Category Archives: human rights

A Wrinkle In Time

When the Sun reaches the exact midpoint between equinox and winter solstice, at 15°00’ Scorpio, the cross quarter fire festivals take place which, in some ancestral northern traditions, mark Samhain, the onset of winter and the beginning of the new year.

This year the entire Samhain/Beltaine axis is activated as almost exactly twenty four hours later the full Moon in Taurus will reach its maximum and, being only 3° from the north lunar node, will fall under the Earth’s shadow and become totally eclipsed.

This intensification of both the lunar maximum and the cross quarter axis is further added to when we look to the astrological alignments that coincide with both these moments.

I consider such planetary and astral interactions with nodal points to be ‘pauses’ in the hegemonic nature of linear time and, by default, temporal conditioning, and with the Moon in particular, linear time programming within the human realm.

This relates specifically to the histories that have been applied to human consciousness, and that have specifically overwritten cultural and oral transmission of our indigenous history – we are dealing here with colonisation of the indigenous past, and more specifically with its decolonisation in relation to this particular moment in time.

There is much to consider in this alone, especially as the gateway of Samhain and its association with the thinning of the veil between the worlds can also be seen as a timeless moment; where closer contact between other-worlds comes to the fore, their own distinct temporal nature comes into our lives, a reminder through ancestry and spirit of our roots outside of temporal reality, this innate connection being available to us.

This is, traditionally, a time when those connections can be deepened and strengthened.

But, here we are looking at a planetary matrix which, from the Earth perspective, suggests this to be an even deeper, more significant and longer lasting moment; nothing quite of this nature has been offered to us in any time over the last decade, at least. So, bear this cessation of temporal conditioning/programming in mind in respect of the following.

Uranus proximity to the lunar eclipse is a powerful indicator that this is a programme-free moment, but, with Venus and Mercury either side of the Sun close on the south node in Scorpio, opposing Uranus here brings a flash of inspiration that will accompany the freeing of long held ancestral bindings.

This is akin to cracks appearing in a kind of karmic dam, and a potential release of primal, indigenous energy that has built up behind that dam over many millennia into the Taurean earth realms.

This ‘dam’ is, in effect, a wall of unresolved consequences, the result of oppressed and subjugated natural power, which century upon century of hierarchic usury, and the control of indigenous nature and its natural cultural flowering has put upon humanity, most particularly via ‘the West’ and its dehumanising industrialised programmes of hierarchic and literal enslavement and colonisation.

There is a pressure cooker feel to the time, which many are feeling it seems; emphasised by the fixed signs of the eclipse axis, there is strongly present an awareness of ‘stuck-ness’ which must be released, and I see this time as the onset of that cracking open and release process.

Mirroring this, the solar/lunar opposition is squared by Saturn in societally oriented Aquarius, and the indicators are that, since Saturn is now direct and on its run up to leaving Aquarius for Pisces in March 2023, that this eclipse’s energy marker for the next six months is all about exploiting the breakthrough potential of this special moment, to the max, for its most positive outcomes to be realised.

Once Saturn enters Piscean waters the echoes of spiritual persecution, and zealotry for example, become stronger, a thought which adds intensity to the meaningfulness in our use of the intervening months.

How much Ai driven humanist technologies, like vaccine programmes that enable biological and behavioural determinism ie. enslavement, might be being used to exploit the ‘inquisitors’ agenda should, for instance, be collectively clear by then, but whether it will be too late to do anything about it by then may rest more fully in our own hands now than ever before.

The world will keep on turning, the planets will continue in their astral dance, regardless what we actively take it upon ourselves to do, but that too shows how poignantly interconnected all is now becoming within this eclipse impulse as, once March 2023 is through, this door closes and another one opens.

Also changing signs in March, and deepening the conviction to push through, are Mars and Pluto, Mars going into Cancer and Pluto into Aquarius before March 2023 and the active agency of this eclipse is out.

At Samhain and the lunar eclipse Pluto of course is in late Capricorn, while Mars is retrograde in Gemini squaring both Neptune and Jupiter, in fact all the planets in the western half of the zodiac are retrograde, adding to the underlying and interiorised sense of ‘something’ impending. All those in the eastern half are direct, reflecting the emergent qualities now rising.

The trick here is in realising that, while we are all waiting for that unknown to arrive, the waiting itself is symptomatic of the very thing that needs to be broken through. We have been trained to ‘wait’, become compliant and dependent, but, we cannot allow the forgetting to continue.

Timing is everything, and that is why such moments as this matter. Its not as if we have not seen them before – the Arab Spring uprisings of 2010-11 for example clearly expressed a similar potential, although that was more specifically an expression of the Uranus Pluto square which accompanied it.

There has been a shift in the collective consciousness as a result of that time and its mirroring in the long standing astrological square – we are certainly, and specifically in the national/global political and economic arenas, now witnessing the consequence of our own actions and inaction during that time.

The last two years have been an experiment in how far this action/inaction equation can be pushed, a fitting end to the Uranus/Pluto square perhaps, but, the nature of our personal and societal relationship with those structures of power which have bearing on how our freedoms are expressed are now under constant scrutiny. This is true on both sides of the equation, I believe, and it is now Saturn’s role to emphasise, and actualise, the limitations being imposed upon us, in the process limiting our collective power for deciding and enacting change, while making more overt and palpable the need for change itself.

With Scorpio hosting south node, Sun, Mercury and Venus we are within reach of, if not on the cusp of a breakthrough in understanding our deep past, its rich genetic nature and true history – such knowledge has the power to unleash such immense forces that could change how we live on this planet completely – the Taurean field, where the Moon’s light is momentarily reduced to its own indigenous nature, symbolically if nothing else, is where this reality will be felt, if not seen most. Scorpio holds the dna coding, Taurus the essential building blocks of life. However, Saturnian control of how, or if, this happens within the realms of human society plays off in its square to the eclipse axis.

The Bill to limit and criminalise peaceful protest that is now passing through and in process within the British Parliament is an apt illustration of how deeply embedded this limiting power is within the archetype of institutionalised democracy, for all its assumed freedoms within the west.

But, it is the longer shadow of this power-over element within our lives, its more deeply embedded effect on our collective and individual nature over a very long period of time, and our need to stand up for that nature, that is being highlighted here – this is a shadow of consequence, its own locked up energy being potentially destructive, but, the energy that it is suppressing and the suppression itself are here starkly brought out into the open – the consequences of this are unpredictable.

Even the nature of events which will express this revelation are unforeseeable; but, the energy that can be utilised to further this release is now on hand, and can be called upon, invoked for the greater good, and brought to bear in all our actions. To do so is almost enough – almost; to be able to be responsive and ready to follow through, to sustain the resultant flow of change inducing energy is equally important.

I feel like a major deja-vu moment is unfolding in saying these things, and as an astrologer and diviner I’ve heard this scenario being voiced too many times in the last two decades especially, but, perhaps that is because this is simply a part of what is a very long process, one which began millennia ago, which the indigenous spirit within is well aware of. Many who turn up for a reading are simply keeping an appointment with their own indigenous remembering – the collective need for this to happen now is upon us big time – we make it happen when we make ourselves available to it, but, how does anyone break through the amnesia?

There is awakening, for sure, and it gathers its own momentum, within our collective remembering, but, its this moment that speaks to that momentum too.

The moment is grief riddled, for sure, and that is actually for the good – the grief goes so deep it is unfathomable, but, perhaps it is in honouring the unbreakable thread of ancestry that the inherent healing power of that grief is first and foremost enabled in our times. Unbreakable, that is, so long as we protect its future, as well as its past.

The buck stops here…..but, we are surrounded by our ancestors, willing us and praying for us to remember.

This, more than ever, is the appropriate, and perhaps most auspicious time to reciprocate.

Make your prayers deep, your offerings poignant and rich with meaning in respect of that honouring, and blessings of the Great Mother be with you at this Taurean full Moon.

———-

image taken at Wildworks’ “I Am Kevin”, Cornwall, 2022

solving opportunities, taking problems

american abandoned theaters4

In the middle of it all, this happened…..

Saturn cj Jupiter at 0° Aquarius

Living in accord with your value

vs

“stupidity got us into this mess, and stupidity will get us out” –
Homer Simpson

Lifting the lid on pandora’s box, take #?…


“in the beginning we were given instructions on how to be a human being—a human being that would take care of the land, and love the land. We were given teachings to act as a foundation to having a good life. These teachings would be connected to a sacred relationship with the land. These teachings would support the natural laws of Mother Earth. For thousands and thousands of years, our ancestors lived by those teachings and original instructions.

Then the invasion began. What is important for us to realize today is to acknowledge what helped us endure and survive these dark times, and still today we must continue to endure. Colonization is very much a continued imposition in our lives.

During the darkest times of our history, it was our way of life that helped us survive to this day.

It was the ones who remained loyal and true to the original instructions we were given as a people by our Creator…

Those who kept the ceremonies going underground…

Those that kept the sacred fires burning…

Those that continue to speak the languages of our people…

Those that sang the songs of the land, of the ancestors.

And so it is today, that we must rely on those who have kept the sacred fires burning…

Those that keep our lodges going…

Those that speak the languages of our people…

The language is really the language of the land itself.”
– Dave Courchene

Planets tumble and turn, chaotic order defines the moment,
while sleepers sleep on…..

Its a free fall of titanic forces within nature;
and, pre-crimes not withstanding,

“Liberation will not be attained through an appointed commitee.”

“Peace cannot be attained in oppression”….

…the new peace movement melds while it quells,

because,

“humility is the foundation of equality.”

But, how do you square that with identity management.

How do you square that with the imposition of
Biometric Digital Identity
which is the prerequisite for
developing the “internet of bodies”.

Did you know that you are being primed
to become a member of the ‘robot class’.
Have been all along.

Fight the good cause by all means –
you won’t even know that you have become bio-capital.

Be safe, get vaxxed;
let your fears be ‘taken care of’.

The timing would have been the same, regardless the date –
this is a scheduled announcement :

On March 11th 2020 the World Economic Forum launched a covid business task force with over 200 of the most powerful corporations on the planet, a list that has grown more than five fold since then; the very same day the WEF partnered with the WHO and ,”hey presto”, the very same day they announced the ‘pandemic’.

How do you deal with the untouchables?
Your government is not accountable.
The C F R run their policy show. And ‘show’ it is.

The predatory corporate technofascist leviathan has a thousand heads, more than 2000, and counting, actually, but, the ‘architects’ at the top of this food chain require these lieutenants to merely organise the infrastucture – the game plan is decided elsewhere.

…but, it didn’t say that in my horoscope! 

Big data is the new armoury, the new market, the new casino.
And you are being groomed to become a chip.

Hyperdata centres have been projected within the model of the so called “Great Reset” to account for one third of energy consumption – thats right, one third of the global grid.

Ai demands it, and its Ai that will be running the show, is, in fact, at increasingly less mundane levels –

infringed’ yet?

Humans may set the algorithms in motion but, the pathways you are allowed to journey down are programmed to only allow you to demonstrate how well you fulfil the requirements of the system –
t’was ever thus, but, now the command centre is hidden beyond the Cloud(s).

Processing Life is a hungry business, if you are a machine.

Another perspective.

‘Their’ contribution to emissions is far greater
than the common people’s,
already.

Their ‘green’ is red, an afterimage, by trick of the light.

But, remember, we may all be,
in some sense,
being engineered to operate within
and being shepherded to function
as slaves to the new feudal dictatorship,
but we did not design the system,
it is not our system,
and we don’t have to subscribe
to its dictates;
even if we diverge minimally,
it is the divergence
that makes the difference…

Screen Shot 2021-04-25 at 12.56.18

And then theres Covid.

Omali Yeshitela has variously called it the “colonial virus” or the “white man’s virus” – the derivative may apply, but, regardless, it is certainly a delivery system, for global colonisation of the human biome by biocapitalist technocracy.

Welcome to the new ‘environmental’ frontier –

not just your body.

Your mind.

Remember, the “green new deal” was written into the UN agenda 11 years ago – formulated much much earlier.

hyperscale data centres,
whose energy consumption will consume
30% of the national grid
by 2028 –
nuclear expansion,
guaranteed

search “Facebook cable Africa”

while kids are starving,
lack clean water,
and food,
is optimised,
is an induction
into their web
of profit
and intent

C M on humane tech;
“‘humane’ is to tech what ‘stakeholder’ is to capitalism, a rebranding excercise selling a kinder, newer, gentler form of oppression, exploitation and misery….”

Transfer of wealth in 2020 was unprecidented, billionaire wealth hit 10.2 trillion, the alarms went off, then, nothing happened, more of the same, the poor get poorer and the middle class, small businesses decimated, while the rich get richer….

Unboundaried political progressivism is a part of the gameplan, represents the tip of the ‘march towards authoritarianism’ iceberg, its faux mask…..communitariansim/anti-freedom

“when theres so much information either youʼll get limbic and cognitively hijacked into nonsense and be certain that its true and be willing to go take that enraged action upon it or youʼll just be overwhelmed and have no idea – access to info isnʼt what empowers you, (unlike) the ability to info process, pars the signal from the noise, aggregate the signal, have actionable intel…ʼʼ Schmachtenberger

To think about what is going on, how the world is evolving, moving and being moved forward is an immense challenge – just ‘one thing’ does not mean just one thing but ten things, twenty things, and so on, exponentially drawing on the power of algorithmic logic and data processing to remove human reasoning from the process of creating balance while distancing the ordinary person in the street from the very things that control their lives

“…..you canʼt win against the Ai algorithms, but they can be overcome”

bio-capitalism seeks to divest humans of direct involvement in nature, from being natural

post-covid poverty mining

smart sensor predictive policing

data and analysts
become the source
of ‘fact based’ policy directives,
a suitable cover
for political accountability

conditioned for compliance,
data sways the populace

“who voted in Commonpass, who decided that individual liberties would now be decided by apps advanced by corporate interests that stand to profit from population control….?” A McD

weaponised narrative

citizens as agents in behavioural economic equations,
the new ‘community police’

Screen Shot 2021-02-21 at 10.31.58

‘infringed’ yet?
Programmable?

‘theyʼ have factored in counter response, second and third order consequences, in fact they are relying on it, are using it, are creating it, to their advantage…

having to deal with meaninglessness – covid19 lockdown

….backlash?

an overcompensation ‘creating visible signsʼ as a response to the vacuum of abstraction

Polimorphia diversity

polymorphic overload reduces to the single fundamental denominators –

race
gender
‘rightsʼ

Overloaded statement –
where one thing means multiple things –
increases sensitivity to ‘PCʼ ‘censorshipʼ

exponential disinformation

Rationalising is the opposite of being rational –
backfilling the epistemology after the emotional leap

Mercury retro conjunct an eclipsed Sun?
a year of Neptune square the nodes,
and counting….

