By Len Wallick
Any headaches to report out there? Thought so. Whether it be empathy with a newly offended and injured Gaia, overdoing Beltane celebrations, allergy season or the ongoing upheaval in our personal lives, pressure on our heads seems to be going around.
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A good friend of mine recently had the hard-earned occasion to describe a t-shirt he owns. The graphic is two bewildered cartoon eyes on the black fabric. The text goes something like this: “I know that every time a door closes, another opens but these hallways really get to me!”.
It would be fair to say that a good many of us resemble that remark right now. As challenging as the experience is, it does seem to carry its own purpose. A purpose of perspective on consequences and the purpose of recognizing and appreciating opportunity in a form other than that to which we have become accustomed.
In synchronicity, as ever, the indifferent cycles in the sky function to bring us a detached perspective on this, our individual and collective time in the dark hallway.
The current pertinent aspects would seem to break down into four categories. We will cover two of them today. The cardinal point action and something about Jupiter. With your kind permission we will leave the other two for tomorrow.
There is of course, the continuous dance of Uranus, Saturn and Pluto as they exact a series of oppositions and squares near the cardinal points of Aries, Capricorn and Libra. The message here is becoming clear. The framework, the very skeleton upon which both our greater cultures and individual lives depend is in the process of coming apart. That this is a necessary prelude for reconstruction. There are several keys to being able to respond in a constructive manner.
The first thing to remember is that the process is not over yet. The second thing to remember is that this is not happening to us. Rather, we are participants. Our individual and collective perceptions and responses will determine the actual course of events. As regards to the first, Saturn has one more square (90 degrees of separation) with Pluto. Squares, as you may recall, correspond to an internal tension, something going on within us. Assuming awareness of that, the applicable word is action. Doing anything is often better than doing nothing, but that’s where the astrology and the awareness come in. It is even better to do the appropriate thing.
Saturn is the immovable object of the established order that both nourishes and limits us. While individual resistance is futile, cooperation brings structure and definition to both the individual and the collective. Pluto symbolizes perhaps the only irresistible force that can bring the established order to budge. It implies forces of metamorphosis and transformation that are part of longer historical cycles. Cycles which require adaptivity and evolution as the price of sustainability. So the internal expression of this square is expressed as attachment to what we are accustomed to, like gasoline and plastic. To what we depend on, like jobs that contribute to and support the infliction of death upon our fellow human beings. Like jobs that support industries dealing death to our planet. The resolution of that internal tension is in releasing those attachments and allowing ourselves to be open to something else. Like allowing ourselves to be open to life, not as a scarce resource to be fought over, but as an abundance to be shared.
Uranus meanwhile has one more opposition (180 degrees of separation) to Saturn. In contrast to square aspects, oppositions correspond to external tension — polarization between one and the other. The implied resolution to these external polarities requires us first to engage and communicate. We must talk to each other. This is the first level of participation. From there the protocol is negotiation. This requires and develops trust. The final step is integration. This has everything to do with the word integrity, which is the logical result of trust given and received. Saturn, once again is that established order that has acquired a momentum. After all, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Uranus is the reply that it may not be broken, but it is no longer functional.
When the vast currents of the atmosphere no longer serve to convey warmth but also pollution, and the vast currents of the ocean not longer serve to distribute nutrients but also spread toxins and concentrate garbage, it’s time to communicate. We need to get clear about what we have in common, what we have at stake. This will shift perspective away from an illusory “them” and towards the reality of “us”. We need to negotiate. It may seem counter-intuitive to some but rigidity has become the enemy of sustainability, not its support. We need to integrate, we need to make the well being of others as much a part of our lives as our own.
Even as we find ourselves in yet another cross-quarter threshold, mid-way between the Vernal Equinox and the Cancer Solstice, so we are at a threshold in the cardinal point activity of the outer planets. The next phase beginning even now, is a series of seven square aspects between Uranus and Pluto that will take us though 2012 and beyond. The choice how that will play out is ours. If we can respond appropriately to what is happening now that next phase can be a great and voluntary leap forward.The alternative will resemble being dragged lengthwise through a hedge, backwards. Which leads us to our second and closing subject for today, Jupiter and friends.
What with all the fertilizer hitting the oscillator lately, its been easy to lose track of how some things are as they should be. Those allergies, for example, are the result of prolific pollination. Would we really wish for the consequences of the alternative? So it is in the sky. No better example is there than Jupiter.
Jupiter is a benefic. It is in Pisces, a sign that it rules. It is moving forward. Chiron is in Pisces now as well. No need to squeeze the blood out of an impaired mutual reception turnip here. This is the real deal. It’s all good. And because Pisces, as the last sign of the zodiac represents everybody and everything all pooled together, the good must in some way be accessible to all. The key as always is that astrology is not destiny. It’s what we do with it, not what it does to us.
