Eclipse Effects Begin

The August 1, 2008 Solar Eclipse as photographed by NASA

Beyond being the most spectacular astronomical event we the People of Earth get to see with our unaided eyes is how solar eclipses mark a moment of vast metaphysical potential.

What we have to gain through this process is huge…even though achieving those gains often forces us to let something go.

Why that would be is simply human nature. We humans are masters of self-compromise. Though we know who we are, what we’re capable of and that person we “should be” (in spite of our foibles, weaknesses and all) deep inside, we do tend to ‘make do.’ We compromise. Society, life, people, economics…there are a variety of reasons why we tend to cut ourselves short.

Some of them even advocate doing just that. We get thousands of messages thrown at us from when we’re small to when we’re old which urge us to do the ‘approved’ thing and to ‘carry on’ some tradition.

Yet we’re not always born to do that. On the purely metaphysical level we are born to be who we are simply created to be. So fortunately or unfortunately for us, the universe has ‘ways’ of pushing us to be that person. And if it takes stripping away whatever it is we’re using to temporize or compromise with – or our excuses or defenses or whatever – that’s what life is going to do.

And the astrological ‘timing device’ which most often clocks this process is the solar eclipse. Yes, there are transits and transits come and go. But that’s the point. If your planets are all clustered (numerically) at one end of the zero-through-thirty degree scale it’s possible to go as much as a decade without encountering a major Pluto ‘get your head out of your…’ transit. Or a squishy smack-down with Neptune’s abilities to disappoint and amaze us because we’ve been believing something which was utter bunk. Or some discovery or disruption which signifies that singular energy which is Uranus.

But we get two ‘solar eclipse’ seasons every year. Those eclipse numbers (the degrees at which eclipses take place) cycle over and over again throughout our life on a 19 year (Metonic) cycle...moving ever, ever so slowly with each successive 19-year turn, representing  (theoretically speaking) the time we need to learn our lessons and thereafter make good on our potential.

Even the eclipse which doesn’t aspect your chart within orb or planet, node or axis is going to be reflected in the life being lived all around you – and thus in your life.

Solar eclipses are an affect of the Sun, and in astrology, the Sun equals life. So in keeping with solar eclipses as nature’s most dramatic display, they’re also the most metaphysically active in our world.

You know, our lives and our sense of life.

It’s also worth considering how eclipse ‘seasons’ (that period of time which as a whole is under the auspices of an impending solar eclipse) are so prevalent in our lives. On the average, we experience two solar eclipses every year – though there are years when we get two solar eclipses during one eclipse season (with a lunar eclipse sandwiched in-between). But it’s the time factor which seems so striking here, as each eclipse season begins with a two-month (8 week) ‘break down’ season which precedes the solar eclipse.

That means we’re spending approximately four months a year – a third of each calendar year – under solar eclipse effects.

And you thought life was supposed to be about a process which is peaceful and calm? Apparently not!

But maybe the most evocative – and illuminating factor with this ongoing solar eclipse cycling is how as transits, solar eclipses evolve over a full period of 36 months (3 years).

And during that time, other eclipses occur.

Through the centuries, astrologers have noticed two interesting (if somewhat peculiar) patterns about how the eclipse transit matures. The first involves that ‘break down’ period which precedes the eclipse. Events which occur during this time are what we tend to remember about that eclipse period, and yes, there is a ‘dotted line’ between those events and the eclipse theme. But to really understand the native process we have to remember that solar eclipses are all about taking away that thing which is preventing us from being the person we are created to be. So while the ‘created to be’ symbolism will be denoted by where the solar eclipse hits in your chart, what or how you’re compromising your ability to BE that person may seem totally unrelated.

The symbolism of the solar eclipse has the Moon (everyday life and our feelings about that life) aligning to ‘block out’ the Sun – which is why whatever we’ve been doing to compromise our Self will get ‘blocked’ or ‘blacked out’ (taken away or eliminated) as life moves to ‘reveal’ to us the need to be or become that special person we were created to be - as symbolized by the solar corona.

The second factor in the solar eclipse pattern is the one far less talked about, even if it’s as important as the first. This second factor has to do with the overall purpose of the eclipse.

