April’s 8 Taurus Solar Eclipse (Pt. 3: Stars and Patterns)

An Annular Eclipse

(photo credit: Sancho Panza, October 2005)

Each of Earth’s yearly solar eclipses is a process...in this case one which in rolling over us on April 29th at 6:15 in the morning (UT/+0) moves us out of a ‘breaking down’ phase where whatever is outmoded gets revealed so as to challenge our values and whatever we value or why we value or prioritize it, for good, bad and indifferent.

From this shift, exposure and need to re-evaluate our perceptions will come a new phase of development, experience and resultant utilization of abilities.

And though we may need such changes, let’s be real - we may not like going through them. There is something about the solar eclipse process which, with all due respect for dentistry is rather like having teeth extracted without painkillers.

There is a level at which we should take that sort of difficulty as a hint, perhaps. Why? Because throughout the millennia, the observation of solar eclipse effects on humans and in this world includes some of our very worst attributes.

You know...that very popular human sport called “being stubborn.”

Mind you, having opinions is lovely and standing for what you believe in and who you are the most necessary of things in this world. (Those who can’t do even that much have a very hard time.) And stubbornness has it’s place - no question. But when we are stubbornly refusing to know ourselves...that’s where eclipses come in.

Eclipses are very mysterious timekeepers. But they do seem to clock out areas of our life which will get exposed to us no matter what else happens and who else does, or doesn’t see.

Also: in the case of eclipses - a “blinding” object in the sky - IF someone else ‘sees’ you in the middle of dealing with your eclipse puzzle, whether or not they react you may be assured that witnessing is part of their own process. In other words (to quote a seriously Leo female I used to work with), ‘it’s so NOT about YOU.’

Well, mostly not. There is this factor of ‘like attracts like’ (metaphysical water/emotions seeking its/their own level) between people at eclipses and for good or bad, whether we like it or not the polarizing effects have much to teach us, if we’re only willing to learn.

So...do we value learning more or sticking with a ‘decided upon’ perspective or set of priorities?

Right now...right in this moment as we move into and through the solar eclipse, something will end or get ‘blacked out’ as the metaphysical ‘eclipsing’ of our former ‘norm’ - “the way we thought things were” gets wiped away.

This doesn’t have to be violent. It doesn’t even have to be unpleasant, though eclipses in Taurus tend to be particularly trying as they reveal things which, while they may or may not make us vulnerable in reality, sure feel that way.

It’s a prescription for insecurity - all of which we are being ‘told’ (astrologically) is going to challenge us with our own ability to act on faith...or to be faithful to some promise and/or precept.

-link to-

Mercury in Taurus / Neptune at 7 Pisces

Solar eclipses happen about every six months, reminding us of our mortality in the sense that events which happen during ‘eclipse seasons’ operate at a mental latitude omnipotent, humbling and incomprehensible in the moment. The sextile from Neptune (at 7 Pisces) to the eclipse (at 8 Taurus) signals a manifesting, an outpouring or ‘bursting forth’ of all things which confuse and disorient us precisely so that we can see or witness something different...or at least differently than we have seen it.

From that will come a nebulous strew of new perceptions, some of which - at least - will challenge us to be more honest with our Self.

And if we can’t (or won’t) go there...then we feel our own pain most acutely. It’s easy to make excuses now. It’s easy to do that which makes us feel better in this moment. Yet even the most determined (or hard headed, depending) among us are likely to have doubts at the moment. Whatever we’re involved in (or not involved in), there’s no clear path through the fray.

We will cope, of course. With the degree of this eclipse being 8 Taurus this time is simply personal in nature - and equally so for each and every one of us, whether you’re baking cookies at home or being focused on by schools and scads of media on some high profile international stage. In some way reflective of our ability to think ahead, adapt along the way and plan for the proverbial ‘rainy day’ (whether that’s past or present) we are at something of a ‘checkpoint’ in time - an idea quaintly referred to by the eclipse’s Sabian description ‘A fully decorated Christmas Tree.’

Can this reference be religious? It could be, but since the origin of Christmas is northern-hemispheric it’s as (or more) likely that this reference is to cyclic renewal: the idea that late December is when in the northern hemisphere days start growing longer and (solar) renewal is thus promised.

There will be another growing season, another harvest, we have more time, we can try, try again.

Evidently we humans like knowing there’s brighter light ahead. Before Christmas and around the globe humans have always celebrated the moment when we feel life quicken and begin to grow.

We celebrate it in our calendar, we celebrate it when in the moment when we learn of a human’s conception - or see their birth. Such things transcend our differences as societally, culturally, globally accepted moments worth celebrating even in the life of our dearest enemy.

Okay...so maybe we won’t celebrate the birth of their child as they would, but we’d probably stop shooting at them long enough to let them kiss their newborn.

Those who don’t and won’t go that far may win in some short run, but in doing so either seed or reveal their monster/monstrous tendencies...which only begs the question when they’ll notice that the psychic blood being spilled is really theirs.

Solar eclipses are not gentle. Solar eclipses often manifest in group experiences but are always and eternally about us - who we are as individuals and our ability to recognize, realize and/or deal with who we are.

At the moment, this entire process is highly amplified and yet strangely ‘inaccessible’ - that being the manifestation of that pesky Mars still in (Libra) retrograde which remains with us until-and-through Mars’ May 20th station - a station which will open doors to ‘move forward’ starting at the ‘theoretical/mental’ end of things with actions and “progress” (as we see it) slowly picking up pace as we move through June. Prior to May 20th the (Mars/Libra retrograde) ‘gap’ between the ‘me’ and ‘them’ (or ‘it’) of life will tend to feel like isolation. Where we are and where we want to be are just not in synch. We can think of this as being given us a bit of ‘space’ and “mental room” and many of us will do (and have been doing) just that.

But there is that (Neptunian) insecurity. And if there’s anything humans don’t like, it’s feeling insecure.

And why would that be? Could it be that insecurity stems from feeling that our personal power (or power to be the person we are) is being threatened?

Or maybe we aren’t “all that” (with or without the bag of chips)?

The good news is that we’re all in this together. The bad news is that there is no clear-cut solution to whatever it is we’ve gathered onto our plate...nor are we all that happy about having to confront knowing about all those choices which got us to wherever we are at the moment.

