A Sagittarius New Moon

"Earthrise" - a photo of Planet Earth taken by astronaut Bill Anders on December 24, 1968 revealing a sight apparently only visible from someone orbiting the Moon, not standing on its the surface.

(photo credit: NASA)

 
One of the things Sagittarius evokes in my astrological thoughts is the idea that anything Sagittarian is about being ‘on the road’ to somewhere or something.

So when it comes to a New Moon in Sagittarius (which occurs at 8:43 a.m. UT/+0 on Thursday, December 13th)...and since being ‘on the road’ is about learning new things, accepting the new and letting go of the old (at least as being ‘the only thing’…Sagittarius embodies qualities of wandering, wondering and maybe having a few regrets. For all we may gain, we may also leave something behind. We may triumph…then again, we may also make a few mistakes.

Known sometimes as dogmatic, Sagittarius becomes demanding or resistant through an inability to consider new ideas. It’s also about our ability to miss out on success when we refuse to hear good sense or learn better.

Any New Moon is the beginning of a next life ‘vignette.’ I often think of a solar return and our ‘birthday year’ as a chapter in the book of our life. In that sense, the lunation is a scene, a scenario, one of the subsets with which and upon which we will build our future and, in learning more about who we are, gain perspective on our past.

It’s that perspective which gives us insight and the power to improve our future. So here’s at least to that!

This year’s Sagittarius New Moon falls at 21 Sagittarius, a degree which by “decanate definition” has us interacting with our world. But it’s also a degree which is about some sort of active struggle we’re having with ourselves…about something. Or maybe some things. The Sabian Symbol A CHINESE LAUNDRY implies (among other things) that we’re sorting things out and trying to ‘clean things up’ or sort them out. The reference to ‘Chinese’ would seem to imply something ‘foreign’ to, or about, or which is part of what we’re trying to sort through this month. At the same time, we’re trying to be practical. And because this symbol refers to a business which would be part of a community or city, this refers to us as someone in our world – and whatever ‘thing’ we’re working at as one ‘working function’ in a greater tapestry of life.

And that idea…the ‘one among many’ issue, that echoes the ongoing Pluto/Facies conjunction.

LINK TO PLUTO/FACIES BLOG

That this moment – and this lunar month – may be an emotional one is shown by this New Moon at 21 Sagittarius being conjunct fixed star Ras Alhague, square Pallas in Pisces, and in perfect trine to Eris (retrograde) in Aries.

There’s a humble and industrious quality to the idea of the Chinese Laundry...coupled to the fact that the phrase 'Chinese Laundry' as coined in the US in the early part of the 1900's really had to do with oppressive circumstances experienced by Chinese Americans unable to get an economic foothold in a country which they were having trouble integrating themselves into.

Ras Alhague upholds both sides of this idea in many ways. As a binary star (with an orbiting cycle of approximately 8.6 years) Ras Alhague describes situations which 'circle around themselves.' Thus the dualistic nature of the Chinese American at the time when the term 'Chinese Laundry' was coined refers both to a group of people wanting to be part of a greater culture and a group of people who were at that time still very involved in holding to their own 'old' ways. Thus the difficulties ("punishment") which is felt whenever and wherever we see Ras Alhague becomes one which comes both from without and from within, with no clear answer.

And that 'seeking the answer to the problem' idea - that is entirely Sagittarian.

Known as the ‘Astrologer’ (implication: one who seeks information leading to greater knowledge) in Chinese lore, the name given to it by Arab astrologers (Ras Alhague) evidently translates as the ‘head of the serpent,’ which is apt because the alternate name for Ras Alhague is Alpha Ophiuchus -  Ophiuchus being a constellation which from time to time is proposed as a ‘lost zodiac sign’...but which it isn’t.

To qualify as a zodiac sign, Ophiuchus would have to lie on or across the planet of the ecliptic (Earth’s path around the Sun). And it doesn’t. But this too echoes the 'wanting to be part of something while being apart' quality as noted above.

And the constellation doesn't suggest that situations are easy, either. The image of Ophiuchus is of a hunter (some say a warrior) wrestling with a serpent, which fits with the ‘wrestling with things’ theme posed by the New Moon being at 21 Sagittarius.

