It’s snow under the bumper, but Mercury was Retrograde from 30 January 2021 (7:51 pm PST in 27 Aquarius) till 20 February (4:51 pm PST in 12 Aquarius). I don’t follow Mercury’s Stations and Retrogradations closely because we get so much practice with it, but it would have been useful to know about this time. The classic interpretation is difficult Travel and Communication. I’ve never pretended to be expert in Communication, but I’ve Traveled with Mercury Retrograde many times, and when I Realize that Loki is afoot, take my time, and respond to glitches with Patience and Humor, the Old Trickster winks and lets me by. Of course, Prayer for a Safe (and Easy, Effective, etc etc) Trip and a Safe Return always helps. This time I didn’t Realize that Loki was afoot, but evidently Prayed enough that He treated me well.
We also received what should prove to be a Delightful Reboot 19 February (3am PST), when the asteroid of New Beginnings (Klotho) was Strong (Stationary) in 3 Scorpio. This Strengthening (Station) Merged With (Conjoined) the Chinese Red Dragon of Enlightenment (minor planet Zhulong). The only major Pattern (Configuration) in the chart was one of Dumb-Luck Blessings (Grand Trine) in Emotion Signs (Water), extended into Directed Dumb-Luck Blessings (a Kite) by the Tension (Opposition) between Respect and Compassion for All Things (asteroid Hopi in Cancer) and Applying our Genius (dwarf planet Ixion…) to Global Climate Change (Conjunct dwarf planets Pholus [Respondingto] and Quaoar [our Survival Instincts]). Which is to say…
We also received what should prove to be a Delightful Reboot 19 February, when New Beginnings were Strong. This Strengthening was Merged With the Chinese Red Dragon of Enlightenment. The only major Pattern in the chart was one of Dumb-Luck Emotional Blessings, extended into Directed Dumb-Luck Blessings by the Tension between Respect and Compassion for All Things and Applying our Genius to Global Climate Change. Seems like Texas is written in there between every two lines.
There was though a single isolated Hassle (Square), between our Initiation into the Enlightenment Curriculum (Klotho-Zhulong) and our Vitality (dwarf planet Varuna). And yes, many Texans had the ultimate Hassle with their Vitality, aka Freezing to Death. Realistically, not everyone has the Power to Choose between being an Observer of their Life, and being a Victim of their Life. Everyone has the Potential to make this Choice, and many Remarkable People have risen out of Poverty and lack of Education, just as many Unremarkable People have fallen out of the Elite. Maslow’s Pyramid applies in the first case, as Hunger makes Observation more difficult. There may be an inverse Pyramid for the second case, perhaps where the Need for Effort is what Creates the Need for Observation and Creative Response.
There’s one last Fear Bash in our Fearbruary – on 27 February (3:13 pm PST) in 28 Taurus, Terror (dwarf planet Sedna) InitiatesAction (Mars). We may have time later to write about this one.
All this week, Respect and Compassion for All Things will be prominent (asteroid Hopi Stationary 26 February 6:43 pm PST in 7 Cancer). This is the same Hopi that we met earlier in the Red Dragon process.
The Moon went Out of Bounds (we’ll be more Emotional) over the Northern Hemisphere 21 February (1:19 am PST, in 21 Gemini). It will Stand Still at 25:04 North on 22 February (4:12 pm PST in 11 Cancer). And it will return In Bounds 24 February (5:27 am PST in 1 Leo).
I’ve seen several astrologers hold out the threat of two more episodes this year of The Most Important Thing [Saturn] Is to Let Go of What No Longer Serves our Soul [Uranus] (Saturn Square Uranus), or Devastating [Saturn] Disruption [Uranus], or however they frame it to pull customers in by their Victim. The first one was 13-17 February. The other two are at the Ides of June, and the days leading up to Christmas Eve. In my Experience, though, the second and third events of a Triad are nothing like the first. The first event of the trio rips open the canvas we have stretched across our Denial. We actually know what we Deny, we’re just using Denial for Convenience. The second one is Retrograde, and unfolds much more slowly, so we get a better chance to Observe what’s Going On. And by the third one, if we’ve replaced our Victim hat with our Observer hat, we’ve Been Here Done That, and what was a Crisis the first time around, is just another practice session to help us build up our Confidence.
We also have two Sign Changes. On 21 February, dwarf planet Ceres moved out of Pisces and into Aries, which should make it much easier for us to move toward Sustainable Sustenance, since we’re likely to be less Sentimental about what we know that we have to Give Up because we’re outgrown it.
But on 23 February, asteroid Veritas moves into Pisces. Veritas represents Truth of the Mind – “Just the Facts, Ma’am” as Jack Webb used to say. Never mind that there are seven Ma’ams, they’re all Blind, and they all have their hands on very different parts of the Elephant, we Just Want the Facts. Well, okay, we only want the Facts that reinforce our Unconscious Limitations, and aren’t too Inconvenient. So our Facts become Sentimental! Well, we’re just going to have to Agree to Disagree. Otherwise we’ll have to kill each other, and then there won’t be anybody left. Hopefully this will contribute to more people seeing the difference between their Absolute Truth of the Heart and their Relative Truth of the Mind. We can only Share the former, and hope for Respect – there is no Arguing about Absolutes. We can Argue for days over the latter, and still get nowhere – you can’t Pin Down something that’s Relative.
That’s pretty brief, but it should outline the rest of February. Remember that we’re now in the Digital Age. A year ago we were still in Transition, picking and choosing which Industrial Age Patterns we want to keep. The escape hatch back to the Mundane and the Material of Industry closed at the December Solstice. Now we’re sliding down, with very little braking power, into our New Life in the Electromagnetic Theme Park.
Okay, finally we get to what many consider 2021’s most impactful astroevent, the 17 February (11:10 am PST) Saturn-Uranus Square. As regular readers know, we don’t consider Saturn to be a “malefic” planet, as many Ego astrologers do. By Ego astrologers, we mean the astrologers who intentionally or unintentionally don’t like to Challenge a client’s Ego. And by Ego, we mean our Emotional Limitations, the Edge of our Concept Set, and our Identity. And by Identity, we mean what we Believe Defines us. When you hear people preface statements with “I’m not one of those who…” or “I Believe…” or “I can’t stand it when…” or “I’m committed to…” they’re describing their Ego.
