Transitory Times

 Image based on a photo of a Westclox Big Ben clock taken by JVGJ

When I was teaching myself astrology, one of the things which fascinated me the most (and which still fascinates me) is how planetary cycles overlap and mark significant passages in our lives.

Learning transits – and the clockwork nature of planetary transits – helped me understand why life works as it does. Why people develop as they do. Why certain age groups go through what they go through.

Your chart is individual to you, yes. But there are also transits we each experience at particular age – like the famous Saturn returns at during year 29, again just before we’re 60 and increasingly, yet again just a bit shy of reaching age 90.

Like I say, there are many transits which are famous with astrologers. But there are one set – a confluence of three – that are SO famous that even mainstream society knows about them. Society calls them “The Mid Life Crisis.” Astrologers know them as Uranus opposition Uranus, Neptune square Neptune and Pluto square Pluto.

As a young and naive astrologer, I dutifully read all about this fearsome trio and dreaded the day I would get there.

And then that day arrived, and I realized – even in the middle of the muddle – that this was a period all about getting more real and realistic with ourselves about life.

The best quip anyone ever used to ‘define’ Uranus opposition Uranus was when they said it was like the ‘flipping of a record.’ For those of you born in the post-vinyl era, this may not make sense, and I’d say that it was like flipping a flapjack except flapjacks don’t have grooves. There’s a quality to the Uranus opposition where we experience our turning ourselves entirely around. What once didn’t seem to be important suddenly strikes us as vital. What once seemed terribly important comes to be anywhere between secondary to totally senseless.

Pluto square Pluto is a life challenge. For many of us, something outlives its function. Or we meet up with a defeat. Pluto’s symbolism is a process which reveals where our drives, fascinations and cravings are less about what we’re chasing and more about our inner vulnerabilities and sense of lack.

And when Pluto square Pluto gets tough, it’s that lack which rears up and bites us.

This is not to say this time can’t represent a victory – it can. But when and where we are victorious, it is because we have proven to ourselves (not to others) that who we are at our core is not merely truly worth our own respect, but the real deal.

Pluto square Pluto will often ‘out’ us to ourselves about the lies we’re living. And yes – sometimes the trick is to know the denial from the real deal truth. But then, that’s Pluto square Pluto all over.

Whatever that means is your business. And whatever you learn at this point in your life, you’re unlikely to ever forget.

Neptune square Neptune involves a test of your willingness to feel your own feelings about life, about who you are (or have been) in life, and how courageous you are (or aren’t) when push comes to shove and life asks whether you’re going to give in and resign yourself to compromising something about who you are or whether you’re going to stand up for who you believe you really are.

Or should be, if you could get past all that reluctance - which is often what Neptune square Neptune is about: an event or situation which does get you past your reluctance by imposing the logic of necessity is the mother of invention.

So my mid-life transits came and went…and as I went on working with clients and studying the charts of my friends I realized that their mid-life crisis transits didn’t come up in the same sequence as mine did.
In fact, for some of them, it wasn’t even close.

Mind you, I’ve been thinking about this on and off for probably over a decade. Then I finally sat down and diagramed it all out.

 
So....what exactly are you looking at?

Starting with January 1st of the 4th year of every decade, I took the positions of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto and then went to look at when said planet hit the degree of the square – or in Uranus’ case, the opposition.

The question I asked was ‘how old would this person be at that point?’

What this tells us is part of why generations differ. And how they differ. The big “difference” being Pluto with that difference entirely due to Pluto’s highly elliptical orbit, what we find is that there are generations (the 1924-born Pluto in Cancer group and those born in the 2000s) where Pluto isn’t in the mid-life crisis equation.

This suggests that the ‘crisis’ point (which is ‘our’ crisis, not a world crisis of course!) really is about who we think we are – which is the Uranus part of the deal. But apart from that, the fact that there are plainly generations who face all these transits at one time. And there are others which get to deal with Pluto somewhere down the line as an entirely separate issue.

As someone born in the mid 50s, I know these transits hit me pretty much all at once. Then I look at my father’s 1920s set-up and know from the ages implied that they correspond both to his two broken marriages and the rise and fall of his rather stellar career.

Then I ask…’how close is close?’ How close do these transits have to be in order for them to manifest in our lives as a period when we just feel like nothing lets up?

That, I don’t know. But I can tell you that having known a bunch of people who fall in the ‘I was born during the 60s or 70s’ barrel, to have Pluto’s square falling before your Uranus opposition seems to be all about the chance of doing it wrong before you get it right.

At the moment, it is this ‘I was born during the 1970s’ group which is in the middle of their mid-life transits. As you’ll notice on the graph, their Uranus oppositions are a bit ‘pushed back.’ Imaged by the green blocks, the pattern of the age at which we hit our Uranus opposition is a nice ‘s’ curve (or sine wave, if you prefer) ranging between age 38 and 44, and people of the 1970s vintage are pretty near the top end of this range.

So they’ve already gone through their Pluto square. That happened (on the average) two years ago – in 2011. They either changed something or something changed for them. And now they’re moving into the period of the Neptune square – a time which is often confusing or which evokes insecurities depending on how truly realistic you are. Or how well you understand the difference between what life really is and how things really work as opposed to how you want it to work.

