Easter Eggs ~ 10 April 2009


There’s a bunch of nuggets to be polished - almost like an Easter egg hunt of celestial proportions.


Those who revel in solar observation are pleased with the current extended solar minimum, which enables superior viewing and study. Last September astronomers predicted the current solar minimum is the bottom of a fifty-year cycle of solar activity and that solar blemishes would be a minimum, lingering into this year. As of writing (April 9), there has been a fortnight of spotless solar days. (For some fascinating material including how solar activity affects mundane and economic cycles, visit Space Weather and click on “Explore the Sunspot Cycle”) This past week after a widely published Internet article noting the extreme low of the solar activity tide, I was flooded with commentaries and questions about this effect.


First, this is not the end of the world... or the Sun, for that matter. Presently solar activity pretty much tracks expected activity profiles. However, to find a time when solar activity was this low in recent years, you have to go back to 1954... and lower before that, 1913. Sunspots follow a 11.08 year cycle and during the last solar maximum, the trend of excessive sunspots lingered longer than usual. Conversely, now the solar minimum extends its welcome. Astronomers promise the solar activity to return “any day now.” If that sounds like your economic planner discussing the market with you, there are distinct links between helio and heliocentric planetary patterns to economic trends, weather, and now in the realm of ultra-important electronic communication and communication disturbances. So, the current minimum is good for cell phones, satellite signals and the power grid, however it does not correlate with the intentional cutting of fiber optic lines such as yesterday’s event in Silicon Valley, California.


Sorry, the world is not ending, however as the solar activity increases, and as we head for a slightly delayed maximum in 2011, likely extending into 2012, look out for the psychic Ponzi scheme connecting the short term, ongoing solar cycle to the expiration of the Mayan Calendar, the end of the world, the landing of aliens and the creation of ice cream that tastes like chicken.


Here we are back at Easter time and for the first time, we have a name for the planet colloquially dubbed “Easter Bunny” by its discoverers: Makemake. Congruently, Makemake is the primo birdman deity of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) who was honored by the locals with a ceremony that would make great reality television: Makemake Marathon Egg Hunters. When sooty terns annually return to the island, it is time for the egg bearing triathlon to pay homage to this principal god. Here, chosen individuals representing the clans, race along perilous cliffs, scaling down to the sea. There, they must swim through the sea to the neighboring isle where the terns nest. If they received scraps or cuts on the sharp rocks, then sharks might devour an egg seeker on the swim, outbound and upon return. Once reaching the nesting island, the participants must locate a tern egg, secure it so it does not break, return to the sea, swim back to Rapa Nui, scale the cliffs and return to the point of origin. The “winner” receives the reward of having all hair shaved from the head, including eyebrows, and “gets” to enter a cave for a year, presumably emerging with a heap of insight.


Makemake shares the same degree of perihelion with Jupiter, allowing for a clever cross-cultural linkage. During its 309 year orbital period, Makemake, parallels Jupiterian themes and encourages a soul to believe one’s own hype and walk your talk; or change your beliefs, resetting daily action with spiritual claims. Personally, the point of Makemake is to locate one’s inner fecundity and articulate it with non-boastful confidence - an agenda to ponder while scouring the terrain for eggs on Easter.


Perhaps one of the subtler very multicolored eggs to find comes from Venus retrograding in early Aries, both squaring the Solar Apex and Galactic Center continuing until it stations on the 16th, after returning for a brief stint in Pisces. Creative nuggets zip through the airwaves kind of like low hanging fruit. They’re there for the plucking for those looking and picking. Given the progressive nature of the Galactic Center and the ironical “charge” of the Solar Apex, advanced ideas, evolutionary insights need a healthy dab of good humor. Adding a huge dollop of the “entertain to enlighten” philosophy ensures that when one bears a profound metaphysical morsel, it doesn’t lay an egg in the effort to lead humankind to a place that’s both human and kind.


Symbolically, Venus (and ala the Inana mythology) recently descended into the underworld. Aligned with the symbolism of the cave retreat in the Makemake myth, go within and down deep where the level of consciousness passes subconscious and unconscious into a state of alacrity and consciousness known as preconsciousness - the innocent primal state of awareness that sees things soulfully sans the contamination of life conditioning, prohibitive philosophies and fears that have become embedded by less than ideal experiences or collective media saturation.


Funny how it goes. Last night I had a rather intense dream in which I encountered some underworldly insight of great significance. The question I was asked before leaving the underworld was: You know you can’t take it with you when you head into the afterlife, but if you descend into the profound depths of the underworld, can you take back insights achieved with you upon your return to the real world? How many times have dreams provided answers or did meditations provide insightful relief only to have the revelation stick to the veil as one returns to the conscious state? Or if you do recall the insight, can you make sense of it while mired in the mundane?


There’s a very nifty free astronomical program out there, Stellarium. This program allows you to zoom in on objects, such as Pluto. Doing so with Pluto allows you to observe the binary companion, Charon, in relationship to Pluto. With this tool, the distance of Charon to Pluto from Earth can be determined. Naturally, about half the orbital period of Charon and Pluto, Charon is closer to Earth than is Pluto. This distance factor prevails as significant when considering the mythical nature of Charon. Without successfully addressing Charon, no one gets into the underworld, which in classic mythology was the place where judgment occurred - not after ascension. More literally, without reverence for Charon, the ferryman who crossed the river Styx - the only path in or out of the underworld, the profound insights of Pluto’s realm and all his gems of consciousness cannot be held. Failure to properly petition Charon leads to a dim fate of wandering the shores of the River Styx for a hundred years.


And speaking of bridging into the underworld, recently I noted the campaign that astronomer Mike Brown commenced for finding a perfect name for the moon of Orcus. His review of more than a thousand entries is complete and he is proposing the name Vanth to the International Astronomical Union for their likely acceptance. Orcus is the Etruscan equivalent of Pluto or Hades. This underworld deity is noted for his role of punishing oath breakers. The proposed name of the moon should parallel, in a mythical line of logic, the primary body. Vanth, a chthonic figure, waits for the dead at the precipice of the underworld, often depicted as shedding tears for the souls. She serves as a guide similar to the role of Charon. In some artistic renderings, she is seen rising up out of the ground.


The often overlooked eggs of attaining consciousness, according to these symbolic renderings, appear to be proper petitioning of the guides in and out of the underworld. It is in the underworld where roots grow, gems flourish and a full regard for the “core” of an issue leads to inspirations and insights the worth of which can never be fully declared at customs as one travels between dimensions. So say the Easter indicators: Make the journey. Seek the fertility. Savor the results of the quest and study how, when and with what tone insights best bear fruit.


Next week, a fresh look at the return of Venus to prograde motion and more.