Aquarius and the End of Spiritual Hierarchy

The combination of Pluto in Capricorn and the ongoing oppositions of Saturn in Virgo and Uranus in Pisces over the next two years make for a potent force intent on crumbling the current outdated hierarchical structures.

This includes spiritual hierarchy.

As we head more fully into Aquarius, the Piscean spiritual structures that have been built up have to shift. I know this sounds weird - Pisces and structure don't usually go together. But there is a definite establishment that has been built around spirituality that will find itself increasingly obsolete as we move into egalitarian Aquarius.

The master-student paradigm is a big one. The idea that we hold someone up as more spiritual, enlightened, closer to God than ourselves. The guru-ization of another person...or another culture. (India, Tibet, etc.) Devotion to what someone else is saying, feeling, believing...and adopting it as our own.

This happens a lot because it is part of the way spirituality was practised in the Piscean paradigm. There were people who were considered more God-like, more perfected, more whatever that were meant to teach and spread spiritual consciousness to students - the "regular" people who were wanting to become more "spiritual."

This isn't the way of the Aquarian paradigm.

Aquarius demands that we take responsibility for our own divinity and for our own relationship with God/the divine/the universe. With Saturn in Virgo opposing Uranus in Pisces, we must use very exacting personal discernment in this arena, determining what is valuable and real to us and what is fluff. There is no one prescribed way. It's individually determined.

Setting up the master-student paradigm at this point is kind of lazy and will be prone to ass-biting karmic lessons about not blindly following any one prescribed spiritual method, ideology or guru-type. In other words, setting things up in a redundant Piscean way is just asking for massive disillusionment and really annoying "life lessons" about not doing that. These structures are just asking for abuses of power, especially with Pluto in Capricorn.

During Aquarius, anyone in a position of earned leadership will not be promoting or imposing their particular brand of spirituality as the key to salvation.

Same thing for setting up another person/ideology as the stereotypical Piscean saviour. No one is going to save you but you. Not the politicians, not The Market Gods, not your friends, family, not a guru, not a UFO...only you. Each person taking on his or her own resonsibility for applying the vision in concrete, practical, day-to-day life is what will save this here planet. Detaching from what is not personally acceptable and building, individually and within the collective, what is.

The New Age establishment is in for a dramatic realignment. No longer will people be able to set themselves apart, promoting a glamourous spiritual image (and taking that image all the way to the bank). No longer will spiritual information be shrouded or kept esoteric and out of reach.

Aquarius is all about integrating it into the community, as comrades and equals.

So that dreadlocked lady who talks to angel guides? She's just like you. She's a human being doing her best to get along on this planet. That crystal-toting shaman dude in the leather vest? He's just a dude doing what he knows to do. That head-shaved, Buddhist Reiki Master with the septum piercing and tattoo of Siddhartha on her head? She's doing her job like you do your's. They know what they know, and you know what you know.

In other words...we're all on the same "level." Thanks, Aquarius. You're a pal.

The current New Age movement (with roots going to Helena Blavatsky and Alice Bailey) is built on a hierarchical belief system that there are spiritual masters (Jesus, Buddha, Quan Yin, etc.) who guide the humans on the planet. The "regular" humans can usually only interact/learn their teachings through an intermediary - a human being who is more "spiritually evolved" and in a service role.

The whole system is set up as a series of "initiations" or levels that you have to go through to get to the top of the spiritual hierarchy. And boy, do a lot of people like to rub it in when they believe they're higher on the Spiritual Ladder of Successful Enlightenment.

It's so incredibly annoying to be condescendingly told by a staunch New Ager, when you offer a different perspective than the one they are asserting, that they're sorry you're just not "there yet" and that they will pray that one day you will be open to the truth (their truth).

Nope. I've just been and gone is all. Not interested in what you're selling.

Condescension when you exert your boundaries is one surefire way you can tell that a person is holding onto the spiritual hierarchy. Subtle manipulation and promotion of what they're into. Anger and lashing out about how you are too negative or unconscious or closed off when you don't swallow what they're feeding you is also popular. Spiritual bullying.

Staying in your own energy seems to be taken as a personal affront for a lot of establishment New Agers. They want to envelope you in their's. There's a push with Pisces to bring everyone "into the fold." Oneness. Whereas, Aquarius requires that we take on the responsiblity of our individuality within the collective.

The friction of Piscean and Aquarian in late days 2008...coming to the forefront as Uranus in Pisces goes direct on Thursday.

There is a level of overblown spiritual ego these days that is having a tough time of it. People who are used to constant little ego boosts from others who are impressed by their consciousness level are having to wean themselves off - or are finding it harder and harder to get a fix. I guess people are confused and are having a hard time stepping off the pedestal onto solid ground as equals.

Anyway, setting things up in this Piscean paradigm (or rather, continuing this) will no longer be successful, and it's just asking for ugly lessons teaching us to take responsibility for ourselves...not to mention a big diet of humble pie for those who believe they are so far above their fellow humans.

That's not to say that there is not a lot to learn from each other. Or that we can't consult people whose perspective and knowledge we respect and value.

But it's not about hierarchy. It just is what it is. Some people know a lot about cars, so we go to them when our muffler is falling off. Other people know a lot about an unintegrated solar plexus chakra and resulting issues with authority. Potato, potahto.

A lot of "spiritual" knowledge is fairly common sense. Wise woman/man type stuff. It can be accessed within for people who genuinely want to take it on...maybe with a little direction and encouragement, sure. But a lot of things in the spiritual arena are sort of common wisdoms passed along through our spiritual and physical ancestral lineages. Or can be learned through personally chosen sources of information.