But then, so did everybody else. And if E=mc2’d...or if you merely want to think about Existence as a single thing which at whatever level manifests as the whole of what it is in every given moment, then you...me...the doorknob and your computer, we are ALL energy.

As is all the space between us - which really means we’re contiguous...from which vantage point individuality takes on a whole other perspective: that of knowing our part in order to play our part in a Whole which provides all we need and all we could ever conceive of or want.

So given that, who are we fighting when our feelings prompt us to upset? It’s a whole different question, isn’t it?

And one which is not all that comfortable to deal with as generational shifts continue evolving. Deep within we want things to change - we just aren’t sure that anyone else knows how to do the right thing.

Then again, neither do we. Our lives social, societal, worldly and planetary are all changing, bringing about a wholesale crumbling of old allegiances (Pluto/Sabine) and whatever attitudes or perspectives have outlived/completed their usefulness in our lives, our world, our life and times.

Whatever (Pluto/Vega) appeal brought such qualities to the fore is beginning to fade, asking that we (Pluto) transform our Self - not that (Uranus) change is very easy. The innate difference between Plutonic and Uranian processes has pitted us against our own ability to tolerate inexorable inevitabilities we may or many not like amidst an aura of fractious reactivity, ‘shaking us’ at an entirely (TNO Typhon) primal level and as always, Uranus will manifest as situations which 'exert' change in a more abrupt force where we are unwilling or unable to be sufficiently flexible.

Given the ongoing Mars/Libra retrograde, we may see such displays in others...Or we may feel like someone is ‘doing’ something “to” us (or even with us in mind) when that very concept is far less (if at all) about them and (more or less) entirely about why we’re reacting to them in the manner that we're doing.

We feel like it wasn’t long ago (Diadem @ 9 Libra) when in comparison to this moment, things were simple. And part of us does know that the difficulties of this moment are valuable because whether we like it or not, some of humanity’s most valuable (Diadem) lessons come not from joy but through the discomfort of times when we fight the hardest with our Self.

And this is where solar eclipses get so interesting. In moving over our world they move through our lives erupting in whatever sort of event or situation will bring out our weaknesses - in this case, our weakest values.

Priorities - particularly those we have been comfortable with allowing or identifying with (not to mention being known for) either have or will form  lasting (Lachesis) images (Photographica) we will carry forward for some time to come.

Our challenge: not to get (Europa) carried away and not to (Uranus in Aries) over-react. Innovations and various forms of ‘catching up’ are needed and meeting those needs will require (Uranus change)...and probably some degree of sacrifice (Alpheratz) as we relinquish old ideas and ways of thinking, particularly about who we ‘are’ (or need to be) in our own eyes - or those of others.

That all of this comes to us in the form of a grand cross suggests a period of days...even weeks...which with whatever else they bring will also pose challenges, challenges which through their very lack of resolution cause us to question.

Some of our questions will ask why we’ve (Capricorn) come to this place. Some of our questions will ask what we can do in the (Libra) face of feeling like nothing can be done. Some of our questions will cause us to want to know why it is that as individuals or whatever form of family, group or alliance we have such issues (Cancer) with living a fruitful, peacefully productive life. Are we really at such cross-purposes with an other, or with our (Aries) Selves?

All of which brings us to the most symbolic and astro-mythic figure in this side of this eclipse as represented by fixed stars Hamal and Schedir being at 7 Taurus, just a degree off the eclipse itself.

8 Taurus manifests generally as sensitivities and difficulties, one which feeds the other. Responsibilities become focal whether our issue is a rejection of responsibility or our being overwhelmed in the face of responsibilities we don’t know how to (or simply can’t) handle with the whole of this degree being somewhat more ‘airy’ (idea-driven) than many a more earthy, ‘reality oriented’ Taurean degree. With the eclipse at 8 Taurus it is the ‘idea’ of the value we have lacked - most of all in our Self - which in becoming exposed changes our ‘playing field.’

Against this, 7 Taurus is a highly corporeal degree - and one known for its focus on ‘physical existence.’ Not known as a particularly pleasant degree, 7 Taurus tests our ability to cope with painful realities which at some level are the result of choices made, perhaps over time (read: probably within the last eclipse cycle of 19 years) which did not fully grasp or ‘embody’ the reality of consequences - be they theoretical, physical or...considering the ‘trigger’ on this lesson is a solar eclipse...life changing in terms of how we regard life, whether or not our lives are touched in any moment-to-moment manner.

As for the stars, as primary/alpha star in the constellation Aries the Ram, Hamal (alternate name: El-Nath) stands for either the type of (Saturn/Mars) focus and motivation which could be typified as ‘determined effort’ ...or (at the other end of the polarity string) something akin to ‘limited options’ or ‘restricted range’ (implication: of activity, motion or effectiveness). Like most fixed star effects, Hamal’s ‘backdrop to life’ quality tends to take on some ‘coloration’ from whatever is associated with it or in its constellation (Aries) at the time the star is ‘triggered,’ as it is being by a solar eclipse one degree away.

As photographed by NASA and ESA, HST-G1 (also known as Mayall II)

near the core of the Andromeda Galaxy (Sept 2006)

Metaphysically speaking, the eclipse marks at time which seeks to educate and inform us through the ‘expose’ or ‘release’ all things having to do the energies of Hamal and the principle of all things Aries and currently Aries, giving us to think about the nature of our consciousness, about what we’re doing with our life, about who we’re being and about the innate innocence involved in being human, an innocence and vulnerability of mortality we so often like to (consciously) forget.

The eclipse is in Taurus, to be sure. But with the ‘currently transiting Aries’ list currently being headlined by Uranus and dwarf planet Eris, that points to changes which come about through whatever puts us in position to be tumbled into periods of self-confrontation.

And considering how few people really like that sort of thing, we can hardly expect things to be powder puff pink and cutely rosy. Considering the retrograde implications here (Mars rules Aries), something about ‘them’ hits ‘home’ to (Aries) on a personal level by whatever means will promote careful (even critical) reflection. The more (Libra) ‘married’ we are to ‘them’ or their (Libra) ideas, or the more we tend to impose, restrict or reject others when and where they are simply different, the more difficult things will seem.

