03.07

EXCERPTS FROM ASTROLOGER GURU RATTANAN

A NEW ERA - PLUTO ENTERS CAPRICORN
Pluto moves into Capricorn January 25, 2008 and stays through 2024. Pluto's long stay in each sign of the zodiac means that it, along with the two other outer plants - Uranus and Neptune - defines eras and generations. All three outer planets will announce endings and beginnings by changing signs in the next four years. Uranus will move into Aries May 28, 2010. Neptune will move into Pisces February 4, 2012.

The last time Pluto was in Capricorn was November 1762 through Decemer1778. This is the time of the Boston Tea Party, the American Revolution, the beginning of the industrial revolution and technological development, and the expansion of free trade and civil liberties.

Saturn rules Capricorn. This means that we better get a handle on how to deal with Saturn if we want to take advantage of its liberating possibilities instead of feeling like we are being subjected to its tyranny for the next 16 years. In traditional astrology, Saturn is considered malefic. Even if we don't dread Saturn, we are apprehensive and would choose to avoid its heavy hand if we could.

Pluto has been in Sagittarius for the past 14 years, which in many ways has felt like a relief from the previous 12 years in Scorpio (November 1983-November 1985). (Pluto's elliptical orbit means that the time spent in each sign varies.) Pluto rules Scorpio, which intensified the penetrating knife of Pluto while it was in Scorpio's deep waters. Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, whose expansive, benefic, and positive attitude in many ways softened the Pluto's truth and consequences program.

On the other hand, the reckless, speculative, overextension of Jupiter got us into a lot of deep trouble, personally and collectively. Now stern Capricorn and Saturn have arrived to straighten us out. They should actually have a favorable influence in moving us back on track - forcing us (1) to live within reasonable limits, (2) to be more realistic about use of resources and (3) to take responsibility for the impact of our actions or lack of action.

UNDERSTANDING SATURN
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS EXPRESSIONS
All astrological archetypes -- signs and planets - are expressed both unconsciously and consciously (and every shade in between). The more unconscious we are, the more we subject ourselves to their negative expressions. The more conscious we become, the more we are able to take advantage of their powers and gifts. Understanding how Saturn operates and its special nuances can help us more wisely navigate the next 16 years.

Playing by Saturn's rules can reduce both headaches and heartaches. How about trading a simpler life style for no credit card debt or threats of foreclosure? How about finding out if your dream lover is married before you start dating? Saturn causes stress if we don't abide by the rules. It relieves stress if we obey.

CHANGE, EVOLUTION AND GROWTH
The outer plants - Neptune, Pluto and Uranus - challenge our view of reality and ourselves, which is from the Infinite point of view always too limited. This is also true of Saturn, which lies between the outer and the personal planets. In traditional astrology (before the outer planets were discovered by modern astronomers) the Saturn archetype was used to explain many of the lessons of Pluto and Uranus. All four planets have a different approach to tearing down the wall we build between our personality and our souls and the Universe. Each in their own way helps us discover that life, the universe and ourselves differ radically from what we perceive and imagine.

Saturn, Neptune, Pluto and Uranus each specialize in different types of wake up experiences. And we all react differently to these experiences. Some welcome their revelations. Others get upset, angry and blame outside influences and God for disturbing their lives. Those who accept events and are willing to makes changes within themselves have an easier time. Those who fight change continue to invite external events to wake them up. Energy that we cannot effectively internalize will be expressed externally, until we learn the lessons.

Our attempts to play safe by maintaining the same rigid attitudes and behaviors sets us up for events to wake us up. If we fight, we get hammered even further. If we accept the situation as something necessary for our growth, the Universe can become our friend, and we can take advantage of the evolutionary opportunities as they present themselves.

Pluto is the dark mother who exposes our fear of unconscious power, primal feelings and sexuality. Pluto expresses as dark moods and deafening silence. It brings to the surface uncivilized urges, primitive desires, inexplicable emotions and passionate instincts.

Saturn is the dark father who expresses as control, limits, restriction and rigidity. To avoid our Saturn lessons we defend our position with 'hyper-rationality, coldness, criticism, rejection and a sort of wet-blanket atmosphere that spoils everything" for those around us.

THE PARADOX OF THE BEAST
In myths and fairy tales, the beast is always the dark side of the handsome prince. This paradox or duality is an operating principle in life. As we study all the astrological archetypes, it is important to keep in mind the constant undercurrent of paradox and duality. Realizing that embracing our dark side opens us up to experience higher levels of conscious is particularity important when we attempt to understand Saturn¸ who specializes in playing the role of the Beast.

SATURN'S PSYCHIC PROCESS
The Saturn archetype represents a psychic process that serves to gradually awaken our consciousness so that we can attain more mature and authentic levels of Self. The individual psyche is pressurized with the purpose of achieving a more complete and harmonious integration of all our soul qualities. We are each driven to have a conscious realization or inner experience of psychic wholeness. It is only when we understand the hidden gifts that lie beneath the apparent flaws of our inner Beast that we can be freed from Saturn's spell and can become the Prince. Our gifts and true self lie hidden in our unconscious. Saturn works to crack the wall between our conscious and unconscious selves.

Saturn is called the "the keeper of the keys to the gate" and "dweller at the threshold." The threshold is the gate to consciousness. We must past through the unconscious to open the gate of awareness. Saturn helps us achieve freedom and fulfillment through self-understanding and self-acceptance.

