Another Cusp Event

The “Square,”¹ which is astrologuese for Hassle or Challenge, gives us headaches because it attempts to join two parts of ourself that are in Fierce Competition – our Physicality v. our Spirituality v. our Emotionality v. our Mentality² – which aren’t likely to want to Compromise. It’s like the Heart and the Brain arguing over who’s More Important, when in walks the Anus.

On the other hand, the “Trine,”³ astrojargon for Sympathy and Understanding, Harmony and Trust Abounding, contributes to our Joy and Ease and Confidence because it links different parts of ourself that Love to Rock Out Together when they Team Up – like our Creativity, our Certainty, and our Evolution.⁴ Imagine our Dancer joining our Musician, our Writer collaborating with our Illustrator, our Artist enjoying Critical Acclaim and Financial Success.

When planets linger on Cusps, these traditional Relationships get crossed up. For instance, instead of our Creative Spirituality happily Dancing with our Evolutionary Spirituality, we might have our Creative Spirituality Dancing clumsily with our Emotional Certainty, where we might find (and Examine or Deny) our Bigotry.⁵ Or the Confusion of our Emotional Certainty encountering our Physical Evolution (Remember in our youth when we didn’t want anything to do with the Opposite Gender, till Puberty kicked in?) instead of the routine Challenges of the little Demons and Angels on our shoulders juggling our Emotional Certainty with our Spiritual Certainty.⁶

¹ Shown in our charts by a short red line between planets three Signs apart.

² Respectively, Earth, Fire, Water, Air Signs [Matter, Spirit, Emotion, Thought] – eg Leo 🥊 Scorpio 🥊 Aquarius 🥊 Taurus, or Capricorn 🥊 Aries 🥊 Cancer 🥊 Libra, or Virgo 🥊 Sagittarius 🥊 Pisces 🥊 Gemini.

³ Shown as long blue lines between planets four Signs apart.

⁴ Respectively, Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable Signs [Creative, Stable, Changing] – eg. Aries ❤️ Leo ❤️ Sagittarius, Taurus ❤️ Virgo ❤️ Capricorn, Gemini ❤️ Libra ❤️ Aquarius, Cancer ❤️ Scorpio ❤️ Pisces.

⁵ Instead of early Aries to early Sagittarius, early Aries Trine to late Scorpio.

⁶ Late Scorpio Square to early Virgo, instead of late Scorpio to late Leo.

In addition, Cusps are by their nature times of Change, so in addition to the potential Confusion created by these crossovers, we don’t have our History or Herstory to fall back on.

For instance, in the 30 August 2021 Converting Fear to Power chart, Fear Challenges and/or is Challenged by both Trust and Domination. The Trust Challenge is a “Traditional” Challenge – the Material Certainty of Fear (we can Feel it in our Physical Bodies) versus the Spiritual Certainty of Trust. It’s about finding a Balance between Fear and Trust that works to keep us out of Fight/Flight/Freeze and allows us to Differentiate “Real” from Karmic Threats and Act Effectively in Response to each, parrying the Real and Becoming Conscious of the Karmic. But the Challenge of Domination is different. It’s about Physical Stability versus Physical Evolution – it’s about Fear of Change. Do we know what makes the Karmic Real? Do we know what can make the Real Karmic? ⁷

That’s not all. The Merging of Trust and Domination is also Cuspal. The Trust issue is about Self-Trust. We’d been working since early June on Trusting that our Ego can Handle the Changes, as part of Healing our Unconditional Self-Love. We were in the final stages of that process when Fear Tested us. The Domination issue is about Change. Change in our Willingness to be Dominated or Abused, and Change in our use of Domination (Abuse) in our approach to Getting Our Needs Met. We just started that three-year project, so we’re in the early stages of Discovering the Unknown Unknowns that we need to work on.⁸

⁷ In the Sedna [Fear to Power] Station chart, Sedna at the end of Taurus [Fixed Earth] is Squared by both asteroid Eurydike [Trust] at the end of Leo [Fixed Fire] and dwarf planet Thereus [Domination] in early Virgo [Mutable Earth].

⁸ Eurydike in Leo [Self-Trust] since early June, through 6 September 2021. Thereus in Virgo from early August 2021 through September 2024.

