Astro­log­i­cal Mus­ings — The Pulse of Life and the Astro­log­i­cal Cycles of Order and Dis­or­der (Octo­ber 29, 2023)

(If you wish to lis­ten to the show instead, here is the link on BlogTalk or Apple Pod­casts)

I thought it would be help­ful after my last show to pull back once again and take in a larg­er per­spec­tive so that we might see how the plan­ets are shap­ing and inform­ing the cir­cum­stances of our past, present, and future. As you know by now, I find that what is most sig­nif­i­cant for our under­stand­ing of these influ­ences is formed by two fac­tors, the zodi­a­cal posi­tions of the major out­er plan­ets, com­bined with their inter­sect­ing series of align­ments or aspects, and it this sign/aspect com­bi­na­tion which shapes and forms the ener­gies and influ­ences in any par­tic­u­lar period.

The dance of the plan­ets, what we might also call the Pulse of Life, is formed on the deep­est lev­els by Plu­to, Nep­tune, and Uranus because they, both indi­vid­u­al­ly and through their com­bi­na­tions with one anoth­er, cre­ate the long wave influ­ences that inform and shape the rise and fall of peo­ples, cul­tures, and civ­i­liza­tions through­out his­to­ry. I will review where we are now as under­stood by this pat­tern­mak­ing today, but I also want to speak about anoth­er indi­ca­tor that some mun­dane astrologers use to under­stand the tides of his­to­ry over the cen­turies. I believe you may find the Cyclic Index intu­itive­ly instruc­tive and help­ful in under­stand­ing where we have come from and what may lie ahead for us all.

Plu­to
We begin, as usu­al, with the Long-Wave plan­ets Plu­to, Nep­tune, and Uranus, by look­ing at both their indi­vid­ual posi­tions and by their cycles of rela­tion­ship with one anoth­er. Plu­to has begun the tran­si­tion from the sign of Capri­corn, (where it has been since 2008), into the sign of Aquar­ius where it will remain from 2024 to 2044. If we look at its pre­vi­ous pas­sage in Aquar­ius from 1778–1798, we can cer­tain­ly note that it was a very event­ful time in the world indeed, encom­pass­ing in the West­ern hemi­sphere both the Amer­i­can and French Rev­o­lu­tions which led to the con­ti­nen­tal wide wars of Napoleon Bonaparte.

When we look at the past his­tor­i­cal peri­ods of Plu­to in Capri­corn, it con­sis­tent­ly her­alds the time when a par­tic­u­lar insti­tu­tion­al order for soci­ety, (the insti­tu­tions of fam­i­ly, com­mu­ni­ty, eco­nom­ic, and polit­i­cal), begin to fun­da­men­tal­ly break down. Why is that? It is because these struc­tures formed to meet human needs were estab­lished in the late 1700’s and 1800’s. This insti­tu­tion­al order was made to fit and to meet the needs of that time. But now we and the world have changed so very much that these sys­tems and struc­tures can no longer meet our needs, they are inad­e­quate. Some­times it is they, and their prod­ucts or ser­vices, that have become the very source of some of our prob­lems today.

With the advent of Plu­to in Aquar­ius, we might hope and believe that our world would move away from the tur­bu­lence of recent mem­o­ry and back to a more inte­gra­tive and peace­ful time. But if his­to­ry is any guide, we are prob­a­bly going to be faced with some very great chal­lenges indeed, just as our ances­tors did in the late 1700’s and ear­ly 1800’s. We do not mere­ly emerge from a bro­ken sys­tem into a ful­ly func­tion­al par­a­digm of mean­ing and order.

Why? Because while it is cer­tain­ly hard to main­tain an order­ly life as an insti­tu­tion­al order unrav­els, and it is painful and hard to let go of what you knew and count­ed on…yes, it is hard to say good­bye. But if you think that the pass­ing of an age takes for­ti­tude and strength, I think we will find that a greater courage and vision will be need­ed to build our New World as Plu­to moves into Aquar­ius. It is always hard­er to build than to destroy. But at least we can take com­fort from the truth that we will be mov­ing for­ward with the hope for a bet­ter tomor­row, and not liv­ing with regret for what is lost or escap­ing into delu­sions of a world that nev­er was.

Nep­tune
Mean­while, Nep­tune is fin­ish­ing its jour­ney through Pisces, which is from 2011 to 2025–26, (with its pre­vi­ous pas­sages being from 1848–1862 and 1685–1698, and the one I believe that is very much like our own, because it was also a time with Plu­to in Capri­corn, and that was 1521–1535). With Nep­tune in Pisces, the veil between our worlds and between one anoth­er has become so very per­me­able that we find our­selves in a ver­i­ta­ble sea of illu­mi­na­tions and illu­sions, with visions of the greater com­mu­ni­ty of spir­it col­lid­ing with divi­sions formed by fears found­ed in half-truths and lies. What we will find is that as Nep­tune moves into Aries from 2026 to 2039, we will see a new vision of the world and of our­selves begin to unfold, as we move away from doubts into cer­tain­ties, from a sea of con­fu­sion into a call to take up our mis­sion to build the “new world”. And this will bring a wel­come relief to many, but it is cer­tain­ly not an indi­ca­tor of “peace in our time”. No, the fight over the future will cer­tain­ly break the old order and realign peo­ples and nations as it has done before, in fact as it did so in the pre­vi­ous peri­ods of 1862–1875, dur­ing and after our Civ­il War, and from 1698–1712, which wit­nessed a Euro­pean Wide War over the Span­ish Suc­ces­sion, and from 1535–1548, with an exis­ten­tial strug­gle between the Catholic and Protes­tant orders in Europe, and again it is this peri­od is the one most like our time when Plu­to was in Aquar­ius as it will be now.

Uranus
And third­ly, we have Uranus mov­ing through the sign of Tau­rus now from 2018 to 2026, (with pre­vi­ous pas­sages being 1935–1942 and 1851–1859), and it is his­tor­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant that each of these Uran­ian pas­sages, mod­u­lat­ed through Tau­rus which is the sign of Val­ue, accom­pa­nied major dis­lo­ca­tions, dis­rup­tions, and upheavals for the expe­ri­ence of val­ue in each of those peri­ods (and I would cer­tain­ly think we would all agree in our time too).

