October’s 0 Scorpio Solar Eclipse (Pt. 3: Aspects, Stars and Dates)

 The partial Solar Eclipse of January 4, 2011 at 13 Capricorn as photographed from Strakonice in the Czech Republic

(photo credit: Hynek)

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The image for 0 Scorpio’s Sabian symbol (‘A crowded sightseeing bus on a city street’) says many things. Astrologer Marc Edmund Jones typified this degree as being about the urge to be social or interact in order to experience and learn through society’s collective achievements - to which astrologer Dane Rudhyar, while agreeing added a decisive comment on how the influences which manifest as part of 0 Scorpio’s energetic refer not only to the moment at hand but much wider, broader and far-reaching considerations which in his words are ‘very concrete and perhaps startling.’

All that being true, when presented by a solar eclipse the effect is both as broad and far reaching as possible...while also being entirely close, personal and inordinately primal. And that’s what we’ve been seeing, hearing about and experiencing in life in many ways over these past two months or so both locally and universally on our national and international stages. That people have reacted with such a depth of emotionality has been typically Scorpio as Scorpio presents us with whatever will get us to feel (or failing that, force us to feel or react emotionally) in part of course in direct reaction to given situations.

But metaphysically? Metaphysically this has been all about our Self: who we are, what our values are, whether our values work or not and (this being the special Scorpio touch) how we feel about our values and thus our sense of security being shaken.

Please Note: the statement is sense of security, not actual security. No single astrological transit - be it a solar eclipse or anything else - is enough to signify disaster or death. Some people (and some charts, be they of people, places or things) will be under a lot of stress from multiple major astrological placements and triggers and they will experience trouble.

The Solar Eclipse at 0 Scorpio (glyph chart)

 October 24, 2014 - 21:58 (9:58 p.m.) UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Yet no solar eclipse - not even this one at 0 Scorpio - signifies disaster or death. A single transit can and often does time a given event and it is common to hear of death/s occurring just around the time of a solar eclipse (generally within a couple of weeks of it). But those charts will have shown multiple indicators generally for some time at least.

Also - to differentiate: Scorpio deals in the emotions of death just as it deals in the emotions of sex and conception. But death’s physicality is far more often astrological associated with Cancer and/or the fourth house in a given chart in a literal ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’ sense, and such indications may or may not appear in a given natal, solar, lunar or other return chart.

Unless you’re meting out death, that is. Delivering death and the dangers of delivering death (see: war, surgery, societal violence) or choice to participate in same ARE eighth house and Scorpionic - with a tip of the weighting hat to the eighth house side of this concept rather than the sign.

In other words, if you’re not an astrologer don’t assume Scorpio means something just because your emotional psyche might want to think of it that way... that may in fact be the easiest and fastest metaphysical path to setting yourself up to experience that you dread most.

The Solar Eclipse at 0 Scorpio (text chart)

 October 24, 2014 - 21:58 (9:58 p.m.) UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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It is a cause/effect universe, after all. If you ask to fear, you’ll get something to fear about - and so often that anger which erupts from fear (and fearing that your position, perspective or thing you like most might get defeated or otherwise eliminated) becomes the ill itself.

As for expanding the idea of this degree to its utmost point, that could take many forms, all of which will somehow display an extreme of emotionality which has to be compensated for in some way. In our individual lives this will function one way...in the life of families, companies, products, societies, movements and nations it will function another way. But all will be in parallel.

Just to explain, I’ll volunteer one idea being meandered through by yours truly in a few more metaphysical moments. Planet Earth must maintain balances  metaphysical as well as physical and though human beings have been a rowdy and often violent species resident on this Earth for many a thousand years, it is in the past sixty to a hundred years that we have seen a new rise of decline in many species. Putting aside all the physical/scientific reasons for same (physicality being on the astrological level an outgrowth or manifestation of metaphysics or what we might call ‘metaphysicality’) it is also during this period of time that humankind’s ability to inflict death (i.e., the scale of same) has multiplied  exponentially. It is in fact arguable that most if not all causes of death are things developed by humans which makes humankind - in the life of Planet Earth - its absolute top predator.

So if you’re a planet and the laws of existence mandate maintenance of predator/prey balances, what happens? Is there a massive decline in prey? Or, because humans are now owning and utilizing so much of what we might call Earth’s ‘predatory energetics’ does that mean natural predators such as lions, leopards, tigers, sharks and so on are bound to decline...or that human energetics will in turn promote planetary developments which will by their essential nature cause us to be less inclined to predation?

If so, the answer to decline in our planet’s wildlife may be wholly or in part a province of our emotional psyches - and therefore a choice (one of many) we may not have currently made, but which is there for us to avail ourselves of. You know...if we come to realize that when it comes to planets, we really are inescapably together on this currently Earth-bound sightseeing trip through space as part of our galaxy.

And that idea of there being choices to make, old choices which need to be ‘eclipsed’ and new ideas which need to be developed so as to serve the difficulties, challenges and possible losses which come with any solar eclipse - that seems natural too in a moment when there is a Gemini influence afoot courtesy of the 0 Gemini eclipse of 2012.

Why would that be? If you missed it, here’s the link to that post:

- link to post -

October’s 0 Scorpio Solar Eclipse

(Pt. 2: that ‘Other’ eclipse)

For the sake of reference and calendar marking, this eclipse (the solar eclipse at 0 Scorpio) will be taking its’ turn around April 2017 - which will be in the wake of a solar eclipse at 8 Pisces, a degree we will all learn a lot about (for among other things, reference) as Neptune (ruler of Pisces) work through a range of motion between 4 and 8 Pisces during its 2015 (into early 2016) cycle, with 4 Pisces being the position of royal and fixed star Fomalhaut.

