Mars-Pluto, Mercury, Venus-Saturn, and Lilith

Amethyst, the Violet form of Quartz, is the Crystal that most commonly represents the Crown Chakra.  Here, as it often is when it lives near Thunder Bay Ontario, it’s speckled measles-like with Hematite, providing grounding to the Root Chakra.  Walking the Mystical Path with Practical Feet, as Angie would put it.  Fresh Violets in an Ancient Pottery Bowl is the Sabian Symbol of the new Chiron-Neptune Cycle – this is how we Co-Create Miracles for the next half-century.  Nourished with water from a Sacred Well, and symbolizing a half-century of peaceful collaboration among Humans and all of the other Sentient Beings on and around our Planet.  Wouldn’t that be great!

While the Eclipse chart is much bigger than this, Mars-Pluto weaves a very complex web at Tuesday’s Eclipse, dancing with a Mercury Station, a Venus-Saturn Initiation, while Lilith hobnobs with the Eclipsed Moon.  We’ll get to the rest of the Eclipse tomorrow, but it’s important to try to find the warp and weft of this knot.  When we tease it apart and knit it back together again, we end up looking at, defending, and enjoying the larger matrix that Life exists in.  Here’s the labyrinthine Path we follow to get there…

Mars-Pluto

Okay then, what about this Mars-Pluto Event?  First, Mars is Out of Bounds (Strong).  The Initiation occurs at 9 degrees of Capricorn, “In a sun-lit home, domesticated Birds sing happily.”  That’s intense.  With Uranus prominent, domestication is the last way to seek happiness (except as Resistance to Uranian Energy, and good luck with that).  Rudhyar rubs it in, “The wholesome happiness which subservience to the ideals and patterns of a well-established culture brings to those who accept them unreservedly.”  This is the Mars-Pluto Cycle that reigns until November 2014.  Know of any well-established cultures that promote self-expression, freedom, and independence?  Maybe we should all move there.  I know, that’s the hype about the US, and it’s true, within limits.  To Uranus-Pluto, limits are a dare.

It’s sad, as it may indicate that those who are enjoying the spoils of the Olde Order will be shocked (as Rmoney was when he lost) that anyone would want to disrupt their reverie.  On the other hand, they may be too shocked to put up much of a fight.  Lord knows, they might even be willing to collaborate to bring more people out of poverty and injustice and slavery.  We don’t want to overlook any possibilities for Chironic miracles!

And Elizabeth points out that the Mars-Pluto Square will activate a whole generation born in the 1950s (because it Squares their natal Eris) to defend their “entitlements” – they’ve paid into Social Security and Medicare “Trust Funds” all their life so they could enjoy the fruits of those investments when they retire.  Of course they weren’t Trust Funds, they were Slush Funds for Congress to squander.  And now the 1% have relabeled those investments as “entitlements,” and even “liberals” have fallen into using the derogatory term.  If Mars-Pluto inspires these Gray Panthers, woe to the Tea Party and their fascist-collaborating ways.

Mercury Stationary Direct

Meanwhile, Mercury is Stationary turning Direct this coming Monday at quarter to 3pm PST.  A Mercury Station strongly highlights communication.  The Station occurs at 19 degrees of Scorpio, “A Parrot repeats the conversation he has heard.”  Rudhyar considers that an opportunity to transmit knowledge beyond what we understand, like when we tell people All There Is Is Now.  If that’s what’s relevant, great.  In my cynicism, I worry more about rhetoric – parroting of unexamined propaganda, like “entitlements.”  Maybe we can hope that the Station will engender Awareness of the empty flammability of rhetoric.

However, we should be looking at the path traced out by the Retrogradation of Mercury, more than the degree of the Stations.  Mercury crossed 19 Scorpio to 5 Sagittarius from mid-October to election day, then backed across the same zone for most of November, and now it will recross the same span again till mid-December.  When this happens, the Heavens are telling us to Pay Attention! to this particular section of the Zodiac.  It’s the Cancer (Nurturing) Decanate (a third of a Sign) of Scorpio (Fearlessness) and the Sadge and Capricorn Dwads (one twelfth of a Sign) of Sadge (Surrender).

During early October, Mercury taught us to dig deep into our Circumstances looking for Limiting Beliefs (the Scorpio Decanate of Scorpio).  Then in mid-October, Mercury asked us to know no Emotional Limits in this search (the Pisces Decanate).  The last third of Scorpio (the Cancer Decanate), at the end of October, was about healing the negative Karma that we’d found by empathizing with our historical selves as they were thrown to the Wolves unprepared.

You poor dear, you had no way of dealing with that when you were six years old!  You did the best you could, it was not at all your fault! 

If you missed this healing opportunity, even after our November Retrograde review, you now get a third chance to allow Grace into your Life.  The Sagittarian portion (the first half of November) was about Oh my God, the walls are gone!  This is what Freedom feels like! (the Sadge Dwad of Sadge) and What will I do with this fabulous gift? (the Capricorn Dwad).  We’ll get into that zone again December 11-13.  Watch for it.

Venus-Saturn

A new Venus-Saturn Cycle is also Initiated Monday, at quarter after 5pm PST.  Venus-Saturn Events and Cycles are about Focusing (Saturn) on our Values (Venus).  What are we always offended about?  This initiation is at 7 degrees of Scorpio, “Deep-Sea divers.”  More Pearl-diving.  You can see the benefit of Consciousness – this is about looking fearlessly for First Cause, and without Consciousness we’ll be looking outside of ourself, and getting lost in Blame.  Venus isn’t about setting Boundaries (that’s Pallas) or what’s Sacred (Vesta), it’s “just” our Values.  So we’re more likely to enjoy a bitchfest than to throw rocks.  However, get a bunch of folks together enjoying the same complaints, and rocks are likely to begin flying.  Especially if the folks are unemployed.  When you ain’t got nothing, you ain’t got nothing left to lose.

Integrating All That

The Venus-Saturn Event occurs before the Mars-Pluto Initiation; this means that however our desire for Justice (Mars-Pluto) and our desire for Stability (domesticated Birds singing) rank among our Values, they’re both likely to be Strong now.  And the Venus-Saturn Initiation is Sextile (Creative Grace) to the Mars-Pluto Initiation.  That gives us excellent prospects for Creative Win-Wins, where Justice (in this case, largely the right to Food and Shelter) is extended without the Violence that diminishes everyone and makes Justice ever harder to achieve.

The Mercury Station (Awareness) is Novile (one ninth of the way around the Zodiac) to the Mars-Pluto Initiation.  The Novile represents introspection, again de-emphasizing the potential for more Violence.

The Venus-Saturn and Mars-Pluto Initiations combine various stages of several Cycles.  The Venus-Mars, Venus-Pluto, and Saturn-Pluto Cycles are in their Voids, at the Waning Sextile.  A Void, recall, is the zone in a Cycle where the Energy has peaked, and we need to release Expectations in order to clear Space for a new Cycle.  Waning Sextiles are about finding Creative ways to compensate for the loss of the benefits of the prior Cycles.  These might be Giving up excuses in favor of Honesty (Venus-Mars, September 2008, A boat landing after a Storm), Giving up Power-Over in favor of Listening (Venus-Pluto, December 2011, A veiled prophet speaks), and Giving up Ease in favor of Sustainability (Saturn-Pluto, November 1982, An old bridge over a beautiful Stream).

The Mars-Saturn Cycle is at its Waxing Sextile stage.  At this stage, if we’re Conscious about it, we’re finding Creative ways to implement the Cycle’s Energy, even though our culture isn’t supporting it yet.  Mars-Saturn is about Focusing our Energy so our Actions are efficient, and the Cycle is about “The sight of an Autumn leaf brings to a Pilgrim the sudden revelation of the Mystery of Life and Death” (Initiation August 15, 2012).  Whoa, more loss of the Veil, as presaged by Neptune-Ketu in the 1/1/2000 chart.  If we aren’t Conscious about it, we’ll be in Resistance to Rebirth.

