Aries 2005: Uranus in Aries Ingress. Revolution. Three Festivals.
Keynote
“I come forth, and from the plane of mind, I rule.”
Aries, Uranus and Revolution
Three Spiritual Festivals
Aries Ingress Chart 2005
Aries, Uranus and Revolution
It is the beginning of the new year in Aries and time to effect radical changes in our lives! In Pisces we cleared the decks of debri from the past year, now we are ready to invoke and draw down the forces of revolutionary Uranus, ruler of Aries.
In esoteric astrology there are three rulers given for each sign, which correspond to the personality, soul and spirit, or monad. The monadic or “hierarchical” ruler is rarely discussed in these newsletters as most of us are flat-out just invoking soul – and dealing with its effects upon the unredeemed personality! Yet everyone has the capacity to intelligently invoke forces that are available when the Sun or any other planets are in a given sign; the times today urgently demand that we do so – and raise our game.
Uranus is the monadic ruler of Aries and is the essential fiery essence that impulses forth from this sign. Uranus is at once pure spirit and yet as ruler of the seventh ray of Ceremonial Magic, is able to anchor that spirit into matter. It is said that Uranus leads the soul to the final “burning ground” where major testings for initiation are undergone. Uranus is the manifester who rules the Occult Way and is connected with the Hierophant of the Mysteries of Initiation.
Uranus is known to most of us as the ruler of Aquarius and represents the humanitarian revolutionary who overturns that which has become too crystallised in the previous sign Capricorn. As soul ruler of Libra, Uranus leads us from the personal to the impersonal in our relationships and is related to the right use of money and sex.
However, Uranus as ruler of Aries represents the “raincloud of knowable things” as Patanjali has it, the very source of thoughtforms and the best and brightest ideas that exist; those ideas that we can wrestle from the “mind of God”, that we can obtain through “seeding” the raincloud. (Students will note another connection with Aquarius the Water-Bearer here.)
Mercury’s job as soul ruler of Aries is the messenger or “go-between” (“I come forth from the plane of mind and rule”) for this ongoing “precipitation”. Mars as personality ruler is poised for action on the physical plane ready to implement the idea.
This period of time upon Earth has never been so urgent. We are in the middle of an unique cycle where the utmost is being demanded of us all. There can be no losing the fiery tension needed to consolidate ongoing, unfolding individual and collective purpose.
The world is upon a knife-edge, plagued by instability and fear, immanent epidemics, hunger, food water and soil degradation, climate change, increasing violence, money mismanagement and widespread apathy.
These are all facets of the Earth’s shadow, thrown into sharp relief and pushed into critical mode by a steadily increasing soul light. This gives us much pause for reflection – the chaos of the times is not just the conflicting forces of the cusp of the ages and the many other ray and cyclic energies; it is the very birthing of the soul of humanity in a collective sense – and it is a difficult birth!
Aries is a sign of birth following the previous sign of death in Pisces; it is the soul or spirit coming into manifestation. Each year we have the opportunity during this major solar festival of Easter (where the Sun or Son is exalted), to rebirth ourselves anew with an “updated model” that approximates more closely the blueprint of our individual soul purpose.
Uranus is that force that can help us effect radical and revolutionary change through “penetrating and precipitating the raincloud” – by finding those divine archetypal patterns that can create your new model.
Perhaps a general revolution is approaching where the creaking and groaning of the past ways will reach such a din that Uranus the Liberator will be invoked to break the impasse through radical change.
It is an interesting word, “radical”. The old name for a birth chart is the “radical” chart, meaning the origin or root. Hence to effect radical change is to get back to the essence of who we truly are, the core of Being. Surviving within a greater culture that is manipulated by forces seemingly beyond our control makes it difficult for us to claim the birthright of our true selves.
To get back in “control” is in one sense eschewing or abstaining from as much of the current culture as possible – creating or consolidating a new blueprint that can be steadily built upon.
