Tag Archives: solar eclipse

Ancestral Medicine, astrology, Eclispes, lunations, planetary change, Root Medicine of the Stars

Seasons of the Eclipse

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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

astrology, Earth healing, eclipse, Politics, Root Medicine of the Stars, Social Conflict

In Respect Of Eclipses

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eclipse drama

“Art is a ripening, an evolution, an uplifting which enables us to emerge from darkness into a blaze of light.”

Eclipses are to be experienced to be understood. Despite the chorus of astrological interpretations surrounding them, there is no substitute for direct experience, and this is especially the case with a total solar eclipse.

While astrologers tend to analyse and interpret to find their meaning, the experience of being under the Moon’s shadow as it races across the land and obscures the disc of the Sun is first and foremost not intellectual, or even rational, it is visceral. Its impact is profoundly tangible, exciting and direct. It not only becomes integrated into the human frame, affecting the energetic and emotional bodies directly, embedding itself within ‘long’ memory, but is, or can be, one of the most direct cosmological experiences we can have. It is a gift of nature, both transformative and empowering in its creative potential.

Much in contemporary western culture stands in the way of realising that natural potential, but, as astrologers like to say of eclipses, they signal a reset or return to our path. It is an ‘art’ of being human that can be relearned.

For 21st century humans this alone tells us almost as much about eclipses as we need to know, not least of all as it also points up aspects of ‘contemporised’ human nature that tend to obscure such direct experience. Conditioning and preconceived ideas can, and often do, get in the way of such a direct art and removing them is, at the best of times, far from easy, especially in the current global environment. Much needs to be unlearned.

In the run up to the eclipse of August 21st 2017 preemptive speculation has been rampant, priming people’s expectations with a vast array of interpretations about its significance and meaning. Even if it is an allergic reaction to fears, stress and the unknown that is itself a part of a conditioned sentient nature, we are not necessarily doing ourselves any favors by buying into its dynamic – it is time, as nature shows, to pause and be still.

Astrologers have however been priming this particular pump with a relish that betrays their art, and personal bias, and if we are to believe what they have been saying we can expect this eclipse to signal everything from civil unrest, regime change, assassination and the onset of thermonuclear war, to liberation and release from the very conditions that contribute to those possibilities. The effects of such a dramatisation precede and contribute to their realisation, itself a dynamic reflection of the conditioning that comes with preemptive bias. What you preconceive is, to some extent, what you get.

Eclipses, when they carry this degree of preemptive charge, begin to change reality before they have even arrived. To a large degree this is humans fooling themselves, but, it can also be exploited as an opportunistic act of deliberation.

Eclipses thus charged and framed stir things up, in ways which can make the likelihood of such radical events appear preordained, amplifying the necessity for their elimination, or realisation, depending upon which interp you jive with most. In the contemporised mindset, whether by design or not, eclipses are seen to be opportunities for creating ‘self fulfilling’ prophecies and, by the same token, are golden opportunities for social engineering and manipulation, for stressing the human frame with fear and expectations of ‘the worst’, as much as idealistic escapism.

These are old programs, partly natural, partly induced. Millenialism and religious dogmas of apocalypse and transcendence thrive on such ambiguous conditions and conditioning and these too are a part of this underlying dynamic, deep seated and all too often subliminal. Such teleologies belong to doctrines which ignore the possibility of ‘continual creation’, of a living breathing if divine universe and, in so doing, deprive us of the most meaningful experience life can offer us.

An innate perceptive susceptibility and weakness is at work here, a consequence of split consciousness which, in our times, is exploited everyday by media, governments and marketeers. It is also subtly if profoundly divisive when it is spun into the ongoing narrative. It has been projected onto our antecedents to this end, effectively supporting evolutionary agendas and authoritarian historicism alike. Through this, for example, the popularised image of the ‘native’ cowering under the shadow of the eclipse has been exploited to distance ourselves from ancestry as much as it has been used to propagate superstitions of eclipses as ‘bad omens’, all of which has contributed to human supremacism and racial divide.

