Virgo’s New Moon Cycle: Processing Our Process

Australia's Great Barrier Reef

(photo credit: Steve Evans, January 2011)

Sometimes I sit and stare at something like a New Moon and wonder what it means – which in this case would be the meaning of a Virgo New Moon in the midst of everything else going on. Then it hit me…and the answer was very simple and utterly direct.

This New Moon is all about how we are going about doing our ‘Virgo work.’ It’s about how we’re operating in life and in our own lives and what we’re working to purify or make more functional…efficient…healthy…and maybe in sync with everything which is currently going on while supporting our greater, long term goals.

And we’re doing all this with Pholus and Ixion having just gone direct. We’re also doing it after entering the intense if glorious realm of dissolving structures and breaking down of walls which stand between us and the what we need to have in place which is so very typical of the eight weeks (or so) which precedes any given Solar Eclipse.

Not to mention one in Scorpio – a sign all about being transformed through our relationship with others and with our world, a sign which tests our ability…particularly our emotional ability to get past our own fears and insecurities in the search for what we think is really our dream, our goal, our nirvana, our bliss.

This Virgo New Moon is also occurring just as the South Node (the easy way, the comfortable thing) is leaving conjunctive orb with fixed star Menkar. And since Menkar is another version of what’s easy to do – aka the thing which doesn’t require confrontation – for the past few months or so, in spite of all we all have been doing what we needed to do.

Or rather, we’ve endured all the ancillary emotionality. And the feelings which have arisen during carrying on with what we had in our minds as the thing we needed to be focused on. That has been our South Node/Menkar combination.

With Menkar at 14 Taurus, the South Node (which if you remember cycles backwards) came into five degrees of conjunctive orb  - which is to say it hit 19 Taurus - back in February, 2013…which if you remember is also the month when Saturn went retrograde at 11 Scorpio, the degree of the incoming eclipse.

- link to -

Saturn station/retrograde (Part One)

- link to -

Saturn station/retrograde (Part Two)

During the months since, that South Node/Menkar combination became something of a bedrock – ‘the thing we could trust’ as a good place to invest our time and effort. It was Taurean. It was comfortable. We felt like we knew what we were doing and we knew that by putting our time and effort there we were going to at least be on an even keel with ourselves…we wouldn’t suffer any big nicks or cracks in the self-esteem department.

And let’s be real…humans are all about self-worth, self-esteem and self-respect, am I right? Those are the stuff of satisfaction, whether we’re rich or poor, whether we’re young or old, whether we’re single or married…whatever.

Let’s also note that this Virgo New Moon? It’s at 13 Virgo. And 13 Virgo is about as trine to 14 Taurus as you can get. What’s one measly degree in the life of a trine?

But that’s sort of the point. Back in February – as the South Node slid back into 19 Taurus and thus came into orb-of-conjunction with Menkar, we had a Full Moon at 7 Virgo. And now, as Menkar is being left behind by the South Node, we’re getting a New Moon at 13 Virgo.

Full Moons are about fulfillment and often about having finished a ‘phase’ of some project or effort. So back in February, some long term (Saturn) effort was getting ready to be completed and between then and now we have gone through the finishing of that and the ‘making good on the easy part’ (South Node) in the sense that nodes always refer to our relationship to others and our world.

And now the South Node is leaving Menkar as we get this Virgo New Moon at a moment when we are entering the thickening energetics of the approaching Scorpio Solar Eclipse…and all this is happening just as we’ve experienced Pholus (the little things which can cut us so deeply) and Ixion (the need to recognize others in this world for who and what they are) have gone direct – in Sagittarius.

In short, this is a recipe for finding out what is and isn’t working in our lives, with the the Virgo Moon part of this equation being the what we’re responsible for in terms for doing well…or not doing at all…or doing too much of, to the exclusion of other things which perhaps need doing – or with so much focus on the nuances that we forget the bigger picture.

The South Node actually conjuncted with Menkar on July 10th – just after a New Moon at 16 Cancer, a degree Jupiter will be rolling over during this very lunar month. If you remember, the grand trine in water (which began as Saturn-Jupiter-Neptune) came online in late June – at June 26th, with Jupiter’s ingress of Cancer. That began a steady increase in the emotional ‘water level’ in life. Some of us felt more emotional. Situations and conversations turned towards being about emotions and got emotionally provocative. People were ‘getting to us’ and things were ringing bells which got us to thinking about how driven we all are by our experiences…our feelings…our need to have or avoid emotionality.

Then as July 10th and the exactness of conjunction slid on by then came Uranus’s station. and Eris’ station – both of which amounted to some ‘emotional turbulence.’ There was energy breaking out like chicken pox all over the place – and yes, it did all seem highly contagious.

The combination of Uranus and Eris is dramatic. So there was a lot of drama and some dramatic things were revealed to us, through us and in our greater world. Life kept throwing curve balls at us, shaking us up in order to get us to consider what our capacities really are. And what they should be.

Critical, lyrical, esoteric and practical, with Mars having entered Cancer back on June 13 (UT/+0 time) we were all caught in our various crucibles, the lid of which was tightly locked against our ability to do anything but cope or stew or steam or vent. And that we did. And by doing that – through all that has taken and through all that we have been forced us to grapple with we have become both more imbedded in who we really are even if we are perhaps still papered with layers of situations, habits, choices and ideas which everyone seems to get cluttered up with.

You’d think we were all city walls getting pasted over with handbills or something.

Sedna’s turn to retrograde ushered in the first of a series of grand sextiles represented the fusion of cause/effect energies which will either bury us in the effort to be who we are or in the denial that we are indeed individual…or that we need to individualize and stop living on hype, dreams, or some sense that ‘it will just be okay’ if we just hold on.

