Dragons, Centaurs, and Kings Oh My

Lovely sight out there, with the Fulling Moon kissing Jupiter.

A note on format – the unindented bold italic text is meant for everyone.  The indented normal text is meant for anyone who’s interested in more detail, and specifically for folks who know some astrology and/or who want to learn astrology.  And…

The yet-more indented italic text explains astrological terms and processes.

We don’t follow this format exclusively, but it’s sort of a goal.

We’re about three hours from the Moon crossing the near Midpoint between Jupiter and the North Node (2am 18 PDT April), and twelve hours from the Moon crossing the far Midpoint between Chiron and the South Node (11am PDT 18 April).  The Moon has been, and will be, within one Degree of Sensitivity from this complex between about 6pm PDT 17 April till about 5pm PDT 18 April, and within three Degrees of Sensitivity from around noon PDT 17 April till around 9pm PDT 18 April.  It’d be a useful time to measure your own Sensitivity.

So…what’s this all about?

The Nodes are often referred to as “The Dragon,” the North Node as the Dragon’s Head and the South Node as the Dragon’s Tail.  A Centaur is a planetoid chasing an irregular orbit between Jupiter and Neptune – Chiron is a Centaur.  Like the half-human-half-horse Greek Centaurs, the cosmic Centaurs and half comet and half asteroid.  Jupiter was the King of the Roman Gods.

“Sensitivity” is like “slop” – we don’t wait till an astrological event is Exact, we start feeling it when it’s still some distance away – three Degrees if we’re pretty Sensitive, one Degree even if we’re a Muggle.  Of course it could be a matter of education – even a Muggle experiences the astroevents, they just aren’t Conscious of how their emotions, thoughts, circumstances, and actions are related to what’s going on in the sky.

Midpoints are just Sensitive points halfway between two planets or other Heavenly Bodies.

The Moon triggers things that are thinking about happening.  The North Node represents our Deepest Desires and Mission in the Lifetime, while Jupiter symbolizes Expansion.  One way to interpret the South Node is that it stands for our Limiting Beliefs, probably adopted from “Past Lives.”  Maybe from Childhood, but Childhood Traumas are usually hangovers from Past Lives.  Chiron is trickier.  It represents Despair or Discouragement, but it’s “curable” through Empathy.  Empathy Heals, and when we Empathize with ourself, Despair Dissolves.

The Nodes are called the “Dragon” because, like their name-sake, they can breathe fire, and occasionally get hungry and fly around torching villages for the fun of it.  They kind of represent what we’re scared to face – we shy away from our Deepest Desires (North Node) because we feel Guilty about them, and we shy away from our Limiting Beliefs (South Node) because we don’t want to have to re-Experience the heavy Emotions that surround them.

So this is a very potent combination – feeling (Healable) Despair about our Limiting Beliefs while Conscious of the pull of our Deepest Desires and our Mission on the Planet.  If we’re lucky or Skillful, we break through the Despair and leap toward our Deepest Desires and Mission.  Mind is smaller than Mission, so most of us aren’t actually able to comprehend exactly what our Mission here is, why we came here.  Our Deepest Desires are a snapshot of our Mission – by following our Bliss we move toward our Mission.

Most of us probably feel good about the idea of “Mission,” unless we think of it as an unnecessary burden.  And most of us feel some degree of Guilt or other Hesitation about our Deepest Desires, because we think they’re Selfish, or somebody told us they were naughty.  That Guilt or Hesitation is a Mirror of our Limiting Beliefs.  We have to break through that to get closer to our Mission and to our Heart’s Desire.  

So this weekend, with a little self-Empathy (Honesty with ourself about what’s really going on) we get an Opportunity to break through our Limitations and soar toward What We Want out of Life.  Huzzah!!

All this happens between 11 and 26 (three Degrees of Sensitivity) or 13 and 24 (one Degree of Sensitivity) Degrees of Virgo (Moon-North Node-Jupiter) and Pisces (South Node-Chiron), so we’re mostly talking about the second Decanate of Virgo-Pisces, or the Capricorn Decanate (Practicality) of Virgo (Transformation) and the Cancer (Nurturing) Decanate of Pisces (Embracing Unfinished Emotions).  Whatever natal planets you have in these Degrees, or in the same span of Sagittarius or Gemini, will be lit up big-time this weekend.

