Chiron at Aries 6

22/5/2019

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The Sabian Journey of Magical Chiron – Aries 6

Chiron Images Paola Angelotti

Finding our Life Direction

The first batch of 5 degrees having been transited and to some extent assimilated into consciousness, Chiron enters the second expression of Aries. The name given to this Expression is ‘Direction’. The thrust of desire began with self-centred action – and the five stages of this process are outlined already. Now the focus becomes making some accommodation within ourselves in order to relate to society, and thus benefit from the support and fellowship that that offers. Cultural norms impact upon us in an emotional way – we are offered both opportunity and penalty and are subject to the ups and downs of our feelings according to whether our expectations and desires are being met or disappointed.

Determination of a Life Code

Jones called this particular degree A SQUARE BRIGHTLY LIGHTED ON ONE SIDE, whose keyword is ‘SET’. This image employs traditional symbolism: a square indicates materiality, and the light is spirituality. It focuses upon the need to bring steadiness into our lives and settle the emotional ups and downs to an acceptable level. This occurs when, and only when, we adopt a spiritual code of some sort, in other words by SETTING STABLE LIFE PRINCIPLES.

Importance of Creativity

Because we have a desire to establish ourselves as a unique person, the need exists to resist the force that tends to pull us back into the undifferentiated state of pre-existence; this force of resistance is seen as our urge to be diverse in our self-expression, to be a creative individual.

Conformity as the Foundation of Creativity

Being different begins first at the level of family and tribe – WE are not like THEM – so we adopt the behaviours, beliefs and practices of our fellows to underline how different WE are from THEM.

Bubbling Up of Creativity

Yet our yearning to be expressive as an individual bubbles up as the drive to achieve our own special goals and have our own special attitudes to life, which give rise to our own unique set of experiences.

What Does it All Mean?

We are, however, confronted with the need to understand that without the gift of knowledge experience is meaningless. We are all challenged to set ourselves upon an enlightened path as we struggle with physicality.

The Meaning of Knowledge and Experience

Understanding our life is only possible when we give meaning to our experiences; a path must have meaning, or events are disconnected and lack depth of purpose. Without knowledge, experience is meaningless, yet without experience, knowledge is two-dimensional. Can we see that knowledge is the symbol of experience, and experience the symbol of knowledge? Each is the meaning of the other, and neither has meaning alone.

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Chiron at Aries 5

29/4/2019

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The Sabian Journey of Magical Chiron – Aries 5

Synthesis of Wisdom

With the 5th degree of any batch of 5 degrees we look for a synthesis of the wisdom suggested by the previous 4 of the set. In this example, Chiron is taking us through a process of reviewing what we are doing and who we are as we embark on another cycle of shifting perception.

Awareness of the 'Other'

If we were able to bring ourselves in Aries 4 to a heightened awareness of ‘the other’ we can step into Aries 5 with an advanced level of consciousness, wherein all polarities are reconciled, all ambiguities are resolved, and harmony is found. As was made strikingly clear during the Brexit process, it is very difficult to see things from the other’s point of view.

The Golden Rule

Nonetheless, on a personal level, some of us aspire to do exactly that – to practice the ‘Golden Rule’ and see things simultaneously from two points of perception. We need to do to others what we would have them do to us. This teaching is not just for Christians, it is present in all spiritual belief everywhere and throughout history.

Transcendental States

When we do then a higher state of being unfolds for us, and we can see more, understand more and feel more empathy. We can even expect occasionally to touch into transcendental states of consciousness.

Triangle With Wings

Aries 5 is called A TRIANGLE WITH WINGS. “Through processes of development and refinement, our impulses lead us towards self-realisation”.

Essence of our Life Journey

We come to see ourselves differently, as parts of the whole, and totally enthusiastic about reconnecting with the Source, which means having access to the transcendental aspect of self. We come to recognise that this is the essence of our life journey.

Skills, Loyalties and Values

We learn of three fundamental aspects of who we are and what we are made of. Described by Marc Jones in terms of our skills, loyalties and values, these three bits of us relate to the animal, human and angelic components of self. The animal part is motivated by the four features of the gene’s survival imperatives: fight, flight, feed and fecundate. We develop skills so that we can survive in a harsh environment. Loyalties connect us with the two bloodlines of our roots and so connect to the push of family goals. Values speak to our soul’s sense of what is the right thing to do.

Chiron Images Paola Angelotti

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Chiron at Aries 4

5/4/2019

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The Sabian Journey of Magical Chiron – Aries 4

Chiron Images Paola Angelotti

The Next Chapter

Chiron’s complete zodiac journey, which began as it entered Aries recently, is mapping out the individual steps through the 360 degrees. Each step can be studied by examining closely its Sabian Symbol.

The Two Lovers

Between April 11th and May 30th Chiron will transit through the 4th degree of Aries. This degree is called ‘Two lovers strolling through a secluded walk’ and the keyword Jones uses is ‘Enjoyment’ whereas Rudhyar suggests ‘Polarisation’.

Jones’s keywords tend to be more to do with our personal experience and speak to the qualities that can be developed; Rudhyar’s have more to do with lessons for a seeker on the path to realisation.

The Golden Rule

Chiron’s teaching is basically that a perceptual shift is necessary and sufficient condition for healing. To put this differently, Chiron teaches us how better to see things. We can, for example, see that our enjoyment reaches spiritual heights when we hold on to our awareness of both aspects of any polarised position.

