The water signs offer rich metaphors of the alchemical process of solutio, as water itself is necessary for every stage of life. First, we recognize the meaning of solutio, or solution, to be a dissolving process. Second, we identify dissolution with death, as beingness no longer integrated within physical form. Third, solutio is the resolution of a difficulty. The overall process is one of obtaining more knowledge. Solutio occurs because we need to obtain knowledge of our own consciousness processes. The unconscious itself is often identified with water, perhaps because water images so clearly portray the feelings involved in approaching unconscious material.

The first example, dissolving, relates to the sign of Cancer and begins with clear running water that dissolves the elements within the rock it traverses. The sign of Cancer is connected astrologically with this clear running water. Sometimes we feel the need to purify the water we drink, removing most or all of the dissolved particulates; this need has a psychic component as well. Immersion in a psychological process can make us waterlogged or even poisoned by the diversity of thought. We need to shift to another alchemical process to recuperate. The process involves sorting through the myriad thoughts and fancies that come up, letting go of some, analyzing some, modifying others. We may vacillate between the clarity of a lake and the muddiness of a raging river.

The second stage, that of the sign of Scorpio, involves the dissolution of the death process and also the rebirth symbolized in baptism. Just as the Leo expression of fire implies patience and continued application of heat, so the Scorpio process requires steady attention to the matter of total transformation, seeking death of the imperfect body and rebirth to greater perfection of knowledge and action. The psyche contains unconscious feelings avoided through repression; in addition it contains rigid formulae which have been inherited or learned from our parents and culture. The objective of solutio is to consider these psychic contents without the rigid construct of our past history and decisions; rather, we have a "pool" of ideas and feelings from which we can sample and build a more satisfactory psychic structure. This process is highly emotional, as Scorpio is a sign of tremendous intensity. Within the sign of Scorpio we glimpse the energy of the fire process, indicating that no process exists in isolation from the others.

The third stage, discovering the solution or resolution, is represented astrologically by Pisces. Here we find the enormity of possibility: Pisces represents the entire ocean. With so much to draw upon, we need to involve our intuitive capabilities, utilizing those powers that were discovered through the Scorpio process of dissolution and rebirth. Alchemically we may need to go through this process many times to find an appropriate combination of psychic qualities for ourselves.

By this stage of the solutio process we discover that while we began with less controlled emotionality, sometimes raging and sometimes calm as the surface of a lake, now we are able to be selective with our emotions. Sometimes we can be responsive to others (or to our inner selves), sometimes very idealistic, even inspired. We can afford luxuries such as compassion, philanthropy or devotion. We also retain the capability of being the still water of inner calm, the running water of emotionality, the stagnant water of boredom.

By undergoing solutio again and again, we eventually find ourselves in a psychic condition of ease: we appreciate ourselves and we forgive ourselves. We can help others and we can appreciate our own day-to-day process. We can reach some of the "farther reaches of human nature". Without dissolving, the alchemical process cannot move forward. Solutio marks the stage in which the psyche be-comes more pliable, more susceptible to transformation. Many writers indicate that the first step in any alchemical process is solutio, when the fixed aspects of the personality are dissolved and reduced to prima materia. A most interesting condition emerges: the psyche is rigid and needs to be softened in order for change to occur; the solution to this problem lies within the unconscious, itself often symbolized by water. Thus we see that the solution occurs "in solution" - the resolution of a problem occurs when the old structure undergoes dissolution.

Earliest myth from Sumerian culture provides us with an example. Inanna, the Queen of the Land, received her power from the earth. (Wolkstein, 1983, p. l46) Yet she journeyed to find Enki, god of wisdom of the waters, in order to obtain his powers. Enki possesses great powers indeed: just as the desert world of the Sumerians needed water, in the god-realm his water of wisdom was necessary for the life and creativity of the earth, represented by Inanna. Metaphorically and actually, water is needed to soften the earth and to permit growth to occur.

The myth in which earth seeks out water to complete her powers is an expression of the physical reality of desert life. At the same time we find the psychological drama to be just as full of meaning. Water is frequently equated with the unconscious portion of the psyche, while earth closely mirrors the conscious physical awareness. These two sides of human nature need each other in order to bloom and develop.

Dane Rudhyar focuses his astrological eye on the Midheaven/Nadir axis in the chart, the Capricorn/Cancer polarity. Rudhyar states that the Midheaven/Nadir is the axis of power in the astrological chart. First, there is the power of authority that has a Capricorn earth quality in that it is attached to things and circumstances. When we see this kind of power as the illusion that it is, we feel powerless. We must base our power in something else.

The "something else" is to be found in the fourth house, or more precisely, the nadir of the chart. This lowest, most northern point comprises the deepest well of inner resources which come from within the unconscious. The nadir and fourth house of a chart can reflect the inner hidden strength of an individual. Feminine, magnetic, intuitive and receptive, Cancer exemplifies the most enthusiastic and progressive emotional energy. In a mountain stream we can find dissolved iron and other metals which are the building blocks of our bodies and our edifices, yet they flow with the water to find a suitable container. We are not bound by apparent physical limits, nor are we restricted to inherited instincts. We are able to go to the source of Wisdom with Inanna.