The image of constellation Ophiuchus as pictured in the Azophi (al Sufi) manuscript Suwar al-Kawakib (dating from around 1730) which itself is a copy of a lost manuscript prepared for Ulug Beg of Smarkand in 1417 

(courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC)

 
Then we add the most prevalent themes which go with Ras Alhague, that of its representing situations which heal or hurt – even harm. If you saw the second in the recent series of Batman movies (‘The Dark Knight’) you may remember a character named Ras Alhague who asserted that the city of Gotham had to experience chaos and darkness in order to be purified. That idea is right in sync with the star and its lore, whether or not that was the intention of the character’s creators.

So there’s a definite ‘theme’ of difficulty and how we go about dealing with difficulties, whether they be past or present.

Because this is a New Moon, it may also be very helpful to think of the whole of the lunation (something I’ve been thinking about doing but hadn’t gotten to until now). The New Moon is at 21 Sagittarius, the First Quarter is at 28 Pisces, the Full Moon will be at 7 Cancer and the Last Quarter at 14 Libra.

Yes, the lunar cycle has 8 phases. But let’s start with the four ‘axial’ points. The first half of this lunation (the New and First Quarter phases) are in mutable signs, indicating a period where we learn as we go and will probably deal with a lot of adjusting of our plans, schedules and aims. Then the second half of the lunar cycle are in cardinal signs. So as we get to and pass through the Full Moon phase (which falls on December 28th), we will be moving from a reacting-to-things-as-we-go sort of mood-and-methodology into a more ‘get it done’ sort of mode.

Which makes sense, seeing as by December 28th the holidays are pretty much over.

(Yes, I know…there’s still New Years. But who doesn’t have their New Years plans in place by December 28th?)

Going back to the more astrological side of it all though, any lunation which begins in Sagittarius and comes to ‘full’ in Cancer is describing a couple of things.

One: since Sag-to-Cancer is an 8th house harmonic, this says that whatever we’re trying to ‘do’ starting out (i.e., at the New Moon) is all about a “Scorpio/8th house” sort of effort. In other words, we’re a.) dealing in the interactive realm here, b.) things are emotional and/or emotionally based and c.) we’d really just like to be doing what we’d like to do (or do it in a fashion and on a schedule which suits our fancy) but there are others to consider in our equation.

As always when we talk Scorpio/8th house, that’s the real test. We go into this lunation thinking about ourselves and our aims. But if that’s all we think about during this lunation, we’re going to have a hard time. All things Scorpio and 8th house require that we think not just in terms of our own values and judgment, but that of those around us with the trick being not to try to control them…AND not to be controlled by them.

(Oh yeah…that.)

So we can’t pander and we can’t give in, but we also can’t be unfeeling, uncaring, demanding or pissy.

The weird thing is…in a situation like this, especially since we’re talking a cycle which is by its lunar nature all about money, feelings, family and the bonds which tie (and sometimes unravel us!) it’s our very desire which can get us off track.

Yes, well…desire IS a Scorpio/8th house word.

The answer is to think it through and to do what’s right for you to do, regardless of pressures from others – or from some guilt or shame or whatever on the inside.

But be forewarned: this is one of those situations where the more sensible you are, the more lacking in sense others may turn out to be.

And when you see that, your feeling about them will change…which sometimes is the hardest thing of all, but oh-so Scorpio. Scorpio isn’t about sex or power or money as some think it is. Scorpio and all 8th harmonics are about how we discover more about our innermost self.

The other thing which seems so notable about this New Moon being in Sagittarius – particularly where it’s positioned (with Ras Alhague and trine Eris) – with the Full Moon being in Cancer is that this would seem to be a lunation which ‘brings things home’ to us. That can be in the external and obvious sense, but then again, it may symbolize a time…a lunar cycle…which ends up revealing more about why you are as you are. Why you live and have built the (Cancer) life that you live…how it came out of  (Sagittarius) things you learned or learned to believe.

Such concepts may now work for you…or not.

