Earth: A Very Attractive Planet

Taken from Ehrenburg, Walberia, a 45-minute time exposure centered on Polaris (photo credit Udo Kugel - September 2001)

It just ticked me pink to see on of PSRD’s latest 'Cosmo Spark circular.

Link to: Cosmo Spark

Who the heck is PSRD – and what did I find so scintillatingly amusing?

PSRD stands for Planetary Science Research Discoveries, and the team which is behind all that PSRD-ing are a flock of planetary geoscientists at Hawaii’s Institute of Geophysics and Planetology.

(Planetology? Like you’re going to tell a planet to open its mouth and say aaaaaah?)

In any case, they’re a pretty cool group. And every once in a while they sends out a missive. It could be on gas captured in ancient rocks (I know – you’re excited, right) to this week’s thriller, a Cosmo Sparks message on the subject of how popular our watery blue planet really is.

On a celestial basis, that is.

Evidently our lovable Planet Earth has fans. According to PSRD, “At any given time there are at least one or two meter-sized asteroids and about a thousand smaller centimeter-sized rocks also orbiting our planet.” PRSD calls them (oh, shades of Austin Powers!) “minimoons.”

Evidently not all such asteroid-Earth love affairs last all that long. Most of the time, after a brief and chaotic orbital fling (say, after two or three times around) most asteroids go their space-bound ways.

(No, we don’t know what they’re saying about Earth once the attraction cools off, but we can hope they proceed on in stony silence.)

A few find their attraction for Earth truly deadly, plunging to a fiery death in our resistance-laden atmosphere. We call those meteors.

And while all this goes on, our Luna Moon continues serenely on her way, securely captured by Earth’s gravity and eternally capable of tugging on Earth’s watery mantle. (Sounds like a lot of marriages I know.)

So why am I bringing all this up – apart from the fact I obviously got a big charge out of thinking of asteroids as planetary suitors?

Ah yes. Now we come to the interestingly astrological part. It seems that these asteroids take up this madcap courting of our planet at two very specific times of the year. And those two time periods happen to be a week or two after Earth’s perihelion and aphelion – what we the astrologically inclined tend to call the Summer and Winter Solstice.

This part where it happens after the solstice got me to thinking…after all, part of that solstice thing (or at least its affects) has to do with exactly where Earth is in its seriously complicated tilt-wobble-precession sort of process.

Believe me – it’s hard work being a planet.

We talk more or less often about precession. It’s a 25,920 year cycle which is about the fact that the imaginary ‘stick’ we think of as being stuck through Earth’s polar axis orbits clockwise as earth rotates in a counter-clockwise direction.

(At least that’s the way it looks if you’re looking down on the North Pole….so for you in New Zealand, Southern Africa and Australia, g’day and switch the terms around!)

 Planet Earth, showing it's Axial Tilt, the circle of precession

 its poles describe over 25,920 years and the difference

 between Earth's celestial equator (the thing we think of as an

 equator) and the plane of the ecliptic - the path Earth takes

 around the Sun each year. 

(diagram credit - Dennis Nilsson,, December 2007)

The tilt thing? Well, Earth’s tilt is pretty stable – between just over twenty-two and twenty-four and a half degrees off vertical. At the moment it seems to be at about 23.44 degrees off vertical and apparently people are still able to walk around without looking entirely cockeyed (or drunk) so all’s well.

And listen – it could be worse. Uranus rolls. That’s right…Uranus’ axis is at 90 degrees off vertical. And because of this, it presents one pole to the Sun for about 40 years then turns the other way. (No, don’t’ ask me which one its its planetary tush! I have no idea!)

The more science comes to know about Uranus, the odder Uranus really seems. Despite this pole-to-pole toasting it gets from the Sun, the “equatorial” regions of the planet still register as being warmest. No wonder astrology associates Uranus with the ‘non-status quo,’ the change, the discovery, the innovation, the breakthrough. As a planet, Uranus seems to break all the rules.

Isn’t it interesting how astrologers figure these things out in advance of science and yet the science backs the astrology up? Says a lot for research and testing points on a whole lot of charts!

Just to wrap up here before we get back to those asteroids…the wobble thing. Yes, Earth wobbles. Here’s a diagram made by the International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS)…a project overseen by the Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) (Yes, they skipped a few letters.) This is the group which keeps track of Earth’s orbit and the syncing of clocks, including the need to insert ‘leap seconds’ and such.

In any case, here’s their diagram of Earth’s polar motion from 2005 to the present.

 Polar motion from 2005 to present

(credit: hpiers/obspm, France)

So what’s all this got to do with asteroids which get the hots for Planet Earth?

It’s just all part of the celestial mechanics. Some of the above is a bit of karmic veggies I’m slipping in before we get to the astrological dessert, and all of it is good for us to know.

The part which got me to thinking was why do these asteroids hook up with Earth AFTER the solstices?

That answer...in the metaphysical sense that I'm thinking of it, has to do with precession. (And who am I to not share factoids I find so fascinating?)

That ‘circle of precession’ we talk about…which currently has Earth’s north pole ‘pointed’ at Polaris? That picture looks pretty much like this:

 Time diagram of Earth's north pole precession

 by  Tau'olunga (June 2006)

Polaris is the star at the very tail of Ursa Minor - the constellation known as the Little Bear. On this diagram, it's located just beside the marker for the year +2,000, meaning 2,000 CE.