Or what you’re hoping you won’t have to face.

Or face up to.

The particulars in this come from where Neptune falls (natally and by transit) in your individual chart, of course. But as a theory, those born in the earliest part of the 1970s are feeling the Neptune fuzziness, those born in the mid-1970s are about to get fuzzed and those born at the end of the 1970s have a year or so to wait before the fuzzing begins.

When I look at this chart it suggests to me things like why those born in the 1920s have been nicknamed ‘the greatest generation.’ They didn’t get to the fuzzy and confusing parts of life or the realization they were on the wrong track until they were already in their 40s and life didn’t change the nature of their playing field at a core level until their early 50s. When I think of this as the generation which stayed in their marriages and who worked so hard to build the world they were living in, that makes sense to me as part of the home-hearth-cultural bent of Pluto in Cancer.

With their Pluto-before-Neptune-and-Uranus set up, I look at this chart and see the Pluto in Virgo Yuppies and the early part of Gen X / Pluto in Libra) having hit economic turbulence just when they bought into mortgages and debt loads as part of the cosmic process which will evolve (once they get through the Neptune square and Uranus opposition) into better understandings of the ‘them’ versus ‘the me.’ It’s always fascinated me that the Pluto in Virgo Yuppie challenge is so very much about learning the value of universality (as opposed to my possessions, my wealth, my whatever else) and that the generation immediately following (Gen X / Pluto in Libra) needs to learn more about being who they are as individuals without the branding, grouping and logo’ing.

I look at this chart and I see that by the time the latter part of the Pluto in Sagittarius Millennial tribe reaches their mid-life crisis time (around the year 2044) we will be back to a pattern which in looks is very much like that of the 1920s. Yet with the source energy being Pluto in Sagittarius, this group isn’t going to be about building the world, they’re going to be about making it work.

(Again, yes.)

Then I look at the pattern for those being born now and in the near future, the Pluto in Capricorn kids. They will experience the Uranus opposition and Neptune square at the same time, rather like those born in the mid-1960s did. And it’ll fall right around age 40, probably a little shy of that (making this a projection for around the year 2054). But their Pluto square? That doesn’t happen…give or take…until they’re sixty-two.

To me this speaks of the dawning of realistic space travel and the rehabilitation of our Earth from the perspective of a race which has learned better.

And that says a lot of very good things…and very tough things.

It’s of course to remember that these patterns have repeated countless times. The last time we had a ‘no Pluto square until age sixty-two’ generation would be one Pluto cycle back from January 1914 – or in the year 1767. So what happened 62-odd years later? That was the late 1820s, a time when the world (which is to say, the humans of this world) were redefining the map on a national (astrologically, Capricorn) level. It was a time when established trades were putting their abilities to work building (i.e., creating the Capricorn structure) which would lay in a provisional framework our modern world would one-half Pluto cycle later (Pluto in Cancer) grow out of.

And that’s the other thing I think about when I look at that diagram of transits. I think about how this moment we’re living in – the year 2013 – is the ‘mid-life crisis’ point for things which were set up in the 1970s. The 1970s was when lawyers and ‘things legal’ moved from necessity to a level of glamor and power. And forty years later, I think we’re seeing both the good and the not-so-good in that. The 1970s was when health care moved from the friendly family doctor who took care of most everything (and who you paid for yourself) to corporate medicine and soaring costs and the nightmare which health insurance has become.

We don’t know what will happen with those problems yet. But we do know that the Pluto square to that time would have come before a Uranus opposition which hasn’t happened yet.

But I think we all know something is about to give – which demonstrates rather well that on the astrological level you can look to any point in time and see where it will evolve from there.

Yes, all of life is transitory.
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Mars/Mercury/Pallas: Are we Looking, Seeing or Seeking ?

 The eye of an Antarctic Krill 

photo credit: Gerd Alberti and Uwe Kils

Some moments are simply made for wonder. Some are simply made for wondering.

Then again, there are those moments, days and times which just make you wonder...why?

So let's start off by remembering that Venus and Jupiter have just gone direct as Polyhymnia went retrograde. Thus we're all primed to get going, and today may well feel like just that right day to head up and out and gain ground and get things going.

But it does pay to think things through.

And that's probably the message. REALLY, I mean - the message? Here?

Mercury is about the plan. The choice. The thought, the communicating, the making all those little details fit together.

Problem: Mercury is in Sagittarius. Mercury is never at its finest in Sagittarius. It either acts in haste, oversteps its bounds, opts for the flight of fancy which will never work or simply shoots its mouth off.

Well channeled, Mercury in Sagittarius can be seeing how things can work. Envisioning the really great solution. Getting where you could go if you (or everyone) was of a mind to get it right.

You can see the problem, right? One group is 'right here, right now' and the other is 'defer the gratification.' Given that Mercury in Sagittarius tends to opt for right now, it takes real effort, real thinking to keep ourselves in check and not overstep those bounds, insert the foot into the mouth (and beyond) or otherwise screw things up with trying to leap tall buildings in a single bound, forgetting we're not Superman.

No, you really aren't Superman...what, is that news?

