Venus Transit - 5th / 6th June

The Venus Transit across the Sun

June 5^th – 6^th 2012

What is the Venus Transit?

Venus orbits the Sun every 225 Earth days. It gradually shifts its orbit from north to south of the Ecliptic plane, (where the planets orbit around the Sun). Normally, when Venus is conjunct the Sun, it is either above or below the Sun, as viewed from the Earth. 

Venus only crosses in front of the face of the Sun every 100 -120 years, then two transits occur together, 8 years apart. The most recent transit in June 2004 and this one in June 2012 cross the northern hemisphere of the Sun. The next pair of transits in 2117 and 2125 will cross the southern hemisphere of the Sun. Then the next pair of transits in 2247 and 2255 will cross the northern hemisphere again, and so on, alternating from north to south and back again. 

 click to enlarge

Chart from - http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/venus/Sun2004+2012-2.GIF

When such a transit occurs, it means that the Earth, Venus and the Sun are aligned on the same plane. This is similar to what happens at a Solar Eclipse, when Sun, Moon and Earth are in exact alignment. Venus, however is a planet roughly the size of Earth, and is millions of miles more distant than the Moon, so its transit appears as just a small shadow passing across the face of the Sun.

What is the significance of the Venus Transit?

These rare Venus transits are always highly significant. This one, coming so soon after the Solar Eclipse on May 20^th, has added significance during the final stages of the approach to the December Solstice 2012.

The May 20^th Eclipse was about releasing and healing old, unbalanced, power-based, abusive or destructive expressions of the masculine energy, and planting the seeds for a new positive, creative, heart-centred expression of the male spiritual warrior. Inevitably, this will bring about the release of old patterns of relationship with the feminine. Both men and women will need to adjust current relationships within the self and with each other, to move into alignment with the new, emerging expression of the positive masculine energies. The Venus transit is ‘eclipsing’ old patterns of relationship and co-dependency that no longer work, now that the new, pure masculine energy has begun to take root.

The Venus transit is the next stage in the process of healing both the masculine and the feminine. Then, on November 13^th 2012, the Total Solar Eclipse over the south Pacific will enable the feminine, both within and out in the world, to find her rightful, whole and healthy relationship to the pure masculine. So we can move forward with the seeds of balance planted in Mother Earth and her energy grids, in all our relationships, and then in our local and global structures and institutions.

The Astrology Chart of the Venus Transit

 click chart to enlarge

The chart shows a small ‘learning triangle’ pattern between Mars, the Sun conjunct Venus, and asteroid Vesta. The new masculine energy is being required to release the past and absorb the new. Mars is in Virgo, which is concerned with the process of digestion, letting go of what is not needed and assimilating what is good and healthy for us. Mars makes a square (90°) aspect to retrograde Venus, which is conjunct the Sun in Gemini. The new male frequencies (Mars) are challenging any established patterns of relationship (Venus) that are based on old male patterns of domination or control. 

Venus, being retrograde during the transit, allows for release and healing of these patterns. Venus in Gemini needs to use spiritual discernment to determine what is healthy and wholesome and worth taking forward into the new future. Anything that is no longer an expression of right relationship cn be released, enabling new models and patterns of relationship to emerge. Venus will be advised how to do this by the semi-sextile (30°) aspect to asteroid Vesta. Vesta represents the volcanic fires of transformation within the Earth, and how this manifests through the kundalini energy in the body to create the transformative fire of love within the human heart.

So, the key to us knowing how to balance the masculine and feminine within us is to learn how to go within and listen to the inner knowing at the deepest level of our hearts. Vesta in Taurus can take us into stillness and bring the patience to wait until we know clearly how to move forward and give expression to right relationship in all aspects of our lives, our relationships and how we act in the world. Then this inner knowing can flow back along the trine (120°) aspect to Mars, to heal the unresolved aspects of the old masculine energies.

Just by ‘coincidence’ (ie: everything coinciding at exactly the right moment), NASA’s ‘Dawn’ spacecraft is approaching orbit around Vesta, and is revealing new insights into this fascinating body and the history of the formation of our solar system (see www.nasa.gov/dawn).