…..protect your senses and sensibilities:
ask yourself,
are your ideas your own,
have you been induced into that ‘view’….

REMEMBER

civilisations may collapse but the people donʼt,
they persist
and their knowledge does too,
so long as it is remembered

LOOK BEYOND THE EDGES

We are developing along old growth patterns
which have actually superseded
their relevance

disconnect, disturbance – unworkable leadership?
Pursuing wrong goals for wrong rewards.

Solving opportunities, taking problems.

Unde-reaction, overreaction, inappropriate reaction –
why react when it has been anticipated.

Accountability crisis –
not that people died but why.

The spiral is the combination of the linear and the circular
Planets turn and tumble

You are discouraged
from slowing down enough
to take the circular route –
the roller coaster effect is
an information overload

The difference between ‘intelligenceʼ and evidence

Stochastic terrorism

“95% is psi-ops now” –
Major Jeffrey Prather
DEA expert cognitive assessment –

IQ (+ personality tests), intellectual property, trading now

Happiness for all TM – ‘Happytalismʼ

“Lets take our planet back”
search Illien Global

‘happytalismʼ
global fascism as max State control,
with a smile

palace_theater

The End Of Society

It doesnʼt matter whether its Rep or Dem (or ‘other’) in office,
if interest rates are on the up the ruling party stays in power…
Charles Nenner, economics expert

merchantilism

Tavistock Inst human relations. Joseph Triest
search ‘Corona-time notes’

2020 was being manufactured as a mnemonic for future control, manipulation and justification and,
(before anyone calls conspiracy theory on that one),
we are involved in its ongoing production in that capacity.

Every comment, post, meme, like, tweet, contributes.
Even if it is not your intent.
Loading the year as a temporal marker is inevitable.
Whatever happens.

But, there is something in the nature
of social media and internet as a vehicle,
as an heuristic medium,
that overrides its purposeful use for
communication and connectivity alone.

2021 continues the roll-out, the trials, the experiment….
how far can the boundaries be pushed,
a rhetorical reality
in the shape of
a shape
shifting
chimera

Shape the technology around the vision,
not the other way around…

donʼt panic, thrive!

“….and stupidity will get us out”
thanks, Homer

Then, there’s ‘the stats’

Screen Shot 2021-05-16 at 11.08.08

The ‘numbers gameʼ both acts as a distraction
and hides the truth.

but its worse than that – the war is invisible to the extent that your mind is made up before you even get to the cause you are fighting, or rather has been made up for you through constant grooming in the direction which you yourself are sending it, through your own online activity

and all this before the frequencies are modulated within the 5G spectrum to optimum effect upon your neural integrity

Governments practicing ‘domestic terrorismʼ,
while the corporate juggernaut
impliments intents and
directives…

Yes,

5G.

instruments of suppression;
did you notice the

suppression of rallies and protests for independence
cf Hong Kong….China

The attack on religion –
gene manipulation –
vis Vmat2 gene suppression/elimination
CIA
via respiratory virus immunisation –
search FunVax

People working to expose crimes against humanity
will talk of ‘exploiting’ the truth….

beware, the ‘house of cards’
built on unquestioned assumptions

Covid 19 is a branded campaign, a terror campaign…..

…..research into increasing/amplify a protein strain,
creating a weaponised covid virus,
began in 2001
leading to a US patent in 2007 for recombinant coronavirus (filed 2002).

David Martin – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc1qY8ybQfE

@ 11l20m >>

2005, HCQ is ok for treatment of coronavirus ^^^

229 mutations of corona virus as of mid April 2020

manipulate numbers for economic gain,
incite fear to (domestic terrorism)
affect government policy
and manipulate flow of capital.
(Palantir – Peter Teal?)
(Get Gates – problem will not go away)

Darpa

Blackrock/Statestream/Vanguard

Biochemistry/Data Sciences/Structured Finance must all be included in any enquiry or someone/perpetrator gets away scot free –
interlocking capital and power behind the frontman….

predatory corporatism

The IDOL is ‘commercially financed scienceʼ;
enrichment at expense of public repetition
is essential to a simulation becoming convincing

live vs survival
inquiry vs indoctrination
informed vs instructed
Sovereign vs seduced (only the compliant or entitled to rights)
Courage vs crowd
Liberty vs indentured
– DM

Leftist liberalism is generating the very underlying set of conditions necessary to racism – while being in complete denial

demonstrate systemic blindness

all inclusive, to the gameplan

failure of individual psyche and propensity to buy into the big lie

The Lefts demand for Fascists far outstrips the supply….

‘a bit more violence and we might yet get to utopiaʼ

We had a lot of retrograde motion since this all began,
and there’s more coming

retrograde motion is interiorised, progressing with the brake on, covering old ground, having the same message repeated with slight variations, over and over again.

Variation is in fact being substituted for change,
and hasn’t it been said already
that
repetition is essential for simulation to become convincing.

The scenario is on a repeat loop.

We have been quite literally in a holding zone.


fullsizeoutput_12b

But, before we go, a word from our sponsors….

Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto, can be identified with the top down end of the decision making process, and they have been working in unison since December 2019.

That just happens to be coincidental with both Jupiterʼs ingress to tropical Capricorn and the first publicly reported cases of the Corona Virus and the seeding of the threat of the virus spreading.

Let us not forget

This relates directly to
our capacity for
individual thinking
and creativity.

Decisions here are personalised –
even in the apparent midst
of imposed conditions,
we can be self determining.

This time last year
a creative energy was beginning to flourish
and find expression
during Venus retrograde in Gemini,
building its own momentum,
and it continued to do so
until Venus exited the shadow zone
of her retrograde,
at the end of July.

That was our signal.
Did you catch it,
amidst the ‘noise’?

(In the meantime
the same old narrative
churning away
trying to mould our minds
into a sufficiently malleable state
of submission to make
personal decision making
a thing of the past……)

“Those who kept the ceremonies going underground…

Those that kept the sacred fires burning…

Those that continue to speak the languages of our people…

Those that sang the songs of the land, of the ancestors.

And so it is today, that we must rely on those who have kept the sacred fires burning…

Those that keep our lodges going…

Those that speak the languages of our people…

The language is really the language of the land itself.”

"Senorita Muerte 2004", pencil on paper, 23"x16"laurie lipton

last image : ‘Senorita Muerte’, 2004, with thanks to
the great Laurie Lipton

A Passion For Life

 
 
Throughout the current lunation a time of gathering momentum and pushback has been making itself more and more visible in the world, and this now reaches a threshold moment with the full Moon in Scorpio.
 
The energy which this gathering momentum embodies is seeking to act upon raised awareness, coupled with the twin powers of interrelationship and personal choice, and this is nowhere more visible than when the hearts and minds of the people are given voice and demonstrated publicly. It is also clearly reflected in the astrology of the moment.
 


Possibly the most spectacular example of this over the last few days was the big march in London on Saturday 24th April. This took place just as the Moon was transiting into the UK’s first house (whole sign) and transiting cj Uranus in the UK chart.
 
This embodiment of public power and consciousness focused on showing solidarity in awareness. It manifested a freedom of choice that goes against the grain of authoritarian conformity, an awareness that is capable of seeing beyond the ‘illusions of reality’ which such conformity relies on to prevail.
 
The planetary movements of the moment saw a stellium of planets in tropical Taurus reflecting a unified field of adroit awareness that is very much on the rise and on this occasion directly challenged the dictates of power as embodied in the UK’s eight house Mars.
 
Coming up against Mars in a ‘power over’ position requires courage, but, numbers make the difference and takes such personal power to another level.
 


This was a united effort bringing together the combined forces of the Sun, Mercury, Uranus and Venus in Taurus, reflecting precise embodiment in time and place through the lunar transit. But, this stellium in Taurus also squared transiting Saturn perfectly and now, as the Moon comes to fullness, comes close to the mid-point of the UK national chart’s Venus Saturn opposition.
 
We will see this midpoint triggered over the coming days as Venus and Mercury move away from Uranus, which brings us back to the significance of this full Moon in particular.
 
The full Moon in Scorpio brings these matters of freedom and non-compliance to a crucial moment, the threshold moment, upon which their effectiveness going forward very much rests.
 
This is the wave that must be surfed, its energy sustained and embodied, given prolonged expression, so that its effect can continue to build and fully realise its potential as the truly effective catalyst for change it seeks to become. It must be sustained to ensure that it remains strong enough to effectively oppose ‘the forces of conformity and containment’ which this collective expression of energy defies.
 
There is a circle of reciprocity being engendered in this moment, between the inner and the outer, between individual and collective action.
 


Every person aligning themselves with this energy is a carrier of its seed potential. And, even though the power of the collective manifests personal power at another level, beyond the individual, a level which can achieve the degree of change needed, it all rests on the willingness of the individual to fully embody their personal potential, and that means personal truth, to as high a degree as possible for that power to rise sufficiently.
 


Its been said many times before, but, this cannot be more clearly put. A collective force of empowered individuals is unstoppable, a truth the authorities know all too well.
 


Saturn and Uranus reflect this current dynamic well and, being triggered, they reveal the truth.
 


But, while the current debacle is out in the open, seen more fully for what it is, with every moment, by more and more people, this is not simply about raising a revolutionary spirit, opposing the orthodoxies of power and resisting their dictates.
 
This is about becoming a fully embodied protector of both the human and the planetary soul, a role which can be more fully realised and evolved into through allowing the momentum now being generated to take our awareness to yet higher levels still.


In the midst of distraction, the tension and chaos of the moment can no longer hide this underlying truth – we are, it has been said, experiencing all this for this very purpose.
 


The Sabian symbols for the Sun, the Moon and Saturn’s degrees resonate strongly here.
 


The Sun’s degree speaks of awareness funded by recognition of natural cycles and how they are the foundation of all change, including that which we are engaged with now.
 

The Moon’s degree tells us that this moment is about being receptive to the radiance of higher powers , of “being a soul that can reflect love’s light”, and bringing the transcendent Venusian aspect of relating into an active role in our own self realisation.
 


Saturn’s degree speaks of how the natural laws and facts which allow us to plan in advance for action are also fully manifest at this time, grounding the awareness we are generating.
 
 
There is an antidote at work here, to the destructive anti-soul that is seeking to dominate our future, which can be easily sensed at this time, if not given name to.
 
Here we are being asked to appreciate the wider sweep of time, how the great natural cycles work through present time, and how this awareness gives our perception and understanding the depth and breadth the soul needs to not only become more fully grounded in the present, but to spread its influence and become greater in its own presence.
 
Working with this awareness in the present strengths the soul, engenders a fuller manifestation of its own natural environment, which reaches beyond time constraints, and allows us to work in harmony with the planetary level of soul.
 
At an individual level, it rests upon our ability to hold quiescence within and to embody attentive receptivity, receptivity to higher orders of awareness and intelligence as they are manifest on this planet. We can sense these and integrate with them through nature, through natural cycles and through our ability to divine the present, to ‘see’.
 
Together this T square shows us how adopting a future oriented imagination and our capacity to be receptive to inspirational powers are working in balanced and reciprocal relationship, and how this is mediated through a certain knowing, that “planning for the future is possible because the potential (or seed) of the future is already operating at the core of the present”.
 


I’ve said it many times over the years, but, humans are here to fully embody ‘seeing’, as life’s most natural gift. This can take many forms, each with a resonance belonging to a specific soul group, and there are many soul groups which we might chose to join when we are born, one for every degree of the zodiac in fact.
 
The soul groups belonging to the Sun, Moon and Saturn’s degrees at full Moon will be particularly activated by this energy and this is crucial to our moment.
 

Essentially it is about taking care for our soul’s and the planetary soul’s health and well being – humans carry such a profound potential, and in so many ways, what we are fighting for now is the right and ability to fulfil this potential.
 


There is one small caveat to this moment which the planetary matrix is indicating at the human level – at full Moon Neptune forms an exact semi-square to the Sun, and sesqui-quadrate to the Moon. This apsect speaks to inequalities, both in awareness and in personal reach.
 
The dynamic here, which is a potential source of friction and distraction in its own right if not handled with care, tends to manifest through labelling and separation, through creating real problems out of virtually nothing. This can become apparent through false arguments surrounding identity and difference, something which we are all too familiar with right now.
 
But, this too must be transcended, accommodated into a more inclusive view, the aim being to become bigger than the personal difference or slur, and to not at any point lose sight of the bigger picture.
 


Neptune’s soul vibration is both deeply compassionate and redemptive, if it finds resonance, but, here it is the Neptunian shadow that feeds small fights, which in turn feed the larger ones, and these are to be avoided now at all levels.
 
The higher side prevails.
 
While there is no escaping this reality either, this too is an opportunity for growth, if we chose to make it so, and those who know how to turn this difficulty to their own evolutionary advantage can also aid others in doing so in turn.
 
The twist to Neptune’s tail is in the fact that by accepting the anomaly of our own fully embodied individuality, our uniqueness, we not only disarm the insurrecting power of difference, but turn it into a movement towards home. An ensouling movement.
 


The point is, those who are ready to seize the day, ride the wave and are capable of leading through example, are the same souls whose actions and words will stand the greatest chance of nourishing our collective evolution. Chosing such a path will keep the momentum going and, ultimately, if grounded in the dedicated heart, will keep the sacred flame burning. There is a passion for life at work in this Scorpio full Moon.
 
Let that be an inspiration for each of us….
 
Blessed Be!
 
…………………………………………
 
Full Moon 27th April @ 3.30am UTC, 4.30am GMT

7°06’ Scorpio
 
 
Image : Smith Falls, Nebraska

The New Dominion

Back in March last year, exactly on the equinox, Saturn began a brief three month journey into tropical Aquarius. Ten days after crossing the cusp, Saturn was met by Mars in the first degree of the fixed air sign. Later in the year, after traveling retrograde back into Capricorn for three and a half months, Saturn returned again to Aquarius and famously met with Jupiter, again in the first degree of the fixed air sign. Their meeting took place exactly on the December solstice, thus beginning their current 20 year cycle, and in so doing signalled a departure from two centuries of their joint influence over the earth signs.

