An annular solar eclipse occurs on Thursday, May 9^th, visible primarily over Australia and the Pacific.  This eclipse occurs atop the south node of the Moon, the old Tail of the Dragon, Ketu to Vedic astrologers.  I did a little writing about this eclipse my 2013 Almanac.  It went something like this-

“    …the South Node has no physical body, it is merely a point  determined by the intersection of the Sun, Moon and Earth’s revolutions which has been calculated for thousands of years to predict eclipses.  Yet this intersection has a life of its own, and the power to devour the Sun and Moon.  Ketu, as it is called in India, is often imagined as a headless, serpentine figure, half of a primordial dragon.  Yet only a fool would think this horror a demon, for Ketu has a vital role to play.  He detaches mind from matter.  Without this function, our identifications and attachments would only grow unchecked, degrading the pristine state of mind to that of a metastisizing tumor.  No matter how vital his function, though, few welcome headless Ketu into their lives, for the eclipses which he heralds threaten our most entrenched attachments. 

      Ketu spends this year in Taurus, lying in wait for the quarter of planets moving through it.  Normally a natural time for indulgence, this year there is, courtesy of Ketu, a subtle but insistent pull towards asceticism.  Desires, spurred to furious levels by the co-presence of both Mars and Venus in the lustful sign, are denied rather than sated.  Or, if sated, come with unforeseen and unwanted consequences.  Here Ketu targets those things we have saddled ourselves with in order to feel stable, secure.  By holding on to these things we fix our position, reducing our mobility and adaptability.  Yet mobility, adaptability and fluidity is exactly what this year demands.  Saturn in Scorpio whispers that we are in a transition from one stable state into another, yet we are within neither.   We’ve got to keep moving.

     The Solar Eclipse in Taurus on May 9th places these themes in the foreground, offering us a hole in sky in which to cast what we cannot take with us on journey.  In addition to this, the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars must all conjoin Ketu individually, each purged, each offering a sacrifice.  Yet the sacrifice is often only the illusion of control.  Once one has let go of the attachment to something, be it a person, an object or a swath of land, the natural course of things is restored and the wheel of karma, unstuck, turns again.”

     The black rays of the eclipse beat down the writer as well as the reader, and I have a small sacrifice to make, myself.  As my more regular readers may have noted, I’ve been pretty slack about posting my weekly column over the last few months. I’ve taken on obligations and projects over the last year which have left me without the time and energy to create the kind of columns I like to write.  I saw this coming in the November, when the first eclipse in Scorpio occurred, but I thought I could just muscle through it.  Turns out muscles have their limits.  Now, on the eve of the second solar  eclipse in this cycle, it’s become clear to me that I need to let it go.

     As much as I don’t want to say it- I won’t be writing a weekly column any more.  At least not for a while.

     That’s my sacrifice.  The thing I can’t take with me.   I’ve written a column nearly every week since mid 2005 and it’s a place I’ve come to feel comfortable and confident, secure and appreciated.  However, like most things that make us feel safe, it’s also tied me down, bound my energy and time into a particular form.  And that’s exactly what this cycle of eclipses is hunting.

     Things are changing, for myself as well as the world.  As much as I like narrating each week, there are other things I’d like to talk about, and the commitment to a weekly column hasn’t left room for them.  Again, that’s the theme for these eclipses-  unbinding your energy, liberating it from one form so that it is free to invigorate others.  It’s the Solve of alchemy, the process of separating spirit from matter, that spirit might animate a new body.  Some folks might call that dying, but I digress.  In alchemy, the separation generally takes place two ways.  The first is through the process of putrefaction, or, in common parlance- rotting.  This is the wet way, the slow way.  The second is called calcination, and it’s hotter, and faster.  You toss the matter into the furnace and burn it to a fine white ash.  Cremation.  As much as I don’t like to admit it, my weekly work has been rotting for a while.  I’ve missing weeks and have spent more time feeling guilty than a person needs to.  So in order to keep the flies away, I’m tossing it into the fire, a burnt offering to the way things need to be. 

     For those who’ve read my column for years now, I apologize.  I feel like I owe you, even though that’s crazy.  But I’m not going silent, merely changing things up.  I’ll still be writing.  Actually, I’ll be writing considerably more.  I’ve already committed to another yearly Almanac, a huge book on the decans for Three Hands Press, articles for CLAVIS and the Mountain Astrologer, some screenwriting and a few other things, as well.  I also plan to continue to blog about the astrology as it unfolds- just not in the form of a weekly column. .

