“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
On June 20th, the Summer Solstice occurs at 4:51 pm EDT. In the Northern Hemisphere, it is the longest day and shortest night of the year as the Sun reaches its zenith, its highest point in the sky. It is the celestial moment when the Sun is most powerful. In the Southern Hemisphere, the Sun reaches its nadir, the shortest day of the year and the longest night. We can feel a tangible shift as we reach the astrological midpoint of the year. This cardinal point opens our inner space through our emotional bodies. It is time to go inward, opening your heart space to ourselves, our family, and everything that nurtures body and soul. Midsummer is the Pagan holiday that dates back centuries, celebrating the changing seasons. Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” tells how love can make us behave strangely, captivated by our heart’s desire. We can all feel this emotional stirring as we pass through this celestial moment.
At the Solstice, the Sun enters the sign of Cancer under a restless Sagittarius Moon. Venus and Mercury seek sanctuary within the Moon’s protective and nurturing embrace. Luna’s energies undulate, deeply embedded in the swirling experiential Sagittarian events that awaken our minds and hearts. Discussions revolve around values and priorities, spanning a spectrum of personal and sometimes discordant expressions. Our hearts and heads are charged with active agendas, often in conflict.
Mercury and Venus are stressed by the lunar nodes, creating a “skipped step” condition. It seems that every day brings news of catastrophe, carnage, or courtroom drama, which lays bare the truth that our collective values and priorities ignore the potential of looming future cataclysms due to inaction, lack of oversight, and regressive public policies and attitudes.
Pluto retrograde casts an angular shadow across the Sun as he inches back, seeking some Capricorn sense of security and control. For a few weeks from early September to mid-November, Pluto will re-anchor our intentions and self-empowerment as it idles over the final degree of Capricorn one last time before returning to Aquarius, parceling out Uranian energy for the next twenty years.
Neptune, in the final moments of his native signs of Pisces, exhibits angst and disillusionment. Its difficult relationship with the Lunar stellium in Cancer adds to the emotional stress. “When are we going to get our priorities straight?” Our higher minds and intuition are awakened as the god of water and the sea connects with strategists Pallas Athene, Uranus, and Sedna. Pluto empowers Neptune with highly individualized self-expression, while Vesta overlays the need for sacred authenticity. Astraea reminds Neptune of the injustices that abound in our awareness.
Neptune’s square to the Sun in the final zodiacal moments of Pisces and its opposition to the Lunar South Node illuminates our decline towards a historical, social, and political precipice. Fate already hangs heavy over the moment. The Lunar South node ruled by Mars chants a choral message again, asking, “Isn’t it time that we stopped repeating the past as the future?” Eris rattles our cage with contentious questions that evade answers.
Take time to escape the summer “heat” or the brutal Arctic cold, depending on your earthly latitude. Seek refuge in the natural world. Immerse yourself in your favorite healthy pleasures: bike, hike, camp, rockhound, wildcraft, paint en plein-air, and find refuge among family and friends. The storms will continue to rage around and eventually subside, but we can now weather the storm by finding shelter in our favorite people, places, and things.
“There are no sidelines. There’s no one sitting this one out. This is no hoping that someone else is going to come in and save the day. There is no cavalry. We are the cavalry.”
On May 25, 2024, a significant celestial event unfolded as Jupiter embarked on a transformative journey, entering the sign of Gemini. This marked the beginning of a twelve-month internship, a period that holds profound implications for its impact on our time.
As the ruler of Sagittarius, Jupiter shares a unique and powerful bond with the sign of Gemini, forming an archetypal singularity. This bond, a polarity that encapsulates our mental nature, spans from the data and facts we collect to our expansive beliefs. Gemini, the student and the learning process, and Sagittarius, the teacher and the knowledge dissemination process, mirror this polarity. Gemini represents our neighborhood and local community, while Sagittarius encompasses the larger world and the diverse belief systems within any large group of individuals.
