Jupiter/Uranus in Pisces do religion: Countdown to 19 September

You don’t have to be a very sage astrologer to work out that one of the likely backdrops to this upcoming 19th September 2010 Jupiter/Uranus conjunction at 29 degrees Pisces (the second of three during 2010/11) is going to be that perennial sustainer, challenger, inspirer, executor and persecutor of the human race – religion.

And sure enough, it is shaping up in bold primary colours already.

A major row has been rumbling in the USA since the end of August 2010 over the proposed location of  a Muslim religious centre close to the site of Ground Zero.Check out:

Last week the UK’s most prominent and respected scientist Stephen Hawking grandly announced that God was not necessary in coming up with an explanation for the origins of the Universe. This could be found in the laws of physics. The book “Grand Design”, set for release on September 9, has him saying: “because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing….”

New Hubble Image: Carina Nebula
New Hubble Image: Carina Nebula

In recent days, it has become world-wide news that the pastor of a small church in Florida, Terry Jones, is planning a less than conciliatory act of remembrance of the 9/11 atrocity by burning 200 copies of the Koran on the 11 September. This plan has been roundly condemned from USA Secretary of  State Hilary Clinton downwards. See http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/09/08/florida.quran.reaction/#fbid=lNzACjrNQ7c&wom=false

(NOTE: it just caught my eye in Google’s news headlines as I was signing off after publishing this post and doing some emails, that the pastor in question has called off his protest. How interesting that this should occur on the very day that Jupiter slips from combative, fiery Aries into the soothing waters of Pisces….)

And here in the UK, that anti-messiah and self-appointed High Priest of Atheism, the scientist and polemical writer Richard Dawkins, had planned to arrest the Pope when he visits the UK during 16-19 September, just at the exact point of the second Jupiter/Uranus conjunction.

“Campaigners supported by Prof Richard Dawkins, the prominent atheist, had hoped to have Benedict XVI held over his supposed cover-up of child abuse within the Roman Catholic Church.

But leaders of the Protest the Pope coalition now admit that the Pontiff cannot be arrested as Britain acknowledges him as a head of state, granting him sovereign immunity from criminal prosecution.” Read more

The fingerprints of the Jupiter/Uranus combination in Pisces are all over these events. First of all, Jupiter and Uranus are planets associated with the ‘masculine’ dimension of life regardless of a person’s sex: outgoing and action-oriented.

Then, if we think of the mythology of Jupiter and Uranus, we have the arrogant and combative Olympian god Jupiter, who was always right, enjoyed laying down the law, (fundamentalism anyone?) and who threw thunderbolts from Mount Olympus at unfortunate humanity cowering down below. His ally Prometheus (I follow the Richard Tarnas view that Uranus in action most resembles the Greek god Prometheus) was an innovator who taught humankind the great arts of astrology, science and music.

He also decided that the gods’ fire was just what the human race needed to make them all-wise and powerful (without actually consulting any of them to see if they wanted this equivocal gift!) and proceeded to steal that precious substance, hidden in a fennel-stalk. Unfortunately he got caught and spent eternity chained to a rock having his liver pecked out by an eagle.

As I point out in my book “Jupiter Meets Uranus” ( AFA 2009) the Jupiter/Uranus combination can represent the very best in human aspiration, exploration, inventiveness and the sheer exuberance of being alive. However, arrogant conviction of their own rightness when working together can make this combination inflammatory, hubristic and downright destructive. We should therefore see both the positive and negative sides of this unique conjunction during the Jupiter/Uranus year of 2010/11.

The Jupiter/Uranus combination works out of the ‘left field’ more than any other combination of planetary energies. Its cycle is 14 years long.

In 1969 Man stepped on the Moon for the first time under an exact Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in Libra. In 1983 with the conjunction in Sagittarius, the world’s first artificially made chromosome was created at Harvard University. In February 1997 with the conjunction in Aquarius, Dolly the Sheep, the first cloned animal, was announced to the world.

