Here’s what I’ve been thinking:  The powerful planets lining up in repeated collision patterns this summer are important, I know, because they are all crossing “Zero Cardinal” in the tropical zodiac: The World Point.  But of course, I’m also a Vedic astrologer, using the sidereal zodiac.  In that system, these planets are playing around 23 degrees of mutable signs.  So why do we consider these important degrees?

Wheels within Wheels

Because….  These are the cornerstones of the earth in time.  The planets of this summer are crossing and recrossing the solstice and equinox points: The four corners of the year.  The foundation stones of Earth.  Solstices and equinoxes link our planet to the sun and moon and solar system.  They measure our earthly calendar, orienting us in both time and space.   THESE are the points that are being rocked this year.

The planets involved in this pattern (Pluto, Uranus, Saturn and sometimes the faster planets) were tangled up with each other in the mid 1960’s as well.  Certainly those were years of tumult, change, and new ideas entering the zeitgeist.  But at that time none of these big planets were crossing the Solstice/Equinox points–what I’ll be calling the “cornerstones” here.

The Mayans describe the end of a world age as a “changing of the hearth”.  Suddenly I’m seeing that they are speaking quite literally.  The cornerstones of our understanding of time and space are very much our spiritual “hearth”.  And the summer of 2010 is the peak point of applying metaphorical planetary sledge-hammers to the cornerstones.

To put this into an even larger perspective, let’s look at some more issues of the Mayan system.  Their calendar was based on the cycle of Venus.  (Venus has an interesting geometrical cycle, by the way.  It’s path through the solar system creates a perfect 5-pointed star.)  A notable part of the Venus cycle is its periodic “occultation”.  Basically you can think of this as a Venusian/Sun eclipse pattern.  It takes 184 years, and the cycle ends with two “eclipses” within 8 years of each other.   The most recent one was in 2008, and the next is 2012.

Something else happened in 2008.  This was the year that Pluto crossed the cornerstone point, went backwards over that point again, and then moved forward over the same point again.   If you visualize the cornerstones as the edges of a giant concrete slab, Pluto spent months sitting on this slab with a metaphorical jackhammer, then rested, then went back for more, then rested, then went back for more.   This was the beginning of the pattern of 2010, where many other planets started ganging up on the other corners.  This was the beginning of tearing down the old hearth in order to install a new one.

There’s another interesting piece to the dynamic of these years.  All of the planets (except the Sun and Moon) have periods of retrograde motion as seen from the earth.  At various times, if you’re a sky-watcher, you’ll see them move backwards, against the normal rotation of the stars and planets in the sky.  When measured across the 30-degrees of each sign, there isn’t a

But every one of us is being trained by the media to look for the “worst case scenario.”   Oil in the gulf?  Worst case scenario: end of the world.   Financial crisis–worst case scenario?  end of the world.  New diseases–worst case scenario?  end of the world.   Spreading fear may “sell”, but it’s not news at all.  The worst case scenario will always be the end of the world by various dreadful means.  I can understand the thinking that this might motivate people to change things, but negativity is NOT really a motivator.  It’s a demotivator.

My teacher (Hugh Martin) used to stress how much we waste productive energy by playing what he called “The Ain’t-It-Awful Game”.   That’s the game where one person complains about his arthritis, the next, sympathizing, says the awful weather makes it even worse, the next person talks about the friend who got heat-stroke from the weather, the first remembers a friend who died of heat-stroke….   Or the one that starts with the oil in the Gulf, is added to by the terrible politics that enables rich corporations, the next adds stuff about the evil of greedy corporations, etc…    These conversations are depressive, demotivating, add nothing useful to our understanding, and burn inner psychic energy that could be used to accomplish something.

Just imagine what it would be like if the news media were to ask interviewees “What’s the BEST possible outcome for this situation?   How do we get there?”   Just that small shift changes the motivation of listeners.  Just that small shift offers the possibility of shared purpose, of creating a mission that joins people together instead of dividing them.  What’s the best case scenario of creating shared purpose?  What’s the best case scenario for community caring?  If the best case scenario seems utterly unrealistic, why do we tend to believe the worst-case scenario is more realistic?  What’s the best case scenario for sending out this blog asking people to think about the best case scenario?

Good grief!  7:30 am on June 26 in Philadelphia was the exact moment of the BIG Lunar eclipse:  The one exactly on Pluto and participating in the giant T-square between Pluto (and Eclipse), Saturn, Uranus and Jupiter.  What an awful time to start a triathlon!   I said I didn’t think this event would conclude safely.  It would likely be stopped before the finish, and there was likely to be a bad accident associated with it.  I was concerned about water because of the dangerous lunar (watery) eclipse.  I wished that he wouldn’t go (the eclipse negatively affected his chart), and told her to avoid it herself if she didn’t want to be caught up in an awful situation.

Today she reported in:

“First, my friend told me on Friday ( the day before the June 26 eclipse/triathlon day) that he decided NOT to particpate at the last minute.  He said he felt like his body wasn’t up for it!! You said that his energy wouldn’t be right. Second, part of the triathlon  – the SWIM- had to be stopped and cancelled in the middle of the race b/c one of the swimmers was missing under water.  They had the police and rescue boats there, and unfortunately, the person drowned!! So the race could not be completed!!”

Isn’t astrology amazing!

So what’s the point here?   The point is the solstice and equinox points.   The REASON the western zodiac is different from the sky is that it is tied to the solstice points.  By definition, Zero Aries, the first degree of the zodiac, is linked to the Spring Equinox.   By extension, Zero Cancer falls on the Summer Solstice; Zero Libra falls on the Fall Equinox; and Zero Capricorn falls on the Winter Solstice.    Zero degrees of all four signs are called, by western astrologers, the Aries Point.   Why?   Because this is a shorthand way of saying these degrees are linked with the turning points of the calendar.

So when we shift to the sidereal zodiac, where Zero Aries is equivalent to about 23 Pisces (meaning that the same point in the sky has two different names–one being 0 Aries, and the other name is 23 Pisces:  A rose is a rose is a rose; a rose by any other name, and all that.  It’s the Same Point.)    In the Vedic system we don’t call these degrees the “Aries Point”, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t important.

The issue here is that any time you have planets crossing the solstice/equinox points, they carry an additional charge, and that charge tends to be visible in the world at large, because it’s directly associated with the turning points of the earthly year.  When we have so many very powerful planets crossing these degrees simultaneously, we can expect that the whole earth will be feeling this charge.

So when you wonder why this year is such a big year, there are two broad answers:  Some of the most powerful change-agent planets in the sky are in tightly challenging aspect with each other, AND these planets are also aligned with the solstice points of the year.   Big deal!

It was the early 1980’s when I first started reading about past lives and recovering memories of them.  These were pretty traumatic years in my life.  My dad died in early 1981 and my marriage was a mess.  In 1984 my husband gave me an ultimatum:  Move out and give him space to get his head together, or he’d simply file for divorce and force the issue.  I was addicted to this patently dysfunctional relationship, and I was still fighting to keep it, so I moved into an apartment complex close to my work.

One evening, lying in bed in the early evening in abject misery, I asked to see a lifetime that would shed light on the relationship between me and my husband.  I had been lying there, quietly pondering the state of my life at that time.  I wasn’t meditating, and can’t explain how I was simply “dropped into” a very clear vision.  Oddly, the images that came did not directly answer my question at all.  They simply showed me a different time, place, and life experience.   If I were to relate it to my current life, it seemed specifically to address my relationship with my second sister.  Sarah was born when I was a physically mature 11-year-old (so I pretended she was “MY” baby), and she died of an accidental drowning when I was 13, shattering my life and that of my family, and turning my faith in the goodness of life upside down.  This has been the defining “issue” in my life.

So here’s what I saw.  At first, I saw myself from outside, like watching a movie.  Then the perspective shifted and I was inside my body, experiencing the scene from the first person, including the surprising sensory experience of smelling the environment.

First, I saw myself, heavily pregnant, getting ready to cross a narrow street.  I was dressed in “plain” clothing:  homespun material in a dull grey-brown, with a white cap tightly covering my hair and a white apron, worn high over the great mound of my belly.  My clothing was not the popular style, but was a proud signature of my religious beliefs.  Unfortunately, I was pregnant without a husband.

I looked across the narrow street.  This was a proud city–no dirt pathways here.  It had cobblestone streets and impressive (to me, though to my modern mind they looked primitive), two-story, graystone buildings on each side.  The streets were no more than 10-12 feet wide, and while there were curbs on each side, there weren’t exactly sidewalks.  The curb was no more than a narrow step off the streetlevel:  barely enough room for walkers to get out of the path of oncoming carriages.   There was a shop sign I could see clearly, although it conveyed its message wordlessly.  A bright red painting of a tomato on a brown wooden sign announced exotic foodstuffs.

I was visiting this small city from a countryside home.  I’d ridden in on a rough wagon with someone–my mother?–driving it, and this shopping expedition was meant to be swift and practical.  Right now I was on my own, my attention directed to a shop across the street where I meant to finish my business.   As I crossed the street a great noise and clamour precipitated the “story” that would unfold before my consciousness.  Faster than I could think, a carraige with four horses raced through the street at a madly reckless speed.  In shock and fear I ran the last few steps to reach the curb and get out of the way, but my skirts were caught by the horses hooves and I was pulled under the carraige.

Now my center of awareness shifted.   I was inside my body, looking up.  I could smell the pungent and rotting combination of horse dung, night-soil, and rotting vegetation in the street around me.  I could see the chartreuse green satin breeches of a “fancy” man and sensed that he was trying to get the gathering crowd to step back to give me air.  Then I lost consciousness.

When my awareness returned, I was in what seemed like a hospital ward, under street level.  There was a row of very narrow cots under a series of high windows through which you could see the feet of passersby on the pavement level above.  The ward smelled much worse than the street. The street smell was alive, even though it smelled bad.  The ward smelled of death: seriously rotting flesh, a sharp, throat-biting smell that could have been fresh blood, perhaps combined with some pungent chemical–lye perhaps?  [The words "carbolic acid" came to my mind, though my subsequent research indicates this wasn't known til the mid 1800's and my imagery seemed much older.  I'd guess the late 17th century.]

Then I could see someone carrying away my baby.  She (I think it was a girl) was wrapped in a white cloth that trailed on the floor.  (My modern mind thought it must have been a sheet, but years later I learned that in early enlightenment England, babies wore long white gowns that trailed on the floor.  My vision wasn’t focused enough to be able to discern the difference.)   I saw two women, also in “plain” clothes, who seemed to be related to me–mother and sister?–holding each other and weeping.  I kept calling for someone to bring me my baby, but no one could hear me.

Then the ‘vision’ ended.  I lay there astounded by the smells and the vivid realness of what I’d just experienced.  Little did I know that this was only the first of my travels through time.

I googled images  for 16th and 17th century villages.  The scene I saw would be kind of a combination of these two images.  The narrow street was similar to the French village picture, but the color of the stones is wrong and the street seems to be unpaved.  The British picture shows a modern highway, but the buildings are more like what I was seeing.

The stones are not as dirty-gray as those in my vision.

This narrow sense of streets, with no curbs or sidewalks is similar to “my” village.

