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.

Nep Tunes, Pisces, and Saturn

Here’s a wonderful example of Neptune’s Grace…

https://soulspeak2013.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/at-the-table-the-resurrection-vision/

The astrological Signs are divided up into “Duads,” two-and-a-half Degree chunks, so there are twelve of them in each Sign.  Neptune turns Direct in the eighth Degree of Pisces on 18 November, near the beginning of the Fourth Duad of Pisces.  Planets go backward (“Retrograde” in the vernacular) and then Direct again when they want us to Pay Attention to something.  

Here Neptune – which signifies All Things Larger Than the Self (such as Culture, Gods and Goddesses, Union with the All, even at times Fear) – crossed this Fourth Duad of Pisces between mid-February and mid-June of this year, then stopped and backed over it from mid-June till Now.  Now it will cross this Territory again, for the third time, just in case we missed the Universe’s Message the first two times.

The usual process is that the first crossing of a Territory is what we call a “Can-Opener,” as whatever closet Resistance we have to what the Universe wants to convey, is triggered, and we’re caught off guard.  It’s been 250 years since Neptune last crossed this Territory, so it’s not like we got our homework assignment before this February-to-June pop quiz.  

If we manage to avoid Blaming someone or something for the Shock of the Can-Opener, and maintain our Curiosity and Awe about what’s happening “to” us during these Can-Openers – even though we are seeing through a glass darkly, then during the second crossing we are able to stay open to developing a clearer understanding of the Message.  We call the second crossing the “Exposition” phase, because the Message is “Exposed” more clearly then, and in slow motion – in this case mid-June to Now.

If we succumbed to Blame during the Can-Opener, then when the Universe repeats the Message during the second crossing, we’re Shocked again, giving us a second opportunity to receive the Message – or deepen our descent into Blame.  If we “get” the Message, in either of the first two phases, then the third crossing, which here spans Now through early March of next year, is what we call the “Confidence-Builder” phase, as the Universe “Shocks” us again, but this time our Experience allows us to understand what’s going on enough to Respond rather than React.  

It we miss the Message the third time, well, we miss out.  Like the Oath we swore in third grade never to Trust a Teacher again, the missed Message accrues to our Karma, and we’ll just have to work it out later.  No Pressure – that’s just the way it works, and we’ve been doing it since Time began.  There will always be another opportunity to Liberate ourselves.  It’s just easier if we do it sooner.

The interactions between planets are much more distinct and compressed in time, so it’s easier to Notice and Respond to those, than it is to Notice and Respond to the subtle differences between the Third Duad of Pisces and the Fourth.  For instance, in mid-April Vesta (symbolizing Unconscious Beliefs) danced with Neptune, and we were able to Learn about where we were Unconsciously Resisting Processes Larger than Our Self.  And next week Saturn (signifying our Projection of Order onto the Universe) will dance with Neptune, so we’ll get to see places where our concepts of Cultural Order are no longer functional – places where in the rocket’s glare the flag has lost its meaning.

The Saturn-Neptune Square is Waning, so basically, as we enter the Void phase of the Saturn-Neptune Cycle…

The Organizing Patterns we’ve projected onto our Culture and onto other Cultures, and the Organizing Principles we’ve been projecting into the ineffable realm of the Gods and Goddesses, no longer work, as we enter a ten-year period where Cultural and Religious conceptualization are thrown into a brown bag and shaken up, with an ultimate result that hasn’t been Co-Created yet – we won’t find out till we open the bag in 2026.  The result will depend a lot on how quickly and thoroughly we’re able to Let Go of our old concepts and drop into “Don’t Know” or “Beginner’s Mind” about Culture and Religion and other Neptunian Realms.  

This Saturn-Neptune interaction is a Can-Opener, and we’ve probably already seen the Shock we’d expect to accompany it, though we’ve been interpreting it through the eyes of last week’s and this week’s astroevents.  The Shock could intensify between now and next Thursday, when the Saturn-Neptune dance is “complete.”  The Exposition will occur next June, and we won’t see the Confidence-Builder till next September.  The Confidence-Builder won’t be about how well we’ve Reorganized our Cultural and Religious concepts; it will be about how well we’ve Let them Go.

But that’s next week; what about this week?  We’re dealing with that Fourth Duad of Pisces, what’s that about.

The Duads take their name and meaning from the Signs.  For Pisces, the first Duad is the Pisces Duad, the second Duad the Aries Duad, the third Duad the Taurus Duad, the fourth Duad the Gemini Duad,…, the twelfth Duad the Aquarius Duad.  

For Leo, to take another example, the first Duad is the Leo Duad, the fourth Duad the Scorpio Duad, the seventh Duad the Aquarius Duad, and the tenth Duad the Taurus Duad.  

The first Duad of Sagittarius is the Sagittarius Duad, the fifth Duad the Aries Duad, the ninth Duad the Leo Duad, etc.  Can you see the Pattern?  