For the next two centuries the new era of Saturn Jupiter cycles will be initiated in Air signs, and the focus on the mental sphere that this signals requires us to be very much aware of how Saturnian energies and qualities are being brought to bear on our minds and awareness, as well as how, in a Jupiterian sense, they are being disseminated. We will be tasked to become uber-conscious of the multiple nature and realms of consciousness and its underlying structures, not to mention thoughts themselves, what is actually in and on our minds and, most importantly, the nature of their source.

The contents, dynamics and infrastructure of personal consciousness will be given particular emphasis over the next two centuries; even though over one hundred years of western psychology has seen an attempt to bring comprehension to this very arena and its realities explored, what we are moving into now is a progression building on foundations that have been laid throughout the last two eras of Saturn Jupiter cycles, in earth and fire. These stretch back to the very beginnings of the modern scientific age.

We are now entering a new era of colonisation, one in which the indigenous nature of our own minds is under threat.

The exploration of human psychology has itself been a thought experiment, and the persistent philosophical ramifications of this experiment can be seen reflected in both the ‘hard problem’ of science, ie the search for consciousness through scientific methodologies, and the subsequent shaping of scientific ontologies. The progressive effect of these experiments is itself reflected in the question of soul, not least its survival within the industrial landscape and realms of the machine.

The search for soul, identified by C G Jung as a characteristic of the modern era, has had a reductive effect on what it means to be human, an effect that is currently being capitalised on by the transhumanist ideologues – under the influence of applied utilitarian modernist ideologies in particular, which are also very ‘Saturn in Aquarius’, we have now arrived at what contemporary philosophers are referring to as a ‘crisis of meaning’. Although there is a positive side to this, in so far as the debate that surrounds this crisis is forcing a higher level of creative thinking, it is also engendering a fractured and politically diverse, if not increasingly polarised mental environment. This too is being capitalised upon, incorporated into the ‘new order’ that we are seeing emerge.

In a far less than positive sense the transmutation of the body politic, which this new thinking is influencing directly, affects our everyday lives. A ‘new dominion’ is emerging, conveniently disguising itself within the shapeshifting Hegelian dialectic of our times. The corresponding political currents of ideology and political thought which are steering this establishment of new dominion can, for example, be seen quite clearly in such movements as Communitarianism, a brand of political ideology that underpins one of our times most notorious and pervasive, if not invasive, geo-political social experiments, namely Agenda 21/30.

In fact, Saturn was in mid Aquarius, just as it is now, when A21 was first officially adopted, back in 1992 – Agenda 21 is having its first Saturn return! Look to February 2022 for the first exact return, but, in the meantime, enjoy the build up.

Seeing what we are currently going through in terms of Saturn return may well help to make sense of what is happening in the world.

Seriously, the timetable for rollout can be mapped out against the planetary movements – but, the fact is that Communitarian Law carefully balanced and integrated with National and State Law, has been installed in virtually every government’s lexicon of control, over the last three decades. It is this that has so easily enabled Covid policy to be implemented worldwide simultaneously. (1)

However, while the self appointed architects of our future have it all planned and worked out, the growing cognisance being directed at this attempt at dominion is inevitably producing a backlash at grass roots level. This is not new; you could almost say that is the Jupiterian part of the deal, although for a counter-revolutionary kick we might expect the impulse to be coming more from Saturn’s co-ruler in Aquarius, Uranus.

Uranus is currently squaring Saturn from Taurus, but what matters here is that Uranian consciousness is of another order, and represents the kind of tangential, atypical thinking that will prove most effective against the spread of the new dominion.

We might well be acutely aware of a need to bring about a conscious revolution, if not a revolution in consciousness itself, in order to counter this drive for extended rulership over our individual and collective lives. This too is an actualisation of the Aquarian impulse, but it is also very much in keeping with the current domain being engineered by Saturn in Aquarius, and the current square from Uranus in Taurus; this describes a tussle between fixed earth and fixed air, and between two very polarised planetary archetypes, and it makes of this a pivotal point in our collective story, if not our planetary journey in time.

For sure, this is not the first time I have found myself saying that phrase in the last ten years, and turning points seem to pile up complexity at every turn, but, one thing really has changed – these are intense times, almost like no other.

At the time of Venus last retrograde in Gemini and transition to ‘Morning Star’ mode, May through July last year, I suggested that we should bring as much energy, focus and passion as possible to raising a counter culture – we can still do this, but, the momentum and means to do so are being undermined by a war of attrition, one that is currently operating under the guise of responses to the global ‘pandemic’ which has become branded on our times and freedoms. The response must be equally infectious, potentially at least as pervasive and represent the means to an end that once and for all rids our home planet of the power hungry parasites that plague it.

Even though we are now living on the cusp of a great mental revolution, within the compass of a truly radical rethinking of how we live our lives under A21/30 and the so called “Great Reset” we are witnessing yet another extension of the same power of dominion that has been at work in the world for millennia. Its no surprise that the Saturn Jupiter conjunction is often referred to as the ‘King Maker’. Manifestation of the power of dominion is part and parcel of the influence that Saturn and Jupiter bring to the elements as they are embodied within each 200 year cycle. The UN agendas and Klaus Schwab’s brainchild, the Great Reset’, so called, are being built on socio-economic foundations that are centuries old. In fact, the last 200 years emphasis on the earth signs has seen incredible developments that support the current manifestation in mastering the physical realm; colonising the Earth with industrial power and machine culture has delivered us into a reality that is dominated by technologies that are now themselves challenging their own physical boundaries and nature. (2)

That meeting at 0° Aquarius which began their current cycle, exactly in the midst of Saturn’s twin sign domain, Capricorn and Aquarius, lends itself very much to the transference of power from the physical into the mental sphere, and it does so through the lens of the ‘king makers’ own creations within the realms of industry and commerce.

It has reached its own turning point too; having created for itself a military industrial complex that is currently patenting technologies that manipulate space-time itself, the bounds of the known have been breached. The old corporate model, with its heavily competative machinisms of currency, has also come to the end of its material use by date, has outstripped its own market and is now transmuting into the brave new world of crypto-data driven VR realities. The virtual market however, once fully established and locked down, is unlimited. This could be, in fact almost certainly is, the precise arena in which control of the mind truly becomes the provenance of government, which is precisely what the word government means, only political power has spent much of the last two hundred years shifting its centre of gravity to within the newly crowned techno-corporate world, and that too is now giving the reality of political power a new structure and medium, while taking the meaning of dominion to new levels. The shift into the Aquarian era is being initiated through a collective transit of the digital, virtual world.

When Saturn crossed the cusp of Aquarius it was inevitable that the very structures of our social contracts, freedoms and connectivity would be brought into sharp focus – with Neptune squaring the Moon’s nodal axis through this time it should have come as no surprise that one kind of global infection or another would become an agent of Saturn’s manifest qualities. The pandemic, so called, is a Trojan horse, no question, as, by themselves the means for nudging us further into submission are far more difficult to sustain. The “pandemic” is the perfect deployment strategy, itself a perverse model of sustainable development. Only, we know what it is hiding.

Back in March last year it was notable how well the social restrictions that came into force, as well as their easing, fit with Saturn’s movements and breaching of the Aquarian cusp. The control of movement, imposition of restrictions on public services and social distancing spoke directly to the qualities of the ingress and transit. But Saturn’s journey through Aquarius lasts for twenty seven months – even though the ‘lock-ups’, for that is what they truly are, began with Saturn’s first pass a year ago, we are still only in month four of the transit proper.

So, the burning question – “what can we expect over the next two years?” – begins now to take on a whole new dimension. This is the temporal framework of the A21 Saturn return proper. Of course, there are many other planetary factors at work through the present time, but, the underlying theme of freedoms vs restrictions, so very reflective of Saturn in Aquarius, is now pretty much a constant, like it or not. So, we too need to capitalise on that, see it as a purposeful cause, and exploit it to our advantage. Two extremes are being created, and both are at work, fighting it out for the control of our minds.

At the moment this theme underpins everything, but especially within the mental sphere. Its potentially a deadly game, being played on a global scale, felt at the personal level, that can often seem as if the very fabric of everyday life is being dictated to on an archetypal scale. Saturn commands an archetype of control and hard work, but is probably better known as a symbol of death and karma. These are powers whose dynamics have been historically exploited through war and the assertion of political extremism by ruling powers to ruthless effect, often enough in the name of both unilateral and multi-lateral security and ‘national interests’, so called. Even while slavery has been its primary modus operandi, it is all, we have been and continue to be told, “For your own safety”.

The lesson must be learnt, before history turns full circle and it becomes, once again, too late.

Even the case of a perceived global health threat cannot, we are seeing increasingly, disguise the collective psychological infection that such archetypal forces induce. It is now becoming increasingly apparent, and spoken as such, that this time the war is being fought on a front that is, more than anywhere else, quite literally in our minds.

Some might say, “this is nothing new”, such is the reality of planetary upheavals, and even without an apparent pandemic, we are witnessing our planet sliding ever deeper into massive change, in fact, its happening throughout our solar system.

All the outer planets, whose collective archetypes are very much evident in the events of this time, are going through transformation. Neptune has been seeing massive storm systems developing, Uranus is flaring, and Pluto has recently seen a profound drop in atmospheric pressure. Planetary change is endemic, but, here on the planet Earth humans are busy, it seems, making matters worse for themselves.

It may be worth noting here that later in the year, August/September, all the outer planets, along with Saturn and Jupiter, will be retrograde for a period. We will need learn how to metabolise and integrate the experiences we are having now in a way that allows us to make use of their archetypal power, rather than be used by it.

And, it helps to realise that it doesn’t have to be like this – that, in fact, is the point and our ability to shape our own destiny is very much in the spotlight. Our own personal destiny is being called into question and countering the forces involved may seem an overwhelming ask, but, the real change we might seek remains ours for the making, and, as has been said many times before, it all starts under our own two feet. Divesting of the dependencies and attachments we have to the digital world is a strong strategy, reducing and simplifying is a good strategy for beginning this process. This is a new skill which needs to be learned and developed, especially in the face of current limitations being imposed on individual and society alike. Its will require both reskilling in basic living, and a well grounded emotional sense of self.

These basic and vital abilities have also been under attack, are exposed as a weakness, open to exploitation by mislpaced authoritarianism.

The high level of restriction and disconnection that have been experienced through draconian and misplaced ‘lock-down’ measures alone can be overwhelming, and if prolonged, can induce high levels of emotional torque into the simplest of circumstances, a reality that, if sustained, will always have profound consequences – for many this is a disaster, symptoms of traumatic stress syndromes are on the increase, especially among the young adults, where as much as a 67% increase in suicides has been seen in some parts of the western world over the last year.

Right now the Saturn factor is very much present, and although its severity is under scrutiny and being adjusted, as lockdowns ease and yet at the same time remain, as a threat if not a latent underlying reality, things might look quite different were it not for the square from Uranus in Taurus.

Uranus wants to transform all it comes into contact with, and almost from the beginning has been affecting the stability of the regime which Saturn might otherwise reflect unrelentingly. Even more so, Uranus, although co-ruler of Aquarius with Saturn, is not playing on an even pitch with Saturn for, while Saturn is very firmly domicile, and has been on home ground since entering Capricorn very shortly before the December solstice of 2017, Uranus is in Taurus for the long haul and will remain in the fixed earth sign for five more years, by which time Saturn will have passed out of Aquarius, through Pisces and into Aries, along with Neptune – my, thats going to be interesting!

What Uranus is transforming within the natural earth realms, Saturn is overseeing through deployment in the human realm. Much of the context in which the deployment and purposeful use of Uranus transformation of infrastructures and resources is taking place, is being conditioned by Saturnian controls and limitations.

Uranus, it has been said, always wins out in their tussles, but, when these two planets work together, frankly, they are capable of changing the face of reality. And that is very much the applied planetary theme of the moment, especially where technological experimentation is being applied to the earth realm. The vaccination programme is such an experiment, although the technologies embedded within its midst are testing our future as humans to a far more insidious and irreversible extant than is openly admitted to by its architects, scientists and designers.

In case you haven’t noticed, and there are many, it seems, who haven’t, We are fighting for our lives. Under duress of an agenda driven with psychotic fixation on its outcome, time in its most rigid sense is not on our side. Saturn is, in the most traditional sense, the ruler of time and mortality and, if present trends are an indication, the Aquarian ideal is currently showing a very steely edge of inhumanity that reflects this.

The continuation of the ‘war on terror’, the 21st century’s defining oxymoron, which began this millennium has now been extended into and by the heady synthesis of medical, corporate and political determinism. Militarised against a common foe, its alleged enemy is invisible and pandemic; but, the big con in that war has always been about who exactly is in the cross-hairs. The threat, however it is packaged now, is mass die-off, and even though the hardware facilitating the infection of the biome with atom scaled nano-technologies feeds the subtle if saturating encroachment of a growing empire of digital enslavement, its primary weapon of mass destruction is, it seems, fear.

From the extremity and insidious nature of the Saturnian treatment alone which people worldwide are being subjected to, the more gullible and blinkered among us might be forgiven for thinking, and many do, that the real threat is each other – we are the enemy in the midst, not of a biological war against infection, but against self programming psychological and physical control of our freedom and liberty. This extends into climate and environmental threats, in which we are given to believe that ‘our’ part is totally culpable, until of course we get on board with ‘the green new deal’ and ‘build back better’. Its almost as if you could shuffle Saturn, Jupiter and Uranus, Taurus and Aquarius, and no matter how you deal them, as long as you comply, “the future never looked so good”.

As someone said, we are being encouraged to build our own prison, and to believe that we are being good citizens in the process.

The future is what we make it, and, if the new Aquarian era has gotten off to a disturbingly dystopian beginning, the uncanny thing is, it is all very recognisable. In fact, we have been carefully if not relentlessly primed to view our past as if this was inevitable, given the evidence. Given the prescribed role in remedying the situation, for all the posturing around carbon taxes and renewables, we should feel compelled, if not to accept it, then to know that role as an inevitability grown out of our own behaviour and ways of life. That, at least, is what the psychological terrain that we have been navigating over the last century or more has prepared us to think.

But, its a lie.

Cherished, common sense ideals have been co-opted into agendas and repackaged to provide perfect cover for the ultimate coup, no less than an attempt to overthrow once and for all the threat which free thinking human beings present to the self appointed architects of our future.

Its an impressive edifice of control, planned down to the last detail, its infrastructure of advancing technology and its magical ‘benefits’ the perfect Trojan horse enabling its roll-out. An immaculately conceived vision of deadly control, so readily mirroring Saturn in Aquarius and, through A21, the Saturn return from hell. Seeing through the lie is a part and parcel of dealing with that Saturn return.

