A 14 Taurus Full Moon

'Die Heuernte' by Ford Madox Brown (1855)

 
The November Full Moon is about to grace Earth’s skies. The time of this event will be at 10:24 in the evening of November 6th (UT/+0 time), which means that for many of us this Full Moon will actually be occurring on the 7th.

But wherever we are, it’s at the same degree: 14 Taurus, a degree which in the most basic of terms is defined as being evocative, feeling and yet ever so simply practical and pragmatic by nature - sometimes positively, and sometimes not so joyously. Sometimes displaying loner tendencies and sometimes manifesting as gregarious, 14 Taurus seems to be much about our own sensibilities about where and how we’re going to be most comfortably secure - either in general or with respect to some situation or effort of the moment. Hardly known to be as stubborn as some degrees of Taurus, 14 Taurus generally displays the willingness to discuss things against a marked ability to own our own opinions as just that - our opinion (no more, no less), which is a very useful thing sometimes.

Further clues as to the point of this unusually flexible Taurean degree come from the Sabian symbol for 14 Taurus: ‘Head covered with a rakish silk hat, muffled against the cold, a man braves a storm.’  The obvious here being the man’s willingness to ‘brave’ this ‘storm,’ we should ask ourselves what kind of a storm this might be. Is it physical weather? Is he braving the wrack and ruin incurred after a run of bad luck? Is this about some ‘tide of time’ or some family, social, or societal period of upheaval?

Or is this just some inner conflict?

All are possible. In fact, all could be possible - singularly or collectively.

The 14 Taurus Full Moon (glyph chart)

November 6, 2014 - 22:22 (10:22) pm UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

The 14 Taurus Full Moon (text chart)

November 6, 2014 - 22:22 (10:22) pm UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

The ‘cold’ indicated here could also be physical. Then again, this may well be a reference to having to brave going against people who don’t think as you do - a fact made more likely than it might otherwise be by the fact that we are just in the wake of a solar eclipse in a moment when the Gemini eclipse of two-and-a-half years ago is having yet another moment of influence.

- link to post -

October’s 0 Scorpio Solar Eclipse

(Pt. 2: that ‘Other’ eclipse)

In his writing about this image, astrologer Marc Edmund Jones commented on how the man’s very willingness is the key here in that he is plainly willing to take on something which is unknown, implying a maturing of outlook (getting past reluctance in becoming willing to go out and brave that storm) which Jones thinks of as something which needs to happen before a higher or more productive consciousness/outlook can develop.

That’s an image which fits very well with this Full Moon, seeing as it opposes Taurus and Scorpio, which in greater terms is always about the ‘greater group’ or society or world - or maybe just you and your significant other.

The point is, Taurus is personal - and as its polarity,  Scorpio is where we work out where whatever our personal boundaries and values are against the personal boundaries and values of others (or things in this world). Thus the integrity of those boundaries - and the validity of the opinions or motivations which creates those boundaries - is tested.

Or to put it more simply...every polarity in the zodiac has its issues. But Taurus-Scorpio dynamics are  FAMOUS for pitting us not against others, but against a need to take our Self in hand.

And we don’t like that...(not at all)...from which arises all the digging in of Taurus heels and all that Scorpio snarling which can simmer into aggressiveness and even violence.

Fortunately, this is just a Full Moon. So it’s a moment, a day, a latter-part-of-the-week which highlights some facet, some factor in life which however emotional, however startling, however challenging is merely - as they say in parenting - a phase. It’s to enjoy if good, it’s to learn about and from probably no matter what - and after that, it’s time to move on.

Yet considering this Full Moon in particular... and considering how this Full Moon is the first step off the block in the wake of the October 23rd solar eclipse...and how, once we add in a couple of astrological ‘pictures’ included with the Full Moon chart...well, maybe we shouldn’t expect things to be less than intricately complicated.

Good or bad...they’re just likely to be complicated.

Why do I say that?

I say that because of the many and multiple relationships in the following diagram:

Complicated enough for you? And let’s remember - anything we see in a chart is BOTH what is going on around us and what is going on inside our ‘inner world,’ be that your home, family or mind.

That’s the way it works - and why though there are some things we will never control, why we actually have more control than we often think. As they say, life is not what happens to you, life is how you respond to what happens to you.

Yes, I know...it’s that effort thing. Life requires personally employed verbs.

So with regards to the above (that most convolutedly complicated diagram), let’s isolate a couple of facets - starting with one which focuses on Sun and Moon in a way most likely to be an active consideration during this time:

Yes, it’s a t-square - that adorably challenging notion which causes so much mental toe stubbing. T-squares speak to us (each of us as individuals AND the collective Us) asking whether we ‘get it’ that our concerns have greater applications. Whatever we come to a t-square with we are likely to be thinking of very individually...you might say almost possessively.

And that’s all before we get to the fact that in this particular t-square, the ‘t’ (the “hurdle” we have to get past in how we are approaching any given issue, contemplation, situation, effort or relationship)... that ‘t’ is being presented here in the sunny if sometimes sun-blind sign of Leo.

Leo is all about making something of our Self. It’s a natural sign of self-development - and thus pleasure in the achievement, be said accomplishment be athletic, social, financial, or anything else. Leo (and the associated 5th house of the chart) are where we look to see our spirit of fun - what we like and what we like to have fun doing - whether it’s fun for anyone else or not.

Leo is the birthing place of the individuality we need in its polarity sign, Aquarius, as to be part of the Aquarius whole (the group, the company, the society, etc.) requires that we are-or-have something individual which ‘fits’ into said functional process, business, social group, way of living, marketplace, system...OR the breaking apart of or breaking away from same (whatever group).

As for that ‘whether it’s fun for anyone else or not, that’s exactly the part of Leo which Leo depends on (individuality requires being willing to be yourself) as Leo’s engine... and yet too much Leo when in or applied to group doings can often go very wrong. Especially now as we’re starting into the Age of Aquarius there is a tendency - which may yet grow - to isolate or behave overly individual (separatist) manner, along with a tendency for some to believe in the anarchistic approach to changing how the system works.

(Again, this is a phase - it’s just that it’s a phase in a process...the astrological age of Aquarius...which is 2,160 years long and which is likely to be filled with a number of wild swings of various pendulums. To us things may seem like they’ll never end, but they will...they may just never end for us.)

So here we are with this Leo balance to master and the t-square issue of getting past thinking something is only about us - which is something akin to a double helping of the same thing framed slightly differently...and THEN we add in Juno, the emblem of management.

