airborne virus upended our way of life in 2020. Major
cultural, political and environmental turbulence is
set to continue, radically altering the way we live on
planet Earth…’
(from P.S. Windows to the Future, the final essay in “Postcards to the Future” p 365)
As readers who have been following my blog in recent times can see, I have been continuing my Mercurial Musings (along with many other astrologers!), as our world situation becomes more turbulent and challenging with every month that passes: Pluto’s 2023/4 transition from Capricorn to Aquarius –which he enters on 23 March 2023 for the first time since the 1770s – is a major symbolic significator for the new world order slowly being born. No doubt I’ll be publishing a sequel to “Postcards…” before too long, at the rate I’m going! My major astrological interest these days is undoubtedly in the larger planetary cycles, which I have written about extensively in “Postcards…”, which brings 60 of my essays, articles and columns from 1995 to 2021 together. You can view the whole list HERE.
I’m writing this post – partly – for the time-honoured reason of tapping into the Festive Season market and offering my book – which has been wonderfully well reviewed, I’m happy to say! – as an ideal gift: as Juliet Sharman-Burke, psychotherapist, astrologer, tarot specialist, author and Administrator for The Centre for Psychological Astrology, said in her October 2021 review:
“Postcards to the Future” is the perfect book for the present time. Today so many people feel fragmented, too busy to concentrate on anything for long, overwhelmed and exhausted with the amount of information coming at them from the internet, the media and social network platforms and cannot face embarking a long complicated book which has to be read chapter by chapter to make any sense. “Postcards to the Future” offers a range of incredibly stimulating and wise bite-sized essays, articles, interviews and blogs covering all things astrological which can be dipped into by beginners and knowledgeable astrologers alike. There is literally something for everyone in Anne’s “ Mercurial Musings”.
Credit for the above poster: Dawn Durrant
However, the other reason is to say a big Thank You to those of you who so generously reviewed, sold and bought “Postcards…” during this year just passing. I also want to extend thanks and welcome to the many new subscribers to my blog since the wonderful Michael Wright thoroughly re-habbed and streamlined it this autumn. About time too, after ‘Writing from the Twelfth House’s 15 years on the Net!
So – despite the harsh times our world is going through at so many levels at present, I hope you can find some happiness and inspiration both during this Festive Season and the year to come. And – I’d love it if you bought my book, recommended it, and if possible shared this post to spread the word. I’m already putting my next book together: a compendium of writings and research into The Moon’s Nodes in Action including my latest mini-study which appeared onAstrodienst last month. So – if you want to be kept up -to-date, folks, do sign up !!.
In trying to make some sense out of current uncertainty and turbulence, it can help to check out what the planetary cycles are saying. Here are some brief notes summing up the essence of the present day planetary picture.
Carl Jung“In all chaos there is a cosmos,
in all disorder a secret order.”
We know several things astrologically at the moment which describe crisis in the world in general :
We are moving from one world era to another: from a period between 1803 and 21st December 2020 when the twenty-year long Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions were travelling through the Earth element – describing (in shorthand terms) the era of capitalism. This era, simply put, owes its ‘success’ to heedless exploitation of our mother planet, and a way of living which is increasingly obviously no longer sustainable as we continue metaphorically to saw off the branch on which we are all sitting as the climate crisis takes off.
Crisis = threat+opportunity
That conjunction’s journey shifted to the Air element for the 200+ years following 2020’s Winter Solstice, when Jupiter and Saturn met at 0° Aquarius: early evidence being an airborne covid 19 pandemic which has upended the way we live, and the fact that our culture is taking a major shift into conducting itself on Air e.g. via zoom, proliferating social media, and increasingly sophisticated advances in Artificial Intelligence or A.I.
This first 20 year cycle of the Jupiter Saturn combination through the Air element between 2020 and 2040 is going to be critical in setting the terms of reference for the new world order into which we are moving.
