For a New
Beginning -- John O'Donohue
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
~ John O'Donohue ~
(To Bless the Space Between Us)
Monday
night Pluto ends its 5 month retrograde and goes direct. Its energy is especially potent for the next
few days. Pluto symbolizes the energy of
evolution, the raw potential for growth.
But that growth has to proceed from the death of the old. Destruction and creation go hand in hand.
A
new beginning is upon us. As the poet
John Dunne says, “In out-of-the-way places of the heart, Where
your thoughts never think to wander, This beginning has been quietly forming, Waiting
until you were ready to emerge.” Are you ready to emerge?
This
week we’re seeing the renewal of the Occupy Movement at their one year
anniversary. And while mass gatherings
focus attention on the issues, I still hope that the movement will start to
Occupy their home town with the arts to convince more people to join the
Movement!
The ugliness of patriarchy is
also very apparent. The fear of the
Feminine is now so apparent that it can no longer be denied. From state houses to Congress, men are still
trying to regulate women’s bodies.
Religious beliefs that repress women are not just found in Islam but
also in Christianity and in Judaism. We
have our own American Taliban trying to keep women ‘in their place’, but it isn’t
working.
We also have the ugliness of the anti-Islamic movie
that touched off a firestorm of protests in the Muslim world, resulting in the
death of Christopher Stevens. America
has our own brand of terrorism, and using a movie is such an American way of
causing trouble!
The other important energy abroad this week is the 2nd
Uranus/Pluto square. Just after Pluto
turns to direct motion, Uranus in Aries challenges Pluto in Capricorn to push
forward with a new vision for all of us.
This is the second of seven of these “squares” through March 2015. Then on September 20th, Mercury,
planet of communication and travel, forms a “T-square” with Uranus and Pluto,
adding to the possibility of explosive and damaging political dialogues, tumultuous
transportation crisis and radical new ideas that can accelerate cultural and
personal change and evolution.
Uranus in Aries asks us to step into our archetypal
identity, enhancing our ability to stand up for our freedom and our rights. “Then
the delight, when your courage kindled, And out you stepped onto new ground, Your
eyes young again with energy and dream, A path of plenitude opening before you.”
These two planets add an explosive tension to both
political and geophysical events. Riots
in the Middle East, political gaffs on the part of the Republican presidential
candidates, the teachers strike in Chicago are all part and parcel of the
continuing challenges the world faces as we leave the old systems behind and
finally focus on developing a new system for a new age.
The Sabian symbol for Pluto at 7*
Capricorn is: A veiled prophet speaks,
seized by the power of a god. This image
tells us that if we turn within (being veiled) we can connect to the Wisdom of
life to show us the way forward. In this
time when patriarchy is (finally) dying, those of us who can go within to touch
the Source of Life will have new visions to share with the world.
The Sabian symbol for Uranus at
7* Aries is: A man succeeds in
expressing himself simultaneously in two realms. Here the alchemical lesson is that we can
unite our spiritual nature with our material life. If we do, our visions will be True.
With the Sun moving into
Libra on September 22, more changes are on the way, as this potent square
includes the Sun and Moon on September 29th’s Full Moon. So stay tuned!
The Uranus in Aries Square to Pluto in Capricorn
The
planets involved in the biggest energy shift this next year are Pluto in
Capricorn and Uranus in Aries. They’re
bringing the 60s back in with a roar. It
seems all of us need to have a talk with Mr. Pluto. He wants to tell us about our shadow self
that is keeping us chained to the past.
Uranus wakes us up to our freedom – Pluto tells us what we need to
change to achieve it.
Pluto
might be asking us to take in the radiation coming at us from the nuclear
meltdown in Fukushima, Japan and transform it into light, consciousness, good
will and imagination/creativity. It’s
interesting that the US is the first country it hits. Perhaps transforming our American
‘conspicuous consumption’ consciousness is the crux of the matter. If that’s
what Pluto is demanding of us, then let’s turn all that plutonian radioactivity into Light.
Uranus
opens us to the mindset that can achieve this transformation. It says to dig deep into Aries’ search for
identity and find yours! So open yourselves
to the archetypal realms and ask for an archetypal mentor who can teach you
your true name.