The term Ego is often used as an insult to Judge someone whom the speaker thinks has an overly positive opinion of themself, but that’s not how we use the term. The Ego as we use the term is the Essential portion of the Psyche that’s tasked with Keeping Us Alive and preventing us from what we might Experience as a “fate worse than death” or at least grossly unpleasant. Our Emotional Limitations are a roadmap of our Karma, and our Concept Set is the collection of Either/Or Ideas that justify our Emotional Limitations. If you’re hip to computer terms, the Ego is our Operating System, parallel to Windows or iOS. When it’s Hacked, it can make the computer worse than worthless.
We frequently speak of “Ego Death,” because in order to Let Go Of Karma and Advance toward Enlightenment or 5D, we have to Confront our Emotional Limitations. Those are the Emotions that, Consciously or Unconsciously, We’d rather Die than Feel, often referred to collectively as our Held Emotions. When we’re backed up against our Held Emotions, we often feel like I am Dying. This is an effective Survival Mechanism, as it’s possible that Held Emotions can Shatter the Ego, Humpty-Dumpty style. Shattering the Ego is not conducive to Everyday Life or anything else that we usually Enjoy Doing or Feeling or Being – think PTSD, which has the potential to completely replace the Ego with one from an earlier time, one that is not at all compatible with Current Life.
It’s highly recommended, but seldom convenient and often highlyinconvenient, that when the Ego Shatters, we should avoid Doing anything else until we somehow Reconstitute the Ego, simply because we’ll screw up whatever we Do while our Ego is Shattered. We can see this clearly illustrated in the continuous melee surrounding the Antichrist, who is Expert at Shattering other people’s Egos. There are several planets involved in these processes…
Lilith represents our Self-Sovereignty or Codependence. Codependence is actually a very effective Strategy for dealing with Ego-Shatterers. Like all Karma and Habits, it’s a Powerful Skill when used in appropriate situations, but a crippling Dysfunction when used in all situations. I’m reminded of a scene in a Mel Gibson movie, where a giant of a fellow seems to be about to pummel Gibson and Gibson says, “Are you going to kill me?” The giant replies “Whatsamatta, you Scared?” and Gibson say, “Nah, just trying to plan my day.”
Dwarf planet Eris symbolizes Revelation of what’s been Denied. Like Codependence, Denial is a very healthy and effective Survival Strategy, when it would not be Safe for us to have our Ego Shattered by having our Held Emotions Opened Up abruptly and without Support. We certainly need Emotional Support when our Ego is Shattered, and we may need Financial Support while we rebuild our Operating System, as we can’t always do it overnight.
Dwarf planet Chariklo is about Self-Confidence and Self-Doubt. This is more about having our Concept Set Blown Up, so we no longer know what makes the World Go ‘Round. If we aren’t sure how “the World,” or our Culture, or a different Culture that we’re dealing with, works, we can unknowingly insult and upset people, so they disconnect from us. Since every Family has its own Culture, this can cripple a Sensitive child. Actually, every person has their own Culture, it’s called their Ego.
Pluto, as Challenger and Transformer of Trances, is totally involved, because the Ego, and Culture, and overall Huper Experience (such as Linear Time and Separation), are “just” Trances. That’s why Pluto is associated with Death. From the Soul’s Perspective, every Death is “just” an Ego Death.
Dwarf planet Orcus, Oath-Making and -Breaking, is all about the Decisions and Vows and Promises that, once Internalized and reinforced by Repetition, became our Inertial Karma. Physical Death is one thing, but a Physical Death accompanied by a Vow Never to do that again, where that is what appeared to lead to our Demise, is a good candidate for what Created our most persistent Held Emotions.
We should probably also mention asteroid Nemesis, which we interpret at Guilt. Unconscious Guilt in particular plays out like a Held Emotion.
Held Emotions are signified by the South Node. That’s where our Repressed Karma Hides. And in turn, Hidden under the South Node, are the precise Skills that we need to Recover in order to Complete our Mission (North Node) in the Current Lifetime.
But, back to Saturn. I’ve observed over the years that when Saturn is Lit Up, I’m being Asked to Let Go of everything except The Most Important Thing. That may be our Mission, but it also may be an Ego Trip that approximates our Mission. Since our Mission is Multidimensional, we can Intuit it but never Understand it Intellectually. Consequently, we dream up Ego Trips that are Compromises between our True Mission and our Current Understanding of the Edges of it. If we Fail at The Most Important Thing, that can result in a serious Ego Death, which in Western Cultures is anathema.
So we like to Create Fallbacks and Backups, which are easier and more accessible than our Mission and its Surrogates (especially if we continue to Avoid our Held Emotions), and where we can Enjoy the smaller Rewards of Success. So when Saturn Asks us to Give Up all but The Most Important Thing, it’s our Fallbacks and Backups that take the heat – and that’s where we get most of our Ego Gratification, so we hate the idea of Giving them Up, and we’re Scared that they might not be there when we get back, like Art Garfunkel’s Cecillia. And that’s what feels like Limitation.
So Ego astrology might interpret Saturn-Uranus Challenges as potential Disruption (Uranus) of the Ego (Saturn) – just what we’re trying to Avoid when we eschew Ego Death, or definitely as Disruptionof the Status Quo (Saturn). Here’s an excellent example of a good Saturn-Uranus interpretation where Saturn is seen as an Antagonist…
Nothing there to disagree with – Isaac paints a Realistic picture of where our Home Planet is heading, and Realism or Pragmatism is one aspect of Saturn. But we look at the picture from a slightly different Angle, when we interpret Saturn-Uranus as The Most Important Thing (Saturn) Is Your Relationship to Your Soul (Uranus). Isaac gets there – for instance, “Listen to your heart of Hearts…trust your intuition. Trust your Self. Trust in Spirit. There is no higher authority than what resides within you,” just using a different highway.
But now this is a Square, so we should be looking for a Challenge in the Relationship between our Soul and our Priorities. That’s not hard to imagine, for the very reason we talked about earlier, having to Give Up our Fallbacks. By the way, I’ve always been Surprised and Delighted that my Fallbacks seem to have entered Suspended Animation while I focused on Priority Number One. When Saturn’s Impact Dims and I can return to my Fallbacks, they’re always right were I left them.
