Wisdom of Astrology: March 2020

The Cosmic Story: Spring Equinox 2020

It's time to choose the uncertain future over the unsustainable past.

The symbolic interpretation of the Pandemic

Well, we've all been sent to our rooms without any supper, haven't we?

No NBA or March Madness, no professional sports, no museums or large gatherings, no Broadway shows or Vegas conventions. We all have to go home and 'self-distance' from each other.

If we could only shut off the Internet and phone services as well, we might get to contemplate our 'sins' in the quiet. And believe it or not, they are many! Just ask Mother Earth.

Just like Max and the Wild Things, we are sent to our rooms for our inability to be responsible for our actions, perhaps feeling we're victims of an unjust fate.

But perhaps like Max, once we're alone in our room, our imaginations might open up to us and help us reflect on how we got here.

Since we're all in this together, we all helped create this mess together. It's a good time to look at all your own 'wild things' staring you down and decide how you want the rest of your life to play out. How do you want to meet this moment?

People are falling into fear and then panic due to the media hype. Fear wrecks havoc on our immune system.

Greek God Pan

The word panic is derived from the great god, Pan – the god of Nature. Panic occurs when our very nature rises up in protest to what we are doing. While it might seem like Nature herself has turned on us, the truth is Nature hasn't turned on us. She is just trying to heal her own human-made wounds.

As we all sit in our homes, afraid to go out or to run out of toilet paper, what better way to spend our alone time then to try to understand just what we're really feeling. Just what are we afraid of?

The obvious answer is that we're afraid of death.

So, we are facing our fear of death. I always think of Carlo Castaneda's don Juan saying,

“Death is the only wise adviser that we have. Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you're about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if that is so. Your death will tell you that you're wrong; that nothing really matters outside its touch.”

I am an advocate of taking death as my adviser. And this virus is giving us a chance to do just that.

If we widen the lens of our perspective, we can see that this pandemic might be connected to the ecological damage we have done to our planet. Mother Earth has sent us devastating hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes and floods to let us know that the environment is being destabilized. Since we're not taking climate change seriously, we will find ourselves more and more at the mercy of our environment.

So this is a great time-out for us, to consider what our life-style has done not only to Mother Earth, but to all her children. Our wars, our splintered beliefs, our greed, our narcissism are waiting for us to really see what modern life has become.

Mother Earth can self-regulate, but first she has to heal what is wounded. A Virus like this one is a way She self-corrects. No, it is not God's punishment for being gay or wanting an abortion. It is the Goddess' energetic re-balancing of what humans have done to the environment. This is brought on by our own inability to self-regulate – our actions, our desires, our intentions, our commerce.

The world has finally stopped spinning so fast and everything is on hold. This is a game changer. After this, we all have to decide what we want life to be like after COVID-19. Do we go back to the same-old, same-old or do we change the way we've been living and invest the Fed's $1.5 trillion dollars in renewables, infrastructure, the green new deal, new work accommodations, better education to the future.

If we can imagine it, we can change our world after this crisis passes.

This is definitely mirrored in the heavens. As above, so below. As within, so without. We are all one, held in Mother Earth's embrace. Hopefully, this crisis will help us remember that we are supposed to be the stewards of the Earth. That means creating a sustainable way of life. Which means we have to stop rampant consumerism, wars and corporate control of life.

Life isn't the economy. The economy is just one of many facets of life. We've let the economy consume all the other aspects of what it means to live a creative, caring life. The symbol of our economy is the stock market, which in reality is just gambling on which commodity will get you the most money. Perhaps it's a good thing that the market is crashing, because it no longer serves life.

Astrology of the Breakdown

Astrology can point out many factors that led to this crisis. The lineup of planets in Capricorn, the sign regulating our collective structures – government, finance, defense, healthcare, education – gives us insight into this collective breakdown.

Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008, during the last financial crisis. Pluto wants to purify the system, to bring up what's no longer viable so it can be composted into new soil. Instead of fixing our economy, we threw money at it. Just as the Fed is doing now.

So Pluto has kept up its relentless examination of all the things no longer working in our society, trying to purge everything that is toxic. Hopefully, this time-out will give Americans time to realize just how toxic our way of life is and how corporations have seduced us into thinking we need all the junk they manufacture. When in fact, we don't.

