Climate change has become very real to people everywhere in the world. It is beginning to become real to U.S. residents as well. It grabs headlines every day as we hear about the oceans cooling or warming (depending on where you measure), the ice melting, temperatures rising, sea level rising, and many species being displaced or eliminated. The consensus is in—that global warming is moving ahead quickly, and that much of it is man-made.

How do the planets relate to this phenomenon? One big connection is the outer planets. The three outer planets—Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto—have very deep influences. They move slowly, and correspond with major changes in both the conscious and subconscious minds.

Next we look at the universal signs—Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. They are called universal because they relate to society as a whole, to the broad picture. Planets moving in those signs have big concerns. Abraham Lincoln, for example, had seven of the ten major planets in universal signs.

Since 1995, all three of the outer planets, which stir our consciousness mightily, have been traveling in universal signs. This is not frequent, and it marks deep and major social change. Interestingly, the two occurrences that I found in this millennium relate to Mexico. They were the few years around 1327, when Mexico City was founded, and around 1821, the establishment of the independence of Mexico.

During the last few months, both Pluto and Neptune have moved into new degrees, stirring the pot in new ways. Since they have long cycles, it has been many years—250 for Pluto, 164 for Neptune—since those degrees have been so deeply stimulated. And probably never together or, if at all, many thousands of years ago.

Pluto is about the evolution of power. It promotes deep and total transformation. It rules birth and death, and earth changes. Pluto was traveling in Capricorn in 1776, marking the U.S. as connected with the growth of big business, big organization, big government as all-powerful.

Now Pluto is traveling in Sagittarius, reforming religion, politics, the law, travel, and foreign relations, for example. Pluto is an extremist. It’s all or nothing. ("You’re either with us, or against us," said Plutonic GW Bush.)

Neptune moves us into the stream of spirit within which we move, the source of our thoughts, dreams, and inspirations. Neptune itself universalizes. It connects us all. We all do live in the same stream of spirit, and respond to the same archetypes. Neptune helps us to be aware of that connection through, for example, music, movies, and the arts.

Neptune is now traveling through Aquarius, where two major interests are first, dignity for each human being, and second, a use of energy which will provide benefits for both the individual and the group. Planets in Aquarius are at their best when promoting a society in which those ideas can flourish.

Right now Uranus, who wakens us to truth, is in Pisces, the sign which rules cycles, large and small, including the climate cycle and the water cycle. Part of Uranus’ action is disruption, as we break up old conditions to move to another level of truth.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science met in Washington around the current Full Moon to discuss climate change. At this time Pisces Sun conjoined Uranus, and Moon in Virgo opposed it.

Pisces is Neptune’s natural sign, and Aquarius is Uranus’ sign. Thus these two planets are in one another’s signs, from 2003-2011. In this combination, they work together exceedingly well. Reforming society through visionary work is the potential. Paul Hawken, whose pioneering work combining business and environmentalism is touched on in this issue of Daykeeper, is an excellent example of the positive potential of this combination.

Crystal Pomeroy’s monthly columns in Daykeeper also help us use positively these powerful energies. Crystal’s work is in tune with the Moon’s cycles, and she helps us to awaken our own powers of active visualization. Visualization IS particularly potent during these years, and it is dreams and visions which are the seeds of manifestation.

In addition, we have Chiron now in universal signs. Chiron was "discovered" in 1977, and entered its first universal sign in 2000. Chiron works with vibrational levels, similar to Uranus, except that Chiron helps us hold our grounding at the same time as we open to higher vibrations. The result of its work is a basic re-alignment of our energies.

Thus all three of the outer planets, plus Chiron, are now in universal signs. Experiencing transits of any one of these planets feels chaotic, as our usual environment is upended, and habitual consciousness is revised. In universal signs, that consciousness is changed greatly and broadly, with the potential for great lifting, and the ability to work more closely with spirit.

However, the enormity and depth of this process is very disconcerting, to say the least. There is much chaos as potent energies mix and match in entirely new ways. Life is no longer predictable. "What will happen?" we want to know.

We can’t know. It is like making a cake for the first time. We mix these ingredients, which have no similarity to one another or to the result of the process. We have faith that if we give the mixture some heat and some time, a tasty result will emerge.

Care and attention are two essential qualities for all good cooking. Cooking itself is a simile for life, and can be a symbol, as well, for a wise use of nature’s cycles.

We can put care and attention and love and faith into our daily lives, as we undergo the deep changes of these years. We can also choose the ingredients for our cooking, and for living our lives, with care. We can ask how everything which we use fits into the larger cycles of nature.

We can remember the physicians’ first law: Do No Harm.

We are being pushed to change our consciousness greatly. This is difficult because of the necessary chaos and unpredictability of the process, as the forces of change run into resistance. The greater the change, the greater the opposition.

The challenges to us now are many. Perhaps the most basic is to stay grounded, when reality constantly changes. Remembering that we are children of nature, as much as is the carrot which we’re eating for lunch, can help us to stay connected.