Sun in Libra / Juno Direct: Our Need to Be Who We Are

Saules Sonata Scherzo (Sonata of Sun)

by Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis (1907)

The Sun will enter Libra on September 22nd at 8:45 in the evening, UT/+0 time. Two days later, asteroid Juno will go direct at 3 Aquarius.

The Sun’s Libra ingress is one of the two days a year when day and night are in ‘balance’ - hence the idea of Libra as the scales. We tend to think of this as a time of equilibrium…but this astrologer isn’t quite sure that’s how this year’s Libra equinox is going to manifest.

For one (yes, you know what I’m going to say)…we’re in the ‘break down’ period preceding a Scorpio Solar Eclipse. So anywhere where our willingness or ability to ‘negotiate’ life’s waters – particularly in areas where emotions are either on the table or to be evoked (or provoked) – life is going to push our buttons. We’re going to meet up with things which test our inner willingness to be straight with ourselves.

In other words, are we in balance with our Self? Is what we are doing true to our nature or are our ways of coping or operating ‘out of balance’ with what we really want out of life? Are we even capable (emotionally, as in Scorpionically) of facing, dealing with or risking what it would take to get into balance with ourselves and thus have the life we want to have?

0 Libra is what it is – the point where our inner world meets the outer world and we begin to experience life as a process we do not wholly own or have the ability to work on. What we do, what we are, what we put out there, what we say or don’t say – all those things generate life’s response. And the response of people and entities and whatnot in our life.

There’s also the fact that supermassive black hole M87 sits just inside the cusp of Libra. Black holes are the ‘looking glass’ entities of astrology: whatever is going on, we either see, begin to understand – or get hit with ‘the alternative’ experience. M87 is a black hole which is about our relationship to another…and carries with it all the images of ‘fantasy love’ which go with that concept. The early degrees of Libra are all about self-and-others, making this a time when we’re ripe for projecting some image we want to project (which can be useful, say, in business or the creative arts) and at some level wonderful if we want to ‘enchant’ someone in particular.

You know…that ‘let me just Venus myself right into your world’ thing.

But this isn’t hard core reality. It always pays to remember that Libra is about the (air sign) idea of the thing, not the concrete (earth sign) reality of the thing. Heck, it’s not even about the (water sign) feelings the thing can evoke. We think of Libra as love because we like the idea of love. But Libra isn’t love per se – although at its best Libra is about the care and the caring which we exhibit when we love someone. The Venusian ‘Aphrodite’ ‘how pretty it looks’ thing which is so popularly associated with Libra is fine if you’re just looking…and MAYBE fine if you’re buying…but this is the district of the zodiac definitely marked ‘caveat emptor’: buyer beware.

UNFORTUNATELY…for some this will now be too late. How do we know that? We know that because this ingress comes equipped with a grand sextile to call it’s own.

The above is a confusing sort of drawing, I know – and yes, I’ll explain in a moment. In part it’s a definite case of astrologer-versus-Microsoft Powerpoint. But beyond that, it’s also a fact that when you look at real charts they aren’t always so ‘perfect looking.’ Because sometimes houses are small and sometimes they’re big (unless you’re casting a chart in an Equal house or Aries wheel format) we do get these out-of-kilter images.

Anyway…the point here is that this grand sextile is yet another in a long series which on a metaphysical level seems to have been set off by Sedna’s turn to retrograde back on August 25

- link to-

Sedna’s Station as Grand Sextile Herald

All of these grand sextiles have been posed as earth against water, offering us the opportunity to understand our feeling selves at an ever deeper and more realistic level while bringing to us situations which stir our emotions precisely because reality is at stake. This can be financial or familial, This can be a matter of traditions, culture or some image you’ve been carrying around in the back pocket of your brain about ‘how life is going to be’ when that may not be the way life really works at all.

That the water side of this grand sextile is composed of Saturn/North Node plus Chiron plus Black Moon Lilith is a whole litany about what we need to learn by doing and why it’s better to decide for yourself who you are whether or not others – be that your peer group or society or your culture or your family – likes it or not.

The rationale here is posed by the earth side of this proposal – the reality of how your life can change or be drastically changed by realities which come upon us.

If you’re anyone who has been through something in your life which a moment (or hour or day or whatever) later you said ‘oh, how I wish I could take that back!’ …or do that over again, this series of grand sextiles is all about that sort of reality. It’s about knowing who you are way deep down inside because no matter what you feel about someone else (which would be a Libra-Scorpio thing) and no matter what someone else or ‘society’ wants to think of you as (the Libra-Scorpio experience as thrust upon you) …in the end, we all need to live with ourselves. We need to be okay with what our life is and has become.

And that means sometimes we have to cope with a difficult situation – a feeling we don’t want to have, a reality we can’t afford to face (for whatever reason). Maybe we’re not ready to do something. Maybe we aren’t even sure of who we are or how we feel about something yet.

The Libra balance here is between the ‘what we know’ and what we don’t know or aren’t sure about yet. In all such cases, it is up to us to manage ourselves.

And how do we know that? We know that because Juno is going direct. Known as the ‘keeper of the hearth’ and defender of the household, Juno has long been thought of in connection with wives and motherhood and matriarchs and all that sort of thing.

But astrology is personal. The ‘position’ or symbol someone may seem to have in a worldly sense is just one part of astrological imagery, and in the world of western (Tropical) astrology, probably the secondary form of said dynamic.

The first image for anything astrological in the western teaching is about US. It’s ALL us, because its OUR nativity and these are energetics which are manifesting as waves of time/space in OUR lives and affecting what WE do or don’t do, what WE EACH need to confront and how we will pursue our lives as individuals.

And at that level, Juno is all about ‘managing our individual household’…which is to say, managing our individuality. Or to put it another way, Juno is self discipline. Juno is the ability to know ourselves and to keep ourselves in ‘order.’ It’s about protecting the hearth of our being – our sense of safety and security…and to the extent that we live a life which is not defined by us, but by someone else or some societal or cultural force…that’s where Juno issues surface.

If you don’t know by now, I’m a somewhat counter-cultural person. For all that I’m very into human standards, I don’t tend to hold a standard vision of what’s “right” and “wrong” apart from the obvious: killing people is bad, pedophilia is bad, rape is bad – all those things are the obvious. But apart from that, I’m not much for traditions as a guideline. If they fit you because that’s who you are, fine. But if they don’t, the need to be who you are – providing that doesn’t interfere with someone else’s need to be who THEY are – is generally, to my thinking, the optimal choice.