This attitude is the essence of the fundamental principle of spiritual awareness, the Golden Rule, reflexive self-consciousness, ‘Do as you’d be done by’.

Pleasure is not Joy

It differs completely from the selfish principle of pleasure. Pleasure is the hollow echo of joy. If we simply take our pleasure, for example in casual sex, in ruthless ambition, in manipulation of others, in excessive food-lust, then the momentary buzz soon fades and one day soon turns into its opposite emotion of disappointment.

Joy, however, is sustainable and wholesome. It may lack the exciting temporary buzz but it builds an grows and becomes a solid foundation of life.

Sharing

The essential difference between pleasure and joy is that pleasure is for me and joy is for us. When we find that our own pleasure is optimised though another, then we are closer to joy. Think of how we are with babies or a new romance – we get so much more joy through sharing our experience. This is general truth that doesn’t always require offspring or a lover. When we care for another, joy deepens.

Accepting both sides

The more mystical, philosophical aspect of Aries 4 is that we will be able to know how to experience this level of joy only when we recognise, acknowledge and celebrate our own polarities – the masculine and feminine, the light and the shadow, certainty and doubt, love and fear – and embrace both sides with awareness.

Having accepted and healed our inner polarities it becomes inevitable that our relationships with others are also healed. The reverse is also true that we cannot hope for a deep and peaceful, joyful connection with another until we have found such qualities within ourselves.

Dealing with inner ambiguity

Chiron’s new initiative in Aries 1, met by a contrasting response in Aries 2 and an understanding, in Aries 3, of the importance of responding to community needs, now, in Aries 4, shows up our own personal inner ambiguities. We come to see that we have been wanting two things that cannot be reconciled, to be both involved and free, to have our cake and eat it or, during the Brexit fiasco, to enjoy Europe’s wealth and yet be free of responsibility to share its problems.

In the name of a higher, joyful, shared purpose, lovers resolve such ambiguities with caring compromise.

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Chiron at Aries 3

26/3/2019

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The Sabian Journey of Magical Chiron – Aries 3

As Chiron transits its complete zodiac cycle we can look for the various steps of its journey through the lens of Sabian Symbols. Chiron will passage Aries 3 between 25 March and 11 April 2019.

Desire and Action

The first 5 degrees of Aries is about taking action to express desire and, according to Rudhyar, every batch of 5 degrees follows the formula:

Affirmation of an idea
Countering and contrasting that idea
Reconciliation and the combined result
Change mechanism
Synthesis and progression

Personal Journey

If we are able to make this work on a personal level we have to identify a seed, something totally new, that occurred between these dates: 18 February 2019 to 8 March 2019, or if not then 17 April 2018 to 7 May 2018, or 3 September 2018 to 26 September 2018. This could be a new idea, a new project, a new person, a new way of being – the seeding of a very significant new chapter of life.

The Seed of Possibility

Although we are looking at Aries 3, let’s consider the preceding steps.

Aries 1; we see that the woman who has arisen from the sea represents the receptive principle coming out of the undifferentiated sea of humanity’s collective unconsciousness. The seal, which rises up to embrace her, shows a rather similar image of something rising out of the unconscious, yet with a more masculine, rather phallic sense. At this first point in the story, both aspects could very easily simply sink back into the sea and return into unconsciousness. Indeed most of our ideas and possibilities lead nowhere; they pop into our awareness for a moment, we have our little fantasy about what could happen, and then we forget all about it.

Comedian

Aries 2, (the comedian entertaining a group), the second within the batch of 5 degrees, is the polarising principle to the first idea. In society it is the comedian’s function to make it clear that our own exalted self-perception is not shared by society.

Reflexive Self Awareness

This symbol shows us that an idea we may have of who we are, or what we are doing, cannot be properly understood until we have also taken into account the way our community views us. We will only ever be effective within a background context, and that context is the social group within which we circle. An important aspect of who we are is the community’s take on who we are.

Making Adjustments

So whatever was seeded in Aries 1 will come up against something that gives pause during Aries 2 since we have to come to terms with outside factors. We have to make adjustments to our awareness and intentions so that we may progress.

Social Context of What We Do

In Aries 3 (A profile of a man outlined by his country), we have to marry what we want for ourselves with what we want for the community with neither side taking advantage, and both gaining benefit. The power needed to realise any idea comes from those who support it and do work to bring it into form. To some extent this idea, and any other project, must become a communal project because in fact we can do nothing alone. This fact requires us to win support, to persuade, to communicate and negotiate, and eventually to find an overlap between our personal vision and the collective need.

Power of Participation

Participation is powerful, alienation is ultimately disempowering.

Those of us who feel we can complete a project alone may need to think again. We love the idea of independence, the freedom from the need to compromise and being forced to interact with potentially tiresome people – but here the wisdom is very clear, unless we align with the community to some extent we will not succeed to realise anything much, and our ideas will come to nothing.

Further understandings of the mystery of polarity can develop and deepen during Aries 4, and then the gate to progression is opened in Aries 5.

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Out of Bounds Planets

14/3/2019

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Out of Bounds Planets

Introduction

One less-well-known fact in astrology is that sometimes planets go beyond their normal limits. People with these in their charts can behave in an exceptional manner, occasionally showing surprising and even extreme qualities and behaviour; later we will look at what to expect if you have such a planet. In the general sense, when a planet is Out of Bounds you may look for feelings, thoughts, events and situations in your life to become noticeably out of the ordinary according to society’s ideas of normality.

