Astrology operates through a system of wheels upon wheels, cycles within cycles, spirals within spirals. The outer planets symbolize collective forces, Saturn and Jupiter reflect how we adjust to those cultural cycles and the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars symbolize our 'personal' bias. Let's explore how these planets are doing right now.
The outer
planets—Uranus, Neptune and Pluto—describe the collective tone of the moment. The
background upon which we create the future!
We are immersed in those energies culturally and globally. Right now, those three planets are disrupting
as well as energizing our collective paradigm.
Pluto and it's moons
Pluto
symbolizes the archetypal energy of death and rebirth, of evolution, of raw, catalytic
energy. Things change when Pluto comes
to visit. Pluto in the sign of Capricorn
(since early 2008) is dredging up the dead weight of our cultural institutions –
the ineptitude of our Congress, the greed and power of Wall Street, the
unsustainability of capitalism, the waste of war and the wrong-hearted
repressive beliefs of our patriarchal religious institutions – to make room for
new growth, a new culture and a new paradigm of community life. And like any catalytic agent, Pluto is
quickening the transformation. It isn’t
pretty, but it’s necessary. As within so without. As people’s belief in our cultural
institutions crumbles, so too, our inner belief that Patriarchy Knows Best is also crumbling. When Pluto gets through with Capricorn in
2024, my hope is that we will have evolved into a more responsible, self-aware
world, where peace is our obvious choice, where good stewardship of our Mother
Earth the bottom line, and where feminine wisdom is once again valued alongside
masculine intellect.
Neptune
Neptune
symbolizes the archetypal power of the Imagination: at once vivid and
illusive. Neptune energizes our spirit,
opens us to the imagination and honors our compassion. Depending on our self-awareness, Neptune can
also disillusion us, get us lost in fantasy (like being in Faerie for a night
and emerging 300 years later), and literally drive us crazy through merging us
with everyone around us. Neptune moved
into its own sign of Pisces in 2011 and will stay there until 2025. So our spiritual awareness and imagination is
being taken back into the ocean of the collective unconscious where it will
also be renewed. My hope is that
Hollywood starts telling the stories people need to hear, rather than the inept
fantasies of young men from 18-36 (Hollywood’s target audience). Never doubt that your psyche/soul is
influenced by images, and that the increase in violence in our world isn’t
influenced by the violence we see on our movie, TV and computer screens. Take back your imagination! Find stories and images that inspire you to
be the best person—not a goody-goody best but the most real person—you can
be. Perhaps Percy Jackson, son of
Posiden/Neptune, is the new hero archetype, the hero who also allows others to
be heroes, the hero who knows we’re all in this mess together. Look at the inventiveness with which they
defeat the old powers of Chaos once again, as all good heroes and heras (female
hero) do.
(tilted) Uranus
Uranus
symbolizes the archetype of the new, the original, the revolutionary. Uranian energy demands a breakthrough, a
sudden twist, a surprise awakening to a larger understanding of life. Uranus loves the archetypal energies of the
Mind and the heavens, the eternal laws of the universe, which need renewal and
expression.
Uranus in
the sign of Aries offers us a new beginning, with chances to be courageous, to
know how to deal with changing situations and to find a new identity. We have to stop thinking of ourselves as less than expected, which is what
patriarchy has done to all of us. We
need to discover our archetypal identity as teacher, healer, mother, father,
bard, warrior, judge, artist etc. We are
so much more than we’ve been led to imagine.
So, the
collective planets are telling us that things have to change—our culture is no
longer a viable option for continued life here on Earth. The on-going Pluto square Uranus challenges
us to find a new, bigger self-identity to meet the chaos of these changing
times. Neptune opens us to other
dimensions of reality, helping us to cope with the big changes coming our way
with imagination, compassion and spiritual awareness of our oneness.