More Evidence a Month Later

Writing this Thanksgiving Sunday, a month after my last blog, I am noticing all the mounting evidence for this last gasp of Neptune's passage through the end of Aquarius, that we discussed (see previous blog).  "Occupy Wall Street" has become "Occupy Everywhere".  The Nation Magazine and the New School held a forum with that title November 10th.  The "Occupy Everywhere" panel was about the next steps and the continuing possibilities in the movement against corporate power.  When people criticize the movement and do not see it as successful, as the occupiers made no demands, they are missing the point. 

The movement is surprisingly successful only to those not following the astrological trends; spreading all over the country in small cities like Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Nevada City, California where 400 people showed up at each place at a moments notice to the small cities in Greece where local occupy movements can address specific needs.  The movement doesn't need one location, it is spreading all over the world like fire because it is part of the zeitgeist and has struck a chord that is resonating everywhere. 

There is an Occupy Harlem movement for helping people not have their heat shut off, an Occupy Bronx movement to help people not get evicted from their homes;  there is talk of Occupy the Food Movement to bring attention to the corporate takeover of our food supply and  Occupy Roof movement to highlight the importance of solar energy.  It can happen anywhere at any time. As was said at this forum, "they have permission to be their own leader".  This is the essence of  Aquarian ideals -everybody and nobody is in charge.  It is the "people" who rule in direct democracy just as these occupiers are demonstrating. 

Any movement's goal is to shift public will by changing the conversation. The Occupy Wall Street movement has done just that by changing the media focus.  A month ago the news reports  were all about raising the debt ceiling for the 103rd time.  Today on the front page of the NYTimes was a investgative piece on Ronald Lauder, heir to his mother's cosmetic company, worth $3.1 billion. Lauder hides all his assets in tax shelters, foundations and tax avoiding schemes that are only available to the very rich.  "There's real truth that the taxcode for the 1% is different from the tax code for the 99%", says Victor Fleischer, a law professor at the U of Colorado.  Now instead of the debt ceiling distraction conversation, you hear stories about economic equality, the conversation has changed; inequality the 1% vs 99% -the real issue has taken center stage. 

Why now?  The Moon in a country's natal chart describes the public and its mood.  In the July 4th 1776 chart for the USA the Moon was at 27 degrees of Aquarius. We are a people that have a real sense of the brotherhood of man, as the founding fathers said and promised,"where all men are created equal". The planet Neptune has been sitting on top of our Moon since April 2009, symbolically bringing clouds and fog over us all and obscurring our core issues.  Apathy, despair and a sense of  loss (real too) are associated with Neptune's passage.  The Moon symbolizes your home, so we have been suffering from a loss of our homes and our Aquarian values. 

When Neptune began its forward motion as we view it in relation to the Sun in the beginning of November, it began to leave the Moon and so just as the fog lifts to reveal  what was there all the time but we could not see it, so in Neptune's moving on from our Moon,  the American people come out of the doldrums, and our core need  for economic and social equality comes to the forefront.  How often is it said that you never really know how much you value something until you lose it. 

One can also attribute the White House's decision made November 10th to delay the determination on whether to build the Keystone XL pipeline to the Occupy Movement.  Although this civil disobedience action started demonstrating  in Washington in August, it spread as rapidly as the Occupy movement.  The TransCanada company has already been working on permits for two years and it was wildly regarded as a shoe-in for the next ok. But in a surprise move, President Obama delayed it.  During his cross country jobs tour in September and October, he was confronted by hundreds of signs reminding him of his campaign pledge to "be the generation that finally frees America from the tyranny of oil". The people began waking up to the collossal environmental disaster that pipeline would be.  It is not only a question of economic inequality but the collusion between the government and corporate interests that the current system fosters to the detriment of the common people.

Slowly but surely we are seeing a cultural shift happening, here and all over the world.  Who would have thought that Mayor Bloomberg would let the occupiers stay there for 2 months? How many heads of state have been replaced this year?  I mowed the lawn this Thanksgiving weekend and took some pink roses from the garden to sit beside the Indian corn on the table.  Movements, uprisings, demonstrations, revolutions and occupys can happen very quickly thanks to the technology.  Masses of people come together. This is what Aquarius is all about-social and economic parity.  Ideas are becoming the new commodity.  You do not need demands when you have a movement with an idea whose time has come.

Neptune and what it Brings

As well as having the interesting New Moon in Scorpio last Wednesday, when we get to begin to think about starting something new in the area of life where we feel the most passionate, we have the planet Neptune making an change in orientation as it orbits the Sun. This occurs next Wednesday the 9th of November. Neptune is at the very end of the sign Aquarius (tropical zodiac) for the last time.  The planet will move into Pisces to stay for 14 years or so in February 2012.

As a planet leaves a sign all the evidence of the trends that the planet in a particular sign has brought comes to a head.  Neptune brings (and I am not saying causes) an atmosphere of boundlessness.  When one is having a Neptune experience one feels like meditating, composing a song, escaping to the movies, getting loaded, merging with another, having an out of body experience, designing a piece of art, day dreaming about the future or longing for a more perfect world.

The sign Aquarius has to do with technology, brotherhood, social and political ideals, humanitarian impulses, freedom, independence, progressive causes, gender and economic equality, groups of people, revolutions.  As Neptune passes through the end of Aquarius we can combine the planet with the sign and see evidence in the media of this passage of Neptune in Aquarius since 1998.  (I can remember in my own life that year, I joined a network marketing company and went to conventions where the hopes and wishes of thousands of people to realize their financial goals -the cars, trips and a no-work lifestyle with life long financial security were promised. Neptune=dreams and network marketing group=Aquarius-by the way it never happened).

This past week though, I have seen some pieces in the paper that epitomize for me this passage.  One is Tom Friedman's op-ed piece in the NYTimes Oct 22nd which speaks to the two revolutions occurring; one on Wall Street with the social revolution that has mushroomed all over the world and the other in Silicon Valley which is having a technological revolution which will change how companies and societies operate.

All the social media Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, Groupon, Zynga are converging because of cheap wireless technology, web enabled smart phones and "the cloud".  "The cloud" (Neptune) are these enormous server farms that hold and constantly update thousands of software applications speeding up innovation, product cycles and competition.  Think of Kickstarter where one person with a good idea and no money can post it on the web and have $1 million dollars from 13,500 people in 50 countries within a month. (Aquarius)

Another example was in the Sunday October 23rd, NYT Styles section announcing that the lost art of group portraits is having a renaissance.  These banquet photos where one hundred or more guests pose at the same time had gone out of style in the  late 1960's.  "These photos (camera technology-Aquarius) create a classic sense of connectedness" (Neptune), says photographer Terry Gruber.

I also read in the October 10th New Yorker about "bitcoin".  This is a currency that you buy online if you have a fast computer and can be used like money-the rate of exchange can vary but it does not depend on the banks.  (The wave of the future IMO).  The article was presented in part to explain the process but also try to figure out who put the website up.  That person or persons has remained anonymous for obvious reasons.

Of course we can consider that the "Occupy Wall Street" movement is also part of the Neptune in Aquarius swan song.  A dozen people sat in a circle in Bowling Green last August 2nd at the very first meeting of what came to be know as "Occupy Wall Street" This self appointed "process committee" had a dream to create a New York General Assembly which would operate like the committee, by consensus (Neptune in Aquarius).

This model for a truly democratic society has never really been tried (except perhaps in the native American and Quaker traditions,  the Civil Rights Movement and the SDS of the 60's)), but this group of Aquarian dreamers are still operating this way 3 months later.  There is no voting, decisions are reached by general assent.  "The process toward creative synthesis is really the essence of the thing" says David Graeber in Issue 3 of " The Occupied Wall Street Journal".

