Tag Archives: lunar eclipse

A Wrinkle In Time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

———-

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

Lunar Eclipse of the Wolf Moon

Lunar Eclipse/FM 10/01/20 19:18 UTC

Lets put a little perspective on things. The Saturn and Pluto conjunction is being touted as the headline news, and it is a real doozy for sure, a true indicator of the forces of constriction and purgation at work within the collective layers of the mundane world. But, it is in the nature of a crash viewed in slow motion.

We have had months of the Saturn Pluto convergence, they first came into orb a year ago and their combined effects have been applying since Saturn began his slow march through Capricorn two years ago. Pluto has occupied a narrow band of degrees between 18 and 23 Capricorn through all this time…..

Look around and see what is happening now that is a version of the same disruption and restriction from a year, two years ago and more, to get the picture. Notice where things are intensifying.

…….and so it comes around now that the actual conjunction of these two ‘respect demanding’ planets is a mark in time, ‘a point not of impact but import’, which is signified not by collision but by ‘alignment’ – remember that.

This really is not meant to be experienced as a moment of temporal neurosis. However, if anyone wants to make punctual use of it, the exact conjunction of Saturn and Pluto is at it most intense in a five minute window between 16:55 and 17:00 UTC on January 12th, but that is rather missing the point.

Yes, there may be, and it is a ‘maybe’, events which coincide with this particular alignment ‘on the dot’, and its not as if there are not enough events that would already qualify for identification with this as an astrological ‘collision’ happening in the world right now. But, we should know by now that, while our emotional bodies are undoubtedly being impacted, we are not in reality here to be distracted by the ensuing drama to the extent that we let it cloud our assessment of what is happening – that is a great danger in a volatile world situation where rash judgements can reek havoc, even at the personal level, and much remains ‘unseen’.

What we don’t want to happen is to perpetuate disfunction, rely on that which does not work or is ineffective, make plans based solely on crisis thinking or, perhaps most importantly in the current situation, underestimate the obstacles being faced and the power and resources of those who rely on those obstacles being there, for whatever reason.

In a very real sense this is what Saturn and Pluto are advocating; that we use what they are revealing to purge the system and draw a line against the machinations of our detractors.

Number one rule of ‘engagement’ here is to remain as clear headed and perceptive as possible.

Yes, do what the moment calls for, but keep the longer term goals in view, and that is where the lunar eclipse comes in.

This is a weakened domicile full Moon in some senses; it has its esoteric aspects, yes, but these are inextricably interwoven with the exoteric manifestations it mirrors – rather than a full on blast in the face of the vicarious powers lined up against the people, this is a reminder, as Jupiter now on the Moon’s south node makes very clear, of the fact that we have been here before and are fighting a battle that has become perpetuated over a very long time by a many headed power hungry hegemony whose destructive workings in the world we now face more clearly than ever.

More to the point the ‘weakened’ aspect of this full Moon is reflecting the shadow which ‘suppression and usury’ has cast upon the spirit of humanity, and this planet, as well as humanity’s complicity in the workings of those who are responsible for that suppression.



Within the context of the big conjunction, this eclipsed full Moon and the solar eclipse which preceded it define the actual temporal gateway. It is a gateway which not only calls our finest qualities to be brought forth as we pass beneath its lintel, but tells us to ‘mind our heads’ and requires the balance of unflinching self honesty and grounded realism that keeps our feet firmly on the ground as we tread over its threshold.

While the rebellious freedom seeking spirit in humanity spits out the socio/cultural/economic bait and poisoned idealism it has been fed, that has led to the hiatus it now experiences, it now also realises and for the sake of our own healing must admit that it has been coerced and, when the sanctioned violence of war and physical oppression has been invoked, force fed that same bait in lethal doses.

If Saturn and Pluto are turning the screw on anything, it is the fact that there is nowhere to hide from this reality on this planet – which raises the obvious, if not over obvious, clarion that “we are all in this together”…….

..…if there is a thread of hope offered by this it is also mirrored in the lunar disc, in the portion of its luminous glow which refuses, by dint of fate and celestial mechanics if nothing else, to be overshadowed and dimmed. Identify with that, as the shadow too will pass and the true light of love for this Earth and unswerving willingness to be a protector of this magical blue orb, which the full Moon in Cancer can be for us, will prevail.

The full Moon and eclipses makes sense of the Saturn Pluto conjunction in a way that is unique to our times – in the mundane sense it tells us that what is now being revealed cannot be forgotten, we cannot afford to. We cannot un-see what we have seen, or unknown what we now know – in fact, we bear witness in order to make correct use of our knowledge, or at the very least endeavour to learn how to.

It is in the nature of eclipses that we do so with the longer term view in mind, at the core of and guiding our acts and endeavours. There is more to this than simply being better, correcting our ways though.

The Moon in Cancer opposes Sun, Mercury, Saturn, Pluto and, importantly, Ceres in Capricorn. Strong convergences characterise the moment. Mars hot undercurrents push from beneath. Jupiter amplifies the purging and remembering process via the Moon’s south node and with Ceres so inextricably involved, being the Earth-Mother personified, the memory of Her demise and how this came to be is writ large on this, the final eclipse across the Capricorn Cancer axis for a decade.

Herstory is diligently and ineluctably rebalancing history.

If prayers be made, make them deep and lasting, as deep as the passion with which Ceres fought her corner on behalf of her daughter, entrapped in the underworld, and stood up to Hades. Make them as lasting as the cycle of the seasons which Ceres hard line negotiations won. Our very fecundity and vitality rest on this. It is a mythological story for our times, in many ways. It is up to each of us what we put into those prayers, but, collectively we petition the divine Mother in doing so.

Moon in Cancer speaks of the waters of life that nourish the community, that are protected and run deep within the earth. Give thanks with offerings made to the springs and aquifers, to the spirits of the waters that are nearest to and provide for your home, for the life and sustenance they bring and wondrous nature of our own aqueous being they provide.



Mercury will be sending the message ahead when he wings his way into Aquarius on the 16th, but, here signifies the guile and wits we must have about us while manuevering among the gods and rulers, those who would assume upon their station.

That message is what we are compiling now, through our acts in the world and our magical workings, a message not to be writ in stone, but that will become airborne, as moisture to the skies, carried on the airwaves and through electrical connectivity. We are gathering charge.

As the full Moon escapes the Earth’s shadow the ruler of Aquarius, Uranus, takes up direct motion once more and completes the picture with all planets now moving in direct motion in the skies.

Uranus will figure greatly in the close of this lunar cycle squaring the dark Moon on Jan 24th at new Moon. Mars will square Venus and Neptune at the same time. But, first things first.

We are getting intimations of a change with this coming cycle, away from a fatalistic and heavy atmosphere and into a more cerebral if intelligent emphasis on our approach to living.

This is not to diverge from our focus on Earth but to bring a higher level of understanding and connectivity to our lives, the better to find our true symbiotic nature and relationship. But, we will come back to that in time….we will

Blessed be!

beautiful image : Joyce Kiapen….

…..in celebration of the Wolf Moon

Seasons of the Eclipse

The December lunation opens with Sun and Moon in alignment on the ecliptic, within four degrees of the Moon’s south node.

Opening with a solar eclipse, this powerful and busy lunation will see Venus, Mars and Mercury change signs, sees Uranus station direct midway through the lunation, and contains the twin to the opening solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse at full Moon – all this on top of the most talked of planetary conjunction of 2020, Saturn conjunct Pluto just two days after full Moon; more on the latter as we approach mid-lunation.

In fact, there’s a lot to take in here, so we’ll come back to review the key moments as the lunation progresses.

With the dark Moon eclipsing the Sun and coming into conjunction with Jupiter as it does so, when everything is taken into account the impression here might be that everything is being brought to a pitch, that massive change is imminent and that for this to happen, something’s got to give…..but while we are in the midst of this cosmic readjustment process, for that is truly what it is, we are very far from being helplessly at its mercy.

This is not all about what is happening ‘out there’. So much of the transformative energy that is at work within the world now works across any apparent divide between inner and outer worlds – the effects are deep, the releasing old memories into life to find new  meaning for example, forgotten ways resurfacing to find new forms of expression and understanding, and a release of energy from the sacred realms that has been locked up behind false notions and suppressed by regimes of spiritual ‘control  and dogma’ for millennia.

In reality, reality is adjusting out of the ‘reign of the false’ and one of the main effects of this is the restoration of a unified experience of life in which there is no divide between inner and outer, unless ‘we ourselves’ make it so. Some insist upon retaining this construct, one of the consequences being an over-reliance on ‘technology’. A restoration of the ‘integral’ nature of perception however and our ability to restructure it at will could be taken as a corrective to what has become an over-literallised notion, that ‘we create our own reality’.

An alchemical power is being released from within the matrix, that encodes the transmutative processes at work between ‘energetic and material’ states, an ancient knowledge, of a kind that is very far from being confined to the ‘Earth realms’. This is to describe one of the elements of the Saturn Pluto equation at work now, clarifying under the influence of the eclipses.

But, we came here precisely to witness this resurgence and to be present in as powerful a way as we individually can to participating in its unfoldment.

By working with the energetics of the matrix at this time, as supercharged as they may be, we have an opportunity to integrate more fully with what is potentially a massive dose of radical change within the world.

We have to ask ourselves, is the perspective of the bigger picture speaking directly to our personal self; this can be overwhelming, and many are still suffering the miasma of cultural indoctrination, social and political correctness et al which obscures and prevents this experience from becoming consciously embodied.

In the world, among the human politic, this brings the reminder that the enormity of it all ‘is’ no barrier to the powerful difference a small number of people, or just one individual can make, and there are plenty of examples of this reality being brought to bear at this time.

But ‘size’ is not the issue here, as, on the scale of things that runs from the sub-atomic to the super-galactic for example, humans stand at the centre point – small shifts at the fulcrum, balance point, can have a big impact.

In plain-speak what these times are telling us is that “while we are, each of us, a tiny and seemingly insignificant speck in the vastness of ‘all that is’, it is our ‘role’ and the qualities we bring to fulfilling it that matter”.

What this lunation can help us with in particular is to get a clearer view of what that role is and, more pertinently at the off-set, what needs to happen for us to fulfil it more completely.

First, and this applies to all, we could simply commit to stepping more deeply into the role of ‘change maker’. This is not, as the ‘new-age’ version might have it, about ‘creating our own reality’, so much as being able to participate more deeply in reality creating itself, in other words aligning ourselves with Nature’s way.

Secondly, if the events of the world around you make you doubt just how effective you can be, use this perspective to define more clearly what ‘is’ actually within your reach, and focus on that.

