The 7th Uranus/Pluto Square, March 16, 2015

The 7th Final Pluto/Uranus Square

Monday March 16^th 2015 at 6:50pm PDT/9:50pm EDT, Uranus and Pluto will square (90*) each other for the 7^th and last time since 2012.  The wild awakening of the 60s’ conjunction (0*) of Pluto and Uranus in Virgo was the awakening to a deeper and higher consciousness, opening up doors of perception and states of awareness that our parents still can’t wrap their heads around.  This was to prepare humanity for our future.

These two planets have been dancing with each other since June 2012.  Each time they've met before, one or both planets have been retrograde, but for their final bow, they are both going in direction motion, meaning that the kinks have been worked out and now things are set to move forward.

This 7^th square indicates that we have reached a point in our evolution when we have to make a conscious choice about how we’re going to live the rest of our lives.  Can we let go of our personal and cultural stories of need and greed, violence and sex, power and domination, inequality and death, them and us?   Or can we step into quantum theory’s new paradigm that states that we actually do create our own reality?  As viewed, so it appears.  The observer influences what happens in quantum theory.  That means we have to take responsibility for the life we create.  And it also means that if we pursue our true purpose, we can create the life we are meant to live.

Carl Jung’s psychology works within the quantum field.  In our engagement with the Unconscious, through dreams, visions, active imagination, story, archetype, mythology and symbols, we play with the part of the psyche that can engage this quantum field through the Creative Imagination.  The Creative Imagination is what helps us co-create with the Universe.  It is through our right brain feminine consciousness that we access the Quantum Field, which contains all the possibilities of Life.  We just have to learn how to access it correctly and for the right reasons.

The 60s’, Part 2

Once we developed the capacity to annihilate the world in the 1940s, our inner psyches were brought face to face with the possibility of horrific death at any moment.  The very hell-fire that Christianity predicted for evildoers could descend on us at any moment!   Of course that just made life more interesting and more immediate.  If death was lurking just around the corner, why not live life to the fullest?  Besides sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, that meant exploring new ideas about the possibilities of life and of death.

In stepping outside the box of those dogmatic beliefs and judgments instilled in us by church and state, we explored the possibilities of who we are and what we wanted to create.  We rebelled (Uranus) against the status quo (Pluto). 

We Baby Boomers are great creators, having Pluto (transformation) in Leo (creativity).  We just have to learn to turn our creativity toward the good of the world, rather than the good of ‘me’, which is the shadow side of Leo.  That’s the side Pluto works to transform, because that kind of selfishness is no longer viable.  We are here on Earth to enrich life, not consume our way through it. 

We BB’s also engaged in a more personal spirituality which led to embarking on the soulful journey to enlightenment, freedom and bliss that so occupied the 60s’ generation.  How our generation influenced subsequent ones is evident. Young people today are all on their spiritual quest. And many of them already operate innately out of the Quantum Field.   They are taking up the challenges of the future with vision and hope. 

Back in the 60s, the original seed was planted in the sign of Virgo, symbolizing both the harvest and the mastery of life.  Virgo asks us to grow up and utilize our gifts and talents in appropriate ways.  To become Masters at the Art of Life.  Pluto and Uranus started their new cycle in 1965-66 in Virgo with concerns about social justice, women’s equality, food production and our environment, war and peace, space exploration and resource depletion, sexual freedom and religious freedom, artistic freedom and technological freedom and world unity. 

That new seed has grown into a deep-rooted plant these last three years as we’ve gone on the hero’s journey, working to overcome the obstacles to incorporating this new vision into our personal consciousness as well as into the collective consciousness of the world.   Now that new life calls us to be of service (Virgo) as we learn to be co-creators of Life (Pluto square Uranus).  

This Cosmic Story of awakening and transformation has completed ¼ of its cycle.  This part of the re-birthing of our consciousness has been about the struggle with the powers that be to bring needed changes into our social, political, economic structures and belief systems.  We are outgrowing our childhood as a world.  We know we are one world now.  How will we deal with each other and our precious Mother Earth?  This is the radical choice that faces us.  

