Part II: Neptune in Pisces

April 6, 2011 By

Here is Part I in case you missed it yesterday.

Neptune in PiscesThis time around, Neptune will be in Pisces until August 4 2011 when it will retrograde back into Aquarius until February 3 2012 at which time it will move fully into Pisces and remain there until 2025.

The transit of Neptune in Pisces this time around once again (as it did in 1848-1852) coincides with a strong aspect between Uranus and Pluto that inspires revolution and radical change and the destruction of the status quo.  The Neptunian influence can cast a spell of delusion over the fever for revolution, or it can inspire us to greater love and compassion for all of humanity.

As we move from the age of Pisces into the age of Aquarius, humans are waking up out of their sleep of delusion that religious dogma has cast over the world during the past 2000 years of Piscean mystery.  Aquarius is more concerned with the rights of the individual, although it can be brutal in its efforts to accomplish social equality as we have seen throughout history in events such as the French Revolution.

As we stand at the doorway of the Age of Aquarius, this passage of Neptune in Pisces represents a completion of sorts – a final test of our ability to rise above the urge to lose ourselves in unconscious urges and escapist behavior and instead achieve a higher level of conscious awareness in the elevation of our ideals and dreams.

For the first eight years that Neptune moves through Pisces Chiron will be there as well.  In its role as the Wounded Healer (or as I prefer to call it, the Soul Healer) Chiron reveals any area in our world which requires release and healing so that a greater wisdom may emerge.  We are likely to see a more advanced wave of “designer” drugs – pharmaceuticals designed to evoke certain experiences.  The legalization of marijuana for medical use, and its adoption by pharmaceutical companies for profit, is likely to come rather quickly.

The ways in which we entertain ourselves are certain to change as well.  Games such as the Wii will transform into more realistic virtual worlds, and televisions will go beyond 3-dimensional to provide an experience that intensifies all of the senses beyond what the human experience can offer on its own.  This is likely to result in a new type of addiction as the more subtle forms of experience of the natural world takes a back seat.  We are already seeing a form of this in the realm of sexuality, where the wide availability of pornography on the Web is creating sexual dysfunction in a growing number of men for whom a sexual experience with a live person cannot compete with the intensity of the pornographic experience.

Astrology Liz Greene calls Pisces the “Celestial Dustbin,” because it is the sum total of all of our experiences.  In Pisces we long to return to the source – to merge with a greater experience that goes beyond the limits of our senses.  The collective consciousness, or unconsciousness as the case may be, is more readily accessible under the Piscean influence and with Neptune traveling through Pisces life could become much more confusing as the veils between the realms of experience become thinner and easier to traverse.

Neptune wants to inspire us to transcend ordinary reality, and its ideal expression is to seek this transcendence through a connection with the divine.  This is the source of the creative fire, as we channel any type of creative output through our more limited conscious experience.  As Neptune travels through Pisces we have an opportunity to more easily stretch ourselves beyond the limits of our intuition and conscious awareness.  Our capacity for compassion for the suffering can grow and our hearts can open.  If we ground ourselves in a spiritual practice we will be able to take advantage of the opening flower of divine wisdom that will be available to us, especially during the period in which Chiron is also in Pisces.

With Uranus squaring Pluto over the next four years, revolution and radical changes in the global landscape will be a major part of our experience.  Neptune in Pisces can inspire us to either escape from the difficult intensity into new heights of avoidance, or to seek the higher path of elevated consciousness that can help us to create real change and transformation.  Neptune in Pisces offers opportunities for unparalleled creativity and imagination which can combine with the powerful Uranian influence for invention in ways that can create amazing things for the world of the future.

The symbol for Pisces is two fish swimming in opposite directions.  Pisces is said to be the sign of the saint and the sinner, the priest and the addict. It is our choice, as it always is, whether we will take the easy road of sleep and unconsciousness,  or remain awake and utilize the powerful energy of change that is coming.

