Nothing is Invulnerable

It feels like the universe has been pummeling us all into the ground lately.

Last weekend’s Clash of the Titans–esque T-square between Mars, Jupiter, and Pluto manifested in many, many ways for folks — I’ve heard some things, and have also personally experienced some things.

Sometimes I ask myself: was the astrology always this gnarly, or did it rapidly intensify over the past several years?

However, maybe the question I should be asking should be more along the lines of: was the astrology always this gnarly, or does it affect me so much more now because I’m aware of it?

Am I being dramatic?

MAYBE

I’ve been learning magic these days (probably as a direct response to feeling small in the face of the whims of the cosmos) and something struck me pretty directly. I was reading Jason Miller’s The Elements of Spellcrafting and in one chapter he advises the reader to “make your life enchantable.”

The basic premise is that, if you’re putting time and effort into the manifestation of a specific outcome (a new lover, for example, or your dream job), but neglect to live your life in a way that allows space for this outcome, then you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

(A classic example is working love spells designed to help you meet a compatible partner — but never leaving your house or otherwise putting yourself in the path of a new partner!)

This is easy for me to understand. But it got me thinking.

Am I making my life more astrologically enchantable by thinking about the stars so much?

Does it put me in their line of sight and thus make me a prime target?

Now, I’m not complaining, my life is honestly excellent and exactly where it needs to be, but still. This 9th house baby needs some ANSWERS.

As a Jupiterian person I tend to approach the world with innocence and trust. It’s actually almost egoic how easily I trust, and I’ve spent a lot of this past year teaching myself not to trust in an effort to establish personal protection & boundaries. It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve made progress. And now I’m like…I think I need to learn how to trust again?

And right now, that’s very, very hard.

<3 ily <3

Jupiter is a planet that stabilizes, provides support, opportunity, abundance, faith, and expansion. It’s called the Great Benefic for a reason.

Jupiter is currently in Taurus, conjunct the North Node.

The nodes of the Moon are a little different; their meaning isn’t as clear cut.

The lunar nodes are simply the meeting points of the orbits of the Sun & Moon. They’re where eclipses occur. A lunation, i.e. a New or Full Moon that lands close to the lunar nodes, is an eclipse.

The lunar nodes aren’t physical celestial objects but deeply symbolic mathematical points that are interpreted differently by various schools of astrology.

For example, in modern Western astrology the lunar nodes are indicative of your karmic path; the North Node represents your soul’s evolution, and the South Node everything you’ve experienced in your past lives.

However, in the much older Hellenistic, Medieval, and Vedic (Indian) astrological traditions, the lunar nodes are malevolent.

Vedic astrology has a fascinating myth in which a monstrous dragon named Rahuketu disguises himself as a deity in order to crash a party during which the gods are brewing amritsa, the nectar of immortality. He’s caught by Lord Vishnu, who slices him in half in his outrage, but not before Rahuketo had tasted a sip of the nectar and achieved his goal. Rahuketu’s top half then became Rahu, the North Node, or the head of the dragon; his bottom half Ketu, the South Node or tail of the dragon. He was now cursed to wander the cosmos for all eternity, his top half a hungry dragon’s maw devouring everything in sight, and his bottom half containing everything he ever experienced, but was unable to ingest anything new ever again.

And so the North Node became associated with intense hunger and increase; the South Node with release and decrease.

Rahuketu

But back to Jupiter in Taurus conjunct the North Node.

Taurus currently hosts the North Node and was subject to eclipses for the past year and a half. All Taurus placements and the Taurus house of every single person’s chart were also subject to this radically destabilizing and transformative influence for an extended period of time.

Whether it had to do with relationships, career, family, creativity, you name it — Taurean real estate was forced to grow & develop. It hosted the head of the dragon: the starving dragon’s maw consuming everything in sight. In contrast, Scorpio had to deal with the South Node — the tail of the dragon — in order to get to that point of release, scorched earth style.

So we’re tender, especially in the life areas and topics represented by these two signs.

And now Jupiter rests exactly atop the North Node.

Jupiter magnifies, it makes things bigger. It’s the largest planet in our solar system, after all. So everything that’s happening right now, especially the thing you’re most dragon’s-head hungry for, feels enormous. You’re starving for it.

And because the North Node is always opposite the tail of the dragon, the releasing mirrors that hunger. As I write this, the Moon is in Scorpio conjunct the South Node, directly opposing Jupiter and the North Node, deeply emphasizing the emotional weight of it. The sheer amount of releasing we’re all doing feels almost dangerous, frenetic, compulsive. Like a ship with a hole in its hull, water water everywhere, and we’re sinking.

In the face of all this, I’m choosing to trust.

In the face of all this, I still want my life to be astrologically enchantable.

This transit will pass, just like all the others. I think of how the Moon will forever sail into happy-go-lucky Sagittarius right after its time in broody Scorpio and that reminds me of the wisdom of the universe, its well-thought-out patterns, how there’s always a reason.

Astrology may seem immovable, us mere humans shriveling before its power, but it also affords us choice. The choice to prepare for unfavorable transits, the choice to enjoy the lovely ones.

Whenever I feel stuck or threatened, it’s because I haven’t been listening. I haven’t been making the best choices.

So I’ll keep the faith, continue to make my life enchantable, try to make better choices.

I’ll live this life with the knowledge that I’ve done all I can with what I have. Including the knowledge that Mars is in Leo, which may account for this level of theatrical complaining about things not going my way and feeling chastened by the universe LMAO

In the 1981 version of Clash of the Titans, Perseus, played by Harry Hamlin, faces the formidable task of defeating the Kraken. Here is some dialogue between Perseus and the Stygian Witch:

Perseus: How may a mortal man face and defeat the Kraken?

Stygian Witch: The Kraken is invulnerable. 100 men could not fight him. An army could not kill him.

Perseus: Nothing is invulnerable. There must be a way.

Stygian Witch: Perhaps, one way. But a way even more dangerous than the Kraken itself.

I may be missing the point here, but I really like the line “Nothing is invulnerable. There must be a way.”

Nothing is invulnerable, the bad and the good. And there is always a way. I’m going to try and build a fortress around the vulnerable spots of my happiness, and penetrate the defenses of my sadness.

Anyway, the moral of this entire thing is listen to Harry fuckin’ Hamlin.

I love you all

xo

Seriously, listen to him