currently thinking about enemies to lovers trope with muzan kibutsuji and immortal human reader who's fought for centuries just because reader has the blue spider lily with them

(i might make a drabble about this..)

It’ll be a breeze pt. 1

A 7DS fic that I started a while ago, but I lost inspiration and wasn’t sure if I would continue it. Until I got this prompt from ‘my favorites anime blog’ and I finally figured out how to move along. It will come in several parts as I finish them!  myfavourites-animeblog  Hey^^, Do you take requests? I really like your fictions on AO3 so I was wondering if you could write a seven deadly sins fic where Meliodas gets paralyzed and he or elizabeth can't heal him. Chapter title: This fall I don't know if I survived A bright light blinded Meliodas as he sluggishly pried his eyes open. His body felt strangely sore. Painfull even, which, he was happy to say that he hadn't really felt in centuries. Not to this extent, anyway. Usually, it wouldn't be much worse than a dull aching in the part of his body where the injury was located, until inevitably, he would transform into his demon form, patching his body back up for him. If he was incapable of doing that, the sunrays of Elizabeth's Goddess healing ability would take care of it shortly after. Was this the sensation he had convinced himself that he missed so greatly? He had to re-think that. But that would have to wait. The first thing on the agenda was to figure out where in the world he was. Or, what might be more accurately, out-of-this-world, he thought, as his brain finally was able to connect with his body, letting him prop himself up on one elbow and shading his eyes from the intruding brightness with his other hand. The room he had waken up in was grand. Likely some kind of foyer with white and black checkered marble flooring, bronze walls with golden details. Human-sized paintings of godlike figures decked the walls and the room was filled with luxurious furniture. A staircase was located in the middle of the room, leading up to a second story, out of sight from where he was sprawled out on the floor. The staircase also held the answer to where the offending light source came from. At first glance, it appeared to be coming from the large stained glass windows at the wall where the stair parted ways into two different directions. At a second glance though, it was clearly illuminating from the beautiful, if not slightly intimidating, woman who stood three steps up. Meliodas lowered his head back to the floor, fighting off a spinal headache. When he was finally fairly certain that he wasn't going to throw up, he raised his head again, squinting his eyes to rid himself of the double vision and locked his eyes with the celestial beauty. She was tall, at least 5'10, with bright, light hair. It almost seemed silvery, sparkling graciously in the shimmering of the gloss that radiated around her and enveloped her shoulders. Just like a certain girl he had known for a couple of years now. Her curvy figure was gracefully draped in an elegant white dress, flowing seamlessly around her and held in place by golden, braided bands, gently tracing her dress all the way to the floor. Meliodas felt a flicker of familiarity. Almost like a dèja vu, coming and passing too quickly to knowing for certain if it was real or not, looking into her splendid copper eyes. His own emerald green, trickster gaze lowered to the ethereal woman's bosom for a quick assessment, before blinking rapidly and rubbing his eyes in a long rehearsed aversion, returning to meet her eyes with the innocence of the child he knew he looked like. “Yo,” he greeted merrily, trying and failing to push himself off of the floor. His elbows wouldn't fold far enough behind him, for him to put his palms to the floor, without the blood in his head seemingly wanting to burst out of his ears, making him dizzy and nauseous and he imagined he could literally taste his spine. “You're injured,” she noted. It was more of a statement than a question. Her expression remained as stoic as it had been for the few minutes he could remember being there. He couldn't be sure if this was a friendly visit or not. “It would appear so,” he answered her chipperly, while the searing pain of what could only be a stab to his lower back screamed for attention. He hid his face in his arms once more, gritting his teeth and flinching, unable to keep from giving the wound exactly what it wanted. What had happened? He remembered waking up at the boar hat like any other day, snuggling his face to Elizabeth's back as she sighed softly in her sleep, before he got up, got dressed and went down to make some coffee. Ban was fast asleep, hunched over one of the tables as usual with a half-full jug of ale still clutched in his right hand. Diane, luckily remaining under Merlins shrimping spell, was cuddled up against King on Chastiefol by one of the windows. King looked at Meliodas with terrified, bloodshot eyes, frozen in fear of waking her by any slight movement. Meliodas had chuckled, giving him the thumbs up as he entered the kitchen to continue his quest for caffeine. Nothing else came to him. It was clouded by a black fog that he couldn't see through, no matter how hard he squinted at it. The confusion on his face must have registered at the tall woman, as an invincible string seemed to tug at the creek of her mouth, forcing it into a reluctant and crooked smile. “I've taken your memories, dragon sin of Wrath- Meliodas.” So, they had met before, then. He should probably apologize right away. “Oh, well, that's a bit inconvenient, miss...” Nope, no name, so he tryingly added, “...iss?” She closed her eyes with a humorous smile on her lips, folding her bat-winged sleeves in front of her and walked the few steps down the stairwell. To Meliodas chagrin, he realized she was standing barefoot in front of him. Even if he was a 3.000-year-old demon, unable to age by the curse put upon him by his father, he felt a little bitter that he couldn't have stopped aging after he had grown to a somewhat more desirable size. At least, so he could reach the dishes at the higher shelves in their kitchen. Ban, that stupidly tall son of a bitch, had taken a liking to lift him up so he could get them for himself, mockingly exclaiming an “uuup-si daisy”, whenever he did. A blow almost harder than having to ask him to get them for him in the first place. He wasn't a particularly prideful person, which a series of up-the-skirt incidences had clearly proved and left no doubt about. But still, even he had to draw the line somewhere. “I'm sorry, I can't recall your name,” he finally admitted. “Meliodas, that part of your memory, I have not taken,” she said wistfully, coming to a stand only a few centimeters away from him. “I know. Someone else did, though,” he chuckled, winching noticeably at the burning it left in his lower back. “I'm afraid there's a lot I can't remember anymore.” “That should be understandable. It's about 1.500 years since we last met, after all.” If that was not a hint, he wouldn't have known one if it had punched him square in the jaw. Meliodas wracked his brain for the answers. From what he had gathered up to this point, specifically from her ability to extract from his memories, this woman must be either a mage like Merlin or a Goddess, which was more likely. Especially considering the crew he surrounded himself with at that time, half a lifetime ago. Half of his lifetime, anyway. But wait, a Goddess? That could only mean...

