Off The Clock. Secrets of Toroidal Time.

The biggest difference between the original wheel of the zodiac and the toroidal zodiac lies in how we approach the matter of time.

The wheel of the zodiac shows the horoscope: a snapshot of the planets and luminaries at a given moment in time.  Horo is Latin for hour.  The clock is also a wheel and shows the cyclic nature of time.  The wheel turns round and round with time’s ‘circle games’ as Joni Mitchel sings.  The horoscope puts emphasis on the cyclic, or repeated, patterns of time.  

The wheel is the shape of cyclic time.  In understanding cyclic time, we can better grow; crops, wellness, knowledge and consciousness.

In other words, the horoscope puts an emphasis on time for the sake of growth.

The toroscope simply does the opposite; it puts emphasis on growth for the sake of time. 

When I say that the toroscope puts emphasis on growth for the sake of time I am not referring to the time of calendars and watches. The time I am speaking about is closer to the circadian rhythm found in the body, but with more nuance. Nature’s biorhythms may wake you up with the rising sun but your own nature’s rhythms get more personal. Your own nature’s rhythms respond to things like getting back on track with an important project, or taking a stand for something that matters.

Rhythms don’t even get close enough to the crux of what this ‘time’ is. A better word is momentum. One’s momentum moves forward just like time. We can’t own time, but we can own our momentum. This kind of time is called thymos. It is a spirited connection to our own momentum. It is the only kind of time that is truly free.

The wheel of the zodiac shows our complex use of the knowledge of time. Whether it serves to plant a sturdy crop or reflect on symbolic inner changes, the wheel of time is used as a map. Just like a watch or a calendar, this moving map allows us more control over the lives we lead.

The North American Railway adopted a standardized way of keeping time in 1883.  Finally someone could plan to take a train and arrive at the ‘right time’. If you are late, that is the wrong time and you will have to try again later.

Nowadays it is hard to conceive going about your day with no idea of what the ‘right time’ is. Your phone, your car, your watch, that clock all stare back at you, locking you into a truthful and agreed upon ‘right time’.

        But what about your own ‘right time’? What about the idea of rightness mixed with momentum? How often do you consider this question?

        With a clock, you pinpoint a right time that will cycle back to be ‘right’ again twelve hours later. With momentum this isn’t the case. Momentum, like true time, only moves forward. A question of ‘rightness’ when it comes to momentum can only ask about ‘right direction’. There is only one ‘right direction’; forward. Evolution marches uphill.

        Clocks and calendars are tools. We connect to their meanings and use them to gain more control. Though we can control showing up to a train on time, we can’t control time itself. Unless it is our own “time”; our own momentum. Momentum is the only kind of time we can control. To be in better and better control of our own momentum is what we are after. Toro is Latin for bull, the archetype of Taurus.  Toro also means “to steer”.

        We are powerhouses of electromagnetism. Momentums swirl beneath the surface of everyone you meet. There are lifetimes of information stored within these powerhouses largely forgotten but never lost. Momentum guides us all, half asleep.

At any moment on any day, our chemistry is in flux. Something as basic as the weather outside will cause a shift in our momentum and influence our behavior. Consciousness is what enables us to grapple with the future. It provides the potential for better control over one’s momentum in the right direction, which is forward, Times’ arrow moves forward.

        In the zodiac, the sign that is represented by the arrow is Sagittarius, the centaur. The true center (centaur) of a torus field can only be an ‘aim’. Life doesn’t build itself in any other way. Life centers on aiming and aspiring. There is no foundation sturdier than this. Time is an arrow, like evolution. It moves one way, and makes that one way known as ‘right’. Forward is right. Forward is evolution.

It seems a good idea to strive to relate to one’s own momentum as if it were a favorite watch. There is much more nuance to momentum’s version of forward, but when we lock in on that feeling it can be as true as the bell of London’s Big Ben.

        Some time moves in cycles. It circles back to where it was as the seasons continue to turn, turn , turn. But another kind of time asks you to make the turn, and commit to steering your own momentum. Your readiness to accept this challenge is your thymos.

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Full Wolf Moon in the Sign of the Lion. Bound in the Unbounded.

