We are living in very interesting times indeed, and heading into times that will be even more interesting as Uranus in Aries faces off against Pluto in Capricorn in June.  If you’re new here you’ll be reading a great deal more about this aspect and I hope to be putting up a major article on the subject this week.  Capricorn represents the established structures of power, and Aries represents the urge for self-determination.  Pluto is the planet of annhilation and transformation, so while it travels through Capricorn (through 2023) there is sure to be dramatic change in political structures around the world.

That began last weekend with elections in Europe as the established order lost power in many nations and splinter groups (Uranus represents the oddball fringe elements of society among other things) gained a footing in the governmental bodies of these nations.

Capricorn can be a sign of hardship, and austerity programs throughout Europe have attempted to get a handle on the rising debt that we saw increase during Pluto’s reign in Sagittarius (the sign of expansion and optimism).

The most unnerving sign of the upcoming Uranus/Pluto square was the rise of the ultra-right wing neo-Nazi party in Greece known as Golden Dawn.  Uranus in Aries represents the revolution (Uranus) of the individual (Aries).  This is a symbol of anarchy and ultimate liberation, and as it continues to face off against the power structures (Pluto in Capricorn) over the next three years the entire global political landscape will change.

Even Osama bin Laden worried about splinter groups undermining his control over Al Qaeda, reflecting the growing resistance to any kind of larger and more powerful political structure by radical (Uranus) individualistic (Aries) groups (Uranus entered Aries in 2010). The Tea Party wing of the Republican party is a symbol of this kind of radical force, as is the Occupy movement in the US.

The square formation between Uranus and Pluto began last year when the two planets aligned within a degree, but the first exact square comes in June.  Watch these pages for more Uranus/Pluto news, and you may want to catch up with this article to get a historical perspective.

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by Lynn Hayes  If you missed yesterday’s post on the Full Moon you can read it here.

The May Full Moon occurs as the Moon is at what’s called perigee, its closest proximity to Earth.  When the Moon is near the Earth it appears larger than life, and astrologer Richard Nolle coined the term “Supermoon” because of the powerful impact the Supermoon often has on the earth.  As Richard explains it (and has done since 1979), the Supermoon occurs when the Sun, Moon and Earth are lined up in a particularly tight formation.  Richard has noted correspondences between the Supermoons (which occur at least four times a year) and earthquakes and tidal forces.

Examples of the SuperMoon connection with major storms and seismic events abound: the Mt. Pinatubo eruption, the largest volcanic event in the second half of the 20th Century, took place on June 15, 1991 (within three days of a SuperMoon); the October 6, 1948 Richter 7.3 earthquake that struck Ashgabat, Turkmenistan and took 110,000 lives, one of the deadliest earthquakes on record (again within three days of a SuperMoon, allowing for time zones); and the September 8, 1900 hurricane and tidal surge that struck Galveston, Texas on the day of a SuperMoon, which killed more people (8,000 dead) than any other Atlantic hurricane on record and remains the deadliest natural disaster yet to strike the United States. I’m just scratching the surface here, citing only a few historic instances in the past hundred years or so. Look a little deeper, and you’ll run across literally hundreds more greater and lesser seismic and meteorological disturbances, from Hurricane Andrew in 1992 to the 1989 World Series (Loma Prieta) earthquake – just to name a couple contemporary notable examples.

More recently, there was the February 28, 2010 SuperMoon, which well illustrates the storm and seismic potential associated with this alignment. As described in my 2010 World Forecast Highlights, the geocosmic shock window associated with the February 28 SuperMoon ran “from February 25 through March 3,” signaling a “newsworthy upsurge in moderate-to-severe seismic activity (including magnitude 5+ earthquakes and volcanic eruptions), plus strong storms with damaging winds and heavy precipitation; along with extreme high tides.” My forecast described the alignment as “global in scope by definition,” but with “special risk zones” including “west-central South America.” If you donÂ’t remember it, Google the freakish combination of a monster megathrust 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile, a Pacific tsunami, the “snow hurricane” in the Northeastern US, and hurricane-force killer winds in France – all happening at once on February 27.

If the Supermoon can have such a powerful effect on the Earth, we can see where it may also have a powerful effect on our psyches.  Not everyone experiences lunar events the same way.  Our astrological charts describe how sensitive we are to different forces: those of us with a great deal of water, especially Cancer, are more sensitive to the Moon.  Those of us with strong Mercury and Uranian influences are more sensitive to electrical forces.  We are all different, which is why there is no way to make predictions that will be effective for everyone.

