“Up from Earth’s Centre through the Seventh Gate rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate; and many a Knot unravel’d by the Road; but not the Master-knot of Human Fate.” –Omar Khayyam
Saturn, the Ringed Planet, alias the Lord of Karma has returned to his native home in the sign of Capricorn in 2018. If the natural zodiac is his birth chart then isn’t this his Saturn return? Saturn corresponds to time and space and correlates to our perceived 3D reality. He is Gravity and the initializing force of involution, as Life Force comes into the Earth; Spirit is engraved into Time and Space. Saturn is the structure of consciousness. Everything in the cosmos is conscious. Like water, consciousness takes the form of whatever space it enters into–man, animal, plant, stone, or single-celled organism. We ‘try on’ different truths as we grow, and keep the ones that fit. As we change physical shape with age, our spiritual ‘shape’ shifts as well. Saturn patterns the cycles of aging, formatted by our values and their resultant priorities. The cycles of Saturn correlate to not just physical growth, but to Soul growth; the growth of consciousness.
The current transit of Pluto through the sign of Capricorn has upended the world, as we know it. Saturn will reinforce and support Pluto’s unfolding dynamic, as the God of the Underworld completes his transit through Saturn’s sign, watermarked by their conjunction 2 years from now in January 2020.
As the year opens we find Saturn in close company with the Sun, Venus, and Pluto. The quality of our incoming life force, the clarity of our perceived meaning, and the desire to evolve all carry the Time Lord’s substantial imprint. Saturn’s fated necessity begins with self-responsibility and ends with the acquisition of a new foundation of skills and mastery. The current transit of Pluto through the sign of Capricorn has upended the world, as we know it. Saturn will reinforce and support Pluto’s unfolding dynamic, as the God of the Underworld completes his transit through Saturn’s sign, watermarked by their conjunction 2 years from now in January 2020. The grounded, initializing energy that Saturn brings to the equation will potentially seed new designs in the world around us. Pluto is currently conjunct the south node of Saturn; Saturn is the ruler of it’s own south node. Planetary nodes reveal the evolutionary axis of the particular planet just as the lunar nodes reveal the evolutionary axis of the Soul through its egocentric emotional body, the Moon.
Saturn will retrograde through the 1st decan of Capricorn between April and September. There is a traditional correlation here to the Two of Pentacles in the Tarot. In the Rider Waite deck this is pictured as a man balancing on one foot while juggling 2 coins. Behind him ships rise and fall over undulating waves. The image conveys a time of fluctuation and change, needing to keep 2 opposing things balanced without losing one’s own balance. Our fate and fortune rises and falls through natural cycles. During this retrograde cycle, whatever Saturn has constructed early in the year will come under circumspection in spring and fall.
A year ago this January, Saturn perfected a waxing trine to Chiron. This pair who are mythically the absent parent and the wounded child, are two of the triad which also includes Uranus, the grandfather who was castrated by his son, Saturn. According to Barbara Hand Clow, the three bridge the space that lies between wounding and healing. Whn we are hurt, Saturn represses the memory. Uranus ejects the wound for Chiron to heal.
Saturn will again trine Chiron as they exchange retrograde energies between spring and fall. The wounds that come up can be deep and painful, but the shock of the healing crisis leads to greater objectivity opening the space for healing to occur. In the second half of the year, during its retrograde period Saturn will form a waning trine to Uranus for the last time. Since these two celestial giants came together in 2015 we have seen interruptions and disruptions to society, close up and at a distance. Saturn’s practicum turns ideas, dreams, and visions into reality. This transit also correlates to the structure of our individuation. We each differentiate ourselves from others according to our own individual Soul blueprint.
Saturn is the ruler of the lunar south node through its current transit in Aquarius and also as its traditional ruler, before the discovery of Uranus. As the lunar nodes ingress into Cancer and Capricorn, Saturn will again be the native ruler of the lunar south node in Capricorn. The dynamics here lay out the trail from synthesizing our connection between self and community, finding emotional personal self-reliance and collective self-responsibility.
Jupiter, the God of the Sky and the largest celestial body in our solar system will wind his way through the entire sign of Scorpio by year’s end. Scorpio is Pluto’s native dark realm of transformation through birth, death, and rebirth. The concerns and issues are about power, sex, and control. Jupiter’s largesse is extended to whatever it touches, much like the Midas touch. The Hellenistic perspective assigns Jupiter the title of Greater Benefic, but like the mythology that is inherent in this archetype, either the light or the shadow can be magnified.
During the winter and again in late summer, Jupiter will form a balsamic semisquare to Saturn. A sense of being “outside of time” permeates the atmosphere. This last phase of the planetary cycle is the liminal, sometimes numinous threshold that connects to both past and future, adding a deeply insightful dimension to Saturn’s organizational plan. What was secreted away re-emerges with unexpected frequency and force. The commitment is to finding the “truth”, but also finding out what is “real”.
