In Italo Calvino’s original retelling of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, ‘The Other Eurydice’, Italo turns the Plutonic world on its head, the case for the ‘real world’ being defined not by the events, beings and nature belonging to the planet’s surface, but by life beneath the crust and mantle; Hades’ realm.
Here, the core of the planet is itself the originating source of reality, out of which all things are dreamed and emerge into existence, and which of itself constitutes the most earthly cosmological essence of the planet’s own nature.
And here, Hades (Pluto’s greek incarnation) dreams of descending, quite literally, ever deeper into the splendour and elemental beauty of this original nature, towards ‘the source’, the Earth’s core. His dream is to bring into reality vast crystalline cities, self generating metropolis, both machine like and organic, what Calvino describes as a ‘living-body-city-machine’.
Through the fulfilment of his dreams, Hades will provide complete oneness and inclusivity of all aspects of life, from core and dream, to surface and realities lived. This would be a place filled with tectonic presence and Earth music, the foundational vibrations of earthly existence. Within it are the ancient seeds of a unified consciousness.
But, crucial to his dreaming is Hades/Pluto’s passionate need to share of this journey to wholeness with his beloved partner, Eurydice; here, it is Calvino’s genius to reverse the role of Orpheus, into ‘abductor’ of the Underworld queen, for that is who Eurydice is in this telling.
Taking advantage of Eurydice’s thirst for ascendant experience, for liminality and flight amidst the inner elements and their higher vibrations, during one of her ascendant flights Orpheus snatches her from the mouth of a volcano, under Pluto’s very nose.
She is bewitched by the sweet poison tipped darts of Orpheus’ musical vibrations, and while she is Hades/Pluto’s muse, his divine reflection towards wholeness, Orpheus infamous enchantments are the stings in this scorpionic tale, scintillating the air realms with their magic. For the surface realms, in this rewriting of the myth, are literally extra-terrestrial, alienated from Earth’s, and Pluto/Hades core, earth informed reality.
Eurydice, having been drawn out of the realms of her faithful partner Hades, is truly out of her element, but, being enraptured, her cries are harmonised by Orpheus into an ineluctable enchantment that keeps her transfixed in the liminal realm between the upper and lower worlds, and here we find Orpheus’ shadow nature revealed; beneath the mask of healer and beguiler, he is mercurial, the arch trickster, and caster of dubious spells.
Orpheus’ is a maverick consciousness wreaking magic that, under tutelage of the Sky gods, seeks its own ends, out of kilter with the telluric, underworld monism that Pluto/Hades knows to emanate from the very heart of the planet’s soul.
Calvino’s inventive reversal of the roles serves to mirror our own assumptions, and our place in relation to the archetypal forces of this world duly falls into question, our own susceptibility to the glamours of the surface world suspect, displaced even. What is held to be true, now? How, in fact, do we extricate ourselves from the trivial deliria of surface life.
This is a good place to remind ourselves, also, that Pluto’s journey through tropical Capricorn began in late January of 2008, and, after fourteen years of pressurised intense upturning, exposure and scrutiny of our surface world, Italo Calvino’s vision of ‘The Other Eurydice’ holds an uncanny resonance.
These times seem all awry, truth’s and untruth’s ‘truth’ fogged, confused with each other, both deliberately and unconsciously, for what lies beneath our consciousness is all too oft confused with what lies beneath the surface of reality, yet, is nevertheless, constantly at work in the very core of our conscious life.
We are at the endgame of this long transit, Pluto edging into the final degrees of the cardinal earth sign – and here, it is worth noting, our eyes tell us a different story, for if we look to the heart of the constellation Capricorn, right now we will not find Pluto there, but, Saturn. Reflect on this a moment too, especially as the new Moon on Jan 31st/Feb 1st falls in waxing conjunction with Saturn. This is, truly, a moment for reflection, of the kind that precedes, and seeds, action….
…..consigned to the reality of his beloved’s abduction, but unable to endure the dream of establishing unity throughout the Earth in building his crystalline worlds of utter beauty and slow tectonic power without Eurydice at his side, Hades erupts into the world in volcanic fury and molten passion in search of her.
Humans perish, become ash, magma effigies, shadows of soot in his path, until he finds her, pulled towards her song, yet unable to yield her from Orpheus’ enchantment; Hades/Pluto merely glimpses Eurydice, at that moment unveiling the restless vista and future cacophony of a surface world gone to pot and ruin at human hands, before she is magicked away, gone, an echo amid the madness.
Hades retreats, and our convulsing world rumbles on in his wake, churning itself deeper into disarray , swallowing human lives whole, while Hades unfulfilled plutonic dreams remain; where there could have been a unified world of beauty beyond all knowing brought to life, a turbulent undercurrent to life lived out on the surface, in search of beauty itself.
How ironic. And fitting, that, in our times, where so much that has been brought to the surface echoes, like Eurydice’s song, a rich mixture of pain of separation and ecstatic thirst for the release from gravity which ‘enchantment’ brings, that Pluto now enters those final degrees of cardinal Earth, before himself emerging into the air realms, in search of his divine other, and wholeness.
Perhaps. Just, perhaps, there is something of an echo back from a future we are about to enter here – this new Moon is certainly a threshold, into something which will see passion about our future begin to balance out, and overtake, eventually, the stranglehold of (what we know to be) a retrospectively engineered vision under which we have been struggling these past two years, if not decades, or centuries, and we are about to find a way to resolve this dilemma, for good.
It is a theme we know all too well, the search for completion through the divine, the other to the self, made holy.
An Aquarian dream , perhaps, that leads towards the Piscean dissolution of boundaries, and eventual return to source. The sacred undertaking, upon being forsaken by the sky bound deities, themselves having failed to complete on the sacred pacts carried with and by their own creations, is left to humans, of rebuilding the world, in their own image. The thirst for a world engulfing self replicating metropolis, which equalises all need and longing…..or, perhaps ”you will own nothing, and be happy”.
We live within the midst of a long suffered monistic fracturing and fragmentation, at the core of a crisis of spiritual growth, in which we are charged with the undertaking of unlearning, learning anew ‘how to learn’, and relearning, that will ultimately see our mental and energetic spheres reunited and our ability to do magic on Earth replaced by the innate ability to ‘be’ magic. This much is already begun, but, how do we nurture the process?
We will have the heat turned up on this question, see for ourselves how to be released from the unhealthy grip of prevalent madnesses, through this next year, a possible real turning point being indicated in this process in six months, on August 1st, when Mars, Uranus and the Moon’s north node meet in exact conjunction, in the 19th degree of tropical Taurus….but, how much of the rewriting of our story is up to us?