Truly this is the very essence of Neptune in Aquarius where the impossible, direct democracy and a society based on human solidarity is being demonstrated.  We are taught that this country was founded with these principles, and now we see a movement taking place to put those principles into action.

Something's Happening Here

Last week Tom Friedman, op-ed columnist for the New York Times wrote a piece entitled "Something's Happening Here",  about two books that present alternate views on the general social turbulence of the times.  One author sees current events as a "Great Disruption" and the other as a "Big Shift". Paul Gilding, an Australian environmentalist, sees the world wide demonstrations as evidence that our growth obsessed capitalistic system is breaking down. "Our system of economic growth, ineffective democracy, of overloading planet earth-our system- is eating itself alive." He argues that the demonstrations that are occurring are a result of the realization that for last 30 years all economic growth has affected only the one percent of people at the top.

Two other authors, John Hagel III and John Seely Brown in their book "The Power of the Pull", see what is happening as the early stages of the "Big Shift", which merges globalization with the Information Technology Revolution.  We experience this shift as the growing stress that comes as we continue to operate with institutions and systems that are increasingly dysfunctional. However, this cultural shift also brings with it a huge flow of new ideas, innovations, markets and collaborations.   It is this flow of innovation that brings human potential to the forefront as both individually and collectively we have to respond to this flood of new opportunities, and we will be the better for it.  I am always amazed how often Friedman has his finger on the pulse of things.  I use astrology to understand, he just intuits.

Ultimately both positions are correct.  The demonstrators in Lower Manhattan are evidence of the "Great Disruption" as were the young people in Tahrir Square last January, and  Mohamed Bouazizi, the young man of Tunisia who set himself on fire in protest of governmental harrassment last December the 17th, which event triggered all the disruptions since.  Since "Occupy Wall Street" began about a month ago, as of today, it has spead to 105 cities in this country (even our small village on eastern Long Island had a demonstration Saturday) and other European capitals. 

I would guess that most of these demonstrators are part of the generation born 1984-1998, those individuals aged 13-26 (Mohamed Bouazizi was). This group has the planet Neptune in Capricorn, as Wendell Perry points out in his article in the current Mountain Astrologer magazine, "Are You Ready for the Neptune in Capricorn Generation?" Neptune is the planet of our dreams, what we idolize, our hope for the future, our visions of what utopia will be like.  This generation is very idealistic about government and institutions (Capricorn) wanting them to take RESPONSIBILITY for the common good (Capricorn).

The last time Neptune was in Capricorn was 1820-1834.  Those young people were just coming of age in 1848-9 when  there was a wave of evolutionary upheavals in almost every capital in Europe, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Dresden, Baden, Prague, Rome, Milan.  The University students in Vienna forced the Austrian Emperor to dismiss his minister, Prince Metternich, who had been in power for 30 years (sound familiar?). The students  (later disenfranchised workers stood with them)  had to march while being fired at by the autocratic Austrian government. Each generation's job is to bring the world's attention to what they see as the defining injustice of the era.  We did it with the Vietnam War.

In addition to their innate sense of wanting the best for all of society, not just the privledged , the current generation has the planet Pluto in Scorpio.  Pluto rules Scorpio in part and so is very powerful.  These demonstrators have a tenacity, ruthlessness and passion which will set them apart.  What they choose to take on as their cause they will never give up on until it is accomplished, or they die (Mohammed Bouazizi) as it comes from the deepest part of their being.

I also see evidence of Friedman's second book, of this time being a great opportunity.  I was in NYC on Friday and took a taxi.  The taxi driver was quite excited with an almond bar he had dreamt up and was going to have produced.  He showed me all the wrappers of the ones on the market now, that his was better than.  He said he would never get rich driving a taxi but instead of complaining, used his ingenuity to come up with a product to sell to the masses.    I am sure there are lots of other examples out there.

The "Big Shift" that astrologers talk about is the move into more Aquarian principles-where ideas, inventions, group collaborations, wealth and gender equality and freedom of the individual to live with dignity are among the important themes.  The big shift for this astrologer is this move into a post-materialistic society. Believe it or not by the time that Saturn and Jupiter met again in early Aquarius in December of 2020 and Pluto enters Aquarius in 2023, we will be in an era where our relations with our fellow men will be valued, not the size of our bank account. 

New York City in the News Again

Following on the 14th of September's blog, where we talked about the Mars transit over the summer's eclipse affecting New York City, bringing an earthquake, hurricane and the 9/11 commemorances,  we now  have NYC in the news with the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations.  Beginning  September 17th, as Pluto (one of the planets that we talked about then) made an apparent station (meaning it is changing its orientation to the Sun from our perspective) which intensifies its effects considerably. Pluto symbolically demands that we go into the deepest recesses of our being and come up with what is true for us, and be able to stand in that truth, no matter what the consequences, just as these demonstrators are doing.

From the news reports it seems that these protesters did not have a clear sense of a goal, but were responding to their gut feeling of the powerlessness, grief and  unjustice that so many homeowners and middle class are feeling as the current policies and procedures are stacked against them.  Few are benefiting at the expense of the many.  With the synchronicity of Pluto stationing and increasing in power as it moves forward  in the zodiac, those deeply held beliefs have erupted to the surface as the sitins in Lower Manhattan have spread to Seattle, Boston, Atlanta and Los Angeles, among other cities.  On Saturday seven hundred people were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge in one of the largest arrests in the country of peaceful demonstrators.  MOVE ON. ORG has joined the movement now and is calling for solidarity demonstrations in small cities, towns and campuses all across the country.

Just as we have seen demonstrations all over the globe this year, our country is no exception.  It is not an end of war demonstration this time, but a call to end the corporate takeover of our democracy.  Are we seeing a new movement being born at the time of this Pluto station?? One more in keeping with the Aquarian Age where freedom, equality and an equal distribution of wealth are promised??? Did this start in NYC with an eclipse hitting NYC's natal chart this summer??? Time will tell....

Autumnal Equinox

So here we are at the beginning of Fall, 5:05 AM EDT on Friday the 23rd, to be exact, when the Sun appears to cross the celestial equator from north to south, the length of day and night are equal. According to the Farmers Almanac, the Equinox also brings the time when  the Sun's apparent position on the horizon changes at sunrise and sunset.  This shift can be noticed from one day to the next if one is observant at those times.  There is a noticeable change in our physical world too, as this decrease in light causes the leaves to change color. So we are in a change of season when our physical world alters its appearance.

After the Equinox happens on Friday, we have a Super New Moon on the 27th.  A  New Moon occurs once a month when the Sun and Moon are together (we never see them).  A Super New Moon occurs when the Moon is at its closest approach  to the earth strengthening the gravitational pulls on the physical earth and on our psyches.   This extra pulling might pull us in a new direction.  Change is in the air and seen in the world around us.

A New Moon begins a new cycle, we get to reset ourselves in the sign Libra, which will affect each of us differently according to what area of our life is ruled by Libra. Libra is the sign of the scales. It is the call for balance.  As day and night are equal now, so should we be in our personal lives.  In the coming month, we strive that everybody gets treated fairly. We learn to cooperate with one another.  Remember the symbol for justice was blindfolded so ideally we detach ourselves from the situation to make unbias decisions.

The fireworks that will be evident starting tomorrow on the Equinox, come from the Sun at the beginning of a cardinal sign  connecting with the two outer planets Uranus and Pluto, also in the beginning of  two other cardinal signs.  We have talked about this before, the approaching 1st quarter square between these 2 outer planets that have much to do with the collective.  The approaching 90 degree angle  has been felt all year and is partly responsible for the "Arab Spring", when Uranus, the call for freedom and dignity of the individual meets Pluto the transformer of large groups of people. 

