Astrology for Creatives | Week of April 27, 2020 - the conversation changes, limits, rules, responsibilities, sudden insights, new ideas, surprising information, those rose colored glasses come out of the drawer

Pluto has just stationed retrograde.

We have multiple collective Pluto transits impacting us this year. Total transformation. Death and rebirth. Before and after. No going back. When we have personal Pluto transits and during these collective transits - Pluto rules the show - we have no choice in the timing, no choice in how these challenges will show up, no choice in our participation - crisis situations will simply arise out of the current circumstances of our lives. 

We have some "free will" when it comes to how we will respond (and I say "some" because much of our conditioning that influences our responses is and was out of our control, too),

but the timing, the ingredients (which we had "some" control over at some point based on our prior actions and in-actions, but not any longer)

and the duration of the challenges - this stuff is out of our hands.

Which is the good thing that only feels like a bad thing, because as clean and well-scrubbed as our hands are - they would surely still muck this all up. Life is giving us the gentlest path through these energies that lines up with our past and future.

Now, most Pluto transits are three-peats (thank God and Goddess not the Saturn/Pluto we had in January)- like this year's Jupiter/Pluto

(and I remember last year reading astronomers write how "Jupiter will give us Pluto in 2020" and thinking oh, that doesn't sound like what we want Jupiter to give us!).

We've had the first hit of the Jupiter/Pluto - the devastation (think nuclear explosion), the second is the emptiness/loneliness (the barren land of the explosion - June 30th exact) and the third is the very beginning of the rebirth (November 12th exact).

How we get through this and what we have left when Jupiter meets Saturn on the winter solstice in December is going to have more to do with how well we have raised the vibrational field that made us susceptible to "whatever the hell this is" in the first place .... maybe it shouldn't surprise us too much that it has taken our dark's shadow energy of fear to unite us.

(and, yes, we are divided about what to do about it and what we should be most afraid of, but the collective fear itself is something we can probably all agree upon)

As we find ways to work through our fear, our cynicism, our narcissistic worldview and as we hold a space for everyone, even the people we don't agree with (and not in some condescending bull-shitty way) we will start to raise ourselves out of this space - not to go back where we were before because that space is gone/ground is scorched - but toward something new and better for everyone.

I am going to write a May monthly post this week, so we can see further ahead and we talked a little bit about May HERE.

For this week, some big aspects and transits are:

MONDAY - Mercury into Taurus, Mercury sextiles North Node
TUESDAY - Mercury squares Saturn
WEDNESDAY - Pallas into Aquarius
THURSDAY - Mercury conjuncts Uranus
SUNDAY - Venus squares Neptune

So, we begin this week coming off the Sun meeting Uranus and Mercury squaring Jupiter on Sunday - and we are launched into another big week for Mercury (as us).

He/she is going to exit Aries (those fightin' words should simmer down a bit for now), enter muddy Taurus, chat up the North Node, fight with Saturn (authority/limits/responsibilities) and meet Uranus (sudden unexpected change, SURPRISES). The Moon will be in Cancer so facing off with that Cappy stuff, then the Moon will be in Leo and squaring the Aquarius and Taurus stuff - things will probably feel intense. More intense? No, not necessarily, but intense, yes.

With an active Mercury, one of the things to keep in mind is that Mercury is our perspective. Our point of view. We see everything through the personal lens of our own theories/beliefs. We kind of believe what we do and then look around (unconsciously usually) for what supports our ideas and beliefs and that's what we notice and the problem here - especially during times like these when we need to be seeing new things and thinking/communicating in new ways - is our perspective limits what we can actually see. It's like we have spent our life looking through a macro lens and don't know what is outside our viewfinder if we just change our setting.

On MONDAY, Mercury (communication, conversation, thoughts, ideas) moves into steady, grounded (and fixed) Taurus. Communications and thinking turn to practical things. In general, the pace slows, but as quick-moving Mercury flies into our Taurus house - the theme of that house becomes more active. Taurus gets results through self-sufficiency, by bringing ideas and concepts 'down to earth', by being sensible, by using what we have. This is not the time to enact complicated plans unless we want to make ourselves (and everyone else) crazy re-doing or rejecting them later. Better to drill down to the fundamentals now.

