Chiron - Centaur and Healer

Chiron, the Centaur, has an important role in the horoscope of the Gondola. Straight ahead, in the East, it travels in the company of Neptune, nautical patron and god of the sea, and the North Lunar Node, the Dragon´s Head - all three in the sign of Aquarius in the twelfth house of the wave-tossed Gondola...

What is it then, Chiron´s role in the play of the planets?

In the mythology he is both horse and man, the son of earth-bound Saturn and the grandson of heavenly Uranus.

- Aha!

Mythic Chiron is the teacher and instructor, the physician and herbalist, the musician, some even say the astrologer, and the archer. He represents insight and skill - the Greek word cheir means hand - and thereby the bringing together of heaven and earth, of intuition and rational thought...

The celestial body named Chiron was discovered late - not until 1977. No one can say with certainty what it is. Is it a minor planet, an asteroid, or perhaps a comet? Chiron´s peculiar orbit agrees in in a marvellous way with the mythology. It orbits between Saturn and Uranus, so that when it is closest to the Sun it circles a bit inside Saturn´s orbit and at its furthest distance from the Sun it is even outside the orbit of Uranus.

Thus, Chiron is the unifyer of heaven (Uranus) and earth (Saturn). The herbalist and astrologer, the musician and archer, the mentor and teacher of heroes...

Your Galactic Gondolier

Structure and Movement

We live in a world of constant change. Nothing stands still but everything is in motion. "We cannot step into the same river twice."

Yet, paradoxically, we also live in a world of form and structure. Everything has its shape, its structure. The form or structure is necessary as it provides continuity and preservation. 

Movement and structure - how can they coexist?

The recently completed opposition between Uranus (movement, change) and Saturn (structure, shape) points to this contradiction. And certainly during the past couple of years we have all witnessed many an old structure that has been forced to adjust and make changes. 

If we observe nature and the cosmos, we easily become aware that movement and change also in themselves have their own structure. Everything moves in cycles. Days and nights and seasons follow each other in an orderly manner.

We will also find that the forms and structures of nature are flexible. They have a built-in ability to move, grow and change!

So there is movement in structure and structure in movement! There is some yang in yin and some yin in yang. And so continues the ever-changing dance of our reality. The only invariant is change itself...

Even the gondola - the traditional Venetian boat type - has changed its design over time to meet new circumstances. Unlike its predecessors, today´s gondola is designed to offer tourists in Venice a romantic boat ride on the city´s waterways. It is designed so that the port side is somewhat broader than the the starboard side. This asymmetrical design compensates for drift and gives the craft a straight course and perfect balance with the gondolier standing on the port side, rowing with the single oar attached to the starboard side. This gives to the gondola its particular elegance and beauty of movement under the starlit skies of Venice...

Your Galactic Gondolier

Uranus and Science

Usually Uranus correlates with modern science and its inventiveness and ingenuity. Yet in a typically Uranian manner I turned the table around in my last blog and associated modern science with Saturn in Virgo!

How come? Are not Uranian words like "modern" and "progressive" words that describe science? Well, they  usually are. But that is not the whole picture. To a large extent modern science has already got stuck in its own dogma. 

The new and revolutionary discoveries (Uranus) of quantum physics - which in reality belong to a future paradigm - have not really sunk into the minds of the science community at large. So we can easily observe a clear Uranus-Saturn polarity within science itself! The real polarity then is not so much between Astrology and modern science as such but rather between Astrology and the outdated materialistic and reductionist view of reality still clung to by mainstream science - despite the revolutionary new discoveries!

Possibly a future more expanded paradigm will allow science to collaborate with or at least tolerate Astrology in a constructive way. Possibly the materialistic and reductionist view will finally give way to a more expansive and all-embracing experience of reality...

Your Galactic Gondolier

An Expanded View of Reality

Let us return to our gently floating Gondola beneath the starry skies of Galactic Venice. As we have seen even the Gondola is colored by the polarity of Uranus and Saturn. And of course it will mirror this polarity in its own way.

Being associated with heaven, Uranus also represents Astrology as a system of knowledge. In the chart of the Gondola the planet dwells in Pisces and occupies the twelfth house ahead, mirroring an intuitive view of reality inspired by the art of Astrology. The opposition from Uranus to Saturn in Virgo in the sixth house astern speaks of an inner urge to influence or counterbalance a more materialistic and limited view of reality.

My website - called the Galactic Gondola and in the process of being translated into English - deals to a large extent with the more intuitive view of reality that comes with Astrology (in the chart represented by Uranus) as contrasted to the more limited view of Western science and society (in this case represented by Saturn in Virgo).

My intention is to point to the more expanded and inclusive view of reality that is opened up to us through Astrology. Yet, having the Sun and Mercury and Mars astern in Libra in the seventh house, the main purpose of the Gondola is to keep its balance upon the undulating waves. After all, life itself is a risky undertaking and an adventurous voyage, isn´t it?

The daring aspiration of this Gondolier is to blend an intuitive view of reality with a more methodical and rational view...

Your Galactic Gondolier

Astrology and Kabbalah

Could it be that the opposition between Uranus and Saturn is the prime and most fundamental polarity there is?