“Panacea?” he asked in slight disbelief, looking up at her unblemished face that looked as pure as it had a kiloyear ago. “I don't understand. Why did you bring me here?” Panacea lowered herself to one knee, lending him a hand to get back up. When he wasn't able to reach for it, she propped herself down behind him instead, carefully turning him over and placing a hand under his knees and his shoulders, lifting him up bridal style. “Oh, thaaat's degrading,” he uttered as his face scrunched up in pain, unwillingly being carried by the unfaltering arms as they started up the stairs. “Where are we going?” “To my chambers,” Panacea answered, ignoring Melioda's expressed of embarrassment. “You should lay down for a bit. We'll discuss everything after you rest.” “If you would just heal me, we could save ourselves some time,” Meliodas suggested with his never-faltering positivity. He was sure that there was a good reason for her to take his memories and bringing him here, but being in the Goddess Kingdom of Theòtita, he was unable to use his own demonic powers of healing, which left him at the mercy of his genetically-caused enemy, while being in such a reduced state of health. “As I said, we'll discuss everything later.” Meliodas decided to accept the delay. He did feel exhausted, and from what he could remember, the Goddesses had some excellent beds.  

He was asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. These Goddesses had a few things figured out. He could only imagine that said pillow had been stuffed with angel feathers. If it was the high quality of it, or if it was plain fatigue from the pain of his injuries, wasn't really important at the time. Even if it hurt to lay on his back, and even if he was in one of the most vulnerable positions he could possibly be in, he couldn't help himself from descending into a deep, fever-induced sleep.

Luckily, the sleep was dreamless, as far as he could recall. The last thing he wanted, was for Panacea to witness the way he tossed and turned by the horrid dreams that usually shattered his mind, tearing him away from the comfort of his bed who he shared with his beloved Elizabeth and throwing him back through 3000 years of losing everyone he had ever loved. It was surprising how significant the number was. He was a demon, after all. When he woke up, the quilt had been pulled over him and a cold cloth was placed on his head. Strange, he thought. Why wouldn't she just heal me? He felt compeletley over the novelty of being cute and sick at this point. Mostly, because of the lack of slightly gullible nurses who would brush their breasts across his own chest while tending to him, or bending over while cleaning up the glasses of water, he would accidentally knock over from time to time. 'I'm kind of a sleaze bag, aren't I? …Oh, well.' He pried his eyes open, wanting to rub the sleep out of them, but his arms felt even stiffer after staying still for... how long? He looked around the room, searching for a clock, but all he could find to give him any indication of time was the window. Which, truthfully, wouldn't tell him much, as the sun never set in this place. They didn't even have the same sun as they did in Britannia. Their sun was called Chrysì Theà- Golden Goddess, and it would never go down. Time went by differently in the Goddess realm than what it did back in his world. An hour in this place would be felt like a minute at home. Well, actually, his home was somewhere entirely different from Britannia. There, it was the other way around. An hour in Brittania was a minute in, well, Hell. Even so, he knew he would be able to tell the time from where the sun was located in the sky, even if that didn't help him much, as he had no idea where it was when he came here. In the end, he gave up on his quest for the concept of time and let himself drift back to sleep.

