Last Saturday Uranus moved into Gemini, an Air sign, and hit me with an airborne virus that took up residence in my lungs. I have been coughing round the clock, wearing out the muscles between my ribs, and unable to sleep. So I’m going to keep this brief for now and come back to fill in the blanks when I recover.
The Month of May opens with a fateful Full Moon in Scorpio, the home of Pluto, which happens to square the Moon from Aquarius. Tensions are building especially after our Supreme Court betrayed our union with its ruling that shattered the Voter Rights Act and has allowed red states to redistrict their precincts virtually nullifying the votes of black and brown people.
America has been a pugnacious nation since its inception. After the revolution, came the War of 1812, when we fought the British again, over US maritime rights. Then the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan wars. And now we have attacked Iran, a war of aggression that has resulted in a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, once again an issue of maritime rights.
The Supreme Court ruling makes it clear, after 250 years, we have learned nothing. The themes of these various wars are still in contention: segregation, states rights and maritime rights. Already many of the same states that seceded from the Union are now racing to disenfranchise blacks. A century of hard-won equal rights dashed by a corrupt court, doing the bidding of the worst criminal we ever put in the Oval Office.
Basically we are squabbling over the same issues that led to Civil War, and the Astrology is eerily similar. By the time South Carolina seceded from the Union, Uranus had made it to 9 degrees of Gemini. In the USA natal chart, Uranus lies at 8:55 Gemini conjunct the dwarf Gonggong, whose tale warns us of the damage uncontrolled emotions can wreak on the lives of others. Uranus was retrograde and moving slowly over Gonggong, headed for another Uranus Return.
Uranus returns can be game changers. We have one coming up in July of next year. On the one hand, Uranus can bring about needed change and reform, but this requires an open and observant mind to see the wrong turns we took and how to correct them. On the other hand, if we have our heads stuck in the sand, it can bring sudden, unwanted and shocking events. Since we haven’t learned in 250 years that we are a human family, and the color of our skin only reveals the glorious diversity of our race, like the diversity in a field of flowers, then we are doomed to repeat our mistakes.
This is a choice point, a moment in our evolution when we can heal our wounded nation, make reparations, and make a commitment to the founding values of dignity and equality for all. Uranus is one of the co-rulers of Aquarius. This conflict has erupted now because we must heal our past before we can leave it behind. We are exiting one era and moving into another, one in which we recognize our Oneness and learn to co-create a better world together. But we are carrying a lot of unwanted, and frankly disgusting baggage. This is a spiritual crisis that demands our growth. We can no longer sit in judgment, ignorant of our impact on others, resorting to blame and scapegoating, focusing on self-interest. It’s time to grow up. We have been an adolescent society preoccupied with superficial distractions, but now we must face our coming of age. Are we going to be fuckups forever? Or are we going to step into adulthood and get to work healing the rift?
Pluto plays a big role this month. In Scorpio, domain of secrets and corruption, Pluto will be digging up more dirty little secrets. I will write more about Pluto when I am well, but here are some facts to consider. Transiting Pluto turns retrograde on May 6th, within half a degree from conjunction with the USA natal South Node. It won’t conjunct this node until March of 2027 and will pass over it retrograde on June 30th and then direct on January 2028 – a year of deep transformative work on a collective level. The South Node is the repository of unfinished business, the issues we cannot bury or leave behind because they will resurface again and again, until we address them. The Supreme Court has brought one of these issues into the spotlight. Humanity has to face itself and it will involve a lot of grief for the way we have treated one another. I pray we will meet this challenge now.
One last note about Uranus, it is now within a degree of Sedna, the dwarf planet that represents transformation and ascension. The myth is complicated but the lesson is clear. To transform, we must let go. We cannot cling to our past, to old resentments or feuds, to grievances that we have carried down through the decades. The more we cling, the less we evolve. Sedna evolved from an Inuit maiden into a sea goddess.
We have no idea of our potential. We have such limited thinking in this patriarchal paradigm, restricted to the logical, practical, utilitarian, productive or rational side of our brains. Uranus catapults us into the unknown, the illogical where magic and miracles are everyday events. It will conjunct Sedna on May 24th.
This about what fences you can mend, what unfinished business you can resolve. Every bit of personal healing contributes to the collective. Hopefully I’ll be back soon, but right now I need a nap.
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