Lost Connections

In his book Lost Connections, Johann Hari talks about his decades of work in the fields of trauma and mental health and why he believes that the root of almost everything we suffer through is a severed connection we never figured out how to repair….The biggest problem in most people's lives is trauma, and trauma is what creates a damaged ability to connect with others. "Trauma" is not a term reserved for the most severe and unrelenting atrocities one can experience. Anytime something scares us and we do not get over that fear, trauma is created. When we don't believe we have the resources or abilities to cope with a certain problem or stimuli, we create adaptive behaviors to deny or avoid it. It's not the trauma itself that causes the most long-term damage; it is how the trauma wreaks havoc on the psyche and prevents reintegration into a normal, healthy life where other people and unknown situations are seen as benevolent. https://www.sott.net/article/408500-Connection-is-a-core-human-need-but-we-are-terrible-at-it

Astrologers have long discovered that a person who is true to himself will live out the major issues in his horoscope. It follows that the central theme of a writer’s life can be seen in the major planetary configurations in his chart. Johann Eduard Hari (born 21 January 1979) is a Swiss-English writer and journalist [1]. Central to his chart is a T-square involving Saturn-Neptune-Venus-Nodes. Hari's book Lost Connections on depression and anxiety was published in January 2018 when transit Neptune began its opposition to radix Saturn triggering the T-square. Neptune is still transiting over the T and has been activated by the March New Moon.

Speaking of depression, Saturn and Neptune together can coincide with an especially difficult mental malaise. In their shadow expressions, both archetypes can express as giving up. When worn down by Saturnian life obstacles, giving up looks like complete exhaustion. A Neptunian version of throwing in the towel would be giving up because “it just doesn’t matter.” With Neptune you might just run away from the problem through escapist behaviors used to avoid pain (because of heightened Neptunian sensitivity). https://www.theastrologycoach.com/articles/item/30-saturn-square-neptune

Ebertin describes the principle behind the Moon’s Nodes as “the urge to unite with others” or in other words seeking connections. With Saturn conjunct the node we have “inhibitions and difficulties” in forming connections. Saturn is a planet of structure and boundaries. Neptune represents dissolution of boundaries. A square between Saturn and Neptune can then manifest as a conflict  between individualism and the urge to unite with others. This then becomes the central cause of depression.

Having understood the Saturn-Neptune dynamics let us focus our attention on the star Sabik of Ophiuchus and those of Ara that conjoin Neptune – the planet at  the apex of the T-square.

Sabik is the second brightest star in Ophiuchus – the healer. Sabik of Ophiuchus, and surrounding entries, can stimulate involvements that lead to our greater bio-logical well-being and illumination. This level of transmutation in our lives requires full unconditional acceptance and integration of our past experience, so the bio-energetic patterning we hold within can be inverted to re-express its compliment—thus allowing a new expression that subsequently draws new fulfilling experience. This process in esoteric science and physics is called time-reversal or phase-conjugation. In advanced healing and meditative techniques, this is a means of producing the opposite but properly phased cellular pattern or signature within self that cancels (actually fulfills) the existing pattern we embody. Generally, this is an all-or-nothing deal requiring our unconditional willingness to embrace the healing / transmuational process. The choice is ours.

Sabik also can simply indicate a threshold to cross or transition to make, generally regarding a change in our neurology, how we act, or in our capacity to take action to change and evolve.

Ara is the Altar of the Centaur. The mythical image here is of the Centaur placing Lupus the beast with conscious deliberation upon the Centaur's sacrificial altar. V821 in Ara is an x-ray emitting & fluctuating binary star. This is a collapsed object (like a old neutron star) that accretes matter, and thus had been placed in the Black Hole model used by astronomers. Thus it is commonly called the Ara Black Hole. V821 accretes emotion for consummation in the Centaur's Pyre. Here we must place, with conscious deliberation, any long standing grief, guilt, anger, and any other emotion (especially self-judgment related) that we are holding upon the Altar of the Centaur for our transmutation. North from the Sting of the Scorpion drips the transmuting elixir (the often harsh lessons of life), upon the Altar. This act is essential to experience the actual neurological transmutation made possible here, and that leads to our greater self-mastery; the mastery over the creative and carnal forces of life exemplified by Ophiuchus, who stands over the Scorpion and this entire scene, and the wisdom from our experience articulated by Ras Alhague, the head of Ophiuchus. If we are not ready to surrender and relinquish our antiquated emotional baggage, we are held back or sidetracked, and continue to experience upsets, diversions and even traumatic and catastrophic events in our lives because we are not truly ready to step into a greater level of self-empowerment or take action that can truly change our lives. https://www.lunarplanner.com/LunarMonths2014/lunarmonth.14.10.23.html

In conclusion we can see how Johann Hari  working on the central problem in his life became the voice of Ophiuchus – the healer  through his recognition that only the  willingness to consciously relinquish deep-seated crystallized emotional patterns would cure individuals with serious depression.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Hari