2011 in the US - The Year Ahead, The Year of Adjustment

To perform this forecast, I have chosen to look at both the Transits and Progressions of the United States chart (Sibley, 7/4/1776, 5:10PM, Philadelphia, PA) using the Whole Signs system as written about in Astrology and the Authentic Self by Demetra George. In terms of global transits, 2011 will be much quieter year than the last three (2008 to 2010), which included, significantly: Pluto's transit into Capricorn (January 2008); a Saturn (Libra), Uranus (Aries), Pluto (Capricorn) T-square with Saturn opposing Uranus (2009-2010); Chiron/Neptune conjunction in Aquarius; Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in Pisces; and Jupiter, Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto all moving towards and/or back and forth over the ingress point between signs (Virgo/Libra, Sagittarius/Capricorn, Aquarius/Pisces, and Pisces/Aries). Jupiter separates from Uranus and will move entirely through Aries, Saturn nearly completes its journey through Libra, Chiron permanently enters Pisces and begins to separate from Neptune, Uranus moves permanently into Aries, Neptune and Saturn trine by the end of the year, and Pluto settles more firmly into Capricorn. The ass-smacking square between Uranus and Pluto will not ramp back up until 2012.

While the global transits basically give us a breather, we need to take that time to "batten down the hatches", "stock the root cellar", "pay off our debts", and any other save and conserve measures to protect us from stormy weather and rainy days. The Cosmic Storm brewing with Uranus/Pluto is going to be much more volatile than the last one, when they were conjunct in the 1960s. We will also get a feel for the new way of things as the world economy continues to be stagnant overall and contracting (debt unwinding will become the business as usual if we can detach ourselves from debt accumulation as business as usual). Uranus and Pluto will square in 2012 and dance a "square dance" 7 times until 2015. Given how the global economy represents a "fragile" complex system at this time and entropy is on the rise, we may see many different avalanches over the course of those 3 years depending, largely, on what each world government and the banking system decide during the next two years. If we stick with business as usual (debt to pay for debt), it won't be a pretty picture.

The US, in particular, is going to continue to feel strains, both from the transits and certainly from progressions. I have written about the pVenus/pMars opposition, with tSaturn conjunct pMars, in a previous post, which augers, I believe, a time of fighting to deny the changes we need to make to get society to a healthy place. Mars and Saturn together often indicate war and aggression and tSaturn will be dancing over nSaturn in one hell of a Saturn Return. A lot of what we can expect from 2011 will be set up in the November 2010 election. I suspect we will actually get more of the same even if the Tea Party has major victories and the Republicans return to power in the Congress. Pluto in Capricorn is showing us that the big systems are failing and "work from within" is not likely to bring about any significant change. But what does work from outside look like? It looks like Uranus in Aries in the 5th House of Creativity! America does have tremendous resilience, but what we need is truly revolutionary thinking, not the watered down change offered by Lobbyists for corporate interests.

Whatever we don't do in 2011 to right the ship will only show up in more "men, women, and children overboard" in 2012 when the next Presidential election occurs right near the time of the first exact square of Uranus/Pluto. 2011 will truly be a Year of Adjustment, so let's look at the significant Hot Spots for the year.  Follow this link if you want to see all the monthly charts cast for 2011.

Progressed Venus conjunct Natal Chiron opposes Progressed Mars, Transiting Saturn, and Natal Saturn

This set of configurations represents one of the two Heavy Action areas of the US 2011 chart (the other one involves pMercury, tNeptune, and tChiron conjunct nMoon).  pVenus will progress from 20d29m in Aries in the 5th House to 21d30m over the course of the year, forming a 1d Separating Conjunction with nChiron.  On a societal level, our 1 to 1 relationships and our contracts have merged with the wounding energy of Chiron in Aries (doing whatever we want as individuals without regard for others, and suffering the consequences).  The shadow expression of Chiron in Aries is a wound that comes from doing whatever we want (Aries/5th).  Our greatest asset, Aries independence and creativity, is our greatest potential harm, as deregulation has opened the door for theft at an unprecedented level, one that threatens not only US economies, but world economies.  With pVenus conjunct, we will, at this time, feel the high or low vibration of nChiron in Aries in our 1 to 1 relationships, our marriages, and our business dealings (note the recent review of foreclosure proceedings).

