Eris and the South Node

For now we see through a glass darkly – a brown Diamond.

Spirit is not bound by the same Limitations as Matter.  Matter is usually viewed in three, four, or eleven dimensions.  Spirit has no such Limits.  Consequently, Matter (which includes our Human costume) always strives to return to the Limitlessness of Spirit.  The Human fascination with explosions is a lame attempt to imitate that striving, by converting Matter back to Energy, which has fewer Limits than Matter.  But Spirit is far more than Energy.  To cite just one example, Spirit has Unlimited access to Time, Space, and Information, on any scale; Energy by comparison is a large active Ruminant in a store full of fine porcelain.

As we’ve said, the Main Event this month is Eris Initiating the South Node, a Cycle that runs about as long as it takes for the Earth to circle the Sun nineteen times.  The main theme of the Cycle that begins this month is “Openness to the influx of Spiritual Energies.”  There are two subthemes – Abundance and Intellectualization.

Abundance means Having Enough to Share, and that Feeling is the Absence of Fear.  We achieve the Absence of Fear by Identifying with Spirit, or with our own Soul, or even with our own Mission.  A few days ago I had the honor of spending an afternoon with Paul Gautschi, touring his gardens.  He can hardly walk, using his rake as a cane.  Yet he’s as Alive as anyone you’d ever meet, filled with Passion.  He’s merged with his Mission, and he knows it’s an important one.

The Main Event occurs at 24 Aries, “Blown inward by the wind, the curtains of an open window take the shape of a Cornucopia.”  The “influx…” interpretation is Rudhyar’s.  Classically in astrology, Air represents mind, while Fire represents Spirit.  Wind, however, is a strong Physical force that is invisible except for its effect on Matter, so it’s a decent symbol for Spirit.  But…

Air and Wind are tricksters – they always involve the danger of intellectualizing into dualities and missing the higher dimensionality of Spirit.  Paul pointed out that there are two Trees in the Jewish/Christian Bible – the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, the Tree of Life symbolizing a Heart-Centered Life and the Tree of Knowledge a Mind-Centered Life.  If we think of the intellectual as Either/Or and Reality as Both/And, we’d have to think of Spirit as All/Always.

Sharing – Cooperating to achieve a Common Mission – is probably the only thing that can reverse the trend toward the horrible Future you’ve seen in all those movies.  For comparison, the previous nineteen years have been about “The surge of new potentiality after the crisis.” 

The previous Eris-South Node Initiation was in March 1996 at 19 Aries, “A new continent rising out of the ocean.”  The potentiality interpretation, again, is Rudhyar’s.

What “crisis” might we be talking about in the mid-1990s?  Well, for example, the first financial derivative crisis occurred shortly after that Cycle was Initiated.  The 2007-2008 financial crisis was bigger, and the next one, probably due soon, will be much much bigger (since the underlying cause has only been compounded after 2008), but the process began in 1998.  We could find similar examples in Climate Change and other topics.

We’ve listed July 18, 19, 24, and 29 as potential peak Openings of this Portal, as well as the recent Full Moon.  July 20 and 21 are possible as well.

Saturn is Stationary turning Direct on July 20 (2pm PDT) and Uranus is Stationary turning Retrograde on July 21 (8pm PDT).

We’ve chosen July 18 as a prime candidate because the Moon crosses Eris and the South Node that day (2pm PDT), and the Moon is often the trigger that manifests astrological Energies into Matter where their impact can be more easily observed.  Let’s look over that chart.

An artist-astrologer reader has gifted us with lovely pictures of that moment, for which we are very grateful.  Here’s the overall Pattern…

The upward-sloping red line from left to right is the meat of the issue, which we’ve been talking about – Moon Conjunct Eris Conjunct South Node on the lower left, and Mars Conjunct Vesta Conjunct Ceres Conjunct North Node on the upper right.

Let’s break it down, starting with the Square Fez…

Squares: red lines.  Trine: long blue line.  Sextile: short blue line.  Quincunxes: green lines.

A Fez Configuration combines Challenge, Grace, and Curiosity.  Here the Challenges have to do with Dark Places in our Consciousness and the Limitations that Culture Wants to Put on Our Yindependence, on our ability and willingness to Trust our Instincts.

The Dark Places being implied by Juno Squaring Chiron, as Chiron challenges us to invoke Miracles to overcome our Discouragements.  The Limitations derive from Saturn Square Lilith, misinterpreting Saturn’s Energy as Limitation rather than Focus.

The Major Grace involves the gift of Focusing on Miracles.  We get there from our Discouragement by Wondering how we might shift our Focus.  Our Focus is very very Strong here, bordering on the Obsessive, so it’s extra important that we point it in the right direction, and keep bringing it back there when it reverts.  To bring Light into Dark Places, we need to change our Perspective.  But we don’t have the information we need; if we don’t know where the Sun is, we don’t know which Tree we need to fell in order to bring Light into our Garden.  We get the information we need by Wondering – by PIAVA.

That is, resolving Chiron (Discouragement) Square (Challenge) Juno (Consciousness) by moving to Juno Quincunx (Curiosity) Saturn (Focus), which releases Saturn Trine (dumb-luck Grace) Chiron (Miracles).  Saturn is not only Stationary (Strong) but the point of a Yod.

We can Help Ourself overcome our Dark Places by Wondering what small step we might take toward greater Yindependence or Autonomy.

Moving to the Lilith-Juno Sextile (kick-starting Grace by taking the first Action) from the Juno-Chiron Square through the Chiron-Lilith Quincunx.

