Typhon/Eurydike - Chiron/Psyche: Minding Stations

A forest of synthetic pyramidal dendrites grown using Cajal's laws of neuronal branching

(photo credit: Hermann Cuntz, PLoS Computational Biology Vol 6, August 2010)

It was something about Mercury going retrograde and the near-instantaneous confrontation with a disruption of body, car and finances which (as I lay there trying to think of things to think about while not sleeping) got me to thinking about Typhon.

(Okay, it’s terribly astrological of me. But what do you think about when it’s the middle of the night and you can’t sleep?)

Anyway, physicality, money, transportation...these are the most basic of basics in modern survival. Even with all our technology some things just come back to our Self.

And that - plus any event or thing which gets us to think in terms of basics or to experience them (recognize them, etc.) is the essence Typhon. Typhon is the object which brings us back to the ‘instinctual level’...and which in doing so asks us whether we are just instinctual creatures, what instinct is (or isn’t) good or bad - considering our truest aims - to accede to or to resist...

...or whether we are going to ‘master’ not others, but our Self - a Typhon quality which is rather easily seen and quite possibly more of an issue at the moment as Typhon transits airy Libra, sign of relating and (along with Aries) the most ‘projection-prone’ of signs simply because Libra asks us to reconcile our sense of Self to that Self through what we learn or encounter in others or life as a whole.

And this issue of Typhon transiting Libra, that isn’t any short term transit. Typhon’s orbit (around the Sun) is some 235 years in length, giving us an average of 19.5 years in any given thirty-degree sign - of which we have only thus far experienced 13 of those degrees.

...Which brings us back to 13 Libra, a degree which tends to increase focus and emphasis on others with something of an ‘all good/all bad’ sort of ‘black-and-white’ quality which when active tends to react rather purely in terms of whether the good ‘expectation’ has been met without all that much cognizance that the expectations are not only not fact, but they are one of the premier ways humans challenge their Self to be realistic - and thus to achieve that wholeheartedly Libra thing, namely the satisfying of one’s aims through others, interactions, situations and joint/joined efforts.

So as Typhon goes direct on June 19th (UT/+0) we can all expect some sort of experience which is basic. And though the reasons why we do or don’t do something may seem like the object (and may well be important in their own right) the real ‘Typhon question’ is likely to be more about our experience of who we are when all else is stripped away - and how our regards for...or our lack of regard - for others and the world around us can so color all we achieve.

Or don’t achieve, depending.

 A diagram of the orbit of TNO Typhon

(credit: NASA-JPL)

 

Where Typhon is concerned, there’s no doubt but that we will react from instinct. The question is whether we will realize it as such and - if we do recognize that fact - whether we will parse or moderate instinct through the use of more ‘modern’ (as opposed to primal) or intellectual means as we sort through that good old axiomatic metaphysical rule about life: what happens isn’t about ‘them’ so much as it’s about us.

As the old adage says, it’s not what happens, it’s how we respond to it, react to it, and what we learn from it which counts.

Under Libra we learn about ourselves through external means - and until we reckon ‘cause’ with ‘effect’ we aren’t likely to win our own respect, love or satisfaction in the long run.

Furthermore, since life seems to have a trés bizarre sense of humor (especially of late, she says with an admitted degree of personal concern) this Typhon station isn’t ‘one-and-done’ simple. No, this is not just about Typhon (just?) as Typhon isn’t going direct all by its celestial self on June 19th. Instead, as Typhon goes direct at 13 Libra, Eurydike is also going direct at 27 Libra.

Oh, what an airy, airy world - or at least it’s likely to feel like one as life becomes all about ‘the idea’ or our ‘concept’ of what’s true or not true at all sorts of interesting and variable levels throughout this (June 17-21) joint station.

And when one adds Typhon to the Eurydike ‘know the cost’ (or simply ‘the cost of’) vibe, the results are obvious - the cost of basics...and knowing them, understanding them, accepting them - whether that means having them, needing them or having ignored them...whether in past tense, present tense or something which works out to being happy or rather personally tense about the future.  

In combination, this energy can be personal and pragmatic - but that would seem to require a degree of pragmatism. Why? That would be because 27 Libra has a reputation for things which are difficult to move through in part because they flex and change at every step along the way combined with their tendency to be unmoved by short-term influence - a quality which may manifest as anything from annoyance to frustration to sheer dismay in the charts of those with 13 Libra highlighted.