A Decanate is a ten-Degree section of a Sign.  So for instance, the first Decanate of Virgo (Transformation) is the Virgo Decanate (Ego Death) of Virgo, the second is the Capricorn Decanate, and the third is the Taurus (Solidifying) Decanate.  So the Virgo Transformation process involves

• Melting down the Ego we established in Leo (Ego Death, Virgo-Virgo),
• Coming to understand what we have to Let Go of if we are to find a new Balance (getting Practical about it, Virgo-Capricorn), and
• Settling into a new place of relative Stability (Virgo-Taurus) in order to prepare ourself to meet Other – Other People, and Not-Me in general – in Libra.  

We enter Virgo knowing Who We Are, and we leave Virgo knowing Who We Aren’t.

The Decanates follow the Qualities of each Sign – for instance, Virgo is an Earth Sign, so its three Decanades follow the three Earth Signs.  Pisces is a Water Sign, so its three Decanates chase Water around the Zodiac.

Here’s an excellent prediction about what might happen if we, collectively, don’t manage to be Honestly Loving with ourself soon…

https://sailingondreams.wordpress.com/2016/04/17/the-redeemer/

Could be a prediction for early June’s Initiation of Uranus (our Soul Self) by Eris (the Revelation of Denial).

Fingerlings

Who farted?

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Five astroevents and several Configurations coming up here over the next few days.  First the timing…

• April 16, Noon PDT (http://www.jbuss.com/tt/pdt12.htm) – Reorganization of our Unconscious Beliefs is substantially complete, though the other events may eye your dots and tease your cross, or add wells and thistles. 

Neptune Initiates Vesta at 9 Pisces, “A jockey spurs his horse, intent on outdistancing his rivals.”  Your Emotional (Pisces) Beliefs (Vesta) around Community, Culture, Spirit, and the Sacred (Neptune) are particularly vulnerable to Transformation.

• April 16, 9 pm PDT (http://www.jbuss.com/tt/pdt21.htm) – Expect things to Lighten Up a little, though not completely, until the next event occurs.  Whatever Traumas you’ve encountered since Christmas are now open for review and resolution over the next several months.  We recommend leaning toward Forgiveness and Loving Kindness, particularly toward yourSelf, and toward (as a friend writes it) yoursElf.

Pluto Stands Still and turns Retrograde, in 16 Capricorn.  Pluto entered it’s 13-16 Degree Shadow Period (the span of its Retrogradation – see below) late last December.  This is basically the Gemini Duad of Capricorn, which is about deciding what you want to include or revise in Version 2.0 of whatever Trance(Re)Formation you’re undergoing.  Not that “deciding” is the right word when the Deep Unconscious is involved, but Intention (and PIAVA in general) can work Wonders.  Bryan’s workshop is amazingly well timed…

http://www.bryandeflores.com/schedule.html

• April 17, 3-6pm PDT (http://www.jbuss.com/tt/pdt18.htm) and possibly until about six hours afterward – Finnessing our Yintegrity.
  

The Moon Squares Pluto and Occults Uranus.  An Occultation is basically an Eclipse – the Moon crossing in front of Uranus – making visible what was previously indistinguishable from the background, in this case another part of our Yintegrity.

• April 18, noon PDT (http://www.jbuss.com/tt/pdt12.htm) – On your mark, get ready…

A New Moon – seems like we have one of these darn near every month!  This one’s at 29 Aries, “The Music of the Spheres: Attunement to Cosmic Order.”  Intense, eh?  After all this Waiting for Godot, this may really be the Tripping Point.  More on this below.

• April 19, 7pm PDT (http://www.jbuss.com/tt/pdt19.htm) – GO!  Whatever that new project is, now is the time to throw it into high gear.  All necessary background revisions are complete.  Any Boundary Issues (people who anger you, opportunities missed) occur for you in February or March?  Time to think about rectifying them by Speaking your Truth, and Acting on Opportunities.