In other words, we need to know and be who we are, as do others. But to the extent that this equation (either the being or doing or both) is out of balance, things now won’t ‘pay’ or ‘play out’ as anticipated and the more problematic the moving ‘through’ this eclipse period is likely to be.

Situations have now broken down to where we can either ourselves or feel our own inner walls. Why we have those walls is part of our metaphysical corona - the opportunity to see in Self and life that which ordinarily gets lost in day-to-day doings. Once we get through that...once we get honest (at least with our Self)...then we move on.

Constellations Cassiopeia (center), Andromeda (lower left), part of

Perseus (upper left) and the edge of Cepheus (middle/right)

 

But that probably will involve dealing with Schedir principles at some level, since of the two stars at 7 Taurus, Schedir is definitely the one related to emotional knot-tying.

The myth behind Schedir is that of Cassiopeia, the beautiful if arrogant and vain queen of Ethiopia. To those who know the tale of Niobe this story will sound familiar - though there are a few key differences. Where Niobe claimed her children were more beautiful than the collective intellectual attributes represented by Apollo (the truth of enlightenment) and sister Artemis (the truth of experience), Cassiopeia merely claimed her children were more beautiful than the sea nymph daughters of Neptune (Poseidon) known as the Nereids - which is another way of announcing that she (Cassiopeia) was so wonderful that things she could do (or produce) would be more valuable to human beings than the products of their (Neptune/Poseidon) feelings.

I’m sure you hear some bad times brewing behind this highly mythic sort of assertion, and for those  pondering in that direction, you would surely be right - although this is not the ‘arrow to the heart’ solution reaped by Niobe for her arrogance. Arrows and such being the things of airy flight, that is not how Neptune (emotionalism) chose to punish Cassiopeia. Instead he sent Cetus (a monster of our unconsciousness or ‘the monstrous image’) to attack Ethiopia itself...which is a curious way of saying that the arrogance of our emotions and/or emotional assertions is fully capable of damaging that we stand for, say we love or are trying to lead, protect or otherwise be in charge of.

How Cassiopeia responded to this situation appears to be not so noteworthy. But when king and husband Cepheus learned of the impending attack he sought out advice from an oracle. And when that oracle said the only way to save his kingdom was to sacrifice his own daughter Andromeda, that’s what Cepheus chose to do. In chose country over family he also chose intellectual ideal over emotional commitment - an idea metaphysics has long spoken of in discussions about mythic male and female character images. They aren’t ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in other words, they’re the naturally assertive and responsive parts of our individual nature... which makes this conversation at least in part about the ‘seed of the child’ within us as Alpheratz - the fixed star in conjunction with Europa in the eclipse’s grand cross - is a star located 

To finish with the myth, Andromeda was duly chained to a rock at the ocean’s edge and abandoned.

Andromeda by Gustave Dore

And just as the monster Cetus appeared, so did hero Perseus while on his way home with the head of Medusa. Having already ‘done battle’ with his own fear of facing fear (Medusa) Perseus was exactly the right fellow to rescue Andromeda from  being living ‘payment’ for her kin’s self-defined, self-concerned values.

As is our more ‘heroic’ self Perseus represents whatever part of us which has seen the bad, which has survived the ugly, which knows to look at fears in reflection. It is not that Perseus - or that we always know how to attack the problem of those dangerous emotions which can appear from the psychic deep to threaten us, but that we need to face the real need to try our best which counts.

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Medusa: Through Our Mental Mirror, Darkly

So...over the past two months (more or less), life has evidenced and provoked situations and experiences which reveal to us the embodiment of everything which has gone wrong in areas which are (8 Taurus) rather sensitive. The whole idea of trying to deal with something complicated and which seems - at least on the intellectual level - potentially massively destructive probably bothers each and every one of us as we think about it, and that makes facing up to what must be done in facing the physical attributes of whatever is at hand now all the more difficult.

Why that is...and what that value can teach us about other things in our life? That’s for us to sort through, and as the date of the eclipse passes and we give up trying to hold onto some bygone status quo we will indeed do that.

In the meantime... since our emotions seldom let us escape such ‘monstrous’ situations unscathed it’s not surprising that Neptune/Poseidon (our emotionality) imprisoned Cassiopeia - and in classically Greek illustrations her punishment was an evocative one which has come down to us with Cassiopeia as the ‘chained woman.’

A woodcut of Cassiopeia depicted seated in her 'chair of tormentr'

(from the Hyginus 'Poeticon Astronomicon,' courtesy of US Naval Observatory Library

Tied to her throne (her ‘seat of vanity’) constellation Cassiopeia remains ‘on top of the world’ as it circles Earth’s pole, but for fully half the year she is pretty much ‘standing on her head’ - which some think of as an invitation to ‘turn tables’ and reinvent one’s self and some think of as doomed destiny.

Apparently it’s up to us. (Again.)

Through the period of this eclipse - both as we come to it and in its wake as we start a long, three-year evolutionary process we cannot as yet know the end of, Schedir’s involvement may reflect some grotesque or grotesquely negative reality in your world or which has surfaced in your life. Or it may represent your being ‘tied’ by some commitment, promise, legality, situational parameter, custom... something which prevents you from ‘getting up from your throne’ to act. Looking at the myth it would seem the more ‘tied’ or ‘bound’ we are emotionally the more we will tend to attempt to handle matters on more of an ‘externalized’ basis - and that for those choices to succeed we must be ready and willing to face our fears (or our fear of our fear) about something in fairly short order even though the fullness of whatever happens will not become apparent for several years yet to come.

That the name ‘Schedir’ (which comes from Arabic) means ‘breast’ would seem to indicate that some sort of ‘failure to nurture’ (or nourish or even ‘parent’) is involved here, in which case the ‘chain’ would be the connective between that ‘nourishing factor’ and whatever considerations you may be going through with regards to values and valuations or  evaluations being - or which have been exposed since the latter part of February (2014).

As I’ve said (and will no doubt say again), eclipses are difficult to understand while in the ‘break down’ and ‘passing through’ phases. We look back at eclipses in our life and understand what was changing at that time but seldom understand in the precision of the moment what the eclipse is truly about.

