Days of Aquarius

EL SOL, OUR SUN AND SOURCE, is always new in the sign Aquarius for the U.S. presidential inauguration, which happened Thursday at noon in Washington, DC (5 pm GMT). It's a fitting symbol of idealism and democracy that transcends time and history. Inauguration, by the way, means 'divination by the flight of birds'.

The Sun flew in to Aquarius overnight Wednesday to Thursday, joining a newborn Gemini Moon in the air signs. A stampede of planets now follows the Sun, soon blossoming into the most impressive Aquarius alignment since January 1997 -- which happened at the time of the great Comet Hale-Bopp. As well, two planets are about to align in Sagittarius near the Galactic Core, which blends nicely -- Sagittarius and Aquarius being quite the high-intensity, harmonious combination. Speaking of which, three Centaur planets are about to change signs, entering Sagittarius (Pholus) and Aquarius (Chiron and Nessus) and picking up the cosmic tempo and intensity of vibrations bigtime. This is a moment of truly awesome potential; kind of like any other, but in reality, unlike any other.

Yet back on the planet, the BBC is currently reporting that about three-quarters of European citizens, most notably Brits, Germans and French ('old Europe'), plus a mob of Canadians (about two-thirds of them, up in Alternative Europe), feel the world is a more dangerous place with the Shrub taking office again. Hmmm. According to BBC News, reporting on the results of a worldwide survey of more than 19,000 people, the only folks who feel the world is safer now seem to be those in the Philippines and India.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a lot of anxiety to have brewing at this particular moment. I speak in particular of a rapidly forming conjunction between Mars and Pluto in Sagittarius. Ordinarily, this aspect, which represents some kind of developing situation, could be considered a perfectly explosive conjunction (marking off the completion of a two-year cycle, by the way). It happens in Sagittarius, a sign which offers us two major levels of experience to choose from.

The first is ideology: of contentious, competing ideas that pretend to get to the root of things (the 'fundamentals'). On this level, Sagittarius feels like 'my beliefs are bigger/better than your beliefs'. This is what you might call the low road.

Sagittarius is also about spiritual breakthrough; contact with one's higher angel; and the choice to do the right thing -- that is, ethics. This is Sagittarius in real life. The ethics of this sign are less born of choice, study or logic than they are of spontaneously knowing what is necessary and true, and in accord with the greater good.

Mars-Pluto can be explosive, and it can also represent a major breakthrough in consciousness on a wide scale. Sagittarius is like this enormous spiritual rock concert we all get to attend, whenever we want. What makes the difference between what level of experience we want? But of course: we do. How we handle ourselves, how we make our decisions, whether we choose to confront others or to grow inwardly, whether we keep our cool and spread good vibes, are all up to us. Whether we choose anger or forgiveness are entirely up to us. Whether we choose as a conscious act to be free, which means free in our hearts and minds, is up to us. And the choices we make as individuals add up fast.

This is not even a boring game of 'majority rules'. It's a game of let's get the vibe going. Our particular dimension of reality is very much a 'minority rules' kind of place. One person with one idea can change everything.

It may seem like the world is happening to us; but really, we are happening to the world. Our collective choices build and create the world as we go, which we then experience and vibrate right back out to the planet. How we interpret our experience, both collective and individual, has everything -- everything -- to do with what that experience means, and how it reverberates through time and history. In spiritual reality, interpretation is everything. Experience is basically neutral, but how we see it makes it what it is, and makes us what we are.

In the past, there have been exceedingly few options for how to put any of this into action. But now we are opening up, and opening up fast. We not only believe, but also know in our hearts, that so much more is possible. Everyone reading this article is interested in at least one spiritual method: astrology. Most of us have made considerable investments of time and learning in developing ourselves in other ways (tai chi, gardening, runes: it all counts).

Now that we have the Internet, we have the ability for millions of minds to consciously align behind an idea. We have the option to make a decision to raise our consciousness above conflict, and to share our visions of the world. Personally, I don't know a single person who does not want peace on this Earth. When minds join behind an idea, it builds in inevitability. It starts to happen on the spot.

Yet to have peace, we need some intuitive sense that it's possible. It's not so hard to entertain a mere possibility. We don't need to know how we're going to get from the idea to reality -- the idea is the important part; that small breath of faith that something better than what we now have is possible (um, it better be!). I don't need to tell you what the world is currently experiencing; you know all too well. Yet that is not the only possibility, unless we say or believe it is.

