Group Initiation: Ceres in Aquarius Dear Friend and Reader: Ceres, the dwarf planet and former asteroid, made its way into Aquarius on Tuesday. Earlier in the year it made a long retrograde through early Aquarius and late Capricorn; now it's back in Aquarius to stay for about three months.
I know all of the standard interpretations -- food, grain, agriculture, mother-daughter relationships, healing grief, the relationship between food and emotions and so on -- but none of them offered me any sense of understanding. I cannot think of one case when Ceres opened up the message of a natal chart, as have many other smaller planets. Along the way I've worked with more than 100 other points, all of which revealed their message more easily. Then astrologer Philip Sedgwick told me about a book on the history of Ceres written by Barbette Stanley Spaeth. The author's research introduced an idea I had never seen associated with Ceres -- what she calls liminality. The way the author uses the term, she is talking about social initiation; that is, transitioning from one phase of life to another. This resonates with another more contemporary use of the word (not indicated in the author's research), the threshold of awareness. We're familiar with the term "subliminal advertising," which means ideas and images introduced below the conscious level, like the upside down skull and crossbones painted into the ice in a glass in a liquor advertisement.
This whole subject area has taken a serious beating since the advent of the Internet (another topic described by techno-themed Aquarius). Ceres was the second orbiting object ever discovered by someone with a telescope. Uranus -- the first found by science -- was discovered in 1781, initiating the age of industrialization, invention, electricity and what noted astrologer Rob Hand sarcastically calls "the endarkenment." The joke is that the years surrounding that era are often called the Enlightenment, but that's really a stretch. No other bodies were discovered orbiting the Sun until 20 years later, when on New Year's Day 1801, technically the first day of the 19th century, Giuseppe Piazzi spotted Ceres. Originally thought to be a comet, then classified as a planet, then as an asteroid, Ceres was designated a dwarf planet in the same vote as Pluto and Eris back in the summer of 2006. Though smaller than our Moon, it makes up fully one-third of the mass of the main asteroid belt, with the next 10 largest objects making up the other third, and all the rest -- up to 1.7 million objects larger than one kilometer -- constituting the remainder of the mass.
Many of the asteroids are named for goddesses, so this has come along with a rise in awareness of goddess mythology. It was good to have options besides lover (Venus) and mother (the Moon). But this is still a realm of astrology that most professionals avoid, believing there are too many asteroids to be meaningful, they are too small, there's not enough written and so on. Anyone who understands the asteroids modestly well has done plenty of original research. That's what it takes. It's neither practical nor useful to do asteroids cookbook style, i.e., Ceres through the houses, Ceres through the signs. If you ever see such an interpretation, consider it a proposed commentary. As with all of astrology, with the asteroids, context is everything. Usually that means understanding the whole aspect pattern, which is never in a book, it's always in the unique chart. Ceres in Aquarius: Group Consciousness If we take the idea of liminality and apply it to the notion of a group, you get something like, "Are these people aware that they have a common interest?" In recent years, the concept of a group has been reduced to an abstraction.
So understanding the current notion of a group is like wrapping your mind around something that may not exist in any tangible form. It's not that ideas don't occasionally come out of those groups (though in all of my experiences with them, the potential seems vastly underutilized). Now we don't say group anymore -- the word is community. Everything is a community: the law enforcement community, the medical community, the sexworker community, the artist community, the gluten-free community, and so on. However, these are odd communities, where few people know many other people. Really, it's PC language; it sounds good. It does not mean much. Community is becoming what's called a byword -- a word with so many meanings piled onto it that it ceases to have any meaning at all. Where Ceres is in the scenario, we might propose that a community is where people can share food. That's a great metric for the awareness point, or the point of liminality. Sharing in the preparation and eating of food is something you might think of as a baseline for community. Where food is lacking, what is there to take its place? Is there anything? Food really is the bottom line for everyone, as Paul Simon said. Remember that for about three million years, humans and later on dogs followed one another around in little clans of about 15 people. Then sometime during the last 5,000 to 10,000 years, we started to settle down into farms, villages and cities. That is very, very recently. One of the most significant changes came in the post-World War II era, when the extended family in one large household or villa gave way to the nuclear family (in the nuclear age). Now that has given way to an existence where the tangible concept of a family is unrecognizable from what it was only recently.
