The news of the week astrologically is the transition of the slow moving outer planet Uranus from sidereal Aquarius to sidereal Pisces.  Bear in mind that I am using the sidereal (more astronomically correct) zodiac of the ancient art of Jyotish, which is also called Vedic astrology.  Most other astrology sites will have Uranus as already having moved in to Pisces a number of years ago. According to my preferred timing criteria (Raman ayanamsha) this will occur on Monday, June 9,2008

I kind of hesitated to write this article since I just did a “rant” last week on the different zodiacs employed in the two major schools of astrology, Vedic and Western.  I, of course, prefer the sidereal zodiac of the ancients, and this is from an experiential basis more than anything else.  To quote that old TV commercial, try it... you might like it ;) 

But what does Uranus’ move into sidereal Pisces mean?  How will this make a difference for the next seven or so years (one year for Uranus is 84 Earth years) as it slowly plods through that band of the sky?  I should also mention that recently the planet Neptune just recently moved from sidereal Capricorn to Aquarius, and I never got around to talking about it. 

Whatever is touched by Uranus, it seems to add an element of unpredictability; a status-quo-shattering, paradigm-shifting, new-methodology-creating kick; which adds a sense of excitement and perhaps a mild undercurrent of anxiety. 

Immediate Past

So for the last seven years, from 1999-2000 to the present hour, Uranus has been at work on us collectively from the standpoint of Aquarius.  Without a doubt the surges in communications technology and computer-interconnectivity has greatly accelerated the pace of life, and shrunk the world, as it were, to the palm of our hands. 

Paradigms that have ruled the world for decades and centuries have effectively been shattered, and nobody who is anybody doesn’t have a MySpace page, bought something on Ebay, or posted pictures on Flickr.

The net result?  It is less and less easy to “fool all of the people all of the time”, and whatever we want: sex, celebrity scoops, videos, rap/rock/reggae, news, movie buzz, knick-knacks….we got it nearly instantaneously.  The global consciousness is changing, more interconnected and interdependent, and the idea that we are our brother’s keeper (even from a political basis) has gone to almost ridiculous levels. 

No doubt this will be continuing as Neptune now moves through Aquarius, connecting us and blurring borders, if not dissolving them completely.  The element of Uranus though through Pisces would seem to provide a hopefully counterbalancing sense of the individual that is real nevertheless and is not dependent on outer circumstances to support it.  The sense of individuality (Uranus) is simply because it is, and everything else is a lie and an illusion that complicates the basic issue—I am real and I am a manifestation of the Divine (Pisces). 

Changes

Hold on, whatever thoughts and mindsets you held onto regarding yourself, what’s real, and what is the world all about; are about to go through a radical change.  I don’t think though that people are going to start running to the hills and singing songs about how wonderful everything is; some certainly will, but by and large it will be the very structure of society (Aquarius) that is going to have to flow apart and reform itself into a less “constricted” thing under Neptune.  How would that happen? 

Neptune works typically be stealing our power, our ego-strength; humbling us by seeing the vanity of our illusions, which would so energize us in the past.  He picks us up and then he drops us from a great height, and like the Sun that melts the wax holding together Icarus’ wings we plummet and perish.  Yet what dies is the old, lesser self, a less puffed up ego emerges that may be ready now to connect with the soul component of being and really fly. 

You could almost say the same thing for Uranus now in Pisces.  Maybe the way it will work is when gas sells at $15 a gallon, riots and nuclear missiles destroy large parts of our cities, and the western world possibly cracks and crumbles; only then will we be able to run to the hills singing about how good everything is, because everything else was taken away. 

Maybe it won’t be quite as bad as I as the picture I am painting above, but I want to convey a sense of how the universe creates real change in us.  How the fires that burn us, the hurricanes that dash away our houses, or the wars and earthquakes that destroy our cities are also a part of the Larger Hand of the Universe that moves us along and incites changes in the foundations of our psyche; it tears us up from no longer adequate circumstances and directs us to new situations, opportunities, and relationships.  Above all, do not identify too closely with all those fragile impermanent things; learn to go with the flow and you will indeed be free. 

CB

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