Big Eclipse VI

Here’s a handy tool…

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2017-august-21?n=394#

Before we finish with the busy 21-25-Degree Zone of the Eclipse chart, we need to talk about one more snapshot, a Yin Gate (signified by the two adjacent green Xs) nestled in amidst the T-Squares, Grand Cross, Grand Trines, and Grand Sextile that we’ve already discussed…

As you probably recall, a Yin Gate is a “Mystery School” where we’re taught to Accept Paradox, because Paradox is essential for grokking Reality.  Contradiction occurs only in the mind, never in Real Life.  If we’re Limited to Logic, we can never Grow beyond our (usually Unconscious, almost always unstated, and implicitly incomplete) Assumptions, and we’re Stuck in Duality, losing access to all of the other Dimensions of the Multifarious and Unitary Real Universe.  Whenever we encounter a Contradiction, like Jewel’s neon sign, it tells us that we need to Open to Paradox instead.

The crux of the Paradox we’re Asked to accept in the Eclipse Yin Gate is the apparent Conflict between our Values and Ego Death.  We’re taught that our Values are Fixed for Life, that they Define Who We Are, and in a post or two back, Jewel talked about using them for her compass in the Wilderness of Life.  Well, even if our Values never Change, the depth of our Understanding of them definitely Changes.  And in order for that to happen, an Ego Death of some sort or another often needs to occur. 

When we’re Emotionally Attached to our Current Ego – and almost by definition, who isn’t – then an Ego Death literally Breaks our Heart (Venus in Cancer).  Why on Earth would anyone intentionally Break their own Heart?  Well, it’s not really the Heart that’s Breaking, it’s the Emotional and Intellectual Shell around it that’s Breaking.  The Heart is actually Breaking Open.

Paradox is the Central Issue in a Yin Gate, but Yin Gates involve much more…

• The Golden Rectangle (heavy blue lines) enfolding the Gate is a Blessing helping us return to Alignment with our True Nature (Golden Rectangle), in this case Aligning the Self-Sovereignty (Lilith) of our Forbidden Genius (Ixion), which at the moment is The Most Important Thing (Saturn), with our Birthright of Freedom (Chaos), and Aligning that with Our Mission in the Lifetime (North Node), with the Dissolution of our Resentments (Mars-Atropos), and with Action (Mars) to Reclaim our Hidden Skills and Embrace the Emotions that we cannot Tolerate (South Node).  (The Golden Rectangle is blue because that’s the color we use to symbolize Grace, and Golden because it reflects the Golden Ratio that Pachamama uses to Align Her infrastructure.)

• Funny we should mention Resentments.  In addition to being Conjunct asteroid Truth, another reader has just pointed out that the Eclipse is also Conjunct the Fixed Star Regulus, one of the four Royal Stars of Persia.  The textbook on each of these Royal Stars is that they promise Great Success, but only if a certain downside can be Avoided.  The downside for Regulus?  Resentment!  As they say, you can’t make this stuff up!  Oh, btw, I retract that comment yesterday about the caves.

• Four Natural PIAVAs…
  • I Wonder (Quincunx – green line) how my Understanding of my Values (Venus) was warped by Others to imprison my Forbidden Genius (Ixion), restrain by Self-Sovereignty (Lilith), and Limit my Healthy Control over my own Domain (Saturn).
  • I Wonder how my Programming about my Values may have helped keep my Karma (South Node) in place.
  • I Wonder what sort of Ego Death (Nemesis) would Allow me to Transcend my Most Frustrating Limitations (Chaos). 
  • I Wonder what will happen if I Lovingly and Gently Affirm (Mars) exactly that sort of Ego Death, and Affirm my Commitment to Lovingly and Gently Extinguish (Atropos) all Inhibitions to my Life Mission (North Node).  Sounds scary, eh?
    

• Two Big Opportunities to Let Go of Unconscious Archetypes that Control our Lives…
  • When we regard our Values as Moral Imperatives rather than Choices, we create Limits for ourself and for our Community.  We can find Alternatives that are more Flexible, Expansive, and Rewarding.  (Venus Unx to Chaos and Mars-Atropos-North Node – the Unx Angle, make by two planets one Sign apart, aka the Twelfth Harmonic, is about Breaking Patterns)
  • When we have Habits of suppressing certain Emotions, it imprisons the parts of ourself that Feel those Emotions.  Those parts might just need a good catharsis, so after Allowing those Emotions to surface, they may just Go Away.  On the other hand, they might constitute a critical Tool for an important part of ourself that we haven’t Opened Up to yet in the Lifetime.  Either way (and the latter is more likely during this Eclipse), it will be Liberating for us to Open Up to these Emotions.  (Nemesis Unx to South Node and Ixion-Lilith-Saturn)

  ♥  ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥  

This next part Integrates the Whole McGillacuddy, so you might want to either skip it, or be prepared to spend a half-hour or so trying to grok the Bigger Multidimensional Picture it paints.  Or you can use it to see how your own Natal planets might facilitate or hinder your Transcendance.

Overall in the Eclipse chart we have…

• The Eclipse itself (representing Conscious Differentiation of previously fused Unconscious Material) in a Pointy Square Fez (which means Utilizing Grace to Meld Multiple Challenges into Useful Compost) in 27-1 Degrees (symbolizing Endings and Beginnings).

• A Sextile Fez (Substituting Curiosity for Conflict) in 1-7 Degrees (Designing a Prototype).

• A Flying Squirrel (PIAVAing Grace to Resolve Complex Interactions) and Earth Grand Trine (Staying Grounded in Hardcopy 3D “Reality” to facilitate Integration of Higher Dimensions) in 7-14 Degrees (Testing the Prototype in Realistic Circumstances).

• A Bascule Bridge (Grace with Options) in 17-21 Degrees (A Searching and Fearless Inventory of how our Prototype Performed).

• The  21-24 Zone (Burning Away the Unnecessary in Order to Achieve a Clean Restart) that we’ve been talking about for the last several posts.

Which covers all but a few Degrees of the Zodiac! 

The Eclipse chart also has an Earth Grand Quintile (Graduate Seminar in Staying Grounded).

Well talk about the rest of these in the next few installments.

  ♥  ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥  

Then we need to quickly turn our Attention to the Adventures which follow and Challenge our Infant Self to make Choices it may not be ready for…

August 24 (ie, ~ August 17-24) – Saturn Stationary turning Direct, informing us that we need to Pay Attention to The Most Important Thing

August 26 (ie, ~ August 22-26) – Juno Stationary turning Direct, Opening the Gate between Consciousness and the Unconscious

August 27 (ie, ~ August 20-27) – Sedna Stationary turning Retrograde, Staying Present when we’re in Fear or Anger

The exact dates are when the planet is actually Standing Still.  When a planet Stands Still we Feel it strongly for a week or so beforehand.  If we know what’s going on, then the Energy drops off rapidly after that.  If we don’t, there is a danger that we might make Decisions that carry the Energy beyond the Exact date.

Let’s take an example.  Suppose the Veil thins on August 25 and we suddenly Perceive Multiple Realities at the same time.  We might be looking through a window into a Parallel Life, for instance, or the World may be Pixelating, or it may turn into Images entirely unrecognizable and we might think we’re Hallucinating (we aren’t)…

(Borrowed with Gratitude and Admiration from Brian Froud)

So we might rush to the doctor to get drugs to “bring us back to ‘Reality’ ” – that could set us back for years.  Or we might not really Discern what we’re seeing, but find ourselves disoriented and dizzy or even nauseous, and Vow to never again Allow ourselves to think about what might be just beyond the Limits of our Beliefs.  But if we know what’s happening, then after we retrieved our jaw, we’d just be Grateful for a Glimpse into the Realm of Faerie, bow, and say “Hello.  How may I serve you?”