OOB Planets Qualities

Conversation by Telepathy

Mars goes out of bounds on 20 April 2019, at Gemini 14, whose Sabian Symbol is ‘A Conversation by Telepathy’. It stays out until 11 June 2019, with its most extreme reach around 19th May when it has just entered Cancer. The first degree of Cancer has as its Sabian Symbol, ‘Furled and unfurled flag’, which has a lot to say about allegiances and loyalties.

Commitment

So in mid-May we can look out for feelings of doubt about where we belong, highlighting whether or not we can make a commitment – and with Mars OOB we may expect a rather passionate, even aggressive resolution to the question!

Technicalities

In your horoscope, technically speaking, a planet’s position is given in the form of degrees and minutes of a zodiac signs. My Sun for example is at Taurus 15:38. These numbers, which can be between 0 and 30, are measuring the degrees of longitude. Another dimension of the planet’s position (up or down rather than side to side) is its declination, which is the measure of its angular distance above or below, (North or South), of the ‘Celestial Equator’. More technical explanations are on this site.

Definition: Out of Bounds

Planets are almost always found within the range between 23:27 North and 23:27 South because they circle the Earth in a band around the equator rather than being dotted about randomly. However sometime they exceed this angular distance (which is the same as the Earth’s tilt on its axis) and when they do they are said to be ‘Out Of Bounds’. For example if your Moon’s declination is ‘24:00 North’ then it is OOB.

Which Planets Go Out?

Mars and the Moon are often OOB, and Jupiter is seldom out. The Nodes and four planets never go out – Sun, Saturn, Neptune and recently discovered Chiron, which is already very ‘out there’ in its meaning and behaviour! As an example of a person with OOB Moon we can see how the celebrated Japanese artist Ruby Fumizki’s paintings are very subtle and hint at, rather than fully express, their intended meaning.

People are divided roughly equally between those with none and those with one or more. Of 100 people you would expect only 1 to have 4 planets, 3 people would have 3 planets and 20 people would have 2.

Multiple Planets

A person with three planets will very likely be seen as a real odd ball and could be innovative and creative – or rebellious and unsettling. A person with four is so rare that analysis is impracticable, but we can be sure that such a person would be seen as very weird and probably would live on the margins of society doing very unusual and creative things for which they go unrecognised.

Off Limits

The phrase itself is very descriptive. As children we would be told where we were allowed to go and which areas were off limits, and sometimes we would even see a sign saying ‘out of bounds’. A child who wandered out was a naughty child and risked penalty, especially if they did it repeatedly.

Not Good Nor Bad

Similarly with the behaviour of a person with any OOB planets – they behave to some extent in a way that society considers antisocial, disruptive or eccentric, and this can be just mildly so or extremely so, even to the level of criminality, depending on distortions of basic personality. However there is no evidence that OOB planets are essentially bad; good guys and bad guys have the same percentages, as do famous people and the rest of us. Yet whether helpful or harmful they tend to be radically different in some way, depending upon the qualities of the planet itself and also the extent of its OOB-ness.

Finding Your Planets

You can find out about some of your planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter by visiting Café Astrology, otherwise you would need some skill at reading an astrology table (it requires an ephemeris for declinations).

Qualities and Celebrities

I am including here are a few of the descriptive qualities of OOB planets, and if you want to read more about them you can check out a fuller list of characteristics on my website Sabian Mysteries.
Some celebrities with OOB planets clearly display certain of these qualities and I have recorded an example of that after the description:

Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars

Moon: great need for freedom, good emotional intelligence, strong intuition, sensitivity and understanding, having different moral values to established society. (Oprah Winfrey)
Mercury: innovative thinking, very commercially minded, ability at writing, eloquence, charismatic style of speech, can reach the audience. (Donald Trump)
Venus: grace, special charm, extraordinary appreciation of beauty, artistic talent, unusually romantic nature, ability to entertain. (Frank Sinatra)
Mars: masculine energy, leadership qualities, brimming with self-confidence and vitality, drive, courage, will to succeed. (Rupert Murdoch)

Pluto and Uranus

When Pluto and Uranus go out they are effective in shaping history because they influence a whole generation. We cannot really say what Pluto means on a personal level because it is poorly researched and anyway already well beyond our day-to-day understanding; however it will have something to do with an extreme, and possibly dangerous, inclination to push boundaries around questions of taboo like sex, death and personal transformation.

Uranus OOB Generation

To some extent this is also true for Uranus but an interesting quirk is easily identified in history. The ‘Uranus Out of Bounds’ generation, which was born within a few years around 1948, had a very powerful impact upon society when, in the late 1980s, their Uranus oppositions were also OOB. OOB Uranus is extremely eccentric, obsessed with the spirit of discovery, revolution, experimentation, and with unrestrained imagination and creativity, demanding freedom of thought and action, and displaying very rebellious behaviour.

This period was typified by social discontent and refusal to accept unreasonable constraints; it gave huge emphasis to the Alternative Culture that has had a major impact on current thinking about gender issues, climate change, racial acceptance and holistic healing methods for example. Richard Branson (Uranus), and Leonardo da Vinci (Pluto) show how they may act on the individual level.

