Confusion Is the First Stage of Growth 1

And will we ever be Growing over the next few weeks!

We start mildly enough, though we begin with both Moon (Our Instincts) and Mars (Action) Out of Bounds (Amplified). The Moon returns In Bounds (Reducing the General Level of Panic) on 4-5 February 2023 (PST 2:11 pm 4th, GMT 10:11 pm 4th, IST 3:41 am 5th, AEDT Qld 8:11 am 5th). Mars remains Out of Bounds (Actions and Reactions have more Impact than usual) all month and beyond, till 5 May.

Ceres (Sustainability, Resilience) is Stationary (Strong) 3-4 February (PST 11 am 3rd, GMT 7 pm 3rd, IST 12:30 am 4th, AEDT Qld 5 am 4th) in 7 Libra (Front-Row Enthusiasm). Remember that Sustenance – Eliminating the Unnecessary – is the first Step toward Sustainability. The chart Challenges us to Let Go Of Attachment to Old Dramas,¹ though it’s Fully Self-Resolving. The whole “Climate” Crisis Armageddon (including the Demise of the Patriarchy, Intensified Competition for Dwindling Resources aka War, the Wrath of Mom aka Pestilence and Storms and Floods and Fires and Worse, etc etc) is the Old Drama we need to Let Go Of, because its Scale and Inertia is beyond the Powers of all of us, except when we’re All on the Same Page, and we certainly aren’t that! Time to follow Jewel’s Sage Advice and No Longer Lend Our Strength to that which we Wish to Be Free From – the first Unnecessary we can Eliminate.

We still have our Moira Station-New Moon writeup in the oven, but the 5-6 February Full Moon in 17 Leo will also be worth a separate post, as only one of its three Challenges are Self-Resolving. One of the Open (non-Self-Resolving) Challenges is an Argument between our Essence and our Instincts, refereed by our Soul (Sun Opposite Moon T-Squared by Uranus). Kind of like the argument your Head was having with your Heart over who was more important, when in walked Uranus.

There are four Sign Changes 6-8 February…

• Asteroid Pinocchio Out of Bounds moving from Sagittarius into Capricorn (from PST 4:19 am 6 February till 20 May) means that our Colorful Little Lies will probably be used Less Often to Distract, and More Often to Manipulate. George Santaclos may find Less Humor and More Accountability in his Fabrications.
• Asteroid Icarus explores Pisces (from PST 3:29 am 6 February till 22 March, then returning to Aquarius). Icarus, like its namesake, flies close to the Sun and then out past Mars, but its orbit is steeply angled relative to Earth’s. Because it’s so close to us and has such a weird Orbit, it’s all over the Zodiacal Map rather than following orderly Loops like “normal” ‘roids. In Pisces it implies Emotional Risk-Taking, maybe even Exciting Flings followed by Deep Crashes, perhaps at the Ides of February, when OOB Pinocchio crosses Sociopath OOB Ixion in 5 Capricorn. Remember Angels Fly because They Take Themselves Lightly – it’s all just Education about how we get Stuck on Our Thoughts About Our Emotions instead of Appreciating All of Our Feelings as E_nergyInmotion. That’s such an Important Lesson for Ascension that it will be worth whatever Chagrin it generates. It won’t be our first Adventure in Overexcitement, this time we can Notice how we use Fantasy to Whip Up the Energy to Soft Peaks.
• Asteroid Atropos Enters Pisces 6-7 February (PST 8:43 am 6 February), till 5 April, meaning we’ll be working with Emotional Baggage that’s Beyond its Expiry Date. Karma is Addictive, and when it Expires we’re Lost, as things no longer Feel Normal! We’ll get to Confusion soon, but this is excellent Practice. Your Mirror’s probably already pretty full of Admonitions, but maybe you could paste it on the wall – Confusion is the First Stage of Growth. We Believe Confusion happens in the Mind, but it’s an Emotion, pure and simple. That means Confused By… or Confused About… are Off Limits, they’re Thoughts About Our Emotions, certain This Way to 2D Forever signs, Flashing Red. Yes, it feels Strange, Something Is Missing! Wait a minute… Yahoo, Open Space!! Room for Something New And Exciting (well, not too Exciting, maybe we should wait till after that Pinocchio-Ixion thing).
• Asteroid Vesta Leaves Pisces and Moves into Aries 7-8 February (PST 8:17 pm 7 February), until the Ides of April. Vesta is about the things we Take for Granted without even Thinking about it. Our Unconscious Limitations is the prime example. Aries is about Starting Over, a little more Tangy this time. But you know, that Pinocchio-Ixion thing is only a week away, is that too long to wait? We don’t want to Burn Out our Tang Buds. Seriously though (not that Pinocchio-Ixion isn’t Serious), the next two months are a good time to Test Our Limits. Some will have Magically Disappeared, and we may not know which ones till we Test them. Karma is basically Expectations, however, so when Testing we constantly have to Ask, Is This Really Present Moment, or Is It Just a Flushback?
• And while we’re at it, asteroid Pallas (Boundaries) comes back In Bounds 7-8 February as well (PST 8:23 pm 7 February). It’s been Out of Bounds since early November. It’s in 11 Cancer, Retrograde, and it’s been in Cancer since early September, and will be till early May, 9 months. It usually takes a ‘roid of Pallas’s Orbit more like two months to cross a Sign. It entered it’s Shadow Period 29 September 2022, turned Retrograde 1 December, will turn Direct again 16 February, and finish with its Review by 23 April. The Shadow Period span is 11-27 Cancer. That covered the Scorpio Duad through the Taurus Duad of Cancer – more than half of Cancer.²

This’ll take us through the first 8 days of February 2023. Then it gets Complicated and Confusing! In the following 8 days we have 7 Stations – Narcissus/Focus on Self, Sedna/Converting Fear to Power, Zhulong/Enlightenment, Aletheia OOB/Truth of the Heart Amplified, Ganesa OOB/Remover of Obstacles, Turbocharged, Hopi OOB/Great Respect for ALL Things, and Pallas/Boundaries – a Workshop on Stelliums or Stellia³ (3 or more planets Merged)! And five more Sign Changes. Coming soon to a blog near you.

On the last page of Wired Magazine you’re given a sentence, such as “An Animal that hasn’t been Discovered yet,” and you’re Asked to Write a Story about it, using only six words. Then they have an artist draw a picture of your Story. Stellia are like that, but we aren’t limited to six words, though we rapidly loses the Reader’s attention the furthur we go beyond that. It’ll be a Miracle if we can squeeze 7 planets into 6 words, especially since it’s taking us up to six words just for one of the seven planets! But we’ll try, next time.

