Pluto turns direct and transformation continues

September 17, 2012 By

personal transformationIf you feel as though your life has intensified over the past week, you are not alone.  If you open up a newspaper you will see that all over the world conflict is heating up as old failing systems begin to break down so that new paradigms can take their place. It is 2012 after all!

This is what the Uranus/Pluto cycle is all about.  Pluto tears down old and outmoded structures that are no longer working, and this is especially true when Pluto is in Capricorn as it is now.  Capricorn is the sign of the power structures, and ever since Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008 we have seen a shift in the way we look at how power is held by organizations and individuals.  Uranus, on the other hand, is about authenticity and liberation – radical change that shakes us to our very bones.  Uranus is in Aries, the sign of the individual and the warrior.  It is no wonder we are seeing the balance of power shift from the Superpower era to an era of small splinter groups that rule through intimidation and warfare.

Pluto turns direct on the 18th, meaning it will change direction after a retrograde turn that has lasted since April.  Planets don’t really orbit backwards, but because we observe the movement of the planets from our own perspective they sometimes appear to do so.  Outer planet represent transformational forces and when retrograde they tend to operate primarily on an internal level, and when Pluto turns direct (to appear to move forward again) there is a sense that the buildup of tension is released along with the transformative force that is pushing from behind.

Pluto turns direct just one day before the second exact alignment of Uranus and Pluto in a 90 degree (square) aspect of conflict and challenge, which means that pressure for change and evolution is extremely strong.  On a personal level the stories of our lives are being completely rewritten, and this necessitates a letting go but also a visionary approach to the magic and mystery of our lives.

When we are dealing with this kind of power and majesty there is a certain amount of surrender that is required.  But at the same time we are the co-creators of our destiny, and we must always remain aware of the fact that every moment brings us the choice whether or not to step into a conscious future.

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Family net worth is back to Pre-Pluto in Sag levels

June 14, 2012 By

In the news:

 The recent economic crisis left the median American family in 2010 with no more wealth than in the early 1990s, erasing almost two decades of accumulated prosperity, the Federal Reserve said Monday.

 

A hypothetical family richer than half the nation’s families and poorer than the other half had a net worth of $77,300 in 2010, compared with $126,400 in 2007, the Fed said. The crash of housing prices directly accounted for three-quarters of the loss.

read more here…

This is interesting from an astrological viewpoint because Pluto entered Sagittarius in 1995 and began the obsessive (Pluto) push towards grandiosity (Sagittarius) that created the housing bubble, a variety of stock market bubbles, and an ever-widening circle of debt.  Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008 and began the contracting phase of the cycle, from which we are still recovering.

Pluto was in Sagittarius between 1503 and 1516.  During that time King Henry VIII ascended the throne and presided over a building boom that created what was perhaps the world’s first housing bubble.  He nearly bankrupted the country by spending lavishly on ships and palaces in which he hung 2000 tapestries.  When Pluto moved into Capricorn, the British treasury was empty after years of extravagance and high taxes were imposed in order to fund foreign wars (sound familiar?).

Pluto next traversed Sagittarius between 1748 and 1762.  That period saw the expansion of the British Empire into India, but after Pluto entered Capricorn in 1762 and Britain lost control of the American colonies its influence began to wane.

Astrologers were ready for this same pattern when Pluto entered Sagittarius, and we foresaw the contraction of 2008 when Pluto entered Capricorn.  So it is no surprise that on average, many of us are back where we were in 1995 before  the Sagittarian expansion led us to unrealistic heights of grandeur.

That is not to say that we are doomed to economic failure.  The Capricorn influence of Pluto simply deflates a balloon that has no basis in reality – if our economic foundation is solid we will be fine.  This is a time for saving, investing – being practical.  Pluto will be in Capricorn until 2023, and this is NOT a time for multilevel marketing schemes or ideas that are too good to be true. Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, and Saturn rewards our efforts and hard work.  Let THAT be your guide right now.