Not control, management. Juno is more about running an ongoing process and dealing with variables than designing how things are going to be done. It’s more about running the household than building the house or going out and slaying any dragons, if you take me.

As for 11 Leo, this is Leo in one of its more creative modes - not Leo at it’s most worldly and deft, suggesting that as this Full Moon comes into formation there will be some ‘managing’ of something which is otherwise not going to (as they say) get the job done.

With the origination point of this Full Moon being that comfort-prone 14 Taurus Moon, Juno’s presence in this Full Moon t-square may be exactly what causes us to take something which we know how to do and can do and cause us to do it. The ‘object’ of this t-square would be the Sun at 14 Scorpio, another degree which is uncharacteristic for its sign as 14 Scorpio isn’t known for much of Scorpio’s well-known (and well-documented - in blood, yet) steeliness.

Oh yes, there still is some of that Scorpio brooding energy quality in this degree...but there is also a recognition of the real and valuable resource which not just inherent in the ability to understand others (though that’s valid, too) but in the ability to use what we understand about others to create a tide of interaction through which resistance can be overcome in favor of actual give and take. Though this energy can seem brutal (it certainly carries strength) it’s honest; those who choose not to deal with it because it’s not ‘nice’ are only being asked to see their lack of realism as to what life is - a combination of light and shadow, good and bad, pain and joy, success and nullification.

And that may well mean that one important fact inherent in this lunar Full Moon tick of the cosmic clock is simply that it’s purpose is to move us or to time our moving from that which is comfortable into that which is less comfortable but more workable.

However: with all three points in this t-square (and both ends of this Full Moon figure) in fixed signs, there are going to be qualities of hesitation plus those ever-popular and always evocative ‘I don’t WANT to’ outcry humans all fall back on from time to time.

At which point, that may be what we have to manage. Maybe so...maybe not.

Plus we’re not done with Juno yet. Just to make things interesting (as if they weren’t already interesting enough), Juno is not only focal in this chart by being squatly positioned at the ‘t’ of the t-square, but it’s also involved in a grand trine of the thoroughly fiery kind.

Fire signifies a vision. The imagination. How things could be. In this case we have two well-known asteroids (Juno and Vesta) in trine with what is arguably our solar system’s most peculiar planet: Uranus. In keeping those peculiarities, the astrological Uranus speaks to ‘breaking with the status quo’ whether that’s breaking a habit, achieving a scientific breakthrough, the idea of a tunneling crew finishing breaking through a mountain.

Uranus indicates a reordering of things. So in trine to management-prone Juno and ‘the cost’ involved in keeping one’s Vesta promises (whether that’s a monetary cost or what it ‘costs’ you to hold yourself to some standard) this is an ongoing (grand trine) effort to change OR disrupt (depending on who you are) something...which either pertains to some ‘vision,’ or which provides the means by which something is changed/altered so that it can become the vision.

That seems like a lot to heap on one Full Moon, but there you are. With Uranus in Aries as there is a ‘weighting’ towards things First Person, whether that pertains to physicality or some need to wrestle decisions, indecision, conflicts, disruptions or conflicting/conflicted aims.

And the dream is still there. Whether or not we are pro or con something, we are still (Juno) managing to (Vesta) hold to some pre-determined notion (image, vision) whether real or imagined - all of which is being brought back to that very same managing (or) managerial Juno which is sitting at the ‘t’ of the Sun-Juno-Moon t-square.

The combination suggests two things. The first version would have the entire Uranus-Vesta-Juno grand trine as some sort of ongoing commitment to change (or change something). The second version would have us trying to manage at least two very different things, whether or not they have any direct connection or influence on each other.

All of which takes us back to that ridiculously complex initial diagram.

To have all these planets (green), fixed stars (blue) and asteroids (white) this closely aligned isn’t all that unusual. What is interesting is to see so many sextiles (green dotted lines on the left side of the diagram) basically linking Sun to Moon in one direction while the other half of the cycle is pretty much linked by semi-sextiles (dotted lines in purple).

Semi-sextiles are tough moments, clashing ideas and ego bruises (purple). Full sextiles (green) are opportunities. The path of opportunities leads through the global and worldly sector, telling us that this Full Moon - and to some extent everything which is on life’s table right now - is far more about how we relate to the world and in the world than about who we are or our more individualistic characteristics.

But it’s natural to be who we are - and the (blue arrow) trine from the 14 Taurus Moon to the North Node (and all its friends) in Libra speaks to an ongoing tendency we all have (and that we need to tap into at the moment) to relate to others in a manner which is consistent with our aims and our past (or cultural conditioning) whether or not we recognize that what we are putting ‘out there’ is what is coming back to us in some fashion, thus allowing us to hone what we do and thus achieve the desired result.

In other words, we don’t ‘change’ them - we change our Self so that they automatically respond to us.

And this is an interesting moment. Looking back to the fuller diagram of this Full Moon we see the Moon in conjunction with Europa and fixed star Menkar, a quantity which speaks to our ability to [Europa] ‘get carried away’ by our efforts to avoid our inner [Menkar] Self, most likely through ongoing or old ‘messages’ which are clouding our ability to know the difference between what we do for-with-to others and how that ends up affecting us.

-link to post-

Menkar: Soul, Searching

 
And on the Sun’s side? With the energetics described by Deucalion (fairness), Atropos (endings), and asteroid Maximov (maximums or maximal effects) all ‘fused’ with the Sun while conjunct   Kassandra (a truth we choose to deny) and Lumiere/Venus (the light of approval or acceptance) what we can do and what we will ask ourselves to follow through on may be two very distant and different thoughts.

Yet in the end this is just a moment in time - a Full Moon which asks and points out what’s important to us.

Will we heed that call?
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Shades of Nodal Menkar

An aerial view of the San Andreas Fault as crosses the Carrizo Plain in Central California

(photo credit: USGS, July 2006)

It was a couple of days before Jupiter moved into Cancer back on June 26th that things started popping. Since I knew Mercury was about to go on station in the latter part of Cancer I wasn’t surprised to start feeling like I was being buckshot with  emotional shrapnel.

It was a day or so before our current triad of major planets (Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune) slid into water trine formation that feeling blood began to flow. Like many, I wear a social mask. Unlike many, mine is a defense against extremes of emotional vulnerability which though in the end have been the strength which has gotten me through a havoc-strewn life, still I’m not very fond of being open about my soft underbelly.

Hardly anyone is. I’ve long made a joke of a pet slogan – when in doubt, cry – but for all that I’ve always told myself that other people didn’t want to see my fears or lingering pain, the truth of the matter is that and more.

