By Len Wallick
A girl can do what she wants to do and that’s what I’m gonna do
from “Bad Reputation” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
The hero’s journey of Venus in Aries continues with an applying conjunction to Eris, but first let’s review the last few days for some perspective on this aspect.
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The weekend featured some prominent astrology in the cardinal signs. These four signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) are defined by the fact that the season changes when the Sun moves into the first degree of any of them. There are corresponding geographical events as well. For example, when the Sun ingressed Aries on Saturday, it was stationed directly above the equator and everyone on our planet shared the personal experience of equal days and nights. This was something you could observe and feel on the physical plane. It was not an abstract intellectual metaphor. We actually lived through it; the world shared (and is still sharing) a common event.
From this sort of experience an astrological analogy is derived, the cardinal, or Aries, point phenomenon. When the personal and the common (or political) converge and become one with each other in some meaningful way. Take a look at news events of the weekend, reflect on the concurrent events in your personal life and see how that works with the idea of beginning a new season.
Another thing about the cardinal signs is that they relate closely with the astrological aspect known as the square, a ninety degree relationship between two points. This corresponds to three months, the length of time between each season (during which the Sun moves just slightly over 90 degrees). Squares most often refer to some form of internal tension that requires action to resolve. On Saturday Mercury, newly in Aries, formed a square to Pluto in Capricorn. This was a reminder how difficult and misleading it can be to briefly express the broad, deep and lasting transformations that we are in the midst of. Even as we revel in efficient communication, such as texting, we are finding that it falls short of expressing the deeper feelings and ideas slowly accumulating inside. About four weeks from now, Mercury retrograde in Taurus may provide the opportunity to unwind that tension and share our perspectives more thoroughly.
Yesterday evening, Saturn (retrograding into the first degree of Libra) was rising in the east just as the Sun was setting. This morning it was setting in the west just as the Sun was rising. This illustrates how an opposition (180 degrees of separation from our viewpoint in the middle) is observed in the sky.
In practice, an opposition plays out to match the observation. Two bodies as far apart as they can get. One is moving towards darkness even as the other is emerging into the light. This aspect of the Sun in opposition to Saturn carries over to today and initiates our week. If you find yourself in a bind between polar opposites, negotiate with each of them separately. With time and participation, the bind will resolve and the external tension will dissipate. Because this aspect is in cardinal signs, it is being experienced simultaneously in the personal and political realms.
Finally, Venus formed a square of its own to the north lunar node in Capricorn this last Saturday; or you could say it squared the nodal axis, and represented a tipping point. This is a forward-looking aspect setting the stage for internal resolutions available this week: that is to say, if stuff has been bothering you, let the cosmic momentum carry you forward and help you work it out. Even more, given the fact that this node (Rahu or the Dragon’s Head) connotes dharma (acting as if to create the world) this could anticipate a sweeping, evolutionary change acting to create and sustain a new reality.
We are fortunate to live in a time when we are aware of Eris. Discovered only five years ago, it is the ninth largest body orbiting the Sun. With the exception of a few comets, it is also the furthest known object from the center of our solar system. Its discovery was disturbing to the science of astronomy, upsetting the order of the dominant paradigm. This resulted in a new, controversial definition that excluded Eris and Pluto from full full planetary status.
The fact that the new definition feels arbitrary and reactionary plays right into the Greco-Roman myth of Eris (the goddess of discord) being left off the guest list of a significant social event. The myth, however is already being left behind. The characterization of Eris in astrology is evolving our concept of this mythical figure, like the Earth’s environment, like our own identities. Befitting its long-term residence in a cardinal sign (it spends about 110 years in Aries), this rapid evolution is being played out on both the personal and political levels.
It’s no longer appropriate to characterize Eris as the jealous bitch outsider who brought ruin to the order constructed by men. Because we are all included in the sea changes of our time, our own personalities are under pressure to evolve as well. This can result in an acute identity crisis if we resist the chaos in the outer world being funneled into our inner lives. That is not inevitable, however. What Eris represents can also be a productive force guiding the evolutions of our individual personalities. The conjunction with Venus can serve to signal the nourishment of that productive approach.