Cycles of Relationship
What is also very instruc­tive and spe­cial about our time, and also sig­nif­i­cant in form­ing the Cyclic Index Indi­ca­tor that we are going to exam­ine next, is that we have had all three out­er plan­ets form their con­junc­tions with one anoth­er over the past cen­tu­ry. That is all of them began a new cycle of rela­tion­ship in the last 130 years or so.

Neptune/Pluto
The most impor­tant mark­er of peri­ods rough­ly every 500 years is the Neptune/Pluto cycle. Their last con­junc­tion took place in 1891–92 in Gem­i­ni, and it real­ly is a bet­ter moment to mark the begin­ning of the so-called mil­len­ni­um than the year 2000. The pre­vi­ous con­junc­tions were 1398, which also her­ald­ed the start of Neptune/Pluto series of con­junc­tions in Gem­i­ni, where­as the pre­vi­ous con­junc­tions were in Tau­rus in 905, 411, then 84 BCE, and the “great one” of 578 BCE, which is when all three out­er plan­ets formed a grand triple con­junc­tion in Tau­rus, and as I have not­ed before cor­re­spond­ed to the time of Con­fu­cius, Bud­dha, Lao Tzu, Zoroast­er and Pythago­ras and many oth­ers who “sowed the seeds” for the quick­en­ing of our civilization.

This is the fun­da­men­tal cyclic rela­tion­ship gov­ern­ing our his­to­ry, the root cycle formed by the rela­tion­ship between Spir­i­tu­al Will (Plu­to) and Uncon­di­tion­al Love (Nep­tune), or how the uni­ver­sal sub­stance-ener­gy which is the Divine Light or Love is shaped by the many hosts of will­ing beings in our solar sys­tem, and for us by we humans. Plu­to brings about trans­for­ma­tions for the very struc­tur­ing of soci­eties and cul­tures, and Nep­tune pro­vides the dreams, visions and inspi­ra­tions that are inform­ing these trans­for­ma­tions of the con­tain­ers of real­i­ty shaped by Pluto.

Their cycle, like any cycle, will go through var­i­ous stages from con­junc­tion to the next con­junc­tion, formed by the wax­ing semi-square, to the sex­tile (where we have been since the 1950’s) to the square, to the trine and final­ly to the oppo­si­tion and then back again to the next con­junc­tion. Per­haps in a lat­er show, we can exam­ine this series of aspects for the pre­vi­ous cycle from 1398 to 1891, and then com­pare it to our own so far, and also fold in the rel­e­vant cycle rela­tion­ships of the next two pairs.

Uranus/Neptune
The sec­ond of the big three cycles begins at the con­junc­tion of Uranus with Nep­tune, and their cycle is about 170 years. Their last con­junc­tion was in 1993 in the sign of Capri­corn. The pre­vi­ous con­junc­tions were 1821 also in Capri­corn, 1650 in Sagit­tar­ius and 1478 in Scor­pio. This is the cycle of rela­tion­ship formed by the rela­tion­ship between Freer Mind (Uranus) and Uncon­di­tion­al Love (Nep­tune), man­i­fest­ing cul­tur­al­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly as the inter­weav­ing bal­ance between Indi­vid­u­al­i­ty and Com­mu­nal­i­ty. The com­bi­na­tion of Uranus and Nep­tune reveals the ongo­ing dynam­ic rela­tion­ship between Rea­son and Faith, Sci­ence and Spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, and one could see their dynam­ic dance as form­ing what we might call the world­view or par­a­digm (or par­a­digms) of an age. A new par­a­digm of mean­ing was formed and guid­ed the world start­ing in 1821; that one has end­ed now and a new one is unfold­ing, and it is slow­ly reveal­ing itself and becom­ing more evi­dent now that we are 30 years from their last con­junc­tion in 1993.

Uranus/Pluto
And then we have the third major cycle which begins at a Uranus/Pluto con­junc­tion, and their cycle of rela­tion­ship is on aver­age about 125 years. Their most recent con­junc­tion was in 1965–66 in Vir­go. The pre­vi­ous con­junc­tions were 1850 in Aries, 1710 in Leo and 1598 in Aries. Their com­bi­na­tion forms the rela­tion­ship cycle between the Spir­i­tu­al Will and Freer Mind, and we can see that in his­to­ry it forms an indi­ca­tor of a rad­i­cal change, at times rev­o­lu­tion­ary or some­times reac­tionary, and often both! Where­as the Neptune/Pluto com­bi­na­tion pro­vides the over­all struc­tur­ing and restruc­tur­ing of a 500-year peri­od, the Uranus/Pluto com­bi­na­tion cre­ates more bursts or breaks in the ener­gy and form of a peo­ple or cul­ture, whether that is being made by a new idea forc­ing its way into an old struc­ture to break it apart, or by a reac­tion to new ideas that meets with the Will of the old regime as a coun­ter­rev­o­lu­tion with con­ser­vatism fight­ing to restore or main­tain an old order.

Cyclic Indi­ca­tor Index
Now after this review of the three out­er plan­ets and where we are now, I want to include this oth­er tech­nique for eval­u­at­ing what we might call the bal­ance of ener­gies, of expan­sion and con­trac­tion, of greater inte­gra­tion or dis­in­te­gra­tion as shown by what is called the Cyclic Index Indicator.

What the Cyclic Indi­ca­tor reveals is a gen­er­al index of the state of plan­e­tary influ­ences, and it is cre­at­ed by adding up each planet’s posi­tion rel­a­tive to the oth­ers. What we do is add the degree sep­a­rat­ing each plan­et from anoth­er, 10 degrees, 90 degrees on up to 180 degrees, so that by this method we are get­ting a final sum­ma­tion num­ber that shows how spread apart or close togeth­er the plan­ets are from another.

