Gauntlet XII – More Con Games

Well, we get a couple of weeks without Stations, till the Ides of May.  That should be a relief.

In the interim, Action/Agitation meets Compulsion on 26 April (4am PDT) when Pluto Initiates Mars, beginning a new two-year Cycle at 22 Capricorn, “By accepting defeat gracefully, a general reveals nobility of character.”  As Alan Watts averred, it’s harder to Let Go of our “Good” Karma than our “Bad” Karma.  So we may be Asked to Let Go of our Attachment to Success over the next few days and the next couple of years.

Then on 28 April (12am PDT) Juno leaves Pisces and moves into Aries.  Since Juno represents the Edges of Consciousness, that should make Life a little Easier, as we’re likely to be Growing our Spiritual Consciousness more rather than our Emotional Consciousness.  While Held Emotions (the one we’d Rather Die than Feel) may not be so prominent, we’re still likely to be dealing with Death, as one of the more prominent elements of Spirit is its immutability.  If that’s an intellectual Concept for you rather than a Foundation of your Beliefs, you may be in for Surprises.

Chariklo is about Confidence, and we’ve just squirmed out of a fairly big Challenge to our Confidence, as Chariklo and Pluto shared their Stations over the last few days (Gauntlet IX to XI).  It turns out though that our Confidence Work isn’t quite done.  For the next week we’ll be Working on Confidence in our Self-Sovereignty, as Chariklo Initiates Lilith on 1 May, starting a new nine-year Cycle at 20 Capricorn – “A hidden choir singing during a religious service.”

The “hidden choir” could be our True Self telling us what we’d be Doing and Saying if we were Speaking and Acting from our Self-Sovereignty, or it could be the echos of the many Voices that, throughout our Life, have told us Who and How We Should Be and Do instead of Being and Doing Ourself.  As a Jungian I assume that the Unconscious is always trying to move us forward, even when it requires us to walk through the Swamp instead of around it. 

So I’m opting for the Hidden Choir being our Shoulds.  After all, would our True Self be Shoulding on us?  You know how it Feels when you ignore an Intuition, that “Still Small Voice”?  That’s more likely to be the Voice of our True Self.  Mine doesn’t come from over my Shoulder.  When we get talkback from over our Should-er, if we Notice and just Imagine turning our head to look, or listening for the tone of voice and accent, or just Asking, it will probably be pretty easy to Discern whose Shoulds we’ve Internalized as our own in the current case.

Then we can cycle through Anal-yzing, PIAVAing, and State-Changing (Tapping, Kegeling, Poor-Sweethearting, Cancel-Neutralize-Upgrading, and the like) to examine the Agenda of that particular Control Freak, to see if their input is still useful in our Present Life.

Which is kind of the Other Side of the Coin here, or the Other Side of the Mirror – when our own Control Freak comes out of its cave and we Notice that we’re wanting someone else to Act or Speak differently than they are, it would be of great value to our Evolution for us to cycle through Anal-yzing, PIAVAing, and State-Changing to get to the Roots of our own Distaste for whatever it is that they’re up to. 

It may contribute more to Confidence in our Self-Sovereignty to Work with the times when we Should Other, than it does to Work with the Internalized Voices that Should us!

Be Mindful that Shame and Guilt are primary tools that Control Freaks use to manipulate our Behavior, so be Aware that these Emotions may be your first indication that you’re being Shoulded.  Nothing wipes out Confidence and Sovereignty faster and more completely than Shame, and it takes a huge Effort to get Present with Shame.  The first step is Noticing, and if you’re lucky enough to do that, then Poor-Sweethearting will be worth trying, as well as Tapping and Kegeling.

*Lots* Going On 3

(5) We’re changing the Water, as a great deal of Ease drops away.  Not all of it, just the most Effortless.  What we’re left with it complementary relationships between Allowing the Rebirth that follows from Letting Go of our Masks, and the Scary Limitlessness that Opens as we begin to Embrace our Abandoned Genius.  The biggest remaining Challenge will be dealing with the Shadows and Projections of our Self-Love, Self-Hate, and Fear.  More on this to follow, as we work up to the Yin Gate and Full Moon.

