Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Going Somewhere

 


Spring is officially here, but it’s not yet warm enough to open the windows and feel the breeze, at least not here in Maryland.  It’s a transitional time. We’re all in the middle of a seasonal shift. We’re going somewhere, but we’re not there yet.

 

On the evening news, I hear that there are new surges of Covid-19. I see young people partying in Florida without masks or social distancing. At the same time, I hear of more friends getting vaccinated every day. I’ve gotten my two shots, without anything much in the way of side effects, and my wife is supposed to be vaccinated this weekend.

 

So I feel safer. But I also feel like someone who has just sidled past a sleeping lion, and is just lucky that it didn’t blink awake at that crucial moment. I’ve never been so aware of being mortal. That’s partly because I’ve lost loved ones this past year, and others are still in danger. Not everyone has made it past the lion.

 

We who are still upright on this planet look at each other, check each other out, breathe a sigh of relief at the sight of each other’s faces. It won’t be too long before we’ll be able to appear to each other in three-dimensional form, wonderfully solid. It will be strange, as if a bunch of cartoons suddenly came to life, but I daresay we’ll get used to it!

 

This is the thing about spring. During the winter, everything is theoretical. Trees are reduced to bones, and flowers occupy a niche in our memory. In spring, all that theory becomes reality. There are buds everywhere. They’re alive, exuberant, immediate, and right on time. Every time I go outside, I see more of them, and I know that pretty soon my study window, now grey and flecked with rain, will be a mass of green.   

 

In April, there’s more momentum than we’ve seen in a while. It’s not just the drive to get everyone vaccinated. We also have this new Democratic muscle in Congress, and we just saw the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act. Today Biden unveiled a new infrastructure plan, full of great, practical initiatives. What kind of legs does it have? We’ll have to see.  

 

An abundance of new ideas are circulating. Aries is the sign of new beginnings, and the sun and Venus in Aries give fiery energy to every new possibility. And Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all in air signs – verbal, thoughtful, idealistic, socially aware. All these influences are excellent for problem-solving, studying, planning, debating, and working out agreements. It looks like something can happen, right? All these forces point to movement and manifestation.  

 

And yet there are also those static forces, holding everything back. The Covid bill was passed without a single Republican vote. And then there’s the voter suppression bill that was passed in Georgia a few days ago. There is a whole phalanx of people who are digging their feet in, putting all their energy (and lots of money) into resisting the forces of change.  

 

And I can’t say that these people won’t be in power again. It’s true that the political tide ebbs and flows, even though I believe that the long-range trend is towards freedom, justice and equality.  

 

The thing is that none of the outer planets are in particularly revolutionary signs these days. The overall energy is still conservative, for at least a few more years. And with Uranus, the rebel planet, in the fixed earth sign Taurus, there is a cadre of revolutionary conservatives, as contradictory as that sounds.

 

These folks want the world to freeze into a particular configuration that favors them. They want a world in which white people have all the power (and no ownership of their past actions), women know their place, gay people are hidden away, and there are definitely no trans people.  In fact, they don’t want anybody around who makes them feel uncomfortable. And they are willing to turn the world upside down and shake it to the point of apoplexy, to make it this way.

 

So, yes, grab on to something solid. Because we may see a lot of these people when Mercury, Venus and then the sun all meet Uranus during the last week of April. The full moon of April 26 is turbulent, and a lot of survival issues could come up around that time.

 

Still, I believe that, on some etheric level, the world’s minds are working together to solve all the world’s problems. This is a matter of faith, not evidence, because our species has knotted things up quite often, and sometimes in spectacular ways. Still, sometimes I tune into that buzzing network of hopes, dreams, illusions, breakthroughs, and expertise, and I’m suitably impressed. I’m not sure exactly where we’re going. But it’s not static.    




Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Great Balls of Fire

 




The sun’s out today and it’s glorious. In case you’ve forgotten what the sun is, it’s this big round ball up in the sky that makes everything glow. The earth turns slowly, soaking it up from every angle, enjoying all those rays crunching along its spine like a good massage. As the earth turns, the glow changes color, going from pure brightness to old gold. And we earthly creatures are charged, enlightened, and healed.

 

And I hear it’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow too.

 

I know there are still plenty of problems in the world. The Covid Relief bill is still being wrangled through Congress as I speak, and people are very ticked that the $15 minimum raise won’t be included. And of course, they’re right to be angry that a bunch of millionaires are making it tougher for working people to feed their families.   

 

Still, the idea of Congress doing anything at all – passing an actual bill – seems like a miracle to me, at this point. For the last few years, the House has been busy sending bills to languish and die in the Senate. So now that Congress is about to pass something that will aid actual people, I can’t help but cheer.   

 

And yes, I know how slim the Democratic majority is, how it’s hanging on by a thread, even though it represents the will of the people. I know that the Republicans are responding to their losses by coming up with voter suppression bills. But I’m still optimistic, especially when I think of how the demographic in this country is changing.   

 

There’s an astrological reason to be hopeful, too. The fixed Saturn/Uranus square, which was strong all last month, is at last breaking up. This aspect has manifested as a tense stand-off between the past and the future, between rigidity and revolution, between order and chaos. On the one side was fear, and on the other, wild restlessness. And many of us could feel both at once, in our personal lives and in the political sphere.  

 

The political parties have been so divided, especially since the Republicans – formerly a bunch of conservatives – took such a wild swing into Crazytown, following their fearless leader, the champ of delusion. Meanwhile, the Dems have become more moderate, and are focused on science, the rule of law, the Constitution, and a basically realistic approach.

 

The Democratic leadership has also become more responsive to its large Black voting base, and I think this helps a lot with the realism. Survival is all about strategy, and Black people in this country have had a lot of years to master this. Picking your battles carefully, learning from both failures and successes, you live to fight another day, and your children’s children survive as well.  

 

Whatever is driving this new, more grounded approach, it means that a lot of us are tentatively exhaling, for the first time in a while. Things can change for the better, even though that means constant negotiating and compromising. There’s progress, even if it’s inch by inch. There are some safeguards, even if they just consist of a few more sane people in higher positions.

 

Yes, I know that the Saturn/Uranus square will come back twice more this year, once in June and once in December.  So we will be dealing with some very stubborn conflicts all through 2021, whenever we move forward. I know that there will be young white guys slinging guns on themselves, looking at the mirror, and thinking they can get away with anything. And there will be old white guys who will be crafting lies to feed them.

 

And even though things improve in March, there will still be plenty of activity in Crazytown, since there will be strong Pisces and Neptune influences. Neptune is the planet of delusion and illusion, fantasy and mirages, tricksters and con artists. So some folks will really ramp it up, using their amazing creative gifts to convince other people that Democrats have a gigantic sucking space ray that will seize their guns, and probably their grandmother’s china as well. And people who are afraid of something, but aren’t sure what, will leap at the chance to put a face on their fears.

 

But Neptune is also the planet of spiritual growth, and so people will be praying, and meditating, and trancing themselves out in various ways, and many of these people will happen across a cavity somewhere in their chest area. And when they investigate, they may find it’s overflowing with this amazing, beautiful energy. They'll feel the love pouring forth -  for their neighbor, for the planet, for all people, even those they thought were their enemy.

 

It could happen. In March, some shutters could open wide, and some people lean out their windows, and feel the heat of the sun. We could all forget our differences, and just let it pour down on us.