In case you’ve been too preoccupied with the whiplashing American news…
Formidable seismic activity began occurring on Feb 5 in Greece’s most popular tourist destination, Thira (aka Santorini) and people are being evacuated from the heavenly island in droves. Some old timers are choosing to stay, being fatalistic…perhaps they will take care of the animals left behind. All those cats! Authorities are saying there is ‘no need to worry’ about volcano eruptions. Hmm….I wonder.
Of course, seismic activity in the Greek Islands and the surrounding seasis attributed to the Titan God, Typhon, who, after a long and bloody battle, Zeus managed to seal up under Mt. Etna, a still very active volcano on the east coast of Sicily (Prototype for St. Michael and Satan). Still rattling his chains and fuming, Typhon is responsible for typhoons, tsunamis, quakes, volcanos, plagues and other such disasters. But in the mytho-alchemical sense, Typhon is like Mercury on steroids, similar to Uranus being called the ‘higher octave’ of Mercury and having the effect of creating sea changes. For example, when the Greek gods fled Typhon into Egypt, where they donned animal heads/masks for disguise, the great Pan jumped into the sea, transforming via crisis into our Capricorn sea-goat. Part 3 of this post about the TdM Devil goes into this Typhon material.
Detail in map of the Underworld, showing Typhon under the volcano.
As it turns out, there is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) named after him, as there is for everything – a binary system (it has a Moon) – currently at 28 Scorpio. Athanasius Kircher had once associated Typhon to this sign.At the moment of the first quake, TNO Typhon was/is opposing Uranus and Moon conjunct at 23 Taurus (earth).
I have long ‘intuited’ 23 as being Uranian in nature due to the discordant vibration of this prime number that reduces to 5. Today this is actually a commonly accepted idea. Lately, with Uranus having just stationed direct at 23 degrees of Taurus (typically a sign that thrives on harmony), you must admit, there has been quite a lot of discord! We can’t but acknowledge the POTUS’ wrecking ball nature, with his North Node closely flanked by Sun and Uranus – his most elevated planet – in Gemini. (Both Muck and his outspoken 4 yr old Mini-Me also have Sun-Uranus conjunctions). The number between 45 and 47 is 46, which, divided by 2 is…23.
Barry Blitt’s ‘Anything but That’ …at 23rd St??
This isn’t to say 23/Uranian discordant energy is necessarily always bad, but it is often shocking – you don’t see it coming – and has the effect of breaking up the harmonic order it refuses to fit into.
Returning to the main theme, Typhon, I also learned that astral Typhon was discoveredFeb 5, 2002 – exactly 23 years to the day of this earthquake! (Yes, tremors started earlier, but it’s not an official quake unless it registers 5. on the Richter scale). Very mysterious, especially with Typhon’s distinctly serpentine attributes and it being a lunar EARTH SNAKE year.
Stamp featuring Zeus and Typhon duking it out
But is there a deeper meaning to all this, not just some wow-conspiracy-theory-sounding-coincidence? We have to remember that the Underworld, to the Greeks, was not yet the Hell of Christianity, although it did have a section like this for bad people and monsters, called Tartarus. Rather, Hades was an inverted, somewhat depressing mirror version of the above world of the living. Pluto is simply dark Zeus (also Dionysus, but let’s keep it simple).
Uranus, named after the sky itself, gets and sends its energy from the beyond the Saturnian sphere, ‘out of the blue’, often taking the form of inspiration (Urania) or strokes of genius. It’s fiery/airy. If Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury, then its ‘messages’ are going to come faster and more intensely. Typhon, similarly, rears up from deep below, sending shocks in the form of earth or water events, rocking our physical foundations.
Giulio Bonasone (Italian 1531-76), Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto dividing the universe. MET
When Jupiter and his two ‘brothers’ (actually all aspects of the one triplicity) cast lots and divided the realms, Neptune didn’t just get the sea, but the whole ‘middle realm’ where the other two worlds meet. We currently have the North Node conjunct Neptune in Pisces, trine Typhon/Scorpio, sextile Uranus/Taurus. Meanwhile, Pluto, Lord of Hades is in Uranus’ fixed air sign of Aquarius. We look to global events for clues to how and where the planetary aspects are manifesting. Greece is where our western ‘civilization’ began, The surrounding seas and islands are literally the realm of the old gods. Seems to me that some very shape-shifting, powerful chthonic and cosmic forces are at work or perhaps even doing battle, their combined effect being felt acutely by us middle-realm dwellers. Perhaps the frequency of 23 provides a conduit. ~rb
In the next instalment I will further explore 23 and Uranus in the charts of various air disasters.
There is a curious detail in the Marseille Emperor’s throne, which always reminded me of a goofy-looking bird, a bit like the Roadrunner cartoon. Merely an accident of design…or is it? Jodo refers only to the eye-like, circular shape, as symbolic of ‘alchemical gold.’ He and Camoin also insist there was an egg (under eagle’s tail) in the Conver card, which they ‘restored,’ a topic of much debate in Tarot circles.
detail in 3 versions of the Conver Emperor
Details in Tarot imagery are known to get muddled or omitted, so it’s necessary to look at as many variations as possible, to try and put a picture together. Often it’s nothing, sometimes it’s something. In this case, it was the latter.
In the two versions below, you’d be forgiven for thinking the bird head on the back of the Emperor’s throne was just another eagle, being the imperial bird (and in the first card, it appears to be), except for a couple of other clues; in the 2nd card, the arm of the throne is clearly ‘feathered’ like a rooster’s tail. Also there is the fact that the brim of the Emperor’s helmet-crown is almost without exception consistent in its red colouring.
18th c Emperors (Solothurn and Benois)
We could also make the connection to the alchemical basilisk, which symbolized the destructive fire preceding the transmutation of metals, as well as having the ability to kill with a glance, like Medusa (hence situated behind the Emperor, his shadow nature or hidden super-power). And, of course, the presence of Mercurius, the transmuter.
Basilisk in 12th c archway
Now, the next question is, why? Why, when chickens are a medieval symbol of cowardice and avarice, and when the rooster in particular belongs to Mercury or Mars, would anyone associate the noble Emperor with poultry? Isn’t the Emperor an avatar of Jupiter??
Actually, Emperors and Gallus gallus go a long way back. No ancient Roman Emperor was without an assembly of sacred fowl. You see, in olden days, chickens were not bred for frying, but for fighting and alectryomancy, a form of augury. Chickens were used to predict the outcome of battles and, yup, who the next Emperor would be. We can see the military aspect of our Tarot Emperor, though he be seated in repose.
Etruscan buccher 630-20 BC and German Rooster helmet c 1530 (MET Museum, NY)
Alright, so what does the regal rooster have to do with de Zeus, if anything?
This is where it gets a bit esoteric, because TdM imagery is never this = that. We can find associations in the Emperor card to Jupiter (imperial eagle on his shield, sometimes a thunderbolt in his sceptre, bearded), Mars and Mercury (rooster, as mentioned), as well as the Sun (rooster, medieval 4th sphere, wears a radiate crown over his helmet), but what about Pluto? Pluto/Hades was, after all, an aspect of the Jupiterian triplicity, one of the ‘bros’.
