Re: Venus and Netune in Aquarius - A New Kind of Love

Most of us are familiar with Botticelli's painting, The Birth of Venus.  It depicts Aphrodite/Venus arriving onshore after her sea-birth from the foam surrounding the severed Phallus of Uranus, the god of the starry Heavens.  

This Greek myth speaks to the birth of love and beauty as well as the gift of our human sexuality.  It says that when the Spirit of the heavens came to Earth and mixed its potency with the collective unconscious of humanity - or with the Anima Mundi or World Soul - Love was born.  The myth says that Earth is cut off from Heaven, and yet Heaven's potency is still available to us.  Heaven's power is now lodged in Love's power.

This holy Love is Spirit Incarnate and manifests through all things beautiful, true, compassionate and peaceful (remember, the dove of peace belongs to Aphrodite).  No matter that the patriarchy has tried to use this goddess for its own pleasure and power, Aphrodite outwits them all.  Because Love cannot be ruled by another.  It is too independent, too truthful, too beautiful to ignore.

With Uranus, the Heavenly 'father' of Aphrodite/Venus now in the sign of Aries - of new beginnings and new identities - it is a happy synchronicity that the Sabian symbol for Uranus at 1* Aries is: A woman risen from the sea.  A seal is embracing her.  Seals symbolize a longing of the soul, and it is not just happenstance that this image of the soul's longing is speaking to us with Uranus' entry into the beginning of the zodiac.

We are longing to manifest Love in our lives.  We are longing for a new identity that manifests our love in the world. 

Neptune, the Greek god of the oceans, symbolizes the active (male) power of the collective unconscious - its movement and growth, its changeability and dangers.  This watery realm is the place of the Imagination and it is from this magical realm - the Creative Imagination - that Aphrodite comes to birth.

Venus joins Neptune in the sky Saturday evening, March 26th, before she dives into the watery realm of Pisces (ruled by Neptune)later that night.   

When these two planets join up in the sky, the Cosmic Story says, "Dive into your unconscious - into your imagination, your body, your feelings - and listen to what they are telling you.  Listen to where Love leads you.  Isn't it time to believe in what you love, instead of believing in a corporate story of materialistic needs that only feed the corporate coffers but never our souls?

Yes, when Venus and Neptune come together in the Cosmic Story, it makes for a nice romantic evening, or can open us to unconditional love and boundless compassion.  (On the dark side, it can lead to lies and self-deception.) 

However, there's so much more you can do with these energies.  Today and tomorrow are days to play with and in the Creative Imagination.  Sink down into your heart and soul and let your Spirit free!  Dance, drum, create art, sing, make love!  Do things that make you happy and then find out what you really, really LOVE!

When Aquarius is added to the picture, think mental telepathy, the future, the group mind.  Venus and Neptune in Aquarius give us an opportunity to use this power of the imagination to help us send out our intentions for what we love.  Tonight and tomorrow, leading up to the conjunction of these two planets,  are great times to send out love to those of your family and friends you don't see everyday.  It's a great time to meditate on those things that you love and want to manifest.  It's a great time to write poetry, read poetry, make love, be loving.  It's a great time to 'send your love into the future' as Sting sings it, and imagine a better future.  The more details you add the better!

So have a wonderful weekend and bring in the power of Springtime!

Re: Uranus in Aries: Mythic Stories to Guide your Life

I'm going to post my own private response to Uranus going into Aries tomorrow.

Meet me at The Bard's Grove!

We'll be gathering at The Bard's Grove this Friday night at BlogtalkRadio on the Internet.  All you have to do is grab your computer and settle down for an hour of good, old-fashion adult storytelling (and I don't mean naughty stories!).  Join us there Friday night at 7pm Pacific/8pm Mountain/9pm Central/10pm Eastern time. 

