Too much love drives a man insane
You broke my will, oh what a thrill
Goodness gracious great balls of fire
Great Balls of Fire, indeed!
Aires Uranus, Leo Jupiter, and Sagittarius Mars Align.
It’s Grand Fire Trine time!
But just what does that mean for us? Well, truly I can only share what I feel it means for me. Care to hear a starry story? In the Libra Moonth a few years back as the Sun was transiting the Zodiacal zone of my natal Libra Mercury-Pluto Conjunction (though I didn’t know it then), I was invited unexpectedly by Spirit to a serious soul shakedown party. It was one of several times in my life when I had given my heart away and, well, “too much love will drive a man insane.” Preach the truth, Jerry Lee Lew!
I tell you, I was totally tripping through astral television and my tuner was stuck on the soul-mate channel. Then, I was given a life-changing experience in a group meditation. When we got in the zone that night, I found myself filled with one of the most amazing feelings I have ever allowed. My heart had become a Golden Ball of Love. I found myself peaking towards love overload. There was so much love that I didn’t know just what to do with it, but do I did. I started sending this love all over the globe: to my mother, my sister, to the brother I’ve never had, to my nieces and nephews, to my exes, to their new loves, to all who had loved me, to all who had once wounded me, to those I had given a wound to, to that random dude on the corner near the Ravenna Whole Foods. Love, love, love for sale! Actually, I was giving it away for free! Need some love??? Take mine please! I’m overfilled with an endless supply of this golden heat.
Astolonautical Oops! I soon knew that to be untrue once I had given all of my love away and I frighteningly found the Golden Ball that had occupied my Space was almost instantaneously replaced with a vacuumous void: an endless black hole that drew all of the spooky demons in the room right into my chest. That golden heat of love, deleted through deplete, had now become Fear’s deadly deep freeze. Then hot, then cold, then hotter, then colder, then the hottest thing I’ve ever felt… I began to melt into a terrifying fever and was forced to hit the eject button. I blasted out of my body to save myself and I literally believe I would have died that night if had it not been for the strength of a caring warrior in the room who knew just how to sing my presence back into the vessel of my monkey suit. Thank you, once again, dude.
When I shared the trials of this test the next day with a beloved brother of the quest, I was gifted with the wisdom of these words, “That Golden Ball of Love was meant for you. Next time you’re rewarded with such a precious gift, do the right thing and keep it!” Unfortunately, I was not able to anchor this advice into my daily life, but instead had to experience further tests of what I now know was the same curriculum, first though dishonorable discharge from a loving community by social suicide and then by earning the failing grade a man receives when he gives his Golden Ball to the fantasy of the beloved bride. Perhaps, that’s a starry story for another time.
Speaking of time, Jupiter spends about a year in each of the Signs and on July 16th, this so-called King of Kings lunged his ways into the Leo mysteries. This Gas Giant Guru is the conductor of the Planetary Symphony, and his dance through Leo until August 11th, 2015 empowers us with a Golden Ball of most imperative wealth. This treasure I speak of is the Love For Self. Why is it so easy for us to give our love to anyone but us? Do you truly love yourself? Why the hell not!?? Jupiter is now making the roar of the lion clearer: the Golden Ball of Love should be seen in the mirror.
Leo is Fixed Fire. The Leo Mysteries encourage Service to Self Growth in the Fires of Will and Spirit. Leo honor, valor, chivalry, and sovereignty demands the burning self-love of inner-critic defying creativity, confidence, and pride necessary for magical manifestation. Leo is royalty and celebrity: two words that carry a lot of weight in our times because we are given such shite examples of each. But Leo is not the Big O in the Big Oval. No Leo is the Good King… he who we would follow into battle because his horse is first in line and the battle is actually worth fighting. And what battle could be more worthy than that for self-love, which for a brilliant reason is a battle during this suspect stage of the Earth Game as we’ve been told self-love is vanity and ego, that confidence is cockiness, that pride is arrogance. Fiddlesticks!
Leo is not the scary skeletons of the silver screen we’ve been welcomed to worship. No, Leo is the rightful celebrity… she who deserves the pedestal we place her on because her light shines so brightly that we can each ignite our own candle from it. Just as Fire is the one Element we can share without giving ours away. And yet we do. We gladly obey the conditioning of our crazy culture and give our Fire away to serve the Will of others rather than stoking the flames of our own hearth. Well, we will only own Free Will when we Free Our Will and perhaps this first starts with the Golden Ball of burning self-love held proudly in the heart. “Too much love will drive a woMan insane” if and only if sHe gives it away! One more thing: we’re told that Leo needs the stage. I say, “No, The spotlight needs Leo." We’re told that Leo just needs to create. But I say, "it is our creations that need us to honor our Leo state."
