Cancer 16 = Lucifer, Tezcatlipoca, Briseis, Sophrosyne

I appear to be treating some of these more akin meditative stories to write to transform or actualize the potential in whatever combination of asteroids matching whichever Sabian symbol or sign. I can only hope that to be an approach which helps the potential others reading, too, in suggesting ways for people to write their own life stories out of their respective asteroid or chart combinations, too. Once you see what the potentials are, you can move toward fulfilling them in ways you desire.

As already seen through two of the Furies, I have little choice and cannot ignore the darker aspects of asteroids. Everybody has them, but for some people some of the ones with a bad reputation feature more prominently. So I thought I'd tackle two more ominous-sounding ones given the Sabian in relation to the potential mentioned.

PHASE 107 (CANCER 17°): THE UNFOLDMENT OF MULTILEVEL POTENTIALITIES ISSUING FROM AN ORIGINAL GERM.
KEYNOTE: The life urge to actualize one's birth potential.

1980 Tezcatlipoca is the Mayan god of darkness and a counterpart for his light twin Quetzalcoatl. The name "smoking mirror" alludes to his magician and diviner side through the mirror of obsidian used for seeing things. It also points out something about seeing things not yet there. It's easier to discern what it is against a dark background. Staring into the light just makes you blind and leads to a darkness of other sorts. You may see the afterimages for a while, but again, they're set against a darker background.

However, Mark Andrew Holmes suggests Tezcatlipoca stands for "darkness, scheming, giving without taking; criminal, evil, predatory or antisocial behavior; the occult, materialism, opportunism; the anti-hero, the sorcerer or other individual who considers himself or herself above the written and unwritten laws that govern human conduct." Combine that with the most ominous figure from Christian lore, Lucifer the Light-Bringer, the proudest of the host of angels, the first among the Fallen, and it's not a pretty picture, is it?

While I writing this don't have handy links about the potentials inherent in the asteroid 1930 Lucifer in anyone's chart, I know there are pages where they're discussed. You can go two routes with Lucifer, like with most things. You can get stuck in the lower patterns or you can elevate it to a better force in your life.

Everyone has Lucifer, everyone has Tezcatlipoca, like I wrote in relation to Alekto already. Tezcatlipoca is the other creator of the Mayan universe and a powerful figure in his own right if not merely compared against his lighter, "good" twin. There are situations where opportunism will save or help you. Scheming may save you a lot of work under certain circumstances, whatever people think about it.

Let's take Tezcatlipoca scheming in today's PR-oriented world. Quetzalcoatl needs to be taken down a peg, doesn't he? What to do, what to do? I know. Quetzalcoatl is known as the Feathered Serpent. Serpents are evil to Christians, so surely he's evil as well then. All I need to do is sell that to unsuspecting folks, and I'm sorted.

And maybe shine up my own image a little. Damn darkness and its bad rap.

Actually, please don't take that as an example of what Tezcatlipoca would think or do, since I'm sure he would resort to something better than my limited examples. The example may however work as one for how Lucifer conjunct that in connection to 134 Sophrosyne while sextile Mercury may show up. Meet the quintessential spin doctor.

Sophrosyne stands for the virtue of "equanimity, healthy mind and impartiality" and is suggested to be the antonym for hubris, something for which Lucifer may be said to have fallen. If you put together the two ends and mix in pure opportunism and considering yourself above laws, you may start reading laws and behaviours like the devil reads the bible, as the saying goes. After all, is it not more impartial to point out the flaws of the traditionally good to balance the field, too? What is good and is everything wholly evil in the end?

That's one way of going about it with influences from the asteroids combined. Sophrosyne may never function as purely as in conjunction to a more congenial asteroid to complement its influences, but it also does not merely mean an interpretation like the above -which still has its own validity at least to every Libra who ever lived and pondered similar things. ;)

Lucifer may shine and Sophrosyne influencing it with her "healthy mind" may help in the process. Letting go of pride leading to hubris can be a very difficult process, but one that a combination like the above may also lead to. Actualizing your birth potential to the max accepts no less, although again has to fight against pridefulness creeping in.

Still, as the Rudhyar-related description of the Sabian also suggests, seeds grow in the dark of the earth and cannot reach for the light without that period. "The Keyword is GROWTH" says it all. From darkness to light, whatever is in you will grow and show according to how you feed it. Sometimes you don't even know what the seed is and what the fruits or flowers you'll end up with.

On a more interpersonal level, I also have long term experience with Lucifer and this degree in synastry. My father's Ascendant falls here as well. It is in a way a family crisis point or something that gets emphasized one way or another in all our charts, my mother having Uranus near to stir up things all the more and my brother his Sun. I get to play the Lucifer-asteroid side in the pot.

With the following quick recap of aspects, you can probably imagine certain versions of interactions in any case. My father is a triple Aries (Sun, Moon, Venus) with my Pluto opposite both his Sun and Moon. He has a T-square with his Aries luminaries opposing Chiron square Saturn following his Ascendant. I have a massive amount of guardian type "Good vibes, here to help" asteroids where his retrograde Pluto falls. If you put any heed to karmic relationships, it's probably not a stretch to see a heavily karmic relationship played out with some of the things present.

Somebody's got to live through all that as well? It's been "interesting"? What does one say? Lucifer is Work In Progress and while there may have been growth and much more still to come on such fronts should we simply survive through it, it can be a bit of a difficult one to make shine if it features strongly. Unfortunately in such cases, you rarely have a choice about it.

