The River of Death

Chapter 2 from "Astrological Repair Manual" by Alexander M Zoltai

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We've left Xena and the Hordes to their appointed rounds and we're approaching the double planet Pluto/Charon (as I write this, Hubble has discovered two moons orbiting this planet). We may have left the space of the Hordes but we're certainly not done with functions in our lives that rely on the unconscious energy of psychological forces.

Matter of fact, the Space Internet has informed us that the Earthlings have launched a spacecraft out this way (won't arrive till 2015) and interest in these deeper spaces should increase worldwide.

But now, since we're into space that's been paid attention to by humans since 1930, we can get down to some real work in the realm of astrological understanding.

Understanding death, to be precise, and how it's a river that wends its way through every part of our lives. There are many deaths in a life-many times when one phase of our existence gives way to another. Even orgasm as been called "the little death" and sleep can be viewed as a nightly death of our conscious awareness.

Pluto/Charon's orbital period is about 248 years and the symbolic significance of that length of time is perfect for gaining meaning about long-term social, political and economic cycles. In fact, thinking back to what our society was like that long ago can be like looking back to a time that's certainly died, gone forever. Yet, there can be influences felt from those times, just like your parents' behavior on Earth has an influence long after they've left their physical bodies.

In astrology, the period of 248 years is symbolic of completely new circumstances, a total regeneration of what's being considered, a thorough purging of the past. And, even though none of us can live that long, we can still gain meaning from the symbolism of this cycle. One reason we can use it personally is that the halves and quarters of cycles are very important in gaining meaning from a chart and, if we look at the quarter cycle here, we have 62 years-an amount of anyone's life that shows the qualities of death-of-the-past, or regeneration of basic factors, or purging of one heck of a lot!

Astrology, as I indicated earlier, has nothing to do with predicting events, yet it can help us understand the meaning of events-past, present or future. Pluto was discovered in 1930 (Charon's presence was noticed a bit later and I'll stop mentioning it and only use Pluto's name so I conform, just a bit, to "normal" usage...). The Great Depression happened at that time (it actually began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939). Did Pluto cause the Depression? How loud can I holler, "NO!"? Right here, we're at one of the most crucial Repairs of Perception I hope to offer. The planets and their cycles do not cause events. The best that can be said is that humans are born into the solar system and all of its interlocking cycles and, because whatever is included within something else participates in the rhythms of the larger structure, we have cycles in our lives that mirror the cycles of the planets. It's as simple as that. No horrible fates, no in-bred bad traits, no mumbo-jumbo.

Another division of whole cycles that has great meaning in astrology is one-twelfth of the cycle, in this case about 20 years. Pluto's trip around the Sun shows quite a bit of variability when viewed from Earth so the twelfths can be shorter or longer than that. For the moment, think about your last 20-odd years and contemplate the changes that have happened...

Right now, while we're still out here where the meanings are so deep, the important thing to remember is that we all have these nearly-unfathomable meanings in our lives and it can take most of a lifetime to gain even a small amount of understanding. Still and all, knowing about them can often be enough to help us weather the changes they can induce in our lives. And, again, I'm not saying the planets are causing these changes. It's the synchronistic and mirroring cycles in our deeper minds that bring these ponderable changes.

So, just before we head in toward Neptune, let's agree that we can begin to accept the little or big deaths that occur in our lives; we can see death and regeneration as an integral part of life; we can face the darkness and know the light is streaming toward us...

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Read more chapters from this book:

The Voyage

Chapter 1: Xena and the Hordes
Chapter 2: The River of Death
Chapter 3: Idealism Abounds
Chapter 4: Venus and Her Father's Penis
Chapter 5: Transpersonal Awareness
Chapter 6: Father-Time Is All Spaced-Out
Chapter 7: Promiscuous Gods
Chapter 8: Chaos
Chapter 9: The Ancient Warrior
Chapter 10: Home Sweet Home and Lunacy
Chapter 11: Acid Love
Chapter 12: Messenger of the Gods
Chapter 13: Plasma Love
Chapter 14: Galactic Visitors