My answer would probably be different every day, but if you asked me to choose a consummately Beautify Crystal, I’d often choose Apophyllite. At least, if there wasn’t a Diamantino Quartz Crystal handy.
* * * * *
I’ve always said that
“Beauty has it’s own Karma”
meaning that being born beautiful, or handsome, or charming, or rich, or with a strong dose of any socially favorable characteristic that’s easily and quickly identified, brings with it special problems that the rest of us don’t encounter. You may never have experienced what it’s like to have to earn the trust of others. Many others will give you deference and acceptance unconditionally. A few will hate you, but most of those will be ashamed of their envy and keep it out of your field.
Since most folks regard Karma as retribution rather than inertia, it’s common to see Innate Grace as “good Karma” rather than a Lifetime dedicated to becoming Conscious about overconfidence. A Life with less difficulty than most is an incredible Blessing, nothing to be disparaged. But do most folks in those shoes even see the suffering in the World, let alone feel it, or strive to soften it? Like Milt Romney’s 47% gaff, sure, it’s easy to feel like you’re One with All, except for those 47% lazy-asses on the other side of the tracks.
Chariklo Initiated Mars an hour or so ago as I write. Chariklo, like Chiron to whom she was married in myth, is astronomically a “Centaur” or minor planet with an irregular orbit between Jupiter and Neptune. Because their orbits generally cross those of the giant planets, they’re considered unstable, and by astronomical standards short-lived. But mythologically, Chariklo was a Water Nymph, and a Beauty.
The minor planet Chariklo got her name because her orbit is very close to round, unusual for a Centaur, and does not cross the orbit of a giant planet (Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter), also unusual – that is, her astronomical symmetry is lovely. When discovered, she closely Opposed a tight Jupiter-Uranus-Ceres-Mercury Conjunction, and these were both members of a very tight Grand Trine with Mars, Pluto, Saturn, and the Moon.
To top it off, the Chariklo-JUCM Opposition is Squared closely by an Opposition between Chiron and Juno, making a Grand Cross. In Leo in a Grand Sextile – implicitly two Grand Trines and six Kites – and a Grand Cross as well, she is indeed Charmed. Her Discovery degree is 7 Leo, “The constellations of stars shine brilliantly in the night sky.“
Chariklo Initiated Mars at 23 Sagittarius, “A group of immigrants as they fulfill the requirements of entrance into the new country.” Rudhyar, an immigrant himself, interprets that as “Consciously accepting the ways of a new stage of experience, in readiness for the opportunities it will present,” but we also want to remember that many immigrants are often treated like animals. Emigration can be an excellent way to lose one’s Identity. Either way…
Transition of some sort is indicated. I’m reminded of a quote in a recent email from the New Economy Coalition…
“Let’s be real. Those who have benefited from the concentration of wealth and power aren’t going to voluntarily give up their hold on society. Our ideas for an alternative economy — no matter how beautiful, logical, or even necessary they are — aren’t going anywhere without a social movement powerful enough to demand real change and weather the repression as it inevitably arrives.”
How would we normally think of Mars-Chariklo? Well, the envy comes to mind, and impatience when progress isn’t as rapid as our Charmed self (we are all Beautiful in our own way, even if not everyone sees it immediately) can easily imagine it being. In the US, where for-profit “medicine” has produced a nightmare industry, Ty Bollinger’s excellent new series…
http://thetruthaboutcancer.com/live/episode3.php
may also generate uncomfortable new challenges to privilege.
What can we learn from the previous two-year Mars-Chariklo Cycle? It began in October 2012 at 11 Sagittarius, “In the left section of an archaic temple, a lamp burns in a container shaped like a human body.” That’s a very fitting symbol for the span of Time including the End of It. The left side is generally the receptive side, symbolizing Devolution, or the receipt of Spirit into Form, while the lamp represents Evolution, or the ascent of Form into Spirit, and Light into Human Consciousness. This implies to me that the Mars-Chariklo Cycle is an important indicator of our process.
It would be interesting to trace recent Mars-Chariklo Cycles and the course of recent history.