(6) The Planet, with considerable Authority behind it (namely, the Galaxy), amps up its warning that its tolerance for Abuse is Limited.

(7) Are we actually witnessing another milestone in the Demise of the Patriarchy?  Will The Donald rescue himself?  Tune in next week.  See also (10).

(8) You’re right, War and Violence are not at all Self-Loving, for anyone involved, even the poor Souls trapped in the Bodies of Unconscious Warriors.  If you’ve been wondering where the Grief has been coming from, this is probably it.

(9) If we’re actually going to co-exist on the same Planet, Charisma alone isn’t enough – it begins to look too much like Rhetoric.  We also need to Work at Listening and Understanding.  Acknowledging another person’s Feelings goes a long way toward rapport, especially if you do it with a question instead of a statement.

(10) In the USofA we’ve lately seen plenty of Abusiveness and Privilege coming into Consciousness.  At the moment it’s the Privilege of Men and the Abuse of Women; the Privilege of Whites and the Abuse of Minorities will be back in the news soon.

(11) We’re still warming up to this Initiation; we’ll talk about it soon.

(5) By around 10 October, Karma abandons the Diamond Star and Grand Trine, but asteroid Hopi (Respect for all Things) moves into Opposition to Chiron, completing the Grand Cross till around 20 October.  The Grand Cross will still be Trine-Bridged by a Golden Rectangle and Quincunx-Bridged by Haumea and Uranus-Eris.  

The Ixion/Pholus-Chaos/Veritas axis of the Grand Cross is one of the three Oppositions in the developing Yin Gate.  There’s a picture of a Yin Gate at https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/full-moon-yin-gate-and-portal-7-5-15/ , if you’re unfamiliar with the Configuration.  Of course the planets are different than they were in July, but the structure is the same.

The trace of our previous Bravery Vacancy will still make a Grand Trine with Haumea and Chaos, and Kites pointing to Uranus-Eris and Ixion-Pholus.

(6) We have two Initiations today (5 October).  Normally we’d cast Initiations as the centerpiece of our Interpretations – their relegation to footnotes shows how Big (#1-4) are.

First, Quaoar (Survival) Initiates Moira (Fate), which sounds pretty heavy.  The Degree is 28 Sagittarius, an old bridge still in use, and of course the Galactic Center, which is a pretty old bridge all right.

(7) Second, Lilith (Yindependence) Initiates Venus (Values) – the Blue Kachina that Lisa mentions, a significant milestone on our path toward the Yang Feminine Energy that we expect to replace the Patriarchy.  It occurs at 16 Scorpio, which symbolizes a girl breaking into a smile.  Mid-Scorpio is one of the four “Horsepersons of the Apocalyse” or Power Points of the Zodiac.

(8) The Red Kachina that Lisa mentions is found in the Initiations of Mars (Energy, Action) by Hylonome (Grieving the Disattachment from an Archetype) and Chariklo (Charm and Grace)…

First, Hylonome-Mars 29 September in 2 Capricorn, three Gothic Rose windows, one damaged by war.

(9) Second, Chariklo-Mars 3 October in 4 Capricorn, outfitting a large canoe.

(10) On 8 October, Nessus (Abuse and Privilege) and OR10 (Irruptions from the Deep Unconscious) Conjoin.  This is a long-term, slow-moving astroevent, and can be blamed for much of our Pain, as we become Aware of and Let Go of old Abuse.  See https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2016/10/02/trigger-warnings/ .

(11) At our mid-month Yin-Gate Nemesis-Juno Conjunction (see https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2016/09/30/nemesis/ ), Mars will be Initiated by Pluto (Transformation, aka Trance-reFormation), which is Opposing Sirius, which Lisa mentions in regard to the Hopi Prophesies.