Since the Full Moon opens wide the curtains to the emotional world, the Supermoon does so with even more force.  Don’t be surprised if you find yourself wide open, free of the usual protective coating with which you usually shroud yourself.  We are in the Scorpio realm in this Supermoon, and can find our true power (one of the lessons of Scorpio) only in letting go of any superficiality that doesn’t serve us in our True Purpose.  Of course we are balancing this against the Taurean Sun, which grounds us to the Earth and helps us to find the peace and serenity that recharges and infuses us with a deep inner strength.

The effect of any Full Moon generally lasts for a few days after the event.  Allow this lunar energy to open the heart deeply and find that balance between the inner realm and the outer world that gives us our true humanity.

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Scorpio is a water sign and therefore involved with the emotional realm.  But Scorpio’s traditional ruler is Mars – a fire planet.  The emotion of Scorpio is nothing like the “go with the flow” emotional adaptability of Pisces, or the deeply sensitive and easily wounded nature of Cancer.  Scorpio is passionate and intense and can be aggressive in its need to defend and protect.  Scorpio’s modern ruler is Pluto, the planet of transformation and the ultimate Truth of Life and Death, which drives that need for intensity into a powerhouse of release and reconstruction.

In the Scorpio Full Moon the lunar instinct turns towards the fire of emotion in order to find our inner passions and face our emotions with courage and awareness. However, the Sun is opposite the Moon in Taurus, seeking peace and serenity in the midst of that Scorpionic emotional fire.  The Full Moon, like any opposition, requires balance.  The Scorpio Moon is in its ascendancy and is the stronger of the two during this lunar event, but the Taurus Sun is whispering to us, encouraging us to stay rooted into the Earth while we allow the fire of our passions and enthusiasm to engulf us in the flames of transcendence.

Scorpio as a rule demands our complete attention, and that will be emphasized as an opposition from Mercury to Saturn (discipline and material reality) culminates at the Full Moon and forces us to confront any areas of our psyche in which we carry a delusion that holds us back.

Meanwhile an awkward aspect  between Uranus (radical behavior) and Mars (aggressive instinct) suggests an inner restlessness and urge to flee the confrontation of this Full Moon and planning for some sort of outlet for this energy is advised. Mars is also exactly square (a conflicting aspect) to the lunar nodes which represent a sense of fate and inner direction, so this Full Moon marks a sort of turning point. Perhaps a decision will be necessary, or an event will occur that will affect our lives permanently.

Those of us with an emphasis in Scorpio, or with strong Mars and Pluto aspects, will find this Full Moon exhilarating in its power.  Those of us who are somewhat fearful of these influences may feel rather overwhelmed, but remember that this Full Moon is a beautiful opportunity to allow your own drive and motivation and deepest desires be known.

This Full Moon is a time of courage and raw power.  Let go of the superficial – let go of any illusions of who you think you are.  Be not afraid:  allow your delusions and confusions to be burned away in the fire of emotion, and allow yourself to emerge from the ashes renewed and with a new understanding of who you really are.  THAT is the lesson of this Scorpio Full Moon.

There are two big news stories for May and a few smaller headlines. Planetary activity over the past six months or so has been relatively quiet, with very few outer planet alignments that foster intense change and transformation on a global and personal level. This, however, is about to end as the upcoming square from Uranus to Pluto becomes tighter and tighter, culminating on June 24 th. Uranus is the planet of radical change and liberation from repression, and Pluto is the planet of death and total transformation. You can see how a challenging aspect between these two planets can be quite intense and inspire global upheaval as social and cultural traditions are forced to give way to new patterns of human life.

Follow the Astrological Musings blog for more detailed articles about the square from Uranus to Pluto, but this aspect actually began last summer when the two planets came within a degree of the exact alignment, fostering revolutionary fervor and a desire for change. This summer marks the first exact aspect, and the groundwork that has been laid for the eighteen months will culminate and there is likely to be a great deal of political upheaval. How we handle this in our personal life will depend upon our own chart and the planetary aspects that we ourselves are experiencing.

The second major news story for May is the retrograde turn of Venus, the planet of beauty and relating. Venus only changes direction every eighteen months or so, unlike the outer planets which are retrograde for roughly half the year and Mercury, which retrogrades four times a year. Planetary retrograde periods serve to encourage us to complete unfinished business and to perfect half-baked processes, so they are very important and useful. But because they necessitate a backwards view they can be somewhat frustrating which is where they get their bad reputation.

When Venus is retrograde we often reacquaint ourselves with people from our past, or repair broken connections that require mending. It can be difficult to begin a new relationship when Venus is retrograde, and any kind of partnership (personal or business) that begins under this influence may have a difficult time taking root. Venus will remain retrograde through June 27 th.

