Psyche in Cancer: Being Mindful of the Bottom Line

 Psyche Opening the Door into Cupid's Garden

by John William Waterhouse (1904)

Psyche is a very large asteroid. As such, metaphysically it represents something which ‘looms large’ in our life.

And what would that be? Our mind. Knowing our mind, being mindful of the fact we have a mind (and therefore should use it!)…from minding our mind (physiologically) to being aware of our level of mindfulness of not just our concerns but those of others (and/or how what we do affects others), even realizing that whether we mind or not others might and that what we have in mind may not be what others have in mind and that’s okay so long as they deal with us with respect and we reciprocate in kind… 

These are all Psyche issues. Every once in a while the Psyche in all our lives jumps up to confront us. Did you think before you opened your mouth? Did you know what you were getting involved in before you did the deed or signed on some bottom line, real or emotionally implied?

The concept that we can think and therefore we should think, that we can become informed and therefore we should be well informed…knowing the difference between how our mind handles facts and handles emotions – that’s all Psyche stuff.

And this last – the difference between facts and feelings – that’s is particularly important now…why? Because as of 6:43 in the morning (UT/+0) on April 25th, Psyche enters Cancer. And it will be in Cancer until July 15th…which is after both of 2011’s mid-year solar eclipses, one of which is in Cancer.

In the weeks ahead you’re going to start hearing of a lot of celestial objects – popular asteroids and such – moving into Gemini and Cancer. This is important as the summer solar eclipses are going to be in Gemini and Cancer. Now optimally, eclipses ‘open the way’ to great and purposeful achievement. But along the way there has to be a lot of tearing down and clearing out – witness what happened in the weeks (and now months) since January’s Capricorn Solar Eclipse (conjunct fixed star Vega) set off so much strife, struggle and violence, all of which has challenged and ‘exploded’ through what we might call ‘Capricorn portals.’

Considering June and July’s solar eclipses will be atop other fixed stars (with July’s also opposing a fixed star – not to mention Pluto!) we probably should be keeping track of asteroids and such moving into these signs. Like Psyche.

Psyche in Cancer is a metaphysical picture of our mind turning to or being confronted by all things Cancer. So family may loom large now – your family of today, or your family (or lack of same) as a child. Home, home life, real estate and homeland are other more or less ‘blantant’ Cancer ‘portals’ – as are subjects like homeland, national populations, culture, traditions and by implication, cultural or political movements.

This last would seem particularly apt now as Psyche is hitting 0 Cancer with Neptune at 0 Pisces. The niggle in the equation comes from Neptune being conjunct three other figures.

The first is Chiron, the symbol of that we need to do which we claim we don’t know how to do which in the end we can only actually learn by tackling the problem and learning as we go. Chiron also has one other little annoying quality in that generally what we need to do ourselves we’re not so good at getting to but really excellent at pointing out the lack of in others.

If there’s some area of your life that you tend to walk around in circles whining ‘but I don’t know HOW to!!’ that’s probably a Chirotic issue. Why you have it we’d read through the chart and there is one good piece of news here in that conquering your Chiron reluctance (fear? avoidance? projection?) doesn’t need to be necessarily done all by your lonely.

Also hanging around with Neptune: asteroid Hel.

Need I say more?

Actually, I’ve decided it’s good this asteroid has only one ‘l’ and not two as it’s not the classical ‘place’ (hell) but the flustered angst, the struggle we go through inside ourselves when we have to deal with something which is Hel’ish. (Not Hellish, Hel’ish.)

So what’s the difference? One is theoretically eternal – the other, situational. And that, at least in my opinion, is a substantial difference!

Chiron and Hel actually go pretty well together – if you like your scotch bonnet peppers mixed with a little freshly ground horseradish, that is. And we’d say this was just a good old fashioned bad time except for two things – the Neptune part (which we’ll get to in a moment) and Fomalhaut which at 4 Pisces is the Grand Affecter of everything between 29 Aquarius and 9 Pisces.