Stariel Astrology Newsletter June 2010 Issue 12; 2010.4 In This Issue 1. Astro-weather words and video 2. Class reminder 3. Anne’s next IONS lecture 4. Podcast: Hypnogogia 5. Podcast: Laughter 6. Astro-Remedies for Tough Times. 7. LEARN MORE….. Our Sponsor Visit Our Sponsor Quick Links… Stariel Website Sacred Threads Website Services More Podcasts, and Blogs More About Anne Help Sponsor This Newsletter For more information on sponsorship click here. Dear Anne,Are you ready for change?   I hope so!  This summer is full of it.  I think 2010 is the year that we’ll look back on in 2012 and say “Oh, THAT was when it happened.” This newsletter has podcasts, videos, and announcements, so here’s what you’ll find in the articles below: Astro-weather Notes and Beversdorf Briefing (video) Class Reminder (Thu, June 3; Thu June 17) Anne IONS Lecture announcement (Austin) Podcast: Hypnogogic States:  Dr. Sirley Marquez Bonham, Ferme Lab physicist, speaks on hypnogogic states and spiritual experience. Podcast: Mark Iberg offers us the experience of laughter as a healing modality (with research thrown in because, as Mark says “we’re supposed to mention it”).  You can learn to heal here. Astro-remedy book How to reach me, get a consultation, etc. (please do!) And remember, rates increase June 8th, so schedule your appointment soon! Much love to all–and keep dodging the ’skeeters! –Anne 1. Astro-weather notes and Beversdorf Briefings Photo by Joe Bergoiata Click the Beversdorf Briefings link for a quick video on the continuing astro-weather.  The general picture? Uranus and Jupiter are both entering Aries–Uranus on 5/28, and Jupiter on 6/6.  Aries is an impulsive sign and Uranus is the planet that brings surprises, shocks, innovation, upheaval.  Jupiter just makes things bigger, in this context.  These are huge energy patterns by themselves, but they participate in the world-changing “cardinal climax” with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto all entering cardinal signs.  What do cardinal signs do?  They act FAST and they act on the world stage, so this is a year of (yes, even more) dramatic upheavals.  The lunar eclipse of June 26 ties all these planets up with Mars (aggression, action) and packs a punch.  If you have planets in early degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn, these energies are changing your life too.  If you don’t know your chart, you can probably guess by the level of upheaval in your life–or you can call me for a consultation…  email me here. 2.  Astro Class Reminder: Thursdays: June 3 and June 17 Contact me if you need directions to the class location (far NW Austin).A quick reminder for the 2nd and 3rd classes of this series.  If you missed the first one, you can step in now and not be lost.  We’re still looking at the esoteric underpinnings of the 12 signs of the zodiac.  And on June 17, we’ll start studying the linkages between signs and planets.  This is the beginning (for those who’ve asked) of a study of dispositors, and their importance in getting the deeper meanings out of a chart. The first class was recorded.  Nothing fancy, but if you want an mp3 of the class for $5, email me here. We’ll start promptly at 7 pm Cost of class:  $15 or donation.  If you don’t have the money, offer what works for you and come anyway. 3.   IONS LECTURE, June 22, 2010 by (yours truly). Learning the Dance Steps to Life:  Recognizing Archetypal Energy Patterns and Learning How Not To Get Your Toes Tromped On. Tuesday, June 22, Austin Center for Spiritual Living, 4804 Grover.  6:30 pm, gathering; 7 pm lecture Have you ever had a day where you were so confident you felt like you could do anything?  Have you ever felt burdened by responsibilities or fatigue that simply won’t go away?  Have you ever laid awake night after night while your mind spins like a gerbil in a cage?  Have you ever felt like your life just entered a fog-bank, and you can’t see where you’re going and lose all sense of direction?  Have you ever felt like everything in your life was spinning out of control and anything you do to “fix” it just makes it worse?  These are all signatures of specific archetypal energy patterns, and when we don’t learn the archetype’s dance, we can get out toes tromped on.These questions and more apply to archetypal energy patterns the world is encountering this year.  And you’ve encountered at least a few of them in your lives already. This lecture is not about astrology, although astrology offers us the archetypes of planetary energies to hang a story on.  This lecture is about recognizing energy systems with at least the precision of recognition weather fronts.  When you learn to activate your inner observer, learn to recognize the system you’ve encountered, and learn the alternate ways to utilize the energy pattern, you can turn lemons into lemonade, or turn a blizzard into a cozy encounter by a fireplace. The music is already playing.  Are you ready to learn the dance? 4. Podcast–INACS (Institute of Neurology and Consciousness Studies) lecture: Experiences of Consciousness Beyond Hypnagogia: Dream imageries, reveries, and the development of a relationship with the “unconscious” mind By Dr. Sirley Marquez Bonham (This link includes not only the podcast, but also a wonderful bibliography and additional links to a paper on the topic.) Using introspective experiences to develop skills like Remote-Viewing, Lucid-Dreaming, Out-of-body Experiences, or for the development of Spiritual Experiences Hypnagogia is a generic label given to sensorial perceptions that happens “automatically” – without conscious control – while falling asleep, or while awakening from sleep. Hypnagogia may also happen while a person is meditating – or while in trance-like situations. In this talk Dr. Bonham explores what can be learned from the perceptions we encounter during the sleep/wake thresholds, and from trance-like situations usually encountered in introspection practices like, for example, meditation and hypnosis. The most common and accessible skills that can be developed through situations of hypnagogia are lucid-dreaming and out-of-body experiences. Dr. Bonham offers various examples of situations where the explorer discovers him or herself in contact with something that could be interpreted as a higher-self, or by a surprising meeting of a spiritual teacher or guide to help along the way. 5. Podcast: Laughter, Mirth, Qigong and “Consciousness” IONS Lecture by Mark Iberg (This link includes the podcast as well as Mark’s fabulous bibliography on laughter and consciousness.) Gelotology, the study of laughter and laughing, has revealed in no uncertain terms that laughter has multiple and measurable beneficial physiological consequences.  In addition, Positive Psychologyhas shown that emotional states have physical repercussions.  The good news is that through conscious effort, we (the species…not The Species) can control internal states [of consciousness, mind and body] as opposed to being at their mercy. The lecture includes discussion and experiential demonstration of therapeutic laughter, beneficent emotion and also introduces the Shibashi form of Qigong. This gentle, powerful and ancient practice is one of many practices useful in strengthening ones conscious awareness and control of the internal state. If an argument against the power of consciousness on wellness is made based on science…much evidence is being ignored.  Paraphrasing Dr. John Shinnerer, author of Guide to Self, “There are literally thousands of peer reviewed studies demonstrating the role of emotion on physiology.”  Just as we are affected by external environmental characteristics, our internal state is, at minimum, as significant and definitely more within our control. “Astrologicical Remedies for Tough Times”    E-Book (Only $9.00) The ancient Vedas not only include astrology (“the science of light”)… they also include ways to shift the energies in your life to a more harmonious, healthful, and happy pattern.   In this ebook you’ll learn which weekday is Your best remedy day, and you’ll learn lots of creative, interesting, odd, inexplicable and effective ways to shift the energies at work in your life.  (Yes, odd as it seems, they really work.) You can learn more about astrological remedies here, and you can order the ebook by sending me an email here.  You can use paypal, a credit card, or send me a check–just state your preference in your email. Contact Anne for an in-depth astrological reading, or use the “Catch-Me-If-You-Can” option for quick answers to immediate crises.   Clients rave about Anne’s deep insight into their personal lives and the practical ideas for moving forward. A recent client commented “I came to you in deep despair and even though nothing has changed, I’m leaving this session with renewed joy and optimism”.For more information click here. Session and rate info, click here. Testimonials… here. To email Anne, click here. Thanks for being here, and ’til next time…  may all life bring you joy! Sincerely, Anne Beversdorf Stariel Astrology

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• “Wow. This aging thing may be the most universal of stories, but it is nonetheless shocking to witness. Transformation before our very eyes, but without our seeing it most of the time.”

Reminds me of the time my much much younger brother, on seeing pics of Mom when I was a kid, saying to her…

“Mom!   You used to be a Beautiful Lady!”

Well!  I guess “facts is facts”.  Oh dear.

What is Fear?  For one, it’s a cute acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real.  Unless you are being attacked by a bear, or are in a similarly immediate life-threatening situation, fear is always imaginary and is never about the present moment.  Even if you have stage 5 cancer, your fear does not refer to the knowable present.  It is about the future.  Fear may be about what others might be doing in the present or what someone might have done wrong in the past, about what might happen, about how you might feel. It’s always about something you do not know to be true.    What you know may bring you sorrow; your physical body may bring you pain, but only what we do not know brings us fear.

Good emotional hygiene can innoculate us against a FearStorm.  What is the personal hygiene to counteract fear?

1. Keep your awareness in the present moment. When fear approaches you, ask if it relates to the present.  Bring your attention back to the present moment.
2. Separate fear from reality. Ask yourself if there are alternatives to the scenario you fear.  Most fears are concatenations of disaster scenarios:  First This awful thing, which will trigger That awful thing, etc.  What if there is This wonderful thing, which will trigger That wonderful thing and etc.? Why does one version of an imaginary future seem more real to you than another?  They are both fantasies.  Neither is real.  Fear is our response to the unknown.  Choose what makes you happy
3. Recognize how you’ve coped with past situations. Whether your fear is personal or is related to grand social issues, remember how you’ve coped with difficulties in the past.  Whatever comes up, you will be able to deal with it when the time comes.  You don’t have to deal with it now.
4. Choose your emotions thoughtfully. Even if the worst of your fears comes true, will staying in a state of fear between this time and that make the situation better?   Taking action may make it better, but taking action is not fear.  If something bad were to happen in XX years, would you rather worry about it for all those years ahead of time or just handle it when it happens?   How many things have you feared that have not happened?  CHOOSE to avoid fear.
5. Reallocate your emotional energy. Fear is a gradient emotion.  When you face a huge rollercoaster you may feel fear, but it takes the form of excitement.  Fear can morph into excited anticipation.  Fear can morph into an urgency to take action.  Fear can morph into the determination to envision the world you want!   (Be sure to read Anita M’s Near Death Experience!–and you might enjoy Ricky Gervais’s movie The Invention of Lying).  Reallocate the energy of fear into the excitement of Joyful Anticipation!

In April and May there will definitely be punctuation dates in the process of changes that are inevitable in any life.   Globally, we still have the collision aspects of Pluto (transformation/power), Saturn (authority, big businesses, rules), and Uranus (freedom, individuation, rebelliousness, revolution).  We’re in this dance for the next few years, but punctuations come this summer.

April 6:  Pluto, the planet that triggers fear and resistance, stations retrograde, greatly magnifying its influence.  It makes this station in a collision aspect (square) to another planet of fear, this time adding the theme of regulation, Saturn; and in a smoother relationship (trine) to Venus–the planet of values, including love and money–and Mercury, representing thought and communication.   Expect to see explosions about regulations of the finance system.  Or personal fears about money and finance  (remember your fear hygiene.  It’s all in your imagination!).

April 14:  This is a new moon at 24 Aries.  Time to take action for new beginnings.  No real crises showing up here.

April 17:  Mercury stations Retrograde.  The station point is 12 Taurus, so if you have planets near that point (or 12 Leo, Aquarius, or Scorpio) expect action in the days surrounding this retrograde point.  Why?  Because a station point is intensely powerful energy.  Even more pointedly, this time Mercury stations collides with (squares) Mars, creating the potential for angry (Mars) words (Mercury), but also for sharp (Mars) thinking (Mercury).  (It’s also sextile Pluto, just to spice up the situation with power plays.)   Your choice here.  Mercury stays retrograde until 5/11.   This is NOT a time to sign new contracts, start new projects, send out your advertising flyers–unless you were born with a retrograde Mercury yourself.

April 26:  Saturn (authority, the old way, big business & banking) is in an exact opposition (think collision) with Uranus (the new, rebellion, high tech, freedom) –again.  As it was on the day of Obama’s election, for one thing.  Which will still be in effect on….

April 28:  Full Moon at 8 Scorpio.  This lunation is in collision with Mercury and Mars and is sextile Pluto, so expect some confrontational energy from the crazies out there.  Practice FearStorm hygiene.

May 11:  Mercury stations direct at 2′40″ Taurus.  Uber power here, as it harmonizes with Pluto.  Expect a very powerful message from a very powerful source.

May 13:  New Moon in Tropical Taurus… The moon “likes” Taurus–a lot.  It is stable there (and stubborn), and this lunation collides with Mars (action?  anger?) but harmonizes (sextile) with the most generous Jupiter and with responsible Saturn (trine).    The start of something solid and reasonable?

May 27:  This Full moon at 6′33″ Sagittarius isn’t particularly notable except that the very next day…

May 28: Uranus (freedom, individualism, rebelliousness, “my way or the highway”) enters tropical Aries (the action principle… and what kind of action?  WHAT *I* WANT).   Tickle this with the full moon energy and remember that this brings ALL three Fearstorm planets (Pluto, Saturn, Uranus) into cardinal (action-oriented) signs, and we’ve upped the ante on acting out from folks who have little or no emotional hygiene.