So we have this instinct to leap buildings (or Grand Canyons). And there's just enough Mars in Sagittarius bravado, joie de vivre, raw enthusiasm (call it what you like) in today and tomorrow's Mix-de-Jour that our level of confidence, determination and/or impatience is really hard, hard, HARD to resist.

And should we?

That depends on how you feel about the greater concept of wisdom - here embodied by Pallas.

Clearly Pallas in any 3-way conjunction says there's an opportunity to think things through and do 'the wise thing.' But given the urgency of Mars 'wannas' and the restlessness so typical of Mercury in Sag...does Pallas  represent enough stabilizing energy to keep us on track?

Answer: if we are wise enough (Pallas) to understand the value of wisdom (Pallas) over urges and in urgent/urgent-feeling moments, probably yes.

Thus all (sigh...) comes down to a matter of how we consciously (wisely?) prioritize our internal workings. Will we think before we act? Will we say 'I don't have time for that now !' and live to say 'ooooh, maybe I should have thought about that?'

Sagittarius being known for fervency and conviction (for right or wrong) Pallas as companion to Mars/Mercury...IN an emotional degree....of a sign (Sagittarius) which is so much all about the process and 'doing' says we may blow others off now. Or we may blow off/cast aside our hesitancy or the misgivings which at other times would be keeping us stuck like a fly mired on superglue flypaper.

With all that in mind, we turn to the degree of this event: 17 Sagittarius. And what does tradition say about 17 Sag? It says this is a degree known for naive optimism, artistic and intuitive instinct plus a lovely dappling of sensitivity suggests we may just burst forth in creative flower.

Except for....

Except for what? Oh, what now...!

(stamping of impatient feet...oh, I so hear you!)

Trust me, I wouldn't bring it up if this wasn't an impressive little quartet of symbols: Kassandra, Ixion (shudder here, please) Lachesis and...Hybris.

We start with Kassandra, since this is the asteroid at the beginning of the chain. Sitting at 15 Sagittarius, Kassandra is a reference to something which had a spectacular beginning...but some insight which wasn't truly "believed." This goes back to who Kassandra was: a prophet of Delphi who offended her boss (god Apollo) by refusing to have sex with him, in return for which he cursed her to 'always being right and never being believed.'

(Sounds like a few marriages I know of, but that's besides the point...)

 Cassandra seeking the protection of Pallas (wisdom) to mitigate
the curse of Apollo (enlightenment which is never believed). 
This 1877 statue by Aime Millet is in the garden of France's
Tuilleries - an interesting comment on the time, seeing as its
creation was during the reign of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette,
both of whom would find themselves not believed and
incarcerated in the Tuilleries not twenty years later.

Link to article on Marie Antoinette

 

There are at least two ways to look at this Kassandra-at-15, Pallas/Mars/Mercury-at-17 thing. One is to say that whatever Kassandra represents, it's been put behind you. 15 comes before 17? So if 17 is "now" then 15 was 'two somethings ago.'

In astrology we call this 'progression theory' - but let's not get technical. Lust say the measure is pretty fluid: the "two ago" thing could be hours, days, weeks, months, years....relationships, jobs...any "two ago" you would care to throw in the pot.

It also could be many things. This is a common mistake people (even astrologers!) make with astrology - the reference is not merely a reference to just one thing.

And hey, that goes really well with the Sagittarian theme, since Sag is always into 'more' and 'expanding' those horizons and theories and abilities and so on.

So - with Kassandra 'two' behind the moment, you may have recognized an error (the "truth of the lie") and have already dealt with it. Or you may be now facing repercussions from it. Or it may represent something you still don't believe.

(Ah yes, denial is such a wonderful tragedy.)

Moving on we come to Ixion at 16 Sagittarius: "one" past Kassandra and "one" before now.

If you don't know the whole story of Ixion, it's a point worth understanding. Of all the "new fangled" points in astrology, if someone asked for a vote on which three they'd name as 'most potent,' Ixion would definitely head my personal list.

Like as not, we all have an Ixion (like other things we all have one of) and we all act out the Ixion drama at lest once or twice (or a dozen times) in our lifetime. So if you haven't read it, here's the link to the article on Ixion.

Basically, Ixion symbolizes our ideas of grandiosity, entitlement and self-involvement...in ways which don't turn out so well for us. One of the handful of Neptune-controlled 'Plutino' gang, Ixion situations tap into our  (generally) 'baser' nature.

And again, we all have Ixion in our chart...and ignorance is no guarantee of bliss here - far from it!

Positioned in a degree which is about life's 'pleasures' and specifically about our ability to maintain and sustain ourselves properly in relationships, Ixion here is referred to as a 'psychological contamination' with emphasis on one's ability to breathe. And yes, this could just mean something "takes your breath away" in the nicest way ...except for that little...uh...IXION part.

But again, this degree is "one" behind the Pallas-Mars-Mercury conjunction. So....was there something you didn't believe or didn't understand when it was said to you? (And yes, don't you hate it how prophecies are sometimes so oblique?) Has that turned into some sort of 'breath taking' moment?

Or maybe you're moving past that breath-taking moment? With Ixion at 16 and today's triumvirate of symbols at 17, if you had some seriously wrenching (or "breath taking") moment one day, week, month, year (etc.) ago - now may be when you actually may do something (Mars/Mercury) to move past it. You may now know or understand (Pallas) 'why' that happened and what it means in/to your life and be ready to move on.

