new article on pallas athene

[tom]

hi all,
for a few months i've been writing a column on stephanie azaria's site, the cosmic path (www.thecosmicpath.com).

so far, the theme has been "living myth," going into an aspect of an asteroid's associated myth to understand the figure's story as a story we live it. i believe that by learning what the mythological figure seems not to know, we can see how to make different choices, resolve misunderstanding and stuckness, and heal. (and, ultimately, advance the unfolding of the archetypes we live by consciously participating in our stories as universal stories, which i find really exciting.)

this month's is on pallas athene & re-integration, and stephanie's linked it from her home page (previous to now it's been members-only).

previous months have seen an intro to the idea of living myth and its therapeutic possibilities, an article on arjunsuri (20300), and one on juno & commitment. coming up are focuses on ceres and vesta, more on pallas athene, and some eavesdropping on a chat between sisyphus and penelope (so far ir seems about purpose, futility and what's worth doing).

hope you enjoy it!

[ana]

the pallas athene article was very interesting Tom you have a knack of extracting the juice of a planet or asteroid in few words........... i have it in libra in 5th and sometimes i get very divorced from my creativity- like now- cos the circumstances are never right or never seem right ie not enough peace and quiet or not enough stimulation always an excuse I make part of my living as an artist so very relevant it is really well and much aspected apart from a big square from Saturn/Toro/Pan!!!!!
my daughter has it in Pisces and is not at all into anything spiritual but maybe later as she is only23 so has one of my sons and he is just discovering his spirituality at 37 and it is changing him quite dramatically

[ariesmoon]

Thank you Tom - your article resonated very strongly with me, and as always, it seems I found it at the right time, when I'd just come in from gardening in our apartment gardens (the first time I've done that in many months). That's very relevant, as we're talking Taurus here! Something has really clicked for me reading your words. I haven't given a great deal of thought to Pallas in the past - that's revealing in itself! I've looked at Ceres and Juno (conjunct my Sun) but have skated over Pallas. No more!

Pallas is at 23 Taurus in my chart, conjunct Mars (at 21 Taurus) in the 12th. So for me it's been Mars energy, and the earthiness and stability of Taurus that I've been divorcing - making everything logical (Mercury rising in Gemini) and avoiding anything, to be honest, that would get my hands dirty either physically or metaphorically. That's included love relationships, which I've analysed out of existence. I've kept all but close friends at a physical distance. And now I think about it, I've raced around travelling, lots of flying - and the only place I've visited in the past few years where I felt truly earthed was at Uluru. Because it rained, and because I could smell the earth. (Red earth - how Mars in Taurus is that?) Mars is the only personal planet I have in Earth, and I've been in denial about it for years whilst it's been buried in the 12th. No wonder I've had a sense for years of "something" missing.

I've got a 2nd house Cancer sun which has meant I've relied in the past for security on possessions - thinking that would earthed me, which it hasn't. I just feel weighed down by them which is not the same thing at all. In contrast, when I sing, or paint (both of which I've recently started doing), or work in the garden, I feel more alive than at any other time.

Mars is now (at last!) beginning to make itself felt, probably in part because I'm rediscovering my reiki energy (I put a post on the Sedna thread about this, as Sedna is transiting conjunct Mars, and therefore close to Pallas). So the 12th house connection is strong there. I've also become very drawn to people with strong Taurus energy in their charts (either as a sun sign or Venus/Ascendant sign) which shows me that I'm finally acknowledging Mars' presence in my chart. I find their tactile natures and very solid, earthed presence comforting and very attractive.

Having an afternoon in the spring sun getting my hands dirty in the garden, clearing away dead plants and revealing new growth (very Plutonian too!) has been wonderful. And I'm full of ideas for filling my small part of the garden with colour. All this seems as if Pallas and Mars are working together - and getting a boost from transiting Jupiter in Capricorn.

Thanks again for your article Tom, and for the link to Stephanie's site too, a new discovery for me.

[tom]

hi ana,
yes, there's always an excuse, isn't there? but i think when we see that, it's the first step toward just trying it out already.
re your daughter, i see pisces has to do not with specifically with spirituality, but with opening to or merging with something greater than ourselves, which of course includes it. maybe that's a better way to look at what she does or doesn't do relative to her piscean pallas?

hi ariesmoon,
i have a friend with taurus moon in the 12th, and it takes getting out into nature with no agenda/schedule to center herself. she does yoga and other things that would seem to do it, but she needs trees, dirt, sun and sky. to feel part of it. i think that listening to our bodies as instruments, as well as our minds, is an important answer - the body will take us outside and get our hands dirty, if we let it. we can rationalize ourselves out of feeling life! this from a 2nd house sun, but a 3rd house sagittarius moon-mercury with saturn in gemini in the 9th opposing it - i spent most of my life logicking myself out of participating physically in it.
good for you for getting your hands dirty!

