JANUARY 2007

Special thanks to astrologers Sue Taylor and Nina Bouska for their generous and helpful observations, contributed with so much love for Maya, for her children and for our Daykeeper readers.

This will be an important year for healing and for dramatic progress in creative and spiritual projects. In November, some two weeks before my mother’s passage, she told me that the years ahead would be marked by dramatic and extended conflict, some of which we can see coming in the chart for this fall. We are all participating—whether or not we know it—in spiritual and energetic struggles in our minds and world, and, as Maya pointed out, these have not yet come to a head.

The solstice chart shows that we are before a window of opportunity for developing sublime aspirations, as we simultaneously charge our personal auras and that of the planet with light. The numerology for the year is nine, indicating special help for consolidating projects or intentions seeded in 1999. To use this blessed annual cycle and integrate the radiance will take some work, but as we shall see below, the stars are lighting our pathway.

All fired up for progress

Leo rising, set off by a stellium of four planets in Sagittarius in the fifth house trine an Aries midheaven, lights the fires of enthusiasm and energy necessary for breakthroughs in our goals and projects, specifically those relating to spirit, creativity and service. This stellium includes Mars, which squares Uranus in Pisces exactly (to the second!) in the eighth house, a dynamic precursor of brilliant initiatives to direct creativity and deep transformation.

Take care: this same square can also exacerbate violent confrontation, requiring special attention and time out to remain spiritually and emotionally centered, a theme reiterated in this chart, as we will see a bit further on.

Another Uranus area to heed is the Internet. The last major bastion of people’s information will continue to play an important role as long as we can protect it from the intense consolidation efforts of corporations and government. (See SaveTheInternet.com.) This controversy will continue to be in the news.

There’s another exciting tendency that Maya and I had discussed: Pluto transiting the galactic center in Sagittarius. This is a divine appointment, inviting us to release a tsunami of positive transformation as growing numbers awaken to the power within. (So great is the potential for spiritual resurgence that Pluto has been demoted in an effort by the dark control system to minimize the impact on the disempowerment strategy.)

This deeply revolutionary combination conjuncts the Sun in the solstice chart, another indication that 2007 represents a special portal on spiritual mastery. Intuitive and angelic assistance will facilitate opportunities for inner dominion, esoteric secrets will be revealed, as well as brilliant discoveries about DNA and the origins of life. We are called to become active participants of co-creation before Pluto moves into Capricorn next November. When a critical mass of individuals assume their personal power and stop projecting it onto the system, we will find ourselves free of abusive control and on the way to fulfilling our destiny as energy beings.

What are your most important spiritual and creative goals?

This year, especially from now to August, each day can be a golden step to their manifestation if you act with decision. Be sure to take into account the needs and wants of the child within, as well as opportunities with children in general: to creatively guide, protect and inspire them. This call comes from the Sagittarius line-up in the fifth house. The divine child in our hearts, incarnated in many special children now coming in, is truly the hope for the planet. Use any available opportunities to guide and protect the perception of youths in your life. Help filter and/or reinterpret the onslaught of messages and images present in marketing, religious and entertainment programs which promote consumerism, aggression and other addictions that can neutralize the budding magic in little ones. Do not underestimate the gift of interacting with them personally. Keep your lines open, listen carefully, and be sure to sow the seeds of higher knowledge and values. The solstice charts indicates that many of this year’s transcendental issues will be focused precisely on the education of society’s youngest members, a worthy outlet for the rush of creative energy now coming through. Remember, the angels of fire are with you, burning down obstacles to manifestation of your goals and those of others you seek to bless.

Rebuild your resources and claim your independence

Saturn is the handle of a bucket pattern in the solstice chart, making it an all-important outlet for the rest of the energies. This powerful Saturn is also retrograde, prompting a search for authority within, questioning official versions and the status quo. This timely tendency is further accentuated as it transits through Leo, where, to quote R. Merriman, “the child within each of us” becomes critical of and “contentious towards” authorities.

Even as we heal our inner child, we can also develop maturity, focusing on the first and second cusp areas of personality, values and resources. The adult within brings up important questions: How can we work on ourselves? How can we develop that is of lasting value? What measures will lead to our financial independence? How does our livelihood align with our ideals? Now we can find solutions and the strength to implement them.

Saturn, the god of authority, also opposes Neptune. Events will lead us to question the glitz and glamour of media and consumerism. What’s really behind mainstream stories, the film industry, the petroleum economy? What have we felt dependent on that we can really do without? Our independent will is receiving a boost to build lasting, value-centered abundance, and to develop our talents in the process.

About oppositions, Rael and Rudyar said:

There can be no change in the outer world and in society unless the individual’s subjective being is altered, for better or for worse.

As each of us works to clarify values and restructure resources, we will see results in the world such as important progress for alternative energy and the coming to light—in diverse institutions and corporations—of secret abuse with public holdings and trust.

This year, we can apply the highest lesson of Saturn in Leo as described by Alan Oken: “the alignment of the will in order that the mind may create the proper structures of the Will-to-Love.”