- link to post -

The Royal Stars of Persia (Pt. 4): Fomalhaut

As for fixed stars to be concerned with at the moment, though there is a very wide connection between 0 Scorpio and Arcturus (a leadership or ‘leading’ influence) and Spica (true brilliance versus ‘the brilliant image’) these stars are at 24 Libra and therefore not within 5 degrees of the eclipse. So though matters of leadership and ‘where things are leading’ (or how someone has led, led others on, been led on, etc.) may get referenced, they are not actually involved. With an emblem of skill (Achilles) at 29 Libra, some skills will be eclipsed now, some will be ‘taken off the table’ and others will be revealed, at least in part - this being a partial (not total) eclipse of the Sun.

With Libra being a sign about how we relate to others or how they relate to us because of how we are ‘presenting’ our Self, our thoughts, positions, efforts, projects and products, the [Achilles] skill with which we handle ourselves is a key to the responses we get from others and some - at least - of what we have done or how we have done it will now fall by the wayside at least for three years (the full term of the eclipse). At the same time, being that this eclipse will have the Sun, Moon and Venus in conjunction at 0 Scorpio, there are some highly pronounced qualities which pertain to secrecy, power, greed and all the many ways we try to get or avoid attention (and responses) from others which are now being eclipsed.

Put simply, to have Venus eclipsed will eliminate some evils while spawning others with all such notions or factors having to do with our emotional tendencies to prioritize our Self or what we ‘want’ (or want to be true, want to happen, etc.) which in the small venue is petty and annoying, which in the moderate venue is selfish, emotionally tone deaf or egotistical and which in the grandest view is likely to spawn things, attitudes and behaviors which are patently-reflexively-instinctively narcissistic and which become wholly, grandly destructive - even... and most particularly of the generative aims.

Let’s remember: Scorpio is the sign of karma. With all things Scorpio, what we put out will come back to us, and not always from the same ‘place’ or ‘direction’ we were thinking about or ‘aiming’ at. With Libra, things tend to be direct and timely - the person who sues you is a Libran figure who must abide by the laws of the ‘equal’ playing field (the legal suit). But with Scorpio, emotions come into play - which both defines any Scorpio situation as something which can upset us and something in which people invest emotionally - and not always for the best of productive reasons. Malice is Scorpionic, as is manipulation. But so is rehabilitation, detoxification and the concept of resurrection - especially that sort of emotional resurrection which allows us to purge our beings of that which is dangerous or toxic to us or others, thereby clearing the way to the sort of greater personal power which leads to opportunities and eventual achievement.

The good news is that the worst of Scorpio’s spawn is likely to be relatively short-lived (2.5 - 3 years) before it ‘takes a turn,’ though there is no guarantee that such a turn will be for the better.

But I digress. There are two fixed stars which are very much part of this eclipse. The first is Mirach, a star which is said to have the nature of Neptune and Venus (speaking of Neptune and - ahem! - Venus).

Mirach is part of constellation Andromeda and also part of constellation Pegasus - an odd combination of ‘taking flight’ (Pegasus) and the experience of helplessness in the defense of self (Andromeda).

'Andromeda' by Edward Poynter (1869, oil on canvas)

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The Andromeda part of this influence is purely human, mortal and understandable - its our reaction or tendency to react when we feel powerless because choices have been made for us by others (human beings) who are diminishing our (Taurus) value through their (Gemini) choice. Whoever we are and whatever we are involved in and have been doing over these past months, there are places in our life where we are Andromeda (and where we feel helpless)and places where we have made the choice to put others in a position of helplessness.

At this point, neither one is benefiting us - and that this happens so soon after royal star Aldebaran moved into 10 Gemini seems telling.

- link to post -

Aldebaran at 10 Gemini

But there’s also the Pegasus part of this dynamic, and when we get to the metaphysics of Pegasus, with all due respect for those who want to think Pegasus is all about beauty, strength and the freedom to fly, it’s all that yes - but also the ability to flee the scene of the crime (avoidance of problems and/or culpability, in other words) by utilizing special or specialized or unique attributes or talents in a manner which hinders us through fear even as it offers us a new way to maneuver, see things or deal with difficulties or threats.

And why is that?

That’s because Pegasus is the offspring of Medusa - the symbol of all we fear knowing, most of all about our Self.

- link to post -

Medusa: Through Our Mental Mirror, Darkly

The ideas expressed by Pegasus can absolutely be used for good and productivity. But given the idea that Pegasus is allegedly born of blood shed when Medusa is slain by the young and heroic Perseus, there is something within - our native Medusa - which must be confronted and worked through before, in true Scorpio style, our attempts at ‘flight’ (whatever form that takes) become fully imbued with inner strength of character.

'Perseus vanquishing Medusa' by Eugene Thirion (1839-1910)

- that's Pegasus in the background.

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The other star in opposition to the eclipse is Mira or ‘Stellar Mira’, a star once marveled at because of the nature of its variable light. Thanks to modern astronomy we now know Mira is a binary star with a cycle of roughly 11 months (332 days) and there are no specific mentions of Mira in Chinese or Babylonian lore (though over the years Chinese astronomers have described constellations thought to contain Mira)...and thus we would think it natural that anything Mira would come into aspect with (be that Mirach, a solar eclipse or something in your personal natal chart) would have an ongoing on-off (plus-minus, positive-negative, strong-weak) cycle inherent in its nature.