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Looking forward – part III: The transformation of 2012

March 4, 2011 By

This is the conclusion to a three-part article.  You can catch up on Part I here, and Part II here.

Transformation of 2012The gods are kind and they will be gracing us with a number of powerful harmonious transits to accompany the stressful times.  Chiron (the Soul Healer) and Neptune (the Soul Teacher) both move into Pisces this year where they will offer a direct line for us to communicate more directly with our own inner guides and teachers.  This process will be facilitated by Pluto, the Great Transformer, in a harmonious sextile to Chiron that occurs between 2012 and 2014.  At the same time, Saturn, the Celestial Teacher, will be in a harmonious trine to Chiron, helping us to more easily work with the soul wounds that are the source of our greatest pain, but also the keys to our greatest personal transformation.

Saturn will also trine Neptune between 2012 and 2013, enhancing our ability to give form (Saturn) to our direct connection to the spiritual world and our own personal guidance.  And finally, a harmonious sextile from Saturn to Pluto during this same period will provide us with a solid container (Saturn) within which this tremendous metamorphosis can take place.

Because every human being is interconnected through an energetic grid, the personal work that each of us does to accelerate our personal transformation will have an affect on every other person on the planet.  But this works both ways: we ourselves our affected by the energies with which we surround ourselves.  Waves of fear and distress can be internalized in ways that are not helpful.   We are being guided here by the most powerful of the planetary gods, and a high level of trust in the process will be required of us.

The biggest enemy of personal transformation is resistance, and in a period of extreme volatility such as the one we are entering it is tempting to try to protect ourselves by digging in our heels and attempting to hold back the flood of change.  This will not be effective and will only create additional distress.

As part of this resistance you may find yourself experiencing physical illness or drug addictions (especially with both Chiron and Neptune in Pisces, the sign of escapism as well as spirituality).   You may be plagued with anxieties as you attempt to hold back submerged thoughts and memories which clamor for attention and release.

Or you may find yourself engaging with these planetary energies by allowing yourself to be led by them in a mode that is completely reactive and without thought or planning.  The force of Uranus can inspire us to quit our jobs and leave the country one minute, and regret it the next.  Some of us will react to heightened anxiety by acting out and creating chaos in our relationships and work environments.

Under this pressure, psychotherapy may be helpful, although most psychotherapists are not trained to look at life through the lens of a spiritual awakening.  Throughout this period we will be best served by orienting ourselves towards the spiritual experience by seeking greater intuition and wisdom that is freely given from the inside.  Turning inwards In meditation, ecstatic dance, yoga, chi gong – all of these classic modalities teach us how to work with the energy of life to find the quiet center within.  It is from this center that all effective transformation comes.

And most of all. learn to trust the planets.  Through their guidance and wisdom we learn that just as we fear we will be enveloped by the darkness, the light shines through in greater measure than ever before, bathing us in the warm glow of ecstasy as we leave the darkness of the past behind and walk into a new world.

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Chiron in Pisces: The healing of medicine?

February 9, 2011 By

Chiron in PiscesPerhaps it’s just a “coincidence,” but last week as Chiron (the “wounded healer”) entered the sign of Pisces (spirituality and the soul) one of my favorite podcasts, the People’s Pharmacy, broadcast an interview with Dr.  Allan Hamilton called The Scalpel and the Soul.  Dr. Hamilton has written a book called The Scalpel and the Soul: Encounters with Surgery, The Supernatural, and the Healing Power of Hope.

It’s unusual to find an established medical professional talking about the supernatural and healing powers, but it coincides perfectly with the entry of Chiron into Pisces.  At a time when the field of medicine is spiritually bankrupt and desperately in need of an overhaul, perhaps this infusion of spiritual awareness into the way we think about our physical bodies is emblematic of what Chiron in Pisces has to offer.

