So, what if we were starting a big new Project now, like Debbie is. Other than the New Identity that the last several decades, years, months, weeks, and days has Blessed us with. I mean, think about it; compare your Identity now with what you can recall of your Identity…
- In 1985 … (take a minute to think about it) – an email just reminded me of what I was doing in 1985 – I was driving all around California looking for a new home!
- In 2010 … I was moving to where I Live now and starting to build a Food Forest.
- In July 2017 … Like California, we were having a record dry summer after a record wet winter; it was too dry to grow most Annuals, I’d have spent my Life savings on Water, in spite of the Hügelbeds and Layering and Mulches.
- In late November … I was on Retreat in the Desert.
- Last week … I was starting to relax after rushing to catch up on everything after my Retreat.
Not that our Identity is What We Do – remembering what I was doing just helps me recall my sense of Self at those times. If I tagged myself at each of those times with a word, what would it be? 1985? Maybe Footloose. 2010? Committed. July? Harried. November? On an Edge between Wonder and Boredom. Last week? Driven. Just using myself as an example, hoping you’d follow along with your own Stories.
But, back to Debbie. What if we were indeed “starting a new Project this week” – how might it unfold under a Veritas Station Birth chart?
Let’s start by correcting an omission on the 3-Degrees-of-Sensitivity scale. I somehow missed asteroid Juno when i drew up that chart. Probably all that talk about Edges. The omission doesn’t invalidate anything we’ve already said about the Veritas Station – the Pointy Fez is still there and still prominent. In fact, over the years I’ve found that making an error or omission when drawing up a chart is always Intuitive, pointing out something about the chart that I otherwise would not have noticed.
But when we add Juno…
It changes the emphasis. I’d now read the chart starting with the T-Square (the red triangle) instead of the Fez, because T-Squares are big Red Flag Warnings, as the Weather Service likes to label Danger. Danger of the pitfalls on the road to Mastery, that is. Now we have Moon at the focus of a T-Square and on one corner of the Veritas Grand Trine, with Veritas on a Qunicunx Bridge across the base of the T-Square.
Combining a T-Square and a Grand Trine is of course Excellent, because now we have Motivation and Energy (red) combined with Grace and Blessings (blue). And we even get a Curiosity (green) footnote! Atropos stands out too, as it Quincunxes the Moon, Trine-Bridges the T-Square base, and Squares the third corner of the Grand Trine. It doesn’t get much better than this! So, if we translate from Astrologuese, what does it mean?
The Opposition embodies the Second Harmonic, the Priestess. The core of the Second Harmonic is Duality and Ritual. There is Power in Ritual, derived from the Repetition. How much of your Attention does driving a car demand, relative to when you first Learned? When you aren’t texting of course. Duality though is a Big Limitation, because it tries to squeeze Reality into something it’s not – which is basically why all Religions fail; they aren’t in touch with how the Universe is Unitary and Multifarious. Sure, maybe Zen, Sufi, Vipassana, and some shades of Paganism make the grade, if they somehow escape Either/Or Dogma.
We’re used to Black-White, Yes-No, Expansion-Contraction, Good-Bad, and other Dualities we’re always working with. But in astrology, any two planets can Oppose, so we often have to be more Creative. For instance, how might Truth and The Edges of Consciousness be seen as a pair of Opposites? Well, what springs to mind is whether we’re talking about the Soul’s Truth or the Ego’s Truth, as the latter is usually wont to back away from such Edges. So we’re already contemplating the Edge between Comfort and Stress.
Then we bring in the Moon, to Challenge us to Master this Edge. If we think of the Moon as Authenticity, we can see that to be Authentic we pretty much have to Express both our Soul’s Truth and our Ego’s Truth. Compromise is a Lose-Lose; a T-Square will Enhance the difference, not mute it. Seems like that would require a good deal of “Don’t Know,” eh? Of course, one way to handle that would be to have the Ego accept a position as the Soul’s Representative, so there would be no Conflict. That might be the Mastery we’re Challenged to move toward here. Easy, right?
