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!

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Did Meteors Miss Planet Earth?

A truly great photograph of P1/Comet McNaught

photo credit: Fir002/Flagstaffoto (see link )

  

Most astronomical events happen on a schedule. For example, come every early October, planet Earth passes through two meteor showers. One - the Orionids - we've already discussed. The other, the Draconids usually happens, but hasn't.

So did the meteors miss Earth, or is Earth missing some  meteoric encounter? Either way, to know what might that mean suggests we have to look at the source of the Draconid meteor shower. And that source is a comet - a comet by the name of Giacobini-Zinner (aka 21P), which you may remember from a photo of it posted on this blog a couple of days ago...

 Comet 12P/Giacobini-Zinner

photo source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

So...what are comets? Put in broadest terms, comets are (generally) asteroid-sized objects which because of a collision or getting caught in some planet's magnetic resonance field gets 'thrown' into a highly oblong orbit. That orbit (again, generally) sends it in towards the Sun, in the course of which the comet crosses one (or several) planetary orbital paths. At some point it reaches it's inner orbital apex. And from that 'return point,' it turns around and goes zooming off back towards the icy outer reaches of our solar system.

Metaphysically, we see this as a 'bringing' of some attribute however close(r) to us. A comet is thus a symbolic connector, and the length of it's orbital cycle tells us how often Earth gets treated to new input from whatever the comet's (outer) source point is.

In the case of Giacobini-Zinner, that orbital cycle is 6.621 (Earth) years. And because three cycles of 6.621 years gives us 19.863 (years)...AND the Jupiter/Saturn synodic cycle is 19.86 years, we know these two things are esoterically connected.

Just to review...a synodic cycle concerns how often transiting planets out there in the solar system come to be posed at the same zodiacal degree. Saturn/Jupiter being a pair notorious as signaling a rise or fall of careers, societies, nations, religions, corporations and all other forms of structural expansion/contraction, we know that in missing this meteor shower, this is not the year to expect a lot of change to the ongoing status quo. Things which are changing will, like as not, continue to change. Things which are stuck will probably remain stuck.

The current Saturn in Libra 'attitudes (plus and minus) about how people interact (or need to if they want to succeed) will not change.' Nor will the blockades raised against them. Or the supports supporting them.

The current Jupiter In Pisces (conjunct Uranus) which has manifested throughout 2010 as events and situations which in raising our feelings cause us to actually recognize their power in our own lives and thus their importance in the lives of others will continue. It's been a rocky (and for many upsetting) year and we are being given a signal that those incidents are not likely to abate.

Maybe because we haven't learned enough yet? Maybe so.

So saying, what exactly is the path of Giacobini-Zinner? Answer: it's outermost point is just beyond Jupiter. It's innermost orbital point is pretty much in our Earthly neighborhood...

 An orbital diagram of Giacobini-Zinner 

(spatial relationships not to scientific scale)

This orbit is interesting because its outermost point is beyond Jupiter, but inside of Saturn. That defines it astrologically as something beyond that which we can know but not beyond our ability to do.

The inner point plainly being in the Earthly plane, we are thus told that Giacobini-Zinner is about that we don't know yet or can't be sure of which we still need to learn how to do. It would also tend to say that what we natively are, or what our reality of today is (Earth) needs to be taken beyond what we now know possible.

That would be what we might focus on or be inspired by if the meteor shower which Giacobini-Zinner brings us graced our night skies.

That it isn't a feature of our Earthly experience this year means we aren't going to get inspired. We are also going to struggle with seeing those little 'lights' which referencing the old 'light at the end of the tunnel' sort of thing tends to tell us end of some process is not all that far away.

When discovered back on December 12, 1900, the comet was between the constellations Aquarius and Pisces, emphasizing the 'big picture' and 'realistic results' best aimed at in connection with this object. Though Aquarius can idealize and Pisces is all about yearnings and hope, the core of these signs is all about those things which in being functional, universal and participated in by all are also moral, compassionate and non judgmental. So that our world (and our lives) are filled with examples of life being exactly not that shouldn't surprise us.

On the other hand, it also tells us what we have yet to do in this world. You know...the Saturn/Jupiter command. It is up to decide whether we grow or contract. And while clearly there's a balance to be struck in all things, were Giacobini-Zinner is concerned, there is also the necessity to go beyond our status quo.

Is life changing for you, or remaining the same? Take your cue from that - and look ahead. That which isn't fun or isn't what we precisely don't personally like isn't always bad. Sometimes it's just about our unwillingness to grow beyond our own egocentric (Pisces) view of this (Aquarian) world.

No meteor shower...no break in an ongoing process. So we keep on keeping on, one and all.