WARNING, another long post: 

So recently here in Virginia as perhaps you might have heard there was an incident where the parents of a troubled kid were told to take him home as all the hospital beds were full. This story and the tragic results made the news because this was a Senator and his son, but talking to folks I actually know, I see how this is simply the most visible example of something that is happening for many families all over. Why is the chaos so overflowing that so many people in need are having to be turned away and left to figure it out on their own? What is happening and why are so many of our children coming to this edge of despair all at once? As I try to make sense of it and the grief and sorrow I feel and my knee jerk is always to get out my charts and see what subtle and non-subtle forces are at play and what helpful suggestions they might offer us in these times. The obvious is the ongoing Pluto–Uranus square, which I have talked about a bit in earlier posts. I want to look at it though in light of this question and examine a subtler transit of Venus that is acting as a trigger.

Uranus is ruled by Aquarius and so to understand the nuances of this planet’s influence it is helpful to look at Aquarius and the things it governs to help us contextualize Uranus. The big one that jumps out is of course technology and communication. Which means that Uranus can use these things as a direct line for his own energies that wants to expand paradigms and make innovative and rebellious changes. He wants to shatter the ideas we hold to that keep us thinking along well explored paths. We are all plugged in, but young people incredibly so. That is the truth of it. By this very fact, it makes our young people the most direct conduits for the way this Uranian energy is attempting to ground into the culture. Uranus rules Lightening. Lightening is always seeking a ground. That is the nature of it. Uranus works the same way. He is in Aries, and so we are going to see this filtered equally through rash behavior and anger/fear paradigms, as we going to see it filtered through incredible loyalty and courage and a willingness to jump right into the fray and take up arms. Uranus in Aries says I will die to honor my own path. I will die to make change possible. This on the one hand is a very noble sentiment. But I also want to look at the potential shadows here. I don’t know about you, but when I was a teenager life felt absolutely excruciating. I could not look around and find my own truth easily reflected in the culture or the people around me. Granted we are all not black sheep, but given the current energetic environment we have here I would suspect that feeling of isolation to be far more prevalent and far more intense then when I was a kid. The shadow side of this influence is that death can seem like the only viable route to creating a change, especially when the life around you does not mirror any of your truths and you are feeling the rash or rebellious expression of that Uranian desire. Part of what allows the Uranian metamorphosis to manifest in the first place requires a fundamental seed of alienation. That is the burden of the Aquarian-Uranian genius. In order to grasp the future, you must be outside of the fold to some extent. The Age of Aquarius is upon us (if you want a really good article/argument for it to read, please go to Steven Forrest’s website: www.forrestastrology.com). This also naturally brings with it all the potential for loneliness and fear and rebellion and madness that come with that state. Our prophets and our seers, our geniuses have all been a bit mad. Communicating with god I think does that. You have to be able to loosen your hold. Part of why Uranian energy is always seeking a way to ground, is because is not grounded. That is the paradox wrestled with here, this feeling of separate rebelliousness while also being bound in a kind of deeply symbiotic relationship to the very thing you are rebelling against or feeling isolated from. We need those out there on the edge channeling visions of new possibilities back and thus leading that us into the future and those on the fore need that anchor of us; they need the ground we offer so that the energy being translated does not simply run amuck, with nothing to recieve and hold it.

So we take that and fold it into a square with Pluto. It means that the changes that are taking place are at the deepest emotional and subconscious levels of a whole generation. A new paradigm is unfolding and we are all along for the ride. You know how when you talk to folks and they speak suggesting that if we just hang on we can get through this...? Well, behind that expression is the sense that we all know this is just the beginning.  I am not trying to be a gloom or fear spreader, for that is useless.  I do however feel a need to calling it out. Our kids are there in the fore ahead of us, looking into the abyss of the future and we need to listen to what they are translating back to us. We need to honor the courage required of them to channel this powerful and often scary energy. Our teenagers with so little roots to them are being ridden by this wave of Arian Uranian energy. It is our duty to them to take that energy and help them neutralize it safely.