As Jupiter approaches the Sun and Venus in Gemini, opportunities for new growth and self-actualization will arise, as well as focus on real priorities and more thought-out agendas. Some help comes from Neptune in Pisces to dream new realities that replace outworn actualities.
At the ingress, Pluto, retrograde in Aquarius, embeds Jupiter with a powerful energetic boost of individuality and creativity. The frequency also carries a sense of aloofness and distance. Jupiter peers into Pluto’s rearview mirror to assess the past. How has power been exercised? How has individuality been expressed? Has creativity generated anything new, or does it just seem like overworked same-old, same-old?
The Moon in Capricorn casts an emotional crisis-laden light that pressures Jupiter to work to restructure the shape of things. The proximity of Jupiter’s recent meetup with Uranus tells us that we should continue to expect an increase in erratic, individualized behavior politically and with the weather. Jupiter is aligned with nature in all its aspects, including climate. The Moon in Jupiter’s native sign will redouble the intensity of our collective experiences.
Challenging aspects to the lunar nodes say that the fate of the future is being ignored due to involuntary adherence to the past. What we call destiny hangs in the balance. We are repeating the mistakes of the past, not working on what needs to change, and preventing progress from occurring. Too many realize that the “dream” has gone dark from their perspective.
Pallas Athene confronts her father (Zeus/Jupiter), offering strategies for new breakthroughs. But commitment is required to become effective. This Jupiter transit has the potential to create the building blocks for the future that address the increasing potential of horizon extinction events that we face as neighborhood, nation, and planet.
The second part of my Pluto Paradigm series, “Pluto in your Natal Chart: Houses 1-6,” is on the Kepler College YouTube channel. Find out what Evolutionary Astrology has to say about your natal Pluto placement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYN_AhpZcZM
As Spring whispers its emergence in the north and Autumn pipes retreat in the south, we feel Gaia’s energy shift and reverse gears. We feel intoxicated by the sight of tender emerald sprouts poking up through the ground or the musty heady smell of falling leaves.
In the heavens above, the stars and planets mirror the terrestrial changes heralding the advent of a new dawn. Birth is a challenging process. It is a painful delivery and a mystical birth. In a way, death is much easier. It just happens. Birth is another story altogether.
Astrologically, we are moving through the birth canal. There is the release of blood and the shadows of past trauma. As April unfolds, we will be visited by both.
On April 1st at 27° Aries, Hermes stands still, preparing to begin his backward march. Dane Rudhyar calls this celestial marker, “A large audience confronts the performer who disappointed its expectations. The necessity for mature preparation and self-criticism.”
At this degree, the Winged Messenger will trace his steps back to 15° Aries on April 25, activating complex personal geometry with Saturn in Pisces and Pluto in Aquarius. Saturn is uneasy in watery, boundless Pisces. Too many emotions flood the senses, weakening mental constructs, which will have a positive outcome. Pluto is enthusiastic in Aquarius, churning deep currents of emotional growth. Who we are becoming, individually and collectively, is directed to overcome what has become stagnant. The overflow of the Sun conjunct the lunar north node, and Chiron and Eris conjunct the Mercury station in Aries is the celestial petrie dish for self-actualized evolutionary growth. The planetary lineup of Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Neptune in Pisces is the fertile, watery abyss awakening new consciousness and connecting to Spirit.
A last-quarter “crisis in consciousness” Moon opposing asteroid Vesta and Astraea sets up a Cardinal Grand Cross squaring the lunar nodes. A “Finger of God” yod formation pointing at the Moon intensifies the necessity for resolving a “skipped” evolutionary step. Emotional distortions harbored from the past must be examined and reintegrated as a positive understanding of the potency and purpose of crisis and trauma. Authenticity and addressing injustice are high on the agenda.
An Earth Grand Trine to the Moon conjunct Ceres from Jupiter conjunct Uranus in Taurus and Juno Rx in Virgo speaks to reviewing our commitment to nurturing the process of becoming. Ceres carries karmic history with the Moon and lunar south node. Ceres evokes the mythology of Demeter and Persephone: divine Mother, her molested daughter, and the sexual misconduct of an older family member. Rape has many manifestations. Sadistic rape. War rape. Rape of the land. To name a few. We have been seeing evidence of this around us.