One major consideration in this active Aries period is about the process of initiating action versus passivity. Passivity has a place but the wrong kind of passivity negates creativity, the very essence of the exalted Sun in Aries; creative (revolutionary) ideas that can counteract wrong ways in which the world may be heading, are sorely needed. Many of the creative ideas in the world today are selfishly motivated – not true creativity, more artfulness, cleverness and cunning.
Passive has its place in “passive resistance”, a nice blend of the ideas contained in the two opposing signs Aries (attack/resist) and Libra (peace/passive). Bear in mind that the full moon period of Aries sees the Moon in the opposite sign of Libra. A passive resistance is “not buying into the culture”, keeping a healthy detached attitude. It is interesting that Uranus is the hierarchical and esoteric ruler of Aries-Libra.
Mahatma Gandhi was a Libra rising with several planets in Aries and incorporated “passive resistance” in India’s revolt against the British. He also had Uranus the Liberator dominating the midheaven of his chart, squaring the Ascendant-Descendant axis in Libra-Aries. Gandhi’s stance is also well illustrated by the tenacious sign of Cancer where his Uranus is placed.
Libra also governs the “reversal of the wheel” – that momentous period in human evolution when the individual reorients more to living the life of the soul. Libra rules over that process esoterically because it is the “hub of the wheel”, yet the will required to do so is drawn from Aries, the axle inside the hub. Consider the analogy of that which drives the axle.
Considering this Easter period (always the first Sunday after the full moon period of Aries), Christ’s passive resistance to the culture in that ancient time can be reflected upon. Some say he was considered a dangerous revolutionary that caused political and religious instability – hence his execution by the state, with the aid of the clergy.
It is also worth noting that that it was the end of the astronomical age of Aries where change and chaos were the norm; there was also much degeneration and abuses during that period in religion and politics.
Uranus as ruler of Aries holds the potential of contacting the “divine template” and bringing that into conscious understanding. The opposite sign of Libra is one of “con-templation” where that which originates in Aries finds its understanding and manifestation in Libra. Hence a sacred temple is one which holds and guards the purity of the original impulse held within the template; it anchors and grounds it through human ritual – conducted within its magically or hermetically sealed interior.
Aries is well known for its impulsiveness, acting without thinking, as Hercules does in his first labour, leading to the death of a co-worker. There is a certain irresponsibility associated with the naivety of Aries and which finds its maturity and responsibility in Libra, the place of Saturn’s exaltation.
Aries is the source of seed-thoughts and that quicksilver, mental, mutable, Mercurial matter. Saturn is that which builds in mental matter, taking this raw material, organising and transforming it into thoughtforms. Saturn draws upon Uranus to play the part of the alchemist who transforms “gold” or quicksilver into base matter, i.e. steps down the divine impulse into a more understandable form; and of course this works in reverse, transforming base matter into “gold” , the treasury of the highest human thought.
Three Spiritual Festivals
Aries is the first of the three most important spiritual festivals of the year and sets the tone for Taurus or Wesak (presided over by The Buddha) and Gemini (presided over by the one who holds the Office of The Christ). The first ray of Will-Power pours powerfully through Aries and is associated with the crown chakra, a major synthesising and ruling centre in our being. This of course contributes to Aries’ headstrong and fiery temperament as well as leadership and pioneering skills – its adventurous spirit.
This crown chakra has its macrocosmic equivalent in Shamballa, crown of the planet and seat of its king and great “revolutionary”, Sanat Kumara or Melchizidek; where emanate literally the ideas or plan from the “mind of God”; here ray and astrological forces are contained and distributed to the world. As above, so below – grasp the ideas from their emanating source.
Hence the importance of these first three festivals – they set the idea and pattern for the new year. In Taurus the pattern is consolidated upon and brought further down through the planes of existence, this sign being the major festival for the Hierarchy of Enlightened Being – plus all their aspirants, disciples and initiates “working at the coal face” throughout the world.
