2010 – the year ahead from another persective

The following article comes from Richard Giles and has some very good “things to do” for 2010 at the end.

The key to wisdom is to take a multi-perspective view on all things.  And so whilst i think that this is the 3rd look at the year ahead, it’s beneficial to see what various people “see”.

2010: Viewing Through the Planets – What Lies Ahead in the Coming Year?   by Richard Giles

As an astrologer I like to look at the planetary clues to trends in the year ahead and where it goes. Its always a tricky task to be one who tries to predict ahead – will the market crash, will the plagues hit, will President Obama save the world, will it be a good year for my marriage – questions like these may run through your head when you start to read an article like this.

There are not many reading here who will not have heard of December 2012 and the vast range of predictions made about this date and what it may bring. After the movie 2012, they range from tales of dramatic planetary impacts, comets striking us and seas rising, to the collapsing of the financial system, the demise of western civilisation and the drama of a new consciousness that will sweep the planet, ascension to higher realms, contact with ET civilisations and the best – a shift for us all into a new way of caring for our mother Earth. With the news that broke in the world’s media in early 2008 about planetary climate change (although many readers will have known these facts years ago) and the subsequent effects on our expectations of living standards, there’s not many who do not feel that we are living in momentous times, as that Chinese proverb says.

The collapse of the USA money and banking system and other western economies we were so used to has arrived to remind us that paper money is just that, values printed on paper. Credit is just that, a promise of material purchase today and a philosophy of pay for it later. Its caught up to us all and the entire western material-based civilisation that runs the planet has had to take serious stock of what we’ve been doing all these years. For some its to the extent that they’ve lost their house, their land and their livelihood in a nation of affluence and material excess. In the USA at present, one homeowner is foreclosed on every seven  seconds. The runaway resources train has arrived at the end of the line.

Great Historical Cycles

We are in a major period of changing and shifting historical and astrological cycles. Indeed one astrologer (see http://www.astrobarry.com/) has said that in this current period we astrologers will see the greatest astro-changes we’ll ever experience in our lifetimes. Those historical cycles’ beginnings and ends are very hard to spot from a narrow day to day perspective. But from an astrologer’s viewpoint these cyclic directions can be understood but are often only clearer afterwards. There are a number of influential shifts to do with outer planets; Jupiter, Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. What I’ll do here is to cover the coming themes to give you an idea of where next year will take us.

As the year begins an astrological chart for a moment past midnight shows the features for the 2010 year. The chart is drawn up for Greenwich in England as clock time is measured from there. This chart is universal or you can draw up charts for each country using the capital city of the place. It has a couple of outstanding features. Venus the planet of values and money (as well as love) is conjunct the planet of transformation, Pluto and those two are in a challenging aspect to Saturn the planet of restrictions and contractions. The other feature is that New Year’s Eve has a partial Lunar eclipse at 7.24 pm in UK which is 6.24 am (DST) at sunrise on 1st January in east coast Australia. This eclipse is in Cancer, the sign of home, family and the oceans at 10 degrees. Keywords for Cancer are protection, nurturing, sympathy, emotions and feeling. Lunar eclipses affect us strongly on the level of our emotional responses to the world, especially if we have a planet at that eclipse degree. To start the New Year with a Lunar eclipse tells me that we are to do a lot of emotional soul-searching this year about where and to whom we belong. As Cancer rules our families and our countries as well as our mothers its important to sort out what a home base means to you in 2010 – where do you belong and whom do you mother or whom mothers you? Its visible in much of Africa and central Asia as well as India and SE Asia.

Saturn the constrictor is on the ascendant so we’ll be feeling held back and the Moon (our emotions) and the Sun (the heart) are on the highest and lowest points of the chart so its going to be an emotionally charged heart-changing year.

