Kegels 2

We’ve a few astroevents between now and then, but it would probably be a good idea to go right into looking at the 7 February Station (Strong) of Sedna (Fear/Power).  First though, let’s go ahead and finish the Juno-Sedna interpretation we started in the previous post, Kegels 1.  The two charts are similar anyway; same Patterns, different planets.  In the intervening week, the Moon will move about three Signs, the inner planets about 7 Degrees, Mars about 4 Degrees, and the asteroids about 2 – enough to swap some of the Players in the Patterns.

We said earlier, “There is also much Grace in the [Juno-Sedna] chart (Grand Trines and Kites, Diamond Stars).”

♥ A Grand Trine means Dumb-Luck Blessings.  Grand Trines are so full of Freebies that if we’re born with one, we soon end up Believing that other people are Stupid because they aren’t harvesting the same Bounty that we harvest so Effortlessly.  While Ego Astrology Celebrates the Grand Trine as Great Grace, I interpret it as Arrogance – until we get enough Experience to Heal it by grokking that everyone has their own Skillset, usually Different from ours, and that this Difference Powers Teamwork and everything larger than what one Person can do working Alone.

Sports are used as a vehicle in schools for Teaching Teamwork.  The lack of it in the Antichrist’s house is a marker of his Unhealed Grand Trine.

If you Struggle to Manifest what you see Others Creating Easily, it may be because they have a natal Grand Trine and you don’t.  But that kind of Manifestation can be Learned.  And what we Learn is not lost when we Die.  The Aptitudes you were Born with you worked hard to Earn in Earlier Lives.  If you Lavish yourself Enjoying the Benefits of a Grand Trine and never Learn that it’s not your Innately Superior Ego that brought you Wealth, you won’t take Positive Karmic Habits with you into your next Adventure.

Karma as Inertia is easy to mistake for Karma as Retribution.  No one is being Punished for Living Large – they just never developed the Habits to Sustain it because they didn’t need to.  If you have to Learn how to Manifest, then you get to take those Habits with you.  Grand Trines can apply to specific areas of Life – just for a start there are Water (Emotion) Grand Trines and Earth (Matter) Grand Trines.

The Antichrist, a self-proclaimed Genius who turned 73 today, gets his Arrogance partly from an Unhealed Grand Trine in Air (Mentality).  Mentality is Duality – Me Smart You Dumb.  Once one understands that Opposites are actually Equal, there’s no Limit to one’s Prevarication, especially if, like the Antichrist, you have two Strong planets Stationary and Conjoined in Libra (Relationship to Other).  That’s where he gets his agile but forked tongue.  He understands Duality in Me-Other; he’s too Arrogant to apply it to his own Behavior except in Win-Lose.

“I love to crush the other side and take the benefits… You hear lots of people say that a great deal is when both sides win.  That is a bunch of crap.  In a great deal you win – not the other side.  You crush the opponent and come away with something better for yourself.”

–Robert Wright, quoting the Antichrist, in “Make Globalism Great Again,” Wired Magazine, Feb. 2019, p.64.

He’s performing a Service, showing us how Destructive Competition really is, so we can be more Excited about shifting to Collaboration.  The Antichrist’s relative Popularity, while debatable and apparently declining, illustrates the prevalence of Arrogance and Unwillingness to Examine one’s Karmic Patterns in the US.  But the very decline in this Popularity tells us that People are Noticing and Learning.  Many will Learn that their Arrogance is just Ego, not Superiority, and begin looking for Alternatives.

♥ The Grand Trine in the Juno-Sedna chart – the big blue chart-spanning triangle (see previous post) – is also an Air Grand Trine.  The Mythological Trickster Archetype is an Air Pattern.  So we can Expect intellectual Arrogance or Facility here, from ourself and from others.  If we’ve always wanted to Learn Ease with the intellectual Perspective, this is a good time to Study it.  If you’re patting yourself on the back for being so smart, know it’s not You, it’s just a Moment in the Infinity of the Universe that you happen to be Experiencing.

The Libra (Debate, Charm) side of this Grand Trine is the Stellium (group of three or more planets) of Haumea (Rebirth), Pallas (Boundaries), and Aletheia (Truth).  While the Antichrist may or may not see this Rebirth of Boundaries between Truth and Lies, many others have been, and will yet.  We have to remember that this chart also “Challenges us to see All Apparent Setbacks as the Opportunities that they really are,”  as flags that indicate we’ve stepped off the Path of the Soul, that we should check our Heart’s Compass.

The Gemini (Flexibility, Dissolution) corner is occupied by dwarf planet Chaos – Unlimited Potential.  Truth is in the Heart, not the mind (another thing that the Antichrist is Teaching us by such a sterling Example of how not to do it), and everyone’s Heart is Different. So there are no Lies in Politics, only Different Perspectives and Different camps.  The problem isn’t Lies, it’s the Fear that someone you Disagree with will kill you over it.  Since you’re dealing with Hupers, this is quite Possible, and it’s a valid Fear.

But this is Juno-Sedna – bringing Fear into Consciousness.  So Tap It Out.  Even if its True, you need to be Neutral about it so you can have a cool head when Strategizing your Defenses.

The Aquarius (Cultural Norms) corner contains asteroids Vesta (Beliefs) and Klotho (Beginnings), indicating that many will have their Beliefs revised, quite possibly without even knowing it’s happening.  A Grand Trine is so Effortless we may not even Notice that it’s going on.  It may not be that the Antichrist can’t admit Error – he may not Notice his own Errors!  If you hear his former Supporters lying that “they knew it all along,” let it be.  Be Grateful that they’ve come to their senses, we don’t care how.