Our ancestors used this common sense day-to-day. They didn't need a big fancy label for doing it. These are actually simple, down-to-earth kinds of things designed to help us live better and wiser. There's no need to set them apart from "regular" people. Or to make them intimidating or difficult to access. We may have gotten out of touch with this type of wisdom as a collective, but we need only be set back on track and it all comes back.

There has been a lot of talk on Internet circles about the New Age roots of the powers-that-be...the sort of creepy spirituality that allows them to murder and ravage the planet, all as part of the "Divine Plan." (While keeping the followers sedated with Love and Light, repeating the "all part of the Divine Plan" mantra.) I read on another astrology blog the other day (Robert Phoenix) that New Age is the religion of the New World Order. Imposing One World Government and One World Religion. (I love how they misuse the whole Piscean oneness thing...another example of these people just not getting it.)

This connection makes sense because, at their extremes, both bank on the idea of an "enlightened" group of elites calling the shots for the rest of the planet (the unenlightened sheep).

Too bad these so-called elites are so very far from true spiritual understanding...or from being real leaders. Thus their utopian vision will create yet more dystopia. Headed by Sarah Palin, perhaps?

Too much secrecy, domination, abuse and manipulation. Um...yeah. And killing.

And too close to that whole Master Race thing. 'Memba that?

Both Alice Bailey and her original occult teacher, Helena "Madame" Blavatsky, had ties to Aryan beliefs (that the Aryans were the most evolved race on the planet.)

Bailey was also hell-bent on removing the influence of Judaism.

So you can see the roots of this stuff...all based on this "spiritual hierarchy" way of thinking. Outdated, redundant, not just a little creepy...and if it's pushed, in the wrong hands, it can be dangerous.

All this secrecy and veiling - very much related to late days Piscean tactics.

As Pluto heads out of Sagittarius - the sign ruling faith, religion, ideology - it seems there is a plan to demonize and remove the traditional religions and replace them with this follow-the-leader New Age One World Religion.

Replacing one flawed and dogmatic ideology with another. Sound leadership, eh?

Aquarian Consciousness: Politicians Are Not Our Leaders

Neither are bankers, corporate heads or members of royalty...

The closer we get to the consciousness of an Aquarian paradigm, the clearer becomes the false leadership within false hierarchies that has been sustained.

These are not our leaders.

As Pluto gets ever-closer to Capricorn, the dirty dealings of those in power are coming right out into the open. As I said in the November Astro Perspective, Capricorn rules the 10th house of the chart and the Midheaven - the most visible, publicly accessed place in the birth chart. So Pluto in Capricorn is going to be right in our faces holding up the lack of integrity in our hierarchies, especially in business and government.

Like the bailout of the banking industry currently going on in the U.S. This is almost unimaginable, but there it is, plain as day. $700 billion of U.S. taxpayer dollars going to bail out the corrupt banking industry. Just a Band-Aid solution that did nothing to deal with the root causes of the problem. And it "didn't work." So now they need another $700 billion.

As a friend put it, it worked just as they wanted it to work. Funnelling money from the bottom to the top. Goodbye middle class. And all the while, it does absolutely nothing to solve the very real problems of the working people. Those who put their trust in the system are still losing homes and jobs. The government did nothing concrete with the money because the government has interests other than the common people at the forefront. There is no plan other than to keep the game limping along for a little while so those at the top can get situated.

Let's just look at one tiny aspect of this bail out.

Citigroup. Millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars bailing out a bank whose largest shareholder is a Saudi millionaire (billionaire?) prince, Alwaleed bin Talal.

Funnelling the taxes of the working people (you know...the ones who still pay taxes) to the financial elite in a plan that will actually do nothing to improve their situations.

Not to go all Kanye on your asses, but these people don't care about the working classes. They never did. The working classes are puppets on strings, to be manipulated at will.

The Federal Reserve bank, the bank that regulates the money system in the U.S., is actually a private entity. So private bankers are ruling the economy in the United States - not the government, acting for the people. There is a complete merger of government and corporate/finance. We can see through the decisions of who to bail out and who to let slide the strategic nature of it all. The ties that bind. It's all a big game to them...while the working classes struggle and people suffer...

Pluto in Capricorn is breaking it down for us. Could take a while. Sixteen or so years.

And again, all I can say is I'm grateful for the Scorpio energy over this past two months, attempting to keep it real.

Especially now with all the people riding the glazed-over Obama bubble...

He's got a lot of Scorpio in his inner circle right now (American/Israeli dual citizen Emmanuel and Clinton). Too bad it's the dirty kind.

All people who want to continue the imperialist wars, who want to continue militarily backing Israel, who don't see anything wrong with what Bush Jr. and Sr. have done during their days in office, who think funnelling taxpayers' money to that very nice guy they met at that Bohemian Grove soiree is all part of the plan.

It's all very status quo. Baby Bush is even overseeing the "bailouts." Another Clinton involved...whose financial integrity hasn't exactly been established. (Whitewater? Vince Foster?)

Who are these people considered the so-called "elites?" They are not my definition of the word.

It's all getting just a little too surreal, a little too brazen.

But really, nothing surprising. Unfortunately.

New Moon in Sagittarius - It's a Zinger, Baby!

So we're finally coming out of the Scorpionic grind this week and moving into a powerful New Moon in Sagittarius on Thursday. Some crazy action going on around that thing, which I'll go into a little later...

But first! Yet more Scorpionic processing as we go through the Dark of the Moon (or Balsamic Moon) in Scorpio, leading up to the New Moon. Aren't we all excited about that?!?

(Oh, dear God...no more!)

Don't worry...this shouldn't be so bad.

