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I offer a few reflections on the Saturn/Uranus opposition, now at the 19th degree of Pisces and Virgo. This aspect became exact on Election Day! It will be a very strong influence through September 2009 and will continue to be relevant, although not consistently, until July 2010:

Saturn in Virgo is very much about integration! The house of Virgo marks the last leg of the personal journey to the descendent. Virgo is the sign where we bring together our basket of experiences, and from them weave something of value and benefit, so we can be of functional service for ourselves and to the whole. Issues pertaining to work, health and humility share the turf of Virgo's sixth house.

Virgo is associated with the archetypes of Vesta, Demeter and Hermes. Virgo is about bringing Spirit or consciousness into daily awareness and tasks. The practices of apprenticeship or discipleship were ways that a person could cultivate practical expertise by working under the supervision and guidance of one who already knew the ropes and could pass on the tricks of the trade. Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, speaks to the necessity of commitment and focus in our work. Hermes or Mercury, as manifest in Virgo, speaks to earthy, practical, intelligence. This is the intelligence of application, or technique, which creates technology. It is not content to know the principles of something but wants the knowledge implemented so it can be of actual use. Demeter is versed in the relationship between nourishment and health. She is sage of soil and plants. She teaches how to enhance and get the maximum benefit from herbs through cultivation and preservation in harmony with Nature’s cycles.

Virgo is also about the archetype of Chiron, known as the wounded healer, teacher and sage. Healing is about the integrity or integration of the parts to the whole and to each other. It is about acknowledging the wounds so they can be healed, the healing process itself, and the wisdom found in the journey.

Saturn is the archetype of the father, authority, limitation, form and what we can perceive through the senses. Alchemically, Saturn represents the lead we must convert to gold. Saturn indicates where our known fears abide, our obstacles or hindrances and its position shows where our work lies. Saturn also speaks to mastery, focus, form, structure, time (Chronos is another of his names, thus chronology and synchronicity) and where we need to apply ourselves. Saturn says, "Pay attention to this. Do not avoid or try to escape me. Work with me and I will work with you."

Saturn’s shadow is the excess desire to control. Patriarchy and hierarchy are two of its expressions that have devastated Mother Earth and many of species including the humans. The shadow seems to reflect the excess and fear born out of the ego. Eckhart Tolle defines ego as total identification with the world of form. It also rises from the illusion of separation. A balanced Saturn isn't rigid; it knows the map is not the territory, the blueprint not the building.

In the body, Saturn is the skin, the skeleton and the knees. It gives the gift of organization, and the persistence to see process unfolding through time to achieve results. Boundaries are important and when unbalanced they are not respected.

When we put Saturn into Virgo we see the need for healing and re-education pertinent to the life areas of work and health. We see the need for humility, cutting out excess, and the integration of the parts for the sake of the whole. Virgo follows Leo, and we now become aware of the excesses of the "royalty of the corporate and Wall Street manipulators." The wound is uncovered, bare for all to see. Now is the time for healing, for stepping out of linear time and into "Chironic time." Chironic time is ironically timeless- time beyond or beneath time, where depth consciousness and holographic connection brings inspiration and possibilities. We realize we are not victims in time but the awareness that is timeless and that from that awareness the impossible is possible.

The polarity is Uranus in Pisces. Uranus is the unexpected, the liberator-Prometheus archetype, bringing awareness and awakening. Pisces is compassion, the universal, cosmic, mythic, and poetic. Pisces is the imagination, music, dance, poetry, inspiration, illusion, maya and ideals. "Yes we can" is the cry of the awakened populace coming out from under the control of the "corporate gods." Uranus in Pisces is also the shattering of the illusion, the upheaval of the financial house of cards, the awakening of compassion brought about by the awareness of the abuse of power and the suffering brought about because of it.

Obama’s victory is indeed the victory of the populace, symbolized by Uranus. The beauty of the black and the white, the yin and the yang, the multi-ethnic One in the Many, all congregated together in celebration, is a visual testament to the actualization of a new phase in the vision articulated by Dr. Martin Luther King. That we have come this far shows we have overcome the bondage (Saturn) of seeing only what appears as difference, that we are no longer slaves of sensory perception but have moved into the realm of intuition (Uranus) which sees through direct knowing. President-Elect Barack Obama is an incarnate integration of a hope that has been yearned for a long, long time.

California passed proposition 2 and put the first death blow to the horror of factory faming. Virgo is associated with small animals. Awakened compassion (Uranus in Pisces) prevailed and said no to a method that has tried to make animals into things without soul or feeling to exploit for selfish purposes (Saturn in Virgo in shadow mode).

This year is a turning point. This short commentary touches on some of the issues and is in no way exhaustive of all that is symbolically present in this transit. It will be ongoing through August, and we are all invited to home our skills and rollup our sleeves (Saturn in Virgo) to bring forth a compassionate Earth Community with caring instead of money as the bottom line.

Change is the voice of Uranus, compassion the fruition of Pisces, Saturn the work before us and Virgo the willingness to serve. Bob Dylan said it best when he said "We all got to serve somebody." Let us serve each other and bring forth the opportunity for us to leave behind jobs that diminish and create the opportunity for each to serve in alignment with their gifts and visions. May all have access to excellent health care and insurance, may no one be left out. Inclusion that celebrates diversity is the keynote of a new way of being on Earth.

Saturn in Virgo also brings us air cars, solar technology, geo-thermal design, permaculture and ZERI methodology that gives us the "where-with-all" to bring a sustainable, quality life to all. We are ushering in the Ecozoic Era, a term coined by Thomas Berry for the time on Earth where we learn to live in mutual benefit to each other as humans and to the benefit to the Whole Earth Community. This is a blessed new day and I am so thankful that we are witnessing and participating in the transition into sacred community that transcends the old divisions of religion, class and color.