So we might characterize the entire Grand Trine as Easing the Dissolution of old Cultural Boundaries.  Crises are also Opportunities, so we can use this Social Disruption to Step Out into Who We Really Are more than we usually would.  With everyone else occupied by the Chaos in their own Lives, no one will be watching us…

That dude who keeps standing up in front of the camera is only following instructions from your mother.

♥ A Kite is a Grand Trine with a growth on one side – a fourth planet Midway between two of the three in the Grand Trine.  It means that the fourth planet may become the Focus of the Benevolent Energy in the Grand Trine.  This Grand Trine makes two Kites.

♥ In the first one, the fourth “planet” is a Stellium of Ixion (our Forbidden Genius), Eurydike (Trust), and Venus (our Values).  Ixion represents our Ability to break the Cultural Mold.  Our Willingness to do so depends on our Temerity – and perhaps our Arrogance.  But the indication is that this Grand Trine may bend our Values in such a way that we Trust our own Genius more.

♥ The second Kite is formed by Uranus – your Soul.  As old Cultural Boundaries Dissolve, it’s likely to become Easier to shift our Identity closer to our Soul.

♥ Two Kites on one Grand Trine means that a third Kite would Create a Grand Sextile – Six planets more or less evenly spaced around the Loop.  So the “Vacancy” in that sixth corner makes it a Place of Power, as by Supplying the Energy that would complete the larger Configuration, we can Enjoy its Fruits.  In the case of a Grand Sextile, the Fruits are even better than a Grand Trine, because we get to participate fully, and our Actions are likely to Succeed because so many Energies are Collaborating with each other.

The Grand Sextile is an Excellent Model for 5D Manifestation – Creating by Cooperating with the Energies that constantly swirl around us.  The Vacancy is 28 Leo, “Many little Birds on a limb of a Big Tree: a wide and perhaps Confusing openness to a multiplicity of Inspiring Potentialities.”  But we know that Confusion is the first sign of Growth.  The Fixed Star Alphard also sits at 28 Leo.  It’s often associated with Victims or Perps of Violence.  Not a good Omen when Sedna is Lighting Up the Fixed Star Algol (Catastrophe).

Fortunately, we know how to turn that around.  First we get Conscious of our Fear about that.  Then we Discriminate between the Fear that we Feel in our Bodies, and our thoughts about that Fear, and Cancel, Neutralize, Upgrade the thoughts so we can Focus on the Fear Sensation in our Body.  Once we’ve Embraced and Softened that, if we haven’t turned it into Love already, we can Tap It Out or Poor-Sweetheart it (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzVd6Ww0as4 and https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/category/poor-sweetheart/) or Kegel the Hell out of it.

Then we Choose What We Want to Experience instead, PIAVA that (https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/category/manifestation/piava-review/), Change the Subject, and Trust that All Prayers Are Answered while we wait Patiently.  Not that we’ll always get exactly what we PIAVAed.  We may not be ready for that.  But what we always will get is an Illustration of the Impediments that stand between us and What We Want.  Getting those up into Consciousness where we can work with them is three fourths of the Challenge of Learning to Manifest as if we had a natal Grand Trine and Empathy besides!

Snakes and Ladders I

With a huge Reset going on here, it makes more sense to use Birth-chart Sensitivity or “Orb” – 6-8 Degrees, rather than our usual 3-Degree Current-Moment or “Transit”-chart Sensitivity, so we’ve Compromised to a degree.  All of this month’s Stations occur in the same 0-to-9-Degree Zone, and the early-June Nessus Station is at 10 Degrees.  ‘Tis a busy chart.

We should start with the “biggest” Configuration, which is a Grand Cross (Hassles Galore, but they’re often Mutually Complementary) and a Grand Trine (Blessings Galore) with common corners.  This is traditionally considered an “ideal” chart, as it combines great Energy and Motivation (the Grand Cross) with ample Grace (the Grand Trine). 

That is, however, a Colonialist Perspective, where the most Celebrated Traits are Effort and Successful Exploitation of Others.  The current Western Patriarchal and Hierarchical Cultural model, in other words, where the Strong win over the “Weak” (including those with different Life Goals, which are by definition Weak).  The Prize is Ego Inflation, Confidence, and Privilege.  Aka Corruption and Abuse, when seen from underneath. 

We can see this playing out in the news all over the Planet, as this Game is the stock and trade of the Declining Patriarchy.  There’s nothing Abusive or Colonialist or Patriarchal about a Grand Cross-Grand Trine (“GC-GT”) chart itself; it’s the notion that it’s an ideal chart that’s Patriarchal.  There’s a sense in which being born with such a chart “condemns” one to a Life of Effort and Achievement.  But Effort and Achievement can readily be directed toward non-Patriarchal Goals like Community, Collaboration, Balance, Flow, Attunement, and the like.

Here’s the Grand Cross-Grand Trine version of the chart…

We’ve drawn the chart for the time when the Moon reaches the Midpoint between the 18 May Atropos Station (Endings) at Degree 1 and the 21 May Klotho Station (Beginnings) at Degree 0.  You can see that the other two Fate asteroids, Lachesis (the Length of a Timeline) and Moira (Fate or Choice) are close by at 6 and 5 Degrees respectively.  [In case you’ve forgotten, we always round Degrees up – 29 becomes 30 or 0, 0 becomes 1, etc.]

The Grand Trine is extended into a Kite by Chiron, but if we focus first on the primary GC-GT elements, it’s the Atropos-Eurydike-Makemake (Endings-Trusting-Creating) Stellium (a group of 3 or more planets) that’s the overwhelming Star of the chart, as the corner where the GC and the GT converge, as well as the location of the Atropos Station.

So the first thing we need to do is talk about the Cusp of Libra, which is as important as the Aries Point (Cusp of Aries).  At the Aries Point a Seed of Spirit is planted into the fertile soil of our Soul.  At the Libra Cusp we meet Other for the first time.  Aries-to-Virgo is about our Personal Development, Libra-to-Pisces our Social Development.