I like to think of Chiron as the “Soul Healer” rather than the wounded healer – Chiron is instrumental in helping to clear the emotional and physical wounds that we bring into this life so that the soul can progress.  Chiron presides over the body/mind/spirit connection – the triad of influences that come together to make up the Human Being.  Physical health alone is not sufficient to provide balance – the mind and spirit must also be well integrated in order to achieve optimum health.

Chiron was in Pisces in the late 1960s when Elisabeth Kubler Ross was waking up the medical establishment to a new sensitivity of death and the process of dying.  Her book On Death and Dying was published in 1969 as Chiron was completing its passage through Pisces and helped to popularize the hospice care movement.

All of the talk today about health care reform is more about how to pay for health care than how to actually reform the health care system.  Dr. Hamilton cites statistics in this interview that Americans have a better chance of dying in a hospital from medical malfeasance than in a traffic accident.   As I wrote in 2009:

Research by John Wennberg and his team from Dartmouth over the past forty years has proven that wealthier parts of the country spent more on health care, but were not any healthier.  Wennberg’s colleague Elliot Fisher demonstrated in 2000 that people in areas that spent more on health care were dying at a higher rate.  They were not getting more surgery; they were getting more tests, more pharmaceuticals and more unnecessary procedures.  Fisher determined that the 2-6% increase in deaths was directly attributed to more time spent in the hospital.

Maybe Chiron’s journey through Pisces this time will provide true healing and an acceptance of spiritual forces to the field of medicine.

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Chiron in Pisces, February 8 2011

February 5, 2011 By
Chiron in Pisces

Art by Willow Arlenea

Most of the planets in our solar system travel through the zodiac (from our perspective here on earth) at approximately the same rate of speed, no matter what sign they are traveling through.  The Sun takes about 30 days to go through each sign; Saturn takes approximately 26-28 months to go through a sign.

Chiron and Pluto both have elliptical orbits from our perspective on earth, so their travel through the twelve signs of the zodiac is more erratic.  Here are the approximate number of years Chiron spends in each sign:

  • Nine years in Aries
  • Seven years in Taurus
  • Four years in Gemini
  • Three years in Cancer
  • Two years in Leo
  • Two years in Virgo
  • Two years  in Libra
  • Two years in Scorpio
  • Three years in Sagittarius
  • Four years in Capricorn
  • Six years in Aquarius
  • Eight years in Pisces

So Chiron spends more time in Pisces and in Aries than in any other sign.  Chiron tiptoed into Pisces in April of 2010 for just a few months before moving back into Aquarius to complete its Aquarian journey along with Neptune.  You can read more about the transition from Aquarius to Pisces here which includes these paragraphs that are probably most applicable today:

With Chiron in Pisces for the next nine years or so, the last stage of healing occurs at the soul level. This process began last year with the conjunction of Chiron and Neptune, the ruler of Pisces. Under this combination many of us were intensely aware of the longings of the soul within. Memories of past loves; mourning for those we’ve lost — all took on a more profound meaning as the doorway to the soul opened under Neptune’s guidance so that the healing of Chiron could begin to do its work. The Chironic healing process involves going back to the core wounds and exposing them to the air so that they can become healed. It’s not an easy process and requires a fair amount of courage, but when the healing is complete we gain a level of wisdom and cellular integration that is not otherwise possible.

While Chiron travels through Pisces there is a danger of falling into Piscean illusion which we often attempt as a shortcut on the way to spiritual bliss. Because of the tendency of Pisces to seek martyrdom and sacrifice, there is the danger of becoming lost IN the pain during the Chironic healing process rather than going THROUGH the pain as required. The Neptunian influence of Pisces tends to blur the boundaries of our relationships with others, so another danger of Chiron’s trip through Pisces is that of a codependent process of healing others rather than ourselves.