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Saturn in Libra meets Pluto in Capricorn: The Marriage Amendment

April 27, 2012 By

gay marriage astrologyHere in North Carolina citizens are voting on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.  I have been listening to some of the conservative talk radio shows in an attempt to find out the reasoning behind the necessity for this amendment.

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.

 

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The Great Grand Trine

March 13, 2012 By

Note to my readers:  This post contains a lot of geeky astrological lingo.  If you find it overwhelming skip to the bottom where I’ve translated this into English for you.

 

Throughout the month of March a Grand Trine is in effect between Jupiter in Taurus, Pluto in Capricorn, and Mars in Virgo.  Normally Mars moves quickly through the zodiac but because it has been retrograde and is moving slowly now before it changes direction, it is at a virtual standstill as part of this Grand Trine.

 

A Grand Trine is a triangular formation that consists of three separate trines.  You may have noticed that Jupiter and Venus have been getting closer and closer to a conjunction in the sky and that formation peaked last night, and these two are conjunct the point in the sky known as the Black Moon Lilith.  The Black Moon Lilith is not an actual body but is more like a void out of which comes the darkness of our deepest and most fearful emotions.

 

The trine aspect promotes ease and harmony, which you would think would be a good thing and it can be, but it also can create laziness and complacency.  This Grand Trine is in the element of Earth which desires stability at all costs, yet we also have an opposition (stressful aspect) between the assertive energy of Mars and the raw emotional sensitivity of Chiron which forms what we call a Kite to the Grand Trine.

 

Kites add a layer of unresolved tension to a Grand Trine and yet the circular energy of the Trine makes it difficult to move through the tension towards resolution but also adds a dynamic quality to the stasis of the Grand Trine.  This suggests that even though under the Grand Trine we seek comfort and security from the Earth element, there is enough underlying anxiety from the Mars/Chiron configuration to push us into greater inner activation.

 

The major players in the Grand Trine, Jupiter, Pluto and Mars, come together beautifully themselves to facilitate personal growth and empowerment.  Jupiter brings confidence to the table, Mars provides the energy, and Pluto reveals the raw power that is required to create real transformation once our personal issues (Mars/Chiron) are resolved.

 

In this powerful alignment of the planet of ideology and good fortune (Jupiter) and the planet of focused strength (Pluto) there is the potential for powerful work towards the betterment of yourself and those around you. On a personal level this aspect can help us to transform our lives and the community around us; on a global level it can facilitate understanding and an acceptance of other viewpoints.

 

English translation

 

Throughout the month of March a Grand Trine is in effect between Jupiter in Taurus, Pluto in Capricorn, and Mars in Virgo.

 

A Grand Trine is a triangular formation that consists of three separate trines.  You may have noticed that Jupiter and Venus have been getting closer and closer to a conjunction in the sky and that formation peaked last night, and these two are conjunct the point in the sky known as the Black Moon Lilith.  The Black Moon Lilith is not an actual body but is more like a void out of which comes the darkness of our deepest and most fearful emotions.

 

The trine aspect promotes ease and harmony, which you would think would be a good thing and it can be, but it also can create laziness and complacency.  This Grand Trine is in the element of Earth which desires stability at all costs, yet we also have some conflict between our instinct to assert ourselves and our raw emotional sensitivity.

 

Even though under the Grand Trine we seek comfort and security from the Earth element, there is enough underlying anxiety to push us into greater inner activation.

 

In this powerful alignment of the planet of ideology and good fortune (Jupiter) and the planet of focused strength (Pluto) there is the potential for powerful work towards the betterment of yourself and those around you. On a personal level this aspect can help us to transform our lives and the community around us; on a global level it can facilitate understanding and an acceptance of other viewpoints.


 

 

 

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Forbes Magazine interviews financial astrologers

February 27, 2012 By

financial astrologyWhen the economic collapse occurred in 2008, astrologers were not surprised.  We had been watching and waiting for the arrival of Pluto’s entry into Capricorn as a time when the explosive growth of the Pluto in Sagittarius period would contract and the reality check of Capricorn’s serious need for discipline would arrive.  The economic collapse also demonstrated quite clearly that financial experts lacked adequate tools to understand the fluctuations of the stock market.