All we know are the current circumstances...which is apparently all we should know as, unbeknownst to us the universe functions as it should. And as it does that, irrevocably if effortlessly we are each and every one of us moved individually and in contiguous continuity through our metamorphic processing: stripped of  whatever seeming solid convictions are separating us from being our most self-respected - and therefore validated in value) Self - we are therefore left with the opportunity to better utilize what we are in the support of who we can be: one human among a contiguous E=mc2 many we of this greatly blue planet tend to call 'All.'
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Mercury in Libra

The Hubble Space Telescope's view of the jet being emitted from Black Hole M87

(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

After Mercury in Virgo comes Mercury in Libra, which by any metaphysical name is the opportunity and need to make connections and to recognize how what we do and how we do it generates how others react.

And who we attract to react with.

And what we’re all about in this moment.

The famous Shakespearian quote about ‘all the world is a stage’ is very Mercury in Libra. Life is our stage and to some extent, life may feel ‘staged.’ Given how much energy is still being expressed through water signs, it would not be mysterious in the least to feel a bit disconnected as Mercury enters Libra (on September 9th at 7:08 in the morning UT/+0 time) or for the just-shy-of-three weeks that Mercury will be passing through this sign. After all, Libra is an interactive sign which is all about the idea of the thing and water is always the symbol of how we feel about things.

So given that Mercury is the emblem of our thoughts and choices and how well we do things…or how healthy our choice of what to do is…the ‘how we feel’ about all such issues – which are now being experienced through interactions of all kinds with others and life in general – is likely to have and reflect whatever quandaries we have as individuals with the difference between the ‘idea of the thing’ and real feelings being experienced in real time.

You know, as we go about doing whatever it is we do in life.

This may be no simple matter…at least not in the sense of what we’re doing versus what’s going on in our (Mercurial) minds, that is. With this shift into Libra happening just after we’ve entered the ‘breaking down’ period in advance of the November Solar Eclipse, anything which is outmoded in our life is beginning to shift.

Mind you, we may not think those things are outmoded. We may be just ‘fine’ with them. But whatever they are, they are not serving us well in the sense that they are not allowing us or enabling our ability to be the truth of who we are way deep down inside. We may think what we’re doing or how we’re doing it is just nifty. In fact, that’s pretty much a given. But whatever you feel shifting now – particularly as that pertains to who you associate and how you go about associating with people and your world in general?

That’s the ‘underlying’ nuance likely to continue throughout these weeks of Mercury in Libra. On the surface, we can expect the pace of life to pick up. There will be more which needs doing, more focus required on and in what we do, and the smart money is thinking through not just what our position or concept on any given subject is, but recognizing how that does – or doesn’t “fit” with those around us. 

Or how the world works.

The fact that we do have this very dichotomous inner-versus-outer energetic going on means you may feel like you’re wearing a ‘social mask.’ Or conversely, you may want to be all about living on one level while trying to ignore something else.

That wouldn’t be the best move, by the by. If you’re (Mercury) thinking you can operate as you want to and not just do what you (Libra) do to get results in the short run, that’s skating on pretty thin ice.
And since Scorpio – the sign of the solar eclipse – is “fixed water” and therefore metaphysical ice, that would be a pretty iffy bet. Yes, we are sure to see some unenlightened bulldozer brains thinking they can avoid evolutionary force, but that would be sort of like skating on thin ice.

Do you really like cold water all that much?

Libra being the sign behind Scorpio puts this Mercury in Libra passage in the 12th house position to the eclipse – so it would be natural to be either thinking through where you might do better if you changed things up (self criticism) or, if you’re one of those people who doesn’t like being self reflective, to be getting a lot of notes, critiques and out-and-out complaints from others.

Then again, Scorpio is also the 2nd house harmonic to Libra. It’s the sign after Libra, in other words, which on the zodiacal harmonic level says we may now be doing our growing through learning from others. Or through having others challenge us or evoke our deeper emotional issues.

Scary? Maybe yes. But useful? Also yes! And that we are meant to consider things differently…? That works here too, as any planet which moves into Libra immediately encounters the position of supermassive Black Hole M87. Black holes – by any account – are areas of space (the general time/space continuum) where what we think of as ‘reality’ goes through some serious alterations. One of my favorite descriptions of entering a black hole (which is referred to as ‘crossing the event horizon’ – an esoteric term if there ever was one!) …is how that which the Black Hole is on the inside is SO very different than what’s on the outside that to cross that event horizon would be experienced as being turned into ‘cosmic spaghetti.’

(For the record, I think this description came from Paul Halpern’s book ‘Cosmic Wormholes,’ but I’m not positive.)

Mercury's Libra ingress chart

September 9, 2013 - 7:08 a.m. (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel (location not specific)

 

The astrological point (and to some degree the astrophysical point) is that Black Holes basically do two things: they suspend our sense of ‘time in the space of our existence’ and they alter our sense of what is…and therefore what is true and on the more mundane level, what works and what doesn’t work in the glorious thing we know as our life.

So as Mercury – representing our thoughts, our communications, our choices and all which goes with them and which provokes them – crosses into Libra, this will reflect in…

a.) Our moving from a more personal and private mode of thinking into several months to come of focusing our our world in a less personal and more global and interactive way.

b.) Our encountering some new and different ways of seeing or experiencing things…or the need to see them in/through a different perspective…or people and/or situations which force upon us something which in turn gets us to see something in or about life in a new or different way.

And all of this will at some level refer both to a major shift in how we interact with others and our ability or willingness to balance the ‘them’ and their needs against our Self and our preferences…whatever we’ve been doing which does or doesn’t serve that need to interact fully and at least intimately within our Self (if not with others)…and the repercussions of who we are being, who we are willing to be, what we are willing to risk in terms of our own experience of being who we are – the ‘yes it’s right/no it’s not functional’ of all this as the metaphysical operand which dictates/contributes to why we’re moving ahead in life or how we’re being stymied by others.

Are we being respected for who we are is now coming ‘above the horizon’ in our own mind…and we’re beginning to grapple with why we may not be garnering the respect we truly deserve.

Generally that is going to be because we’re not willing to risk, but it could also be because our basis for risk or the values that we hold are simply too ‘me’ oriented that others (read: life) isn’t/aren’t willing to humor our self-concerned notions.