But, use this lunation to gain the wider perspective and to place your actions within the larger context as well…..this is all a part of the gift of these times, for everyone now living within the ‘ongoing’, should we be willing to accept it, or have eyes to see it.

So, having internal clarity is paramount.


For this clarity to come into play some things will have to be checked on and if necessary changed within ourselves, to access the necessary inner balance point; if we can fully accept that our part in change is just that, a part, but without losing sight of the potency and effectiveness we individually have, it is then this balance point that brings us, like Sun and Moon on the ecliptic, into alignment. Its being on and in Life’s ‘sweet spot’ and knowing how to flow and adjust with it.



At the outset of this lunation in particular, it is that which is ‘getting in the way’ of this inner change that is being brought to our attention and reflected in the world and, as the lunation gets under way at the solar eclipse/new Moon the opportunity arises to bring deeper than normal levels of personal awareness to these ‘facts of life’ at work within our own lives.

This is the south node effect, which shows us the residue of past actions, the, if you like, ‘karmic imprint’ which we yet labour under, and which consequentially affects our personal trajectory and behaviour on our journey through this lifetime. This may well be ancestral, we may well be here to make the deeper adjustment to the ancestral line and engage with ancestral healing.

At the same time, in keeping with the south node, it is also that which we have innate to our being, that we have brought with us as ‘powers’, knowing and skilful means into this life which is being brought to our attention here. We can in fact be very complacent about theses innate gifts, take them fore granted, and thus miss their true potential and the immense fuel they provide to us in reaching for our soul’s purpose and direction. Eliminating the blind spots to these gifts is a part of the purging process at work in this.

We have an opportunity to see ourselves in a new light here.

To take it, we must be prepared to not only accept our flaws and strive for self awareness beyond our current state, to accept unconscious aspects of ourselves as ‘ourselves’, each of us must be prepared to more fully own our power and commit to using it wisely in the world, ie acting responsibly with and upon it. The two go together.

What is blinding us here is personal not just embedded unconsciousness, it is personal bias, and what we are being blinded to is the damage our unconscious actions cause ‘when they are not in accord with the times’.

Being in accord with the times is a developed art, one that can be nurtured, and divination is one of the most powerful practices to hand for this, but which rests very much on our inner equilibrium and self knowledge.

Yes, given the state of things this current calling represents a ‘damage limitation scenario’, but it is also an expansion of awareness that is rippling through the entire matrix. The entire solar system is ripe with change and its reverberations are at work right through to the galactic core.

On a planetary scale the alignments at this solar/lunar eclipse season are shifting the centre of rotation of our solar system to an extreme and the changes we see are not merely local but are reflected across a wide bandwidth of scale and depth within our local interplanetary space. In such conditions certain ‘life rules’ and natural laws come into play.

We may well have created a great deal of the shit we are currently experiencing in the world, but, the message here is that when our ‘personal will’ ignores the collective terrain we are travelling through collisions will happen, the shit will continue to hit the fan,  and we simply cannot allow for that to happen any more. Period.

“The buck stops here.”

This could well be the theme of this lunation, and it might be enough to simply allow this to sink in and let it become integrated into our entire being, but, ‘being in sync with life’ is much more the underlying theme here, where the real ‘power’ lies. It is the power for harmonious living.

We will see the tides turning over the course of this lunar cycle, the qualities of the times shift with them and, before ending this brief synopsis of the lunation’s onset it is worth taking a look at the quarters, to make better use of their energetics in relation to our own charts and personal energetic matrix.



First quarter on January 3rd sees Mars enter Sagittarius and Mercury, having entered Capricorn, conjunct Jupiter.

Full Moon on January 10th sees Saturn closing to within 10 minutes of arc with Pluto, and Mercury transiting the Sun on the lunar eclipse. Jupiter will be transiting the Moon’s south node.

Bringing an unpredictably novel twist to the moment Uranus also comes out of retrograde motion, meaning all the planetary bodies will be in direct motion, all of which funnels through that powerful Saturn/Pluto conjunction. Uranus needs to be paid special attention now with this change to direct motion – be prepared to change direction, take opportunities as they arise, but being open to anomaly without shutting down or going into cognitive dissonance is of the highest importance.

The effects of Uranus within the Taurean field are profound enough, but this is a time when they are bring highlighted, in the run-up to the Saturn/Jupiter cycle which begins in November 2020 in particular. How we see and value the material and natural world is an obvious change that is underway, but this is not simply the product of becoming aware; it is about coming into alignment with and allowing an evolutionary change within consciousness to take hold of us.

The ‘old world’ and its ‘trappings and entrapments’ are dissolving away, their hold on us diminishing, and what is emerging in the process is both old, very old, and new, very new.

I have written about some of these effects in the two ‘Uranus in Taurus’ posts you will find in the listings here, but, I have held back from publishing part three, where these latter changes are looked into more specifically, as the changes anticipated are happening much more quickly and with stronger effect than expected – part 3 will now appear in the first quarter of the new calendar year, once Uranus has cleared its retrograde shadow.

By last quarter on 17th January Venus will have entered Pisces, the sign of her exaltation, and Mercury will have crossed into Aquarius and the message of these times will have come more clearly into perspective.

There will be an unusual twist in the tail of this lunation for sure, but, as we head past this watershed moment in time the purposefulness which we need to bring to of our personal journey will have been made much clearer, and that role may well bring more than we have been accustomed to expecting of ourselves into play…..

….the next lunation opens in the first decan of Aquarius on January 24th 2020 and puts the work and changes made during this lunation to the test – its Sabian symbol tells us that “A COUNCIL OF ANCESTORS IS SEEN IMPLEMENTING THE EFFORTS OF A YOUNG LEADER.”

The question now is, “where in the circle do you stand?”

Blessed Be!


image : Carson Ellis

Mars, Saturn And The Horns Of A Dilema


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“those who ignore the lessons of history……”

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reclaim your life and creativity!

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

Behind The Mask

A full lunar eclipse on January 31st falls in the 12th degree of Leo. Times and places for observing the eclipse can be found here.

As a full Moon, the high point of this lunation shows us how we are acting out our most worldly aspirations on the stage of the world. We may not however be aware of the extent to which we are doing this, so care is cautioned, especially in dealing with others. In the midst of drama, when the tension and energy is high, all too often the unconscious can and will intervene unexpectedly, but, there are of course many ways in which this can happen.

Seeded in the last decan of Capricorn, while this lunation brings the worldly presence we have to a dramatic point of self expression, there is a twist. Being a total eclipse we are encountering a long term effect, one in which ‘the mask’ falls and the reality of the shadow, or ‘hidden persona’, behind it is revealed.

This is literally like a power cut to the narrative, and we live in a time of conflicting narratives, so this is also a power game, a game of opportunism. Concrete reality suddenly intervenes in a ‘play’ just as it reaches its dramatic high point – the lights go out. This will be a test of both mettle and preparedness.

When the lights do ‘come back on’, not only is the ruse exposed but, in that moment, life and art become cathartically interactive. In a big way.

When encountered in personal life this hiatus can come from untenable situations reaching the point where they have to resolve themselves; their inherent paradox transcended – the tension between two opposites flips, ‘the two’ produce an unexpected ‘third’, so to speak.

The result is a new narrative, perhaps not unexpected, but one which was hitherto unable to manifest. Having been felt but not seen, it now becomes visible, a powerful catalyst to action.

A collision of fact and fiction which reveals some otherwise undeclared relationship between them, the main casualty from this impactful event is going to primarily be in the realm of lies that have been dressed up as truths. We know the world is littered with them. But, check out your own ‘business’ first and start there.

This is the time to make a personal vow ~ to stop fooling oneself, or trying to fool others, and to live in integrity. This does not require us to give up our role playing, but, rather to allow it to become an extension of our soul, fully.

If you are going to play the fool, make sure it is your part to do it. This is a position of true power, and this element, in the guise of the wise trickster and ‘upsetter’, speaking profane truths with impunity, is going to be very much at large in the world. It will hurt, some, not all, but only where there has been denial and deception. Have some compassion.

On the world stage, this is the moment when the ‘green curtain’ is pulled back and the deceptions which have been plaguing society with greatest bearing in our lifetimes come pouring out into the open.

The strongest direct planetary aspect to this Moon comes via Neptune, inconjunct the eclipsed full Moon, so watch out especially for propaganda and media whitewashing of what otherwise might be very real events, events of significance. This is a rear guard action, a defense of the ‘false realm’. Deals will be struck, no doubt, and necks will be saved, almost certainly, but some won’t…..and this is where it could get ‘interesting’.

We know the scenario described above is in fact playing out in the world at the moment, and this will be especially evident where the tension between extremes of political ideology is currently being constellated. But, it reaches beyond this into the social realm as well.

With Mercury in the final minute of the final degree of Capricorn at the exact full Moon, at eclipse height, expect incendiary information to come out around this time and the weeks following, to change the landscape. This information, and the actions it impels, is going to change the face of our social connections, our financial transactions and our ideologies, within the bigger picture.

With Venus in close proximity to the Sun in mid Aquarius the financial basis of these revelations could reveal their darker side, the slavery and degradation which blights the world. The other side of this aspect is that of identity, how this has been and is being stolen, not least of all as this affects the legitimacy of indigenous status.

Legal battles are going to be at the center of many of the actions brought to a head here. Social justice itself is in the spotlight.

However, with all the planets direct but the connections between them and the Sun/Moon and nodes mostly being tenuous at this full Moon, it is the place and role we individually take up following this eclipse that are of the utmost importance. The news, if allowed to get out, will shock, but, it is what is within our grasp to change that matters most. This is where we put that vow of integrity into action.

When we look to the Sabian symbols for the Moon and Sun’s degrees we find this picture helpfully filled out.

12° Leo emphasises the manner in which social status has become a superficial role playing game, barely reflecting the inherent value of each individual soul taking part. This is a product of ‘power’ being the measure of ‘position’ rather than ‘inherent value’. This matters greatly in our present time, for many reasons, but matters even more to our future. Its opposite degree reveals the ‘shadow’ which this superficiality conceals.

12° Aquarius radiates ‘inherent worth’, but, requires the social value of the individual be formally recognised for that energy and its qualities to be consummated, a social responsibility. Here the natural condition of ‘hierarchy’ is expressed, rather than being contrived, as it has become in 12 Leo. This is instinctively hard wired into the human psyche, a legacy of our deepest connections with nature, and such hierarchy is expressed most naturally via the unconscious, no less through dreams and psychic realities. But, this is an instinct that has all but lost its true sociological value, being all too often over-riden by ‘privilege’ and material wealth in the social hierarchies of the industrial age.

