Life on this planet: The Chiron Effect and the Saturn Complex in my Chart

The Chiron Effect

As long time readers of this blog will know, this pesky little asteroid orbiting between Saturn and Uranus over a 50-year period, known as Chiron, always portends to catastrophes in my life depending upon Chiron's positions, movements, and aspects in the sky. My birth chart shows Chiron in my Ascendant sign Pisces, hence, why the Chiron effects are often catastrophic. Chiron in mythology is known as the "Wounded Healer", so much of the catastrophes relates to wounds, both spiritual and physical, inflicted throughout my life. My self harm episodes relates to Chiron.

One such effect I speculated on relates to Chiron's current transit through Pisces, about to end in a few weeks from now. My Mother had passed away near the start of Chiron's entry into Pisces during 2011. My wife's death took place upon my Chiron return, when Chiron reached it's position in my birth chart.

Therefore I speculated there could be a death in the family near Chiron's exit from Pisces to take place during 2018....... and indeed there was, though it was not whom I expected it to be. It was not the family member with Asbestosis, indeed he seemed remarkably well when I saw him at last week's funeral, it hadn't reached the stage of needing an oxygen bottle. I think these days with certain medications, the progress of the disease can be dramatically slowed down, adding years to one's life. Nevertheless something as normally benign as the common cold could be death for someone with Asbestosis. So I thought it may have been him. But no, it seems he has been saved from the Chiron effect.

It was another relatively close family member, most unexpected, it was an utter shock when I received the news. It was not known at the time what had killed him, but my feeling is it may have been heart failure - what could have happened to ME back in 2015!!!!! It was miraculous that I survived for over 24 hours with chest pains before I finally figured I needed to call someone!!!

Anyway, those in my small inner circle of trusted FaceBook friends will know who he is. Anyone else who has my email address is welcomed to ask me via email. But I just wish not to divulge details on this public forum, we Virgos like to keep our cards close to our chests and are very careful about the sharing of personal information, especially at such an intense time as this. People often confide with Virgos on their secrets and personal information cos Virgos can be most trusted to keep secrets, one of our extremely few high points of being a Virgo!!

The funeral was held last week, I took the day of work, was able to take it as Bereavement Leave so save me from needing to use my vacation time. As per the nature of funerals we caught up with long lost family and friends, some whom I hadn't seen in years, my wife's funeral was probably the last time I saw a few of them!!!

This year Chiron begins its 8-year transit of Aries, my 2nd house which deals with pleasure and money. Chiron's last transit of Aries took place beginning 1968, the start of the catastrophic failures of pleasure and money - this was the start of the 8 years of Hell, of childhood poverty, and abuse. So I am bracing for how Chiron's impending return to Aries will play out in my life this time around, but pretty safe to say it will not be good!!!! One likely manifestation of Chiron's entry into Aries is almost certain to be the loss of my car through the ever mounting list of mechanical issues, in particular the cracked gasket heads which basically seals its fate. It will cost more to repair than what the car is worth. So it seems likely sometimes this year, with Chiron in Aries, and moving into a catastrophic square with Saturn, that I will lose use of my car...... to begin a life of public transport and Uber. I've lost my bicycle back in the catastrophic year of 2017 due to theft.

The Saturn Complex.

The "Saturn Complex" in one's chart is when Saturn formed a hard aspect - square, oppositions or conjunctions - with any of the other outer planets, from Jupiter onwards. In my chart, it is the Saturn in Aquarius square with Neptune in Scorpio. The Saturn Complex often manifests as a curse of bad luck, that I always experience bad luck in life, I never win lotto nor any other competitions. And I also have to work a lot harder than the average person for my gains, nothing is ever handed to me on a platter. Indeed often my work is in vain, I am often not rewarded for my work, and it all comes to nothing, such as the occasion when I spent money having the house cleaned by professionals for the landlord when I moved out only to have him utterly forget to acknowledge my efforts to have the house cleaned but for my troubles losing my bond in the catastrophic bond fiasco. At other times, the energy and work I am compelled to put in for my gains often outweighs any little gains I receive.

So Saturn also has often a catastrophic effect on my life albeit in different ways. It usually manifests as obstacles and having to work harder than normal for my gains. Saturn had recently begun its transit of Capricorn, my 11th house which is Cosmic Overview, Community and Friends - planning, and putting my ideas to work.

Last week I mentioned about the possibility of renting a fridge as this seems destined to be the only means by which I will ever get a fridge anytime during 2018. Nowadays one can rent to own, and indeed after about 3 years the rent payments ends and you own the fridge. Then I decided to wait until after my Mexico trip so not to dip into my Mexico savings in order to pay the approx $15/week rental of a small fridge.

During the working week, living without a fridge is relatively easy - I just use the fridge at my workplace to store my foods and meals, and each afternoon at knockoff time, I decide my meals and retrieve the food items accordingly.