¹ A single Fully Self-Resolving T-Square to Requiem (Ego Death) Out of Bounds (Exaggerated) in 7 Scorpio (Banished for Dedication to Embracing Our True Self and Letting Go of All Masks) from the Dialog (Opposition) between Enlightenment (Samadhi) and Obsolete Intrusive Memories (Lachesis Merged with Gonggong). The Resolution arises from Harmony (Sextile) between Truth of the Mind (Veritas) and Our Lifetime Mission (Mean North Node), both of which Relate to Ego Death in Mysterious Ways (Quincunxes in a Finger of the Goddess). Grace is added by a Grand Trine from Requiem to Varuna OOB Merged with Black Moon Lilith (Letting Go of Health Limitations Associated with Codependence) and to the Stellium of Jupiter, Atlantis, and Salacia (Choosing between the Drama of Expanded Memories of the Fall of Atlantis, and the Peace of 5G).

² A Shadow Period, like a Triple Conjunction, has three phases. In the first phase, Pallas crossed 11-27 of Cancer, adjusting its Boundaries as it went. In the Scorpio Duad of Cancer, Pallas probably kept Boundaries too Tight. Then in the Sagittarius Duad it Loosened them – too much. So it tried to Attune them to the Specific Situation in the Capricorn Duad. In the Aquarius Duad it would have Adjusted them to be Socially Appropriate. In the Pisces Duad Boundaries would be an Emotional Issue, and may have been Adjusted Codependently. The Aries Duad would have seen a Liberation of some sort, Testing Free Will. Finally, Pallas in the Taurus Duad of Cancer would see the Final Version of Cancer’s Boundaries after it’s 2022-23 Adjustments, with all Bells and Whistles Polished.

Here’s a handy table you can use to figure out Duads, should you ever have the need. Duad is sometimes spelled “Dwad,” but I always thought that sounded too much like something you’d Dspit across the Droom with a Dstraw, and Duad is easily compared to Triad, making definition easier. In the table we’ve put 11-27 Cancer in bold as an example…

To use the table, you have a {planet/keyword} such as {Pallas/Boundaries}. You also have a {Sign/Quality} (the columns in the table) such as {Cancer/Nurturance}. So you have {Pallas in Cancer/Nurturing Boundaries}. Now we want more detail, so we go down to the Duads. Here we add {Secondary Sign/Secondary Quality} (the rows in the table) such as {Pallas in Capricorn Duad of Cancer/Pragmatic Nurturing Boundaries}. It’s easier than it looks, and it will add a lot of mileage to your astrology.

Now, the second phase of the Shadow Period is when the planet is actually Retrograde. There may have been snags and hiccups during the first, Direct Crossing of the Shadow Period. The Retrograde Crossing does it backwards, so you can see where there were imperfections and Adjust them. Finally, the third phase, when the planet Crosses the Shadow Period Direct again, is the Confidence-Builder phase. By 23 April, you can consider yourself to have an AA degree in the Social Side (Libra through Pisces) of Nurturing Boundaries. Park this Experience in your Imaginal Resume, and you’ll have it Forever. They say “You Can’t Take It With You” when you Leave the Planet, but in fact, you take with you, for future Intuitive use, everything you Learn in the Lifetime!

³ Depending on how recently you studied Latin. For the authors and editors among youall, there’s an entertaining essay on plurals of words ending in -us at https://oikofuge.com/latin-plurals-ending-in-us/ . The author doesn’t mention words ending in -um, and it’s been half a century since I studied Latin, so I just took my cue from Cat on a Hot Tin Streetcar.

A Gift from the Heavens

Our ever-watchful Chief Asteroid Officer has noticed that 45 minutes before the 22-23 January 2023 Station (Prominence) of Uranus (Our Soul), Venus (Our Values) and Saturn (The Most Important Thing) Convene and Initiate a New Cycle. The Venus-Saturn Cycle should Obviously be ranked among our Most Critical Cycles. At the times when our Values are NOT The Most Important Thing to Us, we Betray Ourself. While such Self-Sabotage is a result of our Programming, our Programming is a Mirror for our Karma, since Programming is how much of our Karma was installed into the Current Lifetime.

If you’re reading this, one of your Most Important Values is Enlightenment, aka Ascension or 5D. A primary prerequisite for Enlightenment is to Clear our Karma. That’s more Difficult while our Karma remains Unconscious, so Noticing our Karmic Patterns becomes Bottom Line. We get this Opportunity every time our Karma is Triggered, which includes every time we React from our Programming rather than Responding from our Values. Enlightenment means that our Ego and our Soul are Merging, and that can’t happen as long as Karma has a Leghold Trap on our Ego, which is exactly what Karma does for a Living.

This is a particularly Important Window for those of us who were Programmed to favor Thinking over Feeling, because as Jung said, People who Prioritize Thinking are Irrational, because they’re not in Touch with their own Emotions and therefore not in Touch with their own Values, since Values arise from the Heart, not the Mind. Many of us are much more Aware of Our Thoughts About Our Feelings than we are of Our Feelings themselves. Too many of us haven’t yet Learned to tell the difference.

Many of us first need to Learn to Find our Emotions, buried under the Thoughtstorm that they evoke. It can help to Focus on the Sensations that arise with Emotion. When we’re trying to Think Through a particularly difficult Conundrum, we can Ask ourself, What Is my Body Telling me through its Sensations? rather than What is my Mind Telling me through its Thoughts? Emotions (Water) and Sensations (Earth) share the same Style (Magnetic), as we explained in the previous post, so they tend to Collaborate.

Emotions and Thoughts (Air) have Opposite Styles, so they tend to Conflict. So Emotions and Thoughts are in Competition with one another before we even Feel or Think. And thanks to Western Medicine, with its ban on Intuition and its Intense Advertising Campaigns, we also have to Struggle with and get beyond our Thoughts about our Sensations (“O My Goddess, is that Cancer?”). We have to Focus on Where our Sensation Resides in the Body and What It Feels Like there, while Rejecting Thoughts the same way we do when they Intrude on our Meditations – “Oh, there’s Thinking Again. Thanks for Contributing, but we’re Doing Something Else now. Where was I?“

Venus-Saturn Value-Priority Cycles last about a year. The Cycle that’s Ending spanned 10 months, but the New Cycle will last 14 months, till the Aries Equinox of 2024, because Venus slows down and turns Retrograde in the Northern Summer and Southern Winter. Angles between Retrograde planets are called Expositions because they Expose the internal workings of a planetary Relationship. Consequently, they’re more educational. In this Retrograde part of the Cycle¹ we may be more Alone than we usually prefer, because we’ll be Learning to Appreciate our own Unique Strengths, some of which we’ve theretofore never Appreciated or even Noticed.² Knowing Ourself – our Natural Strengths and the situations where we’re better off Delegating to Others or to Spirit – is an Essential Foundation for Enlightenment.

