Warmup for the Digital Age

Jupiter and Saturn are considered the “Social Planets” – the Inner Planets are more or less in charge of Personal Character, and the Outer Planets in charge of the goings-on in the Underwhere. Which, even though it underlies everything, is kind of a Freudian Perspective – we could instead be calling it the Overwhere, as we agree with Jung’s Perspective that the “Unconscious” provides a map to our Wholeness, Integration, Coherence, Enlightenment, Ascension, 5D, nD. It’s a Puzzle Map, not a “Turn Left in 32 Feet” kind of Guide, because if it was so Easy, who would Value it? Hupers are like that.

Many people are in stiff Resistance to this sort of notion, however, so I’ve always found it easier on everyone to assume that some folks are inherently Jungian, and some inherently Freudian. That way we never have to argue with anybody about whether or not they Roll Their Own.

The Political Economy is one of the stalwarts of Society (one of the warts as well of course), and the Jupiter-Saturn Conjunctions fall into 180-year Cycles that have a reputation for being heavily involved in the Political Economy. Jupiter laps Saturn every twenty years, and seven of their Conjunctions occur (and Cycles Begin) in the same Element, then they toggle, then seven in the next element. Here’s a full Turning of the Spiral…

… Preview in Water (first Conjunction in Water 1444, one Water Cycle 1444-1464),
Debriefing in Air (one last Conjunction in Air 1464, one last Air Cycle 1464-1484),
Age of Water (seven Conjunctions in Water 1484-1603, seven Water Cycles 1484-1623),
Preview in Fire (first Conjunction in Fire 1623; one Fire Cycle 1623-1643),
Debriefing in Water (one last Conjunction in Water 1643; one last Water Cycle 1643-1663),
Age of Fire (seven Fire Conjunctions 1663-1782; seven Fire Cycles 1663-1801),
Preview in Earth (first Conjunction in Earth 1801; one Earth Cycle 1801-1822),
Debriefing in Fire (one last Conjunction in Fire 1822; one last Fire Cycle 1822-1842),
Industrial Age (seven Earth Conjunctions 1842-1961; seven Earth Cycles 1842-1980),
Preview in Air (first Conjunction in Air 1980, one Air Cycle 1980-2000),
Debriefing in Earth (one last Conjunction in Earth 2000, one last Earth Cycle 2000-2020),
Digital Age (seven Conjunctions in Air 2020-2140, seven Air Cycles 2020-2159),
Preview in Water (first Conjunction in Water 2159, first Water Cycle 2159-2179),
Debriefing in Air (one last Conjunction in Air 2179, one last Air Cycle) …

and so on, with variation as always, of course. By “seven Water Cycles” we mean seven Jupiter-Saturn Cycles that Initiated in Water Signs. Like people, we characterize Cycles by the Sign they were born under. Notice we have Columbus and his fellow Colonialists and Thieves Sailing the Ocean Blue during the Age of Water, and Revolution common in the Age of Fire. The Industrial Age was filled with Coal and Iron and Oil and Mechanicals, Stuff of the Earth. The Digital Age will be all about Electromagnetism and Robotics and Stuff of the Mind – as was our 1980-2000 Preview of it.

The IBM PC was introduced in 1980, and the Dot-Com Crash occurred in 2000, both almost to the day of the Conjunctions. A large swath of Kansas (at high altitude) was reserved today for testing of a new generation of commercial supersonic aircraft. Musk and Bezos will be shooting their tin cans to Mars. The electromechanical technological leaps in the coming century-plus will make the 1980s and 1990s look like kindergarden. Unfortunately the next Water Age won’t be about Sailing the Ocean Blue, it’ll be about the Ocean Blue coming to live in our neighborhoods.

The Digital Age starts in earnest at 10:21 am PST 21 December 2020 Saturn-Jupiter Initiation, aka the Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction. Conjunctions frequently repeat (as the faster planet turns Retrograde), and it’s the first Conjunction of a sequence that begins a Cycle. We call it a Faster planet-Slower planet Conjunction because the Faster planet is overtaking the Slower planet. And we call it a Slower planet-Faster planet Initiation because at the Initial Conjunction the Slower planet plays the role of the Shaman or Guru or Mentor, conferring Shaktipat on the Faster Planet and giving it an assignment till they meet again. The Faster planet does the Bidding of the Slower planet.

We read the character of a Cycle by reading the chart of the Initiation. When we read the 21 December Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction, which we’ll do soon, it will be a reading about the political economy and social milieu of the next twenty years. There are several Sign Changes this week that we’ll need to talk about, which we intend to do soon, because they’re laying the foundation for the New Cycle – including Saturn and Jupiter entering Air Sign Aquarius. Saturn enters at 9am PST 16 December, and Jupiter at 5am PST 19 December. And of course the Sun enters Capricorn at 2:05 am PST 21 December, defining the Capricorn Solstice, aka the Northern Winter Solstice and the Southern Summer Solstice, when the Sun goes Stationary and our Essence is particularly Strong.

Asteroids Lachesis (Finishing Karmic TimeLines) and Juno (Growth in Consciousness), and dwarf planet Ixion (Our Hidden and Often Forbidden Unique Genius) also Change Signs this week, and the Exaggeration (Station) of asteroid Karma (Karma) dominates the rest of the week, giving us a chance to move into the New Age with a Clean Slate if we’re willing to Let Go of our Karmic Identities and Attachments.

Changes in Latitude

Most of us probably have at least a rough idea of how Longitude and Latitude work.  Longitude measures how far east or west of (a line drawn from pole to pole through) London a place is, and Latitude measures how far north or south of the Equator it is. They’re measured in Degrees; up to 180° E or W, and up to 90° N or S.

Our Time Zones are based on Longitude, with adjustments for political boundaries, economic relationships, etc.  For instance, New York and Detroit are in the same Time Zone even though they’re quite a few Degrees apart, and the westernmost part of Michigan that’s in the Eastern Time Zone is only a few miles from what should be the center of the Central Time Zone.

It gets more complicated when you start projecting lines of Longitude and Latitude into the Sky.  Adjustment here aren’t made for the convenience of politics or commerce, but for the ease of astronomy.  The Equator is equidistant from the Poles, but the Polar Axis is tilted relative to our orbit around the Sun.  That’s what gives us our Seasons, as our half of the Planet is tilted toward or away from the Sun.  For astronomers, it’s the plane of our orbit around the Sun that’s far more important than the Equator.

(Now, I’m not an astronomer, so I’ll have to tell you how I understand it to be, which may be a bit different than how an astronomer would describe it.)  Projected into the Sky, the plane of our orbit around the Sun is called the “Ecliptic.”  The Moon’s Nodes, for instance, are the places where the Moon crosses the Ecliptic, North when it’s crossing from below to above and South when it’s crossing from above to below.  Of course that’s “above” and “below” from the Northern Perspective; it’s the other way around when seen from Australia or Argentina or Botswana.

The distance from a planet in the Sky to the Ecliptic is called its “Declination.”  It’s like Latitude, but not quite, because it’s relative to the Ecliptic rather than the Equator, and the relationship between Latitude and Declination changes with the Seasons.  But in a very loose, averagey kind of way, you can think of Declination as a substitute for Latitude, so a planet at 49° N Declination is roughly overhead in Paris, and one at 34° S Declination is roughly overhead in Sydney.

Astrological Longitude gets tricky because of what astrologers call the “Precession of the Equinoxes,” which means that the “Fixed” Stars aren’t really Fixed, when seen from Earth.  Of course, as usual, it’s us that’s moving, not them.  Well, of course they’re moving too, but they’re so far away we can’t really detect it.  But the point is that, relative to our Longitude, the Stars are slowly moving, about 0.84 arcseconds a year.  In 26,000 years or so, they’ll be back to where they are now.

Divide that 26,000 years by 12 (astrologers divide by 12 quite a lot – it’s a Sacred Geometry sort of thing), and you get our roughly-two-millennia-long “Ages,” as in the “Age of Pisces” (which we’re leaving) and the “Age of Aquarius,” which we’re entering.  From our Perspective, its the Equinox that’s moving relative to the Stars.  So when the North Pole is leaning toward the Sun at max (the Northern Spring), the Stars will have moved a little  from where they were last year at this time.

There are actually two different kinds of astrology, one based on the position of the Stars, and one based on the position of the Equinox.  (Of course there are many more, but we only need to consider two here.)  We use “Tropical” astrology, in which 0° Aries is when the North Pole leans toward the Sun at max (which puts the Sun overhead at 23:27° N Latitude, on the “Tropic of Cancer,” hence “Tropical” astrology).  In Sidereal astrology, 0° Aries is when the Sun enters the Constellation Aries (the Constellations move with the Stars).  A couple thousand years ago, they were the same.

When astrologers say that two planets are Conjunct, they aren’t really one behind the other – that’s called an “Occultation,” meaning one really is Hidden or Occulted by the other – “Occult” just means Hidden.  A Conjunction just means that they are on the same astrological Longitude in the Sky, even if their Declinations are separated by half the visible sky.

A reader has asked…

“Maybe I’m missin’ the boat, but if da Moon is currently at 9 degrees of Capricorn, then how is it OOB?  I’ve got my Moon in Cap at 23 deg plus, which is defo OOBs.”

Nine (or any) Degrees of Capricorn (or any Sign) is the astrological Longitude (East/West).  The Moon goes Out of Bounds when it exceeds 23:27 Degrees of Declination (North/South).  A Full Moon at 9 Capricorn would Oppose the Sun around the end of June.  The Moon goes from max North to max South every 28 days or so.  How far max North or South is what varies on the 20-or-so-year Cycle – for about ten years the Moon never goes OOB (beyond 23:27° N or S), then for the following decade or so the Moon goes OOB for a day or two every two weeks, alternating between N and S.

