August 2016 – Turning a Major Historical Corner ~ July 24, 2016

Looks like it’s time for things to get bumpy in August as we have another lunar eclipse at the full moon on August 18, or perhaps get even bumpier than they are right now? Time to settle in, watch the show, and…

InJoy!

August’s Aspects

August and September, with their series of 3 eclipses, will mark a pivotal point in the breakdown of the global oligarchy – in the breakdown of the global political and economic power of the 1%. In this post, I will focus on the first of these eclipses, taking place at the Full Moon of August 18 UT.

The good news is that we are beginning a phase in the transition away from global oligarchy that we have been looking forward to. The bad news is that it will be a long and difficult transition.

The Lunar Eclipse at the Full Moon on August 18, UT

The North Node gives eclipses their meaning. Presently, the North Node in Virgo is strongly expressing the need for an objective, down-to-earth and selfless approach to resolving numerous and still rapidly increasing global issues.

By all accounts, the forces of oligarchy represent the opposite of the values supported by the Virgo North Node. So, logically, this pivotal battle should and probably will be decided in favor of the 99%. Ultimately.

It just will not be an easy or quick victory and the outcome is not fully guaranteed. The conflicts in the chart will play out in the realm of communication. These conflicts will also be intense.

The communication process itself is seriously afflicted, though. Resulting conflicts are highly likely to overflow into behavior, and not always in a good way.

To understand the astrological source of these difficulties, we need only look at a few of August’s more prominent aspects.

August’s Version of the Mutable T-Square

The dominant aspect in the August 18 eclipse chart is an updated version of the mutable T-Square that has dominated the charts since it took shape in the fall of 2015.

The base of this T-Square sets, as it always has, along the critically important nodal axis, the line connecting the North and South Nodes. There is no more sensitive or powerful axis in the astrology chart.

The energies affecting the nodal axis are powerfully communicated to every region of and aspect in the chart. And in this chart, there is a lot of complicated, difficult and downright dangerous stuff going on along the nodal axis. Or should I say, the most dangerous stuff going on in this chart directly affects the nodal axis.

In the August 18 version, or ‘iteration,’ of this T-Square, its base is formed by an opposition: retrograde Chiron opposes a Mercury/Jupiter conjunction. The nodal axis, then, is heavily afflicted by this highly problematic aspect. This same aspect will seriously resist the work of the North Node in Virgo, and vice versa.

The Unusual Power of the Mutable T-Square During August’s Lunar Eclipse

The power of the mutable T-Square is augmented by an unusually powerful Mercury. Mercury has had its muscular little fingers in a lot of pies lately; it is affecting many lines of causality and synchronicity and will continue to do so into the future. This is very clear in August’s eclipse chart.

Mercury transited (eclipsed or occulted) the Sun on May 9th at the time of Jupiter’s return to forward movement. This renewed and foregrounded Mercury’s power. Also, the simple fact that Mercury will be near the North Node during the eclipse will increase its importance.

When everything is taken into account, Mercury is the strongest planet by far in the dispositor chart of the August eclipse. It overrides the importance of strongly placed Sun and Neptune, each in their own home sign.

Mercury also ‘disposes’ of, or channels, the influence of the Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto. It’s complicated, but this lineup in the dispositor chart puts these bodies at a considerable disadvantage.

Their power is subordinated to that of diminutive Mercury. The great energetic river formed by their combined streams must all flow through Mercury’s narrow gate, with considerable complications along the way.

This will create severe bandwidth issues throughout the month. The elements of this potent and complex but tangled stream of energies will struggle mightily to express themselves simultaneously through Mercury’s comparatively narrow and highly specialized modalities.

They will frequently find themselves competing aggressively with each other for passage. Then they will struggle mightily to escape Mercury in Virgo’s many narrow filters.

