Let me begin by citing, in its entirely, Emily Trinkhaus of Virgo Magic’s brilliant post “Trust, Responsibility and Freedom” about Fridays Lunar Eclipse and last Monday’s Uranus-Pluto square. It’s long, but Oh, so good!

“We’re learning how to reside, to sit deeply and trust the feeling of open, empowered, presenced possibility rather than and in place of the certainty of what the goals and the planning are going to produce.” – Adam Gainsburg, interview on Gaiafield Radio

There’s a lot of uncertainty, a lot up in the air, many wheels in motion. We’re clearing out old ideas about and attachments to how we think it should be, how we want it to be, or even what “IT” is. As the Uranus-Pluto square hits another high note at today’s [Monday’s] exact alignment – the third of seven between 2012-2015 – and as Eclipse Season approaches its culmination in Friday’s Sagittarius Lunar Eclipse, reality feels very fluid and the way forward may seem more confusing than ever.

Last Friday I was blessed to hear mythologist/storyteller Michael Meade here in Portland, giving a talk appropriately titled “The Pathless Path.” There is no roadmap for where we’re at or where we’re going.

Lost, having “fallen out of the dream of the world,” we’re called to journey deeper within ourselves, to find our own meaningful story, our unique genius, and then live that story out in the world. “In the depths of trouble we find the deepest resources we have.” May it be so!

Dreams and stories are especially awakened and up for transformation now, as we swim in the energy of the upcoming Eclipse, exact on Friday at 9:25pm PDT. Sagittarius is the storyteller, the sign that rules philosophy and religion, how we make meaning through weaving the tale of our personal and collective realities.

What do you tell yourself about your own potential and possibilities? What story do you tell about the future of the planet? Do your stories inspire and support you in creating a more positive reality, or reinforce your fears and limitations?

Our stories stem from our deepest belief systems, typically encoded in our sponge-like little brains by the age of 6 (see Bruce Lipton’s The Biology of Belief), and, without some serious healing intervention, will continue to run the show for the rest of our lives.

This Eclipse wants to interrupt those old patterns of perception, those moldy old stories that keep us stuck in a diminished version of ourselves, or stuck in someone else’s story altogether.

After a month or so steeped in Fixity – working on issues around stagnation, resistance and over-attachment – we’re now in a phase of Mutability, when we’re called to become more flexible and adaptable and when change can happen more quickly and easily (can I get an amen??).

Four planets – the Sun, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter – are now in open-minded, inquisitive, analytical, fast-moving Gemini, stirring up mental energy and presenting a variety of possible paths forward. The challenge is to find our own truth, our own authentic story and path, our body’s instinctual guidance and wisdom, in the midst of myriad mental distractions, opinions and options.

Neptunian Confusion and Swimming toward the Divine.

At the Eclipse, the Sun and Moon form a tight square – 90-degree angle of tension and challenge – to Neptune, god/goddess of the ocean and signifier of dreams, the imagination and the unconscious. If you’ve been feeling sleepy, dreamy, spacey, super-sensitive, overwhelmed and/or confused, then you’re perfectly in tune with the Neptunian nature of this Eclipse.

Neptune in Pisces plus all that Gemini can add up to getting caught in the anxiety-ridden spin cycle of “this or that or this or that or??” and, mired in mental confusion, postpone taking action altogether for fear of making the “wrong” choice.

Confusion is a Neptunian strategy, it serves a purpose, and the purpose is to get out of our own way, break out of the ego’s certainty that it’s going to figure everything out and come up with the perfect plan. Instead our job is to be present, to listen deeply, and to simply take the next step in front of us, trusting that the “pathless path” will unfold in its own mysteriously divine way. As Adam Gainsburg said (in that very useful above-mentioned interview), “Feeling certain is becoming outmoded.”

Trust is the bottom line here, a shared theme of the Sagittarius Moon and Neptune in Pisces. In an increasingly chaotic and uncertain reality – signified by the ongoing Uranus-Pluto square – we’re learning to trust our feelings and our instincts to guide us, moment by moment. Michael Meade talked about art and spiritual practice as two key “strokes” in swimming toward the divine.