From there, let me just say that being an astrologer for plural decades will get you to consider all sorts of different walks of life. If you’re a professional, you’re going to see and hear about it all, either from clients or when you’re hobnobbing with other professionals.

Lets face it…astrology itself is still pretty ‘not so mainstream.’ But it’s getting there. Twenty years ago western medicine was anti-acupuncture and chiropractic. Today, both are pretty well accepted and well on their way to being mainstream.

In part, this goes to speak to exactly what Juno is: the minding of our individuality at a level which says ‘I need to be who I need to be, whether or not society understands this yet.’ Valid is valid. Real is real. Thirty years ago most gays were in the closet. Now in a lot of places they’re able to get married just like anybody else. This ‘de-genderizing’ of partners is part of the incoming Aquarian Age, and who better than Gen X (the Pluto in Libra tribe, which represent an evolutionary trine to the Age) to usher in such things. Another form of wiping out the old was the Gen X ‘friends with benefits’ routine. And it was when the front end of Gen X started coming of age that we saw the whole matter of interracial marriage sort of fade away as a question. Between Gen X and Gen Y, give it a couple of decades more and it’s highly likely that the ages old ‘he’s older/she’s younger’ thing with regards to marriage and marriage partners is also going to go by the wayside.

Granted, there are always some people who will remain rigid traditionalists. Populations are their own bell curves and while some are at the front breaking ice, others are at the tail end being sticks in the mud.

So where was I going with this whole ‘traditional/non-traditional’ thing? I was going to tell you something about Juno. Never let it be said that I don’t live up (and down) to my chart’s native abilities: my Saturn/Moon in Scorpio plus a Sagittarian Mars in the highly emotional (and intimate) 8th house has pushed my astrological research in a couple of different directions. One is business – specifically business products and the success and timing of that.

The other…(have you not guessed yet?) is sexuality. Specifically, “non-traditional sexuality” – from fetishes to S&M to D/s (Dominance and submission) to polyamory, you name it.

And yes, it’s really interesting. (Did you think otherwise?)

Anyway...the point about this for today is that wherever we go in this non-alternative lifestyle thing, Juno plays a part. Juno represents our ability to govern ourselves just as much as Juno represents the ability to know who we are…and to manage that in a real life, real time, realistic way.

So with all that said, Juno’s opposition to dispassionate Pallas (the intellectual wisdom symbol) suggests there is a real need to see things for what they are at this time. There’s a need to know ourselves during these days going into the Sun’s Libra ingress and coming out of it.

Remember, planets and asteroids et al get ‘station window allowances.’ So that Juno is going direct two days after the Sun enters Libra says that Juno’s station begins AT the solar Libra ingress…which will have the Sun setting off that M87 ‘alternative’ quotient (which in your life can mean any of a million-zillion “non-traditional” things) as Juno goes direct.

And let's not ignore the fact that Juno's station is not just in opposition to Pallas but also in square to the (relationship oriented) Nodes. Just that gives the very difficult, very challenging image of a grand square, one which in this case is being presented in fixed signs.

PLUS that Nodal axis...that Nodal axis is where the grand square and grand sextile intersect.

 Juno as pictured in a detail from 'The Origin of the Milky Way'

by Tintoretto (c 1575, oil on canvas, National Gallery)

This marks these days as a period when it's hard to understand the full parameters of things, when stress may run exceptionally high, when your aims and those of other people are likely to be at odds...it's just a tough moment.

Then we get to the degree of Juno's station, which pretty much echoes this whole energetic. Juno is going direct at 3 Aquarius, a degree which is all about how hard it is to get where you really want to go. This degree stresses the fact that life is not all lollypops and cuddles. In fact, it’s more along that line I like to quote from the masterful writer Kahil Gibran: “out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

To be complete here, this degree is known for the loss of loved ones – which is interesting indeed at a moment when the Sun is entering Libra, a sign all about relationship. Probably less likely (but still informational) is that 3 Aquarius has a reputation for things having to do with legs (and which relates to the metaphysical ability to 'get to where I want to go') and in a more general sense, accidents.

No, the nature of those 'accidents' isn't defined. They could involve anything...and that's the BIG 'anything.'

And with all this happening in that ultra-vibrational period prior to a Solar Eclipse?

Let’s not forget that Pluto has also just gone direct, which makes this whole event sound a bit like a cosmic recipe, and thus fertile ground for that ultimately useful saying coined by honcho astrologer (and nice guy) Robert Hand: use the energy wisely, lest it use you unwisely.

So…what will you ‘make’ of your life now? Or will life be making you over without your (conscious) consent? Will your life be ruled by your compulsions or are you willing to see things as they are in reality and deal with what we might want to be true, separating that off from what the truth really is?

One of the things about Scorpio is that good or bad, it’s effects tend to stay with us. And part of Scorpio’s fame (and that delicious shudder we all grin guiltily at when the subject of Scorpio comes up) is that there is part of all of us which is attracted to dangerous things.

Why is that? That’s because life wants us to learn what we can survive…and what we can’t live with. With the Sun moving into Libra, we are all going to feel a further ‘ratcheting up’ of pre-eclipse effects. The stakes are getting higher and they are specifically now focused on relationships, whether we relate to others truthfully for our own and their parts…and whether we know who the fern we are to be putting ourselves out there.

The less we know, the more afraid we are, the more unwilling we are to be honest, the more difficult life will tend to be. Because there is a grand sextile associated with this ingress with the Sun moving into the cause-becomes-effect sign of Libra, this would be a classic time to ‘get the news.’

Then again, it may well be a time when you let go of all ‘that’ and all the old presumptions in an effort to…

…well, that would be the question: are you trying to live your mask? Or are you willing to get psychically naked and be who you really are?

The former…inevitably…leads to self-imprisonment, which in this moment would be your handing your Juno power to someone else. The latter? Well, ultimately, knowing and being who we are is our path to personal freedom. Not everyone will like our choices, but they will – to the degree that they respect themselves for their own honesty – be able to respect us in turn.

Which is what we need for ourselves...and that which is like as not now in the forefront of our needs.
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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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Mars in Leo - Hidalgo and Arachne Direct

Frontispiece from 'An Argosy of Fables' (c 1921, P Bransom, illustrator)

In the wake of Sedna’s station as the Grand Sextile moves towards formulation, Mars enters Leo.

