Not So Phew! 3

Well, so far I’ve been nabbed by the Moon-Chiron¹ (Emotional Discouragement and Miracles) in the 9 October 2022 Full Moon chart, and Chariklo² (Self-Confidence and Self-Doubt, Stationary 14 October). After several hours of indulging My Thoughts about My Feelings, I checked the Full Moon chart and Poor-Sweethearted myself (a Chiron antidote) – so much for Discouragement. And after several hours of Self-Doubt I Remembered that Chariklo was Stationary (Lit Up), and just Let It Go. Poof! Still often checking in on Feelings of Isolation and Lack of Achievement, which we can chalk up to Ascension Symptoms (Changing our Community to match our Changes of Frequency) and the complicated Grand Cross (an Eventually Self-Resolving Series of “Small” Hassles) in the Chariklo Station chart,³ which Lights Up a prominent T-Square in my natal chart (Major Lifetime Challenge and SuperPower).

Oh, and then there are the “Hot Flashes” and the Sneezing, more Ascension Symptoms that we can attribute to EMF Toxicity. It’s obvious from the time Correspondences that adjusting our Epigenetic Responses to 5G, while hopefully dodging the Virus that the EMF enables, is part of our Evolution into 5D.⁴ When the Body gets involved with ongoing Happenstance, I always Wonder what dwarf planet Varuna (The Life Force) is up to. Sure ’nuff, She Opposes (Debates With) the Chariklo Station from early Leo! ⁵ What’s in early Leo in my natal chart? Not much. Just my North Node and my Out of Bounds Pluto.

Now this T-Square lacks only one leg of a Finger of the Goddess to become Self-Resolving – it has a Vacancy in early Gemini. What planets are in early Gemini in your own natal chart? Emphasizing that planet in your Life over the next week (while the Full Moon Energy is still prominent in the Ambient Airwaves), will make your Transmutation into Enlightenment Easier. It may also Trigger Mirrors for the Karma you need to Let Go Of to get there. If it does, remember that Karma is a Paper Tiger – it’s Your Reaction to the Paper Tiger that Triggers your Karma, not the Tiger. Brautigan’s In Watermelon Sugar is a fabulous Drama about being Existentially Neutral to Paper Tigers (see Bibliography).

However, this is all astrological Analysis. We just demonstrated to ourself, with a Sample Size of One, that Our Intuition outwits our Analysis by 30%. Can we Trust astrological Analysis? Well, over the last five decades plus it’s helped me immensely to Stay Neutral to my own Paper Tigers.

¹ The 9 October (1:58 pm PDT, 9:58 pm BST, 6:58 am AEST 10 October) Full Moon chart (which mostly impacts the following couple of weeks) features a Grand Unx (12 planets more or less equally spaced around the Zodiac), which always includes three Grand Crosses as well as several other “Grands.” The Full Moon Axis Conjoins [a] Chiron on the Moon side in 15 (-17) Aries (the Libra Duad^z of Aries, Beginning to Risk Sharing our Creativity with Others) Opposite (Debating With) [b] Venus-Eurydike-Requiem (a Rupture in Our Trust in Our Old Values, Necessitating an Ego Death) on the Sun side in 17 (14-19) Libra (the Aries-Taurus Duads of Libra, Beginning to Share with Others Our Creativity and Limitations). The Full Moon Axis is Square to [c] Panacea Out of Bounds-Hylonome (Healing Codependence) in 15-20 Capricorn (the Cancer-Leo Duads of Capricorn, Acting Compassionately in Arenas that Make us Proud of Ourself ) Opposite [d] Pallas-Veritas-Black Moon Lilith (Accepting the Fact that We Need to Change Our Boundaries around Codependence and Self-Sovereignty) in 15-20 Cancer (the Capricorn-Aquarius Duads of Cancer, Being Pragmatic about Supporting or Creating the Culture We Want to Live In).

So we have…

[a] Discouragement about Intimacy (Chiron-Moon in Aries) T-Squaring [d] Our Sovereignty Boundaries (Pallas-Veritas-BMLilith in Cancer) Opposite [c] Our Codependence Healing (Hylonome-Panacea OOB in Capricorn);

[d] Our Sovereignty Boundaries T-Squaring [b] Our Privacy Values (Sun-Venus-Eurydike-Requiem in Libra) Opposite [a] Discouragement about Intimacy;

[b] Our Privacy Values T-Squaring [c] Our Codependence Healing Opposite [d] Our Sovereignty Boundaries;

[c] Our Codependence Healing T-Squaring [a] Discouragement about Intimacy Opposite [b] Our Privacy Values…

Those are our four Hassles (T-Squares) in the Full Moon Grand Cross. If they follow our prognostication, then over the next few weeks we might see each T-Square Manifesting Relatively “Small” Hassles (Intimacy vs Sovereignty; Sovereignty vs Privacy; Privacy vs Codependence Healing; Codependence Healing vs Intimacy), and each Hassle that we Negotiate with some degree of Success making the other Hassles Easier, AND what we Learn from each Hassle that we Fail to Negotiate Successfully informing (if we’re Open to Learning) our degree of Success with the following Hassles. Scrambled Relationships, basically, an Ascension Symptom.

And unfortunately, in Real Life it’s not nearly so tidy. The four Hassles can be Triggered in any order, even several at once. Nevertheless, the Hassles should Complement one another if we’re able to just Let Them Be, and Observe and Learn without trying to Intervene to Control a Threat to our Ego or a Relationship turning Rancorous. And, there are two other Grand Crosses with four Hassles each of their own, all Lighting up at Unpredictable Moments. It’s a complex movie, a Bergman and a Wachowski and a Kubrick and a Spielberg and a Fellini and a Kurosawa, all edited together, and you need to be in the audience, not on the stage. Sure, take a hand at the puppet strings from time to time, but don’t try to Control the Story Line. The Complexity of a Grand Unx makes a Mystery School look like kindergarten. As they say on Wall Street, It’s not what you Earn, it’s what you Learn.

And a Grand Unx is far from being All Pain. There are also four Grand Trines full of Dumb-Luck Grace, two Grand Sextiles making Relationships almost Effortless (all we have to do is start the conversation), and those twelve Pattern-Bending Unx Angles between any two adjacent Signs, like Pandora Unx South Node (Hope for Healing our Held Emotions) or Saturn Unx Nessus (The Most Important Thing is to Allow our Abuse to Heal by Loving – but Not Indulging – Our Victim to Death ). And six Yin Gates or Mystery Schools. And twelve Fingers of the Goddess, which make all of the twelve T-Squares Self-Resolving.

² Chariklo Station Conjunct Lachesis (Unexpired Karma that We Can Consciously Let Go Of If We’re Willing to be Consistent and Brave enough at Noticing and Substituting) in 5 Aquarius (Surrender to Merging the Chthonic with the Cosmic) Opposite Varuna Out of Bounds-Cyllarus Out of Bounds-Hybris (Ego Death of Our Arrogance, with Consequences to Our Health) in 5-8 Leo (the Libra Duad of Leo, Self-Assurance around Others), T-Squared by Zhulong-Ka’epaoka’awela (Transmuting All of that into Enlightenment If We’re Willing) in 5-7 Scorpio (the Capricorn Duad of Scorpio, Beginning to Understand How Our Scorpio Fearlessness Sets Us Apart from Others).

This is the only T-Square in the Chariklo Station chart, and while it’s not Self-Resolving, it is Enhanced by a Grand Trine from Zhulong-Lachesis (Letting Go of Impediments to Our Enlightenment ) to Juno-Gonggong (Allowing our Intrusive Memories to Expand Our Consciousness) in 5-9 Pisces (the Taurus-Gemini Duads of Pisces, Casting Our Emotional Baggage in Concrete and Setting It Down on the Bridge so We Can Push It Off Later) to Chaos OOB-Aletheia (Opening Our Heart to Our Unlimited Potential ) in 2-5 Cancer (the Leo Duad of Cancer, Taking Pride in Our True Compassion)

³ The only Grand Cross in the Chariklo Station chart is Ixion OOB-Magdalena-Icarus-Pholus-Quaoar (Seeking Mary Magdalene’s Assistance in Burning Out the Ambitions of Psychopaths) in 1-6 Capricorn (the Capricorn-Aquarius Duads of Capricorn, Beginning to Engineer a Solution to a Problem, for the Benefit of the Collective) Square to Salacia OOB-Jupiter (Debilitating Ambiguity between Desire to Let Go of Karma and Resistance to Ego Death) in 2-8 Aries (Gemini-Leo Duads of Aries, Remodeling and Displaying What We’ve Created ) Square to Aletheia-Chaos OOB (Opening Our Heart to Our Unlimited Potential ) in 2-5 Cancer (Leo Duad of Cancer, Proud of Our Compassion) Square to Mercury-Hopi OOB (Awareness of the Critical Importance of Respect for All Things) in 5-7 Libra (Sagittarius Duad of Libra, Dismissing First Impressions of People) Square to Ixion et al.