There were pole stars before Polaris and there will be pole stars after Polaris. And that’s what PSDR’s Cosmo Spark sparked in me. The fact that Earth is attracting its latest batch of suitors after the solstices made me wonder if Earth is already sort of ‘over’ Polaris. Obviously on a scientific platform this wouldn’t be the case – Polaris is 434 light years from Earth. But metaphysically, this ‘disparity’ speaks to us.

Here’s a diagram of the ‘precessional circle’ Earth’s north pole would appear to ‘trace’ in the heavens.

The ‘dot’ in the center here is where the ‘axis’ of this (Earth’s) precessional circle would be. Positioned within what some might call a ‘protective’ circle of constellation Draco (which others might feel is our inner spirit ‘surrounded by Draco) 

Anyway…here’s a few astrological concepts to chew on while you’re not living such an apparently tilted life. (I guess Earth’s tilt is why we say we’re inclined to do this or that? Would we therefore be prone to doing things if on Uranus?)

Our current pole star – give or take exactness here – is Polaris. Astrologically, Polaris is the leader. The director. The one who points the way. Given how e metaphysical ‘north’ is always a reference to intellect (just as ‘south’ is metaphysically a reference to emotions or emotionality), Polaris thus becomes exactly what it says it is: the leader versus the director…the one who inspires and who is part of the effort, or the one who tells others what to do but who isn’t intrinsically ‘hands on.’

Is there a good or bad here? Maybe, maybe not. It’s probably all in how you handle your Polaris (so to speak). Currently positioned at 28 Gemini (conjunct Betelgeuse, a star all about aiming to have things ‘work well or easily’) there is great portent for good and great possibility for selfishness from anyone as they attain a position of leadership.

Of particular interest this year (2012) would be knowing that Thuban was Earth’s pole star between 3,000 and 2,700 BCE (give or take)…which would make it the pole star for the Egyptian and Mayan civilizations, among others. Very much linked to the constructive/destructive ideas of the dragon, Thuban is a symbol of value, worth and ‘the treasure.’

Back when Thuban was the pole star, it was in Gemini – just about where Polaris is today, though Betelgeuse and Polaris were then in Aries (at around 19 Aries or so).

It’s all rather curious, seeing as we have the Mayan ‘creation calendar’ drawing to a close this year with the Galactic Center now positioned at 27 Sagittarius, in direct oppositional alignment with where Thuban was then…and where Polaris (and Betelgeuse) are now.

Was the Galactic Center in Sagittarius back then? No. Back in the year 3,000 BCE our Milky Way’s center (and its resident Black Hole) was at 15 Libra, rather in opposition to…(yes!)…Betelgeuse and Polaris.

With Polaris having been in Aries back then, survival was the key and trying to make it through the day or year with a modicum of ease (Betelgeuse) was the rather simplistic optimal and learning (Thuban) was the treasure, the symbol of one’s value. Being someone of learning has lasted through the years since then as a guiding precept.

And maybe that’s what the Mayans (and the Egyptians, as others) wanted us to know – that learning and choosing to learn and to use what we know (thought, thoughtfulness)…that those Gemini precepts would be our ‘guiding light.’

With Polaris now our guiding light and in opposition to the Galactic Center we would appear to be polarized by the need to be ourselves and to learn enough…and yet to remember to contribute. That’s the requirement of the Galactic Center. The GC (as it’s known among astrologers) is always a point which describes where we have to give and wherever 27 Sagittarius (the position of the Galactic Center in 2012) falls in your chart, that’s where you will rise and probably also fall to your highest and lowest nature.

In a sense, that’s the price we pay for living in a time which combines the challenge of being with that of leading. For the Maya and the Egyptians and other great cultures of their day, the aspiration of learning (Thuban) was something other than the struggle to survive and to be a head of household or society.

Not so now. It’s just another sign that the Age of Aquarius – an age which stratifies, separates and distinguishes and requires that we treasure our differences asks that we join together in making things work.

 Aquariusurania as pictured in Urania's Mirror,

 a set of 32 constellation cards published by

 Samuel Leigh (London) in 1825

No, we don’t all have to like each other. But in the Aquarian Age we’re going to need to recognize that as different as we are and should be…how that doesn’t mean one person, one idea, one culture, one gender, one profession, one way of living is any better than any other. Those who don’t…well, like those Earth suitors which come along and end up going off on their own, we’ll be ‘deep spacing’ ourselves. That’s pretty cold.

Meanwhile, Earth goes on collecting it’s minimoons and leaving most behind. Our lovely blue planet remains in its monogamous relationship with Luna Moon while making friends along the way…just as many of Earth’s inhabitants do. For a minute there, I wondered whether Earth was just plain fickle.

Then I realized that when you’re a charismatic planet with a lot of magnetism and local space mass, you’re bound to pick up fans along the way!

Yup, I guess it’s all good...live and learn, right?

Spica and Arcturus

The Moon, Mars, Venus and Spica as seen from Nashville, TN

 (photo credit - Goddard Space Flight Center)

Brightest star in constellation Virgo, Spica has been known to cultures around the world and down through the ages. Hindu astronomers and Chinese astrologers…evidently Spica’s prominent twinkle-power has not only added a lot to our night skies but stirred many a thought over many, many years.

