Musings

If I were an astrological advisor to a major world leader (dream on, right) I would have taken them backwards in historical time to some previously-occurring cycles of now-current planetary configurations so they could make wise, considered choices for the good of the country, kingdom, or nation. (And if they did not heed me, I would be risking my head right now by jumping and shouting, “See! I told you!”) Some occurrences, simply by the sheer forces of nature involved, cannot be prevented, or ever fully prepared-for. However, most of the messes we are in, collectively, are of human origin. Even that being so, it seems sometimes as if only divine intervention could, possibly at this stage, save us from ourselves.

Clearly, we are in a calamity. The difference, the difference that makes a difference, I feel, will arrive on April 4^th, when Neptune takes a brief four-month dip into oceanic Pisces, before re-visiting Aquarius for some final, unfinished business. (Did Neptune leave its swim-flippers behind?)

Even while we jostle and fight in the furor of the rebellious intensity symbolized by several astrological indicators, namely Uranus squaring off against Pluto, plus the gathering mob of planets and luminaries loading into hot-headed Aries, we must expect a mighty tide, as yet barely imagined, to sweep over, through, and among us over the next 13 years. This wave of cosmic waters has both a destiny and a history. The historical window is quite clear, aided by the 20-20 vision of hindsight. Hindsight clarity applies to both of the major now factors seeking to wake us up and push their agendas, metaphorically speaking.

Before getting to Neptune in Pisces, let us turn our rear-view attention to the culprits of crisis, Uranus and Pluto.

Pluto and Uranus joined together to make the 1960’s “The Sixties”. Talk about radicals and rebellions in the streets!

In the most recent, previous, strongly frictional alignment of Uranus and Pluto going back to the years from 1928 to 1937 we have the global economic crisis of the “Great Depression”; the rise of fascism; nationalistic fervor and civil conflicts leading to World War II; plus the development of atomic power and nuclear devices.

Spin the wheel of time another 30 years backwards and we find Uranus/Pluto opposing each other with Earth smack dab in the middle of the titanic tug-of-war. The Wright Brothers fly; the Boxer rebellion starts a wave of revolts destabilizing China; in Russia, the Potemkin mutiny marks a beginning to the violent upheavals leading to the Bolshevik revolution.

Even in this sparse selection of Uranus/Pluto-related events we find a pattern, yes? The last era that is most similar to our current alignment, featuring a squaring-off between the two planets just following a joining up, or conjunction, (like we had in the 1960’s) was from about 1873 to 1880. What we find are the rumblings and crumblings of a very old empire, the Ottoman, fraying at the edges with rebellions in Serbia and Montenegro, until war with Russian leads to more loss of territory and a new constitution. Meanwhile, the British legation is massacred in Kabul, as they try to control Afghanistan by occupying the Khyber Pass. In 1877, Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India. And so it goes.

I think there is a potential “saving grace” factor arriving just about now, in the form of Poseidon, known astrologically by the Roman name of Neptune, riding his white, foaming steeds on the cresting waves of mutable, watery Pisces. Neptune comes home to Pisces, so to speak, and will be strongly felt, emanating through the sign of its greatest affinity, stirring the collective mood while arousing a massive, acute longing for some kind of relief from the ruckus and de-structuring happening throughout our world.

There will by many levels at which, symbolically speaking, Neptune in Pisces will be manifesting in our lives here on the physical plane. The expected cultural effect captures my imagination, the arts and media being a vehicle and channel through which the collective, “We”, will very much experience the power of the transit. Notice what  is coming out in terms of film, music, and other art forms consumable by the public, especially over the rest of spring and through the mid-summer of this year, at which time Neptune back-strokes into Aquarius until February of 2012, when it dives off the deep end for a long swim in Pisces, until 2026. (There will be plenty of cultural manifestations of Neptune to look for starting in 2012, as well.)

Rather than give an illustrative list of historical Neptune-in-Pisces cultural flowerings, I shall name one masterwork, inspired by events occurring during the last Pluto/Uranus merge (conjunction, just like “The Sixites”), which symbolically represents an era centered around a year so fraught with political and economic upheaval that history records it, 1848, as “The Year of Revolution”. The creator of this masterwork wanted to inspire and arouse the populace in the spirit of his ancient Greek predecessors – at the mythic level of consciousness. It is at this mythic level, the dimension of story, legend and fable that the archetypes, astrological and otherwise, speak to us in symbolic language accessible by all, a universal source of meaning from which any human mind can draw upon. According to the current astrological weather, with the comet Chiron, the wounded healer archetype, also paddling in Piscean waters, the collective is hurting for a guiding vision, a shared set of images, a “Great Story” to illuminate a possible way through the darkness to a better place, a new world, an evolutionary move forward for the whole race. Are we in need of some new myth that both explains our folly, yet points out our potential for redemption? Much as the Arthurian cycle of legends provided western Europe a guiding set of values and mores leading from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age. Over the centuries, artists and creators have re-generated from the core myths and dramas of ancient times newer, updated combinations of character, theme and purpose that respond to the needs of their current crisis in contemporary terms, revealing the next threshold of dynamic change at the scope of whole societies.

The masterwork to which I refer, begun during the last sojourn of Neptune in Pisces is “Der Ring des Nibelungen” the epic opera cycle of four parts, by Richard Wagner. This composition lasts almost 15 hours and took about thirty years to complete. It was first performed in its entirety, in a theater constructed specifically for the “Ring”, in 1876, during the first Uranus/Pluto square following the conjunction, the same exact aspect we are living in the midst of now, and will, for most of this ‘teen decade.

My suggestion then, is to take stock of the miracles of creative genius that appear on screen, on stage and in the pages and pictures that arouse the hearts and minds of entire cross-sections of society, that speak to a generation, that lay bare the underbelly of our teetering civilization, yet illuminate the nobility and potential of people, and point the way through our own depravity and weakness to the light we hope is located somewhere in this dark, dark tunnel. The time is now, the future is here, or as Paul Simon sings it, “These are the days of miracle and wonder…” Look for worthy, motivating, and inspiring, guiding principles presented artistically.

For a taste of the way a more recent play has encapsulated the tenor of the times, revisit the music from the Broadway musical “Hair” from 1968. It would be a righteous thing to do with Mercury retrograde, as least as a sociological exploration. And please report back with your findings in the response window of my web-page. In closing, I will share some personal nominations for things to check out by virtue of their currency and content: The films “I Am” and “The Music Never Stopped”, and the viral video “The Wayseer Manifesto”.  Master astrologer, Steven Forrest, considers the film, “Avatar”, to be a pre-view by way of Jupiter in Pisces, of the sort of things we should be associating with the revelations of Neptune in Pisces over the next 13 years. If you have not seen it, now is the time, and if you have, remember what you took from it. Next, smell around among the loads of creative output for endeavors with intentionally mythic themes or that simply have profound, wide-ranging impact. You have your mission, so have fun, just don’t get addicted to escapist fare and forget the purpose of your quest as you hunt for the holy grail of transcendent, mind-expanding, heart-opening artistry.