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Year Ahead Report for 2008 Maggie Kerr (part 3) |
Saturn continues his passage through Virgo (begun September 2007)
On both a personal and collective level Saturn represents the following:
The institutions that distinguish order from chaos - the amount of freedom permitted or denied - the legal system, permanent civil service, all conservative and restraining bodies - repressive and controlling forces - attitude to law and order, hierarchies, taboos and old practices - reactionary forces and fears that resist change - authority and tradition
I like to spend a moment reviewing the cycle of Saturn so we may gain a better perspective of his passage through the signs sequentially, before we head off into looking at his potential in Virgo over the next few years. Saturn entered the initiatory sign Aries in 1996 commencing his new cycle. He returns to Aries in 2025 so that’s about 29 years for his full cycle around the Sun. So in 1996 a new “structural” planetary process commenced, and we have just completed stage 5 of this process as Saturn passed through Leo from July ’05 until September ’07. During this phase we were all meant to confront our personal fears and limitations to do with our ability to be “individuals” and to open our passion and creativity so this may occur. I trust this was the case for you dear reader!
Saturn commenced his 2 year run through Virgo September 3rd 2007 and remains until October 30th 2009. As the 6th sign in the Zodiacal process it is now time for us all to organise and create systems so we may further develop our potential birthed in 1996. This may be also called the Gibbous phase in any cycle, during which we must deal with our ability to focus our attention to daily systems, routines and health…the small matters that underpin all our endeavors if we are to further progress to the potential unfoldment due when he enters Libra in 2010. This confronts us with whether we are very good at doing this or not. For those who are a bit like air/fire sign me then this holds a greater challenge than for the earth/water types who are naturally more inclined this way in the first place! Generally it is time to cleanup, cleanout and implement strategies for organisation.
If you are a list writer then you will have a field day! If you are not then perhaps you may need to learn to create ways to manage your life in other ways, but the principle of practical protocols is across the board. Conversely if you are somewhat “anal” and overly critical or limit yourself and others by being a perfectionist, you may need to re-structure this facet of your psyche to allow greater flexibility. Personally I have been having a little obsessive compulsive “moment” in recent weeks…cleaning, cleaning and lots of old things have gone off to re-cycle and distribute around the community. Feel’s great, and I sense there is lots more of this to come over the next 2 years! This is the time to go to the Accountant and get all your financial affairs in order…yuk…but do it!!
One of Virgo’s favourite words is “patience”. Perhaps this placement offers us all a chance to slow down and start to smell the roses… by the way roses are associated with the heart chakra…love! The information revolution of recent years combined with the pressures of surviving in the jungle have led many people to the brink of sanity with little time for ‘living’ the life they work so hard to support. So make like a “virgin” my friends and learn patience. Your process this year will be much better served if you take your time and say no to those who try to rush you and your results. The shadow sign of Virgo is Pisces where we encounter our ability (or lack of it) to flow, trust and allow our creative imagination to fertilise our psyche so that Saturn in Virgo can then get to work and create practical outcomes from this. If you are too locked into your current systems then this may not be able to occur. Remember we have to ‘dream’ before something can come into form. It is Virgo that gives form to all things at the most basic level.
Virgo is the sign of health and wholeness. As Saturn’s principle contains constraint, limitation and restructure we can expect some hard truths to come to light regarding a number of areas that come under his dominion whilst he is in the realm of Virgo. So let’s tackle these point by point…
1. Our food sources and nutrition. These areas necessarily go hand in hand as our nutrition has everything to do with what we eat. After recent focus on how overweight and un-healthy so many people from the ‘developed’ nations are whilst those in 3rd world areas are starving, Saturn in Virgo will bring these issues front and centre. The “Organics Movement” of the past decades will gather great momentum, as the dedicated folks who have labored to teach us of the dangers of current food production practices finally begin to get their message home. I am reminded of the ridicule heaped upon Prince Charles for his love of ‘talking to the plants’. Well the joke is on us as his Duchy of Cornwall leads the world in companion planting and organic production. Join an organics co-op or grow your own will begin to become commonplace. This in turn will force the growers and big food distribution networks to re-think their priorities. Tougher regulations re: food package labeling will also come through. As the Goddess Demeter is known as “The Goddess of Grain” Saturn in Virgo may bring famine to areas that may not have experienced this before, be this through global warming with further droughts/floods and general mayhem or some kind of “contamination” of food sources may also occur in various regions of the globe through “fall-out” or infestation. In Australia the genetically modified food agenda is already back on the front burner with various states making their decisions on this matter, for better or for worse depending on your point of view. Hopefully we may finally see a collective shift begin to occur in personal health as people begin to take responsibility for their food intake and health outcomes. Which leads me to point 2.
2. Personal health and the medical industry as a whole. In recent years the Allopathic (traditional) medical professions have been greatly challenged by the alternative movement on the rise since the 1960s. The polarization between the two basic philosophies of Allopathic… get a pill from the doctor and take no responsibility for the origins of your own disease; versus the Naturopathic wholistic philosophy…we are a complete organism made up of body/mind/spirit; now needs to head closer to resolution and integration. Wholistic medicine offers the reality that our thoughts create our reality thus unconscious emotional energy underpins all disease patterns. I am truly hoping that this philosophy begins to come through into mainstream awareness thus allowing us all to move forward in this most important of areas. If this were to occur it could cause a crisis in the pharmaceutical industries. Various conspiracy theories tell us that they manufacture drugs that help us stay sick because of the various side effects. A big subject and a major can of worms that I choose not to open here. Whichever way you look at it avoiding synthetic drugs is a very good idea!