The USA is currently undergoing its Pluto return at 27 Capricorn in 2022, with attendant turmoil, and there is a major war taking place in Ukraine which began in the Spring of 2022, showing no sign of coming to an end any time soon. Pluto’s cycle is around 248 years; we have seen, since his entry into Capricorn in 2008, every institution on the face of the Earth dredged and purged with all its unresolved crap coming to the surface. Until Pluto finally settles into Aquarius on 19th November 2024 – just after the next USA Election on 5th November 2024 – the purging and dredging which began in 2007/ 2008 will continue. From all of this you can see that the time over this winter is going to be especially critical worldwide as the Lord of the Underworld returns to Aquarius on March 23rd 2023, for the first time since the revolutionary decade of the 1770s. Astrologer Jessica Davidson has done a fine historical survey of Pluto’s Aquarian ingresses – and impacts – over a long historical timeline. Read it HERE
However, I take comfort from my knowledge of that historical timeline, however sketchy it may be – cultures have always alternated between periods of chaos dominating, out of which of arise new ways of humans organising themselves – as order gradually reasserts itself.
Learning to live with uncertainty, trying to find our personal balance in an era in which chaos (Neptune) is increasingly more evident than order (Saturn) seems to be what we are all challenged to do at present.
My personal motto is ‘start where you are and do what you can’ as positively as possible, in order to make some small individual contribution to the birthing of a more constructive world order from the old one: an order which is clearly deeply corrupt and well past its sell by date…
For the UK, an era ended on the 8th of September 2022 with the death of Queen Elizabeth the Second, an event which reverberated around the world. Regardless of one’s politics, the death of a monarch has archetypal power: many people with no particular regard for the UK royal family – including this writer – were surprised at the impact this event had.
However, the Queen’s passing at this especially turbulent time not just in the UK’s history but in the world at large has focused my reflections on the particular significance of the fractious and divisive Saturn/Uranus lens through which we humans seem to have been substantially viewing then acting out our collective social and individual lives from the spring of 2020 when Saturn first entered Aquarius, and are likely to continue to do so until Saturn enters Pisces in the spring of 2023. With Saturn gradually coming into orb of a wide sextile to the Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in Taurus in early 2024, let’s hope things then cool down somewhat…
There is, of course, a much bigger symbolic backdrop to this particular Saturn/Uranus square. Being especially interested in observing how the larger planetary cycles correlate with changing patterns of human collective behaviour, I have already written in some depth about the significance of the big shift from an Earth era defined by the 20-year Jupiter/Saturn cycles traversing the Earth element from 1803, to an Air era beginning with the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction at 0 Aquarius on the Winter Solstice of 2020, then running for around two hundred years. (i)
Pluto will emphasise this momentous era shift by first entering Aquarius in the spring of 2023, following on his long sojourn in Capricorn from the spring of 2008 which kicked off with a devastating world banking crisis. Also – in 2025 Neptune enters Aries, for the first time since the onset of the American civil war in the 1850s, ushering in a Fire/Air period for the next number of years.
So – our lives are not likely to settle down any time soon…
Ranging from the climate wars (Extinction Rebellion, anyone?) to increasingly rage-filled trans and woke movements on both sides of the Atlantic, to land-grab war in Europe with attendant disruption to food and energy supplies worldwide, to a bitterly contested and hugely divisive election result in the USA, to revelations of an increasingly persecuted Uighur minority in China, my impression – having lived through quite a few Saturn/Uranus aspects by now! – is that divisions and polarisations arising from the period of the current square, have been more black-and-white, intolerant and brutal than in previous Saturn /Uranus periods.
Why should this be? Having thought about the matter in the context of other large-scale disruptive changes also taking place has brought me to what I think is an explanation, symbolically speaking.
Putting things simply: Saturn rules Capricorn, the last sign of the 1803-2020 Earth era to be traversed first by the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction, then by Pluto, lord of the Underworld. Symbolically speaking, with the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction then Pluto moving into Aquarius, the rule of planetary old god Saturn is being replaced by that of planetary new god Uranus. However, to add another layer of complexity and conflict, Aquarius’ old ruler is Saturn, new ruler is Uranus – and Pluto’s shift from Capricorn to Aquarius will not be completed until 19th November 2024: a mere two weeks after the next USA Election takes place on 5th November 2024. What stunning timing…
Astrologers man their symbolic barricades over this one: the Trads insisting on Saturn as co-ruler of Capricorn and Aquarius, the Mods favouring Uranus alone. Take your pick…whichever you favour, there is an especially bitter symbolic battle of the giants taking place worldwide as we shift from one long Era to another, a battle at every level: environmental, political, national, cultural, personal.
