Our Days of Fluctuation: Pandora, Huya and Chaos on station

Pisces by Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurtionis (1907)

Last week, Chiron entered Pisces, marking a substantial shift in not so much what happens, but how we feel about what happens. In the astrological ‘pantheon,’ Chiron is always difficult simply because we can’t define what it is. All we know is that it’s difficult for you. And for him. And for that other person – and that each and every difficulty is defined by what is hard for each person to bring themselves to deal with.

Or each country.

Or each company.

Or each governing body, regime, ruler or administration.

We all have something of a ‘case of Chiron’ at the moment. That’s natural.

In the week or two ahead, you’re going to hear a lot about planets entering Pisces. Any time a ‘bunch’ of celestial bodies traverse a single sign, that’s an indicator that said sign’s precepts are more and more the focus of life’s process.

In this case, the sign is Pisces. So the ‘subject’ is the experiencing of our own feelings and/or our ability to tolerate our feelings (or reactions to the feelings of others) realistically….without abandoning all to hope, without acting out in a frenzy of venting, without simply saying ‘I don’t want to deal with that.’

Pisces is a sign of spirituality, yes. But it’s not about blind faith: it’s about acceptance. While optimism and a good attitude are good, it’s what you do with that which counts. And if you’re going to do, you had better be doing with one eye on the realities of life.

That duality is Pisces…the idealistic, optimist fish and the rational reality fish.

(Among other things – but more on that in other Pisces-oriented posts.)

Meanwhile, here we are in the latter part of Sun in conceptual Aquarius with the world posing all sorts of questions and quandaries in the attempt to get us to see what is right or wrong with the systems set up to run our life and world.

You can look at TV and it’s there. You can look in your mailbox – it’s there. You can talk to your friends and family and say ‘what’s up?’ and you’ll get an earful on what isn’t working in this world.

Somewhere along the line it may occur to you that it’s one thing to bitch and moan and another to do something about the problems. No, they’re not easy to fix, but if you don’t fix them, should you go on complaining about them?

This week, a couple of issues come into focus – mostly because we’re going to be getting some idea that we haven’t really been properly focused on those things.

Uh-oh! Oops!

The first will be represented by Atlantis retrograding back into Virgo as of February 16th at 22 minutes past midnight (UT/+0). Virgo is the sign of ‘the method.’ It’s about health, work and service and as such, involves everything from the job which you have to do (or need to get) in order to keep the lights on to health care and everyone in this world who proverbially “keeps the lights on” (i.e., runs, designs or builds infrastructure) or who works in some ‘serving’ or ‘service’ capacity in order to keep our lives going. Medical workers, members of the military, civil servants, and every support member of any corporate process is included in this group.

In some way…probably most of us (if not all of us!) fit in this group. But yes, some more than others – certainly!

The story of Atlantis is an interesting one which starts with this person feeling like an outcast with regards to the group they really, really want to feel part of. Along comes the magical chance: give all this up and surrender utterly to that you think will prove your destruction and you will find happiness. 

In the story, the person gives in (yes, tearfully) and they not only survive walking into the ocean’s depths, they find in those depths the very society and company they had been longing for….and thus they come to live happily ever after.

Anyone notice the similarity between this story and Chiron? Both ask that we do the thing we don’t know how to do…or think we can’t do. And through doing what we apparently need to do instead of what we want to do or feel comfortable doing, we discover the thing which actually makes us happy.

Atlantis is moving back into earthy, earthly, real life, real deal Virgo. Chiron has just moved into watery, emotional, self-confrontational Pisces.

In Virgo, we face how to deal with the thing, the other, the process or the world. In Pisces, we face dealing with ourselves and how we feel about life.

And for now, that’s all I’m going to say about that!

But we’re not done…come 10:33am on February 17th, asteroid Pandora goes direct at 3 Cancer, a degree which talks about the ‘misfit in one’s own home.’

That’s what we need…more problems with alienation, right? Yet considering what’s going on in the world, there’s a distinct tone of aptness to this ‘turn of eventualities.’

