Spring Equinox 2011 Time to begin anew
What an announcement Uranus made moving into Aries on March 11th, changing signs after 7 years in watery Pisces: A devastating earthquake, creating an even worse tsunami, igniting an explosion at a nuclear plant creating radiation leaks and a real risk of some degree of meltdown! From water to fire with a fury; the revolution in the Mideast, radical political battles in the Midwest, and this is just Uranus’s calling card for its 7 year stint in Aries.
Uranus’s movement into Aries is also significant in that this is the first time since 1972 that one of the outer planets has been in a personal sign. The outer planets set the evolutionary tone for any given period of time and since ‘72 this emphasis has been in the social and collective signs. The evolutionary guidance has been to align the “I” with the “we”. Aries is the first of the personal signs and existence is now seeking to express and discover itself through the individual; you. It is time to set yourself free and allow for personal awakenings, individual breakthroughs, discoveries and personal growth.
Yes, all of a sudden you matter as collective genius is now awakening in us individuals and it is now time to cast off anything that is blocking its expression. What new interest, new pursuit, or new direction can you foster in your life?
Revolution is in the air. Where do you need to throw of the tyranny of oppression in your life?
How to conduct a successful revolution in your life
Let your revolution spring from your authenticity. To get to Uranus, you must be willing to question everything you have been taught or led to believe in light of your own direct experience.
Uranus, Jupiter and Aries are all about the future. To tap into their guidance, anticipate your highest future potential. Lean forward with Aries, and know that only you can interpret its spark.
To move forward, rise up out of polarity thinking and into synthesis thinking. Polarity locks you into the stalemate of the eternal battle. Force yourself into knowing there is always a way forward, beyond the polarity, if you include movement. Allow for change.
Uranus seeks to cast off whatever limits its expression. In Aries, cast off whatever limiting beliefs that you have that paralyze you into inertia. Fear, guilt, shame, unworthiness, excessive thinking; all useless where this energy wants to take you. This is the time for action first, learning as you go, and entering into discovery on a need to know basis.
The mantra of Aries is “Just begin.” If you know exactly where this call to action is leading, that is probably not the true path! If you try to map out a five year plan with this, again you miss it. Spontaneity is born fresh and anew in each moment, and decidedly not mental; drop down into your gut to listen to this. Aries is the most physical of all the signs, instinct arising from a body based wisdom, so as best you can, get physical to engage this energy.
Let your revolution be “for” what you believe in, rather than “against” what you do not.
The Saturn opposition from Libra to all of the Aries energy will have to be accounted for, and this impulse to act in the most independent and authentic way will have to be mitigated with existing agreements. The tough medicine here is to admit to being at least complicit in these agreements. That is all Saturn asks, be responsible for your agreements and their consequences, then you can make changes in them if need be.
One of my favorite “Lucyisms” I garnered from my years of being blessed with having my sister Lucy as my first astrology mentor is, “Argue for you limitations and they are yours.” Seems an apropos caution against giving our power away for any reason. Yet, you can’t sustain the Uranus energy without first answering to Saturn’s test questions in Libra: are your choices for action fair and just for self and others? Will your choices impact others in a harmful way? Are you bringing more honor to the situation or less?
These questions are the balancing required of the Aries impulse within that says “I just want to do what I want to do when and how I want to do it. Outside of that, I’m way into cooperation!” Sounds like a joke but this is our dilemma: to maintain the authenticity of your individuality while contributing that uniqueness that is you within cooperative relationships with others. Whew! But that is the way.
Speaking of joke questions, to get in touch with your Aries voice, ask yourself, “What would I do if it was my life to live?” If you don’t get it as a joke question, you’ve got some work to do. Of course it is your life to live…who else could be living it?
The Quickening. This acceleration of the pace of life will undoubtedly continue and this is not just a bad thing. Faster = higher frequency and considering the chakras, the background field is rising towards the upper chakras, where we can access collective intelligence through our increased intuition. With this quickened energy you must be more vigilant than ever before in monitoring your own energy field. Although it is great when you are on a positive roll, when you fall into the negative spins, you create your own negative reality before you know it.
If you find yourself having difficulty crawling out of any dark holes your mind may have gotten you in, this teaching from the Buddha we ran across in Sharon Salzberg’s book Loving Kindness, might help.
The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character.
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of consideration for all beings.
Since Pluto moved into Capricorn in 2008 (Last here during The American Revolution) ideological wars have given way to briefcase wars and corporations threaten to legally take it all if we let them. We have given them the vote, but not the conscience. This direction is not sustainable, the key measurement of this Capricorn era, and this will be coming to a head with the heating up of Uranus/Pluto aspects over the next few years.
I have faith that the universe is in a giant conspiracy for our ultimate well being if we can listen to its promtings. Listen to the whispers or listen to the shouts, guidance of what is working and not working is always speaking if we are listening. Disasters in the oil and nuclear energy fields are more than shouting of our need to hasten development of alternative energy and move away from high risk, high impact sources.
The grace of this period is Neptune moving into its own sign Pisces the first week of April. It makes a brief visit in Pisces this year until August, to return again next February until 2025.
Energetically, all that you can accept empowers you and all that you reject disempowers you. This is the way of Pisces and Neptune. Find ways to dissolve all barriers of distinction, blur the edges of definition and work with accepting, absorbing, allowing. The world is what it is whether you accept it as such or not.
I recently heard Anam Thurbten talk on how natural compassion is, as when we pass by someone hurt and our heart reaches out. What is our natural human response to seeing an animal hurt? Or an elderly person stumble and fall in front of you. This is our compassion. You don’t have to be clever, or wealthy, or powerful, or healthy or even happy to pray for others. With Neptune in its own sign the power of our prayers and compassionate thoughts for others is magnified.
What can any of us do in the face of the enormity of our current situation? Prayer, meditation, healing thoughts and blessings are the first and foremost assistance any of us can give. Show up for these times and allow yourself to feel what others are going through. Liberate yourself from any fears surrounding this and feel the natural outpouring of your heart in response. In this there is healing.
We can’t afford to drop the ball, whoever we are, a loosely defined group at best who wish to help usher in a new more compassionate era of life on our planet. Ram Dass’s sage words for times like these echo in my mind, “I would first center myself as best I could by connecting to source, and then I would get out there and see if I could help somebody.”
Blessings on your Spring!
David