Another ‘learning triangle’ on the opposite side of the chart, exactly mirrors the Mars, Venus-Sun, Vesta pattern, so that these two patterns appear like angel’s wings on either side of the chart. This pattern has the Moon’s North Node square (90°) to Neptune conjunct Chiron, which are semi-sextile (30°) to Pallas Athene conjunct Uranus, then making a trine (120°) aspect back to the North Node.

The Moon’s North Node in Sagittarius shows the spiritual purpose for the Venus transit. It challenges us to manifest the healing qualities of unconditional love (Neptune conjunct Chiron in Pisces), by following our intuitive knowing and wisdom of what is right for us (Pallas and Uranus in Aries), and carrying that forward in our lives through Right Action.

These two learning patterns show us that Right Relationship and Right Action are mutually inter-dependent, and that you cannot have one without the other. When you bring them both to their full expression, you can soar on angel’s wings to create a new vision in your life and a new world around you.

How to work safely and energetically with the Venus Transit?

As with all eclipse-type events, the key is to work within with the energies, and not to become completely distracted by the spectacle of the outward event. By all means find a way to view the transit safely. This will entail using special eclipse glasses, or a welder’s glass, which are the only truly safe ways to look directly at the Sun. If you have a camera with a digital viewing screen, then you can photograph it that way. Do not on any account look through a camera’s viewing lens. If you have a telescope, you can train it towards the Sun, with a sheet of white paper on the ground below the lens so that you can see the projected image of the Sun and Venus’ shadow on the paper. Do not look directly through the telescope at the Sun.

Before you get to the point of observing the transit, it would be good to spend some time in meditation or quiet reflection, to attune to the energies of the Venus transit.

Suggested Meditation

An easy and simple method is to sit quietly and breathe into your heart and imagine a golden ball of light (the Sun) at your heart chakra, in the centre of your chest. Then breathe the light out and down to connect with the solar plexus chakra, below the ribs and diaphragm – this is the Venus centre in the body. Then breathe up again into the heart chakra, and continue this pattern of breathing in at the heart and out at the solar plexus. As you breathe out, become aware of anything that you wish to let go of, particularly patterns of behaviour in relationships that are no longer serving you, feeding you, or enabling you to give and receive love. As you breathe in, ask what you need in order to change those patterns, and live from a truly heart-centred and loving attitude.

As you follow this process, you may also become aware of another, smaller chakra or energy centre, which is located immediately below the heart centre. This is the ‘Ānanda-kanda’ chakra, which is the means whereby we connect inwardly with our personal connection with the Divine, in order to dissolve our attachments to the emotions, and enable us to express our sense of Oneness in the world and in our relationships with others. When we awaken this centre, then the Venus transit will ‘eclipse’ and release us from the hold of our personal desires and wants, and enable us to move into open and unconditional Right Relationship with self, others and the world.

Where and when will the Transit be visible?

The Venus Transit will be visible around sunset in Canada and North and Central America on 5th June. It will be visible at sunrise on 6^th June in most of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and western Russia, all the countries around the Back Sea and Caspian Sea, also India, Indonesia, western China and Western Australia. The entire transit will be visible in eastern Russia, eastern China, New Guinea, Central and Eastern Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Ocean.

The best possible place on Earth to be, where Venus and the Sun are directly overhead at maximum transit, is at the western end of New Caledonia in the Melanesian archipelago, south-west Pacific.

For more details of visibility and timing, visit: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/transit12.html

USA Talks & Workshops in June 2012

Birmingham, Alabama

Unity of Birmingham

2803 Highland Avenue South,  Birmingham

205-251-3713

Sun June 3rd, 1.30 – 4.00pm

       'The Astrology of 2012 and How It Affects You' 

Talk and Presentation by Marcus Mason

$30 (or $45 for both talks)

info/signup: email bookstore@unitybham.org
 See talk description above, under Anchorage heading

Mon June 4th, 7.00 – 9.00pm   

‘Working with your Planets, Chakras and Crystals’

Talk, Presentation & Meditation with Marcus Mason & Sue Weaver

$25 (or $45 for both talks)

info/signup: email bookstore@unitybham.org 

Discover the simple, elegant patterns of 'As Above So Below':

• how the planets resonate in the chakra centers in the human body
•  how the planets and chakra energies resonate with beautiful crystal mandalas
•  preparing ourselves for co-creating a New World Paradigm.

