THIS IS working out to be a wild week — starring Pluto and the Aries Point. Today is the eve of the Equinox (more precisely, the Aries ingress of the Sun; the last day of the astrological year). This is the first real instance of Pluto in Capricorn coming into the spotlight, with Friday’s Full Moon. The Planet Waves news team is assembling Friday’s coverage of the astrology, world events and where they come home to you. There are too many stories to count, each of them both public and deeply personal, but I’ve got a very interesting short list scribbled in purple Sharpie on my desk. We shall see if Pluto has been “demoted.”
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Looking at Wednesday’s aspects, the most psychologically poignant ones involve Mercury, which is a planet that just about everyone can feel and experience directly. Mercury is second only to the Moon for being an obvious influence. So much of our environment is under the influence of Mercury — the Internet itself, phones, language, communication in all forms.
Today, it’s square Hylonome (pronounced hy-la-no-me). This is a picture of the mind fighting internally. It feels like one of those downward cycles people go down when their mind, for whatever reason, turns against itself. I think we all get into these fear and guilt cycles. However, with the media now spewing out economic downturn propaganda 24 hours a day, and the emotional energy rising like the tide with the waxing Moon, we have a lot more to contend with.
Mercury also aspects Eris, in a semisquare angle — 45 degrees, or half a square. This is a lot like a square, but its effects can be concealed from view. And in aspect to Eris, one of those effects is personality chaos — the identity crisis. I have compared Eris to this little theme of everyone having three different business cards and four different email identities, two phone numbers and six careers. Just imagine the emotional content of that condensed into, for example, five minutes of feeling.
In the old days, you just became a nurse and that was what you did. Lately people are trying to decide what they want to be when they grow up at 46.
Let’s consider the relationship between these two functions, Mercury square Hylonome and Mercury semisquare Eris. In the first, the mind over-identifies with one particular self-damaging emotion. In the other involves a scrambling of one’s identity, no matter what it is. The two make an interesting compliment of energies — but to make use of it, you need to do a gutsy trick: surrender from a kind of negativity into mental chaos and the unfamiliar, which I would guess that many people feel more.
Artists do this all the time — let go into the creative void. It may be overstating the case to say that when I am feeling stuck or negative and I let go into chaos, I basically let go of my mind and then let it re-materialize in the form of a piece of art or creative writing. But if I had to give it an astrological depiction, it would be something like Mercury square Hylonome, Mercury semisquare Eris.
Here are the rest of today’s aspects. I was doing some astral travel to Wales, where I met an astrology Faerie who gave me the aspect list for the year as a gift.
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Aspects – Wednesday 19 March 2008
Mercury (5+ Pisces) square Hylonome (5+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mercury (5+ Pisces) semisquare Eris (20+ Aries)
Atlantis (27+ Libra Rx) sextile Juno (27+ Sagittarius)
Quaoar stations retrograde (18+ Sagittarius)
Venus (7+ Pisces) quintile Sedna (19+ Taurus)
Mercury (6+ Pisces) semisquare 1992 QB1 (21+ Aries)
Asbolus (28+ Aries) trine Orcus (28+ Leo Rx)
Pallas (5+ Aries) trine Hylonome (5+ Sagittarius Rx)
Kronos (2+ Cancer) quintile Eris (20+ Aries)
Mercury (7+ Pisces) septile Asbolus (28+ Aries)
Venus (8+ Pisces) quincunx Arachne (8+ Libra Rx)
…and today’s oracle:
Aug 08, 2003 – Virgo – Weekly
You may fancy yourself a simple person, but this is just another thought. All people are complicated. You surely have a simple side, the ability to interact in clear ways on clear terms with people. And, because your mind is so active — in part, analyzing itself — you have many extraordinarily complex facets. Don’t get lost in them now. Please don’t create issues where none exist. Certain aspects are now allowing you a unique perspective on your past sense of self. This is a good time to respond to every situation you face as if it were now, not then.
