Tag Archives: mayan calendar

Weekly Forecast December 17: Sun Enters Capricorn, End of the World

Where to now? © Lastdays1 for Dreamstime.com

We got a wakeup call last week, and in typical Uranian fashion, it wasn’t anything we could have predicted.

What we know about Uranus is that the worst shakeups happen when we’re most in need of drastic change but resist, for whatever reason. Sometimes it’s because we’re so out of touch with what we really need that it never occurred to us to change anything. More often, though, there’s a voice just beneath the surface telling us that something has to give, but listening to that voice would require so much destabilization in our lives that we ignore it. Sometimes we even deliberately silence it.

The knee-jerk reactions to the Sandy Hook school shooting were predictable. The religious right says we need prayer in schools and the right for citizens to defend themselves with guns. The liberal left says tragedies like this could be prevented with stricter gun-control laws. If there’s any light in the darkness of this horror, it’s that deeper discussions seem to be emerging into the mainstream that transcend the finger-pointing and politicization. What does it say about the level of dysfunction of our society that it took the execution of 6-year-olds to start waking up to a meaningful dialogue?

As astrologers, we try to make broader sense of events. The usual method is to look at the chart for the event and the person responsible. Through newspaper reports, we learned that Adam Lanza, the shooter, was born on April 22, 1992, in Kingston, New Hampshire. We don’t have a birth time, but we can cast a chart for noon.

First of all, neither chart conveys the horror of this event, nor is it an appropriate use of astrology to judge someone’s character based on their chart. Second, without a birth time, there’s too much missing to draw any real conclusions. A noon chart for Adam gives him a Moon of 8 degrees Capricorn, making the first look at the chart startling, because transiting Pluto is at 8 degrees Capricorn. We need to stop right there and remember that the Moon travels through 12 degrees in a day. But then what if we had an accurate birth time of, say, 1 a.m.? That would put Pluto right on his Ascendant. Suddenly there would be pronouncements that he was having a bad Pluto transit.

My point is that we need to take great care in not making charts fit events or people. Sometimes there is no immediate explanation in the chart – just as there is no immediate explanation for how something like this could have happened in the first place. Now, I suspect that if we had an exact birth time, we might be able to dig a little deeper and find some clues. But even then, we have to remember that we are not slaves to our natal chart.

We also have to keep in mind that when we are in the midst of radical, outer-planetary cycles such as the Uranus-Pluto square, events correlating to this signature can happen at any time. Uranus came out of retrograde the day before the shooting. In my mind, this is significant, and it’s why I see this tragedy as a harsh wake-up call.

Those using the event to promote a political ideology are still sleeping. We’re so far beyond that point, it’s frightening. I think not only of the 20 children murdered at Sandy Hook, but all of the children in the world killed, maimed, and emotionally traumatized daily by war and violence. The recent bombing of Gaza – an act publicly supported by President Obama – resulted in the reported deaths of 167 people, including 35 children. The AP photo of Jihad Misharawi holding the body of his dead baby, killed in an Israeli airstrike, is indelibly burned in my memory.

But I am heartened – as much as one can be in the light of such demonic events – that it’s finally dawning on more people that deeper issues must be confronted, including the disturbing truth about psychiatric drugs – particularly the widespread use in children. According to a neighbor, Adam was on medication for an unspecified personality disorder. A related issue being discussed is our society’s approach to mental health. Eventually, though, we’re going to have to address a societal structure that requires so many people to take drugs to be “functional.”

With Neptune in Pisces, the drug issue will come to the fore. Neptune rules drugs and all mind-altering substances, and he’s in his element in the Fishes. The twelfth house, ruled by Neptune (in modern astrology), rules mental hospitals and prisons, so these issues also are going to be more prominent. In the meantime, society is going through an extreme breakdown under the Uranus-Pluto square. I was just reading about a rash of mass murders of school children in China over the past two years. A Chinese newspaper quoted an expert – ironically, an American college professor – who attributed the attacks to stress caused by rapid social change, increasing disparities in wealth, and lack of treatment for the mentally ill.

