The Sun enters tropical Virgo at 12:46 am EDT (4:46 UT) Saturday. Included with the Sun’s ingress into Virgo this year is astrology’s implicit support for thinking about any way you might be boxed in, and getting out. Putting you in a box may be well intended, or self-serving. Yet, nobody can box you in unless you cooperate.
Virgo is ruled by Mercury and has a demonstrable affinity for the centaur Chiron, as Eric has often mentioned. The Sun, among other things, correlates with consciousness.
Solar Virgo thus expresses consciousness through Mercury’s intellectual energy field while also offering what Eric called “the intensity and drive” Chiron confers. That’s how it’s an appropriate time to start school again.
That’s also how the Sun’s annual traversal of the sign distinguished by mutable earth is an opportune time to focus on what boxes you are living in, while supporting imaginative solutions and grounded action to get you out. Especially so during this decade, when Chiron is reflecting back at Virgo from its mirror (or “opposing”) sign – Pisces.
In particular, this year’s solar ingress into Virgo adds even further emphasis on thinking and working your way out of a box because of aspects the Sun will make just before and after crossing over from Leo.
The Sun will make its last aspect from Leo with an opposition to the centaur object Nessus, currently retrograde in the last degree of Aquarius. The proper interpretation of Nessus is (like all centaur objects) complex and nuanced. Nevertheless, the subject of abuse and its shadow is a pervasive part of the Nessus theme. Among the various forms of abuse, one of the most insidious is prior restraint and deprivation of potential.
Barriers to achieving potential and being restrained from awareness of the same may be self-imposed or imposed by others. Either way, such abuse tends to reinforce itself through the Achilles heel of all things Virgo – incessant self-criticism, which serves to box you in if anything does.
Which is also how the first aspects the Sun will make upon entering Virgo this year will be amazingly appropriate. For just inside Virgo’s threshold, the hypothetical object Isis-Transpluto (or just plain “Transpluto”) and an asteroid designated 55 Pandora are waiting to merge with the solar emblem in conjunction.
Isis-Transpluto was a learned conjecture developed by astronomers before Pluto’s discovery. While of no further use to astronomers, the calculated point Transpluto has come to represent (among other things) a reliable indicator of what Lynn Koiner has called “a critical, perfectionist environment.” What better time to be conscious of your own inner (or outer) environment of criticism and perfectionism than when it is spotlighted by the Sun? But wait, there’s more!
Pandora will make it a triple conjunction with the Sun and Transpluto, and bring a lot more to the interpretation of the auspicious beginning of Solar Virgo this year. As with all asteroids, the name alone carries a lot of serendipitous weight.
Cultural myth behind 55 Pandora’s name (along with the stories of Lilith, Eve, and other such contrivances) has served to abuse and box in the feminine generally (and your feminine nature specifically) for so long it’s broadly considered acceptable. Until now, that is.
Now, with the Sun’s impending access to Virgo, you are receiving cosmic support to consciously contemplate the extent to which you have been boxed in and accepted it. Now is the time to accept yourself as a whole and integrated being. Now is the time to ask yourself what, if anything, there is to fear about the parts of you which have been restrained without due cause.
Turns out there are some very powerful people and institutions who have every reason to fear the creative intensity and conscientious drive you may very well have been conditioned to restrain. Let them be afraid.
Let them fear you opening your own box – not Pandora’s, yours. Let your self be similarly open to put the self-criticism aside and embrace your so-called imperfections for what they are – a chance to be more and do better than you ever have before. Yes, you! Yes you can!
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Looking for sign-specific insights into the current astrology? Try a Planet Waves premium membership! Planet Waves was built on Eric’s horoscopes, and our members swear by them as an essential tool for co-creating their lives. Sign up for a six-month membership and receive weekly and monthly horoscopes, plus more.
Bette Loreen: It is gratifying to know the approach taken is timely and useful for you. Cleaning of your residence and sorting through your possessions does appear to be one of the more gentle applications of the ambient astrology. Thank you also for the update on concurrent and comparable events in Canada.
Lea: You are very welcome.
Aqueryass: Good point, thank you. The “Good as Gold” offering is Eric at his best and most prescient. You can’t get anything near the same quality of perspective and advice for your Sun and rising signs anywhere else. The sort of astrology Eric is practicing with “Good as Gold” is the wave front of the discipline.