This particular Saturn-Uranus is a bit more urgent, as Saturn and Uranus make one wing of a T-Square (the red triangle), or Big Challenge…
In the base of the T-Square, where we often find the nature of the Challenge, the Moon (Instinct) has joined Uranus. Isaac uses the word Intuition, but Instincts are a form of Intuition. The other side is noteworthy – minor planet Zhulong, the Chinese Red Dragon of Enlightenment. We could maybe frame that as Evolution of our Instincts, so they come to derive more from the Immortal Soul (Uranus) than from the Survival of the Flesh (Saturn).
The other four Squares form a Grand Cross (big red cross in a big red box, here standing on one corner), a Balanced Configuration that might get us running around in Circles, but being Balanced, the four Challenges Complement one another. There is however, a naked Square, between asteroid Nemesis (Guilt or Ego Death) and Dwarf planet Gonggong (formerly known as “OR10”), meaning Intrusive Memories. Excellent Opportunity to Clear our Guilt Karma – we just need to Remember to make them Flushbacks instead of Flashbacks, by ignoring the Emotional and Intellectual Content of the Memories, and instead putting our Attention on Loving the Emotions as they are, without trying to make them into something different. Eschewing Rejection of All of our Emotions may be the fastest path to Enlightenment.
The components of the Grand Cross are worth mentioning. The horizontal axis is Chiron (Despair and Miracles) Opposite dwarf planet Makemake (Manifestation), giving us the Opportunity to Examine and Let Go Of any places where our Unconscious Despair (Belief that What We Want is Impossible) Limits our Ability to Manifest. Remember that Manifestation isn’t just Material. We can Manifest Feeling Good even when we’re being Loving with our Worst Emotions, we can Manifest Enlightenment, you name it. The quickest way I know of to Convert Despair to Miracles is with Self-Empathy, which we can implement as easily as saying to ourself, “You Poor Sweetheart, you’re Feeling Despair, aren’t you” and then Changing the Subject.
The vertical axis is between asteroid Hopi (Respect for All Things) on the one hand, and the triad (“Stellium” in astrologuese) of dwarf planets Pholus (Willingness to Respond) and Quaoar (our Survival Instincts), and asteroid Sappho (Self-Love). An obvious interpretation would be for us to Learn to Respect Climate Change (Pholus-Quaoar) as a necessary Evolutionary process. We could also interpret it as a suggestion to see the Innocent Victims of Climate Change as very Worthy of our Respect instead of seeing them as poor dupes that Modern Civilization has through its Glorious Superiority had to Decide to “Leave Behind” because “there wasn’t enough room on the boat.”
Another Karma-Creating Decision – Unconsciously we know that if we can Leave them Behind, They (the next rung up on the knotted Social Rope) can Leave us Behind, hence our Cultural Anxiety Karma. Worse yet, we routinely and Proudly Exploit the Underpuppies, which leaves us Unconsciously and Karmically Paranoid, knowing that The Top Dogs are likely to Exploit us at any minute. And worse, we Know that They Already Do. Just because we’re Paranoid, doesn’t mean the Bastards aren’t out to get us. And we wonder why we’re Addicted to War. By the way, did we mention dwarf planet Nessus (Abuse and Privilege) as another planet that’s tightly intertwined with these Trance processes?
It’s a very busy chart, the Saturn-Uranus Waning Square, with seven “Unxes” (two planets one Sign apart, indicated by the short green lines), signifying the Opportunity to easily Break Patterns about how each of the two planets relate to the other. For instance, we may have a Habit of allowing our Intrusive Memories (Gonggong) to invoke our Despair (Chiron) instead of Recognizing the Opportunity to let them invoke Miracles, as we Poor-Sweetheart ourself. And we may have a Habit of Receiving our Intrusive Memories as Bummers (Saturn as Limits) rather than The Most Important Thing (Saturn as Priorities) to Let Go Of to Lighten our Karma.
And again, we need to Recognize that this is a Waning Square. Yes, it’s still a Challenge, but it’s a Challenge to Let Go of our old Patterns in the Relationship between our Ego and our Soul, namely the Patterns embedded in the Saturn-Uranus Cycle that’s Waning, the one that began at – and kernelized – the Harmonic Convergence, on 12 February 1988 in 30 Sagittarius. We’ll talk about what those are in our next post.
An Alien Mantis-Being has come from Afar to help us Celebrate our Graduation from the Harmonic Convergence…
We wouldn’t normally associate asteroid Bee-Zed with Fear, but it certainly seems to be so just now, as its 10:07 am PST 12 February 2021 Station (time when it’s influence is Strong) is nestled between the 8 February Station of dwarf planet Sedna (Converting Fear to Power) and the 17 February Waning Square (Challenge) between Jupiter and Uranus (Opening to the Soul). Let’s say that again, with Feeling…
We wouldn’t normally associate asteroid Bee-Zed with Fear, but it certainly seems to be so just now, as its 12 February Peak of Strength is nestled between the 8 February Peak of an exercise in Converting Fear to Power and the 17 February Opening to the Soul.
Opening to the Soul might sound good on the small screen, but it often means having to Let Go of things that are no longer in Alignment with the Soul, and those things can easily be things that our Ego has a Big Investment in. Just remember, for at least the next week or so, that when It feels like I’m Dying, we’re way ahead if we reframe that as It feels like I’m Dying, not It feels like I’m Dying. Whatever it is that Triggers those Feelings, it’ll be much improved after you do your Ego-Death homework. Then you’ll be able to work much more effectively on whatever other slivers you have in your paw.
I know, there will come a time when most of us will really be calling it quits for this Incarnation – and that’s the most important time of all to Let Go of our Ego-Attachments, unless we’re so Delighted with this Lifetime’s Karma that we’re Thrilled about replicating it several thousand more times.
