astroPPM

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Venus in Leo

Planet Venus above Boudicca's prancing horse at Westminster

(photo credit: Mattbuck, March 2012)

Once Venus enters Leo, that will bring the number of planets in Leo to four (Venus, Jupiter, Sun and Mercury).

That’s a lot of Leo energy - not to mention that the ruler of Leo (the Sun) is one of those four planets.

Under any (or every) circumstance, Venus in Leo can be creative and fully capable of exuding incredible warmth and charm. This is the kind of influence one might associate with that perfect relaxing day, that effortlessly deft show of skill or that feeling that we’re on top of the world. Venus in Leo can put the spark in sparkle and turn up the light in utterly delightful.

Venus in Leo can also manifest in acts, choices or thrusts which are selfish, unthinking, or downright arrogant.

The difference between these qualities sounds simple: it’s about taking the opinions, preferences and aims of others into account. In other words, should Venus in Leo manifest as some sort of drama with you as the performer, it’s one thing not to care whether you have an audience (that’s performing for the fun of it) another to do your best for a suitable audience and another yet again to have some sort of paying audience whose sensibilities you completely ignore.

It’s not that Venus in Leo necessarily promotes thoughtlessness... although it can. And it’s not as if Venus in Leo is lazy, though there is a tendency to get a bit ‘lost in the moment’ (or in one’s own thoughts) at a moment which doesn’t work for others - and of course since they’re under Venus in Leo as well, the mere idea of being ignored can rub their Leo fur every wrong way in town.

Venus in Leo tends to dramatize things - even in our thoughts. With all the Leo energy going on at the moment everyone has their own (Mercury) idea on and are probably entirely too (Jupiter) willing to explain to you why they’re right... sometimes whether or not what they’re being so ‘right’ about even applies to what’s being discussed. Under Venus in Leo things seem more important than at other times which can be lovely or desperation-inciting, depending on where we stand with ourselves otherwise. Those who are content or in good shape are apt to reap benefits, especially as transiting Venus conjuncts and passes over Jupiter on August 18th (UT/+0) at 7 Leo while those who are having difficulties are likely to react or experience the breaking of dreams that those at the behest of those caught up in the dream of what they consider ‘right.’ This is a ‘transactional’ conjunction which - given that the Moon will be in early Gemini at the time - creates the ability to take a lot on but warns that potential is not reality and that details... particularly those we gloss over... are likely to come back to haunt us in a singularly flat-footed way.

Overstepping limits (‘coloring outside the lines’ or exceeding previously set boundaries) is another thing we’re likely to see and hear about between August 12th and 20th. Such matters will have enormous power of suggestion and should be treated/treated with accordingly, as it will be easy during these days to set forces in motion...and not so easy (and maybe not even possible) to contain or ‘edit’ what others are thinking - which of course means we’re going to hear the good and the bad, the discoveries and fun along with a fresh batch of rumors and trash talk coming at us through various media.

Put simply, it is our allegiance to whatever idea we are currently holding dear which either motivates us to success...or which confuses us and confounds our success for reasons we tend not to understand but which have everything to do with the Leo tendency to be so involved with making something happen that we tend to not see our actions (present or past) with enough perspective to see what part of reality (or realities) we’ve forgotten.

(Or purposefully ignored.)

And for those who do see their errors or miscalculations, then comes the big Leo flinch. Leo, doesn’t like being wrong. Wherever we see Leo (in this case as a signature for Venus) that’s the area of life we’re not going to enjoy anyone even threatening to find flaws with. Under such Leo ‘threats’ (which may not be real threats even though our ego certainly feels threatened) instinct often triggers us to get all defensive-aggressive - which with Venus often manifests as physical criticism, attacks on ‘how something looks’ or responses, retorts and declarations which are basically ‘I’m so fabulous - never mind them.’

And sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Venus enters Leo

August 12, 2014 - 7:25 a.m. UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

This year Venus is arriving at its Leo ingress on August 12th at 7:25 in the morning UT/+0 time, perfecting a square to Ceres, which having moved into Scorpio on August 7th will still be loitering around at 0 Scorpio.

