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Astral Prelude:
The Price of Admission
This month we focus on what will be the most
important ongoing planetary aspect from this month
through early 2003. The trine (120° angle) between
Saturn in Gemini and Uranus in Aquarius has been
in effect since late July; comes to the exact arc
of the trine on August 21 -- just before the Full
Moon -- then fades until Sept. 20. The trine recurs
from November to January -- exact again on Dec.
16, Beethoven's birthday -- and then comes for the
third and last time in this cycle early next year.
As is usually the case with the slow-moving "outer"
planets, the Saturn-Uranus trine will occur in a
set of three, starting this month.
The Law of Three applies here,
as we have seen recently in the Saturn-Pluto opposition
of late 2001 through June 2002. The three phases
are:
Action,
as the most "positive" and dynamic possibilities
of the combination unleash a current of change and
new creative possibilities;
Reaction,
as the soul must now address the deeper issues of
truth and purpose uncovered by the action phase,
and either steps willingly into the voluntary suffering
of necessary change, or resists, and has to writhe
its way through what it refuses to see and do;
Realization,
in which the lessons of the first two phases are
integrated toward greater vitality, freedom and
a more productive alliance of soul, mind, heart
and body; or the soul lessons are ducked and denied,
so that certain black-bordered karmic bills fall
due.
The main questions at this point,
as the Action phase of this new aspect now begins,
are what the general features of the Saturn-Pluto
trine are, and how they are likely to play out in
our individual lives, in the mass semiconsciousness
of the United States, and the planetary hive mind
that embraces cetaceans and other aware species
as well as humans. This last point is especially
germane now, as only a few days ago dozens of whales
beached themselves and died on the U. S. mainland.
There are only two plausible explanations for this:
either the whales have been deafened, crazed or
otherwise disoriented by the US Navy's LFAS sound
frequency experiments; or they have consciously
sacrificed themselves for the purpose of raising
an alarm about human actions and policies that have
now gone beyond greed and environmental irresponsibility
to the deliberate destruction of species whose presence
and power are vital to human evolution, and whose
passing will dim our collective awareness and impede
our spiritual movement.
This calendar makes no comment
on conspiracies. For the rationale on this, see
the Astral Prelude for April
2002. For now, it is enough to look in passing
on the comments of the hero Schwitters, in Tom Robbins'
novel Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates,
on "the manner in which the powers that be,
with the greedy compliance of the media and the
eager assistance of evangelicals, [are] busily bovinizing
humanity, seeking to produce a vast herd of homogenized
consumers, individually expendable, docile, and,
beyond basic job skills, not too smart . . ."
We have known for a while that our planet consists
of two human populations: one that seeks to spiritualize
consciousness and move beyond the illusions of matter
and limitation into the highest frequencies of bliss
and serenity; and another that remains rooted in
physical pleasures and addictions, toys and opinions,
the adrenalin rush of hate, and anything else that
helps to block the perception that something, and
it may be me, has got to give.
We also knew that the more the
spiritual consciousness of the planet ascends and
evolves, the more the forces of domination and control
will lie, scheme and fight to keep the human herd
fat and sleepy. What we did not know was how amazingly
resourceful and ingenious the power elite would
be in devising endless distractions and scares to
keep us ditsy and nervous. H. L. Mencken had it
pegged when he wrote that "The whole aim of
practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed
by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins,
all of them imaginary."
Yes, a certain shocking event
in September, 2001 was hardly "imaginary",
and similar threats exist, yet the point remains.
If individual human beings and our institutions
were able to take the energy we devote to excuses,
fabrications, blame, scaring others and being scared,
and doing everything but acting on the truth, and
we could channel this power into a sincere commitment
to bring about love, health and freedom for all
of humanity and the Earth, then our collective mind
would have gone nova years ago, and the extraterrestrial
beings that are said to be gathered around our planet
to watch the last act in our drama of surrender
into unity would have applauded the show, thrown
flowers of sound and light, and gone home to Arcturus
and Sirius and Spica and wherever to share the good
news with the family over a hearty feast of air
and joy.