A great example of “things that our Ego has a Big Investment in” was the World Trade Center. The prime astromover of that Conflagration was Saturn-Pluto and Moon Out of Bounds, a confluence that was repeated just as the Garudavirus was being hatched last year. Where was Jupiter-Uranus at that time? Closing on a Waxing BiQuintile. Quintiles are about Learning. Bi-anythings are about Codification. The Attack was an Attack on the Codification of Globalization…
What was the result? The Codification of Patriotism, and collaring Civil Rights. Like the lapel button I saw at the time, “Oh well, I wasn’t really using my Civil Rights anyway.” The 2001 Patriot Act is still in effect as we speak. Sort of what’s going on right now, actually, with a different cast of characters. The primary astro-omen for the Century was “A Flag [Patriot] turning into an Eagle [Wider Perspective] turning into a Rooster Saluting the Dawn [Enlightenment]” (Sabian Symbol for the Pluto-Chiron Initiation just before 1/1/2000). We’re working on it.
Bee-Zed is also known as “BZ509,” “514107” (if your ephemeris only knows that language), and “Ka’epaoka’awela.” The last-named is Hawaiian for something like “Jupiter’s Tricky Little Buddy,” because its orbit is tied by length and Resonance to Jupiter’s, and “Tricky” because it orbits backwards relative to most of the other planets, and because it’s got an irregular orbit that spans 3.2 to 7.1 Astronomical Units or “AUs” (Earth-distances from the Sun), compared to Jupiter’s 5.0 to 5.5. To flesh out this region of the Solar System, the “Main Belt” asteroids (93% of them) span 2.0-3.3 AU, and Chiron’s closest approach to the Sun is 8.4 AU.
From its Discovery details, we’ve given Bee-Zed the shortcut keyword Transcendence. Here’s the chart of our Little Buddy’s 12 February Station…
He’s at the business end of a Big Challenge (T-Square, the red triangle) from the Truth about the Origins of our Karmic Abuse and Privilege (dwarf planet Orcus [Decisions that Create Karma] Opposite asteroid Aletheia [Truth of the Heart] and dwarf planet Nessus [Abuse and Privilege]). Just a little relevant to what’s going on in the USofA. In the chart there’s also a naked Square (Challenge, the isolated red line) between Lilith (Self-Sovereignty) and the triad Venus, Jupiter, and asteroid Moira (Making a Choice [Moira] between our Karmic Attention to Appearances [Venus-Jupiter] and our Integrity).
The primary Configuration is another Square Fez (red and blue trapezium or trapezoid). We recently learned that the meat in a trapezium hides in the (green Quincunx) diagonals. The Objective is to keep them in the realm of Curiosity rather than trying to Figure them Out, because a Quincunx points us to the Esoteric side of the Relationship between the two planets, rather than the Linear Either/Or side.
So the chart tells us that there are Mysteries hiding behind the Relationship between Self-Sovereignty (Lilith) and Transcendence (Bee-Zed), and hidden Mysteries behind the Relationship between our Ancient Decisions and Oaths (Orcus) and Choosing to Remove the Masks We Use to Hide Our Truth (Venus-Jupiter-Moira). We can’t approach Mysteries through the Intellect, because the Dualistic Intellect is incapable of stretching beyond its existing Concept Set and reaching into Multidimensional Reality. We have to Invite our Intuition to help, using PIAVAs or the equivalent.
By now we’re bearing down hard on Fearbruary’s namesake, dwarf planet Sedna, which is about Converting Fear to Power. We’ve been reminding that Fear plus Breathing equals Excitement, Fear plus Tapping equals Grounding and Presence (which is intimidating to would-be antagonists), and Fear plus Kegels equals Power. In addition to a hefty dose of Terror, the Sedna story also contains strong elements of Anger and Competition.
I was into my forties before I realized that Anger was my Habitual Reaction to Fear. Useful when it’s a Fight you can Win, but when Flight or Freeze is Safer, let alone Negotiate, not so much. All Karma is a Powerful Skill, but only when we can Choose to use it when appropriate and not use it when it ain’t. If Karma is a knee-jerk Reaction, it’ll get us in trouble more often than not. We Heal that by getting Conscious about it.
Sedna is at its Strongest (Stationary) as we come up to 1pm PST 8 February, in 28 Taurus. The chart is pretty benign…
The basic Configuration is a “Square Fez with a Chinstrap” – a red-sided trapezoid with a fifth planet at the midpoint of the base. The Chinstrap – dwarf planet Ceres (Sustainability and Sustenance), is where the Power emerges. The two naked Squares (red lines) are where potential Challenges will be spawned – Sedna (Fear) to asteroid Karma (Karma) or Fear about Letting Go of What We Know Best (our Karma), and Pluto (TranceFormation) to dwarf planet Haumea (Rebirth) or Failing to Discern the Difference between Physical Death from Ego Death.
If we could train ourself to instantly Discern an Ego Death from a Threat of Physical Death, and Realize that Resistance is Futile when it comes to Letting Go of the Known (it’s inevitable, and it’ll probably be harder later), our Lives would be so much more Sustainable (the chinstrap), wouldn’t they. So we could Pray for Physical Safety, Pretend we’re Acting in a Play, Enjoy the Drama from the Perspective of the audience, and make the most out of these Opportunities to Practice these two Cosmic Skills (Ego Death and Letting Go of Karma). Letting Go of Karma usually requires an Ego Death anyway, so this is really an Amazing Opportunity.
Note: If you use a Theta Prayer, you can check to see if your prayer will work, modify it and check again, iterating as many times as necessary, till you find just the right Prayer to give you in-the-Gut Confidence in your Safety.
But a Square Fez offers an Alternative to its Challenges, namely its Diagonals (the green lines, which are “Quincunxes,” or 5 Signs long). Notice that each Square is simultaneously in two Tricolors (a triangle made up of a red Square, a green Quincunx, and either a Trine or a Sextile – a long or short blue line). A Tricolor allows one to Liberate the Grace in the blue lines by Embracing the Permanent Curiosity in the green line, which can Resolve the Challenge in the red line.
By Permanent Curiosity we mean Avoiding Trying to Figure It Out – Recognizing that Confusion is one of our most Valuable Emotions and not an invitation to “Left-Brain” Research and Analysis. If we can stay Present with the Confusion Emotion and Learn to Celebrate it, it will lead us to much more Powerful places. Someone once said (Einstein? Maybe) that “We can’t Solve a Problem using the same Thinking that postulated the Problem.” Confusion, if you can Embrace it as the Emotion that it is, will open your Intuition to a kind of Thinking that will Solve the Problem, or more likely, Perspectives that will Reframe the Problem into Opportunities.