While the other, major Greco-Roman gods were always busy doing – Mars at battle or cavorting with Venus, Mercury flying all over the place, Jupiter running Olympus between mythic, erm, conquests – it seems Pluto’s one, big event was the ‘abduction’ of his young bride, Persephone/Proserpine. After that, the god of subterranean riches pretty much just sits there on his Underworld throne or lies in repose at banquets for the newly-dead, right?
engraving by Wenzel Holler (detail) 1600, Francesco Berti Bologna Emperor 17th c
This is likely due to the abduction myth being a relatively late injection; Persephone had long presided in the underworld as part of a Goddess triplicity (with Demeter and Hekate), before the patriarchal gods usurped:
“There is an archaic role for Persephone as the dread queen of the Underworld, whose very name it was forbidden to speak. In the Odyssey, commonly dated circa 800 to 600 BCE, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to her as the Iron Queen. Her central myth, for all its emotional familiarity, was also the tacit context of the secret initiatory mystery rites of regeneration at Eleusis, which promised immortality to their awe-struck participants—an immortality in her world beneath the soil, feasting with the heroes who dined beneath her dread gaze.”
Note the ‘dread gaze’ reference, again.
Persephone and Hades/Pluto Enthroned, 500-450 BC, Greek (Cleveland Museum of Art)
As it turns out, Hades/Pluto and Dionysus may have been one and the same (or syncretized). In this beautiful relief, we see that the cock and hen are familiars of Persephone and her consort, representing Springtime regeneration (and eggs!), when she emerges from the Earth to make it fecund, again. The ear of grain/wheat is another of her attributes (indeed she was the grain itself), and we see that the TdM Emperor wears a necklace (circle) of golden grain, just like Pluto/Dionysus wears on his head.
Going back to the subject of my previous post, every 4th card is also the 1st card of the next cycle of 3, the Empress being the first 3. Like Persephone, she embodies the cyclic, creative triplicity. The Emperor, in 4th place, represents the ‘death’ of the first cycle as well as the beginning of the next. Similarly, Winter is the 4th season, when the forces of life go underground.
Conver Empress and Emperor (BnF)
The aging Emperor is typically shown in profile, facing the Empress/past and with his back to the next cards/future (if they were laid out in numerical order). He will not go further in his current form, but holding his sceptre erect, looks to his lady for renewal, while she, in turn, holds her sceptre to her womb.
Addendum: Hermes-Mercury’s travels famously included being a psychopomp, being the only god who had licence to travel back and forth between realms. So don’t worry, this is not to discount the rooster/chicken as possible presence of Mercury, significator of transition, alchemical, numerical or otherwise. Rather it is to draw attention to the Plutonian nature of the Emperor. Hermes-Mercury is present in every Major Arcana card of the TdM (more on that some other post). Interestingly, modern ‘evolutionary’ astrology sees planetary Pluto as having to do with both death and transformation. ~rb
Like all her fans, I was crushed to learn of Sinéad O’Connor’s (Shuhada’ Sadaqat’s) death. I’m not going to get too into analyzing her personal struggles…suffice it to say we of the Pisces Saturn opposite Pluto-Uranus generation are working through lifetimes of (usually religious) guilt and/or persecution, which can involve putting oneself back in a similar situation. Sinéad often walked through fire of her own making, but likely she’d been burned (or burned others) at the stake in the distant past. Sadly, she didn’t make her second Saturn return.
Ripping up the pope on SNL “Fight the Real Enemy”
Squares are challenging, especially T-squares, and her Sagi Venus was in this configuration with the Pluto-Uranus/Saturn-Chiron opposition, her Xena warrior Venus believing unequivocally that without the freedom to love who and how we want, there can be no healing. As well, Pallas Athena, Jupiter’s favourite warriordaughter in rebel Aries. But her Black Moon Lilith, sometimes a self-saboteur in youth was also in Pisces, sign of the martyr, conjunct Saturn, and the two of them opposite Mars in Libra. Not easy to keep a balance (Libra) with the ironman Mars sitting on one of your scales, while luminaries Venus and Sun have their hands full trying to mediate the forces of Pluto/Uranus and Saturn/Chiron. Saturn in this placement can feel like one’s been abandoned by god and/or one’s own father, which is what happened. All of them under Jupiter’s watch (see explanation below).
Sinead O’Connor natal chart with asteroids Dec 8 1966
Read her book, ‘Rememberings’ if you want to know about her personal life. Here’s a great Guardian interview from 2021, upon its release.
With Chiron tightly conjunct her Saturn, the urge to break and heal the long cycle of pain would be even stronger, but as we know, Chiron’s own wounds never quite heal even as he healed others. Sinéad gave music her all, and all her music. “We’re only given as much as the heart can endure” sang Capricorn Patti Smith, but Sagittarius is known to bite off more than they can chew. Sagittarius is clichéd as being a lucky, optimistic, freedom-loving zealot. And that would be true. However there is also what I’ve always referred to as ‘the unbearable lightness of being Sagittarius.’ It’s kind of like an unbearable heaviness, except light. (Sagis will understand).
Michelangelo’s sculpture of a young slave – spirit trying to release from body.
I had actually just been listening to Sinéad’s Irish Ballads the night before the sad news broke, that crystal-perfect voice, remembering how she’d said that these songs were ‘ghosts.’ Spirit possession, be it via songs, demons or Holy Spirit or can be a very stressful practice, definitely not for the faint of heart. Sometimes they won’t leave.
Jupiter, like Sagittarius, is given this benign definition of ‘greater benefic’ or ‘fortunate’ or signifying ‘excess’. And these would be true. But Jupiter’s influence, being of the spirit, is perhaps not fully fathomed until a person has passed and their own, ‘larger than life’ spirit becomes one with everything. That’s kind of the whole point of Jupiter’s religiosity (although many astrologers now attribute this ‘seeking oneness’ quality and Pisces rulership to Neptune, I see the outer planets as a slow release over a long period of time, affecting whole generations, so am not quite ready to replace the traditional rulerships with them). Similarly, when a loved one dies you recognize and perhaps feel it in a breeze or passing bird…a Jupiterian serendipity. This planetary god makes spirit known.
Jupiter in the end shows where a person died a ‘good death’ (though not necessarily without physical pain), ‘with honours’ or simply how the pull to spirit realm was at that moment overriding the material. Think of how we are drawn into sleep each night, the realm of dreams – Pisces being Jupiter’s other traditional sign. Likely she died in her sleep.
Celtic designs on Jupiter
Sinéad’s Sagittarius Sun (ruler of Leo) was in mutual reception with her Leo Jupiter (ruler of Sagittarius). Her Libra Moon and Taurus North Node were also ultimately under the influence of Jupiter, since her Venus (ruler of Taurus and Libra) was in the sign of Sagittarius. It’s called the ‘chain of command’ in a chart. At the same time, her natal Venus was being trined by transiting retrograde Venus. Retrograde Venus is where we get the myth of Ishtar going into to the underworld – ie, the period of invisibility in the Sun’s rays, before re-emerging the other side – where, en route, she had to remove a veil at each of seven gates (heavenly spheres).