Either way, with Eris in the mix, this is New Moon starts us along a path which is meant to get us to feel something we haven’t felt before. Or which we didn’t think we were capable of feeling. Or which we didn’t realize was so important. Or not important.

Eris generally works best when we’re fighting for others. The person who defends the helpless, the person who stands up for the rights of those who aren’t being heard, those are Eris people who earn respect, support and lasting positive regard. Those who don’t care about what happens to others or how what they do effects others are also ‘Eris figures’ but in time the compromise of their own mortality comes back to haunt them.

The Judgment of Paris by Anton Raphael Mengs (c.1757)

The famous story of Paris' judgment being tested is very much what Eris is all about. When Eris is in the astrological picture, things will happen which test us emotionally, seeing what we're really all about and what we're willing to stand for. Want more information on Eris? Here's a LINK to an article on dwarf planet Eris here on the blog.  

That the New Moon is a latter (3rd decanate/21 Sagittarius) degree and the Full Moon is at 7 Cancer and thus a 1st decanate degree which is about who we are ‘in the flesh’ and what we do is another way of saying that life is ‘bringing home to us’ not just what we are going about (Sagittarius) doing, but what that means we are or are going to end up (Cancer) being.

With Mercury having just gone into Sagittarius as this New Moon arrives and Venus about to do likewise (as of December 16th) we know this is a busy time which will tempt us to just do “whatever” in order to get something done.

About the time the Full Moon hits, some of us will simply exhale in gratitude. Others of us will wonder where to go, considering what they’ve already done. We have three more months to come (after this one) of New Moons at 21 of successive signs, so we know that life is still about how we handle ourselves in our more and most ‘public realm.’ As of next month however, the emphasis shifts from interactive to worldly and “big picture” concerns. That fits with December being all about friends, family and holidays and to some extent that’s yet another way of looking at the New Moon being at 21 Sagittarius and the Full Moon being at 7 Cancer as the major markers in this cycle. Sagittarius is about how things are going along the road through our life. That reflects now – in some ways – in terms of what you bring home and for many, what home they have to come home to.

There’s a physical home, there is that home we find with family and people we love and treasure. Those are important, yes. But ultimately, it’s being at home with your Self and inside your own skin which really counts.

December 13th is not just the date of the New Moon – it’s also the day when Uranus and asteroid Kassandra go direct and when asteroid Circe goes into retrograde. And this is also at the peak of the Geminid meteor shower, as got blogged about yesterday.

 A photo from a 1955 episode of "I Love Lucy" with (left to right) Lucy's real-life husband Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance as Ethel Murtz and William Frawley as Ethel's husband Fred in the middle of some ridiculous situation so typical of the show and all the other sit-com's of the1950s.

(photo in public domain)

On the old ‘I Love Lucy’ shows hubby Ricky Ricardo used to say to his life (Lucille Ball) ‘you got some ‘splaining to do!’ in his richly Cuban accent…and it would seem that we are in something of a like position. But that’s good. If we can enjoy the holidays and along the way through them experience and learn about ourselves, what better present can we have...or become to ourselves, others and this world?
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The Royal Stars of Persia (Part Three): Antares

'Somewhere on the John Musgrave Heritage Path near Torquay

 in Devon, England',' the photographer's words.
And apparently he knows something about life,
since thought we know where we may know where
 we are in specific terms, we don't always know where we

 are in the grand scheme of things.

 (photo credit Alex July 2006)

 

- Part Three of an Ongoing Series -

Considered to be the signature star of the Libra season  ingress (even though it’s now part of the constellation we know as Scorpio), Antares is the ‘Watcher in the West.’
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Since ‘west’ in the horoscope is either the entire right side of the chart (as in west-ern) or the Descendant as that point ‘in the west’ where the Sun goes down, all things west refer to what we’ve learned.

And what we are going to do based on what we’ve learned.

And the reactions we are about to receive given what we've just done, said or left undone.
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Known long ago as Satevis, Antares is about 550 light years from Earth – a goodly ways away. It’s also fifteen to eighteen times the size of our Sun.