West Palm Beach, Florida

Universal Lightworkers ~ Spiritual Awakening Conference

West Palm Beach Marriott      Fri 8th - Sun 10th June

Sign up today for the Special Presenters Discount
click the picture

 

Friday, 9.00 - 10.30pm 

'The Astrology of 2012 and How It Affects You' 

Keynote Talk and Presentation by Marcus Mason 

Sign up for the Special Presenter's Conference Discount

$250 for whole conference (regularly $325)

Click Here 

Saturday, 11.30 and 4.00 pm

Sunday, 11.20

Sacred Woman, Sacred Man, Sacred Earth

Workshops & Ceremony with Sue Weaver

Monday June 11th, 12.00 - 1.30pm 

Universal Lightworkers Post-Conference Workshop

Awakening to 2012 - Dreaming the New World 

Workshop and Ceremony with Sue Weaver and Marcus Mason

$35 (for conference attendees), or $49 (for public)

To register, click Here 

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Latest News about the May 20th Eclipse

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or read on below about the Eclipse...
and our Talks, Ceremonies & Workshops
in the USA in May / June (scroll down the page)...

May 20th Solar Eclipse Alignments

Solar Annular Eclipse – 20^th May 2012

Global Planetary Alignments with Sacred Sites

Maximum Eclipse at 23:47 UT/GMT

This Eclipse begins west of Hong Kong, then it passes north of Taiwan and over Tokyo and Mount Fuji. It arcs up just south of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska at Maximum Eclipse (at 23:47 Universal Time = 14:47 AHDT / local time), then makes landfall at the northernmost edge of the San Andreas Fault. It passes over Mount Shasta, then crosses Nevada, Utah and New Mexico, and ends just inside Texas.

Path of May 20^th Eclipse, with planetary alignments

click map to enlarge

Annular Eclipse and Earth’s Energy Grids

This is an Annular Eclipse, which means that the Moon is positioned further away from the Earth than at a Total Eclipse, so it does not completely obscure the Sun, but leaves a ring (annulus) of sunlight visible around the Moon’s dark disk. According to NASA’s Fred Espenak, “annular eclipses have a special charm all their own. During an annular eclipse, sunbeams turn into little rings of light.  The best place to see this is on the sun-dappled ground beneath a leafy tree. Hundreds of circular shadows can be found there1.”

It seems that Solar Eclipses have a profound effect on the Earth’s subtle energy grids and ley lines. All powerful events that occur on Earth leave energetic memory imprints in the Earth’s energy grids. These can become amplified and perpetuated by the energy flow through the grids, which is fed by the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets overhead. Powerful negative imprints, such as war, misuse of power or emotional trauma can block or damage the energy flow in a particular region of the planet, causing the energy to become distorted.

Eclipses provides opportunities to release these negative energy imprints and enable new, positive patterns to become encoded into the Earth grids. Hamish Miller, the renowned UK dowser found that, as an Eclipse shadow passes overhead, the Earth’s subtle energy lines power down to almost nothing, becoming indiscernible to dowsing; then as the Sun’s light returns, the grids spring back into life. This is a bit like deleting an old computer programme, loading a new one, and then re-booting the system. Annular Eclipses have a very subtle effect on the energy grids, releasing, transforming and healing the etheric energy ‘blueprint’ that can enable new spiritual archetypes to emerge into collective consciousness.

The Plumed Serpent & the Rainbow Serpent

Author Robert Coon describes two major Earth energy lines, or Dragon lines, encircling the planet from east to west. These are the ‘Plumed Serpent’ or Great Male Dragon line, and the ‘Rainbow Serpent’ or Great Female Dragon line. They are like the two primary acupuncture ‘meridians’ of the global energy system, similar to the two main yang and yin acupuncture meridians in the human body – the Governor Vessel and the Conception Vessel.  Everything else in the Earth’s energy grids is fed by these two vast circulating reservoirs of spiritual life-force energies.

The path of the Annular Eclipse on 20th May will intersect the Plumed Serpent – Great Male Dragon line at two locations - Mount Fuji in Japan and Mount Shasta in California. Adak Island is the pivotal point, lying almost exactly midway between these two sacred mountains, and is the nearest land to the point of maximum eclipse.