- link to -

Sedna goes retrograde in Taurus

That ‘holding on’ thing would seem to be part of the Virgo New Moon question…what should we hold on to? What should we let go of? Wherever Virgo is concerned it’s easy to opt for the habitual and the traditional. It’s often simpler to go along with what everybody wants and not assert ourselves.

But that isn’t always going to get us where we want to go in life. We can be the nicest person in the world and still fail ourselves – miserably. We do and do and help and support and then feel utterly empty because we have been supporting those who don’t support us in turn.

This isn’t about money. (Though yes, money has it’s place as a life necessity.) Sometimes the simple ‘thank you’ or care-worn smile of appreciation is the greatest validation in the world.

What this comes down to is the idea that Virgo is the last of the zodiac’s first six signs. In Virgo, we come to the end of the ‘inner’ or personal development sequence and face the ‘emergence’ of our abilities and drives and the nature of our motivations.

How so?

The answer there lies simply in the idea that Virgo ends at the Descendant. Though it’s technically the first degree of Libra (0 Libra), the Descendant point would be that place that Virgo leads to…and thus, where airy, theoretical Libra is the IDEA of cause effect, it’s really what we do which counts. It’s who we’re being and what we put out there into the world which turns cause into effect.

And that’s the Virgo dynamic.

So when we talk about Sedna in association with a Virgo New Moon, at some level that speaks to the whole of this next month …the lunar ‘phasing’ of our days…as being about the grace of our individuality or uniqueness, or the trials we face in becoming unique and in discovering what needs to happen and who we need to be in order to be able to be effective (i.e., get the desired ‘effect’ from our causal energy) in our daily life. In the whole of our life. In this world.

That makes this month a month about figuring out where we excel and where we lack…what we need to work on and what we need to have some (Sedna) perspective on.

Hopefully a “matured” perspective, yes – which would mean one which is ready…or on the way to being ready…to go out into the world or take us out into the world.

As for the (Pholus)Ixion part of this process? That – and the South Node leaving Menkar’s aura would seem to be about the ‘revealing’ of where improvements need to be made. Where we tend to time and time again trip ourselves up as the thing which can be worked on during this month’s lunation – or even uncovered, probably in the midst of some Virgoan process which has us focused on being just attentive enough that we’re able to ‘see what we’re doing.’

Or maybe not doing.

Or doing which gets us in a bind.

No matter what year it is, no matter what degree the Virgo New Moon occurs at, it’s basic theme is always more or less ‘get to work.’ Or ‘its time to make things work.’ Whatever house of your natal chart Virgo falls on, that’s the prime area of concern – call it the “arena” in which you’ll be experiencing day to day events. Then we add on the house containing Mercury (as ruler of Virgo) and the sign Mercury is in. Both of these will – especially in terms of their aspect to Virgo give you a hint as to what you’ll be facing.

The basic idea here is this: if the New Moon is Virgoan, the underlying issue is functionality which supports the  greater purpose. That idea is why the thing which is so easy with Virgos (or with anything Virgo) – which is to get totally caught up in the nuances and details to such an extent that you never get the ‘greater purpose’ taken care of (at least not in a purposeful manner!) is a negative.

 As the second of the zodiac's earth signs, Virgo involves the process

of working on what we are or "have" (be that tangible or in terms of ideas

or abilities) and bringing that to the point where it can be put out into a

(Libra) world - at which point it will build towards our (Capricorn) aims.

I know, I know…I’ve heard all the defenses about exactness and thoroughness and doing your best and all that. And it’s all fine. It’s just that when we talk Virgo, there is always some point where the forest gets lost for the over-focusing on this tree…and that tree..and that other tree over there…and lookie at that cute little tree beside the brook…

There’s a famous slightly crude expression which goes like this: when you’re up to your ass in alligators it’s hard to remember that the prime directive was to drain the swamp.

Understandable? Yes. Alligators are serious critters. I did a very long film location down in Louisiana and when one of the locals said ‘don’t stand too near that shore, there’s a ‘gator in the water’ I moved my city girl self to higher ground. (Don’t ask me why I wore nice white heels out to the swamp, either – I just did.)

Virgo asks us to have priorities, to utilize those priorities in doing our best but to always remember that getting the job done is the point of all things.

Sometimes just what the job is becomes the problem, yes. Is it the thing at hand…? Or is it the working on yourself to be a better person doing that job at hand?

That would be the avenue of discovery we travel every time we encounter the Virgo brand.

As for 13 Virgo, that’s a degree about owning one’s own choices. And yes, maybe with the New Moon taking place in the wake of Ixion’s station, owning up to how or why (or what) you’ve done in the manner you’ve done it is now important. Ixion often points to those things we do because we like doing them…or because we simply like doing them the way we like doing them in spite of the fact they don’t work.

Ixion…Virgo…yes, that might well be the case. And because of that, some of us will spend this month clinging to the notion that what we’re doing is okay when it isn’t and some of us will feel persecuted – even punished – for things we don’t seem to be able to get a handle on with regards to their incorrectness.

With Ixion (and Pholus) at 18 Sagittarius and the New Virgo Moon occurring at 13 Virgo, there is also a natural square in the works. That suggests that there is a building of (sorry to say) narcissistic energy at one pole of life’s possibilities with a building of momentum towards making good on your aims through self-discipline and thinking things through.

And with all this happening under the auspices of the incoming Solar Eclipse, we will suspect that there will be some separating of our ways. This is a natural time for changes and for things which have run their course to come to an end. In some cases – particularly at the moment with Ixion in the mix – denial of something may get peeled away or fall by the wayside.

With the North Node representing the situations and ‘relational dynamics’ sitting in Scorpio, something about our life is being eliminated or purified. Or maybe transformed, rehabilitated, denied or created through our relationships and how we relate or are caused to relate to our Self through life, our world and all the people in it.

Through all that we are guided to all we need to do and work on…and what we need to let go of, whether that’s in our life or about ourselves.