Saturn “kites out” the grand trine, emphasizing that the way forward is by taking responsibility for what we do.
A total solar eclipse occurs on April 8th at 20° Aries. It will be visible across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Its pathway will run from Mexico to Maine. This is the new moon event that initiates the next lunar cycle. The Sun, Moon, Venus, Mercury, Chiron, Eris, Hygeia, and the Lunar North Node span the sign of Aries.
Mars, the ruler of the Aries array, is in Pisces. His fire never goes out. In water signs, it simmers below the surface or boils over. The archetype of Pisces is programmed for deep feelings and emotions. It is not always the most balanced. Boundaries are obscured or absent altogether, making us feel off balance and on shaky ground. Saints, saviors, and martyrs populate the cast. So do those who would betray, abandon, and misinform us. With a crisis-producing inconjunct from the Moon to Mars and Saturn, hidden agendas and aggression are possible.
Neptune is at Pisces’s anaretic (very last) degree and is the baseline for Mars and Saturn. This is a “ring not pass” condition. Some essential evolutionary changes must now occur for progress and resolution.
The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Taurus makes a difficult angle to the Moon. Self-serving agendas can populate unexpected events and rattle personal boundaries for security and self-reliance. The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction on April 20 is the major outer planet event of 2024, second in importance only to Pluto’s transit of Aquarius. This heavy outer planet cycle underscores and sets the evolving base note for Pluto over the next twelve years.
The Ceres-Astraea opposition sets up a Cardinal Grand Cross. Asteroid Astraea’s karmic burden involves the Sun and the lunar north node. Astraea was the virgin goddess of justice. During the Golden Age, she dwelt upon the earth with mankind but was driven away by the increasing lawlessness. Zeus then set her amongst the stars as the constellation Virgo. Astraea was closely identified with the goddesses Dike (Justice) and Nemesis (Rightful Indignation).
Neptune is at Pisces’s anaretic (very last) degree and is the baseline for Mars and Saturn. This is a “ring not pass” condition. Some essential evolutionary changes must now occur for progress and resolution.
An Earth Grand Trine from the Moon in Virgo and Ceres in Capricorn trines Jupiter and Uranus at their conjunction. Self-reliance, self-nurturing, and work on the self is the recipe for success through this timeframe. We need to ask ourselves some hard questions. Who am I becoming? Where have I not taken responsibility for my deeds and actions? What do I need to work on to be a better me?
An almost Star of David forms as Mercury stations and amalgamates the frequencies of the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Ceres, and Astraea. This portends an open channel for deep personal examination, responsibility for our choices, and the direction our lives are going. However, these are trines, not squares or oppositions. We must consciously work with them to activate their potential. If we don’t wake up to what is happening, this opportunity will drift by in the wind.
An eclipse season is an approximate 35-day period during which at least two (and possibly three) eclipses will occur. Typically, there are two eclipses in one eclipse season and two eclipse seasons in one calendar year. Eclipse seasons typically have at least four eclipses per year. Eclipse seasons repeat in cycles of 173.3 days (somewhat shy of six calendar months).
To see a lunar eclipse, the moon has to be above your horizon. So it has to be night, or close to night, and that only happens for half of Earth at once. A total solar eclipse can be seen only from a narrow track along Earth’s surface. The accompanying partial solar eclipse can be seen only in areas adjacent to that track. The moon’s orbit is inclined by 5 degrees to the ecliptic (Earth’s orbital plane). The new or full moon usually swings too far north or south of the ecliptic for an eclipse to occur.
Twice every month, as the moon circles Earth in its orbit, it crosses the ecliptic (Earth’s orbital plane) at the nodes. If the moon is going from south to north, it’s called the moon’s ascending node, and if it is moving from north to south, it’s called the moon’s descending node.
Eclipses are evolutionary release valves. Karmic energy that has been resisted or denied demands an outlet. Lunar eclipses are intense emotional releases. Solar eclipses are the intense unfolding of self-actualized soul-intended life changes.