To be continued.

Total Solar Eclipse in Leo- Ragnarok

“But if you write a version of Ragnarok in the twenty-first century, it is haunted by the imagining of a different end of things. We are a species of animal which is bringing about the end of the world we were born into. Not out of evil or malice, or not mainly, but because of a lopsided mixture of extraordinary cleverness, extraordinary greed, an extraordinary proliferation of our own kind, and a biologically built-in short-sightedness.”  – A.S. Byatt, “Ragnarok”

  Helios’ Astrological Angle on the Total Solar Eclipse in Leo– Here it is, boys and girls; This is the big one. Now, we hype Eclipses, (they’re major astrological and astronomical events) But this one feels incredibly personal for all of us, especially those of us in the United States who never get the chance to see them. In traditional lore, Eclipses are terrible, no good, evil omens. The damn Sun gets swallowed up in darkness for chrissakes! That’s enough to terrify any feeble-minded and uneducated peasant, let alone the lords and priests in power. This Eclipse shows every sign of being just as massive, and just as devastating to the unprepared. In fact, it is one of those times when the scope of it makes it near impossible to truly grasp. It opens up like a pit before us.

This is one of those moments that have just seeped into the gestalt, the public consciousness. People who have never thought about anything metaphysical or beyond the scope of what they can experience with their senses are suddenly wondering out loud what this could mean for us, just in casual conversation. The age we live in is full of uncertainty and dread, let alone the past two years, and we also have to live with the fact that each day will be better than the one that comes next. Each day we grow closer to our seemingly inevitable doom. We are afraid, we are angry, and we have no constructive outlet for those emotions. The main thing to expect from this eclipse is that all of those barely-controlled fears and emotions will explode out of you. You can try to keep them contained and they will drag you down into despair, or you let them pass and lose them, feeling empty, raw and drained of something…. necessary but impossible to pin down.

If you take away nothing else of what we say below, know that this is not the end of days, no matter how much it seems like it might be. Ragnarok is not Armageddon; It is an end to a cycle, leading to the rebirth of the world. The world will not end, even if we do. Time marches on even if we do not march with it. In fact, that’s the whole point of time. It gives us limits, and as such gives our lives size. We cannot be great without the influence of time, the sense of urgency it brings. We must, however, avoid the predilection to play into predatory predestination, the idea that the sky is falling, so we live like there is no tomorrow. No, we must plan for the next day, the next sunrise, and the next fight.

And so we go.

Artemis’ Runic Breakdown of the Total Solar Eclipse in Leo- Heretics, are you ready for the first total eclipse over the United States since this country’s inception?  This one will define us, rebirth us, and give us a new path as a country. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, your Oracles did a podcast talking astro and this eclipse and what it could mean for the USA and the rest of the world (click here to listen recorded on August 1, 2017).  This eclipse falls on top of the fixed star Regulus, the heart of the lion. This is the portal to the west, so astrologers suspect this particular eclipse will have a lot to say about where the Western world will go next. What is especially important about this eclipse is that it is a part of a particular eclipse family named Saros 145, which as a series has landed on the impeachment of Clinton, the attempted assassination of Reagan, the assassination of JFK, the suicide of Hitler and bombing of Japan, the Chicago riots, and the attempted assassination of President Taft.  Here’s more synchronicity for you – this one falls directly on the ascendant of our current president, #45, Donald Trump (who will also be going through a Mars and Jupiter return). Our leader will surely feel fearless at this time, and will be acting rashly without much thought. As this is a Leo eclipse, it will surely affect the ruler of our country, stoke the flames of nationalism, and bring countries into a pissing match over territory.

