Ixion and Pholus Station/Retrograde

A diagram showing relative orbits and distances from the Sun for planets Saturn,

Uranus and Neptune along with Plutino Ixion and centaurs Pholus and Chiron 

Still sitting in conjunction to fixed star Ras Alhague, Ixion goes retrograde at 22 Sagittarius on March 22nd at 8:17 a.m.

Then Pholus goes retrograde at 24 Sagittarius a day later, at 3:44 in the afternoon…and as always, both times are given in UT/+0 terms.

Whatever our internal challenges are, since any station-retrogrades represents either a ‘taking in’ or ‘being stopped at’ some given point, that’s where we would expect life to be…or take us…starting as of March 20th.

That March 20th date in advance of Ixion’s turn? That allows for two days of ‘station lead-in time’…and since Pholus is going retrograde a day after Ixion, that means things can be expected to start off ‘more on the Ixion side of things’ and end more in our personal Pholus mode – whether that means we’re experiencing an ‘isolated’ or ‘isolationist’ moment or are being pushed (or pushed back) into some ‘dark place’ which uniquely our own.

Or who knows…maybe the Pholus ‘isolating it’ harmonic will surface in your life as your putting some issue aside – isolating yourself from it so you can get on with something higher on your priority list.

But however we all experience this time, there would seem to be something of a ‘trying’ notion to what goes on right now. This combination would seem to signal a somewhat trying time. Yet whether the question is someone getting in your way or our acting in some manner which someone else finds ‘trying’…whether there’s some ‘rule’ we have a problem complying with or even some ‘standard’ which causes us to withdraw (or want to withdraw)…the central issue is us.

Not them, us. Yes, you, me, that other person…each of us will face some inner urges to ‘never mind them’ and do what we want at some level which tests our Pholus notions. Will we ignore real life? The needs of others? How things work in reality? Are we prepared to face the world (or others)? Can we face what we have or haven’t done in life? Can we reconcile how we’ve used our will with our deepest convictions along with our darkest, most vulnerable-feeling secrets? 

The “they” or “that” which now irritates us feels judgmental or rude or even insulting to our sense of who we are in that curious sort of Ixion manner which triggers our determination of will, taunting us about whether we ‘can’t’ do (or be) what we want to do or who we feel entitled to be… which is probably the Ixion point as transiting Ixion raises challenges which ask whether we can control that exact impulse...or not.

Can we acknowledge to ourselves that yes, we feel we deserve something in spite of the fact we may not have yet earned it? Have we come to some point where we’re realizing that whether or not we want to do what we want to do (and have things work the way we’d like them to work)…how upon reflection, that’s not working? 

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Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

Ixion actions tend to be somewhat (and sometimes a great deal) shortsighted in spirit. Being a Plutino (i.e., an object whose orbit is controlled by planet Neptune’s magnetic resonance) the Ixion drive is often about some belief, some image (of Self or ‘how things should be’) which isn’t real. It may be worthwhile, yes. It may be your heart and soul’s desire – absolutely.

But is it real? Could it exist in reality and if it did, would it work the way you envision?

With Ixion – as with Neptune itself or any other Neptune-controlled object – we are far more likely to succeed in our aims if we accept our dream as a motivation and not the reality we seek. Where Neptune or any Plutino is concerned, the ‘dream’ is best used to help us get through our work…as if dulling us to the pain so that we can marshal on.

With Neptune itself, we most often achieve our dream through embodying it or sharing it with others, serving as an inspiration in their lives so that the dream can then live on.
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A computer generated image of Neptune's cloud tops

(photo credit: NASA, JPL, Don Davis, September 2009) 

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That, in human terms, is immortality. Anything beyond that is ego…ego being the fulcrum which balances our Ixion issues. Strength of ego is not abhorred…in fact, where Ixion is concerned it’s probably required, if only because Ixion moments ask us to manage a Self often armored with, by and for the purposes of ego defending ego. (Which is one of the things ego is for, after all.)

That’s where the problem comes in on the Ixion side of things. Neptune is a planet. Ixion isn’t a planet. Neptune’s surface area is nearly 15 times that of Earth. Not even classed as a ‘regularly formed’ (i.e., close to spherical) object, Ixion is less than a thousand kilometers across.

Earth has problems bigger than Ixion – at least on a physical basis. And as far as that goes, Pholus is even smaller. Yet size is not wholly determinative – very small objects or moves or choices can bring down long-laid plans, even bigger careers, a high flying reputation or lives and entire nations. And yes, this is a moment when some act or action already committed to could have some grave sort of consequence. Yet it’s far more likely that these days ahead will bring matters to light – maybe just as a glimmer or a thought.

And if that happens, this double-station turn to retrograde may be our seeing some brink ahead which prompts us to ‘go inside’ and find some way to keep ourselves from ‘going there.’

With the Sun in Aries, all feels very personal. Known famously for its focus and courage, this is just the sort of time which may well find us accepting some challenge. If taken on in the spirit of broadening our experience, understanding and effectiveness without undue focus on Self, much can be gained in due time if we remember the difference between who we are and what we can do.

Plus, let’s not forget - Mars is in Libra, the sign of the other. So though we may be feeling Mars “desire” in everything we do…in our every waking moment…we don’t ‘rule’ them. We don’t control them – nor will we ever control them. You’ve heard it once and will like as not hear it too many times to count in this life…’we only control our self.’

But since that Self is probably feeling a bit frustrated about now (Mars retrograde in any sign tends to spell an undercurrent of floating frustration), that sets us up for willfulness. Yet that isn’t likely to mesh all that well with current convictions as we’re all likely to come down (hard) on the side of what we want.

And thus the question becomes to be on what we can do which others will react to positively.

All of which would be just fine and thrilling except for the fact Aries is all about our focus on Self.

So some of us will assert ourselves in our own cause and go overboard as others are getting so annoyed with someone else that they give up and walk away – only to end up focused on what they know they should have been doing all along.

Then again, since all of astrology operates in that polarity…and because you may have a natal chart in which Pholus and Ixion represent periodic triggers which stop you from living life in the dark or getting too willful.

If (or where) things do go awry now, whether the gap in your road is mild, moderate or the Grand Canyon, disappointments and feelings of defeat or rather more than half-likely. Moreover, they’re bound to center on some subject which seems more important to you than anyone else – which is neither good nor bad as long as care is taken to how you proceed, sharing rather than telling or notifying.