If the mundane world has been pre-endarkened by this eclipse it is currently nowhere reflected more clearly than in this arena. Classic projection and dissociation, or ‘otherness’, the control mechanism of an elite caste system, both become strategies of control employed in social engineering and used to implant heirarchic conditioning, as much as division. Such insidious conditioning, if tagged on to a major eclipse event, can stir and subtly reinforce deep seated prejudice, especially in times of heightened political and social tension. With current events unfolding under the path of the eclipse we have seen a none too subtle exploitation of this dynamic at work – this eclipse has already become a part of the ongoing psychological and emotional terrain that serves the purpose. However, it merely serves to up the drama and distract from the true nature of the moment.

Its cyclical nature has been capitalised upon by some astrologers to this effect, previous eclipses within the same cycle having been used as temporal markers with fateful consequences for American Presidents for example. The complexity of historical events is whitewashed out with such use and astrologers are no less guilty in this than political spin doctors and creators of the ‘official narrative’.

The eclipse cycle’s distinct periodicity, the variability of which has been observed and tested for millenia however, is not simply a political tool, itself no less a superstition than an alleged determinant. As a physical experience of a cosmological event orthodox science tends to lean upon the periodicity of total eclipses as markers in an unchanging and stable system of planetary dynamics, a view which supports the dogma of scientific orthodoxy and physical ‘laws’ which support it. These are the bedrock of scientific determinism, as much a confirmation bias in its favor as a support mechanism, or program, for historical narratives. They are also propagators of a pernicious fiction.

This ‘predictability factor’ was, these same narratives tell us, important to the regulation of power within social structures in the distant past, the province of an elite priesthood and initiates into the metaphysical sciences – the immense calendric capabilities of ancient cultures is not conceded within the orthodox view as an indication of their scientific sophistication. Instead it is seen as a form of primitivism, if not a fear based response to forces beyond human control. We are ‘supposed’ to have progressed beyond such a condition. Such sophistication however, if it were acknowledged within deep human ancestry, would suggest a lack of ‘progress’ if not dangerous precedent, and that is tantamount to a heresy within the teleology and ‘material eschatology’ of  ‘orthodox’ science.

The indigenous traditions however tell us that the primary protocol for eclipses is one of ‘respect’. The full impact of a solar eclipse can be a positive experience when given due respect, and that is open to both the scientific mind as much as the spiritually oriented. It is a time in which nature responds and shows the way, simply that, and empirically so. But, while the need for respect is achingly obvious amongst humans and their relationship with the natural world, it is also an honoring of the unknown. The world takes on an unfamiliar face under the path of a total solar eclipse. Meaning, at such times, can be suspended, creatively.

How humans respond creatively to the unknown with ‘respect’ is possibly most clearly developed, if not innate, in ritual and ceremony, a root acknowledgment of the cosmos and the powers that shape and inform our experience of it.

Within the northern American continent ceremonial sites dating back many thousands of years fall directly under the path of the total eclipse. Indigenous honoring of the Sun’s darkening will take place at many of them, following traditional practices handed down over many generations. But, the way in which that honoring takes place is not bound by tradition. To simply drop our preconceptions and be open to the universe, to quieten and be observant and receptive, is enough – the healing and integrity of nature extends into such a moment and makes a glimpse into universal nature possible. What arises is ours to honor and cherish, an empowerment which could have far reaching consequences.

Whether we experience this as mysterious or not, it is above all at heart an art, a human art of tremendous creative potential that expresses itself through natural participation, a communion with life in all its power and perspective giving glory, and eclipses of this kind offer us unique access to a deeper experience of this. If approached in this way and if the overriding nature of the so called ‘Great American Eclipse’ is to be honored so, it will change us, and will reveal an art and creative power all too overshadowed in our times which can heal the dramas we are enacting – we could simply call it the art of ‘human respect’.

The quote at the head of this article is from the great dramatist and theatrical mentor, Jerzy Grotowski.

Aries Libra axis, astrology, culture, Earth healing, eclipse, environmental issues, human rights, planetary aspects, Root Medicine of the Stars, Socail Conflict, Sovereignty, The outer planets

Return Of The Thunder Spirits

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circle-of-life frank howell

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

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

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

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

lost-warrior frank howell

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pluto is also presently quincunxing LBH Uranus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

lakota-blue-aura frank howell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

fruit-from-the-light-frank-howell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aries Libra axis, astrology, Disclosure, eclipse, EMVs, lunations, planetary change, Planetary Mind, Politics, retrograde planets, Root Medicine of the Stars

Mysterious Travellers

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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….!