So – what comes next?
Much speculation regarding the shape of things to come has been going on for some time now, set to intensify as we await Pluto’s traverse through Aquarius from the spring of 2023 to early 2044, giving a heavy symbolic weighting to that sign for a long time to come.
Aquarius is the sign of the human collective, symbolising an energy driven to pursuing and promoting ideals regarding how we should be moving forward in order to create a fairer, more equal world. It is a highly rational, technology and future-oriented, “Let’s get together to make the world a better place”, kind of energy.
As such, we should see some major developments at all levels as power (Pluto) shifts towards The People, away from plutocrats, oligarchs, and from politics rooted in gaining material power and control through exploitation of planet Earth’s diminishing resources, towards (in theory!!) more equal world-wide sharing of power derived from an Air-based technologically expedited economic system. Also, the development of wind and solar energy is likely to accelerate with Neptune’s shift into Aries from 2025 onwards.
Pluto’s last sojourn through Aquarius (1778–1798) brought with it sweeping changes in social order and public rights, including: the ratification of the American constitution following the USA’s breaking away from Britain’s colonial control, the rise and expansion of the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the publishing of ‘The Vindication of the Rights of Women’ by Mary Wollestonecraft.
None of this was accomplished without The People or individuals in one way or another rising up against prevailing regimes, rules, or ideas perceived as being outdated and oppressive. So we can expect cultural, social, political and environmental upheaval to gain momentum as Pluto shifts into Aquarius and the Capricornian penchant for collective coercive control socially, politically and environmentally is severely challenged. We are very much seeing this right now, with recent uprisings in Iran triggered by the death of a young woman in the custody of the so-called Morality Police still ongoing, and widespread public protests triggered by three years of stringent covid restrictions right across China. These protests are largely being spearheaded by the young…
What we really need in tomorrow’s Aquarian world, though, is a radical change of attitude. Essentially, as one astrologer I was reading recently so succinctly put it, it is ‘…time for us to figure out what it means to be human and how to live together on this planet without fighting over everything…’ (ii)
A tall order indeed…
In our own small country the UK, still insisting on seeing itself as a major world player, we can certainly expect People Power to exert itself more forcefully as we move towards next spring. Our new Tory Chancellor is reportedly considering removing the cap on bankers’ bonuses imposed by the European Union following the greed-fuelled virtual collapse of the world banking system in 2008. (BBC news 15.9.22) This will not go down well – to say the least! – with those sectors of our population who have to choose between heating and eating this coming winter.
UPDATE: the new Chancellor and his Prime Minister lasted less than six weeks in power, having created mayhem on the world financial markets and worsening the already serious cost of living crisis in the UK with their disastrous budget. The incoming Prime Minister Sunak and his Chancellor Hunt have acted swiftly to abandon those policies and restore a measure of stability – for now…
Also, our late Queen, mourned and well respected by much of the UK’s population, especially in Scotland where she died, having been laid to rest with due pomp and ceremony, huge questions will surely come to the fore regarding the future of the monarchy in our increasingly strained United Kingdom.
What, then, of the wider picture, especially regarding Russian President Putin’s increasingly disastrous-looking attempt to land-grab and control Ukraine, currently looking like the feistiest, bravest nation on the planet?
Here are the forthright words of that redoubtable Australian astrologer, Jessica Adams, from a post on her website on 13/3/2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine:
‘…And yet, you don’t need Putin’s birth chart, actually, to see which way the wind is blowing, though. Pluto (power) in Capricorn (the man at the top) is finished on March 24th, 2023. This is the end of an era when plutocrats (which Pluto represents in astrology) who are the top goats on the mountain (Capricorn) fall off – as the mountain itself collapses…’ (iii)
‘The old order changeth…’ (iv)
Fasten your seat belts, people. It’s going to be some ride!
