by Robert Wilkinson
In Parts 1, 2, and 3 we explored general Spiritual factors of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto bringing forth our Higher Self as we stand individually and collectively at the threshold of a new era. I offered points of particular importance due to major aspect patterns going on in 2007 through now. Today we continue to explore more about the pressure we're under and within, what it means, and how this is impacting certain signs directly.
In 2007, Pluto danced around the end of Sagittarius, with 29 Sag a key point of focus, helping us all "get in shape." It went stationary direct at 27 degrees Sagittarius on September 7 at 7:54 am PDT, and occupied that point through the end of October before it again resumed its movement through 28-29 Sag in November-December 2007. Since then it has entered the unknown zones of 30 Sag and 1 and 2 degrees of Capricorn which marks a moment of Cosmic shift. This is a span we haven't experienced in 250 years, mas o menos.
It went retrograde at 2 Capricorn on April 2, and is now retracing its span of February and March through mid-June, when it re-enters Sag for the last time in this 250 year cycle. It will RX back to 29 Sag and go direct in early September 2008. When retrograde, it will bring us feedback from external and subconscious sources about how well we're handling our Pluto purification challenge, and come to awareness of what needs to be adjusted by what's coming to surface.
In September, Neptune moved retrograde from 21 to 20 Aquarius, where it went stationary direct the last day of October. This degree was a previous station, and has been bringing us all "rewards and gifts from Spirit" since early 2007. Then it went forward, retracing ground from its station May 2007 at 23 Aquarius, the first time it hit that degree in over 150 years. This profoundly affected the atmosphere, showing us all patterns of Divine Power we had to use wisely between the Winter Solstice at 10:08 pm PST December 21, 2007 through the end of February 2008.
Due to things unveiled in 2006, in 2007 we were challenged to rise to some occasion, show our strength, and use everything at our disposal to deal with "an exaggeration of life-problems" revealing our truth and expanding us. To the degree we did this, we've been reaping rewards from Spirit for moving through crises with courage and strength.
The recent Solar Eclipse was on the same "unveiling" degree that Neptune activated in 2006. While before it was a vague notion, dream, or ideal, it's now becoming a reality with each transit of 18 Aquarius. That could mean that a previous thing we dreaded, or an ideal we longed for, is now coming to form.
Neptune crossed 23 Aquarius beginning late February, and since then has been in virgin territory on a collective consciousness level. Whenever the outers enter a zone they haven't occupied for a whole cycle, it introduces new dimensions of transpersonal experience.
The overall theme of the last half of 2007 was a training period of self-induced movement and self-discipline, where we learned to build adequate vehicles to demonstrate our spiritual awareness and power. Many of us found we were able to do things beyond what we believed.
We're now in Neptune's "Unknown zone" of 24-25 Aquarius, where we can learn or teach deep wisdom on the basis of our experiences, demonstrating dispassion and self-discipline. This will also help us be more volitional, less instinctive in how we approach problems, and find "alien ideas" that will open choices that will achieve greater clarity by early 2009.
On May 26, 9:15 am PDT, Neptune will go stationary retrograde at 25 Aquarius. This is the forward threshold for Neptune at this pass, and at that point it will retrograde back to 22 Aquarius, where it will again go stationary direct on November 1, 2008. It will retrace this span until March 2009, when it again enters unknown zones.
In May-June 2007, Uranus entered a zone it hadn't occupied for over 80 years, showing we were at a threshold state of discovery, revolution, and individuation. Uranus stayed retrograde through November, challenging us to continue to consolidate the awakenings of recent months, internalize them and see how we could become more autonomous, inventive, broad-visioned and connected to the life around you.
In 2005-2006 we awakened to a new "higher law" that required that we "walk on" and move into a greater spiritual individuality. This opened the doors to enter a new way of life if we demonstrated courage in confronting ordeals in our search for a higher truth challenging us to stand up for our ideals.
In 2007 we got the results of facing inner fears and becoming more physically, emotionally, and mentally ready, willing and able to move into a larger realm. We proved our worth or qualifications and received rewards, techniques of protection and camouflage, and opportunities to rehearse our new individuality in dramatic or important circumstances.
Spring 2007 Uranus helped us feel the source of strength behind and around all manifestations, with potential for inspiration and a "deep, vibrant realization." In silence many found gifts to offer society to fill a collective need. This was a rehearsal for what we experienced in October when Uranus echoed that span, but with a greater receptivity to collective energies and/or the "ripples in the pond" returning back to us showing us a greater individuation.
Uranus' RX station at 19 Pisces late June 2007 dominated the Summer, releasing many from old "race" karma. We could begin to understand recent and future events with intelligence, synthesizing our previous survey of life into forms of Soul energy strengthening us physically.