And if you remember how much destruction broke lose when Neptune was at 29 Aquarius… (just sayin’…!)

The standard recitation of the Fomalhaut ‘rule’ is that this is a fixed star which promises success where our dreams aren’t tainted by corruption.

 Neptune

photo credit: Manfred Bruckels (2005)

This being Pisces, that corruption is emotional. So it’s about the lengths or the heights or the level of fantasy at which we dream. This gets back to Neptune, the great symbol of fantasy and despair, charity and isolation, imagination and inspiration against abject abandonment, faithlessness and addictions. Neptune symbolizes the addict, the martyr, the guru, the savior.

And as Psyche enters Cancer, we should suspect that we could start ‘imagining the worst’…or at least that it’s likely there’s going to be a rash of blowing things out of proportion going around.

Indeed, with Medea already positioned at 0 Cancer as Psyche moseys on in, it is going to be very easy – in some cases even ‘popular’ (i.e. “the popular thing to do”) to be protective of our own.

And yet, considering this is Medea, and how the story of Medea has love being the very force which undermines everything….considering that the real lesson of Neptune in Pisces is not feeling the feelings but being rational in spite of emotionalism and knowing the difference between fact and fiction…

….well, this could be a trying time. Medea’s tragic (and yes, frightening) story of what we are each and all of us capable – at some level – of doing because we are so devoted to something we think so good or necessary…it’s to think about, especially now with Neptune in Pisces.

One more idea for the mental hopper here…beyond reminding you to watch for other celestial objects moving into Gemini and Cancer in the weeks ahead, as all those attributes will be ‘eclipsed’ come June and July…

This idea is about where Psyche the asteroid roams. I put together a little ‘visual aid’ (as they say in school) which I want to say going in is NOT drawn to scale! 

(I may be many things…a rendering agent of all things solar systemic is not among them!)

So here’s the diagram…

The lines represent asteroids going about their asteroid business in the big giant main belt of same which orbits between Jupiter (top) and Mars (fifth from the bottom).

If you will notice, Psyche’s aphelion (its farthest point from the Sun) is at 3.328 AU (astronomical units) from the Sun, just beyond the aphelion of Eos, the symbolic ‘dawning of instinct’ (LINK to BLOG on Eos).

On its way around the Sun, Psyche – our mind – crosses over, coming closer to us than instinct (Eos), representing our ability and (most likely) how necessary it is for us to be realistic, and to not simply be driven by instinct. In fact, since at it’s perihelion (closest point to the Sun), Psyche comes to 2.5 AU – which is actually inside Eos’ perihelion point (2.7 AU), that pretty much tells us that our mind fully encompasses and therefore is fully able to experience and move beyond instinct in searching for knowledge and understanding (Jupiter).

Orbiting ‘inside’ this realm we have Lilith – asteroid Lilith: those things we would like to deny about ourselves or in our lives…which probably create a huge proportion of our everyday problems. Very annoying, yes? But unfortunately, still very true. By sign, house and aspect, you should be able to theoretically understand where your asteroid Lilith problems lie….though let’s face it, really dealing with these issues is a whole lot harder, considering this is a celestial image all about that thing we really don’t want to have to admit, deal with, own, be responsible for (etc. etc. etc.).

But because it’s an asteroid and therefore has mass? Dealing with it IS possible. Because asteroid Lilith orbits between Mars and Jupiter? It IS something we will meet up with on a cyclic basis.

In other words, continue to deny at your own risk.

The point here is that Psyche’s near point (2.5 AU) lies within Lilith’s 2.14-to-3.18 AU orbital realm. That means that denial is in some senses even more native to us than our mentality. (Ouch! That hurts!) But it also says that as denial starts to ‘act out’ or ‘become functional’ in our lives, it enters a realm where we have the ability (i.e., choice) to deal with it.