 May 20^th Eclipse intersecting the Plumed Serpent - Great Male Dragon line, at Mt. Fuji and Mt. Shasta

 click on map to enlarge

Eclipses occur when the Sun and Moon are conjunct the Moon’s North or South Node. South Node eclipses can help us release outmoded patterns, attitudes and archetypes; North Node eclipses enable new patterns and archetypes be seeded within collective consciousness.

Releasing the Past – Seeding the Future

The eclipse on 20th May is a South Node eclipse, which will release the energetic ‘thought-forms’ and patriarchal archetypes of at least the last 5,125¼ years, and probably the last 25,626 years of the Galactic Great Year. The Eclipse will release negative imprints left from the mis-aligned expression of male power in the Pacific Ocean grids, and along the entire length of the Plumed Serpent – Great Male Dragon line, as it encircles the Earth. So, it will affect the consciousness of the whole planet.

In the Pacific Ocean grids, the mis-aligned use of male power expressed itself in some of the most horrendous battles of WWII, particularly in such important energy points as Midway Island, which lies right at the very heart centre of the North Pacific grid; similarly at Iwo Jima and Hawaii itself, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The imbalances in the grid were deeply aggravated by the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And of course more recently, due to the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima power plant.

From 1946 to 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, a pivotal anchor point in the North Pacific Grid.  The total yield of the 67 tests was the equivalent of more than 7,000 Hiroshima bombs! At the Aleutians themselves, in 1969 the United States detonated a one megaton nuclear weapon at Amchitka Island – the small band of protesters who sailed out there to try to prevent this were responsible for birthing the Greenpeace environmental movement.

On a journey, with a small group of people, out to Akutan in the Aleutians in 2005, we became aware of profound levels of grief that were held within these grids. At first it appeared to be grief that resulted from human suffering, but we also had a startling experience of this grief being expressed by the Earth herself through one of the group members. Quite apart from the relatively recent abuses already mentioned, there is also the grief that has been generated by the imposition of patriarchal religious systems on indigenous peoples throughout the Pacific, who had a long tradition and profound understanding of the Earth as a sacred being.

Now it is time for the final healing of that long-held grief within these most crucial of planetary energy grids, so that the planet can begin to truly emerge into the light, after the December 21st Solstice, 2012. As the eclipse releases these old patterns, held within the grids, it will bring the possibility for seeding a new expression of male power that is fully aligned with the heart and the spiritual will, and so enable collective healing at a personal and global level. This marks the beginning of a whole new paradigm of consciousness.

The Pleiades – seeding the new consciousness

The significance of this Eclipse is further enhanced by the exact conjunction of the Sun and Moon with the Pleiades. This well known cluster of stars, above Taurus, has held a significant position in world mythology throughout the Ages. To the Maya, the Pleiades represent the handful of maize seeds from which the original humans were born. These seeds are symbolically re-planted in the Earth at the beginning of each new ‘Sun’ cycle of 5,125¼ years. (Five Sun cycles complete one full precessional cycle of 25,626 years).

         

While the old patriarchal patterns of the last 5125¼ years are being released by the Eclipse, hidden behind the eclipsing Sun, the Pleiades will be planting the seeds of the new consciousness that will begin to birth the new 5125¼ year cycle, that begins after 21st December 2012, as the Solstice Sun emerges from the centre of the Galactic Equator, which the Maya perceived as the ‘womb of Creation’.

This Eclipse marks the ‘point of no return’ on our journey towards the December Solstice 2012.  The more we are each able to release emotional attachments, thoughts and ideologies that hold us back from experiencing full conscious awareness of our connection with the Oneness of all Life, the smoother the transition will be for us.  The May Eclipse brings a golden opportunity to create Right Relations in all aspects of our lives and stand fully in the power of who we truly are and what we truly believe. 

