Regulus in Virgo

Of the 25 brightest stars in the sky visible in the days of ancient Persia (cradle of Western civilization and astrology apart from that developed by the Chinese)…among those 25 “brightest” stars were four that Persian astrologers grew to associate with the seasons and certain mortal attributes which test human nature.

This was back in around 3,000 BCE. Since then, these four stars have come to be known as the Royal Stars of Persia: Aldebaran (known to Persians as Tascheter), Antares (alternately known as Satevis), Fomalhaut (known then as Haftorang), and Regulus, known to the Persians as Venant.

Each of these four stars represents a “promise of success” IF a certain human attribute is avoided. For Fomalhaut to grant success, one’s hopes must put pure and free from corruption. For Antares to manifest as good fortune you must not obsess or be obsessive. With Aldebaran, the issue centers on personal standards of integrity—and karmic, worldly or life situations which test that integrity.

Regulus asks whether we can proceed without vengeance. And for that to be an issue, one would assume connections with Regulus would come with challenges which might prompt vengeance or at least ask that we explore the concept of vengeance.

With Regulus having been for so long positioned in Leo, we’re rather accustomed to tests of the “Regulus Kind” being focused on questions of how we act when our (Leo) vision or idea is thwarted, critiqued or even rejected. Do we consider why things have gone wrong—or do we simply strike out with a hearty “how DARE you!”? Do we see ourselves as “entitled” to success or are we willing to earn it?

Of course there are several other sides to Leo. One would be the experience of dating. So are you the jealous type? Another would be competition. How are you at winning, losing, and that try, try again concept? Then there’s the whole subject of children. For those who have children, do you compete with them? Are you able to accept them as a unique person who may grow up with interests or an agenda completely other than that you envisioned for them?

This is all important now because Royal Star Regulus will enter Virgo on November 28, 2011 at 12:35pm (UT/+0).

And to better understand Regulus entering Virgo, it is helpful to look back at Regulus entering Leo back on October 25, 157 BCE (at 9:20am UT/+0, for those who care). Leo is ruled by the Sun. The Sun was positioned at 29 Libra on that day, which suggests that Regulus’ passage through Leo would be intense, and that its testing of our Self would be experienced through our yearning for relationship and the respect, appreciation, love or cooperation of others. Especially as modern technology has made the “big world” into more of a global community and personal access a two-way street of tracking and tweeting, this desire to be connected, dealt with and appreciated has become ever more true—as have become the opportunities to wreak vengeance when someone doesn’t “cooperate.”

Was that “foretold” in this chart? Asteroid Child positioned at 1 Aquarius at Regulus’ Leo ingress suggests that earlier society (the “Aquarius factor”) was just “a child” compared to what it might become as Regulus in Leo came to its conclusion. Considering that Aquarius is society, social groups, electronics and electronic systems…the twittering, Internet connected world of today and the temptation it holds as a means by which to reach out and wreak harm on others certainly does seem to fit the bill.

What we might call the “last act” of Regulus in Leo (last at least until something just less than a precession round of 26,000 years passes by)… would have begun on August 27, 1940 at 9:12 in the evening UT/+0 time. That’s when Regulus moved into its most “intense” Leo phase: Regulus at 29 degrees of Leo.

A brief review of history reveals the obvious note that this falls during WWII. It also during an US presidential campaign which saw Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt stumping for an unprecedented third term in office. FDR’s helping win the war notwithstanding, this campaign brought American presidential politics to a whole new consideration: FDR’s run raised a discussion about term limits. And many reacted to the idea (the “vision”) of FDR staying in office as bad not because he was a bad President, but just because his being there didn’t fit their bill.

Some 70 years later, that cry is still echoing through American presidential politics: it’s obvious that there’s a whole group of people who just don’t think President Obama should get another term in office just because. The issues are different, but the net concept is the same and that is how metaphysics works: the question is brought up time and time again until we get the point that it’s not the specific we’re debating. If it’s Regulus in Leo, the real question is whether we want what works and does the job or what suits our fancy—and what we will or won’t do when faced with reality. Will we be and do spiteful things?

That’s Regulus. That’s Regulus’ humanistic Leo question.

So now Regulus moves into Virgo. Virgo’s keywords, health, work, service may be of even more importance to think about than in August 1940 when the Oxford University School of Pathology team announced they had isolated penicillin.

We’ve all heard about “drug resistant” bacteria, and it’s to be anticipated that the “over-prescribing” of antibiotics throughout the time that Regulus was at 29 Leo will now evidence in Virgo form. The question will thus become how to fight back and with Regulus involved, an even odder question may be does that microbe we hate have a positive purpose we just don’t like?

This strange bit of philosophical consideration comes from the old metaphysical maxim: unbeknownst to us, the universe is unfolding as it should. And if all has a purpose, some things we would guess arise merely so that we may be tested and learn from that testing. But there is that other side of the coin: are we destroying things which we think bad but merely don’t understand and, in doing so, are we setting ourselves up for failure?

This may function on the level of individuals, yes. But if it functions on that levels, it is also likely to function on a national level or a corporate level or even on the spiritual or collective level as in the human race.

Considering Virgo’s strong ties to responsibility, timeliness and ethical standards—standards which all plainly rest in our willingness to discipline and motivate ourselves—Regulus passage through Virgo cannot be about what “they” do or don’t do. One would suspect, in fact, that “they” will do much to arouse our sense of indignation with regards to “their” irresponsibility and lack of standards, tempting “us” to vengeance.