The New Cycle Begins in 25 Aquarius (Honing the Inner Witness in order to Rebirth Intelligence). Without Realizing the Connection to Lonsdale’s interpretation for the Degree, in note ¹ below we’ve already written a lot about the Inner Witness! An Initiation is the Birth or a New Cycle, so it’s chart is a Birth Chart. So we shouldn’t be surprised when a Retrograde Period in the Cycle reiterates the Birth Reading for the Cycle. But the Cycle and the Degree are Independent of one another, so the “Coincidence” is still Remarkable.

We’ll look at the chart tomorrow. “Chrysanthemum Stone” is a good Rock to Contemplate for bringing forth the Inner Witness. The mineral composition can vary quite a bit. The Stone is so unusual that it’s known more by its Morphology and Mythology (of Immortal Love between Stones and Flowers) than for its chemistry. The fact that it appears in only a few places in the World, and appears with a mix of Chemistries when it does, speaks loudly that it’s Meaning lies in its Mythology. It’s also a Metaphor for the Bright and Focused Soul breaking through the Dark and Amorphous Matrix of the Ego and Karma.

¹ Venus is actually Retrograde from 24 July to 4 September 2023 and 29 to 13 Leo, but the Shadow Period spans 19 June through 7 October. A Retrogradation is like a Remedial Course – we have to take it three times to pass, and sometimes we don’t. That’s the case when we don’t Learn from an astroevent. When we do Learn, it’s not Remedial at all. A Retrograde Shadow Period has three stages. The Retrograde period, here 24/7-4/9 and 29-13 Leo, is stage 2. Stage 1 is when the planet crosses this Degree Zone the first time, while Direct. That will be 19 June to 23 July and 13 to 29 Leo. Stage 1, called the Can-Opener, is when we get Blindsided by the Lesson Plan, often quite Stressfully. So we may hit Loneliness and Self-Doubt during the Can-Opener.

Stage 2 is the Exposition, where since the planet is Retrograde, the Curriculum is Repeated, more Slowly this time, Step by Step, allowing us to Learn the Lesson. If we’re Paying Attention. If we aren’t Paying Attention, we’ll Re-Experience the Stress of the Can-Opener, and remain its Victim. Stage 3 is the Confidence-Builder, where the Curriculum is Repeated Again, and this time we Sail Right Through it, because we’ve Learned How! If we noticed the Correlation between the Can-Opener and the Exposition. It not, we could have a third Stressful Victim Episode.

Karma and Unconscious Limitations are Created when we Remain in Blame, making our Stress Someone or Something Else’s Fault rather than our own Curriculum, and make a Decision or Vow or Oath or Promise that we’ll Never Put Ourself in that Position again. Of course, it’s unlikely we’ll have a strong Negative Reaction unless it’s already Karmic for us. So we don’t Create New Karma nearly as often as we “just” add Fresh Cement to our Old Karma. If we are Accountable for our Reaction to the original Stressful event rather than Blaming or Projecting it onto Something Else, or if we Notice the Repetition and Become Accountable, we can Learn and Practice Changing our Original Reaction to a Different Response. Then we really do Gain Confidence in the third Stage. Our Skills don’t mean much without our Confidence in them!

Many people misunderstand this Process as Blaming the Victim, which it’s not. We’re Expecting the Victim to take Ownership of their own Reactions to Repeating Stimuli. We can all be Blindsided by New Can-Openers, and since our Karma is many-dimensional, we often have to Re-Experience it in many different Arenas before we Let It Go Completely. We may React with Blame to a Relationship Hassle once, and then React with Blame to a Job Hassle another time, without Realizing that our Reactions are Repeating. That happens to all of us all the time, as we have many Karmic Patterns happening in many different Arenas. But if we’re Alert to Noticing the Similarities between two Reactions, we can Become Conscious that it’s Karma and Choose to Change it.

² The Angles made between Venus and Saturn while they’re Retrograde are closest to four ninths and five elevenths of the Zodiac (the Quadrinovile and Quinelvile, 160 and 164 Degrees), which are about Mastering (4) Contemplation and Introspection (9) and Learning (5) to Appreciate our own Gifts and Talents (11). We derive the meaning of odd (indeed, all ) astrological Angles through the Correlation between the Tarot Major Arcana (Angeles Arrien, The Tarot Handbook) to the Harmonics of the Angles. For instance, the Quadrinovile is four ninths, or a combination of the 4th and 9th Harmonics (360/4=90° and 360/9=40°), equated to the 4th and 9th members of the Major Arcana (Emperor = Dominion and Hermit = Meditation). So the Quadrinovile implies Healthy Control over Meditation).

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.

Portals 1.7.15 and 5.7.15 – Self-Love?

Who else but Richard Brautigan.

  Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ

Gay Hendricks has a concept called “Upper Limits,” where, if you start Enjoying Life more than your Limiting Beliefs would like you to, you self-sabotage.  His suggested response is that, when we get into new Enjoyment territory, we slow down, take it easy, rest a lot, pay attention to our physical requirements like food and water, and give ourselves time to Integrate.  If we start slowing down when we get Excited, rather than waiting till we self-sabotage, we may be able to avoid the sabotage entirely.  Not to back away from the Excitement and Enjoyment, just to mellow into it. 

Anybody hitting a wall here?  Or sailing high? 

  Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ 

The fastest corner of our Almost-Grand-Sextile is Jupiter, so it will stretch at least through the first ten days of July.  The corners are Uranus-Eris, Chaos, Venus-Jupiter, Haumea, Pholus-Ixion, and the “Nursery Rug” Vacancy, “so the children can play in comfort and warmth.”

  Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ 

Jupiter Initiates Venus at 1am PDT ( http://www.jbuss.com/tt/pdt1.htm ) on 1 July in 22 Leo, “A carrier pigeon fulfilling its mission.”

We can read Venus-Jupiter as Self-Love.  Or alternately, especially considering the other players in the Grand Sextile, Healing any lack of Self-Love.

Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ 

Haumea is Stationary, and on 5 July it turns Direct in 21 Libra, at half-past 2am PDT ( http://www.jbuss.com/tt/pdt2.htm ).  This isn’t Haumea’s first venture in the Gemini Duad of Libra – that started in December 2012 – but this Shadow Period pretty well spans the Gemini Duad, which begins the Gemini Decanate.

The Shadow Period is the time, and Zodiacal space, that a Retrogradation takes, including the planet’s first crossing the space before it goes Retrograde, and then traversing the space for the third time after it goes Direct.  Suppose a Retrogradation covers 21-23 Libra.  That’s the Shadow Period in space.  The Shadow Period in time begins when the planet first gets to 21 Libra, before the Retrograde Station, and ends when it clears 23 Libra for the second time, after it has gone Retrograde and then gone Direct again.  So while a Retrogradation might cover a month, the Shadow Period will be closer to three months.

