THE FOLLOWING IS COPYWRITTEN MATERIAL
NO PART OF IT MAY BE REPRODUCED
WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR
This is Part 8 of a 9-Part Series
from a previously unpublished article
Previous posts in this series include:
An Invitation Into the Realm of the Imagination
Dreams as a Portal to a Deepening of Astrological Symbolism
Inconjuncts and the Magic Beneath the Appearance of Things
Astrology as a Magical Point of Entry to Primal Knowledge
Integration and the Art of the Dream Transit
The Impossible Task
The third dimension of the intriguing interface between the inconjunct and exploratory dreamwork I have discovered this past year is what I call the impossible task. The following are examples of imagery associated with impossible tasks, as they appeared to me in dreams I had during transiting inconjuncts:
In a dream with Venus semi-sextile Pluto, a man asks his wife to hold a cigarette at one end, while he cuts it with a table saw.
With transiting Sun semi-sextile natal Neptune, I am driving down the freeway in a boat with a lion in the back.
During a transit of Saturn semi-sextile Mercury, I find myself battling the Nazi influence on astrology.
When transiting Jupiter was semi-sextile Pluto, I must fight a young Mafia boss skilled in voodoo karate, who can hurt me without touching me.
The dream in which my Batman-Tinkerbell image appeared, I call “On the Run With the Muggle-Born.” In J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, the Muggle-Born are those without pedigreed witches and wizards for parents, considered by some in the world of magic to be inferior. In the dream, the Muggle-Born are being persecuted, and with the help of the Batman-Tinkerbell character, my job is to lead some of them to safety. In the waking state, I don’t feel up to the task. In fact, I feel a bit embarrassed by its presumptuousness. But in dreamtime I am thrust into this awkward position nonetheless.
I have a choice here. I can wake up and be thankful it was just a dream, or I can consider what power I do have to help those are suffering because the world is every bit as dark as the Harry Potter movies suggest it is. Within my own comfort zone, I have and surely can continue to make a difference. But in the face of the impenetrable darkness of the world – of which it is not hard to see evidence everywhere I (the Batman side of me) looks – I feel my breath taken away merely contemplating a larger or harder role. I suspect that neither the clever resourcefulness of a Batman, nor the pixie dust and happy thoughts of a Tinkerbell will be enough for me to rise to the challenge the dream seems to be thrusting upon me. But perhaps some combination of the two might just work, in some mysterious way I can’t begin to fathom now.
Like the inconjunct that reflects it, this thought feels awkward and uncomfortable. But if I am willing to live with this discomfort, perhaps leaning into the unknown can empower me in ways I can’t imagine on the safe side of that choice. I wish I could say that I have had some kind of breakthrough experience, but instead it seems I am being propelled by my discomfort to reach for something more than my conscious mind tells me is possible.
In late 2011 (with transiting Pluto quincunx my natal Sun and semi-sextile my natal Moon), I went on a vision quest in the Utah high desert country and lo and behold, I came home with an impossible vision to carry. I have since been working with others to create a mystery school and sanctuary for those wishing to transmute their core wounds into a sense of visionary calling. Perhaps the potential students of this vision are the Muggle-born of my dreams. In any case, one very large question I have been considering is where in the world might I find an hospitable place in which to root this vision – and perhaps in some way that is not yet clear, “lead the Muggle-born to safety” as my dream suggests might be the impossible task of my unlikely identity as Batman/Tinkerbell.
One day, around my birthday last year – with transiting Pluto quincunx Moon & semi-sextile Sun; transiting Jupiter quincunx Saturn/Mars; and transiting Mercury quincunx Uranus – I had a dream in which I was searching for a place in a university town with reddish orange brown colored building, lots of bicycles, and a restaurant serving a Norwegian delicacy – an acquired taste, as I understand it – called lutefisk. Subsequent research led me to discover a town in Norway with lots of orange brown colored buildings, where bicycles are omnipresent, and an inordinately high percentage of students (over 20% of the town’s residence) that would be perfect for the kind of retreat center I envision. Googling images of this place sent shivers up my spine, as I recognized the landscape of my dream.
I’m not prepared to say this is the answer to my question, but in following the trail of imaginal breadcrumbs that are being laid out before me, I feel encouraged to take a bold leap into the unknown. I am planning an exploratory trip there this summer.
Batman is excited about this trip – as any true Sagittarian would be – because it is an adventure with roots in real world possibilities. Tinkerbell is also excited because it is also an adventure propelled by an inner sense of magical calling – just the sort of thing a wild-eyed pixie drunk on happy thoughts might do in her delirium.
I don’t know what lies within the unknown waiting for me at the other end of this adventure – as none of us ever can – but as an astropoetic astrologer, I do know that none of this would be happening if I had stayed on the safe, predictable, known side of my birthchart. In daring to step to the other side – that place where familiar astrological symbols are endlessly trying on new faces – my lifelong interaction with astrology remains a living force, propelling me into a deeper pool of primal knowledge than any amount of rational interpretation of decoded symbols can ever provide.