There is so much going on in our world right now - who can doubt that some form of change is coming.  Everyone seems to be saying it -  Something's Coming.  Do you feel it?  Well, stories are just what we need when our world begins to change around us.  Stories give form to chaos, they channel archetypal energy and they can lead us to new life.  So, while we don't know what the 'something coming' is, stories help us remember that we have the capacity to meet it and get through it.  We are living in a time that wants us to be creative, free, committed, courageous and unique. It is a Call to Adventure!  

The Cosmic Story is asking us to go on The Hero's Journey and bring back our unique gift to our community.  With Uranus moving into Aries on Friday, the hero's journey is about to become our template for change for the next 7 years.  Uranus will move north of the equator for the first time since 1969, when it moved into Libra and the Southern hemisphere.  We all know (or remember:) how creative and disruptive those times were.  But also times alive with possibilities.  In Aries, Uranus coming North calls us to the home of the Ancestors.  The Archetypal Wisdom that the Aquarian Water-Carrier pours out onto humanity is already calling us.  We are the first.  We will be the Ancestors one day.       

 "There are times when people need stories more than they need nourishment, because the stories feed something deeper than the needs of the body."  Charles DeLint,  The Onion Girl
Stories can feed us even when we can't afford that 3rd pint of Ben&Jerry's. There are many variations of the Hero's Journey, but they all concern discovering A BIGGER IDENTITY.  This is the archetype our soul resonates with - the Law Giver, the Peacemaker, the Lover, the Mother, the Artist, the Priestess, the Brother.   The mythic stories of our many cultures can help us understand and deal with the cultural quirks and personal intricacies of this Journey.  All you have to do is discover which stories speak to your heart and then learn how to understand and speak their symbolic language.

So when you join us at The Bard's Grove, you get to listen to ancient story wisdom.  Who knows what treasure you'll go away with, what vision will spark your interest; the story-feeling in your heart speaks to your own story so it can become story food for you.

This week at The Bard's Grove, Cat will finish her story of Sheherazade and her tale of The Water Stair - a story of sacrifice and love.  The Age of Pisces was an age of martyrs and victims, of uniting the collective heart despite religious sectarianism.  And all too often, women carried the burden of 'sacrifice'.   But let's not reject the idea of sacrifice out of hand, for the word sacrifice means 'to make sacred'.  Sheherazade's Water Stair story to the women in the Harem is a story of turning a sacrifice into a sacred contract. 

Lantern is going to surprise us tonight, so stayed tuned.  Who knows what delights he has in store for us!

So remember:  Meet us at The Bard's Grove Friday night at BlogtalkRadio: 7pm Pacific - 10pm Eastern

Merry Meet!
Cat and Lantern

Saturn in Libra: The Neptune in Libra Generation (1942-1957), Part 2

Neptune

The outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, are associated with what C.G. Jung called ‘the collective unconscious’ and bring people into contact with energies that move whole groups of people.  These three planets exemplify energies that bring about collective evolution and change.  Since the 1940s, these three planets all passed through the sign of Libra, bringing about profound changes in our ideas about relationship, marriage, equality, peace and fairness.

The ideal marriage under the patriarchy gave all the overt power to the man, who dominated both his wife and his children.  Women were sometimes regarded as property and often treated as children.  Real partnerships were rare, because women were not seen as being equal to men in any way. 

But all that started changing in the 1940s when men went to war and women went to work.  When these men came home from war to women who knew they were equally important, they married with different expectations.  The world was changing.

Their children became the Neptune in Libra generation, the ‘flower children’ of the late sixties and early seventies.  “Make Love Not War” and “All You Need Is Love” exemplify their attitude to relationship and to life.  Neptune in Libra bestowed upon a whole generation a more idealistic, romantic and spiritual vision of partnership than their parents had. 

Most baby-boomers were tested on those ideals in their marriages, and only after lots of ‘failure’ did some of them get it right.  But that’s what Neptune does – it dissolves old forms so new ones can arise.   What this generation did do was to open up new possibilities in the realm of partnership and marriage for future generations.  Just look at how far we’ve come!