These 2 planets were last together 1964-65.  Next June they will make the 1st of 7 exact 90 degree squares to each other through March 2015, as this year they only came to within a degree of one another,  but are still close enough to each that after the Sun enters Libra , it meets Uranus on the 25th, then Pluto and Mercury on the 28th.  The Sun acts like a translator of the 2 outer planets and we feel the synchronicity.  These are opening squares so that the vast cultural changes we saw begun in the sixties,  have an increased intensity (the square) to further those new beginnings in more of an "evolutionary imperative" as Stephanie Justin calls it in The Mountain Astrologer magazine.

Just as we see the change in where the sun is rising and setting, the trees changing from green to red, yellow, orange, so too our psyches will be altering this autumn, some more than others.  The Sun's apparent movement into Libra and this New Moon connected to the planets of evolutionary progress will push us to think differently and take action.  Just as planets moving into cardinal signs make changes in the natural world, so too in our inner world and personal lives, some more profoundly than others.    The some include any person with planets in 5-15 degrees of the cardinal signs.  This group also happens to include:  the USA, France, Germany, China, the UN, EEC, the UK and USSR.  All these countries will be affected in the years to come by the Uranus/Pluto square, the synchronistic effects of which we are getting an inkling of this year especially now at the change of seasons.

On New York City

I have been thinking about New York City  and how often it has been in the news lately; an earthquake, hurricane and the events around the commemoration of September 11th is alot of activity for less than 3 weeks.  I looked at the birth chart for NYC Jan 1 1898 12:01 AM.  The City has 9 degrees of Libra rising with the planet of growth, expansion and success, Jupiter rising within minutes.  This is a very good augury for the successful launch of any person or place.  On the Midheaven is the sign Cancer at 11 degrees.  There was a solar eclipse this summer at 9 degrees of Cancer on July 1st, a point on the zodiac close to both the ascendant and midheaven of New York City. This puts emphasis on the most sensitive points in NYC's (or anybody's) natal chart triggering events and notice for the year.

Eclipses are powerful Full or New Moons that have resonance not just for the month they occur.  The points where they occur are sensitive for years. Even though this partial eclipse of the Sun on the 1st of July is over, the effects of an eclipse on one's Midheaven or destiny, or how you are seen in the world continues on especially when a planet like Mars passes over that point.  Every 2 1/2 years Mars comes to conjunct that one point in the zodiac and he was within 2 degrees, at 13 Cancer on August 23rd, when  the strongest earthquake in the East for 100 years, was felt in NYC. 

Also that day we had Mars making a 90 degree angle to Saturn in Libra, crossing NYC's ascendant and also the natal placement of Saturn in the USA's natal horoscope.  Saturn in the sky has returned for the 8th time since July 4th 1776 to the degree it was when we were founded.  This is interesting in that this Saturn return and earthquake happening in the East affected 11 out of the original 13 colonies, as ASTROTABLETALK blog points out.  We talked about the contraction that occurs when Saturn comes around as it is now for the USA.  NYC and the USA share similar areas of the zodiac and so when something happens to one, it affects the other too.

Mars the planet of activity, energy, assertion, and Saturn, the planet of physical reality, the end or stoppage, were the planets, when they came in contact, that signaled the worst of happenings, accidents, falls, deaths, fires etc. for astrologers before the modern era. In other words an astrologer in London in the 1700's would see those 2 planets in relationship connected with the city's natal angles (Ascendant and Midheaven) and predict dire things. 

Then 5 days later we had hurricane Irene affecting the same eastern states.  Although the shoreline were saved, the inland areas were devastated.  Who ever heard of a hurricane (or tropical storm) in Vermont?
This was the day of the New Moon in Virgo connected to the planet Neptune who rules the seas and earthquakes as well, in that they come from under the land.

New York City was also commemorating the 10th anniversary of September 11th.  This occurred on the weekend of the Full Moon.  The Moon was in Pisces and as it was predicted with the New Moon and Neptune and Hurricane Irene bringing lots of water so to at this full Moon are we in grief and mourning with tears as we remembered how all our lives changed that day. 

If we go back to September 11th, we can see from looking at the natal, progressed and transiting charts the effects on the city that day.  It is more than I can go into here but 2 things stand out.  One is Mars on that day was within 6 minutes of exactness to the progressed ascendant to NYC's chart (note the planet Mars again going over angle of a chart and how that stirs things up;  and secondly that summer the solar eclipse was at 0 degrees Cancer on June 21st, on the world axis (EVERYBODY notices what happens when something occurs at 0 degrees of any sugn that starts a season) followed by the Lunar Eclipse, at yes you guessed it, at 13 degrees of Capricorn.  This time that degree is opposite NYS's Midheaven and conjunct its natal Sun at 11 Capricorn.

The moral for would be astrologers-watch what happens when the planet Mars goes over a sensitive point, like an Ascendant or Midheaven that has been recently eclipsed.  That person or city or country will be in the news. 

Labor Day Musings

I read alot of the Sunday paper yesterday and was taken by how much our President is being taken over the coals.  It seems he cannot do anything right, even trying to pick an evening for a major speech became another newsworthy event where Obama is seen as "ineffective", "a mother-may I" president, "the nation's  deferrer in chief" (Frank Bruni in Pass, Fail and Politics in the NYT) and having "a deficit of smarts""(same source)  not to have forseen what the Republicans would do with his aquiescing to Boehner's refusual to give him the date he suggested for his jobs speech (first time in history).

I also read David Remnick in "The Talk of the Town" in the September 5th New Yorker.  Remnick writes citing a previous article in that magazine by Ryan Lizza about how the Obama administration "maybe moving toward something resembling a doctrine".  Furthermore Lizza wrote that one of his (Obama's) advisors described the President's actions in Libya as "leading from behind".  The presidential candidates and conservative pundits have taken up the banner "leading from behind" as a sure fire way to pillor the President. 

Lizza goes on to say that in forming this administration's foreign policy two unspoken and comparatively new tenets must be taken into account.  One is that the relative power of the US is in decline and the second is that the US is hated in many parts of the world.  In joining the action in Libya, and not leading it as the Republicans would have us do, Obama is displaying a new kind of leadership, the kind that builds consensus among allies first before going into interfere into another country's affairs.  This kind of leadership does not go around "trumpeting" wins. 

The astrology supports  the conclusions in the New Yorker.  America's power is in decline.  Look at our chart.  Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune and Saturn are in retrograde motion, that is 5 out of the possible 8 planets (the Sun and Moon never go retrograde) are changing orientation to the Sun, which is our purpose.  As a nation we have moved away from our center and must in time be brought back. We are no longer going forward, but have to back track, to relearn pieces we didn't get right the first time.

The leadership that Obama is displaying is in his chart, as the country follows along with its leader's natal horoscope.  We have to live with and through the President's karma.  Obama's natal Jupiter, the planet of expansion and opportunity is at 0 degrees of Aquarius. Aquarius is an air sign and feels more comfortable in a group.  The Sun, ability to lead, is strong in August, in Leo, when it is high in the sky. (Obama is a Leo but his Sun is weakened by a square to the planet of illusion and egolessness Neptune.)  Aquarius is opposite Leo, the Sun is low in the sky in February, the Sun is weak there.  Obama is not looking for glory.  He has a sense that America has made huge mistakes since 9/11 and our reputation as a trustworthy leader is tarnished. 