As for what shape that nature tends to take, well-respected astrologer Reinhold Ebertin described Mira as having the nature of Saturn and Jupiter, telling us that Mira star should be associated with two very different things: beginnings and endings along with long-term existence or duration.

Why? Because when or where Jupiter and Saturn appear together (or are associated by linkage) we are being given the symbolism of growth (Jupiter) and durable structures (Saturn) which are in themselves achievements and which afford us the opportunity to achieve that much more. Furthermore, Jupiter and Saturn have a synodic cycle (synodic meaning the frequency with which they conjunct while in orbit around the Sun) of 19.86 years while eclipses are clocked on the Metonic cycle, a cycle which is nineteen years (235 lunar months) long. Both of these cycles refer to what philosophers, historians and story tellers refer to as ‘the rise and fall’ of fortunes - be they of a person, a nation, a reign or anything else.

Mira's (aka Mira A's) bow shock and tail as photographed in ultraviolet

(photo credit: NASA)

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The last time we had this year’s 8 Taurus/0 Scorpio eclipse sequence was back in 1995. And for those of an age and sufficient willingness, there is a value in looking back and thinking about what you were going through then - not in terms of finite subjects of concern which were important then, but in terms of how you coped with those times. How did what you felt then spur you on to more growth or personal development in the wake of those eclipses?

That process is being repeated now. Not in the same form and not (generally) through the same people, places or things, but the pattern of personal growth is being repeated now. Again, this only applies to those of “a certain age” (sorry young folk, but this is one place where being older has a few perks!) but those who learned about their own capacity back then will have the ability to weather these times with more aplomb, calm and general effective efficiency. And those who didn’t? Or those who aren’t old enough yet to have passed through multiple eclipse cycles?

They will have a more robustly trying (emotional) time now - and hopefully they’ll be taking notes, as this is not the last Scorpio eclipse younger folks are likely to see as the Scorpio/Taurus sequence returns in (yes,) another nineteen years.

This is however, the last of the Scorpio eclipses for now. Next time around there will be no 0 Scorpio eclipse (though the year 2032 will bring us an encore of last year’s 19 Taurus/11 Scorpio solar eclipse sequence).

Moreover, given how the lunar nodes cycle backwards through the zodiac we would expect that after the Taurus/Scorpio sequence would come an Aries/Libra sequence.

But if we expected that, we would be wrong. For whatever reason deemed proper by that which manifests as our universe and all which exists in it, after this eclipse our world will be skipping Aries-Libra and moving straight into a Pisces/Virgo mode.

In other words, this very feeling time is preparing us to confront very important questions about what we are willing to endure feeling (as individuals and as collectives of various sorts) in order to make things health, workable and supportive of our aims not only for the foreseeable future, but in the longer range of long runs - which is a very good reason to heed the warning of 0 Scorpio, that being about how it requires both the decision and the effort to turn ourselves (and one supposes, that which is in front of us now) to good.

May we all decide to be and become our finest and most human mortal Self.
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December’s New Moon: Illuminating Our Self

A clay oil lamp used in India's diwali festival

(photo credit Arne Huckelheim, November 2010)

Life as a Mobius Strip…yes, and that’s apparently what we’re in for. The whole of the incoming lunation which starts on December 3rd at twenty-two minutes after midnight (UT/+0 ) seems somewhat akin to an astrological Mobius Strip.

A Mobius Strip - technically, a one-sided

piece of paper.

 

I remember distinctly what my reaction was when someone told me there was such a thing as a one-sided piece of paper: I looked at them as though they were crazy.

Assuring me they were not, this person then demonstrated how if you took a strip of paper and taped its ends together after installing one twist in the paper strip… how if you then lay that twisted loop of paper down on a table and apply a pen to it, how by drawing the paper beneath the pen… how slowly but surely you’d get back to where you started – and how in that process you had drawn on both ‘sides’ of the paper, theoretically proving it to be one-sided.

And don’t we all do a little bit of that one-sidedness, even while we’re veering hither and yon through life?

Any Sagittarian lunation is going to force us to do two things: learn or learn better (that would be the Sagittarius part) and feel about it – that being the Moon-ish stuff.

Or we could even feel what we think about having to learn something. Or think about our feelings. Or think about how the whole feeling thing applies in the grander scheme of life.

Sagittarius is ‘big’ like that, being one of the last four signs of the zodiac. When Sagittarius turns up on the energetic menu, no matter who we are or how we live we’re moved into a mode where “it” (whatever we deal with) is not precisely about us. That Sagittarius is a fire sign means our ability to envision is called upon…but whether your vision is about what could happen to you or how you could make something work or what glorious new opportunity might come of something you really don’t want to tackle…?

That’s up to you.

One very good thing about fire sign energy – especially where the Moon is concerned – is that the fiery ‘imagining’ and/or ‘not real, just in theory’ quality syncs rather nicely with our intellectual mode of thinking… which may just be entirely useful now as we’re all plowing through whatever complications are normal in your life as a side dish served up with the holidays.

Let’s face it – the holidays are complicated. Even if you’re someone who doesn’t celebrate worth a figgy pudding, you still have to cope with all the people who are celebrating and doing the whole festive thing.

Plus…(dare I say?)…Venus is about to go retrograde, a fact which is likely to summon up that splendidly flagrant human tendency to celebrate before all goes to pot. Call it the binge before the fast - or more likely, the splurge before the budget.

As a matter of fact, just as this New Moon occurs (December 3rd) Venus begins slowing down. (It probably should be taken as a hint.) Wherever Capricorn (the sign Venus is in) falls in your chart, that is the department which is going to come in for some sort of stress during Venus six weeks of retrograde.

