On this day when Mercury turns retrograde to travel backwards (from our point of view) for the next three weeks — while continuing to square (90°) Neptune, thus amplifying and intensifying the subtle confusion, disorientation, and boundary dissolution that Neptune, during these many years (2012-2025) when it slogs through its home sign of Pisces, guarantees — we, of course, continue to be surprised by seemingly endless shocks to the global system and to our personal, familial, tribal, and national boundaries and structures that the Uranus/Pluto square (2012-2016) which, though its seven exact aspects are done, is itself, in terms of continued effects, by no means done! All these years, we’re being softened up for continuous transformation. And it does seem to be working!
Here’s astrologer Carl Boudreau, with a marvelous overview of this tumultuous, tsunami-riddled voyage we all decided, as souls, to embark upon, by incarnating on this intensely alive Mother Earth at this seemingly climactic point in her planetary, solar systemic, and galactic story.
“The stuff of the outer world has been softened and supercharged, making it far more reactive and malleable and amenable to radical change. The stuff of human nature has also been softened and supercharged. It, too, is reactive and subject to sudden and radical transformation.”
Moreover, there’s good news. Read on, the whole thing — at least once, probably more! Especially during this Mercury Rx time (May 17- June 11). It might help to integrate all that you have been experiencing/thinking. Indeed, I dare you to NOT find resonance with immense ongoing struggles in your own wild and beautiful life.
Why All the Intensity?
May 11, 2015
by Carl Boudreau
What is All This Intensity About
This post presents my understanding of why things are so intense on the psychological and spiritual fronts. I also suggest why we can expect continuing, gradual relief from this non-stop intensity.
Please Note: This post is to explain what has been happening, not to predict more of it, not to predict the worsening of a difficult situation. Quite the contrary. As I will explain below, help has already arrived.
Successive Waves of New, Unfamiliar Energy
Psychological and spiritual issues, both new and old, have been arising with unusual frequency and force. Some of these inner challenges are doubtless the result of energetic overload from a series of energetic tidal waves. These do seem to have served as a setup for spiritual and psychological crisis, though not, I think, as the direct cause of these crises.
Between 2008 and 2011, the three powerful outer planets all changed signs. Each ingress brought a wave of new and challenging energies.
These successive energetic bursts affected our inner state both directly and indirectly. Directly, by stimulating our subtle bodies and indirectly by triggering psychologically and spiritually challenging events in our lives and in the wider world.
Pluto Enters Capricorn – 2008
Pluto entered Capricorn in January 2008. Historically, Pluto’s transits of the Cancer/Capricorn axis release immense amounts of energy, more than you would realistically expect from a simple transit.
Pluto, for example, was in Capricorn during the American Revolution. It was in Cancer from just before World War I, until the beginning of World War II. That transit also coincided with the Russian Revolution, the rise of dictators like Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini and the rise of militarism and expansionism in Japan and The Great Depression.
Accordingly, Pluto’s 2008 Capricorn ingress coincided with a wave of strong shocks to the world’s social, economic and political systems that has not fully subsided. On the energetic level, the ingress barraged our nervous system and subtle bodies with a wave of raw, spiritual evolutionary power.
Uranus Enters Aries – 2010
Uranus entered Aries in 2010. This transit, powerful in its own right, was intensified by a lengthy Uranus/Pluto square. This square enlarged upon and extended the disruptive social, economic and political effects of Pluto in Capricorn. Energetically, inwardly, it brought another blast of raw – and difficult – psychologically and spiritually transformative power.
Neptune Enters Pisces – 2011
Neptune entered Pisces, its home sign, in 2011. Neptune in Pisces began dissolving the foundations of prevailing worldviews, adding more social, economic and political unrest. Energetically, its energies hit our subtle bodies with an influence guaranteed to soften and dissolve the spiritual and psychological foundations of our personality.
The End of the Mayan Calendar – 2012
An ancient prediction focused everyone’s attention on the winter solstice of 2012. In that chart, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were linked by very exact midpoint contacts with Uranus.
This inclusive network of close midpoint contacts made all five of the outermost planets agents of Uranian energy. That, in turn, increased the breadth, scale and rate of change in the world. It also added to the overall volume of energy our subtle bodies had to process.
The Diamond Tetrahedron – 2013
On the morning of July of 2013 UT, a Star, or Diamond, Tetrahedron took shape in the heavens. In my opinion, such structures, although certainly important, are not particularly well-understood.
Suffice it to say, a massive, inclusive field of intricately coordinated astrological energies added to the quantity and complexity of energy already affecting individuals and the world.
Outwardly, it would dramatically facilitate social, economic and political transformation and probably render these changes unstoppable and completely irreversible. I believe it would function like a wormhole through history, moving us with unusual speed from one historical era to another, very different era, by rapidly accelerating the rate of change on all levels.
Inwardly, it would further accelerate an already dramatically accelerated process of psychological and spiritual transformation.
However you slice it, you don’t just go back to a previous status quo after such a series of astrological events. The world not only changes, it not only stays changed, it continues to change and as a direct result of these aspects. The energies and processes unleashed during such a time continue to flow and ripple through subsequent history.
The Usual Astrological Suspects
The big ingresses are done, now. There are no major anomalous events on the horizon. Major supportive aspects are taking effect (see last month’s status http://on.fb.me/1F4E786). The world shows signs of putting itself back together.
