20-25 Degrees

Aa apparent newcomer has written to ask about their many natal planets at around 20 Degrees, in response to our October 2016 suggestion that we begin working with these Degrees now, since they will be Lit Up when our Home Planet begins Her Big Reorg in the early 2020s – see https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2016/10/20/2020-b/ for our article and their comment. 

Of course, as we repeatedly point out, these Degrees continue to be Lit Up by many of our planetary Companions today.  As we write, one quarter of the planets we follow are in or adjacent to this Zone, which is only one sixth of the Zodiac wide.  It’s a useful question, so I’ll answer it…

Our approach is to intend to befriend the Unconscious because we Believe that the Power of the Ego is minuscule compared to the Power of the Unconscious, and because the Ego is usually Unconscious of that fact.

We also intend to work not with Qualities but with Energies and Relationships, and therefore we work mostly with what we call the “Angles,” though most astrologers would call them “Aspects.”  We prefer Angles because that’s what they are in plain language – the Angular Relationship between Planets (and other astrological Hot Spots such as the Nodes).

Unfortunately there is an astrological term “Angles” as well, meaning the Ascendant, Midheaven, etc., or the major House Cusps.  We can usually live with this ambiguity because we very seldom talk about Houses, since we write for the whole planet, and House positions vary with location.  Folks who commonly use the astrological term “Angles” may be confused by the way we use the word, alas.

Most astrologers I know would not argue that the T-Square (a third planet halfway between two planets that Oppose one another) is one of the most problematic Angular Relationships, largely because it usually seems to indicate a Sisyphean area where Success is not possible but the Compulsion to Keep Trying is unrelenting.  Consequently, the most appropriate keyword for the Ego’s Relationship to a T-Square seems to be Frustration.

We also Believe that, (1) on a Soul level, we Chose the Configurations of planets in our natal chart, because that’s what “We” (our Soul) wanted to “Work On” in the current Lifetime.  Many folks have difficulty with this concept; the easy path to it lies through shifting your Identity till you find a place from which it’s True.

We often also interpret the Configurations in our natal chart as (2) the specific Earth Energies where we Chose to help the Planet Heal. 

The first approach assumes that our Soul is using the Planet for its own Education, while the second approach assumes that we are in fact Cosmic Healers who came here to Help Earth Ascend.  Take your pick, though as usual, I recommend Both/And rather than Either/Or.

Since our reader has Uranus T-Square to their Nodes, I have no doubt that they’re in the latter category.

As Ascension Helpers, then, our T-Squares indicate the places where our task is to suck up all the Frustration (Fear, Anger, Despair, Separation, etc) that the Planet Feels, and Transform it (we are after all nothing if not Energy Transmogrifiers) into what the Planet Prefers to Feel (Joy, Bliss, Attunement, Excitement, Unity, etc). 

How do we know what the Planet Prefers to Feel?  Easy.  She and We are One.

Note that more or less implicit in that paragraph is that Emotions are not Personal, but more like Weather or a Virus.  We Attach our Identity to an Emotion when we Associate or Merge with it, which is usually part of our Karma, or, we would suggest, because we came here to Learn and Teach how to Detach our Identity from that Emotion (look up “Poor-Sweetheart” and “Held Emotions” in the Categories list to explore further).

So, in the planets our new Friend has listed, we’d go straight to the T-Square, Uranus Square the Nodal Axis.  The Egoic side of Uranus is Disruption, and the Egoic side of the Nodes is the Desire to Let Go of Karma.  So we would suppose that our Friend, on the Ego side, is (or was, if he’s since Grown) often Frustrated by Attempting and Failing to Let Go of sticky Karmic Patterns, or what we often call Self-Sabotaging Archetypes. 

For instance, our Friend might try over and over to walk a “straight and narrow” path, only to wake up and discover that they’ve strayed from it.  Or worse, they might find that other people are repeatedly screwing them over…

Now, let’s turn this around and look at it from the Soul’s Perspective.  First of all, what Uranus Disrupts is everything that Inhibits its Purpose. 

Since most of us were Programmed to Receive Truth from Outside ourself rather than Inside, the Karmic Ego will be constantly Frustrated by the Uranian Disruption of our frequent Attempts to ignore our own Internal Truth in order to be Loyal to our Programming and Programmers. 

