{"id":50176,"date":"2011-12-06T00:02:20","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T05:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=50176"},"modified":"2011-12-06T09:55:16","modified_gmt":"2011-12-06T14:55:16","slug":"clearing-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/astro-daily\/clearing-the-way\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Attractor: Clearing the Way"},"content":{"rendered":"
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And you thought working through your baggage was a nuisance? Try working through the dust and clouds of the the Milky Way. Several large superclusters of galaxies are seen in this shell, including the magnificent Perseus-Pisces string of clusters, the Hydra-Centaurus complex that extends behind the disk of the Milky Way joining with Abell 3627 and the Pavi-Indus supercluster. Hydra-Cen-Abell3627, also known as the Great Attractor, is bisected by the dark gap in the galaxy distribution -- obscuration from the Milky Way and the Galactic Center (traditionally known as the Zone of Avoidance because it is a nuisance to work through the Milky Way), that imparts incompleteness in the XSCz and every other deep-space survey that attempts to work in the Zone of Avoidance. Image: CalTech.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a 30-second explanation of the Great Attractor by Prof. Jeremiah Ostriker of Princeton University, who describes how all of the galaxies near our own are being pulled in the same direction — by something. Remember that galaxies are large; our island in space is fairly modest in size, containing 200 billion to 300 billion stars. Many bigger ones are coming along for the ride, in the direction of the Great Attractor.<\/em>
\n\nhttp:\/\/planetwaves.fm\/podcast\/ostriker.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>\n

Today is Tuesday, December 6, 2011<\/a><\/strong>. We live extremely complex lives at this phase of history. We’ve all noticed how little time we have for ourselves, for the people we love, for the things we love. So when there is an astrological aspect that describes how we can get unnecessary things out of the way and go in the direction of what matters the most, it’s a good idea to listen. Right now we are experiencing just such an event.<\/p>\n

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Today the Sun, on its way to the lunar eclipse at the end of the week, is in a conjunction with a deep space point called Great Attractor. You may still be trying to figure out Mars, and you’ve never seen a little book called How To Lose Weight with the Great Attractor <\/em>in the supermarket because there is no such thing. But it’s always there, at the midpoint of Sagittarius — wrapping space, time and a million galaxies around it like a kid stretches a rubber band around her finger.<\/p>\n

Currently, right in the same degree is something called the North Node — Rahu, the mighty head of the dragon, which is one point that draws us toward our true dharma or life path. This alignment of the Sun, the Great Attractor and the North Node is happening today and it will not happen again for 18 years — and it’s happening right now, in this moment. If there is something you’ve wanted to do for the last 18 years (or more, or less), today is the day to get it going.<\/p>\n

The Great Attractor is a massive object in deep space that is pulling everything in our galaxy\u2019s vicinity toward it as it simultaneously moves away from us. It is the largest thing known to science. We can\u2019t actually see it, because it’s obscured by the dust along the galactic plane. But we can see its effects and read the various types of waves (infrared, gamma, etc.), which is how any images are created (such as the one above).<\/p>\n

It takes special astrologers to pick up on what this thing is about; we are friends with one of them — Philip Sedgwick. He has noted that the Great Attractor “doesn’t appear to be punching a hole into another dimension, but rather, it allows us to see around things. It allows you to see around the bend. It clears the way. It’s almost as if you’re moving around behind something.\u201d Or as Eric wrote in a piece on the Great Attractor from 2001<\/a>, \u201cIn other words, its massive gravitational force bends space-time so profoundly that we can get a view around the back of the universe,\u201d which is another way of saying a view of our own lives, so often concealed in various blind spots.<\/p>\n

Sedgwick describes Great Attractor as \u201cthe ultimate Sagittarian statement of leave me alone, don’t crowd my space, coming into the most extreme.” People with this point aspected strongly in their natal chart often find their effect on others is a confounding mix of attraction and alienation. So what does this polarizing point mean for us in this configuration \u2013 conjunct the Sun and North Node? <\/p>\n

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For one, the Sun represents our sense of self, so we know this event involves our self-perception \u2013 a theme already figuring prominently<\/a> in Saturday\u2019s eclipse. The North Node has to do with our sense of dharma: our reason for being here now or our soul\u2019s calling, which you can think of as what you’re pulled to do — or in the words of the teacher Varaj, acting as if to hold the world together.<\/em> When we add in this deep-space object that retreats from us even as it pulls us along, the triple conjunction suggests a strong sense of direction; a sense that many different individual directions align with a collective, inclusive pull or vision. <\/p>\n

In order to walk in that direction, however, the way must be clear, and that is exactly what the Great Attractor is giving us the strength and determination to do. <\/p>\n

So too are the current eclipses: We have a series of opportunities to clear psychic debris (or \u2018bullshit\u2019, if you prefer) out of the way. Every set of eclipses involves the Sun and Moon aligning with the South and North nodes: Karma must be released before we gain the freedom to move forward with our awareness and actions. An eclipse is the intersection of several planes of space and the cycles of the Sun and the Moon. It is like a big interchange, but when you choose an exit as you drive through this one, you may end up moving in more directions than just forward; deeper, broader and higher are all possible.<\/p>\n

Eclipses are routine; eclipses near the Great Attractor are extremely rare. This is a calling to make space for ourselves and re-prioritize our lives in radical ways. This kind of opening \u2013 and its attendant choices and changes \u2013 can feel threatening if we\u2019re clinging to dysfunctional patterns of relating and reacting that have served us in some way in the past, however falsely. That\u2019s the beauty of the Great Attractor: It\u2019s also about seeing around the curve of our limitations and taking that space to do what we want. <\/p>\n

As the Moon enters Taurus today at 9:34 am EST, it conjoins retrograde Jupiter and illuminates a sextile with Chiron in Pisces. Any old family baggage surfacing with the eclipses is asking us to recognize it for what it is and release it. These patterns of thoughts, choices and actions reflect the messages underlying how we value ourselves. It can be surprising to realize this: that our poor choices do not simply reflect not \u2018getting it right\u2019, but rather show us how we really feel about ourselves. The Great Attractor offers a view around our limitations; Jupiter (stationing direct) sextile Chiron reminds us that first we need to look deep within to see where the limitations on how we value ourselves have been set. If we do so in the coming days, we may see a little further around the bend and heal a little deeper.<\/p>\n

Curious about the Great Attractor? Listen to this 30-second audio<\/a>, or read this article<\/a>. Here is a fairly recent subscriber edition of Planet Waves on the Great Attractor<\/a> that covers the topic as well.<\/p>\n

Looking for insights on how this week’s astrology affects your<\/strong> personal Sun and rising signs? Try out Planet Waves Light<\/strong><\/a>, our streamlined horoscope service. For deeper cultural context and astrological investigation, the premium Planet Waves subscription<\/strong><\/a> includes the same horoscopes, plus extensively-researched articles on Fridays.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is a 30-second explanation of the Great Attractor by Prof. Jeremiah Ostriker of Princeton University, who describes how all of the galaxies near our own are being pulled in the same direction — by something. Remember that galaxies are large; our island in space is fairly modest in size, containing 200 billion to 300 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1734],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50176"}],"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\/7221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}