The thing to notice is that the periods when these Stations are Strongest overlap the Eclipse.  So we could easily summarize the whole Eclipse Drama in one sentence as…

The Most Important Thing is to Get Conscious of our Fears and Angers, so we can be Present with them when they arise, rather than Allowing them to sweep us away into a fuzzy Past where we can’t tell that it’s not really still going on. 

Or is it? 

No, it never really was.  That was just a painful Hallucination.

Make Ego Great Again II

A friend sent this link to a Vedic interpretation of Eclipses…

http://visionaryreadings.com/the-meaning-of-eclipses-in-vedic-astrology/

And then described how their Life has been bothered by bureaucratic snafus recently. 

Where we are Looking has a lot to do with how we Perceive Reality.  Consider the contrast between Looking at the Fear Propaganda on TV in the USofA, or Looking at, for example, http://www.onenessofall.com/newest.html or http://danielscranton.com/ .  Not to imply that the Arcturians have any kind of monopoly on Relevance to what’s happening on the Planet.  You might resonate more to the Pleiadeans or https://lightquest-intl.com/ or http://www.starwars.com/games-apps .

Vedic astrology has a tendency to Believe it does have a monopoly on Truth.  If it provides Perspective that is useful to you, then, as with any Perspective, by all means use it.  The more Lenses we have to see the World through, the closer we are to actually participating in Reality rather than our own Projections.  When any Perspective strikes Fear, though, we need to Tap Out the Fear before we use the Perspective.  If a Perspective is good for nothing more than bringing Unconscious Fear into Consciousness where you can Love it to Death, then it’s a very Powerful Perspective for you.  Alternatively, with a technique like Theta Healing, where the Outcome is immediately available to us, we can modify our Command until we find one that works, or alternate Theta and Tapping.

The root of the monopoly tendency in Vedic astrology is Religious Politics.  Simply put, if it’s Either/Or it’s Political.  If it’s Both/And, it’s Spiritual.  We make no claim that this is an absolute Truth, but we suggest strongly that it’s a very Reliable First Approximation and a very Useful Perspective.  Vedic astrology supported Political Hinduism, as distinct from Esoteric Hinduism.  Political Hinduism supported ongoing Abuse of the Dalit or Harijan caste just as Political Christianity supported ongoing Slavery and Abuse of Primary Cultures everywhere they were encountered.  Certainty is a Tool of Political Agendas.

We look at it this way.  Hinduism is frequently accused of promoting Fatalism, and Political Hinduism certainly appears to.  As with most Religions, I don’t believe that Esoteric Hinduism does promote Fatalism.  Fate and Free Will are usually seen as an Either/Or, so as with any Duality, we Know that this is a 3D Veil attempting to obscure the Both/And, Multifarious and Unitary Reality on the Other Side.

The difference between Fate and Free Will is that our Fate is what befalls us when we’re Captives of the Karmic and Generational and Social Archetypes that we usually refer to as our Limiting Beliefs.  Free Will is what we Obtain when we step outside of the Limited Reality of the these Archetypes.  Even the “Laws” of Physics are simply Archetypes, Projections of the Ego’s need for Stasis and the mind’s need for the Illusion of Understanding.  If you’ve ever had a Wannabe Guru Manifest in your bedroom in a pillar of shimmering colored pinpricks of light like on Star Trek, you’d understand this.  Or Channeled an Antarean, or met a Walk-In, or Encountered one of your Doubles.

To me Growth in Consciousness (which means Freeing yourself from some Archetype), which usually requires an Ego Death of some sort, is not about Discovery, but about Differentiation.  We See or Feel more layers of Reality when we start noticing that there are Trees in the Forest, Trees of different Colors, Trees that have Birds and Bears in them, Birds and Bear that may be different from one another and that eat different Foods, etc etc.  There is no better way to Illuminate an Archetype or Assumption that we’ve wrapped our Limited view of Reality around, than for it suddenly to disappear.

Would we notice if suddenly all the Birch Trees disappeared from the Forest?  We might only notice that something had Changed.  But if they reappeared while we were pondering what it was that Changed, then suddenly our Consciousness would have a whole new Perspective on Birch Trees.  This is precisely what happens during an Eclipse; that which we Assume is Constant blinks off for a short time, then returns to its former Glory.  And we’re talking about the Sun, which Symbolizes our Essence.  Hence we consider Eclipses to be about Illumination, and that’s precisely what they are. 

Remember that in the Unconscious there is no Negation.  When you Pray for No War, you’re most likely to get War, because the Unconscious does not have a No in its vocabulary.  As we usually put it, astrology and the Unconscious determine Dimension, but not Direction.  The Cat may still be Alive or Not.  Eclipse is the Absence of Light, as Fear is the Absence of Love.  The Dimensions in those statements are Light and Love.  The Direction – Absence or Presence – is a Political Decision by the Ego, by yourself.

When you make a Decision to Choose Light and Love rather than Absence on any Issue in your Life, you threaten the Karmic or Family or Cultural Archetype that would keep you in Scarcity, with Fire and Fury like the World has never known.  So guess what the Archetype does in return?  It threatens to surround your Ego with Missiles, while its Ally the Ego warns you to seek cover and “not” to look at the flash.  As if you would have time for anything approaching that.  Ego and Archetype are one and the same. 

Hence we always recommend adding “Lovingly and Gently and Rapidly and Completely” to our PIAVAs. 

https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/category/manifestation/piava-review/

PIAVAs directly address the Unconscious.  The Unconscious is in Charge, and one of its “Rules” is that no Prayer goes unanswered – that’s just a Perspective, but we suggest strongly that it’s a Reliable First Approximation and a Useful Perspective.   Use it as a filter to Examine your Life.  Every Negative thought you have is a Prayer.  Every Victim Emotion that you have is a Prayer.  Your Prayers specify the Dimension, and your Negativity and Victimhood specify the Direction.  Thoughts and Emotions are self-reinforcing, and their Negativity and Victimhood reinforce each other.  Your Negative thoughts and Victim Emotions are generated by your Archetypes.

When you PIAVA something and you’re ready to Receive it, the Universe will deliver it, just like Amazon or Taobao.  When you aren’t ready to Receive it, what the Universe will deliver, when you see the Universe through a Benevolent Lens, is Illustration of Why You Haven’t Been Manifesting That All Along.  That often looks like the Opposite of what you Asked for – the same principle as an Eclipse; often the fastest way to get you to Notice something that you’ve been taking for granted, is to Remove it.

There are some things which you have always been Abundant in.  Your Archetypes support your Ego in those arenas.  There are other things that have always been Difficult for you.  Those Define your Self-Sabotaging Archetypes.  Jane Roberts’s (Seth’s) The Nature of Personal Reality is an excellent exposition of this Lens.

Your thoughts and Emotions are not beyond your Control.  Your Ego can Choose to Intervene and Change the Direction.  It may take years of Persistence to shut down a strong Archetype, but never consider it Impossible.  You can PIAVA Assistance in Changing the Direction of the Archetype from Scarcity to Abundance – or vice versa for Abuse, though you’re better off Asking for Respect and Inviolate Boundaries, or whatever it is that you Want, rather than Asking for what you Don’t Want.