The Lunar Nodes
The south node correlates to the past, what has come before. It is the composite of our previous lunar personalities and our emotional bodies. The north node points towards the future. But it is a “probable” future. More than one potential future stretches out from the present. The choices that we make in the present direct the future. When we repeat the choices of the past as the present, the past repeats as the future. If we make different choices, we create a future different from the past and the present.
“In your terms, there are unlimited probable future events for which you are now setting the groundwork. The nature of the thoughts and feelings you originate and those that you habitually or characteristically receive set a pattern, so you will choose from those probable futures those events that will physically become your experience.” —Seth Speaks (Channeled by Jane Roberts)
Pisces New Moon
The new moon on March 10th at 21° Pisces signals the onset of the first eclipse season of 2024. There is a sense of dormant incubation to this new moon. This current full moon feels like a powder keg preparing to explode in astrological and mundane times. All the planets are sandwiched between Jupiter and Pluto, packed into a wide 1st quarter, “crisis-in-action” square of latent compressed and unresolved emotional energy. Mars and Pluto in Aquarius are the flashpoints, flint on steel. The pressure of this karmic “hand grenade in a steel box” will continue to strengthen until the full moon lunar eclipse on March 25th, when the energies will be unleashed.
Libra Lunar Eclipse
A Penumbral Lunar Eclipse occurs at 1:00 a.m. MST at 5° Libra. Eclipses occur in 18-year cycles known as Saros cycles. It is part of Saros Series 113, which last occurred in 2006. That year, the International Astronomical Union defined a “planet” for the first time since Galileo, demoting Pluto to dwarf planet status. Ironically, it was also the year that NASA sent its first probe to Pluto. This eclipse will be visible and most energetically active across North and South America, Western Africa, and Eastern Australia.
A lunar eclipse can occur only when the full Moon is within 11° degrees of either lunar node. A solar eclipse can occur only when the new Moon is within 17° of either lunar node.
A full moon is a point of release. A lunar eclipse is a full moon on steroids. Often, something has been building for months or even years. Something major in life comes up for review and revision. The balloon is up. A flag is raised.
Libra is about balance and equilibrium, establishing a rapport between opposing forces, opinions, and personal perspectives. At this full moon, the relationship goddess Venus, the sign that rules Libra, resides in Pisces and is sandwiched between Saturn and Neptune. Libra mirrors our relationship with others. More importantly, Venus, as the ruler of Taurus, mirrors our relationship with ourselves. Both sides of this astrological equation are active. “How do I love me/thee? Let me count the ways.
Mars, the ruler of the Aries array, is also in Pisces. His fire never goes out. In water signs, it simmers below the surface or boils over. The archetype of Pisces is programmed for deep feelings and emotions. It is not always the most balanced. Boundaries are obscured or absent altogether, making us feel off balance and on shaky ground. Saints, saviors, and martyrs populate the cast. So do those who would betray, abandon, and misinform us. With a crisis-producing inconjunct from the Moon to Mars and Saturn, hidden agendas and aggression are possible. A waning trine from the Moon to Pluto in Aquarius does nothing to relieve the pressure. Instead, it cries out for an outlet to release the heavy emotional burden. It is false to think that trines and sextiles are good and squares, oppositions, inconjuncts, and sesquisquares are bad. The facilitating aspects can make us couch potatoes. They come and go unnoticed. The hard aspects get us up off the couch.
The Moon on the lunar south node carries a heavy emotional payload from the past. The Aries Sun on the lunar north node activates sudden, impulsive, knee-jerk responses.
The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Taurus makes a difficult angle to the Moon. Self-serving agendas can populate unexpected events and rattle personal boundaries for security and self-reliance. The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction on April 20 is the major outer planet event of 2024, second in importance only to Pluto’s transit of Aquarius. This heavy outer planet cycle underscores and sets the evolving base note for Pluto over the next twelve years.
