Monday, Dec. 15, is yet another exact contact of the square between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn — the 6th of seven exact squares in total. This is the astrology that has been defining our current era for a few years now: breaking open social and political institutions as well as structures on a more personal level; calling individuals to wake up, take part and define themselves in a dramatically shifting landscape.
Hundreds of protesters block the Brooklyn Bridge Dec. 3 following the grand jury decision in the choking death of Eric Garner. Photo by James Keivom/New York Daily News.
While the first exact contact of Uranus and Pluto was in 2012, the effects began warming up long before that as these two powerful planets approached alignment (think Arab Spring and the Occupy movement).
In your life, your community, and in the wider world, you can probably identify sparks that have ignited in unexpected ways; foundations seemingly being bulldozed out from under you; opportunities to engage with your community and the motivation to actually do so; intense reactionary steps taken by those who have a lot to lose in the face of progress.
You can see it now in the stories dominating the news: the militarization of police; the unification of voices speaking up against racial injustice; the release of the Congressional Intelligence Committee’s report on torture by the CIA. Many of these stories are united by the theme of “abuse of power” — institutionalized power (and the power to undo institutions) being a theme of Pluto in Capricorn.
You can see it in the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Malala Yousafzai: the 17-year-old Pakistani girls’ education activist determined not to let a Taliban bullet to her face dissuade her from her mission to speak up and assert herself (revolution of self being a theme of Uranus in Aries).
Consider also that there’s a grand fire trine blazing in the sky right now: a loop of fire connecting planets in Aries, Leo and Sagittarius. It’s anchored by Mercury and the Sun in Sagittarius trine Jupiter in Leo (exact Dec. 12 and 14, respectively), but if you take a wide view, the grand trine fans out to include Ceres, Pholus and Ixion in Sagittarius; Uranus, the South lunar node and Eris in Aries; and Juno in Leo.
That’s a hot sky. Whatever is sparked this week may well keep burning, thanks to the flowing nature of trines — there is enough upheaval around us to serve as tinder, and the flames are being fanned. Thankfully there are major planets in earth and water water signs: a little grounding, perhaps some empathy. Not all fires will run unchecked, although maybe some are long overdue; even nature gives us examples of fire’s essential role in certain life cycles.
Bring the focus in a little closer. Think about the changes in your life since around 2011 or so: the unexpected upheavals opening new spaces to step into; the insistence (seemingly from the universe itself) that you assert who you are — or that you discover who you are as the world comes crashing into your living room. What facet of your life that you thought was a concrete foundation reinforced with rebar has become more like tectonic plates along a major fault line?
There are parts of yourself just waiting for a match to be lit within reach. Where within you has the revolutionary spark and the process of evolution been most palpable, scary as it may sometimes be? Get your bearings within, and look without. This is the event. You’re in it.
Amanda: Thank you for an absolutely brilliant and focused synopsis. It’s as though the stars have come down to Earth to shine through your words.
Amanda – I agree with, Len… really great article! Thank you
Thank you Amanda! Yep, It has certainly moved me, yet we’re really part of it. Looking back from 2011 to now, it’s been a challenge to say the least, the unknown taken in much faith and perseverance to be pushed out in a complete turnaround. A wild ride that will keep me spinning for a while I am sure.
Yes, an absolutely fabulous article, spot on and insightful! 2011 to now has been a demolition and rebuilding! Now for the spark!
“Now for the spark!”
grateful to know these words hit home (in a good way). and yes, teresa and vincent: now for the spark!
for sure, these last few years have seen some fantastic (both in terms of “positive,” and just plain “big/dramatic” changes within me and in those around me. given the angles and planets in my natal chart, 2008-2011 or so was my bigger phase of external pressure and rupture. since then has felt more like my inner world and sense of myself has been shifting and evolving to fill (and perhaps grow beyond) the spaces opened up. but i’ve watched the lives of a few people close to me in the last couple years and thought, “whoa…look at that! uranus and pluto all over the place!
Tectonic shifts? Yep, that about sums up my life the last 3 years!!