This solar/lunar dynamic is almost certainly reflecting a watershed for social values, the eclipse sustaining a clear need to revise how we live according to those values, and this is to describe an atmosphere which will affect much of the mundane world over the coming months. Imposed values will be questioned, as they are being currently in relation to gender identity, and this relates directly into freedom of speech and how it is being both undermined through censorship and directed down ideological pathways. If the 20th century was the century of propaganda, the 21st century is all about the battle for control of the narrative. Narratives are constantly being updated, being relentlessly engineered, through overt if not rampant political correctness, for example. Legislation has already begun ramming it down our throats. But, this is the false face of a much more sinister post-modern shadow. Here too the mask must fall.

The moral here is to not simply take things at face value. Be careful to listen beyond people’s words. In fact, listen to your own, the narrative you are upholding and look beyond it, drop it for a moment and ask ‘what do I really want’ and does my life match up to it, my ‘real’ life. The desire to create impressions, to spin a yarn for the effect, must end – at the same time, it is content that is emphasised here. While appearances can be deceptive and it is best not to judge a book, or a person, by their ‘cover’, as Sam Keen observed, “the authentic life has frequently been pictured under the metaphor of the fool.” Why is this important; because the fool is the risk taker, the arbiter of creative energy and it is creative energy that this eclipse and full Moon is focusing on.

We almost certainly won’t see the full extent of the changes being initiated under this eclipsed full Moon until later in the year, but, do take the opportunity to act in accordance with the times. Many people are frightened to speak their truth in the current climate, but the integral life has great power.

Mysterious Travellers

Just four months ago our outlook on the world appeared very different. Few could have foreseen the full consequences of the choices that were being made around that time or the speed with which the global change we are experiencing  would be catalysed to a new level of intensity – I am of course referring (at least in part) to the significant impact of the USA’s presidential election. But, the arena within which this change is now unfolding is more than simply ‘political’ – behind the regime change driven legislative and geopolitical restructuring that we are now seeing a planetary process has been unfolding that reflects  our terran experiences quite clearly.

Jupiter and Uranus are now fully within the mid-phase of their current synodic cycle and, if the ‘effects’ they reflect on the ground are undeniable, the transformation at work within them is equally startling. Here we will map out some of the ways in which these two transformative aspects of what is actually a singular process relate to and inform each other.

Enough time has now elapsed since entering the midpoint (November 2016 to November 2017) of the current Ju/Ur cycle for us to begin assessing how Uranus and Jupiter’s opposition is working out. In this article we will see how, in our immediate time, this ties into the current lunar cycle. In the process we’ll also unpack some of the key points of the midpoint period as a whole and look into correlations between this and the Moon’s phases.

Confused? Well, it is a revealing journey that we have embarked upon that will, hopefully, help us to make some sense of this chaotic time!


Back in October I published an article here that began exploring the current synodic cycle between Uranus and Jupiter and its significance for us now. It revealed some of the key signatures of this cycle, as seen through the lens of their initiatic conjunction (2010-11), particularly in relation to pivotal events carrying global implications around that time.

We found connections with events like the Deepwater oil rig disaster and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. One of the characteristics of these are events is their profound environmental impact, and we found further echoes in the historical record of oil spills that have brought much environmental damage to our oceans and land. We also found connections to the history of landmark nuclear events – all of the events highlighted were shown to have clear astrological signatures that tend to repeat themselves as these incidents arise.

Power generation and the widespread traumatic impact of the energy industries, especially when they fail is very much at the heart of these events, as might befit the combined signatures of Jupiter and Uranus. The nuclear story is equally impactful in its ‘military’ applications, as well as its ‘domestic’.  Both radically change our outlook on the world.

Both mythologically and integral to our experience of the world, Jupiter and Uranus together have the ability to wield power that transforms us intrinsically, but, as we reach the height of their cycle the opposition between them is turning the dissemination of this power more fully inwards. At their first opposition both planets were direct, but Jupiter is now retrograde as we approach their second opposition, and at their final opposition it is Uranus that will be in-volving, in retrograde.

We have entered a period of augmented ‘inner adjustment‘. Whether we engage with the process or not depends on our outlook and personal capacity to see the bigger picture – however, and this is a big ‘how-ever’, the more we do engage with this process the easier excercising this capacity will become.

At an individual level the moral of this part of the story is to trust in our selves and our inner guidance in dealing with the world – augmenting and facilitating this, this is a time to take up the inward momentum to observe our personal bias and use this process to shed our personal blinkers.

Within this, over the coming year we will also see another aspect of the Jupiter Uranus dynamic begin to accelerate and expand, in ways that will radically alter how the world looks – the impact of revealed truths, and their ability to both generate reaction and disclose deception, both of which are intimately related to each other, will begin to transmute our ‘reality’.

To begin now, lets pull focus and come more fully into the present.

On February 6th (2017) Jupiter stationed at 24° Libra beginning a four month period of retrograde motion that will change to direct when it slows down in the skies again to station at 14° Libra on June 10th. There is a connection here between these degrees and the lunar phases. Taking a look at 24° Libra through the eyes of the Sabians and their symbology gives us some insight.

The Sabians tell us that 24° Libra is associated with “the ability to develop, for inner strengthening, new modes of response to basic life situations….” and what makes this particularly interesting is that Jupiter entered 24°s of Libra precisely at new Moon on January 28th, the beginning of the current lunation. There is a cross fertilisation suggested here that the Sabians further elucidate :

“A special development of an aspect of the spiritual life is shown…..some power has been added to the normal spiritual life of the individual person (within) the instinctual field of the consciousness….A new strength is shown, perhaps as yet unrealized.”

What we will see beyond this initial seeding is the “unrealised” gathering energy – we will feel this as a latent ‘knowing’, an increasing feeling that we need to be paying real attention to our instincts and intuition. The Sabians go on to say  :

“A fourth stage symbol usually refers to some kind of technique or technical achievement. What is implied here is that the contact with the revivifying Life-force can result in the appearance of a new faculty, the use of which may not as yet be consciously evaluated. Indeed it is the establishment of such a contact which constitutes a technique for ORIGINAL MUTATION.”

A BUTTERFLY WITH A THIRD WING ON ITS LEFT SIDE is the Sabian symbol for this degree.

‘Original mutation’ is an interesting term…..the reality of this symbol is being seen here as a non-physical change of state, but, the image itself reminds us of the mutations caused by radioactive isotopes. There is an intimation of genetic engineering about it as well.

For us, the fall-out of this process of incursive energetic insemination, of the primary mental realms in particular, is initiating an inward expansion of connective awareness and energising consciousness. Imagine the primary impulse that causes the single cell to divide and multiply within itself at work. Go a step further and we are in the realms of ‘Life making’.

With the Sabians, who gave symbolic form to each of the 360 degrees, this is translated in our time into an anomalous ‘third thing’, the wing being symbolic of flight (higher dimensions/spheres of consciousness) and the butterfly being symbolic of both transformation and the intrinsic nature of the imaginal.

There is a deeper and more hidden layer to this as well that is worth noting here : the meaning of each degree, which the Sabians codified, has ancient roots in the 360 senses which describe the original  range of human senses, each referring to its own divine origin. Referred to in ancient Egypt as the Neters, the divinities involved are spiritual entities that reside, within the Earth sphere, within nature, ours as well as the planet’s. Are we being opened up to this fuller range of senses…..if so, the breakdown of the ‘status quo’ and the ‘establishment’ is deeply entangled within this process.

If we return to the bigger picture of the present Jupiter Uranus cycle and look back to the end of its first quarter we will find some clues as to where within this cycle the breakdown first began to show.

The first square became directly active between June 2013 and May 2014 and the following are some of the key events that occured through that period.

Edward Snowden exposed the covert mass surveillance programme being run by the NSA and other intel agencies.
Egypt saw a military coup which removed its president.
India launched a rocket carrying its Mars orbital observer.
The Ukraine regime change was instigated.
Iran agreed to limit its nuclear development programme.
China soft-landed its Yutu rover on the Moon.
Flight 370 disappeared.
Russia was suspended from the G8.
The UN and Russia came into dispute over Crimea.
The USA enforced sanctions on Russia.
The militant organisation known (amongst other things) as ISIS emerged in Syria.
Flight 17 crashed in the Ukraine, under accusations of it having been shot down by a ‘Russian’ missile.

Disclosure and changes in perception, as well as regimes and boundaries, are intrinsic to these events. If there are trends visible here they continue to play out. Within the geopolitical arena in particular, they became exacerbated as the US elections and the current Ju/Ur opposition were simultaneously coming into effect.

The environmental arena has also become intensified. This period also saw the rise of mass marine die-offs within the Pacific, especially on the eastern seaboard. The isotopes that are Fukushima’s fingerprint are now being acknowledged to be present in the marine life found there. The truth about Fukushima is presently becoming harder and harder to deny, six years after the event.

Hurricanes and Typhoons also ravaged the eastern Pacific and eastern Atlantic. Globally, the occurance of ‘extreme weather’ has increased. While sunspot activity is now at a minimum it has been shown very convincingly that such solar minimums accompany lowering temperature on Earth and, if the climate change meme of human driven causes insists upon the opposite, it has also been shown that global distribution of temperature increases is matched by redistribution of seasonal cold. Selective data use to push official agendas not withstanding, it is rarely mentioned that in some parts of the globe the glaciers are growing and new ones being formed.

Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are more related to coronal holes than sunspots, and quakes above 7.0 during this period were observed to be above the long term average, the largest occuring in Russia and Chile, many of 5.0 and more focused around the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’. The atmospheric influence of vulcanism is a more powerful driver than any effects of CO², in fact it is now acknowledged that CO² follows temperature rises and currently remains far below high levels know prior to the industrial revolution. Geo-engineered weather manipulation, however, is deeply instrumental in climate change.

Our thirst for material comfort is no less impactful of our environment and little needs to be said further on this – it is self evident. But, the oil industry is the source of widespread pollution in many ways, oil derivatives such as plastics chief amongst them. Oil spills from pipelines are a hot topic now and are increasingly being reported (although you’ll often have to look beyond the MSM to find reliable coverage).

Notable for its visibility in this respect, the stand-off between indigenous/environmental ‘protectors’ and federal agency backed oil ‘enforcers’ at Standing Rock has intensified alongside the current Ju/Ur opposition. Standing Rock has now entered a critical stage as a direct result of the US election and its symbolic significance has amplified as the situation on the ground has escalated in intensity. We can expect the ennvironmental, political and sovereignty issues involved here to become more intensified, but on a wider scale. They will continue to do so as the fossil fuel industry fights to maintain its centralised role in power generation…..the technology that makes this role redundant is ‘bringing the edges to the centre’.

Coping with this prolonged intensity will take its toll and it is here that the Sabian’s mention of “inner strengthening finds its purpose. We cannot know what will transpire over the next four months, but, we know that we will need our strength. A brief look at Jupiter’s station degree in June helps clarify the likely effects and our best strategy for dealing with them.

