Sun Leads old Moon into Leo

Sun enters Leo 11:16am today (Raleigh, NC).  10:16am for our friends in Memphis, TN.  The invisible old Moon will be close behind, entering Leo at 4:34am Sunday.

Consulting our ancient mandala <<<click on link to go to zodiac mandala, locating Leo (bottom right), we see Sun rules in that sign.  While you are at the mandala take a look at Cancer on the bottom (just before Leo, going counter clockwise).  See the Moon listed as ruler of Cancer.The

So the Sun and Moon are coruling.  Ego and soul are both strong and working together.  But by Sun morn the power will not be shared so equally, for the Moon, while fun and inspiring in Leo is not in power.  These last 20 or so hours of the Moon in Cancer are like a period of nurturing preparation before the big event.

What big event?  The Sun meeting Mars in Leo.  The Sun meets Mars about every 26 months.  Each meeting happens about 2 signs further in the zodiac than the last.  For instance Sun met Mars in Aquarius during the period Hosni Mubarak was struggling to hold power in the face of thousands of protesters demanding his resignation in early Feb 2011. 

Sun is in its detriment in Aquarius.  Any planet opposite its ruling sign is in the weakest position to fulfill its mandate.  For example Venus, the planet of kindness, rules in Libra and is in detriment in Aries.  List showing planets in detriment.  <<Click on link and scroll down to 2nd list.  The list is just a more explicit rundown of rulership/detriment info in zodiac mandala.

So the big light of everyone's life ceded power to the military when Sun met Mars in Aquarius. Two years and 2 months later Sun met Mars in Aries during the hunt for the bombers of the Boston Marathon.  Sun was 31 minutes behind Mars the moment of first explosion and was overtaking Mars during the hunt.  When the surviving brother was captured the Sun was 24 minutes ahead of Mars.
The last meeting, in Gemini in 2015 was June 17 marked by the Charleston  Church shooting.  A young man sat in the evening congregation, passing himself off as a fellow worshipper, and then pulled out his automatic handgun and killed 9 people.  Sun was 56 minutes ahead of Mars at the moment of the shooting.

This time they meet July 26 at 4 Leo.  The closest lineup is 00:57 (July 27) Universal Time which translates to 8:57pm July 26 in  Raleigh.

Please, please use this information only as a launch for meditating on the inevitability of violence.  We consume a variety of life forms  every day, people are dying violent deaths every day.  When the Sun meets Mars it just is a matter of ego and will coming together.  We are here to learn how to control ourselves while living among others, some with more self control set good examples and bring stability, others with less self control give us opportunities to control ourselves in the face of challenge.   

The above examples are hard-to-ignore dramatic events, but there is also a story that was unfolding in each of our lives.  Can you recall something about your life during past Sun Mars meetings.  It is a revealing meditation to cycle through the dates of Sun Mars meetings and recall events in your life.  Surprising and enlightning story lines emerge and your sense of your own history takes on a more organized and forgiven theme.

One last note; while the last three meetups were marked by dramatic events, I don't see a comparable event for the Sun Mars conjunction in Aug 10, 2002.  That's the most recent conjunction occurring in the sign Leo.  Things were calmer then compared to the last 6 years of Uranus in Aries.  Still if you can recall what was going on in your life in late summer 2002 you can get an idea of how the ego is becoming more determined to have fun or get its way in a relatively controlled environment.  Now transfer that determination to express yourself in the relative calm of 2002 to the protracted explosion of 2017. Another difference in this meetup is that the lead time was mostly in Cancer, we only now see the Sun entering Leo in the last 4 days before the meeting.  In 2002 the Sun was in Leo, therefor ruling, for 17 days before meeting the martial planet.

The first chart for today shows Sun entering Leo and Moon at 19 Cancer.  You can see Sun a few degrees behind Mars. 

The Sun and Mars will be lined up July 26 8:57pm EDT

Observing Line up of Sun with Mars

I've been reading the histories of Polybiius (Punic Wars around 250bc-lots of battles at sea and on land between Rome and Carthage) and watching the Sun gradually catching up to Mars.  Right now, while the Sun is in the way, we can only know where Mars is by reading charts and following the numbers that gauge its progress around the ecliptic.  I have mentioned before, this is the kind of knowing Plato (writing about a century before Punic Wars) was trying to foster in so many of his writings.  Going beyond the limits of the senses to the spiritual - we can't know Mar's whereabouts through the senses only, but must exercise our minds to deduce its location.  This 'knowing' came to be celebrated as a cult in later centuries, called Gnosticism.  

It wasn't popular in Plato's time though, which had a little, but not all, to do with the trial and execution of his teacher, Socrates. This form of knowing only became popular in the west long after Plato was writing.  By the time this form of knowing became an entrenched social movement scant few followers had access to the actual writing of Plato, much less knowledge of the cycles of the planets. The Macedonian Hellenistic empire that followed Plato's times had long since given way to the Romans and the Romans in turn were falling to the Goths. 

