If you lie, I’ll swear to it — or not

There is a shadow manifestation of a trine aspect that is worth considering in the context of the current relationship between Mercury and Nessus. Trines are often considered karmic rewards, aspects of ease and flow, and of opportunity. Others have noted their ‘use it or lose it’ quality, and the need for conscious exercise and expression of the talents they represent, or they fade away. Martha Lang-Wescott added this to the discussion. A trine, she said, can have the quality of “If you lie, I’ll swear to it.” Yet note that is within a person’s natal chart, or the experience of a transit. It’s not one person lying for another — it’s an inner thing. This would be more commonly known as denial. I don’t consider denial a primary definition of a trine, but it’s on the list of things to check when a trine is active. The current trine between Mercury in Cancer and Nessus in Pisces has the special property of being wrapped in a Mercury station retrograde, which happens in a few days. Mercury is slow and powerful and slowing down to a point of an inner emotional confrontation — changing directions in the sign Cancer. There are many people who live in and on denial; who live in wholly fictional worlds of who they might be and who others should be. This is isolating. Mercury stationing retrograde feels like a point of reckoning. Neither Cancer nor Pisces give up their secrets easily, if only because they’re not easy to translate into words. One thing that might help this process along is the use of I-statements. Pisces is the sign of the sexual imagination (often denied, or regarded as a dirty secret clothed in guilt) and Cancer is the sign of security at all costs, which is often a head trip. This relationship is worth investigating. You’ll have go below the surface, though there’s treasure down in that shipwreck.

9 thoughts on “If you lie, I’ll swear to it — or not”

  2. Eric, apologies for interrupting your daily flow but, how, specifically, would you differentiate Lilith from Black Moon Lilith?

    Thank you,

    Jere

  3. Re Lilith delineation — I have not written a delineation of asteroid (1181) Lilth, discovered 1927, 4.36 year orbit — but I have one that I work with in consulting and horoscope writing that I’ll write out now: which is “the true woman within.”

    It’s the woman within a person (male or female bodied) who exists apart from the social programming; the non-conditioned, non-manufactured, actual proto-female-human, who knows how to be free and wants freedom; who is able to express a desire or emotional and sexual relating on level ground, who can stand up for herself and who is willing to leave a situation if she is not getting that — for example, sex on mutually agreeable terms — recognizing that such an inner assertion of identity can be frightening and often tends to be denied.

    So there may be a ‘complex’ embedded in the inner relationship to Lilith, which will be described by the aspects — in the current scenario, Psyche opposite Lilith, square Juno opposite Saturn — conflict around matriarchy, patriarchy, all that Juno represents including the inability to express one’s emotional needs — squared off against something in the immediate collective — Psyche in Aquarius (sense of injury from group pressure)…opposed to Lilith in Leo, powerful, individualistic and proud.

    I am always respectful of the work of Martha Lang-Wescott, who has offered this delineation:

    LILITH: Triangulation; competing; selection & rejection; decisions (regarding angle or aspects;) divided loyalties; favoritism; gender stereotypes; use of sex or rejection for dominance.

  4. I am not sensing “sexual imagination” at play here, it feels more like a creative block that is bubbling up to the surface. When in deep waters ….dive.

  5. Eric, can you direct me to what you feel is your most comprehensive delineation of Lilith? Neither Google nor PW search bar is getting me there.

    I’ve a Sun/Saturn/Lilith exact fire grand trine I’m trying to figure out.

    Thanks,

    Jere

  6. Eric, man! You’ve been on the vitamins recently.. Even more power packed than usual. This new daily feature is the business and the way you are delineating the mundane aspects and incorporating the ‘minor’ bodies is novel and penetrating. Great work!

    You are re-galvanising my pull toward astrology.

    Thanks,

    Alexander

  7. As a Cancer Sun, I understand the drive for security at all costs. What I’m learning, though, is that there is a difference between real security, which you create on you own, and clinging to something that resembles it in some way.

    I’m going to work to feel out this Mercury/Nessus configuration to help reveal the relationship of my sexual imagination to that security.

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