And the Eclipse?

Well, the Venus-Saturn Conjunction and the Mars-Pluto Conjunction form a Finger of God pointing at the Eclipsing Moon.  Uhhhhh, that Strong! as Tatsuya Nakadai would have said in translation had they put Fingers of God and Eclipses into those old Samurai movies.  A Finger of God or Yod, recall, is two Quincunxes pointing at the same zodiacal location.  A Quincunx is two Planets five Signs apart.  Quincunxes represents Curiosity.

Curiosity is akin to Wonder and Awe, the highest mental state we can achieve, as it is free of Fear.  Better than Gratitude, and Gratitude is pretty dang high!  Arguably even better than Love, as Love is blind, while Curiosity is fully Conscious.  Of course we want all three, not Either/Or!  We might call that combination Compassion, or Presence.

So we bring Curiosity to this Eclipse.  The Eclipse itself occurs in 7 of Gemini, “A Well with bucket and rope under the shade of majestic Trees” – we drink with relish, as do the Plants that sustain us.  The image reeks of Collaboration.  So we’re Curious (the Quincunxes) about how Creatively combining (Sextile) Cultural Preservation (Mars-Saturn) and a Fearless Inventory (Venus-Saturn) will serve (the Finger of God) Sustainable Abundance (the Eclipse).  Again, without interruption,

We may be Open to new ways to foster Sustainable Abundance by balancing defense of Social Stability with our own Soul-Searching.

Where is it that I don’t serve Sustainability?  How can I contribute to Justice and Equality?  Eclipses are about Awareness.  We may want to PIAVA these questions to our Guides.

In Celtic traditions, the Well is the entrance to the Underworld, the Worlds beyond the Veil where the Ancestors and the Faeries dwell.  We can’t Heal the Planet without re-integrating these Entities into our Worldview, as they represent Connectedness with the Living Spirit of Planetary Stuff, and the Oneness of Time.  If you don’t already know that Broccoli is a Spiritual Entity, let along Amethyst, you need to seek an education.  It’s about surrendering our Egoic acquisitiveness in favor of Universal Equality.  No one is Free until we’re all Free, including Freedom from hunger, and Freedom from disrespect.  Denying the Spirituality of Other is tremendously disrespectful.

At the Eclipse the Moon closely Conjoins Black Moon Lilith, symbol of the Primordial Feminine, Goddess of the Underworld.  The Moon’s orbit forms an ellipse, an oval with two centers.  The Earth is at one center.  The other is Black Moon Lilith.  Recall those stories about Two Earths?  So we really have three close Conjunctions all mutually Quincunx  – Venus-Saturn, Mars-Pluto, and Moon-Lilith.  Curiosity about what Actions (Mars) We Collectively (Pluto) will take to Support (Saturn) our primary Value (Venus) of Protecting the Spirit (the Well) and Form (Moon) of our Mother Planet (Lilith).

The Moon-Lilith Conjunction is still forming at the time of the Eclipse – the Moon crosses Lilith about four hours after the Eclipse.  That is, the Energy of this month-long Moon-Lilith Cycle will carry on during the nine months that the Eclipse remains influential.  The Initiation occurs at 9 Gemini, “A quiver filled with arrows.”  In Psalm 127 the arrows remain in the quiver, but their presence still protects the gate.

So what if the well-established culture that Mars-Pluto defends is not the nastily-politicized TV-adled traffic-snarled lawn-order culture that we live in every day with other Humans, but the larger culture that nurtures us, mostly without our Gratitude or even our Curiosity, or Respect for their Sentience and their Service.  Our collaboration with the Cows and Turkeys and Yams and Brussels Sprouts and Pumpkins who serve themselves at our banquets here in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, for instance.  Maybe that’s what Mars-Pluto defends.  In the context of the Waxing Square of the Ouija-Board Uranus-Pluto Cycle, that makes much more sense!

Interesting Times

Remember the old “Chinese curse,” may you be born in interesting times?

If you know anybody getting born in the next month, pray for them.  The “curse” doesn’t comment on how it will go for folks already born, but you might say a prayer for us too while yer at it.  I actually find the various charts to be kinda promising, but certainly not dull.

Lemme just list the play-by-play, and we can use the list as a map for future comments.

Mars (Action) goes Outabounds (Strong for the duration) on October 26, till December 9, during which time it spans mid-Sadge to mid-Cap.  That’ll give us an Outabounds Mars-Pluto initiation on November 27, just prior to the Lunar Eclipse, which of course will Square Uranus (the Devil made me do it).  It’s probably fortunate that this occurs in pragmatic Capricorn, but it’s been many years since Mars-Pluto events were broadly violent anyway.  The two-year Cycle initiated begins at Cap 8, “An Angel carrying a harp“!  Lord knows we can use that.  The Mars-Pluto Cycle (history-making action) has been in the Void for about a year, which is lucky since the currently ending Cycle was about “Indians on the warpath.”

So Mars will be Outabounds during the election in the USSA.

Ceres (Sustainability/Sustenance) is Stationary (Strong for the prior week) Retrograde (Reconsider) on October 31 at 4 Cancer, “A Cat arguing with a Mouse.”  Interesting metaphor.  Ceres, remember, is the third pole of our ongoing Grand Trine (Big Grace) with Saturn (Focus) and Chiron-Neptune (Two Shiny Dimes), and the third leg of our T-Square (Mastery through Challenge) with Uranus and Pluto (terminal self-trust).  We’ll come back to Ceres later in November.

Mercury (Communication, Awareness) goes Outabounds (Strong for the duration) for a week starting October 31, until about 5am PST on November 6.  November 6 is of course the US election, and we all know what October 31 is about, right?  Samhain.  End of harvest, start of serious preparations for Winter.  The Veil thins.

Then at 3pm PST on November 6, election day, Mercury is Stationary (increasing in Strength for the prior several days) Retrograde (Thinking about it).  Lotsa folks writing about that.  Notice that the Outabounds-Strong and the Station-Strong overlap, so we’re talking about Strong-Squared.  I don’t think that guarantees good Communication, but strong Communication wouldn’t hurt nobody.  Well, except maybe liars.  The degree of the Station is “An old owl alone in a large tree.”  Rudhyar’s take is interesting: “a clear perception of unconscious factors and their operation.”  More on that later.  Mercury spends most of November Retro and spans the Cancer portion of Scorpio and the Sadge-Cap portions of Sadge.  If I had to put a word on that span it would Forgiveness.

Then on the following Saturday, Neptune (our relationship with “God,” or anything larger than ourself, including our culture) is Stationary (increasing in Strength for the prior coupla months) Direct (okay, we’ve thought it over, now this is what we’ve come to believe).  Notice that makes Neptune very Stationary during the election (and quite a ways before that).  Remember what we like to say about a Strong Neptune?  It represents Confusion when looking through Material Eyes, and Clarity when looking through Spiritual Eyes.  Now Confusion, as we know, is the first step of Growth in Consciousness, if we don’t habitually shut it down with Fear or Anger.  So Confusion isn’t the best place to be (that’s Curiosity), but it’s close.  Or, you can just get metaphysical about it all – not a bad choice either.

Then, a week after the US election, we get the big Total Eclipse of the Sun.  I assume you’re all traveling to Cairns for that, as it’s a Life-Changing event to witness.  More on that later.

The following day, November 14, Chiron (Changing the Rules) is Stationary (increasing in Strength for the prior six weeks or so) Direct (Eureka! That’s the Solution!).  Chiron is the messenger that literally shuttles between Soul (Uranus) and Ego (Saturn) and back again, thus representing major downloads that amount to virtual Walk-Ins (Change of Consciousness).  The Moon also Occults Mercury on this day – that’s worth more discussion later.