We get to Big Grace from Hesitation (ie, not Trusting our Instincts – eating from the Tree of Knowledge instead of taking our Sustenance from the Tree of Life) by Asking Source for the Miracle of Self-Respect and Suzerainty over our own Affairs.  We can get things moving by Focusing on what Limits us and Imagining that it’s melting.

Resolving Saturn Square Lilith by moving through Lilith Quincunx Chiron to liberate Chiron Trine Saturn.  Invoking the Juno-Lilith Sextile through the Saturn-Juno Quincunx from the Lilith-Saturn Square.

There’s also a Trine Fez…

This Configuration brings more Effortless Grace into our Hesitation.  It’s invoked by Affirming that we Focus on the Soul’s Intentions.  This is especially important because both our Focus and our Soul are very Strong and Present here.  We’ve mentioned Affirm and Intend, but don’t forget the other letters in PIAVA (Pray, Ask, Visualize), including the “silent” C (Command) and W (Wonder).

We’ve already covered Saturn Square Lilith to Lilith Quincunx Chiron to Chiron Trine Saturn.  What’s new here is resolving Lilith Square Saturn by moving through Saturn Quincunx Uranus to Uranus Trine Lilith.  Both Saturn and Uranus are Stationary.

You can see how important it is to control our Focus – where we put our Attention – because of the Saturn Yod, strengthened doubly by Saturn being Stationary…

Sextile: blue line.  Quincunxes and Yod or Finger of God: green lines.

The Finger of God tells us that the Most Important Thing here is the possible Grace between the Edges of our Consciousness and our Deep Self, the Self beneath all of the Masks we believe we must wear in order to get along in the World.  The available Grace must be invoked by us Intentionally, it’s not automatic.  Most of these Masks we put on in our childhood to avoid punishment from our parents or other significant adults (or other Lords of the Flies).  In a monocultural World where everyone is more or less a clone of our parents and our village or yurt or igloo is so distant from others that we never encounter strangers, those Masks will work fine.

The World is not at all like that any more, and those Masks are failing miserably, and while it might seem like the easy way out, killing all the strangers is not an effective option.

Most of our Masks are below the Edges of our Consciousness.  We know we’re wearing some of them, though, especially the ones we put on to avoid conflict or otherwise manipulate others, as employee or merchant or manager or parent or spouse or gender or any of the other Roles we play in the course of an average day.  Those are the specific-purpose Masks we can put on and take off pretty much at will, though a stiff drink may be required to remove some of them.  It wouldn’t hurt to pay Attention to these Masks, one at a time, and maybe PIAVA to reduce our use of them by five percent. 

We might well be near a crisis point where we can’t afford the luxury of time, but if we can make the process gradual and take small steps, our likelihood of success increases.  Imagine what it would be like to just “be yourself” all the time, and not have to make constant adjustments depending on circumstances and people.  If you’re thinking about revenge for all the Identity compromises you’ve had to make to stay Safe, you’re on the wrong track.  Think instead about having full access to the full range of unique Skills that only you can contribute to solving a problem.  Each of our True Selves and all of our Skills are necessary to pull this Species out of its nosedive.

The Masks that are well below the Edge of our Consciousness are more difficult.  Some of our programming occurred before we were verbal, and it is very difficult to access those programs intellectually.  We may need something like rebirthing sessions with a well-trained facilitator to access and shift those.

Many of our Masks are not personal, but cultural.  If our tribe made its Living by killing animals, or had to fight for survival with the hated baby-eating tribe across the river, killing may be a Mask we don’t feel we can afford to give up.

But be assured that all of our Patterns, no matter how far from the Edge of our Consciousness, have their roots in other Lifetimes.  Which brings us back to the Nodes, and the basic Configuration we’re working with this month…

Nodal Opposition: red line; Quintile and Decile: orange lines.  Chiron forms a Quintile Bridge across the Nodal Opposition, making Chiron our Teacher here.

We’ve been talking a lot about the Stellium (group of planets) on the North Node, but review wouldn’t hurt.  In addition to our long-term 2012-2015 program to find our True Self and the very very long-term Fresh-Violets-in-an-Ancient-Pottery-Bowl New Paradigm that we’ve embarked upon after the 2007-2008 Derivatives Crisis, the Universe is asking us to Actively get our Ducks aligned so

• Our Mission in the Lifetime,
• Our Deepest Desires and thus our Strongest Motivation,
• Our Sense of the Sacred, 
• The ways we Sustain and Feed ourselves, and
• Our Actions

are all on the same page, pointing in the same direction, and Durable.  The other side of Sustainability or Durability is Sustenance – we enhance our ability to maintain by letting go of what is not necessary.

True Self: Uranus Squaring Pluto.  New Paradigm: the Chiron-Neptune Cycle.  The rest: Mars Conjunct Vesta Conjunct Ceres Conjunct the North Node.

This is the counterpoint to the Moon-Eris-South Node Pattern that is making us dig deep into our Psyche and strive to shift our Self-Abandonment Patterns.  Most especially the self-sabotaging Pattern that tells us that our Deepest Desires are Forbidden.  It’s in Code, but your Deepest Desire IS your Mission.  We don’t stand a chance of aligning our Energies for the final Summit push until we address that issue.

You know very well what we’re talking about here.  For the last month or so you’ve been wishing and otherwise casually PIAVAing that your Deepest Desires be fed.  Casual PIAVAs are very dangerous – “Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it” – and the unintended consequences of it!  We need to get serious about exactly what it is we Want – How will we Feel when we get what we believe we Want – and PIAVA just that, without the excess baggage. 

This is a point of incredible Leverage.  Use it!  We are learning to access Miracles.