On Tuesday 18th September 2012
Pluto, experienced by some as 'he who destroys and transforms' or by others as 'he who heals and transforms' appears to jolt forward in its trajectory. Whilst Pluto lodges in the respectable, sober sign of Capricorn it has times when it brings some especially hard knocks when it forms a tense square aspect with Uranus. Whilst inn the ambitious, status conscious Cardinal sign of Capricorn his 'Royal Darkness' has moved his bishop on the chessboard. He certainly knows how to put the squeeze on...
The Seventh Seal 'Pluto in Capricorn squares Uranus in Aries
Recently, after spending some
time apparently ‘idling’ and catching his breath as Pluto stationed and stopped after his Retrograde or apparent backward motion, he now takes a shunt forward. In Venus Retro Review a stationary period has been described as being similar to a train coming to rest at a station, when a planet refuels, exchanges passengers or freight and does some running repairs before it moves along once again.
Pluto has been hanging around a section of the zodiac it occupied since around Christmas 2011. Much of the global political hot spots were being activated then Hot Spots & Lightning Rods - Uranus/Pluto 2nd Square and it was a time when much of the current volatile tensions had begun. Thinking back to that time, what was the biggest most challenging thing going on for you then? For one thing there is a strong chance in the months that followed, your journey involved the recovery and healing from some of the trying events experienced at that time. For the next month, the traces, echoes and shadows from that time may either come back to haunt you or hopefully, shine out like beacons in the landscape as huge triumphs – 'look what I have changed, look here is the result of putting my heart into it'
Artist Jim Dine
Since April, during Pluto's 'reversal', he passed over old ground, quite possibly cutting and slicing through much of what stood in his way, making sure that those odds weeds he thought he eliminated the first time but which for whatever reason persisted, now finally face the chop. No messing around and no stragglers allowed. Everything disposed of and sent off to another place, like the dump, compost heap or the charity shop. Of course there are other places where we could have relinquished 'stuff' which no longer served us, spaces such as therapy rooms, yoga mats, operating tables or exercise classes. In many cases 'excess weight' has just gone to an 'invisible place' and this time, hopefully, never to be seen again. OMG!
Pluto moves slowly so an entire generation will all share a similar perspective and sign. As those born now will all have this Pluto-Uranus square, this generation in 20 or so years time will be the movers and shakers in our world. Just as the whole globe is living this energy so too our psyches are picking up and responding to 6-8 degrees of Cardinal signs, as we all have these degrees rocking and rolling around somewhere in our birth charts. There may be some part of our lives where new shoots are peaking out of the undergrowth and something fresh may be appearing as if out of thin air. Like Harry Potter taking off his cloak of invisibility those around him say 'ah, he was there all along, we just didn't see clearly'.
Of course it follows that this is all the more intense if 5-8 degrees of the Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra & Capricorn) are active in your chart, in other words if you have any planets in those degrees. But before you smirk and breath a sigh of relief if you don’t, remember in the world and words of Monty Python - snakes are symbols from Pluto’s world - 'Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!'.......
Now that Pluto ‘His Royal Darkness’ is
moving forward again does this mean that we too can ‘move forward’, get some things
finally behind us and progress? Well yes and no, true he has been caught in the
zap and flash of Uranus's Aries lightening bolt and it has shocked him to the
core. Uranus flashes are a bit blinding and temporarily discombobulating for anyone.With Pluto
and that square aspect between them the lightning bolts may have burned Pluto’s protective suit or revealed his invisible cloak. Pluto will gave as good as he gets of course, as he continually and relentlessly takes delight in pulling the plug on Uranus’s antics by
turning the lights out and reinforcing the locks and chains. Pluto may have lost a little status, when astronomers denigrated it to a 'dwarf planet' and in 2006 was re-classified, however....don't be fooled size doesn't matter.....
credits:national geographic & the guardian & richard vantielcke posted by pippa ponton & jphibbs
Bleak, emotive, conflicted, the subject of Rape
seems at the moment to suddenly be a 'hot topic' with the world’s media. Instances in the news
includes the reporting of U.S Missouri
Republican Todd Akin remarks
Actually in the real world, one in six women in America has been the victim of an actual or attempted rape with about 9000 abortions every year as a result of rape pregnancies. The number of abortions would be far more but for the fact that about 15% of victims are under the age of 12 and cant get pregnant.
