By Len Wallick
Today, the Sun is very late in the sign of Cancer, indeed, in the last degrees of that sign. These last few degrees of any planet or luminary in any sign are often a time of trial or transition: the end of a cycle, that feels like it’s gotten old. The nature of the stress will depend upon the luminary or planet, the sign and the ruler of that sign as well as any other objects in aspect. So it’s never precisely the same, this phase, never the same experience except for one factor: the very circumstances that coincide with the last degrees can also be a time of revelation through discomfort, providing us with an opportunity to awaken to that form of awareness we need the most at the time. It is also just too darned uncomfortable to remain asleep.
 |
Today, our Sun also becomes the apex of a functional yod. At the base of the yod is a sextile between the Galactic Center (in late Sagittarius) and Neptune, retrograde in late Aquarius. That will be the focus of our explorations today.
It would seem proper to start with a review of the yod aspect, continue to the two slow movers in applying sextile at the base of the yod, finally returning to the Sun, the sign that it’s in and the depositor of the sign.
A yod aspect is so named because it is shaped like the letter “Y”. The base of the yod is equivalent to the upper part of the “Y” and consists of two or more points in a tight sextile. A sextile, sixty degrees of separation, is a supportive and encouraging aspect. It is not a silver spoon, however. Rather it is a golden opportunity.
To complete the yod, both members of the sextile must also be in a simultaneous quincunx (150 degrees of separation) from a third object that corresponds to the lower member of the letter of the ” Y”. That third object is the apex of the yod. Because a quincunx is not a supportive aspect, two at once would be downright uncomfortable. Thus the meaning of the yod is focused on the object at its apex. It feels like a combination of an aspect from Chiron and an opposition. There is an implied tension that would seem to indicate an adjustment is in order.
We have had quite a few significant yod aspects lately. This is worthy of note because the simultaneous quincunx from two planets in sextile is relatively rare. Yet another indication of the extraordinary times we live in is that, in this case at least, the rare has become increasingly common. Now, on to Neptune.
In 1998 Neptune twice made made ingress to the sign of Aquarius for the first time since 1848. The prevalent astrological opinion at the time was decidedly optimistic. Universal love, spiritual awakening, triumph of idealism and improvement in social conditions were part of the outlook.
Looking back, it seems almost quaint, or would be if it were not so sad. What seems to have happened instead is a gradual perfection of techniques used by the established order to fool more and more of the people all of the time. All the while, we as individuals participated on both the personal and political levels. We have all incurred our share of responsibility not only in the lies we believe but also in the lies we tell. Still, as befits Neptune, there may well have been a cross-current going on under the surface all this time.
While we have been busy lying about our age and incomes on social networking sites, the very experience of the Internet has acquainted us with a far bigger world than existed in the consciousness of most people the last time Neptune was in Aquarius. This expansion of awareness has for the most part been exploited to promote distraction and denial. Can there have not been a gradual expansion of consciousness that may yet express itself in the awakening of an informed and aware compassion? There have been signs and we still have time.
Which, thematically refers us to the subject of the Galactic Center. We know we are in a solar system not because we can see it from the outside, but rather through inference. We know we are in a galaxy the same way. The means of inferring our galaxy’s existence are more complex and less accessible. By the same token we know that our galaxy rotates. And anything that rotates must necessarily have an axis, a center. We know the location of the center of our galaxy because it emits a large amount of electromagnetic energy. The nature of that energy implies the existence of at least one very large singularity (or black hole).
Black holes are theorized to be the ultimate expression of gravity, which is assumed to be what holds the spinning galaxy together. But then, quite recently, the very theory and mathematics which explain the formation of black holes has also been used to support the idea that gravity itself does not exist as a force, only as an illusion. Yup, you read that right.
So, right off the bat, when we speak of the galactic center, we speak of a great mystery: inferred or implied without direct personal access. It is too big to conceive of, confounding our most basic assumptions. As such it is something we all have in common. What we know is dwarfed into insignificance by the vast expansion of our ignorance. But with Neptune, the discouraging truth opens up an encouraging possibility: what we know confines us. Once something is settled, that’s that, it’s final, we’re stuck with it. What we don’t know, on the other hand, is the road to freedom.