So there you go...It seems we’re all moving into a period where our choices mean more and where what we may feel we need to do first may not be what we need to do most.

One suspects it’s not what you know…it’s what you’re willing to know or learn which will make a deal of difference now – and going forward.

So here’s to personal courage and determination! Here’s to the willingness to be and do not just what comes easily, but what will accomplish that which is actually necessary so that we all can have dignified and productive lives.

Looking forward, this would seem to mean a lot of changes. A lot of giving up living in dreamland and on some hope that ‘someone else’ will see the light. Much as we like to decry it, human beings are famous for liking to live in ignorance….it’s ‘bliss’ says the saying.

Except it’s not. It may be popular, but in the end, ignorance is the very compromise of existence.

And who wants that?

Sappho in Aries: Poetic Mental Motion

 Sappho - by Orlai Petrics Soma (1860)

Differing quite distinctly from many other celestial objects, Sappho is named not for a character in a myth or Greek(/Roman) god/dess but for a real live person. Born on the island of Mytilene in around the year 600 BCE, Sappho was such a great poet that no less than Plato nominated her as the ‘tenth muse.’

Of course, there is some suggestion that Plato thought there should be more muses in general, but what the hey. He’s still one of those authorities we consider pretty discerning on such subjects, so we go with this ‘Sappho as muse’ thing as a rightly  elevated concept.

Because Sappho was born on the island of Lesbos there seems to be some temptation to label Sappho the astrological point as lesbian (or ‘same sex’ whether in a sexual context or not) though that’s one idea I don’t quite agree with. First of all, if Sappho was born…that Sappho was born suggests there is one male and one female involved in the process. I mean, we are talking a whole big long way before modern fertility wonders, right?

Besides, it’s rumored (by Herodotus) that Sappho pined uber-poetically for, and (gossip, gossip) may have killed herself for the love of a man – some guy named Phaon.

This last seems to be – as implied – ancient gossip. Which yes, proves that mankind was no better back then than we are in this day and age, all buzz-buzz, whisper-whisper. But in this case, Herodotus doesn’t seem to have had Plato’s gravitas…when you look Sappho up you find such stories but they’re generally labeled as such – which is to say, likely enough ‘mythic.’

And so, back to myths!

(And yes, the spirit of Herodotus is no doubt grumbling over inequities, et al...)

Anyway, there’s no question but that Sappho is a poetic point, Sappho the woman having been quite the poetic female poetess.

So if Sappho is entering Aries, that tells us that we are likely to be of poetic opinion right now – particularly about ourselves. This can be a negative, prompting some to aggrandize or be in an ‘unrealistic’ mood. On the other hand, this can signal a moment which is simply lovely and motivational. For those who are incredibly self-critical, this ingress – and Sappho’s subsequent month-and-a-half transit of Aries – may be a time in which appreciation for one’s self as still beautiful and acceptable though flawed is the a growing and useful awareness.

So saying, the particulars: Sappho will enter Aries on 21:03 (UT/+0) on April 24th and remain in Aries until June 14th. This passage seems to gain in importance of emphasis by its happening a day after Mercury goes direct; certainly those who have made crucial efforts or received news during Mercury’s station (which will run yet another day – to April 25th) are likely to be mentally all a-whirl.

If you’re someone whose life or efforts are starting to ‘flower,’ then this will be a time of enjoyment. If you are someone who is feeling particularly disappointed, you are likely to particularly appreciate the company of others and the ‘little things’ today. And this may be – in itself – a valid and valuable lesson; life is actually made of far more ‘little things’ than the grand and glorious, even ceremonial moments.

