Category Archives: Pisces Virgo axis

activism, astrology, Eclispes, environmental issues, lunations, Pisces Virgo axis, Root Medicine of the Stars

Between Root And Branch

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LIGHTNING-TREE-A

At 14° Pisces the first full Moon after the August solar eclipse shines down on a world awash with floods and scorched earth. Perhaps, given the water and earth axis which it activates, we should not be surprised that our attention is pinned on these events, but, this is no place for glib astrologising and there is nothing intrinsically catastrophic about the Pisces Virgo polarity that would explain the environmental turmoil that we are currently experiencing – that comes of imbalance and the exacerbation of already present extremes. True, total solar eclipses are comparatively extreme events, small within the cosmological scale but not forgotten once experienced – but even then, the release of destructive qualities we are seeing now from within the ‘natural world’ is not made intelligible by such natural phenomena, their cyclicity, or by reaching the ‘maximum’ of the lunation opened by the ‘Great American’ eclipse.

If we were to have telescopic sight, able to penetrate the glare of Virgoan sunlight reflected from the lunar disc, we might perceive the underlying presence of Pisces ruler Neptune close on the full Moon. But, for all its symbolic resonance Neptune’s smokey lens within this planetary set up is not the catalyst that has set the forests ablaze or pushed the rivers to breaking point. It may be an indicator of ‘pervasive’ elements at work and its symbolism more likely to create an illusory cinematic effect in our minds than lens Virgoan attention to detail into a coherent picture we can understand, but, this is a picture that was already losing its center and distorting our focus long before the eclipse, or this lunation.

Uranus, however, is not only rotating on its own axis at an anomalous angle to the plane of the solar system, compared with the other planets, but is at an oddly disquieting angle to the Moon and Neptune as well as the Sun at full Moon. Astrologers associate the semi-square with an uncomfortable energy, an angle of relationship that sensitizes whatever it touches with tension, a precursor to the full-blown right angled antagonisms of the square. This is nevertheless a spur to development, to find creative relationship through which the tension can best be relieved and expressed, preferably with conscious effort. It is a little like the moment of first recognition within a relationship when something or someone catches our eye; there is attraction, or a call to pay extra attention, especially when there are warning signs, but there is also a heavy dose of the unknown at work in that moment – as exiting as that can be, with Uranus involved ‘the unknown’ has a major role to play, so willingness to step beyond the known is a part of the deal here. At least that is an experience we can all recognize, but, does it account for the hiatus that is upon us?

Some would say that we have arrived at that point in relationship to the natural phenomenon we are now seeing escalate across the globe – the chaos factor is rising and living memory no longer serves to reassure us of how to weather these fire and water storms, symbolic or not, let alone whether we can, if they persist.

Looking further afield we could add that all the outer planets, including Chiron, are retrograde at this full Moon. The amplification of archetypes is a potential hazard here, first and foremost an inwardly registered experience when this is the case but all to often projected outward – however, there is an important element of psychological resonance with these archetypes when the retrograde ‘trans-personal’ planets touch directly into our personal planetary matrix. We can observe a collective transference or exchange of energy that displays their hallmark characteristics in which we may see ourselves reflected. This is ripe ground for emotional distortion, if we are unable to separate our own feelings out from the collective, and makes potential Neptunian infection and distortion of reality a stronger factor in how we relate to each other, our circumstances and perceptions. Full Moons up this quotient significantly.

What comes to mind at this point is a real need to hold to our own center, to ground ourselves and feel our body rooted in the earth. Virgo’s earth not only houses the Sun here, asking for realistic assessment, but sees Mars entering into its first degree at full Moon. What drives the necessity for realism is all too often our own survival and, our current planetary circumstances aside, this inception of Mars can mean determination to see through the emotional hazing and focus on what is immediately to hand, if not to re-purpose our emotive energies into practical actions and to do so with the fire of natural instinctive drives – passion for what we know is right. We need to feel the sturdiness and solidity of our own existence just as it might be embodied in and felt by the trunk of a tree, even while our roots and branches are being pulled towards extremes, between fires and floods. The last thing we can tolerate the thought of, much less the reality, is being blasted and uprooted in the midst of these storms.

Mars is transiting out of trine with Uranus releasing us from a willful desire to assert the madness out of our system, as cathartic as that may be to people in positions of power. World leaders take note. Now it is the intelligence of clear speech that is most effective as a mental or emotional reaction, not rhetoric or threat – bravura is a poor substitute for good leadership and belies a severe lack of concern for human frailty or vulnerability. Fully ignited Neptunian compassion would throw sufficient water on that false flag fire if collectively embodied and leadership that can inspire such compassion is a rarity in these times. The people are doing the leading here.

Keeping the faith with each other as a creative counter to mental crowd control, Mercury has stationed direct, on the degree of the solar eclipse, and is teaming up with Uranus to bring creative thinking outside of the box into the collective power game. This is no more true than when the power games are designed to shut down that innovative capacity we have, but, again, humans do not have to accept ‘representations’ of reality at any time and the Uranian element of subversive non-compliance can open doors where none were thought to exist. And we are now witnessing this reality too, first hand.