How about the Moon as Passion, as the Magnetism that counters Entropy and keeps Matter from exploding into pure Energy again? Interesting, as the closer our Conscious and Unconscious Ego is to our Conscious and Unconscious Mission, the more Passion we’re likely to be able to muster for it. So this T-Square looks a little like a Stairway to Heaven, or a ladder to 5D, where Manifestation requires only a wave of the Wand, or a Passionate thought.
The Veritas-Orcus Quincunx Bridge fits in pretty well, as in “I Wonder how Facing the Truth about the Karmic Archetypes that inhibit my Living in the Present Moment will facilitate my Psychic Integration?” As does the Atropos Trine Bridge – “Oh yeah, maybe Allowing myself to Let Go of Timelines that no longer Serve me will be a Powerful booster.” The Trine Bridge isn’t about Doing, it’s about Allowing.
The Square from Atropos to Sun-Lilith-Hylonome (and the Sun-et al Quincunx Bridge as well) is just another reminder about Wondering how we might Let Go of Impediments to our Self-Sovereignty, which in many ways (mostly the Political) is another synonym for Psychic Integration.
That’s all pretty tidy. So we might want to Pray that our new Project (or our new Identity if we aren’t Consciously starting a new Project) promotes our Ascension as much as possible.
One reason we usually limit ourself to three Degrees of Sensitivity, is because that’s what applies pretty well to the Present Moment. Another reason is that we use so many planets (routinely 44, including the Lights and ‘roids and symbolic points and the like, plus an occasional Star or guest Asteroid) that using greater Sensitivity would clog the chart with a zillion Angles. Of course we’d still sort those by Configuration, but it would rapidly get complicated. So let’s edge into Birth-chart territory gradually, starting with six Degrees of Sensitivity…
This adds Makemake (Manifestation), which is Stationary (Exact 2 January, thus also Strong now) and Eurydike (Trust) to the Atropos point. They’re ten Degrees apart, but both are within six Degrees of the Veritas Station. It also adds Neptune (Material Confusion, Spiritual Clarity) Opposite Veritas, along with the ongoing OR10-Nessus Conjunction that keeps bringing up Abuse. Again, both are within six Degrees of Veritas. And it adds Mars, Trine-Bridging this new Opposition, and adds Venus to the Sun-Lilith-Hylonome Stellium.
Meaning what? Well, we’ve a new Opposition. While they’re Separated by 7-9 Degrees, the Opposition sort of forces Neptune and OR10-Nessus into a virtual Conjunction. That’s probably enough to Allow us to Witness the Soul’s Purpose for Choosing Abuse. That could soften our Victim Archetypes, though we’d have to be careful not to smother any Emotions along the way.
It’s about Facing and Embracing both the Spiritual Truth and the Emotional Truth (Pisces), as the Edge in the Opposition, while being Mindful not to Intellectualize (which would be the trap set by the Opposition). This process is usually Iterative and extended in time, as you reach deeper and deeper layers. No need to hurry it, the need is to be Honest and Present with both the Emotional Dimension and the Spiritual Dimension.
And to Avoid Conclusions. This is Spiritual Evolution, not intellectual education, though of course our Concept Set is growing more comprehensive. More comprehensive as in Cognitive Dissonance – being able to hold Contradictory propositions in the mind at the same time without Competition between them. Yes, that was a Leaf, but it was also a Fairy. We’re moving toward Awe and Mystery, and away from Certainty and Security as we’ve known it. We’re gradually substituting “Grokking,” which happens in the Heart, for Understanding, which happens in the mind.
Mars Trine-Bridges this new Opposition, meaning that we’ll make it easier on ourselves if we tackle this Opposition Actively. So we want to maintain our vigil, and stay awake for the pitfalls, which would be trying to Choose one end or the other – such as Spiritual Truth versus Emotional Truth or Ego Death (Virgo) versus Ecstasy (Pisces), or Allowing the mind to make Conclusions that will rapidly devolve into new or stronger Limiting Beliefs.