Opposed is pMars at 18d34mR (retrograde) in January and 18d31mR in December, less than 4d Approaching Conjunct to nSaturn (at 14d48m) and in tight opposition to pVenus.  It is a time to strike balance with masculine and feminine energies or watch them go "back and forth" against each other, vying for the upper hand.  Mars and Saturn represent the Great Malefic(s) and here they are conjunct, doubly so since tSaturn is at 17d6m in January and not even 3d Separating Conjunct from nSaturn.  "We have seen the enemy and he is us."  Mars retrograde can mean holding back action, reviewing plans, or becoming impotent.  Unfortunately, pMars will remain Retrograde until 2086 (having gone Retrograde in July of 2006), for an 80 year span. pMars will re-conjunct nSaturn and move all the way back into Gemini.  If American is an empire, then this span will likely show its fall from power or impotence on the world stage over the duration of the time. We are likely to see our "gains" diminish as this progressed energy moves longer and longer through the Retrograde phase.  The positive shift is learning to live with less, re-tooling and rethinking our ambitions.

Among the various great returns in individual charts, the Saturn return is likely number one (Jupiter occurs every 12 years, Chiron returns at 50, and Uranus at 84).  The Saturn return is the "big test" period of our lives when we evaluate what we have done and either give ourselves high marks or learn that we need to make some big changes.  Considering the national and household debt, the state of education, the corrupting influence of banks and corporations, I think we will find this Saturn return about making some big changes.  However, it will be hard, as hard as realizing your marriage is not good, but you don't want to give up the lifestyle you can only have with 2 incomes or 1 person supporting the other.  Obligations, like children or family may add difficulty to making the necessary changes.  Many people reach their Saturn returns, find their lives lacking, and keep staying the course.  Saturn is not a change agent, that's what Pluto is for, which is making its way towards a future square (not in this year) with Natal Saturn in about 10 years.  We are going to have to make dramatic changes to the "unchangeables" - Social Security, Health Care, Education, and the Military.  If we "stay the course" or continue to rejuvenate the old course, we'll find ourselves hitting the iceberg without the number of life boats needed to save everyone.  And like trying to turn the Titanic, it will be too late to make the turn when we actually see the iceberg!

What to do?  If you are not a player at high level, and even if you are, you likely want the system to work and can't abide significant change, then you need to do your best to make changes on your personal level.  Do away with debt any way you can and don't take on any new debt, buy a used car, rent a home.  SAVE, SAVE, SAVE.  If you do buy, but real assets and own them outright ... like land.  We may all be farmers again one day.  Network, build your personal tribe and community of support, consider joining an intentional community, get rooted and learn about your local community.  Learn how to live more simply, carpool,  learn to share resources; these strategies will help you regardless of how the future unfolds.

pMercuryR, tNeptune, and tChiron conjunct nPallas and nMoon

Pallas is not a commonly used energy point unless you are a student of Demetra George after she published Asteroid Goddesses, which I am.  Pallas represents logical thinking, strategy, the art of planning with the mind and it is tightly conjunct the US Natal Moon in Aquarius in the 3rd House (of Communication) and nearly conjunct the 4th House cusp (of Family and Culture).  Americans are "Idealists at Heart" and we certainly have the rhetoric for community activism.  We have also been on the forefront of many changes in community, though not so much of late, probably an impact of pMercury being Retrograde since late 1994. (though gay marriage is staggering forward even as the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell failed).  Retrograde Mercury is also a time for re-evaluation, slowing down, reviewing, and listening!  It is the listening part that America struggles to master, especially since it has such good luck (Part of Fortune conjunct Mercury in Cancer in the 8th) talking and speaking as a moral authority (the mother sign) in its relationships (8th House).

