One For The Ages

By Len Wallick

“Always be sure you are right, then go ahead.” – Attributed to David Crockett

Hesitated to use that quote for all the baggage it has acquired, but it sure does fit the astrology. It’s less than a week since the vernal equinox and already we have experienced a huge dose of cardinal sign energy, the imperative to do something, anything, to get the show on the road, the party started, etc. This with a special emphasis on the cachet of the first degree of a cardinal sign, sometimes called the Aries Point, that of the personal and political becoming indistinguishable from one another.

Cardinal activity is also associated with square aspects because these signs are 90 degrees apart. These are frequently experienced as internal tension which requires proactive resolution. Oppositions, 180 degrees of contact — [a right angle – oops editing error by eric! two right angles] — experienced as external binds, or points of confrontation, are also consistent with cardinal point ambiance. In other words, the idea of an opposition (or a square) and that of a cardinal sign are cousins. And this checks out historically — the aspects come from the relationships between the signs.

On top of all that, the whole solar system seems to be signifying its participation. The faster moving bodies are sometimes called personal planets because they go around the Sun (and hence the zodiac) many times in the average human life. These fast movers have lately been synchronous with an imperative to be impetuous, impatient and impertinent.

The slower moving planets symbolically remind us that any action taken, any decision made, any pattern started now could continue with consequences for a long, long time.

It’s a good time to be sure you are right before you go ahead.

Today continues the cardinal dominance. Today begins with the Moon moving into Leo where it will form a sextile (sixty degrees of separation) with retrograde Saturn in the first degree of the cardinal sign, Libra. Then, minutes later Luna goes on to form a conjunction with Mars, the ruling planet of Aries, which turned direct two weeks ago

Venus continues a hero’s journey through Aries with an applying conjunction to the first planet discovered beyond Pluto, 1992 QB1. Mercury, also in Aries, opposes Haumea in Libra. Haumea is part of an influential club called dwarf planets. The other members are Pluto, Ceres, Eris and Makemake, all of which we have heard a lot from lately, all but Makemake in cardinal signs. All of these aspects are provocative and full of meaning that is consistent with the prevalent cardinal sign experience.

However, the remainder of today’s blog will focus on one other aspect that seems to transcend today, resounding through the ages and into the future. Our own Sun, in the early degrees of Aries forming a square (90 degrees of separation) with Pluto in the cardinal sign of Capricorn.

If you think this a joke, go back 245 years to this very week. Nobody on earth knew about Pluto at that time but it was very close to the same position that it is in now. So was the Sun. They were in a square aspect from Aries to Capricorn. In London, England the British Parliament approved the Stamp Act to raise money from the North American colonies. A year later it was repealed but the die had been cast. Something had been set in motion that could not be reversed.

Got an idea of what we are playing with now? Be damn sure you are right.

Of course that was then and this is now. This is not 1765. Things are different now. You are durn tootin’ they are. Because in addition to squaring Pluto today, the Sun in in conjunction with the centaur planet, Pelion. That’s what is different today. What say we look into that particular piece of shadow material.

Unlike other centaur planets, Pelion is not named after a centaur. It is named after a place. A place in Greece. A mountain on a peninsula hooking out into the Aegean Sea. In myth, a cavern on this mountain was the home of Chiron, the cerebral centaur, the greatest physician of his time, the mentor of Jason and Achilles. But it’s the place, not the centaur that we are talking about.

Pelion was the place where the mythical, mortal, human king Peleus was wed to the immortal sea deity Thetis. Thetis was hot after Jupiter (or Zeus, or Jove, whatever – the king, the ruler, the top dog in the Parthenon). She once played a crucial part in keeping him from being displaced by some other, disgruntled gods. However, because of a prophecy that the son of Thetis would be superior to the father, Jupiter for once managed to keep it in his pants (or toga, or robe, you get it).

It was thus that Zeus arranged for Thetis to be compelled to marry a mortal, so that her son would be no threat to him. Her son, by the way, was Achilles.

Anyway, back to the wedding. Our post modern heroine, Eris was without honor back then. She was not invited. She tossed that golden apple (with the inscription “to the fairest”) into the reception and the rest is ancient history. Men made a mess of things. Women got blamed for it. Even today, thousands of years later, people are having trouble letting go and moving on. Greeks hate the Turks (check out the island of Cypress). Women are resentful. Men are fearful. Let go already! As Spongebob Squarepants might say, good luck with that.

So, you can see what we are messing with. Take Sun in early Aries squaring Pluto in early Capricorn and you get the American Revolution when all King George wanted was a little pocket change to tide him over until he could sell opium to the Chinese. Add Sun conjunct Pelion and you get the Trojan War when all a girl wanted to do was have a little fun.