We are, All of us, as Individuals and as Members of Groups of all sizes, entering a whole new phase in our Relationship to Other Individuals, and a whole new phase in our Relationship to Community.  In a nutshell, we’re now Creating our own Social and Relationship Realities (Makemake), Dropping our Olde Obsolete Patterns around Relationship and Culture (Atropos), and Trusting that we’re going in the right direction (Eurydike) even though we seem to be Betraying Mom’s admonition that “You cannot do that, it breaks all the rules you learned in school.”

Keep that in mind when you’re tempted to be Motivated by Guilt or a Need to Please Others at the Expense of your own Values and Needs.  Expect your Self-Sovereignty to be Tested as we approach 27 May (the Eurydike/Trust Station), when we’re likely to be Tempted to turn back to our Olde Codependent Ways when our old playmates complain that they are being Betrayed by the Shift in our Values and Behaviors.

Which is where Chiron comes in.  The Kite shifts the focus of the GC-GT to Chiron, at the top of the Kite.  Atropos-Eurydike-Makemake (Trusting-that-We-Can-End-Impediments-to-Manifesting-What-We-Want) becomes the Tail that Wags the Dog, and the Dog is Chiron or Despair, Despair that we “can’t win” – we get little Support for trying to Go Our Own Way, but the rewards for running our old Patterns are diminishing rapidly.

Until of course we Empathize with our Despair – “You Poor Sweetheart, you’re feeling like you can’t Win, aren’t you.”

The other two corners of the Grand Trine, from which our Blessings flow, are

• Taking an Active Part in our New Beginnings (Mars-Klotho), which will probably seem Confusing and Difficult until 21 May, when Klotho Completes its Station.  Confusion is the first stage of Growth.

• Following our Essence (Sun), our Heart, or our Guidance, which in the midst of Rapid and Big Change, can also be Confusing.  We may be in the Habit of Resisting our Fate in favor of Choice, but in this case we’re Asked to Choose to Accept our Fate, because our Fate is Transformation (Moira Conjunct Sun).

A final Caveat.  If you have Expectations about What-It-Will-Look-Like-When-You-Go-Your-Own-Way, rest assured that they’re Dead Wrong, no matter how Psychic you’ve proven to be in the past.  This is a New Game.  Yes, if you’re Intuitive you’ll Recognize Home when you see it, but it’s the Vibration you’ll Recognize, not the Form. 

If you’re eager to Play It Forward, focus on How-It-Will-Feel-When-You-Go-Your-Own-Way instead.  And make the Effort to Revert to a Blank Slate before noon PDT on 21 May, so you can be Surprised and Delighted when it Feels Even Better once Klotho Completes its Station.

Another Complication – at 11 am PDT on 22 May, Orcus Completes its Station.  Orcus is about Pattern-Breaking.  So even after noon on 21 May you might still be a prisoner to  your Olde Archetypes.  So feel free to focus on How-It-Will-Feel-When-You-Go-Your-Own-Way, but you also want to PIAVA that you can Gently and Lovingly and Rapidly and Completely Let Go of All Patterns and Habits that Inhibit your Soul’s Destiny and your Ego’s Transformation to Supporting it Fully.

Close your Eyes and Look around for any Cables, Chains, or Dark Spots, particularly behind you.  One at a time, Gently remove the Barbed Hooks at your end of each Cable or Chain, and hand it back to its Source.  If its Source won’t take it, feed it to an Alligator.  Alligators are very Skilled at this Work.  One at a time, put a Mirror between you and any Dark Spots, facing the Dark Spot, then switch on the Bright Light that aims into the Darkness from the top of the Mirror.

Scan your Body for any Foreign Feelings – crawling or goosebumps or raised hackles (but not just your neck).  Put your Attention into that Hole in your Aura, and PIAVA that your Self-Sovereignty and your Essence Lovingly and Gently and Rapidly and Completely patch the Hole, Permanently, with your own Energy. 

You’re likely to feel Vulnerable there for a couple of days; consider the fact that you can now Feel your Vulnerability as evidence that you’re Healing – till now you were Unconscious of the Wound.  Like a Tick or Mosquito, your Programmers distracted your Attention before they installed the Hooks.  Whenever you’re Conscious of Feeling the Vulnerability, Fill it with your own Heart Energy.

More to follow.

Full Moon – The Rest

We don’t want to give short shrift to the 15 April Venus Station (3am PDT at 27 Pisces), so let’s finish up the Full Moon expeditiously.  Let me know if any questions come up.  Two other charts are fundamental to grokking the Full Moon, the chart of the Mercury (9 April 4pm PDT, 5 Taurus) and Hylonome (10 April 6am PDT, 9 Capricorn) Stations, and the chart of the Varuna Station (10 April 3pm PDT, 29 Cancer).

Here’s the chart of the Mercury and Hylonome Stations…

The big Grand Cross (red Square and Xes) and the two Grand Trines (equal-sided blue Triangles, which are actually Kites when we add the little triangles on one side of each of them) are the standout features.  I don’t think we introduced the Grand Trine earlier.

A “Trine” is the Angle between two planets that are one third of the way round the Zodiac, and the “Grand Trine”  is made up of three planets equally spaced around the Loop.  Put a fourth planet halfway between two of those, and you have a “Kite,” so named because that’s what it looks like.  A Grand Trine makes things so Easy that we refer to it as “Dumb-Luck Grace.”

The “best” charts are charts like this one, that contain major Motivation Configurations (Grand Cross) and major Grace Configurations (Grand Trines), because they Balance Work and Ease, so we neither exhaust ourself nor get lazy.

