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by Terry Lamb, M.A.

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New to astrology? Read on and ignore the technical bits. There's plenty here for you too! Why don’t I write horoscopes for each sign?

IN RECENT DAYS, I have received two I Ching hexagrams that, although they applied to my situation personally, they also have a more global meaning. Hexagram 28, Preponderance of the Great, certainly speaks to our current economic situation. It refers specifically to a time when great power is unleashed in the universe and felt in human affairs. It is likened to a home whose roof sags in the middle because the beams overhead are poorly supported. Although we may have a tendency to think of such times as perilous and impossible to manage, the I Ching counsels us that it is “a time of great opportunity, so a time to take great care” (Carol Kay Anthony, A Guide to the I Ching). Hexagram 26, The Taming Power of the Great, describes a situation where forces are so strong, they threaten to throw us off balance (or already have). It describes a build-up of tension that often creates fear or anxiety and results in rash action. We are counseled here to “hold still, hold firm, and hold together”. (Anthony)

There is no doubt that, in terms of the economy, evidence of these stages of growth is all around us. We see investors behaving rashly, flailing out at their impotence in the face of radical economic change. We see citizens crawling into their shells, breath held, hoping they can hold on to their financial stability or wishing they could roll back time and redo some of their financial decisions, put more money in the back. This is also called a “crescendo of awfulness” in I Ching terms (Anthony), where those who are caught in ego vie to hold or gain power in a king-of-the-heap game.

This type of chaos is what we’re experiencing in the world of finance and economics right now. This slice of life is not pleasant to observe because of the pettiness and meanness that comes out as those who have held power feel themselves losing their grip and realize that their corrupt premises of life will no longer work for them. Yet, there is a comfort and peace that comes when we see justice being done. When we see that good is conquering corruption, we can place our trust in the system again. No matter the momentary confusion, we know that those with power uphold fairness and the rule of law. Eventually, balance will reassert itself, and it will be a better, more robust balance because it is based on the support of inner truth.

People have confidence in a system only when they feel that it won’t let them down. Confidence has been eroded away for three decades, but most dramatically in the last 7 years as deregulation or lack of enforcement caused people to lose trust — that their jobs wouldn’t be shipped overseas, that the mortgage documents they signed didn’t include hidden traps, that they wouldn’t be betrayed by their healthcare providers and insurers.

When we find ourselves in these circumstances, the first thing the I Ching advises is to reframe what is really going on: These surface appearances are signs that deep change is afoot, and that these are times of great opportunity — this is what great opportunity looks like. The next millionaires are created in an economic downturn. Even if you’re not the millionaire type, we each have the chance to reshape our lives more easily and build a more robust foundation because of the forces that are unleashed. The power that has been held in lockdown for years — in the financial empires, in the halls of government — is suddenly available to us. We can use it to start a new business or transform an existing one; to join a political movement that suddenly has a voice; to volunteer in creating social reform; and to carve our own unique path of meaning.

It’s Okay if We Use Crisis As Opportunity.
Taking hold of a crisis and creating personal advantage is only opportunism if we take advantage of others. If we create win-win, we can become a fulcrum of power on behalf of others and so improve our own fortunes.

Paul Krugman points out that we cannot afford to waste the opportunities for growth and change presented to us by the current crisis. This is just as true on the micro, individual levels it is on a macro, governmental level. This is one of the most creative of moments that we will encounter in our lifetimes.

To find our own way forward, to find and ride the waves of opportunity, the I Ching counsels us to “hold still, hold firm, and hold together.” One of the best insights I’ve ever encountered I got from Robert “Buz” Myers back in the late 70s. He pointed out that our best investment is in relationships. Money comes and goes, but when the chips are down, our relationships are what see us through. More and more, I am seeing public proclamations (such as in the President’s Address to Congress on February 24) that our best investment is in people. This leads us to invest in ourselves and, if we are community-minded, care about the education of others.

This is another way of stating the interplay between Saturn and Uranus. Saturn is the situation we find ourselves in; Uranus is the opportunity that comes of it. Their interaction fosters the nexus of creativity that we have available to us.

Before the Orchestra Plays
We enter the month with the Sun and its companions in or entering Pisces. Pisces feels to me like the period before the orchestra plays at a performance. People shuffle into the amphitheater muttering and laughing to each other. The orchestra file onto the stage and begin the cacophony of attuning their instruments to each other’s. The noise level rises; chaos seems to reign. Disorder seems to rule, reach its peak. Then, as if cued by some unseen hand, a hush falls over both audience and performers. All are still, silent. Then, together, the orchestra begins to play. That time before the performance starts, the disorder that leads to silence and peace — that’s Pisces.

The is one caveat to the purity of the Piscean energy, and it’s a big one: Uranus is there, as it has been since 2003, electrifying the orchestra with the latest in techno mixes and instruments. It’s not that nothing is sacred — it’s that everything can be made sacred. It’s the intention that counts.

The planets are starting their slow diaspora from their Aquarian homeland, but we will still see a cluster form in Pisces, and with the involvement of Saturn to oppose them, this could feel like the economic darkest hour. The good news is that it will pass into a bright new day. Even if the new day is not as burnished as they seemed over the past 30 years, we were living in a fool’s paradise.

