Grand Trine in Water - Memory of the Future, Part 1

Right now we are immersed in a Grand Trine in the element of water, a rare astrological event linking Jupiter in Cancer, Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces in harmonious aspects with each other. The watery ways of the previous and next few days can set tones or feelings reverberating for Jupiter’s entire transit through Cancer, which ends July 16, 2014.

To best understand the element of water, I first go to the often-overlooked distinction between spirit and soul. Within this distinction, the spirit tends to fly high and look forward and ahead, aiming up and out, looking to transcend the world below, rise above it all, and escape the events of the past. The soul tends toward descent, moving downward into the depths to what’s buried underneath or left behind, reflecting on history and loss, welcoming shadow and darkness as rich and necessary terrain for soul-making. The spirit is, naturally, spiritual; the soul is more psychological (“psyche” means “soul”). The spirit seeks clarity and vision, while the soul lingers in the mysteries and unanswered questions of life and death. The spirit is excited, optimistic and jubilant, while the soul tends to be more depressed, moody and downtrodden. This bi-polar combination of spirit and soul in each of us allows us to, in the words of Mother Abbess, climb every mountain and ford every stream until we find our dreams.

The four elements—fire, earth, air and water—work nicely within this distinction. From the archetypal perspective, fire and air have spiritual connotations, while earth and water connect more naturally with the soul. The Grand Trine in water, then, moves us into the mysterious ways of the soul, its emotions and feelings and sensitivities and longings and desperations, and the kinds of experiences that “make” soul, if we’re willing to dive in and get wet.

Water is connected with memory and reflection, and like the soul it operates indirectly. We see this indirection in the creatures depicting the three water signs of the zodiac. The crab of Cancer walks sideways on the beach, thanks to the bend of its legs. The scorpion of Scorpio stings from behind, thanks to the bend of its tail. And the two fish of Pisces, with eyes on the sides of their heads, don’t exactly look at the world in a straight-forward manner. They see from the sides. Additionally, the two fish are usually imagined swimming away from each other, rather than toward each other in the direct, head-on approach of, say, fiery Aries. The soul expresses itself indirectly through symbols, through metaphors and stories, music and poetry, and through artwork. Water is about imagery and imagination. When you stand in front of Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” the painting says so much. It evokes enormous feeling, yet does so indirectly. We see “Starry Night” and pause to reflect on where it takes us. Imagination opens up. To “reflect” means to “bend back.” The reflective soul looks backward, behind the mere what-you-see-is-what-you-get arena of life.

The element of water also shows itself in our lives when we lack obvious and clear direction, when our vision of the future is foggy and blurry, leaving us feeling bogged down with uncertainty or confusion, or feeling stuck. The Grand Trine in Water isn’t a time of productivity as much as it is a time of experiencing life on an emotional level, or imagining the year ahead, or reflecting on matters important to your soul. While not productive in the usual sense, water does lend itself to improbable solutions, as seen in The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy grabs a bucket from the sidelines and splashes water all over the Wicked Witch of the West, melting her away. An indirect solution to a very real problem, coming in sideways.

ROLLING BACK THE RIVERS IN TIME

There is a saying, that Time is a river that flows in two directions: the future and the past. While we tend to think of memory and reflection in terms of the past, science now knows that the place in the brain that remembers the past is the same place in the brain the imagines the future. This is more in tune with how ancient Greek culture viewed memory. To the Greeks, memory was a goddess named Mnemosyne, and Mnemosyne was the mother of the Muses, the protectors of the arts, history, music and dance. The musing involved with writing poetry or history is the same musing through which Van Gogh painted “Starry Night” and the same musing with which we remember our lives, with any imagination. Jungian analyst Lyn Cowan writes beautifully about Mnemosyne in her book Tracking the White Rabbit:

“Mnemosyne is like a theater, upon whose stage the Muses perform what we recall of our lives. They take a person’s or a people’s history and shape it, re-shape it, animate it, sculpt it, draw it out, set it to music, give it color, set it free through verse, release it into the air of spoken words so that it may fly ahead to become images of the future.”