In light of which, all either goes well or we learn that we’re in for a major shift of reality yet to come.
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Huya, Rainmaker: Direct at 20 Scorpio

La Guajira desert (Macuira National Park) in Columbia

(photo credit: Luis Alejandro Bernal Romero, April 2006)

Lore on the degree 20 Scorpio speaks of a restless sense of self which, though it can be directed to eventual accomplishment is often directed towards short term goals which will garner some sort of personal pleasure.

Or pleasuring.

This shouldn’t be any surprise, as Scorpio is all about all everything and anything which raises our sense of wanting…against which life tends to throw various challenges. These challenges are designed to teach us as to whether our aims and motivations hold realistic water.

More to the point, emotionally realistic water. The Scorpionic thing we aim at tests our sense of proportion and whether we can handle what we ask for. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it is a wholly Scorpio saying – as is the implied threat which goes with it.  

That this sign which is all about passion should be best dealt with coolly and calmly has got to be one of metaphysic’s most superb ironies. But maybe not. What we fail at in Scorpio, be it the job, the partnership, the investment or intimate relationship is an emotional grounding mechanism which sort of warns us not to go any further before we’re really ready to play for all the marbles.

If you’ve ever had an investment go sour or a love affair bite you in the deepest nether region of your feelings, you know that Scorpio sting. It’s part embarrassment, part regret, part frustration and part anger – most of all at ourselves for being so foolish as to not ‘have seen the signs.’

Like I said…Scorpio issues are best approached coolly. Only when we’re cool can we size up the give and take, the emotional negotiation which in making whatever equally worthwhile to all parties involved secures the deal.

Considering that Huya is either the learning of a lesson which through pain can teach us the value of one of our greatest gifts (and in action represent the opportunity to give that gift or put that ‘gift lesson’ into action), this station is a celestial invitation to make more – and better – of our lives.

Or of our lives in the whole of life. But to do that, we have to give to others. Or at least put the ‘lesson learned’ to work as part of what we do to help others. Sometimes Huya represents the motivation which causes us to help. Sometimes it’s the willingness to put what we want on hold in order to help.

However Huya functions however, it is best to think of the process as the point of whatever you do now – which is to say don’t think in terms of what others may think or not think of/about you. Huya is named for a South American rain god – and rain is what creates fertility out of the dry and desiccated, the painfully barren in this world.

Why you do whatever you do is the important part of this Huya lesson. The more you bring your hardest-won altruism to what you do in life, the better your chances to succeed very much in the sense of that old saying ‘cast your bread upon the waters.’ Don’t ‘define’ what you think you are going to get back; whatever you’re thinking of isn’t likely to happen anyway. That we know as part of Huya being on the list of Plutinos – objects (mostly dwarf planets, but others too) which orbit around our Sun representing energies in our world which are ‘colored’ or ‘shielded’ behind – or beyond - a Neptunian veil.

That we all have a Huya in our chart says we are all capable of making great contributions and that our ability to make those contributions depends on our ability (or ‘willingness’ if you will) to a.) accept that our deepest negatives and greatest pain have something valuable to teach and b.) work through whatever the pain and/or negatives are until we realize what it is which we have been given to know.

Once we know, then we can fold that understanding into what we do (or who we are) in life, ‘raining’ that insight into the lives of others, emboldening them with the ability to accept their human realities (which we so often refer to as ‘flaws’ or ‘problems’) which in turn allows them to….blossom.

Huya, Rainmaker: the ability to be that fertile rain which provides that which others need to allow them to break through their hard husks and grow into fruitfulness.

Focused in that ‘fitting in’ realm of Scorpio which tests our ability (most of all) to negotiate with our feelings, this particular Huya station comes to us as a t-square.

With Huya at the ‘t’ of this t-square, the ‘starting point’ is Byblis at 20 Leo, suggesting this whole scenario is about OR centers in something we’re doing which we ‘want to do’ or ‘like doing.’

It probably seems easy enough to do as we’re doing it. But at some level we know it’s not right. It’s not serving its’ fullest purpose. Or maybe it’s not garnering us the rewards or feeling of acceptance (support, respect, etc.) that it should. With Damocles at the ‘goal’ position of this t-square, there’s something about life which feels problematic. Or ‘dangerous.’ And we want to resolve that – at least in our minds, if not in real time.

But there’s something in the way. And that ‘something’ involves whatever our ‘Huya Quotient’ is. For some of us, this will be some Huya power we already own, for some it will represent some Huya potential we need to yet understand.

Whichever side of that question you’re on (and yes, it is perfectly possible to be on both sides of the issue in differing parts of your life) that this Huya station is at 20 Scorpio and therefore in opposition to last May’s 19 Taurus Solar Eclipse tells us that this period (July 27/28 through August 1/2 with emphasis on the moment of station on July 30th) is all about a continuing process which began back in May.

Or more likely, back in mid-late March, which would be when the eclipse shift began to take hold.

In the greater hierarchy of astrological conceptualization, the Solar Eclipse takes center stage. Yet because the Taurus eclipse and this Scorpio Huya moment are in different signs and in opposition, where the March-into-May period was all about us or what we were doing/not doing at a more personal (Taurean) level, now Huya in Scorpio is pointing to the necessity to focus on how we relate to others and the building ourselves into a ‘greater place’ in the world and our world as a thing greater than just about our Self.

That requires digging deep and running some ‘risk’ that we’re wrong. Or vulnerable. Or taking on the realization that our means or method isn’t working or maybe workable.

Here Huya is telling us that our greatest satisfaction comes from and through others. How well we are equipped to deal with that which connects us to others – the fact of it as well as the emotional and deeply human(e) part of it – points to the pluses and minuses not merely of our life in the moment, but in the ongoing ‘processing’ of our life and times as set off by that May Solar Eclipse in Taurus.