⁴ See Arthur Firstenberg, The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life, which we’ve added to the Bibliography.

⁵ We detailed the Zhulong-Ka’epaoka’awela (Trasmuting Karma to Enlightenment ) T-Square, from the Chariklo-Varuna et al Opposition in note ² above.

^z We’re using Duads here because it’s faster, though less detailed than using individual Degrees (I’m wagering that we have a surfeit of detail already). A “Duad” (funny name, but think of it as falling between a Monad and a Triad) is 2½ Degrees, or one twelfth of a Sign. The first Duad of any Sign doubles the characteristics of the Sign. The second Duad unites the Impact of the Sign with the Impact of the following Sign, till we get to the twelfth Duad, which unites the impact of the Sign with the preceding Sign. For instance, if we take Virgo, the first Duad is the “Virgo Duad of Virgo.” The second 2½ Degrees is the “Libra Duad of Virgo,” the third the “Scorpio Duad of Virgo,” etc. The penultimate Virgo Duad (25-27½ Degrees) is the “Cancer Duad of Virgo,” and the last 2½ Degrees of Virgo is the “Leo Duad of Virgo.”

Since we interpret Virgo as Ego Death, our interpretations of the Duads would run something like this…

>> 0-2½ Degrees of Virgo, the Virgo Duad of Virgo, The Shock (Ego Death) of Leaving Leo and No Longer Being the Center of the Universe.

>> 2½-5 Degrees of Virgo, the Libra Duad of Virgo, The Ego Deaths Required to Meet Other.

>> 5-7½ Degrees of Virgo, the Scorpio Duad of Virgo, The Ego Deaths that Allow Us to Realize that Other May Be Seriously Different from Us.

>> 7½-10 Degrees of Virgo, the Sagittarius Duad of Virgo, The Ego Deaths Necessary to “Take Other Lightly.”

>> 10-12½ Degrees of Virgo, the Capricorn Duad of Virgo, The Ego Deaths that Allow Us to Learn to Work with Other as a Teammate.

>> 12½-15 Degrees of Virgo, the Aquarius Duad of Virgo, The Ego Deaths We Would Need to Begin Building Community.

>> 15-17½ Degrees of Virgo, the Pisces Duad of Virgo, Letting Go of Our Emotional Resistance to Accepting Other as an Equal.

>> 17½-20 Degrees of Virgo, the Aries Duad of Virgo, Recognizing Spirit in Other, with its Accompanying Ego Deaths.

>> 20-22½ Degrees of Virgo, the Taurus Duad of Virgo, The Ego Deaths Required to Recognize Spirit in “Inanimate” Others.

>> 22½-25 Degrees of Virgo, the Gemini Duad of Virgo, Confusion about What the Hell Is “Real” anyway? (Confusion is a Reliable Indicator of the Beginning of an Ego Death – aka Growth in Consciousness – we will move much Faster into 5D if we retrain ourself to Notice and Respond to Confusion as an Emotion, not as an Invitation to Analyze, Research, and “Figure It Out.” Doing that will only Cement us further into 3D. We then want to Learn to Enjoy Confusion, Explore it, Play with it, and Eagerly Anticipate the Unknown Changes that are about to Follow.)

>> 25-27½ Degrees of Virgo, the Cancer Duad of Virgo, The Ego Deaths We’ll Need to Be Compassionate about the Spiritual Essence of the “inanimate.”

>> 27½-30 Degrees of Virgo, the Leo Duad of Virgo, Whatever Ego Deaths Are Left that Would Prevent Us from Collaborating Fully with all of the Elements of Nature and the “Inanimate” World.

The Moon’s Speed varies a bit, but right now it’s taking about five hours to cross one Duad. It enters Cancer a little after 4pm PDT 15 October (12am BST 16th, 9am AEST 16th). See if you Feel less scattered (Gemini) and more Compassionate after this clock time. Then Notice when the clock moves past 9pm PDT (5am BST, 2pm AEST) – do you find yourself thinking more about how your Compassion will Impact your own Life rather than theirs after this hour? This is astrology operating in Real Time.

New Project Week II

As we move into our New Self (asteroid Klotho Stationary 4:30 am PDT 7 June 2021 in 18 Libra), it will behoove us to Attend to our Relationships with Abuse and with Privilege (dwarf planet Nessus Stationary 9:24 am PDT 14 June in 16 Pisces). Though it’s only one of many Challenges that will Confront our Newbie shortly after our Rebirth, Unconscious and Conscious Changes in our Relationship with Abuse and Privilege is probably the biggest one. The intervening Challenges…

• Emotional Intensity (Moon moving Out of Bounds for four days starting 10:57 pm PDT 9 June in 18 Gemini). This hits a peak on 11 June (Moon Stationary in North Declination 25:39 and Longitude 11 Cancer at 9:08 pm PDT), and fades on 13 June (Moon moving back In Bounds at 6:19 pm PDT in 4 Leo).

• Ego Death(s) Required to Let Go of Karma (asteroid Karma moves into Virgo 2:34 pm 9 June). If you have a Journal, Karma was previously in the Sign of Ego Death (Virgo) between 1 December 2020 and 23 January 2021), before it backed back into Leo till 2 April. It’s been moving forward in its third Dance over the last five Duads (2½ Degrees) of Leo since then. This deserves a post of its own.

💥 For now we’ll just say that Virgo is what happens between the Cyclic Culmination of our Individual Identity (Leo) and Meeting Not-Us or Other (Libra). Just as Pisces is about Letting Go of Emotional Baggage so we don’t have to drag it with us into our next Adventure, Virgo is about Letting Go of Obsolete Identities so we don’t mess up our Relationships with Others by “Pretending” (usually Unconsciously) to be someone we ain’t. “Others” includes not just People, but since Everything in the Universe is Conscious, it also includes Everything that we aren’t Being or Owning in the Moment. For example, if you Identify with Loving Nature, prove it to yourself by Inviting a Bird to perch on your finger, without pooping on your hand or giving you Salmonella.

💥 We also need to say that our most troubling Karma is where We Would Rather Die than Feel That Again, aka our “Held Emotions” (South Node). Because most Hupers Believe that we’re Once-Born or Twice-Born, we misinterpret “I’d Rather Die Than Feel That” as “I’d Rather Die Than Feel That,” while it’s really “I’d Rather Die Than Feel That” – Ego Death. We’re just sawing through one of the legs of the three-legged stool we usually sit on. If we Want to minimize Pain, we’d stand up before we did that. But if you know what it means to Go Without an Identity (ie, stepping out of your Identity) for a few minutes, I’d love to know. The Emotion of Confusion is the closest we can come, and we regard Confusion as one of the best Emotions because it’s the Doorway to Evolution. We usually try to suppress it by Figuring Out What’s “Wrong,“ which is one of our most Self-Destructive Habits.

• Illuminations about the State of our Planet and the Likelihood of our Survival if we continue on our Current Trajectory (Annular Eclipse of the Sun 3:52 am PDT 10 June in 20 Gemini [Sabian Symbol “A modern cafeteria displays an abundance of food, products of various regions“], primarily impacting the several weeks following it). It will be visible if you happen to be crossing the North Pole (bring a Boat, that’s cold Water). An Annular Eclipse is one where the moon is far enough from the Earth that it doesn’t quite appear to cover the face of the Sun – an Almost-Total Eclipse. Consciousness Grows by Discovery, not by Invention, and under Eclipses we Discover what’s now missing, that we hadn’t noticed previously. For more details, see https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4910.

• An Increase in Selfishness (Mars enters Leo 6:33 am PDT 11 June). Which is not always a Negative thing. We can’t Love Other Fully until we Love Ourself Fully. Given our Illuminations about the State of the Planet and its Huper inhabitants, though, the Greedheads will probably be making another Power Grab. If we Pray enough for it, they might Betray their Heartlessness and be met with Rotten Tomatoes, or better yet new laws about, say, voting, taxing, and legal theft, and new Cultural Norms about Worshiping Wealth. The few Greedheads who aren’t Sociopaths might even have Epiphanies about their own antisocial Greed. Mars will stay in Leo till the end of July.

While we usually just dwell on the Back-of-Hand/Palm dynamics of Abuse and Privilege, we should actually look at the Pros and Cons of each. For instance, having Privilege can make so many things so much Easier. Rather than Gloating about our supposed Superiority as the source of our Privilege, or arming ourself to the hilt to keep the Rabble from “stealing” back what we’ve stolen from them, or Resisting Privilege because we’re Conscious of the Abuse that results and Guilty about it, we might instead find our Gratitude for our Privilege. In 5D where Collaboration outduels Competition, we’ll no long be in a Zero-Sum World, but back in a Natural World where the Sum is Much Greater than its Parts. From a place of Gratitude for our historical Privilege we may be able to Share it or Teach Others how to Enjoy it without creating more Abuse – not like the Missionaries that enabled the Conquistadors, however. How would we avoid that?