Qualities of Out of Bounds Planets

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Chiron at Aries 2

6/3/2019

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The Sabian Journey of Magical Chiron – Aries 2

It would be false if we thought that a particular planetary placement has a definitive meaning that is always the same for everyone. People, and life, are much more complex than that. As astrologers we are observers and we study human behaviour to check out whether our ideas prove workable.

The closer, visible, planets have been studied for thousands of years so we have had more time to observe and understand their impact. But that said, a lot of commentary had been strongly influenced by morality, philosophy and conditioned expectations – for example Saturn and Mars were not always at all well thought of.

Pluto and Chiron are Newly Discovered

Recent discoveries like Pluto and Chiron have not even completed the whole Zodiac cycle since they were first seen, so really we are still learning about them, and our interpretations are rather more speculative and philosophical than we might want to admit.

We Participate in Discovery

Our special study of Chiron as it passages through each Sabian degree is actually an aspect of its discovery. We are not yet so much learning and confirming what it means as we are finding out and co-creating its meaning, which is inevitably a function of humanity’s current and limited state of awareness.

This is no less true for Sabian Symbols, whose influence within astrology is only now starting to be felt widely. As we try to grasp their meanings we stand at the leading edge of esoteric knowledge.

Evolution of Knowledge

This position, the horizon of consciousness, is the territory of Chiron. In mythology Chiron was the first astrologer, first teacher of the mysteries. Even more than for the other planets, Chiron’s meaning can never be complete because it is always evolving, that is its very purpose - to evolve our knowledge, to bring us to new understandings. The wisdom of Chiron can be captured in the phrase ‘the meaning of life is to discover the meaning of life’.

After 18 days in Aries 1, on March 6th it moves into Aries 2 where it stays until March 25th.

Aries 2, the Comedian

The Sabian Symbol for Aries 2 is “A comedian entertaining a group”, which Marc Edmund Jones explains with the keyword ‘Release’. Rudhyar offers his version, “A comedian reveals human nature” with keywords ‘Objectification of Consciousness’.

If the first degree represents the un-met seed, vulnerable and by no means certain of survival, then the second degree is its accommodation, the womb or matrix that responds and holds it, and offers the possibility of potential furtherment.

The secret of Aries 2 is that ‘whatever is an aspect of human nature must be revealed’. There is also the strong hint that this revelation is not likely to be reverent and sacred but the opposite: we will experience aspects of our personality being ridiculed for their silliness and lack of grace.

Who we really are will certainly be revealed at some point in our personal evolution, and we will be shown – and shown up! Generally comedians tackle us for our ego-pride, and by doing so they reveal shadowy facets of personality that actually need to be looked at, accepted and released.

Sometimes we take ourselves much too seriously – we are attached both to self-congratulation and self-blame – yet to be free is to be free of such attachments. The comedian helps with this, as does the light-hearted psychotherapist.

My Sufi teacher taught: ‘If you take a person’s problems seriously you are not taking the person seriously enough’. In other words a little bit of humour is worth a lot of sympathy. (However we must remember that the chuckle works better than the aggressive, blaming ridicule!)

Release of Pain and Distortion

In order for us to break new ground, to step forward rather than repeat old patterns, we must release some of our distortions and pain. There is no choice about this, no negotiation. No new initiative will find an accommodation within us unless and until we make space for it by releasing what must now move out of our field of self-image.

Examination

Whatever has presented itself to us as opportunity during Aries 1 will stimulate in Aries 2 the process of emotional clearing needed to allow a new perspective to take root within us. This is a type of examination wherein we are asked the question: “Is our commitment to find our spiritual path backed up by our willingness to face up to our imperfections of personality, and release some of the more negative qualities we have been holding?”

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Chiron at Aries 1

13/2/2019

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Chiron’s Miraculous Journey Begins

Chiron is starting its cycle of 51 years, entering Aries on February 18th; symbolising awakening. It leads us to change our experience of events by changing how we see things – and this shift of awareness is part of our spiritual emergence into higher states of consciousness.

Ageing Hippies

It was noticed for the first time in 1977 and this discovery signalled the start of a new age for human consciousness. Those of us affectionately known as ageing hippies remember this time from 1968 to 1976, when it transited Aries.

One small step for man...

We had integrated the juddering shock of rock and roll, The Rolling Stones, Nobel-Laureate-to-be Bobby Dylan, and the Fab Four, and were now dressed in outrageously bright and loose clothing, in open rebellion against suits, parents and convention generally. Also we were, for the first time ever, wielding unimagined power as young spenders.

This was already massively powerful; yet Chiron entering Aries kindled some events that grew into so very much more than they seemed at the time. These included “One small step for man and a great step for mankind”; Jumbo jets; the incorporation of both IT-giants-to-be…Apple and Microsoft; electronic music; anti-Vietnam marches, Luther King’s shameful murder, and the West experiencing unheard-of riots.

A New Age

Looking deeper into these apparently unconnected occurrences, we might spot the commonality – people were waking up to another level of life, another reality.

Jumbos brought tourism, and so reduced the xenophobic paranoia that white people generally had towards foreigners, especially dark-skinned ones; space exploration brought an iconic vision of Planet Earth as an unprotected little ball in a limitlessness expanse of space, which prompted much more awareness of environmental science and ecosystems. The High-Tech age came with its laptops, The Web, Facebook and cell phones – which until that point were just silly science-fiction toys.

Sex, Drugs...

