Planetary Cycles Part Two: Uranus the Disrupter, Chiron the “Inconvenient Benefic”.

This month, we reflect on the key transits and 84 year cycle of Uranus, the great Disrupter of the zodiac. We also take time to consider the Chiron cycle of 50 years, and its impact, sharing some moving stories. Chiron is best known in his mythical garb as the Wounded Healer; we also consider him in his perhaps lesser well-known role as the Inconvenient Benefic.

In this conversation, we share some very funny personal anecdotes regarding Uranus transits’ capacity to turn life upside-down with (eventually) positive outcomes. We also share some deeply moving personal stories both from our client work ( anonymously of course) and from our own lives where one can see both the wounding and healing dimensions of the Chiron archetype at work.

So – take a break, settle down, and enjoy our dialogue as you reflect on how those two great planetary forces have impacted on YOUR life…

200 words © Anne Whitaker 2023

Contemplating that mysterious, elusive Twelfth House…

‘… I had not come across this before, but you really touch on everything I have wondered and thirsted to understand about the purpose of the 12th house, and navigating it. I‘m certainly inspired to embrace these ideas and uncover more! 

…Thank you again for sharing such eloquent wisdom. ..’

Courtesy of Pinterest

One of the great pleasures of being a writer is the affirming feedback from readers and appreciators of one’s work which appears from time to time. I’ve had various requests recently to republish some of my writings on the Twelfth House: that most hidden, elusive, mysterious ‘place in space’, which tends to get a pretty bad rap! The lovely feedback shared above (with the sender’s permission) has inspired me to do that now.

The Twelfth House is hard to understand, difficult to grasp – and can take those of us with planets in that house ( five, in my case! )(i) a long time to work out how to “live in the world, but not of it” with which, essentially, we 12th House people are tasked.

The essay you are about to read has been published in several places in recent years: you will find it along with other varied writings in my recent acclaimed collection of sixty published essays, articles, and columns “Postcards to the Future” in the section titled ‘Where I live (behind the sofa…”) where some of my writings on the Twelfth House appear. From this, and the title of the essay ie ‘Contemplating the Twelfth House: an optimist’s take on self-undoing’ you may gather that I have come to relatively peaceful terms with the pains – and the considerable gifts, which can flow from being a lifelong occupant of territory where

… all forms disperse, and flash back into life again
where boundaries are impossible to draw
where our experiences dissolve into our collective, tribal, familial, and personal past
where the seeds of the future lie
where ‘reality’ and ‘imagination’ overlap
where paranormal experience takes place
where religion and myth’s ‘sacred time’ resides
which myth describes
which the collective unconscious evokes
which can be perceived as God, Goddess, the Void, Brahman, the Zero Point Field

Enjoy the read!

https://www.astro.com/astrology/aa_article150302_e.htm

Endnote:

(i) I was even BORN in the twelfth house of the street my parents were living in at the time!

©anne whitaker 2023

Why do TWINS hold such fascination? Astrology offers some clues…

There are perennial questions repeatedly asked by astrology students, clients, and members of the public concerning topics which puzzle or challenge them – and astrologers. I have three favourites: twins is the first. What are the other two? Keep checking this blog and you’ll find out!

By email: Helene’s question:

How does it work when you do a birth chart for twins? Or two babies born the same minute at the same hospital?  Can two people have the same horoscope!?

Twins

My Answer:

During many years of teaching astrology classes, I found that the above questions came up very frequently.

It is important at this point to emphasise to readers who are familiar only with Sun Signs that to get ‘beyond the Sun Signs’ requires an individual’s horoscope to be drawn up for the date, place AND time of birth. Human beings are complex and contradictory. It’s not possible to approach any satisfying symbolic exploration of that complexity through the Sun or Star Sign alone.

A number of years ago, I decided to address the typical questions students asked about twins (summed up by Helene’s questions here) via one of the tutorial classes I ran for my more advanced students, all of whom had a good grasp of the basics of astrology, and some of whom were already practitioners in their own right.

