Medusa-Industria: Functional Reconciliation

A Mandelbrot factile of 500 interactions rendered using UltraFractal

(image credit: Danwills, Jan 2007)

By now you understand that Medusa is about our ability to face our fears – particularly when it comes to who we really are…or maybe have been…or in the sense of what we’re afraid it’s going to take to get where we want to go.

Or to be the person we want to be.

Even the person we’ve told others we are…even though we know we aren’t.

Medusa events are always about our being tested by our own desire – or ability – to forget our commitments, especially to ourselves.

Asteroid Medusa is going retrograde at 1:57 in the afternoon (UT/+0) on August 20th, which means its station will begin on the 18th and continue on through the 22nd, enveloping the August Full Moon (which will be in Aquarius) the Sun moving into Virgo and a transiting cardinal square between Jupiter and Uranus.

So Medusa’s station begins while the Sun is just finishing up its transit of Leo – a time when we can expect to be full of a sense of what we need to do, what we want to do, where we think we’re going…all of which then meets up with Medusa’s turn to retrograde – a sign that maybe we don’t know all we think we know, even about ourselves.

Imagine you’re an actor. You’re running late, you’re rushing, you arrive at the theater with spare minutes to go before your starring role entrance. Filled with thoughts of what you need to do and how you need to focus on your lines and getting into character, you race through putting on your makeup with people pounding on the door trying to get you to hurry up.

So hurry you do. And barely do you walk out on stage but you realize (because there’s a draft) that you took off your clothes, then forgot to put your costume on.

These are the kind of “obvious” errors we can run into during this time. Of course some of us will reach this turn and something “Medusa-scary” will resolve itself, but since Medusa is taking its turn at 15 Aries and Uranus is still hanging around 12 Aries (which is absolutely close enough for lobbing astrological planetary boomerangs), this astrologer would honestly say that if all goes nicely in this moment with nary a quiver to your Jello…well, it might be the day to go play the lottery.

There’s just that much energy in the mix, yes.

15 Aries is an interesting sort of degree which says we need to learn from experience, and that playing the conservative or “proven” card is often best. But since experience is needed to turn this degree from problem into productivity, despite all we tend to ‘create’ the dynamic we need to learn from no matter how hard we try.

Not making this any easier is the fact that fixed star Alpheratz is sitting one degree behind at 14 Aries – a degree known for isolation which is based in a need for self development.

And then we add in Alpheratz, a fixed star which is part victim, part beauty and part cut-and-run dynamic – all in the name of a self-protective isolation which can ultimately be productive if harnessed in a ‘great cause’ but which all too often simply leads to a life of self-imposed separations from that which needs to be served…things which can only be served through a ‘marriage’ of courage and effort (in the person) which leads to the willingness to enter into companionable duty and duty through close alliance.

Frankly, with Medusa taking station virtually atop Alpheratz, many things, many situations and many relationships from the personal to the international may become seriously difficult during this time. Yet most of these difficulties can be moderated if we remember that the onus is not on ‘them’ (whoever “they” may be) to face our unwillingness to face our fears or the fear of self-exposure or the fear of sharing one’s work, one’s life, one’s feelings…. whatever you’re scared of sharing about now.

As the Sun shifts into Virgo late on August 22nd (the last “official” day of Medusa’s station) we’ll feel a subtle shift from the ‘idea of the thing’ (the intensity of Leo at its most critical point) into a more sober, clarified mindset.

Of course, this will be when some will decide to cut their loses and vamoose, with or without taking their toys home to play with.

Is there a better course? Probably yes. Considering that Virgo is about service, recognizing that our fears are probably more universal than we suspect and working from that base of compassion in the search for a better way to work with matters at hand is probably a better course.

Medusa, 3D (image credit: Nikita Verprikov, January 2007)

In a sense, Medusa taking this change of course (in conjunction with Alpheratz at 14 Aries) as the Sun moves from Leo into Virgo indeed may be exactly that: a challenge to not simply retreat but to live up to the best of our abilities. Where we utilize the Alpheratz tendency towards isolation as a maintaining of perspective on ourselves and others, we are likely to gain insight on not just how we tend to (re)create those dynamics which cause us to shy away but what it is in ourselves which is so ‘shy’ (or prone to shy) in the first place.

Furthermore, Medusa isn’t alone in this moment of turnabouts-as-playing-fair-with-ourselves. Asteroid Industria is also going on station, and it’s going direct. The date of Industria’s station is August 19 – the day before Medusa’s turn. So Industria’s effects start first (on the 17th) and end first (on the 21st – which is the date of the Full Moon/Jupiter-Uranus square, which will be talked about in the next post here at astroPPM).

