A Wicked Messenger

We are all time travellers

Travelling through the mists of time

Have you ever wanted to explain and clarify why you are like you are now? Well, some of the answers lie with who and what you were in your previous life or lives. Whether or not one believes in reincarnation, there is still the very scientific Newton’s Law of the Conservation of Energy which states that energy is neither born nor dies, it just keeps changing the form it takes. And seeing that everything is energy, including you and I, whatever we are now was something or someone else before it was us. There are various ways of determining ‘previous lives’, a phrase which in itself could be seen as just a metaphor for our ‘energy history’, our karma. The most effective of these methods are hypnotic regression, deep meditation, out-of-body experiences of meeting our other selves, and dreaming – and then there is astrology.  Although it cannot necessarily say exactly who and what you were, or when, astrology can give you valuable clues, ideas and suggestions.  And like a detective on a case, with those clues one can put together a reasonable body of evidence – especially if like any good sleuth, you exercise imagination and intuition.  And if used before or after embarking upon the abovementioned, more direct psychical means of identifying previous existences, your astrological findings can either prepare the ground for this or confirm results so gained.

Using what I call the Karma AstroTrace, which is a 12 step method, I am going to show you the first step so you can use it today to find out something about your own last life.  This first step involves using the Moon which represents your unconscious mind, for what was conscious in your last life has become unconscious in this one. So this will also provide you with clues as to why you are in your current circumstances. To do this you’ll need part of the Karma AstroTrace and possibly the Birth Chart Guide as well, both of which you can download free from here: http://www.lynbirkbeck.com/downloads.html ) You will also need to have your birth chart, which I will help you read in order to gather your ‘evidence’.  If you have not got a copy of your birth chart, it is best to get the one from me as it is the version I refer to in this process, along with the Birth Chart Guide, and this costs only 3.00 GBP (approx 2.84 USD) from here: http://www.lynbirkbeck.com/chartspersonal.html .  Using all of these I am going to walk you through this astro-detective work.

STEP 1 or First Line of Inquiry – The Moon

This first step consists initially of finding two sets of clues which are provided by the Sign your Moon is in, and the House it is in. And like an actual detective it is a good idea to write these clues, and your own thoughts and feelings about them, on a large sheet of paper or a board.  The Moon in your chart has been described as ‘what the Sun in your last life’s chart was’, giving rise to automatic responses and predispositions in this life.  The Moon is symbolic of your personal unconscious mind, and your soul.

Moon-Sign – First we look at the Sign your Moon is placed in as this gives us clues as to the Qualities of the Roles or Events that occurred previously.  The Moon also does this for the past of your current life, which is the whole point – our past, particularly baby and childhood, is a direct continuation of what preceded it. As an example I will use a client of mine who I will call KA.  The reason why I am using KA is because he has done regression work and used other methods that have actually put him mentally and emotionally in touch with who and what he was – so we have something to actually check our findings against. However, when you are looking at yourself you will find it is relatively easy to know when you are on the right track, simply because as you dig into your own unconscious it starts to ‘talk’ to you.  Doing someone else’s tracking takes more experience and intuition.

{Birth Chart Guide – Use the Guide to identify the Moon Symbol and then look for it on your chartwheel and you will see the Sign it is placed, again according to its Symbol as given in the Guide. More simply, you will also see it given in the listing beneath the chartwheel itself, again as described in the Guide}

KA’s Moon-Sign is Aries, so using the Karma AstroTrace table we go to the section headed SIGNS=Qualities of the Roles or Events and see in the Aries row that his previous personality and life could be described as: championing/warring – leading/impulsive – independent/selfish – courageous/aggressive. So now determine your own Moon-Sign and then look up the keywords that apply to it and, as these are your first clues, write them on that sheet of paper or board.

Moon-House – Now we are going to flesh it out a bit more by looking at the House the Moon is placed in. This will tell us in what field of life activity or experience a previous life was consciously focussed upon – and which in this life it is unconsciously focussed upon!  This may help you understand your current life by bringing back into conscious awareness what was lost in the mists of time through which we all are travellers.

{Birth Chart Guide – Look at the listing beneath your chartwheel and you will see the Moon and its House number, as per the Guide. On the chartwheel itself the Moon Symbol will be placed in the relevant segment which is that House.}

KA’s Moon is in the Tenth House (which is near the top of one’s chart), so using the Karma AstroTrace table we go to the section headed HOUSES=Life Areas or Situations in which Planet Roles and Events Manifest and see that KA’s previous personality and life was mainly focussed upon: profession – status – authority – worldly position.  Now check out the House position of your own Moon, look up the appropriate keywords, and write down these second set of clues on your paper or board.

Finally, we can now start combining these two sets of clues.  In KA’s last life it is possible that he was a professional warrior, one who had some leadership authority, and one where he was known for being independent and/or selfish, possibly as a result of the status he possessed (for whatever reason, already implied – a well-known soldier perhaps – or yet to be determined).

Intimations So Far – Freely using imagination and intuition, especially if you are doing your own chart, you can get fairly strong intimations of what all this could mean.  Already you may well start putting two and two together as more ideas and details spring to mind as your deep memory gets jogged, and you make associations with your present life and personality. In KA’s case, having already done some past-life investigation using hypnotic regression, it was very confirming as his most recent life was that of a German bomber pilot who deliberately crashed his plane (killing himself and his two crew) into the English Channel.  His reason for doing this was a feeling of the utter futility of war and killing, which was fuelled by his being admired and respected for the ace that he was, but also for the pointlessness born of an indulgent and privileged status as a rich and aristocratic German. Now it has to be said that it was using all twelve of the Karma AstroTrace steps, as well as more complex and technical methods than described here, that made it possible to find many hidden clues and finer details.  And in KA’s case these finer details included, among other things, the occurrence of shock and explosion, and the fact of his being a flyer and a destroyer of homes, giving rise to being ‘grounded’ in his present life to quite a degree, as well experiencing difficulties in finding a home to call his own for the larger part of his life.

A PERSONAL KARMA CONSULTATION – An Investigation into Your Past Lives

I usually only offer this service to existing clients as part of the ongoing course of interpreting their charts, but now I am making this available to everyone.  It naturally involves using all 12 steps and those more complex and technical methods which I used to confirm KA’s past life experiences and explain his current ones. To varying degrees, you will find that the mists of time will clear as you are put in touch with the unconscious and greater part of you. In effect, connecting and engaging with your past lives – which is what this consultation is all about – makes you feel a ‘greater being’  than you felt before, and therefore more aware and in command of your life now.  Details of this and other types of consultation may be found here: http://www.lynbirkbeck.com/consult.html

NEXT – What Is It That Keeps Me Stuck?

Next month I will be giving you Step Two of Karma AstroTrace which is about The Southern Node of the Moon, a point in your chart which is also graphically called the Dragon’s Tail.  This part of your chart not only further describes who or what you were previously, but also pinpoints those habits and traits which have been imprinted on your unconscious and that only serve to keep you chained to the past.  In effect these keep you from moving on and getting to where you want to get to in this life.  By identifying these hangovers or hangers-on from the past we can shake them loose and make some headway, something which is represented by the Dragon’s Head or Northern Node of the Moon, the subject of Step Three.

Staying the Course – The later steps of Karma AstroTrace, and the parts of all of them involving Aspects (which are very important as they indicate whether conditions given by the keywords were or are positive or negative) and Rulers, are quite complex, so I may not cover them unless I get feedback along the way that says there are enough of you out there who are up for it!  But they are the parts that help one discover more depth and detail.  So please comment here on how you have got on with this mini-course, and also on your thoughts and feeling generally about this subject.