Remembering how celestial bodies in direct motion suggest prompting which comes through external means and that Pandora is about ‘every ill in the world’ we can expect to feel like life and people and things are trying to inflict stuff on us. But is the reality simply that we haven’t dealt with our own ill feelings? That which isn’t in us to be provoked doesn’t arise, right? So what is all this Pandora stuff about?

 /

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Pandora by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1881)
 

Where we are dealing with ills, this would be where they would surface, particularly as that concerns not feeling ‘at home’ in some part of our life, our world, or in our own skin. Conversely, it’s a good time to deal with same since the last thing in Pandora’s box is hope.

It also pays to remember that where Pandora is concerned, it’s not just the ills she unleashes which are the point of the story – the story is really about our curiosity. So…how curious are you? Do you stifle your curiosity about the ills in your world …personal or global? If so, is that an ill right there?

Oh, that Dame Denial! She does get into us, doesn’t she?

This Pandora turn happens about twenty hours  before this month’s Full Moon. So emotions are on the rise anyway. And giving this station its two-day before-and-after ‘station leeway,’ that means Pandora’s station effects begin late on the 14th or early on February 15th, depending on where you live.

And no – that’s not all.

Come 6:40 in the afternoon on February 18th (UT/+0), TNO Chaos goes direct at 11 Gemini, an emotional degree, a mental degree, an expressive degree. Chaos itself is not the ‘messiness’ we associate with the modern word, but the sense of the Chaos – the primal well of undefined and unbounded possibility.

Hesiod and the Muse (Chaos)

by Gustave Moreau (1826-1890)

TNOs being defined as bodies which orbit way out there in the iciness realms beyond Neptune (hence the term Trans Neptunian Objects), like other TNOs Chaos refers to something we intrinsically ‘know’ exists, but which we get reminded of from time to time.

This would be one of those times.

Again, giving this station its two-day before-and-after station leeway period, the effects of Chaos going direct begin on February 16th and end on the 18th. That means they start just after Atlantis backs into Virgo and overlaps the highly emotional period of Pandora going direct and the Full Moon, too.

So far we have that Atlantis in Virgo/Chiron in Pisces teeter-totter going on…and Pandora going direct in Cancer, a sign which likes security.

Pandora denoting security? Uh…only if we’re really ready to accept and face ourselves.

But maybe that’s the point?

Those who can will like as not be able to see and use the TNO Chaos station/direct period as a time to really fuel their cause. Or bring together some idea. Or see where they are going and how to capitalize on what they now know, are learning, are figuring out.

And no, that’s not all either!

Come just after midnight on February 19th, the Sun will enter Pisces. (By the by…you can expect full blogs on the Full Moon and the Sun entering Pisces – we aren’t hardly covering those effects in this blog!)

This solar-Pisces ingress occurring in the wake of Chaos going direct but certainly still within the realm of its station allowance says one thing. In fact, it says a whole lot about what it’s possible for us to learn and/or realize about ourselves and others during this series of days.

But we’re not done yet! Come 1:29pm on February 19th (UT/+0), a certain TNO/Plutino named Huya will go retrograde.

Huya represents the energy of ‘the rainmaker.’ It’s about what we do for others which in the end, feeds us. I like using Oprah Winfrey as the near-perfect example of how Huya functions. (And no, Oprah, I’m not saying you’re an icy celestial body orbiting beyond Neptune!) It’s just that Oprah’s youth gave her the motivation to try and motivate others. And because she helps enrich their lives, they enrich hers.

 A rain shaft pierces a tropical sunset as seen from Man-of-War Bay

photo credit: Mary Hollinger for NOAA (1980)

That’s the rainmaker principle.

Going retrograde at 17 Scorpio, Huya is asking us what we can do for others. It begins asking us this on the 17th and continues prompting us all the way through the 21st – when though you don’t know it yet, Mercury enters Pisces.

