Mercury Direct at 18 Aquarius

In accordance with the Sabian image for Mercury's station degree, a photo of a forest fire in Russia's Yugansky Nature Reserve taken by Tatiana Bulyonkova (July 2012)

One of Aquarius’ interesting qualities is its dual rulership by first Saturn, a symbol of solidity…then Uranus, the energy of being freed, which is about as theoretical a notion as any – and therefore capable of being molded in any of a thousand ways.

Of the three signs of the zodiac with such dual rulers, two (Scorpio and Pisces) are water signs – water being the symbol of all things emotional and emotionally insightful, provocative…or otherwise educational if trying when it comes to the subject of trying to live the lives we really want.

Only Aquarius differs – and it does so by being an air sign. Aquarius is also fixed, which is to say its operations tend to be particularly ‘calculated,’ whether that means a goal is predetermined, why that goal ‘works’ (or is fitting) and/or how the ‘style’ of one’s methodology tends to be determined as well as in some measure determined by moment-to-moment facts at hand.

But Scorpio is fixed too...although Scorpio is about the sticky parts of emotions - the parts of emotions and emotional experiences which 'stick' with us (and which sometimes even stick it 'to' us...) - as opposed to the Aquarian wrangling of the idea - be it complex, incomplete, universal, rewarding, acceptable or unacceptable. The difference is very much with us at the moment seeing as the end of last year was all about that sort of uniquely Scorpio feeling of getting emotionally wrung out even as - and strangely enough - in virtual diametric opposition to all the difficulties, doors seemed to open.

At least in our minds, hearts or spirits.   

But now we're in the Aquarian realm. A very ‘big picture’ sign by nature, the biggest Aquarian challenge seems to be getting from the idea of what needs doing to the 'done' point with all in order and on time without emotional frizzles.

Aquarius teaches us that we can't have it all...but we can have what we really value providing it's an honest expression of who we really are. When Aquarian influences run thick in life's Mercurial mix (such as over the next few days) we will tend to think down the road, around the corner and into that next dimension no one’s thought about thinking up yet – although this 2014 Aquarian passage of Mercury has been anything but glassy slick or smooth. Comfortable and profitable have not seemed to exist in the same breath – at least not all the way around.

We've all had to surrender something. It was something of a lesson in humility - which Aquarius is also about in the sense that it's a universal/universalist dynamic both about the individual human and the whole of humanity, which perhaps you'll pardon me for saying...I found a particularly intriguing thought while the Olympics were going on in Sochi while not so far away fires were burning in the Ukraine.

I mean no criticism here...it's just...these two events were happening at the very same moment. That's the level at which astrology functions on a global level.

I just wanted to point that out. The combination of Mercury's retrograde starting in feeling Pisces seems to have pulled emotional energy into our Aquarian thoughts. It challenged and exhorted us, reflecting the onset of Ixion conjuncting fixed star Ras Alhague at 22 Sagittarius - the call to attend to our injuries lest we be injured by sheer self-motivated insistence. 

It’s definitely been one of those times when no matter how ‘fine’ things are, something – and something unexpected at that – is turning desires, hopes, plans and other such personal cravings for whipped cream and sprinkles into a not-so-merry-go-‘round of conflict.

And all this has been highly encompassing if also something of a ‘backdrop’ against which we know life is playing out…a life which is our motivation, challenge and glorious disappointment often all in one whether you’re dealing with the fires of war or fires on the personal home front as you work out personal problems.

To the extent we have based our hopes on others – or what others ‘do’ (or don’t do) and not on what WE do to interface, connects to or contributes to the overall environment…or which affects capacity to function or functional capacity…to the extent that we have spectated on our own life we are being tumbled. Sometimes thought of as substances metallic or crystalline, there’s always a strong positive in any Aquarian issue or drive which serves to clarify our thinking.

Yet even as it does that, even as the Aquarian ability to parse, fissure, factionalize and factor finds ever greater comprehension, so it also raises new questions.

That’s just the Aquarian way. Understand that one idea and you’ll understand why Aquarius is the sign of modernization, upgrades and all the ruptures – social, mechanical, economic and individual – which in breaking something down…or in breaking us down to ourselves or someone we love, or in some plainer fashion leads to greater potential, power and plain old everyday likeability.

Acceptance, call it.

Or maybe success.

All this – all the challenges and enhancements to our ability to understand and utilize any such notion or focus which began back in January issues returned  by mid-February. And from there…as Mercury backed down (retrograded) through Aquarius, so life backed us down in one or another way, starting in the public (third decan/degrees number 20-29) arena.

By February 20th (the 19th in some time zones) Mercury backed into Aquarius’ most fervent, most driven second decanate (degrees 10-19). And since Mercury was in retrograde (where energy is internalized) we pushed internally towards goals – which yes, in the case of a couple of nations meant civil unrest (the push on a nation’s ‘internal’ affairs).

Mercury goes direct on February 28 at 2:01 in the afternoon, UT/+0, which means there will be an uptick in activity between February 26 and March 2nd.

March 2nd is the date for Saturn going retrograde, by the way. It’s doing so in a degree known for dissipating Scorpionic energies – which we can hope will mean a ‘dissipating’ of ongoing violence.

The truth is however, such a dissipation – especially in the wake of Mars’ March 1st Libra station – could just as easily represent the ‘dissipating’ of pent up (or controlled) energy in some sort of “explosive action.”

The degree Mercury is stationing at being 18 Aquarius, there are likely to be highly quirky challenges which arise from ‘turnabouts’…(large and/or small; singular and/or as part of a greater action, movement or process)…wherever our plans, actions, hesitations, methods or responses to others and the society in general are derived from false information, presumptions, diversions or incomplete (and/or) overly simplistic reliance on ‘socially accepted’ answers as opposed to reality, or the facts of the matter.