The date? August 28th, with Mars entering Leo at 2:06 in the morning, UT/+0 time.

As this happens, Hidalgo will also be stationing and going direct – as is its fellow space traveler, Arachne.

A symbol of ‘manners,’ mannerisms, Hidalgo refers to the manner in which we do something and the manner in which we should do something (protocols). The degree of Hidalgo’s station being 16 Sagittarius, we are all likely to be influenced by whatever it is which evokes our love of pleasure. Curious however is the fact that 16 Sagittarius is also associated with eruptions of the skin, infections and problems breathing – all of which may be thought of as being connected to (or a manifestation of) inner discomforts. Considering how this station coincides with Mars energizing the strong Leo desire to exercise our wants, desires and aims, the combination may point to anything from a simple irritation with whatever may be interrupting us to a feeling of being totally overwhelmed (drowned) by the totality of life.

That Hidalgo is going direct with Pandora just behind and Pholus plus Ixion just ahead does seem to indicate that we know there’s choppy water – or at least a lot of effort – which needs investing at some level if we’re to make things work the way we want them to, or see them move in the direction which will assist us in reaching our goals.

You know, the Sagittarian mantra.

There's also the fact that Hidalgo is a centaur - not a main belt asteroid. Cycling from just beyond the orbit of Saturn past Jupiter into the depths of the asteroid belt, Hidalgo speaks to all those things which originate beyond our (Saturn) grasp which in confronting and learning about them, we learn to manage - though we'll never quite control them.

And let's face it, control is a major human issue. So with Hidalgo in Sagittarius (a sign all about learning what works, which of our ideas need refining before they can work and what we need to learn along the way to our personal goals), much is likely to be churning through our days, our minds, our emotional psyches.

Currently just crossing into the metaphysical realm of our 'Reality' (as symbolized by Saturn), nothing about Hidalgo's effects are likely to be - or feel all that 'ordinary.' That we know from Hidalgo's inclination - which is to say, our inclination about "Hidalgo Factors."

Given the high inclination (how Hidalgo doesn't travel on the same plane as most of our planetary solar system) Hidalgo is either something we feel is 'imposed' on us or something which comes from 'off the beaten path' which we need to incorporate with our methodology (i.e., our 'life protocol'). It can be either - or both.

Plus, let us not forget the metaphysical concept of centaurs as a class. The mythic centaur is a beast which joins the upper half of a man to the powerful body of a horse. These two pieces are joined at the horse's heart and the human genitals, a combination which plainly asks us whether we will...or even can 'rise above' our pure animal instinct to a place where we can insist that we use our greatest (animal) strength to serve the greater thoughtful purposes life would ask of us - both for life's sake, and for our sake, too.

With Mars ingressing Leo trailed by Tantalus and fronted by Scheherazade and Sphinx suggests that there’s a ways to go before we can become that living legend in our own eyes. But we do truly and sincerely want our (Leo) vision to be – or become our truth.

The fact that the Moon is in early Gemini as this pair of events takes place is also interesting, as Moon in Gemini always indicates some degree of personal investment on the mental plane. Given that the Grand Sextile will be in effect rather fleetingly (but importantly) very early on August 29 (UT/+0) this means the effects of the Grand Sextile, though positioned in earth and water, will formulate mentally…and inspire us to see a more powerful, more (Sedna) authentic road which may yet be followed through our life.

Into which comes the Hidalgo-Arachne issue of whether we are too caught up in some manner of being or some external protocol to heed either the warning or invitation offered us by life…events…karma…fate….time.

Even for those who will follow the invisible light of faith, achieving those ends will take planning, effort and surrendering to our vulnerabilities to get there – a concept which Mars in Leo may or may not be in sync with, depending on your natal Mars and where Leo falls in your chart. In the most general sense, what we could expect here is a pretty clear split between those who will tend to scoff and those willing to recognize truths which require that they put their ‘big boy’ (or girl) pants on and get to work.

The Grand Sextile is a call for us to internalize the idea that life is not the idea of living, but the event, the experiencing of it, the taking the heartfelt risk if you know deep down in the noodles of your soul that you really need to change, know or embrace something new.

Maybe even somebody new – who knows!

Because the Moon represents our ‘everyday life,’ the fact that it will be in Gemini as Mars moves into Leo denotes a general sense of ‘knowing what I’m doing’ – into which comes the enormous funneling of energy governed by the linking of then and now, heaven and earth, conscious and subconscious, actions and fate. Given the accompanying elements attending the Mars/Leo ingress, we are all likely to be focused (at some level) on something we feel is ‘inadequate’ in ourselves…or maybe just in life. And we’ll be doing our best to cope, putting a shiny (Scheherazade) face on things despite our (Sphinx) quandaries and the fervent (Tantalus) wish that we didn’t have to deal with any of it.

Oh shades of Sedna’s station…! The echoes of our expectations will so ring loudly through the cosmos.

And more importantly, through our consciousness. But are they ours? Are those ideas really what we think and feel about ourselves? Or do they come from some ‘when’ which is not now?

What is really important?

Hidalgo’s station will begin on August 26, come to full focus on the 28th (as it goes direct) and continue through the 30th. As with all stations, its to our advantage to pay attention to any event or moment which embraces or evidences the ‘meaningful motion’ – or lack of same…the being paused by focus…which occurs.

Remember it. Pin it to your mental bulletin board for further reflection.

Another concepts with regards to stations in general which bears remembering now: events which occur during the ‘station window’ but prior to the station generally refer not to things ‘changing directions’ in your life, in your regard, in your opinion, but will also evidence as time goes on.

Like the windows pictured here, astrological influences come in a myriad of shapes

and sizes and can bring a refreshing breath of air, chilling cold or blistering conditions to our lives.

Every time there's an astrological station, transit or eclipse,

we each face the choice of whether we will open the window and risk a moment

of shock for the chance that our souls will be fanned by the balm of warmth and

caring - or not. Far too many of us, I suspect, have our windows locked

with the latches painted over.  

(Image credit: Windows by Tourre)

In other words, the event prior to station exactness is about something which hasn’t yet happened – at least not in concrete fullness. Against this, the thing which happens or occurs to you after the moment of the station but within the ‘station window’ are by and large a ‘playing out’ of events or situations which have already occurred.

