{"id":30657,"date":"2010-11-11T06:42:09","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T11:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=30657"},"modified":"2010-11-11T10:15:55","modified_gmt":"2010-11-11T15:15:55","slug":"thoughtful-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/thoughtful-thursday\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughtful Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Len Wallick<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It’s been a long time comin’ \/ It’s goin’ to be a long time gone.”
\n<\/em>–David Crosby and friends<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ascending, or “North” lunar node finally begins a dance of a conjunction with Pluto and Charon\u00a0in Capricorn today. It truly has been a long time coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Breaking it down is entirely in order. The apparent path of the Sun across the constellations of the zodiac is in fact the path of the Earth around the Sun.\u00a0The rotation and tilt of our planet and your position on the globe is factored in. If we were able to pull back and see the solar system from the outside, we would note that our orbit around the Sun consistently traces out a plane that is more or less the same year after year. It is also very close to the orbital plane of most of the major planets. The apparent path (our terrestrial point of view) and the orbital plane (the detached, imaginary point of view) are both referred to as the ecliptic<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Moon’s orbit around the Earth is not in the ecliptic. If it were, every New Moon would be a solar eclipse and every Full Moon would be a lunar eclipse. Instead, the lunar orbit is inclined to the ecliptic by about five degrees. There are two points of intersection. Where Luna rises above the ecliptic is\u00a0the ascending node, also somewhat arbitrarily referred to as “North”. Ancient astrological texts from the western world use the term ‘dragon’s head’. The Vedic astrologers use the word ‘Rahu’.<\/p>\n

But wait, there’s more. The Moon’s path exhibits a complex but predictable ‘wobble’. To get a feel for it, think ‘elastic’. Because of that wobble, there are actually two ascending nodes. The ‘true node’, where it is for a moment and the ‘mean node’ where the wobble is averaged out. Then, on top of that, the apparent motion of the nodes can appear to be either direct or retrograde. In the course of a month, they can\u00a0oscillate back and forth a handful of times. Over time however, the net result is retrograde motion.<\/p>\n

Combine the inclination to the ecliptic with the wobble and the to-and-fro and that makes any conjunction with any lunar node, be it ascending, descending, true or mean, one crazy dance. The ascending node entered Capricorn through the back door well over a year ago and has been doing the Ginger Rogers thing ever since. Pluto first entered Capricorn in 2008 and has been doing some dancing of its own.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Or perhaps dawdling would be a more accurate term. Pluto takes nearly two and a half centuries to orbit the Sun. Earth, by definition, does it in one year. The result of this extreme ratio is that Pluto appears to be in retrograde nearly half the time. It seems to take forever to move through any given sign although, over time the net result is direct motion.<\/p>\n

Finally today, and functionally for the next several, the dancer and the dawdler get together for a spin around the floor. This is especially poignant when you consider that the next time the ascending node reaches Capricorn, nearly two decades from now, Pluto will have moved on to another sign.<\/p>\n

So, now that we have finally gotten there (and taken an appropriate length of time explaining it), what are we to make of it? Certainly something so long in coming would merit an auspicious appellation. Assuredly an event destined to be so long gone would have some sort of legacy. Don’t know? Well, astrology is 20-20 hindsight. That still does not keep us from indulging ostensibly informed speculation. Put another nickel in the slot and let’s give it a whirl, starting with the lunar node.<\/p>\n

Of all the objects in astrology, be they hypothetical or real, nothing speaks to the relationship between our planet and the two luminaries like the nodes do. Eclipses are of primal importance to our consciousness and the nodes are where they take place. Their period of precession around the zodiac is about midway between the orbital periods of Jupiter and Saturn, lending that cycle an interpersonal cachet. Their inevitable and eternal opposition defines that aspect just as signs of the same quality define square and signs of the same element example a trine.<\/p>\n

The ascending node in particular is associated with the future. It is evocative of acting on opportunity with awareness, as if to create the world. As if to choose our consequences. Use “as if” as a term of invoking possibility rather than cynical resignation.<\/p>\n

If astrology can be said to start with first the Sun and then the Moon, then the nodes are what allows us to make sense of the triad of which our planet is a part. They are the story, we and the luminaries are the characters.<\/p>\n

Pluto in Capricorn has a similar role in the curious synchronicity of outer, epochal planets simultaneously assembling around and dawdling, back and forth over the first degrees of three of the four cardinal signs. It was the first planet into the cardinal office, turning on the lights and making the coffee. It will be the last planet to leave, shutting the server down and locking the doors so as to fix whatever pattern that will have transpired into place for a long, long time.<\/p>\n

Pluto’s orbital period and its aspects will designate crucial points of departure that many of us will see only in hindsight. In the process,\u00a0Pluto will\u00a0be re-defined and separated from\u00a0an identity hastily constructed the first eighty years we knew\u00a0it existed. How tenuous\u00a0is Pluto as an actuality? Have you ever seen it in real time with your own eyes? Do you know anybody who has?<\/p>\n

Seeing Pluto\u00a0requires an adequate telescope and proficient operator — a relatively rare combination which could conceivably become more so.\u00a0Just as we\u00a0currently do not have\u00a0the wherewithal to land on the Moon and return, our ability to observe Pluto directly could also undergo a period of atrophy\u00a0for any number of reasons.\u00a0\u00a0We can’t take things for granted. The systems that underlie and support the ability to\u00a0locate and observe Pluto could be interrupted, resources re-directed\u00a0or outright abandoned in the future.\u00a0 If it happened with travel to the Moon, it could happen with Pluto.\u00a0It would serve various agendas\u00a0if people lost\u00a0visual contact with the night sky,\u00a0and the cycles of the Sun and Moon.\u00a0\u00a0Indeed, this transitional time may, among many possible outcomes, herald an epoch during which future generations will be without the means to empirically verify Pluto’s existence at all, leaving only a tribal memory until we complete a long cycle of our own.<\/p>\n

So, yeah, this is quite a waltz today and through the rest of the weekend. On the one hand Pluto, a binary dwarf planet that most of us will never see with our own eyes. On the other, a rubbery and erratic location in our abstracted imagination. And you, reading this, are living while it is happening. You are no mere witness to this singular event. You are a part of everything else going on. Your choices will effect the outcome. You have also\u00a0been a long time coming. Consider how you can make the most of it. Your smallest action could make a huge difference in the life of someone you will never meet.<\/p>\n

Offered In Service<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Len Wallick It’s been a long time comin’ \/ It’s goin’ to be a long time gone.” –David Crosby and friends The ascending, or “North” lunar node finally begins a dance of a conjunction with Pluto and Charon\u00a0in Capricorn today. It truly has been a long time coming. Breaking it down is entirely in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":537,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30657"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/537"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}