A Quincunx is a miniature Mystery School, like a Zen Koan or a piece of a Yin Gate, a Portal to the next step in our Evolution. When you try to contemplate the sound of one hand clapping, for instance, if you take the effort seriously, you’ll be Expanding and Reframing your notions of Sound, of Hands, of Honoring, of Action, and who knows what else, and you might even discover why Beatniks used to “clap” by snapping their fingers.
The Major Tricolors (Square-Quincunx-Trine), like…
Pluto-Square-Haumea-Quincunx-Sedna-Trine-Pluto or TranceFormation Challenging Rebirth which is Curious about Fear and Power and how it might make TranceFormation Effortless,
and Sedna-Square-Karma-Quincunx-Pluto-Trine-Sedna,
…lead to Dumb-Luck Blessings that are typical of Trines. The Minor Tricolors (Square-Quincunx-Sextile), like…
Haumea-Square-Pluto-Quincunx-Karma-Sextile-Haumea or Rebirth making TranceFormation difficult while TranceFormation is in Awe of Inertia, and if we Step into it we can sort of see how Inertia facilitates Rebirth,
and Karma-Square-Sedna-Quincunx-Haumea-Sextile-Karma,
…lead to greater Engagement and probably more Wisdom, as a Sextile doesn’t unlock its Grace till we take the First Step, Participating instead of just Observing. Notice that we’re just following different paths around the lines inside the twelve-sided circle. Each path offers a different Curriculum for us, and if we have the time, we could maximize this Opportunity by following them all. Eventually we’ll end up at Ceres, the chinstrap, and make our Life more Sustainable. We’d just be adding -Sextile-Ceres to the end of each Major Tricolor, and -Quincunx-Ceres to the end of each Minor Tricolor.
So the keys to the Tricolors are Haumea-Quincunx-Sedna, Karma-Quincunx-Pluto, Pluto-Quincunx-Karma, and Sedna-Quincunx-Haumea. And then, if we Chose the more Rewarding but more Effortful Minor Tricolors, we’ll have to add Haumea-Quincunx-Ceres and Karma-Quincunx-Ceres in order to “Cross Go” and Earn our Sustainability Merit Badge (if you haven’t Learned to Fully and Lovingly Embrace All of your Emotions yet, you may not Realize that Earth is just a Very Deep board game). Let’s take an example, say, Haumea-Quincunx-Sedna.
So we have a Koan about the Relationship between Rebirth and Fear/Power. (It might help to remember what Artemisia said about Power in The Findhorn Garden.) Certainly we Fear Rebirth. Our Ego is probably very Attached to our Toys and Colleagues in the Current Incarnation, and loathe to give them up. Those are Intellectualizations, and the Intellect doesn’t have the Power to Evolve us, because it’s basically a Logic machine. Give it some rules and some starting conditions, and it can dummy up a pretty fair simulation. But where is the Evolution in that? We’re just rearranging the deckchairs in our Existing Concept Set.
How might there be Power in Rebirth? How might it Feel to be Conscious of all of our Parallel Lives? Now we’re starting to get into some Koan-like Questions, which may Open us to new Intuitions that Expand our Concept Set. “How might it Feel…” is particularly Open-Ended. If you don’t just find the list of Emotions in the back of your Alexanders book and highlight a few, but Open your Emotional Body to the actual Experience, what might happen? You probably Relive some part of your Past every day. Can you be there in the Cafeteria Line, and also Be Here Now? It might be more inviting to Remember what it was like to Make Love with your All-Time Favorite Lover and also Be Here Now.
Does that feel like fuses blowing in your head? That might be a good sign. One – just One – part of what’s involved with actual Permanent Curiosity (aka Awe or Wonder, but not Wondering about, Wondering at instead), is that we have to Conceive of more Dimensions than we’re used to working with, and different Rules. Since the Universe is Both/And, what is a Contradiction to the Intellect is a Paradox to our Curiosity. Do we even know what a Paradox is, or is it just something unexplainable? It should be something that defies our Concepts of Reality, something that forces us to Choose between what we See and what we Know, or somehow Embrace them both.
A number of the folks in the Antichrist’s Cult may be doing that now, Knowing that just a month ago they were Legends in their Own Minds, but Seeing that now they’re Criminals. Many may Choose to be Martyrs, where both Stories can seem to be True, rather than Expanding their Concept Set to include the possibility that not everyone appreciates White Supremacy, or Expanding their Concept Set to include the possibility that Other People may actually have a right to Exist. But again, these are Intellectualizations. We can’t Predict how any given person will Expand their Consciousness if and when they do, because they’re an Organism much more Complex and Multidimensional than our Observing Mind.
The point is that we may be going through a similar process, where some of what we See and what we Know are splitting apart. If we find ourself trying to figure out how to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again, we may want to Change the Program, and begin to Appreciate Curiosity as the Blessing that it is, as it is, without having to Dissect it. You might also find yourself in a place where you’re being Reborn and your Trances Reformed and your Karma is backing off, you Feel Empowered and Delighted by the process, and it Feels Sustainable. More Power to you!
So here’s the chart for the 2010 Uranus Initiation of Jupiter. You can think of a slower planet like Uranus (Soul), acting as a Guru or Shaman. At each Initiation of a New Cycle (First Conjunction), the Guru gives Shaktipat to a slower planet like Jupiter (Expansion), which acts as a Disciple or Messenger during the Cycle. Since the Initiation is the Birth of the Cycle, the Initiation chart is the Cycle’s natal chart…
Not a whole lot of difficulty here. The Grand Cross (big red diamond and cross) was Balanced, and as such pretty much Neutralized the four T-Squares (red triangles) that would otherwise represent Challenges. Asteroid Klotho (Beginning a New TimeLine) made the New Cycle more profound than usual, as it’s a “double Beginning.” Saturn (The Most Important Thing) Opposed them, giving them another shot of Gravitas. The second Opposition was between asteroids Juno (Expansion of Consciousness) and Ceres (Sustainability and Sustenance). So we expect the Cycle to have been Benign and Profound.
