Major Phenomena
Introduction
Everything Changes...Nothing Changes
The General Outlook for 2013 continues to resound with the larger elements that arrived upon the world stage in 2012, and they are still bearing their messages and greater influences into this year too. Yet within the overall panorama of the planetary dance, there are more than hints and whispers of new themes and delightful melodies, perhaps a quickening brush of spiritual meanings that bring with them a renewal and a promise of brighter hopes and dreams.
I will do a more extensive analysis for each Astrological event when they occur. For this General Forecast I will attempt to give a brief overview as to how the year's major events may shape our lives and fortunes.
The fundamental theme driving the Astrological story this decade continues to march on as Uranus in Aries continues to square Pluto in Capricorn in 2013. This transformational release of spiritual potency will continue into the following years of 2014 and 2015, and I devoted most of last year's general forecast to this ongoing aspect and you can read about that here.
In this General Forecast for 2013, I will consider this multi-year alignment in terms of what another planet's contact will contribute during this year, the great Lord Jupiter will add another melody to this multi-year spiritual quickening in August, (and twice more again in the first quarter of 2014).
This challenging elicitation will come right after the other major alignment for the year arrives in July, in fact this July harmonic will carry over and be woven into Jupiter's alignment in August. For it will be in July that the world receives a beautiful, magical alignment of three great planets with one another...Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune forming a Grand Trine in the element of Water, and their wondrous power will still be in force as you move through the August challenge and epiphany.
For the first time in a number of years, there will be no great shifts of Astrological sign positions for the planets in 2013: Pluto will remain in Capricorn, Neptune in Pisces, Uranus in Aries and Saturn in Scorpio. Jupiter, circling through the zodiac in about 12 years, will move from Gemini to Cancer in late June. Mars will move from Aquarius all the way to Libra. The outer planets will turn retrograde and direct as usual, there will be three Mercury retrograde periods as usual, in late February into March, late June into July, and October into November (and all of them will occur in Water Signs), and Venus will begin her retrograde right as the year concludes. There will be two Solar Eclipses and three Lunar Eclipses this year in April, May, October and November.
2013 will not be an unremarkable year, one could hardly call it that as we experience the awesome spectacle of the Uranus/Pluto transformations sweeping across the world, yet you and your world may have some time offered here to pause, to get your bearings again before the tempo of change becomes more thrilling in 2014 and beyond.
Uranus and Pluto Square, May 20 and November 1
The fundamental transformational influence of this decade continues to weave its way into your life as Uranus in Aries continues to form a waxing square to Pluto in Capricorn in 2013 (and on into 2014 and 2015). The dates above are merely when the aspect is exact, but the influence that it bears continues throughout all the year. Having already laid out the influence this aspect has brought into focus in the overview for 2012, I thought it would be best to describe the modulation of this aspect by a third planet this summer and in the first part of 2014.
Uranus is in the first Cardinal Sign of Aries while Pluto is in the last Cardinal Sign of Capricorn. Now the biggest planet in the Solar System, Jupiter, slips into the second Cardinal Sign of Cancer in late June 2013. During the month of July, Jupiter will form up with Uranus and Pluto creating an aspect in August known as a T-Square, wherein three planets form up into one opposition bracketed by two squares, one on either side of the opposition. In this alignment, there will be Uranus square Pluto, while Jupiter moves in to square Uranus and at the same time oppose Pluto. This is a most powerful, compelling and transformational aspect indeed!
The principle articulated by Uranus and Pluto concerns your constantly self-unfolding, self-realizing efforts to achieve a balance between Freedom and Sacred Boundaries. Uranus declaims the urgent need to liberate the spirit into ever-widening reaches of self-determination, challenging the status quo and static structures that formerly fulfilled but now deny individuality. Pluto holds the position of equal necessity to use the Will to define and protect the sacred space you reside within, and hopefully to honor those around you too, to preserve the Sacred Spaces of spirit within which all reside, and from and through which Spirit seeks the ever-unfolding, self-realization (freedom) of each individuality.
But if pushed too far, if Uranus gains too much for itself then there is the danger of unbridled freedom tipping into anarchy where all structures are overthrown but may leave no clear path toward true self-restraint, tolerance and love of one another. If Pluto overwhelms, then all will be bound to the greatest Will, and there will be no space for Freedom or Sacredness whatsoever. So these two Lords must be bound and balanced by one another, each finding their true melody in harmony with one another...and perhaps, just perhaps, here is where the great Lord Jupiter may lend a hand...or could tip the balance the other way, it really is a choice for each and every soul to make.