As for Abuse, until enough people Unite against the Psychopaths and Sociopaths and Missionaries (which will require that we no longer Worship Wealth and Greed) and enforce a meaningful Equality, the most positive feature I can envision for Abuse, is for it to Inspire us to Delete our Abuse Karma. History of course was written by the Abusers, who were by and large proud of their Conquists, so the Horrors of our Karmic History may be Exaggerated by their Pride, though I’m not naive enough about the Cruelty and Sadism of our Species, or the extreme Privilege of the Abusers, to Believe that any such Exaggeration has been more than slight.

“Trust but Verify” is good advice. During the 1980s, when Pluto was in Scorpio and Recovery was all the rage, I Learned to Ask, “What color is the wallpaper?” to remind myself that most PTSD episodes are Flashbacks and not Present-Moment. The Jungle “wallpaper” of Vietnam, and the Bare Metal “wallpaper” of the Ships, contrasts with even unadorned wallboard, so we could distinguish hallucinations from real napalm, torture, anal probes, and implants. Grounding is always a helpmate (running an imaginary cable from the base of your spine to the center of the Earth), Eating, and Orgasm are reliable Grounders.

Mirrors are always useful, especially when you’re trying to Heal Feelings that aren’t yours, which is not possible. Mirrors are even useful as a first response – when you’re Feeling awful without obvious Triggers, take the first person who comes to mind, and for five to ten seconds hold a wardrobe Mirror between you and them, facing them. If your Feelings become more acceptable, you know you’re trying to run their Emotions through your Body – or, they’re Manipulating you. If you’re being Manipulated, even with the best Intentions, it’s never fun. Most folks are totally Unconscious that they’re Manipulating. Mirrors are a good strategy for dealing with Climate Deniers, Mask Objectors, Gun Freaks, folks who want to Deny your Vote and Control your Body, and other Antichrist Lovers. You won’t need to get into a hopeless morass of Conversation with them, and if you position your Mirror so it Reflects their Energy back at them, they’ll get a bit of their own toxic “Medicine.”

The Big Advantage of using “Then versus Now” tricks, Grounding, and Mirrors, is that they’re Habit-forming. When we’re Vulnerable to Manipulation by Other People’s Energy, it’s because our Programmers “Intentionally” (though probably Unconsciously) carved a Hole in the back of our Aura, so they could reach in and pull our strings whenever they wanted or needed to. It often looks and feels like Shaming. Habitual Manipulators “see” those Holes, usually Unconsciously, so we can be Manipulated by strangers we pass on the street. Our Programmers just thought it was good parenting, and you may do it yourself when your own kids threaten to drive you Batty. As these “tricks” become a Habit, the hole in our Aura actually Seals Up, so not only do the “tricks” become second-nature, they also Heal the Source of our Dis-Ease. When our Will is Healthily Self-Serving, Habitual Manipulators pass us by without a second glance, because we’re useless as an Object for their Power Games.

Issues such as these may Confront our Experiential Infant this coming week. It never hurts to recall that we’re actually an Eternal Energy Nexus (often called an “Immortal Soul”) borrowing a Material Body. Energy can never be Destroyed, only Transformed. Revelation of Denial (dwarf planet Eris) remains Out of Bounds through all of this (until 4:12 am PDT 18 July in 20 Cancer), so don’t be Surprised if New Information about your Personal or Karmic History or Herstory comes into your Consciousness during these Adventures. If you’ve noticed that almost everything above occurs in 16-20 Degrees of one Sign or another, you’ll be checking your natal chart to see what will be Lit Up for you, as your own Energy System meshes with the Planet’s.

All of this is Important, because as we get past the 14 June Exaggeration of Abuse and Privilege (Nessus Station), we drop into a week of very Intense Manifestation Energy, as three Big Energies are simultaneously Emphasized. When Energies Conjoin in Time, it’s as if they’re Conjoining in Longitude – and these Big Fellas are also actually in neighboring Degrees of their respective Signs. The three Energies are Manifestation Itself (dwarf planet Makemake Stationary 6:42 pm PDT 19 June in 6 Libra), Expansion (Jupiter Stationary 8:04 am PDT 20 June in 3 Pisces, and The Opportunity to Jettison Karma Early (asteroid Lachesis Stationary 2:42 pm PDT 20 June in 6 Scorpio).

If as is the case hereabouts, you’re Wondering why the Foundations of your Personal Infrastructure seems to be Falling Apart, each Failure is a Big Clue about the Unconscious Energies “you” are running but not Owning, that Block what you’re trying to Manifest. Take time to Sit with each Failure of Intention or Function, and Merge with it Energetically. The Objective is to Meet each of your Unconscious Blocks as Energy Clusters in the Unconscious, Meet them in Neutral territory without Bias or Judgment on your part, and with an Open Mind Ask the Question, “Is this Energy really My Own, but I’ve been Denying it?”

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.

Handmaids and Handbaskets

Other than the fact that it actually is, there are several astroenergies about these days that can “make” us feel like the World is going to Hell in a Handbasket.

On 22 October 2020 for instance, asteroid Vesta, which symbolizes our Unconscious and Semi-Conscious Limiting Beliefs, entered Virgo, which, representing as it does Ego Death, is big on Criticism. Without Self-Criticism, where would our Motivation arise to propel us into Ego Death? — Which ranges from mostly Unpleasant to, more commonly, I’d rather Die than Do That! In between Self-Criticism and Ego Death, before we muster the Motivation to Actually Change, we Protect our Ego by Projecting our Self-Criticisms onto Others.

When we base our Ego on our Pet Peeves – “I’m not one of those People who…” – we can’t really say that our Limiting Beliefs are Unconscious, we just don’t Own them. So we have to refer to them as Semi-Conscious. If we put some thought into it, and/or enlist our Honest friends, we could all easily catalog our “Unconscious” Limiting Beliefs. They aren’t hidden. They’re writ huge in the current Political Polarity, where some folks are Choosing Homicide over Ego Death. The people with a Compulsive need to Control your Behavior preach about Freedom, while the people who are Compelled to Do what they Want preach about Control.

In my own back yard, I’m Praying that all of the ways my father predicted my Failures are Lit Up because They’re Leaving Town, not because they’re coming home to roost. Meanwhile I’m sure wasting a lot of Energy Fighting them Off. I should be Accepting them, not because he was right about me, but because I have to Accept them as Self-Criticisms before I can Motivate my own Ego Death and Let Them Go for good. Till then I’m driven by the Trance that his repeated disdain installed in the Unconscious that I Live with.

Because I Experienced his Energy as a wet blanket on mine, I used to think that his Saturn must be on my Sun. Once I knew how to check though, I discovered that it’s my Saturn that was on his Sun! Growing up in the Depression, where there were always a hundred people lined up to take whatever job he could get, he had to suppress the Lightheartedness of his Gemini Sun in order to avoid being seen as a flibbertigibbet. Growing up as I did in the 50s and 60s, after his Generation had busted their butts to rebuild a World Economy (not that it’s a solid measure of anything, but it wasn’t until 1954 that the stock market exceeded its 1929 high), my own Gemini Saturn flibbertigibbet was a source of Pride.

Since we’re only a Deflation-Delaying Ongoing Heroic Monetary Stimulus or a Hyperinflation away from our next Great Depression – many are already there – it’s appropriate that my father’s Information would emerge for me now from the Unconscious. I even had a vivid dream yesterday of setting up a homeless camp for myself in an empty corner of a strip mall. My camp wasn’t protected from rain or cold, it had no latrine or provision for food or sleep, but because it featured what have more or less been prize possessions for me for much of my Life, I was happy with it. Bookcases! It was made of Empty Bookcases. Clap your hands! Till strangers feigning Authority started prying them apart looking for contraband and woke me up.

So Virgo will be Lighting Up all of our Self-Limiting Beliefs, until mid-July 2021. Mostly we’ll Experience these as Judgments of Other People. It’s Safe to assume that whatever we Judge in Others is a caricature of an important part of Ourself that we don’t Allow to Express itself. These caricatures are Funhouse Mirrors and are seldom easy to decypher, especially anal-ytically. Since we’ve banished them to Live in the Unconscious, we’re more likely to find success by PIAVAing them.

We may be particularly Open to Insight around 9-10 November, as Vesta is Strong then (Standing Still), while the Moon crosses it. That begins our real Ego Death Curriculum, as Vesta enters what astrologers call its “Shadow Period,” the window of its Retrogradation. Between 9 November 2020 and 27 June 2021, Vesta Dances across 7-22 Virgo three times. If this process unfolds like it often does, our Troublesome Semi-Conscious Evil Twins will Act Out between 9 November 2020 and 19 January 2021. They may be especially Active around 7 December and 4 January, when the Moon visits Vesta.