Solar Eclipse transits take a full 3 years to evolve. With regards to this year’s May eclipse, it’s barely begun to show what about our lives may have been ‘eclipsed.’

For reference’s sake…

- link to -

The Taurus Solar Eclipse

You know if your life has changed over the past few months. You may have finally undertaken something, you may have reached some portal or passage. About now you are realizing – maybe with some difficulty or regret – that in moving forward, something is ‘over,’ done or no longer truly viable.

That’s part of your process. We all have some process to go through now. Considering how we are still under the auspices of a time which both holds us in our emotions and pushes us to deal with our emotional makeup (the grand trine in water), as Jupiter and Mars now press through Cancer and set off an opposition to Pluto in Capricorn, things will change. We will either change them through changing our outlook, attitudes and relationship towards our own feelings about things…or life will provoke/evoke those feelings.

At some level, this is a time all about the need to confront new realities. Or maybe you’re just gaining perspective on your reality and how that needs to change. What was earlier this month (the feeling of being ‘caught up’ in our feelings) now shifts as Jupiter ‘breaks tryst’ with Neptune and Saturn and sets up a new grand trine – this one with North Node and Chiron – which combines with Pluto to form a kite.

The astrological ‘rule’ with a kite asks that we ‘take hold of its tail,’ which here is pictured by Mars, Jupiter, Sirius and Kassandra. We may not (Kassandra) believe that we need to change, but we realize this is a time of change.

Then again, with Huya’s turn to direct, we may now not only see some ‘brilliant’ potential or twinkle of understanding which before now was lost in a myriad of inner space …but at some level recognize that to not own our potential and live to the highest form of our ability is petty, selfish – even self destructive.

Our lives always offer us the chance to do what is easy against the taking on of (North Node) challenges which though difficult, lie between us and a life we know is far more worth living. With Chiron’s influence currently in play, we don’t really ‘know’ how to get our of where we are. Or what that ‘thing’ we could be really involved.

And we never will know except by doing. That’s Chiron’s curse and Chiron’s blessing. Having knowledge is lovely. Utilizing knowledge – particularly for the benefit of all is even better.

Huya involvement in a water grand trine while opposing May’s Solar Eclipse speaks the emotional need to respect ourselves and to be someone we consider worthy. With Chiron and the North Node tied into Huya’s July 30th station, the question now focuses on what we don’t know how to do, but need to do anyway. Our goal is the revitalizing of the basis upon which we feel ourselves living, and the totality of our lives, through which we are able to key in on empowering others (and the world) which in turn will grace us with a fertile existence broader than the sky and beyond 'mere mortal' definition.
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The Lunar Nodes at Cross Quarters

This header image is based on a photo of Main Street in Old City Dubrovnik

by Alex Proimos of Sydney, Australia (July 2011)

Pretzels. That’s what first came to mind when I started thinking about the nodes moving backwards through fifteen degrees of Scorpio and Taurus. After all, the normal astro-celestial movement is forward and the idea of the zodiac’s cross-quarter points is of the infamously famous ‘move on’ sort.

(Or if you want to be more benign and Zen about it, ‘walk on’.)

Occurring at 15 degrees of each of the zodiac’s fixed signs (or on a more esoteric level, at the half-way mark in houses 2, 5, 8 and 11), the cross-quarter points are where gathering information and learning about something shifts into ‘doing it’ gear.

Or at least ‘trying it’ gear.

And yes…if you have some planet, node or axis positioned at 15 degrees of any of the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius), this may explain why – in terms of whatever that symbol is – you’re always struggling with the ‘do I know enough?’ or ‘do I HAVE to?’ or 'are they going to like/approve of me (or what I do)?' issues.

Or maybe you’re just hesitant (read: reluctant) when it comes to getting started, with once you’re in gear being a whole other thing.

Taurus and Scorpio being signs which are natively 1st quadrant and 3rd quadrant in the zodiacal sense, the stakes here are pitting the ‘learning how’ and ‘learning about how my life works’ first quadrant process against the 3rd quadrant ‘what works?’ with others, or in terms of who (or what sort of company or organization) you should be dealing with.

Basically, the first-against-third quadrants are more ‘who am I and how do I operate’ where the second-against-forth quadrants are more about what we do and whether the world likes what we do: one-three is directly personal and two-four is a bit ‘offshore,’ if you will.

That doesn’t mean we won’t get offended if someone sneers at us, obviously, but there’s a difference between someone saying ‘you baked a lousy cake’ (or you hired a lousy employee) and ‘you’re a lousy so-and-so.’

Of course there are some cross-collateralizations here, I will freely admit. Maybe you’ve noticed this and maybe you haven’t, but people who are born under 2nd or 4th quadrant signs (Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces) seem to have a bit of a harder time separating themselves from what they do. And when you add in not just Sun but also Moon, then take where each falls in the natal chart it all gets a bit complicated and everybody has sensitive spots.

But then, we are humans. And humans, it seems, were born to get real and realer as time goes along by having their soft spots poked, prodded and otherwise stimulated.

(No, don’t go there. Google/Blogger has rules, don’t you know!)

Into all this comes the Nodes of the Moon. Defined as that place where the Moon’s path around Earth intersects Earth’s path around the Sun, the nodes are the ‘intersection’ of our very personal world (the Moon) with the greater life around us (the Sun). And thus they are about how and where we interact with the world and with other people.

So now we have the North Node (the “should do” end of the nodal axis) entering 15 Scorpio as the South Node (the “what I like to do”) side of the equation is entering 15 Taurus, an event which starts on June 23rd (this Sunday, UT/+0 time) and continues on into July 8th.

June 23rd happens to be the date of a Full Moon, so we know this Nodal shift begins in a celestial 'spotlight.' It's also just days shy of Mercury going retrograde, so things, and the thought processes of various folks are going to be set on 'high' - and with Jupiter at 29 Gemini about to move into Cancer, things are likely to be pretty intense, to say the least!