These effects are subtle, but very and entirely real. Either way, the effect is traceable: for those of you who are astrologers or into astrology (yes, I know you’re out there and I’m complimented by your taking time to read this blog)…grab your natal chart (preferably a detailed version of same) and start by looking at the symbols or aspects being struck at the time of your “current event.” Then look back or forward through planetary movements to see when some other body will hit these points. The larger the event, the more significant the transit.

With that recipe duly dictated, on to Arachne. Among the thousands of main belt asteroid (representing things we encounter along the way to mastery and achievement), Arachne is going direct at 12 Sagittarius at 9:50 p.m. on August 2th (timed for the UT/+0 zone). The degree 12 Sagittarius is a highly energetic degree which rife with passion of all types – sexual and otherwise. Such energy may be used directly (in a straightforward manner), used as an ‘infusion’ in the healing of others or even converted into insight or far-seeing visions...good or bad.

An 'Arachnecized' soul from Dante's Purgatorio (Canto 12)

as envisioned by master illustrator Gustave Dore (1832-1883)

 
Since we are talking about Arachne, it is to be expected that (depending on where 16 Sagittarius falls in your natal and current solar chart) you may be, or get ‘caught up’ in one or another form of this energy and find it difficult to make a shift in the way your moment-to-moment life requires.

In going direct on the 28th, Arachne also has a station allowance which begins on August 26th and which then extends through August 30st.

And since both stations extend beyond the moment of the Grand Sextile, look for a change of situational dynamics and personal outlook as the spiritual linkage ends.

I know full well we each have our own orientation to how life works and what’s worth taking our time to witness. People go out to watch eclipses, to watch alignments.

Personally, my deepest respect goes to the Grand Sextile, the image of the Hermetic statement ‘as above, so below.’

But maybe that’s just because of how my life is shaped.

We each need to follow our uniquely personal path. We are not ‘like’ one another – we’re not meant to be ‘like’ anyone else. Our friends, associates, lovers and dearly loved ones are not those who always agree with us, they are those whom we can love for their humanity. For their willingness to share. We love them for being there…we love them for giving us space enough in which to operate on our own, as our own person.

Mars in Leo is at its heart about the inspiration to be more tomorrow than we are on any given day. To have that drive, to see someone else struggling with their mortality and their potential is inspiring. We all have lives filled with details and histories which seem to warp us so tantalizingly (in the Tantalus manner), which wrap and bind us in Arachne-like silken threads.

Mars in Leo is one of those forces which allows us to see beyond the simplistic. All things happen for a reason is not just a slogan.

It’s a reality. And for the next seven-plus weeks while Mars continues its transit of Leo, we have an opportunity to see through life’s veneers to the level where we are each capable of informing ourselves on a hugely powerful level about why that which may have been so difficult, painful or seemingly detrimental is the gift which allows us to elevate ourselves from a level of life where we live for mundane pleasure to a place where we are able to be fused and fueled by those truly great motivations which allow us to become the gift to ourselves and everyone else in life.

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For more information on the Grand Sextile of August 29th,
please refer to the previous post on Sedna’s station

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Sedna's Station as Grand Sextile Herald

'Hand of adult and child' - an image Sedna challenges us

to think of as being both our Self

(photo credit: Israel free image project, c 1970-1980)

With the Sun entering Virgo on August 22nd and Mercury following in on August 23^rd (both in the UT/+0 zone) we’re all officially in a zone all about ‘improvements.’ Life will be filled with questions. All the 'should's and 'would's of life will ask us what we want to do...and how to best get at what really needs doing.

This is likely to be a time when we'll all be considering our priorities and the ramifications of acting against the possible cost of standing still. We'll at least need to contend with our urges to be lackadaisical and make excuses...often to others, but really to our Self.

It's a period filled with plus and minuses and sorting out the difference between responsibility and obligation, between morality and guilt, between accomplishment and avoidance.

In the midst of all, we're likely to see how sometimes it’s not the ‘thing’ which counts, its being satisfied with what you’ve done, how well you’ve done it and why you chosen to follow your path.

What does what you're currently doing with your life really mean?

All of this sets the stage as dwarf planet Sedna turns to retrograde at 6:03 in the morning (UT/+0) of August 25th, a moment which finds Mercury and Orcus conjunct the Sun, making Sedna’s turn a focus on the consequence of what we are...or aren't. What we're willing to do, and how for many of us we are where we are in this world right now not because we planned it that way but rather because we've followed suggestions and images supplied by others.

Or even by society.

Sedna was discovered in November of 2003 at California’s Mount Palomar Observatory by the team of Craig Trujillo, David Rabinowitz and Caltech’s Mike Brown - who if you read this blog you know I think of as a rock star astronomer, not to mention a trés cool guy kind enough to answer this astrologer’s astrophysics questions when she stubs her mental toe. And considering it's only been a decade of knowing Sedna, much research remains to be done on both the astrological ond astronomical side.

But from what we understand so far, Sedna functions in the chart rather like the psychological concept of ‘superego’ does.

(And no, your superego is not where you dress up in a mask and cape and go save the world. Nice thought, but unfortunately that’s not the gig.)
 
So what IS a superego? Putting it in simple terms our superego is a set of standards or images instilled in our mind which either guides us - or which we rebel against. For some, superego concepts provide them with security. For others, superego energies feel like an eternal, subtle, constant critique. Most often our superegos somehow 'imbed' something about what our parents said. You know...how they said life would be. Or should be. The marked tendency for so many of us to grow up 'just like our parents' and indeed grow to be more and more like them as time goes along - that's the power of the superego.

But it isn't our parents. Nor are we supposed to be what the media or popular culture "says we should be." Often our superego images are merely just how we interpret external messages - and there is nothing cut and dried about this. Some of us will resist and end up destroying ourselves, some of us will comply with perceived 'instructions' and bury our dearest wishes, some of us will be made insecure by getting as far as knowing we aren't 'like' those images being thrown at us but without any idea of who we really are. Or if it's okay to be that unique and perhaps highly counter-cultural person. 

Just because you can't fulfill someone else's expectations doesn't mean you're a failure. That's part of the Sedna lesson. Thus whatever our early experiences are, there comes a time when we ask ourselves whether we should question those images, those expectations, the feeling that we should 'comply' or 'fit in' when that's really not who we are.

Whatever your situation is - whether you need to rethink or you need to change things, or even if you need to not insist of your children that they 'toe the line' because you did when you were young, the issue is individuation.