The naked Opposition was Complex, with Lilith (Self-Sovereignty), Neptune (MaterialConfusion and Spiritual Clarity), Chiron (Despair and Miracles), and dwarf planet Gonggong (Intrusive Memories) on one side, and Mars (Action) and Orcus (Oath-Making and -Breaking) on the other. Just by virtue of its Complexity, this was the Core of the chart, even though Oppositions aren’t particularly troublesome, unless we get stuck in an Either/Or and can’t get out. Basically this is about Karmic or Childhood Memories of Confusion unto Despair caused by Codependent Relationships.
Until we Understood what Codependence is, it was terribly Confusing for someone trying to figure out just Who They Are and how to set good Boundaries, which we all had to try to do as kids. If our parents weren’t particularly Emotionally Mature – and no one has a right to Expect them to have been at their then-age – it’s not just Confusing, it’s a Total Disaster. Though it was a little-known concept prior to that, Codependence wasn’t even a term until it was invented to facilitate the Pluto-in-Scorpio Recovery Movement in the mid-1980s.
Before that it was just considered Normal, and still is, except for the Urge to Individuation. For those of us in the First Wave, it was Hellishly Confusing, as we tried to Learn how to start pretending to be Huper so we could be less conspicuous and less frequently Punished. So a big part of this 2010-2021+ Cycle has been about Re-experiencing the Codependence-Naïveté of our Childhood Confusion, and Learning to set more Effective Boundaries. If it feels like a Crash Course after the last decade, it’s because that’s what a Waning Square is all about – Really Making Sure that We’ve Learned the Lesson.
The Exciting thing is that we’re Finished with this Work, though of course we can continue to Polish our Skills for the rest of our Life. Be Delighted that you haven’t needed to take your Crash Course by getting sucked into a Codependent Relationship with the Antichrist, as so many have, Bless their Ravaged Souls. A perfect example of Getting Stuck in an Either-Or. We can hope that the Waning Jupiter-Uranus Square marks the Beginning of a rapid Decline in this sorry excuse for Huperity. A final Homeopathic Aggravation before they pawn their Marvel Comics collection or slink back under their rocks.
The Constructive side of this Stellium (a group of 3 or more planets) is The Chironean Miracles we Create by Choosing Self-Trust and Spiritual Clarity when Codependent Flashbacks occur – making them Flushbacks. There are no Karmic Police – our Karma hangs on only because it’s so Familiar that we often don’t Recognize that there are Alternatives, or they seem to be more trouble than they’re worth. Once we become Conscious of the Karma and Notice that a Flashback is Beginning, we can Step Out of the Victim Role by Poor-Sweethearting ourself and Changing the Subject. Spiritual Clarity means that we Know in our Heart that every Path leads upward into Grace eventually, so we may as well Choose an Easier one.
And that’s just one end of the Opposition. The other end, where the real Either/Or has come in, was Mars-Orcus. The Mythic Orcus punished Oath-Breakers. Like Nemesis, Orcus comes down Heavy on us when we contemplate a Life of Freedom and Yintegrity. Yes, we Promised ourself that we’d Never tell anybody, so he wouldn’t Kill Mom. And yes, we Vowed that we’d Never Leave the Battlefield no matter how Terrified we were. And yes, you can still hear him or her saying They Would Never, They Would Never Break the Chain. But that was Then, and this is Now.
Mars may have made Orcus look Bigger than he was. Or it may have meant that you finally get Angry enough to Disavow that Juvenile or Enforced Promise. Or just that you Took Action to Revert the Curse, Self-Administered or otherwise. From the Perspective of Freedom of Action, Thought, Emotion, and Spirit, any Decision is a Curse. Make a list of all of your Decisions, and review it every Morning to see which one(s), if any, you Choose to follow that Day.
Mars-Orcus only added to the Confusion. Did we Fear the Consequences of Disloyalty? Were we Angry enough to Bite Through our Codependent chains? Did the Imagined Consequences of Disloyalty make us Despair that we’d ever Discover Freedom? Were our Ancient Oaths of Allegiance in an endless Helicopter-Trip Argument with our Intrusive Memories of Abuse? Or with our Irrepressible Desires? Did the Religious Propaganda used to Imprison you as a Youth fight with your Promise to yourself to Relentlessly Pursue Unconditional Self-Love?
There is another Almost-Grand-Sextile in the Initiation chart, but the only asteroid I found that filled the Vacancy was Toro – one of the first Near-Earth-Orbit asteroids discovered. You know, one of those big Space Rocks that could Slam into the Earth one day and Extinct the remaining Dinosaurs, ruining our Day in the process. Or like the Space-Laser that lit California afire in the Fantasy of one of those Dinosaurs.
Here’s an example of the Squares to Uranus. We’ll start with Jupiter, which Waning-Squared Uranus on 18 January 2021. The chart is pretty benign…
The Square is the base of a Mjölnir (Epiphany) to Vesta, clearly indicating that the Main Effect is Expansion of our Consciousness by Letting Go of Limiting Beliefs(Vesta), especially around Adjusting our Ego-Attachments to Gender issues(with Mars [quintessential Male] and Lilith [quintessential Self-Sovereign Female] Embracing Uranus [Soul] from both sides). (The Mjölnir is the red-and-yellow triangle, a Square and two Trioctiles. An Ego astrologer would call it a “Hammer of Thor.”)
It’s not about pronouns or bathrooms or whom we prefer to date, it’s about whether our Inner Female and Inner Male Collaborate more than they Compete. Our External Reality is a Mirror for our Internal Reality, and 5D prefers Collaboration.
It’s Lilith that carries our Ancient Wisdom, and it’s the Inner Female who Knows Who We Are and What We Want. Eve, who God plugged in to replace Lilith, Manipulated Adam by sticking him in his Left Brain with that Apple, depriving him of his Intuition. Absent his Intuition, he ended up Lusting after his own Rib. Descartes just collated the Encyclopedia, he didn’t Create the material – that was Eve’s work (think Venus). If Adam had been willing to Serve Lilith instead of demanding that she Serve him, the World would be very different today. We can still Choose to get back there and correct the error. The more of us Trust the Guidance of our Inner Female (whatever our birth or adopted Gender), the sooner we return to the Garden.