Known in medieval Arabic tradition as ‘Azimech’ (the Undefended) or ‘Alarph’ (the Grape Gatherer), Spica has also allegedly played an interesting part in the development of science, too. How did it do that? Well, apparently those uber-builders of ancient Egypt liked focusing temples and monuments on particular stars. So that’s what they did.

In the course of this, somewhere around 3,200 BCE they built this one particular temple in the city of Thebes which was focused on Spica.

This particular temple was dedicated to the Menat, an early ‘Hathor-figure.’ And since Hathor was a major goddess of home, hearth, childbearing and providing that which life depended on, when this one temple failed to “stay in alignment,” folks started wondering why.

What they came up with was a theory - later validated by Copernicus – which is now understood as scientific fact: the idea we know as precession.

It’s hard, living here on Planet Earth, to really grasp that our planet is zooming through space, rotating as it does, and…(this is the precessional part)…wobbling ever so slightly in the process.

What this amounts to is that the imaginary ‘stick’ we tend to think of as ‘stuck through’ Earth and around which Earth rotates…that stick wobbles ever so slightly, rotating as a top does, describing a little circle. That circle - which moves in the opposite direction as Earth's rotation - is precession. And it moves one degree each 72 years, meaning the Earth precesses one zodiacal sign (30 degrees) every 2,160 years, with a full Great Precessional Age taking twelve times that amount: 25,920 years.

 From the Egyptian Book of the Dead / Papyrus of Ani, 

a scene which shows the goddess Hathor - here

portrayed as a cow - standing in the reeds (c 1275 BCE)

Now, you’ve heard people (including me) talking about Astrological Ages. That’s a function of precession. And what Spica has to do with all this is that Spica is the star which for whatever reason was the star everybody focused on down through the ages as they figured precession out. Arab, Egyptian, Greek (his name was Hipparchus), Polish (Copernicus), Chinese, Indian…everybody's eyes have seemingly focused on Spica.

Is it the brightest star in the sky? No.

hough it , though it is one of the brighter ones – the 15th brightest, to be more precise.

So what's the draw?

For the moment, let's just call that 'coincidence.' Though as someone once remarked to me, 'coincidence is just God's way of remaining anonymous.'

That said, a little about the science-side of Spica. There are astrologers (and those interested in astrology) who simply fluffy off science. Yet if metaphysics works, it has to work across the board. That says that we can learn more about the metaphysics from the science.

So let's consider the facts: Spica isn’t just ‘one’ star. It's evidently a closely tied pair of stars – a binary star. That tells us that in all things Spica, there's more than one 'part' of the question to consider if we are to arrive at our 'full brilliance.'

Next concept: Spica is classed as a ‘Beta Cephei’ type star (star formation) which means one or both of these energy spewing objects displays a ‘variable brightness.’

Easiest to say here is 'better them than us,' but maybe that's the point. Known as Alpha Virgo (the brightest star in the constellation Virgo), for our earth-bound purposes Spica 'illuminates' the Virgo concept of getting to our goal. Therefore the variable brightness says sometimes we'll do that 'attending to our work' well, and sometimes we'll be a bit more dim about it!

Interestingly, the rotation of this pair is estimated to be 4 days. Why would that be interesting? Well, being the brightest star in our constellation of Virgo, Spica could very easily be seen to have something of an overall association with life’s cycles. Four seasons is easy to associate with the agricultural cycle, and Virgo is the sign of the harvest.

Then again, seeing that the lunar cycle is 29.53 days long (rounded), that pretty much gives us four weeks of seven days in our month (a rough approximation of the lunar cycle).

And a week is how our lives are organized. Virgo is all about neat and organized, right?

More to the point, that's what our world uses to function. And that's seriously Virgo!

Yet beyond that, Virgo is a sign not just about getting from seed to harvest, or about morality, duty and responsibility (and all the effort mental and physical required to hold ourselves to our schedules and prevailing rules of conduct). No, Virgo is also about the ordered process and the ordering of the process, and about thinking through what it takes (for instance) to get something we plant - be it a ‘seed’ or a relationship or a company we want to grow to profitability - what it takes to bring those to full fruit and not to keep them from...spoiling, shall we say!

Growth, nourishment, food – it all has a connection to Virgo. Often associated with motherhood, the better Virgo word is probably ‘nurturance.' And on the flip side, Virgo would also be about how to handle 'toxicity' (which on the physical side leads us towards health, health care workers and medicine as a business)... and how eliminating our toxicity mental, biological, physical, moral, intellectual, fiscal or otherwise - is something which requires thinking through.

It's a process. Virgo is all about the process of getting from Point A to Point B, which is why the well-known Virgo 'caught up in details' thing is not exactly considered a Virgo positive.

Put this all together and what is Spica, this brightest star in Virgo? Known sometimes as a star of knowledge, considering the effort, patience, and diligence which Virgo honors, Spica would seem to be a star all about ‘know-how.’

Having the ‘know-how’ or learning to do something so that you have the ‘know-how’ - being able to help others who know less and all the Virgo responsibilities which weigh out what I 'owe' me and what I 'owe' them (that binary thing? That would appear to be in play here. And knowing when you can prioritize one thing (the 'me' versus the 'them or it') that would appear to be part of our Spica learning curve.

So! With all this said, what does Spica have to do with our world and our life as we meander, stumble or frolic through 2012?