The last act of the play is taking
longer than the audience, and many of the actors,
would like. For the moment, it seems best to see
what the immediate scenario of the month is, and
how to play it. Generally speaking, a trine or other
"favorable" alignment of Saturn and Uranus
combines the patience and tenacity of Saturn with
the surprising and unpredictable qualities of Uranus
to produce an indomitable fortitude, an ability
to land on one's feet, stay afloat, keep flying
by the seat of one's pants -- pick your native element
and your metaphor -- even when challenges seem insurmountable,
and allies do not respond. Reinhold Ebertin wrote
that a Saturn-Uranus trine may manifest as "Growth
of strength through the overcoming of difficulties,
difficult but successful battles in life for the
purpose of overcoming a dangerous situation."
The good news is that we will get through it, whatever
it is. The tough news is that we will have something
to get through.
What will it be? Choose whatever
matters most to you, at a time when corporations,
churches, governments, and the collective egos of
entire societies seem to decide that the best way
we can respond to rising tides of change is not
to move our beach blankets a little farther inland,
but to build a bigger and fancier sand castle right
under the next big wave. The big question is not
What Will Change? -- because so much will -- but
How Do We Perceive the Change?
Consider only the Coming Economic
Adjustment, as the dying Piscean economy, with all
its hierarchy, secrecy, exclusivity and deceit --
and the bedrock of dog-eat-dog fear on which it
has rested until now -- inevitably gives way to
the post-capitalist Aquarian economy of small like-minded
teams who operate laterally on uncertain and uncontrollable
terrain, under very unpredictable conditions. The
modern electronic farmers' market that aims to satisfy
our true needs, instead of just creating and stroking
empty new wants, must replace the unsustainable
casino economy we have now. The old paradigm of
greed and fear will yield to a new model based on
love and friendship, not because these Aquarian
values are nicer and nobler, but because we must
learn to work together if we intend to survive.
How all of this will be perceived
depends on one's point of view. To those who are
at the top of the old Piscean economy, the Big Change
will resemble an economic crash. To those who are
already creating the new economy, or who are awakening
to the reality and their responsibility for it,
the Big Change will look like the inescapable medicine
that stings in order to heal. The Universal Festival
Calendar makes no predictions of disaster. It only
notes in passing that some of the overdue changes
that are coming this month, and through this year,
will be seen as disastrous by those who are most
resistant to change.
Look for some specific occurrences.
From the top of the month, as Jupiter moves out
of his "exalted" position in Cancer and
into Leo, politicians come under increasingly heavy
scrutiny and fire as their links with corporate
corruption are exposed and understood. This will
apply especially in mid-month, as Mercury -- now
confident in Virgo, sign of his rulership -- moves
in square (90° away from) Pluto, and emboldened
individuals in the normally timid and obedient American
media may actually go on the attack. This trend
continues until late September.
In spiritual terms, the opportunity
to perceive and learn with little pain is here,
for those who wish to take it. Some practical cues
for playing the Saturn-Uranus trine this first time
around:
Watch Pluto slow in his orbit,
come to stasis for few days, then go into an apparent
retrograde (backward) motion, so slowly that for
most of the 135 days from June 18 until October
29, Pluto has been or will be in the 16th degree
of Sagittarius. The Sabian symbol for this degree
position is relevant. The "Sea gulls watching
a ship", wrote Marc Edmund Jones, symbolize
"the spirit's demand for its full share in
the privileges and rewards of human society, and
of the individual's realization that his personal
interests are served only as he maintains an unceasing
vigilance in his own behalf." The opposing
symbol, for 16° Gemini, is "A woman suffragist
haranguing", a symbol of (Jones again) "the
soul's demand for a full participation in the responsibilities
of human society, and of the realization that the
values of life are maintained only as there is a
mutual give-and-take in respect to every real difference
in point of view."
Watch the mothers. On August
6 Venus enters Libra, one of the two signs of her
rulership. As Libra is the natural sign of the seventh
house of marriage, the role of Venus as mother is
the issue. Mothers are especially good at parenting,
and bear watching, when Venus is in Libra (until
Sept. 7).
And watch the Sufi poets, as
in the lines from Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky:
"The price of admission to hear / The lofty
minstrel speak of love / Is affordable only to those
/
Who have not exhausted themselves / Dividing God
all day / And thus need rest."
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