Vesta first crosses 7 Virgo on 9 October, and then on 19 January, in 22 Virgo, it turns Retrograde and starts moving Backwards. It Retrogrades from 22 back to 7 Virgo until 20 April 2021. During this period we should be gaining Insight into our Projected Self-Judgments, with a boost from the Moon around 1 and 27 February and 26 March.

Finally, after 20 April, we enter the “Confidence-Building” phase, as Vesta moves forward (“Direct”) again, crossing 7-22 Virgo for the third time – by then we’ll have become “Old Hands” at using Ego Death to Claim our Projected Self-Judgments as Our Own, and if we Succeed we’ll be much closer to the Unconditional Self-Love that we need to move into The Light. The Moon will again Clarify things around 23 April, 20 May, and 17 June, and we Graduate from the whole Retrograde Adventure on 27 June 2021.

And when any planet Dances across the same patch of astrological surreal estate thrice, it’s going to get pretty Intimate with any other planet that happens to be Dancing in that same patch at the same time. So, anybody Sitting Around in the middle half of Virgo these days?

Yes, dwarf planet Orcus. “Does anybody remember Orcus,” as Robert Plant famously almost sang? The Fearsome Mythic Orcus worked for the Pre-Romans, Punishing Oath-Breakers. With Women closer to Property than People in those days, Relationship Oaths weren’t the Issue so much as Loyalty Oaths for soldiers and servants and perhaps business dealings. The problem with Oaths, and their equivalents Vows, Promises, Commitments, and even Decisions, is that they’re Sticky. These days, many of us Swear a lot, casually. We may want to reconsider what we’re Doing there.

Since we Feared the Punishment for Oath-Breaking, we worked hard to Avoid it, and the Easiest way to do that was to “Forget” that it was a Decision (which could theoretically be Renegotiated), and instead consider it to be Just The Way Things Are. If we can succeed at that, Reneging doesn’t even seem possible. And while we may not be able to take Money with us from one Lifetime to the next, we can certainly take Attitudes. So when we Forget a Decision and it becomes Just The Way Things Are, it becomes Karma, and will Follow us around till we figure out What we need to Renounce, and How to do it.

The How is actually Easy, we just need to Realize that a Limitation isn’t Just The Way Things Are, it’s Just our Karma, and Karma is only Sticky because we’re so Comfortable thinking that it’s Just The Way Things Are. The What is a bigger question, being another Funhouse Mirror that we’re probably Projecting on Others. If we aren’t always in Abundance (Having Enough to Share) in our current Lifetime for instance, When and To Whom might “we” have Sworn an Oath of Poverty or the equivalent? Maybe that Convent in France in the 7th Century? Or was it even on Earth? Maybe we were a Coyote and felt sorry for the Squirrels.

That kind of info isn’t always the Easiest to Retrieve, especially with “Left Brain” methods. We’ll be rooting in the Unconscious, so we’ll need PIAVA again. Maybe something like a Theta – “God/Goddess, Creator of All There Is, I Command that I Connect to All of my Vows of [e.g. Poverty] in All of my Lifetimes. It Is Done, It Is Done, It Is Done. Thank You, God/Goddess. Show Me!” We don’t need to Remember them all – there may be a bewildering number. We just need to Flash on our Frame of Mind and Heart while we were Swearing the Oath.

Then, while we’re there, we may need some sort of Renunciation Ritual. Writing and Burning perhaps, or “Revert!“, or whatever works for you. Another Theta might work, maybe “God/Goddess, Creator of All There Is, I Command that I Now Lovingly, Gently, Rapidly, and Completely Renounce All of my Vows of [Poverty] in All of my Lifetimes. It Is Done, It Is Done, It Is Done. Thank You, God/Goddess. Show Me!”

If you don’t Feel a sense of Immediate Liberation, check to see if you skipped over a Yes-But or two. Then Tap Out any remaining Resistance – “Even though I have Resistance to Letting Go of [Poverty], I Deeply and Completely Love and Accept Myself…” Then repeat your Renunciation Theta, and alternate Theta and Tapping till you Feel the Liberation you Want. If it’s not working, sleep on it and try again tomorrow. We can’t always Change Lifetimes of Habit in a single sitting.

Vesta first crosses Orcus on 29 November (4pm PST), in 14 Virgo, while both planets are Direct (moving forward). Considering the Players, this may be a fairly Explosive Experience, as our Unconscious Limitation literally “Meets its Maker.” We usually refer to this first of the three events in a Triple-Crossing as a “Can-Opener,” as a Can of Worms often appears in our Life, sometimes fairly Traumatically. If you have any natal planets in mid-Virgo, that’ll Complicate matters and make the Experience more Intense.

We can often dodge Trauma just by knowing that such an event is about to occur. If, say, our natal Mars is in mid-Virgo, and wee’re Conscious that an “Event” is about to Go Off, we can be Alert for any sign that Anger or Physical Injury is about to happen, and Revert it. A few days prior, we can Theta that we’ll be particularly Alert for the next week. A few Kegels can Slow Time for us so we can be more Aware. Sometimes nothing happens just because we’re Aware. Even if a Trauma sneaks up on us, as they often do, knowing what was going on astrologically can help us interpret “our own” role in the event and Neutralize our Victimhood.

We aren’t “Blaming the Victim” for Traumatic events, we’re Recognizing that Life is Fully Interactive. We actually Invite our Experiences, sometimes Consciously and sometimes Unconsciously. When we can Intuit or Figure Out Who in the Underwhere is Inviting our Unpleasant Experiences, we can Ask them what their Needs and Wants are, remind them of our then-Ego’s Needs and Wants, and Renegotiate with them to move toward Win-Win, where each of our “parts” is helping the other Achieve their Goals.

In this process “both of us” are usually Changed, as we move toward Knowing that We Are They and They Are Us and eventually Drop All Separation. This is the Growth in Consciousness that asteroid Juno presides over. What’s Juno got to do with all this? As we speak, Juno is Quintiling Vesta, and Quintiles (one fifth of the Zodiac or 72 Degrees) are about Teaching and Learning. On 29 November, Juno will Quintile Vesta-Orcus.

Also on 29 November, Neptune will be Standing Still (Strong) in Pisces, roughly Opposite Vesta-Orcus. Neptune likes to Confuse everything Material so we can Clearly see the Spiritual side of things. We may also be Letting Go of Abuse Patterns (Nessus Opposite Vesta-Orcus), Discovering Unexpected Heart Truths (Aletheia Quincunx V-O), Breaking Patterns that have Inhibited our Rebirth (Klotho Unx V-O), and Enjoying Clarity on Guilt and Codependence (Nemesis Sextile and Hylonome Trine V-O). Busy day – mark your calendar!

We refer to the second event of a Triple-Crossing as the “Exposition,” because it usually Exposes much more about whatever occurred at the Can-Opener. At any Exposition, the faster planet (here Vesta) will be Retrograde, which will Slow whatever processes are occurring so we can see them more Clearly. In this case, Orcus will also be Retrograde. The Vesta-Orcus Exposition occurs on 13 March 2021 in 13 Virgo.

We call the final of the three crossings a “Confidence-Builder,” because by now, if we’ve been Paying Attention, we’re Experienced with the Collision and Collusion of these two Energies, and we know how to Respond. The Vesta-Orcus Confidence-Builder happens on 25 May 2021 in 12 Virgo. Orcus is Standing Still and Turning Direct (Strongest) when this occurs, so we can Expect it to be particularly Powerful.

That’s one of the astroevents that can help us feel like the World is going to Hell in a Handbasket. The other Biggie is asteroid Nemesis (Guilt and Ego Death) moving into Scorpio (Fearlessness about Getting to the Bottom of Things). That happened a few days ago, on 26 October (2:40 pm PDT). Actually, both Nemesis and Scorpio can Feel a lot more ominous than either Vesta or Virgo, so hopefully we’ll have time to write soon about how this will Unfold. Nemesis only stays in Scorpio for three months, though it returns for seven weeks next summer.

And while we’re on the subject of Sign Changes, asteroid Klotho (Beginning New TimeLines) moved into Libra (Meeting Other) on 17 October for three months. That was probably a Relief after nine weeks in Virgo, where we would have been Clearing Resistance to Being Reborn.

Charts of the Portals XIV

As we Descend in earnest into Saturn-Chaos Stations (The Most Important Thing is That We Recognize Our Unlimited Potential in Response to Any Victim Feelings We May Have – for Instance, When We Feel Sick or Get Injured, Do We Recall that It’s Possible to Heal in an Instant, We’ve Just Forgotten How?  We Can PIAVA that We Remember, though!), there are a couple of Sign Changes that we’re experiencing.

On 26 September 2020 (11am PDT) asteroid Lachesis (Ending a Timeline, Unconsciously or Consciously) moves from Virgo (Ego Death) into Libra (Meeting Other).  A “TimeLine” can be any relatively coherent activity occurring in a time period – a Habit, a Relationship, a Chunk of Karma, a Preference, a Judgment, you name it.  The Mythical Lachesis was the Goddess who Measured the Length of your Fate, or a segment thereof.  When our Karma becomes Conscious, it moves from Fate to Choice.  Since we know that Karma is Dead, we can Choose to Excise a Chunk of it anytime we Recognize it and Choose to Respond Differently.