As Mercury comes to station direct, close on Pluto’s degree, this is the time to ask, to seek out our core passions and let their resonance have their way with us – if we are to learn, and learn anew, we must first experience, let ourselves be moved by their energy, and do so with a purpose.
From mid February to mid March Venus and Mars will travel within a degree of each other, from Capricorn into tropical Aquarius, Venus in her Earth warrior guise, Mars her masculine counterpart, and their duel energies will challenge to unite as allies within ourselves this fierce energy.
For now, listen in, be aware of what moves you, its energetic signature, feel for its source, and be ready, but, while you let that inner pressure build, that pushes new life into existence from within, learn first from its own feeling nature, so that, when the time comes, you will be ready to speak its own language fluently, consciously, and with a purpose.
Blessed Be.
image : from John Neumeier’s staging of Gluck’s opera ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’, by the LA Opera in 2018.
One of Uranus most unifying qualities as an astrological entity is its ability to point out to us our unknowing, and that we are united in our ignorance – Uranus’ gift is the space this recognition creates within us for intuition to enter, for anomaly to alter our reality and thinking, and Uranus operates at a collective level of the higher mind.
Being gifted with this infusion of uncertainty can activate creative energy that is essential if we are to transcend our fears – it allows our actions to cut a wake in the ocean of grace, which is also available to us, ever-present.
In fact Uranus can open our eyes ‘in the moment’ to the presence of this ocean, of which we might otherwise be ostensibly unaware in our everyday lives. Uranus has been called ‘the Awakener’.
Its a matter of the inner nature of our being, whether we are already swimming in that ocean or not. And to ‘cut a wake’ is one of the primary meanings of being ‘awake’, to be present with the consequence of our actions, of our lives in fact.
At 6° Taurus, where Uranus is at the time of writing, we find the Sabian symbol of ‘The Woman of Samaria at the Ancient Well’. The woman is imbued with grace, as a consequence of her life and how she has lived, and the openness of her heart to the inspiration of love which that grace embodies.
It is an old symbol, predating biblical references, with its roots in the importance of initiation to the well-being of the village, an intitiatic symbol whose key significance is that old ways of knowing and attachment to the established institutions of the past must be transcended for the creative spirit to be received in the heart.
Uranus imbues that creative spirit, manifests the power, the impulse for it to ‘render old patterns obsolete’. As the Sabians tell us, the Woman of Samaria “in her openness to love’s urgings, had already repudiated any narrow subservience to the old order” – this is a message which has found its time, and we know it.
Lonsdale takes it further and interprets the Chandra symbol for this degree thus :
“A Large Ruby Inscribed With A Prayer.
A beautiful dream that comes true. Conceiving in your heart that a fresh life current is here to be met in the physical. Being magnetized to the spot where the New Earth arises. You feel deeply drawn to give yourself over completely to what the new life-wave asks. Sensing acutely that this is all that counts, and suffering for all of those who are shut off from the bounty. Knowing how hard it is to feel dejected and forsaken, and never forgetting the ache, the longing, the distances, and what it takes to earnestly clasp new life and realise you belong to the heavenly kingdom in the Earth and will never again be out in the cold.”
On 23rd April at 2:24am UTC the New Moon opened the new lunar cycle at 3°24′ of Taurus, exactly 3° from Uranus at 6°24′ of Taurus.
We can take these meditations into our hearts now, and be ready to re-dream this world alive with grace and beauty. These reflect the essential nature of our being, the origin of innate power.
The New Moon cycle will be a most interesting one, for sure. A season of retrogrades will follow soon in which all the planets will be affected. We will have to dig deep during that time, but it will serve us well, as we are mining for truth and the empowerment it brings, another of Uranus indefatigable gifts.
Only, the power to be redeemed is our own.
This lunar cycle represents an opportunity to clear the decks in preparation – take it.
“……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.
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.
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.
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’
The first Full Moon of 2017 illuminates the night skies on January 12th, reaching its height at 22°28′ of Cancer, 11.38am UTC. The lunar disc reflects the radiance of the Capricorn Sun and is squared by Jupiter in Libra and Uranus in Aries, together forming a grand cross that is resonant with confident and inspired energy. Its a good time to embark on establishing something new.
The possibilities for expanding upon our foundations, being inventive with and exploring new horizons in our lives now benefits the support that comes from feeling at home with ourselves and in our element, itself a reflection of the domicile Moon.
The strong presence of feminine archetypes, coming notably through the asteroids and smaller celestial bodies that accompany some of the major planets at this full Moon, are here assisted by the masculine energies, and indicate that it is the creatrix within that is activating our souls and pushing the boundaries of possibility.
But, the key element in all of this is the practical magic that naturally arises from being able and willing to let our personal light shine, illuminating our lives with real purpose. Being at home with this inner magic brings an openness to new possibilites – with all the planets direct over the next month this is a time to step more fully into our power and trust in our ability to embody a positive influence within the world.
Amongst the grounding elements which accompany this open minded and forward looking full Moon is Saturn’s trine with Uranus from Sagittarius. Saturn has a beneficial influence on Uranus impulse to break free of the past and embody our creativity in the present, giving it worldly form. This is where the magic happens, in the moment, when we are unencumbered by ‘what has been’ and are not distracted by hopes, fears and anxiety for the future, when we are fully present with our selves.
Mercury stationed direct in late Sagittarius on January 8th. Sagittarius is the sign of Mercury’s detriment, so, with Mercury having turned direct and on the cusp of Capricorn at full Moon a clearer focus is now becoming available that will allow these distractions to fall away and assist in this grounding. Inner connections are being restored and personal integrity renewed.
The Sun is also close on Saturn’s south node in Capricorn, a subtle further indication that it is through being true to the well grounded magic of our personal power and gifts that we can burn off the restrictions of collective conditioning that have dimmed our inner radiance in the past. There is much now happening in the world that reflects this process at work, the exposure of suppression and subversive controls coming into the full light of day, and the drive to establish equanimity, especially in relation to imbalances between the ‘feminine’ and the ‘masculine’ are at their center ground.
This is nowhere more visible than where injustice and inequality prevails between men and women, in so many aspects of life, but especially in issues of ‘power’, the relationship between ‘power-over’ and ‘power-to’, macht and kraft, and we will feel this most strongly where we encounter limitations on our personal power and how it is expressed.