Venus-Ceres is about having a plan and executing a plan which accomplishes things which are (in particular) important to longer-term considerations. Having come into the 5-degree orb-of-square on last Thursday or Friday (August 7th or 8th, depending on where you are), with Venus then still in Cancer most efforts were about things basic, necessary and supportive of anything or everything else we might want to do in this life.

That quality changes once Venus enters Leo, asking how we can achieve those aims creatively. Cancer’s influence being cardinal (action oriented) we ‘did’ then and now we’re pausing to think what still needs doing and how to do... not do... or undo the next item on our list as Cancer’s watery emotionality gives way to curiosity, imagination and inventiveness - all of which are particularly strong for the first few days of this transit. Once Mercury moves into Virgo on August 15th (UT/+0 time) pragmatic and practical parameters start taking hold, becoming ever more evident (and useful) as the Sun joins Mercury in Virgo early on August 23rd (UT/+0), helping us to make headway on whatever tasks may be at hand.

A few more notes here on what is typically a rather pleasant transit (though if things are going wrong you can expect a good deal of grumpiness!). Are you planning on taking a vacation? Venus in Leo works well for vacations of the restful, recuperative and recreational types, though with so much energy in Leo there are bound to be more than a few people who (vacation or not) are too full of themselves for their own good. Why that is may be about pride... or it may be about some deep-seated feeling of vulnerability to embarrassment, which often comes off looking like pride. At the moment such moments (apart from the purely gleeful) are most likely to be set off when people try to do something they just don’t know enough about.

Bluffing sometimes work. Then again, sometimes it just makes things worse. Leo as a sign is the very antithesis of its polarity sign Aquarius in that Aquarius (and Aquarians) have a near-infinite (and to others, sometimes maddening!) ability to shift into impersonal mode where Leo takes all things personally.

That all of this is happening as Jupiter’s inconjuncting of Neptune comes to its focal point on the 15th (the same day that Mercury moves from Leo into Virgo) emphasizes the fact that there are a lot of people who are living in either an ideologically driven emotional space or a period of time which is emotional because our ideals are being contested by realities we (frankly) don’t like. How we deal with our own [Neptunian] fears on various subjects and whether we are willing to feel our fears and do what is morally, ethically and universally humanistic (in real world, real life, real human being terms) now tends to divide and conflict us, even with regards to that which we have believed in now for some length of time.

There are [Mars and Saturn in Scorpio] things which we will need to face now and deal with, like them or not. In dealing with such matters we will ‘steel’ ourselves, with most choosing ‘duty’ over humanity.

Where such choices (and all they lead to) express our personal internal standards with truth and accuracy things will be simple and direct.

Where we are essentially in violation of our own inner core of mortal standards however, we will do what we must do with even greater vehemence, hoping to convince ourselves through the reactions of others.

And as always, we will project. The more married we are to our own ideas and ideals, the more we will come to this time feeling alienated or envious or simply regretful...the more we will tend to look to others without taking stock of - and learning (or relearning) how to utilize our worth.

But then, that’s one thing Venus in Leo is very good at. Venus in Leo can be the heart of showiness or an influence under which we are ‘shown’ what we yet can do and excel at. The native instinct under Venus in Leo is to do what we want while aiming to please our Self (or fulfill our dreams).

And often that works just fine.

Yet as with all things Leo, what we do which contributes to a greater whole (or purpose) is far more lasting and powerful. We are all being faced with a series of situations which seem to be all about the ‘other’ and what they like or even understand, with much in the way of challenges coming from areas of life or concern where people are embedded or ‘conditioned’ by some established position.

But that’s not what Venus in Leo is about. Venus in Leo is about who we want to be (or be seen as). Some such efforts are working, others are not.

And still we’re reluctant to change. Why that is may well become a bit more clear over these next few weeks - at which point we’ll decide what we want to improve upon.