The current struggle between Wikileaks front man
Julian Assange and allegations that he sexual molested/coerced/raped two women in Sweden is clouded by high profile and often misguided opinions of rape put forward by politicians and supporters. Of course everybody has had a say about what constitutes a rape such as U.K Respect Party M.P George Galloway's "it's not rape as most people understand it" and calling the behaviour just "bad sexual etiquette". Actress Dame Helen Mirren revealed that she was date raped twice but said that date rape 'is not for the courts'. Financier Ben Goldsmith tweeted that he was with Galloway and that the trumped up Swedish charges are a ruse as does rapper M.I.A. Also British Politician The Right Honourable Anthony Wedgwood Benn says that although the sex with the two women may well have been non-consensual, it does not constitute a rape. The women involved have not been really heard yet and are simply seen as 'opportunists' at best or 'puppets' in a conspiracy. The courts are apparently controlling the ways things are handled and the media are cranking it up somehow the issues surrounding rape appears to being used by various bodies for their own reasons.
Three
people associated with the Jordanian Paralympic squad have also been arrested
following allegations of sexual assault in County Antrim and have been flown home. There has also been news of the rape of a 14 year old boy frogmarched in broad daylight in a busy city shopping centre in Manchester, England.
In the U.S Paul Ryan is helping out the debate with, 'Rape is only Rape if the Offender specifies' but then backed off by saying that the issue was a sideline. President Obama was drawn into the debate coming up with 'Rape is rape... The idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we’re talking about doesn’t make sense to the American people and certainly doesn’t make sense to me.' In the UK Kenneth Clarke suggesting 'there are other categories of rape'.
There is obvious institutionalised rape due to arranged marriages and now forced marriages in Morocco where the rapist can marry his victim in order to 'take away the shame brought on her family' or the rapes of 'unveiled' women in Sweden by Muslim gangs. The Times of India had six stories of a variety of rapes on one online page, including the gang-rapes of 16 year olds, the burning of a 14 year old rape victim and a 4 year old 'Dalit' girl from the 'untouchable' caste all increasing in frequency and violence.
This is a nasty, disturbing and gut wrenching topic, with confused and
confusing voices adding to the debate - and it is global. It is a misery that biographies and
personal histories all over the globe give testament to the unending and
pernicious endurance of this brutal act of violence. One small slip-up can have life-long damage and repercussions.
With the battles over definitions, caught up in the semantics, we are plunged into the ambiguities of what constitutes rape - what it is and what isn’t ‘it’ - all of
which can befuddle, prolong and ultimately stall the process of dealing on a
practical level with the prevention and consequences of rape. Honest and
clear debate must refine ‘common sense’ it can shine the light of awareness
into very dark and murky places indeed. Information and education surely can
lead the way, accidents and ignorance can be minimized. This will not affect an
individual who uses their conscious choice to commit an act of rape, to act
fully knowing they are overriding the other person’s choice and ‘do it anyway’.
However as a race we humans should strive for greater understanding of every aspect of this issue.
Astrologically ‘rape’ is symbolised traditionally and in myth by
the planet Pluto, who despite being ‘demoted’ by the astronomical establishment
a while back, seems nonetheless to have a will of its own and is possibly
flexing its muscle (excuse the inuendo) “ahha don’t ignore or demote what I am about, here’s a
reminder of my worst bits”.