It is difficult to overstate the scale of Mercury’s influence during the August eclipse. It is equally difficult to overstate the degree of Mercury’s affliction. The astrological handicaps under which it will labor to perform its inordinately difficult task will be numerous and daunting.

A Powerful Mercury, Powerfully Afflicted

There will often be insuperable obstacles to successful communication at all levels in August and beyond. Indeed, simple, seemingly straightforward, routine communication can explode. In August, regardless of the seeming importance or unimportance of the issues, or how casual a conversation might seem to be at the time, it would be best to proceed with caution.

Overreaction is the order of the day. People will be primed to take offense and give offense in return. Sometimes it might just be best to hold your peace, no matter what you think is at risk.

On the micro level, the result of miscommunication might be estrangement, lost friendships, broken agreements and lost partners. On the macro – or national and global levels – the results might be broken alliances, shattered treaties, and failed trade deals. Hostile, unguarded diplomatic exchanges might lead to open warfare.

Mercury conjunct Jupiter is opposite Chiron Retrograde

Much of the difficulty will come from retrograde Chiron’s opposition to the Jupiter/Mercury conjunction in Virgo. Retrograde Chiron’s negative potential is strongly enhanced.

Retrograde Chiron’s opposition is likely to draw discussions in the direction of old bitterness, simmering grievance and lingering grudge. It can stir pain in wounds nearly forgotten but not fully healed. It can inflame feelings about real or imagined attacks on personal beliefs. A Chiron opposition is also a prolific source of imagined threat or offense.

The negative potentialities of retrograde Chiron’s opposition are multiplied by its nearness to Neptune, retrograde Nessus, the South Node and the influence of Pisces generally.

Retrograde Nessus will hasten the manifestation of negativity and quickly dredge up guilt and pain. The effect would be to diminish our sense of self-worth and darken our interpretation of other people’s motives.

Neptune will further increase the likelihood of confusion, weak, self-deceptive, even delusional reasoning. The South Node, for its part, will make errors in reasoning and all these other ill-advised seem attractive.

This combination of negative placements makes the odds of failed communication very high indeed.

None of these influences, alone or in combinati0n, would be conducive to successful communication and positive outcomes. Disagreement could arise completely unexpectedly and quickly become heated and even violent.

Mars/Saturn Conjunction in Sagittarius – a T-Square + Flint and Steel

Mars and Saturn are conjunct in Sagittarius at the apex of the mutable T-Square. This fiery, explosive conjunction squares both poles of the Mercury/Jupiter/Chiron opposition during the eclipse.

This will further multiply the already considerable negative potential of the Mercury/Jupiter/Chiron opposition. In sum, it will dramatically raise the likelihood of miscommunication and worsen its consequences.

Retrograde Pluto is exactly conjunct the fixed star Vega, opposite the asteroid Vesta.

During the August eclipse, a Pluto/Vega conjunction is exact to within about 16 minutes of arc – i.e., extremely exact. A Pluto/Vega conjunction is rare.

It occurs roughly every 248 years. It last occurred in about 1767-8 at the dawn of an era of world historical revolution.

Vega dramatically enhances charm, glamour and charisma generally. Pluto is an intensifier of feeling and a powerful motivator of radical, even revolutionary action.

Combined, Pluto and Vega can generate intensely charismatic and thoroughly irrational appeal. This in turn can inspire fierce, unreasoning loyalty. This in its turn can inspire fanaticism and zealotry.

The asteroid Vesta, for its part, governs earnest devotion to a principle or ideal. Opposite the exact Pluto/Vega conjunction, Vesta can easily produce a fiery clash.

This opposition takes place in cardinal signs, along the Capricorn/Cancer axis, its volatile influence will be complicated and compounded by the lingering power of the Uranus/Pluto square.

This Pluto/Vega/Vesta influence, combined with the influence of the Chiron/Mercury/Jupiter opposition and the Saturn/Mars conjunction, is highly conducive to overheated, irrational rhetoric and the violence to which such rhetoric often gives rise.