Importantly, as is always the case with such transits, there does come a point of release; there is hope. Moreover, the emphasis this new era brings will naturally seed a counter movement, at grass roots level. Even though that too will have been planned for, the limitations and control leveraged against it are itself a rebuilding of temporal realities within the mental sphere, it is in our power to up our game and see them for what they are.

Where this operation against our minds differs this time is in its attempt at co-opting us into the transformation of the planet through a maddeningly complex and pervasive synthesis of the natural and entirely artificial.

We need to be aware and acknowledge that a great many of us have already been pulled into the honey trap with such ease and are now unwittingly entering the world of bio-computing, virtual, non-physical incarnation in and out of time as a basis for reality, and of our freedoms within its design led social transactions. Its blockchain shackles are right now dismantling the old currency of our consumer world and dangling the chrome plated crypto lure of decentralised enrichment inside a technological prison we are building keystroke by keystroke.

Be under no doubt. The global transformation now creating a virtualised financial market place that trades on human capital, currently priming itself on weaponised health regimes and performance oriented pre-determined paths of credit generating skill acquisition, will make virtual slaves of us all, unless we do raise our consciousness and our game around its reality and nature.

The way to combat it is not in simply avoiding it and attempting to build a new world based on restoration of care and natural health to this planet; left to its own devices, and those of its makers, there will be nowhere to run, unless we comprehend the nature of this beast, well enough to counter it. We must recognise its attributes within ourselves and, having identified their shadow nature, integrate them, fully, not as a reality become manifest, but as an accepted aspect and reflection of our own consciousness, being shown back to us right now.

A lifetime’s work, we must realise that intrinsic to raising levels of consciousness, we must also learn how to maintain it, work at it, daily be aware of it, moment to moment even, and in so doing be willing, in the spirit of an integrated Saturn Uranus archetype, if such a thing exists, to work at raising it further, to the highest level we can in fact.

Here Saturn teaches us our limitations by default. The hard problem of the moment teaches us the value of our efforts. In essense it reveals the hidden gift, of surrendering to the effect of searching for the light, of reaching for the ideal it represents, namely and inevitably that we will encounter the reality of our own shadow on the way.

The covert journey into transhumanist, digital slavery, has been hidden for long enough beneath the road that leads to the desirable outcomes which we most are seeking to realise ‘for the sake of the world’. Those desirable outcomes are repackaged and sold back to us through agendas and new deals which we see evolving rapidly in the world right now, and all of this is a mirror of that shadow.

It does well to remember Jung’s admonition, “Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is”.

For many, because our very aspirations and good intents are being used against us to fulfil those agendas and new deals, the shadow we encounter in the process of exposing their reality will almost perfectly fit the shape of own own. We are called upon to know and understand this relative reflection of the inner and outer worlds, to grasp the vitally important interplay of its dynamic within our own lives and experience, and the part we are playing in its dissemination right now. To be cognisant of the nature of our resistance to it, which may in fact at an unconscious level be feeding its dissemination, is essential – focusing on the light, and our light alone, is not only not enough, it will inevitably feed that shadow, and its manifest presence in the world.

These are hard Saturn in Aquarius lessons in which our consciousness is the field and locus, and we are the compass of our own journey. Any journey into consciousness that seeks enlightenment will inevitably lead to an encounter, our personal encounter, with the unconsciousness, and not only our own but, importantly in our times, the manifestation of the collective unconscious, so called, very much the locus of the shadow of our times and human presence.

The Aquarian age demands our realism, right from the get go, and Saturn, working with Jupiter and Uranus to disseminate and inspire the work this involves, is making damned sure we get this vital realisation.

Not all will……but, its the ones that do who will prevail.

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Last image : “Shelter to Opening”, by Autumn Skye Morrison

Notes

(1) It was Niki Raapana Friedrich who alerted me to this fact. I highly recommend her books and seeking out the work she has done with her daughter Nordica Friedrich around the history and current manifestations of Communitarianism. These include :

“2020: Our Common Destiny and the Anti-Communitarian Manifesto”
ISBN : 9780981451923

https://nikiraapana.blogspot.com/2013/06/community-versus-community.html

http://www.nord.twu.net/acl/

(2) Klaus Schwab’s natal chart is truly lit up at the time of writing – I will be exploring the transits now in effect in a subsequent post.

Uranus In Taurus 1 – Freedom From The Known

First Things First

You need to decide at some point in your life whether you are more in love with what you know or what you don’t know.” (1)

This is the first of three articles which unpack the seven year transit of Taurus by Uranus, ‘the change maker’. The aim is to look unflinchingly at the prospects which this transit holds for us. Being unflinching above all means remaining grounded and allowing the power of the moment to speak to us and flow through us.

With Uranus involved anything is possible. We can expect everything from revelation, inspiration and profound transformation to shock, trauma and extreme disruption so grounding also means acknowledging the objects of our fears without giving way to fear itself.

Taurus is the primary matrix here, Uranus the catalyst – it is our own experience and nature, who we really are at root, which makes the difference.

The nature of our insecurities and the power of ‘attachment’ are among the many things that Taurus can teach us. Through Taurus we learn how love and appreciation can give value to ‘the things’ of life, a primal lesson which helps us to ground in life and goes towards developing a worldly sense of self.

The true test of such value is in whether we are able to change our perspectives and sacrifice the objects of our desire for a higher set of priorities. Through Uranus such ‘values’ and the ability to love and appreciate in which they are founded are taken to another level, re-prioritised regardless our intent.

With Uranus it is not unusual for breakthrough to be accompanied by breakdown. This can arrive fully loaded and uncomfortably ‘up-close’, in fact, rarely with Uranus does the reality we breakthrough to resemble our expectations. But, while Uranus can truly show us what we are made of, it can also push us beyond our limitations and reveal aspects of ourselves which we did not know existed. Uranus challenges us to grow.

So what happens if we choose otherwise, to hunker down with what we already know, so to speak – where growth, or Uranus, is resisted or the need for growth not being met, oppression and depression will often enough flag up the imperative need for change and, until we do, we might well feel as though Saturn is weighing down on our lives.

In our times this test has begun to take on a particular shape.

Initially, Uranus is briefly visiting Taurus, giving us a taste of what is to come, before returning to Aries in November 2018 for five months. The brief reprise of the Aries transit provides an invaluable opportunity for a recap; Uranus then begins its uninterrupted seven year transit of Taurus in March 2019.

Bringing the potential for transformative experiences to the sphere of fixed earth this will be a transit of two distinct halves and the qualitative difference between these two periods is pronounced.

The first period is marked by a sustained square between Uranus and Saturn, the second by an equally sustained trine between Uranus and Pluto with Neptune sextile both at their midpoint.

We must go through the rigors of the square and learn as much as we can from the experiences it brings before we can truly make the most of the trine which follows.

An Overview

We are looking ahead, into a period that begins in 2019 and extends through to 2026. Why does it matter now?

With Uranus in Taurus until November we are in a preliminary zone to Uranus transit proper and also have the opportunity to re-assess Uranus seven year transit through Aries; it will then be 76 years before Uranus visits the cardinal fire sign again – from this perspective alone this represents a unique moment in time which provides us with the opportunity to adjust our thinking, with at least some awareness of ‘what is coming’ to hand.

Consider how the world has changed in the last seven years.

It is a contemporary truism to say that much in the way modern humans run human and planetary affairs suffers from chronic short-termism – the world would look very different were this not the case. Much now rests upon humans ability to change this state of affairs.

If we took ‘the longer view’ more often, incorporating it into our choices and vision of the future could we have been better prepared for that period, made better choices, and if we could, would we be better prepared now for whats coming in the next seven years? These are small timescales, manageable but a microcosm of the longer view we should be taking. It is as if real foresight and preparation were alien to us.

As we enter the first phase of Uranus transit we might find ourselves confronted with the need to decide whether it is better to rely on tried and tested ways of meeting the challenge of these times, or to allow change itself to change us. If it hasn’t been registering on our personal radar already, the value of foresight and preparation will soon become more apparent.

The Saturn Uranus square however brings a deeper alchemy to Uranus transit of Taurus; we must also consider the problem of ‘the meeting and synthesis of disparate forces’, a truly Uranian paradox with, potentially, a surprisingly Saturnian outcome.

Synthesis is not impossible between these two planets, they are after all considered by many to be the co-rulers of Aquarius. Common ground between them reveals that there is, in fact, nothing covetous about astrological Saturn or Uranus. Both involve a stoic disregard for the sentimental, if through very diverse means. Theirs is a curiously abstracted world, for all its physicality and direct impact, and between these two planets a higher level of choice must be consciously resolved.

In synthesizing these common elements a startlingly clear qualitative picture of our future is revealed. As dispassionate as it appears, it seems our future has a clear cut if not razor sharp edge to it. We need to look carefully at this prospect and decide what it excludes that we regard as essential, priceless and most desired. To consider how these elements will be integrated by us into our future, and discern what shape their synthesis might take, is our responsibility.

Would that the choice between Saturn and Uranus were so clear cut. The square will pressure us, challenge us to choose first, ‘pushing our buttons’ in the process. True, one choice leads downward, towards the already manifest world, the other upwards towards a world about to come into being – but this is not unfamiliar territory as there are many times in our lives when we must choose between the security of the known, with all its comforts and seemingly life affirming affiliations, and the outright thrill, the life renewing charge of the unknown, its promise of risk and growth, its innate sense of adventure and discovery. At a micro level we may not even be aware of having chosen one way or the other.

Although Peterson, in the quote at the head of this article, gives the decision a somewhat heroic stature, it is not unusual for the unconscious to be the arbiter in this choice, or to be the place out of which synthesis arises, and Uranus can facilitate direct experience of unconscious content.

Interestingly, a comparison between the predominant relationship that humans now have with nature and that between humans and the unconscious reveals that, to a significant extent, they mirror each other. The contemporary caveat is that whereas the unconscious is the primary field out of which synthesis can emerge naturally, humans suffer the same sense of alienation towards both nature and the unconscious and do not easily identify with the unconscious and its creations. The reality of their existence, like much of nature, for all our knowledge and insight remain a mystery to us.

After millenia of divergence between the mind of nature and human consciousness humans have adjusted to an experience of life which inevitably revolves around the fact of separation and the experience of not knowing. We primarily compensate for the insecurity this evokes with ‘progress’, rather than integration. Technological progress has not only contributed to this state, it has been fueled by it, a vicious circle that has further divided the world, primarily in terms of those who have access to technology and those who don’t. Neither is this simply a reflection of uneven distribution of wealth and resources; much of the technology which arrives in the public arena has already been far surpassed outside of the public realms.

Identifying, perhaps out of need, more readily with Saturnian certainty, such divergence carries pathological weight and humans are, for the most part, in desperate need of reconciliation with the powers of nature. This is a need central to their own well-being, a healing process in which an approach towards synthesis between the unconscious and conscious self is sought, wholeness being symbolic of something resembling their reconciliation. At the core of this process, which we are all involved in, consciously or not, is reconciliation with the shadow, with rejected and denied aspects of ourselves.

In medicine work this is an essential step, intended as an empowering experience as it is a step which once taken remains to be taken, familiarity with our own shadow dynamics being essential to its empowering nature. Uranus again provides ample opportunity for us to develop the much needed familiarity.

Such synthesis does already exist, has been integrated into human culture before, and can yet be found, primarily at an individual level, but humans have lost claim to it as a species. The Uranus transit of Taurus brings a glimmer of hope for its recovery.

Peterson, however, wants us to make a conscious choice first and foremost, to let our passions speak reason, and in so doing, for us to sense the intelligence behind the life force, the direction in which it is flowing in within our lives. Although these are choices which are constantly present, he is suggesting that when pressured into awareness, as when Saturn and Uranus are at odds for example, these are decisions we come to at those critical junctures where we sense a certain irreversibility about the outcome of our choice. They mark watershed moments which affect our lives thereafter. This too reveals the quality of the moment we are now entering.

Lessons In Choice

This quality, of irreversibility, has been building since Uranus first met with Jupiter on the Aries cusp in 2010; coincident with the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, this was a time marked by a Uranus Saturn opposition. Something began to change then, as if a decision had been made somewhere outside of the human sphere – if a line had been crossed, this was its consequence.

If we had seen previous disasters connected with the power generation industry escalating we were still living very much under the shadow of Chernobyl. The human response to what was probably the worst disaster of its kind known of at that time, was to go for Saturnian ‘containment’; in the aftermath, acting as if our knowledge and an exclusion zone was sufficient, we carried on regardless.

At Chernobyl’s Saturn return, some 30 years on, ‘containment’ and the reliability our knowledge was showing its weakness. The concrete casing erected to enclose the stricken power plant was found to be decaying and it became obvious that a new solution would be needed. Once again, however, containment was chosen, and a new ‘improved’ metal shell was devised to attempt cutting the radioactive core of Chernobyl off from the outer world.

If present technology is the determining factor here, ironically it is the lack of Uranian inventiveness and insight that is lacking; a classic example of humans once again showing the limited degree to which they are capable of learning from history, and failing to see the elephant in the room, some would argue ‘deliberately’.

The sealing of fate, as it were, was determined even more indelibly so however when Uranus finally entered Aries for its seven year transit of the cardinal fire sign in March 2011. This time has been irrevocably forged within present and future human history, no less so than through the catastrophic meltdown at Fukushima.

A quarter of a Saturn cycle after the event, Fukushima’s devastating impact on the biosphere and human life is still denied for the most part – once again Saturnian thinking has prevailed, this time equivalent to containment of the ‘shocking truth’, truth which has Uranus written all over it. The radiation cannot be contained this time.

This time we saw Saturn oppose Jupiter, suitably mirroring the polarity of the dynamic surrounding Fukushima, and found Uranus squaring the Moon’s nodes, just as it is now doing.

At the time of Fukushima the north node was separating from Uranus; now they are converging, as are we with an inevitably transformative future. In fact, Uranus will meet with the lunar north node in the second decan of Taurus at the midpoint of its seven year transit. Humans are far from impervious to the realities reflected in this subtle astrological factor, however.

In our times we face, and know we face, a great need. If these are rapidly developing times, with focus split many ways, while some issues may appear forced the uncertainty of what each day will bring is considerably ramped up. When there are simple answers, quite often there are no simple pathways to realizing them, especially when dealing with ‘planet sized’ problems.

Which, we must ask, is being reflected most here, Uranus or Saturn, and which would help us most; while our decisions become more crucial, such a foretaste of their dynamic is invaluable to us.

We know that the scale of these problems can no longer be downplayed, or the decisions they demand of us deferred to some ‘more suitable’ time.