Nodal influences of the outer planets are epochal by nature, and I would include Saturn and its nodes in this context as we are seeing the accumulative effect of millenia of that particularly masculine manifestation of Saturnian ‘control’ surfacing now, coming ever more under scrutiny. Pluto is within 3° of the Sun at full Moon and has been applying pressure to the foundations of the most outmoded expressions of this culture of control, dissembling its structures and eroding its influences, in its present Capricornian phase since 2008. In fact Pluto is also chasing its own south node in Capricorn and will catch up with it in a couple of years, bringing this long process of transformation within the institutions and politics of power to a head, reconstituting their past by forcing their karmic shadow into the present.
Saturn’s north node in Cancer is 2 degrees beyond the exact full Moon, suggesting that while we are on the cusp of an emancipatory period, at this time it is out of the work we do in giving integral form and balance to our personal power that the foundation of a more caring and equal world can be built – not necessarily a new focus for us, in our era and current lifetime, but one that is very much of the moment.
Venus is also bringing a strong nodal influence into this full Moon, being conjunct her own north node at 8° Pisces as we enter full Moon, so there can be no doubt – it is the women who are leading the way. Venus in Pisces is in exhaltation and the feminine spirit is resurgent. She is also conjunct Neptune, domicile in Pisces, and together they are otherwise unaspected. This conjunction is infusing the entire field with a visionary reminder of the value of passion and how love can shape and influence the world. The source field and the creative spirit that is its expression are also pushing the boundaries of possibility. Go to the waters, listen…..and give thanks.
The full Moon is also aspecting Chiron by trine in Pisces, further grounding the transformative spiritual potential we have available to us. The power of self confidence, the willingness to go beyond our own boundaries and to take the leap into the unknown are emphasised here – the practical side of trusting in our own spirit’s power to endure all and prevail. In the days around full Moon consider what your own passions and gifts truly are, how they are and can be most fully expressed, and let them be the guide.
Mars will join Chiron on the 17th of January, on his way to meeting with Uranus, and together with Chiron Mars squares Saturn throught this full Moon period. So allow yourself the space to gather your energies and direct them towards a higher goal through this time. This focusing of the masculine energy will serve best here, a spiritual re-alignment with our purpose and purposefulness.
The opposition between Jupiter and Uranus is now in full swing – they too tell us that we can gain much by opening the doors of possibility in our lives now, and will see the scope of our thinking and ability to relate expand as a result. I will be writing more about this in the coming months, but the focus brought out by the beginning of their 12 year cycle in 2010-11 has already been covered in previous articles and, having had time to observe their first exact opposition (the first of three this year), a clearer analysis of its most active forms of expression is now becoming available. The ecological theme of their cycle and focus in issues surrounding energy production and consumption have been very much in the spotlight over the last few months, and nowhere can this be seen more clearly than at Standing Rock which stands as a clear example of how the prevailing conditions can be and are being met. This is going to continue to be a clear focus for the coming year and, lets remember, it was the women of Standing Rock who arrived there and set up camp first.
And then there are the asteroids…..amongst all this expansion and personal growth a certain mental accuity is becoming more prevelant, and necessary, and the finer influences at work highlight both the dynamics and possible stumbling blocks that are intrinsic to this process. While this is a great time in which to really begin shining our light in the world, it is no time for self-serving egotism….that will backfire, immediately, in the present planetary climate. There is a process of differentiation at work here – as distinct from seperation; neither is this a time for condemnation.
Juno is conjunct Saturn in 22° Sagittarius at full Moon, tempering the patriarch with a just hand and reminder of the sacred laws that govern relationships – their trine with Uranus in the 20th degree of Aries is made the more exact by Eris at 22° Aries, tieing Eris very strongly into the grand cross. Eris is a dwarf planet who, astrologically, brings an extra level of impulsive and reactive energy to this trine. Not much escapes this nexus of responsive and catalytic awareness and, as we are seeing in a very Uranian way, the reaction time to injustices and degree of tolerability surrounding them, within the internet especially, is diminishing continually. It represents a kind of quickening that is becoming exponential through Jupiter’s opposition with Uranus. The current ‘witchhunt’ that singles out ‘fake news’ as its target, especially in the ‘alternative media’, is itself a prime example and is rapidly backfiring on its perpetrators, the MSM and their masters – if we can learn anything useful from this, it is that we have and can access an innate ‘higher sense’ for the ‘truth’ that cannot be subverted so easily now; it is our prerogative to use it and follow it, not least as the more we do, the stronger it gets, as the fake-news fiasco is proving.
At the shoulder of Pluto we find asteroid Magdalena, while at the side of Mars, his co-ruler in Scorpio, we find Borasisi, one of the astrological Centaurs.
The divine lover and the alchemist of the zodiac make for an intriguing couple, suggesting a revision of spiritual sexuality to be at the very root of the planetary transformations we are seeing – in union with Uranus and Jupiter’s opposition this may come across as a collective awakening of kundalini like energies, but, Magdalena is already present in each chakra, as an awakened psychic energy. The re-emergence of the goddesses of old as active agents of change within our midst is no imaginary matter; we are talking the ‘realism’ and ‘real magical power’ at work within it all – the Goddess does not deal in anything but practical magic, when it comes down to it, and the karma of centuries of priesthood is crumbling under the pressure of Her re-emergence. It is only a matter of time, but, Magdalena is highly intuitive, representing the embodied feminine psyche turned on and tuned in at all levels, and this is where the real transformation is now at work – that same realm of intrinsic magic, and power.
There are many breakthroughs coming amidst the breakdowns now and this time marks the beginning of a sustained period in which the latter begin to more fully prevail. We will see more of this manifest as the second quarter of the year progresses, but, Uranus is injecting much energy into this process from Aries, initiating new ground for us to build our futures upon, and Jupiter in Libra is emphasising how mind expanding and liberating this can be, when we allow it….it all sounds great; so what could possibly go wrong….
Borasisi and Mars in Pisces bring a piercing ability to penetrate the veil and understand the nature of illusion into active mode here as well. The astronomical Centaur Borasisi is a neighbour of Pluto and shares some of Pluto’s more masculine astrological qualities – with Mars these are doubled. The personal power we have to cut through the crap is heightened here, bringing a higher level of self determination based on our own incisive insights. We can gain a stronger vision for our future from this. But, this can also be provocative and, in the wrong hands, push us to ‘publish and be damned’, and to press the red button of our own intent and purpose, no matter what, all of which may sound like a dangerous facility and energy to have at our disposal. And, ‘there’s the rub’….in the midst of the prevelant energies is there any reason this energy cannot also be made to serve the higher good, and goal – right now, the answer to that question rests with each of us, and our ability to let our light shine from within, without impediment, or self doubt – Borasisi and Mars tell us its time to banish those shit-fairies! And, more importantly with Borasisi and Mars, this is not about displays of ego either – where we see those driving the agenda, they too will be seen through. We simply have to be who we are, knowing that the power of our gifts is enough.
