Intuitive Confidence V – Lesson Plan

The Asbolus Station chart, and the New Moon after it, features no less than three Quintile Yods.  A Yod is a wedge-shaped triangle.  A Quintile is two planets one fifth of the way ’round the Zodiac from one another.  It means Learning and Teaching, the Fifth Harmonic.  We usually draw them in orange (though they look more red here).  A Quintile Yod is made up of two Biquintiles (two fifths of the way ’round) and one Quintile, making a narrow triangle, like these…

The three Quintile Yods include…

• A Nemesis QYod on a base of Stationary Asbolus and Venus – we will be Learning about Ego Death with our Intuition and our Values as our Teachers
• An Ixion-Saturn-Lilith QYod on a base of Pallas and Ceres-Aletheia-Mnemosyne – We’re finally Learning that it’s Most Important to Support the Sovereignty of our Hidden Genius, as we Remember the Truth of the Abuse that forced Her underground, and Learn to draw Boundaries to Protect Her
• A North Node QYod on a base of Chiron and Pluto – This one is Big too; we’re Learning to Support our Lifetime Mission (whether we recognize it Consciously or not), by Accepting the necessary Self-Transformations and Empathizing with the Pain of the resulting Ego Deaths

One Quintile Yod is fairly unusual; three of them at once is a Graduate School.

In the previous post, https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/intuitive-confidence-iv-asbolus/, we drew in, in light lines, the ongoing Earth Grand Trine that includes the 17 September Chariklo Station, partly to remind us that it’s still about, and partly to point out that… 

• Orcus Initiated Mercury in 10 Virgo on 17 September (6pm PDT).
• Orcus Initiated Moon in 10 Virgo on 18 September (noon PDT).
• Orcus Initiates Mars in 10 Virgo on 19 September (10:30 am PDT).

10 Virgo is “Two heads looking out and beyond the shadows,” which Rudhyar interprets as Transcending Duality.  Wouldn’t that be nice.  Orcus is about Oath-Making and Oath-Breaking.  The Etruscan God Orcus was in charge of Punishing Oath-Breakers.  Oaths serve only to enforce Slavery, whether to outside Authority or to our own mind.  A distant Ancestor once took an Oath to Breathe Oxygen, so we can’t dismiss Oaths completely – we’re Creatures of Habit, and we’d all be stumbling around like one-year-olds if we weren’t, if we made it to year one. 

However, there’s a one-to-one relationship between Oaths we’ve made and Archetypes that Enslave us.  We live 99% from the Unconscious, and many of the Archetypal Programs running in the Unconscious are Limiting Beliefs.  Since those Limiting Beliefs travel with us from Lifetime to Lifetime, we’ve Vowed to Escape from some of them during the current Lifetime.  The Etruscans were right – Breaking an Oath requires Punishment, and we feel it as Guilt. 

Yes, we Disappoint and Abandon many people, in this Lifetime and others, when we disavow an Oath, and that doesn’t feel good.  This Discomfort is part of our Ego Death.  We use the Ego to Merge with an Oath to create a Limiting Belief – it Defines us – otherwise we wouldn’t reliably Obey it.  So Transcending it requires an Ego Death.  

The Rose above the Sky

Let’s look a little more at that Grand Quintile.  Here’s one without all of the other Action in its chart…

It’s a Pentagram, traditional symbol of Magic.  It’s actually pointing down, which sometimes implies Black Magic.  But as we said in the previous post, the whole diagram will turn upside down in twelve hours, so there’s little meaningfully permanent about the pointing.  If there’s anything to the Black part, it’s bad luck or evil intent for the West Coast of the US, as the chart is even rotated for other locations at the same time.

The Full Moon occurs around 3pm PDT, which is the equivalent of 2pm PST.  Since Hawaii is two hours earlier than Pacific Time, the Sun will be close to directly overhead in Hawaii – and the Pentagram will be pointing straight up.

The classic symbol of five-symmetry is the Rose Family, which includes this Apple (a future Fuji), blooming as we speak…

The Rose and Pentagram have always been associated with Venus and the Heart, because the Zodiacal locations of the Heliacal Rising of Venus over eight years plot a perfect Hexagram.  The “Heliacal Rising” of a planet or Star occurs when it first becomes visible again after being hidden by being too close to the Sun.  The ancients measured the seasons of the year by keeping track of the Heliacal Rising of various Stars.

I read today that the process of Learning floods the brain with a particular protein, and that this protein confuses the brain’s reward center, disrupting Addictions.  The same can apply to Archetypes, since our Karmic or Childhood Programming Unconsciously expects a positive reward when we’re Obedience to an Archetype we’re Entranced to.  Liberation from an Archetype is by far the most important type of Learning, since it’s Life-Changing.  And Entrancing someone to a Archetype, such as Nationalism, would be a good case of Black Magic.

Let’s isolate the Grand Decile.  A Decile Angle is one tenth of the Zodiacal Loop, so a Grand Decile has ten planets equally spaced ’round the Circle…

If that reminds you of a Rose it’s no coincidence; with five-symmetry the double Rose has five petals in each layer.  Fortune, the Tenth Harmonic, is related to Learning mostly through Liberation from Archetypes, as Liberation allows us to respond Neutrally to circumstances and Witness Reality more clearly.  Left-brain Learning, which involves only the accumulation of Information and not Liberation, also clogs the brain’s reward center – Jung always said that people whose primary approach to Life is through Thinking, are irrational, because not being in touch with their Heart, they Act according to their thoughts rather than their Values.

There is a reason why astrology considers the Fifth Harmonic a “Minor” Angle, aside from the fact that you can’t instantly spot them because they share the same Degree of their respective Signs, as you can with “Major” Angles.  It’s much more difficult to gain Power Over someone who runs their Life from their Heart rather than their “Head.”  Thinking is usually associated with the Head because Left-Brain Mythology attributes thought to the brain.  In Energy Reality, thinking is assigned to the Third Chakra, the Solar Plexus, not the brain.

In order to Power-Over a “Head”-centered person, all we need to do is match their Archetypal Programming with our Propaganda or Rhetoric.  To Power-With a Heart-centered person, we need to demonstrate that we share their Values.  We may be able to direct our Propaganda to their Values, but a Heart-centered person is much more likely to be in touch with their Intuition and Instincts, which would allow them to know our Intentions.

The more we uses our Quintiles to Break Free of our Archetypes, the more directly we Witness Reality.  When we’re Entranced by an Archetype, that’s all we see – the rest of the Universe is projected onto the outer screen of the Archetype.  The more Archetypes entangle us, the less we see of what goes on behind the curtain.  It’s the greater detection of Reality which allows the Tenth Harmonic to represent Manifestation – which is more difficult when we can’t see the levers and pulleys and cobwebs and Energies that connect the elements of hardcopy Reality.

Crystals do not exhibit five-symmetry, but there are several Powerful Stones named after the Rose, such as this Rose Quartz, a Stone representing the Heart…

Another “Minor” Angle that we use is the Quincunx, which connects two planets that are five Signs apart, or five twelfths of the way ’round the Loop.  The Fifth Harmonic is Learning, and the Twelfth Harmonic Pattern-Breaking, and the Quincunx combines the two – into Curiosity.  This is the source of Power in the Yin Gate – which, with it’s four Quincunxes arranged in two adjacent Xs, introduces us to Paradox or Non-Dual thinking.

And while the Grand Quintile, if used properly, can lead us to Archetype-Busting, the “Grand Unx” (an “Unx” is one twelfth of something), with twelve planets equally spaced around the Zodiac, will almost certainly Bust up some Archetypes and other Addictions.  Here’s a look at the 16 May chart, when the Moon and the Nodes add the final two aligned Oppositions to the four in our Gods and Goddesses Full Moon chart (https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2017/05/07/gods-and-goddesses-full-moon/) to complete a loose Grand Unx…

We’ve drawn in the Unxes and Quincunxes in light green.  From the Perspective of traditional astrology, there’s a problem with this chart.  The twelve positions vary from 22 to 30 Degrees; that’s eight Degrees of Sensitivity, a span that traditional Astrology would only allow for Major Angles in birth charts.  Even in birth charts, the maximum Sensitivity permitted for Minor Angles is three Degrees.