One student – let’s call her Anna – was the devoted aunt to a set of twins in their mid teens, a boy and a girl –  let’s call them Angus and Miriam. These two had been born less than fifteen minutes apart and had almost identical horoscopes.

I had formulated a theory about twins and astrology which I wanted to test out, so I obtained permission via Anna from Angus and Miriam’ s parents as well as the twins themselves, to calculate their horoscopes and discuss them anonymously in class.

My method was to put up on the board only one horoscope since there was so little difference between the twins’ horoscopes, and ask the students to take an hour to prepare along with me a basic outline of the key characteristics revealed by this one horoscope. We did the preparation as though we were preparing a birth chart for just one person.

The class knew nothing about either of the twins, and I asked Anna to observe us, but not to make any comments at all.

Once we had written up the outline, we spent the next hour discussing our findings with Anna, who knew her nephew and niece well.

I am writing this after a gap of some years and no longer have the notes for detailed reference, so can only give a summary of the essence of what emerged from our discussion.

Anna found our summary from the one horoscope of the basic characteristics of both her nephew and niece to be very accurate. What was very clear was that certain traits were held in common, but that the rest were, as it were, divided up between the twins. To put it very simply, looking at a range of traits: 1,2,3 and 4 were recognisable in both; Miriam manifested traits 5,6 and 10 whilst Angus lived out traits 7, 8 and 9.

This very interesting and enlightening experiment does not of course constitute any kind of proof: but it bore out my impressions from reading about the similarities and differences in the lives of twins about whom I had read, as well as my own observations of twins I had come across from my own experience, as well as the few horoscope readings I had done for individuals who were twins.

What was this impression?

 Coming back to the analogy of the horoscope revealing the characters poised on life’s stage, waiting for the moment of birth to kick start the action of the play, it seemed that twins unconsciously chose which characters on their joint stage they were going to live out jointly – and the ones which they were going to live out separately.

The experiment which I did all those years ago with my students, Anna and her nephew and niece certainly bore out my theory….

After writing this piece I googled ‘astrology and twins’ to see what came up, and was pleased to find on my favourite astrology site, Astrodienst, that other astrologers including Dr Liz Greene had come to much the same conclusion.

As far as two people born at the same time in the same place is concerned, yes, they would in effect have the same horoscopes.  You would certainly see considerable similarities if you studied both their lives over time. But each character on the stage at a given moment in time has a range of possible modes of expression. Thus the influence of different family circumstances and different opportunities, etc, would call forth a range of possible responses from the same basic character.

To read much more on this topic, do go over to the late master astrologer Donna Cunningham’s  blog Sky Writer, where she has an excellent piece on the astrology of  twins. I’ve also written a piece on Astrology, Twins and Epigenetics, if you’re interested in exploring a brief scientific ‘take’ on the topic…

Then come back and let me know what YOU think!

––––––––––

Endnotes:

This post “From the Archives” was first published along with some other Twins posts on my Astrology: Questions and Answers archive blog which is packed with a range of astrology articles over a wide spectrum of topics aimed at both experienced astrologers, advanced students – and newcomers. Do pop over and have a browse! There are also some ebooks to buy: just click on the covers.

Twins

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900 words

©anne whitaker 2023

Six Reasons Why I love Astrology…and more news re “Postcards to the Future”

Delighted to say the Kindle ebook version of ‘Postcards’ is now out and selling well already…here’s the link for all reviews and worldwide purchase details…

Here is a short extract of me reading one of the 60 articles, essays and columns:

Six Reasons Why I love Astrology

I’d also like to take this opportunity to say thank you again to all family, friends, students, former clients, mentorees, astro-colleagues and lovely folk I don’t even know, who have so generously supported “Postcards” in various ways since publication of the first paperback version.

I’ve had several requests now for signed copies, so here’s a special thank-you offer (sorry, it’s for UK folk only, it’s too costly to post overseas): if you email me your postal address and send £15.00 to my PayPal a/c at contact.anne.w@gmail.com (normal price £18.00 plus postage) I’ll send you a signed copy by return.