Into which comes this Sagittarius lunation. Sagittarius being the sign immediately before Capricorn, we have an uncomfortable semi-sextile which thematically combines ‘hurry up’ and ‘do more’ (Sagittarius) with Capricorn-ian deadlines, obligations, limits and responsibilities to self and others.

As for the degree of this New Moon, that’s 10 Sagittarius - and this is where the magic begins to happen, as despite all that stuff which may sound trying, challenging, even wearisome, 10 Sagittarius is a degree which speaks of the promise and opportunity… even the fateful occurring of moments which teach how our polarities within are the polarities we create in life and between our Self and others.

The trick is to remember that we’re attracting them so that we can understand our own capacities.

In other words, don’t blame them – bless them, particularly when they point out you’re better than you’re letting yourself be.

That’s what that cry of conflict in your soul is all about – and that’s what this Sagittarian lunation will bend in upon itself to show you, though you’re highly likely to be surprised by how things work.

As I say, this starts with 10 Sagittarius – the position of the New Moon. With Antares just behind at 9 Sagittarius, the idea of success hinging on ‘not being obsessed’ is in the mix throughout the month, but what that means is purely individual. With Jupiter (ruler of Sagittarius) pictured in exact conjunction with Black Moon Lilith the choice would seem to be between something about our Self that we wanted to ‘leave behind’…or something about our Self that we refuse to own which, what with energy being sneaky like that, someone else is owning (or has owned) for us of late.

I admit…there’s a whiff of that recent eclipse thing in the air. It’s symbolically suggested by Mercury still being in Scorpio (26 Scorpio) in the chart of the New Moon.

Mercury’s been in Scorpio since September 29th. Do we all have that much unpacking of our emotional psyche to think about?

Evidently yes.

Link to the 2013 MERCURY IN SCORPIO post

On the other hand, does the Scorpio tendency to make us feel so much about something mean it’s not real?

Link to (2013) SUN IN SCORPIO post

 

Maybe it is real. If so…what does that mean? What does it say about us as people that we can or cannot deal with our Selves and each other as people? How is it that we are so drawn to those who will inevitably test us at the most rip-prone spot in our Being?

And is ripping all bad? Or does it afford us room to grow?

Representing relationships, how well we relate and the process of self-experience we connect with through the process of relating (or refusing to relate), the Lunar Nodes are also still at 7 Scorpio/Taurus in this New Moon chart.

7 Scorpio is the degree the nodes slid into back on October 2nd - as life laid on five or six weeks of pretty intense experiencing in keeping with the Scorpio solar eclipse.

(Oh joy, oh rapture, right?)

And now we’re on the other side of that. With this New Moon, the last New Moon (the solar eclipse) begins to ‘gel.’ Think of it as a cut or thorn prick which finally knits over enough to stop bleeding.

No, things aren’t yet healed. But the universal process which promotes healing has been summoned, and in most cases as been started.

The Sabian Symbol for 10 Sagittarius reading as follows: IN THE LEFT SECTION OF AN ARCHAIC TEMPLE, A LAMP BURNS IN A CONTAINER SHAPED LIKE A HUMAN BODY. Since the New Moon is in fiery Sagittarius (a sign we can typify as ‘expansion of what you know’) and the lunation “arc” goes from that ‘envisioning/realizing’ New Moon in Sagittarius to a Full Moon in airy, option-sorting Gemini knowing that the next New Moon (January’s) will be in earthy Capricorn, land of achievement, social status, all things governmental and generally life consequential… what would seem to be implied here is a pretty straight on process: you get the idea, you think through the parameters and then you choose to act or not act.

And according to the symbol, all of this has to do with ‘a light’ which has, which is being or which has been “left” in the ‘left’ section of an archaic temple. And the lamp…? The ‘light’ may either be ‘shaped like a human being’ because it is a person, or it may be an ideal or idealized person – the ideal furnished by some person.

Considering how ‘light’ often represents information, education or some sort of ‘message’ or mentoring being given to us (or possibly left with us), the whole aura of Sagittarian ‘learning further’ may be our proceeding on with learning and pushing our boundaries or trying to cope based on something we believe we need to understand.

And that left section in an archaic temple – that’s particularly intriguing. Why? Because ‘left’ – especially when you’re talking about the human body in metaphysical terms – is a reference to the future. And yet (she says blithely), the symbol very specifically refers to an archaic temple – in other words, something we did hold high at one point, but which we have walked away from or given up on.

….Which may (now that I’m thinking about it) work very well with astrologer Marc Edmund Jones’ original commentary on the Sabian Symbol as dictated to him by the psychic: ‘The value of the “return to the body” advocated by modern thinkers in order to balance the stress on intellectuality and objective consciousness’ (to which astrologer/philosopher Dane Rudhyar adds ‘relying on organismic responses’).

Und zo…….Remember that Mobius Strip thing? What the above is saying we are now moving into our (left) future (where we will also find we have ‘left’ today’s present behind) we will reconnect in some way, at some level with something which we have allegedly left behind.
Maybe we have, maybe we haven’t.

Could we be headed back towards it? Maybe, but if so, according to the structure of this lunation chart, you’ll know that’s the right thing to do.

Give or take, you know. Before we get to the aspecting and all the planetary do-si-do’s, it seems prudent to add one more note about the Venus retrograde. In occurring on the 21st of December (in the UT/+0 time zone) this Venus station/retrograde falls immediately after this month’s Full Moon, a Full Moon which occurs on the morning of December 17th (UT/+0 time).

