A Change of Seasons: The Cancer Ingress & Quarter

Astrologers pay attention to ingress charts because they literally picture  Earth's 'phases' vis-a-vis the Sun. It's all about the tilt of the planet - you know...global inclinations. 

This year, the Cancer ingress pictures two very different dynamics. The first is a challenging grand cross (above, in red lines). The other is a picture of possibilities called a 'kite' (look for the blue lines - the tail is at the bottom).

A grand cross (sometimes also called a grand square) is four squares put together. It's sort of like an intersection of streets. And to a great extent the same rules apply. Just like at an intersection, it's a matter of everyone obeying the rules, participating in turn. Which if you think about it, is really everyone working together. That's what allows us to get where we want to go. 

But I'm not going to kid you - astrological grand crosses have a nasty reputation for being endlessly challenging. People tend to bounce from one corner to the next like  dementedly undecided pedestrians. Or, to return to the actual traffic metaphor, to try to insist on having the right of way, screw the lights and traffic laws. 

And that just doesn't work. Neither does dwelling on any given corner of a grand cross!

So what are we working with here? Well, looking at each corner of the square alone and in isolation, in the first corner we have concrete problems - and an ongoing set of problems at that (Pluto-Charybdis-Orpheus in early Capricorn). We'd like someone to fix things...even if we have less than exquisite faith in anyone's ability TO fix anything (Ceres in late Sagittarius). If they don't fix it we're disappointed. If they do fix it, we don't like they way they solved the problem.

Corner number two is all about our not approving what people are doing or how they're doing it. On the other hand, we're all totally obsessed with doing what WE like to do, in spite of the fact it isn't really make us feel happily secure(d). But heaven forbid that anyone tell us that (or how) we should give up our established and unsatisfying ways! Yes, even if we know in the depths of our brains, spirits and souls (pick as many as apply) that's exactly what we should be doing, how DARE anyone tell us so!

Oh! And let's not forget how good we've all gotten at making excuses for why we shouldn't have to change. Such expertise! You'd think we were all working on a PhD in Personal Alternate Realities.

This last note (the alternate reality thing) is a tip off that there's a black hole involved in this corner - and if you guessed that, give yourself a gold star (or at least a collapsed gold star). And this black hole is one of the reasons why getting things done is going to seem so challenging over these next few months; feeling magnetized by forces beyond our control, we so often find ourselves falling into....? Right! A black hole.

In our minds, that is.

For those of the technical ilk, the list of points in this quadrant corner reads thusly: Byblis, (things old),  Eos (unstoppable appetite), Lust (fixations), Jupiter (growing knowledge), Uranus (change/anarchy), Scheat (bad reputation/reception), a black hole at 28 Pisces (probably a contributor to Scheat's bad reputation thing) and Tantalus, a perfectly delightful symbol of all which tantalizes but (groan here!) never satisfies.

So to review: thus far we have one 'threatening' corner replete with yearnings to be 'rescued' and a second corner filled with lack of satisfaction and reluctance (if not downright refusal) to give up our unhappy ways. 

Corner three is occupied with every method you can think of which we use as passive placation: the ever-popular sport of political protesting, eating, drinking, drugs and sex (very popular, these), the productive pacifiers known as exercise, work, cleaning house, doing errands and/or walking the dog (or being walked by the dog if you happen to own a really big dog)...and then there are the verbal forms which fit here too, including discussing, theorizing, taking meetings and praying. All these fall under the auspices of a Dionysus/Panacea combination made particularly strong because Saturn is exactly conjunct Panacea in a degree which is much theory and little activity, assuring us that we will all be tempted to talk ourselves into self-placation this season. And if that doesn't work, we may just stalemate ourselves.  

Corner four is where the Cancer Sun actually is. Now mind you, Sun in Cancer itself is a highly vital symbol. It holds vital dynamics important to planning and building for the future. But it does tend to be moody and very protective. And at times, certainly myopic. Cancer often beats a queasy retreat just when action would work and gets testy when supportive patience is the heart, soul and simple divinity of the answer. 

Most of all, we must remember that this is the corner facing off (opposing) against the threats. And if you want the world to be a better place you can't do that by retreating from the problem. Cancers are very big with worrying about the future of their family and going home (to that family) instead of working on worldly problems so the world is a better place for that family.

Of course there is some chance that the answer really is in someone's living room. If so, we sure do hope they'll share it with the rest of us, right?