If it carried any symbology, this most recent solar eclipse was a wake up call to this fact and gave us the cosmological opportunity to experience a greater reality first hand. Its natural development has brought the need for an added edge of realism into the midst of everyday life, a measure of which is provided by the speed with which we are able to respond realistically to events as they unfold. For many, seeing through the rhetoric, the falsity and the pre-programming surrounding these disruptive events is now where the real action is.

Do not be surprised, once Mercury gathers speed and enters Virgo, to see a plethora of facts emerging that cut through the manufactured reportage and engineered reality-bites associated with the backstories to the floods and fires. Mercury will oppose Neptune on September 20th, at new Moon. It is already happening, as anyone tuned into the geo-engineering debacle knows, and the fact that the debate surrounding it has not only accelerated but entered ‘the mainstream’ shows that there is a significant shift taking place in the arena of public awareness. This is our opportunity to get with the beat. The beat of microwave pulses through heavily sprayed cloud bases for example.

This full Moon can be a powerful time for cutting through the fog of disinformation if we understand how important our own personal role is in supporting that shift and adding the truth of our own story into its impetus. If the Jupiter Uranus cycle we are now seeing crank up to their final opposition is anything to go by, its foundational development in environmental disasters and wayward technology is creating its own perfect storm – but, it ain’t natural to use heavy metals in cloud seeding any more than it is to use them as conductors for super-heating the cores of hurricanes. Yes, the impetus is growing in calling this particular reality out for what it is.

There is cause for qualified optimism as the angles between Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon’s north node are tightening as this lunation winds down bringing us back into a more realistic and expansive if philosophical creative vision for our collective future. Uranus will figure into the trine pattern with Saturn and the north node as we head past the Ju/Ur opposition and Jupiter enters Scorpio – any guesses where this is heading? Best be philosophical and expand our thinking accordingly; looking ahead we see Sagittarius hosting the Sun, Venus, Saturn and Mercury when the December full Moon arrives forming a T-square with Neptune, and Jupiter is upping the reality stakes trining Neptune at that time, all of this is coming immediately after Mars opposes Uranus – time is of the essence and we should not expect a respite, just yet. But, the power of nature is a great teacher when realities are being manufactured.

The Neptunian factor is not so much showing us ‘how’ we have been duped as to the fact that we have been, not least of all in that the philosophies of a nation’s ‘dream’ are nothing if they cannot be lived. Once that bubble is burst in any person’s mind there is no going back – the doubt we may feel about the reality we have been presented with has a cutting edge of critical thinking at its disposal, a personal human faculty which can not only spot anomalies as flags and way-markers for evidence based discernment but is an essential part of the knowledge base in which survival and healthy living are rooted.

But, astrologers love symbolism and this full Moon comes with a high dose of pertinent symbology, for any willing to take its portents on-board; its a free gift of the liberated mind that it can hold the metaphysical and the physical in one thought without losing a sense of reality – it speaks a kind of poetic realism where, in other words, poetry is the voice of the life being fully lived, both hemispheres firing simultaneously, roots in the earth, branches in the heavens, so to speak. It is a spiritual language, even in its secular forms, that reveals humanity and, in astrology too, tells us the ongoing story of our times and our place within it.

I will leave you with the Sabian symbols for the Piscean full Moon of 2017 and the Virgoan Sun that is feeding it as a symbolic reminder of where we stand. Roots hold firm, branches protect, we stand between, the body that connects and holds the flow.

 

(VIRGO 14°): AN ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY TREE.

KEYNOTE: A deep reliance upon the ancestral roots of individual character.

Stressed here is the fact that the power available to any one person in time of crisis and decision has very deep roots in the past……one returns to the roots in order to produce the flowering of personality, if this flower is to bring forth a living seed. ROOT POWER is essential to seed-achievement.

(PISCES 14°): A LADY WRAPPED IN A LARGE STOLE OF FOX FUR.

KEYNOTE: The use of intelligence and mental subtlety as a protection against storms and trials.

In symbolism and mythology the fox is always a clever and subtle animal. It represents the intellect at its early stage of “cunning”; in a broader sense, it also refers to “intelligence,” considered as the ability to adapt to any and all life situations. Spiritual will and the ability to stand in facing tests are necessary in any crucial or challenging situation that an individual meets within a power-oriented group. But the sword-like will often has to be shielded, and intelligence or acumen can be the most precious help in danger………..a self-protective way of meeting the inclemencies of weather, actual or psychic, which abound as one leads a life consecrated to a vaster Whole……the need for PROTECTIVE SHIELDING is imperative.

 

activism, astrology, Disclosure, Pisces Virgo axis, Politics, Root Medicine of the Stars

A Shock To ‘The System’

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After a solar eclipse we can usually expect a reset in our focus and a new turn of events in the mundane world which reflect it, but, the weeks since the new lunation opened on February 26th have been exceptional. The polarisation of opinions and shock of disclosure we are witnessing are unprecedented and affect us all – the release of ‘Vault 7’ in particular stands out, and as Julian Assange said of it, what has been released by Wikileaks so far on the CIA only represents about 1% of the material they have! Surveillance has already been shown to be pan-global and ultra invasive through this ‘leak’, but, revealing the extent of corruption behind it will deliver the kill-shot, not least of all as many of the links joining key protagonists will be revealed in the process. This is the time to polish up our skills in ‘pattern recognition’.