2010/11 is gradually revealing unique developments too for good and ill: the Large Hadron Collider’s vast experiment and what it may reveal. Craig Venter’s company’s creating of  the first artificial living cell – using highly sophisticated computer technology. The worst man-made oil spill in history. Scientists making hubristic statements about spiritual matters which go inappropriately beyond their reductionist terms of reference. Religious (and anti-religious) fanatics behaving in ways that no-one could have guessed or believed…..

Bring it on, Jupiter/Uranus!

We are waiting with bated breath for more left-field events: with a mixture of  fascination, awe, humour (sometimes if you don’t laugh you just end up crying….) dismay and disbelief. Well, given that Pisces is involved, the word ‘belief” has to feature somewhere….

 

"Jupiter meets Uranus" by Anne Whitaker (2009)
"Jupiter meets Uranus" by Anne Whitaker (2009)

To find up-to-the minute information on ‘Jupiter Meets Uranus’ : New Reviews, Pre-Publication Reviews, Promotional Interviews, etc

AND

many articles on the upcoming Jupiter/Uranus conjunctions of 2010/11

AND

a unique, unfolding research study of the lives of 12 subjects whose ages range from late 20s to early 80s “Tales from the Wild Ride”,

go to

http://jupitermeetsuranus.wordpress.com/

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850 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2010
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page

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Jupiter/Uranus 2010/11: here come the stories!

"Jupiter meets Uranus" by Anne Whitaker (2009)
"Jupiter meets Uranus" by Anne Whitaker (2009)

(for more information, click HERE)

Those of you following the  “Jupiter Meets Uranus” section of this 4-part site will know that I have been writing a series of preparatory articles, orienting readers toward the 2010/11 Jupiter/Uranus conjunctions, since the beginning of the year.

Last month I selected 12 volunteers strongly “plugged-in” to the late Pisces/ early Aries energy of the new conjunction. Then I sent them preparatory notes, followed by the first of six Questionnaires. They obligingly sent back varied and colourful feedback, and I hope now will continue to do so right through until next Spring 2011, by which time the new Jupiter/Uranus cycle will have become established.

By next Spring, then, through following the unfolding of those 12 lives, we should all have a better grasp of just how many branches can spring from the same recognisable core of the Jupiter/Uranus combo. Seeing this vital, unique essence shining through all 17 of the varied lives of my 1997 researchees made the slog of doing the research worthwhile then.

Having now stopped banging my head off the wall, moaning “Why, why, WHY am I doing this?” (Saturn/Pluto, anyone?) I am now surfing that unique wave of enthusiasm, excitement and anticipation of the new (and probably weird) which Jupiter/Uranus brings at its best.

Do join me and a great band of volunteers in following their unfolding drama over the next few months. Installments One (6.8.10) and Two (13.8.10) are now out there!

Check out

Jupiter/Uranus 2010/11: “Tales from the Wild Ride” Part One

AND

Tales from the Wild Ride ii) : Jupiter/Uranus 2010/11

And finally, I leave you with a trenchant observation on the ups and downs of the unique, turbulent energy field we are all currently moving through – from one of the volunteers, “Fiona”:

I feel like the scales keep falling from my eyes on any number of fronts. But off we go – into the wild blue J/U yonder…..’

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AND
For a thorough and well – informed take on current collective patterns, check out Theodore White’s Global Astrology Blog
and Jamie Funk’s FUNK ASTROLOGY
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350 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2010
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page

I saw some google ads appearing with this article. I did NOT authorise them and want them off!!!

Uranus into Aries 28 May 2010 – a new cycle arrives!

It will be back to what passes for ‘normal service’ on “Writing from the Twelfth House” in June: the usual eclectic mix with astrology as a rich strand in the weave. However, I thought I’d link you in to one of my other sites in honour of the new cycle about to begin: the seven-year residence of the most rebellious, left field planet in the Zodiac, Uranus, in the first sign of Aries. The Sun crossing into the Northern Hemisphere at the first point of Aries around 20-25 March each year signifies the fresh start of Spring. So it is symbolically with this new cycle of Uranus in Aries. Impatient, aggressive, new, left-field energy is about to enter the global weave. eg in the UK, politics have their Spring moment with an entirely unexpected Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition and two new young party leaders. How will they perform? No one knows as yet. Fasten your seat belts,world.