Keep things simple.

Now we have Mercury in Venus's sign - Taurus - and Venus in Mercury's sign - Gemini. These planets in mutual reception are strengthened now giving Mercury access to his home-boy energy of Gemini and Venus access to her home-girl energy of Taurus. So, even though they are not in places they are super happy to be or particularly strong, they are made stronger through their connection to each other (we can take a lesson, right?).

Also Venus, ahead of the Sun, is 'out of bounds' so not answering to the Sun's rules. Love, money, our values, beauty - it's kind of all up for grabs here. 

Within hours, Mercury (in Taurus now) sextiles the North Node - our collective way forward - in the sign of "home/family/mother/real estate/home business/family business/it's an inside job" Cancer. The North Node is in Cancer for only one more week!

This is information/communication that moves us forward. Pay attention to what comes to your attention now. This is a sextile, so our active participation is required. Watch your language because it will matter even more than usual. Talk about what you want and not what you don't want.

Now a heads up that Mercury is going to meet the Sun on Monday, May 4th - this is the day before the Nodes change from Cancer/Capricorn to Gemini/Sagittarius. This is the best aspect for clear communication and mental clarity - getting a solar reset just before the North Node, our collective way forward, starts answering to Mercury is mega-good news. Now at the same time they will be semi-square this same degree of the North Node in Cancer. So, likely whatever this is about for us today will become more clear next week, although not without potential future challenges (that semi-square) - a kind of subtle problem we will be prone to ignore. That perspective thing we talked about. So, keep that in mind.

On TUESDAY - Mercury (in Taurus now) squares Saturn (in Aquarius) - here is communications or information regarding restrictions and rules. Walls. Limits. Tension with authority. Maybe there is an ending. A "no". A responsibility/duty that must be talked about. Maybe our communications or commerce or access to some information is (and some people will get Mercury aspects as local community or sibling or transportation situations) stalled or restricted now.

On WEDNESDAY - Pallas (our strategic warrior energy) now follows Saturn into Aquarius. Excellent energy for solving problems in new and future-focused ways. Smart courage. We can access genius strategies now (also maybe some that are just cray-cray, that's ok). The challenge with Aquarius is we can get ahead of ourselves/move too fast/be ahead of our time, which is sometimes a good thing, but not always.

On THURSDAY - Now here is where Mercury meets Uranus (in Taurus). So, we had that limit/responsibility/ending/"no" earlier in the week (Tuesday, although it might not have happened exactly on Tuesday) and now here is a sudden, unexpected mental breakthrough. Liberating or unexpected news/information/conversations. Communications with groups/causes/maybe an actual Aquarius person.

There is a surprise here! Good news. Bad news. We can't see and again there is that perspective thing. Just know to expect the unexpected (yeah, I hate that expression, too). Coming after that square to Saturn it feels like a release though whatever it is.

On SUNDAY - here is the first of three Venus/Neptune squares. Tread carefully with anything that sounds too good to be true. Something could be very seductive now. Love/values/money can be dissolving or attached to something illusive/ghostly. There can be sweet talk, but empty words. Sweet nothings really are sweet nothings.

Venus in Gemini has expectations, but Neptune in Pisces can be disappointing. This is pretty much in play all of May and then comes back for a close-out at the end of July.

We talked about this in the New Moon post -

"Venus is in Gemini (mutable air), so already what we want/need/even love - is subject to change. This is flirty, not 'put a ring on it' energy. The upcoming squares to illusive and sometimes fantastical Neptune could certainly make something seem better than it actually is. Neptune has no boundaries - our values/our money/our resources/ our heart could be drained. We need to really think about (be sure we are dealing with reality here) any big commitments we are making with Venusian themes before August - when we get past that final square (the exact dates are May 3rd, May 20th and July 27th)."

xo all
photo by the talented DorottyaS

Today's Astrology Forecast | Thursday, April 23, 2020 - getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, a hunger for change, planning for the future, a long slow release of control, what is unfolding now is about more than now

The Moon traveling through Taurus (where she is exalted) perfects her conjunction with Uranus today. We talked about this in the New Moon post HERE. Maybe this is about getting more comfortable with being uncomfortable. With change. With disorder. With technology. Changes to our security/finances. Uranus seeks to liberate us, so confinement can feel more confining.