Out of Bounds is defined by the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn – 27:23° N and S.  The Sun never goes beyond those Latitudes or Declinations, barring an asteroid collision that’s big enough to alter the Earth’s tilt – in which case we wouldn’t be in a position to care.  The Sun is always on the Ecliptic, so for a Solar or Lunar Eclipse to occur, the Moon also needs to be near the Ecliptic, which the Moon crosses every two weeks.

An Eclipse is an Occultation, also sometimes called a Parallel Conjunction when planets other than the Sun and Moon are involved.  Latitudes, and Declinations by extension, are sometimes called “Parallels,” because lines of Latitude are indeed parallel to one another.  Lines of Longitude on the other hand Converge at the Poles.  Hence the name Parallel Conjunction for Occultations, or Contra-Parallel Conjunction when the two Conjoining planets are in the same Degree of Declination, but one is North (often written as “+”) and the other South (often written as “-“) of the Ecliptic.

Aries Equinox Molt

Juli asks an excellent question – “What on earth are Kegels?”  Kegels are an excellent Response to Fear, as they Slow Down Time.  The greater the Fear, the greater the Slowing…

https://www.healthline.com/health/kegel-exercises

Often prescribed for women to reverse urinary incontinence after childbirth or aging, they’re just as good for men.  I’m not suggesting that champion baseball and basketball players do Kegels, but if you’ve ever wondered how someone can place-hit a 160kph/100mph fastball or coordinate a fast break, it’s a lot easier when Time is moving at half-speed.

After I learned this (from Jack Schwartz, a remarkable workshop of his I was lucky enough to attend), by “coincidence” I went to see the movie Alien, and couldn’t help but do Kegels all through the movie.  When I left the theater, it felt as though it took me hours to get home, even though it was about 5k, at 65kph (3 mi at 40mph) – less than 10 minutes clock time.  I was alarmed enough by the pace to check my speedometer dozens of times, and every time it said I was traveling at the legal speed limit.

It’s worth having a look at that Tricolor Configuration in the Aries Equinox chart.  Since it’s a chart for an Equinox, we can Expect it to impact our Lives and our Planet for much of the next Year…

Many of the Players in the chart are Stationary (Strong)…

• Mnemosyne on 15 March 10pm PDT
• Ceres on 18 March 10pm PDT
• Hopi on 19 March 8am PDT
• Ixion on 27 March 2pm PDT
• Pholus on 29 March 9pm PDT
• Quaoar 1 on April 3pm PDT

The end of March looks to be particularly Dramatic, by the way, with Forbidden-Genius Ixion, Full-Responsibility Pholus, and Survival-Instincts Quaoar all Strong at the same time.

As long-time readers will recall, we interpret a Tricolor (so named for the profound reason that it’s made up of a red line, a green one, and a blue one) by focusing on Curiosity (the green Quincunx line) as the means to unlock the Grace (the blue Trine line) hidden in the Challenge (the red Square line).

The Stellia (groups of 3 or more planets) are Challenging enough on their own, even before they Square one another…

• Sun-Chiron-Nemesis – Sun (Essence) says we’re going deep, Chiron gives us a Choice between Despairing and Poor-Sweethearting ourself, and Nemesis suggests that we may Feel like we’re Dying or Shamefully Guilty, “simply” because the Ego is Molting.

• Ixion-Mars-Pholus-Quaoar – Mars (Urge to Action) will be Agitating our Forbidden Genius (Ixion), likely exciting his/her Resentment at being Forbidden, and Egging her/him to Speak Out and Act Out.  Pholus (Responsibility) is about Preparing for Unforeseen Circumstances, those famous Unknown Unknowns.  And Quaoar suggests that Taking Full Responsibility may be, or at least Feel like, a Life and Death issue.

So here the Challenge is to Accept some pretty profound Healing by Recognizing that a Part of our Soul has been Forbidden to Be Present in this Lifetime, and that this Part of Us is critical to getting ourself and our Planet into 5D.  We were probably Punished by our Programmers when we Acted out this Part of ourself as Children, and as a result we developed certain Beliefs and Values that have molded and Limited our Lives ever since. 

These Beliefs and Values are Obsolete and up for Disposal, but they Feel totally Core to our Identity.  If you think you know what they might be, you’re probably on the right track, but you’re also probably not quite hitting the mark, as our existing Egos will Protect these Obsolete Values and Beliefs “with its Life.”  If you have a lot of Practice Recognizing and Accepting Ego Death, it will likely be Easier, but we can all Expect to be Surprised.

Stellia are the First Harmonic, or Magic.  Magic happens when we are able to Shift our Assemblage Point (as Castaneda would say), or Shift our Perspective, allowing us to See the World Newly.  When two or more planets converge into the same Zodiacal place, their Energies Merge, yielding new Energies that we don’t Recognize as “Normal.”  Like any acid trip, we can either be Freaked Out or Entranced by this glimpse into Hermann Hesse’s Magische Theater.

The third Stellium is Memory-Life Force-Sustainability, or Mnemosyne-Varuna-Ceres.  We have Memories that, if Received as a PTSD Flashback that takes us fully out of the Present Moment, can Re-Traumatize us, but which, if we Receive them as a Revelation or Epiphany, have the Power to Heal.  We of course would prefer the latter.  How to Encourage it?

Through the Grace or Trine (the blue line) – if we can Respond to Pain by Poor-Sweethearting ourself and Opening to Self-Empathy (Chiron), and Respond to Guilt and Ego Death by focusing on the Freedom that will result from Confessing and Abolishing our old Limitations (Nemesis).  We complete the circuit and Flow from the Challenge to the Grace, by Paying Attention to the Curiosity embedded in the green line.

The Quincunx (green line) is not about the sort of Curiosity where we’re inspired to look everywhere for Solutions to what we see as a Problem.  That’s a Linear Perspective on a Multidimensional Universe.  The Dualistic mind likes to see the World through the Perspective of Problems and (maybe) Solutions, but the World is far deeper than that.  Better to see the World through the Eyes of a Child, where every Experience is New and Wondrous, and our primary Response is Awe.  That Opens us to seeing into the deeper Dimensions.

One way to attempt to Encourage this Innocence is through PIAVA – Prayer, Intention, Affirmation, Visualization, Asking, and its many other variations such as “Feelizing,” Expanding, Commanding, Wondering, etc.  So we might PIAVA “I Wonder if I can Hold a Healing Response to Memories of the Punishment I received as a Child for Being my Unique Me before I Learned to ‘Control myself.’ “

Or even “God/Goddess, Creator of All This Is, I Command that I Lovingly and Gently Sustain a Healing Response to Memories of the Punishment I received as a Child for Being Uniquely Myself.  It Is Done, It Is Done, It Is Done.  Thank You, God/Goddess.  Show me.”  If you don’t See Peace, Tap Out the Emotions or tensions or Circumstances, and try again, repeating till you See Peace.  You may also want to Poor-Sweetheart any youngsters that show up.

A social worker I know whose job includes negotiating Peace between parties at odds with one another, tells me that in the last month the number of people Freaking Out and insisting on their Right to be an Asshole, has multiplied.  This is exactly the Energy we’re talking about.  Our Programmers had what for them was an excellent, even black-and-white Mandatory, reason for Punishing us when we Displeased them.  Our Forbidden Parts are hidden behind walls of apparently justifiable Shame. 

We have to go Deeper, behind the Shame.  There is a Pure and Innocent Energy there that has Great Power for Good.  It was  Misinterpreted by your Programmers, or Misused by us in our initial clumsy attempts to Express it, and probably both.  We have to get behind these Misinterpretations and Misuses to the Pure Core Energy that has been Rejected and Abandoned.  You can even try a “You Poor Sweetheart, you’ve been Rejected and Abandoned, haven’t you.”  Even without a provocation, that could bring you directly in touch with your Forbidden Self.

The flip side of Abandonment is Suffocation.  Some of us were shadowed by overattentive Programmers who were Waiting for us to show any hint that we Might demonstrate the Behaviors that they loathed.  In many such cases, our Punishments had no apparent relationship to our “Crimes” – we still don’t know why we were Punished, only that we were.  The result could be a Free-Floating sense of Inadequacy.  We aren’t sure why (though we can make up a thousand justifiable reasons), we just know that we’re Not Fit to be Good Company for anyone Decent.

We Project our Unhealed Karma into our Relationships.  We so easily adopt the role of our Programmers when we feel Irritated, and define Other as Wrong.  We may do this with zero Awareness, or with a dim Awareness of what we’re doing, but either way, Noticing when you’re Judging Other is a good cue for something like a “You Poor Sweetheart, you’re Feeling Critical (or Criticized), aren’t you.” 

When you get a wee voice Responding to a Poor-Sweetheart, often over your Shoulder (your Abandoned and Suffocated Childhood Selves are likely to be Behind you), you’ve Opened a Gold Mine.  Make a Strong Connection to the wee voice, and note it’s location.  Extend your Love back to it.  The more you can be Open to that wee voice, the more it will talk to you and make this whole Healing process so much Easier.

The Grand Trine (big blue triangle, meaning Dumb-Luck Blessings) to Stationary Hopi – which signifies Respect for All Things – is a great boon suggesting that it will be particularly Powerful to Respond to any Criticism of Self or Other with Tapping, Poor-Sweethearting, or any other Self-Healing process.

Another Busy Weekend

We have dedicated our Lives to suppressing certain Emotions and Memories and even Thoughts, and for good reason.  They would Overwhelm us, and we have More Important things to do.  Till now.

