The New Year — Part 1 (January 2020)

Whence — Where — Whither

Before we attempt to lift the veil on 2020 and beyond, it is useful to review the themes and conditions that prevailed during 2019. Some of these influences were in effect for just that year, but many have been the “movers and shape-shifters” for years past, and most of these will continue to shape our years ahead too.

Pluto in Capricorn — The End of an Age

The passage of Pluto through Capricorn began in 2008 and will continue into 2024, and I have noted many times that we find ourselves in a period that resonates with the previous passages of Pluto in this “Sign of the Institutional Order”, (1762–1778 and 1516–1532). The Spiritual, Political, Economic and Cultural Institutions of our world, ranging from the most foundational (the family) to the most encompassing (National and Trans-National organizations), whose sole purpose is to function as the mechanisms we created to meet our needs for one another, these very instruments are being broken down. That is because the very type of world and the very type and structure of needs we addressed through them has changed. We need to renew and reset what our needs truly are; and, we equally need to restructure how we meet our needs for one another.

This is the End of an Age, and the System that got us to “here”, cannot take us to “there”. Our present-day Institutional order “solved” the issues facing humans then. But those very “solutions” have become the threat to our human future, and perhaps for much of life on this planet too.

A New Order, a new Hierarchy of Institutions to meet human needs will eventually be created out of this period of creative destruction. Just like in the 1500’s, and just like in the 1700’s, our time will be the end of an Age and witness the birth of a New Age. Some institutions will be reformed, some will be deconstructed, and in many areas, we will need to fashion altogether new vehicles of meeting human needs just as we did in the 1500’s and in the 1700's.

Pluto is the avatar of Will, the vehicle for the expression of Power. The key to the right exercise of whatever type of power you have is to acknowledge that it is not “your” power. Your true Power comes from, starts with, Self-Control, in being a centered, spiritually aligned human. Whatever power you assume through some office, whether that be as the head of a family, a community, a company, region or nation, whatever that power is, it comes from that office and it is not yours; you are there not for yourself, you are in that position to work to meet the needs of whomever or whatever you serve.

This has always been the test for every human in any age, to develop the understanding that the will is to be use first and foremost for self-control and for protection of your own sacred space, and it is never to be used to force your way, even for the most righteous of reasons, to never use your power to force another and bend them to your will. This is the spiritual crime known as “Trespassing”, and while humans fail to abide by this law, we will continue to “have hell on Earth”.

Neptune in Pisces — Lifting the Veil

In a way, the concurrent transit of Neptune through Pisces can provide a context of meaning and a clearer understanding with regards to this lesson of Pluto in Capricorn. Neptune moved into Pisces in 2011 and it will remain there until 2026. If we look at the previous passage (1848–1862), we can better appreciate the influence it brings to us at this time. (Moreover, it is interesting to note, that a previous passage of Neptune through Pisces overlapped the Pluto in Capricorn period of the 1500’s, so that may indicate that our period has some greater resonance with that paradigm shift).

As the lesson of Pluto is to teach us the proper use of the Will, which is to use this power and turn it back upon ourselves, to secure our own sacred space and center, to help us be a sacred, special one among many ones; while, equally, Pluto is there to remind us to never use this power to control any other nor let any other control us.

It is then for us to use our sacredly centered selves secured by our will, to reach out to one another. We create shared sacred spaces of engaging with one another, which makes possible our growth through combing one another, by the use of our wills together in a mutually agreeable and beneficial manner.

Neptune’s message is almost the “opposite”, or perhaps it is better to say that it reminds us of the paradoxical nature of true spiritual understanding and living a life guided by spirituality. While it is certain the we must be respectfully “separate from one another”, we must at the same time see through all are various separations, boundaries and borders between one another and at the very same time live with the wisdom an act towards one another holding to another great spiritual truth, that we are all in essence one with one another. Or as it is said, “We are all related”, and that if we bring harm to anyone at all, we will cause equal harm to our own true self too.

Neptune is the avatar of the Universal energy-form that holds the entirety of creation as it is. This is the Truth: There is but One Life, there is but One Spirit, and One Mind, and it holds the whole of Creation as one, (the many ones held as One), by the Energy-form you know as Unconditional or Universal Love. Through this Energy-Form, the boundaries between the hierarchies and ranges of entities are transcended, and it is this experience which is the true seed for your experience of compassion and empathy between one another and really between all life-forms.

But just as the Will of Pluto can be misapplied and lead to very destructive conditions, Neptunian energies may trigger and power, (by the misunderstanding or misapplication of this dissolving/transcending energy-form), the rise of illusions, delusions and deceptions. The growing divide between various peoples within communities, between regions and countries, has created a cacophony of confusion and misunderstandings, and the loss of agreement as to what is real. All of this is the unfortunate consequence of what we are experiencing globally, which is a paradigm shift of understanding, a breaking of an old spiritual order because a new, more Inclusive Consciousness is required now.

We are between an old reality and the dawn of another, and until this shift, our shift, is more complete, we are experiencing events through fractured lenses. We are holding to, or being held by, extremely contrary points of view, and so we live in very different realities and our mutual understanding has become broken and sundered from one another. Indeed, as William Butler Yeats wrote in The Second Coming, “…the “center cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity”. To those who look upon our careening world, there seems to be no way to create or find a center for us all to hold to, for there is none within us to be found.

But we have been here before, and our ancestors found a way, they returned to “The Way”. At times like these, but truly always and forever, it is very important to keep yourself centered upon “your True Self”, and to the eternal and sacred truths which are in your heart and form the very foundations for all Energy-Forms throughout this Universe. The Truth is in you, and it surrounds you too. Listen to your calm, clear intuition when in doubt. Listen to your heart, and you will always take care of yourself and one another. Follow the ways of the “Lonely Ones”, who hold true to the path of love and righteousness. You will find the path in the sacred texts at the heart of every religion, and equally in the wise counsel shared in the heart-teachings of all philosophy, and most importantly, by listening to you own common sense and loving heart, you will find your way to “the Way”.

As I said last year at this time, and this will always be so:

Be guided by the Wise Ones, who know there is no religion higher than Truth.
Walk the path of the Great-Souls, who practice the Wisdom of Love.
Find inspiration in the Lonely Ones, their Willing-Sacrifice honored by
the Angels and Devas above.
Listen for the Voice of the Silence, attend the gentle whispers in your Heart,
And you will find “The Way”. Next, “Where are we now?”

Originally published at https://astrologerbillattride.typepad.com.