(Is that putting it nicely enough?)

Another interesting factoid here: Mercury is entering Libra in conjunction with asteroid Circe. Circe is always a reference to our being reduced to our most instinctual level until we are willing to resist the allure to give up the more challenging aspects of our human nature or life – personal or professional.

That sort of echoes the whole M87 thing. And the incoming Solar Eclipse thing.

Gosh, it’s a quorum!

Seriously…this is not quite a quorum per se, but any time we begin seeing ‘themes’ being built by various astrological factors, we know that ‘issue’ is not only likely to be on the table, but be in bas relief.

Or to put it another way, it’s one thing to ignore the 600 pound gorilla in the room, it’s another thing to ignore the multi-ton T-Rex breathing down your neck.

That this Mercury ingress occurs with a grand square being presented in fixed signs says we’re not exactly jumping to make any changes.

With this particular grand square being formed by South Node in Taurus, North Node-Saturn-Moon in Scorpio, Juno in Aquarius and Mars in Leo is a pretty good image of plain old human stubbornness. We like what we like and most of us are going to be going for the old ‘it’s working well enough’ line.

And that would be fine except for that pesky incoming Solar Eclipse. Considering that Solar Eclipses are all about taking away the ‘well enough’ compromises in our life in order to confound us by pushing us through our emotional barriers (read: emotional event horizons) so that through our experience of being emotional metaphysical  spaghetti we will at least contemplate changing the shape of our noodle…(I happen to favor those lovely little corkscrew pastas, personally) …?

Let’s just say we can resist all we like and we’re still not likely to win. Why? Because the universe is bigger than we are. That’s just how it is.

That this grand square is in fixed signs suggests that some of us would be willing to change IF we felt that what we are thinking of moving on to wouldn’t come as too big of a shock – maybe to us, and maybe to others.

May I refer you back to that ‘thin ice’ Scorpio thing? You may skate and get by for a little while, but there’s slow acclimation and then there’s the shocking, chilling plunge method. Life doesn’t really care which way you get where you need to go – life just wants us to get there. So we do have a little bit of latitude, it’s just that not getting in the water is probably not this part of the equation.

At least not if your chart is in any way seriously aspected by this incoming 11 Scorpio eclipse. So get your charts out: do you have a chart point OR axis point OR node (north or south) between 6 and 16 of Taurus, Scorpio, Leo or Aquarius? Do you have some point or node or vertical or horizontal axis which falls between 9 and 13 of Sagittarius, Libra, Gemini or Aries?

These are the signs and degrees which are going to get more or less spaghetti-ized during the coming eclipse. So look at your chart. If your chart is aspected, you’re probably already feeling a twitch, twinge or other itch. There’s been a shift in life’s vibe, a change in the atmosphere – something.

And if you have more than one point which falls into this list? The more points…the greater the spectrum of the effect. The closer to 11 degrees in any of the signs cited, the stronger the effects – which is to say the greater the totality of your change(s) is/are going to be.

The changes we end up going through in these next few months (and on into next year and the year after that) don’t have to be terrible. They can be pretty wonderful. Even downright happy-making! And what’s the difference between these poles?

Our willingness to change. Our willingness to own up to what is no longer viable or workable or sensible or productive and from that, the willingness to – and the making it a priority to make whatever changes are needed, no matter how unlikely or far fetched or “impossible” they seem.

There’s also this other ‘little thing’ which is set up for us to contemplate as Mercury moves into Libra. It’s called a grand sextile.

If you read the recent piece on dwarf planet Sedna’s station (which posted back on August 23rd) you already understand that this symbol is not “about” Judaism or any other religion – at least not on the metaphysical level. The grand sextile – which is six points joined in a chart so that they form two grand trines which are at sextiles to each other – is a symbol of those opportunities which come from accepting inevitabilities (those processes some think of as “fate”) and conversely, those “fates” which befall us because we refuse to move on in our life or continue growing.

In our last “grand sextile chapter” (the one we talked about in that Sedna post) the points involved were as follows:

1. South Node in Taurus

2. Jupiter in Cancer

3. Mercury in Virgo

4. Saturn in Scorpio

5. Pluto/Facies in Capricorn

6. Chiron in Pisces

I’ve list them that way because it makes it easier to simply note that positions 1, 5 and 6 basically haven’t changed. But instead of just Jupiter sitting at position #2, we have Jupiter plus Black Moon Lilith, which suggests this period is all about where we are either avoiding (denying) the need to grow as a person…or that our growth is being denied or stymied or otherwise hindered by others because we are not seeing our part in that process.

(Welcome to the wonderful world of being forced to look in life’s mirror, everyone!)

At position #3, instead of Mercury doing a swift do-si-do-and-scoot number we also have Ceres, the image of ‘the plan’ which in combination with the essence of protection for ‘our environment’ asks us whether our plans are perhaps too focused on Self or whether they focus solely on others to the exclusion of that Self, whether we even have a plan or whether – given the Libra/Scorpio divide implied in this general Mercurial contemplation – whether our plan and protective aims with regard to Self and our plans and protective aims for others are incongruous.

It could be. We might be really good on one side and really destructive on the other side. It happens.

At position #4, instead of just Saturn we have Saturn, the North Node and the Moon. As someone who owns a Scorpio Moon I can just break out here in a minor key chorus of ‘Oh joy, oh rapture…’ (which sometimes makes me think ‘rapture’ should be replaced by ‘raptor’) (yes, I’m feeling very prehistoric today – thanks for noticing).

More to the point, since I happen to own not just a Scorpio Moon but a Scorpio Saturn/Moon (and one which is natally very close to these numbers) I can tell you that this combination tends – even without the North Node being involved) to focus very adeptly on who we are to others and our ability to structure our life with regards to others…and with others as part of our lives without loss of Self. (Or self esteem, which is also important.)

Saturn/Moon in Scorpio can manifest as fear. Then again, it can manifest as the ability to walk through fear despite all (even yes, that shaking in your bones thing.) In conjunction with the North Node, if nothing else were involved we would be thinking in terms of what we should do in this regard.