How do we do that someone asked me the other day? I think we will all do it differently according to our own natures, but I think it has to do with this idea of grounding – of becoming a ground rod and offering the lightening to pass through us and into the Earth, who does have the capacity to hold it. What I think is happening with our kids is that they are being ridden by this energy and have no place to diffuse it to. It is burning them out and up in the act of simply trying to process it. We who have the roots of grown from and experience need to step up and do our part. I imagine that given the physical and practical nature of the Pluto in Capricorn, that the solutions are actually quite tangible ones. Perhaps as easy as releasing static charge any other way… Just reach out and grab hold of them. We need to touch our young people more. They are out there plugged in to their technology more than they are in touch with their bodies. Just reach out and touch them, it will call them back. It will help ground some of that energy. If they are riding a lot of this Uranian electricity, sure it might give a little shock now and then and you will have to deal with the surprise of it, but I just have this gut feeling that it will help more than we can know too. Similarly I think that offering ourselves up in a way to be the carriers for that changing energy will have a strong effect. This is a subtle thing – the willingness part – but I think it also has a very tangible and visible proponent to it. Allow change to happen. Notice where you have been resisting change in your own life, on all the levels, emotional, mental, spiritual, physical… do what you can to open more there. We cannot channel energy when we are holding ourselves closed and in a state of resistance. What can you do to open a wider in a state of trust and allow the energy of the universe to move through you as it needs?

I say all this in light of the Venus transits that have come into the picture this month. So since early November, Venus has been on a journey, paying a visit to all the big giants, one after the other. I think of her as going and seeking counsel as well as compromise. The month began with Venus in sextile to Neptune – a magically energizing beginning to her journey and also an entry point which colors the intention of these series of transits. Neptune helps us to see between the veils, both in terms of hallucination and ecstatic vision. In Pisces, he is seeking to unify energy. He erases barriers so that the ripples of interconnectedness can spread out farther and farther. Through the sextile, he is charging Venus to seek out ways we are interconnected and part of a bigger whole. In Capricorn she is going to be listening with an ear of duty and responsibility. Venus in Capricorn can be incredibly devoted to her charge. From there she moved into conjunction with Pluto (which puts her at a square to Uranus). This has been highlighting our emotional relationships, how we compromise and what we actually need to be in healthy sustainable interactions with the other people around us. This conjunction with Pluto has made it obvious to all of us the things that simply are not working within our relationships. We are being made painfully aware of things we’ve been ignoring or trying to step around or avoid.  Through the square with Uranus we are also seeing all the ways it has been thwarting our own growth and our own truth, as well as getting a pretty good idea of what it might take to make those healthier changes. This can be overwhelming to say the least.  Here recently Venus has moved out of the conjunction-square with Pluto and Uranus and into a sextile with Saturn. Saturn the stern father who counsels her for good or ill through the energizing energy of the sextile… He has been urging to make the knowledge she is filtering more concrete. Saturn wants manifestation. He wants to see lasting and tangible results. What does one do when you have been given these visions and are probably overwhelmed at the hugeness of the task and then suddenly someone is knocking at your front door asking “what are you going to do about it”… Is it any wonder that some of our kids are high-tailing it for any backdoor option? With little outlet to ground, other than more internet is it surprising to see full hospital beds and psychiatric wards, or counselors and therapists who have no room for new patients? And yet Venus’ journey with the giants is not over. We have one more left.  As we hit Thanksgiving Venus moves away from Saturn and into opposition with Jupiter. Jupiter in Cancer went retrograde early November and so he has been traveling backwards to make this meeting with her. To me this signature seems to carry an echo of the Neptune in Pisces energy that began her visits. Jupiter direct and in most signs is highly charged and out there laughing and leaping and generally being larger than life. In Cancer he carries a different wave. It is one that becomes incredibly softer, more intensely nurturing… Cancer to the “n-th” degree. Retrograde that energy becomes very inwardly focused, and Cancer is already a pretty inwardly focused signature. Jupiter retrograde in Cancer asks: How can we nurture ourselves and each other? How can we expand in a healthy way and connect and feed one another? How can we make that sphere larger and more inclusive? (Can you catch the Neptune in Pisces flavor a bit? These feel really complimentary to me). Yet where the sextile with Neptune charges Venus, the opposition to Jupiter does something wholly different. A year ago I would simply have mentioned how there is a polarity at play here and how each acts to correct and compensate for the excesses of the other. I would have said how oppositions give us the most perspective and allow for the broadest field of vision. But here recently I have begun to explore the Vesica Piscis and how it works with energy and polarities. In my Qigong group we have been playing with qi in this way and learning to feel that merging place within our own bodies. It has given me a new understanding for the possibilities available in an opposition. Yes to be sure, an opposition can be a yo-yo or a teeter-totter, or it can be a stale mate of butting heads locked in battle with neither gaining nor losing ground, but it can also be a peaceful still point. Oppositional energies can create a quiet alchemical space that neutralizes through inclusion – through opening. Within this possibility of the Vesica Piscis, a doorway is both created and entered into. It seems to me to be a place of magic and mystery and deep wholeness. It is where we can offer the sundry of possibility we carry and download it all to be grounded and transmuted. It is a cauldron large enough to hold all the polarities of the universe and distil them down. Venus in practical self-sufficient Capricorn who can have the tendency to feel bitter and isolated and utterly alone is moving into opposition with this Jupiter in Cancer who is seeking greater health through feelings of inclusion and expansion into the role of caring for self and other. There is an opportunity here for us I think, a helping hand in the chaos.