Firehorse: Thak you! It is very rewarding to know how my service supported the results of your own (undoubtedly heroic) work. Congratulations on attaining such inspirational results!
be: Spot on. Thank you. the impulse to avenge is an “attribute” humanity can no longer afford. You tied the operative astrology together very well to show that this may well be a long haul, but nonetheless necessary if we are to keep up wit the heavens.
KathyC: You are most welcome!
Remarkable ! BRAVO Len !
Boots Hart on Regulus. . .
http://www.daykeeperjournal.com/2011/11/regulus-in-virgo/
Bette Loreen, thanks for calling attention to the situation in Canada regarding Aboriginal women murdered or gone missing. I hope you will keep us posted regarding this situation. Due to the precession effect, the fixed star Regulus appears to have “moved” into Virgo now and this is a signal that denigration and/or abuse of women will no longer be tolerated.
Boots Hart has written that the 4 Royal Stars of Persia (Regulus being one of them) represents a “promise of success” if a particular human attribute can be avoided. For Regulus it is the attribute of Vengence being prohibited, and she notes that Regulus in Virgo “will put an emphasis on those in need”. This forms a long-term backdrop for the present changes going on in astrology and are therefore a reflection of life on earth.
With Neptune and Chiron transiting through Pisces dissolving the old order (patriarchy), Pluto in Capricorn destroying or regenerating cultural as well as government structures, as Saturn’s transit and station retrograde in Scorpio opposite Sedna transforms what we consider of value and Uranus transiting Aries opens our eyes to individual equality, we are whittling away at the intransigent vengeance theme. As more and more individuals speak out against this “human attribute” (and the number is growing in leaps and bounds), a breakthrough will come. The more we know the sooner it will come, so if you will keep us appraised of Canada’s progress (the U.S. media seems too busy to do it for us) it will have a positive effect.
be
“Now is the time to accept yourself as a whole and integrated being. Now is the time to ask yourself what, if anything, there is to fear about the parts of you which have been restrained without due cause.”
Beautiful! I read this several hours after an extraordinary healing session/journey that both brought forth the realization of how I had inhibited my sense of joy and pleasure for fear of reprisals and reclaimed a ginormous source of strength and power left behind eons ago. Wow!
Can’t help but notice that this timely article is a wonderful segue to Eric’s “Good as Gold” readings
We all need some encouragement to be our best self. Thank you Len for pointing out that the imperfect parts of ourselves are deserving of our self-love.
Thanks, Len, for the present positions of 3 Juno. Much appreciated–as all your offerings are.
Timely advice for me, Len – thank-you. Ooooh yeah! Boxed in indeed – from without & within – working on both sets of conditioning. Of course, much of the within is a result of family/culture through the years, internalized into rpeated messages.
I’ve been focused on cleaning house today, & hauling off what no longer serves or interests me, to be either passed on or trashed. I suspect my ever-present Saturn’s a bit ambivalent about that, as he likes to keep things “in case you need it one day”, but also appreciates a clean deck so we can get on with some work.
In the bigger picture, Canadians have received another wake-up call about the issue of race in our country, with news of the murder of yet another young First Nations woman. Several hundred Aboriginal women have gone missing or been murdered in recent years in Canada, & awareness & voices are being raised in support of a public inquiry which it is hoped may lead to answers, & hopefully to addressing the underlying issues of poverty, lack of opportunity,, disrespect, & outright racism.
Bette
P. Sophia: Thank you for sharing the success of your personal reclamation. Please be sure to acknowledge yourself for it as well. Let not your self be worn down by revisitations, rather allow your self to be validated – as you deserve to be. After all, a big key to the Nessus myth and astrology is to “know better than that”, which you do.
be: Thank you for taking us through your processing of the subject matter so engagingly. Thank you most of all for engaging us with some of the US Attorney General’s personal astrology, which shows that he is motivated to pursue public service in its truest sense. That’s comforting information we might not have were it not for you.
My hero! Appreciate this timely heads up Len. I was reading along, seeing this from a very personal trajectory, when BAM! Dropping in through some unsearched-for wavelength I saw this applying to the Ferguson, Missouri story. . . . . becoming conscious (Sun) of abuse (Nessus), leading to overdone criticism (Virgo, Transpluto) and a Pandora-like expose’ of a multitude of sins.