Now, however, is a time to take care of our own, our deep self with the pSun moving through the 4th House and Pisces (6d).  American will be "feeling itself" in the home.  The financial crisis has not only thrown people out of homes, it has driven people back home, trapped people in homes, and opened up wounds in families.  Chiron and Neptune represent a very dynamic combination, much in the same way that Uranus and Jupiter (in 2010) presented.  Unfortunately, the shadow side of these energies represent wounding and delusion and often get more press and play than the higher vibration healing energies available in both.  They will both be Direct at the beginning of the year and the end and Retrograde in the middle.  Chiron will move into Pisces while Neptune will remain in Aquarius.  Most likely, the illusions of the past will hold fast as businesses and government try to reanimate the consumer monster (debt supercycle), military superiority (failed, failing, or unproductive wars), and world authority (while owing everyone else for buying our bonds).  At home we will need to do some serious, deep healing and embrace compassion (Pisces) instead of idealism (Aquarius).  The size and duration of unemployment, and more importantly, underemployment will keep distractions to a minimum as communities and families slow down and turn inward.

In essence, these energies suggest a countrywide turning inward phase.  Coupled with the Saturn Return, America is in for a year of navel gazing while the "powers that be" try their level best to keep the population gazing at the TV.  Distractions may prove harder to come by, especially after the new Congress fails to accomplish anything of import; they will slash programs, but not the budget!

Other Hot Spots of Note

• tNorth Node conjunct nAscendant - Learning to re-present ourselves to the world.  We will know we need a "new look" out in the world.
• pMoon approaches nSaturn - Emotions start to have more of a role in the rules, when pMarsR hits we could have a "boiling point".
• Lunation Cycle - Full Moon - Analyze and Perfect, develop a plan.  We need a long range strategy, but will we get one?  We, as a country, are very used to operating in the Hedonistic Now, and what we need is a "long view".  If we don't start developing one now, when this cycle end s(around the same time Pluto gets out of Capricorn), we may really see a fallen empire in 15 years.  The potential is in the energy for amazing change, but leadership is going to have unite and lead instead of divide and stagnate.
• pAscendant ingress the 10th House.  We need new work, and not just for the unemployment problem, but a new way of thinking about, distributing, and enacting work.  We need, entering Virgo, to bring manufacturing back into this country, adjust the wages, do whatever is needed, but we need people here producing instead of consuming.

2011 will be the quiet before the storm and there will be a storm in 2012 because a soaring stock market and high unemployment are an explosive combination showing the elimination of the Middle Class.  Frustration will likely be the brew of 2011 unless local communities and individuals can begin to create new opportunities and compassion as the world shifts and sifts through an ongoing economic struggle.

US Astrology: The November 2nd Elections (2010)

A look at the transits and progressions active in the United States astrology chart for November 2, 2010 reveals a tremendous amount of important pressure being exerted on key energy points of the US birth chart.  There continues to be ongoing debate about the exact time to attribute to the birth of the US and I am comfortable accepting that all well-researched times reveal various important truths about this nation.  For my own work I have found the Sibley Chart, which assigns a birth time of 5:10PM, to offer highly significant interpretations in line with current events.  I want to provide an interpretation of the upcoming election day within the framework Steven Forrest and Northwatuppa provide in their videos about the Cardinal T-Square (see my previous blog to view the videos). Forrest talks about the amount of pain we must encounter and endure before we are ready to face our difficulty and seek the proper healing.  Northwatuppa discusses the Uranus/Lilith conjunction that reveals kinky dark energy prepared to shock us by coming forth more openly over the next year.  I relate this energy to the expression of the Tea Party movement currently active in American politics.  So what does the 11/2/2010 US transits and progressions chart show us along these lines and others.  Below is the chart; I am using the whole sign system as written about by Demetra George in her book Astrology and the Authentic Self.

To view a larger image of the chart, click here.