We are moving into the Aquarian Age when the sign Aquarius will be stronger for good or ill (Sarah Palin. Dick Cheney, Glenn Beck are Aquarians).  The next Jupiter/ Saturn conjunction will be in December 2020 at 0 degrees of Aquarius.  These every 20 year conjunctions mark new stages in our cultural, political, social development.  More of a one world concept will be in evidence and Obama can be seen as a herald.

As to his troubles right now, his progressed Moon is at the end of Pisces.  In a month and 1/2 his Moon will move into the next sign Aries, run into Uranus and his progressed Sun.  He will get fired up again and do something surprising.  It will be a time of illumination as he will be entering the progressed full moon stage of his life when one gets to see the bigger picture.  Pisces is not the sign to do any combat, you feel and just want to include everybody in your heart.  Aries is a whole different ball game, you get back on your horse.  The President's progressed Moon moving into Aries starts a new personal cycle around the wheel of life.

Mercury Retrograde's Halfway Point

We ended last time with a mention of Mercury.  As of last evening at 9:04 PM EDT Mercury made its inferior conjunction to the Sun.  This is the time we have been waiting for. At the halfway point in the retrograde cycle with the inferior connection to the Sun, the information that was needed, that Mercury left its throne on Olympus to find, has made its connection to the source of life, our goals, and purpose, the Sun.  If you woke up the last few days with a new thought consider that Mercury has brought you a message that is useful for your future.

Another point to be made is Mercury's larger cycle that includes the time frame from July 15th to September 9th.  Although we all know that Mercury is in apparent retrograde for only about 3 weeks, there are shoulder or shadows time periods when issues first arose that will be addressed in the cycle and will finally get resolved. 

If you go back to July 15th you will find that whatever was on your mind at that time, in whatever department of life (or house in your natal chart) the sign Leo governs, the issues you would be grappling with first came to the surface.  These issues should see resolution around the time of Mercury's direct station on the 26th of August at 6: 05 PM EDT, as Mercury again passes 18 degrees of Leo. 

The final solution of the Mercury retrograde cycle however will not be until September 9th when Mercury again passes 1 degree of Virgo (the sign after Leo).  This is important to consider because when Mercury went retrograde August 2nd he did so facing the planet Neptune.  Therefore this whole retrograde cycle when we are seeking new information has been clouded by the spirtual or illusionary planet Neptune.

When you think about all that has occured in these past few weeks, you realize that we were under a cloud and could not see clearly.  This would be true for each of us in some area of our lives, not everything.  When Mercury again passes 1 degree of Virgo on Friday September 9th-the cloud or confusion that Neptune brings to our thinking will dispearse.  Neptune also connects us to the divine, to the egoless state we are in during meditation. This month should have been a terrific time for those affairs, but not so great for financial matters, where Neptune can augur loss or dissillusion. 

So What IS Going on in Our Country???

Alot it seems for a Mercury retrograde period.  Why is that? The next two big planetary pairs to coincide with a change in consciousness, Uranus and Pluto, have entered the theater.  They were last in conjunction (together in the sky) 1960-72 when all the social reforms, the Social Security Act with Medicare and Medicaid, the sexual revolution with "the pill', the women's movement (NOW), immigration reform, civil rights and the war on poverty, were enacted.     Uranus and Pluto were in a closing 90 degree square late 1920's-mid 1930's, when gold was confiscated by the US government, several years of financial panic followed and the dollar devalued, among other worldwide social changes.  Uranus and Pluto have been coming closer to exactness since January and the "Arab Spring".  They are as close as they will get to each other this year, these weeks, late July to mid August.  Next June 2012 they will begin a series of 7 exact  passes through 2015, we had only 4 passes in the 30's. What we are seeing now is only the beginning of a universal human awakening of our instinct  to survive -that same call that the young Egyptians responded to.   Uranus the reformer who wants freedom, brings a sudden uprising or awakening and meets Pluto, who symbolizes the struggle for survival, who over turns the staus quo so that things are never the same after.  (Think Egypt those young people had no idea that their protests last January would result in their leader in jail, on trial 7 months later-much less the movement spreading throughout their region).  These 2 planets in early cardinal signs are affecting the USA's natal Venus (finances and values) and Jupiter (lots of).  And then in a few years our natal Sun (our identity).   Uranus the awakener and Pluto the reformer have been triggered by the planet Mars (action, energy and sometimes violence) these past few days as that planet entered Cancer (feelings and domestic security) so the the nastiness of the long drawn out debt ceiling debate, the market crashing, the USA's credit rating getting downgraded because we are seen as not being able to govern ourselves, the single worst days for American casualities in Afghanistan -are all events that fit the symbolism of the planetary movements. This turbulence should continue through mid August as Mars moves through Cancer triggering the planetary setup in our natal chart. This is of course in conjunction with the USA having her Saturn return when the belt must tighten as we have gotten too fat (our natural tendency with a Venus and Jupiter conjunction). Saturn returns happen every 29 1/2 years, even in our own lives and mark a time period of constriction and downsizing, when we are called upon to mature, to take responsibility, to live according to who we are.    Our natal Saturn is in the 10th house of reputation, how we are seen and Saturn is there again. The last time Saturn came around the Sun to this place was in 1981-82 with Ronald Regan as president. The conservative Federalist Society was formed at that time with the express mandate to get more conservative lawyers on the Supreme Court. (They did it!!) On the previous exact Saturn return, October 22 1981, we were informed that the national debt topped 1 trillion dollars-sound familiar? Saturn  makes a 90 square to our natal Sun (our identity) in our natal chart,  indicating we are fearful (Saturn) of change and must be forced into it (a square).  So we see that it is timely that the conservative forces are so strong, people want to talk about debt  and we are experiencing a down grade to our reputation and status in the world.    And then there is Mercury.....

Still Here....

Sorry I haven't written in a few weeks.  I miss corresponding in this manner.  No excuses.  But onward....I would be remiss as an astrologer not to be reminding you about the planet Mercury's present apparent slowing down motion leading to "its" (unlike other planets, Mercury is androgonous) retrograde station on August 2nd at the very beginning of Virgo.  I began this blog in a Mercury retrograde phase, when it is changing its orientation to the Sun, setting after to rising before, or eastern elongation to western elongation and so must bow to my intention in starting a blog, as Mercury during the retrograde phase bows to the Sun.

Mercury is the fastest moving planet in its orbit closest to the Sun.  And as anyone knows these days information is circling around the globe at lightening speed.  Mercury rules travel, information, and communication, what we hear, what we think about what we hear and what we choose to relate back to others.  We honor these time periods as Mercury slows down in speed to move and think more slowly, to re think or change our minds, to move about more consciously.  No one can sustain a life at ultra high speed, whether that speed is between your ears or between 2 continents. 

Mercury will contact, or bow to the Sun, as I said earlier, on August 17th.  That is when our minds (Mercury) will align with our life's purpose, goals, direction (the Sun).  The brunt of the retrograde phase is over, we make peace with our extraneous ideas and tune into the ones more to the point.  We can assume that at times our thoughts have gotten ahead of ourselves (now) and a pause is welcome.

Of course when you are trying to negotiate a rise in the debt ceiling to avoid a nation's default and the planet that rules negotiation is slowing down and apparently moving backwards, you might not see it that way. You can be sure that any agreement they do come to will have to be renegotiated at a later date.  And maybe that is what needs to happen.  Mercury will start its apparent forward motion on the 27th, when if you get up really early you can see the messenger of the gods before sunrise.

In mythology, Mercury was the only god who could move form Olympus to Hades and come back.  You might say the god went down to get some new information-something that was previously hidden from sight, some piece that will change the negotiation.  That is why there is such an admonition to signing contracts during this phase as what you sign might not be as it appears to be, or there is a change of heart.  