“foundations seemingly being bulldozed out from under you; opportunities to engage with your community and the motivation to actually do so; intense reactionary steps taken by those who have a lot to lose in the face of progress”
and
and, “What facet of your life that you thought was a concrete foundation reinforced with rebar has become more like tectonic plates along a major fault line?
There are parts of yourself just waiting for a match to be lit within reach.”
“new spaces to step into”
New spaces, ha, maybe for others. This aggravating, frustrating, life-killing astrology has been *very* personal for me. My health was bulldozed out from under me, so there has been little engagement with society in general or personally – it’s been 6 years so far of standing on quicksand – as soon as I make any health gains, something else happens to rip it all away.
When Pluto ingressed Capricorn in ’08, I got cancer, enduring chemo and radiation, and then needing LOTS of time to heal, which, of course, I did not get.
In May of 2010, when Uranus entered Aries, hubby lost his job, and 2 days later, I stopped sleeping. My adrenals could not handle any changes, yet the planets had other news for me. 6 months later, still not sleeping, I sold off and packed up a large house by myself, moved and unpacked it by myself. I had no energy to do this as it would be years yet before I found any real sleep. Then move again a year later. All the while taking care of an 18 yr old beloved pet who had alzheimer’s and thought the house was his bathroom.
LOL, the stars ripped out my adrenals and have been playing handball with them, bashing them against a brick wall. It’s gonna take I don’t know how long to rebuild functioning and *have it stay there*. I am beyond frustrated at seeing any gains ripped away all the time.
The U/P square is, of course, in my sign, Aries. I know other Aries not being drowned by this astrology, actually doing well, but it’s hit me to the core, and I am drowning, now, literally, with congestive heart failure. It’s not bad enough I live in a place surrounded by water, which is alien to my Aries with Leo rising nature, now it’s filling me up.
There is no way out, only through, if I make it through. And if I do, I’m so physically and emotionally battered by these 6 years, it’ll take a miracle for my fire to take spark again. I *used to be* a happy, vibrant, energetic, productive person, optimistic, always dreaming big dreams – there is nothing of that left. All this while wondering why the hell I bothered to fight cancer. This has been SO much worse than cancer.
And it certainly hasn’t brought anything positive to replace everything it’s taken. If I had the energy, I’d jump up and down on the U/P square, bashing it to bits, and few will be happier than I, when it pisses off and releases its’ death grip.
dbdesigns, You have my empathy. I too have been through the ringer this last few years – though nothing rising to your pain. It feels to me like you are almost lashing out at the Universe – or the happy-go-lucky few who often seem to believe that all we have to do to avoid pain and suffering is to BE HAPPY all the time. If so, I share that perspective. It is a delusion that infects most of us when we are practicing conscious awareness and things are going swimmingly! But this life takes twists and turns that are not always fun – yet we have done nothing wrong nor are we able to just laugh it off.
What this Pluto/Uranus square has taught me (so far) is that there is much to be gained by embracing my dark side and somewhere along the way I think I’ve started to find acceptance for the painful side of life. I think there is a state where acceptance can open some previously closed doors within our inner self and spirit then sweeps in and shows the doorway we ignored.
I read a book by Anita Moorjani called Dying to be me. It helped me and maybe you would find something inspiring in it as well. It seems to expose how tightly we hang on to our version of reality – but sometimes spirit has a drastic curse of action to realize. In the end it is about letting go of everything. From there everything already is. No one does this willingly.
I don’t know whether anything I have said will help but I want to thank you for expressing your feelings. You triggered some of my deep epiphanies back to my surface consciousness. Hoping things look better for you tomorrow.
You too, Cowboy
Thank you, Cowboy!
Yes, I’ve read Anita’s book after reading Dyer’s Mastering the Art of Manifesting. She wasn’t in tune with herself, always living in fear. She had the same cancer as me. I was stage 3B, she was further on, although I was pretty well on my way to dead, too. In one way, I feel cheated by stories like hers (although I’ve read other NDEs that weren’t so enlightening). She nearly died, went to the other side and through releasing her fears was told she would be healed, then woke up rapidly healing to drs astonishment.
