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Spiritual Company Newsletter
By Steffan Vanel • Astrologer • Tarot Reader
Author of:
The Astrological Karma of the USA
Charles & Diana: The Inside Story: An Astrological-Karmic ViewNow on YouTube:
The Astrological Karma of the USA and The New Presidency
Bridging Heaven & Earth Show #238BP & AP: Before and After Petroleum
I recently attended the NORWAC Astrology conference here in Seattle on Memorial Day weekend. I have attended this conference off and on over many years and noted this time how the mood seemed so much more intense than in earlier years. Someone said that Astrologers are like the canaries in the mine. We smell the vapors of what’s coming before anyone else does.
There were a variety of opinions as to how it all will be coming down in the years ahead. The major Astrological exams approaching in the next years involve the planet Uranus of which Astrologer Rick Levine said: “The only thing you can predict about a Uranus transit is that it will be unpredictable!”
Rick also mentioned reading of a new word to enter our lexicon, an ‘apocaholic.’
I admit to being a confessed apocoholic. As I say it, I’ve had ‘millennial fever’ since the 70’s. Actually I appreciate the exact definition coming from the Greek origins of the word apocalypse. As I found in Wikipedia: An Apocalypse (Greek: Ἀποκάλυψις Apokálypsis; "lifting of the veil" or "revelation") is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted.
Those of us who listen to voices in the environmental movement are clearly inspired with anticipation for the ‘lifting of the veil’ of falsehoods and misconceptions in relation to the ways in which we Homo Sapiens are living upon our host planet. Apocalyptic times are indeed ahead. In this regard I highly recommend the book: Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization by Lester R. Brown.
There is an Astrological configuration relatable to the BP oil spill of great significance, which I hadn’t been watching too closely since I observed its effects early last year. When I looked at this configuration at that time I put a quite positive spin on it. Looking at it now, in the midst of this on-going crisis has made me wonder what may be the actual long-term effects of this situation.
The configuration I am referring to involves the planet Neptune of which Hilarion says:
Neptune rules the sea, the oil and drug industries, and alcohol. Neptune is further associated with altered states of consciousness, mysticism, and the astral realms. The position of this watery planet in a birth chart gives a clue to the areas where the native is likely to be confused or misled. If mainly positively aspected, then its house position shows an area where some aspect of spirituality can manifest.
So, Neptune rules the sea and the oil industry, and confusion and being misled.
On March 24 transiting Neptune conjuncted the Aquarian Moon of the United States, 27 days before the Deep Water Horizon oil spill explosion, on April 20th, Hitler’s birthday and the day of the Columbine school shooting, an ominous date in history, now even more ominous.
Neptune will retrograde over the US Moon again on August 24th and go direct conjuncting the Moon one last time on January 15, 2011.
In my book: The Astrological Karma of the USA, I noted that the Aquarian Moon of the U.S. has only positive aspects to it natally, and I therefore tend to view it as a largely positive influence in the experience of the US. The Moon, according to Hilarion represents the influences affecting you in childhood and I see the US Moon as the positive Aquarian ideals of equality, brotherhood and group consciousness and freedom so strongly in play in the birth of this nation.
In my earlier writings I forecast the Neptune conjunction to the US Moon as the potential for some deep emotional, spiritual surrender to an Aquarian experience of group consciousness and human brotherhood. Looking at it now I see that we are indeed experiencing an emotional, spiritual, trans-personal surrender to an Aquarian group consciousness.
Every time we drive or ride in a car, bus or plane we are all connected, connected to the dark, fluid, as yet unstoppable Neptunian tragedy taking place in the Gulf with no concrete awareness of what the long term effects will be for the planet as whole.
One of the lectures at the NORWAC conference was by the Astrologer and author Steven Forest, about the approaching advent of Neptune into Pisces in 2011. He looked at this by different angles but he presented an analogy, which really struck a chord in all of us Astrological ‘canaries in the mine.’
It takes Neptune about 168 years to go around the Zodiac, so it hasn’t been in Pisces since the mid-19th century. But Neptune rules Pisces so we can expect some deep Neptunian manifestation of energy in a Piscean way between 2011 and 2025.
The analogy Steven Forest used was that of an abusive relationship, where the woman suffering the abuse tells her partner that she is leaving unless he seeks help for himself in therapy. He enters therapy for a few weeks and then quits and refuses to return, at which point it wouldn’t be uncommon for the therapist to voice the opinion that “he was not yet experiencing enough pain,” enough pain to be willing to enter into the humbling work of facing and healing the sources of his psychological complexes. Steven then added that he felt that humanity, as a whole, was about to feel enough pain, enough pain to do the work and healing we need to survive.
This is how I’m viewing the BP oil spill. A view with a hope that this tragedy could spawn the end of an era. A view that this could be the dissolving of the aggressive masculine attack of our earth for our own material needs and desires with no compassionate consideration to the whole circle of life of Gaia of which we are only a part. This aggressive, assertive consciousness was so aptly expressed by the cartoonish phallic exhortation to ‘Drill Baby Drill,’ an exhortation which has now and forever been dissolved from public discourse and, hopefully, eventually, along with it, the consciousness which felt free and justified to think and act with that type of exhortation.
In Greek mythology Neptune is Poseidon a male deity, but there are earlier mythologies where the sea is clearly a female deity. Mankind’s hubris and lust for power and wealth has now made him think he can indiscriminately extend his drill more than a mile under the sea into a nebulous hidden world of incredible cold and pressure and through that aggressive thrusting and inconsiderate greed (that may also have led to decisions to proceed with the drilling attack while danger signals were appearing beforehand) has now released the dark, black fluid gushing from the underworld into the Mother Sea.