Searching For Our Soul-Mates

“Wise men say only fools rush in
But I can’t help falling in Love with you.
Like a river flows surely to the sea
Darling so it goes,
Some things were meant to be.”

Elvis really tapped into the baby boomers’ psyche when he sang these words.  Neptune in the realm of relationships gave us a longing for a Love that was meant to be.

The Neptune in Libra generation went looking for their soul mates.  They believed in love and all its possibilities, taking the ideals of romantic love to heart, and when the disillusionment (a Neptune trait) set in, decided they were not going to stay stuck in a loveless marriage like many of their parents. 

Searching for their soul-mates, they married and divorced at staggering rates, looking for that perfect partner, the One who would shares souls.  That is the cross the Neptune in Libra generations bears – that there is one special person out there meant only for them.  When they didn’t find him or her, they suffered (another Neptunian trait).

Like Isis looking for Osiris, they searched for the scattered parts of their beloved, finding love in all the wrong places.  When they saw inequality in their partnerships, they either suffered through the frustration or chose freedom and the pain of separation.  Out of those choices came consciousness and self-awareness.  Through their disillusionment, they came to discover how to love themselves.

Neptune set up a longing in this generation – a longing for true partnership and balance between the sexes.  While the feminists marched for equal rights between men and women, the women of this generation often made the mistake of thinking like men about sex, life and relationships.  Both the longing and the disillusionment created distrust between men and women and ultimately pushed these people into a search for their authentic Self. 

Since the sign of Libra is about ‘the Other’ it is prone to projection.  What we see in our partners isn’t necessarily what we get.  We often see things in our significant Other that are really unlived parts of our own psyche and personality.  And once the Neptune in Libra generation got disillusioned enough, they began searching for themselves.  So what began as a search for a soul mate became a quest for the Divine Beloved in oneself.

Now that Saturn will be going over this generation’s Neptune by transit in the next two years, what are some of the issues they might face?

Neptune is associated with our collective feelings and often gives rise to empathy and compassion.  Who do we have compassion for?  Instead of looking for one perfect love, now is the time to look at everyone with Love.  There might not be one perfect soul mate for each of us.  There might only be people who have agreed to teach each other lessons about love and partnership before moving on.

Neptune wants a mystical merging of feelings.  Like the ocean, Neptune’s energies are deep, constantly in motion, a mystery like life itself.  Neptune inspires us to self-sacrifice and when we do this in partnerships we have to sacrifice our ego desires for the sake of others.  How can we do this without going back to the old dominator model of relationships?  Practicing forgiveness and understanding when we deal with each other is what true partners learn to do.  By not letting our buttons be pushed, we can transcend (still another Neptunian trait) our reactions and chose to stand up for our ideals about partnership.

Neptune also symbolizes the Creative Imagination and Libra rules the Arts.  With Saturn going over this generation’s Neptune, I wonder what different forms of art, music, dance and storytelling will come out of this time.  Now that the Baby-Boomers are retiring, perhaps they will explore their creativity again.

This generation’s music was the most creative in recent history.  From John Lennon to Sting, from Joan Baez to Bob Dylan, these musicians have explored the realms of relationship and social justice in all its changing forms.  In these next few years, perhaps we’ll see a resurgence of music and art that really speaks to our times and our issues.  It is time once again for the Neptune in Libra artists to share their vision of the world and of partnerships.

Neptune in Libra’s idealism also gave rise to the civil rights movement.  As Saturn’s focus and discipline work on Neptune’s ideals, perhaps we’ll see a real return to the ideals of fairness for everyone, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation.

These are just a few of the issues that might arise while Saturn transits this generation’s Neptune in Libra.  It will be interesting to see what this generation does.  After all, they are the ones who once believed “All you need is Love!”

