Dear Friend and Reader,
Today Venus slides into a semi-square with Neptune and shares a sextile with Deucalion. A semi-square is a term that comes from the Uranian Astrological tradition. A semi-square is a square, plus half a square which translates mathematically to 135 degrees in a chart. It can be described as a not-so-tense version of a square.
Because of this, planets that share this relationship bring a faint awareness of one another to the table. Put in normal terms, I would suggest that this aspect is about the power of love, or using love and attraction as a means of intoxication. Seduction comes to mind with this aspect, though it is not the right-out-in-the-open kind that a person can guess at from a mile away.
Venus is also in a sextile with Deucalion today, which gives me the pleasure of discussing the myth of Deucalion in as brief a way as I can. Deucalion was a son of Prometheus and the Greek equivalent of the biblical Noah. When Zues got tired of mankind’s hubristic tendencies, he flooded the world in an attempt to drown everyone alive. Deucalion’s father Prometheus warned him and gave him instructions for an ark. After the deluge, Deucalion and his wife stood on top of a mountain, totally at a loss of what to do next. Then a riddle came to them: “Throw the bones of your mother over your shoulder.” This they did, and from those stones came the new race of humans into the world.
Back in 2005, Eric wrote a piece delineating possible meanings for Deucalion. Feelings of being overwhelmed, or conscious of the burden of humanity are two ways of looking at Deucalion. I don’t really know what it means, personally. But I find it interesting that in the myth Deucalion is instructed to throw his mother’s bones over his shoulders. “Throwing the bones” is a term used to describe rituals involving the Norse runes. I am a student of the runes, and so this statement stuck out to me.
Also, some interesting observations can be drawn about Deucalion by looking at the Hurricane Katrina chart of 2007. For example, on that day, Deucalion was conjoined with Hebe when Katrina made landfall. President Bush did not get to survey the damage left by the storm for three days because he was hangin’ at the ranch. Hebe is looked at as a significator of co-dependency.
In other news, the Moon will be opposite to Pluto tomorrow. We’ll be discussing the energy of that on Wednesday.
Merry Met,
Genevieve
ooo…and another tidbit!
Deucalion was the son of Prometheus (the fire-bearer/Uranian) and Pronoia (Gr. “Provisions”). Think revolutionary new resources.
Of course, I also think of Brezney’s campaign for Pronoia: The Universe is Conspiring For You.
Somewhere in that mix is the idea that catastrophe’s are the potential bearers of new benefits.
oo…just thinking about how much cannibalism–or rather, the ugly co-dependency–of New Orleans’ people with their local government. Corruption and poverty are two modern modes of cannibalism, yes?
Just thinking.
The Noah/Deucalion story is yet another archetypal story of regeneration–in this case, the regeneration of the entire human race. In each story an exemplary couple are sought out at the new Adam and Eve of a new form of humanity. It’s important that (at least in Ovid’s account), the search was begun after the ugly and violent Lycaon episode, where this king served on of his guests (some say his son) to Zeus. After a long devolution of moral and civil customs, humanity finally arrived at literal cannibalism as a means of consuming one another in violent acts. (If you have a copy of Ovid’s Metamorpheses, I recommend this particular story.)
But I, too, am fascinated with the “bones”. To me, this suggests that after a catastrophe we only need to look at the practical (and natural) resources at hand to recreate our world. All we need is literally in our hands. The fact that the “bones” are actually stones is important, too. The old human race created a culture when a human would have to be sacrificed in order that another to succeed. Then there’s the idea of “propitiation” wherein the “gods” or “G-d” required the blood of another creature (human or animal) in payment for our own moral failures or as a means to approach a deity for help. In this new world, humanity is renewed without the former ritual of blood sacrifice. Instead, nature will provide the means. Zeus seems to be speaking the language that Deucalion and Prryah would understand.
Throwing the bones over a shoulder also brings to mind the old gesture against “evil” when folks would throw salt over their shoulders. 🙂 I.E., “Good-bye to all that!”