The stage is now set for an increase in pressure through disclosure. It won’t last indefinitely, there is a time frame, and a change of impetus will happen. But, right now, many different fields of action are working simultaneously, a good reason to step back and take in the broader view. In fact, this is mirrored beautifully in the heavens – here we will take a look through this lens at the impetus that is unfolding now, with particular reference to March 15th, as a template for whats coming.

The Vault 7 release happened exactly in sync with Mercury’s superior conjunction of the Sun in Pisces and hit the news feeds on March 7th, just as the Moon in Cancer was squaring Venus and completing a grand cardinal cross with Jupiter Pluto and Uranus – the truth hit home. As the lunation came to its head at the Virgo full Moon on the 12th of March and the news sank in the pattern started becoming a lot clearer, a true grounding moment – amidst systemic breakdown and factions competing to monopolise public opinion and control awareness, ‘the reality principle‘ is being tested and there is only one thing to do – raise our own game in the consciousness stakes and stand firmly in our own truth. But, this lunation has grown teeth as it has progressed and the trend looks set to continue apace. The ‘official narrative’is being unpacked for all to see.

On 15th March the waning full Moon steps over an energetic boundary that is like a live wire in our times. Acceleration of the energy and characteristics of the lunation on this day is mirrored in the heavens as the Moon joins with Jupiter in opposition to Uranus, re-activating the T square they form with Pluto, in Libra, Aries and Capricorn respectively.

Jupiter will move out of opposition with Uranus over the coming months, before stationing retrograde at 14 Libra on June 10th, quincunx Neptune in Pisces. But, by then another major configuration involving Uranus will have taken the impetus forward to a new state. However, the Jupiter Uranus opposition is currently alive and kicking

Given the historical and political significance of March 15th, the infamous ‘Ides of March’, the issues of established power, their institutions and resources, and clandestine plots to overthrow and initiate radical action against leadership, tell us the celestial writing is on the wall – although the date is echoed through many significant historical anniversaries besides Julius Caesar’s downfall, we should not expect a singular event to mark this date; rather, it is setting the template for future developments. However, with Uranus involved, you never know.The following image shows what significance the 15th of March 2017 holds as an anniversary of some of the milestone events of the past…..a very provocative list!

2017-anniversaries

Now is a time when we need to pay close attention, to the activities of our own mind as well as those of the major game players in the world. Where we find financial and geopolitical undercurrents being stirred up, how we react is all important as our own mental and emotional energy is being utilised to fuel an ongoing ‘war on our minds’.

This is pulled into sharper focus by retrograde Venus  in the 11th degree of Aries on the 15th of March. The financial aspect of Venus role here has already been flagged up in previous posts, but, as a seed time for major economic developments around and after mid-year, this is a time to watch – March 15th sees the end of the holiday on the USA’s debt ceiling, and a new level will have to be negotiated, something that astute commentator and analyst Catherine Austin Fitts sees as a likely scenario, given the cross-party benefits it will bring. It could also be the opportunity for more major social disruptions, especially as the month ends. This is emphasised by the Sabian symbol associated with Venus degree on March 15th.

The Sabian symbol for 11 Aries indicates “the central manifestation of a type of “order” which transcends and seeks to rule the emotional and instinctual drives of the individual person. Actually the ruler at this social-political and mental level of integration is often the one who is being ruled by collective pressures.” As they conclude, “it indicates a CENTRALISATION OF POWER at the level of a rigidly structure consciousness“. What the ‘powers that be’ are doing everything they can to prevent us from knowing is that this ‘structuring of consciousness’ is their game – in fact it is ‘the’ control game that has been happening all along, a millenia old manipulation. Now its inner dynamic is being acted out through a game of fake news and corrupt intel versus truth and inner clarity.

The involvement of intel agencies in this inner warfare is being emphasised and exposed daily, revealing the widespread corruption and rogue agenda of the CIA in particular, an agenda of unprecedented surveillance that is global in its reach – the war on our minds has taken on a new level of seriousness that reaches right into the heart of not only our individual lives, but of both the ‘superficial’ and ‘deep’  States.

In addition, March 15th sees Mercury quincunx and Mars trine the Moon’s north node, from Aries and Taurus respectively, adding pressure to the need to perceive more clearly the futures being strategised and rolled out through intelligence agencies, propagandist drives and disruptive co-opted activism.

Speaking of activism, it is now an almost banal if dangerous fact that the promotion and financial backing of mass rallies by George Soros is instrumental in attempting to bring about the overthrow of the encumbent US administration. In reality, his wealth is relative small fry compared to that of the ‘major’ banking families involved. At the same time, his treasonous actioning and backing of pseudo-political insurgence is promoting the outreach programme of a globalist backlash that more fully involves these ‘bankers’. Its a backlash against the fast increasing exposure of the ‘shadow government’ and their masters, the so called ‘ruling elite’. You can see the reflex happening daily in your news feed, itself reliant on our swallowing the bait the MSM delivers, whole. You have to ask, who in their right minds believes what they read now, unchewed? Divide and concur? Not if we can help it.

