Shared Transformation Issue 13
ASTROLOGY AND TRANSFORMATION
For the first year of my own awakening, when I kept meeting more people who had gone through Kundalini experiences,
I wondered if there were astrological patterns to this. I asked everyone for their birth information, and then
drew up charts. The first four of these displayed an interesting synchronicity: all of them had an Aquarian sun,
moon or ascendent which was conjunct to these same placements in the other three charts. In his book Uranus: Freedom
from the Known, astrologer Jeff Green claims that the evolutionary pace is accelerated through a Uranian, Aquarian
or 11th House emphasis. (I have Aquarius rising.) By transit or by natal emphasis, Green says that "When
Uranus quickens the rate of development, evolutionary forces of Kundalini are released," although not everyone
with these configurations in their birth charts experience full Kundalini awakenings. When I spoke to a volunteer
at SEN, she told me their records were showing a predominance of Scorpio women reporting Kundalini awakenings.
In my own mini-poll on this, the only Scorpio woman I came across was me. (For that matter, my chart is laden
with transformational influences -- three planets in Scorpio, four planets in hard aspect to Pluto, a stellium
of planets in the 6th House of service, suffering and healing, and my Scorpio sun in the 8th house, which is literally
the house of death and rebirth!)
An astrologer told me that she went through a powerful psychological and spiritual transformation during a five year period when transiting Neptune squared her natal Mars, Venus and Neptune. Other astrologers have mentioned that Uranus, Neptune and Pluto transits to key places on the chart can catalyze spiritual emergence. At the time when my Kundalini erupted, Pluto was squaring my Mars.
For those who are not well acquainted with astrology, Uranus signifies the restless impulse toward growth, toward a vision or ideal to benefit humanity as well as oneself. Neptune is a collapsing inward, a dissolution of the ego (in the sense of a separate, isolate self), allowing us to merge with the divine. Pluto is the ruthless vacuum cleaner of the universe, the power of catharsis that draws out all the poisons and clears the debris so that only purity remains. All of these forces are likewise encountered in a spiritual emergence process. These cosmic powers work most intensely on an unconscious level, but they may also be experienced as upheavals in our outward life. Since Uranus, Neptune and Pluto transits are known to trigger crises which lead to personal change and renewal, and a Kundalini awakening is the quintessential process of inner transformation, it makes sense that there might be astrological correlations. The wisdom that astrologers bring to these difficult transits is every bit as applicable to the Kundalini process. In The Gods of Change, Howard Sasportas says: "It's not always easy to trust the workings of Uranus, Neptune or Pluto, or to recognize that pain, breakdown, disruption and change, which feel more like some sort of curse when they are occurring, have something worthwhile to offer. Pain, conflict and tension are, however, transformations trying to happen." Anyone with their Sun, Moon, Ascendent or inner planets in the signs of Sagittarius, Gemini, Pisces, Virgo, Capricorn, Cancer, Libra or Aries has experienced a strong Uranus or Neptune transit over the past ten years (for some, these transits may be about to happen, or are in effect right now). And those with Sun, Moon, Ascendent or inner planets in Taurus, Scorpio, Leo or Aquarius have felt Pluto's none too subtle hand within the past decade. As is often the pattern with Kundalini awakening, the earlier periods of these heavy transits are the most difficult. As the individual makes the necessary adjustments, the positive side of these forces are experienced. The bright side of Uranus is freedom from old programming and self- imposed limitations. Neptune's gift is newfound compassion and a sense of belonging and being essential to a greater whole. The reward of Pluto is self-empowerment through a more profound depth of insight and feeling. In my case, I have noticed that Saturn transits have also figured strongly in my transformation. Saturn had recently entered my 12th house when my awakening process began. This signifies the end of a twenty-eight year cycle, and the dissolution of old structures which precede the rebirth period when Saturn takes up residence in the 1st house. Even more synchronistic was a year-long bombardment when Saturn (foundation, bones) made hard transits to most of my inner planets in 1993. A week after Saturn conjuncted my Ascendent, my back collapsed!
Interestingly, the most dramatic shifts in my process have been synchronistic with astronomical as well as astrological phenomena. During the summer of '91, when my Kundalini was roaring, the two largest solar flares ever recorded left black spots on the sun visible to the naked eye. And the night before my fateful back injury, the weather forecaster on a local news station said people had been calling to ask about strange sightings in the night sky, specifically, a shooting star and a peculiar red ring around the (Scorpio/Wesak) full moon. The weather man had no idea what was causing this ring-around-the-moon. The increase in worldwide reports of spiritual awakening seem to reflect astrological forces as well. In The Outer Planets and their Cycles, Liz Greene notes that every 250 years, when Pluto goes into its own sign of Scorpio, a global shift in consciousness occurs in which ancient spiritual wisdom -- the "lost knowledge" of the ages -- once more becomes available to the collective human mind. Pluto went into Scorpio at the end of 1983 and will remain in that sign until the end of 1995. Greene says "I am becoming convinced that Pluto is concerned with a certain vision of the universe, which is basically Hermetic and which has a tendency to surface when the supporting structures of society begin to break apart." She also believes that "Pluto symbolizes an archaic feminine power which has been excluded from religious worship for a very long time." Personally, I sense a strong counterpart between Pluto and the goddesses Kundalini and Kali. Ariel Guttman and Kenneth Johnson, co-authors of Mythic Astrology, seem to agree, telling us there is "an intimate connection between Scorpio and the mysterious lifeforce called Kundalini... esoteric astrologers are fond of saying that the glyph for Scorpio itself ( H ) represents this Serpent Power, sleeping, coiled and ready to arise."
We are living in times of radical global change as well as personal transformation. The Neptune/
Pluto sextile at the end of 1992 pointed us toward a new, far-reaching shift in collective values and world vision.
And throughout 1993 and into 1994, the Uranus/Neptune conjunction and the Saturn/Pluto square were also evoking
planetary change. In the astrology newsletter To Be And Not To Be (Vol 1, No 6), Leo Talarico remarks that for
these four planets to combine in major configurations in the same year is "quite rare." He goes on to
say that "Evolution of consciousness can happen in rapid doses now." Liz Greene adds that the recent
increase in prophetic visions of worldwide natural disasters may not indicate a literal outward manifestation of
all these catastrophes. Rather, she believes "these pronouncements of clairvoyants... reflect an enormous
upheaval in the collective unconscious which could, but doesn't have to, swamp the ego, or in collective terms,
the structures of society." All this is occurring because we are in the transition period between the Piscean
and Aquarian Age. As Greene observes, "No individual becomes conscious of himself instantaneously and without
suffering, and no collective does either... If something must die, then it's going to raise a hell of a fuss in
the process, and if something is being born, it's going to cause pain to the thing giving it birth." What
we are witnessing is a great collective transformation, a movement from a 2000 year period of mores and values
to a new, as yet unknown, cycle of human consciousness. Those of us experiencing personal awakening may well be
the "seed bearers" of this new Aquarian age.
-- El Collie
© El Collie 1995