This is not the best time to be too insistent, as the energy of insistence (like that of critique) tends to promote defensiveness at any time and right now people feel buried somewhere in their lives whether they really are or not. Assertion will tend to be seen as a need to validate Self (or your desires) which be harmless – and then again, can create enmity and rejection. Ixion’s going retrograde in conjunction with fixed star Ras Alhague intensifies everything we talked about last month…

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Ixion–Ras Alhague

...while mixing in some of our Pholus ‘in or out of the light’ issues…meaning ours: what we may regard as the bad or less ‘approved’ in our character against the lighter or more positive notes. There’s a ‘turbulence’ implied here which expressed through fire sign Sagittarius suggests things we are struggling to be clear on – some of which ‘looks’ like it’s about others or something going on in our world.

But it’s not. Astrologically, a double turn to retrograde can only be ‘taking in’ or ‘retreating’ at some level which is ‘into the Self’ (however we understand that in our individual life) – and since the ‘psychological wavelength’ of 24 Sagittarius tends to run darker than some, it’s to be expected that we may not like what we know now.

That doesn’t mean we don’t know it…and doesn’t mean it isn’t true. We’re just not happy about it.

But with Ixion in the mix here, why is that? Is it possibly just because we don’t want to be interrupted or otherwise ‘inconvenienced’ as that pertains to what we’d “rather” be doing – or even in how we’d “rather” think of our Self (or someone else) despite evident truths of necessity?

And yes, we may see all these things in projection – happening in the lives of those around us or in the world at large. It would be natural to want to ‘turn away’ from news good or bad now, simply because something about the moment…the subject, the timing, the comparison with what’s on our mind, the person delivering the news…something about it doesn’t fit.

Which is fine. A station like this one can indicate ‘taking a break’ in order to regroup, recalibrate, retool or rethink. In the middle of all, some of us are bound to look up, experiencing inner revelation.

Then again, some of us will simply look inside and come up with a more worthy (of us) level of determination.

What we do with any of this is up to us, of course. Yet considering how Mars is in retrograde…and that Mars is going to be in retrograde for another two months during which a solar eclipse at 8 Taurus promises provocation of our inner sensitivities…

…Let’s just say that it would seem we’re not seeing the world as it truly is and in all its glorious potential – at least not at the moment.

Evaluation is probably needed as there are questions here about what we need to protect – or what we’re actually protecting. Where our answers lead back to strength of ego Ixion’s Neptunian quality may lead to confusion…even mistakes which we regret by the handful.

During these years of Ixion and Pholus in Sagittarius it will always be easy to sell ourselves on the idea of something, only to find a bit down the line that theory is not reality.

What we do from there…? That determines not merely our worldly success, but whether when all is said and done we feel we’ve lived up to our potential – a feat which satisfies best when that within is ultimately balanced with all which in reality, surrounds us.

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Ixion in Sagittarius:

December 1995 – December 2020

Pholus in Sagittarius:

January 2005 - January 2018

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Pholus + Ras Alhague @ 22 Sagittarius

Binary star Alpha Ophiucus (known by it's older name, Ras Alhague, to astrologers) is about 400 Light Years from Earth. Near the top of this photo, the yellow star is royal fixed star Antares and at top left is IC 4592, the Blue Horsehead nebula.

(photo credit: Rogelio Bernal Andreo, September 2012)

'It’s all in what you do with it,' people say. And since that’s probably a keyword for a period starting December 27th when centaur Pholus perfects its conjunction to fixed star Ras Alhague, I'm fine with people saying it.

(Like they asked me?)

Ras Alhague – also known as Alpha Ophiuchi (and apparently ‘a Oph’ to its friends) - is a binary star located in the constellation of Ophiuchus with a binary (self-orbiting) period of about 8.62 years.

(I do love it when scientists give you this ‘about’ thing and then list things out to infinitesimal fractions. It’s so geeky!)

Over twice the size of our Sun, Ras Alhague’s astrological meaning goes along with it’s placement in Sagittarius, a sign which is as much about finding out about what is wrong (so that you can correct it, or at least consider it) as learning or trumpeting the right, the truth, the opinion and that which is a touch over-opinionated.

You know…just ever so possibly over-opinionated.

As for the star, Ras Alhague (and no, I wouldn’t Ras you about this) is about two associated, if very different things: harming and healing. Wherever we see Ras Alhague – or wherever and whenever we see it being set off by some other energetic, we know that whatever is at ‘stake’ (the other object’s energetic) will either flow in one of the two stated directions…OR there will come to be a very Sagittarian sort of learning about which is which and what is appropriate when considering some fact or known parameter. Additionally, that these ideas – the healing and harming concepts – are associated with a star in Sagittarius should tell us that we are talking less about the actual incident of a physical injury than the idea of it. Or the theory about what to do to a.) cause it…or b.) fix it. And that very much goes along with the fact that Sagittarius is also the sign of law and medicine as bodies of knowledge.

In Sagittarius, we think, we talk, we discuss, we muse, we explore. We grow our understanding of what works and what doesn’t work – and from that, we make choices which will be most productive and effective for us.

You know, everything that the Sagittarius/Gemini polarity is about - and exactly what Ras Alhague embodies as an overall or ‘backdrop’ to some of our various live situations. Located in the head of the Ophiuchus wrestler fighting with a snake, the star Ras Alhague symbolizes our choosing to use what we learn or learn about to ‘heal’ or ‘harm’ ourselves or others. Ras Alhague is also about how others ‘heal or harm’ us…and theoretically about what happens to us in life as we’re going about trying to reach our (Capricorn) aims - so that WE learn something.

Pholus meanwhile, represents our cyclic processes of retreat specifically from others or from what we are able to do but choose not to do - inclusive of asking why we choose what we choose to do or not do. Next to Ras Alhague, Pholus comes off more as the motivation next to the action. And thus, since conjunctions signify times when we are so ‘close’ to something that we don’t see it (but tend to embody it) OR times when we become highly aware of a certain attribute, whatever this Pholus-Ras Alhague period means to you you’re going to see, feel and probably hear a lot about it. That conversation or ‘sense’ may be wholly internal – or it may be between you and someone else. Or you and some life circumstance. There is no ‘rule’ here about whether we’re the actor or the witness, so what we could learn now spans the gamut from how we may have harmed our own efforts to how others have – knowingly or unknowingly - helped or harmed us.