For exam­ple, for the out­er­most plan­ets, we take Uranus and see how many degrees it is from Nep­tune and note that, and then how many degrees from Plu­to and then add that togeth­er to form one val­ue. Then we do the same for the sep­a­ra­tion of Nep­tune to Plu­to, and that becomes anoth­er num­ber. We add those all togeth­er to get the com­plete Long-Wave Num­ber for that moment.

Then we do the same for the three com­bi­na­tions of Sat­urn with Uranus, Nep­tune, and Plu­to. Final­ly, we add Jupiter to the mix by deter­min­ing how far it is from Sat­urn, Uranus, Nep­tune, and Plu­to. What we have cre­at­ed by all those addi­tions of the sep­a­ra­tions of plan­ets to each oth­er is what mun­dane astrologers call the Cyclic Index.

What we will find is that in peri­ods of time when the over­all spac­ing of the plan­ets is grow­ing, that they are each more spread apart from one anoth­er in the Zodi­ac, that those peri­ods coin­cide with his­tor­i­cal con­di­tions that are more pos­i­tive, more con­ducive to growth, more inte­grat­ed with one anoth­er. And when the spread between all the out­er plan­ets is declin­ing, we seem to move into his­tor­i­cal peri­ods of more dis­or­der, of greater dis­in­te­gra­tion and loss.

Intu­itive­ly it makes sense, that when there are more points of con­nec­tiv­i­ty that can inform and bal­ance out one anoth­er, a greater poten­tial for the inte­gra­tion of the whole is made pos­si­ble. And when the plan­ets “clump” togeth­er, there is a greater imbal­ance and low­er lev­el of inte­gra­tion and greater instability.

Let’s exam­ine then what it shows for recent his­tor­i­cal peri­ods (and here I will just note the most sig­nif­i­cant events in any peri­od), and then let us take a look at our own moment and what the Cyclic Index shows for our future. His­tor­i­cal­ly, the index can reach its low­est lev­els when the plan­ets are most con­cen­trat­ed or clos­er togeth­er (and there­fore poten­tial­ly more unsta­ble), and this will hap­pen when the three out­er plan­ets reach their con­junc­tions with one anoth­er. In fact, with two of those out­er con­junc­tions occur­ring in the 1960’s and the 1990’s for us, this alone can account for how chal­leng­ing our time has been. But the plan­ets can also be spaced apart for some time, and then the index moves less up or down, and then it will even­tu­al­ly return to a more chal­leng­ing peri­od when they move clos­er to one anoth­er pro­duc­ing sharp­er swings in the index.

Cyclic Index Periods
Look­ing at the 20^th cen­tu­ry, the Cyclic Index had been climb­ing since the 1880’s and 1890’s, but turns down­ward from 1901 to 1907, then it ris­es again and then plum­mets down­wards from 1913 to 1919, or the First World War.

It turns upwards until the late 1920’s, moves down into 1932 which saw the Great Depres­sion, moves up some­what until 1938–39, and then plum­mets down again, (and far worse than in 1913–1919), to reach a bot­tom point in 1944 where it begins to climb again. This is the peri­od of World War II.

It turns down again in 1951–52, reach­ing the bot­tom around 1956. This is the Kore­an War and oth­er Cold War clash­es. It then ris­es from the mid 1950’s until around 1964–65, when it turns down again until 1970–71. This was the Viet­nam War.

It ris­es up once more, then turns and plum­mets quite strong­ly from 1976 to 1983. This was the peri­od char­ac­ter­ized by both infla­tion and stag­na­tion in the US econ­o­my, termed Stagfla­tion, prin­ci­pal­ly cre­at­ed in the real world by the unfund­ed debts of the Viet­nam war and oth­er polit­i­cal-eco­nom­ic struggles.

Then the index rose from 1983 to 1990, then it turned down­ward until 1997. Though the USA and much of the world was ben­e­fit­ing in the 1990’s from the end of the Cold War due to the col­lapse of the Sovi­et Union, through­out the world regions were fac­ing dis­rup­tion and chaos in such events as the First Gulf War, the wars in the for­mer Yugoslavia, the Con­go Wars, and many others.

The index turned upward around 1997–98 and con­tin­ued to climb until 2003. This was the begin­ning of the War on Ter­ror, with the over­throw of the Tal­iban in Afghanistan and the begin­ning of the Iraq War.

The index turned down again in 2003 until 2010. This peri­od saw the Iraq war fuel a rise in Islam­ic ter­ror dri­ven by Sunni/Shite strug­gles for pow­er, (which would even­tu­al­ly lead to the rise of ISIS), and the mort­gage debt bub­ble burst­ing forc­ing the USA, (and the much of the world), into what many have called “the sec­ond great depression”.

The Index rose from 2010 through 2014, which saw the slow recov­ery of the USA econ­o­my but equal­ly the rise of the Tea Par­ty move­ment and a ris­ing bat­tle over the polit­i­cal struc­ture in the USA between majori­tar­i­an ver­sus minor­i­ty con­trol for the states and fed­er­al gov­ern­men­tal structures.

The Index has fall­en from 2014 to, well, to just now in 2023–24, as it has slow­ly begun to turn upwards at this point. As in the past, the turn­ing upward of the index does not appear to be evi­dent until a year or more after­wards, (just like when it turns down­wards, it takes time for that to be ful­ly appre­ci­at­ed as well).

The Index will con­tin­ue upward from 2024–25 until 2030–31. Does this mean we can expect that our gen­er­al con­di­tions will improve? Though the Index is one among many fac­tors to con­sid­er, we can at least hope that its gen­er­al indi­ca­tion for the tenor of the times may promise an improv­ing world con­di­tion over the next many years ahead.

More­over, where­as ear­li­er in the 1800’s and 1900’s there were larg­er swings in the index and deep­er dips, the index is now mov­ing into a more con­strained up and down pat­tern as we move through the rest of the 21^st cen­tu­ry. Per­haps this too promis­es a stronger like­li­hood of inte­gra­tion and bal­ance for the future.

But of course, these meth­ods of try­ing to under­stand our world, as revealed by the indi­vid­ual plan­ets, and by the plan­e­tary pair­ings, along with the Cyclic Index, do not and can­not reveal the con­tent of our lives and the real­i­ty we face. That con­tent, our lives, and our world is made by us, and what we cre­ate or destroy depends upon how we under­stand and respond to so many influ­ences and ener­gy-forms that we are expe­ri­enc­ing and that we are also cre­at­ing too.