The first Full Moon of the year will be here on Thursday the 28th.  The January Full Moon is known as the Wolf Moon, as it was traditionally believed that wolves howled more at this time because of winter hunger.  The Wolf Moon will paradoxically be in the sign of Leo, making it a breed of dog and cat.  An archetypal mix of belonging and spontaneity.

Many good dogs eagerly anticipate the arrival of their person after a long day of work- and the sight of a sparkly ball sends the average cat into a multiverse of possible spontaneous reactions.  What does this Moon speak of in combining these two themes?

Could it be that we, as humans, are curious creatures whose belonging becomes more clear in moments of spontaneity?

Is this why we laugh with those we feel most at home with? Is this evolution itself making sure that we stay supple and moveable, like a good flame? 

Opposite this Moon will be a trinity of Aquarius, with Sun Jupiter and Saturn.  The sign of freedom, lit up and made expansive by Jupiter, yet with it’s own laws of Saturn.  The age-old debate on Free Will.  Is it ours or is it not?

Squaring all of this is Mars in Taurus near the Great Awakener, Uranus.  Taurus is wonderful magic of homeostasis, always at work in our physiology.

And maybe herein lies a clue.  We are free, but our body knows things that are good for us, and ‘good for us’ speaks on so many different levels (emotionally, physically, morally, for example).

William James said, “the question of free will is insoluble on strictly psychological grounds”. Is he referring to the mysterious balancing act of our physiology, as well as hinting at some greater mystery?

Is to be truly free to surrender to your true being? 

Anchored in flight!

Scorpio, Taurus’ opposite, knows that to some extent, the Will must surrender itself to the mystery of inner balance.

Free Will is embedded in the word spontaneity comes from the latin root sponte, “of one’s own will.” The spontaneous delights of children are likely the best reminder of how good it is to grab a joy where it can be found.  “Kiss it as it flies” as William Blake would say.

Maybe this Full Moon can inspire us to do this. And in a moment of free-willed joy feel a solid place of belonging.

Bound to be unbound, and unbound you are bound to come back around, to where you are bound? 

Anyway, a howl-roar to the first Full Moon of 2021!  

Happy Astro Pondering!

https://www.happyastropondering.com/

Virgo: what a difference a day makes

Each sign of the zodiac has it’s guideline-oriented gifts as well as it’s “watch outs”.  The gifts are often ignored in poor Virgo, so today we are going to explore them and give them there full dues!

Always smart to begin in the body.

Virgo is associated in the small intestine (the gut).  This is the central location of the MICROBIOME, a truly fascinating subject.

Microbiota are the trillions of bacterial organisms that live within our body.  The whole community of these bacteria is called the microbiome.

These microbial cells even outnumber our human cells, so we might be MORE microbe than we are human!

The weight of all of these microbes together weighs about 3 pounds, the same amount as our brain!

The microbial genes in our body outnumber our own DNA genes by 100 to one!

We are covered head to toe with these microbes, but the vast majority of them are in the gut.  The gut-brain is truly a second brain as it’s many neurons that are embedded in the lining of the gastrointestinal system are influenced by the same neurotransmitters of the brain itself.  The brain influences the gut-brain and vice versa.

For example a nervous though that arises in the brain can cause butterflies in the gut.  On the flip side the gut will majorly influence the brain’s mood as it’s microbes produce many neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine and GABA.

So how is the archetype of Virgo so important with the human microbiome?

For starters, Virgo is associated with diet.

The word “diet” is derived from the Greek word “diaita”, which means “way of living“.  It points more towards a daily way of life than a strict code of food groups.  Hence, Virgo is also associated with daily work and routine.

Here is what I find interesting:

The average lifespan of a microbe is only 20 minutes.  Each day, each meal, each food we eat is an opportunity to nourish our humble microbes.

Most people are familiar with probiotic foods such as yogurt and sauerkraut that encourage gut health, but less familiar is the very important prebiotic food group.

Prebiotic foods, like bananas, onions, leeks and asparagus,  are a type of starch that doesn’t break down as quickly and thus survives further down the digestive track to nourish the beneficial bacteria.

Interestingly enough, wheat, the grain always depicted with the Virgin, is a prebiotic food.