The Inner Life of Democracy

This morning on Krista Tippett's on Being radio program she featured an interview with Jacob Needleman, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at San Francisco University.  The interview took place in August of 2003, but is so appropriate to be reheard on our nation's birthday, and furthermore expands what we were speaking about in our last blog, the evidence of our moving out of the Age of Pisces into the Age of Aquarius.

One of the hallmarks of coming into the Aquarian Age is that everyone is allowed to become free and independent, to become who we are meant to be, not in an selfish, individualistic way where the me me's mean acquiring things for myself, but in the manner of discovering, and then contributing back to society what is the essence of each individual.  Our country was founded on these moral ideas of self improvement.  Jefferson's ideals about the democratic process;  how important it is to really listen to pne another, to compromise, how humans have rights and duties, that religious dogmas should not be tyrannical, that each person needs his/her freedom to express his/herself, come to his/her own truth and allow others the same dignity, are still in process today. 

All these ideas are what our founding fathers envisioned for this country and what the Aquarian Age will be about. Everyone is equal in the mind of God; all humans are composed of the same "stuff".  Democracy is not just outward rules but necessitates that we work inwardly as well to free ourselves from egoistic concerns that do not allow us to really hear what someone else is saying.  Freedom of speech, for example, implies that I do not have to agree with you, but I am obliged to listen to you and let your thoughts come into my mind, which is hard to do. 

Professor Needleman asks: what is our freedom for?  Our freedom is not only about being able to physically move about (which is important) but there is another inner dimension of freedom where we free ourselves from selfish cravings and prejudices that cause so much chaos.  Our government protects us and provides the space to become fully human ourselves, to search for conscience. Conscience is the power within the human psyche to discern true values and morals. A real democracy depends on each of us developing a conscience.   Unalienable rights "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" does not mean feeling good about all your desires being fulfilled.  Happiness for Jefferson means having virtue.  Happiness or well being is being what you are meant to be as a human being, a relationship to your true self brings happiness, nothing else will do.

These ideas of Needleman's are so right for the times now when we seem to have lost the true sense of what we should be striving for - it is not to acquire more things but to become a whole human being; and that takes inner work.  Our work is to look inside and create the inner space to be free and give others the same space.  America embodies this ideal.  This is where we are heading as we move into the Aquarian Age.  Happy Birthday America.

Evidence of the Future Coming

Last week in the NY Times Tom Friedman wrote an op ed piece about a friend of his who had just been on the cover of China Newsweek. Michael Sandel's claim to fame is that he is a Harvard political philosopher who is selling out the seats to his lectures on moral philosoohy in China, Japan and South Korea. The compelling lectures use real life moral questions i.e. "Is it ethical that David Letterman makes 700 times more money than a school teacher?"; or "Is is morally just to raise the price on snow shovels after a snow storm?". The questions are modern but Sandel asks the students to debate each other with how Aristotle, Kant and John Stuart Mill would respond. 

The lectures were filmed by WGBH in Boston in 2009 and can be seen on http://www.justiceharvard.org/. Last year Japan's NHK TV broadcast translated versions of the classes and there was so much interest that the University of Toyko had to create a course based on Sandel's.  Millions of students in China watched the uploaded translated Chinese versions of the classes. Sandel's visit to Asia in 2010 turned this moral philosopher into a rock star with long lines waiting to buy tickets, tickets being scalped for $500 a piece and the cover of China Newsweek. His book, "Justice: What's the Right Thing To Do?" has sold a million copies in East Asia. 

So why do I think this is a harbinger of the future?  We are slowly leaving the Age of Pisces and moving into the Age of Aquarius.  Even if the Age of Aquarius begins next year as Sai Baba's quoted in last week's blog, two big astrological events, a once every 20 years Jupiter/Saturn conjunction in Aquarius (last time in Aquarius in 1405) in December 2020 and Pluto's entrance into the sign Aquarius in May of 2023 will bring the new cultural shift into stronger focus.  Aquarius is an air sign.  Air signs like to talk and debate.  Aquarius is concerned that everybody is treated equally. Justice and social equality are the hallmarks of the sign of brotherly love. We are seeing evidence all around us, with the "Arab Spring", with Saudi Arabian women wanting to be able to drive, with moral philosophers becoming rock stars in Asia, that we are moving  into the Aquarian Age when the dignity of each person is valued and ideas are gold.

Eclipse Season

In honor of this eclipse season (June 1st and July 1st, Partial Solar New Moon Eclipses, with the upcoming Total Lunar Full Moon Eclipse this week on Wednesday),  I thought I'd share with you some thoughts about these times from Sai Baba, sent by a friend.   Even if you have read it before it is worth rereading. Eclipses can bring sudden changes to our lives, like no other astrological influence. This is especially true if you, in your natal horoscope, share the same place in the "circle of life" (or zodiac) as where the eclipses are.  Sai Baba speaks of these changes both in our bodies and in our worlds.  And he speaks quite eloquently about the connection between mind and matter that is our theme in this blog.  Whether he is right about the timing of the beginning of the Aquarian Age, I nor anyone else, knows. 

