Song of Mars

Tourmaline is traditionally one of the stronger Healing Stones because of the Boron in it.  Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly, and Boron is the fifth-lightest element.  There are officially 29 different Tourmalines, as the Crystal structure is complex and has many substitutions and variations.  The Lithium-rich version of Tourmaline is called (by geologists) Elbaite.  Lithium is the third-lightest element!  So these Angels can really fly.  Informally, Elbaite comes in several varieties.  The pinky-reddy ones, like this lovely example, are called (by non-geologists) Rubellite.

 

Well, this remarkable opportunity…

“This is a remarkable opportunity to Let Go of any and all Patterns, especially Relationship Patterns, that keep us from living out our Deepest Desires.  Not only are they up in our face, but there’s very strong Grace behind our Intentions.”

may not feel so hot, when all or our Limiting Beliefs and Self-Sabotaging Patterns really are up in our face, eh?

But take heart.  At half past 6pm PDT on May 19, Mars turns Direct, and once that happens (or once you realize it’s happening – it works like that, it’s called Consciousness, and it’s an alternative to Victimhood), the flavor should lighten up.  As we’ve said often, a planet’s Song is strongest when it’s Stationary, ie, now.

Mars works with our Assertiveness.  Without Mars it’s difficult to set effective Boundaries.  The Passion to follow our Joy comes from Mars.  Western Culture rewards highly the folks who can allow their Mars to run amok without remorse.  The rest of us get the trickle-down, which has been pretty much in the red lately.  So if we aren’t already sociopathic, there’s a couple of things we can do. 

First, we can be loving and gentle with our remorse.  Remorse is a good thing actually, because it motivates us to do the second thing, which is to improve our skill at Assertiveness.  It’s totally possible to be consummately effective at setting solid Boundaries while harming no one and being completely charming about it.  We just haven’t figured out how to do it yet.  We’ll probably need to PIAVA that.

So let’s review what we know about this particular Mars Station…

The most significant characteristic of this Mars Retrograde Period is it’s entanglement with Jupiter and the Uranus-Pluto Square.

Retrogrades, Repeating Events, and the Can-Opener:  Remember that when a planet entangles with another during a Retrograde Period, it usually makes the same angle with the other planet three times.  The first event we’ve called the “Can-Opener” because it pops the lid off of some drama we’ve been keeping in the basement, usually catching us off guard and throwing us out of our comfort zone.

The Can-Opener is usually the meat of an issue.  The other two recurrences are much less memorable, unless we’re in the habit of counting our Blessings, of course.  In this case, the Exposition or second pass for all three Cycles – Mars-Uranus, Mars-Pluto, and Mars-Jupiter – occurred at the same time, in April.  How was that for you?

The Exposition and Confidence-Builder:  The second pass we’ve called the “Exposition” because the same drama recurs, but this time it unfolds more slowly, giving us the opportunity to practice our skills at dealing with it.  The third time is the “Confidence-Builder,” because now when the drama comes back we deal with it pretty easily, having extended our comfort zone by learning and practicing new skills.

Responsibility:  All this assumes that we’ve taken Responsibility for it at the Can-Opener, or at least during the Exposition (often we’re too off-guard at the Can-Opener to be present with Responsibility.  That’s not Blame, that’s the willingness and ability to Respond, as opposed to being the Victim of the drama.  The longer we delay taking Responsibility, the more adamant is the Universe at rubbing our face in the issue.

Stations:  Between each of these three events the offending planet is Stationary.  That is, the soon-to-be-Retrograde planet passes the other one once going forward (Can-Opener), then it Stations and turns Retrograde, then it backs up and passes the second time going backward (Exposition), then it Stations and turns Direct again, before finally crossing the entangled planet for the third time (Confidence-Builder).  And as we’ve said, the offending planet is strongest when it’s Stationary.