Haumea itself is about Rebirth.  As Pele’s daughter, Haumea is red hot and very raw.  We want to give her lots of space, so she can cool off and congeal.  We can map Haumea through the Libra Decanates…

• Libra Decanate of Libra – Rebirth into Meeting Other – 1995 to 2005
• Aquarius Decanate of Libra – Rebirth into Community – 2005 to 2015
• Gemini Decanate of Libra – Rebirth into Experimental Uses of Community

Haumea began this Shadow Period in October 2014, and turned Retrograde in January 2015.  So we’ve had two iterations of this exercise, and now we’ll put the finishing touches onto what we’ve learned.

A critical issue has been how much we’re willing to compromise our Yintegrity for the sake of Community.  Or alternatively, how much we’re willing to risk Community for the sake of our Yintegrity.  Ideally, Community and Yintegrity would be mutually supportive, Win-Win.  How many of us are close to that?  We might think of it as testing our Community.

Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ 

The other three corners here are not slouches.

Pholus-Ixion is about how much Responsibility we take, how much Power we take (for good or ill), how much Privilege we demand, how much Abuse we take, how much Consciousness we maintain.  Lots of interaction terms between these parameters, Self-Love, and Rebirth in Community.

Chaos is about Unlimited Potential.  We’re Co-Creating a New Planet here.  Where are the Edges between our Demands and our Requests as we negotiate the Boundaries?  As we dance between Yintegrity and Community, why aren’t we Demanding everything we Want?

Uranus-Eris is about clearing away additional layers of Denial so that our Yintegrity deepens by leaps and bounds.  If our Community doesn’t support our Yintegrity, our Community will get the short end of the stick.

Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ 

Then there’s the Vacancy.  It says…

Remember Upper Limits?  Take darn good care of yourSelf, your physical vehicle, and your Inner Child as you move through all of these Rebirths.  Your skin – physical and Identity – will feel molten for a while, and you want to give it time to solidify before the next wave hits.  If you can!  Be very gentle with yourself for the next several weeks “so the children can play in comfort and warmth.”

Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ

Then there’s the Grand Cross: Chaos, Pholus-Ixion, Chiron, and Lilith, though Lilith moves out of the Grand Cross by early July, leaving just the Chiron T-Square, and Finger of God from Venus-Jupiter and Haumea – an extremely Powerful Chiron Diamond Star in other words.

Without the Yod, we’d have Chiron Square to Chaos and Pholus-Ixion…

Miracles without Limit, if we can overcome a wad of Self-Doubt – Am I taking too much?

With the Yod, we have that “bowl of Grace” under the Opposition between Chaos’s Unlimited Potential and Pholus-Ixion’s Healing of Self-Doubt.  And the bowl of Grace is formed by the two most powerful players in the chart, Venus-Jupiter and Haumea…

Rebirth into Self-Love is available if we’re willing to make the shift to Miracles.  How to do that?  Empathize with yourself while you Feel your Self-Doubt.  Do it as many times as it takes.  Step outside your Feelings and look back in at the part of you that’s overwhelmed by those Feelings.  Look back lovingly.  How old is that Abandoned part of you?  Hold their hand.  Let them know that it’s okay for them to Feel everything they Feel.  Show them that you Love them no matter what. 

Self-Rejection is the deepest part of anyone’s Karma.  It’s a contest between how many times you fall down and how many times you get up.  Tap if it will help, and use your PIAVAs.  But the critical part is who outlasts the other – will your Self-Rejection overcome your Self-Love, or will your Self-Love endure longer than your Self-Hate?  Like pushups, this is about “reps” – be Loving with your worst Self-Rejection, over and over again, till it gets so easy that it’s automatic.  That’s how we build new, “good” Karma – reps.

Fingerlings

Who farted?

  Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ 

Five astroevents and several Configurations coming up here over the next few days.  First the timing…

• April 16, Noon PDT (http://www.jbuss.com/tt/pdt12.htm) – Reorganization of our Unconscious Beliefs is substantially complete, though the other events may eye your dots and tease your cross, or add wells and thistles. 

Neptune Initiates Vesta at 9 Pisces, “A jockey spurs his horse, intent on outdistancing his rivals.”  Your Emotional (Pisces) Beliefs (Vesta) around Community, Culture, Spirit, and the Sacred (Neptune) are particularly vulnerable to Transformation.

• April 16, 9 pm PDT (http://www.jbuss.com/tt/pdt21.htm) – Expect things to Lighten Up a little, though not completely, until the next event occurs.  Whatever Traumas you’ve encountered since Christmas are now open for review and resolution over the next several months.  We recommend leaning toward Forgiveness and Loving Kindness, particularly toward yourSelf, and toward (as a friend writes it) yoursElf.

Pluto Stands Still and turns Retrograde, in 16 Capricorn.  Pluto entered it’s 13-16 Degree Shadow Period (the span of its Retrogradation – see below) late last December.  This is basically the Gemini Duad of Capricorn, which is about deciding what you want to include or revise in Version 2.0 of whatever Trance(Re)Formation you’re undergoing.  Not that “deciding” is the right word when the Deep Unconscious is involved, but Intention (and PIAVA in general) can work Wonders.  Bryan’s workshop is amazingly well timed…

http://www.bryandeflores.com/schedule.html

• April 17, 3-6pm PDT (http://www.jbuss.com/tt/pdt18.htm) and possibly until about six hours afterward – Finnessing our Yintegrity.
  

The Moon Squares Pluto and Occults Uranus.  An Occultation is basically an Eclipse – the Moon crossing in front of Uranus – making visible what was previously indistinguishable from the background, in this case another part of our Yintegrity.

• April 18, noon PDT (http://www.jbuss.com/tt/pdt12.htm) – On your mark, get ready…

A New Moon – seems like we have one of these darn near every month!  This one’s at 29 Aries, “The Music of the Spheres: Attunement to Cosmic Order.”  Intense, eh?  After all this Waiting for Godot, this may really be the Tripping Point.  More on this below.

• April 19, 7pm PDT (http://www.jbuss.com/tt/pdt19.htm) – GO!  Whatever that new project is, now is the time to throw it into high gear.  All necessary background revisions are complete.  Any Boundary Issues (people who anger you, opportunities missed) occur for you in February or March?  Time to think about rectifying them by Speaking your Truth, and Acting on Opportunities.

Pallas Stands Still and turns Retrograde, at 1 Capricorn.  It’s Shadow Period starts at 12 Sagittarius in late January, the Taurus and Virgo Decanates of Capricorn.  This is more Version 2.0 – we Build something, put it out there to see if it “sells,” then revise it.  “Building” here is probably about how well we Live our Yintegrity and how willing we are to Act on our Wants, to let ourself recognize and receive them.  In this regard, the Dain Heer presentation on Lisa Garr’s Summit is, as Bugs would say, verrry interesting…

http://theawareshow.com/2015-2/money-manifestation/offer/dain-heer/#replay

I don’t now how long it will be online.