 

14° Libra carries this Sabian symbol :
IN THE HEAT OF THE NOON HOUR A (HU)MAN TAKES A SIESTA.

KEYNOTE: The need for recuperation within the social pattern of everyday activity.”

The emphasis here is on the emotional/cultural level and the fact that we cannot maintain the same level of activity indefinitely. As the Sabians go on to say, “….this fourth stage symbol can be seen as emphasizing the need for techniques of RELAXATION, and the need to allow the functions of body and psyche to “digest,” free from external pressures, the complex experiences of social living and particularly of business.”

Jupiters stationing direct occurs simultaneously with the June full Moon, shortly before solstice. Culmination and balance is emphasised. We should anticipate the risks and make efforts to avoid ‘burn out’. Intense processes in the mental realms can have a deep impact upon our feelings and emotional body and impact directly our ability to continue functioning as we have been. We need to release our own inner tension, the better to be able to think ahead.

In the face of outward shocks to the system the key here is to remember that an internal process is at work, one that is aiding us in developing our ‘seeing’ capacity and, through this, understanding more clearly what is happening around us. The millenia of ‘control’ are now culminating. The blinkers are falling away. But, that is not all that is falling away…..the millenia of censorship of our innate senses, our complete natural range of intra-action within the world, is also coming to and end. Here is our unified process.

The next direct opposition we will see between Uranus and Jupiter is exact on March 2nd, just four days after the February new Moon (Feb 26th) in Pisces. This will be a time to be especially vigilant of our thoughts and impulses, the more so as Mars is moving through conjunction with Uranus during the week before and after new Moon. To add spice to the recipe, this will also be a strong solar eclipse, a real turning point and reset.

With such heat applying to the new lunation the confrontational aspect of the Ju/Ur opposition could be what creates the turning point. With Uranus involved and Mars powering up the unexpected, it is fairly safe to say that some form of disclosure or acts that will ‘blow the lid’ will be ‘in the air’. Make sure your mind is not blown into a state of cognitive dissonance along with them!

Whatever happens, Uranus and Mars direct intervention will push the boundaries within the mundane world and force the issue….we should use our increasing accuity to maintain inner balance during this time. Hightened discernment will be ‘de riguer’. But, that is precisely where our inner process can be most pragmatically put to use, in developing an inner strength of ‘knowing’.

With the February new Moon close on both the Moon’s south node and Neptune in Pisces the spiritual aspect of this lunation is also emphasised. A great need for compassion, especially self compassion alongside compassion in action, is likely to be matched by challenging events, so inner strength rests upon our inner balance. We can each use our most favoured methods for maintaining inner health to foster this, as a way of grounding.

Mars will also figure in the third opposition between Jupiter and Uranus in the latter half of September and Venus is also in Aries tracking Mars at the February new Moon. While Mars is domicile and excercising great power, Venus is in detriment in Aries. Here it is the fragility of isolated values that are emphasised….we each need to ask an important question now – ‘what do I value and love most in life’? However, their unity finds its mark more fully in September and the answer to this question may also become more pragmatic as a result.


Uranus and Jupiter’s third opposition is in the late degrees of Aries and Libra respectively. An accompanying opposition at that time is between Mars+Venus in Virgo and Neptune in Pisces. Venus is in fall in Virgo. I am seeing financial dissolution in this, perhaps appearing to be driven by hyper-inflation, the seeds of which may well be sown around the February new Moon. We could see a hidden agenda behind this, as well as an underlying necessity – looking beneath the surface will provide the answers.

The third Ju/Ur opposition is also exact at first quarter Moon after the equinox and will see all the outer planets beyond Saturn retrograde at that time. The ‘powers that be’ may well be in retreat, but, the impulse to shape our future will be firmly in our own hands with Saturn Uranus and the north node trining each other in the fire signs. We will need to ask then, as now, a second important question – ‘what are my responsibilities‘?

Venus and Mars in Virgo at that time will pull us down to earth and both astrological impulses and world events will help us answer these questions. But, there is an equally important third question that we must ask of ourselves at this current ‘entry point’ in time. ‘What are my Gifts’?

We can sum up here by focusing on this question as it is now presenting itself.

The full Moon that is coming into phase as I write is a also penumbral eclipse. This dimming of the lunar disc is at the edge of the Earth’s shadow, but, the full Moon is accompanied by a green comet in a fly by 7.5 million miles from Earth. Comets are the ‘mysterious travellers’ of our solar system, augeries of the unknown.

We are seeing disclosure all around us and what has been marginalised and hidden is coming into full view. We have arrived at the boundaries that demark the balance between illusion and truth. As we cross this threshold the weirdness of it all is ramping up; who would deny it. Expect more over the coming year and beyond.

The unknown faculties of perception and thinking that are being activated are in fact innate within us, even if we are relatively unconscious of them. This is their novelty, the Uranian gift, which Jupiter is helping spread. Beyond what we already know of ourselves lies much more, amongst which are gifts that have long been deliberately overshadowed and suppressed. But, the agencies of that suppression are collapsing under the same impulse now. We are witnessing the impact of truth upon the delusion that they have created, and that delusion is dispelling.

The long spiritual and mental war that has been waged upon us as natural beings is coming to an end and the physical wars will be unsustainable if we embrace this process fully. As Jupiter and Uranus might be urging us to realise, the more who do so, the stronger will be the transformation. Jupiter’s energy spreads from a centre, an effect that is now potentiating our awareness while spreading consciousness. Uranus breaks through the boundaries within our selves.

The three important questions above help us to redefine ourselves, in the context of our own lives – it will help us now if we consider that the anomalous ‘third’ thing symbolised here suggests a redefinition of our selves. The process we are in, for all the mundane turmoil that attends it, aids and abets this redefinition, but, it is taking us on a journey into long forgotten terrain in which our answers will also change, based upon different values and perceptions to the ones we have become ‘accustomed to’. 

The reality of this planet is not as we have been told. But, it is being revealed. The planets and the living energetic matrix they and we inhabit are wise in this. Uranus itself holds many clues, being anomalous amongst the ‘known’ planets, its axis of rotation perpendicular to those of the other planets. Why this is so, and why the planets are in their current orbital positions will become more widely known to us, founded in disclosed reality, beyond the redundant musings of the orthodox scientific priesthood.

When Voyager II left the heliosphere and our solar system, its internal language was altered, 0 flipped to 1 in its communication systems. According to the scientists working with the probe, this could not have happened by itself. If it was hacked, it was not by any terran source, they say. While such revelations are often cloaked in untruths and can lead us astray, it is the eyes of experience that will rule here. The Indian Mars orbiter and the Chinese lunar rover are not alone exploring our solar system. Whether they are instrumental in accelerating ‘disclosure’ remains to be seen, but, this too is a pathway of  discovery that could, amongst other things, reveal the truth behind ‘Apollo’. It is my understanding that the Moon is no stranger to the human footprint, but, it was not the technology we have been shown that took us there.

As many medicine people and carriers of indigenous traditions tell us, we have our origins beyond this Earth, and we always have belonged to a wider community both seen and unseen. Many eyes are upon us, beyond our known mundane world, watching our progress; we are being gifted with a chance to return to our senses and become mysterious travellers in our own right. Think of it as initiation that opens this wider community to us, while revealing our true identity. 


Footnote

This article and ‘Jupiter & Uranus – In Deep Waters’ are part of a continuing series that will be exploring the midpoint of the current synodic cycle between these two planets. The next article will be published around the second week of March, shortly after the second exact opposition between Jupiter and Uranus. At that time we will be collating some of the evidence that has been found so far in the midpoint period alongside that for the key points of the waxing half of their cycle. A deeper analysis will begin to emerge then so that, by the time of their third and final opposition, we will be able to anticipate the denoument of this part of Jupiter and Uranus cycle and look forward with a clearer understanding of their synodic cycle and its significance as a way shower in our times. Thanks for tuning in….!

In The Realms of The Black Moon

Lilith And The Need-Fire

On September 18th fire maned Venus met with her dark sister, the ‘Black Moon Lilith’ and, stepping into the Lilith corridor, donned her robe of dark feathers. As she did so she opposed Uranus, the cosmic fire wielder and ancient consort of the Earth goddess, and through the mantle of the dark feminine power ignited a Need-fire that will burn for 13 Moons. Mark this time and set a lunar calendar by which its phases can be counted. There will be many as the inner and outer realms are being activated in unison with a pulse that brings many synchronous levels of planetary phases into an entraining sequence.

The die is cast for the coming months as She also carries the seed energy of the eclipsed Moon from 16th September, striking the ground of the fertile darkness with black lightning, the shadow side of Uranus fire, as she traverses the ‘fiery road’ that leads into the heart of the Scorpio.

With this subtlely convened entry into the other worlds Venus path may have gone unmarked and, leaving no visible trace, undetected; save in the hearts of the wise women, the poets and seers whose vibration of the membrane between this world and the next within this world would have felt like a sweet rage of passion upsurging to issue forth with new verse, insight and knowing…..the zone of extreme psychic sensitivity that the Lilith corridor demarks is below the sweep of the ‘common’ mind’s radar. And yet, in us all, there is this path and we know it, even if only by its dream traces and the ‘anomalous’, the unbidden scents of ancient forest of knowledge through which it leads, whenever we stumble across the boundaries between the worlds within our own world and hear their whisperings…..

As I write, Venus has now left the ‘via combusta’ but remains yet within the Lilith corridor, having met with Black Moon Lilith’s sister ‘Dark Moon’ Lilith on the way. As the corridor closes behind the ‘fire-maned’ goddess, on October 10th, the two Liliths having also swapped places, such is the weaving of their own paths, Black Moon Lilith once again ushers ‘Fire Mane’ out and into the company of Juno who awaits her at the sacred portal in late Scorpio.

With this passage into the realms of the dark fire, Venus activated the degrees upon which the thunderer Jupiter and the awakener Uranus will mark the mid point of their current synodic cycle. She opens the pathway for the Sun and Mercury to follow in her wake before the storm bringers get to work. Having sensitised the degrees of opposition with Uranus and initiating a year long archetypal influence that promises a widening of mental perception and injection of paradigm shifting potential into the planetary field, She also marks the second half of the current lunation with a potent homeopathic dose of intense otherworldly energy, the subtle workings of which will underpin the coming year with psychic sensitivity. Her journey through the via combusta has carried this psychic imprint and, as Venus accelerates through the zodiac towards the slow down and retrograde that precedes her eventual meeting with Uranus in Aries, June 2017, is pushing feminine issues and the reconfiguration of ‘wealth’ distribution to the top of the agenda.