Well, recall that many times we’ve said that Permanent Curiosity (as in Awe and Wonder rather than “Gotta Figure It Out”) is akin to Love because both eschew Judgment.  If we can break our Addiction to Figuring It Out, the Quincunx actually leads us to this space of Non-Judgment, aka Neutrality, aka Enlightenment, aka Ascension.  Maybe we should call it “Unconditional” Curiosity, to parallel Unconditional Love.  In a Relationship, Love dies when Curiosity is replaced by Certainty and Judgment.

So in our Perspective, there’s nothing Minor about a Quincunx – it’s one of the more Major Angles on Reality.  We can say the same for the the Archetype-Busting Quintile and Unx, and for that matter the Septile.  The Septile (Seventh Harmonic) is about Timing – not wasting our Energy when the moment is not ripe, and Acting Decisively when it is – like France’s own new “JFK” apparently has.  We hope he fares better than JFK did.  Well, it turns out that Timing is critical in everything, including Curiosity and Unconditional Love.  It’s Timing that resolves the unsettling apparent Conflicts between Unconditional Love of Other and Unconditional Love of Self.

So we don’t argue that this chart may not be fully descriptive of the Present Moment come 16 May.  But if the Unx and Quincunx are Major Angles, as we aver, then we regard the chart as fully applicable to Projects begun under its watch, including the Rebirths that have been scheduled for us.

 

Muffins 2

Abuse takes many forms, and impacts all of us.  For instance, if the Significant Others in your Childhood saw you as a blank canvas that needed to be painted with the colors and patterns of their Culture, then during your Formative years you were never recognized as an Individual Soul, unless you were lucky enough to have a “Cookie Lady,” the Mom next door who saw you for who you were. We call that Spiritual Abuse.

In some Cultures, that’s the norm.  Sexual, Physical, and Spiritual Abuse lasts for many generations – seven in one prominent version of the Story.  If your Ancestors were Abused – and whose weren’t – it’s in your genes.  We are programmed to “forget” our Abuse, so most of us are in Denial about most of our Abuse.  

In the USofA, 100 million people tuned in Monday night to watch a conversation between an aspirant that would gift the tattered remains of the short-lived and profoundly destructive American Empire to the Privileged 1%, and one who would sell it to the Exploitative multinational corporations.  And the 100 million, in Denial about their Abuse, don’t know why they don’t like either one of them.  Any way they look at it they lose.

There’s Potential that this Muffin could wake us from the somnambulance of our Abuse.

The peak of the Muffin, or focus of the Configuration, is the Nessus-OR10 Conjunction.  Nessus is about Abuse and Privilege, OR10 about Unconscious contents breaking through into Awareness.

Mars-Hylonome-Chariklo (MHC) is the left shoulder (the Muffin’s left shoulder, when it’s looking at you; it’s on the right when you’re looking at it), symbolizing its Heart.  Ceres is at the other  or Action shoulder, promising Sustainability if we handle the ifs ands & buts effectively.

The base is a Sextile between Jupiter-Makemake and Varuna.  Sappho is moving along, but it’s still quite close to Jupiter-Makemake.  The base then is about Manifesting Self-Love from our Cells outward.

The Squares that make up the sides of the Muffin are Sappho-Jupiter-Makemake (SJM) to MHC and Varuna to Ceres.

The sides of a Muffin Configuration are Challenges.  The Configuration as a whole offers a great deal of help in converting the Challenges to Mastery.  We can say that the Ultimate Purpose of this Muffin is to Liberate us from the ghosts of Abuse and Privilege, by cementing Self-Love deep into our very Mitochondria and nucleic DNA.  What are the Challenges?

The first Challenge is an apparent Conflict between our Expanding Self-Love and Mission to Create on the one hand, and the Archetypes of Pleaser, Loyalty, Protocol, Obedience, and Appearances on the other.  The Archetypes are chains that hold us back.  How would we go about breaking these chains?  The chart recommends PIAVA.  For example…

• “I Wonder How I can make my Creative Ability Dominant and Permanent.”
• “Ganeshi, please Remove all Obstacles to my using the Energy embedded in historical Abuse to Power the Creative Potential of my Expanding Self-Love, and Manifest it into Material Form.”

The Muffin creates a Major and a Minor Tricolor for each Square.  The Major Tricolor foe the left-hand Square is MHC Square SJM Quincunx Ceres Trine MHC, and the Minor ia MHC Square SJM Quincunx Nessus-OR10 Sextile MHC.

The Major Tricolor for the right-hand Square is Ceres Square Varuna Quincunx MHC Trine Ceres, and the Minor Ceres Square Varuna Quincunx Nessus-OR10 Sextile Ceres.  Again, the handedness is from the Perspective of the Muffin.

The second Challenge is to replace the Competition Programming in our Cells with Cooperation Programming.  

Just to take a “trivial” example, did you know that “Weeds” are Soil Conditioners?  Dandelions aerate and recycle Minerals washed out by rain.  Clovers recycle the Nitrogen vital to Photosynthesis.  Clovers fed the ruminants that helped fertilize, and Dandelions were a prize food nutritionally for other Animals, including Hupers.

In the modern lawn, aeration is done by machine, Nitrogen recycling by fertilizers made by processing Natural Gas, and Mineral recyling not at all.  Food for Hupers, demineralized by industrial agriculture and diminished in nutrients by processing and shipping delays, comes from the freezer cabinets at the grocery store, before it goes into the microwave as a final step to make sure it contains only calories and not nutrients.

If Hupers ate Real, Live Food, they would have a harder time maintaining the Archetypal Hypnosis.

What PIAVAs might we use to address this second Challenge?  As examples…

• “Great Spirit, please Allow my Ego to Lovingly and Gently Embrace my Held Emotions, and Allow my Cells to Safely Let Go of the Heavy Metals and Toxic Chemicals that they hold.”
• “God/Goddess, Creator of All That Is, I Command that my Cellular Memory Lovingly and Gently and Rapidly and Completely Transmute all traces of Abuse.  It is Done, it is Done, it is Done.  Thank you, God/Goddess.”

Don’t forget to Change the Subject and Pay Attention – if you aren’t sure what I mean by that, see https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2016/09/02/piava-review/ .

We want to have our Tools (Tapping, Yes-And, Cancel-Neutralize-Upgrade, Poor Sweetheart, etc.) ready, and to be watchful for Upper Limits and Ego Deaths, and mindful to be Loving and Gentle with them, since this Muffin could accelerate the Changes significantly.

A Muffin Configuration is a Pentagram, the symbol of Manifestation Magic – apart from the recent Makemake-Jupiter-Sappho Initiations, which symbolize the Expansion of Self-Loving Creative Transformation into Matter.  The Muffin is taller than it is wide, implying that while it’s well Grounded in Substance, the emphasis is on Energy and Spirit.

As they say, give someone a Fish, and they’ll eat.  Give them a boat, and they’ll sit around all afternoon drinking Beer, but they might also catch a Fish, and feed themself.  While there are no Quintiles involved, the Muffin is a Pentagram, invoking the Fifth Harmonic – Learning.  This is not a one-time Gift of Grace, though if it were it would be fabulous; it’s a Gift of Learning.  

We’re told that “You can’t take it with you,” referring to the transfer of Material Abundance from one Lifetime to another.  But in fact, what you do take with you is what you’ve Learned about Manifestation.

Curiosity and Desire

It’s hard to overemphasize how important it is to maintain our Curiosity about how our newfound Vulnerability (ie, Loss of our Masks) will impact our Mission (and Deepest Desires).  

As always, we don’t mean Curiosity as a means to an end – Questions seeking Answers.  We mean Curiosity as an end in itself – Wonder and Awe, eyes wide and mouth ajar.