In this posting I again refer to my last book Understanding The Future where I made a number of predictions that have come true.  As the title above states, this was the easy bit! What to do with these predictions, and others in the book, is the real challenge.  This is especially the case now as the very powerful planetary set-up that the book is based upon, the Uranus/Pluto Square (or Mother-Wave as I dub it) is now approaching its first period of exactitude, or the first time the Wave peaks – its most powerful phase, posing more of same, but possibly of greater impact (May-October 2012) .  The overall duration of this massively transformative Uranus/Pluto Mother-Wave is from 2007 to 2020, but the peaks occur off and on from this May through until 2015.  To meet this challenge of these predicted events, and even influence them as they occur or before they arrive, all through the book I tried to present ways in which we as individuals can view and respond to them that make some power available to us – rather than just feeling helpless victims of fate.  I called this method Astro-Quantum as it rests upon a principle that both astrology and quantum physics share: everything and everyone is interconnected, illustrated by the question “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas” – this being the subtitle to E. Lorenz’s paper ‘Predictability’ at 1979’s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  In other words, the very way in which each of us lives and even thinks affects the whole.

So below I draw your attention to a number of key predictions I made, along with the actual events that have happened so far, and the Astro-Quantum angle on how to ‘surf’ these Planet-Waves.  Bear in mind that I also refer to other Planet-Waves (challenging ones that I call ‘Major Storms’ involving Saturn/Pluto, Saturn/Neptune and Saturn/ Uranus) that occur during the overall period of the Uranus/Pluto Mother-Wave: 2007-2020.  I also give the {page numbers} in the book where these extracts appear. NOTE: the text for the book was written in 2006 and 2007.

PREDICTED Economic Crises {Events so far: Worldwide Credit Crunch that begun 2008 and is ongoing}

{page106}

“Cracks and Crashes – Because our world has become overly materialistic to a hideous degree, there has to be a proportionate shock to our material state to make us sit up and take notice. This means having a long hard look at what really creates material stability for the whole world and not just a greedy few. Instability within the human race is reflected in the instability of planet Earth herself, a piece of real estate that no one really owns. In fact, she owns us – and to her we are definitely dispensable, even questionable, assets. If we do not look at the ecology alongside the economy, there will be a crash to end all crashes during either the 2008-11 Saturn/Pluto Major Storm or the 2018–21 one. At the very least, the earlier one will be showing us some undeniable warning cracks.

Astro-Quantum – Saturn governs economy, not least of all in the sense that when it is active it pressures us to be economical. Pluto, as is its wont, intensifies the effect of whatever planet is making a Wave with it. So it becomes intensely important to practise economy in a personal sense, for in this way we affect the economy as a whole. This does not mean being stingy and wearing a hair shirt, but it does mean living according to only what you need to maintain a standard of living that enables you to continue your life and its essential purpose. Simply put, if you are living your life in a way that serves an end greater than yourself – that is, a spiritual purpose – then you will be supported. Literally or psychologically, Saturn/Pluto puts us under a ‘war-time economy’. The opposite end of this spectrum is greed, or neurotically hanging on to what you don’t need. The more of us who practise this true economy, the less likely a ‘crash’ is. But nothing will stop the cracks showing, for they are the proof of the matter making itself known!”

PREDICTED Uprising and Revolution {Events so far: Arab Spring, Burma, street riots, etc}

{page103}

“The Role of Uranus – Whereas Saturn/Pluto describes the timing and nature of the ‘destructive use of power’, it is actually when Uranus, the planet of Freedom, Rebellion and Reform looms into the planetary picture that people rise up against these repressive regimes. As I write in September 2007, the beginnings of uprisings are occurring in two countries whose governments fit this bill only too well: Burma and Zimbabwe. As the Saturn/Uranus Wave 2007–12 and the swelling Uranus/Pluto Mother-Wave 2007–20 continue to do their revolutionary thing, we shall see more and more such uprisings, great and small.”

{page 207}

“Rebellion and Disorder – Mounting discontent and disillusionment with the State and anyone in authority become rebellious stirrings, mounting to outright dissent with street demonstrations and the like.”

{page 28}

“What Are We Human Beings Really About? – A Uranus/Pluto Mother-Wave churns to the surface all those things we have been sitting on, putting off or just denying. But it doesn’t just do this for the hell of it, because it is all in aid of putting us more in touch with what it actually means to be a human being deep down – living as we do on a ball of earth and water spinning in space around an even bigger ball of fire! It wants us to feel free to be what we were destined to be, what we were really supposed to be. The trouble is that by way of overcompensation this can either mean that we live to excess and destroy more than we liberate, or that certain forces clamp down heavily as we make our blows for freedom and a more satisfying and meaningful existence. These ‘forces’ can be internal in the form of fears and conditioning, or external in the form of authority, tradition or anyone who has some power over us. Either way, the more they resist or suppress our need to be who we truly are, the greater will be the measure of explosiveness, rebellion and upheaval that is unleashed in our bid to satisfy or merely recognize that need.  As you will constantly find as you read this book, this excess or suppression is now taking form in the actual physical condition of the planet we live upon. Our excesses coupled with our lack of awareness of what it actually means to be human have created in us appetites and habits that are destroying us and our environment. Merely suppressing or outlawing these excesses only increases them. We really must get to the bottom of why we are like we are – and find out what we are.”

PREDICTED Major Earthquakes {Events so far: Haiti, New Zealand, Chile, Japan}

{page 46}

“The Devil of This Time: Rude Awakening – This is the abuse of power, giving into negative influences or simply cynically denying and not tuning into the Spirit of the Time as described above {Uranus/Pluto = Awakening to Power and the Power of Awakening}. There could be powers unleashed that are destructive, possibly on a large scale. This would be placing life out of our control, with worst-case scenarios being nuclear war or a natural disaster, especially earthquakes and volcanoes, or anything cataclysmic or destructive that is described in this chapter and others. This would be telling us that we do not understand that each one of us has the power within us that contributes to making the world a better or worse place. This Mother-Wave has the power to annihilate us, or most of us, if we persist with our old selfish and ignorant, guilty and greedy ways – or with thinking that if someone does not agree with us they therefore must be against us. Most of all it is the failure to realize that you as an individual have the power to influence the whole, in a small or great way – because the whole is made up of millions of individual wills and minds – that will contribute to the Devil of this Time getting its wicked way, or to the Spirit of the Time prevailing, as is intended.”

{page 86}

“Earthly Powers – Saturn is the ground we stand upon; Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, is underground. When they come into collision during Major Storms, this can manifest as government versus guerrilla/insurgent, or in a literal way as geophysical upheavals – mainly earthquakes. As you will find throughout this book, Major Storms involving any of the planets can stress the actual physical state of planet Earth, but it would seem that Saturn/Pluto, by virtue of what they represent, are particularly ‘responsible’ for earthquakes and the like.

In an Astro-Quantum sense, the question again arises as to whether and how much human affairs and behaviour affect the physical state of the Earth herself, including her atmosphere and weather. It could be argued that earthquakes and other terrestrial disturbances are the very stuff of the formation of the planet, before we were even here. But the mere fact that it has settled down immeasurably and progressively since man has been present, is an interesting one. The Astro-Quantum approach of Understanding The Future puts forth the idea that everything is interconnected in a manner that quantum physics and astrology both bear witness to. In short, the fewer disturbances and more harmony we create in our individual lives, the fewer disturbances and more harmony there will be in the world, including the actual fabric of the planet itself. Of course, there will still be occurrences like earthquakes, but how damaging and death-dealing they are is ‘negotiable’. This point is especially important to grasp, and give actuality to, during Saturn/Pluto Waves, simply because they can be so damaging and death-dealing.”{many historical cases cited}

{page 109}

“Geophysical Stress – Mother Earth is going to be in a ‘mood’! She is not happy with the way we are living on her – or rather off her. Anything you can do that communes with the Earth, like helping and being in touch with the natural world, including the practise of shamanism and ancient ‘Earth religions’, assists in ‘spreading the load’. Direct action against anything or anyone that abuses the Earth also helps of course. And all these activities will increase and become more earnest during the Saturn/Pluto Major Storms. Unfortunately, as Saturn/Pluto inclines governments towards material and power considerations, environmental issues are in danger of no longer becoming the priority they need to be.”

{page199}

“Earthquake Alert 2009–12!

Earthquakes and other natural disasters, plus freedom from repression, repression of freedom and terrorist acts are all likely to intensify during this period.”

