Through The Doorway

 A lot occurred in 1977. One of the most surprising discoveries that year, on March 10, was that Saturn didn’t have a monopoly on rings.   Uranus was also found to be encircled by bands.   Imagine, Saturn and Uranus actually having something in common!

Since then, two other planets, Jupiter and Neptune, have also been found to be encircled, showing that it is a feature of all the giant planets. 

But more recently the rings of Saturn and Uranus were shown to share a unique attribute that did not occur with Jupiter or Neptune:  the most outer ring of both Saturn and Uranus is blue!  

Since Uranus was found in 1781, astrologers have written extensively about how Uranus is the antithesis of Saturn.  But with both sharing the ‘ringed’ nature, as well as both sharing that most unique trait of an outer blue ring, I think it’s time we start looking at what they have in common astrologically.

First, though, I’d like to mention two other significant events that occurred in 1977, so I hope you will forgive my digression.

On August 20, 1977, NASA launched Voyager 2 into the solar system, and on September 5, Voyager 1.
(Why was 1 launched after 2?  Because Voyager 1’s trajectory put it on a much faster journey, making it arrive at the outer planets way before Voyager 2.)   Voyagers were launched to get close-up looks at the outer planets, and then proceed to the outer reaches of our system.  (In fact, it was Voyager 1 that discovered that Jupiter also had rings.)  

Right now, Voyager 1 is the farthest out man-made body.   According to NASA, as of September 26, 2008, Voyager 1 is about 107.58 AU (16.093 billion km, or 9.94 billion miles) from the Sun, and has thus entered the heliosheath.  This is the actual edge of the Sun’s influence…..it marks the dividing line between
our solar system and interstellar space.  In other words, Voyager is on the verge of being the first device created by humans on earth to leave the solar system.

When the Voyagers were launched, NASA used a Titan IIIE Centaur rocket.  Keep that in mind, will you?

The other event of 1977 I want to mention occurred on November 1.  That was the date that Charles Kowal discovered a body located between Saturn and Uranus, which shocked the astronomical world.  Nothing was supposed to be located in that space. 

Kowal eventually named this body Chiron, the wisest and most beloved of all the Centaurs in mythology, who was son of Saturn, grandson of Uranus.  Gee, there’s that word Centaur again.

Chiron’s orbit was eventually shown to reach almost to that of Uranus, and to also reach a point when closest to the Sun where it crosses Saturn’s orbit and moves closer to Jupiter than Saturn ever does.  In other words, it goes out to listen to Saturn’s wisdom, comes in and confers with Saturn, then moves further in and bows down in honor of Jupiter.  (In mythology, Chiron taught his pupils to honor Zeus, or Jupiter, above all else.)

Back  to Saturn and Uranus.

I’m writing this shortly after the first of several exact Saturn/Uranus oppositions have occurred.  Since we have four more of these to experience over the next few years, if Saturn and Uranus DO have things in common, it behooves us to try and understand these things as deeply as possible. 

And what I hope to show you is that in order to understand the common bonds implied by their both having a blue ring, you must also understand the meanings of Jupiter and Chiron, and then put all the pieces together.

Stay tuned for Part II

But first, let me apologize:   I actually forgot I had a blog.  Honest.   So I  am sorry for starting something, and then abandoning it.

In late Summer/early Autumn 2005, Pluto not only  passed over my MC twice, but stood completely still there in between.  (My MC is 21 Sag 59, and September 2 that year saw Pluto station at 21 Sag 49.)   With the opposition this made to my IC, suffice it to say there were major changes when it came to 4th house things.  I began to think about making a clean break with my past and moving somewhere totally new

So in early 2006, with Pluto only a few degrees from the MC, squaring my Saturn, opposing my Sun, I packed everything and moved to Atlanta, Georgia.  This was a city I only knew 1 person in, and had only been in once before in my life, and that time for 24 hours.  

New life down here.  They still have beautiful autumn leaves, but so far, the winters are like mild chills compared to what I grew up with.  A few snowflakes, and perhaps every few years, enough falls to actually stick on the ground a bit.  Spring and Summer, though, are very green.  Trees that only get to be bushes in Pennsylvania.  Gardenia’s living outdoors instead of being taken in come winter frost.

The first thing that struck me, though, was how rare the car horn was.   I lived here for 6 months before I heard one for the first time.  People are more laid-back, and there is still a good bit of Southern courstesy here even in the young people. 

I’m working in tech support now, helping people who are having internet-related problems, and just got promoted to Specialist at the company.  I’ve learned more about computers and the internet in the past 2 years than I did my whole life before moving here.

Yes, I’m still researching Chiron, the Centaurs, and other astrological bodies.  This year, I’ve given talks in San Francisco, New Jersey, Atlanta, and later this month will be speaking in Asheville, NC.

And finally, I remembered I had this blog! OK, I didn’t remember all on my own….I had help.  Someone from Lisbon messaged me asking if they could translate some of my Chiron stuff  into Portuguese for their own website, and directed me to one of my blog pages.  (Thank you, Natalia.)

But now that I’ve remembered, I’ll try to post something interesting from time to time.

Hopefully, I won’t drink another glass of nepenthe

MONDAY’S ECLIPSE

Astrology is all about cycles.  If a major transit is bringing events or changes to your life, chances are (if you are old enough), you can look back and find a parallel event.