Chiron represents the wound that we carry with us throughout our life – it never leaves us, which makes it tempting to try to heal the wounds of others instead. This kind of transference is not only ineffective, it can be dangerous and pollutes our relationships while preventing the soul integration that is necessary for our own healing. If we are careful not to get lost in the glamour that makes up the realm of Pisces and Neptune, there is tremendous potential during the Chiron trip through Pisces for a growing spiritual awareness and an integration of Universal consciousness into our own beings. This is the process that will carry us through any stress that results in the Cardinal alignments coming up over the next three years.

As our world shifts and changes around us, Chiron continues to facilitate the growing conversation between our inner Selves and the person that we think we are, enhancing our own experience of wholeness and, ultimately, bliss.

Bliss is not easily won in our physical world.  The letting go of our individuality so that we can become reborn in the ecstasy of the divine is the lesson of Pisces, and in order to facilitate this transition we must release the individuality of Aquarius.  Each sign of the zodiac leads into the next, and in this way we evolve in cycles through each turn of the wheel.

This trip of Chiron through Pisces will coincide with the great social and global political clashes of Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries, suggesting that healing (Chiron) will come to us individually through a greater inward focus and attention to the spiritual side of life, a world that lies beyond the material plane.  Because this is Chiron, though, in order to walk through the Piscean mists that keepus from our ultimate bliss, we must continue our healing journey and release any blocked energy from our wounded places that are holding us back so that we can move more easily into the bliss of ultimate Oneness.

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This really is President Obama’s Katrina

June 15, 2010 By

Obama - Gulf oilPresident Obama will address the nation tonight in a speech about the oil disaster in the Gulf Coast.  We can argue all day, and probably will, over whether Obama has done enough to stem the tide of this horrific event, but in a politically divided world such as the one we are currently in his options are limited.  There are some in Congress for whom it is more important to see Obama fail than to solve the problem in the Gulf, so Obama is left with little he can do other than wring his hands and express emotion over the devastation, something he is ill equipped to do.

Obama isn’t President Clinton, who with a Leo Sun and Libra rising was a born politician, making everyone feel that they were the most important person in the universe (Libra) and basking in the glory of his success (Leo).  In a disaster Clinton is the first responder, shedding tears with the people and being one with everyone.

Obama has Aquarius rising – a transpersonal sign that chooses reason over emotion.  Obama’s solution to problems is to avoid getting involved in the emotion of the situation so that reason can create a solution.  The US chart has an Aquarian Moon, so normally that would not be such a problem for Americans to deal with, but at the moment the US chart shows a “double whammy” Neptune/Moon contact with the progressed Moon conjoining Neptune in the chart,  and transiting Neptune conjoining the Moon in the chart.

Neptune/Moon contacts blur the obvious and can distort reality – they create a desire for the ideal and a longing for something other than what we have.  The Neptunian longing is for ascension and transmutation of the ordinary world into something more magic – it’s a longing to be saved and to be delivered from tragedy.

President Obama is an excellent orator and organizer – he’s practical and effective at building consensus and coming up with solutions.  But despite the fervor over his election, he’s not the savior that many hoped he would be.  It’s interesting that most of the criticism of Obama’s handling of the disaster has been directed to his emotional response rather than to his actual actions – this shows the Moon/Neptune influence that is permeating the emotional fabric of the country right now.

When the Horizon oil rig first exploded I wrote of the conjunction of Pluto to Ceres and the environmental effects.  This event also occurred just as Chiron entered Pisces, wounding (Chiron) the ocean (Pisces) and adding to the environmental (Ceres) destruction (Pluto).  This destruction and devastation can offer a positive legacy if we take the lessons of this event to heart and recognize that we cannot continue damaging the earth in order to satisfy our unending appetite for oil.

I just about dropped my teeth this morning when I heard Joe Scarborough, noted conservative, say on his morning program that the devastating events (Osama bin Laden, September 11, the Iraq war), of the past ten years were all the result of our addiction to cheap oil.  If certain other conservatives would put as much energy into helping to create a solution as they put into trying to ensure that Obama fails at everything he tries, we might be able to succeed as a nation.  We might have to wait for the conclusion of the Saturn/Uranus opposition in September for that to happen.