May 31:  Neptune stations retrograde–the powerful degree here is 28′42″ Aquarius.  And it collides with (opposition) Mars, the planet of action.  Neptune is nothing if not nebulous, so this can bring a period of delusional actions, or simply the inability to act—sometimes the impulse is there but the carry-through gets waterlogged.

Ok, that’s it for now.  Stay healthy, emotionally, physically, and spiritually!

First–the techno.  My god man, just because you CAN do 3-D doesn’t mean every single scene must be floating like a drunken sailor on a heaving sea.  Two people stand there talking so, just to make SURE you don’t forget it’s 3-D, the camera is swaying from side to side, moving up and down, in totally meaningless and random motion.  The ONLY reason for such drunken camerawork is to prove it’s 3-D.  It distracts you from the conversation between the characters (perhaps allowing you to forget how inane it is), and takes away from the story.  Actually, the story IS the special effects.  PHOOEY!

Then there was the continuity problem.  Since I had to keep closing my eyes to ward off nausea, I got to see things a bit differently.  At one point, the bad guy, in his huge “Transformers”-like robo-warrior armor, had his shirt sleeve on fire.  He did a bunch of stuff before beating out the fire.  When I opened my eyes again I saw a slashed and torn (NOT charred) shirt-sleeve with pale white skin under it.  Good grief, man.  This was a fire.  My guess is over 10 seconds of full-on flame.  And nothing is charred?

And those robo-warriors:  built to order for over-testosteroned steroid worshippers.  When these 12-foot machines walked, the bass-reverb over-amped sound could have been footsteps from the empire state building walking.   Stupid.    But when the tree of life fell—something that looked a lot bigger than the empire state building–or the world trade buildings, for that matter—sound, dust, hi-amped reverb be damned.  In relative silence, dodge the branches flying through the air and stand there and watch.  It didn’t throw up debris from the forest floor as the ground shook.  The ground hardly seemed to shake.   When, in real life, a block of stone fell off the face of Yosemite, the sonic boom flattened trees for hundreds of yards.  FLATTENED full growth trees, just the shock wave from the sound.  But our dear Na’vi just stood and watched.  I suppose it’s like movie space stations exploding with fire and sound even tho there’s no oxygen to burn or air of any sort to send sound waves, but the demand suspension of disbelief was too erratic for me to switch gears from too-loud robots to too-quiet forest mammoths falling.

My biggest gripe was the war-movie fervor which drove the military side of this movie.  If the message is that the Na’vi culture was wonderful, it was delivered with a military overkill that was prurient in the extreme.  I personally don’t enjoy long war and battle scenes with over-the-top sci-fi overkill machines.  This isn’t fun cinema for me.  The movie was apparently made for people who think this is fun.  What amazes me is how many people are going all gooey over the innocence and holism of Pandoora and saying how fabulous the movie is because of that.  I guess we have to appeal to the violent and sadistic preferences of movie goers to even get them to see an alternative.  That disgusts me, too.   I don’t like appealing to the worst in people in order to “improve” them.  Wrong-headed thinking.

I loved Jon Stewart last nite, when discussing a new film by a different director who said “I think most film-makers underestimate the intelligence of their audience.”  Stewart quipped “You mean you didn’t use 3-D?”

When Pluto shows up in the road of our life, it stays for a long time.  Slow planets kick up a ruckus in our lives for two reasons.   One is we have little experience with them.   Mars, for example, demonstrates its two-year cycle when our toddlers hit the “terrible twos”.   By the time you’re grown up, you get accustomed to this cyclic energy.   But slow planets, especially really slow ones like Pluto, will aspect each planet in your chart by transit basically once (plus retrograding back).   So you’ve got no prior experience to fall back on.   The other reason slow planets have a bigger impact is that their transits to your chart are SOOO slow they seem to take forever.  When Pluto conjoins your Sun it’s not just a few hours or days or a few weeks—it can be for years. You don’t need an astrologer to tell you something’s up: you can feel it. You can’t just ignore it ‘til it goes away, either.  You’re faced with an inexplicable set of circumstances that won’t let up.

This is “encountering the archetype on the road”.  If we’re astrologers we run to the cookbooks and discover Pluto words like “transformation”, “death and rebirth”, “surrender”, and still we’re caught standing in the middle of the road staring down Pluto.  You want to fight…  but someone once told me,   “If you want to box with God, you’d better have really long arms.”

You don’t need an astrological chart and an ephemeris to know you’re dancing with Pluto.    Here’s a short list of Pluto Symptoms:

IF YOU FEEL LIKE THIS IT MUST BE PLUTO.

1. 1. How DARE they!
2. 2. It’s Not Fair.  It’s Not RIGHT.  I WILL make them stop.
3. 3. Obsessed.  You can’t get this issue out of your mind.
4. 4. They WON’T get away with this.
5. 5. 40 jillion get-even fantasies.
6. 6. 30 jillion get-it-back-to-how-it-used-to-be fantasies.
7. 7. Boiling blood each time you think about it (which is all the time).
8. 8. Freezing blood when you think there’s nothing you can do.
9. 9. How DARE they!   …..

These may be symptoms for a Pluto diagnosis.  But does a diagnosis help us understand Pluto?     Does it help you when someone tells you this is transformation at work?  In order to dance well with Pluto, we need to enter Pluto stories and roll around with the energy for a while.

A Pluto Tale

In this story, Pluto takes the form of a dog, a guardian daemon—or angel.   The story begins with a human being—maybe You, who, like all of us, has managed your life into a nice, pleasing rut.   You’ve dug the rut pretty deep, filled it with soft pillows, electronic toys, everything that makes life predictable and pleasant.  It’s so deep, in fact, that even when you stand on your tiptoes, you can’t see the horizon.

You may be enjoying your rut, but there’s an old saying:

The only difference between a rut and a grave is how deep you dig it.

In this story, the wise guardian dog, Pluto, is patrolling the ground above your rut and thinking, “This rut is WAY too deep.”   Ordinarily Pluto might give you a pass, but right now he sees something coming over the horizon that is just perfect for you and you can’t see it.  This fabulous opportunity won’t just fall in your rut.  Unless you get out and intercept it, the opportunity will just pass you by.

So Pluto tries to tell you about it.  Unfortunately, dogs are limited to barks and growls, and all you know is there’s an obnoxious dog outside your comfy rut, barking loudly, incessantly, and ruining the rhythms of both night and day.  You want to scream. Nothing will shut up this dog.  Life is getting miserable.  You tell your friends “I’ve always loved my rut ‘til now…, and as soon as that danged dog goes away it’ll be fine again.”

Pluto is frustrated too.  He’s on to stage two.  Maybe if he throws in loamy dead leaves you’ll look up and see him signaling.  But now your new sofa is trashed and you’re looking for someone to sue.   (How Dare he!) Pluto pauses to think of something new.

“If I throw enough rocks down there,” he thinks, “you can climb up the rocks and see what’s coming over the horizon.”   But the rocks break your new flat screen TV and expensive aquarium and you’re fighting mad. (How Dare he! It’s not Fair!  It’s Not Right!) In fact, you see you’ve finally got ammunition and throw the rocks out of your rut taking careful aim at Pluto.  (He won’t get away with this! Blood boiling.) Maybe you’ll knock him out, run him off, or (hehehe) KILL him!

All gets quiet for a little while.  Pluto goes off to rethink his strategies.

“Hmmm,” he thinks. “I’ve got a friend with a sewage truck.”

The next thing you know there’s a sewage truck emptying itself into your nice comfortable rut.   There’s no choice now.  You’ve gotta get out.  Everything you own is stinking, including the clothes on your back.  (Blood is freezing.) At this point you’ve got two choices:  stand there looking at that stinking hole trying to figure out how to rescue your stuff (you can’t—it’ll stink forever), or turn around and look for that new opportunity coming over the horizon.

Now that you’re out of your rut, if you think Pluto will tap you on the shoulder and point to your heart’s desire, you’ll be sadly disappointed.  You’ll be so busy obsessing over the stinking cesspool that used to be your rut that you wouldn’t even look if he did.  The hidden beneficence of Pluto remains very hidden, and you’re left staring into the cesspool.  Your task now is to break the obsession with what’s been lost.  Even in the standard Pluto mythology, Persephone couldn’t get out of Hell if she brought anything with her.  That six-months-a-year thing was just a compromise for the pomegranate seeds she ate.

You need to learn to seek joy.  Do you remember anything from childhood that entranced you, made you lose track of time and Self?  This is the time to resample that experience.  At some point when you’re not blotto’d by anger or self-pity, make a list of things you can do that can bring you joy.   You’ll discover that JOY requires a singleness of focus, an all-out Paying-Attention, that quite eclipses the negative obsessions of Pluto.  So your Joy-List must include your commitment to focus attention on the potential joy experience.  You can paint by numbers and get stuck in the rebirthing canal, or you can lose yourself in learning something you never knew.  You can take a walk in nature and see nothing, or you can LIVE every scent, leaf, and changing cloud.

As you cross the gulf from bitter obsession to new life, one tiny stepping stone of joy at a time, you will discover, eventually, that you have arrived in an unimagined new world.  This is the journey into Joy:  the journey into a higher level of consciousness.   This is when I hear people say, “That was the worst thing I’ve ever gone through, but in a weird way it was the best thing that ever happened to me.   If it hadn’t been for that, I never would have….” (and here they fill in the blank with their version of profound fulfillment).    You’re not likely to volunteer to do it again, but you’ll appreciate the result.  I promise.  These are the facts of the matter when you dance with Pluto.

WHY?

Pluto energy is bigger than we are.   Its main purpose seems to be to break open our sense of self.  Look at the house placement of Pluto and the house ruled by Scorpio in your chart.   This is where you are likely to feel so identified with something that you believe THIS IS WHO I AM.   Pluto is here to tell you that concept is too small.  You are bigger than that.  You must—and with Pluto it’s non-negotiable—you MUST enlarge your perspective.

When we dance with Pluto, we must recognize that the situation is bigger than we are, that the powers are not under our control, and we must knowingly sacrifice.  Pluto triggers our biggest fear:  the fear that we have no control at all.  When Pluto calls, our ruts must change.  Maybe we dig a ramp and a loft high enough for us to see over the edge.  Maybe we build a ladder and climb out when the dog starts barking.   Maybe we wait ‘til the sewage truck arrives, but we MUST expand our perspective.  The sooner we get the message the less destruction we suffer.  Once we embrace the sacrifice, our lives change in astounding ways.  Often the greatest sacrifice is our illusion of control.

Learning to Dance with Pluto

Even though big Pluto transits are relatively rare in our lives, we do get small opportunities to recognize this energy and learn how to handle it.  Every month, the transiting Moon makes four hard aspects to our natal Pluto.  Every year the Sun and Venus do.   You don’t have to watch the ephemeris.  All you have to do is watch yourself and your reactions to the world around you.  If you can learn how to recognize and respond to Pluto on a monthly basis, you’ll be more skillful when the big Pluto events come along.  This is much easier to learn with small things.   Here are some silly small Pluto stories that have been part of my learning experience:

The Broken Set

Long, long ago, and just because I fell in love with the pattern, I bought some pajamas at Walmart.  They had black leggings for bottoms and a really really cute print top that I found among dozens of different patterns.  When I got home, the top was the right size, but the bottoms, hidden, were at least 4 sizes too big.   I took them back to exchange them.

The Customer Service staff said “Just go and find another pair and we’ll swap.”   I looked, and since there were no others with the same really really cute top that I wanted,  I picked a random set in my size, and returned to Customer Service. I suggested we just exchange the pants of the set that fit for the ones that didn’t.

They said, “We can’t break up a set.”  I said, “But the one I’m returning is already broken.”  (How DARE they!) They said, “That doesn’t matter.  We can’t break a set.” (It’s Not Fair!  It’s Not Right!) I asked to see the manager, in a state of absurd fury.   No help there.  He said,  “We can’t break a set.  We can give you your money back or you can choose another from the rack.”