So if we maxed our Benefit from this Challenge (one of many) in the 30 August Fear-Power Curriculum, we were perhaps Discovering where Domination – Bullying or Codependence – fit into our Multidimensional and Unitary Karmic jigsaw puzzle. Are we Creating new Karma or Deepening old Karma through Repetition of Unconscious (or Semi-Conscious and Uncorrected) Domination or Codependence Patterns, and does that Frighten us, or maybe should it Frighten us? Are we Trusting too much that the Victims of our Domination Patterns aren’t hiding Conscious or Unconscious Resentment? Might our Codependence partners Resent our depending on them for Psychological or other “Services” that we should be handling ourself?

What’s the nature of our Karmic Contracts with these “Partners”? As the Planet Descends further into Disorder on way too many fronts all at once, how will this impact our Relationships with and within the Communities we’ll Need for Survival?⁹

⁹ A new five-year Eurydike-Thereus [Trust-Equality, Power Dynamics] Cycle begins on 21 September 2021 (7:12 am PDT), in 5 Virgo, “A person becoming aware of Nature Spirits and normally unseen Spiritual Agencies.” These people (the Nature Spirits and Spiritual Agencies) are Distressed that Hupers are not doing their essential part in Reanimating the Planet (ie, working with the Nature Spirits rather than ignoring them).

I just finished Thomas Mayer’s recently-translated book Answering the Call of the Elementals: Practices for Connecting with Nature Spirits, and I highly recommend it. I’ve been working and studying for many years to recover the Connection I had with them in my youth, before my father shamed it into Hiding, and the practices in Mayer’s book are the most Practical and Powerful that I’ve found. There’s also a promising 18 September online workshop sponsored by the Fairy and Human Relations Congress; see https://www.fairycongress.com/monthly-workshops/.

From here I’d like, if I find the time, to examine the Transcuspal Relationship between the dwarf planets that symbolize Unconstrained Freedom (Ixion in the last Degree of Sagittarius) and Taking Full Responsibility for our Survival (Pholus and Quaoar in early Capricorn). The influence of Unconstrained Freedom is Exaggerated (Stationary) until 12 September, and of Taking Full Responsibility for our Survival until 17 September 2021.

Warmup for the Digital Age 2

Sheila asks, “So does the Age of Aquarius start Monday?”

The answer is, “Kinda sorta.” The Digital Age lasts about 2 Centuries, while the Age of Aquarius spans more than 21 Centuries. It’s a lot harder to pinpoint a Threshold for a 21-Century Cycle than a 2-Century one. We’re using the term “Digital Age” to apply to a time period very specifically bounded by astrology, and we’re labeling it based on Huper History and Herstory.

The Age of Aquarius is astronomically bounded. We know how long the Ages are (given certain assumptions), but if we have a firm date for when the current 25,920-year Great Year began, I don’t know what it is. I know there’s a lot of disagreement and many estimates, which vary by Millennia. It’s okay with me if you consider the Aquarian Age to begin on Monday. We could also choose the beginning of the 21st Century, or the first performance of Hair.

If I was going to research a firm date on an unlimited budget, I’d have AI review all of the World’s news media for the last many years, and score all news reports on whether they emphasized Intellectual Issues (Aquarius) more than they emphasized Emotional Issues (Pisces), examine the results by daily average to see if they described a smooth curve, and if so choose the year when Intellectual Issues first dominated. If they didn’t describe a smooth curve, I’d look for modes (clusters of similar data), and if none emerged, I’d say it was N/A.

Aquarius is Fixed Air, so it’s not just more Intellectual, it’s also more Opinionated. The 1/1/2000 chart foresaged Polarization, which has been the case in spades, as folks Confuse their Immutable Truth of the Heart (asteroid Aletheia) with their Debatable Truth of the Head (asteroid Veritas) and get sucked into Life-or-Death Ego-Association with Ideas, forgetting that everyone’s Truth of the Heart is Unique, and everyone is a Front for an Immortal Soul, so Killing them will only prolong the Agony of Ego-Association. Pity that the greatest Joy some Hupers seem to savor is Self-Righteousness.

However, these Polarized Opinions are all heavily Emotionalized, so I’d have to suppose that we’re still in a Transition period of indeterminate length. If the Digital Age produces a Lie Detector that gives binary answers that everyone Trusts, then, Perish the Thought, we might be able to definitively declare Aquarius to have arrived, though we’d have to rename it the Age of ‘Bots. We may have to anyway, if Ray Kurzweil has it right.

