Have you noticed the world seems to be going to hell in a hand basket? Open to some insight from an ancient form of study?
Here’s a little planetary 411:
In 2008 Pluto began a slow and serious twelve year spin through Capricorn. As we saw with the election of Obama (hired to clean up other people’s messes), the fall of Wall Street, the sudden ubiquitious respectability of going green, and the general feeling of “the party’s over”…the Capricorn era is not a zany one. In fact, today marks day one of the international Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. It was not so long ago, that, global warming was a fringe issue, and that even the noble, brilliant and pioneering Al Gore was too afraid to make it a major issue in his campaign for presidency in 2000.
Finally, as 09 winds down, we as a collective people are starting to wake up. But only starting to. (On Friday one of the major cable news stations included this headline: "Climate Change: Science Fiction?") This Plutonic era is still in its infancy, and like infants we feel helpless and still have so much to learn. Unlike infants, it is not considered adorable for us to be this way! To give you a sense of how these Pluto transits work, let’s go back for a moment.
From late 1983 to 1995 Pluto traversed the sign it rules, Scorpio. To astrologists Scorpio is archetypically associated with the concepts of sex and death. Go to the head of the class if you recognize the years listed above as the ones that comprised the AIDS era. In 1996, a breakthrough in treatment occurred (thanks to the rampant activism of the times), and Protease Inhibitor “Cocktails” led to longer lives, if not a cure.
From 1995 through 2007 Pluto danced through Sagittarius, the sign collectively associated with garrulous, uninhibited foot-in-mouth talk, and religious zealotry. Reality TV and Religious Fundamentalists are the legacy of those years. Fun! (Ok, I do love pretty much every Bravo show, but the anti-gay xtian extremists have me in a rage.)
A REVIEW OF 2008 AND 2009:
So what of our current times? Well, darlings, here’s an excerpt from a posting I put up in 2007. If you didn’t get it then, or didn’t …er …get it …then, take another look:
“When 2009 arrives though, we will be fully dug in to Capricorn, and will move slowly, almost ploddingly, through this sign all the way to 2022 … And how can you steer your own ship during these new times? My advice is to do your job with a fanatical emphasis on substance and execution. Imagine someone is paying you $1000 for a service. Delivery it with the quality expected of a $10,000 fee. That doesn't mean work obsessively (though Capricorn is ruled and fueled by a fierce work ethic); it means work effectively and well, realistically and slowly. The slapdash, high-spin, low-quality Sagittarian days are drawing to a close, but they have been fun, my dears …"
(If you are interested in reading my entire report from 2007 just drop me a line at Jill@JillDearman.com)
A TIDBIT TO CHEW ON RE: 2009 into 2010
Just last week Uranus went out of retrograde and began moving forward in Pisces. This is the first time in 2009 that all four major outer planets (Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) are all running “Direct.” Uranus is the planet of abrupt change, in the spirit of progress, and its trajectory through compassionate but depressive Pisces combined with Pluto's trek through Capricorn, the heavy realist, suggests to me that rather than pathologizing our collective feeling of being super-blah, we may need to accept that down and disruptive times often induce a melancholy feeling, and make more art rather than over-analyze our angst.
In mid-January 2010 generous and worldly Jupiter joins Uranus in Pisces for most of the year. This suggests that doing what my not-so-painterly college roommates and I did during a spell of hormonal weepiness might work for a lot of people: We called it "Paint Your Angst". Whatever your creative outlet is --from making music to planting flowers to writing your book (!) --you are extremely likely to find that as your project comes to life, so too does your mood lift. Sounds simple, but yet as we smurf (sic) around the Internet and get too intimate with all our communication gadgets, creativity takes a backseat, and then we wonder why we feel so disconnected from ourselves and each other.
THIS SOUNDS SPOT-ON BUT ISN’T THIS A LOAD OF (RHYMES WITH FULL BRIT)?
Though not quantifiable (neither is psychology or philosophy or any social science), in my experience, it's a helpful way to get individual as well as collective insight. And during these anxious times, I'm all for getting as much help as I can!!
An historical tidbit: Swiss Psychologist Carl G. Jung (whose mysterious "Red Book" was just published) studied astrology and alchemy and published his findings in seminal psychological books such as Synchronicity. For the full monty, read Chapter Two: “An Astrological Experiment" by C.G. Jung, originally published in 1952 as part of the larger Collected Works, as well as the book The Interpretation of Nature and Psyche.
BUT WHAT ABOUT YOU YOU YOU?
What's the point of having your own stars gazed at? Well, In September, 1947, Carl Jung wrote in a letter to Hindu astrologer, B.V. Raman:
"Since you want to know my opinion about astrology I can tell you that I've been interested in this particular activity of the human mind since more than 30 years. As I am a psychologist, I am chiefly interested in the particular light the horoscope sheds on certain complications in the character. In cases of difficult psychological diagnosis I usually get a horoscope in order to have a further point of view from an entirely different angle. I must say that I very often found that the astrological data elucidated certain points which I otherwise would have been unable to understand. From such experiences I formed the opinion that astrology is of particular interest to the psychologist, since it contains a sort of psychological experience which we call 'projected' –– this means that we find the psychological facts as it were in the constellations."
If your curiosity is piqued, see below:
GIFTS! For Writers, Mystically-Inclined Seekers and All Other
Humanoids With a Thirst For Knowledge and Not a Lot of Time to Mess Around …
It’s the holiday season and it’s a bloody recession so I’m offering all of my services (writing coach, editor, astrologist, etc.) at reduced rates through January 15, 2010. If you are a writer, or have one in your life whom you love, consider one of these gifts and/or if you are curious about how to constructively navigate your own trajectory during these troubled times, or have a loved one who might benefit from a little wise guidance, consider one of these options (deets about each gift in the link below):
http://www.jilldearman.com/gifts.html
For details on my credentials (as well as plain ole street cred’) and blurbs from clients and colleagues who could not be more respectable (okay, a few are notorious) and fantabulous:
http://www.jilldearman.com/services.html
If you are close to flat broke, but want a nice gift for a writer in your life consider purchasing my new book, Bang the Keys: Four Steps to a Lifelong Writing Practice, published by Penguin, with a forward by John Leland, reporter for the New York Times and author of Why Kerouac Matters.
Bang Book Deets and Blurbs Here:
http://www.jilldearman.com/book.html
WRITING WORKSHOPS IN THE NEW YEAR
And although we are all in the holiday mode (i.e. socializing and twittering more than we are working), the reality check will be here in less than a month, right after the new year. So, if you want to ensure that you get more writing done in 2010 than you did in 2009, sign up for my January/February Workshop, in either Manhattan or Brooklyn. Here’s what you need to know:
http://www.jilldearman.com/tour.html
My book is also something of a “writing workshop in a book” so if you want to get a vibe before you buy watch this ten minute treat, directed by the talented (and handsome!) Jimmy Lester:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQjCbm2wN8Q
And for anything else, check out my website:
www.bangthekeys.com
or drop me a line at Jill@JillDearman.com
Happy Holidays, Good luck to All
and Remember: Choose Art Over Idiocy!
--Jill
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