Libra – also known as Justice – from the Tarot Art Nouveau
– Is never stingy with a compliment.
– Always looks for what they share in common with a person first.
– Is a true champion of Equality; what’s fair is fair.
– Finds beauty everywhere…in everything and everyone.
– Handles even the messiest, stickiest situations w/ grace.
– Is considerate of others.
– Can be counted on to be polite as a rule.
– Shares fabulously.
– Loves harmony in every sense; seeks to live a life in accord with their surroundings.
– Lights up when they have a companion – for Libra, life revolves around togetherness and they love Love in all its forms.
– Embodies sweet and kind as a default M.O.
I found this to be a REALLY interesting depiction of the current astrology…American football fans have recently been dealing with the proposed relocation of several teams due the National Football League’s (NFL’s) concern that the stadium facilities for said teams were inadequate/outdated. While plans were submitted for renovation á la Pluto in Capricorn, despite this it ultimately looks as if the St. Louis Rams (hello, Aries!) and the San Diego Chargers – known affectionately as “The Bolts” for their electric, lightning-bolt insignia (hello, Uranus!) are going to relocate to Los Angeles, California.
Why is this astrologically significant? Because when news of this first hit during mid January 2016, Pluto in Capricorn & Uranus in Aries were squaring each other pretty hardcore. One better? Black Moon Lilith in companionship-oriented Libra was added to this mix as well, traveling opposite Uranus in Aries (that would be the Rams and the Chargers) and squaring those Pluto in Capricorn renovation plans, so it is rather fitting that these two teams would find themselves “together in exile” from their cities over degraded, sub-par stadium standards (Pluto in Capricorn) since BML symbolizes the (voluntary or involuntary) “Outcast”.
It’s funny, weird, and cool to see the astrology in play so plainly regarding such an ordinary thing; as if these sports teams were somehow literal “avatars” for the astrological energies in play, LOL!
I’ve been musing about Pluto’s long transit through Capricorn (until 2023) and its effects upon an individual chart; especially when we have personal planets or points being contacted by this astrological heavy hitter. One thing that occurred to me is the importance of metaphorical “deco stops” throughout our (individual and collective) Pluto in Capricorn journey. Deco stops – scuba diving slang for “decompression stops” – are a technique utilized by divers who descend to great depths. The further down a diver swims, the more intense the pressure exerted upon their bodies. This pressure causes the gasses they breathe through their air tanks to expand as they ascend, and if they try to rise to the surface too quickly and aren’t careful, this abrupt change in pressure can cause the gasses to create tiny bubbles in the bloodstream; a potentially life-threatening condition known as decompression sickness or “The Bends”.
To avert this, divers deliberately slow down their ascent and pause at marked depth intervals for a specified period of time, waiting until their body gradually decompresses at each stop as they return to more normal pressures. The body needs time to acclimate to this transition, for it is not naturally designed to withstand these kinds of forces and then just bob right back up to the surface; no – it needs time to assimilate the intensity of this experience before it can return to operating as normal.
This is not unlike dealing with Pluto in Capricorn…if we think of a Pluto transit as a symbolic journey to our Center – all the way down to the very core of our souls – we can start to see how this metaphor has resonance. When we experience Pluto in Capricorn contacting a planet or personal point in our chart, what we are dealing with is some heavy-duty, industrial-strength transformation somewhere in our lives. The changes and challenges we encounter along the way can be profound – often, an old “life” or old way of being “dies” in some way. Our physical, emotional, psychological, and energetic bodies therefore require time to process the intense experiences that are part and parcel of this metamorphosis; we need metaphorical “deco stops” as we make our preparations to ascend back into the Light.
It is understandable that when one spends a prolonged period of time in the Underworld, one might then find themselves in a rush to return to the surface and feel sunlight upon their face, for Pluto in Capricorn is the epitome of dense and heavy…at times its energy can feel like concrete cinder blocks that may threaten to drag us toward a cold, dark, bottom. Proper integration is essential for this reason; especially on a psychological level. We must therefore begin our ascent slowly and carefully, periodically checking our watches to ensure that we are spending enough time at each and every stop (hmmm…perhaps this entails processing loss to a degree, à la the Kubler-Ross 5 stages of grieving) on the journey upward. These pauses should be thought of as a time to take stock, gradually releasing as we go the weight – the ballast – associated with such a serious transformational process.
How many Saturn/Neptune correlations can YOU find in the following lyrics? The first song that seems to embody facets of this square from a lyrical standpoint comes to us from Coldplay’s “Clocks”, while the second is from R.E.M.’s “Leave”. Hint: Clocks are a Saturn thing – bonus points awarded if you can find the lines in both songs that specifically bring in the Sagittarius component of Saturn!
“Lights go out and I can’t be saved Tides that I tried to swim against
Have put me down upon my knees
Oh I beg, I beg and plead, singing
Come out of things unsaid
Shoot an apple off my head and a
Trouble that can’t be named
The tiger’s waiting to be tamed, singing
You are…
You are…
Confusion never stops
Closing walls and ticking clocks
Gonna come back and take you home
I could not stop that you now know, singing
Come out upon my seas
Curse missed opportunities
Am I a part of the cure?
Or am I part of the disease? Singing
You are…
You are…”
SONG #2
“Nothing could be bring me closer.