{page 201}

“None of this needs necessarily be so. Acts of terrorism and war, earthquakes and other natural disasters, and mistaking licence for freedom are all connected. Surfing the Planet-Waves through simply absorbing the information and using the aids given here will subtly but powerful make a difference. Finding the balance between Saturn and Uranus, between discipline and freedom, and knowing what’s fine to keep as it is and what needs changing, all contribute towards creating a balance of these energies globally. The more positively attuned and properly balanced our collective consciousness is, the more difficult it is for negative expressions to manifest. Very simple ways of striking this balance and becoming so attuned are given later in this chapter.

Just Around The Corner: Anarchy – During Saturn/Uranus Waves, anarchy is always just around the corner, but particularly as it occurs against the intensifying and extreme-producing backdrop of a Uranus/Pluto Mother-Wave. Uranus-ruled anarchy, by definition, is ‘the failure of law and government’ and some might say that is what it takes to wake us up to the ills of society. But this, from Saturn’s cautious and objective side of the equation, is a ‘kill-or-cure’ remedy which might look good in a film or on a news bulletin, but probably not in the street where you live.”

PREDICTED Serious Nuclear Accidents {Events so far: Japan}

{page 38}

“Another Chernobyl? – The risk of something sudden and enormous – like another Chernobyl, the most serious of all civil nuclear accidents – is not that computable. But astrologically, it is during this Uranus/Pluto Wave that there is a danger of one of these accidents occurring – big time. This is because there simultaneously occurs another type of Planet-Wave that is particularly ‘vulnerable’ regarding nuclear accidents, Chernobyl itself being such a one. This is the Saturn/Uranus Wave that arises from September 2007 through to July 2012 – and bear in mind that when Saturn is part of a Planet-Wave it is probable that there is a lesson to be learnt, a brick wall run into.”

{page 49}

“What’s To Be Done? – Short of a miracle happening or it all being a false alarm (which it isn’t), what can be done to prevent or minimize man-made disasters in the form of pollution and global warming affecting our climate, health and wellbeing to a far greater extent than before? What can be done about natural disasters such as a solar flare {actually called Coronal Mass Ejections – see blog posting ‘An Invitation to Openly Discuss the End of the World’} or a super-volcano drop-kicking us into a nuclear winter that lasts long enough to pretty well finish us off? Short of trusting in a false alarm – which is a bit too close to the denial talked about a few pages from here – it would seem that a miracle is our best bet! But then ‘miracle’ is a relative term – it all depends on what you regard as possible. The combined effect of a critical number of human beings focusing their minds upon surfing this and other Planet-Waves in the right way is what will make the miracle happen. This doesn’t mean to say that you even have to know about Planet-Waves to do this, to help a miracle occur, but it certainly lowers the odds of one or more happening. The mean alternative is the one alluded to in the Introduction on page 9 under ‘The Spiritual View: A Win-Win Situation’: if you die, what happens to you has everything to do with how you have lived and surfed. And it is better to have lived and surfed than never to have surfed at all!” {see this in full under ENDNOTE at foot of this posting}

PREDICTED People Power {Events so far: 38 degrees, Avaaz, MoveOn, GetUp! etc}

{page 50}

“Miracle? What Miracle? – The word ‘miracle’ is derived from the Latin word for something to be wondered at – and so it is also born of wonder and wondering. So we need to wonder at the world of Nature and the world of our Minds, and at the combined effect of us all wondering at the potentials provided by quantum physics, astrology, and a very real faith in the existence of the divine and the human spirit. So in addition to conventional green, conservationist activities, through visualizing or envisioning these saving graces upon our collective horizon, and striving towards their realization, then – as if summoned forth from beyond – they will appear on that horizon. The miracles we love and long to believe in, and behold with delight when they appear on the silvery screen, we must believe to be real, and make real. The Uranus/Pluto Mother-Wave is calling us to wake up and wonder at the power of our very existence!”

{page 67}

“Realization of people power, of how enough individuals acting, even thinking, in a deliberate, concerted and focused way can affect positive change globally. People working in unison to aid the common good, in great and small ways. And so the global state improves, or at least shows signs of being brought around.”

{page 69}

“So it’s a case of matters appearing to improve as our resolve to do something radical about the situation starts to have an observable effect, and we realize that every little bit from every individual does make a difference. A burgeoning faith in People Power, in fact.”

ENDNOTE – This is an important aspect to the whole ‘End Times’ myth or movement as it considers the ultimate consideration: ‘If we should die’. This is by no means predicting such a thing, but without this consideration, such a work as Understanding The Future would be incomplete.

{page 9}

“The Spiritual View: A Win–Win Situation – As I have already stated, some will say that we as a civilization are doomed. But by reading and therefore riding the Planet-Waves we can help the world to arrive at a better place, if there are enough surfers working together. This is because we will have allowed the Planet-Waves, that expression of the Sea of Implicate Order {quantum physicist David Bohm’s term for the source of all that is), to become what it naturally wants to become – something healthy and good because it is aligned with the Source, like an oak tree is aligned with the natural expression of an acorn! But if there are not enough surfing the Waves right and riding the storms, then disaster will descend upon the world. From a purely materialistic worldview, this could appear depressing, and give rise to a sense of pointlessness and the question: why bother if it is quite possible everything could come to an end if not enough effort of the right kind is made by enough people? A great deal depends here upon your own individual beliefs concerning an afterlife, continuity of consciousness, karma, etc. But both astrology and quantum physics are essentially spiritual in their outlooks, as it is understood that life energy streams eternally from the Source and takes form as living things – which includes you and I – and then returns to stream forth and take form again, ad infinitum. Moreover, the quality of the form of expression given to that life energy – that is, in Astro-Quantum terms, how well one rides the Planet-Waves – has a great deal to do with the quality of the energy that returns to the Source and so, therefore, with the quality of what issues forth from it thereafter. In other words, even if the investment you make in helping to save the world by riding Planet-Waves right fails to do so, you will have contributed to raising the vibration or improving the quality of universal life energy. This means improving the quality of afterlife, the next life, consciousness, karma, other dimensions, or whatever you want to call the expression of eternity, something which is witnessed in astrology as the endless movement of heavenly bodies, and in quantum physics as the endless emission and interchange of waves and subatomic particles. This is a decidedly spiritual or enlightened view, but that is precisely what this Uranus/Pluto Planet-Wave is forcing us to adopt, accept and become a lot clearer about. And let it be said that ‘spiritual view’ includes any approach to life that is guided by higher principles or higher beings, and not exclusively the planets and their waves.”

YOUR COMMENTS

Your comments are more than usually welcome as I personally would like to hear of other ‘events’ that correspond to my predictions that I have not included here, as well as ways of responding to them, and of course concerning anything else you regard as relevant.   Obviously, if you want to know more about Understanding The Future then you’d need to read or refer to it.  If you have not got a copy it is available here (UK) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Future-Survivors-Riding-Cosmic/dp/1905857632/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334658085&sr=1-2 and here (US) http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Future-Survivors-Astrological-Predictions/dp/1905857772/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334658189&sr=1-10

Window of Golden Opportunity – Once in a long while there is what could be called a Celestial Golden Opportunity, a Cosmic Jackpot on the Cosmic Fruit Machine. But unless one actually ‘pulls the lever’ and takes advantage of it, then its benefits are greatly minimised, a bit like an unclaimed lottery win! This opportunity takes the form of a very unusual ‘Grand Trine’ occurring in the middle of March. Grand Trines are planets forming an equilateral triangle around us from the viewpoint of the Earth; they happen quite often but rarely do they form an exact equilateral triangle, to the degree. Not only that but this Grand Trine also has not one but two planets conjoined at one of the corners of the triangle – again exactly to the degree. Furthermore those two conjoined planets are the two Benefics of astrology; the bringers or goodwill, abundance, harmony and love. On top of all this, this Grand Trine is comprised of two slow movers and shakers, planets that affect the masses, the history-makers – and two fast-moving ones that act as personal triggers or focalizers of those more powerful planets. All of these factors make this such a rare celestial event that I have not as yet been able to find its occurrence before or after this present time.