Pictures at an Exposition:  So we might see the Exposition itself as occurring in three stages, once at the Retrograde Station, again at the second crossing, and finally at the Direct Station.  That gives us five events, and five is the number of Learning.

So just what is it we’re likely to be learning here?

The Mars-Uranus Can-Opener occurred around Christmas (2013).  It was an Opposition, a minor culmination of the Mars-Uranus Cycle that began in March 2013 at 9 of Aries, “A Crystal gazer: The development of an inner realization of organic wholeness.”

Sabian Symbols:  In the same way that each astrological Sign has a flavor or meaning, each degree of the zodiac, all 360 of them, has it’s own flavor!  The flavor or deep meaning of an individual degree is called its Sabian Symbol.  We put it in quotes and italics, and often amend it with Dane Rudhyar’s expansion on it from his book An Astrological Mandala.

Is there a part of yourself that’s been brewing for a little over a year, that has to do with integrating various parts of your Life, and that allows you to bring more of your Passion into the pursuit of your Deepest Desires?  Or at least a strengthening drive to seek your Passion or Follow your Joy?  Maybe some issue or decision or process that was lit up last Christmas?  You could easily have breakthroughs here.

The Mars-Pluto entanglement here is a Waning Square.  Its Can-Opener was during the last few days of 2013, and this Cycle began in late November 2012, at 9 of Capricorn, “An Angel carrying a harp: The revelation of the spiritual meaning and purpose at the core of any life situation.”  Mars-Pluto usually doesn’t screw around, so this sounds like it’s right out of Pi’s playbook around Responsibility.

Squares – the Motivators:  A Square between two planets – when one is a quarter of the way round the loop from the other – I’m sure you know by now if you’ve been reading for long, is an Angle symbolizing Mastery through Challenge.  The Waning Square is the time of debriefing, for reviewing what we’ve experienced and learned, so we can be sure to take it with us when we leave.  The Waxing Square is when a Cycle’s Song gets into the elevators, or the Energy becomes permanent.  Prior to the Waxing Square, the Song was mostly in the background.

Remember Northern Winter Solstice 2012, when the Mayan Calendar ended and Pi replaced Gaia as the Goddess inhabiting the Earth?  Seems like only yesterday, right?  Whoa, no way.  That was lifetimes ago in subjective time.  Can you detect a qualitative difference in your own Life?  This is a real good time to Pay Attention to what’s Changed, what hasn’t Changed, and what still need to Change.

The Mars-Jupiter Cycle began in July 2013, and hit the Can-Opener of its Waxing Square in January of this year.  The Initiation was at 6 of Cancer, “Game Birds feathering their nests: An instinctual dedication of self to new forms of life.”

There are new stages of your Life being born here.  Do you feel them?  Are they part of your own Intention, or are they being forced upon you?  Are you Resisting?  (It’s futile, y’know.) 

Meanwhile, Mars has also been dancing with Vesta, Ceres, and the North Node.  Mars came sashaying right up to all three of them in late February, but stopped a few degrees shy of overtaking them, as they all turned Retrograde at one big party around March 1.  In July, once Mars gathers momentum again, it will overtake these three and Initiate new Cycles.  So there are a number of Energies that are fading into history here.  Probably wouldn’t hurt to talk more about those too, as we’ll be Intuiting those Futures too here at the Mars Station.  But we’ll do that later; for now…

And Endings Galore. 

We’re growing increasingly frustrated about following a course we’ve been considering to be Sacred, as we see Moths eating holes in that tapestry.  The Sacred is important, we can’t just abandon it completely, so something else will be taking its place.  Do you have any sense of what that might be yet?

We can’t keep following paths that aren’t Sustainable.  Changes are coming down there too.

Passion about our Mission?  Hard to do when we aren’t sure what it is.  But you actually do know.  Ask yourself, “What if I did know?” and then stop, back up, and pick up that first answer that you rejected so quickly that you barely noticed.  It’s impractical?  So…what’s your point?  It’s Disruptive?  Well, what will it Disrupt – that fraying old Unsustainable portrait you had of what you used to think was Sacred?