So for the last ten weeks, while Lachesis was in Virgo, we may have been Criticizing ourself, which is what we do when we’re in Judgment or Blame and Forget that we need to do an Ego Death to Escape it.  Or we may have been Feeling like we’re Dying, which is what we do when we’re trying to procrastinate on an Ego Death.  Or we may have been Feeling like “We’d Rather Die than go through That again,” which is what we Feel when one of our Karmic Held Emotions are up in our face so we can Remember that we can just Choose to Let Go Of them and be done with it.

And for the next eleven or so weeks, while Lachesis will be in Libra, the TimeLines that we Let Go Of, or Modify, or Renew, will be about Other – most likely Other People, but possibly Anything we don’t Ego-Identify with.  For instance, we might find ourself feeling like it’s time to make Changes in our Profession or Job, or a Relationship.  We may feel like getting or giving away a Pet.  We may Feel a need to Explore different ways of Relating to the World – becoming less or more Emotional, for instance, or Paying more Attention to our Body, or Meditating instead of Thinking, or Praying more.

On 27 September (12:30 am PDT), Ceres (Sustainability, Sustenance, Resilience, or the Opposite of same) moves from Pisces (Letting Go of Obsolete Emotional Patterns, or Avoiding same) back into Aquarius (Fixed Ways of Thinking, or Letting Go of same).  Ceres has been Adventuring into Pisces since late April, but has now decided it has remedial work to do with Aquarius till 10 November.  Since Ideology is one of the ways that Aquarius likes to Manifest, folks may be more Resistant to Change the Trances they Ego-Identify with.  Since Sympathy is one of the ways that Pisces likes to Manifest, folks may be more Hard-ass.

Should be interesting how the Glomonyavirus evolves, as the Covidiots may get more determined to celebrate their allegedly god-given constitutional right to go naked from the neck up in public just as the Autumn Surge in Viruses arrives.  And even more interesting to see if that shifts anyone’s Political Perspective, or just deepens their Trance.

Under the Blanket 2

Like the Zodiac, Signs are divided into twelve sections.  These are called “Duads,” each 2½ Degrees wide.  The first Duad of Capricorn is the “Capricorn Duad of Capricorn,” the second the “Aquarius Duad of Capricorn,” etc.  By “coincidence,” the current span of Pluto’s Retrogradation is within an arcminute or two of spanning Exactly one 2½-Degree “Duad” – the ninth Duad of Capricorn, 22½ to 25 Degrees, is the Virgo Duad.

Virgo is the Sign of Ego Death.  Leo is the epitome of the Individual Ego, Libra is all about Meeting Other, and Virgo spans the Gap between them.  You could even think of Virgo as the Sign of the Necessity for the Realization that We Are All One, the Sign where we Recognize what Stephanie was talking about the other day – that “The coronavirus is a reflection of a deeper and even more deadly disorder, the illusion of Separation.”

As we all know by now, the first sign of Growth in Consciousness is Confusion.  If anything is Confusing, it’s Meeting Other.  “Other” of course is Not Me, so it begins with a big strike against it.  Just consider the Landings, when Aliens from Out There come to visit – how many movies are there about that?  How often do they end well?  How do you keep Fear from trying to Destroy Them before They Destroy you?

But what if they Pretend to be Friendly?  Will we ever lose our Mistrust?  If they do Nice Things for us, will we Want More?  Of course we will!  What if they want Nice Things from us?  Will we even Realize that, if we don’t even know what Other is?  Boundaries!  That’s really Confusing!  Just dealing with someone from a different family is a constant Challenge, one that you know well if you’ve ever been married, unless you live in a very rigid Culture and you’re both Bots.

What if they don’t like what we Give them?  If they do like it, will we ever be able to get rid of them when we Want our Space?  Libra, and the Rehearsal in Virgo, make Leo look sooo Easy!

In an Unenlightened Leo, Other exists only as supporting actors for the One and Only Me.  There’s a perfect example in the News every day, and there’s a reason for that.  In an Enlightened Leo, Ego exists only to Serve the Whole.  Compare Jim Morrison with Fred Rogers.  Either way, Leo comes to an end, and after that Peak…

What comes next?  Confusion?  There is no Guidebook, no Mentors, for Virgo.  You’re on your own.  And that Leo Ego has to Break.  It has to Open Up to More, when there is no More.

Virgo can have a Reputation for being Critical.  How else do you Break Open an Ego?  You sure can’t do it with Praise, though it’s the only language that Leo understands.  So how do we even Communicate with ourself once that Bulwark starts to Break?  Virgo is a Wilderness, a Walkabout, a Vision Quest, and it’s not Optional.

Capricorn is Grounded and Practical.  The Anthem we use for Capricorn is Just Fix It.  Capricorn knows how to Fix anything.  Okay, we’re in a Wilderness with no maps.  Where do we find Water?  Is it Safe to drink?  Can we start a Fire?  What will we Eat, where will we Sleep – is it Safe to Sleep here?  Is anyone else here?  Hello??  If only I knew the Rules!

Well, that’s just where we are, isn’t it.

Our Planet is acting like it’s trying to Shake us Off, like we’ve Overstayed our Welcome – and we have, haven’t we.  What host would invite us back if we Trashed their House the way Hupers continue to Trash our Mother’s House?  If we have any Integrity at all, we’d try to “turn over a new Leaf,” wouldn’t we.  We’d do a Searching and Fearless Moral Inventory, and find out what it is exactly that we need to Change if we ever want to be Welcome in Polite Company again.  Where do we Start?  You really don’t Like me?  It’s so Confusing.  I don’t know what to do.

It must be someone else’s fault.  If I work that angle, can I get away with it?  It’s Unconstitutional!  That’s it.  It’s Unconstitutional.  I haven’t figured out Who yet, but they’re trying to take our guns.  Our jobs.  Rape our daughters.  Frying our Brains with Microwaves.  Making evil test-tube viruses.  We’re All Gonna Die!  Oh, yeah, that’s right, it’s Ego Death, isn’t it.

A friend wrote, remembering how the Universe had bounced them around in the past.  We agreed…

“Yes, we use 12-Step processes to break our Addiction to ‘Control’ (mostly the Higher Power thing, though Fearless Inventories never hurt), roll with the punches as best we can, Listen to the ‘Suggestions’ that the Universe is so generously Giving us, and begin moving toward them as best we can instead of continuing to protect our Olde Egoe.”

Pluto is about Compulsion, Transformation, Trance Reformation.  Pluto is anything but Shallow.  Like its Alter Ego Scorpio, no Stone is left unturned.  We were just thinking we had it all figured out (Leo Duad of Capricorn) when the bottom fell out (Pluto entered Virgo Duad of Capricorn in early January 2020) and suddenly We’re All Gonna Die!  And most of us, except David Geffen, are dealing with a shitstorm of assaults on our Ego.  Job Identity disappears, maybe Health Insurance with it, just when we may need it most.  Without the Sears catalog we might have to go back to corncobs and Mullein leaves.  It’s dangerous to shop for groceries!  What kind of Decade is this?  Is this what the Age of Aquarius is supposed to be like?

This is the Dawn of the Digital Age?  Remember that the Preview of the Digital Age was 2000-2020.  We began that with a big economic crash, and we’re doing it again as the 180-year Real Thing begins.  What do we expect, if the Machines do Everything?  That the 99.9% will be able to just Relax and watch?  The Truthteller here was Bernie, but they were too comfortable to Pay Attention.  Without major Changes to the World’s Political Systems, we’re back to Dickens’s 19th Century London, after they Closed the Commons, without any remaining “unoccupied” Lands to emigrate to.

How do we Cope?  We Embrace Ego Death.  It’s “What’s Happening.”

In some cultures relying on the Grace of Other – or the Goddess – is a Sacred pursuit.  Pluto will be Dancing with Ego Death (the Virgo Duad of Capricorn) till February 2021.  The symbol for Ego Death itself (asteroid Nemesis), in the Sign of Ego Death (Virgo, and in the Capricorn Duad of Virgo), is very Strong (Stationary) until at least 30 April.  The symbol for Self-Doubt (dwarf planet Chariklo) is very Strong (Stationary) until at least 2 May (in the Sagittarius Duad of Capricorn [Letting Go]).  Emotions are Strung Out for the next several days (Moon Out of Bounds 11am PDT 27 April through 5:30 am 29 April).  Heavy Times.