The Astrology News Service posted a link to a couple of Forbes articles about financial astrology that are actually pretty respectful of the art. One of these articles interviews astrologer Grace Morris:

She based her calls on traditional earth-bound analysis from outsiders, like fundamental and technical data. But the real twist comes from the natal star charts of the companies she chose to recommend to her clients. There were only five large cap buys on the list. Most were holds. The rest were mid and small cap names.  Out of the five large cap buy recommendations she made in October, three beat the S&P 500, and all were trading positive from Oct. 3 to market close on Feb. 17.

This was interesting to me because I myself decided that with Uranus in Aries, the innovator of individuality, in conflict with Pluto in Capricorn, the destroyer of corporations, that small cap companies were going to be the real growth investments.  (I am NOT a financial advisor, and I have no training in economics.  I am a professional astrologer with an interest in the geocosmics of finance.)

The other Forbes article on financial astrology quotes my personal favorite, Ray Merriman:

“With Saturn moving into Scorpio later this year as Pluto stays in Capricorn, it will be a time of reckoning and not only for the U.S., but for Japan and also Europe,” warned Merriman.  “Pluto represents debt and Capricorn and Saturn represent accountability. You experience the consequences of your actions in regards to debt when the planets are in that position. The best case scenario is a sobering one where all sides agree it will be a five to 8 year process to fix these major economies. The worst case scenario is that spending continues to exceed revenue, and the credit worthiness of any of these nations is downgraded yet again. Europe and the U.S. are both vulnerable to this potential reality, and it is coming soon, before 2014.”

The article even delves into the astrology of the US Sibly chart and the fact that Uranus and Pluto will be in challenging aspects to the US Sun from 2013-2015.  This is likely to be extremely significant to the fate of the United States and I’ll be writing more about this in the months to come.

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Pluto in Capricorn: Passing through the gate of wisdom

September 20, 2011 By

Wisdom of the elderlyMy friend Gary shared this article by Michael Meade and it’s so applicable to the current passage of Pluto through Capricorn.  Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, also known as the Greek Kronos, also known as “Father Time.”  Saturn and Capricorn remind us that our life is short and that we must be smart about how we spend the time that is allotted to us.

In traditional cultures, the elders are expected to remember the essential things that everyone else keeps forgetting. After “growing up,” a person is supposed to grow down and become rooted deeper in the ground of being, like an old tree that draws from ever deeper resources. In traditional cultures, the elders were considered to be a valuable resource without whose guidance the whole society could lose its way.

Yet in modern life, instead of people growing “older and wiser,” people can simply grow older and older. People can live longer and longer without becoming any wiser for it. When there is no genuine growth in growing older, aging can become all about loss. The longer people live the more of life they seem to lose. Instead of developing wise and seasoned “elders” who can help others find meaningful ways to live, modern societies are in danger of producing “olders” who blindly seek ways to hold onto life at any cost.

This can be seen as the problem of the olders vs. the elders. Traditionally, elders carry a greater vision of life because they develop insight into their own lives. The elders are those who found threads of purpose and meaning amidst the illusions and delusions of life. Amidst the inevitable troubles of life, the bubble of the “closed ego” bursts and a deeper, wiser self is born. Such psychological maturity involves a shift from a self-centered life to one of genuine meaning and of greater service to others.

Yet, in a culture where older folks are in the majority and people tend to live longer and longer, there seems to be an increase of fear as well as a loss of wisdom about life and about death. There seems to be a lack of knowing elders who can recall essential things in midst of the great crises troubling both nature and culture. What is the point of living longer if it doesn’t mean becoming wiser and being more able to serve something beyond one’s little-self?