Thing is, those Emotions and Memories and Thoughts are the doorways to Healing our Limiting Beliefs, making it Safe to Remove our remaining Masks, eliminating Self-Sabotage, uncorking our Forbidden Genius, and to painlessly achieving the Yintegrity and Self-Sovereignty that we so crave, but which we hold back from because we fear it would so Disrupt our Lives and the Lives of those we Love and Depend upon.  That sentence was not approved by the FDA, but I believe it’s True.  And it may even positively impact our Physical Health.

The Universe will bring these Emotions and Memories and Thoughts to us in early June, and the Universe has been, and continues to, give us Opportunities to get a head start.  And every early Opportunity we take advantage of will make June less painful.  If we’re still in Resistance to these Emotions and Memories and Thoughts in June, the process could well be painful.  The Universe is our friend, if we Learn to listen to Her.

As you probably know by now, Eris (Truthtelling) Initiates Uranus (Our Connection to Our Individual Soul) in early June.   We expect this to do a pretty good job of finishing up the Yintegrity work we’ve been doing since 2012.  Well, let’s put it this way – late May and early June will be the Can-Opener phase of this Initiation.  The Initiation occurs at 24 Aries, “Blown inward by the wind, the curtains of an open window take the shape of a cornucopia: Openness to the influx of spiritual energies.“

When an Angle between two planets repeats, as is usually the case with outer planets, the first event always catches us off guard.  The last time this event occurred was in 1926, so very few of us have Experienced it in our current Lifetime.  If you know someone in their 90s who’s freaking out, this is probably why.  The less Experience we have with an Energy, the more likely it is to catch us off guard.  Forewarned is forearmed, however, so even if we’re off guard, knowing in general what the Energy is about can help us make sense out of what’s happening, and can help us step out of the Victim Modality we’d otherwise be in.

Let’s take what we hope will be an extreme example – suppose we were sexually abused as a child.  We don’t remember it, we only notice that in some situations we feel Unsafe or Angry or Scared, or maybe we’re uncomfortable with Intimacy.  If those Memories pop up in late May or early June, we’re going to Regress to the age when the abuse occurred, and to the Skillset and Boundaries that we had – or more accurately didn’t have – at that age.  Victim Modality is a foregone conclusion, most especially if those Memories arise as a result of some similar-feeling Unsafety in the then-Present Moment.

If we are somehow reminded that there is likely to be a “100-year” Regression (a Regression on such a scale that it occurs only once in a century) going on, we’re still going to be caught off guard, but we’re likely to be able to Recover our Present-Moment Skillsets much sooner than if we didn’t get the memo, or as the case may be, the blog post.

We’ve talked before about “Sensitivity” – how Sensitive we are to an astrological event, something astrologers can “Orb,” and I sometimes call “Slop.”  When an event is pending, most folks can certainly begin feeling it when it comes within one Degree of being exact.  Of course the Muggles will be in Denial, finding all manner of excuses, thinking it’s Heartburn.  The more Sensitive among us will begin feeling an event when it comes within three Degrees.  The most Sensitive of us will feel it sooner than that.

The Eris-Uranus Initiation reaches one Degree of Sensitivity in Mid-May.  It reached three Degrees of Sensitivity in late March.  Most folks who read this are likely to be at least three-Degrees Sensitive, so most of us are already Feeling it.  We Feel it through pressure to stop hiding or covering up parts of ourself that we’ve thought were less attractive or less Skillful.  Through Vulnerability.  Through Epiphanies about where we’ve been seeing through a glass darkly.  Through old Identities and Ego-Masks and Archetypes that we’re outgrowing.  Through a Desire to stop “Playing Games.”

An Initiation is a Conjunction.  When Angles repeat three times, as the Uranus-Eris Conjunction does, the first occurrence is a Can-Opener.  It opens a “Can of Worms” that we didn’t know was waiting for us.  The second and third occurrences are also Conjunctions, but they aren’t Initiations – only the first event is an Initiation.  We’re almost always in Victim Mode during a Can-Opener.

The second occurrence is an Exposition – the same Energy recurs front and center, but this time it seems to occur in slow motion (Retrograde), so we have a far better chance of understanding what’s happening “to us,” and consequently a far better chance of moving from Victim Mode to Master Mode.  In Victim Mode things happen to us, we have no Control over them.  In Master Mode, even if things happen to us, we have Skills to deal with them adequately.  

If we Master an Energy during the Exposition, then the third occurrence is a Confidence-Builder.  The Energy and Process recurs, but this time we’re ready and able to deal with it using our now-Present-Moment Skillsets, including those we learned in the previous two events, and we sail through it, feeling great about our new Expertise.  If we didn’t Master the Energy during the Exposition, then the third occurrence becomes another Opportunity, another Exposition.

The Uranus-Pluto Square recurred six times after the Can-Opener, giving us an indication of how Important the Universe thought it was for us to Recover our Yintegrity.  As if Pluto didn’t already symbolize what is Mandatory (Adaptable but not Avoidable).  The Can-Opener (June 2012) was followed by five Expositions (October 2012, May and November 2013, May and December 2014) before the Confidence-Builder (March 2015).  

The Uranus-Eris Exposition peaks in late September, while the Confidence-Builder occurs at the Ides of March next year.

In other words, as Uranus approaches Eris, that section of the Zodiac (now 21-23 Aries) gets very Hot.  The Sun (our Essence) crossed that section last weekend (April 9-11), while Varuna (Cellular Wisdom) and Chariklo (Beauty and Charm) were Stationary.  Venus (our Values) crosses that section two weekends hence, April 22-24.  In between, this coming weekend (April 16-17), Mars (Action) and Pluto (Inevitability) are Stationary (Strong).

There’s a joke about two Olde-Boy psychologists trading stories about “Freudian slips.”  One says his attention was drawn to the bosom of a ticket-seller on a recent trip to Pittsburgh, and he accidentally asked for a picket to his destination instead of a ticket.  The other says, “That’s nothing.  The other day I was having dinner with my mother and when I meant to ask her to pass the butter, what came out instead was ‘Mother, you’ve ruined my Life and I hate you!’ ”  

It would be really appropriate to Mars-Pluto – and fortuitous – if such Freudian slips came out this weekend, because they would constitute bright flashing lights pointing us toward clues about what hasn’t come to the surface of Consciousness yet.  Let your tongue be your Guide this weekend.  Same with “slip-ups” of any sort.  Make a wrong turn on the way to the store?  Where did you end up?  Drop a jar of Honey on a hard floor?  What do you suppose that might mean?  PIAVA the question.  Run into someone you haven’t seen in a long time?  A stranger strikes up an interesting conversation?  Pay Attention this weekend.

In particular, in addition to the Retrograde Stations of Pluto (5am PDT 17 April at 18 Capricorn) and Mars (1am PDT 18 April at 9 Sagittarius), Vesta (Unconscious Beliefs) Initiates Mercury (Communication) at 3pm PDT 16 April, in 17 Taurus, “A symbolic battle between ‘swords’ and ‘torches’.”  Fascinating Symbol, as Swords symbolize mentality, as does Mercury.  That leaves Vesta standing in for Torches, indicating that…

Our Unconscious Limiting Beliefs are Burning their way out of Denial now, and will be for the next fifteen months, while this Mercury-Vesta Cycle moves through.  Just long enough to cover the Eris-Uranus Confidence-Builder.

We’ll talk more about the Vesta-Mercury Initiation – with its two Tricolors and Grand Trine – in the next installment, but note that while it’s occurring, the Sun is crossing the asteroid Mnemosyne – Memory.  What a jokester, this Universe!

The 21st Century IV – The Most Important Thing Is Fear

This’ll Expand your Perspective a bit…

http://inspiremore.com/nasa-just-released-the-largest-photo-ever-taken-what-it-shows-will-shake-you-up/ 

While you were watching that, did you Feel Smaller than usual, or Bigger?  Was it Both/And?  In what ways did you Feel Smaller and in what ways Bigger?  Expanding is one of the esoteric processes that extend PIAVA.  Watch it again, full-screen, while you Imagine having What you Want.

Saturn means The Most Important Thing.  It tells us when we need to quit multi-tasking and focus intensely on Priority #1.  On 1/1/2000, Saturn danced with the Moon, Pallas, and Uranus, advising that The Most Important Thing during the 21st Century will be Trusting our Instincts and adjusting our Boundaries to make room for our True Soul Self to Manifest (our Yintegrity) without its Habitual Masks.  

Saturn Opposed the Moon and T-Squared Pallas and Uranus at 12am on 1/1/2000 – in the Western Hemisphere.  In the Eastern Hemisphere the Moon-Saturn Opposition forms a Grand Cross with the Nodal Axis instead of the Pallas-Uranus Opposition.  We’ll consider the implications of this fascinating dichotomy later.

Saturn Feels like Limitation because we’re usually scared to put all of our Attention on Life Priority #1, because if we fail at that, we’ll really be a failure.  So we put backup Priorities in place, to keep us Safe just in case Priority #1 doesn’t work out.  And often, we “hired” a Significant Other or two to actively discourage us from working on Priority #1 (in order to increase the likelihood that we’ll bring it fully into Consciousness), often with punishment, so we’re scared we’ll be punished or humiliated if we drop all of our other Priorities.  

“Most people view the past as a ‘learning experience.’  They think, ‘Something happened, so I learned to feel or act in a certain way.  But that was years ago.  I’m older and more mature and I know it’s not the right thing to be doing – so why won’t it go away?  There must be something wrong with me.’  The thing to keep in mind is that there may be something wrong, but it doesn’t have to define us.  It means that there are certain unprocessed memories that are physiologically stored in our brains that contain the emotions and physical sensations that were there at the time of the event [or ongoing chronic negative Experience].  Because these memories are unprocessed, they continue to generate negative thoughts and feelings whenever they’re triggered.  That’s why you may have heard or seen some very successful friends suddenly begin to talk and act like children when they get on the phone with a family member.”  –Francine Shapiro, Getting Past Your Past: Take Control of Your Life with Self-Help Techniques from EMDR Therapy, pp.70-71 (emphasis mine)

It “won’t go away” because our Soul’s Plan is that we need to bring it into Consciousness.  Without all of our Fallbacks, we Feel very Limited.  But sooner or later we have to Transcend our Resistance to our First Priority.  There are no actual failures in Real Life, just Learning.  So we may as well get on with The Important Stuff.

