The Beginning of an End

3.9.07


Still in the midland-zone between last weekend's lunar eclipse and the solar eclipse on Sun Mar 18 (and still under the effects of lots of fire-sign energy)…

But while it's over a week away yet, this upcoming solar eclipse is a doozy, whether or not it announces itself as such with events that toss or upturn your life—and whether or not we can fully understand the direction it's powerfully pushing us.

This eclipse isn't just wrapping up the events of this most recent six-month chapter of life. It's a much larger turning point in the macro-level astro-cycles that define generations. And what we're seeing now are but faint whispers of the tide-change headed at us over the next several years. Yes, it's that big.

Let me explain…

First off, Sunday's eclipse is in Pisces, the last sign of the zodiac—and the one that makes the least conscious sense. (No offense, you Pisceans out there!) Pisces is the culmination of the archetypal voyage through the signs… an energy of psychic reunification that reminds us, through its acute sensitivities and vast capacity for compassion, how we are all part of the same universal consciousness. When one suffers, we all suffer. That's why Pisces is able to observe the absolute best in everything and everyone, sometimes to excess… a wonderful gift for creative inspiration and spiritual faith, or an excuse for indulging fantasies and martyring one's self to 'save' another. Is cosmic oneness the reality, or a ridiculous delusion?

Not only is this eclipse in the last sign, however, but it falls within two degrees of the end of Pisces, near the cusp of Aries. In other words, it occurs in the final 1% of the zodiac cycle, before it begins again. This is also illustrated by the fact that the equinox (spring in the North, autumn in the South) is two days later, on Mar 20.

For our interpretative purposes, then, there's something about the narrative developments tied to this eclipse that (1) don't necessarily make a lot of conscious sense and (2) represent the very tail end of a cycle, in approach of a new beginning. The zodiac zone near the Pisces-Aries cusp is where the psychic residue from past triumphs and tragedies, valiant victories and violent defeats, accumulates to such a point of emotional density… there's nothing left to do but start again, fresh and crude and action-oriented.

Pisces can be passive and receptive to the point of total self-sacrifice. Aries can be active and assertive to the point of total self-absorption. The energy of the eclipse is the point where these two meet. For each of us personally, it's about being so in touch with our emotional interconnectedness to others that we can't sit around feeling anymore, and we've got to do something.

But wait, there's more…

What's especially potent about this eclipse, folks, is the square (or tense 90-degree angle) it forms with Pluto, god of the underworld… who forces us to dwell part of our lives in the shadow, where we come face-to-face with the uncomfortable drives (e.g., lust, anger, envy, vengefulness, thirst for power, fear of death) that unconsciously motivate us.

Pluto squares generally require a having-it-out (whether in open battle with someone or in weighty internal conflict) as a way of working through these difficult psychological experiences—though, with Pluto, it's usually more of a slow burn than a fast-and-furious release. And when the situation gets nasty (which it almost always does), it's to remind us we aren't above such 'ugly' desires or 'inappropriate' emotions. Once we feel like a total mess, then we know Pluto's doing his job well.

As such, the Pluto influence adds a heaviness to this eclipse… bringing us in contact with our nasty side, or with someone else's, as part of that journey toward the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one. There's simply no room for unresolved crap in a fresh start—unless you want to start a new go-around with some of the same issues continuing to dog you. Again, though, it's hard to know what the next destination is… only that we must be ready to travel light.

(Note: There's a special heaviness for those born roughly between 1969 and 1971, who are simultaneously experiencing Pluto's square to its natal position. To find out more, consider scheduling a personal consultation with me.)

Pluto is also at a pivotal point in its cycle, as it winds down its 12-year journey through Sagittarius, which it began back in 1995. Next year, Pluto moves into Capricorn… a very significant shift that promises its fair share of turmoil in areas related to authority, government and big business. Because Pluto travels so slowly in its orbit, the lengthy tenure of its trip through each zodiac sign is one strong indicator in the underlying zeitgeist of a generation. During Pluto's current swing through Sagittarius, we've seen how passions for a particular life-defining worldview, philosophy, religion or ethical system can go awry… through judgmental dogma, polarizing black-and-white thinking ('either with us or against us', 'good v. evil') and violent crusade. Belief, the simplified keyword for Sagittarian energy, has been the source of our darkest moments—as well as the area with greatest promise for deep healing—over these 12 years.

2008 is a banner year of transition, as Pluto initiates its run through Capricorn (lasting through 2023-24), a span of time guaranteed to turn the existing power-structure on its ass. How? We can't yet know… especially since it totally depends on what we do, as opposed to where any particular planet moves.

In an enthralling synchronicity, the huge magnitude of the US's '08 presidential election is already being felt, in an unprecedented fever of interest more than a year and a half in advance. It feels so big because it is that big, people… not just for the US, but for the whole world. Currently and in the most recent past, the US has been the sole 'superpower', and its policies have tremendous impact (for better or worse? for better and worse?) globally. But I think we all know that this circumstance is changing—and Pluto's movement into Capricorn virtually ensures that. The results of that election will help determine, among other things, whether the US will continue down a road of fracturing its network of alliances to assert its independence, by waging wars for its own self-interest and ignoring the planet's environmental plight, or whether it'll turn over a new leaf.

You will read volumes from me on these issues over the coming months and years because—and if I haven't said this before, let me say it now—we are on the threshold of very wild-and-crazy times, the likes of which we haven't witnessed since the 1960s. In short, Uranus and Pluto will form a square, which we'll begin to feel as early as 2009… but which we'll definitely feel by 2010, once Uranus enters Aries, and which will literally define the first half of the next decade. This is the first-quarter square, following from the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the mid-1960s. And for anyone who's ever wondered what happened to that dynamic, revolutionary Sixties spirit and thought it might be gone forever… think again. It's coming, and while it has the potential to bring a massively liberating redistribution of money and power to ends that better serve a larger portion of the world populace, it ain't gonna be pretty.

As I see it, this eclipse is the beginning of the end of the way things have been for a while now… and the future is up for grabs. How we choose to live now has huge consequences for how everything turns out.

The trials and tribulations in your personal life are not so unrelated to the big-picture readjustments that are coming our way in the '10s. In case you forgot, the personal is also madly political, global and universal. Live like it means something to you, and the rest of us… and no matter what happens, no one can take away your sense of intentional meaning.

Told you it was a doozy.