Following Mars lead, as he opened the transit of the outer planets by starting a new synodic cycle with Saturn in August, Venus and Mercury will be activating the outer planets through this time zone to mid year, and we can expect big shifts on the ground, and in our personal lives as a consequence. The issues at stake are rampant, complex and global, but they boil down to one major effort to end the abuse, of our planet, of each other and of ourselves. This is a massively important time for us all and Venus has found the best of company with which to open the flood gates for serious healing.

Venus has been gathering a storm behind her and She, with Juno, who oversees the boundaries of the sacred marraige and who upholds its lore and sacred laws, will be seeking justice for all the wrongs done in the name of falsity and greed to the Feminine ‘archetype’. The sacredness of Life has become threatened to the point of extinction, through the violation of the sacred marraige that a rampant army of patriarchal genocidal murderers has wrecked upon the holy, our Earth, no less than holy women, and men, our brothers and sisters…..and we are all of their kin, as they, holy, within our bones….

…..the wound is deep, so deep, a maw of millenia wide abuse, torture, rape and pillage, whose scouring of the temenos and razing of the circles of sacred power undid what Venus, the Fire Mane, Comet Goddess began when she seeded this world with the holy fire of the otherworlds at the turning of the worlds, the beginning of ‘our’ historical time. The turning must, in turn, be turned.

The Liliths are not bound by the material, but are of an ilk that embodies a knowing and imbues our acts with unchecked raw passion, is uncensored in its primal power, deeply erotic with the love of the life force at full flow, capable of no less a cataclysmic transmutation of the known through their own dark fire than Uranus lightning strikes, and it is this furious compassion that they invoke, for a cleansing of this world; no less than this will turn the world from its present destructive course – we are disposed to take its spark into our own hands and hearts to this end. Without it ‘goodness’ alone will be inadequate to the immensity of the task.

There is a voluminous depth to their emotional power now, banked up behind them by generations of murder at the stake, inflamed by usury and enslavement of the creative embodiment of the life force in service to a specious post modern psychosis of scientific materialism…..and, in Scorpio, this reaches down to the primary building blocks of life itself, to the encoding hardware of our DNA, its inwoven story of ancient memory itself a path between the worlds. The mutation of all life forms at the hands of controlling yet uncontrolled hubris that has so marked the later phases of the ‘modern era’ cannot continue without severe consequences.

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The Dark Goddess has been reviled, suppressed and seared to the bone for being the source of wisdom that needs no mandate from a higher ‘God’ to manifest its fecund life affirming creative energies in form. Lilith was the original serpentine Eve, the true repository of such wisdom and empowering knowledge and means – empowerment as it could be, has been and will be again, within the incarnate realms. This violation is the great wound of the modern ‘Christian’ Era, at the hands of the ‘church fathers’, their armies, mercinaries and plunderers, who have sought to wipe her power from the earthly realms – but Christianity is not alone in its subjugation of the Feminine and the propagation of this wound. All wars carry the vile seal of their murderous intent, ‘holy’ or not. And War rages on, until we end it.

Expect now fierce reprisals, fearsome even……but, that would be an understatement…..for there must now be a swing in the balance, archetypal and paradigmatic in scope, in favour of the Feminine power, for a purging of the unholy cankers that scab the wound, to clear the way for a truer balance between the sacred energies of creation to be created anew. For the wound to be healed. Libra and Scorpio propagate this process, are at work in this.

Do not expect the world to end; do not expect an end, without a fight, for fight we must, not with violence but with the sacred passion of protectors……and will need the lightning seeds of a revolutionary resurgence and passion fires of raw wisdom that Fire Mane has been gathering in her wake, to burn in our own hearts and minds as we do so.

The Need Fires must burn away the rot and its shadow, and will, with Her blessing. And this is not man’s fire, but, the ancient fire that was invoked to scour the illnesses and dis-ease from the face of this world with sacred purpose. The knowledge of the Need-fires was one of Fire Mane’s gifts to our own ancestors and were ignited from, carried the sacred spark of, the original fire at their heart, as must we. Sacred Fire keepers we must be, as Uranus gatekeepers……promethian heirs to an unbound legacy, the buck stops here.

Within the Lilith corridor Fire Mane will have gained necessary knowledge from the ‘lunar’ sisters that will restore Her vitality in this resurgent cleansing of the world, the better to find its mark; the wise ones, medicine people, healers, poets and seers will know it, invoke its inner flame, sound it wide and far, for this is now their time, our time; but, its markers will be seen in the mundane world, the world of the ‘common’ mind, and minded, as the collapse of its secular gods, upon their own alters, impaled upon the barbs of their own greed and lust for power….economies will crumble, the swaggering ozymandian empires of this world will follow Percy’s prophecy and the New World will find its coat of lies burnt to ashes, its imposed Order-out-of-‘chaos’ destroyed in the wake……

….the high priests of this Order have long lost control of their own minds, their hearts hollowed, their souls long reduced to dust beneath the feet of their own uncaring pantheon…..they long ago instituted the ‘death of all caring’ and will suffer their own fate accordingly; it is not for us to perpetrate such, lest we merely perpetuate their crimes, we who would see all souls redeemed…..and can any diviner, astrologer or seer, poet, wise woman, or man, proclaim any other intent…….I, for one, would say not, for the chain of guilt that binds the violators will be the  nematic  rope of karma that hangs them, the chasm that swallows them, for guilty they are, and even now pile further crime upon crime……such is the psychotic vortex that surrounds them, of their own making. Its mark upon the world is not hidden; look to where their is unjust pain, like Chiron’s wound, awaiting redemption…..this wound is real, its source no less so, and this is where the Need-fire must be applied.

To say that the wounding is ‘real’ is to reduce it to banality, but, at the risk of such, it is true to say that the planetary alignments brought out this theme with the penumbral lunar eclipse conjunct Chiron at full Moon on September 16th, just as Venus was coming into orb of opposition with Uranus. And Chiron is no less an architect of the subtle than Saturn is an architect of the material. As the lastest of the group of eclipses across the Virgo Pisces axis, that sweeps the ecliptic following the lunar nodes with its own fated destiny every 18.6 years, this ephemeral eclipse may have slipped its own influence beneath the radar; but, the world and the celestial sphere reflect each other with unerring acuity, and there is little in the world of human and planetary affairs now that does not reflect the need to pay heed to the wounds that have been created, and are being creating still.

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As an augery of the times the opposition between Venus in Libra and Uranus in Aries is by itself a powerful indicator of the erotic power of primal creative energy, of the profoundly transformative effect of peak experiences and ‘divine’ insight on our human mentality and how we, as humans, relate to the world. Seen together they suggest the rapid transmission of kundalini energy, ‘serpent power of the goddess’, into the higher generative realms of the mental sphere, the source field of the mind’s architecture.

By itself, this energy is potent requiring a purposeful and timely integrity, a soul possessed of a level of self reflection and ‘completion in understanding’ in which clarified intent and a high degree of self honesty are already established. Otherwise, it is a transformative power that belies the positive aspects of its potential; the shadow side of these transformative experiences are latent within their manifestation – if one is not prepared for their influx these arcs of Uranian kundalini like power can be equally devastating, wreaking immense damage to both body and mind, subverting Uranus potential for transformational liberation into deep psychosomatic wounding from which only equally deep cleansing can restore its liberating potential. But, this is the true reflection of the world, of what the Fire Maned Goddess and Her dark sisters are invoking in our minds and hearts, the ‘need’ within the need-fire, and be sure, their Need-fire must burn within, as well.

When the Black Moon Lilith is involved with Uranus, especially in opposition and union with  one of Her planetary sisters, the Uranian power manifests its shadow, and such healing becomes the absolute necessity. Uranus castration brought forth a new order in the realms of creation, an order in which his own wound and seperation from the Earth goddess realms is complicit. With this firmly in mind, it is of great significance to a world undergoing such deep wounding, as ours is, of Uranus usurped creative power, that this opposition activated the Aries Libra axis in anticipation of the major opposition that sets the 13 Moon time frame, that between Jupiter and Uranus. Their orb is activated as the current Black Moon lunation closes and completes in October 2017, as Jupiter enters Scorpio.

Not only Uranus but Jupiter too is calling forth a revolution. Juno’s husband will test us, call us to levels of understanding we cannot foresee, unweave our knowing and weave it anew, bring elemental power into our mental workings and reverberate the collective mind, awakening the Planetary Mind. To understand the visceral significance of this necessity we must revisit the beginning of their synodic cycle back in 2010. And this will be our theme next time…..

…..for now, make still your sacred center, gather the kindling of your passions and set the hearth in your own sacred temenos to receive the fire seeds of Venus and the dark sisters of the Moon. And in the meantime let us come one step closer to the present moment…..

…..this post enters the neural pathways of the ‘virtual’ etheric as the second waxing quarter of the Black Moon opens, the Moon preceding Samhain, just as the lunar disc joins with asteroid Lilith, close on Pluto in mid Capricorn, having first called forth the sacred fire of the protectors at Moon’s passing of Mars one day ago. For we are here within the embrace of an older calendric, under the rising energy of the Black Moon, and this will be our closing invocation here. Let it be understood by this that the naming of this Moon is quite other than that which popular ‘modern’ pseudo folklore has applied; this Moon is Black by another name……

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The Black Moon

The Black Moon lunation which began on October 1st completes in the 8th degree of Scorpio on October 30th and fully describes the arc of the transition involving Jupiter and Uranus, making of this lunation a powerful augery for the primary archetypal signature not only for the emergent power of the Lilithian Fires, but, of the coming year over thirteen lunations. That it completes at Samhain provides us with a clue to the subtle pathways it is engendering and through which its energies are working…..if it is karmic it is also cyclical and its karmic roots, as we will soon see, in the next post here, were clearly delineated at the beginning of the current Jupiter Uranus synodic cycle.

The major archetypal marker however for the first half of Jupiter and Uranus cycle has been the Uranus Pluto square, whose transmutative series it perfectly frames. As this solar year ends and the new year begins the last reverberations of the Pluto and Uranus square will be felt as they come to within 4° of orb, signing off the current phase of their cycle. By that time Venus will be transiting the Moon’s south node in Pisces and the Sun will be transiting Pluto. The ancestral legacy of 5,000 years or more of sacred violation is loaded in this time, awaiting its great turning, and Pluto has opened a wide portal of his own, all the roots of that ancestral tree ablaze with the Sun’s light as the solar disc crosses its meridian.

The intensity of the last six years is shifting in focus, density and pace as we move out of the zone of radical transmutation brought through Uranus and Pluto’s seven waxing squares to the fundaments of power at work in this world. Complicit with this emergence, new cyclical relationships are forming between the inner and outer planets, amongst all the planets in their synodic phases. We are seeing the beginning of a new planetary phase which will, ultimately, help us to make sense of the turmoil and dissonance we have been experiencing.