If we choose the path of Light and Love, if we choose to under­stand, and for­give we can move for­ward, as we take and make the very best from these avatars of spir­it that hold the sto­ry of Cre­ation for us.

Let us live and learn to ded­i­cate our lives to do what we came here to do, which is quite sim­ply yet pro­found­ly to do one thing, we came to learn how to be a bet­ter human, and how to live on this plan­et with under­stand­ing and love.

Astro­log­i­cal Mus­ings — The Pulse of Life, Astro­log­i­cal Cycles of Order and Dis­or­der and the Astro­log­i­cal Cyclic Index

In my sixth show of 2023, I thought it would be help­ful to pull back once again to take a look at the “big pic­ture”, that is to look at the major plan­e­tary influ­ences and their his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance for us. Along with the usu­al big three of Uranus, Nep­tune, and Plu­to, I also want to include some­thing we have not con­sid­ered before, which is the gen­er­al index of plan­e­tary influ­ences which mun­dane astrologers call the Cyclic Index. What might it indi­cate for our peri­od, and how does our peri­od com­pare to those of ear­li­er his­tor­i­cal moments? What do we mean or under­stand as Order and Dis­or­der. Tune in and find out.

If you wish to sug­gest a sub­ject or top­ic for a future show, please email me as I would be hap­py to hear from you. My email is: billattride@gmail.com.

Here is the main link to Astrologer Bill Attride Radio:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/astrologerbillattride

Here is the link to the show on Sun­day Octo­ber 29, 2023 @ 2 pm EDT:

https://www.blogtalkradio.com/astrologerbillattride/2023/10/29/astrological-musings-the-pulse-of-life-and-the-astrological-cycles

The phone num­ber to call if you wish to ask a ques­tion dur­ing the live show is: (516) 531‑9638.

Please join me on Sun­day Octo­ber 29, 2023 @ 2 pm EDT as we look at the cur­rent astro­log­i­cal indi­ca­tions and what they mean for you.

If you miss the show, it will be avail­able as a Pod­cast short­ly after on BlogTalk or my Apple Pod­casts.

The Forge of Creation

Today we enter the realm of Scor­pio. For the next 30 days, and for­ev­er present and ever active some­where in your own chart too, we bow our heads to the source of all mean­ings, to the seed of all truths. Yes, it is in Scor­pio, the deep­est realm in the Cir­cle of the Liv­ing Ones, it is here where we meet the mys­tery and find revealed the majesty of Cre­ation; it is here, behind one and all, that we stand in the ever­last­ing light that forms the beat­ing heart of Spirit.

In the time and place of Libra, you make your­self ready for this moment of con­sum­ma­tion. You form the spaces of your rela­tion­ships, with your fam­i­ly, friends, col­leagues, loved ones, and strangers too. Libra is the ves­sel, the space that you make where you will meet one anoth­er. And it is there that the mag­ic can hap­pen, formed by con­sid­er­a­tion and love, you shape the ves­sel of your cre­ation, this space of rela­tion­ship, guid­ed and formed accord­ing to what you offer and what you ask of each other.

But Scor­pio is the expe­ri­ence, the process, the mag­ic itself that is the sci­ence of Chem­istry, the mys­tery that is Alche­my. Because the source of Cre­ation, the pro­tean force which fuels the stars, and you and me, is the com­bin­ing, fus­ing, and join­ing of one with anoth­er. How any mon­ad actu­al­ly com­bines with any oth­er, whether that be an atom with an atom, a mol­e­cule with a mol­e­cule, or a being with a being, rang­ing all the way up to the great­est hosts of Cre­ation, this is the Forge of Cre­ation, this is Scorpio’s realm.

From the might­i­est to the minis­cule, the whole of the Cos­mos is the sto­ry of the One made man­i­fest by all of the greater and less­er ones becom­ing what and who they are by and through join­ing with one anoth­er, in the mys­tery of com­bi­na­tion, by the mag­ic of Alche­my; the sto­ry of the Cos­mos is forged in the sacred cru­cible of Union.

For us humans, with our hearts and minds to guide us, we endeav­or to cre­ate our unions with under­stand­ing, with wis­dom and care, with courage and humil­i­ty. We know that it is here that the “mag­ic” may hap­pen, where through our join­ing with one anoth­er we will let go of that which is less­er with­in our­selves, and so dis­cov­er the greater that is with­in us and between us too. Yes, here in the forge of cre­ation, we know that in order to grow we must sac­ri­fice some­thing in order to make room for the mag­ic of growth to appear.

The only thing we need to over­come, as always, is our fear. What if we reach out to them and they say no; what if we make a sac­ri­fice and our union fails; what if…

In every sign, in every realm of life, there is oppor­tu­ni­ty and there is dan­ger. We make our way upon the path of awak­en­ing by liv­ing in faith and turn­ing away from our fear. In Scor­pio, the root of our fear, the root of all fears, is met to be mas­tered. At some point, in every life, we face the irrefutable fact of our jour­ney, that we are “Immor­tals in mor­tal frames”, and that all that we are and have will one day be no longer. Yes, the truth that is the root and foun­tain source of our need to under­stand, all our spir­i­tu­al teach­ings, our reli­gions, our philoso­phies, and sci­ences, all of our need­ing to know comes from this inescapable fact that our exis­tence in this form and in this time will end.

And so here in Scor­pio, we face our fear and find our faith. We feel the truth as much if not more than we know it or under­stand it, that will come lat­er (in Sagit­tar­ius). We feel the truth by our very expe­ri­ence of self-tran­scen­dence in the forge of Spir­it, in the mys­tery of Union, because we feel the illu­sion of our mate­r­i­al forms as just that, an illu­sion. We feel the truth and we see it in one another’s eyes, in those pre­cious moments when we join with one anoth­er and find our­selves more deeply than ever before through one anoth­er. It is then that we see the light, the eter­nal shin­ing in each other’s eyes, the Light of the One, and we feel it through and through, and so we hold one anoth­er and forge our Faith that we are Immor­tals who are danc­ing through these mor­tal realms, and we have absolute­ly noth­ing to fear, because, because, we are made of this One, we are made and are remade by our ever­last­ing Love.