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

Common Ground

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firedance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image : ‘Mongolian Firedance’ ~ Karthik Anand

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

The Road Home – Solar Eclipse In Pisces

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is one last note to add here.

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

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

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

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

 

Root Medicine of the Stars

The Great Unravelling

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buffalo robe

There is a Lakota story that tells of an ancient Grandmother sitting within a hidden cave weaving a panel of Porcupine quills into a great Buffalo Blanket. She has been working on this robe for thousands of years and, at her side, licking his paws and watching her all the time, is Shunka Sapa, the black dog who is her companion. The cave is lit and they are warmed by a great fire above which a cauldron hangs in which wojapi, sweet berry soup, has been slowly cooking since the fire was first lit.

Every now and then Grandmother rises from her work to stir the soup and feed the fire, but, as she does so Shunka Sapa  grabs the end of a quill in his teeth and sets about undoing her precious work…..you know how dogs can be! On returning to her blanket the ancient Grandmother comes to a stop infront of her unravelled work, sighs and, after pondering a moment, sits down once more to begin again her sacred work with the great medicine blanket.

There is an understanding amongst the people that, while the sacred work is made never-ending by the mischevious hound, should the Grandmother ever complete the robe, the moment she weaves the last Porcupine quill into the blanket, the world as we know it will come to an end……

When the tsunami hit Fukushima Daiichi at 3.36pm local time on March 11th 2011 Uranus was just three minutes of arc from crossing the Aries equinox point in the tropical zodiac. Jupiter was in the 11th degree of Aries and Saturn, retrograde in the 16th degree of Libra, was conjunct the fixed star Merga in the constellation of Bootes, the Bear-warden. Slow moving Neptune too was on a cusp and would enter Pisces twenty three days later, just as the Sun and Moon met at new Moon in 14 Aries.

In the myth Bootes, having been given a flask of wine by Dionysus, was murdered by a group of shepherds after they had become insanely drunk on the potent sacred wine he had shared with them. In consideration for the grief of Bootes daughter Erigone and their faithful companion, the hound Maera, the Bear-warden was immortalised by Jupiter as a constellation in the skies.

Some say that Erigone, whose name means ‘She Who Knows’, became the constellation Virgo and that Maera was placed in the constellation Canis Major where the great dog star Sirius resides, but, the name Merga is derived from Marra, meaning a hoe or rake. In starlore the fixed star Merga marks the reaping hook held in the reaper’s left hand, Merga also having been known for millenia as Marrha. Saturn’s sickle bites likes the dogs teeth…..

When the new Moon eclipses the Sun on 20th March 2015 they too will be occupying the ultimate degree of tropical Pisces their orb covering the exact place of Uranus in the Fukushima tsunami chart. As the ultimate point of transition in the zodiac this degree is a place symbolic of unravelling as the necessary precursor to the sacred task of a re-weaving of the blanket of Life, begun with entry into Aries. In the Lakota story that moment is also marked by the Grandmother’s pause as she stops and ponders Shunka Sapa’s crucial if destructive intervention and, understanding what must be done, opens herself to re-envisioning of the sacred robe.

At eclipse Uranus will be exactly opposite Saturn’s place in the Fukushima chart, squaring Pluto for the seventh and last time in this part of their current cycle. Many things come to a head in this immediate time and culminate in an unresolved state, such is the of nature the waxing square belonging to this part of the cycle. This square marks the point at which Uranus finally begins to break free of the Plutonic undertow and sets out to sow new seeds of divine intiatic power within the matrix beyond the midpoint of Aries. If we look to the degree of the eclipse and the Sabian symbols associated with the last degree of Pisces for insight we find this aspect of the moment deepened through their gnostic wisdom.