Besides Allowing our Identity to Morph, our Soul is available to help (Sun Conjoins Uranus 2am PDT 26 April; Mercury Conjoins Uranus 9pm PDT 30 April).  Many have Channeled the coronavirus’s purpose, and the most comprehensive one I’ve seen is by Jeff Vander Clute.  It begins…

https://jeffvanderclute.com/articles/a-message-from-the-coronavirus/

“My friends, it is true that I am here to bring closure to the inharmonious ways of being that are causing harm to humans and the whole web of life.  All the same, I am not a vengeful being or anything that is intended to be destructive.  I am simply the rebalancing agent in the overall equation of life’s evolutionary process.  By fighting me with fear in your hearts, you oppose the larger natural systems and cause me to take other forms.

“What I am, and my fundamental purpose, will not be deterred, for I am life itself acting through the available forms of distribution.  The virus that you see me as is one of an endless series of permutations.  This kind of process is one of the ways I innovate life forms and deliver new DNA sequences that will eventually be shown to be helpful. 

“The back and forth between humanity’s collective immune system and the virus is raising consciousness as humans examine their interactions, and it is literally increasing the intelligence of the superorganism that is the species as a whole.

“These tests are normal.  I repeat: these tests are normal.  For those who can hear this message and embrace me easily, you already know that fear is a much more lethal poison.  For those who will not be comforted by these words, one day you will know that I come as an act of love. 

“When you can open to the love that is at the very heart of this situation, the crisis that your media and governments decry will transform into a flower of life, spreading new consciousness and multiplying circles of cooperation.  Pay attention to your thoughts and see if you can identify the benefits of redirecting humanity’s attention from incessant wars and violence to the common ‘enemy’ that I am willing to be perceived as.

“Love will go this far, and farther, to bring healing to the mind of a young species that is still in the process of remembering itself as a divine incarnation.  Yes, you are a divine incarnation capable of fabricating realities based on goodness and beauty and compassionate understandings, actions, and beliefs. 

“Believe me when I say that I, too, am here as an act of compassion.  Accepting me in this way will lighten your heavy burden, for the divine sends only love your way.  Sometimes this love takes curious forms in order to circumvent your intricate defenses against waking up to your own glory.  I can assure you that the most functional strategy will be to embrace me as a friend of the human family...”

It’s becoming apparent that COVID-19 severity and 5G radiation are closely related.  A Worldwide event of this severity may be required to get Huperity to Recognize that Biology is an Electromagnetic process as well as a Biochemical one.  Or to Recognize that Conscious Entities are not “Resources” that can be Exploited at will for Private Profit, but must be counterparties to Negotiation and Collaboration.  If we as a Species don’t figure these things out, then the Digital Age may rapidly drive Sensitivity and Empathy to Extinction, leaving a Planet of Bots and Borgs.  Even Bionic Bots and Borgs will themselves eventually Die Out, as they’ll be subject to Entropy rather than the Syntropy of Living Organisms.  The many Great Extinctions, like Atlantis, demonstrate that Mother Earth knows how to shake off Unsustainable trends.

The 25 April Pluto Station is Merged with the astrological symbol for Growth and Expansion (Conjunct Jupiter).  This Growth in our Trance Re-Formation is Challenged by (T-Square to) the Need for a Rebirth into Consciousness of What’s been Hidden from us (dwarf planet Haumea [Rebirth] Opposite Mercury [Awareness] and dwarf planet Eris [Revelation of What’s Being Denied]).  Here’s the chart…

(Pluto is mislabeled as SD; it should be SR.)

Expanding into Truth 2

As we’ve been pointing out repeatedly since July’s Truthiness post (https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2019/07/25/truthiness/), both asteroids Aletheia (Truth of the Heart) and Veritas (Truth of the mind) are in Scorpio (Getting to the Bottom of Things, Relentlessly) and moving rapidly toward Merger (Conjunction).  So the ubiquitous news about Habitual Prevaricators getting caught standing in their own you-know-what is no Surprise.  These two Merge on 3 October 2019, about eight hours after Pluto (No Exit) Stands Still (is at Max Power).  They don’t leave Scorpio till early November.

If you haven’t been following this Thread, you’d do well to skim from Truthiness forward till now, as Truthiness has been entwined with our Karma and several other Heavy Threads – including getting Truthy about our own Karma.  Particularly notice how the hooligans are dressed in the first video of the Ixion, Forbidden Genius 3 post.

Our first 27 September astroevent (5:30 am PDT) is asteroid Nemesis (Ego Death) moving into Virgo (Ego Death).  Nemesis symbolizes Guilt and Punishment, and we Transcend that with Ego Death – we either Accept that we’re a Bad Person, or Decide that the Rules we’ve broken are Bad, that we’re being Blamed Unfairly. or that we’re being Blamed Fairly, and Intend to Reform.  Any of which Requires an Ego Adjustment, some bigger than others.

Virgo meanwhile is the rope Bridge between Leo and Libra, between the Pinnacle of Individual Development, and the First Meeting of Other, where we’re basically Infantile.  I mean, in Leo we barely knew Other existed.  We thought those disembodied clapping hands were part of our scenery.  Maybe a zip line, or a rappel with no belay, would be a better metaphor than a rope Bridge.  If we don’t go through a tonne of Ego Adjustment in Virgo as the hands stop clapping, we’ll be in big Trouble when we get to Libra.  Maybe you remember situations where you’ve Felt at the top of your game, and Believe you were meeting someone pretty much as Equals, only to very quickly Discover they were waaay ahead of you.

It’s no Help that dwarf planet Chariklo (Self-Doubt and Self-Confidence) is also Strong (Stationary), its Energy peaking a few minutes after midnight PDT on 28 September.  Or maybe it’s Helpful, if Self-Doubt leads us to Self-Examination and Change, or we Respond to getting caught in Over-Confidence by Adjusting our Attitude.

The Nemesis Sign-Change chart is like so…

Just a Big Tricolor (Mystery; the red-green-blue triangle) and a Mjölnir (Epiphany – the lighter yellow lines).  With a Tricolor we unlock the Grace in the blue line by Refusing to Let the mind Believe that it Understands the Confusion inherent in the green line.  Said another way, there’s an Easy Relationship (Trine) between the Climate Emergency (Pholus-Quaoar) and our Ego Death (Nemesis).  But the Ease is locked out of our Awareness when we Allow the Challenge (Square) that Unconscious Fear (Vesta-Sedna) makes to our Ego (Nemesis) to Dominate our Attention.  We’re referring to Pholus-Quaoar as the Climate Emergency, but it includes the Political and Economic Uncertainty that’s Afoot.

We Restore the Ease by Surrendering to our Higher Power the Relationship between our Fear (Vesta-Sedna) and the Climate Emergency (Pholus-Quaoar), by Allowing it to remain a Mystery (Quincunx).  But that doesn’t mean we defer the Opportunity to bring the Fear up into Consciousness!  For instance, I’ve been gnawing on a Problem for several months now, without coming up with a decent suggestion to Solve it.  This morning I realized that It was Fear that I was Unconsciously focusing on, while I tried to “Solve” it by Strategizing.  That’s a Dead End, obviously.  We Resolve Fear by Embracing it.

So I did just that – laid down, located the Fear in my Body, Softened and Warmed it while Poor-Sweethearting myself (“You Poor Sweetheart, you’re Scared, aren’t you”), then followed the Sensation when it Moved in my Body, and the Emotional Memories Triggered as it did.  If a Problem can’t be Resolved in a couple of months of Plotting, it’s not a Problem that will ever be Solved by Analysis, Planning, and Executing.  Declare an Intention, Command What You Want, and be Mindful to Cancel, Neutralize, Upgrade Thoughts to the Contrary.  Which I did.  Didn’t immediately Solve the Problem, but it certainly Changed my Frame of Reference, so I’m more often broadcasting What I Want to the Universe instead of What I Don’t Want.

Which leads us right to the Mjölnir (Trioctiles reaching from each end of a Square), that focuses on the Saturn-South Node that plagued us last week – namely, our Karma.  Those Emotional Memories Triggered by the Movement of Energy after I Allowed the Fear to become Conscious as a Physical Sensation in my Body and Invited it to Express itself however it Chose.

Asteroid Hopi, joining Saturn and the Dragon’s Tail, is about Respect for All Things.  A great time to go through our…

“_____, whatever I may have done or not done, or said or not said, Consciously or Unconsciously, that hurt you, I Ask your Forgiveness.  _____, whatever you may have done or not done, or said or not said, Consciously or Unconsciously, that hurt me, I forgive you.”

Be careful with this; it can easily Create Powerful Ego Deaths that you don’t notice until you Discover that you’ve Forgotten how to Drive!

♥ A few hours later, around 8:30 am PDT 27 September, asteroid Bee-Zed (or BZ509, indicating Transendence) Stands Still.  Its chart…

…is more complicated, but the core is two T-Squares (red triangles), one to Stationary Bee-Zed itself, Expanded by Jupiter (Growth), and the other to Chariklo (Self-Doubt/Confidence), Stationary less than a day later (just after midnight PDT 28 September).  Chariklo is Lit up by Pluto (Obsession), which itself is Stationary until 2 October, and our busy friend Hopi again.  This is a hell of a lot of Power.  Make sure you’re swimming downstream.