Yes, Mars, the Sun and Mercury have (mercifully) entered Sagittarius at this point, but we have a Grand Finale Moon in Scorpio (starting Monday, Nov. 24 suppertime MST until Thursday, Nov. 27 morning) to make sure we have emotionally processed all the stuff stirred up by Scorpio season. One last purge of past dynamics, conditioning and crystallized garbage weighing down the energy stream.

Yes...sounds exhausting on the tail end of dragging our asses through the underworld over the past month or two, but the best part about the Dark of the Moon is that you don't really have to DO anything. You just have to ALLOW. Allow whatever needs to be processed to purge right out of our little systems. It'll happen without effort from us. In fact, the less we do, the better, I think. It's only when we attach to what is leaving or get involved in the drama of the process that we get in trouble...and the Moon, especially the Moon in Scorpio, is prone to doing this. So we have to turn inward now, get still and listen to that vital part of ourselves...the part instructing us to stay safely inside, out of reach of the last-gasping garbage trying to reattach. Whatever is on its way out is on its way out. Nothing we can do about it. What's dying is dying. It can't be saved. We have to bank on that which is regenerating and going on...and disengage from the whipped-up energy that is being sucked into the Plutonic garbage disposal. All the crap we decided we've had enough of...or the Universe decided for us!

Whatever you do, don't throw your hand down the Plutonic garbage disposal for anything! It's not worth it to go after anything on its way out...even something you don't think you can live without. Attaching to anything out of emotional habit, conditioning or security fears will not be successful...and could actually cause a major trainwreck. As could accepting treatment/dynamics in your life that you were already instructed to trash, as per Pluto's strict instructions!

The Dark of the Moon is the time just before the New Moon when it seems that the Moon's light is going out. The Moon becomes dark and invisible as it passes between the Sun and Earth. As soon as it moves out of that alignment, a sliver of Moon's light becomes visible again. Symbolic, yes? Closing one chapter and beginning a new one. This happens every month, of course, but the events surrounding this New Moon certainly do not happen every month...very special times. Again...I'll talk about this a little later. Very important to let things fade completely to black now. Allowing is the key word...allowing the process to extricate ourselves from the old, where we cannot exist any longer.

(This allowing/ending goes on up until 9:58 a.m. MST on Thursday, when the Sun and Moon come together in New Moon formation at 5 degrees Sagittarius.)

The Scorpio Moon in the Balsamic phase will give us time to emotionally come to terms with where we are now, post-Scorpio season...what we've stripped away...what is coming to an end in our lives and what is being born. Things are changing in a big way and in very concrete ways these days (Saturn - Uranus oppositions). It's really happening, and this means the old ways are dying. No matter how crapola the old set-up was near the end, it's still sad or unnerving at times to know that some aspects of our lives/selves/relationships/structures are gone forever. They have been/will be transformed into something better, yes. But we still have to say goodbye, with nostalgia (Moon) or with glee (or a combo of the two). We have to emotionally process the endings and prepare for the beginnings. We can see the old in the new, sure...but it's still not the same, and we have to make peace with that.

There are those events in life (babies being born, people dying, weddings, divorces, etc.) that, just by the fact of their occurring, change you and your life forever. Nothing will ever be the same afterward. There's no going back. One whole backdrop is reduced to rubble as you step into a new one. The old self and way of living is gone. It's a little melancholy.

These times are sort of like the entire planet stepping out of that old backdrop and into a new one. There is a lot to come to terms with saying goodbye to as we transition into the new backdrop. So many layers to the endings and beginnings. We're the ones we've been waiting for, indeed.

Pluto entering Capricorn and the ongoing Saturn - Uranus oppositions through 2010 are indicators of this grand-scale transformation of the "way things are."

And both these indicators are very much at the forefront during this New Moon.

Pluto enters Capricorn at 9:44 p.m. MST on Wed., Nov. 26. (For more on that, check out the November Astro Perspective)

Uranus goes direct in Pisces (still within two degrees of opposition to Saturn in Virgo) at 8:55 a.m. MST on Thurs., Nov. 27.

The New Moon in Sagittarius occurs just an hour later at 9:58 a.m. MST.

In astrological terms, and because Uranus and Pluto move through our zodiac so slowly, it's as if all these events are happening together, a convergence.

The New Moon also occurs conjunct Mercury and Mars in Sagittarius (so that means the Sun, Moon, Mercury and Mars are in a stellium in Sagittarius.)

A concentration of new Sagittarian energy just as Pluto leaves the sign.

Pluto did its best to bring to light and purge hidden aspects of religious and cultural extremism, ideological bigotry and power struggles, the interweavings of hatred and faith, cultural excess, hypocrisy in what is being preached, zealotry, etc.

Now we have the opportunity with this New Moon to shed the crystallization of the past once and for all regarding subjects like religion, culture, ideology, philosophy, higher education and belief systems and go forward with a new level of faith and optimism in our lives, broadened understandings, and a fresh integration of Sagittarian subjects. A new fire burning in our bellies, sustaining and inspiring us.

And yet...there is an element of playing by the rules with this New Moon. Sagittarius loves freedom, but with Pluto entering the first degree of Capricorn and Saturn being strongly involved, there are protocols to be followed. We have to be allowed into the structures in order to transform them, after all.

The Sabian symbol for the New Moon degree of Sag is: A Game of Cricket

"This is not the time for anyone to be pushing the envelope to test what is acceptable to the rules of society. The rules and guidelines for operating in this situation are, or should be, made very clear - there will be some form of punishment for dishonesty. There is a need to remember everyone's position in the game: your own and others. Also, every game has its rules."

"Always keep your composure. You can't score from the penalty box, and to win, you have to score."

- Bobby Hull

Thank-you, Mr. Hull, for that reminder. heh heh

We have to be in the game now in order to change how the game is played. Keep your stick on the ice. ;-)

The Slow March Out of Scorpio has Begun...

