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WEEK FOUR: THE TRANSPERSONAL FORCES
Uranus, Neptune, Pluto & Chiron
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"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it,
doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
INTRODUCTION
I use the word "transpersonal" for any experience or event beyond personal control or comprehension, as well as, beyond what conscious mind can produce or create. Transpersonal events include objective truths operating independently of ego, such as social revolutions, sudden economic windfalls, falling in love, the machinations of politics, the trends of impersonal culture and civilization, the transforming topography of the living planet, the planetary orbits of our solar system and beyond. All of these events can also act as metaphors for transits from Chiron, Uranus, Neptune and/or Pluto.
When exposed to transpersonal realities, the experience can be shocking to the degree of our naivete, hubris, and ignorance. We all react differently to transpersonal shocks. How we react is determined by how well integrated and supple our personalities have become. Rigid egos react more melodramatically to transpersonal shocks than flexible egos. Transpersonal, or outside, shocks are neutral in nature (shocks are "outside" when they originate beyond the ego). How we respond to shock determines whether we experience it as negative or positive. Though outside shocks can feel personal and we can take them personally, they are impersonal. The cosmos is not out to punish us though it can feel that way, especially if any unconscious Christian dogma has made a home deep within you.
"Inside shocks" are how we shock ourselves by our own big reactions to outside shocks and often times these can be more dramatic than the initial shock. How to not take everything so damn personally? The Art of Getting Over Yourself. However, first you needto have a self to get over yourself. In astrological terms, self-development occurs with how well we are meeting our basic needs (Moon), realizing our being (Sun), learning to think for ourselves (Mercury), feeling love and relations with others (Venus), knowing what we want and what excites us (Mars), discovering our own vision, ethics, and philosophies (Jupiter) and becoming accountable for manifesting our worldly existence (Saturn). Each of these personal forces can represent various subjective responses to objective truths. Our personalities become more supple and integrated as we learn new ways to respond to the existing conditions of our lives; not how our lives could be or should be if only things were different. No. I mean how we choose to respond to our actual existence. This ability to respond defines our response-ability that fuels the integration of personal forces towards manifesting selfhood.
Just as the larger society includes the individual, the transpersonal includes the personal. However, the personal ego does not always include the transpersonal in our awareness due to excessive self-preoccupation, narcissism, and immaturity. We can outgrow these infantile regressions with every opportunity to respond creatively to realities beyond our control and comprehension, rather than complaining about it or assuming a victim role. Learning to respect what cannot immediately be understood means creating a space in our minds for mystery. Learning something about our limitations and what we cannot control can allow us to discover how to find freedomand creativity within the limitations of existance. Respect existence or expect resistance.
Three primary objective truths can be symbolized astrologically by URANUS, NEPTUNE and PLUTO as Uncertanty, Indivisibility and Impermanence, respectvely. The force of CHIRON (a comet) symbolizes a bridge between the personal and the transpersonal (Chiron orbits between Saturn and Uranus). URANUS, NEPTUNE and PLUTO also represent the transpersonal realities of social, political, and economic collective and generational shifts.
URANUS, NEPTUNE and PLUTO represent three distinct types
of outside shock to the ego still naive to the objective truths of:
UNCERTAINTY (Uranus)
INDIVISIBILITY (Neptune)
IMPERMANENCE (Pluto)
It takes a supple, flexible and strong ego to live with more awareness of uncertainty, indivisibility and impermanence. A strong ego is not the same as a big ego. A supple, flexible and strong ego supports a greater capacity to adjust our ideas (Mercury), values (Venus), motivations (Mars), assumptions (Jupiter), attachments (Moon) and commitments (Saturn) in the face of increasing awareness of Uncertainty, Indivisibility and Impermanence.
what makes these truths so... "objective" ?
UNCERTAINTY; who can know what will happen next?
INDIVISIBILITY; are we not part of the same vast boundless fabric of existence?
IMPERMANENCE; everything that lives must die, the only constant is change
THE WOBBLE.
As we encounter more shocks of transpersonal experience, our personality structures can naturally wobble. This wobbling mirrors personal growth periods where we may be outgrowing obsolete concepts (Mercury), values (Venus), personal and domestic habits (Moon), motivations (Mars), beliefs and assumptions (Jupiter) and old fears, commitments, and reality structures (Saturn).
As we wake up to greater realities, we always have the choice to:
1) adjust and realign our egos to more truth
or
2) resist change and create more suffering
TO INTEGRATE AND TO BE INTEGRATED
When working with the personal forces -- symbolized by the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn -- we speak of integrating them into our lives as an act of conscious intention. This is why I refer to these planets as "personal forces" since they can be engaged with personal effort and offer us a greater degree of control and mastery over our daily lives. However, with the transpersonal forces -- Uranus, Neptune and Pluto -- the game changes considerably. These are not forces that can be consciously integrated or summoned by beck and call; it is more like we (as individual egos and as groups) are integrated by them! We become more Uranian as we awaken to more autonomy in our lives. We become more Neptunized as empathy deepens and we come to know ourselves as expressions of a large whole. We become more Plutonic as we are empowered within and act as catalysts of meaningul change in the lives of others.
As the conscious ego learns to relax its resistances to more reality, that ego gradually becomes integrated within them. The results? We learn to experience uncertainty (Uranus) not as anxiety but as a creative state. The shock of indivisibility (Neptune) dissolves our separtist ego's ignorance of the unity of existence. By facing the reality of impermanence (Pluto), we may discover a deeper gratitude for the gift of life in a world where everything that lives also dies, and goes on with or without us. Take a moment to reflect on these things. They may help you grasp the nature of the transpersonal forces symbolized by Chiron (a comet), Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
WEEK 4 READING ASSIGNMENT
Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Chiron
plus Week 4 Research Tasks #1 & #2
Click above image
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