Scary Lunar Eclipse I

This week is all about Sign Changes…

• Asteroid Juno entered Capricorn Sunday 14 November 2021. Juno is about Growth in Consciousness. Since late December 2020 we’ve been Growing our Awareness of What We Needed to Let Go Of (Juno in Sagittarius). Now, till early March 2022, we get to Plug in Candidates for Refilling those Holes in Our Lives (Juno in Capricorn) that Have Been Created by All That Letting Go. Voids are seldom comfortable, so I suspect that, like me, you’ve been working overtime trying to Fix the Holes Where The Rain Gets In, with less success than you would have liked, because it wasn’t time yet. That should be Changing. Yay!
• Asteroid Karma entered Scorpio Monday 15 November. Boo! Like Frank said to Ernest, I just get my budget in order, and along comes a big surprise, like rent, or a weekend. So as they so often do, our killjoy Ancient Habits (asteroid Karma) are already pushing and shoving their way into the Holes. But this is not without Purpose. Scorpio is Relentless about Getting to the Bottom of Things. So while Juno in Sadge went home with our marbles, now we get to deal with our Addiction to our Routines. Joe Dispenza’s free series of four short workshops (still available at https://experience.hayhouseu.com/redesigningyourdestiny-video1-whereyourattentiongoes/) is about exactly that, and it’s Right On. It’s also an excellent time to reread Gay Hendricks’s The Big Leap. Asteroid Karma (“a.Karma”) has been in Libra – I hope you Deepened your most important Relationships rather than Fleeing them – since only the last few days of August, so at least the torture was short-lived. a.Karma will be done unearthing skeletons by February 2022¹.
• Asteroid Vesta enters Sagittarius Tuesday 16 November. Make up yer mind, Universe! Are we Building or Dismantling? It’s always Both/And, isn’t it. If we didn’t have Apoptosis, we’d get even fatter every day than we already do. Vesta is about Our Limiting Beliefs. These days it’s only spending about two months in each Sign. So the last two months we’ve been furiously hammering away at the Beliefs that Most Limit us (Vesta in Scorpio), and we’re probably Frustrated that they seem to still be there! We did Identify them, however, and that will be a great Boon as we Let Them Go over the next few months (Vesta in Sadge). Bear in mind that Life is a lot more complicated than our Dualistic mind can comprehend, so if you think you can actually Name your Limitations, be sure to add …or something like that… to any Descriptions of them.
• Asteroid Sappho enters Pisces Wednesday 17 November. Sappho (Self-Love and Self-Doubt) has been in Aquarius (Social Idealism) since April, seven months, but it’ll only spend two months in Pisces. I suspect we’ll be glad about that, as we could be spending a lot of time blubbering about the Barrage of Regrets we could be inundated with, as Pisces is about Finishing Unfinished Emotional Business. Whatever you Do or Feel between now and the Ides of February, be hypervigilant about Blame. Blame, whether Self- or Other-, is a total Dead End. No better way to squelch your Growth and stop your Progress toward any Goal, than to hang yourself with the Noose of Blame. Gay Hendricks advises, “that if I could consider, even for a moment, that I was not upset for the reason I thought I was [Thoughts about our Feelings again!], then I could break out of the Trance I was in. Then, I could begin to see what the real reasons were” (op.cit. p.102).
• Asteroid Nemesis enters Capricorn Sunday 21 November. Nemesis spent three months in Sagittarius (Letting Go Of Guilt) but it’ll only spend two months in Capricorn (Putting Guilt to Work Productively). This Sign Change will be much complicated by its concurrence with the 18-21 November Exaggeration of Intrusive Memories (21 November Station of dwarf planet Gonggong²), and by concurrent Exaggeration of our Instincts (Moon Out of Bounds 20-24 November³). Not to mention the 19 November Scary Lunar Eclipse.⁴

• ¹ Well, not quite. a.Karma turns Retrograde in March 2022 and backs into Scorpio again in April. It finally moves into Sagittarius “for good” in September 2022. Meanwhile, a.Karma is Out of Bounds (Exaggerated) from late December 2021 in mid-Scorpio, all through 2022, till March 2023 in early Aquarius.
• ² Formerly known as “OR10” or “2007 OR10” (or in some ephemerides minor planet number “225088”), the dwarf planet named after the ne’er-do-well Chinese Dragon Gonggong is about Intrusive Memories. It Stands Still at 7:28 am PST November 21, in 4 Pisces. While the connection is fading, Gonggong has been hanging out near dwarf planet Nessus (Abuse and Privilege) for the last several years. This year their Stations are four days and eight Degrees apart, but with Nemesis, an Out-of-Bounds Moon, and a Scary Full Moon Eclipse involved, they’re very likely to Test the progress we’ve been making on Clearing our Abuse Issues. Two key strategies to Remember: (1) That was Then and This is Now and (2) Don’t Trust Your Thoughts about Your Feelings – Keep Coming Back to the Emotion Itself, as a Sensation in Your Body. Sink your Breath and your Attention Deeply into that Sensation, and Persistently Reject the Temptation to Trust Your Ideas and Thoughts More Than You Trust the Sensations in Your Body. If you succeed at quieting the Noise in your Mind, the Sensations will eventually talk to you, but they’ll speak through your Unitary and Multidimensional Intuition, not through your Dualistic Mind. Truth and Healing Reside in Our Bodies, Not in Our Minds. The Nessus Station occurs at 2am PST November 25, in 12 Pisces.
• ³ Moon Out of Bounds from 9:24 am PST 20 November in 13:14 Gemini till 7:28 pm PST 24 November in 5:49 Leo, Peaking (Stationary) 2:45 pm PST 22 November at 26:21 North Declination and 9:28 Cancer.
• ⁴ Virtually (about 95%) Total Eclipse (Illumination) of the Moon 12:58 am PST 19 November in 27:15 Taurus, Conjunct dwarf planet Sedna (Converting Fear to Power) and T-Square to Jupiter and asteroid Damocles (Swords about to Fall, Amplified). More about this in the next installment. The Eclipse is at 28 Degrees, the Sign Changes at 30 = 0 Degrees, and the Gonggong Station at 4 Degrees, all on or near the Cusps, which are the equivalent of the I Ching’s Changing or Moving Lines. We’ll use the Eclipse chart to represent all three.

Samhain

Enjoy the relative break this week (there are no Stations¹), as it gets busier in November.² By the end of the week though, we’re likely to be struggling with “Decisions” about our Fate – as if Fate and Decision belong in the same sentence.³ They do, actually, as the Path to Leaving Fate Behind lies through Consciousness. Since our Anal-ytical Mind doesn’t have the Key to the Gates of the Unconscious, we have to Invite our Intuitive Mind (with a PIAVA or several) if we want to bring our Fate into our Consciousness, where we can Replace it with Choice. So we can at least make the Decision to PIAVA Exploration of the Underwhere – that’s pretty much what Samhain’s about anyway.

• ¹ As regular readers know, for our Interpretations we rely mostly on the Planetary Stations – when planets Stand Still in the Sky. The planets don’t Stand Still like a Hummer or a Kestrel Hovering. Since the Earth spins at about a thousand miles per hour at its surface, the “Stars” are always moving. So the only way we can tell that a planet is “Standing Still” is by taking a snapshot of it at the same time every night, to see if it’s moving relative to the stable background Stars. The influence of a planet is Strongest when it Stands Still. The fact that, at the Equator, the surface of the Earth travels at a thousand miles an hour in the Round-Earth Metaphor, yet we can stand up without getting knocked down or blown off, should be strong evidence for an Alternate Metaphor.