In fact, you may be much the wiser (Pallas) person for such events.

Continuing our little lesson in astrological conjugation, this could be you arriving at a moment (Lachesis) of opportunity (Mars/Mercury) which you know (Pallas) won't or can't last. Or a decision (Pallas/Mercury) of what to do (Mars). 

Or maybe...with Lachesis (the symbol of 'duration') being in exact conjunction with today's trio of symbols, maybe that means something you want to do or have been doing (Mars/Mercury) gets put on (Lachesis) hold.

Or maybe you just have to wait (Lachesis) for an answer to some question (Pallas)? Sometimes that's all we can do. So we sit there and subconciously (Pallas/Mercury)  listen to the tick...tock...tick...tock...of each minute's passage, knowing (Pallas) that we truly have to wait however long (Lachesis) until there comes that moment when what we need to move on with - be it permission or information or the car keys - until that finally arrives (Mars/Mercury).

 The face of Westinister's Big Ben,
one of the most famous tick-tock'ers around.

Yet even after all this, we still have to face Hybris.

Hybris is an interesting point in that there's so very little written about it. The name is thought to have been derived from the Greek 'hubris' meaning "arrogance." A little looking into the term reveals that it's related to 'hybrid' and thus a 'forced interlocking' which here (with Hybris pictured "one" ahead at 18 Sagittarius) means there's something about to be 'inserted' into our efforts, dynamics, considerations...whatever it is we're up to at the moment.

And considering the relationship between 'hybris' and 'hubris' we shouldn't count on it being totally pleasant. Or even our being pleasant, come to think about it. There's a whole little theme here about trying to 'mate'  the 'tame' with the 'wild' which at 18 Sagittarius has a tendency to 'go too far.' The degree itself has a reputation for 'imbalance' which can manifest simply or in a truly devastating way. This is an 'internalizing' degree, suggesting that it's what's going on inside us which is the possible source of trouble.

Like we needed more of that what with Mars/Mercury and Ixion...plus Kassandra?

Another of the thousands of main belt asteroids, at it's farthest, Hybris is pretty much at the center of the pack. It is thus native to our thinking and our operations - we all have to deal with (and accept) that we have not only a capacity for arrogance (if that's what we take the point to mean) but a tendency to manifest that.

Does that mean it's just 'there' and we don't have to do/care/take responsibility for it? Probably not, though by where Hybris falls in your chart we also can like-as-not tell whether you tend to be someone who 'deals' with these tendencies as part of your personal responsibility quotient - or whether you're one of those people who needs to get faced off and knocked down before you realize you're totally out of line.

Being one of the points on a list sent to me by astrologer Alex Miller during my 'new point' studies we have at least one vote (Alex') for Hybris as the psychological inability to grasp the consequences of our actions and/or the thought that you can 'get away' with something - even that some rule or law doesn't apply to you. In looking at Hybris in charts and considering that its perihelion point (the point at which it's closest to Earth: Hybris' "delivery") is - as it happens - just inside Kassandra's.

So when Hybris actions/choices/activities come 'to us' that which we 'didn't believe' (Kassandra) proves true.

And that lies ahead.

(Kind of makes you want to look up your Hybris, doesn't it? Well, check the sidebar - use the link to Serennu.com, which has an extensive asteroid ephemeris base, and yes, is accurate. Just remember to use a "list" format, a "360 sort" and dd/mm/yy date formats, not mm/dd/yy date formats).

But before you go dashing away, let's just close here. All and all, this seems to be a moment for collecting our recollections and moving on from there. What that entails, what we each need to consider and contend with - that obviously varies.

Waters have been rocky, yes. We've had to take shelter in safe harbors as we could.

Now the way opens before us. Where do we want to go? Do we actually want to go there? What will it take to get where we want to go in life, and who do we want to be along the way and when we get there?

 (November 2007) an English seascape just after sunset. 

photo credit: rnbc

Mercury dances with Neptune: Enchantment? Flummery? Enchanting Flummery?

 Fog-laser effects

photograph by Gregory Maxwell

For those who don't know what 'flummery' is, you're not alone. I never knew the word (or the thing) existed until I got into watching the TV adaptations of Rex Stout's 'Nero Wolfe' series. An engagingly brilliant if grumpy, headstrong type, honcho detective Nero Wolfe was all about his food - ever was a case allowed to interfere with meal time.

Flummery being a form of pudding, one assumes Nero ate it now and again. But apart from that, seeing that the word 'flummery' is also used to describe something as utter nonsense, Nero's use of same brought the word into my vocabulary. And now into yours.

But what's this got to do with anything astrological? Plenty! Tomorrow at 12:06 (+0/UT - adjust to your local time) transiting Neptune perfects an air sign trine to transiting Mercury. So it should be an interesting day, afternoon or evening (depending on where you are). Or it might be one full of...flummery.

This starts with Mercury, our symbol of thinking, thoughts/ideas and all we go through to choose one over another and implement same. In being at 26 Libra, we know the Mercurial subject is 'about others' - thinking about them, something you need to discuss with them, someone you need to get in touch with, some 'type' of person you need to find or find out about...