But with this Saturn-North Node-Moon thing involved not just in a grand trine but in a grand sextile? With a solar eclipse headed this way which is going to conjunct this very set of positions?

Mercury in Libra is all about thinking through the ‘idea’ of what it means to be part of this world, a member of the human race and what or how you can be who you are in a manner which works not just for you because it’s what you like or prefer, but which works for you because it works for the ‘all’ of your life and everybody in that life, seeing that we all need and depend on one another.

We are learning to choose who to be on a new level. We are learning that who we choose to be with, to be who we are with and how we go about doing all of that – it matters.

Maybe more than we thought it did.
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Eris Stations at a New Moon

 Moonlit Seascape with Shipwreck by Ivan Aivasovsky (1817-1900)

Astrologically, Thursday July 19th may be many things…but boring is not likely to be one on the list. At the very least it’ll be interesting. Maybe even thought provoking. Or exciting.

Then again, it could be cataclysmic. Or problematic. Even shocking.

Whatever it is, it won’t be that ‘same ol’, same ol’’ thing.

The particulars here are as follows:

- Dwarf planet Eris will go retrograde at 11:22 p.m., UT/+0 time.

- A New Moon at 26 Cancer occurs at 4:25 in the morning, UT/+0 time.

Obviously this means that for some (notably those who live a time zone or more east of Greenwich) Eris will go retrograde on July 20th…with the New Moon occurring on the 19th. And for others (those living more than 4 time zone hours west of Greenwich) the New Moon will occur late on the 18th with Eris going retrograde on the 19th.

Usually I simply giving you the time and let you sort it out from there. I’m pointing this out today simply because we’re talking about two separate astrological issues which, because of their proximity in time may combine to create a pot-sticker of a time in your life.

Then again, they may apply to two very different things.

That now dutifully disclaimed, on to the meat of the subject…as we has now been noted many a time, all celestial stations, be they into retrograde or retrograde-direct, are given at least a two-day ‘station allowance. (I’m beginning to be inclined to think that perhaps should be three days going into the station and two days coming out of it, but that’s just a theory I’m playing with as yet…though input is welcome!)

What this amounts to is the idea that Eris’ turn to retrograde occurs late on July 19th, but the effects of same begin on the 17th. (Maybe even the latter part of the 16th, yes.) Coming into this station, Eris is in direct motion. That tells us that the ‘Eris Effect’ – that of provoking or evoking emotionalism or emotional reactions – comes from outside of us and affects our sense of being.

That ‘being’ part comes from Eris’ current transit ‘being’ in Aries, sign of Self. Will this effect be physical or merely psychological?

Yes.

 Eris and Eris' moon, Dysnomia, as photographed

by the Hubble Telescope (photo credit: NASA-JPL)

I know, I know…that’s a snotty way to answer. But it’s true – and I may as well cut to the chase as anything else. Eris’ station may be physical, psychological, environmental, experiential, emotional, or any combination of the above. To be noted as well, this ‘Eris Effect’ may not be directly about your emotionality or your physicality. In other words, it may be something which happens to someone else or which merely ‘happens’ which ends up affecting you. Maybe someone else gets their ‘dream job.’ Might that cause you to think about whether you’re trying hard in your own life or not? Or maybe someone you have long respected and trusted is shown up to be a lying crumb. How would that affect you – not just your relationship with them, but your overall sense of trust, your willingness to invest your faith in others?

What does all that mean?

Maybe a law will get passed somewhere which changes what you can buy? Or whether you can buy it at all? What if that law changed the standard of education for your children – or your pension fund structure? Or your health care?

Those things which have the power to challenge our sense of survival and trust in life, our sense of world order or ‘our world’s order…those are Eris.

But there’s another side of Eris, too. Eris is the energy of going to to make a better world. Eris is about changing the world and fighting for that which is right, which has integrity.

The trick with Eris, however, lies in the purpose. Let’s remember – Eris is a dwarf planet, yet. But where it orbits is way, way, way out there in the Kuiper Belt.

 The Kuiper Belt involves a vast area of space beyond Neptune

 and inside that area currently thought of as the very edge of our

solar system - the Oort Cloud.

All those things represented by objects in the Kuiper Belt – defined pretty much as ‘beyond Neptune’ have to do with transpersonal dynamics pertaining to more than just me-myself-I. By definition, these are not individual issues. Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) evoke reactions to life. They are life’s processes and surprises good and ugly coming upon us. Undoubtedly the best-known of the KBOs is Pluto. And though surely we’d like to think we have control over life, we don’t – which is why Pluto is connected to the symbolism of death as the experience of life being transformed. Pluto is actually the symbol of conception and death and connected to all which brings us into this world (sex) and those processes which take us out of it (war, murder, death through old age) as well as our efforts to control that (surgery, for instance).

The ‘obsession’ quality we note with Pluto is our wanting to control all these things. That in itself should tell us that we aren’t in actual control.

So it is with Eris. We are not in control of that which Eris represents. Much as we might try to ‘guard’ ourselves from experiences which provoke or startle the living daylights out of us, Eris is that life dynamic which cuts through all our naiveté, all our protection, all our denials, forcing the truth not of the world, but of our own consciousness upon us.

With Eris, wherever we find Eris in the chart, it’s easy to feel self-protective. And since Eris has been in Aries since the latter part of 1921, most people alive today experience Eris very personally.

Yet Eris’ has a positive side. Eris functions to the positive when we work at using what we do or who and what we are for the benefit of others. Some of us – notably those with Eris strongly placed in their chart – say ‘but what about me? when do I get to make me my own priority?’

The answer to that is ‘probably never’...but I'll have to scout around for a chart or two which show how Eris works when sincerely focal. In the interim, though it’s easy enough to want to do, a focus on the Self in the chart of someone with Eris prominently placed will probably wear their ‘connective batteries’ (connective to the world) down, quickly rendering them irrelevant.

Someone who has made it big, who has hit the limelight and gone as far as they want to go? Turing their Eris ‘evocation’ energies to personal uses or pleasures may be a good way to get out of the public eye. But energies never actually go away, and with Eris, just thinking through the myth it seems likely that those energies neglected will in time backfire and cause trouble in our lives.