• ² Besides Moira/Fate (see note ³ below), November also includes Stations/Exaggerations of…
  • Varuna/Life Force in Leo/Confidence on 6 November 2021,
  • Pallas/Boundaries in Pisces/Emotions Versus Thoughts About Same on 8 November,
  • Gonggong/Intrusive Memories in Pisces/Unfinished Business on 21 November,
  • Veritas/Truth of the Mind in Aries/Clean Slate on November 24,
  • Nessus/Abuse and Privilege in Pisces/Victimhood on 25 November, and
  • Neptune/Material Confusion and Spiritual Clarity in Pisces/Emotional Confusion and Spiritual Devotion on 1 December.
• So the second half of November could be pretty Heavy, as we could be grappling with Intrusive Memories about Abuse and Privilege, while during that span both the Moon and Venus are Out of Bounds (Strong, Heavily Justified Emotions – always a Time to Strive to Differentiate our Emotions from our Thoughts-About-Our-Emotions). Plus, Nemesis/Guilt Changes Signs, entering Capricorn/Just the Facts, Ma’am on 21 November. The Gonggong-Nessus events occur during Thanksgiving Week in the US, a time when many of us already struggle with Unfinished Family-of-Origin Business. But this isn’t our first time Carving the Turkey, as Gonggong and Nessus have been traveling together and Stationing together for several years already, and their cross-contamination is actually declining. If you can talk yourself into “That Was Then, This Is Now,” and realize that what was happening then was Abuse while what’s happening now is Emotion, that might help.
• November includes lots of Sign Changes as well…
  • Mercury/Mind enters Scorpio/Fearless Search for the Ultimate Truth on 5 October 2021 and enters Sagittarius/The Way Out is Through Letting Go on 24 November,
  • Venus/Values enters Capricorn/Just Fix It, OK? on 5 November,
  • Ixion/Forbidden Genius enters Capricorn/Damn the Torpedoes, Do It Anyway 6 November,
  • Chariklo/Confidence and Doubt enters Aquarius/Barroom Politics 9 November,
  • Juno/Growth in Consciousness enters Capricorn/If It Doesn’t Grow Corn, Start Over 14 November,
  • Asteroid Karma/Karma enters Scorpio/Relentlessness 15 November,
  • Vesta/Unconscious Limitations enters Sagittarius/Throw Caution to the Wind 16 November,
  • Sappho/Self-Love enters Pisces/Emotional Baggage, but You Can Let It Go If You Just Renounce Your Victimhood, and
  • Klotho/Rebirth enters Sagittarius/Choose Freedom and Self-Expression This Time 26 November.
• Venus/Heart is Out of Bounds all month (from 10 October till 7 December) so we’ll likely find ourselves Outraged by Violations of our Values, and
• The Moon is Out of Bounds/Well-Rationalized Heavy Emotions for several days following the 7th and 20th November.
• Busy Busy Busy.

• ³ Asteroid Moira/Fate and Choice Stationary 2 November 2021, in 15 Pisces/Hopeless Cases and Lost Causes. Pisces is about Unfinished Business and Unnecessary Baggage, Emotionally, so it could Feel pretty Heavy for us. If you get Discouraged, don’t forget to try Poor-Sweethearting yourself. It seems trivial, but if you take it seriously, it often produces Miracles. You do have to Change the Subject though.

Without Stations, we should be getting a Break, right? Well, we did just have a Full Moon, and the New and Full Moons tell us about the several weeks that follow them. So we’ll look to the 20 October Full Moon to Guide us through the rest of October. It’s not the prettiest Moon in the Cheese Shop…

Any Compulsive Self-Doubt we have may be Lit Up pretty Brightly. This will ultimately be very Healing, but in the interim we’ll likely have to Endure some pretty serious Secret Revelations and Ego Rebirth, turning our Life around completely.⁴

And there may be more Zombies than usual among the Trick-or-Treaters this Halloween.⁵ Again, like usual, it’s Ego Death we worry about, and it’s seldom Fatal, except to your old Limited Ego.

• ⁴ A Pluto-Chariklo Conjunction (Compulsive Insecurity – or Narcissism) in Capricorn (Pragmatism) makes a serious Challenge (T_Square) to a Competition (Opposition) between Previously Hidden Deep Truths (Aletheia/Truth of the Heart Conjunct Eris/Revelation of What’s Been Denied, behind the Full Moon in Aries) and a Very Confusing and Complicated Rebirth (Haumea/Rebirth Conjunct asteroids Pandora/Travails and Hope and Atlantis/Technological Self-Destruction, behind the Sun). One could have a Field Day translating that into US Politics, but I won’t. Or the Drama-of-the-Week at Facebook (recently renamed Faceplant).

• ⁵ A second Challenge involves Sedna/Converting Fear to Power T-Squaring (Major Challenge) the Dance (Opposition) between Respect for Death (asteroid Requiem in Leo/Self-Love) and the Sword of Damocles (asteroid Damocles in Aquarius/Social Ideals). We’ll likely Enjoy Life more if we Remember that we very rarely actually physically Die, but that our Ego Molts often, and that usually feels like we’re Fixin’ to Die.

Priority

Well, most of us Lived through the Pluto Station, now we gauntlet on to the Saturn Station (7:16 pm PDT 10 October 2021, in 7 Aquarius). Pluto and Saturn are everyone’s favorite Malefics, but I don’t go for that. Pluto’s just about What Compels Us, and Saturn just means we need to Pay Attention to The Most Important Thing.

If we weren’t Repressed, What Compels Us would be our Genius, and if we Followed it we’d probably be Famous, Rich, Happy, Incarcerated, or maybe all four. And if we always Paid Attention to The Most Important Thing, we could probably figure out pretty quickly how to Get Out Of Jail Free, and end up Happy, Famous, or Rich, depending on our Druthers. So Saturn and Pluto ain’t so bad; it’s mostly our Resistance to their Energies that gets us in trouble.

Yes, the two of them can Raise Havoc when they Party together, especially when Mars is in the Room, but when we’re Compelled to Do The Most Important Thing with Passion, it usually works our pretty well, at least from some Perspectives.

My own Experience with Saturn is that I often hesitate to Pay Attention to The Most Important Thing because it’s the Thing that will most crush my Ego if I “Fail” at it. So I have all these Fallbacks and Plans B and Alternatives that I don’t want to Let Go Of for Fear they’ll Go Away if I don’t continue to Pay Attention to them. (Of course there are lots of good books and essays on the Value of “Failure,” but do I read them?)

But, when I have thrown Caution to the Winds and just did The Most Important Thing, all those Fallbacks were waiting patiently for me while I was gone, and hardly seemed to notice that I wasn’t there – probably because all the folks who were Depending on my Doing what I said I would, were too busy Doing their own The Most Important Things, or Lost in Remorse over Not “Being Able To” (ie, Not Letting Themselves) Do it.

There’s a fabulous little book called The Lover Within: Opening to Energy in Sexual Practice by Julie Henderson. Sorry to Disappoint, but it’s not about Sexual Practice at all, it’s about Energy Exercises (which of course can be used to great advantage in Sexual Practice if you want). She has us Practicing the Experiences of having our Energy Expanded and Diffused (Jupiter), and having it Contracted and Condensed (Saturn). Those are four very different States, if we exclude Texas. Doing these Exercises quickly leads you to Realize that Saturn is about Focus and Concentration.

Do we Fear Focus and Concentration? Are we thinking about What Am I Missing? My Dreams Could Be Coming True, right behind my back, while I’m Focusing and Concentrating, and I won’t be home to Enjoy them! Yes, Focus and Concentration can be Limiting, as can Life and Time, so we’re better off Focusing and Concentrating on The Most Important Thing. Especially if The Most Important Thing is Making our Dreams Come True.

This week’s Saturn Station chart contains two Major Challenges (T-Squares, the thick-lined red triangles)…

One of them Focuses on Enlightenment, with the Energies of The Most Important Thing, and of The Life Force Itself, Competing for Supremacy. When you consider your Path to Enlightenment, for instance, do you Focus on the Contribution that your Body makes to the process? (Minor planet Zhulong T-Squaring the Opposition between Saturn and dwarf planet Varuna, which is Out of Bounds [Strong].)

The other one Concentrates on Taking Full Responsibility for our Survival – or Global Climate Change, with the Qualities of Feminine Emotional Magic and Creative Manifestation serving as the Raw Materials for the Challenge. For instance, if you’re used to thinking of Creative Manifestation as a Dynamic, Masculine Challenge, then Feminine Emotions are going to seem Disruptive rather than Powerfully Creative. (Dwarf planets Pholus and Quaoar T-Squaring the Opposition between dwarf planets Salacia and Makemake.)