And thank goodness for that...

Processing of the Scorpionic kind is always quite heavy, sometimes brutal, so it should be a welcome bit of news that Mars left Scorpio for Sagittarius yesterday in the early morning. The Sun will follow suit this Friday (Nov. 21), and Mercury will do the same Sunday (Nov. 23). Pluto (co-ruler of Scorpio) will exit the final degree of Sagittarius for Capricorn November 26.

The processing and regeneration that happens when Scorpio/the 8th house is emphasized (when Pluto is stirring up some action) is deep and emotional and can create experiences of rage, grief, oppression, feeling stuck and trapped, and suicidal depression. Facilitating the process can be exhausting (like giving birth to a real live human), so it's with relief that we accept movement into the buoyancy and optimism of fiery Sagittarius.

But first, this tail-end Scorp stuff.

Pluto triggers in Scorpio the things we need to shed in order to stay vital and continue the unfolding process we undertake by living our lives on Planet Earth.

These things to shed can be triggered/brought to our awareness in a number of different ways, but to successfully complete the process, it involves going to the deep, dark, ancient core of ourselves.

As we bring forward the energetic dynamics, the aspects of self or relationship to lay on the funeral pyre, we go through a process of digging so we get all of it. The dynamics/aspects of self or relationship exist in our individual lives but have collective roots.

So as we dig and scrape and disengage, we get triggered again and again so that we understand the real depth and complexity of that which we're dealing with. We get sucker punched in any area where we need to increase awareness and improve, where we need to fight to get out from under the weight of that which is attempting to suffocate and drain us. We see how cleverly the roots of the poisonous dynamics have worked their way into the system. We see how they attach to every last bit of unresolved fear and weakness and hurt and feed on it.

But we also get right pissed! How dare these things try to suffocate and drain and kill me? How dare they try to keep me down and feed off my energy?

This is the Mars part of the Scorpio equation. Where the collective garbage stirred up by Pluto becomes personal. Where we apply our personal motivation and energy to power through. This is where we learn to love our anger, to honour our rage, and to do what it instructs us to do (only the healthy, productive things, of course!). This is where we use our our never-say-die iron will to battle our way through the hellish aspects of our lives and selves. The only way past it is through it, so we'd best get going.

There is a big aspect of letting go with Scorpio/Pluto, for sure. "Letting go" is a big mantra of the New Age establishment these days. Yes, it is necessary to let go of everything we can. To just disengage. To not allow ourselves to be drawn into the figure eight dynamics with the other person/situation trying to get our goats.

But there are also times when one needs to face down his or her opponent and show it who's boss. To get rid of it once and for all. To "let go" in these instances is actually counter-productive. It just allows the dynamic to circle back and bite you in the ass from another angle. So in these instances, we wield the sword and shield, and we cut our way out of the entrapping garbage. We clear our path. We don't wait for it to clear on its own. We listen to our gut-level intuition (Pluto) and take action (Mars). We use our flickers of anger and rage as a guide. They're telling us we need to do something, and do something we must.

It's not all about surrendering. This is a Piscean concept, and (broken record time) we're heading out of the astrological Piscean era. There is some redundance here that will simply not be successful. With Scorpio energy, we really must DO (Mars) something about our circumstances.

The other aspect of this Scorpionic/Plutonic process is the body processing. Pluto digs up old emotion from our ancient cores. Rage and hurt and grief from all the betrayals, injustices, oppressions, inequalities, wounds and dark, dark, darkness that have been under the surface and left unresolved for all this time, through all our ancestral lines. We then process it through our physical bodies (Mars) to resolve it. The collective stuff is dealt with through each individual processing it.

This body processing is a little like going through menopause (not that I've gone through it, but from what I hear). Aches and pains, muscle stiffness, bone-weary exhaustion, hot and cold flashes, weird electrical sensations, feeling dirty and greasy even after bathing, nausea, sleep disruption, etc.

We purge a whole lot of energetic garbage through our systems, and it can be rough. We're also physically adjusting to changes in our structures, which can be painful.

So we're coming to the end of our yearly Scorpio season, but we're not out of the woods yet. The final degrees are sometimes a big old bitch because we're tired, but we can't let up. We have to maintain awareness of any more garbage dynamics that we need to be cut loose right up until the last minute of the last degree of Scorpio. These Scorpionic things are sneaky. They kick your ass to make you stronger and better and smarter and a more masterful psychic surgeon. They teach you to trust your own intuition and take razor-sharp precise action using its guidance. But they're still a bitch-a-roonie-doonie. So keep staring them down.

Correction

Obama has stated he will withdraw troops from Iraq by 2010...but will then redeploy troops from the war in Iraq to the war in Afghanistan.

Same shizzle, different pizzle.

All adds up to...similar direction for U.S. foreign policy.

My Scorpionic Spidey Sense Doesn't Register Much Change...

So Saturn and Uranus have completed their first opposition. Obama's been elected Pressie of the U.S. of A. The White Cats are presiding over Mouseland (Tommy Douglas reference).

And now as Mercury digs in in Scorpio, information starts coming out about who was really elected...outside of the election campaign best face forward and the vote-getting blah blah blah.

I have to say, watching Obama's acceptance speech, I felt...well...not much. I knew the parts of the speech that were designed to tug at my heart strings and fill my eyes with hopeful tears. But it just didn't happen. I just couldn't quite buy what he was selling. Call me cynical...I think I just keep my eye on the prize. And I know that this man, despite what he says, is not the change I need to see. He doesn't even begin to touch the change I need to see.

I knew from the election campaign that Obama was planning to continue the U.S.' imperialist wars. He reassured American Jews that Israel would continue enjoying its "protection" - ie. use of military might to enforce it's self-declared borders against Palestinians.