Nothing could be bring me near.
Where is the road I follow
To leave, leave?
It’s under, under, under my feet.
The sea spread out there before me.
Where do I go when the land touches sea?
There is my trust in what I believe.
Chorus:
That’s what keeps me,
That’s what keeps me,
That’s what keeps me down,
To leave, believe it,
Leave it all behind.
Shifting the dream
Nothing could bring me further from my old friend time.
Shifting the dream
It’s charging the scene
I know where I marked the signs.
I suffer the dreams of a world gone mad
I like it like that and I know it
I know it well, ugly and sweet,
I temper madness with an even extreme.
That’s what keeps me
That’s what keeps me
That’s what keeps me down
I say that I’m a lightweight
I say that I’m a phantom airplane
That never left the ground.
(Chorus)
Lift me, lift me,
I attain my dream.
I lost myself, I lost the
Heartache calling me.
I lost myself in sorrow
I lost myself in pain.
I lost myself in gravity,
Memory, leave, leave, leave.
(Chorus x2)
Lift my hands, my eyes are still,
I’ll walk into the sea
Shoot myself in a different place
And leave it
I’ve longed for this to take me,
I’ve longed for my release
I’ve waited for the callin’
To leave, leave.
“Cultivating discernment on the spiritual path” – this is both a fitting motto for the current placement of the Moon’s Nodes (North Node in Virgo, South Node in Pisces, respectively) and the (sub)title of an actual book by Mariana Caplan. As soon as I heard this, I sat bolt upright and instantly thought to myself it should be required reading for everybody during the passage of the Moon’s Nodes through these signs (until May 2017), as this is a very resonant concept indeed….particularly for those born with the North Node in Virgo/South Node in Pisces and who are thus currently experiencing (or about to experience) a Nodal Return. And with Mars traversing psychologically-oriented Scorpio for an extended period this year urging us to confront our shadow material, this would seem to be “just what the doctor ordered” 😉 (Sorry, couldn’t help the Virgo pun there, LOL!)
The full title, if you are interested, is Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path. And no, in case you were wondering, this is not in any way a paid endorsement; just a correlation that serendipitously appeared to me at the right place and time for me to make the correct astrological association. I have not read it yet, but it is now on my list strictly *because* of this connection!
Ignoring for a moment other potentially mitigating factors in an individual chart (say, having a strong Scorpio signature or a preponderance of Plutonic energies, for example) the above astrological statement holds quite true in my experience. It rarely occurs to Aries to dig deeper and/or that someone may be talking out their ass, outright lying, or harboring some kind of hidden agenda – there is something straightforward and uncomplicated about this sign where the default assumption is that everything must be quite simple, even when it isn’t. WYSIWYG is, like, their unofficial mantra or something.
I don’t know if that makes Aries naïve or gullible, but there you have it.
Yet with Aries’ ruling planet – Mars – now traversing intricate Scorpio more or less until August 2016, it behooves our Ram to realize that sometimes things are considerably more complex than they initially seem. For roughly the next 6 months, Aries gets a tactical immersion in covert or even psychological ops maneuvers which may or may not include: reconnaissance, surveillance, honing (metaphorical) sniper skillz, and/or baiting an adversary in order to draw out a negative reaction. It’s always warfare to Aries, but now it shifts over to more subtle methods…forget fistfights; it’s picking an opponent off with a strike-and-move gambit from the concealment of the shadows. Unsophisticated components of the persona can now be ditched to add an enriching layer of intrigue where Aries gets to go all “Secret Agent Man” for half a year.
Think: Less Archer, more Ethan Hunt.
All of that aside, there is yet another facet of Mars’ passage through Scorpio that is particularly important for Aries to be exploring now. Quite possibly one of the the highest-functioning uses of this energy, the theme in question is one of “Confronting the shadow within”. Since our brave Aries (and Scorpio) brethren do in particular take their cues from this planet, it looks as if they will definitely want to take note because there is a good chance they may find themselves imbued with the guts to do a little conquering of their Inner Demons sometime during this transit. This, however, is going to have to be a topic for another post…
One of my girlfriends recently shared this on Twitter, and I was immediately struck by the profound correlation it had to Saturn in Sagittarius square Neptune in Pisces! Coming to us via prima ballerina Dusty Button:
On point(e) during the Saturn/Neptune square!
Though this quote only represents one very specific facet of this square, the takeaway about it I think is her drive to achieve…she’s not just daydreaming her life away; she is making it so and bringing those dreams down to earth with lots of hard work! Just look at the photo – it’s not a pic of her all glammed up in a stage performance…nope, she shows us a behind-the-scenes look at her sweating and stretching it out in Practice Mode! I love the astrological metaphor of her foot (Neptune) reaching over the bar (Saturn) as well! So on a hunch, I decided to run her chart just to see how plugged into this energy she is – do you know she was born when Saturn and Neptune were last conjunct in Capricorn? Thus she is quite attuned to the current square indeed, and it looks like she can definitely teach us all a thing or two about this astrological energy! It’s also worth noting she is a Gemini Sun and will be strongly impacted by the June 17th hit of the Saturn/Neptune square this year. I love the quote, though, and think it to be some highly inspirational mojo to embrace during 2016 – let’s make it our motto!
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