What makes this particular Venus retrograde period exceptional is that it coincides with a transit of Venus over the Sun, a relatively rare event that occurs in pairs eight years apart only every 243 years. The first transit of Venus over the Sun in the current cycle occurred in June 2004, and the next one won’t occur until 2117. The coincidence of such a rare astronomical event occurring during the dreaded 2012 has given rise to much speculation about the end of the world, but these transits of Venus are not associated with devastation. Transits of Venus always occur in Gemini and Sagittarius – the signs of knowledge and understanding – and they have been associated throughout history with breakthroughs in these areas.

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In a summer with lots of astrological news (most notably the upcoming square of Uranus and Pluto), we normally wouldn’t pay much attention to the planet Venus which as one of the more benign planets generally has rather a soft astrological effect. In addition, because it moves so quickly even these soft effects last no longer than a day or so.

However, every 18 months or so Venus turns retrograde and forces us to sit up and take notice to our connections with others, our style of relating, and the ways in which our relationships enrich or destroy our lives. When a planet turns retrograde it appears to move backwards from our perspective, but astrologically it retraces earlier steps and turns our attention back to the past. When Venus is retrograde we may find ourselves thinking of past loves, or hearing from an old friend. We may decide that our relationship patterns are no longer working for us and make changes.

Venus also deals with matters of beauty and aesthetics so we may decide to change our look under this influence. Our values and ability to attract prosperity also falls under the domain of Venus, so Venus retrograde periods (like other retrogrades) often indicate a shift in the financial markets.

Venus is in Gemini right now, and with Gemini highlighting communication and learning this is likely to be a retrograde period full of conversation and the desire to share our experiences and understanding with others. This is a great time for writers and anyone in the field of communication – our plans may not unfold according to our timeline because of the retrograde, but there will be opportunities to revisit areas of communication that perhaps need enhancement or perfecting.

A transit of Venus is a very rare occurrence – we will see only one pair in our lifetime. The first of the pair this time around occurred in June 2004 and the second occurs in June this year (the 6th in the Western hemisphere and the 5th in the Eastern hemisphere where it will be most visible).

(this article will be continued tomorrow)

It seems to me that if people are so concerned about the sanctity of marriage the first thing to be outlawed should be divorce.  This is really less about marriage and more about the perceived “wrongness” of homosexuality.  But since we are in a Saturn in Libra phase where the Celestial Taskmaster (Saturn) is dealing with issues of relationship and partnership (Libra), it’s no wonder that the boundaries of conventional social mores in relationships are being tested.

Saturn is the ruler of Capricorn, and both share a love for the status quo and The Way It’s Always Been.  The people who are speaking out for this new constitutional amendment tell us that marriage has been between a man and a woman since the beginning of time, so why change it?  (Let’s ignore for a moment the fact that marriage between people of different races was illegal in North Carolina until 1971.) This is where Pluto comes in, because Pluto is the destroyer of things that no longer serve us, and in Capricorn Pluto is knocking the heads off of all of our  sacred cows.

At the same time the square of Uranus to Pluto is creating rebellion of all kinds, and even staunch conservatives are refusing to toe the party line on this and many other matters.  This is a time of change, and change will be inevitable.  Those who try to anchor to  the shore will find their boats shredded in the tides.

I don’t know much about cosmic rays, but I do love it when science can’t explain everything.  Cosmic Rays are a bombardment of tiny electrical particles to earth from deep space and scientists recently discovered that the supernova explosions or gamma ray bursts which formerly were thought to cause these rays to enter our atmosphere are not actually the cause, leaving  us to wonder what is really going on here.

We who are working in the field of consciousness and personal evolution talk about how the energy is changing now, and about the shift in consciousness.  But we never discuss where this energy creating these shifts come from – there is a general consensus that we can feel these energetic changes but not being scientists we tend not to analyze their source.

Wired News reported in 2010 that incoming cosmic rays reached a new high in 2009.  Space scientist Richard Mewaldt of Caltech is quoted in the article: “It’s sort of like everything’s working in the same direction right now, to allow cosmic rays greater access to the inner solar system.”  This occurred during the “solar minimum” when the sun’s energy was at its lowest, perhaps permitting more of the powerful rays to reach the earth’s atmosphere.  Some speculative journalists like David WIlcock have written of a stream of new energy coming from the Galactic Center, and astrologically Pluto conjoined the Galactic Center in 2006-2007 which potentially could have opened a doorway for these forces.

For a fascinating article about planetary and consciousness changes, read this article.

by Lynn Hayes, reposted from 2006.  Mandala by Paul Heussenstam.

As humans, we tend to think that happiness is better than sadness, that good luck is better than bad. We may avoid difficult confrontations and pursue more comfortable situations. When tragedy strikes our well-protected lives, we shout out to our god of choice: “How could you do this to me??” We believe that our birthright is the pursuit of happiness, and we spend our lives trying to protect ourselves from sorrow.