The Sabian Symbol for 18 Aquarius (which is numbered phase 319 for those looking it up) gives us the following image: A FOREST FIRE IS BEING SUBDUED BY THE USE OF WATER, CHEMICALS AND SHEER MUSCULAR ENERGY – an image astrologer Marc Edmund Jones typified as the skill and courage necessary to bring under control the destructive potential of carelessness of karmic ‘visitations’…which is a curious sort of comment when applied to airy, theoretical Aquarius (metaphysically karma is generally thought of as watery or emotional) ….very curious except for how the days may affect how we operate.  

Or maybe they’ll just end up turning us in a whole new direction.

The reference to karma also tends to remind us of Scorpio, karma’s ‘home sign,’ if you will. And that’s a bit of a reminder that Saturn…which is, after all, the primary ruler of Aquarius…how Saturn is about to go on station in Scorpio.

Things aren’t a joke right now. They don’t even feel like a joke right now. Between the seriousness and our (Sun in Pisces) sensitivity to our inability to escape our feelings of limitation, anyone can get to feeling terribly raw now. So kindness counts – to yourself equally with others. A cross-collateralization of some type may be possible if you’re willing to wade through choppy waters…and for those who realize those waters are their own feelings, things will become manageable.

That’s a persistent theme which has…and which will continue to carry for a couple of months yet: the projection of power on others. We have the ability to walk some longer road ourselves. We just want…and hope…and dream of somebody helping us.

According to that which lore says about this 'Mercurial presence,' help is now to be found in our friends, in our societies, in our wits. Those of us who think in terms of connectivity between self and others or in the sense that any system of any type has to be connected to work…those people will see a path forward. No – it isn’t simple.

Nothing which is both Aquarian and high quality is ever simple. It may LOOK easy…but it’s never simple.

And there is the fact that by the time Mercury goes direct a couple of days from now, other things will have happened. The time between now and the 28th will present us with all sorts of moments which ask us where we’re going and what it will take to get there – which rather automatically ask if it’s worth all that effort…which may be another way of seeing the symbol for this degree, as all astrological symbols are first and foremost about our relationship within our Self.

From that, all else flows…which is why people say ‘life is what you make it’ – which in the case of an Aquarian Mercury station starts with what we conceive of as our current status quo, and what needs bettering from here.
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The Sagittarius Lunar Eclipse: Next Steps

An artist's rendering of a lunar eclipse as seen from the Moon

(credit: Lucien Rudaux, 1874-1947)

Arriving at long last at the final eclipse for the first half of 2013, we are taken into the realm of early Sagittarius. The degree 4 Sagittarius is obviously one of the first ten degrees of this most worldly of fire signs. So at once we know that which happens during these few days – and particularly on the date of the Lunar Eclipse (May 25) are emotional high water marks or ‘illumination’ points, as are all Full Moons.

And that this particular eclipse occurs in Sagittarius, that is about our ‘vision’ for ourselves and how well things are – or maybe aren’t going. Sagittarius and the 9th house which is native to Sagittarius is where our ideas reach the ‘application’ stage. It’s where the rubber meets the proverbial road and we our efforts either gain traction or our wheels begin to spin.

So the next time you hear someone in the media (a Sagittarian business) talk about ‘political spin’…now you know how apt that term is, right? Everything about the media is Sagittarian and 9th house in nature as the 9th house is all about ‘getting out there’ or in the case of information, ‘getting the word out there,’ which is what connects Sagittarius to travel, publishing, formalized religion, the media and education all in one. And since fire signs are at their heart about the ‘right thing’ (i.e., the honest and correct thing), thus we come to law and legal proceedings as a sorting out of what’s true or not true, otherwise known as ‘letting everybody know whose guilty of lying’ or breaking some law.

I love understanding why concepts which sound so different fall under the same sign, don’t you?

In particular, 4 Sagittarius is a degree known to carry peace as its core and basic aim. But be forewarned! When there’s ample provocation, the normally sunny and cheerful 4 Sagittarius energy flips, becoming fraught with righteously ‘right-driven’ energetics.

One of the things to reckon with here is the fact that in a season of evolutionary earth-and-water (Taurus-Scorpio) change and growth, this is the “odd element out.” That’s not to say fire is an ‘odd’ element (they’re all odd sometimes!) but rather that Taurus and Scorpio are a polarity.

So the Scorpio lunar eclipse against the Taurus solar eclipses have been part and parcel of the same sort of process, namely that of getting us more in touch with our inner self at a more realistic and tangible level.

Then we add in Sagittarius. In terms of zodiacal order, Sagittarius represents the next step in the process. So things which have been afoot or getting started now proceed. Some of us will try and ignore the possible glitches and find that the glitches don’t ignore us. (I hate it when a glitch bites me, don’t you?) Then again, some of us will proceed with caution and recognize the glitch as it appears, reflecting on what has been learned of late – thus avoiding the pitfall.

Or at least grappling with it, preparing to cross the pit without getting clobbered by the pendulum.

Harry Clarke's illustration for Poe's 'The Pit and the Pendulum' (1919)

(Yes, I’m in an Edgar Allen Poe mood.)

It’s decently easy to see this lunar eclipse as inspiring us to get our get-along into gear so as to get things done. And some of us will do just that. Those who have experienced the intensity of April-May’s Taurus/Scorpio energetics as oppressive or constricting may well now feel liberated and go bounding off along their path.

And sometimes that’s just the idea.

Then again, sometimes that’s just foolhardy.

Considering this is Sagittarius we’re talking about, it would seem to all depends on whether you’re properly prepared and willing to ‘see’ your way through the problems, the challenges, the places where your ‘truth’ meets up with a world which has a few truths of its own. How do you fit in? Are you willing to fit in? Can you swim in a ‘big pond’ with the big fish? Or maybe you’re a big fish encountering small fish hoping they’re not going to flounder.

(I’m guessing flounders really hate that expression.)

 
The semi-sextile between Scorpio (the April lunar eclipse) and Sagittarius is generally some challenge to our ego. Call it feeling offended with the fact that some idea of yours doesn’t work…or that someone has called you on some inconsistency which amounts to having traipsed out into a crowded street without remembering to get dressed.