Industria – literally “industriousness” – is all about what we’re working on. And yes, it can represent literal work (or works) as in something you do for a living. But Industria can also be all about what you have been working on in your life. Or with regards to dealing with a bad habit. Or your effort to learn some pesky piece of software.

Anything we’re “working on” qualifies for Industria symbolism. And seeing as Industria is now going direct, there’s a definite aura that a ‘matter you have run into’ (asteroids being emblems of things we learn about and from along the way through life) is now moving towards some sort of active resolution…or maybe dissolution.

The plus or minus here has to do with the optimal, which given the Sun’s shift from Leo into Virgo during this time would tend to say it’s about moving from a focus on the idea into a realm where we take the reality – and maybe the fact that we’re talking about real lives and real life parameters – into account.
 

Hésiode et la Muse by Gustave Moreau (1857)...

...because sometimes we have to serve as our own muse

Medusa’s turn to retrograde surely asks us why we are afraid. Conjunct Alpheratz, this is a conversation we probably need to have with ourselves. But that Industria is going direct at 4 Capricorn? That does lend a very positive social note to the whole of this dynamic. 4 Capricorn has a reputation for being warmly social and often concerned with welcoming people into our home – or into our life (our essential ‘home’) in some very real and hospitable manner. And all can go very well providing we are willing to work (Industria) as we move forward with whatever we initiate now.

So maybe we are scared. But that doesn’t mean advances can’t be made and things can’t be – and become – ever more whole and wholesome in the days and weeks and even years to come.
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Lachesis Direct

 Les Parques (the Greek Fates) by Alfred Agache, c. 1885

Without having spend a lot of time reading Greek myth (which I did as a kid, having some sort of fascination for the stuff), I’m not sure how anyone would know to draw a dotted line between asteroids Klotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. They’re the ‘Fates’ of Greek myth who represented the processes of life.

Klotho spins fleece into yarn and thus is associated with creating, beginnings, initiations and birth.

Lachesis measures out the length of the thread (the length of a life) and thus asteroid Lachesis is astrologically associated with duration, length and what gets ‘done’ during the time something goes on, be it a life or a process.

Atropos cuts the thread, which metaphysically causes us to think of asteroid Atropos as endings or finalities or the ‘death’ of some idea, a relationship, a job, even (yes,) physical death.

But a note on this last statement: Atropos in the chart is NOT to be seen as an astrological marker for someone’s death. There are methods by which astrologers know to predict the death of a person. They are never (NEVER, mind you!) marked by one single factor.

Also: if you find an astrologer who says they are willing to predict a person’s death, you should be thinking twice. It is considered one of the great and true no-no’s in astrology (as in medicine) to “predict” death, which is why doctors speak in probabilities and likelihoods when it comes to this subject.

So saying, back to Lachesis. Asteroid Lachesis is going to go direct at 17 Aries on Saturday, December 8th, which is one day after Pluto’s conjunction of nebula Facies (in Capricorn) hits the ‘exact point.’

Link to November 22nd's post on Pluto/Facies

Obviously this means that Pluto/Facies is reaching its maximal point of ‘exactitude’ during Lachesis’ station window – that ‘two days before, two days after’ allowance we give to celestial objects going in or out of retrograde motion. But let’s also remember, it isn’t the asteroid which is changing directions – it’s our perspective on that asteroid (or planet, or whatever) as seen from here on Earth.

So here we have Pluto/Facies providing us with the image of something very complicated which we might what to change in spite of how it seems to be controlling us (or maybe even bringing the worst out in us) in ways which are (Capricorn) visible to others and which pertain to the structure of our life. And as Lachesis goes on station, the internal (retrograde) debate about all this becomes more…what, obvious? Externally prompted?

Maybe both.

That Lachesis is making this turn in Aries says this is happening to us, or it’s a matter which is very personal or intrinsic to our life. Prepare to take things personally!

Or here’s another way to think about it…maybe Lachesis (as “duration’) is your realizing that whatever is going on will only last ‘so long.’ Or that you can only put up with it for so long?

 Bernard Gitton's Time-Flow 'water clock' 

(photo credit: Luna04, July 2006)

Duration, duration, duration! How long will it last? How do deal with it in the meantime? Or what must you do while something lasts?