Jupiter at Zero Point

Jupiter is the planet of big expansions and education as well as of the great outdoors. Jupiter has been moving through Aquarius during 2009 bringing a humanitarian focus and goes into diffuse Pisces on 2nd January 2010. It races at Jupiterian speed through Pisces to arrive at the doorway to Aries on 6th June 2010. Aries is the first sign of the zodiac and is often referred to as Zero Point of the zodiac as its the beginning of the astrological year. Zero point Aries is the beginning of a new cycle and as Jupiter who is known as the “great benefic” due to his ability to bring hope and good fortune as well as expansive movement, means its a new cyclic thrill for the planet.

The power of Jupiter in June is reinforced by the other expansive planet, Uranus the unpredictable. Uranus has been in Pisces for 6 years and it moves into Aries at the same time. It enters Aries on 28th May and while sitting on that zero degree as it does for 10 weeks, it will conjunct and shake hands tightly with Jupiter for a week from 6th through to 14th June. Together they bring out each others’ best qualities as well as performing miracles. Jupiter expands while Uranus steps out of the box. So a combination of expansive revolution with sudden surprises is on the cards mid-2010. Uranus is also associated with technology, computers and unusual inventions so its my guess that if we haven’t already seen it by mid 2010, the first big news stories on how to extract what is called ‘free energy’ from matter will be made public. Its possible with these two strolling side by side in step that they’ll open a Pandora’s Box of energy solutions that will offer us new types of vehicles and alternatives to the petrol engine not previously understood. They’ll give us breakthroughs in electrical energy generation that will move beyond coal power and nuclear power, and they’ll surprise us with unusual revelations (maybe shocking ones) about how much information on free energy technology has been suppressed all these years. We may even see the first official acknowledgements of extraterrestrial life right here.
Jupiter leaves Aries for awhile in September 2010 and flies back again in January 2011. What will trigger a lot of this energy off is that on June 26th with the Sun in nurturing Cancer, we have a lunar eclipse at 4 degrees of Cancer/ Capricorn, a partial eclipse, and the Moon is visible through Australia, New Guinea and the Pacific Islands as well as Hawaii. This eclipse becomes a sensitive astrological point and on August  7th Mars squares the point as well as August 12th when Venus (money) squares it . And on September 8th, Saturn (the contractor) squares the point . Eclipses generally trigger life issues and August will see crises over money and breakthroughs in new areas of knowledge that will begin to change our world. A total solar eclipse happens on 12th July in late Cancer.

The Cross – The Cardinal Signs Crisis

In mid 2010 we move to the most significant point in new cycles that are active in a three year countdown to 2012. Every so often four planets sit in opposite portions of the heavens opposing and squaring one another. Each planet is 90 degrees from the other thus creating a huge cross in the sky. This happened back in the great eclipse of August 11, 1999. Coming up in June, July and August 2010 we have another such cross, called in astrology, the Grand Cross.

It forms as four planets move into the cardinal signs. The Cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn – so called because they are the first signs and the activators of the zodiac. Cardinal signs denote initiation, creation, trials, action, ambition, and support. On the personal level they represent the role of the individual in public affairs and the movements of the time. In 2008 Pluto moved into Capricorn, in 2009 Saturn moved into Libra, and in 2010  Jupiter and Uranus move into Aries. In June 2010 Jupiter meets Uranus in Aries and in July 2010 Mars meets Saturn in Libra. Its gets crowded and during the months of June/July the personal planets Mercury, Venus and the Sun all move to Cancer creating a large cross across the heavens. Here is where our financial system will really become unseated. Though governments and other financial experts are saying that we’ll weather this current financial credit and banking crisis, the truth is that astrologically, we are part way through the beginning of a long process that will soon see what we’ve come to accept as easy credit and simple home loans vanish forever. In August 2010 as Mars reaches Libra, the cracks will become wider and wider. They can’t be pasted over with dollar notes anymore.

Early 2008 created a credit crisis in most economies and the resulting recession, loss of homes  means we are all in rapid reassessment mode regarding our financial systems. July/August 2010 will see that sink into everyone’s consciousness. It will be clear our current systems just don’t cope anymore as they’re based on all the wrong premises.