One of the pledges of our new Government is to ‘clean-up’ the public hospital services mess and begin to deal with staffing and facility issues. And as Saturn in Virgo is about the whole planet not just Australia, then it will be interesting to see what comes through in the U.S.A. where their health system is so horribly wrong in terms of social conscience. Until Governments take back the power they have given to private industry to make money out of public health, we can never begin to return to a fair deal for all. The whole philosophy around medicine and medical training needs a drastic overhaul if we are to attract a new batch of people to the field who are inspired by the humanistic healing ideals, rather than a régime which by and large ‘kills’ the ideals of people in the industry as they are overwhelmed by the current system and it’s inadequacies.
On the up-side and as a result of this phase we can expect to see many announcements over the next few years of spectacular developments in the Medical Sciences. If it appears that I have a rather negative attitude to Allopathic medicine then please forgive me, as I also respect and admire the field for the incredible options it makes available to us for treatment of accident and injury. Saturn also rules the principle of building and re-building so many new techniques will arrive shortly. And then there is the bio-medical field with gene splicing and growing for organ replacement and so on. This also will move ahead in a serious fashion in the next few years. The moral issues remain to be debated, and as usual I am reminded of the incredible irony in this area. What “creatures” are we destined to create? I am amused by the idea than in the distant past our friends from distant stars wondered the same thing? And did they get it right??
In the mid 1960’s when Saturn was in Pisces and Uranus opposite in Virgo the World Health Organisation implemented a 10 year plan to immunize globally for the classic 3 killer diseases; polio/typhoid/diphtheria. By and large they succeeded, which incidentally led to the exponential growth in world populations in the following decades. As Saturn and Uranus oppose each other this year it will be interesting to see what WHO and other groups begin to implement over the next few years. Another co-incidence from the mid 1960s under the Saturn/Uranus opposition was the evolution of the Psychiatric models into the more wholistic psychotherapies. This advancement emerged as awareness extended to integration of the spiritual component of our nature, and led to a more integrative approach to mental and physical health. So again I would say that the Psychotherapies may become more wide spread in their application to mental health as the “medicate them and/or lock them up” attitude is challenged. Generally mental health in the community will come back onto the front burner as our society grapples with re-instating support services.
The sign of Saturn’s placement at any time is always reflected in the media and entertainment offerings, so for the past few years with Saturn in Leo we have “Dancing with the Stars” and so on. So what’s to come with Saturn in Virgo… “Dancing with your Doctor”??
3. “Earth” based environmental function. Well get ready for “being green” to become not only popular but the only way to go. Within the next few years it will be quite the norm to compare notes about what kind of solar heating system and how you re-cycle your water at the Sunday B-B-Q. Environmental organisations will be springing up all over the place…and not before time! But I guess it is actually the perfect time as Saturn’s transits always bring us exactly what we need when we need it! The thing here is to make sure you use Virgo’s discernment function to make sure that what you think you are getting is actually what you are getting. Oil companies jumped on the band wagon in the last few years assuring us all that they are responsible and credible when it comes to the environment. But are they really? This is what we now all need to be very aware of…accountability and credibility. In the “biz” this is known as ”Greenwash” - looking good but all talk and no action. Perhaps this echoes back to the Mars in Gemini opposite Pluto in Capricorn signature of the 2008 chart is briefly discussed at the beginning of this article. It is time for us to stop talking and start acting!!!!!
Big subjects such as Carbon Trading, (how big is your “Carbon Footprint”?) and other means of offering incentive for industry and private individuals to “go green” are set to occupy the airwaves. But we must be so careful (another favourite Virgo word) of quite who we support to do quite what. The trine from Saturn in Virgo to Jupiter in Capricorn also means that we need to educate ourselves about different environmental implications before we decide to get on a particular bandwagon.
4. Regulatory systems of all kinds. Virgo rules “systems” both internally and externally; from the bio-sphere with its’ self regulatory system that we see currently breaking down, be that from mankind’s industry or a combination of this and a natural phase in our planet’s history where the “system” is due to move into a new phase. It is only 12,000 years or so since the end of the last ice-age when people were free to begin to migrate leading to a new epoch. So be it causal or natural the system and its self regulatory ability is shifting. May we have to begin to have a serious look at the current situation and begin to plan for the great changes that will occur when sea levels began to rise? The implications are enormous but must be confronted head on. Huge investment must occur here in Australia to re-create basic infrastructure systems of water distribution and don’t be surprised if we have a “Department of Water” in the near future. Expect major re-structures of all types of governmental and corporate ‘systems’. The goal here should involve simplifying the red-tape that drives so many people to distraction and limits productive output. This leads to Point 5.
5. Public Service and Social Welfare. Virgo’s keyword is service and it would be very nice if more people actually came to the realization that we are all here to serve each other and the planet. Once again we may expect to see current limitations in all levels of service industries revealed. Social Welfare systems are in for a major overhaul and we already have a statement from our new PM that “in a country as wealthy as ours it is ridiculous that people are sleeping on the streets”. From what I hear the welfare system in the US is already stretched, so this issue will become a hot potato there as well I am sure.
Other Associations with Virgo. “Small animals” in particular but all the kingdoms of nature deserve a much better deal from humanity than we have offered thus far. Animal rights groups will become much more vocal; live meat exports and endangered species will all gain much greater sympathy I am sure in the next few years. And then there is “Slaves”; a very traditional connection with Virgo. With global production benefiting hugely from what is basically slave labour in the ‘sweat shops’ of Asia and the Middle East I look forward to this area also beginning to be addressed. Legislation is needed to prohibit corporate profits arising from these Mediaeval practices!
Part 4: Saturn in Virgo opposes Uranus in Pisces in their 45 year cycle…
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