Can we make it through the fires, or is this the beginning of our karma (as a country and as people)?  When the lion headed goddess Sekhmet rises to destroy the demons that plague the earth, she does not stop until her bloody thirst is quenched. With this Eclipse happening, for the first time, in progressed Regulus into Virgo, it seems that the dark feminine has been let loose and the melding of man and beast is coming into a new stage. How can we reconcile the bestial and the human sides of ourselves? How can we make peace with the starkness of reality? How can we accept our karma with open arms, ready to learn vital lessons?  Do not fear, Heretics. Walk into this one with courage, for it will teach harsh but vital lessons. The fires are being stoked, the gods are being called, and the karma of this country has come around… The question is, will we use the lessons of the Aquarius counter Eclipse to rebel and assert our human rights, or will we be distracted and broken into pieces once again to be ruled over with ease?

The Sun, Moon, Venus, Chiron and Uranus (Hexagram 20: Contemplation)– So essentially distilled essence of Chaos. Lovely. The outer planets are out in force for this one, and they are NOT the ones you invite out with you- No, these are the ones who make you turn around and back out of the bar when you realize they are there, they are already naked, and fighting three people and it isnt even midnight yet. This is the Jersey Shore crew of the Transneptunians. Seriously, Eris, Orius, Typhon and Manwe? Not exactly #SquadGoals. So what should you expect? Well, think of this like a messy surgery, a necessary excision of a disease in you that has gone way too far. It has to come to a head so that it can be removed. 

What this will be is like a molting. You are extremely uncomfortable in your own skin, and it is time to outgrow it before it strangles you. This eclipse will allow you to do just that. What comes up for you now, that you cannot stand in yourself, has to reach critical mass before it can be released. What you will be called to do is scrape off the layers of merde that have accumulated on you through the years. This can be a daunting task, but if you approach it as a chore, something that just HAS to be done in order to maintain your optimal life, it becomes easier. Roll up your sleeves and get it done.

Lately, I have also been using the I Ching for these Lunation posts. This one is ironic, and a bit on the nose. This hexagram is literally the Sun over the Earth. The idea of this one is trying to find the peace in yourself among the chaos, something that is becoming increasingly difficult. Part of the problem here is that we keep taking the outer events of this world into ourselves, trying to make sense of them and retake some our perceived loss in power. Mind you, the loss in power you feel is an illusion. It only works if you buy into it. The fear, however, is very real, and it is to be considered your enemy; Not any one person. Fear takes us to uncertainty, and in times like these we must not hesitate or waver in our resolve, not even for a moment. Another way to see this hexagram is as a Tower, something Artemis loves to rant about. In this sense, the tower represents perspective, setting yourself apart from the lower world to gain greater understanding. The climb may be long, but at the top of the tower, you see much, much more than you would at the bottom, and can find peace. You are able to truly survey the situation from the heights.

This Hexagram plays heavily into the idea of sacrifice, but one that is truly done in deepest piety. This is not something done out of obligation, or fervor, but truly deep and abiding faith. There is a sanctification in what your path now. You must elevate your life, and place your focus on pulling the divinity out of your secret self to fully embody it in the mundane, physical world. It is time to be bold, to dare greatly. These days, nothing less will do. They are not always happy, and we must take that on the chin while we work to make them happy again.

One of the nice parts of the past few years is that since nothing could be counted on to hold fast and stay solid, there was quite a bit that we were able to chalk up to experimentation- that we were able to play around with and not have to commit to. Well, this is not the case anymore. This eclipse marks a zone of time where you have to focus on survival alone, and leave the more abstract concerns for other times. There are things you might like to do, sure- but you have to get serious now and look at the road immediately ahead of you. Survive that, and then you can consider your next steps. You cannot cash out right now, your only move is to double down on yourself and your path; It’s time to boldly go, Heretics.

Minor Planets used: Eris, Orius, Typhon, Quaoar, Manwe, Ophelia, Isis, Achilles

The Sun (Sowillo), Moon (Algiz), Venus (Kenaz), Chiron (Ansuz) and Uranus (Othala)- Sowillo, the sun, Leo, the King, the Lion; ruled by the sun. We will hear his roar reverberating through our politics for years to come as this pivotal moment peels away the layers of the United States, allowing us to see the rot underneath clearer than ever before. It’s like shining a flashlight into a den of cockroaches, lighting their underworld on fire so that they must scurry away in fear of what is coming for them.  It’s hard to stomach the fact that these vermin live in the sewers of our world, biding their time and slowly infiltrating every unaware crevice of society. The decades between us and the past have not eroded it. The powerful few have invaded our archetypes and painted them in special little ways, making it impossible for any soul to fit into the vessels except for their souls and their ancestor’s souls. Essentially, like lions, they have pissed around their parameter and we are too afraid to cross it and contend with them.