Astrologers
have been talking about this upcoming square for many years, but especially
since the summer of 2010’s cardinal cross brought these two planets in contact
with a Cancer Moon and Saturn in Libra. Cardinal
signs are the action–oriented signs of the zodiac. They stand at the beginning of the 4 seasons
– Capricorn/Winter, Aries/Spring, Cancer/Summer, Libra/Fall. They move things along and certainly since
2010 things ‘have moved along’ – the financial crisis deepening and the rift
between ‘right and left’, ‘rich and poor’ widening.
Whenever
these two change agents get together, we find ourselves in the midst of a
crisis-oriented time, but it doesn’t have to be a violent or dangerous time
unless we make it so. The present crisis
is that our financial and governing systems need to be renewed. And as is obvious, the patriarchal system is
fighting back to keep its power and prerogatives in place. Unfortunately for them, they WILL have to
go. How that ends up happening is up to
each of us.
The
planets that energize this kind of change are both collective energies,
transforming whole generations - Uranus, the great Awakener, and Pluto, the
great Leveler. Uranus is the lightning
bolt of divine awareness while Pluto is the underworld power of evolution. Freedom-loving,
independent Uranus meets powerful, transformational Pluto in a dance of
breakdown and breakthrough for the collective.
“Uranus represents the unstoppable force of ideas whose time has come.
Pluto represents the raw power and inevitability of breakdown and renewal.
Together they force consciousness changes in the collective that are –
relatively speaking — explosively sudden.” (Jessica Murray) Sudden only to those who haven’t wanted to
see.
These
two planets move around the Sun in cycles, creating their own effects upon the
Earth, as any other two planets do. These
energies are relational, just as the Sun and Moon form a monthly cycle in
relationship to each other. We can trace
how this Uranus/Pluto cycle synchronistically affected society back through our
most ancient history. For a full explanation,
see Richard Tarnas’ Cosmos and
Psyche, a really amazing look at astrology and history.
A
quick look at history shows us that Revolution and Evolution are in the air
whenever Uranus the Radical Rebel teams up with Pluto, the Underworld Lord. (Thank you Lauren Coleman, astrologybylauren.com and astroyiayia.blogspot.com for this timeline.)
·
In 1707- 1710,
Uranus and Pluto were both in Leo. The
Industrial Revolution begins. The steam engine moves us into the future. Leo creativity.
·
In 1775-60,
Uranus in Pisces was in a similar first quarter (like the first quarter Moon)
square to Pluto in Sagittarius. These
were years of war over empires and trade.
The American colonists started mobilizing against Great Britain and
‘taxation without representation’. It’s
still tyranny!
·
1791-1795, Uranus
in Leo opposite Pluto in Aquarius (like a full Moon). These were years when the 99%(Aquarius) rose
up against Monarchy (Leo). The French
Revolution. The Haitian Revolution.
·
1819-1822, Uranus
in Sagittarius square Pluto in Pisces (last quarter Moon aspect). Massive global revolutions in South America,
Greece vs. Ottoman Empire, European revolts.
The masses (Pisces) rise up against oppression(Sag).
·
1849-1852, Uranus
conjunct Pluto in Aries (Individual freedom) (a new Moon aspect). These were
the years before the American Civil War when the need to end slavery was
brought to public consciousness. (SHAME ON PATRIARCHY that it’s still practiced
today.) Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
wrote The Communist Manifesto. First Women’s Rights Convention held. The Taiping Rebellion in China. The Irish Potato Famine. Aries gave rise to a new sense of individual
freedom.
·
1875-1878, Uranus
in Leo square Pluto in Taurus. The
energies here had to do with Empire Wars (Leo/King-Taurus/land). Russian Empire vs. Ottoman Empire. The last great Sioux War in North America.
·
1900-1903, Uranus
in Sagittarius opposite Pluto in Gemini – stock market Panic of 1901, many
natural disasters involving migrations of people.
·
1930-1935, Uranus
in Aries square Pluto in Cancer (last quarter).
The Great Depression and the rise of nationalism (Cancer/homeland). Gandhi’s Salt
March of 1930.
·
1964-1967, Uranus
and Pluto in Virgo (a new cycle begins).
The Vietnam War, the Peace Movement, the Israeli Six-Day War, Martin
Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, The Feminist Movement, Rachel
Carson’s Silent Spring and the birth
of the Environmental Movement (Virgo). How do we use our resources?