Don’t miss the Big Implication here – that the whole New Paradigm thing (Chiron-Neptune) is lit up bigtime all during the lead-up to the election, and all of the New-Paradigm Energy that’s been thinking it over since June, when they went Retro as Venus Walked Across the Face of the Sun starts gushing out.  If yer jaw isn’t dropping at that, we need to talk.

Not finally, but enough for now – Ceres (Keep on keepin’ on) goes Outabounds (Strong for the duration) on November 21, until mid-July of next year, crossing all of Cancer and half of Leo in the process.

Now all that aint horrendous the way the dictionary wants the word used, but it’s certainly worthy of note.  When I get time over the next week I’ll talk about why the whole business looks very optimistic to me.  In a word, History and Herstory appear to be on our side, if we accept their Challenges.

Manganotantalite is the crystal to carry (if you can find one) when you want your words to be understood as they are intended.

Lughnasa

Mercury turned Direct again about an hour ago, so we can move forward on stalled projects.

Got another fabulous Mythic Times newsletter from Steve Nelson today.  As I’ve mentioned, Steve is literate in many mythologies, and weaves them together in quite wonderful ways.  A few tantalizing quotes…

“In Celtic tradition, Lughnasa is when the power of the Sun god Lugh is felt most strongly.  Whatever is seeded now extends its influence through the August 7-22 hora, the Lammas Season.  Whatever occurs or is brought forth in this time shapes the Autumn harvest to be.  Sun, Moon and other cosmic forces come together now to realize our dreams, the dreams of the world.  Sun in Leo illuminates who we are and what we’re here for. Everything comes into focus during the Aug 6-8 mid-Leo power gate and the 2-week solar hora that follows.  We are supported by the dance of the planets and stars now to realize what we are here to do.  And, if all goes to plan, we will know completely by the Aug 22 Point of the Sphinx (Leo/ Virgo cusp).  This is an opportunity to understand our unique purpose and destiny for the coming time.  The work we’re to do, living it through, will follow as the new creation flowers in months that follow.  First the awakened global woman, the new queen, mediates the emergence of the new king.  Then New Woman and New Man come together in the Seventh Moon (9/16-30) and from their divine union the new creation will flower.”

“The August 6-8 World Peace Festival commemorates the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  This great tragedy and the US Embassy Bombings in East Africa on August 7th 1998 remind us of the shadow aspect of this Mid-Leo Power Gate.  The more we honor this time with spiritual awareness the less there will be negative effect.  More energetically charged locations and times may have effect for good or ill according to how these energies are channeled.  The more energy is raised and directed positively the less will be misapplied.  Mountain tops condition all that is below.  Whatever comes to be in the mountain heights extends influence through the realm.  True noon is an ideal time to be on a mountain aligning with spirit and channeling blessings to the world.  Solar prana is more present at higher elevations where magnetic inversions occur and solar prana flows down the magnetic lines of force.  Jesus often went to a mountain to pray because here he could better be heard by ‘the father who art in heaven.’ “

“The classical Mayan way of ritual celebration is to take food and flowers to a mountain top power spot and lay these out in a mandala-like pattern.  The food is then blessed, presented as a offering to the gods and finally consumed in feasting so vital energy focused on the mountain is taken into the body and the spiritual ideal is literally embodied.”

“Most accounts of the Transfiguration leave out the significant role of Mary Magdalene, still her story appears in apocryphal texts.  Lady Mary Magdalene is a mediator for us now, an archetypal feminine avatar.  She is the Woman of Revelation who gives birth to the new consciousness in this magic time.  When it was time [August 6-7, Mid-Leo], the Lord took a few of his close male disciples along with Mary Magdalene up on top of a holy mountain.  He was transfigured before them into a Light-image, showing his close companions the Pleroma of Light and the Light-continuum.  The men were afraid and wished to shelter themselves from the glory and power.  Then the men fell unconscious, overwhelmed by the glory of the Truth and Light, but St. Mary Magdalene was not overwhelmed and remained awake in the Light-presence…  What the men beheld was merely the outset of the divine revelation.  Because they fell unconscious, they did not receive the Light-transmission, and the Light-transmission passed to Lady Mary.  She beheld the whole divine revelation, and she herself shone with visible glory…”

If anybody wants me to forward the whole (long) email, just post a comment to that effect.  I won’t publish these comments unless you say it’s okay to do so.

In the old Pagan calendar, there were eight holidays – the Solstices (cusps of the “negative” or magnetic signs, also known as the “Tropics” – not warm climates, but latitudes where the Sun reverse its relative direction) and Equinoxes (cusps of the “positive” or dynamic signs), and the four “Cross-Quarter Days,” or midpoints of the fixed signs.  Also known as the “Four Horsemen” of you-know-what.

It’s impossible to capture the glory of Sunstone with a still camera, and probably difficult with video, because like Opal, the color and fire change with the angle of observation.  Sunstone is a Feldspar with either Iron or Copper embedded in it.  Lovely stuff!  Even without the embedments, Feldspars are quite magical.

Busy Coupla Weeks

Happy April Fool’s Day!  Busy coupla weeks coming up.

Mercury turns Direct on April 4, then re-enters Aries on April 16.  That means that over the next few weeks we should oughta be up for a bunch of insights into the tons of Karma that we’ve all been dumping, as Mercury makes its third pass over the tail end of Pisces.

Then Mars finally turns Direct on Friday the 13th, which falls onna Friday this month.  Till late June, Mars will be making its third crossing of the Heart of Virgo. When a planet dances across a Zodiacal zone three times, it’s an intense review of the affairs of the planet and the zone.  Mars dancing in Virgo ends up being close to a Searching and Fearless Moral Inventory, or at least a thorough review of our Identity and Community, and how we use our Energy on the Planet.  The third crossing is a review and confidence-builder; the first crossing opens old wounds, and the second crossing provides the opportunity for Healing, for trying new and different ways to approach old dilemmas.

For Mars, the first crossing was mid-November to late January, and the second from late January to mid-April.  Slow processes like these are hard to correlate with external and internal personal and impersonal events and processes, but tremendously worthwhile if you can do it.  I suggest you PIAVA (Pray, Intend, Ask, Visualize, Affirm) that you receive insights, and then Change the Subject, cuz unless the Karma you’re re-experiencing is a Big Deal, it’s unlikely that you’ll find the most useful insights by thinking.

The first crossing of the tail of Pisces and the head of Aries by Mercury spanned February 27 through March 12, and the second crossing March 12 through April 3.  The tail of Pisces and the head of Aries of course represents Rebirth.

Meanwhile, Pluto turns Retro on April 9.  The last coupla days before a Pluto Station, it always feel like we’re swimming in Jello, cuz history and herstory are slowing down and getting ready to turn in a new direction.  Pluto will go backwards till mid-September, making a second crossing over the fourth Dwad of Capricorn.  A Dwad is the twelfth part of a Sign.  The fourth Dwad of Capricorn is the Aries Dwad, and of course while Pluto is Retro it’ll be Squared by Uranus from Aries, in early July.

Let’s just suppose for a minute that all of those rumors and intuitions and wishes of Breakthrough and Transcendence and New Earth and Ascendance will work out for the best.  Then if that’s true, we would have witnessed all of the roadblocks and speedbumps to that Trance(re)formation during Pluto’s first crossing of the Aries Dwad, from mid-December through April 9.  We should be experiencing the Healing between now and mid-September, and the third crossing will span mid-September through early January of 2013, finishing up just in time for an Inauguration.

Capricorn is the Just Fix It Sign (Cardinal Earth, or creativity around materiality), and the Aries Dwad is the Oh, We Could Fix It This Way! portion of Capricorn (Aries is Cardinal Fire, or creative Spirit).  Capricorn is run by Saturn, the Zodiac’s engineer (think Gopher, if yer not British).  It likes to think things over thoroughly, but once we get to the Aries Dwad, it’s time to get off the workbench and begin testing the prototypes.