That unfulfilled craving, on the level of sex, is now being used against us, in my view (as are many other natural and healthy instincts). Our need to simply be together has been turned into many different non-nutritive commodities. Humans seem increasingly divided from one another, to the point where it's difficult to actually recognize common interests. Some are better at it than others. Different cultures have different approaches to group awareness, though currently the entire planet is under the thrall of the Internet. The Internet is to group gathering what aspartame is to honey. One of the first things I noticed about the Internet in the early 1990s when I got involved was that it's easy to be rude to people in ways you would not be in person. I noticed I could be deleted. I was angry about that -- it seemed callous, and I don't think things have improved much. In a robotic environment it's easy to treat people as non-entities; as blips on the screen; as things that respond like automatons. We use the word “dehumanize” a lot and this is a core theme. In this regard it's difficult to even think of individuals as people, much less to have a coherent group consciousness. I would repeat something I've quoted and paraphrased many times, from the work of Alice A. Bailey. A group is a group of individuals. Individuals think for themselves, have ideas, relate to others, and so on. Group consciousness is the synergy of many awake minds.
When individuals separate from mass consciousness and do that miraculous thing called individuate -- for example, make their own decisions no matter what others may think -- that is when we get to take the next step. Splitting off from the mass is one of the first and most significant initiations -- something well described by Ceres in Aquarius. It's vital not to confuse the group with the mass. Only people who are grounded enough in their individuality can form a group. The crowd at the Mets game is not a group, nor is the crowd at Burning Man. A group is something with a high level of mutual and self-awareness. Astrology describes potential, and one potential it's describing is for some group consciousness to coalesce. This will have a tendency to stretch our ability and willingness to be individuals. That idea tends to rise and fall against the line of true awareness. We have good reasons to stay awake and to pay attention -- and to recognize that these entities among us are human, with feelings, needs and desires not so different from our own. Lovingly,  Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Thursday evening in Kingston, New York, by Planet Waves, Inc. Core community membership: $197/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Designer: Lizanne Webb. Office Manager: Lauren Gdovin. Astrology Editor: Amanda Painter. Astrology Fact Checker: Len Wallick. Copy Editor and Fact Checker: Jessica Keet. Client Services: Amy Elliott. Media Consultant: Andrew Marshall McLuhan. Eric's Assistant: Whitney Beecroft. Research, Writing and Editing: In addition to those listed above, Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Fe Bongolan, Judith Gayle, Kelly Janes, Amanda Moreno, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick.
Who is the author of your life? "The biggest realization was that my whole life I have allowed my happiness to be determined by outside factors. For the first time I am happy from the inside out! This is not to say that I don't experience negative emotions or feelings, it just no longer defines ME. I can look at any aspect of myself without the terrible, harsh judgment I have had for such a long time." -- recent letter from a Scorpio clientDear Scorpio Sun, Moon or Rising (or their friend): The self-help world is full of blanket pronouncements about how you need to take charge of your life; how it's up to you to shift your perspective; how you create your own reality. To a certain extent this is all true -- but there are times in life when outside forces feel insurmountable, like people and situations have the authority. But is that ever fully the case? How do you get to that place of feeling like the author and authority in your life? What does that look like in astrology?