Huya’s station enfolds the Full Moon. And Chaos’ going direct, suggesting that those who are involved in doing something ‘giving’ will see their lives (or efforts) prospering now.

Huya generally asks what we know about ourselves in a somewhat more factual way than say, Chiron does. But in the interactive sign of Scorpio (and in Scorpio’s most emotional decan) it does challenge us to ask ourselves whether our means, methods and most of all, goals are entirely valid.

Scorpio being emotional and interactive, it’s the sign of where we deal with others in all those many venues where we’re hoping to achieve our “desires” – whatever they may be. But where they don’t satisfy both sides (or everyone, in the case of a group), Scorpio inevitably leads to failure, rejection and alienation.

Often that’s bad. But just as often that’s merely a lesson about what we’re trying to do. Is it up to standards? Or maybe we need to examine our own motivations (speaking of Huya…!).

And all this happens as the Sun moves into Pisces and – (guess what?) – meets up with Chiron.

Thus we are back at the beginning of the story.

These are days of reconnoitering. Of reconsidering. Of fluctuation in our lives. Hopefully they’ll inspire fluctuations in how we see ourselves and our possibilities, and thus what we do with our lives.

If not…there’s always more Pisces to come. Where we join with others, Pisces embraces us. Where we live in a world of personal delusions or denials, Pisces captures us.

Which would you rather be: captivating or a captive? It’s all about who we are...and who that person is willing to want to become enough to decide that's who they need to dedicate themselves to being.

Deucalion, Rigel and Agamemnon: Reassessing Our Guides, Guidance & Guidelines

 The Flood (or) Deucalion Holding Aloft his Wife by Paul Merwait (1855-1902)

People think someone who would sit down to write this kind of blog must know everything before they start.

Yes, you should know what you’re doing pretty much before you set out to do something as technical as online astrology chat…but the truth is I’ve learned an incredible amount by writing this blog.

I’d say it was a humbling process if I was just a bit more conscious of it. That’s the way a lot of learning functions in our life. There’s the work, the effort, the typing or reading or thinking about it….then there comes a moment when you realize you just understand what you know. 

That’s the object of Rigel, a fixed star currently positioned at 16 Gemini, which sounds a bit contradictory…and which is a bit contradictory. The term ‘fixed star’ refers to a point which is more or less fixed. Fixed stars all move…just very, very slowly. And in the case of Rigel, that’s pretty darn fixed. Let’s put it this way…I’m heading towards sixty and it hasn’t moved a full degree since the day I was born. It’s about to…yes.

And that’s a big deal. But it hasn’t gotten there yet.

The lore about Rigel is that of ‘sitting at the foot of the teacher.’ And while we often take that to indicate a point in the chart which is about learning, its also about what and how we teach. It’s about the medium and the venue in which we teach.

It’s about how we learn.

At 6:37pm (UT/+0) on February 9th, Agamemnon goes direct at 16 Gemini – the current degree of Rigel. Agamemnon being about strength and determination (and sometimes stubbornness!) the shift from retrograde to direct in part talks to us about how we should take what we know or have learned (the Rigel part) and go do something with it in the world.

Direct is worldly, pro-active and/or external…retrograde is personal, reflective and internal.

Lest you think that this doesn’t apply to you – it does. And that it applies at 16 Gemini also tells us that this is a choice. Specifically, an emotional choice, which means it can be an emotionally driven choice, a choice about how to harness/use your emotional drives, or a choice which is about moving towards something which (perhaps in time) will affect the emotions of others.

You decide which one is better, okay?

Like as not, Agamemnon’s presence in this moment will for most speak to something they really believe in – making this time about emotional convictions. But with Chiron having moved into Pisces scarcely twenty-four hours ago, there is also the definite possibility that situations of the moment are very Chirotic (yes, that’s the term) in that they are asking (forcing?) you to go beyond your comfort zone.

Seeing as we just had a grand and specific chat about Chiron in Pisces in our last post, that seems enough to say. Except of course, that there is something of a Chiron note being sounded by the fact that at 5:05am (UT/0+) – also on February 9th – TNO Deucalion goes retrograde.