Last week, on September 25th, 2014, Leo Jupiter brought this expansion of Free-Self-Love to Aires Uranus as the two aligned in the most harmonious, constructive aspect of a 120-degree Trine at exactly 15 degrees of their respective Signs. We now shine within the light shown through this Jupiter-Trine-Uranus window, which will gift us with two more exact alignments on March 3rd and June 22nd, 2015. The Promethean lightening bolt of revolutionary Uranus is now being charged by this Jupiter boost to fill us with fiery fuel so we can do what we gotta do as we wearily waltz through the remaining days of the most dynamic, global astrological aspect of our current time: the Aries Uranus – Capricorn Pluto Square Dance. This Uranus-Pluto-Square of total rEvolution first aligned perfectly on June 24th, 2012. The two remaining exact squares of seven will be shown on the screens in this theater called us on December 14th, 2014 and March 16th, 2015. I’ve been speaking often about Capricorn Pluto’s evolutionary role in this Square Dance in my talks titled “What the Hell is a Sea Goat?”. The six-word version is "a complete crumbling of false structure.”
But what is the role of Uranus in Aries? Uranus is the revolutionary lightening bolt of change. And what is Aries? Well, Aries is the Self. Traditionally, Aries is the first Sign on the Wheel of Life. It is the dawning of the new Spring when we come forth out of the Piscean watery womb of All That Is through the birth canal into the individual incarnation. Out of the Brahman into the Atman if you will. And, yes I will. I mean, I Will. Aries represents the pioneering spirit of rugged individuality. If it hadn’t become so twisted from its truth, I would call forth the beauty of the word, “Ego.” Aires is Cardinal Fire. Shamanic Astrology calls the Cardinal Signs Tradition Keepers and Householders, but I prefer this term, “Service to Others.” Astrologers laugh at me when I call Aries a Service to Others. How could this possibly be true for the Sign whose age-old mantra is “I am Self?”
I rapidly remind them that Aries is best represented by the Archetype of the Warrior. None disagree. And what is the righteous warrior, but a Service to Others? The tribe gladly gives the warrior the largest cut of meat (sorry, I meant kale and beets) because they know he needs his strength in order to protect them. This is why the warrior receives… so that she can be a better giver. This is mother bear who knows she must mind her own nutrition to make healthy milk for her cub. This is securing our own oxygen mask before we assists the little ones for they will not survive unless we do. While many would say Aries Uranus in its Square to Capricorn Pluto is manifesting through outer Revolutionary Wars, and this is no doubt true, I suggest its highest light is meant to shine though Revolution of Self and that the current Trine from Leo Jupiter supports us in this quest.
Speaking of the Quest, Mars is now focusing Sagittarian Truth into this Jupiter-Uranus Planet Party by aligning to both in a rare and wonderful Grand Fire Trine. Will the God of War’s blade ramp up the rage? If it is so, may we use it to Free Will from the cage. If we honor a five-degree-orb of astrological aspect, this heavenly alignment began today (September 29th, 2014) around 6:00am PST when it pulled within five degrees of perfect Trine to Jupiter and will end around 1:00pm on October 11th, 2014 when it extends five degrees beyond perfect Trine to Uranus. That’s twelve days of Grand Fire Trine and, well, astrologers sure like the number 12. Don’t you? Of course you do… you’re an astrolonaut too!
What wisdom will Mars rally from the Sagittarius Mystery School of Mutable Fire? Well Shamanic Astrology considers the Mutable Signs as Service to Spirit and says Sagittarius serves through the intuitive pursuit of truth. Sagittarius is the Seeker, the Philosopher, the Explorer, the Vision Quester. Sagittarius is all about asking the big questions, the best questions, those that cannot be answered: Where do we come form? Where are we going? What are we doing here? How the hell do we get out of this place? Wait, do we even want to? What is God? Yogananda's teacher Sri Yukteswar said “the only honor a man can pay his God is to seek Him” (the only honor a woman can pay her Goddess is to seek her and all combinations there of) and Sagittarius seeks indeed. While the pioneering Spirit of the Aries Warrior might charge to the top of the mountain simply because it must be concurred, Sagittarius climbs because, at the summit, there is a greater view of All That Is. Sagittarius climbs slowly, then, to take in everything along the route and honors that there exist an infinite number of paths to the peak. The one that won’t get you there is best demonstrated by the many idiots running around the mountain's base screaming to all of the climbers, “Hey, you’re doing it wrong!” These are the fundamentalists trapped in their rigid ways of scientism and religionism. Sometimes seeking is NOT believing though once we allow ourselves to seek freely, we often find true belief. In a word, this might be called faith.
Fortunately, Vishu has incarnated just for this moment as Arjuna’s charioteer and advisor, Krishna. He turns to Arjuna and says, “just what the hell do you think you’re doing, Jack?” Arjuna looks back and explains that the righteous thing for him to do is to lay down and die.
“Um, why???”
“Because, of course, there are special places reserved in Hell for those who kill their kin. I would rather choose death with honor than fight in sin.”
“Right… and who told you that nonsense? Allow me to show you a thing or two.”