The recent 28 January Full Moon Lights it Up even more…
… with a T-Square, or Direct Challenge from the Full Moon itself. The Full Moon is another Female-Male analog, and it’s ambidextrous. In Western Culture the Moon is usually Magnetic and the Sun Dynamic, but the symbolism is reversed in many Cultures, even German. In this Blog we interpret the Sun as Essence and the Moon as Instincts, so they’re of indeterminate Gender, yet the Sun-Moon Relationship is arguably more Important than the Venus-Mars Relationship in comparing two charts for compatibility. Venus-Mars is Hotter, but Sun-Moon is more Lasting and more conducive to Community. Look closely and you’ll also see a green wedge (Finger of the Goddess) pointing at Uranus, making the Soul Challenge Self-Resolving.
The Full Moon chart also features an Almost-Grand-Sextile (the blue all-but-hexagram) – a would-be Great Boon if we could find the Key to the Vacant position in early Aries. Which in this case is Easy – all we have to do is stretch our Sensitivity (Orb) from 3 Degrees to 3½, and Chiron pops right in to Complete the Grand Sextile. So yes, we have Inner Integration homework to do, but the Angels await our requests for their Assistance. Grace erupts from a Grand Sextile only after we take the First Step.
But the Big Deal here is that the Jupiter-Uranus Square is Waning – Jupiter has gone three fourths of the way toward Completing its Current Cycle with Uranus, which means that while all of the above is terribly relevant in the short term, the longer-term Impact is that the Current Cycle is Winding Down, and we need to take that into account.
What’s the Current Jupiter-Uranus Cycle about? Jupiter-Uranus in general is about Expansion of the Soul’s Role in our Life. This one began in 2010 at 1 Aries, “A Woman just risen from the Sea, being embraced by a Seal” – Venus on the half-shell.
So what have we been doing for the last Decade – Rising above our Emotions? I’m not sure that would be very Global. Womankind arising out of Immersion in the Unconscious? Or Immersion in Codependence? Those trends are far older than ten years. We can look at the Initiation chart in the next post.
We start February with a week of Converting Fear to Power (dwarf planet Sedna Stationary 1pm PST 8 February in 28 Taurus). A good time to recall that…
Fear plus Breathing equals Excitement.
Fear plus Tapping equals Grounding and Presence. It may also help to Imagine a cable extending from the base of your Spine to the Center of the Earth.
Fear plus Kegels equals Power. Kegels slow down Time, so your Reactions are relatively more timely.
Our Fear is likely to be enhanced by Moon Out of Bounds (Emotions are often more Intense), over the Southern Hemisphere, starting at 9:56 pm PST 6 February. It’s Stationary as it turns North again at 7:31 am PST 8 February It returns In Bounds at 5:24 pm PST 9 February. The Moon, barring a Catastrophe so huge we’d never notice it (we’d be well on our way to our next Incarnation), never turns Retrograde. It travels from 22 Sagittarius to 1 Aquarius while it’s OOB. It’s at 11 Capricorn (in Longitude) when it’s Stationary (in Declination).
So our Opportunity to practice becoming Adept with Fear probably peaks at around 7:30 am PST 8 February, as the Moon often triggers the Impact, on us, of larger astroevents, and the Moon is at Peak Intensity then. There may be another peak around 1pm PST 8 February, when Sedna is Stone Cold Still. Well, Sedna’s probably a Methane Iceball, so I guess it would be Ice Cold Still. And there may be a third peak at around 1pm PST 9 February, when the Moon Completes a meaningful Angle (a Waning Trine from Capricorn) to Sedna at 28 Degrees. At that point the Moon is still OOB, and Sedna is still very Stationary though slowly starting to think about moving forward again (it will have moved less than one ten-thousandths of a Degree since its actual Station – on a clock that would be a third of a second).
A Perspective we use is that the slower a planet moves (Sedna), the more Impact it has on the Planet as a whole, but also the less our Consciousness registers it. Conversely, the faster a planet moves (the Moon), the more Conscious we are of it, but the more fleeting is its Impact. We’re more Conscious of faster planets because we get a lot more Practice with them as they zip around and Light Up both our natal (when we were born) planets, and the other Transiting (in the sky now) planets.
In the case of Sedna and the Moon, this contrast is as big as it gets, as the Moon in its orbit takes 28 days to Journey round the Zodiacal loop, while Sedna takes 11,400 years to make one loop. That’s a ratio of about 1 to 150,000. Compare your biceps after 1 push-up to your biceps after 150,000 push-ups. So our Subjective Experience of the Fear could be 150,000 times as Intense as the actual Impact of the Earth Changes that the Sedna Station Creates. On the other hand, the Objective Unconscious Impact of Sedna’s Station could be 150,000 times larger than our Conscious Subjective Experience of it. Since Sedna is Changing your Unconscious as it Changes the Earth, keep these ratios in mind as you Breathe, Tap, and do your Kegels.
We belabor these notions because most astrofolks profess that 2021’s Biggest astroevent is the 17 February Square between Saturn and Uranus. To Ego astrology, Saturn represents Limitation, and Uranus represents Disruption. Seems like we’ve had plenty of that already, don’t it. To our flavor of astrology, however, Saturn represents The Most Important Thing and Uranus represents Our Soul. So yes, Uranus Disrupts, it Disrupts anything that’s no longer in Alignment with Our Soul. Uranus in Taurus represents Descent of Soul into Matter, or Reanimation of the Planet and Respiritualization of Humanity. Saturn in Aquarius means The Most Important Thing is Our Community.
That’s automatically a Conflict, because Our Community (or Family, in the most nuclear of Communities) expects us to Conform to the “Standards” it has set for its members (Yangtegrity), and Descent of Soul into Flesh requires that we stop sacrificing our Yintegrity to please Others. I guess if we see this happening without Consciousness, it’s one way to view what History books might call the Covidiot Rebellion or the White-Egos-Matter-Most Uprising, and its assault on the US Congress. And I’ll wager it’s a Challenge for most of us as well, on one level or another.
We suggested earlier that we’d also write about Jupiter’s 18 January Square to Uranus, and we still Intend to. The Saturn Square is a similar phenomenon, and more important, so it makes sense to write about them together. The most relevant information about them is that these are Waning Squares, corresponding to the Last Quarter Moon. While the primary indication of a Waxing Square is that a Change has reached the Mainstream, the primary indication is that the Change has run its course and it’s now time to Let Go of our Investments in the Current Cycle, so we can be Empty enough to be as Open as possible to the New Cycle when it arrives.