A Ceres-Astraea opposition sets up a Cardinal Grand Cross at both eclipses as the pair square the lunar nodes. Any celestial body squaring the lunar nodes creates what is known as a skipped step condition. Ceres carries karmic history with the Moon and lunar south node. Ceres evokes the mythology of Demeter and Persephone. Divine Mother, her molested daughter, and the sexual misconduct of an older family member. Rape has many manifestations. Sadistic rape. War rape. Rape of the land. To name a few. We have been seeing evidence of this around us.
Asteroid Astraea’s karmic burden involves the Sun and the lunar north node. Astraea was the virgin goddess of justice. During the Golden Age, she dwelt upon the earth with mankind but was driven away by the increasing lawlessness. Zeus then set her amongst the stars as the constellation Virgo. Astraea was closely identified with the goddesses Dike (Justice) and Nemesis (Rightful Indignation). — https://www.theoi.com/Titan/Astraia.html
At the Libra Lunar Eclipse, Mars’s opposition to Juno draws a mutable grand cross in the sky, squaring an opposition between Pallas Athene and the minor planet Sedna. This celestial mix pulls together elements that speak to fidelity and commitment (Juno) to our free spirit (Mars), accessing higher knowledge (Pallas Athene) and increased consciousness (Sedna).
Aries Solar Eclipse
A total solar eclipse occurs on April 8th at 20° Aries. It will be visible across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Its pathway will run from Southern California to Maine. This is the new moon event that initiates the next lunar cycle. The Sun, Moon, Venus, Mercury, Chiron, Eris, Hygeia, and the Lunar North Node span the sign of Aries. The leader of the pack is Mars conjunct Saturn in Pisces, detailed above. Neptune is at Pisces’s anaretic (very last) degree and is the baseline for Mars and Saturn. This is a “ring not pass” condition. Some essential evolutionary changes must now occur for progress and resolution.
This eclipse will be visible across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Its pathway will run from Southern California to Maine.
How To Navigate The Eclipses
Overall, the Fire signs Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius can navigate these turbulent waters by allowing themselves to openly express what they need to do to help themselves grow and move forward. Set a controlled backburn to limit the damage and voice an alternative dialog when necessary
Earth signs Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn can safely navigate this eclipse by finding their self-authority and self-nurturing. Commit to your sense of self-worth and individuality. Express your authenticity. Become your mother or perhaps your father.
Those with primary planets in Water signs Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces will be okay if they practice self-care adhering to their values and priorities. Follow your heart-centered vision.
Air signs Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius will find safe passage by self-empowering. Practice self-care. Allow what comes to you intuitively to override what you think is the rational solution. Pay attention to whatever comes to you out of left field, even if it feels bizarre.
Ceres is approaching the south node of Pluto. I will have more to say about the planetary nodes in another article. Put your effort into caring for those you love. Begin with yourself. We chose to be born in these times. It is not what happens that makes the difference. It is how we respond to it. Carpe diem.
These guidelines are based on the four elements: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. Knowing the actual details of a natal chart yields a much deeper understanding of how these celestial events will personally impact you. Whenever we look at any transit, the impact will depend on the consciousness brought to the event. More self-awareness can potentiate a wider range of expression. Less self-awareness will limit the ability to navigate the transit without intense karmic necessity. In all cases, the degree of intensity of the event will correlate directly to what we each need to grow forward. I encourage you to contact me for a personal eclipse reading that will focus directly on what is impacting you now.
This month is saturated by hyperactive Aquarian energy, even later as the Sun moves into Pisces. We generally perceive the deep waters of Pisces as soothing and comforting. This month, the primal energies around us are not likely to be soothed by calm waters. Besides inner calm, Pisces also brings uncertainty, overwhelmed with confusion, and teetering on a precipice. This month’s cosmic energies will be a heady mix of Aquarian non-conformity, Uranian disruption, rogue behavior from Eris, and Plutonian karmic release.