The Story of the 6th Square

     On Sunday December 14^th and Monday December 15^th, the 6^th square between Uranus at 12*35’ Aries and Pluto at 12*35’ Capricorn occurs.  These squares will bring up the failure of corrupt social institutions, so we can create new, more viable structures in the future. 

     The most recent example is the new budget bill that was basically written by Citigroup and the banking industry, removing the law that said taxpayers wouldn’t bail them out again—Pluto in Capricorn.  The old power structure fighting back.  And then look at Elizabeth Warren’s speech about the bill—Uranus in Aries!   

     On a personal level, it’s time to connect to your real desires and get your true needs met and to stand up for what you believe in.  Be a shining light to the world.

     To recap: This series of 7 squares between Uranus, the planet of revolution and awakening and Pluto, the planet of death, rebirth and evolution began in 2012 and continues through March 2015.  All 7 squares take place in the cardinal signs of Capricorn, our collective social structures, and Aries, our personal identity and vision.  Our cultural institutions are dying (Pluto) and we have to wake up to our personal mission in life (Uranus).  Cardinal signs indicate crucial situations that can’t be put off.  They require immediate attention, since cardinal signs signal the change of seasons.  The wheel of life will keep turning, no matter what!  If we fail to take responsible action, there will be consequences.

     These planets first came together to begin a new cycle of evolution and revolution in the mid-60s in Virgo (the sign of personal integrity), beginning the revolution that is continuing today regarding the environment, women’s rights, civil rights, holistic health, healthy foods, workers’ rights and spiritual awareness.  During the 60s, these energies gave rise to new ideas and beliefs which went against the grain of the culture.  During the past 50 years, our society has integrated some parts of these revolutionary energies, but not all.  Now these new beliefs and values need to be rooted more securely in our collective mindset.  Our economic and social structures no longer serve the people and it’s time to re-set our course, away from manipulation and domination and into real freedom and individual responsibility.

     A square is a 90* angle which brings about a change in direction, a re-orientation of consciousness.  A square’s energy lets you know that you’ve come to a crossroads and now you must choose which path to take.  A square calls for decisive action which often entails struggle and assertive action, often causing lots of inner tension and friction but also opening up our awareness to new possibilities.  The energies of these two specific planets can be explosive, but also enlivening. Pluto is deep, powerful life-energy.  Uranus is out-of-the-blue electrical discharge, the spark of life.  Together they are brewing new life.  We are challenged to act on these new possibilities.  If we repress them, those life-giving energies will turn poisonous and implode.

     This square between Pluto and Uranus is very polarizing.  We are seeing many examples of that polarization between Pluto (the old) and Uranus (the new): between billionaires and workers (Walmart workers are striking, demanding a living wage and full-time hours), between Conservative oil/coal proponents and environmentalists against the Keystone pipeline, between the protests against campus rape and young men’s patriarchal attitude toward rape.  The Michael Brown judgment and harsh ID voting laws bring up unresolved civil rights issues.   The Supreme Court’s decision to aware ‘personhood’ to corporations got ridiculous when they allowed a corporation to have ‘religious’ beliefs.  And now giving banks power over our laws.  As the polarization gets wider, we are seeing all the cracks in our democracy. 

     This 6^th square between Pluto and Uranus will bring up issues of balance and cooperation, especially because both Mercury Venus are involved. Venus will conjunct Pluto and square Uranus exactly on December 20^th, while Mercury does the same on December 24^th.   Since Venus is the energy of harmony, love, beauty, and unification and Mercury promotes better communication, perhaps we can expect some actual change to happen both within and without.

     The 6^th square between these two change agents will bring yet another layer of meaning and depth to these encounters.  The number six is aligned with the form of the hexagon/ hexagram as well as the 6-pointed star, shapes symbolizing the perfect union of the feminine and masculine, as well as the energy of integration of body, soul and spirit.

     The number six stands for Truth, union and lovers, harmony and balance, equality, perfection, integration and real communication.  To understand the harmony and union of a 6, think of beehives, which are hexagon-shaped and serves their communal life-style so well.