But the question really shouldn’t be merely “what would I do in their place?” but rather, what am I doing in my own life which is as sloppy, thoughtless or lacking in priority or responsibility?

Back when Regulus moved into Leo, we saw that Sun at 29 critical degrees of Libra— remember? Well, in the horoscope for Regulus entering Virgo, the ruler of Virgo (Mercury) will be at 18 Sagittarius and in retrograde.

Since retrogrades are always about what “goes on inside of us” this says that we need to think before we act. It means we need to know before we construct or embark “upon a construct.” This is a clear astrological sign underscoring Regulus’ message that it isn’t about “them”—it’s about us. In fact, even when “they” ARE doing something? It’s still about us: it’s about how we react to the cards we are being dealt, to the handwriting on the wall, to the nature of the actual job in front of us, not what we were wishing for coming in.

Granting also that this ruler-of-Virgo Mercury is in Sagittarius, we also know that actions, reactions and situations are likely to become overblown, exaggerated, or out of hand as a Regulus prompting mechanism. In other words, the size of the fractious problem IS our test. So those who are relatively impervious to “the little stuff” will get bigger and bigger stuff thrown at them until they reach their point of wanting to boil over, wanting to react, wanting to wreak vengeance….that being where the Regulus precept and test takes hold.

So overstepping boundaries, haste-and-waste, fervency, overload and “spewing of the dogma” are to be expected going forward. Then we add in the specific of 18 Sagittarius: a degree known for instability and a yearning to be helpful which is often very misguided because you don’t have (or want to know) all the facts. Again, this points us to the necessity to reflect before doing as a ruling factor throughout the next several thousand years (i.e., Regulus’ passage through Virgo). Mercury as ruler of Virgo is in retrograde as Regulus makes this shift. That’s something not merely to think about, but to remember going forward.

That Chiron stands at 0 Pisces—in opposition to Regulus—as our Royal Star enters Virgo speaks to all those feelings we “dare not feel” and it’s emotional compatriot known as “denial.” (Avoidance and over-idealism probably belong in this basket, too.) The juxtaposition being plain, we are not avoiding “the other” or “that thing” we don’t want to know about—what we are doing is robbing ourselves of understanding. Ultimately we won’t have the life, the hope, the faith in happiness, the pleasure and sense of safety we all so dearly want without taking such subjects on.

Again, it’s not them…it’s about our reaction to them. Or to “that” issue, subject or situation. From the Virgo perspective it may be, not wanting to understand the emotional consequences. Or not wanting to take the time or make the effort to know the “whole thing.” We may want to opt for “band-aid” solutions where wholesale reconstruction and a more encompassing or possibly “holistic” point of view will be the only thing which will work.

But oh, are we likely to resist that.

Royal Star Fomalhaut at 4 Pisces and Neptune at 28 Aquarius in this chart tell us there is much which is corrupt(ed) and a lot that we don’t want to let go of—which we need to let go of. And until we do, we will probably continue blame others for our hurts while we go on harming ourselves and degrading the quality of our own efforts.

The degree that Regulus enters now—0 Virgo—is one known for the achieving of respect and power through care, and through caring for those who do the work. This is another big switch from Leo, which reigns in a more “kingly” manner. Leo seeks privilege and the ostracizing of effort. By insistence on that, particularly during Regulus’ passage through 29 Leo, so have people risen and fallen. Those willing to work as hard as those who work with them or for them will now succeed at a more and more evident rate, while those who depend on what we might call “Leo in Regulus privilege-of-status” will decline.

We’ve seen it coming: the tyrants have been being called out and thrown down as Regulus has passed through 29 Leo and particularly as these past few months have gone by. It doesn’t matter what your “abuse of position” is—the issue is the separation.

Regulus’ prohibition on vengeance—in the end is truly about us. It’s about our understanding why we get upset and where those feelings that we might be “entitled” to wreak vengeance come from. But take a step beyond that and you’ll realize that in forecasting failure to those who will wreak vengeance in whatever form on others (which in Virgo will put an emphasis on “those in need”), this is really about kinship with all and everyone.

Regulus’ shift into Virgo comes but three days after a solar eclipse in early Sagittarius that squares Regulus. Serious challenges to our sense of stability are likely to be righteously experienced and righteously proclaimed for the next several years as the 36-month eclipse transit plays out. So don’t expect “solutions” or understandings to surface until late in 2014.

Until then however, we do have the option to do that Mercury retrograde “stop and think” thing. We can reflect on not what we want to do, but what we should do…which is very much in keeping with the ancient Persian association of their regal star quartet as the markers of the seasons. As was later written, “to everything…there is a season” and so it is with us. Our seasons change, and so should we, lest we miss out on life’s bounty or find ourselves standing out in life’s cold.

Boots Hart, CAP

Boots Hart is an ISAR-certified astrologer of 30 years’ experience, with some 20 years as a magazine and online columnist.

Writer by habit and philosopher by bent (some say very bent…), Boots is a metaphysical science geek spiritualist—a person as inspired by the workings of time/space as touched by the often painful adventures of mankind. Through writings public and private, her aim is to use astrology as cipher, helping us understand. Can we learn how to live a happier life? What does that take? Why are the times as they are? These are the questions. And that answers can be gleaned from cosmic cycles and the reflections of those in our lives? That would seem to be part of our journey—the one path we all take and walk together.

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