We have another three years of Uranus and Pluto, so it might be a good idea to start paying attention to real issues and not throwing up smoke screens of gun control and school prayer. We also need to take a hard look at our own lives and make an honest assessment of what we need to change.

The subject of sweeping change is all the more poignant this week as we approach the supposed end of the world on Friday. Now, frankly, I’d be happy to end the world “as we know it.” There’s way too much suffering, and our problems seem so insurmountable as to be impossible. But the world will continue, and we’re going to have to change.

This week’s aspects pale in comparison to current events, but here’s a quick rundown:

On Monday, Mercury opposes Jupiter, in mutual reception. I’m hopeful this will have some relation to negotiations between Congress and the White House to avoid going over the so-called “fiscal cliff.” I am pretty sure, though, given what I see in the charts, that we are going to have some cutbacks. How much and for whom remains to be seen.

On Wednesday, Venus in Sagittarius trines Uranus. Parties will be more subdued this year – I wrote that in last week’s forecast, and it’s even more true this week – but parties will happen nonetheless. We need an outlet from all the grief and sorrow, even if it’s only temporary. Still, the grief won’t be far from our minds, with Venus squaring Chiron on Thursday.

The Sun enters Capricorn on Friday, the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. He immediately forms a happy sextile with Neptune in Pisces. This suggests to me that there might be a brief sign of hope for peace on earth – especially next summer, when Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune form a grand trine.

Speaking of the Big Guy, Jupiter forms a quincunx with Pluto on Thursday and with Saturn on Saturday – the Yod that I don’t put a whole lot of stock in. More importantly, Saturn and Pluto are in sextile and mutual reception, suggesting that breakdowns will happen faster in order for new, more sustainable structures to emerge. Yes, that may mean we don’t get everything we want for Christmas. But, as the old Rolling Stones song goes, we may get what we need.

Wishing you all much love, courage, and peace in your hearts,
Pat

Weekly Forecast June 4: Full Moon Lunar Eclipse, Venus Transit

Forget December 21, 2012. This is it.

Some time ago, I lent my copy of 2012: Science or Superstition to a friend. She couldn’t find it and offered last week to pay for a replacement. When I ordered it, I saw there’s now a companion book. It was priced at a ridiculously low $1.10, so I bought it and started reading it during my Friday commute. It’s arguably better than the film itself in terms of answering the title question and exploring the roots of the 2012 hype.

Among other things, the author points out that scholars dispute the December 21, 2012, end date of the Mayan Calendar. Moreover, the supposed galactic alignment of the solstice sun with the center of the galaxy – the celestial event on which the end-of-the-world predictions are based – has already happened. The leading proponent of the December 21 date, John Major Jenkins, has admitted that the alignment may have been closest to exact 15 years ago and that the window remains open for several years. We’ve been in it, we’re in it now, and we’ll be in it until at least 2018.

End of the world parties are already planned, hotels booked, and plane tickets purchased. I suppose there’s something to be said for an event featuring so prominently in the collective consciousness, and maybe for that reason alone, it will be eventful. However, by then, the biggest news of 2012 will be old history.

The news is here, now. Monday’s lunar eclipse, followed by a rare Venus transit, is the leading aspect of 2012, along with the first exact Uranus-Pluto square, which is less than three weeks away and is already being felt. We’re in a wide-open window for expanding our consciousness, seeing problems and life in general in a wider perspective, opening our minds to ideas we never considered, and accepting responsibility for our future, both as individuals and as members of society. According to many 2012 theories, that’s what this year is supposed to be about, anyway. So here we are, getting it sooner rather than later.

A major focus of this expanded consciousness – indeed, I’d go so far as to say that it’s the whole point, but I won’t argue with others who see it differently – is relationships. Specifically, relationships between opposites. Gemini is the sign of duality, of polar opposites: light/dark, internal/external, transmitter/receiver, matter/energy, male/female, Democrat/Republican, you/me, us/them, etcetera ad infinitum. At the eclipse, the Sun, Mercury, and Venus will all be in Gemini. Venus is the sign of relationships, of course, and she’s retrograde – along with Saturn, who’s in Venus-ruled Libra. They’ll both turn direct later this month.

