It can be overwhelming to live in historically significant times. There is no blame in being overwhelmed, but there are consequences. To see the consequences of being overcome by profound changes in environment or condition, you need only look back a century or so.
The scale of events experienced by those living through the first world war was unprecedented. It was enough to result in an entire generation being declared “lost.”
World War I was said to be “the war to end all wars.” Yet, the sense of nationalism which resulted shaped those who survived the experience so as to make that description immediately moot.
Then came a great depression and second world war. The result was a generation now often referred to as “the greatest.” Yet, those whose plausible greatness was shaped by widespread hardship also became inured to it. The outcome was a partisan world where material prosperity took precedence, and “peace” became a dirty word.
Beginning with those who reached maturity during the 1960s came an accelerating rate of change to match the scale experienced by their elders. The upshot was a continuous medium of rapidly cycling obsolescence in parallel with overpopulation, which overtaxed the Earth itself as well as all of those living on it.
In this century, the proverbial chickens of the previous hundred years have come to roost. Right now, at this moment, political leaders who have come together to ostensibly work out a solution to global environmental crisis are simultaneously and unavoidably being confronted by military conflict, partisan intransigence and economic inadequacy.
At the same time, you may well be struggling to make your personal financial ends meet without the price being a physical or mental breakdown. That’s how it would be unfair to blame you or anybody for being overwhelmed. It is not easy to live on Earth at this time.
Yet, paradoxically, it is potentially more empowering to live now than ever before because you have perspectives not available to your parents or grandparents. As a result, it’s possible to see both parallels and alternatives not visible to those who preceded you.
Interestingly, and almost ironically, one of the best sources of perspective for this moment in time can be found in the ancient art of astrology. It all started around 2008 when Pluto transitioned into Capricorn for the first time in more than two centuries. Then something amazing happened.
About two years after Pluto entered Capricorn, Uranus began making its way into Aries for the first time since the period between WW I and WW II. Then, during the next year or so, Chiron returned to Pisces for the first time since the 1960s, and for the first time since we became aware of its existence. Finally, Neptune came home to Pisces for only the second time since it was discovered in the middle of the 19th century.
Think of it. Pluto has a orbital period of nearly two and a half centuries. Neptune takes more than a century and a half to go around the zodiac. Chiron requires more than 50 years to make a circuit of all 12 signs, and the 84 years or so it requires Uranus to orbit the Sun represents a relatively long human lifetime. Yet, in less than a handful of years they all changed sign.
That did not happen for your parents. Nor during the lifetime of your grandparents, or even your great grandparents. To have the planets that represent meaningful epochs and eras in human history all change sign at essentially the same time has not happened in a long time. The fact that it happened for you indicates that you are special and different. It implies that you have it in your hands to shape, rather than just be shaped by, the times you are living in.
Throw in the interpersonal planets, Saturn and Jupiter, which correspond to the longer cycles within the span of a human life. The dozen years or so it takes Jupiter to move through a dozen signs often correlates with big changes. The nearly 30 years Saturn requires to complete an orbit usually corresponds to those changes adding up to form a new order, form and structure in your life.
Saturn entered Libra shortly after Pluto moved into Capricorn and just before Uranus made its ingress to Aries. The result was a T-shaped configuration on the zodiac that correlated with world events in parallel with your own life as never before. The continuous series of seven square aspects (separations of 90 degrees) between Uranus and Pluto in the years that followed served to repeatedly drive home the same point that the personal and political are inseparable.
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Jupiter entered Aries to conjoin with Uranus way back in 2010, and is now in Virgo — essentially opposing Neptune and Chiron while all three are more or less at right angles to Saturn’s position in Sagittarius now.
The result is another T-square, a mutable one symbolizing how it is now nationalism and partisan distinctions that have become obsolete. The mutable quality of Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces symbolizes everybody together on the brink of change, and gives everyone living now unprecedented power in numbers — if only we can see past those outmoded means of separation.