(Note: this would mean anyone with any planet/dwarf planet, axis or node between 8 and 18 Libra, Aries, Capricorn or Cancer - and/or - those with points or planets between 11 and 15 degrees of Pisces or Virgo.)

If those points are highlighted, the ‘Typhon effect’ will be strong, against which we would expect any astrologically underscored placement of Eurydike would indicate fluctuation(s) which may or may not be important, but which may well seem important - sending us back to that ‘need for internal I/thou’ balance so common with 13 Libra.

(With regards to Eurydike’s effect, look for points between 22 Libra and 1 Scorpio...22 Aries and 1 Taurus...22 Cancer and 1 Leo, or 22 Capricorn and 1 Aquarius.)

There is a ‘stability’ quotient associated with 27 Libra, there may appear to be a promise of the ability or embodiment of some sort of ‘inner harmony’ which is difficult to define if no less real for that. It’s an elusive, hard to pin down quality which when combined with Typhon and 13 Libra’s reputation for difficulties with others based on difficulties with reconciliation of desire against (life’s often rather mundane) realities.

It would seem to be a recipe which may well manifest through eruptions where at the most basic level there may well be the least to worry about - which of course will create rebuttals, reactions and responses from that which is being disrupted in theory or because of theory - much of which reflects the Typhon’s current 13 Libra placement.

Typhon entered 13 Libra (in retrograde) back on June 4th - and because the sign is Libra, and because like Taurus, Libra is ruled by Venus there is (and has been) an ongoing ‘reference’ which sort of ‘ties’ things which have been going on...not always literally, but certainly thematically...with (you know what I’m going to say, right?) the 8 Taurus Solar Eclipse which occurred back in April.

(Just call it the eclipse which refuses to go away.)

Furthermore, let’s also remember that all this not-so-merriment is occurring under Mercury retrograde, so while we need to be working through things which are already on the table (or in action, on our plate, in focus, already challenging us, etc.)...and while there may be perfectly good reasons to be investigating options which either pertain to matters at hand or something you’re thinking of doing as/once Mercury goes direct on July 1st....

In short, Mercury retrograde is yet another way of bringing things home to us as things we need to deal with in terms of how we think, how we operate, how we regard others and in all those many and varied ways we rise and fall, gain or fail, learn or reject others and/or the standards of the world (or you particular ‘audience,’ be they personal, professional, private or public).

And just to make this very plain (even in some cases unpleasantly so), Mercury’s retrograde motion will move it back out of Cancer and into Gemini exactly as the Typhon/Eurydike station comes entirely into play (as opposed to the mental roughing up it’s represented over the past several weeks).

That’s right...Mercury returns to Gemini at 10:05 a.m. on June 17th (UT/+0 time) - setting an alarm clock (of sorts) which re-emphases issues of ‘choice,’ whether that’s the choice we make or have made, whether we will choose to be involved in any given thing, or whether we have simply changed our mind.

Such things do happen, after all. And providing those changes reflect enlightenment and a broadening of the mental basis upon which choice is made, Gemini (and Mercury) generally honor that...give or take all those ongoing post-eclipse upheavals and evolutions of things we didn’t want to hear (see, say, do) and which we surely didn’t want to have to deal with when thrust upon us.

Take heart - Venus will soon (as in next week) be exiting Taurus. No guarantees are being offered on this opinion, but it would be likely that much of the toxic subterranean upwelling (internal and external) will begin subsiding about then.

(And you may be assured I will be among the grateful about that.)

As for the second station pairing of the week, that would involve centaur Chiron and asteroid Psyche. Of these two, Chiron is certainly far the more famous, astrologically speaking. Yet being that in terms of mass asteroid Psyche is fully 1% of the entire known and total mass of all the many thousands of asteroids out there...Psyche’s no slouch in the ‘importance in life’ department.

Theoretically (this being metaphysical theory we’re talking about) all asteroids which reside in the main asteroid belt refer to things we will meet up with on our way from initiation, inception or assertion (Mars) and to understanding all the many things which make things work in the Big Picture rather than in our head, among our friends or (more or less) locally - that being the metaphysical Jupiterian notion.