Sedna asks that we take a step back. Sedna is about gaining perspective - on who we are, on what we think life is, on what we truly believe our personal potentials may yet come to be if we allow ourselves to grow, perhaps purged of old assumptions which may or may not have been true or still be true.

That process, and whether we undertake the challenge of comprehending and accepting or reworking our imprinting is what we know of currently as the astrological Sedna Process.

As usual, there’s an interesting myth which goes with Sedna. If you’d like to read how that sorts out astrologically, here is a LINK to a piece on same here at the blog.

Most of us want to think that Sedna ‘individuation’ is just about learning to live on our own (the physical separation from our parents). But that's just where the work - and the possibility for real personal power - begins. Separating from feelings and ‘images’ left over from early hopes and dreams is what frees our psyche to be our psyche and function from the perspective of who we really are.

Maybe you have a little Sedna work to do...and maybe you have a lot. Whatever your Sedna Process is, it will swell up like cold water seeking to engulf you from below...from within...unbidden...as Sedna goes in and out of retrograde.

The good news is that Sedna works on us slowly; we generally experience its energy in ‘steps’ and ‘stages.’ At every ‘parting’ we feel freer and yet are confronted by the need to be invested ever more tangibly in who we are.

What we want to be.

Where we want to be being who we are.

Once we begin ‘owning’ our Sedna, we know things are changing because we know they need to change. And often it's as simple as that. Individuality as part of the Sedna Process is experienced as ‘sinking’ ever more deeply into our ‘sea’ of existence and personal potential. In the Sedna myth, Sedna is finally wrested from a life she was determined to cling to by an ocean storm - a 'storm of emotionality,' we would say metaphysically. And once her grip on all she knows is broken down, she is tossed into a surging ocean (of her own feelings) and there she sinks into the ocean's depths.

The depths of her emotional psyche, this would be. And there, alone in the dark and drowned to all save her soul she finds that power and purpose which allows Sedna to become a goddess - the Being we can be because we are each and every one of us born with unique human gifts.

In Sedna, we accept the singular qualities of our individuality - which seems sensible when we consider Sedna as an object. And no, this doesn’t mean that to accept your Sedna is to be a ‘loner,' but rather that Sedna is about understanding who you are and what  experience has taught you is true or not true about life...and about yourself.

Whatever that entails. 

Then again, with it’s 11,400 year-long orbit (plus or minus – not even NASA is sure on this one yet) by taking so long to transit through a sign Sedna also marks huge swaths of humanity (and thus eras of human development) at a time.

Oh how curious, right? At the same time that Sedna asks us to individuate by sign it also ‘binds’ millions of human beings to one another.
 
And maybe that’s the point. Individuation does not mean separation. Individuation is more about the ability to see each thing (or yourself) on its own as part of a greater whole - and in that it urges us to utilize our own talents and the knowledge we('ve) gained through getting a perspective on our own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to living our lives.

When it comes to making something of those lives.

When it comes to deciding who and how and what kind of people we should be investing our life time (the time we have here on Earth) with.

Currently in Taurus, Sedna’s most recent change of sign took place back in 1966 when it left Aries (and entered Taurus).

Before that, Sedna moved from Pisces into Aries back in 1865.

Do a little quick math in this regard and you'll come up with the obvious: for a dwarf planet which takes more than 11,000 years to go once around the Sun, Sedna is pretty much galloping along.

And that means Sedna must be near or at one of the ‘extremes’ (the perihelion or aphelion) of its highly egg shaped orbit around our local Sun.

Which it is - as we can see in this handy NASA diagram.

Image credit: NASA (2012)

Just to make this a bit clearer...with thanks to NASA... here’s another version of Sedna’s orbit generated last year by JPL’s orbital simulator (a wonder of Java technology if there ever was one).

Image credit: JPL (2012)

Sedna is currently about as close to us as it will ever be. And though that's still not all that close, on the metaphysical level that still means a lot, especially as we witness the incredibly rapid evolution society has been going through in the last hundred-plus years.

In fact, it's a sobering thought when we stop and realize that the last time Sedna was this close to Terra Earth the (earth) year was somewhere around 9,000 BCE.

In other words, society as we know society hasn't ever gone through anything like this Sedna period before.

We're it. We're the trailblazers. We're the novices.

We're learning what it means to be an individual born to have opportunities. Those of us born under Sedna in Aries are challenged to get perspective on who we are and who we were born to be while those born under Sedna in Taurus are creating 'opportunities' through which they can discover their own values - and their value as human beings.

This isn't to say our opportunities are always that obvious. We tend to think of 'opportunity' as a positive when the truth is that humans tend to learn more through tough sledding, hard times, defeats and painful inundations - physical, emotional or otherwise.

Evidently it takes a lot to get through to us. Where our images, 'programming' and tradition embody the pretty, the simple, the comforts of ease (all obvious traits in the original Sedna myth) they are the child Sedna's dream and that which leads to a downfall precisely because we - like the mythical Inuit girl - don't want to let go of some 'status quo' we've gotten our psyches 'married to.' We want to 'fit in' - even if it's with that image in our head, despite the many and manifest difficulties.

The whole idea of being individual scares most of us to death. We want to fit in.

And of course there is that other type - the determined individualist who would rather live with the echo of their dreams rather than any realistic, highly mortal Reality.

It's all about perspective - and often our lack of perspective on ourselves or what may truly be possible which causes all the problems.

That’s the hard part to face, starting with the idea that because Sedna asks us to let go of the images we have adopted or which were instilled in us, there's a lot of emotional challenge which comes with Sedna's transits, shifts and general energetics. Probably the one we all face across the board is the facing that our parents (those primal superego molders!) are just real and regular people with their own foibles and fears. They're not only mortal, the person they are may be very different from the person we've (probably unconsciously) internalized.

But until we become conscious and gain perspective on that...we're likely to continue patterning ourselves on initial Sedna images - both good and bad.

For instance, I have a friend (and you can imagine what it's like to be the astrologer's friend, right?) 'patterned' by parents who were each experienced as inconsistent in their own right - and inconsistent with each other. So now this person is 'magically attracted' to partners who, though they look different, evoke the same response.

It's sort of like we are out to prove they can't be loved so they can give up on being loved as a matter of being accepted - which was sadly, their original lesson about what love is.

We all struggle with this lesson until we realize just how blank a slate a child is. Children will imprint on their parents and since our most basic survival as children depends on the love of our parents, whatever they show us we 'image' as love.