     The energy of six is ideal for joining opposites together to form a unified and much more powerful entity—in fact, generating a whole new energy. Since six-energy promotes harmony and balance, we might naturally discover solutions to issues if we engage with others in a calm and diplomatic manner.   Perhaps after this square, both sides of the philosophical spectrum will learn to work together to serve life.  Let’s envision that!

     On a spiritual level, six energy deals with enlightenment, showing us where we need to come into spiritual and mental balance. Like the 6-pointed star made up of two triangles, one pointing up and the other pointing down, six energy can bring about the integration of feminine and masculine consciousness, the union of the right and the left brain so we can engage in holistic thinking and processing.

      Seeing is believing, and hopefully, more and more people are coming to understand that if we want a healthy environment, if we want fair wages and affordable housing, if we want real equality amongst all people and between the sexes, we the people (Uranus in Aries) have to do what it takes to change our social structures, government and especially the economy (Pluto in Capricorn).  

     If Americans want the promise of our Declaration of Independence that says we each deserve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, isn’t it about time to become patriots and stand up for our principles and get involved in making the world a more just and peaceful one?  First we have to change ourselves and our beliefs about life, and then we have to change the way we relate to each other through our social institutions.  We cannot survive alone—we have to care for our communities.

     Our way of life is going to change.  There’s no question about that.  Whether those changes come through acts of Nature (the flooding of our seacoasts which will send people on mass migrations), or through the depletion of our resources (water, metals, soil, food), we can no longer sustain our economic philosophy of consumerism. 

NASA probes — sent to other planets and their moons in our solar system over the last 30 years — reveal massive changes in brightness, magnetic field strength, atmospheric weather features, and other scientifically measurable phenomena. Massive changes are happening on the Sun and throughout the solar system, and not just on Earth. This has to do with our solar system crossing the plane of the galaxy. On a more subtle level, these same cosmic energetic shifts are bringing about a massive change in human consciousness on planet Earth.  © 2014 Louis Acker     www.LouisAcker.com

     The next step is for us to open our higher consciousness to a new vision of what we want our lives to look like so we can create a more sustainable and responsible way of living in the world and in connection to Mother Earth.

Our deepest connection must be to the Earth right now, since that’s where the answers to our problems will come from.  We have to remember we are Earth’s children as well as children of Heaven, and realign ourselves with the World Soul—the consciousness of Mother Earth.  This consciousness is available to each of us when we listen to life with our imaginations and open to our dreams.  We’ve been trained to ignore and vilify the very things that can connect us to each other and to the Earth.  Right now, we need to find some Wisdom to deal with these changes, and Mother Earth and our own souls can help us if we listen.

     This is the challenge of our times—to open to our own brilliance and re-create the world.  We have to become conscious co-creators of life—we have to consciously evolve ourselves and our society to the next stage of human awareness.  Facing what’s going on can’t make us so depressed that we give up and opt out.  That’s what patriarchy hopes we’ll do.  That’s a failure to evolve, because the next step for humanity is conscious community in the Age of Aquarius. We have to be living examples of those principles for the future good of our world.

     We also can’t ignore the bad things going on in the world because it brings a negative vibe to our lives, disturbing our peace and balance.  That doesn’t cut it either. That’s refusing to face our collective Shadow, of which we’ve all contributed a part.   We have to face what’s happening in our world—face our collective choices of war and fear and of giving over power to our ‘new kings’—the corporations and banks.  If we withdraw our support from those corporate entities as much as possible, they will die out from lack of life.

To live our spiritual values means that we have to become social activists and live out our beliefs.  And so we become leaders in our own small way.  

      That is the Aquarian ideal, you know—everyone at the Round Table is equal, free and responsible for the collective welfare.

The Cosmic Story: Sagittarius New Moon 2014

Sagittarius New Moon 2014

We enter the darkest time of year with a fire sign that wants to light up the sky.  The Sun and Moon enter Sagittarius almost simultaneously on Saturday morning, November 22, and the New Moon occurs soon after.  The light Sagittarius has to offer to the world is its mainstay—the Truth.  