(And you’re not a nudist.)

It may be simply that you realize you’ve been on the wrong track. Or that your ‘right track’ is more wrong than you thought.

That’s the lunar/lunar eclipse side of it. And then we have the solar (Taurus)/lunar (Sagittarian) side of this evolutionary process. For some, this will be the 210 degree yes, I get it shift into positive gear. For some this will be the oh gosh, now I realize I still have work to do (also known as ‘I’m not as free as I thought I was going to be’) moment.

But never fear…lunar eclipses are truly emotional signposts. Their effects have an ‘acute’ cycle which lasts about three months. Then what we learn (or – ahem! – don’t learn) fades back into the woodwork. When all goes well, the evocative moments which occur around the time of any lunar eclipse ‘meld into’ the greater shift denoted by the solar eclipse – in this case the issue of Taurean self recognition, self valuation, re-evaluation, recognizing how much more you can grow – all that stuff.

Not that anything in the Taurus-Scorpio neighborhood of our lives is done or anything. Hopefully you’ve heard me when I’ve said that this Taurus-Scorpio who I am and who I am with regards to others cycle (which includes the ever popular ‘how to get ahead in life without falling flat on my face or otherwise getting embarrassed lastingly and beyond belief’)…how that cycle as denoted by our yearly ‘eclipse seasons’ (two each year) began in November of 2012 and are going to be with us through October of 2014.

That means there’s a total of five ‘eclipse seasons’ which feature either Scorpio or Taurus solar eclipses, of which we’ve now gone through two.

Get the picture?

With this eclipse, as with seemingly every eclipse, we get a couple of planetary pictures. The first is a t-square which features the Sun and Moon – the stars, the ‘us’ in this celestial drama.

Sun – Hel – Aldebaran is pretty plainly a challenge to integrity. Phaethon-Chaldea is ‘quick to choose the old way’ whether that’s the old way out, the old way of doing things, the old way as in ‘traditions’ or just some stick-in-the-mud thing…in the mental sign of Gemini this could even be the old way of viewing mentality or wanting to go with what you know instead of learning something new, and so on.

But then again, this is a lunar eclipse. So with Sun - Hel - Aldebaran being in Gemini and in opposition to the Moon's position in Sagittarius, might this also be 'finding the flaw' in someone's thinking? Or the plan? Or the means and methods currently being employed?

In this scenario, Moon in Sagittarius would represent the finding out (or learning) the truth about some thing...or how life (the Sun) has been made harder (Hel) by some (Gemini) idea or thought which can no longer be held as having (Aldebaran) integrity. 

This seems particularly apt considering how this 'Sun and friends' grouping is positioned as the goal of the t-square. So we want to probably make it hard to be challenged, perhaps? Or maybe that which we have been insisting on doing has actually been making our life harder? Perhaps in our efforts not to have our integrity challenged, we've put ourselves in a position to be our own worst enemy to our own integrity?

And yet…and yet…this is Moon-Hebe in Sagittarius we're talking about. So the Moon-motivation is emotionally driven. It may be convictions. Or some monetary goal. We may be driven by habits or that fervent need to be right which is sometimes the 'down' side of Sagittarius. Hebe being the the idea of being of service (and optimally, being rewarded by being of service), maybe the question is whether our aims are misdirected in trying to get the world to work for us rather than being of service in the world and thus earning our rewards. 

If you want to get all gnat’s derriere about this diagram (which I tried to get in constructing it, and man – there’s a whole bunch of gnats who are ticked off at me!) ….you’ll notice two separate t-squares drawn in the image. That’s because squares and oppositions have a maximum range of 5 degrees. So while Hebe (at 2 Sagittarius) squares Fomalhaut, Neptune and Deneb (which by now I’ve typed so many times I’m beginning to think it’s either a law firm or a singing group)…and Hebe also opposes anything between 2 and 7 in Gemini (which here would be Phaethon, Chaldaea, Sun and asteroid Hel), Hebe is not in opposition to Aldebaran.

AHA! Integrity is not opposed by Service. A good thought indeed. And one which would seem to imply that there is some merit to be being of use and doing something useful while going forward in this world.

The Moon, on the other hand does oppose Aldebaran. So there’s something emotional which is being confronted by questions of integrity.

In short, what I tried to do is color code this drawing so you’d see the two slightly different t-squares. (You can let me know if I get a passing grade on this effort – just leave a comment.)

Either way, the “t” to this t-square is Fomalhaut Deneb and Neptune. Fomalhaut says we succeed only where our aims, our means, our methods and our ability to face ourselves as part of the process is neither corrupt, corrupted or corruptive.

Oh…and by the by, this has nothing to do with whether you like something. In the land of Pisces (read: Piscean ocean) it is the greater Creation Manifest which sets the terms, standards and lines which must be face and not summarily crossed.

Deneb, which gets less press than it probably deserves, is a shamanistic energetic. But since shamanistic energies have to do more with nature and time and evolution and existence than mankind and our Earthly lives, this may be why we talk less about this star than we might otherwise.

People – understandably – get very routed towards Things Earthy and Materialistic. It never ceases to amaze me that people will ask why they don’t feel like they’re living a ‘spiritual’ life when all their attention is on Earthy or Earthly means of understanding.

Be that as it may, people often reject the esoteric then wonder why they don’t understand it.

Anyway…since Deneb and Fomalhaut appear from our Earthly perspective to be so closely aligned (which holds true even if you go back a couple of thousand years) it’s likely we simply interpret Deneb’s rather ‘other worldly’ intuition and potency as part and parcel of Fomalhaut.

But with Neptune in the mix? Personally, I’ve been wondering if this isn’t why we’ve been seeing more and more investigation into the paranormal (at least we’re seeing more of it here in the US) as Neptune has moved through the end of Aquarius and into Pisces, ‘awakening’ the ‘mass consciousness’ which is so very Neptunian to energies which are beyond the norm – and yes, very much Denebian.

