A Great Time of Transition: 2008 to 2015

The most powerful constant in the universe is change.  The second most powerful constants are various cycles. Some are large, like the 25,800 year cycle of the Earth's "wobble" (on its axis) that causes the precession of signs, which has lead to the split between Tropical and Sidereal astrology.  In Tropical astrology, if you are born between March 21 and April 21, you have an Aries Sun sign.  Thanks to precession (since 600BCE), when Tropical astrology was calculated on the 0 point of Aries, if you were born between March 11 and April 18 (in 2007), your Sun Sign would actually be Pisces.  Some are small, like your birthday.  All occur in linear, forward moving time in a constant state of change.  There is no permanence, just change ... in various shapes and sizes and intensities.  We are currently living in a period of intense change.  Human and planetary history is filled with easily identifiable intense periods of change, whether we are looking at World War I or the Ice Age, the Discovery of Penicillin or Volcanic Eruptions and Earthquakes, or a host of other significant events.

Human history has entered another period of significant change and transition, beginning with the Great Recession at the start of 2008.  In recent history, the 20th Century, we can mark the great periods of transition with inventions (cars, planes, space flight, the Internet), wars, social upheavals (the 1960s), and so on.  In all those cases we can find key transitions occurring between Energy Points in the sky as part of large and small recurring cycles.  One of the most profound relationships in astrology occurs when Uranus and Pluto transition at significant angles with one another.  The last such significant transition occurred in the 1960s when they were conjunct and their energies merged in the sign of Virgo (Tropical) and Leo (Sidereal).  Today they are in a square relationship, which will be exact 7 times between 2012 and 2015 and involve the signs of Capricorn/Aries (Tropical) and Sagittarius/Pisces (Sidereal).  As with all situations involving large and complex energy, the impact of the energy can be felt and active outside the "ground zero" time frame.

For this reason, we are still "heading towards" the reckoning of and repercussions of the exact squaring that will occur between 2012 and 2015.  The "aftermath" will likely last well into 2020, when Pluto begins to end its travels through Capricorn (T)/Sagittarius (S).  For most of the world, this will continue to be a time of great instability, which is not particularly comfortable, but very necessary for growth and/or readjustment.  In fact, spiritually, humanity is likely to experience spiritual growth through a readjustment to physical limitations.  The lesson of cycles is the lesson of living within a closed system.  Closed System thinking is radically different from Frontier/Constant Growth thinking.  A Closed System reality can appear to be a Frontier System if the participants in the system are unable to see the boundaries of the system as a whole.  In the current vernacular a phrase that is gaining ground is "the End Game."   And a word is growing in use: Austerity. Within a large closed system, small skirmishes occur that reveal to various members of the system the closed nature of the system (species extinction, contamination of water supplies, destruction of usable land, global warming).  But in all of human history, the overall boundaries of the system has not been reached or breached at the whole level.  We are living the age when we can finally begin to see the boundaries of the whole system and how close we are getting to them.

Breaching the whole boundary system would be catastrophic for humanity, no so much for insects.  The breach may occur without human activity in an Ice Age way, but even with Global Warming reaching high levels, its unlikely that we are yet in a position to break the ecosystem in an apocalyptic way.  Though it is certainly within our power and ability (think Wall-E).  During this next major transition we are very likely to have to face readjustment to consumption/resource uses as more of the world wants between 70 and 80 degree homes in the winter and summer.  The financial crisis is a "shot across the bow" of the ship, and let's hope its not the one named Titanic!  Though, that story is an apt metaphor.  People did survive the sinking of the ship ... a much smaller number than would have survived if precautions had been taken, warnings heeded, and safety protocols followed.

Big transitions have a common earmark; they reach into the common levels of human experience.  Not just one group feels the impact, but members of all groups while certain groups especially feel the impact  across almost all members (usually the poor or lower classes).  While many of the rich are getting richer during this process, quite a few have also lost everything and quite a few are experiencing economic decline.  Granted their total assets may now be worth 900 Million instead of 2 Billion, but loss is loss.  I went to a job interview recently and one of the other people interviewing said something interesting, "being early is the new on time."  I have to wonder if this transition will be the one that nakedly reveals that we do have limited resources that we are using as if they are unlimited, which is really the behavior bugaboo we need desperately to overcome and reverse.  Its fine to think of solar power as unlimited energy, wind and water as renewable, but not oil and gas.  This transition period is likely to be marked by the outside world exerting pressure on behavior change internally at a mass scale.  Much in the same way the Great Depression or American/French Revolution time periods exerted change.