  Copernicus' Conversation with God  by Jan Matejko (1872)

I’m glad you asked. For reasons I’m not going to get into at any length here, Spica (this star which is part of Virgo) is currently positioned at 24 Libra.

What? Why is Alpha Virgo's star in Libra, you ask? No, this is not a hostile takeover of Libra by Virgo (though that is a thought worthy of contemplation...). 

Part one: fixed stars do move, if slowly. And let’s face it. Any way you slice it, whether you’re hedging your bets Greek style or you're into going all the way back in astro-thinking to 3,200 BCE when the Egyptians were changing their ‘we're building this temple in Thebes,’  it’s been a seriously long time. Long enough for Spica to have moved a sign or so down the line.

Here's the skinny: Spica left the mathematical Virgoan space on February 12, 285 CE. As for the constellation Virgo, (this being Part two of 'What's Alpha Virgo doing in Libra?')Virgo is absolutely one truly large constellation. You might say Virgo ‘sprawls’ across a broad swath of sky. (Ah yes, a very earthy sign, Virgo!)

Also: not only is Spica a binary star in its own right, but for thousands of years now, it's been traveling through the zodiac (the sky as seen from Earth's perspective) in conjunction with Arcturus.

And what's Arcturus? Arcturus is brightest star in the constellation of Bootes and the fourth brightest star in our sky (third brightest if you're looking only at individual - not binary- stars).

Together, they're 'lighting up' 24 Libra as we live and breathe.

But is this a ‘focus’ on 24 Libra? Or is it a distraction - a 'hiding something in the light' sort of thing?

Arcturus has long been thought of as representing the courage of individualism. Wherever we see Arcturus, we see someone who is willing to be their own person or walk their own path.

Is it always for the best? Not necessarily. But the instinct is surely there.

So if Spica is 'know-how' and Arcturus is 'having the courage to be our own person' together, they ask if we know how to be our own people.

Though these two stars have been in conjunction for plural milennia, they do separate ever so briefly (in celestial terms) in changing degrees. Arcturus entered 24 Libra on December 5, 1983. Spica entered 24 Libra on January 12, 2011.

So what's 24 Libra about?

Being a 3rd decan degree (a degree between 20 and 29 of some sign) we know 24 Libra is about the quality of interactions we encounter, based on the quality of self (or other "product") we bring to the discussion.

Because this is Libra we're talking about, this is the 'idea of the thing' and thus the idea of how we are regarded by others or received by the world. Part of Libra's nature is to cause us to seek out and find ourselves through relationships - but the big mistake is to think it's them (or their fault) when 'they' are only giving us a heads up on either our quality or the equating of the qualities between two parties (or ideas).

24 Libra is not known as a particularly strong degree - which in Libra terms can lend itself to cooperation and a willingness to work out compromises with others. On the other hand, because 24 Libra is also know for a peculiarly black/white conceptualization, Arcturus having entered 24 Libra back in 1983 makes sense when we think of the 1980's as time when there was a decided upswing in materialism coupled with the extensions of credit needed to finance that.

But then we look at this metaphysically. Is this not a signal that this is a time when an entire generation of people began to think they - as human beings - should be able to act on credit too?

Taking this back to Arcturus' quest for individuality, as Arcturus moved into 24 Libra, there would be a rise in the temptation to think of ourselves in black-and-white terms. And to be confronted with our own willingness, the question of whether we have the courage to be our own person.

Then in comes Spica. As of 2011, Spica reinforced the 24 Libra in a time when the have-nots were asking can I live this way? as the 'haves' were saying will I be able to continue living this way?

All over the world we see people acting bizarrely. We ask 'how can they be doing that?' and 'how can anyone let that happen?' 

The question is partly about them, yes. But it's also about us. The Arcturus/Spica energy drives us to figure it out. It asks that we have the courage to stand for what we really believe in our own minds and to learn - not be judged - by the reactions of others.

Remember, in Libra there is always a balance. When there is a problem, the first Spica-Arcturus question will tend to be 'who is right or wrong' when the more correct question is probably who is willing to be their own person? Who is willing to learn more (or better)?

And that isn't about our 'group.' The human tendency is to retreat to those who will agree with you or at least coddle you. Why others do that is also something to think about. Is theirs an act of Virgo nurturing? If so, they will care for you, but not instruct you. After all, you need to be your own person - which includes learning how to be an independent being.

But again - why care about that now?

There are two very good reasons why this is important to us now. One is because Venus – planetary ruler of Libra – is about to go retrograde. It’s going retrograde in Gemini, the ‘other’ sign ruled by Mercury, the planet which rules Virgo.
.

 Constellation Bootes

Metaphysically, this may give us a very really good hint about Spica as part of Virgo-the-constellation being now positioned in the sign of Libra. Virgo always requires that we think. Virgo is about getting it right being effective – if not barbaric – about achieving your goals. This is where the world ‘morality’ enters into the Virgo conversation. Virgo morals aren’t about being a prude or a clean freak, it’s about achieving the aim without undermining your own goals, breaking accepted collective standards or hurting/harming others.

Given that Libra is always about the quality with which we present ourselves and act in this world – those two can very easily go together. So for Venus to be going into a Mercury-ruled retrograde as of May 15th, that really is reason to think.

Or to be thought of…how?