I’m dancing the Seven Veils Want you to pick up my scarf See how the black moon fades Soon I can give you my heart
~ first lines of Sinead O’Connor’s first big hit, ‘Mandinka’
Natal chart with transits on day of departure
When the news of her death broke, Jupiter was conjunct her North Node (future/material) and Sun was on her Jupiter. As well, the Moon was transiting her South Node (past/spiritual) node. The Lunar Nodes are an axis and work together, not separately. Whatever was going on, it seems her God-father came to take her home, with honours for her musical contribution and valiant battle with lifetimes old cause of so much abuse and suffering. Yes, she had a martyr complex at times (her Neptune conjunct south node in the 12th house was a significator of that in this life and the past), but that was also deeply imprinted in the psyche via catholicism. Life throws us enough suffering without the added notion that somehow we ‘deserved’ it and are being punished by the almighty for simply being ourselves, but that is the general idea of ‘original sin’ and it’s made a real mess of things.
Lamp with Ishtar’s underworld twin Ereshkigal, Syria
As well, we see transiting Mercury, flanked by Lilith and Venus, squaring her natal 12th house Mercury, representing her son Shane. Like his mum, he had been institutionalized (12th house), and sadly, although on ‘suicide watch’ he had ended his own life (age 17) last year. She expressed in her last tweet how she was basically walking dead without him, that he was the ‘lamp of her soul’ and that they ‘shared a soul’. Transiting Mercury is the psychopomp, conjunct retrograde (underworld) Venus and Black Moon Lilith (the void/anti-Moon). So much there offering her the door. “Alright, my daughter, you’ve had more than enough.”
It is not personal, human foibles (sorry, media) that ultimately defines how a great artist will be remembered, but their legacy. Jupiter also sired the nine Heavenly Muses, when he slept with the Titan Mnemosyne (‘of Memory’).
I think Sinéad, Jupiter’s daughter, whom Christy Moore once referred to as ‘one of our [Ireland’s] sons,’ and a catholic priest asked she sign his copy of her book ‘because she is a prophet’, was blessed by at least several of them. ~rb
Concept for Disney’s Snow White by Gustaf Tenggren – alchemy much?
With chthonic ‘dwarf planet’ Pluto at 29 Capricorn and opposite Black Moon Lilith at 29 Cancer, I was reminded of the ‘alchemist mining the earth’. In fact , this theme, I *believe* was central to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. ‘Hair black as ebony, skin as white as snow, lips red as blood’ happen to be the three ‘distinct’ phases of the Magnum Opus; nigredo, albedo, rubedo (sometimes there was a 4th, citrinitas, between the albedo and rubedo). These were also enumerated to seven stages, corresponding with the seven planetary spheres…or dwarfs. Not to mention that glass ‘coffin’.
Here is the clip I was rereading from my files, and apologies, I don’t remember where I originally clipped it from, but it is a quote (must be old, as it uses ‘man’, maybe from Jung?):
“The alchemist mining the earth. Mining or going inside the earth is the first step in the alchemical process. The earth is the body or oneself. Going inside the earth is equal to going into your inner self. Thus we are invited to descend into the earth, into the underworld, or the unconscious. The earth is the symbol of physical man. Man needs to become conscious of his inner world, who he is, what he is doing, what his motives are, and so on. Once attention is directed inwards, a whole new world opens: the underworld of Hades, the dark realm of shadows and monsters.“
And this is from another source, regarding the black phase or ‘nigredo’:
“Here, we are being asked to let go of all within us and outside of us that is false, inauthentic, and not in full alignment with the truth of who we are. This is a truth as it exists on a soul level, far beyond the ego and its limited ideas or illusions about who we “should” be.”
Is it possible that we’re now collectively getting ready to ‘birth’ out of the ‘nigredo’ stage? We began descent into fermentation blackness when Pluto entered Capricorn (feminine earth sign) back in 2008. About a year and a half prior, Pluto had been “demoted” to ‘dwarf planet’ by a handful of young astronomers who thought they were clever by disempowering the planet-god. Clearly, Pluto was in fact operating through them from that unconscious, Hadean realm over which he presides. [Side note: I bet Pluto will take its former status back once it is securely in Aquarius.] As it is, too, with Black Moon Lilith, who loves the freedom of darkness and invisibility of night. In Cancer, the sign of the Moon and mother, she represents the ‘uterine’ blackness itself, the void people desperately try to to a-void but that must be traversed. Our fear of death likely has much to do with our memories of that messy and shocking business of rebirth.
When Ishtar descended into the underworld, she had to leave a veil or some such trapping at each of the seven gates she went through (i.e, stages/planetary spheres). Even then, she had the hubris to want to sit on her sister Ereshkigal’s throne, and for this, she was hung up on a meat hook until she learned her lesson. We can also think of the Hanged Man in Tarot, Odin, and the Freemasons’ weird hanging upside down ritual, meant to instill that same sense of emptying out the false self so as to receive true knowledge that is the ultimate unification of self with world knowledge. The mystery ‘cults’ of Ancient Greece and Rome likely had similar purpose (though originally based on fertility/seasons).
These types of healing and initiation rituals are as old as we are, and are related to vision quests. I am sure paleolithic humans/shamans weren’t so much concerned with ‘self and non-self’ but nevertheless, soul-loss or theft was considered a cause of sickness and their work involved traversing into other realms, perhaps through a pitch black, uterine cave passage, to set things right or be instructed by other beings, ancestors, animal spirits, etc. We exist in more than just this one, as we know simply from dreaming.
Dali Tarot Hanged Man
What happens much of the time is, people start going through this ‘inward’ process unconsciously and are either unaware or resistant. All one knows is the depression, self-loathing or other emotional unpleasantness that arises. This is a calling from deep in the soul, but thinking that it is abnormal and needs to be ‘cured’, one fights it, is taken over by substances used to quell it, or fears losing control, which is akin to death. Because how can one function in this world, with all its glaring eyes, while descending into another? But there is no choice. If we ignore this call, Pluto will then bring about an outer event that will force us inward. That is what has been happening, collectively. The three outer planets are ‘the three alchemists’; Uranus shocks, burns and blows up, Neptune dissolves and dissipates, and Pluto pressure-cooks us into change that is permanent. Their transits are long, affecting entire generations.
Artists, poets and musicians of each generation are modern shaman-alchemists of sorts, who traverse the deepest chasms to bring back healing for the rest of society (you’re welcome). But it’s not exclusive, by any means.
