Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone

Lupus – the Wolf

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Wolves were once the top predator in America’s world-famous Yellowstone National Park. But the population was eradicated in the 1920s, leaving the wilderness wolf-free for seven decades. In 1995, however, wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone; this gave biologists a unique opportunity to study what happens when a top predator returns to an ecosystem. They were brought in to manage the rising elk population, which had been overgrazing much of the park, but their effect went far beyond that. In this film, The Nature Conservancy’s lead scientist Dr M Sanjayan, Dr Valerie Kapos of the UN Environment Programme and animal behaviourist Kirsty Peake describe how the returning wolves dramatically changed the park’s rivers, forests – and the landscape itself. BBC 28 January 2014

The Balsamic Moon (Waning Crescent) occured on January 27 conjoining  stars Ras Alhague and Theta of Ophiuchus; Lesath of Scorpio. Ras Alhague is the embodiment of physical health and vitality. It lies over and conjoins the stars forming the right leg and foot of Ophiuchus. Ophiuchus stands with his right foot (Theta Ophiuchus) over the sting of the Scorpion, Lesath. Ras Alhague, Theta Ophiuchus and Lesath all conjoin. Together, these stars articulate the capacity to transmute life’s difficult experiences into wisdom [1].  Notice how elegantly they reflect the lessons learnt at Yellowstone and the return  of the ecosystem to good health.  

The chart for the Balsamic Moon phase at Yellowstone is shown here. Notice Uranus (*) on the Ascendant in a sesqui aspect to Saturn [22sc21] which is conjunct the stars Men, alpha Lupi [23sc40] on the Wolf’s hind leg, epsilon Librae in the Scales [21sc31] and sigma Corona Borealis [21sc33].  The Scales represent an effort to balance inequities. Corona Borealis is often depicted as flowers. Manilius' [2] astrological influences for this constellation gives the cultivation of gardens, growing flowers, and arranging flowers into garlands.

“The child of the Crown will cultivate a garden budding with bright flowers and slopes”. [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD, book 5, p.321.]

So here the balance of the Scales along with the  wildness of Lupus bring beauty to the gardens of Corona Borealis.

Moral: Do not kill the beast inside us. It is what gives health and vitality to the whole person.

[1] http://bit.ly/1egDKcS

[2] http://www.constellationsofwords.com/Constellations/CoronaBorealis.html

*

To understand the Uranus sesqui aspect to Saturn better  in the context of the news we need to delve a bit into the story of the Royal Family

The earliest sources of the myth combining Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Perseus, Cetus and Pegasus are not known. A king symbolically represents leadership and responsibility to bring order to a chaotic mass here represented by the sea and the sea monster Cetus. Life and consciousness are struggling to emerge from the dangerous primal soup – the sea. [ Sabian 1 degree shows a woman emerging from the sea]. Such an emergence is fraught with danger and at first susceptible to failure. Here King Cepheus  and Queen Cassiopeia represent early attempts by the ego or the tribal laws to force an arbitrary order on this chaotic matrix.  Symbolically in the story this is shown by the  imprisonment of  the next  generation – Princess Andromeda – and  the possibility of her being devoured by the sea monster Cetus. This drama is played out primarily but not exclusively in the first ten degrees of tropical Aries. The Sabian symbol for 10 Aries is “A Teacher gives new symbolic forms to traditional images”. In this phase we find the capacity to restate the problem inherent in the first phase, i.e. the problem of focusing one’s energies emotional drives and cultural values which exclude more than they include. As a result there now arises in consciousness a desire to reformulate at a new level much that had been taken for granted because it indeed originally had been an evolutionary necessity. This is where Perseus and Pegasus are getting ready to rescue Andromeda from the jaws of Cetus.

Since the Sabian Symbol for Uranus is 10Ar we can now understand why the King  has felt a need to revise his attitude towards Cetus and Andromeda (the  wolf and Yellowstone)