Mind you, this isn’t an ‘instant’ process. It hasn’t been hasty pudding getting here and it won’t be ‘just add water’ changing anything. Coming from Sagittarius as an emotionally-driven centaur and (more to the point, perhaps) a fixed star, Pholus and Ras Alhague probably represent mindsets more than anything else, though in this case we are given to know that said mindset at least in part concerns a “centaur-type” conflict. Any time we see an astronomical centaur the astrological meaning is described as being challenged by one’s willfulness or more emotional/primal nature.

Does this mean we’ll learn more about such challenges and our willfulness (and/or lack of same) at this time? Probably. And if we decline the invitation to do a little mind-searching on our own, chances are life will provide a few…uh…incentives.

You know, those charming little incidents which mean so much to us in all the most ouch-ish of ways?

But again…this isn’t anything we’ve arrived at overnight. Pholus came into (standard 5-degree) orb of Ras Alhague back in January 2011, pretty much right in the wake of a Capricorn solar eclipse at 13 Capricorn – a degree Pluto is going to conjunct and ‘transform’ during 2014. For those whose charts answer to 13 Capricorn whether by planet, node, chart axis (horizontal or vertical) or dwarf planet, you probably remember the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 very well. (And maybe not all that fondly.)

Put simply, IF at that time you ‘initiated’ (or began) to pull back or pull away or ‘shut something out’ of your life, you now have the ability – again, if you choose – to understand more about what happened then now and turn things around. At the very least you may now see ‘how you got here’ and thus become able to ‘heal’ something in your own life and going forward, profit from that rather nicely.

Kepler's Drawing of Ophiuchus, one made in the wake of a supernova in 1604 in the constellation's 'foot.' For those who may hear of the often-circulated rumor that constellation Ophiuchus is (or should be) made a sign of the zodiac, that answer is 'no' by the simple definition of what the zodiac is: a list of constellations which lie on or across the ecliptic, Earth's path around the Sun. Pure and simple, Ophiuchus doesn't quality. But that doesn't stop the rumor!

Even if the end of 2010/beginning of 2011 doesn’t mean a lot to you, this here-and-now time still matters. (When doesn’t time matter?) Pholus’ initial conjunction to Ras Alhague will only last through January 17th, though it will retrograde back into 22 Sagittarius (the degree of Ras Alhague) next May 27, after which it will remain at 22 Sagittarius until early December, 2014.

And that’s a long time.

These two periods may represent two different situations or aspects of your psyche. Then again, it may represent the ‘inkling’ of an awareness now which comes more into focus – for clarification or  rehabilitation (of your own approach), or for the ‘switching’ of sides – come next year.

A lot of the diversity (some would say the conflict) involved here comes from Ras Alhague. More comes from the internal emotional testing we experience through the energetic we call Pholus. Apart from this, some also from the nature of 22 Sagittarius, a degree known variously as sympathetic and supportive and unfeeling, manipulative and perfectly willing to take advantage of others.

And what divides these two extremes? That would be an interesting and seldom spoken-of Sagittarius concept: the need for attention. We often think of Sagittarius as a place where we excel and ‘shine’ but few of us talk about the very real and human need for attention. Ras Alhague’s various pluses and minuses react to and are driven by the need for attention (whether that’s too much or too little attention) meaning that we manifest from this psyche quadrant, positive or negative aren’t always…or even generally about who we’re dealing with. They’re about us and our ability to cope or respond to situations which trigger our better or lesser natures.

In other words. Ras Alhague – the star which arrived at 22 Sagittarius in 1968 and which will be resident in this degree until 2040 – is all about our Self. And thus Pholus, in conjuncting Ras Alhague asks us whether we are ready to take a step back so that we can heal as opposed to taking a step back because we haven’t.
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Pholus-Ixion on Station

A detail from Angelo Bronzino's painting of Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time 

(Angelo Bronzino: 1503-1572)

No sooner will we have moved through…(or into, rather)…our own personal 'deep water' courtesy of Sedna's station and the evolving evolutionary potentials of a series of continuing on-off grand sextiles but Pholus and Ixion will go on station mode and turn direct.

Both of them?

Yes, both of them. Pholus goes direct on September 1st and Ixion goes direct on September 2nd.

Not only that, but they’re both going direct at 18 Sagittarius, which given the unity of expression here seems the place to start thinking this through.

18 Sagittarius, by simplest definition is several things. The Sagittarian question has to do with finding our way and seeing if or how or how well our concepts of how life works or how we’re going to reach our goals work. Sagittarius being a fire sign, there is an element of ‘the vision’ which given Sedna’s recent turn to retrograde may well point to our discovering…or coping with the realization that old ways of thinking, old goals, old ‘definitions’ of what’s right (or right for us) are in flux. Or in need of a change.

The fact that eighteen as a degree of any sign indicates areas where that sign manifests emotionally, in Sagittarius we may well encounter moments of excitement, fervent debate, frenetic thinking or feeling like our world is in a whirl and there’s just too much coming at us.

Then there’s the Sabian Symbol – which for 18 Sagittarius is PELICANS MENACED BY THE BEHAVIOR AND REFUSE OF MEN SEEK SAFER AREAS FOR BRINGING UP THEIR YOUNG.

Dane Rudhyar gives us the keyword of ‘Survival’ for this degree and speaks to how pelicans are known to sacrifice themselves to feed their own young. But what are our ‘young’? For some, the meaning is probably literal – you have children and those kids are your ‘young’ (or young ‘uns, depending). But since astrology is universal and not everyone has children, the concept here has to be broader than just that literal interpretation.

The clue is probably found in the polarity – the fact that Sagittarius is where we find out whether our Gemini thinking, those Gemini choices and our Gemini path/method of building our life is solid. Will it stand up under scrutiny? Do our presumptions or theories about life – or how our life should work function as well as we thought they would when put into real life ‘application’ sort of situations?

Having come this far in thinking through 18 Sagittarius, this last concept rather brings in what Pholus and Ixion going retrograde may actually point at. Pholus being an astronomical centaur, the metaphysical essence is about an ‘argument’ (if you will) or test of will between our headstrong nature and our intelligence…our willingness to think things through at a productive level rather than just to go with our assumptions.

In the myth, centaur Pholus is friends with Heracles – that hero of great strengths and resourcefulness we of modern day ilk generally know as Hercules. Considering this friendship, it’s safe to say that Pholus and Hercules had things in common. And since weaponry becomes a focus in the story, one would assume that strength, assertion…even aggression are one of those traits.