That’s one very big star.
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 Redgiant Antares compared to orange star Arcturus

 by Skatebiker (October 2006)

That Antares has become so important to us here on Earth probably has to do with several things, among which is the fact that it’s literally one of the brightest stars in our sky.

There's something to be said for being noticeable...and notable, yes. But in metaphysical terms, these ideas become akin to 'important' or 'vital.' And in many senses, this is very much what what Antares is, since like the other three stars securely known in astrology as 'royal' it once gave humans a way to know that the change of seasons had come.

As for its lore, Antares star-lore is everywhere. In Indian astrology, to be born with Sun conjunct Antares is said to contribute power to a nativity - though obviously whether that would work to the native's betterment or detriment would be read through a combination of factors. In keeping with Antares as the Alpha star of constellation Scorpio, this star is also read as a sign of  intuition and wariness.

Which yes, could turn out to be a suspicious nature. Even paranoia, should someone be born with Antares' position in affliction.

('Affliction' in astrology means badly place by house or by involvement with other planets or celestial bodies.)

As for other cultures, people in China join with native peoples in Australia in seeing Antares as the ‘heart’ or ‘breast’ of the scorpion, and therefore - again, depending on modifying factors - a signature of someone able to 'sting' (or even kill - as we might see in the chart of a soldier). But with this comes a great strength of being...both these cultures see Antares as the signature of a survivor.

 Scorpiusurania from Urania's Mirror (1825)

Positioned currently at 9 Sagittarius (funny how these fixed stars get around, isn’t it?) Antares carries the intensity which western astrologers think of as typical of Scorpio.

And for those of your who have eaten your celestial Wheaties, you probably realize that being at 9 Sagittarius puts Aldebaran in opposition to Aldebaran (the test of integrity) at 9 Gemini, right?

(Take two royal stars from petty cash.)

In point of fact, Aldebaran and Antares travel as a pair. This makes sense once we think about Antares' astrological requirement to focus on how we go about doing things.

This gives us Antares opposition Aldebaran as a complete statement: integrity of focus. And when that need to check-and-balance our Self gets out of balance, Antares becomes the obsession which inevitably leads to our acting with the kind of lack of integrity which gets us into trouble.

The ironic quality here comes from Antares actually being part of constellation Scorpio. There's an old saying in metaphysics which goes like this: that we most fear we will manifest. Why? Because life wants us to learn that we can survive.

Antares against Aldebaran is the functionality of all which goes into our fears of 'that thing' (or those things) which inevitably...somehow...bring about the one thing we most fear.

Remember Roosevelt? "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Roosevelt's chart speaks volumes...

 Franklin D Roosevelt

January 30, 1882 NS - 8 45 PM LMT - Hyde Park NY

(Aries Wheel)

 Franklin D Roosevelt - detail

 

With the North Node being what we should do, Antares conjunct FDRs Jupiter-ruled North node with the ruling a Taurus Jupiter conjunct Neptune is a perfect image of someone who says we must move ahead (Jupiter) without thinking of our own comfort or security (Neptune in Taurus).

With Antares not having moved but two degrees from where it was in Roosevelt's day we continue to need to find in ourselves the courage to try, the willingness to endure a few setbacks and the determination to find the right course of action or choices - if necessary by trial and error. That would be the Sagittarian way of doing things. Sagittarius always asks that we try out theories out. And when one works, we should regroup, reformulate and try again.

Antares in Sagittarius is thus the process of learning how to succeed through being a survivor. What you survive may or may not be a war...it may be high school,  or a bad marriage, or poverty, or some terrible loss.

And let's face it - sometimes what we have to 'survive' is our own tendency to shoot ourselves in the foot. Some of us tend to rush, some of us tend to be headstrong and unwilling to listen to others - there are a million things we can do which in fact feel like an act of survival in the moment which by and by reveal that we were merely obsessed.

It's as easy to be obsessed with our own thoughts and our own desire to be 'in the know' or that 'bright star' everybody admires...and to end up undermining our own goals and efforts because in reality, our assumptions or presumptions don't hold water.

They don't have...integrity.