The suggestion here is that after the Full Moon, there’s something of a ‘retreat’ (if you will) from outside influences. Certainly there will still be commerce, but it would be natural, given these markers to see the general frenzy and crush as something we’re participating in begin to ‘take a turn’ after the 17th – and seeing that the Solstice and Venus’ turn to retrograde happens on December 21st, it wouldn’t seem unnatural for us to take that moment to do something we would find meaningful and which would move us at some level.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Just to pause a moment here, do you feel like perhaps it’s taking me a very long time (even for

me) to get to the point?

Ah, but grasshopper….that IS the point!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  

The way this New Moon chart is organized, it’s a bit like a Rube Goldberg machine. You know…you get to this through that and you end up getting somewhere you hadn’t suspecting you had started out to arrive at?

We start with the New Moon and 10 Sagittarius, and in looking at the lunation’s chart note that it’s the apex of a t-square.

This t-square is being presented in early degrees of mutable (learning as you go) signs with Sagittarius, a sign about seeing how the thing works in reality and the changes, additions or refinements you need to make in order to maximize effect. That means that at least from here until the Full Moon (on the 17th) will be spent trying to get a fullest perspective on our efforts – replete with all the usual Sagittarian caveats.

The ‘object’ of this t-square is imaged as Chiron at 9 Pisces with Chiron being that thing we can’t imagine doing (or knowing how to do) and 9 Pisces lending the aura of all which is felt when you face the Great Undertaking.

You know…the one you know you need to undertake in your heart of hearts but which just seems full of SUCH grief?

Yes, that undertaking.

And it’s that undertaking that the New Moon is sitting astride of, telling us that whatever you think is at stake…you’re probably thinking too narrowly about the subject. Yes, there may be some really good reason why you (9 Pisces) need to do something, and doing that something requires your substantial (10 Sagittarius) abilities – those things you are really good at.

You’re probably thinking that you need to do ‘XYZ’ because you will achieve ABC…and yet, this image says there’s more to be gained (part one) and that you can indeed achieve your aims (and gains) if you will only approach the problem from not a personal, but a more universal basis.

In other words, life may feel like its all about you or all about one particularly prioritized project when its far more likely that what you are doing involves a far greater set of influences than you are currently thinking of.
So that’s Unknown Factor #1.

And on top of that goes Vesta at 7 Libra.

 
Vesta concerns the protecting of the self and those with whom you abide through the honoring of everyone’s needs and the keeping of one’s promises. In Libra, relationships, negotiations, conversations or the process of ‘relating,’ ‘conferring’ or ‘selling’ are possible…and where they are possible, availing yourself of same will benefit you.

However….

 
…with Uranus at 8 Aries (in opposition to Libra) there’s been or needs to be some flexibility brought to the fore, lest promises and priorities go awry and things come shuttering apart in a show of broken self-conception. In facing off against Vesta, even if Uranus wasn’t retrograde it would be suggesting some self-questioning as to whether there’s somewhere you need to change, flex, join the group – something!

But wait! That’s not all either.

(Yes, I know…I’m beginning to sound like an infomercial.)

 
There’s a little issue called “Pluto at 10 Capricorn” which enters into this mix now. And that Pluto, representing some sort of ‘structural power’ or ‘power structures’ in your life or in your heart is getting in the way. Are you being too rigid. Are you too unstructured? Maybe both?

This is a bit of a oddity as a t-square (yes, it’s another t-square) in that the object is the Uranus in retrograde.
What does that tell us? That tells us that in order to achieve your desired or needed internal changes (or the ability to be flexible) things, your very concept of power – what is yours, what isn’t yours – needs to shift.  

And when it comes to that, then we’re back at the entrance to the maze we’ve just gone through, courtesy of a Grand Trin between Pluto, Pallas and the South Node in Taurus.

Put simply, this incoming lunation thus becomes more about coming to understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it…

…Which is rather the definition of illumination.
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Having Been Eclipsed…

The partial solar eclpse of November 3, 2013 as seen in El Hierro, Spain

(photo credit: EPA/Gelmert Finol )

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From a recent email: 

…That’s the point. We each are being confronted with the potholes of not having been present for ourselves. That which is most difficult for us now is the polarity of that we want to do with others. 

The Gemini I wrote this to works in the health field. Their chart was squarely hit by the eclipse, and in manifestation thereof, the middle of rapid growth of their various practices was put in jeopardy by the Gemini's own health becoming a sudden crisis.

What we are putting out there is coming back to us. The equation here is a little oblique, but plain enough if you stop and think about it a moment. Moreover it reminded me of why Gemini is so aptly seen as a jig saw puzzle. Wherever Gemini is in our chart, wherever we experience the Gemini vibe, it's in that area of our life that we become challenged to understand the nuance and detail as well as the whole. Only by holding both concepts equally in mind can we come up with a choice which makes sense, which can be grown and which will ultimately bear fruit.

This eclipse, with its Scorpio dishing out of karma, it brought home much of this to all of us - as well it might. Gemini is the 8th sign (the "derivative 8th") to Scorpio. And thus in all things Scorpio we are presented with many facts, many facets, many choices, all of which direct us to make not the choice which works for us but the choice which works.

Whatever sign you start with, the derivative 8th always shows you the 'rule' which for you defines whether you get past the gatekeeper of opportunity or not. This wicket has become incredibly sticky of late (think Pluto) with most of the problems we're each encountering in our life having a 'right' and 'right' or 'wrong' and 'wrong' side which asks us - in the end - to decide between power and personal preference. 

Or even where power IS personal preference.

And yet...whatever situation you've been working with, it will only work if it works on all sides and for all levels. The trick of this season has been to operate with power while not becoming helpless, acknowledging our weaknesses while not succumbing to them.