This set the theme through all of 2007 and 2008-2009 as Uranus continues to make this degree significant in our charts. We have been and will continue to be "instructed by our Master," so that by accepting our excellence and effectiveness we can move through the unstable imbalances with relative ease. Continue to eliminate all that diverges from your special skills that ultimately are leading you to perfect and enjoy your individuality, on whatever levels you can do this.
Uranus has been in its "Unknown zone" since March, and this period shows it at 22 and 23 Pisces. It will hit its stationary RX point at June 26 at 5:01 pm PDT, which is June 27 everywhere east of Iceland. During March-April 2008, an "ordeal" ended, helping us "gather our medicine" and find spiritual nourishment that opened new potentials and helped us expand in ways so that we could demonstrate our "success in meeting the challenge of a new order." We began to codify new values and were challenged to hold ourselves to our highest standards.
In May and June, Uranus the Individualizer shows the Higher Law of Synthesis points us to continue to live this emerging new set of life standards and look for our successes to confirm our new patterns. The middle of May Uranus moves into its stationary degree where it will remain through the first week of August. This degree of "a materializing medium" summoning "ghostly shapes" symbolizes our power to command the natural world by understanding and conforming to its laws.
Uranus symbolizes our ability to become a true individual. This degree is about displaying at least one of our inner powers in ways that show our mastery of some form of life force. Those who resist individualizing will go passive or feel victimized by life in some way.
If we can cooperate with our immortal potential and give continual attention to what reality we would see made manifest, we will achieve a measure of a clear picture of what results we desire. This is about learning to shape our lives using our Higher sensitivity and cut through confused perspectives.
There are many dynamic aspects in May and June made by the inner planets to Pluto in Sagittarius, Neptune in Aquarius, and Uranus in Pisces. Early May featured Mercury and Mars both triggering the Grand Irrationality, while mid-May shows Sun and Venus square Neptune. Late May shows Mercury going stationary retrograde at 22 Gemini on May 26 at 8:48 am PDT within a degree of its square to Uranus also on its stationary degree, and Venus moving through the Gemini zone of the Grand Irrationality.
June shows Sun and Venus square Uranus in mid-June, around the time Mars becomes the Leo nozzle for the Finger of God, or Yod, when it double quincunxes the Jupiter sextile Uranus. This is an emergent crisis of individualization requiring multiple sacrifices that will squeeze all our efforts into a more loving, dynamic, creative Spiritual focus. After that Mars quincunxes Uranus and opposes Neptune to close out this forecast period.
As I have noted in other articles, the Sun, Mercury, and Venus each trigger the Grand Irrationality 7 times a year. These periods get fairly wired and edgy, and people are stranger than usual, making crucial decisions whether they realize it or not. It's the obsessive-compulsive factors in people that make these times most difficult, since things make less sense than usual, which makes almost no sense at all.
Frictional aspects from planets to Pluto are showing us elements of our unique song, narrowing our focus to enlarge our vision, and helping us revise our ideas through the nurturing power of whatever Wisdom-form we were given this year. Frictional aspects to Neptune are helping us find courage to move into unknown areas as well as ritual forms of connecting with a more powerful life force, and showing us which way the winds of destiny are blowing. Frictional aspects to Uranus are helping us verify our knowledge through interactions, giving us a vision of things to come that require us to use foresight and understand cycles, all leading us to a form of cultural excellence.
The Cardinal (activating) signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, The Fixed (stabilizing) signs are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius, and the Mutable (distributive) signs are Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces. Planets in Fixed signs configure dynamically with Neptune, while planets in Mutable signs challenge Uranus and Pluto. In 2008 Pluto has begun to put pressure on planets in Cardinal signs and will finish up its challenges to late Mutable signs from mid-June through late November, after which it again puts pressure on the early degrees of the Cardinal signs.
Pluto continues to put long term pressure on people with birthdays in the third and fourth weeks of March, June, September, and December. If you have a birthday during these periods, go to the core of your being and clean up your magnetism to regenerate your heart.
Be a pioneer, show self-control, concentrate, and throw off the chains in your mind that keep you powerless. Let go of obsessive or compulsive feelings and people, and purify however you need to, becoming the "captain of your own fate."
Pluto's nature is "economy of energy," and it tends to make our lives more efficient through annihilating obsolete life factors. Banish the corrupt, corrosive, or dishonest elements in your life, and regenerate the seeds of power in the houses it influences in your charts. Pluto's long range influence is presently most personally disruptive to those with a Sun, Ascendant, or planet between 28 degrees of Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces and 3 degrees of Capricorn, Aries, Cancer, and Libra.