     For those who’ve made it this far into my soliloquy, I thank you for your patience.   In addition to explaining the programming change, I hoped that a little transparency about my small sacrifice might shed a little light on the nature of the eclipse cycle we’re experiencing.   What is it that you can’t take with you?  Is there some old attachment rotting in a dark corner of your mind, something perhaps better served by a quick cremation?

]]> http://austincoppock.com/2013/05/a-small-sacrifice/feed/ 8 http://austincoppock.com/2013/04/out-to-pasture/ http://austincoppock.com/2013/04/out-to-pasture/#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2013 07:05:49 +0000 Austin Coppock http://austincoppock.com/?p=5236

From the 2013 Astrological Almanac:

The Princess and the Pea

Venus enters Taurus on the 14th.  The pleasant planet’s entrance into the Bull’s sign is a return to Venus’ favorite chaise lounge, putting us in the mood for both luxury and beauty.   Venus’ first few days in Taurus may well gratify these desires, as she finds herself in an extremely pleasant sextile with Neptune. After Venus completes this aspect with Neptune, though, the bright planet will have to contend with an opposition to heavy Saturn in Scorpio and a subsequent conjunction with the Tail of the Dragon, both of which complicate the desire for good times.

The Warrior’s Mirror

The Sun catches Mars on the 17th.  This conjunction highlights the connection between how we see ourselves and our use of power.  The method by which this pairing brings these issues to the surface is not necessarily gentle, though.  Rediscover the meaning of personal power here through action and contemplation rather than an unnecessary brawl.

A Heavy Hoof

The Sun enters Taurus on the 19th, shifting the solar spotlight toward practical affairs and taking the pace down a notch.  The Sun’s time in Taurus this year is, however, complicated by a pair of eclipses and an opposition with Saturn.  The Sun is followed into Taurus by Mars, which makes the Bull’s pasture land his temporary home on the 20th.   With the Sun, Venus and Mars in Taurus, the tone shifts decisively earthward, highlighting concrete problems and pleasures.

While Mars and the Sun trundle into Taurus, Mercury makes his way through the Uranus-Pluto square.  Mercury’s brief time here helps frame the changes going on, upgrading and electrifying how we think about things so that the mind can keep pace with the ongoing transformations.”

Though my writing time is currently in short supply, the eclipses are coming, and I will provide fresh prognostications regarding them, complete with horoscopes, next week.

-Austin

The week begins with Tuesday’s New Moon in Aries, which brings an extraordinarily intense lunar month to a close, though the one it seeds is not without challenges.  Shortly thereafter, on Friday, Pluto grinds to a halt, saddling the week with the weight of his retrograde station.  Saturday, however, sees Mercury enter Aries, which offers a welcome change of perspective.

Burning Sensation

The week commences with the New Moon in Aries.  Though the pace may not slacken enough to accommodate reverie, there is nonetheless a need to reflect on Monday and Tuesday.  Much has happened over the last month, and many of the fires lit still burn.  Some of these are sacrificial flames, altar fires, and they should be kept strong, fueled with what we no longer require.  Others, though, have overstepped the sacred hearth.  Some of these have already burned out, while others may still require a few shovel-fulls of earth.  In the meantime. damage has been done, especially to relationships, which have taken the brunt of the scorching.   Spend some time gazing at the still-hot embers of the last month and apply ointment as needed.

Threat Re-Assessment

Pluto’s retrograde station hovers invisibly over the week, like the gaze of a security camera.   The small body’s station highlights the pressure the world is under right now, and the many little ways we’ve all tried to meet those challenges.   Our answers come from our understanding of the questions, our adaptations from our comprehension of our environment. Evolution is not an event or an achievement- it is ongoing and dialectical.   It is time to reassess the situation and make sure you’re not preparing to  fight the last war.  Transformation is a difficult enough process- take the time to make sure that what you’re becoming is what you actually need to be.

How One Philosophizes With A Hammer

After over two months drowning in Pisces, Mercury finally crawls ashore this Saturday, when the swift planet enters Aries.  In the Ram’s sign, Hermes ignites ideas and sends thoughts swiftly along their trajectory.   It is a blessed relief from the meandering, emotionally charged poetics of Mercury’s excessive time in Pisces this year, though the bluntness and impatience which characterize Mercury’s time in Aries are a challenge themselves  Mercury will be in Aries until May first.