It hasn't been easy, obviously.  As your girl astrologer, this Pisces fell into an abyss on one side of her life while taking care of things on the other side of her life. 

It's just not easy. I'm entirely satisfied with parts of my performance and seriously not proud of others. But that's how astrology tells us that life is going to be. It's never all good or all bad...it just is. And as solidly as any of us can focus on getting one thing done, it's a cinch not everything is getting done. So with my Moon/Saturn in Scorpio, and because the Moon (among other things) represents the 'chemical' level of body functionality, I was bang on to tackle a detox.

Use the energy wisely, lest it use you unwisely.

I'm a Pisces. And Pisces rules the experience of emotionality (at the psychological/spiritual level) and brings that to a physical level. So to detox a Pisces is also to detox their feelings - which at some level says those feelings need to be detoxed.

And yes, I had looked at the Scorpio eclipse before it got here. I knew something bizarre could happen, but scheduled my detox anyway.  Scorpio isn't always the signature of frolic and rose petals (or leather and black lace, for that matter), but it can be incredibly productive if you’re willing to feel a little ouch way deep down in your soul.

I will also fully own that as an astrologer I knew there was likely to be trouble between me and anyone whose chart was going to be hit as hard. This me-and-thee thing is something we seldom take into account as much as we should...that which ties or binds us is (astrologically) symbolized by a sameness of object positions in our chart.

And that means that if MY chart is being transited, so is yours. Which means when an eclipse shows up, both of us are going to get eclipsed. And if it's a tender place in our chart which is getting eclipsed and we're not particularly good with handling those energies, the results can be nasty.

Even just pitifully and painfully messy.

The eclipse passes...and we find much has changed.

Or we've changed.

Of course there are those of us who refuse to do any changing. Several years ago, a Taurus friend was confronted with that most terrible of solar eclipse challenges - the loss of a loved one.

He simply answered “NO” when life asked that he move on emotionally. He just didn’t want to deal with it. And let’s face it, no sign does the ‘standing one’s ground’ thing any better than Taurus.

We've known each other a while now, so I understood. He was hurt. He didn’t want to feel what he was feeling. He didn’t want to leave feeling connected to his beloved wife behind. He just didn’t want to feel himself dealing with his feelings.

Heck, he didn't even want to feel himself not dealing with his feelings!

And so, Taurus bull that he is, he snorted at life and dug his heels in, even going so far as to notify me that there would be a ban on all conversation on the subject.

You may be surprised to know I cooperated with him on this. But I did, yes. Part was simple affection for a friend. Part was that I felt for his pain.

But besides all that, I also own an ephemeris. And really good astrological software. So I knew what was coming.

Taurus Keywords:
security, insecurity,self-worth, self-doubt, stability,
status quo, satisfaction, dissatisfaction, self-respect,
self-avoidance, self-loathing, comfort, need-hunger-satiation,
peace, values, motivation, likes, preferences,
tastes and dislikes

Suffice it to say, ever since attempting to not change in keeping with the eclipse on his chart, this Taurus has been plagued by an onslaught of problems. The bulk of them have had to do with money – that most common of common Taurus/Scorpio things. How odd is it that we assign such power to something which intrinsically (at the level of paper money being paper and coins being little chunks of common metal) are not 'of value' at all.

In fact...if you understand that money is a 'barter medium' and a 'placeholder' for Taurus/Scorpio worth-power-personal satisfaction measures, you understand why money doesn't buy happiness. It is not the money which counts and not all which it can buy which evokes happiness. It is the person we are and why we do what we do and the validity of the feelings which come from that which evokes and satisfaction.

It is the (Scorpio) validity that what we are placing our (Taurus) values in and whether that is true to us (as opposed to someone/something we are selling ourselves out to) which determines the quality of our result and whether there will be any associated negative karma.

As for my friend, after a couple of years he started dating again. But though he had done all the outward mourning, he hadn't dealt with his true inner hurt.

Those relationships (particularly the Scorpio/intimate ones) didn't work so well.

But then, it's tough thinking that intimate relationships are going to go well if you're not emotionally available or not able to be vulnerable or emotionally intimate.

Fast forward to now: as we talk in the wake of this eclipse, not only is his financial life finally coming back together, he's finally letting go of his pain. It wasn't easy and true to him, he had to find the right way to exorcise his emotional demons on the subject - which is typical for eclipses. If they hit your chart with any sort of exactness, you're going to let go of something. You can do it now, you can do it later, but by gum, you're going to do it.

Scorpio is famous as the sign of control. And surrender, which is the part of Scorpio most of us don't think about a lot. And Taurus, in being Scorpio's polarity, is all about how stable and satisfied we are with ourselves...not really anyone else. Where Scorpios often try to control others in order to feel safe and secured, Taurus often try to control life itself.

He couldn't. And when this Taurus couldn't control life, he gave up on trying to live his life.

And life taught him that wasn't a good idea, applying pressure after pressure after pressure until he simply let go of trying to control and instinctively began working to find his place in this world again.

It's about three years later now. Remember how I told you that solar eclipses take three years to mature?

I tell you this story for many reasons, the most obvious being that if you understand the path this man took, you'll understand something more about how an eclipse will work in your life. But there's another reason too - one I think just as valid.

Like I say, I have been friends with this fellow for several years now. So I had heard his story and walked alongside him as he fought his battles with what he thought was Life, but which really was with his Self. I could see very clearly what he was doing and the futility of trying to fight time...existence...reality.

And right when I got done saying all that to myself, just as he began turning his corner, I began doing exactly what he had done.