To all of this gets added the 17 Aries part. And 17 Aries, besides being an emotional (and possibly emotionally evocative) degree, speaks more specifically to the idea of pushing something more towards its extreme. So whatever that attribute is… a tendency to splurge, a habit of lying, the tendency to think of everything in an optimistic light…at this point that Pluto/Facies conjunction is probably pushing many of us to “exaggerated” displays of our native tendencies.

Or…if we’re lucky…a moment when we get in touch, when we gain perspective ON our tendency to be greedy or overly optimistic or whatever else.

There is a note in the writings on 17 Aries which talk about ‘awareness.’ This awareness is curiously what apparently drives people to be more exaggerated about what they do. They’re aware of the issue and they think they can change the direction of things by pushing.

That, when we think of it in tandem with Lachesis’ station is why we may now be seeing we can’t go on doing things as we have been doing them. Pluto-Facies complexities or no, this turn of Lachesis to direct motion may have us realizing that we can’t keep doing what we have been doing – at least not the way we’ve been doing it.

That Lachesis is going direct with Pelion (a mountain to climb) at 14 Aries and Eris (ouch!) at 21 Aries says we may well feel very uncomfortable with the situation we’re in. And that we should…or maybe that we need to feel sufficiently uncomfortable in order to get into gear with whatever needs doing.

At least for a time. Or because we only have so much time.

The tightest (closest) planetary aspect to Lachesis’ station is the Sun at 16 Sagittarius, drawing our attention to ‘how we’re going about doing things.’ With the Sun conjunct Tantalus at 14 Sag, Hidalgo at 17 Sag and Ixion/Pholus at 19 Sag, we need to be careful about how (Hidalgo) we do things and the degree of ‘wanting to do what we want to do simply because we want to do it’ (Tantalus) which is in the daily mix as plainly Ixion/Pholus is telling us that we can bring our own efforts to naught with just a little off-handed carelessness.

This sounds like we need to be careful about grandstanding or anything which smacks even remotely of hubris.

One other aspect which seems particularly worthy of note here: in going direct at 17 Aries, Lachesis is taking station in square to Mars at 15 Capricorn. This puts Mars (mercifully!) out of range of Pluto-Facies, but Mars is exactly conjunct Vega (charisma), and mighty closely allied in this moment with Nemesis (at 14 Capricorn) and Eros at (17 Capricorn)…which would seem to be an amalgamation about ‘public charm’ and a passion for that which we know may not be popular, but is actually true.

An alternative here would be that public charm (appearances, call it…) in spite of knowing something isn’t right, or isn’t going to stand the test of Capricorn time.

 Back in Roman times, the toga (shown here on a statue restored with the head of Nerva),

was what Roman male citizens wore to be seen as men of Rome. Considering people and how

competitive Roman society was, togas were probably 'the thing' to be seen in, and not just a few

probably tried to get away with wearing them even if they weren't proper "citizens of Rome."

Oh, how times don't seem to change all that much, right? 

(photo credit: Sailko)

The good news here is that this is just a period of time – a duration. The tough news is that in being connected to Pluto-Facies, there’s a smidge, a note, a whiff of this which is going to be with us at least through September, 2013.

And that’s the spin of the yarn for today!

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Mars and Kleopatra: Sensing Our Edge

 'Cleopatra and Caesar'

by Jean Leon Gerome (1866)

There are two subjects de jour, and they are as follows: Mars entering Pisces at 1:07am on February 23rd (UT/+0) and asteroid Kleopatra going retrograde at 5 in the morning (UT/+0) on February 24th at 9 degrees of Scorpio.

The reason why I’m combining them is that with Kleopatra going retrograde early on the 24 Universal/Greenwich time, that means Kleopatra’s two-days-before/two-days-after “station allowance” begins on February 22nd…obviously running through the 26th.

So while we’re here, let’s talk about Kleopatra. The woman, the Queen of Egypt, the legendary Cleopatra lived in the first century BCE. We probably think of her as a woman of striking beauty in part because  Hollywood pictured her that way. But maybe more to the point is how those who lived in her day spoke of Cleopatra – and thus, her the nature of her reputation as the legacy of her being.

Last of Egypt’s pharaohs, Cleopatra VII Philopator was actually a Greek. Also a member of the Ptolemy clan, unlike most of her regal relatives she actually learned to speak the language – Egyptian – of the land she came to rule.

(Can you imagine a ruler in today’s world who would simply announce they didn’t want to learn the language of their sovereign land?)

Cleopatra as depicted on an ancient tetradrachm

coin from the Ascalon mint

photo credit: PHGCOM (2009)

More than that, Cleopatra not only learned to speak Egyptian, but several other languages of her time. She was also not only well versed in Things Political, but charming, witty and conscious enough of human nature to make it her business (or more precisely, the business of her various underlings) to find out everything she could about guests-to-be so that when they arrived at her court, they would find familiar foods and all laid out to their liking.