So, turn to one anoth­er and join in cel­e­bra­tion of Scorpio’s time, in that today we have one anoth­er and every moment we are here is pre­cious. Let us join hands and lift one anoth­er to our greater life and cre­ate a more beau­ti­ful ray of ever­last­ing light.

And when that time comes, for our paths to bend apart from one anoth­er again, let us not say good­bye, let us not weep and mourn, but in grat­i­tude in grace face our part­ing with glad sad­ness. Let us feel the truth that stands behind the whole of Cre­ation, made in the forge of Spir­it, and lov­ing­ly say to one oth­er “fare thee well my dear­est one, until we meet again…may our love be as love must, may it be ever­more, as we stand togeth­er in the light that will not fade away”.

May the Light of Truth, Love and Under­stand­ing be with you always.

The Way of Being a Bet­ter You

Today we enter the sec­ond half of the Zodi­ac, and you can feel it in the air. The days and nights are equal, that mag­i­cal play of lights and shad­ows is shift­ing once again, and so we should dance and sing and cel­e­brate this new spir­i­tu­al sea­son. We should lift our hearts and bow our heads as we move through the gate­way of the Equinox and into the sacred Sign of Libra.

At this time every year, and for­ev­er also found some­where in your own chart too, we need this gift of the spir­it, per­haps more than ever, so that we may guide our steps upon the path of light, as we lift our hearts and minds, and turn to one anoth­er. Because now we enter this most spe­cial space, the space we made between I and thou, our lumi­nous bridge of cre­ation, our beau­ti­ful relationships.

But you must under­stand this essen­tial truth, that we not only make this space that we live, work, and play in, but this space of rela­tion­ship is also what made us into who we are too. We are here because of one anoth­er, and we are made by one anoth­er. Your expe­ri­ence of you would not be, and we could not become who we are meant to be, with­out this space where cre­ation lives and where our dreams come true.

Since the begin­ning of our human jour­ney, we have been formed and informed by all our rela­tions, by our mother/father, by brother/sister, by our friends, by our col­leagues, by strangers and by our dear­est loved ones. Most of what we think and feel as ours, as our own cre­ation, is tru­ly made by our inter­re­la­tion­ships with one anoth­er, and by this com­bin­ing of our minds and hearts we have lift­ed one anoth­er up to our mutu­al self-ful­fill­ment. It is in this spe­cial, sacred space of rela­tion­ship that we cre­ate with one anoth­er; it is here we that we share and shape one anoth­er by our words and deeds, and so we move out of the illu­sion of our seem­ing sep­a­ra­tion from one anoth­er because we are made of one anoth­er, and we are tru­ly inseparable.

Through­out the arc of each life, from the spring­time of youth, through the sum­mer of adult­hood and into the fall of our lat­er years, we are held in a hier­ar­chy of rela­tion­ships by those who care for us and those for whom we care. We meet one anoth­er in the space of rela­tion­ship, to give and receive what we need from one anoth­er accord­ing to the nature and qual­i­ty of our rela­tion­ship. We form pat­terns of action and reac­tion, respond­ing to one anoth­er, by giv­ing and receiv­ing, so as to fos­ter our mutu­al growth and self-real­iza­tion through shar­ing with one another.

But over time our pat­terns may become too fixed and deter­mined, and if we are not atten­tive, we may move away from a tru­ly liv­ing, adapt­able rela­tion­ship into one of ever more rigid reac­tions to one anoth­er. We may grow togeth­er, but we can also grow apart. We may deep­en our under­stand­ing of one anoth­er or lose our way in a house of mir­rors of misunderstandings.

This time and place of Libra reminds us that our rela­tion­ships are just like us, and that they too are “liv­ing beings” of spir­i­tu­al space filled and formed by ener­gy-forms of our mak­ing, and we must tend to them just as much as we tend to our­selves. Just as we need to renew and refresh our own self, we need to equal­ly help our spaces of rela­tion­ship to grow and change too.

Use this time in Libra to reex­am­ine all your rela­tion­ships, as you will find the help you need now to break from old pat­terns of reac­tion and choose new respons­es to meet­ing one another’s needs.

Use the gift of Libra to grow into your bet­ter selves through one anoth­er, because, after all, we are the path, we are the way, to one another’s self-fulfillment.

Every one of us, and indeed all of the beings in this cos­mos, are held togeth­er as the One Body, and the One Mind, and the One Spir­it of Creation.

It is by Libra that we know and feel this essen­tial truth of our spir­i­tu­al nature, “that we are all related”.

We are here because of love. We are made by our love.

There is but one truth.

Love one another.

Astro­log­i­cal Mus­ings — A look ahead to 2024, what is ahead for the USA, and for Joe Biden and Don­ald Trump (Sep­tem­ber 17, 2023)

(If you wish to lis­ten to the show instead, here is the link on BlogTalk or Apple Pod­casts)

It has been two months since my last show, and I thought that we might want to turn our atten­tion to the astro­log­i­cal indi­ca­tions for the USA in 2024. Of course, we are all very aware that the com­ing year will be shaped, or maybe bet­ter warped by pres­i­den­tial elec­tion pol­i­tics, and so I will also con­sid­er the cur­rent major par­ty can­di­dates for the pres­i­den­cy, the charts of Joe Biden and Don­ald Trump.

Giv­en that the elec­tion is more than a year away, we cer­tain­ly know that there will be many twists and turns in the tides of his­to­ry between now and Novem­ber 2024, so we sim­ply can­not imag­ine or fore­see at this present time what we will encounter then, and that it may even turn out that only one or nei­ther of these two can­di­dates will end up on the bal­lot. But for our pur­pos­es today, giv­en what we do know, let us see what the year ahead holds gen­er­al­ly for the USA, and specif­i­cal­ly for Joe Biden and Don­ald Trump.