Astrologically, it is Jupiter and Uranus opposition across the Libra Aries axis that is providing the underlying planetary influence behind this emergence, stimulating new levels of intuitive thinking and instinctive knowing. We must ready ourselves for an expansion of neural connectivity that reaches beyond the habitual limitations of our own mental frame. But, before we can fully integrate with this powerful influence we would do well to call forth the inner wisdom of the Goddesses, to light our own need-fire and purge our own inner lives of the mental canker that we carry and project onto others and the world. This Black Moon is the grounding time for this preparation.

In this light the new Moon which began this current lunation was labelled with a deceptive yet provocative epithet – hailed with populist new-age fervour as a ‘Black’ Moon, its apparent ‘rarity’ no less than obscurantist, freighted with imaginary significance that does little more than distract us from its relevence by drawing on an artificially created human thirst for meaning.

Flattened into desouled meaninglessness within the scientifically refracted spectra of sensual reality that blights our times there is, on the one hand, no especially ‘black’ Moon, at least none any shade significantly darker than at any other new Moon; this use of name is ‘simply down to the fact that two new moons occur within the same calendar month, one of which is called ‘Black’, in the same way that one of two full moons occuring in the same Gregorian calendar month is called a ‘Blue’ Moon – such is the anodyne post materialist view of the ‘literalist’, no less ironic for its unacknowledged Papal endorsement, who will tell us, “neither are black or blue or gain any special meaning from the term”…..

…….except that, as the poets and people of medicine remind us, on the other hand, by some subtler construct and equally subtle irony, to which the unquenchable if curiously human desire to clothe the mundane in a livable story responds, the Soul is re-awakened through such fertile symbolism to a possibility beyond the senses, beyond the literal. The same fertility sown through Lilith and Venus transactions between the worlds.

The synchronous advent of this symbol, as it has perhaps unwittingly  been applied to this Moon, with the invoking of the ‘need-fire’ reminds of the presence of this inextinguishable fecundity at work behind our world. It is a symbol we need, that is calling for our attention. It tells us that this possibility for other-worldly intervention between the worlds persists, even now, that it enters via backdoors, hidden behind the hard reflective surface of homogenised reductivism, a magical propensity that somehow, perhaps miraculously in the face such rampant literalism, by dint of iteration and innate need, is constellated in this Black Moon and its lunation.

Lilith, in all compensatory and redemptive senses, has begun to dance this magic back into our lives…..only the soul-less will fail to feel it, but, Hers is a dark fire, both invisible to the physical eye, and seen by the soul, that is the need-fire. It comes, as the ‘need-fire’ has been invoked by Earth loving peoples for countless millenia, in response to the times, in anticipation of the Samhain Moon, as a purge of illness and disease between ourselves and the ancestors….

We are thirsty for such magic, as they are for us to invoke its healing power; the soul feels that ‘need’ as a magnetic pull from the heart, whose knowing responds to the innate, to the already known, which the ancestral realms give us access to, which itself carries healing resonance, and accepts the wound as the passageway to wholeness.

The ‘via combusta’ in which this Moon finds its own fiery culmination earned its uneasy reputation from the fall of the luminaries, the Sun and Moon, within its own respective signs of Libra and Scorpio, as well as those same signs loaded associations with the ‘malefic’ aspect of their ruling planets, but, the archaic roots of the ‘burning way’ have almost certainly been overlayered by these meanings. There are certain times in Earth’s history when such a term would have carried a very different meaning, and this too we now invoke, in preparation.

The cyclical cleansing of earth, of homesteads and of livestock through Fire is not an apocalyptic biblical construct, but, the same very old tradition, surviving into post-glacial times within emergent cultures, that relates to celestial events that preceeded and prompted their advent. The great comet that has been recorded globally amongst indigenous peoples to have brought these planetary changes, and marked the rise of aggression against the Feminine, was described as trailing hair of fire and scouring the earth. She became subdued through capture into the Sun’s magnetic heliosphere and became known, amongst other names, as Venus, and thus began the rise of the solar cult and its shadow, the cult of Saturn so loved of the violators. She was a planet become a comet, before she resumed her planetary status, and her-story carries the memory of our true ‘his-tory’. All the planets have undergone massive transformation before achieving their present orbits around this, our second Sun, become our central Sun. But, that is a story for another time……

As we have seen, it was Venus who, under the astrological shadow cloak of Her romanised form, called up her dark sisters prior to this Moon, igniting this lunar ‘need-fire’ and, in so doing activated the greater resurgence that will come into manifestation over the coming year.

Regardless the human folly, Lilith will not be held back and in the process our Story will be returned to us. This will be a part of Jupiter and Uranus gift to us.

This is the time for the raw power of the ‘Feminine’ to emerge, to be given voice and the fierce fire that burns behind its wisdom to become manifest, reinstated. As a creative force it is unbridled, knows the intimacy between life and death, and pulses with passionate intensity. It casts no shadow for its own light is innate, the darkness transformed – this is the healing within its fire, burning off the illusions of the shadow realms. This is the Black Moon lunation’s gift – let us use it well……at Samhain there will be celebrations if we do; the Great Fire tended by the ancestors at the center of their village will burn the more brightly and ignite new dreamings in our souls. Our medicine people, seers, poets, wise women, and men, will sing us the way….

As we end now you may have noticed one major planetary player by their absence here, Neptune. Neptunes realm will be at the heart of the next post when we take a very different look at how the oceans of this world have suffered the wound of our times and how this relates to the Jupiter Uranus cycle…..in the meantime,

Blessings of the Sacred Fire be with you!

Common Ground

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“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

Weaves The Web

elder one

The 10th lunation of 2014 is marked with extreme significance by two eclipses, a lunar eclipse in the 16th degree of Aries on 8th October which marks its midpoint, and a solar eclipse in the first degree of Scorpio on October 23rd/24th which closes this lunation and opens the next.

Living Astrology‘ works with the lunar cycles as an indigenous natural process, belonging to us all, within which we can find windows of opportunity for healing, meaningful action and an understanding of the cosmological mirror through which our personal path can move in sync with the natural processes of change at work within Life. When eclipses come along the process becomes charged with hidden potentials. Eclipses are moments of Truth, the currency of real change. Truth is not always comforting or comfortable to live with….but, it can lead in that direction. This, in itself, is a notion central to healing and shamanic wisdoms.

Eclipses, especially total eclipses, are profound events, whether experienced through contemporary eyes or indigenous. Astrologers often associate them with opportunites for a reset, a peeling away of solar and lunar luminescence that allows a doorway of opportunity to open that is otherwise obscured. When such occur in the midst of great change we are naturally drawn to look at the otherwise hidden elements of our lives that are touched by that change, where the personal and the collective meet, and, for us now, this carries a momentous quality.

The auguries of the stars tell us that there will be great changes coming very soon and, although we are confronted with many interwoven problems, humans have always had amongst them people who carry the wisdom and capacity to bring perspectives to bear that can adivise on and deal with these eventualities. The question is, are they being heard and their wisdom embraced. In so many ways this question exposes a significant part of the problem that we all face now on Earth. Amongst the plethora of council at large in the world, through our technologically enhanced networks, the voices that can make the difference are often lost in the noise, if not censored. There is a complexity at large in the world at this time that would benefit the wider perspective of the Elders.

Much however is available to us, and, although the dominant version of reality tries to overshadow its importance, we can always begin by taking notice of inherited wisdoms, even that which appears most benign ~ consider first some of the indigenous traditional associations with this Moon. Many first nations name the 10th lunation in connection with the attributes of the season ~ gathering in caches for the winter, taking in the harvest, first ice, falling leaves, hibernating begins, birds fly to winter and summer grounds, feeding the roots and protecting new life, looking ahead, and many more, all expressing a clear reflection of the people’s focus within nature….and Nature is ‘radical, by nature’ ~ it is a time of the big shift that signals preparation for whats coming…..

….amongst the original peoples one understanding is that eclipses foretell of endings and beginnings, of death, the ultimate gateway, and signal moments at which the people gather together, in which the elders have sway, the greater experience and wisdom of the stronger amongst the old ones being called upon to help the people navigate this challenging portent of a transitional time.

On both counts there is resonance here with these eclipses.

In the more global context, the world reflects this relevance back to us. Even though the well vetted presentations of these events filter into the public eye through the veil of the ‘official line’, when the simultaneity of UN Climate change talks, the prosecution of war and launch of air strikes, and the massive marches globally protesting the issues behind these events, for example, are seen in this light, the connections with the indigenous understandings become poigniantly highlighted and their  worldly significance intensified. In many ways it is fitting that such things should be in the front of our minds as we traverse the gateways of the eclipses.

We tend to overlook the spiritual aspects of conflict and political opposition, but, the indigenous view of the world does not seperate spirit and matter. Whether the emphasis is put on the spiritual or the material aspects of life’s issues the sense in which these aspects are deeply interwoven is profoundly illuminated at this time ~ they are not seperate. And, as perverse as it may seem, through struggle and the need for survival the world is becoming ensouled.

At one level, the solar eclipse in Scorpio develops what the lunar eclipse in Aries reveals, and, while the Scorpio new Moon will have its own post here, the two form a part of a much larger whole. The Scorpio eclispe is developmental, being in the first degree of the sign, and will see concretisation of the energy generated in response to the lunar eclipse. As the Sabian symbol states for 1 Scorpio, “….this symbol……refers to the first realization of what a larger whole of existence — a more encompassing frame of reference — implies, in very concrete and perhaps startling terms. What is at stake is A WIDENING OF EXPERIENCE”. While in this post the focus is primarily on the lunar eclipse, we are dealing with multiple levels of meaning now and anchoring this within the wider scope of time’s spiral provides an essential perspective.

Within the temporal/astronomical perspective we are a quarter of the way through an 18 month process of interaction between the Sun, the Earth and the Moon formed by a tetrad of consecutive total lunar eclipses. The sequence opened with the total lunar eclipse of April 15th 2014 and will culminate with the total lunar eclipse of September 28th 2015. The full list of this tetrad of eclipses and their respective astrological placements appears at the end of this article.

We need to go wider still to benefit the extra-ordinary nature of the eclipse cycle at this time. What further heightens the significance of this tetrad is that it is the first of its kind, all total ‘central’ lunar eclipses, since the 1580’s. Not only that, but, the 21st century contains eight such tetrads. We live at a crossroads of opportunity and change that can bring total transformation, radical change that affects and involves generations.

