Clash of the Mutables
June opens with the electric heat of the Jupiter-Uranus square vibrating in the air.This aspect is one of the strongest patterns in the sky right now, setting the tone for these last several years of the ‘00s.
Jupiter and Uranus began their showdown as the calendar year began. The dynamic between them expressed itself in the Virginia Tech shootings in April; it is going to be triggered again by Uranus’ station on the 23rd of this month; and it will reach exactitude for the last time in early October.
How do we begin to understand the meaning of a far-reaching pattern like this? Before trying to translate mundane transits into personal terms (such attempts are of negligible value unless mapped out in the native’s own birth chart), or even into group-psychology terms, we look at them in pure, abstract terms and try to get a feel for the raw energies involved. Consider the nature of the mode these two planets are in – mutable – and the two elements they represent: Water and Fire.
Uranus is in Pisces, the sign of the ever-shifting ocean; and given that the meaning of the planet Uranus is sudden change, we have here a quintessentially unpredictable placement. Then we factor in the sign Jupiter is in – Sagittarius – which is mutable in a different way: capricious as flames jumping around in a crackling fire. As a planetary symbol, Jupiter too indicates change: the kind that broadens understanding, as do adventures in learning, geography, or spirituality – all of which take us beyond our comfort zone.
So what do we get when we try to hold both images simultaneously? Again, to apply the meaning of general transits like this to our individual lives, we need to plot it against the backdrop of our own chart. But short of having an astrological reading done, by oneself or by a professional, one can begin to plumb its meaning by imagining what sparks we might expect to fly when the planet of the foreignness (Jupiter) faces off against the planet of alienness (Uranus).
This is what is happening within each of our consciousnesses right now. Those whose natal charts feature mutable planets (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces) in the middle degrees of those signs will feel it most strongly, and the house these planets fall in will indicate what sorts of experiences will bring this restlessness to the fore.
But no matter where it falls in our chart, we are all feeling this square. And it can change our lives.
Sagittarius Full Moon
The aspect was given a big buzz by the Full Moon on the last day of May, which magnified its effects, as Full Moons always do. Every month when the Sun opposes the Moon in the sky (the definition of a Full Moon) a clear, bright, warts-and-all light is cast upon issues that may have been murky and confusing over the previous two weeks. This monthly revelation is one of the most familiar transits in astrology. Its potency is well known to all who follow the mysterious but utterly orderly unfolding of the lunar cycle.
What made this particular Full Moon extraordinary was the added drama of the Jupiter-Uranus square. The tendency of Jupiter is to exaggerate things, and the tendency of Uranus to trigger explosions. As June begins, consider the impact of the days around May 31st : ask yourself whether something in your life got jostled to the point of creative disturbance. If a series of events seemed to come to a head that Thursday, consider its meaning in terms of the ambition of Jupiter together with the clarion call of Uranus.
Whether the culmination was internal or external, it was meant to give you a big jolt of learning, one you probably did not see coming. Taking us unaware is the whole point. Uranian lessons are like the tricks of a prankster: whether it’s a shock we don’t like — such as an unwelcome practical joke — or one that delights us –such as a surprise birthday party — Uranian events pop up before our natural resistance mechanisms have a chance to block their entry.
Take note of the physical and emotional ramifications of the last couple of days of May. Whatever that Full Moon was trying to get us to see, it will come in handy at the solstice upcoming. As June begins, our task is to decode the lesson; come June 21st-24th, our task is to apply it.
Jupiter/Uranus in the Collective
We have been speaking of this transit on the level of personal growth: the inspiration we can each realize when we embrace foreignness. In the collective, by contrast, archetypes often express themselves less becomingly. The wounded mass mind has a habit of distorting these energies with fear.
Yet for students of the Mysteries, the shadow side of a transit is no less important to track. First, so we can watch out for being subverted by it. Second, so we may learn that much more about the archetype by seeing it from its nether side.
Immigration (Jupiter) is a massive button-presser in the United States and Europe right now, as the stark realities of humanity’s haves and have-nots clash at the world’s borders. In the USA, politicians who address the issue of undocumented workers walk a minefield, trying to avoid public reactivity. Hate crimes against Arab Americans are on the rise.
In America’s collective unconscious, the concept of “aliens” (Uranus) now encompasses everything from the fantasy of hostile visitors from outer space to the imagined minions of Osama bin Laden – both ready to strike at any moment, wielding their differentness like a weapon. This terror of attackers from far away has resulted in gun-toting “security” guards multiplying as fast as zombies in a monster movie, uselessly patrolling office buildings, hospitals, subways – even schools. Their effect is to keep the citizenry in a constant state of free-floating anxiety (mutability-gone-wrong).
Such measures are proving to be an astounding waste of human and financial resources. According to a recent Justice Dept. audit, in the four years after 9/11, federal prosecutors counted such random issues as immigration violations, marriage fraud and drug trafficking all tossed together among their “anti-terror” cases. Not a shred of evidence was found to link these to foreign terrorist activity, but that didn’t keep them from being duly logged and cited to justify the hiring of more armed goons at airports.
What we have here is a self-fulfilling prophecy of terror. This month’s Paranoia Prize goes to the website of the Alabama Department of Homeland Security, whose list of “groups believed to spawn terrorists” includes environmentalists, animal rights advocates and abortion opponents.
The dark side of Pisces is helplessness; the dark side of Sagittarius is righteousness. Neither sign is known for practicality (Earth) nor rationality (Air). As individuals we must ground ourselves in the Earth and Air of our own awareness as a counterbalance.
The Summer Solstice
Destabilization in the collective can be used as a proving ground for the consciousness work of each of us. As a point of focus, we might pay particular attention to the days surrounding June 23rd, when Uranus will make a retrograde station – two days before the sky’s other major pattern, the Saturn-Neptune opposition1, reaches its final exactitude this cycle. The days around the summer solstice are going to pop with a convergence of the two most important aspects in the sky.
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1See April’s column in DayKeeper Journal for a run-down of the themes of this compelling, confusing transit: http://www.daykeeperjournal.com/aarch07/0704apr/murray.shtml. For an in-depth analysis from a Jungian point of view, see Bill Streett’s Saturn-Neptune and the Desert of the Real, at http://www.astro-noetics.com/sat_nep_1.html .