He spoke out about the "threat" that Iran poses to U.S. security and safety.

He refused to commit to withdrawing troops from Iraq or Afghanistan.

Basically, I felt it was going to be more of the same: full-scale "War on Terror." With the terrorists being anyone who disagrees with the way the U.S. does things...anyone who disagrees with the New World Order agenda.

Obama has appointed Israeli citizen Rahm Emmanuel as his Chief of Staff...previously a senior advisor to Bill Clinton.

From an article by Jerry White:

"During his run for Congress in 2002, Emmanuel broke ranks with the Democratic congressional delegation from Illinois and supported the authorization of the war against Iraq, explicitly backing President Bush. Rising to the fourth-highest position in the House Democratic leadership, Emmanuel played a key role in the passage of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

Emmanuel has close ties to Israel and is a leading member of the right-wing Democratic Leadership Council, which includes figures such as the Clintons and Senator Joseph Lieberman. He is expected to play a key role in the selection of cabinet appointees, including the Treasury and defense secretaries. These posts are expected to be announced quickly, in order to reassure the markets and the foreign policy and military establishment."

Again...I don't see much change here.

The election banked on racial tensions, playing the race card to get people believing. But our problems go far beyond race...

Information is also coming to the surface about tension between McCain's people and Palin's people during the election campaign.

Apparently, Palin wasn't sure which countries are in NAFTA ("North American Free Trade Agreement" - What countries are in North America, Sarah?)

She also wasn't sure that Africa was a continent.

Are you smarter than a fifth grader, Mrs. Palin?

The thing I found odd was that her evangelical religious beliefs never made any headlines. Obama's religious background sure did...but the fact that Palin aligns herself with an Armageddonist church in Alaska that believes we are heading into "end times" and that Alaska will become a "refuge state" for people fleeing the Armageddon? Not a whiff of it in the mainstream media.

Anyway, none of this surprises me.

As I said in the November Astro Perspective...the revolution isn't going to be led by anyone but you and me. It comes from us, and we have to stay true to the course, going only where we know in our guts is the right place to go. And above all...being true to ourselves.

The revolution will not be televised! :)

Chiron's Role in the Saturn - Uranus Opposition

One thing to note about the upcoming Saturn - Uranus opposition on November 4 (and subsequent oppositions over the next two years) is the role Chiron plays as intermediary between Saturn and Uranus.

Chiron is located between these two bodies. The body related to the "wounded healer," Chiron shows a wound we carry with us and attempt to heal throughout our lives. Since we often have salt thrown into this wound personally, it's something we can recognize and validate in other people, helping to heal it in them through our understanding and healing touch. And not only in the area of our own particular wound - being in touch with our personal Chiron helps us to understand woundedness, in general, in others...we see how they are hurt again and again in certain ways and we understand what needs to happen to start the healing process there. Working with Chiron in others helps us to heal our own wound, layer by layer, throughout our lives.

As middle ground between Saturn and Uranus, you can think of it this way:

It is a wound related, in part, to the ways that our personal genius and "higher," future-oriented insight (Uranus) makes it difficult to fit into the traditional structures that be (Saturn). Uranus rules the urge to revolution and change while Saturn rules our concrete, material structures and the way we operate within them to achieve success. Saturn relates to authority and fitting into things the way they are. Uranus rules an area where we simply will not bow down, a place where we demand complete independence and freedom. The tension between these two things can cause stress and exacerbate the Chiron wound...

Following our Uranian vision makes us viewed as an eccentric oddball, a square peg in the status quo Saturnine round hole. But the weight of our responsibilities and what we have to do to achieve success in the material world (Saturn) can also painfully keep us from our highest vision and the "genius track" in our own lives.

(It's very common to have Chiron opposite Uranus in the birth chart if you were born before 1991...showing the oppositional relationship between our personal genius and intellectual independence and our lifelong wound.)

To fit in and be what society says is a success...or to march to the beat of one's own drummer, to thine own self be true?

It's a balance, to be sure. A matter of degree.

But with Chiron currently in Aquarius, conjunct the North Node...the way forward definitely has Uranian leanings. We're going beyond the structures that currently exist. We'll be breaking with tradition on our way to freedom, healing ourselves along the way. (Here's a previous post I wrote on Chiron conjunct the North Node in Aquarius for some background: http://willowsweb.blogspot.com/2008/08/chiron-conjunct-north-node-in-aquarius.html)

At the same time, Saturn is going to make sure we understand the responsibilities that come with our freedom, accept the weight of them and deal successfully in the material world. It will ensure that we keep our feet on the ground, moving step-by-step toward our Uranian vision. No skipped details.

Chiron co-rules Virgo (a contentious point among astrologers, but I believe this is so)...where Saturn currently is...so our responsibilities lie, in part, in healing this Aquarian wound. We can't move into the future without some healin', y'all!

See how it's all blending together?

Instead of strict polarity and oppositional division, now more than ever we can see the holistic themes of Virgo-Pisces. All the distinct parts make up a whole. That doesn't mean it's all "the same." It means it all works together...or needs to. That's our challenge.

Willow's November 2008 Astro Perspective

There are a lot of shifts going on this month. Here is the highlights reel:

- Neptune and Uranus (in mutual reception) going direct
- Saturn in Virgo opposition to Uranus in Pisces (the first of four oppositions in those signs)
- Pluto entering Capricorn for a 16-year stay

We’ve inched our way toward the changes we wish to see or have been dragged kicking and screaming and now we’re at the pinnacle of the big hill in the roller coaster ride. There were a couple dips and weaves in September to get our stomachs dropping out and our mouths running dry in preparation, but this month seems to be the whoooosh toward real movement. Saturn in Virgo has us climbing the big hill bit by arduous bit, waiting on it, waiting on it, step-by-step, grinding closer to the big paradigm changes. We have to want it; more than that, we have to earn it, going over every last detail…and now, this month, our momentum takes us up over the hump and we let go into the unknown. All the while, it’s still Scorpio season in a big way, baby, as the collective becomes ever-more aware of, to paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson, the brutish realities of this foul year of Our Lord 2008 (almost 2009) on Planet Earth.