With all the other heavy aspects and transits lately, its been easy to look ahead to Jupiter conjunct Uranus in the first degree of Aries. As auspicious and powerful as that promises to be, its not worth missing the nourishment available in the now. Even in the 25th degree of Pisces, its not too late. Indeed it’s precisely the right time to direct our attention to the fact that abundance is not extinct as Jupiter finds itself in precise aspect to the asteroids Vesta, Aphrodite and Askalaphus.
Admittedly this may not be the best time for Vesta to engage with Jupiter. Long now into her Leo fire dance, she is a bit self- involved. But if Vesta is about anything, she is about devotion. Such a quality cannot help but notice that even in the dark hallway of a quincunx, there is something better in the offing. Whether devotion will meet abundance in harmony is not the question. The question is when. Until then, keep the faith.
Aphrodite in Gemini is waiting for its famous alter-ego, Venus, to catch up for conjoin for a soiree. In the meantime, a square to Jupiter in Pisces should not serve to discourage. It is only a reminder that we all have to work a few things out inside of ourselves to better serve each other. Once again it is not a matter of whether but when. In the meantime, we have time to clean up our act so as to be better received when the next door opens.
Finally, Askalaphus in Taurus, where the Sun is in transit to a threshold, while Mercury is in review of a time before. This aspect with Jupiter is the fortunate promise of a sextile. An opportunity to advance and grow. One of the foremost authorities on asteroid astrology, Martha Lang-Wescott regards Askalaphus to be about health and well-being and that “in need of or contributing to healing”.
Isn’t that what we need right now? In this dark hallway, a little light. The sound of of a door opening for once. If the potential of Jupiter in Pisces can be endowed upon this little rock then any one of us, at any moment, may be availed of the same. The key is to have our eyes open and be looking for it.
The Capricorn Moon begins our Monday with a generous trine to the Taurus Sun before it transits the North node, symbolically rising towards the future. When Luna crosses that point, it is literally rising above the fray of the ecliptic. Today is our day to take a clue. Rise above. Look ahead. We can and will make our way out of this dark passage.
Offered In Service
BK, I have saturn at 29 degrees. Some interesting developments where i work too that I wish I could share, involve a group that needs to heel. Seems like everything came to a head about the same time. A lot of things need to change, not just our use of oil. The way we use our military is another. Solving one problem would solve the other, I reckon.
b – what a story. my parents, two aquariuses, were absolutely rocks when my brother and i needed them. they had this amazing ability to see what needed to be done to move forward (no crying over spilt milk) and i know this perspective is one of the greatest gifts they gave me. i’m not quite as good as them but i like to think i have other strengths. i’m pretty good at blubbering at the table with people, which is sometimes what the doctor ordered too.
Patty,
The story was kinda allegorical in that the oil has already been “spilt “and the fish and birds are dying and all the tears in the world won’t help. Cleaning up is the only thing we can do. That and promising never to do it again. If we’re smart.
The astrology I start with is the U.S. Sibly chart and transiting Pluto was stationing retro opposite the U.S. Jupiter, the “too much” planet. Then transiting Jupiter was square the U.S. Mars and opposite the U.S. Neptune forming a t-square. Interestingly enough, the Galactic Center was at 23 Sagittarius in 1776 which would, if we used the GC in the chart, form a grand mutable square. Also, in the progressed U.S. chart the asteroid Asterea is at 21+ Sagittarius. I believe she was the last of the Gods to leave earth, not wanting to abandon us humans.
But you should take a look at Len’s article titled “How We Are” the day before the BP oil leak happened. He quotes Kirsti Melto, paraphrasing Raimo Nikula saying “The last phases (degrees of a sign) carry the possibility to purify the soul so that new life experience is possible, but 1st you may have to face those things which rise from the unconscious.” His story that day was about how the Sun was in the last degree of Aries, and Chiron in the last degree of Aquarius (along with Neptune), and Saturn in the last degree of Virgo. They formed a yod and here is what he said about Saturn at the focal point.
“At the apex of the yod, focus of the tension is Saturn, retro in Virgo.” ~ “It has little in common with the cardinal fire (Sun in Aries) or the fixed air (Chiron in Aquarius). It is under pressure. It is in retreat. ONLY THE UNLIKELY AND UNEXPECTED CAN BRING RESOLUTION.”
Perhaps the Gulf is our unconscious and the oil rising is what we have to face before we can purify the soul. Perhaps Saturn just couldn’t take anymore pressure.