It’s scary being human.

During the period July 9th through July 20th, the Moon’s South Node is going to be at 14 Taurus – the current position of fixed star Menkar. I wrote about Menkar not long, so I won’t go into a lot of details. But when it comes right down to it, Menkar is one of those cosmic devices which is all about the efforts we make to avoid those dark corners of our Self.

The degree 14 Taurus has a reputation for many things…some of which connect us to others and some of which are about whatever tendency we may have to ‘go it alone’ or retreat and hide from the world.

From our life is more like it.

There are moments of solitude we all experience. There’s nothing wrong with that. The question comes when we withdraw, when our need to pull away is driven by avoidance.

Any and all such tendencies – to connect or withdraw, or maybe to connect as a form of withdrawing (from ourselves)…all that comes into focus as the South Node rolls over Menkar’s position at 14 Taurus. Considering how the Nodes (North or South) refer to relationships or our relationship to the world (or relationships as connected to our worldly pursuits), we’re all in for some measure of this effect no matter where we go.

And the reason to bring it up is…what? WHY do we need to know about this in the middle of a grand water trine made by our most worldly planets (Saturn and Jupiter) with everything made more hugely nebulous by Neptune’s magnetic presence?

That would be because in theory, this is also a moment when others should also be most receptive. That all of our emotions (and emotional barriers) are being stretched a bit like so much human cosmic taffy should make it easier to connect.

If we will, that is.

Of course we may also hear a lot of things we’d rather not know. South Node – Menkar – 14 Taurus as a combination is likely to bring out some truly strange stuff.

Or is that the North Node at 14 Scorpio?

Oh, these continuums…they so have us by the tail and nose.

Usually when we look at pairs of opposing degrees we can see something like a dimensional reflection. That may be true here, though considering 14 Scorpio is known for skill where 14 Taurus is very un-earthy (even unearthly) in its own mystical, far-seeing way…perhaps so. Not particularly known as one of those ‘fiery’ Scorpio degrees, the fact that the North Node (the “should do’) side of the nodal axis is in a Scorpio degree which more than others takes up the causes of others says we should get with others and we should form alliances.

Yet 14 Scorpio also has a bit of a reputation for indiscretion. So we should be careful what we say for this next little while. While communication can solve many problems, there should be established limits.

This rules out sky writing and watch those internet posts, one would guess (she said while writing an internet post).

(Never mind. I’m the astrologer – I’m just doing my job!)

Other other part of the North Node at 14 Scorpio which seems important as the South Node conjuncts fixed star Menkar: people are more complicated than we know.

The bottom line here thus suggests that we shouldn’t jump to any grand, assumptive presumptions. When in doubt…especially for the next couple of weeks…ask questions. Or ask yourself what that means or why someone would have said that.

We are all in a position to learn a lot about other human beings. In doing so we may learn a lot about others…and why we’re okay, just the way we are.

We’re in the midst of a seriously feeling time. We’ve just begun to evolve. This astrologer can’t say she thinks it’s all going to be peachy-pleasant, but our greatest gains are not achieved through ease or simplistic fun.

Growth takes energy and effort.

That’s why we call them ‘growing pains.’

So in spite of the ouches, it’s time for all of us to try to remember to stand tall, particularly (and maybe most of all) when we're feeling most vulnerable and truly small.

Real strength isn't about what you can do to someone, it's about the ability to endure the trials which go along with being human - most important of which have to do with the courage to be and know yourself honestly.
 

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For more information on our current dynamics:

- The Lunar Nodes at Cross-Quarters
- Menkar: Soul, Searching
- A Water Grand Trine in Planetary Major
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The Taurus Solar Eclipse

 The annular solar eclipse of May 2012 (at 0 Gemini) as

 photographed in New Harmony, Utah by makelessnoise

 
This May’s solar eclipse is not a total eclipse. It’s an annular eclipse, meaning that even as the Earth, Moon and Sun come into alignment (with the Moon in the middle), there will still be a “ring” of the Sun – the solar rim – left visible. This means that the brilliant streams, the ‘halo’ which has so awed mankind for thousands of years is not going to be part of this eclipse.

Are annular eclipses thought to function differently than total eclipses in astrological terms? Somewhat, yes, though the basic time period involved is still thirty six months (3 years) and all eclipses, total, annular or otherwise (yes, there are a few more variations on this theme) come with a quirk or ‘twist’ as we get to the end of that time, providing that  eclipse aspects our natal chart (or the chart of a company or whatever else you’re concerned with) with any acuity.

So let’s get to that part. This eclipse is going to be at 19 Taurus and the basic (standard) allowance for any conjunction is within 5 degrees either way. So if in your natal chart (or any other chart which is important to you, be that the chart of a relationship, a child or the chart of your company – even a product) has any point in it which falls between 14 Taurus and 23 Taurus, that point is being eclipsed through conjunction.

 
The diagram above is of the ‘natural’ zodiac wheel – starting with Aries at the Ascendant (“9 o’clock”) and working around the wheel counter-clockwise with Pisces ending up just above the Ascendant, at what we would think of as between 9 and 10 o’clock on the face of a clock.

As you look around this diagram, you’ll see the degrees of each sign which are going to be affected by this eclipse. You’ll also see notations differing approaching from departing signs.

What does that mean? That refers to the a situation or effort pertaining to ‘departing’ from the norm or status quo (or which forces you to depart from the norm or status quo) as opposed to an energetic which is about trying to bring something into being, or learning about something new.

These differences are subtle, yet important. Take the squares to this eclipse. Squares being often the most difficult for most of us to manage, how would the departing square (Leo) differ from the approaching square (Aquarius) apart from the fact that these are two entirely different signs?

The question is the goal (Aquarius) versus the basis upon which one is working (Leo). If you think of the eclipse as a ‘rattling’ force, the ground the Leo effort is being built on is now ‘rattled.’ The goal the Aquarian effort is aiming at? The goal itself may change, or what it takes to get there may change, or this may be a moment when you realize that something you’ve been working towards is not going to scratch that itch or fulfill your true dreams.

Something gets in the way now, and that ‘something’ is the eclipse, which by giving your sense of security a shudder, causes you to think again. Or maybe you just weren’t thinking in sensible terms to begin with? That may happen too.

Conjunctions are the vital force, the ‘I can’t see the forest for the trees, nor would I want to while all the trees are falling on me’ sort of thing. Anyone who has what we’ll refer to as a ‘vitally personal point’ in Taurus is going to feel this eclipse in a very personal way.

