The Magic and Controversy of The Week of December 17-23, 2012
We started this week with a harmonious trine between the lovely, sensual Venus and electric, unorthodox Uranus which just turned direct in Aries last weekend. Relationships sparkle with unexpected newness, making it difficult to settle down our feelings. Irrepressible desires provoke adrenaline rushes, tempting us to break out of our restraints to let pleasure rule the day. Meanwhile, the mystical Pisces Moon stimulates our dreams and increases the intensity of our fantasies. An anxious aspect between energetic Mars and jolly Jupiter in jittery Gemini, throws some monkeys in the wrench, giving us enthusiastic belief in our power to direct things and...people. Unfortunately, we could tire ourselves out by trying to be everything for everyone. Empathy (courtesy of the gentle Pisces Moon) is wonderful but setting limits and boundaries makes for happier and healthier relationships and situations. As it happens with everything else and at any time, the middle path is golden.
With Venus's recent transit into Sagittarius, the Archer, we noted a pile-up of planets in this bold and daring sign. Not uncharacteristically, we also noted that our thoughts and actions started swinging between the elation and excitement of daring new ventures and an underlining fear of the unknown. If some of you felt jittery, jumping from one extreme emotion to another and feeling ready to bounce off the walls at times rest assured you were not alone. The Universe is intent on confusing us mere mortals by sending mixed messages sometimes and this is one of those times.
But the story of the week will definitely unfold in the last days, between December 20th and 23rd, starting with the Winter Solstice on the 21st when the Sun transits from Sagittarius into Capricorn. I was asked by many readers to explain the asdrological basis of the much talked about events supposedly coming up...the pile up of theories and speculations, the Mayan Calendar ending, the Galactic allignment and all the predictions of more or less gloom and doom in the media.
Let's see what we know about the Planetary Line-up On December 21
Astrologically speaking this year has already seen many powerful transits: the Venus transit to the Sun in Gemini in June (an event that happens every 120 years or so), the first two in a series of seven Uranus-Pluto squares, a set of powerful eclipses and an on again, off again Cardinal Cross affecting Cardinal signs.
To bring more to this dynamic, a very rare and hard to interpret combined astro event is now challenging Astrologers and Astro enthusiasts. The YOD, the Finger of God, a rare astrological aspect, involves three planets, with two of them harmoniously sextiling each other (60° aspect) and with BOTH of themquincunx (150° aspect) in relation to a third planet; the three planets together form an issosceles triangle. The Yod presents a puzzle to the person who has it in their natal chart. Having a Yod in your chart means you have been chosen for some special purpose. A heavenly puzzle, for you may not know what your special purpose is, and have to trust in fate that you will fulfill it, even if you never figure out what it is.
The YOD is named after the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and is translated as The Finger of God or The Eye of God.
With Venus's recent transit into Sagittarius, the Archer, we noted a pile-up of planets in this bold and daring sign. Not uncharacteristically, we also noted that our thoughts and actions started swinging between the elation and excitement of daring new ventures and an underlining fear of the unknown. If some of you felt jittery, jumping from one extreme emotion to another and feeling ready to bounce off the walls at times rest assured you were not alone. The Universe is intent on confusing us mere mortals by sending mixed messages sometimes and this is one of those times.
But the story of the week will definitely unfold in the last days, between December 20th and 23rd, starting with the Winter Solstice on the 21st when the Sun transits from Sagittarius into Capricorn. I was asked by many readers to explain the asdrological basis of the much talked about events supposedly coming up...the pile up of theories and speculations, the Mayan Calendar ending, the Galactic allignment and all the predictions of more or less gloom and doom in the media.
Let's see what we know about the Planetary Line-up On December 21
Astrologically speaking this year has already seen many powerful transits: the Venus transit to the Sun in Gemini in June (an event that happens every 120 years or so), the first two in a series of seven Uranus-Pluto squares, a set of powerful eclipses and an on again, off again Cardinal Cross affecting Cardinal signs.
To bring more to this dynamic, a very rare and hard to interpret combined astro event is now challenging Astrologers and Astro enthusiasts. The YOD, the Finger of God, a rare astrological aspect, involves three planets, with two of them harmoniously sextiling each other (60° aspect) and with BOTH of themquincunx (150° aspect) in relation to a third planet; the three planets together form an issosceles triangle. The Yod presents a puzzle to the person who has it in their natal chart. Having a Yod in your chart means you have been chosen for some special purpose. A heavenly puzzle, for you may not know what your special purpose is, and have to trust in fate that you will fulfill it, even if you never figure out what it is.
