Mercury enters Aries

This blog is being posted on March 8th and is about something which will happen March 9th – namely Mercury entering Aries at 5:48 in the afternoon (UT/+0)

So why post a day early?

No, it's not just about the time difference. 5:48pm is quite late enough in the day that Mercury will enter Aries on the 9th no matter where you are.

(Well...except if you're like in New Zealand or Fiji. For you it'll be March 10th by the time Mercury gets its planetary bustle into Aries.)

So why post this on the 8th? Because immediately before Mercury gets to 0 Aries, it will be at 29 Pisces – an astrological descriptor of intensity and emotional evocation even without any other descriptors, of which there are several!

And what are they? Well...how about Uranus? That'll rattle your dice, eh? And also calculated Lilith (aka Black Moon Lilith)? Talk about your cold shoulders!

Plus there's Scheat, the fixed star any self-respecting Roman would have given a thumbs down to in the Coliseum.

(Okay…so maybe not. It’s hard feeding stars to the lions, I get that. But it's a nice concept…)

Of these three, Uranus is the most abstract, tending to be about the moment when things change. All throughout its transit of Pisces, Uranus has been about provocative levels and types of feeling or the provocation of emotionality and it’s not about to change now!

Less abstract and certainly less personal, the calculated form of Lilith is all about things we value which society doesn’t like (or wouldn’t like about us if it knew!) and/or things about “our world” which we don’t particularly want to know anything about. This isn’t just about something we don’t want to be involved in – this is whatever it is in your world which you habitually, even quasi-ritually make it your business to keep off your personal radar.

Another dislikable quality about Black Moon Lilith is that it tends to represent not only what we would like to ignore in our world – but what the world seems apparently determined to ignore about us.

This ability to treat us as less than valuable (even viable…even visible!) which tends to manifest when Black Moon Lilith is around is it has rather in common with Scheat, a fixed star which represents the ability to have your ideas (even when they’re right-on true!) rejected and even ridiculed.

It doesn’t exactly sound like a bowl of tutti-fruity, right?

And it’s worth being warned about this Lilith-Scheat thing, as it’s going to be with us for the next ten days or so – it perfects on March 19th, which would probably be not the best day to announce you’ve discovered the cure for the common cold!

I mean…you could announce it fine. Just don’t expect to get anything more than a bunch of disbelief hurled your way in return.

And a few sneezes, of course.

With all this energy piled up at in the last degree of Pisces, Mercury’s passing over this point as it presses forward to exit Pisces and enter Aries may indicate a coagulation of opinions, values – and like as not, at least a deal of acceptance-versus-rejection issues. Since Pisces (among other things) evokes, asks and tests all we think is worthwhile, that sets the stage for Mercury entering Aries.

And hence, the age old question: what do you want to be when you grow up?

Okay, so maybe a little sooner than that. Or even instead of growing up!

Mercury in Aries has a reputation for haste. For doing things quickly – either with great precision and mastery, or in a totally off-base manner which leaves out at least one really important factor.

Mercury in Aries can also be incredibly self-focused… which may or may not contribute to the above! Apart from that, the focus on the Self is really useful during Mercury in Aries if what you are trying to focus on is how to do something well. 

Unfortunately, this is also a passage which just seems to bring out the selfishness in many – and the overly dramatized in a few!

The determination there is really what this passage is all about – if, during Mercury’s stay in Aries you manage to remember to do things because they need to be done…or because the world (and thus your world) will be a better place for the doing it, then Mercury in Aries is an asset.

But if you’re going after the It’s All About Me award…? You may get it, yes. But you won’t win anyone’s love, respect or long term affection.

Aries as a sign has a reputation for burning hot on any given subject for a brief time. Then it fizzles out. Aries is the rocket, not the marathoner. Aries does the daring deed, but please don’t bore it with tedium.

 A depiction of Dorando Pietri at the end of the

1908 London Olympic Games Marathon

And yet…under Mercury in Aries, if you know why you need to undertake some incredibly intricate, overwhelming, job, you will like as not be able to conquer it. Aries is, after all, the sign of the warrior and Mercury does come equipped with a helmet of invisibility (except when he lends it to Perseus once every thousand years or so for slaying gorgons!)

