Uranus and Pluto have been loosely squaring each other for a couple years, but early in 2011 this square started to tighten and we felt its effect both in outer world events and in our own depths. Tonight (and into tomorrow morning) these two energy giants are going to be exactly square. For the next three years, this powerful pair will move together and apart, dancing their way forward and back between 8 and 14 degrees to meet up exactly eight times between tonight and March 1, 2015. 

Uranus and Pluto were merged in the mid-60s and we began the shifts which are challenging us now. We are entering fully into the current. This is no time for running to the sidelines or diving under your bed. The universe needs each of us to rise fully into our place in this great communal shift.

This you know: everywhere you turn, you hear or read some different take on the nature of the year 2012. Everyone has a theory. I wonder if it might not be wise to loosen our minds from their firm grip on theory. Theories arise when we need to believe in a particular outcome. 

It is certainly true that many ancient cultures have designated this time in Time as a turning point, an ending leading to a beginning, a circle completing itself, renewing itself. And certainly we can feel the energy of rapid change taking our breaths away day after day. But what if we didn't burden this consciousness shift with our need to understand the exact shape of its outcome? What if we recognize that we are in process. All of us. Even the Dali Lama. Even the sequoias. Even the oceans. Even the grasshoppers, Grasshopper.

It would be comforting to have a map, a date-line tracking the trajectory of these events, reassuring us that we'll be safe, that our jobs and our homes and our children will not be caught in these unpredictable winds of change and blown to Oz. 

It would be comforting to believe that we're moving into a purple ray or diamond light or that god will shelter those of us who have been very very good. Hmmmm. Uranus wonders if we have the humility to understand that we are all in this together, none of us more special than our companions on the road, all of us with a role to play in this paradym shift.

Uranus and Pluto would like us to stop watching for the purple ray or the diamond light or the ark to rescue us and, instead, keep our hearts open and notice how we approach every minute of this day, consider our ideas and whether they are spinning in the cage of "how I've always done this" or whether we're using our minds to push ourselves off the grid of the familiar and the safe. U & P know it often feels scary to entertain completely unfamiliar notions but they also know how liberating it is to move through the fear of change and just ride the wave.

I could make predictions. I could tell you that there is no doubt that the earth is going to continue to rock and roll in every imaginable way and then some ways you still haven't thought about. But that would be stating the all-too-obvious. Isn't the real point of so much intense energy flooding our field to wonder how we can participate with courage and clarity and vision as we move through this alchemical time?

As always, the first step is to take a deep breath . . . .Then repeat three times: Uranus is at work here. 

Uranian energy is completely unpredictable, absolutely bent on radical change and determined to introduce each of us to our most authentic self. Uranus has no patience--none--for pretense. To be clear, pretense means pretending to be someone you are not. This can be as simple as pretending to like a day-hike when you'd rather be home gardening. Or it could mean dressing a certain way because your partner likes you in polka dots when you'd rather be in leather. Or it could mean that you have some very interesting and unusual ideas circling your mind but you haven't dared allow yourself to entertain them, or if you have, you are still feeling shy about sharing them. Uranus says this: Get Real. Now. You came into this body to express an identity which is beautifully unique. Get busy. Figure out who you are. Wear leather. Wear feathers if you'd rather. But make the choices yourself. Stop looking outside yourself for permission to be who you are. Please. (The Please comes from me; Uranus doesn't say Please. It simply wings another lightning bolt at you when you continue to dress in polka dots.) 

The next step is to give up your notions of knowing what is afoot. We can't possibly know the form of something which we've never experienced. Stay in the current. Remember that Uranus isn't acting alone but that Neptune and Chiron are quietly and faithfully reminding us that we are being held in the embrace of the divine heart. It's good to remember this now and then. Meditation helps. If you don't like to sit still very long, then opt to sing or dance or paint or walk in a quiet beautiful place. 

It would be impossible to forget that Pluto is the other partner in this dance with Uranus. What, you ask, is it's role? It's job is to lead us through the dark and deep pull of our shame and our fear. It's job is to work our junk until we face it and drop it. Pluto reveals what it hidden, shows us where our toxins lie, teaches us that sometimes loss leads to liberation. If we look a little closer at Pluto we see the beauty in its powerful desire to purge, to shed those things which no longer serve the original intent of our soul journey. 

"Soul is hewn in a wild workshop."

Is it possible that all of us who are here now on earth made a choice (at some cosmic level) to participate in this wild workshop? Could it be that we knew we were merging our light body with a human form which would learn to navigate not only uncharted territory, but sometimes overwhelming and confusing encounters both personally and communally? Could we have been that brave, to have signed up for such a chaotic and unsettling time on earth? 

I think we are that brave.

Pluto and Uranus are our companions, not our enemies. They facilitate and support our desire to be the bridges into a new time. They know we are anxious and uncertain but they also know we were born for this. 

In this together . . . Uranus and Pluto and you and I, carrying on. 

If you would like to explore the parts of your chart where this energy is working, let me know. And if you would like to contribute to the creation of these notes, I gratefully offer you this link: http://www.lovedogdesign.com/LoveDogDesign/columns/columns.html

Thank you for sharing this ride.

Deborah O'Connor

406-531-5129

deb@lovedogdesign.com

www.lovedogdesign.com

Be humble, for you are made of earth. 

Be noble, for you are made of stars.