Just as Eris was the ultimate outsider in ancient mythology, Venus was the consummate insider. Because she had something that they all wanted, she was accepted in relationship with all the members of the Parthenon. These relationships, in turn often served the cause of mediating conflict and resolving tension. The fact that she would periodically sleep with Mars to keep his testosterone poisoning from acting out and destroying the universe is just one example. Given that conjunctions serve as the indicator of seminal events, what if we consider the possibility that this particular meeting of Venus and Eris could indicate a passing of the torch, so to speak? A germination of harmonious sisterhood that would serve to heal and inform the cause of brotherhood that has fallen into such disarray?
Look at the potential. With a long term lease in Aries, Eris has the quality of prime real estate – location, location, location. It will be a included the upcoming T-Square between Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter and Pluto. That alone would support bringing this outcast influence into the fold. It will be ideally situated to stimulate the action necessary for resolution of what these squares bring up inside of us individually and collectively.
The fact that’s it’s controversial gets attention which can initiate relationships as well as the charisma of Venus can. It’s simply a matter of adjustment to accept provocative as the new abundance.
The fact that it was discovered about the time Pluto moved into Capricorn (and the fact that the International Astronomical Union dealt them the same status) lends a synchronicity that cannot be ignored.
No, not a vengeful bitch to be feared, says Venus. Look at Eris again, it can be the new Venus. A modern personality sets a striking example, Joan Jett. Her original band, The Runaways, was disparaged and a new category, “jailbait rock,” was created to contain them. Provocative and controversial, they made the established order uncomfortable. They were relegated to The Edge. When the chaos they generated turned back on them, they broke up. When that happened Ms. Jett could not find a job. The establishment of the recording industry would not accept her as she was. So she made her own way, supported by the few (mostly women) who understood that The Edge was not a bad place to be and that being there could be created as a sustainable act of dharma.
Times changed, the rest of us caught up. Now Joan Jett is revered. Successful performers honor and thank her for what she did. She is in a productive and creative relationship with many of them. A new movie about The Runaways is being released. By this time next month she will be seen as a positive and inspirational cultural icon, a new Venus.
In a recent interview with Steve Kelly (on www.cinematical.com) she averred that it was not family or school she was rebelling against “It was more about rebelling against what people tell you (you) can’t do”. She also expressed her continuing wonderment at why anyone would consider her to be a threat. Indeed, a woman with a guitar, making the style of music that stimulates us to realize the joy of our common origin, dancing with the sure intuition that we are one with each other. Who would find that threatening? Think about it and leave them behind.
Offered In Service
Carrie,The disconnect in the southern hemisphere between the Auld Religion (Paganism) seasons and the astrology that goes with them is one reason I don’t think I could ever live south of the equator; too hard to wrap my brain around it all.
Can you for one monent grasp the reason that so many of many of my/our ancesters left the northern hemisphere, I have followered so much of our family history including the early Adams John and his son Quincy which became part of the early American Political history, but to the many who just wanted to escape not only the great physical hardship but also the religious percusion that was happening in Europe at that time.
With the advent of the internet I have been able to find the various names of ships that left GB/Ireland/ Europe to escape all the crap.
As I was bought up in New Zealand and spent the next forty years there It felt so clean and free of all krmic garbage that one is so familar with up yonder, and the USA having been settled so early has taken on so much of what the settlers have bought with them,
Now in Australia with the oldest indiginus culture in the world, they have protected the land for many thousands of years through their dreamtime and their dediction to their great spirit.
As a very sensitive being I feel a great cleaness here, totally free of all the norhern crap with their Karmic depth. I am deeply priviliged to be living in such a vast and totally
clean enviomenment, no I do not want to be part of the northern hemisphere or even
visit
I would apreciate those at planet waves to give total consideration to the very large number of spiratually aware people down under who have being luckyenough to be born free in the true very true sence.
Don down under
Eris and identity…. I went and saw Alice in Wonderland tonight and it followed the theme of identity “is she the real Alice?” “Am I THE Alice?”
I then started to click onto certain adverts on the TV of late, the first being a Microsoft ad “I am a PC” says the people in the ad. Then comes the latest Mercedes advert…which is pretty much the same…” I am a Mercedes”.
The yin and yang…how people identify themselves, I think it is tragic if people identify themselves by what they own in a materialistic sense and surely by doing this a person actually does lose who they are. Where as in Alice’s case she was on a discovery to finding herself and her muchness.
I am not sure where I am going with my point, I am tired and should be sleeping soundly but I just had to share my observation…it just all seems to be out there in the vibes like cosmic guitar being strum that we are living through, just not sure what the melody playing is.