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Pholus: A Little Nasty

The turning point in this tale comes when Hercules is called to do something noble and instead of joining him in his ‘noble effort,’ Pholus chooses to remain in his cave…which in Sagittarius is most likely to be ‘sticking to our perspective on how we think things work,’ or how we want them to work, or wanting to do things our own way.

And while sitting in his cave, Pholus spots an arrow which Hercules left behind.

 Pholus' orbit at September 1, 2013. With Pholus currently headed away from

the solar system's 'central district' we may be more likely to damage that which

might benefit us going forward by refusing to see where we are coming

from than otherwise

(image courtesy of JPL's Small Object Database)

Arrows are obviously weapons. And when we think through all the lore about arrows, they seem to be all about ‘piercing us to the heart’ – whether that’s on the theoretically positive side (as with Cupid) where love ‘stabs us to the heart’ or whether ‘death’ is dealt (in Sagittarius to some plan, some idea, some belief or some previously committed to course of action) – this is what Pholus found himself staring at.

And then he makes his mistake. In picking up the arrow, he gets careless and cuts himself on the arrow’s poisonous edge.

And yes, he dies.

So here’s the question: in whatever arises now, is clinging to our belief or idea or plan the mirror of how we are being ‘careless’ with our life? In sticking to our ‘rules’ are we ‘cutting’ ourselves short - or out of something which would enhance our world beyond knowing? Or is making a change the act of being careless to the ‘point’ what we poison what we’ve already built or committed to?

Or maybe we're just being the 'stickler' in the pack who refuses to go along with what we know full well is futile folly?

What's right?

It’s hard to know. And given the nature of astrology, it could be a little bit of the 'do' and a little bit of the 'undo' (aka 'self undoing') all at once. So much of life cuts both ways! In gaining, we often lose - at least our ignorance.

But then, you know what they say about 'ignorance is bliss,' right?

And there is that fact that what we think we want is so often not what we really want. I have known many people who walked away from everyone only because they wanted to be treated decently by anyone.

So which is which? That's the question.

One of our answers comes from the gross disparity between the mythic characters Ixion and Pholus and the rest of the world in their stories. Pholus was a centaur living in a world populated mostly by humans (give or take the occasional Olympian god). And Ixion was born to be the king of his realm.

Both of these stories are at some level about the 'isolation' from the mainstream. They're either about not wanting to have to consider what others think or what's important to them (Ixion) and the other is about choosing to go your own way (Pholus). 

And yet...when we think of myths, what we're thinking of is an aspect of our character. So Ixion and Pholus refer to some nuance, some urge, something which dares us to flaunt not necessarily society's standards (this being Ixion we're referencing) but our own. In the case of Pholus, are we willing to be careless with ourselves simply because it's 'easy enough to do'?

The tightest planetary aspect to this (double) station is Mercury. During the days of this transit (taking into account the full station windows) Mercury will move from 12 Virgo through 21 Virgo…which again alludes to the overall Virgo nature of this time and seems to point at the ‘health’ or ‘wellbeing’ of our life, our way of thinking and – given that both Pholus and Ixion are nothing if not about our internal imperatives – our mentality. In starting at 12 and ending at 21 the Mercury hint would seem to be that our feelings – and how they apply to our choices and where we stand with others – is part of this current process.

And let’s not forget – Pholus and Ixion are turning direct. So this is about what we are going to DO…and also about how others react to us or prompt us or how they view who we are being.

No, this isn’t a picnic, though it doesn't have to be anything major. (It could be, but it doesn't have to be!). Like as not, we'll be feeling confused and be falling back on our habits and not stopping to consider what we could do which would be constructive if we would just get our of our own pig-headed way.

And why wouldn't we get out of our own pig-headed way?

Let's just say that's likely to be an Ixion challenge. You may well know by now that the story of Ixion is another one of those myths which really grabbed my inner psyche. (Nothing like knowing what gets to your astrologer, right?) Astronomically, Ixion isn't big enough to qualify as a dwarf planet. But it is a Plutin - and that means that Ixion's orbit…and thus our ‘Ixion thinking’…is governed by Neptune.

And that would be where the delusions and the problems and the odd thinking begins. Pluto is governed by Neptune too…and if you’re into astrology you know what trouble your tendency to obsess over, about and through the lens of your Plutonic focus can get you into.

There is however, a pretty big difference between Pluto and Ixion in terms of meanings. Pluto is the idea of ‘dying to ourselves’ (or our egos) so that we can be reborn transformed and purified of whatever toxic ways we have become muddied by. Wherever you see Pluto in your chart, all the things and functions and people which are connected to that sign and horoscope house will be where and how and through what you will experience this Plutonic force, for both good and ill, for all the difficulties and blessings which may befall you…or become the means through which you will become blessed.

Or yes, plagued by your inability to change – or at least transform negatives into positives.

I’ll give you an example. My personal Pluto is in the 5th house and about as close to perfectly trined to my Ascendant as possible, which is a good lesson in the idea of “the closer the aspect, the more powerful the effect.” The 5th house is the house of children, creativity, our initiative/initiating power in the area of socializing-societal doings, dating, performance-competing-ego-as-motivator and how our own childhood affects all these areas of life.

To be brief about the background stuff, I was pretty lucky to have survived my childhood and teen years for a variety of reasons we don’t need to discuss here. So I have all the negatives which might go with that 5th house list…and the Plutonic need to do something with all that sublimated energy.

For me, that became the heart of my creative motivation, my desire to help others who also may have stumbled and to make a contribution to this world in the hopes that things will be better for others. And yes...it's also all about my endless need to learn from people about how their lives work as a way to fill in the things I never learned growing up. (To be my friend is to live with an endless series of questions about what you think about things in life...and in your life...which those determined to live in denial simple dislike to the max!)

I’m also Plutonic in that my mentality is amorphous enough to take on – or take in – the perspective or energy of others and through that ‘become them’ enough to understand them. It can be good, it can be bad…trust me. It's a big plus in writing and a big minus when I'm trying to keep the thee-versus-me sense of life in well-defined personal order. (And yes, my friends do tend to be the philosophical and self-examining types!)