Pisces is about Confronting Held Emotions.  Held Emotions are the cement that makes our Karma look like a formidable fortress wall.  Pisces is the last stage of the Void; the overriding opportunity is to Clear these Held Emotions so we can watch the Karmic fortress crumble like a sand castle in a rising tide.  The Nemesis of Pisces is Resistance.  Pisces has to Surrender to these Emotions, let the rising tide have its way with us, and wash us Clean.  That’s how we prepare to start afresh in the next Cycle.

The First Duad of Pisces is about getting overwhelmed by these Held Emotions.  Neptune “Rules” (is very Strong in) Pisces, so Neptune in the First Duad was probably pretty intense for most of us; check your Journal for April-July of 2011 and February-April of 2012.  

If we Surrendered to the tsunami in the First Duad, the Second Duad of Pisces is about beginning to make Lemonade, beginning to do something Creative with our Emotional Energy.  The Second-Duad Can-Opener found us in April-July 2012, during the second Transit of Venus across the face of the Sun and the first Uranus-Pluto Square, then again in February-April 2013, where we began to get our footing after Time Ended, with the assistance of all the Grand Trines that Pi was using to help us over the Threshold.  

In the Third Duad of Pisces we were Challenged to Stabilize our new Energy, our new way to use Emotional Energy.  Emotion, after all, is what molds and holds Energy into Material Form.  Once the Grand Trines ended, in May-July 2013 (and again starting in March 2014), it was up to us to hold on to what we gained in the Second Duad, up to us to begin Habituating new Patterns that would promote our Mission rather than Sabotage it.

Finally, starting in March of this year, we’ve moved into the Fourth Duad.  Here we begin to Spread our newfound, Stabilized Skills at using Emotional Energy to Create what we Want.  We’re Challenged to Let Go of our Pride over what we’ve already Created, so we can get ready to Design Version 2.0.  And to Imagine how we can Expand our new Skills into additional realms.  We’re beginning to Imagine how we might Co-Create new models of Community, models that Support us rather than Control us.  Starting 18 November, we start into the Confidence-Building stage of this process.

We can’t forget that this Neptune Station is followed a day and a half later by a Station of dwarf planet 2007 OR10 – Becoming Conscious of our Unconscious Beliefs.  Stations of Nessus and Vesta have intervened since we talked about OR10, so we might want to review…

https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/2007-or10-part-i/

https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/2007-or10-part-ii/

We Experience simultaneous Stations as similar to Initiations, and OR10 Initiated Neptune recently anyway – for many purposes they’re still Conjunct.  We’ll say more about all this soon.

Sustainability

No guarantees that this free series of videos on Sustainability starting today (1 November) will be dynamite, but I can vouch for several of the interviewees…

http://theshiftnetwork.com/blog/2015-10-23/creating-heaven-earth-search-sustainability 

A bit early for the Saturn-Neptune Square, since it’s not exact till 26 November and there’s a lot going on between now and then; it’s likely to be at least 20 November before we feel it unadulterated, and that’s only if we’ve Embraced and Let Go of all of the other intervening Energies.  But Saturn is within two Degrees of Squaring Neptune, and we usually arbitrarily draw the Sensitivity line for interplanetary Angles at three Degrees, so we have to consider the Waning Saturn-Neptune Square to be Present in the background.  The Saturn-Neptune Cycle is about Redefining the Culture.  Neptune today (1 November) is only five Arcminutes from its 18 November Station, and we usually arbitrarily draw the Sensitivity line for Stations at one Degree, so we’re well within the realm of the Neptune-Station Energy as well.  Neptune Stations are about Shifting our Perceptions of the World around us, particularly our Relations with our Culture.

Astrologers call it “orb,” we call it “Sensitivity,” and another apt name for it would be “slop.”  Most of us don’t feel astrological Angles as discrete points, we feel them as Energies gradually increasing up to the point where the Angle is exact, then falling off rapidly after that.  If we’re Conscious of the Energy.  If we aren’t Conscious of it and we Blame it on some element of our Material Lives, and make Decisions based on that Blame, we can carry the Energy into the Future, sometimes a long way into the Future.

November II – Let My Money Go

We can consider Wondering What Mask Will Go Next to be “November I”…

https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2015/10/29/wondering-what-mask-will-go-next/

That described our Adventures in Self-Knowing, Self-Empathy, and, if we do it “right,” Curiosity and Wonder; this extends till November 10.   We have several other interesting processes going on early in the month as well.  Then things get pretty busy Mid-month.  We get to meet a couple more of the new dwarf planets up close and personal, though we’ll have to squint to distinguish their influence from our more familiar planetary friends, as the events pile up on one another.   The Galaxy is still handing down some pretty firm instructions that if we want to jet-propel our happy Survival in the Future, we need to Let Go of what we don’t really need, especially Beliefs that no longer serve us, and Identities based on Privilege, but “stuff” too.  This Energy will be with us for the rest of the year.