Mercury at 4 Aries sheds further light on the unfolding dynamic; the Sabians for this degree highlight “dynamic and unresolved POLARIZATION. It introduces the basic means – one might say, the technique – to establish consciousness in the world of duality.” The trick is to perceive both poles in impartiality, the better to see the bigger picture. Their opposition is also a complementarity, but, the divisive nature of events, disclosures and ‘commentaries’ is designed to subvert this view and prevent it from happening. What Uranus divides with the impact of shock revelations and tactics, Jupiter disseminates throughout the collective consciousness.

Amidst the ongoing push to polarise the political and public arena through propagandisation and co-opted activist infiltration into mass protests, it is becoming essential to develop this, the objective observer’s view point, that takes in an unbiased if accute awareness of the ‘bigger picture’. This is our mundane template, the raw material through which a higher degree of consciousness can be established, our ‘World Work’.

Pushing this necessity further, on March 15th the Sun joins Chiron in 25 Pisces, quincunxing the Moon and Jupiter, highlighting unresolved issues surrounding what the Sabians describe as “exclusivism, pride, jealousy, greed for power and wealth” in relation to this degree. This planetary aspect pushes for us to become as fully consciousness as possible of the cognitive dissonance involved. Within this, becoming aware of the relationship between stress induced confusion and blinkered polarisation into ‘side taking’ needs to be sourced back to how the issues, as they are indicated by the Jupiter/Moon conjunction and the T square it feeds into, are being used to draw us in and distract us.

The pressure to extricate ourselves from this propagandist cesspit, to pull focus on what is happening on a more global scale and get with the bigger picture is going to crystalise as the year develops. It will be given an even greater emphasis through Saturn’s developing square from late Sagittarius with the Sun and Chiron in the immediate future. This aspect from Saturn comes within 3° orb on March 15th, and develops with the Sun over the following days, while it continues to evolve with Chiron over the next 10 months. We’ll come back to the more far ranging aspects of Saturn’s role here shortly.

What has been initiated through the solar eclipse will resonate down through the rest of the year, marking this lunation as a pivotal time. The solar eclipse itself is the inevitable if seemingly illogical conclusion of the eclipse cycle across the Pisces Virgo axis that began in September 2015. Think about the growth of social roots activism this cycle signalled and how this has been both co-opted and subverted as the cycle has progressed towards closure. And, remember who has ‘gone down’ and who has ‘risen up’ in the process. Factions are at war, and co-option is, as ever in the socio-political realms, the name of their game.

So, what are we being distracted from? Being able to use our own personal higher ‘centres of intelligence’, perhaps? The stakes are high, thats for sure, but, there is another side to all this as well.

Saturn has been slowly closing on conjunction with the Galactic Centre over the last month or more and will station retrograde in conjunction with the GC on April 6th. This can play out in two ways.

On the one side it suggests that we will see the brakes being applied on mundane issues that are currently emerging, the disclosures that are now underway finally hitting their target. What is now conjectured and implied will become concrete, established within the much bigger picture.

On the other side, disclosure of an all together different kind is going to bring everything to a grinding halt. As has been noted in previous posts here, the Uranus Jupiter opposition promises that amongst these there could well be significant revelations that impact our collective view of the past and who ‘we’ are. That will be a total game changer. I am looking at the third Uranus Jupiter opposition in September with this in mind.

This is also reflected nearer this current time in the trines that will be formed through Saturn, Uranus and the Moon’s north node in the fire signs, a configuration that will kick in more fully from late April and run through to August this year. This will culminate with the major solar eclipse on August 21st 2017 whose shadow will sweep across the United States. But, the future as a breakaway from the current malaise is writ large on this time, a repurposing of our lives  to a higher ideal, and what is happening now, through the current template, is providing the necessary tools to adjust consciously and is all a part of this process.

Given the volume of fallacies, cover ups and covert ops being currently disclosed, both mundane and ‘out there’, the implications are clear. We are entering an amped up period of ‘joining the dots’, and the shift that happens as we do so is going to deliver a serious shock to ‘The System’…..it is up to us to do the inner and outer work and get with the beat.

In the next post we’ll explore further where this is leading us, peek beneath the skin of some of the major players in a geo-political soap opera that is brewing and, following that, dig deep into the esoteric goldmine that is the Venus retrograde and its augeries for the third Jupiter Uranus opposition of 2017…….see you then!

 
Aries Libra axis, Earth healing, eclipse, Pisces Virgo axis, Politics, Root Medicine of the Stars, Transition of the Ages

Common Ground

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firedance

“Generosity is a virtue for individuals, not governments. When governments are generous it is with other people’s money, other people’s safety, other people’s future.” (1)

The potential of the eclipses we have witnessed in the first half of this year is ours to be be realised, and, as the year progresses intentional conscious participation in our own evolutionary process becomes central to working with the eclipse signatures. This is a very political signature when it comes down to it, but, amongst the eclipses the lunar eclipse of March 23rd, while being partial and relatively subtle, just within the ‘eclipse zone’ so to speak, is notable for having activated the Aries Libra axis, a shot of adrenalin to the social arena – the other three eclipses of 2016 all highlight the Pisces Virgo axis and show more of the internal processes at work that are setting the agenda within that arena, both at an individual and collective level.