In going on station at 20 Aquarius, Psyche represents the bridging or separating (the ‘divides’) between the individual and the group or some sub-set of a whole and the whole itself. If you have any planet, dwarf planet, nodal or axis point positioned between 15 and 25 Aquarius, Leo, Scorpio or Taurus...(or) 18 to 22 degrees of Virgo or Cancer, there is likely to be a notable ‘Psyche effect’ in your life about now - not that everyone else won’t be affected, but Psyche does seem to have a quality which works most effectively (in terms of long-term growth and productivity) through hard aspects.

(Translation: tough moments.)

The Sabian symbol for 20 Aquarius (‘A DISAPPOINTED AND DISILLUSIONED WOMAN COURAGEOUSLY FACES A SEEMINGLY EMPTY LIFE’) being less about gender and more about our individual ability/need to respond or accept - which Psyche and Aquarius (in being an air sign) plainly states is about some mental process, concept, thought or judgment (decision) - all of which operates on some societal or social level. And when we add in astrologer Marc Edmund Jones’ comment on this image (‘the capacity to meet emotionally upsetting experiences in human relationships with strength of character and personal integrity’) there would seem to be a ringing echo of Typhon at 13 Libra, if from a more mental and less visceral perspective with some emphasis on the experiencing of our own vision or expectation against why it won’t (or hasn’t) worked - or proved true.

With Psyche going retrograde, thoughts turn inward. And seeing as Psyche is going retrograde in tandem with Chiron doing the same thing in Pisces, the Aquarius/Pisces (Psyche/Chiron) combination describes an uncomfortable ‘encounter’ of that which can be conceived of in the abstract and the experience of the human reality, replete with all that often inconvenient (and uncomfortable) emotional vulnerability being human requires.

In this combo, Chiron represents the ‘wounded healer’ - or that we can do, but which we don’t want to (and don’t know how to) get ourselves to move through, even if that’s the only way we can learn our Chirotic truths. Chiron always asks that we ‘own’ something about or in our Self, and that something is always something we feel terribly inept about.

Are we inept? Maybe yes, maybe no - that’s not the Chiron issue. Chiron always involves something we love to tell others how to do but which we’re less than adept with in our own life - and sometimes that can manifest as looking hypocritical. Or even manipulative. When we ‘act out’ in a Chiron manner people tend to wonder why we don’t understand that all we have to do is....(insert concept)...to which we tend to react to with frustration.

Speaking of which (frustration, that is) because Chiron going retrograde at 17 Pisces says we will never be able to depend on others until we find our own inner independence. Those with axis points, nodes or planets/dwarf planets positioned between 12 and 22 degrees of Pisces, Virgo, Sagittarius or Gemini (along with those with chart points between 15 and 19 degrees of Libra or Leo) will feel the Chiron side of this dual-station more acutely than others, but everyone is bound to get a ‘dose’ of need to act which is strangely confronted by not being quite sure that you know what to do just to that degree which knocks you off your game.

With Chiron, it’s that inner insecurity with ourselves which gets to us...and not making this any more simple is the fact that 20 Aquarius is generally thought of as a problematic degree which needs a constructive outlet, lest pent-up energies, frustrations and in particular, the sense that you’re not being heard manifest as physical illness. 20 Aquarius has a reputation for connections to spinal nervous system (one I can vouch for personally and currently), so if problems arise, have them checked out. Given the centaur nature of this point there is always a tendency to ‘do what’s easy’ and resort to physical assertion (even aggression) rather than requiring ourselves to temper our willfulness with a healthy dose of thinking things through so that we will assert thoughtfully when and where necessary.

These days we are moving through are the last days of Sun in Gemini for 2014. As noted before, there is a common ‘descent into mental pressure’ which occurs at this time as part of the shift from Gemini (the last sign in the natural zodiac’s first quadrant) into Cancer as the first experience of having to (or needing to learn now to) move from mentality into emotionality and from the more egocentric world of personal learning (the I-Me-My Idea orientation towards life) into a world where we need to respond to others as part of learning how to get along - and ultimately achieve in life.

Against all this, 0 Cancer is the degree of the mid-year Solstice: Earth coming into a moment of ‘balanced illumination.’

