2011 Musings

At the last minute, a local newspaper for whom I've written an astrology column in the past asked me to write about 2011, without using too many words. I hope you find it helpful, and Happy New Year.

The Cosmic Dimension’s Musings for 2011

2011 begins a ratcheting up of change that lasts until around 2019.

A solar eclipse in early January on the same day that Uranus and Jupiter join in the sky awakens us to getting used to the idea of having an implacable destiny, a unique purpose in the world each individual is born to fulfill. As we slowly recover from illusions of avoidance and futility, what dawns on us is the need to respond to hidden marching orders. Instead of the same old whining about not knowing what to do or not fully knowing the exact details and shape of your destiny (complete with the guarantee of a certain income), we become more open to being motivated and guided in a whole new way, on a moment-to-moment basis. This extends to all areas, even and especially those you may have deemed off-limits to the influence of your soul, such as making a living.

Saturn’s intensification from January 25 until June 12 helps us learn new balance while treading this unfamiliar path: balance between letting go of limiting, outmoded fears and beliefs, and embracing a new impetus of creative being; balance between bending for others and honoring your own soul – meaning you aren’t helping anyone if you are borrowing on your resources, integrity, and destiny to do so, no matter what agreements you may have made in the past.

Another kind of balance that Saturn has been working hard with Pluto to restore is the toppled relationship we have with authority. Most of us have pretty much quietly abdicated it, an unpleasant truth that will no longer be so unconscious, starting this year around July when Uranus moves within influence of its square with Pluto. This dance of deeply transforming planets may amplify to revolutionary levels by the time its seven exact face-offs get underway in 2012 and complete in 2015. July of 2011 gives us a taste until the end of the year – dancing lessons that instill the rhythm of showing up in a larger way with your unique self, proving once again that the soul does have power in affecting the outer world, and that individuals who embrace their unique destiny, no matter how modest, awaken the collective soul when it is most needed.

Even the three Mercury retrograde periods this year are all about individual inspiration and creativity, giving us the opportunity to rethink on a grander scale what to do about certain challenges. They all take place in fire signs, which means that for those who pay attention, Mercury, who communicates and finds clever means to deal with monsters and giants, is going to be spontaneously providing solutions to impossible problems, with illuminating 3-week retrograde periods in April, August, and around Thanksgiving.

Fire is big in 2011, but so is water, the element of compassion and spiritual grounding. As Jupiter and Uranus electrify fiery, individualistic Aries beginning in the first few months of the year, Chiron and Neptune make their way out of corporate Aquarius into the liquid depths of Pisces. Could this begin the awakening from a collective dream, a nightmare in which we let ourselves be entertained while the world slipped away? We saw what happened when Chiron dipped briefly into oceanic Pisces starting last April 20, the same day the Gulf’s pollution by oil came to our immediate attention. Chiron often brings its healing through first inflicting a wound. Its re-entry to Pisces on February 8 until 2019 will likely not let suffering and defilement go as unnoticed as they have been for the past three decades.

Neptune goes into the same peek-a-boo mode as other planets were last year, sticking a toe into a sign before pulling out. Starting April 4, we will get a 4-month glimpse of Neptune in Pisces, before 2012’s re-entry for the next 14 years. The last time Neptune was in Pisces was from 1847 to 1861. Neptune has to do with dissolving boundaries, especially in its own sign, as it will be in Pisces. 1847 was a year beginning massive emigration to the US, partly for compassionate reasons as people fled the famine in Ireland. The Mexican-American War centering around 1847, however, had a different kind of boundary relaxation in mind, and the war was widely contested as an effort to expand the power of the slave states and steal other people’s land in an insatiable lust for dominion.

The DREAM act, defeated in 2010’s congressional lame duck session, may be revisited as compassionate perspectives demand attention, and the truth of past actions comes home to roost. May your own caring attention gain the ratification it deserves this important year.

Wonderful reading for New Years day.
Thank you 2011 Musings.
:hi:

Thanks so much for sharing this!

:applause:

:hi:

Concise and positive.

a nightmare in which we let ourselves be entertained while the world slipped away?"

Yes, definitely.

And thanks for the insight into us being no longer able to hide inside our self-pity, etc. I needed that; I'm really, really good at hiding inside my own denial, so thanks for the poke.

I'm glad it was helpful.