Okay...so that's the grand cross. As the 'answer' to its puzzle may not be all that apparent, let's look at the kite, as the answer to one is found in the format of the other.

The tail of said kite, to be precise.

But what is an astrological kite? Well, the recipe goes like this: take one grand trine (ongoing, nearly unstoppable energy) and stand that on end (the blue triangle at the bottom of the figure). Then add two supporting sextiles reaching to and supporting the top of the kite. These are the opportunities. 

'Solving' or 'gaining control of' whatever is at the the top of the kite (those problems and threats?) is the goal of a kite, and as said, the bottom - the tail - is the key. And seeing that that tail is expressed here by Betelgeuse-Sun-black hole, you start with a plan. A Cancerian plan, which means everybody pulling all together, each one of us marshaling ourselves to do what we should do in the long run, not just what feels safe, convenient or habitually natural. 

Cancer is the home, and our individual family, yes. But it's also the community, the nation and the family of man. It's the sign of this world and our planet - Mother Earth. So if we want to solve the problems in our world, we need to solve the problems in the world.

As for Begelgeuse, as a sign of easy accomplishment (if we put our minds to it), that's a plus. But in a grand cross world of negatives, threats and reluctance, let's be real - the easy way to think is in terms of one's own and our own little world. But with the problems coming from across the zodiac from the ingress, the problems (and thus the solution) are not 'inner,' they're 'outer' - or more particularly, how we do or don't connect to Things External. 

So much for those of you who think you can just ignore society and the news, right? 

But why would not helping or not joining not work? 

Answer: a little galactic thing called a black hole. Maybe you've heard of them - able to bend light? Possessed of inexorable gravity? To remain in your personal quadrant this season is to be swallowed up thereby. So will you allow yourself (or even volunteer) to be sucked in by your own reluctance? Or are you going to use the power of a black hole to 'visit' the alternative reality and harness that power to do the 'alternative' thing - which is to say something different than what has been done up until now?

But there's all that threat! And reluctance! And tendency to talk ourselves out of doing anything about it? Why would we do anything else and what 'anything else' shall we do? What works here?

The answer lies in the nature of the kite - the other two trine points of the 'unstoppable engine' of endless potential we are being gifted with this season. One point is Chiron-Lilith-Neptune, a sign that we can either take our challenges on or be driven ever harder by ever increasing bad behavior and necessity. 

This is good....why? Well, think of it this way: how else is the universe going to get us moving (and to shift us out of old habits) except to make it too uncomfortable to sit still?

The key to this is that with Chiron and friends we also get Athena (wisdom) and royal Fomalhaut - the premier signature of ideals and dreams which come true IF (big IF) they are not corrupt or corruptive. So we not only have to 'do,' we have to 'do' intelligently and without cutting corners or compromising ethical morals (and moral ethics - yes, those too). 

Bearing this in mind we look to the other side of the grand trine...and there we find an  elegant combination of a critical degree Libra Moon (the need to negotiate, compromise, reach agreements and join with others), Pallas (the other form of Athena and thus wisdom) and Scylla, a monster representing forces which can either eat you, or provide you with the impetus to bring all your skill to bear and to keep trying no matter what.

By the way - nobody said this was going to be easy, merely that there is a way to turn negatives into positives. 

And it is in the end these two forms of wisdom (Pallas and Athena) which really give us the clue: these two upper corners of the grand trine are also the keynote structures upon which our opportunities (to better things) are founded. So the way forward is through use of intellectual faculties, not emotional or spiritual resources. The 'ease' promised by Betelgeuse is in Gemini - a sign about choice. The whole grand trine is in air signs (theory and concept). So we do need to think things through and we do need to conceptualize what we're going to do. We just need to resist getting sucked in by our fears, by emotionalism, by inertia or temptations.

Apparently it's all doable. So says this very remarkable chart which comes to us in an astonishing, unsettled time filled with upheavals. We shouldn't think nothing bad (or more bad) is going to happen - things are going to happen. And why would that be?

Because only through challenges and trying times do we ever learn the truth of our potentials. In other words, trying times aren't about the state of our world, they're about the nature of our trying. 

Thus do we learn.

Minerals Management Service: Digging for Truth

Created by the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act (a name long enough to require refueling) the Minerals Management Service originally came into being on January 19, 1982 charged with three  basic and separate tasks.

One: to grant (or deny) leases to corporate interests wanting to plumb and create gain from various underground assets held by the United States government in trust for its people.