The YOD is named after the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and is translated as The Finger of God or The Eye of God.
In this unique configuration we are talking about, if each point of the YOD was traced towards a central point on an astro chart, they would together form a "Y" shape. The two planets in sextile (60° apart) complement each other and are in harmony. The focal planet in a quincunx aspect(150° apart) with the other two planets is completely incompatible, sharing neither gender (masculine/assertive or feminine/receptive), element (fire, water, air, or earth), or modality (cardinal, fixed, or mutable). This aspect activates either a powerful conduit of energy, or a deeply-felt block, in the direction of the quincunxed planet.
The fundamental force of the Yod is the quincunx (which is also called an “inconjunction” or "non-aspect"). This is an angle of 150-degrees, one sign short of an opposition, and one sign past a trine. This unusual position results in planetary energy which doesn’t quite know what to do with itself, and can result in the subject feeling out of control from time to time. Or, it feels like things are beyond the subject’s control. The quincunx is a quirky, awkward aspect and uses up a lot of energy. All that energy has nowhere to go, if there are no meaningful aspects to any other celestial points. The Finger of God gives all that energy a purpose, a “place to go.” There is a fateful resonance to the quincunx, and it is said to be capricious and dangerous when involved in a transit. The quincunx by itself, could be off again, on again, either favorable or unfavorable. The two planets making the quincunx seem to be out of joint. Imagine two waves going into and out of phase, first adding to each other and then cancelling each other out and you have an understanding. Because of this, it is always difficult to say what the effect of a quincunx will be at any particular moment.
The fundamental force of the Yod is the quincunx (which is also called an “inconjunction” or "non-aspect"). This is an angle of 150-degrees, one sign short of an opposition, and one sign past a trine. This unusual position results in planetary energy which doesn’t quite know what to do with itself, and can result in the subject feeling out of control from time to time. Or, it feels like things are beyond the subject’s control. The quincunx is a quirky, awkward aspect and uses up a lot of energy. All that energy has nowhere to go, if there are no meaningful aspects to any other celestial points. The Finger of God gives all that energy a purpose, a “place to go.” There is a fateful resonance to the quincunx, and it is said to be capricious and dangerous when involved in a transit. The quincunx by itself, could be off again, on again, either favorable or unfavorable. The two planets making the quincunx seem to be out of joint. Imagine two waves going into and out of phase, first adding to each other and then cancelling each other out and you have an understanding. Because of this, it is always difficult to say what the effect of a quincunx will be at any particular moment.
The aspect happening this week (see chart above), starts with Jupiter in Gemini forming a quincunx with Pluto in Capricorn on the 20th followed closely by a quincunx with Saturn in Scorpio. The YOD triangle is formed on the 22nd. It involves the 3rd, 8th and 10th House, combines the elements of Air, Water and Earth and major planets: Jupiter, the Great Fortunate (now in retrograde motion), Saturn, The Great Equalizer (the Karmic planet) and mysterious Pluto.
There has only been ONE other Jupiter Yod that we know of, on May 18, 1989. For those of you who were too little then and for those of you who lived that year of turmoil, I will remind you that when the quincux was exact on May 18 of that year, China declared Martial Law after the massive demonstration in Tiananmen Square, leaving thousands dead and putting an end to a historic and peaceful demonstration for freedom of consciousness. That was courtesy of freedom loving Jupiter, the planet that governs the very moral fabric of our society, the rights and freedoms of individuals. At that time, Jupiter, as the main character in the Yod uplifted and empowered the Chinese students to break free from ideological strain.
This time, Jupiter is retrograde and that adds a tone of philosophical meditation rather than direct social action. However, with the other two planets governing world (and underworld) organizations, there might be a clash of ideology, a power struggle unfolding between the major players of the world, which will give us cause for transformation. More on this below.