Before the eclipse happens, that thing which we are doing which is temporizing, compromising or even avoiding that part of our life which we know (deep down) we should be dealing with but which we’ve put aside in favor of things which are easier, more acceptable (to others, certainly) or whatever else… that ‘thing’ starts to feel very ‘intense’ and often problematic. We tend to project the problem onto others because goodness knows, we’re happy with our temporizing, our blockading our own growth, our “acceptable” (or “accepted”) pattern of personal compromise.

But the problem isn’t ‘them’…the issue is that we are not living a life which is authentically in keeping with who and what we are and we need to deal with being or becoming.

Not surprisingly, there are a lot of relationship and job problems which crop up during eclipse lead-in periods. Financial issues will pop up, health issues will arise. And some of these can be utterly devastating – certainly on the level of our very mortal day-to-day established concept…our built-up ‘habit’ as to how we live our life.

But solar eclipses don’t take anything we really need away from us. That would be counter-productive to life’s process. So no matter what we think our life is “supposed to be” (and how we’re “supposed” to go about living that life) the eclipse takes away whatever we’re temporizing with in order to force us to use those tools or attributes we’ve been ignoring (or covering up).

As we go through life…as eclipse cycles pile up…slowly we begin to recognize who and what we’re really supposed to be. So the eclipse break-down rolls through and another layer of our mask is peeled away and depending what has been hit in our chart we shudder at our utter nakedness before our Self.

But then we start to move through the processing of the eclipse and the coping with what we need to do now that ‘that’ has been taken away. This period lasts a good two-to-and-a-half years, at which point something happens. And that shift, that opening of a new phase of development, that’s the most interesting part of any solar eclipse. Whatever happens then could not have happened (or “gotten to us”) if we hadn’t gone through having some portion of our temporizing or blockading mask stripped away.

Thus is revealed the ultimate “purpose” of that eclipse.

Nineteen years after any major eclipse, life will revisit the issue of whether we have grown. I describe this to my clients as the difference between going around in circles and climbing a helix. If we got the message and learned our lesson the first time around, then life hands us an opportunity to move on and take what we’ve learned to a new and higher level. That may be a little inconvenient, to be sure (who said life was convenient?) …but it will tend to not be as utterly painful or disastrous.

Truth is, it could be rather wonderful…but only if we’ve really learned whatever lesson is associated with the aspected symbolism in our chart.

You know, the what we need to be in life because that’s who we really are underneath all the conditioning and compromise.

But meanwhile, other eclipses have been rolling through, bringing us to the point in our program where we have to discuss a few celestial mechanics. Eclipses are a function of Sun, Moon, Earth and the intersections of the Moon’s path around the Earth (our personal life and inner psyche) and Earth’s path around the Sun – the ecliptic or ‘path of life.’

Where those two ‘paths’ intersect are two points known as the Lunar Nodes.

The symbols of the Lunar Nodes. The emblem which opens at the bottom is the North

Node, representing something which takes a great effort to do and which we probably

don't really want to have to be dealing with. The node with the opening at the top is

the South Node: the thing we find easy to do and which we are all about wanting to

do instead of our North Node work. Many a large life problem can be tracked to our

reluctance to do whatever it is our North Node is asking us to do  - and those

problems are often 'set off' (triggered) by solar eclipses.  

In essence, a solar eclipse is a New Moon (just like we get every month) but because this New Moon happens within fifteen degrees of the Lunar Nodes, what is indicated is a lining up of Earth, Moon and Sun such that we end up having the eclipse.

Because the nodes represent this idea of ‘intersection’ they represent how our life intersects with those around us…and with the world we live in. And that’s why eclipse effects tend to affect everything and anything – relationships, jobs, health, money, family - which has to do with how we go about ‘intersecting’ and ‘operating’ in this world.

The idea which is important here is the fact that the lunar nodes cycle backwards through the zodiac, a directive of motion which I have likened to “bringing things home to us” a couple of times. (A couple of times at least, I’m guessing.)

What that means in the timing of eclipses is that the yearly eclipse seasons also cycle backwards…which gets into that 3-year thing we were talking about.

For ease of discussion’s sake, here’s a chart of the past few year’s worth of eclipses…

 
To orient you, the solar eclipses are in yellow (noted by degree), lunar eclipses are in blue (ditto) and the colored bars around them indicate the break down periods which precede each eclipse, color coded by the zodiacal element in which the eclipse will occur. Green is earth, indicating a ‘structural’ element of life, the teal color is water, indicating an emotional element of life (or our orientation towards emotionality), blue is air, indicating the ‘idea’ of something as we have been working with it and the orange is fire, representing the method or ‘vision’ we have for our lives.