I have read  that Augustine of Hippo (writing around 400ad) never learned Greek though he wanted to, and that he originally had great hopes of learning about the lunar eclipse cycle from the Manichean Faustus.  Faustus had a big reputation and Augustine was told by many, "that's the man you want to meet, he'll be able to tell you everything you want to know."   Pardon the quotes, don't mean to be misleading about rigorous documentation, especially regarding the famous figure {who came to be 'known' in German legend as a magician in league with the devil.}  The statement in brackets is based on a wikipedia paragraph suggesting  the original Faust, behind the German legend, was the Manichean Augustine debated in Contra Faustum.  That paragraph and link has been deleted.  There is now a link to an article about  Johann  Faust born around 1480.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Georg_Faust

Sorry for the confusion!  

Well, apparently Faustus did not know much of anything about planetary cycles.  He was just a charismatic guy who knew a minimum about astronomy/astrology and preached a rather forbidding path to salvation.  Augustine ended up publishing responses to counter the preachings of Faustus around the time Rome was succumbing to the invading Gothic warriors.  Augustine espoused a message of inclusion and forgiveness and pointed out how the pacifist impoverished Christians were the only ones spared by the  invaders.

Faustus was not a Gnostic, his learning originated further to the east than the teachings handed down from Plato.  My point here is that by the time of Rome's fall and the subsequent rise of Christianity, few people in that area of the world had access to good information about planetary cycles.  Gnosticism was a faint shadow of the kind of knowledge advocated by Plato. 

I try to understand the rise of Christianity in the context of history, it helps me understand the changing fortunes of astrology (ha ha).

Well this morning I was taking a break from Polybius and the ascent of the Romans and meditating on the soul.  I recalled that it was in the context of talking about the soull that I first heard of Plato in elementary school.  The nuns were fond of talking about the soul, the ones at my school were from the Sisters of St. Joseph.  Maybe that's a more philosophical order than some others.  They wore the complete habit back in those days with the rigid bib and triangle head thing atop a complete face encircling enclosure.  It was like their whole head waa encased in a special white wrap of thick linen. A white frame rose from that wrap to form a slightly concave platform just a few inches above the head, and yards of black silky fabric was draped in layers over the whole set up.  When they weren't teaching in the class, or playing with the children at recess, or chatting among themselves, they could be seen touching the beads on the rosary that hung from the waist.
That was my first exposure to women meditating in moments between interactions with others.

My reverie of nuns and philosophy of the soul led to Socrates and his trial.  I could only find the year, not the month or day  he drank the tea.  Then I went back to the year of the Thirty Tyrants.  With the financial backing of Cyrus the Younger, Spartan warriors got the better of Athens and Sparta installed a group of thirty men to govern the famously democratic city. Their brief and bloody rulership came to be known as The Thirty Tyrants and lasted from the end of 404B.C. to the beginning of 403B.C..

The chart is for the beginning of 403bc when a group of Greek exiles were organizing the battle to overthrow the Spartan sponsored group of tyrants.

The first thing that got my attention was Uranus meeting Neptune which happens about once every 150 years.  If you take a minute or two to examine the chart you will notice another historic lineup -Jupiter and Saturn in Libra.  That meet up of Uranus and Neptune is a much bigger deal, but the Jupiter Saturn meeting adds interest to an already rare occasion.

I guess that's enough from me today.  It is dark now and the skies are clear.  I have a date with a beginner's telescope and the dark side of heaven.

Splitting Albireo

I saw my first double star last night through a beginners' telescope handed down to me from a customer.  I'm not absolutely positive of the 4:46 time.  I know Venus was up fairly high because I had been looking at it and Aldebaran when I swung the scope around to the west and remembered a Raleigh Astronomy Club member showing me Alberio in his telescope.  What looked through my binoculars like a generic white star, appeared as two stars, one faint white and another, clearly separated by a couple millimeters, fainter and very blue.  It was really cool to get it in the field of view and see the pair again.

Earlier, around 1:20 or later am, I had been looking at the late rising Moon, Vega and a couple other stars in Lyra.

Every time I managed to aim the scope at an objective and get a clear magnified view I became more confident and eager to see something else through the magic tube. 

When I remembered Alberio and got that I started to send an email to the RAC member who helped and encouraged me on my first observation outing.  It was a real thrill which I knew he would be pleased to hear about.  Instead I made a chart and will save the memory to tell him the next time we see each other at a club meeting.

I really like the group of people.  Their love of astronomy and committment to forming a welcoming community  is infectious. 

Faulkner: The Goodwill of a Libra Author

I am reading Faulkner's Go Down Moses, with help from shmoop and wikipedia sorting out the many generations of characters.  I have read A Light in August, and The Unvanquished.  I am gaining realization of how kindly he saw every one of his characters- not a one, no matter how despicable their actions, is porytayed as any creature less than deserving of understanding.

I just looked up his chart and was not surprised to see Sun and Mars in Libra in the house of communication.  That Venus at the very end of Leo, and following a studious pack of planets in Virgo, reminds me of his wonderfully understated sense of humor.

And Saturn in that tight lineup with Uranus in Scorpio - what an excellent, revolutionary and at the same time very sobering portrayal of corrupted lives, exploring how they arrived at their corrupted state ...how their struggle is as noble as that of the uncorrupted.