Grand Trines in general, be they inexact and made up of only three planets of any type, or exact and comprised of more than three planets, both fast and slow, like this one, usually manifest as positive events, or at least they lessen difficulties that are occurring at the time – be it in your personal life or on the world stage. However Grand Trines are quite passive as they are essentially a very harmonious configuration of energies. So although they can just create positive events anyway, to make the best of them it is advisable to be proactive, and this is especially the case with this extremely rare one.

Personal – Now you can reap personal benefits from this Grand Trine, if you ascertain whether or not it directly influences one planet or more in your own birth chart. And then take it from there, perhaps getting further astrological advice on how to maximize its effect if need be. If you know your own chart fairly well, then look for any planet or point on the 9th (that’s 8 degrees and so many minutes) or 10th degree (9 degrees and so many minutes) of Taurus, Virgo or Capricorn – and also of Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces.

Global – But what we are doing here is recognizing the significance of this Grand Trine as a global event. In other words, we can all utilize this planetary wave of positive energy to benefit the whole world, especially places and people that really need that benefit – which could be said to be why it’s happening now of all times. Not only would we achieve this, but we would be establishing a cosmic uplink, a rainbow bridge, and downloading positive energy into the world, thereby benefitting us all. To do this we need firstly to be consciously aware of when it is happening; secondly, know more about its individual nature, and thirdly, do something that will take advantage of the opportunity that it offers. In effect this will anchor the energies of this exceptional Grand Trine, establishing the advent of a more spiritually aware – that is, mutually supportive – civilization.

The Time – The approximate maximum period when the Portal which is this Grand Trine is directly influential is between March 9th, when the Portal begins to form, and March 19th when it finally closes or fades out. Its epicentre is March 13th and 14th, when the Portal is open widest. So being mindful of it and its nature all through this period – which also means talking about with others – is what is required, in addition to what we can do during the epicentre, which will be described shortly.

Its Nature: Love, Power and Plenty – With respect to the actual influence and nature of this Grand Trine, first we must consider the element is in. Grand Trines nearly always have a corner in each of the three Signs of the same element – earth, fire, air or water. This one is in earth, so it is called a Grand Earthy Trine, which means that basically its beneficial potential is of a physical, material and practical nature. Then we consider the planets that comprise it, which are the two Benefics, Venus and Jupiter, conjoined in Taurus in one corner, Mars in Virgo in the second corner, and Pluto in Capricorn in the third. We can sum this earthy practical energy up in the following keywords: Love and Sharing (Venus) combined with Abundance and Goodwill (Jupiter) with regard to Stability and Money (Taurus) flowing harmoniously with Assertiveness and Courage (Mars) applied to Service and Improvement (Virgo) flowing harmoniously with Power and Regeneration (Pluto) in a way that is Organized and Structured (Capricorn).

So we can see that this Grand Earth Trine is like a Portal through which is streaming a gift from the great beyond to the hearts and minds of humanity that resonate with these virtues and bounties so described. But, as I say, although this Portal of Love, Power and Plenty will indeed bestow its effects upon us individually and collectively, the degree to which it does so depends greatly upon our acknowledgement of it and our acting upon it. It is after all only a portal, an opening, a window of opportunity. It is our consciousness of and response to it that makes all the difference between enjoying a better week than most and one that could substantially help to deliver our world from the difficulties we are in, and the ones we have yet to face. One obvious example of this would be for the powers that be to cooperate profoundly and bring an end to suffering in Syria. In fact, any area that is in need of supply (Venus and Jupiter) being swiftly delivered to where it is needed in a direct and powerful way (Mars and Pluto) is what this Grand Trine is all about. Quite simply, here is love and care being given.

Actualization – To help this Grand Earthy Trine manifest its benefits, we only have to sense it pouring through and express it in a very real and practical way – as it is being offered us. As this Grand Earthy Trine, this Portal, opens, then so too should our hearts – and possibly our pockets. Regard it as a super-positive healing virus. To add to the sense of its profound reality it also helps to focus more closely upon it by using the Sabian Symbols for the degree positions of each corner of the triangle that forms it. The position of Mars is on the 10th degree of Virgo which has the Symbol: ‘Two Heads Looking Out Beyond the Shadows’. This is confirming that this Grand Earthy Trine can resolve and take us beyond current difficulties, by joining with each other, and being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We could also say that the ‘two heads’ in this Symbol refer to the two other corners of the Grand Earthy Trine and their Symbols, for they are: the all-important conjunction of Venus and Jupiter which is on the 10th degree of Taurus and has the Symbol ‘A Red Cross Nurse’. This is so literal is needs no interpreting! And the other ‘head’ is Pluto on the 10th degree of Capricorn (the Sign of Worldly Powers and Government), which is ‘An Albatross Feeding from the Hand’. Again this hardly needs much interpretation. Suffice to say that we again see humanity feeding the needy, and the communion between humanity and other life forms, especially as this confers good luck and healing upon us all.

Ritual or Prayer – Finally, in order to bring down and anchor these beautifully positive energies, it is recommended that you practise some ritual or prayer of your own choosing, with all the above in mind – and while gazing at the pictorial representation of the Portal at the top of this posting. You can perform such rituals on every day that the Portal is open, but most importantly make sure you do so on March 13th and 14th when it is wide open. If you can perform a ritual together with others, then all the better. For myself, I will be practising my usual yoga and solar meditation which includes a voicing of the Title of the Day and its Command according to the Quiché Mayan Calendar, along with a Mudra and Affirmation. If you wish, you can do this too – and see how wonderfully appropriate they are. (For finding more out about this go to http://www.dr-rock.biz/MayanDateCalculator.html).

Command/Invocation for March 13th
Red Resonant Earth
We channel in order to evolve
Inspiring synchronicity
We seal the matrix of navigation
With the resonant tone of attunement
We are guided by the power of universal water

Then perform this mudra: Fingers and thumbs of both hands touching to form a downward pointing triangular shape over solar plexus, moving to sacral, then to root, pause, the back to sacral to solar plexus; then invert to point upwards over the heart, to throat, to brow, to crown above the head, then back to the heart chakra. Repeat whole three times. Then voice this Affirmation: ‘I am aligned with my centre, Earth force aligned with cosmic force.’

Command/Invocation for March 14th
White Galactic Mirror
We harmonize in order to reflect
Modelling order
We seal the matrix of endlessness
With the galactic tone of integrity
We are guided by the power of spirit

Then perform this mudra: Alternating one arm at a time, reach out above the head; then cross arms diagonally in a downward sweep, as if the arms were sword cutting through illusion. Then voice this Affirmation: ‘I am the truth beyond mirrors. I now step through the mirror into the greater reality.’

Spread The Word – To really benefit from this Portal, obviously the more people that know about it and act on it the better. So please inform those you know who would be interested by sending this link http://www.awickedmessenger.com/ and as ever, please share your experiences and observations here with regard to this Portal. Psychically sensitive people will definitely be picking it up, probably as heart energy.  There are many more wonderful dimensions and details concerning this Grand Earthy Trine, this Portal of Love, Power and Plenty, which I do not have the space to share with you here. But I will add one more thing. Someone, or a number of people, being born at certain times during the opening of this Portal, and especially on the 13th and 14th, will be in possession of such a profound sense of love and power that they will indeed benefit the world when they come of age, or maybe even sooner. Interestingly, considering the importance of this year and the next in terms of world crises and our need for ‘help from above’, there is another notable Grand Trine ahead on and around July 20th 2013, and I will be informing you of this at that time. Finally my thanks to Peter Meyer at http://www.planetary-aspects.com/ for his generous help with computations.

And feel free to to save the image of the Portal to your own computers so you can view/print it full-size, etc.