Through art and spiritual practice – conscious ways of working with this deluge of Neptunian energy – we reengage the imagination, and participate in recreating the story of the world. Meade also reminds us that we don’t have to swim all the way by ourselves, that the divine will meet us halfway (what a relief).

The Uranus-Pluto Square, Back by Popular Demand

The co-incidence of the Uranus-Pluto square (exact today at 4:02pm PDT) with the Sagittarius Eclipse has me thinking about the relationship between the themes of living out our authentic story, responsibility and freedom. Often, responsibility is felt as a burden, a weight, an endless list of duties and obligations that limit our freedom.

But Pluto in Capricorn (2008-2024) calls for transforming our notion of responsibility, which could look like letting go of those commitments that are not actually our responsibility, and simultaneously taking a deeper level of responsibility for what IS truly ours.

On the most grounded and pragmatic level (and Capricorn loves to be pragmatic), what we’re responsible for is taking care of what’s right in front of us – those everyday issues in our home, work, relationships and community that we’re either willing to dive into and claim as “ours,” or that we procrastinate dealing with and project onto others, making it someone else’s fault that our lives are a mess.

On the collective level, the old paternalistic power structures are falling apart, “Big Daddy” is not looking out for our best interests, and it’s time to reclaim our authority to create the world we want to live in.

As Uranus in Aries (2011-2019) – the urge to express more of our individuality, creativity and freedom – squares Pluto, a helpful compass for how we’re dealing with responsibility is how liberated we feel. When we’re not taking responsibility for what’s ours, we feel stuck and victimized.

At the deepest level, what we’re ultimately responsible for is breaking free from the conditioning that suppresses our vitality, authenticity and creativity – in other words, doing our emotional work – and becoming the most authentic, empowered version of ourselves that we can. Taking responsibility for living our own story, our own truth, our own dream, is the path to liberation.

Getting Personal – Try This At Home

If you have a copy of your birth chart and some astro-technical know-how, you can get deeper insight into what all this astro-excitement means for YOU. To identify the areas of life where Uranus and Pluto are currently stirring up this theme of freedom and responsibility, find the houses in your birth chart that contain 11 degrees Aries (Uranus) and 11 degrees Capricorn (Pluto). If you have planets in the range of about 8-15 degrees of any of the Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn), then you’ll be feeling this urge to transform very personally, focused on the themes signified by those planets.

For more insight into the Lunar Eclipse, find the house in your birth chart that contains 4 degrees Sagittarius. The areas of life signified by that house are where you are: letting go of old stories and opening to a more positive future; bringing to fruition or culmination significant events from the past; and learning to trust your instincts and inner guidance.

– Emily Trinkaus

All week I’ve been working with ways to share this with you and my take on it without breaking up Emily’s delicious flow. So I’m trying this: a kind of coda. Not sure it’s ideal, but it keeps the text clean of annoying interruptions and footnotes.

Ultimately, Emily’s message comes down to this: NOW is the time for massive transformation, and “Trust is the bottom line.” Even if you don’t want transformation (on an ego-level, we all love holding onto what we know, even if it’s not great, even if it’s not that thing that would ultimately make us the happiest) it’s coming, ready or not.

So, if you’ve been worried about the feeling that the rug is being pulled out from under you, that’s okay. Everyone is feeling it, and it’s happening for a reason. Your Higher Self—and everyone else’s Higher Self—is setting this up as the PERFECT opportunity to change and improve. You choose to come here now for a reason. So the best thing to do is stop struggling, let go, and enjoy the ride. It’s not as if you can stop the moon from eclipsing by sheer force of will, after all!

Think of it as a whitewater rafting trip that you eagerly signed up for. Now you’re all strapped in to the boat, you’ve got your life vest on, and you’re feeling pretty hot because you’re controlling the boat with your trusty paddle. But as you approach the edge of your known world (the place where the river falls away in a sheer drop), you may start second-guessing yourself. Why did I sign up for this? I don’t want to go over the edge!! But you DO. Want to, that is. AND go over the edge.