This is very much about corporate power. Please remember: America was pretty much founded by the East Indian Trading Company – a corporation. What do you think the Boston Tea Party was all about? 'Taxation without representation is tyranny!' They were paying taxes to the Company with England's blessing. Isn't that what the American people are doing – paying taxes while the wealthy and corporations don't? We've been a corporate state from the beginning, founded at the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. So we shouldn't be surprised that our corporations are running things. It's just time to put an end to it.

America is having her Pluto return in the next few years in the sign of Capricorn, another sign that we're a corporate state. We are experiencing the very end of a 246 year cycle which often heralds the 'end of empire'. So we are living in a similar energy to the time before the American Revolution. Perhaps we need to connect with those ancestors who rebelled against that tyranny and ask them for advice on how to meet this moment. We can do a shamanic journey, active imagination or meditation on it, since we'll all be home for the foreseeable future.

Saturn is the reality principle, the energy of structure and form, and of taking responsibility for our actions. Cause and effect. Saturn forces us to face our fear and frustration, fight or flight reactions and manage them. Saturn has been in Capricorn since 2018, trying to hold up a crumbling system until this January 12^th, and pushing us to grow up and take responsibility for our actions.

On January 12, 2020 these two planets met for the first time in Capricorn since 1517, the year Martin Luther changed the course of western Europe. It seems we are going through a similar and more important change. We are seeing the death and rebirth (Pluto) of our society with new structures (Saturn) emerging. This time, these two planets are signaling the end of patriarchy and hopefully, runaway capitalism.

Jupiter and Mars are both approaching Pluto over the next few weeks, so we're probably not out of the woods yet. Jupiter expands things and Mars gets the action moving. This is a good time to be energized by old myths and new stories, and new hope instead of the story of fear and panic that the media is dishing out. While you're home, read or watch movies like 'The Lord of the Rings' and be energized by the heroic efforts to bring down evil.

It was during the December-January eclipse season that we became aware of the coronavirus. The Lunar Nodes are in Cancer/Capricorn. The Capricorn South Node, which has connected with Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter and now Mars, has been forcing us to face our karmic debts to society, to remember them and release them. Many people have been clearing out ancestral wounds, working to step away from 'the father's house' and learning to live according to the dictates of our souls (the North Node in Cancer.)

We began to learn more about the virus as Mercury retrograded in Pisces, the sign of the collective unconscious. There are no borders there. Suddenly, our perceptions of things changed. We're finally seeing the big picture – Mercury turned direct in the last degrees of Aquarius, the collective consciousness. And last week's medical Virgo Full Moon rose opposite the Pisces Sun conjunct Neptune, the planet of infectious disease and pandemics, opening us up to the reality of the crisis.

Will we chose Love or Fear? The heavens are voting for Love and so are many of us.

The energy of Love will help us meet the crisis with strength and courage. We will go through hard times, but if we persevere, we can also change the dynamic of how the world operates.

What's important is how we each show up to help create a new story for ourselves and our world.

This virus is giving us an opportunity to master ourselves and our gifts and use them. It affects the lungs, where we take in the Breath of Life. Inspiration comes from the Latin inspirare "blow into, breathe upon," figuratively "inspire, excite, inflame," from in- "in" (from PIE root *en "in") + spirare "to breathe". Perhaps we need to look at what we really believe about life – do we believe that there is a spiritual power greater than our human ego? It might be a lack of resilience and spirit that makes the difference between life or death.

So breathe deeply, take air into your lungs and keep them flexible. As we work to fill ourselves with breath and the Light, we can be a Light to the world. It's our choice.

So we find ourselves a week away from Spring Equinox 2020, settling into our homes to live out the last week of winter in self-imposed isolation. I urge you to use your imaginations and open yourself to possibilities, rather than close yourself off through fear.

This is a Blessing from Mother Earth and Spirit.

Spring Equinox 2020

Our Brave New World is approaching.

This will be a very interesting Spring Equinox ingress chart, since we've never experienced such a breakdown in global society before. I especially love that the Italians are singing out their windows with their neighbors. Perhaps we need to follow their lead and connect with our neighbors in new and artful ways.