Really! I was doing it my way (cue Frank Sinatra, please) but I was that very same thing...which is the reason to be talking to you about this right now. No matter what 'events' happen in your life in conjunction with any transit - and particularly a solar eclipse - the issue isn't "them" or "that." It's you. It's not about what they're doing to you, with you, without you, despite you - it's about YOU.

It's about who you are coming into the situation or moment. You've heard me say that sometimes we learn more through the negative than the positive, right?

Whoever we are, however tough or tender we are, life manages to just overwhelm us when such events happen. Apparently that's what it takes to each humans something - and that's what eclipses are about. When eclipses show up we get into situations which reveal us to our Self, often leaving us little option but to deal with some issue with (or about) that Self we may have.

And then they leave us to figure out who we need to be in order to deal with what we have learned.

Provided we learn it, of course.

Scorpio eclipses are probably the second scariest in the book (I'll put Pisces eclipses first, thank you.) The 'why' of that is because of everything I've been talking about.

We're all raw. We're all thinking of someone else or something else and thinking 'if they were just...' when the real issue is who we are and what we're basing our values on.

How real is it, in other words. Scorpio is the energy of connection, the indescribable essence of sensing that someone or something is there. Or not there. That reality is a powerful thing - and the difference between the real and the unreal, the respect and the lack of respect we hold for human relationships the key to our personal problems.

If we can't relate to ourselves properly and honestly,
 we have no basis for relating to anyone else.

That's one of the premises of Scorpio - and why the zodiac's one and only fixed water sign represents the realm where the real meeting up with the emotional and our meeting up with ourselves through our relationships with others is the "gateway" to the zodiac's four most worldly signs (Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces).

It's as if through meeting up with others, we meet ourselves. And if we're not good (enough) with our Self, we don't take us out of the box. We don't let us/get to go for that next step.

What happens really is a reflection of what goes on within our mind. (Or, as I have long thought of it, our Mind - but that's in my life as a writer...more on when the books get released, hopefully at the end of January.)

More to the point, it's why so many of us would rather try and be happy feeling nothing than feeling anything which has a chance of actually affecting us. The effort to deal with or put off such issues is our Scorpio/Taurus axis, and wherever we find it in our chart represents how we're willing to handle this matter.

Or not handle this matter, depending.

The thing to remember is probably how - as opposed to Scorpio (or the Scorpio/Taurus) energetic being is the energy of connection (sensing yourself through feedback as you connect with others) astrology defines the experience of emotional issues as Pisces/Virgo.

Which oddly enough reminds me to tell you something. You know how I've (rather relentlessly) pointed out how we're we're in a series of Scorpio/Taurus eclipses? That cycle concludes next year (2014), and being how eclipses cycle backwards through the zodiac (which they do because they're in part determined by the lunar nodes), you might be thinking the next couple of years would feature a series of Libra/Aries eclipses.

But nooooo. If you were thinking that, you would be wrong - which now that I think about it, doesn't sound like the worst thing on the planet. Why would I say that? Well...if I say 'my feelings/your feelings' and then say Taurus/Scorpio eclipse series and then point out that this series has been going on since 2011, growing more and more personal all the time, perhaps you get some sort of...image. Feeling. Impression.

Maybe the impulse to dive under a table.

Okay...so take out the 'my feelings/your feelings' part (don't you feel better just hearing that?) and insert 'my existence/your existence.' 

THAT would be a Libra/Aries eclipse series. Oh, just think of all the ways we mortals could find not to have fun with that!

(Pardon me while I gag.)

But no, we of Terra Earth are going to move from evolutionary lessons framed by Scorpio/Taurus to processes typified by Virgo/Pisces, bypassing the Libra/Aries phase.

How lunar of us. (Or maybe looney, I'm not sure.)

So take out the 'my feelings/your feelings' part (I still feel better hearing that - maybe it's just me...) and insert key words for Virgo and Pisces.

Ouch.

Or...(ouch)...maybe not.

You think the world is weird now? Just wait. I'm thinking ahead to an eclipse series (considering all else) in Virgo and Pisces and suddenly Scorpio and Taurus, with all its venomous moments, doesn't seem so awful.

Why not?

Here's something metaphysical to chew on: Scorpio and Taurus are interactive. Pisces and Virgo pit us against our Self.

That means we have nobody to blame.

Oh yeah...that. It's enough to make you like the world of relating and relationships - which maybe is a way to appreciate the hard times, those times when someone we respect or love fails our standards or trips and falls in some particularly decrepit mental sewer.

We're human, y'know? Feeling...and feeling connected to someone else has (at a guess) led to more social and emotional suicide than anything else on the planet. 

NOTE PLEASE: I'm NOT talking about physically killing yourself. I'm talking about the many and creative ways we have of killing ourselves and our feelings, our relationships and our fondest hopes all because we all want so desperately for everything to be okay.

How ironic, eh?

And more to my point, how Scorpionic for me that the thing I had forever wanted…to feel connected at that most intimate of levels we call human...how I came to this eclipse having denied my fear of exactly what I thought I wanted.

Sometimes just feeling yourself feeling is beyond our feeling tolerance.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  

After a lot of thought, in the wake of the eclipse I put this notice up on my Facebook page.

It was a protest - an expression of my desire to transform a feeling of futility. I can't undo what I am because of some accident of fate. 

I also posted this message on a different social network. There I installed it with a caption: and it’s the stuff you don’t know which will get you. 

A number of people on that network who have been abused read that post. Nearly every one of them was focused on my caption because I was talking about the one thing people don't think about when it comes to abuse. Abuse lies not only in what we do, but what we don't get to learn to do. We can be just as abusive in silence as we can be when raging at the top of our lungs.