The USA
Let’s begin with what will cer­tain­ly be true and con­sid­er the chart for the USA. One of the prin­ci­pal cycles that astrologers use to frame the arc of the life of a per­son, or in this case a coun­try, is to con­sid­er the pro­gressed chart, and prin­ci­pal­ly the Sun/Moon cycle from New Moon to Full Moon and then back to the next New Moon, a rough­ly 29-year cycle.

For the USA, 2024 will be the year for its ninth pro­gressed New Moon. The pro­gressed New and Full Moons should be under­stood as fram­ing a cycle of unfold­ment for any being. Some of the more mean­ing­ful pair­ings of the New and Full Moon for the USA were the 1846 New Moon lead­ing to the Full Moon of 1861, and the US Civ­il War.

The 1965 New Moon reach­ing its cli­max of the Full Moon in 1979, which led to the turn­ing away from the poli­cies and pro­grams of FDR estab­lished in the pre­vi­ous New Moon of 1935, and also Lyn­don Johnson’s efforts to broad­en the civ­il rights and social pro­grams in 1964–65. This expan­sion of Civ­il Rights and of Social Ser­vices, were framed and blamed for the infla­tion and stag­na­tion of the late 1970’s, but that eco­nom­ic malaise was real­ly brought about by the unfund­ed debts from the years of the Viet­nam War. It was this turn­ing that formed the counter-rev­o­lu­tion to the New Deal and also to the Great Soci­ety pro­grams, pushed by neo-lib­er­als and Ronald Reagan’s elec­tion in 1980.

The 1994 New Moon dur­ing the Clin­ton pres­i­den­cy came a cli­max with the Full Moon of 2008, and anoth­er deba­cle for the USA, where once again the unfund­ed wars, this time in Iraq and Afghanistan forged a cred­it market/real estate bub­ble which result­ed in a finan­cial mar­ket melt­down, form­ing what real­ly was the sec­ond great Depres­sion for the US at the end of the Bush Presidency.

And now we have the present-day New Moon in 2024, and a new seed of mean­ing for the USA is being plant­ed once again. What will be the result at the Full Moon in 2038, who can say. What we do know is that just as in 1816, or 1846 or 1935 or 1965, we are at a turn­ing and the tides of his­to­ry are sweep­ing through the sto­ry of Amer­i­ca with the promise of new beginnings…but it is up to every one of us to make the most of this opportunity.

But we also know that this is the first New Moon after the first ever Plu­to return in the USA chart. Plu­to is locat­ed in the sec­ond house of the USA, the house of val­ue and the wealth of a nation. Plu­to rules the will and the pow­er of Alche­my, and it this spir­i­tu­al root pow­er which dri­ves the entire­ty of Cre­ation as the seem­ing­ly infi­nite vari­eties and hier­ar­chies of ener­gy-forms com­bine to grow and trans­form one anoth­er, and it is this “engine of cre­ation” which forges the many man­i­fes­ta­tions of spir­it in all the hier­ar­chies of life.

The return of Plu­to brings an end to the first cycle of val­ue and of pow­er in the USA. Which means we are equal­ly at the begin­ning of a new order of val­ue and pow­er too. Indeed, we are at the moment of a major restate­ment and restruc­tur­ing of the val­ue of the nation. The val­ue of any nation is fun­da­men­tal­ly formed by the pow­er of the peo­ple. Yes, it is the Will of the peo­ple, and their alche­my of com­bi­na­tion, that forms the wealth of the nation.

For the first 250 years of the USA, this “Will of the Peo­ple”, through their polit­i­cal com­bi­na­tions, that is the exer­cise of their capac­i­ty for self-deter­mi­na­tion and free­dom, was lim­it­ed by cus­toms and laws. In the very begin­ning, the will and pow­er for polit­i­cal self-deter­mi­na­tion was only held by male, white prop­er­ty own­ers, (and not an insignif­i­cant part of the prop­er­ty for some of those was own­er­ship of oth­er human beings!). But slow­ly through the decades, this right of self-deter­mi­na­tion by com­bi­na­tion was extend­ed through the exten­sion of the right and capa­bil­i­ty to vote. It has not been a straight line, and there have been advances and retreats, but the strug­gle for one person/one vote, and the abil­i­ty to join togeth­er for the com­mon good has made progress over the arc of the his­to­ry of the Unit­ed States.

After the great expan­sion of self-deter­mi­na­tion by eman­ci­pa­tion of slaves after the Civ­il War, the counter-rev­o­lu­tion of Jim Crow laws in the south broke the promise of free­dom and denied the right to vote to the non-white pop­u­lace, espe­cial­ly in the South. Then with the grant­i­ng of suf­frage to women, the Unit­ed States expe­ri­enced the great­est exten­sion of self-deter­mi­na­tion in 1920. And after the Civ­il Rights move­ment of the 1950’s and 60’s, the re-estab­lish­ment of the right to vote was extend­ed once again.

But in the past few years, we have seen both a legal and oper­a­tional push to restrict vot­ing rights and the abil­i­ty to vote again, espe­cial­ly after the Supreme Court gut­ted the 1965 Vot­ing Rights Act in 2013. The Vot­ing Rights Act had required cer­tain states, those which had a his­to­ry of sup­press­ing vot­ing rights, and prin­ci­pal­ly in the south, that they were required to sub­mit any changes to vot­ing poli­cies and pro­ce­dures to the Jus­tice Depart­ment for review. As soon as the 2013 rul­ing came down, many of those states began to restrict the right and abil­i­ty to vote. That along with oth­er mea­sures by those seek­ing to reassert or main­tain the rule of the minor­i­ty over the major­i­ty has once again put into ques­tion exact­ly what form of democ­ra­cy will pre­vail in the USA.

This is why the return of Plu­to, and the ques­tion of the Will, of who has the pow­er to deter­mine the future of the USA is again dri­ving the sto­ry of the USA now. The ques­tion is this, will the major­i­ty of US cit­i­zens be able deter­mine the future of this coun­try or will they not.