Pluto will be leaving earth and entering air starting March 23 (with two retrogrades back to Cap), followed by Uranus leaving earth and entering air and Neptune leaving water and entering fire, both in 2025. Use the next couple of years, with Saturn in Pisces and the alchemists still submerged or partly submerged, to do your spelunking. If you are hearing the soul’s call, don’t be afraid to descend, to enter the labyrinth (you can leave a golden thread to guide you back out). Perhaps you are already in one of the stages or nearing completion, as many of my Saturn Pisces brethren must be.
Point is, you are full of hidden mysteries and treasures to be mined!
Menopause is the new “hot topic”, according to the CBC news.
I’m guessing my Pluto in Virgo peeps “opened the floodgates” (media’s words, not mine) of taboo removal, because if there’s one thing Pluto/Virgo understands, it’s the deep, psychological changes that are going on, together with the physical, as we enter opposite virginity, amirite, ladies? So, as we’ve now ‘crossed over’, let us X-gens pass down what we have learned to the next gens.
Menses and month both come from the same root (men also means moon, and there was even a cute, little moon-god named Men, see below). The Moon is our oldest time keeper, as we find depicted on the walls of Lascaux (this is a recent article about it, here I thought it was common knowledge) and elsewhere, because her cycles coincide with those of the female sex.
In the modern age of electricity, humans became out of sync with these natural cycles and the moods that go with them.
Roman Anatolian ‘Men’ who presided over the lunar months.
When a woman (or a man, for that matter) is not in touch with her lunar nature, or feels ashamed of it, the unexpressed Moon self is diverted to shadow, where it becomes an initiate of the Black Moon, Lilith – you know, like those secret tiki god bohemian black magic clubs that respectable members of society used to have in their basements. Her creative power, like that of Pluto, can turn destructive, self-sabotaging, in an attempt to kill off the false self. When this finally occurs with age, we stop giving a damn what others think, and Lilith becomes a staunch ally and a force to be reckoned with. (She’ll be leaving Cancer and entering Leo in a couple of days, so, ya).
Fun fact: ‘Hysteria’ and ‘hysterics’ were once thought to be caused by the uterus moving around through the body at night. (I think mine was actually doing this during perimenopause).
Grandmother Moon has been keeping time and observing all us babies since we were just amoebas on Earth’s watery womb, so if she could talk (and she does), oh the bedtime stories she could tell. This is especially true under the Cancer full Moon, currently opposite retrograde Mercury. The past is bound to resurface in some shape or form. So how does this relate to menopause?
Venus of Laussel with her calends, Upper Paleolithic
The word itself means a ceasing (pause) of menses. Remember, the menstrual cycle is directly associated with time cycles, both inner and outer. Perimenopause can be even more difficult than menopause or post-menopause (note the lunar triad within the triad, there), because everything is getting de-programmed and re-adjusted to a new phase, a new kind of time…hormones surge and drop in ways that make Cancerian mood-swings seem like a toy see-saw. This reverse puberty onset can be downright terrifying (I personally experienced losing half my blood and requiring a transfusion). Maiden and mother phases grow smaller in the distance, as we cross the threshold into Hecate’s cold, lunar landscape. Here, the unconscious knows no solar age…in the soul, everything is fluid.
As beginner crones (root same as crow and crown), we must now become inwardly re-attuned with the Moon, as we feel the ravages of time on our bodies, and face the fact that the physical is temporal. We fear the body loss, because rational, scientific thinking tells us it is primarily our physical self that defines us (see previous Solar Heroes post), that it is the body that ‘has a soul’. But in fact, it is the eternal soul that has a body, or rather, bodies. Grandmother Moon is firm on this. She presides over the inner world like Sun does the outer. At night, we traverse her realm….but, how many of us at this stage find our sleeping patterns are all over the place? Might it mean that our inner Moon is now wide awake and roaming out of bounds? Or just that darned, roaming uterus?
Will leave you with those thoughts, for now. Stay tuned for more meno memos!
Moon-faced Gorgoneion, protectress of mysteries by RB
And when he came to the place where the wild things are they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws till Max said “BE STILL!” and tamed them with a magic trick of staring into their yellow eyes without blinking once and they were frightened and called him the most wild thing of all and made him king of all wild things “And now,” cried Max, “let the wild rumpus start!”
~ from ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak
Below are excerpts from two articles from my old blog archives. I was not going to include them – or any political posts – in this new site, but under the circumstances, it’s kind of interesting now, to see the writing on the wall. The summation for me was Patti Smith singing ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ at the Nobels, after the dictator won the election in 2016. The sinking feeling we’d all had foreshadowed so much that has befallen us since, but the song is hopeful at the end.
(Photos of the subject have been removed, as well as his full name, because we’ve seen quite enough).
Monday, March 14, 2016 – Triumph of the Donald
Triumph of Mars
Why do I get the feeling, when I witness DT, that he is a man in great pain, begging to be put out of his misery ?
Geminis often make great actors, because of their channeling abilities, as long as they can consciously take the persona off at the end of the day. Gemini Marilyn Monroe was an example of one who could not. Having ‘no there, there’ can be scary, feel empty.
One of the more serious conditions a non-conscious or un-grounded Gemini can suffer from is demon or spirit possession, because, being mutable air they are often not quite in their bodies, and being Mercurial, even the less shadowy twins can sometimes attract invisible friends, conjuring unawares. Demons eat negativity and when they find a host, they encourage more and more of it in them, to feast on, as was the case with Gemini Rob Ford, former mayor of Toronto.
Similarly, DT is getting more bloated and insane and less in control of his words and actions. He is not on crack, though I am not sure about pharmaceuticals. At the same time, because of the path he’s taken, he has no choice but to see it through, high stakes, winner take all. Speculative Sagittarius Moon opposite his Gemini Sun. DT has Uranus (higher octave of Mercury) conjunct Sun and opposite Moon. Uranus here bestows an obstinate self-centeredness, extreme unpredictability and the courage of one’s own convictions, no matter how crazy. Monotony is anathema, therefore the pot must always be stirred. With Moon opp Uranus, the soul is never at rest and the person cannot be happy living in the present. The need for intensity eventually can wear them out. I think he is worn out, but his demons are keeping him hopped up and he likes the mojo. And Mercury square Neptune can be delusional.
Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Satan, 16th c
America loves Uranus, because it’s the planet of Aquarius, society at large, freedom, revolution, the rebel without a cause, wild at heart, as well as science and technology, discovery. But it’s unpredictability has a dark side, too – energetic forces that we don’t know how to control, nukes, big pharma, genetic engineering, and internet disinformation that flows like spilled water. Any planets close to the Sun want their place in the Sun, they’re ‘hot’, so I think his Uranus (insert Uranus joke here) is what people notice first and foremost…certainly that ‘shock’ of hair. His followers feel oppressed by ‘political correctness’ and see him as their liberator.
