In astrology much psychological and cultural significance is attributed to the discovery of a planet. The idea is that such findings deeply impact the human psyche and the course of collective evolution. For example, destabilizing, innovative Uranus was discovered in 1781, the time of the American and French Revolutions and the beginning of the Industrial Age. Pluto, associated with death, destruction and the underworld, was discovered in 1930. That decade saw the splitting of the atom, the rise of Hitler and the proliferation of organized crime. On June 24th, Uranus and Pluto will form an exact square, the first of a series that will last until the spring of 2015. Revolutionary Uranus is in provocative, independent Aries, and evolutionary Pluto is in institutional, pragmatic Capricorn. From demonstrators challenging the authority of their rulers in Moscow, Damascus and Cairo, to the battle lines being drawn during an election year in the United States, to continued opposition to austerity measures in the European Union, one need only scan the headlines to see the reforming forces of the Uranus Pluto clash at work. In an increasingly transparent world, we also see Uranian humanitarian beliefs challenging Plutonian deception and despotism at every turn. What if instead of viewing the seven coming squares between these colossal powers from a dualistic perspective, old versus new, right opposing left, or conservative against liberal, we choose to dedicate ourselves to the triumph of Universal Truth?
In this paradigm, Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s recent tour of European capitols would serve as a model for harnessing the Uranian Plutonian dynamic in service of human evolution. She challenged the political status quo (Uranus) and consequently lived under house arrest for 15 years, a sentence that would ultimately make her more powerful (Pluto). Only 19 months after being released, Suu Kyi is now traveling abroad to lobby for economic investment and development in Myanmar, and strengthening a government that once repressed her. Suu Kyi’s extraordinary path can be as instructive as it is inspirational. From a holistic perspective, the Uranus Pluto squares can function more like cornerstones than collision points, and their truths can reconcile, resonate and reverberate. We know that tyranny can only be temporary, for it is innately inhuman. When we heartily accept the inevitability of death, we are awakened. Realizing how little time we have here, we can live fully and vigorously. When we embrace the hurt and trauma encompassing our shadows, with the intention to heal, we no longer unconsciously project them. And when we shed the us against them mindset, our connectivity and collective power increase.
If we’re going to transform our lives and positively change the world, we’ll need a little chutzpah. Offering lessons in confidence and courage, and ample supplies of enthusiasm and stamina, mental Mercury will move into spirited Leo on June 25th and fearless Mars will enter diplomatic Libra under the full Cardinal Cross moon of July 3rd. On June 27th Mercury will hit the shadow point of its forthcoming retrograde at 1 degree of Leo. That is the point it will return to at the end of its July 14th through August 8th retrograde. June 27th is also the day Venus turns direct. What we get to practice throughout the shadow and Mercury retrograde is speaking truth to power and saying yes to the new opportunities being presented. Spontaneous Uranus in unflappable Aries will beam supportive rays to Mercury in a fellow fire sign, and it will be part of the grand Cardinal cross of July 3rd. That full moon will host six planets in Cardinal signs, with at least one at each of its four Cardinal points. Early that day lively Mars will charge into Cardinal Libra, energizing the great forward thrust.
That moon, the start of the seven Uranus Pluto square series and the Cancer cycle now getting underway are a powerful portal into the future. They are part and parcel of the greater sea change we are experiencing here on Earth. On one hand domestic Cancer craves emotional intimacy and security. On the other, emerging from beneath its safe, trusty shell to venture onward is the crab’s cosmic imperative. As brave new worlds are born, we find ourselves in this paradox, wanting to cling and needing to grow. For guidance, nostalgic Cancer reaches back in time (it keeps exactly one copy of everything for just this purpose you know), to the reassuring wisdom of one of its most eloquent natives, Henry David Thoreau. In 1854 he offered the following:
“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws will be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings."