Truth resides in the Heart, and it’s Different for everyone, so only by Programming someone to Trust their own Heart (Uranus) can Uranian Disruption be Loved as the Urge to Liberation that it is.

Now, again from the Soul’s Perspective, the Nodal Axis is not so much about the Desire to Let Go of Karma as it’s about a Decision over which Earthly trends to emphasize.  Contrary to the usual Interpretation, Karma does not Grasp Us, We Grasp It.  So all we have to do, to quote Paul, is to “Let It Be.”

The Signs will give us more specific information. Our new Friend’s South Node is in Aquarius and North Node in Leo, indicating that their Intended (Soul-level) path runs from Social to Personal Integrity.  Learning to Love themselves Unconditionally, for instance. 

Meanwhile, Uranus is in Scorpio, which is Fearless and Relentless.  So our Friend is likely to be Driven to stop at Nothing in their Effort to Learn and Teach Unconditional Self-Love.

Which is Fantastic!  Now, what if the Ego and Programming still get in the way and continue to Sabotage us with Downers?  (Which may never actually go away, just become more quickly seen through.)  Well, Reframing help a whole lot…

A T-Square Feels Like the Compulsive need to Achieve greater Perfection around some Goal.  In this Uranus-in-Scorpio case, that would be Permanent Soul Contact.  Or, if the Soul is Dismissed, then something like an Irrepressible Urge to Disrupt Untruth. 

But even the part about Permanent Soul Contact is the Ego and Programming speaking.  If you’ve taken graduate seminars in a good program, you probably Noticed that there are no “correct” answers, there are only “interesting” questions and examination of them that is thorough and creative.

That’s where you find the T-Square – on the Soul level you’ve Intended a Lifetime where you re-examine everything over and over again, with slight variations, each time from a slightly different Perspective, so you become uniquely qualified to Teach the subject, since you’ve Experienced it from all angles, inside and out. 

And of course the key to all that is Noticing that there are no “correct” answers and that your Perfectionist Quest, while essential, was not for the purpose that you earlier supposed.  That’s the way our Mission (North Node) operates – we have a Shadow to Pursue, till we pounce on it and Discover that it’s just a Shadow, like Ged in Earthsea.

Once you’ve done this Reframing, Frustration will continue to try to sneak back into the driver’s seat, and that’s where Poor-Sweethearting, Tapping, and PIAVAing (look them up in the Categories list and practice them) will be useful and Powerful.

The ultimate Goal for all of us is Unconditional Self-Love, so eventually you’ll be Teaching us all.  Which we eagerly anticipate!

Thanks for writing.  Namaste.

The Tricolor and Fez

We depart a bit from traditional astrology here, but in my experience this is important.  We’ve been referring to a particular Configuration of Angles between planets as a “Pythagorean Triangle” or “Pythagorean Tricolor,” or sometimes just “Tricolor,” and a reader has asked for more information about these terms.  If we start with a picture, you can see why I call it a Tricolor…

To skip right to the bottom line, it means that we can resolve the Challenge that the red line symbolizes, by indulging the Curiosity that the green line represents, because that will trigger the Grace inherent in the blue line.

First of all, we’ve struggled to find a good name for this Configuration, because normal astrofolks don’t routinely assign colors to Angles, so the whole idea of a “Tricolor” would be weird to them.

What we refer to as Angles, or Angular Relationships between planets, normal astrologers call “Aspects.” We don’t like to use the term Aspects because the word has too many other meanings.

An astrological Configuration is just a significant combination of related Anglular Relationships or Angles.  For instance, three Trines end-to-end make a Grand Trine, meaning “dumb-luck” Grace – as well as Arrogance until we realize that what’s going on is “dumb luck” and not competence!  The Trine (two planets four Signs apart – the “three” part of the Trine is because it spans a third of the Zodiac) is the Angle, and the Grand Trine is the Configuration.

The red line in the Tricolor is a Square, or two planets three Signs apart.  It’s called a Square because if you filled a circle with four of them you’d get a square shape.

We in our weirdness find the name Tricolor totally appropriate, as we’ve always (at least for the last 45 years) been in the habit of drawing the Angular Relationships that represent Mastery through Challenge in  red  – they’re hot, as in suspenseful – and drawing the Angular Relationships that represent Grace in  blue  – they’re cool, as in relaxing.  We’re also in the habit of using  green  to draw the Quincunx (two planets five Signs apart).  Turns out that’s appropriate too, as green is a Heart color, and the Quincunx symbolizes Curiosity, which as we’ve said many times is akin to Love, as both eschew Judgment.