So all of this...the earliest part of the week with its coloration of Typhon/Eurydike going direct (indicating facing things in the world) against Psyche/Chiron turning retrograde (indicating the need to think through why things mean what they do to us) is all about coming into balance - most of all with our Self.
.
.
.

Mercury in Gemini

When Mercury enters Gemini at 8:02 in the evening (UT/+0) on June 2nd, the ‘vibration’ or awareness of what is going on in your life (and life in general) will like as no, amp up a notch or two.

At this moment, House (representing how ‘at home’ we feel in life and with our life in particular) is just behind Mercury at 29 intense degrees of Taurus. With Taurus’ ruler (Venus) in Taurus and widely conjunct Mars there’s either a ‘divide’ or a ‘split’ in our thinking…or in what we have versus what we want.

Whether it’s your thoughts which are split here (should I do this…or that?) or your interests are divided…or you’re feeling ever more left behind OR wanting not to have to deal with those who aren’t “like” you (or in favor of what you like)…that’s the first big defining qualifier of the moment.

The second thing to consider is how Amor (platonic love, friendship) is conjunct Eos and Athena (dispassionate wisdom)…with all three points just ahead of Mercury’s ingress. This is a position astrology denotes generally – and especially when associated with the Sun – as a ‘leading factor.’

  Mercury enters Gemini, June 2 (2011) 8:02pm (UT/+0)

(Aries Wheel - Location not Specific)

I didn’t define Eos in that listing for a reason. Literally known in Greek terms as ‘the dawn,’ Eos is a nymph who born of deep ocean waters (instinctual emotion), runs ahead of Apollo (the truth of enlightenment) and his chariot. Thus Eos is an image either of where instinctive enlightenment ‘dawns’ on us…or where some emotional instinct causes us to try and stay ahead of (Apollo) truth.

If some internal instinct is causing you to try and not meet up with truth, yesterday’s solar eclipse would seem to be the sign that not only is this a good time to voluntarily deal with reality…but that whatever your wall of avoidance is/is made of, it’s about to or already in the process of cracking and falling away.

The combination of Eos, Athena and the eclipse? Revealing the truth. This may be about you, it may be about your choices, relationships, some situation you’ve gotten yourself into, some tact or position you have taken on something…truth is being revealed – or about to be revealed.

And let’s remember here…with the Sun at 11 Gemini, this whole Mercury grouping is behind the Sun. That ‘trailing’ position can be seen as something ‘catching up with us’ and/or as an indicator that there is something emotional ‘behind-the-scene’ which needs dealing with.

With today’s Sun conjunct Edisona this is a good time to ‘get the idea’…and when certainly the idea of ‘dawning clarity’ seems apt.

There are also some interesting patterns in the works. Uranus having just hit 4 Aries puts it in opposition to the point Saturn went retrograde at back in January 2010 (4 Libra). Did you have some sort of ‘major turn’ of events back in early 2010? This wouldn’t have been applicable in every life, but for those who have a ‘critical Saturn’ in their natal chart? Or those for whom 4 degrees of any sign is focal (or within focal orb)? For you something evolved back then and for you, something will again be evolving now.

This being a global blog, it’s pretty hard to keep track of every country and every nationally influential figure and head of state. But being American myself, it seems natural to comment (not to mention notable as a piece of the greater global reality) that this Uranus/Saturn 4 Aries/Libra ‘thing’ is very much conjunct the Chart USA 5 Libra Moon, 1 Libra Black Moon Lilith and the associated/opposing Diadem (crowning glory), Neptune (illusion), Sedna (struggles with immaturity) sort of issues.

  Chart USA - April 9, 1965 - Appomattox, VA

Not to mention how many ‘in-power’ political charts are being hit by the solar eclipse and this Uranus/post-Saturn factor and how the Lunar Nodes are counting down (backwards, as they always do) in Sagittarius and Gemini.

 /

Link to CHART USA - Part One

Mercury rules Gemini: the ability to choose, and to learn (thus ‘choose to learn’). Mercury also rules Virgo, where asteroid Juno – a big honking asteroid to be sure – is currently running in tandem with Atlantis. The combination would seem to be about that old commercial slogan: ‘try it, you’ll like it!’ which in turn implies there’s a lot of resistance against trying things.

