I told you in January that we had a challenging year ahead. I certainly didn’t anticipate a pandemic but, upon reflection, I see that while this is tragic for so many, and a precursor to further hardship, it is the lesser of several evils.
We have known that change was coming. We’ve had two decades of disaster movies depicting all the ways the world can end: a giant meteor can knock the Earth out of orbit; we could go to war and kill each other with our snazzy new technology; we could blow ourselves up and destroy the planet; keep dumping our toxic byproducts into our environment until the Earth is so poisoned she can’t nourish us with her food, cleanse us with her water, refresh us and keep us alive with her sweet pure air. Then we all die slowly from starvation – we regress. Devolve. Humanity fails its task. Consciousness hits a dead end and withdraws to explore other possibilities.
So compared to those scenarios, which are still possibilities, I think we were blessed by a plague that forced us to stop our insane rat race, take a break and reassess the path we are on. Let’s all stop participating in the drama called “Life in America” and reflect on what we’re doing. We’re on a suicidal path. We can lose everything. EVERYTHING!
I watch the news every evening and I cry with the victims, rejoice with the success stories. We are all touched deeply. We are having a collective death experience. No one escapes from this unchanged. Because that is the whole point. It’s time for change. We have choices to make and we must not make them unwisely.
Emotions have resonance. If we are fearful, we have an “aura” of fear. Fearful things are attracted to our energy field. It grows. Same with anger, hatred, resentment, self-righteousness. We can’t go on in a world of profiteering, power grabs and acts of vengeance. This is where our work lies right now. Adjusting our attitudes, seeing the bigger picture, connecting with our deepest values, our passion for truth, our soul’s desire for awakening. We are in an evolutionary flow right now. We cannot resist it. We have no choice about whether we are going to evolve. We are at a crossroads. Which path do we choose – awaking or dying? Pretty basic.
This is private work. This is dharma – finding a way to live a balanced, conscious life. As each of us looks within, searches our soul, we see the truth. We can do better. The challenges we have set for ourselves are petty compared to what we could do. Making a billion dollars is peanuts to creating world peace. What if we took on the spectacular challenge that Spirit endowed us with? What if we truly sought peace on Earth and GOOD WILL toward ALL.
We can’t go on the way we are living – competing with each other, preying upon one another, insensitive to the suffering of others, unconscious of our Oneness as a humanity, oblivious to the fact that Earth is a conscious being and we are one with all nature. If we pulled together and tackled the really big tasks, instead of building monuments to our past, imagine what we could create! What a project to feed all of humanity! What a joyous triumph that would be! Everyone would win.
When my grandson was a little soccer player, his team coach decided that they wouldn’t play for points. They would just play to get better at playing. Indignant, my dear boy declared, “Then what’s the point?” That about sums it up. What is the point? Is it to win? To beat others? Or is it about learning how to play better? Together.
So with that preamble, we get to the subject of retrogrades. Pluto turned retrograde on April 26th. This week Saturn stations retrograde on the 10th of May, Venus on the 12th and Jupiter on the 14th. It’s rare that so many planets turn at the same time. It’s a wake-up call from the Heavens. Stop and take a look at these areas of your life.
More on that, but first I want to share the astronomy of retrogrades. Planets do not just stop in their orbits and go backwards. They themselves do not retrograde. What happens is the Earth catches up to their position in their orbits. Planets at this time are closest to Earth. As we pass by those slower moving planets, from our visual point of view, they start moving backward, just as cars you pass on the highway can be seen to move from in front of you to behind you.
Metaphorically, that has more significance because what our psyche experiences is the tidal action of evolutionary flow. Like the tides we ebb and flow. Like breath we expand and contract. When planets, which are archetypes of psychic functions, reverse course, it’s a signal that we need to do the same. So we are pulled by the ebb into our inner life to take a second look.
The Heavens are telling us to reflect, recall, remember. What is working and what isn’t? What did we overlook? What can we see in a new way, from this perspective? What did we learn and how do we want to proceed?
Saturn asks us to be patient, take our time, be thorough. Where can we take more responsibility? Saturn has been wading in the shallow waters of Aquarius since March 22nd, giving us a sneak preview of what’s to come. Serendipitously it returns to Capricorn on July 2nd, pointing to our Democracy. All the flags waving on the 4th. All the patriotic hoopla. What are we really celebrating? A dream? The past? What ideal do we hold in our hearts about our nation?
Venus brings a gentler energy. What beauty, what love, what moments of peace did you experience? Venus is an inner planet and she only turns retrograde every two years. So think back over the past two years. What did you want? What was of value to you? How has your love evolved? How are your relationships going?
Venus will be in Gemini until August. That’s a long time for her to hang out in one sign. But she asks us to examine our duality and we need the time. Gemini is The Twins, archetypes of our Twoness. We function best when we are at peace, in harmony. That can only happen when both sides are recognized and acknowledged. One of the ongoing challenges of life is finding balance between polarities. Gemini symbolizes this ongoing work which keeps us conscious. Ruled by Mercury, Gemini loves quick answers. Venus slows us down, brings in the feminine perspective. And Saturn tosses up obstacles to keep our attention and build our stamina.
Jupiter turns retrograde on the 14th. He never left Capricorn but did conjunct Pluto in early April. Since his orbit is smaller he will return to Pluto for another conjunction, then a third when they turn direct. Jupiter makes things bigger. His thunder booms at us. He is asking more from us. He is asking for the best in us. You can see that our work is not done. We’re in it until the Winter Solstice when Jupiter and Saturn begin a new 20-year cycle in Aquarius and we begin the rebuilding process.
Pluto is still at work. There will be more death. There will be more suffering and grief and loss. More opportunities to assess the effectiveness of our elected officials. More soul searching. Pluto is making us strong, empowering us with endurance, breaking down our barriers and defenses, and in the process stripping away the illusion we have been living, the baggage we can’t afford to carry; digging up secrets, releasing repressed thoughts and emotions; shining light into the dark corners and pointing out what needs attention. What are you afraid of? What is taboo? What truth are you unwilling to face? The surprise is that once you get through the dark, you see the light and that is where the taboo is. Somewhere along the line each of us got wounded, lost self-confidence, lost our passion. Each of us has unfulfilled potential and we are more frightened of living up to that potential than acknowledging our devils.
Thursday is the ¾ Moon, beginning the final quarter of the lunation cycle. Time for integration. For now, keep harvesting the light.
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