...At 26 Libra, this Mercurial moment takes on a quality of superbly sensitive adeptness. We 'get' what needs doing or saying. Our antenna become aligned so that insight on the situation is suddenly gained. This may be just in our mind...or it may be as we are actually interacting with someone. Either way, this looks to be - at least on the surface - a rather positive moment.

With that said however, there is the other end of this trine - the Neptune/Chiron/Athena side.

 Planet Neptune: a mysterious ice giant

of great and far-reaching power

photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech  

Mercury's position, so close to the Sun, describes it as a process 'central' to our existence, our will to live, our operational 'center' (the Sun). Neptune is at the total and opposite extreme. Standing as the last true planet in the icy reaches of our solar system, Neptune is that 'jumping off place' in space and in life.

So all things Neptunian involve how we deal with 'the unknown.' Where we feel secure (say, when we're watching a movie and suspending our sense of reality in order to get into the movie) most of us feel very safe. Where we enter into a romantic relationship, we have great hopes but at the same time we know all could yet not be exactly as we think it is. Ah, love...!

Then there are those places where we choose not to know. Or we expect not to know everything - such as in the case of spiritualism. Having faith is all about allowing yourself not to know. And that one idea is truly the best one we can bear in mind when we deal with anything Neptune. Where Neptune is involved, we are not going to know.

Chiron, on the other hand, is about mastery of Self. Our 'rowdy' instincts, whatever they may be, must be set aside when dealing with all things Chirotic so that we can focus with clarity and bring our best (and often most "noble") attributes to bear in some cause.

The Education of Achilles

(Chiron being the centaur teacher)

by Eugene Ferdinand Victor Delacroix (late 1800's)

The 'purpose' of Chiron is to learn; as Chiron the centaur was taught by Apollo, god of light (or enlightenment), so Chiron was required to not merely pass his knowledge on, but to use it in his own life and understand that what could happen if he didn't.

Probably the best example of this is seen in Apollo (as god of medicine) having taught the medical arts to Chiron, from whence comes the common astrological nickname for Chiron: 'The Wounded Healer.' As one of the passionate, passion-driven centaurs, Chiron becoming educated about what could happen to wounds was a caution against doing something which could get him wounded and thus compromised...or dead. Yet that's exactly what happened - Chiron's 'lower instincts' (the animal/horse part) got the better of him, he got into a brawl and was mortally wounded.

In the chart, Chiron is a point most of us avoid like the plague (to use the obvious line!). But the real point is more to the idea of owning our own 'ills' and dealing from that point. Through Chirotic situations we are asked to recognize our own failings and vulnerabilities - and to perhaps even grow through recognition of them. At the same time we are being asked to act for the best - generally in an area of life which seems very "foreign" to us (as Apollo's godly life and ability was foreign to Chiron, a very earthy and earthly being).

Combined with Neptune, this brings us think about the possible versus the trepidation. Can we? Should we? Do we really have to? Oh, don't we wish...! If only....! Why can't life....

The third image on this trining Aquarian side of the equation is Athena, goddess of wisdom. Not knowing...that's Jupiter....wisdom - the quality of knowing how to apply knowledge, when to apply it, and as happens many times, when not to apply it.

  Detail of a statue of Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom

Sprung from the brow of 'father' Jupiter, Athena is pure concept and conceptualization. She is idea-as-resource; understanding as decision-maker. So metaphysically, Athena is a point which is incredibly fair, but non- emotional. She's a lesson in how what is 'just' doesn't always feel good, and how that's a function of facts untainted by emotional bias.

So we add Athena to Chiron and Neptune and arrive at....at what? Well, no matter where we go on this 26 Aquarian Neptune-Athena-Chiron side of the trine, there's a duality. 'Is it true, or is it not true?'. And there is always to consider (speaking of Athena and Mercury!) that any time we see Neptune connected to Mercury there is the possibility of 'the lie.' It may be a simple misunderstanding. It may involve people hearing what they want to hear (denial). Or just some unrealistic (entertaining or romantic or carefree) moment.

Then again, it may involve someone's out-and-out effort to deceive or lead someone else astray. And with Neptune and Chiron in retrograde, the effect is not on them, but on us. Athena in direct motion is the input from outside. Mercury in direct motion is our part in a process or situation. But the two retrograde symbols - Chiron and Neptune - plainly say the realism or lack thereof - that's operating inside us. Each one of us.

Neptune is said to be like a fog. Fog looks real. And it is real. But we cannot catch and hold it in our hand.

So maybe it's not a moment to do anything too serious? 

Maybe.

And yet in this configuration, particularly with Athena, Neptune and Chiron sitting at 26 Aquarius (a degree about either insight into unsteadiness or unsteady insights) ...this may be when we realize what some problem is really about. What comes from that?

That depends. And seeing that this is a transiting moment in time, it should depend on what develops from here. Going into these hours on either side of the moment of transit exactitude, things will be what they will be. It's our job to learn from them without depending on this being the 'last word' on anything in particular.