LINK...Eris Discordant: Mastering Our Own Weakest Moments

Currently transiting the latter part of Aries, Eris very distinctly portrays the changing of life and how we can either all be contributing to this world or being changed and molded by that world. Those who think there is any ‘escape’ from the march of modernism are particularly wrong at this particular time. I know a number of people who are still trying to ‘hide’ from the digital age and technology in general. Good luck to them – I think their cause a foolish one, for it will in time corner and suppress them. They are, in essence, volunteering to be marginalized. And few know what marginalization means until it is beyond capacity to get back aboard that ship which has already sailed…in this case without you because you simply refused to get on board.

That said, I understand the challenges of technology. Aquarian in nature and astrologically governed by a headache pair of planets (first Saturn, then Uranus) modern technology has a unique ability to frustrate and upset us. Years ago I was working with a company on the development of accounting systems for motion pictures. When not trying to convey the realities of production to the programmers (I probably should have provided them with popcorn) I spent a lot of time doing tech support and teaching people how to us the software of that time.

My classic statement on such: until you get so frustrated that you want to scream and pitch the computer out the window, you’re probably not quite there.

I recalled this lesson for my own purposes not but about a month ago now while I was learning to format my first eBook. Trust me…my verbal capacity with invectives got quite a workout during those couple of weeks.

But I prevailed. And once I conquered that first issuing-of-a-book, a whole world of self-publishing opened up to me as something I could do. Not that might be possible, but which I CAN now do.

Yes, this will include the famous epic high fantasy you all have heard me talk about. That will go out via Print on Demand (POD) and somewhere in the next couple of months I’ll bite that formatting apple.

All of this is to say that while there is – unquestionably – some sort of genius-intellectual salvation mechanism which only goes off in our brains when we reach the point of personal cataclysm…that’s not Eris. That’s Uranus.

Uranus – a planet which orbits inside the line of Neptune – represents those things which we can master, but which require letting go of our pre-set boundaries, our limits. They may be behavioral, experiential, regarding what we know or have been willing to perceive. They may pertain to our attitudes about social acceptance and our willingness to be a true individual.

With Uranus, we generally have some choice, even though sometimes we say ‘no’ or refuse to make a choice and life thrusts a choice upon us.

 This is a detail from a painting called 'The Mutilation of Uranus by

Saturn' by Giorgio Vasari which in following the Greek creation

myth about the primordial sky god (Ouranus, from whence comes

the planetary name Uranus) being 'deposed" by Saturn...that concept

we call time, reality, consequence, pragmatism, responsibility. 

But that’s not Eris. Eris begins as life thrusting something – some experience, some moment, some realization - upon us. Zak Bagans became a parapsychologist because he encountered a ghost and from there went on to learn about them.

Someday I’ll tell you all (and the rest of the world) how I came to be who I am too. I just have to be able to pay the legal bills to process the manuscript – which is the ‘down’ side of growing up with famous people as family friends.(Never thought about that part of famous families, did ya? Mmm...it's not all parties and good times, trust me!)

To the point here….when Eris touches our lives - and it happens to us all at some point - taking the disruption and making something useful or positive from it is key. And the more that ‘something’ you make touches others – maybe more gently than you were touched, but touches them nonetheless…the more you turn Eris’ energy to the positive.

That’s why Eris as (for instance) a social reformer holds such potential for good. Anywhere where you fix things for others, where you take the evocative or emotionally unsettling and use it to help others understand or to fix something which is harming others at any level – that’s Eris to the good.

And when Eris functions to the positive, like fellow KBO Huya, it evokes a positive response which empowers, enriches or supports you.

With Eris going retrograde at 22 Aries, where we are weak, where we have been unwilling to carry through on our tasks – all our irresponsibility gets uncovered, exposed and pretty much shoved in our face. With Saturn still very much in opposition to Eris (at 23 Libra) there will be a tendency to project blame on others, on circumstances, on whatever.

It probably won’t wash. And because it won’t wash, we will all of us be confronted (to whatever degree) with where we have been humoring ourselves thinking ‘oh, they’ll go along with it’ when in the end, they won’t. And in the end, we will pay the price not for ‘their’ intolerance, but for our lack of willingness to work (Saturn) at the thing which we find emotionally difficult to swallow (Eris). That may simply amount to not liking to be told what to do. Or maybe it’s that you don’t want to change how you go about doing something or the ‘charge’ you levy for doing it.

There are a million-zillion ways this Eris (opposition Saturn) station can manifest. The important thing to remember is that whatever happens now, the core of the emotional reaction is pointing at you. Specifically, at some vulnerability in your character. Maybe you don’t like being or working alone. (Maybe you need to learn how to do that?) Maybe you don’t like having to change the way you ‘always’ have done something (Maybe you need to recognize the times are changing and/or have changed?) Maybe…

….maybe, maybe, maybe.

So many maybes. One life to get them straight in.

The other half of this moment is – as mentioned – a New Moon. And that makes this the PERFECT time to learn better. As this post goes up (July 15th) Mercury has just gone retrograde (see previous post), meaning that the next couple of weeks are a really good time for cleaning house – mental or otherwise.

And yes, it is likely that for those who are dilly-dallying around about things, others will do some of the housecleaning for you. Or to you, depending.

Again, don’t blame them. Take responsibility for how you are perceived. We can coax, con, soothe, explain some of the time. In the end, actions speak the bottom line. Both Saturn and Eris are in cardinal, action/demonstrative signs. If you want others to think differently of you, change you and prove that you’re different.

With this New Moon occurring at 26 Cancer, we know there is some sort of ‘basis for proceeding’ in the mix now.

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 Positioned at the bottom of the wheel of the 'natural' zodiac (the

 zodiac as placed around the horoscope wheel starting with

 Aries and ending with Pisces), Cancer reveals itself as the sign

at the very base of the chart - thus its associations with our

foundations as individuals (our childhood, home, nationality, culture)

as well as any plans we have in life. If you think of the chart wheel

as a building the meaning here becomes clear: without sound

foundations, all which is built ON those foundations does not

stand firm. This idea supports exploration of childhood and

child-mentality through psychology as surely as it supports our

need for 'down time' (moments in which to be childlike, even

child-ish!) in life...and the need to have a sense that you 'belong' 

somewhere...in a family, in a people, as part of a national identity

...and why astrologers do well to examine where Cancer falls in any

chart, PLUS the nature and stutus of the 4th house in order to

understand challenges and positives of functionality.