While we refer to it as Truth of the Head, our Intellectual Truths are really Truth of the Solar Plexus, because that’s where Thought is actually Centered. Small wonder that Thought is Confused with Anger, Judgment, and Hatred. Blame Descartes and Newton and everyone else who Believes that Thought can be dissected out of the Whole and become anything except a small bloody chunk of a Corpse, or a dead Butterfly impaled on a pin. You won’t be far off to envision an Argument as two people plucking out their giblets and throwing them at each other.

Sign Changes

Last time we mentioned that a number of planets Change Signs as the ~Aquarian Digital Age begins…

Asteroid Lachesis is named after the Greek Goddess of Fate whose job it was to Measure the Length of your Karmic TimeLines. Each Karmic Habit you brought into your current Lifetime came with an Expiry Date. Well, we know that Karma is Dead, so how does that work? If we’re Unconscious of a Karmic Pattern, it defaults to our Fate.

Once we become Conscious that we’re Repeating an Obsolete Habit that doesn’t really serve us in our current Lifetime, then we can Choose an Alternative rather than continuing to “beat that Dead Horse” all over again. Since we’re Addicted to our Karma because it’s What We Know and what we’re Comfortable with, we’d have some Inertia to overcome, but again, with Awareness and Motivation we can do that.

So we give ourselves the Benefit of Consciousness and interpret Lachesis as Consciously Choosing to Shift our TimeLines, where a TimeLine is anything that unfolds in Time – a Habit, a Job, a Relationship, a Trip, a Nap, a Residence, or a Jail Term. Lachesis is a kind of Get Out of Jail Free card, if you’ve ever played Monopoly.

Asteroid Atropos is the Goddess who actually Cuts the Lachesian Chords. So Atropos is about TimeLines that end on their own, without our Conscious intervention. Maybe. Karma is addictive, so we can sleep through an Atroposian alarm. We’d probably eventually wonder why in the devil we did that and Choose to shift the Momentum.

On 15 December 2020 (2:40 pm PST), Lachesis moved from Libra (Meeting Other) to Scorpio (Getting to the Bottom of Things). It was in Libra for only three months, but it’ll stay in Scorpio for almost a year, as it does Remediation (Retrogradation) next Spring. So you’ve been Inconvenienced in your Relationships with Others for the last several months.

You’ve probably been Blaming it on the Custardovirus, or on dastardly abrogations of your precious FREEDOM to not have to wear a Mask, but in Scorpio you’ll be searching everywhere for what it was that got you so upset, especially if you inadvertently kill somebody with your callousness. We hide our True Feelings every day, yet we object to wearing a physical Mask? Maybe it’s because a Mask inhibits our Ability to Manipulate others with disingenuous facial Expressions. No Accusation, just a Speculation or even a Projection – what’s True for you is for you to Discover through your Scorpionic Deep Dives next year.

Asteroid Juno (Growth in Consciousness) left Scorpio for Sagittarius on 18 December (9:20 am PST), which should make our Lessons Feel a lot Easier. Juno’s timetable is similar to that of Lachesis – it was in its prior Sign (Scorpio) for only about three months, but it stays in its new Sign (Sagittarius) for most of 2021, with Remedial work (Retrogradation) during the summer.

I’d guess we’ve been clawing at our scabs for the last several months while Juno was in Scorpio, to try to Expose as many Limiting Beliefs as we could find, so we could carry less Baggage into a Digital Age where who knows how much of Life might become Virtual. Much of our Life is already Lived through Fantasy anyway. Sagittarius is Mutable (Changeable, as in Mutation) Fire (Spirit), so it’s the Sign where we Let Go of what we no longer need for protecting our Material Ego from Scarcity.

And of course Saturn (The Most Important Thing) on 16 December at 9am PST, and Jupiter (Expansion) on 19 December at 5am PST, waved adieu to Pragmatic Just-Fix-It Capricorn and moved into Idealistic NoNotThatWay-ThisIsHowToFixIt Aquarius. It’s Catty of me I know, but I imagine Aquarians sitting in a bar arguing about how to Fix Society. We have the poster child for Fixed Air (Rigid Ideology) in the US Congress.

To be Honest, we have to wonder what planets have been in Aquarius for the last while already, as Congress has been unable to Negotiate with itself at least since the Tea Party came ashore, if not since Newt crawled out from under his rock. Asteroid Aletheia (The Heart’s Truth) has been in Aquarius since April 2020, which makes sense relative to the closure of the Federal purse since the March CARIES Act. Asteroid Pallas (Boundaries) has been in Aquarius since Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 7 December, and will be till April 2021.

