A Journey of a Thousand Miles

We are emerging from the most rare of astrological alignments, which occurred on August 26th. Four major astrological patterns occurred simultaneously: a Grand Cross, a Mystic Rectangle and two Kites; accompanying these were two slightly lesser, but equally intense patterns: a Striving Figure and a Sensitivity Rectangle. This was a bit like getting to eat all of your most all-time favourite chocolates in one go - so you may be feeling a bit off-colour, queasy, or disoriented as you are trying to digest all of this.
According to Aluna Joy Yax'kin, in her latest Center of the Sun Newsletter (http://www.kachina.net/~alunajoy/news08-09-2.html), this is the Turning Point of No Return as we approach the planetary shift in 2012.
So what exactly has been going on:Below, you will find the chart for 21.00 UT (GMT) on 26th August 2009, followed by an explanation of these amazing patterns.

The Grand Cross:

This is the big red square pattern, involving Mars in the first degree of Cancer, Mercury in the first degree of Libra, Pluto in the first degree of Capricorn and asteroid Juno in the third degree of Aries. With these planets all right at the beginning of the Cardinal signs, it is like a very high-powered, highly tuned engine revving up and giving us the energy for what comes next. Mars is challenging us to move out of our old emotional patterns; Mercury is challenging us to change the thinking patterns that have supported those old feelings; Pluto is challenging us to transform how we act in the world, and Juno is challenging us to remain in Right Relationship with ourselves and others, whilst we do all this. That in itself would be quite demanding and exhausting, but that's just the start! The Grand Cross will remain until September 2nd.

The Mercury Kite:

This Kite pattern is pointing towards Mercury, with Juno and Uranus at the tail, and the Moon and Vesta/South Node/Venus as the "wings" of the kite. Here is the challenge to change our thinking (Mercury) to align with our spiritual knowing (Uranus) of what Right Relationship is (Juno). In order to do this we need to be deeply in touch with, and listening to our feelings (Moon in Scorpio), and aware of all of the old emotional patterns (Venus in Leo) and even deeply heart-felt beliefs (Vesta in Cancer) and attachments, which may be holding us back from now following our true spiritual path (South Node in Cancer). It is truly time to think new thoughts, and to manifest what we know to be true from the innermost depths of our being.

The North Node Kite:

This Kite pattern is pointing towards the Moon's North Node in the final degree of Capricorn; the tail of the Kite is the Vesta/South Node/Venus conjunction in Cancer/Leo and the wings of the Kite are the Moon in Scorpio and the Juno/Uranus conjunction in Pisces/Aries: The North Node shows the direction in which we now need to travel in order to fulfill our spiritual destiny. The Nodes travel backwards around the zodiac signs, so the North Node has just come out of Aquarius and moved into Capricorn. This means that it is time to truly begin to manifest our spiritual ideals in the "reality" of the world that we find "out there". It is time to fully "walk our talk", and to continue to challenge all of the out-moded, out-dated, out-worn and "old-Age" paradigms and institutions that we can see are falling apart around us. The key is to focus on the positive aspects of where we are heading, not on the negative aspects of where we have been. That has passed, and we can all now see how corrupt, wrong and out of alignment it was. Now we need to move on and focus on what we can each individually create that is more in alignment with our inner spiritual knowing. The old-guard will try to keep re-establishing the old patterns, paradigms and institutions, and dressing them up in new clothes, but their days are numbered - we know it, and they know it, but they simply can't think beyond the old paradigms. It's not just a question of us all learning to "think outside the box". It's a question of truly grasping that there is no box, and in fact there never was a box, apart from the ones that we created for ourselves by our beliefs, fears and unwillingness to fully open our hearts to What Is. Therein lies the key to the Mystic Rectangle:

The Mystic Rectangle:

This is the big blue rectangle, with the red oppositions in the middle. It involves the North Node, the Uranus/Juno conjunction, the Vesta/South Node/Venus conjunction and Mercury. This is the box that we have all believed we were trapped inside, and while we continue to believe in its existence, then we will remain trapped. We will be caught in trying to maintain the status quo of the comfortable "blueness" on the outside of the box; trying to maintain our emotional security and comfort zones, trying to ignore our inner spiritual knowing of everything we see that is "wrong" in ourselves and with the world, or more correctly, all those things with which we are not yet in Right Relationship. It is really just a question of shifting our perspective, and allowing the possibility that everything can change and move more into alignment with our inner knowing. In order for this to happen, we need to not be afraid of owning, accepting and standing fully in our power, for all the world to see:

The Sensitivity Rectangle:

This is the green rectangular pattern, with the two red oppositions inside it. It involves the North Node opposing Vesta/South Node/Venus and Mars opposing Pluto. The Node opposition is what is challenging us to move forward. The Mars opposition to Pluto is saying that we can only do that, when we learn to become fully empowered from our spirit, not from our ego. This is about understanding the power of our innermost being and our ability to remain true to that, no matter what. This pattern will tend to feel uncomfortable to us, until we are able to learn how to do this. Pluto works best when we learn to become still, and allow the power of our spiritual will to well up out of the stillness, from the unconscious levels. If our Mars-ego-will is being impatient, wanting to "get things moving and make things happen", then Pluto cannot be in this way, and will instead appear to create obstacles in our path, or challenges that appear to be diverting us from our true purpose. These obstacles, or opposition to our intended purpose, are the projections of our own unconscious - it wants us to stop rushing around and move into the stillness, so we can feel the promptings of our Pluto-spiritual-will. This is particularly true of Pluto in Capricorn, so we'd better get used to dealing with it, as it will be there until January 2024!

The Striving Figure

This is the "arrowhead" shaped green figure, with the single red opposition inside it, involving the Moon's North Node, Mars, the Vesta/South Node/Venus conjunction and the Sun. One might literally view this figure as a bow and arrow: the resistance of our past emotional patterns and attachments is held in the Vesta/South Node/Venus conjunction; this is creating a tension between our Sun, which is the self that we aspire to be, and the Mars-will, which wants to act, gathering all the information that we need, so that we will know how to move forwards, when the time comes. When we have created the right balance in our being, the arrow can release spontaneously, propelling us towards the North Node and our new understanding of how to live and express our spiritual purpose in the coming years. So, this figure too is about gathering energy and information, and waiting for the moment of release, when we understand, or just get a clear glimpse of what is required of us.

August 26th was the crucial turning point in this process, when everything was now in place for us to begin to move forward, or at least to see how to do so, and make the necessary decisions for this to happen. Elements of this pattern will continue until September 6th, so we have until then to integrate these huge energies of change, and make the necessary adjustments to our internal and external structures, so that everything stands in readiness for the 22nd September Equinox, which will be the topic of the next Astrology-Blog...watch this space, and remember to keep breathing and taking one step at a time - "A journey of a thousand miles begins under one's feet" (Lao Tzu)