Update:  Daily Kos has images of Obama’s trip to the Gulf disputing this image of Obama as the “cold president”.

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Chiron in Pisces: The bliss of healing

April 21, 2010 By

Chiron in PiscesChiron moves into the sign of Pisces today.  Chiron is an interesting planetary body whose orbit lies in the Kuiper belt.  But just as Chiron was not an ordinary Centaur even though he was half horse and half man, Chiron is not just an ordinary KBO (Kuiper Belt Object).  For more information on the planetary properties of Chiron visit this earlier article, and here you’ll find more information on the astrological Chiron.

Today Chiron leaves Aquarius for the sign of Pisces.  In its role as the Wounded Healer, Chiron shows where are deepest wounds lie, and where we will find the keys to healing.  A soul that has experienced the intensity of experience in emotional or physical pain has an opportunity to gain greater wisdom and a depth of consciousness and awareness by delving deep into the wound that is not available without these experiences.

Chiron is the guide on this journey, giving us the courage to open our hearts despite the fear and pain that may make this process excrutiatingly difficult in some cases.

While Chiron was in Aquarius from 2005 until next year (Chiron will retrograde back into Aquarius in July to complete the process) we have seen the ways in which technology, one of the domains of Aquarius, has created wounds and intensified experiences of loneliness and isolation in the midst of 1,000 Facebook friends.  Aquarius, with its double rulership of Saturn (rules and isolation) and Uranus (the collective) has a tendency to become somewhat disconnected from the heart and soul, living primarily in the head and the realm of thoughts and ideas.

The period of Chiron traveling through Aquarius completes itself with an opposition between those two planets (Saturn and Uranus), intensifying the stress between the solid forms that hold society together (Saturn) and the revolutionary new ideas that bring about change (Uranus).  Under this influence we have seen both an obsessive need to change the status quo, and a fear of change that results in violent backlash.

Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac, and it represents a completion of sorts.  In Pisces, everything is thrown into the “celestial dustbin,” as Liz Greene says, and we surrender to the mists of an experience that dissolves both Saturnian and Uranian reality into something more transcendent and, ideally, more pure.

Under the Pisces influence we often throw ourselves to the winds, eagerly willing to sacrifice our individual pain for the bliss of Universal consciousness.  This urge for self-sacrifice can, at its worst, exalt the concept of martyrdom and convert it to victimhood.  The challenge is to find the rapture of transcendence and surrender without losing ourselves in the process.

Chiron was last in Pisces from 1962-1968, and it’s impossible to separate the effects of this planetary cycle from the conjunction of Uranus and Pluto which occurred during the same time period.  But we can certainly see how the growing drug culture at that time (Chiron in Pisces)  affected the social transformation of the era (Uranus/Pluto).   Chiron in Pisces runs the risk of addictive behavior which may appear as a shortcut to the desired transcendent experience that helps to dissolve pain and sufering.

With Chiron in Pisces for the next nine years or so, the last stage of healing occurs at the soul level.  This process began last year with the conjunction of Chiron and Neptune, the ruler of Pisces.  Under this combination many of us were intensely aware of the longings of the soul within.  Memories of past loves; mourning for those we’ve lost — all took on a more profound meaning as the doorway to the soul opened under Neptune’s guidance so that the healing of Chiron could begin to do its work.

The Chironic healing process involves going back to the core wounds and exposing them to the air so that they can become healed.  It’s not an easy process and requires a fair amount of courage, but when the healing is complete we gain a level of wisdom and cellular integration that is not otherwise possible.

While Chiron travels through Pisces there is a danger of falling into Piscean illusion which we often attempt as a shortcut on the way to spiritual bliss.  Because of the tendency of Pisces to seek martyrdom and sacrifice, there is the danger of becoming lost IN the pain during the Chironic healing process rather than going THROUGH the pain as required.