[ariesmoon]

Very wise words, Tom, from your 9th house Gemini Saturn! I've done yoga for years and I'm really struggling with it at present, and had been tempted as recently as last night to give it up. I'm rethinking that now. I realise it's been a fear of using my body, I'm very blocked mentally by what I think I can't do, rather than by letting my body tell me what it can do, what it might be able to do, and what it wants to do.

Reading my latest post again, I see Mars is missing. Oh yes, the word is there. It's all very articulate and all very detached, analytical and observant. And completely passionless. Which just proves the point that I'm avoiding what Mars represents!! (22 years as a public servant is great training for that!) It's led me back to re-read most of Steven & Jodie Forrest's wonderful "Skymates: Love Sex and Evolutionary Astrology", which I can't recommend highly enough. Particularly their words on Mars. Getting back to what it's ABOUT. Desire, adrenaline, fire. And what they say, which is certainly true for me, is that we "love it and hate it, fear it and seek it". It's been very scary for me. Even typing this up for a public web forum is quite a step - I had to go back to what I'd written about this passionate planet and find there was no passion in what I'd written. Because I was scared to express it out loud, as it were. And then realise that this is exactly the lesson I needed to learn - to express that part of myself, and do it publicly. (Finding Taureans "comforting and very attractive". Oh dear oh dear, how delicate and polite that is. How Venusian. It's those things, yes, and it's also raw, visceral punch-in-the-solar-plexus hit-by-a-truck desire on occasions. Particularly with someone whose Venus is conjunct my Mars (and therefore conjunct Pallas too!) I've read about that synastric conjunction a lot, haven't we all. They are very powerful energies and they work at a distance - been there, felt it.

I've been reading more about Pallas too, and thinking how the image of her as a warrior goddess, with such creative intelligence, fits in with a close conjunction to Mars in Taurus in the 12th. A fighter for justice behind the scenes? An organiser of creative, artistic, musical healing? I'm just beginning to see the potential now. Wow. I've seen it written that 12th house planets can be visible to everyone except ourselves, in which case I really ought to ask my friends about this, about whether they've seen this creative, earthy energy in me. The answer will be yes, of course we have, and we were wondering when you'd start acknowledging it!

I keep saying it, but thanks Tom!!

[tom]

hi ariesmoon,
i can relate, as my pallas is conjunct venus in the 12th, in libra - also a venusian sign. now, my mars is in the 1st house, but also in libra, and conjunct uranus, so there's an intermittency to it. i've worked hard to learn a libran sense of balance with it. and it seems tied into that venus that's hiding with pallas in the 12th - mars-venus often implicate each other in daily life, after all - relationships and boundaries, etc.

but, you know, the work of allowing 12th house planets to develop momentum into their own, unique rhythms is what we have to do. for me, i find willingness to allow those parts of us to find their own way is a key. meaning that trying to actively force some 12th house planet into meaningful action will go against its unique-to-you nature, against your wiring, and a piscean-style allowing is therefore called for. for me, it can be that i always carry around a notebook and thereby enable that venus-pallas in libra to have an outlet for ecstatic poetry at absolutely random times. something pops into view & i'm stricken, and i grab that notebook and a flow of neptunian stuff pours out. it's worked well as one way to allow that to do its thing.

i think your awareness of the mars-pallas thing is a great asset!

[ariesmoon]

Tom, I love that idea of "allowing" the 12th house planets to manifest in their own way and at their own pace. It's very tempting - with a 12th house Mars and 12th house Moon in Aries - to go racing around thinking I've now got to make up for all that "lost time", almost as if not doing that will mean losing sight of them again. Well, it is Mars and Aries! I think it's a reaction too, to beginning to feel really well again after a few years of very low energy from an underactive thyroid which took ages to diagnose. But applying the 12th house imagery to them really works - if I think of these planets emerging out of a mist, then it's easy to accept that they'll reveal themselves gradually, they won't suddenly become sharply defined.

I had a phase of writing a lot of poetry last year, and I've let that dry up, probably because it didn't feel dynamic enough for me. I'll carry a notebook around from now on - a great idea.