In this Mercury ingress picture, we have Moon exactly conjunct the lunar South Node. Plainly we want what we want. That will is so strong that it’s plainly possible for us to be facing a period in which people will cause ruin because they simply don’t want to give up what they want.

This goes back to a conversation I once had with my cousin, a strong-minded woman who swore she had found THE BEST HOUSE in the whole world. She wanted to buy that house like nobody’s business.

So she gets with me on the phone and she yammers and insists and stamps her feet (verbally) and does all that people do when they’re absolutely, positively sure they’re right. 

‘It’s the very best house in the whole world!’ Her long distance pronouncement about broke my ear drum.

Unphased, I asked her one simply question: ‘does this imply you’ve actually SEEN every house in the whole wide world?’ 

Answer: of course not. So could she know that something else wouldn't work for her better or thrill her heart even more? No!

That sort of wanting to see only what we want to see (or know) against what is actually true or at least acknowledged – that is part of the solar eclipse, an eclipse which being in Gemini, is all about the Mercury choice. The Mercury thought process. The Mercurial opinion. The Mercurial arguing with ourselves and how, when debating things with others we may veer between wanting to make the point and wanting to be right.

Mercury’s transit of Gemini is going to be startlingly short: it enters Gemini on June 2nd and moves on into Gemini on June 16th. That’s two short weeks.

We should suspect they’re going to be busy. We should do our best to stay organized and on schedule. We should be prepared to be confronted with many things which need thinking through…but which also need to be dealt with right away. That today is when TNO Typhon goes direct tells us life is going to be 'throwing things at us' which mean a lot, which affect us vitally.

Priorities now count. The goal has to be kept in mind as the aim, but we must also bear in mind that while we aim for perfection, perfection is a process.

Metaphysically, we can expect a lot of events and situations and news reflective of the solar eclipse to surface now and especially once Venus also moves into Gemini on June 9th – at which point the value of what we chose to do against the cost of doing…or not doing it will be greatly emphasized.

Let’s also be aware that Saturn will go direct during this Mercury passage through Gemini. That’s a sure sign of things hitting home in reality…and our need to adjust our thinking out of theoretical and idyllic into here-and-now, ‘who people are in reality’ sort of mode.

We aren’t going to like everything which comes to mind or becomes evident now…but we will be better if we deal with it – in full.

Dateblog: The Week Ahead (May 29-June 4)

 Creation of the world XII by Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis (1906/07)

With last week having uncovered what we don’t like, this week starts the process of what are we going to do about it? 

Mind you, the ‘what we don’t like’ part could be about ourselves – or the world around us. Or someone we know. Or how something we’ve been working on has turned out – or been received with less than sterling applause.

Last week’s Hybris and Nessus going retrograde in Aquarius was reflected in comparisons with others and dismissiveness of or from others.

But give us all a few days and most people get down off their high horse, whether that steed is named Resentment, Don’t Push or Missed the Mark.

To reflect once emotions settle down a bit…that’s just human nature. But have we forgotten? Probably not. Moments which have not gone as planned (or expected) will still be stuck to the side walls of our mind…and as we mentally pass by, they catch our attention. Some stick their tongues out at us, others are merely pinned to the constructs of our consciousness all crumpled and sad.

May 29th is a day of asteroids changing signs. Athena and Eos are first…signaling a ‘dawning’ (Eos) of new perspective which allowed us to reconsider and begin to move on from our ‘ouches’ to possible solutions for same.

After all, our aims are still our aims. So…how to get from here to there?

As Athena moves into Gemini, we know we need to understand. And we know we need to choose better if we are to get the results that we really want. That this change happens only a couple of days in advance of a Gemini Solar Eclipse is part of the whole ‘description’ being given to us on the astrological level about the changes which are necessary in our personal life – and life all around us. Athena in Gemini points to the need to make decisions based on knowing (acquiring the information from which to make a decent choice), a lack of emotionality (in a more logical and less passionate mode) and that the knowing person (the “Athena” mind) knows that choices must be made (dithering forever or stonewalling is not a solution)…that choices have consequences (Sagittarius as polarity sign to Gemini) and that once you make a choice, following through on that choice making adjustments as you go is part of the whole Gemini/Sagittarius mutable lesson. Just because you encounter a bump in the road does not mean the choice of that road is faulty. We weather the bump, we then move on.