No horoscopes this week.

I am busy, and kind of tired.

The moon wanes over a fiery but less dramatic week than those recently passed.  A restless pile of planets makes their way through raw Aries, but the  only exact aspect this week is Venus’ erotic  conjunction with Mars, which occurs on Saturday night.

Compared to previous weeks, there is little new planetary drama prancing across the skies’ stage, yet the fires set last week continue to burn through this one.  Visions dance in those flames, images of the past and future, love and war.  Something is struggling its way out of the fire.

Last week the Sun and Venus reached the moment of their superior conjunction and then made their way, hand in hand, across the Uranus-Pluto square, the signature configuration for this small period of history. Spanning 2011-2015, this pairing pits the soaring spirit against the inexorable gravity of the material world.  Between the two, there have so far been riots, uprisings, systemic crisis and nuclear disasters.  Already tyrants have fallen but so have revolutions faltered.  Chaos and order are at each other’s throats, wearing the masks of freedom and security.  On a personal level, the people with key planets in the cross hairs of the Uranus-Pluto square have seen similar revolutions and disasters.  Phoenixes struggle to free themselves from the flaming wreckage.

It’s an intense period, full of tough compromises and crazy situations.  And it’s not over.  Not even remotely.  Here, in the early Spring of 2013, we’re merely nearing the half way point.   Idealism and pragmatism have gone several rounds, and neither has been declared victor.  The rebels aren’t going to save us, and neither is the Empire.  It’s becoming clear, on both a personal and political level, that there are no simple answers.

As any 8th grade algebra teacher can tell you, in order to solve an equation it needs to be adequately defined.  Too many variables leave too many possibilities.  While it may have begun a mystery, at this point, two years into the Uranus-Pluto squares, it’s no longer a matter of speculation.  We have data on this now- experience, but we need to reflect on what we’ve learned to properly frame the question.  Look at the present, and in seeing it truly, bear witness to both the past and the future.

Phoenix, Pat Brennan

]]> http://austincoppock.com/2013/04/candle-gazing/feed/ 1 http://austincoppock.com/2013/03/phoenixnest/ http://austincoppock.com/2013/03/phoenixnest/#comments Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:53:48 +0000 Austin Coppock http://austincoppock.com/?p=5190

From my 2013 Astrological Almanac:

“This last week of March is a pyre, struck by red lightning and warmed by the underworld’s flames.  Fear not, though, for this is not the hellmouth of some hungry devil, but the place the phoenix goes to become new again.  Nonetheless, this place has a price.  You’ll need to leave something on the sacrificial pyre- a worn out mask, perhaps, the remnants of a self concept no longer viable.  The ashes of what no longer serve are the price of admission to a festival of violent rebirth.

Mars, the Sun and Venus all make their way between the conflicted beams of Uranus and Pluto.  Mars is the first to leap atop the pyre, conjoining Uranus in Aries while receiving a supporting sextile from Jupiter and squaring dark Pluto.   This already explosive combination is further set off by the Full Moon in Libra on the 26^th.  Although there is certainly an incendiary quality here, it will be, for many, tremendously empowering.   The key to this lunation, as well as to many of the events that follow, is to find the space in which to enact the phoenix’s ritual of fiery rebirth without burning your relationships to a crisp.

Yet relationships will have to change to accommodate radical realizations.  On the 28^th, not long after the tense Full Moon, Venus and the Sun conjoin right atop Uranus in Aries, an emotionally potent moment.  The violent rebirth initiated by Mars continues here, the flames eating their way to the core of who we are.  Here Venus and the Sun go through the same ordeal that Mars did the week before, but this time with a focus on issues of identity rather than action.

While the Sun and Venus brave the Uranus-Pluto square, Mercury in Pisces makes a last round of aspects with Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter, crystalizing the ongoing insights and changes into a plan.  Though there is an epic tone to the end of March, there is nonetheless a clarity here, an understanding born from the sea and now set aflame.”

This week the Moon waxes while planets pile into Aries.  The Sun goes first, crossing the equinoctial boundary late Tuesday night.   Venus, not long behind, follows Sol into Aries on Thursday the 21^st.  Meanwhile Mars, who crossed into Aries last week, spends this one on his way toward an explosive conjunction with Uranus, which he completes on the 22^nd.