(Anne Whitaker email : info@anne-whitaker.com)

150 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2023

An astrologer’s job description…here goes!

“…My  job as an astrologer is to help other people understand themselves more clearly. I don’t know what the balance is between fate and free will any more than any one else does. But the Birth Chart or Horoscope suggests strongly that we come into this world, not as tabulae rasae (blank slates)  but with certain characters on the stage poised to live out a complex drama as the process of our life unfolds from birth to death…” 

I am delighted to be having this article feature in the March/April 2023 issue of the well-known UK based Kindred Spirit Magazine: over a number of years it has been one of the most consistently read pieces on my Astrology: Questions and Answers blog (now an archive of very varied articles – do drop by and have a browse!) and is included in my recent, acclaimed collection of 60 essays, articles and columns published from 1995-2021 in a wide range of magazines, newspapers and journals world-wide, “Postcards to the Future, available worldwide on Amazon both in print and e-book versions.

click on image to enlarge

I was also pleased when Kindred Spirit’s editor Leah Russell contacted me shortly before the issue deadline to say I was going to be introduced as one of three front page featured contributors, and could I give her one line of advice to my younger self, to appear along with my mugshot. What a question! Anyway, here it is along with the mugshot which I took myself on mobile phone the day of my very first haircut just after lockdown – the first for nearly two years! (My hair has never looked so good before or since!…)

I do hope my readers – and welcome to lots of new subscribers in recent months! – enjoy the article, and appreciate the advice either retrospectively or in advance. Your thoughts are welcome, as long as they are constructive. Anything else will be binned!!

******

300 words

©anne whitaker 2023

Some thoughts on…ethics, care and responsible astrological practice…

In keeping with many if not most of my astrological colleagues, I am both pleased at the upswing in popularity and scope that social media has brought to our field, and alarmed at the careless way that the art and craft of astrology is often used in the public realm.

Many of us have invested much time, effort and expense into becoming qualified and responsible practitioners. A number of us, including myself, have gone on to teach and mentor upcoming students who are studying with reputable schools. Some of us, myself included, have been involved in astrological practice, teaching and mentoring for decades.

I feel a particular sense of responsibility toward those young folks who are at an early stage in their investigation into astrology, and currently going through what those of us seasoned practitioners have gone through ourselves: increasing fascination, reading, realising the vast scope and depth of a practice way beyond the Sun Signs of its popular face, which has been part of human experience for at least 6000 years, exchanging exciting new ideas with others, maybe going to local or online classes, usually practising on friends, family, and whoever would like their charts “done”. Hopefully along with increasing knowledge and practice also comes an increasing awareness of the power of the art of astrology and an accompanying sense of responsibility to the sensitivities and vulnerabilities of those upon whom we practice. However– we all know that this is often not the case…

However – and this is a big however – that old cliche “He who increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow” will kick in at some point as one slowly walks the path toward competence. Astrological symbolism can scare us as well as excite us. Astrology well and responsibly practised can be a healing art of deep value. But astrological knowledge can also be wounding. That is part of the risk we all take on, in moving deeper into such fascinating symbolic territory. However, as with most adventurous and life-changing journeys, we are often not aware of certain risks until we are well down the journey’s road.

In my recent collection of 60 essays, articles and columns, Postcards to the Future, p 128, there is a long study called “Astrology as a healing and a wounding art..” In that essay, to which a number of my students and clients contributed, I explore this sensitive topic in some depth.

An encounter with precisely this topic occurred for me this week, via an enquiry from a young person whose own astrological journey had brought up an issue of some concern to her. I have asked her permission to use our email conversation since I thought it might be of value to other young ( and perhaps not-so- young! ) folks who are beginning to experience the more challenging facets of astrology as their explorations continue. I am most grateful to “Jessica” – she chose her own pseudonym at my request! – for being so willing to share our exchange.

