Difficult Transits, Hope and Jupiter Direct

Hello my Fellow Traveler,

How’s it going for you? Difficult transits? Yeah, me too.

::sigh::

Chiron’s been opposing the ruler of my sixth house: my dog died last month and my cat’s not well. Cat wouldn’t allow me to take him to the vet; and when the good doctor came home, he wouldn’t allow the tired man to do an examination. Now Cat’s hiding in my cupboard (even though that’s forbidden territory) and I’m exhausted.

The Chiron opposition is not all that ails me. I believe the current sky’s making a grand cross in my chart: there’s trouble everywhere I turn. And I’m standing in the midst of all these swirling currents and I’m tired. And humbled. That’s another thing tough transits do for you: they humble you. Face something you can’t control, like illness, and you have to let go. I don’t mean don’t get treatment. Do all the right things. But you know that it’s out of your hands. That Life, God, the Universe, whatever you call it, is bigger than you. And there are some things that can’t be changed, they have to be endured. And that you can’t figure everything out, that sometimes you just have to accept it, whatever it is. Am I sounding very Neptunian and defeatist? I don’t mean to.

I don't know the flower associated with Jupiter, but I love the Jacaranda and the color works.

Sometimes, surrender is the answer. Acceptance is the answer. Humility and owning our limitations is the answer. Allowing pain to flow through our life is the answer. I don’t mean you should curl up and die. My Jupiter in Aries trines my Sun and my faith is strong. But in the meantime, I also know that I have to go through this process. Without getting bitter, without resenting it, without attacking other people. Without humility, without accepting that we still have some learning to do, no learning can occur. How can it if you block it the learning by saying that you know everything?

Have you read about Edgar Cayce and his work? He was a healer and he worked while he was in a trance state. There are transcript of what was channeled. Many of these transcripts detail what was said through him about people he was diagnosing. People with paralysis or very debilitating diseases. The health or the dis-ease of the body was linked to a person’s spiritual development. Spiritual, not in the sense of God or religion, but in terms of being kind, forgiving and well-intentioned towards others. About people seeking to regain their health, there were times when the Guides said, “There is no development in kindness, in giving to others. If this person regains his health, what is he going to do with it?” (This is not verbatim, but I hope it conveys some of the meaning of what was said.)

Without internal growth, the body atrophies. Because you can have health, wealth, power, beauty, intelligence…but what are you using it for you? Have you mastered your jealousy, pettiness, greed, selfishness? Total mastery can be quite a task. But awareness is a beginning. Self-aggrandizement is no sin, neither is reaching out for more and better. But what about your spiritual currency? I see powerful examples, amongst people I love, of spiritual bankruptcy. In wanting more, they despise what they do have. In wanting to achieve, they disparage what they have achieved so far. People are either richer than them, or more educated or from a better bloodline or the opposite. They feel inferior while thinking of the former and treat the latter with disdain. Simple pleasures are ignored and they seek a “high” through artificial means. When you’re hollow inside, you can drink as much as you want, but nothing will fill that gaping hole where you were meant to flower.

And people do flower, even during difficult transits. Perhaps, especially during these. When times are tough and you’re plodding along trying to cope, just trying to survive, you can learn a lot. Especially empathy and kindness. This text from the Bible comes to mind:

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not charity, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not charity, I am nothing.

And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

-1 Corinthians 13:1

Some versions of the Bible use “love” instead of “charity.” But I prefer “charity.” I mean that in the nicest way: a feeling that is a blend of kindness and giving.

There was one more thing I wanted to mention today. Grace. Yeah, it’s a tough transit and, yeah, you’re going through a rough time. But one of the gifts of astrology is the reassurance that even this shall pass. And you’ll come out on the other side. But what will you be once you emerge? Will you be wiser, kinder, determined to use your power (we all have some) well? Or will you emerge from it bitter, full of hate and resentment, determined to get what you want at any cost? At anyone’s cost? What will this do to your relationships? Don’t shake your head: we need healthy relationships to have a fulfilling life. And your inner choices and feelings will determine the health of these relationships.

So whether Pluto is squaring your Venus or Saturn conjuncting your Sun, what you become is up to you. You have Free Will there. And hidden amongst the folds of your decisions is Grace, that mysterious force that blesses us with goodness.

If I hadn’t gone to my friend Hitch’s blog this evening, I wouldn’t have noticed that Jupiter has gone direct today. And Jupiter is wisdom. Is faith. I’ll end with another quote from the Bible and, even if you are not a Christian, I hope these words help you:

O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.

Well, that’s all for me. Didn’t meant to get on my soapbox. But it’s Jupiter, you know?

God be with you,

Neeti

P.S. And for all you astro-buffs out there, while I was writing this the transiting Moon was conjunct my natal Sun exactly, the MC of the event chart (when I was mid-way with this post) was the exact degree of my ASC. Oh, and in the event chart, Jupiter was conjunct the cusp of the ninth house.