 List of Global Planetary Alignments
Click on the pages below to enlarge & view/print

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USA Talks, Workshops, Ceremonies. May - June 2012

Marcus Mason and Sue Weaver will be holding talks, workshops and ceremonies in the USA, between 11th May to 11th June 2012:

May 2102:

Anchorage, Alaska 

Fri May 11th, 7 - 9pm

 ‘The Astrology of 2012 and How It Affects You’ 

Talk and Presentation by Marcus Mason 

at Loussac Library

This is the introduction to a weekend workshop

 $15 – for talk only, or included if signing up for whole weekend (see below)

info/signup: email dkelly907@yahoo.com

DECEMBER 21st 2012 marks the end of a 25,626 year Galactic Time Cycle. As we near the end of one cycle, and the beginning of the next, old paradigms and beliefs are no longer sustainable. This talk describes the astronomy and astrology of what will actually occur on December 21st 2012.

Marcus will also give his perspective on the significant planetary alignments that have been preparing us all for the consciousness shift into the new cycle. He will show how two Solar Eclipses in May and November 2012 are pivotal for re-balancing our relationship with the Masculine and Feminine, to prepare us for the coming changes.

  

Sat May 12th, 10am – 6pm        
Sun May 13th, 12pm – 8pm        

'Co-creating the New World'

Weekend Workshop and Ceremony with Marcus Mason and Sue Weaver

$175 (fri talk, sat and sun) 

info/signup & venue details: email dkelly907@yahoo.com  

 In this workshop, we will create an environment for you to experience how to

• align yourself to receive the new planetary energies
• balance the feminine and masculine within yourself and Mother Earth 
• use new energies to understand your soul’s purpose 
• live in peace and harmony in your inner and outer world

 Sedona, Arizona

Unity of Sedona

65 Deer Trail Drive, Sedona

928-282-7181

Fri May 25th, 6.30 – 8.30pm            

'The Astrology of 2012 and How It Affects You'

Talk and Presentation by Marcus Mason

$7.00

registration - please pay at the door
See talk description above, under Anchorage heading

Sun May 27th, 1.30 – 4.30pm     

Working with your Chakras, the Planets, Crystal Mandalas 

and Earth Grids  

Talk, Presentation & Meditation with Marcus Mason and Sue Weaver

$20.00

registration - please pay at the door

Discover the simple, elegant patterns of 'As Above So Below':

• how the planets resonate in the chakra centers in the human body
•  how the planets and chakra energies resonate with beautiful crystal mandalas
• how to work with these, to align ourselves with Earth's energy grids
• preparing ourselves for co-creating a New World Paradigm.

June 2012:

Birmingham, Alabama

Unity of Birmingham

2803 Highland Avenue South,  Birmingham

205-251-3713

Sun June 3rd, 1.30 – 4.00pm

       'The Astrology of 2012 and How It Affects You' 

Talk and Presentation by Marcus Mason

$30 (or $45 for both talks)

info/signup: email bookstore@unitybham.org
 See talk description above, under Anchorage heading

Mon June 4th, 7.00 – 9.00pm   

‘Working with your Planets, Chakras and Crystals’

Talk, Presentation & Meditation with Marcus Mason & Sue Weaver

$25 (or $45 for both talks)

info/signup: email bookstore@unitybham.org 

Discover the simple, elegant patterns of 'As Above So Below':

• how the planets resonate in the chakra centers in the human body
•  how the planets and chakra energies resonate with beautiful crystal mandalas
•  preparing ourselves for co-creating a New World Paradigm.

West Palm Beach, Florida

Universal Lightworkers ~ Spiritual Awakening Conference

West Palm Beach Marriott

1001 Okeechobee Boulevard, West Palm Beach

Fri 8th - Sun 10th June

Friday, 9.00 - 10.30pm 

'The Astrology of 2012 and How It Affects You' 

Keynote Talk and Presentation by Marcus Mason 

Sign up for the Special Presenter's Conference Discount

$250 for whole conference (regularly $325)

Click Here 

Saturday, 11.30 and 4.00 pm

Sunday, 11.20

Sacred Woman, Sacred Man, Sacred Earth

Workshops & Ceremony with Sue Weaver

Monday June 11th, 12.00 - 1.30pm 

Universal Lightworkers Post-Conference Workshop

Awakening to 2012 - Dreaming the New World 

Workshop and Ceremony with Sue Weaver and Marcus Mason

$35 (for conference attendees), or $49 (for public)

To register, click Here 



 