More than foretelling a major galactic catastrophic event, the present YOD formation draws attention to a need to focus on our environment and community at large (3rd House) which may be affected by or affect (remember this is a quincunx ) the force of the 8th House, the House that governs our sense of purpose in breaking down societal taboos, demolish obsolete structures in and out of ourselves, to transform, evolve and be reborn. Saturn, the planet of karma in action is the planet now residing in the 8th House adding to the sense of fateful immanence of what needs to be done and the aura of karmic duty . The third planet in the mix, harmoniously trining Saturn is Pluto, the generational planet governing upheaval, destruction AND regeneration. Pluto is now in the 10th House of major worldly contribution and established governance, dominance and prestige at a large scale.
The immediately visible meaning is that we are destined, at this time, or that we are the generation karmically responsible for questioning, demolishing and rebuilding the world on basis that are considering the planet's and humanity's wellbeing for generations to come.
Put all of the above together and you get a sense of the fateful message behind the YOD this coming weekend. It is a call for transformation at a larger scale, we MUST become aware of how established structures affect our daily life, our environment, the fabric of our lives and transform them for a betterment of humanity as a whole.
The Galactic Allignment, The Mayan Long Count Calendar, Nibiru and Other Theories
The year 2012 is a phenomenon in many ways, with its wide range of eschatological and New Age beliefs
predicting cataclysmic or, to the contrary, amazingly positive, transformative physical and spiritual events occuring on the 21 December 2012.
Scholars from every discipline have argued against such events yet, human nature is always inquisitive and sometimes gullible to giving credibility to theories without much research.
Let's take the Gallactic Allignment for instance.
These allignments have HAPPENED before in our galactic history and will happen again after 2012 , every quarter of an approximately 26.000 years long precession cycle or so. The precession of equinoxes is caused by the earth wobbling very slowly on its axis and shifting the position of the equinoxes and solstices one degree every 71.5 years. Because the sun is one-half of a degree wide, it will take the December solstice sun 36 years to precess through the Galactic equator.
Thus, this particular galactic alignment is calculated to occur around the era (1980 - 2016) not exactly in 2012 and every quarter precession cycle before and after.
The precise alignment of the solstice point (the precise center-point of the body of the sun as viewed from earth) with the Galactic equator was actually calculated to occur in 1998 (Jean Meeus, Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, 1997).
Thus, the Galactic Alignment "zone" ranges approximately from 1980 +/- until... 2016. (information courtesy of NASA)
The topic came into consideration due to the Mayan Calendar ending at a specific date in our present history.
It is this Galactic "moment" that the ancient Maya were pointing to with the 2012 end-date of their Long Count calendar, the Great Rift and the Holy Galactic Cross. The Sun's allignment with the Galaxy means that on the Solstice day this year, the Sun will be positioned at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way. But theMayans were not the only ancient people having knowledge of the galactic equator and the Sun's periodic allignment to it.
Researchers of the Mayan culture deny any "end of time" implications/prediction in the end of the Mayan calendar which, they say contradicts the fundamentals of Mayan civilization and culture. Besides, when assessing anything we have to consider the source and the time when it has been created. In this case a formidable ancient culture which, displaying unexpected and precise astronomical knowledge compounded a calender to outlive them by thousands of years. A feat by itself. The calender has been created from the point of view of that ancient civilization and has a strong metaphysical and mystical basis. I can feel many questions coming from everyone, including my own mind, most unanswerable at the moment. Is this calendar foretelling a catastrophic event waiting to happen? In fact, the Mayan calendar which projected thousands of years of human history ends in an unsolvable puzzle. The last legible letter/character signifies "Joyful Celebration" and then the remaining inscription on the plaque is...illegible, blurred and eroded by time and elements. (National Geographic)
What was that last element the Mayans predicted, the last "clue or key to our future"? Would we have found the answer to our future in one remaining character? Would that have changed anything? And what? It will remain a mystery forever. And perhaps it is better this way, we now have and need the chance to create the future, a future that is happening right now as we speak. As the Buddha said:" every moment of our lives has an infinity of possibilities/choices".
The Future is Happening Now
I believe we are fortunate to be part of and witness these times, astrological aspects aside. The meaning of everything will become clearer as time unfolds, doesn't it always? For now, I believe that this moment in human history heralds a karmic time of major transformation. Nothing should be more awakening and empowering, I believe, to the human spirit than the prospect (even remote) of losing it all.