"Year 2012 according to Sai Baba",2010. Extract from a conversation between a reporter and the Social and Spiritual Reformer of India, Sathya Sai Baba. Sai Baba almost never gives interviews, so this is very special... "Have you heard of the year 2012 like a year where something will happen?" The truth is that the planet has been changing its vibratory state, and this change has intensified since the year 1989 where the magnetic poles have moved the last 20 years more than the past 2000. Well, in one way there are several prophecies that signal this date like a term or important conclusion in the history of humanity, but the most significant is the end of the Mayan calendar, which prophecy has been interpreted in different ways. The most negative ones think that during this year the world will end, but it will not be like that, it is known that during that year a new era will start, the Age of Aquarius. This has to do with the rotation of the whole solar system (solar cycle) that goes passing through the different eras each one of them lasts 5125 years. The era in which we now are, called the Age of Pisces, started on the year 3113 B.C. and ends on 2012. If there is a change on the earth's magnetism, there is a change on the consciousness and also an adaptation at the physical level for this new vibration. The changes are not only on our planet, but also affect the whole universe, and today's science can verify that. Inform yourself about the changes on the solar storms (that are magnetic storms) and you will see that scientists are up to date with these things, or ask about the movement of the magnetic poles during the last years, and airports having to modify their instruments. This change on the magnetism translates or it's perceived as an increment of light, or an increase on the planet's vibration. For you to understand it easily you must know that this vibration is affected and intensified due to the consciousness of all human beings. Each thought, each emotion, each new awakening of a human being towards the consciousness of God elevates the vibration of the planet. This might seem a paradox, due to the fact that the majority sees around themselves more hatred and misery, but this is not so. There are many, even if I would like them to be more, that are trying to get out of darkness to grow and become a better Son of God. I have been saying this on previous messages, each one chooses where to focus the view, and those who only see the darkness are focused on the drama, the pain and the injustice. If you don't see the spiritual advancement that humanity has made it is because you haven't focused on it, but if you do the right work and liberate your mind of the negative you will open a space where you will be able to manifest your divine essence that will put on the focus of what is really happening with humanity and the planet. Humanity is elevating its consciousness as never before. "But how!...Can't you see the darkness?" Yes, I see it, but I don't identify Myself with it, I'm not afraid of it...How can I fear darkness if I see such clear light?...Of course I understand those who fear, because I have also been standing where I could only see the evil. This is why now I feel love for all of that. Darkness it's not a force contrary to the light, it is absence of light. You cannot invade the light with darkness, that is not how the principle of light works. Fear, drama, injustice, hate and sadness only exist in states of darkness, because you can't see the global context in which your life develops, and the only way to see from the light when you are there is through faith. Once you have increased your vibration and frequency (state of consciousness) you will be able to see towards darkness and understand what you have lived. "But...How can You say this if there is more evil in the world everyday?" There is not more evil...there is "more light", and that is what I'm talking about on this message. Imagine that you have a room or warehouse where for years you have been storing your things and is lit by a 40 w. bulb. Change the bulb to a 100 w. and you will see what happens. You will see the mess and the dust you didn't think existed. The dirt will be clearer. This is what is happening, and this makes possible that a lot of people are reading this without thinking of it as foolish, like it could have been some years ago. Have you noticed that today lies and deceit come to the surface faster than before?...Well, to access God's understanding and life's functioning is also faster than before. This new vibration of the planet is what is making everyone nervous, depressed or sick, because to be able to receive more light and to rise to that vibrational level, people have to change physically as well as mentally, they have to change the way they think and feel, and delete or eradicate from their lives such beliefs or parameters that generally differ from reality or that take them towards the negative side of things. You must put your warehouses in order, because each day you are receiving more light on your consciousness and even if you want to avoid it, you should start putting your hands on the project and start the cleaning or decide to live in the middle of the dirt. This change creates physical discomforts, pains on the body, on the skeleton system and most of the time; the medical tests can't find the reason or illness that provokes it. Generally they relate it with stress or nervous states; nothing farther from the truth, because these discomforts are provoked due to negative emotions accumulated during our lives, fears and anxieties that you have carried with you always and that now have the opportunity to transcend and transmute. It's about that dust accumulated for years that you are now seeing, for it to be cleaned. There will be nights when you will wake up and stay up for a few hours...don't alter yourself, read a book, watch TV, meditate, don't fight thinking there is something wrong with you, it's the new vibration of the planet that you're assimilating, you will go back to sleep and the next day you will not feel a need to sleep more. If you don't flow with this process properly, the pains will be more intense and you will be diagnosed fibromyalgia, which is a name that medicine has given to these pains that have no visible cause and for which they offer no treatment with concrete results, they only give you a prescription for antidepressants and this makes you escape the opportunity to change your life. One more time you chose which reality you want to live, only this time the drama will be more intense and of course will be the love. If the Light is increased, also is the lack of need for it, this explains why there is so much irrational violence during the last years. We are living the best time that humanity has ever lived, we will be witnesses and actors of the biggest transformation of consciousness that you have ever imagined. Inform yourself; wake up your unrest for these subjects. Science knows that something is happening; you know that something is happening; we all know that many changes are happening in many levels. Be a conscious actor of these changes and don't let them take you by surprise because you don't know what is happening. (*) "Year 2012 according to Sai Baba",2010. Extract from a conversation between a reporter and the Social and Spiritual Reformer of India, Sathya Sai Baba.

 

What IS the relationship of mind to matter?

I am thinking about this as we have a solar eclipse New Moon in Gemini, the sign of our mind, this Wednesday June 1st at 5:03 PM EDT.  Eclipses bring into alignment the Sun, Moon and Earth; New Moons begin new monthly cycles. The eclipse is stronger however and signifies that this new beginning will not just begin and end in a month but will extend over years.  So what are we looking for to begin here and how can we make the connection between what we think about and what happens in the outside world?

Enlightenment thought gave us Descartes and "I think therefore I am" and Kant who gave us the mind as separate from outer reality;  that we cannot effect the outside world but only impressions of it through our senses.  We have been conditioned to think in dualistic terms, this or that, mind/matter, body/mind, cause/effect, inner/outer.   Modern physics however has been opening our minds to view reality more wholistically.  (Rather more like the way Marcus Aurelius thought about it in the 1st Century quote above).

Keiron Le Grice, in his book, "The Archetypal Cosmos" writes about Heisenberg and his uncertainity principal, that the observer is not separate from the observed;  and physicist John Wheeler who felt that the independent observer be replaced by a "participator", that we humans are responsible for shaping reality. These two and many more physicists, cosmologists, evolutionary system theorists, ecologists, transpersonal psychologists (according to Le Grice) all share a common vision that of incorporating a more expanded view of the nature of mind and reality. Fritjof Capra in The Web of Life, writes that "the organizing activity of all living systems, at all levels of life, is mental activity." That is how important what we think about is. 

So during this week as we wind down from "the beginning of summer" weekend, we get to pay attention to what we are thinking about and what we are sharing with others.  Mercury is the planet that rules Gemini. He was a trickster-he stole his brother's sheep when he was an infant.  He could travel between Olympus in the heavens and Hades below the earth (the only god that could).  Mercury signifies our minds-it can play tricks on us, it can go into the heights and down to the depths and take our outer reality with it. 

Gemini is the sign of the twins-lower mind and higher mind.  When we are in our lower mind we are scared, restless, worried, depressed and anxious. Our  higher mind brings us to truth , beauty, equanimity and insight.  However and whenever we are in our truth and speak it, we are in our higher mind. Gemini is compelled to communicate. If what we think and communicate creates reality, then at this solar eclipse New Moon we have a golden opportunity to reset our thinking patterns.  We are that responsible for the world we create around us.  It comes from what we focus on and what we think about. 

Continuing where we left off...

I took a walk up lower Broadway this morning, as I am in the city minding my sister's dogs.  There are markers in the sidewalk pavement noting dates and ticker tape celebrants.   There were parades for Korean War vets, Vietnam vets, Persian War vets, Olympic games medalists, World Series winners, Superbowl winners, Stanley cup winners and astronauts. The predominant recipients were sports teams and war vets.  (In the spirit of fairness I also saw markers for Nelson Mandela and John Paul II).

In our last blog we were talking about the early morning sky and how rare it is to see 4 planets rising ahead of the Sun, but that whatever planet rises ahead of the Sun in a personal or country's chart becomes a "herald" for that entity.  We mentioned that Mars is the herald for the USA.  Mars rose in the eastern sky ahead of the Sun on July 4th 1776.  I thought about this this morning as I was walking up Broadway and noticed how "normal" it is for us to honor our war or sports heroes, those people of action demarcated by the planet Mars.

More men of Mars were described in the  Sunday NY Times in a front page investigative report about a former Navy Seal,  founder of the Blackwell Worldwide Group (the private mercenary group that won billions of dollars of contracts for the US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan).  American Erik Prince has organized a secret (although not so secret anymore) 800 man mercenary army, paid for by the Sultan of the United Arab Emirates, the country across the Persian Gulf from Pakistan.  These mercenaries from Columbia, the US, South Africa and other European countries are commissioned for secret operations inside the U.A.E.  The US and its citizens are very much involved in the promotion of violence and bloodshed overseas.  But how long can it last?

Mars is the planet of war, violence, action, strife, fighting, anger, aggression, turmoil and energy spent outwards going after something turned retrograde on July 2006, at 18 degrees Libra in the USA's progressed chart.    That means that our use of force to obtain what we want is going to backfire.  Instead of being successful in our initiatory endeavors, there are times now when clear cut victories are not a given, as clear cut goals are not defined. (Notwithstanding the Bin Laden raid which happened with a Mars (action) in the sky that night coupled with Jupiter (successful) which only happens once every 2 1/2 years for a few days.)

Secretary of Defense Gates spoke at West Point not long ago and cautioned any future Defense Secretary that if he (or she) was thinking of entering any future expedition like those in Iraq and Afghanistan that "he ought to have his head examined".  Are we finally rethinking how and when we use our young men and women?  We have doubled our defense budget in the last 10 years.  Is it time to trim excessive money spent on weapons?   Are the effects of a very slow moving Mars changing its orientation towards the Sun beginning to have an effect in the "real world"?  Progressed Mars has been at the same 18 degrees of Libra since 1994 and will stay in this one degree until 2016-that is a total of 22 years in the same degree.  We are "stuck" in one place  because we have to relearn how we are using our energies, where we are putting our focus and the effects that we have, both anticipated and not.