I argued, got nowhere, got my money back and left, thinking I’d write Sam Walton, the board of directors, the head of marketing (They won’t get away with this!  My blood is boiling.  I’ll make them give the pajamas I wanted in the first place) …  and then it struck me.  My reaction was out of all rational bounds.  I was being Pluto’d.  I wasn’t going to win, and it would cost me more to try—postage, angst, fury, etc., than I’d ever get back.  With great difficulty I let it go (but I didn’t forget!).

A New Puppy

Another time, with a much bigger emotional impact, I was looking for a puppy:  a female Maltese puppy to be exact.  I had just finished nursing a dear friend through his final days, and decided to fulfill a long promise to myself to get a Maltese puppy: small, mellow, and hypoallergenic.   So I went off looking in the classifieds.  After several near-misses, I went to the home of an elderly lady whose husband decided she needed a doggy companion, and she thought otherwise.  Her adorable puppy was tied to the doorknob with about a 2-foot running radius.  The pup was bright, friendly, and affectionate, and the woman and I were ready to make a deal.  I responded to the woman’s complaint about all the attention the pup demanded by saying “I can definitely deal with the attention demands.  I just finished caring for a friend who died of AIDS, so I’m used to being on call at any moment.”  At this, the woman said “I’m not letting this puppy go to ANY home where there has been AIDS.”   (HOW DARE SHE!) I tried telling her that dogs couldn’t catch it, and I didn’t have it, and there was nothing infectious in the house. There was no arguing with her.  (It’s Not Fair.  It’s Not Right.) She wouldn’t relent.  I was boiling mad, trying to think of what anti-discriminatory agencies I could find to force her to give up her horrible prejudice and sell me the puppy.  (She can’t get away with this.  I’ll get even.  I’ll report her.  How DARE she!!) Then I realized my blood was boiling:  the situation was purely Pluto.  I couldn’t change this situation.

Pluto was acting like the dog keeping the sheep from the quicksand.  I couldn’t have that puppy.  I had no idea why, but it clearly wasn’t going to happen.  Since this wasn’t the first block in my puppy search, maybe my ideas about getting a puppy had to change:  I would have to surrender something.  Maybe my new puppy wouldn’t be a Maltese.  Maybe it wouldn’t be female.

I went back to the drawing board with a larger perspective and saw yet another Maltese puppy for sale.  I called, and they only had one left: a male.   I asked its birthday (after all, I’m an astrologer), and it was the same birthday as my beloved sister who died and my autistic brother.   I visited it, and when the six-inch pup saw me he tore across the room, somehow leaped into my lap, and smothered me with puppy kisses as if saying “It’s YOU!  It’s YOU!  It’s YOU at long last, my forever best friend!”   Now, 14 years later, he’s still my best friend.

Meeting Pluto People:  The Tar Baby

In dealing with others who are playing Pluto on you, you have limited choices.  You can’t change the other person.  You can’t make them behave the way you think they should.  Your options are limited to walking away without a fight (quitting a job, leaving a marriage, leaving a home or neighborhood); surrendering to stay in a bad situation—which is sometimes possible but usually not advisable, or you can acknowledge to yourself and others that they have the power and you don’t.   If I had said to the Customer Service staff, “You’re the guys who have to follow the rules, and I can’t change that.  I understand that.  But if there is any way you can figure some wiggle room here I’d sure appreciate it,” the PJ story would have ended differently.   Maybe they would relent, maybe not.  But I would have surrendered my fury.  I know people who actually “won” their Pluto battles by deliberate surrender.  This sacrifice of the ego is what Pluto is looking for.   A Pluto situation may be totally unfair, but when you are stuck in the small picture and fight the situation, it just drags you in deeper.   Do you remember the story of Br’er Rabbit and the Tar Baby?  [i]

The Tar Baby, abbreviated

Brother Fox and Brother Rabbit had a natural and ongoing feud.  Br’er Fox wanted Br’er Rabbit for dinner, and Br’er Rabbit’s life depended on outsmarting him.   So one day Br’er Fox makes a Tar Baby out of tar and sticky molasses.  He molds the sticky goo into a little person, perfectly sized to block the path Br’er Rabbit habitually uses, places the object in the path, and hides in the bushes.   Br’er Rabbit comes along, jaunty and friendly as usual, and says hello to the Tar Baby who, of course, says nothing.  Br’er Rabbit tries again and again to engage the little figure in a friendly conversation, to no avail.  Then he gets angry, insults the Tar Baby, (How Dare he ignore me!) calling it names, accusing it of rudeness, and finally hauls off and hits it, (He won’t get away with this!) getting his paw stuck in the goo. By the end of the story, by hitting and kicking with all four paws, Br’er Rabbit gets hopelessly caught.  Then Br’er Fox swoops in to take Rabbit home to the stew pot.

“Does the Fox eat the Rabbit?” asks the little boy who hears the story.

“That’s all the further the story goes”, says Uncle Remus.

“Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t.” [ii]

Pluto is the Tar Baby that delivers us to the Fox.  This is the place where you’ve lost control and can’t stand it.  You want to fight.  If self-righteous anger takes hold, you will lose.  That’s a promise.  Pluto isn’t about whether you are right or not.  Pluto is about dropping your ego and growing your idea of who you are.

Pluto Arrives

As I was writing this article, Pluto entered my environment in two ways.  Dear friends of mine, soulmates in every way, were facing a serious medical procedure.  The wife’s heart was fibrillating, and she needed to undergo a two-step procedure involving a sonar-scope to make sure there were no clots, followed by electroshock to her heart to get the beat back into a healthy pattern.   It is a dangerous and painful procedure, though not  technically a high risk one, and she’s endured it before, but for some reason this time the fear of death was running strong through both their minds.  The other Pluto appearance came as I was reading John Major Jenkins’ definitive work on 2012, The 2012 Story.[iii] And then these two stories came together.

Pluto always evokes themes of sacrifice.   We can lose something dear to us willingly or unwillingly.  We hear of surrender, but surrender sounds like giving up.  Sacrifice is the deliberate letting go of something for a higher purpose.   If we recognize a this pattern, we can choose to sacrifice our egoic desires as the price of the Plutonic passage.   Interestingly, the World Age mythology of the ancient Maya echoes this theme. To paraphrase Jenkins’ longer and more literally accurate telling of the tale, here is the Mayan mythos on what happens at the end of a world age.

The Mayan Mythology:   As Above…

There are three important archetypes in this story.  One Hunahpu is the conscious leader:  a god-being whose ego is in service to a higher consciousness, with a higher perspective of the greater good than could be attained by ego alone.  One Hunahpu cares about the welfare of all the people, and isn’t confused by issues of greed and power.   Seven Macaw, on the other hand, is the epitome of ego run amok.  With no higher consciousness, no transcendent awareness, Seven Macaw becomes more and more greedy as the age progresses, reaching his greatest power at the end of the age, when he beheads One Hunahpu and declares himself, Seven Macaw, more powerful than the Sun, and owner of all the worlds under heaven.

At this point, the Hero Twins are born—children of the late One Hunahpu.  The Hero Twins are beings of high consciousness, as was their father, and they see Seven Macaw racing to take over everything in the world.  Seven Macaw realizes the Hero Twins have something he wants, or wants to destroy, so the Hero Twins hatch a plan to make Seven Macaw chase them into the cosmic fire, deliberately sacrificing their own egoic selves but guaranteeing the final death of the Seven Macaw who follows them into the flames.  The plan works.  Seven Macaw is destroyed, and because consciousness survives ego-death, the Hero Twins and their father One Hunahpu are resurrected to begin a new world age where transcendent consciousness becomes the mode of the world, subjugating ego to its appropriate functions.[iv] These are classic Plutonian themes: death and rebirth, conscious surrender or sacrifice, and a transcendent result when the egoic sacrifice is made.

Then Jenkins offered this quotation:

Whenever a profound experience of change is about to take place, its harbinger is the motif of death.  This is not particularly mysterious, since it is the limited view and appraisal of oneself that must be outgrown or transformed, and to accomplish transformation the self-image must dissolve. [v]

….So Below

Which brought the story back to my friends, who were in a panic about death.  I couldn’t see a literal death astrologically, and I knew two things about their relationship that were at a tipping point.  One was that this Pisces wife with Virgo rising had defined herself as someone who loves by being the servant, preparing meals, keeping a perfect home, saying Yes every time her Leo Rising husband invited folks to dinner.  Her inability to outgrow this definition of self was literally killing her.  The other problem they had were their two different ideas about how money should be handled.   To help her, he was handling all the money issues, but his over-generosity with others and techno-toy addiction was putting her in a financial panic, further stressing her heart.

As they faced this procedure, both of them were acting out in sheer panic.  He was spending more, she was cleaning up a storm.   It struck me that they could use the necessity for this Plutonic medical procedure to transform the difficulties which were adding so much stress to their lives, and to her very life.

My big, buttinski, Aha! moment came the day before the procedure, so I asked them if I could butt in that very evening and offer some suggestions about what this procedure could mean in the larger picture.  I explained that the “motif of death” quote was the key that unlocked the story for me, since they were obsessed, panicked, and fearful of their utter lack of control over life itself as this appointment loomed large.  I read the quotation and told them the Mayan story, suggesting that they could repeat this story in their own lives, acting as the Hero Twins offering sacrifices.   She would approach the fire of the electro-shock, carrying the ego-sacrifices: her twin-soul would ground her in the physical world as he sat in the hospital waiting room.

I suggested that the Leo Rising husband (I called him the Boy-King) needed to turn over household financial handling to a willing and very capable financial servant, his wife, to whom he would sacrifice his need to spend money by entertaining people at will, and buying techno-toys on whims. He would need to sacrifice his financial control by deferring to her decisions about spending.   I asked him if his concept of self was totally tied to his financial autonomy, or if he was bigger than that.  This would be a sacrifice celebrating his Leonine love for his wife, who would be relieved of heart-straining worry if she could get their financial affairs in order without his toppling them again.  Wise King that he is, he repeated back what he thought he heard to make sure he got it, and then agreed immediately.

Then I asked her if she would be the other half of the hero-twins and take his sacrifice into the fire of the electrical jolt to her heart.  Yes, eagerly.  And then she went on, and on, and on some more about her feelings of financial stress and her fears when she had no control.   I reminded her that this money thing was NOT her issue at all.  This was HIS sacrifice of control and all she needed to do was carry it to the fire.  I asked her if she was willing to sacrifice her self-image as the perfect servant-wife, who cooked any time he invited guests, felt that her identity would be damaged if the house weren’t spotless, and who failed in her own self-image if she said NO to anything.  These ego identities were quite literally killing her.  Her heart couldn’t keep up with the physical stress.

Surprisingly, to me, this was the more difficult sacrifice.   She started to weep and said she didn’t know how she could do it.  I reminded her that the goal was to offer the sacrifice.  She needed to intend to carry these identifications to the fire and ask that the fire burn away these ego selves.  She didn’t need to understand how she could accomplish it—she just needed to offer and intend.  When she said yes, she could do make the offer and intend to sacrifice, I could see the energies around her heart relax.

We talked a bit more, wept a little bit, and I left, confident all would be well.  Indeed, I got a call as soon as the procedure ended, telling me it went better than expected, over-qualified angelic substitute staff were on hand (one dripping with amethysts), only one shock was required, and they were home within the hour.  By that evening she was out and about, glowing with an inner light I hadn’t seen in a long time.

It seems to me that when we are called on to walk through the underworld we need to have a deliberate purpose.  There is a sacrifice to be made, and if we don’t know what we are sacrificing that decision can be made for us.   When we take our ego into the fire, we come out a more conscious being.

We can learn to recognize Pluto when we encounter it in the road.  We can learn what it feels like, and what we can do. We can even learn to trust that the intention is to reach a higher state of being, and yet each encounter comes with the ultimate fear of ego death.  I believe that when we open ourselves to the expanded version of life available to us as we walk through innumerable small and large ego deaths, we are preparing ourselves for The Big One:  Death—and our symbolic resurrection as One Hunahpu, the conscious being. As we face Death, we can say.

“OK, I recognize this feeling.  I’ve done it hundreds of times. I know there is a bigger version of me on the other side, once I let go.”

Thus One Hunahpu is born again.

