this Saturn-North Node-Moon thing involved not just in a grand trine but in a grand sextile? With a solar eclipse headed this way which is going to conjunct this very set of positions?

Mercury in Libra is all about thinking through the ‘idea’ of what it means to be part of this world, a member of the human race and what or how you can be who you are in a manner which works not just for you because it’s what you like or prefer, but which works for you because it works for the ‘all’ of your life and everybody in that life, seeing that we all need and depend on one another.

We are learning to choose who to be on a new level. We are learning that who we choose to be with, to be who we are with and how we go about doing all of that – it matters.

Maybe more than we thought it did.
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