First of all, I would like to wish all my readers a very Happy Festive Season and New Year in 2015. Much of your celebrations are likely to be tempered by the continued relationship between Uranus and Pluto – more of which below.

To me, this is always the true value of Astrology – it gives us a map by which we can chart our progress within the major planetary movements that affect us all. We may not have signed up for all the changes that are going on around us, but my goodness are we feeling them!

We are now deep into the 5th (of 7) Uranus/Pluto squares. A Square is a quarter circle (90degree) relationship which is a challenging astrological aspect. And once again many government leaders are warning us that we can expect more cuts to our incomes. Let me be clear here – we won’t be out of the woods yet for some time to come as we will have yet two more squares to go folks followed by life under their separating shadow for a couple of years beyond. So who knows where we will all find ourselves.

Uranus (UR) is placed in Aries, the sign most associated with the armed forces, “might is right”, and spontaneity of the “out of my way” kind. This transit of UR in Aries started in 2011 and ends in 2018.

Just to recap for newer readers – UR is the planet most associated with clear-eyed, intuitive mental shifts, satori – ideologies that appear without apparent warning and which are regarded as self-evident by those who hold them. Ideas that come from the mind not from the emotions – for emotions we have to look at Neptune. And right now Neptune doesn’t figure anywhere in this particular set-up, sadly. UR’s clarity can be shockingly cruel, brutal and destructive, as we have all been witnessing through our news media.

Pluto (PL) on the other hand is very different. This is an energy that brings profound shifts at the tectonic plate level of all our lives. We may not have a strong PL placement on our birth charts, but we certainly react to the effects of his transits globally, collectively, as we are doing now. On a personal level PL represents changes that are total, such as the death of plans, lifestyles and even relationships. However, none of this comes quickly – when we look back on our lives, we can see that much the unrest had been bubbling beneath the surface for quite some time. In fact, we soon come to realise that things had been needing to change and we had ignored the signs.

PL is placed in Capricorn until 2023, so we still have a way to go with this particular energetic process. Capricorn is the sign that represents the establishment, our corporations, the banks, the status quo, religious institutions, major governmental institutions such as education and health systems, the pharmacological organisations and big business.

We are truly halfway through this turbulent period that is turning the whole world upside down. The true shift point was in April/May 2014 when there was the Cardinal Grand Cross which involved UR and PL together with Jupiter (JU), planet of religion and exaggeration and Mars (MA) planet of war and hotheaded action. This was around the time that ISIL emerged in the Middle East to Western eyes, although with PL’s involvement it must have been fermenting under the surface as an idea worth acting on at some point.

Then there are two more UR/PL squares in March 2015 and January 2016.

If we look back to their first meet up in our lifetimes, we must begin in the early thirties (square) and the mid-sixties (conjunct, up close and very personal). Both these periods changed the world as we knew it then. It is easy to think that the West went through fun changes with Flower Power, Beatles, teenage spending power, loss of deference towards those in the establishment, Monty Python, the Civil Rights movement in the US and the rise of feminism. However, when we see what was going on in the Far East with the Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution, we can begin to see the other face of this massive shift in human values and behaviour. All these and more are now being called for forensic examination right now – and if they aren’t working, then they will have to go.

In my earlier articles I have traced PL through Capricorn in his 245 year cycles through the ages with particular regard to the Reformation, Martin Luther, etc. Now we can see the beginnings of the death of religion in the West and its very opposite in the birth of a very different kind of religious up-swelling in the Middle-East. I can only wonder where it will leave us all as we try to find our own way through the rationalism of UR, atheism and reason to our own heart centred anchor in the future. Remember the lack of heart in Uranian expression – that’s what we are seeing now.

We will witness an upsurge in small businesses that exist simply to help the hungry and the needy; many not-for-profit organisations with strong humanitarian drives and ideals. Eco -friendly movements and inventions. Respect for individuals, no matter what their background and education. The ideal of Charity – not handouts, but volunteering to help others while gaining new life skills – is also on the rise.

Even our culture is reflecting the deeper anxieties that we may be feeling; “The Hunger Games”; vampire movies (who is sucking our life blood away? Is it the wealthy?) such as: “Bloodsuckers”, “Let me in”; books such as the Twilight series. And films about biblical catastrophes such as “Noah” and “Exodus”. Not to mention the dystopia SF genre films also. They are all preying on the collective fears about global warming, mass starvation, severe weather patterns, etc.

I think that we have already had our major catastrophe about 13,000 years ago when our planet was hit off its axis by an incoming asteroid. This almost wiped life off the planet but not quite because we remember it in our DNA and constantly replay it to keep ourselves afraid instead of living in the bliss of connectedness. This is what small children do and we must outgrow such behaviour if we are to grow beyond such primitive memories. for more information read Barbara Hand Clow’s book “Catastrophobia”. Worth a good read.

And I think this is our task – to remain true through it all and hold a light for the moment in the early 2020‘s when UR and NE aspect each other and bring heart, compassion, empathy and Love into the equation of human consciousness.

Print or Email