There are many factors developing right now that suggest strongly that the vibrational rate of the planet is picking up FAST. Mars-Pluto, which represents a major cycle of experience (about two years worth), is one of them. Both Mars and Pluto are rather potent factors that involve the power of conscious WILL. Oh, that thing! They are saying: direct your will consciously; direct your negative emotions outward in physical activity rather than psychically, or at yourself in some negative way (fear, guilt, projection, etc.). Oh, and remember what you've learned from all your spiritual training, and act as if it's true, even if it's just an experiment.

We have all, each of us, every single person reading Planet Waves, has had some actual experience of the non-physical communication; of thoughts being associated with manifestation; of synchronicity; of actual miracles happening.

There is no order of difficulty of miracles. 'Small' miracles are the same as the 'big' ones. Each builds our faith. Each changes the world.

The astrology of the coming days and weeks is like an enormous amplifier of our ideas and feelings. It feels like an ocean of insight. The energy level is turned up steadily, beginning in the next 48 hours, through the coming week and over the next six weeks. We are at one of those world-bridge moments where we can go from one reality to the next, and become different people, and a different society, in the process. Let's take ourselves along. Bring your loving intentions into your community experiences. Pay attention, and keep choosing. Let everything that you see that you don't want, remind you with that much more heart and soul of what you do. Find that small space within you where you really feel safe, and let the feeling expand from there.

Please pass this information on. Thoughts increase by being given away, and what we focus on increases. I'll be in touch again soon! ++

-- Thank you Phil Sedgwick for inspirational material in this week's Galactic Times. To subscribe to Galactic times, a free email newsletter written by someone who's been quite influential in my astrological thinking process, drop a note to Galastro@aol.com -- and request the current issue! Phil, by the way, is a specialist in the centaur planets, as well as galactic points such as the Galactic Core, the Great Attractor, black holes, quasars, and other far-out stuff. He produces easy-to-grasp tapes and study materials, he teaches at conferences and elsewhere, and even does some astrological consulting sessions. For those curious about the centaur planets, his keywords are amongst the most dependable there are, and make an excellent, clear-headed starting point for one's original research. Here is a sample: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7969/phil.htm. He writes, "Each named Centaur offers a ceremonial platform for restoring part of one's lost, basic nature. In a time when technology, the Internet and electronic obsessions reduce a healthy sense of humanity, the Centaurs appear to ground people back into their senses - the strongest being the sense of smell. Centaurs inspire us all to use the five basic senses to the fullest of their potential." Now we're making sense!


Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope By Eric Francis
For Fri. Jan. 21, 2005
 
Happy Birthday, Aquarius!

For all Aquarians, but particularly for those born in the earliest days of this sign, you are headed for a truly extraordinary year. Normally, the future is never far from the past, and there are often difficult to sort overlaps where one merges into the other. Yet quite often, the difference between the two time frames is a perspective or state of mind. It's precisely this perspective that changes so radically in the coming months. This is a time when you are likely to question not merely anything, but quite nearly everything.

In times of such radical personal change, reverence and respect for the past can provide important grounding. Tradition is an organized, orderly way of respecting the past without dwelling on it or getting stuck there. Perhaps take this as a reminder to check in with your personal traditions and ways of doing things before blazing ahead into a new phase of your life story. This will not set you back; to the contrary, it will provide you with some grounding in a time when so many developments toward which your life has been leading toward arrive faster than you ever expected.

Part of this story is told by the entry of Chiron and Nessus, two high-voltage small planets, into your birth sign. They form a long conjunction through May, which will in many respects wake up the world; yet for you, it is directly personal. The story is also told by the ingress of your ruling planet Saturn (from the old astrology, still important) into your 7th house, Leo -- the house of relationships. This is a get-serious time for you where affairs of the heart and of business are concerned. You may have been getting messages to this effect for many moons, but as summer approaches, evidence that your life really is moving to a new place will be undeniable.

Chiron and Saturn make an excellent pairing; one is an expert in breaking tradition, and the other is an expert in maintaining it. There should always be a discussion, and there will be one, both in your own inner space and the space of your relationships. And with Jupiter so well aspected in your chart, you have a strong wind of good fortune to depend on if and when times become challenging; you can indeed count on forces such as 'luck' and the goodwill of your brothers, sisters and cousins to speed you along.

Don't worry: they are depending on you just as much, if not more. What this world needs now is change, and in true Aquarian style, you are about to become the embodiment of that concept. Keep your feet on the ground, remember both logic and inspiration, and know when the time comes -- in the immortal words of Fritz Perls -- to lose your mind and come to your senses.

Aries (March 20-April 19)
These early days of winter concentrate time and experience. And as a result, decisions count for more because the quality of energy is so dense and packed. You could view this as a time of testing, but it would be entirely more positive to view these rare, brief days as an opportunity to put to work all that you've learned in the past year or two. Don't worry about how your confidence is going on any particular day; this matters not. Set your agenda and, in the most businesslike way possible, do what you need to do and do it well.