 

 

 

Portals 11.9-11.10

Citrine, a variety of Quartz that does an excellent job of absorbing negative Energy.  Natural Citrine like this one is brownish.  The brighter yellow and even orange ones are irradiated.  Which doesn’t mean they aren’t beautiful.  And they still absorb negative Energies.

§ § § § §

The Nessus Station, November 9

The Nessus Station at around 3pm PST on November 9 makes a Grand Cross with Saturn, Lilith, and Sedna…

Nessus should be pretty busy here, so I don’t expect a lot of negativity.  If anything, Nessus symbolizes Karma in the sense of “what goes around comes around.”  He challenged Hercules, Hercules killed him, but before he died he arranged the future death of Hercules.  Very tight drama there.  As if Lilith, with her blackbelt, needed any help keeping a Horse’s ass in line, Sedna and Saturn both mediate.  In the Sedna myth, though, Lilith would play the daughter, Nessus the abductor, and Saturn the father. 

Nobody wins that epic, so it’s up to someone to remind everyone that they’re dancing with self-sabotaging Archetypes.  That would likely be Lilith or Saturn.  So what self-sabotaging Archetypes are we dancing with?  Offing someone else to save our own skin?  Falling victim to deception?  Letting hubris overwhelm us so we think we can get away with anything?  Overfocusing on the Dynamic at the expense of the Magnetic?

…and a Mystic Rectangle with Quaoar-Hylonome, Lilith, and the Moon.

This second Configuration is easier.  Transcending an Archetype is a major Transition that requires an Ego Death.  If you Identify with your old Ego and the Archetype (Lust, Hubris, Revenge, Deception, Fear, Control), you die.  Or feel like it.  If you Identify with the person you’re becoming after transcending the Archetype, you soar.  Your old Ego had hopes and dreams that you had to Let Go when you transcended the Archetype, however – all losses must be Grieved.  It needn’t take more than a few minutes of Ceremony, but it must be done.

§ § § § §

Mars-Pluto, November 10

Mars Conjoins Pluto at 3pm PST on November 10, at 12 Capricorn, “An illustrated lecture on natural science reveals little-known aspects of life.”  The last thing we’d expect for a Mars-Pluto.

Anger blinds us because we hold it back, so it explodes out of us when it exceeds our ability to Control it.  If we Trusted our Anger as a valid Instinct telling us to set a Boundary, we could do just that without losing Control or becoming blind to the effect we’re having on Other.  It takes a good deal of practicing – try, fail, try again – to Change these Patterns, and it takes the Witness to see when the opportunity to practice has arisen.  You may want to PIAVA the Witness to help you.

Mars-Pluto forms one (upper) corner of a Square Fez, Quincunx to Juno.  Mars-Pluto squares Uranus, and Juno Squares Pallas, leaving a Quincunx from Uranus to Pallas.  The Fez is just now forming, but it endures till November 21.

The Challenges are Honest Self-Expression, and choosing Boundaries that enhance the Growth of Consciousness.  The keys are Wondering how Righteous Anger can possibly Grow Consciousness, and Wondering what sort of Boundaries might allow us to drop our Masks.

Chiron is Sextile to Mars-Pluto, hence Quincunx to Juno, making a Juno Yod.

The bottom line here is Growth in Consciousness.  Everything else serves that end.  So PIAVAing the Witness may be your best course.

And will Create Miracles if you succeed in transcending the Archetypes.  Mars-Pluto will be prominent for about four days prior to November 10 (confounding our perception of Nessus), and less so for about four days afterwards.

§ § § § §

Return to Uranus-Pluto, November 10-11

By 11pm PST on November 10, the Moon has moved around to Oppose Mars-Pluto, adding a Kite to the Mars-Pluto Fez, but also Squaring Uranus.  This could well be more of a Mars-Pluto Moment than the actual Conjunction.  This portal holds from around 8pm PST to about 5am PST on November 11.  With the emphasis shifted back to the head of the Kite – Mars-Pluto, and the Uranus T-Square, it’s obvious that this heralds our return to the realm of Uranus-Pluto.