With Venus in the tender sign of Cancer, she is agitated as all hell by Pluto’s prodding… But she must wake up. The hurt and the pain we all share, the trauma since this country’s inception, is being pulled to the surface like a magnet whether we are ready for it or not. For Venus, I pulled Kenaz, “the torch,” which after last weekend holds a special significance. People will hold their values tightly during this time, feeling that their ancestry lights the way toward where they should be going. The problem is, we live in a melting pot and our ancestry and culture has been influenced by so many cultures that we have brought in and digested. It is not our duty to just follow one line. It is our duty to follow all the tributaries and find the river that binds them all together; in the end we must all come together to form a great alliance to further this planet past our atmosphere and to heal the damage we have done to it based on our “cleverness” and “greed” and shortsightedness; a true Ragnarok.

You must do this in your personal life as well. As above so below. Find all the tributaries that seem to have no connection, and bring them all to the spine of your life. Find a real purpose, deep down, that resonates through ancestor after ancestor until it got to you – through various cultures and all historical lines, until you were born with your own special purpose. Look to your family line for your sparks of intuition (Uranus as Othala). You will find stories you have always been waiting for. What is the spine of your life?  Kenaz is intuition, the inborn knowledge that you can tap into if you are fearless about diving into the underworld of yourself. Your ancestors were good, they were bad, they were menacing and they were beautiful and they fell, and “they are all equal now.” They all have something they desperately want to tell you. With Pluto influencing Venus, it is time to dig deep into your heart and see why it truly beats, and cast away the demons that keep it scared. There is a roaring purpose for you, and you must dive into it fearlessly. If you do not, you will surely lose yourself and just become a tool for someone else to use. You will be part of the very substance that infects this planet instead of helping it flourish. Kenaz reminds us that we do not have the truth right now, but we must search for the truth. We are given a very rare opportunity right now to uncover something deep  in the micro and the macro… shall we take it? Will you jump into this sacred passageway? 

Chiron is Ansuz, and Ansuz tells us to listen. There is a cry of pain, of trauma, and just as trauma reverberates through our genetic line and the evolution of society. Listen intently to exactly what people are saying, whether you can stomach it or not, and you will find where their pain and their true weakness lies. This is the key, so to speak, the critical information we need in order to heal this world and to heal our lives. Listen… to your own words, the ones you use most prominently, the pace of your speech, why you react the way you do, and follow it. Follow all the pain and see where it truly comes from… there, you will find your true power emanating from the core of your pain. What dire lesson does it teach, and how does it sing your hero’s journey to accept it?  The summer is coming to an end, Heretics, and our shadows are creeping once more…

Walls, walls everywhere, bubbles and isolation. People still hate on individuals based on who a person is, who they love, and how they express themselves – that they are “other” simply because they do not conform to the dominating culture – the colonized culture that came here and destroyed any of its competition. The rich/Royals (Leo) don’t want to lose their power, their culture, their station because change is fucking scary for them. They are the ones who set up our centralized government, our laws, and kept themselves on top. They are the ones who bastardized democracy, where politicians must be servants, and made politicians rulers instead. Didn’t we chop off all the rulers’ heads?

For the first time since our observation of the star Regulus in Leo, procession has moved Regulus into Virgo where we realize that rulers must SERVE (And all men must serve, as G.R.M. so beautifully puts). They are afraid of this, and with Mars in Leo accompanying this eclipse, tribalism is growing – “blood and soil.” Why would one serve if one can rule? Synchronicity, I pulled the rune of “blood and soil,” the Nazi chant, when I pulled Othala for the planet Uranus. Our King of Chaos has been in Aries, alongside the minor planet Eris, giving us war drums for over a year and a half now – warning of us of the inevitable conflict to come. These two met up the last time in 1932, the year the Nazi party was formed and the stirrings of WWII began. With Othala joining them during this reading, the symbolism sends chills up my spine. It means we will be reclaiming our heritage, and sometimes people can’t see their ancestors as humans but still look to them as gods.