So, should we all go back home and hide under the bed? Should we be all be cryogenic-ally frozen for a day? Heck no, hell no! Astrology is NOT destiny. There is no inevitable and unfortunate fate associated with this powerful aspect of Sun square Pluto. The energy of an astrological aspect is indifferent. It is we, who act in synchrony with that aspect, who give it meaning and take responsibility for the consequences. We don’t have to repeat the mistakes of the past. We can turn it around. We can avoid the temptation to exploit others for our own gain. We can divest ourselves of rage. We can do something good that will last a long time.

We can pay attention to where we are and what we are doing.

If not us, who? If not now, when?

Offered In Service

16 thoughts on “One For The Ages”

  1. Shebear13 ~ Thank you, what wonderful words to read today! That is the perfect advice for me and I will work on it.

    Len ~ Thanks for that idea, I am working on it.

    Everyone else ~ Thanks for reading and not judging. I really appreciate that. You all are really wonderful people.

  3. the right and wrong was referring to the crockett quote and my own stumblings upon them. can one ever be sure?
    i will look these charts up. never thought of that. you just opened a door for me. thanks!

  4. Well, it has been quite a day. Looking back on it, perhaps one will remember it as a “true colors” kind of day.

    tatonnement – than you and, yes, oracles are synchronous if properly consulted.
    Eric – thank you for graciously sharing your space.
    KathyC – you are welcome.
    Shanna – long time! Blessings to you and your daughter.
    saraon – you are too kind, thank you.
    janeton –
    (1) could be wrong about this but don’t believe right and wrong are part of this historic aspect.
    (2) Haumea- ah! Good question. And your little Makemake too. Let’s make a start. “All about” is a question for the future that is being decided by you and me and Eric and Phil and the rest of us right now, that’s first, it’s a work in progress and you are part of it . Next part is what is the biggest key factor. It’s a hoary problem, one might submit and hence the “birth chart” may be most important. Now, what constitutes the “birth chart”, when it was discovered or when it was named. Speaking for myself, SO FAR, mind you, i like the DISCOVERY chart for Makemake March 31, 2005 2:13am Pacific, Palomar Calif. For Haumea i’m torn between the discovery (12-28-2004/Palomar) and the naming (9-17-2008) dates and need to do a bit more meditation on that. Check out the charts and tell us what YOU think ok?
    Carrie –
    Glad you got some favorable closure today. Can you make that the pattern?
    shebear –
    Thank you – your words have been the next to best thing to happen to me today.

  5. This is a very powerful piece today Len, thank you very much.

    These are powerful times we live in. We live this together. It is a time for Me to We, all round this globe.

    Carrie, I especially would like to express deep empathy with your plight. I’m right there alongside you. Maybe it’s because you are 50 like me and being Pisces to my Virgo (and there’s Chiron and Pluto in play as well) — sorry folks, forgive me as I know I lack the astrological sophistication that so many possess here (!) — but i do know about the paralyzing fear of the surrender.

    It’s the dropping of the conditioning that can feel like torture but here’s the thing. Try and sweat it out and breath the healing love in. Slowly and consciously through all your pores. Love in, fear out. The love is there for us all. The force of life. Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Know that you and your fears are being cradled and loved and supported and it is in the act of surrendering, the conscious and active act of surrendering, that the light and the love appears and shows us a way. It is a two way exchange. Ground yourself in that dynamic.

    I’d like to also repeat Len’s encouragement to us all.
    “We can pay attention to where we are and what we are doing.”
    That about surely sums it up.

    We CAN do this. We ARE doing this.

  6. Update:

    “It’s a good time to be sure you are right before you go ahead.”

    I think the university needed the above admonition. I called them and after much wrangling and hemming and throat clearing (theirs, not mine)….we are talking HOURS of dealing with this, they came to the conclusion that they were WRONG about my financial aid and (with much apologizing) said I DO have enough to finish my degree. Seems they mistakenly thought I was a dependent still living with my parents. It was on record, they said.

    Sheesh.

    They wasted postage, paper, ink, my TIME (which is something I have too little of as it is) and their time because they didn’t check before sending the letter out.

    I have to say at this point I am actually laughing.

    I think I need to stop going crazy every time things like this happen. Usually I calmly call them up and deal with it but the combination of that and what my husband is going through just piled up on me all on the same day. Sorry about the previous rant.

  7. So basically, the Trojan war is happening in my (and my husband’s) life right now. This tension can’t be good for the kids; they have lived through this for the past 6 years right along with us (the four moves we had to make because of husband’s many lay-offs, the downsizing of our lives, etc.). Just when I thought I could see light in the end of this tunnel, these things happen.

  8. Len,

    Thanks for explaining things so succinctly. Could this configuration be why my husband and I are feeling so tense? The transiting sun conjunct Pelion is in his third house opposing transiting Saturn in his ninth house. Transiting Pluto is conjunct his natal Chiron in his 12th house and only 6 degrees from his first house cusp. Amazingly, Jupiter has been transiting his second house for some time and is getting closer to his third house while Chiron and Neptune are also transiting that second house.

