Tag Archives: planetary cycles

Ancient Technologies, astrology, astronomy, culture, planetary computation, Root Medicine of the Stars

The Antikythera Cosmos

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This is a brilliant little film, for the light it casts on the extraordinary construction and complex mechanical thinking behind the Antikythera mechanism – its worth watching just for that. But there are astrological questions that arise with it too, as well as the question of what other uses the device might have been put to.

Where the film, or better said, the orthodoxy voiced within it fails is in accepting that the technology necessary to make this computational device was, in fact, extant in Greece over two thousand years ago – scientific rigor may be the reason for this error, but the people who built this mechanism already had a rudimenatry version of the steam engine, the metalergic knowledge which this device embodies was already thousands of years old, and the observations necessary for the calculations of the planetary movements, to the degree of accuracy built into the mechanism itself, would have, and could have only been made over centuries…

…..in fact, that knowledge was extant millenia before the time of the Antikythera mechanism itself, and was known to astronomers and astrologers alike; it was also integral to cyclical energetics of a much more cosmic and subtle nature, which ran through the Earth, the solar system and our local star, in which the calculation of planetary cycles would have been a great aid in harmonising with those energies; that is, after all, one of the primary functions of astrology……but is also a part of the tradition embodied in ancestral sites, temples and technologies of the ancient past.

This film helps in restoring a sense of sophistication and wonder to our connection with that past, so, please do give yourself a well spent half hour and watch the vid >>>

click on the image below to view The Antikythera Cosmos video

activism, Ancestral Medicine, astrology, Earth healing, planetary change, Root Medicine of the Stars

Whose Story Is This?

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On 24th November 2006 Jupiter entered Sagittarius, conjunct the Sun. With Mars, as it is now, in Scorpio, Pluto was close on transiting the Galactic centre. Over the next year and 25 days Jupiter journeyed through its home sign, finally crossing the solstice cusp on 18th December 2007. What was set in motion through this time is still with us and now, twelve years on, Jupiter once more completes its term of home rulership within the mutable fire sign and prepares to enter Capricorn on December 2nd 2019.

So, what’s the story? What’s your story?

If during the 2006-8 period the everyday world was marked by one defining feature it was possibly ‘the culpability and deception that financial collapse exposed within the global banking and trading system’. How did that look? What was the punchline to its story?

If the finger was pointing in one direction it exposed the ugly truth, that “Greed rules”, that its lying dictators, priests and minions act with impunity, even when its hegemony implodes.

But, if we claimed to already know this, as we surely did, with these events its reality must surely have begun to hit home.

Have we learnt? Have we moved on? Does anything in this time tell us, reassure us that we have? With Jupiter again about to enter Capricorn we should be wary of the consequences of not answering, and not answering truthfully, more than the answers themselves.

Pluto finally entered Capricorn late in 2008 with Jupiter at that time in the degree now occupied by Saturn. If the enormity of the reality we faced then did not in fact fully come home to us, the exposure of it’s underlying superstructures has, if not transformed the financial system, certainly transformed our perceptions and awareness of it and its consequences. The reality of ‘our’ mythos is exposed.

Some might attribute such a role to the outer planetary triad, but, Jupiter rules our mythos, the narrative we collectively run through our systems, the meaning we both give and seek within the justifications we bring to buying into it, as well as in attempting to look beyond it.

When it comes to the 2007/8 “Crash” and its consequences, which began with the US sub-prime mortgage debacle late in 2006, this mythos is magnified and put into hard perspective; we know the nature of the world we live in, the slavery and servitude its plutocratic tyranny ensnares us in. There is no escaping our awareness of the truth within this narrative.

With Jupiter now cusping Capricorn this awareness and the question it still begs of us, “the response we have yet to bring to it”, is the reality that looms large in our current world. With the awareness we have gained, so long as the same hegemonic ‘system’ remains unchanged we know, and are reminded on a day to day basis, that we are living at odds with it and our awareness. We can no longer justify the mythos – our knowing, if not our acts, tells us so.

In a nutshell, this is to describe the dilemma that must be resolved during Jupiter’s coming transit of Capricorn. It is a transit that will culminate with the meeting of Saturn and Jupiter in the first degree of Aquarius on the December solstice in 2020.

It includes the most talked of transit and conjunction since Uranus and Pluto squared off between 2011 and 2017, the meeting of Pluto and Saturn in January 2020. This conjunction by itself marks this as a ‘crunch’ year, and there will be a mix of faster transiting planets, including Jupiter, along with the Sun adding to this intense primary power source as this conjunction resonates through the year. But, the writing has been on the wall for at least 12 years, in fact, for a very long time we have known that it must come to this.

