Collaboration with the Inevitable
We find ourselves on January 21st at the first New Moon of 2023. It’s a Super Moon and, therefore, particularly powerful. Plus it’s the third of five New Moons at either 0 or 1 degree of its sign, indicating new beginnings. A couple of days after this New Moon, Uranus will move direct, which means that for the first time in a very long while all planets will be in forward motion. The gloves will come off and we can expect to see action rather than stagnation. I feel that 2023 will be pivotal in some way; astrologers may not be able to pinpoint what the exact events will be because, although astrologers work with the planetary energies, astrology is not a psychic art as such. But we all have the potential to be intuitive beings. And astrologers have a head start – they have the framework of the astrological chart to work with. We can use our charts to follow the red threads that link one event to the other and then to the next.
The theme of this blog is change, because if everything is moving forward then some kind of action of change is much more likely. Change is inevitable because, in the words of Rupert Sheldrake, everything is the result of ‘evolving habits’; new tricks we’ve learned. Change, however, very often becomes associated with pain because we tend to only make changes when we are forced to, mainly because of difficult external circumstances. So, we resist change. But change can be good, it can be invigorating, it can be awakening. Change kicks away the staleness of the old paradigms. So, when change appears inevitable, rather than instantly fighting back, we should consider collaborating with it so that we can be more able to prepare and to manage the outcomes.
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self. Therefore, trust the physician and drink his remedy …[2] Near is but difficult to grasp the god. But where there is danger the saving powers also rise (Holderlin)[3]
Mercury (the mind, communication, how and what we think) is significant in this New Moon chart. The Ascendant and the Midheaven, set for London, stand at 29 degrees of Virgo and Gemini respectively; both are set ready for an imminent change in sign and, therefore, a new direction. Both signs are Mercury ruled and Mercury governs the media, the news and, therefore, propaganda. Our head brain (as opposed to our heart brain and our gut brain) operates much like a computer and I think we underestimate just how easy it is to influence human thinking, particularly when psychological influencing has become so slick and sophisticated, and when the media stream is so controlled. Here in the UK, we have always been regarded as a nation that stands as a symbol of free speech; freedom, we are told, is what our parents and grandparents fought for. And yet we live at a time when speech feels less than free, and we are told that we can only have the speech that is good for us. This is the type of paradigm that needs kicking away – it is not working for our good. Life stagnates when we are no longer free to have questions answered.
The New Moon falls in the sign of Aquarius – a sign that epitomises the freedom of authenticity and eccentricity. Aquarius is the cleansing water bearer, bringing purification. Aquarius symbolises the new – new technology, new science, new breakthroughs. But, following the last few years, we would do well to remember that science is not God and is not infallible. Not all science is good science – science can be used and misused, just as numbers and statistics can be manipulated. And science is only the sum of what know so far - or, in current times, the sum of permitted research.
The degree of this New Moon is highly significant. It echoes two other placements, the December 2020 Great Jupiter/Saturn conjunction at 0 Aquarius and the sign change of Pluto coming up in March. So, what links the past Jupiter/Saturn conjunction, the current New Moon and the future entry of Pluto into Aquarius? Way back I referred to the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction as having the potential to be as big as a new civilisation era – a monumental point for society. Our current period astrologically bears similarities to the early 1200’s – the start of another Great Cycle in Air, also beginning in early Aquarius just as in 2020; and this was the time of the signing by King John (under duress I might add) of the Magna Carta. This brought everyone – even Kings – under the realm of the law. It made everyone free and equal – a very Aquarian theme. There were similarities in the astrology of 1285/6 too when we saw expansion of cultural trade routes across Eurasia and into Europe. Saturn had just previously conjoined Pluto in Capricorn as he did in 2020, Pluto was about to move into Aquarius as he is now, Jupiter and Saturn conjoined again in Aquarius, Pluto opposed Uranus (they squared not long ago) and trined Neptune (now sextile). As Mark Twain said, history doesn’t necessarily repeat but ‘it often rhymes’. So in the same way that the later 1200’s saw a rise in new trade routes, might we actually see a rise within perhaps the BRICs nations, particularly with the ‘one belt one road’ initiative, bringing possibly a threat to and a decrease in Western dominance? The current war, fuelled by the US and the NATO nations with zero motion for peace, suggests this might be one of the root causes – nations tend to be drawn into war when their dominance is challenged.
Uranus, the higher octave of Mercury, is the modern ruler of Aquarius and is often symbolised by Prometheus in myth. Prometheus is said to have raised man’s consciousness by defying Zeus and the other Gods to give man the gift of fire. Fire represented the start of civilised man, so with the big signs in the sky might we be seeing a signpost towards another leap in the story of civilisation?
Uranus is currently in the sign of Taurus. He is stationary, readying to turn direct. He is in Taurus with the North Node, so he has the power to affect our karmic destiny in some way. Taurus is governed by Venus and Venus signifies what we value (money, relationships, values in general). Uranus disrupts and shocks, but his real mission is to awaken. Has something gone awry with our value systems that requires some kind of awakening, possibly exposed by Pluto’s travels through Capricorn? And can we avoid a full-blown meltdown of economies?