What are those vital points? Those would include the personal planets: Sun (life, will, goals, consciousness, intellect), Moon (feelings, money, unconscious, family, culture, home/homeland, past), Mercury (mentality, choices, activities, priorities), Venus (values, resources, security, satisfaction) and Mars (assertion/assertiveness, motivation, energy, drive, actions/activities).

An Aries Wheel (location not specific) of the annular Solar Eclipse

which will take place on May 10, 2012 at 0:30 a.m. (UT/+0) 

This would also include the Ascendant: your personality, physicality and manner of doing things. It would include your Descendant: how your interactions with others and your world creates that which you get as a response from others or the world. Also included here would be the Midheaven or MC (the top of the chart): your worldly status and all that you achieve and/or are ‘seen as,’ and the IC or Nadir, the bottom of the chart which is what you stand on (and for), your basis of operations (mental, physical, financial or emotional) and where you ‘stand’ with yourself.

The last thing on this list would be the Nodes, North and South. They represent relationships and our ability to relate, whether that’s to friends, family, co-workers, the world and it goes ‘round and ‘round – the whole thing.

When you experience an eclipse by conjunction, whether total or annular or any other kind, you will find that there is something which is ‘wiped out’ or taken away from you. Because this eclipse is happening in Taurus, this may at some level be your experience of security or satisfaction with yourself, your life, what you’ve been doing or how you’ve been doing it. The phrase ‘your experience’ is italicized here because your actual security (as in, your life, your ability to survive) may not be endangered in the least bit. But something is amiss. Some part of your world will not be feeling as secure as assured, as satisfying as it had been before this eclipse came along.

These effects have probably been growing on you now for some two months or so. Solar Eclipses are notorious for their ‘lead in’ effects, which I often refer to as a ‘breaking down’ of something. That ‘something’ has to do with the eclipse, which in this case is coming at us from an emotional degree of Taurus (19 Taurus) which lore suggests is a difficult degree many of us will tend to react to with what might be called ‘emotional listlessness.’ For the moment, our gung-ho has been de-gunged, and we aren’t all that happy about it.

Wherever Taurus appears in your chart, by aspect, by house, whatever…this is where the energy of this eclipse is going to come ‘at’ you.

But all is not lost. The Sabian Symbol for 19 Taurus being WISPS OF WINGLIKE CLOUDS STREAMING ACROSS THE SKY, as Dane Rudhyar suggests, many of us are going to be aware of spiritual processes at work. Everything happens for a reason, they say. So if you can, even if this is a difficult time, try to see it as an opportunity not to meet up with greater difficulties in the future. We are being given a ‘check point’ here so we will stop and consider – carefully – what it is going to take to achieve our aims, and if those aims are really the ones we want (or need) to achieve.

Not that we should expect this process to be easy or simple. There is a t-square which comes with this eclipse. It looks like this:

All t-squares present us with a challenge which asks that we get past thinking about the issue in terms of our Self. Generally, the lesson is about taking some stance or insisting on doing something in a manner which doesn’t work for others, that idea coming from the idea that t-squares always involve an ‘opposition point’ which by definition means one end of the t-square is in a public or worldly sign with the other being in a personal sign.

This particular t-square starts with the North Node in Scorpio, a requirement that we understand others and allow for the differences between ourselves and others, forging a platform of alliance. Fighting won’t work, particularly fighting which violates the Deucalion morality clause. TNO Deucalion is an object which seems to embody a joint message about ‘finding our way’ and sorting through questions of morality about ‘building a world.’

Deucalion entered Scorpio back in May of 2003 and will be in Scorpio until September 2027, meaning this is a time when we all are supposed to face issues of morality in building our world, personal and global. BUT…! As we say that, the Scorpio part of this says it’s not up to one person or one segment of life or the world to define what ‘moral’ is. That we – as individuals and nations and various other kinds of factions have a problem with that is obvious.

And this is a time when those difficulties are supposed to become obvious. The problem you never see, after all, is the problem you’ll never confront or contemplate fixing.

The ‘t’ of this t-suare is Juno (self discipline or discipline of the self), Icarus (haste) and Sualocin, a fixed star which is all about the burning desire to be effective, well thought of…let’s just say ‘validated’ or ‘accredited’ or ‘appreciated,’ whichever works best for your situation.

Presented in Aquarius, this sets up some (sigh…) standard Scorpio-Aquarius conflicts.  One rather common form of this conflict frames up as ‘localized’ power not being global power. So just because your ‘group’ thinks you’re the cat’s meow that doesn’t mean everybody is going to agree with you…and thus, if you go out onto the veldt, some lion may bite you.

This is a call to conceive of universality in more universal terms. And that gets to the hard part of this square: thinking in either less OR more precise terms. Aquarius calls for preciseness, clarity and a truth which works across the board, not just as you define it. Just recently someone wrote me suggesting that some asteroids could have ‘localized’ or purely individualized meanings. Their basis for argument was that there are just so darned many of the things!

And yes, there are!

But they’re all part of the same Existence. And that’s the Aquarian point. We are all part of the same existence, and though we may not all become botanists, botany as a concept is part of each of our lives. Any point is in every chart. So astrology has to function from a universal perspective. The emphasis is unique to each chart, the meanings of the points in each and every chart must have a universal meaning.

Typically, Aquarius is the sign of income and worldly success. It is the sign of systems and groups – and acceptance in a group or by a group. Aquarius is the sign of ‘mass markets’ and social bodies from corporations to your local parent/teacher organization to your community to those who belong to your profession – and so on. If you’re marketing, Aquarius is not your audience but it is the acceptance of your product in the greater marketplace.

Aquarius only works when we are able to access and accept being part of the many and finding our unique place in the mass of information and functionality which is life. Life wants us to participate. But life will not accept us when we simply demand that things be the way we want to define them, whether the subject is your relationships, your outlook on life, your behavior, the abilities you bring to your job - whatever.

That’s the ‘hurdle’ in this eclipse t-square. The goal is all that Taurean stuff in the diagram – the freedom to be who we imagine ourselves being (Child), the knowledge (Pallas) that we’re okay and that we have an ability to move forward in life without having to worry about every little step or moment (Sun/Moon/Lilith), our having some conviction in what we’re doing (Mercury) and our ability to tolerate a world which offers us much but which isn’t always what we think it is…or what we’d like it to be (Mars/Menkar).

Yet there is a level at which this ‘solution’ to the t-square is not as described. Yes, it could be that. And maybe we’d like it to be that. But let’s remember – that’s where the eclipse is hitting.

