Episode 2: Luna’s Allies

WELCOME

We are approaching this series from the perspective of Gotham being a sentient being, who is going on a journey to unravel the mysteries of her life’s purpose. She is going to need a few things in her backpack. First we need a map. We are using Gotham’s astrological natal chart as our map. This map ultimately answers two questions; why is Gotham here and what does she need? You can follow along with your own map, to remember your unique purpose, and to find out what you need to achieve it. Instructions for getting your map and the companion materials, can be found on the Digital Downloads page.

Last week we found that Luna’s dream involved the forging of innovative, pioneering, symbiotic partnerships. But that’s pretty broad. We can look to Luna’s allies to find out the finer details of her dream. We know who Luna’s allies are, because our map shows them making an angle to her. Traditionally in astrology, we call these angles “aspects”. Just like our personal friendships all carry there own vibe, the same is true of the different aspects. Some are easy and flowing, and some take work. I mean, we love our friends, but boy can some of them be a pain in the arse, sometimes. The second page of the Chart Key, has a list of the aspects and the different energies they present.

LUNA’S ALLIES: Mercury, Venus, and Mars.

LUNA, MERCURY & THE OBSTACLE BETWEEN THEM

Mercury is located at 22 degrees Capricorn in Station 4, and he just happens to be running backwards so he can redo some things. He is also hidden around a corner. Luna knows Mercury is on this mission, but she can’t see him. From her perspective, it looks he might be MIA, and she is getting a bit agitated. She needs Mercury to keep up. Likewise, Mercury is getting a bit agitated with Luna, from his perspective, she needs to slow down. The task he has been assigned is so big, he just can’t seem to make enough progress to get around that darn corner.

it’s a code

See how that works??? It’s a code. We just need our handy, dandy de-coder ring to figure it out. And unlike Ralphie, our secret message is not an Ovaltine commercial.

mercury running backwards

Luna’s alliance with Mercury is born out of the housing challenges of the past. Manhattan is a relatively small island and being the logical destination for immigrants fleeing all manner of horrific scenarios, she has grown at astonishing rates. By the time the consolidation occurred, the inhabitants were already running out of clean drinking water and resources. And since skyscrapers and ultra high-density housing had not come into being, just yet, Manhattan was running out of land and money. She needed a bigger tax base, if she were going to compete with Chicago, who had plenty of water, resources, land, and distribution options, just because of its geography.

After the consolidation, NYC continued to grow, but her leaders failed to stay vigilant when it came to housing infrastructure. To make matters worse, there are periods in the city’s history in which city administrators enacted a housing code that favored developers and the commercial sector over the the needs of the people who made the city run. We are feeling the effects of that now. There is nothing logical and organized about Gotham’s housing infrastructure right not. We have a lot of room for improvement, but time is on our side. We know this because Mercury is retrograde in Gotham’s chart. Don’t despair if you have a retrograde in your chart. Those with a retrograde age like fine wine. That’s their superpower. It’s regenerative. It keeps one youthful, regardless of age. And produces something uniquely extraordinary, like it is from another world. Gotham is a baby of a city. To unleash the superpower of the retrograde takes time, it takes sustained effort. It takes trial and error, and redo’s. If we put in the effort, Gotham’s housing infrastructure will go from what seems like her Achilles’ heel, to her greatest superpower.

Mercury wants to add a refined and efficient form of bureaucracy to Gotham’s assets, so she can attract those pioneering partnerships. He’s just got his hands full with a problem that was well established before the consolidation. He’s been left with a bureaucracy so bloated, contorted, and restrictive, when it comes to housing, Gotham is stuck. Landlords are letting apartments set empty, because to fix them up, according to code, is just too expensive. Contractors have to find creative ways to do any work in a building and have that work in alignment with the city code. The current code makes it either illegal or cost prohibitive, to do anything appearing remotely close to logical, in regards to legal housing. And that’s just one of the issues.

luna’s solution

So what do we do about it? We find ways to bring Luna and Mercury together in spite of Mercury’s troubles. Right now, it would by wise for NYC’s leaders to seek out those countries and organizations who are doing the research and development on innovative, NEVER BEFORE USED, housing systems. We need new ways of dealing with sewer, waste, energy, and clean water in high-density scenarios, ways that are logical and efficient. Our solutions need to operate as well-oiled machines. Now, we don’t have to be able to put those things into effect right away. To satisfy Luna, we do have to be able to imagine them. We have to stop believing that it is impossible. Stranger things have happened.

To satisfy Mercury, we need a total re-do of the city code so that it is in alignment with the changes that are inevitable. This dynamic is not going to be satisfied by committee’s, research, and talk. Oh, my, we’ve had so many committees, research, and talk. Mercury wants to get shit done. So when it comes to the city code, we can’t just imagine. We need to re-write that shit, and we need to re-write it now. Whatever, legislation needs to occur to make that happen, it needs to get on the books now.

This is a seemingly impossible task, at the start, but if we can just get around that corner, we are in the home stretch. The payload will be worth it. To start hacking away at this impossible Goliath, we need to work on this process, little by little, each day without worrying about the a timeline or end result. This is the tactic that will eventually get us around the corner and into Luna’s sights.