Every chart contains every point. Pluto as the symbol of 'create, deny, destroy' operates in all three modes in each and every person's chart. We aren't 'better' for ignoring our hurts (or denying their effects on us or our world) just as we aren't any better for hiding in those hurts without understanding how they motivate us for better...and yes, sometimes as part of self-damaging, self-limiting and utterly toxic choices.

Of course we can change. That's the Plutonic point...that life is about evolution and the process of evolving.

So in taking that lesson to Ixion, it occurred to me that Ixion may function differently than Pluto because Ixion isn’t a planet – dwarf or otherwise. Yet, Ixion has that same sort of 'allure' (Neptune) quotient which Pluto has. Ixion manifests in our life as areas or habits or choices which we keep going with even though they consistently don't work...or they create a 'shell of self' which we live so totally within that we are never on a par with others and thus able to recognize and accept our own humanity.

The glory, the foibles, the longings, the desires, the hurts and vulnerabilities...it is our calling to become aware of what and who we are and - ultimately - to become aware that all is a gift and all is meant to empower our connections to our world, within our psyches and with the searching souls of others.

Ixion is currently moving towards us from the outer reaches of its orbit,

speaking to an ongoing tendency to create our own problems individually

and collectively.

(Image courtesy of JPL's Small Object Database)

But goodness knows...it's not easy. That we can see by how poignantly painful the tale of Ixion truly is...and how since we all have Ixion in our chart, we are all going to manifest Ixion resistance in some way. As with Pluto, wherever your Ixion is, that’s where you will tend to repeatedly ‘burn yourself’ until you learn to be grateful and (yes) careful with that which life offers you.

But once we learn to be grateful, then the burn becomes a whole different thing. I have a friend who 'burns' with shame for something they did a long time ago. That recognition of what they did has motivated them to change and become an entirely different person.

Many of us go through such 'life conversions' which can be traced to Ixion placements and transits by Ixion or to our natal Ixion. The tricky part comes when the conversion is made...when we try to forgive ourselves while retaining the sense of learned gratitude.

Wherever your Ixion is in your chart, the ruler of the sign it's in, the ruler of the house Ixion is positioned in and any and all aspects to Ixion will give you the pro-and-con of this process. Like many, my friend has come to fear the depth of their own feelings - not understanding that the iron hand of fearing those feelings is their own emotionality.

And thus Ixion's lesson repeats. It is no better for this person to not care about the love their humanity craves than it is to have treated anyone else badly.

Hopefully they'll figure it out. When we can convert Ixion into the gratitude that we have another chance and use the pain behind our mistakes to fuel the self-discipline which holds us to the quality of what we do and those we choose to do it with - then we win. Then Ixion becomes the means by which we can like a Phoenix, be reborn to ourselves and those around us forevermore, on an ongoing basis.

Considering how Ixion (like Pluto) takes 240-plus years to go once around the zodiac, Ixion is another form of ‘generational influence’ and not (probably) of the very best kind.

When Pluto was in Cancer (1914-1938) Ixion was in Virgo, moving into Libra as of 1935. Then, for the full and very long period that Pluto traversed Leo (1939-1957, the Baby Boomer generation)…and on into Pluto in Virgo (the Yuppies: 1957-1972) Ixion was in Libra – the signature of difficulties with the ability or even the willingness to really connect with others…and attribute which ends up ‘burning’ all of these folks through relationship connections.

But not all of the Yuppies got Ixion in Libra, as Ixion moved into Scorpio in 1967. And seeing as Ixion didn’t move on into Sagittarius until 1997, that means that the end of the Yuppies, ALL of Gen X and ALL of Pluto in Scorpio (a tough generation to belong to anyway) are colored by Ixion in Scorpio’s tendency to get ‘burned’ through the willingness to be intimate…and the resistance to intimacy.

- link to -

Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

With Ixion, you just can’t win – at least not starting out. The Ixion cycle seems to be all about getting burned and at long, long last learning how to be not as self willed about “designing” how life runs. It’s about not setting up your own set of rules to live by which given Ixion’s current transit of Sagittarius means we are all being confronted by the need to be who we are while working with the world around us.

The balance would seem to be the question. And here, as Pholus and Ixion go direct at the same time on the last days before the ‘breaking down’ period in advance of this November’s Scorpio Solar Eclipse begins…well, that tends to say that a lot about a lot of things is getting stirred up in our lives.

In our psyches.

In our relationships.

In our ability to keep doing whatever we’re doing and pursue our chosen path.

Lore on 18 Sagittarius speaks of the tendency to ‘reject’ in such a way which hurts us because in rejecting we are getting farther out of balance – not with others, but with ourselves. The ‘solution’ here speaks to ‘natural things’ – which may be the ‘nature’ of the world, the ‘nature’ in our world, or that which is ‘natural’ to have in one’s life.

Whichever side of the balance you come into this dual station on…too much, too little, too much ‘out there,’ too much ‘in here’…whether you’re exercising more of the Pholus ‘caving’ instinct or the Ixion ‘if I want it I’ll take it’ sort of habit, that’s what is now likely to get challenged. Or evoked. Or provoked. Or poked and prodded until you pay attention not just to the painfulness of it all, but the part you play in not rebalancing your life, which by any other name is the mentally and emotionally ‘healthy’ (Mercury in Virgo) thing to do.

This is, without question, a curious and powerful time. The whole of this year has been littered with signs and signals that life is changing…our lives are changing. And that isn’t just the ‘outsides.’ Who we are is undergoing an inexorable metamorphosis which we can only harm our eventualities by resisting.

Ixion goes direct on September 2nd, making August 31st through September 4th (UT/+0) the focus of Ixion shifts. Shifts which bring about discomfort of various types would be typical of this time both on the giving and receiving end.

Meanwhile, with Pholus will go direct on September 1st (UT/+0) means that the Pholus effects start on the 30th and extend through September 3rd.

What this means on an overall basis is that however these two stations manifest in our lives, they are doing so in part as a bridge between the ‘shifting’ grand sextile of August 29 and the onset of the shuddering of our lives which precedes any solar eclipse.

The Grand Sextile of August 29, 2013

And that should be a clue about what is yet about to happen. Solar eclipses aren’t gentle, yet they are ultimately a primal shaper in a life where many of us seek to ‘make do’ and go for ‘good enough’ rather than to be the person we know deep inside we have the capacity to be…that person we know we should be even if we will be required to give up everything which we have temporized with in the process.