[ii] This is a very real metaphor of the power system African Americans were living under at in the 19^th Century (and continuing on).  The power structure was such that they developed teaching tales to help children learn how not to get put in the proverbial stew pot.   I’ve discovered that clients who live in autocratic and didactic societies have much less difficulty negotiating Pluto passages than those living in relatively free westernized societies.  They have no illusions of control.  There are things, unfair things, unjust things, that just happen, and if you know what’s good for you, you don’t fight it.   But for most of those reading this, we still have the illusion of control, partly because we usually have some measure of control in our lives.

[iii] John Major Jenkins, The 2012 Story: The Myths, Fallacies, and Truth Behind the Most Intriguing Date in History, New York: Tarcher/Penguin 2009.

[iv] As I read this chapter of Jenkins’ book, the US Supreme Court ruled that corporations had the right to spend as much money as they liked on the American political process, thereby giving them the legal ability to buy the government of the most powerful country in the world.  I thought: “Seven Macaw has just cut off the head of One Hunahpu.”  There will be two more elections until the changing of the World Age.  I wonder, who are the Hero Twins?

[v] John Weir Perry, “Spiritual Emergence and Renewal,”  Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis, ed. by Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof, New York: Tarcher 1989, p. 67, quoted on page 411 of Jenkins, op cit.

If you looked at my Youtube video on January, you’ll recall my saying that the Pluto/Mercury/Saturn stationary exact square, exact Jan 13-15, indicates a BIG power play.  We saw this take place in the Supreme Court decision of Jan 21, giving corporations permission to put as much money as they wish into politics and candidates of their choice.  No point in even worrying about lobbying laws.   They now can just hand the money out directly.

When planets are “stationary”, (from the perspective of earth, they are standing still in the sky instead of rotating as they usually do), they are exquisitely powerful.   In this case, Saturn (rules) stationed in a collision position with Pluto (remember “plutocrats”?  –ultimate power, wealth, manipulation)  which was sitting right next to Mercury:  ideas, communication.    Pluto and Mercury are manipulations of ideas and communications.  Saturn makes the laws.  These planets were so close together, mathematically, that you could hardly see air between them.

We had a 3-truck pileup here, where a manipulation of the idea of “free speech” made it possible for the highest court in the land to hand over governance of our company to the wealthiest corporations in the world.   What a brilliant victory for the wealthiest of the world:  World corporations can buy and sell laws and policies of the most influential nation in the world.

But there’s another part to this story.   The solar eclipse that preceded this pattern was very tied to the chart of our Declaration of Independence.  In fact, it was on the PLUTO (power, wealth, manipulation, “plutocrats”) of that chart.   This will have the eventual result of eclipsing the “plutocrats”, which is exactly what the American Revolution did in the first place.

And if that’s not enough, we are heading toward the very first anniversary of Pluto’s position in our Independence chart.  Soon.  2021.

We have just seen the first shot fired in the next American Revolution.  Which, as was the case the first time, will be against government policies that favor corporations and hurt people.

(Historical note:  The tax on tea, the impetus for the Boston Tea Party, was a tax on any tea not sold by the British East India Tea Company.   You could still buy their very expensive tea without a tax.  But any other tea was taxed to the point that it was just as expensive as the British East India Tea Company’s tea.  Corporate influence, indeed.  And there’s an interesting parallel meme with the current “tea party” movements.)

Anyway, there is a silver lining here.  As we approach a cycle ending in 2012…   (I am reading THE only clear, definitive, non-hyperbolic book on 2012:  The 2012 Story by John Major Jenkins.  I recommend it. Not new age hyperbole, not doomsday scenarios, but the archeological and Mayan mythological underpinnings.)  The first thing about the cycle ending is that, in every cycle, the forces of ego and hubris become strongest just before the ending of the age.  Second,  in their fear of conscience and consciousness, the dark forces chase the forces of light into the great rift, where consciousness (light force) survives but ego (dark force) dies.   So there is an apparent sacrifice (light jumps into the rift) resulting in the real ending of darkness (darkness/ego dies).

How might this play out in the world at this time?   We’ve just seen the gigantic corporate monsters given the biggest power boost in the history of the world.   Not only can just a few of the biggest corporations buy and sell the population of the entire earth, they can now apply this wealth to setting policy and making laws.  They can start buying congress this very instant.

The next congressional election is 2010, when a bunch of senators and representatives will be “for sale.”   The next election after that is 2012.  The window is very small between now and 2012.   If laws are not enacted NOW, there will be no government unbought left to make them.  I repeat:  The 2010 election is likely to be purchased and the 2012 election will be, leaving only a tiny minority to try to stand against corporate dollars.   And don’t think that people of conscience will have a chance.  There are good public servants who may be perfectly willing to take a stand against corporate money.  But if companies decide someone else will serve greed better, corporate money spent on advertising and spreading lies and falsehoods about good people will drown good people out, make them invisible in the electoral process, and bury them at the polls.

What kind of legislation can stop this?   As quickly as possible–BEFORE the 2010 election, we need to enact legislation LIMITING FOREVER the size, assets, and profits of a corporate entity.  If corporations have less they must spend less.  Large corporations must be split into smaller entities…. Instead of Monsanto owning genes and food products, and poisons, and fertilizers, and machines, and paper goods, etc., they must own only one thing.   This will have the side effect of stopping the financial churning where the richest few make money on purchasing and killing great small companies.  This, indeed, would be a game-changer.  This could be the dawn of the new age.

And in the meantime, someone better come up with a new case to bring to the Supreme Court…  one without the ambiguities of the recent case….  and hope that by the time it actually reaches the top court, it will be possible to make a new law.   Dred Scott was revoked.  This can be, too.

The cost for the whole series is $45.00.  If you’d like to listen to a sample, check out the podcast called Knowing Pluto, in the drop-down list under Podcasts.

Here’s the link to the recordings

As an astrologer, I sometimes tell people our future is pulling us toward it.  This is a different tweak on the idea, which combines the concept of multiple future possibilities which “condense” into actuality.   (Which is why astrologers see possibilities, strong possibilities, or weak possibilities, and can characterize the energy footprint of those possibilities, but the details are being created by the sequence of NOWs between the present and the future event.)

Anne

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On December first, Uranus will station direct.   Uranus is in tropical Pisces and its retrograde motion has been moving it away from an exact 3-way collision with the SaturnPluto square.  (Imagine a 4-way intersection with no signage, and then imagine 3 semis moving full speed into the intersection.   They don’t have to be aligned with mathematical precision to create a pretty powerful show.)   When Uranus stations direct on December 1, it will be moving towards its square with the SaturnPluto series of squares (4 more in the next two years, and the next one is in late January).

What will this feel like?   Uranus is the fear of losing freedom.   It’s cutting off your nose to spite your face.  It’s the urge to break free from any and all constraints, and is the signature planet of the highest technologies–and of revolutions.   The energy zeitgeist of this time will be restlessness, impatience, “wired and tired” syndrome, and the pure rebel archetype.  Think of Aquarian (the sun sign ruled by Uranus) Sarah Palin.  Don’t fence that gal in.  She refuses to do what is expected, and reacts to every criticism as an attempt to abrogate her personal freedom.  Not the highest form of Uranian energy, but she definitely fits the pattern.

Now imagine that kind of energy combined with (and beginning to trigger) the SaturnPluto FearStorm.  It’s reasonable to expect that December and January will show us more over-the-top reactiveness from those who are fearful and angry.    But that’s not the only thing we can expect.

This archetypal energy combination is the signature for some of the most far-reaching scientific breakthroughs of all time.   As we speak, the CERN research facility in Switzerland is again setting up their “god-particle” experiment…  attempting to create the bit of anti-matter that some theorists think was the spark for the “Big Bang”.   They’ve failed to perform the experiment several times, due to events like power failures and bread crumbs falling into the device by (they think) a passing bird.  I think it’s likely that they will succeed in the next year, and quite possible in the next two months.   The implications for energy production alone are world-changing.   The implications for humanity’s ability to become god-like in our creative potential is also tied into this experiment.   BIG STUFF!

But we’re not done yet.   December also includes the relatively rare (once in two years) retrograde of the planet Mars.  Mars is the principle of action, of assertion, aggressiveness.   An astrological rule of thumb is that anyone starting a fight during a retrograde Mars is bound to lose.   This includes barfights and legal challenges.  Mars will station retrograde on December 20, and it will be tied up in the PlutoSaturnUranus picture.   Just what we needed:  More fire.  More agitation.     Usually Mars spends 2 months in a single zodiac sign, but because of this pattern, it will be in Tropical Leo until June 2010.  Sidereally (vedic astrology) it will be in Cancer, which is its sign of debilitation.   In the Indian system, retrograde planets are stronger for two main reasons:  they are brighter, and they aspect twice as many houses.  Two negatives can make a positive in Vedic astrology (retrograde is negative and debilitated is negative), but it won’t do it in any normal way.   Mars will be a wild card.  Mars goes direct March 10, and then it will only be “debilitated” in the Vedic system, and will remain so until late May.

The Mars Retrograde is a perfect setup for a successful Re-Doing of the CERN Hadron Collider experiment.  Mars archetypes include speed and collisons.   Unfortunately Mars configured with Uranus can produce accidents, but we’ve got that weird double-negative with Mars going, which can pull the danger out of the fire.

AND one more thing.  On  Dec 26, Mercury goes retrograde.  This happens 3 times a year, for 3 weeks each, so we’re pretty used to it.   This retrograde point doesn’t re-inflame the Saturn/Pluto/Uranus/Mars mess, so the normal mail, technology, lost luggage, traffic jam screw-ups will be in play.  Plan for extra time in your schedule and don’t sign major contracts unless you have a retrograde Mercury in your birth chart.  Mercury is an archetype that includes the mind, manual dexterity, trade, communications, local commerce.   Anything along those lines that can be RE-thought is excellent.   With both Mercury and Mars RE-trograde, RE-Thinking, RE-DOing, Re-Viewing, Re-Searching, Re-Writing will all go more smoothly than usual.   Mercury stations direct about January 15, 2010.

For the next few months, the key is staying clear of the FearStorm virus.  Surrender to what you can’t control, Trust that there’s a bigger picture unfolding, and sit back and enjoy the show from what my friend calls the “Bob Uecker Seats”.   It’s all Maya–a big play unfolding for our amusement and edification.

One was the tragic shooting at Fort Hood…  In my opinion, the cultural and career stresses on Hasan (the shooter) were a recipe for a breakdown.   Just imagine, American born, deciding that serving the military was a reasonable career choice and getting a degree in psychiatry through military funding (an aside here:  it isn’t uncommon for people who have suffered psychological trauma to be attracted to psychiatry in an attempt to heal themselves.  We don’t know Hasan’s psychological background.)   His birth country is now in a war which is loudly proclaimed by extremists as a war against Islam–Hasan’s own religion.  He is placed in a position in which those who have been most traumatized by the horrors of war are bringing their broken spirits–and their horror stories from the front–to a man who has already been the brunt of anti-Islamic prejudice.  Then he is told they’re sending him to the front.   This series of events twists and torture every familial, religious and cultural loyalty the man ever had.  It is a recipe for a schizophrenic break—and, getting back to the astrology, the Saturn Pluto energies:  Fear of events you can’t control, and Fear that things won’t be the way they absolutely SHOULD be, in your opinion, came together in a perfect FearStorm for Hasan.

The second was the announcement that a major state-owned bank in Dubai has declared a moratorium in paying of tens of billions of dollars of debt.  A financial announcement that also triggered a FearStorm across the world’s financial markets.

Look ahead to December in the next post.

THIS IS THE ISSUE OF NOW!  Saturn/Pluto energies are the keys to this discovery.

Yesterday I talked to a friend who hit a classic Saturn/Pluto crisis issue.   Saturn is fear things won’t be the way YOU think they SHOULD be, and Pluto is fear that you have no control at all.  (pssst–a secret:  you Don’t).

As we’ve said before, Pluto’s cycle is so long that no humans have lived through an entire cycle.  Only a few of the very oldest humans, and only in some generations, have even lived through a half-orbit of Pluto.   If you think of Mars’ two-year cycle and the infamous “terrible twos” of children awakening to the energy of their own Mars, and then you think of know-it-all Jupiter’s 12 year cycle and a 12-year old kid’s know-it-all attitude as they complete this first phase, you can begin to get an idea of how important the complete cyclic experience is.   Not one of us will ever have this understanding of Pluto.   It is beyond our control and also truly beyond our comprehension.