Two: to collect fees on such leases.

Three: to oversee those operating under such leases so that disasters like the current BP-Transocean-Halliburton oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico don’t happen.

The oily trail of malfeasance here is wide and frankly, sticky. Back in September of 2008, scandalous stories began to surface, including one particularly feisty tale of drugs being snorted off toasters (another way to get toasted, one imagines) and members of the MMS being caught not just figuratively but literally in bed with employees of the oil companies (drillers, et al). Honcho-in-charge at that moment (one Earl E. Devaney) delivered several reports on what was termed “a culture of ethical failure” to a US Congress which responded with outrage.

Outrage - do you hear? OUTRAGE! But then did they DO anything about it? Apparently not much, as questions about ongoing problems with collecting all those pesky royalties continued. A few employees from the MMS were shed, but despite the recession they apparently found new employment rather soon.

And who hired them? The oil companies, riggers and all those folk. One wonders if they had to bring their own sheets and toasters – or only the bread and jam. 

Obviously, something’s not working here – including safeguards, employees, regulatory laws…and heaven only knows what else. But astrologically – why would this be?

In any given chart, the first place we look for information are to the two ‘lights’ (Sun and Moon) and the horizontal axis (Ascendant and Descendant) of the chart.

The Sun in this chart is at 29 Capricorn. Capricorn being the premier sign of structure, government and commerce is all well and good. Being at 29 degrees – the last degree of the sign? Known as ‘critical’ 29 degrees of any sign is where the sign can either push to ‘complete’ it’s job or totally lose control. How do you know one from the other? This being Capricorn (with a Capricorn Midheaven), the first place we would look to is Saturn, ruler of Capricorn – which in this chart is in Libra but intercepted in the 6th house.

In organizations, the 6th house tells us about the quality of work done and the employees. To have Saturn intercepted (without a “voice”) here is obviously really, really, very problematic. And lest we miss the point, the sign/degree on the cusp of this 6th house is 25 Virgo, a degree known for its ability to promise but well…maybe not deliver. And which looks the part, but doesn’t act the part – and which in this instance may have described a culture where unqualified people were hired for certain jobs.

Just to make this a little more taste-terrible (as if it needs to be), the ruler of Virgo is Mercury, and the Mercury of this chart is at 17 Aquarius (problems which go unnoticed) conjunct Medea – she of Greek Myth lore famous for her love so selfish it became her doom.

Dare we describe employee doings as the work of some slick operators? At the risk of downplaying the disastrous ecological side of current events, yes.

But management seems suspect as well. Whenever the Sun is conjunct another personal planet (Mercury, Mars, Moon or Venus) what’s indicated is a lack of perspective in that particular area – it’s rather like wanting to live it, not worry about it. There’s just too much focus on that thing to see how something else might be equally (or more) important. Spoken of in astrology as being ‘burned up’ (the Sun being obviously very fiery) here we have Venus (the symbol of making things concrete) in Aquarius, the sign of social systems, the marketplace, society and income. Whether this is taken to be that MMS management was so into the oil market, marketplace, oil companies, the well-heeled perks or the excitement of being wooed by lobbyists with wallets filled with fossil fuel money – whichever way you go here it’s plain MMS management became part of the oil pipeline it was supposed to be minding.

Further notes: standing with this 29 Capricorn Sun conjunct a 2 Aquarius Venus we have Mnemosyne (memory), and Atropos (cut-offs). In the sense of management, this astrological picture backs the idea that apart from what employees (qualified or otherwise) were doing, management wasn’t minding its own job. To have the term ‘memory’ and ‘cut off’ conjunct the MMS’s managerial Sun gives us a big ‘fuggeddaboudit’ …the astro-speak equivalent of a management which brushes aside records and proof of breach of conduct, rules, regulations, safety measures and financial commitments in both the running of the agency and granting oil leases. Sometimes charts will project this sort of image with a Pollyanna ‘they’ll do better this/next time’ note attached. Not in this case – the Venus at 2 Aquarius part says that management was for whatever reason willing to assume risk in the name of possible discoveries, networked connections and pure, hard cold profit – probably personal.