That is, if I’m reading this crap right.

;-) Just kidding.

The Sun and Mars remain in Scorpio for the first part of November (Mars until November 16 and the Sun until November 21), on the tail of the New Moon in Scorpio, October 28. We’ve reached a new level of “cutting the crap” in our lives.

Mercury will join the Sun and Mars in Scorpio on November 4, just in time for the U.S. people to speak in their election. Taking on the do-or-die intensity of Scorpio with what they say with their votes is quite fitting, isn’t it?

We cleared the Mercury retrograde shadow on October 30, so we’ve just nicely gotten into new intellectual/communication territory as November begins. Also fitting that Mercury leaves Libra just as the U.S. election is completing. The gloves are off! No more Libra surface-level, playing-to-your-crowd social wizardry. Now we see who was really elected.

And we deal with the inevitable nastiness that rises to the surface after one of the most hardcore, teeth-bared, divisive political races in history.

Because of the power and current foreign policy of the U.S., this is an election that affects the entire planet.

The Sun in Scorpio is keeping our conscious moment attuned to the things that have to come out in the wash, or else. Getting down and dirty with the nitty gritty. Mercury keeps us speaking our gut-level truth, and Mars ensures our actions reflect that truth - our soul’s truth.

The fixed and unrelenting gaze of Scorpio is important now for stability as we experience a very big astro event - the Saturn in Virgo opposition to Uranus in Pisces on November 4. Also on the day of the U.S. election, of course. (The White House really MUST have an astrologer or two on staff. The Internet rumours are right.)

I wrote about this opposition last month, but basically this is an opposing clash of the material structures as they exist (the “way things are”) - Saturn - and our vision for the future as an impetus to revolutionary change - Uranus.

Preparatory work for Pluto in Capricorn, as we’re infused with the spiritual vision to guide and sustain us during the next 16 years of structural transformation.

Saturn and Uranus will oppose each other in Virgo (earth) and Pisces (water) four times - November 4, 2008, February 5, 2009, September 15, 2009 and April 26, 2010. We’ll be working on this stuff for a while, but the first major dose of spiritual - structural re-alignment happens with the initial opposition on November 4.

Flashes of insight showing the way forward and once seen, nothing is ever the same as it was. Nothing CAN be the same as it was.

With Uranus and Pisces involved, expect things to get a little weird, a little surreal, a little bizarre. Unexpected and shocking spiritual revelation-type stuff. Rebellious energy straining in opposition to dense, material confines.

The material structures are getting a shake-up due to the fact that we are speeding along toward the Aquarian paradigm. How things have been set up in the past no longer serves our imperatives, and they need to change. Simple as that.

Both Virgo and Pisces are mutable signs, meaning changing and adapting to conditions. These oppositions will toss unexpected events and insights our way designed to shock us out of our current structures. Confusion and chaos could threaten to overwhelm, which is why the fixed Scorp energy is so necessary.

Scorpio keeps a cool, clear gaze on what’s really going on, on the surface and below, and to both extremes. It sees the highest spiritual highs (eagle) and the lowest physical lows (scorpion).

This keeps us honest. Scorpio holds us in a place where we are unable to deny those “brutish realities of this foul year of Our Lord” as we experience future flashes and pick up speed. Can’t get drunk on change here, people, believing we’ve left the cares of the past behind us. When all that Aquarian air starts going to our heads (after the poor little Piscean fishies thought they were suffocating, flopping around on the floor), there will be an overwhelming temptation to buy into the oxygen overdose jubilation, believing “we’re already there.” Well, we aren’t. There is much to be done to actually get us there, and we have to keep a close eye on where we are, on the damage that has been done that now asks to be repaired, and on the practical adjustments that need to be made. We’ll get there, but we have to integrate and successfully deal with all parts of the human experience (the true test of tail-end Pisces), even the ugly parts. We have to deal with the details, unpleasant as they may seem.

(And for anyone who insists that yes, we are already in utopia, again, take a look at what the U.S. army has been up to lately with depleted uranium munitions in Iraq and Afghanistan: http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/DU-Baby2003.htm. Careful! It’s not nice. But this is what we’re doing these days. Let’s take an honest look at it.

And for those who claim the photos are fake or that this is propaganda, please watch this documentary on the subject and decide for yourselves: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5146778547681767408)

Thank goodness for the Scorpio energy this month, keepin’ it real and puncturing the utopian fog (not to mention the political bullshittery).

We can’t get too caught up in the rosy vision (a distinct possibility with Pisces involved) and believe it is effortless. With Saturn involved, that is not the case. We each have to take individual responsibility for bringing the changes into our daily lives and it’s going to take adjustments, practice, diligence, self-mastery. That’s not to say there won’t be levity. Some things will come about seemingly effortlessly (due to previous preparation) and there will be a great deal of energy available for the right things. But we have to stay grounded, channelling our vision into the minute details of our material structures - into our work, our interactions with others, into every aspect of ourselves.

Uranus uses our spines like lightning rods, and it can also knock us on our asses if we’re not careful. Think about a lightning bolt of insight and vision, full of information and energy designed to take you far into the future, coming through the top of your head, travelling through your body and communicating with all parts of it until it reaches the point where your feet touch the earth, grounding the charge so we don’t short out the system. This is how we bring the vision and insight into the material day-to-day and live them. And vice versa - we communicate the realities of our material, day-to-day existences on the planet to the realm of spirit, focussing on the details and communicating about what is necessary here.