But no, you pulled me/us back from the brink of boxed-in thinking by noting the present cosmic support for thinking outside the box. There is right now the Moon in Cancer, having just left a grand trine with Saturn and Chiron, as well as a square with Uranus, which could be serving to free her from slipping into the easily felt confinement of Saturn’s negative vibe and the typical habit to think of Chiron as wounding. I believe it was that positive quick-jab from Uranus that pushed me out of that mode, and, combined with Virgo’s Mercury’s trine to Pluto right now, let me see it from a different perspective.
I’ll think about myself tomorrow, but today, right now, I’m thinking about Mercury and his voracious appetite for detail (esp. in Virgo) and Pluto’s merciless digging deeper and deeper into (at this time) established institutions, and how it could – in fact – lead to not just more and more criticism, but real reform.
Maybe it’s just Pandora’s last resort, Hope, but with all the energy available to us now (look at the miracles in medicine re: ebola cure) and Congress (thank goddess) not in the spotlight, but the media is looking for a Big Story (Jupiter is still in Leo after his new cycle start with Mercury). It could be a breakthrough in present-day policing tactics in U.S., and with the attention Eric Holder is bringing to the Ferguson story (Holder’s Venus at 17+ Aquarius is still under the spell of the Full Moon at Aquarius 18+) it could happen. Holder’s Sun at 0+ Aquarius is the same degree where the next Jupiter-Saturn cycle takes place; think about that!…….
So, mindful and forewarned (thanks to you) I’m looking forward to Sun’s ingress into Virgo and the following New Moon on Monday.
be
Nessus again..oh joy another healing opportunity. What timing. I am going to see my mother, father, and my sister is in town on Saturday. Our family has had such a sad experience of shame energy passed down. I lived through and as a small sponge soaked up it all up. I am fairly certain it is what eventually led to my Mother’s broke heart of dis-ease.
Of course once older is realized it is unconsciously handed to parents from families down. Generationally, emotionally through cultural assimilation, criticism, impatience and perfectionism to control. Unfortunately, consequently for sensitive empaths (like me) we lived in defense mode building boundaries from attack, in fear that our actions were not good enough. Causing the very disconnection of the most treasured, valuable intuitive side of self. For me, until more recently, this side is finally being reclaimed.
Thank you dear Len once again for your eloquent timing, the interpretations that are so well put and greatly received.. Integration, will be the order of this (will be mine anyway) day! In awareness I continue to take the steps to initiate the healing of this division in self.
Sending strength and courage to all of us in finally healing this misinterpretation of separation. Always moving towards forgiveness and the recognition our true divinity! : )
aword: Thank you for once again sharing how your nativity is so continuously (and amazingly) being lit up by current transits. You are a very special person! May your migration North be a move toward the sacred as well as towards security.
AuntieRacquel: It is for me (and all of us, really) to thank you for courageously sharing your potent musings today. Excellent point regarding Peter Pan, for example. Nevertheless, like many works of art, there might well be some saving grace in the subtext. May the courage you demonstrated today result in a greater freedom of expression for your own personal artistry.
Holly: Godspeed indeed. In the coming months leading up to your Jupiter return next year, may your aspirations continue to inspire the bright light you so generously share with all of us here at Planet Waves.
Incredibly supportive as I plan my northward migration. This configuration aspects natal Pluto/Sun opposition. I take that as a good omen. 🙂
Lea: Please accept my gratitude for your generous words today, especially because you included all Planet Waves “writer, commenters, and producers” in your thanks. It takes a village, and the entire village needs to be recognized. Additionally, your observations regarding the asteroid 3 Juno are not only deeply appreciated, but timely as Juno is currently cruising the sign Cancer in a rather precise trine with retrograde Neptune’s position in Pisces today, and applying to oppose Pluto’s Capricorn retrograde next week. Top billing indeed.
Strawberry: Thank you. May the “craziness” you refer to resolve peacefully. i have observed that those who prize, prioritize, and pursue power only end up being consumed by it. Eric has noted how the current astrology correlates with the higher purpose of martial arts – either not getting into fights, or at least making sure nobody gets hurt. May your Aikido serve you well. Regarding transits to your BML, please consider following the three-step Lilith protocol:(1) Be aware, especially self-aware. (2) Accept responsibility for that which you are aware of. (3) Act with integrity on the responsibility you have accepted. Doing so should provide an indication of what you need. May you find, and have what you need with no further hardship.
Adivarocks: You are most welcome. Your question does indeed address the somewhat oxymoronic combination of “mutable” and “earth” that is inherent in Virgo. Nevertheless, it is precisely that supposed contradiction that gives solar Virgo’s their unique ability to be grounded and creative at the same time. Hence a possible answer to your question: What can you (or can you not) live with?