The military: archetype of service values for 2007

Look for events within and around the military to play out the collective clarification of the will for good. The Sun in the solstice chart—in mutual reception with Saturn—is on the cusp of the sixth house of service, also the abode of Moon conjunct Venus in Capricorn. The Sabian symbol for Saturn’s degree in Leo is a cryptic confirmation of the role the military will play in the New Year’s dynamics:

THE UNION JACK FLIES FROM A BRITISH WARSHIP….. Where this symbol appears, the need for protection may be in evidence—or it may be a warning against using power for selfish advantage.

Lt. Watada and other outspoken military personnel will become increasingly visible this year, as they act out the struggles in the collective psyche. There are two ways to integrate the lessons they remind us of:

• Taking action to support such servicemen and women
• Take time out to honestly ask: Are we doing our work in the spirit and deed of service, even when this goes against the ego’s mandates, material pressures or external authority?

The power of love can cure the love of power

This idea is easier to verbalize than to apply. Yet the solstice chart calls us to persist towards the vibration of unconditional kindness. Venus in persevering Capricorn conjuncts the sun by sign and Moon by degree. In Buddhist astrology the Moon is considered the planet of compassion meditation practices. Moon in the solstice chart is VOC, not too propitious for new beginnings in the world, yet Maya taught that the VOC Moon was a great time for inner activities like meditation, visualization and prayer. Those who direct this year’s fire energies in spiritual practices that nurture the love vibration will make a most timely contribution to personal and planetary peace and protection, as we will see a bit further on.

These are values of the Divine Mother, and in 2007 we will see them promoted by women in positions of authority, including in the military.

The asteroid keys to healing

Chiron on the descendant and Juno on the IC indicate that healing and abuse will be growing concerns, and women will be their most visible spokespersons. Cindy Sheehan will remain in the spotlight, and related personalities will surface. The time has come to face our wounds and those of others, and move on to heal them. There will be upsetting news of human rights abuses and we do well to remember that to passively witness abuse is a form of complicity.

On the other hand, even as we take a stand for our own rights and those of others, clarifying our feelings, contacting Congress, supporting key organizations, let us remember that the vibration of peace is far more effective than that of anger. It takes more than a concept to effect emotional change, which is why great spiritual masters stress inner work to raise our frequency to a place beyond judgementalism.

This is the state that allowed St. Francis to dissuade an aggressive wolf from attacking the citizens of Gubbio, Italy. Centuries before, the Buddha was teaching that whoever radiates unconditional goodwill is protected by devas from inner and outer dangers. Legend has it that just as Siddhartha was about to reach Enlightenment, he was attacked by Mara, god of worldly attachment. As Siddhartha’s mind stayed centered in love and compassion, his radiant aura transmuted the arrows and lightening that were showering upon him, they became a bath of flower petals. The gods of worldly attachment in our own minds and surroundings today would distract us from the highest goals. As we insist on developing our spiritual consciousness, releasing judgments and transmuting condemnation, we synchronize with the only powers capable of carrying this planet through to an era of peace.

What do these stories have to do with asteroids? Chiron on the descendant in the solstice chart can serve as a mirror to retrieve ourselves from the victim-victimizer dichotomy.

Issues about our nation’s abuse of others will become increasingly evident. As they do, try this: ask yourself if you would like to be held morally responsible for that abuse, or for any other form of harm you have inflicted directly or indirectly, actively or by default. A Course in Miracles says that we should avoid thinking of others as we ourselves would not like to be thought of. The call is to release condemnation, even as we work to stop the abuse. Our healing efforts will then come from a frequency akin to past and present masters, capable of working the miracles our planet gasps for.

As for Vesta, she squares Chiron from the fourth house. She’ll be displaying the wounds being caused by homeland security, inviting us to take back the power relinquished to a fear-based mentality.

Finally, Ceres opposing powerhouse Saturn will make us take a good, hard look at what we feed our bodies, minds and children. Issues around genetically modified, processed and even cloned foods will mirror the intent and need for increased discrimination about what we take in and share.

Seize the moment

On the sundial the shadow is moving, marking each passing hour. Do not let a day of this power-packed year go by without taking inner and outer initiatives to ground your potential as a co-creator of your own life and of a better world. Forge ahead with faith and decision in those areas of spirit and creativity that are of lasting value. Actively honor the child within, as well as those children that have been entrusted to you, whether completely, partially or sporadically. Recover your independence, of thought, finances and values. Keep the fires of service lit in your heart and in your work. Heal your wounds and those of the world as you exercise your power, politically, socially, spiritually.

May this year be a testimony to Chiron’s awareness, as expressed by Martin Lass, “Love is the beginning and end of our journey of wounding and healing.”

On behalf of Susan and me, of Alex Miller Mignon, Joseph Odom, Sue Taylor and Nina Bouska, in the spirit of our radiant mother and collaborator Maya, may every ray of each shining day touch, move and bless your being, your family large and small, and your existence in the New Year and beyond.