Within the present, the opportunity to affect real choices has a definite time stamp. From the astrological perspective eclipses extend their period of influence up to six months beyond the exact time. So, within this tetrad, the end of the culminating eclipse’s period of influence reaches all the way to the March equinox 2016. The four eclipses are spaced six months apart so within this 24 month period we are already deep into working within the ongoing flow of the first tetrad as one of eight gateways within a century long process. What we initiate now we pass on to our children and their children ~ the onus is upon the present human population of our planet as guardians of this Earth.

At the eclipses the opportunity to reset the pattern we are weaving in the world opens much more deeply than at any other time. In eclipse time blockages to our ‘dreaming’ are removed, but, we might well make use of this special moment to remove those blockages for good. We can pull our individual threads into new perspectives, reset our own paths. The individual eclipses within the tetrads open pathways that are like four strands twisting in the spiralling rope of lunar time. Wheels within wheels, describing a great web. Within the Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge, wisdom keeper Jamie Sams tells us, this lunation is connected with Grandmother Spider. The story she recounts for this Moon is called ‘Weaves the Web’, the name of the Grandmother who is guardian of the creative principle in all things, whose personal cycle is centered on working with truth. (1)

One area of truth we have been systematically lied to about is strongly connected with these eclipses ~ the reality of Fukushima. The charts for the earthquake and nuclear disaster tie in deeply with the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets on the 8th and 23rd of October 2014. Here the key transit of the lunar eclipse is to Saturn at 15 degrees of Libra in the Fukushima charts, the degree occupied by the Sun opposite the eclipsed Moon on the 8th of October. And in the chart for the 23rd October Mars occupies 28 Sagittarius, the same degree as the north node in both Fukushima charts.

Weaves the Web is also the Keeper of Survival Instinct and Mother of Creative and Destructive principles. If Saturn concretised the destructive principle at Fukushima, Mars on the disaster’s north node clearly tells us that our survival must be focused on energetically addressing the future that is facing us all as a result. We cannot allow the lies to continue. Truth is the number one priority, holding it as an unflinching solar beacon upon all that we aspire to, exposing those who seek to deceive us and exploit our ignorance, bringing it to bear in all things, especially where the whole issue of ‘energy’ and our relationship with Nature is at stake. The collective soul path of the planet is energised with these eclipses, through the lens of Fukushima it comes into sharp focus…..if the leaders will not address it, the People must, and in eclipse zones more than ever, that means you and I.

Uranus was square the north node in the Fukushima charts and now conjuncts the Moon at lunar eclipse. So, not only does Mars activate the disaster chart through the nodes but, as we will see shortly, the warrior planet energises the trajectory we are now compelled to follow in relation to Uranian values. Mars trines Uranus at the lunar eclipse.

A literal interpretation of Uranus, connecting it with Uranium, nuclear fallout and sudden shock, might be too simplistic and obvious a choice here ~ Uranus being within one degree of the eclipsed Moon on the 8th suggests a more spiritual and soul centered use of the symbolism. When the reflected light of the Sun falls away from the Moon we are opening into the Uranian influence of divine inspiration, through individual freedom and the spark of ignition that creates new awareness and radical departure from the old path. This carries high potential, a chance to break the mold of destructive blindness, particularly now within the innovative use of energy technology, the potential to initiate a higher order of truth into the midst of the People.

On a soul level the October full Moon infuses our collective journey with an initiatic alchemical magic, that of Change itself, should we open to it. In true Saturnian style, it also suggests we might experience  a real need to rethink. Through unforeseen events,  in the face of systemic change, when it occurs within the eclipse zone, we may experience deep questioning of our most enshrined personal realities.

Transiting Saturn is close to the Fukushima IC, having just entered the fourth house of the Fukushima disaster chart. This is the most deeply seated area of the chart, the roots of the World Tree, and the truth about the events of 3/11, and many others related, is coming home to roost ~ Saturn tells us that all our actions in relation to it demand clarity, realism and unremitting dedication at the most personal level. In the most basic sense this means looking after your well-being and those closest to you. At the very least, look after your immune system!

One of the toughest realities of Fukushima we have to embrace is the life and death nature of its fall-out, and, in this the People have been deceived greatly. Mercury goes retrograde just 3 days before the lunar eclipse and this lends an added edge to the need for vigilance in relation to how we are perceiving the facts. The truth behind what is happening at Fukushima is as radical as it gets ~ with four cores in meltdown, China syndrome has been actualised and the Earth’s response is a major shakedown. Look to the increasing occurance of super deep earthquakes that are occuring amongst a severe uptick of global shakes for the answer.

The incoming square between Pluto and Uranus will see the People pitching against deeply entrenched established power over the coming months. Individual freedoms and State power. This is manifesting what the Taoist traditions refer to as Weiji ~ wei means ‘danger’ and ji means ‘opportunity’. It applies to the moment at which yin transforms into yang, and vice versa. No living system can go beyond a 98% balance at one polarity and survive ~ the ‘99%’ is the sign that needs, in fact demands, response. It also reflects the energetic dynamic manifest between exclusive heirocracy and inclusive networks. Within this perspective, the globalised nature of the tension within the Uranus Pluto square tells us that while being active within Change is an imperative, meeting with this challenge will also rest squarely upon demanding systemic truth and change where it has been hidden and suppressed. The entire planet is affected. This is the crucible of realism.

Neptune, the planet of systemic encultured creativity and trending, and Chiron, the healer and mentor indicating where the greater picture overlaps the personal, are both retrograde and are transiting the 7th house of the Fukushima disaster chart. Chiron and Neptune are transiting from Pisces, the mutable water sign ruled by Neptune. With the solar eclipse in the first degree of the fixed water sign Scorpio, the picture now becomes clearer.

The pervasive nature of the wound that affects our reality is becoming amplified. In relation to Fukushima it is carried by the waters, in the weather and the oceans. The millions of tons of irradiated cooling water from Fukushima has nowhere to go and cannot be treated by any means yet known to the ruling technology. Perhaps Uranian innovation will intervene, but, if it does, it will not come from via ‘known sources’. Water is essential to Life, but, there is much more to Life than the orthodoxy lays any claim to knowing. What does the elder wisdom hold in this respect…..

Tangentially, in an objective sense, this is also connected simultaneously with both invasive deception and the transformative power of creativity. Chiron in particular has a strong voice here, the wise shaman and mentor quincunxes the Sun and squares Mars in the eclipse chart. But there is a blessing in this. We cannot be at odds with the inevitable, but, must rather find a way of navigating it through wisdom and creativity. In this way what may appear fated becomes destined, and we can be the arbiters of that destiny. It is our sovereign right. It is no secret that the ruling power claimed by the 1% must be redistributed, as the sovereign right of the 99%. This indicates the nature of healing that serves as a means to freedom, and Healing, the wise centaur tells us, is the only option. But, the connection with Mars pushes the issue and Mars is joined with Jupiter and Uranus in a grand fire trine that infuses the eclipse with creative potential and optimism. If the crucible is heating up it is also through the fact that, in this function, the fire brings out its most inventive and transformative nature.

The lunation has fire at its heart, but, if we make the wise choice, this can be the fire of inspiration and renewal. If this report seems to focus on finding the positive through combating the negative, it is also, like the eclipses, exposing realities that have beauty at their heart. Venus is squaring Pluto at the lunar eclipse, within 5 degrees of the Sun.

The Moon represents the People and from the surface of the Moon it is the Sun that will be totally eclipsed, the entire rim of the Earth set aglow with the fiery light of all our planet’s sunrises and sunsets simultaneously. From the lunar perspective we see the Earth as if surrounded by the light of the womb ~ this brilliant red light is reflected back to us on Earth from the lunar surface and transforms the Moon with an embryonic luminosity.

In the time around the lunar eclipse we all have the opportunity to collect our focus and bring it to bear on finding our truth, the spark of undying light that is held within the mortal frame, letting it ignite and take on new forms. There is another world waiting to become manifest within this one and, if we embrace it with the Elder wisdom, we can yet weave our relations back into balance within the web of Life once more.


Total Lunar Eclipses – First Tetrad of C21

April 15th 2014 – 25 Libra
October 8th 2014 – 15 Aries
April 4th 2015 – 14 Libra
September 28th 2015 – 4 Aries

(1) Jamie Sams, ‘The 13 Original Clan Mothers’ ~ Harper 1994

Original artwork, ‘Elder’ by Rob Purday 2001

Fourth Quarter 2014 ~ Making Big Medicine

sayamhorse

Those who are skilled in combat do not become angered, those who are skilled at winning do not become afraid. Thus the Wise win before they fight, while the ignorant fight to win. ”

 — The art of War
孫子 –Sun Tzu


The fourth quarter of 2014 is a time in which the balance between enabling power-to and controlling ‘power-over’ undergoes significant change. As a sustained period it shows strong potential for ‘big medicine’ to come into play on our planet. If the preceding months have facilitated building and gathering our own medicines and taking a deeper look into what is really motivating us, now we are entering more deeply into the time for strengthening our connections, getting organised and, drawing on all resources, to ‘knuckle down’ to the work that really matters. In this extended post we’ll look into the key themes at work through this quarter.

The celestial auguries speak of a ‘surging’ quality to the times, an influence that will serve all forms of activism and corrective action that is focused upon and supports the emergence of a new paradigm from the ashes of the old.

Our actions will be supported by the planetary matrix and the shift in energy, both emotional and psychological, will become increasingly tangible. Events will manifest opportunities for this shift to emerge. Opportunities taken will feed back into the loop to produce a kaleidoscopic cascade of Change. As the saying has it, ‘to get energy you must use energy’ – being pro-active is absolutely key.

Mars entry into Sagittarius has stimulated a wave of pro-active energy within the matrix. Emerging from the in-volving and seriously deep waters of Scorpio the tropical Sagittarian field allows the intrinsic fiery nature of the motivating planet a freer outward range. In fact, the current fire sign trine between Jupiter and Uranus, which will be in effect over much of the coming year, will be transformed into a grand Fire trine by Mars and bring the mid point of the first lunation to a shimmering climax. As this will frame a lunar eclipse of some importance, mark October 8th in particular as a day for making big medicine – it is the first of several within this quarter.

With the first lunation of this quarter opening in Libra and the full Moon being eclipsed in Aries, the importance of this axis for the coming months is emphasised. It tells us that it is now all about standing shoulder to shoulder and opening ourselves to our individual magic, ‘power-to‘, in service of the whole. This is where the strong ties and passion of the previous lunation find their purpose, and, they will be tested as this is not some fanciful Jovian projection of idealogy. Mars is on his way to join Pluto in down to earth Capricorn and, after the gateway of Samhain has opened, together they will undoubtedly shake the roots of the Status Quo.