Spiritual Awakening Conference, Florida

Marcus Mason and Sue Weaver

will be at

The Universal Lightworkers Spiritual Awakening Conference

West Palm Beach Marriott Hotel

Florida, USA

8th - 11th June 2012

We are delighted to be able to offer you this opportunity to sign up for the 
Special Presenters Discount - $250 (regularly $325)

click on the banner to sign up

Marcus is a Keynote Speaker 
on Friday 8th June:

'The Astrology of 2012 and How It Affects You'

Sue will lead a Workshop and Ceremony 
on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th June:

'Sacred Woman, Sacred Man, Sacred Earth'
 

Marcus and Sue will lead a Post Conference Workshop and Ceremony 
on Monday 11th June:

'Awakening to 2012 – Dreaming the New World'

For full details about the conference visit

http://www.universallightworkers.com/

We look forward to seeing you there,

With Love and Blessings, Marcus and Sue

Happy New Year - 2012 !

Sarvesham Svastir Bhavatu - Tina Turner

Happy New Year everyone !

Winter Solstice 2011

Winter Solstice 2011

22^nd December, 05.30 Universal Time (GMT)

 click on chart to enlarge

Jupiter opposing Saturn – going nowhere fast

An opposition between retrograde Jupiter and Saturn, which began on November 25^th, forms the ‘backbone’ of the chart for this Winter Solstice. The opposition lasts until 25^th February 2012, but will be somewhat eased when Jupiter turns direct on Christmas Day – our ‘gift from the gods’.

Normally, Jupiter represents the ‘accelerator’ and Saturn the ‘brake’ to our forward movement. Whenever they are in opposition, this creates a push-pull situation in many areas of our lives; now it is manifesting particularly in the areas of finance, and our ability to further our vision for the future. Trying to make forward progress, with Jupiter retrograde, is often having the opposite to the desired effect.

Jupiter, in the very first degrees of Taurus, wants to manifest a new vision for our future, particularly in relation to the material world. Saturn, in the last few degrees of Libra, is reaping the fruits of our past relationship with the material world, and will continue to do so until it enters Scorpio in early October 2012. At this Winter Solstice, Jupiter and Saturn are both making a T-square pattern with Venus in Aquarius. She is calling, imploring and pleading with us to put our relationship with the material world, and with our finances, into the context of Aquarian Age principles and ideals.

It is plain for all to see that the old financial-material paradigm, and our relationship to it, is just not working. We only have to turn on the news, or catch the newspaper headlines, to see the latest futile attempt by confused and bewildered politicians to deal with the on-going ‘financial crisis’. If it were not so serious, it would be almost farcical in its proportions of ineptitude and missing the point.

Venus brings the need for New Values

At winter solstice, Venus is making that point very clear – collectively, we need to find a totally new relationship with money, what it represents, and how it is managed on the world stage, and in our personal lives. Saturn is showing us, in no uncertain terms, the fruits of our old relationship with it – disastrous. Jupiter has yet to come up with a new vision that can work, because it is still trying to deal with the aftermath of the old ways. Venus is requiring some lateral thinking for us to completely shift where we place our values.

All the while, everyone, in their own way is struggling to negotiate their way around the still bloated and overfed elephant in the room, pretending not to see that it is the source of all the mess that we are up to our necks in!

It was the banks, the speculative markets, and the failure of the credit ratings agencies to anticipate the financial crash of 2008, together with the ‘blind eyes’ turned to all of this by governments, which got us into this mess. Now, each decision being made by governments, as attempts to get us out of this mess, is immediately reacted to (mostly negatively) by the banks, the financial markets and credit ratings agencies. It is as though we have been collectively ‘mugged’ by three thugs, but are continuing to negotiate with them how much more we are prepared to give them control of our lives, in the hope that they will eventually stop mugging us!

On the one hand, Europe descends down a path that is eroding more and more of the democratic autonomy of each country, placing unelected ‘technocrats’ in charge to deal with those failing economies - Greece and Italy so far, but watch this space. For ‘technocrats’ read “financial experts who have been appointed to dance the dance of the ‘three thugs’”, with rapidly-diminishing regard for the democratic process. So now, the Greeks and Italians can heave a collective sigh of relief, knowing that they have someone in charge, who knows how to play the game – phew! And as for democracy - well, why should the Greeks be bothered about that, it’s not as if they invented it or anything…oh wait a minute!