Another op ed piece in today's NY Times by Nicholas Kristof,  speaks to the feelings of the since deceased special envoy to the Afghanistan/Pakistan region, Richard Holbrooke.   Holbrooke was privately especially critical of any military action in the region and was a strong proponent of diplomacy-with all the parties even the Taliban. Mars the planet we are talking about has stationed in Libra-the sign of diplomacy and conversation. Kristof is of the opinion that now, after Bin Laden's death, is the time to do double duty on negotiations between rival factions, India and Pakistan, Afghanistan, the US and the Taliban, Israel and the Palestinians.   All wars end with diplomacy.  Mars rules action and Libra rules diplomacy.   Are we going to learn our lessons in that regard soon?

Look Up in the Eastern Sky Before Dawn

It has come to my attention through The Mountain Astrologer's web site and current blog "Astrology as if the Sky Matters" (written by Gary Caton) just how rare this current celestial phenomena is.  If you are up (and I tried this morning but there was a cloud bank) 1/2 hour before dawn around 5:00 AM, you will see 4 little white dots in the sky which are Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Mars ( a little redder) over in the eastern sky.  In hasn't been since August 9,1966 and June 5,1680 when you could see 4 planets rising ahead of the sun at the same time. 

Planets in the sky that we can see in daylight are heralds.  Think about the birth of The Christ.  The Wise Men who noticed the star in the east knew to look for something new on earth because the sky was giving them the cue. On June 5th in 1680 the Japanese Emperor died.  If you think back to 1966-when the "fab four" came to America and how they heralded a new era. On August 9th 1966, the first date you could see all 4 planets rising ahead of the Sun, we were also in the Vietnam war. A major engagement called the battle of Duc Co took place and a new phase of the war began.  

Now too we have had extrordinary events these past few weeks- President Obama having to offer his" long" birth certificate, the marriage of William and Kate and the President calling for the military expedition that lead to the death of Osama Bin Laden.  All these events mark endings of some sort which also mark new beginnings.  The stars in the dawn sky are calling our attention to the birth of a new time. 

If you wonder why so many times a military expedition has begun for us, you only have to recall that the planet rising ahead of the Sun in The USA's natal chart is Mars-so the planet of action, effort, strife and sometimes war and violence is our "hearld".  After all wasn't the birth of the country an act of civil disobedience to the King?

Further Circles

In creating this blog I was inspired by a book I read, "The Archetypal Cosmos" by Keiron Le Grice, subtitled Rediscovering the Gods, in Myths, Science and Astrology. In it, Le Grice surveys the history of myth and its function from Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung to the new paradigm scientists.  What was so remarkable to me is that this survey and Le Grice's findings parallel completely what Marcus Aurelius, who is quoted above, said in 100 AD. The universe and all that is in it is created from the same "stuff". The difference being that Aurelius wrote it with out the benefit of  the discoveries of  modern empirical physics.

So there is nothing new under the sun. We are just confirming what has always been known intuitively. 
These past 2,000 years have been about the discovery of the validity of those intuitions concerning the nature of the universe and the relationship of a part to the whole. 

Le Grice starts his book by exploring the work of Joseph Campbell who wrote extensively about the many functions of myth.  Myths were not just made up stories to explain natural phenomen, but had functions.  Myths were used to explain man's place in the universe.  Campbell's central thesis, Le Grice writes, is that the stories of myths should be read as metaphors that can be related to our own experiences providing 'perspective and symbolic meaning'.

In the more modern mind we have lost the externalization of the Gods doing this and that to us. Our demons are no longer outside but have become our own self destructive habits and vices. But rather than feeling we are being left alone to make our way with self determination and free will, wouldn't we do better by understanding and acknowledging that the forces in our external environment are the actual manifestations of our internal space. The psychological explorations that relective people go through, supported with all the self help books, programs, healing modalities and religions are one way we can source our own personal myth.  By questing after our own personal myth, as Jung did, are we not less  the victim of the gods anger or pleasure as of old, but are more personally responsible for our fate as we become  more clearly defined individuals. Can astrology help with that journey into inner space?

The Circle Game

I was recently reminded of the old Judy Collins song "The Circle Game"

                         And the painted ponies go up and down
                         We are captive in a carousel of time
                         We can't go back we can only look behind to where we've been
                         And go round and round and round in the circle game

Hearing the news about the demise of Bin Laden made me think again about this song. It also  makes the curious mind ask-why this and why now??  Astrology is really good for seeing the pattern in the timing of things. As we mentioned in our last post we talked about the placement of Saturn in the sky being in Libra and that the USA is having its "Saturn return".  We talked then of the nation being in a depressed mood. The placement of Saturn in the natal chart of the US on July 4th 1776 was 14 degrees and 48 minutes.  The position of Saturn today is 11 Libra 48 minutes. 

Saturn is in its retrograde phase, that is from our view point (earth) it is changing its relationship to the Sun. It was at 14 Libra 48 minutes for the first time December 4th, the 2nd time, March 23rd and will again pass that degree August 28th.  The strong effects of the Saturn return will not start passing away until September and not be completely finished until October 2012 when it moves into Scorpio. The US has the Sun (identity) in Cancer (homeland strong) in square (90 degrees) to that natal Saturn.  This gives us the impetus to be the disciplinarian, the defender because Saturn (rules) in Libra (the scales) demands justice.  Saturn only returns to this degree every 30 years. The effects of Saturn's sense of timing is as a laggard.  You do not always feel his effect on the date of exactness but later.  (That is why our Capricorn friends are late bloomers because they are ruled by Saturn).

The tie into September 11th and Bin Laden?  The moment the planes hit the first tower, 8:46 AM, the degree rising on the eastern horizon (we cannot see the stars when the Sun is out but they are there) was you guessed it, 14 Libra 21 minutes.  This is very potent if you remember that every 4 minutes a new degree of a sign rises up on the eastern horizon, because the earth always turning on its axis as well around the Sun. 
Which makes the moment of the Twin Tower attacks part of our collective destiny from our founding in 1776. The points in that chart are sensitive over and over again as they show up years later.  "We are captive in the carousel of time".

Mercury's station

Before we jump to our topic, I wanted to continue on a thread from last time.  We spoke about the USA's natal chart having a Sun (identity, image) in square (90 degrees) to planet Saturn (constriction, depression, responsibility) and that transiting Saturn (that is Saturn in the sky) was very close to our natal placement.  (Yes the USA is having a Saturn return for those who know that term -every 29 1/2 years Saturn in its orbit around the Sun, comes back to where it was in a nativity. )

Today I just saw the NYTimes headlines "Nations mood at lowest level in 2 years" .  To me that is a correlation of us being made of one substance, as Marcus Aurelius says, as what is happening in the sky is mirrored below. The USA has a natal predisposition (Sun) to resist (square) any form of self discipline (Saturn).  That innate characteristic will be on view as long as Saturn is in Libra until October 2012.   We will be watching this unfold in the upcoming months.

Onto Mercury... as we all know Mercury does not actually stop, change direction, stop again and turn around.  Mercury appears to do this because of our perspective from earth  (our perspective is everything!).  Mercury is the fastest planet orbiting around the Sun and we rarely see it.  Only at dusk when the planet is at its eastern elongation do we see him as an evening star, as it passes between the Earth and the Sun;  and again about 3 weeks later, Mercury is seen rising ahead of the Sun in the morning sky at its western elongation.  We see Mercury has come from setting behind the Sun in the evening to rising ahead of the Sun in the morning.  And what has happened in between?  Mercury has connected with the Sun.  Our thought patterns, information and ideas (Mercury) have reconnected with our purpose (Sun). 