Will this ‘expanding of our knowledge’ which is so Sagittarian mean that we will see something more in the way of thinking of the world and our universe in a more – dare I say – whole or holistic sort of way?

Maybe. On the other hand, it may bring challenges to same…which is fine. One of these days human beings are going to wake up and realize that E=mc2’d means we are all contiguous. And then they’re going to realize what that means, and that those who are able to release their egos are not (almost by definition) the people who are limited.

That’s my Sagittarian eclipse statement for the day!

But in the t-square? That Neptune-Fomalhaut-Deneb is what we have to get past. And those who can’t get past it are going to be taught a lesson by it (probably through the auspices of someone or something which can embody that energy)…and that will set them back on their Moon/Hebe derriere.

At least their emotional one.

And from there the question becomes, how do I make this work?

Ah, life…ain’t it grand?

Moving on to t-square number two…

 
Where t-square number one focused on the ‘us,’ the Sun and Moon of this eclipse, this next t-square focuses on the Nodes. The nodes, as we remember, are groups and collectives and relationships…and our relationships with groups, others and collectives.

Read this starting point as: North Node-Psyche in Scorpio as the ‘you need to’ (North Node) deal with the mind or mindset (Psyche) of the Scorpio (joint) dynamic.

Then we get to Vaticana, Sualocin, Juno and Icarus, all in Aquarius, the land of results, acceptance, income and finding one’s place in the world, the community, amongst your peers – all that stuff.

Juno-Icarus is a straight-forward need to manage impatience and not to jump the gun. So no gun-jumping. Evidently haste will lead to waste now – that, or a hole in your shoe.

Another fixed star with an ineffective PR firm, Sualocin is totally of this world, though it describes that which charms us and maybe 'enchants' us, but which we can't quite put our finger on.

So maybe we’re being tempted to try to get past some challenge by saying we don't understand? Or maybe we'll try to charm our way out of something? Maybe we’re realizing that real self-discipline (Juno) is that which requires that we think not of ourselves as the object, but that which drives the success of the project or aim.

Ah yes…maybe so. (I’m moving into my Charlie Chan imitation now.)

Vaticana, which I have been doing some research on, is not the Vatican. By that I mean, while the Vatican is related to the same idea which gives us the astrological symbol Vaticana, Vaticana does not say “Catholic Vatican.”

Think of it as something akin to a 'which came first, the chicken or the egg?' sort of thing. 

The original concept behind Vaticana comes from the Etruscan name for the hill upon which the Vatican stands. And while I could bore you with a bunch of history about who did what when and how that hill came to be where the Catholic Church built its global "HQ," I won’t. What's important here is that the Vatican has come to be the name for that place where the Catholic church has centralized itself - and the not-unsubstantial amount of power ceded to it by various Italian heads of state along the Roman way (which is not to be confused with the Appian Way, which is a whole other Roman way.)

A section of the Via Appia  - that most famous of all Roman
roads. This section, replete with ancient stones, runs through
a section of Rome itself.

(photo credit: Kleusky, September 2005)

Vaticana, main belt asteroid number 416 is a very main belt asteroid – by which I mean it’s an asteroid which pretty much stays near the center of the asteroid belt. That 'centrality' relates very nicely to the idea of the hill the Catholic church built upon, centralizing its power.

We all have Vaticana in our charts. So where we see Vaticana, by sign, by house, by association with other asteroids, planets, nodes et al that points to where or how we will build our power.

Or perhaps resist building power. That can happen too. 

Currently in Aquarius and in this figure atop the cross quarter line at 15 Aquarius, Vaticana suggests very strongly that part of this lunar eclipse is about moving from a ‘thinking about’ or ‘planning phase’ into an active phase which by its nature is public, worldly and maybe even global.

The question would be whether Vaticana supports aiming for personal gain in Aquarius…or whether this asteroid is one which says power built only for the benefit of the self will come to grief.

If you look at Vatican history, that would seem to be the tale.

Anyway…the goal of this t-square is also interesting, as it’s expressed by South Node/Menkar, a making it easier to intersect with the collective in such a manner which makes MY life and MY relationships to those I interact with easier.

Apparently this is all about whether you require others play along with you based on YOUR rules…or whether you’re willing to be part of the greater standard and submit your ego to the ‘greater good’ out of which will come your benefit.

Still with me?

Last figure…a grand trine in water signs.

 
Chiron is that thing we don’t know and which we desperately want to know…but which we can’t stand the idea of having to go through learning. In Pisces, Chiron represents all the touchy, disquieting emotional moments we’ve all had which have been set off through dealings with others and the general state of life itself.

Evidently that’s not letting up. (Huzzah - not!)

The North Node/Psyche in Scorpio we discussed just a minute ago. The only thing I’d add here is that of all the asteroids out there, Psyche is one of the big ones. Really! Asteroid Psyche is about 200 km across, which means its mass is about 1% of the entire asteroid belt (that’s an estimate, mind you).

But if the asteroid belt, in lying between the personal planets and most specifically Mars (motivation, impetus, action) and Jupiter (knowledge, gain, expansion) represents all that we ‘go through’ on the way to gaining that Jovian knowledge (from which we move on to Saturnine accomplishment, then knowing our Psyche is one of the big things we meet up with along the way.

So maybe this is a moment when you either get to know your own mind…or in not knowing your own mind (or whether your mind is being mindful) you continue to meet up with problems or pleasures.

This is a grand trine in emotional water, after all!

The most personal side of this emotional equation is Cancer – our experience of emotion on a very basic, humanistic level. Scorpio is about us and someone else. Pisces is about the world and life and all the ‘ugh!’ or delights which go with that. But Cancer? Cancer is our native, inborn feeling base. Once we knew we were alive as little kidlets, we started having feelings. That’s Cancer.

Vesta-Pappos is the shape (or nature) of the cost. Of what? Of being who you are and that involved in doing what you want, or maybe even need to do. Especially when combined with Charybdis - the requirement that we keep trying (and trying) lest we get eaten up by some monster – this raises the specter of this Sagittarius lunar eclipse as a time when we’re all dealing with something. Or some things. For you, that may be bills. For someone else, that may be some sort of feeling of failure. Or anticipation about what lies ahead.