Ergo...depending on how well we each do with adjusting our outlook, this will probably be a time to enjoy...or for struggling through.

And why would that be? Well just to begin with, there is that ‘fixed sign’ thing. Being that the Taurus Challenge is all about how secure we are with ourselves, anything that tends to make us feel invalidated or ‘less than perfect’ in our own eyes rouses the bullish snort and much pawing of tender ground. And since the Scorpio Challenge is all about how well we are able to negotiate with others in a give-and-take sort of manner so that we can all join forces and depend on each other as we move ahead and towards our goals, with the South Node in the “don’t invalidate me, bro!” Taurus end and the North Node in the Scorpio “we should get along, which optimally means you should agree with me” end of things, the past year and something (or so) has felt like something of a cosmic set-up which brings the worst out in everyone.

Why this is so difficult for us is all about the fact the Nodes are a continuum. It’s a lot easier (not to mention more convenient) to think of them as separate things, but they’re not. So when we do what we want or like to do (embracing the South Node of it all), if – or to the degree that we ignore or don’t pay any attention to the necessity of the situation (the North Node getting along with others) we fall afoul of our own ‘but I want to see it MY way!’ sort of thing.

There are of course, places and times in life when it’s simply ducky to say ‘we agree to disagree.’ And hopefully we’ve done that rather than resorting to launching WWIII (or IV…or V…or XXVII) because someone doesn’t agree with us.

But that doesn’t always happen. I had a raucously bad week(plus) this past April when an astrologer I know just couldn’t accept that I wasn’t into their particular area of expertise and wasn’t buying into their rationale(s). No matter how many times I said ‘I’m sure there are many on your wavelength, I’m just not on the list - but I wish you entirely well with your studies…’ this person snarled, snorted, barked and snapped.

Evidently they hadn’t taken their daily does of Node Tonic. For some reason it was very important to this person that I should validate their thoughts and choices, and they aren’t the only one I know of going through this cycle. I’ve seen all sorts of people either wanting validation or getting all snarky because their choices didn’t get someone’s endorsement.

But wait…isn’t the idea to be secure in our own choices? If we are, when we are, where we are secure others thinking differently becomes interesting instead of threatening.

So if we go to war because someone is different, is that about them – or us? War is a Scorpio reaction which at it’s most basic metaphysical level says ‘my sense of safety requires that I exert force in order to restore control at a level I think of as safe.’

Question: does that define what is safe? Or does that define one’s sense of vulnerability?

That would seem to be the general lesson of the Nodes passing through Scorpio (North) and Taurus (South): learning to work with others without feeling you need to control others (or dictate terms of control to them) in order to feel secure or ‘good’ about yourself. And as with all things astrological, if we don’t do the work…or to the degree that we aren’t willing to challenge ourselves, life will bring on the situations and interactions which will promote or provoke those tests and testy situations.

It’s not about ‘them,’ it’s about us – but the human thing is (sure as shootin’, so to speak) that we’ll blame others first.

And this is where Nodal motion makes this whole idea really all the more interesting. Usually, objects moving through the zodiac go from zero to twenty-nine degrees of any given sign. With the Nodes, it’s from twenty-nine back down through the sign TO zero. So where we’re used to the ‘personal and private’ giving way to the ‘emotionally challenging and interactive’ to the worldly ‘public’ sort of process, what the Nodes represent is a different sort of life process which starts “out there” and which through the emotional process “brings things home to us.”

And that's what made me think of pretzels. It was the quirk of the twist, the way life is engineered to move us forward as part of the process of making things more elemental which got me.

(And yes, I like pretzels. Also yes, I think life is crispy and often salty!)

Since the Nodes are calculated points, they don’t have “mass” (like planets and asteroids do). So this idea, this ‘function’ is more esoteric, more nebulous in nature than other things. I always say that if the symbol has mass, we can “retrain” ourselves and eventually form a positive habit. That doesn’t seem to be true where calculated points like Ascendants, Descendants, Midheavens, ICs, the Part of Fortune (any of the Arabic Parts, really), Black Moon Lilith and the Nodes are concerned.

All such ‘calculations’ are just what the word implies: they are ideas and concepts which we calculate the effect of and which we are right or wrong about by turns…which leads (hopefully!) to learning through both our mistakes and triumphs.

In moving over 15 Scorpio and Taurus, the Nodes are moving out of the ‘operational’ part of the 3rd and 1st quadrants into their 'provocatively personal' realms. That will ‘bring home’ results of what we have or haven’t learned through what was promoted or provoked in the world around us.

And again…this is something of an esoteric experience, for all it may have a real-time manifestation such as the getting or losing of a job, the forming or loss of relationships, business successes or disasters, and so on. All around us we’re seeing folks dealing with what their opinion of ‘right’ is against what the world’s opinion of ‘right’ is and the repercussions of same.

During the days ahead…the actual processing of the two opposing cross-quarter degrees by the Nodes, we can expect a linking of very different ideas. The North Node in 15 Scorpio speaks to guilt and where some people should feel guilty but don’t. It’s sort of a psychosocial checkpoint all about the need to deal with reality, not just what we want life (or others) to be. Meanwhile, the South Node at 15 Taurus can point to a moment of realization and recognition, when we ‘listen’ to our Self and others and realize that there is an actual growth opportunity, a process we can take advantage of.

Those who make changes now will relax and open up. They’ll be able to say ‘I understand’ and begin to remember that others may have a different point of view and that that’s not a disaster.

Far from it – they may actually have something valuable to say.