Now the plot thickens, as we’re re-initiated into the realm of Yintegrity.  We’ve had a break from our Yintegrity homework for the last five months.  Now it’s time to dive back in and put the finishing touches on our Rebirth as Higher Beings, driven from our Soul rather than from our Ego.

Remember Yintegrity?  It means Trusting your Instincts enough to do what your Guidance (or, if you’ve cleared your Held Emotions, your Feelings) tells you to do moment to moment.  Good luck with that in a Yangtegrity World.  But it has to be done.  If you don’t Trust that Yintegrity will get you where you Want to go (who would, given our programming?), then you can mitigate the risks by minimizing your Commitments, Renegotiating when you need to, and making Amends when Renegotiation is impossible.

This last Uranus-Pluto province lasts till mid-May.  It will get very exciting at the end of January, when our Souls test us to see how well we’ve Let Go of our Held Emotions, the ones we can’t stand to Feel.  Practicing Yintegrity now will save you pain in January.

Uranus Initiates the South Node on January 31 at 14 Aries, “A serpent coiling near a man and a woman.”  Kundalini and Heiros Gamos rolled into one!  The final Uranus-Pluto Square occurs on the Ides of March.  Et tu, Brute?

June

For most of June we’re challenged to vigorously support our Yintegrity (and that of others).  Think of it as a test, which most of us will pass.  If you let someone intimidate you out of being your True Self, it doesn’t mean you’ve lost.  Go back and do it over.  Tell them – calmly – that you don’t appreciate their trying to Shame you for not doing it there way, and you’ll accept an apology.  If they’re bigger than you and prone to violence, tap it out instead, then PIAVA an alternative way to claim your space.  There’s Yintegrity, and then there’s foolhardiness.  If you ignore the Safety First rule, the Ego backlash will just make it worse.

Mars completes its Confidence-Builder (third) Waning Square to Pluto on June 14 (the Portal spans June 1 through 23), and its Confidence-Builder Opposition to Uranus on June 24 (the Portal spans June 14 to July 3).  We’re looking at 13 to 17 degrees of the Cardinal Signs, give or take.

 

The Sustainability of our Beliefs dominates through June 1.

 

June 2 should be an interesting day.  If you’re willing to be open and loving with any Emotions and Memories that arise, you may be very surprised by the result – which could be Life-changing.

As the Moon crosses Lilith, it makes a Septangle with Pluto and the South Node, peaking at 3pm PDT, with the Portal open for four hours or so on either side.  See also June 3-7.

The Septangle consists of a Triseptile between two planets (three sevenths of the way ’round the Zodiac) with a third planet at their far Midpoint – that is, Biseptile (two sevenths) to each.  It means that Magic is afoot.

 

June 3 to 7 could easily bring us a reset of our relationship to Other, including especially our relationship to the Goddess.

With Neptune Stationary (see next paragraph), Mercury slows down to turn Retrograde on June 7.  The Station forms, with Venus, a Bridge across the Lilith-Neptune Opposition.  Mercury’s Shadow Period is draped across the Cancer Cusp, spanning 25 Gemini to 4 Cancer.  The Cancer Cusp basically says “One more time, with Feeling!”  We started something (in early April), made a big effort to complete it, and didn’t get it done to our satisfaction.  So we took it apart, found out what was unsatisfying about it, and now we’re eager to start over.  But we have to wait till July.  That’s okay, we can review the blueprints one more time.  Chances are this “something” has a lot to do with the Goddess – like maybe a whole new way of understanding the World.

A Bridge forms when one or two planets form Trine-Sextiles across an Opposition.  It represents “the easy way out” of the tension created by the apparent dichotomy of the Opposition, particularly if the Opposition is part of a T-Square.