Or not.
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Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Under a Perseid Sky

Star trails, looking like meteors rain down behind Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton

(photo credit: LKluft, June 2005)

Having begun last month, the 2014 Perseid meteor shower will be reaching its peak between August 9th and 13th.

While that is happening, Juno will be entering Cancer (on August 9th at 1:30 a.m. UT/+0 time), a Full Moon will occur at 18 Aquarius (on August 10th at 6:10 in the evening UT/+0 time) and asteroid Pallas enters Libra...all of which will lead to the point when Venus enters Leo on August 12th as Jupiter and Neptune perfect a transiting quincunx.

Venus will be left for a different post, mostly because this approaching New Moon is such a moment of its own. But that Jupiter inconjunct (aka quincunx) Neptune - that deserves a mention, mostly because its miasmic effect is feeling more to a few people like an ill-defined overwhelm in which Jupiter’s too much is being bent back on us in every way we cannot defend against, believing in our right to believe...if nothing else.

Jupiter is Pisces ‘in door’ ruler - and as with all three (Scorpio, Aquarius, Pisces) ‘co-ruled’ signs, the original/ancient ruler is that part of the learning process/lesson in growth which in part determines the outcome of the relationship, situation, effort or whatever else simply because it expresses how well we understand sign basics. In Pisces, Jupiter asks how much we know. But this isn’t intellectual knowing - this is all about our feelings. How well do we know how our feelings work? Are we afraid of our feelings? Are we in denial of our feelings - or even that we have and need feelings and relationships and ways to express our feeling human nature?

To the extent that we truly understand our emotional standing (in particular with our Self), Pisces becomes the road to wisdom, a term astrology defines in Piscean terms as knowledge (Jupiter) tempered by universal human experience along with the experience of being one with our emotions, able to tolerate and understand our emotions... and in short, the universal nature of emotionalism.

To the extent that we meet our Jupiter/Pisces challenges, resistance drops - first within our Self and then (in response) from others. And so long as we are able to keep ego out of things, this opens the way for growth, accomplishment and all sorts of amazingly quasi-magical sorts of moments.

But let us fall back on ego, whether through self-assertion or through failing to accept our own humanity (read: isolating ourselves through criticism and/or the abandoning of human/humane standards), that’s when the Neptune effect becomes one where the veil fades away and we find our Self disappointed - most of all in that Self.

With Neptune currently in Pisces and Jupiter in Leo, the aspect between struck is that of adjustment. From Neptune to Jupiter is six signs, and six signs always indicates requirements, responsibility and the need to deal with all things in factually morality terms. On the other side of this aspect, from Jupiter to Neptune is the famously eight sign harmonic we know as eternally transformative. In this case, the first version speaks to some sort of ‘dissolution’ which unveils some fact. Has this fact simply gone unnoticed - or was it being deliberately hidden? Was it something someone couldn’t deal with for their own emotional reasons, whether we’re aware of that or not? We could say we don’t care, but if we go in that direction that triggers the theorem commonly known in astrology circles as Neptune’s anti-ego requirement.

It’s a mandate, one we violate at our own risk. But given all the energy in Leo at the moment (Sun, Mercury, Jupiter and Black Moon Lilith)... well, those who are risk averse are probably already sitting on their hands. But those who like a little risk... a little gamble...? Those who live (and die) not by ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’ but rather by ‘the best defense is a good offense’ are likely to feel prompted. It may not be obvious...not much about Neptune Manifest is ever obvious.

Until it becomes inescapable, that is. The metaphysical teaching here is that Neptune transits (of which this is one type) often create feelings of helplessness, vulnerability or haplessness merely because that is how those who belong to Club Stubborn (you know who you are!) can only be taught the Neptunian (Piscean) path of salve and salvation so known as humility and acceptance.

Since few astrologers give an inconjunct/quincunx aspect more than a 2-degree orb, with sitting at Neptune at 6 Pisces for the whole of August that means this aspect will have begun taking effect as of August 3rd...and that after coming to fullest strength at 4:15 in the morning of August 15th (UT/+0 time) it will taper off to nothing by August 25th.

