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Phew! Was just talking with a friend about the challenging planetary alignments that have been occurring for the past several months, and suddenly arrived at a place of clarity about what has been going on astrologically, and what the possible outcome will be, so thought I would like to share it with you. I hope it helps.

Planets appear to go backwards through the zodiac, when the Earth is either moving faster and/or, as it were "overtaking" them, so that for a period of time, they look like they're receeding or going "retrograde". This is an illusion, as the planets are not really going backwards, they only appear to do so from our Earth-based perspective; this does however appear to have a very strong energetic effect on our human psyches and global events. The energetic qualities of retrograde planets become very inward and internalised, enabling us to get in touch with issues, patterns and past traumas that need to become conscious and be released, individually and collectively. Because the planetary energies get focussed inwards at these times, their energy is not so available for being outwardly effective, so things "out there" in the world often appear to "go wrong" or suffer delays and setbacks. It is just a question of timing, and once the inner work and changes have taken place, then things can once again move forward in more positive ways our outer lives.

It feels like it has been going on for ever, with Saturn retrograde in the early part of the year, then Jupiter retrograde, then on March 29th, Pluto (our spiritual will - the I AM presence within) went retrograde, and has been so ever since. It goes direct next Tuesday September 5th. I will try to explain what it all means, but first, the rest of the scenario:

Asteroid Pallas Athene (female warrior and self-protection) went retrograde on 7th May, Chiron (our wounded healer) went retrograde on 15th May, and started bringing up all those old wounds, fears, anxieties, and lacks that we thought we'd dealt with long ago - what were they doing back again?

On May 22nd, Neptune went retrograde - now the sense of trust, inner support, unconditional love and Oneness all started to feel a bit shaky and unrelaible - one minute it was there, and the next it was gone, not good when you're re-visiting the old wounded places that you thought were healed, or at least well on the way to it.

On 18th June, Uranus (spiritual wisdom, insight, sense of independence) went retrograde, so probably about now the last vestiges of believing that at least we understood intuitively what was going on, started to become very cloudy and uncertain, and unpredictable...one minute crystal clarity, the next chaos and confusion.

So, since then we have had these 6 spiritual and soul-centred planets and asteroids and the Moon's Node of our spiritual purpose (which is always retrograde) all going retrograde on one side of the zodiac between Sagittarius and Pisces, with seven other personal and relationship planets and asteroids going direct on the other side of the zodiac between Taurus and Leo, with poor old retrograde (up till 6th July) Jupiter in Scorpio, struggling to hold the balance in the middle between them all...but Scorpio is going to dig in deep - it's not the most fun place for Jupiter to be, but can be very productive. And so the pendulum has swung between being immersed in all the deepest, most difficult and painful aspects of our psyches, to feeling that it's all a bit unreal, and everything is OK really, and life is actually going along alright, until the pendulum swings the other way again, everyone experiencing this in our own unique way, according to our own patterns.

It's the three retrograde heavyweights that have been the most challenging - Pluto, Neptune and Uranus. In response to those who have just decreed that Pluto is no longer officially a planet - try telling that to anyone having their birth planets triggered by the Pluto retrograde...Somebody should tell those astronomers with their big telescopes that size isn't everything, and Pluto acts on our consciousness like a very high potency homoeopathic remedy, or for those who don't believe that homoeopathy is a medicine either, it's like a small amout of radioactive nuclear material..it doesn't take much of it to cause a big explosion in our consciousness...Pluto has a strong affinity with nuclear processes at all levels.

Pluto has been digging deep into the darkest recesses of our psyches, to root our those core beliefs about who we are and how we really value ourselves, how much we are really in touch with our inner spiritual power, not just what we believe about ourselves, or the emotional patterns that we may have worked on about how we may undermine our possibilities or give away our power, this has been about getting to grips with our fundamental, core sense of value, deep within our spirit, our primal sense of our right to exist as spiritual beings, without any sense of shame, fear, guilt, pride or false humility..our sense of I AM...can we really be that? Meanwhile, Neptune has been dissolving all our attitudes and beliefs that we are not that I AM consciousness. Neptune will always bring, at some level a sense of dis-illusionment...showing us our illusions, or helping us to see that we are living within an Illusion, in the Buddhist sense. When it is retrograde, we are confronted with those patterns that we carry, which hold us within our illusion, and at the same time, it offers us the possibility to "unhook" ourselves from being caught in the Illusion of our separateness from Oneness...with Neptune retrograde, it's very much a case of "now you see it, now you don't".

Then along came Uranus to blast away any debris left by those illusory beliefs and attitudes, and actually enable us to get free of them once and for all, if we so choose. It's been all about letting go of our attachments to our suffering and however we create that...letting go with our will (Pluto), letting go with our heart (Neptune) and letting go with our mind (Uranus), all at once.

And just for good measure, Ceres is retrograde, calling us to let go of anything that does not truly nourish us at the level of our soul and spirit, and to let go of anything that does not put us into right relationship with the Spirit of the Earth. If we are letting go of our attachment to the Illusion, than we also have to let go of our attachment and beliefs about the material, physical nature of our planet, and realise that she is not fixed and responds totally to, and manifests for us whatever our core beliefs are.

And Pallas Athene is retrograde, giving us the innate possibility of knowing just how to cut the ties and attachments that hold us. All we have to do is to choose to do it, and we are free...or we can choose not to do it and stay stuck, and go around the merry-go-round of our patterns once more, berating the gods and fate for bringing us back again to the same old lessons. It's up to us, and this is a really golden opportunity to let go.

On September 5th Pluto turns direct. All of our hidden cats will be out of their bags then, and whatever we have been struggling with, will at least be out in the open, so we can see what it is that needs to change.Then it will take until 24th December for Pluto to "make up the ground" that is has been passing over whilst retrograde. And on 29th December is comes into conjucntion with the Galactic Centre at 26deg.56min.Sagittarius. This is a bit like being plugged back into the Galactic Mains circuit, with a much more reliable connection and higher voltage than before...so, expect a major shift and acceleration from the 24th December until about the 3rd January 2007.

Meanwhile...Neptune will go direct on 30th October. This will enable us to really begin to let go of what we have decided should be let go of. Neptune will take until 16th February 2007, to make up the ground that it covered whilst retrograde, so it may take that long to really feel we have released all that needs to be released.

Finally, Uranus will go direct on November 20th, taking until 6th March 2007 to make up the ground covered whilst retrograde. Uranus is about realisation - the realisation of "what was that all about?" But at least from 20th November onwards, we will all begin to understand what has been happening to us over the last few months. And the good news is, no retrograde planets at all until 6th December, when Saturn goes retrograde, and begins the integration process and the release of any internal and external structures which are preventing us from moving forward according to the realisations that we have had in the previous months - a good time to call on Ganesh, the Remover of Obstacles..."Om Gum Ganapatayei Namaha".

Jupiter, holding the balance in the midst of it all is about keeping a sense of perspective between the smaller personal picture and the larger transpersonal picture - it is a universal shift taking place, it's not personal, even though it might feel like that at times. The only thing that is personal is how we choose to respond to the, at times chaotic energies that are flying around. Stay calm, remember to breathe, meditate, walk, stay in contact and communion with the Earth at all times, and keep reminding yourself that this is not personal, it's just about letting go of everything that doesn't serve you any more.