Saturn in Libra: How Different Generations Will Be Affected, Part 1

“When the truth is found to be lies
And all the joy within you dies
Don't you want somebody to love, don't you...
Need somebody to love, wouldn't you...                                                                                                                    Love somebody to love, you better...
Find somebody to love”                                                                                                             Jefferson Airplane

Astrology is a spiritual map of the heavens, a map that lets us know what energies are available for us to use or abuse. When planets (the different energies) move into different signs of the zodiac (different flavors of those energies), they focus our attention on different life processes.  On the physical level, they can make things happen in the ‘real’ world, like losing a job or meeting your mate.  On a psychological level (thinking and feeling), free will comes into play and what we do with the energies is up to each one of us.  On the spiritual level, the energies ask us questions about our purpose and the meaning of our lives.

Now that Saturn is traveling through the sign of Libra, all of us will be posed questions about the realities (Saturn) of our relationships (Libra) and how we can achieve balance, fairness and harmony (Libra) in our lives and in the world.  We can either be frustrated by what happens or we can take responsibility for what happens (both Saturn qualities). Saturn is the planet that symbolizes self-discipline and reality-testing through some form of limitation or frustration.   Libra is the sign of the zodiac concerned with partnerships and harmony, social justice, fairness and balance. 

For the next two years we will be reality-testing how we deal with other people in our lives, as well as what talents and gifts we bring to the culture at this critical time in our history.   With Saturn in the early degrees of Libra (responsible partnering with others) making connections to both Uranus in Aries (personal freedom) and Pluto in Capricorn (transforming our culture), we can be sure that what we accomplish in terms of personal relationships over the next two years will be important.

While those people who have personal planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars) in Libra will be personally affected, Saturn will also affect us on a generational level as it transits the slower moving outer planets.  Since the early 1940s, the outer planets have all been moving through the sign of Libra, slowly bringing about a change in our perception of relationships, fairness, beauty and peace.

From October 1942 to August 1957, Neptune, the planet of spirituality, imagination and compassion, moved through Libra.  From October 1968 to September 1975, Uranus, the planet of revolution, awakening and individuality, moved through Libra. From October 1971 to August 1984, Pluto, the planet of evolution, personal renewal and cultural transformation, moved through Libra.  And Saturn itself was in Libra from August 1951 to October 1953, September 1980 to August 1983, and now again from November 2009 to October 2012.  

As Saturn traverses the degrees of Libra, people who were born during these generations will be affected through these larger transformative energies.  How each of us responds personally to this transit will shape our collective future.

In the next few blogs, let’s look at how each of these generations might respond.

Jupiter in Aries and Saturn Retrograde

                                                               Jupiter

Well, the' full speed ahead' energy of Jupiter going into Aries has been having a tug-of-war with the 'let's stop and consider' energy of Saturn going retrograde in Libra.  And I couldn't slow down long enough to write about it until now.

Jupiter is by far the largest of the planets. It is more than twice as massive as all other planets combined; if it had been only about 100 times more massive at birth (not so much by astronomical standards) it would have become a star instead of a planet. Then the Solar System might be a double star system instead of a single star with a planetary system.

So it makes sense that Jupiter has a big personality, because he was king of the Gods of Rome.   Jupiter symbolizes all that is expansive, excessive, curious, boundless.  Zeus, who was the Greek version of Jupiter, had a boundless appetite for lovely ladies, making him (literally) the father of the Gods.  Whatever Jupiter touches, expands - whether it's your waistline or your wallet.  

On Saturday, January 22, Jupiter moved into Aries (again - it was there for a few months last summer from June 5-6 to September 8-9).   You might be experiencing a rush of energy - that full speed ahead feeling I mentioned earlier.  Expansive Jupiter in combative, adventurous 'it's all about me' Aries will certainly get the juices flowing and I get the feeling that people are finally starting those exercise regimes they intended to begin on New Year's Day.  