If anything our inner luminosity is boundless, and this is an energy that rests not on the light of our inner drives, but, of our soul. It is at its best a spiritual matter. This is also the energy that, in ceremony, sets the clearest and strongest intent to that end. When the masculine is in service, in this sense, it can work wonders…..and, with the feminine, bring them into being. This is what we are, wonders, and this is practical magic.
On the 20th of April 2010 the world suffered a forbidingly deep wounding of its ‘wine dark sea’, as two hundred million gallons of ‘crude’ that is to say ‘unrefined’ oil lay its suffocating shadow upon the living waters. This stifling of the Gulf of Mexico pressed down upon its soul rich heart a heavy hand of crude inhumanity and brought death forth in the dreaming sea, an unrefined nightmare that haunts us still. We saw its image, a spume of black blood issuing from the wound, a toxic rainbow mirroring the flame raged cloud that rose from the crippled rig. Such images burn themselves into the heart of our concerns for life, but, how many more warnings do we need…..
…..it was a warning that the natural balance had been recklessly disturbed once more and, as many others warnings have been since Trinity unleashed Shiva’s dance upon the Earth, that the boundaries of sanity were being pushed to breaking point – we could have turned back then; the first testing of the atom bomb showed us how far the insanity had reached within the corridors of power, but, Hiroshima and Nagasaki pushed it further still and Trinity’s unheeded forebodings were finally fulfilled within a year of the Deepwater Horizon disaster when Fukushima let loose on March 11th 2011. The boundary had been breached.
The stricken reactor nailed humanity to a disastrous cross of its own making, at least three of its cores going into meltdown, signalling the advent of the ‘China Syndrome’. But, just as the news hoisted Fukushima’s dread tree aloft our own Golgotha, then too officials spoke through sealed lips, drew their own blanket of lies tight around the fact and washed their ‘pontius’ hands of culpability. The images that accompanied this deception told otherwise as the fury of Neptune’s own hand swept down upon the Japanese people, scouring the land and sea through tsunami and irradiated chaos. As Oppenheimer had ironically foreseen, too late, the dance of Shiva once invoked, cannot be contained.
Such were two of the momentous events that framed Jupiter and Uranus meeting on the Aries point which, on June 8th 2010, marked the opening of their current synodic cycle; the midpoint of their cycle approaching, it is time to take stock of our ability to turn the tide.
What have we learnt from this, the last six years since Deepwater and Fukushima, and the ever raging war being wrecked upon our Earth? Mars complicity notwithstanding, did the Thunderer and the Awakener ignitethe cardinal fire of our deepest concerns through these acts? We have entered far deeper waters than Homer’s odyssean mariners ever sailed, and our wine dark sea has become oil black, a dumping ground for the dominant culture’s inherent complex and its objects of denial. Its eerily illuminated undertow is reflected in the harsh light of the defiled flesh and bleached irradiated bones that whales and dolphins cast upon our shores in the wake of such terrible folly.
Event Horizon
Can we hold ourselves responsible? When an ‘accident’ of such serious magnitude happens more than once, and happens again, and again, does it wear the mantle of fate, as might be presaged in the stars, or is its persistent knocking on the doors of our consciousness and conscience not trying to tell us something about our destiny and what must happen for us to claim it; if we do not bear responsibilty and ultimate culpability, do we have the power to counter the vested interests of those who, ultimately, are culpable? By its very repetition do they not reveal themselves and their cronies to be what they truly are by such account, violating perpetrators? These too are questions that must be asked, and have been asked increasingly since these epochal events stimulated beyond any doubt the need for their asking. We can all hear them being asked in Dakota right now…..
Fukushima struck while Jupiter was still connected with Uranus, their conjunction still just in orb, at its critical point of departure, but the connection and the event, though appearing late in the day, was no less prescient for this. The Japanese disaster, in fact and nature a global disaster for sure, might have brought us to our senses and alerted us to the fact that, for us too, it is late in the day, very late. We might yet sense, were we to fully take in its import and rise to its calling, that we are not entering but are leaving the epoch of planetary destruction, but, such rests upon our ability to respond and, if we do so, first realise that the path of planetary healing leads not away from the wound, but through it.
Both in scale and consequence the role of the power industries has been disastrously epochal, none the less so, regardless the nuclear desert in whose shape we are rapidly terraforming our future, as for more than a century the oil industry has held such a dominant and deeply influencial role in our current culture of power and commerce. It is a geopolitical battle ground whose theatre of war we can see playing out now. In nuclear power many were, initially, duped into believing that we were being shown the way out of this paradigm, such was the naivety of the time with which many accepted its promise, in spite of Trinity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The planetary matrix at the opening of the first fully commercial nuclear plant, Windscale, on 17th October 1956, reveals astrological themes that we will see recurring again and again here – Pluto sextiled Neptune, both on sign cusps, formed a yod to the Moon at 0° Aries, the ‘Aries point’, and Pluto squared the Moon’s nodes; Saturn was conjunct the north node, precisely on the cusp of Scorpio and Sagittarius; Venus opposed Mars from mid Virgo, and Mercury sextiled Uranus, trining Chiron; Jupiter was exactly semisquare Uranus, the first critical angle of their cycle, and Uranus opposed Chiron. The role of the outer planets in particular is key in our examination here and this must include Chiron who sat firmly in Capricorn, the power base, as Jupiter and Uranus opened their cycle in December 1954; Neptune’s role too is central to this article and Neptune exactly squared Uranus and Jupiter at that moment.
Without getting too deeply embroiled in the planetary matrix at this point, suffice it to say that one of the main aims of this article is to illustrate the key role that certain astrological factors have repeatedly played in the charts connecting major environmental disasters, both accidental and not, but, all here relating to the ‘industries of power’. I could have chosen many more examples, especially those relating to the nuclear industry, but that is a project that requires its own space. The Jupiter Uranus cycle, however, has much to tell us within all this and this is a long article, of necessity…..
……the ‘power industries’ have led us into very deep water and to continue following this way of power leads nowhere, except to the dead-end of a lifeless culdisac, an event horizon that is a point of no return. The voice of the industry tells us otherwise, but, the ‘authorities’ of power are clearly seen to be in the business of selling us down the river. We do not need the oil or nuclear industries to power our planet.
