Archive for August, 2012

New Moon in Leo — August 17, 2012, 15:54 UT

Monday, August 20th, 2012

I was watching the webcast from Ecuador’s embassy in London today, when Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, gave a statement. The recent drama around matters that concern Mr Assange’s asylum and extradition to Sweden has not come as a big surprise for an astrologer who watches new planets.

The New Moon in Leo (drama) on Aug 17, was tightly placed in opposition aspect (confrontation) to Centaur planet Nessus (abuse of power). The New Moon was strictly sextile (opportunity) to Mars-Saturn conjunction (structured leadership) in Libra (justice).

Nessus was the third Centaur discovered, after Chiron and Pholus. The discovery was in 1993 and the naming in 1997. The naming of Nessus was cooperation between astrologers and astronomers. Astrologers suggested the name Nessus based on their studies, and the International Astronomical Union approved it.

Astrologically Nessus speaks of the abuse of power. Melanie Reinhart is one of the pioneering astrologers who have studied Nessus. According to her, “Nessus brings opportunities to understand and release deep patterns of helplessness, being taken advantage of, and being oppressed.” She continues: “Nessus activations correspond with times when things really do end, finish and transcend to another level.” Her key phrase for Nessus is “The buck stops here.” It means the point, where one accepts personal responsibility for the way that things are, and refuses to pass on their responsibility beyond that point.

Ecuador granted Julian Assange asylum in June, but Mr Assange is not able to leave the embassy, because the British police would arrest him once he stepped outside the embassy building. Last week Britain even threatened to enter the embassy, which has caused an international diplomatic strife. The foreign ministers of South American nations are going to meet to discuss about the situation.

In his speech today, Mr Assange urged the US to end its “witch-hunt” against Wikileaks, called for the release of Bradley Manning, and drew parallels between himself and the three members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, who were sentenced to two years in prison for an anti-Putin protest in a Moscow cathedral. He said: “There is unity in the oppression. There must be absolute unity and determination in the response.”

In other words, “the buck must stop here.”

Full Moon in Aquarius — August 2, 2012, 03:27 UT

Thursday, August 2nd, 2012

This is the Water Carrier’s Moon. A young man bent down on one knee and pouring water out from a jar, is the symbol of Aquarius, the sign of this Full Moon. We are pampered with abundant wisdom of the gods for to be spread out to our brothers and sisters on Earth.

Aquarius is an air sign in spite of its association with water. The other two air signs are well represented in the chart. In Gemini there are Venus, Jupiter, Ceres and Vesta; in Libra we find Mars and Saturn. The element of air is mental and social. Air is moving and reaching everywhere. Brotherhood, freedom, knowledge and inventiveness are attributes associated with Aquarius.

Uranus, the ruler of Aquarius, is brainstorming us with his electrifying impulse from Aries. Pallas Athene in conjunction with Uranus, aids him. Pallas Athene is known for her wisdom and strategy skills. The Moon supports them with a sextile. The brightly burning Sun in the fire sign Leo is in trine to the Pallas-Uranus conjunction. Jupiter’s magnifying touch comes in the form of a sextile from Gemini. The Moon forms a flowing trine to Jupiter and the Sun supports him with a sextile.

Mercury, the messenger and communicator, is the ruler of Gemini. At the moment Mercury is retrograding in Leo. It is interesting, that Mercury is in conjunction with asteroid Ganymed, which is named after the personification of the Water Carrier in Greek mythology. According to the myth, Zeus (Jupiter) fell in love with young Ganymed and took him to mount Olympus to serve as cup-carrier to the gods.

The traditional ruler of Aquarius is Saturn, and the modern ruler is Uranus. Many astrologers have noticed, that a more suitable name for the planet Uranus would actually be Prometheus. In Greek mythology, Prometheus was an intelligent Titan, who is said to have created man out of clay, and stolen fire from gods and given it to humankind. Quoting Richard Tarnas:

“The more I examined the matter, the more I realized that every quality astrologers associate with the planet Uranus was reflected in the myth of Prometheus: the initiation of radical change, the passion for freedom, the defiance of authority, the act of cosmic rebellion against a universal structure to free humanity of bondage, the urge to transcend limitation, the intellectual brilliance and genius, the element of excitement and risk.” And he continues: “And the resonant symbol of Prometheus’s fire conveyed at once several meanings – the creative spark, cultural and technological breakthrough, the enhancement of human autonomy, the liberating gift from the heavens, sudden enlightenment, intellectual and spiritual awakening – all of which astrologers consider to be connected with the planet Uranus.”

Aptly the Sun is now in conjunction with asteroid Prometheus emphasizing the Aquarian theme.

Different types of celestial objects – asteroids, planets, trans-Neptunian objects — work on different levels of human experience. Asteroids orbit the Sun between Mars and Saturn, while trans-Neptunians reside far out in the distant part of our solar system. Respectively, asteroids are considered personal and their transits don’t last very long, whereas trans-Neptunian objects are transpersonal and working on wide scale. The Full Moon squared two distant objects in Scorpio, Deucalion and Ceto. These two have stationed direct after the New Moon two weeks ago.

Ceto is a Centaur-like binary object on an elliptical orbit around the Sun. The orbital period is almost 1000 years. Because of the elliptical orbit, it spends in a centaurean way a very long time (+365 years) in certain zodiac signs, and travels quickly (in 5 years) through others. Ceto came to perihelion in Leo in 1989 and was travelling inside the orbit of Uranus at that time. At the moment while moving further away in Scorpio, it is already slowing its speed, but still going relatively fast. This is why its conjunction with Deucalion, a cubewano with an orbital period of only about 295 years, has lasted – and will still be lasting — for many years.

Deucalion is another mythic Greek figure to be identified with Aquarius, the Water Carrier. He was a son of Prometheus, and the equivalent of Noah in the Greek version of the flood myth. Flood myths are creation myths, where the flooding waters are cleansing humanity. In Greek mythology Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha survived the deluge by building an ark with the aid of Prometheus. Deucalion and Pyrrha drifted to the high mountains, where an oracle told them to “throw the bones of their mother” behind them. They came to the conclusion that their mother is Gaia (Earth) and stones are her bones. They threw rocks behind their shoulders, and the rocks became men and women and repopulated the Earth.

The message of the Water Carrier pours through in many aspects of the chart, in various levels and with varying intensity. The rains of the Water Carrier are a gift from the gods to us.