So, it would seem quite fit­ting and time­ly that the major tran­sit in the chart of the USA in 2024 is Uranus squar­ing the USA Moon. In a nation­al chart the Moon lit­er­al­ly rules “the peo­ple”, and each time Uranus makes a sig­nif­i­cant pass over a point in a chart, rough­ly every 21–22 years, there is a shock and release of new for­ma­tions. The most sig­nif­i­cant align­ments of Uranus to the USA Moon for the 20^th cen­tu­ry until now were the con­junc­tion of 1918, the square of 1941, the oppo­si­tion of 1961, the square of 1981, and the con­junc­tion of 2003. Now in 2024 we will be at the next wax­ing square.

The prin­ci­ple behind Uranus holds the process of indi­vid­u­a­tion and the expe­ri­ence of free­dom. As it moves through any space in a chart, and over any ele­ment in it, it serves to elic­it growth through the break­ing up of old pat­terns and mean­ings. The Uranus square to the USA Moon of 2024 is a wax­ing square, and if we con­sid­er the last two times it aligned with the USA moon, we can see that it has coin­cid­ed with a tremen­dous shift in the con­scious­ness and actions of the US population.

The first wax­ing square was in 1857, which coin­cid­ed with the divi­sion of the peo­ple of the coun­try between those who believed in the equal­i­ty of human beings, and those who believed some humans were des­tined to be sub­or­di­nate to others.

The sec­ond wax­ing square was in 1941, and dur­ing this peri­od the USA was deeply divid­ed between those who wished to with­draw from a world at war, a exis­ten­tial bat­tle between Fas­cism and Free­dom, a war by dic­ta­tors and auto­crats against those who believed that indi­vid­ual free­dom is a right that should be safe­guard­ed and extend­ed to one and all.

So here in 2023 and 2024, as Uranus squares the USA Moon once again, the peo­ple of the USA are going to be shocked in order to awak­en in order to free us from our self-made lim­i­ta­tions. We will need to use the many crises we are con­fronting to remem­ber the promise of Amer­i­ca, which is held in our com­pact with one anoth­er and forged by the inte­gral two-fold prin­ci­ple of indi­vid­ual self-deter­mi­na­tion which can only be pre­served and shaped by our com­mu­nal respon­si­bil­i­ties to one anoth­er. That in fac­ing our chal­lenges with and between one anoth­er, we choose to turn from the destruc­tive pas­sions of “us and them”, because we agree to be bound by our sacred oath to the essen­tial truth of our con­sti­tu­tion­al covenant, which is we are seek­ing to forge a soci­ety where all may live freely and fair­ly with one anoth­er, and that this prin­ci­ple must guide every per­son, and every form of union and com­mu­ni­ty, as we reded­i­cate our pur­pos­es to make pos­si­ble a bet­ter future for our­selves and our descendants.

Now as I men­tioned ear­li­er, we can­not know for cer­tain what will hap­pen dur­ing the next many months lead­ing up to the party’s con­ven­tions or who will be on the bal­lot in Novem­ber 2024. But pre­sum­ing that the lead­ing con­tenders today are the choice, let us briefly con­sid­er what is hap­pen­ing in 2024 in the charts of Joe Biden and Don­ald Trump.

When con­sid­er­ing the chart of any indi­vid­ual, one can obtain a very quick sense of what are the major themes by look­ing at the most pow­er­ful tran­sits, those formed by the three out­er plan­ets, that are cur­rent­ly in effect for their chart. In 2024, the plan­ets Plu­to and Nep­tune, and Uranus are all mak­ing strong tran­sits to both Joe Biden’s and Don­ald Trump’s charts.

Biden
For Biden in 2024, Plu­to is squar­ing his Moon while trin­ing his Nep­tune. Giv­en the slow-mov­ing nature of Plu­to, this dou­ble tran­sit is cer­tain­ly shap­ing his life in 2023 and 2024. The Moon rules our emo­tion­al life, of how we meet and respond to our needs and the needs of oth­ers, and most espe­cial­ly con­cerns those clos­est to us, our loved ones, our fam­i­ly, and our most impor­tant emo­tion­al attach­ments. This Plu­to tran­sit is very chal­leng­ing, but it can lead us onto the path of emo­tion­al trans­for­ma­tion and integration.

What is being offered by the intense pres­sure that Plu­to always brings is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for greater insight into Biden’s own emo­tions and that of his loved ones. Since Plu­to rules the Will and the les­son of con­trol, Biden will be chal­lenged to main­tain self-con­trol, to turn away from any attempt to con­trol anoth­er but instead to help him­self and any oth­er find their own true path to self-accep­tance and self-con­trol. For me this intense expe­ri­ence is there for us all to see in Biden’s chal­lenge of deal­ing with his son’s legal trou­bles.  The chal­lenge and oppor­tu­ni­ty for Biden is to main­tain being cen­tered and bal­anced no mat­ter how chal­leng­ing the cir­cum­stances are now, as he is faced with the test of emo­tion­al self-con­trol which will fos­ter ever deep­er deter­mi­na­tion and a res­olute spirit.

Mean­while, Plu­to is form­ing a trine to Biden’s Nep­tune, and this is a very uplift­ing and inspir­ing tran­sit. Nep­tune is the avatar of Uncon­di­tion­al Love, of spir­i­tu­al com­pas­sion and sac­ri­fice, and Biden’s natal Nep­tune is locat­ed in his 10^th house of pub­lic life and career. Biden is being offered a gift to explore a deep­er mean­ing for his life, as his spir­i­tu­al nature is stim­u­lat­ed to explore the true mean­ing of sac­ri­fice, which means to live a life in a sacred way, where one gives up the less­er to hon­or the greater with­in and around us. He will feel and know, at least for him­self, that what mat­ters now is more impor­tant than him­self, and that by fol­low­ing the path of self­less­ness and sac­ri­fice he is ful­fill­ing his des­tiny, giv­en his Nep­tune is in his 10^th house of career, that his work in this life is not a job but a calling.