In Real Life this is an Either/Or Universe.  Fate is still going on.  If your Fate is to be Rich and Famous and Irresistible, then you may not want to Change it – though “Good” Karma is said to be harder to Change than “Bad” Karma, so when you start to get tired of being Rich and Famous and Irresistible, you may want to PIAVA Choice.  You may want to Choose Rich and Famous and Irresistible on Tuesdays and Fridays, Happy and Private on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and Surprised on Saturdays and Sundays and Mondays – but even that is an Archetype that will be Obsolete soon.

There isn’t much difference between Attention and Intention.  If your Attention is always on Negativity and Scarcity, whether in thought or Emotion, the Unconscious will consider that your Intention, and Manifest it for you.  Your Attention is under your Control.  You may have a nasty Habit of Focusing on your Negative thoughts and Bummer Emotions, and it may take a lot of Work to Change the Habit, but it is doable.  The Key is Noticing and Congratulating.

Rather than beating yourself up when you Notice that you’re Unconsciously indulging your Negativity, Congratulate yourself for Noticing.  You’re substituting Positive Reinforcement for Negative Reinforcement, and the more often you do this, the easier it becomes.  You’ll be surprised at how Effective this simple step is; Congratulate yourself for Noticing that you’re Repeating an undesired Habit, rather than cursing yourself for Repeating the Habit.

This particular Eclipse occurs while Mercury is Retrograde, and the Vedic Eclipse interpretation we linked to at the beginning of this article reads much like the average Western astrology’s interpretation of Mercury Retrograde.  Our approach to Retrogradations is the same as our approach to Eclipses.  But rather than Demanifestation of something routine, a Retrogradation may encourage Obsession on it – not a matter of Dimension, just a matter of Direction, so absolutely available to be Changed by the Ego with PIAVAs and Persistence. 

I usually find Retrogrades to be more Contemplative than Obsessive, but the same Energies apply – Contemplate What you Want, not What you Don’t Want.  If you’re particularly Skilled at Obsession, Obsess on What you Want, not on What you don’t Want.  We’ve already talked about Obsession and Changing the Subject, an important step in PIAVAing…

https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2017/08/09/cause-an-defect-full-moon-iv/

If you can’t shake Negative Energy while you’re trying to Focus on What You Want, Tap it Out.  Be sure to measure the Intensity of the Energy before and after Tapping, and Recognize that you may need to Iterate, and even alternate with other forms of PIAVAing.  Persistence counts.

The dwarf planet that deals with our Unlimited Potential is Chaos, which is in the Air Grand Trine and Dynamic Grand Sextile of the recent Full Moon; see the previous post.  It’s joined in the Grand Trine by Haumea/Rebirth and South Node/Karma, but the other three, Fire, points in the Grand Sextile are North Node/Mission and Purpose, Eris/Revelation of Denial, and Lilith-Saturn-Ixion-Pholus/In Order to Achieve Self-Sovereignty the Most Important Thing is that we Become Responsible to our Unique and Probably Forbidden Genius.

The dwarf planet and Centaur Hylonome deals with Letting Go of Archetypes, and the asteroid Juno deals with the Edges of Consciousness.  It’s no Coincidence that they’re Conjunct as we speak.  Hylonome Initiated Juno in February 2017, starting a new 9-year Cycle at 8 Capricorn, “In a Sun-lit home domestic birds sing joyously.”  We’re in the middle of the Exposition (which actually peaked 28 July).  The Confidence-Builder occurs at the September Equinox.

Make Ego Great Again

Well, maybe we’d really be Choosing Famine after all…

http://mashable.com/2017/08/09/north-korea-nuclear-war-climate-change-winter/#.3pYlkGLQiqn

At least we finally understand ‘Rump’s rejection of the Paris Treaty – he had a “better” way in mind.  All the Grand Trines in the Full Moon chart suggest Positive Outcomes, but from the Ego’s Perspective we’re never sure exactly what a Positive Outcome really might be, since the Ego Loves to get Attached to Dead-End status quo situations. Maybe a Nuclear Winter would end up being kinder or more equitable than rising sea levels.  Or, once ‘Rump preemptively nukes Venezuela as well, the falling dominoes might leave few of us here to Enjoy a Nuclear Winter.

Mercury’s now Retrograde, till 4 September.  It backs over much of the first half of Virgo and the last Duad (two-and-a-half Degrees) of Leo.  So the path that we’ve trod in our Mind’s Eye (it’s Mercury after all) since 24 July has involved a likely rather significant Fall from Grace with ourself, as we tested our concept of Self-Love intellectually (Cancer Duad of Leo), found it to be a miserable failure (Virgo Duad of Virgo), then studied its Mirror-Image in Others (Libra and Scorpio Duads), Rejected that (Sagittarius Duad), then began to Start Over (Capricorn Duad).

Now we run this sequence in reverse.  We have to assume that when the Universe Asks us to Repeat a sequence three or more times, it means that we’re really supposed to grok this.  So our next step will likely be to look again for Babies in the Bathwater we discarded during the first week of August, then go back and review all the Vignettes we Re-Experienced in the last week of July (Realizing now that they’re reversed left-to-right, which may mean we might want to reverse the roles in the Vignetted scenarios), and through that process, somehow Fall in Love with ourself again.

Then, between 4 September and the Equinox, we go back through the process in the original direction.  Just as Mercury begins to go Direct again, Mars goes into Virgo, assisting us in our Efforts toward Self-Improvement.  See if you can shift your Attention from Self-Improvement to Self-Acceptance in September.  Virgo can do Ego Death either way – Criticizing itself to Death or Loving itself to Death.  The Criticism path is a treadmill, the Loving path leads to Permanent Growth.  “You poor Sweetheart, you’re Feeling like this is The End, aren’t you.” 

By the time Mercury breaks out of it’s “Shadow Period” (29 Leo to 12 Virgo) at the Equinox, Venus will just be entering Virgo, and we’ll be ready for it.  Nobody’s going to be “Ascending” till they can do Ego Deaths Lovingly.  Surrender (Giving Over to Forces more Powerful and Benevolent than our Ego, not Giving Up) helps a great deal.

When the Sky darkens during the Total Eclipse and you can see the planets lined up, starting west-northwest of the Hole in the Sky where the Sun used to be, and stretching in a line almost halfway across the Sky toward the east-southeast, you should see Venus, Mars, the Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn, in that order.  Venus and Jupiter will be brightest.  Mars, reddish, will be close to the Hole.  You might want to memorize this order, since you’ll only have two minutes of darkness, and the fireworks around the Hole in the Sky will be, appropriately, Demanding most of your Attention.

We have a great many metaphorical Rebirths and New Timelines these days.  This will help move us into them…

http://danielscranton.com/creating-new-timelines-%e2%88%9ethe-9th-dimensional-arcturian-council/

“We have observed that many of you are creating the timelines for yourselves that are ideal from your perspective, and we can see you moving closer and closer to these timelines.  This is the perfect timing to be engaged in such creative work, because you are supported by the energies that are upon you.  You are more supported in creating something new at this time than you are in creating some rehashed, ideal, third-dimensional existence.

[such as the Nuclear Winter that ‘Rump is preparing for us]

“In other words, you are moving forward, not backwards. 