I have been noticing how most of the media has focused on the effects of this on the shorelines, and human habitation and enterprises, but shouldn’t we also try to imagine what it must be like for all the plants and animals who live their own lives within the sea, who are now being engulfed by a dark, poisonous invasive fluid gushing up from the underworld below them?
There are so many signs that humanity needs to change its ways. This is a really big one.
The Moon in the US chart is at the 28th degree of Aquarius. The BP spill began in the following degree, the 29th. It is quite interesting to note Dane Rhudyar’s pronouncements for the Sabian symbols attributed to these two degrees:
The 28th degree of Aquarius:
A TREE FELLED AND SAWED TO ENSURE A SUPPLY OF WOOD FOR THE WINTER
Keynote: Knowledge and skill used in its natural surroundings for the satisfaction of vital basic needs.
This symbol combines, as it were, the implications represented in the two preceding ones. It relates to natural living the human capacity to prepare for the future and to use both physical strength and mental ingenuity. In meeting the hardships inherent in an existence close to nature, strength, efficiency and intelligence are needed, but they are incorporated in a life in which every act can be part of a harmonic and beautiful ritual permeated with deep significance.
This is the third in the sixty-sixth five-fold series of symbols. It refers to the efficient use of natural resources for insuring man’s well being. Such a use is based on INTELLIGENT FORESIGHT.
I relate this symbol to the pioneering American ‘can do’ spirit and capabilities, especially in our lunar birthing through our pioneering forefathers. It was also an earlier oil spill, which led to the American establishment of Earth Day. We haven’t seen a whole lot of ‘intelligent foresight’ in recent years but maybe now something can change.
The 29th degree of Aquarius:
A BUTTERFLY EMERGING FROM A CHRYSALIS
Keynote: The capacity to utterly transform the character of one’s consciousness by radically altering the structural patterns of everyday living and the types of relationships one enters upon.
This is the second time within a very short span of the cycle that the butterfly symbol appears. Here what is emphasized is the process of metamorphosis itself. It is the fourth symbol of a five-fold sequence and it stresses the essential character of the activity required at this stage of the cycle; i.e. nothing short of a complete renewal of all the implications of being alive as a human individual will do. A radical change is needed. At this stage, this change is individual and mental, and it should be seen against the background of humanity as a whole. What is revealed is the potential ability of every human being to participate in a higher realm of evolution AFTER his or her emergence from a critical state of transition.
At this fourth stage of the sixty-fifth sub cycle the Keyword is METAMPRHOSIS. In spiritual terms, this implies “Initiation,” i.e. entering a higher realm of conscious existence and there joining a sacred Company.
This degree, for the BP spill, is the one relevant for the whole planet and not just the US, but being so close to the US Moon it is no accident that this is taking place off of our shores. Nonetheless, here is the opportunity for a metamorphosis, for ‘radically altering the structural patterns of everyday living.’ This is why I felt inspired to title this article BP & AP, before the transition from the petroleum based way of living, based upon using up the remnants of the past, to the new era after petroleum, moving to renewable never-ending sources of energy, which can allow us to successfully transition into the future.
In the past in this regard I have used the analogy of a seedling, who is able to grow using the energy and sustenance stored in the seed, but only until it can get its leaves into the sun and receive its energy directly from there. If the seedling doesn’t get connected to solar power and simply uses up the energy stored in the seed, it dies.
One last note about the US Moon in its birthchart. A point I didn’t mention in my book but feels quite relevant now. The US Moon is in the Third House of which Hilarion says:
When the Moon is located in the third house of a birth chart, there is the implication that the mental activities are much stimulated, that many different areas occupy the thoughts, and that the opinions and viewpoints which the native holds are constantly in a state of flux. Here then is the major lesson area of a third house Moon, namely to avoid being like a reed blowing in the wind in terms of the opinions. Little soul-progress can be made until a person is prepared to decide what he believes to be true, and then to stick to that decision. In past lives, a lack of constancy in the mental sphere has typically led to an abandonment of idealism or a compromise of principles, thus deflecting the soul from the upward path. In the present life, difficulties are sure to present themselves as a result of the wishy-washy nature of the opinions and these are meant to prompt a decision to be more clear-cut in one’s views, and to adhere more strongly to principles.
Karmically, the Moon in the third sector points to the necessity of passing through periods of unsettled thought and a feeling of rudderlessness in terms of one’s direction in life. In earlier incarnations, others were thrown into similar quandaries and unsettled mental states due to capricious actions taken by the individual who has a third house Moon.
Last year I had noted how Neptune passing over our Moon is relatable to all of the Aquarian faith and idealism most of the people I know were feeling with the election and inauguration of Barack Obama to the Presidency. More recently I can relate this Neptune on our Third House Moon to feelings of ‘unsettled thought and feelings of rudderlessness’, which we have been experiencing in these past months, observing Obama’s difficulties at being able to effect the major changes we were hoping for.
The current test, as I see it, is whether we will stay on the lower Neptunian level of the victim/victimizer ‘blame game,’ or do we move to a higher Neptunian choice, collectively surrendering, connecting, deciding what is true and sticking to that decision bringing about the New Aquarian Age. The question is: Are we hurting enough yet to enter therapy?
Blessings,
Steffan Vanel
June 7, 2010PS: Tomorrow, June 8, is the day of the Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in Aries, Uranus and Zeus in the domain of Mars/Ares. Enjoy!
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— Steffan Vanel Archive —