It sure won’t be dull!

Uranus enters Aries May 28, sky falls in: Yes, no….or merely maybe? Part Two

Jupiter/Uranus in Aries June 2010: the wild ride begins!

As  we nervously await the impact of the upcoming Jupiter/Uranus/Saturn/Pluto energy field, I think we could do well to adopt the attitude evinced by research participant ‘Sherry’ to me in her recent comment:

“….I am looking forward to the upcoming transit and wondering what surprises are in store for me this year….. I am hoping for the best but prepared for a bumpy ride….”

(What follows is an extract: to read the full version of this article, third in the “Back to the Future” series on the Jupiter/Uranus conjunctions of 2010/11, click HERE)

Astrological knowledge is indeed double-edged: I have discussed this duality in previous articles, which have generated considerable interest and provided me with a new ‘generation’ of 2010/11 Jupiter/Uranus researchees, following on my study of the lives of 17 subjects during the 1997 Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in Aquarius. But I feel it is more helpful than otherwise to have some advance warning of our movement into, and through, a tempestuous energy field which promises disruption collectively and individually – but also open us up to possibilities for growth as yet unknown….we need to be humble in the face of these great forces, recognising that there is only so much we can do to prepare for them.

Uranus moves into Aries on 28th May 2010.

The Jupiter/Uranus in Aries ‘touchpaper’ of 8 June 2010 sets off the complex, resistant but explosive firework of  the Jupiter/Saturn/Uranus/Pluto energy field, with peaks in June and July 2010 as the inner planets move through, creating a Grand Cross pattern. The lunar eclipse late in June at 5 degrees Capricorn, and Mars late in July crossing 0 Libra, powerfully trigger off the conjunction point again:

 

 8.6.10 Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in Aries - set on the Natural Zodiac
8.6.10 Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in Aries - set on the Natural Zodiac

 

It is probably a fair assumption to make that inner tensions are going to be high for us researchees, as the demands of the old order versus the new battle it out at an inner level, and at an outer level as far as our life circumstances and relationships with others are concerned. I see the Jupiter/Uranus conjunction as the catalyst in the overall pattern, for breaking down resistance to change and releasing flows of entirely new energy.

It is also vital to remember that we are each tiny sparks in the overall light of our solar system. So  – “as above, so below”. We can learn a great deal about what to expect personally by observing the turbulence of the world around us geographically, politically, socially, spiritually and scientifically, realising that we researchees will be manifesting tiny surges of that same overall energy field.

We can see this already. A small personal example will suffice. Ian and I have Mars at 1.5 Cancer/2.5 Capricorn respectively. When the Icelandic volcano erupted – fire surging through ice! – we were two of the many thousands of air travellers sitting at home gazing mournfully at our luggage instead of flying off on holiday. On 15th April 2010 we were under the impression we were flying to Devon, England, UK. On 17th April 2010, we set out in the opposite direction by car to the island of Iona in the Scottish Hebrides.

This total change of goal was not accomplished without a great deal of disappointment, stress, tension and anger (Aries….). But in the end we let go of all that, and had a really good, refreshing time in a place of great spiritual peace (Pisces….) And drank some very nice wine!

So – watch your anger levels, try not to take it out on those around you (also my advice to myself!), realise that certain circumstances are going to arise which will be outwith your control. Adapt – fast. Get used to feeling dazed and somewhat shocked. Try to free yourself from bonds you know are destructive – if you don’t, life is liable to provide that impetus from the left field….