[It’s only the Mind that’s moving backwards; the rest of us is moving forward]

“So in order for you to align with the energies that are moving you forward, you must be willing to go to places you have not gone before.  We are talking about vibration here.  We are talking about getting out of your heads and into the vibrational field you want to be in.

“Your heads are capable of telling you about all of the wonderful things that you have seen here on planet Earth in all of your lifetimes, and you can conjure up a pretty good experience for yourself through what you have seen, what you have done, what you have heard about, but what will absolutely knock your socks off is the unknown that you are creating.

“To create with vibration takes you beyond everything that you’ve experienced thus far in the physical and everything that you’ve ever wanted to experience as well.  Now, the fifth dimensional energies that are upon you are nudging you in this direction.  They are attempting to free you from the limitations of your minds and to nudge you into the unknown field of yet-to-be-experienced vibration.

“And then all you have to do is surrender to the process, because you could not possibly imagine how you are going to come to the timeline that you’re creating.  You cannot imagine because it’s something that you haven’t experienced, and you haven’t heard about yet.

“Soon enough, however, you are going to start to hear about experiences that others are having, unexplainable experiences, experiences that go beyond imagination, beyond thought.  This is what we see you all reaching for as you construct your ideal version of the fifth dimension and you continue to inch your way towards it.”

The Bottom Line is that we Create our Own Reality.  The more we Stretch ourselves beyond the daily Fear propaganda, the more we contribute to the Transformation of the Planet, and the easier it will be for all of us to Roll Our Own.

Repeating Astroevents

One of the reasons I wrote about Anxiety specifically recently, is that several folks have expressed concern recently about whether nightmares of one kind or another that they endured when an astroevent happened, will recur when the event repeats.  Just as an example, the 9 June Uranus-Eris Conjunction will come back to haunt us on 26 September – that will probably be an intense time for Britain.  When we personally have planets in our natal chart triggered by outer planets in the Sky, it’s even more intense.

The way I look at it (from several decades of personal experience), when an astroevent repeats it’s because the Universe wants us to Learn something very well.  If we’ve never experienced the particular event before, of course we’re going to be caught off guard the first time it occurs – at times even shaken to the core!  That’s why we call the first occurrence the “Can-Opener” – it opens Cans of Worms, or venemous Snakes, that we didn’t know about.

The second and subsequent events are usually a little less intense, but if we’re swamped with dread from memories of the Can-Opener, we can actually make it worse through our Anxiety and Expectation.  Expectation turns out to be a lot like Intention (which is what’s most Self-Sabotaging about our Limiting Beliefs), and as we said earlier, Anxiety can actually create Limiting Beliefs, through Decisions.

After we’ve experienced a Can-Opener, we need to take notes on our Internal and External Realities – what were we Feeling, and what Happened (plus, what Happened and how did we React to it).  We refer to the second episode of any astroevent as an “Exposition” – it Exposes a lot more information about the first event.  So as the second event approaches, we can be reviewing our notebook and Expecting to Learn a lot more about those Feelings and Occurrences that the Can-Opener triggered.

The more Experience we have with anything, the more likely we’ll deal with it calmly and confidently.  Sometimes astroevents go on and on, like the Uranus-Pluto Squares of 2012-15.  Back in the 1980s and 1990s, Saturn and Chiron Opposed one another over and over again for eleven years!  The Universe was shouting, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING HERE IS LEARNING HOW TO DEAL WITH DESPAIR!, as Pluto crossed Scorpio.  I grayed that out a bit lest someone think we’re referring to the Present Moment.  What we got from that was the Recovery Movement.

When we’re dealing with planets in the Sky now, like we write about here, both planets are moving, and if they’re moving at similar speeds they can chase each other around playing tag for a long time.  But since our natal planets are fixed, personal astroevents usually happen only three times.  Those new dwarfs out beyond Pluto can move so slow that it takes them several years to go just one Degree, so they’re exceptions, but their impact is deep in the Unconscious, and they may have less direct impact up here on the Surface for many folks.

If we were taking good notes at our Exposition, we probably Learned a great deal about any Overwhelm we experienced at the Can-Opener, and the third occurrence of an astroevent is usually a “Confidence-Builder.”  The same Feelings recur but we’ve now integrated them.  Similar External Events happen, but now we’re a relative pro at dealing with them.  

This approach to “Transits” (as astrologers call interactions between Sky-Now-planets and natal-planets) is one of the strongest gains one can make from following one’s “Stars.”  It converts one from being an unwilling Victim of one’s Transits, to being a willing Student of them.  As a friend of mine once said, “I know that ‘This too shall pass,’ but you’re an astrologer; you know when it will pass.”

The other major impact we can make from knowing our Transits, is Decision Prevention.  Prevention of inappropriate Decisions, that is.  If you were following the in-the-Sky-Now Transits at the time of “9/11,” you’d have understood that The Most Important Thing at the time was Dealing with Your Fear of Death, as the Saturn-Pluto Cycle had just moved past it’s climax.

Instead of being a Student of the astroevents of the time and Learning about Ego Death and Transformation, most folks rushed eagerly into being their Victim, leaving the US open to being manipulated into buying what Dubya called “Perpetual War” by America’s leading export industry, the Arms Industry, and into loss of considerable civil rights through the Patriot Act.  Both of these are still Self-Sabotaging the US fifteen years later.

When we discuss 2020, as we’re planning to do, we’ll have to take into account that the decade begins with Initiation of a new 33-year Saturn-Pluto Cycle centered around Awards for bravery in combat.  We’ll have to see whether the awards go to storm troopers or freedom fighters.

The current Saturn-Pluto Cycle began in 1982 at 28 Libra, Becoming conscious of Spirit.  The next one begins in January 2020 at 23 Capricorn, Awards for bravery in combat.  

The Jupiter-Saturn Cycle that marks the beginning of the Digital Age doesn’t Initiate till the December Solstice in 2020, at 1 Aquarius, An old California adobe mission.  Pluto Initiates Jupiter in early April 2020 in 25 Capricorn, An abundance of Oriental rugs.

If we combine these new beginnings with the Fresh Violets in an Ancient Pottery Bowl Chiron-Neptune Cycle that began at the Derivatives or “Mortgage” Crisis, we have a lot of old Technology surviving into the Digital Age – passive mud-brick buildings, weaving, pottery, Plants; Sustainable technology for a nuclear winter after a Trumpian fit of pique or Planetary climate diaster?  Violets are edible.

Or maybe just Sustainable technology for an expanded Back-to-the-Land Permaculture movement for the billions who won’t find a place in Digital society.

Stations of the Tōkaidō

This is a technical note about astrology, though I think most folks will find it useful.

Because we all go around the Sun at different speeds, for part of the year most of the planets appear to go “backwards,” or “Retrograde.”  

We use “Tropical” astrology, which means we look at the planets as they appear from Earth; in Sidereal astrology (as the planets would appear from the Sun, if you have your asbestos booties on) there are no Retrogradations, everybody’s just in the same roller derby.  Also, in Tropical astrology, we locate the planets in Signs relative to the March Equinox, not relative to the location of a particular Constellation in the Sky, as Sidereal astrology does.

The planets and Moon move in the Sky from west to east; it’s the turning of the Earth that makes it look like they’re moving from east to west.  To see their true movement, you have to take a series of snapshots of the Sky every night at midnight and play them in a zoetrope.  When we pass a slower planet in the derby, that planet will appear in this series of midnight snapshots to stop, go westward for a while, stop again, and then resume its eastward motion.

