2:43  am  AHST  09/22/2024
   5:43  am    PDT  09/22/2024
   8:43 am    EDT  09/22/2024
    1:43 pm    BST  09/22/2024

Great things are happening in the sky with the alignment of the planets on this Equinox. Cracks are appearing in the Earth’s magnetic field at this time, bringing powerful auroras, and astrologically, powerful aspects are happening, too. 

Equinox and Solstice charts are important, because they occur at pivotal points in the Earth’s journey around the Sun, and they show us the kinds of influences that will be in play for the next three months. These are “mundane”¹ charts, ones which cover influences for large groups of people, and show us a map of the general trends and energies at work for all of us. So what can we expect this autumn leading up to the Winter Solstice?

First of all, you’ll notice the Grand Trine in the chart, the blue lines forming an equilateral triangle. Trines, and much rarer Grand Trines, function as doorways of opportunity. Especially in this chart, since they involve the Sun and the Moon, they have the potential to affect us on a more conscious level than usual. The Sun represents the leaders of a nation and the Moon the People. And in a trine to each other, there is a coordination between these two archetypal forces. Of course, they are also trine to Pluto, which inevitably tells us that we must deal with the underworld aspects of “leadership” and the great transformative power that’s at work now. And that process can involve lots of stress, since when The People wake up to the realities of war and domination, and how leaders have abused their power (also a Pluto theme) those people and the industries that support them must also undergo a kind of death/rebirth.

Mercury is also a part of this Grand Trine, and highlights the Moon/Uranus conjunction. Remember, Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury, embodying the highest forms of knowledge of the sign it naturally rules, Aquarius. So knowledge from the higher orders of existence are also present, or perhaps are flowing into our awareness, and are available. Mercury also represents the technology of the media, the news, and the ways in which we are connected to each other. In a trine to Uranus and Pluto there are possibilities of great shifting of consciousness through the media, as well as great abuse of this power through AI and deception. But again, the trines point to great possibilities for constructive change.

Need I remind any of us that we are in the midst of what has been called a Great Turning, a paradigm shift, and that in many ways, we are on a tightrope walk, balancing between two polarities of integration and disintegration. And we are becoming more and more aware that the choices we make individually and collectively moment to moment affect the balance of the two. All systems of organization have both polarities, but for long term stability, they require a balance of the two. Both sides seem to be intensifying, tipping one way and the other.

The Grand Trines in this chart are activated by an opposition to the Sun and Mercury by an opposition to Neptune, which makes for a kind of kite formation. Here is the crux of the matter. If the Sun in a mundane chart represents our leaders, and the Mercury what they are telling us, Neptune in opposition to them pulls on the truth or deception of our leaders, and more importantly their influence and our belief in them that empowers them.

Neptune in Pisces has been trying to tell us (since 2012) to become conscious of the deepest truths of our existence that connect us together. Truths such as we, humanity, are truly one consciousness, connected at our core self through the universal energy of Love, the kind of love that infants come into this life with. What then gets layered on top of that pure love are the centuries of societal beliefs and conditioning, like layers of old paint on top of beautiful wood. Which ones interfere with our ability to connect with our core selves? Certainly the beliefs that have created the phenomena of the military industrial complex — which in order to survive must breed fear, paranoia, and distrust of the “other”— ­are a good example.

So this Neptune energy is pulling the string of the bow back, back, back, ready to fire the arrow of reality into each of our hearts. (Neptune begins its 13 year journey into Aries next year). It asks us to re-evaluate the importance of loving energy in each of our daily lives.² 

Amazingly, the chart for the fall equinox next year is strikingly similar to this one! These lessons will be around for quite some time. 

Venus in a nearly exact square (challenging 90˚ angle) to Pluto in this chart, asks us to transform and reevaluate our beliefs in the power of love. Venus in Libra (opposed Chiron in Aries) knows the power of loving compassion and how it heals. Pluto’s square energy feels as though it’s stripping away all the centuries of the denigration of the archetypal feminine, and asking us to heal the unaddressed trauma that’s been passed from so many generations onward. We continue to reinforce this trauma through the international War Machine, particularly in the US, which supplies more weaponry than all the rest of the world combined.

To this end, by becoming aware of the inherent complex realities surrounding our world situation, and cultivating a continuing development of our sensitivities as to how unresolved trauma expresses itself, we become aware of potential solutions.³ And then, as Venus in Libra asks us, by connecting with others around the importance of how we can heal, we help to balance the ignorance and violence in our own thoughts as well as in others around us.

There is great possibility in this Equinox chart, a moment in time which augurs tipping the balance toward the awakening of humanity to its fulfillment of a kinder, more cooperative and compassionate existence, both for each other, and for the Earth and all its creatures.

¹ Mundane, from “mundus” meaning the world

² The last time Neptune was in Pisces was the period 1848-1861, at the time of the writers Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Thoreau, who had a more metaphysical  emphasis.

³ For example, check out the Compassion Prison Project.