A common misconception often occurs when using astrology to explore relationships.  This is that one can somehow choose a certain astrological type who will be ‘compatible’, and with whom one will enjoy a harmonious relationship that has both security and excitement, with a minimum of conflict, instability or boredom.   However choosing partners, let alone family, is not like selecting a carpet that matches the rest of the room, or buying a car to get around in comfort and style.  This is because significant others in your life are chosen in the Unconscious, or determined by Fate.  This means that, at any given moment, what and where you are dictates who or what you are going to attract, happen upon, collide with, meet again, or be born to and into.  In other words, the real determinant of what and who you are involved with – or not – is YOU and your own mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual states.  Astrology can tell you about these states, and so what it is you may or may not attract.

THE CURSE OF ST.VALENTINE – A cursory look at relationship through history shows us initially as a male or a female simply seeking, attracting and securing a mate who possessed certain qualities – be they desirable or practical ones, or just plain biological.  In time, the rituals of courting, and the customs of family-raising and society-building, became more firmly established and, from culture to culture, more sophisticated.  For quite some time now – around nine hundred years – western culture has been under the sway of something called Romantic Love.  This began, more or less, with the Courtly Love of knights and the ladies (not their wives) who they championed and pledged themselves to in a noble and chaste way.  Over the centuries this practice of the upper classes filtered down to the lower ones – and became intermixed with sex and family-raising in the process.  This created an unreal and distorted sense of love and relationship, only prevented from devolving into complete chaos by religiously indoctrinated moral restraint and a ‘knowing of one’s place’ enforced by patriarchy and/or class system.  If this wasn’t getting confusing enough, at the beginning of the Twentieth Century along came the first of the two World Wars closely followed by Hollywood.  The former initiated the timely demise of a long established social hierarchy, while the latter gave rise to the idea that a certain someone was the ideal partner, and the perfect human being, becoming firmly ensconced in our collective consciousness – or unconsciousness more like.  With this combination punch of the loss of a social template on the one hand, and such a rosy screen cast over what is actually going on between two human beings on the other, it was only a matter of time before some kind of reappraisal and readjustment was deemed necessary – again by the Unconscious or Fate.

RELATING IN THE AQUARIAN AGE

In astrological terms, this readjustment is part and parcel of the phasing in of a 2160 year period which is called the Age of Aquarius.   All Astrological Ages, as they are called, last on average this amount of time, and they mark periods when new values are first introduced, then installed and stabilised, and finally phased out as they become less and less appropriate to the Evolution of the Species, and as the next Age approaches.  While presently the tail end of the Age before Aquarius, Pisces, witnesses the emotional and religious illusions of the last two thousand years going into meltdown, incipient Aquarius is already refreshing and disrupting the masses with new views, ideas and values.  Aquarius is the Water Bearer, and the picture above (figures drawn by Tony Wright) graphically and symbolically shows this process of refreshment where human relationship is concerned.  Each individual commits varying amounts of themselves to each other, seen here as the Planets and Zodiacal Signs representing parts of their personalities and lives. These parts or energies interact with one another.  This interaction progressively forms a third entity, which is the relationship itself.  Significantly, this picture also symbolises the process during the Aquarian Age whereby individuals of all races, classes and creeds – and of the same sex – share and pool previously unexpressed thoughts and feelings, thus creating a new society and culture.   Inevitably, the old order of the waning Piscean Age is disrupted as it is replaced by Aquarian energies and ethics.

So, on a personal level, we can view the nature of relating as the make-up of one person (depicted as the Planets and Signs) being poured in and together with the make-up of another.  While on a collective level, we see each individual’s new or previously unexpressed thoughts and feelings being pooled and contained as the new culture in the making.  Initially, this is rather experimental, and as this in-pouring proceeds, it naturally disturbs what has been lying there for some time – the somewhat stagnant waters of outworn moral values and fervid beliefs belonging to the outgoing Piscean Age.  This is one way of seeing the current social and emotional confusion: an utterly necessary part of clearing out the old and bringing in the new.  Humanity is being reminded, and reminding itself, of its true and spiritual nature, through each person honestly sharing their inner selves with whoever resonates with them, wherever the opportunity presents itself.

THE VALE OF SORROW

This is an ancient image of the passage along which humanity loses itself and eventually finds itself again.  Being ‘banished from the garden’ is a theme in more than just the Bible myth.  Humanity comes to Earth, innocent and free, to dwell in the ‘Garden of Eden’.  It then becomes self-conscious and loses its natural innocence, which is replaced by guilt – the Fall.  We have been playing out our guilt for millennia, projecting it upon one another until a great rift has been created.  This, the Vale of Sorrow or Vale of Tears – or in more modern parlance, the Battle of the Sexes – is what we all are travelling through as part of our Process of Evolution.  Some say we are now at the point of maximum separation, and can now only get closer again, and ultimately reach Reunion.  It is also mooted that homo- and bi-sexuality are vague echoes of ‘Eden’ or even before that when the human type was androgynous (the Divine Androgyne), as well as being pre-echoes of Reunion.  Whether any of this is true or not, who’s to say, but to me at least, it certainly has a ring about it.

REUNION – In effect, and in the long-term, the Aquarian Age is here to reunite us through that channel we find so irresistible or unavoidable: the one-to-one relationship. But for this spiritual process of Reunion to be successful, we have to co-operate with it.  This can be difficult, because we have either grown neurotically attached to being separate and responsible only to ourselves, or at the other extreme, our attempts to get more intimately involved with another are confused and obscured by so-called romantic and mass media driven notions of what relating is all about.  St.Valentine’s Day is one example of this, which ironically falls in the sign of Aquarius, occurring as it does on February 14th.  More to the point, we are confused and misguided simply by a sheer ignorance of our own natures – as individuals or as human beings.  Astrology, genuine astrology, can provide a profound insight into who and what we are as individuals and as a species.

TRUE ROMANCE IS A SPIRITUAL QUEST – So, one could say that the dawning of the Aquarian Age is entreating us to see the pursuit of successful relationship as a spiritual quest – which is ‘romantic’ in an authentic rather than illusory way – as it is ultimately paving the way toward collective harmony.  To help understand this we can see relationships fall into two main types:  Family-raising and consciousness-raising.   Bearing in mind that the two types are not mutually exclusive – quite the opposite in fact – here is a brief description of each type.

Family-raising:  In order for humanity to pursue the ages-long process of Reunion, a constant supply of human beings is necessary.  That these young humans develop into loving and caring ones – that they be able to relate – their mothers and fathers themselves need to set a good example of seeking Reunion.  This poses the need for…

Consciousness-raising:  In order that humanity might eventually reach Reunion each individual has to learn to love and know him/herself enough for the ego boundaries of fear that keep us divided to be dissolved and surrendered.  Consciousness-raising ultimately takes place within the light and dark of an individual’s own being.  However, a relationship with another is what strongly promotes this because it has the advantage of keeping one mindful of one’s own shadow process.  The shadow process is the unconscious way in which a person expresses and projects (on to others) sides of their own nature of which they are unconscious; these are usually negative, but not always.  It is possibly more accurate to say that when one regards a certain trait as negative, one keeps it hidden or in the dark, and so it actually becomes negative. A partner will, usually unconsciously, act as a mirror that reflects this process or that catches that shadow.

THE VENOUS BLOOD SYNDROME

Truly, one genuine aspect of love for another is something that is enabled by having enough love for oneself to be free of defensiveness, which in turn is capable of allowing that other to ‘bleed’ their negativity, fears, etc. without over-reaction, judgement or resentment on one’s own part, so that they may be transformed and become (more) loveable, their consciousness raised, and so be more capable of union, and thereby Reunion.  The ‘Venous Blood Syndrome’ is the name I give to this process.  Venous blood is the deoxygenated blood in your body that is returning to the lungs for re-oxygenation and is a dull purplish colour.  People are usually surprised to discover this, saying that they have never bled any purple blood.  This is because if you cut a vein, the blood immediately hits the air and is re-oxygenated, turning bright red.  The metaphor here is that what we regard as negative and unlovable in ourselves (the deoxygenated blood in need of regeneration) is what we are inclined to keep to ourselves and so we remain feeling that there is something not good enough or loveable about us.   But if we let it, the ‘blood’, out – like when we are attacked or wounded – it changes into something positive (bright red) because we have ‘aired’ it.  In short, Love is the Light that illuminates what was hitherto in the Dark.  The critical factor though, is, as I say, having someone to whom you may let it out – and this could be a partner, a true friend, a good therapist or counsellor – or even your higher self (see on this blog the following posts: Dam-Busting and The Inner Child versus Spiritual By-Passing).