The Initiation of the Current Saturn-Uranus Cycle defined the Harmonic Convergence in mid-February 1988. It and its cluster of concurrent astroevents formed the basis of the original version of this series of essays, 32 years ago. The Sabian Symbol for the Current Saturn-Uranus Cycle (30 Sagittarius) was “The Pope, blessing the faithful.” Most of us who were Motivated by those Changes interpreted that as a “Pope” or Authority from a Higher Vibration than the one in Italy, an Authority more in tune with the Perennial Wisdom in Esoteric Religions. Rumi was a good candidate for such a position.
We’re still working to bring those Changes into our Lives. Restoring Indigenous Elders to their rightful Heritage is but one example. But the Waning Square tells us that we’ve done our Work, and it’s time to Let Go of our Investments and Rest Up for the next Adventure, which will begin in late June 2032 with (28 Gemini) “Through bankruptcy, society gives to an overburdened individual the opportunity to begin again.” Don’t read too much into that, because between now and then we’ll jettison so much Cultural Baggage that by 2032 it will have no resemblance to what it means to us today. One can never see Clearly beyond the Void between the Waning Square and the following Cycle, because our Perspective Changes so much while we’re in the Void.
If I was pressed to say something about the current Changes, I’d say that Striving to Be Faithful to some Standard, whether a Community’s or some interpretation of a Soul’s Standards, is what’s Obsolete. Rather than trying to Change ourself, Seeking to Love Ourself Unconditionally will be more appropriate in this Void. It represents a major Change in the manner of our Soul’s Descent into Flesh. Our Old Striving had its roots in Mentality, our Shoulds. Now we may need to “quit Shoulding on ourself” entirely, as the old saying goes. The Most Important Thing here is to Surrender to our Soul, which is not about Intellectual Reaching, it’s about Relaxing into Coming Home to our True Self, warts and all.
The Challenge will be to Let Go of the Friends and Communities who have Shared our Striving, if they’re unable to Suffer our True Self without Judgment.
Most planets “Turn Retrograde,” or Move Backwards, usually annually. They don’t actually go Backwards, it just looks that way from here, because Earth in its orbit is passing the slower planet in its orbit. Because the Earth spins in a perpetual Sufi-Dance, we’d have to take a snapshot of the sky at the same time every night to actually witness the Retrograde planet moving Backwards. This is how a planet crosses the same region of the Zodiac three times, first Moving Forward (or “Direct”), then Backwards, then Forward again.
The first crossing (“Can-Opener”) Opens Issues, the second or Retro crossing (“Exposition”) Expands Upon Them, and the third crossing (“Confidence-Builder”) develops our Confidence that We Can Handle Them ok.
That’s if we’re Conscious that they’re happening. If we aren’t Conscious of them and succumb to Experiencing the Can-Opener as its Victim, we could Experience the second crossing as the Universe Beating us Up Again, make Decisions that we’ll never be Vulnerable to that again, or that we’re going to Retaliate, and Whoosh, we’ve just Created New Karma, new Unconscious Limitations and Negative Expectations.
The Zoning and Timing of asteroid Atropos’s 2020-2021 Retrogradation unfolds like this…
(1) Letting Go of our Sentimental Attachments (Pisces Duad of Cancer – a Duad is 2½ Degrees), 19:30-22:30 Cancer. First crossing 5-14 September 2020, Retro crossing 9 February-10 March 2021, Final crossing 10 March-10 April 2021. Whatever we want to Manifest, we first need Neutrality – we can’t be Attached to Outcomes. Then we need Passion, because the raw material for Manifestation is Emotion. If you think this is Oxymoronic, you need to find some way to make it Paradoxical instead (hint: Mind is Binary, Reality is Multidimensional).
(2) Replacing Emotional Attachments with Spiritual Connections (Aries Duad of Cancer), 22:30-25:00 Cancer. First crossing 14-22 September 2020, Retro crossing 29 January-9 February 2021, Final crossing 10-22 April 2021. Note that the Retro crossing runs the sequence backwards.
(3) Anchoring these Connections into Hardcopy Reality (Taurus Duad of Cancer), 25:00-27:30 Cancer. First crossing 22-30 September 2020, Retro crossing 20-29 January 2021, Final crossing 22 April-2 May 2021. You can start to see the importance of Consciousness – if we rued the ripping out of our Emotional Attachments instead of Recognizing that Change was due, then we could easily have skipped the second step, and now what we Anchor into Hardcopy Reality is not Spiritual Connection, but Blame, and Stewing in our Abandonment. But there’s still time to turn it around.
(4) Standing back and Giving these New Creations their Sovereignty (Gemini Duad of Cancer), 27:30-30:00 Cancer. First crossing 30 September-9 October 2020, Retro crossing 11-20 January 2021, Final crossing 2-11 May 2021. “Your children are not your children / They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself” –Kahlil Gibran.
(5) Re-Discovering Who We Are without these Attachments (Leo Duad of Leo), 0:00-2:30 Leo. First crossing 9-20 October 2020, Retro crossing 2-11 January 2021, Final crossing 11-19 May 2021. “First you must know who you are / Then you must know who she is / Then you must know who you are” –Richard Brautigan.
(6) Letting Go of Who We No Longer Are (Virgo Duad of Leo), 2:30-5:00 Leo. First crossing 20 October-2 November 2020, Retro crossing 21 December 2020-1 January 2021, Final crossing 20-27 May 2021. Time to Kick old Habits that Belonged to Someone Else, someone we used to be.
(7) Meeting what we’ve Spawned, as Equals (Libra Duad of Leo), 5:00-7:02 Leo. First crossing 2-27 November 2020, Retro crossing 27 November-20 December 2020, Final crossing 27 May-2 June 2021. Imagine that you started out on 5 September Focusing on What You Don’t Want, and you weren’t able to Let It Go. Well, the US election is tomorrow. What do you suppose you’ll Manifest?
We started this journey on 5 September, so we’re already at stage 5, Re-Discovering Who We Are.
What in your own Life matches the TimeLine above so far, over the last five weeks?
jbuss Astrology 