Aword – I live in the house my grandparents built in 1919, I feel for you. My rule is if it doesnt make me smile, out it goes. I’ve left boxes of “free stuff” out on the curb for whoever to get, it takes, on average, about an hour for some (fool) person to shove it in their car and drive off. A little at a time, I set a timer for 15 minutes, fill up some kind of vessel and take it out. Emotional layers being stripped, nothing that still has too much emotional “heat” goes out, but as I give myself permission to let it go, I’m amazed at how much I can let go. I take baby steps and make myself not blame myself for having it, giving it up, hating it, whatever, no apologies, just move one step at a time, 15 minutes at a time (sometimes only 15 minutes a day is all I can take). You’re doing fine and you’re not alone.
I got it in my head that fixed energy promoted growth, as in soil (taurus) or incubator (leo) or womb (scorpio), following the spark of the cardinal and preparing for the subsequent mutable. Does anyone share this notion of fixed energy? I am not sure where I got this. All this fixed stuff I have in my chart (a grand cross) and I just don’t feel I have been very good at fixing anything … thoughts to share … ?
curious aquarius (sun/mer/asc)
mm
BE, I really appreciate your cigarette story. I have a few of my own, similar but different. Sometimes people don’t survive their lies – drug addicts, alcoholics, but others of us are allowed to continue onto a path of recovery – maybe to help others I don’t know.
We can recover from this lie too.
I was hoping you would share astrology of the oil disaster – or maybe you did down below. I just got home from work and wanted to see the latest.
Blessings
The cleaning….I have been “getting rid of the stuff” for a decade now – perhaps my whole life…..the stuff that isn’t mine (family) the stuff that is mine by way of issues that werent’ mine to begin with etc etc. A lifetime all manifest in the things yet around me.
I am very “down” in mood today…in a “throwin’ in the dishtowel” sort of mood. I just took yet another load of the “stuff” downstairs for others to reclaim as their own or to be hauled off by trashpickers….bumped into neighbor in elevator, she who has always had really strong/stable “I get the New Picture” vibes.
All the little girl leftovers from my daughter – she took for a friend’s daughter; the never worn shoes, the Little Mermaid stickers, the dressup fun things. No emotion in the giving – but upon returning to my apartment, I finally felt the emptiness, the GONE of the stuff that has been what “we” have relied on for “life-sustaining” substance for generations.
My apartment is still full of grandma’s old stuff and mom’s old stuff and my old stuff…..old energy, an old way of being; this stuff sticks like glue – the holding onto that which no longer serves – like the aluminum foil washed and re-used time and again.
What it does to us? I feel my entire life has been that for the use as a boat-anchor. Would that I were more than just a vehicle of disposal – and now years spent just like Walli (the compacting robot of Pixar fame)- throwing away that which has been so that my children have room for what can be?
and what of life with NO aluminum foil?
Ah – the Void calls to be filled.
xo
Thanks for this. Looking forward to tomorrow…
hmmm… well, today where i live the air feels soft, thankfully. this little fixed-sign “rock” needed the extra cushioning.
“I bless the Aquarians and all the fixed sign people in the world. They fix things. When the tears of shock will allow, the rest of us will follow them and do what we must do, with new-found wisdom and consciousness, to repair the damage.”
Be:
Blessings back.
And you’ve got it — sounds about right. Fixed signs are calm in the face of emergency and disaster. I think of my fellow fixed sign buddies — Leo, Scorpio and Taurus as my “rocks”.
My mom, bless her heart, was Aquarian with a Taurus moon. Tough as nails. .at least on the surface and when it was necessary. One weekend, many years ago, I drove the hour drive to my parents home. The plan was that the 3 of us would then drive to a new lake house, a couple of hours away, to do chores. Still a smoker but not wanting to expose that truth to my parents, I tossed the butt of my cigarette out the car window about 5 minutes before arriving.
As planned, we spent the day at the lake and returned exhausted.
For whatever reason I can’t remember, I went out to my car inside the closed, attached to the house, garage and could not see through it’s windows. It was filled with smoke, overwhelming me with the smell of burnt upholstery.
The back seat, where the tossed cigarette had landed and smouldered for hours, had burned a hole in the seat cushion, but nothing else.
Stunned for a minute or so, I examined every part of the car and then it hit me. I can hardly write about it . . the shock of what could have happened. . .that my parents could have lost their home due to my reckless need to satisfy a bad habit. The shame caused my legs to crumble, but I went back inside to where my father was sitting at the kitchen table and tried to confess to my (elderly Gemini sun, Scorpio moon) dad, who commenced to blubbering and sobbing with me; neither of us able to function coherently.
In walks my mom who takes in this scene, grasps the gist of my broken repeat confession, walks to the cabinet, takes out cleaning cloths, detergent, draws a bucket of hot water and strides out to the garage and started to clean the inside of my car. Without saying a single word.
I bless the Aquarians and all the fixed sign people in the world. They fix things. When the tears of shock will allow, the rest of us will follow them and do what we must do, with new-found wisdom and consciousness, to repair the damage.
be