Perhaps this is the right moment to heed that prompting to look less towards signs and gurus and direct our vision to life on Earth, our life and reality. Perhaps it is the right time to ponder on the idea of a civilization we created that is starting to erode the quality of our life rather than enhancing it. Perhaps the fear of an impending doom, will finally liberate us from a long held tunnel vision and take us into the light of awareness of this spectacular planet we call home where contradictions abound, and war and greed tear away the very fabric of humanity. And maybe, just maybe by doing this at this time, we could soon witness a much needed switch in our collective consciousness, caused exactly by what we fear most (whether that happens or not), the end of time.
And before I leave you to ponder these ideas, I wish to remind you that in fact time is a human rendering of a dimension, not a galactic event. It follows logically that there could be no galactic "end of time", just an end of the way humans understand time, or the end of an era in human evolution and the beginning of a new cycle. But that is another story for another time. And the future, by it's very nature, is happening right now.
What shall we take with us for the rest of our journey from these conflicting, wonderful, scary and mysterious "signs" of living in special times? I don't know about you, or about anyone else's metaphorical or metaphysical interpretation but I will continue to live in the present moment, reverent about the past and hopeful for the future. I will be aware that the planets will align as they always do in Solstice, always a time of transition into the wisdom and tranquility of winter; that calendars become obsolete more often than not; that fear is a lesser emotion and thousands of years of human civilization is proof of that and that we should all take a moment during this time to contemplate where we came from, where we are headed and how we can make this world (and life) a better place.
Wishing everyone a magical, uplifting, fearless, kind and joyful Christmas.
Until next year, when we all start a new journey with faith, hope and enthusiasm, as I always say, live, love and learn.
There has only been ONE other Jupiter Yod that we know of, on May 18, 1989. For those of you who were too little then and for those of you who lived that year of turmoil, I will remind you that when the quincux was exact on May 18 of that year, China declared Martial Law after the massive demonstration in Tiananmen Square, leaving thousands dead and putting an end to a historic and peaceful demonstration for freedom of consciousness. That was courtesy of freedom loving Jupiter, the planet that governs the very moral fabric of our society, the rights and freedoms of individuals. At that time, Jupiter, as the main character in the Yod uplifted and empowered the Chinese students to break free from ideological strain.
This time, Jupiter is retrograde and that adds a tone of philosophical meditation rather than direct social action. However, with the other two planets governing world (and underworld) organizations, there might be a clash of ideology, a power struggle unfolding between the major players of the world, which will give us cause for transformation. More on this below.
More than foretelling a major galactic catastrophic event, the present YOD formation draws attention to a need to focus on our environment and community at large (3rd House) which may be affected by or affect (remember this is a quincunx ) the force of the 8th House, the House that governs our sense of purpose in breaking down societal taboos, demolish obsolete structures in and out of ourselves, to transform, evolve and be reborn. Saturn, the planet of karma in action is the planet now residing in the 8th House adding to the sense of fateful immanence of what needs to be done and the aura of karmic duty . The third planet in the mix, harmoniously trining Saturn is Pluto, the generational planet governing upheaval, destruction AND regeneration. Pluto is now in the 10th House of major worldly contribution and established governance, dominance and prestige at a large scale.
The immediately visible meaning is that we are destined, at this time, or that we are the generation karmically responsible for questioning, demolishing and rebuilding the world on basis that are considering the planet's and humanity's wellbeing for generations to come.
Put all of the above together and you get a sense of the fateful message behind the YOD this coming weekend. It is a call for transformation at a larger scale, we MUST become aware of how established structures affect our daily life, our environment, the fabric of our lives and transform them for a betterment of humanity as a whole.
The Galactic Allignment, The Mayan Long Count Calendar, Nibiru and Other Theories
The year 2012 is a phenomenon in many ways, with its wide range of eschatological and New Age beliefs
predicting cataclysmic or, to the contrary, amazingly positive, transformative physical and spiritual events occuring on the 21 December 2012.
Scholars from every discipline have argued against such events yet, human nature is always inquisitive and sometimes gullible to giving credibility to theories without much research.
Let's take the Gallactic Allignment for instance.