Here it is:

Dear Anne

Hello. I’ve been reading your website for a long time. Recently I was reading a book by Liz Greene, and I had a question. I decided to look for her students to ask this question, and found out that you studied with her. So I decided to write to you. Liz Greene in her book said this about retrograde Venus: “When Venus is turned inward in this way, the capacity to express erotic love on the body level may be somewhat inhibited”, “Often there is a kind of shyness or social clumsiness about a retrograde Venus, since the elegance and skill of a more extraverted Venus will operate on the inner, cerebral level rather than the outer one. There may also be considerable awkwardness in sexual matters, because the beauty of the fantasy may supercede the pleasure of physical encounter. A retrograde Venus does not thwart the capacity for sexual pleasure. But it may not be the most important aspects of relationship, and there may be inhibitions which need to be honoured because of the inner richness of feeling which results”.

My Venus will soon become retrograde in secondary progressions. It will be retrograde for more than forty years and I’m twenty-one. Please tell me, does this mean that all these negative effects will occur to me? Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Jessica

My Reply:

Dear Jessica

thank you first of all for following my writings. I really appreciate that, and it’s good to hear from my readers…

Liz Greene is a brilliant astrologer, teacher and writer: I consider it a great privilege to have studied with her throughout the 1990s. I don’t know what the specific context is of this quote. In any case, all astrological writers know that what they say in print can only be general, and to have a specific personal “tuning” requires a reading of your actual horoscope constructed from your date, place and accurate time of birth. There are many other facets to Venus than the sexual dimensions focused on here, depending on Venus’ location, aspects etc in your horoscope – and in any case any statement made about any planet /angle/house/ aspect/ node/asteroid either natally, by transit, or by progression can only be general unless the writer is examining a specific horoscope.

So – I really don’t think you should worry unduly about this, but take yourself off to an experienced astrologer and discuss the Venus retrograde issue with them. I realise that will involve cost, but as in everything in life, you get what you pay for, and a good astrology reading is worth saving up for – or you could perhaps ask for one as a birthday/special occasion gift. I’m enclosing some recommendations at the end of this message, since I only read charts now in the context of work my zoom mentorees wish to discuss with me.

Here’s a personal story which may help: a few years ago now, I noticed that Mercury (my ruling planet) was going to go retrograde in Scorpio in the third house – for the rest of my life! Professional astrologers are not immune to getting rattled by what they see coming up in their own charts, by the way. However, I thought I’d work WITH the grain of this shift, and got down to going over my many essays, articles, columns, blog posts etc which I ‘d written and published over the years, and make a selection of 60 of the best of them. That resulted a couple of years later in my book Postcards to the Future, which has gone down well and been very well reviewed. I am currently mining all my writings on The Moon’s Nodes going back over many years, and hope to produce that as a book as well in due course. And other material from my ‘back catalogue’ Also, during the covid lockdowns, which followed on my husband’s death in January 2020, I found that the deepening self-sufficiency and introspection brought by that retro Mercury by sign and house, was a huge help to me in coping with quite a bit of reflective time (and in my case, time for mourning) which we all had during the pandemic lock-downs. There have also been other benefits flowing from this retrograde turn – but I’m sure you get the idea!

In essence, try to go WITH the grain of whatever comes your way symbolically through your astrological studies, and work with these energies as best you can. In that way, you will find riches rather than affirmation of your fears. Astrology is indeed double-edged: with the wonderful enlightenment it can bring, it also can make us fearful – often unnecessarily. I have lost count of the things I worried about over the years of my studies and practice, that never happened! Now I am much more laid-back…

I ‘ve copied and pasted my standard letter to enquirers below my name in this email. I have confidence in all the practitioners I’ve recommended, and know them personally. 

Hope this helps – and enjoy your studies. 

Best wishes

Anne 

Jessica’s Reply:

Dear Anne, Thank you SO much for such a detailed answer! You have helped me a lot

******

1400 words

©anne whitaker 2023

Astrology: a practice centred in Mystery…

   ‘ The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.’ (Albert Einstein) Engaging with mystery, which piques my curiosity into embarking on processes of exploration and discovery, has been a key feature of my somewhat wayward life. 