They speak of the “power of clearly visualized ideals to mold the life of the visualizer” . They tell us this is a “most fitting symbol for the last phase of the cyclic process. Within the end of the cycle the seed of a new beginning exists in potency — unless the entire cycle has proven to be a failure.“

The last phrase is highlighted, not to invoke such a sense of failure, but to emphasise the crucial significance of recognising where failure is present. It is hugely important to us now to not only look for the re-envisioning which will renew our world, but, to realise that the unravelling, while it may seem contrary to our vision for the future and may not have been our own intended or conscious doing, is itself both a catalyst for the work in hand and a reminder of a greater cycle of change. Three decades will pass before we begin to see Uranus oppose Pluto from Virgo.

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Many indigenous traditions carry stories that speak across great time of this crucial necessity, the relationship between our unconscious motivations and our highest wisdom, as well as between our ancestors and ourselves. They also tell us of the ‘worlds’ that have gone before ours, our cyclical re-emergence into the world following catastrophe, each time of unravelling different from the one before, but, all carrying the underlying thread of renewal, their seed potential. They show us how the way we live in our world, the pattern woven into the blanket of Life carrying the vision of our sacred relationship with our Earth, differs from those preceding and help us to understand how what comes of this is up to the ‘people’.

Grandmother’s vision for the future is writ in the stars and given the most powerful poigiancy through this solar eclipse and the beginning of a new cycle. Like Shunka Sapa’s disruptive work, undertaken behind her back, the ultimate fate of our planet stares us in the face. The destruction of the blanket of Life we are witnessing began while our backs were turned, many years before we were born, but, the Grandmother shows us our task. The full import of this is emphasised at the following full Moon.

At the full Moon on April 4th 2015 the Sun will be close on Uranus and Mercury will be close on the lunar south node, now on the same degree that Jupiter occupied in the Fukushima chart. The message here is clear ~ we cannot risk repeating the errors of the past without increasing consequence, and opening to the reality around us, as well as the power of the vision it demands of us, requires presence of mind and powerful intent. The ancestral fire must be tended beneath the cauldron of sweet medicine, but, as the story of the Bear-warden also reminds us, the gifts of the gods can easily be over-estimated in their strength and we are required to be wise to the consequences of their misuse. As wise as Saturn? The poigniancy of this is brought home as the April full Moon will transit Saturn’s degree in the Fukushima chart in mid Libra. Libra reminds us of the importance of right relationship, so central to all that is sacred, and the foundation of meaning this brings to all sustainable work we undertake.

At the April full Moon the Sun will be at the same degree as the new Moon that followed Fukushima, just as Neptune was then entering tropical Pisces. Neptune has been highlighting the dangers of intoxication under the inflationary influence of the ‘archetypal’ since entering Pisces, itself a powerful reminder of how an excess of the Dionysian wine has gone to our ‘heads’ inducing the global consequences of a destructive stupour that infects the world. Pluto and Uranus too have engaged us very tangibly in the field of their archetypal struggle since Fukushima, one equally wrought with the Neptunian signature. The Fukushima disaster is shot through with hubris, deception and dissemination of falsehood masking the thirst for power and control. Hubris as much as fundamentalism are human failings, but, who can deny where the ultimate responsibility lies in correcting this.

These connections between the Fukushima chart and the March solar eclipse are deepened further as the eclipse precedes equinox by just hours. Perhaps Venus presence in her home sign of Taurus will bring us down to earth and help our hearts to balance our heads as she is exactly quincunx Saturn, retrograde in Sagittarius at equinox. Saturn can also be the redeemer, if we have the ability to listen, accept the truth and, stepping across the threshold he keeps the keys to, undertake the work.

The stories from the past which address such archetypal themes have been passed down to us with good reason. They are ancestral reminders of times in which we have faced the need to undertake the ‘great work’. And, as in many medicine stories such as that of the Grandmother and Shunka Sapa, the understanding of its deeper message rests not upon explanation, but, on our own ability to allow the spirit of the story to speak to us within, so that we might see our own place within it and how each part of it sits within us.

colequillwork2May the opportunity brought for renewal by the eclipse open us to hearing them, allowing their medicine to work within, and may the blessings of the equinox enable us to grow in our understanding so that we may yet continue the sacred work with an ever more powerful intent…..

