The Stellium Initiations

Clear Quartz, cut into a ball of many facets.

Looking at the Stellium reductively, we examine the nature of each of the Energies birthed into it.  Seen statically, a Stellium is a cluster of planets.  Viewed dynamically, a Stellium is a mass birth of Cycles.  The Energy of a Cycle is strong at it’s birth, though we can expect considerable Resistance as those who benefit from the status quo seek to Deny the Changes.  So a Stellium is a cauldron of Creation.

The July 5 Ceres-Vesta Initiation occurs at 22 Libra, “A child giving Birds a drink at a fountain.”  The 15-year Vesta-Ceres Cycle is about the Sustainability of our Belief systems – that is, do they grow corn.  Being the longest Cycle in the Stellium, it plays the senior role.  We have Innocence, Spirit, Emotion, and Compassion, perhaps Empathy, in the image.  Innocence serving up Emotion to Spirit – interesting permutation.  So

For the next fifteen years the most Sustainable view of the Sacred is that we are to surrender our Emotions to Spirit rather than try to analyze them.

On July 12 Ceres Initiates Mars at 25 Libra – “The sight of an autumn leaf brings to a pilgrim the sudden revelation of the Mystery of life and death.”  The 3-year Mars-Ceres Cycle governs whether we use our Physical Energy in Sustainable ways.  We have endings giving a seeker a relief from Grief.

North Node Initiates Vesta in the same degree on July 13.  Another 3-year Cycle.  North Node-Vesta would have us revise our Belief systems every three years, so Belief serves Mission as it evolves.  For this next three years then

By acknowledging Mystery we avoid wasting our Energy on trying to make sense of Emotions.  By honoring Emotions in and of themselves, without trying to trap them in Cause-and-Effect cages, we liberate our Instincts and are thus able to process information and respond to it orders of magnitude more quickly.  We also save our intellect for more productive endeavors.

Also on July 13, the North Node Initiates Mars in 24 Libra, “A Butterfly with a third wing on its left side.”  Mars-North Node is pursuit of our Mission.  The left side emphasizes the Feminine, and Magic.  It’s a 2-year Cycle.  The Butterfly implies impermanence and frequent transformation.

The next day, the North Node Initiates Ceres in this degree.  The 3-year Ceres-North Node Cycle involves our persistence in honoring our Deepest Desires, and also suggests paring away from our lives what doesn’t serve our Mission.

We don’t need to understand our Mission in order to PIAVA that we pursue it vigorously.  That will give us an advantage and allow us to respond quickly to its evolution, increasing our progress.  It will also make it easier to stick with it, and create less wasted Life.

Back to 25 Libra – the Leaf, the Pilgrim, and the Mystery – for the Vesta-Mars Initiation on July 15.  Vesta being the fastest of the big four asteroids, its speed is closer to that of Mars, so the Mars-Vesta Cycle runs four years, making it the second-most senior Energy in the Stellium.  Mars-Vesta is about Walking our Talk, putting supporting our Beliefs with Work.

Allowing our Beliefs to govern our Actions will regenerate our Energy.

* * * * *

Then we have to correct our initial reductivism, and reassemble these notions into a coherent Whole…

Our Mission is conveyed to our Ego through our Deepest Desires.  When you actually pursue your Deepest Desires, have you noticed how elusive they are?  They’re a Siren, beckoning and disappearing into the mist, again and again.  Of course, most of us just repress them as unavailable or forbidden.  So the first step toward moving into our Mission is to stop repressing our Deepest Desires.

The Stellium advises us to use a feminine approach when pursuing them.  We do that by eschewing analysis of our Emotions and trusting them as Instincts.  We honor the Mystery by using PIAVA rather than Plan-Execute, again, to avoid wasting intellectual Energy on trying to masculinize the process.  One of the first “rules” of Jungian thought is “Don’t seduce your Animus/Anima.”  What that means is that you want your Inner Male/Female to be an integral part of your Egoic Self, not an Other from which you (your unmerged Ego) seek gratification. 

A good way to do that is, rather than pursuing our Deepest Desires directly, we PIAVA to feel the way we will feel when our Deepest Desires are fulfilled.  That way we bypass the Siren and go straight to the Essence of our Mission.  

Full Moon Yin Gate and Portal 7.5-15

Swallowtail Selenite, a Crystalline form of Gypsum or Calcium Sulfate.  The same stuff that the inside walls in your house are made of.  Like Feminine Power – often so subtle that it’s not even seen, but what would you do without it?  Look at those subtle colors!

* * * * *

As we’ve said about the Full Moon’s Yin Gate…

“The Core Issue is the Mysterious Relationship between our Soul’s Path and our Personal Mythology.  And the way that Mystery is Changing, as our Personal Mythology changes, and as our Soul’s Path evolves and adapts to the Choices our Ego makes. 

“This is the central Opposition from the Vesta-Ceres Conjunction to Uranus, the central axis of the Yin Gate.”

“As in any Yin Gate, there are two Subsidiary Issues.  The first is the Mysterious Relationship between the concept of Order in your Personal Mythology, and the concept of Beauty in your Personal Mythology.  Do you know what it means to a Native American to ‘walk in beauty’?