There has been plenty of time given to general discussions of the T-Square of Saturn, Pluto, and Uranus and other transits.  In this post I want to put these and other relationships into context against the birth chart energy of the US.  This chart includes a second set of evolving energies, progressions.  Progression calculations allow us to slow down the faster moving planets and see their energy impact over longer periods of time, much in the same way we look at Jupiter through Pluto because they cover time ranges from 1 year to 15 years per sign.  Progressed Sun to Progressed Mars, gives us the same 1 to 10+ years of duration.  The chart above is one of the most "complete" astrologers can cast because we see all the energy points apply over longer durations of impact.  While it is very important to note the transit and progressed aspects (like the tPluto square with tUranus and pMars oppositie pVenus) in and of themselves, the most powerful aspect to consider is the conjunction, when energies merge, not only transit to transit or progression to progression, but transit and/or progression to the birth chart energy point.  As you can see we have two powerful transit to transit conjunctions occurring currently and on 11/2 (tNeptune/tChiron and tUranus/tJupiter).  And, of especial importance, the tNeptune/tChiron conjunction is also conjunct the natal US Pallas Athena and Moon (nPallas and nMoon)!

Suffice to say, the 11/2 elections are going to be a big deal!  A lot will be happening, a lot of potential and possibility, all with strong implications for lower and higher vibration expressions.  I like the Sibley whole sign chart because the transit of Pluto occurs in the 2nd House of values and security, personal home security (your individual wealth and material needs/standing).  A Capricorn 2nd House is very fitting for a nation that believes its home should be its castle.  We are driven (Capricorn) to achieve in our personal material gain and put forth our own values (privacy and independence, getting what is ours).  Pluto rocking this house reflects the kind of personal transformation in values and status that comes in a Recession and Depression.  Of important note is the conjunction tPluto will have at this time with the tNorth Node.  The North Node represents a need to express something while lacking the full understanding of how to express it.  Basically, we need to find new values (or more appropriately revive some very important old ones ... frugality, savings, integrity), we feel this energy deeply but remain unclear how best to manifest it (North Node).  It is times like these that open the door for charlatans and opportunists (like Mussolini, Hitler, or Stalin).  We will hear many simplistic solutions to complex problems and the "easy" choice will present itself as very attractive, especially to a society grown "fat" with entitlements unearned (debt Supercycle unwinding). The Tea Party is an excellent manifestation of this energy combination.  Once you move beyond the "stop government spending" slogan, the details become very antagonistic to specific groups (for the Nazi Party it was the Jews, for the Tea Party it is the Immigrants and Liberals ... and the parallels are tLilith eerie, noting that tLilith is in the 4th House of the US chart).

We can only wonder if this Lilith expression can either gain majority support or have enough focused minority support (while the majority remains largely apathetic) to gain control of government decision making.  Considering some of the moral character shown by Tea Party candidates, I suspect Big Business and the Banking Industry will be very happy to have these people available to their lobbyists.  The candidates we need elected are the ones NOT receiving large donations from special interest groups, but the irony in the current age is that a candidate cannot run unless he or she has a very large "war chest".  We face real limitations in change due to the design of the current system, which is why tPluto is making is move through Capricorn, to bring about fundamental change to large systems.

Let's get back to the chart and two progressed energy points that stand out, both for their current aspect with one another and their conjunct/opposition aspects with the US chart energy points.  I am referring to pMars (Libra/11th) opposite pVenus (Aries/5th).  Here's why everything in this country feels polarized; the masculine energy and feminine energy are in direct opposition and they are in opposing sign energy (Libra is ruled by Venus and Mars is ruled by Aries), so the energies are in mutual reception.  More than ever we need collaboration, not compromise or combat.  Unfortunately, energetically, pMars is conjunct nSaturn and nJuno, making the desire to change very difficult.  With these energies in the 11th House of Community, pMars inclines us to think we will best help society by doing what we want selfishly (the shadow expression) or by restoring local community health (higher vibration expression).  Libra's shadow expression is "follow the rules" no matter what while its higher vibration is about making proper judgments as circumstances change.  Think of the financial crisis this way; government has done all it can to hold up the very institutions and their behaviors with as little change to the rules as possible.  Note too that tSaturn will be conjunct nSaturn during this election cycle as well.  Change to the "status quo" is available, but may only turn out to be apparent.

