Cau­tion! Neg­a­tive think­ing is dan­ger­ous to your health!

Mer­cury in Aries has been cre­at­ing a ver­i­ta­ble rush of men­tal activ­i­ty. But Sat­urn in Libra is throw­ing a shad­ow across your path right now. Whether you just got some bad news, or some­one in author­i­ty is chal­leng­ing your point of view, your real chal­lenge is to stay calm, cen­tered and alert.

If some­thing or some­one is chal­leng­ing your progress, it is not to make you stop; it is to make you stop and THINK. One of the most sub­lime gifts of your mind is its adapt­abil­i­ty, so use it. The mind is not a blunt instru­ment; your mind is a sub­tle vehi­cle that can lead you to a greater awareness.

You might believe that your only option is either dig in, push back and win OR give in, sur­ren­der and retreat. But you always have a “third way”. Remem­ber, it is not about win­ning or los­ing… the way of the spir­it is about understanding.

Use this chal­lenge to re-exam­ine your assump­tions as well as help one anoth­er to see your posi­tions more objec­tive­ly. By com­bin­ing, con­trast­ing and work­ing your thoughts togeth­er you move towards a greater under­stand­ing; by walk­ing the mid­dle path, you raise one anoth­er’s con­scious­ness, which is the actu­al goal!

Remem­ber, the word “con­scious­ness” means lit­er­al­ly “togeth­er know­ing”. You, on your own, can only under­stand so much. But when two or more work toward a com­mon under­stand­ing, when you tru­ly look with­in and lis­ten with­out, that is when “mind mag­ic” happens. 

In the begin­ning there was silence… then a word moved over the waters.…

Now is the time for new think­ing. Now is the time for Seed Think­ing. You need to engage your mind coura­geous­ly, enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly and ide­al­is­ti­cal­ly and so bring your­self into align­ment with Mer­cury and Jupiter as they form a Con­junc­tion (New Moon) in Aries.

A release of new under­stand­ing is here for you now. Jupiter rules Prin­ci­ples and the high­er mind; Mer­cury rules Thoughts and the low­er mind. The Prin­ci­ples of Jupiter pro­vide the con­text for your under­stand­ing; it rules your belief sys­tems of reli­gion, phi­los­o­phy, sci­ence and law, your high­er pow­ers of intu­itive think­ing and com­pre­hen­sion. Mer­cury rules the low­er mind, your data points, your pow­ers of obser­va­tion, com­par­i­son and con­trast, your facts and your pow­ers of intel­li­gent reasoning.

Jupiter pro­vides the con­text for what you per­ceive and so deter­mine to be “fac­tu­al”. Mer­cury pro­vides the data that you draw upon to devel­op your prin­ci­ples as well as then feed back to prove or dis­prove your prin­ci­ples. Togeth­er Jupiter and Mer­cury pro­vide the means by which you can devel­op your under­stand­ing of your­self and your world.

The align­ment of Jupiter with Mer­cury cre­ates this oppor­tu­ni­ty for a gen­e­sis of a new under­stand­ing. You can more read­i­ly per­ceive how your assump­tions have cre­at­ed your facts for you, and you can more eas­i­ly dis­cern how your facts have led you into your assumptions.

Now, stand­ing between Jupiter and Mer­cury you can re-align your­self in that still place of an open mind that is more lucid and clear-see­ing. Look at your­self and your world from a less pre-deter­mined view. Chal­lenge your old assump­tions and see as if with new found vision.

Remem­ber, you are here to cre­ate a new world. The first step is to free your mind. Be the foun­tain source of new thought, be a seer.

True love is found in patience, stead­fast­ness and devotion.

Love is patient because you under­stand and accept your own imper­fec­tion as you see it reflect­ed in your loved one too. To love each oth­er you for­give one anoth­er. It is that patience and for­give­ness which informs the rela­tion­ship in which you learn, grow and enlarge the life that you share.

Love is stead­fast­ness because you under­stand and accept that the val­ues at the core of your being, that make you you, that these must be the cen­ter of your life togeth­er. The mean­ing­ful­ness that you cre­ate togeth­er is found­ed in this com­mit­ment to val­ues. It is that steadi­ness which holds you to the path of your mutu­al pur­pose in this life.

Love is devo­tion because you under­stand and accept that what you have found in the oth­er is tru­ly the reflec­tion of your own high­est self.…your soul. Per­son­al love reflects through the prism of spir­it as you meet your high­er self in the beloved.