Life is not smooth. The road of life is bumpy!

Eos makes this shift at 1:43pm, followed by Athena moving into Gemini at 1:44pm (both UT/+0).

About four hours pass, then at 5:59pm (UT/+0) Klotho – a signature of beginnings and bringing thing into being – enters Cancer.

With two solar eclipses about to happen successively in Gemini and Cancer, this ‘what am I going to do with or about my life?’ question is going around like a case of extremely contagious itchiness. At this point many are still caught up in the what-to-do, how-to-do-it more Gemini part of the question, but the Cancer realization that this is…

1. A time of opportunity. You can make something of yourself now.

and,

2. A time when what we do with our lives is going to determine how we live and basic options we will or won’t have in years to come.

….all that Cancer ‘this is important!’ stuff is really beginning to bubble up from within – Klotho (beginnings) hitting this point is an indication of how such issues are ‘rising to the surface.’

How will we cope? Well, in one of several ways. Some are likely to live through a period of what Thoreau so elegantly referred to as ‘quiet desperation.’ Others will go back and forth, torn by restless, logic-versus-emotion tug of war. Then there are others who really know what they need to do in order to get where they want to be. Those people will now begin moving into a new phase of laying (Cancer) groundwork, getting (Gemini) information and in general, organizing (or reorganizing) their (Gemini/Cancer) plan.

And if you catch from that last bit that the best thing we can do is fuse need and logical process into a plan to get us where we want to go, you get a cookie!

(And yes, a glass of milk with which to wash it down.)

As for Klotho against Eos/Athena, the signs and differences in time suggest that we get the ‘idea’ (Eos/Athena) then set about figuring out how to ‘spin it’ into reality – Klotho being the first of the Greek Fates and she who spins the thread out of ‘a raw yarn’ (the rough idea).

To illuminate this briefly and personally: you’re seeing changes here at astroPPM. They’re a result of my having learned a lot by push the ‘blog-bounds’ for myself and (quite honestly) the astrological community throughout the last year.

In doing that, I’ve learned much about astrology and timing (using astrology to time things) a bundle about blogging and a bushel and then some about the generalities of operating on the web.

That’s all very Gemini.

Against this is what I’ve also realized about what I need to do going forward in order to take care of myself. You heard one fluffle about this back in December as the Sun moved past the 29 Sagittarius (Sag being opposite Gemini) into Capricorn, the sign in opposition to Cancer.

Cancer is about all we consider basic: family, homeland, upbringing and culture. The roof over our head and how we make our way in the world - that's all very Cancerian.

For me, that Capricorn 'opposition' point was when I really began considering how to work this blog so as to give you the information you want while working to put a fiction work which has and is my goal into print.

We had a Capricorn eclipse in January...which we've seen has been about every form of 'how life/my life is structured' around. Now we face off against that: the picture moves from the worldly (governments, rulers, public demonstrations) into the realm of the local and personal.

 Solar Eclipse of June 1, 2011, 9:04pm (UT/+0) at 11 Gemini

Aries Wheel - Location Not Specific

As I experimented, I came up with the monthly Dateblog idea. That's been sufficiently popular that now I’m broadening its use so you can continue getting your astro-trend information while I get more space in which to write different kinds of posts…plus have time/energy left with which to edit my book.

We work in cycles. I keep saying that and this is a pretty good example of how such things evolve. With Uranus now in Aries poised against our June 1st Gemini solar eclipse…that spells “opportunity.” But it’s the sort of opportunity which only comes to life when we each ‘seize the moment’ and learn to operate the parameters of whatever it is we’re going after.

Uranus’ impending square-by-sign to the July 1st Cancer solar eclipse? That challenges us to break out of old molds. They may be comfy, but even from where we sit, we can see they can’t last (or work)  forever.

With that much said…

May 30th has asteroid Amor moving into Gemini at 9:55am (UT/_0). Amor is ‘warmth’ as opposed to Eros, which is passion. Think friendship instead of lovers and companions or compatriots as opposed to partners.

With the Moon moving into Taurus at 1:03pm (UT/+) in anticipation of its Gemini eclipse moment on Wednesday there is a quality of ‘worth’ (or worthiness) getting tossed around here. People who have self-worth problems are likely to feel quite agitated in ways which very much point to unresolved issues which they’d like to think are about others (or “their fault”) but which in reality have to do with a lack of respect for Self. When something about us doesn’t ring ‘right’ with us, we struggle. When we are unable to face the facts and deal with them, we hurt.