With the cracking of the atom we reached the ‘event horizon’ of our times and were pushed, as an exploration of the Trinity chart will indicate, beyond the brink of containment. The illness of our times became psychotic as the button was pushed, such that now the progressive pursuit of dominance through the material use of power has induced an unchecked tsunami of consequences that blight our human presence on Earth. This is no time for political correctness – we need a stronger more passionate language to voice our burning concerns.
Astrologers often try to hold a neutral ground when dealing with interpretation, avoiding such rhetoric in the pursuit of an unbiased view – but, if their is a rule in this, this astrologer favours its breaking, and with good reason. As a diviner I have found that the energy of emotion is a powerful healing tool in itself and, in taking a diviner’s approach to astrology this informs this practice equally. This is not a surgery or lab, and we cannot afford to pussyfoot around our most pressing issues…..
…….I could have gone the conventional route of including charts, but, it is a custom here to focus more on the narrative, as divination does, to give voice to the story behind the chart rather than focus on its technical elements alone; the power of the imagination is what we are after restoring, not a supplimentary science, or meta-science, to justify it, and in responding to the current of our times the poetic medicine of this innate power is essential.
We have seen enough of how science works – as much as its findings excite, it speaks a dead language. As one of our greatest scientists once ironically proclaimed, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand”.(1)
Our response is gathering apace, but, our common tongue is itself afflicted with numbing irony. Buzzwords abound, ‘sustainability’ jostling for space with ‘ecocide’, ‘the environment’ and the ‘biosphere’ become flatline synonyms for our living Earth. We must not be afeared of finding and using our poetic tongue, or be heckled into submission, believing that to do so is to depart from the facts. The drama being enacted in this theatre is deeply tragic and requires equally dramatic language to disclose its true import – a journey into the wound cannot help but bring us face to face with its inherent pain; but, it is a journey we have the means to navigate and we must be unflinching in our determination to see it through. In navigating Neptune’s world this is a de rigueur necessity……
Trinity
If the celestial mirror is anything, it reveals itself to be unflinchingly precise, not least of all in asking for our attention – after the detonation of the first atom bomb, given the unholy name of ‘Trinity‘, was Oppenheimer’s invocation of Shiva any more accidental than the test itself? Is it pure coincidence that within the chart for this event the asteroid ‘Shiva’ was conjunct the Sun to within 2 minutes of arc at the moment of detonation?
The chart for the Trinity detonation is a regular dragon’s egg of powerful potential energy, its key signifiers revealing a deep coherence that carries a profoundly assertive quality; the chart carries a depth charge of meaning and portent that mirrors the moment in which the cosmic egg was rent asunder. This is a chart that warrants much deeper exploration than be given here, but, in the context of this article a relatively brief summation will indicate its unquestionable importance.
Saturn, in detriment, was conjunct the Trinity Ascendant in mid Cancer, precisely squaring the Moon, the ruler of the Asc, in mid Libra. Sirius, the brightest of stars in our night skies, had just risen, barely a degree above the horizon – a symbol of the event’s magnitude and historical significance. In Gemini, Libra’s own ruler Venus precisely sextiled Pluto in Cancer with the Moon’s north node exactly at their midpoint, just six degrees from Saturn – it was a moment of extreme collective soul crisis, a violation of the generative principle and lockdown on our future and collective identity.
The repercussions of this fateful moment have afflicted our collective soul’s journey to this day, its catatonia inducing impact contagiously propagated at the deepest levels as Pluto fell precisely on Neptune’s north node in Leo in the Trinity chart. In this vision of the future the ‘egg of creation’ has been fatally cracked open, creating a breach in time that has released the unbounded powers of the Underworld within the earthly realms. Entering the realm of this unthinkable nightmare we suffered a loss of soul that reverberated well beyond the earthly sphere. But, as Neptune and Pluto are also reminding us here, it is in plumbing the depths of the dream and retrieving the transformative scope of its vision that the keys to its own redemption can be found.
If there are shades of Orpheus at work here the soulful task in hand is brought fully home as the asteroid Orpheus occupies the mid-point of the 10th house, at 15° Aries, precisely square Saturn and the Asc, directly opposing the Moon. The wandering stars are unerring in their precision……..but, what of Jupiter and Uranus?
In the Trinity chart Jupiter is in detriment in Virgo, squaring Uranus in Gemini, a sign in which Jupiter is also in detriment. This critical juncture in their cycle is no less crucial, or fatalistic; it was a cycle that began amidst tumultuous warring, but, the degree upon which its opening fell was perhaps more fatal still as Jupiter and Uranus met conjunct the fixed star Algol, the star of the Medussa. That alone is an ominous imprint to carry, but, the chart for that moment is something to behold (12.20am UTC, May 8th 1941).
Jupiter is loosing power in the Trinity chart as the square seperates, but, while Uranus is the stronger, in its own natural element, Jupiter carries the power of two fixed stars that lend the Thunderer’s presence a symbolic poigniance in ‘earth’ and the sign of the Virgin.
In orb of Denebola, the blue star in the tail of the Leo constellation, Jupiter compounds the import of Robson’s commentary (2) on its conjunction with this star, words brought to a new level of Uranian intensity – “Pride, hypocrisy, disappointed life, troubles abroad or through relatives, secret enemies, danger of imprisonment or death by sentence.” Ebertin tells us Denebola “is of the nature of Uranus”, and that “in mundane horoscopes major catastrophes are triggered off by it” (3)
However, in closer orb of Nu, the fixed star at the head of the Virgo constellation, Jupiter’s culmination of its waxing square with Uranus opened a reckoning time, a time of awakening in which we must pay heed to the catastrophic seeds of destruction that were being sown.
Nu’s esoteric significance is not lost here and echoes something of the Jupiter Uranus theme in relation to Trinity – as the 13th letter of the Greek alphabet, one of Nu’s sigils resembles the lightningbolt. It also symbolises ‘specific volume’ in thermodynamics and, in nuclear physics, the number of neutrons released per fission of an atom.
Within this star’s rich symbology Nu also associates with the truly anomolous, a truly Uranian quality. Its energy is further indicated by its algebraic signification of wave frequency, the modulation of which is at the very heart of energy work and field propagation. Science aside, this is a star that, while being much overlooked, indicates the workings of subtle energies – numinous by name, numinous by nature (pun intended). However, with this resonance between the star and these two planets in mind, Jupiter in square aspect to Uranus becomes an amplified critical point around this energy. An extreme has been reached – in calculus Nu’s symbol is used to signify ‘the greatest fixed point of a function’; as a calculated act Trinity nailed us to the fixed point at the center of the cross of fate and destiny. It was a chronically Chironic.