In the Kabbalah this polarity is shown by the way the two planets are positioned on the "Tree of Life". Anyone familiar with the Kabbalah knows that the planets of Astrology - even the newly discovered outer planets - have their allotted places on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. It appears that Uranus and Saturn occupy the opposite positions two and three among the Tree´s ten (plus one) "Sefirot". This means that they are opposite each other, each one heading one of the two outer pillars. Uranus is at the top of the "pillar of energy" (to the right in the diagram below) and Saturn is at the top of the "pillar of structure" (to the left in the diagram). And this is in full compliance with their astrological significances. The diagram shows the Astrological Tree of Life in its entirety.

Now, if the opposition between Uranus ("heaven") and Saturn ("earth") is an expression of the ultimate polarity of life, you soon realize that there must be something to bridge, combine and integrate these two opposites and to bring them to collaborate in a creative and life-sustaining way.

And there is! In a lofty view, opposites always appear to be different sides of the same thing, contrasting forces in a synergistic whole. Summer and winter may seem wide apart but seen in another perspective they make up a year. And so on.

The same of course goes for the opposites of heaven and earth and of spirit and matter. Our whole life is made possible by the integration of these two opposites. But what is it that makes them work together? What is it that overcomes the contradiction?

In the Kabbalah it is shown that it is the middle pillar - the "pillar of consciousness" - that holds together and unites the two extreme players - the pillar of energy/movement/expansion (to the right in the diagram) as opposed to the pillar of structure/matter/incarceration (to the left in the diagram).

In the Astrological Tree of Life, Neptune in the treetop represents the higher union of the opposites. Further down the middle pillar at the very heart of the Tree shines the Sun - another expression of the unity from which the yin and yang world takes shape.

So Kabbalah shows that it is consciousness itself that bridges the opposite poles - represented by movement (energy) and matter (structure) - and have them interact in the alchemical dance of life that we all take part in.

It is fascinating to see how Astrology and Kabbalah - the two ancient knowledge systems - can be reconciled in this wonderful way.

Your Galactic Gondolier

Troubled Voyage (In a Calm Weather)

The opposition between Uranus and Saturn - which has been active for a couple of years now - is perhaps the most diametrical of all polarities.

Uranus stands for new and unconventional ideas and the dismantling of old structures while Saturn on the other hand stands for the established and well-known order of things - everything that Uranus likes to destroy!

Therefore, perhaps it is not too surprising that the last time the two planets were in opposition to each other was during the tumultuous 1960s and all the assaults on the establishment of those days!

And the time before that was during the First World War and the Russian Revolution - another time of struggle and upheaval in the world.

The current opposition between Uranus and Saturn has been active during the last two years. And this sure has been - and still is - a time of upheaval and drama, especially as Pluto, planet of transformation, is now passing through Capricorn, sign of structure and establishment, and squaring the Uranus - Saturn opposition!

The Gondola - although peacefully traversing the silent starlit canals of Galactic Venice - may still reflect a stormy and tumultuous time in the world around...

Your Galactic Gondolier

Reflections

Water, water

Holy mystery Heaven´s daughter

Everything reflects its time. That is what Astrology is basically all about. Like the starry night sky is reflected in the night's pitch black water, so every phenomenon reflects its time.

The chart for the launch and first oar stroke indicates the outline of how the Gondola and its Galactic Venice together form a mirror image of the cosmic moment that brought them into existence.

We have already noted that the Pisces Ascendant sets the keynote while the opposition between Uranus in the water sign Pisces at the prow and Saturn in the earth sign Virgo astern strikes a basic chord.

Uranus and Saturn... Ouranos and Chronos… Here ancient myths are woven into a rich tapestry depicting the voyage of the Gondola… Uranus in Pisces in contrast to Saturn in Virgo...

Can opposites reflect one another? Identify with each other?

In the astrological symbolism Uranus stands for intuition and innovations as well as liberation and revolution. Saturn represents the opposite - the rational, limited, established and constant. A similar contradiction exists between Pisces and Virgo - the intuitive contrasts with the rational, freedom with restriction, spirit with matter.

Incompatible opposites, it seems. Or perhaps not. Is not our whole life an extraordinary expression of the unlikely unifying of polarities? An alchemical dance constantly going on despite its seeming impossibility?

Is not the fate of man to integrate within his own being the opposite polarities of heaven and earth? Of spirit and matter?

And is this not what gives meaning to life and hopefully so also to its apparent contrary - death?

Your Galactic Gondolier

Welcome to Galactic Venice

A Galactic Gondola of course needs a Galactic Venice. And perhaps you could say that the Galactic Venice is born the same moment the Gondola is launched. How else would the Gondola - the Galactic Gondola - find it’s element?

So let us have a Galactic Venice born at the very moment the Gondola is launched into the water! This means our imaginary galactic water city must share its horoscope with the Galactic Gondola! Their fate has brought them together to be born as twins.

And of course a galactic water city - as well as the Gondola – must have its Ascendant in the water sign of Pisces. The city of Venice - the terrestrial counterpart - actually has the very shape of a fish:

(The fish head and the jaws to the left and the parted tail to the right)

Our Galactic Venice - created the instant the Galactic Gondola was launched into its pitch black, starry reflective water - is further characterized by the polarity between Uranus just above the eastern horizon in the water sign of Pisces, and Saturn just below the horizon in the west in the earth sign of Virgo.

Like its terrestrial counterpart, our galactic water city is characterized by the polarity and contrast between the elements of water and earth - water canals and buildings of stone - between the intuitive and the rational, the emotional and the mental, the liquid and the fixed, freedom and limitation, spirit and matter ...

Your Galactic Gondolier