Because that’s what you signed up for. We all did. We came here now as an adventure, yes. But also to be LEADERS. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

The best thing to do as we go over the edge is to TRUST.

What does this have to do with 2012?

It’s really clear to me now. The year 2012 was the one we were all looking at, many of us eagerly anticipating the changes.

And the shift did happen. We just weren’t looking at anything that came after. But after a shift, there’s always fallout.

And now is that time. We are watching structures—in society or the world at large, and in our own lives—coming down around us.

I hate to add another metaphor to the pile, but here goes:

Think of an earthquake. The shifting of Earth is in itself pretty scary, but it’s over in a matter of seconds. The real work comes after, in clearing the mess that follows the quake. There’s a lot of emotional rubble to clean up, too.

When I channel about earth events like earthquakes, there’s always a reason for them. Those structures NEEDED to come down so that new ones—better ones—could be built.

Look around at the structures in your life. If they look like they’re about to topple, that could be pretty scary.

(BTW: I have a lot at stake here personally, too. I’ve got a planet exactly on the cardinal point in question – 11 Capricorn, in the first house – and another at 8 Aries. I was also born at the Uranus-Pluto conjunction when societies all over the world underwent massive change. That explosive aspect is in my birth chart. Now we’re in the throes of the square, so this really stirs my pot. And tells me I’ve got big things to do. If you think this isn’t rocking MY world, too, you’re mistaken.)

Just know that today is never the end of the story.

If you see something fall that you didn’t want to fall, consider the opportunity it’s giving you.

If you’re losing a job, or a primary relationship, consider how that job or relationship might have been holding you back from becoming your most brilliant self.

Emily mentioned the Pathless Path. Don’t you feel it?

I’ve said this before: I’m a Trekkie. (The babysitter claimed that I wasn’t because I didn’t dress up last weekend to go see the new movie. Whatever.)

Right now, each and every one of us is on a mission to “Boldly go where no one has gone before!” The Planet Earth is in an entirely new energy now.

This is a new Age: of awakening, consciousness, connection, and discovery. We are all pioneers right now: we don’t really know where we’re going, so we have to follow our guts.

What this astrological energy reminds me of the most in the crystal world is Moldavite.

Moldavite is an amazing stone; one of my favorites. It’s also one of the most contested and rare.

Experts disagree about its origins: some claim that Moldavite is a tektite and came to Earth 14 million years ago as part of a massive meteor that hit in the modern-day Czech Republic. Others believe it wasn’t the meteor itself, but is the result of extra-terrestrial material fusing with native Earth material in the massive fireball.

Either way, it’s pretty cool. The first time I held it, I got the “Moldavite flush”—my entire body got hot and I was dizzy for nearly 24 hours.

Moldavite is a “stone of the new consciousness.” It’s a storm element stone, which means it combines all the others. Storm stones and their effects on our lives are not easy to sit with, but they do provoke massive transformation. They clear away the old and make room for the new.

Moldavite’s properties—and the properties of what’s going on in the heavens this week—are the following: transformation, rapid spiritual evolution, chakra activation, cleansing, protection, and increased incidence of synchronicities.

This week is offering you the opportunity of rapid spiritual evolution. The band-aid is going to be ripped off, so don’t try to stop it. It will also hurt a lot less if you relax. And know that you’ll heal and grow new skin much faster without it.

The energy of this time is offering you seemingly limitless possibilities, and it’s up to you to choose.

If you’re worried that you can’t choose the best one on your own, get help. Get help from me, from an astrologer, a mentor, a counselor, or a trusted friend. AND the Universe. Talk to your Guides. Talk to your Higher Self. Meditate. Use crystals to calm and support you. Breathe. MEET that challenge as gracefully as possible, and then stop fighting or second-guessing.

The time is now. And WE are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

I’ll see you again next week on the other side.

Now, go be brilliant.