During the month of August, standing betwixt the two great passes of Uranus and Pluto with one another, Jupiter will throw his weight into the great decisions that face one and all, and you will see how the world and you will choose to turn towards greater integration or not.
The Great Cardinal T-Square, Uranus, Pluto and Jupiter August 7-21, 2013
In the month of August, coming between the two exact alignments of Uranus and Pluto in 2013, Jupiter will bring to bear a message from the Foundation-Source, the ever-renewing wellspring of life that flows from the sign of Cancer. Jupiter ruling the Principles, Truths and Beliefs that give and form the meanings of your life journey, that form the steady guide for your self-unfoldment and purposeful growth. Jupiter is offering this spiritual message from the heart, from the source, from the roots of your life. For as you struggle to find your way between Uranus and Pluto, between Freedom and Order, between self-assertion and self-sacrifice, you will need this cooling, calming and refreshing reminder of what you stand upon, from whence you have come and what holds you true to one another.
Jupiter in Cancer serves to restore and renew your feelings of security that originate in your most intimate and profound experience that you are connected or part of something greater than just yourself. As you grow and develop, in life after life, you will find your own true center by being and belonging with one another. It will usually begin in your affections and bonds experienced in your immediate family group, and it will slowly and increasingly extend itself in any life, (and over many lifetimes, in life after life), into your ever-unfolding expansion of consciousness and spiritual connectedness.
This sense of belonging, of rootedness and security, expands from your immediate family outward to your village, and then perhaps it may move out further to a local area of several communities. Then it continues to grow outward even further in your belonging to some grouping perhaps grounded in your identity with an ethnic group, and then perhaps into some greater grouping of many ethnicities. Eventually you find an even larger sense of identity and meaning within an ever more complex culture and society, until you finally experience your profound familiarity with all who journey in the family known as "human".
This fundamental spiritual truth of connectedness will finally blossom forth, as you reach the "promised land", the profound spiritual epiphany of understanding that all life is one, all beings are one with one another, that everything in this cosmos is a spark of the one Great Spirit in whom we live and love and find our true being.
As Jupiter forms its Square and Opposition, it will bring to bear these influences upon the dynamic struggle of Uranus and Pluto. The challenge for every person and for all groupings of people will be to hold to the highest levels of inspiration that Jupiter can provide here, reminding one and all of their common bonds and interests, eliciting a desire for greater inclusiveness and generating greater considerations for the well-being of one another. If they can do this, then the struggles of Uranus with Pluto can be modulated and even mitigated by finding that deeper center where all can join together, founded upon these shared feelings of belonging.
With Jupiter's influence the fervent drive for freedom by Uranus can be soothed, with a gentle reminder that as much as you must assert and be freer yourself you must equally acknowledge your need to care for one another too. The Plutonian drive to create, maintain and extend your own sacred space must be equally balanced by the consideration you show for the sacred space of one and all.
But there is also the very real possibility of individuals and groups reacting in a more parochial way to this challenge, and out of fear-formed echoes of their past be steered by the emotional ties of Jupiter in Cancer to react in more exclusive or defensive ways. They will act more narrowly, and identify with whom they belong, whether family, tribe or culture by building walls not bridges and so create an even greater gulf between "us versus them". Then this opportunity for growth and self-transcendence could be lost in those ego-driven fears that have echoed throughout other historical periods faced with similar demands for self-transformation.
The challenge will be laid down, either to rise up to a higher understanding and conduct with one another, to make some mutual sacrifice and unite...or to face the divide within and between us by refusing to join in a greater whole, to give into fear and so increase those separations from one another. And this fear-based failing would most certainly quicken the descent to a more difficult destiny for one and all. The choice will be there, and each must decide...but there is hope...
Yes, it is from Jupiter's meanings as modulated by the Sign of Cancer that you can find the first of three offerings to help you navigate the year ahead. But there is much to be hoped for here, because Jupiter is but one part of a gift of inspiration and meaning that comes within a three-fold blessing from your Starry companions this year. For what Jupiter is anchoring and carrying forward to you in August is the meaning and message of the other great alignment this year, and which will most thankfully still be in force during Jupiter's August alignments with Uranus and Pluto...it is the radiant beauty of the year, the Grand Trine in Water of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune.