Expanding Transcendence (Jupiter and Bee-Zed) is Challenged by (Squares) the Dance (Opposition) between Choosing to Become Aware and Trust our Instincts (Moira-Juno-Moon) and Sacred Confusion about our Identity (Neptune-Lilith).  Lilith is about Bringing our Identity back Home to our Self and our Soul, rather than Investing it in someone or something External to us, such as a spouse or a job.  Confusion is always the first stage of Growth, as the Mental Cage we normally trap the Universe in, starts to warp and lead.  Sacred Confusion (Neptune) all the more.

Compulsive Attention to Self-Doubt and Self-Confidence, in the context of our Judgments (Pluto-Chariklo-Hopi) is Challenged by the Dance between our Values (Venus) and our Endings (Atropos).  In other words this is about Letting Go of Obsolete Values that Inhibit our Self-Confidence.  The Greek Atropos was the Goddess who determined the Ending of a TimeLine – a Lifetime or a Habit or a Relationship or any other Thread in your Young Life.  Fate is what happens to us when we’re Unconscious; we replace it with Choice when we become Conscious.  Here we practice Choosing to Let Go of Values that no longer Serve us.

There is a seventh fencepost here – the budding (3 October) Conjunction between Truth of the Heart Aletheia, and Truth of the mind Veritas.  It Bridges both Oppositions – we’ll make everything a lot Easier if we steer toward Truth.

♥ We need to remind that this is all just warmup for the 2 October (11:30 pm PDT) Station of Pluto (Compulsive Change of Trance) and 3 October (8am PDT) Aletheia-Veritas Conjunction (Truth Squared).

And that 28 September is even busier than the 27th,  starting just after midnight PDT with the Station of Chariklo (Self-Doubt/Self-Confidence) which Conjoins the Stations of Pluto and Bee-Zed, and continuing at 9am PDT with the Station of dwarf planet Chaos.  Chaos is a Big Deal; if it weren’t for all these other themes going on and Pluto waving its arms, Chaos would be the Big Topic!  Here it just means that however we React and Respond to these Lit-Up Issues of Karma, Survival, Ego Death, Confidence, Truth, Growth, Ascension (into 5D), and Descension (of Soul into Matter) the Gate to the Universe is Open.  The World is our Oyster; all we need to do is Intend it.

Then, at 11:30 am PDT 28 September, the Moon is New within one arcminute of dwarf planet Makemake (Manifestation).  The primary theme of the New Moon, other than Manifesting What We Want, is Descent of Soul into Matter, not just “our own” Soul into our own Body, but the Reanimation of the Planet, the Wild, and Everything In It, return to the Indigenous World where All Things Are Alive.

♥ If anyone is watching the Degrees and comparing them to their natal chart – which we should all be doing – they’re these…

• Equinox 0 Libra 23 September
• Nemesis Ingress 0 Virgo 27 September
• New Moon 6 Libra 28 September
• Aletheia-Veritas Conjunction 17 Virgo 3 October
• Bee-Zed Station 18 Sagittarius 27 September
• Chariklo Station 20 Capricorn 28 September
• Pluto Station 21 Capricorn 2 October
• Asbolus Station 24 Gemini 23 September
• Chaos Staion 27 Gemini 28 September
• Vesta Station 28 Taurus 23 September

Expanding into Truth 1

A quick Summary of the fireworks we listed in the previous post…

• 27 September 2019 – Ego Death Squared (Nemesis enters Virgo).
• – Transcending Untruth (Bee-Zed Stationary Conjunct Aletheia-Veritas).
• 28 September – Dancing with Self-Doubt (Chariklo Stationary Conjunct Pluto).
•  – Wandering in Paradise (Chaos Stationary Conjunct Asbolus).
•  – Making New Friends (New Moon Conjunct Makemake).
• 2 October – No U Turn (Pluto Stationary).
• 3 October – Truth Reigns (Aletheia Conjunct Veritas).

The overarching Energy is Pluto.  We usually describe Pluto Energy  as floating down a large river – when we hear the waterfall coming up, we can steer to one bank or the other to portage around it.  So we do have the flexibility to Manipulate the Energy to our advantage, if we have the Skills.  But it’s a big river – if we try to paddle upstream, we’ll just get swept over the falls backward.  When Pluto Energy Shifts, Going Back takes great Effort, and if you get there it’s not the same anyway.

This Pluto Station is about Revising our Values to account for New Information we’ve gotten (Pluto Stationary T-Square Venus and Eris).  Except for minor differences, the 27 September Bee-Zed Station and 28 September Chariklo Stations make the same basic chart, as all three of these Stations occur within the same 3-Degree window.

Pluto is often read as Transformation, or Formation of a New Trance, Bee-Zed as Transcendence, and Chariklo as Self-Confidence or its evil twin Self-Doubt.  So this week we wouldn’t be Surprised to find ourself Doubting our Old Values, as we Transcend previously Unconscious Limitations.  By next week we should be ready to have Confidence in a whole set of New Values.

Lingering beneath this Pluto Energy is a Station of dwarf planet Chaos, which, if we Allow it, can blow our Limitations to smithereens.  With our Values in Flux here, the odds are improved.  Dwarf planet Chaos implies, rather than Disorder, a Blank Slate on which we can draw anything we can Imagine that draws out our Passion.  We’re only Limited by our Imagination and our Manifestation Skills – which are much Enhanced by the 28 September New Moon only one arcminute from dwarf planet Makemake.

Chaos has been Dancing with our Intuition (Asbolus) and our Forbidden Genius (Ixion).  As we’ve seen, our Genius is tied up with the Climate Emergency (Pholus-Quaoar), so it’s Important that we Receive and Embrace Her.  Greta is a great Model for our Hidden Genius – when the trolls attack her for being “mentally ill,” she points out that she regards her Asperger’s Syndrome as her Superpower.  We all have a Superpower that’s been Shamed by the Status Quo Culture.

As you Doubt your own Values this week, you’ll see first hand why others would much rather ridicule their superiors than Allow their Ego-draped Values to be Threatened.  The 27 September Ingress of asteroid Nemesis (Ego Death) into Virgo (Ego Death) will Amplify all that.  Leo is the apex of the Individual, and in Libra we Meet Other.  In between – in Virgo – we Discover, like we did as infants, that we aren’t the Center of the Universe.

To get from Leo to Libra requires a Gauntlet of Ego Deaths.  Virgo’s bad rap follows from Maladjustment to and Judgment of Ego Death.  For all the (Lack of) Attention that Ego-Worshiping Western Culture gives to Ego Death, it’s a Wonder anyone is Well-Adjusted to it – if anyone is.  I felt it today in the form of missing two turns on a 2-mile trip that I drive almost every day.

Self-Love Full Moon III

One of the poles of the Fabulous Grace (Grand Sextile) in the Full Moon – with the caveat that you have to kick-start the Blessings with at least a Prayer about What You Want, if not Action in that direction – is a Merger (Conjunction) between the symbol for Revelation of What’s Been Denied (dwarf planet Eris – which was recently Stationary) and the symbol for Ending Timelines or Habits (asteroid Atropos).

To facilitate this Getting Honest stuff, the symbol for Truth of the Heart (asteroid Aletheia) just entered (11:30 pm PDT 16 August) the Sign of Fearlessly Seeking the Truth (Scorpio).  You may not recall that the symbol for Truth of the Mind (asteroid Veritas) (see https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2019/07/25/truthiness-2/) entered the same Relentless Sign a short while ago.  While Head-Truth folks can Agree to Disagree, Heart-Truth people are less likely to be able to Compromise, because their Identity is invested in their Truth.  So we may wish to PIAVA or otherwise Pray that this Potential for increasing Violence doesn’t Manifest.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49382386

Meanwhile, we’re now well into the Energy of Letting Go of Obsolete Habits (asteroid Atropos, Stationary) peaking 20 August (11:30 pm PDT).  The Fabulous Grace in the Full Moon, which should Bless at least the next two weeks, if we can Feel and Express enough Collective Gratitude for it, could well soften this potential Confrontation of Truths that are Held as Sacred.  We might PIAVA that we and others Decommision our Habits of resorting to Violence to “Get Our Way,” of preferring inflammatory Rhetoric to Listening, and of Working to Eliminate our Opposition rather than Accommodate or Contain it.

Another Boon is the symbol for Choosing Consciousness over Fate or Karma (asteroid Moira) entering the Sign of Ego Death (Virgo) on 19 August (5:30 pm PDT).  If our Ego is Attached to our Karma – which like it or not, for all of us, it is, or we’d just Let It Go before breakfast…

– we may now be more willing to Accept the Ego Death(s) necessary for us to Choose Awareness over Repeating our old Self-Sabotaging Patterns.  Ego Deaths don’t have to be Painful.