Mars-Jupiter-Lilith July 11-22

Next Wednesday’s Uranus Station makes a Ninth-Harmonic Angle to Mars, Jupiter, and Lilith.

The impending Lilith-Mars Initiation (1am PDT July 20) at 5 Cancer (“At a railroad crossing, an automobile is wrecked by a train” or as Rudhyar says, “The tragic results when an individual’s will pits itself carelessly against the collective will of society“) begins a two-and-a-half-year Cycle.  Lilith (pre-Intellectual Instinct, Equality, Collaboration) is the Initiator here, Mars (Action) the Initiate.  If Action is frustrated, Mars can manifest as negative Emotions and destructive tendencies.

Don’t miss Malala’s UN speech…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23291897

Her recovery and obvious Calling makes you believe that it’s Olde-Male Chauvinism that’s the wrecked automobile, not Malala.  In the US, the Olde Males are running roughshod over women’s rights in state after state – is this a defensive reaction to the demise of Olde Male suzerainty, or just another crude chest-thumping Power-Over?  The next couple of years may tell us whether the collective will of society is getting off the Olde-Male train or not.

Lilith, banished from polite society in the Book of Isaiah, represents the Shadow of Male-dominated culture – Shadow in the Jungian sense, namely that which is repressed.  The Lilith-Mars Initiation takes place while Mercury is Stationary, implying the likely eruption of repressed contents into Consciousness.  Repressed material seldom leaks out, it more often erupts – train-wreck style, as texts on mental health describe in great detail.  “Mental health” in Male-dominated cultures, that is.

When you see your Shadow, be mindful not to overreact.  We integrate our Shadow by embracing it.  That’s really all you need to do, open up space to be Loving with it, though if Shame or Guilt or Anger or Fear arises in the process, it’s even more important to be loving and gentle with that.  “Good” is as unproductive a word here as “Bad” is – you want to move toward Wholeness, not toward Good.

If there is conflict between your sense of what’s Right and your acknowledgment of your “Bad,” give yourself permission to Forgive.  You don’t want to isolate or eliminate the Bad to make room for more Good – you want to examine your motives for the Bad, to see how you can adjust your Actions and Words to be less hurtful to others and to yourself, but still fulfill your motives.  Flipping 100% leaves you on the same Coin – no Change.  A 10% shift will give you new perspectives and put you on a new playing field, where you have more Healthy Control.

It would be instructive to see what the Mars-Lilith Cycle has been up to for the last couple of years.  That would be 2 Aries, “A comedian reveals human nature” (April 2011).  That’s certainly an illuminating way to look at the events of the last few years, isn’t it.  The implication is an increase in Consciousness.  Even if it means Acceptance rather than Change, it’s still great progress, as Acceptance is actually much more effective at Pattern-Breaking than trying to Change.  Once we have Acceptance, we have Choice.

The Ninth Harmonic is about Contemplation, Introspection, Inspiration, Integration, Wholeness, and Wisdom.  The combination signifies an intense couple of years, as Lilith erupts, with Uranus standing behind her to Disrupt whatever is stagnant.  Pre-Intellectual Instinct is a critically important part of the Authenticity and Yintegrity that Uranus requires – and Lilith and Uranus are independent Energies.  When two independent Energies are both triggered, their impact is multiplied.

The Mars-Jupiter Initiation occurs at 12am PDT July 22, at 6 Cancer, “Game Birds feathering their nests,” or in Rudhyar’s view, “An instinctual dedication of self to new forms of life.”  An open book?  This would seem like a disadvantage of pre-Intellectual Instinct, as the Game Birds prepared for the next generation even as they themselves are destined for the oven – blind obedience to an old Pattern, without the Consciousness to Awake and Change the Pattern.  The Mars-Jupiter Cycle is about Action in service to Expansion.