Krishna takes Arjuna through many exercises of Spiritual Disciplines (Yogas). He teaches Arjuna that he’s obeying a false code by showing him Higher Truth. I’ll continue to paraphrase, but falsely quote anyway: "The monkey suit is but a vessel for the incarnational experience here on this heavenly stage of the Earth Game. The soul is eternal. It does not die with the body. I’ve already killed everyone you see millions of times over and brought them back just as many. You have simply been tasked to finish my work here in this funny little manifest reality. Arjuna, your dharma is to fight as the righteous warrior. Now pick up your bow and go to town.” Having found the clarity of the true Code, Arjuna picks up his weapons and kicks some ass. End scene. (Narrator’s note… I highly suggest you enjoy a true translation of this starry story by reading the Bhagavad-Gita during these Grand Fire Trine days. The Barbara Stoler Miller is often suggested as the best English version. You can also enjoy an audio recording here on YouTube.
How does this relate to the Grand Fire Trine? Right, well Arjuna is Aries. The false Code of Honor he lays his weapons down to obey is the old Leo. Krishna is the Sagittarius Truth who helps Arjuna know the real Leo code of Will so he will string his bow to serve his dharma as an Aries Warrior. See what I'm sayin?
How does this relate to us? Well, once again, I can truly only share how I feel it relates to me, but maybe you'll relate to. Shamanic Astrology teaches that Jupiter represents our dharma, and Aries is where Jupiter spun when the Planetary chorus called Gemini Brett was first sung. However, I also have Chiron in Aries, which speaks to soul wounding around the way of the warrior. If Jupiter is the Hands-in-the-Air-Hooray as we ride this wonderful rollercoaster of Earth Game, then Saturn surely is the long hill we must climb before the thrills begin and the Ringed One was Leo when the Me of We became I. The final piece of my personal Fire is the flame of generational Neptunian fame, which burns it light from my Sagittarius Descendent, the Zodiacal zone that set as I rose. And so it has been that the wounded Aries warrior called me had extinguished his Flame in observance to and practice within the false Leo dishonor and obstacles to Free Will, that is until the Sagittarian seeking of Spirit helped me puke out the pill called cultural conditioning.
If this sounds familiar to you, know that the Moon will bring its watery juice at key times of this Grand Fire Trine to help us reclaim the light of our Flame. At 11:33am today (September 29th, 2014), Moon Conjuncted Mars at 10 Degrees, 50 Minutes Sagittarius (almost exact with my Neptune/Descendent). At 4:22am on October 4th, Moon will Illuminate Jupiter though Opposition at 16 Degrees, 31 Minutes Aquarius (less than three degrees from my Midheaven-IC axis) and align to the Grand Fire Trine in the incredible astrological alignment called Kite. Finally, Moon will Conjunct Uranus at 14 Degrees, 30 Minutes Aries at 2:51am (three and a half degrees from my Jupiter) on October 8th, less than one hour before the Total Lunar Eclipse at 3:50am, illuminated in Opposition to the 15 Degrees, Five Minutes Libra Sun (about two and half degrees from my Libra Mercury, which is getting serious love from Pluto right now... tough love). In the wee morning hours of October 8th, our Earth will dress the Moon in a shadow of Blood Red (the second of four consecutive Blood Moons of the 2013-2014 Tetrad). That one will be worth waking up for! And the Signs of these times are astrologically assisting our own personal Awakenings in so many wonderful ways. Life is worth waking up for! The mantra of these current pursuits… Choose Change Before Change Chooses You!!!
And let us not forget this Grand Fire Trine aligns in the time of our Libra Moonth. In fact, during the Full Lunar Eclipse on October 8th, the Libra Sun will align to the Grand Fire Trine in that fabulous aspect called Kite. In the wise words of most amazing astrologer Dane Rudhyar:
“When one point of a grand trine is involved in an opposition, the opposition's other end almost inevitably falls at the midpoint of one of the trines, forming sextiles to the other two planets in the trine: a 'kite' formation. In such a pattern, vision or understanding and purpose (trines) find the possibility of outward manifestation in objective form (oppositions and sextiles) through organizational genius and the capacity for planning and enlightened management in which needs and answers to needs are brought together. The functional activities represented by the planet at the midpoint of the bisected trine should be those through which is focused and released what the entire configuration represents.”
For this Kite, the “functional activities” of the Libra Sun "should be those through which is focused and released what the entire configuration represents.” Indeed, the most magical full Lunar Eclipse comes to remind us this Grand Fire Trine is meant to illuminate the light and truth of this Libra Moonth. But, how can more Fire assist in Libra’s most “functional activities” of pursuing the beauty of equality, peace, justice, and balance? Well, Sagittarius Spirit reminds us that diplomacy is a disease when used to preserve false peace. When the vote at the Libra Round Table is split fifty-fifty, the magic only goes down when we stop shying away form wearing our Leo Crown. And when wielded wisely, sometimes the best tool to cut through the bullshit for the sake of beautiful balance, is the Aries Sword of the righteous warrior. May we never give our Fire away by pretending there’s peace in the comfort of cage. We find Free Will when we Free our Will. There’s a Peace we will claim by igniting our Flame. "If you love somebody, set them free." Now, give a smile to your Golden Mirror, and sing out these words... "I truly love me." Perhaps, this revolution of Self is actually the greatest gift of peace we can give to community.
It’s Grand Fire Trine Time!
I reclaim my Will… oh what a Thrill
Goodness gracious, Great Balls of Fire!!!
Love and Planets,
Astrolonaut
Placidus Houses