Expect to get pretty spacey June 8 and 9, if you weren’t already deep in Trance since June 2 or thereabouts.  A good guideline to follow is that what is Confusing or foggy (and Emotional) through Material eyes, becomes Clear when viewed through Spiritual eyes.  To locate your Spiritual eyes, look to see what’s the positive function of what appears to be negative.  June 2-9 is about connecting to Spirit.  You’re building something important to you here, and this is a time for breakthroughs about the parts you weren’t sure how to handle.  Not so you can rush to finish, but so you know what to study over the next five months – then you’ll know what needs to be done and how to do it.

Neptune is Stationary Retrograde on June 9 at 8 degrees of Pisces.  It backs up to 5 degrees before turning Direct on October 31.  That’ll make for some Halloween, and an especially lively Dia de Muertos.  Five to 8 degrees of Pisces is the Taurus Duad.  Heavy Emotions first overwhelm us, then inspire us.  In the Taurus Duad of Pisces we get to work Manifesting our Inspiration into Form.  We’ve been through this space once (since February), now we traverse it again more slowly, looking for puzzle pieces that we missed the first time.

A Duad or Dwad is one twelfth of a Sign.  The first two and a half degrees of Pisces is the Pisces Duad, next comes the Aries Duad, then the Taurus Duad, etc. round the Zodialoop.

The likely spaciness we’ll experience June 2-9 will be augmented by some degree of Clarity around Boundaries and Choices.  If you need to make decisions that can’t be postponed, you might find the Awe Shucks post useful. 

We covered the Pallas-Neptune Opposition fairly thoroughly in the Neptune Station II post.  This is the Confidence-Builder, so it shouldn’t bring up too much difficulty.

The same Clarity around Boundaries and Choices will strengthen between June 9 and June 12. 

The actual Pallas-Neptune Opposition occurs on the June 12.  The Portal’s open for about 8 days before and after.

Look to see if we get any major clues or shifts – or technological innovations – toward Cultural Sustainability between June 10 and 12.

We’ll have to find time to analyze the Makemake discovery chart, as Makemake turns Direct on June 12 at 29 degrees of Virgo.  It turned Retro during the last few days of 2013 at 2 of Libra.  This is a very powerful Cusp, signifying the shift from individual effort to exploration of Community.  Our first clue about Makemake’s meaning is that he’s here to help us transition to Sustainability, since he was a Survival God on Rappa Nui.  With Mercury Retrograding into Gemini, we may be looking at technology to help.  The discovery chart will tell us more about Makemake.

Makemake is a dwarf planet about 2/3 the size of Pluto, orbiting in a fairly circular path in the neighborhood of Pluto.

Makemake enters Libra thrice – October 19, 2013; September 7, 2014; and July 13, 2015 – as it stutter-steps across the line.  It takes about 30 years for Makemake to cross a Sign, so we’ll only see a Makemake Sign-change such as this twice or thrice in a Lifetime.  The last time it moved from Virgo into Libra was 1713.  Ben Franklin was 7 years old.  George Washington wasn’t born till 20 years later, Thomas Jefferson 30 years later, James Madison 40 years later.

It’s interesting that the Pallas-Neptune Opposition corresponds with the Makemake Station.  As they say, history doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes.  As it was in Ben Franklin’s youth, remote masters are setting up conditions for possible revolt by overexploiting the People.  Then they were geographically remote; now they’re sociopathically remote – though they were undoubtedly that then too.

 

Great time to PIAVA Miracles between June 13 and June 19.  The key to knowing when to seek Miracles here, is the sense of an Emotional Ego Death – the feeling that “I’d rather die than go through this again.”  Tap it out, then PIAVA the Miracle.

Chiron turns Retrograde on June 19, at 18 Pisces.  Jupiter has left the building, but Saturn still Trines Chiron.  Chiron’s Shadow Period spans 14-18 Pisces, which is basically the Virgo Decanate.