Jupiter will travel quickly through Aries, entering Taurus on June 4th.  So take advantage of this energy during the winter and spring months.  It's time to discover a new identity.  We are all being asked by the Cosmic Story to step into our power and purpose.  We, the People of the world, must take our destiny into our own hands and create a better future for our children's children to the 7th generation.  So open to the archetypal energy that you were born to incarnate, and step up to the plate with your part of the story.

                                                   Saturn

Saturn is Jupiter's father, and yet in the old stories, Saturn swallowed all his other children for fear of losing power.  Jupiter's mother, Rhea, hid him in a cave and gave Saturn/Chronos a rock to swallow.  So you can see, they were antagonists right from the start.  

Saturn's personality is limiting, restrictive, disciplined, testing.  Whatever Jupiter wants to expand, Saturn wants to contract.  They just have opposite points of view.  Saturn is the god of time, and the limitations of time.  Jupiter opens us to the timeless realms of possibility. 

Saturn retrograde in Libra will help us figure out just what we need to do to relate in a fair and balanced way.  Saturn first tests us, and then he gives us time to consider what we did wrong.  And you can bet he'll test us again, once he goes direct on June 12th.  A lot of us have the outer planets in Libra - there is the Neptune in Libra generation (1942-1957), the Uranus in Libra generation (1968-1975) and the Pluto in Libra generation (1971-1984) - and this Saturn transit through Libra will bring those qualities to the forefront.  Can we bring our Dreams (Neptune) into reality?  Can we learn to be free (Uranus) and equal (Pluto) in our relationships?  Only time - and our choices - will tell.


On March 28th, Jupiter and Saturn will oppose each other, letting us know how well we have integrated our new identity into our relationships.  Keep working at it.  The future is calling our names!


Keep up to date with the Cosmic Story at www.wisdom-of-astrology.com

Tunisia: A Study of Society in Transition

Tunisians made history last week by overthrowing their ruler Ben Ali and his corrupt clan of cronies.  This comes as no surprise to astrologers who have been watching as Pluto transits the sign of Capricorn.  The last time Pluto was in Capricorn was from 1762 to 1777, right before the American and French revolutions.  Capricorn is the sign that rules our social structures, including our governments and our financial structures and when Pluto, the planet of death and rebirth, enters it, we get to re-structure our society.

The corruption of the government and disparity between rich and poor is not just a problem in Tunisia but is the overriding factor in many countries.  High unemployment, unhealthy living situations, lack of food and basic essentials will drive people to revolt. 

With Pluto digging up the rot in our financial systems and governments, we are just in the beginning of a whole re-structuring of society on every level.  Added to the upcoming squares (challenges) between Uranus (revolution) and Pluto (evolution) in the next 4 years, we are entering a time period of intense change as well as resistance to change by the power structures.  The young people, especially those born in the 60s when these two planets (Uranus and Pluto) met up in Virgo, will fight for equal rights, good working conditions, the environment, and health - which includes having food to sustain everyone.  We are in the midst of a vast sea-change and it is up to us older folk to support and encourage a balanced understanding of what our world, and our people need to thrive.  Hopefully the revolution in Tunisia will serve as a positive template of change.

Astrology is still the same just as ‘A Rose by any other Name’!

When astronomer Parke Kunkle announced that the astrological signs aren’t right, all he did was state a fact known and understood by astrologers throughout the ages.  Yes, Western tropical astrology differs from what is called sidereal astrology, astrology based on the constellations (used by Vedic astrology). 

 

Most (but not all) Western astrologers use the tropical system, meaning that we base our astrological forecasts on the earth’s cycle of the year.  On Spring Equinox, we say Aries begins because Aries symbolizes new beginnings.  On Winter Solstice, we understand that the sign of Capricorn is highlighted because it’s a time (or it was before modern technology) when people have to pull together and get organized if we’re to survive the winter months (Capricorn symbolizing our social structures).  These astrological truths are a metaphor of the energies involved. Astrology is a symbolic system as well as a science – although they don’t call it astrology, biologists at Vanderbilt University have published a paper proving that the time of day and the time of year you are born affects your body and brain chemistry.