This is the chart of a highly Motivated Multi-Tasker who can learn how to Channel tons of Grace.  Grace is its own Master; until we Learn that others have their own Unique Skills, a Grand Cross often signifies Arrogance, as folks seem incompetent to us when they can’t do what’s Effortless for us.  The two Stations are both part of the Grace, not part of the Motivation, and the Complement one another very very well, being both in Earth Signs.

So we should be able to identify the Archeypes that we need to Let Go of relatively easily – don’t try to get hyper-analytical about it, just Ask your Belly what makes it Tense Up.

There are two Fingers of God, one pointing at Hylonome (Letting Go of Archetypes) and the other at Eurydike (Trust).  These are the two Energies that the Universe is Asking us to Pay Special Attention to.

The Varuna-Station chart is more assymetrical…

We can see the Grand Trine (big blue triangle) and two “T-Squares” (big red triangles pointing to the left and lower left).  A T-Square is half of a Grand Cross, and represents Mastery through Challenge.  We usually don’t appreciate the Mastery because we usually get stuck on the Frustration of the ongoing Challenge; we eliminate the Frustration by Paying Attention to how much Mastery we’ve gained.

All that Pressure (where the red and blue triangles converge, at the focus of the T-Square and a corner of the Grand Trine) focuses on asteroid Sappho, which symbolizes Self-Love.  We’ll be making our course Easier by exercising what Self-Love we’ve already Mastered, while we’re Learning more of it.

The other T-Square points toward a Stellium made up of Ixion (Our Forbidden Genius), Saturn (The Most Important Thing), Pholus (Taking Full Responsibility), Quaoar (Survival Instincts), and the Galactic Center (Instructions from Headquarters).  This is pretty serious; basically the Universe is telling us that we all need to get busy Taking Full Responsibility for Recovering our Unique Genius, or our Survival will be in Question.

But neither of these, Big as they are, is the dominant Configuration – that’s the Yin Gate, the two green Xs in the middle of the chart, enclosed in the blue rectangle, and intertwined with the red Ж (Cyrillic letter Zhe) in the center.  The bottom line of a Yin Gate is to Learn the Paradox represented by the central long red line.

Here that’s the Nodal Axis – the path of our Spiritual Progress during the Lifetime.  The Paradox involved here is that We Need the Skills Hidden beneath our Held (maximally resisted) Emotions (the South Node or earbuds at the bottom) in order to accomplish our Lifetime Mission (the North Node or stethoscope at the top).  That which we hate is our most Powerful tool, once we Learn to Embrace it.

 

Blessing Full Moon Eclipse

Two planets are “Sextile” to one another when they’re within a few Degrees of being two Signs apart, or one sixth of the way ’round the Zodiac from one another.  The Angle from one planet to another determines how their Energies are Relating to one another.  One sixth of the way ’round the Loop is a 60-Degree Angle, and it’s a very positive Angle.  

The Sixth Harmonic (ie, one sixth of the Circle) is about Partnership, Collaboration with Others, and particularly with a Special Other.  Well-functioning Partnership makes Life a lot Easier – with two cats in the yard and all.

The Trine (Third Harmonic, 120 Degrees or four Signs apart, a third of the Loop) represents “Dumb-Luck” Grace – things flow so Effortlessly that we don’t even know that there could be Resistance.  Personalizing a Trine – thinking the Ease is a result of our own special heroism – creates insufferable Arrogance.  

The Sextile is more subtle.  It only Opens the door to Grace after we’ve taken the “first step.”  If we don’t take the first step, nothing happens.  Kind of the way Partnership works – one of us has to take the first step.  There’s generally no Arrogance involved, more like Surprise and Gratitude instead.

We use the term “Grand” when any set of Angles fills the Circle – three Trines back-to-back is called a “Grand Trine,” six Sextiles end-to-end a “Grand Sextile.”  Generally, the “Grand” Configurations are Blessings.  Even the Grand Cross, which is four Squares (each 90 Degrees, one fourth of the Loop), is a Benefic, even though it’s made up of four Angles which by themselves would be Challenging.  It’s Benefic because, like the other “Grands,” it’s Balanced.

Many folks consider the Grand Sextile – a six-pointed Star – to be the greatest Configuration of all.  A Grand Sextile contains two Grand Trines, so there’s plenty of Dumb-Luck Grace.  But there’s also all that Collaboration flowing from six Sextiles all working together, once we set it all in motion.

The long-lived Ixion Golden Rectangle we’ve been touting for months is made of two Trines and two Sextiles, so while it doesn’t include a Grand Trine, it does fill the Circle and is relatively Balanced, so it’s also fairly “Grand,” it’s a very beneficial Configuration.  Well, the 10 February (4:30 pm PST) Full Moon Eclipse, at 23 Leo-Aquarius, turns that Golden Rectangle into a Grand Sextile.  Break out the Champagne!  It’s short-lived, since it’s the fast-moving Moon that forms the Configuration, but we get a solid half-day out of it, from around 11am till 11pm PST on 10 February.

Grand Sextiles occur in either the Dynamic Signs or the Magnetic Signs, this one in the Dynamics.  So Action is implied as our strategy most likely to be successful.  That means Brave and Brash.  The six points on the Star represent the six Energies that will Dance hand in hand on 10 February…

• Trusting Intuition, Trusting Self (Moon in Leo)
• Big Rebirth – take the Risk to meet new People and Be a new Person (Jupiter-Haumea in Libra)
• Forbidden Creativity – take the Risk to loose the chains and really Be Your Scariest Self (Saturn-Ixion in Sagittarius)
• Party it Up and Celebrate Community (Sun in Aquarius)
• Be Unabashedly Yourself, no holding back or thinking about Consequences (Uranus-Eris in Aries)
• Whenever you Feel a Should coming on, Cancel-Neutralize-Upgrade it before it can get past the Sh-h- (Atropos-Chaos in Gemini)

Any Full Moon Eclipse is Stronger than the average Full Moon.  This one is a “Penumbral” Eclipse, which means you have to look very closely to notice the slight darkening of one side of the Moon.  While a Full Moon does its work by Illuminating what was hidden, an Eclipse does its work by making absent what was there all along but not differentiated.  If all you see is a Forest, then they log half the Trees, suddenly you see, through their absence, that there were Trees there too, not just a Forest.