Pluto is about Power and it is clear that rape is not about sex but
about the abuse of power. Women are physically weaker than men generally and violence against women appears to be endemic because of the fact that someone has the physical ability to use force against you. Pluto is the God of the Underworld who one day spies the
beautiful young Persephone as she is innocently gathering flowers away from her
mothers reach and protection. Pluto desires Persephone, and does not hold back
from taking what he desires. It is his unalienable ‘right’. Pluto rapes and
abducts Persephone taking her down into his realm and crowns her his Queen.
Beside
herself with grief her mother Ceres (Greek:Demeter - suffering her own rape/incest by Poseidon) consigns the world to wither, nothing grew in her state of despair which consequently leads
Pluto to agree under sufferance to release Persephone for 6 months of every year and for Ceres to allow the world to flourish for that time. She then has to return to Pluto's hell and the
world goes cold again (an easy divide is Summer and Winter). So whilst Persephone can never forget her
fate, as a result of Cere’s intervention she gets to spend half of the year
back with her mother. She can never escape
she just has ‘moments away’. She has lost her innocence, perhaps it could be
argued, this is right, infantilisation will not lead to psychological health.
And what you may wonder would Persephone have answered if ASKED if she wanted
to have sex with Pluto? This myth suggests the answer will always be NO until
innocence is breached, we will never want to leave maternal safety left to our
infantile desires, consequently it will always feel like ‘a taking against our will' - 'a rape of innocence'.
The whole thing is very ambiguous although there is the ‘No
means No’ campaign which attempts to cut through such ambiguity. No is No
whether said if you have had sex before with that person or with countless
others. No is No - whatever clothing one is dressed or undressed in. No is No at
whatever point in the proceedings the word is uttered. No is No no matter how
awkward, frustrating or confusing the moment it is uttered. No is no even
if not uttered but clearly implied or suggested. No is No when another person does
not want any part of their body to be penetrated by any object or body part. Pretty
clear it seems so why is it so obviously not? 'Man's discovery that his genitalia could serve as a weapon to generate fear must rank as one of the most important discoveries of prehistoric times. From the prehistoric times to the present, rape has played a critical function. It is a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear.' Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will 'Women's lives and their bodies have been the unacknowledged casualties of war for too long' Amnesty - Lives Blown Apart
Looking at another astrological
figure, Nessus, may give us some idea.The asteroid Nessus is another astrological symbol for rape.
Nessus in ancient mythology is a centaur whose father, Ixion was a character whose
wrong actions led him down a dark path of murder and betrayal. Nessus’s mother
was Nephale, a cloud conjured up by Zeus in the form of Hera (Zeus’s wife) as a
‘honey trap’ into which Ixion immediately tumbled. Astrologers will recognize
Neptune in this myth, clouds, deception, camouflage, projection, undoing and
fantasy.
The story of Nessus does not improve from this bad start, as an
adult he tries to rape Heracles wife, Deianira and this has very serious
consequences as Heracles is a witness to this act and strikes a poisoned arrow
into him.
Unfortunately Nessus tells Deianira that his blood would ensure
Heracles be faithful. Deianira smears Heracles clothes with the centaur’s blood
but instead of binding him to her it poisons him and burns him to death. The astrologer, Melanie Reinhart says “The end
of falsely hopeful innocence is signaled by Nessus transits, and the opening of
a deeper wisdom.”
At
the end of August 2012 as the rape/not rape stories and debates fill the
headlines Mars is moving into Scorpio (Mars in Scorpio), and Saturn is preparing to
move into the sign of Scorpio. Pluto, co-ruler with Mars, of Scorpio, is in a tight
controlling almost ‘epic’ struggle with Uranus the Awakener, in Aries (Uranus the Awakener Does An Olympic Backflip).Things
are stirring for sure, and at a very deep level.The midpoint of Uranus and
Pluto is 22 degrees Aquarius, and where is Nessus? Currently Nessus is at 24 degrees
Aquarius retrograde and moving in. What of Neptune another key player: it is in it's own sign of Pisces. It is also ‘in the bends’ an ancient astrological term, where a planet is squaring the Nodal Axis within one degree, which brings it up into prominence and makes it hard to ignore. Neptune is associated with redemption, saviour and victim motifs and by virtue of being caught 'in the bends', it then gets drawn into a high prominence. It stands out.