They’re hard to pick out with so many lines on the chart, but both of these red triangles are host to green wedges pointing to their Vertex. This makes them Self-Resolving Challenges, which means we only need to refrain from tinkering to find that both Challenges Consummate themselves nicely! (The green wedges are Fingers of the Goddess meaning Pay Attention! to what they’re pointing at. The blue lines represent Grace, and the combination of the red T-Square and the green Fingers create a “bowl” of blue lines across the bottom of the T-Square. The combination is called a Diamond Star, representing a Powerful Challenge to your Energy Body which Resolves Itself on its own.)

And speaking of Grace, the chart is ringed by a blue Hexagon that symbolizes the epitome of Grace. The only caveat is that we may have to take the First Step to Trigger the Grace. For instance, Saturn is connected with short blue lines to Venus and Salacia, both Powerful Sources of Feminine Magnetic Magic. Feminine Creative Energy directs what Einstein called “Spooky Action at a Distance” – Quantum Entanglement – to Manifest directly, seemingly without mechanical intervention.

“Magic” in other words, to the Plodding Left-Brain Doing of the likes of Saturn or Mars. So the First Step that our Masculine Saturn Energy would need to take, to start the Energy Flowing, would be to Open its Mind to New Possibilities. (The short blue lines are called Sextiles, meaning Grace after you take the First Step, and the Hexagon is a Grand Sextile, or Harmonizing Magical Possibilities.)

And look at those many long blue lines! Those represent Dumb-Luck Grace – Grace that is so delectable that your Ego is tempted to think that the Magic is yours instead of the Goddess’s. If you do that, instead of just Riding and Appreciating the Perfect Flow, the result is Hubris, and Broken Spells.

In the chart it’s the Dynamic or Masculine Signs, representing Spirit and Intellect, that are Connected into one Matrix of Effortless Grace, the Six-Pointed Star inside the Hexagon. Just to take one example, a long blue line Connects Saturn to Makemake, meaning that this weekend is the Time to Make Something Very Important, Effortlessly. (The blue triangles are called Grand Trines and signify Dumb-Luck Blessings – the long blue lines are called Trines.)

Now, the Real Prize is hidden deep inside the chart. Can you isolate the three big blue rectangles in the chart, each with two long blue lines and two short blue lines? Only one of the three is split lengthwise by a thin red line, the red line Connecting dwarf planets Gonggong and Thereus. On either side of that red line there are “Xes” of thin green lines. This Complex and Rare Configuration represents a Mystery School where we can Absorb Paradoxes that Allow us to Grok Multidimensional Mysteries that the Dualistic Mind cannot normally access. (The Configuration – a blue rectangle dissected by a red line separating two green Xes – is called a Yin Gate. The blue rectangle is called a Golden Rectangle because the ratio between the length of the sides and the length of the ends is the Golden Ratio of Sacred Geometry. This Golden Ratio is everywhere in Nature.)

So, the Paradox here that is The Most Important Thing for us to Grok¹ has to do with an apparent Contrast between Gonggong and Thereus. Gonggong symbolizes Intrusive Memories, and we interpret Thereus as Learning to Wrestle Wild, Otherwise Overpowering Natural Energies into Useful Skills.² Our Intrusive Memories are usually Karmic, and well do we know that while the Decision to Let Go of Karma is Necessary for Liberation, it is not Sufficient. Freedom requires Consciousness of the Karma, involving the Iterative process of Noticing that the Pattern is Repeating, and Choosing an Alternative, which is likely to take many Iterations.

Our Karma is often Archetypal, as described by Jung.³ An Archetype is a Grand Pattern that has a Life of its own apart from the individuals and cultures who are under its sway. An Archetype is an Untamed, Wild, Otherwise Overpowering Natural Energy that we may be able to Wrestle into Useful Skills. For instance, many these days are Captives of what they call a Freedom Archetype which causes them to think and behave irrationally, including things like Believing that being Asked to wear a cloth face mask is somehow equivalent to being sent to a Gas Chamber – Archetypal Extinction of their Ego. When Karma is involved, Confusion between Physical Death and Ego Death is common.

Our Chief Asteroid Officer wonders if we would interpret the current Lachesis-South Node Initiation⁴ as “consciously choosing to leave the past behind…or something along those lines?” And the answer to that is Yes, asteroid Lachesis meaning Karma that has not reached its Expiry date, but which we may be able to Choose to Abandon, if we’re willing to Persevere at Noticing and substituting New Patterns, and the South Node meaning Our Held Emotions, those we’d rather Die than Feel, aka our most Persistent Karma. This Initiation Corroborates the Gonggong-Thereus Yin Gate.

• ¹ Paradoxes are not Linear, Logical, Rational Left-Brain Understandings; they combine Intellectual Understanding with Intuitive Sensing to Reach beyond 2D thinking.
• ² The Historical or Mythic Thereus was known to journey to the Mountains and bare-handed wrestle Bears into relative submission, enough so that he could bring them back into town with him. Thereus and the other Greek Mythics Lived in the Age of Aries, the Age of Heroes, so we don’t have the Current-Lifetime Experience here in the Age of Pisces to know whether they were Mythic or Historic.
• ³ E.g. Carl Jung, Four Archetypes: Mother/Rebirth/Spirit/Trickster.
• ⁴ Complete 16 October in 3 Sagittarius, “Two men playing chess: The transcendent ritualization of conflict” – or, in this case, a Dragon (Gonggong) and a Bear (Thereus)! The Lachesis-Node cycle takes about 8½ years. Another name for the South Node is the Dragon’s Tail.

Self-Love New Moon 2

In the 14 November 2020 New Moon chart, the planets in the “Basket of Grace” (blue upside-down Truss Bridge) under the red triangle are an interesting pair. They tell us How the Nasty Challenge (T-Square red triangle) will Self-Resolve. First there’s dwarf planet Eris, which is about Revelation of What’s Been Denied, and second there’s dwarf planet Asbolus, meaning Intuition, Merged With (Conjunct) the North Node, which indicates our Lifetime Mission.

Our Life Mission is way too multidimensional for the Dualistic Mind to be able to do more than get an occasional glimpse of it from one angle, so if our Life Mission were an Elephant, we’d be the seven Blind Men trying to figure out what it is. Our Intuition, though, is able to handle many more Dimensions, as long as we don’t constantly Diminish it by squeezing it into Words. So our Intuition has been giving us Videos of our Life Mission in the form of Skits from our Childhood and Past Lives (Eris).

Asbolus and the North Node are three and a half Degrees apart and separating, so the Connection is weakening, but both of them are well within three Degrees of the New Moon, so they’re Reconnected and Re-Energized by the New Moon. (Three Degrees is the Limit of Connection that we use in this blog; it and one Degree are the most common Limits of Connection that astrologers use. The less Difference between the Locations, the Stronger the Connection.) The Asbolus-North Node Connection was Exact at the end of August, within one Degree between mid-August and mid-September, and within three Degrees between late July and late September, so we’ve been Experiencing this Connection for a while.

Intuition can be illusive. My Intuition Teacher advised me to Ask myself “What If I Did Know?” and tentatively Believe the Answer I got. Translating an Intuition into Words is like pinning a Butterfly to a block of styrofoam – it might look good, but you’ve just Killed it. So Word Pictures of Intuitions are always tentatively or “…Or Something Like That,” as Eugene Gendlin liked to say. But the point is that the Information is Available. We can try retrieving it with a Theta such as “God/Goddess, Creator of All That Is, I Command that I Grok the Intuitions about my Life Mission that I Received over the Summer (North) or Winter (South) so they will Help Me Let Go of Karmic Impediments to Unconditional Self-Love. It Is Done, It Is Done, It Is Done. Thank You God/Goddess. Show Me!“

In case you haven’t read Heinlein, Grok means “to drink in all available aspects of reality or to become one with the observed,” the multidimensional equivalent of “Understanding,” which is what the Limited Dualistic Mind does. You may or may not Notice any lightbulbs over your head, but it may be better if you don’t, because then you’ll be less Tempted to Wordify it. Just Trust that you’ve Received and Grokked the Download, and that it has Changed you accordingly.

