Underworld Plumbing ~ June 28, 2006

What a week! I had one of those weeks with mundane details going every which way but straight. But more, the stories that came my way indicated that most people contended with a plethora of issues, some dealing with far more difficult issues than others. Most everyone, though, had an abundantly full week that surfaced aspects of the personality that could be defined as coping skills - or the lack there of. One person wrote in an e-mail: I wish the high road were lit up like a runway. Me too. But it’s not.

In fact, while many were anticipating next week’s Mercury retrograde, blaming some of the weirdness on him, his hands clearly are off the matter. He wears the same face of innocence as a soccer player in the World Cup flagged with a yellow card. Truly, it’s not his fault. Nor is it the anticipation of Jupiter’s turn direct, which truly makes everyone antsy and edgy as the recall of unfulfilled dreams reenters the consciousness in the interest of inspiring a reconcentrated life effort. It goes way deeper and way further than that.

Last week, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), those guys ultimately responsible for the naming of new objects in space, chose names for the two moons of Pluto discovered in 2004. Yep, Pluto has three moons now: Charon, Nix and Hydra. They got clever, those naming astronomer guys did. There’s a probe headed out toward this quadraplex in the Kuiper belt named New Horizon. So, they used the N and H for the probe and came up with Nyx, goddess of the dark, and Hydra, the fearsome beast who guarded the gates of hell. But they couldn’t use the correct spelling Nyx because that name had been used before, so they used Nix. As the old saying goes, “An i for a y,” or something vengeful like that.

Should a person have felt as if they navigated through the dark and dealt with an unusually large measure of underworldy affairs, there’s the reason. From my point of view, the moons of a body tend to define its subconscious motivations. Thus, with Pluto’s new components, we have the ability to field the dark - or symbolically dealing with those worst fears and coming out on top; then we have the more complicated issue of Hydra. Pluto refers to other people’s money and possessions. When stuff gets to the point where it must be protected by home security systems, guns and vigilance attending to any possible encroaching parties, it becomes hell. Even Warren Buffet gave away billions of dollars this week. That’s a hell of a note. Speaking of which, imagine the need to guard hell, anyway. Who in their right mind, according the mythic/theological representations of what hell is, would want to sneak in there?

And there’s more. Also last week, the IAU named a cubewano, a Kuiper Belt Object with an orbit notably longer than Pluto’s, Logos. Bodies with orbits longer than Pluto receive resurrection or creation namesakes. Hmm. Logos represented, according to Heraclites, the natural order in the Absolute Universe. Really now? Logos supposedly set humans aside from other creatures and granted dominion to people. After all, it is the logical, rational process that causes people to make clear mentally based, logical decisions, right? Like Sedna, the orbital elements of Logos appear in the signs of Cancer (perihelion - closest point to Sun) and Leo (planetary north node). The bottom line for those orbital elements: make choices good for your spirit. For those who lack comfort in making emotional choices selection solutions that have indeterminate outcomes, both criteria intending to serve the soul, Logos appears, suggesting that if you can logically define the same course of action, then you may make the necessary choices good for your soul.

That makes sense, right? Certainly it defies the blurriness of Neptune’s veils, though strongly engaged with Sedna in sorting out the choices that feel right. Who, of those who think clearly, wants more Neptune pipe dreams that require substantial Saturnian plumbing and hard rewiring later? The magic of life must somehow prevail and mix mercifully with reality.

The road to hell may be paved with good intentions. No matter. Unless you know the secret handshake, Charon (Pluto’s previous moon) cannot ferry you across the River Styx no matter how much you plea. Sooner or later, you’ll come up against the Hydra, too. The point? You don’t have to go to hell in or without a handbasket. Do your best to shed fears. After dark comes light, as children cowering under the covers afraid of what’s under the bed, come to know.

Next week, the pivots of Mercury and Jupiter insist that one approach life’s loftiest aspirations - this time without hesitation or anxiety. That can only be done free of fear. Jupiter promises benefits, but like lottery commercials suggest: “If you don’t play, you can’t win.”

If all else fails, call your favorite underworld plumber. They should have twenty-four hour service.