So the goal – as a goal – that goal is being either taken away entirely, or supplanted by some new formulation that we can’t see yet.

At least not clearly. This being an annular eclipse, the image is of a ‘right of fire’ around the darkened disc of the Moon. So there is something awesome and beautiful out there for us. It just requires that we let go of what we have been holding onto on a daily basis (as represented by the Moon) so that we can get there.

And that may hurt. It may be perplexing. Even confusing. Looking back to Juno at the ‘t’ of the t-square, something we have been ‘disciplining’ ourselves or working long and hard to achieve may now be being taken away by some force which is entirely beyond our control.

Life is proving to be bigger than we are. Juno’s presenting it’s ‘hurdle’ in Aquarius suggests a societal or social, group…maybe even income-oriented effort.

A solar map - the path of the eclipse projected onto the map of our world showing

where the eclipse will be visible (greatest visibility will be along the red line in the

center of the image). Those who study eclipse maps say that greatest effects are

along the longitudes where the eclipse starts or ends, and that sometimes we see

connections between these two points or longitudes.

 (Image produced by Solar Fire v8)    

Is the message that we shouldn’t try? Or that we need to change the nature of our trying – or maybe the scope of the outcome?

Probably the latter. That would be consistent with Juno-Sualocin in Aquarius. We want to master something. We want to achieve something. We want to achieve mastery at least over our innermost vulnerabilities.

And maybe we will. We’re just not going to do it right now. Those whose charts have points falling within the ‘sensitive’ degrees indicated above are going to have to make a few changes.

Or…maybe now is when you have the opportunity to make a few changes?

Eclipses aren’t known to be nature’s most genteel force. The conjunction by eclipse is akin to life swallowing you whole for a while. The opposition faces us down with something we had hoped we’d never have to learn. The two inconjuncts tell us that we need to change our attitude about something – the 6th house attitude being all about responsibility, methodology and mental continuity and the 8th house attitude being about questions of risk-versus-power.

Then there is the sextile. Sextiles are always opportunities. Not to be confused with the sextile (60 degrees) is the semi-sextile (30 degrees) which is an ego-bruising aspect which tends to require that we reconsider values and priorities.

Then there are the squares. When an eclipse squares our natal chart placements something throws us off track or derails us. We are challenged to handle a lot of input delivered suddenly from an unexpected direction. If we’re lucky, we learn something intrinsically valuable about ourselves in the process. If we’re not lucky, we hit ‘overload’ and get so overwhelmed we get close to nothing done, if sometimes for totally obvious reasons.

Last are the squares. Though more subtle than other eclipse aspects, the eclipse by trine often alters our life through something ongoing, or something we didn’t know would end. And then it does.

Nor are we done yet. Not only does this eclipse come equipped with a t-square, it also includes two grand trines:

This first one also touches on North Node, House (feeling at home with ourselves or with what we’re doing) and Deucalion – an important idea since this tells us why we will come into this time feeling  so ‘rooted’ in our individual Scorpio forms of how we want things to work.

The trine to Pisces speaks to an underlying and ongoing sense of wanting to fix things (Chiron). We want not to be affected by fears which keep popping up (Achernar/Medusa) and we certainly want to make good on our (Orpheus/Tantalus) promise.

The other trine – to Cancer – speaks of our need to follow the steps which take us from planting to harvest (Ceres) and while on one hand we recognize the need to keep learning, Charybdis/Sirius also has us leaning on whatever long-standing ‘basis of personal emotional operation’ we have built up until now.

Grand Trines are notoriously difficult to break out of. But when we look at the grand trine above in light of its aspects to the eclipse, we see Medusa in Pisces and the North Node and House in Scorpio are both in line to be eclipsed.

That tells us that this eclipse is about moving us past our Medusa fears of what we might have to learn about ourselves and whatever reluctance we have about moving out of our (North Node/House) ‘comfort zone’ in our relationships with others.

Put more plainly: if we want to succeed going forward, things have to change.

The other grand trine which is part of this eclipse is a variation on one we’ve seen before now:

If you didn’t catch these posts, you may want to read them to get the fullest view:

Saturn in Scorpio

Neptune, Fomalhaut, Deneb: Dissolving Walls

Differing from the other two planetary pictures, this one is not aspected to the eclipse. And that’s an interesting metaphysical note since the degree Saturn went retrograde at back in mid-February (11 Scorpio) is the degree of the eclipse we will experience come this November. By itself, that would seem to draw a line from February to November, as if life is giving us this ‘space’ in which to make changes…a ‘space’ which is not being directly altered by the eclipse.

That, on a metaphysical level, would tend to say that while this eclipse may be about something entirely different from that which you’re trying to (Saturn) accomplish this year, it could also be trying to liberate you from some sort of personal ‘sticking point’ which is getting in the way of those things you are trying to accomplish this year.

The one item which probably merits the most commentary in this grand trine however (at least to this astrologer) is the involvement of Vesta in Cancer. Vesta is about our promises, and the ‘cost’ of keeping those promises, whether that means sacrifice, money or having to move away from some long-cherished (or simply comfortable) situation, position or idea.

This grand trine suggests that there is an ‘ongoing’ (grand trine) ‘cost’ which must be paid if we are going to make our (Neptune, Fomalhaut, Deneb) dreams a (Saturn) reality.

And let us not forget the great Neptune/Fomalhaut challenge: corruption and coerciveness are not going to lead to success. If you’re thinking you can ‘get past’ something by insisting or arguing or ignoring someone, you’re certainly free to try. But if you’re doing that because you are trying to shield yourself from your own emotional vulnerabilities (wherever they stem from) or if you are harming anybody (including but not limited to yourself) in the process…if you are trying to ignore standards of acceptable behavior or standards of decency, you’re likely to meet up with more trouble than success.

And that isn’t going to change because of this eclipse. We know that because the eclipse (at 19 Taurus) is not in aspect to Fomalhaut/Neptune - at least not an old-fashioned standard Ptolemaic aspect.

In the eight weeks leading into this eclipse we have all been through many trying moments. We’ve seen terrible things happen, we’ve had tradeoffs in our personal life which feel….okay. But there’s still been an inordinate, overhanging, inescapable sense of being under a microscope of our own devising.

Things may happen. Things have happened. But the fact that we feel them so acutely is at the core of this eclipse. With all the analysis said and done and delved into and delineated, still we are left with the simplest of simple mortal questions: WHY?

Why does life do these kinds of things to us? What good can come from it?