What gives us hope in the world of financial rearrangements and collapses is the Jupiter and Uranus friendship together in Aries, the sign of initiatives and new approaches. On New Year’s day 2011, the year begins with Jupiter the expander and Uranus the awakener in close conjunction in Aquarius. These two together make for freedom and an expansive desire for new individual solutions to the financial crisis. Jupiter pushes Uranus to broaden experience, experiment with unorthodox ways and come up with new methods to deal with old problems. Another effect of this combination is to open eyes to new possibilities and new ways of trying to solve old problems. Optimism for new solutions then will be very high.

Those early cardinal astrological points are found in significant world charts. In the charts of the IMF, (the International Monetary Fund, 1945), The New York Stock Exchange (1792), the World Bank (1944), the USA birth chart (1776), the Australian birth chart (1901), the US Federal Reserve (1913) and the US Dollar (1785). Every one of these charts is basically transformed by the changes coming through in 2010. In astrological terms we say these major points in their charts are “hit off”. It means all institutions and countries will be experiencing a radical time of the next three years having to undergo major structural and cultural changes.

Reform, Reform, Reform

It means – reform, reform, reform and if you don’t reform then the basic outcome is some sort of collapse. This will hit people, economies and nations in varying degrees depending on how flexible the systems are, how aware people are of the need for change or how resistant they are to change. Saturn opposition to Uranus brought the November 2008 US presidential election into focus. The first pass of Saturn/Uranus was on 4th November, election day. A new black US president came. The next passes were in 2009, and finally April and July 2010.

Saturn is the principle of conservation and tradition and is being confronted by the urge for something completely new, even revolutionary which is Uranus, and that makes for a complete break with the past. Its like an earthquake causing established structures to fall apart, bringing new ways of looking. The best integration of these two contrary forces will be radical reform of the existing framework (Saturn) where conscientiousness and authenticity (Uranus) become paramount. The pressure on financial institutions and the pressure on environmental reforms will be moving extremely fast.

The Saturn/Pluto square began November 2009, and January and August 2010 will make apparent larger cracks in any system and bring on dramatic shifts. It signals intensity, taboo breaking and issues about power and control – who is really in charge? It does indicate victory in that area of life but will be at the cost of much tears and sweat. We are not going to change things easily and in a hurry. Our lovely consumer based society will change with a great deal of regret and strife. People’s uprisings or even food riots may be felt in western countries. People will also begin to take responsibility for their own lives more willingly. 2010 will be a year of major personal power shifts and life changes.

Walking Backwards from Christmas – Mars Retrograde in 2010

Mars is the planet of action, war, self and ego. Every few years it goes retrograde and the energy of action and male creatively goes backwards with it. All planets in our solar system go retrograde at some point in their orbits as each planet moves at a different speed. As one overtakes the other that’s when we see them apparently move backwards in the sky. Mars retrogrades from 20th December 2009 at 19 degrees of the sign Leo. Check your charts. We go into the new year with its retrograde energy. Mars then goes direct again from 11th April at zero degrees Leo. It comes out of the shadow of the retrograde on 18th May at 19 degrees of Leo . Then its back to normal, if possible.

The effects – it will seem like new plans backfire, we lose momentum, develop too slowly or we fail to sufficiently activate ourselves.  Its obviously not the best time for new events that call for enterprise and initiative. Mars retrograde calls for you to constructively alter energy patterns that end up becoming too self-depleting and non-productive. Temper, irritability, impatience and frustration of your drives are likely outcomes. It can manifest through cuts, burns, wounds and accidents; and fights or arguments with others around you. Anything new that you start on at this time will likely have to be redone after the retrograde is over. Its best to do planning at this point but wait until after to begin something new.

Communications – Mercury Retrograde in 2010

The planet Mercury rules our communications abilities. Its about our thoughts, out words and the way we express ourselves. Usually three times a year it goes retrograde, that is, it turns backwards in the heavens as it passes our Earth in orbit. Mercury takes 88 days to go around the Sun and the Earth takes 365 days. This means, every time it passes us it appears to go backwards in the sky. The retrograde period lasts about 21/ 22 days. During that time its a poor idea to buy or sell, sign contracts and otherwise enter into agreements as details will be mixed up.