Endnotes:
This is an edited version of my essay“The old order changeth, yielding place to new…” published in the UK’s Astrological Journal November/December 2022, soon to be re-published in The Federation of Australian Astrologers Journal under the same title, with permission…
(i) See the P.S Windows to the Future section of my recent collection “Postcards to the Future”(August 2021), including ‘Waning and waxing crescents: windows to the future’ (first published in The Mountain Astrologer Dec 2020/Jan 2021)pp 365-380
Ever since I began to decipher my own birth chart in the 1980s, discovering that a strange glyph looking like a pair of headphones was exactly conjunct my 28 Taurus Midheaven, the Moon’s Nodal Axis and its unfolding path through the heavens has continued to fascinate me….here, in my new mini research study featuring the recent traverse of the Moon’s Nodes and Eclipses traversing Gemini/Sagittarius during the period of 2020-2022, I tell the story of four people’s changing lives. Including my own…to read all about it, clickHERE
Thanks, Astrodienst, for once again featuring my work…
Pluto enters Aquarius in March 2023 for the first time since his 1778–1798 soujourn brought with it sweeping changes in social order and individual freedoms, including: the ratification of the American constitution, the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, the Enlightenment, the publishing of The Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollestonecroft…
Along with other astrologers whose main interest is in the relationship between the larger planetary cycles and world affairs, I’ve been watching with fascination as people power asserts itself in the general direction of greater democratic freedoms and increasing rejection of oppressive rulers. I’ve written about this in more detail recently here (i)
There is a word which beautifully describes – at both a collective and a personal level – this disturbing but highly creative state of emerging from the past, being highly disrupted in the present, reaching out to an uncertain future. That word is LIMINAL.
Here are my thoughts on both the micro and macro dimensions of that wonderfully descriptive word, starting (of course – I used to be an English teacher, after all…) with a definition. Written as my ninth The Astro-View from Scotland column for that wonderful USA magazine Dell Horoscope, sadly no longer with us, it is still highly relevant. I hope you enjoy my musings: feel free to add your own as a comment should you feel inspired to do so!
‘…I always seem to have a favourite word. Maybe that’s one of the hallmarks of being a writer. It’s probably tiresome for other people when I cram it into conversations. By now, I’m sure you are quite desperate to know what the damn word is this time. Ok. It’s ‘liminal’. From the Latin ‘limen’ meaning ‘threshold’, it refers to that stage in life when one is hovering…departing from what is in the past: not quite at home here in the present: not quite arrived there, in the future…it’s an uncomfortable, fluid state to be in, but highly creative and full of potential.
How about this contemporary usage, definition from Wikipedia: ‘…More recently, usage of the term has broadened to describe political and cultural change… During liminal periods of all kinds, social hierarchies may be reversed or temporarily dissolved, continuity of tradition may become uncertain, and future outcomes once taken for granted may be thrown into doubt…’ I don’t know about you, but this to me sounds just like where we are collectively on planet Earth at present. Let’s hope in the long run – which we baby-boomers likely won’t live to see – we end up with something better than the mess we have now.
‘As above, so below’ : no contemporary astrologers have come up with a pithier definition of the essence of our art than did fabled Ancient Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegistus in the equally fabled Emerald Tablet. Hermes was conceived as apparently hovering between the divine and human worlds. Down here in that all-too-human world, thinking about Hermes in relation to the world ‘liminal’ is providing me with some inspiration; much needed in my case, as I hover uncomfortably and uncertainly between the end of one 12 year Jupiter cycle, and the beginning of a new one.
Jupiter cycles have always been a big deal for me, since third house Jupiter at 19 degrees 07 Scorpio squares all six of my Leo 11th and 12th house planets. I wrote about the dubious but transformative delights of this astro-lineup in my very first column for Dell.
This idea of hovering between the divine and human worlds might be of some comfort and inspiration also to those of you readers who are ending one cycle at present, without being able to see how the energy of the next one is going to form. Standing in this liminal place, one cannot bully, cajole or entreat the new order to reveal itself. There is divine time, and there is human time.