So a Penumbral Eclipse does double duty.  The Full Moon is almost as bright as usual, illuminating what we need to see to make our next jump in Growth of Consciousness.  It’s also Eclipsed – we may have to squint to notice, but the Eclipse Energy is there – so what’s been hiding in plain sight suddenly becomes obvious by its absence – and that is our next jump in Consciousness.  

We don’t Grow in Consciousness through Discovery; we Grow through Differentiation, through Noticing what we hadn’t Noticed before.  That’s what Meditation is all about.  You might Notice that you’ve been Shoulding on yourself without Realizing it till now, for instance.  Or you may find that your Limits are Illuminated in such a way that you Realize that they’re your Limiting Beliefs, not the “Laws of Nature” you thought they were.

There’s a lot more to this Full Moon and Eclipse; we’ll take that up in the next couple of posts.

Huge Reboot 6

Again, I’ll use Huge Reboot 5 as a template, grey it out, shorten the earlier material, and add new comments in black.

Before we go into more detail about all the weekend Fireworks, I’ll built a Timetable, so we can at least test our Sensitivities.  Take notes, and tell me what you Learn.  The interactions between events will of course be Confusing, but that’s the nature of Real Life.

15 September…

• 8am PDT – Ixion Initiates Mars 23 Sagittarius (Your Abandoned Orphan begins to Feel that they have Permission to Act Out)

There could be lots of Excitement here, or Guilt, or both…  

• noon PDT – Varuna enters Leo (Celebrating the Life Force)

Varuna has been in Cancer since 1993; it’s as if the Life Force is graduating from high school…  

• 7pm PDT – Asbolus Stationary Retrograde 16 Gemini (Opening your Emotional Channel to Receiving Intuitions)

We all have a “preferred” or primary Channel for Receiving (or Ignoring) Intuitions; a Little Voice, a Picture, a Gut Feeling, etc…  

16 September…

• noon PDT – Full Moon and Penumbral Eclipse 25 Pisces (Busy, Busy, Busy)

The Moon Conjoins Chiron and the Sun takes Jupiter’s place in the Grand Cross… 

When there is one planet on the eastern horizon…

Moon-Chiron heads a Kite with Sedna and asteroid Moira (Fate) on the shoulders, and Venus-Haumea Opposite Uranus-Eris join Mars-Ixion-Pholus Opposite Chaos to form a Golden Rectangle.  Uranus-Eris heads a Kite with Chaos and Pallas on the shoulders.

If one of your Values or Strengths is Achievement, you can’t beat a Grand Cross’s Multi-Tasking and Competence attributes.  By itself though a Grand Cross can be too Driven to produce a great deal of Happiness for the Cross-bearer, or for their associates.  So you want to add some Grace into a Grand Cross chart, and this one has plenty.

We refer to a Grand Trine as “Dumb-Luck Grace,” as it just makes things easy.  In fact, we usually find that a Grand Trine manifests as Arrogance until its bearer Realizes that everyone has their own Special Skills, because someone with a Grand Trine is naturally amazed at how much difficulty Others can have with the activities that are Effortless for them.  If they lean toward Trumpism, they’ll suspect that the Others must be stupid.  

This Full Moon chart has two Grand Trines, so we’re in luck; our Type-A-ness will be much softened.  

Both Grand Trines are stretched into “Kites” – a Grand Trine with a distinct Direction of Impact.  A Grand Trine is just three planets equally spaced around the Zodiac, so it has no “Leader.”  Adding a fourth planet Opposite one of the three makes the Configuration look like a kite, and provides clear Leadership.  The two Kites here are Led by Moon-Chiron (Embracing our Despair) and Uranus-Eris (Choosing Radical Honesty).  

They indicate the qualities that will bring us the most Grace over the next several weeks, as a Full Moon generally shares Suzerainty over the following two to four weeks.  Specifically, we want to be Loving and Gentle with all Self-Doubt that arises (and as we’ll see soon, there could be plenty), and being Honest about our Upper Limits (which as we’ve seen will be triggered Big-Time).  Honest with ourself in the sense of not trying to be inauthentic, and Honest with Others so as to refuse to be Manipulated.

Another very Grace-Full Configuration is a “Golden Rectangle” – two Oppositions separated by 60 and 120 Degrees, which are the friendliest Angles in the Zodiac.  These are generally Leaderless, but bring Grace into two otherwise complicated Either/Or temptations.  For instance, with Chaos Opposing Mars-Ixion-Pholus we could easily beat ourselves up for Risking too much in the name of Expansion, and just as easily beat ourselves up for not Risking enough, in the name of Safety.  The Grace will reduce our Self-Abuse and increase the probability that we’ll strive for Both/And with Expansion and Safety.

The other potential trap that Grace is likely to assuage is that, with our new Values being barely breached, Honesty about who we are will be an iffy proposition – we may not know yet who we’re Becoming.  If you’re in the Habit of saying “I’m one of those People who…”, curb the Habit.  What that statement really means is “I’m one of those People who is trying to make myself Believe that I’m…” as well as “I’m in Judgment about People who don’t…”  Both Inauthenticity and Judgment will greatly hinder your Personal Growth.

Buddhists strive to achieve “Don’t-Know” mind.  That’s a Powerful place to be while our new feathers grow in.