Pallas Stands Still and turns Retrograde, at 1 Capricorn.  It’s Shadow Period starts at 12 Sagittarius in late January, the Taurus and Virgo Decanates of Capricorn.  This is more Version 2.0 – we Build something, put it out there to see if it “sells,” then revise it.  “Building” here is probably about how well we Live our Yintegrity and how willing we are to Act on our Wants, to let ourself recognize and receive them.  In this regard, the Dain Heer presentation on Lisa Garr’s Summit is, as Bugs would say, verrry interesting…

http://theawareshow.com/2015-2/money-manifestation/offer/dain-heer/#replay

I don’t now how long it will be online.

Shadow Period – the Can Opener portion of a Retrogradation happens before the Retrograde Station, when the planet crosses the zone for the first time.  The Retrograde period is the Exposition phase.  The Confidence-Builder stage occurs after the Direct Station.  The term “Shadow Period” refers to the Zodiacal Span between the Direct Station and the Retrograde Station, and the Time Span between the planet’s first entering that Zodiacal Span and the planet’s final exit, which involves all three crossings.

Duad or Dwad – one twelfth of a Sign, or two and a half Degrees.  The Aries Duad of Aries is the first twelfth, the Taurus Dwad the second twelfth, and so on.  The Taurus Duad of Taurus is the first two-and-a-half Degrees, the Gemini Duad the second two-and-a-half, etc.

Decanate – ten Degrees.  The Aries Decanate of Aries is the first ten Degrees.  The second ten Degrees is the Leo Decanate – the next Fire Sign.  The third ten Degrees is the Sagittarius Decanate.  The second Decanate of Taurus is the Virgo Decanate – the next Earth Sign.  The second Decanate of Gemini is the Libra Decanate – the next Air Sign.  The second Decanate of Cancer is the Scorpio Decanate – the next Water Sign.  Und so weiter.

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Grace Abounds, but it’s up to us to take the first step.

Our Grand Sextile still holds…

https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/the-4-13-19-grand-sextile/

https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/portal-4-11-21-new-projects/

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The New Moon Tricolor is the second-most-prominent Configuration, since the New Moon Trines the Pallas Station, which in turn Squares Makemake.

There’s something important you’ve been working on for the last few months.  You’ve more or less Created a prototype of it, and you’re kind of questioning how badly you really Want it, since it feels like you may be Asked to give up some other valuable things if you actually Choose it.  It may not end up being a Conscious Choice, however, as in some ways it’s sort of preordained. 

Where you do have Choice, is in how you Manifest Version 2 of it.  If you Want you can even PIAVA to “have your cake and eat it too” – you can Intend that Version 2 brings you all of the best parts of your new Creation, and that you get to keep all of the good things about all of your previous Co-Creations.  Be patient; Version 2 will be in the oven till December.  Lots of time to sharpen your “Oh, I Want this too!” PIAVAs.

In early December, Pluto Initiates Pallas, at the Midpoint of Capricorn, “In a hospital, the children’s ward is filled with toys.“

Pallas still sits in the center of a Stellium (a group of three or more planets lined up together), with Chariklo (Charm), Hylonome (Grief), Quaoar (Lawgiver), and, weakly, Pholus (Blame).  The Pallas Station-Stellium makes a bunch of interesting Angles here.  It’s Triseptile to Venus – Magic is afoot.  Mercury Trines it while Juno Quintiles it, meaning we’ll not just be Growing our Consciousness, but to some extent understanding how we’re Growing.  It’s Quintile to Vesta-Neptune and Binovile to the North Node, implying that Meditation will be a Powerful aid to Learning here.  And, the North Node and Juno form the base of a Finger of God focused on Vesta-Neptune.

Basically, Walking in Beauty here involves…

• Staying Curious about how your new Beliefs will impact your Mission (that is, if you think you’ve got it figured out, Let it Go – you want to stay in Curiosity as long as you can, or your Dualistic mind will freeze it and kill it dead – a Revert!).
• Whenever you feel any tinge of Conflict over how what you’re Creating might impact what you’ve already Manifested, Wonder how you might attune to the Music of the Spheres instead.  You can have Both/And, with ice cream too, you just have to be Worthy enough to Ask for it.

This color means that this part is really important.