Root Medicine of the Stars

The Red Thread

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spiralgrndmthr

Into the Journey

The 11th lunation of 2014 opens on October 23/24th with a partial solar eclipse. With the lunation beginning at 0° Scorpio this means that the mid-point between Equinox and Solstice, Samhain, arrives just one week later under the swelling quarter Moon.

There is a significant difference between the eclipse and Samhain charts, even though they are only a week apart. This has to do with the emphasis applied by their differing dynamics. To fully bring out the differences we’ll look directly into the chart for Samhain in the next post. But, the intervening period tells us much, and its defining qualities come from the opening of the lunation, which is the focus here………first, lets get a sense of the ‘dynamics’ at work at the eclipse.

The Sun, Moon and Venus are exactly conjunct with no strong aspects connecting directly to them at the eclipse. This is a defining moment which suggests that we are in a qualitative field based influence, rather than under a dynamic based on aspects directly connecting across the matrix. Venus and Mars are fast moving at the moment, with Mercury slowing down to station direct, but, it is the eclipse conjunction marking entry into Scorpio that brings the key qualities out.

The themic backdrop to this scene comes from the ongoing and tightening square between Uranus and Pluto suggesting that what we see in the eclipse conjunction signals a change to how the U/P square is playing out in the world. We are looking  at a shift in focus as an entry point and this is puts us all at the heart of participation in ‘transition’.

Eclipses bring the opportunity for a glimpse beyond the usual constraints of time and space, and the major influences here connect us with other dimensions of our reality. With Samhain embedded in this Moon cycle we need to pay close attention to these now.

The first week after the new Moon and solar eclipse will provide us with an opportunity to make personal adjustments in advance of Samhain and the ‘thinning of the veils’. In many senses this looks like a strong period for spiritual activists to step up a gear, but, the underlying theme is addressing some very old and fundamental wounds that affect us all. This signals entry into a new phase in how we engage with Earth’s story – the seasons are changing and so is the centre of gravity within the story’s telling. Lets set the scene.

The opening of the lunation of the 11th Moon brings a deepening of sacred space and, in the north, the lights of the inner worlds begin to brighten as the nights of the Long Dark close about us. Stories, long held as sacred, are emerging from their root born troves and the face of Nature reveals first glimmerings of the mysteries that wait beyond the veil. These are teaching stories that hold gems of wisdom and advice in their telling. The southern hemisphere is seeing that storied connection play out through verdant swelling of the inner life force and, where Nature has a strong voice, she clothes the world in creative manifestation of this vibrant energy. Within the fruits seeds are being formed.

These are magical times, the outer and inner worlds casting a spell of glamours that perfectly befit the crafting and the weaving of human life within the Earth’s story. Both without and within ‘truth’ takes on form and reminds us of the journey we undertook in coming here. And, the planet of ‘truth’, Saturn, is at work throughout the field.

Saturn in the final decan of tropical Scorpio is also largley unaspected at the eclipse, his square with Jupiter in Leo moving out of phase, but, the ringed planet brings a sense of reality to the more mythic undercurrents of the chart. His mutual reception with Pluto in Capricorn has been instrumental in emphasising the serious nature of our collective story, but, while Saturn tests our mettle as we are challenged to cross the boundaries of the world he can also deliver immensely meaningful and lasting effects as an outcome of this journey. Being a guardian of the threshold between life and death Saturn at his best is highly creative, magical even. He applies the ‘reality principle’ and there can, equally, be a Midas touch to this, as much as an ability to bring out the ring of truth in what he touches. How we rise to the challenge of the transition is perhaps reflected in the Midas myth and is summed up in one of his key words, response-ability. Readiness to respond means being prepared, but, with Saturn, that also means knowing what is essential to the undertaking. This is not a time for making impulsive or ego-driven choices.

Time is also a key aspect of Saturn’s emphasis, and timing helps us to focus our activities effectively. But, Life also spins the warp and weft of longer periods of time into the patterns of the natural cycles of Earth’s story. Saturn is a ‘key holder’ to the chronology of earth-life ~ when he lends us the key, the tumblers fall and the lock opens. But he is not alone in initiating this movement.