If the solar eclipse of March 9th highlighted the need for conscious self determination based upon personal experience and knowledge to take precedence over globalised top down ideological determinism the lunar eclipse of March 23rd raised the question of whether we are capable of creating a social context that is coherent enough to support such self authority without diminishing it or its potential for creating real change.

The Aries Libra axis points towards challenges in consciousness that are intrinsic to this socialising process. This is a process that aims to create a society in which the power is returned to the people. Within the predominant paradigm the Aries drive that fuels such a process itself must become conscious and Venus higher octave of ‘relative values’ within Libra, if based upon lucid perception and listening, can provide the drive for awareness necessary to such a society with its own mirror. It is this self reflective quality that helps the new social consciousness seeded at the March solar eclipse and emphasised at the March lunar eclipse to take on its potential protean qualities, adaptive, able to respond to immediate needs and to find appropriate shape accordingly. The rhetoric for change is empty without this mutable potential.

The Sabian symbol for the Sun’s degree in Aries at the March lunar eclipse speaks of the emergence of dipolar qualities within its conscious imprint, the awareness of dualism within the evolving self, but, as embryonic as this may appear does its innate naivety work against it? How we create such a context, one that is itself free of the effects of those ideologies it has been formerly programmed by, formed in service to and which itself does not perpetuate their faults, is dependent upon utilising the potential within this polarity.

The Sabian symbol for the eclipsed March Moon also reveals something here; it shows us a circle of young people gathered in communion around a central fire – intrinsic to this symbol is Listening, a quality that underlies the positive aspects of Libran consciousness. To quote, the Sabian text tells us that, “If a new society is to be built, those who yearn for it, or perhaps who have envisioned its outlines, should commune. But communion is useless where no central “fire” burns, IN-SPIRITING the group“. While listening is a fundamental human necessity within this social context it is the central fire, its creative principle, that calls us together and defines the space within which it is activated and illuminated. The ‘creative principle’ at work within ‘gathering’ reveals the nature of our common ground.

Here Mars elemental thrust is reclaimed from the prevelant ideological paradigm of ‘progress’ and consciously put to work in our midst, supporting the process of self determination and social formation. This signals a reframing and revisioning of the ‘democratic processes’ itself, a need that is all too present in our time. While the UK debates whether to remain in the EU or not, a debate that highlights the need for change in ‘representation’ either way, it is the US electional process that we can look to here for some primary indicators of how this is playing out, especially within the ‘Democratic Party’ itself. If Bernie Sanders represents the new re-alignment and activation of social consciousness Hillary Clinton is well positioned to continue the dynastic tradition peculiar to American politics within our time. Between them they encapsulate the paradigmatic political struggle that is its characteristic.

“A regime which combines perpetual surveillance with total indulgence is hardly conducive to healthy development.”(2)

As the Sabian symbol for the Moon at the lunar eclipse also indicated the signature of the preceding solar eclipse is here ‘evolved’ forward indicating that an answer can be found in fostering a ‘grass-roots’ movement ‘of the people, for the people, by the people’ – that may in our times have the ring of irony about it (in respect of the Gettysburg Address), but, doesn’t it also sound like a familiar battle cry from the hustings?

The transits to Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton’s natal charts in connection with these eclipses are worth noting here. With Clinton we have a problem as her birth time is in dispute, but, while I would have gone with the 8:02 am time giving her a Scorpio Asc I am leaving out references to the houses in both charts and to the angles in her own chart, while I’ve included Sanders Asc and MC as they are significant here.

The eclipsed March Moon was conjunct Sanders natal Mercury, sextiling natal Pluto. This coincided with an acrimonious 8th debate between Sanders and Clinton in Miami, as well as Sanders victory in the Michigan primary. The March solar eclipse fell on Clinton’s natal Moon and squared her natal Uranus, the day she delivered her “counterterrorism” speech at Stanford. Do politicians utilise such transits intentionally…..it is certainly not unprecedented for them (and their masters) to do so.

Sanders is also seeing Uranus transit his natal Moon + Mars, a sustained transit that is igniting his popularity as a champion and fighter for social change. Clinton has natal Pluto and Mars conjunct in mid Leo forming an exact square to her Scorpio Venus and a loose but applying square to her nodes – an indicator of an ambitious nature which her Sagittarian Jupiter emphasises. She will stop at nothing in its pursuit, which her Scorpio Sun will risk everything for – even if it means her downfall she will remain undetered.

The fight is well and truly on as transiting Saturn is squaring Sanders natal Virgo Sun and transiting Mars squaring his MC, while Neptune is transiting his IC. He is having to draw on his most innate visionary qualities in bringing his deepest social values into realisation. Transiting Mars will conjunct Clinton’s Jupiter twice during the current Mars retrograde, stationing direct on her Scorpio south node. These transits reflect the uphill battle Sanders has faced as an ‘independent’ pitted against Clinton’s ambition and establishment platform, but, show how while these make her a formidable opponent these same qualities can also be her achilles heal, especially when her south node is activated by Mars and her personal history is under attack. Clinton’s natal Saturn, in detriment in Leo, also squares her nodes indicating a life heavily suffused with karmic lessons.