Makemake is Stationary, so the whole business of Manifestation is a background theme here. We could think of these Dramas as demonstrations of the Truth about Manifestation. With Eurydike there, we’re looking at Manifesting by Trusting (Eurydike) that it occurs through Letting Go of Obsolete Timelines (Atropos). Remember, this Quincunxes the Moon. It’s a reminder that while some things are Manifested through Direct Action, most of what’s really Valuable are Manifested through Magnetism. Through cleaning our Mirror. Through Letting Go of our Beliefs that it’s not Possible. It’s in Libra, so Debbie is right on about it involving “connections.”
The primary Interpretation of this “new” chart would be based on extending the T-Square into a Grand Cross, and extending the Grand Trine into a Mars Kite. This is more of the same – Excellent – Motivation, Energy, Grace, Blessings, now adding Direction, as Mars steers the Grace through Action, or better yet, Focused Intention. In other words, however we can add our own Effort to this Stairway to Heaven, Cleanly, we’ll accelerate the process.
Moving to eight Degrees of Orb or Sensitivity, we add Mercury (Communication), and Asbolus (Intuition) Opposite it. This Opposition Squares the Veritas-Neptune Opposition, contributing a second Grand Cross – more Motivation, and more Ability and Willingness to juggle many tasks at the same time. A Grand Cross is easier than a T-Square, because it’s Balanced. You can think of it as adding so many niggling little daily SNAFUs that we don’t have time to sweat the small stuff, because it’s all small stuff. We just doggedly Attend to each little Emergency as it occurs, which takes so much Attention that we don’t have any extra for the sort of Frustration that T-Squares often create for our Perfectionism.
Two Grand Crosses though can leave us out of Breath at times. Their corners are Sextile (two Signs, Ease after Taking the First Step) and Unx (one Sign, Pattern-Breaking “Unx” means one twelfth, and I didn’t make that up) from one another, which makes the whole Wheel turn more Easily. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to set aside an hour or so every few days just to Chill Out, Run your Energy, Empty the mind of detail, Remind yourself of your Primary Goal(s), Imagine how you’ll Feel when you Arrive, Tap Out any naggings, and generally just hang out in your Hara.
Now, one more of those omissions-cum-Intuitions. I put these charts together using many different sources, so sometimes I forget to include one. Such is the case with Uranus (our Soul Self), which like Makemake is also Stationary on 2 January (though at 6am rather than 3pm PST). That’s a very Powerful combination, and one that’s likely to nix any attempts to Manifest what’s not in total Alignment with our Souls.
On top of this, the Veritas Station is Trioctile (Insight) to the Uranus Station, the Veritas Station is Unx (one Sign, Pattern-Breaking) to the Makemake Station, and the Uranus Station is Quattronovile (160 Degrees, Mastery through Introspection) to the Makemake Station.
The Novile series of Angles (multiples of 40 Degrees) comprise the Ninth Harmonic, which is about Introspection. The Nine card in the Major Arcana is the Hermit, which symbolizes Going Within. The Fourth Harmonic (relevant because it’s a QuattroNovile) is about Mastery.
Including this bit of information, you could Choose to spend an hour or so every day in Meditation, but better yet, “just” cultivate an aura of Meditation as you go through all of your daily business. After all, some 80% or so of what we’ve been referring to is about Self-Knowledge, which comes about through Self-Observation, which is a form of Introspection par excellence. I suspect Debbie is already there.
Whatever you’re Creating in 2018, whenever you Notice that you’re becoming Identified with the Process (which includes being Emotional about it), just Poor-Sweetheart yourself. That’ll make you the Observer with no Effort whatsoever. All you got to do, is Notice.
The sort of Emotion that we refer to as Passion manifests as Single-Pointed Focus, Constant Attention, Consistent Effort, and Calm Excitement. Other Emotions – Impatience, Anger, Grief, Frustration, Dissatisfaction – are evidence of Ego-Attachment.
If you don’t Feel a Project coming on, no problem. You know you’re already working on several, you just don’t give yourself credit for them. Stop and Identify a couple of them, and recognize that all of them are entering a new phase. These charts can apply just as well to a new phase of an ongoing Project. If you really can’t think of a Project, just do World Peace. If you aren’t sure where to start on that, start with Peace Within. It you aren’t sure how to start, start by PIAVAing it.