This revolution is a practical one, bringing it in from the fringes into the mainstream. It will be so common sense that no one could argue - except those profiting from the old system. But even some of them are getting it together. T. Boone Pickens, a Texas oil tycoon and the most capitalistic of the capitalists, is now promoting wind energy. Even people who created and were made financially wealthy from the old structures want to be part of the solution. (Mostly because they can now make money and get press with new technology and green power, but hey, whatever gets us there, I guess.)

These are our challenges and this is how we build a world in which we all want to live.

We have to learn from the 1960s (the last time Saturn - Uranus oppositions occurred - in the opposite signs: Uranus in Virgo and Saturn in Pisces) and embed this revolutionary spirit and vision, the possibilities of what can be, in our daily lives. We can’t let our hopes and fantasies get so huge, so beyond the day-to-day mainstream reality, that the crash back down to earth and accompanying disillusionment completely destroys the momentum for change.

So yeah, folks. This means even though right-wing, Bush-loving Stephen Harper won again in Canada, and even if McCain - Palin win in the U.S, we are still responsible for taking up the challenge in our own lives, for bringing about the changes we wish to see in our own day-to-day lives, in our own mindsets, in our own ways of living. And if Obama becomes president and turns out to be yet another upper-upper-middle class establishment-type with *ahem* certain blood ties or can’t bring about the changes he promised due to structural opposition, well, we’re still not off the hook.

The revolution isn’t going to be led by anyone but us. You and me, comrades. The Aquarian era means holding no superiour. Being your own leader, guide, boss. Living by your own code and joining forces with a tribe of people who are working for the same things.

As the hierarchies continue to rot on the vine, as their stench becomes so overpowering that no one can turn a blind eye, we won’t be surprised. When people are shocked at the dirty dealings coming out into the open over the next 16 years of Pluto in Capricorn, we’ll be forewarned and better prepared.

Don’t participate in things that are not acceptable to you. Don’t put your personal energy into things that lack integrity to you. Make your service to the planet a sacred thing and answer to a higher power than the business/money hierarchy. Answer to yourself.

Saturn in Virgo combined with Pluto in Capricorn shows us that it’s the small changes that will create the necessary structural adjustments. It’s each individual worker choosing “right action” in their day-to-day lives and service that will bring unjust hierarchies toppling down, and business will have to do better from that point on.

Jupiter in Capricorn trines Saturn in Virgo November 21 (with Saturn still in opposition to Uranus in Pisces and Jupiter sextiling it). We see how the further expansion in business (Jupiter in Capricorn) is shaped by the holistic health of the structures as a whole. The whole system has to get better. Power and rewards have to be more equitably distributed.

Really, the only way capitalism can work sustainably is if everyone receives their fair cut of the pie (while working within natural laws - yes, the environment does matter). Right now, the energy is moving from the ground floor to the top where it becomes concentrated. Top-heavy and consistently eroding those who make up the foundation (workers). So eventually, a stiff (Aquarian) breeze will bring the whole thing toppling down. Well, let me tell you, Pluto is more than a stiff breeze, so all hierarchical structures that are operating out of integrity had best take heed.

As my Dad put it: They’re feeding all the oxygen to the big fish and leaving the little ones to go belly up.

The big fish don’t seem to understand how reliant they are on the little fish or that they only got to be big fish because of the little fish.

Still such flippance about working people in Canada and the U.S. Such sickening classism, accepted to the point where most people don’t even know they’re continuing it.

Both Neptune in Aquarius and Uranus in Pisces turn direct this month (Neptune on November 1, Uranus on November 27) - another indicator that we’re moving forward on all fronts now, so we have to have things in order.

Neptune and Uranus are in mutual reception and will not be completely out of this configuration until March 2011. Mutual reception means that each is in the sign the other rules. (Neptune rules Pisces; Uranus rules Aquarius.) This mutual reception is the big indicator of the Pisces to Aquarius transition - ending of astrological Piscean era, beginning of Aquarian. These two bodies have been working together on the hand-off, with the completion of one era and the beginning of another overlapping. They are making sure that the lessons of Pisces are well learned, well-understood and well-integrated before heading into Aquarius, but also that the tail-end Piscean energies don’t hold onto tenure too long and sabotage the virility of the Aquarian push to the future.

A smooth transition is trickier than it looks, and the retrogrades of these bodies were ensuring nothing would trip this paradigm shift up. Now they go direct and we get this show on the road.

Pluto heads into Capricorn November 26 for its 16-year stay in the sign of business, prestige, public image, money and achievement. Pluto exists in whatever sign/area of life is most in need of purging and transformation. It’s an area that, without this transformation, will lead to the death of the species. (No joke.) So here we see how “to the brink” we’ve pushed it with things like consumer capitalism, corporate control, the rule of money over all else, business/finance and governments becoming one and the same, working for the “market” and for other financial bigwigs instead of for the people, achievement at all cost, excess masculine ravaging feminine.

I seriously hate myself every time I buy a coffee in a disposable cup. And then I start thinking about all the cups used at that Starbucks or Second Cup or indy coffee place or wherever I am, and then I think about all the cups used in the entire city or in New York City or in the entire world in one single day. And then I think, this goes on EVERY day. And I start to see just how far gone we really are.

I think during Pluto in Capricorn we’ll start to see how sick our mainstream societal concept of success is. And the misery people, animals, and the environment have to take on to allow for certain individuals to portray that image of success. Many people at the top of the current capitalist hierarchical echelon have gotten there on the backs of others and to the detriment of the environment. Maybe we’ll start to see the abuse, control and oppression of other people and resources that went into those rich, shining superstars on the society pages of the local paper.