As we emerge from our Scorpio death, rebirth and initiation into Sagittarius’ new vision of Life, we get to confront the truths in our lives we’ve been avoiding.  Truths we cannot avoid any longer. 

On November 18^th, the Sun joins Saturn in the last few degrees of Scorpio making us aware of the lessons Saturn has tested us with over the past 2 ½ years while it sojourned in Scorpio. What have you learned regarding sharing who you are with other people? With being open and honest with your feelings and needs?  With sharing your resources with others?  With weighing your values and seeking those with similar values?

Old emotional wounds regarding sharing yourself hopefully have been cleaned up and healed.   Saturn in Scorpio tells us that it’s time to stop blaming others, the world and ourselves for the emotional pain we all suffer.  Scorpio’s lesson to us is that pain is part of life.  Our job is to handle that pain with consciousness and courage.   

Saturn enters Sagittarius in December 23^rd for the first time since 1986.  (What was happening in your life back then?)  It will retrograde back into Scorpio from June to September 2015, and then it begins our testing of Sagittarius’ goals—to know what our beliefs are and if we live by them.  Never doubt we’ll be tested!

That’s why it’s important for us to see our truth, walk our talk, and share the vision of the possible human—an awake and responsible human being.  This month before the Winter Solstice is celebrated as a time of visioning and hope, a time when the light comes from within each person as the outer darkness grows.         What if we each became a light to the world this month?  What if we shine out this month with our Truth, regardless of what others expect of us? 

What beautiful Light we have within us!  Bring it out and let it guide you through the darkness of these times.

Sagittarius

A New Moon is the beginning of a new cycle, a time when a seed idea or feeling is planted in the unconscious so it can grow to awareness up until the next Full Moon. 

A Sagittarius New Moon poises the question: What do you believe and do you have the faith to keep believing?  What do you understand how following the Cosmic Laws of the Universe (uni=one—world) makes us whole? 

Sagittarius is the sign of the seeker, the philosopher, the curious wanderer.  Sagittarius wants to find the meaning of life, and so keeps looking over the horizon for a new way to see the world.  Out of the dark rebirth of Scorpio comes a need to see the Light and understand the grace of that re-birth.  Our mind projects outwards into the unknown and we open to unexpected experiences.   We are on a Quest—the quest for the meaning of life.  While our experiences define us, our ability to look at different perspectives sets the tone for the intuitive leap of understanding which is central to Sagittarius’ quest for meaning.  

There is optimism and a sense of enthusiasm for new adventures that defines Sagittarius’ energy.  This mutable fire sign wants the freedom to explore and expand our awareness until we can see into the cosmos and know we belong to it.  Our life has meaning and we are not alone in our search. 

We don’t need to travel to foreign countries to find a bigger perspective, although that is always fun, and Sags’ do love to travel.  We can also travel in our minds with a good book, or just travel outside our daily habits.  This is a great month to break old habits and develop new ones.  Think and act outside the box!

Sagittarius New Moon 2014

The Sagittarius New Moon occurs on Saturday, November 22 at 4:32am PST/ 7:32am EST/ 12:32pm GMT.

The New Moon is joined by Venus, Ceres and Vesta in Sagittarius, bringing the feminine gifts of connection, nurturing and wholeness to the party. These feminine energies want to be integrated into whatever your new belief system is.  This is a good time to begin to operate in a partnership mode—using both sides of the brain and working with men and women who share your vision and can expand on it.

The New Moon’s energy also squares Neptune and Chiron in Pisces.  Both these planets are ending their retrograde phase and turning direct—Neptune on November 16^th and Chiron on November 23^rd.  They challenge us to integrate other realms of consciousness into our new routines. 

Meditation is always a good start.  Stay open to the gifts of the imagination so you can’t be deluded by the manipulation of symbols by the corporate media.  Weave creativity, imagination and intuition into your understanding of life.  We have to become a more compassionate society, one in which is it not against the law to feed the hungry and find shelter for the homeless.  We have to see the big picture as well as the details.