Or to be critiqued or supposed based on whether we actually do or don’t have the ‘know how’ to support our claim, actions, efforts or position in life?

Venus will go direct again on June 27. But just before it does so, Saturn will have backed up to 22 Libra and go direct right atop a galactic Black Hole.

Saturn itself will be retrograding over 24 Libra from May 1st through May 16. After going direct on June 25th, it will make its final forward pass (for this time around the zodiac) over 24 Libra between August 3rd and August 17th.

If I just tell you that, it’s sort of like letting you watch Act II and Act III of a play. What happened to Act I – when we met all the central characters and set up all the plot and conflict stuff?

Right! When did Saturn first roll over 24 Libra? That was November 14 through 23rd of 2011.

Now…when you’re trying to piece this puzzle together in your head remember: this is NOT a literal ‘connective.’ We’re looking at themes of daring or know-how. Unless you have a very special natal chart which for whatever reason gives you ‘immunity’ to this passage (which would mean you use this concept of Arcturus ‘daring’ and Spica ‘know-how’ on an everyday basis) …unless you have that, you’ve been feeling this passage for some time now. It may be wonderful, it may be ugly, it may be ‘I’m good at this and I suck at that.’
.

Constellation Virgo

Two votes for individuality: being our own person is evidently very important in this day and age. And if it’s being stressed so on the zodiacal level, doesn’t that suggest that a lot of us need lessons in just that issue?

Uh, probably yes.

No matter what your situation here is, This Venus retrograde/June Saturn station is a test probably not so much about who you are as who you are willing to be or become.

And that’s the ‘up’ side of Saturn. Saturn is a symbol of long-term growth. When we refuse to grow at a structural level, that’s when the astrological Saturn represents problems. Saturn isn’t about the social status, it’s about being the upstanding citizen who merits the social status. Famous for representing an intolerance of fakery, Saturn transits (personal or global) bring us advances or collapses, depending on what we’ve earned.

With all that said, do you know how your know-how quotient is doing? Do you know how to best utilize it? Choosing to do something more or something better if things are tough could be just the boost your life needs. 

So (Mercury) think it over. Consider how well (Spica) things are, or aren’t working. Make a (Venus retrograde) plan and if/where necessary, own your (Saturn) responsibilities.

Ultimately, ‘know how’ is all about us. It’s not just about what you can do, it’s knowing when you should and shouldn’t do things. Saturn’s turnabout atop a Black Hole in the wake of Venus retrograde and May’s Gemini solar eclipse is a glimpse into our future.

The Black Hole tells us that it isn't going to be what we think it is right now. Black Holes always indicate the 'alternative' reality. So we can change...or be changed.

Wherever Spica and Arcturus are in your natal chart, that's the 'venue' they will operate through during your lifetime. You'll see year-to-year shifts on the nature of the interaction depending on solar return charts and transits to your individual natal chart.

Yes, there's that individuality thing again! Your Spica-Arcturus combination is not 'just like' anyone else's. And that's the point. It shouldn't be. Nor should you want it to be, assume it to be or acquiesce to, should anyone else try to render you incapable of being your own person.

Whatever house Arcturus and Spica appear in, that will also be a 'department' of life where you meet up with their issues. Those areas of life will probably hold some almost 'magical' draw for you. Why? Because it's through those Libran interactions with others that you learn more about yourself and therefore are prompted to work on your individuality.

This duo seems more obviously dynamic when natally positioned on the right (reactive/responsive) side of the horoscope. But don't be fooled. Though a 'right-side' Arcturus/Spica placement would be doubling up on the manifest 'reactive' quality of having this pair in 24 Libra, those with a proactive left hemisphere Arcturus/Spica are probably more obviously at odds with who they are.

And what they're doing.

And how they're doing it.

And if they can deal with others not liking it...or what they do when others don't like who they are.

Either way, it's tough to remember it's not how they're treating you (or reacting to you) which is the prime and eternal thing. It's who you are being to evoke those reactions. Not all which glitters is gold, they say...and not all applause is healthy. Wherever and whenever we surrender our individuality or give up the job of being a courageous human being, we lose. It doesn't matter how much money you have, how glorious your lifestyle is - there are plenty of rich and famous and beautiful people in this world who are obviously and painfully unhappy.

Arcturus/Spica may, in fact, be part of the difficulty of being famous. Even notorious. Is the image the person? Libra tempts us to say 'yes,' especially in a 3rd decanate degree which has everything we do being commented on or critiqued.

And maybe that's the point - even for those of us who aren't 'famous.' We all wear social and societal masks and to a greater or lesser extent care (or don't care) about what anybody thinks of us.

Maybe we should be more involved in being who we are than listening to our own 'press,' as it were. Good or bad, they don't know everything that we are. This probably applies even to those we consider part of our 'group.'

Nobody knows what goes on in our head, in the depths of our heart or in the boundless insight of our soul.

Do we? Probably whether we do or don't know ourselves, Arcturus and Spica represent the (Libra) relationships and (Virgo)  responsibilities/areas/effort where we learn the most about ourselves.


And in the end, whether 'they' like us...does that matter as much as whether we like ourselves?

One last note here: if you have a planet, axis point or natal nodal placement in 24 Libra, you probably know that you polarize people. You are - in a sense - part of their Arcturus/Spica learning process.