Still one of the lesser discussed celestial objects, Deucalion hasn’t seemed to make a ‘big splash’ astrologically – maybe because the myth of Deucalion isn’t what one would call particularly “juicy.” While it’s interesting and very much applicable to the astronomical object in astrological terms, the theme is about being a good person – finding the moral path. And frankly, most folks don’t find that terribly exciting. Risk gets people going. Doing the right thing, even when we know that in the end that’s what’s going to get us where we want to go…that’s somewhere between not so exciting and one giant yawn.

But of note here perhaps is the idea that this maybe unexciting Trans Neptunian Object, Deucalion, is a Cubewano. A lot of the TNOs we tend to talk about are Plutinos – objects which orbit under the control (aka magnetic resonance) of Neptune. Neptune is sexy. Neptune is about idealism and fantasies, dreams and despair. Neptune is an astrological patron planet of artists and sensualists alike, carrying with it all the bizarreness, the wonder, the awe, ecstasy and despair we associate with seers, gurus, martyrs, and the human artist.

Deucalion is none of that. Deucalion orbits on its own, from which we take the concept that we must find the solution to this human quandary on our own. Orbiting beyond Neptune, this is not a quotient we can ever fully define – it’s just something that we know, especially in those ‘Deucalion moments’ when finding the ‘right way’ comes to be a matter of consideration. Or discussion. Or relief. Or regret.

With an orbit 295.54 years in length (for comparison, Neptune’s orbit is 164.79 years long, Pluto’s is 248 years long) humans don’t live – at least at this point in time – through an entire Deucalion orbit. As with such points, the implication is that we can’t know everything – nor should we assume we do know everything. Or even that we can!

So Deucalion is going retrograde. It’s going retrograde at 10 Scorpio, a curious degree which embodies deception – but deception rather of a non-malicious terms, such as we might ascribe to the actor playing a part. Given this is Scorpio we are talking about, there is an interactive emotionality being referred to here, suggesting it’s hard to pin anyone down now. Or that we should accept what people say, knowing they’re ‘playing a part.’ Given that this is Deucalion we are talking about, there’s a definite theme about keeping one’s word, and with Deucalion now on station going direct, considering what that means is of the moment.

It’s also to contemplate going forward.

Given all this, what do we really know? What do we have yet to learn. Have we jumped at assuming we understand the fullness of why someone is saying or doing something…or why they said or did it?

Maybe yes, maybe no. Certainly with Chiron having just moved into Pisces there are emotional considerations on the table. And which will continue being raised until we get that feelings are truly universal – and that though its hard enough to deal with our own, one of the reason why that’s so hard is that we tend to be pretty good students and not as often good teachers.

Teachers, after all, have to put up with ignorance and bad behavior born of immaturity and not knowing any better. If we are our own teachers – which surely we are once we learn how to learn – doesn’t that mean we should always be on the lookout for better answers?

And if we won’t look…? Maybe I should mention that February 9th also features the Moon conjunct Eris, both in third decanate Aries position. With all 3rd decan positions being about how life ‘votes’ on what we are or how we’ve done, that says we’re all in for a dose of feedback. Maybe on who we are, maybe on how well our world is doing, maybe all of the above and much, much more.

What we do with it…? That remains to be seen. But with Deucalion retrograde until July, this is a season all about deciding what we believe in, who we allow to decide for us and what kinds of guidelines we think suitable to follow.

And no, that’s no yellow brick road – think again!

Oh...and one more thing. That this is all happening as Drakonia goes on station? That adds a whole dash of 'are you kidding?' to the mix.

The 'kid' reference can be the 'joshing, fooling' in a fun sense, but then again, what one person thinks of as fun may not be funny at all in your world!

Because this is Drakonia going into retrograde, these couple of days before the actual moment of station would tend to be about things which have as yet not 'played out.' But will they? Or are we being played?

That would be the question. 

 For a full length article on Deucalion (posted at Daykeeper Journal): click here