Taurus (April 19-May 20)
It is no great mystery why so many creative and talented people turn out meek and mild. Basically, we are all flogged into submission by the second grade, mindlessly reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and horrified beyond words at the prospect of math tests. Get over it, honey. Your time is coming; prepare yourself to be a leader and not a follower -- in terms a Taurus can understand, a bull and not a cow. My early advice: start identifying people you want to be on your team. Don't recruit them yet; just make a list.

Gemini (May 20-June 21)
To the extent that your life the past few years has been marked or even overwhelmed by competition or power struggles, you're about to discover that there was a reward for all you endured. I am aware that there have been long spells where the whole process you were caught in has seemed both pointless and endless, and you may even be caught in one of those now. Take heart. Don't believe what is not true. Remember that people are people: nothing more. It's a great spiritual lesson to treat both the meek and the mighty as your equals.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)
Those who love have more important things on their minds than games, and that is how you can tell who they are. When a loving person asks for something, you know what it is. When you give it to them, they receive it. In the name of love, an agreement is an agreement. I am not suggesting that you hold judgment against those who are not so straightforward, only that you distinguish between two very different points of view in the human dimension, and make sure you know what side of the line you stand on.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
With this new thing called 2005, you embark on the single most unusual year of your life, as regards personal relationships. This is saying a lot, given that there is actually very little that's 'normal' in the way that you perceive and experience people. You allow those close to you, and really anyone you meet, to have an influence on you like few others, which is a beautiful thing. But that factor is about to increase radically. And with it, you must practice knowing people that much better, with absolute clarity and mutual understanding.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
There are probably 1,000 books currently in print that say you can create your own reality. What most of them miss is that you DO create your own reality every moment you live, without their advice. What keeps you from noticing is precisely the mind's tendency to look out from behind your eyes and see the past. There's only way to get past that, which is to look with your soul. How? Practice, my dear cousin. Look at the world, or at someone you care about, and ask yourself: how would my soul see this? Then pay attention long enough to notice the obvious.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
I reckon you're not looking back at the past few seasons with a sense of longing or nostalgia -- but I bet you wouldn't give up what you learned for anything. Now that you've cleaned every cobweb out of the basement, washed every window and fixed the leaky roof, it's time to get out of the house and experience life in a way that's completely new. I suggest you make a list of the 10 most dangerous things you want to do and start with the least risky among them. Then work your way up the list.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
I'm sure you wouldn't be thrilled if I said you're not the person who decided how you feel about yourself. Hear me out for a moment. You were born into a family that had a lot of ideas about life before you, a brand new young critter, came along. Then these people embarked on a years-long campaign to make sure that you felt about you the way they feel about themselves -- which, I assure you, is a frightening prospect. The next month offers you fine opportunities to revolt, or simply, to be yourself against all odds.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
If you think back a few weeks to how much doubt you were stewing in over how things would work out, or whether you had the strength to set your world right, you'll see quite a contrast with your feelings today. As the next month progresses, you're about to emerge as a force to be reckoned with. You don't need to push anything. Start by expressing your ideas, in fewer words rather than more. You're going to get your way, so you need to be exceptionally clear about what that way is.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
You are winter's child, born in the darkest days. But the mystery of Capricorn is that it's the sign where the days start getting longer. In the deep, cold hollow of the universe, the light is born and begins to grow. Make your agenda; start with your long-term goals (one to five years). Give yourself four of those. Then make a longer list of short term goals. Here's my prediction, once you see and study the list: most of the short-term goals are already accomplished; and the long-term ones will happen a lot faster than you think. This is called efficiency, or maybe just awareness.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
The pace of events is about to accelerate radically, which arrives with a heightened, almost unbearable sense of self-consciousness. While there's no way to really plan for your own rebirth, you can remember what is happening in moments when you feel under the most pressure and the least comfortable. If you move with the experience, and allow your thoughts to be flexible rather than trapped in old expectations, you'll find that the old you has nearly no power anymore. But the new you may feel deeply vulnerable, open and accepting, which is the true gift.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Are you comfortable with how much people desire you, or does it make you squirm? Either way, denial is not going to help. I suggest you be honest with yourself about what people around you feel, and honest about how you tend to respond. It's true that the last thing most people in this world want are choices, because choices come with the responsibility of freedom. Yet you're far greater than this; for you possess the energy of awakening, which is stirring both you and the people around you to remember who they are and what they want. So remember.

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Planet Waves Weekly for Friday, Jan. 21, 2005, with weekly horoscope 542.

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