But what you do with that...how you deal with that thing...that 'responsibility'? That's on you. At some level, even how we relate to things in our own minds - that's a Libra dynamic too.

It may even be the most important, for from how we deal with ourselves comes how we deal with others - and how they respond to us.

Modern life connects us to others - and allows them to react to us. Or more exactly, to whether we have the know-how and courage to be the people we'd like to think we are. 

We live in nakedly Spica-Arcturus times. 
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The Astrological Ages: An Overview

The Dendara Zodiac: one of the earliest renditions of the zodiac

known. 'Discovered' by Napoleon's troops and now housed at

the Louvre in Paris, the greater structures of Egypt's Dendara

Temple are decidedly off the "regular tourist" track but

well worth visiting.

Humans being humans, there are certain parts of all the various things we do and get into in life which tickle our individual fancy. When it comes to astrology, the Astrological Ages is on such a list in my world...the 'why' of which I hope to show you over a series of posts to be sprinkled amongst all else as the schedule allows.

So let's start with this...those of you who are either…say, over 50 or into current Broadway productions are probably familiar with the musical ‘Hair’ and it’s ballyhoo song: Age of Aquarius.

Well, that 'Age of Aquarius' thing is real. And yes, this is  the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, which is a big reason why a lot of things are happening now.

It’s taken me a while to figure out how to take on this gigundo subject…so let’s make a start of it. And as we start, I want you to remember that this is only the dawn of this incoming age.

Ergo, let us being, starting with what is like as not, the most basic of basic questions:

WHAT ARE ASTROLOGICAL AGES?

....Yes, this would otherwise be known as ‘what are they and why the fig should I give a peach pit about them?’

But however you position this first brick in the proverbial yellow brick road, when it comes to Astrological Ages, this would be the most basic of foundational questions.

And lucky for us, it's one with a pretty basic answer!

First, envision our planet Earth as the quintessential globe we all knew as kids. Yes, it's back to Romper Room!

So okay: there's that Earth planet globe thing, with a “stick” stuck through it showing the north and south poles...

 

And no, that imaginary stick doesn't go just straight up and down. The Earth rotates on its axis - yes. But the planetary ‘up/down’ is a different imaginary line from that which is the axis around which Earth rotates.

The up/down line is something we would draw perpendicular to Earth’s orbit around the Sun - as in this second here-now picture...

That ‘axial tilt’ (as it’s called) is currently about 23.4% off “true perpendicular” …though such a thing really doesn’t exist in the world of space, which is why those periodic frenzies about ‘OMG – the universe is going to turn over’ always make me laugh! I mean…how can you turn over if there’s no ‘up’ or ‘down’? Such things are so a construct of our everyday human life – like the idea that north is ‘up’ on a map and south is ‘down.’

I actually once had a teacher who so hated how his students were always referring to north as ‘up’ and south as ‘down’ that he had a special set of maps made for our classroom which were to our eyes on their sides or upside down. Going from one to the other he eventually broke us of that nasty little ‘up’/’down’ habit, which is maybe why I’ve reacted to it ever since.

But back to the subject…the Earth rotates on around its axis, right? That’s why the Sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west. The Sun isn’t actually rising…the Earth is just going around and around, making it seem like the Sun rises. You know, from the point of view of someone living on Earth.

That one idea – that we are on Earth, is why astrology is geo (Earth) centric (centered). Astrology is the study of how the contiguous energetics of the universe affect us here right here on Earth.

Okay! Now with all that dully mulled over, imagine a top…

Perhaps you’ve watched a top or gyroscope spin? If so, you’ve probably noticed how the top of the top (that always sounds wrong!) …how it describes a little ‘wobbly’ circle of its own as the top spins?

Little do you know (probably because you never needed to) but that little circle goes in a direction which is opposite to the direction in which the top is spinning.

So…you know the word “procession”? It means to ‘go along forward.’ The ‘cession’ part is the getting your get-along along while the ‘pro’ part is the ‘forward’ bit.

This matters because Earth does the same thing as that top. As Earth spins, that ‘stick’ which we think of as stuck through Earth also sloooowly, sloooowly describes a “backward” circle. So it doesn’t pro-cess, it pre-cesses…it cycles backwards.

There are only a very few things in astrology which seem to go ‘backward’ but precession is one of them. Over a big long period of time, Earth’s north pole makes a slow circle of its own, moving in a direction opposite to that in which the Earth turns.

(This is sounding a little like a soap opera, but…)

So how fast does this little precessional thing happen? Answer: the Earth’s rotational axial tilt point precesses one degree back in 72 years.

About in the better part of a lifetime, in other words.

Among other things, this means that Polaris – the star we think of as the “north star,” isn’t always the north star! Who would’a thunk, right?

Okay…so here’s the math. No - don't panic! It's pretty simple. There are 360 degrees in a circle, and it takes the Earth 72 years to move one degree in its precessional cycle. So if we want to know how many Earth years pass by in one earthy precessional cycle, here would be the equation...

72 (years) x 360 (degrees) = 25,920 years

Not hard, right?

Okay...on to our next concept!

(And yes, I promise, it all amounts to something!)

There are twelve zodiac signs. (And if you're in doubt about that, you're on the wrong blog page. Try THIS ONE.)

