New Moon Solar Eclipse in Cancer

As I sit here contemplating the New Moon Solar Eclipse in Cancer July 1st, I'm struck by images of threats to our collective security circulating via fears of nuclear meltdown in the U.S. I'm also saddened by they ways in which our insecurities lead us to treat each other without care and tenderness as reports circulate of grandmothers and small children receiving inappropriate treatment by airport TSA staff. With the energy of Cancer in the air, it's time for some care and healing, and a return to a right relationship with our mothering instinct, our care for children and respect for our matriarchs.

Whether our fears of nuclear meltdown are warranted or not (see this article if you want a more reassuring take on the matter), our fears have indeed been triggered, not in small part by the recent events in Japan. And rightly so. Nuclear energy is neither safe, nor secure. Our fears are compelling us to face that truth. I'm reminded of a blog post I wrote back in November about transiting Pluto conjuncting the transiting North Node in Capricorn, opposite the South Node in Cancer. This eclipse references those energies, with Pluto within orb of the opposition to the eclipse, and we are directed bravely forward...

With this New Moon, let's give birth to some new energy that propells us in a positive direction. Let's envision the TSA finding a way to keep us safe while at the same time showing respect for our elder travelers. And let's hold the possibility that the powers that be finally start to understand that the words safety and nuclear don't mix.

In other news, Steven's new Apprenticeship Program in North Carolina got started with a bang. Thanks to all who made it a success. We're very pleased to offer this AP group to those of you on the East Coast! The West Coast has been hogging Steven and it's high time we started to share! Speaking of sharing, can you believe that Steven was invited to China this year! What an image that is. It seems the entire world is opening up to this teaching, and isn't it awe-inspiring?

Part II of Dreaming the Volcano in San Diego
Steven's Dreaming the Volocano material is rich and timely, and the recent group in San Diego couldn't get enough. So when Steven returns in November, he'll continue where he left off - this time with a brief introduction and more time spent with chart examples. If you missed part one, the introduction will bring you right up to speed, and the chart examples will carry you into a deeper understanding of how to work with the transiting Pluto-Uranus squares and transiting Neptune's entry into Pisces in the birth chart. More Details...

Thanks for your support and for sharing this newsletter with friends and on Facebook.

Warm wishes,

Tony Howard

Neptune In Aquarius - One Last Time

Neptune entered Pisces, as tentatively as a cat sniffing the air through an open door, in early April. Immediately, the cover of TIME magazine blazed with the question, “What If There Is No Hell?” Neptune’s passage into its own sign is a complex subject, but the bottom line is the turning of the collective consciousness of humanity in the direction of life’s ultimate questions. TIME’s cover story reflected that principle nicely -- and if you want to know more about Neptune’s passage into the sign of the Fishes, you might take ten minutes to have a look at the free video here on our website.

On June 2, not even having reached one degree of Pisces, Neptune got cold feet and started heading back toward Aquarius, where it has been since 1998. It re-enters Aquarius on August 4, turns around again on November 9, and enters Pisces definitively early in the coming year, on February 3. Once back, it will remain there for about thirteen more years.

Aquarius is an Air sign, so it is about ideas and concepts. It is also a Fixed sign, which indicates sustainment and stability. As with all the pieces of the astrological puzzle, there are potentially good things and bad things about this combination. On the dark side of the equation, when Fixity and Air combine, we can find ourselves in an arid wasteland of bodiless, lifeless intellect – rigid (Fixed) ideas (Air) can freeze out all vitality. Think of the most boring class you ever took in college. Think of the dried out academic prune of a professor who was teaching it. Now mix that ugly elixir with mystical Neptune. Not easy, right? Well, in Neptune’s 165 year cycle through the signs of the zodiac, its passage through Aquarius is the salad course for its arrival back on its home ground in Pisces.

In Pisces, we see an explosion of enthusiasm around mystical and spiritual subjects - a vast visitation of energy. Think of St. Paul coming to the “seven churches of Asia.” Think of the meteoric rise of Islam. Think of the Protestant Reformation, the coming of Buddhism to Japan, the rise of Spiritualism in the 19th century. All these events occurred with Neptune in Pisces - again, the video will fill you in.

What sets the stage for such a renaissance? In a word, boredom. When religion takes over from spirituality, when things that separate us from each other are mistaken for a spiritual path, when being “right” becomes more important than dissolving in ecstatic relationship with the Divine, when we have all mistaken ourselves for ideas and position papers, the stage is set. Thus the dark side of Neptune in Aquarius triggers the readiness and openness that allow Neptune to work its Piscean magic.

Between August 4 and February 3, 2012, with Neptune back in Aquarius for one last time, all of us can participate actively in helping humanity achieve this spiritual renewal. We can do that by reflecting on our own attachment to increasingly useless and dysfunctional theologies and beliefs. We are all invited to root out the inner Fundamentalist, the inner Inquisitor, even the inner Expert Philosopher. We are invited to clear away all the mental debris that insulates us from each other. We are invited to become beginners again.

-Steven

FEATURED MP3 Release

Jupiter: How Have You Been Underestimating Yourself?

Explore Uranus through each generation as Steven tracks it's progress through each of the 12 signs. Since 1927, Uranus has swept through the Ecliptic seeding the human population with geniuses, rebels, paradigm-shifters, and merry trouble-makers who have kept the cultural pot stirred. Let’s celebrate them all, from the Elders down to the newborns.

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