We need this because the next week plus will be Challenging. Our Ability to Trust, and to Grok what’s Trustable so we can Trust it, is Lit Up through 17 November, as asteroid Eurydike, which symbolizes Trust, is increasingly Exaggerated until 1am PST on 18 November. As usual with astrology, that’s for Good or Ill, as our Trust will be Challenged so we can Witness the places where we OverTrust and UnderTrust and Adjust accordingly.

In the New Moon chart asteroid Veritas, the Truth of the Mind, is Merged with Pluto, Compulsion. We may or may not Believe Facts, depending on whether or not they Align with our current Concept Set. For instance, many people Reject the Fact that the Earth is Flat (when seen from the center of a plain, for instance) because they’ve been Hypnotized by “Science” to Believe that it’s Round. It might Look Round from the Moon, but we don’t Live on the Moon. It might Look Curved from an airplane, but there are lots of Curves that aren’t Round. The Dualistic Mind will always Delude you unless you always specify the conditions under which each “Fact” is “True” – and what a Headache that would be.

It’s a lot Easier if we just recognize that like Loki or Coyote, the Mind is a Trickster, simply because it usually thinks in Either/Or, while the Universe is Both/And. “Figures don’t Lie, but Liars sure can Figure,” is a general rule that Statisticians use, if they know what they’re doing. The Truth of the Mind is always Relative to usually-unspecified and often-unknown Assumptions and Conditions, and it’s Dual, so it usually Flips rather than Adjusts. Goddess Knows we’re getting a graduate seminar in Exactly This in our Political Dramas these days. This is Grade-School Bullshit, and we need to see through it so we can instead Focus on The Most Important Thing – Climate Change, as the Dali Lama reminds us. If we don’t, Death by COVID might turn out to be the more Merciful Choice.

In the New Moon chart, Pluto-Veritas (Compulsive Belief in “Facts”) is Challenged (Squared) by Eris, or Revelation of What’s Been Denied. Compulsive Belief in “Facts” is also Contrasted (Opposed) to Respect for All Things (asteroid Hopi) – we will never see Peace and Collaboration and 5D and Sustainability as long as we invest our Trust in Either/Or. Reality is always Both/And.

Besides Compulsive Belief in “Facts” (Pluto-Veritas), Revelation of What’s Been Denied (Eris) and Respect for All Things (Hopi), the fourth corner of the big red square (a “Grand Cross” in astrologuese) in the New Moon chart is The Heart (Venus). It’s the Heart that Groks. The Truth of the Heart is symbolized by asteroid Aletheia. For any given Person, the Truth of the Heart is not Relative like “Facts” are, but Absolute. What we have to Remember about the Heart is that Everyone’s Truth of the Heart is Different. You can, if you’re clever, convince someone to Believe in the “Truth” of your “Facts.” Shame on you, but you can do it.

You’ll never convince anyone to Believe in the Truth of your Heart, if their Heart has a Different Truth. They might pretend to Believe to get you off their back, but our Heart-Truths are Permanent and Inviolable. We Recognize them Intuitively, not Intellectually. Heart-Truths are multidimensional, and suffer Wordification poorly. As long as Hupers fail to Recognize the Difference between Mind-“Facts” and Heart-Truths, and fail to Realize that Everyone’s Heart-Truths are Different, there will never be Peace on the Planet.

How does asteroid Aletheia relate to the New Moon chart? Like so…

That’s a “Grand Quintile,” Grand because it fills the whole chart, and Quintile because it features five planets more or less equally space around the Zodiac. Quintiles are about Teaching and Learning, and a Grand Quintile is about Multidimensional Teaching and Learning. There are twenty-six Relationships we’re being Taught to Grok…

• Truth of the Heart (Aletheia) to Self-Love (Sappho-New Moon)
• Heart-Truth to Pattern-Breaking (dwarf planet Orcus)
• Heart-Truth to Unlimited Potential (dwarf planet Chaos)
• Heart-Truth to Freedom (Fixed Star Alpheratz)
• Self-Love to Pattern-Breaking
• Self-Love to Unlimited Potential
• Self-Love to Freedom
• Pattern-Breaking to Unlimited Potential
• Pattern-Breaking to Freedom
• Unlimited Potential to Freedom

Then there are the sixteen Interaction terms…

• Heart-Truth to Self-Love to Pattern-Breaking etc (10)
• Self-Love to Pattern-Breaking to Unlimited Potential to Freedom etc (5)
• Pattern-Breaking to Unlimited Potential to Freedom to Heart-Truth to Self-Love (1)

That’s a lot to Learn. It’s a good thing it’s Intuitive, as it’d boggle the Mind. These apply to the New Moon chart, ie, the next two weeks. Meanwhile we’re Dealing with Trust until 18 November, as Eurydike Stands Still. So we’ll be Learning how Trust Relates to each of those twenty-six Relationships. Busy Busy Busy.

Then the Real Teaching takes center stage, as Intrusive Memories (dwarf planet Gonggong) are Lit Up till 20 November and Abuse and Privilege (dwarf planet Nessus) are Lit Up till 22 November. The Poster Child for Abuse and Privilege is the Antagonist of the Big Political Drama, and it’s our own Intrusive Memories of all of our own Karmic Abuse and Privilege Experiences and Patterns that will be Triggered. How many of us will be able to Differentiate the Present Moment from our Regressions?

And the Mind-Truths of Privilege for the White Supremacists? The Heart-Truths of Privilege for the Narcissists? I doubt that many of them will Know the Difference between Reality and their Projections, but we can always pray for Miracles. There are Intriguing Possibilities in the Angle between the New Moon and each of the three Stations – Eurydike, Gonggong, Nessus. We’ll talk about those in the next post.

Halloween

I always make a lot more sense when I’m answering a direct question. Tonight my wife asked me what was going on astrologically for Halloween…

The 2020 Halloween Blue Moon Full Moon is a Stand-In for the Big Event of next Tuesday, which is when dwarf planet Varuna is Max Strong. The Full Moon is Crossing Stationary Varuna as we speak. Varuna is the Life Force. Will we still have Health Care (even if it’s mostly Care for the Cartel’s wallets, alotta people depend on it) after the Election next week? Will we Survive the Carumbavirus? Will we be able to make rent and eat? Basic stuff, very First-Chakra. You’re Feeling it already.

Meanwhile, Mercury – Mental Noise – is Lit Up on Tuesday as well. So most people are paying more Attention to the Brainrattling than the real Survival Issue, and the Antichrist is a Master at Brainrattling. Then Tuesday evening the Moon goes Outabounds, till Friday, so everybody’s gonna be Freaking Out. As soon as Varuna calms down early Wednesday afternoon, asteroid Hopi takes over (Standing Still early Saturday Morning). Hopi means Respect for All Things. So the Minorities who really take the Brunt of the American Compete-Or-Die Ethic as the Poster Children for Varuna will be Lit Up because the Cops will stand behind the AK47-toting White Supremacists as they giddily shoot anybody with a BLM sign.

Then early in the week after the Election, Ceres = Sustainability enters Pisces. You can already hear the Gnashing of Teeth as Pisces over-emotionalizes Predatory Capitalism’s total lack of Sustainability. And it’s about time somebody did, because it’s Killing All of Us and the Planet too. But the Tuesday after the Big Day, Eurydike = Trust enters Leo= Confidence, making for a huge Contrast. That’s probably when we’ll get the first hint of whether there was any legitimacy to the Election, or at least a few numbers. It’s not till the 18th that Eurydike Stands Still though, so Confusion will continue to Reign until then as Teeth-Gnashing and Confidence Compete for the Dewey headlines.

