The gen­er­al out­look for 2011 would appear to be bet­ter than that of the last sev­er­al years. We have come through a series of align­ments that have shook and shocked our world, and there is more just ahead in this decade. And it has been whis­pered, just maybe, we will move into the dawn of a new world, the begin­ning of a new age, by the 2020’s. But, for now, 2011 might pro­vide some degree of need­ed respite to our chal­lenges and tribulations.

Where­as in 2006-07 we had Sat­urn oppos­ing Nep­tune, which her­ald­ed the bust­ing of many illu­sions in the world, not the least of which was the credit/debit bub­ble burst­ing. This was fol­lowed by 2008-10 where we faced Sat­urn and Uranus in oppo­si­tion, which was the dri­ving force of the con­flicts between out­worn exist­ing insti­tu­tions and sys­tems, ver­sus the some­times inco­her­ent erup­tion of ener­gies seek­ing to bring about fun­da­men­tal change in the sta­tus quo.

This jux­ta­po­si­tion of Sat­urn and Uranus was then joined in the lat­ter part of that peri­od, in late 2009 into 2010, by Sat­urn squar­ing Plu­to. This chal­lenge (Plu­to) to the sta­tus quo (Sat­urn) added a deep­er and more threat­en­ing tone to the forces of change sweep­ing our world. The forces attempt­ing to pre­serve order and those attempt­ing to cre­ate a new one are now locked in a great struggle.

A Time to Pause
But it would seem that this year there is to be a pause. That is mere appear­ance, of course, because time (the plan­ets) march on and there is always change, even if it is less intense for some of us. But it is a time to look for signs, a time to re-assess and re-group. For up ahead, the dance of the plan­ets con­tin­ues, and they will lead us into more pow­er­ful forces and align­ments, the very forces that can and will bring about a new world.

This entry is by way of begin­ning my expla­na­tion of what to look for in the year ahead and in the years to come, (and what we can learn from years past), as shown to us by what is known as Mun­dane or World­ly Astrol­o­gy. Just as in per­son­al or per­son-cen­tered astrol­o­gy, this can and must be viewed in two dis­tinct ways.

Two Kinds of Tran­sits
One type is as in the exam­ples above; that is of plan­ets mov­ing in a great dance with one anoth­er in our solar sys­tem. They con­tin­u­al­ly form up var­i­ous com­bi­na­tions of aspects with one anoth­er that cre­ate or pro­duce effects felt by one and all col­lec­tive­ly here on Earth. These com­bi­na­tions astrologers call Tran­sits to Tran­sits. With­in this great whirling of wheels with­in wheels, pat­terns form and re-form, pat­terns repeat but nev­er quite exact­ly as before. But since there is much that can be gained from look­ing at those pri­or align­ments, we look back to those sim­i­lar pat­terns in an attempt to dis­cern the con­di­tions for our present and future. So I will refer to oth­er times and places to illus­trate the nature of what we are faced with now.

The oth­er type of align­ment is what astrologers call Tran­sits to Natal. These are cre­at­ed by the plan­ets mov­ing through our solar sys­tem as they form rela­tion­ships with the plan­e­tary place­ments that are in a par­tic­u­lar birth chart. For Mun­dane Astrol­o­gy, we look at the charts of Nations, World Lead­ers and oth­er notable indi­vid­u­als, major Eco­nom­ic, Cul­tur­al, Spir­i­tu­al, or any oth­er “birthed” orga­ni­za­tions, to ascer­tain the forces at work in their past, present or future. I will be exam­in­ing a num­ber of such enti­ties in this 2011 fore­cast, and, as events unfold, will from time to time look at oth­er play­ers on the stage of history.

And with this sec­ond type of align­ment comes a caveat to my open­ing claim that 2011 will be a respite. Although the depth and pow­er of the “Tran­sits to Tran­sits” this year is more mut­ed, that may not mat­ter for some. For many indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions, the tran­sits to their own charts that will be in force this year will be pro­found and chal­leng­ing. The forces that have been unleashed of late are still play­ing out in each of us and in our orga­ni­za­tions. That means for many of us, 2011 will seem as event­ful and chal­leng­ing as what we have wit­nessed before. The wheels are turn­ing; the dance of life goes on.

Des­tiny
But we must always remem­ber; this world is going to be trans­formed, not by plan­ets or stars, but by… us. We are the actors in this dra­ma; and forces play through and around us. But it is up to each and every one of us to make the world that is com­ing into being.

All we can do, and must do, is under­stand where and what we have come from, to watch for and under­stand the signs that have always been there to guide us, and, so guid­ed, ful­fill our des­tiny which is to cre­ate a heav­en here on Earth.

Part One