When a planet stops, it’s said to be “Stationary,” or to be “having a Station” or “Standing Still.”  But there are several important nuances to this term, that we usually gloss over.

The most important thing to know is that the influence of a planet is Strongest in the days (inner planets) or week (outer planets) before it’s Exact Station.  

The influence of any planet is always relative – if there are six Big astroevents going on at the same time, any one of them by itself probably won’t seem as overwhelming.  And the Strength of a Station depends on our Sensitivity – in general, to that planet, and to the Location of its Station.  If it Stands Still on one of the planets in our birth chart, for instance, it may as well be Standing on our toe.

We say a week for the Strong influence of a Stationary outer planet because that’s about as much time as we can get without contamination for a zillion other astrothingies, and because that’s approximately where my span of Sensitivity lies for the average outer planet.  If your Sensitivity is greater, you’ll Feel a Station earlier; if you’re a Muggle, you may not Feel it at all.

It also depends on your ability to distinguish one Energy from another.  If six planets are Stationary at once, like at the Centaur Convention on the Galactic Center a few years back, or if there are a number of Strong Angles going on at the same time (like now), it’ll take a very Discerning eye to separate out the Influences – as if it mattered.

This week Neptune and Makemake were Stationary at the same time, with less than a day between them.  We couldn’t really tune into Makemake while Neptune was still Stationary – the Energy we were experiencing wasn’t Neptune, but Neptune-Makemake.  Once Neptune found its Exact Station, its Strength began to wane, and we could tune in to Makemake more readily.  

Next week Pallas and Juno will do the same trick; Pallas’s Exact Station occurs about half-past 6pm PDT on 21 June, and Juno’s at 1pm on 22 June.  So we’ll be feeling Pallas-Juno for most of the 21st, and Juno after that – though there’s a whole lot else going on next week, so I don’t expect these Energies to stand out prominently, unless they’re Standing on your toes.

While there is a moment of Exact Station, when the planet literally turns about, they don’t screech to a sudden stop, then burn rubber; they slow down and speed up gradually before and after their Stations, and in general the slower they’re moving, the more they’re saying “Hey, Look at Me!”  So we often say that a planet “is Stationary” when it’s within one Degree (inner planets) or one week (outer planets) of it’s Exact Station.

We find the Energy to be Strongest before the Exact Station.  A planet speeds up gradually after the Exact Station, and while it’s still moving very slowly it’s still technically Stationary and still Stronger than usual, but not as Strong as before the Station.  With this week’s Neptune and Makemake Stations, for instance, we mostly talked about how Strong they were leading up to their Exact Stations, not so much afterwards.

As with any astroevent, we’ve found that Consciousness is primary.  If we’re Aware that Pallas is Stationary, for instance, then we won’t be surprised if we see Boundaries coming up for renegotiation.  If we aren’t Conscious of what Pallas is up to, we may be caught off guard, and avoid the suggested renegotiations.  If we renegotiate in a timely fashion, then the Energy is deflated once the Exact Station passes.  If we don’t, then the Energy can drag on.

In particular, Decisions can extend any astroevent.  For instance, if someone insults or harasses us on the 21st and we don’t call them on it (here’s a helpful tool: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/nwrn.org/files/Nw16N/NW16News0316.pdf  ) and instead just Judge them, then we lose our Curiosity and poison our Relationship with that person.  That Energy could last “forever.”  If we renegotiate on the spot and Revert, then Pallas Energy moves back into the background.

The poster child for this is 9/11.  The Saturn-Pluto Energy that provoked 9/11 was finished in August.  But the Lizards had other plans, introducing their 1000-page Patriot Act and US-economy-supporting (as arms merchant to the World) “Perpetual War” within a few days anyway.  So we’re still dealing with that Energy fifteen years later, and it shows no sign of de-escalating.

A planet can be “Stationary Retrograde,” when it’s slowing down to turn backwards, or “Stationary Direct,” when it’s slowing down to turn forward again.  Personally, we find that the Strengthening of a planet’s Energy at either Station is much more important than whether it’s turning Retrograde or Direct, so we usually just focus on the Station.

Similarly, we don’t usually make a big deal out of whether a planet is Direct or Retrograde.  There are some cases where the impact is obvious – as with Mercury – but usually it’s just a matter of whether we’re being Extroverted or Introverted around the planet’s Energy, and we find that whether the planet is Stationary is much more prominent than whether it Retrograde.  Your experience may differ.

One thing that does matter, is that when a planet turns Retrograde it crosses a patch of Sky three (or more, if the planet is far away) times instead of once, implying that the Universe really wants us to get the hang of this piece of Sky.  If the planet makes a triple Angle to another planet in the Sky, or to a planet in our birth chart, that’s a Big Deal.

When a planet makes multiple Angles to another, we refer to the first event as the “Can-Opener,” because the Energy often appears to come out of “left field” and surprise us.  If we’re dealing with slow-moving outer planets, we may have little or no experience with that particular combination of Energies in our Lifetime, so it may really catch us off guard.  The Can-Opener occurs before a planet turns Retrograde.

As the multiple Angle repeats, we gain experience with it, so we refer to the second (Retrograde) and subsequent events as “Expositions,” because they Expose us to the Energies so we can get more comfortable with them.

The last event of a multiple Angle we call a “Confidence-Builder,” because by now we’ve probably gained enough familiarity with the Energy combination that we feel confident dealing with it.  The Confidence-Builder occurs after the planet turns Direct again.

When folks refer to a Retrogradation, they’re usually referring to the timespan when the planet is actually Retrograde.  To an astrologer it’s more important to know when the planet first enters the patch of Sky over which it will later Retrograde, and when it finally exits that patch of Sky, after it turns Direct again.  

This entire span is called a “Shadow Period,” in both time and astrological Degrees.  It’s important because it encompasses the Can-Opener and the Confidence-Builder, while the Retrograde period itself only includes the Expositions.

The two most important things to know about Stations are (1) that a planet’s Influence is Strongest just prior to its Exact Station, whether it’s turning Retrograde or Direct, and (2) that we need to look ahead to find a planet’s Shadow Period, so we can be Conscious of Can-Openers as the arise.

No Medical History

Okay, so “where does Eris seem to be leading me next?”  What Masks are being pulled upon for me?  

Well, about 45 years ago I realized that dentistry was a treadmill that required more effort than payoff, and about 35 years ago I discovered that mainstream medicine wasn’t worth the money either.  Originally, I just didn’t want to devote my Life to buying someone else a new Mercedes every few years, without getting much in return.  As the years have gone by, I’ve seen many more reasons to eschew for-profit medicine and its master Big Pharma, particularly where it does more harm than good in the name of quarterly profits, inflated Lifestyles, and vested interests.

So a week ago, I woke up with a swollen face and neck from an infected tooth.  I’ve been through several abscesses, Healing them with other means, but never anything like this.  Plus, it freaked out my wife.  So we went to her dentist.  Turns out that sort of swelling can close the windpipe without much notice, so I ended up spending the weekend in the hospital getting a course of IV antibiotics and steroids.  After a third of a century of abstinence, stepping into the dental, mainstream medicine, and pharmaceutical worlds in one leap was certainly a huge Ego Death.