But just because Eurydike in Leo is Strong, doesn’t mean that Trust rules the day, as the Moon goes Outabounds again from November 16th to the 19th, so everyone’s Emotions are End-of-the-World riled. The 19th is kind of a watershed day, as asteroid Moira moves into Capricorn. Moira is about Fate and Choice. When our Karma is Unconscious, it’s our Fate, we just sleepwalk it. Once we bring it in Consciousness, we have Choice and we can do anything we want. “What, Karma? Don’t be silly – Been there Done that! I’m Outa Here.”

If there’s Civil War to any extent, Remember that you don’t have to Play. You can Choose to be Separate from it.

Moira will separate the Teeth-Gnashers from the AK47-Egos from the folks who will just be Pragmatically (Capricorn) Choosing (Conscious Moira) to make the Best of Whatever’s Going Down. Except…

On the 22nd, dwarf planet Nessus, which is about Abuse and Privilege, is Max Strong (Stationary), and on the 20th dwarf planet Gonggong (no kidding, there really is a dwarf planet Gonggong!), which is about Intrusive Memories, is Max Strong. So everyone’s going to be Regressing into their best Halloween Victim Disguises, Projecting all of the Abuse they’ve ever Received into whatever’s going on in the Present Moment. Meanwhile the Privileged 1% will inhabit their own Paranoid They’re going to take my Money (and probably my Guns unless I shoot first) Victim Acts. The Privileged 1% of course own all of the Supreme Court now, so we can’t expect Daddy to Rescue us.

But then on (actually, until) the 28th, Neptune goes Max Strong. Neptune means Material Confusion and Spiritual Clarity, so Confusion will Reign in the fourth week of November. But mid-week, Eurydike=Trust backs out of Leo, leaving the strutting Confidence-Gamers with their pants around their ankles and their day-of-the-week underwear exposed. A few hours later on the 25th, asteroid Sappho finally leaves Scorpio for Sagittarius, and we get to stop hunting that mouse in the garage (our Impediments to Unconditional Self-Love = Sappho) with the shotgun (Scorpio) and just Begin to Surrender into it (Sadge).

Giving us a possibility of a reasonably Peaceful Thanksgiving (in the US). The day after Thanksgiving, though, asteroid Atropos goes Max Strong, and Atropos is about Letting Go of Karmic Patterns. If we’re Aware that this is going on, we can Thank Them for Their Service and Wish Them Success in Crippling Other People’s Futures as they saunter off down the road, and then Celebrate our newfound Liberation!

How many of us will actually be doing that though? Letting Go of Karma is Scary, because it’s all we know, it’s what we’ve been Living All of Our Life. We don’t know what to do with the Blank Space that’s left behind, and with Neptune Max Strong, the only thing we’ll be able to Celebrate is Confusion. Which is a fabulous Habit to make, because Confusion is the first stage of Growth. And of course we could Celebrate the Spiritual Clarity, if we’re willing to seek it or let it find us.

Kind of a Blockbuster month, wasn’t it.

Before we dive into it, you might want to Resolve to Avoid Ego-Identifying with all the Sturm und Drang und Drama, and spend November Passively Observing Who You Actually Are. Not just What am I Thinking and Feeling about all this Intense Drama, but also, WHO IS IT that’s doing this Thinking and Feeling? Forget all the Adjectives that come to mind – that’s just more Thinking. What if you were a very small Entity hanging out somewhere Inside your Body? Where would that Be? Would “It” move around to different places, or would “It” have a favorite hangout? (At this level it may not be a She or a He.) Or what if It was a very large Energy Field Surrounding your Body? How Big would that be? How is It Connected to your Body?

But it ain’t over yet. There are two more oh-so-relevant astroevents on November 29th. First asteroid Vesta, which symbolizes our Unconscious Limitations, Merges with dwarf planet Orcus, which is about Oath-Making and Oath-Breaking. It turns out that our Unconscious Limitations are the result of Oaths or Vows or Promises or even Decisions that we made in Other Lifetimes. As we discussed at length in the previous post, our Self-Limiting Beliefs will be Lit Up for several months so we can Recognize that That Ain’t Really Us and Choose to be Someone Else.

So on the 29th, and in the week or so leading up to it, our Limited Beliefs will Meet Their Makers. If we Forget that It’s about Letting Go, it’ll be really Easy to instead Grab them, because they’ll be so Familiar and therefore so Comfortable. We just need to Remember that any time Limitation or Bummers arise, Let Them Go. You don’t need to Understand anything, you can just Let It Go. If you can’t Remember what it was a few minutes later, that’s fabulous, you’ve indeed Let It Go.

And on the 29th, asteroid Karma (you can imagine what it symbolizes) moves into Virgo till 23 January. We don’t Let Go of Karma without an Ego Death, because if we weren’t Ego-Attached to it, it wouldn’t be Karma. And the Essence of Virgo is Ego Death. So this will be a Nightmare of Struggles if we Resist it. Don’t. You go to visit a friend and you don’t recognize their street. You wake up and you can’t Remember your Passwords. You Forget people’s names, even your friends and colleagues. You can’t recall how to hold a fork, for God’s sake! Those are Signs of Ego Death. Celebrate them.

Those are gentle Ego Deaths, the kind that arise after you’ve Realized you’re up against your own Limitations, and you’ve Prayed to Let Them Go in some way or another. The not-so-gentle Ego Deaths are times like when you get really Angry when someone Insults you, even inadvertently (I’m being kinda flippant in this post, a lot less careful with my Language than usual – I may have Insulted you several times already!). Or you get really Embarrassed when you Forget your boss’s name, and there’s no way your boss is every going to know what an Ego Death is, and you go away in Shame.

Unpleasant Emotions like Anger and Shame and Grief and Sorrow are clues that you’re approaching an Ego Death, and you have the Option of Choosing it – by Lovingly Embracing the Unpleasant Emotion in your Body, or Rejecting it – by Thinking yourself more Deeply into the Anger or Shame or Grief or Sorrow. No Self-Blame though – we need to Think ourself Deep enough into the Unpleasant Emotion to be able to Know what we’re Embracing. Embracing the name of an Emotion is Just Thinking, not an Ego Death at all, though using that as a Mantra might invoke the Emotion.

Asteroid Karma returns to Virgo in June, July, and August for the real Work, the December-January Teaser is just an introduction. Between February and May it’s Dodging back deep into Leo, to gather up more Limitations that you can Ego-Death into Has-Beens.

Charts of the Portals IX

When our Responsiveness to our Survival Instincts finally Reboots “for good” (for far longer than our Lifetimes anyway) in 2022 (Quaoar Initiates Pholus, 21 February 2022, in 7 Capricorn), the event is not Cuspal.  The “Stinkbug chart”…

…occurs on the Cusps between Signs, which is astrological important, particularly for Blessings (Trines).  Trines represent Dumb-Luck Blessings because they usually connect Signs of the same Element (Fire, Air, Earth, or Water).

For instance, considering Emotions or Water Signs, Cancer (Cardinal Water) Generates Emotions, Scorpio (Fixed Water) Consolidates them, and Pisces (Mutable Water) Changes them.  So there is a Natural Flow of Energy between the three Signs, which Allows us to potentially be Complete with a Transaction.

The Grand Trine in the Stinkbug chart, however, includes two Mind (Air) Signs – Chaos in Gemini (Mutable Air) and Sappho-Juno in Libra (Cardinal Air), and one Emotion (Water) Sign – Aletheia-Ceres-Gonggong in Pisces (Mutable Water).  So the Energy of the Stinkbug Grand Trine starts by Generating Dualities (Libra), then Changing the Emotions (Pisces) that evolve from these Thoughts, and then Changing the Thoughts (Gemini) that arise from the New Emotions.  Rather than Flowing Smoothly to Completion, this Pattern is more likely to Increase Complications and Confusion.

Of course Confusion is the first Stage of Growth, to it’s not to be rued, but it may not be as obviously Dumb-Luck as the average Trine.  It’s still a Grand Trine, so the Grace is definitely there, it’s just likely to be disguised.  Prepare to be Surprised when Apparent Difficulties become Unexpected Blessings.