The prior Mars-Jupiter Cycle began on MayDay 2011, Beltane, Conjunct Eris at 23 Aries, “A pregnant woman in a light summer dress.”  Eris would have had women telling it like it is.

While Jupiter and Lilith Conjoined on July 11 (the day before Malala’s speech), that was their fourth meeting of five.  The Initiation occurred in December 2011, at 1 Taurus, “A Clear Mountain Stream,” or in Rudhyar’s view, “The pure uncontaminated and spontaneous manifestation of one’s own nature.”  Couldn’t get much more relevant to a Uranus Station!

Jupiter-Lilith is a 35-year Cycle.  The previous Initiation was in January 1978, at 29 Gemini, “The first Mockingbird of Spring.”  Mockingbird is to Spring as Rooster is to Morning – this was about waking up.  And making noise, sounding the alarm.  I’m not sure that this characterizes Women’s Rights in the 1978-2011 span though.  In many ways the post-Watergate era for most people was about knuckling down and adjusting to both-parents-working, while incomes and prosperity peaked and began to fall.

How would the prior Cycle have motivated Rosie the Riveter?  The January 1943 Initiation was 18 Cancer, or “A Hen scratching the ground to find nourishment for her progeny.”  Fitting for the Self-abandonment of the Mad Men era as well, and if you postulate that the Feminism of the 1960s was motivated primarily by a desire for equal pay, maybe for the These Boots Were Made for Walking age as well.

We can’t help but blame other people for the ways we don’t have permission to be our True Self, and often it’s people we Love or Depend upon.  Next week we get to tell them off.  It’s important to get this out in the open.  Don’t tell them off with the intention of pushing them out of your Life.  Tell them off with the intention of being Honest about what you really feel.  If you “hurt their feelings” in the process, apologize for that, and ask them to tell you how they really feel.  Don’t candy-coat anything, but use the opportunity to deepen your relationship with them.

With Uranus, Eris, and Mercury all Stationary next week, the Mars-Lilith-Jupiter complex will open up tremendous opportunities for Collaboration, and Collaboration is probably the most important commodity lacking on the Planet in this time.

Nutshell July

The July New Moon is just after 12am PDT on July 8, just two hours after the July 7 Saturn Station, so most of what we prescribed for the Saturn Station will apply to the New Moon as well.

The New Moon is at 17 of Cancer, “The unfoldment of multilevel potentialities issuing from an original germ“!  I can’t imagine what Elsie really saw that triggered this description – most of her reading are more like “A girl feeding a bird” or “A hen scratching the dirt“!  Very uncharacteristic of her to wax philosophically like this, unless she saw a literal germ.  Rudhyar talks about germination, as if Elsie was talking about stem cells.  Should be an interesting month in any case!

Nine days later Uranus and Eris both turn Retrograde, July 17-19.  Even right now, two weeks and a Saturn Station away, Uranus is only five arcminutes (one twelfth of a degree) from the Station point and Eris two arcminutes from her Platform, so we’ll pick up on these disruptive Energies immediately after Saturn starts moving forward again.

Uranus backs over 9-13 degrees of Aries, the Leo segment and a bit of the Cancer portion.  This is the stage in Aries where we quit making up fanciful justifications and begin to take it for granted that our new Creations – outcomes unknown – are simply what’s happening.  With Uranus involved, the new Creation is us.  Don’t let it bring you down, it’s only castles burning.

The Eris Station is further along, at 23 Aries, and she only backs up about a degree and a half.  This is the cusp between the Sagittarius part of Aries and the Capricorn segment.  Here we’ve eliminated all of the Yesbuts, and we’re beginning to put hammer to nail.  This is Eris, so this Creation is something that we’ve been having to overcome a lot of Denial to get moving, like maybe democracy.