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The next-most-important Configuration is a new one that looks like one of those old twin-peaked WWII US Army hats…

http://www.toppots.net/main.php?do=clientproduct&action=home&id=1727&type=O

We’ll call this Configuration a Twin Peaks.  It’s two planets Quincunx to one another, each one Sextile to another planet that Squares the other end of the Quincunx.  It’s composed of two Minor Tricolors that share the same Quincunx, so that any Challenges that arise from each of the Squares can be resolved using Curiosity, as long as you take the first step.

The Quincunx is between our Stationary Pluto and the dwarf planet Chaos (Potential, not Disorder), and the Squares are Uranus to Pluto and Chiron to Chaos.

The Potential here is not Limited, but we are.  We’re Limited by our Negative Beliefs – which,

Even though they’ve been blown away, have we noticed? 

Or are we just assuming that it can’t happen because we’ve never been able to visualize it or imagine how it might happen.  Focusing on how is the Male way of Creating, and we’re moving into unknown territory here, where Male Energy is useless.  We need to use the Female way of Creating, which doesn’t care about how, it focuses on what.  Of course we don’t know how – it’s never been done before.  Think about your Mythology – the Boys do the things that have been done before, but when things get invisible or unattainable, it’s the Girls that take over.  It wasn’t Buddy the Vampire Slayer!

This is the definition of Unconscious Despair – we don’t know how to Create something we Want, and for whatever reason we don’t Believe it’s possible, so we don’t even consider it. 

You don’t know what you Want?  Well, what if you did know?  So, what answer have you already rejected? 

Is that what you Want?  Or is it some unimaginable triple quadruple permutation of that?  This is Stretch Time.  See how far you can reach, how Ridiculous you can be while being completely serious.  When we’re in the realm of the Ridiculous, we know we’re getting close, because there’s a good chance you were indeed Ridiculed for Wanting that, maybe even by yourself.

Marry the Quarterback?  Ha!  Don’t be silly.  I don’t even have tits yet, why would he even look at me? 

Make a hundred times as much as the old man?  By doing what, robbing banks?  Besides, he’d hate me for showing him up – don’t even think about it. 

Create a Life that would look like a Legend in my own mind?  Forget it, I’m a Girl – look at how they treat Girls!  It’s not even worth fantasizing about. 

Nobody would ever let a Gay Black live like that.  It’d get me dead!

The don’t even have a name for the kind of Sex or Relationship I would like. 

I couldn’t talk about that even to my best friend – I’d be so Ashamed I’d die!

Why do I even bother thinking about that – I can’t even get it up. 

I can’t have Security and Freedom – they’re contradictory.

I’d do anything for Love, but I won’t do that!

The key is Wondering about it, letting yourself Dream without worrying about “Reality.”  We’re stretching Reality.  So what if no one has ever done it, you can be the first.  Somebody has to be first.  How else are we going to Co-Create a New World? 

When you get a tickle, take one step in that direction, then wait to see what happens, but stay open to Miracles.  PIAVFA that you’ll recognize it, because it may be so far out of your ideation that you don’t even notice it when it happens.  You don’t even need to know what to Ask for – in fact, it’s better if you don’t…

Great Spirit, may I please have a Miracle that Surprises and Delights me for the rest of my Life?

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One more, another new Configuration, that we’ll call an Hourglass.  This one is an Opposition and a Quincunx that cross each other, so they’re one Sign apart on one end, and two Signs apart on the other.  We unlock the Sextile by Wondering what single step might start the Manifestation process rolling in our favor.

The Opposition is Eris (Revelation of Denial) to Haumea (Rebirth), and the Quincunx is Sedna (Actions taken out of Fear) to Ixion (Damn the Consequences) and Pholus (Don’t Blame me, I couldn’t stop it).  These Energies are Deep in the Unconscious, out beyond Pluto, so we may be only dimly aware of them at best.  The only exception is Pholus, which orbits from Saturn to out beyond Neptune, so it is within our realm of Attention, if through a glass darkly.  It’s currently on its way to Neptune.  It left Saturn’s neighborhood around 1990.  What were we Wishing For back then, during the Harmonic Convergence?  Wasn’t that about a Culture that actually supported individual Autonomy?  Not in the who-gives-a-shit-about-you-its-all-about-me “Libertarian” fashion, but with Harmony and Understanding, Sympathy and Trust Abounding.