Asteroid Psyche is also about to change signs, giving us an additional indicator (as if we needed one?) that this a moment of the mind or in the mind, depending on what you’re up to. One would have to think this is a good time to do some writing, or to enjoy a good book, a museum or stimulating company. The ‘poetic’ mood extends from activities to food to moods and visuals – so plan accordingly. Romance? That fits. A quiet day with loved ones? That fits. Communing with nature or just spending a little time without the hustle-bustle of necessity clocking you in, out and here or there? Quite apt! Even if you’re someone who ordinarily is into the edgy or goth or even markedly grotesque, don’t be surprised if people shy away from rough edges today.

Heck, you may even shy away from those rough edges yourself!

Is it a trend? Is this something you should think of as a life change? If Mercury going direct has/is marking a greater moment, maybe. If not, probably not.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay attention. With Mercury having gone direct as it has (look at yesterday’s blog if you want more information on that!) there are many emotional considerations in the mix. With Venus in Aries and influences like Sabine in Gemini (April 13th’s blog), Hybris in Aquarius (April 10th’s blog) and Hera in Taurus (the April 6th blog) there’s a huge amount of concern focused on what I/me want(s)…as opposed to what might be best for the great and giant ‘everybody’ signified by Neptune having entered Pisces.

Does this sound counterproductive?

Au contraire, my petite pumpkin! It’s not.

Imagine you’re Mother Nature (yes her – the one who thinks it’s not nice for you to fool her!). If you want to get a headstrong species like mankind to learn something and learn it well, would you make the point in subtle terms, or would you make it SO blatant that even the most stick-in-the-mud (or other locale) types would get the message?

Maybe subtlety worked during the Piscean Age. A little nudge, a little discomfort…maybe people got the hint. But we can pretty much count on the fact that the Aquarian Age is not going to be subtle. This does not mean it will wreak more damage – merely that it’s notices and means are going to be less subtle. Particularly during the next few years (say, until 2016 or so) while Neptune is moving through Pisces’ first decanate, we can expect all sorts of poetic positions…people espousing what amounts to their theoretical or philosophical ‘wish list,’ trying to make that come alive and exist in reality.

In time people will learn to express the idea or their desires with the poetic beauty which actually inspires.

But for a few years yet, we can expect a lot of adaptations on a famous slogan from that wonderful show Mythbusters …namely the exuberant, headstrong cry: I reject your reality and substitute my own! ….which may work in a TV show (though often enough not even there) but which surely isn’t going to work in real life.

But that won't stop people from trying.

Yet.

Alas, poor mortality!

I perceived your vulnerability

and called it out…

but like a shadow, such

strong shrivelings shrank back,

hiding

from full enlightenment

of clarified day...

Mercury Direct: In the Thrall of our Thoughts

 Mercury's 2011 Aries retrograde pattern...plus a few items

(and indications of blogs) yet to come!

Telling people that Mercury is going direct always gets a big ‘whoo-hoo!’ Especially for those born with Mercury direct in their chart, it feels like getting out of school early with no homework on a warm early summer day with money in your pocket and nobody telling you what to do.

Whoo-hoo! Mercury’s going direct! And since it’s going direct at 10:05am (UT/+0) its even April 23rd pretty much everywhere. We all go direct together!

Whoo-hoo times two!

EXCEPT….

(Oh, don’t tell me you didn’t know this was coming! Is there ever NOTHING we need to deal with? Cammon! This is Earth! This is reality! Wake up and smell the responsibility!)

Look…this really isn’t SO hard. It’s easy to make it hard, but it’s really not so difficult to make this station/direct period really positive and productive.

And just so we have the disclaimers out of the way, here they are:

 /

Any planetary station is a ‘turning point.’ I won’t go into all the science here, but there is science behind this fact (discovered some 5,000 years after astrologers figured it out but what the hey…) and events which occur during the couple of days just before AND just after any station should be taken seriously.

 /

Events prior to the station have yet to play out…events after the actual station are the playing out of something which has already happened.

If you are waiting for information our some decision, it generally will happen on or a couple of days after Mercury’s station…as soon as the planet picks up ‘relative’ speed again. (In actuality, no planet ever slows down – retrogrades are about relative solar system positions of other planets vis-à-vis Earth.)