Wow, how many times are we going to revisit this shouting emphasis on 22-27 Degrees…

We’ve been working with this 22-27 Degree span, or close to it, repeatedly, and for a long time now…

17 September…

• 5am PDT – Haumea Initiates Venus 23 Libra (Beginning again on a new foundation of Values)

Haumea is Pele’s daughter…

• 10am PDT – Jupiter Initiates Sappho 2 Libra (Expanding Self-Love with Wisdom)

18 September…

• 8am PDT – Pholus Initiates Mars 25 Sagittarius (Practicing Actions that Betray our Self-Sabotage)

• 3pm PDT – Makemake Initiates Sappho 3 Libra (Breakthrough in Manifesting Self-Love)

19 September…

• 4pm PDT – Makemake Initiates Jupiter 3 Libra (Profound New Skills with PIAVA – and PDSA)

My New Favorite ‘Roid

As our Chief Asteroid Officer Elizabeth points out, the chart of tomorrow’s Sedna Station is fascinating and very Powerful.  We’ll go into detail about that in a minute, but for now let’s skip directly to the punchline.  The key to the chart (in the sense that it unlocks the Energy in the chart) is an asteroid named Hopi, after a group of Native Americans descended from the Aztecs, whose worldview is based on total reverence and respect for all things.  To me, that’s a great start.

When you equally space four planets around the Wheel of the Zodiac, it’s called a Grand Cross.  The essence of the Grand Cross is Motivation.  Normally, when two planets are a fourth of the way ’round the Wheel from each other, it’s a Challenge.  We call it a Challenge to Mastery, because it Motivates to constant improvement, though seen through the Perfectionist’s eye, it often feels Frustrating.  

But when you position four planets in this way, they’re in Balance, and we simply don’t have time to indulge the Perfectionist’s eye, because we’re too busy scurrying from one Challenge to the next that we seldom stop to think about it.  So the Grand Cross is the ultimate in perpetual Motivation.  Most Grand Cross people are Superachievers.

If you equally space three planet around the Zodiac, it’s called a Grand Trine – Trine as in three.  The essence of the Grand Trine is Grace; we often refer to it as “Dumb-Luck” Grace, because it flows so effortlessly and automatically.  Remember those people you grew up with who were “naturals” at something?  You may have had to work your butt off at it, but to them it was as natural as Breathing.  Those are the Grand Trine people.

Till they figure out that other people have their own natural and acquired Skills, a Grand Triner can even be a bit arrogant, thinking “this is so Easy – what’s wrong with them?”  They usually outgrow that pretty early, as soon as they’re involved in a Team and realize that everyone has their Role.

You know those people who Accomplish so much that you can’t comprehend how they do it?  Well, some of them are just good at taking credit for other people’s work.  But some of them were born with a Grand Cross AND a Grand Trine.  There’s a fellow who dropped out of Stanford on his second day there, started PayPal, sold it, bought a disused GM plant and started making fancy electric cars, and now he launches satellites for NASA on his homemade rockets – successfully!  

They say he knows as much about rocket science as the experienced engineers he hires.  His next act will be to reduce the cost of space travel by 99%, on his way to colonizing Mars.  He has a big Grand Cross and three Grand Trines in his Nativity.  These “Grand” Configurations are the Cat’s Meow in astrology – if you want to be the Successful Extrovert your Mother always wanted, that is.  The “Grand” Configurations are there for you – you don’t have to Work at them.  The represent prenatal Alignments in your Psyche that makes Life easier.

For the last week we’ve been experiencing a Grand Septile – seven planets equally spaced around the Loop in a Seven-Rayed Fairy Star.  The essence of such a Grand Septile is Magic – Timing, really, knowing when the moment is right to Act with the utmost Power and Effectiveness without wasting any of your Energy.  Our Stanford-dropout rocket-scientist friend has most of a Grand Quintile too – five equally space planets arrayed around the Zodiac – Mastery of Learning.

When you have six planets equally spaced around the Circle, it’s called a Grand Sextile, and its essence is Harmony and Ease.  Not Work, but Love.  Like the Grand Trine, it symbolizes Grace, but not dumb-luck Grace.  Rather, it’s about taking the first step to start Energy moving in the direction you want it to move.  It’s the Patron Configuration for our adventures with PIAVA.  A Grand Sextile has two Grand Trines embedded in it.

The Discovery chart for this asteroid Hopi, my new favorite asteroid, has both an Grand Cross and a Grand Sextile in it, plus a third Grand Trine – an excellent Energy for Manifesting total reverence and respect for all things!  And the chart for Sedna’s Station tomorrow has a Grand Cross and a Grand Sextile – if you include the asteroid Hopi!  Hopi completes the Grand Sextile.  Do you remember what was in the bottom of Pandora’s Box, that didn’t fly away when the lid came off?

Oh, and did we mention that the asteroid Pandora is there with Hopi too?  What a “Coincidence”!  Along with the asteroids Sappho and Arachne.  Arachne is particularly appropriate, since in the Hopi Mythology it was Spider Grandmother who wove the Universe.

What all this means, is that any projects we started this week, or start Thursday or Friday or this weekend, will fly like a rocket!  Full of Motivation, full of Love, full of Ease and Grace, and full of natural Effortless Alignment.  If we’ve invested any time and Energy into Embracing the places where Fear arose, that will amplify our Endeavor even more.