This is what Pluto in Capricorn is teaching us, and since it follows the passage of Pluto through Sagittarius, in which entertainment and “bigger is better” ruled the days, there is a fair amount of contraction that needs to be done now in order to make that passage between “little-self” and the deeper wisdom of the elder.

This process is probably particularly difficult for the Pluto in Leo generation, my own generation (1939-1958) for whom developing the ego and the little-self has become an art form.  But we are the generation that is looking now towards the abyss of old age and wondering how we will be able to find our way.  Meade says:

An old idea suggests that the only ones more idealistic than young people are the elders. It’s not that the elders naively believe that the great ideals of humanity, peace and justice, healing and compassion, are simply attainable. Rather, the idea is that without a commitment to such ideals a culture simply collapses into political infighting and economic warfare. The gridlock in the nation’s capitol may be an increasing national shame, but the grid lock on American imagination may be a greater tragedy in the making.

While the political parties fight over who might be the “adult in the room,” there is a desperate need for elders in communities throughout the country. Whereas the ’60s were characterized by change brought on by a youth revolution, the current morass may only be changed by an elder awakening. The revolution waiting to happen in this country may involve an awakening to the necessity of the role that elders can play in the great crises facing both culture and nature.

We are these elders we’ve been waiting for.  It’s time to step up.

 

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And now, earthquakes and tsunamis

March 11, 2011 By

Anyone who has been reading this blog will remember that when Pluto (the destroyer/renewer) entered Capricorn, the Earth sign of material stability, I (and other astrologers) predicted that when Uranus, the planet of radical change, entered Aries and began to form a challenging square to Pluto that earthquakes, pole shifts and other earth changes were likely to occur.

Right on schedule, with Uranus entering Aries today, the largest earthquake ever to hit Japan (8.9 magnitude) struck today, resulting in a tsunami that swept across the Pacific and forced evacuations in California and the entire west coast of the United States.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Mount Karangetang also erupted today, just hours after the earthquake in Japan, and new studies suggest that “resting” volcanoes can wake up much more quickly than previously believed possible.  Uranus can be fairy explosive in its actions, and in the fiery sign of Aries is associated with volcanoes and other explosions of fire.

Not only has Uranus just entered Aries, the Planetary K index has been at a high level of 5 for the past 24 hours.  The Planetary K index measures the level of geomagnetic activity, and an elevated K-index can bring about disturbances not only in satellite equipment, but also in the electromagnetic fields with which we are surrounded and in which we live.  So if you are feeling somewhat scattered today it’s probably not your imagination!

Richard Nolle

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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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(Part II) Looking forward: The Transformation of 2012

March 2, 2011 By

This is Part II of a series that will conclude tomorrow.  You can catch up on Part I here, and tune in tonight (Wednesday) at 7 pm to the Musings on Astrology radio show where we will be discussing these important cycles.

Where we are now

transformation of 2012Art by Teka Luttrell. In 2010 a major alignment of planets in the cardinal signs of Capricorn, Cancer, Aries and Libra began to take shape.  Pluto in Capricorn, Saturn in Libra, and Jupiter and Uranus in Aries all  took their places in a drama that forced many of us to make changes in our personal lives in order to accommodate these global forces for healing and transformation.  These forces reached a peak during June’s eclipse in Cancer when the planets aligned in a Grand Cross of transformation and power.

Now that we are just one year away from the dreaded 2012, many are fearful of changes that might still occur.  “Haven’t we had enough change?” we may be asking.   And if everything in our personal lives is in balance, then we have had enough change.  THEN we are ready to take a break.  Until that point, the planetary gods work tirelessly to encourage personal and global transformation to bring balance into our earthly lives.

During the summer of 2011 Uranus in Aries will be within one degree of an exact square to Pluto in Capricorn.    The combination of Uranus and Pluto is a particularly potent one that breaks down old structures and ways of being (Pluto) so that something new and fresh and completely authentic can replace it (Uranus).  This is not always an easy process.  Those of us who remember the 1960s (when Uranus and Pluto conjoined in Virgo) will remember the thrill of radical and revolutionary new lifestyles that broke down the stuffy (Virgo) morality of the period.  This was a time of great liberation around the world: Black Power, Women’s Liberation, the domino of independent states across Africa as colonialism fell– but there was also a great Plutonic cost in terms of human lives that were lost  as the old order was broken down (Pluto) in order for change (Uranus) to take place.