OBSERVATIONAL ORBS

For my 1997 research, I set a tight observational orb of 4 -7 degrees  Aquarius (the Jupiter/Uranus conjunction fell at 5 deg 55 mins Aquarius) – only taking on researchees who had relevant planets, Angles or Nodes between 4-7 degrees, and only noting world events during times when Jupiter, Uranus, Mars, Saturn, Pluto – and, between early April 1999 and January 2002, Neptune – moved through that band. (Read all about it in “Jupiter Meets Uranus”!)

However, informal contacts subsequently with people whose relevant planets etc had been anywhere from 0 deg to 10 deg Aquarius, but who had still had a disruptive and changeful year, suggested to me that I should set a wider observational orb for the 2010/11 conjunctions.

I have done this: starting watching closely from the end of March 2010, when Jupiter was applying 10 degrees away from Uranus (17 and 27 Pisces respectively), I will declare the project closed in mid-March 2011, when Jupiter will be separating from Uranus by 10 degrees (11 and 0 degrees Aries respectively). At that point, I will probably have had more than enough of it all – and want to retire from watching Jupiter/Uranus forever!

I am very much aware that the powerfully disruptive Uranus/Pluto square will  only be getting into its stride by then. But there is a specific quality to Jupiter/Uranus times, which I have already defined in  earlier articles on this topic, which makes the year from March 2010-2011 very much worth watching.

Using this wide orbital range, there have been a string of world events already fitting the Jupiter/Uranus template in combination with Saturn and Pluto since the end of March 2010.

WORLD EVENTS

To name a few:

the death of 96 members of the Polish ruling class in a plane crash, political upheavals in Burma, Obama’s Health Bill signed into law, nuclear missiles reduction treaty between Russia and USA,

major Chinese earthquake, Icelandic volcano eruption disrupting world flight traffic at a level never known before, huge undersea oil leak after rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico,

Large Hadron Collider worked this time!, NASA has unveiled stunning images of our Sun from a new satellite designed to predict disruptive solar storms, on 27 April there was an announcement that the biggest ever telescope was going to be built in the Atacama Desert to enable us to see farther into the cosmos than we have ever seen before. Oh yes, and our greatest living scientist UK’s Stephen Hawking is about to present a TV series advising us on how to go about communicating with aliens….in a word, don’t!…

Going by my and Ian’s recent experiences, all you researchees out there have probably begun to have life disruptions of an unforeseen and novel kind. Keep those seatbelts buckled. The wild ride has just begun!

ps don’t forget to keep taking notes, and report in to Ground Control (ie this site) now and then. Good luck!!

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Jupiter Meets Uranus
Jupiter Meets Uranus

To buy “Jupiter meets Uranus: from erotic bathing to star gazing“, described in a five-star review by Leah Whitehorse as “a page-turner of the astrology world”, click HERE

UK buyers, click HERE

To find a series of articles on the Jupiter/Uranus combination, the Jupiter/Uranus conjunction of 1997, and reflections on the upcoming 2010/11 Jupiter/Uranus conjunctions in Pisces and Aries, including ” Jupiter, Uranus and the Purple People from Planet Zog “, click HERE

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1200 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2010
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page

Preparing for 2010/11: Prometheus unbound?

Astrology is a double-edged art.

It bestows the inestimably joyful gift of awareness that we are all woven into some vast, meaningful pattern – in which the tiniest of individual threads ( you, me….) is a key part of the weave. It contributes a significant lens to the many through which we limited humans  attempt to expand our vision and comprehension of both the collective and individual patterns of life on this tiny, precious planet of ours.

Astrology can also raise fear and apprehension: it provides very accurate timings so that we can know exactly when certain energy patterns are coming to their peak. But our attempts at predicting precisely how those energies will manifest – both collectively and individually – have ranged historically from considerable accuracy to being way off the mark. As a critic wryly observed not long ago, if astrologers could consistently predict accurately they would all be millionaires by now.