Shadow Period – the Can Opener portion of a Retrogradation happens before the Retrograde Station, when the planet crosses the zone for the first time.  The Retrograde period is the Exposition phase.  The Confidence-Builder stage occurs after the Direct Station.  The term “Shadow Period” refers to the Zodiacal Span between the Direct Station and the Retrograde Station, and the Time Span between the planet’s first entering that Zodiacal Span and the planet’s final exit, which involves all three crossings.

Duad or Dwad – one twelfth of a Sign, or two and a half Degrees.  The Aries Duad of Aries is the first twelfth, the Taurus Dwad the second twelfth, and so on.  The Taurus Duad of Taurus is the first two-and-a-half Degrees, the Gemini Duad the second two-and-a-half, etc.

Decanate – ten Degrees.  The Aries Decanate of Aries is the first ten Degrees.  The second ten Degrees is the Leo Decanate – the next Fire Sign.  The third ten Degrees is the Sagittarius Decanate.  The second Decanate of Taurus is the Virgo Decanate – the next Earth Sign.  The second Decanate of Gemini is the Libra Decanate – the next Air Sign.  The second Decanate of Cancer is the Scorpio Decanate – the next Water Sign.  Und so weiter.

  Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ 

Grace Abounds, but it’s up to us to take the first step.

Our Grand Sextile still holds…

https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/the-4-13-19-grand-sextile/

https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/portal-4-11-21-new-projects/

  Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ 

The New Moon Tricolor is the second-most-prominent Configuration, since the New Moon Trines the Pallas Station, which in turn Squares Makemake.

There’s something important you’ve been working on for the last few months.  You’ve more or less Created a prototype of it, and you’re kind of questioning how badly you really Want it, since it feels like you may be Asked to give up some other valuable things if you actually Choose it.  It may not end up being a Conscious Choice, however, as in some ways it’s sort of preordained. 

Where you do have Choice, is in how you Manifest Version 2 of it.  If you Want you can even PIAVA to “have your cake and eat it too” – you can Intend that Version 2 brings you all of the best parts of your new Creation, and that you get to keep all of the good things about all of your previous Co-Creations.  Be patient; Version 2 will be in the oven till December.  Lots of time to sharpen your “Oh, I Want this too!” PIAVAs.

In early December, Pluto Initiates Pallas, at the Midpoint of Capricorn, “In a hospital, the children’s ward is filled with toys.“

Pallas still sits in the center of a Stellium (a group of three or more planets lined up together), with Chariklo (Charm), Hylonome (Grief), Quaoar (Lawgiver), and, weakly, Pholus (Blame).  The Pallas Station-Stellium makes a bunch of interesting Angles here.  It’s Triseptile to Venus – Magic is afoot.  Mercury Trines it while Juno Quintiles it, meaning we’ll not just be Growing our Consciousness, but to some extent understanding how we’re Growing.  It’s Quintile to Vesta-Neptune and Binovile to the North Node, implying that Meditation will be a Powerful aid to Learning here.  And, the North Node and Juno form the base of a Finger of God focused on Vesta-Neptune.

Basically, Walking in Beauty here involves…

• Staying Curious about how your new Beliefs will impact your Mission (that is, if you think you’ve got it figured out, Let it Go – you want to stay in Curiosity as long as you can, or your Dualistic mind will freeze it and kill it dead – a Revert!).
• Whenever you feel any tinge of Conflict over how what you’re Creating might impact what you’ve already Manifested, Wonder how you might attune to the Music of the Spheres instead.  You can have Both/And, with ice cream too, you just have to be Worthy enough to Ask for it.

This color means that this part is really important.

  Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ 

The next-most-important Configuration is a new one that looks like one of those old twin-peaked WWII US Army hats…

http://www.toppots.net/main.php?do=clientproduct&action=home&id=1727&type=O

We’ll call this Configuration a Twin Peaks.  It’s two planets Quincunx to one another, each one Sextile to another planet that Squares the other end of the Quincunx.  It’s composed of two Minor Tricolors that share the same Quincunx, so that any Challenges that arise from each of the Squares can be resolved using Curiosity, as long as you take the first step.

The Quincunx is between our Stationary Pluto and the dwarf planet Chaos (Potential, not Disorder), and the Squares are Uranus to Pluto and Chiron to Chaos.

The Potential here is not Limited, but we are.  We’re Limited by our Negative Beliefs – which,

Even though they’ve been blown away, have we noticed? 

Or are we just assuming that it can’t happen because we’ve never been able to visualize it or imagine how it might happen.  Focusing on how is the Male way of Creating, and we’re moving into unknown territory here, where Male Energy is useless.  We need to use the Female way of Creating, which doesn’t care about how, it focuses on what.  Of course we don’t know how – it’s never been done before.  Think about your Mythology – the Boys do the things that have been done before, but when things get invisible or unattainable, it’s the Girls that take over.  It wasn’t Buddy the Vampire Slayer!

This is the definition of Unconscious Despair – we don’t know how to Create something we Want, and for whatever reason we don’t Believe it’s possible, so we don’t even consider it. 

You don’t know what you Want?  Well, what if you did know?  So, what answer have you already rejected? 

Is that what you Want?  Or is it some unimaginable triple quadruple permutation of that?  This is Stretch Time.  See how far you can reach, how Ridiculous you can be while being completely serious.  When we’re in the realm of the Ridiculous, we know we’re getting close, because there’s a good chance you were indeed Ridiculed for Wanting that, maybe even by yourself.

Marry the Quarterback?  Ha!  Don’t be silly.  I don’t even have tits yet, why would he even look at me? 

Make a hundred times as much as the old man?  By doing what, robbing banks?  Besides, he’d hate me for showing him up – don’t even think about it. 

Create a Life that would look like a Legend in my own mind?  Forget it, I’m a Girl – look at how they treat Girls!  It’s not even worth fantasizing about. 

Nobody would ever let a Gay Black live like that.  It’d get me dead!

The don’t even have a name for the kind of Sex or Relationship I would like. 

I couldn’t talk about that even to my best friend – I’d be so Ashamed I’d die!

Why do I even bother thinking about that – I can’t even get it up. 

I can’t have Security and Freedom – they’re contradictory.

I’d do anything for Love, but I won’t do that!

The key is Wondering about it, letting yourself Dream without worrying about “Reality.”  We’re stretching Reality.  So what if no one has ever done it, you can be the first.  Somebody has to be first.  How else are we going to Co-Create a New World? 