The problem (challenge) here would seem to be obvious: Neptune asks that we allow ourselves not to know while Jupiter is all about what’s what, what’s right and what (right or wrong) others will accept as allowable or true.

What to do? Who to be?

Yes, those would be but a few of the questions. Plus there is one other special thing...namely that 6 Pisces is the degree Neptune loitered around in earlier this year, specifically between March 22nd and April 23rd - leading into that 8 Taurus solar eclipse of April 29th I’m sure we all so...enjoyed.

(Not really.)

Normally one would think this sort of transit would manifest as fleeting floating disruptions, household insurrections and personal insecurities. But since Jupiter/Neptune are doing this dance of mutual discomfiture during the Perseids, there would seem to be a ‘peppering’ of voices, ideas, issues and other such phenomena coming more from the ‘don’t you know...’ Jupiter side of the coin than the comforting Neptunian shoulder-cum-slippery-slope.

And why would that be? That would be because Swift-Tuttle, the comet which produces the Perseids, does its orbiting through our solar system in a form of astronomical lockstep with Jupiter known as ‘magnetic resonance,’ this particular magnetic resonance coming to a ratio of 1:11 (one to eleven). That means that for ever one (1) time Swift-Tuttle completes its orbit, Jupiter orbits the Sun eleven (11) times.

Think of it as cosmic gearing - a gearing which at present refers to a rising tide of intermeshing factors which we cannot fully define, but can very definitely feel.

Clockworks on display at the Liverpool World Museum

(photo credit SomeDriftwood, 2011)

As if that wasn’t enough to think about (or cope with), while we’re adjusting to all our ‘longer term’ Jupiter-Neptune situations, along comes a Juno in Cancer dynamic.

Juno represents the idea of management and managing, whether internal (managing our thoughts, feelings, appetite, longings, etc.) or externalized in whatever form. In entering water sign Cancer, Juno summons up matters concerning home, hearth, house, culture, family, land and nation. All those things which are native to us or native to this planet are Cancerian - as is all which affects or supports us, or any other form of earthly life... existence... eventuality...

Juno will be entering Cancer on August 9th at 1:30 in the morning (UT/+0) and remain in Cancer until October 7. And while Juno transits this most basic of water signs we will all be encountering things which prompt us to manage situations and our feelings about things even while stretching our native abilities a bit more.

At least a bit more.

Things won’t be dull, in other words. Transits - even one which sounds as status quo oriented as this one are still energy which somehow becomes manifest. Maybe we will only reflect on or reassert our efforts to maintain current standards, but in some way Juno will always make itself known, even if we manage to make our Juno known only to our Self. (Which yes, is sometimes the whole Juno effort.)

Juno and Jupiter by Gavin Hamilton (1723-1798)

In a more active mode, Juno energies often surface through the determination and effort to protect, guard, maintain or utilize things - and when under stress (look for aspects in your natal chart) Juno is seen as a factor which contributes with great strength and loyalty to the defense of something considered ‘intrinsic’ whether that concerns a position (tangible, verbal, financial or emotional) or some standard which is under threat or challenge.

All of this takes us into Sunday, August 10th - the date of an Aquarian Full Moon which in being positioned at 18 Aquarius recalls the Mercury retrograde of last February (2014) with all its Olympian world participation and the division into increasing world hostility which followed. Such different or diverse thrusts are quite typical of anything (and everything) Aquarius though it doesn’t represent Aquarius success. Taken in isolation the idea of the Olympics is quite Aquarian: the world coming together to enjoy the universality of sport as a way to test our physical human and compete against other humans while enjoying each other’s company without hostility. When Aquarius works well it utilizes energy in a systemically functional cause. And when Aquarius doesn’t work well, anarchy, disruptions, protests and explosive situations (physical, verbal, emotional) often result. Where Pisces is a test of what we can emotionally accept within our Self, Aquarius tests our ability to exist as part of a system we may never know the full extent of, which we may even dislike some of the parts of but which supports our vital functionality, nevertheless.