 /

As for where exactly Mercury is going direct, that would be at 12 Aries, a degree known for an egocentric sort of energy which cares a lot about ‘me and mine’ with some difficulty when it comes to balancing out ‘my aims’ with those of others. The confusion which results here can incite rebellion or attitudes which sound a whole heck of a lot like a kid having a tantrum.

 /

For many, this energy is SO strong they end up  drive themselves right over a cliff trying to prove they’re right, they’re right, it’s so all about that idea in their head!

And with Saturn in opposition here…can we say PUT THAT IN BIG AND BOLD? 

(By Jove, I think I just did!)

Mercury is going direct at 12 Aries. As it does that, Saturn is at 12 Libra, a degree known very much for trumpeting the good in the idea but not having the conviction to follow through on anything.

In abstract, Mercury in Aries opposition Saturn in Libra should be about a moment of considering how well what we choose (or have chosen) to do is working out. Are we getting the reception we had hoped for? The Saturn side of this is sort of the ‘applause meter’ – our gauging how well the actuality of reality is against what we had hoped life would be at this point.

And given that this is Saturn we are talking about, there’s always room for improvement (oh please – really? Do we HAVE to?) …AND this is also a good time to make those course corrections. Or when you can have that profitable ‘aha moment’ and set to work improving on whatever needs improving on so that by the time Mercury exits the shadow of its retrograde come May 10/11, you’re in much better shape – at least mentally.

Why not entirely? Well, some things take time. If you’re rebuilding a car or editing the Great American Novel, that may take longer than a few weeks, right? For you, by that May date you’ll be ‘in your groove’ and have an idea of how long things will take and what you need to do first, next and finally.

For others, you will – providing you put in the (Saturn) effort – be at least in the process and on your way to getting where you want or need to go. Results (as they say) are individual of course – those we would see in individual charts and most any astrologer will tell you that one of dangers of prophesizing any date based on effort is that there are WAY too many clients in this world who will figure out how to drop the ball.

Funny, isn’t it…? It’s far easier to predict release dates for hit movies or who’s going to win an election than it is to tell someone when they’re going to get a job because that sort of comment implies they’re going to make the effort where the others are based on efforts obviously already being made.

Anyway…this Mercury/Saturn opposition is a typical sort of ‘decision point.’ But because Saturn is in a public/worldly sign (not to mention because Saturn is Saturn) this can be a really motivational time. Like as not you’ll hear all sorts of decisions getting made – you may even make one yourself! It’s also a likely moment for exhortations – people trying to get you to go along with what they believe right.

And therein lies the decision and the seeds of possible confrontation…even rebellion.

In other words, it’s all the same “I/me + you” energy equation, but there are several general ‘formats’ in which this energy can play out. You can reflect on where you’re going and change that…or refuse to change that. You can do so as a matter of personal drive or you could do so in response to positives or negatives being dealt, handed (suggested, sold, etc.) to you by others. Or by life!

There’s one more symbol on the day here…Medea entering Cancer at 1:49am (UT/+0). And what’s that rule…? Things which happen prior to the actual station have yet to play out. So here we have Medea going into Cancer, sign of homeland, family, house (construction, real estate, etc.), tradition, culture, ingrained habits, childhood…

…all in advance of Mercury actually going direct.

 /

 Medea by Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919)

For one, this sounds like news soon to come. And considering this is Medea, it might be news which is problematic (such as the abuse of children) or news which prompts that over-focus we just talked about with Mercury’s degree of station…or something which halts plans we had been formulating in its proverbial tracks.

Why? Call this reason 'the Medea Factor.' Medea’s is a story of a sorceress and madness and self-defeating, self-undermining love – a love which will drive one to doing the unthinkable.

Focused on Cancer, Medea spells a passionate devotion to all things emotionally defined as “mine”…and maybe to the point of self-destruction.