We interpret dwarf planet Sedna as Actions Taken out of Fear.  When we’re lucky, Actions Taken out of Fear may lead to Safety, but unintended consequences often arise because we’re Acting from our Karmic Self – Reacting, not Able to Respond from our Grounded Presence.  On 1/1/2000, Saturn was Merged with dwarf planet Sedna.  

When two planets are Conjunct, their influences are Merged.  

With Saturn and Sedna Merged, we won’t be able to differentiate between The Most Important Thing and Acting out of Fear.  Even when we Respond to The Most Important Thing, we’ll second-guess ourself because we’ll think we Acted out of Fear.  You can see the Climate-Change Deniers trying to manipulate the Economic agenda to their financial advantage by relentlessly pressing this button.  And when we Act out of Fear, we won’t be sure if we’re actually addressing The Most Important Thing.  Hence much of the Confusion or Hopelessness over what to do by the people who see the impending Planetary Collapse, and self-aggrandizement by those whose temporary success prevents them from seeing it.  Not to mention the Fear of the people who see it and are scrambling to accumulate as much ephemeral wealth as they can before the Crash, in hopes it will insulate them from it.

Sedna Initiated Saturn the previous summer, at 17 Taurus, “A symbolical battle between ‘swords’ and ‘torches.’ ”  “Swords” represents the mind – our Shoulds.  “Torches” symbolize Spirit, our Truth.  This Cycle runs until 2030.  Saturn-Sedna is Trined (Grace) by Sun-Juno, implying that Expanding Consciousness is Big.  Saturn-Sedna also Quincunxes (Permanent Curiosity) Chiron-Pluto (Flag-Eagle-Chanticleer), implying that if we manage to avoid preconceptions we will be continually Surprised by how Getting Conscious of our Fear complements Expanding our Identity to the Light Body.

This changes our interpretation of Saturn’s role in the 21st Century to The Most Important Thing is Getting Conscious of our Fear of Trusting our Instincts and our Fear of Living in Yintegrity.  A good time to review…

• Yangtegrity means Doing what we said we would Do
• Yintegrity means Doing what we Feel like Doing, moment to moment

In order to Live in Yintegrity while the rest of the World lives in Yangtegrity, we’ll probably have to minimize our Commitments, Renegotiate often, and when we can’t Renegotiate and the Relationship is important to us, Make Amends.

Remember that we Lose the Veil in the 21st Century – Neptune on the South Node.  Neptune means Confusion when we view the World through Material Eyes (which is fine when we remember that Confusion is the first stage of Growth), and Clarity when we view the World through Spiritual Eyes.  The South Node represents our Old Habits.  The Veil “protects” us from understanding that it’s Spirit and Consciousness that are Real, not the Material World.  The Veil was useful while the experiment in Flesh was tentative and unstable, so Materiality wouldn’t disintegrate when we sneezed.  We’ve grown some now, and we can not only maintain stable Materiality while Being Spirit-Consciousness, but play with Materiality like Leggos.  Or at least, that’s where we should be after the Transformations and Trance Reformations of the 21st Century.

Our day-to-day Identity is more or less determined by the position of our Venus.  Folks with Venus in a Fire Sign (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) will lead this Transformation, because they have the least distance to travel to Identify with the Light Body.  Venus represents our Unconscious Values.  Moving to “I am the Light Body”  from “I am my Body” (Venus in Earth, Taurus or Virgo or Capricorn) or “I am my Emotions” (Venus in Water: Pisces, Scorpio, Cancer) or “I am my Thoughts” (Venus in Air, Aquarius or Libra or Gemini) will be more difficult, but the first step is becoming Conscious of Who you routinely Believe Yourself to Be.  If you ever catch yourself saying “I’m not one of those people who…” and examine it, you can learn a lot.  In the Lifetime, our basic sense of Identity doesn’t change.  But we can Learn alternate Identities as if in Theatre, diversifying our repertoire.

For many of us, Venus will Progress through three of the four Elements (Fire, Earth, Air, Water), four if we live long enough.  As Progressed Venus moves into a new Element, Identifying with that Element becomes much easier.  Your Sense of Self will be influenced not only by the Element your Venus is in, but also the Modality, Sign and House placement, Degree, and its Angular Relationship to other planets. 

Not sure we’ve ever mentioned a Progression.  Advancing a chart by one day suggests the Life circumstances at age 1, 2 days at age 2, 40 days at age 40, etc.  Since Venus moves on average one Sign a month, by age 30 (if not sooner) your Progressed Venus will be in the next Sign and therefore the next Element. 

Fire-Spirit, Earth-Matter, Air-Mentality, and Water-Emotion are the four Elements; Cardinal-Creative, Fixed-Stabilizing, and Mutable-Changing, are the three Modalities.  Four Elements times three Modalities gives you the twelve Signs, each of which features a unique combination of Element and Modality.  Elements and Modalities are critical in understanding the nature of the Signs.  Fire and Air Signs have Dynamic Polarity, while Earth and Water Signs have Magnetic Polarity.

We spoke earlier about Venus and Vesta, which are Merged in the 1/1/2000 chart.  Vesta represents our bottom-line Unconscious Beliefs, Beliefs we’re willing to Die or Kill for.  These are not fixed.  To a large extent they are Karmic – based on old Habits – so they can change, but first we must become Conscious of what they are.  Unless we were born when Venus and Vesta were Merged, the dissonance between the Century’s Merged Venus-Vesta and our own distinct Values and Unconscious Beliefs, will help bring contrary Beliefs into Consciousness because we’re drawn to the Merger.  If we were born with Venus and Vesta Merged, then the Century’s Merger will exaggerate our Identification, which again will help bring it into Consciousness, but in a very different way.

If we were born with Venus Conjunct Vesta, we won’t be able to distinguish our Values from our Unconscious Beliefs.  Like most astrological influences, this is good and bad – good in the sense that your Life will probably include less Self-Sabotage, bad in the sense that you could be “too” sure of yourself on the Ego-Material level, and reject other valid Perspectives that could potentially advance your Consciousness.  Since Venus moves four times faster than Vesta, they will eventually Progress apart.

We aver that in the 21st Century The Most Important Thing is Getting Conscious of our Fear of Trusting our Instincts and our Fear of Living in Yintegrity, but it’s obvious that many people are living this on a whole different level, the level where The Most Important Thing is Rescuing Ourself from Fear or The Most Important Thing is Milking the Fear of the Masses for Our Own Gain.  The “War on Terror” is a bellows to accelerate these conflagrations for personal gain.  The Medical-Pharmaceutical-Insurance Cartel is a Master at milking the Once-Born’s Fear of Death.  

It’s often said that Evil feeds on Fear, but I think it’s More Important to see the Light feeding on Fear.  We came here to Absorb and Transform the pandemic of excess Negative Emotion, to help prevent it from spreading to other parts of the Galaxy.  We do that by Being Present with Fear – ours and that of Others – and grounding it.  We do that most effectively by Identifying with the Light Body.  The Light Body does not Fear Darkness because it knows it to be only a Shadow that the Chanticleer will dissolve.  The Light Body does not Fear Death because it knows it to be a misinterpretation of Material Transformation.  The Light Body, like Winnie, does not Fear Fear itself because it knows that Fear is just an artifact of the Emotional Body becoming Ungrounded.

Portal 21-25.5

Aren’t these lovely little Gems?  In many crystals, one metal or anion can substitute for the usual suspect.  In this Crystal with three metals, Galkhaite, the first metal can be either Cesium or Thallium, the second either Mercury or Copper or Zinc, the third either Arsenic or Antimony, and the anion is Sulfur (a metallic ion is positively charged, so to make a neutral Crystal you need a negatively charged partner, the anion).  So you don’t know whether a given specimen of it is innocent, or dangerous because of Radiation and/or Mercury and/or Arsenic!  Kind of like the Karma you thought you had successfully Denied, till Medusa saw through your subterfuge.  Good chance our defenses against our Yintegrity could get outed here!

We promised in Plenipotent New Moon to follow up on…

“More soon, as the Star Capulus (Perseus’s sword) is also very close to the New Moon, and probably contributes to Algol’s reputation.  Algol and Capulus together represent one Coin of raw, unrestrained – even psychopathic by many standards – Sexual Energies, Algol the Magnetic and Capulus the Dynamic.  They also pair Sex and Ego Death as another Coin, and we could go on for a looong time on that subject.  Kelley introduces the notion that Perseus was an agent of the Patriarchy doing Inquisition duties, and we have more to say on that too.“

And we will.  For instance, did you know that “ED” is the abbreviation for Ego Death?  But first, here are some pretty incredible tools for dealing with a New Moon that’s a gravitational lens for the Eye of Medusa…

http://drkimderamo.com/how-to-reverse-a-mid-day-slump-in-seconds/

http://drkimderamo.com/love-cures-cancer/

Actually, the Star Algol, symbol of the I of M, is quite a bit Out of Bounds, so the New Moon doesn’t physically gravitationally lens it, only astrologically.  Astrology works mostly with Longitudes; if Declinations matched up too, we’d have an Eclipse or an Occultation.

