by Lynn Bell
As 2015 begins, Paris, and the world with it, has been shocked, torn, and brought together. ‘Je suis Charlie’ is everywhere. It is stretched out at bus stops, on storefronts, handbags, and coats. It is written on the faces of young girls, flashed in neon across the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Yesterday, two million people poured out into the streets, because we could not do otherwise.
Astrologically, 2015 is a year of fire. Just before the New year, Saturn entered Sagittarius, a sign that has much to do with our search for meaning. Sagittarius is expansive, energetic, philosophical; the archer is half animal and half human. As with any sign, there are multiple levels of expression, which range from boundary crossings and crusades to a desire for divine connection. Sagittarius needs to go somewhere. It can be the hunter, the wanderer, the military monk, the one who tells you how to see the world and what it means. The energy of the sign opens us up and sharpens our aim.
With Saturn, it can signify the rigidity of the true believer, a hardening of boundaries and beliefs. When Saturn enters a sign it reveals the limits of an archetype, whether through excess or poverty. In Sagittarius, it pushes us up against our own lack of faith in the future. The way we respond, the virtues we stand behind, will in large part determine what happens next. Along the path of Sunday’s march, one resident hung signs that said Liberté, Liberté, Chérie; Freedom, Beloved Freedom.
The fire of freedom, or fanaticism, runs upon the same trajectory. It is we who choose to hate or love, we who choose how we express our anger, our solidarity, our joy. For a number of years astrologers have been speaking about the Uranus-Pluto squares, a long-term series of aspects that have opened up multiple fractures in our world. While the last of these squares is in March 2015, the influence of this long cycle will last for several more years, at least till 2017. It came into effect as early as 2008, though the first exact square was in 2010. This cycle has its origin point in the 1960s, a time of great social freedoms and conflicts, when a rainbow-hued, multicultural vision of society first emerged. That non-judgmental vision helped bring advances for woman and minorities, for sexual choice and freedom of belief. Now, at the square, we confront a fundamental question: Is openness always a good thing?
Fire blazes in the night, it eliminates doubt and shadow. The danger is in a desire for absolutes. Both Uranus in Aries and Jupiter in Leo add to the long term fire energy of the year, as do the eclipses, while the summer will show Venus in a fiery retrograde. While trines are often seen as benefic in astrology, an overload of any element is often too much to handle. Fire is hope. It also ravages anything in its path.
I offer a prayer to begin the year. and I invite you to burn a candle with your own intentions (both these lines and the seminar were written before recent events):
A Year of Fire
Open the year to the mind’s fire, the hearts desire.
Keep us from the conflagration,
from the burnt, the charred, the ruined.
Give us the flare of intuition, the flame of love.
the glow of spirit in all we do.
In February I will be teaching a seminar in London on this topic:
Losing your Head: When Transits Turn Things Upside Down
Date: Sunday 15th February 2015 – 10.30am – 5.00pm
Location: CPA, London. Meeting Room – International Hall
There are moments in life when nothing seems to makes sense, the old explanations, don’t work. Our thoughts go round in endless circles. Saturn in Sagittarius tests our belief in the future, in any future. Is there still something to believe in? We will look at the transits of Saturn as it moves through this fiery sign, and in particular at the capacity of the upcoming Saturn-Neptune square to shake the rational foundations of our world.
Questions or comments? lynnbell@mac.com
These videos were filmed in 2008 on the Uranus Pluto cycle, and are still worth watching
And there are individuals doing amazing things, here is an example that inspired me
http://theurbanfarmingguys.com/2014/12