Now if we factor the planets into this equation…  The Energy of the Stinkbug Grand Trine starts by Generating Dualities around Self-Love and Consciousness (Sappho-Juno), then Changing our Emotions around Truth, Sustainability, and our Personal and Karmic History (Aletheia-Ceres-Gonggong) that evolve from these Thoughts about Self-Love and Consciousness, and then Changing Thoughts that arise from these New Emotions into Expansive Fantasies about How It Could Be (Chaos).

In other words, we could be Experiencing Glimpses of the World In Which We Really Want to Live while Dreaming for once that they might be Possible – which will Feel Complicated and Confusing.  All our Life, with a lot of help from Others, we’ve been Discounting the Possibility of Achieving our Dreams, so that will be the first Pattern that arises.

But this is dwarf planet Chaos.  It’s not about Possibility, it’s about Potential.  So don’t Discount your “Expansive Fantasies” here, instead use them as the ground for your Focus on The World You Want to Live In, whenever you catch yourself thinking about The World you Don’t Want to Live In.  Remember that we’re at a Crossroads here, and we’re wasting the Fruits of a Hard-Fought Lifetime if we Decide to be Victimized by all of the Changes that are Going On and will increasingly be Going On.

Another Caveat…  We Create the Dynamic way by Discounting the Improbable and Planning all of the intermediate steps to Building what we want to Bring into Form.  Dynamic Manifestation requires that we know What We Want, What It Will Look Like, and How to Build It.  It’s not Possible to Change Our World with those Constraints.  We need Magnetic Manifestation – PIAVA – to Create What We’ve Never Created, only Craved.

So besides indulging your Karmic Habits of Discounting What You Want, the second-best way to Kill it is to Believe that you have to know How to Create it.  Magnetic Creativity works by Focusing on What You Want and assiduously avoiding Focusing on the Mechanisms that might Create it.  You’re in Design here, not Engineering.  You Build the Energy, and let the Form come to you – that’s the Magnetic part!

So, if you get Confused here, Let It Be.  We need to be able to Sit with Confusion as an Emotion, without trying to “Fix” or Change it, if we are going to use it as our Engine for Growing Consciousness.  And if things get Complicated, Laugh it Off.  The Complications are part of the Engineering.  Your job is to Hold your Single-Minded Focus on What You Want.

Now, as of today, Self-Love (Sappho) and Consciousness Growth (Juno) have moved out of Creative Thought (Libra), and into Consolidating Emotion, aka Passion (Scorpio).  So our Process has Changed.  Our Dumb-Luck Grace no longer has a Motivator (Cardinal Sign).  Chaos won’t get to Cancer (Cardinal Water) till 2023, so we’re going to have to look elsewhere for a Starter.  In other cases, we’d have to Generate the Motivation ourself, but in this case we’re in luck, we have a Kite (a fourth planet midway between two of the Grand Trine planets) and the top of the Kite is in Capricorn (Cardinal Earth)!

So now the Energy begins with How We Want to Respond to Our Physical Survival Instincts (Pholus-Quaoar in Capricorn).  Praying for a Planetary Healing is Noble, and every bit helps.  But Praying (PIAVAing, Meditating) for the World that WE Want to Live In, for the World that Supports Our Own Personal Survival and Bliss, adds a whole ‘nother Dimension, namely our Personal Passion, without violating anyone else’s Freedom to Manifest their own Reality – on their own World, not ours.

To move the Energy from Creation to Stabilization to Change (Cardinal-Fixed-Mutable), we need to run the Kite backwards (Capricorn-Scorpio-Gemini-Pisces).  So we use the Energy in our Survival Instincts (Pholus-Quaoar in Capricorn), which run about as Deep as any Energy, to Excite our Passion for Growing our Unconditional Self-Love (Sappho-Juno in Scorpio) to Allow our Karmic Limitations to Shift and Open Up our Boundless Potential (Chaos in Gemini) so it Changes our Emotional History (Gonggong/OR10 in Pisces) and Creates an Internal Reality (Emotion<->Thought) that Sustains the Truth of our Heart (Ceres-Aletheia) – which will Change (Pisces) as we bring it out of our Hope Chest and wipe away the Spiderwebs.

Ascension New Moon 3

In general New Moons and Full Moons impact the two to four weeks that follow, so the Ascension New Moon will give us a sturdy Blanket to shelter under during the upcoming several weeks of potential Difficulty.  We’ll get to the potential Difficulty shortly, but first let’s finish talking about the Blanket.

In the chart of the 22 April 2020 New Moon Blanket, we haven’t discussed the long green wedge (Finger of the Goddess) that points to “OR10” – a dwarf planet out beyond Pluto known mostly by its code name, 2007 OR10 (though recently officially named Gonggong).  OR10 is about Intrusive Memories, which are usually Karmic to some degree, and at least bitter-sweet if not downright unpleasant.  The green wedge means “Pay Attention!”  In this case, it means that those Intrusive Memories are priceless Clues about the Karma we’re being Asked to Let Go Of.

The red triangle (T-Square) that points to the upper left in the chart (see https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2020/04/19/ascension-new-moon/) represents a Challenge that Impediments to our Self-Love (Sappho-Makemake) are likely to prevent us from Letting Go Of our Self-Sabotaging Karma (South Node) and moving toward our Lifetime Mission – toward Ascension or Enlightenment (North Node). We could rephrase that as Letting Go Of our Self-Sabotage, if we can, will enable the Unconditional Self-Love that will Heal our Life.

I know that most of us most of the time consider ourselves to be Victims of our Karma, so it may sound strange to label it “Self-Sabotaging.”  But even though Karma is about Inertia rather than Retribution, it’s still our own Inertia – Habit Patterns we built up in Other Lifetimes.  A birth chart is a map of a Lifetime that We As A Soul Chose for a Lifetime.  So yes, your Ego is indeed a Victim of your Karma, but from the Perspective of your Soul, your Karma consists of Self-Sabotaging Habits that YouAsASoul Chose to Break Through in the Current Lifetime.

Since We took this Lifetime to Help Heal the Planet, we don’t need to consider this Karma to be “ours” from the Soul’s Perspective.  Certainly it’s become “ours” from the Ego’s Perspective, by Adoption.  But for each of us, our Karma is a picture of what the Planet and the Species needs to set itself Free From in order to move into its next Incarnation.  We Serve the Planet by helping Liberate It from these persistent Patterns, just as we Serve our own continuing Liberation.

The green wedge that also points to the upper left in the chart is what makes the Challenge Self-Resolving (a Diamond Star), by adding a large measure of Grace (the blue Trine Bridge under the T-Square) to the Challenge.

As always, the nature of the Challenge is to endure the Test of our mettle without sacrificing our Self-Love.  Karma is Dead, it Died in 2012 when Time As We Knew It ended.  What hasn’t Died is our Habituation to it.  So we Expect to have to Endure the same old Bummers every time a similar situation arrives.  Well, a Self-Resolving Challenge means that the same old Bummers aren’t going to Arise this time.  Can we Recognize that, and Let Go of our Expectation of Suffering?  That’s what’s being Challenged here!  Expectations are like placebos – they’re easily and often mistaken for their Mirror.

When I was in fifth grade an older student caught me alone in the restroom after school was over, and acted like he was starting to rough me up.  This was the 1950s, and beating people up was something many did for Fun (just ask The Donald or his mentor Roy Cohn).  I was trained not to fight back, and I didn’t.

After he’d acted like he was going to rough me up for several minutes, he stopped and pointed out to me that he wasn’t hurting me and didn’t plan to – what I was experiencing was Fear, not Harm.  Being in the middle of my Expectation of Harm, I was too shaken to do much except be dumbfounded, but days later, once I calmed down, I gradually realized what a Gift he had given me.

The feet of this green wedge, which are also knees of the upside-down blue truss bridge, are OR10 and the Uranus-Hopi New Moon.  What this tells us is that the Keys to Effortlessly Letting Go Of our Self-Sabotage are Paying Attention to our Intrusive Memories and to our Judgments (Hopi).