Maybe all at the same time. That’s the thing about Sagittarius…there are many possibilities and our challenge is to find the one which works.

Then we add in Ceres – the idea of having, making or following a plan. In Cancer, Ceres asks that we keep our emotional ‘feet on the ground’ as we go about doing what needs doing. And in point of fact, in this grand trine, Ceres is a help in that it serves to keep us grounded – which may or may not be comforting for those of us who want to soar among the clouds.

Evidently it’s not yet time to soar.

The last symbol in this grouping is a much-loved on, fixed star, dog star Sirius. To have Sirius in any grand trine implies a touch of brilliance in the mix. But is that the brilliance which leads us on – or the brilliance of not going too far too fast?

Uh, yes. Whichever.

And maybe both.

That’s the thing about lunar eclipses…they evoke an understanding. When all is said and done we get a lot of celestial commentaries on the nuances of the situation, but the ‘solution’ to the question is that which we just ‘know’ is there.

It may not be what we like. Or maybe not what we want to hear from our guiding angels.

(But if they're our better angels, can it really be for our worse?). 

Those of us with Suns or Moons in early Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius or Pisces are going to get the strongest ‘hits’ from this eclipse. The Pisces are trying to move on from something, the Virgos are getting into something, the Geminis are dealing with realizations and the Sagittarians are coming to a whole new understanding.

However this eclipse affects you and those you love, Iet’s hope it’s an enlightening and inspiring time. At it’s best, this is just the kind of eclipse which opens a doorway to a greater understanding of things which were beyond us mere weeks ago…

…and which now provide us with beacons of light, by which we walk into a more honest and wholly productive future.
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Neptune/Fomalhaut/Deneb: Dissolving Walls

Image based on "Kristallobject, Objectivism, 8°36'44' 49°43'33'"

by Bodo Sperling (1952, Hanau)

This is the story of how our world has come to be where it is…and in part, why we don’t know where we’re going. I invite you to read if you are willing to confront your own emotional vulnerabilities.

To start with…it seems a trifle odd to pair the idea of Neptune, Fomalhaut and clarification in one sentence. After all, Neptune is most typically that which is nebulous. Or dream-like. Neptune is the ‘idea of the thing’ which evokes the feeling in our mind, whether that feeling is good or bad.

(And yes, that goes with the two fishes of Pisces. Have you ever thought of them as good fish/bad fish?)

Then there’s Fomalhaut. One of the great stars of the sky, since long ago times Fomalhaut has represented a promise of success if and where our aims (ahem..dreams of success) are not corrupt or corrupted, corrosive or corruptive.

But who’s to say ‘what’s what?’ Who is to say that your dream is corrupt? If, for instance, you corner the world market in rice (one of our planet’s most important food stuffs), if you do that fair and square, playing by all the rules in the book, how can that be corrupt?

Answer: this is Pisces we’re talking about. And Pisces is the most universal of the water (emotional) signs. Pisces is the common experience of being human and the common emotional sense of being human. Where that emotionality becomes universal, human become humane. And thus, beneath the skin (or scales, if you prefer) Pisces is never ‘just’ about us. It’s always about us and everybody else on the planet.

So if you corner that rice market, why have you bothered to do so? If you’re in the entrepreneurial mode, you have probably done that so as to make money.

But what happens if people can’t pay your price?

That sort of question is where Neptune meets Fomalhaut. Or more specifically, dissolving whatever barriers or walls you have built inside which would even begin to allow you to think that it’s okay for you to raise prices and make money when that means that anyone out there is going to starve because you want another penny on the bushel – that’s Neptune meeting Fomalhaut.

Where humane meets inhumanity – or if you prefer, selfishness or blindness or denial or (on the other side) fear or threats of inability to survive or feelings of helplessness…all those are Neptune meets Fomalhaut. For you, this may be about rice. Or about something else having to do with money. Because Pisces has a connection with toxicity and anything which ‘toxifies’ or ‘detoxifies,’ we can also throw in pollution, addiction, pharmaceuticals, the chemical and oil industries as a whole. Pisces being the premier sign of the ‘Jungian consciousness,’ the emotional side of health care also enters into this – which applies whether you’re talking about emotional reactions to health care, health care entitlements, the ‘entitlement’ of the health care industry, the cost of health care and the cost not having proper health care extracts on a person, from a family, from a society and so on.

Relationships of all types (personal, professional, spiritual, in-person, online, platonic, sexual, familial, etc.) enter into this discussion as Pisces is the sign which most touches on our desire to see relationships as one thing even if in reality, they’re another. Or should be.

We’ve been talking about this for weeks now. Mercury moved into Pisces in early February, and that opened the Neptune window to all sorts of flights of fancy…and the effort to escape realities. And the need to deal with realities, which is really what Pisces is about.

Pisces as a sign says feel your feelings and deal with reality anyway. In separating the two (represented by those two fishes headed in differing directions) we are reminded that life will not ‘allow’ us to totally deny either one. Those two fishes are tied together by an immutable cord, which represents the fact that life depends on both factual reality and an understanding and acceptance of not just our own emotions, but that everybody has their own emotional perspective.

It’s as important for them to understand their emotions as it is for us to understand ours. Unfortunately, being humans (yes, this is where we all sigh) we will all tend to want to correct the ‘other guy’ and stand on (and in) our righteous truth.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t fix the problem. OUR problem is not with them…it’s in being who we are. Or more precisely, who we like to think we are in our minds. Nobody gets up in the morning thinking they’re a bad guy. I don’t care who you pick as your nomination of Ultra Bad Dude, that Bad Dude doesn’t go to the mirror every morning and twirl their handlebar mustache (real or imagined) saying ‘ah yes…how can I be evil today?’

It’s a sobering thought too, that. But true. And what’s really tough is that even though we aren’t a UBD (Ultra Bad Dude) we still look at ourselves in the mirror and miss some of the flaws.