There
is one more myth to involve, that of Medusa, the female gorgon, the
monster who could turn a man to stone by merely looking at him. Medusa, the
embodiment of female rage. Before she became hellish though, she was innocent
and happy in her world. Then along came Poseidon/Neptune who abducted and raped
her. The Goddess Athena was a witness but was also jealous of Medusa's beauty, especially her long, silky hair. Athena decreed that it was Medusa who was to blame and the one to
be punished. As punishment she turned her into the Gorgon so that men could no longer look or
desire her ever again. Where is the asteroid Medusa at this very moment?
Travelling through the sign of Scorpio, of course…Scorpio is about power and is always related to sex.
We cannot for one minute imagine that rape as an act or as an issue will go away easily or indeed should be hushed-up. More words and tears will spill, more heads will roll and maybe, just maybe the voices that were previously silenced and somehow turned into monsters will rise up, roar and never be silenced or shut down. Rape Support & Advice - Rape Crisis (UK) - Rape Abuse Incest (US) - Rape Abuse Incest Network International
credit:rape crisis scotland & oscar swartz & against bause inc.& UN Women & wiki paintings & susan brownmiller: against or will: men, women and rape & http://www.notever.co.uk/ & krishnendu haidel/reuters posted by pippa ponton & jphibbs
On the 3rd July, 2012 we will see a Full Moon in the Cardinal earth sign of Capricorn a time to take stock in a full moon time of folklore, misty myths and mystical significance. Astrologers are not
alone in their reverence and attraction to ‘that time in the month’ when the
Moon ripens and shines, when she shows herself off at her peak.
Even on cloudy
nights (more than usual here in the U.K) her presence is obvious.
The Moon permeates…..she
filters through the clouds or curtains. She beckons to some and frightens
others. She is FELT... She is Sensed.
Whether in Myth
or Fact, Full Moon times have been closely charted and effects noted from
hospitals, mental institutions, police stations, zoologists, farmers, biologists,
to gardeners and sailors.
Her swelling and obviousness pulls us, it draws our
gaze and imagination ‘her way’. Her way is sometimes seen as weird and ‘loony’,
linked with women, were wolfs, fluids, hysteria, tides and generally being out
of control.
‘News Alert - Solar Consciousness loses its dominant grip’.
We have used The Moon to tell us how to get home, we used the Moon as a timing guide telling us when to
sow, hoe and harvest our crops. Well now, under the Full Moon, it is time to harvest.
Today’s
Full Moon’s action takes place in the Earth sign of Capricorn time to take stock and review our ambitions. It is also time to
gather in your goodies. Accept our rewards. Identify and scoop up the good stuff
you have earned after all the effort you have put in the last couple of weeks. Let us see what have we got at the end of this journey.
Gather and pick up every gift given and look for the traces, even if faint, they will
be there. Chances are that you have spent the last couple of weeks working very
hard indeed at something, wondering whether or not you efforts have been worth
it. Well you may just find out in these next few days. This work may still be
in the early stages, work in progress, work very few people have noticed. This
work maybe in the planning stage or ready to go, but what ever stage it is, for
these few days you should be able to see tangible results, pointers, markers or
clues as to your progress.
Look closely; use the Lunar light, both inner and
outer. These tangible pockets of information are invaluable, even if after
examination you decide to reframe, ‘re-jiggle’ or just jettison. What you reach
out for now you can store and use for the next couple of weeks until the New
Moon comes and you can start a new project/idea, or start a new phase of your
project.
