Quotation on Journey Truth’s refrigerator.

Just a reminder — I am taking it easy today, in honor of the Beltane holiday, and I’ll be back with a new Planet Waves FM either Tuesday or in one week.

Saturday, May 4, was the Taurus New Moon, at the midpoint of that sign. Saturn and Pluto are now retrograde in Capricorn, which seems to be taking off some of the pressure of the impending conjunction, exact Jan. 12, 2020.

Uranus is now in the discovery degree of Chiron, 4 Taurus, with the Sabian symbol, “The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.” (That is the source of “Rainbow bridge between the inner and outer planets,” used in the title of an early book on Chiron). This is bringing out the Uranian aspect of Chiron — the quest for transformation, rather than an emphasis on inner healing.

Uranian energy tends to externalize Chiron, which may be helpful at this stage: you are invited to get out of your head and explore your feelings, and the world around you. This is particularly helpful where Taurus is concerned; influences associated with that sign have a tendency to get lost in their own sauce.

Mars Opposite Jupiter

The aspect of the week takes place this evening (May 5) at 5:56:51 pm EDT — Mars opposite Jupiter. Mars has been slowly working its way across Gemini since March 3, moving less than half a degree a day. Along the way, it made a square to Neptune in late April, one of those challenging aspects that can arrive with the discovery of deception or the uncovering of a motive.

Journey Truth, aged 107.

Now we have a different flavor of aspect: Mars in Gemini opposite Jupiter in Sagittarius. This makes an aspect pattern in the sensitive 24th degree range — Mars and Jupiter both form aspects to the Pluto-Eris square.

In case you missed the memo, Pluto, moving through Capricorn and up-ending everything in its path, has begun its square to ultra-slow-mover Eris (the planet discovered in 2005, which resulted in the “demotion” of Pluto). Eris represents what is happening to individuals and society as a result of digital overexposure — “deep disorientation of intellect and destabilization of culture throughout the world,” in the words of Eric McLuhan.

Pluto is doing its number on the structures of the physical world, and Eris is doing its thing on individuals, who are rapidly losing any sense of self.

So this Mars-Jupiter opposition taps into the deepest forces currently influencing society. They are the fast-moving planets that are expressing the qualities of the deeper, less discernible square of Pluto and Eris. (If you follow astrology and want to be “in tune with the times,” learn about this aspect; we have covered it many times in Planet Waves features).

Mars in Gemini is intellectual drive (though it may be more or less deep, more or less curious), blunt, assertive language, and debate and repartee for its own sake. Be sure not to get tied up in the sport of argument unless you are on the debate team, or like bantering.

Mars is now at full expression of its relationship to Jupiter in Sagittarius, which represents accumulated knowledge and wisdom. Jupiter is retrograde, which can have a smug, know-it-all quality.

Nobody knows it all. You know what you know, and most of the time, that’s a perception based on belief, not actual knowledge. So you don’t really know something until you know how you know it; and speaking as an editor, until you have crosschecked it against a diversity of other sources, common sense and your own experience.

Being Right or Being Truthful

A Course in Miracles has an extremely annoying thought: “Do you prefer that you be right or happy?” [Here is the full chapter, called Seek Not Outside Yourself.] It’s often misquoted as a statement. In its original question form, though, it’s easier to parse, and it’s a legitimate spiritual query.

The implication is that in the drive to be right, people make themselves miserable. The paragraph ends, “It is given you to know the truth, and not to seek for it outside yourself.”

The other day, I was visiting the oldest reader of Planet Waves, a woman named Journey Truth, who recently turned 107. On her refrigerator was a handmade sign that said, “Aim for being truthful instead of being right.” I attribute this to Journey Truth.

Using this idea would be helpful in our times. There’s a lot of being right going on, and it’s often mistaken for other things. While we may not agree that there is an “ultimate truth” (and plenty of people claim to have it), we can agree that there is such a thing as being personally truthful, on the individual level.

That, to me, is a takeaway of Mars opposite Jupiter.

Happy Beltane, and thanks for tuning in.