In other words, as easy as it is to feel overwhelmed, it is now you who can participate in doing the overwhelming. For if overwhelming numbers refuse to wage war, there will be no war. If the overwhelming sentiment is to support the wellbeing of our planet, Earth can still conceivably return the favor. With perspective that extends beyond our time and an understanding of how one person’s fate now parallels that of every other, you need not simply become a product of this era of our history. Rather, the epoch of human history we are now clearly entering can and should be co-conceived and co-created by you.
If that prospect seems overwhelming, break it down into what you can do on your scale and at your pace. It will be enough to know when to say “no” to political leaders so that they will know to follow your lead. It will be a good start if you can figure out a way to say “yes” to the vast majority of people who are just like you.
Offered In Service
Len, once again I am indebted to you for your perspective. You have offered the option of hope where the prevailing sentiment is one of indolence. Thanks for the uplift, I was in need of that today and will do my best to pass it along.
Damn Len, talk about inspiring! There are no degrees of separation, that which has added to our demise, globalism, can add to our strength. We are all connected and have learned that what one does in one area of the world does affect what one does in another area of the world, whether it is excessive use of coal by power plants in Chinese or American power plants, cars or trucks, over-fishing of the seas by Japan, clearing of rain forests in the Amazon, etc.– we are all connected. And, this is just referencing our environmental activities, other policies and business interests obviously interplay too.
It is my prayer that we have fortitude because climate change and all that it will bring will not be easy on Mother Earth and its inhabitants. The earth has been suffering at our hands for quite some time and she needs time to heal, there will be no reversal, say the experts. She, and We, are not the same as we all have been– we have suffered through the distance that we have put in place between ourselves, each other, and the planet that we call our home- and we cannot go back to who we once were. We have changed together. Now it is time to heal together and this we will do, because as Sarah wrote elsewhere, we know the Truth inside us all, we know our choices. It really comes down to our intentions. We don’t have to be leading marches, we just need to do our own type of advocacy that supports sustainability. Ansel Adams moved the soul with his black and white photos of the Western US prompting national and state parks; Lilly Tomlin’s comedy made us consider what was a natural versus an unnatural resource with her comedy routine about leisure suits and Tupperware parties. And of course, buy locally act globally, always assist in affecting transportation costs associated with products. There are many ways to set and follow your intentions.
But your writing, this piece in particular, it likely inspires many of us to do much, much more. Brilliant Len, just brilliant! Thank you!
And I should have read your piece before I asked your questions of Be, sorry be!
Len, every article is terrific. This one is even better than terrific. You have a talent at bringing a positive viewpoint that is very much needed in this world where people are living too much out of fear and definitely without unconditional love. Thank you for your work.
Len- I am searching for a place far back enough to get the Big Picture you just painted so eloquently. My soma is tingling with the implications of your words, and in time the rest of me may catch up.
Interesting times.
So.. there is purpose in overwhelm, right Len? It shake us out of our routines. Do you recall the expression “I’m dancing as fast as I can”? I believe it might have been the title of a book even. Overwhelm implies there is way too much of something to keep up with one’s normal pace.
And that’s the point. A British TV series about the inhabitants of a small town in England, during the months just before World War 2 began, took us into the personal lives of several individuals in that town and showed us, the TV audience, how each of them coped with the overwhelming prospects ahead. It was quite revealing of human nature, as well as how varied the lifestyles of a small group can be. To Pisces Sun’s point, different people are capable of doing different things in order to support the change we must face as overwhelm settles in. There will always be those who can’t cope though and will break down emotionally, or mentally, or physically. They resist change.
Yet, as you pointed out, people do come together to tackle the overwhelm of any given era. Like the leaders of countries coming together to tackle global warming, small towns come together to work out solutions to problems that war creates. It is the coming together, setting aside personal agendas to solve problems that create change that affect those personal agendas; that is the purpose of overwhelm apparently. At least part of it.