I invite you, by way of comment, to shed your light and your load (bleed your darkness).

SPIRITUAL BYPASSING

In these days of New Age visions and philosophies, end-of-the-world scenarios, conservation efforts, sustainability plans, and spiritual renaissance, it is all too easy and tempting to lose ourselves in these very things.  By this I mean that – preoccupying, urgent, fear-inducing or hope-inspiring as these issues are – there is the danger of involving oneself in them at the expense of cleaning up one’s own backyard – that is, seeing to the internal state of one’s being as something that is both distinct from, and having to deal with, how the state of the world appears to be. This ‘evasion strategy’ is what has been called Spiritual Bypassing. I remember when I first came across this term a couple of decades ago.  After pondering its meaning I experienced a ghastly sinking feeling as I realized how guilty I was of it myself!  Indeed, as an astrologer it could be described as an ongoing occupational hazard, seeing how innately ‘cosmic’ astrology is.

So as an antidote to Spiritual Bypassing I would like to offer up a simple and  very effective exercise called Self-Talk which you can obtain on my site as a free download, the link to which is given at the end of this article.  Before inviting you to look at it, I’d first like to describe elements of it that are not only extremely helpful with relationship problems and in dealing with the outside world generally, but also serve to contribute to improving the condition of the world itself – the very objectives that so-called environmental or spiritual endeavours seek to achieve, but could fall well short of doing so for the reasons I am about to describe. Self-Talk is concerned with improving the condition of your Inner Child and the Adult in you by identifying each of them, and then bringing them into a healthy relationship with one another.  In astrological terms, Self-Talk or Inner Child work could be called…

INTEGRATING THE MOON AND SATURN

The Moon in astrology describes our strictly personal and subjective responses to life, which at root are the product of our genetic make-up, racial and family background, and upbringing. People often ask is it nature or nurture? Astrologically, the Moon defines what we have inherited – supposedly for karmic reasons – so the answer has to be Nature, for it is this which determines the kind of Nurture we get (and give).  Most significantly, the Moon’s condition in one’s birth chart is the strongest significator of the state of one’s Inner Child.  At any given time this state determines how we are emotionally experiencing, processing, responding and reacting to life events.  Not only that, it unconsciously determines the very nature of those life events.  So the Moon in your chart is profoundly important. However, much as astrology can describe what your Moon has ‘on its plate’ with respect to your emotional life and conditions, it is necessary to get to know and feel it on its own terms, to be more ‘hands on’.  This means that by using some healing modality – in this case Self-Talk – you can experience how you actually FEEL.  This may sound unnecessary, for after all we are subject to our feelings 24/7.  But these are more often than not distorted feelings because they are filtered through our Inner Child which has to some degree been bent out of shape by the treatment it has received in the past – be it in this life or a previous one.  However, when we also engage with the Adult in us, and view our feelings or Inner Child through its eyes, and most importantly while simultaneously viewing the Adult through our Inner Child’s eyes, then we gain an objective sense of what is going on inside our psyches.

The Adult is astrologically the province of Saturn, and all too often this has been experienced by our Inner Child as something cold, uncaring and unsympathetic.  This is because most ‘adults’ have hurt inner children, products of their own parents, who also had hurt inner children. This is a dire state – one that in recent times has been strangely overreacted to (rather than properly addressed) with children now being over-indulged and undisciplined as parents overcompensate for the state of their own inner children.  The excessively politically correct, ‘health-and-safety’ conscious, nanny-state is also an example of this over-compensation. Saturn is all about Boundaries – as its physically ringed nature and structure illustrates – and the Adult in us is the one who is supposed to be defining limits for the good of our Inner Child. Self-Talk, as it does with the Moon and your Inner Child, puts you in direct touch with your true Adult, rather than the version conditioned by damaged Inner Children and Adults, be they in yourself, others or the State itself.

Going back to Spiritual Bypassing we can see how trying to ‘make the world a better place’ through some form of activism is steeply dependent upon one’s internal state, the relationship between your Inner Child and Adult.  This is not to say that activism – be it political, environmental, or whatever – is ineffectual or pointless.  Far from it, it is after all how we practically and materially improve and remedy matters.  But like physical health, this ultimately springs from the inner state of our being.  To quote a metaphor I’ve used before: Would you have someone with dirty hands dress your wound?

This globally poor state of the internal relationship between one’s Moon/Child and Saturn/Adult is evident in the fact that astrologically these two heavenly bodies are diametrically opposite in quality and Sign Rulership. So this intrinsically negative relationship that they have to one another is more than usually aggravated by inharmonious chart positions, either by Aspect (to each other and other planets), or by being placed in Signs or Houses that are inimical to the nature of either of them.  Statistically, the Moon and Saturn are in challenging Aspect to one another for over a quarter of the time.  Added to this the Moon will be uncomfortably placed in Saturn’s Sign (Capricorn) for a twelfth of the time, and/or its House (10th) for a twelfth of the time also.  Similarly, Saturn will be difficultly situated in the Moon’s Sign (Cancer) for a twelfth of the time, and the same for it being in the Moon’s House (4th). All this points to a basic challenge of Earthly life: get the Moon/Child into positive relationship with the Adult/Saturn.

In addition to what you will find in the Self-Talk download, here are a couple examples of how the all too common negative version of this relationship can manifest, along with the possible Spiritual Bypassing that forestalls bringing it to light and thereby healing it.

Irresistible Force meets Immovable Object – Here is a case of one person in a partnership, who we will call the Irresistible Force, whose Inner Child feels, for reasons which Self-Talk would reveal, she has to ‘get’ love from her partner by constantly pressurizing him to be the ‘perfect partner’. But as the poet Rumi said ‘Our task is not to seek love, but to seek and find all the barriers within ourselves that we have built against it’.  And life conspires to bring this truth home to her by attracting a relationship that reflects back at her, like the Moon does the light of the Sun, what she is putting out.  This is in the form of a partner who could be dubbed the Immovable Object as his Inner Child has received a poisoned chalice in the form of negative mother ‘love’, making him reject any attempts to get him to be anything that pretends to be love but is actually its opposite – fear, of not being loved (present in his partner’s and his mother’s Inner Child).  Through practising Self-Talk the Immovable Object becomes aware of this pattern of attracting partners who try to get something from him which he can never give until it is revealed by dissolving the block between his Adult and Inner Child.

All of this could be spiritually bypassed by the Irresistible Force telling herself that she is getting the Immovable Object to open up, be more emotionally honest, spiritually aware. This may well be the case to some degree, but as long as she is not learning to let love in it’ll be a case of one step forward and two back.

Over-caring for another while under-caring for yourself – This is the common scenario of the individual whose Inner Child feels it has to please and care for the ‘adult’ in order to placate it, keep it safe or nice, as a result of having a parent who was always threatening to be, or actually was, unsafe or nasty in some way.  He or she then attracts a partner who is a bottomless pit of need who is only too happy (but not really) to take advantage of such a caring and pleasing partner. This unhappy situation persists until the ‘carer/pleaser’ goes inside (with the help of Self-Talk or similar technique) and has their Adult recognize their Inner Child’s plight, and steps in to draw some Saturnian boundaries with respect to caring for and pleasing the partner, and others generally. At the same time this allays the fear of reprisals in the form of displays of displeasure or negative emotion from the partner and others. In return the Inner Child encourages the Adult to be independent, as an adult is supposed to be, for the simple reason that the Inner Child feels more secure when the adult is so. And this is the essence of Self-Talk: creating a loving and trusting inner bond between Inner Child and Adult that continually creates a better relationship with oneself, with significant others, and ultimately with the world at large.  Then the world does become a better place.