Nighty night
Spacey xx
Mystes, you must have read my mind!
Blessings!
Hey Carrie… ” Good luck figuring out what he needs….kids often can’t articulate what they need even into their late teens.”
Thanks, doll… and to Hazel and Patty and everyone who threw a kiss this way. Here’s a bit more of the astrology of this sitch:
Turns out that Neptune *and* Chiron (7th H) squared his natal Pluto (4th H) yesterday. So it seems like his relationship space and home space were at war. Robert Hand called this aspect “Dangerous Impulses” and wrote about 500 words on it in Astrodienst.
Hard by, the Aries Point sits in his 8th house, as his *other* ruler – Sol – had just crossed over it.
Oh yummy. We all know what’s in the 8th: Sunshine and raindrops and roses and kittens. And Miss Eris.
Sigh.
Anyhoo, part of the solution may also be visible in the astrology: tomorrow the sun crosses over into his 9th house, so I’m thinking exactly what Len said: a change of geography, some travel, some other external (Leo-loving) experiences.
Until 2 years ago, we had a family pattern/tradition of travel instead of buying things for major holidays. Problem is, I haven’t been able to take him anywhere since summer of 08. So the message from his chart is pretty clear: Gotta move.
How to respond to that message is my challenge. Maybe the Uranus/Jupiter coming up on my IC will have some answers.
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Mystes,
I am so glad your son (and Beauty) are back safe. How old is your son? Good luck figuring out what he needs….kids often can’t articulate what they need even into their late teens. I know; I have three teen daughters and it is like pulling teeth to get them to express their needs. They tell me they don’t know themselves. I often feel like a facilitator, counselor and parent all in one. :::smiling:::
To everyone:
The disconnect in the southern hemisphere between the Auld Religion (Paganism) seasons and the astrology that goes with them is one reason I don’t think I could ever live south of the equator; too hard to wrap my brain around it all.
For me, the rhythm of the seasons is just as powerful as the astrology of the moment.
wandering_yeti: the Willamette Valley is a beautiful place. My favorite river valley in Oregon is the Hood – short but powerful. It’s been too long.
Mystes – glad your son is alive and well. When i was his age i came very close to running away to Chicago (don’t ask) but then we up and moved to the Pacific Northwest and the change of scenery changed my priorities.
Eric – thank you for your erudition, your integrity and for your grounded perspective.
Mysti – er…what a week and it’s only Monday?!! So glad you found them. What a scare that must have been for you (and that’s a very British understatement).
Love.
Hmmm… “hitchhiking is dangerous?”
Anything on Interstate 35 is dangerous. It is the channel that NAFTA uses to pull in and blow out the strange relationship with our southern neighbor. On one hand I took it for sort of a walkabout, on the other, ummm, it’s Texas, baby. Beyond the Austin city limits (and they were) it gets meaner than a junkyard cat.
Now that we’ve had our strangely Janus-headed weekend, I’m even more committed to becoming clear and loose about the upcoming Aries Point astrology.
Gotta find out what this kid is looking for. And provide it.
(For some reason the Jefferson Airplane refrain “feed your head” has been rolling for the last 2 or 3 days… seems relevant.)
Well, hitchhiking is dangerous…
Uh Len,
“Look at Eris again, it can be the new Venus. A modern personality sets a striking example, Joan Jett. Her original band, The Runaways, was disparaged and a new category, “jailbait rock,” was created to contain them.”
The Seer of the tribe strikes again. Last night my triple-Leo, 14 year old son, (ruled by Venus, or in this case, triple-Venus-conjunct-Eris-in-Aries) decided that he and his girlfriend (Miss Eris in the flesh) were going to run away. Picture four extremely-animated parents roaming the streets, the ‘Net and the crannies of a dying music festival for Wonderboy and the Beauty.
Found them this morning *walking* on the freeway toward Mexico. There has to be a better way to find the Edge.
Yes, I’ll be watching that Aries point nice and tight now.
Jeezus, mary and guiseppe
M
Perhaps, Yeti.
That’s a little too PC for me. Sure I can incorporate northern and southern solstice, except for one thing: I’m not going to pretend that my astrology is not informed by the changing of the seasons. It is.
This reminds me a little too much of making “happy holidays” mandatory and people calling 9-1-1 when someone says Merry Christmas.