Going back even beyond the grand sextile, Sedna’s turn to retrograde on August 25 is another form of being asked to ‘let go.’ With Sedna, the things we need to let go of are images and  assumptions about ‘what we need to be’ in the finding of our true internal power.

- link to -

Sedna's Station

Between that need and the celestial linking of eventualities which is the grand sextile and now Pholus and Ixion going direct as the opening which leads us into the evolutionary force which is this November’s Scorpio Solar Eclipse? And that said Solar Eclipse is itself a climax, an accumulation, a reflection and transition into a process of reward or loss transition seeded last February when Saturn went retrograde at 11 Scorpio….

- link to -

Saturn’s station/retrograde at 11 Scorpio (Part One)

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- link to -

Saturn’s station/retrograde at 11 Scorpio (Part Two)

Our need to grow is great. Our need to be realistic about our choices and not to be so headstrong that we harm our own better interests is being evoked.

What to do about it all?

That’s our choice, a challenging choice which asks us to see what ‘good for me’ means in a whole new and different – more balanced - light.
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Accountability: Running with Astrological Scissors

Hall und Schährer by Adolf Wolfli (1926)

The subject of accountability has been coming up a lot of late. I hear it casual conversations, as part of discussions in the media...and of course, on the political stage.

That got me to thinking about accountability as an astrological concept. And just to prove that life is synchronous (not to mention ironic), as I logged into Blogger to begin typing this post I found a comment from 'Anonymous' (ah yes...Anonymous by any other name...) telling me I'd gotten the day of a week wrong when specifying a date.

Personally, I have no problem owning the fact that I have flaws. (Oh, let me count the ways...) One of my flaws is the ongoing battle of the disconnect between the thinkery and the fingers doing the typing.

If I was a magician, I'd call it slight of hand. But I'm not. And as an astrologer (as in everything else I do) I feel my responsibility to do the very best job I can do...which unfortunately doesn't mean I won't make mistakes. 

However...I am willing to own up to those mistakes, rectify those mistakes (whenever possible) and to try and do something about what I do and how I do it so that if possible, I won't ever do it again.

So when I saw Anonymous write ...'you meant Tuesday the 8th, right?' ...I looked the comment right in its digital face, posted it, then wrote a reply owning my mistake.

(And yes, I corrected the copy.)

With apologies to all concerned, the process I went through is one version of accountability. And I bet you've noticed how there's a marked lack of same going around. You'd think the world had the accountability flu or something. I'm sure you know someone in your world who is eternally evasive, right? Someone who seems to treat avoidance or escapism as a way of life? And let's not forget those masters of deflection and PhD's in subject-changing.

I had been giving this accountability issue a bit of thought before coming to the blog (ah, karma...such a lovely and fascinating thing!)...and what I came up with was this: accountability differs from denial by being a matter of mental focus on the realities (or a lack thereof) where denial is straight-on emotionally different.

That's important in the astrological sense because it tells us that on the astro-elemental level, denial is more of a water sign thing and accountability is either air or fire. (Which fits, as the two signs associated with denial are water signs Scorpio and Pisces.)

Accountability is also not responsibility as it's not what we need to do - it's about what we've already done. So Saturn isn't the symbol here. Saturn our symbol of time and all we need to (yet) do or get done. It's about what we build or what we refuse to take part of (or acknowledge), not the quality thereof.

Accountability is also not karma or repercussions, which lets Pluto off the hook. (Not that I think you can put a dwarf planet on a hook, but...) Both karma and repercussions are things we don't control and which affect us...but which we plainly can't control or entirely change (much as we might want to!).

Though the term 'repercussions'...that does connect us along a clickity-clack train of thought 'consequence.' And accountability does seem to have some relationship to consequences.

But this is not consequence in the Orcus 'what is done is done' sense. Coming from Orcus being a god of facing what we did in life once we die, there aren't any chances of changing anything which is astrologically Orcus in nature. 

So accountability isn't on the Orcus list. But we do have a winner in this theoretical category for why we seem to be seeing so much lack of accountability and (not surprisingly) a desperate need for accountability. 

Okay...so maybe they're not 'winners,' but at least we have astrological candidates, namely Ixion and Pholus.

And in case you don't know much about these two points, here are the links to articles on same here at Ye Olde AstroBlog...

Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

Pholus: A Little Nasty    

In the article about Pholus, as a matter of fact, there's a whole discussion of how Pholus and Ixion are currently transiting in tandem. So that you don't have to read the whole post (although I don't know why you wouldn't want to know all there is to know about the ever-toxic Pholus thorn in the human paw)...here is an excerpt from that post which is specifically about Ixion and Pholus in connection:

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(From 'Pholus: A Little Nasty')

Pholus is going to be playing footsie for Ixion for quite some time, so issues which at their heart pertain to 'committing the same mistake over and over again' are going to be with us, and part of our personal lives for some time to come. The years 2013 and 2014 have Ixion and Pholus conjunct. This is either a great time to rid yourself of personal and/or psychic baggage or a time when you may embody the famous Rhett Butler ‘frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn’ attitude in all the most unpleasant and unsubtle ways.

Come 2015, Pholus will begin to move ahead of Ixion.

Then as 2019 rolls around, Pholus moves into Capricorn as Ixion moves over the Galactic Center.

On one hand, this doesn’t sound like peaches and cream. On the other, since the Galactic Center speaks to the necessity to make a contribution in this world and the perils we run when we think first and last of ourselves (or 'our group') this may spell the height of ills and the 'coming to light' of a necessity to change our ways.

Then again, maybe not. Pholus spends a good long time in Capricorn and as noted, Pholus lingering in a sign seems to spell times when we most want to influence that other sucker into the ground if they don't agree with us.

It's probably worth remembering that Capricorn is also the sign of regulation, laws, governments and the business of commerce, too.

Yet maybe awareness will count for something. If so, maybe the fact that you're learning about Pholus and how these cycles work will help you do better where your own life is concerned.

Plus you never know - if enough people come to understand the concept, maybe enough of us will figure out that the pressure without which triggers the pressure within is about our tendency to feel pressured, and deal with matters from that perspective.

A better perspective, we might say?

Orbital mechanics being quirky things, Ixion will continue trailing Pholus for a while. But Ixion will catch up. And that it does with both points in Capricorn is fair warning to us now in an era where we are experiencing the Pluto shift from Pluto's residence in the receptive/reactive signs to its evolutionary transit through worldly-if-personal proactive signs.