And it usually brings upheaval.  Why?  Because Pluto’s aim and goals for us are so far beyond our comprehension that we just don’t “get it” when our wonderful boss gets replaced by an ogre, or our company’s health insurance policy, on which our life seems to depend, is seriously reduced.   We aren’t capable of seeing the long view here.  And with Pluto, the long view WILL be good, as long as we stop trying to control what we can’t control.

The kind of control we can have when Pluto is involved is Self Control.    Recently an acquaintance set off my Pluto buzzer in a trivial, but still intense way.   By attacking my friends, I feared he was changing an amiable and nurturing group into a dangerous place where people would be fearful of expressing themselves.   In a dream, I saw a mother protecting toddlers by placing a mason jar over a scorpion.   When I woke, I went to my cupboard and found a Mason Jar.  ATLAS MASON, it said.   I turned it upside down on my coffee table to contain “his” dangerous energy.   A few days later I realized that my enraged fury was the scorpion that needed to be contained.  So now the upended ATLAS MASON jar is a reminder for me to control my over-reaction.

The irony about Pluto reactions is that they are SO intense, and SO sudden, that even someone as obsessed with Pluto symbolism as I am can be overtaken by the flashfire of reactivity before recognizing the true cause.  It’s totally absurd—here I was, obsessed, angry, unable to think of anything else, unable to sleep — this level of intensity can ONLY be Plutonian…  and it took me days to recognize that my only path was Self Control… and trust.

Now we’re getting to the secret of happiness.  Only one more detour.

Have you ever seen those advertised seminars that tell you how this or that spiritual technique will make you rich, or how getting rich is an indicator of spiritual advancement—and taking this or that seminar will get you there?   (Shades of Calvinism!)  Why do people want to get rich?  Why do people want to “get spiritual” for that matter?   Really–Why!   It’s because they think this will make them happy.   When we are going through an intense Pluto time we want things to be different, because we think if things are different we will be happy.  Have you ever seen a truly happy person?  (To be picky here, maybe the word “happy” isn’t the right word, as it suggests “happenstance” and thus temporary conditions.  Let’s use the word JOY.)  Look at the Dalai Lama.  His presence is surrendered to happiness.

Why are we unhappy?  Because things aren’t the way we think they SHOULD be (Saturn).  The Abraham teachings say that we must be as happy now as we will be when the desired condition manifests.   That, they tell us, will bring the desired condition to us.   But if the point is to reach happiness, it doesn’t matter if the condition ever arrives.  If we are happy now, we are happy now.   If we have joy now, even if the desired condition never arrives we will always be in a state of joy.

I have the deepest respect and admiration for Byron Katie, who has reached a state in which every single moment and every single circumstance coming to her awareness is seen as “perfect” and as a cause for joy.  She can live this despite a rare corneal ulceration in both eyes causing her extreme pain and intermittent periods of blindness.   This is truly a Saturn/Pluto joy.   She has SURRENDERED (Pluto) her idea of how things SHOULD be (Saturn), and in this surrender has found the TRUST that the larger picture is perfect.   In our yin/yang universe, all is in balance at all times.  All is in perfection at all times.  The tragedy of one spot is balanced by the celebration in another.  The answer is not to erase both tragedy and joy to reach a homogeneous condition of stasis.  The rocking motions between yin and yang are part of the ongoing perfect creation of our multiverse.

If you can create the happiness within you that you believe you would have if all your dreams came true, you have created the miracle.  Truly, all your dreams HAVE come true, even if not a single atom of your physical life has changed.

Pluto creates such deep discomfort in us that we are forced into new situations.   It is experiences like this that make people say that suffering brings enlightenment.   In periods of such discomfort, Pluto holds the promise of joy.   After long periods of pain in my life, I finally decided that my next “lessons” would come through Joy.   It’s a decision.   It’s possible.   How?

When you find yourself in a place of pain, look around your inner and outer landscape and use your imagination to find something to do that will give you peace, joy, or happiness in this very moment.  It could be making cookies.  It could be taking a walk in the park and deeply breathing the seasonal air.  It could be listening intently to your favorite music.  It is anything which involves all your awareness and all your senses.  (It is NOT watching TV or eating one more pint of Ben & Jerry’s.)

This is the beginning of the path to total joy.   This is the secret of happiness.   It’s very simple and not always easy, but always joyful.   By following this path, the joy of the universe will open to you…  “the peace that passeth all understanding”.    And who needs anything else?

That said, what I CAN do is describe the aroma of the energy soup we’re all traveling through, and I can tell you, there’s a lot of jalapeno in this soup!   Thursday, the 29th, Saturn entered tropical Libra, creating an even more tense pattern with Pluto.

Saturn is the “fear things won’t be the way I think they SHOULD be” planet, and Pluto is the energy of “fear of loss of control.”  Additionally, each of these planets ramps up fears in general, so there is an increased generalized tension having to do with fears that the world is running out of control in a way you don’t personally like.   Since this is a very strong energy pattern, and it WILL be impacting many people, we are likely to see public acting out of this fear pattern.  Sometimes this can take the form of outside agencies promising that taking certain socially disruptive (or even violent) action will help restore the status quo.  The problem is, this is inchoate energy.  There is no single focus of discontent.  There is simply a large number of people who are strongly unhappy about their own idiosyncratic issue.  We’ve seen this lack of focus in the “Tea Party” movement, where largish numbers of people gather to protest… well, to protest almost as many things as there are people standing there.

This Saturn/Pluto/fear energy pattern doesn’t affect everyone directly, but each of us will be standing in the general energy “soup” and watching others react as this energy pattern gets stronger and stronger through the month of November.

If these energies do happen to affect you personally, you will be aware that things in your own life are moving in a direction you believe is WRONG, and as much as you may try to control the situation, you can’t.   Pluto’s purpose here is to get you out of the rut that has so completely stunted your vision that you literally can’t see beyond it.   If you are in one of these crisis-like situations my advice, going against every grain of passion in you, is not to fight the situation.  Winning will cost you more than surrender.   And surrender will lead you to your own personal Elysian Fields once you leave the rut that’s binding you.

After writing this to the group who requested it, someone wrote me privately asking when the Elysian Fields come, how we get there, and how we recognize them.   First, the “Elysian Fields” as a metaphor is a bit hyperbolic.  Generally what I hear is “That was the most difficult thing I’ve ever lived through, but I have to say I’m not sorry it happened.  As a result, I got shifted into a whole different place in life that I could never have imagined before all that, and which is a much better, happier, and more authentic place for me.”  (The “Elysian Fields” doesn’t mean “happily ever after”.)

The metaphorical Elysian Fields comes after the surrender.  We’re dealing with situations that are literally beyond both our control and our understanding.  One effect is to push us into an area where our horizons are expanded, and we can see new possibilities.  The path to the Elysian Fields is deliberately and (with Saturn’s help) with discipline, to recognize when we’re in the obsessed fighting state and do anything possible to find one activity that brings joy.   Maybe it’s walking by the creek.   Maybe it’s staring at the moon or dancing with friends.  It’s not about something that gives you escape, or that your automatic pilot thinks is joyful (like ice cream or just another mystery novel, or even an expensive cup of coffee).  The key is the experience of joy, not the “rule” that something ought to bring it.

So if you’re in the depths of a personal Pluto-Saturn crisis, drop the struggle, surrender the battle, and make your spiritual path the immediate, present-tense experience of joy.

Sabian Symbols can be used to determine one’s life path and direction, and to fine-tune goals and resources for each year of your life.   The lecture offers background on the symbols and uses audience charts to demonstrate the process.

Saros Cycles are based on eclipse patterns.   Your prenatal eclipse will “present” certain personality and event situations for your life.  What makes this so amazing is that the interpretation of the prenatal eclipse is based on the chart for the first eclipse of that Saros Eclipse cycle—which could be almost 2000 years ago!   What a thought–an event 1500 years ago, or 900 years ago (or whatever is the original eclipse in your own case) is actually affecting your life today.  Again… audience charts provide examples.

REPORTS and SOFTWARE

I have clients all over the world, who educate me on different perspectives, quite without meaning to.

In this country, a health care crisis in the family ALWAYS means financial pressure, if not a full-blown financial crisis.   This is so pervasive that we are quite unable to think in terms of health crises without thinking financial crisis.

Recently a young man from Sweden called me with concerns about the financial crisis he was experiencing.  He mentioned how difficult the past year had been, including the multiple bypass surgery of his unusually young father.   I sympathized with him on his father’s health and the additional financial pressure this must have brought to him.    His reaction was total surprise.   He said there was no financial burden at all—it was all covered by national health.  He was concerned about his father’s health, and it was a stressful year, but his father has recovered now and is doing better than he had been for years.   He just mentioned it because it was an emotional stress.

I was shocked!   In this country a family with limited resources would have been bankrupted by a multiple bypass episode (if, indeed, they even managed to get the surgery… chances are they would have just waited for the heart attack to kill the father).  But this man was solely concerned about his father’s health.  Not the financial life-or-death of the family.

What a Dickensian world we live in.   (Where is Charles Dickens now, when we need him!)  We could write story after story of families remortgaging homes, falling behind, being thrown out on the streets in futile attempts to pay for medical care to save the life of a parent, or a child.   I had been so immersed in this Dickensian culture that the very idea that a dire health crisis would have no effect on an impoverished family was inconceivable to me until my client pointed it out.

I have had clients from England with similar stories… total freedom from financial catastrophe caused by medical expenses.  I know this freedom exists in ALL the industrialized countries of the world except for ours.   And yet I was still so embedded in our cultural assumption that WE have the best of everything here that I was shocked when my clients, in their intimate and personal tales of worry were entirely free of the fear of the catastrophic effects of getting life-saving health care.

My god—when are we going to wake up!

Astrology and Chaos Theory: Fractal Progressions

by

Anne Beversdorf

With an MC in Sagittarius, an Aquarius ascendant, and a Leo sun, I consistently find myself proselytizing avant-garde or unusual concepts. So, of course, as an astrologer, I’m often in the awkward position of trying to get my skeptical friends to see why astrology is a valid and meaningful discipline. Skeptics say they don’t “believe in” astrology, meaning that they do believe it doesn’t work. It’s tempting to say “If you don’t believe in gravity, does that mean gravity doesn’t work?”, but everyone can SEE the effects of gravity, and one can’t see the relationship of astrology to human life without knowing something about astrology. The challenge is, how can you show an astrological virgin something about astrology in their own life without bombarding them with the meanings of signs, planets, and houses, and how all that symbolism relates to life on earth? And how can you give them a rationale for how this works that compares to something they can accept? I’m beginning to realize that the new sciences, combined with some ordinary common sense, can help us take a giant step in this direction.

Some time ago I read James Gleick’s book, Chaos: Making a New Science. It’s a powerful and mind-expanding book, and I strongly recommend it to astrologers looking for possible scientific underpinnings for our field. [Note:  Bernadette Brady’s recent book Astrology, A Place in Chaos, is really the last word on the subject.] Gleick’s book has been germinating in my subconscious mind for a few years, and recently something sprouted. Gleick speaks a lot about fractals–a new type of math that has been popularized by the “Mandelbrot Set” a collection of highly colored, computer-generated graphics that resemble nothing so much as a psychedelic paisley. The curious thing about these pictures is that, if you take any subsection of a picture and blow it up enough, you get the original picture again. And if you take a subset of that picture and blow it up enough, guess what–you get the original picture again–and so on and so on, ad infinitum. What makes this significant is that this mathematical picture-building seems to apply to the geometry of nature itself. Mandelbrot has named this geometry “fractals”.

Let’s examine this for a minute. Consider trying to measure the coastline of California. It proves impossible unless you identify the SCALE of your measurements.

