Pluto transit to natal Mercury - hearing loss?

[Stef]

In early January of 2020, I became partially deaf in my right ear and developed severe tinnitus. I was sick with a “cold” at the time that I now expect may have been COVID-19. This coincided with transiting Saturn conjunct my natal Mercury.

Regardless of the mundane cause, this experience of hearing loss set off some significant life changes over the year that had been building and seemed to culminate during the final passage of Pluto to my natal Mercury, in October of that year, but which had been ongoing for about two years I think. At that time, I had an explorational surgery which unexpectedly revealed a fractured bone in my ear, which was repaired, and restored most of my hearing back. There were other important personal decisions and acts that culminated around this time also.

So I’m curious what the community thinks may have been the cause or major influences on the hearing loss and subsequent healing (if only partially). Is it safe to say it was mainly Saturn and Pluto aspecting my Mercury?

I am still new to this study, so please forgive me for any errors I might make.

Birth data:
December 23, 1989
12:03pm
Ridgewood, NJ

Location in 2020:
Morristown, NJ

[Jim Eshelman]

Good to hear from you again Stef. - Yes, I think you're probably exactly right: The simultaneous Saturn and Pluto conjunctions with your Mercury in January 2020 were the astrological signal behind this. Though I don't see that we could have predicted this exact result, the match is quite strong.

Hearing is an extension of the brain and nervous system's processing and a fundamental input-output system for for information. I'm sure this period negatively impacted your overall communication and probably shifted how your mind operated and was structured overall.

I thought I might find a clear message in your December 2019 SSR, given the timing of all of this. I didn't. Yes, Mars and Neptune were most foreground, but not especially close, not particularly tied to anything in the natal, etc. Pluto was partile to Mercury in the SSR (in the background) which is close as the chart gets to having a direct connection.

Looking to see if there was a way we might (on a lucky day) have more exactly anticipated what form Saturn-Pluto to natal Mercury had, I don't see it. Your Mercury is in Sagittarius so, if we had reasonably included possible health impact in a forecast, we could have anticipated it would be the nervous system, brain, and perhaps the senses, we would have probably looked to a Sagittarius part of the body (upper torso, lungs and bronchi, upper extremities). Your Mercury's main natal aspects are the mundane squares to Mars and Pluto that, though they aren't at all inconsistent with the result, probably wouldn't have led us to the right answer. Nor does your Mercury's one important midpoint, Me = Ve/Ju.

[SteveS]

FWIW, I have found in my life of 73 years, significant Saturn-Pluto combos have always confronted my life with types of "Burdens" to deal with for various issues.

[Stef]

Thank you, as always, for your thorough analysis, Jim. You hit on all the points I suspected. I was wondering if there was some indication that my Mercury was "weak" in some way, since it's in its detriment of Sagittarius, but I don't know if Siderealists put much weight on detriments.

[Jim Eshelman]

I was wondering if there was some indication that my Mercury was "weak" in some way, since it's in its detriment of Sagittarius, but I don't know if Siderealists put much weight on detriments.

I wouldn't call it weak. I'd call it conflicted (technically conflicted, though Mercury seems to handle its detriment better than other planets, perhaps because of all the adaptable mutability).

Mercury in Sagittarius means that Mercury is in a non-Mercurial area. This introduces a polarity - something that can seem to be anti-Mercury about it but also opposing principles to be resolved creatively. My boilerplate for Mercury in Sagittarius doesn't sound negative at all, but it does show ways in which Jupiter-Sag ideas meet Mercury ideas: "Easy speech seems cultured, educated, authoritative, refined. Way with words, oratorical. Optimistic. Good-tempered, tactful, quiet (stubborn). Conscious of the architecture of thought and language. Does well in business world, commercially ambitious. Traveling."

[Stillpoint]

Hi

I wonder if the natal parallel with Mercury and Saturn might tie in mercury to the natal saturn and neptune combo, which
is associated with potenial illness (ebertin). There is also a parallel just outside 1' degree orb between neptune and mercury.
Saturn is associated with bones that may correspond with bone issue.

Converse Secondary progressed ascendant in square to converse progressed Mars (surgery).
Converse progressed Moon = converse progressed saturn and neptune.

Tertiary progressed Neptune conj Saturn (long time influence).
Tertiary progressed Asc opp Mars (surgery)

(Solar arc in R.A.)

[Jim Eshelman]

Welcome, Stillpoint. Thanks for jumping in.

I wonder if the natal parallel with Mercury and Saturn might tie in mercury to the natal saturn and neptune combo, which is associated with potenial illness (ebertin). There is also a parallel just outside 1' degree orb between neptune and mercury. Saturn is associated with bones that may correspond with bone issue.

Stef's Mercury has declination 23S08; her Saturn's declination is 22S20; so, by the favored 1° orb, she'd have a parallel aspect. Your analysis of the symbolism is good.

I've never found parallels valid at all, though, so I'm skeptical of this. I'd rather count the 7°11' Class III Mercury-Saturn conjunction (which I think is too wide to usually notice, but technically hanging around). You did alert me to something I hadn't checked, the Mercury/Saturn midpoint which would center and concentrate the wide conjunction, and I do find it aspects Mars 0°37' as a possible factor (if we found a way that the Mars was implicated in the timing).