 

Then for about four days on either side of June 29, a wide channel will open between Source and the Unconscious.  You want to get in on the act, and open a three-way dialog between your Ego, the Unconscious, and Source.  A few tricks… 

• If you get Confused, move to seeing the World with Spiritual eyes rather than Material eyes.  PIAVA to know the deeper meaning of any untoward experiences. 
• Don’t get lost in the Emotions – take a wider perspective.  If there’s conflict, look to see things through the eyes of the overarching Community that encompasses yourself and your antagonists.  If that Community doesn’t seem to exist, imagine it!  You don’t know what it looks like?  What if you did know?  What notions did you just reject?  That’s probably your clue.

The first step toward Win-Win is understanding your antagonist’s goals.  The second step is telling them what you think their goals are, and asking them if you’re right, and if you’re omitting anything.  The third step is checking to see if they understand your goals, or if they’re willing to be open to understanding them.  At this point you have a bifurcation…

• If they’re open to understanding your goals, pursue it.  Once you’ve gone through these preliminaries, you should be on the same team, with both of you working to meet your common goals, and open to finding ways to at least partially meet one another’s goals where they conflict.
  
• If they aren’t open to understanding your goals, or if at any point you find that they’re working to undermine your goals rather than support them as best they can without abandoning their own goals, then disengage if you can.  When you play Win-Win and your antagonist plays Win-Lose, you Lose.  Another bifurcation, but this time it’s Both/And…  
  • If you can’t disengage, you need to play Win-Lose with them and defend your goals as best you can.
  • Whether you can disengage or not, at this point you know enough about the portions of your goals and theirs that overlap.  Work independently of your antagonist to meet those goals.

If Emotionality bogs you down, talk about it as directly as you can.

This is a singular event, a Waxing Square from Juno back to Neptune on June 29.  The Initiation occurred January 9 of this year at 4 Pisces, “Heavy traffic on a narrow isthmus between two seashore resorts.“  Mercury is also Stationary here, getting ready to turn Direct on July 1.

 

Expect Rebirth as June ends.  We also get to restart our Big Project.

The dwarf planet Haumea turns Direct July 4 at 20 Libra.  Haumea was named after Pele’s mother, the Hawaiian Goddess of Fertility.  It’s about a third as big as Pluto, and orbits in the same region.  More on Haumea later.  Mercury turns Direct again on July 1.

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?

Sleep Schedules

I find that when Uranus is lit up, I often sleep a lot less.  If I worry about not getting enough sleep, I go around tired and bummed.  If I just get up and do something fun, without worrying about my shoulds, then I just do fine on less sleep.  (Shoulds are kind of antithetical to Yintegrity anyway.)  Stealing a short nap here and there is always a boon, but usually less necessary under Uranus.  Especially with Mars (Action, Energy) filling the other corner of the Uranus-Pluto T-Square this week, it’ll be fairly remarkable if we get much sleep.  If you get 3-4 hours of good solid sleep a night this week, consider yourself lucky.

That’s a busy corner (around 9-11 of Cancer) through most of September, as Pallas then Jupiter then Lilith follow Mars through the gauntlet.  Uranus Initiated Mars back in early February, at 3 Pisces, “Petrified Tree trunks lie broken on the sand.”  Rudhyar talks about mature civilizations leaving records behind, but it sounds to me more like breaking up ossified conditions – Uranus’s Disruption mode.  Uranus Disrupts what is false or diversionary or obsolete, in order to open space for new downloads from the Individual Soul.  This is the Waxing Square, when the Energy of the Cycle “becomes mainstream.”

You can always PIAVA a loving and gentle transition to your New Life.

Mars-Pluto, reaching Opposition – Awareness – began their current Cycle at the end of November last, at 9 Capricorn, “An Angel carrying a harp“!  That’d be one tough Angel, leading a Mars-Pluto Cycle.  Rudhyar translates as “Revelation of the Spiritual meaning and purpose at the core of any life situation.”  Coming to these kinds of realizations during a Juno-Nodes Grand Cross will be very helpful, as long as we let them be “…or something like that.”  Intellect is a very small part of Spirit, not the other way around.