So as Chiron carries the Individual Soul’s Message in from Uranus to the Saturnian Ego, and carries the Ego’s Request back to the Individual Soul, Pholus carries the Community Soul’s Message in from Neptune to the Saturnian Ego, and carries the Ego’s Request back to the Community Soul.  Pholus’s Request that’s being delivered to the Community Soul soon is plaintive…

I want my Tribe!  Where is the Community that I Love Unconditionally and that Loves me Unconditionally?  The Community that doesn’t waste it’s Energy fighting other Communities – We’re All One, damn it!  The Community that Lives on this Planet not just Sustainably, but that leaves only footprints and actually leaves things better than before!  How can we do that when Surviving and Fighting takes all of our Energy and Attention?  Where is our Tribe?  Enough with the Walkabout already!

In 1990 the relationship between Pholus and Neptune was Cancer Opposite Capricorn – “I want my Mommy!” – but on the Community level.  On its previous loop it left Neptune in 1957, the year of the tailfin.  On the surface its Message for the Ego was “You can have it all!”  Behind the curtain it was “See if you can figure out how to make Community work!” – Scorpio Square Aquarius.  When Pholus leaves Neptune again in 2021, the new Message will be “Let’s do Compassion this time, we can do it!” – Capricorn Sextile Pisces.

It’s the Pholus-Ixion Conjunction that renders Libertarianism so hedonistic.  I’ve never read it, but I’m told that Ayn’s work wasn’t Fuck-the-99% at all, even though it was anti-Communist in the sense of anti-Power Over.  As Naomi Klein so clearly explains in The Shock Doctrine, anti-Communism was the doublethink used to justify Ixionic Greed.

So Blame here is our doorway to Deeper layers of the Unconscious, where we can make Changes that have a real and lasting Impact.  The Unconscious is impersonal – every positive Change that any one of us makes in there, is one more marble moved toward the Tipping Point.  The Prize here (the “Coin” in the Opposition) is opening up to a Deep, Deep Denial (Eris) in such a way that it allows a complete Rebirth (Haumea).  The key that unlocks the Portal is

Wondering what it is that we do, or not do, out of Fear (Sedna) that we’ll be Accused (Pholus) of Failing to Care (Ixion).  It’s not about Figuring it Out – it’s about maintaining the state of Wonder.  It’s not a Question that wants an Answer.  It’s a Koan meant to permanently Open our Curiosity, and keep it Open.

I Wonder what it is that I do or don’t do, because of Fear that I’ll be Accused of not Caring?!?  Or out of Fear that it will look like I’m being Selfish?!?  I Wonder.

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The Rest of May

New ways of thinking lurking under cover.  Topazolite is the Yellow form of Andradite, a Calcium-Iron Garnet (Garnet is a family of minerals).

Before we get to the foreground, we don’t want to forget the two big ongoing events in the background.  First, our “dumb-luck” Grace continues through the end of May, and second, our Yintegrity work is temporarily winding down a little after a huge peak in April – though there’s some debriefing to do in mid-June.

The foreground also holds two significant events.  We don’t usually put “structure” and “Unconscious” in the same sentence, but that’s what’s happening here, as over the last two and a half years the Dissonance has increased between how we structure our view of Reality, and the “actual” Reality (such as it is) that we keep bumping into.  Dissonance between who we believe ourselves to be (individually and as part of a number of collectives) and how we see ourselves and our Communities acting and speaking, reveals critically important information about our Unconscious Beliefs – it betrays our Denial.  Dissonance represents a fabulous opportunity for Growth in Consciousness.

It’s a crossroads of sorts.  If we’ve been adjusting our sense of self and our sense of belonging as the Dissonance developed, particularly over the last year, then we’re at the point where we can take a fourth-step inventory of the other parts of our Life to see what physical Changes we want to make to integrate our Consciousness Changes.  But if we’ve let the Dissonance build up, without adjusting our self-concepts and our memberships along the way, then we have remedial work to do on our Identity.  Maybe we knew someone at UCSB, and our NRA membership is starting to give us second thoughts – that sort of thing.  Or maybe you aren’t taking enough time to be Consciously Grateful for the services that the Bees provide to us, even though you’ve noticed that the Energy Exchange between your two species is very unequal, perhaps fatally so for both of us.

