Uranus in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn
The 90 degrees angle between Uranus and Pluto will dominate but not monopolize the coming Solstice season. Numerous transits involving Chiron, the ingress of Jupiter in Gemini, the transits of Neptune newly in Pisces, and the last passage of Saturn through Libra are all important developments too.
There is no doubt though that this is one of the most influential transits in many years, repeating seven times, between June 2012 and March 2015, its effects likely to linger for the whole decade. If interested these are the dates: Jun24–Sep19,2012 – May21-Nov1,2013 – Apr22,2014 – Dec15,2014 – Mar17,2015.
In direct alignment with this transit, from May 2012 to the end of 2012 and beyond, will be: Aries (Mar25/Apr2), Cancer (Jun27/Jul4), Libra (Sep28/Oct5), Capricorn (Dec27/Jan2); or anyone with Moon, Planets, Chart’s Angles, Lunar Nodes etc. between the fifth and twelfth degree of the above Cardinal Signs. Generally speaking everyone, with an emphasis on these Signs or not, is in for a life-shake up of great magnitude, when it would be not only a question of seeing the positive side of changes coming our way but of being able to ride the storm and stay safe in the midst of great social and personal upheavals.
Not only we should not view this transit in isolation though but, to understand it better, we need to look at it as part of a longer synodic cycle, describing the unfolding of these planets’ mutual relationship, from one conjunction to the next. The Uranus-Pluto cycle takes an average of 127.30 years, but this can vary considerably due to Pluto’s extremely elliptical orbit.
The conjunction that started the present Uranus-Pluto’s cycle occurred in Virgo between 1962 and 1968 (becoming exact in 1965/66). The whole 1960’s decade was thus under the spell of this cosmic encounter, and no wonder!
The present phase can be equated to a First Quarter Phase. Now we are striving to achieve what we have envisioned those long years ago, what collectively we put in motion during the Uranus-Pluto’s conjunction in the 60s. Now we should feel prompted to fulfill some of the promises of that revolutionary era. Time for putting up a fight, defeating the obstacles on the way, actively challenging inertia and pressing forward with renewed faith and courage. On the down side we may be not so conscious of the forces at work, within and without; hence the danger of misusing the high voltage energy this planetary combination can produce. To expect a perfect happy ending to such an encounter would be naive indeed. The drive toward individuation and personal autonomy and the drive for power clash under this square.
The need to redress wrongs will be strong, even compelling for some. Many will not be able to suffer wrongs in silence or passively anymore. Some grassroots movements could become more organized, even militarized or more confrontational in their approach. Civil wars, even eco-wars will become more frequent, often unavoidable because of the urgency many feel in these times of quickening.
The friction generated by the square is not new to the world. Even if the aspect has not been quite exact until now it has in fact come close enough to produce already powerful effects on the collective, as it is easy to perceive in the escalation of conflicts, revolutions and natural disasters since 2008. We should not forget actually that in 2010 and 2011 this transit was strongly augmented by Saturn in Libra and Jupiter in Aries that also linked it to the Eclipses of June-December 2010 and July 2011. Viewed this way the coming exact square, in June and September 2012, seems perhaps less threatening now that Jupiter, Saturn and the Eclipses have moved away from it.
Because the present phase Uranus-Pluto has its source in the turbulent Sixties we need to look at those times to put the present situation in historical focus.
The astrological Sixties
Are you old enough to remember the 1960s? Something truly new and strange surged from the depth of the world’s collective unconscious during the whole decade, pervading all levels of human experience: a veritable ‘cultural revolution’, both for East and West. It did infect principally the minds of young people who were going through their teenage blues.
If there, you would have felt the sheer radicalism of the Uranus-Pluto’s conjunction, the extreme, even fanatical streak running through it, stuff that could have either enthralled or scared you. In hind sight the extremism was a necessary element in that first collective attempt at transforming toxic but deeply ingrained cultural attitudes.
These were the times of Bob Dylan’s subversive songs, of journeys to the East that brought new beliefs into the west mainstream culture; Indian Gurus beginning to attract thousands to their timeless teachings, with the words Karma and Dharma becoming part of our international dictionary of life.
It was the time of psychedelic experimentation, mind opening LSD trips, sexual revolution, free love (the San Francisco’s Summer of Love happened in 1966); women emancipation, civil rights campaigns and riots, the first demonstrations for gay rights, the shamanic insight of Carlos Castaneda writings (‘The teachings of Don Juan’ was published in 1968), that popularized the forgotten cultures of pre-Columbian America.
The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Pink Floyd, the Doors, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and many others changed the way we experienced music, their songs anthems of the dawning of the New Age. It was also a time of reactionary assassinations (J.F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King), the escalation of the Vietnam War and the Russia/West Cold War, the proliferation of nuclear armaments, the erection of the hated Berlin’s Wall, China’s own Cultural Revolution (1966). The list could go on and on.
Many died in the sixties or suffered harsh retaliation fighting in the name of freedom and justice, for their commitment to change. And it is still happening. People will need inventiveness and an unwavering courage in their beliefs, in order to seriously challenge the powers to be.
The radical choices that many made in the 1960s have changed lives in a way that would have been unthinkable just a few years before. The same is happening now to countless youths all over the planet.
Of course we cannot attribute all the special qualities of that decade solely to the Uranus-Pluto’s conjunction because other factors certainly contributed to it. Like, for instance, the transit of Neptune in Scorpio that made delving into social, racial and sexual taboos and upholding peace a sort of spiritual quest, a journey of collective redemption.
The decade ended with the first manned trip to the Moon and the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969, as Uranus was moving from Virgo to Libra.
Two iconic movies, that to me epitomize the era, are ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and ‘Easy Rider’ released respectively in 1962 and 1969, both pictures successfully exploring Uranian and Plutonian themes of taboos and rebirth.
From the above it should be easy to understand what sort of energy we are dealing with now, when these Destiny Makers come together again. Now as then the call for revolutionary changes of attitudes is ringing very loud and clear but so are the dangers of conservative reactionary movements to unleash the might of their power, bent as they are at maintaining the status quo in world politics and ecology. As old Bob sang in 1964: ‘… There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’. It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls, for the times they are a-changin‘.
More than ever, while struggling to transform the world, we will be forced to look at our own demons, because real change can only come from within.
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