One other note for accuracy’s sake…we had two mid-year solar eclipses in 2011. Obviously the early August solar eclipse at 9 Cancer would have begun its break down period in the latter part of June, as the first solar eclipse (at 11 Gemini) and the 24 Sagittarius lunar eclipse were rolling through.

Lets just with the fact that charts are useful, but not perfect.

Anyway…a you will notice, the solar eclipse sequence (in yellow) has been slowly rolling back through our calendar months. And that brings us to the magic question of ‘which eclipse is now nearing its end?’

The answer to that question is: the January 2011 solar eclipse at 13 Capricorn is now coming to it’s ‘fruition’ point as we are moving into the break down period preceding the November 2013 solar eclipse which will take place at 11 Scorpio.

This being where the 3-year eclipse timing gets a little spongy, new structures (earth/Capricorn) are now coming into being. So is it about six months prior to January 2014 we should be thinking about as the ‘finalizing’ point of the January 2011 eclipse? Or should we be thinking about six months prior to the November 2013 eclipse since eclipses – even though they operate in independent cycles (known as “Saros cycles”) are also part of the ongoing and eternal unfurling of time and manifestation?

Answer: both. So to put this in more or less calendar terms, six months prior to this November’s eclipse (which would be early, early May 2013) a shift occurred. This shift would have been particularly notable in the lives of anyone whose chart “answers” to 13 Capricorn… which is to say, anyone with a planet/dwarf planet (even Plutino), node or axis point between 8 and 18 of Capricorn, Libra, Aries or Cancer, between 11 and 15 degrees of Sagittarius, Aquarius, Gemini or Leo.

Using this photograph of a relief in Egypt's Temple of Luxor which Hedwig Storch took

in 2009 purely as an illustration, the Sabian Symbol for 13 Capricorn is as follows: AN ANCIENT

BA-RELIEF CARVED IN GRANITE REMAINS A WITNESS TO A LONG-FORGOTTEN CULTURE

which astrologer-philosopher keynoted as "The will to unearth, in our culture as well as in

any culture, what has permanent value , and to let go of non-essentials" which in a greater

scope of thinking asks us to consider the importance of being who we are in a world which

is all too easy to get over-involved in, or molded and seduced by. 

We all will get some effect in our lives. But those whose charts include objects at those degrees? You know who you are and the whack you felt back in late 2010 is now evolving into a whole new thing you wouldn’t have gotten into had that not happened.

How well (or badly) have you coped with that process?

Well, lets just say that if your chart also answers to 11 Scorpio, chances are you either need some modification on your ‘coping strategy’ OR you’re now being given the opportunity to rebuild “that thing” in a new and more genuine (to you) manner.

What degrees are affected by 11 Scorpio, orb-wise? This list includes 6 through 16 of the fixed signs (Scorpio, Taurus, Leo and Aquarius) as well as 9 through 13 degrees of the semi-sextile and inconjuncted signs: Libra, Sagittarius, Gemini and Aries.

The more items/objects in your chart which are affected (cumulatively) by these two eclipses point at where on what we might think of as the human sliding scale of personal earthquakes your life effects will be…and will have been.

Oh yes – and IF your Sun, Moon or natal Lunar Nodes are involved in either list by degree, double that quotient.

If you’re only affected by one eclipse, fine. If you’re effected by both eclipses, get ready for a roller coaster ride.

With that said, we DO have the option of utilizing the eclipse voluntarily. Like all other astrological transits, eclipses operate as something akin to a 100% pie graph.

When any transit comes along, especially if you can spot is as something difficult, your using the energy in a directed manner ‘eats up’ whatever portion of the pie, leaving less of that energy to come back and bite you. Famed astrologer (and all round nice guy) Robert Hand put this best: use the energy wisely, lest it use you unwisely.

Six months prior to the “official” end of the January 2011 solar eclipse cycle rolled through at the start of August, 2013. Did you realize something important was shifting? Did you feel yourself growing or beginning to ‘reopen’ yourself to possibilities with regards to whatever ‘broke down’ in that November-December 2010 period?

With all that in mind, we turn to the two degrees of the solar eclipses involved in this discussion. The first is 13 Capricorn, a degree known to manifest through strength of character and the willingness to take on the difficult challenge…which yes, may be with regards to others but which intrinsically – and especially when we speak of 13 Capricorn as being the degree of a solar eclipse has to do with being challenged to be that Self that you are, and to do so in such a way which ‘owns’ your Self on a true and valid level of integrity while not walling everyone else out.