While Pluto was speeding through Scorpio and Sagittarius (1982-2007), we lived life to the max. It was the tyrants’ last hurrah, and they enlisted us all in their go-for-broke, use-up-the-planet-first crazed bout of childish narcissism. For each dollar of equity gained in our homes, $2 were borrowed, on the assurance that we would cash in on the new money being created by dotcoms and real estate as our bottomless piggy bank — that eventually we could catch up.

Now that we know this is a pipedream, we have to reinvent our economic reality. It becomes apparent that it is all a dream — a dream of trust. Now it has caught up with us, and it’s a good thing, at least in the long run. Now we are piercing the veils of illusion, and it is deconstructing our reality. For those who have never experienced this before, it can be shattering.

This piercing of the veils is how Neptune works, and it is a stronger, more compelling experience with Chiron involved. We will be able to track this aspect of our process from the starting point in early February (as Obama took hold of the presidency). Neptune is about the truth, about breaking through illusion, not perpetuating it.

After We See the Boundaries, We Can Bounce Back.
No one know exactly what will happen with the economy, but there is no doubt that March will be a watershed month in our economic future. With the fast planets opposing Saturn and activating Uranus; and with Venus entering a 6-week retrograde, we’ll see the full panorama of economic change.

It’s the unknown, the boundarilessness of the situation, that’s killing our trust in the system. We need some Saturn, the planet of boundaries, right now. Saturn will define the bottom, and that bottom, for now, will come around March 8, with modifications: Venus’s retrograde, starting two days before, will both prolong and soften the bottoming out process. This is related more to the actions of humans, and it signals the major reboot of the economy that the stimulus package and further reforms in the banking sector will bring.

The other caveat is that there will be a new bottom every year associated with Saturn’s actions. The actions of humans influence whether it will be up or down from last year’s bottom. However, the rule of thumb is that the first experience of a long-term pattern like Saturn-Uranus is the hardest and deepest — and that’s this year. The final reminder is that other bodies also influence the actions of the unconscious masses, and they will add to the situation as it unfolds.

But renewal brings hope, and that comes every spring. Even though the slow planets tell us that we will be in a shifting, recovering economy through about 2015, that doesn’t mean that we can begin a slow progression back to stability that’s subject to manageable ups and downs. Even if the worst-case scenarios manifest, it does not mean that we are suffering all that time, or that life is wasted. It does mean that we will survive by being flexible and joining together. We will be happy when we are thankful for what we have, and because we are determined to enjoy life.

Venus Plunges into the Underworld.
The big picture of what’s happening in the world around us is so captivating and deeply affecting that even the most humdrum of planetary events becomes significant. This is so with Venus’s impending retrograde.

Typically, Venus has to do with love and money. When she retrogrades, we go through a “reset and refresh” process in both areas, starting off a new 18-month initiative in each area. During the six weeks of the retrograde, we complete the plans and agreements we made during the previous retrograde, which occurred in July-September 07. In particular, we re-evaluate the nature of our relationships, and we renegotiate the commitments we have with each other. This occurs in every relationship, including family and business ties, where we have frequent contact, enough to being growing through the relationship. In our finances, we may re-evaluate how we are earning money, how we are budgeting and spending it, and what types of commitments we make. We may make lifestyle changes, restructure investments and debts, and rebalance our financial agreements with family and partners. The midpoint in the retrograde, on March 27, is the turning point when we launch the new cycle, although the negotiation process typically continues until Venus returns to forward motion, on April 17.

Venus’s Cycle
Venus orbits the Sun inside the orbit of the Earth, traveling at nearly the same speed of our planet. On cloudless nights we can observe her as either the morning or the evening star. As she circles the Sun, she moves either closer to the Sun day after day (lower in the sky) at sunrise or sunset or further from the Sun (higher in the sky) at sunrise or sunset. For a few days every nine months, she is so close to the Sun that we cannot see her; her light is eclipsed by the light of the Sun. Critical in that period is the time when she descends into the Sun to change from the evening star to the morning star. This is when she reverses direction in the Zodiac for about 42 days and emerges from the Sun's rays into the morning sky.

The Queen of Heaven
As the month starts, she is still high and bright in the western sky at sunset. However, she has already begun her visible descent into the land below the horizon, described by the Sumerians as the Underworld. The Hymn of Inanna describes this experience in an evocative way. The stages of her descent depict the astronomical-astrological facts of her retrograde. She goes through seven gates (the seven signs that the Moon passes through until she disappears into the Sun), then she is slain and lays dead for six days (her light is lost in the Sun). She re-emerges brought back to life and ascends to the world of light (rises above the Sun as the morning star, brightens and then turns direct in her motion). For a more detailed explanation about Venus in Sumerian and a Native American culture, read the whole article.