It seems a lovely possibility we can actually help tap into and ground through our own internal processes. So those are my thoughts on this unfolding. It seems that there is much assistance and guidance given to us in these very challenging times. It seems clear to me that we are throughout all of the upheaval, continuously being offered a clear hand. We need but take it. We do so by opening and honoring the changes. We need to get very honest about the realities of our lives and be responsible for what we have created, and we need to ground deeply and fully into our bodies, into the earth, into our own innate wisdoms and stand fully and strong there. From that place we can reach out and open to the changes. From that place we can reach out and touch those farther out there on the edges, thereby helping them ground as well. This is something we are doing individually within our own energy bodies, but it is also something we are doing externally with all the dancing the universe can unfold. We are all in this together and each of us plays an inextricable part.

There is a Japanese phrase i send out as closure: Gambate - loosely translates to: "Luck, have courage, you can do it, I believe in you."

What the heck is going on?!!! Seems to be the question I have gotten asked lot lately by people looking for some astrological answers. And since it has been overlong since my last post I thought I should put some of my thoughts on it out here for you.

The big one is obviously another exact pass in the ongoing Pluto in Capricorn-Uranus in Aries square that has been ongoing. This square also has Chiron sextiling Pluto from Pisces. More recently however is that transiting Saturn has also come into the mix sextiling Pluto from Scorpio (thus forming an inconjunct to Uranus). Chiron has Neptune close enough in orb to conjunct it and Saturn had had the North Node of the Moon conjuncting it.

Now I know that some argue that one aught not consider the North Node when looking at transits, but I feel differently. One of the really amazing things we have been working with in my Qi Gong group is this idea of the inner void – the god space within. Often times we pull energy into manifestation by calling to or drawing from something outside of ourselves, but there is a polarity to that outward source and that is the place I am speaking of. Anyone who has worked with energy from that place knows that it is very tangible and very old. Now while this might seem like a tangent it really isn’t. The adage “as above so below” is well established in astrology and “as without, so within” is less used for its linguistic complications, but the understanding of it is likewise implied and accepted. I would argue that it is a two way street. And thus my own experience of energy within my body shows me that any trajectory of energy has two points that it moves between. If we consider the South Node as an entity, then we must also consider the North Node as a polarity to that, and thus something to also be considered when looking at transits. I am not trying to convince anyone, simply explaining where my own feelings on the matter come from. You believe whatever works for you. The universe is great that way.

So in terms of interpreting what has been happening, I see the North Node as a key player in that it represents a kind of karmic potential that exists. The North Node is our way forward – our best energetic option. This possibility exists on many levels and in different ways for each of us. Currently the Pluto-Uranus square has brought so much to a head. We no longer can fool ourselves unless we have decided to bury our heads up to our chests in the sand. On a personal level this means that our relationships and our lives have really laid us bare to the bone and we have no choice but to admit that the pattern we have been partaking in is simply not sustainable. We must change. And we must change in a very deep and honest way. The change that needs to happen probably does not look like anything we can imagine. It is terrifying. This is obviously happening on many levels, socially, global, etc… but as I am more of a heart centered astrologer, I like to speak in terms of personal patterns, but use these descriptions at whatever level works for you. Within the context of the signs, both Capricorn and Aries are cardinal signs – they are trying to begin or initiate something. Aries is trying to just rush in, sword flying, wanting to meet it all head on and Capricorn is more studied. It is ultimately goal orientated it wants what it applies itself to, to have some grounding in logic and fact and actual possibility of sustainability. It works through calculation and determination. Obviously these two energies are grinding together (square). That is a lot of our own inner dilemma as we try to manifest the change we feel calling out to us.

