Planetary Changes in 2011

What lies ahead for all of us in 2011 after the dramatic Cardinal configurations of 2010?
Already Jupiter has re-entered Aries for its final run through, while several other planets are lining up to change signs shortly.

Here are the key dates of entry for each planet:  Chiron enters Pisces on February 8th, Uranus re-enters Aries on March 12th, Neptune enters Pisces on April 4th, and Jupiter moves on into Taurus on June 4th.

Before I discuss possible meanings for each I’d like to quote two men who’ve made it their life’s work to study collective cycles in astrology.  E. Alan Meece in his book Horoscope For The New Millennium published in 1996 made this forecast:  “There is no doubt in my mind that the years 2010 and 2011 will be the most difficult of any we face in the next half-century.  If we survive them in reasonably good shape we will have dodged the worst bullet in our future.”

He goes on to say, “….we don’t have time to dawdle if we wish our golden age to unfold—the opportunities after 2010 may not be as good as those of today (1996).  Unless we learn to live harmoniously with the Earth and its diverse peoples, our standard of living may sharply decline from 2010 on, forcing us to focus on more practical matters.  As Neptune enters Pisces in 2011, thus leaving the higher signs and moving into lower ones, our focus could narrow toward ‘worldly matters’ as it did in 1520 or 1848.”

Richard Tarnas, the renowned historian, states in his book Cosmos and Psyche, Intimations of a New World View, published in 2006, in his chapter entitled ‘Understanding the Past, Creating the Future’, “…..I tentatively anticipated that humanity’s collective experience during those eras would bear something like the distinctive archetypal character I had observed in so many earlier instances of the same configurations.”

“…..While these anticipations of the future proved well-founded, there occurred many specific events and trends in those periods that I did not anticipate.  Before it happened I did not foresee that anything like the Internet revolution and the globalizing impact of the World Wide Web would happen during the Uranus-Neptune conjunction of the 1990s………Conversely, other possibilities that I feared might occur during these periods did not in fact take place.”

He further states, “In the vast majority of cases in which I have considered the likely coinciding events for future alignments, whether in my personal life, the lives of other individuals, or the life of the human community, I have been surprised—both by the many ways in which the relevant archetypal complexes actually manifested themselves beyond what I imagined, and by the ways in which they did not manifest themselves as I might have thought or feared.  Instead, in countless instances, I received a new lesson in the infinite creativity of the cosmos as it unpredictably unfolded its processes and events in extraordinarily consistent archetypally patterned correlation with the ongoing planetary movements.”

Between these two men’s observations you get a pretty good summation of astrology’s value in today’s world when trying to make sense of ‘forecasting’.  Astrologers, like the Farmer’s Almanac, base predictions on observations made when past cycles occurred.  In today’s world there are increasing mutations that can not always be foreseen.  What I do with the data is observe and pay attention to my own patterns.  I can not possibly factor in all variables.  I do lean towards Mr. Tarnas’ point of view and that is why I’ve quoted him so extensively.

Jupiter Re-enters Aries
Jupiter stays in one sign a little less than a year.  It first entered Aries on June 6th, 2010 and was there briefly until September 9th, 2010.  Because Uranus had also entered Aries, the two of them swiftly united and symbolized the high-voltage changes we experienced last year.  Now Jupiter is moving away from Uranus and will no longer amplify the revolutionary spirit of Promethean change other than repeating the motif as it sweeps through those first degrees.  Jupiter is moving so fast now that the impulse of Aries will be as a catalyst only.  Uranus in Aries will truly be the planet to watch in the years ahead as it squares Pluto in Capricorn numerous times.

The area of your chart where Jupiter passes through between January 22nd and June 3rd is where experiences are blown up bigger than life, so you really get the message, but also where you have an enormous boost to get things going in a new way for your future growth.  Aries people get a final hurrah of support from Jupiter between now and June 3rd.

Positive aspects of this passage can be new courageous acts based on a desire for independence and greater personal freedom.  Problem areas my involve intolerance for other points of view, even hubris, and enormous wastes of impulsive energy that have not been carefully planned or thought through to their logical conclusions.  Religions that advocate fighting for holy convictions will be spurred on briefly.