Not the easiest thing to do, that.

Bringing 11 Scorpio into the mix by solar eclipse brings out questions of childhood and cultural experience and “conditioning” – those ‘messages’ we get which we either accept or reject. And yes, sometimes we reject the message and become the messengers – which is to say, in spite of all our dislike of someone who acted a given way or who foisted their agenda on us, we may tend to do that to others. (Being human just isn’t ever easy!) There’s a tendency noted with 11 Scorpio to get SO involved in minutia that qualities of the ‘bigger picture’ get ignored…and this is also one of those Scorpio degrees which raises those Scorpio issues of jealousy and possessiveness which are really about some fear of loss, abandonment or marginalization.

Called 'Hofball in Wien,' this 1900 painting by Wilhelm Gause (which is housed in Austria's

State Museum at Vienna) suggests one of the many ways to think of the Sabian Symbol

for 11 Scorpio, which reads as follows: AN OFFICIAL EMBASSY BALL. Again drawing from

Dane Rhudyar's writing in 'An Astrological Mandala' we are given the keynote about this

degree as 'Group-consciousness, as it flowers at the highest level in cultural interchanges

between representatives of the elite of the ruling class.' The thing which seems important

here, especially in light of the tying together of these two eclipse symbols is our potential

- as individuals - to be some sort of 'elite representative' of something in our own life, and

how important that is to develop without losing sight of the fact that we learn in order to invest

our learning in a world which rewards us for our efforts to be the better and even best person we

can be, and how in doing that, we shift our sense of 'where I belong' to the company of others

who are "elites" in their own right by virtue of having done their work, and the rewards

we thus achieve through building our world in conjunction with those willing to invest effort in

their humanity and human potential, not merely in the pretense of appearances.

Put the two together and it would seem that this is an important time to work towards ‘owning’ our Self while not blocking others out in spite of the fact that situations – be they centered in career ambitions or relationships or financial security – are not about the job or the career or the money or that one person you may be so close to.

They’re about us. The Sun is the Sun in our life for us and in the life of someone else as they go about being who they are.

What this may open up – especially for those who have access to the charts of other people – are opportunities to share and discuss how we’ve felt about things which have happened to us…and how we feel about what’s going on right now. Scorpio has a strange way of getting us to make ‘presumptions’ about someone else, be it the good or the bad in them or about their life path.

Great alliances can now be forged. But we have to choose to forge them without losing our Self...and without losing what we've learned through whatever happened back in 2010 which forced us to reassess or relearn how to deal with our sense of structure (or how to structure our lives) which happened in the wake of the January 2011 eclipse.

Call it a sharing of pies…which means it may go nicely with ice cream, or maybe just a nice cup of coffee or tea. You know...to go with sharing our lives with others, be that through conversation, emotional (Scorpio) commitment, personal example or chosen deed - all of which are daring in that they ask us to risk what we are afraid of most in the search for inner security and ultimate contentment and satisfaction.
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Dateblog: September 2013

Mars is in Leo for the whole of September. And the Sun is in Virgo for most of September. What is that about?

Call it growing pains, call it finding your way to or through your challenges – Mars in Leo provides the urge and that all-important ‘you can do it!’ feeling while the Sun wants it done right.

Woe be to those who ignore their better angels this month, perhaps?

Yes, perhaps.

For the first ten days of the month, Venus in Libra is the grace which laughs off angst and frustration. Then the (emotional) stakes get higher as Venus moves into Scorpio. But are those stakes real? Or are they just about our having ‘staked out’ some emotional territory? Have we drawn a line with our Self which we don’t want to moderate or negotiate about stepping over?

Uh…well…maybe.

Of course there are those who will come jolly-trotting into September with all their p’s and q’s nice polished and ready, set to go. They’ll probably undertake something around the time of the New Moon, using its ‘Virgo flavor’ to propel something long and carefully planned into motion.

Get the difference here? This is Virgo-Land, folks! Forget that ‘slow and steady wins the race’ concept…in Virgo, efficiency, effectiveness and proper standards ultimately win the day – and that’s Mercury in Libra/Venus in Scorpio notwithstanding! 