Since our Deepest Desires are often a source of Vexation – we Want it but we can’t seem to Get it, or Keep it when we do – we might well find our mind grinding away on our Lifelong Frustrations.  If that’s the case, this grinding is exactly the Pattern that we need to Replace.  That’s why it’s Lit Up.

Which is the Key to the Temple, to Realize that when any Bummer is Lit Up, it’s Lit Up to inform us that we have Work to do on our Limiting Beliefs.  And the Work is easy – we just Embrace ourself.  “You poor Sweetheart, you’re really Bummed by this, aren’t you.”  The apparently difficult part is Discerning that Oh Yeah, we’re Feeling here, and we don’t like the Feeling!  We need to Learn to Love ALL of our Feelings, and this is The Opportunity to Practice just that!!  Hooray!!

Chances are we’ve built up Stories around why our Deepest Desires elude us – because of some quirk of our childhood perhaps, or maybe we’ve concluded that Huper Nature just works that way, or some Pattern that we believe Limits us but we’ve never been able to Change.  Mindstuff.  Let it all Go.  Come to Curiosity instead…

“I Wonder why my Deepest Desires always elude me.”

Just that simple.  Make it a Mantra, a Ritual.  Carve it into your mirrors, your refrigerator door, your smartphone, write it on the inside of your eyelids.  Don’t let it become rote.  Close your eyes when you say it to yourself (except when driving or operating machinery), and really Feel that Energy bubbling up from the Deeps.

While this particularly applies next week to our Deepest Desires, it’s an excellent strategy for dealing with any stuck Pattern we have.  What if we want to Eat less, or less often, or less Sugar, for instance.  Then whenever we have a moment of Awareness before or during our urge to Eat, we can pause a minute and…

I Wonder why I always want to Eat while I’m writing.

Followed by a pause.  This is a PIAVA – an invitation to Intuition – so we need to pause and Change the Subject.  We could go back to Eating 

(we Change the Subject to prevent the mind from constraining us to our existing Limiting Beliefs; Eating is quite different from Analyzing Eating),

for instance, or back to writing.  The Intuition will surprise us later.

We mentioned in passing that Jupiter’s Initiation of the North Node (Exact 3pm PDT 24 June at 17 Virgo – Volcanos) Biquintiles (Learning New Rituals) Uranus’s and Eris’s Initiation of Ceres (Exact 8pm 21 June and 5am 23 June, respectively, both at 24 Aries – Abundance), but it deserves more than a mention.  

These are Waxing Biquintiles.  

In the evolution of a Cycle, the Waxing 

• Trioctile (8th Harmonic/Rebalancing, and 3rd Harmonic/Compassion) precedes the 
• Biquintile (5th Harmonic/Learning, and 2nd Harmonic/Ritual), which in turn precedes the 
• Quincunx (12th Harmonic/Pattern-Breaking, and 5th Harmonic/Learning).

So once a new Energy

• Becomes Permanent (Square) and
• Blesses us for Acknowledging it (Trine – without Acknowledgement, the Trine denotes Arrogance),
• We Lovingly Adapt to it (Trioctile),
• Learn and Practice new Rituals that match the new Energy (Biquintile), and 
• Break any old Habits that would get in our way (Quincunx).  

By choosing Magnetism (PIAVA – Curiosity) instead of Dynamism (Plan-Do), we gain Free Attention to use on our Seva rather than our Process.

So it would behoove to see what our Jupiter-Uranus and Jupiter-Eris Cycles are about.  The current Jupiter-Uranus Cycle (Expanding into greater Connection to Soul) began in June 2010 at 1 Aries (Manifesting Form).  The current Jupiter-Eris Cycle (Amplifying Truth) was Initiated at the end of April 2011 in 22 Aries (“The gate to the garden of all fulfilled desires“).  Intense.

What a “Coincidence” that Desire arises.  Not to mention the hint that Truth leads to fulfillment of Desire.

For a while on 23 June (approximately 6am to 11am PDT), the Jupiter/North Node to Uranus/Eris/Ceres Biquintile is joined by Venus and the Moon to form four-fifths of a Grand Quintile (Learning Made Easy).  The Vacancy – the Energy we’d Supply Consciously in order to complete the Grand Quintile and remove the Stress – is the last degree of Scorpio (Mischievousness).  So it’s important to Play, perhaps just a bit impolitely.

At the same time, Chiron and Saturn join Venus in an intertwined Septangle – Venus Triseptiles Saturn which Biseptiles Chiron which in turn Biseptiles Venus.

The Biseptile is about Timing our Rituals for maximum Effect, and the Triseptile is about Timing our Compassion so it’s neither Taken for Granted nor Abused.

We could read this as, The Most Important Thing (Saturn) is to be Loving and Gentle with ourself (Venus) whenever we find ourself touching our Despair (Chiron).  Venus occupies the inflection point between the Septangle and the incipient Grand Sextile, telling us that the Key is Magnetic.

Quintiles

Natacha asks…

“Could you please post an article about the Quintile series of aspects?  I have hard time understanding how they work together, and the specific vibration of each one of them.  That would be: decile (36°), quintile (72°), bi-quintile (144°) and tredecile (108°).  I understand that the quintile is the matrix of all the others, but it is hard to grasp the working mechanic of the series.  This would be very helpful. Thank you so much.“

Sure.  I’ll even do it in bold italic, since these kinds of underlying geometries are bottom line to the way we do astrology.

I use Angeles Arrien’s excellent Tarot Handbook to define the “Harmonics.”  If two planets are a fifth of the way ’round the Zodiacal loop from one another, they are “Quintile” to one another, and they dance together in the Fifth Harmonic.  I don’t know Music, but if you do, you probably know a lot more about this than I do.

Since we follow Rudhyar’s Cyclical astrology (his Lunation Cycle, for instance), it’s technically more accurate to say that the faster planet Quintiles the slower one, or the slower planet is Quintiled by the faster one.  So for instance on 9 June, Vesta makes a Waxing Quintile to Pluto while the Moon makes a Waning Quintile to Pluto.  The Angle Waxes while it’s still growing, but then, after the Opposition, it Wanes.  The difference is that the Energy of the Cycle is still Expanding while the Angle is Waxing, but when it’s Waning the Energy of the Cycle is moderating.

The combination creates a Quintile Yod Configuration – two planets Quintile to one another, each of which is Biquintiled by a third planet.  The third planet is the focus of the Q-Yod.  

To interpret the Q-Yod, we would say that we are Transforming (Pluto) the relationship between our Unconscious Beliefs (Vesta) and our Instincts (Moon) – hopefully that means we’re Learning to Trust our Instincts more, so that they’re less censored and censured by our Unconscious Beliefs.

To interpret the Waxing Vesta-Pluto Quintile by itself, we would say that we are Learning (Quintile) more about this Vesta-Pluto Cycle, which is about artifacts of an ancient culture (the Cycle was Initiated at 14 Capricorn), and more specifically, we’re beginning to establish new Habits (Biquintile) based on what we’ve Learned to Trust (we’re now past the Waxing Square, or the place where the Energy of the current Cycle has forced out the Resistance of the previous Cycle) about which of our Unconscious Beliefs still “grow Corn.”

Which, “coincidentally,” resonates with the primary 9 June Energy, which is about Removing our Masks, or the places where we hide from ourself and others.

To interpret the Waning Vesta-Pluto Quintile by itself, we might say that we are Learning (Quintile) to be Grateful for the Gifts of previous Privilege, as we prepare to Let them Go (the Waning Biquintile occurs just prior to the Phitile, or Fruiting of the Cycle) and move on to a different sort of relationship with Slavery (the Cycle was Initiated at 18 Capricorn).  Again, the Biquintile is about Changing Patterns.

The Waxing Moon-Vesta Quintile, occurring as it does prior to the Waxing Square, may involve Unconscious Learning (Quintile), as we adapt to the building of the Energy of the new Cycle, which in this case is about Preparedness (Vesta Initiated the Moon at 9 Gemini).  Of course, if we were aligned with the new Energy at the Initiation, and we Trust the new Energy, we may be very Conscious about it.