“One of the other Oppositions in this Yin Gate is between Venus and Saturn.

“And the second Subsidiary Issue is the Mysterious Relationship between the concept of Miracle in your Personal Mythology, and the concept of The Feminine in your Personal Mythology.

“The link is indirect, which we’ll explain in a while, but the third Opposition is between Chiron and a derivative of Lilith.  Derivatives were not reigned in after they caused the Worldwide 2007-8 crash.”

Here’s a picture of the Yin Gate…

A Yin Gate is a Golden Rectangle (two parallel Trines with Sextiles between their ends, the blue lines) with embellishments – namely a planet that bisects each Sextile.  The two bisecting planets create back-to-back Fingers of God or Yods (the green lines) with the opposite corners of the Golden Rectangle.  Which means that there are three equally spaced Oppositions involved (the dark red lines).

In a Golden Rectangle, the two Oppositions provide the Energy, and describe any conflicts or Learning Opportunities that might arise.  But in a Yin Gate it’s the central Opposition that provides the Energy and intrigue, by virtue of the back-to-back Fingers of God.  A Finger of God (two Quintiles from a third planet to each end of a Sextile) basically means Pay Attention to this!

In this case the Core Issue is realignment of the Balance between the Yintegrity that we’ve been working with since 2012, and the re-examination of our deepest Values, which we’re in the middle of.

The actual Initiation of Vesta (our deepest Values, or that which we hold Sacred) by Ceres (Sustainability) doesn’t take place for a few more weeks, but they’ve been dancing together for a while now, so we can consider these realignments with our Yintegrity to be part of the Initiation, which as we said earlier was about “A child giving Birds a drink at a fountain: Manifest Form reconnecting itself to its overlighting Spirit.“

* * * * *

Sacred And Sustainable

As it turns out, this re-examination of our Deepest Values is very profound.  Take a look at this intense ten-day Portal that spans July 5 through 15 – though we’re actually already well into the preliminary training…

• July 5: Ceres Initiates Vesta at 22 Libra
• July 5-6: The Moon crosses Mars, Ceres, Vesta, and North Node
• July 12: Ceres Initiates Mars at 25 Libra
• July 13: North Node Initiates Vesta at 25 Libra
• July 13: North Node Initiates Mars at 24 Libra
• July 14: North Node Initiates Ceres at 24 Libra
• July 15: Vesta Initiates Mars at 25 Libra
• July 16: The Sun Squares almost everybody from Cancer (the Sun Squares Mars a few days later)

As if any combination of the The Sacred (Vesta) and Sustainability (Ceres) isn’t important, the involvement of the North Node means that new parts of our Mission in the Lifetime are coming into Consciousness.  Mars brings Energy and Excitement into this Renaissance.  And the Moon manifests it from Potential into Form. 

These Initiations span the Gemini and Cancer Duads of Libra, which imply that we as Individuals and as Cultures have worked our way through Social Self 1.0, Social Self 2.0, and Social Self 3.0, and we’re embarking on Social Self 4.0…

We’re bootstrapping a whole new way of doing business with Other (primarily Other People, but also any Entity other than what we habitually think of as Me and whom we habitually Defend as Me, which for most of us includes the Planet).  We’re basically starting over in July, rebuilding all of our Relationships on a very different footing, one based on Compassion.

Social Self 1.0 was based on Reaching Out (Libra), 2.0 on Barter (Capricorn), 3.0 on Excitement (Aries), and Social Self 4.0 will be based on Nurturance (Cancer).

The feet of the Vesta-Ceres Finger of Yod are Chiron (Despair, Impossibility, Miracles) and Venus (Beauty in every sense of the word, including Coherence)…

We can expect two things from this bootstrapping – Elegance, and Miracles.  Be very watchful here and in July for any sign of Despair, Cynicism, Skepticism, or any sense that something otherwise important is impossible.  When you catch yourself in Doubt or Disbelief,

Cancel, Neutralize, Upgrade.

Let me repeat that with emphasis, because it’s critical for the Planet. 

Be very watchful here and in July for any sign of Despair, Cynicism, Skepticism, or any sense that something otherwise important is impossible.  When you catch yourself in Doubt or Disbelief,

Cancel, Neutralize, Upgrade.

There is something you Want very deeply.  Never give up on that; it’s one piece of the jigsaw puzzle called Planet Earth.  When you encounter any reason why it’ll never work, forget everything you know, quickly PIAVA Both/And, and Change the Subject.

* * * * *

Yintegrity

The other pole of the Core Issue is the work we’ve been doing since 2012 (since the 1960s really) on our Yintegrity.  To review…

Yintegrity means doing what we feel like doing, moment to moment.  Yangtegrity means doing what we said we were going to do – the traditional measure of Integrity in a male-dominated World.  In order to live in Yintegrity we probably have to reduce our Commitments, renegotiate broken Agreements, and make Amends when necessary.  Avoid Explaining yourself whenever possible.