The short green lines are also important.  We don’t talk about them much, but they’re actually one of the greater Gifts of astrology.  They indicate the Twelfth Harmonic, the Pattern-Breaker.  They tell us which Habits are available for Revision…

• Our Mission (North Node) Relative to our Vitality (Varuna [the Life Force]) – Do we regard dis-ease symptoms as something Wrong that needs to be Fixed, or as the Body bringing itself back into Balance and thus something we want to Be Lovingly Present With and Observe?  We’re kind of Living this Out Culturally with the Moronavirus, aren’t we.

• Our Intrusive Memories (OR10) Relative to our Edges (Pallas [Boundaries] and Saturn [The Most Important Thing]) – In my fifth-grade Experience, I was deeply Identified With (ie, Ego-Involved With) my Fear – no Boundary between “me” and “my Fear.”  Examine the difference in your Body Sensations as you say “I’m Scared” and then “I Feel Scared.”  Those Distinctions are critical to staying in the Present Moment and staying Neutral, which is where we meet the Source of our Power (Saturn-Pallas Trines [Grace] Sappho-Makemake).

• Our Edges (Pallas-Saturn) Relative to our Horror Pictures (South Node [our Karmic Powerlessness] and Ixion [our Unclaimed Unique Genius]) about Climate Change (Pholus [I Know I’m Forgetting something] and Quaoar [our Survival Instincts]) – How do we single-handedly, or Communally, “Fix” Climate Change?  By Persistently Focusing our Attention (aka Claiming our Unique Genius as Creator Beings or Manifestors) on the Future that We Want to Live In.

Of course we’re going to be running all manner of Intrusive Karmic Memories of Natural Disasters and the Greater Disasters that Hupers can make on their own.  We don’t want to Deny these.  We want to Acknowledge their Reality while we simultaneously Acknowledge that we aren’t actually Experiencing them in the Present Moment.  Thus Disidentified with the Karmic Drama we’re in a position to send it a Healing PIAVA.  That’s why we came to this Planet at this time.

What?  Oh yeah, the Difficulty coming up.  Next post.

Gonggong

I just discovered that the dwarf planet we’ve been referring to as “OR10,” which is short for one of it’s Discovery-process codes, “2007 OR10” (also known as minor planet 225088), has received an official name!  It’s Gonggong, after a Chinese Huper-Headed Serpent or Demon or Dragon who is most famous for Knocking the Planet out of kilter and thus causing the Seasons, Precession of the Equinoxes, and devastating Floods.

This fits quite well with the Interpretation that we have been using for OR10, Intrusive Memories, usually Karmic.  Gonggong was a Water god, and Karmic Memories usually trigger Heavy and perhaps Overwhelming Emotions (ie, devastating Floods) which have the Power, if Embraced, to Knock the Ego out of kilter.  Dwarf planet Nessus (Abuse and Privilege) has been traveling with OR10 for the last several years – Abuse is almost always Karmic.  Nessus has now moved on deeper into Pisces.  Dragon is the symbol and an alternate name for our Karma, and for the Moon’s Nodes.

The Demons show up below at around 2:30…

Manifestation New Moon

The 23 February 2020 (7:30 am PST) New Moon chart, which is prominent for the next several weeks, is pretty much a repeat of the chart of the 19 February Five Moons Enhanced Creativity astroevent (see https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2020/02/16/five-moons-enhanced-creativity/).

One emphasis will be on Manifestation (a Diamond Star or Self-Resolving Challenge to dwarf planet Makemake), although we’ll be Asked to Take a Great Deal of Responsibility for our own Negativity whenever the Manifestation isn’t Effortless (the Makemake Diamond Star Opposes Chiron-Lilith [Overcoming Victimhood] and Squares the Nodes [it’s a Life Lesson for us], with Mars, Veritas, Pholus, and Quaoar on the South Node [We Have to Face Facts about whether we’re Being Fully, Proactively Responsive to our Survival Instincts]).

Remember that Responsibility isn’t Blame.  Blame is about looking at the Past to Assign Fault, while Responsibility is about looking to the Future to Improve Outcomes.

If we’re Listening, our Inner Voices will be telling us (dwarf planet OR10 [Intrusive Memories] closely Conjunct [Merged With] the New Moon, at the focus of a Finger of God [Pay Attention!]) which Held Emotions – the ones we’d rather Die than Feel – are Inhibiting our Creativity (the South-Node Stellium [Karma] is part of two Tricolor Configurations [Healing Opportunities]), especially our Creativity at Enhancing our Vitality (the Challenge [Square] side of the Tricolor is Uranus [Soul] Square to Varuna [Life Force]).

Held Emotion is a synonym for Karma – our Ego has a severe Allergic Reaction to certain Feelings or Scenarios, often those that were associated with Past Deaths or other serious Traumas.  By and large we’ve Suppressed the original Traumas, so we’re just left with a serious Aversion to anything that reminds us of the Triggering Event.  That is, Negative Karma is “just” unhealed PTSD.

We need to Reframe our Reaction from “I would rather Die than Feel (or Do) That!” to “I would rather Die than Feel (or Do) That!” – in other words, it’s not really about the Emotion or Scenario, it’s about Identity:  Letting Go of the crippling Karma requires an Ego Death.  We need to Recognize that “I’d rather Die than Feel that!” is never Present-Moment, so it’s not only Safe to metaphorically Let Ourself Go Ahead and Die, but it’s our only Path to Liberation from our Karmic Chains.

Tapping can be very useful in this endeavor – “Even though I’d Rather Die than Feel/Do [this or that], I Deeply and Completely Love and Accept Myself.”

It will be better if we forgo trying to Analyze exactly what it is we’re Resisting, just to Acknowledge our Resistance (we Trigger the Trine [Grace] side of a Tricolor, and heal the Square [Challenge] side of it, by making sure we Avoid Analyzing the Quincunx [Curiosity] side of it).

Here’s the New Moon chart…

In the Major Tricolor [Square-Quincunx-Trine] here, the Square [Challenge] is Uranus-to-Varuna [Soul Granting or Withholding Vitality], the Trine [Grace] is Uranus-to-South-Node-Stellium [Honesty about what’s Stressing Us], and the Quincunx [Mandatory Curiosity] is South-Node-Stellium-to-Varuna [Stress on our Life Force].  So we need to Acknowledge the Stress on our Vitality, without trying to Understand it.  We can Identify it suffixed with “…or something like that,” or we can just Poor-Sweetheart ourself – “You Poor Sweetheart, your Life Force Feels Low, doesn’t it” and not worry about Why it might be.

In the Minor Tricolor [Square-Quincunx-Sextile], the Uranus-to-Varuna Square is the same [Lack of Vitality or Difficulty Manifesting], but the Sextile [Grace after we take the First Step] is New-Moon-OR10-to-Uranus [Recognizing that those Intrusive Memories are sent by the Soul to Help us Heal] and the Quincunx is New-Moon-OR10-to-Varuna [the Intrusive Memories will Inform our Healing – but only if we don’t try to Pin Them Down Intellectually].  The Issues Involved in these Tricolor Configurations are too complex to be Grokked by the Dualistic Mind, so we need to Avoid trying to Pin Them Down like we would a Dead Butterfly.

♥ There are two other minor but potentially Meaningful astroevents occurring on 25 February.

♥ Our Hidden and Forbidden Genius (dwarf planet Ixion) has graduated from a quarter-century of Shedding its Prohibitions (Ixion in Sagittarius), and will now begin a new 25 years of Doing Serious Work in the World (Ixion in Capricorn).  This is an Important Milestone, as our Forbidden Genii are Exactly the Skills we all need to use if we are to Succeed in Keeping our Planet Habitable.

It will be a halting Beginning, but a Beginning nonetheless.  We will have to go back into our Prohibitions a couple of times to Retrieve the Tools of our Genius Trade, but as Jack and Dean would have put it, we are On The Road.  From 4 May till 10 September 2020, and from 16 July to 12 September 2021, Ixion Retrogrades back into Sagittarius.