She didn’t have to do all, eh, ALL the hard work involved in actually healing her body. Healing just came to her. I wonder, and doubt, that had she faced, then let go of, her fears, before dying, would the cancer have reversed itself. Given the choice between what I’ve been through and her journey, I’d choose hers! But most of us aren’t that lucky.
And that’s the other thing. I never lived in fear. I’m a fiery Aries with Leo rising – I am fearless. I have always lived with passion, joy and love. Conscious, aware. What on earth or in heaven this long, drawn out, non-stop life-depletion is supposed to teach me, I haven’t a clue.
My birth date is 12. In numerology, it means Victim. I’ve never liked it, but acknowledge that I’ve chosen it. I am the only one in my family with cancer. I don’t know what depth of epiphany my illness has wrought in my family. Sometimes, we don’t suffer to enlighten ourselves, we suffer to enlighten others. Either way, it sucks, and I certainly didn’t need to go through anything like this, as my persona was wholly formed, and had been long in touch with my purpose in life.
As for manifesting health. I’ve tried to do just that. I’ve manifested other things, but it’s like the psychic who can’t see the winning lottery #’s for her/himself. Imagine, ordain, release can’t seem to override whatever external powers/pressures which have kept me ill.
Things do look better when I sleep well. Prob is, I rarely sleep well – too much affecting it, so there’s no waking with feeling refreshed/healed/rested. Do that for 4 yrs straight and it’s nigh impossible to have a happy frame of mind!
Sending you love and healing, db designs.
Blessings to you, Sojourn, for your kind wishes!
dbdesigns, you’ve been on my mind since I first saw your response to Amanda’s column earlier today. I considered sharing parts of my story and decided not to because, in my experience, it silences the person who summoned the nerve to share their story and the nightmare their life has become. I do not want to silence you. And I am not a white lighter who claims to have the answers for why and how. I embrace the Mystery, brightness and shadow, and find my particular spiritual resonance as a Pagan.
I want to point you to an adept herbalist who I respect and know to be full of integrity. Lily is grounded in compassion. She’s also a Taurus. She studied herbalism at a school in the Bay Area, and now lives in Columbus, Ohio, where she runs a brick and mortar store she started up earlier this year, with much community support. I understand money is a limiting issue, and Lily gets this issue 100%. I don’t know your orientation toward holistic medicine; many unsavory things travel under the name of healing. Being cautious, in my experience, is wise. That’s why I didn’t call Lily a healer above, although in the oldest traditions of the word, that’s what she is. Adrenal fatigue I think she can approach with a refreshing perspective. I don’t know about the congestive heart failure, although I do not doubt she has the knowledge to supplement whatever treatments you are currently receiving, allopathic or otherwise. I’d expect her to know how to support your body’s recovery from the cancer you fought off and the treatments you had to receive as a part of that fight.
Acupuncture has proven to be something that works for me, but again, the money thing. There are community acupuncture clinics that accept a fraction of the cost of a traditional session. Even here, in my relatively small city, that option exists, and it ranges from $15-30, whatever you can manage.
This summer I read and worked extensively with Pema Chodron’s book When Things Fall Apart. I wrestled with it, too. I ranted against some things in it until I was able to appreciate why I was doing so. I wrote down other parts. Pema’s (accessible, Western) interpretation of Tibetan Buddhist teachings helped me get to where I needed to get so I could begin to re-build a stagnant (read: resurrect a dead) sitting practice. So much flowed from me struggling through Pema’s book. And I did struggle. Struggle and swear and cry and sit in a big pool of my self, convinced I was drowning. I defied the burning to breathe.
I don’t want to come off as glib. I want to share with you something I read last week: Hope is not a feeling. It is an action. And sometimes, with adrenal fatigue (which is an understatement, is it not?), it is a lack of action. It is rest. It is a small daily practice. It is laughter. It is a willingness to face Death and decide whether or not it is time to surrender to it and whether or not it is time to push it back. And by push it back, I mean defy it. Not everyone alive today wants to be. I have watched brilliant people drink themselves to death, deliberately. I have loved those who have ended their lives deliberately.