With Sagittarius, in Sagittarius, all ideas have to remain mutable. That's the nature of the sign. That's why there's 'always more to learn' and why dogma and insistence is so much less appetizing than inspiration and offers to share.

With Sagittarius, nothing is set in bedrock. Nothing can be bedrock. To say there can be no changes, no objections and nothing added to what's already been said, done or known is highly problematic in Sagittarius - it endangers survival, as all natural survival depends on adaptation. News is news today and rewritten tomorrow. The new horizon we explore today is tomorrow’s status quo.

When it comes to Antares, our ability to flex, to consider and reconsider gets tested. In essence, we can't obsess in life. We can't demand to be right.

Why? Becomes sometimes we simply aren't right. Sometimes we don't know everything. Sometimes we need to allow ourselves not to know.

Does that sound familiar? It should. If you're a student of astrology, allowing yourself not to know is the hallmark statement of Neptune as outcome ruler of Pisces.

And what planet stands as the gateway ruler to Pisces?

Jupiter.

And what planet is sole ruler of Sagittarius?

Jupiter.

Representing mastery of information, learning and in applied form, Jupiter as ruler of fiery, visionary Sagittarius is knowledge. We tend to think of that in terms of knowing how to do this or that, or knowing this or that fact.

But it's more than that. Sagittarius is about knowing how to 'be' in this world. Sagittarius asks that we recognize that we have learned how to learn - which is why any planet in Sagittarius (and the natively Sagittarian 9th house of your chart) will represent the means and subject matter through which your life tests will occur on the way to your goals.
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Sometimes the choice is whether we want

to be RIGHT...or whether we want to

reach our goal.

 

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And in this process, Antares represents specifically where that test will come down to tests of integrity versus obsession and where/how the (Aldebaran) integrity of your (Aldebaran in Gemini) choices will be tested.

To live by what we could call ‘the Antares rule’ is to always remember that Antares is - first and last - part of the constellation Scorpio. We like to think of the scorpion's sting as 'us stinging them' but the reality here is that this is our chart. So Antares in your chart is where you 'sting' yourself...or where you 'feel the sting' in those moments when you realize you have fallen short of your own standards of integrity through over-focusing on something other than what was truly at stake.

All of us make mistakes.

All of us have successes.

And this is one of the important things to remember here; of all the astrological aspects, oppositions tend to be the most continuous, the most cyclic.

After day comes night, after night comes day. On and on it goes. Learning, exploring, experimenting, seeing things anew - it's all a lifelong process. Business people perhaps know this best as they're always thinking in terms of the next product and how to grow the company.

We are all involved in the business of life.
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 The Swiss side of the 4,478 meter-tall Matterhorn (one of my favorite mountains) mirrored in the calm waters of Lake Riffelsee. Sometimes the climb to the top

 is very hard, and the temptation to stop and just become obsessed in the

 view very strong. But is that where you want to end up?

(photo credit Dirk Beyer - June 2005)

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Antares is currently positioned at 9 Sagittarius, a particularly ‘fiery’ degree - which fits with the sheer 'volume' of punditry and protests, cons, experiments and angst in our world. There's an impulsive quality attributed to 9 Sagittarius which seems highly inclined to tipping Antares into its ‘obsession’ category, activating the Scorpio urge to fight.

And yes, all the rest of those Scorpio instincts (money, sex, power, war...) and all the fighting which goes with them.

If you want to consider this historically, Antares moved into 9 Sagittarius back in 1946. But consider quickly - or relatively quickly, at least. Why? Because Antares will be moving into 10 Sagittarius as of March 4, 2017.

And what is 10 Sagittarius about? On its face, this is the first degree of Sagittarius' second ten degrees - and the second decan of any sign is its most emotional. So while we may think things are noisy and insistent now, they're likely to get noisier.

There's also a “derivative” quality to 10 Sagittarius, as well as an ability to ‘work with what we have.’ This suggests many things: some folks are likely to want very much (obsess about) changing things. Some will insist we don't change anything. The 'copy cat' tendency seems obvious here, but so too is the possibility for finding new ways to use old goods - maybe recycling and ecological concerns may gets a boost from this shift?