In past months, Pluto's powerful transformative energies have been at 29 Sagittarius through 2 Capricorn, where we found the seeds of a new determination, persistence in getting in shape, a wealth of spiritual resources, and a concrete form of our ideals. Recent radical transformations offered us ways to master situations through purposeful planning, showing self-connfidence as we greeted opportunity, and being faithful to our Higher Self.
The first half of 2007 we evolved toward finding elegant, beautiful, and practical forms to link the best of the past with the need of the present, and were put through forms of exercise to become fit for what's happening now. We were shown what is enduring in community, and should have found ways to stabilize our lives more effectively. The tests of these were from June through November 2007.
The first half of 2007 also helped us build our conscious determination through persistence, expressing a new power and effectiveness in the houses ruled by Aries, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. Whatever we learned that led to our rededication to a larger goal or purpose in 2006 gave us imagination, potency, detachment, and an ability to anticipate what's coming.
This theme continued from March through May, as Pluto sat steady on 29 Sag. This will be the point it goes stationary direct on in August 2008, so get fit for something you'll have to do at that point.
A final note on Pluto relative to its involvement in previous eclipses. As I wrote in a prior Spiritual Astrology article,
When the outer "spiritual" planets are involved in an eclipse, they will exert a very big influence during the time span of that eclipse. Since Pluto went stationary retrograde 29 March 2007, the day of the Solar Eclipse in Aries, (More at this link), we will continue to see powerful social revolutions changing our world dramatically.These Plutonic influences were unleashed by Mars' transit of late Sag on the eclipse degree and its conjunction with Pluto January 2007. These seeds were expanded in December 2007 when Jupiter transited these degrees. At that time there were multiple conjunctions in late Sag and early Capricorn that portended Pluto's first entry into Capricorn since 1762 between January and June 2008. Since late 2007, the new evolution revolution is taking shape in some fairly specific ways. More at this link.
As has been the case the past year, Neptune continues to make life somewhat strange, unclear, or even very weird for people with birthdays in mid-February, mid-May, mid-August, and mid-November. If you have a birthday during these times, let go of self pity or feelings of inadequacy, and be resolved to do whatever needs to be done to come out of uncertainty, doubt, and confusion.
Get clear about your role, release drifting through things that don't interest you, and find the light of your highest ideal. At this time in history, Neptune's long-range influence is presently most confusing to those with a Sun, Ascendant, or planet between 23 and 27 degrees of Aquarius, Taurus, Leo, and Scorpio.
In 2006 Neptune's influence showed we had to rise to some occasion and be of indomitable Spirit. We learned how to maintain those skills in mid-2006, and what was unveiled has led and will lead to rewards from Spirit in 2007, 2008, and 2009, especially when Jupiter moves over the span where Neptune has been this past year. For the most part, September through December 2007 confirmed "gifts from Spirit" and rewarded us for our faith, courage, and perseverance.
We've now learned resilience despite difficulties, and our perseverance in finding inner strength served us well in August-September 2007 and December 2007-January 2008. In March, April, and July 2007, we had opportunities to cultivate gratitude and open to opportunities to grow happily into our Higher Self through prayer and meditation. These tools of gratitude and appreciation built our "spiritual vehicle" which are delivering concrete results in 2008.
This forecast period Neptune sits at its stationary retrograde point the whole time except for a few days at the end of June. This degree was activated by Uranus from May 2001 through November 2002, and is likely associated with the revolutionary upheavals in play since then. It is a degree of chosing volition over reflexive behavior, examining "alien ideas," and willingness to approach problems of human existence. Neptune will now encode this into collective consciousness, and we can experience this as part of our sense of connectedness to the degree we have developed these qualities.
Uranus continues to evoke revolutionary developments or needed renovations and creative renewing in the houses in our charts ruled by Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. Its influence is associated with disruptive and/or unexpected changes that challenge us to individuate. Uranus currently affects most strongly those with birthdays the middle of March, June, September, and December.
If you have a birthday during these periods, learn cooperation, flexibility, and try to innovate and synthesize things into a newer, broader view. Uranus' long-range influence is presently most disruptive to those with a Sun, Ascendant, or planet between 20 and 25 degrees of Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces.
As I've noted in past articles,
In early 2006 we quickened, dropped unnecessary considerations, and got ready to live a new way of life. The past two years we've entered new areas of self-dedication and an awakening by the "conscious mind to the intuitive Soul realms." The keynote was "the capacity inherent in every individual to seek at whatever cost entrance to a transcendent realm of reality." We have now been "guided into the sanctuary," and have been tested in our purity of heart, our awareness, our maturity, and our spiritual "self-mobilization."This led to greater responsibilities and ways to prove a greater courage and fearlessness. In the past 2 years, we’ve all endured ordeals, re-affirmed our purpose through a higher realization of truth, and moved into a new faith. Those who were inconsistent, hypocritical, clutching, fearful, or tried to hide from what was being revealed experienced the "emptiness of dread." We've had to move forward while proving our ability to accept the role we have declared our own.