Western society has a tendency to look only at the “winners.” To hold them up as pinnacles of human achievement (Capricorn) to be admired and emulated. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that the history books were written by the winners? Well, thankfully Scorpio (where we have a concentration this month) knows the truth of the “losers” and holds it equally important (if not more so out of sheer neglect).

Scorpio bears witness as part of its spiritual course. It sees the ways that abuse, oppression, domination, coercion, however subtle, are used to the benefit of some and the detriment of others. It looks at the ugly parts of history, life, self…the parts that are usually denied, glossed over, swept under the rug, and demands that they be brought out into the open, into the air.

It looks to the roots that are sustaining the glossy surface-level situation, and when those roots are connecting to a past of abuse, torment, oppression, injustice, lack of integrity, coercion, what’s going on on the surface is not actually something to be held as a pinnacle of human achievement to be admired and emulated. To Scorpio, the applause and congratulation, in those cases, should be turning stomachs.

Scorpio holds awareness until such a time that the collective is willing to look at and integrate these dark and twisted parts of the situation on Planet Earth. Until we look at the ugly motivations that have driven and continue to drive human beings. Scorpio’s been waiting for a whole long time now. It’s been holding consciousness for the collective for almost too long, battling to stave off poisoning itself and sometimes failing. The longer the collective refuses to take on its responsibility for this awareness, the closer those who bear Scorpionic consciousness of the situation come to destruction. The closer they come to a level of hatred toward those who refuse to see and know. And the closer they come to extremism, fundamentalism, and violence in an attempt to force people to see. (Suicide bombers being a prime example of this, I think.)

As I said, with everything going on this month related to “the future,” the Scorpio energy will make it impossible to skip over the aspects of reality we wish weren’t there.

And as Pluto re-enters Capricorn, (remember, it was already in the sign between the end of January and end of June 2008), we are already in a different situation as far as “the economy,” business, government, money, etc. goes. We’ve had the first unearthing where we started at the roots of the structures in our material world and began to make them visible. Capricorn rules the 10th house of the birth chart and the most visible, public point, the Midheaven. So we see how all this will continue to be confronted in a visible, public way throughout the transit as part of the massive transformation. We’ll look to the roots sustaining the structures to see where they’re coming from, what they’re made out of. Anything that lacks integrity will crumble and be transformed into something better and stronger. Anything being propped up with Band-Aid solutions involving dishonesty, coercion, fear, oppression, suppression, abuse will have its fatal flaws come out into the open in a very public way. (As stated, we’re seeing this with the U.S. banking industry and various corporations lately.)

And there’s really so much fear and coercion around the business/work world these days, isn’t there? I often think, if people weren’t so freaking scared all the time, things would be so much better. None of this garbage would even be going on. If people weren’t willing to allow the suppression of their creative drives, their personal morals, their emotions, their humanity, in general, because of fear of losing their jobs, losing their livelihoods, losing their status, losing their image…the world would be a much different place.

Well, Pluto should be forcing us to confront those fears and hopefully this will purge them in a big way within the work structures.

The entire mainstream view of “success,” what makes for a “successful” person or a “successful” business, will be deconstructed, and we’ll be forced to ask the question: Is this really something to be admired and emulated?

Our hierarchies. “The way things are.” The way we set our world up so that only those who can function in the typical workplace and the typical work structure are considered “successful.” The push for homogeneity…making personal diversity into something embarrassing or pathological. Our businesses, our governments, our work/home set-ups, all institutions (prison system, court system, police, health system, education system, money system, etc.) Our concept of time. Watching the clock at work. Having to “look busy” when you’re not. Ideas of external authority looking over our shoulders.

And, because Cancer is the polarity point of Capricorn, it will have to do with honouring emotion, the feminine and inner guidance in our structures. This brings a transformation of the family unit and the way things are set up there.

All these things will have their structural problems brought into the open for core-level change/transformation. All structures that will no longer sustain humanity in its evolution will have to be gutted and transformed into something more suitable.

There is no more “way things are.” Thank God. Because the way things were was driving humanity on this planet to destruction.

We need a new set up. We need a new form of leadership - a natural hierarchy in which true leaders with real personal integrity, expertise and a vision for all rise to positions of power. Not just people who know how to work the old structures to their benefit - with money and connections (family or otherwise) too often determining who our “leader” is.

How can we respect the leadership when we know that we have a superiour vision and understanding than those claiming to be our leaders?

My Dad said to me recently, when I was talking about proportional representation rather than the majority rule system we have in Canada, “Do you ever notice it’s the losers who want to change the rules?”

To me, this pretty much says it all about the way things have been set up. Winners and losers. So if your perspective isn’t in the majority, you’re a loser and you don’t count. Fatally flawed system, that is. Undemocratic, actually.

And it really just never made sense to me, considering I think the majority of people aren’t really deep thinkers and aren’t all that informed about things going on outside their personal lives. But by this logic, I’m a loser because I don’t think like the mainstream. If I don’t fit into a structure created by and for these mainstream people/thinkers, then I’m a loser. It’s not that the structure was made too simplistic, too homogenous or too lowest common denominator. It’s that I’m a loser. That’s that.

Hmm…all righty then. Thanks, Dad!

The Aquarian paradigm is about going beyond winners and losers, beyond hierarchy, to an egalitarian system where win-win is the only way to go. I win because you win. I benefit because you benefit. It’s a system that has moved past the idea that I win only if I can make you lose.

Within the Aquarian paradigm, personal diversity is a bonus, not something that makes you a loser. When we’re all using our individual personal genius, things are at their best for the collective. All perspectives are taking into consideration…not just those that the “majority” of people have.

Makes sense to me. So let’s getter done!