When we look at a natal horoscopes, we see these 'love patterns.' And we see the oddly weird way we grow up to 'seek out' or 'pick' people who may or may not actually be like our patterning parents but who will end up evoking those same dynamics and feelings until we gain that very special perspective on life which is so utterly and completely Sedna.

No, it isn't easy. The first time we walk down that 'internally aware' Sedna road love doesn't feel like we're habituated to think it will.

It takes time to learn love and respect for our Self - from ourselves and from others - can be a whole different and often better thing.

But that all is as it is because this is the way life is constructed becomes more obvious when we look at the JPL image of Sedna's orbit, why Sedna represents that true 'above all' superego-type ‘perspective on perspective’ begins becoming obvious, considering how far away from our solar system's "central district" Sedna really is.

It's dark and cold out there, just as dark and just as cold as the depths of the cold northern sea Sedna sinks into...just as dark and encompassing as the depths of our own essence which we sink into when we begin grappling with our Sedna essence.

That chill of newness when the 'comfort' of the known is stripped away is disconcerting

But I guess you could say that we have to go 'out into the cold' to find our answers. So wherever Sedna is in our chart - by sign, by house, by aspect - that is the area of life where we will experience the provocation which drives us to gain perspective on ourselves and our abilities, capacities and personal truths. My friend has Sedna in the 5th house - the house of children, of dating, of doing what one wants to do. So it's not shocking that their "Sedna stuff" pops up in the dating scene, that they're half-past iffy about having kids, that they spend a lot of time in solitary pursuits all about finding out who they are, why they are who they are, why things work as they do and what this all means in terms of their capacity (which is part of why we're friends, I'm sure) and why - given the 5th house/11th house polarity...and how all house placements denote not just the object in that house but the need to 'complete the circuit' by enfolding the  opposition...how this perfectly intelligent, perfectly nice person has such quandaries about self and wanting to fit into their 'group.'

Except of course, that they don't fit in. And there is that pesky fact that when it gets right down to it, they don't want to fit in because their whole drive is about being not alone, but individual.

(Yes, they think it's alone.)

As someone born with Sedna conjunct their Ascendant, I feel for them. I can also tell you that Sedna asks us to step away from the norm and to own our departure from the crowd. This doesn't mean you have to go about preening in your separateness, it just means you go about doing what you do and that you recognize how our greater talents - our Sedna abilities - are part of that 'outer realm,' that 'shell' which both metaphysically holds us in and at the same time, urges us to leave our comfortable cocoons. 

In short, the Sedna Principle pushes us to understand avenues of personal realization which may seem offensive or difficult because they force us to recognize and own individuality and uniqueness. And how being an individual sets us apart at some level from others. Some will never be willing to challenge themselves or go their own way. Some people will separate emotionally if not intellectually while others will be willing to leave the intellectual nest but refuse to leave behind what they conceive of as their ‘comfort zone.’

It’s this state of ‘neither fish nor fowl’ (which with Sedna is more akin to ‘neither able to fish nor likely to want to identify what is so foul’) which confounds us...and which stands to inhabit, color and permeate matters now as Sedna goes retrograde in late Taurus.

At 24 Taurus, to be specific.

As part of the third and most worldly Taurus decanate, 24 Taurus is part of a series of metaphysical passages where our self worth experiences the blessings and trials inherent on a greater scale. This may be in our life in particular. Then again, it could be in the life of a collective – a national population. Or of the nation itself. Lore speaks of 24 Taurus as a degree concerned with spiritual mastery which either witnesses or experiences whatever difficulties such mastery of the ethereal is bound to encounter on this so reality-addicted plane.

Sedna’s turn to retrograde in this degree would seem to be about an awakening of spiritual consciousness…or conscience, however you receive it. Therefore we could expect this station (which begins on the 23rd and extends through the 27th) to arouse feelings akin either at the ‘is this all there is?’ end of things or through some disquieting awareness that in comparison with the whole of "possibility" you, we, our daily lives and world are all very, very small.

Yet on the other hand, we're all important too. If there's one thing science, religion, spirituality and philosophy all agree on, it's that all things happen for a reason. Good, bad, indifferent, terrible, wonderful, questionable - we are all born with abilities which mean something to the totality of What Is.

So in perspective (you know, that Sedna thing) though we may indeed be one tiny part of the Whole, we still are a vital part of that Whole. Nature (call it Incarnation) doesn't waste energy or effort. All that exists has a function.

Thus, so do we. And it's arguable - since we're all energy and everything else is energy too - that we function as the 'microcosm' to the Whole's 'macrocosmic' nature.

How would that be? The simple answer is that we're all energy. You, me, the doorknob - we're all just energy. The next answer is that offered by Systems Theory, namely that the same sequences repeat over and over and over again in life, in biology and botany, in everything from architecture to astrology to relationships. One is the whole, two is the duality, confrontation and opposition, three is the initial 'voicing' of combination and so on.

Systems Theory is actually why the same astrological premise - the horoscope - applies equally to people, puppies, products and nations.

And this matters now why?

Good question - and one I will answer thusly: people who know me in real time occasionally see me wearing this amulet.

 
This seal is one of a series of symbolic images known in esoteric circles as the “Seals of Solomon” - a reference which takes us back to the years 970-931 BCE. But as pertains to our discussion here, the idea of the interlocked triangles goes back much farther. Thinking in terms of what we just discussed, these interlocking triangles are a symbol of micro/macrocosmic reflection - one the Hermeticists of Egypt probably defined best in one simple and elegant statement: ‘as above, so below.’

It's an idea which applies very well with Sedna, our symbol of the inner Self which ends up defining our outer experiences.

Astrology knows the Hermetic star as a six-pointed figure known as a Grand Sextile: six points each separated by sixty-degree sextiles (with the standard sextile allowance of 3 degrees a given).
 
In astrological terms the sextile is ‘opportunity’ – a thing we can choose to utilize or not.

 
Of course when six ‘options’ occur together as a Grand Sextile, what we’re really seeing is a matched set of Grand Trines – each in aspect to other. And since Grand Trines are indicators of ‘ongoing energy’ which we have little-to-no opportunity to shift, change, start or stop, thus is opportunity transformed into a metaphysical… celestial… spiritual mandate.

Because Sedna is going into retrograde with the Sun in early Virgo, and since we know that first decan placements (a planet in degrees 0 to 9) are where signs manifest physically or through our actions, this is an active time all about life (Sun) and our thoughts (Mercury) and what we can do…should do…and what our priorities (read: responsibilities) really are.