Seeing as all of us who are alive today have been born with Antares in Sagittarius, the success we can earn depends on maintaining perspective not just on the world around us, but also on our Self. To want to know the 'right' thing is entirely Sagittarian. To insist you know when you may not?

That's falling afoul of your Antares. And when we fall afoul of a royal star, our lives tend to go awry...which may be why JRR Tolkien (one of my favorite writers) wrote this: ‘not even the wise can know all ends.’ 

Antares represents forces to be reckoned with in this world, forces which can make our life harder and harder until we give up the need to obsess about being right.

That doesn't mean we get to goof off, however. We still have to try. We just have to be okay with the idea we don't know everything.

And sometimes learning that one little thing is the best thing which could happen to us. After all, when we realize we don't know everything, then we open ourselves to learning.

And when we learn, we grow. Our horizons expand. We get closer to fulfilling our potential.

We think that by pressing and obsessing we'll get to our goals, achieve our aims, become top dog and the brightest star in the sky.

The brightest star in the sky happens to be Sirius - the dog star. So if we're thinking obsession will get us to that goal, we're barking up the wrong tree!

(Yes, I said that.)
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 Sirius A & B as seen in an x-ray photograph taken

by the Chandra x-ray telescope

(photo credit NASA-SAO-CXC, September 2000)

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So we can't abdicate our intelligence or ability to think...and we can't insist that we know everything. That leaves us the choice of - of what?

Maintaining balance. And learning to focus on maintaining a balance between what we think we know, and what we could know.

And about that 'right' thing?

Maybe through learning to maintain flexibility...maybe that's how we learn to become ‘righteous.’ Or righteously successful.

You know - in our own right.

And thus 'all right' in our own mind - and that of others.

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The next...and last stop on our Royal Star tour:

Fomalhaut, star of dreams.

Ophiuchus: The Grip, Our Grasp, the Zodiac

 Constellation Ophiuchus, as imaged in an old English compendium on the sky

Little did I know when I turned on my television come January 13th that the great Ophiuchus debate was going to have reared its head yet again.

But it had. There was a perfectly sensible news anchor, a woman whose staff usually does a crack job of digging into things, looking for the source and the truth...and there she was, chatting about a 13th zodiac sign and how we all were going change signs and how this had to do with the Moon and...and...and

Trust me - I sighed heavily, realizing that I was going to be fielding a lot of emails.

Here at the blog, all was quiet, so I took that as a good sign that y'all were going to wait and see what I had to say about it. So here's what I have to say.

In short: WRONG.

And the short order moral is...: when you want to know about astrology, ask an ASTROLOGER, not an ASTRONOMER. Astronomers, while I love them, are just not astrologers. To ask an astronomer about astrology is - in many (maybe even most) cases rather like asking a vegetarian for a really good rib recipe.

Okay. So to the facts of the zodiac as we know it, have known it and will continue to know it. The Earth travels around the Sun. That path, known as the ecliptic, creates a 'plane' - think of it as a big pizza with the Sun at the middle with the Earth running along the edge like some mad pizza maker sprinkling on cheese.

If that pizza was big enough to extend out into the stars...waaaaayyyyy out there....that would be the greater plane of the ecliptic - the celestial "latitude" of Earth as oriented to the Sun. Which face it folks, is all we care about - Earth is where we live, astrology is about life on Earth and life on Earth wouldn't exist without the Sun.

Put simply, there are twelve (count 'em - twelve)  constellations accepted in current western astronomy (yes, western astronomy) which lie along that celestial ecliptic. Those are the signs of the zodiac. And yes, they really line up. Example....

  From left to right: Part of Pisces, most of Aquarius and

Capricorn - or Capricornus, as it gets called in the land of constellations

 

See how these constellations are right there in a nice neat line?

Now let's get to the area of the sky where we find the aforementioned Ophiuchus...

 Sky shot of the 3rd zodiacal quadrant showing (left to right)

Sagittarius, Scorpio and Libra along the plane of the ecliptic 

(the green dotted line) with Ophiuchus above and to the

right - and not on the plane of the ecliptic.

