Based on even a cursory reading of the news, or listening to anyone speak for more than five minutes, the mental health problem is now obviously at the pandemic scale. Random acts of violence, the lack of the obligation to make any sense, and a frantic feeling that seems to be soaking through society are just a few clues of its existence.
That there is at least one firearm for every man, woman and child in the United States indicates the level of fear, insecurity and mania over control. The symbol of the gun is that it's the one sure way to get someone to do something, at least in the mind of the person who has it.
The political conventions have spun out nonstop gossip while the real issues—among them, what is happening to the natural environment around us, and how many people are struggling to get through the day—are largely ignored.
I've noticed that it's not fashionable to talk about difficulty. Complaining is one thing; that's always popular. To actually open up about one's personal struggle seems to violate the "it's all good" rule. Opening up also necessitates vulnerability, and courage, and these things are in short supply at the moment.
As a result, my sense from listening and observing is that many people are holding in a lot: of pain, of anger, of fear, of confusion. Many, many people struggle daily with depression, often without understanding it and having no idea what to do about it.
What also I've noticed working as a personal astrologer for people in recent years is a struggle with purpose. Many people want to do something but don't know what to do. Many feel called to action but don't know what action to take. Part of that paralysis involves looking into the chaos of the planet and not seeing anywhere they can possibly make a difference, have an influence or make a living.
Yet I think that most of it involves the inner relationship, which is a dangerous thing these days. I say that because many people fear they are holding in so much that to open up even a little would be to let it all out. Therefore, the answer is to hold on and keep control.
What I'm describing is not affecting all people to the same degree. Obviously there are people who are doing well: who have a dry roof, food and a gig, and who feel pretty good most days. My purpose here is to speak to those who want to be doing better, by which I mean living a little more in balance, more connected, and living closer to a tangible healing process.
In recent editions, I've documented the influence of the internet on the chaotic state of society and the disoriented condition most people find themselves in at the moment. To sum up, the Net is inducing a disembodied state of existence. Part of what is driving the confusion and indeed the violence is a lack of connection to the body and its purpose.
I've quoted Eric McLuhan, the son of Marshall McLuhan, a few times lately, and I'll do it again today, because one of the problems we're having is remembering what happened yesterday.
"The body is everywhere assaulted by all of our new media, a state which has resulted in deep disorientation of intellect and destabilization of culture throughout the world. In the age of disembodied communication, the meaning and significance and experience of the body is utterly transformed and distorted."
It may not be easy to see the connections here, though it makes more sense if you know even a little about how the impact of something like the typewriter or the telephone transformed both society and how people think of themselves.
This issue goes back long before the Internet, but it's now exploded to the degree where it's uncontainable. There is no turning back. There is only the potential to find some new form of meaning, some new relationship with the body, in the midst of the chaos that we have created. This is possible, though it's going to require many different learning curves, including discovering remembering how to communicate with one another about things that matter.
Most New Age religion emphasizes being out of body rather than in your body and in your circumstances. It's designed to be easy. Yoga fits this pattern in that as currently practiced most of the time, it seems to be devoid of its philosophical and spiritual content; it reaches all the way into the other side of the polarity, in its own way denying the need to integrate living and how we respond to it with our minds.
In 1972, the words of Lakota prophet John Fire Lame Deer were published in the book Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions. He said:
"Only human beings have come to a point where they no longer know why they exist. They don't use their brains, and they have forgotten the secret knowledge of their bodies, their senses, or their dreams. They don't use the knowledge the spirit has put into every one of them; they are not even aware of this, and so they stumble along blindly on the road to nowhere—a paved highway which they themselves bulldoze and make smooth so that they can get faster to the big empty hole which they'll find at the end, waiting to swallow them up. It's a quick comfortable superhighway, but I know where it leads to. I've seen it. I've been there in my vision, and it makes me shudder to think about it."
I think that on one level, it's possible to "keep it positive" and not worry about this stuff, you know, all of society and where it's headed and all of that. Actually starting the conversation involves taking a pause from the drug of our era, which is hope. The minute you look directly at the issues, it's easy to feel hopeless. That tension between hope and hopelessness is putting people under a lot of pressure, because there is no reconciling the two states of mind. Neither is either of them especially useful as a tool; they both lead away from tangible perception or decisions.