Although there is a lot of turmoil at our gates, Heretics, the moon as Algiz is telling us we are protected; that is, protected if we grow courageous through this Leonine energy. Our home has been threatened, Heretics. We must protect those we love who rely on us. We get to choose our future, Heretics, and we get to choose if we sat on the sidelines in cowardice or if we tried to truly become peacemakers. There is always a sense of “hidden dangers” when this rune comes up, as it is a protection rune and often times a dire warning. There are dangers that we are not aware of stirring in the darkness, but with Algiz we can cast away this fear and act on the information we are presented with. We are offered an opportunity to engage with our higher selves right now, to see higher images of how the world can be, and we are only granted opportunity if we have the courage to take it. History favors the bold. Algiz asks us to accept accountability for what we have done, to realize that we have inflicted pain due to our unconscious behaviors (the moon) and that we must confront our shadow side humbly. We will be driven crazy if we do not; lunacy and detraction from the true reality of things. If you are brave enough to understand your demons, you will be given the opportunity, the tools, and the weapons needed, to join the discovery of the demons of the masses.

Mercury and Neptune (Hexagram 8: Uniting)– So these two are weird. Yes, there is some major mental interplay between them, but when we see these two together we have to just step back and ask WHY? More than that, they’re both Retrograde and in opposition. This bodes wyrdness. Right now, the veil between the worlds is incredibly thin, as we have discussed before, and that can be used for some truly intense magics, in the way that you can take the forces of creation and truly remake yourself and the world around you, with what is in the air right now. That is also the danger. You see…. there is this abiding sense that for all of our probing of the veil, there is something on the other side that has taken notice- something just begging for the chance to get through. All sorts of things are possible during a normal eclipse, but one like this, with these two allowing for so much that could come to pass, and with the chaotic potentials in play…. I’ve said that your thoughts and emotions will be more real, but they can be used as a beacon or fuel for the things that lurk in the dark searching for such things. Guard your thoughts and magic carefully right now.

Which brings us to the Hexagram; Uniting. Right now no one feels united, there is discord all around us, and we have become islands unto ourselves. This is partially a survival tactic, but it is also willful and allows us to detach and avoid unpleasantness in others. Once we find fault in others and demonize everyone that doesn’t think as we do, we open the door to questionable allies. Uniting in this context beggars the question: “Who are you surrounding yourself with?” Are you throwing in with the wrong allies? Do their goals (and more importantly, their tactics) align with yours? What do you really know about them? If this question makes you uncomfortable, then you need to re-examine your circle and those who you surround yourself with.

Without a doubt, the most harmful form of division within yourself. Conflicting sides fighting for your soul is incredibly dangerous for you right now, and will not do you any favors. The master said: “Everything is destiny; all things are already complete in oneself,” we turn inward in order to bring our vision forward. Uniting brings together what appears to be separate so that you can discover your seamless unity with what unfolds around you. This also plays into the number one lesson I learned at Darkworkers: Law 4 “Your Descent unfolds in perfect harmony.” This law teaches us that we must have faith in our path, and more importantly in ourselves. We can handle any challenge that we are set, and we must not forget that. 

Minor Planets used: Orcus, Teharonhiawako, Altjira, Pallas Athene, Pelion, Amycus, Eurydike, Hades, Lilith, Apophis

Mercury (Ehwaz) and Neptune (Fehu)-  Ever wake up one day and realize your friends are totally different people? I mean, yeah, the one or two hang in there for life, and you evolve with each other. But then there are those that are no longer your homies and you wonder if you will ever have them return again. The positive side? There will be those that you want to see again showing their faces. This is the time, Heretics, when old karmic relationships may appear again, and old karmic places may make a returning debut, calling you to them.  It’ll feel like deja vu, in both the macro and the micro, like we have seen all this before and we have a vague feeling about where we are actually going. Like dreams have actually been leading us to places we need to go (Neptune as Fehu).  Rune Secrets says about the rune Ehwaz, “The mind will trust the body, the body will trust the mind.”  Trust in your animal instincts, the same ones you came into deep contact with during the Capricorn full moon. Your body wants to show you the way, but you keep muddling it with your mind. And your body fears and jumps at things without listening to the logic of the mind. They must work together right now, because their harmony is what will keep us on our toes during this time of great danger. The rune “Ehwaz” literally translates to “horse.” This is because this rune is trying to invoke a feeling, an archetype, that tells us what it means to be two separate things working together; the human and horse relationship, the mind and body relationship, the friendship. You dance, you sway, you move in symbiosis. These things have returned in your life because there is a vital lesson you must learn. There is a reason you fell off that horse last time, so to speak.