Answer: much good and we need to re-learn a certain kind of emotional awareness, lest we assume there’s nothing left to do.

That would be true because life is not about having everything be easy. That’s the message provided by Menkar being part of this eclipse. And yes, why I made sure to write the post on Menkar so you could read it prior to the eclipse.

- link to post -

Menkar: Soul, Searching

A couple of years ago we saw Aldebaran, the royal star of integrity, get eclipsed. Immediately in its wake a bunch of public figures take a great tumble for their lack of integrity. We also heard integrity become a huge subject of public conversation.

This year we are likely to hear a lot of Menkar stories. And as that happens, those of us who are not stumbling over our fears (or our denial that we too are vulnerable like the rest of the human race) will take stock of what needs doing and dealing with and begin walking that road.

The good thing there is that we will be walking in the good and human company of all the other people who have also just shed their mental masks in favor of owning their humanity.

And maybe that will help us reach out to each other…and help one another…

…And together, with soulful openness we can achieve our goals without the ego-striving which is so common with the drive to succeed. That well may be the way to turn Juno-Sualocin from detriment and hurdle to glorious, universal power – by getting past whatever our fears are about who we are (or aren't)...or about what we have or don't have - or what someone else has or doesn't have. Our differences are important, no question. And at some level, they define us - especially when we utilize them in becoming respected, supported and even admired by others.

But all that pales into meaningless vapor when we forget that beyond the networking is the realm where we accept being accepted as part of a whole which is only whole when we ourselves are whole. And when in being ourselves, we add to the functionality of the whole.

It is what we do and how we do it which reveals why we do anything. That's the level at which others, consciously or unconsciously and react to us. 

Those barriers, those boundaries, wherever we are blind to our own potentials and limiting factors, those issues are now coming to the fore and being eclipsed.

Where we go from here...? That's up to us.  

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Menkar: Soul, Searching

A section of the Taurus Molecular Cloud shows a filament of

cosmic dust more than ten light years long

(photo credit: ESO-APEX-MPIR,OSO-A Hacar, February 2012)

The fact that I’ve never read anything which really satisfied my curiosity about fixed star Menkar is the genesis of this post. Positioned (as of 2013) at 15 Taurus, Menkar is referred to as a star ‘linked to the forces of the collective consciousness’ (source: Solar Fire’s star files) with others adding in comments about how the likelihood is that, where Menkar is involved, we will take an 'easier path.'

But that could mean a lot of things.

It could mean that for those who have a planet, node, cusp or axis point in aspect to Menkar, that object's symbolism represents the means by which we “access” the collective consciousness.

Or maybe that's where we are accessed by the collective consciousness in the area of life represented by that planet, node, cusp or axis point?

And yes, there is a difference. Astrologically, the point where we access something implies choice, purpose, aim/goal and volition. Where the we would be accessed by something is about being effected by situations or energetics which come upon us whether we want it or not, and which prompt certain reactions.

This second form seems likely in the sense that Menkar is known for choices which opt for the 'easier' or more 'pleasant' outcome. But when we get that far, the fact that Menkar is known as a ‘difficult’ star gives me cause to ponder. Is this about difficulties we meet up with in life because we take the path of pleasantry? Or is this about difficulties we simply have as part of life as a result of taking the easier or more popular path? 

Some who are into science fiction may have heard of this star under it’s alternative name, ‘Menkab.’ In doing a bit of research on the subject I came across the fact that Menkab has been mentioned in various incarnations of Star Trek and (apparently not to be outdone), in an episode or two of South Park.

So much for stellar dignity, eh?

None of this proving very satisfying, I wandered further afield (which is a pretty long way when you're talking about stars). Or maybe I should say I swam a far piece as in current star-lore, Menkar is part of the constellation Cetus – the whale.

A sky map of constellation Cetus

(image credit: IAU, Sky and Telescope Magazine - Roger

Sinnott/Rick Fienberg, June 2011)

But lest you think this is the great whale we love and respect in today's world, it would seem that the astrological Cetus is not about the amazing creatures we may be lucky enough to see if we go whale-watching (or if we just spend a bit of quality time watching Discovery Channel). No, the idea of constellation Cetus as the whale goes back to Mesopotamian times, when whales were thought of more as ‘sea monsters.’ And that explains why Cetus is sometimes though more of in the mold of the Loch Ness Monster rather than Flipper the friendly sea porpoise. (Now I’m dating myself.) And it’s not just the Mesopotamians who saw this concept with regards to constellation Cetus. On a whole other side of the world the Tukano and Kobeua people of Brazil saw this constellation as a jaguar, the jaguar having been a powerful image all over South and Central America (where it figured large in the myths of the Aztecs and Maya).

But the interesting thing is that even though these Brazilian peoples chose a “terrestrial” image (the jaguar), the constellation was (is) thought of in connection with violent storms – in particular, hurricanes.

And hurricanes are certainly ‘creatures of the ocean.’

Maybe the better way to think of Cetus is in terms of the ‘whale’ in the book Moby Dick. Yes, there might have been a real whale, but it was the whale in Ahab’s head – the ‘whale of his obsessions’ – which is the real Cetus.

 An illustration from an 1892 edition of Moby Dick

(publisher: C.H. Simonds Co.)

That’s a useful clue in our search for understanding Menkar, as this star really does seem to have some mythic quality to it specifically as that concerns our thinking. There’s the reality of the thing…and then there’s what we think of the thing. Either may have validity. But then again, our thoughts may be what are ‘swallowing’ us up, so to speak.

Myth speaks of Cetus as the sea monster which was going to devour Andromeda, the fair maiden left chained to the rock by her parents. The story here is instructive, as it seems to point to some of our Cetus challenges.

Andromeda’s mother is Cassiopeia. And Cassiopeia is an arrogantly proud woman who boasts that her child – Andromeda – is ‘more beautiful than the Nereids,’ the Nereids being Poseidon (Neptune’s) children.

The last time we saw a ‘queen here on Earth’ brag about her children thinking they were better than the gods, that figure of overblown braggadocio (read: pride) was Niobe. Her brag was that her kids were both more plentiful and more talented than those of Leto.

Leto happening to be the mother of Apollo and Artemis (the god of truth and enlightenment and goddess of the hunt and human reflection, respectively)…that didn’t go so well for Niobe. A highly insulted Leto sent her kids to shoot all of Niobe’s kids down, allegedly proving the difference between mortality and that which is eternal and how important it is to keep the two things straight.