Neptune turns direct on November 16^th at 5* Pisces: A Church bazaar.  This is a symbol of giving the most mundane activities a spiritual basis.  Spirit/God/Goddess is present in everything we do.   Be joyful when you cook, be gracious when you shop, be loving when you deal with people.  These spiritual values never go out of style.  Pay attention to your dreams now that Neptune is moving forward again.

The Sabian symbol for the Sun and Moon at 1* Sagittarius is: Joyous reunion of Army veterans around a campfire.  These veterans share a common vision and ideals, committing themselves to stand up for their beliefs and even to suffer hardships for the good of others and for those ideals.  Let us also stand up for what we believe and not back down when it seems the darkness is growing.  All darkness is dispelled by the Light.  Be a Light to the World!

Other Astrological Happenings

Last week Mars reconnected with both Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries.  In April, Mars in Libra became part of the cardinal grand cross along with this Uranus/Pluto square. 

On November 10^th, Mars joined Pluto instead of squaring it as it did in April.  In hardworking Capricorn Pluto and Mars join up to get some work done.  Have you been sensing some urgency in getting yourself on track?  With these two planets, we can develop the discipline, purpose and concentration to eliminate obstacles to develop skills that can transform our lives.  Power struggles can occur but it isn’t about overthrowing external authorities but rather the internal patriarchal voice that criticizes and confuses us.  This combination can give us the passion to make positive changes in habits.  We have to learn to take care of our own needs, so we can really understand what others need.

On Wednesday November 12^th, Mars squared Uranus in Aries instead of opposing it as it did last April.  The surprises no longer come from outside ourselves, but now are more internal.  These energies are rebellious and push us toward independence—helping us break free from our own expectations as well as those of others. 

Pluto tells us the truth we’re reluctant to face, Uranus brings us the surprise of this discovery and Mars gives us the present moment in which to work things out.  We can’t plead innocent about our responsibility.  It’s up to us to embrace what we’ve been denying.

The 6^th square between Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries is coming up in December.  Look for more about it in the Gemini Full Moon Cosmic Story.

Jupiter, the ruler of Sagittarius is slowing down, preparing to turn retrograde on December 8^th.  It’s in Leo, so let it show you where you need to get more creative in your life and spend its retrograde period working on your project.

There is a brilliant grand trine in the sky between this New Moon & Venus in Sagittarius, Uranus in Aries and Juno and Jupiter in Leo.  With all that fire, don’t be afraid to light up your life with vision, inspiration and fun during the holidays!

Walk in the Light,

Cathy

    

  

The Cosmic Story: Taurus Full Moon 2014

Full Moons are the perfect expression of the seed planted at the New Moon.  Our last New Moon was a solar eclipse, a more intense version of our monthly new moons.  Solar eclipses start a new cycle and birth something new, something that’s been waiting to be expressed and lived out. 

 

With this Scorpio solar eclipse, the energy was intensified by Scorpio’s tremendous emotional power. You might find yourself compelled by others to confront your projections and fears.  What have you been feeling and hiding?  What feeling is bursting to come out?  Why won’t you let it out? Apple’s CEO Tim Cook admitted he was gay and proud of it.  What have you pulled out of your closet? 

An intense Goddess for this time of year is Ereshkigal, the Sumerian Goddess of the Underworld, sister and twin to the bright goddess Inanna.  If you want to go soul searching and confront your Shadow, Ereshkigal is the goddess for you.  You can read more about Ereshkigal at my Lady Wisdom blog at: http://ladywisdomchronicles.blogspot.com/

At the solar eclipse two weeks ago, we were challenged to birth a new emotional body—one that can relate to others in a healthy, self-aware way.  That means examining those feelings and needs you usually repress and try to ignore. That means letting our emotions speak to us so we know what we’re feeling and then can communicate it to others.  With Venus and Pallas joining that solar eclipse, we were seeded with the cosmic intelligence and strategy to ensure that a deep emotional purge could take place.  Venus gives us the self-love we need to let these stagnant waters drain away.  We need to let these repressed feelings flow out of us, so new feelings can flow in.  Our emotional bodies need to grow up.  Now’s the time for it!

