...Sunrise or Sunset?...

By John Townley, January 2011

Every astrologer worth anything has been trumpeting “change!” for the last couple of years…along with everyone on the political left, right, center, and fringes – including economists, political scientists, historians, climatologists, pop psychologists, and other pundits and analysts of every stripe. Each one has a uniquely myopic description and explanation, like blind men touching an elephant, of pitifully small assistance to the rest of us who are caught in the chaos and crossfire.

Is astrology any more helpful? Astrologers alternately blame it on this or that planet changing signs (which every major planet either just has done or is just about to), or maybe a big configuration like last summer’s cardinal grand cross. Each has its own alleged effects and possible prescription for the future, often disparate or in seeming conflict, a rainbow of possible colors which don’t seem to be blending very well right now. Is there an overall big picture, a greater canvas that unites all the colors and shapes that destiny seems to be painting right now in such severely brilliant and harsh tones? Is the sometimes-blinding palette of the sky showing us a sunset leading to darkness, the breaking of a new dawn, or simply clouds passing over the Sun? Is it universal to all, geographically or culturally localized, individual, or a selective (and perhaps escapable) combination?

Let’s start with a breakdown of the planetary hues involved, and how they’re changing, then see if there is a pattern, or a preponderance, starting from the shortest cycle:

Jupiter (colors: Royal purple, violet, some blends of red and indigo, deep blue)
into Aries (colors: red)

Clearly there’s a purplish-red swath here, and the great enthusiasm that Jupiter brings to Aries, when the two hyper-energized influences combine to make for large, overwhelming occurrences. Lots of opportunities, if you grab them fast, but short-term gains only (remember, those who started WWII lost it). Example: 1939, the beginning of WWII…and every 12 years back through 1763 and beyond…

Saturn (colors: dark grey, dreary, heavy hues)
into Libra (colors: green, grey-green)

Sort of a depressing, sickly green, the color of dark algae or lichens, or churning seawater, limitation mixed with primary motion, Saturn is happy here, but the rest of the world may not be. It may serve to calm the waters a bit, by limiting motion. Examples: 1981, 1951, 1922, 1892…every 29 ½ years, back through 1776 (it’s in the chart of the U.S.A.) and beyond…

Uranus (colors: Streaked mixtures, checks and plaids like Joseph's coat "of many colors.")
into Aries (colors: red)

A flashing chiaroscuro of reds with quickly changing highlights. It makes the Jupiter in Aries effect even more spectacular, explosive, boundary-breaking. It's a thrill here, if you you like danger. Examples: 1927 (leading to the stock market crash and world depression)…every 84 years, back through 1762 and beyond…

Neptune (colors: Lavender, sea-green, mauve, smoke-blue and possibly peculiar shades of gray)
into Pisces (colors: greenish white)

Neptune and its native sign both give the color of the sea, not the deep blue of the bounding main, but the more tumultuous midrange of offshore – just out of sight of land, but still over the continental shelf. Not all that different, though perhaps calmer, as in Aquarius, where Neptune has spent the last decade plus. Its effect in Aquarius (where it's not happy) has been to confuse the populus, especially in Neptuned-out America, so its own sign Pisces may be an improvement once it settles in. Examples:  every 165 years…last time 1849 (the year of its official discovery), 1685, 1522, and beyond…

Pluto (colors: Luminous pigments, in unusual shades containing a large percentage of red, black)
into Capricorn (colors: grey, black).

The colors of smoldering Mordor abound, reflecting subterranean influences that break down all things, strewing wreckage all about, especially where unyielding structures in business and government exist. Steer carefully and exploit the flotsam and jetsam to rebuild totally anew.  Example: last time in 1764 (and still in Capricorn in 1776, in the U.S.A. chart)… repeats every 245 years...

A picture emerges

Put these five major changes together and you get a highly-charged, tumultuous picture painted mostly in dark hues of red, splotched with sea green and stormy electrical (Uranus) highlights, that can be overwhelming, indeed. Because there are so many crossing and contradictory currents above and below, short and long, it’s not like a driving tempest with deep, rolling swells, but rather a chaos of gusts and heaving wave peaks that catch (and play catch with) the unwary ship and can easily dash it to pieces. Accordingly, all these major sign changes better describe reality when taken all together as an overview than when followed individually. Further, there may even be a suggestive repeating pattern, as three of them (Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto) were happening before in the brief period of 1762-64. This was a particularly troublesome and change-bedeviled time during which the foundations were laid down for the revolutions of America and Europe later in the century. Perhaps we are in just such a period again now, with the real history that results still ahead of us.

A personal view

But saying we live in “interesting times” that are none-too-secure doesn’t really help you that much as an individual. The question as to whether you’re going to make it through or are about to prematurely become a part of history isn’t answered by the overall celestial bad weather forecast. The personal answers are much more specific to your own chart, depending on whether it’s getting directly hit or conveniently missed by the transits. That will let you know whether to hunker down until it passes or try something adventurous while others retreat before the storm.  You can do a lot by changing your locality for a better relocation chart and by avoiding unbreakable business ties to others with bad transits (as uncharitable as that may seem), not to mention exercising plain common sense. You can also choose a more favorable place to go each year for your solar return. The weather may be bad outside, but you’re still the one at the wheel and the most momentous choices are the choices of the moment, the critical instant when you steer over the crest of a sudden wave and save yourself or haplessly plunge into it and swamp your vessel. For more recent and evergreen survival tips see our What To Do When The Sky Is Falling and Artful Dodging articles.

Sunrise or sunset?

In a final look at our crazy skyscape brought to symbolic canvas, a critical question needs answering: is this a red sunrise with a storm in progress, or a sunset on an ever more blinding night tempest? The overall picture would suggest that it’s really the morning view, with a lot more of this dark, red storm rising yet to come, but in daylight hours. In America, the country is paralyzed at the wheel, crippled by fear and confusion caused by multiple Neptune afflictions with a long period of Moon chasing Saturn still ahead, along with other troubles in the teens. This, too, will pass, but in the meantime the rest of the world may well do better, at least in the short run, so do check out and develop your global geographical options. 2013-2016 will see a Jupiter-dominated bucket sky (a mid-day break in the storm) with lots of forward potential, but you will have to choose your location and your associations to benefit from it.

But, if you’re going to be sailing under a red sky, better to be already engaged, forewarned, and forearmed, as it’s going to remain red for a while, which at eventual sunset will indicate good news for the morrow. As they say:

Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning,

Red sky at night, sailor’s delight…

So hang on, celestial sailors…there will be a red and rainbow sunset to look forward to, after the storm…

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