We are all, definitely, in it together.

Jupiter in Station, Turning to Go Direct

Did anyone else begin to feel it today ... the energy of Jupiter stopping its retrograde motion to begin moving forward again tomorrow?  I certainly did.  Yesterday, I was talking to Betsy, my partner, about feeling a shift, a positive one.  And today the feeling just grew stronger.  Astrology is all about motion - cycles, approaching and separating energies, Lunation phases, ingress from sign to sign, and retrograde/stationary/direct.  What has made this time in life so very profound and interesting is convergence of many kinds of motion.  Alone any one of these patterns holds significance, but when they converge, big shifts happen.

This December will hold especial power as all the energy points, at two different spans of time, will be direct.  Unfortunately no major legislation or meaningful global/state/local decisions will be made.  But we should have some very positive feelings around the holidays.  It will be a good time to think out "next steps."  What do you want your next steps to be and can you chart a positive route to achieving them.  There's still a number of big cosmic storms on the horizon and the largest of all will be Pluto in Capricorn squaring Uranus in Aries for 3 years between 2012 and 2015.  From every level, it will be good for all us to use 2011 as a time to save, rest, and prepare ... not only in terms of the most obvious financial crisis, but in terms of spiritual development.  We have not seen the last of the Tea Party negativity or protectionist thinking.  These energies will be amassing for the 2012 election cycle.

They must be challenged, but not in the same vein as they present.  We must challenge them in our daily lives by being caring, helpful, and supportive of our community, family, and fellow human beings.  We must show by example that we understand the kinds of fundamental changes in behavior that we all need to make with regard to our use of resources and what each of us rightfully deserves to take from the earth to meet our needs.  I encourage everyone to fully enjoy the tremendous amount of positive energy that will flow once Chiron and Neptune (the last two energy points still retrograde) go direct (even in the face of a Mercury retrograde through the middle of December).  Mercury will retrograde in December, but it is always the same meaning ... slow down, reassess, review, and rest.  

I urge all of us to spend deep time thinking of New Year's resolutions to put forth on January 1 and to reassert on March 21, the first day of Spring.  2012 will be tumultuous and how we prepare in 2011 will be essential.

Born in 1967, 1968, 1969 -- Struggling in 2009, 2010, 2011

If you were born in the years 1967 to 1969, then this post is for you!  I was born April 12, 1968 and I can say that the years of 2009 to 2011 have been and will be ones of tremendous transition.  In our life cycle we have many astrological cycles, described as Returns.  When you are born every energy point eventually returns to its degree placement in the sky.  Some you will not live to experience, like your Neptune Return (165 years) or Pluto Return (248 years).  If you live to be 84, you will experience your Uranus Return.  All other energy points will return if you live at least until 50, when Chiron Returns.  We celebrate our Solar Return each year on our birth day (though that's not always the exact day of the return by actual degree, but its close enough).  While all energy points return, astrologers tend to focus on the longer patterns of Jupiter (12 years), Saturn (29 1/2 years), and Chiron (50 years).  We human beings often feel and experience big shifts in our lives coinciding with these returns and their three other significant aspects (two squares and one opposition).  When we add in the squares and oppositions we get predictable times of transition that allow us to mark certain periods in our lives as times we will go through big internal, external, or both internal and external changes.  Any singular transition is a big deal:

• your Jupiter angles every 3 years, 
• your Saturn angles every 7.5 years, 
• your Chiron angles every 12.5 years, 
• your Uranus angles every 21 years, 
• your Neptune angles every 41 to 43 years, 
• and your Pluto angles every 62 years.