Into this mix is a sextile from Chiron with a Neptune conjunction. Whatever our god-sense is, the wounded mistrusting pain that we carry around, our own disillusion or lack of faith and bitter or hindering misgiving is also being woven into that. It is part of the new paradigm we are seeking. “God” in all the various forms it is handed out or marketed does not come close to addressing the complexity of this age we live in. I don’t care how devout or New Age you get. Let’s face it, our spirits are so malnourished we don’t even really know what healthy looks or feels or smells like anymore. Any change we make must include a shift that actually feeds our souls. Our new paradigms must include an honest and worthy way to worship that fits THESE times and all the insanity and wonder possible today. Back in the day there was that phrase “faith that moves mountains.” Can you really say you have ever met or seen anyone in possession of that kind of faith or anything close? And yet our souls know it exists… we simply need to have our ideas of god grow with us. Neptune is here in Pisces to help us dream that new possibility into manifestation.

Now in comes Saturn. Practical, patient, form focused, disciplined Saturn is sitting there in direct communication with the North Node. He is downloading all the potential karmic possibility into his data banks and sifting them through the authority of his own energy signature. Saturn is the planet of manifestation. All the psychological, spiritual, ephemeral, unconscious energy that churns in the universe filters through him into manifestation. Yeah, he weeds out a lot that way and much of it as a result remains very difficult to touch or grasp hold of. But he is also a wise father offering guidance to us in the form of step by step slow and steady processes. He is putting the brakes on here. Do you feel it? This niggling sense in your bones that whispers to not make any rash decisions – that to act now is premature? It is agony for that Arian or Uranian part of ourselves that wants some movement, wants this pressure to be relieved. And yet, Pluto is listening. The sextile assures that, as does the mutual reception (Saturn is in Scorpio but rules Capricorn and Pluto is in Capricorn but rules Scorpio). These guys are listening to one another. There is heated exploration of all this karmic download that is happening. And so if any of you have gone inside and really paid attention to what your bones and your guts are saying, what most of you are hearing is “Wait”. Go inside. Check out if what I am saying is true… not small mind, not knee jerk, not fear or frustration… listen to your bones, listen to your guts… what is it you hear?

What I suggest if you are hearing that is to open wider to the discomfort of all the rest of it. Try and make room for all of your thoughts, all of your feelings, all of your fears and all of your dreams…everything. Just try as best you can to let it all pour into your different awarenesses however it is presenting itself. Just try and let it. Just try to make your container bigger and let it be whatever it is. Try not to judge yourself for it. Try not to explain it away or tell yourself the whys and wherefores. This is not a time of understanding. This, I think is a time of dialog between all that exists and all that might possibly exist and we are sitting at the table to discuss these options with the lord of death and rebirth. He is all ears. Let’s not leave anything out. Whatever new paradigm we want to create for ourselves, personally I feel should include the whole of ourselves centered around an intention of healthy sustainability.

Saturn is in inconjunct to Uranus which means that he has a hard time finding any common ground with that great changer. Uranus is lightening and magic. Pluto is going to have to translate for him. If you have ever spoken through an interpreter you know that much patience is needed. Conversations take longer and it becomes so obvious that lots gets lost or missed. We simply have to trust the process.

A few weeks from now Saturn will have moved and this sense of waiting will not be as intense. Mercury will have gone retrograde and so it makes sense that there will be a correlatory muddle in the mind that takes place. A Mercury retrograde is often described as a time where we reboot. In horary astrology it also correlates with finding lost things. This feels very auspicious to me.

I cannot say how this plays out for you in your own charts. Plot the transits on your natal and see what shakes out. This will tell you a lot about the areas in your life this energy is dancing through. I do hope that it helps to remind all of you that you are not alone in your churnings. We are all here dancing and dreaming the universe together. Reach out and touch each other. Reach out and touch yourselves. 

 I offer excerpts from Pesha Joyce Gerler's poem     The Healing Time

                                     Finally on my way to yes 
                                     I bump into 
                                     all the places 
                                     where I said no 
                                     to my life 
                                      all the untended wounds ...
                                               
                                       ... I lift them 
                                       one by one 
                                       close to my heart 
                                       and I say    holy 
                                             holy.

So i wanted to recommend the article in the current MOUNTAIN ASTROLOGER by Liz Greene...

In the article/transcript (based on a talk she gave) she talks about transference and counter-transference within the counseling session, specifically how it applies to an astrological reading. After i read the article i did a personal little tailspin of self scrutiny at the pointy end of the small mind stick. 