They want us to feel divided because it is easier to destroy us in pieces than as one giant opposition. Neptune comes to us as Fehu, and tells us that we are staring a new story – a spiral, “the same” returning again but with a new mask. The Norse believed that courageous acts bolstered your luck, and so too in astrology doing courageous acts bring you the opportunity (Jupiter). This is the rune of expansion and luck, new beginnings, and circulation. The flames are being heightened by this breath of idealism, in everyone – in the peaceful and the violent. Don’t let your enemies get the best of this energy while you sit back. Although their idealism may be raised, you can use this energy to feed your solar plexus – give yourself that unshakable sense of purpose and courage that comes along with it. Fehu tells us to be present and act from that presence, and actually focusing on what is going on around us instead of falling into the midst of the imaginative mind. If we are present, we are the circulating wind, we can move any which way we wish, and that includes blowing out idealism with a well-placed breath.  Protest by the shout of art, not fists, and you will see the Tower crumble. 

Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto (Hexagram 51: Shocking/Thunder)– And here we have what lurks in the dark; the monsters and demons, let loose from their cells. In the story of Ragnarok, Loki and Fenrir (his giant wolf son) are locked up by the other gods to ensure they stop wreaking havoc on the worlds (and because Loki killed Baldur, Lord of Light). When they inevitably get out, Loki goes to the Giants (the constant enemy of the Gods) and he raises an army to sack Asgard once and for all. They plow through the other worlds, and eventually arrive at the bridge to Asgard, which Heimdall smashes and then the battle is on. Almost all of the gods dies, and quite a few of the goddesses do too, but there are survivors, as I said above. More importantly, there are human survivors, and they walk out into a greener, more lush and pure world after Baldur returns.

This is an allegory to our current situation, where we face uncertainty on a scale never before seen, both in the world and within ourselves. We simply do not know how its all going to turn out, and that leads us to fear our future. Meanwhile, these four show up like the literal four horsemen of the Apocalypse: War (Mars) Famine (Saturn) Pestilince and (I guess Jupiter at a stretch because) Death (is obviously Pluto I mean come on). All of our worst fears are on display, and typically they last a day before they are replaced with something more outlandish and terrifying, yet still real. How do you possibly function like that?

The Hexagram here is Shock, and it leads heavily into anxiety, whether founded or otherwise. You see a storm rolling in, you close up the house and make sure the trash is taken out before it starts raining. You hear Thunder off in the distance or see Lightning light up the night sky, and you notice it; It steals your attention, makes you stop what you are doing, even if it is just for a split second. This one indicates an upset, something tumultuous that throws you for a loop.  Such incidents arouse every nerve in your body – perhaps in a brief wave of panic – but soon, once the danger has passed, the reaction gives way to a heightened awareness. When my car ran off the road and into the woods a few years back I thought I was absolutely going to die, and the absolute rush of adrenaline through my body, even after I got pulled out of the car, was nothing short of exhilarating. It lingered for days afterward too, it was truly fantastic. When overtaken by a crisis, the wise look within and search their hearts for strengths, in order to face the world with courage. Courage can mean daring to take the unexpected path, to bounce back quickly after failure, or to have faith in the meaning of life when confronted with death, even when that death is the complete collapse of the biosphere as a whole. While anxiety may rule our lives, this hexagram warns us to steel our minds and do all that we can to not allow fear or sudden upsets to rattle us.

The important thing to remember is that no matter what happens this is not the end of our story. You have to bear that in mind. What you need is to find a reason to get you through this, anything to cling to. Become centered in yourself, and reject the reigning fear-or-fight-based paradigm inasmuch as you are able to. Call back to the time when we were balls deep in the Cardinal Crisis, and we were barely alive. Pull that playbook back out, but now you can’t just keep your nose to the dirt and focus on what is immediately in front of you- no, now you have to make every move in the greater context of where you are going and aligned to your ethics and morals. Some of you may be wondering why I would say that, seeing as how most people do that anyways without having to think about it. Well, this is eclipse season, and it makes people do crazy things; things that you would never even entertain the thought of otherwise. Use that instead to dream up a solution to your situation that would be impossible under any other circumstance. Magic is real, and with this Eclipse it floods us all- use it or it will bulldoze over you.

