and for mars opposite uranus...

'naked man dancing' d sinclair '06

"Overtly sexual relationships are often being driven by something deeper, more fundamental. This has to do with the need to be held together as a cohesive personality, so that we do not easily fall apart with unbearable anxiety or depression, so that we can maintain reasonable self esteem, and so that we can withstand the usual fluctuations of life's successes and failures with reasonable equanimity, without excessive inflation or despair. I believe that the elusive bonding agent which is required here is what the alchemists referred to as the glutinum mundi."

(Lionel Corbett, The Alchemical Glutinum Mundi, in Fire in the Stone: The Alchemy of Desire, p 127)

..and for a peregrine bibliomancer...

self portrait d sinclair '07

"The first contact brings the sudden awareness that all is not 'right' but it is often difficult to discern which part of oneself or one's environment is inappropriate to the future. One begins to cast about, looking outside oneself for the cause of anxiety or turbulence"

(Erin Sullivan, Retrograde Planets, Traversing the Inner Landscape - Chapter 21, Transiting Uranus Retrograde, p367)

The word 'Peregrine' comes from the Latin for 'alien' or 'foreigner' (pereger = beyond the borders, ager = land, i.e., 'beyond one's own land'). In old English, to peregrinate means to wander far from home. In traditional and medieval astrology the term refers to a planet which has no 'level of rulership' or power in its current cosmic position - its a drifter, an immigrant and just passing through, buddy.

There are a few planets doing not much in particular at the moment, or so it feels to me - but perhaps its only that here in my house we're all home from school; mooching around wrapped in blankets, passing each other tissues and hot tea as we nurse runny noses and coughs; pottering between one creative project and the next; reading the same page over and over; generally not getting a whole lot done. The phone is off the hook, we're hunkered down, as they say in the movies (and probably in real life somewhere out there). At the same time is a feeling that we'll be leaving here soon, but as yet we have no place to aim for. I await the guidance of the Gods.

Jupiter, Uranus, Pluto, Chiron and Neptune - these boys are all in cosmic drift mode, otherwise known as 'retrograde'. Not actually going backwards, as the word suggests, but appearing to do so as the heavens continue to reel around them. Someone recently described this as akin to being driven along on one of those childhood road trips, lying down on the backseat and watching the trucks overtake - marvelling at how this really feels like travelling in reverse. Yeah, like that, remember?

While lying there on the backseat, watching the world go past, you might start to wonder about where you've been, which direction you're going in; you might question the nature of time and direction and you might imagine a whole lot of stuff. The inner world - soul - takes over. Those telegraph poles you can see out of the window become markers - proof that you are indeed still going somewhere. You can fly between them, leap from one to the next. Until your little sister decides to stick straws in your nostrils, and Mum in the front seat tells you to keep your feet inside the vehicle or for goodness' sake a passing truck will take them off.

Sorry, I got carried away there for a moment.

(See? I'm a wanderer in my own inner landscape right now, and in need of outer guidance - but my body is telling me to be still a while, let life get out of focus. Who am I to argue with the soul's wisdom?)

Bleuch, I'm going back to bed...

bibliomancy for uranus stationary retrograde...

"We must love each other or die" WH Auden

As above, so below; as within, so without. Sometimes, though, its hard to tell which is the driving force of change - as if there's some logic to the old Chinese belief that fate is divided into three parts, only one of which is in the control of the individual. It could be true, especially if you believe it (which I don't).

Uranus, out there in the cosmos past Saturn, is said to embody the archetype of change; of innovation, aliveness and synchronicity. One astrologer says this planet brings 'mishaps and miracles'. Its more than a Trickster, though, which brings minor mishaps and challenges to the flow of our daily lives and creates the kind of connections which make us laugh in spite of ourselves. Wherever Uranus touches our lives we find ourselves confronted by the truly unconventional - things get turned on their side. Like the discovery of the planet beyond our known solar system that coincided with the rise in technology; the 'industrial revolution' that moved humans en masse like nothing else. Nothing has been the same since. Life just keeps getting faster, smaller, stranger.

There's an argument that Uranus should be called Prometheus - the one who stole the fire of the gods. I'm sure Uranus has something in store for all those who say 'should' about anything. Some call this planet The Awakener - the electric boogooloo of the divine world, the one who'll shake us up, inspire remarkable creations and open our minds to previously unimagined things. He is the Great Science Fiction Writer in the Sky - except that the fiction is becoming reality.

As an outer planet Uranus moves slowly, unseen (to a naked eye looking out from here on earth) and is more about the collective personality than any individual psyche. Or rather, Uranus breaks through our personal ego-barriers to show us how our thinking is all wrong, that our individuality is just an illusion, that we aren't separate at all. Uranus gives us the quantum dimension - a whole other perspective from which to view life the universe and everything.

So as Uranus slows down before entering its retrograde period we can expect some revelations - this is a powerful change in direction - and some events that ask us to think differently. More, to recognise that we are part of a collective; to observe how our thoughts and beliefs shape our part of that collective and ask ourselves if these are working towards something creative and good - and if not, then why.

Because as the guy with the lightbulb has shown us, one person really can make a difference to the whole world.