The Equinox

   The Sun enters Aries late Tuesday night marking the Equinox.  The equinox is a point of balance, a temporary truce between the forces of day and night.  This equilibrium is however, fleeting, and will swiftly give way to the dominance of day in the Northern Hemisphere and night in the Southern- a reversal of the previous season’s arrangement of forces.

   Yet in the midst of this repolarization there is a moment of equilibriated silence, poised between what has just passed and what lies immediately ahead.  Relax and let your mind encompass both seasons.  Much has occurred, and much still remains to be done.   You won’t win this race by sprinting.  Pause, catch your breath and reflect on your strategy for this next lap.

The Sun Enters Aries: Fusion Core

  The Sun in Aries concentrates our awareness on the irreducible atom of individualized spirit which animates us.  The solar tides push people to act as they are, yet the self is easily misunderstood, confused with images.  Yet these visions of self are not the nuclear core of who we are, merely the play of the light issuing from it.  All attempts to embody and assert the self are useless if they do not emerge from the core.  Follow the rays back to their source.

Venus Enters Aries: A Flower For Thee

Venus departs Pisces’ wide oceans on Thursday, the 21^st, storming Aries’ well defended beaches in a chain mail bikini.  While Venus in Pisces soothed and buffered frictions, in Aries Venus exults in showers of sparks.  Here Venus smiles on the martial sphere, decorating the forge and picking flowers from the battlefield.  Both lust and tempers are inflamed.  Venus will be in Aries until April 15^th.  For more on Venus in this particular sign, consult “Venus in Aries: The Red Queen Effect.”

Mars Conjunct Uranus in Aries:  Lightning Rod

Mars spends the entirety of this week conjoined Uranus in Aries.  The conjunction of these two bodies inflames our need for personal sovereignty.  There is a violent need for independence, and a low threshold for repressive influences.

The energy here is revolutionary, yet volatile.  Under this conjunction, some will find the strength to break away from limiting situations, or burst through restrictive paradigms.  Meanwhile, others will burn bridges and dramatize otherwise functional relationships over trivia.  Be careful what you immolate, for not everything rises like the phoenix.

The road that winds away from the Equinox is lined with these considerations.   Mars, the Sun and Venus will all pass through the Uranus-Pluto square over the coming weeks.  Fire birds and dragons light these skies, and the corpses of old tyrants and would-be phoenixes stock the earth.

This week begins with the slow dark of the New Moon in Pisces, but from there a new cycle unfolds swiftly.  Mars enters Aries on Monday night, quickening the meandering processes in play.  From it’s Sunday perch, Mercury’s direct station lends a growing clarity to the week, which moves with greater direction and speed than those recently passed.

A portion of the great waters becomes like unto gasoline.  A mighty engine awakes, which will roar and rage throughout the next month.

New Moon in Pisces: A Parting Gift

The week begins with the New Moon in Pisces on Monday.  The waters spiral towards a central point, a single pearl in the middle of a vortex, gathering an entire ocean into itself.   This pearl is the sum of what you have experienced over the last month- a talisman of lessons not yet entirely understood.  Held in your hand, it grows into a trident.  Each of the trident’s tines glows with the power of your tripartite soul.  Hold it and gaze at it.  Soon enough the time will come to hunt dreams.  Be ready, and when the time is right, hurl it with all your might at what you most desire- set your soul in motion.

Mars Enters Aries: In Case of Emergency, Break Stuff

Mars crawls his way out of the primordial ocean this week, leaving Pisces for Aries on Monday night.  The red planet is the first of several who will make this transition over the coming weeks.  As planets cross this cusp, universal issues and cosmic concerns condense into singular courses of action.  After a month of inundation with huge but ill defined matters, the straightforward nature of the coming period will likely come as a relief.

Relief may be too kind a word, though.  Mars is wicked strong in Aries,  inflaming hearts with a desire for independence and glory.  Here Mars chops at all bindings and restraints, accidentally taking a hand or foot in the process.  In Aries, the red planet offers the power to will and to accomplish, but this volcanic fire is not easily handled.  The battle-spirits, Mahai, fearful children of Eris, surge forth under red Mars’ auspices. Eruptions of anger and fits of impatience accompany courage and dynamism.

Mars will be in Aries,  raising hell, from March 11th until April 20th. Of particular interest during Mars’ time in Aries will be his passage across the Uranus-Pluto square between March 21st and 27th.  Dragons and phoenixes roost amidst these days, along with several darker things.