Typical events during Mercury retrograde include strange weather, information relating to the distant past, old news coming back into print, and communications stuff-ups.  Mercury retrograde can also be used to reorganise data and files and reach back into one’s past to reconnect. Old creative material can be revived and reworked.  But its not a good idea to make any major commitments during this period if they can be avoided. Typically some detail is overlooked and arises again when Mercury goes direct requiring revisions of your business. Entering into sales contracts and written agreements is best avoided. In 2010 the dates are 26th Dec 2009 until 16th Jan 2010, 18th April until 12th May, 21st August until 13th Sept and 10th until 30th December. Write these in your diary. During those periods don’t sign any written agreements without checking every detail and expect your words to be sometimes misunderstood. This year its in the Earth signs of Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo. Practical affairs can go awry.

Venus Retrograde and Love goes Quiet

Venus is the other personal planet to pull backwards in the year. It lasts about 42 days. Its reversal period is the following – Venus turns retrograde on 8th October at 13 degrees of Scorpio and becomes quite intense. Venus takes until the 18th November at 27 and half degrees of Libra to turn back again. In that period expect that your attitudes to love will alter, your attractions, conscious emotional responses and personal values and partnership  considerations will all go through changes. Also your attitudes towards your current financial situation will go through changes. Misinterpretations of people’s opinions and their value  systems as well as their attitudes to financial affairs can get mixed up or misinterpreted. Not a good time for financial investments. Its better to examine your attitudes to close relationships and reassesses them. The end of the shadow period afterwards is on the 21st December.

Australia’s Birth Chart

Australia was born at its federation ceremony in 1901 and being a Capricorn has two planets there. The Sun, which is the heart of our nation and Saturn, the sunburnt country part of us. The bush and the desert make for hard taskmasters. In 1975 Pluto passed through Libra and in November 1975 you may recall, the Whitlam Labour government was sacked by the Governor general – a major upheaval in Australian history. With Australia’s birth Sun at 10 degrees Capricorn, in November 1975 Pluto (planet of eruptions) was at 10 degrees Libra, an exact square to our Sun. By October 2010 Saturn the constrictor reaches 7/ 8 degrees of Libra squaring Australia’s Saturn then in late October reaches 10 degrees Libra square our Capricornian Sun. This is likely to be the beginning of big setbacks in property prices and the real estate market as well as our reputation in the world from that time. We need to readjust.

What To Do in 2010?    

Here’s a few guidelines that may be helpful for the new transformational energy as it moves through us all.

• Turn off your TV and start listening to your own inner intuition.
• If you need news, keep it simple from an occasional newspaper or radio. The negative visual images of TV news only clutter up your brain. 
• Get to know your community and its groups and those people who live nearby to you.
• In a social crisis, if you know your neighbours you will be much better off. 
• Start a community garden. If not in your backyard, then on vacant land nearby and ask neighbours to join you. 
• Put down your mobile phone and wireless modems or minimise their use. 
• Find alternative news sources to help you focus on the positive in the world. 
• Celebrate with friends on new and full moons and take time to have days away in the bush or go camping and get in touch with natural forces more often. 
• Support those who are not judging others and who are finding ways to mediate differences between people.
• Buy decent quality tools to use in the future, both gardening, carpentry and repair tools. 
• And finally – have fun, dance, meditate, look after people, animals and plants.
• Find what you can do to see the positive and support others to do the same. 
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Richard Giles lives in southern Queensland at Crystal Waters Eco-Village community where he runs a Feng Shui, Geomancy and Astrology consultancy business. He has written for various Australian magazines. Check his new website at RichardGiles.info . Richard lectures for local groups on the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast and Brisbane.  Contact him on (07) 5435.0158,  email: ricgiles [at]powerup.com.au  NOTE The email address is written this way to prevent SPAM so just replace [at] with @.