Here’s a great Bill Moyers interview with Howard Zinn – who better to kick us inna butt and get us moving forward…

http://billmoyers.com/content/howard-zinn-on-the-power-of-people/

Followed by a David Icke article, a movie review no less.  Who could possible be bored by anything David Icke says!  Dust off yer best Both/And glasses.  You don’t need to watch the video, it’s just about some boring topic like Identity or something.  The written text below it is more compelling…

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2010/02/21/david-icke-avatar-movie-a-story-of-earth-in-reverse/

Then Ozzie Barbara sends us this nice link, a table of metaphysical properties of Crystals…

http://www.mooncavecrystals.com/Properties/Properties.htm

Of course different Crystals mean different things in different contexts for different people, and the best way to use Crystals is to use the one(s) you have in your hand in the way you’re guided to use it.  But our left brains like entertainment too, and, at least at first glance, this compendium looks very useful.  She describes our Green Kyanite Crystal, for instance, as

“‘Heart of the Lioness’ Kyanite in the green ray allows deep meditation to draw on the loving and healing qualities of the fourth chakra.  May assist in alleviating depression through seeing the ‘light at the end of the tunnel.’  Stimulates the incorporation of dream work and visions into daily life.  Its energy is feminine and may be more attractive to those wishing to support receptive qualities in themselves as well as female visioning power.“

Nothing to argue with there.  Kyanite, like Garnet and Topaz and Zircon and Peridot, is a Nesosilicate, the simplest of Silicates, where the Silicate groups don’t bond with one another before linking with the Metal ion.  They’re similar to Phosphates and Sulfates in this regard – the rest of the Silicates are more complex.  Like Topaz, Kyanite is an Aluminum Nesosilicate – the difference is that Topaz adds a Fluoride or Hydroxide ion.  After Lithium, Beryllium, Sodium, and Magnesium, Aluminium is the fifth-Lightest Metal.  It’s cuz they take themselves Lightly that Angels can fly.

If I recall correctly, the Black Crystal is Schorl, Black Tourmaline, the ultimate in grounding.  Nice combination, eh?  Walking the Spiritual Path with Practical Feet, as Angie would put it.  Kinda like where 2012 will take us if we hold our mouths right.  That’s one of the things my Father used to say when I’d pepper him with Whys and Hows – How do you do that?  You gotta hold your mouth right.  Useta frustrate me, but now I know what he meant – you gotta be square with your Intention, so your Emotion isn’t secretly (or not-so-secretly) canceling out your Intent.

Mars Caught Smoking in the Loo

Well, not only is Mars closer to Earth than it will be at any other time this year (which just means we’re on the same side of the Sun), but he’s in the news smoking up a storm.  And the Star of the major drama of the next week and a half.

I tell people that the most powerful chart anybody can have, is one that features both a Grand Cross and a Grand Trine, that share a common corner.  Well that’s what dominates the next coupla weeks, and Mars is at the common corner.  Let’s digress a minute…

A Square occurs when two planets are one fourth of the way around the circle from one another, or three signs apart.  It symbolizes Mastery through Challenge – it presents itself as a puzzle or problem, but it has no solution.  It’s a heuristic – it serves only to teach.  So for instance, a person with a Square between Venus and Mars usually encounters life-long difficulties with Relationship – simply because their current life does not include enjoying Relationship, it includes only learning about Relationship.  How do we learn?  Not by doing things “right,” but by doing things “wrong.”  We Master a subject by exploring it’s edges, by uncovering its hidden taboos, and by eschewing conventional wisdom.

A Grand Cross is four Squares lined up in series, to circle the entire Zodiac.  The Grand Cross is actually easier than a single Square, because it’s “complete” and in balance.  It has symmetry.  However, it has the additional Challenge that each of the four planets and each of the four Squares must constantly be rebalanced relative to the other three.  So it requires constant vigilance.  A victim of a Grand Cross is constantly tossed from one pole to the other by constantly varying winds.  A master of a Grand Cross has gained wisdom on a wide variety of topics and mastery of a wide variety of skills.

Four is the number of the Emperor, symbolizing Dominion, control over one’s domain.  One moves from being a victim of a Square or a Grand Cross to a master when one becomes Conscious of it’s nature, realizes what the current lifetime is about, and stops coveting the perfection that they so clearly see but can never achieve.  When one sees Reality as a constantly moving variation on the perfect blueprint, rather than flaws in the form manifested from the blueprint.

Simply put, the blueprint is an Archetype, and we are slaves to Archetypes till we become Conscious of them and separate our Identity from them.  Ever notice how an impending cold increases your desire for Sugar?  The cold virus has hold of your Will.  You are feeling the virus’s craving for Sugar, and misinterpreting it as your own craving.  If you knew it was a cold virus doing the craving, you’d never feed it!  But if you think the craving is your own, then it’s an act of self-loathing to deprive yourself!  See why we’re always harping about Identity?  Because it’s the most powerful lever you have for dealing with Karma.

A Trine occurs when two planets are one third of the way ’round the Zodiac from one another, four signs apart.  A Trine represents Grace.  It also often comes through as arrogance, as the carrier of a Trine may have a hard time seeing that other people do not share their good luck.  Haven’t seen his chart, but Romney’s constantly getting himself in trouble for revealing his Triney nature.  A team functions when each member performs their assigned roles. In order to relate to others in a team, a Trine must become Conscious, so the carrier knows that they have a unique skill, and can align it with the unique skills of others.

In American football, a wide receiver must move fast to get downfield and catch a pass, while an offensive lineman must move not at all in order to prevent the defense from rushing the quarterback.  If the wide receiver belittled the lineman about their lack of speed, and the lineman belittled the receiver about their inability to stop speeding freight trains (except perhaps in good-humored jest), there would be no teamwork.  If Grace is heads on a coin, Gratitude is tails – Grace and Gratitude are opposite sides of the same event.  Without Consciousness about our Trines, we do not have Gratitude for the good luck they convey to us, and without Gratitude, Grace will stop flowing.

A Grand Trine is three Trines lined up in series to circle the entire Zodiac.  It’s complete, in balance, and symmetrical.  And it demands exquisite Consciousness and constant Gratitude, or the arrogance will divert you from your Mission even more than remaining an unconscious victim to your Squares.  As Alan Watts said, your Good Karma is harder to let go of than your Bad Karma.  At least as an unconscious victim to your Squares, you’re still learning, even if you aren’t paying attention to what you’re learning.  Once you become Conscious, you’ll reframe all of your victim experiences.  When you become Conscious of the arrogance in your Trines, you gain only regret.

Three is the number of the Empress, symbolizing Love with Wisdom, or Compassion, the complement to Dominion.  If you can’t in a few thoughts describe the difference between sympathy, empathy, and compassion, consider it to be an assignment to study these differences.  They’re critically important to Presence, and Presence is where Consciousness and Identity converge, out there in that field that Rumi talked about.

So you can find a lot of Great People with Grand Crosses in their horoscopes, and a lot with Grand Trines.  Of course Great People are just victims of antique cultural models left over from the Age of Aries.  In the Age of Aries, some 4000-2000 years ago, there were true mythic Heroes, David and Hercules and Loki and Thoth and Inanna and Isis and Aphrodite and Freya.  Think about how few Great People are Conscious of the difference between their own Identity and the Archetype they represent.

The people you truly admire are more likely to be an obscure aunt, or a quietly generous storekeeper, or a friend from grade school whom you never appreciated at the time.  At least I hope so.  If the folks you admire most are Great People from the propaganda mills, I invite you to reconsider your Identity.  It could change your life in ways you’d never imagine.

Bear with me a minute more, as there’s one more concept we need…

“Orb” is the astrological term for “slop.”  When two planets form an Angle with one another like a Square or Trine, they typically form that exact Angle for only a short time.  When they do, the Angle is said to be exact or complete.  But the influence of the Angle stretches beyond the moment of completion, often far beyond.  That “slop” in time is called “Orb.”

