By Amanda Painter
How do you go about communicating desires that have been activated during times of change? How do you admit them to yourself, much less to a lover or your employer, or to your friends and family?
Sometimes you have to let yourself melt into what you want and let yourself soften to be able to express the ideas. Photo of lights through an ice bar in Manhattan by Amanda Painter.
One of my Planet Waves colleagues suggested this idea to me when I was feeling stuck staring at this week’s astrology charts; sometimes when there’s major astrological events clustered together, it can be hard to zero in on one clear theme.
The part about “in times of change” comes from the fact that we’re in the last of seven exact square contacts between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn. That’s the aspect that seems to have turned the world on its head these last few years. It is exact for the last time Monday at 10:54 pm EDT (2:54 UTC Tuesday).
“Desires” is suggested by Mars in Aries, which entered into a conjunction to Uranus and a square to Pluto on Wednesday. We’re still in the hot zone for that. And among the things Mars represents is active desire or libido — along with physical action and aggression. Those last couple key words are the reason you should still stay focused in any potentially risky activities this weekend (that goes for anything from spring skiing to driving to rewiring a light socket).
Getting back to those desires, though: sometimes they build gradually, tugging at the corners of your consciousness until they reach critical mass and cannot be denied. Other times, the fuse gets lit out of the blue and your choice is to ride the rocket or risk burning your hand if you try to hold on instead of letting go into it.
The last three years of Uranus-Pluto have shown us many sudden changes, but the “big stuff” — what really lasts and marks this era in history — has been developing slowly, and will continue to for a few more years. Now Mars is getting into the act, sending Uranus-Pluto off with a big hot kiss and making things personal.
Uranus is an activating force (as is Mars); Pluto is also, in its own way. Though while Uranus is more likely to introduce something new, Pluto is all about clearing the ground to make room for that thing. Both parts of that process can be scary, as you admit to yourself what new thing you’d like to pursue — and what old thing you might need to let fall away as you do.
Then comes that part about “communicating desires.” Mercury, the planet of the mind and communication (as well as our electronic media by which we communicate), is finally leaving Aquarius after more than two months. That’s a long time for a typically speedy planet in a sign where its hallmarks include a sense of intellectual detachment and seemingly clear, solid ideas.
Mercury ingresses Pisces tonight (March 12) at 11:52 pm EDT (3:52 UTC Friday). Whereas before your mind was crystalline, you might now feel a little…mushy. Or rather, as though your thoughts are being filtered through an unusually saturated sponge of emotions. You’ve been through this before — Mercury spends some time in Pisces every year.
Mercury in Pisces is very sensitive, psychic, poetic and visionary; it’s your instinctual mind more than your reasoning mind; it’s feeling your thoughts. So rather than going for the full-steam-ahead list of bullet-point demands when you try to express what you want and need this weekend, maybe try something softer and gentler. Think poetry and music; think showing by example rather than dictating.
Think with your heart and soul — and don’t be afraid to go deep; Mercury conjoins the centaur planet Nessus as soon as it enters Pisces. Whatever Uranus and Pluto have been churning up, whatever Mars is activating for you, Mercury conjunct Nessus indicates that expressing it begins and ends with you.
In the first paragraph,.. food, gardening, life, art, music,…keeps me sane, which allows others space to breathe…
Light sockets are easy… unless you’ve never felt electricity before, which is scary and can hurt! (the shit sucks you in and holds you! AC that is, DC just throws a bunch of sparks at you and burns.)
Wow, cool trip man. I’ve been writing along, in Text Edit, just to see where we were going. Great words! I Love symmetrics and synchronicity!
Thanks for playing,
Jere
Here’s some Portishead, Mysteries. Enjoy.
Me
I do love me some Portishead, Jere! 🙂 Thanks for playing along.
Such a lovely piece and photo, dear Amanda. Thank you. Am stuck between the old and the new right now, and it’s very ‘mushy’ and painful. But I woke up with the words ‘have patience’ this morning.
And thanks Jere, for the wonderful video – moved me to tears – and so right for this moment.
Many thanks, Amanda. A true achievement to have so well felt and so well written.
And thank you, Jere, for the lovely tune.
I woke up this morning with the distinct urge to write poetry – that hasn’t happened in quite some time. I didn’t act on it, but thanks for the reminder that it might come again…
And thank you again for the writing prompt, Amanda! It an appreciated reminder of the wealth of great minds and helpful hands connected to PW.
You’re welcome 🙂
Great call Amanda, thank you. Change is constant, and the Uranus/Pluto square is accelerating things quite a bit. Still, the pace of change varies infinitely. Though, uprisings became revolutions in those split-seconds when the scales tipped, like when a leader is captured, or killed. Learning how to communicate desires is one way to speed up the process of change, and it can feel like a personal revolution on those occasions when I do express my desires. However, look at the cost of some recent revolutions, Egypt for example. Could there have been a better way? Could provisions have been made to ensure that the people got what they were fighting for to begin with? I don’t know, but I do know that on a personal level history proves things almost always had to be timed right, and communicated accordingly in order to get what it was I desired.
Michael, perhaps the situation in Egypt is like Pluto and Uranus – Pluto had to clear away the old leader, and that was sudden and a deep reaching change, to create the space for the new ideas. Whether or not the path to reason and rebuilding is correct, may be less important than the fact that many people are giving their all to make the change happen, many with their best intentions for the people. The sudden and deep elements of Uranus and Pluto don’t necessarily allow for doing things the ‘better’ way, but they certainly give the impulse that says ‘you have to do something now’ and often that impulse comes prior to the logical thought process or the ability to see all the avenues that the change can flow… many rivers to cross. Just a sudden thought that popped in when reading your comment…
Sometimes communicating the desires for change don’t bring the change expected even when done well, especially when someone else’s idea of change is very different, or they are more concerned about power and wealth and control. You can’t always get what you want, or I can’t seemingly.
beths — I did not see this comment this weekend, but I think you hit the nail on the head (on several points) regarding Uranus and Pluto, situations such as in Egypt, and also the personal act of communicating desires.
No, we can’t always get what we want. But as the song says, I do think we get what we need — we just don’t always like to see what it is we truly need. And we don’t always choose to work constructively with the results…for a multitude of reasons.
And, jumping back to Michael’s comment: the premise of the blog post was not about how to *get* what you want; it was simply about how to *communicate* what you desire. 😉 Yes, being sensitive to timing can greatly enhance things, especially if you’re seeking a win-win outcome that works for both parties.
But we can each only control what we express and how we express it — the reactions of others are always ultimately out of bounds for us. It does not make our expression of desire any less authentic for us if we’re rebuffed — though it can greatly complicate the inner stories we tell ourselves about “what happens when we ask for what we want.”