The first ray theme is further expressed by Vulcan, soul ruler of Taurus, the divine smithy who further wroughts the divine design at his anvil. At the Gemini festival, that which has thus far been created in the previous signs is lovingly distributed and disseminated (through mental understanding) out to the world; it is peculiarly a sign relating to Humanity.
Hence at the three major festivals are expressed the three major chakras of the planet: Shamballa (Crown), Hierarchy (Heart) and Humanity (Throat). The group known as the New Group of World Servers (N.G.W.S.), composed of the aforesaid aspirants and disciples, functions as the ajna centre and mediates between Humanity and Hierarchy.
Aries Ingress Chart 2005
The full moon period during the Sun’s passage through Aries is always preceeded by the Aries equinox, an equally important period for transcending time in the outer world and accessing the inner, subjective realms. As it is the start of the spiritual year, a horoscope set up for the exact time of the Sun”s entry into Aries is a “birthchart” for the next twelve months or thirteen lunar cycles. (There is a “blue moon” in Cancer 2005 – i.e. two full moons during the solar period of Cancer)
In a recent newsletter (Capricorn 2005) it was pointed out how evident the Asian tsunami was in the Aries ingress of 2004, hence let us consider some major features of the 2005 ingress. Students will note that the chart is set for New York, proposed because of its esoteric influence upon the West. The rising sign is relative for wherever an ingress chart is set.
As the rising sign is most important in esoteric astrology for determining the purpose of any chart, let us start here. Taurus is rising and will be eclipsed at the Taurus festival of 2005, creating an even more potent focus. Taurus is about developing the spiritual will via its soul rulership of Vulcan, but also mental discipline through its personality ruler Venus, ruler of the fifth ray of science. That mental discipline is aided by the illumination of Taurus and through aspiration Taurus is able to repolarise desire.
Students will note a somewhat different interpretation to that of exoteric astrology, where Venus and Taurus are related to art, beauty and creativity. This is still true, especially as the fourth ray of Beauty and Art pours through Taurus. Yet Venus is related to the higher mental plane, seat of the soul and reconciler of all opposites and disharmony, hence creates harmony and beauty upon and from the mental plane – which has its lower correspondences on all other planes.
Aries Ingress 2005
“It might be here pointed out that just as the Aquarian Age is coming into manifestation for our planet as a whole, bringing in its wake universal awareness and the new modes of expressing world synthesis, human interests and the world religion, so humanity, the world disciple, is beginning to come under the influence of Taurus. It is this influence which will bring about at this time the reversal of the wheel of life for those in the human family who are ready (and their numbers are now very great). This is happening and the results are inevitable and cannot be evaded.
The great question is: Will this Taurean influence, increased as it is by the incoming Shamballa forces, produce the floodlight of illumination of which Taurus is the custodian, or will it simply foment desire, increase selfishness and bring humanity to the “fiery heights of self-interest” instead of to the mountain of vision and initiation?”1
As Taurus is a sign of values, it will bring Humanity to a greater sense of values which will contribute to the “reversal of the wheel”. (Note that two Venus-ruled signs are related to reversal of the wheel – Taurus and Libra. Both are related to Shamballa also.)
Venus is the personality ruler of Taurus and is placed in Pisces, the place of its exaltation, hence much potential for powerful expression. As Venus in Pisces is about unconditional love and compassion, the potential of the rising sign is partially realised through this expression.
Venus squares Pluto in Sagittarius, so unconditional love will come about through transformative relationships that lead to understanding through individuals, groups and nations. However the square aspect will sorely test everyone in realising this challenge. Yet Pisces can be a great listener and mediator, so let us hope it has its say. This is the higher interpretation of these planets, the other is where manipulation, unconsciousness and deception reign.
Venus is also conjunct rising sign soul ruler, Vulcan – also placed in Pisces. Pluto is the soul ruler of Pisces and both Vulcan and Pluto are co-rulers of the first ray of Will-Power. Hence that which Pluto destroys, Vulcan creates anew from the ashes in his fiery furnace.
