There's a full moon in Leo and it's gonna be a doozy...

Astrology matters. I think the world needs to take it a little more seriously.

Pluto is moving into Aquarius.

My friend Richard is an astrologer. He says Pluto is associated with death, and Aquarius with humanity. He suggested that this may mean the death of humanity. Perhaps it’s the death of humanity as we know it. This might not be such a bad idea.

Many things that humans have created need to die as they no longer serve us. And many things that humans do, and the way that they do them, have to stop. It’s unsustainable. There is a severe lack of respect for nature and for this planet. Let’s be straight - it’s not climate change that’s the problem, it’s pollution, over-fishing, and mining for resources without giving anything back, without creating fallow time for recovery. We must reduce our carbon footprint? We are the carbon that is leaving the footprint.

It hurts me to see excavations in beautiful places. I feel the pain of the land, I can’t help it. It hurts me to learn that the seahorse is now in danger, along with the many other species that have been fished or hunted, or had their ecosystem disturbed or disrupted until they are no more. I cherish my crystals as friends, and feel guilty when I buy more of them. I know that I do this, and I know I have to change this too. I don’t think leaving my car at home is going to solve this problem.

But let’s get back to the astrology.

Jupiter is now in Aries. Richard says Jupiter is beneficial and is working in our favour. In our favour how, though? I suppose it depends on which side of the fence you live on. Can you sacrifice your next crystal to give Mother Earth some breathing time? Seeing as that crystal is already mined, maybe it is here for you to support you on your journey, to help you with your healing and to whisper lessons and give transmissions to make you a better person. Maybe God made that crystal just for you, and you’re supposed to have it. I ask, who, exactly, is benefiting from this beneficial Jupitarian energy? I guess, like most things, it’s subjective.

Astrology is a landscape. The planets are, in essence, different frequencies of energies which are constantly pushing and pulsing and pulling on us. That’s how I see it anyway, these planets, each with their own agenda and flavour and frequency, constantly pushing into our wounding, pulling at our heartstrings while slapping us in the face. They punch us in the stomach and take us by surprise, at the same time, by offering us flowers and chocolates. They are both strong and weak, and we are at their beck and call. These planets are large, God-like entities, and they have relationships with each other as well as with us. They amplify and diminish each other, move forwards and backwards in a game of chasing, becoming closer and then further apart. They lead us into cul-de-sacs and drag us up and down mountains. They play tricks with each other, and they play tricks with us. We are mere playthings to them, and these planets, they ultimately push humanity to its limits, creating disruption and opportunity, bringing revolution and evolution. And that’s what they’re supposed to do. For without them we would fester, stagnate and remain unchallenged.

It’s a lot to process. I believe we are affected by astrology in a multitude of ways, whether we know we are, or not. How deeply we feel these energies depends on how much work we have done on ourselves. You could ask yourself if your wounds are still open, weeping, are going septic, or if they have healed over. Do you pick them open just before they have healed completely? Or do you have scars, shallow or deep, or both, which ache, or just give a small tingle when agitated? We don’t get through life without a few scars, or we have not truly lived.

Another astrologer friend of mine, Andrew Smith, says that astrology is the language of vibrational consciousness. You can interpret it through the lens of materialist reductionism (his words) by checking the astrology to see if you’re going to meet the man of your dreams, if you will do well in your career or if today is the day that you should buy a lotto ticket. Or, astrology could be a map to explore the wonders of your psyche, a way to go deeper into your patterns, to discover the archetypal energies that make up the construct at the very core, of you. You can use astrology learn how to work with these aspects, to stretch yourself to the very limits of your capacity and release your full potential, that which you have hidden deep inside of you, that which is constricted by your conditioning. Knowing more about yourself helps you dance with the planetary energies. I prefer this way of thinking.

Andrew explained my birth chart as a birthday gift to me, many years ago, it was a gift that had a deeply profound impact on me. I woke up to myself and saw myself for the first time. I saw all of my strengths and weaknesses. It uncovered both my history and my potential. What a word that - potential. You can ride the waves of yourself just as you ride the waves of the planets and learn how to float and swim, or you can continue to struggle and drown if you strive for something that is in conflict with the essence of your very being. This is the paradigm of our lives, yet we don’t fit into boxes. What we struggle against is our conditioning, and that which our families, and society expects of us. We are not that. What we are, is written in the stars and planets. It’s amazing, really. We need to look up to the Gods to discover who we truly are.