When you get a tickle, take one step in that direction, then wait to see what happens, but stay open to Miracles.  PIAVFA that you’ll recognize it, because it may be so far out of your ideation that you don’t even notice it when it happens.  You don’t even need to know what to Ask for – in fact, it’s better if you don’t…

Great Spirit, may I please have a Miracle that Surprises and Delights me for the rest of my Life?

  Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ 

One more, another new Configuration, that we’ll call an Hourglass.  This one is an Opposition and a Quincunx that cross each other, so they’re one Sign apart on one end, and two Signs apart on the other.  We unlock the Sextile by Wondering what single step might start the Manifestation process rolling in our favor.

The Opposition is Eris (Revelation of Denial) to Haumea (Rebirth), and the Quincunx is Sedna (Actions taken out of Fear) to Ixion (Damn the Consequences) and Pholus (Don’t Blame me, I couldn’t stop it).  These Energies are Deep in the Unconscious, out beyond Pluto, so we may be only dimly aware of them at best.  The only exception is Pholus, which orbits from Saturn to out beyond Neptune, so it is within our realm of Attention, if through a glass darkly.  It’s currently on its way to Neptune.  It left Saturn’s neighborhood around 1990.  What were we Wishing For back then, during the Harmonic Convergence?  Wasn’t that about a Culture that actually supported individual Autonomy?  Not in the who-gives-a-shit-about-you-its-all-about-me “Libertarian” fashion, but with Harmony and Understanding, Sympathy and Trust Abounding.

So as Chiron carries the Individual Soul’s Message in from Uranus to the Saturnian Ego, and carries the Ego’s Request back to the Individual Soul, Pholus carries the Community Soul’s Message in from Neptune to the Saturnian Ego, and carries the Ego’s Request back to the Community Soul.  Pholus’s Request that’s being delivered to the Community Soul soon is plaintive…

I want my Tribe!  Where is the Community that I Love Unconditionally and that Loves me Unconditionally?  The Community that doesn’t waste it’s Energy fighting other Communities – We’re All One, damn it!  The Community that Lives on this Planet not just Sustainably, but that leaves only footprints and actually leaves things better than before!  How can we do that when Surviving and Fighting takes all of our Energy and Attention?  Where is our Tribe?  Enough with the Walkabout already!

In 1990 the relationship between Pholus and Neptune was Cancer Opposite Capricorn – “I want my Mommy!” – but on the Community level.  On its previous loop it left Neptune in 1957, the year of the tailfin.  On the surface its Message for the Ego was “You can have it all!”  Behind the curtain it was “See if you can figure out how to make Community work!” – Scorpio Square Aquarius.  When Pholus leaves Neptune again in 2021, the new Message will be “Let’s do Compassion this time, we can do it!” – Capricorn Sextile Pisces.

It’s the Pholus-Ixion Conjunction that renders Libertarianism so hedonistic.  I’ve never read it, but I’m told that Ayn’s work wasn’t Fuck-the-99% at all, even though it was anti-Communist in the sense of anti-Power Over.  As Naomi Klein so clearly explains in The Shock Doctrine, anti-Communism was the doublethink used to justify Ixionic Greed.

So Blame here is our doorway to Deeper layers of the Unconscious, where we can make Changes that have a real and lasting Impact.  The Unconscious is impersonal – every positive Change that any one of us makes in there, is one more marble moved toward the Tipping Point.  The Prize here (the “Coin” in the Opposition) is opening up to a Deep, Deep Denial (Eris) in such a way that it allows a complete Rebirth (Haumea).  The key that unlocks the Portal is

Wondering what it is that we do, or not do, out of Fear (Sedna) that we’ll be Accused (Pholus) of Failing to Care (Ixion).  It’s not about Figuring it Out – it’s about maintaining the state of Wonder.  It’s not a Question that wants an Answer.  It’s a Koan meant to permanently Open our Curiosity, and keep it Open.

I Wonder what it is that I do or don’t do, because of Fear that I’ll be Accused of not Caring?!?  Or out of Fear that it will look like I’m being Selfish?!?  I Wonder.

  Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ    Θ 

Chiron Station

I hope yesterday’s Chiron Station has been easier on you than it has on me.  Time for some exploration…

No big heavy entanglements with other planets while it’s in its Shadow Period.

The Shadow Period is the span of the Zodiac, and span of time, for a complete Retrograde cycle.  When seen from here, the planet seems to stop (Stationary Retrograde or SR) and then go backwards for a while (Retrograde or R), then stop again (Stationary Direct or SD) and start going forward again.  This means that the space between the two Stations gets crossed by the planet three times – forward, backward, forward again.

On the Zodiac the Shadow Period is the space between the SD and the SR.  On the calendar the Shadow Period includes all three crossings of the Zodiacal Shadow Period.  So it starts when the planet first passes the place where it will later turn SD, and ends when the planet again passes the place where it turned SR.

Often a Shadow Period will include multiple crossings of other planets.  Basically, those constitute things we really need to Pay Attention to, as the Universe is shining a bright light upon them.  Between their respective Shadow Periods, for instance, Uranus Squares Pluto seven times between 2012 and 2015.

Pallas is dancing with Chiron, but that started in mid-December, so the two are not weaving a tapestry together.  During the Chiron Shadow Period we only have to deal with a mid-July Confidence-Builder version of a Pallas-Chiron Opposition (Despair over Boundaries or Miracles in our Boundary-setting habits).

Here’s the calendar…

• 2/27/14: Chiron enters Shadow Period at 14 Pisces
• 6/19/14: Chiron Stationary Retrograde at 18 Pisces
• 7/10/14: Pallas Opposes Chiron from 18 Virgo
• 11/23/14: Chiron Stationary Direct at 14 Pisces
• 3/15/15: Chiron leaves Shadow Period at 18 Pisces

So we’re basically getting an intensive lesson in 14-18 Pisces, as it relates to getting discouraged or Manifesting Miracles.  Chiron doesn’t have to be big Miracles – just getting out of discouragement is a fine small Miracle, for instance.

14-18 Pisces comprises the Leo and Virgo Duads of Pisces.

By the time Chiron gets to this section of Pisces, it’s already worked through everything it plans to Complete during this Purge.  The rest of the Purge will be about making amends or educating others, Consciously and Unconsciously, about how those manipulations don’t work any more, how you’ve changed, how you’re claiming your Power now, that sort of thing.  2014 is about putting the finishing touches on your Clearing.  2015-17 is about practicing your New You in public.

Remember, Chiron is about Despair and Miracles, including the worst kind of Despair, Unconscious Despair – meaning you’d never dream of anything like that because you’ve been convinced that it’s just not Possible.  Anything is Possible.  So any signs you see of Discouragement this year, celebrate them!  They mean that you’re in the last lap of clearing away that Karma.  When you’re feeling Discouraged, start imagining what your Life would be like if you were suddenly – and Miraculously – lifted beyond this place where your Deepest Desires are verboten or outside of the realm of the Possible.  Let your Imagination get carried away.