For instance, if we Trust the Uranus-Pluto and Uranus-Eris Cycles and we Believe in Yindependence (which we might paraphrase as Freedom and Compassion), we’d be Preparing for four years of Bernie.  If we Believe in Yangdependence (Freedom and Competition) we’d be Preparing for regresssion to the 19th Century with The Donald.  If we just prefer Dependence, we’d be relaxing back into the 20th Century and Hillary.

That’s all “tongue in cheek,” so don’t get riled about it – but do try to understand the astrological Perspective I’m offering there, even if it’s not the Perspective you’d use.  It’s just meant as a Heuristic, not any sort of interpretation or prognostication.

The Fifth Harmonic, and the Quintile, is about Learning and Teaching.  To get quickly to the essence of things, we (I’m using the “editorial we” here, not trying to dictate how everyone should do things) shortcut all Quintile Angles, including the Biquintile, as simply about Learning.  A Waxing Triquintile is just a Waning Biquintile.  When looking for a first-cut overview, we don’t bother with Cycles, so we don’t worry about which planet is faster, we just look at the Angle between the two planets.

The Biquintile, as distinguished from the Quintile itself, would be about Learning to adopt (Waxing) or Release (Waning) new Habit Patterns, as it combines the Fifth Harmonic with the Second, and the Second Harmonic is about the Power of Ritual.  Or, if we were ignoring the Waxing/Waning dimension for the sake of an efficient overview, the Biquintile would be about Changing Patterns.  Since it’s Repetitions that cement Habits and Patterns and Rituals and Archetypes and Karma, we could say that the Biquintile is about the Power of Repetition.  Roke’s Master Patterner, for example.

Numerologically, the Tenth Harmonic reduces to the First Harmonic, or the Magic of Communication in all its forms and applications.  But in a Cyclical rather than Linear context, the Tenth Harmonic is subsidiary to the Fifth, because a Bidecile Angle is in fact a Quintile.  The Tenth Harmonic is Fortune.  Technically, it’s The Wheel of Fortune, which can run over us as well as turn in our favor.

Our bias, though, is that it’s all about Learning, so even when Fortune seems to turn against us, it’s only in order to provide us with Information that we can use to Manifest even more Fortuitous circumstances than we otherwise would.  When we PIAVA, the Universe always Responds.  If we’re ready, the Universe gives us what we Asked for.  If we aren’t ready, the Universe gives us Information about why we had to Ask for it, and haven’t been Enjoying it all along.

It’s kind of like the old story about Give a man a Fish and he’ll eat, but Teach a man to drink beer in a boat, and he’ll Fish all day long.

This a Powerful Perspective to bring to our Victim spaces.  Whatever it is we’re Asking for, someone somewhere probably already Enjoys it.  Even if we don’t know anyone, we can Imagine it.  So, why not us?  Well, if it’s hard, we probably have Unconscious Resistance to Manifesting it.  So we get the homework assignment to Get Conscious of any relevant Unconscious Limits and Choose to Create different Patterns. 

That’s why we Pay Attention if nothing appeared to happen after a few days of Changing the Subject, so we can Ask ourself what did happen, and Wonder how that might possibly be related to what we PIAVAed.  It’s also why we don’t recommend making too many PIAVAs at once – we won’t be able to sort out all of the new Information in order to use it to our greatest advantage.

So we simply regard the Decile Angle as fortuitous.  The Tridecile, or Tredecile, brings in the Third Dimension, Love with Wisdom – even more fortuitous.  We get the Grace of Love, without the Codependence of Naive Trust.

We could take it a step further.  The Tridecile is one Twentieth of the way ’round the Zodiac past the Square.  The Square, or the Fourth Harmonic, signifies Healthy Control, as the place where Clarity returns and it’s now Clear that the new Cycle is in Charge (Waxing) – or the place where it’s now Clear that the current Cycle is descending into the Void (Waning).  Either way, we don’t have to hedge our bets any more.  The Twentieth Harmonic is about Decisions that can withstand the test of Time.  So at the Tridecile we’re firing on all cylinders.

If we’re going to talk about Learning, we need to also talk about Curiosity and Confusion.  We live in a Patriarchy where the “left brain,” with all its Analysis and Logic and Debate and Rules, dominates the surface.  The “right brain,” with its focus on Vision and Intuition and Relationship and Yindependence, runs underground, or, we might say, has been run into the dirt.  Logic is a house of cards built on top of Assumptions that are almost never explicit.  The Assumptions of Yangtegrity are the equivalent of Unconscious Limits – they need to be brought into the Light of Day where we can see if they still grow Corn.

The “left brain” is useless for examining the Unknown, and by definition, the Unconscious is the Unknown.  On the other hand, the “right brain” has a fabulous Skillset for doing exactly this.  Intuition, yes, but foremost, Curiosity.  Not Curiosity as in Questions looking for Answers, that’s “left brain.”  But Curiosity as in Invitation to Insight.  As with PIAVA, there must be a Change of Subject between Curiosity and Insight, or our old Patterns will absolutely Resist any Change.

Insight is very different from Analysis, because Insight leads us to New Perspectives, the very New Perspectives that can shift us from Despair to Miracles, as seeing the World through new eyes reveals different dimensions and relationships. Analysis can only shuffle the existing deck.  Curiosity is akin to Love (the “greatest of these three”), in that they both eschew Judgment.  Analysis seeks out Judgment.  Without being Open to the New, we’re condemned to repeat the same old same old.

The first stage of Growth is Confusion, as our old mental structures are no longer adequate to constrain our World.  A fundamental question to Ask ourself, if we want to follow the tremendous Changes that are shaking our Planet, is How is it that we Unconsciously Respond to Confusion?  Fear is a common Response, as is Anger.  Talk to someone whose Rhetoric is different from yours, and you’ll notice that when you get close to touching their faulty Assumptions, they get Angry – and we probably do the same.

One of our most important Masks to remove, is the one between Confusion and our usual Response to it.  Neither Fear nor Anger serves to help us Grow quickly into new circumstances.  By examining our Fear and Anger, we can work our way back to Confusion itself, and Teach ourself to relish the Feeling of Confusion, to invite it into our house as an honored guest, toast it, and Relax into it.  Learn to Enjoy it.

To do that you’ll have to Feel Safe, and to the extent that our Safety depends on our mental structures, that’ll never happen.  So to Enjoy Confusion we need to move our Assemblage Point from Understanding to Trust or Faith.  We can’t do that “on Faith,” we need some kind of Support for a Belief that Trust or Faith is even possible.  How to start on that project?  PIAVA it.

Native American New Moon I

As we mentioned in the last post…

“There are actually two other Configurations in … Monday’s New Moon chart, [which] color it strongly.  One of them will provide Epiphanies about our Soul Self and [about] how [we might] adjust our Values and Identity to manifest [our Soul Self into our current Lifetime] more strongly (which Epiphanies will be multiplied by our intervening success at achieving Beginner’s Mind).  

“The other is about being Reborn into the Unimaginable through taking small steps toward Embracing our Orphaned Forbidden Genius.”

“Which are in turn, (1) a Uranus Mjolnir (a third planet at the far Midpoint between two planets that Square one another) on a base of Venus Square Saturn, and (2) a Golden Rectangle between dwarf planets Eris, Chaos, Haumea, and Ixion, with Centaur Pholus Conjunct Ixion, the New Moon Conjunct Haumea, and Uranus Conjunct Eris.”