In a birch chart, you typically look for influences within six to ten degrees (out of 360 degrees in the full circle) of Orb.  In a chart of the Current Time, you typically use one degree of Orb, or if it’s a Big Deal, maybe three degrees.  We deal mostly with charts of Current Time, and we usually use one degree of Orb.

Okay, now we can get down to the meat of the issue…

Now, the combination of a Grand Cross and a Grand Trine in the same chart is exceedingly rare.  There are certain advantages to having both in the same chart, as the good luck of the Grand Trine can compensate for the constant frustration of all the Squares, and the challenges of the Grand Cross can deflate the arrogance of the Grand Trine.  Together, their interplay can act as a fertile medium for Consciousness.  Or, you could see any number of Master Knaves from the history books, whose arrogance is matched only by their disregard for others (a product of projecting the challenges of their Squares).

So basically, it’s the ultimate in horoscopes.  Of course, every horoscope is The Ultimate to its owner, and every horoscope matches the power and subtlety of every other horoscope, but in different ways.  That’s the unique glory of astrology, that everyone is unique and equal, and everyone has their own unique blend of Power and Mystery.  But if you want to talk about the kinds of dramas that are acted out on the World Stage and in the history and herstory books and the covers of the Hot Sheets in the supermarket checkout line, look to Grand Trines and Grand Crosses.  Notta lotta subtlety there, mostly power.

When a Grand Trine and a Grand Cross align so that they share the same planet on one of their corners, that planet becomes The Star of the Whole Show.  There is probably no greater spotlight that you could shine on a planet.

For the next week anda half, that’s exactly what’s going on in the World’s horoscope, a Grand Trine and a Grand Cross, sharing a retrograde and close-to-Earth Mars as their common corner.  I’ll just give the chronology today, and follow up with interpretation as the week&ahalf wears on.

Jupiter and Pluto are within one degree of their Trine from March 7 till March 17, with the Trine exact on March 12.  This is the foundation for the whole party.

Mars lines up to Trine both of them and complete the Grand Trine, within one degree of Orb, from March 12 to March 16 for the Trine to Jupiter, and from March 12 to March 17 for the Trine to Pluto.  Both Mars-Jupiter and Mars-Pluto are exact on March 14, so Magic will be afoot Bigtime March 12-14.  Mars is retrograde, so he’ll be backing in to the alignment.

So if I get busy and neglect to write about a Mars-Jupiter-Pluto Grand Trine in the next several days, remind me!

As if this wasn’t enough, Jupiter Initiates Venus on March 13, bang in the middle of the exactitude of the Grand Trine.  The anthem for this new Venus-Jupiter cycle is “A Red Cross nurse” – talk about an abundance of Grace and Healing!  If you been lucky enough to have clear weather, you’ve been watching Venus and Jupiter converge in the evening sky.

So we also have to write about the Venus-Jupiter Cycle, and a Venus-Mars-Pluto Grand Trine with Jupiter amplifying Venus no end.  Venus as the Evening Star is Venus Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love.

Then, to top it off, Black Moon Lilith joins the Venus-Jupiter Initiation on March 12.  We don’t work much with Black Moon Lilith, we leave that pretty much up to Creedence Clearwater – no, just kidding.  Lilith is a “Bad Moon” only to the worst kinda chauvinist.  Kelley Hunter does work with Black Moon Lilith, so I usually defer to her.

That’s the Big Show, and it would be totally Grand even without the Grand Cross.

This all happens in 10 degrees of the Earth Signs, where Venus and Jupiter are shifting from the Taurus Decanate of Taurus to the Virgo Decanate of Taurus, which means it’s lightening up, not grasping so hard as Taurus usually does.  And Pluto is moving from the Capricorn Decanate of Capricorn to the Taurus Decanate of Capricorn, meaning that Pluto is digging in, getting even more ferociously tenacious than Pluto usually is.

So far Pluto’s only been sorta dabbling in Capricorn, but now it’s gonna get serious, and take no prisoners.  Pluto in Capricorn symbolizes Just Fix It, and at least as far as the World Economy is concerned, our “leaders” have been doing anything but.  The time has come to move it.  Since constructive problem-solving doesn’t seem to be in their playbooks, it may have to arrive through crisis – or since there’s so much Grace about, through the Fuhrers suddenly finding new chapters in their playbooks.

Earth Signs symbolize stuff, materiality, hardcopy Reality, the kind that the Muggles think is Real.  So the World Economy could very well be front and center.

As for the chronology of the Grand Cross…

Mars is within one degree of a Square to both of the Moon’s Nodes from March 12 to March 17, and exactly Square on March 14.  The Moon’s Nodes delineate our Mission in the lifetime, so they’re kinda important.

Mars opposes the asteroid Pallas on March 12, and is within one degree of Orb from March 11 to March 14.  Pallas of course is Pallas Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and War, also symbolized by Venus as the Morning Star.  So we have the other, firmer pole of Venus here, the Boundary-setting pole that complements the Love with Wisdom pole.

Also involved in the Grand Cross are Juno, which symbolizes Identity (Big Surprise, eh?), and Chiron, which symbolizes Healing through Resonance, through changing the Frequency.

So if I get busy and don’t write about a Mars-Pallas-Dragon Grand Cross, with overtones of Juno and Chiron, within several days, remind me.

Now, as we’ve said before, the Moon is often the trigger for the meat of the manifestation of an astrological event or configuration.  So all those Orbs and times of exactitude could easily be superseded by the Moon, which Squares Mars on March 13.  Well, that’s right in the thick of it, aint it.  As Pogo would say, Friday the 13th falls on a Tuesday this month.  That’s about half-past 4pm PDT on March 13.  That’s a good candidate for the peak of the whole affair, and an excellent time for a ritual of Accepting Power.  If you want to influence events, it would behoove to start yer PIAVAs now, though injecting your own PIAVAs right into the maelstrom of the 13th would also be interesting.

But I think allowing the Power of that Hour to infuse into yourself, so you’re afterward Present to help Change the World, or to mop up compassionately after the Change, or to Ascend if that’s yer objective, would be where the greater power would lie.  Think of that Hour like Dr. Frankenstein throwing the switch.  It would be like Taking Personal Responsibility for the Planet.  You are She and She is you anyway, soya mayas well.  Ifya need a refresher on the difference between Responsibility and Blame, lemme know.  Nobody’s Conscious or Present when they’re in Blame.

Now, if we’re gonna Take Personal Responsibility for the Planet, we need Presence above all, and nothing inhibits Presence like being hypnotized by some dumb Archetype!  So let’s look at when the Moon crosses Juno/Identity (around 11am PDT on March 13) and its own North Node/our Mission, aka the Dragon’s Head (about 2pm PDT), since those are the Hours when our own switch is most likely to be thrown from unconscious to Conscious.  So, y’know, you might wanna spend the whole day in Meditation.

Oh, one more thing.  On March 12, Mercury goes retrograde.  Mercury’s our Observer, our ability to detach our Identity, and retrograde doesn’t mean off.  Retrograde means focused inward rather than focused outward.  All the more impetus for a big breakthrough in Consciousness.  It goes retro at the midpoint between Uranus and Vesta – the hotspot between Integrity and the Sacred.  The cards are definitely stacked in our favor here.  Eat it up!

Too Good to Pass Up

Quiet Rooms…

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/politicsnation/45978458/#45978458

Cold Rooms…

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=76916

If you have any important big projects that require a lot of effort, you might want to either try to finish it up, or try to get it rolling fairly well, before January 24, when Mars turns retrograde until April 14.  Retrograde Mars doesn’t mean that you run out of Energy, it just means that you’re likely to be reconsidering how you use your Energy.  Normally, when we hit a speed bump we slow down, maybe use a lower gear, and power over it – just cuz speed bumps are an expected part of anything we do.  But under Mars retro, a speed bump could be cause for dropping inside and considering whether you’re on the right course.  All this is in Virgo.  The street interpretation for Virgo is details, and that certainly applies.