Not hard to see the connection between our Yintegrity work and Sustaining what we hold Sacred. 

The feet of the Uranus (Yintegrity) Finger of God are Saturn, and that funny little upside down “T” that we’ve drawn in the upper right corner of the blue box.  Saturn’s easy…

Saturn tells us that maintaining our Yintegrity – not giving away our Power or allowing someone we Love (or someone we don’t) to have Suzerainty over us – is The Most Important Thing.  We’ll be continuing our re-examination of the Sustainability of our Deepest Values in the context of our Yintegrity, not the other way around.

When there appears to be a conflict between Yintegrity and the Sacred, it’s your understanding of the Sacred that needs to be renegotiated, remembering that Now we see through a glass darkly.

There abide Faith, Hope, and Charity, and the greatest of these is Charity – there is no Love without Self-Love, and Yintegrity is the purest form of Self-Love.  With reduced Commitments, Renegotiation, and Amends, Yintegrity is also the purest form of Other-Love, as it eschews deception on all levels.  Yes, it sounds like Chaos when you’re in Resistance or attached to the status quo, but the status quo is Unsustainable.

So what’s that upside-down T all about?

There is no planet at the upper right corner of the blue box in the picture above.  This is the 18-degrees-of-Virgo Vacancy that will draft you into serving the Collective version of the Yin Gate if you have a natal planet or other “hot spot” there.

Okay, this isn’t really a Yin Gate – it’s missing a foot!  To avoid discriminating against the disabled, we call the missing foot a Vacancy, and invite one and all to fill it with a token from their Nativity.  True, but we should put it this way too.  It takes six points in alignment to make a Yin Gate.  When we have five of the six points, the Yin Gate is there in Potential.  We manifest it into form by invoking the Vacancy.  We can do that in several ways.

We can find someone who has a planet or other hot astrospot close to the Vacancy; they’ll be sort of a living key for opening the Yin Gate.

We can look for an obscure asteroid or a fixed Star hanging out there, and cast the implied meaning of the ‘roid or Star as the key that opens the Gate.

We can look up the Degree of the Vacancy, discover its meaning, and supply that Energy Consciously.  The Sabian Symbol for 18 of Virgo is…

“A Ouija Board: the ability to contact deeper recesses of the unconscious psyche, and sensitivity to psychic intimations and omens.”   That certainly very much complements our work finding a Sustainable Sense of the Sacred, and dropping enough of our Masks to find our Yintegrity.  In fact, it’s probably necessary work for the task!  A prime purpose of the PIAVA process, embedded in the Pay Attention part of it, is to become sensitive to psychic intimations and omens – aka the Unconscious Surround that we haven’t differentiated into Consciousness yet.  Most especially our self-sabotaging Patterns.

When we write about the second element of the Full Moon chart we’ll see how incredible this actually is – the second element is dominated by a Finger of God and a Mjolnir (not just Pay Attention, but also Epiphanies) pointing at Juno, our symbol for the Edge of Consciousness.  And shitohdear, why does that Ouija Board sound familiar?  Because it’s the very degree of the Pluto-Uranus Initiation in 1965, the beginning of the Yintegrity Cycle we’ve been working on!

When we find corroborating evidence like this – several indications pointing in the same direction – we not only know we’re on the right track, but we know that it’s an especially profound process that we’re working on, as the Heavens are making sure we aren’t going miss it!

But it turns out there actually is something near 18 of Virgo in the Full Moon chart.  The upside-down “T” in the upper right corner of the blue box in the picture below is the symbol for a “Midpoint,” which is just a point halfway between two planets.

Midpoints are sensitive places in a chart where the Energies of the two planets are blended.  Obscure, yes (except perhaps in Germany where their study originated, at least in modern times), but also meaningful.

Earlier we referred to it as a “derivative of Lilith” – it’s the Midpoint between Lilith and Ceres.

These are some pretty fundamental Goddesses we’re working with here – Ceres or Diana, the Goddess of Grain; Vesta or Hestia, the Goddess of the Hearth (who was honored in ancient Greece before honoring Zeus and after honoring Zeus, giving you an idea of who was really important); and Lilith, the Goddess of Yindependence.  Nobody does Yintegrity without first learning Yindependence.

Feminine Power often works invisibly. 

Just as this particular representative of Lilith (we’ll soon encounter another) is “imaginary” or symbolic, Lilith is pulling strings from behind the curtain, through her Midpoint with her co-matriot Ceres.

The symbol we routinely use for Lilith Energy is the second center of the Moon’s orbit around the Earth.  The Moon’s orbit is an oval, and ovals have two centers.  One is the Earth.  The other is a place in the Heavens that we call Lilith.

There is a subtle intimation that you may not get your macaroni unless you respect Ceres – certainly it’s true that you won’t get fed psychically without seeking your Yintegrity.

* * * * *

Whew, that’s a lot!  And it’s only the first of four major themes in the Full Moon chart.  How could I summarize this?  I’d just say Wow!  Zowie!  This is Big!  If you’ve lost the plot, go back to the parts in red and burn them into your eyelids in a large font.

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?