But it didn’t feel like it.  There was no clinging, no hesitation, no doubt.  My traditional self-Healing methods weren’t working, it felt like something I couldn’t just tolerate or adapt to, and, just one “easy” step after another, here I was in the hospital sucking up the drugs that destroy the first third of one’s immune system.  Of course I was hyperalert for the many unnecessary doctor visits and irrelevant tests that you read about hospitals using to exploit the unwary, and ready to be defensive about my choices if they tried to “diagnose” me.  Diagnosis is a label with enormous baggage attached to it.

But it didn’t happen.  The tests and docs all seemed pretty central to the issue at hand, the people were very nice, mostly genuine, educated, caring, and sharp.  So there’s the first piece of Eris intel – that our Eridean edification may arrive through witnessing that our accustomed Judgments aren’t valid.  Our Judgments are certainly Limiting Beliefs.  And mainstream medicine is powerfully good at dealing with emergencies.

Turns out I’m healthier than I thought I was.  Doc after doc, nurse after nurse, most of them said something like “70-plus, no medical history, no medications, relatively good health – how do you do it?  I’m on four meds already in my 50s.”  By the third time, I realized it was a serious question, so I started answering.  I told them to look up Functional Medicine, whose creed is from Aristotle – “Let Food be thy Medicine, and Medicine be thy Food” – and of course why and how to avoid Glyphosate.   Many of them were already partway there in their personal Lives.  Functional Medicine is new, but I’ve been following its precepts pretty faithfully for 35 years.

There’s the second piece of Eris intel – that the World is educable.  I’m sure it will take a looong time before hospital “food” gets up to snuff – there was nothing on the menu that I could eat, even after they dismissed surgery and allowed that it was Safe for me to eat.  Even the Broth – they had no list of ingredients for it, it just “came in a pouch.”  So I got my first-ever two-day Fast, which was easy and felt good.  More potential Ego Bullets dodged.

Once I got out of the hospital I had to start thinking about having the tooth pulled, and a friend inadvertently reminded me that Mercury was about to go Retrograde.  I don’t usually worry much about Retrogrades, but then, I don’t sign a lot of contracts.  The timeliness of the reminder gave me pause.  I didn’t think it would be possible to get it out before Mercury went Retrograde; could I wait till after it turned Direct again?  I didn’t want to revisit it again and again.

Differences of opinion among the docs – some said no way to wait, some said finish the antibiotics first (I’m still on followup oral antibiotics).  The oral surgeon’s office said he was booked for the next three weeks – maybe waiting was my answer.  But the surgeon offered his consulting services two days after I got out of the hospital.  At the consultation he proposed pulling the tooth at 9:30am on 28 April.  Mercury turned Retro at 10:20am – problem solved.

And with it another piece of Eris intel – don’t waste your time trying to Do and Plan – go straight to PIAVA instead.  That one’s BIG.

Of course, now that I’ve had the offending tooth extracted and had to go two more days at home with only liquid Foods, I see that fasting isn’t as easy when you’re feeling better and surrounded by all of those tasty treats that dance and sing and wave their tentacles every time you walk by.  So now we’re getting in a little deeper with this fourth piece of Eris intel – I’m intellectually Conscious that I eat to dispel Anxiety, but I haven’t scratched the surface of the Emotional Discernment that will be necessary to Change that Pattern.

As I’ve said many times, the Noticing is the hardest part, the Acting differently will be a Challenge, but once the effort begins, the process is self-reinforcing.  So it’ll probably be easier than I imagine.  But this use of Food for Emotional Control, rather than Nutrition or Celebration, certainly qualifies as one of those things that “we will discover in the way of unknown Beliefs, or long-standing Limits that we’ve misinterpreted as Irritations or social norms, and which are likely to come into Focus as Self-Sabotage.”  And that we’ll be clinging to, in an addictive sense.

Multiple personalities – the folks who have cancer in one personality and not in another, for instance – is a heavier situation than most of us are in.  But we all have multiple subpersonalities that may relate to each other only in passing.  In some mind-spaces I have no difficulty at all passing up a candy bar – why would I want to do that to myself?  In other spaces, it’s Sure, I can do that!  In yet others it’s Whoa, have you tried that new Ocho Dark Coffee organic-chocolate organic-coffee bar?  It’s incredible!  

These three people kinda know each other, but not well.  It’s almost as if they’re independent of the overall director of the Vehicle.  They kind of take turns running the show, and when one is in charge, the others may be distant witnesses, but it almost seems like they don’t care.  Of course tooth pain calls forth sub #1 (why would I do that to myself?) fairly reliably, because the negative feedback is immediate.

The fifth potential Ego hit will be around how to pay the hospital bills when they arrive.  And I can see another, sixth piece of Eris intel – once I’m back on my feet, will I withstand the pressure to give in to the dental treadmill?  I’ve yet to see dentistry really working – they wail on your mouth and checkbook, and the only result is that they want to see you again in three months, or sooner.  Or will I submit eagerly, if I can scrounge up the money, because it might seem easier than self-Healing?

Time will tell about this one.  The Eris-Uranus Initiation is still a month off.  We don’t know what will Change, or how we’ll Change.

Varuna and Chariklo

Our next study opportunities are with dwarf planet Varuna and Centaur Chariklo.  Both are lit up now, as Varuna Stands Still at 2am PDT on 9 April, at 28 Cancer, and Chariklo Stands Still on 12 April in 9 Capricorn at 8am PDT.  Varuna is turning Direct, Chariklo Retrograde.  The Energy of a planet is strongest when it’s Stationary or Standing Still.

Varuna was an ancient pre-Vedic Indian God-figure.  He may symbolize Cellular Wisdom and Gut-Reaction Patterns that predate organized Culture.  Let me know if you experience any unusual processes of that sort on 8 April, or if you experience anything unusual.

Chariklo represents Charm, Beauty, Symmetry, Walking in Beauty.  I haven’t studied her enough to know whether it’s more difficult to Charm someone when Chariklo is Retrograde, similar to the way Communication is sometimes more difficult when Mercury is Retrograde.  Just in case, if you need to seduce someone (in the larger sense of the word, of course), you might try to make it happen before 12 April.

Portal 24-29.3 – Saturn et al Stationary I

The influence of a planet is Strongest when it’s Stationary.  Being Stationary is much more significant than whether a planet is turning Retrograde or Direct.  There’s no shortage of Stationary planets over the next week…

• 24 March 5am PDT, dwarf planet Ixion Stationary Retrograde, 25 Sagittarius – our Abandoned Genius
• 25 March…
  • 2am PDT, asteroid Klotho Stationary Direct, 15 Leo ( Trine to Saturn) – Assembling the Foundation of a New Life
  • 3am PDT, Saturn Stationary Retrograde, 17 Sagittarius – Pay Attention to The Most Important Thing
• 26 March 6am PDT, Centaur Pholus Stationary Retrograde, on the Galactic Center at 28 Sagittarius – Taking Full Responsibility (NOT Blame)
• 29 March…
  • 1pm PDT, dwarf planet Quaoar Stationary Retrograde, 30 Sagittarius – Decisions with Survival Value (or NOT)
  • 5pm PDT, asteroid Sappho Stationary Direct, 12 Leo (Conjunct Klotho) – Celebrating Love

Depending on your Sensitivity, the influence of a Station will be prominent for about a week for the outer planets (Ixion, Saturn, Pholus, Quaoar), and several days for the asteroids (Klotho, Sappho), so the exact times may be less relevant, though you may feel a definite shift as each millstone is passed.