And the rebellion inherent within “sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” forced everyone, including politicians, to become a little less reactive, more tolerant and open to minority groups. However bad it may still be today it was so much worse then.

Rainbow Bridge

Known mainly as the ‘wounded healer’, Chiron is also termed the ‘Rainbow Bridge’ since its unprejudiced attitude tolerates all rainbow colours, and its capacity to modify perception bridges the division among those of differing opinions and ways. Only when we see things from another person’s perspective will we know how to walk the road to peace and harmony. Looking for a different viewpoint is the path for all seekers today.

Marc Edmund Jones

Jones describes Aries 1 as follows: ‘A woman rises out of the water; a seal rises and embraces her’.
We can easily see that the ocean is a familiar metaphor for the instinctive, intuitive knowledge and actions of our species. From this unconscious state ideas arise like the waves of the sea. Equally our every utterance could have a knock-on effect, word upon word, light upon light, which might lead to lasting changes. But most initiatives fail, almost none live on, and we simply do not know until time passes which ones might persist and have any consequence.

Learn to Listen

Yet there are some creative possibilities, many not well-formed nor lucidly explained. They may be vague feelings not even real thought.
If we want to support such nascent imaginings, we may need to improve our listening – to our own inner voice as well as the vaguely described feelings of a friend. We can also encourage children’s silly ideas – they are freer from judgement and outworn old standards.

This is the beginning...

It must be obvious that we will have solved our concerns to do with population, global warming and the abuse of Mother Nature by 2070, or we’ll have suffered a hefty price for failing to do so. Chiron’s teachings offer the safe and clear bridge to that future time. Astrologers might look back to this very year when we discovered the first glimpses of a way out of the bewilderment and misrepresentations that presently shadow our understandings.

Being Aware

So, between 18 February and 8 March, look out for a very subtle new direction unfolding, so subtle that its lasting repercussions may be obscure. If you’ve felt you were waiting for something – that exceptional person or opportunity – then it is now time to be really expectant, and imagine this can and will occur. We should manage each new circumstance with a hopeful attitude, and broaden our view of what exists in the realm of possibility.

Miracle and Magic

Chiron represents miracle and magic, the unworldly world of fantasy and imagination, and in this realm faith is a requirement. For those of us who have the faith, miracles are what to faithfully expect when there is a situation where only a miracle will work.

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Free Will and Reincarnation

9/1/2019

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Free Will and Reincarnation

Free Will as a life path

Let us put forward two propositions, mutually exclusive to each other:

a) We have complete free will
b) We are subject to an overpowering force ( If partial free will exists then b) applies)

If b) applies then, until I am stopped, I choose to behave as if a) is true, so therefore as a way of being:

I affirm uncompromised free will as a life path.

Reincarnation and peer group approval

My free will chooses to have the authority and power to determine all of my experiences on this Earth and all other planes of existence.

I do not care very much whether anyone agrees with me; I am responsible for my own outcomes - and peer group approval or disapproval is simply a facet of the kaleidoscope of my life; it adds colour.

Reincarnation and Fellowship

Since I enjoy a measure of resonance with other thinkers I have sought out a group of people who follow this line of thought. However I don't believe that it, or anything else, is 'true' for everyone - but for me it is good. I simply choose this way of thinking as a path because it feels right to walk along it.

I am a mini-Sun

I conceive of myself as a ball of energy like a mini-sun with a focus and also with radiance, so that who I am interacts with all and everything to some extent. My beingness is unending; I choose not to die. Yet certain constructs exist within each of the worlds. On this Earth plane there is 'cause and effect', there is limitation and there is death. Yet it is quite possible to reside in a condition of awareness of 'soul-self' and then we can employ death as a traveller does an airline - to take us forward to our next chapter when we are ready.

Need for incarnation

As the soul matures it takes on further qualities and appetites for experience. These effectively are 'attitudes of magnetism' and attract the experiences needed in order to gain further knowledge. Some of these require immersion in the Earth realm since this world has unique laws that bind us into committed interactions and so accelerate our spiritual development.

Reincarnation and Parenting

Arriving into the physical world is quite shocking for the soul, whose essence-nature is pure and very sensitive indeed, so it is very easily unsettled. Inevitably parenting is imperfect, and the soul gets impressed strongly by inappropriate forces such as impatience, anger, sentimentality and even blame. These distort the balance of the incarnated soul and so its subsequent life journey is negatively affected. In other words we all have some degree of neurosis. These neurotic patterns need to be released for us to know untarnished joy.

The Golden Rule

A path that clears neuroses and brings us joy is one where we are perpetually of clear conscience, always truthful and always optimistic. This path is to follow the Golden Rule. (Do as you'd be done by).

Practice and Prayer

Piled onto this simple spiritual wisdom is a load of religious embellishment and social control, but such philosophy and regulations are only temporarily helpful for the seeker; in the end we must go our own way. Spiritual practices such as breathing, mantra, dance, visualisation and prayer most certainly help - and by prayer I mean but one thing only, we just say to life " Wow, thanks!"

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NEPTUNE ASTROLOGY TRANSITS

14/12/2018

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Neptune Astrology

Neptune in Pisces

Neptune is currently in its own sign of Pisces; it is there for 15 years from April 2011 to January 2026. What does that mean?