To determine the measurements of California’s coast, we could lay a single straight line running from Mexico to Canada: but that doesn’t take into account any of the coastline’s irregularities–all those bumps and bays and peninsulas. You could place an imaginary grid over the coastline and plot and measure distances between places where the coastline hit grid points–but how large or small will be your grid? It reminds me of my little sister’s statement after we walked home from her first day at school. “You say it’s a mile, but it would be a lot longer if you straightened out all the hills!” She was right! And if you measured the California coast by taking your measuring tape, millimeter by millimeter, around all the rocks and pebbles and outcroppings of the coastline, you’d have a distance that would astound us all, and apparently be not at all related to one generally accepted figure of 1264 miles.

But–is there really no relationship? In fractal dimensions there is, indeed a relationship. Rather than look at the Euclidean measurements of length, depth, and thickness, Mandelbrot asked the question in terms of “dimension”. To quote James Gleick:

A twisting coastline, for example, despite its immeasurableness in terms of length, nevertheless has a certain characteristic degree of roughness. Mandelbrot specified ways of calculating the fractional dimension of real objects,… and he allowed his geometry to make a claim about the irregular patterns he had studied in nature. The claim was that the degree of irregularity remains constant over different scales. Surprisingly often, the claim turns out to be true. Over and over again, the world displays a regular irregularity. (Italics added.)

Let’s apply this to the coastline: what happens is that any sub-portion of the coastline actually corresponds in shape to the pattern of the entire coastline. And a sub-portion of that sub-portion, again, corresponds to the same shape. Realize, we’re talking about patterns here–we’re seeing a mathematics of patterns. (In fact, the science of Chaos is the science of patterns in seemingly random events… does this begin to get interesting?)

Let’s look at something else. The financial astrologer, Arch Crawford, points out that the history of cotton prices is the longest complete data of market records available to U.S. market observers. Funny thing about cotton prices…. If you graph the history of cotton prices for all the years over the 140+ years of record-keeping, and then graph the prices for any period of time–one year, one decade, one week–during that period, the graphs will display the same pattern! So what we are seeing here, again, is regularly repeating patterns.

Okay… how does this relate to astrology: Well, one technique commonly used in astrology is the examination of progressions to look into the timing of a person’s life. A Secondary Progression is a comparison of the pattern of the sub-portion “one day” to the pattern of the sub-portion “one year”. One type of Tertiary Progression compares one lunar cycle to one year. One of the things that blew me away when I first started studying astrology was my teacher’s statement that you could take any recognizable cycle of time in one’s life and make it “equivalent” to one year, therefore using it to “predict” patterns of that person’s future. Try that one on an incredulous friend! But astrologers know that this use of patterns is meaningful. In fact, we can take this quite literally, as you will see in a minute. I’m calling these arbitrarily assigned progression periods “Fractal Progressions”.

Astrology is a language of symbols: a language of meaning. Astrologers apply symbolic meanings to each of the planets used in casting a chart, and take a measure of the patterns between these planets to interpret, symbolically, and sometimes specifically, the type of event likely to occur when this pattern is in place. This is one place where skeptics get tangled up. Since they don’t understand the symbolic language, they can’t understand that “patterns in the sky” have any relationship to their life on earth. They don’t cause events on earth any more than having brown hair causes brown eyes. They simply have a predictable relationship to each other. But in order to give someone an explanation of symbolism, you must use symbols that your listener understands and relates to.

Let’s look at progressions again. Another astrologer once suggested that parents of new babies keep a detailed diary of the first 90 days of the child’s life. This would provide a real-life background for interpreting secondary progressions as the child grows up. This really clicked for me. Although I didn’t have a detailed baby book, I did have anecdotal references for several significant events in my first 45 days. My mother tells the story that, after my birth, she stayed in Houston with her parents for several weeks after my dad moved to Indiana to begin his professorship. Therefore, sometime on my 43rd day of life I boarded a train with my mother to move from Houston to Indiana, changing trains in New Orleans. Late in the 43rd year of my life I quit a successful and lucrative career. Still unemployed after many months, I was conscious only that I was entering a very different phase of my life–what that would be, I couldn’t tell. Looking at this symbolically, it seemed, in my 43-44th year, that I was “on the train” between what I knew and what, in hindsight, I know to be my first home. As an infant, of course, I literally didn’t know where I was going. Did this trip in my infancy cause me to quit my job or drift in unemployment? Of course not. But the events are clearly symbolically related.

A few months after receiving my last income, I decided to use some of my free time and frequent flyer miles to take my first trip to Europe. I asked my mother if she would pick up expenses if I got us two tickets to Spain. (As I write this, I realize our railway tickets in 1949 were also “free”–courtesy of my grandfather’s position with Southern Pacific Railroad.) My mother said an enthusiastic “yes” to the trip, so after checking calendars, I scheduled our flights. Some weeks later it occurred to me that we had not taken a trip alone together SINCE I was 43-44 days old. That the second such trip would occur in my 44th year seemed pretty amazing. Well, I should have remembered that another part of the story might also have a parallel. Apparently, as an infant, I caused my mother some pretty dramatic trouble on the train. After our trip to Spain I was forced to make a wry apology after I jumped all over her for no reason at all: “Sorry, Mom. When we were on that train in 1949, I literally dumped on you. Here we were, on our next trip together, and I managed to dump on you again.”

In astrological language, my Secondary Progressed Chart for July 19, 1993 (last day of earnings) is equivalent to the chart for Sept 27, 1949 at 5:17 pm in New Orleans, where we changed trains and the trouble began. These charts are the same because a secondary progressed chart IS a chart for the exact number of days after birth as your age–in this case 43+ years=43+ days. This chart shows Sun square Uranus, with Mars and Pluto conjoined and square Venus, and Moon square Saturn. My 43-44th year coincided with transiting Pluto at the apex of a T-square with my natal Sun and Ascendant, the Uranus/Neptune conjunction opposing my natal Mars, and transiting Saturn on my ascendant squaring transiting Pluto approaching my MC ( transiting my relocated MC). On July 19, Venus squared Mars and semi-squared the Moon. It’s easy to see the heavy, and similar, patterns at work in both instances. But I didn’t need to know the astrology to feel the impact of the comparison.

“Symbolically parallel event periods….” What a great way to talk about progressions to a non-astrologer. But not everyone has information about their first 90 days. So I decided to check out a pattern of weeks, and a pattern of months. I was 43 weeks old on June 12, 1950. At that time in my life, my parents traveled back to Houston by car every summer, as soon as the school term ended in the spring. I don’t know if June 12 was the day that trip started, but it would have been very close to that date. I don’t know what happened in my life in March 1953, when I was 43 months old. But I was intrigued enough with the possibilities in choosing a periodicity for progressions-via memories to start trying this method of “fractal progressions” with friends, as a way of demonstrating some of the principles on which astrology is based. Here are some of the results:

At a wedding reception I asked a young woman in her early thirties what might have happened between 30-35 days in her life, 30-35 weeks, and 30-35 months. She couldn’t think of anything in particular (it’s probably not unrelated to the fact that her life was going along smoothly at the time of the reception–we tend to remember most vividly the dramatic events!). Then she asked “Why were the years 24-29 so traumatic for me? Those were horrible years. I didn’t know what I was doing, I was totally lost. It was just awful.” I asked her what was going on at 24-29 days, 24-29 weeks, or 24-29 months. As a realization dawned, her eyes lit up. She said “I think it was about the time I was two years old that my grandfather died. He was my primary caregiver and I still remember how awful it was.” She searched the room, found her mother, and asked her when grandfather died. It was during her 24th month of life. I asked her if the period in her 20’s bore any symbolic resemblance to that earlier period. Yes, she said. She kept feeling that something was terribly wrong, something was lost or missing, and she might find it anywhere, but whenever she thought she had, she hadn’t. As a toddler, after her grandfather’s death, she kept running into the arms of bald men, because she identified them with her grandfather, but none of them filled his place. As a result of this conversation, without even identifying her Sun sign, we could talk about the energies associated with Saturn, and different ways this energy can be expressed in life. She could see some of the meanings involved with her five year sense of loss, and her search for a sense of structure and order in her twenties, as part of –and a more mature version of– the same symbolic package as the loss of her grandfather at two.

Another friend has few memories of her early life, so we tried using a different “periodicity”. We decided to look at her life in terms of 2-month periods representing a year. Events up to her first birthday would correspond to the first six years of her life. Using this scale she was able to relate events of her sixth year to her present life. At that time, she entered first grade wearing clothes that caused the kids to tease her about looking “like a boy”. At this time, she is consciously trying to learn ways to express her femininity while still being successful in a career. When we looked at a 4-months equals a year period, she realized she was dealing with issues of femininity strongly again at age 12, when she entered the social world of junior high. A first-house Sun-Pluto conjunction in Leo and a Mars-Venus conjunction in her third, with Mars at 29′ 52″ Virgo and Venus at 00′ 00″ Libra indicates the significance of these issues in her life, and the development of this issue over her life reflect her personal growth, culminating at this time, with a more mature understanding of “femininity”.

As I thought about the relationship between fractals and progressions, I realized that if virtually ANY period could be used as a “fractal progression”, the easiest thing is to simply divide your current age in half–and for fine-tuning, into quarters. I’m 44 now. At 22 I again moved from Texas, where my husband and I had completed our undergraduate work, to my hometown in Indiana, where he would enter graduate school. It was another clear and parallel transition–to home. At 33, I got my first real “professional” job at a “professional” salary. At 11 my second sister was born–the baby I fell in love with and who changed my life. In my mid-40’s new beginnings and transitions were the theme for my life. I asked a friend at a party what happened in her life when she was half her age. Recently widowed, her husband died when she was 46. At 23 her mother died. Another friend, at 53, has been doing whatever “pickup” work she can find in a long period between “real” work. At 26 (half of 54) she was divorced. The period before the divorce was a long, grinding, depressed period. After the divorce, her life improved.

Fractal progressions not only provide non-astrologers with a personally understandable experience of what astrology is all about, it also provides outcomes. It provides a glimpse of “how things turned out”, and therefore “how things might turn out this time”. Astrologers can use this information to supplement interpretations of transits, standard progressions, and solar returns, in much the same way we already use information when we ask a client with a Sun/Saturn square “What happened to you 14 and 21 years ago?”

The point here is not to describe a “simple technique of predicting your future and understanding your past,” although it’s fun to look at the symbolic parallels. I see fractal progressions as a way to demonstrate to skeptical non-astrologers how astrological patterns work. You can briefly describe planetary archetypes involved with the significant memories of a person’s life and guide them into reaching their own understanding of meaning and planetary symbolism. They can clearly see that hating their teacher in first grade, for example, didn’t cause their marital conflicts at 48, but there may be an understandable symbolic relationship.

This approach allows one to step around one of the big misunderstandings about astrology: namely that old bugaboo about planets “causing” events. Just because two events occur at the same time–say, your progressed Saturn transiting your eighth house Moon may occur at the same time as the death of your mother– it doesn’t mean that one event causes the other. They are both part of the same repetitive pattern of occurrences–part of the same fractal pattern.

To a skeptic determined to deny all symbolic relationships, looking at fractal progressions in his or her own life certainly wouldn’t constitute “proof” of anything. On the other hand, we all know people who are genuinely open to different ways of viewing the world and who have no basis for personally understanding how the patterns reflected in the stars relate to their lives. This concept has been useful to me as a way of beginning to relate our field directly to aspects of the new scientific paradigms and explaining it to non-astrologer friends. I encourage readers of this article to experiment with fractal progressions in their own lives and those of friends.

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Anne Beversdorf is an astrologer living in Austin, Texas. Her practice is directed toward life understanding and spiritual development and she uses techniques from traditional Western astrology, as well Vedic traditions. Anne has worked in the meeting-place between science and metaphysics since her first Science Fair project in 1961. She welcomes conversation, insights, (and clients) and can be reached at email: anne(at)stariel.com. She is especially interested in readers’ experiences using fractal progressions.

According to the Mayan Calendar, we are already in the period of time leading to the close of the Fifth World Age.   And according to the evidence of your senses, we are clearly living in a time of profound global change.   Forgetting for a moment all the apocalyptic hysteria, what might we expect from this shift?   A world age shift doesn’t happen overnight.  Despite having an “end date” in mind (and there is scholarly argument about this exact date), the years preceding that date imply the ending of the old age, and the new date is only the beginning of the new.   What can we realistically expect to change?