If the need for the deepest of healing sought confirmation, Chiron was closely conjunct the IC of the Trinity event chart, in the final degree of Virgo, a degree that seems fated to play a recurrent role in this energetic drama – the deepest and most fatal of wounds was opened and we have been repeatedly called to its healing ever since. And, as if to drive the point home, the chart’s MC is precisely on the Aries point, within 4 minutes of arc of the point of entry into Uranus and Jupiter’s current cycle.
The Widening Breach
At Hiroshima, three years later, at 8.16am local time on the 6th of August 1945, the sensitive degrees were activated again. Mars joined Uranus in mid Gemini, with Uranus precisely conjunct the chart’s MC, squaring the Ascendant and the Trinity Moon’s degree. In the Hiroshima chart the Ascendant falls exactly on the degree occupied by the asteroid Shiva in Japan’s national chart. Hiroshima’s Jupiter opposed Japan’s Mars and squared Japan’s Moon…..and this too is a chart carrying a yod with the Moon’s nodes as its central axis.
This time it is Pluto and Mars that are feeding their energies into the Moon’s north node, with the south node at their midpoint! In the deafening roar of the bomb you could almost hear the ancestors howling in disbelief at this ultimate act of aggression. Mars is conjunct the fixed star Aldebaran, a union signifying violent death and sickness. Mars also trines Neptune and Pallas, with Pluto at their midpoint framed by the Sun on one side and Shiva on the other. The correspondences begin to show themselves as the celestial evidence mounts.
Chart comparisons of such events reveal much; they can also lead one down a very wearying path when the destructive element is being highlighted – but, when we look further afield Shiva’s presence and the roles of Uranus, Pluto, Neptune, Saturn, Chiron and Jupiter in particular spring out with an unerring call from the outer planets for our attention.
The Evidence Mounts
In the chart for the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, 1.24 am 26th April 1986, Uranus this time falls exactly on the Ascendant, along with asteroid Orpheus, and is once again in a waxing square with Jupiter! The Sun opposes Pluto close on the Moon’s south node and the chart’s MC/IC axis.
Pallas is exactly conjunct Pluto’s south node in Cancer, weighing our lack of wisdom in the ancestral balance of creation. Pluto was also trined with Ceres in early Virgo as Chernobyl went critical, alerting us to the depth of the event and the need to see its widespread effects within the earth realms more clearly. Did we take heed?
Mars and Neptune once more sextile Pluto, with the asteroid Shiva this time close on Neptune. The pattern at work here is revealing itself. Some say that there was no accident in Chernobyl’s meltdown, that Fukushima was no accident, that politically motivated revenge and deliberate sabotage was at work. However we look at it, there is an old old war at work in our world.
During the Gulf War massive oil spillage was unleashed by the Iraqi army in an attempt to prevent American forces from landing – the planetary positions on that day, 21st of January 1991, are very revealing.
Saturn, domicile in Capricorn, was conjunct the Moon’s north node within two degrees of the Sun at 0° Aquarius. Chiron opposed Saturn from Cancer, trining Pluto, domicile in Scorpio. Mars at 0° Gemini trined the Sun with the Moon transiting the Aries point midway between them. Meanwhile, Jupiter in Leo, squaring Saturn and Chiron, quincunxed Uranus, Mercury and Neptune, whose stellium in Capricorn is very telling. The dice are heavily loaded in this chart, activating critical degrees and pushing the power base into overload.
Neptune’s influence in Capricorn by itself might have alerted us to the message that such violent geopolitically driven disregard for the Earth’s and Life’s sanctity expresses, but this entire complex of interwoven apsects belies the pursuit of a wreckless strategy of dominance. It is a strategy that finds its purpose in creating emotional turmoil and unbridled drama, as a distraction from the underlying wound that it meanwhile deepens. It has deception at its heart and is achieved, as the American campaign in Iraq of 2003 brazenly broadcast, through the widespread delivery of ‘shock and awe’. It is also at the heart of the attempt at a perpetual war, not on but ofterror, that now sustains this intent and purpose. Neither is it confined to the military battlefield…..
…..if the military delivery of such globalised trauma is ongoing so is its environmental twin. And, if Deepwater Horizon has anything to tell us about this veiling of our sanity and its relationship with the current opposition between Jupiter and Uranus, perhaps a closer look at Neptune will reveal it.
There is a certain irony in Neptune’s role in the Deepwater chart; conjunct Chiron on the cusp of Pisces the oceanic wound carries its heart in its mouth – as environmental disasters go its magnitude, if not its cause, was both openly pronounced and concealed in the process as we heard its dry echo on the news. This was ‘the worst‘, we were told, ‘environmental disaster‘, we were informed, ‘in US history‘, we were duly advised, as if official notification of its scale and national appointment were a measure of its weight…..there was no ‘solace’ or ‘measure’ offered in the fact, or its presentation in the media.
The familiar machinations of obscuration surrounding this event are highlighted when we look closer, as Neptune and Chiron on the Pisces cusp sextile the Sun at 0° Taurus, with Uranus at their midpoint. Uranus on the Aries cusp opposes Saturn rx in the final degree of Virgo. Echoes of the charts mentioned above also resound here. The key planets here had barely moved a single degree by the time Jupiter and Uranus opened their current cycle.
In the Deepwater chart the Moon is conjunct its own south node, in the process of transiting Saturn and Pluto’s north nodes in Cancer. The soul of the past must inform the transformational building of our future. Mid Cancer, if you remember, was sensitised in the Trinity chart and the key angles are trigger points activated by the outer planets at all these events.
Jupiter and Uranus both square the Ascendant. In the Deepwater chart’s 10th house Jupiter and Uranus signal the importance of this event in the relationship between the industries of power and our ability to transcend their dominance, but it is Neptune who is the ruler of the MC, calling for redemption. Is the society of the future we dream of now a dream we can share with our descendants…..
…..in their yod with Saturn, Neptune + Chiron’s sextile with the Sun shows us how the message is being both perceived and not perceived. At 29° of Aquarius the critical point of Neptune’s transit into Pisces is overshadowed by the karmic sensitivity of Saturn’s place at the head of the yod. It is a karma both shut out of view, concretised and delivered into our hands – we have to feel it to believe in it and only the power locked up in our human passion and will to live harmoniously can redeem it for us. Some might say that, with such a diagnosis, humanity is in dire need of a soul retrieval – so, who might we find who could facilitate such an undertaking; its a rhetorical question.