Chiron moves through Pisces only every fifty years.  We only get one or two Purges like this per Lifetime on this Planet.  The last time Chiron was in Pisces was 1960-67; the next time will be 2060-2067.  The current iteration spans 2010-17.  Remember how much you changed during the 1960s?  If you’re younger than that, you’ve never experienced this sort of Purge – ask your parents or grandparents how the 60’s were for them, and if they think they changed much, or watched the World change much, between Elvis and Disco.

Chiron’s orbit runs back and forth from Saturn to Uranus and back, ferrying messages from your Soul to your Ego and from Ego to Soul.  Yes, your Soul is primary, it was here long before your Ego and will persist long after.  But your Ego is the locus of your Adaptation to Material Form, which is an important experiment in the herstory of your Soul, so the feedback from your Ego to your Soul is important too. 

At the moment Chiron’s outbound, reaching the neighborhood of Uranus in 2022.  It dwelled in the environs of Saturn in the last half of the 1990s, where it had an extended conversation with Saturn.  As the two circled the Sun at about the same distance, their orbital periods synchronized and their Shadow Periods overlapped, as they chased each other around the Zodiac.  On the way inbound, from 1985 till 1995, Chiron Opposed Saturn a remarkable twenty times!  Then again on Chiron’s the way out, from 2003-2006, they Opposed one another another seven times.  What a long deep teaching about the Ouija Board that was!

If you missed much of that in this Lifetime, no worries.  Just PIAVA that you remember what you Learned when you were here in another Body during those years.  If you weren’t on this Planet, borrow the memories of someone that was here then.  We swap Identities all the time, it’s no big deal.

Sea Change I

Scheelite – Calcium Tungstate – is an excellent aid to Discernment.

By far the biggest influence here is the March 2 Saturn Station, just because Saturn’s bigger than the other players.  But let’s start with the other players, because while a Saturn Station tells us in no uncertain terms to Focus on The Most Important Thing, the other players will give us hints about just what is The Most Important Thing, in case we didn’t already know.

Ceres, the Shadow Period, and the Last Third of Libra

Ceres is Retrograde from February 26 till June 1, and triple-crosses 19 Libra to 2 Scorpio.  The “Shadow Period” runs from December 4 through August 12.  So, what’s all that mean for us?

Well, we really should be introducing a Retrograde period at the start of the Shadow Period, because when a planet goes Retrograde it recrosses the same section of the Zodiac three times.  If you have a natal planet there, it will be triggered thrice.  As we’ve indicated before, this means that…

The Universe really wants us to get this message. 

We call the first crossing the Can-Opener because it usually opens up an old wound for us to heal.  The second crossing is the Exposition, because the nature of the wound is exposed so we can Empathize with, and find Compassion for, our wounded self.

So once a planet goes Retrograde, we’re already starting into the Exposition phase.  It’d be nice if we had a warning before the Can-Opener, wouldn’t it.  In the Exposition phase, the issue that wounded us is replayed at a slower speed, so we can understand what’s happening.  Once the planet goes Direct again and recrosses our natal planet for the third time, if we did out homework at the Exposition, then the wound is retriggered again, but this time we know how to handle it.  So we call the third crossing the Confidence-Builder.

Even without a natal planet within the Shadow Period, we get the Opportunity to work on any issue we have around the zone of the Zodiac that’s triple-crossed.  The last third of Libra is about…

Making new friends.

The first third is about reaching out to Other, and the second third about finding the kind of Culture we’d enjoy living in.

So, do you have any issues around making new friends?  Do you trust strangers?  What sort of tests do you put people through before you accept them?  Are people trying to befriend you and you’re suspicious?  At the same time are you scared that they’ll give up on you?  Whatever new-friends issue that was up for you between December 4 and February 26, we’ll now be reviewing until June 1.

Then from June 1 through August 12, we’ll see how well we did at learning these important Lessons that the Universe was so generously handing out.

Okay, so what about Ceres, which is to say, who was it that was triggering our wounds and pushing us toward new friends?  Well, Ceres is about Sustainability and Sustenance.  So whatever’s up, it’s about Community, about Survival.

What will these new friends Expect of us?  Will be be able to live up to their Expectations?  What is it we Expect of them?  If we had to depend on them for our Survival, would they come through?  If they depended on us for their Survival, would we come through?  Will our old friends be jealous, or think we’ve gone astray?  Would we be able to depend on our old friends for Survival, and they on us?

Sustainability and Sustenance go hand in hand – we have to give up surplus in order to get to Sustainability.

Abandonment and Suffocation

I was going to save this till when we next spoke about Venus, which isn’t too far off, but it’s relevant here, so I’ll bring it up now.

We were all born with some degree of Abandonment and some degree of Suffocation.  Most of us emphasize one or the other.  When someone appears to reject us, it triggers our Abandonment.  If Abandonment is our preferred way of facing the World, we usually overreact.  Often their behavior isn’t even about us, but about them.  This is a particular problem cross-Culturally, because we won’t understand what is meant by gestures, phrases, or even body language and facial expressions.

But you know what?  Every family has its own Culture!  So even in the same Culture we’ll run into this with neighbors.  Some people enjoy making fun of others, but they sometimes don’t really mean it, because it’s a way of testing their new friends to see where there wounds are, and to see if they can be trusted, and how far.  Sometimes, of course, they really do mean it!    A fundamental rule in the Recovery Movement is that Teasing is Abuse.  But that doesn’t make it go away.

And of course, we all had experiences in “Past” Lives and in our infancy and childhood, where we felt Abandoned.  If those were serious enough or repeated enough, it left a scar that’s still tender.  So if we approach the World with a core issue of Abandonment, and we stumble into a crowd that enjoys making fun of others, then making new friends is going to be rare and difficult.

The other side of this coin is Suffocation.  If we had significant adults in our childhood and infancy who monitored our every breath and freaked out when we farted, and especially if they judged us and tried to control us, then we’ll have a priori expectations that people will Suffocate us rather than Abandon us.  Or if we experienced Past Lives as a Slave or under strict surveillance by anyone.  The two are usually correlated. 

Of course we could easily be approaching the World with both Abandonment and Suffocation.  That makes new friends a minefield.  The point is, most of our Relationship problems are our own.  It’s not that they are doing anything wrong, no matter how much it looks that way.  It’s that we are interpreting their actions and words and gestures from the perspective of our Abandonment or Suffocation.  This isn’t always true, but if we want to keep old friends or make new ones, or both, we need to assume it’s our own issue until proven otherwise.  And careful about what we consider “proof”!