Closer to home, the celestial matrix also sees this lunation open with the planet Mercury travelling at its closest point to the Earth – being retrograde he is the undercover ‘intelligence agent’ and activates our inner intelligence as he delivers messages from beyond ~ we will be able to work more effectively with Mercury here if we can find sacred space free from the noise of the world and care to listen. Mercury, being close on the lunar north node, tells us to be mindful in playing out our affairs in this world as these, and the messages he can bring now, concern where we are all headed.

Venus will pass behind the Sun immediately after the solar eclipse. Here we have another indication of the nature of our undertaking. She is entering the unseen, the initiation ground.

There is also a connection between the lunar and solar eclipses. If the lunar eclipse of October 8th pitched questions, particularly around what is motivating us and how personal truths match up to collective realities, the solar eclipse asks us to dive further in, to apply intuition and inner knowing, and above all else courage, not just in the search for answers through our own stories, but, in the sacred task of giving them flesh to live through, of bringing them into reality.

For people of ‘medicine’, healers and devotees of ‘the creative’ the role of our personal stories is now infused with a greater poigniancy. If our world is in need of healing, so is humanity and the evolution of our Mythos is central to the healing process…..we all have a role to play.  And then theres Samhain.

Samhian is the threshold through which the worlds become interfused, and the key here is in setting an intent to engage with the spiral dynamic of creation to take us on our journey. In getting to the heart of this we find the story of the Grandmother Spider from the last lunation reaching into this one, and She, who works with the principle powers of ‘creation’ and ‘destruction’, is taking us to the heart of her web.

This is where ‘truth’ resides, representing the beginning and essence of everything. To arrive there is to return to the centre, the nexus point, and the task ahead is to return to the world ‘the fruits’ of our journey. She now asks us us to walk in truth as we follow a red trail winding labyrinth-like within the weavings of natural law. As law keeper she introduces us to the fundamental principles that put flesh on the bones of the world. The key word in this task is Reconstitution. At Samhain we can ask for guidance in this task.

Samhain is a powerful time for initiation. The shamanic pathway of initiation pivots around the meeting of the worlds, begins and ends with this integration, and, in reflection of this, in some northern traditions Samhain signals the starting point of the new year. The star world offers another perspective that can guides us in this. In the skies the solar eclipse occurs within the stars forming the constellation of Virgo. Looking to pathways honouring the innate power of the sacred feminine we can also see that the eclipse aligns with the belly of Virgo, her womb. Virgo is the seed carrier. The goddess is also present in the nexus point through Venus, conjunct the Sun and Moon, and the higher wisdom of the heart can be called upon for guidance on this journey. At Samhain the Sun is aligned with the stars in the legs of Virgo – the journey, by then, is underway. And, to highlight the quality of the times and flavour of experience available here, the eclipse degree of 0° Scorpion is itself a powerful springboard within the tropical zodiac for integration into the Mysteries.

In earlier times the degrees of late Libra and early Scorpio were known by the epithet ‘Via Combusta’ ~ the Fiery Road. This pathway has ancient roots which had more to do with initiation into the mysteries of birth-death-rebirth than with debilitating downfall that the later mythos imposed upon it. With the new Moon and solar eclipse at its mid-point, the Via Combusta is also supporting the theme unfolding here, and, contrary to the propoganda which changed its meaning, it leads us not to debilitation, but, back to the goddess in her Great Mother aspect…..

If there is a time for honouring the feminine in her divine and life bearing aspects, this is it, but, it is her elder role as Earth Mother that brings us to the core of the moment. Our source point is in her ancient nature and ‘grandmother’ has much to offer us here, if we honour Her.

It must be acknowledged that, when the ground beneath our feet is shaking, the magma flowing, when winds are roaring and the waters rising, it is hard to level the need for otherworldly mysteries against the hard-core reality of a world in which human intervention is achieving meltdown of rather than integration with Nature. Even so, the rage of Demeter, the Mother, at the abduction of her daughter, the seed bearer, by the ruler of the underworld is reflected in this meltdown. The Great Mother, we are now being reminded, never left us and the usurpers of Her powers, the Plutocrats, are being exposed for what they are ~ mask wearing pedlars of hidden agendas and fear. All the signs are there! But, the story goes deeper still…..