This may sound pretty mystical, but my feeling – from both personal and professional experience– is that the deeper wisdom of our soul knows the direction in which we need to proceed in order to become all we can be, and how long it may take to get there. The astrological cycles can put us in touch with that spark of divinity within each of us, offering profound insights into what a waning cycle has been about, and what the newly-forming one might bring. They also teach us that‘… there is… a time to every purpose under the heaven…’ (i).
Our egos, located in human, ordinary time, can often rail against this when we don’t like what we see of the shape of things to come, or how long a particular transitional period is going to take. Try consulting your ephemeris, as I did at the end of 1998, to realise that I was about to have a series of sixth house Neptune oppositions to twelfth house planets lasting from 1999 until 2012, as well as the ending/beginning of five major cycles. It was some immersion, I can tell you. Did my ego rail against it? You bet. I had to quit my career in 2002, and did not begin to surface, via writing on the Web at first, until 2008, not returning to consulting and teaching until 2012.
But guess what? I now look back on that period, when I felt liminal approximately twenty-four hours a day for years, as the most soul-enriching of my entire life. One of the many lessons I took from that period was to pay close attention especially to the feelings of restlessness, dissatisfaction and uncertainty which herald the end of, for example, the 29-30 year cycle of Saturn which we all share. Many of us recall – or are experiencing now! – the turbulence and pain of the end of our twenties, from which most of us emerged or will emerge by around the age of thirty-three with a much clearer idea of who we are, and most importantly, who we are not.
Those difficult feelings and experiences occurring in the twelfth house phase of any major cycle (where we are now, collectively, as Pluto traverses the final degrees of Capricorn…) are part of the dissolution of the old order of that part of our lives. An ending must take place– so that new energy may arise, taking us forward to the next stage of our unfolding.
Astrology’s great gift is to show us that we are not random butterflies pinned to the board of Fate. We each have our small, meaningful strand to weave into life’s vast tapestry. In the end, it was consent to my tough and frightening period of liminality, patient waiting, the love and support I was fortunate to have, and trust in the wisdom of the Unseen that got me through. So, my liminal fellow travellers, take heart. The old order may be waning, but something fresh and new is surely arising…’
“The astro-view from Scotland” was the bi-monthly column I wrote for Dell Horoscope Magazine from January/February 2017 until the last issue of Dell in March/April 2020. This ninth column first appeared in the May/June 2018 issue.
Analytical Hypnotherapist and Psychological Astrologer Ana Isabel has interviewed a number of well-known astrologers on her brilliant Lightways podcast, including Christina Rodenbeck, Victor Olliver, Alex Trenoweth, most recently Steven Forrest – and here is my second interview with Ana which we did on 18th October 2022. ( You can listen to the first one HERE )
Ana had just read through my newly completed study, not yet submitted for publication, centred round the lives of four volunteers and their striking experiences during the 2020-2022 transit of the Moon’s Nodes through the signs of Gemini/Sagittarius and how that related to their natal Nodes. However, our conversation ranged widely from the Ancients’ powerful relationship with the night sky, to the Nodal links between Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein and Greta Thunberg, climate change campaigner, to the sense of the numinous we both had felt at times during our own Nodal transits. It also gave me a chance to mention my earlier in-depth study The Moon’s Nodes in Action – and to read one or two relevant extracts. And – as before – we managed to fit in a few laughs…
Well, it’s been an exciting couple of weeks! As an antidote to the turmoil currently engulfing our world in general and UK politics in particular (“You could not make it up” has hit a stratospheric level here this week) I have been busy reshaping my blog/website, with the very able tech support of the wondrous Michael Wright. You may now notice some differences: I’d love some feedback – always a dangerous request I know, especially in this era!(i)
Jupiter/Saturn conjunction in Aquarius12/2020
Whilst attempting in this process to create some order out of various kinds of behind the scenes chaos, I’ve been concentrating on rounding up some videos: of promotional readings I’ve done for my latest book “Postcards to the Future”, of interviews I’ve done for colleagues websites, etc, as I attempt to create a well-organised video channel.