The other big foreground event is about your Beliefs per se, and how Sustainable they are.  It’s very complementary to the first foreground event, but a little different.  The first event is about the Edges of your Consciousness and how ragged they are; this second one is about how you have to shuffle your deepest Beliefs in order to find the motivation to either keep on keepin’ on, or make some pretty serious changes in your Lifestyle to maintain your sense of internal harmony. 

In the first case you might be learning a lot of new things, and either anxious or excited about putting them to work.  In the second case you might be finding that many of your assumptions about Humanity or God or “those people” are actually dead wrong, and scrambling to figure out how to rebuild your Reality so it doesn’t sabotage you so much.

I’m splitting hairs here, since we’re going to be grokking them both as one set of Experiences.  Remember that part of the Big Grace in the background is the availability of Miracles.  To get to Miracles you have to change the way you think.  Not what you think about, but the way you think about what you think about.  How the devil do we do that? 

With PIAVA.  The most important part is Changing the Subject after you PIAVA.  What to PIAVA isn’t so hard – just Ask or Pray for something you want a lot but that’s not possible.  And don’t forget to Pay Attention after you Change the Subject.  Wait a while between the two steps, though, otherwise you won’t really be Changing the Subject.  Maybe keep a journal, do your PIAVAs on Tuesdays, then forget about them, but check back on Saturday to see what happened.  You’ll probably need to stretch (that is, Change the way you think) in order to find connections between your Prayers and whatever transpired while your Attention was elsewhere.

The first Portal is open for several days on either side of May 28, with the several days prior to May 28 likely to be stronger.  The second Portal has two peaks, one on May 27, and the other on June 1, with the window first opening around mid-May.

In the background, April’s chronologically intense Uranus-Pluto-Jupiter-Mars Grand Cross

The individual Squares and Oppositions in the Grand Cross were exact at almost the same time, hence “chronologically intense.”

has faded, as has the followup Uranus-Jupiter-Vesta T-Square.  We started this Yintegrity business in May 2012, and we won’t be done with it till May 2015, but the heat is off for July, August, and September this year.  June’s a little more complicated, but we’ll get there later.  Our current work here is around 14-17 degrees of the Cardinal Signs, which will light up any of your natal planets in this range.

The Big Grace comes from the Chiron-Saturn-Jupiter Grand Trine, which occurs in 18-20 degrees of the Water Signs, and will especially impact any natal process you have going on there.

The important thing to remember is not to self-congratulate for your brilliance, but to find your Gratitude for the Grace.  Self-confidence (nose points straight ahead) is great; self-adulation (nose points up) misses the point entirely.  If nose points down, get to work PIAVAing your Miracle.

As for the foreground, Juno Opposes Saturn on May 28 (the “first” foreground event), Vesta is Stationary Direct on May 27, and Ceres is Stationary Direct on June 1 (combined, the “second”).

To whit, on May 28 Juno Opposes Saturn.  The Portal will be Open for three of four days on either side.  This Juno-Saturn Cycle is about “Two men placed under arrest: A breakdown in the constructive relationship between the individual and society,” and the Initiation occurred in mid-September 2011 at 18 Libra.

The Opposition is a crisis point of sorts in a Cycle.  Cycles begin at the Conjunction (Initiation), the Music gets loud at the Square, and the Opposition is the point where you either realize you have remedial work to do, or recognize how much you’ve changed and modify the rest of your Life to fit whom you’ve now become. 

You can see the value of Consciousness; if you understand the trend, it’s easy to jump into the remedial work.  If you see Life as a constant, you’re most likely to just rue the lost opportunity to restructure your relationship to your Culture, not realizing that the real opportunity lies in front of you.

The Cycle starts to unwind after the Phitile, which occurs just after the Waning Trine.  The Opportunity to remedy unfinished work or expand results into other arenas occurs between the Opposition and the Phitile.

The Opposition occurs at 19 Taurus-Scorpio, so will ignite any natal hot spots you have at 17-21 of the Fixed Signs, as well as any natalities you have in the neighborhood of 18 Libra.  The Phitile will occur in the first week of August.  If you harmonize your Life between now and then, you’ll be glad you did.