And it's not just about the events. Abuse also lies in what we don't learn to do. Or to tolerate. Or allow ourselves to consider (as if most solutions to terrible problems haven't been solved by considering those problems?). And yes, there is child abuse - the worst of which teaches us to continue the abuse by not allowing ourselves to wonder, speak up, ask questions or think outside some box even as adults.

On the other hand, if we truly believe that unbeknownst to us, the universe is unfolding as it should...there are good things that we can turn ourselves to no matter what. Yes, we'd like to think we could stop such things. But sometimes 'good things' will come of not doing what we didn't learn how to do: we compensate, we turn to other things.

I'm not thinking systemically. I'm thinking individually. After all, we all have different lacks. Maybe they are just opportunities in disguise. It took me many years to know that the fear I learned in a youth full of marginalization, violence and dehumanization made me into someone who not only hears what people say, but someone who thinks about what people have said.

And yes, sometimes it's a plus. Sometimes, however...?

Not so much.

As the Sun moves into Sagittarius here in the latter days of November it’s a moment for all of us to be coping and moving on, yes. The Sagittarian drive to make ‘it’ work (whatever ‘it’ is in your life) and continue moving towards goals is highly evident. So the eclipse – in taking place in Scorpio – is now the derivative (or harmonic) 12th.

Just to reiterate the point: the eclipse isn’t over. That can’t be said enough! We are going to continue seeing and hearing of financial and personal strife. We are going to hear stories which sound like miracles and disasters which are totally unexpected.

Whatever you were confronted with coming into the eclipse, the underlying emotional metamorphosis has only begun. Things you think are gone may not be gone – or you may just be doing what you need to do so that you can come back to them from a different vantage point.

Or as a transformed person...you know, like my friend who is just starting to walk on, now that life has taught him to learn how to accept the terror of love lost.

And that his process shouldn't be instantaneous? That works too. Sagittarius is not a sign of instantaneous anything - this is the sign of debate and education, so all is a process now. And as we moving through this Sun in  Sagittarius time with the eclipse still glowing in 12th house harmonic rear view mirror, we should expect that ideas will arise. We should expect the unexpected and a few changes of plan-or-parameter to pop out of the woodwork. Anything which can get us to stop and pause, or think things through, or recognize the flaw and realize we need better plans or more workable solutions...all those Sagittarian things are going to occur to us or get posed by others. Or be manifested by life.

Or arise out of the thick of our unplumbed (Scorpio) instinct. So ask yourself...what have I learned about myself, about my inner feelings? Or is it that you haven't learned why you're at emotional loose ends and how to deal with how preciously frightening relationships are simply because they matter so much to us?

With Scorpio in 12th sign position (which by the way may provide some insight if your natal chart has Scorpio on the 12th house) interactions with others and what comes (or has come) of interactions with others are going to…

a.) make us sensitive
b.) poke us where we are already sensitive
c.) expose sensitivities or expose things which in turn make us sensitive

…all of which takes us back to wading through the soul, mindset and all-pervasive self-confronting experience which is so very Scorpio. But this is not Scorpio “in your face” or in real life or real time. No – this is the emotional experience of all you really need to think about as a result of whatever happened over the past couple of months.

We should also be realistic here: 'sensitive' can mean uncomfortable.

Even scared.

Also to be Sagittarius-type-honest here, this isn't about what happened (or didn’t happen)…this is your going through an ongoing, intensely trying time which in any of a thousand ways causes you to experience own emotions.

And what you think of those emotions.

Or that you have those emotions.

Or that you have made this emotional choice or that choice (in life or relationships, wherever) which ended up being so positive or negative on the emotional level.

The good news is that in the grand scheme of things, for most of us our having been eclipsed is still metaphysical present tense. That’s one of the lovely things about Sagittarius – the land of where theory meets possibility. Here this Sagittarius opportunity causing us to see how things can be…or maybe still can be…or maybe how they still are.

Of course, some of us will want to think things through a bit more. But some of us - in recognizing the truth of what life was trying to get us to look at will find in that a measure of liberty and freedom. The Sun is in Sagittarius, so this is still an interactive time, suggesting that some of us will heave a sigh of final comprehension and move on. Or we'll tackle that problem. Or we'll retrace our steps and not back down this time.

Whatever that truth is, it is to explore - and hopefully to appreciate, even enjoy the exploring of. It is at this point...as all that as life and the essence, the magic and the theoretical machinery of eclipse energies...as all that moves on it begins to evolve. And as it evolves it gives us enough connection with enough distance that we are able to begin seeing that it wasn't the 'thing' which happened which 'was' our eclipse.

It was who we were coming into the eclipse which got eclipsed - each in our own individual way by other people who were being eclipsed in their own way.

Whatever happened, lore teaches, happened so that we could experience some hidden aspects of our Self. So that we would continue to grow and not just 'make do' but strive to be more of who we truly are. 

And so it happens....once we grasp that it wasn't the 'thing' but our nature - some facet of our emotionality or how we deal with emotions because of our history or perspective...which was the point of the eclipse, then we are able to decide what to do next in light of a new understanding of what is true to who we are...and what isn't.

All can be, may still be or proceed to become the way we want it to be. Chances are, our accepting some facet of our difficulties as a reflection of something we fear (or fear to feel) is probably the trade-off there - but there is one all-important fact to consider when it comes to our fearful inner response to feeling fear:

Fear does not reside in reality.

Fear takes hold of us from inside our mind.

And when you consider that, to have life urging us to consider where we need fear not just isn't the worst thing to be giving thanks for on this day.

Or on any day.
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