The meaning of “muse” includes “to wonder” and “to dream.” Another meaning is “to waste time.” This is a large part of the nature of the Grand Trine in water. It’s a time to muse, even if it feels like you are wasting time. It’s a time to imagine, reflect, remember, wonder about the past and wander into the future, feel deeply, feel deeper, feel confused, feel all over the place, splash about, muck about, drink it in and draw it out. It’s about being in present time, knowing that “present time” has nothing to do with Time. Most spiritual practices today attempt to leave the past behind, simply let it go.  As if.  That's what the spirit desires, but that rarely, if ever, actually works. Why? Because it abandons the soul. From the soul’s perspective, if you listen today to your favorite song from 1984, it does not take you out of today or the present moment at all—it connects you with the realm of Mnemosyne, the eternal and timeless terrain of memory and imagination.  The memory and the connection and the feelings of listening to that song add depth and meaning, substance and strength, continuity and richness to the present moment and to the whole of life.  History is far more than just a series of events that happened "back then." Its Muse is named Clio, and she tends the fertile grounds of history from which the present and the future grow.

Vengeance and Fury, Nerd-style

“Living well is the best revenge.”—F. Scott Fitzgerald

THE MASK

Saturn’s transit through Scorpio is a great excuse to explore some of the shady, unseemly and unpleasant elements of human nature that might just be easier to avoid altogether.  Steven Spielberg explores elements of racism and slavery in his new movie “Lincoln,” depicting the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which took place on December 6, 1865, while Saturn was transiting through Scorpio.  Huge defining pieces of the legacy of racism in the United States can be linked to Saturn transits in Scorpio.  We could also venture into issues of betrayal, deep bitterness and resentment, envy, jealousy and obsession, or lusty desires and lonely desperations.  So many choices!

For the purposes of this blog, I want to focus for a little bit on an extremely  popular “dark” emotion:  vengeance!  Getting even!  Ha!  Let’s put compassion to the side for just a little while (it’s not going anywhere, it’ll still be here when we’re done) and look at what it’s like to get really, really, really, really seriously angry.  What do you do with those kinds of emotions?  See, while Saturn in Libra wants to get balanced, Saturn in Scorpio whole-heartedly wants to get even.  That's one avenue it can take.  Saturn in Scorpio replaces the Libran blindfold (turning a blind eye) with the mask of the Avenger.  This desire to get even—or, as Adele aptly sings it, to “Set Fire To the Rain”—takes center stage when the unpredictable turns and twists of Fate weave themselves in and out of our lives, sometimes leaving us with nothing but the feeling that something has gone horribly wrong.  Whether it’s the tragic death of a loved one (depicted brilliantly in Jodie Foster’s “The Brave One”), the onset of a health crisis, or some other life event that, in theory, should have—if there is any justice in this world!!—gone very differently, these seemingly “unfair” events of life can start quite a quiet boil in the psyche, leaving a restless soul simmering underneath an otherwise calm exterior.

THE THREE FATES, THE FURIES & THE KINDLY ONES

How to approach this touchy subject and give vengeance its due?  And what does this have to do with Nerds?

First off, vengeance is nothing new to the human psyche.  As long as people have told stories, vengeance presents itself as one of the core archetypal themes of life.  Centuries ago, during the times of “Beowulf,” it was actually considered shameful to not seek revenge when you have been unjustly wronged in some way.

Second, because vengeance is archetypal, it helps to look at its mythic background.  Myths connect human beings to the eternal, archetypal realm, and the mythic background of vengeance features a cast of dramatic, darkly-clad figures (mostly female) like Nemesis, the Goddess of Vengeance and Divine Wrath.  Nemesis allots happiness to humans, and part of her job is actually to make sure people don’t get too happy.  !  Eris fits the bill quite nicely too, as she brought discord and strife to a wedding on Mount Olympus when the party planners neglected to invite her.  How dare they!  You don’t want to mess with Eris.

Most intriguing to me, though, are an offshoot of the Three Fates themselves, the Furies—three hideous, ugly, winged Gorgons who avenge injustice on a cosmic scale.  They hound, endlessly harp on and wreak havoc in the lives of those who transgress natural law, particularly those who commit murder.  If this starts to seem less and less like it has anything to do with your life, bear with me.  (Plus, you want to see how Nerds fit into this.)