Jupiter will move in and out of a waning trine to Chiron in Pisces throughout the year, exchanging retrograde energies in early spring and again in late autumn. This combination holds the mixed blessing of both wounding and healing circumstances arising. The combination between these two planetary members of the water triad signals opportunities for a merging between Soul and Source. Pisces’s numinous vision of ultimate meaning and truth emerge as Jupiter plumbs the depths of Scorpio. Old wounded memories that have been encapsulated and buried in memory resurface to be reintegrated in the psyche and healed.
As the year begins, Uranus stations direct in Aries. Rebellious, activist, and forward thinking Uranus continues in his role as disrupter, erupter, and interrupter in the sign of Aries through the first 4 months of the year.
A powerful waning trine from Jupiter to Neptune in Pisces restates the experience of this subterranean exploration into the deepest recesses of the psyche’s emotional abyss. Jupiter is the traditional ruler of Pisces, before the discovery of Neptune. Both planets correlate to intuition and psychism. The intuition is sharpened and the still small voice will want to be heard. As the year begins, Uranus stations direct in Aries. Rebellious, activist, and forward thinking Uranus continues in his role as disrupter, erupter, and interrupter in the sign of Aries through the first 4 months of the year.
From an Evolutionary Astrology perspective, Uranus correlates to the process of individuation—in other words, how we unfold uniquely as our selves. Uranus is said to rule the sign of Aquarius, which in the cycle of the natural zodiac follows the sign of Capricorn. Capricorn correlates to structure and the process of the crystallization of new forms. It correlates to society as a whole, the consensus agreements we have made with each other, and the laws, customs, standards, ethics, and mores that become crystallized as the structure of our society. Uranus was discovered at the time of the American and French Revolutions. It correlates to revolution, and the violent overthrow of the status quo. In order to individuate, the crystallized forms must of necessity be shattered; the collective herd mentality and consensus behavior must be interrupted, sometimes disrupted. From the perspective of our emotionally based lives that seeks security in what is known and familiar, these disruptions and interruptions are clearly going to be traumatic.
Julie SCHUMER “Figures 1 No. 7”
In May 2018, Uranus enters the sign of Taurus. Said to be ruled by Venus, Taurus, the second house which it rules in the natural zodiac, and its ruler Venus correlate to where we find meaning in our lives and what becomes essential to us in that pursuit, showing up as our values and their resulting priorities. This fixed, Yin archetype reverses the flow of energy inward, following Uranus in Aries powerful outward, instinctive, and highly individualized expression. We go inward in order to identify what we have within ourselves to survive physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
The last time that Uranus transited Taurus in the 1930’s we experienced the Great Depression, which was precipitated by the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Do you notice any similarities here? We experienced a traumatic political crash just one year ago at the end of 2016, and now many are feeling either paralyzed or enraged.
As Uranus inspires us, and as it works to individuate and differentiate each of us through the Yin, fixed, earth sign of Taurus, we can each in some way begin to find our own inner resources needed to survive these repeating crises.
Here is the good news. The last transit 85 to 90 years ago opened the way for the New Deal, which instituted many of the progressive economic and social reforms and regulations that we have taken for granted for so many years, and that now seem to be eroding. I think it is important to understand that we have taken for granted this 50-60 year bubble of social reform. In the history of the United States, this has been an anomaly. What we are witnessing now is the collective shadow of prejudice, misogyny, and inequality that have always been denied or ignored. It was here when our country was founded, and it is resurfacing again, hopefully for the last time. One of the lessons of Taurus is to break out of the bubble we might be living in and see the truth that surrounds us.
As Uranus inspires us, and as it works to individuate and differentiate each of us through the Yin, fixed, earth sign of Taurus, we can each in some way begin to find our own inner resources needed to survive these repeating crises.
Uranus and Neptune are currently moving through a stressful waning crescent semi-sextile phase. Their current cycle encompasses 5 perfections, or exact aspects. The planet Neptune correlates the collective unconscious and to the zeitgeist that underlies our culture. Neptune correlates to the mass media, and to disease, toxins, and epidemics. From an Evolutionary Astrology perspective, Neptune facilitates the process of spiritualization; the shift from separateness to reconnection–to the realization that everything is part of us, and we are part of everything else. Poseidon, to the Greeks, Neptune, to the Romans was the God of the Waters, both the oceans and rivers. Water is the great dissolver, either slowly over time, or by the effect of rapidly flowing currents. Neptune has been assigned the rulership of the sign of Pisces, which completes the cycle of the natural zodiac. What is essentially being dissolved is everything that has come before so that a new cycle can begin. In the sign of Aquarius, and through the dynamics of the planet Uranus, the ego has found its greatest expression of uniqueness, but also the awareness of its greatest separateness from the natural world and from the sense of being part of something much greater than itself. Neptune correlates to that no-thing, the Void, the chaos and disorder, the ex nihilo, which some call Creation, The Universe, God, or The-Source-of-All-That-Is.
In the 30 or so years that have ensued, the World Wide Web has evolved as a synthesis of highly individuated and differentiated creativity and connectivity, creating an entirely new medium of expression–a new dimension of human connectivity, from a field made up simply of ones and zeros-a virtual global community outside of time and space that was born “out of no-thing”.
