Saturn/Uranus Opposition, Part Two:

This week, and the next several weeks, a clear mind will be your greatest tool. The Wheel of Life is moving quickly, and most of us can barely keep up let alone figure out where we stand on the great mobile mandala. Be aware, this is not a Ferris wheel ride at a carnival or county fair. The decisions we make and the stands we take are pivotal for Earth and all her dwellers. No matter how insignificant you may think your day-to-day choices are, those choices contribute to collective destiny. So best to practice Karma Yoga—the yoga of action—where everything done is done in the service of others, with a deep devotion to universal love and without attachment to reward.

Minor news first: Mercury  Retrograde is in effect and continues until October 15th. While most of you know the drill, those that don’t here’s the skinny: Mercury Retrograde is a great time to review what’s already in motion; it’s not a good time to initiate anything new.

But really the only subject to talk about this week and for the next several weeks is the Saturn/Uranus opposition. We are already feeling its impact, and the first exact conjunction  even doesn’t occur until November 4th. Saturn signifies the status quo. Uranus  symbolizes rebellion. And when the challenge each other, boundaries are breached in the name of revolution, and walls coming tumbling down.

Every opposition cycle begins with a conjunction, when two or more planets share the same degree of the Zodiac. The conjunction related to the current opposition began in 1988 with a series of three conjunctions in the last three degrees of Sagittarius. The same degrees Pluto’s been revisiting since its retrograde back into Sagittarius in June. (Pluto’s goes back into Capricorn on November
26th.) In 1988 Gorbachev introduced sweeping reform in the Soviet Union by allowing privately owned business, greater freedom of speech, and freedom for political prisoners and dissidents. Less than a year later in November 1989, the Berlin Wall, the structure of the Cold War as well as the emblem of the Soviets crumbled. And the message of the 1988 Saturn/Uranus conjunction was clear:  communism doesn’t work.

In 1999, during the first Saturn/Uranus square related to the 1988 conjunction the Gramm-Leach-Bililey Act repealed the Glass Steagall Act, which was enacted in 1933 as a response to the stock market crashes of 1929 and 1930-32; Glass Steagall separated commercial and investment banks. Now, as the current opposition moves into place, Wall Street, the structure of the world economy, as well as the emblem of the free market is trembling from its free reign. The message of the Saturn/Uranus opposition 2008 seems clear: capitalism ain’t working either.

While hindsight is mostly 20/20, current affairs can be myopic, especially when issues of survival dominate the airwaves. So don’t be dismayed if it’s hard to discern at first, exactly what’s status quo is being challenged: The greed that underlies the entire system? Or, the blind acceptance of rapacious appetites? From my perspective, it looks like we need a new system, one that incorporates the needs of the individual as well as the needs of the collective. After all, we are all in this together, even more than we may have realized in the past.