You are a living miracle, right now. Right now, just as you are. I honor you. I honor your pain. I honor your brokenness. I honor what you have lost. And I honor your power to again know joy and follow the path of your desire where it leads. (I’m not Buddhist. I’m Pagan. I am into following desire. Lookie here: http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9781578635382-0)
Here’s some of Lily’s Internet presence, which will link to her elsewhere. She’ll tell you what she is confident she can and cannot do. And while I cannot speak for her, given what I know of her, I believe she will work out a way for you to receive her services if that is indicated when you write or chat with her: http://bolineapothecary.blogspot.com/p/about.html [AND] http://www.bolineapothecary.com/
Blessings to you, sister. May you receive the guidance and support you need in your healing journey.
Thank you, Jaimie!
Yes, have always been interested in holistic healing practices, though not able to make use of them. What I connect most to is nutrition, nutritional supplements, and natural hormones. I’m also meno and you’d have take the bio-identical hormones and natural thyroid out of my cold, dead hands!
As chemo and radiation turned on so many genetic snps, I’ve been tending methylation and the nutritional needs of my specific genetics. “We are not prisoners of our genetic destiny. Our genetics load the gun, our lifestyle pulls the trigger.”
What pulled my trigger was 9 years of a rough peri-meno, which no dr treated properly (as alopathic drs don’t), nor did anyone think perhaps my thyroid was getting dysregulated from the roller coaster ride my E and P were on daily, and I do mean roller coaster. 5 yrs in, almost lost a retina, another 4 yrs had the cancer blooming.
A woman can’t get anywhere near meno without needing the care of a dr who *really* understands endocrine function (and that excludes endos), OR decide to be in charge of one’s own health, take the time to learn and practice self-care. This knowledge, including epigenetics, wasn’t available 15 yrs ago, but it is now, so younger women can hopefully save themselves from a similar fate.
I was SO close to getting my body regulated, last winter – working on methylation, optimizing thyroid levels, using circadian dosing for adrenals, which works well. But one needs to lift all these things, get them humming along, then hold and *wait*. The bod needs time to heal and regulate. I never get that time!
As usual, something happens to totter my adrenal function, sending all the cards toppling. After just 2 weeks poor sleep, my cortisol dysregulated, my NDT wasn’t getting utilized, my RT3 was increasing, and bam, landed badly in CHF. Heart and lungs are a weakness since chemo and radiation, however, giving the body optimal, not just in range, thyroid levels feeds everything. My heart and lungs were doing fine, until the topple, 2 heart problems had disappeared while working on this process, and I was energetic and doing almost all the things I used to do. A real kick in the ass!
I use and am fond of certain herbs – cat’s claw is great for my immune system, also use slippery elm and turkey rhubarb. Herbs for the adrenals, like nettle seed, is a slowwww, very gentle way of supporting them, not nearly the impact that is needed when they’re struggling. I have long been using adrenal cortex – like supports like thinking. My body likes it so much better than hydrocortisone, which is no surprise to me.
Adrenals cannot regulate with hypo levels of thyroid – they need optimal levels, like every cell does – most people would be surprised to learn how many people are sub-clinical hypo, thinking their health issues are just old age or poor diet etc, eh, and kept ill by alopathic drs basing their practices on the teachings of the past 40 yrs since the TSH test came around, not treating by relief of patients’ symptoms, instead saying you’re fine, go see a psychiatrist and take an anti-depressant.
A person can not think nor feel properly, if endocrine is out of balance, and in our world, it’d be a miracle to *not* be out of balance, idiot drs’ evaluations to the contrary. It takes concerted effort to be well and functioning, never mind optimally healthy. And that is my aim. I will settle for nothing less than ALL the energy I used to have before peri-meno hit, and everything began to go to crap! The past 6 years have just been the apex of suffering!, the most visible part of the iceberg.