It’s funny, because mythological Uranus was no liberator. And we now know Uranus, like Saturn, has rings, so even though it marches to a different drummer, it is not entirely unconstrained by limitations. In any case, DT’s North Node lies right smack between his Sun and Uranus, so there’s a destiny to fulfill, for better or worse, and it’s tied in with his aggressive, lonely, Leo Mars ego in the 12th house of karmic debt and self-undoing. The 12th house is where one seeks to dissolve ‘me’ and devote to higher ideals, to transcend ego and free oneself from residue of past deeds. Pluto is also in Leo, there (if his birth time is correct), at 10 degrees. The Pluto-Leo generation have issues and past guilt around things like privilege and wealth, lording it over others. It’s the rock star/super star Baby Boomer bunch. Many of them worked through their karma on stage, through performance. Well, America has had an actor for president before…
Giansar is the fixed star conjunct DT’s Pluto, in the tail of Draco. It indicates having many friends and an analytical mind, but also the name means ‘the punished enemy’ as well as ‘the poison place’, because it is similar in nature to the south node (Dragon’s tail). He may very well be re-living a past life of being a punished dictator. Royal star Regulus, Heart of the Lion aka ‘Little King’, is right smack on his ascendant, conjunct Mars by a few degrees, meaning he sees himself – and others may see him – as a ruthless king. Well, he certainly does live like royalty.
The fixed stars around his Sun have to do with high position, quick mind, quick temper, luck, brief fame, scandal, quarrels, weapons of war, point of attack and the Death card in Tarot. (I think of stars as being indicative of the past, because their light has come from there, reaching us in the present and lighting particular points of the chart).
Mussolini was Leo Sun w Gemini Pluto, in mutual reception to DT’s Gemini Sun and Leo Pluto.
Thursday, October 27, 2016 Election Vivisection
Watching parts of the last presidential debate made me physically nauseous for about three days. Both candidates are frightening, but I think DT is actually, literally toxic, a product of all the psychological hazardous waste in the US, having taken on a life form.
It’s hard to say who was doing exactly what last time around, but 1938 keeps coming up again and again. The players have changed, but the cycle has come back to the same spot. Fun fact – H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds was first broadcast Oct 30, 1938, causing widespread panic, because Orson Welles made it sound so realistic. The first large scale example, perhaps, of how collective fear could be manipulated by media. (Aptly, it was a Mercury Theatre production). We are seeing that every day now, but nobody is coming on air after the fact to tell us that it’s not real !
I’m not the only one who thinks there will be a plot twist to this election. Some think there will be an assassination or attempt on either candidate, most predict some kind of voting fraud or mishap. I think it will come after the election, whether it be assassination, health-related or some criminal allegation. Not sure, just know that the actual election is not going to be the end of this madness, just a point of release.
Looking to 1938 again, there were a few very false starts, like when Hitler was named TIME Magazine’s Man of the Year. That’s right, Hitler, Man of the Year. Meanwhile, concentration camps were opening up in Germany, the passports of Jews were being confiscated and their businesses being looted, the Holocaust had begun. The Munich Agreement saw Germany, Italy, France and Britain agree to the annexation of the Sudetenland/Czechoslovakia by Germany, without any say from the Czechs, thinking this would avert war. Neville Chamberlain arrived home, waving the signed papers, proclaiming, “Peace in our time !” Yeah, that didn’t happen. Instead, Mussolini began demanding France cede various ‘colonies’ to Italy, the Middle east was also being carved up, and the atomic age officially started when nuclear fission, using Uranium was first discovered that year.
Seeing any parallels yet ? Now we have refugee camps, passports being confiscated, new dictators, Ukraine, Syria, use of depleted uranium, the threat of nukes and world war for real, rearing it’s ugly head… Not making predictions, just noting that unfinished business has returned to collect and the tension is thick as black, Russian rye.
Comparing their charts, Putin trumps DT, and his crafty, Gemini Moon must give a sense of security or recognition to DT’s ‘no there there’ Sun. I’d have to agree that Trump makes a very excellent, Putinesque puppet. It’s a mutual, buddy-buddy relationship, sure, except that one of the buddies is not playing with a full deck, the other is a major, world player. A narcissist like DT with Mars and Pluto in the 12th is attracted to power like a fly to excrement and is therefore malleable. At the same time, he has a lot of power residue, left over from the past, and is an excellent manipulator himself, but he does not use it responsibly, he throws it about, inciting people to be their worst and attracting entities. The man is akin to a walking ear worm of your most hated song.
Well, less than 3 weeks to go…
Btw, Nov 9 in 1938 was ‘Kristallnacht’, the ‘night of broken glass’, in Germany, when Nazi activists and sympathizers spent the night on a rampage, burning and looting Jewish businesses and synagogues. We can likely expect some violence around this election – if he loses, there will be anger, rioting by those believing the results fixed… if he wins, there will be idiots who see it as permission to go on a racist rampage.
And now, back to the present…
Attack on US Congress, Jan 6, 2021 – either that upholstery goes or we do.
This just in…
A friend posted to FB this morning. Old footage of a Nazi rally at Madison Square Gardens, 1939, pieced together and cleaned up by director Marshall Curry. It seems hard to believe (although I’d heard of this event, before), but then, considering Hitler was TIME’s Man of the Year, just the year before, and the world had not yet seen the concentration camps, maybe not so hard. Please watch this 6 minutes of horror.
On July 18, the New Moon will be in her own sign of Cancer (the New Moon is always conjunct the Sun, in the same sign, which is why we can’t see her). Cancer is the sign of the Universal Mother, and rules the breasts.
The symbol for Cancer looks like breasts, but it is actually two spirals spinning together, like the galaxy, or two nines, number of gestation and endings preceding birth, moving forward and backward…
The constellation was also seen as a cradle – the cradle (or gateway) of birth and death. In the same way, the Moon is presumed to be where souls await physical rebirth.
In ancient Egypt, the symbol for Cancer was the Scarab (where the word ‘crab’ comes from). The beetle rolled it’s dung like the Sun, traveling through the night or netherworld to be reborn.
Since Moon governs the tides of the ocean and body fluids, it is associated with the soul, which is watery (Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces form the water triad). In Tarot, cups are the soul element. Soul is the source of emotional memory and feelings and, being the source, is essentially no different than the ocean.
In astrology, the Moon, Pluto and the Lunar Nodes are the main indicators of the soul’s path/past lives. The Moon’s placement is also indicative of our ancient, matrilineal heritage and earliest emotional memories.
This Cancer new (dark) Moon, is a good time to begin revisiting our emotional memories and see whether we stopped evolving emotionally somewhere along the line, due to some tragic or disruptive event in our early or past lives.
For women, if the relationship with your mother was severed at some point, this is likely a microcosm of/clue to where and how your matrilineal line was severed long ago.
For men, the soul is your ‘anima’ and you will know her by the kind of woman you are attracted to. Is she a big teat ? A femme fatale ? A nurturer or a devourer ? Do you fear her or try to protect her ?
I sometimes think of the Cancer Sun and Moon as Samantha and Endora of the 1960s TV series, ‘Bewitched.’ Cancer Sun is witchy, but would rather ‘get to a man’s heart through his stomach’, be the domestic Goddess. Moon in Cancer is the opposite of rational and can be a nurturer or devourer of the soul (or both). And of course she’s the older Mother.