The upcoming square of Uranus to Pluto will actually begin in the summer of 2012, and the two will dance an incredible seven times before concluding in March of 2015.  The turbulence that we see now sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa is just the beginning of this wave of Uranus/Pluto energy that seeks to sweep away the old and rotting corpse of a way of life that no longer works for humans at this stage of their psychic and spiritual development.  This same dynamic will be at work in our personal lives, revealing any pocket of experience that is no longer serving us and which needs to be removed from our lives.   This will understandably create a certain amount of chaos on an intimately individual level.

The changes of the next few years will most personally affect those of us with planets between 5 and 15 degrees of the cardinal signs (Cancer, Capricorn, Aries and Libra), and most especially those with Uranus and Pluto in these signs, including:

  • Those born between 1919 and 1928 with Pluto in Cancer
  • Those born between 1929 and 1932 with Uranus in Aries
  • Those born between 1951 and 1953 with Uranus in Cancer
  • Those born between 1969 and 1972 with Uranus in Libra
  • Those born between 1974 and 1978 with Pluto in Libra
  • Those born between 1989 and 1992 with Uranus in Capricorn

With Pluto in Capricorn, the very foundation of our material world will be challenged by the Uranian influence.  Our finances, our retirement plans, our marriages – any of these structures that we build to contain our lives could be threatened if they are not built on solid footings.  The effect of Uranus can be very stressful for the nervous system since Uranus operates on an electrical platform that can excite and thrill us, but also inspire anxiety and distress.   It is crucial to remember during this period that if any aspect of our personal lives break down under these influence, it is because they are no longer serving their purpose and require transformation in order for all involved to move forward in their personal evolution.

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Blogging in the time of Pluto in Capricorn

January 5, 2011 By

celebrity journalismWhen I started this blog in 2005, celebrity journalism was all the rage.  A good part of my posts were spent analyzing whether or not the latest celebrity relationships would last, or why the bimbo of the month had her latest meltdown.  Celebrity gossip as a media force has been around for a long time, but that force reached a point of hysteria when Pluto was in Sagittarius, which among other things rules entertainment and celebrity.

Pluto takes a long time to go through a sign, anywhere from twelve to twenty years, and while Pluto is going through a sign we tend to see the matters that are ruled by that sign become intensified and glorified, but we also see the dark underside of these areas of life emerge.  Sagittarius is the sign of expansion and optimism, and when Pluto moved through Sag between 1995 and 2008 we witnessed the darker side of perpetual optimism which led to unsustainable economic expansion and a relentless refusal to acknowledge the limits (Capricorn) of this kind of growth.  This of course is what led to the economic downturn in which we now find ourselves.

Under the glittering celebration of Pluto in Sagittarius, so many people, feeling the pressure of this expansiveness, longed to live like the celebrities whose every move was followed and studied.  This obsession with celebrity journalism was called a “virus” by the mainstream press who feared celebrity news would crowd out legitimate news.

Of course the destruction and transformation (Pluto) of journalism and news (Sagittarius) was something to be expected when Pluto went through Sagittarius, but now that Pluto is in Capricorn celebrities just don’t seem as interesting.  After all, how much can we really read about Lindsay Lohan before we experience celebrity fatigue?  And when so many people are having trouble putting food on the table, the luxury of reading about spoiled rich people does tend to lose its glamor.

Consequently, over the past three years my interest in celebrity astrology has waned, and my focus now is much more on developing tools that we can use to help us to harness the power of Pluto in Capricorn to dig ourselves out of disaster and create new structures that serve us.

I’m curious to know what my readers think – what blog topics interest you these days?  What are your thoughts about celebrity interest?

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