Meanwhile, in a few hours Mars will Trine Eris. While the Trine represents dumb-luck Grace, still there may be some Disturbance in the Force when the God of War meets his mythological sister Eris, the Goddess of Dischord. Of course our own interpretation of Dischord is that it represents the Disruption of Denial – if there was no Denial or Judgment (which is a Denial of Equality and Unity), there would only be camaraderie, not Dischord. So Change is again implied.
With Chariklo Trining Mars at about the same time as Mars Trining Eris, we’re inspired to investigate the Chariklo-Eris Cycle. The Waning Chariklo-Eris Trine occurs on October 17 – basically, tomorrow. Since the classical Golden Apple Eris story is about Confusion between Beauty and Vanity, and (Confusion being of course the first stage of Growth) their emergence into Consciousness, this should be an important Cycle as well. Tomorrow’s event, however, is a Confidence-Builder. The Can-Opener occurred on December 2013. So, being finished with the Waning Trine, this Cycle is descending into the Void.
But what is/was this Chariklo-Eris Cycle about? It was Initiated in mid-May 1975 at 14 Aries, “A serpent coiling near a man and a woman.” To me that suggests a re-evaluation of their respective roles relative to one another, which has certainly occurred. The Intiation was Conjunct Jupiter and Square Saturn, indicating major change in social structure. It was also Semi-Sextile to Vesta – a Pattern-Breaker with respect to codified Belief, and Sextile to Mercury – an educational process. That’s the Cycle, but we’re now entering the Void in it.
We can expect to see chaos (ie, potential) invading gender relations, a period of flux, for the next few decades. The trend is still toward Equality, but the path will by no means be direct. On the economic stage we’re leaving the Industrial Revolution, which included the industrialization of women, and getting ready to enter the Digital Era, the first phase of the Age of Aquarius.
Aquarius is a conflicted Sign, from the Piscean perspective. The Sign Aquarius is Fixed Air, which we can translate as Opionated Mind. But it also represents Community, which, while relying on Opinionated Mind or prejudice to differentiate members from non-members, must also be Heart-Centered if it is to survive. Heart-Centeredness within Community at the least, if not without. While Aquarius is a Dynamic Sign, Heart-Centeredness is basically Magnetic.
The Digital Era has very sharp Edges. Until the Quantum computer is everyday, there is no middle ground between Ones and Zeros. “Machine Intelligence” is moving in the direction of the sort of “fuzzy logic” that the Heart demands, but for quite a while I expect a sharp split between two cultures as we enter the Age of Aquarius, one culture focused on rigid logic and fixed rules, and the other on Compassion and inclusiveness. As we move into the new Chiron-Neptune Fresh Violets in an Ancient Pottery Bowl Cycle, we’ll probably continuing to see a rigid hierarchical mainstream and an inclusive egalitarian counterculture.
The Age of Aquarius spans two millennia, while the Digital Era spans only two centuries (The span of Jupiter-Saturn Conjunctions in Air Signs). The Digital Age will be followed by an Era of Creativity (Two centuries of Jupiter-Saturn Conjunctions in Fire Signs) and an Era of Nurture (Water Signs). The eventual core of the Age of Aquarius – a millennium or so from now – should involve “Sympathy and understanding, harmony and trust abounding.” Relative to this future herstory, our current efforts exploring alternate ways of organizing economy and society are infantile but germinal.
In the Kin of Ata model, quintessential Community – the Buddhist Heaven – happens in the winter, because it’s winter and as such it’s clear to all but the Ixions that Community is essential for Survival. Our prayers should be centered around the Age of Aquarius moving toward a celebration of Midsummer’s Day (if not a Midsummer Night’s Dream), more than toward a forced sharing of Scarcity.
In “Buddhist Hell,” we are assembled before a great table containing a sumptuous feast, but our elbows are extended and locked, so we can only drool. That’s our current situation of extreme inequality.
But in “Buddhist Heaven,” everyone feeds Other. That’s an excellent example of Chironean Miracle – a simple obvious-after-the-fact shift of perspective that doesn’t merely solve an insoluble problem, it disappears it.
jbuss Astrology 