Love is the fun­da­men­tal con­stant of the Uni­verse.… these are the gifts of Venus and Saturn.

Her­mes meets Hades… and it’s time to “turn a cor­ner” in your thinking.

Mer­cury is speed­ing through Aries now, enjoy­ing the delights of dis­cov­ery, the rush of ide­al­is­tic enthu­si­asms, and the joy of new begin­nings. Thoughts are rac­ing, words come tum­bling forth and there is elec­tric­i­ty in the air. But what is “that”? What’s ahead? There seems to be a shad­ow on the path.

Mer­cury in Aries is now fac­ing a chal­lenge thrown down by Plu­to in Capri­corn. New ideas are excit­ing, but Plu­to asks will it work? Say­ing what­ev­er comes to mind feels so “truth­ful”, but Plu­to asks are you being responsible?

Mer­cury in Aries fus­es think­ing with act­ing, there is no delay. But Plu­to reminds you that your thoughts have con­se­quences, you must exer­cise self-con­trol. If mis­un­der­stood, Plu­to on Mer­cury can make you up the ante in any debate: there is only one solu­tion, com­mu­ni­cat­ing is a zero-sum game, win­ning is every­thing. Well that is just wrong, wrong… wrong.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion is not about “win­ning”, it is about under­stand­ing. If you feel some­one is push­ing their thoughts upon you, you must tell them to stop. And, just because you think you are “right”, gives you no right to force your idea upon another.

Instead, use the will of Plu­to to help you to exer­cise greater self-con­trol over your mind and com­mu­ni­ca­tions. Men­tal self-con­trol and the dis­cern­ment it bestows is the key. Turn your mind inward and probe and prove or dis­prove the assump­tions that under­lie your perceptions.

Then move out again hav­ing achieved that greater cen­ter­ing and self-con­trol. True under­stand­ing will devel­op as you share, blend and trans­form your well-found­ed ideas with one anoth­er in the spir­it of coop­er­a­tion rather than compulsion.

In truth, you alone can only know so much. But when two or more gath­er togeth­er, under­stand­ing will come through the coop­er­a­tive blend­ing of per­cep­tions, ideas and mind.

So, turn a cor­ner in your mind and let go of your need to be “right”. Now you are walk­ing the path of Wis­dom. “Know Thy­self… Con­trol Thyself”.

I wrote the fol­low­ing about this event in the overview for 2011 on Jan­u­ary 17 :

Just as with Jupiter, we have already had a taste of Uranus in Aries in 2010. Now the plan­et of inde­pen­dence, orig­i­nal­i­ty and inven­tive­ness moves into the first sign to stay for 7 years. The pre­vi­ous swing through Aries occurred from 1928 to 1934. Now that may look a lit­tle omi­nous to some, but there were many oth­er fac­tors con­tribut­ing to the social and eco­nom­ic dis­rup­tions that took place then. 

Uranus in Aries brings about sig­nif­i­cant advances in sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy. There is an urgency and eager­ness to make new begin­nings in many aspects of life. The pace of life quick­ens, but impa­tience will also be stoked. The rise of pro­gres­sive lead­ers and move­ments advo­cat­ing change will go head to head with the old order as Uranus and Plu­to line up with one anoth­er from 2012–2015.

What I would like to add is:

Aries is about begin­nings, ini­ti­a­tion and what I call the art of “pres­ence” in your life. You have devel­oped masks (per­sonas) to inter­act with the var­i­ous realms of your life. You are always who you are, but you cer­tain­ly call upon and express dif­fer­ent qual­i­ties and tem­pera­ments depend­ing upon whom you are inter­act­ing with at any one time.

Uranus in Aries is the her­ald of a new world era. It calls upon you to re-exam­ine, revise and renew your personas/masks. You can no longer rely upon, or rest upon the old way of being in the world. You are at the thresh­old of a new world and you must meet it with eager­ness, alert­ness and renewed pur­pose­ful­ness. This is the gift of Uranus in Aries, the gift of new beginnings.

An age is end­ing.… An age is begin­ning.… Spir­it moves to pro­vide a way, remind­ing you of your pow­er to re-imag­ine your­self and your world.

Now remem­ber.… Beat­en Paths are for Beat­en Souls. Now is the Time for Trailblazers!