But the underlying essence of Virgo is Transformation of Identity – your favorite subject, I know.  Everybody understand Leo, right?  The apex of the Power of Individuality.  Think back to a concert or lecture you attended, where the performer or speaker left you feeling empowered or exhilarated.  And a concert or lecture you attended where the performer or speaker left you feeling wrung out.  Those are clear examples of the positive (inspiring) and negative (sucking) sides of Leo.

Now think about your Libra friends.  Have you ever had a conversation with them about Codependence?  Does it feel to you like they give themselves away too much?  The sacred function of Libra is to Initiate Community.  To Libra, what the rest of consider to be Integrity is secondary; it’s Community that’s paramount.  The individual Self is less important, except as it serves a Greater Whole.

So now, what sort of bridge would you create to cross the gap between Leo and Libra?  That, exactly, is Virgo.  Necessarily, Virgo has an element of deconstruction to it, because it took five sign to build up that Leonine Ego, and now we’re going to take it apart in a fifth of that time.  And of course an element of construction, where Community Consciousness is born.  The details come in because, as Virgo deconstructs the old Identity, it reviews each small part of it, to see whether it can be kept, and if so how it can serve the new purpose.

Think about your Leo friends – whether they inspire you or suck your Energy – how many of them are Conscious of what they do and how they do it?  Like Romney in his Quiet Room – he’s not at all conscious of how he uses his Money Magnetism to inspire or suck, and clearly there are some who are inspired.  So another pole of Virgo is Consciousness Raising.

A little old lady sold pretzels on a street corner for a dollar each.  Every day a young man would leave his office building at lunch time and as he passed the pretzel stand he would leave her a dollar, but never take a pretzel.

This offering went on for more than 3 years.  The two of them never spoke.

One day as the young man passed the old lady’s stand and left his dollar as usual, the pretzel lady spoke to him for the first time in over 3 years.  Without blinking an eye she said: “They’re a dollar and a quarter now.”

Each sign is a twin of its opposite.  Remember that in the Unconscious (that is, in objective Reality) there are no oppositions or contradictions – everything is it’s opposite.  That’s easy to grasp when you think spherically rather than linearly.  If you live on a line, there are only two directions, it’s one or the other.  But if you live on a ball, there are an infinite number of directions, and the all lead to the same place.  Both/And, recall?  How many of us really still live on a Flat Earth?  One side of our ball may be in bright sunlight while the other side is in total darkness – but it’s the same ball.

We’re entering the Age of Aquarius – the equal/opposite of Leo.  Aquarius is coming into the Light, putting Leo into the Darkness.  Like Leo, Aquarius is about the Power to inspire or suck.  But in Leo, it’s charisma that does the job.  In Aquarius, it’s propaganda.  The equal/opposite of Virgo is Pisces.  Aquarian institutions tend to lack Heart, because they’re built to satisfy some intellectual metaphor for the Public Good.  The Piscean view is the view from the Heart, so Pisces reveals the Emperor’s nakedness – and grieves the loss of the appearance of Justice.  Virgo endures the same grief, but Virgo is more grounded and less emotional about it.  Virgo identifies with the Ego that is being dismembered, and curses itself.

Petalite dispels self-judgment and self-hate, and inspires joy.  It’s the mineral to have with you when you enter the Tunnel of Transformation, when you’re not in Kansas any more.  It’s a Lithium Aluminum Phyllosicate, or Mica, even if it doesn’t look like Mica.  Angles fly because they take themselves lightly, and Lithium is the lightest metal, the first element to be in solid form at Earth-surface temperatures.  The third-oldest element after Hydrogen and Helium, it has no self-doubt, its blueprint is as old as the Universe itself.  It stores Energy, obviously, since it comprises the battery of choice for many modern technologies.  Micas are magic, transformational, like Ayahuasca or Lysergic Acid – they shimmer, it’s not clear exactly where their surface is or what color they are, they fuzz boundaries and make us look anew at the World.  The portals to the Fairy Realms lie behind the Micas, when we find just the right angle to look in through the shimmers.

The Tree of Knowledge

So why was everybody freakin’ out on Sunday?  At our local Food Coop, so many folks were stocking up so much, that they couldn’t keep the shelves restocked.

Of course there was that big ol’ Full Moon.  But Mercury also went Out Of Bounds on Sunday.  That’ll set everybody’s imaginations on fire.  Mercury stays Outabounds till January 20, and crosses Pluto on Friday the 13th while still Outabounds.  As Pogo woulda said, Friday the 13th falls on a Friday this month.  That’s the same Pluto that’s being squared by Uranus, from some perspectives defining 2012.  So it could be said that folks are opening up to being able to see where we’re heading – folks might be freaking out a lot more come Friday, than they were Sunday.

The New Year chart is pretty benign – its main feature is a Mars-Ceres-Mercury T-Square, with Mercury at the apex, and blessed by our old friend Juno.  Mercury didn’t go Outabounds till Sunday, so it’s on the quiet for the year as a whole.  I know you don’t wanna hear about Juno, so I won’t talk about it.  If we was really optimistic, we could say that 2012 will be the year when folks realize (Mercury) that violence (Mars) is not sustainable (Ceres).  More likely, folks will be shown a whole lotta demonstrations that it ain’t, and they’ll get mad and knock somebody’s lights out cuz they won’t wanna hear it.  On Earth 1 anyway.

By election day in the US, we’ll be solidly in the realm of permanent Uranus-Pluto.  On election day both Mercury and Mars will be Outabounds – that’ll be fun to watch, from a distance.  If anybody remembers the Nixon-McGovern election that symbolized the 60s, McGovern lost, but Nixon basically did a McGovern anyway (ie, ended the Vietnam War), before he was run outa town onna rail.  Maybe we can get a repeat, with Paul losing but his opponent abolishing the Federal Reserve anyway.  Or, perish the thought, Paul losing but his opponent having to end the war he started to secure his re-election.  Of course, folks aren’t out on the streets clamoring for an end to the war on Afghanistan and Pakistan – yet.

Speaking of Iran, Iranian oil is now traded to Russia, China, India, and Japan without using US Dollars.  If you give any credence to the notion that Gawdawfl was ejected from Libya because he was starting a pan-African gold-based currency that would circumvent the Dollar, then you can understand why the Banksters and their minions are making up more Weapons of Mass Deception stories about that country in between Iraq and Afghanistan, the one we haven’t invaded yet.  Russian-Chinese trade is already denominated in Rubles and Yuan.  Oil has traditionally been traded in Dollars worldwide.  Just to review, the role of the US Dollar as the standard medium of international exchange is what keeps the Dollar from collapsing under the weight of its own debt.  The more folks abandon the Dollar as their medium of trade, the closer the US is to default.

A friend in Northern Europe writes,

“I felt shocked about the news Obama signing a law about indefinitely detaining possible terrorists without process.  How the bleep is it possible.  I hope this is not a step towards a dictatorial regime in the land of freedom. He should be deeply ashamed!”

When I was in school, back in the middle of the last century, my teachers said that the definition of fascism was that the government and the corporations were happily married.  That’s been going on in earnest in the US for a long time, accelerating in the last 30 years.  Corporate lawyers have been writing laws openly since at least the turn of the millennium.

Back in the 1800s, there was argument before the US Supreme Court that corporations should oughta be eligible for Constitutional and Bill of Rights protection just like ordinary folk.  The Supreme Court never commented on the argument at that time, but the idea got incorporated into precedent anyway.  Shortly before Obomba was sworn in, the Supreme Court finally made it formal – remember Obomba and the Chief Justice trading grimaces at the Inauguration?  There’s no question in Romney’s mind.  A couple of immediate problems with this doctrine are that corporations can now buy elections at will (“just exercising their 1st-amendment rights”), and ordinary folk no longer have any legal recourse to stop corporations from screwing them, because of the disproportionate ability to fund legal proceedings.