Neptune astrology is all to do with illusion and delusion. It creates illusion by the use of glamour. We all have an image that we believe describes who we are and what the world is like. In Hinduism it is called Maya, in Sufism, Ishq. It is the illusion of desire, what we project onto the facts of outer life to give it personal meaning. Because we have or have not certain qualities or experiences some of us believe ourselves to be important, some believe the opposite that we are not important.

This can be physical strength or beauty, emotional drama, executive ability, teacher, leader, healer, wise man, fool…these are all examples of glamour; they are stories we make up about ourselves and the life we live. Just stories.

As Neptune moves through its 176 year cycle it glamorises different aspects of life – fashions in music, clothes, sexual attractiveness, political ideals, religious teachings and so on. None of it lasts forever and some of it passes very quickly.

Yet Neptune also has the ability to expose illusion, to dis-illusion us, and reveal the deeper mysteries beneath all the lies and false promises that life offers. So this transit is also likely to be the time for a seed to be planted of true spiritual liberation. When we know we are living in a dream, we can relax and enjoy the movie we have created for ourselves, without accepting the story as anything more than entertainment and symbolic guidance.

However, what is false is dissolved. We may therefore lose things we love and, even though they are unreal and temporary, that can be rather upsetting for the self-love of the ego. We must refocus to see that what has replaced the false is deeper, more precious and more real.

On a personal level, because it is so slow, Neptune is likely to cross any planet or angle only once or twice in a lifetime so we cannot refer back to earlier experiences to gain better insights, we must use intuition more and try to glean from historical events what Neptune does.

Some Neptune in Pisces events

47– 61
Paul begins Christianity
Buddhism introduced to China.

374 - 389
Nicene Christianity officially adopted by Rome

538 -552
Spread of Buddhism –official introduction to Japan.
St David brings Christianity to Wales 550.

701 - 716
Muslim expansion –Moorish invasion of Spain.
Muslim state established in modern Pakistan. 712.

1192 - 1207
Crusades. The 4th seen as final act in Great Schism between the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church.

1520 - 1534
Martin Luther condemned as heretic and excommunicated
Henry 8th cut ties with church of Rome.
Calvin starts Protestant movement in France.

1684 - 1698
Louis 14th bans all religions in France except R.C.
Salem witch trials.
Newton published “Principia,” most basic book in all science

1847 - 1862
Communist Manifesto by Marx & Engels.
Speed of light first measured
Darwin’s Origin of Species published

We notice a common thread…at these times the various belief-systems that dominate the world take important steps forward. Each of the movements that support these ideologies believes in them as though they were truth, yet Neptune doesn’t even believe in truth. Neptune wants us to know that the map we have of reality is only a story, only of local relevance, only temporary and never finally provable.

2011 - 2026
What about now? Can we yet identify Neptune’s current message? It is always hard to know about the transit that we are experiencing until after it has passed away. Objectivity is in short supply when we are in the middle of loss and confusion.

These ideas have come up among the comments:
1.      Binge watching of TV series
2.      Air B&B popularity
3.      Mindfulness apps' explosion in popularity
4.      Awareness of the oceans – too much plastic and melting icecaps
5.      Gender and sexuality questions

All of these relate to boundaries in some way. An Englishman's home was once his castle and is now taken over by paying guests; mindfulness has as its ultimate goal the end of all separation; oceans are being spoilt by the invasive force of consumerism, fish are dying off; women and men were thought once to have well-defined sexual orientation and now it’s a bit cloudier.

We could add a few more topics. For example Zuckerberg is answering awkward questions about privacy (at long last), and how about microchip implants? Scientist Mark Gasson whose team demonstrated how a computer virus could wirelessly infect his implant and then be transmitted on to other systems. Gasson reasoned that with implanted technology the separation between man and machine can become theoretical because the technology can be perceived by the human as being a part of their body.

Possibly the most poignant political issue of the day has to do with borders too – Brexit and the election of Trump. In both cases many lies were told and the result seemed to shock and even dismay the winners who had no sense that the need for strong borders was such an emotional question for the voters. When we discuss what dissolves boundaries, nothing is more obvious in astrology than Neptune in Pisces.

These main questions seem to dominate our sense of Neptune.
1.      How to find a working model of reality to explain what we hold to be of the highest spiritual and personal significance? This could well be religion, mysticism, communism or, for some people, keeping up to date with the latest fashion.
2.      Separation and boundaries
3.      The illusion of glamour and the glamour of illusion

All the other planets, even Pluto to a considerable extent, bring us into deeper relationship with normal everyday life, each in their own way, but Neptune’s focus is not that. It is deals with questions of reality and identity. What is real? Who am I? Am I real or an illusion? It is not only hippies and other druggies that are asking these questions; scientists at the leading edge of physics and technology have similar uncertainties. In Astrology, Neptune asks these questions of us and yet gives no answers. It is enigmatic in the extreme, it answers everything with the Zen wisdom “not this not that!”

Neptune astrology transits bring confusion and illusion – but also spiritual clarity and dis-illusion-ment. At first, gripped by, and gripping onto, our false sense of who we are and what is real, Neptune washes away all the anchorage points of our lives, and we lose traction. With Mercury we lose our sense of clear-mindedness; with Venus we become foolishly un-boundaried in the fantasy of romantic love; with Mars it disinclines us away from self-serving action towards the hidden self-gratification of altruism. Neptune-Sun connections rob us of the all-important definition of ego that allows us to operate safely in a dangerous world.