Back in ancient Greece it was not cool to speak of the Furies directly.  You just didn’t do it.  You did not want to attract their attention.  I take enormous risk by even mentioning them by name here!  As a safeguard, the Furies became known as the Eumenides, or the Kindly Ones, which is where this gets really interesting.

The word “kindly” means far more than just being nice.  The original meaning of “kind” is “natural” or “nature” – as in, your inherent nature, and the kind of person you are.  What kind of a person are you?  As Tina Turner sings, “There are all kinds of people in this world.”  What comes naturally to you?  To be “one of a kind” is to be who you naturally are, to be in touch with your unique inherent nature.  Thus, to be “kind” is to be true to who you are, to embrace your unique bent on life, your natural inclinations and leanings.  To be un-kind means to not be yourself, to betray your own nature.  To be un-kind, then, calls in the Kindly Ones to avenge your wrong-doing!

On a personal level, the Kindly Ones keep you true to form, true to your inherent nature and the kind of person you were born to be.  Somehow they know the pattern inherent to your life, and keep you on course.  Stray too far from who you are, get too bent out of shape, and strange things can happen in life.  This is, in part, where medical intuition comes in, because the natural intelligence of our bodies is designed in large part to keep us true to our nature.  Health crises are not random.  They have a divine precision to them.  Medical intuition is much, much more complicated than that, and I can’t do it any justice in just a couple of sentences, but you hopefully get the idea I’m going after here.

Now, it’s interesting to consider how powerful a force vengeance is in today’s world, at a time when health crises continue to mount.  Vengeance is all over popular culture and has been for quite some time.  “The Avengers” has quickly become the third most popular movie in the history of all movies.  We also have “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”—two versions, no less!—and its sequels (talk about revenge!).  We have “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Wrath of the Titans,” “Justified,” “Spartacus: Vengeance,” the new television series “Arrow,” and, last but certainly not least, “Revenge.”  Oh, and there are quite a few Angry Birds out there too, not to mention the phenomenon of the Vampire, which is tightly an inextricably bound up with the legacy of vengeance and revenge.  Considering that “revenge” simply means “to take back,” though, I want to take us back now to 1984, when Saturn was last in Scorpio, to a little movie called “Revenge of the Nerds.”

LOVING WHAT YOU LOVE

Back in 1984 a Nerd was a particular kind of person who was intelligent, typically unattractive, unfashionable, socially awkward, sexually undesirable, and in general a bit odd (to understate it).  Who on earth would want to be a Nerd, right?  And they really liked their computers.  A lot.  Perhaps a little too much, you know?  Like, freakishly too much.  As is usually the case with anyone too odd or too different, Nerds were harassed, bullied, beat up and tormented, and were the unwilling recipients of countless swirlies.  The movie “Revenge of the Nerds” arrived with its advertisement, “They’ve been laughed at, picked on and put down.  But now it’s time for the odd to get even!”  And in the movie, they did.  The Nerds got their revenge.

OK, so what?  Big deal.  Well, just remember that this is revenge we’re talking about.  Vengeance.  The Nerds got pushed to their limits and got seriously pissed off!  They didn’t avoid it and go quiet.  They did something about it.  This is where, as you’ll see, vengeance is not necessarily a bad thing at all.  If you’re the kind of person who stays as far away from words like “vengeance” and “wrath” and feelings of anger like you stay away from the plague (or golf!  Golf is so boring!), this is where you might want to tune in.  See, we can take the revenge of the Nerds out of the movies and see that, in life too, Nerds got their revenge.  Nerds, in fact, irrevocably changed the entire course of human history forever.  If that sounds overly-dramatic, I have one word for you:  Internet.  Or three words:  Word Wide Web.  Consider, really consider, the full impact so far that the Internet has had on life world-wide.  It’s extraordinary, and it's all thanks to the Nerds.