But actually, if Hupers Learn to differentiate their Heart-Truth from their SolarPlexus-Truth and find the nanobit of Awareness and Empathy necessary to look in the Mirror and see how Upset they get when someone else Forces foreign Beliefs on them, and then Realize how Odious it must be for them to Force their Beliefs on Others (Duh!), they might Loosen Up a bit. Pour me another before closing time, ok? – an Aquarian anal-ysis if there ever was one. Aquarius is completely capable of figuring this out, it’s just my cynicism about Huperity that Limits my Optimism.

I get it, that’s my Karmic Pattern that, if I don’t look in the Mirror, will lock me into a Future of Competition to the Death. I’ll have to turn it around, so I can Manifest a Future of Peace and Collaboration and let the rest of the Hupers Manifest whatever they want in their own back yards. You know the First Law of Manifestation, Whosoever Farts in Church, sits in their own Pew. Or is that the Law of Karma. Can’t be, that one’s been Repealed.

Saturn averages two and a half years in each Sign, and Jupiter one year. Saturn in Aquarius should Teach us that The Most Important Thing is to Avoid Taking our Metaphors Literally. That’s the definition of Fundamentalism, and it applies to just about everybody, including us if we don’t constantly Let Go of our Natural tendency to want to have Burnt Umber clearly differentiated from Beige (Black and White are no longer PC).

What’s difficult to remember is that It’s All Metaphor. Even with our Best Multidimensional Intuition and our Most Outrageous Channelings, we Perceive such a tiny sliver of Reality, that while our Heart’s Truth defines Our Own Values, it doesn’t have anything to say about the Nature of Reality. Our Solar Plexus-Truth is even less descriptive, even though it’s Useful for helping us find Food and Shelter.

Saturn’s last sojourn in Aquarius was 1990-1993. Remember Daddy-Bush’s First Gulf War? Collapse of the USSR? The End of Apartheid? The first breath of the World Wide Web?

Jupiter in Aquarius can lead us to Tolerate, and even Embrace, Cognitive Dissonance, the Practice of being able to hold Contradictory Beliefs in mind, as equally Valid, at the same time. Huper Mind Perceives Duality, Either/Or, while Reality is Unitary and Multifarious, or Both/And. If we Allow our Thinking to Define our Concepts about Reality, we’ll never escape Judgment, and Love Dissolves when Judgment Replaces Curiosity.

We don’t get to 5D without Unconditional Self-Love, so Embracing Cognitive Dissonance is a Critical Skill. Every Perspective contains valuable information (even Mask Denial), so we can’t afford to Reject any of them, even though we probably want to rank them in order of their Utility.

Jupiter last visited Aquarius in 2008-2009. Hard to believe that was a dozen years ago. We had the H1N1 Swine Flu. Obama took over to sweep up the shards of the US Economy after the Derivative Crisis, often misnamed the Housing Crisis. Sully landed in the Hudson. And Bitcoin took its first breath.

Easy to forget in Light of the Jupiter-Saturn “Christmas Star,” but of course the Sun moves out of Sagittarius and into Capricorn at 2:05 am PST on 21 December. Our Perception of our own Essence should become less Scattered and more Pragmatic. That’ll be welcome.

Dwarf planet Ixion (Forbidden or Hidden Unique Genius) sticks its toe back into Capricorn on 27 December (1:20 am PST), for the second of three times as it stutters it’s way out of Sagittarius. It enters Capricorn “for good” (till next time, 250 years hence) in November 2021. We’ve hopefully used its 15-year passage through Sagittarius to Let Go Of our Inhibitions on Allowing it to Exist and Bloom, so we can use its 19-year trip through Capricorn Putting It To Work Healing the Planet, or at least building a very large Ark.

Cusps are tricky. Planets that are four Signs apart (Trine, Dumb-Luck Grace) get on well with one another because they share the same element – Water to Water and Fire to Fire. Planets that are three Signs apart (Square, Challenge) create Stress because they don’t share the same element – Air to Earth or Water to Fire. But look at these Cuspy Angles in the Saturn-Jupiter Initiation chart above…

Sedna to Karma is three Signs (with a little slop) so it should be Difficult, yet it’s Earth to Earth (Taurus to Virgo), which should make it Easier.

Moon to Juno is four Signs so it should be Easy, yet it’s Water to Fire (Pisces to Sagittarius), which should be more Difficult.

Some of each, perhaps? Both/And? An Opportunity to Practice our Cognitive Dissonance? Maybe a completely new kind of Relationship, neither Easy nor Difficult, but Orthogonal to that Dimension? A Paradox?