♥ Our Skill at Squelching Self-Sabotaging Habits becomes much more Down-to-Earth (asteroid Atropos enters and crosses Taurus) between 25 February and 6 May 2020 (no Atropos Retrograde periods in Taurus).  We’ve been Toying with (Visualizing, really) Changing Negative Patterns, but now we’ll get down to Business and Jettison them for good.

To jumpstart this process, Frequently put your Attention on How You’ll Feel when you’ve Let Go Of these No-Longer-Welcome Companions, including any and all Habits and Addictions you wish to Shed, no matter how Tenacious they’ve been in the Past.  The Power is now on your side.  And while these Habits are Destructive to you now, they served you well at some point in the Past, so finding Gratitude for their Service will also be helpful.  You don’t need to know When or Why, just know that you wouldn’t have them now if they weren’t Powerfully Useful to some version of “you” at some point.

There will be a couple of Red-Letter Days (more likely, the Week prior to them) during this process…

• Around 6 March, we will be able to bring the Full Power of our Soul to bear on these Obsolete Patterns (Atropos crossing Uranus).  Take advantage of this – queue up your Most Persistent Curses for Exorcism during the first week of March.

• Around 1 May, we will be able to Tackle our Greatest Fears and put them in their place on the wall next to the rest of our Big-Game Trophies (Atropos crossing dwarf planet Sedna).  Tapping and Kegels work very well for Grounding ourself in the Presence of Skin-Crawling Fear.

♥ Finally, we’re  entering the Grip of a couple of Strong Energies.  Our Intuition will be very Strong (dwarf planet Asbolus Stationary) until 1 March, and our Skill at Transcending whatever we are Done With (asteroid Bee-Zed Stationary) will also be very Strong over the same period.

That Guy with the Wings on His Feet

As it’s wont to do, planet Mercury turned around and started going Backwards 16 February 2020 (5pm PST).  This will be very difficult for you to verify, since Mercury is too close to the Sun to be seen most of the time, and “Backwards” in this context is kind of metaphorical.  Mercury symbolizes Communication, Awareness, Thought, and Analysis mostly.  Backwards (“Retrograde”) Mercury has a bad rap around travel, but if like the Angels we take travel delays and disruptions Lightly, we can still Fly.

A planet goes Backwards when it wants us to really Pay Attention to some Lesson it has in mind.  It crosses the same zone of the Zodiac thrice, to make sure we don’t Lose the Plot.  The Plot this month is about the Thinking we’ve been doing, and the Conclusions we’ve been drawing, about the way our Culture should work (Mercury thrice crossing the last few Degrees of Aquarius), and how we Respond to this Emotionally (Mercury thrice crossing the first dozen Degrees of Pisces).

Overzealous Emotions cause our Mentality to Misfire.  It’s one thing that some of us are Emotional Thinkers – when we’re Analyzing something, How We Feel about it is one of our most important criteria, and that’s just Who We Are.  But it’s quite another thing when something Triggers our Karmic Judgments and we lose all hope of Neutrality.  Neutrality after all is where we must be if we want to Change or Manifest anything.  For instance, if we try to Create Peace from a position of Anger, all we’re going to get is more Anger.  Trying to Create Peace from a posture of Bliss will probably only promote Denial.

And in the section of the Zodiac that Mercury crosses thrice, there sit a couple of dwarf planets that are likely to Trigger our Karma.  One of these is the symbol for Intrusive Memories (the as-yet-unnamed dwarf planet that we affectionately call “OR10”) which are usually Karmic.  The other stands for Abuse and Privilege (dwarf planet Nessus).  That’s almost always Karmicas well.  The timetable looks something like this…

• 2 February – Mercury begins its first crossing (at 29 Aquarius)
  • 6 February – Mercury Triggers Intrusive Memories
  • 11 February – Mercury Triggers Abuse and Privilege Issues or Memories
• 16 February – Mercury turns Backwards (at 13 Pisces)
  • 21 February – Mercury Triggers Abuse and Privilege Issues or Memories
    
  • 28 February – Mercury Triggers Intrusive Memories
• 9 March – Mercury goes Forward again (at 29 Aquarius)
  • 22 March – Mercury Triggers Intrusive Memories
  • 29 March – Mercury Triggers Abuse and Privilege Issues or Memories
• 30 March – Mercury finishes third crossing (at 13 Pisces)

When planets change their Direction, they Slooowww Dowwwn, Stop, and then slowly Accelerate again.  While they are Slowing and Stopping (ie, 16 February and 9 March), their Influence upon us is at its Strongest.

Do you have any record or recollections of what was going on for you around 6 or 11 February, give or take a day or two?  The usual astrological process is that this first crossing raises an Issue or Problem (we refer to this as a “Can-Opener”), which usually puts us into our Victim.  Then the second crossing (the “Exposition”), if we’re Awake and Responsive to it, Teaches us a lot about what’s really going down, and we can begin to see our own Role in it.  By the third crossing (the “Confidence-Builder”), if we were Awake at the second one, the original Issue or Problem recurs, but this time we Realize what’s happening, and we Handle it with Aplomb.

Mercury stutters like this three times a year, so we get a good deal of Practice with it.  Our Journey from Victim to Adept increases our Neutrality a lot, helping us to be more Objective and Effective Problem-Solvers.

If you happen to have a birth (“natal”) planet in the thrice-crossed Zone of a Backwardation, the Cosmic Headmistress is giving you a Special Lesson.  For instance, one reader has their birth planet that means Truth of the Heart (asteroid Aletheia) in the Zone of this Mercury trifecta, and that planet is in a Challenging Relationship (Square) to their birth planet that stands for their Soul (Uranus).  Birth-planet Relationships are with us for our entire Life, so the more Practice we get with them, the better.

So our reader may frequently run into Issues where they feel like the Desires of their Soul, and the Desires of their Heart, are in Conflict.  How can Soul and Heart be in Conflict?  Heart should Serve Soul, and do it Well.  But Karma can intervene and mess things up.  That makes it even more important to Practice with the Energy, and bring it into Consciousness, so they can Notice when the Karmic prompter is reminding them of their Lines, and Frankly, Not Give a Damn about what it is they’re Supposed To do or say.

Our reader’s Heart-Truth planet, with it’s Teasing Relationship with their Soul, is Triggered by Mercury on 4 February, 1 March, and 19 March.  The most important thing to remember about our birth-planet Relationships, is that they’re like a Graduate Seminar.  They aren’t Problems to be Solved, they’re Dramas to be Studied.  We don’t Solve Dramas, we just Learn how to Handle them a little better each time we deal with them.  They have no Clean Edges, they’re always Ragged.

Imagine you’re an fiction writer studying situations where a person’s Heart would lead them in a different direction than their Soul would, so you could write a realistic short story about their Adventures.  With that mindset, after several repetitions of this Pattern in your Life, you could write the script of your next episode of it.  That would probably help immensely to make it Easier for you to Step Out of that Role the next time those circumstances arose, and Enjoy playing the role of someone else in your script, or someone different entirely.

If we Endure our “favorite” Karmic – aka Educational – Drama once more and leave its Edges just a little less Ragged than the last time, then we’ve Succeeded Greatly, and we need to Acknowledge ourself with Celebration.  While we’re “still kickin’,” we’ll probably never know Why our Immortal Soul Chose to Experience a Lifetime with such a Drama in it.  We just have to Accept that it in fact Did, Trust its Wisdom, and try to be a good Student.

The more Conscious we can be about the Dramas hard-wired into our birth charts, the better, but we also have to remember that it’s not about Analysis (even when Mercury is being Compulsively Analytical), it’s about Experience.  We get a little more hip to our Dramas each time we Repeat them, whether we beat ourself up for Stumbling over them again, or Congratulate ourself for being Open to Learning more about them.  Analysis can give us “Book-Larnin’,” but it isn’t nearly multidimensional enough to give us Wisdom.  For that we need Experience.  That’s what Karma is all about – Inertia, Repetition, how to Use the Patterns we have to their Best Advantage, instead of being Victimized by them.