Those flaws are about recognizing our own emotional inconsistencies. And that’s at the core of Neptune conjunct Fomalhaut.

Mind you…as this post goes up, Neptune is just at 3 Pisces. And Fomalhaut is at 4 Pisces. Neptune won’t reach 4 Pisces until March 26, 2013. And in moving just less than a second of arc every day, Neptune will be at 4 Pisces until May 2, 2013.

And yes, Neptune will return to 4 Pisces even after that. In fact, this whole Neptune-Fomalhaut issue has been swimming up on us for some time now.

 A chart of Neptune's transit (in green) through Pisces

4 Pisces being the core of the issue, given that the standard orb of influence is 5 degrees, Neptune entered Fomalhaut’s orb of influence back in 2010.

Has there been much confusion since then? Yes. Has there been an upturn in upsetting events dating back to that time? Give or take the fact that this isn’t an ‘all-or-nothing’ perfect/imperfect world we’re talking about, I think the answer there is ‘yes’ in the Neptune-Fomalhaut (Piscean) sense. In other words, since 2010, more events, more situations, more conversations, more confrontations, more and more things have been forcing us to deal with who we are – really. At our cores. In our hearts. And where something we may feel doesn’t hold true for everyone, which gets back to that most difficult of Pisces truisms: just as I want others to accept my emotional truth, I have to accept that their emotional truth may be different.

WHY those emotional truths are different is the next step in the Pisces lesson. And since Neptune is going to be traversing Fomalhaut’s orb through 2016, apparently we still have plenty of time to learn all about it…(oh, yippee – right?)

And that leads to the next Pisces challenge: accepting that life is not perfect. It’s not that it isn’t ‘supposed’ to be pleasant…it’s just that life is life. When you watch nature documentaries and see a crocodiles rear up out of the river and grab a wildebeest by its nose, dragging the wildebeest down into the water where it will drown and be eaten, that’s the reality of life. Are you happy about it? Probably not. (And granted, the wildebeest is probably far unhappier, at least for a bit.)

But that is life. So…given that humans are at the top of the planetary food chain (give or take stray encounters with tigers, lions and crocodilians) what does that mean?

There are a million ways to think of this question and to answer it. Still…in the end the question becomes something akin to this: do we try, or do we not try? That applies to what we do. It also applies to the standards we hold for ourselves as people and in what we do – or don’t do.

There is no perfection – there’s only trying, or not trying.

(And yes, there is being trying, too…but that’s another perspective on parts A and B!)

And whether we ‘try’ or ‘don’t try’ when it comes to any given thing pretty much comes down to acceptance. Do we accept the status quo? Do we accept that we have likes and dislikes and that sometimes life isn’t the way we like it? Do we accept that life requires effort? Do we accept that life itself isn’t perfect?

Acceptance is a core Pisces ‘tool,’ if you will. And in accepting our feelings, whatever they may be about any given thing, the not running away from those feelings is Pisces Step One. Pisces Step Two is separating reality from the fantasy. And how do we define ‘fantasy’ in this case?  It could be a daydream. Or a wish. Or a sexual fantasy. Or entertainment as a fantasy distraction. There are romantic fantasies and fantasies of success.

Fantasies are how we try out ideas we might like…and very much not like. The great argument out there about whether films or video games teach violence or sexuality is part of this discussion. For some people, they’re a way to try things out and decide that’s not for you. For some, they become an enticement, an invitation to substitute the ‘fantasy’ for reality.

That’s the problem. What the video game or movie industry has to say about it? That’s business. For the same entertainment giants who will ballyhoo their success with audiences to turn around and then say they have no ‘effect’ or ‘influence’ on their audiences is silly. I’m a second-generation entertainment person and I know why such companies do what they do, but it is a little silly.

Except for one thing: Hollywood (et al) is all about the business of fantasy. At some level, every form of entertainment is about projecting some image which you get swept away by. That’s fantasy. If you think the movie business is ‘glamorous,’ you think that because Hollywood has invested billions in creating that fantasy image. You may think the Academy Awards are all about glamor or popularity when they’re actually craft awards (which is why they often go in directions the public is outraged by!)

A photograph of Fomalhaut which shows the star's surrounding dust ring

(photo credit: Hubble, NASA-ESA-JPL, ALMA, University of Florida, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, April 2012)

As someone who has worked on films, trust me – there is nothing glamorous about getting up and going to work at 4:30 in the morning. There is nothing glamorous about working 14-16 hour days and 6-day weeks for months on end without a single two-day break. There’s nothing glamorous about working with a bunch of sweaty, dirty, tired, grouchy people in a run-down building where there isn’t even any air conditioning for ten and twelve hours a day when it’s 110 degrees outside.

And music isn’t any better. I’ve worked in music too. It’s a tough, tough business. There’s a reason so many people in entertainment get into drink and drugs. There’s a reason for all the broken marriages. But while the reality of that goes on, these industries also wear a veil of Neptunian imagery which people buy into…why?
Because they want to. Because it feels good. And that’s the ‘trick’ of Neptune. Hopes and dreams are wonderful. But when hope becomes expectation, or when we think the dream is the reality, that becomes a corruption.

Yes, all businesses have their corrupt corners – that’s business. But what I’m talking about here is our willingness to corrupt our own definition of reality.

That’s what Neptune/Fomalhaut is all about. When our ability to have a real life in reality becomes corrupted by some ‘vision’ or hope or dream, where we put up walls in our lives or in our heads or hearts against accepting the whole reality and nothing but the reality as reality (to borrow liberally from a well-known phrase), Neptune’s conjuncting Fomalhaut represents a period during which situations and people and life in general will set about dissolving those walls. And showing up our mistakes. And revealing the actual facts – sometimes not so gently.

The more removed we are from that reality…or from the understanding that reality is not just about us but universal, the more challenging the Pisces lesson is.