Some good things will seem ideal. Some bad things will seem dastardly. The issue is not the 'thing' itself; it's our willingness to recognize what it is (Athena + Mercury) and understand whatever our reaction to that is (Neptune + Mercury). But where we go from here? That depends on how well we know ourselves (Athena + Chiron) and others (Libra/Aquarius)...and how well we are able to accept the truth of and manage our more base/basic instincts (Chiron + Neptune).

Whatever this moment is, it's Chirotic and thus educational. It's about learning how to manage our own affairs in a world which contains other people (Mercury in Libra trine Neptune in Aquarius) and how we don't really have any choice in that (Chiron in Aquarius)... the world is what it is.

 Planet Earth as seen by Apollo 17

source: NASA

 So we realize, we recognize, we learn something new (hopefully)...and from there, we move on. Considering the Full Moon (at 29 Aries) doesn't occur until the 23rd, and that Mercury will oppose that impending Full Moon position as it reached 29 Libra on the 19th or 20th (depending on where you are)...

...there is surely more to come on whatever subject(s) is/are now at hand. Now is a moment to be honest - most of all with yourself. Just don't expect everybody to act as well. Or to understand their reasons, needs and rationales even when/if they are on the up-and-up.

Let go while keeping on. Be realistic while allowing for possibility. Don't bet the farm and don't give up the ghost. Laugh, cry, wonder and love as you must, but don't fall over the cliff of your own extremes.

It's a moment....which like all others, shall indeed soon pass.

Sun-Mercury-Spica: A Moment of Fulfilling Brilliance

 Wheat Fields in the US - source: USDA

 

It's just a passing few minutes...a momentary syncing of some of life's wheels. But it's one worth noting, whether you know the moment is coming, or reflect on it at your leisure.

As a matter of fact, sometimes reflection is the best way to learn with astrology. In a situation where you can look back a couple of hours and remember what went on, it clicks. Then when you see those planets hitting some mark yet again somewhere down the line, you know (more or less) what to expect.

And since it would be best to learn with something  useful enough to note, but not exactly earth-shattering, thus we come to today's example: a transiting conjunction of Sun, Mercury and fixed star Spica, all at 23 Libra on October 17th at 00:55 UT (adjust to local time).

The Sun is always life, will, intellect and that dynamic quality of being alive. Mercury being thought, daily activities, communication and all those objects (cars, phones, computers, mail systems, pens, shoes, limbs, etc.) which allow us to go about doing and getting things done, this would seem a moment about accomplishing something, deciding to do something, or some 'conjunctive' moment in such a process - one where everything "comes together."

You know, like with a conjunction.

Next we add Spica. Fixed stars tend to be 'qualities or subjects' which are added to any matter. Representing the wheat sheaf in the hands of that very large harvester constellation Virgo, Spica can be about being provided for, or having nothing - the good or bad 'harvest.'

And yes, it IS significant that as a constellation Virgo's sky pattern extends through most of Libra. That symbolizes not only how we depend on our interactions and relationships with others (the I/Thou of Libra) but the well considered (Mercury as ruler of Virgo) effort ...all the learning about/from, the give and take, sow-earn-reap-gain patterns which Libra is so very much all about! 

A statue of Livia Drusilla, third wife of Imperial Rome's Emperor Augustus

and arguably one of the most powerful women of her day. Livia could be

very good and very generous. Then again, she had this nasty habit of

being fickle enough to turn against a person and in doing so, become the

proverbial ill wind which marked the coming of their doom. Either way, in her

hand she holds the sheaf of wheat. Is she providing for some need? 

Or is she taunting the hungry, withholding from them the very stuff of life?

Because Spica tends to be about 'brilliance,' we would suspect this moment to be one when we understand. Or when we finish something or accomplish some aim. Or maybe we just get the point of a conversation - or the point of why something has happened.

Insight...accomplishment...comprehensive focus...contemplation...for good or challenge, these all would be apt interpretations of our symbolic trio.

But then we come to a couple of other factors.

One is that this conjunction is happening in (a not quite perfect) opposition to Eris at 21 Aries. Eris being 'discord', this adds a note of disruption - but to what end is not exactly defined. With Eris in the 'I Am' sign of Aries, it's probably about us - and therefore either what we do, how we feel, or about something we've already done. And with Eris in retrograde while Sun and Mercury are in direct moment, there is a sense of 'moving away' or 'parting from' some sort of rather more seriously disruptive moment which occurred on October 14 and 15, that being when the Sun and Mercury were actually in direct opposition to Eris.

(So why am I posting this now? Simple: because even astrologers have lives. While yours was being disrupted, so was mine! Sometimes we just do what we can do when we can get to it, y'know?)

And let's remember: Eris doesn't HAVE to be anything negative. Every heard of 'social discord'? Sometimes it is through social discord that great and positive changes occur. And maybe through what happened in your life you felt 'discord-ed' through some social or societal situation to the degree that you want to fix things. Or some 'broken' part of some system.

The opposition lends another note that this can be getting opposed by something...or chosen, willful efforts (Sun/Mercury) to get something done - such as getting 33 miners out of the ground in Chile.

That had a very good harvest, agreed? So Eris doesn't have to be bad. All it signifies is a change to the status quo.

And when the moment passes, then we feel spent, yes. Was it a good use of our efforts, time, attention, and resources? Did we handle ourselves well? Did we present ourselves effectively, whatever that means in any given moment?