Those who make the shift will become more ‘operative’ and less about ‘digging in and holding their ground’ going forward. Those who don’t make the shift will continue attacking, sniping, being defensive and otherwise stirring up contentious confrontations where nothing of the sort needs to exist. They’ll look childish – even desperate – to some folks, and eventually (as the Nodes reach the end of their current Scorpio/Taurus traverse), they’ll peter out and be left either empty-handed or without much more to say.

Or folks who want to listen to them say it.

But that’s yet to come - next year when the Nodes cross into Libra-and-Aries. Our 'now,' is a next few weeks of the Nodes lingering at cross-quarters. And that's a time which is likely to be enlightening, even inspiring on one hand…and maybe filled with regrets and ‘why does it have to be this way?’ (or ‘why do they have to act that way?’) in the dim, even darker momentsr.

Providing we remember that the difficulties or challenges which we feel are ours – not theirs - and how their difficulties and challenges are theirs, not ours, all goes well. Or reasonably well, give or take the fact that life isn't perfect. The perfection (the theoretical 'perfectly human' part) comes in when we realize that our Nodal education - in the end - is about learning where ou responsibility ends and ‘their’ responsibility for who they are (and what ‘they’ earn or get saddled with) begins.

Is it easy? No. But it is important, especially if we want our lives to be-and-become more and more intrinsically ours and less-and-less something we feel 'mucked' with by others. So in that light...after we chew through all the reluctance will dawn the understanding that we are here to support each other, not live symbiotic live or a life in contentious alienation or isolation. We are indeed stronger together, but that relies on the unique abilities of each person to be brought to the fore.

If I love you, then I love you for being you. I don’t expect you to be me. I don’t expect you to think like I think and I don’t expect you’ll agree with all my pleasures, my treasures or my preferences. Nor do I expect myself to adore all your pleasures, your treasures or your preferences.

But if I love you…or even like you…or like the idea of getting along with you…or even just living with you on the same planet, then I have to accept that those variations and our differences have merit – an intrinsic merit and one through which I learn a measure of acceptance, the value of discordant experience and ultimately, tolerance.
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Chart USA: Saturn as National Teacher

  The United States' Capitol Dome in Washington, DC

(photo credit: Mary Ann Reitano, 2008)

After listening to the Congressional bollox this week, it occurred to me that it was time to catch up with the celestial doings when it comes to Chart USA.

Chart USA (the Appomattox Surrender chart)

April 9 1865  - 3:53 p.m. (LMT +5:15) - Appomattox VA

The chart is dated April 9, 1865 and is specifically timed for Appomattox, Virginia. The ins and outs of why this is can be found in a whole series of posts on the US Chart which can be linked to in the 'corporate and political posts' list in the sidebar.

For those who don’t need those details, let’s hit the high points on what’s going on. (Or the low points, if you prefer.)

October 2012 saw Saturn move into Scorpio. This was the month of all the political debates and, if you remember, a general heightening of everyone’s concerns about who was going to win the election. Prior to October, things were merely partisan. As of October, people really got focused, which fits with Saturn having moved from the theoretical ‘let’s talk about it’ airiness of Libra into the ‘hey, this is really important’ water sign emotionality of Scorpio.

The North Node of Chart USA is at 0 Scorpio 01. That’s a degree which is about bedrock qualities and choices which have the potential for much good or much destruction.

The Congressional moment which got my attention this afternoon – that of Congress picking up its toys and going home for Christmas with the nation’s fiscal issues still unsolved – comes as Uranus as gone direct and Saturn (reality) has just crossed over the nation’s Industria in the 2nd house of values and money.

Anyone who listens to politics – or who has listened to the news for the past week knows that the United States is heart-deep in discussions about gun control, mental health…and in general, the values of Americans as people. As a symbol, Saturn is about structural growth which as often manifests as useful rules and limits as it does with walls and refusals to consider anything but that which suits your needs. In the 2nd house of the national chart it speaks to the national coffers as well as the vital question of what do the people expect of their government. The 2nd house of this chart being ‘colored’ by Libra, the give-and-take of negotiation is a value to be held by the US government and which the people will always grade its government on.

Oh yes – the natal Saturn in this chart is at 27 Libra. That means the nation experienced a Saturn return rather recently – back on September 13th, to be exact. Saturn’s orbit being 29.46 years long, this means that the (2nd house) values and (Saturn) rules which came into play early in 1983 are over.

1983 was during the Reagan era. What the Saturn return tells us is that the US has learned the lessons which began back then. The nation is ready to - and needs to move on.

Saturn will come back to the degree of this Industria next September. What we have therefore seen is the opening round of a year when we are going to see a lot of hard choices and changes being put into the works.

And being resisted.

And getting torn down, torn apart and getting rejected.

A lot which was, will now end. A lot which needs to be built will be taken on. Saturn periods are not known for being kind or carefree. Often the bad news gets delivered in such a manner that the thing you have been avoiding or postponing taking on becomes the imperative which hits you in the face.

A lot of people don't like Saturn because they think life is about the reward and not the work which earns the reward. Saturn times teach us otherwise. 

Since you know I’m all about eclipses, November’s solar eclipse at 21 Scorpio opposed the national Venus (at 24 Taurus) in the 9th house of foreigners, education, law/legalities, religion, medicine and media. Since Venus is conjunct Algol (emotional reactivity) and Deucalion (finding the moral path) it’s not surprising to see things evolving as they are, touching on all these subjects from the perspective of the eclipse conjuncting Sisyphus and Child – the choice to do something back because you are childish or to children.

Pluto is moving through the 4th house of the people (and real estate). With the 4th also being the traditional house of families, habits, cultural values (traditions) and ‘setting the course’ this is a time when we would expect the US citizenry to be going through a lot of self-questioning changes with regards to who they are as a people…and what they really value. Pluto has been conjuncting Facies for everyone, of course…but in this chart Facies is at 6 Capricorn (fixed stars do move!) and thus Pluto ‘turned’ on Facies during that evidently fateful September period then came forward across Europa (getting carried away) and Niobe (pride goeth before the fall) at 7 Capricorn…and by February will be hitting Kallisto.