Converse Secondary progressed ascendant in square to converse progressed Mars (surgery).
Converse progressed Moon = converse progressed saturn and neptune.

Interesting, thank you (and that gives the Mars trigger for Ma = Me/Sa natally). Regressed Asc and Mars, respectively, at 18°41' Capricorn and 18°31' Libra. Regressed Moon 15°10' Virgo in orb of square to regressed Saturn-Neptune.

[Stillpoint]

Thanks for your kind comments James,

I've never found parallels valid at all, though, so I'm skeptical of this. I'd rather count the 7°11' Class III Mercury-Saturn conjunction (which I think is too wide to usually notice, but technically hanging around)

Yes that is possible.

I signed up for Kenneth Bowser's new course and saw that he used Parallels in his book "Introduction to Western sidereal astrology", which i have recently read. So I thought that it maybe was something common in this school of astrology. I have my background in a mix of modern western and vedic astrology. But I have found parallels interesting and sometimes revealing.

Some examples can be Obama's Jupiter, Mercurius, Pluto parallels which can be associated with 'swaying the masses oratorically' from Ebertins combinations.
Also a recent example is the two supreme court judges 'Amy Coney Barret' and 'Ruth Bader Ginsburg' who both have Mercury parallel Jupiter in their declinations. Which may be related to analysing law and principles et.c Also Donald Trump which have an unaspected Pluto in his chart, have both Sun and Moon in parallel and contraparallel to Pluto. Which can be related to strong urges to get and use power.

I have also been interested in Out-of-Bounds planets and their effects.
Some interesting examples is Usain Bolt with an mars in it's outermost declination, and Magnus Carlssen with his Mercury in very out of bounds declination.

This may of course be related to different set of parables.

Very nice forum.
"

[SteveS]

Stillpoint wrote:

Some examples can be Obama's Jupiter, Mercurius, Pluto parallels which can be associated with 'swaying the masses oratorically' from Ebertins combinations.
Also a recent example is the two supreme court judges 'Amy Coney Barret' and 'Ruth Bader Ginsburg' who both have Mercury parallel Jupiter in their declinations. Which may be related to analysing law and principles et.c Also Donald Trump which have an unaspected Pluto in his chart, have both Sun and Moon in parallel and contraparallel to Pluto. Which can be related to strong urges to get and use power.

Very interesting examples, thanks for posting.

[Jim Eshelman]

I signed up for Kenneth Bowser's new course and saw that he used Parallels in his book "Introduction to Western sidereal astrology", which i have recently read. So I thought that it maybe was something common in this school of astrology.

I don't recall Fagan, Bradley, or Firebrace ever mentioning them - which, of course, doesn't mean there is nothing to them. I was only remarking that I've never been able to substantiate their value as independent aspects.

Were one to look at parallels ("conjunctions" in declination), there is a further factor: In parts of the zodiac near the solstices, planets change declination very slowly and wide swaths of the zodiac have roughly the same declination. It seems unlikely that all the planets around 22-24° north or south declination are always in aspect to each other just because they concentrate in that one band: This would give a small flood of suspect aspects. I think it was Charles Jayne who suggested the easiest trick to take this into consideration (just a display trick) is to convert each planet's declination into the (Tropical) longitude Sun (or the ecliptic in general) would have at the same declination. Solar Fire will do this with an option on the Analogues menu called "Long Equiv Decl." The sanest way to measure parallels in an exploration is to run this on a Tropical chart and then look at planets within close orb of conjunction or opposition in the Long Equiv Decl chart. Do this for step and you'll find that her 0°48' parallel is equivalent to a 9°08' conjunction - quite wide - though her 0°01' Mercury-Jupiter contraparallel is equivalent to a 0°17' opposition in strength. Her 0°24' Mercury-Uranus parallel is equivalent in strength to a 2°28' conjunction.

Even when filtering out runaway possible parallels this way, I still can't substantiate then as effective aspects.

Some examples can be Obama's Jupiter, Mercurius, Pluto parallels which can be associated with 'swaying the masses oratorically' from Ebertins combinations.

One place you and I differ here is that, despite my great admiration of Ebertin and KdG in general, I have a lot of trouble with his 1940s view of Pluto - the demagoguery of Mercury-Pluto being one example. Nonetheless, his Mercury-Jupiter opposition alone is one of the most striking and important features of his chart and, alone, is expressive of his eloquence.

Also Donald Trump which have an unaspected Pluto in his chart, have both Sun and Moon in parallel and contraparallel to Pluto. Which can be related to strong urges to get and use power.

As above, this is the exact (admittedly popular) spin on Pluto that I think isn't there. I don't see him as a particularly Pluto person (e.g., there seems no significant inner demand in authenticity in him; and his tendency to throw existing conditions overboard, which in theory could be a Pluto expression, seems at least as Uranian as it would be Plutonian).