Peterson’s choice is similarly based on a such a need; the longer it is not met, the more imperative it becomes – not choosing Uranus does not avoid it, neither can we sidestep Saturn. The lesson that needs to be learned from history here is that ultimately not only are our choices partial when we do make them, but our methods of choosing are not up to the task.

Through making either/or choices we create an either/or world.

Uranus and Saturn do provide some insight here – even though the apparent irreconcilability between Saturn and Uranus can be answered in two very different ways, it too is always about letting go. On the one hand is letting go into sufficiency and security, on the other is letting go of sufficiency and security.

At first glance these appear to be very Taurean issues. If both involve a specious ‘freedom’, the chosen outcome of the one reflects a very ideologically grounded conservatism, almost the epitome of Saturn, while the other reflects an untethered and potentially evolutionary radicalism. In fact, Uranus was famously described by Jeffery Wolf Green as the planet associated with ‘freedom from the known’, and there-in lies one of the psychological and emotive underpinnings of these times.

Uranus will test our insecurities in all their forms through its transit of Taurus, and especially under the square with Saturn, until we allow the values which inform how we meet those insecurities to be determined anew.

It is, at base, a matter of learning respect, at its most fundamental level, not as it has been learned in the past, through force and threat, but, through deeper insight and understanding, the higher level of Taurean love and appreciation. A glimmer of Taurus opposing sign can be seen at work here, but, more on this further down the road.

The Politics Of Experience

Collectively, humans have shown that working with this dynamic of choice presents a major stumbling block; history, distant and recent, tells us that the mechanisms for expressing unified and liberating choice are either brutal, inadequate, blinkered by the demands of the moment or are simply overridden in time, even in revolutionary contexts. There are few exceptions but outcomes are short lived, easily upturned, and often enough are shown to have been underwritten by deception, the shadow side of the human predilection for storytelling, a predilection we have developed, curiously enough, as a way of being more deeply involved in the story of which we are already a part.

That the shadow should so readily enter here is indication of an open or at least ‘latent’ wound, primarily one connected with the delusional consequences of inner division, consequences connected directly with disempowerment and suppression of  the free spirit and natural state of the soul.

In this time, and very much in this vein, the shadow can often be seen lurking beneath the agendas of globalism and extremist ideologies of the far left, and right, just as much as it can be seen in the past which surrounds the founding of constitutional rights and ‘the Republic’. The Uranian qualities of the libertarian mask all too often conceal the Saturnian authority of control and hierarchic intolerance.

Nothing, we should realize, is immune from the shadow, any more than it is from challenge or reform, but, in the human world the most powerful defense of values will always be found where individual liberty and choice is undermined in the process.

We should remind ourselves here that the rights of ‘personhood’ are now simultaneously being raised in defence of both Nature and Corporations, a simultaneity which very much fits the Uranus Saturn dynamic. We would also do well to remember that political democracy had its roots not in the casting of votes, but in the drawing of lots, a very Uranian means to deciding Saturnian ends. (2)

Individually, however, the personal power of choice, even under duress, remains. Even in democratic application, and even though it is equally open to falsehood, at an individual level such power of choice is also more readily informed by conscience and awareness. At the same time, whereas the crowd tends to embody consensus, the individual is a lightning conductor for inspiration and the unique.

Such is the nature of the human spirit; it is essentially Uranian by nature, and knows and carries within it the true meaning of freedom, transcending the Saturnian boundaries between death and life – it is no accident that, historically, it has been subject to heavy suppression and dis-empowerment; its innate power will always present a challenge to the status quo.

It is no accident either that Uranus and Saturn are so deeply connected with the changing of the Ages. The dynamic between individual and society will take on new forms and create new structures to abide in under the Aquarian template. Old ways will inevitably fall away in the process – the question here is how much will humans be able to let go into and integrate their own decisions within this process.

Saturn will be in Aquarius squaring Uranus in Taurus through the first half of Uranus transit. The future we can envision may well be limited by the extent to which we can envision it, but our ability to envision it will be dependent upon radical transformations that we will see within the earth sphere. (3)

As above so below, as within so without, risk is at the core of the choices we make and this psycho-emotive reality lives within us, we know it and feel it. It is one of Uranus calling cards.

Even though Uranus is antagonistic to Saturn’s stability, paradoxically the way through Uranus can in fact lead to stability, realised at a higher level; if the choice is left to spirit, it will always choose the path of ‘freedom’. Discovering the ‘how’ of this is a part of the gift these two planets offer at this time.

This will be the focus of the third part of Uranus in Taurus; however, before we go there we must take our diagnosis to where Uranus brings change to Earth itself, and an entirely different form of ‘freedom from the known’.


(1) Quote attributed to the psychologist Jordan Peterson

(2) The drawing of lots, or Sortition, was used to elect the public officials who served within the city states of ancient Greece. Its underlying rational was that it effected absolute equality through its process.

(3) Although I do not give much weight to the planetary rulership of signs in these articles, where it does make sense here is in considering the rulership of Taurus not through Venus but through Earth itself. I have borne this in mind throughout this interpretation; however, in the article following this short series I will be exploring one of the themes arising further, through an astrological example set by Venus which is particularly relevant to the Uranus transit of Taurus, namely ‘initiation and “the mysteries” ‘.


Illustrations

Top : “The Space Between” by Rob Purday, 2015

Second & Fourth : Butoh Theatre, Sankai Juku

Third : “Skeleton Woman And The Hunter“, an illustration
by Rob Purday & Nooshka Storm, 2012

Mars, Saturn And The Horns Of A Dilema


The full lunar eclipse in the fifth degree of Aquarius on 27th July 2018 is conjunct Mars. Most astrological analysis seems to be centering on the eclipse itself, caught between the horns of two partial solar eclipses and the longest in duration for some time. But Mars, forming its first prolonged aspect to Saturn since they began a new cycle in Capricorn, is the focus, the primary input.

Even if you are only expecting all things ‘heat’ related to be under the Mars lens, the lunar eclipse itself begins to take on a different appearance.

In semi-sextile with Saturn Mars is asserting itself as an independent energy, attempting to break free of the old time keeper’s influence, and here the imprint of their new cycle is showing its first teeth. This drive for self determination is essential to the trajectory of the moment.

Mars met with Saturn in Capricorn on April 2nd 2018, in a region of the zodiac where self determination can be both celebrated and challenged, a place in which power, ambition and control are already hot issues. Pluto has been affecting this place for the last decade and its purge of the cardinal earth has not been easy for those already in power, or coming into power, especially the self appointed demiurges who would play with our fates. But when this is the basis upon which Saturn and Mars initiate their new cycle we are promised fierce restructuring of our daily lives as all layers of power are affected. The question is, does this come about through our own volition and, if not, then what can we expect? Their previous cycle began when these two planets last met in Sagittarius, August 2016 – can that cycle offer any indications?

Given Saturn and Mars last meeting hovered around the star Antares it might well have been expected that a theme would be set around war, its antithesis, the violation of boundaries and a desire to address the effects of sanctioned violence. We certainly got that, and, given the Sagittarian platform from which Saturn and Mars began, we should not have been surprised when an unboundaried socio-idealogical conflict was delivered into our hands.

An old problem with a new face, philosophy, ideology and religion once more demonstrated the raw nature of their fundamental underpinnings and brought us unavoidably into questioning the deepest of core values we hold. Perhaps more importantly, we were also brought face to face with the polarised state such fundamentals can manifest, especially when ignited at both ends. In the mundane sense, those ends would, crudely put, be represented by ‘protectionist nationalism’ on the one hand and ‘open armed liberalism’ on the other, the perfect ingredients for engendering knee-jerk confrontation, and that too is what we got.

One thing we should recognise here is how Mars and Saturn work together – there is no agenda to their partnership, it functions as a force of nature whose dynamic is one of internal contradiction which needs resolving and that in the process demands we face external extremes first hand. It is we who supply the drama, the backdrop into which their energetic bombshells drop. Mars and Saturn together are fully capable of upping the anti, in fact, in their way of working this is, often enough, their modus operandi. In a planetary climate which sees five planets plus Chiron simultaneously retrograde the internal aspect of this effect is exacerbated.

Fact is, as an example of social engineering through geopolitical means the debacle which accompanied their old cycle was, for those supporting globalist agendas, a masterstroke, perfectly preparing the thrust of the global narrative to take advantage of the Capricorn cycle and its re-appropriation of power, when it arrived. Well, it has, and it is the consequences of this thrust to which the Capricorn in us all must now apply our best abilities and most grounded qualities. This helps contextualize Mars at this eclipse. Lets briefly remind ourselves of the scenario.

A geopolitical and societal tsunami was unleashed during the last Saturn Mars cycle in the form of mass migration, its impact and the consequences of deeply liberalised socialist immigration agendas upon personal values. Generated out of a collusion between violence, spiritual extremism and the strategically significant humanitarian crisis which followed, the shell of philosophical and religious conservatism was apparently broken open, uprooted humans spilled out and the “liberalised” west responded with open arms. The tension created by mass movements of people away from areas of conflict, the exploitation of morality and ethics to meet the challenges arising from this and other related humanitarian issues, do bear the hallmarks of responses made to Mars and Saturn’s own collusion in Sagittarius. All inflammation and strictures, it was perfectly orchestrated, in fact. The rise in nationalistic protectionism similarly. These were the apparent horns of the dilema, similarly reflected through Mars and Saturn squaring the Moon’s nodes which were in Pisces and Virgo at the inception of their Sagittarian cycle.

Two months prior to this inception we saw the UK undertake to leave the EU and birth Brexit. Through this time Donald Trump was campaigning on a ticket which, just three months after the inception saw him achieve victory – it was a ticket which strongly reflects aspects of the Brexit imperative. Both results expressed the majority voice of the popular vote, a point which many who disagreed with the outcome even now find hard to accept. But, these only serve to illustrate the energetic and emotional dynamic being exposed in accompaniment to the Saturn Mars  cycle.

We have witnessed an over-spill, in human form, from war stricken regions in the near and middle east in particular during the intervening times, bringing new levels of questioning to the meaning of consensus, tolerance and democracy, all expressed quite graphically through an amplification of tensions and threat, if not across boundaries then certainly behind them. There is a sense that it must be done, Mars, at odds with a knowing that it must be contained, Saturn. Each carry their own shadow and it is inevitably the shadow which is the problem. Integration of the shadow, en masse, to be precise.

Backlash is not inevitable, but, when stoked by surrounding issues of free-speech and ‘political correctness’, as well as the constant media hype and the sheer irresponsibility of one sided reportage and misrepresentation of facts, there are bound to be consequences. Especially when, more to the point, there is an uncured and unaddressed powder keg of centuries of old enmities smouldering dangerously beneath the surface.

We could be justified in asking, what makes people so susceptible to such overtly propagandised manipulation? The effect of technologies on human attention and the mind, for sure. But could there also have been a reflection of the square with Neptune in Pisces which left its mark on the opening of Mars and Saturn’s Sagittarian cycle? Yes, but the fact that Neptune was sitting on the lunar south node at the time should have indicated the real need to take care not to fog over old issues when borders, religion and wars are involved –

“those who ignore the lessons of history……”

If, in the intervening time an element of drama has been allowed to escalate within this arena, with little doubt it has been aided and abetted by that other war, the ongoing one surrounding manufactured and fake news. Yes, folks, while the good people of Syria are defending their own, it is now the White Helmets/Al Qaeda who need rescuing, Justine time – the show must go on.

But, Capricorn is where this reality comes home and is either purged and made useful, or annihilated. Now that Mars is forming its first aspect to Saturn in their new cycle and is itself conjunct the lunar south node, the fog is being scorched off and we have long since passed the point of peak tolerance. Even though some governments are reneging, it really is vital that the relevant past be brought into the spotlight, if only such that humanity does not forget who we are and how we got here, and acts accordingly. There is no room for clouded thinking anymore, in fact it is downright dangerous, which is one of the reasons people like Jordan Peterson have such prominence now – it is all part of a movement and a dynamic towards reclamation of our lives.

Where Neptune was obfuscation, Mars is Action here. Ideology must give way to pragmatism.

Activating the forgotten past requires a great deal of energy and the best place to get this is from the ancestors themselves – petition them, with passion and fierce determination, for clarity and reconnection; the eclipse is made for this. Operating outside the constraints of time, ancestry and spiritual allies will pick up on the Mars impulse. Use it.

Act in response, responsibly. When a total lunar eclipse accompanies alignments like these the need for consciousness around the possible and perceivable consequences of our acts are amplified – they will have a more lasting effect.

We face old truths now, the better to live in days to come.

 

If the last Mars Saturn cycle saw the philosophical and heuristic basis for how we live and live together seriously brought into question, this one is going to be where answers found and insights gained must be tested out in hard core reality.

In a very real sense this is about putting the real world application of self determinism to the test, and especially at a personal level. This is essentially an “experimental” place we find ourselves in. When Uranus squares the lunar nodes we should expect no less.

Pluto has been preparing the ground for this experiment since 2008 and is now close on its own south node in Capricorn, but this is a far more far-reaching matter. Whereas the lunar nodes cycle is about 19years, Pluto’s own nodal cycle lasts 26,000 years and collectively this temporal frame of reference is now active and of the greatest relevance. At a collective level, we have now entered the natural culmination of the long collective Soul cycle away from the Cancerian polarity, with its own decidedly lunar collective manifestation. We have thirteen thousand years to think about and must put our findings to reconciling the opposites.

The alchemy of the moment requires memory as well as vision be brought into our desire to act in the present, under the shadow of this eclipse. Technology has beguiled us with its own alchemy, but if humans are indeed intelligent, and enough of them can extract their minds from a few square inches of hand held electronic miasma for a sustained moment, it could just happen. We have been led to believe that this technology is a form of power and that, while having it is enough to become endowed, using it is in some sense liberating if not revolutionary. But, for all its gains, it remains little more than a mental hijack which has removed our minds from our bodies for most of the day. There is a solution which does not involve the obvious one of giving it up entirely.

Earth. Always remember to ‘earth’. Humans will always be in the process of trying to find a working relationship with ‘power’, in all its guises; its hardwired. But, Earth…..it helps that relationship develop in a balanced and healthy way. Earth is at the center of the lunar eclipse.

The Aquarian eclipse is also a warning by way of reminder in this respect. Turn off your router when not using it, especially when sleeping. But, rather than getting carried away on the mental-floss of life, this eclipse, if anything is telling us to get our minds out of the machine and, with Mars involved, to “get the fuck back into our bodies!”

Reclaim your life and creativity!