Pluto-Moon/Cancer or Lilith-Moon/Cancer aspects can be challenging in this respect and will reveal much about the Mother/child dynamic. The Pluto in Cancer generation (1913 – 1939), who were very affected by their mothers’ issues, are now preparing to return to the ‘Great Mother.’
Summary: This Moon, born in Cancer, is good for healing ancient or childhood memories (especially to do with Mother or Mother’s line), honouring the Soul and the feminine. And while we are at it – our relationship with Mother Ocean, source of all life, could really use some healing.
The following is adapted from ‘Dreamgates: Exploring the Worlds of the Soul, Imagination and Life Beyond Death’ by Robert Moss. Published by New World Library. (Thanks to Rob Brezsny for providing).
The basic insights of paleopsychology are as follows:
1. Spirits are real.
2. We are not alone: we live in a multidimensional universe peopled with beings — spirits of nature, gods and daimons, angels and ancestors — who take a close interest in our affairs and influence our lives for good or ill.
3. We are more than our bodies and brains, which are only vehicles for soul.
4. The soul survives the death of the body.
5. Soul journeying is the key to the spiritual worlds and the knowledge of ultimate reality. The soul makes excursions outside the body in dreams and visions. The heart of spiritual practice is to learn to shift consciousness at will and travel beyond time and space. Through soul-flight, we return to worlds beyond the physical plane in which our lives have their source and are able to explore many dimensions of the Otherworld.
6. Souls are corporeal, though composed of much finer substance than the physical body.
7. People have more than one soul. In addition to the vital soul that sustains physical life — closely associated with the breath — there is a “free soul,” associated with the dreambody, which can travel outside the body and separates from it at physical death, as well as an enduring spirit whose home is on the higher planes.
8. Souls — or pieces of soul — can be lost or stolen. This is the principal cause of disease and misfortune.
9. Some people have more souls than others and have the ability to make excursions to different places at the same time.
10. At death, different vehicles of soul go to different lots. Through conscious dreaming, it is possible to explore the conditions of the afterlife to prepare for one’s death and to assist souls of the dying and departed.
11. We are born with counterparts in nature. For example, we are born with a totem animal and a relationship with natural forces (wind or water or lightning) that are part of our basic identity and help to pattern the natural flow of our energy.
12. We are born with counterparts in other places and times, and in other dimensions of reality. When we encounter them through interdimensional travel, they become allies and sometimes teachers.
Images: Sara Goodridge, Egyptian winged Scarab, Dali Ace of Cups, Mahakali of Kolkata 1910 litho, Ronald Searle TV Guide illustration, fiddler crab, Dorothy Phillips.
Neptune re-entered it’s own sign of Pisces today, home for the next 13 years. This icy, mysterious, blue planet, where it supposedly rains diamonds, is called the ‘higher octave’ of Venus. It is the eighth and/or ninth planet from the Sun, depending on Pluto’s orbital position. Dreams, illusions, art (especially film, music, dance), healing, universal love, psychic ability, phobias and mind-altering drugs are some of the areas Neptune presides over. Modern astrologers recognize it as a fitting replacement for Pisces’ traditional ruler, Jupiter.
Neptune is currently conjunct ‘the wounded healer’ asteroid, Chiron, named after the centaur who learned and taught healing as a result of his non-healing wound. In a chart, Chiron’s placement shows where you become your own medic through your pain – the wound and healing are one. In Pisces, it is truly shamanic. Chiron prefers holistic methods and is where we get the word ‘chiropractor.’ Many astrologers associate it with the sign of Virgo.
Virgo is also the polar opposite sign of Pisces. Where Pisces is dreamy and escapist, Virgo is practical and, literally, ‘down to Earth’. We think of her simply as ‘the Virgin’, but she is also depicted as a winged figure – the angel of earthly service. (Her Vestal Virgin persona seems more in keeping with the asteroid, Vesta, who is also transiting Pisces right now). Virgo is ruled by Mercury, the winged messenger planet.
I had declared in my Dec 21/11 post (Fish Have Left the Building) that we’d officially kissed the Pisces Age good-bye. But of course, after living in a house for two-thousand-some-odd years, there’s a ton of cleaning to do before you can actually leave the premises…otherwise, you will certainly not get your damage deposit back ! A final purge of the old dream’s residue needs doing, to prepare the space for creating a big, fabulous, magical, Water-Dragony, new one. Neptune in Pisces, along with Chiron, is the final rinse and purification team.
Virgo has our best (and cleanest) interests at heart, so I’ve invoked her to provide some practical tips on cleansing with Neptune energy. Try to come up with your own ideas, too, since you are the instigator of your own process – your own shaman. Start now, sparkle by Spring !
Cleansing the physical body
1 – Eliminate or at least drastically cut down on red meat, processed foods, wheat, sugar, dairy, fats, yeast and fermented foods, alcohol, coffee, fried stuff, too much salt and anything else that potentially creates blockage and toxicity. Fast for a day or three if you can. Take a probiotic daily to replace friendly bacteria. Psyllium seed husks, bentonite clay and vitamin C can also help. And whatever it takes, if you are a smoker, it is definitely time to quit, now. My Virgo neighbour just resumed smoking after a year and is very sick, as a result.
2 – Increase your water intake. Consider investing in an ionizing water filter to increase alkalinity. A pinch of baking soda per 2 litres of water is the no-frills method (this will not filter or ionize, however). Bless your water before drinking.
3 – Eat more raw foods, vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts, legumes and whole grains (Virgo is also the grain Goddess, after all). Oatmeal, gentle enough to slough your skin, has the same loofa effect on the inside. Mother Nature really does know best !
4 – Go organic wherever possible and eat frequent, small meals rather than few, large ones, which is probably how my double Virgo grandmother lived to be nearly 100. It’s always best to get your vitamins directly from the source, so a juicer is also a good investment.
5 – Be kind to your heart, liver and the rest of the organ gang. If it’s not a matter of life and death, replace pharmaceutical drugs/pills with home remedies (Virgo’s fave) like chamomile or mint tea for tummy aches, clove for tooth aches, water for headaches (they are often caused by dehydration), etc. When detoxing, headaches are normal – just keep flushing. Music and water sounds can work wonders for healing under the Neptune/Pisces influence. And don’t worry about common colds – it’s nature’s way of purging the system. Drink lots of fluids.
6 – Put sea salt in your bath to draw out toxins and relax muscles.
7 – Your body is a mini Earth ! Replace all toxic chemical cleaners/detergents in your home with ones that will not pollute your own waters or the ocean’s. Chemicals burn the skin right off marine beings, kill coral reefs. Use baking soda and vinegar or chlorine-free oxygen bleach for sinks, drains, floors, tubs. Cream of tartar for tea and coffee stains. Steamers are great for sterilizing counter tops, gyms, restaurants, etc. [Addendum 2020: it is not known whether steam alone will kill covid-19, so it is recommended to scrub surfaces with soapy water then steam while still soapy. Hydrogen peroxide or isopropyl alchohol (never mix anything with HP) are good ‘pure’ sterilizers. Fatty soaps rather than ones containing astringent or bacterial killing agents work best for hand washing.]