The most striking example of this was a chance encounter with astrologers who drew up and read my horoscope, stunning me with the depth and accuracy of the picture they were able to paint. I simply could not understand how drawing symbols on a piece of paper could provide a key to my – or anyone else’s–  inner world. Determined attempts to penetrate that mystery led me to to the astrological career which I have pursued to this day. 

Another mystery, which as a writer I especially love, is how the strands of our lives quietly weave themselves into a pattern without our noticing until much later, sometimes by decades. During my late twenties, a major preoccupation was whether life did in fact mean anything at all. Emerging from many years of nihilism, I found myself unable to sustain a belief that our struggles in this life were meaningless. 

On cue, came that life-changing encounter with those astrologers. My astrological studies were partly about unravelling the mystery held by those symbols on that powerful piece of paper. They were also about proving to myself that life was not a random meaningless accident in space/time, but was charged with mystery, meaning, pattern and purpose. 

As an astrologer I work ‘blind’ with no information about the client’s life beforehand apart from their chart, allowing my guide on our journey of exploration to be the client’s answer to the question “Why are you here today, and what do you hope to gain from our meeting?”. I realise, a long time later, that this mode has arisen from two formative strands. 

The first was the original experience of that ‘blind’ reading of my horoscope, which had such a powerful impact. The second was further affirmation gained from those early studies and practice, aimed at proving astrology’s validity: not just by the time-honoured mode of most of us, i.e. practising on willing friends and family, but also by doing a substantial number of my own ‘blind’ readings. 

The latter practice, in particular, provided me with the proof a demanding mind required. With Mercury ruling my chart, conjunct Saturn/Pluto, glib explanations have never cut much ice. As my skills and fluency grew, I found myself able do the same thing for complete strangers that the astrologers had done for me, thereby arriving at the stage to which all sincere and dedicated practice takes us: knowing that astrology works. 

Sitting here in morning sunshine, writing and contemplating, I am aware with gratitude of the debt owed to six thousand or more years of tradition in which my practice is rooted. What has astrology done for me, as well as providing an endlessly fascinating career? What do I try to do for my clients and students as a transmitter of that tradition? 

Primarily, it has provided a context of meaning where I can perceive my life as a small, but useful strand in the Big Weave. I often say to new astrology students: “ Think of your horoscope as a tiny symbolic chip of the universe’s energy pattern at the time you were born, which Someone handed to you, saying ‘Here – do the best you can with this.’ Your job is to hand it back at the end of your life with more light shining through it than there was at the beginning.” 

At a more practical level, my horoscope showed me that, far from trying to iron out my contradictions – a futile pursuit for much of my twenties – I needed to understand them, make peace with them as far as possible, and stop punishing myself for the parts of which neither I nor our wider culture particularly approved. Gradually, I discovered that those darker energies could be channelled creatively, with help from the insights offered by my horoscope. Plutonian power drives come to mind here… I have five planets including Pluto in Leo in the twelfth house, all squared by a third house Jupiter, with Virgo rising. Boy, did I need all the help I could get in making peace with that lot!

 In essence, I try to offer my clients and students what astrology has given me. The biggest help people can gain from a horoscope reading, I have found over many years’ practice, is being able to take a step forward in accepting themselves as they are. This can release energy, formerly used in self-punishment, denial or lack of confidence, to be channelled into using their gifts and strengths more constructively. Continuing this work remains a great joy, although these days I concentrate mainly on student mentoring, occasional zoom interviews, and writing

Yet mystery still remains. One can describe the symbolic patterns of the birth moment,  those characters on the stage of a person’s life, with considerable accuracy in essence; nevertheless each pattern has an infinite range of possible manifestations. We can never know until the client begins to tell us their story what level of consciousness they bring to the living of their unique life. Very often, this is what determines how the patterns play out in practice. But beyond that, lies mystery. As Carl Jung so wisely put it ‘… learn your theories as well as you can, but put them aside when you touch the miracle of the living soul…’  The nature of that miracle lies in mystery – as such, forever beyond our reach.