First, we need to understand the nature of the “old age”.  According to Mayan cosmology, the existing world age began approximately 3000 BCE.  Interestingly, this coincides closely to our consensus western understanding of “world history”.   Most contemporary historians still look to ancient Sumeria for the beginning of writing.  Interestingly, this was also in the 4^th millennia BCE—the beginning date for the current Mayan world age.  In fact, some fundamentalist Christians claim that the entire world began somewhere within that same era.  In this sense, they’re not too different from historians, who claim that non-written records of the past are unreliable and therefore don’t qualify to be called “history”.  These “undocumented” versions of the past are called “prehistory”.  Of course, this assumes that written records are more accurate than oral histories, which is just another result of intellectual dependence on what can be pinned down to a physical source.

Not coincidentally, the earliest Sumerian records were records of trade—the records of buying, selling, and making (or losing) money.  It seems reasonable to characterize this age of “written history” and “buying and selling” as an age of materialism.   Even our science has been based on what can be seen, measured, and touched, and the extent of materialism has been growing ever more dense during this world age.

Scientific materialism has become the dominant world view witin ithin the last two hundred years.  This paradigm enshrines the materialistic worldview into the sole source of Truth.  Let’s explore our recent history to track this theme.  Until the mid 19^th century, for example, anyone who thought about the world and how it physically worked was called a “philosopher”, not a “scientist”.  Those who thought about the physical world were called “natural philosophers.”   But since natural philosophers were holistic thinkers, meaning their thoughts included the unseen world of thoughts, of forces like “gravity”, the idea of what held the stars in the sky, their thinking soon ran them into collision with the power of the Church in the western world.   The church as an institution can be dated back to the middle of the first millennium CE.  It’s a pretty new part of the existing world age, and historically had a lot to do with buying and selling and making money, as well as gathering worldly power into its own purvue.

The Church and Natural Philosophy collided in a way that concretized the materializing trends of this world age.  How did this happen?  The Church claimed all authority over unseen things.   Natural philosophers were relegated to measuring the HOW of the natural world, but were prohibited from addressing any questions of WHY it worked.   The WHY was only the province of religion.   This division led to a divorce between philosophy (holistic) and “science” (physically measureable world).   Therefore Galileo could LOOK at planets through his telescope, but was prohibited from offering an interpretation of what he saw.  A natural philosopher who continued to philosophize about the whys and the unseen interconnections of the natural world was at risk of torture and death by the Inquisition (which was not dissolved as an arm of the church until late in the 19^th century!).  This was a profound shaping of how the scientific mind works.  The message was loud and clear:   “Think about more than the measurements and you may be tortured to death.”

This led to what Stephen Schwartz (via Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) called the “Grand Material Worldview”, or the “The Materialist MegaParadigm”.   A paradigm is the shape within which all thinking must fit in order to be considered “acceptable” thinking.   The current Materialist MegaParadigm posits that

1. The mind is a result of physiological processes.
2. Each consciousness is a discrete entity
3. Organic evolution has no specific goal
4. There is only one time-space continuum, providing for only one reality. (ref. Stephen Schwartz, The Secret Vaults of Time, p. 269.

The resulting of this thinking is the tautology, repeated by many “scientific thinkers” of our time:    “If it’s unseen, it’s not science.  I’ll stake my life on that.”    (This is pure PTSD [post-traumatic-stress-disorder] on the part of rational thinkers, caused by latent memories of the Church’s promise:  “If you offer thoughts about the nonphysical you may be tortured to death.”)

But the fifth world, the world of the material, is coming to a close.  We are leaving behind the divorce between science and Nature.  We are leaving behind the divorce between This and That; Self and Other.  The new paradigm sees the universe as a whole, full of promise and mystery, and guided by what is good for all.

THIS is what is shifting in our shift of ages.   The material world is beginning to reflect our dawning realization that the Materialist MegaParidigm is tattered and broken.  The infrastructure lies in tatters and the megalopoly of buying and selling is disintegrating around us, but the new paradigm hasn’t yet birthed our “new world”.

Wayne Dyer tells us “a change of thought precedes a change in society”.  Obviously, the structures of society have not yet accepted a new paradigm.  Those people whom Ray and Anderson (authors of The Cultural Creatives:  How 50 million people are changing the world) call the “cultural creatives” are already aware of the new paradigm.  Their values and impetus toward change actually pull society in the direction of the new paradigm.  While the bureaucratic structures of society may be resisting this change,just as obviously, the system is breaking.   We are likely to reorganize ourselves around what the cultural creatives would recognize as the dawning paradigm.   New breakthroughs in physics are leading the way to a new way of understanding the world around us—a way in which the previously materialistic and deterministic interpretations are expanded and eventually discarded.   These new breakthroughs show us a new way of envisioning our environment in which thoughts, previously unthinkable, are forming a new organizing principle.   Here are a few of them.

1. The mind is separate from the body.  The brain is the vehicle for the mind in the physical world, but the mind exists independently.  Mind may be the preeminent operating principle in the universe.   (Oddly, this is not a new idea.  The Corpus Hermeticus states that the first creation of God was The (universal) Mind.)
2. Everything is connected.  The entire universe is a single organism, and the fate of any part affects the whole.
3. Organic evolution is shaped by the Mind of the Universe for the goal of the universe’s well-being (e.g. the well being of all, since all parts of the universe share in the wellbeing of the entire cosmos).
4. There are multiple, overlapping time-space continuums, and time is a dimension in which may be able to move as easily as one does in space.  In fact, time itself has many qualities, and is not simply the strictly linear ticking of seconds that we once thought it was.  (Pre-clock cultures already recognize this.)

What will be the results of this kind of paradigm shift?  Clearly there are many more than I could list or you’d wish to read, but just to get your juices flowing here are some results of such a paradigm shift:

1. People will realize that all their actions affect all others.  Actions causing pain to any part of the cosmos will cause pain to the individual taking the action.   Therefore testing cosmetics on animals would be unthinkable.  Not watering your plants (or planting things that don’t naturally grow in your environment) would be unthinkable.  These would be things that cause pain to living beings.  Conversely, caring for and nurturing and giving joy to any living being adds to the joy quotient of the universe, and the person taking the action quite literally would feel this increase in joy.
2. Government organizations would truly focus on the good of the all, because pain in any part of the world would truly and immediately affect the lives of leaders and lawmakers, and the positive results for others would bring joy to the actors.
3. Short-term gain at the cost of long-term suffering would not be possible, since the long-term suffering will cause a ripple of pain in the universe.
4. The health of the planet, the solar system, the galaxy, would all be important.  (Space junk may not be a viable way to decommission old satellites.)
5. The exploration of the entire cosmos may be possible through meditational and psychic means.  These means will become acceptable tools for discovery.
6. The holographic link between every part of the cosmos (physicist Nassim Haramein’s new black hole theories) provide evidence for the psychic link between all of us.

These are just a few thoughts about where the new metaparadigm might take us.   As we remove ourselves from a strictly materialistic “truth detector”, we will become open to other ways of knowing, honoring the information gained during meditation, holotropic work, and other altered states of being.  Our understanding of the nature of reality itself would expand from only what can be measured by instruments of our devising, to include valuing the metaphysical and wisdom experiences of those whose contributions to the world increase its well-being for the long term.

If the Mayan ages do shift within the next several years, we can’t expect this new Meta-Paradigm to emerge, full-blown, from the chaos of the dissolving world.  Children being born today will be lucky to see the beginnings of a new social structure based on these concepts.  Still, it seems reasonable and consistent with current patterns of change to anticipate this kind of intellectual and consciousness revolution to become ever more apparent as we cross the divide of anciently-measured world ages.  And as we move into this ever-more-chaotic period of changes, it is useful and comforting to have a sense of where we may land when we reach the other shore.

The ONE is The Many. VANDORN (see http://www.lightweavings.com)

Here’s what happened to me, and here is the visualization that was created/resulted from what happened.  The resulting visualization I have shared with clients and friends and which has created dramatic results–so I’m sharing it with you now.

For those of you who want to cut to the chase, I’ll tell you the technique first.  For those of you who want to understand how it came about, the “backstory” will follow.

Manifesting change with spiral energy.

1. First, imagine and feel fully the situation you are in now–the situation you want to change.  Feel the limits to your sense of possibility–allow yourself to stretch to the limits of your beliefs until you bump against the ceiling of “this is just wishful thinking” and then settle into a place that you absolutely and deeply feel is possible.
2. Now imagine a HUGE (and insulated) electrical wire with a live and open end spiraling up your body.  In my experience, and counter-intuitively for me, this wire travels up your body in a counter-clockwise direction.  But don’t worry a lot.  Just allow the wire to spiral up your body without worrying which way it goes.
3. Spiral the live wire up your body to about solar plexus level, and grab the loose end with your left hand.  See the ’sparks’ of live electricity coming from the end of the wire.
4. Now fully imagine the situation you’d like to bring into your life, without worrying about whether you believe it is possible.   Imagine it as fully as you can, with the feelings and details that would be in place when this happens.
5. With the desired situation in mind, imagine another huge electrical wire spiraling down from above your head.  Some people see this as counterclockwise also, others see it as clockwise.  Allow whatever feels right for you.  Let this wire spiral down til it reaches your solar plexus.
6. Reach out and grab the downward spiraling live wire with your right hand and “see” the ’sparks’ of live electricity at the end of the wire.
7. Now it’s time to bridge the gap.  Imagining bringing your current situation to meet your desired situation–so the desired situation becomes the current one, bring the two live wires together til they join.  Watch the shielding move over the join until they are seamlessly connected.
8. Check your body for any physical reactions.   Some people feel a jolt, some people feel a rush of energy, some feel a “click”.  This is telling you that the connection is made.  If you don’t feel the jolt, don’t go “cut” the wire.  Live with the new alignment for a while.
9. I’ll repeat here, whether you do or do not feel an energy surge, do NOT repeat the process.  Repeating it implies that you’ve cut the existing connection, because how can you bridge these wires if they haven’t been separated.   You can remember the experience of joining them, but do not repeat the exercise.
10. Wait and see!

Backstory: How this came about.

In June I realized that not only was the monthly income I received from astrology not enough to cover my expenses, but that in my mind I couldn’t imagine how it would reach a point where that was possible.   I needed to increase my income by half again… for example from 2000/mo to 3000/mo gross income.   I realized that one part of the problem was my failure to feel the possibility was real, so I set to work on changing that.    What happened inside me was energetic and visceral, not visual at all.   What it felt like was twisting, writhing inside my skin to shed an old energy form and to bring (the twisting) a new understanding into connection with my old limits to “cross the bridge” from an old way of thinking to a new way of thinking.  When “it” happened, I felt an energetic click.   The immediate result was more focused energy on my work, my clients.  Now, two months later, I can say it definitely worked.  The first month was a success–I succeeded with the additional half-again income.  The second month (not yet over) is already 10 percent higher than the previous month.  So yes, it worked.

Then I set about trying to figure out how to tell someone else what I did.  The twisting and writhing on the inside and the click of something joining (it felt like the click of one of those light sticks that you have to twist until something clicks and the light turns 0n) was really hard to describe, so I wanted to develop a visualization that contained the elements of my experience in a visual form.

At this time I was reading a lot of new physics about the power of spin–the spiral, the vortex that many are now saying is the creative energy within the universe.  I could see the correspondence in my experience of “twisting” on the inside, so I started playing with idea of spirals, and of energy… and the electrical wire came to mind.  From there it was automatic to see the old way coming up from the earth, the root chakras and the new way from above the crown chakra.   I suppose if you are left handed you might want to shift the handedness of the patterns, but I leave that to your instincts to try (instincts are visceral, not mental/intellectual).

I tried the new technique on myself, with the goal of bridging the gap between what I believed was the love that could come my way, and the love that I want to come my way in life.  Within days I had a totally unexpected heart-healing experience that echoed back hundreds of years and forward through many experiences in this lifetime, and made me feel re-embraced by my “tribe”.   (I’ll write about this later).   So I can see that the visualization technique also works.

Now the only thing left is for you to use it.

I wish you the very best of  love, life, and wholeness!