Mars, the action planet, also plays a key role in this eclipse. Just as Venus represents the divine feminine, Mars represents the divine masculine. A few hours after the eclipse, the love planets form a conflicting square. I read this as an indication that unifying opposites will require an initial phase of tension, awkwardness, and possibly confrontation. For example, if you’re getting back together with someone or taking a relationship to the next level, you may have to go through a heated argument to resolve issues standing in the way. To do this successfully, both people will need to be completely open and honest, and both will have to make sincere concessions – operative word being “sincere.”

Click on image to enlarge

At the same time, Neptune is stationed and turns retrograde just hours after the eclipse. When Neptune is stationed, a portal opens into other dimensions. Our concept of time and space can disappear. We can see into the past and future, and we can tap into the vastness of the universe – what some might call the mind of God. For many relationships, the source of the conflict began in other lifetimes. We now have an opportunity to understand how things got out of balance and to set them right.

At the peak of the eclipse, the Moon is in Sagittarius, sign of expansion, exploration, and awakening. The Sun, Moon, Earth, and Venus all will be in alignment, forming a sort of channel for a higher frequency, however temporary, to reach us. It doesn’t matter that it’s fleeting. It’s like turning on the radio in the middle of a shocking news broadcast. You need to be tuned in only long enough to get the message.

On Tuesday, Venus moves across the face of the Sun in what’s known as a Venus transit. The last one was in 2004, and before that, 1882. The next pair won’t occur until 2117 and 2125. For a 6,000-year list of Venus transits, check out NASA’s Venus transit catalog. If you’d like a little mental time travel, there’s also a great article about British explorer James Cook’s expedition to Tahiti in 1769 to observe the Venus transit.

On Thursday, Mercury leaves his home sign of Gemini and enters Cancer. I should warn you that people may get even grumpier than they’ve been. Worse, they may bite your head off one minute and kiss your behind the next. With the Moon in unpredictable Aquarius on Thursday and Friday, you just don’t know what you’ll get. That said, Aquarius is a social sign, so if you can roll with the punches and not take anything personally, you could have a thrilling ride.

On Friday, Mercury trines Neptune, and the Moon enters Pisces on Saturday. Don’t be surprised if everyone is in tears – and not just because they’re sad. They could cry tears of joy, tears of relief, tears of frustration, or tears for no reason at all. Don’t even try to figure it out.

I’ll make sure to have some extra tissues handy.

Wishing you all infinite love and courage,
Pat

Weekly Forecast October 24: New Moon in Scorpio, Jupiter Trine Pluto

I took this photo during my early morning commute two weeks ago. Crossing the water by the Full Moon seems like a good metaphor for a transformation in consciousness. © Pat Paquette, 2011.

As the iconic talk show host Ed Sullivan used to say, we’ve got a “really big show” this week.

Not only is there a powerful New Moon in Scorpio, but we reach the alternative end-date for the Mayan Calendar. No need to toss and turn waiting for December 21, 2012 – at least, not if you believe Carl Johan Calleman. Most other Mayan Calendar experts use the 2012 date, which is no doubt more dramatic and plays better with the public, most of whom aren’t even aware of the alternative date.

Calleman and his nemesis, John Major Jenkins, have been going at it for years about who’s right. It’s silly, really, to be arguing about such a thing and to me is a perfect example of the most basic weakness of humans: the ego. Sure, we can’t do without it (Ruth wrote a great post on this topic), but we need to keep it in its proper role. Failure to do so creates a distortion in our perception of reality – which is precisely the point when we talk about expanding human consciousness.

In fact, the expansion has been happening gradually for many people over the past several years and began accelerating during last summer’s cardinal T-square. If you’ve felt like you’re hurtling forward through space at a head-spinning pace, it’s not just your imagination.

Regardless of whether Calleman or Jenkins has the bigger ego, we’re about to find out which of them is right … well, maybe. “Expanding consciousness” isn’t exactly going to be the biblical Rapture, where everyone gets taken up to heaven. It’s hard to define, let alone measure. But I think you’ll know it when you feel it.

