Editor’s Note: This letter was sent to our subscribers yesterday. I’m posting it here to broaden the conversation.
Dear Friend and Reader:
Yesterday I mentioned that I was planning to do a special edition today covering Monday’s first-quarter Moon. I’ve decided to temper my ambitions a bit and enjoy my first day without ‘just one more Light Bridge project to do’. (In case you missed that email, yesterday I finished the 12th of the sign audios.) The topic I planned to cover in today’s special edition — the square of Varuna and Eris, two of the slow-moving and newly-discovered planets — is something I can take up next week. I will sum it up in a few words, though. You may recognize these names (click on them for articles about their respective properties).
This is a slow-acting aspect that is coloring the social and political tone of our era. However, because these planets are relatively new and not yet widely used by astrologers, the pattern is veiled in the background. I am developing the idea that this square, which spans from 2008 to 2012, is one of the aspects that describes the theme of the war on women we’re seeing dramatized in national and some local politics. Varuna has a theme of ‘the equalizer’ and Eris includes the theme of ‘the castaway woman’, and cast-off womanhood in general.
Monday’s quarter Moon aligns with this square to the degree — the Moon will be conjunct Varuna in Cancer, and the Sun is now conjunct Eris in Aries, all lined up precisely like Egyptian architecture. Given the drama last week about ending Title X public health programs as a way to ‘cut the budget’, I think it’s interesting that the quarter Moon points directly to this aspect. I might not think so if the quarter Moon and the Varuna-Eris square were a degree or two off; it’s more difficult to ignore when everything aligns perfectly and arrives stylishly with a major public drama to illustrate the point.
I am working out the psychological calculus on the Varuna-Eris square, and if you’re into either of these points, or recognize the myths, I would love to hear from you. I’ve been involved with and listened to plenty of political folklore about how the so-called ‘conservative’ agenda involves attacking women. By that I mean denying abortion rights and pregnancy prevention and sex education and STI treatment and social services when a kid is born. I mean attempting to ban abortion even in the case of rape and incest. I could see a plan of, ‘we don’t like abortion, so let’s make sure there is plenty of information and pregnancy prevention, and let’s make sure all these kids are taken care of’. But that’s not how it is, and the contradiction says something meaningful.
Add that to the criminalization of many forms of previously acceptable sex and constitutional amendments against gay people getting married. It’s time to see the whole agenda for what it is, rather than merely reacting to the parts that bother us personally.
The problem with these issues, and the reason they are considered hot-button issues, is that they are so deeply connected to unprocessed emotional baggage (showing up as guilt, shame, jealousy, approach/avoid tendencies and so on) that for many people they defy thought and put them right into gag reflex. And much of that baggage was packed by abuse, including socially-sanctioned abuse by society’s institutions. Then many survivors of this scenario, rather than dealing with it, try to get the feeling of a little power by perpetuating that same treatment on others. There is a pattern, and now that I see it in the world, I’m sniffing it down like a beagle in the charts.
Please drop me a note if you have any thoughts. I would love to get some fresh ideas into the discussion.
Catch you later in the week.
Lovingly,
abc123 —
well said. yes, our woman-to-woman interactions could use a good look, and much more compassion. though i suppose, even that comes down to finding & exercising compassion for ourselves before we can fully offer it to other women.
“Remember when Planned Parenthood & NPR crashed the market, wiped out half our 401Ks and took TARP money? Me neither.”
…random, but linked to the Planned Parenthood discussion (as seen on FB).
For various reasons, I’ve always felt like the “cast-out” woman. Sometimes I even wonder if I created this vision for myself after seeing Disney’s “Snow White” as a child. Fending for myself, wandering in the woods, evil stepmom plotting to sabotage me, yet finding some kind faces in those who live in harmony with the universe, rather than society.
Ok, so for years I’ve felt like I’ve taken one “beating” after another. But lately, especially last week, I took a good hard look and realized I was big enough now to fend off the bullies. Sure, it came with a cost. Sure, I even kind of miss the bullies now that I’ve got a space to fill. But in keeping with the recent Sabian image of the snake coiling near a man and a woman, I felt like finally, I not only recognize a snake when I see one, but I’m no longer even tempted to play with it. I now know that all I have to do is cross the road. Done.
So, yes, I’ve been under attack. But I’ve also grown into being able to “quit waiting for the knight.” I’ve picked up my own sword and I’m prepared to use it a la Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.
As for health services for women, let’s stop depending on the government for it. Let’s provide it for ourselves. Let’s stand up to the monsters – and let’s be honest, there’s just as much hatred of women by women as there is by men. Let’s just claim it. They’re not the bosses of us, no matter who says they think they are. Just remember: there is no rationalizing with abusers. There is only walking away.