A Mjolnir is two Trioctiles from each end of a Square, merging on a third planet, which becomes the focus of the Mjolnir.  The Configuration is sometimes called “Thor’s Hammer,” and the term Mjolnir is Norwegian for just that.  Thor’s Hammer is often associated with destructive force, but that’s not quite accurate.  In the same sense that Uranus represents Disruption – Disruption of what is no longer in alignment with the Soul’s path for us in the Lifetime, Thor’s Hammer represents penetration of any Defense – as in any Defensiveness that protects the Ego from following the Soul’s path in the Lifetime.  Lightning is a good representation of the Mjolnir, as it is for the corresponding symbol in the Hindu tradition, the Vajra – sudden illumination of the Darkness, or Epiphany.

The Waxing Trioctile, 135 Degrees, combines the Eighth and Third Harmonics – Adjustment/Rebalancing and Love with Wisdom.  In the evolution of a Cycle, it sits between the Trine (120 Degrees) and the Biquintile (144); between the Grace that follows from aligning one’s path with the Zeitgeist (Trine), and the Realization of the Value of Tradition and the Power of Ritual (Biquintile).  The Biquintile in turn is followed closely by the Quincunx (150, Curiosity), the Triseptile (154) – Shamanic Power exercised for the Good of All, and the Quadrinovile (160) – Mastery gained through Self-Examination in Contemplation.  

This is a powerful section of the Zodiac, corresponding to Leo and early Virgo.  There are massive Changes going on, but they’re faced with the Courage of Leo, because the Uncertainty and Confusion of the earlier sections of the Zodiac have passed under the Bridge, and by now we kind of have a feel for what’s going down.  The notion that a Trioctile is a minor Square (often called a “Sesqui-Square”) is valid in only one sense: the sense that the Ego is a Trickster that can point one in the wrong direction if one focuses on Greed or Revenge.  Of course the zone of the Waning Trioctile and its near neighbors corresponds to Scorpio – the Debriefing that follows the Phitile.  While Leo embodies Courage, the defining quality of Scorpio is Fearlessness.

In today’s Mjolnir, the Waxing Trioctile is Venus to Uranus: Adjusting and Rebalancing our Values to better reflect the ongoing Descent of our Soul Self.  The Cycle Initiated in March at 15 Aries, “A Native American weaving a ceremonial blanket.”

The Waning Trioctile is Saturn to Uranus: Debriefing the Ego to discover what it has Learned about the Soul’s Intention as a result of its Experience with the Cycle that is beginning to unwind – which was “The Pope Blessing the Faithful,” 30 Sagittarius, February 1988, part of the Harmonic Convergence.

The Square is Waning, Venus to Saturn: Challenge to Ease up on the Ego’s role as the Protector of our Physical Vehicle.  The Cycle is “Native Americans making camp after moving into new territory,” – 26 Scorpio, November 2014.  In other words, some of our Beliefs about what we need to Survive have become Limiting Beliefs, that we’re Challenged to Let Go of.

So really, there are Big Questions here…

• Ritual and Tradition are strong here.  What a “coincidence” that this New Moon occurs on Native American Day.
• Since March, what have you connected or reconnected with, that you Feel is Sacred?  Have you established a Ritual, or Ritual Object, of some sort to honor it?
• What has the Ego Learned since the Harmonic Convergence!  Wow.  Who were you in 1986?  What’s Changed in your Field since then?  What’s different now about the way you Defend your Health and your “turf” and the externalities that you Identify with (work? Relationship? Family? Money? Religion? Sports? Politics?)?  Does your current Perspective seem like Growth, or backsliding, compared to where you were in 1986?  Of course it’s Both/And; in what ways is it Growth, and in what ways is it backsliding?  Where are the razor-wire fences you can Levitate over?
• Things in your Life were Changing rapidly in late 2014 and early 2015.  You made some Decisions about what you needed to do to Support yourself.  Decisions are like Instant Karma; they create Patterns that are useful in the short run, but which seldom come with their own Sunset Provisions.  We forget we made them, and we don’t revisit them to see if they’re still relevant.  What Decisions about Survival did you make in late 2014 and early 2015, and are they still relevant?  Or are they holding you back?  Both/And?  How to Rebalance/Adjust them to bring them into the Present Moment.  

Decisions don’t have to be explicit; recurring thoughts can have the same Power.  What were you thinking about in late 2014 and early 2015?  Were your thoughts Constructive, or Fearful in nature?  

So you don’t have to get bogged down in details, you may want to just PIAVA that obsolete Decisions and Patterns come to your Attention, gently and lovingly, and Adjustments appropriate to Now become Clear.  Make sure you include the gently and lovingly, because a PIAVA like this could turn your Life upside down if you didn’t also ask for Grace.  You may want to limit it to recent Decisions and Patterns, or, if you don’t, be watchful for Overwhelm, and respond to it with a compensatory PIAVA on the order of Visualizing or Affirming that the Changes in your Life occur at exactly the right speed, so you’re neither too early nor too late to synch with the Planetary Changes.  Or, you can just Levitate over the fence.

In the next installment, we’ll go into “The other [Configuration] is about being Reborn into the Unimaginable through taking small steps toward Embracing our Orphaned Forbidden Genius.”

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.

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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.

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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?

Gathering No Moss

A reader writes…

“Brilliant.  And I will take you up on your kind offer of calculation for the upright / inverted pentacle timing.  Location is South Australia.  I found your site when I noticed a pentagram in my natal chart and have found your perspectives to be eye-opening to say the least.  Would love to get more insight into my chart, but you don’t seem to advertise this service…(?)  Thank you so much for all you do.”

For South Australia, use a starting time of 1:27am ACST, when Sedna crosses the Midheaven.  You can use the same starting time through November 3.  So you’d have, rounding a bit, in Australian Central Standard Time…

•          Upright Pentacle                Inverted Pentacle
•     1-2am ACST                        3:30-4:30am
•    5:45-6:45am                             8-9am
•  10:30-11:30am                           1-2pm
•    3:30-4:30pm                      5:45-6:45pm
•          8-9pm                           10:30-11:30pm

If you want to be more exact, you can add 2:24 over and over again, starting with 1:27am.  Also, I’ve just rounded a bit then added a half hour before and a half hour after, to result in an hour roughly centered on each time when Magic is afoot.  Instead of a half hour, you can add ten minutes or an hour, or any other interval you want, up to 1:12.

And yes, I do readings; I’ll email you about that.  I also have a pentacle in my natal chart.

Another reader, writing from the US East Coast…

“Is there a name for that kind of chart? and is it on Astro.com?  Or can you point me to where I can pull such a chart?  Whenever you write about portals, I always do try be away from or off of work (funny, for a while there it was falling that way that I already was going to be off of work for some reason)  or just simply out of my office, even if I have to go sit in my car so I can relax and focus —- I would like to at least be aware for these peaks too!
Can you advise!!”

Yes, sorry to create frustration; you pretty much need to know how to compute a chart, or have the appropriate software.  But it’s pretty easy for me to look up, since I do have the software.

For Eastern Daylight Time, your start time is midnight, but that’s starting with an Inverse Pentagram.  So the exact Portals would be 12am, 4:48am, 9:36am, 2:24pm, and 7:12pm EDT every day (through November 3) for the Inverted Pentacles (Devolution), and 2:24am, 7:12am, noon, 4:48pm, and 9:36pm EDT for the Upright Pentacles (Ascension).  Give yourself a few minutes to a half hour on either side of those times.  The moments before the exact Portal will likely be stronger than the moments after, so if you want to maximize the impact with the least cost to your schedule, pick a few of the times that are convenient, and relax and focus for the 10-15 minutes prior.

If you have particular interest in one of the members of the pentagram (Sedna, Chiron, North Node, Juno, Mars), choose the time when that member is most prominent.  For instance, Chiron might be of interest, since it’s been acting out for you lately.  Or, you might want to choose a different planet each day.  The daily sequence is…

• 12am EDT North Node Down
• 2:24am Sedna Up
• 4:48am Mars Down
• 7:12am Juno Up
• 9:36am Chiron Down
• noon North Node Up
• 2:24pm Sedna Down
• 4:48pm Mars Up
• 7:12pm Juno Down
• 9:36pm Chiron Up

You might want to make a note that North Node Down is South Node Up, and North Node Up is South Node Down.  South Node isn’t part of the pentagram, so it won’t prevail, but it will have an impact.  Similarly, Sedna Up is Saturn Down and Sedna Down is Saturn Up.  Saturn’s not in the Star, but it will color our experience of Sedna.  I could give a keyword or two about what to look for at each Subportal, but it will be much better if you approach them without preconceptions or Expectations.

