Ultimate/Opposite

2, 373 years ago today Alexander the Great was born in Pella, Northern Greece and central Macedon. His historical existence is of course, of great importance, hence his common moniker, but furthermore his romantic and magical connotations are of particular concern to the themes of these forecasts. It was he who founded Alexandria in his own name and manifested a legacy that we directly refer to as the 200-300 year Hellenistic period. This is the cultural interchange which established Western Hermeticism, mixed Egyptian decanic sky divisions with Babylonian astrology which then spread into Greece and Rome, birthed the Greek Magical Papyri and essentially concretized a net in which older pre-Olympian indigenous traditions could adhere to and be transmitted through chronologic and kairotic weaveries to the present day; as we have the inheritance, in lesser or greater degrees of corruption, alchemy, astrology and magic both high and low. An interesting birthday to be commemorating on this New Moon, just before the equinox. The last time the New Moon fell on Alexander’s birthday was 1998, nineteen years ago. Then we find Mercury opposite Jupiter in watery Pisces where today we find Mercury opposite Neptune in Pisces. Then, as now, we are about one month past a Total Solar Eclipse conjunct the fixed star Regulus, and then, as now, a pair of the deadliest hurricanes on record swept through the Caribbean, George and Mitch respectively. We also find North Korea and Russia in the headlines around this time, as well as Bernie Sanders, Mathew Shepherd and The Satanic Verses. These were of course eclipses of separate saros series, so they have each unique characters, although it is not every hurricane season that the record is broken for most destructive hurricane. I spoke to a sailor recently that happened to say that parts of the Caribbean were still rebuilding from George when Irma hit. Interesting also is Neptune’s frequent association with Dionysus, and this New Moon falling on Alexander’s birthday with a prominent Neptune aspect; Alexander’s company, many of whom were worshipers of Dionysus, are remembered by history as embracing devotees outside a Shiva temple in Alexander’s foray into the Indian subcontinent; the Shaivites and Dionysians not realizing their Gods were separate deities, and indeed, Shiva wields a Trident, the astrological sigil for Neptune. Coincidentally, 1998’s Alexander birthday New Moon has Mercury applying to trine Neptune by that year’s equinox. Alexander’s birth did not occur on a New Moon, but nine days after. Nothing then was in Pisces, but Mercury had within the past few weeks conjunct Neptune in his own sign of Virgo quite near Regulus, and then conjunct Jupiter in Libra not long after. The nodal axis then was also in Leo and Aquarius, but nodally opposed to now. The action taking place in an air sign and a Mercury ruled sign. The Alexandrian expansion did operate like a kind of sprawling hurricane, and what it spread and intended very much to do so was information and understanding; the explosion of knowledge that erupted from the syncretism of Greco-Roman and Egyptian cultures, best exemplified by the Alexandrian Library, a monument in a previous information age, formidable to our own.

Today, with Neptune across from Mercury, expect information to struggle out of pools of poetry to enter the air and present itself. My own presentation was similarly thrashing out of the waters of the above paragraph, a kind of mind-memory revery riptide where facts and details get spun and sculpted in the synaptic crossfire surges, stringing triple-s’s that mix into the transmission. This is the second Neptune soaked lunation, the other being the last Full Moon. In the Dionysian fog maybe an amber nugget of calcified honey-mead adhered to the brain pedestal cartilage from bacchanals past can be dissolved and drunk if desired, as all skulls now are civ sheathed rather than beneath bone bulbs, as if they got midnight trepanned by swarms of Mercury antipathetic mosquitos. As Mercury is finally picking up speed this is a rather brief affair in aspect, but it being a New Moon event on Mercury’s Day in Mercury’s sign, it is relevant to the whole lunation. The Sun-Moon conjunction itself occurred less than a degree away from opposition with Chiron, which reminds us of our Cranial Surgeons and what wounds they might have inflicted and what medicine they might be working on the other end of the seesaw scales. It is true for most now, we need some fantastic if not phantasmagoric process-pressure-release, a sort of midterm ayahuasca ceremony, if it can be conducted without dropping the proverbial ball, or more importantly, the literal one. If you can fit a good old fashioned trance session in September’s tight schedule, do so, but make sure mundane responsibilities are far enough to the frontiers of the fugue state to be safe and untampered with.