To remind, this sort of type is intended for everyone to read, while the indented non-bold non-italic type is meant for anyone knowing some astrology or interested in picking it up by osmosis.  The doubly indented non-bold but italic type mostly defines astrological terms and esoterica, so can be completely ignored by anyone who doesn’t intend to learn astrology.

Two planets or stars on the same Longitude are Conjunct; two on the same Declination are “Parallel.”  Declination is used instead of Latitude; Latitude measures the angular distance from the Earth’s Equator, while Declination measures the angular distance from the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun (the “Ecliptic”).  Since the Earth is tilted (which is why many of us have Seasons), Latitude and Declination aren’t the same, though we can think of Declination as Celestial Latitude. 

The Celestial equivalent of Longitude is called “Right Ascension,” and starts at the Aries Point, or the Sun’s Longitude at the Northern Equinox.  This makes Right Ascension (RA) and astrological Longitude basically equal in Tropical astrology, once you divide RA into Signs.  Physical Longitude of course starts in London.  In both Sidereal astrology and physical geography, the Aries Point moves, so Right Ascension and Longitude are only equal every 26,ooo years or so. 

When both Longitude and Declination align, we have a “Parallel Conjunction,” which may be known as an Eclipse or an Occultation, depending on who’s Occulting and who’s Eclipsed.  Both words mean the same thing, that one body crosses in front of the other.  When the Occulting body is smaller than the Occulted body, though, since that’s not usually considered an Eclipse, it’s called a physical “Transit,” like the “Transit of Venus across the face of the Sun” in 2012.  An “Annular Eclipse” occurs when the Occulting Moon, being at the far end of it’s elliptical orbit, appears to us as smaller than the almost-Occulted Sun, so the Eclipse is incomplete.  To “Occult” something just means to hide it.

An astrological Transit is something different.  A Transit occurs when a planet, in the sky now, makes a major Angle or Harmonic to a planet in your natal chart.  A Harmonic is a fraction of the Zodiac.  The First Harmonic is a Conjunction (1/1).  The Second Harmonic is an Opposition (1/2, or half way ’round the Loop), the Third a Trine (1/3), the Fourth a Square (1/4), etc.  Multiples of Harmonics, like the Quincunx (5/12) can also be considered as Transits, though they’re often called “minor” Angles, as are the Harmonics above the Fourth.

And before we forget, we want to introduce our next Portal…

Venus Opposes Pluto on 21 May and Squares Uranus on 25 May.  With Pluto Retrograde and Uranus moving forward, the Uranus-Pluto Square is now outside of our usual three-degree Orb or Sensitivity.  Nevertheless I’ll wager we’ll still experience the Uranus T-Square rather loudly, as something like…

Putting finishing-school touches on our Yintegrity.  If you’ve forgotten, Yintegrity means doing exactly what you Feel like Doing, when you Feel like Doing it – as opposed to Yangtegrity, which means Doing what you said you were going to Do.  Of course, if you Live in a World that hasn’t made the transition yet, in order to Live in Yintegrity you may have to reduce your Commitments, Renegotiate the remaining when your Intentions shift, and make Amends later when your shifts are too sudden for Renegotiation and your audience is of Value to you. 

OR, you can accelerate the Planet’s Ascension, by just Living your Yintegrity and letting the chips fall where they may, since the Chips will be things you didn’t really Love anyway.  Imagining doing this will probably engender Fear, which is great, since you want to be Loving with that Fear first, while imagining, before you jump in.  If you Feel Your Fear and Do It Anyway, your Fear may Manifest on you.  Of course, if you Feel Your Fear and Love it to Death, or use Dr. D’Eramo’s ABC process…

• A. Be Aware of your Fear
• B. Breathe while spreading your shoulders and arching your spine
• C. Choose a far better alternative

Then go for it.  Be Aware that this is a variation of Empathizing with your Fear, so if you’re Open to them, Miracles may be available for you to Choose.  The C in ABC is a fabulous time to turbocharge your PIAVAs.  For B we could even add Let Go of our Limiting Beliefs and shout YOO HOO! so the Miracles can rush in.  Imagine how the World would Change if we all shouted YOO HOO! in the middle of a frightful Manifestation.