Sometimes knowing what you need to do isn't as easy to put into action as you may hope. Sometimes you see the patterns and still haven't enough clues how to get past near shell-shocked responses to past traumas. They do however say that knowing is half the battle and forewarned is forearmed or some such things, so I'll take my weapons and.. try not to use them. Sophrosyne may prefer that.

P.S. of sorts once back to online access again... I see that Evolutionary Astrology was one place where I read about Lucifer in the past. Tom Jacobs refers to it as an "inner goodness barometer" and talks about it being "the voice of doubt in us all" elsewhere, learning ourselves what works for us.

Leo 26 = Karma, NOT, Lie, Smolders, Tisiphone, Eros/Psyche MP

Exact squares to the nodes are said to be a crisis points of sorts for us. I see them as a seesaw that swings you in one direction and the other depending on your circumstances and what is there. You may have the ruler of your North Node square the Nodes and be able to use it to take a step closer to the NN's energies with more square-given force than you otherwise may have, or it may tie you to something else in your chart for you to digest before you can get a better alignment with the Nodal axis.

As may be apparent from the subject line already, I happen to have 3811 Karma square the said-to-be-highly-karmic nodes. Proponents of past life theories tell me this suggests messing up in the past (big time, with Algol on South Node), but the trouble with past life views is always that they barely ever tell you anything useful for your current life to live.

Which part of what do you weigh the most? Do you look at the reasonably "Play and have fun, love like a true Leo should" lesson of the sign and the North Node in fifth house, or go into numerology saying such Leo-flattering good things about the number 22 for a birth date in relation to what you through that would supposedly have earned in a past life already? Which is it, grand things in the most immediately past life, or horrendous ones? What are you going to weigh and what matters to you? That part is always up to the person with the chart looked at, no matter what astrology or other things suggest.

Chiron and Neptune currently oppose Karma square the Nodes again, too, making a Grand Cross of it all. I'm defying a transit-description suggesting not to look at astrology at all while Neptune opposes the Sun, with "nothing seeming clear" or whatever your easy description of it all. I defied it even by beginning something when the Sun transited my natal Neptune, a degree before my draconic Ascendant. I defied it even with Atropos right opposite the degree.

Klotho is in Pisces, same as my Moon, I'll be damned if I lose out on Neptune conjunct BAM conjunct draconic Gold near the draconic Ascendant simply because I should somehow be muddled up by transiting Neptune. It's my time now. I have work to do. I can't afford to wait for your supposedly messy transits to pass. Transiting Node is conjunct my draconic Sun, I'm not waiting when there are transits to Karma, even with the natal Sun to come, again.

The Sabian symbol as per the site I keep linking to (Google Phase 147 + Sabian) suggests the following for the currently opposed Leo 26 in any case.

PHASE 147 (LEO 27°): THE LUMINESCENCE OF DAWN IN THE EASTERN SKY.
KEYNOTE: The exalting challenge of new opportunities at the threshold of a new cycle.
"...every day has its dawn, which we should meet with a pure heart and a clear mind. Alpha (dawn) and omega (the concluding peak experience) are opposites, yet the same."
The Keyword here is ILLUMINATION.

It's my time now. Whether on a more transient level or if looking at whatever opportunities the asteroids stashed at the degree offer, it is time for a new beginning.

This, unless of course you take the asteroid 2857 NOT to suggest an empathetic no as some have said, and it all to be a (26955) Lie on top. It's possible to lie to yourself and to say no to what should really be in your cards, your illumination, in so many ways, after all. 10983 Smolders will keep Karma smouldering somewhere on the afterburner, or whatever your mental image of choice, but you tell yourself it's all a lie and say no even so.

Or maybe you choose to say no to the lie and work on the step toward the North Node right from the start. After all, you chose to have something smouldering on the very degree where you parked the midpoint of your Eros and Psyche, all adding to the Leonine fifth house type love lessons to adhere to if you like. Maybe you fluctuate between the South and North node and it's a bit of both.

Whatever it is, it comes with the eventual dawn illuminating everything, one way or another. It may take a while for the Sun to rise, but it is still only two degrees away, rising from the seas of the subconscious. Sooner or later, it will rise.

And what of 466 Tisiphone then? One of the furious sisters, Alekto, was already on the South Node, and now the karmic lesson comes with the Fury known for avenging murders in the midpoint between the nodes? As I said, a girl's gotta have them somewhere. If you're going to say no to lies, you might as well say no to murders as well. There is no killing Karma or its lessons this time around, or Tisiphone will come after you. You probably don't want to deal with her too closely with that nasty-seeming habit of not taking trespasses well. Even when it's quite probable that one shouldn't take well trespasses or killing what should live, as there are always reasons for the Furies to react.

If the Furies, Erinyes, are to be taken as the angry ghosts of the past, it's time to settle and placate them. Whatever the wrongs of the past, generations down even their vengefulness could be risen above and moved past.

There are other interpretations as well, but I have run into all too many people lamenting astrology's seeming negativity to opt for lesser things here. You choose the positions, you choose how you deal with or manifest what is out there. The degree seems to matter more than some other ones based on the couple of hundred asteroids checked so far, since it has several asteroids on it to amplify the message, but how you receive and interpret the message and what you do with it once you have it is up to you.