The Transitioning of America (Part 2) - Neptune

Neptune has moved back into Aquarius, where it will stay until February of 2012. Once out of Aquarius next year, Neptune will remain in Pisces. While retrograde Neptune will almost reach back and touch the US Moon (less than 2 degrees) and is moving back and forth over the very bottom, most private part of the US chart. Neptune is about surrender, dissolving (washing away), and spirituality. As we enter a prolonged period of economic contraction, more and more individuals will find spirituality through scarcity, as well as potential bonding with our fellow human beings.

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Neptune will stay at the bottom of the US chart for the entire duration of 2012.  Coupled with the Uranus/Pluto square and the Saturn Return, we should expect 2012 to be what is generally predicted, a time of tremendous change.  Setting aside doomsday theories, we will likely see one of the most volatile years in America due to the upcoming Presidential election and the ongoing debt crisis in Europe, the US, and pretty much around the world.  As I posted in an early entry, we could also see, throughout the duration of Neptune's transit through Pisces, limits and problems involving all liquids, the two most important being water and oil.

Moving forward beyond 2012, Neptune in the movement through the US 4th House will reawaken spiritual feelings about family and culture.  If another recession or a depression (publicly named) manifest in 2012, we can expect a long duration of adjustment, peaking or bottoming out (depending on the metaphor you prefer) around 2015, when the last Uranus/Pluto square takes place (there will be 7 times the energy points square over the period of 2012 to 2015).  Neptune, rather appropriately, is returning "home" (to its own sign) and doing so in the US chart 4th House (of the Family).  We will all be encouraged to see and engage our family and even address wounds (Chiron in the 4th at the same time).

The Transitioning of America (Part 1) - Chiron

In previous posts I have written about the ingress of the outer energy points (Chiron from Aquarius to Pisces, Uranus from Pisces to Aries, Neptune from Aquarius to Pisces, and Pluto from Sagittarius to Capricorn).  Just one of these energy points changing signs is significant, consider the shift in the US and the World when Pluto moved from Sagittarius (Expansion) to Capricorn (Responsibility) at the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008.  During this current span of five years (2007 to 2012), all the outer energy points will transition from one sign into another and we can expect what we have received so far, a world in massive transition.  

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Our wound to face while Chiron was in Aquarius dealt with idealism across the spectrum of our lives.  Chiron entered Aquarius in March of 2005, just five months before Hurricane Katrina.  The sheer lack of preparedness and subsequent failures following the disaster was a wound of a very different sort than the September 11, 2001 attacks (under Capricorn and to our financial center).  Throughout its journey, which ended in February 2011, America elected a President on the slogan of Change, We Can Believe In and got the Same Old, Same Old.  At the time of this post Congress has one of the lowest approval ratings in American History and the President is fairing little better.

What can we expect with Chiron in Pisces? Pisces rules spirituality, dreams, and the larger consciousness of humanity.  We can expect the wound to take shape around those energies from 2011 until 2019, when Chiron will permanently enter Aries.  In the US chart Chiron resides in Aries in the 5th House (Sibley Chart, Whole Signs System).  Americans actually wound themselves through their independence and warrior approach.  No country has more successfully broken apart community and family at the micro and macro level than America.  The uber independence ideal has created a fractured health care system , a stagnant education system, and host of other ills no longer fully offset by the benefits.  In the current direction, what do you think we can expect when Chiron returns to its original position in April of 2024?  Will Americans heal this wound or be wounded more deeply, thinking the way forward remains the path of extreme individualism?

Chiron also functions as a bridge between the inner energy points, ending with Saturn, and the outer energy points beginning with Uranus, so it connects the individual with larger human consciousness.  Chiron is currently transiting through America's 4th House (of Family and the Inner Life).  One interesting outcome of the Great Recession has been the sometimes forced reconnection of family as adult children and baby boomer parents find that they must rely on each other if one or both get swept away in the tide of economic contraction.  Old or unresolved wounds around family will likely emerge with renewed and forced dependency.  Healing will come in the form of renewed family connections, the creation of new non-standard families, and the re-localization of communities.  In April of 2012 Chiron will conjunct Natal Ceres (the Harvest), retrograde back over nCeres in August, and complete its final forward pass in February of 2013.  The 4th House sees a lot of activity; the Progressed Sun is nearly conjunct nCeres now, Progressed Neptune will reenter Pisces in February of 2012 and conjunct nCeres in April of 2015, and Progressed Pallas is approaching the midway point through the house.  In all, we will see a refocus (pSun) on family while dealing with dreams/illusions/delusions (pNeptune) about family as we strategically think about family and its purpose in our lives (Pallas).

What this time appears to offer through these massive transitions, at least for Americans, is a rejuvenation of family, but not along past lines.  Uranus just finished its journey through the 4th House and "awakened" and "revolutionized" the American family.  If we try to "go back," as will be one of the strong suggestions during this time, we will find greater difficulty than if we find a way to mesh our strong individualism with a strong sense of family ... and, perhaps, more importantly, the inner life.  Do not be surprised if, as resources and wealth dwindle writ large in the coming conclusion to the debt supercycle, people find a greater need for a more secure and abundant inner life instead of an outer life of consumption and constant distraction.  Chiron will focus us all on issues of family and inner life, especially as the placement of Chiron plays out in the specific location of each individual's chart.