However during weekends and vacation times I don't have access to the fridge at work, and especially during these summer months, foods does not last long outside the fridge. I live on rice during the weekend as it is one of the few food items that can be kept outside the fridge. It is why Asians can live without fridges, such as in Bali, they live on a staple diet of rice!! However us more spoiled westerners often craves for other foods aside from rice, we can't quite handle rice three meals per day. So I often resort to convenience foods from convenience stores, the prepacked meals that is heated in the microwave and consumed that day. This often supplemented with value meals from fast food joints. Then I may perhaps treat myself to an icecream stick and a cold soda, both very expensive at convenience stores.

Then when it is hot, such as this past weekend, I get bags of ice for my cooler so to keep my water bottles cold with an occasional bottle of soda, usually Coke.

So this past weekend, the thought came to me..... How much am I spending each weekend on convenience foods, soda and bags of ice?? My Virgoan skills of keeping track of expenses kicked in, and was shocked to find I am spending more each week on such items than the weekly rent of a fridge.

Needless to say, I decided to go ahead and rent a fridge......... Saturn had other ideas!!!!!

Years ago when renting fridges and other appliances with my wife as we struggled to get established, and indeed in my apartment days before I met my wife, applying for rental was relatively simple, all I needed was ID, employment status, years in employment, housing status, years at current address, and perhaps a wage slip from work.

Nowadays it is a lot more complex..... and difficult........

These days you can apply online...... but with a very decidedly Saturnic sting in the tail. They're wanting a lot more details these days!!! As I was doing an application online, I was shocked to see they are asking for details of my "next of kin" preferably locally. Well that wasn't so bad, I guess it was to guard against the possibility of me leaving the country and not paying the rent!!

However the fatal blow came when they wanted details of a REFEREE, stating preference for a local based FAMILY member!!!! That really shocked me. None of my family locally knows of my lack of a fridge, and I had wanted to keep it that way!! We Virgos are fiercely independent creatures, and I never ask for help from my family, and I don't share my needs with most of my family!!!!

So at first I very reluctantly entered details of a family member for my referee...... however I just could not press that submit button!!!! I did not feel good at all about getting my family involved when they hadn't known about my predicament!!! I shut down the browser without submitting the application.

I tried other rental sites, and all were pretty well the same, with some variations. They wanted either a referee or a copy of my bank statement!! Even banks does not ask for such details when applying for a credit card or loan, they may perhaps ask for an employer reference but never a family member!!! I also feel very uncomfortable with submitting a bank statement, which I think is massive overkill for such a small outlay as just $15 per week. My credit card payments are much more than that, and I never had to give bank statements nor family references when I applied for those credit cards!!!!

So it looks like I won't be renting any fridges.......

Next step is to work out how much I am likely to spend on ice and convenience foods over the next seven weeks until my Mexico trip based on recent expenses, namely this past weekend, and see what it adds up to! Indeed it turned out to be comparable to the price of a small fridge!!

So at least on paper - or computer RAM - that it will be cost effective to purchase a fridge now than to spend money on ice and convenience foods over the next seven weeks. This will mean dipping into my Mexico savings, but in theory, I should be able to make up that money by no longer spending on ice and convenience foods.

However, theory and reality are often divergent!! There are other factors to consider. For example, my electricity bills will rise once I get a fridge, just don't know how much it will rise, but fridges by their very nature - items that cools the air temperature, much like air conditioners - will use a lot of energy in doing so, hence a lot of electricity, manifesting as a significant rise in my utilities bills. Not to mention the variable facts of foods, I may reduce my expenditure on convenience foods, but I would buy more icecream tubs and cheese.

So at this point I am not willing to risk the viability of my Mexico trip for an outright purchase of a fridge...... but depending on if I have any money left after my Mexico trip, I may just have to break down to just go ahead and purchase a fridge, especially before the Saturn Chiron square kicks in, likely to result in losing use of my car, which will make it that much more difficult and inconvenient for obtaining my weekend supplies of ice and convenience foods!!!

Meanwhile my Passport and my ESTA application.......

Those carrier pigeons have finally brought me my new Passport, the reason why I do NOT have a fridge at this time!!! Being less than six months from expiry, I needed my Passport renewed otherwise I would not be going anywhere near Mexico. So the process began, and three weeks later, on time within their stated time frame, my Passport had arrived.

But still yet another step to take...... now I have my new Passport, I needed to apply for a new ESTA so that I would be allowed to go to America. You need an ESTA to get into America even if only in transit to another country, like Mexico. So even if you're just not going anywhere else but the airport, doing nothing more than waiting for the next flight onward to Mexico, I still needed an ESTA!!!! A new Passport means a new ESTA linked to my Passport. ESTA is all computerized, it is somewhere within the computers at an America site, the particular ESTA being linked to my Passport. There is no physical paperwork. These days the Passport has computer chips containing my details, which is scanned into computers when going through airports, such as here in Australia, and of course in America. And when my Passport gets scanned, even here in Australia, the system knows immediately whether there is an ESTA attached to it, and if there is no ESTA attached, I wouldn't be allowed to board the flight, thus saving the bother of going all the way to America only to be turned back at the airport and having to go all the way back!!!! The high point of it all being computerized is it is a lot cheaper, only about $US14, as opposed to perhaps several hundreds of dollars for a paper visa depending on the particular country. I am glad to say Mexico does not require a visa for Australians on short vacation breaks in the country.