Once Pholus gets in front of Ixion (as of 2015), with all this still flowing through the Sagittarian lens we are likely to see the cost but have a harder time seeing our own fine hand in the cause. Passive or participant, this combination of Pholus and Ixion is big on wanting to see things our own way.

Then 2019 rolls around. Pholus hits the Capricorn ingress ‘reality’ quotient as Ixion passes over the Galactic Center (the Galactic Center being the black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy).

Let me put it this way: in the realm of theoretical celestial one-upmanship, while Ixion is 'closer' to us (i.e., more "native" to our sense of individual life and wanting what we want), there's no question but when the fight is billed as Galactic Center (Black Hole) versus Ixion, Ixion loses.

One assumes that those most 'Ixion-ish' (who do what they want or what will benefit them without regard for morals, morays, laws or ethics) will find someone lighting a fire under their tails about then.

We don't know who (or what) will be striking this match. But since the mythic Ixion ends up tied to a rotating, flaming wheel for all eternity for having ignored the opportunity to learn better...these stories do seem intertwined.

And intertwined in our time. So we'll all do well to remember that where there's a difference between what we want to be true and what works in the greater reality, our wants don't win, no matter how many times we try to make them win.

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The Pholus post goes on in this vein discussing time frames all the way out to some twenty years from now. And though a lot of what I'm saying here may be theoretical (...of use to the many who read this blog as students of astrology - yes, I know you're there and I'm complimented...) but there's an applicable side to all this as well. The approach, encounter and intertwining of Ixion and Pholus does seem to coincide with the upswing of need for accountability along with the increasing lack of it in society and our individual lives to the point where now it's all around us....the bullying, the spouting of  falsehoods here and there - on the internet, television and in everyday life. And that seems to define the sort of systemic or societal lack of accountability being seen as a confluence of 'lack of self-reflection' (Ixion) plus 'lack of proper respect for the consequences' (Pholus).

Currently transiting Sagittarius since 2005, Pholus pretty well marks the social-societal 'going off the rails' quotient I'm talking about. Sagittarius being all about the 'dissemination of ideas'  and 'the spread of influence' fits perfectly. Sagittarius being a fire sign which among other things rules education, media, the idea of medical practice or legal practice, travel and things foreign (and foreigners), religion, publishing and...I particularly like this part...science fiction - all that gives us an interesting insight on why so many think it's okay to 'disseminate' information which amounts to "science fiction."

(Or if you prefer, pure fantasy!)

The Ixion part of this mix seems to be the 'again and again,' 'over and over' part of the problem. The mythic Ixion simply learns in the moment, but doesn't learn until the sky (quasi-literally, in his case) falls in on him.

Together, especially as media and communications become so pervasive in daily life, we get the picture of repetition of information and Twittering and ad buys and news cycles...as good and useful as they can be, they may also be part of the problem. We aren't just talking about violence in video games and movies, but also the Youtubing and endless recycling of video online and in the media when something bad does happen. Is it sheer chance that with the rise of media as a pervasive force that when one act of mass violence occur and the media goes to work covering every splinter of it that we see similar acts breaking out in other places? Is there even a point at which focusing on some victims stirs those less celebrated and more unsupported to acts of violence?

Who is 'responsible'? Is the media responsible for what it puts out or are we responsible for what we take in?

And what about mental health, you say? Well what is mental health, I ask? Who defines it - and how healthy are they mentally in this Pholus/Ixion time? Can anyone be immune to the times in which they live? Should we be heeding first the voices of those who have paid the greatest prices - and if so, what exactly does that mean? 

Many of the questions we may ask include the term 'responsible.' In the Saturn representation of consequences for laws broken and societal bounds breached, yes, there is a 'responsibility.' To get someone there...just to even get people to admit there's a problem in the ranks, whether you're talking about the media or school administrators or doctors (who are legendary for refusing to admit one of their fellow MDs are coloring outside the lines) or on Youtube or in the Twitterverse, getting to the Capricorn/Saturn point of being able to nail the problem down is hard.

That would seem to be all about the fire sign quality of Sagittarius. Metaphysical fire is the idea, the inspiration, the motivation. But to use the old expression, there's no 'there' there.

Holding on to that idea for yet another moment, in thinking of the Pholus story, that a 'slip' is all it takes to bring down this powerful centaur says we can be undone - apparently with all innocent or best intentions. We can slip up when we deal with toxins or...thinking of Sagittarius as the sign of expansion which is in opposition to Gemini...when we allow ourselves to 'push those boundaries' to the point where they become toxic behaviors, toxic speech - whatever.

And this would seem to be where many of the discussions about the media, about violence in video games and movies, about gun control are coming from.

The question is always who went too far? Who's hand is slipping?

That we see so much of this happen in the skies aboard airplanes, in the schools, in the media and even in places where things are being said or shown (I'm thinking of Gabby Giffords in Arizona who went out to meet constituents and the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting)....these incidents seem to be the very sign of our times.

And thus we can draw from them that whatever else they may be, that they are raising the questions which need to be asked at this time. We can't expect concrete answers - we're talking about fire signs. But we do know that in time, objects like Ixion and Pholus move on. We know that by the end of this decade, Pholus in Sagittarius will give way to Pholus in Capricorn, which is a suggestion that by then these problems will have been worked out (to some extent) as new questions are raised. 

Not all of us are on the world stage (or want to be on the world stage) taking these issues on at a societal level. But there is our daily life. Fire signs ask that we imagine not just the possibilities but the consequences and that we be motivated sufficiently by that to do whatever needs doing to improve things in how we live our own lives, whatever that means in the moment.

And that's probably the best news we're going to get here, because what that says is that by paying attention and by not running with metaphysical scissors we can stop doing ourselves and others such harm. Be they pharmaceutical, environmental or merely mental, we can stop treating toxins so lightly.

As if we really know how to use them and the full range of what they can do to us?

And yes, it is apropos to bring ecology, toxic waste, the gas and oil industries, pharmaceuticals into the conversational bucket. Why? Because Jupiter is a ruling influence in both Sagittarius and Pisces, and Pisces is the realm of oil, ecology, pharmaceuticals and such, which brings Jupiter into the discussion.

With Jupiter currently loitering at 6 Gemini (and about to go direct) we know this is a time to be thinking things through and making choices - as individual people and collectively, as societies.