When the Galactic cross was precision formed and completed by our central Sun on December solstice 2012 the impulse for evolutionary transformation brought ‘events and consciousness’ into sync in a way that initiated a spiral dynamics of exponential acceleration. The consequences of this are initially chaotic, but, will transition to another phase of order, the shape of which is, in significant part, in our hands – we have a window of time in which to determine this.

The knowledge of this synchronisation of inner and outer realities is millennia old, but, its stimulation in our times, by orb of 1˚, began in the 1940’s and was fully marked by the so called ‘end of hostilities’ at the close of WW2 – from here the healing of an ancient self destructive trauma that world wars, and atomic psychosis, had brought to insane pitch must now begin and that same orb marks the years up to 2074 as the closing phase of this 144 year period of transformation. This fractal of the great year has its resonances at different scales. At the personal level, we should be thinking ‘seven generations…..’

…..when Jupiter left Sagittarius in 2007 it was amidst an evolutionary seed conjunction with Pluto, Mercury and the Sun around the galactic centre that set the stage – we have just seen Jupiter and Venus meeting in the same degrees. Now is a time to expand our creative energies from the heart. This is a part of the healing we must not miss – why?

Where Uranus held the mid degrees of Pisces opposing Saturn in Virgo at that time in 2007, Neptune now sits and becomes outwardly active, having turned direct.

That Uranus Saturn opposition was magnified, exacerbated even, by Jupiter’s transit of Uranus on the Aries cusp, an astrological event coinciding with the Gulf of Mexico disaster, ultimately finding expression in March 2011 at Fukushima.

This too is a part of our current terrain. But, how are we to navigate it?

The shock of ‘collapse’ and its potential catastrophism has now become homogenised and dangerously familiar, if dulled into a vague semblance of reality, “actual” reality, one might say. And this in spite of the current state of the world and our perceived collective contribution to, participation in and provocation of its symptoms. So, whose narrative are we following here?

The evolution that the marriage of events and consciousness might have seeded then has become our prerogative now. The ‘new age’ maxim that we ‘create our own reality’ has, in this sense, its head on the block and, if we can, in or after the fact, make our own reality come to be, the rules of the game are now exposed – simply put, reality happens, whether by direct engagement or not. Our input remains, regardless, conscious or not. And, conscious or not, we face the consequences.

We are here to know, yes, but such knowing is useless without the ability to act upon it. What is stopping us? That is perhaps the big Jupiterian question at the time of its ingress into Capricorn.

If the Saturn Jupiter cycle bookends Jupiter’s ingress into Capricorn, it points up the fact that, if we have not learned how to do just this, meet knowing with action, it will almost certainly be being decided for us by then. By other humans, our circumstances, or some other ‘presence’ – who knows?

Jupiter’s reminder is that we too are myth makers – we weave and bind with what we have and know, and find meaning in the patterns we make, as we do.

Is the story we are living truly our own?

The choice is ours…..

activism, Ancestral Medicine, astrology, Earth healing, lunations, Root Medicine of the Stars

In The Zone

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The period between the Taurus full Moon on November 12th and the new Moon in Sagittarius on November 26th sees Mercury station direct, and three planets plus the Sun change signs. Mercury will clear the retrograde zone on December 8th, just three days before a Gemini full Moon, by which time the prevailing atmosphere will have changed considerably.

Mars entering Scorpio on the 19th augers an intensification of inner drives and focus – for longer term projects the sustained intensity indicated here is invaluable and prevails into the new year.

Although Mars energy is in stealth mode here it is powerful and effective and, by its covert nature, this suits in-depth work, study and a powerful focusing of intrinsic energies. The nature of this energy is also inherently personal and best suits solo activities.

In magical workings this can be a profoundly rewarding time, especially after Mercury goes into direct motion in the skies on November 21st.

Talismanic work keeps coming to mind as does the making of fetishes and symbolic workings with a long term intent; whether it be concretely or literally, with bind runes for example or ‘simply’ prayer and affirmations, this is about working with your chosen magical language in a way that will help your energy to be more deeply invested in your work, to stay on track and repeatedly find its mark over the coming year.