On the other hand in the UK, David Cameron, in a magnificently futile assertion of being thoroughly (upper-middle class) British has succeeded in shooting himself, his deputy, and the country in the foot, splitting us off from Europe and splitting his own government, all in the name of…protecting the ‘three thugs’ that run the City of London.

Meanwhile, the credit ratings agencies are calling the shots, downgrading the status of countries and banks that they deem to be unstable – these are the same credit ratings agencies that failed to see that the banks were making increasingly outrageous decisions about levels of lending in the lead-up to 2008 - decisions that even a 10-year old would have regarded as madness. So the very agencies that failed to stop us from falling into this mess still have a powerful influence over whether we will ever get out of it. It’s a bit like allowing the doctor who damaged you during surgery being the one who is called upon to repair the damage, whilst reassuring us that he now knows how to do it now. It cannot have escaped everyone’s notice that the most influential of these agencies is called ‘Standard and Poor’ – perhaps their mission statement for what they hope to achieve for us all?

So, what can be done about this mess, and the layers of danger, lurking within it? A radical shift of values and what we value – that is the message of Venus this Winter Solstice.

The Sabian symbol for the position of Venus, at 2° Aquarius, is “An unexpected thunderstorm” – something is going to have to give, in order to release the tension. Meanwhile, the Sabian symbol for Saturn is “A man in deep gloom. Unnoticed, angels come to his help” – this speaks for itself, the man in deep gloom being the world situation, and the self-perpetuating belief around lack, which is being fed daily by governments, financial institutions and the media. But, unnoticed, angels are coming to his help – we are not seeing what is happening at other levels, and the opportunities that the current ‘crisis’ is bringing. If we can turn our attention away from the belief in lack, we might remember to appreciate the sheer abundance of Life, which  continues to flourish all around us in the natural world, and in the world of the spirit.

The Sabian symbol for Jupiter is “A clear mountain stream”, which is what Jupiter can bring, once it turns direct on Christmas Day. When the thunderstorm breaks, this will provide the water to fill the clear mountain stream.

A Cradle of Abundance

Suspended beneath the opposition between Jupiter and Saturn is a ‘Cradle’ pattern, formed by the Sun on one side and a conjunction between Neptune, Vesta and Chiron, on the other. Something new is gestating out of the chaos and confusion around us, ready to emerge, when the light of the Sun returns after the Solstice. It will be born from the healing qualities (Chiron) of Unconditional Love (Neptune) as we allow it to flow freely into our hearts (Vesta). These qualities of Vesta will begin to awaken and become more fully conscious in the human heart,  just as the NASA probe ‘Dawn’ is arriving close enough to asteroid Vesta, to send back some very interesting data. It is showing that this small world that was believed to be a mere rocky asteroid, is actually like a mini-planet, with and iron core and hills and mountains and valleys, and was once covered in volcanoes and lava flows.

This is interesting when we consider that Vesta is the goddess of the hearth and the inner fire of the heart. She is also the goddess who connects us to the inner creative fire of the Earth – like the Hawaiian Pele. How apt then, that planetoid Vesta was once flowing with volcanic fire, and trying to accumulate enough material from the other asteroids to become a fully fledged planet. It was only the huge gravitational field of Jupiter, which prevented this from happening.

So, this Winter Solstice, the most important thing we can do, is to withdraw from all the chaos that is going on in the dysfunctional aspects of the world, and re-connect with the warmth, inspiration and life-giving creative fire of our hearts, so that we can heal ourselves in order to birth something new, loving and wonderful to help carry us through the deep transition that awaits us in 2012.

A Note about Time

Many of you may have been feeling that time is doing weird things, and that it cannot possibly be Christmas already. This is another manifestation of Saturn in opposition to retrograde Jupiter. Jupiter should be enabling us to feel that we are moving forward; Saturn is the great Timekeeper. Retrograde Jupiter is distorting our perception of Time. The good news is that it turns direct on Christmas Day, so on Christmas Day we should all finally feel that Christmas has arrived - just in time!