With this many planets rallying at once, expect Massive Confusion.  Multiplying the cacophony, this will light up all of your birth planets between 11 and 18 Degrees, and between 24 Degrees and the following Cusp.  Not many of us will have no planets in these ranges.

This is all Fire Energy, Sagittarius and Leo.  The Buddhists say, “into the Fire, out in the Water,” meaning that if you’re planning to Journey with Spirit – or if Spirit is planning to Journey with you, as is obviously the case here – expect to be Cleansed Emotionally.

We can build an overview by interpreting the equivalent of an Ixion-Saturn-Pholus-Quaoar Stellium: The Most Important Thing this week will be Taking Full Responsibility for the Survival Value of our Abandoned Genius.  Responsibility isn’t Blame, it’s Being Able to Respond rather than React.  It looks to the Future, not the Past (as Blame does).  With Pholus Stationary on the Galactic Center, the Responsibility element is Cosmic.

There’s a very high probability that your Abandoned Genius is socially unacceptable, and accordingly may well be hiding behind Shame or Guilt.  If Shame arises here, Pay Attention – what you’re Ashamed of is probably a (very primitive) version of your Unique Genius.  “Retarded” is a word that may fit, since we haven’t been able to Enjoy or Practice or Mature our Genius since it was Shamed into Abandonment.  

There may also be a shred of appropriate Guilt involved, as in rare cases we may have been Shamed for Abusive behavior on the part of our Unique Genius.  Many children develop their Social Values only with coaching.  Suppose for instance that your Unique Genius is Salesmanship.  As is prominently displayed in the US these days, some people never developed Social Values around Salesmanship, and will say anything to make a sale – Truth is no issue at all.  

If you were caught selling Magic Gravel to the neighbor kids at age four and Shamed for it, your Salesmanship may still be underground, and still at a four-year-old level of development.  As badly as the Planet needs people to sell the ideas of Community, Sustainability, Equality, Justice, and Ecological Responsibility, we can’t afford to keep your Salesmanship under wraps.  In order to pull off the blanket you’ll need to Lovingly Embrace your Shamed four-year-old, and have great Patience as you grow her retarded development into an adult Skill.

As Dr. Kim says, there are no negative Emotions, only negative Reactions to an Emotion.  Even Shame.  The Most Important Thing is to be Loving and Gentle with any and all Feelings which arise.  It’ll help to – “You poor Sweetheart…” – Empathize with your Self at the age when you were Overwhelmed by your original Feelings (a good example of how Overwhelm can stall Personal Growth for years – or decades).  

Children, new to Egos, are very easily Overwhelmed.  Good parenting involves protecting children from Overwhelm, not contributing or even creating it.  Unfortunately, most parents are simply mindlessly passing along the consequences of the Overwhelm that they suffered as Children, or the Overwhelm that their great great grandparents suffered.  It’s up to us to Heal this.

Now Retipuj Too

If we look for the most unique news event in the Collective during Mercury’s first crossing of Pallas and Pluto, and Squaring of Uranus, we find the recovery of the SpaceX first-stage rocket.  

Background, if you’ve missed the story: The US Space Agency, NASA, has been inviting private industry and small startups into the “Space Race,” in the effort to spur innovation and reduce cost.  Successful bidders include SpaceX, a rocket company founded and run by Elon Musk (PayPal, Tesla, SolarCity), whose primary motivation seems to be to colonize Mars.  

Satellite-launching rockets cost tens of millions to build, and they’ve been considered disposable, used once and discarded.  Musk’s notion is to recover and reuse them.  In mid-December a SpaceX rocket successfully launched eleven communication satellites, then turned ’round and came home, landing nose up in a bed of fire a few miles from its launch site in Florida.  Jeff Bezos’s (Amazon) rocket company, Blue Origin, has also successfully recovered used rockets by landing them vertically, but his rockets don’t reach orbital altitudes.

SpaceX aims to reduce space travel costs by 99% with rocket recovery.  Potential for increased space littering aside, this kind of puts us back in the 1960s, when the Sky was no longer the Limit, and folks purportedly walked on the Moon, before OPEC threw a wet blanket on our plans to emulate the Jetsons.  Global Warming, Syria and Russia, and the rise of China were also prominent at the Mercury-Pluto Can-Opener.

So we can expect more development of the subway-to-Mars story in mid-January, at the Mercury-Pluto Exposition.  Apart from the time-local Mercury Can-Opener template, the SpaceX story is also an excellent example of another phenomenon, the astrological Cycle.  We’ve been referring to 2012-15 as “The Return of the ’60s” because Pluto Initiated a new Cycle with Uranus in 1965, and a characteristic of the astrological Cycle is that a new Energy emerges at the Initiation, then goes underground during the first one fourth of the Cycle, or until the planets “Square” one another.  After this Waxing Square, the new Energy spreads widely.  The Uranus-Pluto Square spanned 2012-2015, and we’ve seen a number of other ’60s themes becoming prominent – civil/human rights and marijuana decriminalization among the most obvious. 

Two planets are said to “Square” one another, or to “be Square” to each other, when they are 90 Degrees apart, or one fourth of the way around the Zodiac from one another.   In “Tropical” astrology, which we practice, the two imaginary lines drawn from Earth to each planet would be perpendicular to each other.  So one of them would be rising or setting when the other was directly overhead.  

A “Waxing” Square is created when the faster planet reaches one fourth of the way around the Zodiacal loop, ahead of the slower planet.  The slower planet is moving too, so the Square doesn’t occur 90 Degrees from where the planets met, but rather when there are 90 Degrees between the two planets in real time.  The “Waning” Square occurs when the faster planet is 270 Degrees ahead of, or 90 Degrees behind, the slower planet.

Keep in mind that the planets move from West to East.  Its the daily turning of the Earth into the East that makes it look to us as though the planets and Stars and Sun and Moon move from East to West.  You can see how the planets themselves move by taking a snapshot of the Sky every night at midnight.

As the name implies, a Square signifies a Fourth Harmonic relationship between the two planets.  The Fourth Harmonic is about Dominion, and the Square is about Mastery through Challenge.  If you think about your frustrations and breakthroughs in trying to Relate to someone who is very different from you in ways that you don’t understand, you’ll get a good handle on the Square.  If you succumb to Preconceptions and Judgments and Other People’s Opinions and Expectations, you won’t get very far in either Relationships or Squares.  If you’re genuinely interested in overcoming the barriers, willing to learn and practice new Skills, able to try something else when one strategy doesn’t work, open to Surprise, able to Suspend Judgment, and willing to give yourself credit for all the hard Work, you’ll find both Relationships and Squares to be Exciting and Rewarding.

Now it’s Jupiter’s turn to face the Mirror at the back of the bus – Retipuj Egardorter.  We pay attention to the Stations, when a planet is changing directions, because that’s one of the times when a planet’s influence is Strongest, and because of these triple-plays, which are often Life-Changing.  Jupiter’s triple-cross spans 14-24 Degrees of Virgo and mid-October 2015 through early August 2016.  Jupiter starts moving forward again on 9 May.  

One of Jupiter’s triple-plays, for instance, is an Opposition to Chiron.  The Can-Opener occurred in early November.  Jupiter may have Expanded your Discouragement then, in an effort to get you to step over the wall into Miracles.  If you allowed Preconceptions and Judgments to slow you down then – this is common for Can-Openers, because they introduce us to new territory – we get another chance at the Exposition in late February.  Expositions are easier, first because we’ve now seen it before, but also because events and feelings unfold more slowly and gradually, giving us a better opportunity to study and understand what’s going on.  Our Confidence-Builder will occur in mid-August.