In apparent contrast to, but very much aiding and abetting this combustible and intense inner force, the conjunction between Venus and Jupiter and their transits of the Galactic Centre speak of an atmosphere of joy and magnanimity that reaches right into the heart of creation. They meet on the 24th November in the penultimate degree of Sagittarius, a degree that the Sabians associate with bringing a visibly high degree of accomplishment to simple everyday tasks.

But, don’t be deceived by the charm and etiquette of Venus and Jupiter, for all the socially sanctioned pride implied here, there is also a high degree of potency involved in this work as well and, as next year looks set to be the time when we really want to knuckle down and get stuck in to what we know to be ‘the most important work we are here’ for, Mars along with Venus and Jupiter are here seen to be helping us develop a more deep seated yet higher level of determination in preparation for that period, no matter the level at which we are working.

This is about integrity and impeccability, about work in the world and between-the-worlds that is seamless, undaunted and effective to the max. We will see this come into effect in the mundane world regardless, whether the result of magical workings or not, but as an opportunity to be capitalised upon it is peerless.

The interactions of Jupiter and Venus with the Galactic Centre, prior to their conjunction, also have a deeper level to them, potentially drawing the primal source of creative power into our work. Tapping into the primal levels of creativity is visionary work and will benefit that intense focus, and Mars generative fire here becomes the fire at the centre of a spiritual alchemy which will benefit us all. We can make this a focus too, if it is appropriate to our calling. And, as with all such processes, there is an intrinsic process of purification at work.

We will be tested through this time and these magical workings for weaknesses in our integrity, both moral, ethical, physical and emotional. When our work takes us into areas where our knowledge is ‘thin’ this can be especially risky now, as befits engaging with potent forces – this is not a time to ‘act as if’. Think of it as a time in which to perfect our craft, to fine tune our power of intent and practice purity of purpose, and likewise to identify those areas in which we know we could deepen our understanding and inner resource.

By the same token this is a profound time to make offerings, especially in gratitude for the road ahead and the means we are being given to navigate it. We can trust the knowing we have of why, where and to whom these are to be made, but, we need to make them as meaningful as possible. Here again a deeper knowledge of ‘prescriptions’ and ‘protocols’ is de rigour.


Conserving focus, use divination sparingly, only should the need arise, and to this end work to strengthen connections to allies and guides. Places of power and beings that are a strong source of inspiration are favoured now and will come into their own if worked with in this way – working with water sources, sacred springs and fast flowing subterranean water courses our well chosen prayers can be disseminated far and wide within ‘the fabric of things’.

When the Sun enters Sagittarius on the 23rd of November we might begin shifting attention back to the outer world. And we may be surprised by sudden insights and things falling into place as we do – Mars opposes Uranus shortly after the Sun’s ingress and between then and the new Moon on the 26th there is also potential for major distractions in the mundane world. This is a false flag territory! Use your ‘seeing’ effectively.



New Moon sees Venus enter Capricorn and this will bring us further down to earth. We won’t lose sight of the magic or the reason we have been so pre-occupied through this time but the shift into a more sober frame of mind begins to form with this lunation. It is not a downhill trend or somber atmosphere that is brewing here, however – the object of our ‘true’ work, the primary focus which will occupy us through the coming year, is beginning to materialise.

There is a beautiful process of inner and outer alignment at work in all this which has been developing by stages over the last few months.

 This now presents an opportunity to raise our game, to capitalise on adjustments to our focus that we have made and for getting ‘in the zone’. This will make perfect sense by the time the next Full Moon arrives in the twentieth degree of Gemini on the 11/12th of December.

The underlying tension of these times is coming to a head and there is a purposefulness to everything that occurs now. But, see this time as a period of adjustment, a preparation, that will serve us immeasurably, further down the road we are all travelling. Being ’In the zone’ is associated with being totally turned on, tuned in and performing at our peak.

To give the longer term period a context the celestial matrix indicates that the planets are aligning to create a break from the past which will be decisive, fuelling a fracturing from prevailing dominant modes of authority, this being commensurate with a deep shift ‘within’ which increases individual autonomy in line with the innate ability we all have to connect with the creative source. Jupiter enters Capricorn on December 2nd, grounding the core galactic connection just as Venus transits the Moon’s south node.

With both Saturn and Jupiter in Capricorn, along with Pluto, Venus and before the year is out, the Sun and Mercury, this is the final run up to the meeting of Saturn and Jupiter at zero degrees Aquarius on the December solstice 2020 where they will begin a new cycle of reality building, initiated in a new element for the first time in centuries, the like of which we have probably not seen for millennia, if at all.

