Aquarius 2008

We have reached a historic turning point in the shifting tides of nature on this planet. After many years of dragging us down to the ground of reality, deep power Pluto hit the bottom of our seasonal cycle on Friday, January 25, moving into the primal earth power of Capricorn for the first time since January 7, 1762. The significance of this cannot be overstated. During months of apparent backtracking starting this spring it will return to this point, and then hit bottom again, completing the transition process, on November 26, for Thanksgiving. This whole year is about power hitting bottom and rebounding with the force of nature and constructive new beginnings.

The last time this happened gave birth to America and the so-called Age of Enlightenment. Renaissance men and women experienced a surge of multi-faceted, humanistic expression. The "Seven Years War" for English control of empire in the name of "civilization"--what Winston Churchill called the true "first world war"--ended. The American colonists, who had been grateful for King George's protection against the angry Indian "savages," now found themselves asserting their own need for the liberty to explore and develop their natural dynamism and a healthy, democratic social economy that would allow it. The last time Pluto went into Capricorn, expansive Jupiter and centering Saturn were in the individual passion-expression of fire sign Aries. This time, creative Jupiter is in Capricorn with Pluto and Saturn is in Virgo, like Capricorn an earth sign, guiding all the releasing nature force toward fruitful development, a good harvest for all.

I don't know what will happen. There are dark scenarios and utopian ones, though all suggest a historic empowerment of nature-based ways, whatever the trauma of adjustment. On January 30th the action impulse of Mars, after months of prickly internalizing, turns forward again, giving expression to all the creative earth power that will be releasing. That mental Mercury will be turning retrograde, internalizing for a few weeks, on Monday the 28th is a good thing, giving us pause and reflection amidst it.

This is the yearly time of alignment in awareness, Aquarius. Healing Chiron is approaching a meeting with Neptune, the pull of dreams, in the enlightened perspective of Aquarius next year. The tremendous force of earth power that will now be breaking through can lead us to renewed conciliation and rewarding development based on natural regard for life's interconnectedness.