Scorpio  

 

Scorpio relates to how we are intimate with others, how we share values and ideals, how we differ and yet how we get along despite those differences.  Scorpio helps us change through the alchemical bath in its Cauldron of Transformation. 

Our Scorpio nature desires and fears in equal measure. We all desire, first and foremost, love.  Our desires are centered on people, activities and things we love.  But we also have a fear of love, a fear put there by patriarchal thinking.  Because patriarchy has always feared love as the one force that can make you forget all loyalties and commitments to the social order.  That’s why it’s so hard for most people to take the leap and stop working just for the money and start working at what they love.

Taurus  

 

This Taurus Full Moon will ground those desires, since Taurus is the Builder and form-giver of the zodiac.  This is the sign of manifestation, of bringing something into form.  Taurus is also the sign of values—not just social values, but our personal values.  What we value, we pursue.  Taurus wants to know what we value in life, how we value life, and how we value ourselves.  Reflecting on Scorpio’s hidden watery depths, this Taurus Moon helps us become aware of what we want most in life.  What will give us joy, what will bring us peace, what will open up our creativity! 

Taurus Full Moon 2014 

 

          The Taurus Full Moon occurs on Thursday November 6, 2014 at 2:23pm PST/ 5:23pm EST/ 10:23pm GMT. 

  

This Full Moon occurs at 15* of Scorpio and Taurus—the power gates of these two signs.  Honored at Samhain and Beltane, these are the gates of winter and summer, death and life, darkness and light.  The veils are thin when the Sun passes over these degrees and energies can pass back and forth through the veils.  Something significant can come through these gates if we call.  What do you love?  Call to it! 

The Sabian symbol for the Sun at 15* Scorpio is: Children playing around 5 mounds of sand.  This image symbolizes the development of the higher creative mind.  Humanity’s destiny is to develop into a five-fold being—the Pentagram or Venus’ 5 pointed star.  The number 5 symbolizes the mind in its most creative and penetrating aspect—the mind that can work through Love.¹   This is a symbol of future-oriented growth.  So play around and see what you come up with!  

The Sabian symbol for the Moon at 15* Taurus is: Head covered with a rakish silk hat, muffled against the cold, a man braves a storm.  Hats symbolize authority and power.  Since a hat covers the head, it contains our attitudes and opinions about things.  This silk hat seems incongruous to wear in a storm, but there’s something endearing about the rakish tilt and the luxurious material that says that our thoughts must be sophisticated, noble and just a bit mischievous to brave the storms of life coming our way.   

Venus is still traveling with the Sun and both are catching up with Saturn.  Venus in Scorpio renews herself.  Love is deep and passionate and committed.  When Venus joins up with Saturn on November 12^th, try to find a way to express your love—to yourself and to others. Saturn is another form-giver. 

Mars and Pluto’s energies most definitely influence us on this Full Moon. Mars joins Pluto in Capricorn on November 10^th and squares Uranus in Aries on November 12^th, upping the ante on the desire to CHANGE!  Expect emotional upheavals that will free up your energy.  Mars and Pluto are all about the best use of power.  Mars is focus and will while Pluto provides the power punch of evolution.  When Uranus joins the story, expect the unexpected! 

Uranus’ quirky relationship with the Sun opens us to our originality and uniqueness.  We each have our own path to wholeness, our own personal perspective on how to bring about change.  Follow your own guidance system now.  

At the moment there is a very big sunspot sending out gigantic solar flares. The entire atmosphere is getting supercharged by these explosions.  Besides communication satellites going down, our own electrical body will be resonating to this cosmic energy.  We need to focus that energy on change.  

Thankfully, the Taurus Moon will help us ground it.  If you get too overwhelmed by the energies, meditate on being a tree.  Reach your roots down into the earth and spread your branches to the heavens.  Become the World Tree, the Axis on which everything spins.  Get centered and you can ground this energy.