The soul, however, has a different journey. The soul travels an ancient evolutionary path that seeks wisdom and connection with the divine. Often in our desire to defend ourselves from discomfort, we erect barriers within ourselves. Often we become so effective in compartmentalizing our emotions we become cut off from our very selves, our soul and our spirit.

In astrological terms, the orbiting planets form geometric angles to each other as they travel through the solar system, and also to our birthchart planets. We call these movements “transits.” Each transiting planet has its own nature, its own personality and its own purpose—calling upon us as the ancient gods they represent to bring forth something in ourselves that has been lost. The inner planets move quickly: a transit of Venus will encourage relationships and creativity, a transit of Mars demands that we defend ourselves appropriately. Easy Jupiter transits can bring financial opportunity, or liberate us from difficult situations, whereas the challenging transits can cause reckless and risky behavior. The outer, or transpersonal planets, including Saturn which acts as the bridge between the personal planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter) and transpersonal (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto), take much longer to traverse the zodiac and therefore their effects are felt for a longer period of time.

Some periods are harmonious and bring opportunity, and some are difficult and bring challenges and pain. However, hidden in each cycle is a gift that can aid us in our evolutionary journey as individuals and as the human collective.

Art from Visual Alchemy.  This piece reminds me of the electrical energies operating right now, creating rare and invisible filaments of transformation where we are not looking.  Mercury and Uranus link up to intensify the energetic force to awaken and realign our neurological pathways.

Beauty is occurring all around us, whether seen or unseen – known or unknown.

These ideas fascinate me as an astrologer because of the correlation to the different astrological aspects of religious and spiritual belief.  For example, a 2009 article in the UK’s Independent tells us:

The latest study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved analysing the brains of volunteers, who had been asked to think about religious and moral problems and questions. For the analysis, the researchers used a functional magnetic-resonance imaging machine, which can identify the most energetically-active regions of the brain.

 

They found that people of different religious persuasions and beliefs, as well as atheists, all tended to use the same electrical circuits in the brain to solve a perceived moral conundrum – and the same circuits were used when religiously-inclined people dealt with issues related to God.

The astrological Jupiter and its sign Sagittarius are said to rule both religion and morality as well as philosophy and ideology – mental constructs with which we define our reality.  So it makes sense that the same area of the brain would be used for all of these kinds of experiences.

The author clearly misses the point, however, in this statement:

Other studies of people taking part in Buddhist meditation suggested the parietal lobes at the upper back region of the brain were involved in controlling religious belief, in particular the mystical elements that gave people a feeling of being on a higher plane during prayer.

Religious belief, ruled by Jupiter and Sagittarius, are totally different experiences from the “mystical elements” such as a sense of elevated consciousness.  These experiences of transcendence and mysticism are ruled by Neptune and Pisces and are completely different in nature astrologically.

New research by Professor Brick Johnstone of Missouri University has found scientific basis for the fact that “spirituality is a complex phenomenon and that multiple areas of the brain are responsible for the many aspects of spiritual experiences.”

In the most recent study, Johnstone studied 20 people with traumatic brain injuries affecting the right parietal lobe, the area of the brain situated a few inches above the right ear.
He surveyed participants on characteristics of spirituality, such as how close they felt to a higher power and if they felt their lives were part of a divine plan.
He found that the participants with more significant injury to their right parietal lobe showed an increased feeling of closeness to a higher power.
‘Neuropsychology researchers consistently have shown that impairment on the right side of the brain decreases one’s focus on the self,’ said Johnstone.
‘Since our research shows that people with this impairment are more spiritual, this suggests spiritual experiences are associated with a decreased focus on the self.

 

The planet Neptune and the sign Pisces correlate to experiences that take us beyond the Self.  These are the experiences in which we feel personally connected to an experience of the Divine rather than a belief.

Johnston also found a correlation between frontal lobe activity and frequency of religious practice (i.e., how often one attends church) which would be a more Jupiter/Sagittarius experience.  ’This finding indicates that spiritual experiences are likely associated with different parts of the brain,” said Johnstone.

My personal belief is that the theological experiences governed by Jupiter and Sagittarius are brain-based.  This is where we construct our theory of the reality of our world and create the resultant belief systems.  The more mystical experiences of being connected to a higher power, or experiences that go beyond the individual self, originate in consciousness which, scientists are finding, is not localized in the brain at all.  These Neptune/Pisces experiences are then processed through the brain to help us to understand those experiences in a way that will help our personal evolution and inner knowledge.

In any case, any research that helps people to understand that there is not one True Way is always helpful.