This is a sufficiently big piece of sky that given the limitations of blog software it's a little hard to see; to give the best view I've tilted the image somewhat. But the result is pretty clear. Left to right we see Sagittarius, Scorpio and Libra all lying at, along or across the plane of the ecliptic. Ophiucus? Not so much. Not within a interstellar country mile, as a matter of fact.

Near may count in the world of hand grenades and nuclear bombs, but not so much in astrology. It is or it isn't...which rather reminds me of that highly irritating 'I'm on the cusp' thing one hears from time to time. Astrology is math. The light is on or it's off. The wife is pregnant or she's not pregnant - there are no 'sorta's in this game of where something is in space. It's there or its not there, pure and simple, we use mathematical principles to measure it and voila - we are done.

Now this isn't to say that degrees of the zodiac may not bear attributes of other signs. That's why we talk about the quality of individual degrees. But where something is, that's where it is. And plainly Ophiuchus is not on the ecliptic, therefore it's not a zodiac sign.

Period. End. Done.

Oh - and let us note here: in the whole of this discussion we have not talked about the Moon at all. Moon's orbit around Earth would have nothing to do with the zodiac unless the Moon's orbit somehow altered Earth's orbit around the Sun.

And if that was true...the whole zodiac would change - not just one sign!

I think we will do well to touch on Ophiuchus as a symbol too - which we'll do in a moment. But first let's finish with what we've started. (You know...eat your veggies or you get no dessert!) This whole 'the sign before' thing does exist in astrology - Vedic (Hindu) astrology. It's not that everyone changes signs, though - Vedic (also known as Sidereal Astrology) changes calcuations by about 23 degrees. So yes, most of us would change signs.

But to go with that, Vedic has worked through it's own point of view and come up with pretty much the same answers. It's just the precept is different - as is the perspective. Sidereal astrology basically looks down upon the Earth as if from above where western (Tropical) astrology is 'positioned' as being on Earth looking up at the sky. Vedic arose in a culture which in being rife with a caste system belongs more (not totally, but more) in the 'fate' category where western astrology has come to be greatly psychology and free-will based.

This is not to say that everyone who works with a western astrology (or in/with western astrology) will undertake the work required to change their lives. Most astrologers will tell you that they have seen many a chart which looks all nice and sweet and pretty...but which amounts to the native being unmotivated. We all have seen charts which look really tough, hard and gnarly, too. And some of those belong to some of the most respected and accomplished people in the world.

Evidently humans do thrive when given challenges, so long as they accept the challenge as part of some good process which teaches them about life and thus further empowers them to do whatever it is they aim to do. Or discover they can do. Or discover needs doing.

Okay...now on to Ophiuchus. Here's a picture of the constellation all by its lonely as it appears in the sky...

 Constellation Ophiuchus

There are actually two labels to this constellation - one being Ophiuchus, the other 'Serpens' - a reference to the serpent Ophiuchus is supposed to be wrestling with.

What is this about? This is about our wrestling not with women, but with our own yin/feminine - the ability to be receptive.

And what are we when we're not receptive? How about pig headed, egotistical, stubborn and unwilling to see what may just be a fact or truth?

Going back as far as the tales of the Garden of Eden, snakes have always been the image of 'temptation.' But if the whole of existence and the metaphorical allegories of biblical stories are about us, what is that really? Maybe it's about our wanting to be 'right' about what we know? Maybe its us being 'tempted' not to want to hear anything new or some truth about ourselves or our lifestyle or our assertions which isn't true?

This is the image of Ophiuchus. Ophiuchus is 'the man' (i.e., mankind) "wrestling" with his own ability to be receptive. The idea of this is backed up by the brightest star in this constellation - Ras Alhague, which some of you may recognize as a name 'borrowed' for a recent Batman movie.

There the character's name was Ra's Al Ghul - but plainly it's a reference to the star. And that the character is a villain - that holds too, but only if you look at it metaphysically. Batman can certainly be just a story. But as a mythos it can be taken to be a whole world of the Self. That being true - as it probably is in many a fantasy or science fiction mythos - then Ra's Al Ghul is a faction of the Self set against another faction of the Self (Batman) who is as a character already plagued by his own internal conflict, one which is reflected in the conflict of the world around him, drawn to him, created by his being Batman...and so on.

