“Not a morning person” doesn’t even begin to describe me. On a good day, it takes three to four hours to jumpstart my lacertian metabolism.

In other words, waking up is a bitch. Until the sun rises in your brain, memories of past lives, childhood trauma, unforgotten insults, and the awful things you’ve done to others dance in your head like ghosts on a grave at midnight.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that as humanity wakes up, the trauma in the collective unconscious is unleashed in the world and manifests as unspeakable acts of violence. The good news is that increasing numbers of people finally are hearing the alarm clock. The bad news is that the collective metabolism is worse than mine. And there’s no guarantee, actually, that people will get up and get moving. We might just decide to stay in our jammies and lie around watching re-runs of Arrested Development.

It’s hard to remain optimistic with all the grave headlines in the news and the dawning realization that we’re not heading toward a global police state, we’re already there. We know we need to act, but we don’t know what we should do or even can do, without risking everything, including our lives. Several years ago, I read a study showing that workers in oppressive job environments end up depressed. (Needless to say, it wasn’t conducted in this country. If anyone can find it, feel free to leave a link.) Is it any coincidence, then, that we have a serious mental health crisis in the United States? An estimated 11 percent of Americans take antidepressants, the third most commonly prescribed medication. More people die of suicide than gun violence or terrorist attacks.

I truly want to believe that we’re on the threshold of a leap in human consciousness, possibly so significant that we might mutate in to a higher species. But I also know from history that we’ve been in that place before, and the transformation either was aborted or sabotaged. The example that comes immediately to mind is the revolution that was taking place in Occitania in the 12th century. The region was the first to emerge from the Dark Ages, with flourishing music, literature, and a culture that respected women. The Church wasn’t having any of it, and conspired with the king of France to overrun the region, slaughter much of the population, and burn dissenters as heretics. So much for the revolution.

We can’t take it for granted that an evolution in human consciousness will happen all by itself. It faces enormous pressure by those who stand to lose the most. We need to support each other in waking up and staying awake. By “support,” I don’t mean attempting to convince others that they need to “wake up” and think like you. Spiritual awakening is a deep, mysterious internal process. It’s not going to happen by shouting down people who don’t agree with your politics.

Over the past few weeks, as the summer’s grand trine approached, we’ve seen some incredible acts of heroism and inspiration. Edward Snowden blew the whistle on NSA’s data collection, Wendy Davis literally stood up to the good ol’ boys in the Texas legislature, and Malala Yousafzai faced world leaders with a powerful call for equal education.

The chart to the left shows the grand trine (blue triangle) between Saturn, Neptune, and Jupiter. You also can see the looming cardinal T-square (red triangle). On one hand, we have a favorable configuration, filled with opportunity and hope. On the other, we have a difficult configuration, filled with conflict and dread. One might be tempted to conclude that the opportunities won’t be as great or that they will be extremely short-lived and overshadowed by disaster. The way I see it, it’s precisely through the conflict that the opportunities and breakthroughs will come. Isn’t that usually the case? Only when we face impossible obstacles do we come up with miraculous solutions. Or, as a friend once said to me, people tend not to change until their back is pushed so far against the wall that their asshole is sucking plaster. Sounds like an effective wakeup call to me.

As I write, we’re already feeling the influence of this extraordinary trine. We did have something like it in 1967, complete with Uranus and Pluto in a revolutionary aspect. But that trine wasn’t as close is this one, which is aligned to the exact degree from Monday to Wednesday. There have been other trines between these three planets, too, but not in water. I don’t know how many centuries we’d have to go back to find another like this. In short, it’s exceptional.

After forming an exact trine with Saturn and Neptune on Wednesday, Jupiter advances a degree, but we’ll still be able to ride this incredible wave through the weekend and on into next week. On Saturday, Saturn and Neptune form an exact trine. Mars, meanwhile, has just entered Cancer and traces the path of Jupiter until he finally overtakes him next Monday (July 22). The energy begins to drop after that, but we’ll feel this positive vibe until the end of the month.

Right in the middle of all of this, Uranus turns retrograde on Wednesday, which means he’ll start moving back toward an exact square with Pluto in early November. As Jupiter advances, he’ll turn the square into a T-square. We had a taste of it already a couple of weeks ago, when Mercury passed that degree. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that greater numbers of people will suddenly “get it” and that protests against repression, corruption, and injustice will get bigger and louder as the glow of the grand trine wears off and the reality of the T-square sets in.

Speaking of which, for those disappointed by the ruling in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, stayed tuned. The jury has spoken, so it’s not likely the verdict will be overturned. However, at the moment the jury announced its decision, Mercury was retrograde and the Moon was void of course. Typically, this indicates that something is going to change. I just read that the Justice Department is looking into a criminal civil rights violation, and Zimmerman also faces civil penalties. This isn’t the end.

Mercury finally returns direct on Saturday, and not a moment too soon. Maybe it will end the spate of stupidity and ignorance requiring public apologies. It seems like many of them had to do with racist remarks. The trickster has been retrograde in Cancer, which is associated with family and ethnic roots. Then there was the story about the student who absentmindedly dropped an envelope with $400 into a mailbox. The envelope was unsealed, and the only thing written on it was “deposit.” Classic Mercury retrograde. I’m guessing she had a lucky transit or two to compensate, because the Postal Service tracked her down and returned her cash.

Wishing you all a wondrous week filled with love and courage,
Pat