Now it’s time to remind you about our usual format here.  Left-justified bold italic type is meant to communicate with anyone.  If you know a little astrology, or if you want to learn some by osmosis, then read the indented “normal” type – we talk more about the actual astrology there.  If we need to define any technical astrological terms, we’ll do it in doubly-indented italic type.  We use the Fuchsia type for emphasis.  So now let’s talk about the actual astrology…

The Grand Cross in the Sedna-Station chart includes an Opposition between dwarf planets Chaos and Ixion (the Unlimited Potential of our Abandoned natural Genius), Square to the Nodes.  Jupiter is on the North Node, and Chiron on the South (Drop your Karma and Expand your Desires by Reframing your bummers).  For additional Motivation there are also an Asbolus T-Square across the Neptune-Orcus Opposition (an Open Window into our Limiting Beliefs), and a Moon-Venus-Pluto T-Square across the Opposition between Lilith and Vesta-Uranus (We can Manifest like Gangbusters by using our Yindependence and by PIAVAing Alignment between our Unconscious Beliefs and our Soul’s Purpose).

In the Grand Sextile, Hopi-Arachne-Pandora-Sappho at the Midpoint of Leo is Trine to Saturn at the Midpoint of Sagittarius and Vesta-Uranus at the Midpoint of Aries (We Create Reverence and Respect for All Things by Trusting our Instinct and Refraining from intellectualizing our Goals).  This Grand Trine is Sextile to the Midpoints of the Air Signs – Lilith in Libra, the Sun in Aquarius, and Chaos in Gemini (It will be a great time to find our Community).  As the corner where the Grand Cross and the Grand Sextile meet, Chaos – symbolizing Unlimited Potential – rules the chart.  In rocket science, the Sky is not the Limit!

Stationary Sedna itself, in Taurus, sits in its own Earth-Sign Grand Trine with Mercury in Capricorn and Jupiter-North Node in Virgo (We Let Go of many Obstacles by Undefining Ourself).  Chiron-South Node in Pisces makes it into a Kite (Empathy for the Orphans!).  In Jupiter-North Node, of course, this Grand Trine also intersects the Grand Cross, providing a secondary focus of Expanding into our Mission and Deepest Desires.

And, five of the seven Rays remain of our Fairy-Star Grand Septile: Jupiter-North Node, Juno-Mars, Chariklo-Hylonome, Vesta-Uranus, and Asbolus.

We’ll look at the Hopi Discovery chart tomorrow.

Portal 10.1-8

Cobaltoan Dolomite, where Cobalt substitutes for some of the Calcium or Magnesium in Dolomite (MgCa Carbonate), will help us maintain two frequencies at once while becoming Conscious of each.

* * * * *

Background – The Centaur Stampede

Of course the Centaur Stampede Grand Trine (the one that’s likely to occur once in 12 million times the age of our Universe) with Lilith and Eris-South Node is still in full swing till around October 20, and given its rarity we have to consider that the bottom line here.  To review it quickly…

The predominant astro-influence in early October remains the Centaur Stampede, aka the Monumental Galactic Download.  The final word on that influence should be enormously positive (since it’s a Grand Trine), but while it’s on stage you may well experience some discomfort around unpleasant or even traumatic regressions (Eris on the South Node), and around “uppity” Women (Lilith).  A word about the discomfort: it’s very unlikely to be Present Moment – ie, it’s most likely a lot less ominous than it seems.  Anchoring yourself in the Present Moment (talk to someone incarnate, or inventory the contents of your refrigerator) may help.

Well, actually, while the event is phantasmagorically rare, it’s comment for astroevents to recur a couple of times when they do occur.  Next year’s Centaur Stampede (several minor planets Stationary at the same time near the same place, near the Galactic Center) will be even closer to the Galactic Center, and won’t include a Grand Trine.  It will Square Juno instead, which would indicate a major stretch to our Consciousness.  Maybe they finally will land.  At any rate…

Whatever you’re experiencing last month and this month, please be Super Loving and Gentle with it.  It’s a Healing Crisis – when long-abscessed Traumas come to the surface to be released, they feel horrible.  But if we recognize them for what they are – Paper Tigers like the Javanese Wayang shadow puppet theater – they release quickly and leave us greatly relieved – for good.  But if we regress into the original Trauma and believe it to be Real in the Present Moment, we cement our Karma in place and make it stronger.

You want to be Super Loving and Gentle with it this year, because when it recurs next year it will feel far more Traumatic.  The more you can Let It Go this year, the easier it will be for you next September.

* * * * *

Foreground – the Mercury Station and Eclipse

We want to talk mostly about Portal 10.1-8 per se here, so we’ll save the Mercury Station (October 4 at 10am PDT) and the Total Lunar Eclipse (October 8 at 4am PDT) – both prominent interludes – for subsequent posts.

* * * * *

Mid-ground – the Portal Itself

Which consists of yet another Grand Trine – this one between Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus, and an attached Tricolor with Chiron: Mars Square Chiron Quincunx Jupiter Trine Mars.

Again we get another gift of Great Grace, but again with a Challenge: our Yintegrity could flow so easily here that it outpaces our own progress toward accepting it.

Yintegrity recall means doing what one feels like doing, moment to moment, which is to say, Trusting one’s Instincts.

But to do Yintegrity in a Yangtegrity culture (where Integrity means doing what/when we said we were going to, or what/when we were “supposed to do”) without generating a lot of Anger, we need to reduce our commitments, be willing to renegotiate a lot, and to make amends when rapid change in what we feel like doing prevents renegotiation (cellphones help a lot with being able to renegotiate).  Or something like that.

If you’re in Sales with 300 accounts and Christmas is approaching, or you need to show up for your kid’s fútbol game, a Yintegrity attack can create headaches.  When Yintegrity is Unconsciously easy, like it could be now, you could forget the Tartar sauce again too easily.

So the biggest boon here is probably raising our Consciousness of the contrast between our Yangtegrity (which, depending on our Doingness, may equate to Stress) and our Yintegrity (which will cause Stress if we haven’t prepared our Lives for it).