The Spring Equinox is considered the beginning of the astrological year. This year I'm going to use the Washington D.C. Chart rather than a generic 0* Aries rising chart so I can comment on how Americans can use this time to our advantage.

Spring Equinox occurs on March 19, 2020 at 8:50pm PDT/ 11:50pm EDT/ 3:50am GMT.

The Sabian symbol for the Sun at 1* Aries is: A woman just risen from the sea. A seal is embracing her. Something new is arising out of the sea of the collective unconscious. It is feminine because all new things arise out of the Divine Feminine. It is a new feeling, a new consciousness, a new instinct for life. The seal is a symbol of creativity, active imagination and lucid dreaming. This is because we need to engage our imagination when we are at the beginning of something new.

The Aries Sun is conjunct Chiron, the wise mentor and wounded healer, and it squares the Cancer/Capricorn Nodes, indicating that if we look to the future, this can be a time to heal old wounds and come into our power. If we continue to hold onto the old, we'll run into more wounding and trouble, fear and confusion.

The Aries Sun and Chiron land in the 6th house of everyday living, health and service. How can we heal our bodies from the toxins our industrial society has infected with air, the water and our food with? Can we learn to use our time during the day creatively? How can our talents serve our communities? These are questions Americans need to answer if we want to change our lives and our world.

With the Aries New Moon following on March 24 conjunct Chiron, the more you give into unconscious fears and panic, the more you'll restrict yourself and lose an opportunity for new growth. Chiron initiates us into our heroic self. This might be the time when we are called to help our family, our neighbors and the world.

Aries is all about new beginnings, just as Spring is the season of the rebirth of Nature. (Down in the southern hemisphere, you are arriving at Autumn Equinox, a time to look at your harvest.)

Aries are bold explores, looking for new frontiers to conquer. Ruled by Mars, it is very action oriented. For this Aries ingress, Mars is in Capricorn conjunct Jupiter, providing us with confidence and strength and the ability to deal with whatever comes our way if we use these energies correctly. Otherwise, it can make us more aggressive (Jupiter expands things).

When a planet(s) is squaring the Nodes, we have to work on the issue that planet brings up before we can get to the North Node destiny. With the Capricorn/Cancer axis, we can leave behind our patriarchal engendered fears (Capricorn) if we see ourselves as capable of staying centered in our soul-needs in the midst of chaos (Cancer).

So with this 'time-out', let go of the shoulds and oughts of patriarchy and listen to what you truly love and need. What will make you flourish now? And how can you help people around you flourish?

Go out into Nature. Mother Earth is our teacher – She can show us what we need to do. As we look for purpose, where better than in Nature. We are here to understand how to live differently, to live sustainably and in harmony with Nature and her needs. To return to our purpose of being Mother Earth's stewards. We need to reclaim our place in Nature's biosphere.

We can combine modern western consciousness with a simpler lifestyle, not centered around work and production (they have robots for this) but around creativity and imagination to make the world better and people more conscious. We can re-create a good healthy world.

With Sun in Aries, the impulse is to go out and explore. If you've been obsessing about what to do, go into Nature and ask her. See what She says to your life and condition. Believe it.

This Equinox chart has a balsamic phase Moon in Aquarius. That means this is karmic. We have to finish up old business.

The Moon symbolizes our Body Soul, our unconscious needs and desires. In this Equinox chart, it's in the 4^th house of home and family and soul. Since we're all exiled to our rooms/homes for now, we are being given an opportunity to tune into the larger picture. Where do we fit into the cosmic order?

Aquarius energy is about developing a more detached and cosmic view of life. There are higher truths to life than scrambling for a paycheck. We need to step away from the lower desires of our physical selves, which has been manipulated into consumerism, and turn towards a higher cosmic consciousness that endorses the belief that we are all free and equal and that we are in charge of our evolutionary paths. If this pandemic can teach us that we are one world, one people, perhaps we'll no longer allow our governments to spend our hard earned cash on war, greed, domination and authoritarianism. This is the sign of the Revolutionary, the Eccentric, the Genius. So this is a good year to discover those qualities within ourselves.

