Archive for December, 2012

New Moon in Sagittarius — December 13, 2012, 10:42 UT

Monday, December 17th, 2012

The Sagittarius New Moon was on Thursday. There is a prominent yod pattern in the chart, formed by Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto. Saturn is sextile to Pluto, and retrograding Jupiter is the apex of this yod, forming quincunx aspects (150 degrees) to both Saturn and Pluto. The ruler of Sagittarius, the current New Moon’s sign, is Jupiter, which forms the focal point of the yod. This yod will still be valid in the Winter Solstice chart on Dec. 21 and also in the Full Moon chart on Dec 28.

Quincunxes may feel annoying and stressful. This feeling is perhaps signaling that everything is not as it should be. Bernadette Brady writes in Predictive Astrology, that “the quincunx wants to move you into a new situation whether you are ready for it or not. Sometimes this is very stressful; at other times it may be joyful.” To ease the stress, you could make some adjustments, and to be able to do the right kind of adjustments, you first need to understand your present situation and what needs to be changed. We humans seldom manage to do everything perfectly, but even small adjustments can make a difference. Striving for the goal may pay off now.

Sagittarius is an adventurous, enthusiastic and future-oriented fire sign. Exploration and long-distance travel are connected to this sign. Faith, trust, joy and optimism are attributes commonly associated with it.

Jupiter stands for expansion, growth, opportunity, support and faith. Saturn stands for grounding, structures, limits and fear. Jupiter and Saturn are called the social planets. They mediate between the so-called personal planets (the luminaries, Mercury, Venus and Mars) and the collective planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto), and connect our personal life to the wider world. Jupiter and Saturn represent opposite principles. We need both of them.

Pluto is known as the planet of renewal, the great transformer. It operates deep in the shadows. Just as the physical planet Pluto cannot be seen without technical equipment, the matters it deals with tend to be hidden in our consciousness.

So, the challenge of the moment is to make these energies represented in the yod work constructively for your goal, whatever that may be. The retrograde movement of Jupiter gives a clue that integrating something from the past might be beneficial for the task.

When considering the nature of the quincunx aspect, it is worthwhile to determine if the aspect is approaching or departing. On which side of an opposition the quincunx takes place, matters. Jupiter, the faster moving planet, is moving towards the opposition to Pluto, away from the conjunction which has already taken place in the past. This is a departing quincunx, which corresponds to the sign Virgo and the sixth house. For a while, dedicate yourself to practical work, remember to take care of your health though, and pay attention to details. There is a strong Mercury connection, because Jupiter is now in Gemini, the other Mercury ruled sign besides Virgo.

The aspect between Jupiter and Saturn is an approaching quincunx. The opposition has already taken place, and now Jupiter is moving toward the conjunction with Saturn. The approaching quincunx corresponds to Scorpio and the eighth house matters. Saturn is in Scorpio, which emphasizes the need for renewal, even if it causes a bit of pain. Perhaps opening up a little bit with others is what is needed. In Minor Aspects, Frances Sakoian and Louis Acker say about the approaching quincunx:

“It is often associated with death of old conditions and birth of new ones on some level of expression. To achieve this successfully, it is essential to learn the lesson of proper recycling of the waste products of the old as a useful part of the new expression. …These waste products can also be mental, emotional or physical in their nature.”

An apt image for this New Moon is Voyager 1 on the edge of our solar system heading to the stars, the news which was widely reported just recently.


Image by NASA

Voyager 1 is one of two space probes launched in 1977 to explore the outer planets in our solar system. On board is a recording of music and voices, greetings from Earth. A favorable alignment of the planets allowed the probes to reach the outer solar system by means of the new gravity assist technique. A slingshot maneuver around a planet was used to adjust the probe’s trajectory and speed relative to the Sun. Voyager 1 flew past Jupiter and Saturn, made new discoveries, and sent detailed pictures of the giants to us.

When the primary mission was over and Voyager 1 was speeding out of the solar system, it was still operational, so the scientists gave it a new one, an interstellar mission. At the moment Voyager 1 is the farthest manmade object ever sent from Earth, still receiving commands and transmitting information to Earth. It is near a new breakthrough in the heliosheath, the last boundary before interstellar space. It has reached a “magnetic highway” where the Sun’s magnetic field connects to the magnetic field of interstellar space. Voyager 1 keeps moving forward in a region unlike anything any manmade machine has entered before, until it exits from our solar system. It has enough power to continue the adventure into the future and keep communicating with Earth until 2020, possibly longer.

As my friend and editor Chad Townsend expressed it, the lesson of the quincunx is to adjust (Virgo) to where you end up and make the most of what you are given (acceptance).