We have a number of Big Yintegrity tests and surges coming up again soon (Uranus Square Pluto again December 15 and March 17, Uranus Stationary December 21), so this practice is another gift from Pi – She’s been consistent about giving us support for lots of practice before she insists that we perform.  Her bottom line though is Responsibility, so we can’t take Her practice opportunities for granted!

What about the Tricolor?

The contrast between what you’d love to do (Yintegrity, in many cases) and what you give yourself permission to do (often, Yangtegrity, but it can be the other way around) can easily generate Discouragement.  That too is an opportunity.  You can begin the integration process by moving to Curiosity and Wonder – “I Wonder how I could get all the benefits of both Worlds.”  You have to be honest about Wondering; it’s not a trivial mental exercise like wondering who will win the next game.  You have to Wonder in the sense that you can’t really imagine how it might come about, but you’re open to allowing the best of both Worlds to Manifest.  If your Fantasies worked, you’d have Manifested it long ago, so you have to Let Go of those.  You have to really be in Don’t Know mind.

 

The best way to do that is to completely Change the Subject – don’t think of the Elephant.  It’s easier than it sounds; you only need persistence.  Every time the issue comes back into your mind, remember that it’s in the oven and the alarm will go off when it’s done, so you don’t need to worry about it.  If you get a sudden Insight about how it might happen, Let that Go too; you don’t want Insight, you want Manifestation.  When it Manifests it will surprise and delight you.  If you think you know how it’s going to work, it won’t.

 

That’s a tall order, but you don’t have to be perfect or get it right the first time.  You’ve started the ball rolling.  Trusting your Instincts while remaining in Community can create all manner of problems in Western culture.  It’s a big job, and you’ll be on the bleeding edge.  So you want to shoot for 5% more – Trusting your Instinct 5% more often.   Or being Obedient 5% more often, if you’re already in Yintegrity too much for comfort.  Do this once a month and you’ll be Androgynous (in the best sense of the word) within two years.

August Blessing Highlights

Diamond, symbol of One-Pointed Consciousness.  This one’s Brown, which reminds us of mud, but which is really a shade of Orange, Second Chakra – Emotion, Desire.  Are we clear about our Desires, or muddy?  Our Desires are a Mirror for our Sacred Mission on the Planet.  The cleaner the Mirror, the clearer are our Intentions and Actions, and more Ecstatic our Life.  It’s more difficult to Follow Our Joy when the path is muddy.  

 * * * * *

August 15-25 is a particularly good time to align

• Our relationship to Spirit,
• Our Beliefs, and
• Our Consciousness,

three very different arenas.  Misalignment between these three often limit our ability or willingness to Manifest the Life we strive to live.

One caution – don’t let the Grace that’s available here “go to your head,” or get stuck in your Ego.  These are gifts from the Universe, they arise on their own, not because you Created them.  Use them to Create what you Want, use them to Feel Good about yourself and your place in the Universe, but don’t use them to elevate yourself above anyone else or anything else.  Humility is your best friend here.

To review, Juno forms a Grand Trine with Neptune and Vesta-Ceres during these ten days.

I was recently advised by a profound Healer that we can refine our PIAVAs to make sure they are well lubricated using these steps before we get to PIAVAing the actual subject of our Desires… 

1. Do you actually Believe that what you Want is possible?  Tap out any doubts that arise, and PIAVA to Believe in the possibility.
2. Do you actually feel like you Deserve what you Want?  Tap out any doubts that arise, and PIAVA to Deserve what you Want.
3. Do you actually Know what it Feels Like to have or be what you Want?  Spend time with how you would Feel if you received what you Want.  If you have any difficulty with that, use Tapping and PIAVA to refine what you Want.  Let it shift if it wants to.
4. Try It On.  Go about your Life for a while as if you had already received what you Want.

These work especially well with Theta Healing.

August Blessings will be intensified during these periods…

• August 15 between 3pm and 9pm PDT should be an excellent time for Manifesting. 

The Moon Opposes Vesta, forming a Kite.

• From 6am PDT August 17 till 9am PDT August 20, keep a close watch on your Thoughts.  Thoughts are powerful.  Negative Thoughts and Doubt produce a vibration that fills your Aura with Resistance to what you’re trying to do.  Be particularly watchful for Self-Doubt, and Tap it out when it arises.  Be mindful that Confusion is the first stage of Growth, and Let It Be, don’t try to “fix” it.  This is a fantastic time to learn to separate your Thoughts from their Content.  Thought is one thing, What you’re Thinking about is quite another.  Don’t pollute one with the other!!
• This Energy intensifies between 3am PDT August 18 and 3pm August 19.
• It intensifies yet again from 8pm till 9pm PDT August 18.
• If you possibly can, spend from 9am till noon PDT August 20 in Meditation.  The rewards will be profound, especially if you’ve succeeded to any extent in separating the Universe from your Thoughts about it.
• From noon till 7pm PDT August 20, Expand everything you Do, Feel, Think, Want, Are, and Have.  Watch for Shadows of Doubt, and Tap them out.

Mercury Opposes Neptune to head up a Kite from August 17 till August 20, and on August 20 the Moon Conjoins Juno.

• August 25 would be another fantastic day to deepen your relationship to the Great Beyond, especially between 3pm and 9pm PDT.

The Moon makes another Kite, Opposing Neptune this time.

We could advance our Mission on the Planet by leaps and bounds by Paying Attention to these Portals.

The Grand Trine, three planets equally spaced around the Zodiac, is the grandaddy of Good Luck, but its Energy can be diffuse, and can easily devolve to arrogance if one does not recognize it as Grace. 

When a fourth planet forms a Kite by Opposing one of the three, the Energy becomes Focused through the fourth planet – Power and Magic Are Afoot.

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?

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.

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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.