Earlier this year, the so-called “fixed” galactic center moved into late Sagittarius. In doing so it began what will be nearly two centuries in this anarectic territory at the end of a sign. The house of pain, the home of revelation. Right in the midst of the cardinal t-square. Even for things that move very slowly, timing is a crucial factor. So, as a result, the galactic center and Neptune have spent months on end in a quiet sextile, operating beneath our consciousness and beyond our understanding, exploring the depths of trial and the breadth of possibility. Waiting, waiting. Today, the wait is over. Today, our Sun sweeps through their mutual quincunx.
Astrologically, the Sun is our higher self. The ego, conscious of itself and in expression. The life force become self-aware. The problem is we are human beings. We are mortal and our lives are short. To be self-aware is to confront that or, alternatively, to avoid thinking about it at any cost. That predicament would seem to be on the agenda when the Sun is in the cross-hairs of today’s dual quincunx.
On the one hand we are confronted by what we don’t know as expressed by the mysteries of the universe – too big to comprehend. On the other hand we’re under the pressure of what we don’t know created by the established order we’ve given ourselves over to. That and our own contribution and participation in obfuscation, striving to conceal our shame and assuage our guilt.
What we don”t know — what has been concealed from us — is in our face with this quincunx, the face which we have hidden, even from the divine. We are posed with the question of how long we can tolerate this and what adjustments we must make in order not to do so. And for that, we look at the sign it is in — Cancer. Then we look to the dispositor of that sign, the Moon.
Today, as synchronicity would have it, the Moon is well into Scorpio. Scorpio is the sign where the subterranean mysteries find expression and the Moon brings them to light. The reflected light of the Sun, however confounded it may be is captured by the Moon and taken into the darkest places. It is thus that a Scorpio Moon reminds us that we are provided with what we need. It may not be easy to open our eyes, but we must. It may not be simple to trust the irrational luminary to take over and do the detective work for our rational mind, but it is what we have. With a little faith and trust in ourselves, we can adjust our course and stay on the road to freedom.
Offered In Service
Patty, Aword,
Thanks for your comments as I was unsure the universe needed yet another view of the BP disaster. Patty, I should have known you would be the car that caused the trainwreck! So glad to hear it is working out for the better.
As for when the idea of that oil well was conceived, I am clueless, and to Linda’s question about the time of conception (sign I guess) affecting our midheaven, it is a theory I’m unfamiliar with. It certainly would be incredible if it were so, but it would mean that almost everybody born on the same date would have the same midheaven more or less. I’ve not heard that observation made, but you may be on to something that leads to something else, so I’m open to anything that can teach me more about astrology!
be
oopsy, I mean the Cap eclipse was exactly opposite my uranus, but the audit began exactly that day.
Be,
Agree with Patty aka “wow!”
(but quietly waiting in the wings until someone else posted first heh-heh).
You hit a major “bingo” in my tuition corner in terms of (not the specific astrology mind you, oh no, I’m not even CLOSE to you, not even crawling…!!) but in terms of everything that’s been making me squirm through this yet knowing ………”something”. something.
thank you thank you.
Patty’s comment too – about conception – brought me round to something I’ve wondered for some time now — my MC is when I was conceived (that is, generally during the sign of Taurus (no way to know anything more specific). Is it always or generally the case that our time of conception falls on our midheaven (or south node which in my case all of the above is all of the above)?
“Conception” certainly does seem like an appropro concept to look at for many things – however, understandable hard to pinpoint specifically (?)
Thanks all, another Lovely Day with prayers for the fish’n’birds’n’us.
xo
Barbara! WOW!
This whole thing is pretty much conjunct a situation I encountered at work, and I would put the birth date of the work situation back to eclipses in 2008… which makes me wonder about the oil well…when was the idea conceived?
What has brought the work situation to a near conclusion is the Capricorn Eclipse that was conjuct my Uranus at 5 Cancer, symbolised by the automobile causing a trainwreck. The trainwreck was ongoing, but my car hopped on the tracks to stop it. Now audits are being conducted and a healthy conclusion that should benefit everyone SHOULD be the outcome. Not as punishment, but as a correction. Not as a criminal investigation, but as errors seeing the light of day. I am finally understanding my saturn at 29 degrees.