How we use our evolving knowledge, our shared and communicated understanding of the world, our role in it’s planetary evolution, will begin to have a profound influence on the relationships with power we set about building through the current Mars and Saturn cycle. In fact the Mars Saturn cycle that follows this will naturally culminate the first real gains of this process, and that cycle will begin at 0° Aquarius. The significance of this threshold point cannot be over emphasised, not least of all because it is the exact degree in which Jupiter and Saturn will also begin their next cycle.

This is the time to take notice and act accordingly, to drop preconditioned responses in favor of deepened attention to what we are aware of and the ground upon which we base our acts. Whatever we do, just as it must ‘work’, it must continue to ‘work’ beyond our personal mortality, another Mars/Saturn ‘mantra’.

The simplest mantra you will see associated with Mars+Saturn in fact is ‘hard work’ – but, if we ensure that each cycle is built upon, taken full advantage of and its effects acknowledged this will also have the great benefit of creating meaningful work, possibly more meaningful than we can realize. If nothing else Mars and Saturn initiating a cycle in Capricorn needs to be made meaningful through learning the lessons of history and seeing what has immediately preceded us, what surrounds us now, in the light of what we learn.

What is being decided is not where the center of power is but where and how power can be centered. We live within a matrix of power, are power and can access power – its concentration at any point which abdicates connection to the whole is anathema to life. The answer to this conundrum is where Mars and Saturn’s Capricorn cycle will test our mettle to the max.

How human power is used, in all its multifaceted guises, will be the ongoing issue, but, there is now a significant window of opportunity for meaningful hands-on work around the degree to which the ordinary citizen, or humans as a species, can and will have a say in this. That window is  between now and the 2020 December solstice. That is when Jupiter and Saturn meet on the cusp of Aquarius. It really is no use kidding ourselves that there is more time; the couch is not your friend.

The next Mars Saturn cycle will also be initiated in the first degree of Aquarius, March 31st 2020. And we should not overlook the fact that Mars and this lunar eclipse are square Uranus, the modern ruler of Aquarius, now in Taurus, about which more next time. The indication is that the paradigmatic basis for how we work with power in our future, in both an enabling and an enforcing context, is in its most pragmatic sense very much being decided now.

 

 

 

Awakening The Tides Of Rememberance

The full Moon on Wednesday May 10th in 21 Scorpio is carrying a potentially deep and stirring emotional energy, and a focus on the individual as the nexus both within significant change and its apparent opposite, stabilisation. It sees the energy of the Sun in Taurus highlighting areas of life in which we excercise conformity, and this is reflected in balance by the Moon’s emphasis on the roots of individuality and inner freedom. There is a choice being called up between these two seeming polarities; but, the ‘personal’ and the collective, the hereditary and the ‘socio-cultural’ were ever entangled thus.

Where this inner/outer dynamic is harmonious we may feel the magnetism of life pulling us towards those things, and people, in which we find much beauty, correspondence and deep resonances. Mismatches between these two foci is where the tension of this full Moon is expressed most visibly, and felt most implicitly – either way, the affecting energy will increase in us a strong desire to either bed down into our culturally endorsed beliefs or to be rid, once and for all, of all that pollutes our personal lives which hinders us from expressing our true selves.

For a person who might be willing to go along with the mores and dictates of the society they live in, their personal freedoms will be expressed in relation to, if not directly in, the very terms of those ‘rules for living’; but, this also applies whether ‘for’ or ‘against’ these dictates, and where we have a strong sense of conflict present between our own inner needs and those predominantly manifested by society, conversely we are likely to feel an upsurge in rebellious emotions, an impulse to break free and establish a more unique if not unorthodox identity.

Both impulses express the same strong self clarifying desire – to associate with what is most meaningful to us. In sextile with Pluto rx in Capricorn, there is going to be a very real sense from this Moon that the time to give shape and form to these deeper emotional values is upon us, is now, that they can no longer be denied. Its a time for establishing identity either by staying within predefined parameters and abiding by their perceived truths or through using those parameters to differentiate and establish one’s own reality as the true benchmark and foundation for the future.

This harkens back to the strong impulse to ‘stand in our own truth’ of the March full Moon, and its development in ‘balance and right relationship’ in the April full Moon. The eclipses of March have set the tone and theme for this period and its culmination in August through September.

The Scorpio Moon’s impulse carries this theme and its emergent qualities forward, is an adjustment to the future, also reflected in the sign change of the Moon’s nodes, the north node now having entered tropical Leo for the next year.

This shift into a future oriented, self defining and essentially creative energy field will lend a bouyant feeling to the unfolding time, even where strong emotions are felt within. But, this is an ancient dynamic that is now phasing out of a prolonged period of antagonism, and the inherent division has morphed. It is now becoming more clearly defined between those who adhere to an old dream of the past, and those who have discovered a new dream germinating within themselves, the latter being the theme of the Venus retrograde that is now nearing its completion – this retrograde has slipped subtley under the radar, but, it also frames these lunar/solar events.

The old order is seperating away, even while it tries to re-establish itself, while deepening its inherent dichotomy. A new language is emerging from within the creative field of collective consciousness, its old counterpart now becoming redundant, its terms, like the old struggle between ‘conservative versus radical’, becoming irrelevant.

But, the truly radical individual here is courting a new and unknown social reality, is willing to draw more deeply from within themselves and their own personal truths than those endorsed by society. This is a society that is seen to have outlived its relevance and become both unrepresentative and false, and disfunctional to the extent that it no longer represents givens and universal truths. The inevitable result of this, an irrevocable divide, is leading to a breakaway movement, if not reality. Uranus and Mercury aid and abet this shift of perception and awareness. It is both ancient and new, deeply familiar and profoundly awakening, just as it is both poetically charged and reality expanding.

If the Sun’s trine with Pluto underlines this overall dynamic, whatever we do as a result of engaging with it, it must not only feel real, but be ‘real’  – many have had enough of the chicanery and subversion employed to prop up the illusion of the old dream, and Jupiter’s closing inconjunct with Neptune is pushing the issue here, incubating the new dream within collective consciousness.

On the personal level, given the collective nature of this Moon’s energetics and its widely affective focus, the sensitive degrees associated with it are in fairly wide orb, within the 15-25 degree arc of the fixed signs, and 0 to 10 degrees of the Cardinal signs.

The days either side of exact full Moon are also especially sensitised, so keep an eye out for indicators of how emotional undercurrents and drives might emerge, as reflected through your own charts. But, its that Pluto input that gives the cardinal energies of initiation and assertion the edge, so, the question is ‘where, and into what should we put our best energies?’

A positive use of this Moon’s energy might be to clear deeper blockages between ourselves and our ancestors, as these are in some way reflections of the same intrinisc dynamics which we are seeing at work in ‘surface life’ now. Their struggles have been carried forward and, in a very real sense, have been used against us while we are still living them out. Its a karmic loop which is ready and primed to be broken.

There is a fundamental power struggle at the core of this, a matter of survival and will, between those who have engineered the ongoing struggle, its ‘maintainers’, who might coincide with the ‘status quo’, and those who are clear within themselves that this status quo is stifling life and must change .

As the established power structures which seek to impose their power and will over our own personal determinism are highlighted, many of the political and social changes that are now taking place, which have increasingly been coming into the spotlight over the last decade in particular, are going to be in this Moon’s beams.

Social uprising is always preceded by ‘disquiet’ or disemblance beneath the surface, but, there comes a point where its energy must break through – while we won’t necessarily be seeing a new ‘Arab Spring’, the same ‘unrest’ has now become much more widespread and is bubbling away beneath the surface. We now have an opportunity however to use this impulse creatively.

To commit to this dynamic is to open more fully the channels of creative energy that flow from our roots, and this can bring real power to our personal lives if we connect with it positively. This is the energy we need to make changes in the world that correspond to our inner lives more fully, the same positivity and impetus necessary to freeing ourselves from the binding nature of the past and realising its inherent gifts.

Much genetic programming has become rooted here, a habituation of survival instincts at a very deep level. Radical by nature, how do we change this survival instinct from a negative into a positive? Much of the epigenetic memory that belongs to these instincts is collective, belongs in levels of consciousness that require a contiguous quality of awareness to be active, implicitly imbued with a desire to manifest changes perceived through the eyes of necessity.

The answer to this is in Venus retrograde, which has penetrated the dreamtime and fertilised the field, the celestial matrix, with a new and ancient dream-seed. Even though she is unaspected at full Moon, the celestial field conspires to support Venus as she moves toward delivering her story and arrives at back at 13 Aries, the degree in which her inner journey began early in March.

Mars has entered mutual reception with Mercury, each in the other’s home sign, and is squaring off to Neptune, the ruler of Pisces, in whose realms Venus has been travelling. The message she carries is gathering energy and awareness. Saturn’s long slow conjunction with the Galactic Center is a part of the same story behind this message – but, Venus story will be where we pick up this thread next time, and carry the energy of this full Moon forward.

As a hint of what is to come, here is a quote that perfectly sums up the theme of this full Moon and its relationship with Venus retrograde, in its most positive light :

“…..‘Awakening the tides of remembrance’ means accessing the gifts sent forward by our ancestors, understanding you are the sum of all that’s ever been of your line. It’s seeking to understand your journey, discovering the truth of who you are. And in that uniqueness walking ‘your’ truth, not another’s. It’s about freedom…..” (1)


(1) Barry Brailsford, chosen by the elders to be custodian of the histories and knowledge of the Waitaha peoples, who were already present in Aotearoa when the Maori arrived.

Top image : stone circle, central Mongolia.
Middle image : crop circle center, Silbury Hill, near Avebury, August 2009.
Bottom image : sunset at Poldhu, Cornwall.

Return Of The Thunder Spirits

circle-of-life frank howell

“……the companion Inyan created for himself was the Thunder spirits. Their form was so terrible that they must conceal themselves within a cloud, or people would go insane merely from glancing at them. But their purpose is noble. They are here to rid the world of filth. They are here to wash away the demons, like the ones who destroyed (and are destroying) your mother. Like the ones who want to destroy you…..” (1)


As this article goes to press the deadline to clear the Oceti Sakowin camp at Standing Rock approaches – 2.00pm local time. By the time you read this it will almost certainly have passed and the battle for Standing Rock will have reached what may prove to be its crucial turning point. Time will tell, but, we are witnessing a moment in history that could be repeating itself, seeking resolution. The background for this possibility is clearly reflected in the astrology that links Standing Rock with one of the most crucial and well known events in the history of the struggle between the indigenous peoples of North America and the armed forces of the European settlers, the battle which has come to be known as ‘Little Bighorn’.

The onset of Lt. Colonel Custer’s assault on the Sioux nations on the 25th of June 1876 and its eventual bloody conclusion on the 26th give us a timeframe in which to reference the planetary positions then, and the period from 22nd February 2017 to the new Moon/solar eclipse of Feb. 26th give us the relevant timeframe for their position in the present.

The aim of this article is not necessarily to forecast any outcome for the present stand-off at the camp of the Sacred Stone, but, it provides adequate insight and food for thought to alert us to a powerful correspondence between these two events, a heads-up to its signifiance and repercussive nature.

lost-warrior frank howell

The current planetary backdrop for the 22nd to 26th February 2017 sees a major T-square playing out between Jupiter rx in Libra opposite Uranus in Aries, both squaring Pluto  in Capricorn; Mars is within 3 degrees of Uranus as I write, just 4 days from their conjunction in Aries which becomes exact at the eclipse. Alongside this, Saturn in Sagittarius is connecting into the T square through sextile with Jupiter and trine with Uranus.

The release point of this T square is opposite Pluto, around the 16-20° mark of Cancer. Going straight to the correspondences we quickly find that they speak for themselves as Mars is currently squaring its LBH (Little Bighorn) degree – that degree is 19 Cancer. Mars will arrive at this degree on July 4th 2017, American ‘Independence Day’.

We find LBH Saturn in the 9th degree of Pisces, the degree of the solar eclipse on 26th February.

Chiron, presently squaring Saturn, is precisely on the degree of the LBH north node.

Although not necessarily acting as triggers the present transiting positions of the major outer planets reveal some of the qualitative tensions now being played out.

In the LBH chart Jupiter opposes Pluto from Scorpio; Jupiter is now quincunxing LBH Pluto, while Uranus quincunxes LBH Jupiter.

Pluto is also presently quincunxing LBH Uranus.

Mercury, now entering Pisces, is quincunxing LBH Venus. In addition Mercury is also in softer aspect to other luminaries in the LBH matrix, trining LBH Sun and sextiling LBH Neptune, and as the solar eclipse approaches Mercury is transiting the current lunar south node’s degree, activating awareness of our spiritual past and the legacy of events related to this.

In the LBH timeframe the Moon transits the present position of the lunar north node, not a temporal marker necessarily, but a transit that brought it into opposition over June 25-6th 1876 with Saturn. The solar eclipse is effectively activating these degrees across the lunar nodal axis.

This may be a time for closure to be sought, but, our ability to realise this will certainly be founded on more than transient phenomena.

Although the quincunxes suggest the tension underpinning the playing out of the unresolved legacies of Little Bighorn, and the disconnect between the forces now involved, the hard aspects and direct correspondences between the events by transit of key degrees confirms the connection. Mid points are also brought into  play and Pluto is also currently applying to the LBH Saturn Jupiter midpoint, directly tieing in the current T square.

But, it is within the present Uranus Mars conjunction that we find the most striking connection and transiting Mars is undoubtedly the catalyst, a warning that the unresolved ghosts, if not energies, of conflict are being raised once more. Could it be that Chiron’s position on the LBH north node indicates the that healing needed for resolution is finally manifesting, that its time has come, or will the wound of the past be deepened by these triggers? Will the ghosts be laid to rest or infuse the present with a spirit of retribution?

It is notable that a 26th Feb. solar eclipse chart cast for Standing Rock (14.58 UTC) has the current T square directly on the Asc/Dc axis with Mars and Uranus rising – Pluto squares from the mid 10th house. This carries a heavily loaded potential for resurgent and insurgent action. Strong leadership with powerful revolutionary potential is indicated in this, but, it can swing both ways and with Jupiter in Libra setting in the west, the eclipsing of justice is not beyond the scope of this chart either.