Since Trump's Sun, Moon, and Pluto declinations are in that 23°N zone where planets tend to congregate, I'd want to lose the Long Equiv Decl tool to get a better handle on whether there is likely a mathematically meaningful aspect here. It puts his Pluto nearly 20° of "zodiac analogue" from Pluto, no aspect at all. It does, however disclose a close Venus-Pluto parallel (surprising to me since they are more than 1° apart in declination; but that 1°01' Venus-Pluto parallel is theoretically stronger than any Sun-Pluto or Moon-Pluto parallel).

BTW, my responses aren't meant to say you're wrong. They are meant to say that I think you're wrong on a couple of points, but then again I might have been deluded all these years or missed the right examples. (Just to be clear for sake of communication.) I could see Venus-Pluto for Trump (but what I'm seeing is probably just the [in some ways very similar] Venus-Saturn conjunction).

Very nice forum.

Thank you

[Jupiter Sets at Dawn]

I don't recall Fagan, Bradley, or Firebrace ever mentioning them - which, of course, doesn't mean there is nothing to them. I was only remarking that I've never been able to substantiate their value as independent aspects.

Last time this came up, it appears it was in Kay Cavendish's notes
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1968&p=14024&hilit= ... gan#p14024
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=1022&p=5411&hilit= ... agan#p5411
I think Ken has other Fagan sources as well.

There's also the confusion some people have between parallels and paranatella.

[Jim Eshelman]

Thanks. That's primarily about "Rapt parallels" which are quite different than the aspect called "parallel" or "parallel of declination."

[SteveS]

Jim wrote:

That's primarily about "Rapt parallels"

It seems we had a good discussion thread about 'Rapt parallels' many moons ago on the forum. Is it still on the forum?

[Jim Eshelman]

It seems we had a good discussion thread about 'Rapt parallels' many moons ago on the forum. Is it still on the forum?

I think this is the thread you want: viewtopic.php?f=55&t=1634

[SteveS]

This may be the thread, thanks Jim

[Stillpoint]

Thanks Jim for elaborating on the parallels and declinations. Worthy thoughts to ponder.

Also I have Charles Jaynes book and understands that he have a method there, to make more sense about them, which you described here. Which could be interesting for me to go back and restudy. Btw he have an interesting example in that book about Walt Disney, who had multiple parallels involving Neptune (films, fantasy)
https://books.google.se/books?id=xgn6ka ... el&f=false

[Jim Eshelman]

Let's use Walt Disney as an example of what I mean when I say I can't confirm that parallels have independent value.

Using as a basis of discovering the "Long Equiv Decl" way of viewing his chart rather than a list of declinations, Disney would have the following parallels and contraparallels.

Close: Venus-Mars, Venus-Jupiter, Mars-Jupiter, Mars-Saturn, Saturn-Neptune
Wider: Sun-Uranus, Venus-Saturn, Venus-Neptune, Mars-Neptune, Jupiter-Saturn, Jupiter-Neptune

Some of these do not represent unique, distinctive aspects because the planets are already in ecliptical aspect in his birth chart: Jupiter-Saturn has a close conjunction and wider parallel, while Mars-Jupiter and Mars-Saturn have closer parallels and wider ecliptical aspects. Sun-Uranus has a wider parallel and moderate conjunction. -- This does, however, leave Neptune contraparallels to Saturn (close) and Venus, Mars, and Jupiter (wide), plus (my favorite for him) Venus-Jupiter (close). (Also Venus-Mars and Venus-Saturn.)

So, I sit looking at his chart... asking myself as neutrally as I can whether these parallels are a fit... and my first problem is that he has Neptune conjunct MC (in the upper foreground). In fact, his three foreground planets are the three outer planets, with Neptune the closest, 6° from MC (Pluto being 8° and Uranus 9° from the meridian). So before I can answer that, yes, I can definitely see this stream of Neptune aspects, I have to ask if I can distinguish "a blevy of Neptune aspects" from Neptune being his most angular planet, and, at that, on his Midheaven.

I can't. Or, if I can, then Neptune on MC and most angular speaks most clearly. In theory, I really like that Saturn-Neptune aspect which is unusually creative when close and shows concretization of imagination etc., but I can't swear (or even necessarily believe) I'm seeing that in lieu of the simplicity of an angular Neptune.

Neptune contraparallels to Saturn (close) and Venus, Mars, and Jupiter (wide), plus Venus-Jupiter (close).

It's such an enormously creative chart anyway, the angular planets alone showing his mind outside the mainstream reality (and Sun moderately aspect Uranus and Pluto), the rest of the chart showing inherent creativity and the fact that he would, himself, become something of an institution. (One could write a small book on this chart. I'd better quit before I start talking about what relocation to Anaheim does to it! <g>)

[SteveS]

Stillpoint wrote:

Btw he have an interesting example in that book about Walt Disney, who had multiple parallels involving Neptune (films, fantasy)

Thank the heavens! Being in the commercial Theater Business for most of my Career, if not for Walt's Neptune fantasy children/adult films, making a living would have been difficult for me.

[Stef]

I'm glad to see my little post has contributed to a fascinating theoretical discussion