    My husband is doing his student teaching practicum right now. The first-grade teacher assigned to him was one he subbed for before and she seemed to like him but now that she is in a position of power over him, she began complaining right from the start. She wanted a student that “could just jump in and do it” basically without her having to do any work (and she gets paid extra for “teaching” him while he has to live on nothing but his student loan). He is 57, this is a career change for him, and he has a bit of a processing difficulty (it takes him a bit longer to learn things and he is not good at taking tests). She has MS which makes her crabby; his university teacher noticed that she rarely doles out praise to the first grade students or to my husband. She gives contradictory commands to him too; her uneven temperment makes him afraid to ask for clarification.

    Just yesterday, she told my husband that she didn’t want to “write him up” and showed him a letter from the university teacher that said he was not as far along as he should be; this means she has been complaining to the university teacher. His teacher admitted that she didn’t praise him when he got something right because she just moved on to the next thing he needed to do. This means that it is likely that in her correspondences with his university teacher, she has done nothing but complain. :::sigh::: She has the power to totally fuck up his ability to finish this degree and get certified which means his ability to support our four kids and I. Lovely; an emotionally uneven woman with that much power is NOT a good thing.

    The second bad news came last night when I got a letter from the university saying that I was getting close to the lifetime maximum of student loans for an independent undergraduate student. I have 43 credits to go to graduate but because we have had to use the student loan money to support ourselves and our kids these past four years (and until my husband graduates and gets a job we still need it), I have only 2 semesters worth left and the university is raising tuition AGAIN in the fall. This means I cannot finish my degree. This feels like two doors are slamming in my face at once.

    In my chart the transiting Sun-Pelion conjunction falls in my 7th house opposing transiting Saturn in my first. Transiting Pluto is in my fourth house getting very close to my natal Moon-Saturn conjunction in that house (Pluto is 5 degres, Moon is 13 and Saturn is 15 degrees respectively). Neptune and Chiron are transiting my natal Chiron in my 6th house and coming up on my natal Sun.

    In short, both of us are now extremely tense and the fear is riding me like a bad wave. We were already tense about where we will be living this fall because of the teacher surplus (due to school closures) going on in the country this year and his prospects for even landing a job but now we have this hanging over us and my student loan money running out too soon.

    In this case, I feel like the universe’s cat toy being batted about; the astrology doesn’t feel good at all. One step forward, two steps back. This is exactly why it is often difficult for me to focus on the positive. This has been my life for the past six years; the stress we both have been feeling is at times intolerable.

    This is a pattern in my life…I feel like the universe drags me to the edge of a precipice and threatens to push me over and as I first try to solve each problem and then eventually kick and scream and fight, it drags me ever closer until I feel like I cannot do anything more to solve the problem. Pretty soon I begin to cry and feel helpless. Only once I get to that point does it finally seem to relent and something happens to win me a reprieve…..but never enough that I can feel SAFE. My astrologer way back told me this happens because I am supposed to learn to trust the universe to take care of me. This is the most difficult thing for me to do because my childhood taught me that I have to work hard for everything and do it myself without any help (because I got no help). How could I trust a universe that I cannot see when the parents I could see were not there for me? Plus, as this keeps happening, I have become over sensative to it and tense up very easily now. It is like I have been conditioned.

    ::::deep breath:::: Thanks for listening. Astrology is not destiny but sometimes it sure feels like being dragged through the mud. This is how this particular astrological configuration feels to my husband and I at this time.

  9. also, what is “right” might be “wrong” from another vantage point. mmm the trouble with binaries.

  10. what is haumea all about. I can’t get a grasp on it. That and makemake, although I think more has been written here about makemake.

  12. g-d bless you, len, for throwing spongebob into the party!

    Pluto is sitting on my daughter’s Chiron, snuggled against my Sun just now (does Pluto snuggle?), and prepping to turn retrograde on that point. Dd’s Chiron is square Mars, too. Transiting Mars is charging it all. It’s been quite the week here.

    It’s an opportunity, not a disaster, though. A significant growth season for us both. Chiron’s ingress to Capricorn told me I needed to revise my mothering skills. This is why I love having a working knowledge of astrology. In another time I would have blamed myself for the struggles we had this week; now I can step away, look at the cycle and see the season as a fundamental turning point for both of us.

    Capricorn responds to the long view. I’m taking a long, long view at what I want for us both.

  15. Gerd Zeigler – a name I haven’t thought of in a long time. Author of a rare phenomenon — two excellent (translated) books on the tarot: Mirror of the Soul and Mirror of Your Relationships.

  16. spot on as always len! in my own life, an opportunity that i thought was off the table until next year arrived. but there are issues with taking it early. last night i consulted the thoth deck and drew the chariot…so similar to the energies you describe:

    “…imminent new beginnings – a journey or the start of some new phase of life. nothing should be decided precipitously. everything requires exact examination and preparation. but once all the groundwork is one, the new start should not be put off unnecessarily.” (g. ziegler)

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