The planets are moving, but they don’t move so far between now and November 3 that the Subportals shift more than a few minutes.

If any of you have calculated the start time for your own time zone, you might consider posting it in a comment, so others in your time zone can take advantage of your work.

When we add the South Node and Saturn, we have seven tenths of a Grand Decile.  That’s subtle, but there is a hint of Abundance in it.

Especially if you have planets in the three Vacancies – Cancer 1, Virgo 13, Aquarius 5, give or take a degree or two.

Learning Opportunities – Portal 10.28-29

Couple of nice Solar selfies of that big Sunspot.  It is sending out Flairs; it’s just not sending out “Coronal Mass Ejections” or CMEs yet.  Flairs just mess up Earthly communications; CMEs are far heavier.  They are capable of knocking out the (electrical) Power Grid for months or even years, if a big one hits while the Grid is running.  Wouldn’t it be great if a huge one knocked out the Lizard Power Grid.  There are now several satellites that can detect when and where the Sun has belched a big one, and can warn Earth that it’s heading our way, early enough that the electrical Grid can be shut down, minimizing damage.

* * * * *

That gorgeous Grand Pentangle – our “Learning Opportunity” – that we discussed in Mercury Direct 10.25 and illustrated in Mercury Direct 10.25 II – Fantasy has been with us since October 21, peaks on October 28-29, and hangs about until November 3.

Using three degrees of Sensitivity.  We assigned the October 29 peak (12pm PDT) by looking for the exact Quintile between the two fastest planets, Mars and Juno.  The October 28 peak (6am PDT) is when the Moon crosses Mars.

If you know how to cast a chart for your location, here’s a neat trick.

In the picture, the five-pointed Star is pointing straight up – astrologically.  “Straight Up” astrologically is where the arrowhead is, near Mercury-North Node.  That arrowhead (the Midheaven) travels all the way ’round the Zodiac every 24 hours.  It moves counterclockwise.  Having five points or peaks, the Star will point Straight Up five times a day.  In between, though, a different peak will point Straight Down – opposite the arrowhead.

So the Star will point Straight Up every 4 hours and 48 minutes (one fifth of a day), and it will point Straight Down every 4 hours and 48 minutes.  It will take 2 hours and 24 minutes (one tenth of a day) to switch from Straight Up to Straight Down.

So just for the sake of example, let’s say it pointed Straight Up at 12:30pm.  Then it would point Straight Down at 12:30am, 5:18am, 10:06am, 2:54pm, and 7:42pm.  It would point Straight Up at at 2:54am, 7:42am, 12:30pm, 5:18pm, and 10:06pm.  (Check my math!)

A Pentacle pointing Straight Up represents Ascension or Evolution (Steiner), while an Inverse Pentacle pointing Straight Down symbolizes the Descent of Spirit into Matter, or Devolution.

So we could take our Ascending Hours – in the example, 2:24-3:24am, 7:12-8:12am, 12:00-1:00pm, 4:48-5:48pm, and 9:36-10:36pm – and devote them to matters of Ascension: such as…

• Becoming Conscious of what sabotages us
• PIAVAing a better understanding of our Mission
• PIAVAing a Healing for someone who has asked for our Prayers
• Taking steps to move toward our Deepest Desires
• Gently Letting Go of our Self-Judgments
• Inviting Forgiveness for someone

And we could take our Devolving Hours – in the example 12:00-1:00am, 4:48-5:48am, 9:36-10:36am, 2:24-3:24pm, and 7:12-8:12pm – and dedicate them to matters of Devolution:

• Manifesting what we Want,
• PIAVAing an end to addiction for ourself or another who has asked us to help
• PIAVAing an exciting end to a Soul-killing job or relationship
• Contemplating the Faeries who inhabit Flowers
• Exploring our Guilt and Shame
• Owning our Projections

Now, think about those distinctions, the differences between the items in the first list and the items in the second list.  Can you see an obvious distinction, or do they keep flipping back and forth?

Matter Ascending into Spirit and Spirit Descending into Matter are the same thing.  Like day and night, it’s a continuous Cycle, like a Pentacle rolling ’round the Heavens daily.  You can split them apart and make one the back of the hand and the other the palm is you want, but it’s still the same hand.  Duality is never more than an intellectual exercise.

Nevertheless, if you meditate at each of those Hours, you’ll find a distinct difference in their flavors.

The Inverse Pentacle has a reputation for Black Magic.  That’s an excellent topic for Meditation at one of the Descending Hours.  You might uncover some parts of yourself that still believe in Original Sin rather than Original Blessing.  You might realize that Morality is a Duality.  It could be a very productive Hour.

You’ll have to draw up the charts for your location, probably using some trial and error, rotating the charts till you find a time when one of the Star’s peaks points directly at the Midheaven – that is, when one of the planets in the Grand Quintile crosses the Midheaven.  The five planets are Mars, Juno, the North Node, Chiron, and Sedna.  Then you can add and subtract your 2:24’s to and from that starting time.

If you’re willing and have the time to take this seriously, but you don’t have the astrological capability to find the starting times at your location, drop me a comment with your location, and I’ll compute them for you.

Notice the coincidence with the “other” Portal 10.29, the Conjunction of Pandora and Eris, meaning…

It’s no coincidence that what we’re Learning is about material emerging from the Unconscious.  When discomfort confronts you, call time out, look inside, and inquire from whence the discomfort springs.  Don’t even worry about the triggering event in the outside World, this is about You and your Relationship to the Unconscious.  Yes, you have a Personal Unconscious, but the Unconscious is like the Earth, the same massive formation underlies us all, and it’s all connected.

Many people are locking in to their Cultural Unconscious and the Planetary Unconscious instead of their Personal Unconscious.  Take a step backwards.  If you’re merged with your Culture or your Planet, you aren’t Living from your own Heart or Soul, you’re Living from an Archetype, a superpersonal constellation in the Unconscious that has great Power.  Bring your Attention back to YourSelf.  If no other information emerges from the Unconscious here for you Personally, the information that you’re enslaved to an Archetype is a first step toward Freedom.

It’s a Journey to retrieve our Heart from an Archetype.  You feel dedicated to the Archetype, it stands in for your Mission.  But it’s not; it stands between you and your Mission, and the Archetype is complete unto itself.  If you want to improve the Planet you Live on, you need to embark on that Journey, because the Archetype is not going to Change.  Trying to Change the Culture from within the Archetype is not possible, because your Resistance to the Present Moment solidifies the Archetype furthur. 

The keyword here is selfish.  What’s the most selfish thing you can think of?  Whenever your Attention turns to how dissatisfied you are with the state of the World, ask yourself what would please you right now?  Whenever your Attention turns to how dissatisfied you are with the state of yourSelf, embrace yourself the way you are.  Doesn’t mean you need to indulge an addiction.  It means you need to sit with yourself long enough to be able to be completely Loving with yourself right where you are.

The planet Venus is heavily and mystically associated with the Pentangle, because over the course of eight years her five “inferior” Conjunctions with the Sun (when she’s on our side of the Sun) trace out a Pentagram on the Zodiac.

The various line segments in a Five-Pointed Star are all related to one another by Phi, the Golden Angle of Sacred Geometry; each segment in turn is 1.618 times the length of the segment that’s shorter than it.

Phi is a Fifth-Harmonic animal, defined as one divided by one half of the quantity [one plus the square root of five].  One half of the quantity [one plus the square root of five] is equal to approximately 1.618.  One divided by that number is 0.618.  The Phitile, 222-1/2, is 61.8% of the distance ’round the Zodiac.  It symbolizes Completion.  The Opposition is the Blossoming stage of a Cycle, and the Phitile is the Fruiting stage.  After that, we set Seed.