Cheerio old girl! You rock!
Thanks Len, once again, for your burgeoning view of today’s cosmos.
The little sip I am pondering anew is the ‘golden opportunity’ you brought up vis. the sextile of the Yod legs. I was born –as was the United States of America– under a full moon Yod. Aquarius Moon, Sagg Rising as the sextile. My mothering experience has been at the funnel point of those legs and I am just starting to understand that whatever I do as a Cancerian can be made easier –or at least more productive– by coordinating the energy between Sagg and Aquarius. Each alone forms a quincunx, and isolated from the Yod that aspect is quirky at best, bizarre otherwise.
As for the US, we might want to think about how that sextile plays out at a national and/or regional level. Aq/Sagg/Cancer covers the fixed/mutable/cardinal spread. Sagg Rising/ Aquarius Moon has been assigned an innovative/humanitarian bent, but not with the karmic load this country is bearing. But the way into the mess is the way out, as the Kennedys have intuited for several generations, attempting to bring the American Sagg freedom value in alignment with our capacity for service and healing.
My imagination stops and spins at the Aquarius Moon business – I’ve used it as a way to dry out my own multi-Cancerian emotional overload. Think compassion, don’t just feel it.
This country HAS the capacity to gear this up. Compassion as part of the GDP, compassion in combat training, compassion as a form of deep intelligence and humor; compassion not as a turn-the-other-cheek insipidity, but as the martial art that it is. Conjoined with the Aq/Sagg sextile, it can’t fail.
Hi Len,
I love the yod stories! Here’s one for you. . from the past. It seems to me that any event happening while the Cardinal T-square is actively within orb surely must be considered a product in support of or in challenge to the primary purpose of this major aspect. The event must be super-imposed upon the opposition of Saturn and Uranus and their squares to Pluto.
On 4/20/10 the 2 active members of the t-square were Saturn and Uranus, only 37 arc minutes separating their opposition. The theme was structured rigidness and establishment of business and government represented by Saturn in detailed, hard working Virgo, against the breaking free, shocking, technically advanced Uranus in blurry, boundary-free Pisces. Saturn was retrograde, Uranus direct.
In the scene leading up to the explosion on the 20th, there was a yod that included retro Saturn. Up until the last few minutes of the 19th (CDT) the Sun in Aries was sextile the conjunction of Neptune/Chiron in Aquarius, and all 3 were quincunx Saturn. The sextile highlighted the completed air and fire elements of the signs Aquarius and Aries, and produced a spirited, self-oriented-but-group-involved “thinking” kind of energy to direct toward a Saturn who was wrapping up the details of almost-completed services in Virgo. Then the Sun slid into Taurus.
Then early on the 20th, Chiron slid into Pisces, giving the sextile part of the yod a different playing field and a new emphasis on reality and emotion. Earth and water. Saturn, still retrograde and still the focal point of the yod was being pressed into action, no longer in theory but in reality. Uranus, opposite Saturn was demanding freedom in the worst kind of way. The scene was set.
It happened around 10 PM in the Gulf of Mexico and the event chart shows Sagittarius rising, the Moon in Cancer and the midheaven in Virgo. The top half of the chart has 3 major planets, Saturn in the 10th and retro (the pipe), Mars in the 9th in Leo (the explosion), and the Moon in Cancer in the 8th (the Gulf). This is what could be seen.
What could not be seen is below the horizon of the chart: Pluto in Capricorn, retro in the 2nd, Neptune and Chiron in the 3rd/ Jupiter (in Pisces) and Uranus in the 4th, the Sun in the 5th, and Mercury and Venus in Taurus in the 6th. The yod of Chiron/Neptune, Sun and Saturn was still in effect. The opposition between Uranus and Saturn was still in effect. Saturn was retrograde.
The ruler of the chart, Jupiter was in the other sign he rules, Pisces, and less than 7 degrees away from conjuncting Uranus. Jupiter was very powerful in this chart as the Moon had just completed a trine to him which was still potent. He was a little over 3 degrees past a sextile to Venus. He had no square aspects but was on his way to join Uranus in opposition to Saturn. Things seemed pretty good for Jupiter.