Pluto, being the relative late comer and invention of those who applied the patriarchal pantheon, has assumed a masculinised form of just one aspect of the much more archaic and inclusive Great Mother, and there is perhaps no sign in which Pluto shows this side of Her more clearly than in tropical Capricorn. Here, as ruler of the Underworld, more than in Scorpio to which his modern rulership has become attached, S/he taps into the otherworldly root of worldly power to bring about complete renewal. In fact, to give a clearer picture of what has happened here, the Great Mother is the archaic source of that power. Hers is the knowledge carried in the essential matter of being, the ability to reconstitute Life, Phoenix wise, from the ashes of the bones of the Earth. And the Phoenix is one of the esoteric symbols of Scorpio.

In Hades/Pluto, for the greco-roman dieties are virtually interchangable, the subterranian forces have become a ‘technology’ of seperation and trial by fire, and, subsequently, this has been made an instrument of suppression through an esoteric masking and occultation of Her all embracing power…..such that, by the time the myth of Ceres and Proserpina became translated out of Demeter and Persephone, She had become fragmented, extracted out of the multiplicity of her own root identity, her manifold nature still enshrined in the ‘triple goddess’, but, translated into the agrarian cults of the early patriarchy. Division of labour took root within these socio-spiritual constructs.

If the fires have been consigned to an underworld role, their divine nature has also been split and projected beyond the earthly realms. Uranus holds the key to this mystery, a memory of divine fire that precedes our chronological Saturnian lock down into temporality. But, Uranus carries the divine fire, in essense and effect, as instantaneous, lightning struck power for change and divine intervention. When Uranus becomes involved through aspect and resonance with Pluto, the initiatic memory of the deeper roots surfaces and underpins the skin of reality with a knowing that stirs the powers at large in the world. Such is the effect of these times. We cannot deny the effects of such powers, but, rather, would do well in allowing the deep roots of our own memories to stir our own powers within the world of our individual lives. These are ancient memories belonging to a time before recorded his-tory. Spiritual activism does not mean disengaging from the world ~ on the contrary, it means becoming more real. This promises the freedom that is our birth right and true inheritance.

This is the ongoing task of turning the story around and re-defining our mythos. It means working with sacred technology to re-sacralise the world. Material technology itself can become transformed through this, making it an instrument of personal empowerment, not simply as a material end in itself, literalised, commodified and weaponised, but, as a means to practice an ecology that re-ignites the spark of new life from within the ashes of the old.

Mercury’s retrograde at the opening of this lunation also tells us we need to be diligent in this. Just as the sacred grounding of the initiate in new awareness requires, so for the activist ~ how we communicate and with whom will need special attention, emphasising the importance of what we say and do. The reality of the wound of seperation is reflected through the projection of their own shadow by the tightening grip of plutocratic authorities upon freedom of speech and action.

This degree of diligence applies in the outer world in other ways as well, not only in how we affect others, but, in how we affect and programme ourselves, being alert to the machinations of the automatic pilot in our midst. The reality of this is no secret. Rhetoric is being seen-through and actions are speaking louder than words, especially where they are rooted in unconscious behaviour that is driving suppressive intents. As Mercury suggests, the activist can learn much from keeping a wiley eye open for patterns that reveal hidden agendas. And, with a highly divisive political edge at large in the world, this certainly applies more than most to leaders and the use of power. The violations of people and of nature we are witness to tell us clearly that there is a vested interest at work in the world that is hell bent upon retaining power……..and while the road to ‘hell’ is paved with good intentions, it is also built upon the bones of usury and soaked with the blood of violence.

Goddess knows, abuse of power and power-over is at the root of the hubris responsible for global destruction and suppression, but, with the help of our friends and allies we can turn this around. Suppression of the feminine is failing now and the Goddess is hard on the heals of its perpetrators.

Pluto and Uranus will work for us and with us through this if we undertake to return the Earth to balance and participate in the journey. As a journey to the core this means both applying truth and being prepared to work beyond the mundane, outside of the norm – this is a powerful time to call upon the sacred powers for assitance.

It was Ariadne, whose name means the ‘Most Holy’, who gave Theseus the help he needed, the red thread with which he found his way home, out of the labyrinth. If we pick up the thread, the patterns we create through making that journey describe the spiralling path of creation within the circle of Life.