Let's use astrology to get a few ideas about how to handle existing in this environment. Astrology gives clues to specific aspects of the background energy, so that you don't have to take it all at once. Those aspects can then be related to one another and a more complete picture formed. You might recognize some elements of your state of mind in these descriptions.
Uranus conjunct Eris (2016-2017, with a very wide time orb, perhaps 2011-2020). This is the big aspect that's driving most of the current environmental conditions, particularly digital conditions. The most recent conjunction was in Aries in 1927-1928 at the dawn of the electronic media age. Such has now come full circle.
I reckon this aspect began the day that Uranus entered Aries in 2011, and the Fukushima quake, tsunami and multiple meltdowns happened. One of the properties of digital conditions is mass amnesia. It's a little like that scene in One Hundred Years of Solitude where everyone forgets the past and the town fortune teller has to remind everyone what has already happened, rather than predicting the future.
You might say that this aspect describes the relationship between self and self, and self and society under the influence of the internet. Through the early summer of 2016 we experienced Mars, at the end of its retrograde, making a long aspect to the conjunction, provoking all kinds of identity-seeking through violence.
This aspect is quite literally behind everything we are experiencing, and it reaches well into the future; it's calling for fully conscious and mindful adaptation. It is not describing society as much as something about your state of mind as influenced by society. Uranus is about both technology and groups; the quest here is to maintain awareness of who you are in both of those contexts.
Because the pressure is so intense, and the tendency of digital is to make us forget rather than to remember, this particular mindfulness is an ongoing process of self-discovery. I really do mean discovery because the self that's being unearthed or reformulated may not exist yet.
Chiron square Pholus (Pisces to Sagittarius, 2016-2019). Chiron and Pholus are the first two discovered centaur planets. Centaurs represent non-ordinary states of consciousness, and they describe healing processes. There are several points of tension between Chiron and Pholus in this equation.
Pholus represents the uncontained release. Chiron represents a gradual process of development or healing. The square, seen one way, represents Chiron trying to get a grip on the out-of-control reaction of Pholus. You might think of Chiron as working to slow down the flow and deliver an appropriate dose of whatever Pholus is dispensing. This can be any medicine that is used properly, or abused.
What is interesting is that Pholus is conjunct the Galactic Core. The "medicine" that's flowing through is galactic consciousness, whatever that means. My take is that the Galactic Core is the homing signal that we pine for. It's a direct spiritual calling in the form of a feeling tone or instinct.
The problem with Pholus is that it may come across as an overwhelming longing, or as nothing at all. Chiron, square the Galactic Core, is a reminder that this energy is coming from inside of us, rather than from the outside or some external thing. This, of course, is the ultimate spiritual lesson: that we each contain the healing power we need.
One last thought. Chiron in Pisces is describing a kind of highly-focused erotic sensation, and a calling for sexual healing, that's an answer to the mystical longing of Pholus in Sagittarius. This is another version of the need to integrate psychic experience (meaning mental and emotional) with physical experience.
How do you do this? Slowly and gently—but steadily and dependably. You don't need to "take it all on." You merely need to leave your awareness open enough to have a sense of what's going on around you.
Saturn square Neptune, with Mars involved (August 24, 2016, with an orb of 2015-2017). This is a real mash-up, between three entirely distinct kinds of planetary energies. We see another example of the physical and the psychic acting on one another with the Saturn-Neptune square. Saturn is the planet of form and structure; Neptune is the planet that dissolves forms and structures. Saturn is about practical, tangible reality; Neptune is what you dream, imagine or hallucinate.
We've been living with this tension all year, but it's so subtle compared to other factors that it's been lurking in the deep background. It's about to emerge into the foreground as Mars makes a conjunction to Saturn and a square to Neptune on August 25. Mars, a hot, sharp object, pushes Saturn-Neptune right to the front of consciousness, just as the general election season is getting up to full speed.
This aspect pattern describes circumstances that call for careful handling, because it describes something that looks explosive. If there are any actual large explosions around this time, they are symbolic of the pressure we are under, and are trying to release.
This is an aspect that says blow off as much steam as you can, in advance of its arrival. If you're facing an important decision, be mindful of that, and start to create options for yourself. Most of all, if you're in denial about something, open up that door before it's blown open for you.
Mars-Saturn-Neptune can be brilliantly progressive if you use it consciously. And that contains one of the keys about how not to go insane: Recognize your resources, and use them with awareness.