Undoubtedly everyone at the MMS will claim they were overwhelmed with and by their work (South Node conjunct Amphitrite and Atlantis deposed by Saturn). It is also likely that there is/was some sort of connection with matters of State – foreign influence, foreign competition, threats on the part of foreign entities…we will probably never know the most of it. And we shouldn’t think that every member of this agency went in to work each day rubbing their hands at the gleeful thought of how they could screw their fellow citizens and help increase world pollution in the process. They didn’t. The 8 Scorpio Jupiter just below the horizon in the 6th house opposition a 6 Taurus Sedna/Scheherazade just behind the Ascendant is the perfect picture of truly passionately intelligent who were all theory and no human reality. In other words, this agency was like as not greatly staffed by people of sufficient intellectual intelligence to fall prey to manipulation and the untrained or inexperienced depths of their own human nature.

Interesting also to note here is the ongoing debate and efforts towards moving towards use of alternative energy sources. As a national credo, President Bush signed The Energy Act of 2005 on August 8 of 2005, with Chiron (the thing which needs doing which no one feels they know how to do) at 29 Capricorn, exactly conjunct the MMS critical degree Sun giving us the picture which suggests that there was some understanding as the bill was being signed nobody really knew how to get the job done and that there would be reluctance to do anything about it until things got critical.

Also in this chart is Juno (protection of household) at 28 Taurus, one degree off trine to the 29 Capricorn Chiron (and the MMS Sun) and perhaps more importantly, only one degree off opposition to the powerful, stubborn and fearful 29 Scorpio Moon.

Scorpio problems often include fear – fear of change or fear being used as a means to drive or inhibit change. So is this a picture of a challenge to make a change or the challenge of interrupting a pipeline which pumps not just oil, but money and stability from country to country, in essence gluing international economies together? Many think of the Bush/Cheney administration as a presidency of ‘oil men.’ But whether or not that’s true, oil has also become a virtual modern currency, which makes any change to use of oil part of an immensely daunting challenge: that of weaning national economies around the world off oil and onto renewable, passive energy sources like wind, wave and solar. It’s not just about supply and demand of oil here – what happens if the world moves to a non-monetary-based source of energy? How do countries which hold a check and balance on each other by holding up supply or not paying off debt maintain a balance of monetary power if wind, waves and sunlight are providing all the energy we need?

Or perhaps even worse – all the energy only some of us need?

So did the Bush administration really dilly dally? Or in some behind-the-scenes conversation did they oppose conversion to renewable energy because it might possibly destabilize the world’s economy?

Apparently it was time for that test to be undertaken by society anyway, as with the 29 Cancer Solar Eclipse of July 2009 the world economy fell out of the sky. Cancer being the sign of real estate, it’s not surprising the central theme was that of mortgage derivatives. Opposing the Sun of the MMS chart, this event also ‘eclipsed’ a chain of symbols at the base of the MMS’s chart: the North Node at 22 Cancer conjunct the Nadir at 24 Cancer, Charybdis (do or die) at 26, Medusa (fearful or fear of knowledge) at 27 Cancer, Polyhymnia (blithe happiness) at 0 Leo and Orcus (dispassionate final judgment) at 2 Leo.

The North Node being what one should do, to have it at the Nadir speaks of a need to do the basics right, lest all you build atop that topple. In this case, that Cancer Nadir is ruled by the Scorpio Moon and since Scorpio is also the sign of joint/invested assets, this clearly points to big trouble in how the MMS is doing business to whatever extent its business is not being conducted in a totally squeaky clean (right – not oily!) above board sort of way.

Scorpio honors angels, but it tends to attract devils. And with a Moon at critical 29, those devils are likely to be really nasty, really secretive, and really, really hard to unearth and eradicate.

Well, until Uranus (transpersonal changes) gets into the act. Saturn (planet of commerce and regulation, remember?) happened to be retrograding back through 29 Virgo at the time of the Deepwater Horizon blowout. Retrogrades always representing ‘internal’ process, it’s not surprising to hear that all the companies involved (BP, Transocean, Halliburton) were in something of a dispute about what did or didn’t need to be done to get the well capped off safely.

There have been mentions of failing hydraulics, which astrologically would be Neptunian. That this is all happening in very deep water is also Neptunian. Recent reports have spoken of a number of ‘plugs’ which needed to be inserted into the well shaft – that’s structural (Saturn), as are mentions of broken seals. But nothing outranks the Saturn/Capricorn issue of management of the operation as a whole – and that’s an issue which plainly tracks back to the Minerals Management Service, which had a lot of paperwork detailing problems BP (in particular) has had over the years – problems which have cost millions if not billions of dollars, a number of lives and uncalculated costs in terms to damage to the environment and the lives of those who while not killed have been compromised by exposure to toxic chemicals. Oil, while a valuable commodity of our modern age, is plainly toxic.