Blessed Be!

astrology, culture, Earth healing, human rights, planetary change, Root Medicine of the Stars

Uranus In Taurus 1 – Freedom From The Known

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First Things First

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An Overview

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lessons In Choice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Politics Of Experience

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(1) Quote attributed to the psychologist Jordan Peterson

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

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


Illustrations

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

Second & Fourth : Butoh Theatre, Sankai Juku

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

astrology, human rights, lunations, Moons, planetary change, Root Medicine of the Stars

Awakening The Tides Of Rememberance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

astrology, Earth healing, eclipse, lunations, planetary change, planetary nodes, Politics, retrograde planets, Root Medicine of the Stars

The Fertile Darkness

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wild hive

…..luminous darkness, birthplace of light…..

The fifth lunation of 2016 opens with the Moon and Sun joined at 17 degrees of tropical Taurus. From the earthbound point of view five planets are in retrograde motion as this Moon cycle gets underway, all of which fertilise the New Moon, intensifying the seed energies of the lunation.

The inner power of this seed point is emphasised by the Sabian symbol for 17 Taurus which talks of the ‘Seeker’ turning ‘Warrior’, raising the energy of internal illumination as the weapon of choice in the ‘eternal battle’. The battle that would see truth prevail. The historical limitations and conditioning of material existance are no longer accepted as given, as the bottom line, the necessity for individual evolution and self determination taking precedence over conformity to roles and agendas that do not belong to us as individuals.

Taurus pulls focus to the individual’s struggle for survival, to the question of what matters most, and, having begun to witness the groundswell of energy emergent at a grass-roots level since the spring eclipses, this lunation  furthers the internal strengthening of individual resolve to repurpose life in accord with our own natural values, the impulse  that was seeded at the March solar eclipse. The darkness of the eclipse is coming alive. It is about aligning ourselves and re-establishing life in accordance with Natural law, as opposed to Human law. This is an image brought to the point of utter necessity by what we are witnessing in the world and emphasised beyond question by the Sun and Moon’s trine to retrograde Pluto in Capricorn. Wholesale destruction of nature through authoritarian rule stops with our personal choices and the transformative power they enshrine.

The lunation’s seed point is amped up by Venus and retrograde Mercury also in Taurus, both now closing on the Sun, and the Earth signs are further linked through this stellium’s trine to retrograde Jupiter and the Moon’s north node  in Virgo. The Earth signs ask us to bear witness, in support of a future that can be lived according to realities with which we can each resonate. These are core values, realities that are meaningful in answer to what we are witnessing and can be sustained to the benefit of those who come after us. This is the bottom line impulse powering the grass-roots groundswell.

Venus sextile to Neptune in Pisces pushes the issue of discerning what is real in relation to those core values and through quincunx to retrograde Mars in Sagittarius makes it clear – this is, as the Sabians describe it, a time in which ‘swords’ are at odds with ‘torches’ in the struggle for survival. If we are to be torch bearers we must pay heed to how rx Mercury is working within us. Mercury’s retrograde raises the need for inner clarity and clear connections to become the cutting edge here. We must, we know, be on guard against fantasy and deception, especially our own, emphasising the importance of inner illumination as a metaphor for light thrown upon our own thinking. But, this is also about ‘thinking on our feet‘.

As the old Irish saying has it a warrior must first learn how to dance before wielding the sword. Neptune’s mutability can provide us with both the imagination required to refigure our path and at the same time distract us from grounding ourselves in the ‘now’. A fluidity of action, perception and balance in motion serves to keep us centred in our power. It is an old art taught for the benefit of both the individual warrior and the community and cause they serve. The old guard is now being unbalanced and caught on its heals, fighting a dirty war in the face of rising awareness of their stratagems. It is becoming clearer that the ‘old’ is being dressed up as the ‘new’, ‘vision’ being appropriated and propagandised as ‘truth’. Nowhere is this more apparent then in environmental and ecological issues, particularly where vested interests are exposed. However, in the emergent climate the efforts of those who continue to disseminate the deception can no longer escape attention, and not only is the historical veil of lies and hypocrisy wearing very thin but the ‘people’, seeing through the orthodox version of reality we have been and are being sold, are gaining in awareness of what lies beneath. If the momentum is with the ‘People’, we know we must also dance with the Earth and her rhythms.

The lunation carries this momentum forward with a release of energy as Jupiter stations direct during first quarter and begins moving towards the Moon’s north node again. They will converge at solstice on the full Moon of the next lunation, just before Uranus ignites Mars into action, but, in the meantime we have a deeper matter to consider.