As they transit through Capricorn, all three personal inner planets, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, will experience a stressful last quarter square with Eris in Aries. Eris is a “no holds barred” personality. But her anger is not random or without forethought. Her unbridled wrath is calculated, carefully considered, and consciously directed at whatever she perceives as injustice, inequity, or intolerance.
On February 1st, Mercury in Capricorn perfected to a “crisis in consciousness” square to Eris, a term coined by Dane Rudhyar. Mars in Capricorn follows today, February 5th, as Venus in Capricorn squares Eris on February 11th. Capricorns often come across as staunchly confident and in control, but insecurity and bouts of depression can sometimes undermine that confidence. Ruled by Saturn, Capricorn works our agendas, seeking to accomplish and establish our program of directives and goals. Saturn, currently in Pisces, has the potential to get lost in insecurity. Each of the inner planets whose proximity is closest to the Earth will lay the groundwork for future development. Some will be forward-looking, some will not.
Each planet has a wide range of expressions within the scope of its archetype, from distortion to enlightenment. Mercury expresses through our voice, its timbre, our vocabulary, and the narratives we tell ourselves and others. Venus maintains the agenda of our essential values and their resulting priorities. Mars initiates our choices, conduct, and behavior.
As the trio of personal planets move into Aquarius, one by one, they will conjoin Pluto, Mercury today on February 5th, Mars on February 14th, and Venus on February 22nd.
Aquarius interrupts and disrupts the status quo, intending to replace the existing platforms and structures created by Saturn that are deemed outmoded. The conjunctions to Pluto initiate new self-empowering policies and agendas. There is potential for power struggles over agendas and methodologies.
The squares to Eris will produce crises that demand the resolution of unresolved issues and circumstances for matters close to us personally and collectively. The “glancing blows” to Eris could quickly become confrontational. Be careful of things said or done in anger or from feeling compartmentalized or ignored. The proximity of Eris to the Aries Lunar North Node potentiates the need for continued effort and attention to “work in the self.”. Eris’s impact will most likely be unexpected and challenging, dramatically capturing our attention.
A New Moon occurs a few days later on February 9th at 21° Aquarius. Uranus underscores the lunation in Taurus. The transit of Uranus through Taurus, Venus’s inner expression, corresponds to our relationship with ourselves and what is essential for survival. Its current transit has delivered non-negotiable awareness and crisis after crisis since the 2020s began. An Air Grand Trine links the luminaries with the Lunar South Node and the conjunction of asteroids Vesta and Astraea in Gemini. News headlines and conversations swirl around issues regarding personal authenticity and perceived injustice. A waning last quarter square from the Sun and Moon to Uranus “rattles our cage,” encouraging increased attention and self-reliance regarding maintaining whatever we deem essential for ourselves and the world.
On February 22nd, Venus and Mars will conjoin at 7° Aquarius, beginning a new two-year relationship cycle. The conjunction separates from a new phase conjunction with Pluto. Relationships can find new objectivity, reactivate, be re-empowered, grow, and transform. New ways of sharing and balancing power can be realized. Old habitual emotional patterns can be resolved and reworked. There is potential to learn how to nurture each other, our community, and the planet in new ways. A palpable sense of destiny permeates this celestial moment. Higher knowledge is available and accessible to help us grow emotionally and spiritually.
The full moon occurs on February 24th at 6° Virgo. The Moon anchors an Earth Grand Trine with Jupiter in Taurus and Ceres in Capricorn. Our work on ourselves is supported and encouraged, as is taking responsibility for our self-care. Tune into and pay attention to your still, small voice within. Sidestep and defuse power struggles as they arise. Maintain your balance when others trigger you. Speak compassionately and truthfully. Accept responsibility for who you are, the good and the maybe not-so-good. Work toward a future that includes increased self-awareness. Find homeopathic remedies to heal what needs to be healed: body, mind, and soul. Create new forms of self-expression that express your sacred inner space.
Spaceship Earth is currently headed “Where no man has gone before.” Beam us up, Scotty.
Mercury in Capricorn perfects to squares to the Aries/Libra lunar nodes on Saturday, January 26. Mars in Capricorn perfects to squares to the lunar nodes on Sunday. On Monday, Uranus in Taurus stations direct.
