New Moon Eclipse in Scorpio / Uranus square Pluto

I didn't get a chance to write anything for the full moon eclipse in Aries a fortnight ago (18^th October). I was in transit, Venus in Sagittarius style—and the exact Mars in Virgo to Neptune in Pisces opposition was sending me out on some beer-fuelled adventures. It was a lot of fun, but a little too hectic for writing about at the time!

Anyway, for a quick synopsis of that fiery, dreamy, drunken, free-wheelin' full moon eclipse: it was all about relationships, a culmination of the themes of last month's new moon in Libra.

The moon was in headstrong, headlong, impatient Aries, disposited by Mars in the early degrees of Virgo—not a very aggressive placement for Mars. Mars in Virgo is a stickler for detail and a bit of a nag. He is driven to perfect things; he wants to be useful. In this case he was opposing Neptune in Pisces: this is like a man transfixed to hypnosis by his smartphone. Or a watchmaker getting drunk in a bar by the water. Or a drugged-out classical musician. Or a lovelorn dude nagging, nagging, nagging at the object of his affections out of a sense of utter uselessness. (Well those were some of the themes I encountered anyway!)

The sun was in lovely Libra, sign of relationships, disposited by easy-breezy Venus in Sagittarius. Venus in Sagittarius is your basic good time girl. She's just passing through—she doesn't feel like committing to anything real heavy. In the case of last fortnight's full moon, Venus was harmoniously aspecting Uranus in Aries and squaring Neptune—basically this was a firecracker of a lady looking to get drunk, dance on a table, meet some foreigners & have some exciting adventures before moving halfway across the country. Venus in Sagittarius doesn't want to be fenced in or guilt-tripped or coerced in any way—she likes her freedom.

So we had this wild-horse, commitement-phobe Venus and this OCD Mars facing off symbolically during that full moon eclipse, both of them drinking a shit ton of liquor. Well I dunno about anyone else...but I thought it was really fun! What I can remember of it.

I guess the most interesting thing about it was that despite all the superficial excitement, there was this inescapable heaviness and darkness underlying interactions. A poignancy; a sense of fatedness or loss. So much Scorpio in the sky—there's no way it could've been a shallow kind of party. It was more like this:

or this.

Anyway, here we are almost two weeks later, headed for Halloween 2013 & a new moon eclipse in Scorpio. Deep Scorpionic skies now: Saturn, Mercury, the sun, the north node, all conjunct in Scorpio. And the moon will join them for the new moon eclipse on the 3^rd November.

This story is about depth, death, absolute trust, transformation, regeneration, hardcore insight. All the deep lessons you've been learning this whole hard year about who and what you can trust; who and what you can't; what saps your energy and depletes you; what nourishes and drives you at the most basic core level... Well it's time to process all that. The harvest is in and the days are getting short. Time to sit by your hearth and watch the sky out the window darken, and (silently, methodically, intuitively) process what you've learned. That is—if you are lucky enough to have some silence and solitude. If you are lucky enough not to be in crisis. A lot of the people I meet these days are undergoing crisis of one sort or another—par for the course as the Uranus squares in toward Pluto. More on that in a minute.

Anyway, this Scorpio season, the places inside yourself that scare you most: that's where you have to go. Why? To perform surgery, to cut away the rot, to bring light and air to what is stagnant and stuck. Ultimately to heal.

This is a time of epic endings and you are well advised to start learning how to let things go...especially the things you hold onto the most tightly. It is a time of shattering revelation, and you are well advised to start learning to look fearlessly into the dark and the depths. There's no easy way to gloss things over, and trying to do so will not serve you well.

The Scorpio stellium sextiles Mars in Virgo and trines Chiron in Pisces: this deep internal processing really is all about healing. Bringing the rotten stuff to consciousness, doing the necessary work. Mars in Virgo is all about creating healthy physical routines: eating right, exercising, getting enough rest, clearing out physical and mental clutter. It's a good time to start new health routines or commit to cleaning out your living space. Mars will be in Virgo until the first week of December, and he is currently trining Pluto in Capricorn: if you're willing to put the work in, it's a very good time for making the necessary deep structural changes.

But what we are looking at here are also problems that are not just personal but collective. The Scorpio stuff sextiles Pluto in Capricorn (rotten structures) and Chiron in Pisces (collective wounding). And in the case of the collective wounds, the problems go so deep and are so systemic that the only healing response possible would appear to be a radical acceptance of mortality. Yesterday I read this:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/25/us-fukushima-workers-specialreport-idUSBRE99O04320131025?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=71&google_editors_picks=true

and this

http://rt.com/news/fukushima-operation-spent-fuel-618/

Diligent worker drone Mars in Virgo is staring down Chiron in Pisces: a poisoning that has no boundaries; a sacrifice that defies logic. What better metaphor for the abused and coerced sacrificial cleanup workers at Fukushima? Do you think those poor guys in their thin little suits are gonna be able to get those fuel rods out of Reactor 4 without bringing down (as the somewhat breathless article puts it) “a true apocalypse”?

(So what is it now, then: a middling one? A low-level apocalypse?)

Further: do you think your personal health and well-being is something you can safeguard against this kind of threat? What is your personal well-being even worth, in the midst of so much loss?

Doubtless we will all be finding out in the months ahead.

“Apocalypse” comes from the Greek for “uncovering”, “revelation”. Expect all kinds of revelations to begin to come to light in the next few weeks. They are likely to be traumatic because of the nature of the cosmic weather at this time. The 4^th square (of 7) between Pluto (the lord of death, the rapist) and Uranus (sudden shock) hits exactitude on the 1^st of November, 2 days before the new moon eclipse at 11 degrees Scorpio.