Meanwhile, Vesta is Stationary Direct on May 27, and Ceres on June 1.  Using one degree of Sensitivity, their Stationary periods began about two weeks prior.  They’ve been Retrograde since their simultaneous March 1 Stations.  They’ve both been backing over the last Decanate of Libra, the Gemini Decanate.  Libra is Open to Other.

When a planet Retrogrades, it crosses its “Shadow Period” (the span of its Retrogradation) three times, once forward, then backward, then forward again.  It means that we’re asked to closely re-examine any issues involved with that Shadow Period.  A Decanate is a third of a Sign, or ten degrees.  The Decanates take the qualities of the following Signs of the same Element – here, the Air Signs Libra, Aquarius, and Gemini. 

So the first Decanate of Libra is the Libra Decanate (unrestrained Openness to Other), the second is the Aquarius Decanate (making sense of Other), and the third is the Gemini Decanate (puzzling over the way Other doesn’t make sense).

Each zodiacal Sign is a reaction to the previous Sign. 

Virgo’s spiritual purpose is to break up the self-focus of Leo, and as it is with all Mutable Signs (Mutable as in mutation), the result is in some degree chaos, as the old way self and society were organized breaks down into pieces that must be reassembled in new ways.  The Cardinal Signs react to Mutable chaos by creating a new sense of Order.  Libra’s notion of Order means Creating Community.  The Libra Decanate Reaches Out to Other.  The Aquarius Decanate tries to make sense out of what worked and what didn’t in that effort – though of course “what worked” is dependent on one’s objectives, and everyone has different objectives.

Since Reality is infinitely more complex than Duality, the mind never meets its natural objective of putting everything into neat categories.  So the Gemini Decanate is stuck with trying to fit the pieces together – trying to identify the parts of ideology that seemed to fit Reality and the parts of Reaching Out that seemed to work, trying to put those together, trying to understand why parts of ideology didn’t work and why parts of Reaching Out backfired.  The end result is an intense Curiosity inspired by the need to rectify Confusion (which, recall, is the first stage of Growth).  That takes us to Scorpio and its intense need to “get to the bottom of things.”

Any planets, asteroids, lights, house cusps, or other major symbolic points that you have in the last third of Libra will be triggered for you.

These Stations are only two degrees apart, as these ‘roids are on their way to Communion in early July.  Ceres will then Baptize Vesta at 22 Libra, “A child giving Birds a drink at a fountain: The concern of simple souls for the welfare and happiness of less-evolved Beings who thirst for life renewal.”  We take exception to the part about Birds being “less-evolved” Beings, but at least there is Compassion there, if not a lessening of homocentrism.  The Judgment is Rudhyar’s, and befits the Beliefs of his era.  Rudhyar usually sees Birds as intimating Spirit; we can modernize the reading to “A child giving Birds a drink at a fountain: Manifest form reconnecting itself to its overarching Spirit.”  Gratitude for the Bees made manifest, in other words.

The Vesta-Ceres Cycle runs sixteen to eighteen years; this one will be coloring our lives till early in 2030.  The Waxing Square will occur five times between 2016 and 2019.

Recall that the Energy of a Cycle is strong at its birth to those who are sensitive to it.  Then it appears to fade until the Waxing Square, as it prepares foundations underground.  The Energy “becomes permanent” at the Waxing Square.

We’ll be feeling strong hints of this new two-decade Cycle already – it’s about identifying and eliminating ossified Beliefs that prevent us from centering our Lives around the Heart.  With luck it will crack religious and scientific Fundamentalism wide open.

Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto

Remember our discussion of what’s called the Shadow Period?  When a planet turns Retrograde, it backs up over a segment of the Zodiac.  Before it does that, though, it must cross that same segment going forward.  And when it’s done with it’s Retrogradation, it’ll cross the same segment a third time.  There are no alternate routes.  That segment of the Zodiac, and the time required for the planet to cross it thrice, is called the planet’s Shadow Period.

Jupiter stands still and turns Retrograde on November 6, at 9pm PST.  Once we look at its Shadow Period, we’ll see how intimately involved it is with the Uranus-Pluto Square.  Jupiter’s in Cancer, by Sign Opposite Pluto and Square to Uranus.  At its Retrograde Station, Jupiter is 12 degrees from making these Angles by Degree, to distant to recreate the T-Square.  But the timing is there – The Uranus-Pluto Square occurred only five days before the Jupiter Station.