Feelings of helplessness or frustration with being unable to ‘get it right’ are likely to pop up now. Try to find the real source. No, it won’t be easy.

Try anyway. This being the opening of Pallas’ station and considering how Pallas is named for Pallas Athena and that pretty much automatically underscores everything said about Athena moving into Gemini. So especially when/where/if things are difficult, don’t just buy into the emotion – try to learn where it’s coming from. It may involve opening a whole new (or old) can of worms. If so, open it. Getting to real reasons may cause a lot of walls to come a’tumbling down, but this would be the time for walls to be coming (what with a Gemini solar eclipse about to happen) so dig, dig, dig! Ask questions! Be willing to hear the truth, ugly or beauteous.

Go for the knowing. What you learn now may change everything.

May 31st: All of the May 30th issues get a little more convoluted as Tantalus entering Cancer at 4:29am (UT/+0) which remember, is still May 30th if you live in the Americas or Pacific Basin. Tantalus in Cancer? An invitation to undermine ourselves through attempting to ‘manipulate’ the situation so we don’t have to a.) face facts…or, b.) change.

And though I’d like to say ‘good luck with that!’ and just move on, given that May 30/31st have the Sun fused with Aldebaran (integrity) and in opposition to Antares (obsession)…all this barely in advance of the Gemini eclipse really does set the stage for some new highs in lows and truly bad judgment.

The old slogan ‘check it once, check it twice’ doesn’t even come close to it here. With TNO Typhon moving on station, situations in everyone’s life will be provoking us at very personal and primary (even primal) levels which are individual to each one of us. 

And yet…if we acknowledge that the Gemini-Sagittarius polarity process is all about learning more and learning (among other things) to master the art of perspective on self this makes sense as part of a greater period about getting a grasp on what needs changing and the reality of life and our lives.

Those who are honestly willing to evolve, learn better, accept responsibility and all that good stuff? This may not be their favorite moment in all of life, but those are the people who will come out of these next few months knowing they’ve learned more and better.

They (meaning you!) may even have done something you’re really proud of yourself for doing because you’ve learned something new.

June 1st is Eclipse Day!

A solar eclipse occurs today at 9:17pm (UT/+0) at 11 Gemini, a degree which is by definition ‘mentally emotional’ (read: intensely whatever it is) and traditionally sort of childish, childlike…or maybe ‘surface oriented’ or just plain shallow.

The simplistic form of this polarity is that some will just try to do ‘just enough’ and some will tear off the veneer and in doing away with that, really get at the heart of the matter.

Known as a 'solar map' to astrologers, the above is how

modern astrological software pictures an eclipse track.

software: Solar Fire Gold (v.7)/Esoteric Technologies (alabe.com)

Interesting (at least to some!), the actual date of a solar eclipse often seems rather peaceful and inconsequential. Lunar eclipses? Boy, they go off with a bang! But solar eclipses? Usually not so much…but don’t be fooled! A season may not change in a day, but spring will become summer, fall will become winter, and the whole of the process is very much unavoidable and unstoppable.

 A close up (detail) of the same solar map reveals the eclipse path beginning

in the Far East - the beginning and end points of the eclipse (and often, points

all along those longitudes) being points of stress and activity particularly when

the eclipse is a total eclipse, which this one is not.

So it is with eclipses. In fact, seasons and eclipses are very much about the same sort of celestial mechanics. Sun, Moon, Earth…together they make seasons and years and tidal cycles and eclipses: all the basic stuff.

With Neptune going on station now there will be many really enjoying the ‘magical’ quality so part of any eclipse. And the combination of Neptune going on station and Pallas (factual wisdom) is a promise of insight to those who are wiling to see not just what they want to see, but the realities of things.

Yet, with Pallas going retrograde at 15 degrees of Aquarius (one of four cross-quarter degrees) it is implied that there are many in worldly power (or just ‘in power’) who are reluctant to let go of the reins (aka for some, their stranglehold and control). Cross quarter degrees always separate the more ‘mine’ from ‘the greater concern’ as pertains to each zodiac quarter and when it comes to the 4th quarter (which is public, pro-active and worldly) the question is whether the few or the many are in control…or even the point of the effort.