The Quaoar-Chariklo-Hylonome (Survival Rules-Beauty and Charm-Ego Death) Stellium on the Galactic Center (Headquarters) is still T-Squaring (Mastery through Challenge) the Nodes (Linear Time), with Vesta (Unconscious Beliefs) sitting on the South Node (our Habituation) and Makemake (Manifestation) on the North (our Destiny, should we choose to accept it).

Some big Relationship Transformation are upon us, especially our Relationships with our Self, as Fear subsides and we realize that we could leap into Infinite Impossibility by taking more Responsibility for our Pathological Genius.  If we don’t jump at this opportunity in the first few days of the month, New Information may arrive by the end of the first week to catapult us out of our Lazy-Boy.  If you missed our recent article on Pathological Genius, look under “Path…” in the “Categories” column to the right; it’s a loaded term that you don’t want to misinterpret.

Venus and Mars (Heiros Gamos, or Union of the Inner Lad and Inner Lass) Conjoin on 2 November.  It’s not an Initiation or Can-Opener; that occurred last spring, and Venus is just catching up to Mars after her Descent of Inanna.  The Cycle is 2 Aries, “A comedian reveals human nature: The capacity to look objectively at oneself and other.”  They aren’t alone in their Lovebed (Your mother’s ghost stands at your shoulder, but Ixion is involved, so you know somebody’s going to break the rules): the Conjunction T-Squares the Opposition between Chaos (Unlimited Potential) and Pholus-Ixion (Responsibility-Rascal), and Trines Sedna (Action Taken out of Fear).

The Venus-Chaos and Mars-Chaos Cycles are at their Waxing Squares, or the place where they become permanent.  Venus-Chaos is “A large archaic volume reveals a traditional wisdom” (19 Gemini, April 2015) and the Mars-Chaos Cycle is about “A modern cafeteria displays an abundance of food, products of many regions” (20 Gemini, June 2015).  Great to have that option, but Eating Local is more Sustainable.  The Squares to Pholus-Ixion are Waning – Water under the bridge.  We’ve already invested our Passions in our Pathological Genius; now it’s time to sit still and watch what happens.  Meanwhile, more swingers want in…

On 6 November (while Venus crosses the North Node and lights up the Nodal T-Square), Haumea (Rebirth) Opposes Eris (Revelation of Denial – Epiphany if you’re open to it).  This isn’t a Can-Opener either; that occurred last November – keep a journal?  These two will dance together till the end of the decade.  Venus-Mars makes a Quincunx Bridge (Curiosity helps a lot) to this Opposition, and the two Oppositions (Haumea to Eris and Chaos to Pholus-Ixion, the base of the Venus-Mars T-Square) create a Golden Rectangle (Graceful Integration of the Dichotomies).  That is, Chaos Trines Haumea (we could be reborn as anything we Want – or anything we worry too much about if we Choose Anxiety over Intention) and Pholus-Ixion Trines Eris (the New Information is likely to permit – or force – us to Take Responsibility for our Pathological Genius).

This isn’t just another realignment with your paramour.  It’s a major Initiation into the Alternate Culture that will parallel Vulture Capitalism as it rides off into the Sunset with all the Money.  If we substitute a return to Community, Letting the Money Go could be a huge blessing.  The Money Economy might feel the Abandonment around 6 November.

Meanwhile, the Jupiter-Chiron Opposition Can-Opener is exact.  The Jupiter-Chiron Cycle is a powerful one.  The Initiation was May 2009 at 27 Aquarius, “Fresh violets in an ancient pottery bowl,” simultaneous with the famous Chiron-Neptune Opposition (look up “Chiron-Neptune” in the “Categories” if you haven’t been following us for years; this is Big) and with both Chiron and Neptune Standing Still.

When a planet Stands Still (aka is Stationary), it’s at the peak of its Power.  

Imagine Zeus (Jupiter) kneeling with head bowed while the God of the Unconscious Sea places his trident on one of Zeus’s shoulders, and the Ultimate Healer places one hoof on the other shoulder.  It’s as if the Patriarchy was swearing an oath to serve the Goddess’s generals.  This is a preliminary blooming of this development.

Let’s review briefly just to remind how Big this is.  The current Jupiter-Chiron event is a preliminary peak of the much larger Chiron-Neptune Cycle.  Chiron-Neptune Cycles are about Despair and Miracles in the Cultural Unconscious.  The current Cycle began with the Derivatives Crisis of 2007-8 (which the 1% and it’s lapdog media successfully blamed on the Victims of the 1%’s Greed).  The previous Cycle began on the very day that Japan surrendered at the end of World War II.  The end of War created a major Economic disruption, as combatants sought civilian employment, and Arms manufacturers sought alternative markets – the explosives became the artificial fertilizers and the poison gases became the pesticides and pharmaceuticals that have since shortened your lifespan.  The Cycle prior to that was Initiated when much-oversold bonds that financed the US transcontinental railroads collapsed.  It began what was then called the Great Depression, which was renamed the Long Depression in order to honor the Greatness of the Depression of the 1930s.  It lasted from 1890 till World War I.