As many long-time readers of RealAstrologers and its predecessor, The Pisces Chronicles, may recall, I’ve written about this moment, also referred to as the Apocalypse. Again, it’s been happening over time, so you may detect the big change only by thinking back to a year or two ago and comparing your life and perception of reality now to what it was back then.

One of the ways you can recognize the shift is by observing how fast your thoughts manifest into reality. This happens most efficiently if you’ve found your life’s purpose and are working on how best to share your unique gift with the world. The mere fact that more people are asking about their true purpose is a big sign that a shift in consciousness is taking place. Astrology happens to be one of the best tools for discovering this critical bit of self-knowledge, so it’s also no coincidence that more and more people are turning toward this ancient discipline.

This week’s New Moon in Scorpio is brilliant for manifestation work, as it falls within two days of a trine between Jupiter and Pluto in earth signs. The earth signs, remember, represent the tangible and material – what we can see and touch on the material plane. This includes relationships. Where this New Moon falls in your chart tells you where you can best use this energy to draw a new situation or relationship into your life that serves your higher purpose.

Rather than taking the week chronologically, I’m going to devote the remainder of this post to the New Moon chart, which contains all of this week’s astrological themes.

Click on image to enlarge

Scorpio is the sign of death, rebirth, and transformation, with heavy emphasis on transformation. Isn’t that what we’re talking about when we discuss expanding consciousness, the end date of the Mayan Calendar, and even the Rapture?

The first thing you note in this chart is that the New Moon is opposite Jupiter in Taurus. Jupiter is retrograde until Christmas – is that symbolic, or what? So some of what we set into action at this New Moon may not be completely visible for another two months. This is especially true for those with Jupiter currently transiting the six or twelfth house. The next thing you see is the strong blue line from Jupiter to Pluto. That’s the trine, which represents an easy path for energy to flow. Pluto is the modern ruler of Scorpio and shares many traits with that sign, including all the underworld and transformation symbolism. The trine is exact on Friday, as is the Sun’s opposition to Jupiter and sextile with Pluto.

Pluto currently is in Capricorn, which is about structure, among other things. Transforming the basic structure of our lives, of society, of government, and of our basic material reality is all contained in this symbolic planet-sign combination.

The New Moon also makes a wide, out-of-sign trine with Neptune in late Aquarius, which represents collective spirituality and the intuitive sense that we’re all connected. This phrase is thrown around like some New Age buzzword, but do stop to think about what this really means. Chiron at 0 degrees Pisces is just a few degrees from Neptune and adds an element of healing to the mix. “Heal” and “whole” come from the same root. Connected with others, we are greater than the sum of our parts.

You’ll also note the inconjunct (dotted green line) from the New Moon to Uranus in Aries. Radical change doesn’t happen without upset and discord. How can you fly through time and space without feeling disoriented? On a mundane level, humanity can’t experience wholesale change without massive upheaval, and that’s exactly what’s occurring.

The second set of aspects in the New Moon chart is the square from Venus to Mars and sextile from Mars to Saturn. There’s almost no better expression of “ego” than Mars in Leo, while Venus in Scorpio hints at the need for power and control through sex. Obviously, this is not an easygoing pair, and resulting conflict is represented by the square (90-degree angle) between them. As I’ve often pointed out, conflict is not inherently “bad.” It’s how we grow and how we eventually come together in union. Conflict simply means that one person wants one thing and the other wants something else. You don’t need to take it personally. It helps to be clear about what you want and why. If it’s because you need to have control or to be the center of attention, you could get a rude wallop on the side of the head this week. But that wallop could be quite transformational, if you pay attention to the lesson – “lesson,” of course, being the function of Saturn. Because Saturn is in Libra, relationship lessons are especially fruitful.

Lastly, I’d like to mention Comet Elenin, which recently passed its closest point to Earth. The dire predictions associated with this comet were among the silliest I’ve ever seen. But I don’t discount the widespread feeling that “something” is about to happen, and maybe that’s why so many people got sucked into the Internet rumor mill.

Something is about to happen. In the words of Dave in the sequel to 2001, it could be “something wonderful.”