So anyway I needed a new ESTA attached to my new Passport. So I went online to put in my application, and if nothing shady comes up, or if the computer doesn't encounter any glitches, the approval is virtually instantaneous, with an email of approval coming five minutes later. That is what happened the last time I had gotten an ESTA back in 2016 attached to my old Passport, ESTA remains valid for about two years!!

Alas!!! This time the system came up with the message, Authorization could not be established, you will get an answer in 72 hours!!!!

Eeek!!!! In other words, my application would need to be manually determined, and that would take up to a very long 72 hours!!!! Freaked out Virgo alert!!! It doesn't take much to freak out a Virgo!! We have anxiety genes in all 46 of our chromosomes!!!!

Question was.... WHY!!!???? Has my name be flagged as a suspect person, perhaps due to my crystals!!! My crystals always sets of alarms at airports, and my luggage are forever being searched by border security due to my crystals setting off alarms!!! Yeah I can just imagine it...... denied entry into America due to carrying too many crystals in his luggage!!!! You never know about America these days, especially with Trump in charge. I can just imagine..... Trump imposes travel bans for persons carrying crystals!!!!!

Or it could be something as simple as the fact that there was already an ESTA attached to my now cancelled old Passport which the computers picked up and therefore flagged, and it just needed someone to confirm that my old Passport has in fact been cancelled, and that I had legitimately acquired a new Passport!!!! Indeed it turned out that I was approved within 24 hours, indeed the next day..... very much to my utter relief!!!!!

So now all set for travel to Mexico in just seven weeks from now. In fact in exactly seven weeks from now I will be at the airport awaiting my overnight flight to Melbourne, the first leg of my very long journey. Yeah this time, my trek to America will be via Melbourne instead of Sydney, makes for a good change, it's been a long while since I been to Melbourne even on this occasion it will be no further than the Airport!! Then the very loooooooooong flight across the Pacific to LA International Airport - as the famous song always comes into my head!!!! Then to Cancun.......

Still much work to be done...... I am still yet to book my bus trips and airport transfers, though no urgency there, Mexico has more bus trips than you can poke a stick at. This next trip will include two internal flights to the two other cities, each one consisting of two legs via Mexico City. So am yet to book the airport transfers and bus trips between the airports and my motels in the cities of Palenque and Merida. Then of course figuring out which tours to go on and booking those tours to the Mayan sites.

Meanwhile my storage unit. I have given notice that I will be vacating the unit by the 22nd of next month, meaning only one more monthly rent payment - due this week. Still a lot of work to be done!!! Last week I have successfully completed the most challenging and nerve wracking task associated with clearing out my unit - transporting my antique glass cabinet safely back to my little abode!!!! Hence why I've kept the paddings from my now dismantled mattress!!!!

First I lined the bottom of my trailer with a couple of layers of the padding. Then to bind the cabinet to my hand trolley, first wrapping the cabinet in another of the padding, then using my cargo ties to bound the cabinet to my trolley so it be loaded onto the trailer as one unit, making it easier for me to unload it at the other end and taking it straight to my abode. Then further padding the trailer with more padding, tied down using my jock straps.

Then the very nerve wracking 45 minutes journey back to my abode with the delicate precious cargo behind me, being careful to navigate the bumps in the roads!! The most nerve wracking aspects were when going over those bridge expansion joints on the bridges which the Freeway traverses, indeed quite a lot of bridges!!!!

Then pulling the whole thing up four levels worth of stairs!!!! It was too wide for fitting into the elevator, so I had to carefully pull it up several flights of stairs over four levels!!!! Then it wouldn't fit through my door, so I had to unload it outside my door, then very carefully pull the cabinet sideways through my door........

But am glad to say the cabinet has survived without a single scratch nor cracks in any of the many glass panels and mirrors in the unit!!!!

Now all that remains in my storage unit is the washing machine, dryer, and 50 inch TV - all which will be given away, there won't be any shortages of hopeful recipients of those items!!! Then the metal frames being remnants of an old computer desk and another old table, they will just be disposed of. There is also a book shelve unit which I will also try to give away, it is too big for my abode. And finally the remnants of the queen size bed and mattress, both dismantled into more manageable portions, they will also be disposed of - these will be the last of the items to be cleared out, so it can remain in my trailer indefinitely until I work out exactly what I will do with them. And I kiss my storage unit and the very expensive rent payment goodbye forever!!!!!!!!!

So it has been a busy week, a very Chironic and Saturnic week...... and more to come before all this is over and done with...........

The IT section at the dept, very much in our bad books cos they promised us brand new computers only to withdraw the promise literally at the last minute!!!!! Just typical of our IT section at work.....

Me when seeing a spider......

You can't take THAT with you either!!!!

Consequences of the Saturn Complex......

Back in the days when I saw a "boogey man" only to be told by Mother there is no such thing as a "boogey man"..... at least back then climate change was not such an issue.......