If Obomba was serious about protecting people, he’d promote a Constitutional amendment declaring that corporations are NOT people.  Many Constitutional amendments have passed their extensive hurdles in a matter of months.  Of course, the disinformation blitz by the corporation-owned media would prevent that sort of majority from forming – unless Mars-Ceres-Mercury intervenes.

A major difficulty with Shopping As Usual these days is that we may not be heading down a gentle slope, but rather about to tumble off a cliff.  Here’s a fabulous video essay educating us on non-linear trends.  And an insightful story about where the Banksters see us heading this year.  I know the Abrahams just want us to Don’t Worry, Be Happy.  But y’know, if we dance off a cliff Happily, we’re probably gonna have some unhappy moments before we splat, and some even unhappier moments if we bounce a coupla times.  Maybe it’s just cuz I grew up with How many times must a man look up / Before he can see the sky and the like, but I dunno, I just kinda think that getting happy through Denial isn’t the end-all be-all of Ascension.  I mean, if the World is freaky, get tapping.  Different strokes for different folks, of course, we know it’s always Both/And.  Y’know, maybe that’s how we get to Earth 2, by dancing off a cliff, who knows.

Elestial Quartz (aka Cathedral or Skeletal or Jacare Quartz), usually Smokey and sometimes Smokey Citrine, is a single crystal with multiple faces and multiple points.  It connects us to our Angels.

Both/And

As Ursula Leguin says, “Rules change in the Reaches,” and I don’t think it matters which calendar you’re on, there’s no question that we’re in the Reaches.  Whether you’re off to the Ships (“free and easy“), or hanging with the Trolls, I’m guessing that the most important thing to remember is Both/And, or better yet, All of the Above.  Enjoy!  Anybody read Light Language?

The Bird of God

Bear with me here – this week we gotta do some heavy duty astrologizing.  We’ll try to make it palatable.

The meat is that Mercury went Direct (communication should be smoother) last Friday (3pm PDT), and Jupiter went Retrograde (large projects will be delayed for beneficial redesign) today (Tuesday 8/30, 2am PDT), with a New Moon (a reboot) halfway in between (11am PDT yesterday, 8/28).  The New Moon chart will flavor the next four weeks, the Mercury chart will flavor the next twelve weeks, and the Jupiter chart will flavor the next sixteen weeks.  And, in the Big Picture, they’re basically the same chart.  And that chart is…

Dominated by what might be called God’s Middle Finger.  A “Finger of God” configuration, recall, is a Sixth-Harmonic Sextile (Creatively positive) with a third planet at the far Midpoint, so that it forms a Quincunx (Curiosity) to each end of the Sextile.  That Finger of God puts us in one of our most productive frames of mind, where our Creativity flows easily, and it’s complemented by our Curiosity.  Curiosity is that child-like state where we reach beyond our Limiting Beliefs and discover new perspectives.  You know what Al said, you can’t solve a problem using the same thinking that formulated the problem, you gotta think outside the box.  That’s exactly where a Finger of God points us.

Well, a “Bird of God” configuration is a Fourth-Harmonic Square (Mastery through Challenge) with a third planet at the far Midpoint, so that it forms a Sesquisquare (Purging) to each end of the Square.  The Square is a Fourth-Harmonic angle because it divides the Circle into four.  The Semisquare divides the circle into eight – the Eighth Harmonic.  A Sesquisquare is three Semisquares, or three eighths of the way round the Circle.  In Traditional Medieval Western Astrology, the Semisquare and its derivatives are irritants.  They aren’t so much a perceived “problem” like the Square (which provides the ultimate Victim/Opportunity choice) as they are minor hassles, like the Pukwudgies would provide.

But Traditional Medieval Western Astrology basically gives us snapshots out of context.  So lettuce use a coupla different viewpoints.  For instance, from Rudhyar‘s perspective of the Cycle as a whole, the Semisquare hints at the Square that will follow.  The preceding Conjunction initiated a New Energy, which gradually waxes till at the Square it’s no longer possible to Deny.  The New Energy then blooms at the Opposition (and, I would add, fruits at the Phitile).  At each of the Eighth-Harmonic mileposts along the way, irritating disruptions invite us to release parts of our Old Perspective, to make room for the New Paradigm.  The spiritual purpose of irritation is to get us to stop and shift to Curiosity – Hmmm, I wonder why that didn’t go as I planned it.  Then, of course, as in any PIAVA, we have to Change the Subject – thoroughly shift our attention away from our question, so the channel is not clogged up with obsolete preconceptions when the new insight arrives.

Or, we can turn to Arrien‘s Thoth-Tarot perspective.  She refers to the Eighth Harmonic as the principle of balance, justice, realignment.  Hmm, kinda similar to Rudhyar’s take, aint it.  In the Crowley deck, the Goddess of Law, Truth, and Justice – Maat – “stands in a diamond, having pierced the webbed veils of illusion, delusion, and deception” with her “Sword facing downward, symbolizing the application of creative ideas in tangible, useful ways.”  Okay, so we’re getting pretty clear here – God’s winking when She gives us the Bird.

Then, what planets are involved in these Bird of God configurations?

Most important is a Bird of God to the budding Uranus-Pluto Square that 2012 brings us.  The Uranus-Pluto Initiation in the 1960s brought in a New Energy that allows us to express our True Self (Uranus) in harmony with the path of History and (especially) Herstory (Pluto).  The third planet?  That was the Direct Station of Mercury.  So loads of information (Mercury) will be flowing to us to help us navigate the bar that we’re all crossing.

Second in line would be a Bird of God to the Square formed with Vesta by the Stationary Jupiter.  Vesta represents that which we hold Sacred.  This Square is waning – we expand (Jupiter) by releasing (waning Square) that which we thought we knew to be Sacred.  The waning Square isn’t about releasing into a New Paradigm, it’s about releasing into Emptiness, into the Creative Void that is Pure Potential.  It’s about Trust and Faith, whether we can resist the temptation to steer ourself away from the challenging but educational shoals, and allow the Greater Current to carry our fragile little Ego away.  Or you can think of it as surrendering into Trusting your Soul to steer your terrified little Ego through another Metamorphosis, through another Ego Death.  The third “planet” in this Bird is The Moon Herself.  The Moon is the Implementer, the Energy that activates latent processes.  So we’ll have fun with this one.

Now, as long as we’re on the subject of Jupiter, and before you despair about another Ego Death, the Jupiter Station also forms a Grand Trine.  The Third-Harmonic Trine is about Grace, and the Grand Trine is Grace cubed.  The downside of a Grand Trine is arrogance – the danger that we’ll think God is on Our Side, rather than being Grateful for the Gifts.  Given the Jupiter Bird, if we do allow our Ego to inflate, we can expect it to be popped pretty quickly, and probably pretty messily.  Stick with Gratitude, and save yerself alotta Amends later.  Remember, Jupiter turned Retrograde, so most of these dramas will be going on in our Psyche, more than in Hardcopy Reality.  Fortunately, Maat’s Sword will be piercing the illusion that the two are any different from one another (Hint: you’re just looking at it from the other side).

The other two planets in the Grand Trine with Jupiter are Pluto, and Sun-Venus.  This tells us that all of this expansive reorg that’s going on in the Psyche will be Gracefully realigning us with the currents of History (Pluto), with The Light (Sun), and with the Values we hold inalienable in our Heart (Venus).  There’s a huge and important distinction between what we Value intellectually – our Ideals – and what we Value in our Heart.  If you get a little choked up, or start to tear a bit, you know you’re in your Heart.  If you feel justified, or feel like you’re right, or feel like it’s about time, yer in yer Head.  Move down about a foot, or you’ll miss the bus.