In North America, wheat makes up 70 percent of a person’s prebiotic food intake.

With wheat feeding the microbes and the microbes being what we mostly ARE, the phrase “staff of life” begins to take on a deeper resonance.

The Greeks and the Romans knew Virgo as the goddess of wheat, or the harvest.  This is a humble goddess who dutifully tends to the needs of the land.

What needs to be tended in order to grow good crops?  The soil of course!  And what do we find in the soil?

Our friends the microbes!!

There is a saying that real farmers grow soil and not crops.  The microbes in the soil help decompose organic plant matter and then recycle them to be used as plant energy with nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen.

Chemical fertilizers cause bacteria to die and supply the nitrogen and phosphorus directly.  Biofertilizers, as used in organic farming, do not supply chemicals in favor of using our live microbial friends to do natures work.

With modern agriculture techniques such as chemical fertilizers and genetic engineering, the healthy microbes of our soil has taken a beating.  The soil of the earth is the same concept of the lining of our guts.  Both need healthy microbes to be honored as they truly do run the show.

The grains that used to be the staff of life are turning on some of us (myself included!) and causing all sorts of immune issues.

No wonder gluten free diets are becoming so popular!

But we can still turn to the Virgin for guidance in these matters.

Virgo is humble and would never seek to dominate her sacred soil with the use of chemicals or genetic engineering.

So for those of us who seem to react poorly to modern wheat we must strive a little harder to incorporate the dietary lessons of the Virgin.

Virgo needs us to respect and nourish our humble microbes!

Incorporate prebiotic food everyday as a way of life!

Get dirty as it improves our skin microbiome!

A little food each day that nourishes are microbes.  A little prebiotic food everyday goes a long way to improving our health.

Improving the gut improves our mood and improves our brain which improves our decisions which improve our lives!

Virgo takes small steps.

Until next time!

Visit my website for a reading!

https://www.astrologybytess.com

The Planets in your Body

Today we learn where the planets live inside of us.  The seven heavenly bodies as perceived by the ancients in the night sky (before the discovery of the outer planets i.e Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) correspond to seven centers in the human body commonly known as chakras.

Ok so before you go getting suspicious about the decided order of these planets in the body-

-consider just a few very interesting facts.

Each of these planets corresponds to a specific metal in the practice of alchemy.  Notice that the above list is the exact reverse order of the planets as pictured in the body.

The first metal, lead (corresponding to Saturn) is the LEAST conductive of electricity.

relax Larry I’m getting to the point!

The next metal tin (for Jupiter) is a little MORE conductive, followed by iron (Mars) even a little MORE…

In fact the metals are in the exact order of how electrically conductive they are ending with silver (the Moon) which is the MOST conductive of them all.

We are talking about electricity, we are talking about energy, and how it moves through the body.

It’s the same thing that the caduceus is talking about

And here is another fact to make us feel comfortable with the placement of the planets in the body:  common phrases we use every day.

In Casablanca when Bogart’s character says “I stick my neck out for nobody” he is referring to never letting himself be vulnerable (Venus) and not being willing to help anyone else (Venus), a character trait that goes a full 180 by the time we arrive at the dramatic end.  Venus’s energy center is in the neck, a very vulnerable part of the body.  It is where are voice is, which can do so much for others.

Opposite of this is Mars, which lives in our solar plexus.

we talk about “core strength”, something Bruce Lee believed in.  Mars is located in our solar plexus.

How about Jupiter, the planet of faith, located in our gut?

and often we do have to “go with our gut”

How about the Sun in the place of the heart?

does this image “warm your heart?”

How about Mercury, the trickster, in the space of the brain and the visual cortex?

“optical illusions” make us perceive things not as they are (this image is not really moving)

The Moon is at the top of the head corresponding to “mind”.  The latin word for mind is “mentis” hence our word “mental” but also the less often considered connection to “menses” which ties us straight to the Moon with her 28 day cycle.

that gives us something “to reflect on”…

And then we have Saturn, at our base.

Saturn with it’s heaviness reminds us how good it is to be “grounded” and “anchored”

In the next post we will get further into this by examining the value in uniting these centers from top to bottom, as well as discussing how the endocrine system is involved.

don’t need no credit card to ride this train!