What a “coincidence”!  This Portal turns out to be a perfect foil for a Medusa New Moon!  Like with all those Grand Trines Pi gave us in 2013 to ease our transition, Pi is good to us!  She’s uncompromising on the Responsibility bit, but She recognizes that we need time to figure it out, and reps to practice it.  Our Gratitude is in order. 

~~~  YOO HOO!  ~~~

Unlimited Potential

Vision of Freedom: “Girl with Elves” by Maxfield Parrish.  Notice how she’s not looking directly at the Elves.  We have a tendency to jerk our head toward anything that moves, but we’ll see better if we use our peripheral vision and sidelong glances.

Feeling a little nervous about how we’re going to Balance our newfound Yintegrity‘s need to Trust Ourself moment to moment, with our Belief that if we don’t do what we’re told we won’t survive?  Well, those Feelings are right on time.

The dwarf planet Chaos (Potential, not Disorder) is T-Squaring the developing Opposition between Lilith (Yindependence) and the impending Chiron-Vesta Initiation (Miraculous Transformation of Limiting Beliefs).  Which is to say…

Our Limiting Beliefs are up in our face because they’re bring threatened Bigtime by a Vision of Unlimited Self-Autonomy.  The contrast is painful.  All of our CAN’T messages are flashing red.  That’s Discouraging at best and at worst touches our Despair.  Well, that’s not quite worst – we could be failing to understand why we’re Feeling Discouraged because we’ve really never had any concept of Unlimited Potential.  So we’re just Scared and we don’t know why.

But what’s really Changing here, if we’re willing to accept the Gift, is our Limiting Beliefs.  There’s a Vision of Freedom just outside your window, but there are bars on the window!  Our habitual Reaction is to focus on the bars and rue the impossibility of Freedom.  Our non-habitual Response will be to melt the bars, because that’s exactly what the Universe is doing – melting the bars.  Our Habituation sees the bars as being still there, so we need to erase them manually.  It’ll be one of those over-and-over-again things, as the bars keep reforming.  That’s the nature of Habit – it takes “reps” to break down the old Pattern.

The concept of Freedom in a Patriarchal Culture is different from the concept of Freedom in a Matriarchal Culture.  In the latter it’s more about Freedom to Be who you really Are, rather than Freedom to Do whatever you Want.  Matriarchal Cultures have rules of Behavior, but except in extreme cases, not Judgment of the person who’s ignoring the rules.  The Vision is one of Community, Collaboration, and Unconditional Love, not Competition and Winning.

Nobody in this T-Square is moving very fast, so except for Vesta moving out of Orb in a few weeks, this T-Square stays with us for a couple of months.

The Lilith-Chiron Cycle that’s reaching Opposition began in July 2010 at 1 Pisces, “In a crowded marketplace farmers and middlemen display a great variety of products.”  A Lilith-Chiron Cycle would be about creating Miracles by Trusting one’s Instincts.   The Eat Local movement and the proliferation of farmer’s markets comes to mind.

The Chiron-Chaos Cycle that’s reaching its Waning Square was Initiated in April 1976 at 28 Aries, “A large audience confronts the performer who disappointed its expectations.”  Chiron-Chaos Cycles would be about reaching into the Zero Point Field to pull out Miracle Rabbits that make insoluble problems dissolve.  The desmise of the Middle Class fits this Cycle perfectly.  The confrontation has been lacking because the audience is so frightened of losing its privilege and because the fascist performers control the media propaganda flow, convincing the audience that it’s their own damn fault.

The Lilith-Chaos Cycle that’s reaching its Waxing Square had its beginning in January 2013 at 15 Gemini, “Two Dutch children talking to each other, exchanging their knowledge.”  This is an interesting Cycle – pulling Yindependence out of the tophat when it’s least expected.  Since long ago the Dutch have made markets, and they’re still making the Political market in Europe.  Children implies some sort of innocence, or relative freedom from the established paradigm.  It’s Danish rather than Dutch, but I can’t help think of Peter Høeg’s novel Borderliners.

If we indeed focus our Attention on Letting Go of our Limiting Beliefs, a good deal of Grace awaits us this coming week.

Pluto makes a Trine-Sextile Bridge across the Lillith-to-Vesta-Chiron Opposition, and for the next week or so the Sun mirrors it, forming a Kite focused on Vesta-Chiron.  The Chiron-Vesta Initiation recall is Biquintile to the Jupiter-Juno Initiation – that is, the Expansion of our Consciousness arises through examining our Limiting Beliefs.

The Chiron-Vesta Initiation occurs May 13, the Jupiter-Juno Initiation May 16, and Lilith Opposes Chiron June 8.

A note about Conjunctions and Initiations.  If we have two planets “Tortoise” and “Hare” that rotate at different speeds, Tortoise more or less sits around waiting for Hare to catch up, since their track is circular.  So when we speak of their Conjunction, it’s a Hare-Tortoise Conjunction, as Hare catches up and passes Tortoise.  However, in a relative sense, Slow planets connote Wisdom, and Fast planets suggest Messengers.  A Conjunction Initiates a Cycle. 

At an Initiation, Tortoise represents the Guru, Hare the Initiate, and the Conjunction Shaktipat.  During the Cycle, the Initiate carries the Guru’s Teaching to the People.  So an Initiation is called a Tortoise-Hare Initiation, as Tortoise Initiates Hare.  So we refer to Faster-Slower Conjunctions and Slower-Faster Initiations, but they’re the same event.  The Conjunction sees the event as a moment, while the Initiation sees the event as the essence of a Cycle.  Think of the Conjunction as a noun and the Initiation as a verb.

Of course, Letting Go of our Limiting Beliefs is not normally a cognitive exercise, as our Limiting Beliefs have roots deep in both the Personal and Cultural Realms of the Unconscious.  So the Grace would lie in opportunities to become Conscious of our Limiting Beliefs.  Once a Belief arises into Consciousness, we can work to establish new Habits that counter the Belief.

For example, while researching material for the Error as Intuition post, I came across the Star Zosma, which sits behind a major planet at the top of a client’s chart.  In Brady’s Book of Fixed Stars, Bernadette says…

“Zosma … belongs to those whom the establishment, either directly or indirectly, makes powerless…  It is present in the chart of victims, of people who are abused by the system.”

Zosma symbolizes the place in Linear Time where the Patriarchy usurped Power from the Matriarchy, and hence the condition of those who are out of Power and vulnerable to persecution by the Powerful.

When I shared this information with my client, they were surprised by how relevant this was to their Life, and how the conceptualization had not risen into their Consciousness before.  They were initially bummed, Feeling it as a sort of Fate or Destiny.  When I spoke with them later, they had thought to Empathize with their perennial Victim, and had come to realize that it was part of their Mission to evolve through this Portal.

Have you had any surprise flashes of Insight in the last several days, that might be revealing Portals of your own Limiting Beliefs?  Visions of Heaven beyond the Gate, and/or Awareness of the bars on the Gate?  Repeating Patterns of Frustration in your Life?  If your Reaction to these was Discouragement, Empathize with your own perceived Limits.  Empathy works as its own device.  Once you Empathize, you can forget the whole Drama.  Later you’ll be inspired to PIAVA a new Pattern or two, but there’s nothing else to Do once you Empathize.  The Unconscious does the Transformation work for you.  When it’s ready for you to take the next step, it’ll tap you on the shoulder.

Here’s a Vision of Heaven, from Bonnie, at  https://dancinginthetao.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/ …

“Connection

“I’m spending just about every available moment these days in my garden. Not working, just being … being with the bunnies and the birds and the breezes, the sunlight and the stars, and all the slow dancing Green Folk.  I’ve felt for many months now that I access much more intelligence in these Presences, and in recent weeks have felt and leaned into my emotional Connection to them, and through them to All That Is.

“Insights from the Green Folk are beyond words.  Every day there is deepening and strengthening of feeling and relaxing into Relationship, a security and support I’ve longed for all my life at levels I didn’t even know I had levels.

“When I wander in my mind away from Connection, I feel fear and confusion; when I turn back from those Dark Paths I feel steady and knowing once again: not certain about anything, not knowing how even the next moment is going to unfold, but a deepening felt experience of what I’ve known intellectually for years: I’m not abandoned, have never been alone: I’m held (as is everyone) in the Very Heart of Being.  And no One expects me to know anything in advance: all that’s required is that I Participate with my Whole Being, that I bring All of Me to the Moment, and Respond.

“I’m learning not to walk down the Dark Paths in my mind anymore.  I know where they all lead: always the same places full of Paper Tigers and Bad Guesses about The Future.  So partly I’m bored with them finally; and partly they don’t scare me as much as they used to … daily their power weakens; and partly I’m becoming less and less willing to Entertain the Darkness.

“The Choice is becoming clearer and clearer, emotionally.  And it’s getting easier and easier to choose Connection … almost, almost to the point of why on this marvelous, beautiful Earth would I ever choose anything else?“

Square Planets Up Your Nodes

Manganvesuvianite – the Manganese-rich form of Vesuvianite, named for the Volcano that decimated Roman Pompeii.  Vesuvianite symbolizes the Mother Goddess, Creator of All That Is, and her Power to Heal “Miraculously.”  It appears as a Miracle to the Limited mind; it’s everyday to the Goddess.  The Manganese clears away Confusion so we can see the Growth that’s hiding behind it and Embrace it.

   ϖ    ϖ    ϖ    ϖ    ϖ 

A reader asks…

“Can you talk more about those of us who have a planet squaring the nodes?”

Which is an excellent question.  It’s a similar situation for folks with planets Conjunct either Node. 

A “Square” is two planets that are separated by one fourth of the Zodiac; they’re near the same Degree but three Signs apart.  A T-Square is two Squares connected end-to-end, or two planets Opposing one another with a third planet halfway between them.  Both mean Mastery through Challenge, the T-Square’s Challenge being more Challenging than a single Square’s Challenge.

First though, let me address another reader comment…

“That discussion of squares/Tsquares got me – depressed – no, actually, I recognized that feeling as despair when I read it.  Your writings have taught me to recognize that feeling –  despair.  And unconscious despair.  I never knew what that darkness was.  It’s been interesting to note where, when, how often it comes.  That’s helped clear a fair amount of it to an extent…just recognizing it for what it is.  That post brought it on.  Condemnation.  I always thought squares were Mastery Through Challenge.  So there is no ‘never.’  Mastery comes.  Not just ‘getting it’ but MASTERY!!  I feel like they should be called Infinitely Perpetual Challenge then.  Give it up.  You ain’t getting anywhere.”

Well, Infinitely Perpetual Challenge isn’t far off – till you Change your Objective.  Let’s take any of us that have Squares to Mars or Venus for an example – that’s timely, with Mars Initiating Venus and Wabi-Sabi Stationary.  We don’t even need a Square between Mars and Venus, just some other planet Squaring Mars or Venus.  Those movie scenes and ads about Perfect Romance and Perfect Bodies and Perfect Faces are irresistible to us.  Pant, Pant.  And that’s the whole idea – it ain’t Real, it’s a Trance.  I’ll wager that every Relationship you’ve ever been in had some positive feature.  If you cut out each one of those boons and pasted it on your Ken or Barbie doll, you’ll witness your Mastery first-hand.  You just haven’t put them together all at once.

That’s actually a great way to move toward What You Want – list the pieces or characteristics of your Desire, check to see which ones you’ve already Manifested, and then work on the others.  When you get most of them checked off, list all the combinations – A+B, A+C, B+C, etc. and start working on those – you can Plan and Execute, or PIAVFA, or both.  Then if you need to, work on the triplets – A+B+C, A+B+D, B+C+D, etc. – and the quadruplets.  Sound too complex?  Hmmm.  Maybe it’s your Desire that’s too complex.  Maybe you need to Prioritize a little.