This sort of Venus/Mercury combination can be a sign of persuasion and sweet talking. Even manipulation. On the other hand, it can also represent a time when real and honest facts get laid on the table, presenting us with choices likely to affect us long-term. There’s a very clear way to know which is which here: facts don’t need anything except simple explanations and sweet talking always comes with a bunch of verbal curlicues.

Remember…the Sun is still in Virgo as all this starts. That’s a call for a clarity of purpose with a caution not to get too married to any particular detail. There’s an old joke about how hard it is to remember that your prime directive was to drain the swamp when you’re up to your keester in alligators, but that’s just about the point – especially since Saturn conjuncting the North Node spells out choices and imperatives which need to be met and dealt with. 

Knowing that once you make your choices or choose your direction (and here you thought I was going to say ‘pick your poison…’?) that leads into Pluto’s station at 8 Capricorn – to be followed promptly by Saturn sextiling Pluto. 

Remember when months ago I told you that 2013 was going to be a year of Saturn/Pluto? That was evident in the first quarter, what with Saturn going retrograde at 11 Scorpio (Scorpio being Pluto’s home sign) and Pluto going retrograde at 11 Capricorn (Saturn’s home sign) come April.

And not to put too fine a point on all this, we’re headed towards a November Solar Eclipse which is going to eclipse the very degree (11 Scorpio) that Saturn went retrograde in.

Astrologically this is very much the ‘dotted line’ or a giant celestial lasso roping these factors into one. So, since Saturn is responsibility, career, worldly status and achievement on the ‘up’ side and limitations, loss and penalties of various types on the ‘down’ side…when we think of that in tandem with Pluto as a primal ‘validation: you win!’ against ‘invalidation: you have work to do!’ celestial indicator, those who have done the Saturn thing by earning their rewards will see a ‘turn of fate’ as Pluto goes direct and Saturn sextiles Pluto. And actually…so will those who have goofed off, tried to get away with things, or otherwise not lived up to their own potential. It’s just that their ‘just rewards’ will be taking at least one giant step back. (And if they’re not lucky, there may be a cliff waiting to engulf them…metaphysically, that is.)

That the end of the Month has the Sun moving into Libra as Mercury unites (by sign) with Venus in Scorpio suggests matters which test our stamina and values regarding ourselves and others are now coming to the fore. And that seems likely, seeing as September – starting back at the New Moon in Virgo – is the onset of all that which will test our ability to get where we want to go as symbolized by the upcoming early November Solar Eclipse.

With that eclipse being in Scorpio, our ability to get along with others and to choose those worth getting along with is coming up for examination, if not full-on questioning. Mercury and Venus being in Scorpio represent the mentality, the mindset, the willingness to marshal ourselves in whatever kind of give-and-take’s the world asks of us and in the recognizing where we may have gotten off-track not with who we want to be seen as, but who we really are. We are being given Venus-and-Mercury ‘notices’ along with Venus-and-Mercury ‘time enough to think things over’ before push comes to shove. 

And remember – it’s not the shoving that anyone else does to us which matters most in the end. It’s the emotions which rise in response which are the tip off to our vulnerabilities. That’s what Scorpio is all about…testing our vulnerabilities so that we can identify and come to grips with our inner glitches and ghouls.

If the Solar Eclipse is a feast, this month is setting the table and putting out the chips. No one is ever going to grade us any harder than we do, so no crinkling, no wrinkling – it’s time to iron out our own problems with ourselves!
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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.

- link to -

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.

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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.

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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….

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

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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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Sun in Virgo…Mercury in Virgo

 Inca-style agricultural terracing in Peru

(photo credit: Alexon Scheppa/released into public domain)

Come 11:03 in the evening (UT/+0) time on August 22nd, the Sun will enter Virgo, beginning a couple of weeks where earth sign influences rise to the fore. The greater backdrop to this will still be the ongoing evolution of water sign emotionality. So all we do, everything we deal with during the solar month of Sun in Virgo will have emotional overtones and considerations.

Once Mercury joins the Sun in Virgo as of August 23rd at 10:38 in the evening (UT/+0) time, Virgo’s focus on all things ‘health, work’ service’ will bring up all sorts of questions about what we’re doing, how well we’re doing it, whether things are headed in the right direction…and, in tossing in ongoing water sign (trine) effects, the health of our emotionality, mentality, choices, relationships, economy and attitudes will all be on the table.