The remaining eclipses of this year will also directly affect both Sanders and Clinton’s natal charts. The solar eclipse of 1st September falls just one degree from Sanders Midheaven, and the lunar eclipse of September 16th falls on Sander’s south lunar node, this time both luminaries squaring Clinton’s natal Uranus. If Sanders appears fated to carry a revolutionary vision to the people as a break from the past, Clinton appears as his perfect foil, a woman in pursuit of the precedent of claiming the ‘top job’, but, in the midst of such ecliptic interaction the Uranian element is absolutely key – Uranus will conjunct Sander’s natal Mars on the September lunar eclipse. This could signal both ‘breakthrough’ and equally ‘martyrdom’, though no-one would wish the latter upon him, save his detractors. His Scorpio Asc makes him tenacious but equally susceptible to fault in the midst of power and deception – there are vulnerabilities at stake with both candidates. If they both have it all to fight for, what that ‘all’ means to them both as well as to us is deeply and significantly polarised.

The fight for the Democratic ticket and the challenges to its holder will continue to be ignited by astrological transits to both candidates charts in the run up to election day, but, that is a matter best served in a seperate post. Either way it is the longevity of the prevelant political ideology that is ultimately going to be the deciding factor. We are poised on a knife edge and it is the people who will decide, if their votes and voice are to count for anything…..

“The world is changed not by the self-regarding, but by men and women prepared to make fools of themselves.” (3)

If, as it often seems, it is the People who have been made fools of by the political power game, in the current political climate, which has its tentacles reaching into all our personal interests, there is an emergent level of consciousness at work here that cannot be denied. It is a consciousness itself born out of the need to be free of hegemonic ideologies and their encumbant effects. Such consciousness holds attributes we might associate with Mercury and Uranus in combination and it is worth remembering here that Uranus north node is in mid Gemini. However, as the outcomes of many social revolutions and dictatorships alike have shown, being solely self determining, a hegemony unto oneself, is a seriously dangerous business, in fact it is the inherent danger and runs counter to the ‘grass-roots’ theme; to evolve and be able to establish coherence beyond its own anarchistic undertones such consciousness requires acceptance of ‘difference’ and a willingness to acknowledge that no one individual or group of individuals can represent ‘the whole truth’. This was always the caviat inherent in the March solar eclipse, the truth that requires revitalising in the process of emergence from the millenia of power struggles that have shaped the cocoon of our body politic. It applies equally to any sustainable future in which a new social vision might take flight.

We are looking then towards engendering a shared coherence based not on homogeneity or its ideological counterpart ie. democratic conformity, but, through bringing a mutable quality to its conscious formation and sustainability, and, while as a species we are not without precedent for such a context, those who have lived it have, historically, been suppressed, their fire all but stamped out – we must accept that we are both returning to the beginning and making a break from the past in rekindling that fire.

There is an evolutionary consequence to this – while we are not being called upon to re-invent the wheel, in exploring  new ground we must be ready to make allowance for what we do not know, to suffer our own foolishness in the process. Such a task belongs to individuals who are, at core, secure enough within themselves to undertake the fools journey without its pitfalls undermining their self authority. It is perhaps a consequence of human consciousness that we do so, as we witness each other speaking and acting upon our personal truths. It requires of us a balancing act between being able to have the courage of our convictions and to be ready to learn from our errors, and laugh at ourselves in the process. Discernment without over-ruling judge-mentality is key, a signature of maturity as well as a more egalitarian society.

As we venture further into the cauldron of the year we will find this evolved and evolving capacity serves us all well as the matrix is now breaking away from rulership under the cardinal face off exemplified by the Pluto Uranus square. We will be resonating more with the meaning seeking qualities set up by Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn and the Moon’s nodes through their mutable T square active through Virgo, Pisces and Sagittarius. The sixth, ninth and twelth signs of the zodiac bring that much needed mutability into focus in the run up to the September eclipses, and how this will carry our impetus for social and personal evolution forward will be explored further in future posts. As we enter a self reflective period in which Mercury will station retro in Taurus joining Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Pluto already retrograde it is the mutable Geminian signature and the revolutionary Uranian future which will bring its potential into conscious synthesis.

(1) (2) & (3) ‘Children Of Men’ by P D James

Image : ‘Mongolian Firedance’ ~ Karthik Anand

Earth healing, eclipse, Pisces Virgo axis, Root Medicine of the Stars

The Road Home – Solar Eclipse In Pisces

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On August 17 1999 a 2.5 meter high tsunami rippled out across the Sea of Marmara, its source a 7.6 magnitude earthquake of 37 seconds duration which struck from an epicenter 70 miles east of Istanbul at a depth of 13km. While the tsunami claimed the lives of over 150 people the destructive power of the Izmit shake itself is reflected in stark numbers: official figures issued by Turkish authorities claim around 17,000 deaths resulted, although this is almost certainly significantly below the actual figure. While over 40,000 were injured, damage to buildings left over 300,000 people homeless and the total material cost to Turkey’s infrastructure has been estimated to have run as high as $8 billion.