On a lighter note, it is interesting to note that the newest God of War title launches on Mars’ first full day in Aries- March 12th.  The 12th is a Tuesday,  which just happens to be day of the week given to Mars.  Is there no room for coincidence?

Mercury Direct: Wake Up, Sleepy-Head

This week leads up to Sunday’s direct station of Mercury in Pisces, right next to Neptune.  There is a slow cry drifting throughout the week, something like the opposite of the siren’s song.  These are voices from the surface, which try to lure us back to land.  The deep trance of the last few weeks is broken here, bit by bit, fantasies and nightmares reified into mere facts in the waking mind’s calculus.

You won’t be able to take everything you’ve found back with you.  For those who spent this time grappling with tentacled beasts, this may be reassuring.  Nonetheless, consider what occurred as a dream experienced in the temple sacred to whatever god you honor.  You may not entirely understand it, but you’d be a fool not to write it down.

It’s mah birfday, and I won’t be blogging this week.  

No column this week, folks.  I wrote one.  Well, most of one, but it just doesn’t feel right to try to cage what’s afoot right now in words.  The action isn’t happening on the linguistic level.  That’s where the distractions are- the politics, the Oscars, the facebook drama, the everyday neurosis of explanations.  Little nets trapping the mind.  The current is taking us somewhere.  Let it.

The Moon waxes towards full this week, raising the tide waters of wyrding higher still. Monday dawns shortly after the Sun’s entry into Pisces and the same morning rays illuminate Saturn’s retrograde station in Scorpio.  Immediately thereafter, the Sun moves into a hallucinatory conjunction with Neptune, which it completes on Wednesday.  Finally, Friday bears witness to Mercury’s retrograde station in Pisces, whose deep sea explorations will illuminate sunken wreckage, forgotten treasure and a variety of bizarre life forms over the coming weeks.

Down Home Cauldron Cookin’

On Monday, the Sun rises over the Americas in the tropical sign of Pisces.  The Sun is the fourth planet to enter Pisces, and Sol’s entrance makes the surreal, spiritual, emotional and confusing nature of the deep sea sign impossible to ignore.  The year’s first inundation is well underway.  For a wider angle lens on this particular period, refer to The Astrology of 2013 or the yearly section of my Almanac.

Monday also holds Saturn’s retrograde station in Scorpio, whose grim vibrations shook last week and reverberate throughout this one.   People’s limitations become clear here.  The tricky part is to recognize the shortcomings of yourself and others without becoming flooded with anger, shame, or sadness.  Each being finite, all with limits.

The salty water and the sweet, the red torrents of anger, and the thick, black crude of melancholy all flow towards the Sun’s conjunction with Neptune on Wednesday.   Right and wrong, clarity and confusion, along with a host of other contradictions, all cook in the same great cauldron.  There is a confusing wholeness to be found here.  It is not the wholeness of the simple One, but the complex wholeness of the One that contains, births and kills the 10,001 things.

This conjunction begins, in earnest, a strange alchemical process which has been looming for weeks.  It begins with a profound return to the primordial mind sea, but such waters are famous for their fecundity, and what incubates in Cerridwens’s cauldron over the coming weeks will emerge, kicking and screaming, on the Equinox.

Washed Out

Mercury stations retrograde in Pisces this Friday, plunging backwards and inwards.  The stations begins a three week corkscrew journey.

On a concrete level, Mercury’s retrograde station in Pisces should fuck communication, travel and information transfer something fierce.  Consider the bridge from Point A to Point B to be temporarily closed, offering instead an interesting aquatic detour.  It’s either swim or  make like Moses.  Though inconvenient, you will find along the detour what you would have missed on the bridge.

Blood In The Water

The first part of Mercury’s retrograde journey is particularly prone to difficulties, as the sly planet boomerangs back toward into Mars, also in Pisces.  Sharks prowl the mind here.  Red passions can easily hijack thoughts and poison words under this influence.

On a political level, it is difficult to imagine that this configuration would fail to inflame ongoing maritime disputes.

Though this second conjunction between the Mercury and Mars does not come until next week, the configuration between the two will color the second half of this one.

Silver Crests

Tidal power builds all week as the Moon waxes through the second quarter of its cycle.  Though the Full Moon does not occur until early next, its growing intensity and fecundity characterize this one.

By: Rita Chiliberti