Something to bear in mind however, is that Mercury in Aries can also be a time when we’re more easily frustrated than at other times. We want to go, go, GO!….and not everyone is with us.

Why not?

Well…let’s just put it this way: you’re feeling like the warrior-in-charge and so are they! So things can get to be something of a one-upmanship issue now…and going forward.

How much forward?

Far be it for me to hedge around here, but Mercury is going to be in Aries for a good, long sorta time.

And the minute I say that, if you’re half way into astrology you’re going to say ‘uh-oh…that means there’s a Mercury retrograde coming up!’ And you would be RIGHT!

Mercury will go retrograde just before the end of March, crossing into the shadow of that retrograde on March 16th, as it happens. From there until the station (which will occur on March 30th), you may feel even more pressured – don’t let life stress you out! Some things will arise during these days and go from solid problem to puddle like an ice cube on a tin sheet in the middle of highest summer.

But those things which don’t….?

Here’s the rule: if you know Mercury retrograde is a’coming and something just isn’t falling into place, don’t push it! It may resolve in during the station (March 28 – April 1st)…and things associated with stations often do indicate real ‘turning points’ in life.

But if you don’t get the yea or nay – or receive that information or answer you’re looking for by March 30th (maybe April 1st), figure on not resolving the matter or getting the final word on the final word until Mercury goes direct again in late April.

And during all this time, Mercury remains in Aries, first sign of the zodiac.

Being first, Aries is what you might call a very ‘basic’ sign. It’s about being. It asks what we’re being and how we’re being and what we want to do with our being-ness. As Mercury transits Aries it would be a natural thing to make plans, or do something to better yourself in some way.

It’s a very singular, very essential, very experimental sort of sign. Aries is willing, but easily discouraged – except where real need is involved, particularly the needs of a loved one.

Associated with the head, eyes, muscles and blood, Aries actually has a ‘sympatico’ sort of thing with Mercury, which is about thought, choice (of actions) and communication – which astrologically includes ‘communicating’ yourself from one place to another!

The combination can indicate the odd headache – real or psychological. And since Mercury is entering Aries in direct opposition to Typhon, Nemesis and Black Hole M87…gee, if you’re going to have a problem, feel entitled to have it now!

Black Holes always refer to ‘alternative realities’ which from Aries to Libra can easily be what you thought was ‘going to be’ which turned out entirely differently. With Nemesis and Typhon in attendance, the implication is that you knew better (Nemesis is the all time “I told you so!” figure) and that something uber-ultra basic is what was basically throwing you off your game.

Since Nemesis and Typhon are both in retrograde, there is also the chance that you’re going to be spending this next while thinking things over or making up for something which went off the rails some time ago.

Considering that the South Node is conjunct Betelgeuse in Mercury-ruled Gemini as Mercury itself enters Aries, there’s a strong desire for everything to be ‘just fine.’ But considering everything else…as much as you might like all to be peaches, sweet peas and rose petals, it probably isn’t.

But that is something you could work for…you know, while Mercury transits Aries?

Typhon, Eris and Lilith: Minor Life Points Which Maybe Aren’t so Minor?

 A scale diagram (orbital shapes not exact) of the

inner solar system showing the position of

the asteroid belt between Mars (the inner

red ring) and Jupiter (the outer red ring)

Here’s the core data at the crux of today’s commentary...

1. TNO Typhon goes retrograde on January 8th at 11:57 (UT/+0) at 1 Libra.

2. Dwarf planet Eris goes direct January 9th at 21 Aries.

And a few days after that…

3. January 14th asteroid Lilith enters Sagittarius at 6:38pm (UT/+0).

All three of these signatures are about shifts of or into ‘yang’ elements. That tells us that over this next week, we will sense a ‘shift’ in - and to some degree towards – assertiveness in our lives and in life around us. In this however, are three very different types of awareness.