UNDERSTANDING SATURN'S LESSONS
Saturn works through the educational value of pain, restriction, discipline and hard work. Saturn creates experiences of limitation and frustration. When we feel victimized by Saturn's heavy hand, we often react with self-blame, feelings of guilt, self-depreciation, and depression. Saturn knows that we do not get serious about self-discovery until pain and suffering give us no other choice. Then we grudgingly accept the necessity of our Saturn experiences. Nothing motivates our self exploration more than being backed into a corner where we have to work ourselves out of the predicament.

Wherever Saturn shows up we experience problems and delays in achieving our goals and difficulties in successfully expressing ourselves in the world. When Saturn is active in our lives, we encounter painful circumstances which seem to just happen. We feel thwarted for no apparent reasons. We often call these unpleasant happenings bad karma. But this is a superficial interpretation of a deep acting process.

We generally interpret what we draw to ourselves as chance or good and bad luck. In our victim mentality, we blame others, the system or God. We learn to be cautious, to protect ourselves and to be more appropriate. But practical wisdom is not enough. Saturn teaches us to take a broader perspective of our life challenges and to place them in the context of our evolutionary growth. Without this deeper understanding, we feel like pawns of fate and that we have no control over our lives. Saturn teaches us that we are not free until we take responsibility for our fate and for the consequence of our actions.

INNER SHIFTS CREATE OUTER SHIFTS
If we carefully observe our self-growth process, we can witness how our inner shifts are reflected in our outer circumstances. This is not to say that we consciously create all our situations. Our soul is a dynamic underlying force orchestrating the events that favor our evolutionary unfoldment. Our soul wants us to expand our consciousness. As we do so we begin to understand how all aspects of our psyche interact to make us change and grow.

The Saturn process shifts us psychologically by educating us in a practical way. We learn to cooperate with what is happening in our lives, instead of protesting and resisting. We earn our freedom by searching within to understand how we interact with the world and by adjusting our interactions accordingly. We foster our self-development by understanding the value of our experiences.

SEARCH FOR MEANING AND SELF-DISCOVERY
To learn our Saturn lessons, we need to search for the meaning of the disappointments, fears, delays and struggle associated with Saturn experiences. Resolution is not found is stoically enduring our pain, doing nothing, having blind faith, and hoping that our patience and self-control will help us pay off this onerous karma. Even patience and a positive attitude are not sufficient. We have to dare to ask 'why' we are experiencing fear, delay, sadness and disappointment. What insights can we gain through these experiences that offer deeper meaning into ourselves and our lives?

There is so much about ourselves, our psyche and how we unconsciously shape our reality that escapes our awareness. Saturn asks us to investigate how our thoughts, beliefs and emotions are expressed outwardly in the physical world. Saturn wants us to understand how the experiences we encounter are drawn to us by the creative power of our own psyche. Most of us are in denial about and do not comprehend the synchronous way in which our inner reality creates our outer reality. Saturn invites us to pay attention.

Saturn makes us earn free will through self-discovery. Saturn's gift is the psychological freedom that we experience from taking the noose of external authorities off our own necks.

The discovery of Self requires that we become our own authority. We must learn to differentiate between external values, beliefs and worldviews that we acquire from our parents, our peers, society and the collective unconscious and those that we discover by connecting to the wisdom inside ourselves.

MAKING OUR UNCONSCIOUS CONSCIOUS
Saturn makes sure that we understand that superficial explanations of a problem will not make it go away. Saturn teaches us that beneath what we consider a problem is an attempt of our soul to awaken us to a more inclusive viewpoint and to find more balance in our psyche. What is really happening is not an event per se, but our unconscious striving to become conscious. The more our unconscious becomes conscious, the more we integrate unconscious aspects of ourselves and the more we experience wholeness.

When our conscious intentions, desires and actions conflict with what we are unconsciously creating, we experience deep inner frustration, anger and sadness. Our existential pain can be experienced as futility, purposelessness, guilt, regrets and fear. What is really happening is that we are sabotaging ourselves with our unconscious programs and patterns. Pitted against ourselves, our self-destructiveness becomes our worst enemy. We have to make this unconscious tendency conscious to do something about it.

The deeper purpose of many of our issues is thus to uncover the reasons for our self-destructive patterns. As we do so, we can reorient ourselves to utilize these primal energies in a more useful and creative ways. The conflict between conscious and unconscious (light and dark) is to bring into consciousness more aspects of our soul. Understanding the irony of our Saturn lessons is necessary to release us from fear and guilt around the inevitable pain associated with the process of becoming more aware. Accepting Saturn's mode of operation lessens our psychic burden and serves to set us free from our own chains.

THE WORLDLY PATH OF SERVICE
Many spiritual seekers wish they could give up personal ambitions and withdraw from the everyday world. However, escaping is not the path of today's spiritual seeker. Mountain top retreats were in vogue for centuries, but in these times seekers feel impelled to find a way to integrate their spiritual path with their worldly activities. Saturn, planets in the tenth house and in Capricorn direct us to embody Spirit and assume positions where we serve humanity. We are called upon to apply our knowledge in a vocation that makes a tangible contribution in the world. We actualize our dharma through serviceful achievements and by assuming positions of leadership and authority in the world.

WHAT KEEPS US FROM EXPANDING?
Jupiter gives us the energy to expand. Pluto helps us identify what prevents us from expanding. Pluto demands an honest inner reality check. And then we have to let go of and change what doesn't work.