Charm goes by many names. From Cleopatra we learn the value of knowing how to relate. 

On the asteroid side, Kleopatra the asteroid is one of thousands of main belt asteroids which lie between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Like all other main belt asteroids, Kleopatra thus represents something we ‘meet up with’ in life (or from time to time) on our way (Mars) to knowing who we want to be and how to be that person (Jupiter).

As main belt orbits go, Kleopatra’s is rather right in the middle of the pack, making it something of a ‘central’ precept among things we need to learn. With an orbit of 4.68 years, that tells us an interval at which we go through yet another cycle of learning how to be the person we want to be to a somewhat greater degree, a somewhat more elevated level.

Currently, Kleopatra is going retrograde at 9 degrees Scorpio. Over these past months, life has been prompting us to learn things, and to experience how to relate more through external experiences large and small.

Once Kleopatra is in retrograde, we will all be doing a measure of reflection. Things and thoughts will prompt us to reflect. By mid-June when Kleopatra goes direct, retrograde will have moved it back into the third decanate of Libra where the idea of HOW we relate (Libra + Kleopatra) will be more theoretical than it is now, as Scorpio is sign which functions through emotional interactions. Considering that we are all ‘experiential’ creatures who on a daily basis seek out what it is we instinctively think we want or need, right now one of the things we are and have been doing is seeking out situations which by their very nature, prompt us to feel.

The question is whether we will learn from our feelings.

For some of us, that means learning that our feelings are just that – our feelings. Others don’t feel as we do. For others, the lesson is that our feelings are simply our feelings; they’re feelings yes – but not necessarily factual or anything to treat as an enduring reality.

The very qualities described by 9 Scorpio add to this fact. For one, this is a first decan point. So the crux of the station period is about what is done or how that affects real life, the reality of life. That equals consequence, which in Scorpio means the emotionalism which goes with, or arises as part of the consequences of our choices.

This is also a degree which appears to speak very definitely about ‘echoes of childhood.’ Whatever was or wasn’t learned as children forms the basis for responses now. And from that…how we interact with others.

Which in turn, provokes reactions through what we understand or learn or realize we need to deal with in our world and in ourselves - and often both.

So…as all such questions begin to arise in life/our lives (Kleopatra’s station effect) Mars enters Pisces.

 Cleopatra pictured as the goddess Bastet, protectors of pharaohs

photo credit: George Shukin (2007)

But a couple of days ago, Mercury entered Pisces. Obviously still in Pisces, Mercury’s passage through this sign of ‘global/universal emotion/ality’ signals our being more aware of feelings…ours, and those of others. Things which promote or provoke those feelings are happening in life and our lives; thus do we do the Mercury act of thinking about them and choosing how we will deal with our motions (and those of others.)

Still in early degrees (2 Pisces) the basic Mercury question being posed as Mars enters Pisces is what are we going to do…or do ‘about’ something, whether that’s doing something about our feelings or the thing which has caused such emotions to be in play.

Because Pisces represents the unfathomable oceanic depths, there’s always a feeling of trepidation with and about this sign (and the 12th house of any horoscope which carries the Pisces vibe). This issue is about being ‘overwhelmed’…or possibly getting ‘drowned.’

Yet given that said sense is all about whether we will (proverbially) surrender and float as we become part of the great and oceanic body of Existing or whether we need to hold so tightly to our preconceived sense of self that we are afraid of “affording” ourselves the liberation to be emotionally freed…that’s all about ego.

And let’s face it – we all have one of those!

Mars as ruler of Aries, “native sign” of the proactive act of self-identification (another facet of ego) has a hard time in Pisces. Yet as it enters Pisces, we will inevitably begin to let go.

A colorized photo of Mars based on an image taking by the Viking spacecraft.

photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

If I tell you that Mars in Pisces is a great time to just kick back and relax…or when music may reach you in a whole new way…maybe you’ll begin to relate. Mars in Pisces is not about ‘giving up’ or ‘giving in’ – that’s not the inner sense of ‘surrender’ as used in a metaphysical sense.

Think more in terms of ‘allow.’ Think in terms of ‘not resisting.’ Think in terms of ‘accepting.’ You don’t have to like it…but you might! You might not want things of the moment to last for the whole of your life – but they may be necessary now.