The current cycle of Uranus and Neptune began with the last conjunction in 1993. The conjunction occurred against the backdrop of the Uranus Pluto conjunction that occurred 30 years earlier in the late 1960’s. Interestingly, Uranus and Pluto were in their waxing crescent phase during those years. In essence Uranus handed off to Neptune the evolutionary impulse that it picked up from Pluto. The Internet appeared for the 1st time in the 1960’s as ARPANET– the first computer network, developed by the Department of Defense to link the Federal
government with major hospitals, universities, and other critical sites in the event of national crisis or disaster. In the Early 1990’s when Uranus and Neptune joined, Tim Berners-Lee, an English engineer and computer scientist released the code for the first version of what would later become the World Wide Web. In the 30 or so years that have ensued, the World Wide Web has evolved as a synthesis of highly individuated and differentiated creativity and
connectivity, creating an entirely new medium of expression–a new dimension of human connectivity, from a field made up simply of ones and zeros-a virtual global community outside of time and space that was born “out of no-thing”.
The lunar nodes will receive powerful transits from Jupiter, Chiron, Uranus, and Neptune over the course of 2018. The year begins with a power square from Jupiter in Scorpio through the month of January. The search for truth is paramount in our lives and in the news. The revelations regarding sexual harassment have stained the reputations of numerous male public figures. Some say that we are moving through the time of the collapse of the Patriarchy, which has held sway politically, economically, and socially for several millennium. As the nodes transit into Cancer and Capricorn at the end of 2018 we will see this theme with increasing frequency. In the latter part of the year Jupiter will move into a waning trine with the lunar north node in Leo, while forming a waxing sextile to the lunar south node. Issues about how power is being shared collectively, or not, emerge. Traumatic memories and emotional experiences from the past are also released from the subconscious realities that gyrate just below the surface of our awareness.
In the second half of the year Uranus will square the lunar nodes. In Evolutionary Astrology planets square the nodes represent “skipped steps”, something that was either denied by us or someone else from being resolved, skipped over in the Soul’s development. The time of the “skipped step” necessitates resolution. A choice-less awareness arises through circumstances and/or relationships that requires the ego’s attention. Uranus is the ruler of the lunar south node. Stresses will be created to synthesize what is selfish with what is selfless–through collective experiences that necessitate the realization that there is an interconnectedness of all life on the planet, including the core commonality of all of its human inhabitants. This must become the new consensus.
Eclipses correlate to break down or break through events. When the luminaries align along the lunar axis there are endings and new beginnings. People come and go from the planet with greater frequency.
Eclipses are new moons and full moons that occur on or near the lunar nodal axis, which correlates directly to the evolutionary axis, from past through present to future. This is the reason that they are so powerful. There will be 2 eclipse seasons in 2018, a Leo lunar eclipse at the end of January followed by an Aquarius solar eclipse in mid-February, and in July there is a Cancer solar eclipse mid-month followed by an Aquarius lunar eclipse 2 weeks later and a Leo solar eclipse in mid August. Eclipses correlate to break down or break through events.
When the luminaries align along the lunar axis there are endings and new beginnings. People come and go from the planet with greater frequency. Crises where circumstances that have not found resolution any other way. I will be writing about each of these eclipses individually, as we get closer to each one. What they will all have in common is a focus on synthesizing self-centered individual needs and desires, and the needs and desires of the collective will come to the forefront.
As the lunar nodes transit self-centered Leo and community oriented Aquarius, we can be confronted by the selfishness and self-centeredness that we see in others, and in ourselves. We will be faced with uncomfortable truths about how our communities have become more segregated and how we have consciously and unconsciously separated ourselves as well from others.
Plato told us that all of human circumstance falls into the categories of either Fate or Necessity. Fate results in the unfolding of Soul intention. Necessity is what occurs when soul intention is diverted or denied by Ego.
In this current cycle we are struggling to regain the health and wellness of our population, the wholesomeness of our food and water, a free and open cyberspace environment, to bring Science back into line with nature and the real needs of people, and to flatten the widening economic, ethnic, and racial disparities.
At the core of this moment in history there is a crisis to actualize the dreams and visions of the 1960’s. In this current cycle we are struggling to regain the health and wellness of our population, the wholesomeness of our food and water, a free and open cyberspace environment, to bring Science back into line with nature and the real needs of people, and to flatten the widening economic, ethnic, and racial disparities. The global village is now no longer virtual–it is here.
We are all sensing what astrologers know to be the approaching major conjunctions between Saturn, Jupiter, and Pluto, beginning only 2 years from now–whispers from the future whose coming influence is already being felt. 2018 will bring a greater awareness of what our probable future is going to look like. We are seeding the future with new designs through our collective intention and beliefs. The transits of the outer planets carry Saturn’s constructive energies and will build the new forms that hold the vision and the structure of the promised New Earth.
© 2019 Daniel Fiverson All Rights Reserved.