Another important point. Anyone born during these years is going to have Neptune conjunct Fomalhaut in their natal chart. And that means in their life, for a lifetime. Depending on other factors in the chart, this may suggest that child is someone capable of great discoveries. Or someone who will go on to make wonderful contributions to society.

Then again, it could describe someone who is constantly bewildered or disappointed by life. Or someone who tries to escape life itself, heaven forbid!

As soon as I say that, I know that any caring parent of such a child will want to try and shield them from every and any difficulty. But…wait! Is that good? Or will your shielding them instill a lack of reality about how life really works which will then become a difficulty for that child as they grow up?

Knowing the difference between your Neptune and that of your child – as a parent – is really important, especially as we go through this Neptune-Fomalhaut period (or should your child be born with Neptune conjunct Fomalhaut).

So a few words on that: are there books to cover this issue in particular? No, not that I’ve ever seen. There is a book called Planets in Youth which I believe is written by Robert Hand. But that isn’t going to cover Neptune-Fomalhaut as a combination, nor is it going to help with the issue of how the parent (who has their own Neptune issues) should deal with the child.

My first suggestion is that parents know their own Neptune so they don’t project their own unresolved Neptune (Neptune/Fomalhaut) issues. The better you are at sorting reality from fantasy and useful imagination from over-idealization, the better you will be able to help your child to do the same.

In other words, some of the monsters are not under your child’s bed – they’re in your parental head as indicated by Neptune in your natal chart. That we cannot teach that we do not know, means the parent who hasn’t taken on their own issues is less likely to be fabulous parents to their kids, no matter how much they love them.

Sad but true. Alas!

Life is life.

As an astrologer, I always suggest learning more. You can read here on the blog, or from other blogs or from books. You can attend conferences. You can take astrology classes. Or you can get an astrological consultation.

As pertains to consultations, just remember that accepting what you get told about your Neptune is going to be as hard as whatever your Neptune issues are.

Also – I know astrologers come in every price point and experience range. After over three decades in the metaphysical community I suggest treating your choice of astrologer rather like choosing a neurosurgeon. Who is going to open up your skull and take out your brain tumor? Would you choose someone who doesn’t have an MD?

About…oh, fifteen years ago now (time flies when you’re writing) big astrology groups around the world started certification testing. And while there are still a lot of astrologers who know their stuff but have refused to take the tests (generally on the grounds that tests only give you a basic benchmark and don’t assure an astrologer knows ‘everything’), again…don’t you want to know that your astrologer – like your neurosurgeon – has at least proven they know the basics?

There are a list of astrological organizations in the sidebar. Not everybody belongs to all of them and not everybody who belongs to them has taken or passed certification tests. But since we’re talking about Neptune (the ideal versus the illusion) here and Fomalhaut as a symbol of success which happens only where there is a standard of purity…I’ll suggest that when in doubt, you do some checking.

The Muse of Poetry

by Konstantin Makovsky (1886, oil on canvas)

As for fees, recognize what you’re paying for – and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Most astrologers have set fees for consultations. But the nature of that consultation (what it covers)? That’s probably negotiable. In this case, you might ask the astrologer if they would do a consultation on  Neptune/Fomalhaut – either in your chart, or in your chart as parent plus the chart of your child. Some astrologers will split a consultation between charts. Some won’t. When they won’t, it’s because you’re talking about two entirely different charts they have to do all the delineation of.

And a note on getting chart work on your children:  professional astrologers, tend to follow the ethics set up for medicine or psychology with regards to a child’s age. Example: where I live the age of legal ‘adulthood’ is 18. So if a parent of a 20-year-old comes to me wanting information on their child’s chart, I’m not going to be able to give them that without that child’s express permission since that child is now legally an adult.

If money is no object (or less than a critical concern, let’s put it that way!) the optimal is probably to ask for two consults - one for yourself, and one for your child. And then see if your astrologer will add comments to each consultation referring to the relationship between parent and child.

On that, there are two forms of relationship charts: the Composite and the Davison time/space chart. Having heard all the arguments and on this one, I’m just going to be an astrological stick-in-the-mud (which is hard, seeing as this is all about outer space) and say I don’t like a Composite chart for this particular use. Then again, not all astrologers know how to use Davison charts. So ask. Does your chosen astrologer use Davison charts regularly? If not, talk it through. Davisons can be a little tricky to delineate, seeing as they are not “about” a person, per se.

OKAY! That done, I return you to your regular bloggery programming….

Ideals, idols and idolatry are prime Neptune-Fomalhaut subjects. It’s been interesting (as an astrologer) to have watched the increase in ‘branding’ and ‘celebrities as authorities’ (on whatever) which has been on the rise ever since Neptune entered the zodiacal 4th quadrant back in 1984 or so.

Neptune’s passage through any sign serves to excite the ideal and exacerbate the downfall, which in the 4th quarter ‘worldly’ concept is very much akin to theme underlying George Orwell’s novel ‘1984.’ 

George Orwell press photo in 1933 from the

National Union of Journalists (BNUJ)

Foresight? Maybe. Was Orwell an astrologer? I have no idea. What I do know is that George Orwell was born with an interesting configuration: Sun conjunct Neptune, Haumea, Deucalion, Charybdis and fixed star Mirzam.

 George Orwell

June 25, 1903 - Motihari, India - LMT/-5:39:40

(no time known, horoscope cast as Aries chart)

Sun/Neptune can be complete disillusionment, or tremendous insight. It can represent great inspiration or the ultimate in wet blanketing. Probably in George Orwell’s case we got a bit of both. Deucalion (finding the moral path) and the ‘keep at it/do or die’ quality of Charybdis describes both Orwell’s life and some of the themes in his writing. (Who doesn’t believe art doesn’t imitate life?)

The real ‘trick’ with Orwell’s chart is the addition of Mirzam and Haumea to this mélange. Haumea is a Polynesian goddess who in trying to chase youth (her ideal) does all variety of things…some good and some terrible – but all of which finally get her killed. Considering this is a goddess we’re talking about, immortality is a given, so ‘killed’ becomes more of the concept of killing or having some facet of our life be ‘killed off’…or in Orwell’s case, the sacrifice (killing) of individuality (how very Neptunian a fear is that!).

