Jupiter-Neptune-Chiron: Part II

Let’s begin Part II by looking more deeply at the nature of Neptune and the value of this often mysterious planet. All planets can manifest in a variety of ways and there certainly does seem to be better ways than others. And yet, it is also important to understand that Life has a wild and crazy side where we can’t know what the outcome will be until we’ve gone through the entire process. Also, it’s true that the moment a particular force works out negatively (or positively), the opposite force is immediately evoked. This is the principle called ‘Enantiodromia,’ which means that the superabundance of any force inevitably produces its opposite. This principle is the basis for the philosophical underpinnings of much of Chinese thought and is exemplified in the I Ching, the Book of Changes and the Tao Teh Ching. What this principle tells us is that in the broadest sense, there are no mistakes or errors because everything ultimately will work out. For example, the excesses that occurred in our economy the past 20 years will balance out at some point. Ultimately, regulations will emerge to balance out the previous lack. By the way, I’m not convinced that has happened yet, but that’s for another time.

So, what might be the shift Neptune is urging us to make? To me, Neptune is enabling us to consider the importance of a new national mood that is more compassionate, sensitive and able to ‘feel’ as a nation that we are inter-connected and in certain areas need to operate in a united fashion. Perhaps the nature of how ‘national security’ is defined will come to be reviewed and will no longer be thought about in the way the neo-cons have defined it which regards it solely in terms of having a strong military. Neptune can help us feel that there can be strength from seeing that we need each other to solve problems affecting us all.

Neptune can be rough for a nation because it asks that we put aside the personal, even ego-centered needs of the individual in favor of a broader understanding that is aware of how much we affect each other and are not as separate as we think. This will inevitably be resisted and antagonism will likely become very strong. It’s already begun as the charges of socialism have become mantra-esque in certain media outlets. Usually, a nation will go through a transit like this in a way that is not as critical as what the country and world is facing today. I recently heard a report about the very critical water problems of which we are not yet aware. We assume we have all the water we need and yet we live the way we did 50 years ago. We have discovered in California that this isn’t true and the problems we face in the near future may make what’s happening now look insignificant by comparison. Problems of this order cannot be solved by individuals ‘doing good.’ It’s bigger than that. It is something that a nation must face and work out together.

Poseidon (Greek) and Neptune (Latin) were the great sea-gods during the time in human history when people felt a profound relationship with the forces around them. People sought to live in harmony with these forces and knew that to fail to do so was to tempt fate and lead to a bringing down of those very forces against the arrogance of those who didn’t recognize that humans owe their very existence to these forces. The greatest sin to the gods was hubris, or pride. Fortunately humanity today doesn’t buy into such superstitions, right? We are above all that. No need to worry about such silly little things. And if things go bad, we are certain science will find a way to fix everything and make it ‘right as rain.’ Oops, that expression doesn’t sound quite as innocent now that we have acid-rain. Sarcasm is a sign of frustration and so we must turn to the hope that new (or is it old?) values will make their way back into the way we live so that we can avoid nature’s wrath or a possible Neptunian deluge.

The Importance of Mythology in a Culture

Neptune rules the principle of the archetype or mythos and sees this as a very important component of living with Soul. So, let’s look at this a bit. In mythology, we find that nearly all cultures have stories of the Great Flood or some sort of deluge that becomes necessary to destroy a corrupted world. Is there a practical value to myths? Are they merely something to be debunked, like the show “Mythbusters?” Part of the nature of our modern paradigm is to regard symbology as worthless. We have become a literal people and our hearts have become sick as a result. The name of Jessica Murray’s book – “Soul-Sick Nation” is one description of the condition that inevitably happens when we lose our footing in the world of symbol, archetype, story and myth. In the recent political campaign any speech thought to be – ‘nuanced’ – was criticized and labeled as part of an intellectual elite. It was even pointed out the word ‘nuance’ comes from the French language. What is this telling us?

Global warming and climate change may best be thought of as symptoms. Sure, they’re real problems. But these outer manifestations reveal in inner sickness. It is a sickness that can only be solved by making inner changes in our values that will then, of course, naturally result in our knowing that we must make outer changes in our daily lives that can lead to the making of a new world.

Let me state this more clearly. When a ‘people’ lose the ability to live in the world of imagination and archetype, we lose our Soul, our ability to find meaning in what has now become a Soulless world. And we then pay an even greater price, if that is possible. We then live in a manner that is so out of alignment with the forces of nature that we bring about our own ruin. The coming transit of Neptune (along with Jupiter and Chiron) over the U.S. Moon can of course add to our tendency to avoid seeing problems and continue to want to escape from that which is in plain sight. But it can also sensitize us to the need to question our values and assumptions and regard the feeling of uncertainty and the recognition of impermanence as valuable opportunities to open to new ways of living and relating to one another, other nations, and the World at large. With Jupiter also in conjunction with Neptune, we may come to understand that there is great value to rediscovering our roots in the world of the archetype or myth. It’s not only about the events themselves, but what these events tell us about our connection to a world of meaning and of Soul. We can begin to feel compassion for all human beings and for what it is to be human and might even see and feel a connection to whatever we call the Divine. No doubt we will see both sides of Neptune in operation, but the hope is that it will catalyze us and open our hearts that lead to new doorways of perception.