Jupiter into Taurus
By June 4th Jupiter moves into a less fiery sign and settles down to enjoy more fully the Epicurean belief that sensual enjoyment is what matters, and material prosperity is the goal.  This is all fine and good if the collective playing field is equal, but it certainly is not.  The problematic side of this run will be a surfacing of extreme extravagance and pleasure-seeking by the ruling wealthy classes perhaps.  Will we have to endure more conspicuous consumption?

The more enlightened aspect of Jupiter in Taurus potentially is the growing movement toward sustainability and stewardship of the bounties of the Earth where we care for future generations to have abundance that we are carefully preserving with prosperity for all as our ultimate goal.  There may be a belief that we need to get back to basics and be more practical and grounded in all that we do.

Certainly Jupiter in Taurus will slow us down after the speedy spurt of just 4+ months in Aries.  Jupiter will stay in Taurus all the way to June 11th, 2012.

Chiron Enters Pisces
This planetoid takes us into Neptune’s realm starting February 8th, and it will keep us there until 2018.  Chiron, like Jupiter, is leaving in the dust the planet it has been aligned with so closely through 2010, Neptune.  While the two danced together in Aquarius we moved into new realms of technologies such as bio-engineering and even the use of computers for healing methods. The term ‘quantum healing’ emerged with all sorts of techniques purporting to heal at the very level of the DNA.   A lot of experimentation took place and it remains to be seen which new forms of energetic medicine will prove reliable and trustworthy over time.

Some of the computerized technologies turned dark as we witnessed guided and unmanned drones hit their ‘soft targets’.  The use of military hi-tech instruments of destruction took on the surreal quality of video-games through the disconnect of Aquarian-type war games as witnessed in Wikileak’s video of carnage over Iraq where a hit brought cheers in the air while innocent citizens bled to death on the streets.  Chiron is both wounding and healing as we all so indelibly have learned.  The fantasies of Neptune merged with Chiron’s Aquarian technology to create many bizarre and many wonderful new forms.

Chiron leading the way now through Pisces may create a bridge to further tremendous healing as we experience the non-material realm in new and wondrous ways.  We may also be wounded by that which we can not see, feel, hear, or touch. New invisible forms of weaponry such as mind-control and chemical warfare may be further developed.

I would rather, however, dwell on the great potential for healing that can unfold over the next 7+ years.  Barbara Hand Clow in her seminal book Chiron: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner & Outer Planets describes how Chiron works in Pisces.  She states that only Chiron is able to bring Neptune’s principles into the material realm due to this planetoid’s ability to focus us in both time and space.  She likens this ability to a great funnel, or vortex which channels the subtle realms down into manifestation from the outer rims.

Neptune connects us with the Divine, but to get there we must clear out the debris from all the realms; the physical, emotional, and mental planes, but also the astral.  The astral plane often holds the ghosts and demons of unresolved issues which live on in our personal and collective unconscious.  Psychics can ‘see’ into these places and can often clean and clear them out.  This realm is like filmy cobwebs that are sticky and cling invisibly to us.

Ms. Clow graphically illustrates it thusly, “….the way I saw Neptunian sticky stuff was in a movie called Fantastic Voyage which came out in the late 1960s.  In this movie a group of scientists are reduced to microbe size, and they journey into a man’s body.  The man has congested lungs from smoking, and the sacs around his lungs are filled with sticky reticular fibers.  The people in the ship get all stuck in the fibers in the sacs (which originally had formed to screen out smoke in his lungs.)  That is, the stickiness is a defense against some invasive force.  It will develop in you until you stop assaulting your body and/or mind with negativity.  Until you identify this dynamic, and respect its potential power, you may be weakened by it; it can suck your energy.  You can clear it with visualization techniques if you can identify if for yourself.  As long as it exists in you as a protection against something, you will lose energy to it.  According to what you do with your consciousness, this energy can invade your aura.  What needs to be understood is that it is real, it is palpable, it can be known, identified, and you have free will about it. Until the discovery of Chiron (1977), humans did not have the means to identify this potential possession.  We had to rely on exorcists, shamans, and medicine people when it invaded us.  No more!  Now we have the power to clear these energies and manifest high Neptune, which is ecstatic mysticism, emptiness instead of stickiness, oneness with the cosmos, and resonation with one’s greatest potential.  The point is that higher awareness draws from emptiness.  If can’t come if we are already filled with protective stuff.”