Unfortunately, Cassiopeia wasn’t keeping up on such warning labels. So she makes her boast about Andromeda as being more beautiful than the children of the ocean (the Nereids) and Papa Neptune gets so frothed up that he calls in his brother Jupiter and together they send Cetus to teach this arrogantly vain mortal a lesson by destroying her kingdom.

One suspects there must have been a lively ‘what the #$^!@ did you do, woman?’ conversation between Cassiopeia and hubby (King Cepheus). And yes, I’m using the term ‘lively’ rather liberally. But as folks did in those days, their answer was to go ask an oracle for a solution.

And – interestingly – the oracle they chose was an oracle of Apollo, which probably got a chuckle up on immortal Mount Olympus. What? Another silly, vain human being? Oh, when are they ever going to learn!

Vain and arrogant or not, Cassiopeia is upset to hear that the way to assuage Neptune is through sacrificing Andromeda, but she’s not so upset that she and hubby don’t go and chain Andromeda to a rock. (Whether they hung out a sign for Cetus saying ‘come and get it!’ isn’t mentioned.)

Andromeda by Paul Gustave Dore

This is one of those impossibly poignant Greek question: do I save my family and sacrifice my world (i.e., the kingdom which Cetus will eat if Andromeda is not sacrificed) or do I sacrifice that beautiful thing which is MY world (my pride and joy) in order to safeguard and better the world?

Greek myth is full of all the truly difficult questions of life. Who among us hasn’t faced this question of whether we should prioritize the greater good or our own personal good?

Seen from this vantage point, Cetus is the ‘monster’ we are afraid of, the ‘what if’ we do, and the ‘what if’ we don’t.

Either way, there’s going to be pain. Will we take that on ourselves for some error, or some allowance we’ve given ourselves which is ‘monstrous’? Or will we force others to pay for our unwillingness to own the consequences of choices, acts and priorities which have been shown to be anywhere between faulty and truly grievous?

In case you’re worried about Andromeda, she gets rescued by none other than Perseus, who is on the way back from slaying Medusa – which in astro-psycho-mythic terms means he’s ‘already faced the horrible fact.’

- Link to post -

Medusa: Through Our Mental Mirror, Darkly

Andromeda the sweet and giving child who never fought the parents who would sacrifice her to their own ‘monster’ ends up wedded to Perseus, the essence of our willingness to face the facts – however scary they may be – about ourselves.

And if we can do that, there may indeed be a happy ending.

But first, back to Menkar’s part in this whole parade.

Referred to as ‘Alpha Ceti’ (‘first star of Cetus’) in astronomical terms, Menkar is not the most notable of all Cetus’ stars – that honor goes to Mira, a famous variable star which doesn’t appear much in astrology. (Evidently stars need lobbies too.) Mira pulsates. Mira glows bright, and then fades away…it blows hot and cold, one might say.

Menkar on the other hand, is a point of relative stability. But as it’s positioned in the tail of Cetus as a constellation, stabile is a relative term – there’s bound to be some thrashing.

Maybe stabilizing is a better term. And that is a really helpful idea in understanding this star which sits so close to the 15 Taurus cross-quarter point.

 
The zodiacal cross-quarter points fall at 15 degrees of the fixed signs, an indication that they’re a ‘turning point’ when that which the fixed sign is so ardently ‘fixed’ on learning (degrees zero through fourteen) shifts into active mode.

Or at least it should. Particularly where and when we see degrees of fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius) which are 15 or higher representing attributes which have not learned to manifest the useful (read: positive) sign attributes, this leads to problems and results which are less satisfying than one might have envisioned.

So saying, back to the basic lore on this point. In everyday life, ‘forces of the unconscious’ can be our desire to fit in. Then again, they may be our interaction with ‘the’ mass consciousness (universal understandings or truths) or some subset thereof which we are tapping or tapped into through culture and upbringing, religion, nationality, peer group, generation or the times we live in.

Our ‘difficulties’ with that ‘sense’ we have of what’s out there, or what we ‘should’ be, or whether we ‘fit in’ or ‘greater realms’ or ‘inner evils’ (or hopes, etc.) …those are our ‘Cetus,’ our whale which isn’t about others – it’s about us. Menkar is in other words, the aperture…a sort of porthole through which we see the ‘greater realm’ or greater possibilities and through which we ‘feel seen.’

Because we are talking about Taurus, the question here is security. And because Cetus is a constellation which lies in proximity to the ecliptic, it's something which is 'close to us' at all times. Because of Earth's position in the whole of the greater universe, that which we see as 'the whale' is actually a construct composed of things near and far...stars which are relatively close to us and those which are many, many light years away. Thus the questions posed by Cetus - and therefore by Menkar come to us through Taurus in a manner which is both very immediate and very philosophical. So there is a very real part of the question "Am I secure?" Then again, there's a very broad-scope consideration about what security is, and whether we are every entirely secure other than being secure with ourselves seeing as we live in a world we don't control with a whole lot of people we surely don't control.

So whether the question is security or potential or acceptance or survival, there are 'real' versions and 'philosophical' versions for all those questions. And when we get done with all that, we still won't know for absolute sure whether 'right now' will carry over for the next five minutes or if in the whole of things, we're just kidding ourselves anyway.

Why is our potential? And why can we see everybody else's potential so well even when they can't see it? Is that what others truly see in us?

This touches on something written by Marianne Williamson back in 1992 in her book ‘Return to Love.’ Often thought of as being quoted by Nelson Mandela, it embodies another way to see the Menkar dilemma:

“It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

—Marianne Williamson

I have long realized that I attract people whose charts contain pointed commentaries on Menkar. They are most often friends than clients, and our relationships are rife with the interlocking of our personal struggles to fulfill our potential, often in spite of our marked ability to trip ourselves up by prioritizing desires over ability.

It is that choice of priority again, that very Greek question of the micro-versus-macrocosm of life.

And that explains at least some of why Menkar is difficult. It’s hard to think through this sort of conflict of self. And it’s one which shows up time and time and time again.

In the charts of people I come to know, most often there’s a planet sitting close enough to conjunct Menkar. In studying those (inclusive of the planets and asteroids in conjunction) I’ve come to understand that Menkar represents what we face in dealing with our world and what we embody in the lives of others. This was never made as plain to me as when I realized that someone I know with a literal life-or-death job has Medusa conjunct Sun conjunct Menkar.

And from there I looked to the chart of my sister, born to die at age 17 of a devastating and fatal disease. Nessus conjunct her Sun conjunct Menkar speaks eloquently of the understandable bitterness she felt at knowing she was going to die young and the scars she left on the lives around her while like so much connected to Nessus, live on decades after her death.