As you can see by the numbers, you also can get "double or tripled" up at certain times in your life.  For those of born at the end of the 1960's we're getting a double whammy from our Uranus opposition (current Uranus opposing our natal Uranus) and our Neptune Square (current Neptune squaring our natal Neptune).  Additionally, we have current Chiron also squaring our natal Neptune and current Pluto squaring our natal Chiron on its way to a square with our natal Saturn.  If you have felt "struck by lightening" (Uranus Opposition) AND dislodged from stability (Neptune Square) in the last two years (much more so than everyone swept up in the Great Recession), then you are not alone and you still have at least one to three more years to weather the transition!

I've shared my personal story in other posts, but it bears repeating especially for this post.  In late 2009 (August) I experienced a Spiritual Awakening that struck me down to the depths of my soul/consciousness.  The transits I just mentioned above were all beginning to align, with  then transiting Saturn crossing over and conjuncting my natal Pluto.  Since the initial "lightening strike" I have been caught in the undertow of Neptune square Neptune, which Robert Hand describes as a time when illusions run high and are broken at the same time.  A person feels a strong desire to manifest dreams but the energy in life is not readily available to help manifest the dreams and can, in fact, push us into delusion.  Now for each person the real impact will play out wherever the current Neptune is in relation to the natal chart houses and the natal Neptune.  In my case the energy is playing out with my fundamental identity (1st House) ruled by Scorpio and my family (4th House). ruled by Aquarius  The Spiritual Lightening of Uranus struck my house of Community (11th) by opposing itself in the house of my Creativity (5th) in Virgo and Pisces respectively.

And here's what I got for my troubles :-).  My Heart Charkra basically got blown open, which left me overwhelmed by the stresses and strains of the current world situation.  I could and still can feel the planet groaning in pain from human behavior; I can feel we are reaching a Tipping Point (around energy, water, food, communication, financial institutions, health care, education and so on).  Like the convergence of personal energy via my transits, I feel a convergence of problems that will require some very big leaps in human behavior and decision making to overcome and help humanity evolve.  And we're not talking about biological evolution, but civilization evolution.  At times like these, we are not guaranteed forward progress, feel free to read up on the Dark Ages as an example of devolution and regress.  

I was also deeply struck on a personal level to question how we make/sustain human families in this country by way of the so-called nuclear family.  The answer I found was deeply troubling.  We are all powerfully isolated and I feel a deep knowing that our current way of manifesting family is profoundly wrong.  We have utterly destroyed community and our housing debacle is really a way of exposing how crass, as a nation, we have become about greed and moving up at the cost of healthy support networks.  Most families do not live near each other and most communities are in a constant state of two to three year transition, so there is no "rootedness" in our communities anymore.  There has been spotty response to this damaging phenomenon, apparent in the spread and rise of intentional communities, but on the whole our fast paced world has "out paced" us.  The Recession is a natural slow down response, a gift in many ways and a reasonable consequence of too much greed.  My shift has made me realize how isolated our family (of three) really was.  Our network of friends are geographically dispersed and helping each other in a time of crisis would face the simple barrier of geography.  For this reason, we looked into intentional communities and opened ourselves to the possibility of sharing our home with another family.  As it turns out, the second manifested instead of the first.

On a more personal level, I have been completely thrown out of my comfort zone, my deep and long tenured sense of confidence and faith in the way I fit into the world has evaporated.  I have talked with other members of my age group, not a statistically valid sample, but enough for confirmation that they too are "off balance" and unable to get their footing.  That's what Neptune square Neptune feels like.  And its meant to teach us what out of balance feels like so we can do a better job with balance when the energy finishes its work.  Like millions of other people around the world, we are moving back to a savings mentality ... but more profoundly, I am learning to be grateful for the simplest of things.  In this time of deep internal work, I know I need to appreciate this transition.  If you are feeling a similar shift because you were born around the same time, then know that the time to work through the shift is limited (3 to 5 years).  Who knows what the world will be at the beginning of 2012, but those of us born in the late 1960s should be through our work, if we do our work, around that time.