So, in astrology, these outer planets. . in their present signs and aspects . . are providing life on Earth a huge dose of overwhelm. On one level, Saturn and Jupiter deal with it from a cultural perspective. The personal planets appear to give guidance on a more intimate level. The more subtle levels of overwhelm might find relief through the movements of the centaurs, asteroids and other visible and invisible moving points.
In contemplating the overwhelm of “all that is repulsive”, ie. Donald Trump, ISIS, home-grown terrorists, etc., I tagged transiting Chiron. The healer, some call him the wounded healer, uses repetitive bouts of increasing discomfort to get our attention. When that doesn’t work he doubles down and discomfort becomes pain until finally, we do something about it. In some cases we come together to find solutions to end the pain.
For years we have watched transiting Chiron, in Pisces, moving in a 30 degree (more or less)lockstep with transiting Uranus, in Aries. There has to be some purpose to that I reasoned. This past weekend transiting Chiron at 16+ Pisces, stationed direct in a degree with the Sabian Symbol of AN EASTER PARADE, accompanied by these remarks from Dane Rudhyar in his book An Astrological Mandala: “At this ..stage.. the Collective dominates the Individual, Yin overpowers Yang. It is time for conformity to what constitutes the highest ideals of one’s culture and for PARTICIPATION IN COLLECTIVE PEAK EXPERIENCES.”
Yesterday, not only was Chiron in his (seemingly) forever semi-sextile with Uranus, he was also square Mercury at 16+ Sagittarius, who was trine Uranus at 16+ Aries. Yesterday Bernie Sanders had minor outpatient repair surgery on his hernia and Len Wallick published this fine blog on dealing with the overwhelm of change and its purpose. I can see the find HAND of Chiron in both cases, as well as Mercury’s service and Uranus’ not-so-subtle departure from the norm.
Chiron is also bringing the likes of Trump and ISIS to the communal consciousness center in order for us to see how low we have sunk and how far out of hand it has gotten. It is overwhelming. Perhaps Uranus – in some way – is guiding us (through Chiron) to move to a higher level of perspective so we can see and correct the illness in the collective body that has caused this discomfort-turned-pain into wholeness and health. Yin must overcome Yang and we all must participate in this collective peak experience. Yours and truly,
be
Be, I agree. Reflecting back on Nov 13 attacks on Paris, Uranus was at 17+Taurus, Dane R. interprets the symbol to reflect a cleansing or purification of the ego and Chiron was on 17 Pisces, which I find too incredible to consider the symbol itself: “villagers witness a spectacular performance,” interpreted as “public self-dramatization.” I can’t help but wonder the significance of the attacks on Paris so close to the Climate Change summit for once thing is for certain, it links war and terrorism to global warming and drought, whether wittingly or not.
It is true of course, they are linked it’s just that many in the political arena do not want to address that either, not the droughts, not the rising seas, not the super storms, or horrific wildfires…
Humanity produces its self-dramatization in its exaggerated and pronounced form,and mother earth is and will continue to producing hers too.
When I started to notice how closely correlated were the overall astrological patterns and my own life some years ago, I was without understanding as to what that meant. I am still without understanding, only continuing to live the daily experience/s. Perhaps this is some kind of reflection of that Uranus/Chiron hand you speak of, Be. The insanity is easy for us to see; we’re tapped into it. The healing is less obvious—as least to the likes of me–yet.
Agreed, Pisces-Sun re: humanity et al, well said and thank you.
Chief, I was looking for a microscope but in changing perspective as you suggest, the Big Picture painted by our eloquent artist Len is harder to grasp. Thank you Len for initiating the conversation.
Len, You are inspiring, empowering and informative. That article was amazing! You were definitely in the flow. Thank you for raising the vibration of our planet with your presence. And thanks for confirming for me that my presence now is also meant to be! Sending love, Deb