A five-Sign Angle is five twelfths of the way ’round the Zodiac.  Five is the number of Learning, and twelve is the number of Pattern-Breaking.  So five twelfths of the way around the astroloop is about Learning how to Break Patterns – particularly Karmic Patterns.  There’s no way we’ll succeed at that without Curiosity, since the foundation of our Patterns is Judgment.  The Quincunx turns out to be a gift, as it inspires Curiosity.

Curiosity isn’t something we have to do under the influence of a Quincunx, it just happens.  Of course, Pattern-Breaking is first cousin to Ego Death, which is why Curiosity has a reputation for killing Cats.  But think nine Lives.  Nine is the number of the Muse, or Introspection.  It’s one thing to identify a Pattern, quite another to Change it.  For that you’ll probably need PIAVA, but noticing the Pattern you want to Change is the first step.

We don’t need the name “Pythagorean,” as virtually all of the Configurations in astrology are “Pythagorean” – it just means that the length of the sides are whole numbers, in this case whole numbers of Signs.  So from now on we’ll just call this Configuration a Tricolor.

Okay, so what does this alleged Tricolor mean?  It means

That we can resolve the Challenge that the red line symbolizes, by indulging the Curiosity that the green line represents, to trigger the Grace inherent in the blue line. 

There’s another meaning as well – if we misinterpret our dumb-luck Grace as competence and our head swells, it will trigger new Challenges that we’ll only be able to resolve by shifting to genuine Curiosity.

The “dead Cat” runs the Energy “backwards” – our Curiosity opens doors that are forbidden, creating the Challenge.  We come out to the Grace (in this case earned) by facing up to the Challenge.

If we’re “in the Flow,” we often move directly from the Challenge to the Grace, enjoying the Synchronicity of the Universe.  If we notice this, we respond with Curiosity about the Wonders of Spirit.

* * * * *

The Fez

When there’s a double Tricolor, we’ve been calling that a “Fez,” because it’s the shape of the traditional Turkish hat (though they originated in Morocco), but without the tassle.

The Fez adds a fourth planet and a Sextile (the short blue line).  Start by coming up the red line on the left, then follow the green line down to the right, then come back to the left across the bottom blue line – that’s the Tricolor we drew above.  Then track up the red line on the right, follow the green line down and to the left, and back along the blue line at the bottom – that’s the second Tricolor.

The Sextile adds two more Tricolors!  Come down the red line on the left, up to the right on the green line, then back to the left on the short blue line.  And move down the red line on the right, up and to the left on the green line, then back on the Sextile at the top.

We could call the Trine Tricolors “Major Tricolors” and the Sextile Tricolors “Minor Tricolors.”

The difference between the Trine and the Sextile is that the Trine provides Grace automatically, while the Sextile provides Grace only after we take the first step to get it started.  So with a Major Tricolor the Grace follows the Curiosity without additional effort, while in a Minor Tricolor we need to follow the Curiosity with an initiatory Action.

Many astrofolk regard a Sextile as “better for us” than a Trine, because a Trine can make us lazy, while a Sextile requires our involvement to kick-start it.  Yet the Trine is the “Major” Angle, because it’s a has lower or more primary dimensionality – the Third Harmonic – than the Sixth-Harmonic Sextile.  The Trine represents the Third Harmonic because it takes three of them to “fill” or circumambulate the Zodiac.  It takes six Sextiles to fill the circle.

The Third Harmonic is the Empress, who symbolizes Love with Wisdom.  The Major Tricolor combines the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Twelfth Harmonics.  Of course the Twelfth Harmonic reduces to the Third, by the traditional method of adding the two digits of 12; to actually succeed at Breaking Patterns we must address them with Love and Wisdom.  The Fourth Harmonic is the Emperor, standing for Dominion, or Healthy Control.  The Sixth Harmonic is about Partnership, and combines the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Twelfth (or Third) Harmonics.  So…

The Major Tricolor Teaches us to have Loving, Wise, and Healthy Control over our Lives.  The Minor Tricolor Teaches us to share Dominion with our Partners.

* * * * *

The charts above are drawn for June 6.  We’ll interpret them in the next post.