Tightrope Walkers
THE AQUARIUS NEW MOON
Saturday, February 13, 2010 at 6:51 pm Pacific Time
The Sun and Moon at 25 degrees Aquarius
As a parent, one of the things I struggle with is setting limits without triggering exhausting power struggles. I do know the "right way" to handle it, that's not the problem. I've taken parenting classes where I learned how to craft those awkward "I-messages" (for example: "When you tie the rope around kitty's neck and drag Mister Chuckles across the floor, I feel very sad"). I realize too that it's best to offer "choices" rather than dish out ultimatums. I know this stuff. But at the end of a long day, faced with a two-day old stack of dirty dishes, crumbs left all over the floor from the latest snack raid, my chocolate stash missing from its hiding place, ultimately, inevitably, what tumbles out is certainly no "I-message."
Parenting is tricky, a tightrope walk requiring an exceptional sense of balance and a kind of grace that's hard to achieve. Mostly I wobble, one day I'm too lenient, the next, because of the leniency, I'm snapping out orders and taking away priviledges left and right — desperately trying to get my child to do something completely unreasonable, completely, absurdly impossible, like unload the dishwasher.
Trying to get kids to cooperate, do a couple of chores, finish their homework, and eat their peas are just a few of the daily miracles we must pull off. Parenting is a heroic struggle to maintain order and discipline within the relentless chaos of child-rearing. Kids are knuckleheads after all, let's be truthful. Given a choice, they would eat ice cream and potato chips for breakfast and spend the rest of the day flopped in front of some kind of monitor. Someone has to watch out for them and insist they eat right, learn to be responsible, and contribute something. It's a tough, often exasperating job, but it's also the finest thing we can ever do. The two planets that correlate best with these experiences of parenthood — Saturn and Uranus — happen to rule Aquarius, the sign of this month's New Moon.
The minute you give birth to a child, the future is transformed. No longer just an abstract notion of the months and years ahead, it is now much more personal and more worrisome, because the future belongs to your child. Hope for humanity's future and responsibility for what comes next is the realm of Aquarius. And parenting, working with these little people who personify the future — and trying our best to "humanize" them — seems to me a uniquely hopeful Aquarian pursuit.
Between Aquarius's co-rulers, Saturn is the best symbol for parental authority, and signifies structure, order, physical reality, the "bounds" of life. Practical and resourceful, Saturn makes us aware of our limitations, it is the force that keeps our feet firmly planted and saves us from becoming harebrained fools.
Taken to extremes though, Saturn can scare the joy right out of life, turn us into fearful droids trapped in horrible jobs. Our innovative and creative side, dying to get out, is kept under wraps, a threat to security. Saturn needs a counter-balance, a courageous, audacious, hopeful little "fool." Enter Aquarius's other ruler, the one who pulls the carpet out from under those firmly planted feet....
Uranus, Aquarius's modern co-ruler, was discovered in 1761 with the aid of the telescope, which was needed to see it. Before this, Saturn, furthest out of all visible planets, was for thousands of years the outer limits of our solar system. When Uranus, troubled child, hit the scene, chaos resulted because Saturn's ancient cosmic order, which seemed so solid, so permanent, was gone overnight. In complete synch with Uranus's discovery, revolution of all sorts soon broke out in many spots around the globe, the most well known in the West being the American and French Revolutions.
So Aquarius is ruled by two vastly different archetypes with opposing principles. Uranus is anarchist to Saturn's ruling class, the entrepeneur vs the company man, parent and child, jazz improvisation contrasted with classical fidelity to composition. Uranus breaks the rules that Saturn has made. When we consider how very different Aquarius's co-rulers are, we have some inkling of the inherent balancing act that is going on behind the scenes with this sign.
Change Meets Resistance
We could actually take some clues from Aquarians right now because we are in the midst of a Saturn-opposition-Uranus transit — and so all of us are being asked to combine these two archetypes in a new, hopefully better, way.
When Saturn and Uranus face off in opposition, as they are now, powerful forces for change encounter powerful resistance, a struggle that we see playing out in many ways, especially in Washington. We see this in the ongoing failure to achieve real healthcare reform despite outspoken support and protests; a continued unwillingness to cooperate with the rest of the world on carbon reduction; the recent Supreme Court decision overturning years of campaign finance reform efforts; and Guantanamo, still open. Structures are eroding and big change looms, but for now, it seems every step taken towards reform is met with a new roadblock. Powerful forces for change meet powerful resistance. But timing is everything. A good idea, no matter how right, will not be embraced if it is out of step with the times. From an astrological perspective though, we are moving into just such times, and as chaotic and stressful as it may be, it is necessary.