A Mercury retrograde is embedded in the midst of this quarter and we can expect magically creative disruption to feed into the Mars effect. Couple this with the Moon’s nodes transiting the middle decan of Aries and Libra and the significance of interventions sourced beyond the physical plane, at a soul level, will be ramped up. Mercury crosses over the north node in Libra before and after stationing mid-retrograde….and, Uranus, itself retrograde, is already within 5 degrees of the south node in Aries. The eclipse on October 8th conjuncts Uranus. The transits of this time can be utilised to high effect to manifest the creative potential inherent within disruption ~ the means to do so are decidedly otherworldly.

Not only does the timing of Mars and Pluto’s meeting say there is much support from the ancestors behind this creative disruption, but, it takes place within the second lunation of this quarter, which itself opens with a partial solar eclipse! The opportunity to reset on the physical/emotional level at the first lunar eclipse finds complimentarity in mental and spiritual renewal at the second solar ~ October 23rd/24th marks the second gateway. Working with these eclipses is very tangibly about transforming Fate into Destiny! However, before looking where this is leading, beyond these watersheds, lets explore the underlying opening qualities of this quarter a little further.

native-amercian-horse-2With the Sun entering Libra at September equinox the context is corroboree, co-operation and relating. The quarter also opens with Pluto going direct, coincident with the new Moon one day after equinox, and soon develops momentum through that grand Fire trine between Mars, Jupiter and Uranus. There really is big transformative energy for change afoot and it is coming through our shared trajectory. Feel it in the roots of the world and invoke it. Be bold in its use, be daring in the purpose you bring to it and, acting locally, imagine globally. The matrix will support you in this, but, remember, in this context the trick to dealing with ‘big issues’ that might otherwise seem overwhelming is to simply work with what touches your circle.

Libra connects in balance, in awareness and through recognition of others, the conscious nature of complimentarity. This is the medicine of relationship, and seasonally its own energetic trajectory is shifting from the horizontal plane of spirit made manifest in nature and evolving through the quarter towards movement along the vertical axis of the spirit worlds as they intersect the physical. But, there is also within this medicine of evolving relationship the mirroring through which the microcosm reflects the macrocosm. We are in a prime time for divination, especially with the eclipses preceding Samhain in this quarter, building opening upon opening and allowing a much deeper interaction between the worlds once Samhain arrives.

That depth is essential……we need to re-connect with our Mythos. This too is supported by Mars charge through Sagittarius. Being ‘the change you want to see in the world’ is writ large on his banner. Be aware, such will not go unchallenged, especially through the second half of the quarter following that Mars Pluto conjunction, but, this is where the opportunities offered by the eclipses before hand take on a more radical significance. It is worth briefly summarising these.

The full Moon/total lunar eclipse on October 8th, conjunct Uranus, is close on the Moon’s south node. This occurs just as the Sun transits the Super-galactic Center! So, this presents the ideal time to divine into and meditate with the global Mythos. Make the big underlying picture your focus and keep an ear open to the otherworlds over the 7th, 8th, and 9th October ~ ask for a vision and share it; this presents an opportunity to remember our origins and place in the Dreamtime.

The auguries of the solar eclipse in late October in the first degree of Scorpio, framed by a Mercury retrograde, just as Mars crosses the Galactic Centre and approaches Pluto, sets the tone for the second half of the quarter.  We will really need to wise up, be alert and accept the fact that our mettle will be tested, but, the warrior heart is dedicated to protecting the Elder wisdom of the Creatrix. Holding strong the Circle is key after Samhain. All through this time the square between Pluto and Uranus has been closing, and big questions will be asked of us all to do just that. So,  the 23rd, 24th and 25th of October is a good time to connect with guides and make offerings in preparation.

1380130267_shaman-2An accompanying characteristic of this time is an increasingly collective realisation that we have been in this situation before. We hold those ancestral memories within the marrow of our bones. On the cusp of global meltdown recovering the memories of previous times of cataclysm is inherent to the natural survival instinct, but, the orthodoxy will do everything it can to prevent you from retrieving these realisations.

In the wake of the Mars Pluto conjunction and following the opening of the third lunation a series of squares from Venus, the Sun and Mercury to Neptune will trigger both obscurantism, deceptions and their exposure. The ruling powers of this world know the game is up and will resort to every means of distraction, false-flags and violent suppression to keep the People from the truth. Realising human culpability within these events, retrieving the memories from the deepest layers of the human story and acknowledging the inherited effect they have had upon us over the millenia is vital.

The tactics and strategies of the powers-that-be manifest the shadow inherent in the suppression of our true past, but, such ploys become ineffective once we have recovered the ancestral connection. We need to enter the otherworlds and bring back the soul and spirit attached to those memories. There is great healing and empowerment in this, for us all.

But, the People are remembering – we are constantly reminded by the effects of that shadow, the natural disasters and global destruction at hand, that what we set in motion through this time will echo down through the generations.

It is in remembering who we are, where we came from and why we are here that we will transform our human relations with the rest of nature and with our home planet. Venus entering Sagittarius on November 16th will help us feel more optimistic in the face of hard realities and connect from our heart with this, our human purpose.

We will need the stamina that a strong and shared vision brings, and, this quarter is not only a good time for creating that deeper communion, it is the temporal cauldron in which the mythos and its meaning will become concentrated, distilled and more potent, more latent within our consciousness and actions.

As Saturn approaches the last degrees of Scorpio towards the end of this quarter we should expect a backlash. A more ascerbic demonstration of power and control brought to bear where orthodoxy and entrenched authority is challenged by serious levels of change. This could be very close to home.

By the same token, the planetary matrix is clear ~ the mass of people, the critical mass in these circumstances, can be the source of that degree and quality of change if the latent power enshrined within the People is invoked and made manifest. Orthodoxy seeks to maintain the status quo by limiting that latent power, and that includes not only inculcating conformity, but, suppressing change through excercising ‘power-over’, using force and violence, and through legislation and the legal binding of freedoms and natural rights. Mars meeting Pluto brings these issues to a head, Saturn in the last degrees of Scorpio enforces them, revealing their life and death nature. If that sounds threatening, we have choices yet…..

Nature and our relationship with the natural world is the source of our greatest hope and provides us with the direct route to our origins, our ‘dreaming’. Symbolically and literally Nature manifests the dynamic of change and the origins of that dynamic, sourced through nature, are super-natural. Those origins and that connection are the birth right of every living human. Our choice is between allowing the collective severance of our connections with that power to continue, which means certain annhilitation, and fully restoring this sacred relationship within the circle of Life, which means demonstrating our ability to handle power wisely and honour its source.

The Earth will continue, but, the tree will die if the sap does not rise, if its roots are not fed and it is kept in darkness……

A highly spiritual water trine between Neptune, the Moon and Mercury develops soon after Samhain prolonging favourable conditions to sustain the dreaming, keeping the doors to the otherworlds open. Make this a time of abundant and nourishing offerings to the original beings upon whose shoulders we stand.

sayam horseShortly after Mars conjuncts Pluto, Neptune ends a long retrograde period and Mars squares the Moon’s nodes. We could come face to face with a crisis of faith, and this signals another big test of our ability to keep an ethical core at the heart of our actions. Equally, we could remind ourselves that ‘it is not good, it is not bad ~ we never know the whole story’, but, as Sun Tzu says ‘the Wise win before they fight, and the ignorant fight to win’. It is better to choose the path of the Wise, the path of peace.

Third lunation of the quarter opens in the first degree of Sagittarius on November 22nd. We can join in telling the stories at the heart of our reality through this lunation, feed our roots through our creativity, but, the stories we are living must also be realistic and uncensored if their roots are to be fed ~ Chiron, reflecting this back to us, is also ending a long retrograde period two days after new Moon.

Then, on December 9th Jupiter enters a four month retrograde period from late Leo. Use the remainder of the quarter as a time to embolden and embody the inspiring qualities encountered on the path that is emerging. Jupiters role through this time and well into the coming year will  be to amplify the creative energies we work with, to help our connections with the bigger picture become stronger, and, through the trine with Uranus, to encourage innovation and initiate more meaningful transformations within the world.

Courage in all things is Jupiter’s prerogative in Leo and is in essence at the heart of this quarter. After solstice Jupiter is the handle on a ‘bucket’ configuration formed with all the other planets on the opposing half of the zodiac. Perhaps not surprisingly, the courage needed for getting a handle on our future will be very much in evidence when Saturn changes signs, entering Sagittarius on December 23rd. If it has not already become evident, Saturn will remind us that the future and that of our descendants is our personal responsibility, expressed collectively.

As the year turns Mars comes to oppose Jupiter on the Aquarius Leo axis and Uranus will become the last planet to leave its retrograde motion…..and through all this time the Uranus Pluto square is pushing from beneath and behind, injecting the field with potential for increasingly radical change. The square becomes exact on December 14th, and stays within a degree of orb right through until the beginning of April.

As the year turns we find all the planets in direct motion, something that has not happened since January 2013, and we will want to feel that all the effort we have put in has been worth it, that the cosmos is supporting us through a great shift. Our challenge will be not so much to design or engineer that shift, but, rather to put a strong focus on creating and maintaining the conditions necessary for its manifestation. Keeping strong the circle and feeding the roots of the world tree are our human responsibility. The eclipses and Samhain are key in this. But, the last quarter of 2014 is itself a microcosm of the larger process at work, and, if we fulfill those sacred tasks, we can take from this time an intriguing clue about whats coming. The signs are that, should we make the right moves now, our future will flourish as we embrace the magical realities and deeper communion with Nature, beyond the material, that are our birthrights and living ancestral memory of who we are.

r0918When solstice arrives the 4th quarter will close and a new one open with a new Moon, exactly on the Solstice point…….Its been that kind of year…….we are right on the cusp………


Key Dates :

September 23rd, Equinox ~ Pluto direct at 11 Capricorn
September 24th, New Moon in 1 Libra
October 5th, Mercury retrograde at 2 Scorpio
October 8th, Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse in 15 Aries
October 23/24th New Moon/Solar Eclipse in 0 Scorpio
October 26th, Mercury direct at 16 Libra ~ Mars enters Capricorn
31st October/1st November, Samhain
November 6th, Full Moon in 14 Taurus
November 10th, Mars conjunct Pluto in 11 Capricorn ~ Mercury out of retrograde zone
November 16th, Neptune direct at 4 Pisces
November 19th, Mars square Moon’s nodes at 18 Capricorn
November 22nd, New Moon in 0 Sagittarius
November 24th, Chiron direct at 13 Pisces
December 6th Full Moon in 14 Gemini
December 9th, Jupiter retrograde at 22 Leo
December 14th, Uranus square Pluto exact
December 21st/22nd, Solstice – New Moon in 0 Capricorn
December 22nd, Uranus direct at 12 Aries
December 23rd, Saturn enters Sagittarius


A much shorter version of this post can be found in edition 85 of Sacred Hoop.