Spiritual Bypassing could go in both directions with this set-up. The Carer could tell themselves they are doing it out of some sense of duty or paying some karmic debt, while the ‘Caree’ could be indulged into thinking that they are spiritually special in some way, an illusion which the Carer unwittingly fosters and perpetuates, with the danger of creating the very monster they were all along trying to appease or avoid. The sense of duty or debt (Saturn) can be quite valid, but only up to a point. A mature or conscious Saturn/Adult knows when love has to become the ‘tough’ variety.

Inner Child work is, to my mind, one of the most valid and important psychological models and dynamics.  It is also, by its very nature extremely complex and personal.  So as usual, I invite your valuable views and experiences.  Here’s that link to the Self-Talk free download http://www.lynbirkbeck.com/downloads.html

Anyone who has been even slightly aware of what is ‘in the air’ will have noticed that something major is brewing on planet Earth and in her cosmic environs.  There have been numerous writings (including postings on this blog) on the state of affairs and fundamental changes that are afoot.  If you have somehow missed this or are not yet convinced, or if you would just like clear, concise and no-nonsense discourses on it all, I recommend two recent books:  New Consciousness for a New World (Inner Traditions, 2011) by Kingsley T Dennis, and Life Alignment (Watkins, 2010) by Philippa Lubbock.

On reading these books, I was reminded that the essence of all this fundamental change was actually captured in three pages of a book I wrote back in 2004 and which was published the following year, called Divine Astrology (O Books).  In it I offer up a practical-magical use of astrology, as distinct from the usual personality profiling and prediction that is the nature of conventional astrology.  Divine astrology itself employs a means of communing with planetary energies, rather than just interpreting them, a means which too often has the weakness and biases of the human mind getting in the way! Those three pages which I reproduce here are called The Human Upgrade.

URANUS SPEAKS

The style of the greater part of Divine Astrology is in the form of the Planets speaking to the reader in the first person.  I used this method because it is simply how it came through me. The Human Upgrade is part of Uranus’s ‘message’ to us, or Emanation as it is called. Here it is reproduced just as it appears in Divine Astrology, but I would like to now add that it is now even more critical to be open to the Upgrade as the ‘crash’ resulting from not being ready for it could prove disastrous, the nature of such being the subject of the posting on A Wicked Messenger called ‘An Invitation to Openly Discuss the End of the World’.  The reason for this raising of ‘alert posture’ is because Pluto has been empowering the Uranus Effect since 2007 and will do so up until 2020, peaking 2013-2015, all of which is the subject of my book Understanding The Future (Watkins, 2008).

“THE HUMAN UPGRADE

Like a stop-action film of an unfolding flower, My Evolution operates in spurts after periods of no apparent change, rather than it proceeding regularly and smoothly. The ‘petals’ move, get stuck, then with a jerk unfold some more. Evolution is the Cosmic Inventor working upon various projects and apparently getting nowhere until one day ‘Eureka!’ the breakthrough is made and something new is suddenly in your lives and you wonder how you managed without it before. Or conversely, you wonder whether you would have been better off without it! But this is how I do it. And I eventually destroy those of my ‘children’ that displease me.

You discovered Me by accident – in 1781 between two of your world’s greatest Revolutions, the American and the French – mirroring this sudden, unexpected and change-making nature of Evolution. In addition to Evolution and Invention, Revolution and the Unexpected, I also govern – in the sense of presiding as an archetype over things with corresponding meaning: Intuition, Freedom, Experimentation, Disruption, Spasm, Synchronicity, Aliens and Alienation, Autism, the Truth and the Unlikely.  Most significantly I rule, amongst still other things, the Sign of the Age you are currently entering: Aquarius.

So it is not surprising that the times you now live in, the beginning of the 21st Century, are full of uncertainty and change.  This is because you are all heading for an immense change.  Humanity is like the inventor coming up with all sorts of ideas and theories, one often rapidly superseding the other – witness health/diet philosophies and technological developments – leading up to an evolutionary shift.  Computer science – which I also govern – has a word analogous to this ‘shift’: Upgrade, that is, something that improves or even radically alters the functioning of whatever the Upgrade is applied to.

Your brains, your human bio-computers, are being prepared for this Upgrade through a series of numerous minor upgrades.  These in turn create equally numerous malfunctions, strange physical, mental and emotional states, and crashes and incomprehensible messages flashing upon the inward eye as your ‘old’ bio-computers struggle with the incoming Upgrade or New Order – rather like what happened in the time leading up to and around the American and French Revolutions, the time of your Awakening to Me Myself.  But this is infinitely more significant that those two events. What the old bio-computer finds hard to appreciate, by its very nature, is that all these minor upgrades are not just disturbances happening for no reason. So it only experiences them as types of complaint or condition, such as…

• Odd or hard to diagnose/treat health problems
• Emotional confusion and seemingly impossible relationships
• Incessant change apparently for no good reason, creating instability
• Feelings of vulnerability, imminent collapse or chronic insecurity
• Feelings of meaninglessness, pointlessness or low self-esteem
• Sensory distortions such as giddiness or ringing in the ears
• Allergies, anxieties, addictions or aversions
• Body image problems
• Difficulty concentrating and with short-term memory
• Time going by too fast or too slow
• Insomnia  – because you are, after all, being awakened
• Tiredness  – because of wasting energy trying to resist the Upgrade
• Tension – because you know intuitively that the Upgrade is coming

The list is endless, but behind them two things tend to predominate: the effect of the Upgrade upon your auto-immune system and your memory.  Using the computer analogy again, a disturbed auto-immune system can be likened to a dangerously out of date and overloaded virus checker, letting in what it shouldn’t let in and attacking what it should ignore or maintain. The early 21^st century epidemic of computer viruses symbolizes the need to progressively Upgrade, for you will keep crashing otherwise, and finally crash for good. And an ‘old’ memory is like a hard disk that has become clogged with corrupted files, dogged by conflicting programs, and confused by old files that are in the wrong place and should be looked at and either moved or deleted to make way for new ones.

The Human Upgrade is as inevitable and mandatory as Man going from fish to reptile, or from quadruped to biped.  But what are you changing into this time?  What is the Human Upgrade about in real terms?  From extra-systemic information available at the present time, the Human Upgrade is in aid of creating:

• Freedom from negative emotions such as fear, jealousy and greed
• Knowledge of what Human Nature and Purpose actually are
• Attunement to and Assistance from some Higher Power or Intelligence
• Increased Psychic abilities
• Greater Powers of Visualization enabling Healing and maintenance of good Health
• An Understanding of your Connection with all Life thereby allaying defensive over-reactions
• Selfless Love giving rise to Stable and Rewarding Relationships and ultimately World Peace
• Values that consider the Whole before the Individual
• An Awareness that the Individual is a microcosm of the Whole
• A Symbolic, Quantum or Holographic understanding as a model of Reality
• New ways of looking at Life and thereby seeing issues within a greater and more helpful frame of reference

With respect to the last few points, you are reminded that I rule Astrology itself. This is because the subject is a cosmic way of seeing the process of Unfoldment – which is what Evolution literally means – expressed in the movements of Heavenly Bodies. As such, it is capable of not only looking at what is unfolding collectively but also in terms of your personal qualities and fortunes, which could include what it is in you as an individual that is looking to be upgraded and what may be getting in the way of this happening successfully.  Hence Divine Astrology, which is Astrology itself upgraded.“  Uranus out.

Quite how it is that you make yourself ready for the Upgrade is covered in all the above text and books (and similar titles), as well as – and increasingly so – in the content of my personal consultations.  In short, it is all about identifying your true path and purpose, and disengaging from whatever it might be that is getting in the way of your achieving this.

Please comment on ways in which you personally have noticed ‘symptoms’ of the Upgrade…

I am using the word ‘dam’ here to denote something which is blocking the natural flow of feelings and ideas, of communication and expression. And ‘busting’ obviously poses what can be done to breach that ‘dam’ to allow the flow, either forcibly or by controlled release. Current planetary configurations are in aid of freeing up this flow, most obviously with regard to people having their say, expressing their grievances, and if necessary, rising up against whatever or whoever they see as the ‘dams’, which are usually people or institutions that are intent upon keeping things as they are, to their benefit, but at the expense of the individual’s freedom.