Venus This Time Around
As things go, this won’t be such an intrinsically difficult Venus retrograde. Our fair goddess of love makes only one entanglement, and it is with our Lord of the Underworld, Pluto. How fitting! In one version of the Sumerian story, she (Inanna) is able to trick the Lord of the Underworld into giving her entry to rescue her sister, Ereshkigal. However, since Ereshkigal has been made Queen, she is not inclined to leave. Instead, she treats Inanna brutally and leaves her for dead. It’s a good thing that Ninshubur (the planet Mercury) is able to enlist the god Enki to create spirits of food and water, who sneak into the Underworld disguised as flies. They revive Venus-Inanna, and she is able to ascend back into the Upper World so that life and love may continue.

Venus’s interaction with Pluto is likely to highlight this type of process in our world. A general analogy to this would be where the economy continues to show signs of sinking, but somehow our leaders are able to resuscitate it (like with the stimulus act) and bring us all back to life and love. We may see this play out in our own lives through a friendship, family tie, or love bond; or it could be felt in our own personal finances, although in a less dramatic form.

The key to Inanna’s story is how to bring ourselves out of the Underworld. We must listen to the little voices around us, who may seem at first to be annoying (like flies). If we take the offered sustenance, we will be able to come back to the world of light and life. Another key is that Inanna never forgot that she was of the light, unlike her sister. Again, hold still, hold firm, and hold together.

Venus’s primary contacts are harmonious. She sextiles Jupiter three times, on February 16, March 11, and June 2. This presents the opportunity to find our way out of the Underworld if we find ourselves in it. At the end of March, a triple conjunction of Venus, Sun, and Mercury in early Aries is also auspicious. (See Chart at right.)

Keep in mind the lesson of Venus in Aries — to truly love the Self. We are learning through her that we are lovable and worthy no matter who we are. True self-love does not result in selfishness or egocentrism. It results in generosity and humility, and it is incredibly freeing, because we don’t have to pretend anymore.

Aquarian Tail-Enders
Mercury and Mars are the final fast-movers to remain in Aquarius as the month opens, and they are headed straight toward Chiron and Neptune. All four planets come together, augmenting the overall effect, on March 1–8. This emphasizes the “veil-piercing” process I described above. Watch for ways in which you can see what’s really going on, both in your personal life and the world beyond your doors. This will give more clues to how to understand and use the Aquarian healing energy that we have in so much abundance this year.

Saturn-Uranus Watch
With the Sun, and soon Mercury and Mars, in Pisces, the Saturn-Uranus opposition is foregrounded for the first time since December. This was the time of, amongst other things, the attempted auto industry bail-out. Just as this issue will return in March, so will our own unfinished business from December return to be brought to greater fruition.

The dates of greatest emphasis are March 8–12, when the Sun connects with Saturn, then carries Saturn’s energy to Uranus for another chance to balance our awakening awareness of the new world with the old world we still partially exist in. We may feel inspired when the Sun makes this contact, but we will also be working hard, as with any Sun-Saturn contact. Mercury speeds ahead, catching up with Saturn on March 18, with Uranus on March 22. This brings deeper understanding of how we can use these energies. Mercury in contact with Saturn results in plans, but with Uranus involved plans are only a point of departure for the real events, so don’t be rigid about your idea of the way things will be, or you’ll miss opportunities.

It’s a somewhat bigger deal with Mars makes it to Saturn and Uranus, because it can prompt us to take (sometimes rash) action. This lights up our lives in April — more on this next month.

Other Events Worth Noting
Jupiter and Saturn come together every 20 years, and this cycle gives basic definition to our economic experiences. On March 22, Jupiter reaches its waxing quincunx with Saturn, a contact which it makes three times this year. As Jupiter moves toward its opposition to Saturn, we get a chance to make adjustments to get the most out of the culmination of this economic cycle. With the quincunx, we are likely to feel that we are in a situation that defies solution, as if taking care of one aspect damages another. It requires ingenuity to find the way through.

The yearly Sun-Pluto cycle began on December 22. As the Sun moves away from Pluto, we get more perspective on the transformative process we are engaged in for this year. The square that the Sun makes to Pluto on the 23rd sheds greater light on this, usually in the form of a clear dilemma that alerts us to a deeper issue. If Pluto is contacting something in your chart, you will have more at stake than if it is in between placements. Because Mercury and Venus also make contact with Pluto at this time, issues of communication, love, and money will also tie in. Events around this date are more likely to open up a new issue than to be resolved at this time.

What’s Next?
Just around the corner in April is Pluto’s station to retrograde. That is when we begin dealing with the substance of Pluto’s role in our lives more tangibly. Venus becomes the morning star, returning to forward motion on April 17.

We can expect an uptick in the world’s economies once the Sun enters Aries. The coming of spring signals a period of rapid growth (in the northern hemisphere) that will be reflected in human affairs. Even if takes time for the effects of the stimulus act or other economic good fortune to reach our lives, we have the power to co-create our own situations and determine our own perceptions and attitudes. If there are 10% unemployed, it helps to remember that there are 90% who are employed. Let go of fear, and you may see what is working in your life and be able to fill in any gaps that exist. Find the opportunity in the crisis.

Significant Planetary Events

Saturn is retrograde. Venus is in detriment.

All dates are based on Pacific Time.
Blue = harmonious/Red or orange = challenging/intense
Events in bold are more significant.

© Terry Lamb