But for one day…that first day of Sun in Virgo…it’s all about the Sun. And since Royal Star Regulus is sitting at 0 Virgo (which I’ve come to think of as the celestial frequency at which self ‘decontamination’ or ‘purification’ is mandated and cannot be shifted off onto someone else), that one day will start us into a new phase by set a Virgo tone which will apply for the full solar traverse of Virgo (August 22nd through September 22nd) and other such ‘dealings with life’ – ours and that around us.

We’ve already been visited by this year’s Venus in Virgo transit – to recall, that began on July 22nd and ended a few days ago on the August 18th…and for one, I didn’t have a whole lot of fun with it.

(Was it productive? Yes. Was it fun? Not really!)

My point is that the nature of Venus in Virgo which is more about ‘finding where things can be improved so as to produce the effects we want’ are now coming into solar focus – meaning our life becomes a vehicle through which we will experience what works and what needs some improvement.

Once Mercury moves into Libra on September 8th/9th (depending on which time zone you're in) that ‘experiencing’ becomes more mental (take that as you will – all forms apply!) and more detailed. So as a ‘subset’ of the total Sun-in-Virgo period, the August 8 through September 9 Mercury-in-Virgo sector marks a time when we have an opportunity to assess what’s going on with ourselves, with others and with the total functionality of our experience…and when our mindset – or our experiences – will be ripe for helping us figure out how to improve things, whether that’s what we’re doing (or how well we’re doing it) and even if what we’re doing is going to get us where we want to go.

And if not, why not.

And if not, whether that means that maybe we don’t’ really want to go…or get there. Let’s face it, we all have ‘oh I wish I would…’ things in our lives. But if we spend all our time doing something else, it seems sensible to ask ourselves whether we actually want to accomplish (or be) that other thing?

Just as an example…one of the areas many (many!) of us have issues is in the relationship arena. We don’t think of Virgo as being “about relationships” but since there is no real ‘isolation’ in the circle of life, that’s just an example of how Virgo can get you so absorbed in the details that you don’t see the forest for the trees…or the life or lifetime which is slipping by while you’re not doing what you know deep inside you want to do, creating the life you really want to have.

So I have this friend who, throughout the more than several years that I’ve known him has been picking women who he knows are the ‘wrong girl.’ (His term, not mine.) But he just keeps picking them.

What’s that about? Don’t be too quick to dismiss this as a Virgo trait, because whatever the third sign to any given sign is speaks to the ‘nature’ of our thinking on the subject.

Counting Virgo as “one,” the third sign to Virgo is…what? SCORPIO. And yes, though Virgo isn’t “known” for compulsivity, there is a definite ‘thread’ of Scorpionic “obsessiveness” which is part and parcel of the Virgo vibe.

This is one of those factoids which as an astrologer didn’t make sense to me until I noticed this interesting habit every Virgo I know (and have known) absolutely has. And when I started asking around, I found out that every Virgo everyone else I know knows also does the same thing.

What did I find? Virgos (we’re speaking principally Sun sign Virgos here) all seem to live by the slogan “when in doubt, eliminate it.” And when we get to the ‘cut it out’ thing, we’re talking Scorpio.

And Scorpio IS the third sign to Virgo.

And the third harmonic to any sign is about the ‘nature’ of our mentality – the habits we bring to our mentality, regardless of what’s on our third house (of mentality and thought) or where our natal Mercury is…or where Mercury is by transit.

This gives us a big clue about why Virgo is the sign of making things more effective or efficient in order for us to (eventually) reach our goals. In Virgo lies an enormity of potential and mental power – this latter being the signature of Scorpio as Virgo’s 3rd harmonic.

So if Virgo is about ‘perfecting’ our act and getting ourselves in shape (be that physically, mentally, emotionally or – at some level especially spiritually/universally, considering the polarity sign is Pisces)…the ‘focus’ which at some level does seem to amount to an obsession with Virgo folks and thus with everyone else as the Sun ‘lights’ up this area of our lives, then the question becomes very much one of getting to the root of why we think or do or choose as we do so that we are able to deal with that…and thus eliminate whatever the ‘toxicity’ (non-functionality) is in our lives so that we can move forward more freely and get where we want to go.

Bearing this in mind, then we go back to that idea of what we continue to do the way we do it (or in the company of those we choose to do it with) where we aren’t improving. Where we aren’t moving forward in our life or getting any closer to those dreams we all have for ourselves.