Turkey is sandwiched between the Eurasian and Arabian plates and is no stranger to high magnitude quakes. The Anatolian plate moves, is literally being pushed westward, at an average rate of about 2.5 meters per century. The maximum offset along the rupture created by the Izmit quake was just under 6 meters, which, on the face of it, represents the release of a very high degree of potential energy, above the average for crustal displacement within this region. One fact of great interest about this quake however is that it took place six days after a high magnitude total solar eclipse whose path ran exactly over this region.

Correlations between eclipses, both solar and lunar, and tectonic activity are not well enough developed at this time to provide any reliable indicators of eclipses as precursors of such ‘earth events’. However, the notion is not without some grounding in physical reality. Aside from gravitational effects of the Sun and Moon, the momentary fluctuation in particle density and polarity affecting the Earth’s magnetosphere and biosphere is an observable phenomenon associated with eclipses, as is the synchronous ‘entrainment’ of ‘transmission lines’ within the earth’s electromagnetic field to the solar/lunar fields; the combined effect of such factors will contribute directly to if not produce an effect. The gravitational effects on both liquid mass and subcrustal plasmic pressure may well be enhanced as a result.

There is a problem here. The field of plasma physics in relation to tectonic events may well be in the process of yielding a deeper understanding to eclipses and their effects here on Earth, but, while such correlations need careful consideration and, while the data available in our time is growing which will facilitate this, the field itself is relatively young. It also, significantly, challenges scientific orthodoxy and remains underfunded, its findings appearing anomalous within the concensus of the dominant scientific paradigm; as a result, the orthodox scientific understanding of these effects remains clothed largely in theory which hides its true face, rudimentary and founded upon potentially false assumptions as the ‘electric model’ uncreasingly shows, at least at the public or should we say ‘disclosed’ level. The same degree of understanding could be said to apply to the astrological interpretation of eclipses.

Astrologers often asign meaning to the metaphysical apsects of eclipses via the familiar symbolism, rules and protocols of chart interpretation, its integral ‘science’. There is some crossover between astronomy and astrology here, especially with regard to geocentric (as well as heliocentric) planetary alignments, the geometry of ‘hard’ aspects and transits, however, the astrological emphasis is almost always at best speculative. The usual agreed understanding amongst astrologers, at base, is that eclipses have a lasting significance of up to six months – beyond that the jury largely remains ‘out’.

But, the golden rule of observation, collation that supports correlation applies equally to both astrological and scientific understanding. These are Virgoan characteristics. The data base that will help this understanding to evolve is growing exponentially, thanks in no small measure to the Uranian technologies which augur and through which we can perceive our gradual shift into the Aquarian age.  Electric and plasma technologies are at the leading edge of the shift. With this eclipse they carry Jupiters expansive energy and signal a phase shift in consciousness.

This shift is, in keeping with the Uranian archetype, infused with unexpected and revolutionary insight, it is partly characterised by jolts and instantaneity. It is a time of surprising advances and sudden ‘shocks to the system’, reality checks which not only illuminate but eliminate as well as restructure, referencing Aquarius traditional ruler Saturn which is squaring the March 9th eclipse from Sagittarius.

Saturnian strictures upon our world views are putting a hard edge on this eclipse, a fight with limitation and for control, but, the shift also has the flavour of ‘revelation’ or ‘the lifting of the veil’ about it. This was the original meaning of the word ‘apocalypse’ which itself echoes with the word ‘eclipse’ and suggests the immanent emergent reality illuminated beyond the occultation itself. The outgoing Piscean age is itself the veil that is being lifted, its Neptunian depths and Jupitarian heirarchies are being penetrated and radicalised as we make this phase shift.

Jupiter as traditional ruler of both Sagittarius and Pisces is also opposing the eclipse on the Moon’s north node in Virgo – a growing socialisation of spiritual values can be seen in our future, but it must come through and be inclusive of individual experience framed within a much broader sensibility. What we each hold to as personal truths will be and is being tested against the rigidity of the ruling elite, spiritual or not, and, with the square to Saturn, comes up against dogmatic resistance to change. We can also expect to increasingly experience this on a one to one basis with this aspect in the chart, but, there is a way to approach this problem indicated in the nodal symbolism of the eclipse itself.

Virgo also emphasises our humanity and Pisces our compassion, the need for both inclusivity and differentiation, the one within the other. We take stock and purify through discernment in Virgo and let go, seek union with the absolute in Pisces. To combine their symbolism is to find absolution within – it is the axis of perfection through forgiveness. When the two poles embrace we move nearer to wholeness.

When the north node is in Virgo this becomes the personalised goal. As a personal spiritual goal ‘purification of our aims and a willingness to consciously engage with our own soul’s evolution through practical means’ will be greatly enhanced through Jupiter’s proximity to the node, but, the Piscean mirror which Jupiter is holding up to each of us shows us that behind all this is the need to expand into a higher level of inclusivity. We are required to grow as souls in order to embrace a larger view. This is a prerequisit for the Aquarian age, if we are to retain our humanity while shifting into it.

Solar eclipses cast a lunar shadow upon Earth and in the shadow side of the Pisces Virgo axis this is reflected in  our times through experiences of victimisation, especially of women, through heirarchical disempowerment, a narrowness of mind and endemic delusion that removes us from reality.