Despite the bullying and endless tormenting and harassment, Nerds did not compromise who they were one bit (pun intended).  They did not abandon their inherent nature.  Rather, the “dark night of the nerds” followed the archetypal pattern of the dark night of the soul, and—despite having every legitimate reason to get even in some shady back-handed manner—by embracing who they were and what they loved, and becoming it even more, Nerds got their revenge and changed the world.  Nerds got their revenge and brought more computers into the world, not less.  Nerds got their revenge and we have Macs, PCs, laptops, flash drives, iPhones, Androids, other Smart Phones, iPods, iPads, Nooks, Kindles, and WiFi—to name a few—as a result.  Nerds like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates (both born with Saturn in Scorpio) got their revenge and relentlessly carried on following their unique visions and passions.  A generation later, Mark Zuckerburg (also Saturn in Scorpio) took the mantle one step further with Facebook and his “maniacal focus” on connecting every single human being on the entire planet.  Nerds, you see—the most isolated and excluded and picked-on people—turned out to be the ones able to connect more of humanity together than ever before!  As Carl Jung noted, “Behind the wound lies the genius.”  Indeed!  When your computer crashes or your Internet goes down, who are you going to call?  Not the Ghostbusters, as it turns out; you call the Nerds!

As if that weren’t enough, Nerds became sexy too!  And did they ever!  Not entirely, not 100%, not every Nerd across-the-board, but the pantheon of sex symbols now includes some Nerds.  For sexy Nerds, look to the new Q in the James Bond movie “Skyfall,” or the new Sherlock Holmes portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch.  Check out former weakling Steve Rogers in “Captain America,” Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) in “The Amazing Spider-Man” (he’s amazing!), Tony Stark in “Iron Man,” or Auggie in the television show “Covert Affairs”—to name a few.  Even Doctor Who is sexy now!  See, this is the power of vengeance done right.

You may wrestle with a wrathful heart, struggling to shut it up, letting it go, or keeping it at bay, but to simply avoid these kinds of intense emotions or pretend-make them go away (spoiler:  they don't) takes its toll on a life.  Remember the Furies, and remember that heart disease is the number one killer in the United States.  Perhaps there's a connection.  The wrathful heart is still a heart, after all—a heart that powerfully and passionately beats and pulses with the fiery energies of both destruction and creation.  It's not only a destructive path.  The vengeful heart's ability to create is as profound as its ability to damage and destroy.  The choice is yours.

In her 1984 hit song “Twist of Fate” Olivia Newton-John sings, “Life doesn’t mean a thing without the love you bring.”  Which is to say, when the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune give you a bum deal—which is part of the “bazinga!” nature of life itself—the best revenge might just be to bring forth what you love—what means the most to you—with a vengeance.  It not only brings meaning to your life, but it adds to the meaning of the world as well.  Something in the world changes.  As evidenced by the Nerds, the art of transformation isn’t really about radically altering yourself and your life.  Rather, it’s about becoming more and more of who you are, revealing your inherent nature as a true one-of-a-kind, sometimes against all odds.  Bringing what you love into the world somehow transforms what needs transforming, naturally, because your heart is in it.  When it comes to actually doing this day after day, week after week, year after year, it may seem about as easy as remembering how to play Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock, but it might just be the kindest thing you ever do.

Saturn in Scorpio - Dark Eyes and Dark Nights

“I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can, so I can see the light that’s right before my eyes.”—Corey Hart, Sunglasses At Night, 1983

“We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.”—Goethe

On October 5, 2012, the planet Saturn moved into the sign of Scorpio, where he will reside for close to three years.  There’s a turning point in any good story when the tension mounts, the suspense heightens, and despite the increased intensity of the experience, something deep within compels you to stick around—fixed at the very edge of your seat—to see how it’s all going to work out.  This would be akin to the Saturn in Scorpio point of the story.

Things get dark when Saturn moves into Scorpio.  If Jim Henson can go there in order to create “The Dark Crystal,” which came out right when Saturn last entered Scorpio in late 1982, my hunch is we all can.  Interestingly, “The Dark Crystal” captures the symbolic essence of Saturn in Scorpio with uncanny precision, and for his efforts Jim Henson even won a Saturn Award (seriously!) for Best Fantasy Film.  While I can’t promise Saturn Awards for everyone, suffice to say that Saturn in Scorpio is really a time for recognizing that there’s a whole lot more going on in life than typically meets the eye.