The Sun is going to shine a white hot spotlight here in a couple days - on our security/finances/resources - so this is kind of an emotional preview. We are downloaded with a hunger for change.

In the meantime, Ceres moves into Pisces for a long transit (back and forth due to her retrograde, but not out of Pisces for good until February 2021 when she moves into Aries and it's a whole new ballgame). Ceres was one of the important players in January's big "time runs out" palaver with Saturn and Pluto and Mercury, so we really need to pay attention.

Ceres is our Earth Mother energy, an asteroid promoted to dwarf planet at the discovery of Eris (when Pluto was demoted by astronomers from planet  to dwarf planet), she was synchronistically named for the Goddess of Agriculture, famous for her great grief when her daughter Persephone was stolen to the underworld by Pluto (maybe Eris got her a little revenge with Pluto's demotion). Later a deal was reached so Persephone would spend part of each year in the underworld with Pluto caring for the souls of the dead, but each spring would be reunited to her mother in the upper world as she initiated the dead into the rites of rebirth (spring).

She often activates themes of mothering/sometimes smother mothering, season of life issues, nature/weather/food situations, situations where we lack control, loss/endings, the need for important - can feel like life and death - compromises and negotiations.

In Pisces, we will be asked to release/let go, probably gradually, to situations/people we can't control. She will retrograde here, so we will be going back and forth over some situation. Maybe something that has been draining us. Maybe something where a sacrifice is required. With Pisces, since this is boundless/transcendent energy - answers are not clear. 

This is a let go and let God thing. We will trust the timing.  

Keep in mind what is unfolding in the world is about more than the moment it's unfolding. We are evolving from fear (of death, God, illness, standing on our own two feet, losing what we have) to the ability to have an experience of this without the fear. 

Everyone's ideas/actions/feelings are valid and needed - yes, even the people we don't agree with.

The Moon will start to square Mars late tonight (EDT) - this is where emotionally we want to stay safe and secure and hold onto what we have, but there is tension/frustration through a need for innovative action, movement that creates more freedom, idealistic courage. We could be feeling the stress of these two divergent things - within ourselves, through our situations and other people.

xo all

photo by the flickerees

New Moon in Taurus | April 22, 2020 - starting from where we are now, responsibilities and limits, a liberating chaos, changes with our resources and values, get your hands into some dirt

On Wednesday, April 22, 2020 the Moon meets the Sun at 3 degrees giving us this month's New Moon on Earth Day(!) in Mother Earth's sign of Taurus.

Ruled by Venus and ruler of the 2nd house. People don't always understand Taurus. It is like she is so simple, and these times we live in so complicated, we have made her complicated, too. She really isn't.

Taurus is the first of the Earth signs and is fixed earth - she is everything grounded.

Taurus is all about sensuality - the touch that feels like love. She is spring. Life. Mother Earth. Our natal planets in Taurus offer a promise of fruitfulness and growth in this lifetime; the promise of something better. Where is 3 degrees Taurus in your natal chart? What is the theme of that house? What needs to be planted?

Taurus is the energy that coaxes us out of our heads and back into our bodies at the end of a long day with a nice hot bath, she draws our hands to those tomato plants at the garden center and urges us to get them into the ground, she is the voice in us that instinctively whispers "I love you" when we stroke the baby's ear with our lips.

Let's unpack the chart!

The Moon (and Sun) are just past their square to sober Saturn and approaching their conjunction to liberating Uranus. I can't remember the last time we've had a New Moon that wasn't connecting with Uranus (change!).

Squaring Saturn we have these limits/responsibilities/slow-downs. Maybe we've heard a "no"/faced an important ending. This is in the past, but we continue to be impacted. Not quite out of the woods. Not free of this. There are things we will have to do without. Things we must do that we don't want to do.

The Taurus fresh start (slow to begin with, this being fixed earth and all) is SLOWED DOWN.