Venus in Taurus squares this Moon, challenging us to use our senses, go out into Nature and ground in the cosmic truths the Moon is examining. We don't need more things. We need to awaken our bodies to the reality of the world; not only to the toxicity our society has poisoned it with but also to how beautiful and nurturing to our souls it is.

The Sabian symbol for the Moon at 14* Aquarius is: A train entering a tunnel. While there's the obvious sexual symbolism of penetration, it also suggests a secret passage to another realm. Or an underground bridge that will take us through something, like the tunnels underwater like in Boston or New York or through mountains like in Switzerland. This symbol implies the ability to short-cut the process of natural evolution by the exercise of will, mental skill and physical self-discipline. It shortens the length of time needed to progress by cutting through obstacles in our way.

That certainly feels like what this pandemic is doing. It is short circuiting our social structures so we might have the ability to move ahead into a different future.

Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn and the Guardian at the Gate who initiates us into our life lessons, is at the last degree of Capricorn. That means it's at a culmination point. Can we do the best job of what life is testing us with? Can we consciously evolve so we actually face the reality of Climate Change and change the way we live?

The Sabian symbol for Saturn at 30* Capricorn is: A secret meeting of the people responsible for executive decisions in world affairs. We can look at this and think that it refers to a wealthy 'cabal' who seem to be running the show. Or even the old occult idea of the 'White Lodge'. But in this time when we are called to step forward and be responsible for our lives, this is a call to each of us to step up!

With Mars and Jupiter meeting up hours after the Equinox, the energies will be bigger than usual, since Jupiter expands things it touches. In Capricorn, this energy is like the CEO who knows how it to use the tools are her disposal well. Mars grapples with life, not shying away from what needs to be done. Jupiter gives him the best tools to work with, whether the best sword or the best plans. (Where is Elizabeth Warren and her plans when we need her!)

The Sabian symbol for both Mars and Jupiter at 23* Capricorn is: A soldier receiving two awards for bravery in combat. This symbol implies that whatever we do for ourselves and society will have double the effect on our lives. So be brave and face this alone time with creativity and imagination, love and hope, kindness and compassion.

Since Mars is the co-ruler of this Scorpio Ascendant along with Pluto, and they are about to meet up on March 22-23, we can see that whatever is happening is going to get bigger before it gets better.

The chart's Scorpio ascendant tells us that we have to explore the mysteries of life and death now. It's exactly what we need for our planet and our world.

Both Mercury and Neptune in Pisces occupy the 5^th house in the Equinox chart. So go play, with or without children, be imaginative, create something and go with the flow!

Check out the link of how Italians are singing in the streets!

Italians singing to each other

So here are some things to do while we stay home.

Stop being afraid or worried. They're wasted e-motions (energy in motion) – wasted energy. Focus on what you're discovering about yourself and the world and use your energy to explore new possibilities.
Stay in touch with family and friends, help out neighbors and see what your community needs in the way of volunteers.
Go out into Nature and ask Her how you're doing as well as what to do. And enjoy the beauty of Spring's awakening.
Listen to music that inspired you in your youth – Or whatever inspires you to be your truest self. I think the music from the 60s-70s talk to us about how we need to change. Like George Harrison's Give Me Love or Buffalo Springfield's For What It's Worth (there's something happening here. It just ain't exactly clear...I think it's time we stop Children, what's that sound? Everybody look - what's going down?) Or Cat Steven's Peace Train. Find your own playlist that inspires you to be your best self.
Watch movies and shows that inspire you like The Lord of the Rings or Avatar. I love 'This Is Us' – one of the most psychologically astute studies of parenting and children. And there's a great father figure in it – much better than 'Father Knows Best'!
Enjoy your solitude and learn something new – there are a lot of online classes, some for free!
Do some art. Dance. Learn to play an instrument. Sing!
Tell your self a new story.
Read the mythic stories of heroes and heroines.
Write what you're doing and share on social media. Pass around your ideas.

We can make something good of this 'self-distancing'. Let's come out of this 'crisis' better than we were.

Walk in the Light and Delight in the Springtime energy,

Cathy

A Swiss friend sent me this to share.

Lockdown

Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.

-from Richard Hendrick (Brother Richard) in Ireland
March 13th 2020

Sunday, March 22, 2020

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Monday, March 16, 2020

The Cosmic Story: Spring Equinox 2020