In case you haven't noticed, the world is freaking out. Or at least significant numbers of the human species are getting weird.
We humans are so superstitious about round numbers that we seem to think that the year 2000 is going to change everything. When the Christian clock ticked over to 1000, people believed the world was going to end, just like some do now. So watch for some good buys as the current end- of-the-world believers sell everything really cheap to wait
for the end. Many folks did just that towards the end of 999, so keep your cash handy in case history repeats itself.
What are the astrological influences between now and the end of the millennium, and what is the social context they are operating within?
All over the world, the slack is out of the system. (State of the World 1995 by the Worldwatch Institute is a real eye-opener.) There is no more room to live, farm, drink or dump garbage.
In times of stress, lots of people start getting mean, trying to make sure they live through the hard times. Many religions develop rather toxic fundamentalist sects that attempt to take over and get rid of anything and anyone who does not agree with them. Even gentle Buddhism has their nutty militant conservatives who want to kill others who don't agree with them. (The toxic gas attack in the Tokyo subway system was done by a militant sect that considers itself Buddhist.)
Just a few days ago, a couple of people, who are reported at the time of this writing to be members of the heavily armed Christian far right, blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, for what is speculated to be a warning to the government.
We see some of the same impulses, though fortunately not the violence, in some members of Craft communities with the urge to purge and judge and shun. At the same time these forces resisting change are building, other forces are alive that are connecting everyone in personal conversations with everyone else. (See The Saturated Self-Dilemmas of Identity in Modern Life by Gergin.)
Democracy and more progressive governments have proven to be more successful in meeting peoples' needs. But that does not seem to be recognized by those who want to create a theocracy, or some other true- believer system, which they will call a democracy. These two forces, which could be characterized as expansion and contraction, open and closed, anarchy and bureaucracy, and which have clashed many times in the past, are doing it once again in the eternal struggle for balance. We are living in the middle of it as the climax approaches. Aren't we lucky?
Individually and collectively, we have to make the choice as to how we control our fear about the speed and strangeness of the changes we are living through. We don't have to turn mean and violent, even if the temptation is there to attack others in the hopes it will make us safer.
What do the stars portend? What will be happening astrologically between now and the end of the century? Pluto, the planet of generational change and the powerful forces of destruction and rebirth, is just now leaving Scorpio, where it has been since 1984, and is now entering Sagittarius. Hopefully, the emphasis on the dark side of sexuality will lessen.
I don't want to badmouth the sign of Scorpio. But something strange is going on when it is okay for the media to portray children being brutalized, even sexually (such as in the movie Prince of Tides), but it is not okay for those same children to learn about healthy and loving sexuality, or, in this state, to consent to sexual experience before the age of 18. Have you noticed how difficult it is to have a conversation about sexuality in the last few years, at least in public forums? Most attempts to discuss the pleasures and wonders of sexual expression and intimacy quickly devolve into stories of victimization and abuse.
I do not wish to even imply that there is not real sexual victimization taking place; there is, and we (our society) need to care for victims and punish perpetrators. However, most of our energy seems to be going in just one direction. Marty Klein, a sex educator and author, commented about how every time he tries to discuss healthy sexuality, others want to change the topic to sick sexuality. What can we do to support health and intimacy?
It is difficult to assess the effects of a slow-moving planet like Pluto until after it leaves a sign. I hope that the emphasis on the dark side of sex will lessen as Pluto enters Sagittarius, the sign of the higher mind, education, curiosity, travel, foreign friendships, and personal growth.
The two next slowest planets, Neptune and Uranus, have been in the conservative and rather inflexible sign Capricorn for the last few years. Neptune entered Capricorn in 1984, and Uranus in 1988. Uranus will enter Aquarius this year, and Neptune will do so in 1998. Aquarius is creative, likes whole system thinking, and is curious about the unknown. This change will, I hope, make it easier for world societies to cooperate with less tension and more interest in each other.
Saturn, the celestial taskmaster, will be in Pisces until May 1996, then in Aries until March 1999, in Taurus until the end of the century, and will just be whispering in the ear of Gemini in early 2000. Since there is no real agreement about what time the USA was born, it is difficult to use Saturn's cycle to predict the public fortunes of the country.
However, Saturn's transits until 2000 will cause it to oppose or square the USA's natal Neptune, Saturn, Pluto, Venus, Jupiter, Sun and Mercury, so many lessons will be learned. Are you enjoying the interesting times you live in?
It is possible to remain calm if you remember to keep taking those slow, deep breaths, center, ground, make a commitment to love yourself and others and work for the creation of a society that includes us all.
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