November and December brought closure, fusion, and new seed forms out of what began early 2007, and brought Uranian processes to forms of fulfillment. In past months we've quickened, opened new initiatives and ways of self expression as well as relationships while consolidating our wisdom and building spiritual vehicles by practicing new skills. Having seen newer, better ways of living and being, we've been eliminating stagnant life materials and finding a new focus that naturally expanded in December.
When Jupiter exactly conjuncted Pluto, we were offered a once-in-12-year point in time to launch a greater Way, Truth, and Life. This helped us to open our vision, our imagination, and our sense of life's adventures in a new freedom to be who we really are and living our heart-fire on our own terms. We have refined our depth experience of life at very profound levels and shown how things are connected, or not, and what part each plays in the greater picture.
We are continuing to receive more rewards from Spirit, so yield to the future that already presents itself. The seeds of the future that took flight between March and June 2007 now stand revealed. Late Summer 2007 we closed out Saturn in Leo lessons and opened new initiatives resulting from our concentration and purification. By Summer 2008 Jupiter in Capricorn favorable to Saturn in Virgo will harmonize whatever work or service begun last September.
Jupiter conjunct Pluto in December 2007 began 12 years of blessings and openings beyond our wildest dreams, so learn to ride this new wave of Fire energy in your life, straight from the Galactic Center! The great wheel has turned, so continue to show appreciation and gratitude for the freedom you're glimpsing, as these seeds will prove to be potent stimulators for years to come. Definitely get inspired, since there's a lot of work to be done now that we've glimpsed the light of the heart of the Galaxy!
So it would seem that Uranus and Neptune have put everyone at a threshold state, and we'll be reaping blowback from however we're responded to their "unknown zone" transits these past few months. Pluto is retrograding between signs at the Galactic Center, so seeds of radical transformation are in motion whether we perceive them or not. It's a revolution in what we can make manifest, a collective threshold, and the last look back at over a decade of Pluto in Sag energies. This is the edge of the future, and we're living it!
In Part 5 of this month's Spiritual Astrology series will offer a look at how the present shows us the seeds of the long range future.
Copyright © 2008 Robert Wilkinson
This series is very informative and helpful, Robert. I underlined parts of this article -- a first for me. I also was moved to read through some of your foundation articles, describing the quintile aspects and so forth.
I do want to encourage readers to use the PayPal button occasionally to express our appreciation for the content here. I'd have to buy a magazine to get what you provide, and I probably wouldn't read or understand 3/4th of the articles. Thank you, Robert.
Posted by: Tropigal | May 16, 2008 at 06:13 AM
Robert,
Although I rarely post, I want you to know I greatly appreciate all your hard work here which I look forward to reading every day.
The position of Neptune has prompted me to finally address a question to you. It appears to be hovering back and forth over my moon (which I've been told is actually in the 5th house, altho it is technically on the cusp) and will continue to do so for quite some time. In addition, Uranus is in its "unknown zone" in my 5th house as well. I'm wondering if this is the cause, in part, of my inability to pinpoint specific topics for my book projects which are of interest to publishers. I am an author of cookbooks and am attempting to expand my focus to become more of an "author" rather than a "cook." Although great progress has been made in my career arena since 2007, I still feel a bit confused on what direction to take. Maybe you can clarify.Thanks!
04/23/57
5:35pm Summit, NJ
Posted by: Liz | May 19, 2008 at 07:42 AM
Hi Tropigal - Glad you were moved to find some previous gems. I've written a lot about a lot which should be helpful to all who wonder about some of the arcane terms of Astrology. Thanks for the paypal recommendation, since this is a "virtual magazine" and labor of love that consumes a lot of time!
Hi Liz - Glad you checked in. Neptune can indicate uncertainty, but also being tuned into the collective consciousness. Whether it's inspiration or confusion is often more of the moment that anything else. Mercury combined with the Sun rules authorship of whatever. As for what direction to take, that's more than I can answer in a comment stream, since that's a life-altering set of choices made between who you ARE and what you choose to do in a given chapter of life with "real world" conditions also playing a major part in what "succeeds."
Posted by: Robert | May 20, 2008 at 05:45 AM
Hi Robert - this Mercury retro end of month, will it affect travel, either short or long distance? thank you
Posted by: larissa | May 20, 2008 at 04:08 PM
Hi Larissa - Yes. And often Mercury RX travel is good if one is flexible.
Posted by: Robert | May 21, 2008 at 01:54 PM