So, with Ceres Retrograding across the last third of Libra, we’re scouting for folks who prove to be trustworthy enough and friendly enough and reliable enough that we can depend on them for our Survival, and they on us.  Discernment is important; no matter how flexible we believe ourselves to be, it’s unlikely that we can just choose a Community by throwing darts at the board and then go fit in perfectly.  But there’s also a very large opportunity here for us to examine our own motivations and perspectives, and if we can eliminate some Self-Sabotage here, that’ll make a huge difference in the Sustainability of our Community.

That Big River in Egypt

So of course we’re talking about Denial here – denying our own Abandonment makes someone else appear to be rejecting us, and denying our own Suffocation makes someone else appear to be trying to control us.  And if we’re going to trust them, we need to know what they’re denying – that’s the social function of Teasing, after all.  So then, where’s Eris?  Kind of like Where’s Waldo?  Eris is Quincunx to the Godfather here, Saturn.  Meaning?

No matter where we look for The Most Important Thing, we need to maintain our Curiosity about what’s hidden under the surface.  Not Judgment, but Curiosity.  “I wonder what’s really true here” in the honest sense of the word Wonder.  The willingness to wait to see what emerges is a big part of real Wonder.  Asking the question is what invites the Veil to lift.

Mercury’s Shadow

When a planet goes Retrograde, it recrosses the same (usually fairly small) region of the Zodiac three times – once forward, then backwards, then forward again.  If there are other planets within that region – or if you have natal planets there – then they meet multiple times, often setting the stage for a Big Lesson.  We call the three meetings

1. The Can-Opener (because something often catches us off guard and regresses us)
2. The Exposition (because the same something recurs but more slowly so we can understand it better and respond, and
3. The Confidence-Builder (because by the time it happens the third time, we know how to handle it).

In between the Can-Opener and the Exposition, there’s a Retrograde Station, which is likely to re-stimulate the Can-Opener experience.  And in between the Exposition and the Confidence-Builder, there’s a Direct Station, which is likely to further expose the Exposition.

The reason we don’t pay much attention to the inner planets is that we get so much practice with them that we’re all well experienced at dealing with them.  Mercury crosses every other planet once a year.  On the other hand, for example, Chiron crosses each inner planet only once every fifty years, and the outer planets less often than that (not counting the triple crossings we mentioned above).  So in this blog we mostly talk about the interactions that are rare – those between the slow-moving outer planets.

So we don’t usually make a big deal about Mercury turning Retrograde, it happens three times a year – we get lots of practice.  There’s a Can-Opener, but it’s usually not a big deal.

We’re talking about it now because it dances thrice over the North Node, and as you know, the Nodes are being Squared by Juno, and that Karmic-Gorgon-wrestling is the astrological Main Event these days.  In addition, Saturn just crossed the North Node as well – another recent Main Event, so Mercury’s dancing with Saturn too.  Since Mercury is about Awareness, and the Juno-Nodes Main Event is about what’s coming into Consciousness – aka what’s coming into Awareness, it’s timely.  And Mercury also dances with the Eclipse.

One more piece of background, the Shadow Period.  Mercury goes Retrograde on October 21 (at half past 3am PDT) at 19 degrees of Scorpio.  Then it goes backward, back to 3 of Scorpio.  If we just pay attention to the Retrograde period, we miss the Can-Opener, and in doing so we can miss a major opportunity for personal growth.  We’ve encountered the Can-Opener, we haven’t missed it in that sense, but we don’t realize that it’s part of a set, so we don’t notice the connection and what we’ve learned.

So we need to look at the whole dance, from Mercury’s first crossing of 3 Scorpio, through the Retrograde period, and beyond, till Mercury again crosses 19 Scorpio.  Astrologers call the whole shebang the Shadow Period.  So here’s the whole Mercury timetable…

• October 1 – Mercury first crosses 3 Scorpio and enters its Shadow Period
• October 2 – Mercury Square Juno Can-Opener 5 Scorpio
• October 5-6 – Mercury Conjunct North Node Can-Opener (aka North Node Initiates Mercury) 9 Scorpio
• October 8 – Mercury Conjunct Saturn Can-Opener (aka Saturn Initiates Mercury) 11 Scorpio
• October 21 – Mercury Stationary Retrograde at 19 Scorpio
• October 29 – Mercury Conjunct Saturn Exposition (ie, Retrograde) 14 Scorpio
• November 1 – Mercury-Sun Conjunction 10 Scorpio
• November 2 – Mercury Square Juno Exposition 9 Scorpio
• November 2-3 – Mercury Conjunct North Node Exposition 8 Scorpio
• (November 3 – Solar Eclipse 12 Scorpio)
• November 10 – Mercury Stationary Direct 3 Scorpio
• November 17-18 – Mercury Conjunct North Node Confidence-Builder 7 Scorpio
• November 24 – Mercury Square Juno Confidence-Builder 16 Scorpio
• November 25 – Mercury Conjunct Saturn Confidence-Builder 17 Scorpio
• November 27 – Mercury leaves Shadow Period Scorpio 19

If we rotate the matrix to emphasize content rather than timing, we get…

• Mercury Square Juno October 2, November 2, November 24
• Mercury Conjunct North Node Oct 5-6, Nov 2-3, Nov 17-18
• Mercury Conjunct Saturn October 8, October 29, November 25

Notice how the Juno Square and North Node Conjunction converge in time on November 2-3, while the Juno Square and the Saturn Conjunction converge on November 24-25.  Things could get complicated then, even though it’s the (relatively easy) Expositions November 2-3 and the (easier yet) Confidence-Builders November 24-25, because events will reverberate with one another.  The November 3 Solar Eclipse will emphasis to the earlier dates.

Juno Squares Saturn November 29 (17 Scorpio), but by then we’re done with the Juno-Nodes T-Squares.

Now that we’ve led you through the maze, what’s the reward?  Well, mostly it’s – if you have a journal,

• October 29 will teach you about whatever you stumbled over around October 8 (Mercury-Saturn: New Awareness of our Priorities and Limits)
• November 2-3 will teach you about anything that flummoxed you between October 2 and October 6 (Mercury-Juno-North Node: New Awareness of Unconscious Identity and our Mission in the Lifetime)

Give or take a day or two on the dates, as events in the “real” World, even though related to a given astrological event, are often triggered by a third party (such as the Moon).

If you don’t have a journal, then you can see why it behooves us to start paying attention when a planet crosses into its Shadow Period, rather than waiting till it turns Retrograde.  I don’t keep a daily journal per se, but I can tell from Earthquakes and Mythic New Moon that I was feeling a bit paranoid between October 2 and 6.  I’ll be delighted if by the end of November I’m Confident about not being mauled by these Gorgon-wrestling matches!

We’re busy wrestling, but it wouldn’t hurt to try to find time to see what other Shadow Periods we’re immersed in (such as Jupiter’s – Jupiter turns Retrograde November 6).