In other words, the standard exotica of metaphysics.

And yes, I am a fan of the Batman mythos - can you tell?  Beyond that, it's interesting to note that the Batman movie in question - the one which introduced us to the modern Ra's Al Ghul was a movie named Batman Begins, which according to the IMDb (the Internet Movie Database), was a 2005 release. And 2005 was, if memory serves me well, about the time when in many a quarter, people really did stop listening and started ranting, railing and holding those who didn't think or believe the way they did as only worthy of dispatch. Destruction. Dismissal. Denouncement.

And lest you think I'm talking through my cape and cowl, at the time this movie was released, Pluto the Transformer, symbol of how we are changed through  emotions which result from something we choose to do or not do....guess where Pluto was?

Ras Alhague the star is located at 22 Sagittarius. And yes, that's where Pluto was. Traditionally  seen as 'evil' - just like the character of similar name in Batman Begins, Ras Alhague is easy to shy away from. Yet considering how all stars, as all images in any horoscope are in the end about us, what this becomes is more of a picture about the 'evil time' we have with ourselves than anything else.

Besides, there's a whole other side to this fixed star's lore, one all about Ras Alhague as a connective with with healing. We don't like to think about it, but often enough we gimp along...some of us grousing, some of us determined to hold the good thought...until recent events confront us with the 'ill' which is really going on. From recent events in the US and around the world, we see a need for healing and the ills, figurative and literal which become evils when we aren't receptive and reactive (responsive) to the greater needs of life.

That's the astrological 'feminine.' It's not girly. It's not female. It's not about gender at all. It's about the ability to see, to contain, to react and respond to need, to build on experience.

Sagittarius itself, as a sign, is not innately yin. It's in the 'responsive' half of the natural zodiac, but the sign by nature is yang and assertive. So in arenas Sagittarian we assert ourselves and 'test' things out - ideas, means, methods, convictions, products...what have you. And from the results of that testing, we learn. Sometimes we learn what our mistakes really are and learn to do better (or do things better)...and through this active-responsive 'testing' we in time expand our horizons, abilities, confidence and reputation...all of which in time lead to Capricorn achievements.

 The receptive, yin, responsive side of the natural zodiac includes

six signs which each have their own yin or yang orientation.

Cancer, Virgo and Scorpio are yin, Leo, Libra and Sagittarius are

yang. Yet all of these signs operate in a responsive manner,

reacting to life - as opposed to signs which fall in the natural

zodiac's (left) yang hemisphere, half of which are yang by nature

and half of which are yin...but all of which are at some level, pro-active.

Or maybe we should say they're exploration/discovery-oriented,

as opposed to right hemisphere signs, which develop that which

exists...improving on things, preserving things, finding new

uses for things and so on.

At 22 Sagittarius, Ras Alhague (also known as Alpha Ophiuchus) is a third decanate star which means the source of our promptings to 'learn better' will come from without. From life. From the world.

The United States has just experienced a shooting in Arizona, raising not just discussions of levels of rhetoric, but also matters of guns, mental health and by implication, budgets and the rest of it.

In Australia, floods are devastating whole sections of cities.

Other things are happening in other places. The lessons we have not learned, whether they are about guns or rhetoric or where we build or budgets spent on luxuries instead of decency to all...all those commentaries are coming home to us through external means. That's a third decanate Sagittarian dynamic.

Through these events, hopefully we will learn, learn better and thus begin to heal ourselves, our societies and our world - for ourselves, for our posterity, for the other creatures which inhabit this planet and which may in the thousands and millions of years to come, come to inhabit this planet. 

So never mind the fluffle about another zodiac sign. That isn't happening. But that this question arose now - that's poignant. We are wrestling with ourselves. With our ability to be receptive. And thus Ophiuchus, the wrestler with the snake,got a wrestling hold on our attention.

Do you think maybe the lesson is that we need to get a grip? Maybe yes. But if so, it's probably most of all on ourselves.