We are moving toward that conjunction with liberating (and chaotic, because liberation is chaotic) Uranus. This could portend changes with Taurean collective themes - our money, our resources, our values and self-esteem. Personally we deal with the energy of the collective theme and our natal/progressed houses impacted and have to factor in the state of our natal Venus. Taurus may not be complicated, but something here is. This stuff is already in play, but maybe at the time of the New Moon and three days later when the Sun does what the Moon is doing now - we get the spotlight on this stuff. Our attention is drawn to the CHANGE. To any threats to our security. The things we thought were solid, we are no longer quite so sure about. If we "own" things that are feeling like they are owning us - this is excellent energy to begin to separate from them.

Venus, ruler of Taurus, and this New Moon is walking degrees in Gemini she is going to walk two more times throughout her upcoming retrograde (post to follow). We will be going back and forth over this stuff - changing our mind, making decisions about what we value/need NOW.

She is past her conjunction to Vesta (guardian of our hearth and home, the stuff most precious to us, the stuff that can keep us up all night). This was exact about a week ago - when maybe we got really focused on something - and they have one more meeting on May 15th while Venus is retrograde (they don't have a third, so probably whatever this is won't feel quite finished). So, in mid-May we have a re-do, a re-vision, a re-visiting of whatever we we got hooked on back on April 14th. So, maybe at the time of this New Moon, we are kind of thinking this thing is somewhat settled, but it isn't ...

Venus is conjunct asteroid Hygiea - we are taking care of ourselves, maintaining healthy practices, washing our hands. I would expect with both Hygiea and Venus trining an active Mars (in Aquarius) some ingenious ideas regarding healthy practices/actions - at the very least - to come in now.

Venus is applying to a square to Neptune, which is still wide, but since it's an important repeating aspect (through the end of July) and Neptune hasn't been this far into Pisces since the build up to the Civil War, let's look at it. Venus is in Gemini (mutable air), so already what we want/need/even love - is subject to change. This is flirty, not 'put a ring on it' energy. The upcoming squares to illusive and sometimes fantastical Neptune could certainly make something seem better than it actually is. Neptune has no boundaries - our values/our money/our resources/ our heart could be drained. We need to really think about (be sure we are dealing with reality here) any big commitments we are making with Venusian themes before August - when we get past that final square (the exact dates are May 3rd, May 20th and July 27th).

We'll talk about this more as we move through it - but heads up - and some of this will probably not be avoidable and we don't want to avoid all the stuff we would later call "mistakes" anyway, but it's certainly something to think about as we make new decisions and choices from May through July. This isn't an excuse to stay safe and stuck though.

Black Moon Lilith is exactly opposing Juno. This is like the 'other woman' and the wife, one in Aries and other in Libra, asking us - who are we loyal to? Ourselves or someone else? Independence or cooperation? There is no right or wrong answer here. EVERYONE GETS A SEAT AT THE TABLE.

And Juno is retrograde so we will be re-visiting this in the beginning of September.

This makes me think about the lock-down protestors vs their state governments or we could even say vs the people who think the lock-downs are totally necessary.

I would say this - the North Node is moving into Gemini in two weeks - we are going to be changing our minds about all kinds of things over the next 18 months. 

I wouldn't get too wedded to our beliefs with this kind of stuff. We can all be right and we can all be wrong at the same time. 

It's probably good for the spread of this dis-ease (although I can't say that for sure, but I'm saying it anyway) that most people are home and not protesting. On the other hand (and I can't say this for sure either, but I'm saying it anyway) those protestors could be the only thing standing between us and an untested vaccine with a tracking chip. 

We are in the energies that have led us to war over and over again including the Revolutionary War and the Civil War (not to mention the witch trials, girls!). The Gemini/Sag nodal access was in effect during both World Wars and the Iraq War. If this doesn't convince us we need to bring everyone to the table now I don't know what will!

There are compromises here - ways to do this together. We will need everyone.

Back to the chart - Ceres - who could one day be the ruling planet for Taurus - is at the important, final degree of Aquarius trining that North Node (although out of sign), the Node preparing to move into Gemini. New ideas. New choices. The planet will be heard. Mothers/mothering situations will be heard.

The ways we are reacting and responding to any challenges to our own authority WILL BE HEARD.

