Participation With Creation

By Len Wallick

The big astrological news today is Saturn and Uranus exacting their next-to-last opposition, the last of four on the Pisces-Virgo axis. Two things to remember: first, because these two slow-moving outer planets have been in the process of opposing each other five times over two years, the aspect can properly be considered continuous; second, this is not happening in a vacuum.

In the long term this is just one of a series of outer planet aspects on or near the first degree of the cardinal signs, indicators of a long term, ongoing process of becoming one with. Also, for several years now the transits of the Sun, Moon, personal and minor planets have operated as if to bring each of us into conscious participation in that process, step by step. The personal and the political become inseparable. Today, two recent transits will continue that theme. Chiron’s recent ingress into Pisces and Venus moving into Gemini yesterday, the two of them forming an aspect of their own, a square.

Since today’s Saturn-Uranus opposition serves as a milestone of sorts, it may serve us well to look back and break it down a bit. For thousands of years, before science, technology and math extended our awareness, Saturn was the edge of our solar system and, hence, our consciousness. Saturn represents the established order — the framework within which social human life is conducted. This includes food, with its cooperative cultivation, harvest and distribution and permanent settlements and their governance. Saturn also governs the creation and use of money, archives, education, and the institutions and doctrines of civilizations. Any way of life without these things is far past the memory of most of humanity. We have become hard wired to Saturn, and never truly left it behind.

Uranus bestows a surge forward and not one that is imposed upon us. The changes compelled by Uranus may be bewildering but where Uranus is involved, we bring it upon ourselves. Uranus did not present itself to us. It was found. It was curiosity and the quest for knowledge that motivated the individuals involved. It was the promise of prestige and advancement that motivated the established order to support those individuals. What the individuals did not see is that their quest would expand without end. What the established order did not see is that advancement cannot be confined to one sphere.

So it goes with Saturn and Uranus.

An opposition — like squares, Joan Jett and Eris — has a bad reputation. Oppositions are usually seen as a contest, implying struggle and conflict between externals. In practice and in astrology however, oppositions represent as much the complementary as they do the contradictory. First of all, unlike the signs in quincunx (150 degrees of separation),  opposing signs (180 degrees of separation) have some important things in common. There is the mode or quality which in the case of Virgo and Pisces, both are mutable signs. Mutable signs follow the fixed signs, precede the cardinal signs and represent the dissolution of the old season in preparation for the new. In this way, Virgo and Pisces are in harmony. That harmony is blended into and expressed with the energy of any planet transiting those signs. Thus any opposition is informed by a common ground. Balance, not absolute resolution is the imperative of an opposition.

Looking back on the three previous Saturn-Uranus oppositions, we can see some of how the signs and planets blended energies. The first one was on the date of the last presidential election in the United States – November 4, 2008. There was a change (Uranus) that took place through the established electoral process (Saturn). Projections by the news media (Saturn) determined the election was decided quickly (Uranus) and preparations were made for a new administration (mutable water and earth).

By the time of the second opposition (February 5, 2009) the chairs had shifted a bit. The agent of change (the Obama administration) had assumed power (Saturn) and found itself on shaky ground (mutable earth) trying to fill cabinet positions, seeking balance by offering one position to a Republican Senator. Meanwhile the economy and foreign policy were subject to rapidly unfolding events (Uranus) that were difficult to comprehend (mutable water).

The most recent opposition of September 15, 2009 came after the passing of Senator Edward Kennedy, abruptly altering (Uranus) the leadership and balance of power in the Senate (Saturn). The controversy and anxiety (Uranus) over the H1N1 flu virus increased as large pharmaceutical companies (Saturn) struggled to meet the demand for a vaccine. Soon after there was a large earthquake in American Samoa (mutable earth) followed by a devastating tidal wave (mutable water). The day after there was a disastrous earthquake on the island of Sumatra.

So what about this time around? What about today? As aforementioned the synchronicity of the personal and minor planets can give us a clue. Movements in smaller cycles and of smaller planets can help us locate where we are with the longer cycles and the larger planets. We shall look at two.

Chiron in Pisces places it in the same sign as Uranus for the next three months or so. This makes it an informing part of the the ongoing opposition of Saturn and Uranus. As such, it seems to be awakening us to the fact that the times we are experiencing are not just a random collection of events that effect just some. Rather, we are being raised to the awareness that the process is holistic. Public events are related to personal experience. Their progression represents a ramping up, not just in intensity but also in the degree of commonality. Any particular phase is a part of the bigger picture — any one time any one set of occurrences reflect the state and progress of the whole process. The reading on your dipstick is the the reading for any one of us and all of us together.

With the ingress of Venus in Gemini we are presented with the double-edged potential of acting creatively on the awareness that Chiron in Pisces brings. Creative people are often challenged with instability. It is this quality which makes it possible to prepare the way for a new order even as there is a struggle to sustain the effort to do so. Starting today, the first full day of Venus in this mutable sign, all of us are participating in that challenge.

Venus in any sign is associated with how the self expresses itself in relationship. It combines the appreciation of abundance and beauty with the sharing and exchange of same. In Gemini this appreciation and sharing is opened up to new possibilities. Yesterday’s square with Chiron, separating but still functional today, sets the theme for the next three weeks of its transit: integrate the need to focus on one hand, while maintaining a diffuse viewpoint on the other. We’re to balance the imperative to move on with a grounded perspective. We’re to make a contribution to the whole without losing ourselves in it, and nourish and sustain ourselves while participating in a demanding trial that will determine our common future.

Thus our work is cut out for us, and work it will entail. To get through this we will need to help each other. We will need to direct the other outward should one withdraw in bewilderment, so that none are left behind. We will  need to support each other to remain coherent when the scope of our mission becomes confounding. We must remember the point of it all is not the scattering of individuals but the joint realization of one with. It is not there for us to attain. It is there for us to create.

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