The Grand Water Trine, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune July 17-19, 2013
We can forget as we go about our busy lives "down here", we can forget how magical and how full of meaning were the patterns discerned by our ancestors. How they marveled at what stood revealed in this great pageantry that sweeps before us every day and night by our Starry company, those constant companions who dance and form beautiful, intricate and meaningful patterns all around us. Yes, we can miss the signs and portents because we do not see them or even look for them anymore, but they are there...these Guardians of Life continue their wondrous weaving, helping us to understand our great unfolding journey through the spaces of space, our walk among stars.
Sometimes these planetary patterns are harder to discern, and their true significance and meaning even more hidden from you. But this mid-summer alignment of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune will, even if not seen, be felt by many...it will be beautiful to behold and its message is sweet and deep.
The aspects between planets, formed by their angular separation from one another, can be understood by dividing the Circle of Life by a particular number. The division of the Circle, which is 360 degrees in circumference, by the number 2 creates the opposition of 180 degrees. The division by the number 4 creates the square aspect of 90 degrees. And for our purposes this July, the division of the Circle of Life by the number 3 forms the Trine aspect of 120 degrees.
Whenever three planets line up equally spaced from one another, it is called a Grand Trine because the pattern is formed by dividing the circle of space around you into three equal portions, and finding that at each dividing point there stands a planet equally distant from the other two along the circle. This division by three resonates with a harmonic that represents a poised balance of energies that are being focused through three distinct avatars, in this case by Jupiter in Cancer and Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces. The Grand Trine of July is all about the Meaning and Power of the element of Water. It is through these three Avatars in Water that you will receive inspiration to help you walk your path of destiny in this time of great and transformational change.
Having already observed the contribution of Jupiter, let us turn our attention to the other two Lords, and then turn and see how all three avatars will combine and contribute to a greater influence too.
The message of Saturn in Scorpio resonates with the strength, power and depth of feeling that abides in the experience of Union. For as much as Jupiter in Cancer upholds the truth of finding your connection to one another by looking to the past, to what you and all around you have come through and from, Saturn in Scorpio holds out the necessity of dealing with your ever-resurgent need, your yearning necessity to cross the divide that seemingly separates you from one another and so find your greater strength in joining together in your sacred unions. For when two or more are gathered together, united in a common purpose for which each has made a rightful sacrifice, it is from such acts that the magic and power of spiritual growth is in fact realized and released. For it is not enough to remember and honor from where you came, it is equally important to work together, to forge deeper understandings, to share in the joys and burdens of life and so continue to walk this spiritual path of your self-becoming, self-unfoldment...together.
The message of Neptune in Pisces, like bells pealing in a dew kissed morning, thrill with the third and final form of Water-Feeling, which is that numinous force that resides within each particle of this creation, providing the impetus that inspirits the lives of all who journey within this cosmos. The creative force that is behind all of the phenomena in this universe is known by many names. For many it is called Faith, some would say it is their Dreams or the power of the Imagination, but none can truly capture the mystery behind what flows through each and every being, that leads them out from within, as they unfold as the sparks of the Divine, these self-becomings who ever strive to grow, to become something more.
For it is this feeling that binds all as one and one to the All, and that leads all out so as to grow beyond what they have so far created, to walk the pathways of light and love outward into the spaces of space, out upon their wondrous, spiraling journey. It is this Great Journey which will eventually bring them back to return as something more, having become so much more than what they were, when they return home again.
For as much as Jupiter in Cancer will provide you with your foundation of feeling, and Saturn in Scorpio will teach you about the courage you have within you to reach out and join with one another, it is Neptune in Pisces who completes your circle of life, Neptune brings it all together by singing to you of your ever-renascent power, forged in your beginning by your nature as a spark of the Divine and that holds you as one of countless creators who need but dream of a better world...and it will be so.
For this is how the Universe came to be and continues to become, because your Spirit is the very essence of it all, the power behind your Imagination, Dreams and Faith...The Power of your Becoming, The Power of your Self.
Together these three, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune can show you once again that you are the maker, you are the Creator of what you face now. That you can feel more truly the roots that hold you all together, that you can feel the greater joy that comes from joining with one another, and that you can love and create a better world by believing and dreaming for one another.
Yes, this will be a year to remember, and quite a summer indeed. The energies delineated above will be building in towards the end of June, growing through July and climaxing in August. The continuing challenge laid down to you by Uranus and Pluto may be somewhat eased by these spiritual emanations that come from this grand alignment of Planetary Lords, and equally and most challenging activated by the T-Square formed by Jupiter too.
There is much to be hoped for here. There is the hope offered in the Grand Trine that perhaps the things which divide the many from one another will be surpassed by this greater understanding of our mutual need to sacrifice for the greater good of one another.
Let us hope, may we dream...and it shall be...
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