Small World Stories

Sagittarius (November 22-December 22)
You have the property of setting things into motion; you must accept that you may never see the results of any process you start. Most of them are either invisible to perception or occur too far from the reach of your senses to register consciously. Some will bear fruit in a measure of years that exceeds the length of a human lifetime. And some, you don’t notice because you’re not doing that elusive thing known as paying attention. Yet set things into motion you do, and you do it effectively: for good, or for ill. You have always known this, but the time has arrived to live as if it were true. If you are some kind of “cause” in the process of cause and effect, keep the experience as conscious as possible, so that you can make choices while you have the opportunity to do so. See if you can notice the results, be they immediate or extended over time, and observe the vast constellations of forces that have come together in order to manifest anything. Look back and observe what you have inspired, facilitated, or ignited, and be grateful that some of it actually worked. See if you can make amends for that which did not work so well, or that which harmed anyone at all. Remember that you are only getting a small sample of what you could be seeing, but as the next four seasons progress, it will be more than enough to inform you as you make some radical revisions to your values system. There is something from the past, some old idea that you are dragging around, that is about to get torpedoed. As visionary as you are, there is an attribute of your values that could be described as antique. Now, it is true that anyone who is authentically a radical needs to have a strong footing in tradition. Yet it is also true that a tradition is not a tradition unless it is alive. The way things were done in the past is not an excuse for anything; the reason things were done in the past is an excuse for even less.

Capricorn (December 22-January 20)
We live on a planet where people will kill one another for the right to kill a tree. We also live on a planet where people will give their last dollar, their only blanket or one of their kidneys to someone in need. Unfortunately, between the ordinary saints and the boring warmongers there exists a vast ocean of what you might call gray area, and I don’t mean gray matter. This is the least common denominator, which (paraphrasing The Onion) is getting lower all the time. Look around at the world and notice how many people aspire to mediocrity. Heck, you’ve even done it yourself a few times. Enter Pluto into your birth sign. This has been warming up for two years as Pluto crossed the Galactic Core. That particular transit (which peaked in December) has put you into contact with a deeply hidden attribute of yourself: the one that is immune from all the limits and conventions of the world; the one that connects directly to Prime Source. Now your awareness of this is no longer hiding down in a cave but waiting in the wings for its moment on the Great Stage of your life. This is a transit that affects every living creature. We all have approximately one calendar year of the transition until the energy takes hold through 2024. This portends many, many changes for the world, including structural changes to society and the Earth herself (Edgar Cayce was on to this a while ago). For you, it means reaching to your depths and ripping forth into the community with all your energy. It means embodying the Shiva-like attributes of Pluto: becoming the embodiment of change itself. That is to say, by changing, you will set change in motion. By allowing yourself flexibility, you will create the same around you. By being willing to question yourself to the depths of your existence, you will hold open the space for the people around you to ask the questions that they need to ask. By being fair and insisting on fairness, you will create that pattern around you.

Aquarius (January 20-February 19)
Your sign, like you, presents one of the most complex equations in all of astrology. That makes some sense: Aquarius is the sign of humanity itself. You see how complex you are, and how complex the human race is; you must live with yourself and the rest of us; the people who live with you coexist in a conscious way with your complexity. Let’s skip for a moment the constellation of planets that has taken up long-term residence in your region of the sky. Let’s consider a bit of theory: Aquarius is ruled by two planets considered vastly different by astrology—Saturn, the planet of tradition and structure, and Uranus, the planet of revolution, innovation, and upheaval. Even in ancient times before the discovery of Uranus, Aquarius was considered the sign representing places where minerals are quarried—a place where old stuff was dug out of the ground to make something new; a place where what is ancient and natural is being made into something new at the hands of human industriousness. The planets now in your sign, mainly Chiron and Neptune, are taking you to extraordinarily deep places lately. Neptune has been raising a question; it has almost been negating your existence, making you feel like you are distant from yourself or granting you relief from having an ego. Chiron, which arrived more recently, is making it painfully clear that you are indeed a product of and partner in humanity. All your faults are magnified such that you can see the hairs on their nose. The injuries you have suffered in your life seem to be with you still, and you are aware that you can always get hurt again. But for some extremely odd reason, everything you have struggled with is becoming a source of strength and wisdom. Places that were once the scene of an ache or pain are now the place where you can grasp something heavy, carry a load with unusual strength, or express yourself in a way that was, for most of your life, impossible.