EYES THAT SEE IN THE DARK

The late, formidable depth psychologist James Hillman, who was born in 1926 with Saturn in Scorpio, often noted about his work, “I have a dark eye.”  Probably a good quality for the eyes of a depth psychologist!

On February 2, 1985, a little girl named Melody Gardot was born with Saturn in Scorpio in her birth chart.  In November 2003, young Melody was hit by a car while riding her bicycle (transiting Uranus was square her Saturn), landing her in the hospital for a year, on her back.  Since the accident, Melody rebuilt her life and has become a highly-acclaimed, exquisitely elegant jazz singer, playing her music in dark, intimate clubs all around the world.  Her songs include “Deep Within the Corners of My Mind,” “Your Heart Is As Black As Night,” and “So We Meet Again My Heartache.”  Curiously, “The most noticeable effect of the neural injuries she suffered is that she was left hyper-sensitive to both light and sound, therefore requiring her to wear dark sunglasses at nearly all times to shield her eyes.”  (Wikipedia)

Meanwhile, an interesting phenomenon occurred between 1983 and 1985, the period of the entire Saturn transit through Scorpio, when a huge surge in the sales of Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses led to the height of the company’s success.

Olivia Newton-John sported shades on the cover of her 1983 hit single, “Twist of Fate.”

Tom Cruise danced in his underwear and sported his sexy Ray-Ban shades while going about his "Risky Business" (1983).

At the same time, sexy Corey Hart hit the big time with his song "Sunglasses At Night":  “I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can, so I can see the light that’s right before my eyes.”

In 1983, country singer Kenny Rogers released a pop album called “Eyes That See In the Dark.”

In 1984, Tina Turner launched her massive comeback album “Private Dancer” with the lyrics, “I’m a new pair of eyes every time I am born.”

Movie Director James Cameron, born with Saturn in Scorpio in his birth chart, included the now-famous line “I see you” in both of his top-grossing movies “Titanic” and “Avatar.”  In "Titanic" Rose says to Jack, “You have a gift, Jack, you do.  You see people.”  To which he replied, “I see you.”  Jack could see into people, see their gifts, something about their inherent nature hidden in the dark.

Looking back to an earlier Saturn in Scorpio cycle, William Golding published his "Lord of the Flies," featuring the infamous Piggy’s shattered lenses on the cover.  The shattering of his lenses left Piggy in the dark, unable to see in the manner he was most accustomed.

When Saturn is in Scorpio, we see "through a glass darkly,” like x-ray vision.  The x-ray machine was actually invented while Saturn was in Scorpio.  We can see what is not typically seen under bright-light conditions.  It’s as if we all don Ray-Bans for the duration of the transit.

When our eyes enter darkness, our pupils dilate.  The muscles of the eye relax, causing the pupil to fully expand in order to obtain more light.  Dilated pupils enable us to see better in the darkness.  This is significant for Saturn’s transit in Scorpio and is the essence of the “in-sight” often associated with Scorpio.  The darkness has purpose.

Now, stretching our expanded pupils way back to the year 1542, we see that the young man who would become Saint John of the Cross was born with Saturn in Scorpio in his birth chart.  Amidst the toughest of life circumstances he would glean insight into what he called the Dark Night of the Soul and from that darkness he wrote one of the most mysterious and magical pieces of mystical poetry ever written.  The poem, with its reference to moving through life with “No other light, no other guide / Than the one burning in my heart” (Starr) is resonant of the particular experience of darkness we encounter with Saturn in Scorpio.

ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT

Both Saturn and Scorpio rule over the cold and dark places on earth—everything from cellars and mines to refrigerators and freezers.  Similarly, both Saturn and Scorpio rule over the cold and dark places of the human psyche.  Like a Detective exhuming a long-buried grave or sweeping away cobwebs to investigate cold-cases long-forgotten and left behind, Saturn in Scorpio asks us to look deeply into the dark of the present, the past, and ourselves, to find important flickers of life, valuable new evidence that may have been overlooked, neglected, or not recognized for its full worth when interrogated under brighter circumstances.  It’s a time to let the dark be the dark and allow our eyes enough time to adjust enough to expand intimately, inwardly, so that we can more fully see through the light that is already there.