We may start out rejecting authority or our own agency, but in any case it spurs us toward a kind of empowerment centered in Self-responsibility–even in wanting to avoid making our own choices, we end up wanting to! Or maybe we have to. We can’t resist the power of Self-determination–nor should we. For each of us, the vital factor on which so much hinges right now is either the health situation or the skill situation–and we must face where we actually stand with each, in order to see where we truly are empowered, where we can go with all this, and where we might’ve been fooling ourselves, just a tad.

There’s also the matter of a Fist of God formed by the square between Hygeia-Chiron and Earth, with all sesquiquadrate Venus. This emphasizes the material factors, the physical needs as well as the atmosphere/ environment, and implies that handling these in a realistic manner (that is, by addressing what we have the power to address) we create reward, a pay-off, or better a relationship–somehow we benefit, even though the situation the benefit arises from may be difficult or may be one of outright conflict.

Bonus: if you have natal placements at 26-29 of Virgo, this fills in a Grand Cross with the Sun-Earth axis and Hygeia-Chiron, suggesting a tense situation where health takes a big role in life direction and the plan for material accomplishment or manifestation of the Soul’s purpose, with the influence defined by the function (that is, the verb version) of the natal placement (for instance, Mars would be about doing or choosing or possibly aggressing, while Venus might be about valuing or receiving). Health (or possibly skill levels, that ‘gift’ that is unique to you, Chiron’s other broad meaning) temporarily has an out-sized impact on where you’re headed, and this is weighed through the natal planet or point and its action possibilities (the verbs associated with the energy). If the fill-in planet happens to be Pluto (which it may be for many), this could be more about the tension caused when one knows something must be eliminated or transformed, for one’s own good and/ or so that the life direction can continue as desired–so could bring a kind of crisis that may, initially, seem unsolvable.

(Uranus contra-parallel Ceres, Mars parallel Juno, apex Venus sesq Hygeia-Chiron and Earth forming a Fist of God, Sun-Earth sq Hygeia-Chiron conjoined forming T-square)

Today’s word image is picturing yourself walking out into a body of cold salt water on a brightly sunny summer day. What does this say to you? Are you frolicking at the beach, taking a dip to cool off from extreme temps, staying in the shallows because you can’t swim or don’t really want to be wet, planning to swim to an opposite shore, are you plunging in to rescue someone or something (a dog in a rip current, a washed-away purse), are you walking out with rocks in your pockets, Virginia Woolf-style? If the water symbolizes your spiritual essence, what does the interaction you imagined say about your current relationship to spirit and spiritual practice (this latter of which, I argue, is simply another phrase for life)?