The Mars square suggests that conflict will continue to unfold, with Uranus potentially bringing unprecedented and traumatic consequences. There could also be significant breakthrough as a result of the enforced eviction. This may not be obvious at first but there are larger patterns at work in this and it’s dynamic is going to continue, and these dynamics are now applying out on a much wider scale.

lakota-blue-aura frank howell

It helps to reflect upon how crucial ‘leadership’ is in the current time and, in terms of leadership involved then and now, it is worth remembering Custer’s own downfall and its essential core reasons. He was an ambitious and daring individual, willing to lead from the front, whose reckless vanity was almost certainly his undoing. Without going into the well documented timeline of events that illustrate this at Little Bighorn, consider Sun Tzu’s commentary on military leadership in this light :

“There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general: (a) Recklessness, which leads to destruction; (b) cowardice, which leads to capture; (c) a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults; (d) a delicacy of honour which is sensitive to shame; (e) over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble.

These are the five besetting sins of a general, ruinous to the conduct of war.

When an army is overthrown and its leader slain, the cause will surely be found among these five dangerous faults. Let them be a subject of meditation.” (2)

Custer was undoubtedly guilty of points (a) and (d), and as (c) would suggest, was certainly over hasty and rash; he utterly failed to carry out vital reconnaissance and sought a greater glory (a delicacy of honour) in dealing what he hoped would be the decisive blow within the Sioux Wars. He faced strong leaders and warriors who easily matched his courage, but who also demonstrated the advantage of a superior knowledge of the terrain and an ability to out-think the Colonel – with overwhelming numbers on their side there was little impediment to their victory. If there is a lesson to be learned here, present leaders might do well to consider its relevance and application in our times. The blinkering ‘vanity’ of leadership is one of its greatest stumbling blocks, but, when the scale of resitance is growing, such myopic  leadership will see its misplaced values severely tested. But, the point of Sun Tzu’s strategies was always to avoid conflict and still gain the benefit.

No matter the nature of this conflict or how it plays out in our time, while the land rights of the indigenous people, whose ‘medicine’ Chiron could also be symbolically respresenting here, are crucial to the outcome. But, the scope of the battle has widened and we now see opposing forces of a different nature at work unfolding its dynamic on a much broader front.

An ancient opposition seeded in the far distant past, a struggle symbolised by the conflict between encumbent authority and individual sovereignty through the deeper polarity between the secular and the spiritual, is itself coming to a head, but, is doing so now on a global scale. Our human relationship with land and environment are at its center. Water protectors, choosing peaceful resistance over bloodshed, now oppose militarised federal forces. The people’s sovereign rights are overtly aligned with Earth rights and oppose the power of State aligned with vested corporate interest.

Entangled within this are issues around immigration and boundaries, associations that the current T-square and Saturnian influence are reflecting in an exacerbated state of national and international affairs, politically volatile and shot through with violence.  Thanks to innovative Uranian technologies and the power of social networking they facilitate, the current situation is deeply affected by both manipulative co-oercion and instant connectivity of a nature never before seen in the ‘historical’ period.

The stand-off at Standing Rock, encapsulating so many of these factors has, like the battle now known as Little Bighorn, become iconic and is deeply charged with these dynamics. Natural resources are central to both conflicts, gold being at the heart of the government’s landgrab in the 1870’s. Now the ‘protection of the waters’ from the dangers of the exploitation of such resources is at the heart of Standing Rock, and the same spirit is at work in protection of the natural world in general.

fruit-from-the-light-frank-howell

Protectors of the waters, of the Earth and of the people are uniting to defend sovereign rights and the honouring of lawful treaties. They share many of the attributes and aims with the Native American warriors who fought at Greasy Grass, the indigenous name for Little Big Horn. But, the nature of resistance has changed.

As Custer approached the Sioux settlement he drove captured Sioux women and children before his column of soldiers. Seeing this Sioux scouts alerted the camp and the warriors were mobilised. In our time it is the women of Sacred Stone camp who are leading the way in protecting the sacred waters, a restorative reflection of the peaceful resistance that the protectors embody. May peace prevail.

Such is no less the case at any site where the appetite of greed and disrespectful ambition is tearing up the Earth and being met with protective resistance. But, division has become deeply instrumental and the contrast between one side and the other much more stark. The stand-off at large will continue, so long as respect for life and reconciliation is absent and the conflict remains unresolved.

What prompted me to look into the astrological correspondences here were the clear historical and tribal connections and their dynamics being played out now at Standing Rock. Just as the State attempted to order the Sioux nations off their lands under difficult conditions on the ground during the winter of January 1876 , the protectors at Standing Rock have been given a deadline amidst adverse conditions brought by snow melt and heavy rains, but, it was a video that Chase Iron Eyes posted this morning that caught my attention and prompted this article.

Chase Iron Eyes is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, an attorney and activist who is also a member of the Lakota People’s Law Project – I leave you with the video in which he talks of the importance of the Thunder spirits to the situation as it is now unfolding at Standing Rock……

(1) ‘Coyote Medicine’ – Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Simon & Schuster, 1997
(Italics, mine)
(2)’The Art Of War’ – Sun Tzu, various translations

Images by Frank Howell – from the top :
‘Circle Of Life’
‘Lost Warrior’
‘Lakota Blue Aura’
‘Fruit From The Light’

Failing Magnificently

nine samuri

“The creative adult is the child who has survived”
Ursula Le Guin

Growing Pains

The August lunation opens with the new Moon at 10°58′ of Leo in the tropical zodiac. The Sabians tell us that this degree augers “spontaneous activity of the innocent mind”, a creative energy that loves to explore the possibilities of life, is open to the future, but whose outlook is still ‘green around the ears’ and easily swung by emotional energy. This childlike energy belongs amongst the people as awareness of something of great significance emerging into our world; but we do not know at this point what it is, the shape it will take, more that it is immanent and happening, an upsurge of ‘spirit’. It is a playfull energy that can inspire, wants to run free and yet, at this stage, is also vulnerable, needs to be ‘protected’, and the aspects to this new Moon bring out the tension generated between these qualities.

In traditional ways the elders, in their wisdom, will let the children play freely, but, will always keep an eye out for them and be there when reassurance, compassion and the wisdom of experience is needed. Its a community approach that values uniqueness, young and old alike. The Sabians clarify this, telling us that the role of tradition and grounded knowledge which the elders signify offers valuable protective space for the as yet ‘young’ to flower in. But at new Moon the Sun and Moon are in aspect to Neptune and Saturn whose own antagonistic square is actively breaking down the old to make way for the new. ‘Tradition’ and ‘the orthodoxy’ too is being tested out in the world, the tried and tested is giving way to the ‘unknown third thing’.


We are looking at a handover of power, from the old to the new, from the established formalised ways of the older generations to the innovative ways of another, younger age group under the stars. Walt Whitman captured something of the underlying sentiment at work here when he said,

“When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in
columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams,
to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomerwhere he lectured
with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wandered off by myself,
In the mystical moist night air,
and from time to time,
Looked up in perfect silence at the stars.”

The mutable square between retrograde Neptune and Saturn carries this flavour at its most philosophical level and this square has been at work since late 2015. It will continue through this year to revision our knowing and understanding, to challenge our beliefs as well as our capacity to mature, to step into the “mystical moist night air”. Neptune’s pervasive creative resource can be very otherworldly and Saturn’s knowing conservatism very down to earth ~ they are not in easy relationship. Goethe also captured something of the dynamic in their ambivalent relationship when he said “talent develops in tranquility, character in the full current of life”. For our dreams to grow beyond the known we must be prepared to take risks and accept the ‘breakdown’ as a part of the ‘breakthrough’, before we can build new edifices for our mores and ethics, our invention and learning. And, as Sarah Ban Breathnach tells us, “playing it safe is the riskiest choice we ever make”.

Walt’s tiredness with the old mechanical view of things was enough to inspire him to follow the call to a far less jaded and self-congratulatory place and commune in more innocent rapture with life. There is a deceptively naive beauty present at this Moon, both raw, knowing by instinct, and clarified in its knowing, the more clearly to see and experience Life. It is the soul nourishing innocence of one who has survived and taken their inner child with them for the journey. We too must trust that knowing and enjoy its mature transparency.

But, as Mark Twain said, “loyalty to a petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul”, and while the energy of the lunation may have a fresh and forward looking quality to it, the emergent awareness is also telling us that we are no longer able to rest in innocence and are waking up to those aspects of living in which we must find a new freedom, one that feeds rather than defines or delimits the creative expression of our souls.

In trining the new Moon retrograde Saturn also gives us the benefit of a more positive protective quality. There is a co-creative element at work here too, in that the creative energy is crucial and must be allowed to develop through its own experience and wisdom, given the space within which it can feel safe enough to take risks. Here Saturn’s more maternal archetypal qualities are revealed, those belonging to the all embracing mother goddess as Crone, ‘She who knows’ and within whose compass all arises and resides.

The Moon and Sun quincunx both retrograde Neptune and the Moon’s south node, and here culture and tradition is being pushed to re-envision itself from within. Antoinne de Saint-Exupéry captured the essense of this aspect well when he said, “if you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t asign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea”. If the ocean of imaginal creativity is to be explored we must have more than simply the means to do it; we need the passion, a sense of calling, and the willingness to set sail from the safe harbour of the known, the Moon’s south node. This node can provide us with vitals, essential supplies, talents for finding our way by skillful means and charting new territory, but, they do not represent the end in themselves – to some large extent that ‘end’ belongs in the ‘lap of the gods’ and the fair winds they may or not assist us with!

Pattern Recognition

In astrology this threefold aspect complex is called a ‘pythagorean triangle’, and this one (involving planets; the Moon has been triggering this aspect many times through this period) is the last of nine that have been peppering the planetary matrix over the last three months. The ‘uncertainty’ it embodies comes from the quincunx, an aspect in which an incongruity arises, a lack of relationship that calls for a new level or quality of consciousness to prevail; the ‘necessity’ is expressed in the square, where dynamic interaction between two different but clearly defined ways of approaching a problem is at its most difficult, in which the process itself needs to be raised to a higher level, regardless the outcome; the willingness to go forward together is expressed in the trine, where a continuous interchange of energy underpins the process and lends its qualities to the outcome.

Together this configuration of aspects brings a sense of uncertainty, necessity and willingness to ‘taking the leap’ together and the lunation will carry this forward in a positive way, if we give expression to its creative energy, allow its process to unfold while holding the tension embedded within its dynamic. In the words of Rabindranath Tagore, “when the string of the violin was being tuned it felt the pain of being stretched, but once it was tuned then it knew why it was being stretched”.

At a time when the entire gamut of worldly life is feeling the tension of this unavoidable process at work this lunation can be seen as a potential watershed, a place beyond which, if its positive side is nurtured, the emergent ‘new thing’ will begin to come more fully into view. To do so we will need to keep our eyes on the trends and currents that are emergent, to look for the patterns they are expressing, and build this ‘pattern recognition’ into our knowledge base, the better to navigate and work our passage. We will not see the pythagorian triangle again for a few months so the field is changing now and both ‘the inspired’ and ‘the experienced’ must work together, to keep an eye on the ‘weather’, and how it is changing. And that includes the emotional energies we are experiencing, together and in our own lives. We must not allow ourselves to fear, either failure or its consequences, but, the creative persistance that will prevail if we trust ourselves enough to make the leap, is the best quality we can bring to working through this time with the energies of this lunation.

Ice Cave Aurora

Falling Awake

As I write this the Moon is forming a pythagorean triangle with Neptune and Saturn from tropical Cancer, close to the degree of the last new Moon, and the sense of culmination is growing. It is a sense being enhanced through its quintile with Jupiter, 72° away in Virgo.

Jupiter is now opposing Chiron in Pisces and quincunxing Uranus in Aries. This is an aspect pattern that pulls us into a healing space that needs us to center ourselves in the unencumbered present, the kairotic moment represented by Uranus, for its fruits to be delivered. To do so these aspects too calls us to bring a new level of consciousness to bear, to pay attention to our wounded nature, to mature beyond the past and its grave errors and allow the moment to reveal the inner meaning of our history. Much of this revelation centers on invoking the creative energy of the lunation through practical means, and, Venus in late Leo at new Moon aids this release very creatively through trining Uranus and quincunxing Chiron.

This is about letting go of past hurts, while being able to accept our wounds, errors and limitations, so that we can not only mature as people but enjoy the collective freedom our hearts know we desire by embodying it creatively. It is a complex of aspects that supports the lunation’s matrix for growth, while bringing it into a more personal space. Go with your hearts desire but, as the Chinese proverb has it,  ‘be aware of your mistakes in the beginning!’

Buckminster Fuller once said, “Nature is trying hard to make us succeed, but, Nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment”, and with Pluto trining the Moon’s north node at new Moon the reality of Bucky’s statement is very much present with us as we navigate the transformational qualities of the times. Pluto is in a waxing quincunx with the new Moon and Sun but is otherwise unaspected as the lunation begins, and this pervasive sense of scale within the bigger picture, while it is a part of our growing process as a species, is not only hard to accept, but is humbling once it has been.

This lunation will close with a trine, from the north node, Sun and Moon to Pluto and pressure to take this perspective in will increase as we approach that time. In fact, the solar eclipse we will see as the September lunation opens will bring the sense of culmination to a head.

If we are to work with the larger perspective that the times require of us, and bring this lunation alive within our lives, allow its creative energy expression, the luminosity we each carry within will be our most valuable asset. As Elizabeth Kübler-Ross said, “People are like stained glass windows; They sparkle and shine when the Sun is out, but, when darkness sets in their beauty is revealed only if there is a light within”.

Failing Magnificently

The final piece of this puzzling time is provided by Mars who enters Sagittarius once more just as the Moon is renewing its cycle. Falling out of aspect with the other planets as the lunation opens, Mars is bringing a strong sense of purpose to the entire matrix, a sense that this is the time and the time is now! His journey through Sagittarius will see him meet with Saturn and re-ignite the burning issue of how we use our power to create the reality we are now experiencing in the world. War will be top of the agenda for scrutiny, not least of all as they re-unite on the fixed star Antares. As Thomas Jefferson observed, “War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrongs; and multiplies instead of indemnifying losses”. As the pressure for confrontation is tangibly increasing so is the anti-war voice at large in the world.

We can transform the world, we know, simply by choosing more peaceful means for expressing this energy, but our journey will be all the more magnificent if we can do so by transforming our wounds, and the understanding we have of ourselves and the world in the process. In fact, the one rests upon the other. Mars will accelerate through Sagittarius and spend a mere six weeks in Capricorn, where a conjunction with Pluto looks like a catalyst for significant upheaval. This might give us cause for real concern, but, as Hellen Keller advised, “we could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.” 