Cancer is the first of the water signs. Known in virtually every spiritual and metaphysical tradition as an emblem of emotionality, water is also the basic ‘giver of life,’ accounting for Cancer as the sign of family, our nationality and culture, our childhood and our basic ‘life plan.’

With this New Moon occurring at 26 Cancer, we are given to know – from the fact that this is a 3rd decan degree (between 20 and 29 degrees) – that we are getting ‘feedback’ now. We are learning what it means to have our background. Or to be of our nationality. Or whether our ‘life plan’ is functional or not.

For those who are having difficulties, the Mercury retrograde weeks between July 15 and August 8 (when Mercury goes direct) will be an excellent time to make plans, develop methods and ways of reaching your goals and finding our everything from who can help you to how things can work. Business or personal, this New Moon adds to things by asking that you recognize what your values are against what the world may think of those values.

Just understand one thing: considering that Eris’ turnabout is happening in virtual tandem with this New Moon, you may be tempted to blame difficulties on others. And no, life isn’t fair. But how you respond to life and what your plans become given that life is at this point what it is…? That’s what will now evolve over this next lunation.

Specific to the lore on the degree of this New Moon, it deals with artists and artistry as well as questions of luxury. The term ‘artistry’ is not confined to the arts here. Rather, it’s a reference to the way you go about doing whatever you do. Likewise, while ‘luxury’ may be about material goods, it may also be a reference to the ‘luxury’ of not trying or not living up to standards (which would be very Eris-Saturn), “resting on one’s laurels” (thinking you don’t have to try any more and/or can do what you want now, which plays right into the Saturn/Eris scenario) and the ‘luxury’ of abdicating responsibility to others.

Again, I refer you back to our conversation about Eris…or Saturn/Eris as a particular.

The Sabian Symbol for this degree is ‘A VIOLENT STORM IN A CANYON FILLED WITH EXPENSIVE HOMES’ which astrologer Dane Rudhyar considers to be a ‘confrontation with social upheaval, demanding the reconsideration of static values.’

Whether or not you deal with things which are literally ‘expensive’ there are items and issues in life which we consider precious – and to lose them would be very ‘expensive’ to our lives. As much as the literal translation of this degree, the emotional concept will now be in play. Health, love, respect, trust, regard, proximity…everybody is facing some sort of change. Those of us least used to change will find it harder to face than others and where resources would seem protective, life now cuts through all protections.

That would be the Eris part of things.

Especially if your natal chart has a position between…say,…20 and 27 of any sign, you’re in the celestial shaker box.

And then there are those of you who have already noticed how Eris at 22 Aries is in aspect to this New Moon at 26 Cancer…

 

Yes, this is a total configuration. And that, my friends, would be why no matter what time zone you’re in…why these two events would seem to be tied together.

There are many interesting points in this diagram with one we haven’t touched on yet being Kalypso and Photographica opposing the New Moon. This would tend to be something of the ‘but how will it look?’ sort of thing.

But it bears recalling that there are not only structural rules for using astrological solar systemics to sort out what’s personal from what’s experiential, there’s a size thing too.

Yes, in astrology, size matters. I’m not sure it matters in other places as much as some think it does, but when it comes to celestial objects, yes – size matters. Not only does greater physical size generally translate into the symbolism having ‘greater mass’ and ‘more weight’ in our lives, but there is that physics thing that once a celestial object reaches a given size, it will tend to ‘spin itself’ into becoming a planetoid or for the lucky few, a planet.

(Yes, I’m using the term ‘lucky’ here rather abstractly.)

In those terms, the ‘gravity’ (gravitas?) of the situation plainly goes to the New Moon. Earth’s satellite – our Luna Moon – is pretty dinky in planetary terms. Yet it is close! But more to the point, there isn’t anything about our solar system which comes close to being as big as the Sun.

 Solar System: Size (only) to Scale

To make this even plainer, here’s a link to another web page which does a really good job of visually demonstrating how big solar system objects are with respect to each other...

LINK: 'All (known) Bodies in the Solar System Larger than 200 Miles in Diameter' (Kokogiak.com) 

Essentially, the structure of this moment is a t-square with the possibility of it being a Grand Cross in particular for those who have something positioned in the 20-27 degrees of Capricorn.

(Yes…that’s me raising my hand. I have a date with my Chiron.)(...shudder...)

What’s the difference? A t-square is incredibly annoying. It’s like throwing yourself against a wall which impassively resists your every assault.

But t-squares do have ‘solutions.’ And that ‘solution’ is to get over your big bad self! The ‘t’ in the t-square (in this case the New Moon) is the thing which is standing in your way. You want it. Your ego is wrapped up in the ‘you’ of it and not focused (sufficiently) on the quality or ‘end purpose’ of what you’re talking about.

Life, in other words, is not rejecting YOU…it’s rejecting your approach. Your insistence that life listen to you or that what you’re up to is about you. Or dependent on you. Something.

For those who do have a planet, axis point, nodal point or even a prominent asteroid, TNO or such (if you have one you know about it) in this 20-27 Capricorn department, your issue is a bit different. You’re in the Grand Cross quandary, the simplest version of which is ‘too much to do and not enough time to do it in.’

Answer: prioritize. No, that doesn’t fix the totality of what you need to do, but prioritizing by actual need and not emotional want (or pressure) will go a long way towards helping you think things through and work through whatever long laundry list you now have before you.

That all this happens under Mercury retrograde is actually in favor of the ‘laundry list’ folks. Mercury retrograde is the perfect time for catching up, for paring down, for editing out, for getting things assembled – with all the details duly checked out – in order to move ahead once Mercury goes direct (on August 8).

For those with no planets being affected, you may well be bystanders to others who are dealing with ‘image issues’ of whatever kind. Whether this is focal in your life or not, there are positive lessons to be learned about awareness of Self in connection to, and with regards to others.

And that…is just about all I have to say about all that.

Well, maybe. But I do have to go check my laundry – and the list, which may have just gotten washed.

So happy Eris Lunation all…may we all become wiser for our experiences!