Keeping Change Good

8.25.03


Generally speaking, change is good.

And it's a good thing too, considering that so much of it is in the cosmic air right now—along with so little clarity and certainty as to what is motivating it, what it might bring and how this all happened. With Mars energizing the already-zippy Uranus through their backwards-moving conjunction in all-encompassing Pisces, this change is swift, total and life-changing. After these few weeks, maybe the powerhouse Martian retrogradation will finally start making us feel tired, as I had originally foreseen—but not without continuing to charge us with frantic peaks of jittery energy, scattered between the down-times.

Throwing the word change around is always a safe bet for an astrological forecaster such as myself, since things rarely remain the same and most people most of the time either crave change or are in dire repressed need of it.

It's an even safer bet to raise the word this week, as we reach the exact peak of an opposition between Jupiter and Uranus, a planetary combination that even the most amateurish astrologer could pinpoint as busting open gates to huge new liberating pastures. Where Jupiter sits, our perspective becomes widened, showing us enriching opportunities to grow through following our ideals. Uranus, of course, prefers to smash apart whatever dull or limiting constraints hold us back from our freest expression of spirit, whether such demolition is welcome or uncomfortable.

Together, Jupiter and Uranus are a pair that promise enormous hope, sudden enlightenment and enjoyment of risk, all in the pursuit of an idealized freedom in life. All of which sounds great, right? Well, just as I swear up and down that nothing in astrology (e.g., Saturn) is a bad thing, I also must remind us that nothing is purely good either.

It is interesting timing that Jupiter and Uranus face each other at 180-degree opposition this week, just as Jupiter crosses the threshold into Virgo in conjunction with Wednesday morning's New Moon, also in Virgo. (Of course, "interesting timing" is exactly what astrology is all about!) Jupiter changes signs about once a year, and it's leaving Leo, where it expanded our self-expressiveness (and drama level), confidence (and potential for arrogance) and capacity for love (and self-love).

As it enters Virgo, it meets up with the Sun, Moon, Venus and Mercury, all hanging out in this mutable, reserved earth sign. This five-planet concentration is activated by Mars, alongside Uranus in Pisces, moving into its closest point to Earth in 60,000 years, also this week. For anyone keeping score, this little configuration involves seven of our ten planets—and, along with Saturn, brings the count to eight planets in water and earth signs.

And let's not forget Mercury, who, apparently so jealous that Mars was getting all the attention, has decided to join the retrograde game too, moving backwards through Sep 20.

Is that enough for you?

An opposition, the astrological aspect of 180 degrees in which two (or more) planets face each other, exposes the most comprehensive view of these planets via their differences—and, through this revelation, begs for harmony to be struck, so that one planet's energies do not become so overpowering that they drown out the other's and/or create imbalance in our lives.

The most common example of an opposition is the monthly Full Moon, during which the Sun and the Moon are in opposing spots in relation to the Earth. The Moon, which has the more unconscious effect on us, comes to light at this time, uncovering the emotions it often keeps under wraps during other points in its cycle. That's why people supposedly act so "crazy" at Full Moon time—because submerged emotional drives rise to the surface and lead them to act in ways they might prefer to keep in conscious suppression.

As I mentioned earlier, the opposition of Jupiter and Uranus is one with great promise for providing lucky liberating opportunities and the removal of stifling limitations. However, in order to best take advantage of this promise, we must heed the energies of both planets, not letting either one go too far out of balance as to inhibit the fullest expression of the other. Here are some scenarios to watch out for:

(1) We allow dramatic change (Uranus) to overtake us with such disorienting totality that we pay no attention to trying to figure out what its effect on our personal growth (Jupiter) is going to be. The search for meaning is overlooked. In this scenario, we must remember that, just because we don't have answers right now, we are still responsible to ourselves to continue looking for answers. If we keep looking, they will eventually come. If we stop looking, they never come.

(2) We are so happy that change (Uranus) is finally happening, we throw all caution to the wind and jump into growth (Jupiter) by discarding every single bit of former restraint. Thus, we have nothing to ground us in the foundation of our continuous reality. If we throw out the baby and the bathwater and the whole damn tub, we're likely to take foolish risks rather than calculated ones. Sometimes God, not the Devil, is in the details. Work the change into existing structures so it's workable, not overwhelming.

(3) We're so focused on our self-defined path to growth (Jupiter) that we become cocky perfectionists who think we know all the answers—until our cockiness blinds us to a place where abrupt, undefined, undisciplined change (Uranus) needs to occur. Then it knocks us on our ass. The key to avoiding this pitfall is simply acknowledging to ourselves that the path to greater awareness cannot be defined before the greater awareness has been achieved. Being knocked on our ass may be just what we need.

(4) We grow overly comfortable in areas of our lives that seem to come so easily (Jupiter), and we use this comfort as an excuse to be arbitrarily contrary (Uranus), just to inflict our irrepressible desires to be free to do as we choose. In some ways, this situation fosters the expression of both planets' energies. But such a self-centered approach can set us further away from our goals than we might imagine, as both Jupiter and Uranus are intended to help us ultimately connect with people rather than distance ourselves from them. The consequences of this orientation might not make themselves known until later (such as when Jupiter and Uranus hit their waning square in 2007).

The alignment of Jupiter's entry into Virgo as part of this opposition, along with a New Moon in Virgo and Mercury turning retrograde in Virgo—all of this emphasizes the need to explore our Virgoan tendencies. A clever and critical approach to practical matters, an orientation to the details of the situation, a measured and sober sense of higher craftsmanship in both our work and our relationship to our physical self—this week is the beginning of a process of rethinking these concepts in our lives.

For the next few weeks, with both Mercury and Mars retrograde, we can't expect much finished product to come from this process. But no matter. We're just starting out on this journey of keener discrimination, simply beginning to enlarge our sense of the right and wrong way to do things on the way to taking this sense more seriously in our day-to-day existence.