To all of this we add fixed star Mirzam, a star which is all about the potential which may be glorious…but which then again, may come to nothing.

Taken altogether, these themes are very ‘Orwellian,’ as we now say. Very…“1984.”

As I say that, maybe understanding exactly this point – and that 1984 was when Neptune moved into the zodiacal fourth quadrant is eye-opener for all of us about how ‘prophesies’ or prophetic writings work?

It may be interesting to some in our brave new world of Internet connections, social media and technology that when Neptune traversed fixed star (nebula) Facies in 1988, that year saw the ‘launch’ (if you can call it that) of the very first computer worm – from MIT, of all places. (Apparently MIT giveth and MIT taketh away…)

Then in 1991, when in the disruptive company of ‘let’s change things up here’ Uranus Neptune traversed Capricorn’s famously charismatic fixed star Vega (known for its powers of persuasive or inspiring speech) the Soviet Union dissolved.

In 2005, Neptune moved across the Aquarian cross-quarter point.

This move meant that Neptune had moved from the learning about (or ‘gathering information’) section of the zodiacal 4th quarter into it’s imperative to act section – which is embodied by the second half of Aquarius (by and large societal acts which can be reacted to but not totally controlled) and Pisces. ‘Control’ and the ability to have boundaries on ‘things’ became less sure even as our ability to have control and boundaries in our own lives – thanks to social media and many other factors, also became less “focused.”

So there was more hype, less surety. More assertions based on less (or no) facts and fewer ways to contain those statements, thoughts or acts based on what had been heard.

The Neptunian fog was getting thicker. 

2006 saw a lot of things happen. It was a bad year for airplane crashes. Twitter got launched. There were a lot of wars and a general feeling of elevated threat (i.e., loss of faith in social stability) as even the nations which weren’t fighting were doing a lot of saber rattling. During that year Neptune conjuncted Sualocin, a fixed star currently positioned at 17 Aquarius which I’m thinking we should spend more time discussing. (Yes, I’m thinking again – dangerous, isn’t it?) Sualocin is a star associated with ‘tantalizing mysteries’ and ‘deeper messages’ which need to be ‘teased’ out of the broad stroke information or rhetoric.

One good example of how Sualocin would work is the 2006 ‘demotion’ of Pluto to dwarf planet status. In astronomy, there was a bit of a fluffle. But in astrology, there was frothing – out of which came the decision that no label could change what astrology had already come to understand as the ‘power of Pluto’ in astrological terms.

But did anybody immediately recognize what Pluto’s being “demoted” in astronomical terms - changing its metaphysical meaning not a jot – meant with regards to the importance of other dwarf planets?

No. And as a matter of fact, that’s still being discussed (though everybody seems to be slowly coming around). But it took a while for astrology to ‘tease’ the important reality of other dwarf planet energetics out of the tantalizing debate concerning Pluto’s label.

That was Neptune-Sualocin in conjunction.

Fomalhaut is the next major star on the list. Currently at 5 Pisces, in being conjuncted by Neptune, Deneb’s strong shamanistic qualities, combined with Fomalhaut’s Royal Star message can be seen as the highs and lows of any sort of spiritual or emotional ‘belief’ you may have…or which is embodied by some organization in world society. The upswing in interest and research in the area of  parapsychology (i.e., ghosts), replete with the dotted line which leads us to conversations about parallel dimensions or things like cloning are all in this mix. We can expect great knowledge and great misuse of knowledge now. There will be those who proclaim they know but don’t, and those who know but who don’t see themselves as important in the grand scheme of things.

For individuals…in our everyday lives, it’s probably safe to be entertained by things but not as safe to be swayed entirely by what you hear.

That world economies have been struggling seems very much about Neptune-Fomalhaut. And yes, Neptune-Deneb, too. But it’s not just about the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer – it’s about our universal regard about money, earning and loss or ‘being entitled’ to anything means. In Piscean and Neptunian terms, sometimes loss is about teaching us what really matters.

As Neptune moves across Fomalhaut, it seems likely that we will see many financial ills shown up – both at the ‘wanting’ end and at the end populated by that group known colloquially as “the have’s” There’s likely to be an exaggerated flare-up of ‘stuff-ism’ and other forms of flagrant non-necessity, at the same time as we are likely to hear of things toxic and actual toxins, human need and human charity and kindness.

Seeing that Pisces is also the sign of royalties, annuities, pensions and old age finances, Neptune-Fomalhaut is highly likely to show up great strengths and weaknesses in the structure of these financial instruments and systems.

We’re also very apt to get hyped and lied to about them. 

Considering Pisces is the sign of sexual fantasies (as opposed to physical sexuality, which is Scorpio) we are likely to hear from everyone who is anyone in these kinds of conversations: medicine, religions, those who stand for abstinence, those who believe in polygamy and those who think sex is only about procreation - and what that means in terms of real life and human realities, as opposed to philosophy, spirituality or theory.

We’re likely to hear a lot about those who are all for sex of various kinds, right out past kinky into deviant. We’re likely to hear a lot about sexual psychology and the psychology of sexuality – the good and bad and speculative of it.

As Neptune’s movements move past Fomalhaut and center more on Deneb, certain convictions will come into question. ‘Being sure’ of something which you can’t prove may become less valuable than something less exciting but more functional, more…realistic.

In short, by the time this is all over we may learn to treat ourselves with more humanity – and therefore become more able to bear being more human in this world, and with each other.

Then again, instead of accepting and working through the lumps in life’s oatmeal, we may just ignore all the creaking and groaning until the roof falls in.

Reality occurs to each of us in our own way. That’s Neptune too, especially in the sense that at some point each one of us has to realize that individuality includes the right to be wrong. Yes, even at cost – and to think that you can ‘fix’ or love someone out of their ignorance or denial is a form of denial on our own part. 
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