·
2011-2015: Uranus
in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn: The Inverted Power Pyramid – or bottom up
civil action. The Arab Spring, London
Riots, Occupy Movement and beyond!
As
you can see, these two planets are at least synchronized to events happening
within our social structures. From 1090 AD, the time of the First Crusade, to
1850, these planets have begun their cycle in individualistic, creative fire
signs (Aries and Leo) – cycles where we’ve pursued our own interests without
regard to others or Nature. So when
Pluto and Uranus came together in Virgo in the 1960s, they began a new cycle of
transformation (like a new Moon) in more ways than one. Having this and the next series of
Pluto/Uranus conjunctions in Earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) bodes well
that we’ll finally get down to the job of caring for and working with the
Earth. Virgo is the sign representing workers,
the environment, health and consciousness, of service and the practical mind.
Since
the new cycle was the birth of a new energy, the 60s were wild and carefree
like young children. Something brand new
came into the world – make love not war!
The youth culture – trust nobody over 30! Now
these two forces are in a 90-degree angle to each other – the angle we liken to
the Hero’s Journey, where we have to grow by overcoming obstacles and bringing
the new insights of the 60s into our public life. Universal health care, sustainable and healthy
food production, environmental safeguards, workers’ rights over corporate
rights – these are all up for renewal.
And in the end, they will inevitably be implemented. How that happens is up to us.
Pluto
can be associated with the archetypal Shadow and in Capricorn he’s showing us
our collective financial shadow – we overspend, create too much waste and have
unrealistic expectations. It’s time to
confront the hard truths of our way of life and perhaps even sacrifice the
extraneous ‘stuff’ while we take responsibility for the mess we’ve
created.
With
Uranus the original Mind in a 90* angle to Pluto the unconscious evolutionary
forces of life, we have to move up to a higher level of consciousness and
communications as we struggle to see both sides of the issue and find solutions
to the problems we’ve created. We cannot
demonize the ‘other side’ even though they seem to enjoy demonizing us. We need to continue to cultivate the seeds
planted in the 60s in peaceful and responsible ways. Besides working politically for change, we
also need to cultivate Art and collaboration to pave the way for the change
that will come at the end of this Pluto transit in 2024.
There
will be 7 exact squares between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn from
June 24, 2012 to March 16-17, 2015 – occurring between 7* - 15*
Capricorn/Aries. If you have planets at
these degrees in any of the 4 Cardinal signs, you’re in for big
transformations. If you have planets at
these degrees in fixed or mutable signs, they’ll affect in you different ways. But
we all will be affected, because Capricorn is the sign of our collective
institutions, especially our financial and governmental institutions. We’re all
in this together!
Every
248 years, Pluto goes into Capricorn.
The last time it did was right before the American Revolution. Since Capricorn rules our collective social
structures, these time periods usually signal periods of social unrest and
institutional reformation. We’re
watching as Pluto in Capricorn reveals the rot at the base of our patriarchal
institutions of finance and governance. It would be funny if it weren’t so
painful. The hypocrisy of our leaders can
lead us to become cynical or it can make us determined to change things. I vote for the change, don’t you??
Because
of the way energy works, Uranus in Aries’ revolutionary power will have more
influence as time goes on. This means
that Uranus in Aries, waking us up to our individual power and to our
archetypal identities, will push at those old patriarchal institutions,
especially corporations, until they collapse and transform into institutions
that work for everyone’s welfare, not just for the 1%. But it will take WORK on our part. Just don’t despair – have more imagination
than that!
So
watch out for lots of breakdown, and surprising fresh starts out of the
blue. And sometimes it’s both! The opportunities come from the cultural
break down. Remember to turn inward, and
hone your ability to hear your own guidance. Whether this guidance comes through
dreams, flashes of intuition, synchronicity, or messages you receive from
others, stay open to your imagination.
That’s what will help you decipher the meaning of what’s happening to
you and it will give you clues on handling any situation.
The
fact that Neptune is in its own sign of Pisces, source of spiritual awakening
and imagination, gives us the cosmic go-ahead to dream large and envision with
love possible futures that can come into being in the cracks of our crumbling
patriarchal structures. We will salvage
the wise values of the past and bring them forward into the future to be
integrated with the new structures we’re building.