By 23 August, two other Boons arrive.  The symbol for Growing the Edges of Consciousness (asteroid Juno) also enters the Sign of Loosening Ego Attachment (Virgo) (5pm PDT).  And the symbol for New Beginnings (asteroid Klotho) moves into the Sign of Flexibility and Change (Gemini), which should make it easier to give up old intransigent Patterns (12:30 pm PDT).

It’s not often that all four of the Greek Mythology symbols for Fate versus Conscious Awareness are lit up at the same time.  The symbols for Fate itself (Moira), and for Starting New Timelines (Klotho) are both moving into new Signs, while the symbol for Consciously Ending Obsolete Timelines (Atropos) is very Strong (Stationary).  And we haven’t written about it yet, but the symbol for Consciously Choosing the Duration of our Habits (asteroid Lachesis) is Lit Up in the Full Moon chart (the focus of one of three Fingers of God).  I read this as a fairly Unique Opportunity for Massive Personal and Global Change.

21.5.16 Full Moon II

 

Our Chief Asteroid Officer points out that Astraea (the fifth asteroid discovered after Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta) completes the Grand Cross with the Full Moon.  Astraea is about Innocence, and she’s right at home in early Virgo.  

We can think of Virgoan innocence as “Who, me?” in the sense that when your best friend Lovingly accuses you of hiding behind a Mask (when you actually are), and you naturally and innocently reply “Who, me?”  Not that your friend would ever be dumb enough to try to label someone else’s Masks; it’s just a metaphor to explain Virgo’s function.  

Leo is where the Ego’s Self-Confidence peaks, Libra is where it meets Other, which means that all bets on Self-Confidence are up for grabs.  Virgo is in charge of the Transition.  If Virgo is the palm, Pisces is the back of the hand.  Aquarius is where the Ego’s Confidence in Community peaks, Aries is where it meets brand new territory so success will only follow from “Don’t-Know” mind.  Pisces is in charge of that Transition.

At the Full Moon we have dwarf planets Opposite one another that are both Stationary (Strong) early in this Virgo-Pisces Ego-Transition, from having a fair degree of Certainty and Comfort, to becoming a complete newbie again.  With Astraea asking, “Who, Me?”  Or as a reader says…

“Kaboom, JUST connected.  I’m wiggin’ out because I hold this perspective & perception that EVERYTHING IS A TRADE OFF.  OMG – THAT belief?  I was completely indoctrinated into THAT.  Hugo mungo either/or thinking.  I never saw the depth of this trade-off perspective and never connected it to The Grand Either/Or that permeates so much.  That they are one and the same.”

I could tell similar stories about my own Epiphanies, but this stuff moves so fast, and the nature of this Edge between Consciousness and the Unconscious is so ephemeral, that I can’t keep track from day to day of what my Psyche is doing.  I just know it’s moving through Heavy territory and making it’s own connections.  

How old was I when they had to sew my tongue back on because I bit it almost off jumping off a couch while horseplaying with my sibs?  Three?  Of course that wouldn’t have triggered my Abandonment because my father had to spend money he didn’t have.  And of course that wouldn’t have anything to do with my allergy to hospitals and my recent experience of them.  

Without knowing what but knowing it was Heavy, I used to literally paint that picture when I was in high school, the scene from the neighbor’s car, looking out over the river in the darkness.  I obviously wasn’t in my Body.  Shortly after that we moved to the downriver side of the hospital, and it took me a long time to figure out why in this picture I was looking down river.

Another reader, born during the height of the original Ouija-Board Pluto-Uranus Initiation, recommended Bill Plotkin’s Wild Mind to me.  Here are some excerpts about our Masks…

“The grave problem with having made such a pact in childhood is that, once adopted, it becomes a bedrock layer of our personalities.  Achieving liberation from our Loyal Soldier survival strategies is one of the most challenging and long-lasting tasks of the individuation process, requiring a good deal of courage, discernment, and endurance even into genuine adulthood and elderhood.” (p.133)

His pact, or Oath, is our response to our need to protect our child self from likely-fatal Abandonment by our Family or Community.  The dwarf planet Orcus, which symbolizes these Oaths, is Stationary only a few degrees from Astraea.  It’s handy, having Astraea’s Innocence there, allowing us more Empathy for the pickle that our historical tykes found themselves in.  That allows us to slap our forehead with an OMG, instead of the “How stupid can we be?” that we might otherwise greet ourself with while opening these doors.

The Pisces side of this equation features the dwarf planet OR10 – also Stationary – and the Centaur Nessus.  OR10 is about irruption of material from the Unconscious – including sudden Epiphanies.  Nessus is about Privilege and Abuse.  And all this is in the context of having Mars (Action, Anger) Oppose Vesta (Limiting Unconscious Beliefs) less than a Degree from the Full Moon axis.  All preparation for June’s Eris-Uranus (Embracing the Previously Denied) – the cosmic choreography is quite amazing.

Plotkin continues…

“Our juvenile survival strategies of self-diminishment form the core of our most self-defeating patterns: those that disparage our dreams, our potentials, and our healthy wildness, or that aggravate low self-esteem and troubles with intimacy.  And, most irksome, these strategies are often on autopilot, launched outside our awareness and without our consent or control.”

Conspiring to hold our Unique Genius in its Orphanage – or as we bring them into Consciousness, to Set it Free, as Ixion (Genius) Trines (Grace) Eris-Uranus.

More Masks from Plotkin (p.157)…

Not all of our Wounded Children are trying to help us survive.  Some are simply casualties of our other [Masks] or of the unkind actions of others.  These are our Outcasts, elements of our psyches we rejected in order to survive, in order to be accepted by others.

“These are the versions of ourselves of which we are ashamed – perhaps our gentleness or our fierceness, our sexuality, our anger or sadness, our fear or embarrassment, our love of dance or poetry, our joy or vivaciousness, or our need for touch or compassion.  Once we reject these Wounded Children and label them bad or worthless, they exist in a marginal, banished state within our psyches.  Nonetheless, we live every day with some awareness of their pain and heartache.

“For children, conscious self-rejection is less harmful than being rejected by others, even if it’s no less painful.  By restraining ourselves from acting in ways that lead to being shamed, we’re less likely to be abandoned.  The price we pay is self-shaming, resulting in Outcasts within us we’re not willing to love, who we’ve neglected and exiled.  

“Although our Outcasts persist as pockets of pain within us, they embody great gifts – strengths and sensibilities not deemed worthy by others in our early lives, but gifts we can reclaim when we’re psychologically ready to do so.  The reclamation process usually begins with grief.  We must mourn our psychological woundings by others, our consequent self-woundings, and the loss of joy, aliveness, and relationships that resulted from all our self-diminishments.”

And again (pp.186-7)…

“We’re all in recovery from Western civilization.  Sooner or later, we each must address the paramount addiction in the Western and Westernized worlds: our psychological dependence on the worldview and lifestyle of Western civilization itself.  The Western worldview says, in essence, that technological progress is the highest value, and that we were born to consume, to endlessly use and discard natural resources, other species, techno-gadgets, toys, and often, other people, especially if they’re poor or from the global South.

“It’s a world of commodities, not entities, of consumers, not human beings, and economic expansion is the primary measure of progress.  Profits are valued over people, money over meaning, our national entitlement over global peace and justice, ‘us’ over ‘them.’  This addiction to Western civilization – especially now that the Chinese, too, are hooked – is by far the most dangerous one in the world because of how rapidly and extensively it’s undermining the natural systems of the Earth.

“Addiction to Western civilization keeps us from seeing and feeling the staggering price all Earthly life pays for our consumer habit.  And it protects us from having to make any radical changes in lifestyle, or from having to grow up, leave the ‘home’ of our adolescent comforts, and embark on the hazardous journey of initiation that leads to an existence that’s life enhancing, meaningful. and fulfilling.”

Pp.208-210…

“The Shadow, one of the archetypes identified by psychologist Carl Jung, is composed of those elements of our own psyches that are unknown to us … the Shadow is not what we know about ourselves, don’t like, and keep hidden.  Rather, the Shadow is what is true about us that we don’t know – don’t know at all – and, if accused of it, would adamantly and sincerely deny.”

“Who, Me?”

“The purpose of the Shadow is to protect us from enacting personal characteristics that, if expressed, might land us in big trouble with others or ourselves.  We stuff these forbidden parts of ourselves in a corner of our psyches where we can’t find them, where we can ‘fail to notice’ them.”

“The Shadow is what our psyches repress (render unconscious), not what our Egos suppress (consciously hide from others). … This is difficult to accept and digest – that there are aspects or parts of ourselves we really don’t know and that are completely at odds with who we think we are.  

“Even when our other [Masks] act unconsciously (independently of our Egos), we know them by how they affect our lives, thoughts, and deeds.  Perhaps we don’t acknowledge them to others, but we do know them.  Not so for the elements of the Shadow.  The Shadow is always unconscious.”

Ah yes, dwarf planet Chaos (Unlimited Potential), Sextile (Grace after we initiate) to Eris-Uranus.  Thank goodness there’s always More.