Last night, I was delighted to find a 30 minute pilot video which my colleague Andrew Paine and I did in which Andrew asked me various questions centred on how astrological symbolism could assist him – as a person with a beginners mind interest in the more in-depth dimensions of astrology – in developing a helpful perspective on the turbulent times which we are living through.
The content ranged over past, present – and some thoughts on what kind of future we may be moving towards, as “The old order changeth yielding place to new…”(ii) The content is even more relevant, if anything, than it was in June 2020 when, because of pandemic lockdown, we ‘met’ on zoom.(iii) I do hope you find it interesting, and perhaps even helpful as one way of making sense of our current unpredictability and chaos at so many levels.
And – if you’d like to read one of my in-depth articles on planetary cycles, check out this one, which appeared recently on Astrodienst: “Some Notes on Cycles in a Time of Crisis …”
Endnotes
(i) But no worries. If you are rude, I shall block you and bin you.
(ii) Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892), from his great epic poem Morte d’Arthur.
(iii) It was entirely unrehearsed and spontaneous: after many decades of doing preparation for teaching an amazing variety of classes to an equally amazing variety of adult ed students (teaching astrology beats the hell out of civil service clerical English for interest value, let me tell you!!) I am now permanently allergic to prep…
As UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson famously quipped during the UK’s sterling crisis in 1964: “A week is a long time in politics.”
It feels like a very long time already since much of the UK – with, supposedly, around half the world’s population – watched Queen Elizabeth ii’s state funeral, signifying the end of an Era as the longest reign in British history came to an end. But, as I write, it is less than a week.
And what a week – indeed, what a month it has been since Tuesday 16 August 2022 when US President Joe Biden signed into law the Democrat’s hard-fought healthcare, climate and tax package the Inflation Reduction Act. The law directs a colossal $369bn toward investing in renewable energy and reducing America’s planet-heating emissions.
“With this law, the American people won and the special interests lost,” Biden said.(i)
To me, this powerful Aquarian statement by the US President aptly signifies the turbulent, changing world era we are going through at present which the larger planetary cycles have been symbolically revealing to us so powerfully as we tiny humans struggle to cope – and try to make some sense of it all. His words are so apt.
Pluto’s Aquarian long march begins…
We will see some major developments at all levels as Pluto completes his 2008-2023/4 traverse of Capricorn and power (Pluto) shifts towards The People, away from crumbling traditional Capricornian institutions, plutocrats, oligarchs, and from politics rooted in gaining material power and control through exploitation of planet Earth’s diminishing resources.
Next spring, Pluto’s long 2023-2044 journey through Aquarius begins. The sign of the human collective, Aquarius symbolises an energy driven to pursuing and promoting ideals regarding how we should be moving forward in order to create a fairer, more equal world. It is a highly rational, technology and future-oriented, “Let’s get together to make the world a better place”, kind of energy.
The Jupiter/Saturn conjunction at 0 Aquarius on the Winter Solstice of 2020 (WHO chose that date?!) symbolised the end of that defining conjunction’s long trek from 1803 through the Earth Element, heralding the beginning of a new 200-year Air era, heavily weighted towards Aquarius in its opening stages by Pluto’s imminent entry.
Along with many other astrologers whose primary interest is in the outworking on planet Earth of the larger planetary patterns, I have been fascinated – and at times awestruck – to see how that oft-quoted ancient maxim “As above, so below…” has been playing out especially vividly in recent weeks. As Pluto transits the final degrees of Capricorn, and Saturn-ruled Capricorn/Cancer loses ground to the rising power of Uranus-ruled Aquarius/Leo in this very turbulent time world-wide between changing eras, we have seen those symbolic energies play out ‘on the ground’ so clearly.
Leo/Aquarius as the Air Era rises – dramatic world events
Here are a few highlights, in which the interplay between the Ruler(s) (Leo) and the People (Aquarius) can be seen with the dominant energy of the rising Air era coming to the fore and the ‘old order’ crumbling and collapsing.