Pluto in Capricorn has dredged up the corruption in corporates and governments and laid bare the corrupting influence of power. Pluto’s job is to reform and transform – to bring about a death/rebirth situation. In an ideal world anything shown to have been built on lies and deception will be taken down as Pluto in Aquarius brings the potential to shift power to humanity. But we don’t live in an ideal world, and we first have to deal with how much humanity has become used to being controlled, told what to do and ‘nannied’. How ingrained has this gone into society? As I have alluded to on many occasions, Pluto in Capricorn has revealed the Plutocrats who are really controlling companies, governments and, therefore, policies, and the corruption that has brought. And yet we still tell ourselves that our politicians ‘serve’ us. Uranus has a big message for us if we are prepared to listen. It could be said that Capricorn represents capitalism and Aquarius socialism – but not all capitalism is bad and not all socialism is good.
The Plutocrats also brought us the idea of globalisation and the New World Order. Was this fuelled by the Plutocratic desire to rule the world rather than just one nation? Status fuelled Capricorn desired this idea of globalisation; will Aquarius bring instead the desire to decentralise and decrease the influence of dominant powers in the west?
When a planet changes signs it builds on the experiences of the sign it has just passed through. Just as major aspects build upon the context created by the previous aspect. Aquarius is the cleansing water bearer, bringing purification and, unlike Capricorn, Aquarius holds a dislike of hierarchy; in Aquarius life should be for the collective, for one and all. Capricorn has been very much about status, ambition, top-down hierarchy; wealth has been flaunted whilst the poorer members of society came to worship and long for celebrity status and its obvious benefits. Aquarius doesn’t respect barriers of gender, race, money, etc – Aquarius is unconventional and non-conforming but not necessarily all good. Aquarius can be detached and cold and carries some of the shadow energy of his opposing sign – Leo. Leo represents the individual who desires to be King – the one who leads and who can never be wrong. So, whilst Aquarius is much more about the importance of the collective society, it carries that Leo shadow of always knowing best.
So what might we see with Pluto in Aquarius? He’s going to have a 20-year run there, so best we give it some thought. We will likely see an accent on freedoms, rights of society and geo-political change. And, of course, what might Saturn in Pisces bring for the immediate shorter period of time – two and half years roughly? It all forms part of the bigger ‘smorgasbord’. Saturn in Aquarius appears to have limited and restricted society, having been in Aquarius through the lockdown period and bringing the attempts to implement digital controls. And, squaring Uranus, he has been trying to hold back Uranus’ shocks. In Pisces he might take spirituality much more seriously, but the word I just can’t get out of my head at the moment is – disillusionment. Will there be some kind of disillusionment, either of where we have arrived at or of where we are going? Pisces is a water sign so issues regarding water/pollution may come to the forefront. Pisces also holds an energy of ‘infinity and beyond’, which Saturn might decide to put some structure into. Is something going on in the ether of space?
Pluto in Aquarius might reveal the darker side of science and technology in terms of the rise of the robots, health, greater use of AI in weaponry, digital currency and ‘big brother’ surveillance. And this doesn’t have to be all bad if technology is used as man’s slave, because the alternative is man becoming enslaved himself. Chat GPT will be BIG. It was released in November last year as prototype just after the first in our current series o New Moons at the beginnings of signs. And since then its website has been besieged. If you haven’t yet seen the potentials then perhaps research it. In my eyes it has the power to change humanity and society by making humanity both idle and potentially superfluous, but I guess it is possible to be used for the good. We have already seen instances within AI where the programming becomes so clever that it decides to programme itself as it sees fit - the Aquarian shadow side of ‘knowing best’. And once a genie is out o the bottle it becomes very difficult to put it back.
Change is coming and change is inevitable. We cannot stop it but if we collaborate with the change we can perhaps influence how it will look for the good of humanity and society. Pluto in Capricorn has been trying to tell us that we have to take responsibility for our world and for our individual lives. Or else, as Saturn in Aquarius has been showing, we will get rule by technology. Pluto could bring a power shift to the people, but first humanity has to become more individually empowered and self-aware so that it can walk away from the idea of a nanny state which is so easily corrupted.
We tend to put a shell around ourselves to protect us from the pain of change - change means endings and we are so afraid of those endings that we don’t allow ourselves to awake to the new. Hence the amount of cognitive dissonance and denial we see around us. And this New Moon chart reflects this. Venus sits with Saturn - our value system is boundaries or fenced in by Saturn, so we are held back. We must break down to break through and reach our moment of understanding.
Aquarius shows us that civilisations must change in order to grow. And in Aquarius the challenge will be to retain our humanity or sense of humanness. We perhaps think of an Aquarian world through utopian imagery, but Aquarius is an air sign which can overthink and prefer to live in an abstract world. An Aquarian world can become cold and detached and, therefore, become utopia’s opposite - dystopia. Aquarius is a fixed sign - it can be dogmatic, fanatical or extreme, wanting people to conform to what it thinks is the ideal. The future informs our present because it is this future that we must grow towards and become.. And we have to feel free to question scientific dogmas because, as Rupert Sheldrake says in the Science Delusion, ‘the world view aspect of science has come to inhibit and constrict the free inquiry which is the lifeblood of the scientific endeavour.
[2] ‘On Pain’, Kahlil Gibran
[3] The Gods of Change, Howard Sasportas, Penguin Books, 1989