However, much as I personally accept such uprisings against repressive regimes as being realistic and unavoidably violent expressions of ‘dam-busting’, my personal philosophy tells me that much as it is a ‘good thing’ to overthrow a tyrant – be it a national leader who has enslaved a whole nation, or a fat-cat organization, or some individual whom one is personally under the thumb of – it would seem that in most cases ‘today’s radicals are tomorrow’s conservatives’. In other words, looking back over history it is still pretty much a case of the oppressor and oppressed – although in so-called civilized countries obviously the ‘wicked barons’ are no longer as brutal as in days of yore, but they still exercise an equally effective, and far more sophisticated, control.  And with respect to being in a suppressive relationship, it is only too common to get away from one tyrant only to be in the clutches of another.

The Dam Within – Probably one of the most significant things astrology demonstrates is that everything and everyone in your life is shown as potential by the positions of the planets in your birth chart.  In the current context, this means that if there is a ‘dam’ in your life – i.e. something or someone blocking your way, expression, freedom, etc – it’ll be seen as challenging placements of planets such as Saturn (fears), Pluto (taboos) and the Moon (family, racial and genetic conditioning). Nothing or no-one else put it there; it is part of your karma, and that karma will be manifest as the people and circumstances you attract into your life, be they good or bad.

So in this posting I am suggesting a few methods of busting any ‘dam’ in your life by way of ‘controlled release’ rather than violent reaction, born of the notion that if it is all down to you then you have the ultimate influence and control over it.  So controlled release means a practice that initially only involves you, but that ultimately improves your ability to express yourself, be it creatively or emotionally, towards others – be it at home or in the world at large. On the other hand, violent reaction means challenging or taking up arms against whoever or whatever it is that you regard as blocking you – a course which can often complicate matters further as you become more entangled with the outer effect of your ‘dam within’ – the apparent cause – rather than releasing yourself from the inner dam.  Violent reaction can alternatively manifest in one’s physical body, as many if not all diseases can be said to have a hidden cause – one that is personal or collective.  On a personal level, some innate inhibition or distortion – manifesting as something one then comes to regard as being an unacceptable or shameful experience or part of oneself – can take the form of a physical blockage, dysfunction or destructive growth.  A pathological case of not giving expression to the classic injunction ‘better out than in’.  A collective cause however could be something like pollution of our environment, which in turn has been caused by a blockage that has separated Mankind from the Earth and Nature, a profoundly important issue that we will explore later.  Putting aside for the time being the question of why such pollution does not affect everyone in the same area equally, suffice to say for now though, that it is through achieving one’s personal ‘dam-busting’, dissolving the blockage between one’s outer self and one’s true inner nature, that the collective dam is progressively bust.  If we don’t, then the collective dam is and will be bust for us by Nature – a distinctly violent reaction!  Here we are referring to natural or geophysical disasters which will, I believe, become far more destructive if we do not bust those dams within. Applying logical, external or linear methods to what appears to threaten us is entirely missing the point. Our external situation was originally created on the inside, which is the only place where it can be properly dealt with and ultimately healed, transformed.

Methods of Controlled Release

All of these suggested methods may appear very mild or insignificant, but if you sincerely experiment with any of them you will be surprised to find what powerful energies you are dealing with, with respect to both the dam within and what that dam is holding back.

Automatic Writing – More often than not we only communicate what is merely functional, is currently acceptable, or we feel won’t be negatively judged. Consequently one does not express the real or inner ‘you’ that is bubbling away on the inside. In turn, these unexpressed thoughts and feelings are progressively censored by us and get driven into our unconscious – which is why we don’t remember doing this very thing.  This amounts to a ‘blocked pipe’ situation.  The clean sparkling water that is the fresh and original ‘you’ is forced to stay where it is because you sense that what will come out if your speak your truth will be dirty smelly water – and of course the longer you leave it that way the ‘smellier’ it becomes!  But let it run and it eventually clears to fresh and sparkling.  So what you do is write down what only you are going to see – without any agenda, without seeking approval, and without feeling you have to avoid being judged.  Let your hand just write (do it in longhand) whatever wants to come out.  It might just be nonsense or ‘bad language’ – but this is precisely how you safely release a blockage which doesn’t make sense and/or is largely comprised of anger and frustration.  You might just find yourself writing down the same word or words over and again, or just scribbling – possibly violently. KEEP ON WRITING!  Keep on reminding yourself that by releasing the blockage you are accessing the unique and magical water that is contained in your own personal well.  And the more you draw from it you more likely you are to find something that is actually coherent, revealing, creative and liberating – and very surprising.  You literally release and express your inner truth, which is a treasure because it is, on the one hand, simply therapeutic, or on the other, it can prove to have obvious creative value.  However it is advised that you do not show what you have written to anyone until you feel confident enough about it to make it known – and then only choose someone whose sensitivity and judgement you respect. If you’d like to see an example of my own automatic writing that eventually evolved into Stream of Consciousness poetry, download Earth Pain and Memories of Heaven from here http://www.lynbirkbeck.com/downloads.html

Drawing or Painting – This is a similar exercise to automatic writing, mainly because you are putting down on paper whatever wants to come out without any agenda or fear of censure.  Again, it can also have the added bonus of something of artistic merit. You may well find that if you are trying automatic writing that it turns into drawing, possibly via the scribbling just mentioned.  Indeed, you may even connect with an artrist in you that you never knew, or had forgotten, was there!

Wailing, Howling or Hollering – Nature gave us the ability to let out whatever painful or seemingly inexpressible emotions are on the inside in a very simple and effective way.  To wail, howl or holler you need to be somewhere no-one can hear you, like on your own out in open country. You may never have wailed or howled in your life, especially if you are white westerner. Basically you simply let out a noise that usually (but not always) begins with a ‘w’ followed by long vowel sounds, and goes on as long as possible, and which, most importantly, comes from somewhere deep inside of you.  You need to sense that whatever you feel inside as emotional energy is coming out as sound – and a loud sound – for as long as necessary.  Hollering is similar but not so prolonged, yet it can be more percussive like a yelp or cry.  If you don’t feel better after either wailing, howling or hollering that is because you are not doing it with feeling. Group wailing: this is incredible!  Gather together some kindred spirits and join hands in a circle and form a ‘wailing tube’ by all wailing at the sky together.  This is self-generating – try it – and don’t stop doing it until you feel something special happening to all of you at once!

Dancing or Drumming – Dancing is well-known for its capacity to release pent-up energies.   However doing it on your own (at least at first) is recommended for it can be done in a way that is more free-flowing or over-the-top than you might dare in company or public. Drumming has also – again in white culture – become a more common means of expressing oneself in the last few decades.  Getting a decent drum is important (it must have bounce, and not be slack) – as too is one that is easy to play (like don’t go for a complete drum-kit!).  Probably the best is a djembe or any other member of the membranophone family of musical instruments, that is, a frame or shell covered by a membrane or skin (like tabla, shown).  Again, and after possibly apprising yourself of some basic technique, you just express your inner feelings by beating the drum on your own.  As you do so you will discover natural rhythms arising, as well as becoming conscious of where you are stiff or tense and not letting the rhythm flow.  Tip: at first keep it very simple, just enjoy the sound and resonance of the drum as you hit it. You are making a rhythm by sensing that there is a rhythm already pulsing through you. You are not trying to make some statement.  Like dancing, drumming is a sensual experience – something that is putting you in touch with your senses, and consequently a greater sense of yourself.

The Collective Blockage

As briefly alluded to above, this Dam-Busting is not just for personal reasons, for it also goes some way to dissolving the blockage that has been created between Mankind and Nature – mainly by scientific rationale and materialism – something that could actually destroy us all. As William Wordsworth presciently wrote back in 1807…

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

Please feel free to comment – automatically or otherwise!