photo from Flickr

Following the New Moon at the end of Pisces, squared by Pluto, the sign of endings, we find ourselves balanced on the cusp of the seasons at the Vernal Equinox! The Equinox is celebrated as the time when the Sun spends an equal amount of time above and below the equator, when the length of the days become longer than the nights and the power of light rises while the darkness recedes.

Today is also the time when the Sun enters Aries, the sign of initiation and energy. The past seven New Moons have all been at the end of a sign, with the last one incorporating a square from Pluto, forcing us to let go of all that no longer serves us. Now the energy shifts as we begin to move into a new adventure!

Beginning a new phase of our life is not always easy. Recently I’ve had quite a few emails from people who are worried about their upcoming transits of Saturn and Pluto since having had their fill of upheaval in their lives, they crave some stability and peace for a change. If I could teach one thing it would be this: that we can trust in the power of the planetary gods to carry us into our future in the way with the least possible pain and the greatest joy if we will only stop resisting our destiny. Our fear and resistance are often the things that create the problems for us.

Years ago I went whitewater tubing in Colorado. Armed with nothing but an inner tube, my friends coaxed me into a rushing creek and told me to let go and let the water carry me. With my T-square in cardinal planets and fixed squares with no mutables, this was virtually impossible for me. What I discovered during this trip is that if I tried to reach out to stabilize myself the water smashed me into the rocks but if I truly let go, the water carried me through the path of least resistance in a blissful ride.

This lesson has stayed with me for the last 30 years and is one that I try to impart to my clients who are facing difficult planetary cycles. Change is indeed difficult, but it can also be exhilarating once we realize that we have moved through a phase that was holding us back. Trust and faith can be difficult for those of us who lack religion and requires a deeper connection with the higher self that resides within us, a connection that requires time spent alone in meditation and quiet.

The opposition between Saturn and Neptune is working on a number of different levels, but one lesson that we can learn from this planetary cycle is to establish a real and practical (Saturn) connection with the divine within us (Neptune) – however we frame that concept in our theology, whether it is god, goddess, our higher self, guides or guardian angels, that connection is real and available to us. Once we learn to trust that guidance, even the most difficult journey becomes less threatening and a process towards greater understanding.