Meanwhile, Grand Squares, conjunctions, oppositions, eclipses and such continue. Regardless of their relative power, the over-reactive state of the world stuff amplifies their effects. But given the state of the world stuff, even minor squares can stir things up enough to give us all the jitters.
Future Shock – Abnormal is the New Normal
Given all of the above, given our new starting point, it will be a long while before we even begin to approach anything you would call “normal.” And given the state of the world, it would be very hard to imagine what that new normal would look like when it finally arrives, except to say that it would be very different.
The stuff of the outer world has been softened and supercharged, making it far more reactive and malleable and amenable to radical change. The stuff of human nature has also been softened and supercharged. It, too, is reactive and subject to sudden and radical transformation.
I think it fair to say that we need to get out there and meet the challenges because they aren’t going way. And seize the opportunities. This is a get in on the ground floor situation. Don’t get left behind.
Clearly, this long series of energetic bursts was a setup for psychological and spiritual crisis. However, I think all of the above only partly explains the frequency and intensity of psychological and spiritual crises we are experiencing. But there is a grouping in Pisces that has a much more specific and direct causal relation to that issue, IMO.
Along Came Nessus – Nessus Enters Pisces
So, in my opinion, the trio in Pisces is at the root of the persistent intensity.
Chiron was already in Pisces when Neptune arrived. Nessus first entered Pisces in late May of 2014, which is when reports of spiritual and psychological crisis began pouring in.
Nessus re-entered Pisces for the full transit in February of 2015, which is when the intensity began picking up again. Neptune, Chiron and Nessus will all be together in Pisces until Chiron leaves in 2018.
With its natural effect on our spirituality and our worldviews, Neptune’s energy essentially targets our inner lives directly. Chiron and Nessus, for their part, are both known as drivers of spiritual evolutionary change.
They are also known for adding a painful edge to the process of change. Chiron is known to use illness and injury to overcome our resistance to needed change. Nessus is known for translating spiritual evolutionary lapses, especially moral lapses, into physical or psychosomatic illness. In the event, Chiron and Nessus would seriously compound each other’s effects.
Neptune, powerfully situated in its home sign, Pisces, liquefies toxic emotional sediments in the subtle bodies, releasing them into awareness, demanding they be dealt with. It also release painful things locked in the unconscious.
In so many words, Neptune dissolves the blocks that keep old traumas, guilt, shame, bitterness and anxiety locked in the unconscious. All of the things that block psychological and spiritual growth and, by the way, fuel the work of Chiron and Nessus, come into consciousness.
Vesta, faster moving that the other bodies in Neptune, also directly effects inner, spiritual and psychological conditions. For the sake of brevity, let’s just consider Vesta a transient intensifier of the processes governed by the other bodies in Pisces.
The Good News – Help is Already Here
As I hope I made clear, this post is to explain what has been happening, not to predict more of it, or the worsening of a difficult situation.
There really is a lot of good astrological news. But we want to avoid thinking that there will be a quick fix for the psychological and spiritual challenges we are facing.
The toxic contents of the unconscious accumulated over a rather long period of time. They will not be released all at once.
Once released, they will not be dissolved all at once. We will have to study up on and perfect the spiritual skills and techniques required to deal with them.
But there is good news. The same positive aspects now showing up in the heavens, and which are helping us put the material world back together, will facilitate the purging and healing processes being triggered by the bodies in Pisces.
These supportive aspects will help relieve psychological and spiritual discomfort by providing direct energetic support to our subtle bodies. They will also help with the outer challenges that add to stress levels and impede the changes required for healing.
As I reported previously, the Jupiter/Saturn/Uranus trine relationship, in effect until August, is providing synchronicity and positive traction. Saturn in Scorpio/Sagittarius, Pluto in Capricorn, Neptune in Pisces and Uranus in Aries are forming an added series of sextile and semi-sextile relationships.
This bracelet of positive aspects will be in effect for years into the future. It will augment the power of the fire sign trine while it is in effect. When Jupiter leaves Leo, the big fire sign trine will break up. However, Saturn and Uranus will remain in trine relationship and Jupiter will form a new trine with Pluto. All of these planets will continue to participate in the bracelet of sextiles, semi-sextiles and form new trines, also.
In effect, all of the outer planets, from Jupiter to Pluto are involved in supportive, protective, facilitating aspects and will remain so for years into the future. Please take a moment to stop and register that good news. 🙂
Spiritual and Psychological Relief, Too
Generally speaking, the bodies in Pisces will also participate in the benefits brought by these supportive aspects. We can renegotiate the terms of our contract with the world to benefit our healing process and make the changes our healing process requires.
More specifically, and more immediately, Venus is making a series of trines to the three bodies in Pisces.
Venus in Cancer trines Nessus in Pisces on May 10th.
Venus trines Neptune on May 16th.
Venus trines Chiron on May 27th.
Venus trines Vesta on June 4th.
As I said last time, these trines will allow us to harmonize our healing process with important relationships processes, our social life in general and our spiritual aspirations. On another, deeper level, we can coordinate our healing work with the profound psychological and spiritual processes governed by Cancer. As the months pass, other favorable aspects will further assist us in the healing process.