In her novel ‘Children Of Men’ the author P D James cast a distopian vision of the future in which human fertility has ceased, a not too far distant time that sees ultra controlling authority at war with rebelious factions amidst a world in lock-down. As speculative fiction it carries disturbing tendencies very much present in our own world to an all too plausible point of realisation. She is not alone in envisioning such a future. Margaret Atwood’s novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ envisions authoritarian rule over fertility under militant theocratic control as a consequence of terrorist driven revolution. In both cases the issue of self determination is raised to become the front line in the battle between natural law and human law.  Human fertility is its central metaphor. Womankind is made both victim and redeemer. With Venus in the sign of her rulership there can be no fakery in this respect.

Many might not want to contemplate such visions of the future, but, they serve us with due warning – there is too much that is recognisable in the world not to take heed of it. This too is a reflection of the illuminating power that is central to this lunation, made all the more poigniant through Taurus association with fertility and survival. To remain grounded in livable realities that give us the balance of a positive vision of the future the threats to that future must be acknowledged and actions be taken that ensure we do not allow such threats to become realised. This is not a time for navel gazing and idealistic dreaming.

This factor will become more pressing and present as this and the following lunations unfold, unless our individual choices carry the clarity of perception and adaptability called for now – while the ‘new age’ may be the prerogative of the dreamers amongst us, the danger is that in following the dream alone we may also discover that the road to hell really is paved with good intentions. The future must also be defended and the offensive against it, as these two novels might strongly suggest, is already under way.

A core underlying element that reflects this through this lunation and beyond is indicated by Saturn’s presence in Sagittarius, quincunx the new Moon. Retrograde Saturn is testing the reality of our beliefs against experience. In squaring Neptune we may become disillusioned at what we find, become dispirited and equally determined to hang on to our cherished dreams. The mutable fire of Sagittarius illuminates from within, transforms through worldly experience and encourages us to grow in the process. The message here is to allow the truth in. Saturn, while burning off false beliefs can also be the ally who provides the essential reality factor that fuels wiser and more realistic choices.

The worldly view of evolutionary forces that are at work within our times can be revealed in this. Saturn’s stationing retrograde on Uranus south node activates memories stored in our bones, ancestral memories inherited from times in which natural law has been at the centre of both traumatic and revolutionary events in our extended history. These are memories that have been over-written in the orthodox version, versioned to suit controlling agendas. In accessing them we reclaim our past and with it our rightful path.

Sagittarius is also the sign of the seeker, the wise fool who follows the spirit of their passion out into the world. With Mars in close proximity this factor is being fueled up, in-volved with passionate soul searching – a passion that can lead to the most fundamental heart of truth, embedded within the fertile darkness. The torch bearer leads the way.

Each of the five retrograde planets reveal different aspects of the seed energy at work within the inner workings of this lunation. They invite us to engage on a personal level with our…….

……individual evolution and self determination taking precedence over conformity to roles and agendas that do not belong to us as individuals,

concerning ourselves with what matters most,

our own natural values 

the better to embody personal choices and the transformative power they enshrine.

They ask us to bear witness

to core values, realities that are meaningful,

inner clarity and clear connections

providing light thrown upon our own thinking.

Thinking on our feet,

 a warrior must first learn how to dance before wielding the sword,

embodying perception and balance in motion –

an old art taught for the benefit of both the individual warrior and the community and cause they serve.

Here the issue of self determination is raised to become the front line in the battle between natural law and human law.

The future must also be defended by such a warrior,

testing the reality of our beliefs against experience,

prepared to allow the truth in,

the essential reality factor that fuels wiser and more realistic choices.

In doing so  we access memories stored in our bones, ancestral memories

 and reclaim our past and with it our rightful path,

the most fundamental heart of truth, embedded within the fertile darkness.

The torch bearer leads the way……..

Root Medicine of the Stars

Quantum Astrology

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Much respected astrologer Rick Levine here gives a great presentation and introduction to Quantum Astrology, a view of astrological practice that marries our current developing scientific understanding of the quantum nature of reality with foundational applications of astrological knowledge. Its emphasis on planetary and interplanetary cycles throws an historical perspective of the wave function and scalar nature of this perspective, its pulse and significance, into sharp relief……current interpretations of events mentioned not withstanding as ‘givens’, the vid provides a clear and informative view of one of the most dynamic and essential areas of development within the astrological ‘paradigm’ – enjoy!