This is some very dark and spooky Halloween weather, and potentially stressful as all hell. I don't want to get all dire about it...I'd like to be positive and chirpy. Like, “you can work with this to effect beneficial change in your life!!” etc. And you very likely can, given the way Mars in Virgo is aspecting Pluto and the Scorpio stellium. But these are outer planets we're talking about, and they don't operate in predictable, controllable ways.

Try to stay healthy and focused on the details. Avoid toxic people and situations. Mind yourself. Watch what you say. Go deep.

Happy Halloween.

New Moon in Libra

Hasui Kawase "Autumn at Funatsu, Near Lake Kawaguchi"

On the 4^th of October, we have a new moon at 11 degrees Libra. New moons represent new beginnings, and this one looks like it’s about making a commitement to confront difficult, covert relational issues and energy imbalances—even if it hurts. It’s a kind of verbal and intellectual surgery that is required here. Clear-sightedness and honest, direct communication that cuts through the bullshit and rot.

Let’s break it down. Libra is an airy, intellectual sign ruled by Venus, planet of relation and values. Libra energy is all about finding the balance-point between different people and their differing needs and values. Bridging the gaps between people and creating harmony.

As a high-powered cardinal sign, and one so concerned with beauty and pleasure (Venus), Libra can be controlling and shallow. Libra energy can lazily whitewash out difference instead of doing the difficult work of enacting a fair balance. It can insist on a superficial show of outward harmony even when everything’s rotten underneath the pretty façade.

Thankfully, this kind of strategy is just not an option under these skies. Or say: it’s an option, it’s always an option. But it won’t work, so whitewash at your peril!

Why won’t it work? For one thing, Libra’s ruler, Venus, is in Scorpio, a no-bullshit sign that sees straight to the core and strips away the layers of rot surrounding it, cutting in order to heal. Venus in Scorpio is just not ok with superficial relation. It requires something volcanic, molten, metamorphic; something from the depths.

For another, Mercury, planet of thought and communication is in Scorpio too…and conjunct Saturn and the north node in Scorpio. This is the conjunction Venus passed over last month, the day before the full moon in Pisces. The karmic direction of the current story is in Scorpio, and Scorpio doesn’t whitewash. Scorpio transforms.

But with Scorpio, this transformation involves stripping away what’s dead or amputating it. Flaying the dead from the living tissue so that regeneration is possible. Scorpio is about surgery: careful, precise, unsentimental… and necessarily painful. But at best it is a form of compassion, bloody and wounding though it may be.

Venus’ conjunction with Saturn and the north node last month highlighted the need for sorting out our values, especially regarding love and money. With Mercury involved this month (and until December, as Mercury retrogrades through Scorpio), necessary relational transformations are effected via careful, precise, unsentimental thought and communication.

And in case there were any doubt as to what it this story is about, the sun and moon in Libra form a cardinal t-square with the ongoing Pluto-Uranus square, the traumatic and transformative aspect which defines these years.

It’s very simple really. Transform or die. No illusions, no excuses. Break free of what you already know is draining and depleting you, cut your losses, get out of unbalanced energetic exchanges. If words are called for, be simple and honest and direct; lay the situation bare, but try to stay balanced and kind. With Mercury conjunct Saturn in Scorpio, less is more in terms of verbal communication.

It’s beautiful when the sky is this unambiguous. Not to say it is easy. There is really not much ease or let-up to be had here—it’s all pretty hardcore. And just wait till we hit November and the fourth exact Uranus-Pluto square, and a new moon in Scorpio that pounds home these same themes, in case you haven’t been listening!

But awareness of just how much is required of us these days is a great fortifier. Knowledge is power: that’s a perfect phrase for Mercury in Scorpio. And there will never be a better, more powerful time to transform how you relate to the world than right NOW. 

There is really not much choice. “The fates lead him who will; him who won’t they drag”, as Seneca wrote.

--As an aside, Seneca was a Roman poet and dramatist of the 1^st century AD. Stoic philosophy combined with a life full of political intrigue and scandal, culminating in a forced suicide after an alleged plot against the emperor Nero. The skies make me think of him, speaking as they do (as he did) of stoicism, perseverance and integrity. Here are some more quotes, very relevant to the current astro-weather:

What progress have I made? I am beginning to be my own friend.’ That is progress indeed. Such a person will never be alone and you may be sure he is a friend to all.  

Throughout the whole of life one must continue to learn to live and what will amaze you even more, throughout life you must learn to die.

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.

Choose as a guide one whom you will admire more when you see him act than when you hear him speak.

 You want to live-but do you know how to live? You are scared of dying-and, tell me, is the kind of life you lead really any different from being dead?

Every day, therefore, should be regulated as if it were the one that brings up the rear, the one that rounds out and completes our lives.

What view is one likely to take of the state of a person's mind when his speech is wild and incoherent and knows no constraint?

Rehearse death. To say this is to tell a person to rehearse his freedom. A person who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. He is above, or at any rate, beyond the reach of, all political powers.

What is required is not a lot of words, but effectual ones.

Retire into yourself as much as possible. Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Welcome those whom you are capable of improving. The process is a mutual one. People learn as they teach.

A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness.

You have to persevere and fortify your pertinacity until the will to good becomes a disposition to good.

So called pleasures, when they go beyond a certain limit, are but punishments.

I am telling you to be a slow-speaking person.

Be harsh with yourself at times.

 

Ok, enough heaviness! (But no question, it's all very heavy. No way around it.)

Happy heavy October!