Saturn. Lead. Gravity. And gravitas. With Saturn comes a quality of substance, a depth of being. Within the planetary pantheon, Saturn equates with the visceral experience of ‘now.’ Time as ‘is.’ What you are grappling with — now, what you are attempting to learn and master — now, to comprehend and stick it out — there’s Saturn.

Uranus. Can language even describe its particular electricity and type of fire? Think about electricity for a moment. What in the hell is it exactly — other than some mysterious force born of friction? Dane Rudhyar once called Uranus an ambassador from another galaxy. Wow. Read more

In the 60s and 70s people blew stuff up and set buildings on fire, (some self-immolated to help emphasize their ‘message’). A few were fired on at protests and demonstrations across the country. Some people were killed. I remember going to an organized protest in Seattle recently, citizens taking a stand against California’s Prop 8 passage. But could I call it a protest? A bunch of hipsters with cell phones milling about, texting each other while a guy with a blow horn blathered on about being ‘queer’ and ‘here’ now. He looked more like someone trying to mimic an image he’d seen in a picture. Probably a JPEG on Wikipedia. Incendiary? Uhm, hardly. The image of a wet match comes to mind. No directive, no opinions clarified, no real fire — just tweeting and cellphone pics beaming out into the ether. A Samuel Goldwyn-ism came to mind: “Include me out.”

In a recent interview, Ralph Nader remarked: “This is the third television generation…They have grown up watching screens. They have not gone to rallies. Those are history now. They hear their parents and grandparents talk about marches and rallies. They have little toys and gizmos that they hold in their hands. They have no idea of any public protest or activity. It is a tapestry of passivity.”

This disconcerting disconnect from what’s virtual (seemingly real) and really real — what I call the Reality Gap — is what the just-gaining-speed Pluto in Capricorn transit will remedy in the years ahead. Capricorn, the quintessential symbol of thick, dense, leaden, undeniable, real matter is being transited by a force that’s only ‘mission’ is to purge the ways we’ve become disconnected from what’s real. Real as opposed to false. Simply put: Pluto’s impulse is to allow an organism, person or a culture to experience the style of the archetype in its purest, most raw form. No impediments. Just the pure power of the sign. Capricorn’s style is pragmatism. The Capricorn message is “Get real.” Pluto in Capricorn says “Get real — or else.” Read more

Wednesday’s New Moon is a tipping point solar eclipse. Its duration, nearly seven minutes long, makes it the longest eclipse of the 21st century. There’s a particular potency to any celestial gathering around the last degrees of any zodiacal sign, and today’s lunation hits, exactly, the cusp between Cancer and Leo. A mysterious zone indeed.

This is a segment of time akin to the moments prior to a pregnant woman’s labor. Full-to-bursting, when the baby is ready to roll, the mother taps into an instinctual process that carries her along until the birth is complete. She can’t do it with her mind — surrender is implicit. You could say today’s eclipse atmosphere is charged with a persistent pressure to relax, release and welcome the unknown. A process is underway, geared to undo our grip on the familiar — but only if we’re willing to forgo expectations and preferences.

More than ushering in something new, this eclipse highlights the manner in which we surrender our concepts about the future. The opportunity? To test a new expression of trust and not allow the past to crowd out open-ended potentialities. To understand more clearly, study the two signs involved. What does the cusp between two signs signify? It’s a mysterious zone, yes? A stunning demarcation between one world and another. Read more

I’ll be posting on this eclipse tomorrow. A veritable gateway eclipse, showing the biosphere to be mutating into something akin to the Tibetan bardo. In the meantime, thank you C.I.A.:

Bonus: Also, don’t miss these animated eclipse maps by graphic artist Larry Koehn.

The chart for this morning’s new moon in Aries shows nearly the entire solar system in a conspicuous pile-up against Saturn in Virgo.

Translated into human lingo, this symbolizes that gnawing feeling that everything and everyone in life is moving forward except for you. (Of course it’s all a big hallucination because, well, everyone else is registering the same sort of weariness and stuckness too, but added to the mix is a kind of Virgonian isolation bubble that prevents us from making that connection: Realizing we’re all on the Titanic together.)

Of course Saturn being Chronos, well, he remains unphased. Especially while he’s retrograde. (Is there anything more disheartening than the sense of time moving backwards?) Slowly, methodically digging his heels in deeper in reaction to the parade of planets residing opposite his Virgo soujourn. This is amplified by the ongoing Uranus opposition and now, add to the mix, a capricious Mars in Pisces putting the pressure on too.

Saturn’s respose: “Meh.”

We normally associate spring with new beginnings. Fresh starts. Sending our inner scout forward to see what new opportunities he or she can suss out for us. Well, best initiate Plan B From Outer Space. The Sun Moon conjunction coupled with the Venus Mercury transits in Aries signifies plenty of promise. But the guarantee of that visceral, get-up-and-go momentum that we associate with spring is held in abeyance. Think about it: That Aries grouping derives its fuel from a floaty and fluctuating Mars in Pisces. Too, Mars is in a Sargasso Sea-like opposition to Saturn. Glub. Glub … Sink. This is akin to trying to light a fuse with a wet match. Lots of striking and cursing, but just soggy bits of sulfur coloring our fingertips. Instead we feel like imploding. Read more

The Sabian symbol for last night’s solar eclipse is one of the most evocative in the series, and mirrors Obama‘s emergence as a symbol for a new form of leadership in the United States. I’m quoting from Dane Rudhyar‘s commentary and excellent book (really the only good book on the subject), An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformation and its 360 Degree Symbolic Phase.

The symbol for seven degrees Aquarius is: A child is seen being born out of an egg. Rudhyar writes that this marks the materialization of a “global man for the New Age.” Considering Obama’s ascendancy, and his political impact on the cross-cultural, world stage — the synchronicity is potent. Rudhyar explains that the “ancient symbolism of the Cosmic Egg out of which a new universe is born can be interpreted at several levels. Here we see the appearance of a new type of human being who is not born from “Ancestors” and who therefore is free from the inertia of mankind’s past. He is a new product of evolution, a mutant.” Read more