These allignments have HAPPENED before in our galactic history and will happen again after 2012 , every quarter of an approximately 26.000 years long precession cycle or so. The precession of equinoxes is caused by the earth wobbling very slowly on its axis and shifting the position of the equinoxes and solstices one degree every 71.5 years. Because the sun is one-half of a degree wide, it will take the December solstice sun 36 years to precess through the Galactic equator.
Thus, this particular galactic alignment is calculated to occur around the era (1980 - 2016) not exactly in 2012 and every quarter precession cycle before and after.
The precise alignment of the solstice point (the precise center-point of the body of the sun as viewed from earth) with the Galactic equator was actually calculated to occur in 1998 (Jean Meeus, Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, 1997).
Thus, the Galactic Alignment "zone" ranges approximately from 1980 +/- until... 2016. (information courtesy of NASA)
The topic came into consideration due to the Mayan Calendar ending at a specific date in our present history.
It is this Galactic "moment" that the ancient Maya were pointing to with the 2012 end-date of their Long Count calendar, the Great Rift and the Holy Galactic Cross. The Sun's allignment with the Galaxy means that on the Solstice day this year, the Sun will be positioned at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way. But theMayans were not the only ancient people having knowledge of the galactic equator and the Sun's periodic allignment to it.
Researchers of the Mayan culture deny any "end of time" implications/prediction in the end of the Mayan calendar which, they say contradicts the fundamentals of Mayan civilization and culture. Besides, when assessing anything we have to consider the source and the time when it has been created. In this case a formidable ancient culture which, displaying unexpected and precise astronomical knowledge compounded a calender to outlive them by thousands of years. A feat by itself. The calender has been created from the point of view of that ancient civilization and has a strong metaphysical and mystical basis. I can feel many questions coming from everyone, including my own mind, most unanswerable at the moment. Is this calendar foretelling a catastrophic event waiting to happen? In fact, the Mayan calendar which projected thousands of years of human history ends in an unsolvable puzzle. The last legible letter/character signifies "Joyful Celebration" and then the remaining inscription on the plaque is...illegible, blurred and eroded by time and elements. (National Geographic)
What was that last element the Mayans predicted, the last "clue or key to our future"? Would we have found the answer to our future in one remaining character? Would that have changed anything? And what? It will remain a mystery forever. And perhaps it is better this way, we now have and need the chance to create the future, a future that is happening right now as we speak. As the Buddha said:" every moment of our lives has an infinity of possibilities/choices".
The Future is Happening Now
I believe we are fortunate to be part of and witness these times, astrological aspects aside. The meaning of everything will become clearer as time unfolds, doesn't it always? For now, I believe that this moment in human history heralds a karmic time of major transformation. Nothing should be more awakening and empowering, I believe, to the human spirit than the prospect (even remote) of losing it all.
Perhaps this is the right moment to heed that prompting to look less towards signs and gurus and direct our vision to life on Earth, our life and reality. Perhaps it is the right time to ponder on the idea of a civilization we created that is starting to erode the quality of our life rather than enhancing it. Perhaps the fear of an impending doom, will finally liberate us from a long held tunnel vision and take us into the light of awareness of this spectacular planet we call home where contradictions abound, and war and greed tear away the very fabric of humanity. And maybe, just maybe by doing this at this time, we could soon witness a much needed switch in our collective consciousness, caused exactly by what we fear most (whether that happens or not), the end of time.
And before I leave you to ponder these ideas, I wish to remind you that in fact time is a human rendering of a dimension, not a galactic event. It follows logically that there could be no galactic "end of time", just an end of the way humans understand time, or the end of an era in human evolution and the beginning of a new cycle. But that is another story for another time. And the future, by it's very nature, is happening right now.
What shall we take with us for the rest of our journey from these conflicting, wonderful, scary and mysterious "signs" of living in special times? I don't know about you, or about anyone else's metaphorical or metaphysical interpretation but I will continue to live in the present moment, reverent about the past and hopeful for the future. I will be aware that the planets will align as they always do in Solstice, always a time of transition into the wisdom and tranquility of winter; that calendars become obsolete more often than not; that fear is a lesser emotion and thousands of years of human civilization is proof of that and that we should all take a moment during this time to contemplate where we came from, where we are headed and how we can make this world (and life) a better place.
Wishing everyone a magical, uplifting, fearless, kind and joyful Christmas.
Until next year, when we all start a new journey with faith, hope and enthusiasm, as I always say, live, love and learn.