So that’s the ‘everyday’ doings into which comes Sedna (a need for perspective) going on station and retrograde in a third decan degree.

Third decanate degrees (any degree between 20 and 29 of a sign) are all about what we put out into the world, how we interface with the world, how we are affected by the world, or how the world reacts to us.

So evidently we need perspective on how to approach things. And as we are doing that, the world (and people in it) will be testing our Sedna potential and probably giving us good reason to ask ourselves where we stand vis-à-vis our sense of mature individuality.

If your chart ‘answers’ to 24 Taurus (in particular), this time is about your ability to operate with perspective or in some manner which helps you to gain perspective.

Of course, you could be one of those folks who just rejects the whole thing, too. There are lots of them out there!

So...do you have a planet, position, axis point or node between 19 and 29 degrees of Taurus, Leo, Aquarius, Scorpio, Capricorn or Virgo?

If so, your ability to operate or understand matters represented by that planet, point, node or axis with enough perspective (on yourself, the origins of your choices and the ramifications thereof) is on the celestial table.

For those with planets, points, axis points or nodes between 22 and 26 Aries, Gemini, Sagittarius or Libra...

...problems or quandaries which arise now are all about a need for perspective. They key to all things probably starts with asking why people (yourself included) are doing whatever they’re doing.
 
No, you may not like the answer. But you may realize something vitally important.

Or maybe you have a positions, planets, axis points or node between 21 and 27 Pisces or Cancer?

If so, this is an opportunity to gain perspective or to utilize perspective in the gaining of some end which is prosperous and positive for you and everyone else. 

One other group merits a mention here - those whose birthdays (e.g., solar return) fall between the dates August 23rd and August 27th.

I don’t say this often enough – and yes, it applies whenever any planet, dwarf planet, asteroid or TNO takes station. I'm reminded of this because I have friends with birthdays on August 24th and August 27th (and happy birthday and many fine solar returns to you both).

The Solar Return point is this: if your birthday falls under the auspices of any ‘station window,’ your whole “birthday year” (solar return year, otherwise known as from birthday to birthday) is going to be colored, not necessarily by the specifics of any event, but by the underlying theme - in this case, the Sedna theme – aka a Sedna-conjunct-Capulus-at-24-Taurus theme.

Capulus is a the fixed star said to represent the sword with which Perseus cut off Medusa’s head. Typically associated with ‘penetrating’ energies (which indeed may be phallic), Capulus in Taurus is its own potent quotient which pits what we want to do purely for our own pleasure (or those we definitely favor) versus our willingness to open ourselves to greater possibilities.

Currently, Capulus is at 24 Taurus. That puts it in an exact conjunction with Sedna’s station.

I wish my friends well. One of them already knows to ask questions whenever they want and I trust the other one will learn. In the meantime, if you have a Sedna puzzle, please ask. After all, if you read this labor of love known as my astro-blog, you must know I care. And yes, that’s my Sedna-at-the-Ascendant. It manifests in many different ways, most of which make me uncomfortable as all get-out. So if you ever meet me in real life you'll find that I’m often awkward, in reality terribly shy and yet prone to frivolously playful drama which entertains others - that being my effort to help them feel better about themselves.

Like I say, that's my Sedna. I may feel awkward and shy but through helping them feel not so awkward and shy I facilitate our becoming closer.

It's a process. With Sedna, we take it all step by step by step. We figure out where and how our 'naked selves' are not so bad. In fact, we're pretty beautiful. And even when we hide...well, there are those who think of blogging as a 'clinging to anonymity.' Fifty years ago nobody knew what an author looked like and nobody worried. A hundred years ago people made firm and fast pen pal friendships with people they had never met.

Some of those pen pals even decided to get married. 

The world’s suspicions don’t make me a jot less or more sincere about what I do. So if I'm shy and if I can write to you here and give you a gift which just may be better delivered without any personal presence tainting the works, that's Sedna in the positive. And that this blog is all about offering you perspectives on Existence is exactly Sedna at the Ascendant: what I do (Ascendant = do) is "Sedna-like."

Hopefully some of it serves you well as you pursue your personal, Earthly Journey.

The last notion to contemplate here is how after the window on Sedna’s station opens on the 23rd (with Sedna going retrograde on the 25th), as the 27th rolls through and Sedna’s station effects fade, they fade into the appearing of a double grand trine – a Hermetic star – forming above us in the heavens. 

 
And that makes the Sun and Mercury entering Virgo leading into Sedna’s station a sign that what has been has been…and that we are – all of us – passing through a ‘bridging point’ where Above and Below stand in reflection.

This linking of linkages will be in effect only for a few minutes in the wee hours of early August 29th (UT/+0 time). But such links do tend to evolve over time - and since I have rolled through what is to come I can add here that this theme of 'grand sextiling' (if you will) is going to continue on into September...even for some October, depending on what kind of placements are in your personal natal chart.

(Yes, it works that way too. Also yes, if we have points which 'line up' closely with any given position of a grand sextile, that will be one of the funnels through which energy will focus in our lives and which we will be asked to evolve from.) 

All such double Grand Trines (or Grand Sextiles) will by definition link points in different elements. This one has four objects aligning in the 'tangible' element of earth: Pluto (transformation), the South Node (what we find easy to do) and Mercury (thought, communication, day-to-day activity)...against three other objects Saturn (time, structure, responsibility, commitment), Jupiter (growth, expansion, acquisition of knowledge-comprehension) and Chiron (that we need to do which we cannot understand except by doing) in emotionally evocative water signs.

Earth plus water sometimes equals unparalleled fertility and fruitful growth. On the other hand, sometimes earth plus water only equals mud – and hence the muddying of the waters, the washing away of earth, the dissolution of stability.

Four out of six points (Chiron, South Node, Jupiter and Mercury) are in second decanate positions. The second decan (degrees 10-19 of any sign) is where the sign manifests emotionally. So is South Node in Taurus about contentment, selfishness, self respect, lack of self worth, inertia or a willingness to do what you can? Is Jupiter in Cancer a new start? Is it opening the doors to others or the working on ways to remain hidden in your castle (mental or otherwise)? And is Mercury in Virgo the keeping on with what you’re doing or being too busy to be bothered? Is it doing what you’re required to but not really want you can do?