In the spring of 2022 Vladimir Putin’s Russian army invaded Ukraine, confidently expecting victory within days. Six months later, the enormity of his misjudgement is becoming increasingly evident as the tide of war turns in Ukraine’s favour owing to the people’s courageous resistance – and solid Western support.
In early July, UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson finally resigned after a growing crescendo of scandal and popular dissatisfaction leading to mass resignations from his government forced him out. Then we had the historic USA climate bill in mid-August, already mentioned. Currently, too, the net of the USA’s legal system appears to be tightening around Trump and his family.
Also, this week in Iran, women have been at the forefront of escalating protests across the country – especially by young people – against the punitive mediaeval rule of male clerics, sparked by the death in custody of a woman detained for breaking hijab laws.
And, most dramatically in the UK on 6 September, Boris Johnson formally demitted office to Queen Elizabeth ii, who welcomed Liz Truss as the new UK prime minister –then died aged 96 two days later, doing her Capricornian duty to the end. The ancient archetype of the death of a monarch has caused powerful ripples through our collective and personal lives, regardless of what politics we espouse.
The Queue – Aquarian herald of the Air era
For me personally, the most moving manifestation of the incoming Leo/Aquarius polarity as the old Cancer/Capricorn era fades out, was observing the UK public’s reaction to our Queen’s death and short lying in state in Edinburgh, followed by the longer lying in state in London. What an enormous flow of The People filed past the Queen’s coffin both in Scotland and in England, accompanied by thousands of citizens from all areas of the UK as well as much further afield.
It was astounding that hundreds of thousands of people were prepared to wait all night in a queue which ultimately wove its way through the streets of London for 4-5 miles in the days before Elizabeth’s state funeral on Monday 20th September: Aquarius – the People – came to pay their last respects to Leo – the Monarch.
Striking, too, was the Aquarian ‘feel’ to the famous Queue. Many people expressed the view that being in The Queue was an event in itself. New friendships were made, people shared food and drink, generally supporting and entertaining one another during the very long wait. Wouldn’t it be great to think of that community spirit growing stronger as Pluto enters Aquarius and hopefully turbo-powers our interconnectedness?
Now, we have to wait and see what next Spring brings – but strong clues re the possible shape of the new era are already evident, as discussed in this article. People power is on the rise. Let’s hope that the enormous changes ahead, eventually, bring more light than shadow…
Analytical Hypnotherapist and Psychological Astrologer Ana Isabel has interviewed a number of well-known astrologers on her brilliant Lightways podcast, including Christina Rodenbeck, Victor Olliver, Alex Trenoweth, most recently Steven Forrest – and here is my interview with Ana which we did on 12 July. I am still amazed at how much she got out of me!! (I’m a Mercury conjunct Saturn/Pluto person, not known for giving away much…)
So – grab a coffee, (or something stronger!) kick off your shoes, put your feet up, and have a listen. We really enjoyed ourselves. Hope you do too!
And – Leo New Moon blessings!!
100 words copyright Anne Whitaker/Ana Isabel 2022 Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
In a stimulating wander this morning round our thoughts on the current turbulent state of a world in transition, my colleague Christina Rodenbeck of The Oxford Astrologer and I were immersed in reflecting on the upcoming shift of Pluto into Aquarius in 2023/4.
Suddenly I remembered I had written about this momentous astro-event in a 2017 post: my words seem highly relevant now, beginning with a description of The European Extremely Large Telescope…:
“…It will …perform ”stellar archaeology” in nearby galaxies, as well as make fundamental contributions to cosmology by measuring the properties of the first stars and galaxies and probing the nature of dark matter and dark energy. On top of this astronomers are also planning for the unexpected — new and unforeseeable questions will surely arise(my emphases) from the new discoveries made with the ELT. The ELT may, eventually, revolutionise our perception of the Universe, much as Galileo’s telescope did, 400 years ago…’ (1)…
Now – here is the bit that made me sit bolt upright, almost spilling my tea:
…First light, ie the first use of a telescope (or, in general, a new instrument) to take an astronomical image after it has been constructed, is currently planned for – 2024…(2)…”
To read the whole post including my thoughts in 2017 re what the 2023/4 Pluto into Aquarius shift might bring, clickHERE…