And these transits go on and on. As soon as we rebuild our lives another tsunami comes along and we lose all the structures of limitation again and yet again until we find within ourselves a place of surrender and willing acceptance. From that moment all is well – then we flow with the deepest mystery and ride the tides of change. The more we allow Neptune to carry us along the better it feels. There is a beautiful serenity, a blissful sense of sweet goodness and a tiny but spiritually-transforming glimpse of All That Is.

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URANUS IN TAURUS

13/12/2018

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Uranus Retrograde in Aries and Uranus Transit into Taurus

Planets in Retrograde
During its final retrograde period, it is a good time to consider what has been a planet's effect and, looking back at the headlines since 2011, we can see some very striking themes and quite dramatic Uranus-type events.

Uranus Astrology in Aries
Even on the very day of its ingress into Aries, on 11 March 2011, there was a massive earthquake in Japan that led to the greatest nuclear calamity the world has yet seen. Since then tornadoes, floods, hurricanes and wildfires have often dominated the headlines and caused a major official rethink about the reality, and the effects, of Climate Change. From a wacky idea to an accepted truth has taken but a few years.

Rebellion
Political rebellion was a major feature. There is always someone rising up somewhere, but this time the Arab Spring was noteworthy because it was pan-Arabian and era-defining. Some of the Arabic ways are seen as medieval (and Uranus hates anything outdated).

Another rebellious statement was made in Russia – Pussy Riot – and that resulted in the imprisonment of gentle singers. Russian also stamped down heavily in Ukraine when it looked as though their own uprising might diminish its influence there, an issue that still dangerously flares up from time to time; it is far from settled.

Yet possibly the most terrible example of rebelliousness was the shocking emergence of the Islamic State and its rapid ascendancy. It took Al Qaeda’s agenda to a whole new level, making enemies not only of the West but also of the moderate majority of Islam. However, it tried to punch above its weight when it took on Syria and therefore, with others, Russia. In Syria, Russia has found its role once again as a fearsome power, which it had lost in the 1980s.

Refugee Crisis
Except for the Indian partition in 1947, the migration of vast numbers of people escaping the war in Syria was the world’s biggest ever population disruption and has had an extraordinary impact on world affairs, quite probably including Brexit and the election of Trump, with xenophobia reawakening as racial violence and startling levels of Antisemitism.
“Me first!” is a rather Aries-type sentiment that Trump and Cameron both employed to gain political clout.

Never a rare event, shootings in the USA jumped to a whole new level since 2012 with the massacre of innocents, including children at school, and there have been unprecedented levels of police violence.
Most cities in the world are places of danger now, whether from terrorism, police violence or angry drunkenness amongst the youth. It is worse than at any time in living memory in its scale and widespread reach. And this extreme state of affairs has arisen very quickly indeed – there has always been rebellion and violence but the scale of it has accelerated very suddenly.

Police Brutality

China has stealthily claimed a strong place and now, for the first time, is able to be taken seriously as a longer term threat to American supremacy. Its technological focus is also a feature of Uranus. If reports are to be believed, there are plans to light the streets of Beijing with a man-made laser beam in space whose brightness is five times that of the Moon. They have also cloned monkeys. Elsewhere human microchip implants are no longer the fantasy of a sci fi writer. Their Belt and Road initiative is Taurus-like however; their time is coming now.

In summary, through technology and rebellion, Uranus has expressed itself very aggressively during its time in Aries, triggering violent crackdowns and making the world a much more dangerous place than a decade ago.

Uranus Astrology in Taurus
As it leaves Aries and enters Taurus we may hope that the calming effect of the fixed Earth sign may settle the world down – but it is doubtful. Uranus is fast and electrical; it is not inclined to take slow and steady Taurus as anything other than an obstacle to blow asunder.

We can expect more energy and attention channelled into money, trade and corporations rather than bullets perhaps – but sadly, in Taurus Uranus is almost certain to disrupt the status quo and suddenly move wealth around. Economic collapse is one of the principle contributors to instability and therefore the resultant conflict.

Uranus in Taurus Starter
Uranus has already had a brief sojourn into Taurus during 2018, between May and October, and we had good cause to expect some shocking news about Taurus things. What about Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran?
The deal was basically this: Iran will not take Uranium out of the Earth if the West removes sanctions (which allows more financial security to Iran). Uranium, Earth, Financial security...all appropriate keywords.

There was also the start of the major trade war with China. USA may find itself unable to win such a war, and in the end major military wars are decided on who has won the trade wars and can command the most resources. (We remember the Boston Tea Party, a trade war at first that led to a real one, and the Opium wars between UK and China)

Uranus in Taurus Main Course
Uranus enters Taurus for keeps on 6 March 2019, and will be there until 2025; during this period we expect to see manifestations of Uranus acting through Taurus, so keywords such as 'discovery', 'rebellion', and 'reforms' which relate to Uranus will be combined with those related to Taurus - 'money', 'land', 'banks', 'matter', 'possession', 'ownership'.
Although we might like to see Uranus act rather dramatically immediately upon its ingress, it does not always do so. Also we cannot see how small things lead to big changes, so even if something major has already happened we may not think it important until history shows us.