Capricorn is broken in Gotham’s chart. Capricorn wants structure not bloat, and Mercury is just the guy for the job. The energy to fix the impossible task is in Gotham. Our problem is humans have free will. We have to choose to do the hard, scary work.

This society we have created doesn’t have a lot of incentives, for Mayors to even begin tackling what appears to be an impossible task–a task that is not likely to be completed in one term and possibly not even in their lifetime. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take that long. We need the housing code to be resilient to this dynamic. We need legislation in place that allows the code to be altered quickly and efficiently, when warranted, for the common good. And we need all future Mayors, to agree to put the city’s Housing Code, at the top of the priority list, and to commit to its integrity. It needs to be “a part of” and “the core of” New York City’s value system.

Mercury wants to bring logic and organization to the government bureaucracy and infrastructure required to provide safe, nurturing, affordable housing to all of Gotham’s citizens. Mercury demands that the bureaucracy we employ be streamlined, efficient, and extremely well-organized. The retrograde tells us that for all of Gotham’s life, Mercury will be revisiting the systems and processes in place regarding housing, tweaking them, fine-tuning them, and sometimes, tearing it all down and starting completely fresh. When it comes to NYC’s housing, there will never be a one-size-fits-all or a set-it and forget-it option. The systems and processes that govern building codes, types of ownership, housing infrastructure, etc. will need constant review, as the city’s population and their needs, ebb and flow.

LUNA, VENUS & MARS: A PEACEFUL, EASY FEELING

On the other hand, Venus and Mars are both located at 29 degrees Sagittarius in Station 3, and rather than separating from them, Luna is approaching them. They are both in plain sight, and everything they do results in supporting Luna’s dream. They don’t even have to try! Zero-effort. It doesn’t matter what they do or don’t do, it will be supportive of Luna’s dream.

Twenty-nine degrees is always auspicious in a chart. This is the degree of mastery and wisdom. The Sagittarius strategy is one of well-traveled, wise men and women proficient in philosophies of many cultures. Historically, Gotham’s reputation, and being a logical landing point for displaced people’s of all classes, has made her a magnet for some of the worlds best civil designers and civil engineers. Having access to this mastery, has catapulted her onto the world stage, time and again, setting her at the head of the pack in regards to civic beauty, mass communications, and mass transit. No effort to attract these things was required. And this is the energy of the trine. Mars’ and Venus’ work in Station 3 is in harmony with the Moon’s work in Station 7, and therefore, leads to a win, win, with no effort at all.

I say that and yet today, NYC, is losing her footing, even here. She’s lost her balance and lost her spot in some of these areas. Our leaders got complacent and let her stagnate. The Fire element in the relationship between Venus, Mars and Luna, does not like this. Fire wants action. We are all susceptible to losing our balance in an unbalanced world. By honoring our primordial dream, and working the wheel to remember and actualize that dream, provides us with resilience and helps us to regain our balance. As more and more people do this, we will reach a tipping point, and the world will swing back into a balanced state.

hold up, i thought mars was the god of war???

Now here we need to mention a little caveat about Mars. Mars wants pioneering, but he also wants sharing. His ability to achieve sharing, and therefore sustainability, in the United States, is crippled, because the flavor of capitalism that our nation is founded on, is in direct conflict with the flavor of sharing needed for true sustainability. Therefore, no city and no person in the United States is completely balanced and happy. That being said, Gotham is just the city to lead this nation to balance.

Mars is holding a special position in Gotham’s chart. He is Gotham’s guide in Station 7, where Luna’s dream resides. His location at 29 degrees Sagittarius tells us, the key to his approach in guiding Gotham through the Station 7 mission, will be using Sagittarius energy and techniques. We will talk lots more about Mars as we go through the series. And no, Mars is not the god of war, he has a much higher purpose.

Luna’s Seeds

It appears Gotham has set some pretty high standards for herself. In a nutshell, her dream, her duty, and her mission is to materialize pioneering symbiotic partnerships, and to be a leader for the world in that area. She wants these partnerships to bring beauty and harmony to her neighborhoods; to bring sustainable and pioneering communication and transit systems to her citizens; and to bring an easy, efficient way for all of her citizens to secure safe, nurturing, and supportive homes. These are Luna’s seeds. These are the seeds we need to put in Gotham’s backpack.

“Don’t let the clouds of failure overshadow you, and ruin your life. There is a seed of success inside of you. Let it grow. Keep it alive.”

Mouloud Benzadi

Getting these seeds to grow is going to be a tall order. So how do we go about achieving this? Luna teaches us the power of using our imagination, and the power of doing nothing. Kinda like John Lennon said, just “imagine”. That’s it. We can’t have, what we can’t imagine.

There will be things we need to do. The chart will tell us where to focus our energy, what actions to take, and what order to take them in. But right now, all we need to do is open our minds to the possibilities, especially the possibilities that seem impossible. Next week, we look for Sol in Gotham’s chart. Until then, go out find your own seeds. Where is Luna in your chart? And who are her friends?