Outcomes Might Not Be What You Hope

Under the influence of the eclipse, negative tactics, no matter how appealing or even irresistible they seem, could backfire badly, either in the moment or in the future.

This would seem to put the offender at a disadvantage. However, in present circumstances, a penalty on the offender could easily overflow and engulf bystanders, including those offended.

Regardless of whoever has the right of it, social unrest brought on by a violation of the North Node’s mandate, could overflow, translating into misfortune for the righteous too. Violence is contagious and unrest tends to overflow boundaries.

Consider Also The Asteroids – The Pervasiveness of Transformative Process

It is clear from the nature of the mutable T-Square, placed so strongly in August’s eclipse chart, that August’s intense conflicts will largely be rooted in the realm of ideas and beliefs. It will be about the rightness or wrongness of beliefs, the soundness of arguments presented in their defense and the motives behind them.

Ideology will be pitted sharply against ideology, religious belief against religious belief, scientific theory against scientific theory, dogma against dogma, motive against motive, and everything in between.

Where the Asteroids Come Into It

A consideration of the asteroids would give us a very clear idea of the scale of the process supported by the mutable T-Square and the possible scope of the conflict.

As I have tried to show in previous posts, the asteroids have a great deal to do with the ideas by which we govern our lives and our societies. If we add up the areas influenced by the better known asteroids (Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta, Chiron, Pholus, Nessus, Chariklo, Ixion, Quaoar and Eris) we come up with whole worldviews full of ideas from around the globe.

Quaoar in August

For the present, let’s consider the asteroid Quaoar and its role during the August eclipse.

During the eclipse, retrograde Quaoar will be in all but perfect conjunction with the Galactic Center in Sagittarius. This conjunction is also rare. It occurs once every 286 years, give or take. The last such conjunction occurred during the run up to the historic revolutions at the end of the 19th century.

Quaoar is associated with the creation and maintenance of large belief systems of all kinds. It governs our ability to keep our worldview up to date, and our ability to change it as knowledge and circumstance change.

Quaoar’s influence is all inclusive in this regard. It affects every facet of every existing belief system.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the Galactic Center is a major source, perhaps even the primary source, of transformative sacred energy. The precise conjunction of Quaoar and the Galactic Center sends immeasurably large amounts of transformative and uplifting sacred energy surging through the world’s belief systems. Especially with Quaoar retrograde in Sagittarius, it inspires the vigorous updating and upgrading of the totality of ideas in the totality of global worldviews.

Subjectively, the conjunction would make us feel an urgent need, even a sacred duty, to update and upgrade our beliefs – along with everyone else’s, for that matter.

The transformative energy from the Galactic Center will affect all of our beliefs. Nothing and no one will be excluded. Quaoar’s conjunction with the Galactic Center, then will dramatically augment the transformative effects of the eclipse.

The Other Asteroids

In the interests of brevity, let me just say that the other commonly observed asteroids are centrally involved in the dynamic of the Mutable T-Square. These other asteroids are also strongly placed. Hence, the kind of reasoning applied to Quaoar will apply to the other asteroids.

The forces at work in August and beyond will inundate the totality of our global idea systems. We are slowly emerging from a time when greed was exalted to the level of a virtue. All respect for facts and sound reason was abandoned. Virtually the totality of the ideas that govern the conduct of our individual and collective affairs are now deeply flawed.

I don’t think we want to underestimate the scale of the impact that the upcoming eclipses, including August’s eclipse, will have. When an irresistible demand for truth collides with so many flawed ideas, trouble is sure to follow.

On an individual level, be careful what you say and to whom you say it in August and the weeks and months to follow. Listen carefully to what others say, also.

It will be far too easy to spark animosity, to overreact to an imagined insult, to mistake a lie for the truth, or vice versa. It could be some time, I think, before the fires thus ignited are quenched and the intellectual air is safe to breath unfiltered.

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