Like all celestial (astronomical) transits of Pisces, Mars in Pisces asks that we not prioritize ourselves – that we think more in terms of being part of… 

Of what? A greater group? Maybe. Our world? Maybe. Mankind? Usually. Existence? A valid concept.

Which makes the negative side of Pisces what? Isolation. Giving up on yourself as someone valid in this life, this world, as part of the human race. Known as the sign of inspiration, artists, prophets and gurus as surely as it is known as a sign of addicts, criminals and the merely hapless…and the sign of the old, the infirm, and the unfortunate or helpless.

Pisces asks us to accept people first, and to not impose our ego judgment on them, but to allow them to be who they are without allowing them to enslave, addict, or abuse us. Pisces asks us to be wise in who we trust and to be aware of when trust is broken and why it was broken. Sometimes there’s a rationale which is acceptable. Sometimes trust is broken because someone’s willingness or ability to value our right to be who we are has diminished or been replaced by their personal ego demands.

With Mars entering Pisces and meeting up with Chiron at 0 Pisces, we are likely to see a lot of things – good and bad – more clearly than we had. In many situations, the Chiron instinct that we don’t know what to do will rear up and with Mars’ normally gung-ho energy tamped back, leave us feeling more than hapless.

For some, this is the very lesson you need – what it feels like to not know. Or to not be able to do something. For others, learning that the ‘you’ in the equation is not the sum and total of life’s object is the game, set and match. What you should do about it? Well, that’s the Chiron part – welcome to your next couple of months!

With an orbital cycle of 1.88 years, Mars spends approximately two months in any given sign. Symbolizing the very nature of our desires (and all the energies which drive us to try and try again), Mars will now be in Pisces until the dawn of April.

During that time, Uranus will commit to its transit of Aries. This is a signal that we are heading into an extended (8 year long) period when who we are and what we think our lives are about are in for a little shakeup.

Okay…a lot of shake up!

Then there’s the fact that a couple of days after Mars leaves Pisces for Aries on April 2nd (UT/+0), Neptune will enter its home sign of Pisces.

A lot of illusions are going to be dissipated at that time and moving forward. What we haven’t learned life ‘isn’t about’ since early 1998 will begin crumbling or maybe just tripping us up, leaving us behind a curve many of us haven’t even yet gotten around to being willing to admit exists.

And what has kept us from realizing that curve exists? Ego. Sometimes as the ‘egotistical’ sense of the word and sometimes merely in the sense that ‘ego’ is that essential sense of Self which allows us to value our existence.

It’s all a matter of degree. There’s no money, a little money, some money, enough money, an overabundance of money and an excess of money. The same scale runs from a total lack of self regard to psycho-sociopathic narcissism.

The two fish which are the sign of Pisces, each swims in its own direction. Sometimes we see this as the ‘going with the flow’ fish and the ‘bucking the current’ fish. Sometimes this is the ‘controlling fish’ against the ‘cooperative’ fish.

What is to remember is that here at the end of the Piscean Age, though most of us still prefer one fish over another…and in that, how we tend to swim only with like fish or fish who will own the energy we don’t want to acknowledge in ourselves, that’s the real Piscean issue.

We are both fish. 

 Pisces - the two fish connected by a golden cord, symbolizing

how power does not exist except for a venue in which to be

powerful and how both strengths and weaknesses are part of

ourselves and life itself. We just don't get one without the

other...with day comes night, with life comes death, with that

we know comes that we don't know or deny.

The reconciliation is within the Self. It’s about the Self. It’s all about not denying things. About not basing your life so on one thing or one idea or one part of life that we never become not who we would want to be, but who we know we are capable of being.

Good fish…bad fish?

Not so fast! Try ‘fish I like versus fish I respect.’ That’s probably closer to it…especially now as Mars enters Pisces, suggesting that its time for us to reconcile with the responsibility for Self we all have – to some degree – denied.

Soft fish, harsh fish, caring fish, greedy, denying fish.

This is an opening moment to a final set of spirals in an Astrological Age  - the Age of Pisces - which is like a great wave, retreating from our shores.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai Katsushika (1830-1831)

- a depiction of humans facing a 'greater nature'

Life is not ending. Only life as we have conceived it is ending. Whether we greet the new Age – that of Aquarius (which we will begin talking more about soon) - with wonder or regret the passing of what was with sorrow, those are two other fishes…those of spirit and soul.

Meanwhile, all that separates us that sorrow from that wonder is how we relate (Kleopatra) to our (Mars) ego…whether our ego is a limited, self-defining factor or the unbounded possibility which  ultimately is our wellspring of life.

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