Ceres is Mother Earth and is about the reality of shared power and an important player at that January pow-wow. She gets a BIG say now. And look at Eris (the angry outsider) still squaring that Cappy pile-up - it was her discovery that elevated Ceres to dwarf planet status in the first place.

Stay in your magic, people!

NEW MOON INTENTIONS 

This new moon in Taurus is an excellent time to begin a grounding practice, make affirmations and set intentions about Taurean ruled themes (also the theme of your natal Taurus house): love, money, contentment with what we already have, patience, self-worth, releasing stubbornness, health issues regarding our neck, throat and voice in the world - this would be a great time to start a singing practice or class, simply committing to singing loud and strong every time we are in the car can begin to carry our voice to new spaces and places (are you wanting to get your voice heard? think about it, I am totally serious, this is how life works) - nutrition, nature, self-care.

AFFIRMATION TIPS: get into a happy, contented frame of mind - HUG A TREE (she needs you, too!) - always make affirmations from a positive place, and both definitions of positive apply here - happy and certain. Write your affirmations down by hand in script, speak them out loud - then release your attention from these things knowing that your intention is known.  

Know these things are already yours.

xo all

Weekly Astrology Forecast | Week of April 20, 2020 - signs, roadblocks, hidden information comes to light, breakthroughs, resource issues, journey to pantisocracy (yes, that's a word), a New Moon and Pluto stations retrograde

This is another BIG week with multiple pivot points, challenges and opportunities. The beginning, the middle and the end of the week all have major aspects!

We'll flesh this all out with some dailies when we factor in the Moon, but here is most of what we are looking at:

SUNDAY - Sun enters Taurus
MONDAY - Sun sextiles the North Node
TUESDAY - Sun squares Saturn
WEDNESDAY - New Moon in Taurus (3 degrees)
THURSDAY - Ceres enters Pisces
SATURDAY - Mercury squares Pluto, Mercury conjuncts Eris, Pluto stations retrograde
SUNDAY - Mercury squares Jupiter, Sun conjuncts Uranus

Heads up that Mercury is doing this week, what Mars is going to be doing AUGUST THROUGH DECEMBER up to three times (Mercury just does this once!) - see that post HERE,

so we will get a heads-up this week via Mercurian information/communication, about what that AUGUST THROUGH DECEMBER Mars transit will likely be about for us personally and collectively.

We want/need to be paying attention!!

Keep in mind the days listed here are when these energies are most exact (EDT), but we could be dealing with them days before or after as they build and unwind themselves.

SUNDAY - We start burning Taurus fuel as the Sun moves into the sign of Mother Earth.

Taurus is the nuts and bolts of life. She rules our second house of everything important money can buy and everything important money can't. She rules food and nourishment. She rules the sensual touch that feels like love. She rules our resources - our money, the planet. She rules our self-esteem and values.

Taurus is the space in your natal chart that naturally encloses what we are here to nurture, preserve and grow. It may be a space we have a bit less passion and ambition because we most naturally feel the need to sustain what takes root here. A bird in the hand thing usually applies to the theme of whatever space Taurus occupies in our natal chart.

Taurus energy is cautious because the thing we are holding/carrying here is precious.

(it can also become the fear-based space where good things go to die - and then we carry around a bunch of dead stuff like a crate of rotted vegetables and wonder why we are so tired all the time, and smell like brussel sprouts - although not so much these days with chaotic Uranus in the extra bedroom)

MONDAY - The Sun (in Taurus now, but you know that already) sextiles the North Node in Cancer.  

This is a spotlight on the future. 

Pay attention to what comes to your attention now. A specific situation could beckon to us - "Here I am. I am your purpose." If you have a planet or point on or near 1 degree Cancer or 1 degree Taurus you will feel this energy strongest. Sextiles are not done deals though - some action on our part will be required.

TUESDAY - The Sun squares Saturn (in Aquarius). For some people this could color the beginning of the week with stress/tension/depression.

Limits/standstills. External pressure. Everything just feels like hard work.

Saturn in Aquarius is bringing us disruptive restrictions, but the Sun in Taurus likes things smooth and easy.

So, maybe a light shines on why we are being blocked and what obligations remain. Maybe a light shines on the way our fears have governed us into thinking and acting as we do.