The thing about Gemini - as any Sun sign Gemini will tell you - is that it's a whole lot easier to dabble and scatter your efforts than make a choice and take a stand, first and foremost with yourself.

And who are we 'accountable' to first? Ourselves. And where does that accountability function? It starts in our mentality. This is not about 'the thought police,' this is about policing our thoughts. It's about heeding the fact we know what's okay and what's not okay. It's about knowing that there is a difference between fantasy and reality and that real life is not role playing - not with ourselves and certainly not with the lives and understandings of others.

Livre de comptes de Jean Martell, fondateur de la maison Martell, Cognac, France
(the Book of Accounts from Jean Martell, founder of the House of Martell, Cognac, France)

(photo credit: Rosier, Sept 2012)

Jupiter is going direct in Gemini at the end of January, 2013. Given that Pholus and Ixion are in the low 20-something degrees (the early 3rd decanate) of Sagittarius, this means that it will be May 2013 before Jupiter makes an actual opposition...first to Ixion, then to Pholus.

But we'll feel the effects prior to that. Jupiter will come within standard orb (5 degrees) of its Gemini-Sagittarius opposition to Ixion by mid-April.

And I just know you're going to love this part...that will be during the distant-rumble-of-thunder period which precedes the May 2013 Solar Eclipse at 19 Taurus.

Taurus is a sign all about our security. Sun sign Taurus spend a (Sun) lifetime learning that security is all about how they feel about themselves, not what others think of them or about what they have (material possessions). An eclipse in Taurus' second decanate is all about a wiping of the emotional clean slate where certain concepts about emotional security and personal values are concerned. And since this eclipse is going to happen pretty much as Jupiter opposes Ixion and Pholus (there's about a week of time span involved, which is pretty much nothing in cosmic time)...its a safe bet that at whatever level, we are each going to be challenged in some area of accountability.

Ixion's involvement tells us it's something we have refused to see. Ixion's tie-by-orbital-influence to Neptune (yes, Ixion is a Plutino like Pluto) tells us that while we may not be in complete denial, we're probably kidding ourselves rather thoroughly about something. The Neptune 'rule' here is: the thing you think most likely is bound to prove incorrect while the thing you think least likely will in the end be the truth.

Over and over again we have told ourselves or done something which has ended up not serving us well. We obviously enjoy it in the moment...or at least we enjoy not being made to do otherwise...but it never works for us.

That's Ixion. When you hear from people in alcoholic or drug addiction recovery you tend to hear variations on this Ixion theme which speak of people 'needing to hit the bottom' before they get real.

For some of us...and I'll guess for some organizations and institutions (I haven't done any chart surveys, so I'm not naming names)...that 'hitting bottom' is going to be the Taurus solar eclipse.

But there is hope. Much hope! Though...well, this hope comes with a set of teeth like you wouldn't believe!

In this case, the metaphysical hope is held out by the presence of fixed star Ras Alhague on the Ixion/Pholus side of this equation. Ras Alhague is a star with a pretty fierce reputation. But when you boil it down to gravy, this is a star which indicates great harm or great healing.

Jupiter arrives at 22 Gemini, opposing Ras Alhague's position at 22 Sagittarius, on May 22nd. And if you have your ephemeris out (or have committed all the eclipses to memory) that will ring a bell, as May 25 is the second of two lunar eclipses which will grace our skies during the April-May season.

The May lunar eclipse will be at 4 Sagittarius, a degree I happen to know (because of one particular person's chart) is active in the charts of lots of folks born in 1972 through that being where Neptune was at the time.

But there are oodles of other people who will be affected by this eclipse as well. As will our world.

We're not going to get into this eclipse thing too deeply - at least for now. The only thing I will add (as part of this discussion) is that the April lunar eclipse occurs at 5 Scorpio, which creates an April/May period where we have two 'high tide emotional' events in successive signs.

Astrologically, aspects struck between successive signs are called 'semi-sextiles.' It's an energy which tends to feel a bit irritating or offensive. Given that the venue producing this energy is a pair of lunar eclipses, it's likely that many of us (those whose charts would be aspected by one or both of the lunar eclipses) will be dealing with some degree of 'give and take' emotionality which feels like it's "about them" but which, given the overarching Jupiter-Ixion-Pholus-Ras Alhague dynamic (not to mention the solar eclipse, which pretty much trumps all) is greatly...hugely...primarily about us.

Solar eclipses always (always, always) indicate life events and situations which, in eliminating something which has been part of our life's "status quo" makes room for something which is truer to our overall life purpose.

And that would seem to be not so far off the idea of  becoming more accountable to ourselves.

Meanwhile, there is also another thought to be taken 'into account' here...namely that Pholus is a centaur, and Sagittarius is a constellation (and sign) represented by the image of a centaur.

A Russian coin featuring representation of Sagittarius

(in public domain per regulations of the Russian Federation)

All such references go back to what the mythological essence of a centaur is: the joining of the human to the animal at the human genitals (instinct) and the horse's heart. How we 'rise above' what might be referred to as 'animal instinct' or how we harness our greatest strengths through 'a higher perspective' (the human mind) and all the challenges which go with that, whether you go towards the Ixion story of betrayal of human standards or the Pholus story's point about remaining aware about what we do in even our smallest actions, these all seem to be coming together during these years. The result is a tide of events which show how some people fall prey to their 'lesser natures' or inattentiveness...call it callousness, malice, selfishness or whatever else up to and including insanity...

It's on display in the world and through what happens in the world we are each getting tested in our own lives.   

This first half of 2013 is beginning to look like a pattern alluding to opportunities to deal with our own 'accountability issues,' whatever they may be. If we go with the idea that the idea of accountability seems very Pholus and that Ixion is merely raising the stakes and priming us to make that same mistake over and over again until the roof (sky, Olympus) falls in, then we do have the opportunity to use the Ras Alhague dynamic on ourselves...and in healing ourselves, be able to help heal our families, communities, society and world-planet-connective psyche.

It won't be convenient, it isn't likely to be fun - that's the very nature of the issue we're dealing with.

Thus I close, hoping that this post has given you some useful insights. Or even something to think about or toss out to baffle friends and family. For myself, I'm going to work on keeping dates and data straight and make myself more accountable from there. But that's peanuts compared to what's going on in our world, so let's all hope that we each become more wiling to account for ourselves and our own accountability, and in that, to create a situation wherein others are held to account for their own choices in kind.

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