There is a miniscule sphinkter regulating the flow of bile and pancreatic juices into the duodenum, called the sphinkter of Oddi or the hepatopancreatic sphincter.
It has a tendency to shut down during impact of strong emotional stress or trauma. May lead to potentially life threatening disease.
Any suggestions of how to understand it astrologically?
it´s placed at the end of the bile and pancreatic duct - those ducts join close to the sphinkter of Oddi, entering duodenum.
MERCURY must be involved, since it´s part of a duct. Also rules the gall bladder.
VENUS rules the digestive system as a whole, and also the small intestine - but the duodenum?
Does Ernst mention the duodenum in the Medical astrology course? If so, I seem to have missed it.
SATURN rules the pancreas and the muscle tissues in general. A sphinkter is a muscle.
I attach the chart. Main suspect seems to be Jupiter - the stomach and the liver - in Mercury´s sign. GE dignity.
It happens in the Libra area. The person has Rahu afflicting the Moon there, but does the Moon really play any important role here? Toxic blood due to emotional stress?
Maybe?
Staffan
The intestines are Virgo.
The duodenum is mostly considered part of the intestines (although a few prefere to conect it to the stomach).
It could be Sat there. Retro in the chart and also in the actual transit, Retro and DB.
@marianela Yes, thank you, what was I thinking of? Virgo it is. Saturn there, GF dignity, retro. Mostly good LA:s to it, enlightened to (?) 60 varupas by Mercury and 33 by Venus, starved by the Sun to 36 varupas. Doesn´t seem harmful. Would retrogration make it more harmful, you say?
Staffan
I remember Ernst saying Retro is not good for health.
Now Mars is transiting Libra, the lagna of the native and opposing Saturn in Aries.
@marianela I will take up on your Saturn idea. Already told her: Artemisa. She agreed. (My wife.)
This goes back a couple of yeears, rather she´s coming to understand the reasons now.
One of the symtoms of a mal functioning Sphinkter of Oddi is redness in the face. Just as lupus. She suffers from lupus. Other symtoms show that it seems to be the SO that is malfunctioning though, so she has come to believe that lupus is related to, or is misdiagnosed as, lupus. Still traveling down that rabbit hole, she´s an experienced healer and a very clever person; it will be interested to see what she comes up with.
My late aunt, that died before I was even born, died in what was supposed to be reumatic fever. It was lupus though. They thought it was the strong medication that killed her - at only 43 years of age or so - and there is some truth to that. It was due to liver problems, that is for sure, and the medication obviously was a part of that. But a mal functioning liver/pancreas is part of the lupus picture, and we believe that it may have to do with this detail, the sphinkter of oddi, that works together with or in between, all these organs/system: liver, pancreas, duodenum etc.
Staffan
@marianela Venus is kopi in the 4th, emotional house. Venus rules the small intestine, to which duodenum is probably part of as you say. But she was Ju/Ra dasa when she went through a very stressful event, and then Sa/Sa. I don´t manage to unite the dots. Also Virgo´s Mercury is just fine; no bad avasthas to it at all.
In D30 Jupiter - the stomach and the liver - is kopi in Virgo. If you believe in D30; I´m personally not convinced about that division being correct. I also can´t see it coming into play in the Rasi chart.
Beats me.
Staffan
Saturn is the lord of Venus and Sun.
The sphinkter of Oddi is a muscular valve, therefore, Mars.
Mars in 1st can give eruptions on the face.
Mars is Maraka for Libra.
Moon rules the white blood cells, right? with rahu in 1st, maybe lupus, disrupted immune system.
Ketu is now in Virgo with her natal Sat.
Saturn is now in Aries with her natal Ketu.
Mercury is agitated now. Was Retro until few days ago.
@marianela Yes! Mars is aspected by the nodes in her chart. Mars is her PiK. What happens was that her daughters, that was 13 and 14 at the time, visited there father in the northern part of Mexico - we live on the southern border - and stayed there, to a great degree due to their father´s manipulation tactics, backed up with him family. It turned out to be a good event, since they actually needed the experience and she needed to meet me and everything that happened, but it was an extremely stressful event at the time.
Mars is not in the first, but aspecting the first.
In my notation it says that Moon rules "blood´s health". The white blood cells seems to be ruled by Mars, according to the manual: "Mars rules the marrow which produces the blood cells, both the
red and white." But they are also related to the spleen, ruled by Mercury, and to Jupiter ruling the thyme:" The Tymus gland is where white blood cells are trained to
become T-Lymphocytes or T-Cells."
Moon rules the lymph.
As for the muscles, the system is Saturn but the muscles themselves are ruled by Mars, it seems: "The Muscles themselves are ruled by Mars. The muscles not
only exert the force (Mars) upon the tendons, they also are critical
to maintaining proper body heat (Mars). It is muscular contractions
that create the most heat in the body.
Mars in poor deeptaadi Avastha influencing a Rasi of Saturn
indicates weak muscles, lack of speed in movements, a tendency
towards cold and the inability to generate body heat." Hence the sphinkter ruled by Mars; I get it now.
Our street have been overflooded by cars patiently waiting for a spot at the gas station two blocks away; there is a general distribution problem. Seems like an omen.
Staffan