This edition corrects an astrology error from earlier in the day. Apologies for that. — efc
Dear Friend and Reader:
Today is the first day of the lunar cycle. The Moon entered Gemini at about 8 am EDT, is square Saturn and will make a conjunction to Mercury in a few hours.
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Today’s aspects to the Sun reveal something about the perils of committed relationships and longterm companionship. The Sun and Earth align with the asteroid Pandora. Venus opposes Chariklo, one of the early centaur planets. Pandora is named for the famous myth about the box out of which come all things evil: greed, vanity, slander, deception and so on. At the bottom of the box is hope, which may be the most difficult issue of all. We have come to see a revival of hope with the Obama campaign, but we rarely question whether this is a productive sentiment.
Chariklo, for her part, embodies the principle of faithful companionship, perhaps against all such perils. She might stick with someone through thick and thin; she might stick around too long and endure abuse, unable to leave or let go. She was the wife of Chiron, who through the latter part of his life endured with him a long illness related to his being injured in battle. Structurally, she is the archetype of she who stands by her partner no matter what. The question, of course, is what.
So it seems that in relationships (signified here by an exact opposition to the Sun) we might encounter either one or both of these events: some form of a huge surprise, or some form of sticking with a person through something that has nothing to do with us. The shadow side of all of this is enduring things above and beyond the call of duty; enduring abuse; sticking around where one is not happy.
I recognize that this brings up a debate — an old one, one more apropos of the 1970s when it was still being debated whether people should stay together when they are not happy. I think we need to know this discussion when we see it. I’m not saying there is a correct answer, but I am saying that the topic is quite old and was a subject of extreme controversy in many families, particularly catholic ones, two generations ago. I will add that in many cases, feminism was blamed: if only women didn’t want to be independent of men, things would be so much simpler.
Notably, Pandora was in opposition to the Sun was for the New Moon yesterday. And notably, the Sun was also square Nessus. If you’re curious about Nessus, the link into Planet Wiki will give you an idea. The square aspect to the Sun internalizes the matter, and suggests that we may be living in a container with a past injury that will not — as most hurts go — be healed until it is revealed in the context of either the relationship where it occurred (sometimes impossible, if it occurred in early childhood); or a current relationship where it may be a factor.
Ideally, any such discovery would be addressed in a process outside the relationship first, so that the material can be handled in the relationship having been processed. That is not always possible; and here, enormous objectivity is necessary and, I would add, very difficult to establish. Can one ever see something outside one’s own point of view? Even if you see another person’s viewpoint, you are seeing that from your own perspective.
So here we have a procedural issue: what do you do when this stuff either rumbles below the surface, or comes to the surface? This is no small question. In human relations, it actually takes training for this kind of discussion to go well, and that is not a guarantee. Often it takes help. And one must be truly devoted to working with their shadow material (not getting rid of it) for anything to happen at all.
Fritz Perls once said that the client brings all the unfinished business of the past into the therapy room. I would add that we bring all the unfinished business of the past into every human encounter, including bumping into someone in an elevator (it feels like that some days). Since we are all walking around with sufficient DNA in our bodies to replicate the entire human race, we’re not going to get rid of that past material so quickly, at least not by conventional means. Therefore, we need a way to be mindful of the whole body of past experience and emotion that we carry around, and moreover, we need to know it when we see it.
By know it when we see it, I mean that awareness goes a long way, in any situation.
There is plenty of room for miracles in the universe, and there is always an opening from the past to the present that we’re not aware of, if we look for it.
Synchronously with these psychological themes, Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856. He would be 152 today. Here’s his wiki page.
Tuesday 06 May 2008
Sun (15+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Pluto (0+ Capricorn Rx)
Apollo (24+ Cancer) sextile Admetos (24+ Taurus)
Eros (27+ Taurus) square Orcus (27+ Leo Rx)
Eros (28+ Taurus) sextile Mars (28+ Cancer)
Sun (16+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate M87 (1+ Libra)
Sun (16+ Taurus) opposite Pandora (16+ Scorpio Rx)
Sun (16+ Taurus) quintile Mars (28+ Cancer)
Pandora (16+ Scorpio Rx) semisquare M87 (1+ Libra)
Vesta (7+ Aries) quincunx Chariklo (7+ Scorpio Rx)
Mars (28+ Cancer) septile Logos (19+ Virgo Rx)
Mercury (6+ Gemini) semisquare Eris (21+ Aries)
Venus (7+ Taurus) opposite Chariklo (7+ Scorpio Rx)
Eros (28+ Taurus) quincunx Juno (28+ Sagittarius Rx)
Amor (3+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Quaoar (18+ Sagittarius Rx)
Oracle takes us to September 16, 2005, Libra weekly
You may be experiencing this as a moment of great potential but which is somehow inaccessible to you. This will not last long; the equinox, one of the most potent times of year and clearly the most influential in your own life, is about to arrive. Until then you may feel as if you’re in some kind of highly charged state of suspended animation. You may feel like life is a fantasy or mental picture of some kind. This is a time to carefully observe both within and without. In truth there is nothing stuck about this moment; it’s just that you’re waiting on the perfect timing to make your next rather significant move. While that’s happening, have faith that the world has not stopped moving around you.