The myth of Prometheus, who stole the gods’ fire in order to use it for humanity’s enlightenment and was savagely punished for his hubris, is a salutary one to contemplate as we think of astrology’s double edge. Fire warms us, lights up the dark, protects us – but it can also burn the hand that bears it. All illuminating knowledge, everything which takes humans a step forward into the light, also casts a dark shadow.

And here we are, as another year and decade begins, contemplating one of the astrological calendar’s most dynamic and exciting cycles. The fourteen-year cycle of Jupiter and Uranus, which last took place at 5-6 degrees of Aquarius in February 1997, is coming to an end. The new one zaps zero degrees Aries with its lightning bolt in June 2010.

 

Prometheus
Prometheus

And the myth of Prometheus, powerfully connected to the planet Uranus,

becomes once again startlingly relevant.

Now read on….

An Astrologer at Work: Part Three

(This is an edited version of a longer interview, published in Connections magazine,
Scotland, UK  in February 1996. It appears on the website in three parts – click An Astrologer at Work
to read the first two installments.)

extract from Part One….” The purpose of the “Not the Astrology Column” theme on this website is to introduce open-minded readers to the in-depth astrology which lies behind the entertainment facade offered by the Sun Sign columns. We are living in a time where awareness of the ‘interconnectedness of all things’ is fast returning to the forefront of public consciousness across the world. The evidence is piling up increasingly starkly: what happens in one part of our biosphere impacts everywhere.

The ancient maxim ‘As above, so below‘ has thus never seemed more relevant. The art and practice of astrology has been based on that maxim for at least six thousand years. Astrology links what happens in the individual and collective lives of human beings to the movement of the planets through the solar system of which we are part….”

Now read on!

The Principles and Practice of Astrology

“Connections” Editor Ian Holland interviews Anne Whitaker

Part Three:

AW: One of the many fascinations of astrology is how it shows the ever-changing patterns of the planets symbolically reflecting different kinds of energies in our collective life. If you as an individual are strongly plugged into collective patterns – which you can assess through comparing the natal horoscope with prevailing planetary positions in the here-and-now – it seems as if you are given a wee chip of the current pattern to work with in your individual life.  Let me give a specific example. From the end of 1992 until the beginning of 1995 there was a particularly difficult combination of planets, which  when it shows up tends to symbolise warring, destructive energies at work in our world. I’m talking about the Saturn/Pluto combination.

Every time these planets have connected this century the collective context has been war – they were linked at the start of World War 1, then at the end of the Second World War  when we were confronted with the horrors of the two holocausts, Nazi and nuclear. This combination formed a key part of the planetary backdrop to the Arab/Israeli war (the State of Israel was born under the Saturn/Pluto conjunction of  1947/48) in the Sixties; the Falklands war in the Eighties; and 1992 saw the upsurge of the Balkan War. Over the following two years we saw in Europe a fierce and brutal period of terrible carnage – as well as genocide in Ruanda and various other horrors at different locations.

(2008 update: the atrocity of 9/11 took place during the subsequent major Saturn/Pluto combination in the autumn of 2001)

From 1992 to early 1995, I observed individuals, whose horoscopes showed them to be strongly plugged into this pattern, going through deeper and darker traumas in their personal lives, much of it involving family fate issues, than I had ever seen before. Because my own horoscope involved this pattern, I had to go through some very painful and difficult times regarding my own family of origin. It seems to me that I drew to me, as a practitioner, clients plugged into the same overall pattern as myself.

Thus I was aware of having to struggle hard to keep a balance between compassionate feeling and dispassionate judgement during this period – the danger of projecting my own experience was high. But at least I was aware of that fact. This is an illustration of how astrologers need both professional supervision and, when appropriate, personal therapy to ensure that they are fully aware of their own issues and avoid as far as possible projecting them into their astrological work.

You know the Shakespearean quote – ‘there is a tide in the affairs of men’…..if you practice astrology often enough, and for long enough, you can see the tides of history, the changing patterns of the times, running through the lives of individuals whose charts you read. It’s fascinating…and awesome.

IH : you were telling me earlier that on the 16 Feb 1997  there’s something pretty spectacular coming up for us all ?