Luckily this lunation is one as far as decan that speaks of the end of processes, the empty field after harvest rather than before, and readies us for the equinox quite well, a time when light is overtaken by darkness, the scales flatten for only a moment, less than an instant if you count your clocks, and then tip the other way. For those of you that follow planetary hours, it is a time (this far away from the equator) when they are also (briefly) regular 60 minute periods. The English Qaballa; a system devised by in large by the late occultist and magician Jim Lees, which works like an English gemmatria based on the rules, phrases and text extracted from Crowley’s ‘Book Of The Law’; sights the number 60 as correspondent to BOSOM, COWER, DEATH, DENY, EVIL, GET, GLEAM, GRADES, HARDER, LIVE, MEN, NONE, SPELL, VEIL, and VITAL. The empty fields, whether they be before or aft, under Libra’s scales or Aries’ incarnation are indeed earthly bosom, and it’s hard to not imagine the rounded bottom of the scale pair themselves as breasts, but those that give shadow rather than the light that is denied when we ourselves die and pass through the veil, paralleled in a New Moon darkness when spells are cast and we live harder in the winter, it being harder to get what is vital, in death men are none and can no longer deny an evil gleam, like that of sparkling snow crystal or veils of frost. The words are befitting the nature or polarity of the season, as the world descends into winter. In fact you could rewrite it all to fit spring equinox and the mysteries of Astrological New Year, the Annunciation, and maybe the scales are not just weighing light and dark, but either end of the year. In the E.Q. system you reverse the number to find out the reward of a certain word. The reverse of 60 reduces to six, of which we only get two correspondent words: AS and LAW; the latter we know is of pivotal importance to Crowley’s complex notions. An equinox does bring up ideas of nature’s law, as does the mythological New Moon, or magical. It was a time to petition Hekate, where the rich would leave food at crossroads, upon which the poor would feast, an act that maybe not met but strove towards equality, even if it was only an incremental balancing of scales. The Sun is fallen in Libra, so it is helpful in great honorable quests and stately works, but ushers a time to take what the Gods give and be grateful. This is interesting in light of Alexander’s birth; was it not his prowess that led to his eminence but his favor within divine orders.

Mars is the next to face Neptune on Sunday the 24th. It is too tempting to paint the picture of someone far too drunk endeavoring to replace a blown head gasket in a gale, although, can we attempt to find a positive application for the transit (noted nevertheless, maybe not the best day for mechanical dissection or open heart surgery.) If it is with the trident that we spear those solid bodies that rush and swim through the swells and surges of Neptunian typhoons, then this might be a day to wrestle and skewer some impressive beasts from the watery abyss, if you have an inner Ahab, it is under such an aspect that a white whale be pursued, and as we know, such narratives are infested with digressions and asides that ponder divine enthronement and the role of human destiny; the school of daemonic fish that follow the Muse through the sea. Where you can stage this drama is up to you, but if Mars is to be utilized in this bizarre pairing, it would be better for hard play than martial prowess. Take your Mars on a hike or explore the beach,hunt for fall fungi, as he will want details to occupy him and some sort of adrenalin to marinate the muscles, but it would be an odd day for battle, as it would end up like war in the wave pool, or a march through the fog, the ink bleary bleeding off the maps and the powder barrels dripping with drizzle. It could be a BZ episode, the Vietnam era berserker echoing out the hog helmet, the gnashing sword teeth dropped in the fauna ruff, wolves and bears and boars tumbling out of low hovering choppers. I wouldn’t advance my rook toward an opponents phalanx until after the aspect began to separate by a few degrees.