This Full Moon
does pack an extra ‘punch’ as it ‘inks out’ it metaphorically bleeds into the
stressful/challenging Cardinal activity currently playing out between the
juggernauts of Uranus and Pluto.
Like the chimes
of Big Ben as the big hand reaches the number 12, the Full Moon will reverberate
and will be heard through many levels.
It may be alarm bells or the peeling bells of
celebration….here’s hoping for the latter. posted by pippa ponton & jphibbs
There
has been plenty of discussion about Pluto losing star status and Vesta gaining some,
as astronomers demoted and elevated these two celestial objects from planet to dwarf
planet (Pluto) or from asteroid to planetoid (Vesta). All this seems very
confusing to those of us just trying to get our heads around what this means astrologically. With all the disruption we certainly know that Eris has entered the building.
Pluto
has been redefined from the status of Planet to Dwarf Planet. How does this happen and who decides? Well, the vote involved just 424 astronomers, about 5% of the
astronomy population. A word of warning though about dumping old Pluto back
down into the Underworld and redefining his status, on what some astronomers see
as a whim. The Underworld may be where Pluto prefers to hang out, in mythology he is Lord but just don’t force him down there, don’t make light of his power and
never, ever, underrate him.
In fact the building energy between Pluto and Uranus
at the moment, tension in the form of a square that will be exact on 24th June, 2012 and the first of seven! That will certainly be testament to just how powerful this ‘small’ planet can be. We
should expect quite a bit of provocative and excitable revolutionary brouhaha to
follow. It is true that controversy and ‘disorderly fuss’ can often end up
appearing pointless and irrational but in the denouncement of German satirist
Karl Kraus 'every little error could show the evils of the world and that
great evils could be inherent in what can initially appear to be a small error'.
Lets see how does this effects Lady Gaga and Eris as we cannot leave those two in the wings on their own for very long. Lady
Gaga, convent educated self-professed ‘Fame Monster’ or conversely, a role model and freedom fighter. She self proclaims ‘Today and every day we fight for
freedom. We fight for justice. We beckon for compassion, understanding and
above all we want full equality now’. Well she has been forced to cancel her sell
out show in Indonesia as hardline Islamists and other outraged groups have suggested
that she can corrupt the youth in their country with her dance moves. She would claim that she was ‘born this way’ but this has become a more serious issue. The concert has been on and off
like proverbial Gaga’s draws in a costume change. There have also been threats
of violence as a last ditch effort to force
Gaga to re-route her tour and to get the message that she and her message are not welcome.
This is causing Gaga to take realistic responsibility for her own safety and
the safety of her audience and consequently she has had to cancel.
What of Eris, the dwarf planet/planetoid/asteroid, who is she and what is
her place at this astrological table? In mythology she is the Greek Goddess of
Discord and Strife and in her most famous storyline she initiates the Trojan War
as a result of being the only goddess not invited to the party (a wedding
celebration on Mount Olympus). After all who would want to invite a whole lot of
pain to your happy day? In a fit of pique, some would say a justified wake up
call, Eris simply invites herself, anyway. In effect she gatecrashes the wedding ‘do’ and by way of
a wedding gift she rolls in an apple injected with a dab of poison. This myth
is quite fascinating and naturally complex. The Apple of Discord inscribed for the ‘most
beautiful’ causes the three goddesses who were legitimately invited to argue and the unfortunate Paris is
picked to choose just one of them. He knew that whoever he ended up choosing, the two left out would bring about a whole world of pain. They all three goddesses try to bribe Paris, he was tempted by unlimited power and wealth, wisdom and strategy and the
most beautiful women in the world. He chose Beauty.
Perhaps
this myth can be seen as a warning against our habit of going with the path of
least resistance and consigning those undesirable bits of others or ourselves
into exile. Saying to ourselves ‘if I can't see it, it's not happening’ is something we tend
to do as children. We can put our hands over our eyes when Mummy says time for
bed but this doesn’t make Mummy or her words go away. Eventually we do have to take that bath and get ready for bed, we must advance, mature and grow up. We eventually must
clean up our act. We must take a bite of the apple, take off our blindfold’s and see the
truth, no matter how much we don’t like it or disagree with it. If we don’t it may force its way into being consumed eventually and then containing more toxins
than is healthy to munch down on.