That’s a wowie of a statement!  One of the best forms of this healing method that I know of is through the use of Flower Essences which work on the unseen etheric levels to clear and heal through nature’s loveliest manifestation, flowers.  Gem elixirs also powerfully restructure and work with the flowers to shift patterns into new blueprints of wholeness.  There will be many methods of psychic and vibrational tools available to all in the years to come, some of which are ancient, and some quite new.

The last time Chiron was in Pisces was between 1961 and 1968.  Many individuals born during those years have incredible healing gifts and are going to become more prominent soon.  So many of these people were born with the opposition of Pluto in Virgo.  This gives them a tremendous focus of clarity in their healing work.  Ms. Clow concludes that ‘Neptunian ecstasy and mysticism will flood consciousness once Chiron is mastered as a tool.”   With Neptune also moving into her own sign, Pisces, these gifts may well enlarge in scope to be used for large-scale clearings and healings on the collective level.  Already groups are forming to focus on places like the Gulf of Mexico and sending thoughts and vibrations of healing to the wounded Earth itself.

One of the great keys will be for individuals not to allow themselves to be sedated by drugs, whether illegal or pharmaceutical.  Remember the movie Clock Work Orange where bars were equipped with giant breasts spewing out the soporifics that rendered the youth ineffectual and passive?  Chiron in Pisces may also wound again in that form, just as it did in the 60s.

Uranus Re-enters Aries
By March 12th Uranus will finally re-enter Aries and stay there until February, 2019.  The last time Uranus was in Aries was in the late ‘20s and early ‘30s of the 1900s.  The New Deal epitomized the changes that followed the economic collapse to strengthen individual freedom and greater independence, but Uranus was then in a waning square aspect to Pluto in Cancer and World War II loomed ahead.  This time it will be different because Uranus will be in a waxing square to Pluto in Capricorn.  The urge for freedom and self-discovery through rebellions against conditions which restrict individual freedoms will have greater momentum.  The seeds of this crisis were born with the conjunction of Uranus and Pluto in the mid-‘60s.  There will be much to comment on in the months and years directly ahead.

Neptune in Pisces
The final planet to change signs in 2011 will be Neptune when she enters Pisces on April 4th and stays briefly until August 5th before moving back into Aquarius until February of 2012.  After that she will stay until 2025.  Much needs to be discussed here, but I will save most of my comments for later.

Neptune sets the dream for the collective.  Neptune is Vision; that which is yet to manifest in form.  She works best in the realm of imagination and idealization.  Neptune is also the great dissolver. She seeps ever so slowly along and permeates everywhere due to her subtle and watery nature.  Old, familiar patterns are slowly dissolved and one’s perceptions change gradually.  Whatever she touches is vitalized, sensitized, and opened up.

While Neptune has been in Uranus’ sign of Aquarius since 1998 we have had a great Mental Idealism that has gradually changed our perceptions of the world of thought and communication via the World Wide Web.  Our world is now connected via this vast electronic net-work of links.

Neptune in Pisces may expand us even further and unify us even more through ever more subtle links such as telepathy and intuition which connect us through the feeling realm more than the mind.  Global planetary consciousness may expand as we realize we are all one, and one with all the forms of life on this planet, and that all these forms have their own consciousness and ability to communicate.  Inter-species communication will undoubtedly grow.

We sense that we are poised for something enormous and beyond our full comprehension.  Neptune in Pisces may do the work Pisces does best every year as one season ends and another begins and we are caught between the past and the future experiencing the confusion and vacillation that such a dilemma brings.  If we are truly ending one enormous epoch and age and entering another, Neptune will help to dissolve the old as we prepare for the new.  Holding a strong vision of a world that our children and seven generations hence can live in is what we will need as this voyage into the unknown commences.