The Jupiter-Station chart is a busy one…

• The Jupiter-Edargorter Station is Conjunct the North Node, while the Moon and Ixion T-Square the Nodes
• Jupiter is also the focus of a Yod based on the Ceres-Eris Sextile
• It’s also the tail of a South-Node Kite, Grand-Trining Pallas and Sedna
• Sedna’s the focus of a Yod from the Haumea-Moon/Ixion Sextile
• Haumea has it’s own Yod, based on the North Node-Eris Sextile
• Pallas is also the focus of a T-Square across the Haumea-Eris Opposition
• Eris is Stationary, turning Direct in two days at the head of a second Kite with s Chaos-Ceres-Haumea Grand Trine, T-Squared by the New Moon 
• The Eris-Haumea Opposition also forms a Trioctile Box with the Orcus-Neptune Opposition

It’s going to be a hard month for keeping secrets, and for keeping our remaining Masks held tight, as the New Moon extends this chart into the rest of January.  Our “Pathological Genius” – our Unique Skills that have been Shamed into the Dungeon – will be irrepressible.  Fear may be prominent, especially Fear of Abandonment and Annihilation as we move through the Ego Deaths necessary for Rebirth into our own Truth.  There will be Boundaries to be moved, to Allow new parts of our Self to emerge into the Light of Day and to Defend their right to do so.  It won’t feel any better but it will help anyway, if we remember that Courage is not the absence of Fear but the willingness to Act in the face of Fear.  

If you have any natal planets in 14-24 Degrees of any of the mutable Signs (Virgo, Pisces, Gemini, Sagittarius), Jupiter is asking you to Expand around them.

This is basically the Pisces, Aries, and Taurus Duads of Virgo, a Duad being one twelfth of a Sign.  If we regard Virgo (which we do) as the place where we dissemble the individual Ego in order to prepare to meet Other, then this is the area where we’ve pretty much dissembled, and now we’re starting to experiment with rebuilding.  

Edargorter

 ?Edargorter seog tenalp a nehw sneppah tahw

Well, we need a mirror to be able to read what’s going on.  A journal would also be handy.  By the time a planet does go Edargorter, it’s already taken us on a journey.  In case you haven’t noticed, Edargorter is Retrograde spelled, of course, backwards.  By the time a planet turns Retrograde, we’ve already missed the point.

When a planet turns Retro, it crosses a section of the Zodiac, stops, backs up over it again, stops again, then finally runs over this same section of the Zodiac for a third time, before moving on.  If we happen to be Ego-identified with that section of the Zodiac (let’s say we have a natal planet there), and the Gnidargorter planet happens to be as Heavy as a Mack Truck, we want to know when it’s coming through the first time, so we can step out of the way then.  By the time it’s backing up, our Ego is already just a grease spot.

We use a simple rule, the Experience Rule.  It says that the more times we’ve Experienced a particular astroevent, the easier it is, simply because we have more practice dealing with it.  

That’s one reason why we say that if you have a Square and especially a T-Square in your natal chart, you’re the Expert on that subject, because you have more Experience with it than anyone else around.  Squares never Feel good, especially if we have a perfectionistic streak, or if we compare our Life to that of Others.  So you probably discount your Skill.  But you are the Expert, and once you begin to understand that, your Life Changes forever, because you’re no longer the Victim of your own Life.  You become the Master instead.

This rule is also why we pretty much ignore the inner planets, because they zip around the Zodiac so often that we all have plenty of Experience with them.  Yes, Mercury’s turning Edargorter, but that happens three times a year, so we’re all Experts already on Mercury Edargorter.  Of course, Mercury doesn’t thrice cross the second half of Capricorn three times a year, it only does that once every six years.  But Mercury crosses your natal Capricorn planets every year, and Squares them twice a year.  

Compare that to Pluto, which only crosses anyone’s natal planets every 250 years – most of us go a Lifetime without Experiencing that, so it’s a Big Deal.  When one of those outer planets takes a mind to triple-cross one of your natal planets, this is a whole new Experience for you.  One of the guidelines of Time Management says that you can’t estimate how long something will take to do if you’ve never done it before.  Similarly, you can’t know how to deal with Pluto crossing your natal Mercury if you’ve never Experienced it before.

Mercury crossing Pluto isn’t nearly so intense as Pluto crossing Mercury, but it’s a good example of how to deal with Sedargorter.  Mercury will be Retrograding over the last half of Capricorn this month, and in the process Retrograding over – that is, thrice crossing – Pluto and Pallas.  It’s already run over them once, so while Mercury’s more like a Smart Car than a Mack Truck, it’s already knocked down Pluto and Pallas for the first time.

We consider that first crossing the Can-Opener crossing, because it introduces whatever Difficulty we have with the two planets.  Mercury crossing Pluto might Challenge us to find a new, Transformed way of thinking, for instance, or it might force us to think about something we don’t like to think about, or make us talk about something that makes us very uncomfortable, because we don’t have much practice at it.  That happened on 19th December, so it’s Water under the bridge.

Except that whatever unfinished business we have around that – maybe someone feels insulted by what you said on 19 December, or maybe your Mother’s Ghost stands at your shoulder, eyes like ice, a little bit colder, saying to you, “You cannot do that, it breaks all the rules you learned in school” – will be revisited during the second and third crossings.  Mercury will cross Pluto again on 21st January.  We call that second crossing the Exposition phase.  We get to Experience the Can-Opener again, but this time having seen it once already, we’re a bit wiser, and it happens in slow motion.  The process is Exposed, and we get to practice with it – maybe make amends, or tell our Mother’s Ghost where to go.

Mercury crosses Pluto for the third time on 28 January.  By then we’ll be old hands at this.  We’ll just thank Mom’s Ghost for contributing, we’ll have learned how to Speak our Truth without insulting anyone, and the Transformation of our thinking will be complete.  So we call this third crossing the Confidence-Builder stage.

Mercury over Pallas works the same way.  Can-Opener 22 December, when we were probably forced to make new Discernments, or more likely, got in trouble for not making a Discernment we didn’t know we were supposed to make.  The Exposition is 12 January, when you’re likely to figure out why they’re mad at you.  And the Confidence-Builder is 21 February.  We can make a big deal out of the Roman Caristia holiday on the 22nd, and make amends for whatever faux pas we committed at the Solstice – or maybe let that person who took our omission so seriously then know that they were out of line to Blame us for their Expectations.

Pluto’s just entering the second half of Capricorn.  Pluto in Capricorn means “Just fix it!”  We all know it’s a problem, and we know how to fix it, so let’s just get to work and get it done.  The first half of Capricorn is all business, completely pragmatic.  But the second half is the Cancer half of Capricorn.  In the second half we remember that there’s more to Life than business or engineering; we have to make sure the results are nurturing for the People and the Planet.  So this is our first introduction to softening the hard edges of our “Just fix it” efforts, where we start to think about what needs to be done and how we might do it.

Mercury also Squared Uranus on 20 December, the Can-Opener Square, probably when we realized that we’ve still got a few Masks to take off before we can be True to ourSelf.  Those’ll be Exposed more on 20 January, and we’re likely to find the Confidence to remove them on 30 January.

Bottom Line: if we want to be able to step out of the path of those Mack Trucks, we need to know about these Sedargorter before they happen, not while they’re happening.