The older I get, the less I want to fight my internal forces, the less interested I am about what people want me to be, or expect of me, and the more I allow myself rise up and strive, and thrive as myself. I think we should allow this to happen sooner - we need to encourage our children from the beginning of their lives, so they can truly maximise their potential. Imagine what we could have created if we were completely ourselves right from the beginning of our lives. I’ll put that on my want list.

So. There’s a full moon on Sunday. In Leo. What does that mean, exactly?

The moon card in the Tarot (yes I practice Tarot, its a wonderful thing and I must write about that too, at some point) is sinister, feminine, and holds the energy of destruction - the letting go of what no longer serves, to make room to create something new. The moon shines a light on what is hidden. And according to Richard, Leo is a powerhouse sign, strong, fixed, creative and enthusiastic. So we are not afraid to see what no longer serves us, and we can come at it and smash it with enthusiasm. Mix that with Pluto and some strong personalities and it could go in any direction!

To complicate it further, Uranus will affect this new full moon too. Uranus, the planet of rebellion. Expanded consciousness, cutting edge technologies and forward thinking. Rebellion, revolution, free will and autonomy. Uranus likes to shake things up, so Richard says. He reckons we may have to go backwards, however, in order to move forwards. And the moon on top of all of this… Ouch.

There’s quiet a lot going on in the sky right now. And it is going to get even more interesting over the next several months. There will be a turning of events. More revelations and truth will come out, along with a profound turning inward. We will have movement towards unity because this culture of divisive division is no longer working. I hope that is what is on the chopping block.

I took my son out for lunch because I wanted to understand his point of view. He’s 19, thinks I’m alt-far-right because I watch Matt Walsh and other such things. What I didn’t know is that he couldn’t make sense of my being alt-far-right because he knows that I am a healer. I listened openly and with compassion to everything he said, and then he gave me the same level of attention in return. Was this part of Jupiter’s gift? We discovered that we actually agree on most things. Once we took this time to listen and speak, to understand the other, the tension between us that had been in the background for so long dissolved away. I feel a new level of closeness between us. Yes, this is a gift indeed. I wish that everyone would do this - take the time to listen to the other, to understand, speak and be heard.

I asked my boy to imagine he meets a group of people that he had never met before. Nobody in this group remembers their name, or where they’re from. They fly no flag and know not who they identify with, or what they identify as. They only have access to the pure essence of who they are, to what they find in their astrological chart, the landscape of their soul. How to they talk to each other? Relate to each other? Imagine if there was a problem and they had to solve it together, to create something new and innovative to get out of a tight spot. What would that be like? It would be about their pure potential and how they could combine it, instead about the differences between them. There’s that word again. Potential. My son, he liked the idea. Purity, no labels, no name calling, community and co-operation. We agreed that if you took away all of the things that have been created to be divisive, to separate us, and meet at a deeper level, the quality of connection, and of our lives together would dramatically improve.

It basically comes down to this - are you a good person or a bad person? Skin colour, culture, religion and sexuality doesn’t really matter. It really doesn’t. I think most people agree with this in principle. Yet they make it out that these are the things that matter most. And as long as they do, we will continue to keep finding things that keep pushing us apart. And it is our conditioning, our tendency to look for risk and danger, our need to fit in and a longing to belong, that perpetuates the cycle. This is what I offer to the moon and I ask her to dissolve it for the world. Please.

Astrology helps us see what is coming as well as learn the truth of who we are. The general chart, as opposed to our birth chart, illustrates which energies are coming down the line. Without telling us exactly what will change, or be affected, we can only speculate. Knowing the properties and character of the energies we are currently experiencing can make it less personal, enable us to let go of our need to be in control and give us the space to step back and watch things break, instead of being the thing that is broken apart.

Know yourself, and know the space weather, know about the pressures that work upon you and how to manage yourself in them. You wouldn’t go out in the rain without a raincoat. Once you can see where you’ll be shaken up, agitated, squashed and squeezed, you can protect yourself in it.

If astrology is pointing towards the end of humanity as we know it, then we have the potential to rise up from the ashes as the people that we are, without our conditioning, to step into our full potential and create something amazing, together. That’s what I hope for, and it is the vision I am holding for all of us. In my poem, I Heretic, I said:

I found the key to it all.
It’s our belief in them that keeps them alive.
This is how we win -
stop believing.

Now we need to put our belief and our power into what we are creating. It doesn’t exist yet, but it will. I hope you will join me.

Addendum: If you decide to explore astrology and it’s your first time, please be discerning with your choice of astrologer - some of them are wonderful and some dramatic, some have done a huge amount of inner work, and some have not done any. Do your research, take what works for you and leave the rest.

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Watch a really cool video with me and Andrew Smith

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