AW : (laughs) Yes! There is no doubt in my mind that astrologers can look at the unfolding pattern of energies through spacetime, cut a section through any point or moment  of the past, present or future, look at what the essence of that moment is, and speculate regarding what some of the branches manifesting in the wider world, or in individuals lives, may be.

What they can’t do is see how they’re going to manifest exactly.  Our track record on hindsight is much better than it is on foresight, historically!

There have been some spectacularly accurate predictions made by astrologers in the public realm over the centuries; a famous one was made by Luc Gauricus in 1555 to the effect that King Henri the Second of France ( then aged 37)  was in danger of death in his 42nd year, by a head injury incurred in single combat in an enclosed space. And five years later Henri duly died of a lance splinter which entered his eyes and pierced his brain.

Mediaeval Knights Jousting
Mediaeval Knights Jousting

There have also been some spectacular failures, eg to predict that the Munich agreement of 1938 would lead to World War Two.

We do much better at describing the essence of a pattern – identifying the exact branches is much more hit and miss. Personally this cheers me, since it appears to suggest a  creative balance between fate and free will in the universe – chaos theory in contemporary physics also has strong parallels with the astrological paradigm. Not everything  is pinned down  – both the language of astrology and the language of contemporary physics tells us that!

So you can perhaps see that I am very hesitant about both the accuracy of prediction and the wisdom of doing it at all, especially for individuals, in any more than a “describing the core and speculating about the branches” kind of way. Predicting that a specific branch WILL manifest, in my opinion closes down options rather than opening them up, also taking us into the realm of self-fulfilling prophecy….

But there are some very interesting patterns coming up, including the one you referred to a moment ago. So perhaps we can have some fun as we move to the close of this interview by playing with some possibilities !

In Feb 1997 the planet Jupiter, which  concerns expansion, growth, development and opportunity, meets Uranus which symbolises the urge to break through to new levels of experience. Of the 360 degrees of the zodiac, the exact conjunction takes place at 6 degrees of Aquarius from 15 to 17 of February.

What that should mean collectively is some kind of major step forward being announced in human development and awareness at that time. Jupiter/Uranus in Aquarius is a combination which has a strong feeling of technological  & scientific breakthrough about it. Here are some examples:

The first powered aeroplane flight on 17 Dec 1903 took place in Carolina, USA. There was a significant link between those two planets then. On the day of the moon landing in July 1969, there was an exact conjunction between those two planets. What we might expect is something which takes us boldly where humanity has not gone before. ……

What I’d urge your readers to do is keep an eye on the news around that time. And to further tantalise and tease everybody, I want to give a special message to people who were born when the sun was at 6 degrees of Aquarius in any year – ie those of you whose birthday is 25, 26, or 27 January – this applies to every year. All those people  should experience, in a variety of different ways, the same essential unusual, unexpected opening-out and development in their life’s path. Something quite out of the ordinary !

I would like people born on those days, whatever their age, to get in touch with me with their DATE, PLACE and TIME of birth, which I will then log into my computer. They could then contact me after  the 15-17 February 1997 and let me know how it was for them! If I get sufficient feedback I will write it up, anonymously, as a research project.

IH :  Great! I’m sure our readers will be only too glad to oblige.

(2008 update: The major event occurring a few days after the exact conjunction was the announcement to the world of a truly boldly-going scientific achievement – the creation of  Dolly the Sheep, the world’s first cloned animal, by a team of Scottish scientists led by Dr Ian Wilmut. Read all about this, and other exciting developments around the same time, in Anne Whitaker’s book on the Jupiter Uranus conjunction of 1997.

The book, including the researched experiences of 17 people who participated in the project, is now published (April 2009) as “ Jupiter meets Uranus : from erotic bathing to star gazing” by theAmerican Federation of Astrologers. If you would like to read a brief summary of its content in the meantime, click on BOOKS where the back page blurb is displayed.)

1500 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2008
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page