We are still in the energy of death, so spend some time thinking about your ancestors—both your biological ones and your heart ones.  Set up an altar to them and give them the food and drink they love best.  If we honor the best of what came before us, we can bring those energies into the future.

Happy Samhain.

Walk in the Light,

Cathy

1.     Rudhyar, Dane, An Astrological Mandala.

   

I Am Completely Different

I am completely different.
Though I am wearing the same tie as yesterday,
am as poor as yesterday,
as good for nothing as yesterday,
today
I am completely different.
Though I am wearing the same clothes,
am as drunk as yesterday,
living as clumsily as yesterday, nevertheless
today
I am completely different.

Ah ...
I patiently close my eyes
on all the grins and smirks
on all the twisted smiles and horse laughs---
and glimpse then, inside me
one beautiful white butterfly
fluttering towards tomorrow.

~ Kuroda Saburo ~

(translated by James Kirkup, Burning Girraffes: Modern and Contemporary Japanese Poetry)

Summer Solstice 2014

Happy Summer Solstice!

As the sun spirals its longest dance,
Cleanse us
As nature shows bounty and fertility
Bless us
Let all things live with loving intent
And to fulfill their truest destiny
Wiccan blessing for Summer

​ We've arrived at the mid-point of Summer.  Solstice literally means "sun stand still", for at the solstices the sun seems to stop on its course before it reverses itself.  The Celtic pagans call Summer Solstice Litha.

Midsummer is the time when we celebrate the bounty of the earth and the power of the sun. Our fields are flourishing, fruits are blossoming on the trees, herb bushes are fragrant and full of life. The sun is at its highest point in the sky, and it has bathed the earth in its warmth, heating up the soil so that when autumn rolls around, we'll have a rich and bountiful harvest.

Summer Solstice celebrates the marriage and Heaven and Earth, the fruitful time of year when the new life and light that was born at the Winter Solstice is manifest in our lives and in the world. Summer Solstice has been celebrated in practically every culture on Earth, and is a time of joy and celebration of the powers of life. The Sun is at its fullest power, and the darkness of winter is a fading memory. But just at this moment of greatest light, we begin to face death, for now the days begin to shorten and the darkness grows.

Summer Solstice was the most important and widespread festival in Europe. In Celtic countries, it was celebrated on Midsummer's Eve and was a vegetation-fire-water ritual, when all the elements of life were celebrated and honored. It is a time of magic, both good and bad; a time when the faery folk once again come out to dance. Fires are lit to help the Sun in its course, the waters bring blessings, and dreams are potent.

But most of all, Midsummer is a time for lovers, for it is the moment of the marriage of Heaven and Earth. The Sun fertilizes the Earth with His heat, and She becomes pregnant with Life. But there is a cost to all of this, for the Summer King must fight the Winter King for his Flower Bride, and although he overcomes the darkness, yet will the darkness overcome him as well.   

 

The Summer Solstice chart is still carrying the intensity of this April's Grand Cross and Pluto/Uranus square.  Today's Aries Moon squares Pluto in Capricorn, opposes Mars in Libra and joins Uranus in Aries before squaring Jupiter in Cancer.  Our emotions will be supercharged today and tomorrow, so step back and breathe!  We can also eliminate excessive waste, align with allies and spark innovative actions as we open ourselves to new growth at the Solstice fires.​

​    The Saturn/Uranus inconjunct indicates we'll all struggle with our need for freedom vs. our need to face our responsibilities.  The truth is that freely chosen responsibilities are the order of the day.  Pursue whatever unusual interests you have (Moon and Uranus in Aries) and try not to fall back into old emotional patterns of fear and betrayal (Saturn in Scorpio).  This summer is a time to re-discover your own original Self!

Living the Symbolic Life: A Pisces Challenge

Living the Symbolic Life: A Pisces Challenge

                                                Pisces: The Fish

While the Sun is in Pisces, our awareness is called back to the Source, after traveling around the whole zodiac.  The ocean is an apt symbol of the womb of the Collective Unconscious—the place of memory where we find the essence of what it means to live here on Earth.  Love and anger, hardship and plenty, death and birth, family and country—it contains memories of all of life’s experiences, human and otherwise. This is where new life gestates. It is the source of the Wisdom of Life, the World Soul.  