Here’s the full timetable…

• August 12, 2013 – Jupiter enters Shadow Period at 11 Cancer
• August 17 – Jupiter Opposes Pluto from 12 Cancer
• August 20 – Jupiter Squares Uranus from 13 Cancer
• August 7 to August 30 – Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto T-Square (3-degree orb)
• September 19 – Pluto Stations Retrograde at 9 Capricorn
• October 10 – Jupiter turns Stationary (1 degree from Station)
• November 1 – Uranus Squares Pluto from 10 Aries
• November 6 – Jupiter Stations Retrograde at 21 Cancer
• December 17 – Uranus Stations Direct at 9 Aries
• January 31, 2014 – Jupiter Opposes Pluto from 13 Cancer
• February 9 – Jupiter turns Stationary (1 degree from Station)
• February 25 – Jupiter Squares Uranus from 11 Cancer
• March 5 – Jupiter Stations Direct at 11 Cancer
• April 15 – Pluto Stations Retrograde at 14 Capricorn
• April 20 – Jupiter Squares Uranus and Opposes Pluto from 14 Cancer
• April 21 – Uranus Squares Pluto at 14 Aries
• January 30 through May 9 – Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto T-Square (3-degree orb)
• April 16 to 29 – Mars-Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto Grand Cross (3-degree orb)
• June 1, 2014 – Jupiter leaves Shadow Period at 21 Cancer

Pallas (Boundaries and Edges), Vesta (the Sacred), and Mars (Action) also Square Jupiter three times as they execute their own Shadow Periods – Pallas and Vesta in December and May, and Mars in January and April.  Hence the Grand Cross in the last half of April in the table above.

So the 2013-2014 Jupiter Shadow Period spans 11-21 Cancer and mid-August through May.  Cancer 11-21 is the Scorpio Decanate of Cancer – Signs are also divided into 10-degree segments called Decanates.  The Scorpio Decanate of Cancer is the stage between knee-Jerk Nurturance and true Compassion.  Knee-Jerk Nurturance is our natural and positive, but indiscriminate, response to need.  Nothing wrong with that, other than the possibility of burnout.  And maybe a missed opportunity for raising Consciousness, for whatever that’s worth.

Knee-Jerk Nurturance is often a response to Introjection – Introjection is in some ways the opposite of Projection.  In Projection, we assume that another’s experience is similar in source, quality, and quantity, to our own.  In Introjection, we take on another’s experience as if it was our own.  So when we encounter Scarcity, it triggers our own Scarcity.  We could respond to that with Fear, and close down (which is an option for the first Decanate of Cancer).  Or with Sympathy, and attempt to Nurture.

In the Scorpio Decanate of Cancer we start to examine our automatic reactions, our Patterns of Nurturance.  This might be an appropriate response to burnout, to an observation that our Patterns don’t always produce the best result – or to a planet changing Decanates!  We ask ourself if our Nurturance Patterns derive from Lack, or from genuine Abundance, which is Having Enough to Share.  Folks say that it’s impossible to Love Another until one learns to Love Oneself.  Where do our Nurturance Patterns sit with regard to that?  Are we really just responding to our own Unconscious needs?

The Pisces Decanate of Cancer brings us to one of two places – Emotional Overwhelm or Compassion.  If we don’t break through into Self-Nurturance in the Scorpio Decanate, then the Pisces Decanate can bring full burnout and victimhood.  If we do break through, at least to some degree, then we Nurture not because we need to, but because it’s the Compassionate thing to do.  Compassion requires Neutrality – no attachment to outcomes.  In the full course of Cancer, we’ve gone from Nurturing indiscriminately, to wondering and exploring if we can use our limited resources to serve our Fellows more effectively, to trusting our Instinct and Intuition that any given act of Nurturance is appropriate in the moment.

So in the current August-through-May Jupiter adventures, we’re reconsidering whether or not our attempts to Nurture are serving or hindering our Planet and its denizens.  Actually, This is Exciting is very much a part of that, isn’t it!