Remember that it’s only processes that are no longer in alignment with your Soul that are disrupted by Uranus, and it’s only in places where self-sabotaging Denial rule that Eris makes us defensive.  Keep an eye out for disruption and defensiveness, so you can use the opportunities to move into Yintegrity and Clarity.

Then Mercury goes Direct on July 20, while Eris is still virtually Stationary.  That combination’s a germ with a good deal of multilevel potentiality for mischief.  If the Mercury Retro period is indeed about learning how our thoughts and words put Compassion into our day-to-day lives and impact other people, as we averred in Portal 6.26, then maybe we’ll be learning to Speak Truth So Others Can Hear It.  Or learning to make amends quickly and effectively, which we desperately need to learn anyway, if we hope to live with the Yintegrity that Uranus demands of us.

Two days later, just before the Full Moon, Jupiter Initiates Mars.  The Jupiter-Mars Cycle is about getting our butts in gear.  The new Cycle begins at 6 Cancer – “Game birds feathering their nests.”  If as game birds they’re about to get shot for food, why bother.  Maybe they hope to hatch an egg before the hunters lock and load.  This is a two-year Cycle – are we going to be getting our butts in gear to further enslave Nature to our Avarice?  I think it’s way too late for that to work, so maybe the game birds will be celebrating the demise of the hunters.  We hope it’s not some hairbrained scheme to “fix” the natural order that ends up creating more of a mess.

Meanwhile, here’s a great article on Community and Capital…

http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/sc/1307/crowd_funding.html

and a fascinating prescription for storing Vitamin D for the winter! –

http://www.fungi.com/blog/items/place-mushrooms-in-sunlight-to-get-your-vitamin-d.html

Manganotantalite

Manganotantalite is about Speaking Truth So Others Can Hear It.  Manganese opens the Heart and allows us to see through our illusions and deceptions toward Clarity.  The only reasons we can muster for speaking ill of anyone are manipulation and intimidation.  With an open Heart and Clarity, we can skip those steps and just jump right into appreciating everyone’s unique skills, and enjoy the Collaboration that can result.  While Eris is about revealing Denial, Manganese is about reframing judgment.  Manganotantalite’s primary use is in cellphones.

Tantalus, Tantalum’s namesake, was forced to endure perpetual hunger and thirst for his misdeeds – human sacrifice (a metaphor for manipulation and intimidation), and stealing nectar from the Gods (a metaphor for reaching Truth by breaking out of enslavement to Unconscious Patterns).  Tantalum seldom occurs without Niobium, which is named after Tantalus’s daughter, famous for her hubris.  She so angered the Gods with her taunts that they killed all of her children – the antithesis of Speaking Truth So It Can Be Heard.  Niobe could be Eris’s evil twin.

In this Mineral either Iron or Manganese can occupy the cation (positive charge) position, and either Tantalate (Tantalum Oxide) or Niobate (Niobium Oxide) the anion (negative charge) position.  Minerals in the series, seldom purely one or the other, are named according to which Elements predominate – Ferrocolumbite (Ferro=Iron, Columbium an old name for Niobium), Manganocolumbite, Ferrotantalite, and Manganotantalite.  In general, the more Manganese, the redder the Crystal.  Interesting that Columbium was a former name for Niobium, as the hubris of Columbus and the Europeans at reframing Columbus’s rescue by Caribbean Natives as “Conquest” is legendary.

While Iron’s primary esoteric function is Grounding the Root Chakra, Manganese operates in the Heart, Throat, and Brow Chakras.  When you can’t tell which Elements predominate, the Mineral is nicknamed “Coltan,” short for Columbite-Tantalite.  The primary source for Coltan is the disputed region of the Congo, where “Blood Coltan” is mined by hand by “artisan” miners, and sold to pay for arms.  This area of the Congo is adjacent to the location of the Rwandan Genocide – the killing of children is still going on.  So look for a lot of red, evidence that you’ve got Manganese.  Tantalum is much more abundant than Niobium.