So after flying to Aquarius’ starry heights, we are called to dive into the deepest oceans to regenerate our lives through the agency of those heavenly lights.  If we take that photo of Earthrise to heart, we need to get out of the old patriarchal story that refuses to take that image seriously.  

We can dissolve the old patriarchal story within us during the Sun’s journey through Pisces.  Like the Catholic’s Lent or Ra’s nighttime journey through the Underworld, humans need to take the time to let go of, withdraw from and dissolve what no longer serves our new vision in preparation for the new life of spring. 

Your new story of life will shape your energies this year, energies which will emerge into the world with the Spring Equinox.  So consider sacrificing and making sacred (Pisces) your daily schedule for the next month by adding some spiritual practices into your day: 

1.     Find quality quiet time to listen to your body, your heart and your mind.

2.    Meditate on letting go of old fears and patriarchal beliefs.

3.    Imagine the gift you want to give to the world.

2014 is a 7 year, a year of completion, initiation and conscious choice.  The energies are building toward a strong stellar configuration in April, so taking the time now to get balanced and centered will help you tremendously in a few months. 

If Winter Solstice 2012 was the end of a great age, then 2013 was the beginning of the next stage—the gestation of a new age.  Back in the 60s we sang about it as the Age of Aquarius.  Our vision was very idealistic and full of fun.  The Baby Boomers are the Pluto in Leo generation, and we not only want to stay young till we die, we want to give our creativity to the world.  Now that we’re becoming senior citizens, don’t you think we’re called to step into the world with wisdom and compassion to help our children bring about the changes we envisioned back in the 60s, since the same issues are confronting us once again at this turning point in the cycle between Pluto and Uranus.  

        

When we let the Cosmic Story inspire us and choose to live a symbolic life, we can more easily bring that heavenly energy down to earth. The other option is to remain caught up in the fears and illusions of patriarchy, fighting the energy of change. 

Here are some images to meditate on for Pisces.

Genevieve Cseh, Sedna, Inuit Goddess of the Sea

Sedna symbolizes some of the goddess energy of Pisces.  She sacrificed (Pisces) her fingers to create the bounty of the seas, exemplifying the need sacrifice our ego’s perceptions and open to what comes to us from the deep unconscious. When we turn our attention to our dreams, we find new life and new sustenance.  The Collective Unconscious is open to us during Pisces.  

Kali is a good example of Plutonian goddess energy with her demand that we release the old life so we can engender the new life waiting to emerge in us.  But first we have to die to the old vision. 

Christ embodies the energies of Pisces—the need to say, ‘Not my will but thine’, to surrender to the Source of Life, to sacrifice our ego desires for the good of the world.  Christ speaks to our need to become the light of the world.

These two energies—feminine and masculine—encourage us with the knowledge that sacrifice is part of our human heritage, that life is not all about our desires and needs, but about the needs we share with others.  The more compassion and imagination we bring to our own time of ‘letting go’, the more wisdom we will gain from our sojourn through Pisces.

So who will engage in the Pisces challenge with me?  The challenge involves releasing the old stories of separation, domination, and violence because we have discovered the new story that we are all one family sharing Mother Earth.  Through these times of crisis and transition, we will learn to live together in a very different way.   We will create a new civilization which is founded on absolute equality between feminine perceptions of life and masculine ones.  We will live in the mystical brain where right and left sides of the brain work together to give us a better vision of how we can live in harmony with the Earth and each other.  Let us create a world full of depth and light and beauty, where we take responsibility for our actions and treat each other and the Earth with courtesy and respect.  

Starting on Tuesday, February 18^th, when the Sun goes into Pisces for a month, create a different daily routine for yourself, one which includes playing in those creative, inner spaces where we can touch the Source and imagine a different way to live in the world.

Merry meet, and merry part, and merry meet again!  Blessed Be!

Cathy