The Golden Angle is not arbitrary; it appears everywhere in biology.  The integration of Matter and Spirit – or rather, the realization that they are mirrors for one another, we are mirrors for one another – is a Fifth-Harmonic affair.  The Fifth Harmonic is about Learning and Teaching; the bottom line is that the ultimate relationship between Spirit and Matter is not something that can be understood through Duality – Learning this relationship is an infinite task.

The Phitile of the Solar Year occurs on November 5, at 13 of Scorpio, “An inventor performs a laboratory experiment” – constant Learning, constant Curiosity.

More Tricolors

We’ll be a little more technical in our bold-italic sections here than we usually are, but bear with us, because this material is bottom line, even if it’s more astrological.  If you run into Confusion because of the geometry or the fractions, just skip that part that’s Confusing, and move on to the next paragraph.  Confusion is the first stage of Growth, but you don’t need to resolve Confusion intellectually.  You don’t need geometry or fractions to understand this, it’s really about Human Nature and Opportunity.

* * * * *

More very welcome questions about the Tricolors…

“It is difficult for me to grasp a subtle distinction between the Major and Minor Tricolors, hence I am submitting three questions to you:

1) Could you please explain how the 4th harmonic, symbolizing dominion and healthy control, is interrelated with the 3rd, 5th and 12th harmonics contained in the Major Tricolor?

“2) As for the Minor Tricolor, I do not understand, according to your definition ‘…teaches us to share Dominion with our partners’, how it works with the principle of Pattern Breaking (12th harmonic), that the Major and Minor Tricolors involve.

“3) Is it relevant to say that the 5th harmonic is related to ‘Learning’?

“Again, thank you so much for your help on these matters.”

Questions are always welcome – thank you!  And namaste!

* * * * *

The correlation between the Major Arcana in Tarot, and the major Angles in astrology, is very strong.  I’m sure there are as many different schools of Tarot as there are different schools of astrology, but I’ve learned from Angeles Arrien’s excellent The Tarot Handbook: Practical Applications of Ancient Visual Symbols.

* * * * *

The Fourth Harmonic

The most Challenging Angle in astrology is the Square – two planets 90 degrees, or three Signs, apart.  The Challenge arises because you have two planets trying to cooperate while they’re in different “Elements” – Fire, Earth, Air, Water. 

Cuspal Squares follow a different Pattern, but that’s a topic for another day.

We’re working in these years, by way of example, with the Uranus-Pluto Square, from Uranus in Aries (Fire) to Pluto in Capricorn (Earth).  So Uranus, which is scarily Spontaneous already, is very excited about flinging itself into all manner of Exoteric Arian Adventures, while Pluto very much wants Capricornian Practicality and Moderation.  That’s a Challenge, eh?  Put any two different Elements – like Fire and Water – in the same sandwich, and you get similar results. 

You get all the way around the Zodiac by putting four Squares end to end.  So the Square is the astrological representative of the Fourth Harmonic.  In the Major Arcana, that’s the Emperor, symbolizing Dominion, or Healthy Control.  We’ve noticed over the years that a Square symbolizes not just Challenge, but Mastery.  Our Squares reveal our greatest Skills, because they show the places where we never feel like we’ve “got it right” – it’s never satisfying enough that we get complacent and feel complete.  So we keep trying different approaches, on ever more subtle levels, and collecting the resulting Experience and Wisdom. 

So, immer strebend (as Goethe put it), we become, as we get older and more experienced, the true Expert on those issues, though we’ll have to work on ourself quite a bit to recognize this, since it doesn’t feel that way.  We’ll always feel like a failure, because our Fourth-Harmonic standards are unreachable.  As the Emperor we’re always dealing with tradeoffs, nothing is ever “black and white” or “cut and dried.”  If it is, we’re deluded.  We’re lucky when the odds in a situation are “60-40” and not six of one and a half dozen of the other.

So we refer to the Square and the Fourth Harmonic as Mastery through Challenge.  The more you recognize that you’re in the game to gather Experience and Wisdom rather than to “get it right,” the better you’ll feel about your Squares.  You might even Consciously make a Choice you know is “wrong,” just to gather experience around that Choice (which would actually just be bringing your true motivation up into Consciousness!).  Squares are primarily Motivating.  Always something else to do to try to make things a little better, or patch up past missteps.

The Square – the noisy, messy, never-fully-resolved issue that demands Attention – is the core of the Tricolor. 

* * * * *

The Quincunx

The Magical portion of a Tricolor is the Quincunx.  A Quincunx symbolizes Curiosity.  Curiosity, Wonder, Awe – those are most Sacred places to reside.  There is no Judgment while we’re in Curiosity, so it’s Unconditional, like Love.  A Quincunx is formed by two planets five Signs apart, or five twelfths of the way ’round the Circle from one another.  So it combines the Fifth Harmonic with the Twelfth Harmonic.

Yes, as your third question avers, the totem for the Fifth Harmonic is the Hierophant, master of Teaching and Learning.   So we have the potential for an Open mind.  The Hanged Person stands for the Twelfth Harmonic.  The Hanged Person is hanging by their heels, not their neck (or fingernails), so the Twelfth Harmonic is about seeing the World through a perspective that’s different from the one we usually use.  That allows the Hanged Person to be the Pattern-Breaker, because they can see newly how they can Change things to better meet their Values and Goals.  Like Chiron, and Einstein’s advice that we can’t solve a problem by using the same thinking that created the problem.

So you can see how the Quincunx and Curiosity get linked intellectually – Learning how to Break Patterns, recognizing that Curiosity is the first requirement for that.  Curiosity means relaxing – nay, disarming – our usual Resistance to Change.  It’s like sneaking up behind the Ego’s usual attachment to the relative security of the status quo and Opening the back door to a fresh breeze.  Experientially, the link between the Quincunx and Curiosity is patently obvious, as we all know what we’re perpetually Curious about, long before we know where our Quincunxes are.

What a combination!  The Square’s indefatigable thirst for unachievable perfection, and Curiosity’s Openness to the New!  It’s no wonder that when we combine 1/4 and 5/12 we’re left with 1/3 – the Square is three Signs (3/12 or 1/4), the Quincunx five Signs (5/12), and there are twelve (12/12 or One) all together, so we have four Signs (4/12 or 1/3) left over.  To close the Circle, we need a Trine.

* * * * *

The Third Harmonic and the Major Tricolor

Four Signs is one third of the Zodiac, or a Trine.  The positive side of a Trine is automatic Grace.  The negative side of the Trine is Arrogance, as until we learn that everyone has different Skills, we’re tempted to think we must be pretty clever to be able to do this (whatever it is) so well without even breaking a sweat, while everyone else must be pretty dumb because they have such a hard time with it.  So we call a Trine “dumb-luck” Grace.  Trines make everything easy.  The only thing we have to do (and unfortunately it’s optional), is remember the flip side of Grace, which is Gratitude.

The Third Harmonic in the Major Arcana is the Empress, symbolizing Love with Wisdom.  She doesn’t encounter the hard 50-50 Choices that the Emperor has to make, so she’s free to dispense Compassion.  Yet there are consequences, so she must use her Compassion with Wisdom.  The Third Harmonic is harmonious because it links Signs of the same Element.

Again, cuspal Trines would operate differently.

So a naked Trine, without any complementary Tension (Square, Conjunction, or even Opposition), can give us a great deal of grief, if we mistake the Grace for Competence.  Just think of the “stuck-up” people you knew in high school, and you’ve got an excellent picture of an unacknowledged Trine.  Some of them ran into real difficulty once they got out into the World and were asked to be less one-dimensional, and had to start dealing with their Squares.  Or, out in the larger World, had to compete or cooperate with people who had genuine Competence.  To excel we need native talent and hard work, and while Trines are an excellent foundation for it, they ill prepare us for that Both/And necessity.