Tarot Meditation Card for the Day - Osho Zen Tarot - Breakthrough XI

"To transform breakdowns into breakthroughs is the whole function of a master." (25)

This card has a powerful meaning for me today and reading the description has been especially profound.  "It is the greatest adventure in life to go through a breakdown consciously.  It is the greatest risk because there is no guarantee that the breakdown will become a breakthrough.  It does become, but these things cannot be guaranteed."  Boy how I have been feeling for this card ... feeling around as if I have been trapped in a darkness and unable to find any kind of purchase that would allow me to escape.  I can only have faith that my wandering around and groping is actually progress in some, as yet, unknown way.  I am hopeful that drawing this card is my soul's way of sharing the possibility that a breakthrough is, in fact, happening from my breakdown.

The description goes on to say, "your chaos is very ancient -- for many, many lives you have been in chaos.  It is thick and dense.  It is almost a universe in itself.  So when you enter into it with your small capacity, of course there is danger.  But without facing this danger nobody has ever become integrated, nobody has ever become an individual, indivisible."

"Zen, or meditation, is the method which will help you to go through the chaos, through the dark night of the soul, balanced, disciplined, alert."  Today I woke very early and stretched on the floor beside my bed.  After taking my daughter to school, I went to the park and practiced my Qi Gong and Tai Chi and felt my practice deeply, felt the energy move from earth to sky and back again.  Recently I have talked to my partner, Betsy, about losing faith ... losing my way.  I want to find a way again, but I don't know what that way is ... and I think right now, I'm not supposed to have a way ... such is the lesson of the breakdown.  But deep in my soul I do not think I am supposed to stay broken or broken down.  I am trying to be Patient (my previous draw).  I am trying to listen and still keep persevering.  This card was a good draw today.

Learning Astrology 04 - You Have Books, Now What?

If you are following the instructions of these blog entries, you should now possess a copy of your birth chart from Astrodienst using the Whole Sign system.  And you should have purchased and now have copies of:

• Astrology and the Authentic Self by Demetra George
• Asteroid Goddesses by Demetra George
• Take Charge with Astrology by Lisa Tenzin-Dolma
• Astrology for Beginners by Joann Hampar
• Horoscope Symbols by Robert Hand (if you want to do charts for others as well as look at your own)
• Astrology of the Moon by Amy Herring
• Spiritual Astrology by Jan Spiller and Karen McCoy
• The Sabian Symbols by Marc Edmund Jones

Before we get started make sure you have pencil or pen handy, you will be writing in your books.  The best way to learn astrology is to personalize your books by marking information that pertains to your chart in each of your books.  Then you expand by marking the information of your significant other(s), your children, your other family members, and your friends.  This practice is the "magic trick" to learn deeply what you need to know.

You can set Asteroid Goddesses, Horoscope Symbols, Astrology of the Moon, and Spiritual Astrology aside. They are the second tier books of the first tier of your studies.  As to the rest, you can select one to plow through completely or use all four simultaneously.  If you decide you want to go book by book, then I actually recommend you begin with The Sabian Symbols instead of one of the beginner cookbooks (Astrology for Beginners or Take Control with Astrology) and here's why.  When you look at your chart, you will see that each energy point is placed on the wheel at a specific degree and minutes.  I will use my chart as an example (be sure to click on the image to see it at a large enough size to see the information clearly, a new tab will open and you can toggle back and forth between the blog and the image).

Let's start with my Sun, which is at 23d14m in Aries.  I grab my Sabian Symbol book and my pen and I look up 24 Degrees of Aries.  Always round up, no matter how few the minutes.  23d01m is still 24d in the Sabian Symbol.  If your minutes for an energy point are less than 15, go ahead and read the preceding degree.  In my case, I would also want to glance at 23 Degrees of Aries.  In the book there is the imaginative description and then the interpreted meaning.  23 to 24 Degrees of Aries is "Blown Inward By The Wind, The Curtains Of An Open Window Take The Shape Of A Cornucopia."  The keyword is Munificence and "when positive, the degree is an irrepressible genius for capturing the richer rewards of life and providing a wider distribution for the higher realities, and when negative, a smug and petty self-importance in dispensing favors to others." (Sabian Symbols 172)

Every energy point in your chart has a Sabian Symbol and you do not need to associate the meaning of the symbol with the meaning of the energy point at this time.  Simply go down the list of energy points in your chart legend at the bottom of your chart page and go to the Symbol in the book and WRITE your NAME and the ENERGY POINT.  So, in my Sabian Symbol book I have Philip/Sun next to the 24 Degree of Aries.  I have Philip/Moon next to the 22 Degree of Libra, Philip/Mercury next to the 11 Degree of Aries, and so on.  Once you have gone through all your energy points see if you notice any themes in the keywords.  Mine tend to reflect a life of spiritual growth while my partner's, Betsy, consistent theme is the care of others.  Once you familiarize  yourself with the meanings of your energy points you can refine your knowledge of the Sabian Symbols to reflect the interrelationship of the Symbol meanings and the Energy Point meanings.