What these three transits have in common is activist Uranus, now the planetary ruler of Pluto in Aquarius. Mercury and Mars stabilize one angle of an Earth Grand Trine, Uranus anchors another, and asteroid Juno retrograde and Black Moon Lilith in Virgo occupy the third. Mercury separates from a partile conjunction with Mars. Both personal inner planets apply to a waxing first quarter trine to Uranus and a waning last quarter trine to Juno retrograde, which applies to balsamic conjunction to Lilith conjunct in Virgo.
We need to change our thinking, letting go of what we think is true and allowing a new understanding to take root. Then, we must make different life choices based on that new understanding. This is a non-negotiable agenda.
I speak frequently about the skipped step condition of a planet squaring the lunar nodes. Something from the past has been “skipped over,” placed on the back burner, avoided, or denied for various reasons.
The resolution for both inner planets rests with the Libra Lunar South Node. The past must not just be reconciled but healed. Forward direction must be irrevocably altered from the past.
A zero-tolerance condition commands that the past cannot be repeated. Progress must go forward under a new banner that signals peace, unity, and community. Ego self-interest must surrender to the needs of the collective. Man-made law must evolve into natural law. The dominance of mankind on the planet must recognize the greater dominion of the natural world, all the creatures that inhabit the forests, the oceans, the deserts, the plains, and the mountains.
Chiron in Aries receives a “glancing blow” crisis-inducing inconjunct from Black Moon Lilith. To a great degree, mankind is “exiled” from nature, mostly inhabiting terrain paved with concrete and asphalt beneath skies that are never dark due to artificial light.
Pluto in Aquarius has gale-force winds from Uranus at its back, with Jupiter out ahead in Earthly Taurus, encouraging forward progress. Pluto’s mission is inscribed with all these inner planet directives to create a sacred community on the planet. The crisis we are experiencing will continue to demonstrate that humanity is not necessarily acting as the most intelligent creature on the planet. The intent is to lose the compulsion to see the planet as something to be stripped of its mineral wealth for “instant gratification” and to recognize the Earth as an essential self-sustaining life-support system, a sanctuary that is the source of infinite life-giving sustenance.
There is no question that right now, it’s a crazy, mixed-up world. Every day, the so-called “reality” throws us another curveball. Most of us are surviving. Some of us thrive. Some are feeling under siege from too many directions. Trust me, I get it.
So, how are we going to get through it? And how do we work with the news that things will most likely worsen? Please don’t shoot me. Call me Hermes. I am just the messenger.
We must first understand, whether we think we deserve it or not, that we, as a planetary collective, have created the causes of the crises we are now experiencing. We have been making these militarized socioeconomic distortions as far back as anyone can remember. As a species, we learn and grow through direct emotional experience. That is precisely what we’re having right now.
I work with it facilitated by the technology of astrology. It is an inconvenient truth that too many people think that astrology is pseudoscience. Astrology works. The planets and stars tell a story of the past and the future. More importantly, they tell the story of the present. This moment. Now. Isn’t that all there is?
Everything moves in cycles, from the traffic lights on the street corner to your daily metabolic processes to the intricately woven patterns of the heavens above us. These are all essential cycles that we need to navigate what we call reality. It could be the shadow cast by reality. It could be all a dream, and we are the dreamers. Are we so wasted in the dream that we don’t know we are dreaming?
The Constellations, the luminaries, and the planets weave an intricate coded message in celestial braille. The messages can only be read by those sensitive enough and who are trained to read them. At one time in the distant past, everyone could read it.
As a nation, the United States is witnessing the most intense political divisiveness since the Civil War. The world beyond our borders is also erupting, heating up to levels not seen in recent history.
The transiting Libra lunar south node is applying to a waning, last quarter square to the US Sun in Cancer. The Aries lunar north node separates from a 1st quarter square to the US Sun. The lunar south node from the past holds us in its grip of past emotional behavior resulting from ancestral patterning and prenatal and early childhood experiences. The lunar north node holds the promise of the future but only a whispered promise. The decider is what we think, say, and do each moment.