Eris orbits way out there…far, far beyond Neptune. In getting that ‘how far’ into focus, consider this: one “AU” (astronomical unit) is the distance from the Sun to planet Earth. And said astronomical unit is quite big enough to comfortably include two other planetary orbits (those of Mercury and Venus) without anyone feeling all that crowded.

Okay…so Eris can be as far away as 97.56 AUs from the Sun. Even at its closest, it’s 37.77 AU’s away from ol’ Sol, which makes it 36.77 AU’s beyond Earth.

 A NASA generated drawing of the solar system

showing Eris (it's position cited as being where it was in 2006. 

Considering Eris' orbit takes 557 years to complete,

it hasn't moved all that far from this point either,

telling us that we are actually at the 'low end'

of Eris' cycle of 'discord' ...something to think about! 

In other words, it’s way, way out there in space. And yet, still in our celestial “neighborhood.” (Kind of puts things in a bit of stunning perspective, doesn’t it?)

Put most simply, Eris is the dynamic of ‘discord’ – the disturbing/disturbance of the status quo. It’s not a planet like Uranus, so it’s not the symbol of actual change or real discoveries or personal breakthroughs. Planets are attributes. Asteroids are mental facets and life factors we meet up with along the way. Fixed stars (stars being the suns of other solar systems, galaxies and such) they’re a metaphysical ‘backdrop’ against which our local solar system or the ‘system of our life’ plays out.

So beyond the planetary ‘attribute’ but not part of the ‘backdrop’ or ‘eternal scenery’ …what’s that?

That’s the realm of the unanticipated and unexpected. That’s the realm of all which is part of our life…but not part of our daily mentality. Like Eris – the sense that something’s up. That we are about to be faced with a decision. Is it something overlooked or forgotten about to clonk us on the head? Or are we about to clonk others with something they’ve forgotten – or maybe refused to take into account?

Like all astrological factors, Eris has a positive-negative and a passive/pro-active component. So we may be the fiery social reformer…or the person getting the bad news that the ‘thing’ we had hoped would never happen is actually going to happen.

When Eris becomes active, it’s ‘the moment’ to decide whether to act or not. That it’s going direct on January 9th makes the whole weekend, and by implication all of Venus’ transit of Sagittarius, a time to act or be acted upon. That Eris is going direct tells us that the impetus comes to us from outside. From life. From others. What we do in to respond to that – or whether we respond at all – that’s up to us.

To this we add Typhon. With TNO standing for ‘Trans Neptunian Object’ we automatically know that Typhon occupies the same ‘unanticipated’ realm as Eris. But that’s only during part of Typhon’s orbit. Classed as a Centaur (a blending of two natures), Typhon is 37.6 AU’s away from us at the farthest.

Does that ring a bell? Didn’t we just say that Eris was at 37.7 AUs at it’s closest? Yes, we did. That would tend to connect these two concepts, it at very different parts of our psyche. Where, or maybe as that feeling of the status quo being disturbed comes to us, that’s about when Things Typhon are at their least effective.

So what is Typhon? Typhon is one of the most primal of Greek mythic entities – ‘primal’ being the operative word here, seeing that Typhon is all about our most instinctual Self. Survival, sex, hunger – these kinds of biological urges and how we handle them (or don’t handle them very well) are our Typhon arena.

This thus gives us…what? An interesting psychological reality: when we are threatened with disturbance of the status quo, suddenly all the ‘other stuff,’ even some of the most basic of ‘other stuff’ gets shut down. It simply ‘goes away.’

True? Too true – especially in the light of how this helps differentiate between Eris and Typhon as symbols.

Typhon is our ‘primal life’ urges. But Eris is that which comes and in acting upon us, causes us to deal with or defend the life which is having those urges!

Many of us are likely to interpret this moment as something ‘happening’ to them. And while that may be true in the purely temporal sense, maybe the more interesting question is why is this happening to me?

What can I learn from it – particularly about me? Given that we all have an Eris and a Typhon in our charts, and because the zodiac degrees implied in this celestial switch-o, change-o are in each and every chart, there is something for each of us to learn from this time.

Eris direct says the ‘stimulation/stimulus’ comes from outside…Typhon speaks to an inner urge or instinct.