And Chiron in Pisces....? Well…that’s just every variety of ‘how to do what I know I need to do but which I don’t really want to do because…because…because’ with all the ‘because’s (read: justifications) being some variety about not wanting to experience your own emotions or emotionality.

Two of the four points in the emotional second decanate are in water signs. This is about how emotions effect you: how you express your feelings as a reaction to your own feeling process. Plus, seeing as one of these objects (Chiron) is in the unbounded 'emotional deep water' sign of Pisces, we know the Chirotic part of this equation is expressing feelings about how you feel about having to feel in any case - and not knowing what to do about it or how to deal with it. 

Then there’s Saturn and Pluto (Pluto/Facies, really) in first decan degrees relating to what we do and our physical existence.

(If you want to read up on Pluto’s ongoing game of dice with Facies, here’s a LINK to that post. There are several, so use the Facies or Facies/Pluto link in the sidebar if you want to read more.)

Saturn in Scorpio is the need to meet others on a genuine basis of equality. Nobody likes it, everybody needs to do it if they want to get create any lasting or valuable alliances. The opposition to South Node in Taurus represents the fear that we may be doing something wrong. Or doing what we’re doing with the wrong person. The question here is really about quality and trustworthiness though many will try to get by on flash (qualities which look good but don’t measure up) and uttering hollow promises.

As for Pluto (Facies) in Capricorn, nobody is getting away with not facing life’s complexities. Those who think they can ‘get away’ with not making quality efforts may succeed in the short run but they’re sure to lose in the long run. (Saturn will reach Facies in 2018.)

Sometimes Grand Sextiles (celestial six-pointed stars) will denote something coming into being. More often they refer to a fateful change which moves us from one ‘era’ of our life to another. I’ve had two years marked by Grand Sextiles in my solar chart and neither of them were gentle. In linking water and earth barely in the wake of Sedna’s station this Grand Sextile suggests an irrevocable shift of values which empowers an incremental gain in our grasp on life which causes us to feel our values more deeply.

Or maybe more acutely.

However...with that said, this is not a 'rock solid' Grand Sextile in the sense that sextiles are only given a 3 degree orb. Mercury - which serves as the linchpin in this planetary picture - is within 3 degrees of orb to Saturn at 9 Virgo and within 3 degrees of the sixty-degree sextile orb to Jupiter only once it moves into 10 Virgo.

So there are some 'purists' out there who would tell you that there is no Grand Sextile at all. Being someone who has experienced them and timed their effects, I say 'not true' to that. But I will - for the sake of being conservative - say that Mercury makes its move from 9 to 10 Virgo at 1:57 in the morning, UT/+0 time.

You be the judge from there. 

Many will now choose to allow themselves to embody, utilize and voice that which they learn now. Astrologers, astrologically savvy or merely as people wandering through this world, through what they separate from and recognize as their new reality, such people will become indelibly more self-reflective. They won’t have to search as much as they know who they are and thus can devote themselves to whatever it is they do and can now do in Reality because they have met, accepted and adapted to their sense of personal individuality.

To accept our Sedna is to be able to look at life – our life and that around us with understanding born of perspective. If your ‘before’ involved some hurt, you may not be able to ‘solve’ the hurt, but you may come to understand that what you now know and what you now value is in part all about your having been hurt.

All things have purpose. All experiences enhance our potential to understand. In the Sedna realm – which is to say in the lasting process of personal maturation - there is no ‘escaping’ the darker aspects of life. But that’s okay. Life’s dips, shadows and sorrows give shape, depth and richness to our achievements. They motivate our wisdom.

They give us a reason to love.

As we grapple with our Sedna process, we gain exponential human power. It’s not the type of power which grants dominion over this or control over that – this is the power of being.

And when we feel powerful as a being, we don’t worry about control or dominion. We become content to earn respect and the love which grows from that.

Through acceptance of the Sedna Principle we end our denials and stop trying to ‘fit in.’ Once we accept the power of our uniqueness we have no reason for either as we know why we are...and who we can become. It's the struggle, the regrets, the not knowing what 'lies beyond' that we know...the separating from long-held dreams or images bequeathed to us by loved ones which is hard.

But that's part of Sedna too. Learning that we can disagree with someone we love, we can like different things and accept that we are different and that we can still love them and be loved by them is the essence of having perspective on life as a whole. To accept the individualization described by Sedna's energetics is difficult. But without them we become a crippling force - and despite the tendency to project and blame others, the person we tend to cripple is ourselves.

Is it a lot to ask of a station that it escort us into a moment of fateful evolution? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. Sedna's turn to retrograde speaks to a process of internal growth we will experience within ourselves and with or through our interactions with others, with challenges, with life. We separate from others not so as to be apart, but so that we can recognize our own potential to contribute and to be someone who is recognized for their abilities and attributes, their willingness to be who they are rather than 'the image' or that which is currently popular.

By the time next February arrives and Sedna goes direct again, we will have wrestled with this process a bit more. We will have met up with or witnessed or have been exposed to things which get us to seeing, feeling and sensing the difference between 'fitting in' or 'molding' our Self into anything which is other that who we are, whatever that means.

Some of us will let go and begin sinking into the depths of that enveloping darkness of total, inexorable being from which we are able to tap into our potential as something with which to contribute to a greater whole - a life, a world, a society, a family, a group of friends...whatever...in sync with our potential. Some of those people may understand for having gone through their own Sedna process, some will never understand.

We will stand witness, we will serve our purpose and service our sense of being through the contributing of our life to this world for all its worth without resistance.

In embracing our Sedna power we become part of the 'sea of capacity' and in that, we become capable of washing away that which needs to be washed clean. We become embodied and imbued with that power which can carry others away and dash hopes on sharp rocks of reality.

What we cannot do is live a surface life any more. And in that, for those who now manage to see their way past at least several of the images in our hall of mental mirrors, therein lies the Sedna dictate which separates one person from another, the matriculated beings from those who don't have the courage to trust that they have been created with potentials far more important and satisfying than possessions, physicality or anything which manifests as part of our everyday world.

As much as we want to be seen as individuals and 'own' our own lives, most of us are stunningly reluctant to be different.

And yet, that difference is the very definition of uniqueness. And human beings - apparently separate beings born one by one by one at precise times at precise places with signatures so unique they won't repeat for millions if not trillions of years...?

We are nothing if not unique. The only question is whether we're brave enough to be as wonderful as we are - and can be. 
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