Now begins my birthday countdown. The sun is beginning to conjunct my natal Jupiter as we speak. School starts both for me and my siblings next week. *Poses for a salute*, I will use the Sun’s graceful energy to exceed in my schooling. You can bet this Virgo will sail through. I will also be starting a much needed exercise routine to get in shape for the holidays. *Rocky theme plays in background* Godspeed!
Whilst with my son watching Peter Pan today I noticed how sexist it was & the boxes females were enclosed in (‘girls talk too much’ says PP) … having said that I still felt rather than express my full potential I thought I would rather jog in my (most proper) English village, naked, than expose my true potential … what would I unleash? This surely would be far more startling than the sight of me wibble-wobbling my curves along The Street … as always I will laugh about the most serious of serious subjects to deal with the intense fear that arises.
Thank you for reminding me of my resistance and what seems like the only subject this year – to realise Being my authentic Self.
Thank you for reminding me of the fear in others that has prejudiced their behaviour towards this body mind organism & gave me the excuse to be harshly self critical – in recognising their fear it has helped dissolve mine.
Thank you for the inspiration & encouragement this brings – I can, I WILL!
Thanks Len,
I love your columns and this was just what I needed to hear this morning. The Leap of Faith is not for the Faint of Heart! Why Leap, if it’s only to land in another box of our own making?!
Len, this is priceless. Just this morning, I noticed the way my BML is being activated by the upcoming Mars-Saturn conjunction (& contributing to a craziness around power struggles in a relationship with a dear friend!). Knowing that Pandora is also in the mix is an important reminder to be very, very clear in how I express what I express these next few days. Like you say, Lilith, Pandora, Eve,…are all like cardboard cutouts of what it is to embody the Feminine. Other avenues for expression exist, and just because they are different & don’t bring about the same emotional response as we are used to, doesn’t mean they can’t get us what we need. Now, what exactly is it that I need,…? 😉
Bless you for this gift, dear Len! It’s all about what I’m battling with now – and is so very helpful. Thank you.
Yes, Carlos. Thank you for Dr. King’s quote:
” Martin Luther King said that desegregation is not enough, we must demand full Integration into society.”
Thank you, Len, as ALWAYS. And thank you also to all PW writers, commenters, producers.
Speaking of Integration fully into society–.. I will pipe up here to add Women’s Integration as well. …
From my perspective, I see Top Goddess, Juno, leading That Charge.
Onward, All —Integration For ALL.
(as an aside, Juno is top in this respect, as All Goddesses are also Top in their individual roles and capacities when active, imho)
+_+
😉
Lizzy: You are most welcome. A Virgo mid-heaven? That’s a strong asset! Especially now that the transiting Sun will be transiting that high point in your chart. Given how Virgo combines the mutable quality with the earth element, consider using this time to become more aware of any possible discrepancies between how you see yourself and how others see you, and contemplate how to close the gap so as to be more whole, both in actuality and in perception.
Thank you, Carlos. i agree with your perspective on America, even though it makes me sad to realize how far we still need to go until institutionalized racism is no longer the order of the day. It would be a blessing to hear you perform music sometime. If you ever tour to perform in the Seattle area, please let me know.
Thank you so much, Len. This is absolutely wonderful! I couldn’t believe it when Pandora came up, becaue she has been popping into my head over the last few days. I’ve recently discovered that I have more significant Virgo in my chart than I thought I had (never new my Midheaven was there, for example) – will try to work with all this energy consciously, thanks to your help.
“Among the various forms of abuse, one of the most insidious is prior restraint and deprivation of potential.”
HI Len,
This is what has been going on in all of America, with few exceptions, blacks have not been completely Integrated into our society. Martin Luther King said that desegregation is not enough, we must demand full Integration into society.
I live in Texas in a town where Hispanics did not get integrated in society until the 1970s! Because this was not very long ago, it is still obvious which are the Hispanic neighborhoods and which are white, even though to be fair, there is some mixing of the two, and many Hispanics have entered the middle class and some whites remain poor.
Myself, I’ve been boxed in for sometime trying to get my music “perfect” after experiencing too much rejection for my attempts to put out free-form psychedelic jazz…. I pray the next 260 day tzolkin brings a big boost for my career. A new tzolkin begins Sept.3rd!