Opposing Saturn, Uranus becomes the revealer who alerts us to the event’s true nature – this is not simply an act of extreme negligence, as the courts ruled against BP, the company responsible for Deepwater, it was a call to rein in the destruction to our living Earth. It was also a call to a much more profound and powerful vision, one that engenders and protects life and can be lived by. Answering such a calling would be the purpose of Jupiter and Uranus meeting at 0° Aries and such a vision forms the positive core of their new synodic cycle.
If The Path Leads Through The Wound…..
Such disasters bring catastrophic and deeply affecting damage whose images nevertheless point towards the painful heart of the healing being called for. The impact of Deepwater upon marine life has been far deeper than has been acknowledged – we are told that hundreds of whales and dolphins, many of them babies, died as a result – the toxicity of the chemicals used in the ‘clean up’ is no less pervasive to this day; but, the reality behind these events is far more deep reaching and forms part of a much bigger picture.
At the time, Deepwater Horizon was but the latest in a long history of environmental disasters falling at the hands of its industrial power base. Yes, BP were found guilty of negligence, but, to call it ‘negligent’ is an insult of the highest order, one that ignores the long list of ‘negligence’ behind its perpetrators. Over one billion gallons of crude have poured from that ongoing industrial wound into the oceanic biosphere within the last half century alone. And this figure does not include one of the biggest spills ever recorded which was not accidental by any means – millions of gallons were deliberately unleashed within the Persian Gulf during the Gulf War and it is openly admitted but never spoken knowledge that a nine foot deep crust of ‘tarcrete’ covers afflicted areas of the desert to this day. The damage within Neptune’s realms goes almost entirely unmentioned – further hard evidence must be called to the dock……
Forgetting is at the deep core of the construction of Onkalo, a mile deep repository for nuclear waste being built under a granite mountain in Finland. But how, millenia down the road, do we tell our descendants of the lethal dangers our legacy has created for them in such an irradiated tomb? The radioactive waste buried at Onkalo has a half life of tens of thousands of years, and we struggle to decipher the signs left by our ancestors 5,000 years ago, let alone 50,000. (4)
The thousands of starfish that have been dissolving on the eastern Pacific Coast, the dead seals and fish, the mass die off of marine flora and their mirror, the hundreds of deformed human babies born in Japan after Fukushima and Russia after Chernobyl are not considered hard enough evidence to halt the madness, yet. Neither are these facts redeemed by the use of depleted uranium in wars fought over geopolitical gains; gains, no matter how opposed to them we are, from which we continue to benefit; our hand is being forced, while running our cars, heating and lighting our homes, powering our computers……
……Trinity was the first of many tests, themselves running to the thousands, that have produced generations of dead and cancer afflicted ‘downwinders’, and the military personel involved in these tests, ordinary footsoldiers used in that ‘good old military tradition’ of ‘cannon fodder’, were treated with equal disdain being nothing more than a ‘part of the experiment’.
Official figures attached to these events differ wildly when they do actually appear within the public realm, by astronomical factors in some cases, an open indicator of the confusion and deception at work within. This in itself is not newsworthy enough to warrant reportage either, it seems. The hegemony of the scientific priesthood will always try to sell us the official line. Hundreds of ‘alternative’ researchers will tell us different, alternative in many senses simply because they are never consulted by the media. And yet, when these events are thrust in our face they invariably filtered down, delivered through the official channels with just enough force for the figures to wash over us, and we are expected to swallow them. This is a reality fully manifest in Fukushima where, over five years after the event, the authorities continue to massively downplay the truth and its consequences. Regardless, we know the truth – these events are all of one ilk; they are all acts of war, ultimately destructive crimes against Life. So….
…..What Is The Antidote?
At Fukushima the asteroid Shiva was exactly conjunct Pluto at 8° Capricorn and, as I began to write this article Jupiter was exactly square this degree – the burgeoning sphere of radioactive threat is upon us again as the drums of global war ratchet up their rhythm. And, it has long been known that the nuclear fuel industry is but a front for the manufacture of weapons grade uranium.
The reactors are getting old, as are the warheads. Instability rules the day. One strike from a significant coronal mass ejection will take down the grid and the failsafe on these ‘facilities’ will be tested to its extreme. It is madness to continue in this way. If Jupiter and Uranus are to have a hand in this it is our prerogative to find their higher calling and it is to this that we will be looking in the next post.
Neptune’s realms are suffering through widening pollution and irradiation, and yet the fact of the whales and dolphins carcasses in relation to these events remains obscured. If we are to bring a passion to bear here, it must surely be upon what in our times has become that most mercurial of things, Truth. The truth is there for all to see, deliberately veiled if not ignored by the official channels in order to prevent widespread panic, we are told – and insurrection, we might surmise. The cover up is no less great above our heads where the daily deposition of many thousands of tons of heavy metals, nano-technologies and viral particulates infuses the skies that carry the oceans irradiated waters and bring its heavy load to our lands, lakes and front doors. Its a ‘hard rain’ thats falling, to be sure….but the truth behind this reality does not escape our notice; witness this latest appraisal. The perpetrators know that truth is the most powerful of weapons and have no inhibition in concealing it and affecting our capacity for recognising it. Our very ability to think and dream for ourselves is under assault.
The scientific foundation upon which the industries of power have built their edifice has done everything in its power to seperate our thinking from our dreaming – we cannot imagine without either, and Neptune is the archetypal ruler of the imaginal realms.
As the planetary matrix of Deepwater and many of these charts might have indicated it is in Neptune’s, and Chiron’s, realms that the soul of Jupiter and Uranus antidote might be found. In indigenous lore the Whales are Earth’s keepers of the great repository of knowledge that give us access to the ancestral dreaming of our planet. This is knowledge that encompasses a far older memory than is widely acknowledged, a memory that reaches far back into the migration of the planets, and of our ancestors, into this solar system.
Water has memory, conveys information, responds to emotions – when we are born our body’s primary element is water (around 75%) and remains so in healthy humans ( dropping to an average of <60%>) until death; we are born from water……and the primary source of oxygen on our planet is in the oceans; phytoplankton photosynthesises over 50% of the world’s oxygen into the atmosphere……..and oxygen is the bane of cancer. It is also essential to our capacity to imagine, but, we will return to this next time.
The Whale’s return to the oceans signalled a change in our planetary atmosphere and gravity, a transformation of Earth also intrinsic to the human evolutionary path; they hold the memories of a unified consciousness that are braided into our own dna – the release and recovery of these memories is essential to our world, a central part of the antidote.