The Neptunian influence of Pisces tends to blur the boundaries of our relationships with others, so another danger of Chiron’s trip through Pisces is that of a codependent process of healing others rather than ourselves.  Chiron represents the wound that we carry with us throughout our life – it never leaves us, which makes it tempting to try to heal the wounds of others instead.  This kind of transference is not only ineffective, it can be dangerous and pollutes our relationships while preventing the soul integration that is necessary for our own healing.

If we are careful not to get lost in the glamour that makes up the realm of Pisces and Neptune, there is tremendous potential during the Chiron trip through Pisces for a growing spiritual awareness and an integration of Universal consciousness into our own beings.  This is the process that will carry us through any stress that results in the Cardinal alignments coming up over the next three years.  As our world shifts and changes around us, Chiron continues to facilitate the growing conversation between our inner Selves and the person that we think we are, enhancing our own experience of wholeness and, ultimately, bliss.

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Why did Sandra Bullock marry Jesse James?

March 25, 2010 By

This whole debacle with Jesse James and the now eleven affairs he is supposed to have had during his marriage to Sandra Bullock, has me asking this question again.  Astrology provides a window into the motivation behind people’s actions, so I took a deeper look.

Sandra Bullock’s chart is not a very emotional one.  She has the Moon in reasonable and rational Aquarius, showing that her feelings (the Moon) tend to be filtered through the mind rather than the emotional body.  She has very little other water in her chart other than Saturn in Pisces, which shows a discomfort and fear (Saturn) of losing herself (Pisces), and Chiron is also in Pisces showing a wound (Chiron) in that same area.

In addition, with Venus (relating) in the changeable sign of Gemini, she is likely to need  a lot of space and air in her relationships. Chiron, the wounder and healer, is in a challenging square to Venus in Sandra’s chart which suggests that relationships are for her the greatest teachers but can sometimes lead to emotionally wrenching experiences.

Sandra met Jesse James in December 2003 when  transiting Pluto (transformation and compulsion) formed a challenging square to Chiron in Sandra’s chart and began to set off the Chiron/Venus system. Pluto transits call us deeper into the soul where we have to face parts of ourselves that have long been hidden, and Pluto transits to Venus also bring about intense relationship experiences that can be very difficult but which in the end teach us something about ourselves. Pluto transits to Chiron often have the effect of healing a deep wound within us, but can also serve to expose that wound so that it can be dealt with.

For the two years that Sandra and Jesse were dating, Pluto was engaged in this dance with Venus and Chiron in Sandra’s chart, stimulating her desire to heal (Chiron) her relationship issues (Venus).  Sandra was also in her “Neptune Square” between 2004 and 2005 during their relationship.  The Neptune Square occurs when transiting Neptune forms a challenging square to Neptune in our chart at around age 40-43, a planetary cycle that often creates confusion and the potential to be deluded (it also brings us more deeply into a spiritual life if handled properly).

When Sandra and Jesse married in July 2005,  she was in the middle of not only the Neptune Square, but also the Uranus Opposition (when transiting Uranus is opposite Uranus in the natal chart, stimulating rebellion and the desire for change).  These two cycles occur at the same time for everyone, making the early 40s a huge time of change and potentially chaotic.  The fact that Jesse James was different than anyone else she had ever dated (Uranus) and somewhat mysterious with a dark past (Pluto), as well as exceedingly romantic (Neptune)  made him an ideal candidate for this phase of Sandra’s life.

I can’t say I haven’t made similar choices in my own life, but I am happy to say that every bad choice I made helped to prepare me for the healthy and happy relationship I have now.  The mistake we make is in believing that our detours are errors instead of seeing them as learning experiences.  Of course this is much easier to accomplish when you’re not living in the goldfish bowl of Hollywood celebrity.

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