This applies when we get to the 23 Libra part, as Libra is - in each and every case - an exchange. It is a 'balancing' of attributes, values, ideas. Libra is where the I meets the Thou and where Thou thus reacts to I, telling us how we're being seen...which may or may not match up with how we want to be seen. In fact, the gap between these two concepts...? That's the gap of pleasant surprise or disappointing failure. And though we so like to think it's always about 'them,' the fact is that when we don't get the response we want, it's either because we haven't presented ourselves in a manner suitable to the need or occasion...OR because we chose the wrong audience. Or maybe we refused/failed to take into account who our audience is/was.

And yes - sometimes things turn out a whole lot better than we expect they will. What is that about? Without dragging us all into a big philosophical discussion, that's pretty much about our own ability to forget the 'what I want' and the 'what they think of me/what I think of them' in favor of merely doing the job at hand correctly. Or at least with as much honesty and integrity as you can bring to bear.

In other words, Libra asks us to face others and leave our ego at home. Easy to say, hard to do.

As any planet (in this case, Sun and Mercury) move(s) through Libra's last ten degrees (Libra's 3rd decanate) things are not entirely in our control. And it's worth remembering here that they're not in anyone else's control, either!

In any 3rd decan (or decanate) of any sign, the idea is that we now receive input on something we aren't precisely in control of. And how do we react to that? We react to it in terms of the planets involved and how they focus in our personal charts.

Granting that we can't do the 'personal chart' part here on the internet, what we can say is that 23 Libra as a specific degree adds a note of restlessness...and at the same time, success through proper application of knowledge. There's also a note about kidneys and urinary tracts associated with this degree, which obviously won't apply to everyone, but IF you're having a problem with same (or are perhaps prone to such things or even in some sort of connected field as a professional), this could well mark a moment when things in that area begin to evolve.

No matter what, we would assume this moment has a quality of its own and that lingering 'left over, but moving away from' the events of the 14th and 15th.

Those who use this as a moment of learning - even just learning about this zodiac degree or some portion of Spica's lore or whatever...that's a good enough use too. Considering life offers us tools which often become of use later, those who learn now are likely to be grateful down the line that they are better 'armed' (Mercury) to deal with some intellectual (Sun, Libra) situation.

A Hawaiian sunset. Why? Because we all hope for happy endings!

.

Transiting Times: Sun/Saturn in Libra

 Saturn casting - and living in - its own shadow

(source: NASA)

Anywhere the transiting Sun would meet up with Saturn would astrologically be taken to be a 'moment to consider.' How you react to that...? That may be with hilarity. Or with inspiration. Or with anger, sorrow, even retribution.

Saturn's symbolism is all about the structure and shape of our world. It's thus the boundaries within which we work and our working to provide ourselves with a structure to hang our hat on. Saturn represents all the rules we have to live by - from stopping at red lights to 'thou shall not commit murder' to doing your homework lest you earn a week of detention.

That last bit - the earning part - that's also very Saturn. Associated with career and social standing, Saturn very much represents the 'what you earn in life, you get from life' (and the world around you) sort of idea.

In Libra, Saturn emphasizes this cause/effect 'what you put out there comes back to you' sort of idea - and in that, reminds us that Saturn under any conditions is a symbol of discipline (of self and/or others) and thus, responsibility.

To this we bring the Sun - the 'light of all lights,' the 'focal image' of life itself. Whether you think of it as 'will' or 'whether you will,' the unceasing existence of the Sun represents life as an ongoing process as well as the inexorable inevitability that there will be those days when we have things we need to do.

This would seem to be one of those days. Sometimes what we need to do is not do - but that's still doing, since the issue is not our want but the greater concern which is life itself.

Given this, perspective would seem to be something to keep in mind today, no matter what goes on.

As for the 'them' of the moment, that is probably all about 7 Libra, a degree which proposes to teach us the difference between what is comfortable and what is true...otherwise put as the difference between being inside and outside our comfort zone.

The facts may be at issue here - what you have to deal with, the choices which need making and so on. But why you make one choice over another, why one thing is comfortable for you and another isn't - that's the real question. 

So today's lesson is probably all about maintaining a perspective not just on daily happenings, but on ourselves. From this, in understanding this, given Sun conjunct Saturn we may well be able to let go of old fears, old limitations and limitations as we realize we have more to give, that there's more to see and do and that when we are more and more comfortable with ourselves, so others are naturally drawn to us.

NASA News: Close Encounters of the Jupiter Kind

  

Jupiter's aurora's in UV light - source: NASA

Seeing a second blog post on Jupiter in as many days, you might be thinking we're in a very Jupiterian moment. 

And if you were so thinking...you'd be right! It is indeed a very Jupiterian moment.

This part of the Jupiter News comes courtesy of NASA, which has sent out an email. In this email, NASA is letting us all know that as September 20th turns into September 21st, Jupiter will be making its 'closest encounter' with Earth until 2022 - a timing which makes perfect sense seeing as one orbit of Jupiter around the Sun takes 11.86 years.

Now, before you run out and start shouting 'Jupiter's coming, Jupiter's coming!' let's be real. 'Close' in this scenario means 4.9 astronomical units (au) - which isn't all that close as we humans think of it.