In the case of your Moon, you will blend your emotional state into the Sabian Symbol and in the case of your Mercury, you will interpolate the Sabian Symbol through the energy of Communication.  Learning astrology is a process of building complexity out of discrete information and then building complexity on top of complexity.  The meanings of the Sabian Symbols and the Energy Points are discrete and separate.  Your task to unlock your chart is to combine the two to derive a more nuanced meaning.  From there you will add on more and more discrete pieces of information, constantly refining and individualizing the general meanings into a coherent narrative about yourself.

Perhaps you would rather start out with all of the books and jump around a bit, just to see where the journey takes you.  That's a fine approach as well.  Keep your pen handy and follow the same steps as before.  Get your chart out and note which sign and house your Sun is in and then open one of the beginning astrology books to the section on signs and houses and write in your name and the energy point.  In my case, I would put Philip/Sun next to Aries in the signs and the 6th House in the houses.  Do this process for all your energy points and you will get a very quick grasp of your chart.  It will still be a bit raw; after all, roughly 10 million people are born each month currently and as many as 355,000 are born on the same day! (Census Bureau)  Just keep in mind that each sign and house cover a central theme with a lot of territory.  One manifestation of Aries is adventure and another independence and these are both affected by your family, culture, and socio-economic status and many, many more factors.  The Aries born on the same day at the same time who has repressive parents will manifest his or her energy differently than the one with supportive parents and the outcomes may not be what you anticipate.

So get your books out and your pens/pencils and mark up your books.  Look up and read about all the information specific to your chart.  Don't worry so much about reading the books straight through.  You can do that after you "make the books your own."  Get the raw data down and next we'll talk about synthesizing!

Tarot Meditation Card for the Day - Osho Zen Tarot - 7 of Rainbows, Patience

I appreciate the Osho Zen tarot because the imagery so often perfectly communicates the concept described by the keyword on the card. This card, the 7 of Rainbows (Patience), has one of the best pictorial representations of all the cards in the set.

When you draw this card you face the task of accepting that some things in life have a rhythm that you cannot speed up or slow down!  Hence the card shows us the phases of the moon and the woman who is pregnant.  These natural processes follow predictable cycles, especially the phases of the moon.  The human body is not quite as predictable, reliable, or hard to manipulate as the Moon orbiting Earth orbiting the Sun.  We all have situations in our lives where we want things to either speed up or slow down and we have trouble seeing the optimal process.

This circumstance is especially true when two or more people are involved.  We want someone to "get it" so we can move forward, trying to ignore the process of the other person in favor of what we want.  Or perhaps we are the person trying desperately to "get it" and we cannot make the process accelerate.  Maybe we "get it', but don't "want it" and we do everything we can to slow or stop the process.  Patience is not just a state of right activity, but also a state of right understanding.

On a personal level, as I have been on the journey of a spiritual awakening, I have had many a day of impatience, wishing I could "get on with it" and "be done" with the drama and struggle of being thrown completely out of my comfort zone.  I know what a comfort zone feels like and many days wish I could get back in one, not the one I had before, but the next one I'm moving towards.  Unfortunately, the transition often has its own agenda and sometimes what is best takes time.  Drawing this card is often very calming for me, a message from myself to myself to "settle down" and let things unfold as they will ... because they will.  Trying to force the issue before the right time or out of the right rhythm almost always results in negative outcomes.

As you read this post, think about any area of your life, any situation you feel impatient about and take a step back mentally.  What is the lesson in the "not happening"?  What is the cycle and how are you out of step with it and how do you get in step?  Where in your life do you need patience and how can you support that patience in your actions and thinking?