See you on the other side next week. In the meantime, wishing you all a universe of love and courage,
Pat

Saturday Extra!Documentary Film Explores Growing 2012 Debate

The latest offering in the growing 2012 craze, 2012: Science or Superstition, is intelligent enough to make it worth recommending.

The documentary film, released on DVD by the Disinformation Company (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, Bush Family Fortunes), takes on the question of whether there is any significance to the year 2012, specifically the date December 21, which according to some scholars is the end date of the Mayan Calendar.

Does it settle the question its subtitle proposes to answer? Not really. Is it the best film on the subject to date? I don’t know, because I haven’t seen all of the others. Is it worth laying out $10 for on Amazon.com? Absolutely. Be the first in your condo complex to see it. Better still, invite your friends over and make it a party. You’ll have an evening filled with lively discussion about a topic that does matter, in the grand scheme of things.

The filmmakers no doubt are hoping to capitalize on the 2012 hype, which will increase by galactic proportions with the release this summer of a big-budget Hollywood disaster film using 2012 as a theme. But hey, anything that injects some rational debate into the subject and entices mainstream audiences to think more deeply should win a public-service award.

The panel of experts featured in 2012 is impressive, but it could have done with fewer New Age writers. The film relies heavily on well-known author Graham Hancock, who makes a case for the end of civilization as we know it, and John Major Jenkins, a recognized pioneer in Mayan Calendar research. Jenkins comes across as bombastic and at times ridiculous. Maybe it was the editing, but I had a similar reaction several months ago when I happened upon an Internet debate between Jenkins and Carl Johan Calleman, another 2012 researcher. Actually, “debate” is giving it too much credit. It was more like two males egos in a cosmic pissing contest — hardly the kind of enlightened behavior one would expect from individuals claiming to have special knowledge about the evolution of human consciousness.

Among other things, Jenkins and Calleman disagree about the end date of the Mayan Calendar, with Jenkins promoting the Dec. 21, 2012 date and Calleman arguing for October 28, 2011. You’d hardly know, watching this film, that the exact date wasn’t carved in stone.

The film’s token scientist, Dr. Anthony Aveni of Colgate University, makes the predictable observation (of which he is very certain) that the world is not going to end in 2012. But at least he has a sense of humor.

Fortunately, the filmmakers also found Alonso Mendez, an archeo-astronomer and researcher at Palenque. Speaking with quiet conviction, Mendez makes perhaps the wisest observation of all: “The concept that this end date or completion date of the Mayan Calendar has some relevance to the world in a global sense I think is a fallacious thought, because this system is a particular system that was developed for and by Maya, for their particular ideology, for their particular place in the world. It would be a mistake to rally around a philosophy that has its place in its history and in its world and appropriate it as something that belongs to a global sense.”

From an astrology standpoint, the film uses fabulous special effects to explain the precession of the equinoxes, and for that reason alone should be in the library of every astrologer or serious astrology student. I’ve mentioned this phenomenon often in my writing about the coming Age of Aquarius, but explaining the reasons gets complicated and tiresome. With these brilliant visuals, you get it right away.

Pat

2012: Science or Superstition
Documentary presented by The Disinformation Company
Available on DVD
Directed by Nimrod Erez
Written and produced by Gary Baddeley
78 minutes, no rating
Featuring interviews with Graham Hancock, John Major Jenkins, Anthony Aveni, John Anthony West, Walter Cruttenden, and several other writers and leading experts.
Official site

Ask Our Readers: What Will Happen in 2012?

This week, we enter Day Six of the Mayan calendar. There are only two more “days” and one “night” left before the Mayan calendar ends in 2012. So we decided to ask our readers about your views on 2012.

Online Surveys & Market Research

Neith says:

My interest in the Mayan calendar and 2012 has only been piqued recently and I really don’t know that much about it. However I tend to believe on the whole change comes incrementally where human kind is concerned baring catastrophic events and even those tend to affect a relatively small geographic area. I’m going to take a “wait and see” position for now. Pluto moving into Capricorn later this month is what has my attention!

Please add your thoughts about this!