It seems so important to just put it out there and be very clear... we all do this...WE ALL DO THIS. We all interact and function in the world through the lens of our own experiences.... much of this lens is shaped by our baggage - the stuff we know about and the stuff we don't. You see and hear through yours and i see and hear through mine... every minute of every day...

...and yet somehow despite all of this, really profound interactions can happen between ourselves and others. When it does, but most especially when it doesn't it is SO very important to have compassion here. For yourself, for other. Yes, it helps when we keep in the fore of our minds that all these subconscious energies are at work beneath the surface, but i don't think it helps if we approach any moment believing it should be other than what it is. I know, that sounds so cliche, but its true.

It is important to keep that window open for the Divine to shine through... you know? There we are in the little cave like cell we make for ourselves - we might have painted the walls in glorious colors, but there are somedays we feel really trapped by our limited perspectives. Somewhere up above though, just keep in your awareness that there is an opening. Possibility is the most wonderous of magic... it can get into the smallest crack if we let it.

So despite of what you carry, healed or unhealed within you - despite of what i carry healed or unhealed in me... i hope that like Rumi's poem:

Beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing

there is a field.

I’ll meet you there.

As Neptune is currently at 5 degrees Pisces, we find him well into the sign he rules and so have perhaps begun to hear his call within us - an inclination to a deepening or a rediscovering of what our own spiritual nature draws forth. His pass here is a process of many years, so one hopes that within this time, our lost selves and parched souls might find a flowering as a result, but for me what is more interesting (perhaps because it is not so immediately obvious) is that we are also being offered tremendous insight into our own Virgo energies. Pisces sits opposite Virgo and therefore can offer the broadest perspective on this sign. Neptune in Pisces will activate Virgo energy through opposition to it. Neptune by its very nature can offer us gentle insight into our universal connectivity… something that often gets buried or forgotten by Virgo’s intense focus on detail.  Even if you don’t have any planets in Virgo, look to the house occupied or cusped by Virgo or look to your 6th house and explore the perspective Neptune offers you into yourself through these points.

Listening to a dharma talk the other day, the question was posed: “would you rather strive for perfection, or would you rather strive for wholeness?”  As someone with a strong Virgo signature it seemed rather fitting that this question find its way with such direct succinctness into my awareness. The response that rose within me was yet another question that cut directly to the bone: “why have i been so willing to settle for perfection?”

Neptune in Pisces suggests that perfection is an ever elusive state; one never fully realized but through Grace. For without this quality to balance it, perfection stands a strong chance of becoming instead a lovely and juicy carrot at the end of a stick, often driven from behind by a whip of guilt or shame or some version of self hate.

There is so much internal and external pressure for us to fix the many things broken and out of wack in our societies, our politics, our cultures, our religions, our families, our relationships, our environment, our lovely precious planet… you name it. The list is long. We are living in a time where Virgo energy – its insight and its dedication is much needed and much called upon. But it can also leave us feeling pinched, stressed out, overwhelmed and intense because the task is so huge and so daunting and so very important. It is easy under this pressure to become blinded as we fall prey to the siren song of perfection and thereby trigger some of the less optimal vibrational paths of Neptune in Pisces such as escapism in any of the many forms available to us.

 I would like however to offer that Neptune in Pisces at this critical juncture of our human family development is in itself a sign from the Universe. Neptune in Pisces calls each of us – however it might manifest in our lives and in our consciousness - to explore this idea of wholeness. It suggests through its opposition to Virgo that we try to withhold our judgment and our ideas of what it might look like… to simply sit deeply with open awareness to the complexity of whatever situation we find ourselves in and to allow wholeness to present itself to us. Allow it to rise up as itself. Neptune here offers the suggestion that we use the Virgo energy to act upon the moment as it unfolds rather than use Virgo energy to direct or dictate how that moment ought to manifest.

When we resist trying to press energy into ideas too small to fully contain them we are in essence inviting Grace to come and sit beside us. It's a scary thing to sit at the edge of possibility and let it flood you with how huge it actually is… and yet we must be ready for it, because Neptune is here, in Pisces calling us to do exactly that and simultaneously acting like a potentially wise and giant anchor point for all the Virgo energy that is concurrently being stimulated within us through opposition.

Neptune offers us the gentle reminder of Grace, telling us that the WHOLE package is invited to sit at the table.