For the last two years ('95 to '97), a most amazing and influential planetary pattern has been forming in the skies around us. It represents a spiritual energy (operating mostly at an unconscious level) that has been overhauling our lives and our relationships with each other. Even though the buildup of this energy has been gradual, it's cumulative effects have been very trying (how many people do you know that are exhausted and burnt out lately?). As we move into January and February of 1997, this cosmic show reaches its Grand Finale. Like a fireworks display, there's more astrological "action" in this Grand Finale the next two months than in the entire previous two years. The effect of all these planetary energies on our lives at all levels can feel like a Mack truck sometimes. The message for us is to get with the flow of the new energies around us -- or wind up as roadkill (spiritually speaking).
I commonly imagine each planet's energy as a person with certain personality traits, usually a cartoon character of some sort. Let me introduce you to the actors in this fascinating show.
This story revolves around two unruly planets, Uranus and Pluto. Uranus is a known trouble maker, a professional anarchist that loves to overturn the status quo just for the heck of it. When Uranus enters your life, things change quickly and radically in unexpected ways. His forte is turning around your entire way of viewing the world, literally setting your sense of reality on its head. Pluto is more of a secretive subversive, removing the inappropriate or outmoded trappings in our lives and forcing us to get back to basics. He insists that we become who we were ultimately meant to be, no more, no less. You can cooperate with him and go quietly to your destiny, or you can go kicking and screaming, but either way you'll be transformed. These rascals teamed up together in April '95, when they formed a connection (technically called a sextile aspect) that would be repeated 5 times over the next two years, ending on February 5th of this year. Obviously, our lives were in for a massive metamorphosis with these two energies at work.
It's important to look at the last time Uranus and Pluto made a major connection like this, since from the perspective of centuries instead of years, these two time periods are intimately related. The previous contact was in 1966, a time when the forces of revolutionary change exploded onto the scene as the Sixties. This exuberant outburst of energy couldn't be sustained and eventually went underground within us all. It "failed" partly because this revolution tried to change "society" without sufficiently changing the people that make up that society. The current contact is a time to redress these shortcomings, to make the spiritual shifts within ourselves first and let them spill over into the world around us. This time, the "revolution" is spiritual in nature.
All this commotion was going on in us, mostly below the level of conscious awareness, but it seemed to be rather distant and ethereal. All this changed in April of '96, when Saturn the Teacher entered the picture. Saturn is often maligned as the harsh and cruel headmaster of the School of Hard Knocks, but his lessons of discipline, form, structure and recognizing your limitations are valuable ones. He teaches us how to bring our dreams and visions into concrete reality, so that we literally embody our spirit nature in everyday life. When Saturn ganged up with Uranus and Pluto, the rate of evolutionary change went into overdrive. It became important not just to feel these transformational energies, but to embody them and hold them, releasing this spiritual light into the world. Needless to say, if you put 50000 volts through a 20 watt lightbulb, it's going to fry. Many people feel this rampant "burn out" lately, a symptom that we need to slow down and learn to handle spirit in our lives a bit more skillfully. As we learn this discipline, spirit can effortlessly shine through our lives.
After the new moon on January 8th, the curtain rises on the last act of this story, the Grand Finale. The stage rapidly becomes crowded with new characters. There's Jupiter, the rich jolly uncle who is known for his ability to make useful connections in the world and to always see the bright side of any situation. He first contacts Neptune the Dreamer, warning us that events are moving so fast even our wildest dreams are in danger of being left behind. As Jupiter extends his outgoing ways to the next planets in line, the energies building up within us the last 21 months begin moving out into the world. Meanwhile, Chiron the Initiator, the Teacher of Crazy Wisdom is opening up new portals within us, flipping the on-switch on new abilities of the psyche that appear miraculous to most people now. And a constant parade of the faster moving planets across the stage is continually opening up our mundane lives to this transcendental show. It's time to heal the rift between the lives of the spirit and of the everyday world -- we have but one life. We are spiritual beings in physical bodies.
The biggest influx of these energies falls between February 5th and March 8th, when so many connections between these planets go off that I can't begin to describe them all. Just know this is a time of unprecedented opportunity, a time for catepillars to become butterflies. The cycle of transformation is finally bearing fruit. During this time, a sense of lightness, optimism and creative playfulness can permeate our lives and our relationships. We can change our world in unimaginable ways if we persevere. Don't underestimate the potential here.
We've all got a wave of energy to catch. May you come through it in grand style!
Revision date: 97-1-19
This page's URL is http://www2.bitstream.net/~bunlion/bpi/GrFinale.html.
©Copyright 1997, BioPsciences Institute. All Rights Reserved.