When the Pisces shadow is experienced in Virgoan territory it will intoxicate first and diminish second, hide its true face behind our own dependencies and confuse facts with fictions. No one person can hold the entirety of truth, but, our willingness to see beyond it as we encounter it within ourselves and acknowledge the ‘truth in others’ grounds a greater sense of the whole and helps us to discern what is real. This is a prerequisit for meaningful change; to resist such inner transformation can mean experiencing isolation amidst lethargy inducing disillusionment – a loss of faith more characteristic of a dieing culture than a vital and spiritualised one. When stripped of such greater meaning and confronted with the hard facts of life we can become prone to on the one hand extreme unconscious neurotic compulsion, and on the other deepening depression in the face of overwhelm.  In a global context the ‘Media’ and their masters are at work here on a collective level of ‘dumming down’.

The shadow Neptunian factor also manifests in Virgo through addiction and its attendant drug induced loss of perspective and personal power, and we can also witness how this hijacks the Uranian channels of connectivity and communication that might otherwise provide liberation. Such power loss and disownment is reflected as a collectivisation of soul loss. An apt symbol for the negative shadow symbolism of the eclipse. Two millenia of such disenfranchisement has left a gaping hole which religions and the MSM are all too willing and ready to fill.

There is however a significant counterbalancing factor at work here which is reflected in the proximity of Chiron to the Moon’s south node and the new Moon. Chiron redeems his suffering through embracing his humanity. While his animal body suffers the wound his choice reflects an extreme evolutionary necessity. In the myth the archetypal healer must realise that his soul is subject to a higher power for the wound to be healed and in the process become transformed into a conduit for and embodiment of ‘reality of a higher order’. This could almost be a symbol of shamanic initiation, but, with the south node it is an ancestral wound that is being healed, one that is carried collectively whose shadow affects us at the individual level.

The collective wounding we have suffered under Piscean ‘rule’ must be undertaken as a personal responsibility to heal through our own lives (north node in Virgo). This augurs a radical shift within the religious order and a grassroots emergent culture of experience and Earth  based spirituality. In a sense we could see this as a call to become guardians of the Earth, but, answering that call begins with care of our own soul. That commitment towards the larger reality, as expressed from within the healing soul, is fundamentaly a call to connect with our soul’s desire and expands into intelligently and compassionately tending to the resurgence of the life force present within all things.

In our time and especially in relation to the March 9th eclipse it is the occultation of the life force and its spiritualising power, as it has manifested (south node) within the Piscean age, which is being momentarily called to attention. By the same token, on a philosophical level, the opportunity offered is to ignite our own soul’s desire to illuminate our personal path through opening to direct transmission from the source, outside of the influence of any spiritual heirarchy. How this may be experienced by any one of us cannot be foreseen, but, the imperative is to be receptive to it.

This is a practical philosophy at root. We work for it through practical means. In the material plane this manifests through the work we undertake itself, which becomes the vehicle for transformation. It is a disciplined approach to putting humanitarian ideals into action. Hands on help given to others, especially those displaced and clearly in need, for example. There is no room for prejudice in this – divisive discrimination works against the good of the whole and the mutable signs of Pisces and Virgo indicate that such discrimination as a negative can be transmuted into discernment as a positive force for the good. Chiron’s multifaceted practicality also reflects how we can put simple practicle means to a powerful healing end that transmutes such narrow mindedness.

This is an eclipse for the each of us to use as a turning point upon which, as an individual, we can reclaim a practical sense of our personal spiritual reality and commit to creating a coherent understanding of who we are and why we have come here. The message within this is ‘practice makes perfect’. Whatever the work we undertake, while it may be directed towards others, it can both liberate and heal ourselves directly as well. In those moments when we are faced with our own quiet need for healing meditation in nature may well be the best way to experience its inner light, but, setting the intent to work for those who come after us by caring for life here and now is the essential core – some might call it the Dharma path. Whatever it may mean to you to step onto that path is to take the road home.

There is one last note to add here.

We must also pay particular attention when a ‘supermoon’ is involved in an eclipse, as it was on August 11th 1999, just as it is on March 9th 2016. Some astrologers see eclipses as Uranian by nature and, insofar as by concensus their effects remain unpredictable, this may be true. But, concensus in the Piscean age is radically different to consensus within the Aquarian. The shift from one to the other is highlighted and powered up with this eclipse. The question that naturally arises is at what stage in the shift have we collectively arrived, what phase are we in?

An answer to that question may come from interpreting the chart for the eclipse itself, but, the answer is essentially personal – collectively we each need only to look to the world we live in more closely to understand how fares the land. It is inherent in the Pisces Virgo axis upon which the 9th March eclipse is centered that we do so – paying attention is intrinsic in tending to something or someone.

There is no prediction of earthquakes being suggested here but the need to be vigilant and prepared for the unexpected is especially poigniant now with this new Moon. The need for grounded compassion and care of the soul is its signature but there are seldom more truthful times in which this becomes our imperative and driving force than when the earth moves and we witness the suffering of others.

In the next post we will return to this theme and look at how the eclipse of the Moon in Libra on March 23rd will help us tend to our personal and collective soul’s evolution further.