Uranus in Taurus History

1934-1941
1) The worst year of the Great Depression
2) The 'Dust Bowl' economic catastrophe
3) F D Roosevelt's economic reforms - the 'New Deal'
4) To pay for arms, Britain's gold reserves were required to be deposited into America’s newly created Fort Knox - the wealth of the world's greatest empire transferred to another country almost overnight.
5) Manhattan Project brings in the Nuclear Age (splitting matter itself - what could be a more telling image for Uranus in Taurus!)
6) Long March of Mao and Night of Long Knives of Hitler bring dictators to power to mark the seeds of a great Game of Thrones which changed who owned the gold and possessed the land for generations to come.

How did the US end up owning half of the World's gold reserves by the end of WWII?

1851-1857
1) Abolitionists got going in the USA...leading to a war that divided a continent and moved vast wealth from South to North
2) There was a gold rush in Australia
3) Europe suffered widespread economic crises
4) Technological developments gave the ability to cross oceans and continents with railways and steamships, changing world trade completely and forever.

1684-1690
1) China opens ports to trade with West
2) British East India Trading Co opens trade with India and becomes the dominant economic world force until USA takes over
3) Newton's Principia published - foundation of modern science, great revolution of physics, without which space travel (overcoming gravity) would be unthinkable - and practically all else in technology that we take for granted now.

1599 - 1607
1) Queen Elizabeth 1 reign ends (Will that of Queen Elizabeth 2?)
2) Gunpowder Plot - Plot to blow up the government of the world's richest empire
3) Settling of Jamestown, Virginia (Nobody could imagine where that would take us)

Uranus Transits in Taurus

The pattern is very clear; it is one of big shifts occurring in the field of money and land in such a way as to redefine the relationships between power-possessors. The combination of fiery Uranus and solid-state Taurus is devastatingly powerful in a way that truly makes its mark in the history books.

What seems very clear from the historical evidence of previous periods of Uranus transiting through Taurus is that international trade is often subjected to large scale unexpected shifts. I am interested to look beneath the surface of this, triggered by Jena's comment that we re-look at values when Taurus is transited.

Taurus is a no-nonsense sign especially when it comes to defending its core values of security and freedom, which it sees as invested in things that bring security and whose absence brings a feeling of insecurity - money, land and possessions. By extension this means food to eat and solid ground beneath the feet. It also implies freedom from oppression since oppressors threaten these fundamental life needs.

Uranus in Taurus The Common Thread

A common thread emerges when we consider previous comments about Uranus in Taurus times, both contemporary and historical - whether volcanoes, fascism, trade wars or imperialist monopolies - that basic human rights are in danger of violation through the threat to fundamentals: food and freedom.

The Great Depression, which led to terrible poverty and mass starvation, set the stage for war – as indeed did the reparations after WW1 that led to depriving Germany of its all-important income from coal, and the deeply unsettling hyper-inflation that resulted from this, and therefore the readiness of a people to submit more easily to fascism rather than to poverty and shame. The triggers were economic – the Wall Street crash and the confiscation of the Ruhr coalfields were both expressions of greed and pride.

The long-suffering patient bull will put up with almost any unpleasantness, but try taking away its food supply or invading its secure domain! All we need is Uranus to shock it out of its complacent reverie and you have the recipe for violent eruption. The once-in-a-lifetime rage of an angry bull is to be avoided at all costs. We might well see blind rage against the 'System' acted out as the hungry and dispossessed lose control and revert to their herd instinct mentality. If so the only thing to do is to get out of the way and hide, as some people are currently learning in France this very week.

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The Sabian Journey of Magical Chiron – Aries 6

Finding our Life Direction

Determination of a Life Code

Importance of Creativity

Conformity as the Foundation of Creativity

Bubbling Up of Creativity

What Does it All Mean?

The Meaning of Knowledge and Experience

The Sabian Journey of Magical Chiron – Aries 5

Synthesis of Wisdom

Awareness of the 'Other'

The Golden Rule

Transcendental States

Triangle With Wings

Essence of our Life Journey

Skills, Loyalties and Values

The Sabian Journey of Magical Chiron – Aries 4

The Next Chapter

The Two Lovers

The Golden Rule

Pleasure is not Joy

Sharing

Accepting both sides

Dealing with inner ambiguity

The Sabian Journey of Magical Chiron – Aries 3

Desire and Action

Personal Journey

The Seed of Possibility

Comedian

Reflexive Self Awareness

Making Adjustments

Social Context of What We Do

Power of Participation

Out of Bounds Planets

Introduction

Conversation by Telepathy

Commitment

Technicalities

Definition: Out of Bounds

Which Planets Go Out?

Multiple Planets

Off Limits

Not Good Nor Bad

Finding Your Planets

Qualities and Celebrities

Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars

Pluto and Uranus

Uranus OOB Generation

The Sabian Journey of Magical Chiron – Aries 2

Pluto and Chiron are Newly Discovered

We Participate in Discovery

Evolution of Knowledge

Aries 2, the Comedian

Release of Pain and Distortion

Examination

Chiron’s Miraculous Journey Begins

Ageing Hippies

One small step for man...

A New Age

Sex, Drugs...

Rainbow Bridge

Marc Edmund Jones

Learn to Listen

This is the beginning...

Being Aware

Miracle and Magic

Free Will and Reincarnation

Free Will as a life path

Reincarnation and peer group approval

Reincarnation and Fellowship

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Need for incarnation

Reincarnation and Parenting

The Golden Rule

Practice and Prayer

Neptune Astrology

Neptune in Pisces

Some Neptune in Pisces events

Uranus Retrograde in Aries and Uranus Transit into Taurus

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