So as a people and as a people who are supposed to be in an ongoing partnership with their government, the US as a nation – politicians and citizens alike – are now moving between having realized where we have failed utterly and what really caring as a nation means.

The conjunction to Kallisto spans 2013 to 2014 and will see the US (and its citizens) struggling with what caring really means. The priorities of the nation at home and abroad will be looked at. The priorities about what resources should be put to and whether the US is a nation of individuals or a nation and national ‘family’ of sorts will be debated and thought through. Kallisto’s story is one which requires that you face the ‘bear’ you have been or acted like to others and survive through accepting that you have acted less like a person and more like an animal.

(Don’t look at me…I don’t write these myths, I just report on them!)

It’s worth noting that the Neptune of this chart sits at 8 Aries, too. Uranus will conjunct this point during 2013 and in doing so, create an opposition to 8 Libra, a degree known for loss.

Given the length of this transit, the fact that Neptune is involved and that we’re going to be experiencing a series of solar eclipses in Taurus and Scorpio which are going to hit several other Chart USA planets, it’s likely that some very bad things are going to be seen, learned and found out before things get straightened out….which should happen somewhere around 2017.

I did also look at the chart of the GOP, seeing as it was the Republican-led House of Representatives which led the exit from Washington today.

The Republican Party

March 20, 1854 - noon (LMT +5:55) - Ripon, WI

The thing which seems striking about this chart (which deserves a full discussion of its own) is that Neptune is currently in the process of ‘dissolving’ the GOP’s Venus…and from there will move on to working over the party’s Eris. With this Venus involved in a grand square which includes the nodes of this Chart GOP, we can expect there to be a lot of strain on the party's relationships individual and public.

It’s been about 150 years or so since the Civil War and Lincoln as the Republican President of the country. That’s about half a Deucalion cycle – Deucalion being the symbol of ‘finding the moral path.’ Today the US has a black President whose powerful ability with oratory makes him sometimes seem like a modern Lincoln.

The nation is struggling with what it has been and what it wants to be. Ten years from now the GOP will be a substantially different party and the US will be set on a new course.

 The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC

The day I went to see this statue I was in so much pain I probably should have been in a hospital. 
But I wasn't. All I remember is wanting to walk up those steps and see Lincoln for myself.
By the time I got there, I was in such terrible pain that some kindly tourist came to help me
up the steps. I was so moved...I just stood there and cried.     

(photo credit: Erich Robert Joli Weber, June 2012)

But in the interim, there is bound to be some pain. When it began, the Civil War was a war of economics which involved the very vital question of what being ‘human’ means, and what rights – and responsibilities – go along with being human.

Those same questions seem to be coming around again. Back then, the nation and its people went through hating each other because it seemed some people cared more about human dignity than economics. Then, as now, it was the rich who protested and the poor who went on working.

I doubt the Republicans are going to cede (even if Texas has toyed with the idea).

I’m also not surprised to know the nation is going through its Saturn return...and that such a time in the history of the United States would be filled with tests and needs and pain and challenges galore.

We are also told that if we accept the hard work Saturn brings, if we will put ourselves through the course of living up to our own very best standards, we will come out the better for it, too.
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Venus in Sagittarius

 Fractal image by Electricsheep

(image credit: Chris Ursitti)

Venus enters Sagittarius on Sunday, December 16th at 4:29 in the morning, UT/+0 time.

Will we notice? Probably yes, though initial effects are likely to be fairly subtle. Where Venus in Scorpio (which we’re leaving behind) is intense and focused on ‘what works,’ ‘the value’ of this or that and what kind of options may be found, Venus in Sagittarius is a bit more lighthearted – more into the fun and frolic than Venus in Scorpio, one might say.

Sagittarius being a sign which functions at a quicker pace than Scorpio, responses, results, costs and consequences will be more obvious and more readily generated in the next three-plus weeks ahead.

On the other hand, Sagittarius is a mutable sign. Where Scorpio evokes various sorts of ‘do it once, do it forever’ feelings, Sagittarius is more about enjoying things in the moment and if necessary, changing things (ideas, methods, aims) as you go or on the run. Venus in Sagittarius tends to be more about the ‘good intention’ than the ‘thoughtful choice’ which, considering that this Venus/Sagittarius transit will carry us through the balance of the holidays, fits with the idea of just having a good time as opposed to finding that perfect gift, menu, guest list, travel plan…etc.

 Shoppers on Dundas Street in Toronto, Canada going about their December business (Ian Muttoo, December 2009)

Of course as always, there’s a down side. Where Venus in Scorpio will have promoted more caution, Venus in Sagittarius can manifest as a carefree, slap-dash quality which can cause people to think you don’t care. 

(Or care enough, yes.)

As Venus enters Sagittarius it parts company from the “obliging-versus-obligatory” North Node, which will enhance momentary feelings of having gotten past some ‘heavy matter.’ And with Industria sitting just ahead of Venus (at 1 Sagittarius) as Venus makes its ingress, this sounds a bit like I’ve done all the things I HAD to do…now I can get on to what I WANT to do!’ with the ‘had to do’ part having been dictated at least in part by (North Node in Scorpio) other people and the needs/demands of others…or obligation to others.

With Jupiter being the ruler of Sagittarius, and since it pays to check the sign ruler as any planet makes an ingress, we look to Jupiter, which is still in Gemini, in retrograde and (of all things) conjunct Aldebaran to the degree. And since Aldebaran is in opposition to Antares (at 9 Sagittarius, let’s toss a thought or two on that into the pot, too.