It is hard for us to continue to witness the pain and suffering being brought upon us by so much blatant misuse of power, and this is a time for mobilising the creative energy in the face of the destructive. It is a time when we might feel anxious, wrought by fears and doubts as much as by horror and a feeling of deep uncertainty about our future, but, there is some wisdom to be had even as we do so; as the Chinese alchemist Wei Boyang said two thousand years ago, “worrying is preposterous; we don’t know enough to worry”.

As the August lunation opens Venus is pulling out of a square with Mars and will be working her way through the Virgoan fields of healing and nurturing as the lunation progresses – she brings the dedication necessary for our time and our acts within it to really count. It is a concept that is at the heart of the most traditional of healing ways, that the world is in constant need of repair and maintenance; this is the basis upon which our healing must take place. When we understand that our true power lies in being magnificent in the face of this unremitting demand for care and creative giving, the world becomes transformed, a constant source of inventiveness and response-ability, a place in which love is the means and the end in itself. In that place we have the power to fail, regardless, and to do so magnificently.

As Venus approaches Virgo and activates the feminine wisdom of healing and nurturing through this lunation, and as Mercury very much at home in Virgo crosses the Moon’s north node and comes to meet with Jupiter opposing Chiron at full Moon, it seems fitting to close as we opened with the strong and down to earth voice of feminine wisdom that can help us traverse these difficult times while capturing something of the essense of the moment :

“Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both. Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up, gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected. But if that’s all that’s happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction. On the other hand, wretchedness–life’s painful aspect–softens us up considerably. Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person. When you are feeling a lot of grief, you can look right into somebody’s eyes because you feel you haven’t got anything to lose–you’re just there. The wretchedness humbles us and softens us, but if we were only wretched, we would all just go down the tubes. We’d be so depressed, discouraged, and hopeless that we wouldn’t have enough energy to eat an apple. Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us. They go together.”
Pema Chödrön


Images :

Still from the film ‘The Nine Samurai’

Nest sculpture ~ Nils Udo

Cave Aurora ~ Sebastian Saarloos

Gobekli Tepe, Turkey

Interdependence Day

“From opaque rock
springs clear water.
The skull’s hard cup
holds clarity.
Drink, traveller.
Be mindful. Drink.”

The new Moon on July 4th opens the lunation at 12°54′ of tropical Cancer and brings a much needed sense of caution and caring to the ongoing momentum of the times. The events generated through the previous lunation have shown us much, about the power of consequence and responsibility towards aforethought, as well as the need to hold the highest of aspirations before us, shared as a collective, and this lunation brings these qualites home amidst a time of turbulence and radical restructuring.

If the turbulence of the times is proving too much for you, this lunation says step off the gas a while and regroup – nurture and care for what is close to hand; even though there may be a battle raging outside, tending home and hearth and keeping the sacred fire burning is equally vital, giving to all our doings in the world their core meaning.

If on the other hand you are feeling fired up and ready to go, have donned your sacred war paint and can feel the adrenalin pumping, the lunation says, first check that your personal house is in order before rejoining the battle – that means knowing where you stand and what you are fighting for, ie. the true value of what you are leaving behind, as well as what you are taking beyond the threshold.

It is going to be a tender month, highly sensitive around current boundary issues, protective of vulnerabilities and prone to further bruising where the punches have already landed. But, embedded within the Cancerian field are sensitive points that indicate a much more far-reaching necessity for our times. Their triggering casts a much needed longer term view on where our current conflicts of interest could lead us. It comes down to remembering what the most important things in life are, before everything else.

With both Venus and Mercury in Cancer at new Moon this is perhaps a reminder that it is the women and children, the feminine and our future, who must come first in all our considerations. But, it is also a sign of the times that communications and money, awareness and values, are colouring the bigger picture.


gold_goosefeathers

As Michael Meade said in a recent video, we are experiencing ‘a world gone wrong’, and this is no time for narrow mindedness. That could well be the defining issue that not only decided the UK’s vote to leave the EU, but, puts the quality of this lunation into its sharpest, if not global perspective. Perhaps nowhere has the sucker punch been more fully felt during the last lunation than in the world of politics, economics and personal freedoms, as personified for example by the UK’s referendum on June 23rd 2016.

The foxes have been in the hen house – and, not just for the Brits, it is time to count our chickens. With the Moon in Cancer we should be under no illusions about the more far reaching relevance of this outcome either, regardless our nationality, but especially in view of our own domicile status, where-ever we are.

With the election of new European ‘Heads’ pending, stalling and shuddering in the aftermath of Brexit, and the US elections poised on a knife edge of legal investigations, also reflecting tensions between political tribalism, economic truths and social conscience, the Cancer Moon puts us in mind of why we are facing such tough choices at home. It also illustrates why the globalist economic agenda is falling apart.

Boundary issues and the domestic value of foreign currency are bound to be highlighted with this new Moon, and this builds upon tensions within the international flow of trade and commerce that have been defining the new partnerships now being formed between East and West. The NM quincunxes Saturn in Sagittarius and trines Neptune in Pisces putting international relations into the front-line, an influence that favours restructuring agreements and the dissolution of obstacles to ‘free trade’, where they exist. There is in this a movement away from not only the old hegemonies of ideological power, but, from old politics itself as the defining characteristic of their realisation, a point further indicated in Venus strong aspects to Uranus, Mars, Pluto and Jupiter at new Moon.

The British referendum delivered what may be the coup-de-gras in globalist ideologies around foreign investment, at least amongst European States, but the ripples of the vote reach much further – the TTIP was already all but over for Europe, with a unanimous vote ‘in favour’ necessary within the EU for its ratification, and five European nations now showing significant dissent. The dollar and the TPP will be coming under more pressure over the coming months as the USA’s 7th, 8th and 9th house planets, Uranus, Venus, Jupiter, the Sun,  Mercury and Neptune are activated. The USA’s north node in Leo is also going to be directly triggered by the next new Moon on August 2nd.

Pluto already opposes the Independence Day Sun that this new Moon falls upon, and, in the Brexit day chart Uranus, Eris and Ceres in Aries squared the USA’s 8th house Mercury in Cancer, exactly where Venus is now applying pressure. The talk will all be about following the money as the old ‘western alliance’ picks up the pieces.

The shift in power at the heart of the financial markets that was already underway is now being stimulated to firm up new alliances. Watch this space, especially in respect of new trading agreements between Europe and the East; there’s a new Silk Road being built and much of the turmoil in the Middle East is around trying to disrupt the flow of traffic along it. Who is funding who and to what ends, we may ask. But, that EU vote has an astrological signature that illustrates all to clearly where the real power lies.


In the last post, without directly referencing Brexit, I tried to indicate that the astrology favoured an ‘out’ vote win, but, with a certain inevitability, the planets have now pushed the issue of sovereignty even further to the front, and in so doing reveal something of the longer term focus that this historic vote brings to us all.

Of all the days that David Cameron could have chosen to hold the referendum on he chose this one! On June 23rd at midday GMT Ceres and Uranus met at 23° Aries and gave us the signature aspect of the moment – as mentioned Eris, an indicator of discord and disruption, was involved in their meeting, but, just hours later the deed was done and the UK voted to leave the European Union by a majority of just 4%. The tar-brushing that has followed has been a revelation to us all, and it ain’t over yet.

Uranus meeting with Ceres,  or Demeter as the ancient Greeks called her, only happens once in every 89 years – the parallels between 2016 and 1927 give much food for thought. Catastrophic floods and earthquakes took hundreds of thousands of lives during 1927, typhoons and hurricanes wrought havoc in the USA; both US and British troops were involved in conflicts on foreign soil, the Chinese regime became formally militarised and Stalin took control of the Soviet Union, the Irish Free State gained independence; diplomatic relations, not least of all between the West and the communist block, were stretched to breaking point, many civilians in both Europe and the USA were shot by police while protesting their social rights; this was also the year that saw international radio, television and flights become established, Heisenberg formulated his famous ‘uncertainty principle’ and Fritz Lang’s iconic film Metropolis premiered. The list goes on…..

The conflicts of the time seem all too familiar; we have not moved on so much as come back around to the same old story with the same old players vying for the same old ‘power’, and the future we might have perceived through the smoke and first flickering images of new technologies has turned out to be dangerously unacknowledged for its warnings and prescience. In some ways our technology, like our symptomatic hypocritical obsession with political correctness, has made us both more sensitive to and less resilient around the threats we share with that time. Interestingly a wave of influenza swept the UK in 1927 killing up to a thousand people a week as Uranus quincunxed Neptune, then on the Leo Virgo cusp; Uranus hovered over the Aries Pisces border, was transited by Jupiter in the process and, just as they are in this time, both Saturn and Mars were transiting the first two decans of Sagittarius in 1927.

But, here’s a curious thing – as the UK’s 1801 national chart reveals, Ceres was discovered in the same year and on the same day as the United Kingdom ratified the Acts of Union. The two are intimately tied together. Pluto’s transformative influence is still in orb of the UK’s Sun and will oppose the UK’s 10th house Cancer Moon in 2018-19. Ultimately, Pluto will trine the UK’s natal Ceres in 23° Taurus, by which time Jupiter’s exact quincunx to natal Ceres and the Moon, and semi-sextile to transiting Pluto will almost certainly see all former ties severed between the UK and EU. The intervening time is all about negotiating a viable path to the future, a path that must be forward looking enough to carry the wishes of the people, as the Moons North node will cross the UK’s natal Moon at the exact moment when Mars opposes Jupiter from Gemini, semi-sextile Ceres. Its all about the timing, not so much ‘whether’ as ‘when’. This was a result already written in the stars – Cameron should have consulted an astrologer! Maybe he did…..too many condemning fingerprints have been left on what transpired.

In fact, as the myth shows, Ceres knows how to drive a hard bargain, but, she does also has something to say about power sharing – while she gives the best of the plutocrats a run for their money, she ultimately makes them an offer they can’t refuse and, in the process, brings a new template to the table that rewrites the rules of power. She does so in accordance with natural law. Equal distribution of power through a balance between Pluto’s (Hades) entropic and her own negentropic forces was the bargain Ceres drove in the myth.

In this is a multi-layered reflection of the times, on the face of it a recognition of the natural wisdom of the goddess as embodied in the seasonal cycle on the one hand and of the power of the Mother, Demeter, on the other as fierce and fearless protector of children, her own somewhat wayward and impressionable daughter Persephone not withstanding. But, more than anything else this conjunction between Uranus, Ceres and Eris gave us an indication that a radical new direction must be undertaken, both in respect of power, the environment, the politics of choice, as outlined in Eris own story, and the fundamental balance between destructive and creative forces, all of which are being played out globally on a very human scale.

Interestingly, Pluto ties the new Moon chart into the natal chart of the UK’s queen as well, although this in no way intends to draw any parallels between Ceres and ER2! If anything it points up her own plutocratic role in the world. The July new Moon falls exactly on Elizabeth Regina’s natal 6th house Pluto, and Venus is exactly conjunct the royal north node and DC. But, foreign money was always the means to an end in filling the coffers of the so called House of Windsor. Perhaps the plug will be pulled once Uranus introduces a whole new set of values and rules into international trading when he enters Taurus in 2018 and makes three transits over her maj’s Sun at 0° Taurus – will she survive until her nodal return on his third pass, three years from now? Given the signs I somehow doubt it, and her passing, whether from power or life, will be another global history making event. The world will undoubtedly have already undergone many changes by then, as it is, but the Uranium industry will never be the same….


Its an odd Moon to begin a lunation with as sovereignty is very much at the heart of it all and Cancer harkens back to a time of tribal affiliations in which the Mother ruled the traditions that carried the common wealth of the people forward. This image and its focus is not arbitrary here either. Conjunct with Mercury in the July NM chart is the asteroid Kronos.

Many astrologers associate Kronos with the highest station of things, their own sovereignty, as well as their highest and most meaningful values, and it is through the search for those values in both our words, thoughts and children that Kronos gives Mercury his role in Cancer now. We are becoming aware of their future as the question in our own hands perhaps more now than ever. However, these are innate values, all too well known to our ancestors that are given a new reminder through this lunation.

In Cancer, Pluto, Jupiter and Saturn all have their own north nodes. This shows us a future, a commonality to all people alive now, and a key indicator of how our future could take shape in our own lives, and must in those that follow us. The power of life is nurtured in Cancer, our own ability to care for the Earth, for our human family and the protection of Earth’s children. The nodes indicate a way in which we can limit the use of our power according to a more deeply rooted, far-sighted and wise understanding, giving it a quality more at home on this planet than our current anthropocentric hedonism allows. There is a shared Cancerian quality of service as well as instinctive and empathic protection inherent in these planetary nodes, a promise that could be fulfilled, of new life under the Sun and Moon. But, we must honour our commitment to see it through and not succumb to the Capricornian temptations of the past, or suffer their wounds again.

The Sun and Moon meet at  NM with the asteroid Eurydike, the inter-planetary body astrology associates with ‘dependence’. In leading Eurydice back from Hades, Orpheus, for all his magic and boundary crossing skills, was unable to resist the temptation to look back and, consequently, the ‘plutocratic’ rule he had been asked to observe was broken.

It is a poigniant reminder that even while, in the form of Pluto, Jupiter and Saturn’s south nodes, Capricorn holds our ancestral memories of a past that saw the destruction of the Mother goddess civilisations, our focus must remain on the present and how this relates to where we are headed. This is how it is with the nodal axis. We cannot go back, not without great or even unthinkable risk, but, can however carry the gifts as well as the most important lessons of the past forward with us, in creating our path towards a future built upon common ground. In fact, our future and the Earth it is built upon depend upon it.

“From their houses, from their town
rainbow people come walking
the dark paths between the stars,
the bright tracks on water
of the moon, of the sun.
Tall and long legged,
lithe and long armed,
they follow the fog pumas
beside the wind coyotes,
passing the rain bears
under the still air hawks
on the paths of sunlight,
on the tracks of moonlight,
on the ways of starlight,
on the dark roads.
They climb the ladders of the wind,
the stairways of cloud.
They descend the ladders of air,
the steps of rain falling.
The closed eye sees them.
The deaf ear hears them.
The still mouth speaks to them.
The still hand touches them.
Going to sleep we awaken to them,
walking the ways of their town.
Dying we live them,
entering their beautiful houses.”


Poems by Ursula Le Guin from ‘Always Coming Home’ :
~ Bone Poem VI
~ The Madrone Lodge Song of Mica of Sinshan

Images, with thanks to the artists :
Stone Arch ~ artist unknown
Goose Feathers ~ Andy Goldsworthy
Inuksuk ~ traditional Inuit
Nest ~ Nils Udo
Balancing ~ Adrian Gray