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The news about the tragedy in Connecticut reached me while I was writing the blog. I would like to express my sincere condolences for the community of Newtown.

Full Moon in Gemini / Penumbral Lunar Eclipse — November 28, 2012, 14:46 UT

Saturday, December 1st, 2012

Our deepest desires and anxieties appear in our dreams masked in symbols. A Full Moon has a tendency to stir emotions. Some of us find it difficult to get sleep at the time of a Full Moon. The Full Moon in Gemini was a lunar eclipse on the south node of the Moon, which may heighten the possibility that fears and insecurities arise from the unconscious. The aspect pattern of the eclipse chart shows that overcoming these anxieties will require some conscious adjustments, and one’s success in this work is perhaps best achieved through cooperation in a group or a collective.

The Gemini Full Moon formed a quincunx (150 degrees) to Venus-Saturn conjunction in Scorpio and another quincunx to Mars-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn. This aspect pattern is called a yod. The signs involved represent different modes and elements. This is why quincunxes may make us feel stressed and uncomfortable. In addition, Chiron from Pisces was square to the luminaries.

In the focal point of the yod pattern was the eclipsed Moon. The Moon moves swift and the pattern dissolved quickly, so is the effect only momentary? The eclipse degree remains potent for a long time, sometimes for years. Also, the current eclipse fell in conjunction with Altjira, an interesting Kuiper belt object which moves real slow. The orbital period of this binary is almost 300 years.

In Australian Aboriginal mythology, Altjira is the sky god of the Arrernte. He created the Earth, then retired to the sky and remained there. Altjira was the central god of a sacred era called the Dreamtime. The Aboriginal people believe that every person essentially exists eternally in the Dreaming. For unknown reasons, Altjira had emu’s feet. A surreal figure like him might appear in a dream.

Dreams belong to the dominion of Neptune. My research for this blog also indicated that Altjira has something to do with sleep and dreaming.

Altjira was discovered in 2001. In the discovery chart of Altjira, asteroid 14827 Hypnos, named after the personification of sleep in Greek mythology, is in the same degree with Jupiter, in contact with Jupiter’s magnifying effect.

The Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis, wrote extensively about dream theories and interpretations. He also used hypnosis, which is a sleep-like state, in his work. He has Altjira on his ascendant in Scorpio. Probably the best known of the many books he published is The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), his own personal favorite.

Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist, became acquainted with Freud’s work through The Interpretation of Dreams. Such concepts as the archetype, the collective unconscious, and synchronicity are created by Jung. Jung was a productive writer himself. His autobiography is titled Memories, Dreams, and Reflections. Jung’s Altjira is conjunct his midheaven in Sagittarius and trine his Sun.

In Finland in 2009 the swine flu vaccine caused narcolepsy in children and youngsters age 4 – 19. Narcolepsy is a rare sleep disorder that causes a person to fall asleep suddenly and unexpectedly. Narcolepsy is a disease with lifetime consequences. The condition has a strong genetic linkage. The mass vaccination of this particular age group started in the beginning of the week 48. At that time the Sun had just opposed Altjira in early Gemini. Mercury, representing children and youngsters, was tightly aligned with the Pholus-Chaos opposition. Pholus is associated with toxins –in this case the medicine had become toxic. Mars (sharp objects like needles) was opposing Nessus, which also has a connection to toxics. Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune were in triple-conjunction. Asteroid DNA and 14827 Hypnos were in quincunx, and they also aspected many of the aforementioned planets.

In recent years sleeping disorders have become a growing health problem around the world. People use more and more pills, which in turn can cause other problems. Could insomnia have a link with Altjira’s current journey in the mutable air sign Gemini? The energy in this sign can be nervous. In The Contemporary Astrologer’s Handbook Sue Tompkins says about planets in Gemini: “Gemini lightens up – seems to almost add air – to any planet found in the sign. The qualities of the given planet will not only seem to become lighter and less serious but also more scattered and difficult to get hold of.”

Gemini is a social sign concerned with gathering and sharing information. A method of social dreaming has become widely used in many countries in recent years. It is a form of enquiry into social phenomena through the use of dreams. The purpose is not to interpret the dream, or focus on the dreamer’s personality, but through free association to think afresh and help people to understand different points of view.

Social dreaming takes place with many participants simultaneously. People come together to share their dreams. A person is needed to voice a dream. The dream comes from the individual but once it is voiced, it ceases to be a personal property and becomes a shared object available for the social unconscious that we all share. In the context of social dreaming the terms finite and infinite are proposed to be used instead of the terms conscious and the unconscious. In the process of social dreaming, something grows and develops, and new knowledge is gained.