Rocky_Valley_labyrinth_Tintagel

Returning Home

It is nye on 50 years since the 11th lunation began at 0° Scorpio, in 1965, when Uranus and Pluto joined in mid Virgo, beginning their current cycle. We are midway through the waxing phase of this cycle and the first square is now reaching its sixth alignment, the penultimate one.

The previous Uranus Pluto cycle began in 1850-1 when they joined in the last degree of Aries and first degree of Taurus, exactly opposite the October 2014 solar eclipse point. This was the era in which the foundations of contemporary orthodox science was birthed, but, it also saw the birth of one Nikola Tesla who built upon and developed those foundations with pure Uranian genius – a truely Promethian figure in his work with source energies, unorthodox and inspired. He spoke of receiving knowledge from otherworlds, of being in communication with beings in the Sun, and he too became the victim of ‘powers’ that opposed the revolutionary freedom his technologies offered. It is no coincidence that his legacy is resurgent now. There is an exquisite beauty in Tesla’s technologies that is not lost on us.

There is a linking thread through Tesla which unveils another layer of magic woven into the story unfolding now. It is revealed through the conjunction of Uranus and Pluto in 1850 on the cusp of Taurus. Taurus is associated with the Bull, and, in more ancient times with the Minotaur which Theseus overcame at the centre of the labyrinth. Theseus love, Ariadne, had the knowledge of mazes and labyrinths, which means she was an initiate into the mysteries. Her father, King Minos of Crete, gave her the task of overseeing the sacrifices made in its inner sanctum, so she knew full well what Theseus needed to make the journey. The more ancient cretan greek form of her name has the root hagne meaning ‘sacred’, an echo of the word ‘hag’ which became subverted from its original meaning of ‘wise woman’, and, in the same way, the hellenistic ‘Most Holy’ is simply an epithet applied in the re-writing of the story – her true name was ‘Mistress of the Labyrinth’.

Her astrological embodiment in our times is in the asteroid Ariadne, #43 if you want to find her in your charts, but, her asteroid was also discovered during the opening stages of the 1850 U/P cycle on April 15th 1857, less than one year after Tesla was born, when Pluto and Uranus were both still in Taurus. However, in astrology lore we find her story is associated with the houses belonging to the water signs, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, and, the lore also tells us, it is in the eight house, the house of Scorpio, that the meaning of the process embodied in her story is revealed. Scorpio is associated with the labyrinth in Ariadne’s story, its mid-point. With the eclipse activating Scorpio, the sign of hidden meanings, we can now see why her story is so important to us.

So, we come back to the eclipse, and the occultation of solar energy. Venus is entering that zone showing us that we too must enter the journey with heart and appreciation for the beauty and poigniancy of our undertakings. She will emerge having become transformed, as the ‘evening star’, re-entering the world as the Sun sets, signalling the coming light of the stars. And, all this while she will be working with Mars, in sextile, who stands at the gateway to the Solstice point, close on the Galactic centre, the heart of our spiral galaxy. For now Mars reminds us of our fealty to the role of ‘guardian of the nexus point’. He is the consort of the Goddess. As preparation for entry into Capricorn this gives pause for thought. Mars is fast moving now and has no fear in approaching Pluto….neither must we.

The Sun is a mystery to us still, and, the Moon tells us that if the darkening of the Sun’s light indicates a gateway, it is as an opportunity to enter into the inner sanctum where much deeper truths may be found and known, and the hidden presence of a life-force yet to be encountered integrated within our time. There are wise beings tending that place, guardians of our own human flame of knowledge and potential…….if we take up the challenge they will reveal themselves to us.

Make your circle strong!

Images

‘Spiderwoman’ ~ Susan Seddon Boulet;
……this image has been combined with the spiral pattern of a 200 million year old Nautilus shell.

‘Rocky Valley Labyrinth, Tintagel’ ~ this is an ancient carving, millenia old, that follows the traditional pattern of what has become known as the ‘cretan labyrinth’ although its form is found globally and has long association with the goddess.

Root Medicine of the Stars

Weaves The Web

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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

Root Medicine of the Stars

Fourth Quarter 2014 ~ Making Big Medicine

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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.