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.

Capricorn 2008

We are in the middle of a hugely historic and powerful planetary shift. In December, expansive 12-year-cycle Jupiter and powerful 248-year-cycle Pluto aligned with the sun at our seasonal low point. Then Jupiter and the sun hit bottom together, shifting their energy influence to rebounding in grounded Capricorn. We are waiting for heavy Pluto to join them.

On January 25, deep power Pluto hits the bottom of our seasonal cycle for the first time since 1761, for the first time in the history of America. The last time it happened gave birth to this nation. The shift to undeniable nature power came out in men and women, emboldened with the spirit of the earth, manifesting a dynamic humanism that could not be contained by a controlling king and the presumptions of an unfair social order. This time, with the consequences of rationalized global exploitation, both human and environmental, reaching the breaking point, the shift could be cataclysmic. With expansive, energizing Jupiter reinforcing the intensity of Pluto's move into Capricorn, and aligning, 30-year-cycle Saturn now in Virgo, beckoning us toward the truly fruitful outcome, this promises to be a year of earth-shaking drama and revelation. That it happens just when our planet's seasonal axis is aligned with the galactic center suggests that we are moving to a deeper level of harmonic integrity.

As I write this, on the morning of Tuesday, January 8, 2008, a man in his 40's, born in the 1960's to a black father from Africa and a white mother from Kansas, is poised to be accepted by a broad cross-section of America as sufficiently seasoned and sober, inspired and humane, to be entrusted with the leadership of our government at a time of undeniable peril. At the same time, I am concerned that in the next few days George Bush will be killed on a trip to the mid-east by those who hate him as the evil embodiment of hypocritical imperialism, leaving President Cheney to unleash the dogs of war against the Muslim world, with dark consequences for us all.

It is worth remembering that the Bible says in the end of this era there will be trauma (earthquakes and pestilence, wars and rumors of wars), but that this is just the pain of transition from a nature-denying culture to a divinely-restored one. I don't presume to know what is coming, what it will involve or where it will take us. But it does strike me that this tremendous shift in the tides of life on our planet, the forces that have been dragging us down to the ground of reality rebounding with the undeniable power of underlying nature, must be good for us wherever it leads. It is our job to accept and settle with this awesome process, at every moment, trusting the light at the center of creation amidst what sometimes feels like a whirlpool of madness.

Divinity is reclaiming this planet. May the grace of goodness anchor all of us in the wholeness of our hearts.