In reading them over, it is clear how essential Planet Waves' steady vision is. If you'd like to review what Eric said about your astrology last year (and how it matched your life), I invite you to listen again to last year's Scorpio reading -- on us, as a prelude to your upcoming 2015 reading. In this year's reading, Eric will address directly how you can use the upcoming astrology to heal, rebuild, find your way -- or, if you managed to wrangle Saturn and come out on top, keep your momentum. Clients who never miss a reading listen to them over and over throughout the year -- including those who are experienced, professional astrologers, like Ann Cortese: "I never cease to be amazed at how many times, during my birthday year, I refer back to the annual edition of my birth sign report that you offer. It is amazing to me, that no matter what time of the birthday year I refer back to it, it has something to offer."Pre-order your 2015 Scorpio Birthday Reading now for only $24.95 (the price increases after the reading publishes). You'll receive an audio intensive in three parts, delivered in accessible language without jargon. More than that, you'll receive practical, compassionate tools and ideas that you'll be able to apply directly to your life, immediately, with clear results: "I want to thank you for such a spot-on reading. Everything mentioned was so accurate to my life and what has been unfolding that when I was listening last night I almost felt you knew me and my inner struggles, goals, etc. Woke up with a new vision. I am ever so grateful. Namaste." -- FelioYours & truly,  Amanda Painter P.S. There's no other reading like this on the Internet. Anyone in your life with a Scorpio Sun, Moon or rising sign will love this opportunity to go deep with Eric Francis. It makes a highly personal, relevant and empowering gift that your Scorpio loved ones will make their own.   Keaton Weimer and his wheelchair dressed as Hiccup and Toothless from "How to Train Your Dragon." His dad writes, "It is important to us that the costumes are not just another Halloween costume. Being in a wheelchair can be tough so we want to make something epic of which the kids and designers can be proud. For this reason the costumes tend to be expensive and time-consuming to make. But when they're done, they are the coolest costume in town." Image: magicwheelchair.org
An Epic Treat (and One Trick)By Amanda Painter Sometimes you just have to go with the feel-good story, no matter what the astrology is doing (which includes, by the way, Mercury entering Scorpio and the third Venus-Mars conjunction, in Virgo, both happening Monday). Three of Oregon dad Ryan Weimer's children have Spinal Muscular Atrophy (a form of Muscular Dystrophy), which means they'll rely on wheelchairs to get around for life. It also means it can be hard to feel ‘normal', as others struggle to see past the wheelchair to the actual child and all of his or her abilities, talents and uniqueness. But for at least one day each October, Weimer makes sure the wheelchair ‘disappears', so that the kids can shine through. For years, he has built costumes for his children that use the wheelchair to creative, enviable effect. Even better: he started a non-profit with his wife Lana (called Magic Wheelchair) to give other children in wheelchairs the coolest costume on the block at Halloween. Their foundation assembles volunteer teams that pour 100-200 hours into each costume -- at no cost to the families. "Giving families and kids those experiences that we've been able to have year after year, it's awesome. I love it," Weimer told BuzzFeed News. "My kids are seen as superstars and not looked at with sympathetic eyes or sadness." P.S. Speaking of sadness (and confusion or frustration), here's a little public service announcement: For those readers who live in U.S. time zones that observe Daylight Saving Time, time's up! Remember to set your clock back one hour Saturday night before bed. And (this goes for everyone), watch this epic faux action-movie trailer for Daylight Saving, created by Nacho Punch.  Taurus Full Moon: The Holistic Principle and How to Care In this week's edition of Planet Waves FM [link to player/download], I look at the Taurus Full Moon from an unusual point of view. The Moon was full Tuesday morning in the same degree where Chiron was discovered in 1977. Chiron represents the holistic principle, and I have offered a discussion on what that means and why it matters.
This was inspired by a synchronicity last week where Dan showed up for a music session thinking the same thing I was: for most people, it's hard to give a shit these days. So said Lewis Allen Reed, better known as Lou Reed. We lost Lou to hepatitis C two years ago; there are some people I wish would live forever, and he was one of them. In case you're a fan or new to his music, here's my article about him from the time of his death, called Hey Sugar: A Story of Virgo-Pisces. Much of it is in Lou's own words, since I have a mutual friend for whom Lou provided an extensive reading of his own natal chart. When was the last time you heard something like that? It was a first for me. I highly recommend Lou's 1989 CD New York. This album makes its way from your ears to your soul. I bet I've played it 100 times. It only gets younger. If you prefer to get your music via Steve Jobs, here it is on iTunes.   Your Monthly Horoscopes -- and our Publishing Schedule Notes We published your extended monthly horoscopes for November on Thursday, Oct. 22 Your extended monthly horoscopes for October were published Thursday, Sept. 24. Your Moonshine horoscopes for the Taurus Full Moon were published Tuesday, Oct. 20. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign. Marie Claire Horoscope for November 2015, #1073 | By Eric Francis
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