Dear readers,
The sun has made its appearance in Seattle, and Spring is almost here! The equinox, whether in the Northern or Southern hemisphere marks a day of balance when the hours of daylight equal the hours of darkness. In Seattle, it arrives at 2:24 pm tomorrow, March 20, when the Sun joins Mercury, Chiron, Jupiter, dwarf planet Eris and asteroid Vesta, all in the sign of Aries.
Zero degrees Aries is called “the Aries point”, and the beginning of the astrological year is when the Sun crosses this mark on the wheel of the zodiac. The following morning, March 21, we have a New Moon in Aries at 0°. With all these planets in Aries as the Sun and Moon meet up to begin two new cycles, we should all feel the shift in energy. Aries is positive cardinal fire ruled by Mars, representing personal will, or how we get what we want. Positive signs have yang or “masculine” energy, cardinal signs are initiators, and fire signs energize and activate. They’re a little pushy. The pushiness of Aries is individualistic – an affirmation of self. Aries is symbolized by the ram and rules the head. It’s pioneering, impatient and courageous. People with strong Aries in their charts tend to rush headlong into things and consider the consequences later. The symbol for Aries looks like the horns of a ram or a sprout emerging from the earth ♈︎. Once a seed germinates in the soil, it’s focus is emergence and it carries in its first two leaves, or dicot, the nutrients it needs until it can produce its own through photosynthesis. It’s entirely motivated to take care of itself. At the New Moon, we find the Sun, Moon, Mercury and Neptune in a square to Mars. Pushiness along with a certain lack of clarity might be the flavor of the day, but this is undoubtedly a push towards beginning something new – perhaps something we’ve been waiting for the motivation to begin.
Last Friday was Saint Patrick’s Day, and somewhere along the way, my Irish DNA called my attention to Yeats’ famous Aries-themed poem which fairly screams of Spring:
The Song of Wandering Aengus
by William Butler Yeats
I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done,
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
Last Sunday, I wrote a second post about Saturn in Pisces rather than diving into the intense astrology of the last week, but given the equinox, the New Moon and one of the other biggest news transits of the year, I didn’t want to wait another week to write some words about what else is going on in the sky.
On March 23 at 5:14am, Pluto enters Aquarius for the first time in 236 years. We’ll have lots of opportunity to discuss Pluto’s transit of Aquarius as it won’t leave the sign until 2043. This is a test run. It will go back and forth across the Capricorn-Aquarius cusp until November of 2024. It’s one of the biggest transits of our lifetimes, no matter how old we are. Unlike Saturn’s entry into Pisces, this is a slow roll out. Pluto apparently still has work to finish up in Capricorn.
Pluto entered Capricorn for the first time in late January 2008. In September 2008, the stock market crashed, triggered by the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, which was the tip of the iceberg. I find it both fascinating and disturbing that as Pluto teeters at the final degree of Capricorn, just before tipping into Aquarius, we’re seeing more major financial sector instability.
In astrology, the 29th degree of any sign is called the anaretic degree and it’s considered to be a critical moment of completion, even crisis, when the significations of the sign are strongest. Capricorn is a Saturn-ruled earth sign concerned with the tangible top-down power structures that have held society together for as long as we can remember, such as government, corporations, financial and health care institutions.
Pluto exposes toxicity in order to transform it wherever it travels throughout the zodiac. Between 2008 and now, as it made its way through Capricorn, we’ve seen revelations about corruption and abuses of power in all these sectors. None of them seem reliable anymore. Apparently, there’s more to come over the next 18 months as Pluto grinds across 29° Capricorn and 0° Aquarius.
Aquarius is also a Saturn-ruled sign, but it’s an air sign, concerned with conceptual structures. Where Capricorn is about building 3D structures, Aquarius is about mental structures – paradigms and systems of thought; the architecture of the mind and the way it creates and shapes manifest reality. It’s a future-oriented, freedom-loving humanitarian sign often associated with technology and innovation. People with strong Aquarius in their charts tend to think outside the box and are genuinely concerned with the betterment of society. The blind spot is that while they love humanity, they often struggle to relate to individual humans – particularly those with whom they disagree on idealistic grounds.
Pluto was last in Aquarius during the Age of Revolution, 1778-1799; the time of the Industrial Revolution and violent revolutions and rebellions across Europe and the Americas.
In today’s world, we spend our days working on computers, smart phones in hand and earphones in ears, connected via social media rather than social gatherings. AI has catapulted to the top of our news feeds. As Pluto moves into Aquarius, it’s bound to reveal the underbelly of technology. Pluto will reveal whatever is unsustainable, but we will have to decide what to do with that information, just as we will have to decide how to manage our money based on the knowledge of the corruption it’s currently revealing to us in the banking system. It will show us which structures and systems that we’ve imagined are built on solid foundations and which are not.
Pluto speaks to us of power – its uses and abuses. As it moves into Aquarius, the sign most associated with groups of people, how will we choose to use our power in relation to the crumbling of familiar societal structures as it leaves Capricorn? Though the structures of government and powerful institutions seem to be autonomous entities, no human institutions are sustainable without us investing them with the authority they wield.
Patti Smith’s People Have the Power is an anthem for the moment. With Saturn in Pisces, giving structure to our dreams, and Pluto moving into Aquarius, urging us to act against unjust systems of oppression, the song begs people to come together and fight for a better future for all.
The People Have the Power
by Patti Smith
I was dreaming in my dreaming
Of an aspect bright and fair
And my sleeping it was broken
But my dream it lingered near
In the form of shining valleys
Where the pure air recognized
And my senses newly opened
I awakened to the cry
That the people have the power
To redeem the work of fools
From the meek the graces shower
It’s decreed the people rule
People have the power
People have the power
People have the power
People have the power
Vengeful aspects became suspect
And bending low as if to hear
And the armies ceased advancing
Because the people had their ear
And the shepherds and the soldiers
And they lay among the stars
Exchanging visions
And laying arms
To waste in the dust
In the form of shining valleys
Where the pure air recognized
And my senses newly opened
I awakened to the cry
People have the power
People have the power
People have the power
People have the power
Where there were deserts
I saw fountains
Like cream the waters rise
And we strolled there together
With none to laugh or criticize
And the leopard
And the lamb
Lay together truly bound
I was hoping in my hoping
To recall what I had found
I was dreaming in my dreaming
God knows a purer view
As I lay down to my sleeping
I commit my dream to you
People have the power
People have the power
People have the power
People have the power
The power to dream to rule
To wrestle the earth from fools
It’s decreed the people rule
It’s decreed the people rule
I believe everything we dream
Can come to pass through our union
We can turn the world around
We can turn the earth’s revolution
We have the power
People have the power
People have the power
People have the power
The power to dream to rule
To wrestle the earth from fools
It’s decreed the people rule
It’s decreed the people rule
We have the power
We have the power
The people have the power
We have the power
The Sun crosses the Aries point tomorrow, just hours before the New Moon and a couple days before Pluto tests the air in Aquarius - another indication that we’re in new territory with new horizons. Take a moment to note what come up and what seems important personally and societally. When weighty outer planets first change signs, we’re often given indications of what the overarching themes of the transit might be.
If you would like to understand how major planetary moves like Saturn’s into Pisces, Pluto’s into Aquarius, or anything else I write about might apply to your chart and your life, I love reading charts for my clients. If interested, please email me at: camelliablossoms@gmail.com
Thank you for reading,
Cami