One 'AU' (astronomical unit) is defined as the 'mean' (standardized) distance from Earth to the Sun. So almost five times that distance between Earth and Jupiter means we aren't going to feel any Jovian wind rushing by in the next few days or so. Which is probably good, seeing as Jupiter is a truly windy place.

Does that connect with why (considering we think of the metaphysical Jupiter as symbolic 'knowledge,') we might think of 'know-it-all's as 'wind bags'? Maybe so!

And that's not as far fetched as you might think - metaphysics is full of this kind of linguistic/mental association. Which makes sense, if you get what metaphysics is. Metaphysics is a study of all Existence. If life has purpose, if the universe manifests according to some order or aim - even if that is 'chaos' or 'quantum' in nature, then everything answers to the same set of facts.

That would be you, me, the doorknob, economics, childbirth, love, spiritualism, the Big Bang and - yes - Jupiter.

It's why we understand that the archetype of myth describes humans which think as a matter of being incarnated as humans in a world in a universe which is so very cohesive.

And to be saying this as Jupiter comes close, closer, closest ...? Maybe that's me bringing an idea 'closer' to you. Maybe this is your coming to have an even better understanding (Jupiter) of why knowing (Jupiter) about science and astrology as metaphysical mirror images is so useful to your everyday life.

With Jupiter coming "so close" to Earth, we would expect a plenitude of matters to be afoot, in mind and still in the air. We would think of this as a time to be expanding our minds - and our experiences (Jupiter as ruler of Sagittarius).

We would expect this to be a time when we emotions would run high, wide and wild, and when many of us will have to confront our feelings....even our lack of feelings (both Jupiter as ruler of Pisces).

Sense and sensibility, one might call this. But it's not just the 'thing' it's the experiencing of it.

There's much good going on. And much difficult to bear, face or cope with going on. Everyone is overloaded and underwhelmed, maybe stressed, confused or just plain boggled.

In yesterday's post on transiting Jupiter conjunct Uranus, we talked about a particular dynamic of innovation, revelation, sudden shifts and changes. Yet it's in this chart, the chart of Earth's 'close encounter' with red giant Jupiter that we see the actual solar opposition: Sun opposite Jupiter.

Jupiter's Closest Approach to Earth

September 20/21, 2010

Astrologically, this is colloquially known as a 'trigger transit,' meaning you have a 'major transit' (Jupiter conjunct Uranus) going on and a personal planet 'sets' the transit off.

So you may have felt something arise on Saturday as Jupiter/Uranus came into focus. Remembering that both planets are in retrograde, this 'realization' or feeling of suddenly getting to where you understand (or know you need to make a change, or recognize that you have been laboring under some false pretense) ...all that would have been internal. Retrogrades are things which happen 'inside,' not through action. Events or situations may stimulate your responses, but it's your response, your thinking, your feelings which are symbolized by retrograde symbols.

But with the Sun now coming to oppose Jupiter and Uranus (both still at 28 Pisces) with Sun in late Virgo, this is a plain sort of 'workability' or 'functionality' cue. And given that it's coming from so late in Virgo, it follows the rules for all 3rd decan (last ten degrees) of any sign 'rules': the stimulation, the judgment, the feedback, the input comes from outside of us. 

A couple of other dates which may feed into what is something of an astrological process:

1. July 28 (Mars at 28 Virgo)

2. August 5 (Venus at 28 Virgo)

Mars is always about initiation and conviction. In Virgo it is often about making plans, undertaking efforts or 'job's and making commitments. 

Far less gracious in Virgo, Venus would tend to be social disruptions, failure to get your 'way' or be pleased, having something fall through, not work, fail to 'come to be' or undertaking to correct or assist in situations which have become disabled or otherwise 'broken down' or 'gotten off track.'

Chances are, if these were "big" dates in your life, you not only know it - you have something in your chart at 26, 27, 28, 29 or 0 of some sign. For you, this weekend and the early part of this coming week are going to be vital. We aren't talking necessarily catastrophic, but this is recognition of realities in the not necessarily jovial Jovian wind.

And what else? Is there anything yet to come in short order you should know...?

Well, the Moon passes through 28 Pisces (the conjunction to this point) on late September 22nd or the 23rd, depending on where you are. Given that the Moon manifests in areas of feelings, finance and all things we interpret as 'part of my security,' things may get unsettled here. But remember - while the Moon can indicate a timing mechanism, it is also notoriously just a mood. So expect instability. But panicking won't help.

After that, October 2nd has Mercury at 28 Virgo, bringing 'informational' and decision making operands into play. Considering Venus is about to go retrograde in that moment, it's likely we will all feel a bit pressured. Things may well be emotionally sticky. Dealing with issues logically is the strong suit here, though you may feel like your heartstrings have been painfully tied behind your back.

Remember - the strongest of these effects are going to be encountered by those with planets, axis points, nodes and such at high numbers of any sign or the first few (zero or one) as indicated above.

Unlike to be the end of your world, this is the quintessential moment to learn from. It's more like that old saying...what we learn from, we profit by...which is not only a rather inspirational thought, but one which is very Jupiter!

To read the NASA article behind their release, click here