This one precept is likely to be a problem now and moving forward as the most common reaction to Aquarian differences is rejection and isolation, not provisional acceptance. But that’s part of the Aquarian lesson - a lesson which tests our ability to be tolerant of that we don’t choose to be but which works (in its own right and space) as part of a whole.

Back in February, Mercury went direct at 18 Aquarius...

- link to -

Mercury Direct at 18 Aquarius

...and now that same degree is being ‘highlighted’ by the Moon, ‘shining a light’ on the question of how far we have come since last February.

Among other things, that is.

The Full Moon at 18 Aquarius (text chart)

August 10, 2014 - 6:10 p.m. (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

The Full Moon at 18 Aquarius (glyph chart)

August 10, 2014 - 6:10 p.m. (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

That we may be having some issues with what we’ve learned (or not learned as yet) is basically imaged here through the picture of a t-square and t-squares are always about some need to rise above a personal focus or investment in some issue. With t-squares, only the overarching (non-ego-driven) position ever wins.

Imaged by the Sabian symbol 'A FOREST FIRE IS BEING SUBDUED BY THE USE OF WATER, CHEMICALS AND SHEER MUSCULAR ENERGY' (typified by astrologer Marc Edmund Jones as ‘the skill and courage necessary to bring under control the destructive potential of carelessness of karmic ‘visitations’…’), 18 Aquarius is spoken of in astrology as a degree which displays (or exposes) whatever issues are blocking connectivity of the very most human and often vital kind. Here the ‘standing’ of any person comes into the spotlight highlighting where problems exist in our individual life - or in the life of a community, group or nation. With 18 Aquarius is concerned, isolation is often considered (and tried) as a stopgap measure, but seldom does it provide any lasting answer as in the long run, the sign of Aquarius will not support boundaries based on preference or presumed (individually defined) differences. Whenever we see 18 Aquarius, activities which provide opportunities for integration and functionality are called for, though they may be in part difficult to implement. Patience is required, and the perverting of ideas is to be avoided, inclusive of a perverse tendency we are seeing a lot of here at the dawn of the Aquarian Age with regards to ‘shaping truth’ through selective phrasing and various efforts to use public/social communication methods (or the media) for openly or subliminally deceptive purposes.

The Sun in this figure being conjunct Mercury-Germania on one side speaks to strength of focus and like as not many a strident opinion (whether voiced or merely held). That both objects are at 20 Leo speaks to a need to know our own thoughts... along with how important it is to think through the positions (and possible objections) of others. With Black Moon Lilith (denial of, or by others) and Lachesis (duration) just 'behind' the Sun (in terms of the degrees they are placed in) there is some enduring position coming into the moment of the Full Moon or which is brought up (or out) at this time - and for those who attempt to deal with things through simple ignorance (or deferring to some lack of information) if this is a ploy (or flat-out lie) the effect is likely to be lasting.

And costly.

But of course many will just go ahead and do what they're going to do, thinking they're going to get away with it.

(Good luck with that - and the karma you're stirring up!)

The 'object' here would seem to be expressed by the Moon conjunct Damocles in Aquarius - getting out of (escaping) trouble or something troublesome.

And something's in the way. What is that 'something' which is sitting at the "hurdle" of this Full Moon t-square challenging us to get past it, most of all in our minds?

That would be Saturn, yet another form of inevitability we meet up with in the chart. Saturn's version of 'karma' is generally called "earning," a precept which allows us to fail any number of times providing we haven't done what will get us where we want to go.

If you’ve been wondering why things seem to be ‘stuck,’ this may be part of your astrological reason. Saturn is currently in Scorpio, sign of all things karmic. Probably more importantly (in astrological terms), Saturn is also spending its very last day at the degree (16 Scorpio) it went direct at back on July 20th as the Moon does it's Aquarian square dance in phasing itself into fullness.