The lunar nodes are the evolutionary pathway between the past and the future. The natal Sun correlates to the country’s leader in mundane astrology, the astrology of nations. The Moon relates to the welfare of the general public and the people at large.
“The transiting lunar nodes square a natal planet correlates to a crossroad wherein the choices made then correlate with its evolutionary path leading to its future in some way.—Jeffrey Wolf Green”
Transiting Neptune in Pisces separates from a waning full phase opposition to US Neptune. They have been in the orb since 2016 and will remain in orb until 2026. They perfected to the opposition three times in 2020 and 2021. Neptune correlates to the country’s zeitgeist.
The Oxford Dictionary defines zeitgeist as “the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.”
We have observed and lived through the turmoil and political debate. It is not a coincidence that this transit coincided with the presidency of Donald Trump, the emergence of QAnon, the concretion of the ultra-right wing, the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, and the extreme political polarization we are currently suffering. Not to mention COVID-19, which is still actively self-mutating.
Right now, the lunar south node is partile conjunct the US Moon. On May 14, 2024, the lunar nodes will station direct, partile (exact) to the US Moon. The default direction of the lunar nodes is retrograde. When the nodes station direct, it has the same effect as a planet stationing retrograde.
The Moon in Cancer is the ruler of the 10th House of the US Chart. The 10th House also correlates to the country’s leader. We can easily see the pressures on the US Presidency and the stresses and anxieties that permeate the general population.
Uranus is currently moving through the last degrees of Taurus and will enter the sign of Gemini. The United States is approaching its Uranus Return, the astrological moment when Uranus returns to the same zodiacal point it was when the country was born.
In the current transit, the Uranus return will perfect three times:
July 28, 2026
October 25, 2026, in its retrograde cycle
May 12, 2027
Uranus has an 84-year cycle. The last two conjunctions occurred twice in 1859 and again in 1860, leading up to the Civil War, and once in 1943 and twice in 1944, during the most challenging years of World War II. This is the inconvenient truth that the United States has been at war at each Uranus in Gemini transit.
“BRUSSELS, Jan 17 (Reuters) —A top NATO military official called on public and private actors in the West on Wednesday to prepare for an era in which anything could happen at any time, including fighting a war. ‘We need a warfighting transformation of NATO,” the chief of the alliance’s Military Committee, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, said as he opened a two-day meeting of national defense chiefs in Brussels.’”
Uranus is about “coming of age.” There are three 28-year Saturn cycles in each 84-year Uranus cycle. This planetary pair initiates and maintains the self-actualizing process, the continual unfolding of “becoming” who we are, and the accompanying maturation process that teaches us skills, mastery, and responsibility as we age. Uranus is the planet that rules Aquarius. Beginning in November, Pluto will be in Aquarius for 20 years.
The War for Independence brought selfhood as a country. The nation was still divided into separate states, politically and economically. The end of the Civil War fused North and South and established the United States for the first time. The Second World War established the United States as a world leader.
The United States is again experiencing a growth spurt, though it is still nascent. As Pluto progresses through Aquarius over the next two decades, the United States of America will again morph into a new international economic and political entity. It is too soon to guess what shape and form the new union will take, but I sense it will be an “upgrade” intellectually, morally, philosophically, and economically. That is the progressive nature of the archetype of Aquarius. The archetype can also be regressive, so we will see a period of regression as a portion of the population works to make things go back “to the way they were.” The details are still working themselves out. But I know that our children and their children will build the New Earth. Some of us might not see it in our lifetime, but I have faith we will see it in the next.
1 The US chart is cast for the day the American Revolution began, July 6, 1775. On that day, the Second Continental Congress passed an act to “bear arms” against England. The day before, an act was passed to create a standing army and named George Washington the commander-in-chief. When colonies pass an act to “bear arms” against their mother country, they cease to be a colony and become a sovereign nation.
2 JWG Association of Evolutionary Astrologers message board