*****

This piece was published (May/June 2017 issue) in my column The astro-view from Scotland which ran for the final three years of Dell Horoscope Magazine: USA’s leading astrology magazine for over 80 years until the Spring of 2020.

©anne whitaker 2023

Neptune transits: opening the door to ‘Otherness’…

As an astrologer, one of my favourite quotations is from Nobel Prize-winning German physicist, Max Planck (April 23 1858 – October 4 1947) :

“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die…”

Do come in…

This strikes me as an observation pertinent in its essence to most of us, arising from amongst other things fear of the unknown – and desire to keep IT ( the Shadow) out, keep the light on. However, psychologist and mystic Carl Jung took the view that the major task of our lives was the reconciliation of those great opposites. Light and Dark run through the whole of life: we need them both, collectively and as individuals. Without the bleak apparently barren darkness of Winter, we cannot have the life-affirming beauty, light and energy of Spring.

Identifying too closely with either pole inevitably calls forth its opposite…at its worst, there are too many examples scattered throughout history: a perennial (and contemporary) example being religious and/or political persecution – and war – arising from one side knowing the Light of Truth and having Right on their side, being prepared to destroy those unfortunate enough to take a different view: in order to save their souls from the darkness of Hell – metaphorical or otherwise.

Those splits are especially acute in our era. Saturn in Aquarius is slogging it out with Uranus in Taurus, as Pluto concludes his long dredge through Capricorn mercilessly exposing the rotten underpinnings of a ubiquitous culture rooted in a materialistic set of values and practices which are severely damaging our mother planet, and intolerance runs rampant everywhere.

Another contemporary variation on this theme is the bitter split between materialist reductionism which posits scientific perspectives as the only Reality, and the recorded accounts of very many people over centuries and longer, who willingly or otherwise, have experienced decidedly ‘other’ versions of reality which simply do not fit the current prevailing reductionist paradigm.

I am one of those people. For a long, long time, despite being a decidedly rational individual – sceptical in the open-minded sense of the word – I experienced intermittent and unpredictable intrusions into my everyday Reality whilst going about being a stable and productive member of society. A period of unwelcome, intermittent and uninvited episodes of ‘otherness’ began when I was nearly 24 years old, with Neptune transiting my IC conjunct South Node in Scorpio. It took me a very long time, but eventually I was able to come to terms with and make peace with that ‘other’ side of myself.

Thirty years later, during a long Neptune transit in Aquarius opposite my six 12th house planets, I began writing the book in which I recorded those 37 ‘other’ experiences. Having completed the book and published it in PDF form, the episodes came (mostly) to an end. Here I am, talking about ‘Wisps from the Dazzling Darkness” and related topics with my colleague Ana Isabel – another open-minded rationalist who is no stranger to experiences of ‘otherness’ herself. I’m planning to incorporate ‘Wisps…’ into a longer memoir provisionally titled ‘Swimmer in a Secret Sea’ to be published in print and as an ebook sometime in 2023. Watch this space!

In the meantime, kick off your shoes, grab a coffee – or something stronger, and have a listen to this recording we did recently for Ana’s In the Light podcast.. I’d be most interested if you felt like sharing your experience(s) of episodes which reductionist science says do not exist…

Opening the door to ‘Otherness’…

©Anne Whitaker/Ana Isabel 2023

Moon’s Nodes and Eclipses: Gemini/Sagittarius adventures 2020-22…

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, click HERE

Thanks, Astrodienst, for once again featuring my work

Leo, Aquarius, a climate bill, a monarch’s death, Pluto – and a changing world order

What a week!

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…

Endnote

(i) UK Guardian 16.8.22: “ ‘Biggest step forward on climate ever’: Biden signs Democrats’ landmark bill…”.

1000 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2022
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