Simply as defined in lore, 16 Scorpio is a degree known more or less for its positives... humanitarianism, everyday kindness and traditionally accepted manners and ways of relating to one another ranging from a simple ‘thank you’ to the most exotic of protocols and formalities. Yet like all other degrees, 16 Scorpio also has a ‘not so nice and not so mainstream’ side as well in being known equally for overgrowth as undergrowth and for over- productivity as well as problems and challenges where maturation (of various kinds) is concerned. In this tendency to arrest or polarize, fixed degree 16 Scorpio is theoretically testing our ability to respond with flexibility - in particular, emotional flexibly. But it also assures that when we are tested, when we’re being called upon to use those resources of experience in the course of dealing with some ‘forest fire’ or other ‘incendiary’ situation, in order to achieve the maximal positive we need to accept everything which goes with being called upon for on-the-spot, present-tense (often tensely tendered) solutions.

That all this happens with the Sun, Mercury and Jupiter in Leo promises much drama and many an opportunity to be massively...even outrageously creative in overcoming emotional challenges (and challenges to emotionally bolstered and/or emotionally provocative opinions, situations, relationships, convictions, etc.).

It’s a personal moment. All Full Moons heighten sensitivity and reactivity (which can be wonderful or terrible, depending)...and with asteroid Pallas at 29 Virgo as the Moon comes to Full in anticipation of leaving Virgo for Libra early on Monday, August 11 at 3:29 a.m. (UT/+0 time) there is something intensely personal... if very impersonal about this Full Moon.

And for many, that will prove the very thing which is needed. As Pallas moves into Libra it leaves the personal/private zodiacal zone and enters into the realm of all things public, visible and interactive - which doesn’t just mean that others see us, but also that we see (or recognize) things in others we’ve never seen.

Or at least which haven’t been on display in the past couple of years. With its 4.6 year orbital cycle around the Sun, Pallas spends around two years in each of the zodiac’s hemispheres...

The natural zodiac wheel (by quadrant)

...which means it spends roughly just over a year in each of the zodiac’s thematic quadrants.

For the past year or so Pallas has been moving through the zodiac’s 2nd quadrant - the quadrant which is all about development of abilities and our ability to put some sort of current plan into effective motion. As an emblem of all things mentally processed in a dispassionate manner, transits of Pallas (which is to say, whatever sign we see Pallas placed in) speaks both to where we need perspective and where we will learn about perspective... or at least how important understanding the whole of a process or situation really is.

But will we? And if we don’t, where does that leave us?

While there is no question but that anything we go through throughout these several days will embody its own importance, to those who believe that age-old metaphysical maxim ‘unbeknownst to us, the universe is unfolding as it should’ whatever happens is not only its own experience but preparation for what’s to come.

So since next up (astrologically) is Venus in Leo, that suggests that after experiencing all which comes our way we are either going to arrive at that moment feeling more determined than ever to be who we are (or want to be)...or simply full of some need to (come what may) be validated for something, lest we have no sense of validity in our own eyes and mind.

And yes, we may end up feeling both.
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Monday, August 4, 2014

Ceres in Scorpio

Beim Mahen (Le Faucheur) by Georges Seurat

(oil on panel, c 1883, Metropolitan Museum of Art)

There are different ways to think of Ceres in Scorpio. Ceres speaks greatly to all which we do and all that it takes for an idea or some other kind of ‘seed’ to develop and grow to fruition. And when Ceres enters Scorpio on August 7th at 3:44 in the morning (UT/+0 time) it will mark a time when many an effort may bear fruit.

But maybe not. As the sign of Scorpio is as likely to deny as to allow, as likely to mark times of decay, delay and loss as to reward us with opportunities, rewards and that singular feeling of having survived our own foibles long enough to find our way to the light.

So to put it simply, while these next months of Ceres in Scorpio may be all about facing what it takes to seed and grow our way to success, they may also be filled with reaping the results of what was previously sown... sometimes long, long ago. Ceres’ cycle being 4.6 years long, for some of us that’s how far back we’ll need to look to see the genesis of what we face now. For others, today merely ties back to last February.

February 3rd, to be exact. Why February 3rd? That would be because this upcoming Ceres/Scorpio ingress is actually the third in a series which began back on February 3rd.