So along came Saturn and the well blew out. Astrologically, had not Uranus been poised to also move into 29 degrees (this time in Pisces) the astrological picture would not have been as strongly negative for the MMS. But 29 Pisces is the position of fixed star Scheat – a star all about bad publicity. Thus metaphysics say that something was going to happen that was going to put the MMS in a bad light, seeing that we have the following chain of logic describing the placement of Scheat in the MMS


1.    25 Pisces is on the cusp of the 12th house of corporate (passive) income and possible/probable limitations thereof.

2.    Scheat opposes Scylla (monster of the deep)

3.    Jupiter, first ruler of Pisces is positioned in the 6th house of employees and responsibility at 8 Scorpio. Jupiter tends to ‘misbehave’ (act negatively) when in the 6th when not used purposefully for productive control/amelioration of situations. Scorpio is not only a sign of investment (in)/joint assets but compromise through ‘wanton control’ by others or situations.

4.    Neptune, ruler of the Pisces ‘outcome’ is in the 8th house of the MMS chart. When the MMS functions with proper oversight, this represents a proper and ‘rich/enriching’ flow of money into the agency (oil royalties). Because Neptune is in Sagittarius – a Jupiter ruled sign – the positive/negative  is determined by employees and proper efforts to oversee operations.

5.    The 6th house cusp (telling us the nature of the Jupiter) is at 25 Virgo, with Scylla at 24 Virgo. Virgo is ruled by Mercury and the Mercury in this chart is in the 10th (social standing – government – laws and regulations) in Aquarius (corporate income) conjunct Medea (self destructive adoration).


This is plainly a recipe for disaster which was metaphorically/metaphysically and ultimately realistically set off when the MMS allowed drilling ‘in the deep.’ The ironic comment here is that the Energy Act of 2005 (August 8, 2005) which emphasized/empowered the MMS to move into authorization/diversion of energy into wind, wave and solar power has Chiron at 29 Capricorn – exactly conjunct the MMS Sun.

Known colloquially as ‘the wounded healer,’ Chiron is the thing we need to do but which seems so ‘painful’ to do that we all tend to avoid it until we are forced to.

With Uranus at 29 degrees and oil spilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the sextile (opportunity) to this point suggests the MMS may get back on track. This won’t be instantaneous; we already know President Obama has called for an overhaul of the MMS, separating the obvious conflict of interest regarding granting leases versus collecting of royalties.

Equally important here however, is where overseeing of drilling operations occurs – which in this chart would be represented several ways – most of all by the North Node in Moon-ruled Cancer being within 2 degrees of the Nadir or the bottom of the chart, giving us a picture of drilling. Ruled by the critical Moon conjunct Uranus in the 7th, several things are noted clearly from the astrological point of view. Lease holders (whether they be after oil or coal or the conversion of wind, solar or anything else) must be separate as entities but not separated from the MMS in operation. For this agency, there is no such thing as hands off when it comes to OPERATIONS. Hand off the money (and the employees!) and hands on in operations. With caretaker of the harvest Ceres on the Descendant, this is an agency meant to control how others operate and the standards at which they operate. The standards must be for the US people (Cancer at the 4th is also the US population) and not for the corporations – that’s just self-serving convenience, and though it is probably well known within the MMS that certain people should go to prison for what they’ve done, with the Neptune/Jupiter set  up in this chart it’s doubtful anyone will.

The 29 Cancer solar eclipse of July 2009 set cosmic wheels in motion. Solar eclipses run over a period of three years and we never really know the true outcome until the transit period is nearly at its end. So for good and ill, we don’t know what’s going to happen yet. This eclipse set off the MMS Sun, the Midheaven (public reputation, goals) of this chart and its (employee/responsibility)Moon.

The Sun/Midheaven was hit again by the January 2010 solar eclipse at 25 Capricorn and the Nadir (the other end of the vertical “who I am in the world” axis of this chart will again be hit by the 19 Cancer, July 2010 solar eclipse. This is without question, enough energy to bring the MMS to a stunning halt of its current ways.

But we aren’t done yet. The solar eclipse of July 2011 hits the 2nd house of this chart (11 Gemini) exactly. And as it does so, it also opposes the calculated Lilith of this chart – a shadowy side of the MMS we don’t know anything about.

Yet. 

Stand by.





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