Mercury squares Saturn on the 25th, suggesting the strategies befouled by Neptune’s successive oppositions to Mercury and then Mars are demanded when Mercury progresses onward. This is not the vision of what is and what is not in balance between sequential, scheduled action and illusory fantasy, but an alarm that signals that if procedures are to be brought to a close then dedicated end drives must be made; it says “get in, now, buckle up, drive”. The gun is maybe not put to the head, but it is made clear through implication and intensity; the result would be the same or worse if you were to not comply. A bit of doing exactly what you have to do, no excuses, to complete some projects that Neptune has been throwing some fantastical fog at really is not so bad, as it goes with Saturn aspects; what has to happen happens, so make the best of the strap down. It being Mercury, for some it’ll be strapped in the cockpit and for others it’ll be bound to the desk or workbench, whatever it is, this is a fine time for finishing things up, although, this is not without obstacles: expect communications to pair down to the essential, and for technology to be only minimally helpful if not altogether impaired, at which point you have to proceed manually. Whatever the restrictions, try to make them augment the work. It’s like those yarns you spin when later on someone is complimenting the massive map you prepared of plot points connecting herbal traditions spanning watersheds via canoe portage interchanges uncovered from carefully excavated subsoil revealing archeological evidence gleaned from measuring the wear marks on prehistoric beaver teeth fossils: “Oh my God, proving that those friction points were from hemp rope abrasions after my program crashed and I had to measure and draft each dental scan by hand with only one pencil that by the end was whittled down to the erasure stub with a dinner knife was SUCH a pain in the ass!”. But proud job for getting it done.

The 26th delivers another interesting wallop that goes partile by midnight and continues throughout the 27th; Uranus in Aries opposes Jupiter in Libra for the third time since December 25th of 2016. This planetary opposition series happens roughly every fourteen years resulting in societal upheaval, regime change and technological mutation. It coincided with the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, but in a different pair of signs. The last time the Uranus and Jupiter appeared as they are in Aries and Libra was1934 which saw the dramatic rise to power of the Nazi party. It must be noted that even by 1936 the Olympics were held in Berlin, and that 1934 was also a year where American papers were equally concerned, if not more so, with Bonnie & Clyde bank busts and John Dillinger jail breaks. Uranus revolutionizes, like ARCANUM XVI LA MAISON DIEV, The Tower, it brings inspiration via bolt of lightning, both disruption and innovation ensue and the world after cannot contract into its former structure, the foundation gets cracked and requires a rebuild. Jupiter expands our minds and makes what it affects in reality grow by bringing coherence throughout all its parts, so that mutations and additions can take place. This is the direct transmission of Guru to disciple, but in the case of Uranus’ opposition the transmission is of volatile Promethean fire, or at least in context of it. Jupiter in Libra attempts to cultivate alliances that balance the turbulence of the world, where as Uranus in Aries supercharges the fiery spirit of the indissoluble singular Individual expression. One wants Justice and the other wants freedom, but paradoxically, they are opposed. The result is greater and greater polarization. The past two direct oppositions in the past year saw major marches and demonstrations.

The next day Mercury opposes Chiron. Whatever wounds have opened up in this process, Mercury is in a prime position to figure out how to heal them. They might be chasms wet and wide, the kinds of gashes and punctures you look at and can barely understand, but if there is a capable healer in the chart it is Virgo Mercury, and normally Chiron only needs to hear that you intend to turn the hurting into healing for the process to begin. We can only hope that this is medicine and balm for the contusions and tears of the Jupiter-Uranus transformations, as it affects us all personally as much as it does the world at large and the historical stage. Even if you are not experiencing overt growing pains, most of us are forced through some sort of metamorphosis right now depending on where this aspect hits your chart; you will be changed after this year because of it. Think over your medicinal regimen and see if it fits your possible illnesses or deeper ailments, and adjust accordingly. What you need is what you do not already have, and this doesn’t mean more of anything that is healthy seeming, but what depletes deficiencies and lowers over lifted levels. If this seems too obscure, the 27th might be a day for revelations that revolutionize inner-balances by deep diagnostic. Ask yourself, a spirit or consult an illuminated sage. If you don’t have one handy, run into the forest and fall to your knees in lamentation; you’re likely to get a reaction.