Think, what would your grandmother/great grandmother have used before we had all this chemical goop ? Romans bathed with olive oil and salt, the purest soap is still made from these simple ingredients.
Virgo oversees the digestive tract and it’s link with the nervous system, via her Mercury rulership. Our digestive tract, colon, etc. are directly affected by nerves. And because our bodies are not only divided down the middle vertically, but horizontally as well, intestines and brains are not that different. In fact the intestinal tract is known as ‘the second brain’ and gets information before the brains in our head. They both get full of shit and need to be emptied, cleansed and well taken care of for proper function of everything else. A Polish senior I know told me her mother would always advise her not to make a decision to act before “eat and poop”. In other words, the processing time of one meal = the time needed for mental process !
It certainly feels like spring is already starting in some places, which must be a call to begin the house cleaning/clearing. The key lesson for Pisces, junk collector of the zodiac, is ‘un-attachment.’ Sometimes Pisces has an easier time un-attaching itself from people than objects or photos that conjure memories of them.
If you are in the late forties – early fifties age group, any old illusions of yourself in the form of clothing or ‘stuff’ should probably be sent down the river at this point.
And of course…washing, especially windows, for clear vision.
Virgo Moon says, use cleaning as practical magic, ‘wash that man right out of your hair’ while shampooing, for example.
Cleanse the emotional body
Ritual, no matter how small, is a great way to inform the inner and outer universe of your intention. Virgo loves writing lists to draw things from memory, so we can use this as a format.
We’ve all had people in our lives who have influenced us strongly, for better or worse. Everyone you’ve shared a soul connection with, you’ve actually exchanged bits of yourself for theirs. While we can’t erase memories, we can neutralize their effects.
1- Make lists of all the soul connections you are finished with – one for lovers or significant others, one for teachers, one for neighbours, adversaries or whoever you feel ready to let go of. It may take a few days. They will start popping up in dreams or elsewhere.
2 – Get some matches.
3 – Take the lists to a beach or other moving body of water. Thank the people on your first list for their lesson and inform them that you are now giving back the parts of them you’ve been holding and are taking back the parts of yourself from them. Roll or fold up the list, burn it, and let the charred remains fall into the moving water. Repeat with each list. (If you have no access to moving water, you can release into the wind or bury them in the earth – a return to the elements is the main thing). The New Moon is a good time to do this. For heavier bonds, you may wish to write a letter to the person (not to mail) or do a more involved ritual. The important thing is your intent. This should be an act of gratitude and closure, not destruction. You will feel lighter afterwards !
Neptune’s dreamscape and Virgo’s analytical ability are also very conducive for dream interpretation/therapy. What is your emotional body and unconscious telling you ? Keeping a dream journal and rendering your dreams in some art form are routes to self-healing.
Mental cleansing
Everyone will have their own methods for this, such as meditation or yoga… but since water is the main element right now, I recommend walking by the water to clear the mind, or at least out in nature, a park, etc. Listen to/walk in the rain or get a water cd and visualize the water flowing through your brain and rinsing away all debris.
One good way to un-clutter and calm the third eye is to sleep with a smooth slab of (cleansed) lapis between the eyebrows. This also helps with headaches, eye strain and vertigo. Rinse it under cold, running water from time to time, to release build-up.
There is so much invisible, electro-magnetic, microwave, electrical pollution these days, and it’s on the increase. Cell phones, computers, frankenfoods and bad news all threaten our health…but we can’t go around living in fear. Neptune in Pisces goes with the flow. It is the realm of the spiritual master in us that understands all is maya (illusion). Ultimately, we can’t control anything and must learn to let go of ourselves and everything else. Still, we do have to live inside the illusion for now, which is why Pisces and Virgo say, “walk the mystical path with practical feet” ! Do what is within your own ability and let the Gods handle the rest. The whole point of this exercise is not to try and lengthen your lifespan or lose weight or find the fountain of youth (although these may be side bonuses), but to prepare you for a rebirth within this lifetime, as your beautiful, authentic self.
Lady in the pool is the great Esther Williams, Hollywood’s own mermaid.
Ah, Sex and War, Love and Death – the essential elements of any lasting narrative. In the western hemisphere, the sacred co-mingling of Mars, all sweaty from battle, and Venus, full of oysters, injects red life force into earthly vegetation each Spring (Aries and Taurus, but also planet Venus in Aries). In Autumn (Libra and Scorpio, but also planet Venus in Scorpio), they unite again in death, Venus committing sati on the bonfire and lonely Mars turning into a wolf that will eat the sick and weak who can’t survive the winter. Adieu, until next time around. The cycle begins, ends and begins again with this union of opposites. Or, as the tantric, Indian Goddess, Lalita puts it, “Like the Sun and Moon coming together in an eclipse, consciousness comes into being via orgasm.” (Funny how the first and last letters of that word spell OM).
Two versions of Indian Goddess Lalita, Babylonian ‘Queen of the Night’
Lalita means ‘she who plays.’ Her many incarnations include Lilith, Lilitu, Lili, Layla, Lola, Lulu, Lolita, etc, all having nocturnal, sexual or demonic connotations. As Hebrew Lilith, she is Adam’s first wife, the serpent in the Tree of Life who teaches him (or Eve, depending which version) “carnal” self-knowledge, i.e. the mysteries of sex, life and death. She is not made from his rib, either, but from earthly muck. When God expels her for her independent spirit (refusing to lie beneath her husband in missionary position), she flies away to where the wild things are, and, finding it preferable to subservience, becomes the prototype for sexual demoness, vamp and devil-humping witch, eating babies and seducing holy men in their sleep. Independent yes, but also deranged. Her name means ‘screech owl’ or ‘ghost.’
The cycle of existence is hard-wired by desire, Scorpio’s raison d’etre. During the Sun’s passage through Scorpio/the 8th house (sex, death, regeneration, energy, healing, shared resources, financial obligations and the occult), from Oct. 23 – Nov. 22, we honour the Sacred Dead and all taboos associated with them. During the few days of Samhain, All Soul’s Eve, Hallowe’en and Dia de Los Muertos, the veil between worlds is as thin as a spider’s web, allowing spirits to attend graveyard picnics and inhabit jack-o-lanterns. On Armistice/Remembrance Day, Nov. 11, we pause to honour those who, in the spirit of Mars (traditional ruler of Scorpio), sacrificed their lives in battle. This year, it will fall on 11-11-11, a date many are getting excited or apprehensive about, considering the power of master numbers 11 and 33.
The word ‘taboo’ originally meant sacred, and indeed, sacred things were kept under veils (where we get the word secret). It later came to mean something forbidden by society. Incest, cannibalism, bestiality and patricide are examples of common taboos. Then there are cultural variants, like the untouchability of the bereaved or of menstruating women, both considered ‘unclean.’ Even today, a woman may refer to her period as ‘the curse’ and drugs are routinely prescribed for blocking messy menstruation altogether. The very essence of sex and death, menstrual blood is even more powerful than blood spilled in battle, therefor extremely taboo.