As if to mag­ni­fy, but equal­ly hum­ble him, the plan­et Nep­tune itself now is form­ing a trine to Biden’s Sun and Jupiter this year, and to the Sun and Venus in 2024. The Sun rep­re­sents the “self”, and Jupiter rules the moral com­pass, and Venus rules the expe­ri­ence of val­ue and love. Biden’s expe­ri­ence of him­self is being shaped in sub­tle ways, as he finds a deep­er spir­i­tu­al pur­pose in his life, a more pro­found under­stand­ing of his moral pur­pose, and a more inclu­sive expe­ri­ence of love for others.

Last­ly, Uranus is oppo­site Biden’s Mer­cury in 2023, but form­ing a sex­tile to his Jupiter in 2024. For 2023, that means that Biden’s mind is being stim­u­lat­ed and shook up, as he has been expe­ri­enc­ing excit­ing and stim­u­lat­ing insights, but also find­ing that com­mu­ni­ca­tions are very unpre­dictable, and he will have sev­er­al shocks that could throw him off bal­ance. The chal­lenge is to bend as oth­ers chal­lenge your way of think­ing, and to be patient when his insights are not as well received as he thinks they should be. The chal­lenge is to remain open to new ideas and not to jump to con­clu­sions or respond with­out some time to con­sid­er how best to do that.

For 2024, Uranus sex­tile Jupiter is most def­i­nite­ly a for­tu­nate align­ment. Often it brings unex­pect­ed and good news to an indi­vid­ual. As opposed to 2023, Biden will be able to cope bet­ter with any sud­den changes, and even enjoy the oppor­tu­ni­ty and chal­lenge pre­sent­ed by the unfore­seen events that he encoun­ters dur­ing 2024.

Trump
For Trump, he has Plu­to mak­ing a two-year aspect of the incon­junct, or 150-degree aspect to his Ascen­dant for 2023 and 2024. The 150-degree aspect is one of adjust­ment and attune­ment, of pain and suf­fer­ing if one does not adjust, or renew­al and heal­ing if one does. Plu­to rules the will and the issue of con­trol, and the ascen­dant is the man­ner in which we meet each moment in the eter­nal now. This tran­sit indi­cates that Trump is expe­ri­enc­ing a shift in his all his rela­tion­ships this year, and specif­i­cal­ly in how he expe­ri­ences the bal­ance of pow­er between him­self and oth­ers. The test and oppor­tu­ni­ty of Plu­to is always about sacred space and the will, and the ques­tion is whether one can work with Plu­to to devel­op ever greater self-con­trol and self-mas­tery in one’s life, or mis­un­der­stand or mis­use Plu­to and so expe­ri­ence the loss of con­trol and/or of being more con­trolled by oth­ers because of a lack of self-control.

Of course, Trump’s spe­cial expe­ri­ence of him­self is as being an excep­tion­al man, an icon­o­clas­tic avatar that shat­ters con­ven­tions and norms, and him being “out of con­trol” is sort of his brand. Per­haps he will be able to mas­ter him­self when need­ed in these two years, or per­haps he will be faced with the truth that those who fail to respect the bound­aries of oth­ers will face their own loss of self-deter­mi­na­tion in the end.

At the same time as Plu­to is form­ing the 150-degree aspect to Trump’s Ascen­dant, Nep­tune is as well. Now that is some coin­ci­dence! (And of course, I do not believe in coin­ci­dences). Where­as Plu­to is about the Will and one’s self-con­trol, Nep­tune is the avatar of Uncon­di­tion­al Love and Sac­ri­fice. Nep­tune is offer­ing to shape Trump’s expe­ri­ence of his rela­tion­ship with him­self and towards oth­ers so as to incor­po­rate a greater degree of humil­i­ty and sac­ri­fice. But if mis­con­strued and mis­ap­plied, if the spir­i­tu­al mes­sage is not expressed as it can and should be, then he will ampli­fy his expe­ri­ence and expres­sion of per­son­al­i­ty to assume a greater degree of mar­tyr­dom. Whether he is able to bal­ance his being excep­tion­al and pow­er­ful while also mak­ing a true sac­ri­fice, well that will be seen in how well under­stands the dif­fer­ence between mak­ing a sac­ri­fice and being the sac­ri­fice. As most of know by now, Trump does not “do hum­ble”, and he can only exist by being a win­ner. If he is los­ing whether in the courts of law or pub­lic opin­ion, he will most like­ly blame that upon others.

Final­ly, Uranus, which is called the awak­en­er, the bringer of shocks and earth­quakes, whose pur­pose is to bring chal­leng­ing tests so that we might be freed from our self-lim­i­ta­tions and grow into our fuller poten­tial, is reach­ing a sig­na­ture posi­tion in Trump’s chart. Uranus in 2024 is mov­ing over Trump’s mid­heav­en, over the point of des­tiny and into the 10^th house of one’s pub­lic life. Uranus in a way is “Trump’s plan­et”, as he is born with Uranus ris­ing before his Sun, and it is the high­est plan­et in his chart and placed in his 10^th house. Trump is an icon break­er, and his not-so-secret pow­er is that he is not fak­ing it, he is an unsta­ble, unpre­dictable, and shock­ing per­son. But for any indi­vid­ual, when­ev­er any plan­et reach­es their mid­heav­en, you have reached a moment of reap­ing what you have sown, and it is not at all cer­tain what will hap­pen. Nor­mal­ly, with Uranus what you expect is not at all like­ly to hap­pen, and you get the unex­pect­ed instead.

When Uranus reach­es the 10^th house of an indi­vid­ual it will indi­cate the time that they must break through to a fuller, truer expe­ri­ence of their pub­lic life. Uranus brings change, and it is rarely a gen­tle tran­si­tion from one form into anoth­er, and most indi­vid­u­als describe it as shock­ing. Since it has reached Trump’s house of his path and pur­pose, and we must also remem­ber that his path is to be an icon break­er, per­haps he will have to react or act in an even more dra­mat­ic man­ner than ever before. Per­haps he will break through to a freer expres­sion of what­ev­er he is here to be, or per­haps he will face the whirl­wind that is of his own making.

Uranus is the avatar of Free­dom, and each of us must find that one true spir­i­tu­al path where our greater free­dom can only be made and secured by being the path for more free­dom for oth­ers too.