Regress, Progress, and Ingress

In my previous entry I talked about some big decisions coming up in the US this week, possible Black Swans. The NFL labor contract was set to expire last night at midnight and the US Federal Government was set to shut down two days ago. Both situations reached the "11th" hour because two opposing groups could not agree. So what has been decided; in both instances the groups have agreed to allow themselves more time to disagree in the hopes that one side will eventually give up or give in and the other side will get what it wants. In the meantime nothing actually changes. Welcome to the "not" results of energy points ingressing. An energy point is in a state of ingress when it moves from one sign to the next. Pluto completed its ingress in Capricorn at the beginning of 2009. Neptune and Uranus are set to ingress this year into Pisces and Aries respectively. This blog entry is about the behavior we are likely to experience during these transitions.

Below is the US Chart for 3/4/2011, which is the chart I was looking at while recording this entry. Click on the chart to open it in a new tab or window and see it enlarged.

Tarot Meditation Card for Today - Osho Zen Fire to the East - Playfulness

Here's a card I really need to get into my soul these days.  For some reason I'm having a hard time feeling the energy down to my toes, but it keeps reoccurring, trying its best to get me to feel the feelings shown in the image.  For me, at the moment, the card is one of contrast; what I want but am having a hard time finding.  Trust me when I say, having Neptune in Scorpio conjunct my Ascendant at 28 degrees of the sign really lays a heavy energy over my chart.  Sensitivity is very high and the dark energy of Scorpio's connection to death, the Underworld, and transformation can really worm its way into my days.  Add to the fact that Neptune is currently performing an ingress from Aquarius to Pisces (at this time Retrograde in Aquarius until 12/6/2010 and not permanently into Pisces until after 2/2/2012, with another Retrograde period from 6/2011 to 12/2011) and we all get some emotional turmoil as Neptune dissolves ideals and community structures (think of all the services being cut from state and federal budgets, with deeper ones likely to come in the second Retrograde period).  It can be hard to find playfulness in these times.

In many ways, however, that is the very reason this card is important and revelatory during these times.  In the book that comes with the deck, the description says, "The serious man had made the world, the serious man made all the religions.  He has created all the philosophies, all the cultures, all the moralities; everything that exists around you is a creation of the serous man."  In response, "Zen has dropped out of the serious world.  It has created a world of its own which is very playful, full of laughter, where even great masters behave like children."  I am no great master, but I think I could use a visit to the claw machine today or the park to play.  I find myself very easily caught up in the serious world; I worked very hard at one time in my life to become a serious man (re: my PhD in English).

My daughter knows how to play and I am trying to learn her lessons, though today doesn't feel like a day I will "earn a good, serious grade."  That thought almost makes me chuckle.  I need a good belly laugh today.  Maybe Youtube will have one.

If you are feeling the seriousness of the world, try to find some play today.  And if you succeed, please share your story.

Big Shifts - Ingress of Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto

While the news media and the politicians are desperately trying to tell us we are returning to normal or will return to normal, most people, I think, feel a fundamental shift has taken place and even more dramatic change is in our not so distance future.  In astrology, individuals will feel significant change when an energy point ingresses from one sign to another.  The first ingress we felt was Pluto leaving Sagittarius at the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 and entering Capricorn.  Not surprisingly the financial meltdown occurred during that ingress.  When an ingress occurs it is not a one and done cross over; the ingressing energy point will pass over the ingress point at least 3 times thanks to retrograde motion.  Pluto in Sagittarius was all about the transformation of religions, higher learning, and authority mainly through expansion, which, when the bill came due and Pluto entered Capricorn we learned that the entire world (except for China) overextended and expanded not through savings, but debt.  The 8.5 million jobs lost in America and the deflation (instead of inflation) of wages and property values reflect false or fake employment and expansion.  The jobs and homes were built on the debt supercycle and Pluto entering Capricorn forced the pendulum swing back and will continue to do so for the next 15 years!

It is not that we're "not out of the woods yet," it's that we're not fully into the woods yet.  Now this one ingress is enough to gut punch us, but right now, today, Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, and Neptune are ingressing; all of the outer planets!  Saturn is dancing over Virgo/Libra.  Chiron and Neptune, which are conjunct, are crossing back and forth over Aquarius/Pisces, and Uranus is dancing over Pisces/Aries.  Saturn is currently opposing Uranus and squaring Pluto (by orb ... or "allowed range"; the square between Uranus and Pluto will be exact for the first time June 2012).  This configuration of Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto creates what is known as a T-Square (or 90 degree triangle), with the "missing" point over in Cancer (the family).  With Saturn entering Libra there will be a desire to hold onto the rules and use the same judgments (old ways of thinking will persist).  Think of Einstein's comment: “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”  Which is what Saturn in Libra will encourage, hence weak Health Care and Financial Reform legislation in this country and Financial Reform worldwide.  Uranus is leaving the dreamy innovation for pioneering Aries, where getting it done will be part of the drive.  But Aries is also warlike, so revolution is part and parcel of its energy.  Small snippets have appeared in the form of one man bulldozing his house before the bank could repossess it and another man flying a plane into and IRS building.


At the personal level, you need to have your chart in front of you to know where this ingress energy is affecting you.  Neptune and Chiron are moving from idealistic Aquarius into dreamy Pisces (and the ruling sign for Neptune).  Demetra George has suggested on Find an Astrologer .com that we can expect scarcity around liquids (read oil and fresh water).  Couple that with Chiron's role as our energetic wound and we will likely see more disillusionment and safety recalls (Toyota, Johnson and Johnson, Kelloggs).   This energy will likely play out in beliefs, especially spiritual ones (Catholic church scandal).  Wherever Aquarius/Pisces is in your chart, you can expect illusion/wounding to energize you to see more clearly.  We're in a hell of a cosmic storm and the full impacts of these ingresses will not be felt until we are well into 2011.