Expect the Unexpected

There's an interesting and rather intense stew brewing in the astrological skies this month. As triggered by the recent Aries New Moon, Uranus, trickster outer planet archetype of startling and unexpected turns as well as unusual intuitional understanding, is coming into closer conjunction over the next few months with the new planet, Eris, which can be characterized as a spiritual warrior energy. Eris greatly emphasizes every planet that she touches, in the direction of deep soul intention, and this is thus a powerful factor of emphasis of the Uranian quality of these times. Eris is currently located at 22 Aries, and with Uranus at 20, so that their conjunction has now come to less than 2 degrees. These two outer planets will be exactly conjunct on June 9th. Because we are in the Aries time of the year, this past weekend and into Monday and Tuesday, we now have the Sun crossing these two, triggering their combination, which is additionally triggered by the Moon on Monday morning, and on Wednesday. The Sun conjoined Uranus on April 9th before heading into perfectly conjuncting Eris on Tuesday, April 12th, so that these symptoms of the unexpected and potentially enlightening event have been visible all weekend.

What else does this concentration of archetypal energies imply? Uranus is in square with Pluto for the remainder of this decade, symbolizing revolutionary / evolutionary activity for major change. This can easily be observed, coming on stronger this year, at both the societal and the individual level. Uranus is also a very significant astrological symbol in its own right, for taking a fresh and more inspired look at any situation. Noted astrologer Jeffery Green called Uranus 'Freedom from the Known.' There is a way of getting stuck, remaining in your rut, believing that what everyone says actually holds the limitation of responsible activity and philosophical meaning. A broader viewpoint might argue that this structure of consensus thinking is only a starting point. Uranus rises up and takes a shot at birthing new concepts, and suddenly previously unknown worlds open themselves up for your purview. The small but important gesture on your part in favor of new beginnings and thinking outside of any box is the necessary ingredient; then, you are off and running. As Goethe famously remarked:

        Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
        Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

This transit of Uranus with Eris, from now until beyond the end of the year, might be just the catalyst that you need to make that all-important first move. This also involves trusting your deep intuition, and staying as open as you can to all your possibilities. In addition to providing strong emphasis to Uranus, and to Uranus-Pluto, in these times of great and wondrous change, Eris in particular signals getting in touch with what you most deeply believe and acting on this knowledge. The highest expression of Eris is about making a principled stand for oneself. That is, once you discover what your soul-level values are, deep down. You then find that this represents what you cannot NOT do, what above and beyond all else you are willing to fight for, against long odds, and to the death if necessary. And Uranus, representing deep soul-level intuition, can help each of us to understand and to act upon what we hold inside, perhaps in the form of a mission of service to society itself.

We might therefore see not only unexpected happenings over this next week and later on, into the summer months, but also principled action of a quirky kind for that which we most deeply believe. This is an activity that is sorely needed. It is time that we, each one of us, stand up and be counted.