In a chart where Venus, Mercury, Phaethon and the South Node conjunct Menkar I see the experience of a life which, true to Phaethon’s ‘headstrong teen’ influence got on track early and which didn’t get challenged in the internal sense until much later on, at an age when that native was long past teenage adaptability. A lot of the growing up and facing of life’s realities some of us learn early this person is struggling with now in their 50s.

They’ve fallen down and they can’t get up because they are too afraid to see they’ve fallen down - yet another version of the 'Menkar Effect.'

A composite photo of NGC 1068 (M77) which is one of the nebula formations to

be found in constellation Cetus. That M77 contains a rapidly growing black

hole adds to the astro-mythology of its constellation.

(photo credit: NASA, CXC, MIT, Canizares, Evans et al,  STSd, NSF, 

NRAO, VLA, March 2010)

Menkar began the 1900s by moving into 13 Taurus in 1905. 13 Taurus is a degree which promotes and provokes the idea of right and wrong, some of which may be real and may be driven by some already-established internalized sense of priority or propriety. That would seem to be doubling up on some of Menkar’s least likable attributes, which may explain why between 1905 and 1976 (when Menkar moved on into 14 Taurus) we  saw more war (as a world) than we’ve seen since. With a lot of people still alive who were born during those years there would seem to be something of a ‘hyperbolic’ tendency still among us.

And of course there is that Menkar challenge which asks that we see the good and bad not just in others, but in ourselves. Humans are not always so very good at that.

Since 1976, Menkar has been positioned at 14 Taurus, a degree with a very mystical bent which in ‘real life’ terms could be simply mystical – but which may also give us a clue about the role of spirituality and religion seen during in the nearly 50 years since. Dividing ‘the times’ from the people who live with/through/by the natal charts, the times will be what they will be (which we would astrological see more through ongoing transits and eclipses)…but the people born with Menkar at 14 Taurus – is it any wonder that they are swayed by that which may be all around them but which they cannot see, such as social media?

There are ups and downs with everything, to be sure. And given that Menkar will be at 14 Taurus until June of 2048 (which will happen just as Neptune conjuncts Menkar and Eris moves into Taurus) we have a ways to go with this “mystical” quality which could lend so much insight – leading to great realizations about life…and maybe even the afterlife or other dimensions. But at the same time it speaks to a time and half a dozen astrological  generations (using Pluto as our generational market) which are all predisposed to manifesting and feeling this “mystical” influence both for the strength and weakness, the faith and vulnerability that any “mystical” reference can denote.

All this is timely because here in the year 2013 we’re about to experience a Solar Eclipse at 19 Taurus. Using standard 5-degree orbs, that means this Solar Eclipse will conjunct Menkar.

Plus there is a Solar Eclipse which will happen this November at 11 Scorpio? That’s within orb to oppose Menkar.

Anyone with a birthday between April 26 and May 15 (or) October 29 and November 17 should pay attention to this for sure. Those with birthdays between May 4 and May 15 along with those with birthdays between November 6 and 17 should pay particular attention to this May’s Taurus eclipse. Those with birthdays between April 26 and May 6th and October 29 and November 8 should focus on the November eclipse yet to come.

And for you whose birthdays lie in that overlap? This going to be a big year in your life. Many things you had thought were lasting – particularly as part of your internal value system – will now be supplanted. Being that humans are not the most malleable in such areas, the process won’t feel gentle, even without any loss of lifestyle or limb.

But let’s be real here: Solar Eclipses are not gentle. Nor are they a 'one-and-done' sort of affair. Solar eclipse effects evolve...and of all the astrological processes, they are perhaps the most dramatic, which may account for the histories of Solar Eclipses marking the rise and fall of kings and nations back into ancient times.

Yet since our focus here is Menkar, what we can expect from a Solar Eclipse on Menkar is the ‘shadow’ of our inner Cassiopeia coming out. Where we have not learned to be Perseus and figure out how to deal with those “frightening Medusa truths” – whether about ourselves or others, now those facts come out.

At the time of this post (April 26th) asteroid Child is conjunct the South Node with Lilith (the asteroid, not the Black Moon) conjunct Menkar, representing some facet of our Self which we don't want to acknowledge (Lilith) being focal in those dealings with the collective either as we stand against them, wanting to be an individual...or as we yearn to be part of them.

The Child/South Node part of this is most easily understood as 'wanting things to be easy' (or simple) which in combination with Lilith/Menkar sounds like a subterranean confrontation with that inner 'knowing' of who we are and what we're capable of becoming against what life has made easy to comply with or conform to.

As the days of May tick by (on our way to the Solar Eclipse on May 10th, or May 9th for those in the Americas)...first Mercury, then Mars conjunct Menkar.

This is a recipe for 'vital affairs' with far-reaching implications, the strength of which have everything to do with where these objects (Mercury, Mars and Menkar) lie in your natal chart.

And that's important to remember: the degree to which these things surface now, and to a great degree the effect Menkar has on your life is all about your natal chart. Whether (or how closely) Menkar and this eclipse are associated with any planet (dwarf or regular), node or axis in your chart multiplies effects in this moment.

Also yes, asteroids, TNOs and all such 'extra points' (as they're known) count in conjunction to Menkar natally and obviously (as discussed here) by transit. But unless you have a planet, node or axis positioned with Menkar or in such a position that it will be heavily impacted by the eclipse, you are less likely to see your shadow rise up and swallow some part of your life whole during the next weeks or month.

You know, like Jonah and the Whale.

Jonas en de Walvis (Jonah and the Whale)

by Pieter Lastman (1583-1633)

One more comment about that, since Jonah has crept into the conversation. The idea of being afraid of our own power is something many people from many walks of life have talked about. It’s known as the ‘Jonah Complex,’ which suggests that we are more apt to get swallowed by our fear of Self than anything else.

But what is fear and what is reality?

That seems very much part of our Menkar challenge. And maybe it's why we do so much soul searching throughout our lives.

Evidently we're meant to.

But then...maybe we should also reflect one last time on Cetus. Yes, the constellation began as a monster of the deep. And it's only in the past hundred plus years that whales have stopped being thought of as ship-wrecking monsters and giant sources of baleen and oil.

The whales haven't changed - we have. And maybe that's something very important to understand about Menkar. We may all need to - at some point - be 'swallowed whole' by our demons, our personal fears.

And maybe we survive best by accepting that our fears... our very human vulnerabilities, are part of the beauty which is life.   
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