Take for example Monday’s Solar Eclipse (Oct 3, 2005, 10 Libra 19).  Many people are already noticing the changes it has begun to bring into their lives.  An eclipse brings your focus to a particular area of your life (depending on your own chart)…and demands change.  Sometimes something is actually eclipsed out of your life. Sometimes, it is temporarly put aside so you can focus on other things.  But always, it brings about long lasting changes.

And for some, the eclipse follows on the intense changes precipitated over the past year or so, as Pluto was hanging around 20-23 Sagittarius (culminating in the Pluto Station in early September.)   Pluto comes along and, in some way, strips you naked, vulnerable.  Oh, in the long run, it is for your own good, but it can hurt like hell, especially if you try to hold on tight to what is being ripped away.

We can certainly lay claim to living in interesting times.

But remember, Astrology is about cycles.  This week’s eclipse was not unique at all.  In fact, an eclipse remarkably like this one occurred on October 3, 1986 (at 10 Libra 16.) If you can remember what you were going through then, it will better help you understand what is going on now.  What was eclipsed from your life then?  What changes did you make back then?

And even Pluto had a parallel influence back then.  In October 1986, it was in the middle of its travels in the vicinity of 7 Scorpio.  Every part of your chart that has felt the conjunction, square or opposition from Pluto in recent months felt a semi-square or sesquiquadrate back in the fall of 1986.  Can you find a parallel between then and now, and your feelings of losing something….or of being completely vulnerable?

I suspect that such parallel astrological events occur because we have a lot of lessons to learn….and there is no way we could learn them all at once.  So the Creator, in his infinite wisdom, only gives us so much to deal with at one time. 

If you are old enough to remember 1986….what lessons did you learn then that could help you better deal with the lessons you need to learn now?

And if you aren’t old enough to remember 1986, don’t feel left out.  There is another Solar Eclipse in 19 years (October 2, 2024, 10 Libra 04) that you will call upon you to use the lessons you are learning now, in 2005.

It  is evening on September 17.  The Sun will soon be down, and tonight will become a bright night because it is the night of the Full Moon. 



At 10:02 PM EDT (or 7:02 PM PDT, the Moon reaches the moment of exact fullness at 25 Pisces 16. 



This is an exceptional Full Moon, however, because Mercury will be at 25 Virgo 14…..which is for all intents and purposes exactly opposite the Moon.



Normally the Full Moon each month is a time when emotion dominates over reason.  This can be good if you are writing poetry, or meditating.  It can be bad if you need to keep a cool head.



But this Lunation, more than other Full Moons, shows a war between emotion and logic.  The battles may have been brewing for the past two weeks, but they come to a head now, and the repercussions may be felt for the next two weeks.



Want some advice?  Don’t seek out a confrontation right now….it may be a bit more than you want to handle.  Have you been fighting with someone lately?  Well, if you can’t make peace tonight….best stay away from them for a bit. 



I’l tell you what tonight is really good for though….putting emotions and feelings into words.  Even if only for yourself….let the words flow.  It will do you good.



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As a general rule, people see things only through their own eyes.  It’s the way we are built, I guess.  And of course, people remember events the way they saw them.  It is not logical to expect otherwise.

Of course, when there are two people involved, each seeing things through their own eyes, you can end up with two memories that bear little or no resemblance to each other.  This makes a lot of sense when you consider the comment, “Let me tell you my side of the story.”  On some level, even if only in the subconscious mind, we often realize that their are two different ways of looking at the situation…and neither one is 100% correct.

Sometimes, though, a person is so upset/hurt/enraged by a particular situation that they paint the picture of what happened, not as “my side of the story”, but as facts.  Their hurt/anger comes through in the way the tell the story, sometimes with so much vehemence that the listener is totally stunned that the other person could have been so dispicable! 

I have two friends….I will call them Larry and Anna.  They were married, seemingly happily, for several years….but when the breakup came, it was terribly dirty.  Anna painted Larry as someone so awful, Hitler would have idolized him.  Larry painted Anna as so low and vile that the listener would almost expect her to be the female incarnation of Lucifer.  And when they each discussed particular events that stirred their rage…..it hardly seemed they were talking about the same event at all! (On the few occasions where they were discussing an event I was there for, I noticed how each had conveniently left out some details as they told the story….and without those details the events painted the other partner in a much, much worse light.)

Anna’s friends believed her.  They think Larry is an evil, selfish bastard. 

Larry’s friends believed him.  They think Anna is a slut, a whore, and worse.

I’m in a difficult position.  I was friends with both Larry and Anna for fifteen years before the divorce.  I like them both.  Neither one is perfect, both have done stupid things, in and out of the relationship….but hey, I don’t know anyone who is perfect or hasn’t done stupid things.

So I never mention Larry when I talk to Anna.  And never mention Anna when I talk to Larry. If the ex-spouse is ever brought up, I listen patiently, and then try to move on to another subject.  (The world should consider it lucky that the two of them have moved halfway across the country from each other, instead of in the same town.)

The point of all this, I guess, is that I’ve learned that no matter how bad a picture someone paints of another person, it is based on only their own perspective, and colored by their hurt/anger/rage.

No wonder the Arabs and the Israelis will never have peace….and no wonder each sees the other as being spawn of Satan.