The third God Bird targets a waning Square from Mars to Saturn.  A waning Square from Mars (Action) to Saturn (Plans) tells us not to get too invested in expecting events to unfold as we expect them to unfold, or as we try to direct them to unfold.  The third “planet” in this Bird is the still-close Chiron-Neptune conjunction that we enjoyed last year.  We can easily blame our current economic malaise on Chiron-Neptune, as it has traditionally signaled a big revision in the way finances are handled, and despite our vaunted Big Brains, we aren’t clever enough to let go of our old programming till long after it’s become debilitatingly dysfunctional.  A new Chiron-Neptune Cycle signals a New Beginning as Big as any, as Chiron symbolizes our Paradigm, and Neptune our relationship with whatever is Larger than ourself.  Replacing Despair with Miracles is how we kernelized it last year, and it’s still right on.

In other words, if you relax, quit trying so hard (or at all), let go of what you believe you need, focus briefly on what you sorta might prefer, and let yourself tumble headlong into Emptiness…

you’ll probably end up feeling very Confused.  Which is precisely what you want!  Confusion, remember, is the first step toward liberating yourself from the birdcage of your Limiting Beliefs and your Scarcity.  The first step toward letting the Bird of God fly free!

Dyscrasite is an Antimonide of Silver.  Antimony substitutes for Sulfur, but it’s highly toxic.  One historical meaning for the word Antimony is Alchemist-killer.  Silver, a biocide and antimicrobial, is also a “heavy metal” that can be fatal in large doses.  But Silver is the most versatile metal on the Planet.  It carries heat and electricity better than anything known.  It’s in your mirror, your electronic gizmos, your teeth, your solar cells and wind turbines, your batteries, and, back when it was worth something, your money.  The best way to protect yourself against future economic damage is to go down to your local coin store and buy a bag of pre-1964 Silver dimes.  They should be about $3 each, and their value should rise at least as much as the cost of food and shelter over the next decade, while the value of your Dollars and Euros declines to nil.

Orb

Bitterroot, or Lewisia, named after Merryweather Lewis of Lewis & Clark fame, gave it’s name to the Mountains that separate Montana from Idaho.  Well, actually the real Bitterroot flowers are often white; these are a showier close cousin.  Bitterroot is the Shoshone word for Dragon – the jewel-collecting fire-breather with roots deep in history.  The Violence and Plunder doesn’t end till the roots are cleared of their bitter taste.  It asks each of us to take Personal Responsibility for rooting out and clearing our hidden role in the Violence and Plunder.

Orb is the name that astrologers use to indicate “slop” or “margin of error” or “sphere of influence.”  When one planet crosses another, they’re typically “exact” – in the same place or the same longitude – for only a short period of time.  But the psychological and circumstantial effect of an astroevent normally last considerably longer.  Hence the concept of “Orb.”  If you’re looking at a “transit,” where one planet in real time crosses a specific angle to another planet, you expect the influence to last as long as the angle is within “Orb.”  Still sounds confusing to me, so let’s take an example.

For transits, one degree of Orb is often considered to be useful.  So, when we’re looking at the impending Square of Uranus to Pluto (ie, 2012, ie, the 60s Becoming Permanent), we expect to begin feeling the Energy of this event once Uranus gets within one degree of exactly squaring Pluto.  During the first week of August 2011, just after Day 5 of the Callemander (ruled by the Lord of the Light) begins, Uranus is one degree and one minute from squaring Pluto – that is, right on the edge of being “within Orb.”  In other words, it’s time to start looking for Uranus-Pluto effects, because these will become the major trend of 2012-2015 and beyond.

Uranus, recall, just turned Retrograde, so it’s traveling backwards very slowly as it accelerates.  Pluto is already Retrograde, and it’s slowing down in order to turn Direct in mid-September.  So after their week at 1 degree and 1 minute of Separation, they move further apart again.  By the end of 2011, they’re back to six and a half degrees apart, and they won’t be back “within 1 degree of Orb” of their Square until early June 2012.  So we’re getting some early hints about what we’re likely to encounter next (northern) summer (southern winter), when Uranus Energy hits the Pluto Fan.

The most obvious flack occurring currently, other than the demise of the Euro, is the whole Debt Ceiling Soap Opera.  Well, the same Soap Opera was actually a prominent part of the 60s, even though not many folks were talking about it then.  LBJ believed he could do both “Guns and Butter” – build his “Great Society” and bomb Vietnam back into the Stone Age at the same time.  We’re still under the domain of the God of War and Rain until July 31.

Dubya  and Obomba are really trying to do the same.  They both support a warped version of their own “Great Society” for a few – massive giveaways to Big Pharma (Dubya’s Medicare Part D) and to Big Bankers (Dubya’a and Obomba’s TARP) and to the Wealthy in general (their shared tax cuts for the rich), while greatly expanding their own overseas Empire-building adventures (Iraq and Afghanistan, and Spain and Ethiopia and Bohemia, er, I mean Libya, and Yemen, and …).  Like Paul Farrell points out, when you live in a country that has a near-monopoly on Hi-Tech Violence, War is the best jobs-creation and vote-getting machine there is.

Although the City Councils of many prominent cities, and the National Council of Mayors, have written to Obomba saying it’s time to get serious about throwing all that money at foreign wars when there is no money for shoelaces or Broccoli at home, the Corporate Media hasn’t given it an inch of airtime.  It’ll be interesting to see if the topic scratches the surface of the Newsosphere over the next few weeks.

It’s in Europe where the classic 60s battle is acting out, with the Greeks and other Mediterraneans playing the laissez-faire role of the Hippies, and the Germans and French playing the role of the Lawn Order end of things.  A parallel from the 60s would be the East German control freaks using the Berlin Wall to try to keep the laissez-faire Capitalists on the other side of town from polluting their socialist paradise.  Interesting that it’s a Physicist who grew up on the control side of the Wall leading the Northern European control vendetta against those lazy, er, I mean laissez-faire Mediterraneans.  Her French counterpart was born in Paris the year before the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, the son of an exiled Hungarian aristocrat father and a French-Greek mother.  Busy, busy, busy.

There are a number of times when the Moon triggers the budding Uranus-Pluto Energy.  These are great times to watch for events of relevance.  They include 5-9 pm PDT on July 20, 1-4 am PDT on July 28, 9am-noon PDT on August 3, and August 9-10 from 7am PDT on 8/9 till 10pm PDT on 8/10, when Mars joins the action.  On August 17 (when Uranus-Pluto is lit up from midnight-3am PDT), Night 5 of the Callemander begins.  Night 5 is ruled by the Lord of Darkness.

There’s an added rubbing of salt, or a window of opportunity for Consciousness, depending on yer perspective, on August 1-2, as Mercury (Awareness) is Standing Still (Strong), preparing to turn Retrograde at 9pm PDT on August 2.   Mercury remains Retro until August 26, spanning in the process 2 degrees of Virgo through 19 degrees of Leo.  This is basically the Aries Decanate (last third) of Leo, when Leo, by virtue of proving that their schtick is to promote others more than themselves, has earned the right to self-determination.  The cusp of Virgo, meanwhile, is the place where the Individual Ego begins to learn to Surrender to the Greater Will of the accumulated Other.

So there is some opportunity there for the Preachers to begin to learn to Listen.  Not easy to do while you’re drinking too much Tea, but the opportunity is there.  A few of those who are confusing the Fascist Agenda with the Popular Will might open their eyes here; the rest will probably (in the best of all possible Worlds, at least) step into the Political equivalent of concrete booties.

Bitterroot, recall, is the Shoshone word for Dragon – the jewel-collecting fire-breather with roots deep in history.  The Violence and Plunder doesn’t end till the roots are cleared of their bitter taste.  Bitterroot asks each of us to take Personal Responsibility for rooting out and clearing our hidden role in the Violence and Plunder.  The root has magical powers, and can stop a Bear from attacking.