Let’s try a thought experiment.  Think about your unfulfilled Desire.  Now pick its two most important characteristics.  Just for the sake of illustration we’ll call them Passion and Security.  Sound contradictory? 

That may be part of your Frustration.  Contradiction exists only in the mind, not in Reality.  In Reality it’s Both/And; in Real Life it’s called Paradox, not Contradiction.  If we’re striving for two Paradoxical qualities that we Believe are Contradictory, we will be doomed to Infinitely Perpetual Challenge.  It’s very difficult to Manifest what we don’t Believe – this is part of the Powerful “Placebo” effect.  So the first thing we may need to PIAFA is that we Believe our Desire is Possible.

Back to Passion and Security.  Ever feel Passion toward your Desire?  If not, Imagine it (Feelize or Visualize or …).  Shake It Off, take a drink of Water, and then think about the times you’ve felt Security around your Desire.  You may not have met any of your other requirements, but you felt Security.  If you haven’t Experienced Security around your Desire, not even for a few minutes, then Imagine what it’ll feel like when you do.  (If it’s a Relationship Desire, think Friendship.)  Then Let It Go, Dance a bit, another drink of Water, then recall or Imagine Manifesting both Security and Passion around your Desire.  Add Belief if you need to.

Feel good?  Or are their Yesbuts squeaking in the background – or shrieking in the foreground?  Yesbuts can feel Frustrating, but they’re just information about what else your Desire needs.  A frequently Unconscious Yesbut is whether or not you Deserve to Manifest Your Heart’s Desire. 

Virtually all of us went to the same Obedience School, where we were given a biscuit if we got the right answer, and if we’re very lucky only fingerwagged when we got the wrong answer.  Lots of folks would consider it Sociopathic if you Believed that you just Deserved things without having to Earn them.  Well, you do Deserve to Manifest your Heart’s Desire, right or wrong.  If your Heart’s Desire is punishable by Life or the Chair, so be it, you’ll just have to face the music.  But that’s not about Deserving; it’s about what your Culture permits and how well you finesse it.

Okay, you’ve Shaken It Off and Let It Go again and danced around the Fire, and now you’re sitting there feeling what it’s like to Believe in and Deserve to Manifest Safety and Passion around your Desire. 

I know, they’re still Yesbutting you, but Imagine that Belief, Deserving, Security, and Excitement are all you Want, that they’re Enough.

Ahhhhh! – Wonderful, isn’t it!

No?  Well, that’s it then. 

Desire is indeed an Infinitely Perpetual Challenge.  The basic problem is that Desire is misspelled.  It’s really spelled M-o-t-i-v-a-t-i-o-n.  Now there has to be a Balance between Motivation and Satisfaction, or else we’ll never feel good about Life.  So what to do?  Well, we certainly don’t need to give up our Desire, that would be the equivalent of Death.  We might need to dial it back a little, and approach it one piece or characteristic at a time, or set intermediate and achievable Goals that we can Celebrate along the way, so we can enjoy the Journey and not just the possibly hallucinatory Destination.

But the real key to Enjoying a Square or T-Square is shifting our Objective from Desire to Learning.  We’re always Learning, so we can Celebrate some quantity of Learning (even if we don’t understand yet what it is) from every Experience.  So a Square or a T-Square is about Learning about our Desire.  Once we make that shift we’re free to Play.  Learning is usually Surprising – otherwise we’d already be Learned.  So we’re open to Surprise as well as Success.  We really can afford to Play with it, because when Learning is our Objective, the bigger and faster our failures, the more we Learn.

That is MASTERY.  You’ve actually experienced it in your Life, around lesser Frustrations, like Spelling or Story Problems or DiffyQ or Asking for a raise or maintaining your Health.

And in fact, with a Square or T-Square, you are a Master, because you’ve always been Motivated to Explore the Edges of your Infinitely Perpetual Challenging Desire.  Take Music as an example.  If you’re Mozart, you were a Master at Birth.  If you’re Salieri, you’ve been working your butt off all your Life, and he gets all the contracts.  But suppose you’re Vivaldi, and you’re trying to figure out whether you want a minor or major key for your concerto about Spring.  Mozart could tell you in a flash.  But Salieri would be able to tell you why you need a minor key. 

If you were depending on Mozart you’d need to ask him again for each Season.  The answer you got from Salieri would allow you to figure it out on your own.  So who’s the real Master – Mozart or Salieri?

This is Real, it’s not a rationalization or a PR trick.  You may need to start your process by Believing that it’s possible to shift your Objective from your Desire to Learning about your Desire.

Conjunctions and Oppositions are similarly Heuristic.  Oppositions Challenge us to escape Duality by recognizing that while the Heads and the Tails distract us from what’s really happening, focusing on the Coin will trigger our Intuition.  Conjunctions Challenge us to Accept that just because our Perspective on the World isn’t popular, that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.  In fact, the more unusual our Perspective, the more Powerful.  You may end up writing things that won’t be understood for 200 years, or that only six people on the Planet will grok, but the Value in that is immeasurable. 

Squares and T-Squares are members of the Fourth Harmonic, which is basically Mastery or Dominion; the Emperor.  But it’s the Fifth Harmonic that’s about Learning, so we must be wrong, eh?  No, we Master each Harmonic by adopting the Perspective of a higher Dimension.  The First Harmonic, Conjunction, is about Self.  The Infinitely Perpetual Challenge about Self is Other, which is introduced by the Second Harmonic, Opposition. 

The Challenge of Self “versus” Other is resolved by Love, the Third Harmonic or Trine.  The Infinitely Perpetual Challenge about Love lies in resolving Codependence, via Healthy Control or Dominion, the Fourth Harmonic – Squares.  We resolve the Frustration of the Fourth Harmonic by using the Fifth, Learning, the Quintile.  We resolve the Paradox of Inequality between the Student and the Teacher by moving to mutually respectful Partnership, the Sixth Harmonic or Sextile.  And so on.

  ϖ    ϖ    ϖ    ϖ    ϖ

Squares to the Nodes

Okay, finally we get to the original question.  But I think you’ll agree that the detour was useful. 

We’ve been equating the North Node to Desire and Mission, and now we’re talking about Squares as if they represented Desire.  These are two different flavors of Desire.  A North-Node Desire is hardwired in.  Moving in the direction of a North-Node Desire produces the sense that we’re on the right track, even as Satisfaction avoids us.  North-Node Desires evolve without much Frustration; we don’t recall how different our current North-Node Desires are from our picture of it five or ten years ago.  The basic sense is one of Progress.  A T-Square Desire on the other hand is an unachievable chimera that we set up to Motivate ourselves.  It’s a picture of Perfection.  It probably hasn’t changed substantially since we were five or ten years old.  The basic sense is one of Frustration.

So, if we put them both together, Progress with Frustration, gradual evolution with our Perfect Pictures, the whole process can be very Confusing.  And we may not remember that Confusion is the first stage of Growth.  That’s probably the key we need to resolve a T-Square to the Nodes – remembering that Confusion is the first stage of Growth.

Note that since the Nodes by definition Oppose one another, a Square to the Nodes is always a T-Square.

There are a couple of productive processes for dealing with Confusion.  We can acknowledge it with Gratitude.  “Omigosh, there’s Confusion!  Thank Goddess I’m Growing out of that dilemma!  That’s Exciting!”  And Curiosity.  Unlike the programming we got in school, real Learning is always Surprising.  If we had any idea how a real Life dilemma would be resolved, it wouldn’t be a dilemma.  So acknowledging Confusion as the first step of Growth almost automatically inspires Curiosity.  And Curiosity, like Love, is Goddessly, as both eschew Judgment.  We don’t want to strive for Curiosity about how our T-Square will be resolved – because we’d get stuck to our Perfect Pictures again.  Curiosity about what we’ll Learn next about our Desire fits perfectly, however.

We come to the difference between Desire and Fantasy.  Suppose for instance that we crave Acknowledgement.  If as ankle-biters we weren’t Valued for who we really were, we’ll spend our Lives craving Acknowledgement.  We have a picture of how that might happen.  We might be “Discovered,” for instance.  That’s a very nice alternative to Earning Acknowledgement.  Once who we really are is Discovered, everything else will fall into place, and it will all be easy.  That’s how we know it’s a Fantasy – everything else becomes easy.  Fantasy is a Manifestation-killer. 

When we detect Fantasy we need to substitute Curiosity.  We don’t know what it will look like when we’re Acknowledged – we’ve never been there.  We know the Perfect Picture we daydream about, but our Desire is behind that Picture, not in it.  When that Picture arises and we recognize it (how can we not? – we’ve been daydreaming it all our Life!), we need to pull the cord next to it so it rolls up like an old-fashioned window-shade.  Behind it there’s a Wilderness, and it’s Delightful and Dangerous and Exciting and very Compelling.  You can’t Imagine what’s in there!  But doesn’t it inspire Curiosity!

So let’s take some examples.  Suppose Saturn, which represents The Most Important Thing, Squares our Nodes.  It’s never this simple, because many other influences are afoot – such as the Sign of our Saturn, and other Angles to it from other planets.  But we could have a Lifetime Frustration about knowing what’s The Most Important Thing.  Is it Learning new Skills or collecting boons by using the Skills we have?  Is it Love, or is it Power?  So we need to find a reliable way to move from Confusion to Curiosity around The Most Important Thing.

In Psychic School one of the first tricks you Learn is “What if you did know?”  When Duality wants you to do Either/Or and you aren’t in touch with your Intuition enough to understand how Both/And might work in this circumstance, you can Ask yourself, “What if I did know?”  Chances are you will have already rejected at least one answer to the question, and that answer will probably pop back into Consciousness.  There’s a danger here.  This is an exercise for developing your Intuition, it’s not your Intuition. 

The answer you get is an excellent trial balloon, and a great first guess about what’s The Most Important Thing.  It’s worth trying.  But it may only work for a few steps.  West might be the correct direction for the first three strides, but you need to be alert for when Confusion arises again, and Ask again.  The next four might be North – or West again.  If you decide that one direction is Most Important forever, you’re likely to end up in a swamp.  After you practice this for a while it will become your Intuition, and you’ll develop the habit of recognizing Confusion and shifting immediately to Curiosity.  Eventually you won’t even notice the intervening steps, you’ll just Intuitively know what comes next.

But it’s still a Square; you can never sit on your laurels.  It will always be evolving, and you’ll always be Learning more about how to define The Most Important Thing, on more and more subtle levels, till you finally realize that there’s no one you can compare notes with, because no one else knows as much as you know about it – you are the Master.  It Squares your Nodes, so knowing it is The Most Important Thing in your Life.  When you Celebrate your Certainty about knowing the Most Important Thing, you’re about to step into the muck.  Celebrate Learning more about how to discern The Most Important Thing instead.

Now, think back over your Life.  How many times have you repeated this dance, and how many different ways have you Learned for dealing with it?  Include all the ways you’ve forgotten that you Learned (what if you did remember?).  In truth you’re the Master of this Process.  There’s no one better than you to teach it to others, because you’ve Explored all the blind alleys and discovered all the thoroughfares.  And more important, you know how to find the mainlines that haven’t been discovered yet. 

The primary characteristic of any Square is a shortage of Self-Acknowledgement.

That’s another process for resolving a Square in any given moment – moving to Gratitude – make a list of what is working for you.