It’s easy not to think about it, and let’s be real here – the Sun’s yearly transit of Virgo is a prime and primal time during which it’s absolutely easy to just ‘keep on keepin’ on’ while making excuses for why we aren’t getting to that thing which will fulfill our dreams or provide us with some measure of spiritual or emotional (Piscean) balance.

So as the Sun moves into Virgo, we can expect some realization of what’s not working…or what we want to capitalize on by ‘working it’ at an even higher level…to come upon us. For some of us it will merely be that earthy sense we feel stirring in our innards. (Virgo is very into those ‘innard functions.’) Then again, life may well present you with issues which challenge your functionality. Or sense or even you desire for accomplishment.

With Mercury entering Virgo a day after the Sun, we take a breath…and then we take the plunge. But let’s not think results are instantaneous. Being the astrologer on board here (yes, I need one of those signs to put in my car) I can look ahead and see the major road signs coming down the energy pipeline. We’re about to hit a Sedna station on August 25th and that speaks to Virgo’s first week being about reckoning with the need to evolve.

This station comes with a bit of a surprise – call it a twist on the cosmic theme. And that we’ll discuss in the next post here on the blog.

The September portion of the Virgo run (read: our experience of Life and Mentality through the Virgo lens) there will be a whole slew of challenges headed out way. We’re going to hear (on the celestial level) from influences generated by the relative positioning of Ixion and Pholus (which yes, for you who know this pair is enough to make your toes curl) shifts of signs coming from the Ceres (planning) and Pallas (wisdom born of dispassionate perspective), Mercury romping on into Libra just as Venus moves into Scorpio (suggesting there are emotional issues yet to come from people in our lives or with regards TO people in our lives)…

....and then we’ll also get a revisiting of the still-ongoing conjunction of Pluto to fixed star (nebula) Facies. 

Pluto-Facies is the experience of complicated issues which we know will compromise us unless we deal with them. But how to deal with them?

All that and (dare I say…?) we’re in for the onset of the next ‘breaking down’ period which precedes the November Solar Eclipse at 11 Scorpio.

Yes, that eclipse.

Let us also remember that what we’re talking about here is the Sun and Mercury moving into Virgo – the recognition, the realization, the having to think it through and think about it and get some clarity on things part of the process. With Mars initially positioned in Cancer as this pair of ingresses sweep through we can not like whatever we don’t like and life will still insist that we pay attention.

Or…alternately…we can take the Mars energetic in hand and get to work on that thing which is so hard for us. Cancer being the eleventh sign (aka 11th harmonic) from Virgo this points to all those things we really do want to achieve in life.

Since Mars is just ending its transit of Cancer, the likelihood is that life is going to focus us on what isn’t yet done and what isn’t working properly…and some of us will take that on and carry forth into a development of solutions (or at least a willingness to venture into risky waters) as Mars moves on into Leo.

Others will greet the challenges and be content to slide by. Or problems may arise and then seemingly settle back down (which strikes me as a bit of a dirty trick as the problem unsolved is the problem which until it’s solved remains unsolved).

But the Virgo point here is that Mars will enter Virgo come mid-October. So here’s your choice: you can tackle your issues (denials, obsessions, challenges, lacks, needs, tendency to over/under focus) now and be in better shape to deal with life more productively come Mars-in-Virgo, or you can play and skate and goof around and temporize and cope without fixing now and meet up with consequences come October and November (read: during the most intense portion of a Solar Eclipse period which – surprise! – is going to take place with Mercury in retrograde).

 A photo taken by NASA's Spirit rover of the Columbia Hills inside Gusev Crater on Mars

(photo credit: NASA-JPL April 2005)

We choose to make our life what it is. The compromises we make or refuse to allow ourselves to make, the efforts we invest or choose not to invest in this relationship, that habit, this way of doing things, that way of spending our time…they all amount to the truth of what we want.

That truth may be a happy one. That truth may be a painful one. Whatever it is, step one is knowing what it is and that it is what it is.

Then we get to apply that Scorpio 3rd harmonic to our Virgo essence…which for these next few weeks is ‘highlighted’ and made more accessible to us than at other times. The operative question is why…and that applies to the happy, unhappy, productive and destructive choices we make. There is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ here, merely the identifying the ‘what’ and deciding whether you think that – in the long run – is going to help you be satisfied with your life, how you’ve lived your life and the humanity you’ve allowed yourself to embody and experience in being human.
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