The zodiac as an Aries Wheel showing the cross-quarter points plus

approximations of Neptune's station/retrograde and the Solar Eclipse position. 

Today, we get to hear a lot of interesting, inspiring ideas – and probably a whole lot of nonsense. Telling them apart? That’s the important thing!

June 2nd: With Typhon (basic needs and urges) going direct in Virgo today at 11:18am (UT/+0) AND Mercury entering its ‘home’ sign of mental Gemini at 8:04 in the evening (UT/+0), there’s hope and reason to believe we can get some sort of productive activity under way.

Well, except for the right to scatter things about that so many take to be the 'purpose’ of Gemini! They’re so, so wrong of course – if that was true, none of us would ever get anything worthwhile done! Where we see scattered attention, disorganization, lack of priorities and an inability to cope with realities, astrologers look automatically to Mercury, Gemini-Sagittarius (as a polarity) and the 3rd house of a natal chart, that being Gemini’s native house.

The combination of Typhon/Mercury spells a focus on the important stuff…or on how to disrupt that which is truly important to someone else. When these things function together in ‘first person personal’ we see the surfacing of personal problems, eruptions of long-buried feelings, needs or resentments - and with some, the exacerbation of mental illness.

All of this – from top to bottom – depends on our ability (and willingness) to cope with whatever our challenges and/or vulnerabilities (weaknesses, flaws, lacks of information, etc.) really are.

June 3: As Neptune goes retrograde at 0 Pisces – a degree known in Sabian Symbols as emblematic of the ‘marketplace’ the play of Mercury against Neptune for one, incites grandiose statements and the more-than-occasional lie.

(Sorry, I just tell it like it is!)

Whether the lie gets told now or it gets uncovered now depends on your life, your chart, your mindset.

Whatever the situation, there is the side of ‘knowing’ and the side of ‘feeling’ and here they are tested not to see whether you can withstand one or the other, but so we all can measure within our Self how realistic our life is…how real our estimations are…and how well we actually deal with reality on a whole.

Those who try to (as put by show host Adam on Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters) … ‘reject your reality and substitute my own!’ will feel caught up in a vortex not of reality versus fantasy, but of insecurities which result from an internal awareness of the difference between ‘your reality,’ ‘my reality’ and REALITY.

Only the third one works.

June 4th:  House being the emblem “being at home,” has this asteroid moving into Gemini at 3:17pm (UT/+0) on the 4th, reinforcing the idea of thinking things over – and the need to think things over.

Especially with Jupiter moving into Taurus at 1:57pm (UT+0) and Polyhymnia entering Leo this is a fine day for art, romance, social festivities, personal creativity – and especially with Neptune still on station (if now in retrograde) we are in a ‘negotiable’ mood and willing to talk things over with someone.

Can bygones be bygones? Can something which seemed mired in eternal tar and hopelessly stuck get moving now? Quite possibly yes. And to those who have business matters who are running to check their calendars, June 4th is a Saturday. But no, all is certainly not lost! So groan if you’re one of those ‘I need my answer NOW!’ types, but otherwise think of what you could say to whoever your issue is ‘stuck’ with and formulate a well-humored communication. This is when the fine art of knowing the benefit of leaving the message or sending out that email which will get read two days hence…when all that comes into play.

The real issue is your generosity of spirit and your willingness to be realistic. Business efforts and aims should all stress the market and the broadest possible appeal, not the ‘me’ and ‘mine’ and ‘I need to know’ part. If you’re looking for something strictly ‘flash in the pan’ (the one-time hit) that may work now, but don’t plan on it working two weeks from now. Maybe not even two days from now.

And for those who are looking farther down the road? Let your imagination lead the way – don’t lock yourself in to some small and narrowly defined niche. When we look around we see the prevalence of multi-national corporations, conglomerates which own many different kinds of companies and people parlaying success in one areas into an entre into another.

The balance now is what is really possible against what could possibly be. 

So good luck…and have a great week!

Oh – before I go - expect blogs to go up on the eclipse (June 1st), Mercury’s Gemini ingress (June 2nd), the Neptune station (June 3rd) and Jupiter entering Taurus (June 4th).

And be good to you!