In the birth chart, Eris can give us information on where in our lives we
inject this poisoned apple, where we can throw a right wobbler into a party which will upset the nice stable status quo. Eris will show you where you can be a thorn
in the side and where you can create havoc and disturbance from a seemingly
innocuous or seemingly small act.
So where is Lady Gaga's Apple of Discord? It certainly seems to be part of her life
picture at the moment. Well no surprise to see that Eris is jumping all over Gaga's Venus in Aries. They are in fact involved in a conjunction, united and fully merged. Eris and Venus have
become one in Lady Gaga's chart and in her life. Things are probably coming to a head for her in a less than
comfortable way with regard to Venus issues such as self worth, beauty, values and desires. Ex's & Xx's Venus Rx
and Venus Come Out of Your Shell .
Venus
in Aries is ruled by Mars, the Roman god of war and Eris is also the sister of Ares,
the Greek god of war. Boom what a combination of trouble and strife in
your life.
In
keeping with our love of the planetary movements synchronicity in life patterns. At the moment for Lady Gaga as
Eris moves in on her chart’s lady Venus in Indonesia and the Philippines she has found herself in a major media storm pivoting around her self expression and values. She
has been forced to make a strategic retreat due to an unacceptable threat of casualties.
Lady
Gaga has had to reassess her Venus stuff through her Eris discord and strife life.
Her values - 'I’m not a creature of your government, Manila'. What she receives ‘Lady Gaga has been declined a permit to perform in the world’s largest Muslim country’. How she is desired ‘Fans have been eagerly awaiting Lady Gaga, with every seat in Jakarta’s 52,000 seat stadium scooped up – half in the first two hours of sale’. And what in turns she desires ‘The singer, who signed up to Twitter on 26 March 2008, had 20.12 million followers on her @ladygaga account’ the most followed on the planet. She also has 8 million fans on Facebook and more than 800,000 ‘circles’ on Google+. Lady G puts this popularity down to the fact that she writes everything herself and that she posts on anything and everything she loves.
Lady
Gaga meets Lady Venus and Lady Eris for a while longer so we haven’t heard the
last of it yet.
Eris and Dysnomia her 'moon' (hubble space telescope wikipedia)
We all have Lady Eris in our birth charts. A point that reveals
what has been banished it can also give us clues as to what form this can take and when she can
apparently throw in the poisoned apple for our attention. No one is really immune, we all have Eris in our
psyches/birth charts, as well as that she is permanently ‘doing her stuff’ to our
charts, permanently interacting to greater or lesser degrees at various times. Sometimes she is
interacting with our charts at a low level, and her influence is less
noticeable but other times she is much more insistent and combines with other dominant voices. Then there are other times when she insists on getting the whole platform
to herself.
Eris
is slow moving, she takes her time, so she will be sliding that Apple of
Discord into Lady Gaga's party for at least the next decade and this will be a
backdrop for her permanently there, probably creating trouble. Sometimes trouble can be
kept at bay and other times it is more active, set off by other planetary movements.
At the moment Saturn is frustrating Lady Gaga's Sun in a double whammy (Sun is also
crunching Saturn) this is very stressful with a heavy workload. She will be pressed up against time issues, deadlines, calls to grow up and be responsible. She will be asked to obey conventions, respect traditions, try to be normal, act more traditional and conservative. This adjustment will impact her ego (Sun) and
the resulting flare-ups trigger those slower brewing stresses elsewhere in her chart. For Lady Gaga ‘Eris has certainly entered the building.
credits: google chrome & wikepedia posted by pippa ponton & jphibbs