 

Saturn and Mars have a "go to war tendency" and we can certainly feel and see that energy in American politics.  Opposite this energy is pVenus conjunct nChiron, which means we are in touch with our wounds via our relationships.  Who now does not know someone adversely affected by the economic downturn.  Seemingly independent adult children are moving back in with parents and parent retirements suffering financial hits are forcing new conversations with children about end of life plans.  This whole configuration (pMars/nSaturn/nJuno opposite pVenus/nChiron) could be summed up as, "we are our own worst enemy."  The great potential of this configuration could be using the drive of pMars to make changes in our laws (nSaturn) and our personal contracts, of which marriage is the most fundamental, (nJuno) for the betterment of society (11th House) while balancing (opposition at the higher vibration) the healing opportunity (nChiron) with our familial and cultural relationships (pVenus) in the area of our creative self-expression (5th House).  It is a matter of conscious choice.  What do you think is most likely to happen?

Finally, for this entry anyway, I want to focus on perhaps the most powerful transit scenario in play on 11/2, the tNeptuneR (R for retrograde) conjunct tChironR conjunct nMoon in the 3rd House near the ingress point of the 4th House.  Having a natal Moon so close to the 4th House is, I think, indicative of Americans passion about and for privacy.  Our Sun in the 8th House and in the Northern Hemisphere, along with our Sagittarius Ascendant gives this country its profound outward expression in the world.  The Cancer Sun gives us our Hero complex.  But the Moon near the cusp of the 4th House shows how deeply private and personally hidden we often want to be.  Neptune deals with dreams/delusions and compassion/insanity while Chiron is about healing/wounding and collaboration/compromise.  Both of these energies have been in conjunction during the time of this Recession and both have been dancing over the end of Aquarius/3rd House and beginning of the Pisces/4th House.  Their final movement through the sign of Idealism unveils the wounds of our dreams/delusions.  Many articles written about the financial crisis use the phrase "The End of the American Dream".  During the Bush Presidency, the American cache of goodwill was not only spent, but also put into debt.  Being the lowest part of the chart, we are wounding ourselves and deluding ourselves.  Much of the rhetoric of the upcoming election will likely include a "return to glory" theme.  We need to "go back" ... to smaller government, protectionist policies, and states rights strength.

In the positive, I think the current energy of this configuration is trying to tell us to slow down, refocus on local community, and turn reflectively inward (not fearfully inward).  Forrest does not directly say we have not yet experienced enough pain, but I think he gently implies that our country and the people worldwide have not actually hit rock bottom yet.  And we most likely need forces outside us to help us along the way, like global warming that moves coastlines into fertile soil or resource depletion that begins to affect our ability live our "normal" lives.  It has been written that, in America, the children of my child's generation may be the first to have a shorter life span than her/their parents, thanks largely to a lifelong artificially (not organically) provided diet.  We are seeing the signs of "too much of a good thing is bad" and feeling the effects of over extension.

In the end, I think the fact that the 11/2 elections will occur while four energy points are Retrograde (Jupiter, Chiron, Uranus, and Neptune) and they are "back" in the sign they are leaving, we will see votes being cast to try to get us "back to where we were before" instead of "ahead to where we are going."  I expect very reactionary voting which will lead to further reactionary decision making at all levels of power in an attempt to staunch the inevitable change that Pluto is bringing to our most powerful institutions.  The financial crisis and subsequent bailouts nakedly revealed the true power governing the world, and it is not world governments.  They tooled up to protect the real power managers.  All the potential for higher vibration fundamental positive change is very much present, but it will require, thanks to the various configurations, a great deal of conscious effort to bring about the positive manifestations.  Paradoxically, we may need more darkness (tSaturn on nSaturn, tLilith approaching tUranus, tNeptune/tChiron on nMoon, pMars on nSaturn, and tPluto approaching nPluto) before we see the light.  Even so, everyday, we can choose to see the light whenever we want in front of or ahead of any victimizing darkness.  In my life I'm choosing to see the light and trying to be beacon, however small for others.  I hope you will too.