Thanks for the links!
dbdesigns — you have my empathy. you’re being put through the wringer, and i truly hope it eases up soon. i thought i had seen some people close to me struggling, but nothing compared to what you’re going through. keep checking in here — we’re thinking of you.
Thank you, kindly, Amanda!
I’ve been lingering around awhile, often writing comments, then trashing them – not always in a place where I want to commit to my thoughts, or engage in conversation, so I back out. All the time, I am in energy-monitoring and saving mode.
dbdesigns, it sounds to me, based on what you’re sharing, that you have been, and continue to be, up against a wall, fangs bared. I have more to write to you later, when I’m not in go-mode, but for now, I want to honor your sharing here and honor your strength, endurance, and courage. All attributes of every warrior I have ever known. What is frequently known as a”dark” sense of humor shines through. I’ve found that my own such sense of humor helps ground pain that feels too much to bear without it. You are amazing.
Amanda, I’ve witnessed people as they come into their own. Your writing and knowledge of your subject continue to stun me as your knowledge of yourself and your subject deepens and extends. Powerful writing, and your words have re-focused incredible intensity with what I can only call a kind of grace, such that this all feels, if for a time, less scary. Oh my fuck, what a gift to be able to refocus collective mortal terror. Thank you.
Jaimie,
Thank you! Yes, a warrior, fangs bared against anything and everything trying to fell me – it is why I am still here. Doing battle for life takes supreme faith in oneself and a willingness to fight. Many don’t have that. It’s easier not to fight, and just let go, but I refuse to accept that my life is done.
But even warriors need to lay down their swords, now and then, and rest, and hope they won’t be slain in their sleep. LOL, my shield of invincibility is often just a bunch of smoke and mirrors, giving me the illusion of strength, much like Fezzik, when he storms the castle, in The Princess Bride. I put it out there, even when I’m so worn down, I don’t believe it.
jaimie — thank you; i’m humbled by your words. it’s been quite a journey, and i’m grateful to know i’m being witnessed as i grow.
i think a lot of us have been faced with (at the very least) facing our shadows in recent years, if not outright loss of loved ones, death of parts of ourselves (physical and non-), and a lot of reasons to feel overwhelmed. sometimes the way through is the path we most resist.
So true, Amanda. Shadow work is tough. It’s harder than trying to chew leather. Sometimes the way through is the path we most resist. And sometimes the way through is the path we most desire. And for some of us, the path we most desire is the path we most resist. And sometimes, I’m convinced, the way through consists of eating tacos, and frequently. Because tacos make everything better.
Thank you for making the fruits of your journey available here.
Amanda, all beautifully said and true. Everyone has provided wise counsel.
To dbdesigns I hope that the Universe provides strength so you may persevere through and into gentler times in your life. You have the wisdom, you have struggled, but you are strong. There are a lot of people who can learn from your strength as they face their own trials.
I know I’ve spent a lot of time fighting and struggling to overcome the adversities that were presented in my life. I described my life as Bob Seger’s song “Against the Wind”. I spent so much time struggling trying to impose my view of what should be, and many times I have cursed God for what he brought to my door.
Somehow though through everything the last 2 years brought me I heard a tiny voice telling me to stop struggling. The hardest part for me is to stop struggling and have faith that the Universe (that’s what I call something bigger and smarter than I) has a plan. I don’t know it, understand it, and certainly there are times I hate it, but in hindsight I can say “if I’d had what id wanted I wouldn’t be as happy as I am now”. Now tomorrow that elusive faith in the universe may have drifted out of view. If it has I will come back again to this website.
One important addition to my life is that I found Planet Waves and have learned so much here and am fascinated gy the people. We see so much bad and have seen so much bad for the last couple of years, but I believe there are many people looking just like us who are willing to lend a hand and listen if we just look for those voices through the roar. I certainly learn a lot here and am glad to know you’re all out there.
So refreshing to read someone use the word “penultimate” accurately.