That Typhon makes the ‘first move’ here may give us a clue as to what the ‘cause’ in ‘cause effect’ over these days really is. Or it may simply mean some particular attribute of personality is meant to be (or just will be) more accessible and ‘on deck’ as discord (Eris) gets into motion.

Does that mean we should react instinctively? Or that we need to be mindful of how instincts may rule our day? Or how instinct may get in our way?

That’s individual. But to think about now – and going forward - certainly!

It’s almost a week later that Lilith enters Sagittarius, which may make the discussion of Lilith unnecessary here except for Lilith moving into Sagittarius on January 14 does tell us that Lilith is moving into ‘critical’ Scorpio territory just prior. As Typhon and Eris are going retrograde and direct, respectively, that is.

Lilith is always a symbol of all which we don’t want to deal with. That we’d rather not hear about. Or those things we really would like to ignore in Self or life.

 Lilith by John Collier (1892)

In the astrological sense, Lilith is not 'sin' or 'evil,'

but rather all those things about ourselves we

may be reluctant to admit to accept. That being true,

who is judging who? Who or what is 'entwining' or holding

us in 'mortal bondage'?

There being two forms of Lilith - one pertaining to the Moons aphelion point and thus ‘societal,’ the other an asteroid and thus ‘personal factor’ oriented  - this is the asteroid. One of thousands of main belt asteroids which cycle in the truly large gap between Mars and Jupiter, Lilith at its farthest from the Sun (and therefore Earth) orbits at 3.187 AU - pretty much at the center of this gap. There it keeps company with Lachesis (duration) Psyche (our consciousness of our own mind and mentality) and….(surprise!) Eos, another asteroid about instinct.

Have you not met Eos? Well, then, here’s the link to a little BLOG ON EOS.

Just on the surface of it, that may say that while it may be ‘instinctual’ to evade, avoid and deny certain attributes of our own personalities (or life, lifestyle, etc.) it doesn’t last forever. Sooner or later the ‘duration’ described by Lachesis ends. How long that is…that’s an individual chart issue. But there’s evidently only so long we can pretend.

At the near end of its orbit, Lilith comes just inside of the outer orbit of Dionysus (‘sacred celebrations’) making Lilith an indicator of real life and the totally mundane. Sort of a “that’s just what life is, and eventually we all have to deal with realities.”

And what comes between us and this willingness to deal with Lilith? Hybris: arrogance. At it’s closest, Lilith is at 2.14 AU. At its closest, Hybris is at 2.127 AU. It is therefore suggested that to own our life takes some dealing with the arrogance that we don’t have to deal with our life as a whole – or the whole of our life, whichever way you want to look at it.

To have Lilith in last Scorpio as Typhon and Eris go on station implies that our ability or willingness to deal with the issues which are emotionally evocative are here tested by Typhon and Eris dynamics. Apart from whatever else we have said – astrology being perfectly capable of stating many things in a symbolic string – apart from all else, our ability to feel for others (and not just ourselves) our ability and willingness to design solutions to problems which takes everybody’s needs into account, separating need from desire …that is in itself a Lilith test. A Lilith-Typhon-Eris challenge.

When Lilith moves into Sagittarius, all which we have designed goes ‘on trial.’ But in a sense, so do we. It may be a literal ‘on trial’  and then again, we may also be trying things out…having a ‘trial period,’ if you will. Sagittarius being the sign of expansion and a fiery sign which is either willing to find out what is true or highly resistant to any challenge (don’t confuse me with facts – I KNOW what I want to know!) …Lilith moving into Sagittarius may also cause many of us to actually expand that which we refuse to deal with.

Will that last? Can that last? For a while, maybe. But as Lilith meets up with the North Node in late 2011, we are likely to see repercussions and consequences breaking through many types of denial.

In the meantime, there are those who will now have a ‘dawning of the light’ as they stop fighting their personal battles with and through other people. These people will, in coming to understand themselves more innately, become more relaxed, happier, and greatly empowered by knowing how it wasn’t life holding them back – they were holding themselves back.

And kudos to them!