Minor Planets used: Ceres, Vesta, Deucalion, Sila-Nunam, Borasisi, Niobe, Hekate, Klotho & Lachesis, Echeclus, Narcissus

Mars (Kenaz), Jupiter (Perthro), Saturn (Ihwaz) and Pluto (Jera)- Change comes whether we like it or not, and usually it is bloody and chaotic like giving birth (Pluto as Jera). A new world is birthing right now, and it’s not going to be pretty for anyone unless we all realize that we are all on the same fucking side – the human side, and each person’s experience is as vital as the last. Everyone holds responsibility. It is not, “so what are you going to do to change it?” or “What are we going to do to change it?” but “What am I going to do to change it, to change myself, to illuminate the crevices inside myself and see that I am not wholly a saint.” No one is a saint, and if you can’t admit that about yourself, this battle will never be won. We all have a shadow we must dance with, and if you cannot see your shadow, you’ll get stabbed in the dark. The sun is bright in Leo, but his shadow will be cast as the moon blots out his light. How will he feel when his shadow side is revealed? How will he panic? How will he react? Will it be flight or fight? Shiva has begun dancing, and worlds crumble in his wake. Jera is the cycle, the spiral, the seasons, the ever returning pattern. It takes patience and knowing and intimate understanding to bring forth a garden, and we must realize that things have been slowly manifesting over long periods of time. Look at the great web of history and see what the patterns are and do not scoff when you see them appearing – they are telling a very real story that we repeat like a song. Although the world re-births countless times over, it’s waves of creation and destruction are purposeful.

“Obstacles do not block the path, they are the path.” -Zen Proverb  Saturn as Ihwaz. We must pace ourselves. I know you want all the answers right now, Heretic, but you cannot have them. You have to pass trails for a reason, and instant gratification awlays rots the soul just like it rots the teeth. There is a reason they say having a Kundalini Awakening early destroys you – drives you mad with a thousand volts of insanity. The problem with insanity is, you have no fucking idea you are wandering into territory that is so far removed from the rest of humanity’s path. A human being does not have the capacity to take that much freedom, to understand that death is wholly a natural, not frightening, aspect of life. Until you, as a being, hold no fear in your heart, you cannot handle the infinite expansiveness. You will always balk at it’s energy, the full story will destroy you just like looking into the face of God. The problem is, you wont accept what you see there – like a serpentine snake eternally swallowing it’s tail, there is ever only yourself. You wont return, like a Bodhisattva, to speak of what you saw in language that is comprehensible. You will be dribbling and incoherent, not a translator but a madman.

Mmm, Jupiter, the god who would most likely, of all the gods, be caught gambling, is throwing the lot cup – perthro.  Our fate lies in our magick, our art, our manifestations. Although we cannot change the stage, the script, or the props we are dealt, it is up to us to play the part in our own way. Again we are called to recognize patterns. There are parts of ourselves that are manifesting things, our subconscious making us choose things time and time again. It is time to recognize those patterns and see what the hidden part of yourself wants, what the hidden philosophical ideal of your soul is. How do you destroy your chances? Do you manifest your future via your will, or are you under the spell of your subconscious?  And can there be a balanced middle ground?

Mars as Kenaz.  So you know a lot of shit. Now put that knowledge to use. Can you harness the force inside yourself and use it?  We are being called to make a choice now. The Aquarius New Moon should have taught us we do not need permission to act. We do not need permission to decent. And we do not need permission to remove a problem if we see fit. We must take action instead of sitting and allowing our lives in the micro and our lives in the macro fall to pieces. There comes a time when the student has learned all they can learn from the teacher, and then they must act upon their knowledge. You are being called to this. Leo is all about having the courage to build your own world, your own personality, your own creative endeavors. It is time to grow up and realize that no one is in charge of us. We are the emperors of our own life. This does not mean arrogance. This means harmony with those around you because they are emperors of their own lives as well. With both Venus and Mars coming up as the same rune, the true illumination is a re balancing of the world. And when things re-balance, things need to shift. Time to get things moving.

  Total Solar Eclipse in Leo- Ragnarok was originally published on Heretical Oracles