The Sun's square to Saturn speaks of the need for patience/responsibility, but isn't all bad. Keep in mind Saturnian squares can build real, solid things over time if we make the effort to work with them - to give both the Sun (in solid, practical Earth here) and Saturn (in future focused, liberating air) their due. The kind of things that won't be knocked away easily are being built from the ground up.

The kind of things that can't easily be taken away from us.

WEDNESDAY - The Taurus Moon meets the Taurus Sun at 3 degrees giving us this month's New Moon - conjunct Uranus and squaring Saturn, it's a powerhouse - post to follow!
 
THURSDAY - Ceres (nurturing, loss, mothering, food, seasons of life issues, control issues) moves into Pisces today. Ceres themes become more emotional. Endings/losses within these themes maybe become more likely as Ceres moves into the final sign, but they can also be more gentle and gradual.

Ceres is going to station retrograde in Pisces, so other than a few weeks (end of September to beginning of November) that she retrogrades back into Aquarius, she will be in Pisces through the rest of the year. Since Pisces is the last sign, and can feel like a kind of winter and Ceres is about the seasons and our food - this is another indication issues like food shortages could continue and might get bigger this year.

SATURDAY/SUNDAY - Mercury meets Eris and squares Pluto (then Jupiter) as Pluto stations retrograde plus the Sun meets Uranus.

This is uber POWERFUL and impacting us for a couple days before and after. Let's unpack it.

Mercury meeting Eris (in Aries!) is likely to bring angry words. Lots of voices who haven't been heard are getting a voice this year. And they are pissed off. Any words we've kept a lid on will be boiling up.

The square to Pluto brings intensity - the feeling of life or death to situations - power struggles, manipulations, compulsions, suspicions. Challenges with Plutonian issues - sex, life/death, reproduction, financial issues, third party situations, power plays, the stuff that gets done behind closed doors and in the dark. We could be called to face our fears/deal with the stuff we don't want to deal with. Dark secrets could be spilled. Maybe something comes to light that was buried.

Pluto is standing still at retrograde and let's just say he is very .. dangerous. I'd say no dark alleys for any of us, but we know that already. If you are quarantined I will add - no dark hallways. Like seriously. Turn the light on.

As Mercury squares Pluto/Jupiter we (or someone else) could be speaking out with confidence and power, but with Pluto's retrograde there could be some kind of immediate pull back or about face. The pressure could also hit hard and then quickly ease off.

At the same time the Sun meets Uranus (in Taurus). Taurus is about our food supply, too, so this again could be bigger issues there coming to light. Taurus also rules our money and resources. The Sun makes something clear/brings this into the spotlight. Changes to our income/to what we perceive as valuable/to our self-esteem are possible.

So are personal/collective BREAKTHROUGHS.

Collectively this could put a spotlight on medical/scientific/future leaning breakthroughs! A brilliant spark is lit. 

Pluto stations retrograde. 

Pluto's retrogrades are times to do some deep inner work. Fear that is ripe for release will come up to be looked at/felt. Fear can arise through uncomfortable situations, but we can see it for what it is, ask ourselves if it serves us any longer and decide what to do with it.

Really deep insights are possible while Pluto is retrograde and he is particularly powerful when he stations. 

Pushing against these seemingly never ending blockages, trying to over-control stuff now and swim upstream (you don't look like a salmon to me) are going to be hard going. Outworn controls, rules and power systems get re-looked at. The big-money bailouts will almost certainly be back in the news and get some re-visions.

After this weekend, the feeling of life and death urgency should start to ease up - the Plutonian death cycle becomes an inside job as we go back over old control issues, financial maneuverings, power struggles, mergings and purgings.

This 'death postponed' period doesn't mean the virus is going to just disappear, this is just a retrograde, Pluto will be direct again in October.

I have to think though the planet of 'death' stationing retrograde during a pandemic means something and we have both Saturn and Jupiter stationing retrograde over the next couple weeks, so we shall see what happens.

There is just no way to know ...