Or Jupiter – what if Jupiter Squared our Nodes?  Jupiter is about Fortune, Expansion, Amplification.  When Jupiter dances with your Nodes, your Mission is always foremost in your Attention.  That’s fabulous, as no one will ever be able to accuse you of not immer strebend.  But it’s never Enough, is it.  Jupiter’s the Great Benefic, but Never Enough is a bummer.  So Self-Acknowledgement of your Enoughness has to become your mantra.  You’ve beaten it practically to death, but Enoughness is your Mastery.  Now you need to Master Not-Quite-Enoughness.  Your Challenge is to Learn to feel good about Performing at 90%.  When you get pretty good at that you can try 80%.  You’ll be More Than Enough at 50% – you can spend the other 50% having Fun.  You’re already doing this, aren’t you.  That’s MASTERY! 

We just can’t Acknowledge that we’re actually Manifesting the Power to Serve Effectively when we’re the Victim of our own Unconscious Motivation.  Dominion requires the Ability to Respond to “threats” to our Healthy Control.  As long as the Power to Serve Effectively is our Goal instead of Learning to Use the Power to Serve Effectively, Frustration follows, because Life is a moving target and “those people” – who really are less competent and less dedicated than you because they don’t have Jupiter Squaring their Nodes – are your Teachers, Unconsciously of course.  You’re underemployed, but you won’t be able to leverage yourself into a position where you also have the Authority and Responsibility to Serve Effectively – and the rewards, until you Learn to Honor yourself. 

There’s still time to remember all of the little and big Successes along this course, and Celebrate each one.  They’ll feel burdensome until you reframe them from Frustration about Failure, to Excitement about Learning.  Buy three big sheets of gold-colored cardboard and a “Sharpie” permanent marker.  Take an hour each week, choose one of your historical Frustrations, fully Embrace your Grief about how your hard work was unseen and unacknowledged and even actively thwarted, and then Ask “What did I Learn from this?”  If what you Learned feels negative, Ask “What was the positive function of that?”  “What was one positive thing that came out of it?

When you feel good about that Learning, cut a trophy honoring yourself for that  Success out of the gold cardboard, and give it a title and an approximate date.  As you process each historical Frustration there will be too many trophies (it’s Jupiter after all!) to keep on your mantle or altar all at once, so keep the extras in a box.  Each morning choose one trophy to put back in the box, and replace it with a new one chosen “randomly” from the box.  Spend a minute remembering the Frustration you felt as you climbed that mountain, and find the Relief you felt when you Learned that Lesson.

What about Venus?  Venus stands for our Values, so you’re probably often at odds about which Value of yours to follow.  Having multiple Values is fantastic – no danger of becoming a Zealot, eh?  But boy, those Zealots sure look Satisfied, don’t they?  Compared to my Confusion, that looks like a Blessing!  What if being Multifarious was the Blessing?  It’s a Square, it’s always a moving target.  I think of a Spiral, where we revisit the same issue over and over again but with slightly different circumstances.  A friend and reader uses the metaphor of “an elevator which stops at identical floors, but different things happen depending on where your head/vibes/frequency is.”

But the constant about is this is Constant Learning.  Your Values are Universal, but for every moment a different Hierarchy of Values applies.  If you’re anything like the rest of us, you’ve been programmed to apply the Values that were handed down by your family heritage in every moment.  You’ll be Learning how to stop and reconsider every moment, so you can apply the Values that work best in the circumstances.  You’ll know when you got it right because there will be a short burst of North-Node Satisfaction, the sense that you’re on the right track.  Till the Square’s Never-Quite-Right Energy butts in again.  No worries, it’s just Confusion, the first stage of Growth.  Isn’t that Curious!  I wonder which Values apply here – Growth or Certainty?

The Centaur Nessus Squaring the Nodes?  Confusion over Action, how to meet one’s needs with finesse rather than force, and how to replace that Confusion with Curiosity and Self-Acknowledgement.  Passive Pacifism isn’t worth much.  A Pacifist who knows how to Embrace and Master their own need to Dominate is a Teacher of Value.

The dwarf planet Ceres would tie us in knots over what’s Sustainable, and beg us to replace our Preaching and Self-Abuse about it with frequent PIAVFAs about how to make it stick. 

The poster child of dwarf planets, Pluto?  Sorry, your Life Path is intense, and you won’t bargain your way out of it.  You’ve probably already been in and out of Addiction, as there’s no faster way to understand Control.  Your Hero’s Journey is the Heroin’s Journey, figuratively or literally.  So what if no one listens to you – you see the Future, and they don’t.  Let them stumble; it’s their Learning Experience.  Your Certainty is a hindrance, though.  See if you can reprogram your Trance to seek Curiosity instead – you’re the Master of Trance-Re-Formation after all, even if you haven’t Recognized it yet.

If it’s the Centaur Hylonome Squaring your Nodes, Grief is your constant companion.  She’s just over your left shoulder.  Don’t push her away any more; Embrace Her.  Once you let Her swallow you like Inanna was swallowed by the Sun, over and over again, you’ll emerge Surprisingly quickly, each time having gained deep Insight.  Be Curious about where Grief will lead you next, as it’s a deep service to Humanity and to the Planet.

Inanna’s symbol is the Grand Octile – the Eighth Harmonic is where we go to resolve the puzzles presented by Magic.  This Ouija Board Uranus-Pluto Cycle is about Magic, and you know what comes next.  You are a Visitor from the distance Future, come to try to steer us away from impending disaster.  Embrace that Perspective without succumbing to Certainty or rejecting your constant Grief about being Unrecognized.  Grief is your greatest Tool.

Ah, Lilith.  It feels Confusing only because you’re ahead of your Time.  The World is moving toward Yindependence – Universal Respect for Self-Sovereignty – and you’re the advance guard.  Let yourself be Curious about how you can best help move the Planet forward.  The Hero’s Journey is well documented; it’s up to you to document the Heroine’s Journey for us as well.  Starhawk’s Truth or Dare is a good starting place for you.

Then there’s Uranus!  Yes, there are deep mists between you and your Soul, and many false profits.  You can’t dispel Confusion with Certainty, it must be Embraced.  It’s all Metaphor, Both/And.  What will happen if you Surrender to Confusion? 

Anyone else wanting to come forward?

Portal 10.29 – Gestalt Astrology

The Earth isn’t really that close to the Sun, it’s just Photoshopped in to demonstrate how big those Sunspots (the darker areas) are.  Fortunately, they haven’t been aimed toward Earth when they’ve ejected Solar Flairs.  The Sun is 109 times larger in diameter than the Earth, meaning its circumference is 342 times that of Earth, and its volume over 9,000 times as great.  It’s a heavy dude – its mass is about 330,000 times the mass of the Earth.  And it’s not really grey.

* * * * *

A primary principle of the Gestalt process consists of translating negative Energies into positive Energies.  Re-interpreting Control as Protection would be one example.  If we appreciate someone’s effort to Protect us, our Feelings and Behavior and Reactions and Responses are very different than when we rebel against someone’s effort to Control us.  Yet they’re often the same Energy.

We could call what we do Gestalt Astrology – translating Energies usually seen as negative into the positive is one of our primary techniques.  Saturn, for instance, is often seen as Limitation.  What’s the positive function of Limitation?  Focus.  So we see Saturn as telling us to Focus on The Most Important Thing.  We feel Limitation when we’re attached to lower priorities.

Eris is often seen as Dischord, as her contribution of a Golden Apple inscribed “The Fairest of Them All” to a banquet of the Gods and Goddesses produced a very dischordant banquet, and ultimately led to the Trojan War.  Yet the Competitiveness among the Goddesses was there before the Golden Apple.  The Apple merely brought it into Consciousness (or at least, provided the opportunity for same – it’s not clear from the Mythology that anyone’s vanity actually became Conscious).  So we see Eris as the Revelation of what’s Unconscious.

We usually refer to that as the Revelation of Denial, but Denial is not a dirty word to us.  The Ego’s function is to keep us Alive and Safe, and the Ego is fairly easily overwhelmed, leaving us vulnerable to danger.  Denial is the natural process that allows us to Focus on what we perceive to be The Most Important Thing (our Egoic Stability) rather than on the Elephant in the room.  Most people use the word Denial as an accusation, when they’re insisting that The Most Important Thing to them become The Most Important Thing to us.

Pandora is usually seen as the vehicle by which Evil was released into the World of Hufolk.  But like Nassim, we have to ask “What came before that?”  The answer is Unconsciousness.  By bringing Evil into Consciousness, or at least providing the opportunity for same, we gain the opportunity to Choose not to indulge it.  So we can see Pandora as symbolizing Self-Awareness.

On October 29, Pandora backs across Eris.  Eris Initiated Pandora in mid-July, so this represents an “Exposition” phase of their dance together…

When two planets cross, we refer to it as the slower (message-giver or guru) planet Initiating the faster (messenger or neophyte) planet, and alternately as the faster planet Conjuncting or Conjoining the slower planet.  So this is Pandora Conjunct Eris.  It’s not Eris Initiating Pandora because…

When planets Conjoin, they often do so multiple times, as one or both of them turn Retrograde.  We only consider the first Conjunction to be the Initiation of a new Cycle.  The Sabian Symbol of the Initiation degree is a clue to the nature of the Cycle that the Initiation begins, or the period till the next Initiation.  Pandora being an asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, the Pandora-Eris Cycle lasts a little over four years. 

For convenience, we use the shortcut term “planet” to refer to planets, asteroids, dwarf planets, Centaurs, TNOs, Lights (Sun and Moon), symbolic points (the Nodes, Lilith), and anything else that orbits the Sun or the Earth.

The Initiation is considered a “Can-Opener,” as new material is released from the Unconscious, and we’re called to adjust to it quickly, without much warning.  If there are multiple Conjunctions, then the subsequent Conjunctions are considered “Expositions,” when the same issue recurs, but recurs more slowly, giving us time to witness, identify, and differentiate it into Consciousness.  The final Conjunction is a “Confidence-Builder,” because the Demons attack again, but this time we know from experience how to handle them, and it’s effortless or nearly so.

These three stages, Can-Opener, Exposition, Confidence-Builder, apply to any multiple Angle between two planets.  For instance, the Uranus-Pluto Square recurs seven times between 2012 and 2015, giving us five Expositions, including the one we’re embarking upon now.

The Eris-Pandora Initiation occurred at 24 Aries, “Blown inward by the Wind, the curtains of an open window take the shape of a Cornucopia” – signifying that the Denial that’s revealed will lead us to Abundance.  Releasing any Mask saves us a bundle of Energy that we can use for more productive purposes, and also clarifies our perspective so we’re more likely to pursue and achieve our own goals.

Whatever Demons were released suddenly into your World in mid-July 2014, you’re now getting the opportunity to re-experience them in slow motion.  Back then they caught you off guard and created uninvited difficulty in your Life.  But it was just material being released from the Unconscious, being brought into the light of day so you could Choose whether or not to indulge it.  As it turns out, this material will prove to be very valuable to us, and we’re in the process of discovering how this will be.

The current Pandora-Eris Conjunction occurs at 23 Aries, “A pregnant woman in light summer dress,” suggesting that this Exposition will be Powerful.

The current Conjunction, with both planets Retrograde, occurs October 29.  It’s within three degrees of Sensitivity from October 15 till November 20.  Pandora turns Direct November 30, and the Confidence-Builder phase occurs on December 30, as Eris is Stationary.  They’re within three degrees of each other from December 9 till January 12.  The Confidence-Builder is also at 23 Aries.