The theme of Pisces and sacrifice is well-known, as is the Will energy of the first ray and the opening of the “sacrifice petals” in the heart lotus, the last tier to open upon our long soul’s journey. So it seems that the compassion which the tsunami invoked from the West will just keep demanding more of the same for 2005; as Taurus is related to money, the giving could well be those resources which the West has abundantly and we may have to keep giving till it hurts!
The major aspect in this chart is the extraordinarily powerful opposition between the Moon in the very last degree of Cancer and Mars in the very last degree of Capricorn. The last degrees of any sign potentise the power of the whole sign. In the New York chart both are “doubly” dignified and exalted in the fourth and tenth houses respectively.
The Moon is also “void-of-course” as discussed in previous newsletters, i.e. just leaving the sign. Traditionally this can mean that any important decisions should not be made until it enters the next sign. It was also noted that void-of-course Moons are prominent in earthquake charts, so with void-of-course Moon there is a certain amount of instability and unsurety, psycholoigcaly speaking.
The Moon as a fast moving body is somewhat of an “unstable” factor as well, not to mention its acute emotional and psychic sensitivity as ruler of Cancer. Hence in this chart, placed in the fourth house, the major themes of home, stability, family, nurturing and nourishing will be foremost. This was mentioned in the tsunami newsletter (Capricorn 2005) in relation to Saturn in Cancer and the millions of displaced and hungry people. Hence the ongoing rebuilding and repatriation that will proceed in relation to these and many other peoples of the world.
The Moon opposite Mars can be an extremely difficult and volatile combination emotionally, anger and hatred being two emotions that come to mind. Mars rules the solar plexus centre, seat of the emotional body’s expression and the Moon is traditionally related to the feelings. Both are known as “non-sacred planets” in esoteric astrology, hence have much to do with the unredeemed collective shadow of the world – the “World Dweller” as it is also known. Mars is exalted in Capricorn and esoterically,
“Mars is the God of War, the Producer of conflicts, and in this earthly sign [Capricorn] Mars triumphs … in the life history of the undeveloped and average man. Materialism, the fight for the satisfaction of personal ambitions, and the conflict with higher spiritual tendencies goes steadily forward, and this most material of all the signs is the battleground of the old established order and habits and the new and higher inclinations and tendencies.”2
Perhaps we can start to get an idea now of the incredible tension held within this Moon-Mars opposition? It can reflect a great victory in resolving of the pairs of opposites through humanitarian values or it can signify a major world conflict through taking the point of least resistance around such issues as territory, money and power. (As if there is not enough of that going on already!)
Interestingly, this Mars-Moon opposition is part of a wider dynamic in the horoscope known as an “easy opposition”, where Venus and the Sun make harmonious aspects to either end of the opposition, somewhat negating some of the tensions. Nevertheless, Venus has its challenges as previously discussed with its square to Pluto. The Sun placed here is a key element in initiating the pioneering revolutionary changes needed to break the blockage.
Saturn is also very prominent in this Aries ingress horoscope – exactly on the cusp of the fourth house of the home and family – which I have dubbed before the “family of humanity”, especially as it sits in this position in the United Nations natal chart. As mentioned recently, The U.N. is in the middle of its Saturn return at a critical point in terms of realising its purpose.
In the Aries Ingress 2005 Saturn is also completely “stationary”, turning “direct” only two days later, hence its theme of compassion and caring for the family of humanity, of consolidation, of right resource management etc. will be powerfully to the fore during the next twelve months. Although the Moon is making a wide separating conjunction to Saturn, it is still in orb, focusing even further these Cancerian themes.
The combination of Taurus rising, Venus square Pluto and Moon-Saturn in Cancer opposite Mars can coalesce to create a very materialistic point of least resistance, based upon fear, survival and wanting to maintain comfort levels. What choices will Humanity make in 2005?
Phillip Lindsay © 2005.
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