I want to add a brief comment about Chiron which is part of the conjunction with Jupiter and Neptune. It is often called the ‘wounded healer”. But some have added to its meaning by referring to it as the process that enables us to “Bridge” one type of consciousness (the literal, lineal, time-bound one) with a more transcendent and meaningful one, where each of us recognizes some a personal connection to one’s Source. Our wounds, the nation’s wounds, can inform us of the importance of seeing where things are wrong and what we will need to do to fix the problems that have created pain and sorrow.

Part III will look at how this transit is affecting our economy and approach to dealing with it.

Jupiter-Neptune-Chiron: Part I

Our nation and the World is going through quite a few significant transits, but one that I want to take an in-depth look at is the Jupiter-Neptune-Chiron conjunction that is in effect right now and will continue in varying degrees through late 2010. To be more specific, on July 22nd, as Pres. Obama was making a speech on the health care debate going on in Congress, Jupiter conjuncted Chiron at 24 degrees of Aquarius. This transit is one of the chief factors driving the attempt to reform the U.S. health care system as Chiron, the wounded healer, calls our attention to the weaknesses of a system where the ever-increasing costs of health care combined with steady decreasing benefits in the insurance system is creating a crisis that may finally result in some kind of reform. On Dec. 7, 2009, Jupiter will conjunct Chiron again and then conjunct Neptune on Dec. 24th at 24 Aquarius. After this, Jupiter moves on into Pisces, but Neptune and Chiron will dance together for most of 2010.

In my view, this 2-year dance between these two giants and the one asteroid (Chiron) is doing much more than focusing our attention on health care, especially in the U.S. The reason why it is especially significant here is that all this is going over the Moon of the U.S. chart, which is at 27 deg. of Aquarius. The meaning of the Moon in a nation’s chart is important for it reflects the national mood of the people. It amplifies our sensitivities to all those things that enable us to feel safe and secure as a people and where we are vulnerable. Obviously it can also cause the nation to feel vulnerable, worried and concerned about where we are at as a nation without knowing from where the feeling is coming. (I’m not going to focus on the economy in this series of articles though this factor is clearly influencing all of the issues involved in these transits).

Neptune, the planet of dissolution, affecting a nation’s Moon does more than just create confusion and uncertainty. It can bring about the sense that everything we have depended on in the past is no longer something on which we can rely. We begin to feel the need to question everything not knowing if it’s even possible to come to any clarity. Because of the fact that Neptune moves so slowly, taking over 150 years to orbit the Sun, transits of this order affect a nation in a huge way. The collective consciousness of this nation will not be the same as it was before it all started.

So, what might be the issue that is forcing its way into the collective framework of the nation and the World? To me and to other astrologers the issue that is underlying all of this is the issue of climate change or global warming. This issue is certainly being regarded as important, but a very high level of denial is still in place and still rules any attempt to have a real debate about what to do. The so-called many reasons for not doing anything significant are still controlling the issue, at least for now. But I do not see how this will continue in the next year or two as Neptune will bring forward any issue that cannot be handled by only one nation. The issue of climate change is such that the only way it can even begin to be worked on is by the nations of the World, especially the industrial nations, coming together. And before this can happen, something fundamental must change in the collective consciousness of the people, which is the Moon of a nation. A huge paradigm change is becoming absolutely necessary. Most scientists know it. Most people actually know it. But, I believe that it is this transit that will create such a profound mark on us, that we will be forced to begin contemplating real action. Perhaps this is the issue that will bring the entire World together in a way that is truly historic, but that seems so far off that it is barely worth mentioning.

The astrologer and author, Jessica Murray, has written a wonderful book about the United States chart called “Soul-sick Nation” as well as a recent article in “The Mountain Astrologer”. In her recent articles, she states that ‘humanity as an intelligent collective’ is undergoing a ‘mass meltdown.’ Before anything truly new can be incorporated into the collective consciousness there first must be an often painful process of letting go of all of the old assumptions and trusted views of what life is and how it should be lived. This at first will be experienced as a very real threat. I’m not referring to the actual threat of global warming and climate change, but to the way in which humanity first responds to this threat. Denial is often the first response and is the one we are still seeing.

In the election between Obama and McCain it seemed to many that a ‘culture war’ was underlying the entire debate which lead to confusion, not only about the candidates themselves, but even about why one supported one and rejected the other. To me, Neptune over the Moon of a nation will amplify this and in fact, this transit hasn’t fully begun yet. It’s not merely about being conservative or liberal? In fact, it’s not about anything we can understand clearly. It’s deeper and more fundamental than that. We can think of it as more of how a person reacts to uncertainty and the feeling of chaos. Some people have great difficulty with such feelings and react with fear and blame. On the other side a person can react with the sense that new things are now possible and see the crisis as an opportunity for great new paradigms to be born. Most of us are likely to react in ways that are a little of both as we can sense that something very good could arise from something that remains elusive and unclear.

I will be writing much more on the Jupiter-Neptune-Chiron theme in future newsletter articles as this theme is likely to capture our attention for many years to come.