Our lives are comprised of important relationships and comforting structures that function as a bulwark against the unpredictable nature of life. We need these routines and familiar faces. Not many of us can handle a life of continuous change. I was a substitute teacher for two months and so I can attest to that. It's too stressful to be in a different situation every day. But permanence is illusion: nothing stays the same, nothing lasts forever. Every day we get a little bit older, the hair gradually grays. People leave us or we leave them. We lose our job, we sell our home, and move away. Our children grow up and go off to college. While we need some kind of familiar order and predictability in our lives, truth is, like the Universe around us, we are not static either, and scary as it is, we have to change in order to keep growing and be healthy. When Saturn meets Uranus, we suddenly feel, not comfort from, but stifled by these very structures we've built to sustain us. Slowly, gradually, without realizing, we wake up one morning to find our comforting safe haven has become a prison.
The Wildcard
Anytime Uranus is active, sudden, unexpected events and wild reversals can strike out of the blue. Shocking, surprising events can undermine our carefully organized lives and leave us feeling raw, naked and vulnerable. What seemed so solid and reliable in our lives can be whisked away from us in a flash. From the healing distance of time, we usually see that the change was necessary and even beneficial, unfortunately that doesn't help much while it's happening.
Uranus's effects are erratic, so it is difficult to forecast how any of us might be affected personally. One technique that can work is to look at earlier Uranus transits and research what was happening. Chances are something akin to that will be afoot once more. Saturn-Uranus oppositions occur every 45 years, the last was in 1965-67 and before that, 1918-1920, both eras of turmoil and change.
This current Saturn-Uranus opposition will have five exact passes, times when the effects are strongest, most acute. The first three have already come and gone. The first exact pass was highly significant for the US: Nov 4, 2008, the day we elected Barack Obama, our first Black president. Second exact pass was on Feb 5, 2009, and third was last fall, Nov 15, 2009.
What was going on for you around these dates? Any stirrings of discontent within? Desire for change and more freedom? There are two more exact passes to wrap up this opposition transit cycle coming later this year. The dates are:
- April 26, 2010 at 28 degrees Virgo/Pisces
- July 26, 2010 at 0 degrees Aries/Libra
The last opposition in July clicks into place with Pluto squaring both planets from early Capricorn, turning the opposition into a three-way, planetary-archetypal hulabaloo, the "Cardinal T-Square." Much has been written already about this astrological event, one of the many exciting transits in store for us this decade. (For those interested I've referenced a good article by finance astrologer Ray Merriman below.)
The Tightrope
The amazing Maria Spelterini was an Italian tightrope walker and the only woman to cross the Niagara gorge, which she did on July 8, 1876. She used two and a quarter inch wire and crossed just north of the lower suspension bridge. She crossed again on July 12, 1876, this time wearing peach baskets strapped to her feet, as we see in this photo of her taken on that day. She crossed again on July 19 blindfolded, and on July 22 with her ankles and wrists manacled. Walking on a tightrope in midair has got to be the most freeing and exhilarating kind of adventure you could ever experience, yet it obviously requires a preternatural ability to concentrate and unshakeable mental discipline — skills developed over years of diligent practice. Saturn and Uranus in action. Tightrope performers, while not listed in any astrological rulership book I could find, have got to be ruled by Aquarius.
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Ray Merriman, a finance astrologer and market analyst, writes: "As of September 2008, the U.S. and world banking system has officially entered a state of crisis. This economic and banking crisis will likely bring about the end of an era, and lead to an immense transformation of not just the banking and financial community, but almost every aspect of the human experience (political, social, cultural, etc)." Here's the link for further reading: The Cardinal Climax for more information.
Information and photo about Maria Spelterini was gathered from the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Spelterini.
The illustration at top, "Fairy Dance" is by Arthur Rackham, a children's book illustrator from the Victorian era; and the illustration of the cherubs was taken from a Victorian Valentine's Day card, artist unknown.
© 2012 Elaine Kalantarian, all rights reserved