But tie the far ends of a Square and Quincunx together with a Trine, and you combine the Square’s indefatigable thirst for unachievable perfection, Curiosity’s Openness to the New, and Effortless Grace.  A Grand Cross (four Squares end-to-end) can make us super-Competent because we’re always forced to multitask to put out the constant series of brushfires surrounding us.  A Grand Trine (three Trines end to end) can provide so much Grace we seem invincible.  The combination of a Grand Cross and a Grand Trine is one of most powerful Configurations of planets, because it combines this-World Competence with lots of help from beyond the Veil.

But what an opportunity a Tricolor creates!  While the Grand Cross and Grand Trine are scattered all over a chart, the Tricolor is sharply focused on one Square, one contrast between Elements.  Like the 2012-2015 Uranus-Pluto contrast between Truth and Security (Fire and Earth), or the current Mars-Pluto contrast between Mind and Matter (Air and Earth), or the Venus-Lilith contrast (in the current Fez) between Consistency and Desire (Earth and Fire).

* * * * *

The Sixth Harmonic and the Minor Tricolor

The most powerful Configurations are those which fill the Zodiac – that is, their Angles add to 360 degrees.  The Grand Cross is 4×90, the Grand Trine 3×120, the Major Tricolor 90+150+120.  In a Minor Tricolor, a Sextile substitutes for the Trine, so we don’t get to a Full Circle.  However, we do have Challenge combined end-to-end with Curiosity and Grace.  But we have Sixth-Harmonic Grace rather than Third-Harmonic Grace.  That’s Grace through Work and Partnership rather than Grace through “Dumb Luck.”  That’s probably actually better for our Spiritual development, though since it will involve more Effort, probably not as automatic or monumental for accomplishments.

The Sixth Harmonic is The Lovers Archetype.  That brings with it all the Joys and Labors of getting along with another Entity.  Even if that Entity is your Soulmate, there probably won’t be more than a heady glance and a smile until one or the other of you is willing to expend a little effort to open the door.  Hence the understanding that a Sextile usually requires some initial Effort to get the Grace rolling.  And if the other person really is your Soulmate, you’ve got a lot of Work to do, because no one gets along with their Soulmate without doing their Self-Love Work.   Triggering your Self-Love Work is what Soulmates do for a living.

The Sixth Harmonic connects Signs that are not in the same Element, but in the same “gender.”  We don’t use the terms masculine and feminine to distinguish Signs, because those terms are too polluted with cultural bias.  Angeles Arrien uses the terms “Dynamic” and “Magnetic” instead, and we often just call them “Yang” and “Yin.”  The Elements Fire and Air are Dynamic or Active, and the Elements Earth and Air are Magnetic, or Receptive.  So a Sextile connects two Yin Signs or two Yang Signs.  There is mutual understanding, but it requires a handshake or a hug to acknowledge it.

So the Minor Tricolor can actually result in greater Self-development, while the Major Tricolor is more likely to work its magic in the outer World.  With the Minor Tricolor you’ll need to go back and rework that nettlesome Square over and over again, to smooth the Partnership path.  You’ll need to take Responsibility for your own muddle.  Thank goodness we’re Graced with the Curiosity, or the Challenge would be too great.  We should actually look for Minor Tricolors between the charts of Lovers and others in Relationship; it may be where the real value of this Configuration lies.

In the current Fez, it’s the Partnership between our Willingness to actively Support ourSelf in the outer World (Mars) and our Inner Female’s need for Suzerainty (Lilith) – or you could say, our Willingness to actively Support our Inner Female’s Suzerainty – that resolves both the Mars-Pluto (“Go for it!”) and the Venus-Lilith (“What would Momma say?!?”) Challenges.

* * * * *

Now, did I actually answer the questions?

1) Could you please explain how the 4th harmonic, symbolizing dominion and healthy control, is interrelated with the 3rd, 5th and 12th harmonics contained in the Major Tricolor?

The geometry is given to us by the chart – the Square (4th Harmonic), Quincunx (5th and 12th), and Trine (3rd), are presented to us by the Angles between the planets at the moment under consideration.  So it’s up to us as astrologers to combine the ideas of Dominion, Learning and Teaching, Pattern-Breaking, Challenge, Unacknowledged Mastery, Curiosity, Grace, and Potential Arrogance, into some view of the person or situation that provides Insight.  Of course we’ll need to also fold in the Signs and Elements involved, and temper it all by what the rest of the chart says.  Horribly complicated, yes, but that’s the nature of astrology.

That’s why I focus on reading first the Square then the Quincunx as the path to unlocking the Grace.  So for the current Pluto-Mars-Venus Major Tricolor, we can condense that into “We can resolve dilemmas about how vigorously to Act, by consulting our Values.” 

That is, We can resolve (Pluto and Trine) dilemmas (Square) about how vigorously (Mars) to Act, by consulting (Quincunx) our Values (Venus).

Wrapping in the Elements, we might say “When conflict arises between what we Think we need to Do and what is Practical, ask yourself what will create Stability.”

That is, When conflict (Square) arises between what we Think (Air) we need (Pluto) to Do (Mars) and what is Practical (Capricorn), ask yourself (Quincunx) what will create Stability (Venus in Taurus).  We could extend that to, When conflict (Square) arises between what we Think (Air) we need (Pluto) to Do (Mars) to get along (in Libra) and what is Practical (Capricorn), ask yourself (Quincunx) what will create Stability (Venus in Taurus).

Is this helpful?  Astrology is more like an “essay question” than a “multiple-choice” question.

In The Tricolor and the Fez we suggested a couple of alternate ways of looking at the Energy – our comments about the “swelled head” and “dead cats” and being “in the flow.”  But since so few people are at peace with their Squares, I’m betting that the Square-to-Quincunx-to-Trine reading will be the most useful for most people most of the time.

“2) As for the Minor Tricolor, I do not understand, according to your definition ‘…teaches us to share Dominion with our partners’, how it works with the principle of Pattern Breaking (12th harmonic), that the Major and Minor Tricolors involve.

True Partnership entails a degree of Equality that we don’t usually exercise in most of our day-to-day transactions with other Entities.  So I’m guessing that in most Minor-Tricolor situations, once we shift from Problem to Curiosity, the Initiatory Action that the Sextile will require, is that we shift out of Command mode and into Negotiate mode.  We can more or less Command a sales clerk to give us a loaf for a coin, but commanding a Partner to do something is more problematic.  “How do you feel about…” or “Would you be willing to…” or “Can we talk about…” will probably be a lot more effective than “A loaf of sourdough,” even if we were British and added a “please” at the end.

That’s why I emphasized “sharing Dominion” – hypothesizing that most of the time for most of us, sharing Dominion will be a Pattern-Breaker.  We would go from a Challenge to our sense of Healthy Control, into Curiosity about how to resolve it, into an Action that would trigger Grace, one that would most likely involve interaction with a Partner (Sixth Harmonic). 

Does that clarify the Minor Tricolor at all for you?

“3) Is it relevant to say that the 5th harmonic is related to ‘Learning’?

Absolutely.  The Fifth Harmonic is about Learning, and it’s flip side, Teaching.  We don’t really Learn something until we have to Teach it.  That’s when we discover what we’ve been assuming, that may not actually be True or relevant. 

My discussions of the Fourth Harmonic make it sound like I’m talking about Learning there too, but it’s different.  The Fourth Harmonic is about feeling that we’re on the Edge of being out of Control (as any Emperor always is).  I just suggest that we shift our focus from what we haven’t perfected, to what we’re Learning, as a way to defuse our frustration and recognize our accumulated Skills – our experiential Wisdom. 

 

It’s like the difference between the Third and Ninth Houses – the Fifth Harmonic and Third House are about Knowledge, while the Fourth Harmonic and the Ninth House are about Wisdom.  I’m always intrigued by the way Ursula Le Guin divided Knowledge among the faculty at the School on Roke in A Wizard of Earthsea.

 

How’d we do?  Are we making any sense?