In fact, our astrology tradition is Babylonian and then it’s given a good refresher by Celtic tradition. Rob Hand says that remnants of using the the cross-quarter days (Beltane, Samhain) and the tropical (seasonally based) zodiac go back to Babylonian times. The tropical signs (the ones we use) are all about the seasons. The seasons tell a story and Yule is indeed Yule. The fact that anyone in the southern hemisphere cares about Yule is because missionaries and/or prisoners and/or traders got there and spawned the current inhabitants, not counting the originals.
Part of what we do as astrologers is flow with the seasons, and help prepare people for the inevitable changes of the seasons. People are complaining about something that is rarely in my writing — I don’t say “spring equinox” — I say Aries equinox or vernal equinox and refer to the change of seasons more than I do to the fact that it’s N Hem spring.
Privately, I’ve been a morph of laughing and irritated about this. I merely say that it’s springtime here and people complain! I mean really…and by the way…it’s not just spring in the United States, because we conquered the world with McDonald’s. I’ve lived in Paris, and it’s springtime there too.
We could, of course, rename the signs. How is this for poetry:
Aries = Equator 1
Taurus = Northern Midpoint 1
Gemini = Northern Disseminating 1
Cancer = Northern Solstice
Leo = Northern Midpoint 2
Virgo = Northern Disseminating 2
Libra = Equator 2
I propose that we start calling the quarters North Flow and South Flow Equinox, Northern and Southern Solstice. That way we’re not snubbing the southerners when we call a planetary event by a local name. See how our language mirrors our culture? USA invades everywhere, the sun never sets on the Empire, It’s summer solstice on June 21st, end of story. It’s SPRING equinox and Aries means bursting forth from winter. Um, wait a minute. What if you’re an Aries born in South Africa? Naming planetary events for events particular to some places in the Northern hemisphere where White Man came from is all part of the ontology of Empire that we now call Globalism.
The Trojan War is generally blamed on Eris but that’s pure Olympic spin. Sure, it was Eris who tossed the shiny golden apple with “Kallisti” engraved upon it, but it wasn’t her who offered something (someone) that (who) wasn’t property in the first place to Paris in order to placate her own jealous ego. The jealous bitches were the Olympian fascists (the wives of banking CEO’s) all trying to outdo one another, not Eris. She was the sacred trickster who wakes us up from bullshit games that the human mind plays on itself. Of course we still have war-hells and jealous gods. Maybe now that Eris has a body we can get over it. Maybe not.
Another way of viewing this part of human experience is from Tibet where the shamans mapped out the Bardos and taught people how to navigate the extremes of bullshit to walk the middle path and not freak out. Eris is like the wrathful spirit that appears to wake you up from the nightmare. The Jealous Gods are the CEO’s, the Hungry Ghosts are the consumers, Hell is wherever the CEOs send the war machine. Eris is the voice of the oppressed speaking up.
Kallisti, to the prettiest ONE. There is no prettiest ONE. That’s exactly the vibe of the Bardo of Jealous Gods. Eris was only pointing out the phallacy of monotheism. “Every man and every woman is a star. Every number is infinite, there is no difference.” Flipping to the astronomy goggles from where Eris dances it’s easier to perceive that Sol’s status as One God is not unique at all. In fact it’s the common property of every star just as agency is the common power of all sentient beings.
On another train of thought I want to point out that it’s part of our mental noise and the Imperial agro-culture slapping its grid on the chaos and calling it True to say that the north flowing Equinox is equal to spring. Spring happens when the local conditions say it happens, not when the sun happens to be shining square on Gaia’s equator. Those are independent phenomena. Also it’s not spring at all if you happen to live south of the equator.
Here in the Willamette Valley nestled in between two mountain ranges where the moisture falls and makes the ground fertile the trees have been flowering since Imbolc. What, I’m supposed to wait for White Man to say it’s spring when the trees are flowering? Whereas in the snow capped mountains we can see from the valley spring waits until May to let itself be known.
I think it’s important if humans want to survive and not live in hell in the not too distant future to observe our surroundings and get to know the local plants, the local rhythms. The timing of seasons embedded in our calendars are a mean distilled from weather patterns in south western Europe. That’s not where I live. Mental maps of Europe’s land and life don’t apply to the Willamette Valley or anywhere else that is not Europe. Empire is a lie.