Okay, not maybe…rather assuredly!

And combined with Mercury’s degree of station and it’s tendency to focus on ‘my idea of right’ and Saturn’s “relatively” weak placement at 12 Libra?

Can you say ‘uh-oh’?

Und yet, yet, yet, yet….there is that eventuality of life. When we look at the relative size, placement and importance of the three players in this drama, though we tend to think of Mercury as the star here (both because Mercury is symbolic of thinking and because it’s the one going direct!) …the end-of-the-line truth here is Saturn.

So let’s review: this year’s Saturn cycle started with its station/retrograde at 17 Libra, a degree which is both theoretical, logical, gentle (at times) and quarrelsome. There is a quality of the ridiculous here (which we sure have seen a lot of!) and an implied necessity to work on our emotional position with an eye to reconciling what we may think so brilliant with a world which may or may not be so accepting of our sense of ‘rightness.’

Saturn’s station/retrograde of January 26 was the beginning of all the turmoil and violent events currently going on in our world. From economic and political uproars in the United States to uprisings and a demand for greater freedom in the Middle East and across North Africa to Japan’s nuclear problems, everything falls under Saturn – mostly in its role as ruler of Capricorn (commerce/commerical structures, governance/national structures, rulers, functional/responsible limits)….but also in the sense that with Saturn transiting Libra, now the good and bad of all such things are going to be brought to us to deal with. 

Saturn goes direct in June, another time we can count on as being full of upheaval as the June/July period includes two solar eclipses and one lunar eclipse – amidst which Saturn goes direct.

Can you say ‘handwriting on the wall’? That’s part of what this Mercury direct is about. But don’t think of it as just global or ‘big picture’ ….it’s also about the details and the nuances of life. Mercury always is!

The bottom line here is to be aware. The urge to be self-protective and maybe ‘think the worst’ or simply want what you want so, so much is obvious.

The better part of valor – and your future – is, however, wrapped up in your ability to take the bigger picture into account. Saturn is a ‘cold’ symbol (and a pretty cold place to be – brrrr!) …the point with Saturn is that in the end, facts and reality rules. You can’t escape that reality, no matter how much you want to. In fact the more that you do escape (or try to escape), the worse of a mess you will get into.

And yet, here we are faced with the problem that we can’t just ‘throw out the baby with the bath water.’ There will be wholesale calls for sweeping change – Uranus is here running with Amphitrite, Venus and Black Moon Lilith telling us that those who have the least to lose are urging that the masses just ‘get used to it.’

Mars at 16 Aries forming a bridge between Mercury at 12 Aries and Jupiter/Eris at 20/21 Eris tells us there is harshness in the mix now. There will be those who ‘draw the line in the sand’ and they’re likely to be highly emphatic about it. If they take a truly universal view, they may prevail. Those who are shortsighted or simply seeing things from their own point of view however, are likely to encounter some serious backlash(ing). Maybe not immediately, but soon enough.

Neptune is in Pisces. And not only is Neptune in Pisces but at this moment, Chiron is conjunct fixed star Fomalhaut, a star which promises success ONLY when one’s dream is not corrupted.

Corrupted by what?

By our own emotional longings.

That means facts and Saturnine realities rules. Neptune is not about my dream, its about our humanness…and how we all dream. The important word here is all…which means we cannot negate others. They are as entitled to be them as we each are entitled to be who we are, different though we may be.

An x-ray photograph of Saturn with a grid overlaid to show where

the planet is. And you thought Saturn was a regular, solid planet?

Think again! As one description put it, by the time you were

standing on Saturn's surface you'd be under it.

photo credit: JPL/NASA 

The challenge is figuring out what will work for all of us…even though that may well mean we each – universally - have to give up a few things.

Or maybe even our dream that we can have life our way, or go on thinking we actually know and/or are entitled to say what’s ‘right.’