When Uranus and Jupiter met at 0° Aries they signalled a new beginning for us all in retrieving the power within these memories, of memory itself, and their current opposition across the Aries Libra axis will tell us just where and how this journey could continue, its great promise and startling reality……in future posts over the coming year we will pick up on the incoming attributes of the Jupiter Uranus cycle, looking more deeply into the story as it unfolds, and begin to unpack what the return of the whale dreamers might mean for us. The next post in the series, Mysterious Travellers, can be found here…..
(1) quote attributed to Albert Einstein
(2) Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology, V E Robson, 1923
(3) Fixed Stars and their Interpretation, Elsbeth Ebertin, 1928
We have to talk and talk tough, with extreme lucidity, and put our petty concerns aside – the times demand it of us. But, more than that, we have to walk our talk. The radical end game of the Uranus Pluto square has arrived as the two outer planets slowly break out of antagonistic orb. Five years of unrest has seen the world change profoundly, one irrevocable truth overshadowing all others – the disastrous consequence of the pursuit of nuclear power is a reality that will not go away; Fukushima made sure of that. Few could have forseen the actual event of Fukushima, but, well before this, once the atom was split the writing was very clearly on the wall. How on earth did we let that happen? Who’s choice was it……
At the end of the Piscean Age our choices for the future bring us to the very edge, the crux of transition, the fact that whatever we decide now will affect all who come after us. Fukushima’s imprint is seemingly indelible, potentially covering 50 millenia or more, two precessions of the equinox.
The Piscean Age was always ultimately about endgames; its ultimate danger, oblivion, its ultimate promise, absolution. We could have perhaps walked the talk of its spiritual core and brought ourselves to unparalleled heights, but there was always an element in our midst that sought all the glory for itself – and now, caught beneath the many tentacled manifestation of its shadow, it is no exaggeration to say that we are in a fight for survival as we struggle to lift its smothering veil. That shadow element has proven itself ruthless, to the point of self destruction – it is an old old wound that has become cancerous, quite literally, but, we must ask; how did it get there, what is its true nature and what must we do to eradicate it, for good?
We could begin by recognising that it began long ago, not simply a consequence of some mad myopic modernistic race for ‘progress’ but the inevitable consequence of profound changes within humanity that began nearly twelve thousand years ago. The seeds of those changes were sown by cosmological events, Earth changes that forced us to evolve new ways of thinking and living around the end of the younger Dryas. Then too, our choices were stark, but, choices we had. And we would do well to remember them. It is no coincidence that the planetary matrix is reflecting this reality back to us now.
Saturn is conjunct the south node of Uranus – we must remember our unique capacity to survive the worst of adversity, the human ability to meet radical times with an equally radical shift in consciousness, and more than anything else how it changed us – such remembering brings us face to face with the karmic consequences of seeking power over natural law.
Pluto is closing on conjunction with its own south node; we must retrieve the memories of that deep change that shifted the balance of power within our human world, within our human relationship with this living being we call Earth – no matter how painful the trauma, we will find the map that leads us to our own long hidden and virtually forgotten buried treasure in that place.
Without this level of collective self knowledge we are consigning ourselves to repeat our gravest errors, to continue the phobic blackout and inflict upon our selves an even deeper if not irrevocable wound as a species. Pluto’s south node in Capricorn can give us the keys unlocking the mystery of its own north node in Cancer and, the radical necessity of doing so is at its crucial point. Uranus is now exactly squaring that node. The shift in power, the radical change in mores and social structures, seeded the rise of patriarchy and heirarchic relationships based upon dominance. Capricorn represents the culmination of these changes, the apotheosis of Cancer.
When Saturn conjuncts Pluto in 2020 they will meet on Pluto’s south node in Capricorn and be in close proximity to Saturn’s own south node. The shadow of the past will be unavoidably manifest in the present at that crunch time. We have a clear time frame for this endgame.
In the intervening time we will see Uranus transit the Taurean cusp three times, eventually entering tropical Taurus in March 2019 for an eight year stay.
In 2024 Pluto will enter Aquarius for a 22 year transit of Uranus home sign. This transit will culminate in their opposition, the first of seven across early degrees of the Pisces Virgo axis over a three year period. As far off as it may seem the keys to that time, our ability to receive Uranus influx of the Virgoan field, lie in this present time and the current lunation gives us a vital glimpse. We will return to this in the next post.
Before that time, also beginning in 2024, there is another perhaps more beneficial stage in this slow shift of the Ages as Neptune finally leaves Pisces and in the process sextiles both Pluto and Uranus at the midpoint of their trine. This configuration will last for five years and eventually see Uranus transit its own north node in May 2029 in Gemini. Some might say that Neptune in Aries provokes memories of religious conflict and Pluto in Pisces a crisis of spirituality. But, again, it is the conscious choices we make now and the commitment they embody that will determine how well we are able to bring out the positive side of this interplay between the outer planets.
The message is clear – our time for reparation is short. In the last six years, since I began blogging (at Owlmirror) about planetary transits and the revolution in consciousness, the field has changed radically – not only has the world become radicalised but a parallel inner process is at work. Many who have woken up from the torpor of the Piscean miasma are now working to further this change. Our Uranian technological revolution serves to enable this as a continuing process, but, waking up alone is no longer enough. The crisis that waking up to reality presents us with now demands a sea change that must build from within the awakened consciousness of the individual. It is a commitment sourced at soul level. We have to turn the tide now. If we can use the next four years wisely to this effect the four years after may carry enough momentum for us to continue enjoying the benefits of choice.
Choice we do still have, even now, even if these appear diminished and stark against the backdrop of global irradiation and creeping wipeout. These are not morbid pessimistic statements, they are facts, realities, and there is very good reason to accept them as such. The ensoulment of Life as much as our own future depend upon it. Such acceptance and commitment may yet be the very thing that makes the crucial difference, the key to a plausible future, a radically different way of thinking and living – we have to be brave, courageous to accept it, but the bottom line is that Uranus and Pluto were always about a revolution of the soul, not just our own but this planet’s. That is why we are here, now.
Lets not forget that forgotten treasure – it lies behind the door to the future manifest in Pluto’s north node. It takes the shape of a profound memory of the past that is deeply embedded within the souls of all living now, a memory going all the way back to the Age of Cancer, the cultural high point of the age of the Mother Goddess. The egalitarian society which belonged to that time cannot be retreived, but, its soul is asking to be remembered and born anew – it is the gift of the Aquarian Age that can yet give meaning to our times.
ROOT MEDICINE OF THE STARS ON EARTH 