Continuation and Transition

By Len Wallick

Today finds us our attention gradually shifting away from the transits and aspects of the personal planets (Mercury, Venus and Mars) that were the dominant theme at the end of last week and the beginning of this one. The emphasis is once again on the big picture and the long term. Focus returns to the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto) as they move towards and about the first degree of the cardinal signs Aries, Libra and Capricorn.

Most meaningfully, today is Saturn’s last full day in Libra until the third week of July. Late tomorrow, its current retrograde takes it back for one last sojourn into Virgo that will not repeat for nearly three decades hence. By doing so, the Ringed One will be entering a complex phase of multi tasking that will bridge the last few years into the next several.

The sky is now spreading out a bit from the period not so long ago, when most of the major planets were in the last quarter of the zodiac: Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. During this time Saturn was in approximate opposition to this concentration, forming a motif referred to as a “bucket”. As such, it was the trump card, the ruler of the sky, if you will. Now this role of dominance is becoming less general and more specifically focused on the early degrees of the cardinal signs.

The first consequence of Saturn in Virgo will be a temporary separation from its square aspect to Pluto in Capricorn. It is important to keep in mind however, that this square will remain functional. It will exact again in the third week of August when Saturn is direct in Libra and Pluto is retrograde in Capricorn. Because the series of Saturn-Pluto squares about the cardinal points has not concluded, it would be most accurate to consider them to be a continuous phenomenon, a story being told. A single plot that ebbs and flows as the tide shifts to feature one protagonist, then another. Therefore the challenge between the immovable object and the irresistible force will continue, albeit in the background.

Which leads us to the next consequence of Saturn’s retrograde transit. The fourth of five oppositions to Uranus will be the last one involving the mutable signs of Pisces and Virgo. As such it will review and recall the first three occurrences of this aspect. The first was on November 4, 2008. Election day in the United States, when a campaign that began with uncertainty concluded so decisively that the results in the far western states were immaterial. The second was on February 5, 2009 when it was becoming clear that the change voted for would be a complex and problematic process. The most recent occurrence of the Saturn-Uranus opposition was on September 15, 2009 when discretion between substantial issues and perceived urgency was difficult at best.

Consistent with the role of mutable signs, this next opposition of Saturn and Uranus on April 26th can conceivably serve to continue and conclude the dissolution of what has been the established order. This will be in preparation for a new order taking shape when the last of this series of aspects takes place on the Aries-Libra axis in late July. Already we are seeing signs. For the first time in our nation’s history the health care establishment is being restructured by the federal government. The nature of and prospects for gainful employment are facing a different paradigm for the first time in more than a century. An ostensible exit strategy and schedule has been formulated for our military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first meaningful agreement in decades to reduce the threat of strategic nuclear weapons has been hammered out between the United States and Russia.

What to do? What is our task? In just less than four months the long series of cardinal point phenomena will enter a new phase when the course of our nascent century will begin to take shape. In the meantime it will serve us well to be aware of what is unwinding and find the patience we will need to focus our energies towards responses appropriate for the future and away from reactions conditioned by the past.

Offered In Service