Since the discovery of Pluto (and the nuclear age he ushered in) we have had the power to destroy ourselves and have been charged/gifted with the duty of becoming a world incapable of using that power. We rise or we fall. Whatever it takes. We are entering a new realm of what is real - powered by the karma of our collective death anxiety and a little fellow named corona. We do it alone AND we do it together at the same time.


xo all

With Mercury (thinking, communicating, information) going to be uber active this week, why not ponder the word "pandemic" itself and also Mercury's son "Pan" and any mythological significance to our current challenging chapter.

The word pandemic makes me think of panic and pandemonium, of course. But also pantries and panhandlers and pancakes. Pancakes, right?

And, of course, pantisocracy (who knew there was such a thing!) - society where all are equal and all rule

The difference between a pantisocracy and a democracy is the difference between - all equal and all rule vs rule by the people - which at first sounds like the same thing, but we know democracy really becomes "rule by the majority" and not even the majority, but by the majority's elected representatives, and we can see how this isn't really working out anymore no matter who we elect.

Imagine a pandemic leading to a pantisocracy? I can!

The word pandemic itself comes (according to Websters) from the ancient Greek pandemos, which means pertaining to all people.

And Greek leads us to the mythological God 'Pan' and of course 'Pandora' and her opened box of all sorts of ills.

Let's start with Pan.

Pan, was the son of Mercury (Hermes to the Greeks) and, possibly Penelope (?), but this part is a bit fuzzy. He was a strong and fast half-man, half-goat God and lived in the wild, mountainous land of Arcadia.

(Cappy goat)

Pan spent his days wandering the forest, playing his pipes, chasing nymphs and napping. Although usually sort of an amiable fellow, to wake Pan from his napping, was known by the people of the area, to be not such a good idea.

He would let out an angry and blood-curdling scream that left anyone within earshot with an overwhelming sensation of fear and anxiety. PANIC. In this way he protected his forests and his own forty winks.

(protector of the natural world)

It is important to note their fear of Pan wasn't because of anything Pan did after that soul-shattering scream - he didn't proceed to chop off their heads or call up tree roots to drag them down to Pluto - this was about the feelings he stirred in them - he SCARED THE HELL OUT OF THEM.

Sometimes he even SCARED THEM TO DEATH.

(death anxiety, the only thing to fear is fear itself)

Another interesting thing about Pan is his connection to Midas.

Midas was the king who foolishly, after saving Silenus and granted one wish by Dionysus, asked for the power to turn anything he touched into gold. This worked out well for Midas for about a New York minute, until he tried to eat and drink, and then foolishly touched his own daughter turning her into gold, too

(makes me think of Trump, of course, but Midas is uber activated in all of us now as our bodies fill with anxiety-filled survival hormones and we realize the 'gold' we thought would keep us safe is looking more and more like fool's gold in the harsh light of 2020).

When King Midas begs him to be released from this death dealing golden touch, Dionysus (the striker of hard, but compassionate deals) agrees, but only if he washes in the source of the river Pactolus, knowing for Midas this humble pilgrimage alone and unaided is what’s really required.

(we've had this whole personal and collective 'humbling' theme going on with the South Node in Capricorn)

After some time in the forest, we assume spent embracing solo survival methods, Midas meets Pan who befriends him and helps reconnect the King to his wild, earthy roots.

(Cancer North Node, strength through vulnerability, coming home to ourselves)

We could stop here, and maybe we should, because there already feels some connection to our current circumstances, but since the Pan/Midas story has another chapter (although I'm not quite sure what to make of it just yet) - here it is.

Some years later, Pan who by now has mastered the pipes he invented from reeds, foolishly challenges Sun God Apollo to a musical contest in which one of the judges is King Midas. The other judges all declare Apollo the winner, but Midas votes for Pan (maybe out of gratitude for their days in the wild, maybe because he truly loved Pan's music more, who knows), angering Apollo who gives the king embarrassing "ass's ears" to improve his hearing.

In some tellings, Midas calls out to Pan for help, and Pan turns away.

(?)

And guess who was conjunct the North Node in Cancer (our way forward) back in January when the WHO was reporting a new virus and China was reporting their first death from that virus - a retrograde asteroid Pan!

The next time Pan meets the North Node will be on May 27, 2021 in Gemini ....

We'll work this out some more in another post and see what we can glean from Pandora ...


xo all

photo by the amazing oprisco