Teenage menstruation fears gone haywire in Carrie, Bleeding Goddess at Kamakhya Temple, Assam
While the mysteries of womb and grave may be a secret, they are not the property of anyone. They are universally inherent in our DNA and as individually expressed as the infinite forms of nature. Yet, those who govern societies do not want people to be in charge of their own sex, death and regeneration. Whoever owns the rights/rites to these forces has all the power. Therefor, strict rules and guidelines for birth, sexual practices, soul redemption and corpse management are imposed on the populace (while those at the top often practice the complete opposite). Some of these are necessary for health reasons, or simply to protect people – it’s probably not a great idea to eat the deceased, for example, and forced sex with anyone is a violation of natural law – but mostly it’s an 8th house issue of controlling other peoples’ resources. It’s all energy, just like money or food.
Plutonians harnessing Venusian power in Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut
Another attribute of Scorpio is that of the collective nemesis or shadow. Since Scorpio is a feminine sign, this usually means feminine shadow – the harlot, devouring mother or hag – witches who channel the untamed forces of nature. And so we are divided, according to what’s deemed permissible. It is not just women who are affected by the censorship of essential parts of our being, either, since we are all composed of both masculine and feminine, feminine being the soul. Dreams, theatre and film portray our disconnected parts as characters in conflict and resolution. Ancient Greek drama was, essentially, group therapy. In the theatrical tradition of Hallowe’en, it’s socially acceptable (and fun) to dress up as our shadows or alter-egos and parade them proudly, witches being by far the most common. In recent years, Zombie Walks have become hugely popular, with thousands of participants of all ages. (I guess eating braaaaiiins must be therapeutic for a populace so dependent on artificial intelligence).
Beauty’s compassion breaks the Beast’s spell of duality, and Scorpio Winona feels Dracula’s pathos.
In Tarot, the Devil is shadow or dark twin to our solar self, banished to the underworld of our unconscious. Our repressed impulses live there, like creatures of the night, creating disquieting thoughts, illusions and dreams. Traditionally the shadowy, lunar feminine presides over these, but with Pluto and Neptune now on the scene, we can’t be blaming the Moon for everything. (Plus we’ve now an astrological, Dark Moon Lilith).
The chained doppelgangers in card 15 represent our dual nature, which must ultimately be reconciled. This is really the theme of Tarot’s visual narrative, with the climax – a complete breakdown of the ego, followed by a period of grace, darkness and rebirth or ‘dark night of the soul’ – occurring between these two cards, mirroring conception. In ancient astrology, the sign of Gemini was ruled by the Sun.
In extreme cases, the doppelganger can take on a life of its own and prey on the energies of its other. Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, which came to Robert Lewis Stevenson in a dream, is one such cautionary tale. Another is, of course, Dracula, the promiscuous, cannibalistic, murdering necrophile and most beloved Hallowe’en persona. Babylonian lilitu and medieval succubi were early inspiration for vampire lore, but it was Phillip Burne-Jones’ painting of a female vampire, inspired by Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, that started the whole ‘vamp’ thing in popular culture. After viewing the painting, Burne-Jones’ cousin, Rudyard Kipling wrote his poem, The Vampire, which later became the script for A Fool There Was, the silent film that gave Hollywood’s myth-making industry it’s own Lilith, Theda Bara. Even her name – an anagram for Arab Death – relates back to the Babylonian demoness. (Venus in Scorpio until November 1 is the Vamp).
Man-made vamps: Burne-Jones’ gothic and Fox’s lady, Theda Bara
Some Scorpios have been accused of vampirish tendencies, thriving on the life energy of others. Though Scorpio expresses the urge to dominate/have power over life, it’s higher resonance is redemption through love, so it has multiple symbols: Scorpion – basic instincts are fear and desire. It amasses power for it’s own gain and stings itself when cornered. Eagle – sees from the heavens, rather than the ground and amasses power in order to redistribute to the whole. Phoenix – rises from it’s own ashes, symbol of self-regeneration par excellence. Dove – redeemer or Christ figure of eternal, pure love/light.
Most Scorpios are a mix of scorpion and eagle, some are phoenixes, few are doves – but all are redeemers in one way or another, for better or worse.
Thoth Tarot Death card, devouring Mother Kali
Indian Vedic astrology has not rushed to adopt Uranus, Neptune and Pluto as the new rulers of Aquarius, Pisces and Scorpio. It also still uses the sidereal system (tropical is commonly used in the west, relying on seasonal equinoxes rather than constellations) and the traditional calendar combines both solar and lunar cycles. Between mid-October and mid-November, it’s Libra season there and Hindus world-wide celebrate Diwali, a five day ‘festival of lights’ celebrating the triumph of good over evil, during which moral order or karma is restored. There are more variations than I’m qualified to write about, but the worship of Lakshmi, Goddess of wealth, wisdom and happiness is the main event. Lakshmi’s four arms represent the four principals of Hinduism – Dharma (duties/philosophy), Samsara (cycle of rebirth), Karma (right action/cause and effect) and Moksha (liberation from Samsara). She also wears red and sometimes rides an owl.
Pluto (aka ‘Total Recall’) moved into Capricorn in early 2009. Since then, we have seen the collapse of the banking system and economic structure, extreme purse tightening, lessons on survival by bark-eating and the beginning of the end for long-standing, dictatorial regimes – all Capricorn’s jurisdiction. Petroleum, too, is associated with Capricorn/Pluto, in that it comes from old bones/fossils buried deep in the Earth…makes me wonder whether long-hidden relics or riches will be uncovered while the underworld God sits on the mountaintop.
Pluto will don the goatskin until 2023. The ruling class, feeling insecure, will likely become ever more secretive, hiding their money under the mattress and stocking up on that which will retain value (ho ho). You and I will just have to get used to living like our great-grandparents and the majority of the world’s population, with gratitude for what we have and knowledge of what’s truly valuable.
When Pluto was ‘demoted’ to Dwarf Planet (by just a handful of astronomers) back in 2006, I thought this was actually quite fitting, considering what dwarves represent as mythic archetypes. In fairy tales, they are often the chthonic guardians of riches beneath the Earth. (In Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, they are miners). Sometimes they will live under bridges – thresholds of transformation – demanding near-impossible tasks or tests of any would-be hero who seeks passage. They have the magical power to bestow blessings on the worthy or curses on those who don’t take them seriously.
Pluto is the underworld God of Wealth and chthonic riches, who demands near-impossible tests for our transformation. He has been called the ‘dweller on the threshold’. So the term ‘dwarf planet’ actually expresses Pluto’s concentrated mojo quite well, thank you. And not seeing the planet on astronomical charts anymore just makes it more hidden and mysterious. Astrologers will not be DISsing (pardon pun) Pluto anytime soon.