Anyway....since the circle of the zodiac wraps Earth 360 degrees all the way around, that means that all we have to do is divide 25,920 (years) by 12 (signs), and that will give us the number of years it takes for Earth’s axis to move backward (pre-cession) through one zodiac sign:

25,920 (years) divided by 12 (signs) = 2,160 years

..

So! It takes Earth 2,160 years to move (backwards) through one zodiac sign.

Et, voila! The astrological term for 25,920 years is ‘an astrological Great Year.’ And the astrological term for one-twelfth of that Great Year is an Astrological Age.

Twelve Astrological Ages equal one Great Year. Make sense?

Given that astrological Ages move backward, if this is now the ‘dawning of the Age of Aquarius’ (go ahead – sing to yourself!) ….that means that we are just leaving what Age?

Answer: the Age of Pisces.

Here's a basic chart wheel for the Age of Pisces:

The Piscean Age

And here is the basic chart for the Age of Aquarius:

The Age of Aquarius

Even if you don’t know signs and such, it’s pretty easy to see that the wheel rotates - backward - by one sign as one Age becomes a next.

And that’s the point: the ‘wheel’ of the zodiac – the 12 signs of the horoscope, they each have ‘set’ meanings. Those meanings correspond to the signs of the zodiac when the zodiac is portrayed as a “natural zodiac wheel” – a term you see me use more or less often:

What happens with astrological Ages is that as each one comes along, we get an “overlay” of affects...okay, except during the Age of Aries, when the Age and the natural wheel lined up.

And when was that, you ask? Well, if we are now moving into the Aquarian Age and exiting the Piscean Age, that means that about 2,160 years ago would have been the  end of the Age of Aries.

So...figuring from 2010 (because it's handy) that would push us back to a rough date of 150 BCE as being when the Aries Age was ending...making - which would make the years around 2,300 BCE being when the Aries Age was coming into being and the Taurean Age was ending.

Got all that? If not, just go with it for a moment.

In the meantime (while those numbers sink in) I'm going to remind you how Pisces is a sign in which we confront and feel our feelings -and thus learn to have faith in how we feel. Or our ability to deal with or even honor our feelings - or anything of a feeling nature, like an oath or promise.

Does that draw a dotted line for you to  spirituality? If not, maybe you're confusing spirituality - the ability to be okay with one's internal sense of 'feelingness' with religion - and they are absolutely, positively not the same thing! Spirituality is our ability to feel ourselves having faith. But that faith doesn't necessarily have to be in a greater power. It could be just having faith that (yes, Annie...) the Sun will rise again tomorrow. Or in mom's promise that if you clean up your room every day for the month she'll reinstate those privileges you lost through disobeying house rules.

Spirituality is our rightness with our sense of faith - whether that's in some idea, some person, some promise...whatever. Religion is a codified set of rules which is supposed to teach us what we should have faith in. Whether we have faith in a religion is thus about whether we agree with what the religion teaches and the boundaries, standards and strictures it sets. Some of us go there, some of us don't. But whether or not you've 'got religion' has nothing (NOTHING!) to do with whether you are a spiritual person!

But that spirituality and religion have been a big Piscean Age deal? That's real. And that's actually pretty darn astrologically apt, seeing that in all Piscean questions, it is not the question itself (i.e.,: do you believe) but our reaction to the question and how we emotionally react to the asking and to our feelings about being asked which is the whole big Piscean deal. So! That the Age of Pisces – among other things – has been a time in which religion has been such a huge cause of argument pro/con, I love it/hate it, live by it/ignore it...that works! That totally works.

And that people have killed over religion? That just tells us how far we can go with this Piscean alienation problem. The Piscean positive is acceptance. The litany of Piscean negative starts with rejection, alienation, shaming, retribution and abandonment.

As for that Aries Age – the Age of Aries would have extended from roughly 100 BCE (let’s round off for ease of adding here)….to roughly 2,200 BCE. If you’re anything close to a history buff and I say to you Aries is the sign of I AM, then it shouldn’t be any surprise to not only find this a time of Sun kings and Pharaohs, but when monotheism gave rise to a Judaic culture which, as we know so well thanks to Cecil B DeMille, identifies the God force as the concept of that which causes all to exist – that “I Am” thing.

Among other things, this gives us a really, really interesting way to look at religions – if nothing else! Those which came to be during the Piscean Age would carry that very distinct GOD/mankind (dominant-submissive, teacher-student, divine-mortal, perfect-imperfect, rich-poor, powerful-weak) theme. I’m not saying any religion is right or wrong here – my personal views on such don’t seem particularly important here.

But the point of why I bring this up is. That which comes to be during a given astrological Age bears the conceptual dynamics of that Age. 

So when does this Age of Aquarius start? Oh…around  sorta kinda about now. It’s been starting for a while and it’ll be a while yet until were totally out of deep Pisces water. Why? Because Ages don’t turn on and off like a light switch – they blend, one into another, rather like seasons meld together...one ends, another begins, there are days of this, days of that until finally the incoming season asserts itself.

Another way I tend to think of this is as the colors of the rainbow.

 A dispersive prism, splitting white light into it's

component color parts - a rainbow

photo credit: Spigget

Why a rainbow? Because the component parts - the individual colors - of a rainbow are rather like the individual signs, granting there aren't as many of them. And as the Wheel of the Age turns, each of those colors will fall on a different house. So if we're talking about the Age of Pisces as spirituality, yes...part of that is because Pisces itself - the sign on the Ascendant of the Age - is a sign which 'tests' our emotional spirit. But how that operates in detail - that we would look at by also looking to the 'natural' houses of spirituality and religion (the 12th and the 9th) and where the signs naturally associated with those houses now fall.