Because of the earth’s tilt, wobble and rotation, over thousands of year we got out of phase with the constellations. In fact, every 72 years or so, it moves about 1*.  It’s called precession and it has moved the sign rising on the Spring Equinox from Aries back into Pisces.  That’s why we’ve been living in what is called the Age of Pisces since around the time of Christ.  And we’re all hurrying to find the Age of Aquarius, when the constellation of Aquarius will rise with the Spring Equinox. 

Right now, there is a discrepancy of about 23* between the tropical zodiac (measured by earth seasons) and the sidereal zodiac (measured through the stars).  Which means that those of your born during the first 23 days of a tropical sign are pushed back into the previous sign.  But does it change your personality?  I don’t think so.  It’s like saying the Pluto’s realm of death, destruction and rebirth no longer has power since scientists have decided it isn’t a planet.

So how do astrologers work with this paradox?

Let’s play with this for a moment. If we put Pisces where Aries used to be, what we get is a Piscean vib to our sense of identity and our need to discover new horizons to conquer (all Aries traits).  During the age of Aries, when the constellation of Aries rose with the Sun at Spring Equinox (2000BC to 1CE give or take a century or so), warriors were harder, crueler, more focused on killing and looting and conquering. It was all about them!  During the age of Pisces, which has a more spiritual bent, warriors began to fight for God – or at least what they wanted to believe was God’s will.  And now at the end of the age of Pisces, we see our soldiers fighting to protect the weak, defend the truth and rebuild nations. 

The archetype of the Warrior has changed.  We still need warriors, but now we see them as more compassionate (Pisces) and willing to die for their country, not for gain and power, but because they believe it is right. (We’re not talking about their leaders reasons for going to war.)

So you could say that there is an underlying Piscean energy that changes how we look at each sign of the zodiac.  And it is true. When Aquarius rises at Spring Equinox, there will be an underlying vib of Aquarian idealism, group unity and independence that will influence how Aries and other signs behave.  It’s about the evolution of the archetypes.

So all of you out there who are Aries in the tropical system but Pisces in relationship to the stars, you still are working on the Aries task of finding your identity, learning to be brave and exploring the unknown.  You just do it in a Piscean manner. 

Now about those Babylonians who changed the zodiac from 13 signs to 12.

 

Most ancient cultures used to measure time by the Moon – so many of our words for time and measurement are based on the Moon.  Moon calendars use 13 months as a marker for the year.  So, those old Babylonians probably shifted to a solar calendar, since it more suited their patriarchal mindset.  It was during that time that women began to lose their powers and their equal rights, and so the Moon also got demoted as our time-keeper.  

As you all know, the myth is that 13 is an unlucky number. This is a masculine superstition, since 13 is sacred to the Goddess.  

  

So, the 13^th constellation is named Ophiuchus or Serpentarius, the Serpent Bearer and Serpens, the Serpent.  Ophiuchus means the man who holds the serpent.  It is an ancient constellation invented around 3500BC, when it was opposite the Sun at Spring Equinox and it symbolized triumphing over the darkness of Scorpio, on which the man treads. Ophiuchus was also associated with the great Greek healer Aesculapius, whose snakes symbolized wisdom and transformation.  The good doctor had power even over death.  

At some point, Ophiuchus was united with Scorpio, since the Sun moves through the constellation of Scorpio rather quickly and through Ophiuchus during the rest of the month.  Perhaps the ancients recognized that although the darkness of Scorpio and death must be faced and gone through, there was healing on the other side.  And of course, that’s how we define Scorpio today – Scorpios must face the dark dragons of their own passions and win through to higher wisdom and transformation.  

    

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. . .