He was looking at the big picture, Jupiter was, not dealing with details; why start now? Pisces certainly doesn’t give a ratz about details. Mercury, ruler of Virgo, cares about details but he too was retrograde like Saturn, and even though he was in the 6th house of detail, he was knee deep in review and was busy preparing to once again square Mars in Leo.
Saturn had one possible ally in Venus trined in fellow earth sign Taurus, but Venus had just departed from a sextile to well-connected Jupiter. Saturn? Jupiter? Hmmmm, well a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. Venus would likely follow the dream and the power. But there was a small ray of hope for Saturn in asteroid Juno, who in early Gemini, would be willing to support him against Jupiter and Uranus. Fair is fair and Jupiter (her randy husband) didn’t play fair with her. Saturn was still in orb of a trine to Juno, but was moving the other way and probably didn’t even see her. Saturn was outnumbered and pushed beyond his limits. It is lonely at the top and just as lonely at the bottom of the ocean. But he ruled the 2nd house and when he went down he would take it with him, Pluto and all. Meanwhile the Sun approached a trine to Ceres and Pluto and saw no problems. Earth to Earth, DO YOU READ ME?
Don’t grieve too long for poor Saturn who couldn’t hold back the rush for freedom symbolized by the driving force of ancient oil. Remind yourself that things happen for a reason. The birds, fish, and marshes die for a reason. Evolution. We suffer and heal, learn and grow. The story of Pluto always includes rebirth and transformation and it is promised in this chart.
The two astrological images associated with Earth as Mother and Provider of Nourishment are the Moon and Ceres. Not only is the Moon in her own sign of Cancer in this chart, she also rules the house she’s in; the 8th house of transformation and rebirth. In the 2nd house, Ceres is conjunct Pluto who personifies the phoenix rising from the ashes. Pluto also rules the 12th house in this chart, the place where the cycle ends and prepares for a new beginning. Ceres herself teaches how this cycle of birth, death and rebirth in the vegetation world is the same for all life.
So Saturn was the sacrificial lamb in this chart, as the Gulf of Mexico itself was sacrificed to bring about consciousness to humanity. As we grow and evolve and become conscious (as a whole) of our responsibility to care for the earth and each other, healing will take place and, in time, new life will be restored to the Gulf of Mexico.
Therefore, I believe the primary purposes of the Cardinal T-square were supported by this event on April 20, 2010. End of Chapter
be
Thank you Len. You continue to illuminate toward awareness and awakening. If you are back in to this page today, might you comment on the significance of a yod in a birthchart? As I have continued to study my natal chart and read your daily postings, I notice today that I have a yod with Jupiter sextile Saturn, both quincunx the Moon. My natal Jupiter is 19 degrees retrograde in Aries in house 1, and my Saturn is 19 degrees retrograde in Aquarius in house 11. My moon is 18 degrees Virgo in house 6 along with five or six other bodies including Mercury, the Sun, Virgo and Pluto. Any thoughts on what this may mean greatly appreciated. With you in compassion, service and love for all beings. M
..A new day, perhaps?.. This shake-up is sweet to me.. I’m ready/prepared for change.
..it exists at the core of our beings.. Ready or not, here it comes…
(side note),.. (the cancer/scorpio axis is damned cool!) Some water, anyone?!!
..Air/fire is Alchemy.. (imagine blowing glass, or Stoking a fire.. )
..Throw some water, and we have temperance..
Earth,.. Welcome to the mold..
…
..it’s fun to play with hypotheticals,.. Let’s just hope when we dream, we dream big…
Love. And all things crazy groovy in the Universe.
Jere
Oouf, Liminali, thanks for pointing out the Saturn/Sun yod. That’s gonna leave a mark.
Yods + anarectic degrees = super-charged yods on steroids.
In tension!
Thanks for your continuing lessons on yods, Len.
Did you notice there are intersecting yods forming? Another functional yod is formed today with the Sun and Saturn sextile, and with both quincunx to Neptune as the apex.