This is the true meaning of any planet retrograde-it must reconnect with who we are, with our purpose.  As mythological Mercury could go from Olympus to Hades (the only god who could) to bring out new information from the underground, so in modern times we use the Mercury's retrogrades to rethink, reedit, redo, everything in fact with the word re in it.  The good news this weekend is that Mercury has finished this part of its cycle and as of Saturday the 23rd will begin its direct journey away from the earth.  The going is slow at first as Mercury prefers faster speeds, but the tide is on our side.  Whatever information has been gleaned from its underground journey can be used to move ahead.

Off the Full Moon

I am wondering how you feel after the "ah ha" moment of the Full Moon?  The Full Moon this week had an added attraction yesterday, as the two planets Mars and Saturn formed a 180 degree aspect to each other, exactly as the Sun and Moon did.  Mars and Saturn were the only 2 planets that the ancients had to explain the bad things that happen. Mars and Saturn  were always present at deaths, fires, accidents and other life threatening or life annihilating situations.  Today we have the "outer planets" (beyond Saturn) Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, those planets who symbolize those affairs that we have no control over, to watch for an explanation of the unexplainable.  But nevertheless Mars and Saturn can still  knock a powerful punch.

Yesterday the Standard and Poor's rating agency finally did some accurate rating  and downgraded the US and its ability to pay back its debt.  Immediately the amount of interest the US will pay on its debt will rise and the deficit will rise faster.  Why here and now? Well we know a Full Moon always bring issues to light that need to be uncovered and a "full moon", so to speak, of the 2 "heavy" planets Mars and Saturn along with the Sun and Moon Full Moon, bring news of a life threatening or worrisome nature.  In the USA's natal chart the Sun is at 14 degress of Cancer and Saturn is at 14 degrees of Libra.  So the Mars/ Saturn aspect hit directly on the image of the US (its Sun).  Saturn among its other characteristics is downsizing, shrinking and Mars adds an extra verosity to the punch. 

Maybe in your life yesterday you noticed that whatever got started (Mars) met a wall of resistance (Saturn) and you had to take more time (Saturn) to turn the effort (Mars) to a positive outcome. Mars and Saturn were last at their conjunction ( together in the same place) on July 31st 2010, at the very prominent 0 degree of Libra. If you think back to then and remember a beginning effort, you would be experiencing now, with the 2 planets 180 degrees from each other, a "full moon"  -a revelation or culmination of that beginning.   This could easily be in a work related area, as Mars rules our work or where we put our energy. 

I hope this helps you on your journey.  The next planetary event we will look at is Mercury's direct station.

What Might Be

Maybe we should look a little forward now to the full moon weekend.  The trouble with looking ahead at what might be is that it could limit the possibilities of what could be.  The nature of astrology is looking where the planets are and reading the symbolism.  But as we know symbols have a mysterious quality.They are multidimensional in interpretation. They can transcend time and place.  Think of Carl Jung's famous dream interpretation case which he recorded in Memories, Dreams and Reflections.  When analyzing the dream of a client with a scarab beetle in it, the very same kind of bug hit the window of the therapy room and became part of the interpretation of the dream. 

Another aspect in reading planetary symbolism is looking at the geometric relationship of the bodies.  A Full Moon, like the one we will have at 10:45 PM EDT Sunday night, means the Sun and Moon are 180 degrees from one another.  The Moon, the planet of our subconscious and emotional needs is lite up completely by the Sun, the source of all light in the universe. Our emotional needs and feelings come to light.  Often people get emotional around Full Moons as they can no longer hide what has been kept in the dark.  It is the time to let it all out.  Because the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides, like a seesaw with the earth in the middle, we can feel pulled in 2 different directions and must be aware of someone or something else that we might have not taken into consideration before. This is very much accentuated this week because the signs the Sun and Moon are passing in front of "so to speak" are Aries the sign  of me, me, me and Libra the sign of you, you, you. Cooperation and balance are called for.  Full moons are felt 2-3 days before and after the exact moment of the Full Moon.  There is an intensity that builds up to a breaking point and then slowly subsides as the crisis lessens.  Watch for it.

So how was your weekend?

Did anyone notice an unusual amount of adamancy in people they encountered?  Maybe someone was very demanding or more inflexible than usual?  It might have been hard to reach consensus or come to some agreement because someone dug their heels into the ground and would not budge. This was as a result of the simultaneous planetary event of Pluto the planet of our base chakra, or survival instinct coming to an apparent rest, before he apparently starts moving backwards in space.  Although Pluto was downgraded this past year from planet status (and there still is controversy over this) the symbolic effects of any planetary station (the apparent standing still) can be felt.  Now remember we are not saying that Pluto is causing us to feel a certain way, but a planets changing position comes at the same time as we feel an intensification of the symbolic meaning of same planet. 

This is to confirm our thesis that, as Marcus Aurelius said, the universe is one living being, made up of one soul and one substance;  one thing, more poetically said.  What is happening in the depths of space cannot be separted from what is going on inside us humans.  We want to look to experiences that confirm a unified world theory, that recognize and support the interconnectedness of all life. One of the ways to do this is to watch what the planets are doing.  The key is to notice and observe; what is happening in the world and in our relationships.

This weekend would have been especially significant to people born any year around the 27th-30th of March, June, September and especially December.   It might have been important to others of you, or you felt it more strongly, if you have an angle or another planet, besides the Sun, at 4-8 degrees of the cardinal signs, the signs that begin the seasons.

Still thinking...

So as I wrote last time I have been wondering about what makes people want to come see an astrologer, or not.  I have a sense that some people feel that there is someone out there who knows more about them, or what is going on with them than they do,  they want to be told what is in store for them.  But that is a misunderstanding of how things work.  If we look into the new paradigms in the various fields of new thought, with theorists like David Bohm, Fritjof Capra, Pierre de Chardin, Rupert Sheldrake, Stanislav Grof, and Brian Swimme whose work present a new understanding of the nature of reality, we can see that they are all disputing the orthodox scientific view of the duality in nature.  Instead of the subject, object view all these writers present more unified world views, a more holistic view of the nature of reality where there is an interconnectedness of all phenomena.  This world view that we will explore in this blog is very much what Marcus Aurelius wrote in the quote from Meditations from the 1st Century on my blog head.

And the planetary correlations- the planet Mercury, the planet of thought and communication, although retrograde and as a result of being retrograde, will meet up 3 times with  Jupiter, the planet of the philosopher and our belief system. During the time period from mid March through mid May we should all be thinking about our belief systems.  It is a time to expand how we think and what our perceptions and perspectives are;  what we believe to be true about our world and the nature of reality. There is ample time to reflect and we might find we will change our position.  Because all this is happening in the sign Aries, the sign of new beginnings,  we should all be looking for a new approach. 

Using Today

Today the planet of expansion Jupiter is aligned with the Sun.  I am using this planetary coupling to initiate my blog as writing a blog widens my world, making me bigger. Jupiter, being the largest planet in our solar system, symbolizes in all our lives the need to increase and go beyond that which we already know, as today in my case, being here at my kitchen table.

Since this not my first attempt to do this I do not mind that Mercury the planet of comunications is retrograde. I am redoing a project and so this time until April 23rd is an excellent time for all endeavors with the prefix "re".

My thoughts today center on using the day and the question: What is arising in a person who decides to go see an astrologer?

more tomorrow...