Yesterday’s first quarter Moon may very well have brought to your emotional awareness a certain inner tension that your consciousness (represented by the Sun) will continue to work through over the next couple days. The main players are the Sun, newly in Gemini, making a T-square with centaur object Nessus in Pisces and asteroid Pallas in Virgo (exact today).
One of the hallmarks of the Sun in Gemini is the need to recognize duality, but to do so in a way that gives you an inroad to synthesizing opposing concepts. Without that sense of synthesis, it can be easy to slip into compartmentalization, or into a sense of being divided against oneself in a way that leads to confusion (and often negative thought loops that ping-pong from one extreme to another and back again). It’s hard to make progress if you can’t identify what you really want, or how you really feel, or what would truly be best for you.
The Gemini Sun squaring Nessus in Pisces is a picture of the inner tension generated when early caregivers transgress the boundary between themselves and ourselves by projecting their own negativity about creative expression onto us. Chances are, anyone doing so was similarly transgressed against and is unconsciously (usually) passing along their own hurt to us.
In part the link to early caregivers comes through Gemini’s symbol being twin youths; it is emphasized by the connection Nessus has to abusive or potentially inappropriate contact as an intergenerational pattern. Often Nessus is linked to sexual themes, but sexual energy and creative energy share the same root. In Pisces, that connection is even more vibrant.
Nessus also carries the theme of ‘stopping the buck’; the question is, how?
That brings us to Pallas in Virgo, which is opposite Nessus and also square the Sun. In mythology, the goddess Pallas Athene was a warrior, strategist and politician. In Virgo, those themes can take on a practical, grounded, precise quality — yet depending on the stimulus, the energy of Pallas can also take the shape of defensiveness in the form of being hypercritical.
Square the Gemini Sun, that could even be a form of self-criticism; say, the kind people engage in as a way of ‘protecting’ the ego from the criticism of others. If you beat them to it, if you practice the art of being too much of a perfectionist ever to express yourself fully, then you don’t have to face down those parents/relatives/authorities who’ve already undercut you.
The Gemini Sun is shining the light on both sides of that equation so you can see it for what it is: a dead-end loop, a seesaw between a message from the past and a present-day defense mechanism. Once you can see that, you can choose how to reconcile the energies.
That is, you can engage the Gemini Sun’s power to mirror yourself to yourself: “Internalized fuzzy boundary between me and that early caregiver, say hello to the way I’ve misused that pain as a defense mechanism. Creativity, please say hello to the small but practical skills I need to learn and steps I can take (including therapy) as I plan my strategy for healing and expressing what I have to offer.”
Consider also that Mars is still barely moving after having stationed direct in Libra on Monday. The “what do I want” question may still be hanging in the air without a clear answer; it’s another seesaw image. However, yesterday’s square between the Pisces Moon and the Sun may have offered some hints through your emotional body.
As the Sun continues to look for leverage between Nessus and Pallas today, keep that information in mind. It might very well feel scary. Ask yourself what’s scarier, though: acknowledging what gets your creative juices flowing, or continuing to defend yourself from living.
Yes, that yet unanswered question of “what do I want” is still lingering with Mars lurking at 9 Libra. Tr Mars hovering over my natal Venus, natal Saturn, and opposite natal Jupiter. Certainly brings to mind the transiting Jupiter-Saturn trines of now and the recent past, if not by aspect, by planet energies. Creativity is so necessary to keep living, to find what is wanted.
be, thank you for the reflections on finding direction.
Thank you, Amanda, for your continued expositions of astrology. It’s a good thing.
JannKinz
I really find your mirror concept helpful Amanda; “creativity, please say hello to the small but practical skills I need to learn and steps I can take. . . ” opens the door to fresh air for me.
A dawning realization of just how much the world around each of us is changing right now can – at best – be perplexing. Do we continue to try to stay on the path of routine and tradition despite all the crumbling surrounds? Do we dwell on a happier past and turn a blind eye to what’s going on around us or do we imagine a better future and take steps toward it, or do we try to juggle all options. Talk about ping-ponging!
It is normal to want to hang on to something solid that floats when you’ve been tossed overboard or your boat just sinks in the drink, but that is temporary salvation; appreciated but temporary. The realization that transiting Saturn was the only slow moving (major) planet in a fixed sign these days made me grateful for him. In spite of it being fixed WATER (!) and deep, there is still something solid to hold on to while all the cardinal clashing energy (Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Pluto) bashes to bits almost all we thought solid as a rock.
Saturn provides this bit of liquid solidity in some form as it trines Neptune who dissolves our old beliefs in a way that moves us out of so-called reality into some blissful dreamlike state (if we’re lucky) with no boundaries or form. Then Neptune and Saturn trine up with Jupiter who, in his present state of Cancer, joins us to our family and/or the family of man so we don’t float alone. Transiting Saturn is the anchor and whatever Scorpio means to each of us (where is it in your chart?) is what keeps us steady during this virtual, psychological flooding.
Saturn’s mutual reception with Pluto doesn’t get much press but we benefit nonetheless. Between them all things corrupt are identified and in one way or another, addressed. It is a slow process in some ways and too fast in others. Human nature, like most natures doesn’t enjoy forced change. In step the “mutables”, and in particular at this time, Gemini. Agility, dexterity, small practical skills, learning. . .
It is all a big Process we are going through. You can see it in the faces of family members who have had loved ones (or things) torn from them en masse; the lost plane, stolen school girls, coal mine disaster, school shootings, flooding, fire. . . Those faces express what we all are feeling, greater or lesser, in one way or another. How can this happen? What will become of us? The boat is gone or disintegrating and we must sink or swim, and if we swim we need a direction to swim toward. Gemini can also provide options to choose from. I believe the opposition between Nessus in Pisces (the past dissolving) and Pallas in Virgo (down to earth planning) is the first round in the Gemini step of the process. What’s next?
be
Thank you for this wonderful, helpful piece, Amanda!