 Jupiter in the Night Sky over Old Saybrook, Connecticut

(Tushar N Dadarwala, January 2012)

We don’t always consider Antares when we consider Aldebaran no. But since Mercury is at 7 Sagittarius as Venus makes its ingress (and going to conjunct Antares and oppose Jupiter on the 17th – one day after Venus enters Sagittarius) this is probably worth a moment of contemplation.

Mercury in Sagittarius is a thought, deed which stems from a vision of how things can be. Or maybe should be – this being why Mercury in Sagittarius is sometimes said to be righteous, dogmatic or ‘my way or the highway’ insistent. (And of course there are gradations of any of same.) The premier question with Sagittarius is will it work which when we add Mercury becomes the idea or the statement which works – and if it doesn’t, why it doesn’t…the idea not taken into account, doing something without knowing all the facts, etc.

Jupiter in Gemini is thought, communication and activities increased. Or maybe hyped. Or maybe done too quickly (in hyper-drive). Jupiter in Gemini is famous for doing too much or too fast. The thought gets over-thunk, the boundary gets overstepped, the necessary thing gets overlooked because there’s so much going on.

With Jupiter currently in retrograde, we’re all considering how these ideas work (or have worked) in our lives. Have we gone wrong, or do we merely see things a different way? Gemini is always about choices and Jupiter in Gemini gives us too many choices or we may choose to do too much.

Yes, Jupiter in Gemini can be the moment, the idea, the ability to be incisive and insightful. It can also represent the statement, action or period of time when we are – or discover that we have been -truly derisive and painfully dismissive.

At Venus’ Sagittarian ingress, Jupiter is conjunct Aldebaran, a fixed star which famously represents success which is achieved ONLY when we have maintained our standards of integrity. When, where and if we haven’t, Aldebaran will expose those… um… oversights and errors in judgment. (We’ll just call them that.)

Mercury conjuncting Antares is a whole other ball of mental wax. (Sounds anatomical, doesn’t it?) Antares is another royal star, a star which promises success only IF we don’t cling to or focus on one thing obsessively.

Antares and Aldebaran are in pretty permanent opposition. That should tell us that they’re “balancing forces” in our life, right? Too much obsessing on what we want to think or want others to think true undermines our integrity.

The astrologer’s honest call here is that Mercury conjuncting Antares does tend to manifest as obsessive thinking. What you do with that is up to you. Since this ties into the 2012 end-of-year / holiday season Venus in Sagittarius transit, this can easily all relate to money, income, expenditures and ‘gift’ issues. It can also represent a barrage of media output during this time, which may or may not have anything to do with holiday issues. (Think politics, education, travel, religious teachings, etc.)

The good news here is with Jupiter in retrograde, this is less likely to be a moment of public exposure and more likely to be a matter of personal realization. So don’t be shocked if you (or someone else) suddenly changes their mind about what they like. Or don’t like. Don’t be surprised if something you never wanted to do suddenly sounds attractive.

One other interesting factoid here is simply numerical and I may be able to get a scan made here…(turns on the scanner)…to show you what I’m talking about.    

 From 'The American Ephemeris for the 21st Century (2001-2050) at Noon'

programmed by Neil Michelson with revisions by Rique Pottenger

(c. 1996 by ACS Publications) 

Above is a scan from the ephemeris I use on a daily basis when I’m writing here at the blog. Sorry that the images is a tiny bit crooked and that I didn’t quite get the right hand Pluto column all in there perfectly…(do me a favor – don’t tell Pluto!)…but for those who don’t read ‘astrology glyph’ I’ve given you an arrow to the symbol for Venus at the top. You’ll also  probably recognize the numbers on the left with the abbreviations for the days of the week as the sequence which matches our December.

Okay….now go down to where I’ve highlighted the page in Venus pink. (Yes, that’s what I’m calling it!)

When I talk about planets being in decanates, this is what I’m looking at. As of December 24 (UT/+0), Venus will arrive at 10 Sagittarius and thus move into the second decanate (second ten degrees) of Sagittarius. This is the emotional decan of Sagittarius where ideas and hopes and aims are felt, expressed, even insisted on most fervently.

What I’m really getting at here becomes most evident when you look at all the other planets and where they are during the balance of the month. From the 24th through the end of the month, while Venus is traversing Sagittarius’ most emotionally intense area, all the other planets (standard planets, that is) are either in first decan positions (Sun, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) or third decan positions (Mercury).

Mars is doing it’s own thing: on the 24th it’s just wrapping up its transit of Capricorn, and on the 26th it moves on into Aquarius (which yes, means Mars will be at 29 “critical” degrees of Capricorn on Christmas day, ho-ho-ho).

The point is that Venus is all alone in the 2nd decanate. By astrological rule, that means nothing will be aspecting Venus. And when a planet is unaspected, it does it’s thing like nobody’s business and does it to unheralded degrees.

If I were a retailer, I would be loving this. After Christmas sales are likely to be really, really good. A lot of people may take some time off during this period and it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that travel has a definite up-tick during this time.

 A Qantas A380 arrives in Los Angeles after flying from Melbourne, Australia

(Skinnylawyer, December 2011)

As we’ve already touched on elsewhere, Mercury moves on into Capricorn on New Years Eve, which is pretty much in tandem with Venus moving from the 2nd into the 3rd decan of Sagittarius. And since the third ten degrees of any sign have to do with worldly input/reactions to what we’ve done, this tends to say that the last week of Venus’ transit of Sagittarius will be the oh-so human and philosophic recognition that for all the saying how everybody would like it if people held onto that ‘good holiday feeling’ throughout the rest of the year, that it just never works that way.

One last ‘up’ note here…if you’re someone starting on some sort of new venture (or even a new form or format of an old venture) this Venus in late Sagittarius-Mercury in Capricorn-Mars in early Aquarius is a good time to get to work and get things under way. Results won’t be immediate, but anything we’re aiming at benefits from attention, effort and input during the first week-plus of January.

Have a fine Venus in Sagittarius!
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