Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore?
Carol King

Have you seen the TV show Wife Swap? One impossibly rigid wife and the other one asleep-at-the-wheel trade families for a couple of weeks. We, the audience, get to see how they learn or don’t from the other’s style. It’s essentially a look at where people place their boundaries in their own worlds and what happens to them emotionally when they encounter someone else’s.

In Trading Places, neighbors get a chance to change a room in each other’s homes. Public television got into the spirit with a program titled Frontier House where families were transplanted into an environment replicating the pioneering times of the American West during the late 19th century. And, of course, there are all of the make-over madness shows.

I was thinking about this recently with all of the sign swapping going on—technical term: mutual reception.
Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter and currently the Sun are all swapping signs – and you also may be feeling like trading your home, your mate, your life style, your location, your friends, your job, your identity, your something.

The mutual receptions are lending an interesting uncertainty to these times while we are experiencing the not-everybody-is-on-the-same-page Grand Cross energy. (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune are the planets representing significantly different points of view).
This is where the sign-swapping is going on:
Pluto and Jupiter switching Scorpio and Sagittarius
Neptune and Uranus switching Aquarius and Pisces
Saturn and the Sun switching Leo and Capricorn

Whew! That’s all of the social and outer planets plus the Sun! No wonder border issues, boundary themes, and who gets to live where are so prominent in the world from the Middle East to Katrina’s people. Displacement is rampant due to natural disasters and war; for others it’s just an itchy feeling to reinvent oneself. Even Venus is shifting from an evening star to a morning star during its retrograde!
Let’s look at who is trading places:

Border Crossings, Nomads, and Refugees

Jupiter and Pluto

Pluto’s entrance into the travel sign Sagittarius occurred way back in 1995/1996. Optimistic, philosophical Jupiter’s entrance into Scorpio took place recently on October 26, 2005.

Pluto in Sagittarius transforms philosophies and world views; Jupiter in Scorpio expands power. Pluto in Sagittarius obsesses about religion and who is right; Jupiter in Scorpio seeks a merger. Pluto in Sagittarius dials up the god-on-our-side issue; Jupiter in Scorpio amps up emotions. Pluto in Sagittarius transforms laws; Jupiter in Scorpio is GREATLY concerned with privacy issues. (Who gets to spy on whom?)

When Pluto in Sagittarius brought in the morality police upping the financial ante, Howard Stern took his Jupiter in Scorpio show to satellite radio. And, talk about crossing borders, Republican Governor Schwarzenegger brought on board a Democrat to be his new chief of staff!

From self-appointed border patrols in the American Southwest attempting to stem illegal immigration, to victims of Hurricane Katrina taking up residence in new states, to changing landscapes in Indonesia and Thailand due to the tsunami, we are a world on the move and at times obsessively attentive to the movements of others.

Shape Shifters

Neptune and Uranus

Neptune and Uranus have been doing their interesting switch since Uranus entered Pisces in March of 2003. (Neptune entered Aquarius in 1998). With two planets outside of the boundaries of Saturn in mutual reception there is no certainty anymore about where anything begins and ends. From deepening our understanding of people, to our knowledge of the universe, to quantum mechanics: whether we look inward or outward, up or down, how we define reality is a rapidly changing landscape these days.
This shape shifting is showing up in the growing relationship between science and spirituality, which is represented not only in scientific research, but also in the mainstream with movies such as What the Bleep and Masaru Emoto’s best-selling book The Hidden Messages in Water demonstrating how thoughts change water molecules.

Crossing Over, the enormously popular television show led by medium John Edward, brought communication from the dead out of the séance parlors of yesteryear into everyday American’s living rooms. Medium is a top-rated television drama and psychic Sylvia Browne sells out her speaking engagements. We’ve come a long way since Out on a Limb, Shirley Maclaine’s pioneering book about reincarnation  was published in 1983.

Leadership Changes

Saturn and the Sun

Saturn’s entrance into Leo on July 16, 2005 and the Sun’s current transit through Capricorn places them in mutual reception for a short time.  Saturn, the Sun, Leo and Capricorn all echo themes about leadership and authority. 
Who’s in charge, who should be in charge, who’s out and who’s in are the themes around the world from Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke necessitating a switch with Ehud Olmert stepping in as Acting Prime Minister to Tom Delay’s resignation after a Texas grand jury indicted him on charges of conspiracy in fundraising making him the first leader of the House of Representatives to be indicted while in office in at least a century. Watch for more changes in the days ahead. The Sun will remain in Capricorn through January 19th.

Relationship Shifts

As the relationship and values planet Venus retrogrades (December 24, 2005 through February 3, 2006), from Aquarius to Capricorn, we move from the egalitarian values of Aquarius where friendship finds a home to the more traditional values of Capricorn.

I find it fascinating that during this time when our values and concepts of love are going through a review, one of the most acclaimed films today, Brokeback Mountain, is a movie about a gay romance. And, Dr. Phil has a mission to help people reassess their relationship strategies. His book Love Smart is on the best sellers list.

So, just when you thought you knew who was in love, who was leading, where someone was living, and where you were going, the world shifts and changes. We’re peeking over the fences of our neighbors, and some of us are trading places with them.