Solutio can be caused by sexual love or by any encounter with something greater than the ego. In sexual love we see the "other" or at least the relationship with the other as being greater; we often become so immersed in the relationship that we lose sight of other important factors in our lives. Another example is a political movement in which the ideal is so powerful that it reduces our personal problems to a petty, inconsequential level. Whatever is more comprehensive can serve as the agent of solutio.

Psychologically we are at risk when the ego becomes inflated. The ego complex is designed to serve certain purposes, primarily those that allow us to relate our outer experience to the inner world of the psyche. A rigid and inflated ego does not have the resilience to accept such potential changes in consciousness and therefore limits awareness. This very rigidity can be the cause of solutio. The inner Self, the soul, may require that the ego change so that progress can occur. The ego experiences such pressure from the Self as destructive, resulting in images of drowning or dismemberment. The alchemist must apply the proper amount of heat to produce solutio without breaking his container; the individual must attempt changes that are within the range of the ego, just as too much heat would crack the alchemical vessel. Solutio does not occur in isolation from other alchemical processes, reinforcing the truth that the elements are inter-related in all processes.

Vajra

Vajra expresses the clarity of mirror-like wisdom. It includes both reflection from the surface of water and also the panoramic view of the seer or visionary. This Buddha family's energy emphasizes abstract relationships associated with mathematics or geometry and its includes precision and vivid detail.

The passion of Vajra is to know. There is orientation based upon history and speculation concerning the future; both of these utilize objective perception and logic. Looking in both directions in time is paralleled by an ability to see both sides of a question or to consider all the angles; at the same time Vajra has a passion for simplification of idea and design, with a linear sense of time which results in clear schedules.

Vajra energy is found frequently in today's western schools. The sane expression of this energy includes approaching the abstract in our world and learning to understand it, generalizing and working on a theoretical level, and relating ideas to words. The neurotic approach catches us up in ideas and we lose touch with the reason for considering them in the first place. Overprecision makes ideas irrelevant to our lives. Another difficulty is the tendency to jump to conclusions without thorough examination. If ideas lack space and clarity we anxiously seize on the first order which appears, whether it satisfies our true needs or not.

Vajra includes images of both the airy ideas and the reflective quality of water; vajra descriptors are frequently used to describe BOTH air and water planets and signs in western astrology. Air signs always stand in a twelfth house relationship to the water signs, carrying a less conscious quality which is more fully expressed by water signs. For example, water signs exemplify intuitive understanding that supplements the mental approach associated with air signs in western astrology. Vajra is a blending of air and water and occupies the space between them.

In the annual developmental cycle, air moves toward water three times a year; as we experience this developmental process, we blend the qualities of air and water instead of experiencing them as being separate. Looking at the weather, we find an excellent metaphor for blending. When rain falls, it falls through the air and indeed comes from the air. Water is held in the air until temperature changes and particles in the air cause it to precipitate; temperature, along with other factors, determines whether the precipitation will be rain, hail, sleet or snow. Water was first hidden in the air (in the twelfth house, so to speak); a transitional process causes it to emerge and fall to the earth where we can perceive it (first house).

Examining movement from Aquarius to Pisces, we find that the clarity of air, the mental and scientific capabilities, have been refined. Vision begins to transcend ordi-nary reality and to touch on a higher level of consciousness. Perceptions, however logical, begin to merge with intuitive reality. This merging of two ways of perceiving the world is the essence of the clarity of Vajra. Out of a logical, abstract understanding of the world emerges a visionary understanding which is more spiritual but not necessarily more impractical. The joy of Vajra is to take the intellectual capability of the human mind and allow it to expand, including the formerly unconscious intuitive side.

The perceived boundary between air and water holds fascination for us. It is an edge which provides definition in our lives, the perceived doorway between the two ways of thinking about the world.

Another side of the Buddha family called Vajra is anger and aggression. The energy of thunder storms provides an image of this kind of anger, the bumping together of air and water in a turbulent manner. Lightning, a symbol of Vajra, results. Water precipitates and begins to fall. Sometimes turbulence carries it back up into colder air currents, causing freezing. This is how large hail stones are formed - they fall and are carried back up, accumulating more frozen water around the inner core. Note that this is caused by the interaction of hot and cold air masses, demonstrating the presence of all the elements in the process: the earthy particle around which the stone forms, the water which makes the ice, air current of both cold and hot (fire) to provide the proper conditions.

The mind is sometimes full of similar turbulence, producing angry energy as in the storm. The mind also has the capacity to cut through the turbulence like lightning cuts through the storm, joining heaven and earth in a spectacular display. The Vajra joining of air and water, then, can be contemplative and calm; it can also be wild and stormy. Each individual experiences the relationship between these elements through a personal process of growth in understanding.