In the case of the Age of Pisces, we know where Pisces (natural ruler of the 12th) is - during the Piscean Age, it's going to be on the Ascendant. But the sign of religions...Sagittarius (religion being a set of codified teachings) - during the Age of Pisces, Sagittarius has been on the 10th house of 'rulership.'

Hence much attempt to be 'top' religion, and the tendency for kings and rulers to be swayed by and challenged as to what their religious beliefs are...religion as a 'ruling' force in the world...and the efforts of some governments to use Sagittarius in its other voice: as an exploration of 'rule of law' (codified correctness in thinking) rather than the Sagittarius/Piscean combined sense of religion. When a nation, person, community goes for this 'separation', they use both sides of this combo, but separately - as in, you do the right thing (Sagittarius) or you'll be sorry (Pisces as self-regret).  

That's just a droplet of an idea on how the Ages work. Any given subject changes from Age to Age in accordance with where the signs which 'naturally' rule that subject fall.

And if you want to get even more exotic about this (which as an astrologer I tend to do at least when I'm doing research)...then you follow the patterns of ruling planets through signs at least partly as a signature of the Age.

Which among other things says a lot about the fact that Neptune will soon be entering its home sign of Pisces. That not only emphasizes Neptunian precepts, but also suggests that as of Neptune's ingress into Pisces (April 2011) levels of imagination, projection, elation and disappointment will all rise. It's the point of Pisces as two fish swimming in different directions - the polarization of emotionality and all which prompts, tempts or produces our emotions is going to become more 'at extremes' or polarized.

For some, this will be educational - it will teach them to hope and work towards goals but not to go so whole-hog into some 'dream' or 'idyllic' image. For others it will be just the opposite - they'll go more towards the hope, the optimal, the 'it could be...' and sometimes win and sometimes have their hopes dashed like a high wave against a cliff.

The thing to remember is that this isn't going to be about the good or bad the world or life. Neptune is about our ability to deal with our emotionality and acceptance of realities.

And here where the Piscean Age is drawing to an end, Neptune hitting its home sign suggests we may well be in for some big highs and lows. Might they be even bigger since by the time Neptune's next ingress into Pisces happens about 164 years from now we'll be pretty much in the Aquarian Age?

That's possible.

Going back to that point about Pisces being two fish swimming in different directions...what thinkest you if I suggest how that might represent the powerful and the meek or the rulers and the ruled, leaders and citizens (or leaders and followers), bosses and workers, teachers and students? And what if I say all that and then tell you that Aquarius at its higher level of function...is all about ‘universal equality’? Does that begin to ring a bell about why there might be so much tumult here where one Age melds into the next?

In the past several decades, every nation and population on this planet has been agitating for more freedom – a distinctly Aquarian thing. Pisces is the fantasy of the sultan and his slaves, the dominant and the submissive, the head of household and his subject family.

Oh – did I mention Aquarius does away with gender bias?

In these last years and decades, haven’t we seen the shift of gender roles? However you describe it and whether its been peaceful or disastrously contentious, both women and men are saying they care more and more about what has ‘traditionally’ been the role of the opposite sex. More women are in leadership roles. More men are caring more and more about being nurturing figures to their children.

As I started out saying, this is a huge and complicated subject. But as the days and weeks go by, between all other things going on, I think it’s useful to take a gander at how we can look at these precepts and see so much of what is going on in the world.

And in our lives. After all…we now have parents born plainly under the end of the Piscean Age who are having and raising little Aquarian Age munchkins. How confusing is that – on both ends of the parent/child transaction!

Understanding the why’s and what’s involved here won’t make it distinctly easier…but like the old sage said: knowledge is power. If you as a parent can get a better hold on why your child thinks like someone born on another planet – it’s not the ‘other planet,’ its that the planet you’re both living on is moving from one Age to a next.

And kids…? It’s not that your parents are ‘old fogies,’ it’s that they were brought up literally thinking in a different temporal language. On one level, how fascinating is that? And lest you think but I’m an Aquarian Age person – that’s all I need to know! ….think again. For one, the Pisces Age is still doing a substantial amount of splashing around – just look at all the power struggles going on in this world!

There’s also that Astrological Ages (read: history) teaches that those who learn from what has been are able to build fastest and most profitably. So don’t ignore those fish tales!

One more item, then I’ll close for today: this may be coming at this Astrological Age thing from a slightly different perspective, but when we look at horoscopes and we ask ‘how often do they repeat?’… if you use JUST our solar system’s real planets plus Moon and Sun (no asteroids, no TNOs, etc.) and all the house cusps - if you run the numbers out using just that, the answer is (yes,) 26,000 years.

And a Great Year is 25,920 years long?

Got it?

This is just the beginning of what I hope will be a long conversation about Astrological Ages. I invite you to write me (or comment) on specific subjects you'd like to see discussed. One of these days (when I get more tech savvy) I'll even start looking for ways astroPPM can be turned into a truly interactive conversation.

In the meantime, we'll just keep exploring. More on Astrological Ages to come!