19 Mar Divine Child ~ Aries Season Forecast – March 20th-April 20th, 2023

On Monday, March 20th, 2023, the equinox will arrive, heralding the start of Aries season when the Sun’s supremacy in the heavens returns. The Sun’s return to Aries heralds the start of a new zodiacal year quickening the pulse of creation and inspiring growth.

This Aries season will be a potent month for breakthroughs and new horizons. There will be two New Moons in Aries, a rare event, meaning that you’ll have two seed moments in the same area of your chart. And one of these New Moons will be a solar eclipse conjoined to Jupiter. 

The Sun’s transit through Aries enlivens your fighting spirit, forcing you out of the oceanic womb of Pisces and into the light. You may have been drifting for some time, lost at sea. But now you’ll feel a momentum building, an awakening of your courage and strength.

By the time this season is over, your spirits will be resurrected and you’ll find that you’ve overcome a major obstacle.

Those born with their Sun in Aries have the light of courage in their heart. They’re driven to individuate, to carve their own path in life. This tends to develop a reputation for being indomitable, as they boldly claim their place in the Sun. An Aries seizes fate by the throat, creating a personal destiny. With Mars as their ruler, Aries natives can be quick to anger, easily flushed by many passions and tempers. But they have a charming spirit of innocence and joy, like a springtime lamb learning how to run.

As the first sign in the zodiac, Aries evokes the sharp pain and struggle of birth, a bloody head crowning through the birth canal. All the resplendent beauty of springtime is summoned through that same rush and push: all the tiny leaves bursting through the branches, all the flowers exploding from their buds, and all the birds pecking through their shells.

No matter how chaotic the world may be, the rhythm of the seasons remain steady, revealing the earth’s graceful dance with the cosmos. The greatest strife in the world is a microscopic ripple in the vast web of creation. These cycles of light remain steady throughout the rise and fall of empires. And neither a global economic collapse nor an atomic war will stop the Sun from rising. 

The emergence of spring is a benediction, poetically described by the ancient Greeks as the goddess Persephone’s return from the underworld. Spring is the season of resurrection and renewal: the promise of eternal life. The Sun’s ascension through the sky can inspire you to reach higher and climb above the clouds of uncertainty, seeing through the void to the light beyond. Guided by this vision, the spirit of Aries boldly leaps forward into the future with courage, knowing there is nothing to fear but fear itself.

“It all begins with fire.”

Astronomically speaking, the Sun is a ball of burning gas in a state of constant motion, combustion and eruption. The fire of the Sun is at the heart of all living things. This primal connection to fire was observed in the ancient world by Heraclitus of Ephesus, the most influential of the Pre-Socratic philosophers. 

Heraclitus defined the underlying governance of nature as an “ever-living fire”, whose incessant transformations are at the heart of the cycle of life and death. It is fire that turns all the wheels within wheels.

In Heraclitus’ view, fire was the omnipresent dance of life in nature and the dancing light of intelligence within humanity. This dancing light, the divine spark of consciousness, is also known as the logos. 

“In the beginning was the λόγος …”

– (Gospel of John 1:1)

The word λόγος (logos) in the prologue of John’s Gospel has been translated to ‘Word’ in English, but logos means the divine word of creation, the divine mind of the cosmos. Logos is the inward thought and outward speech of the divine and its light is within all beings. 

The season of Aries engenders the birth of new life on earth as well as igniting the divine spark, or the light of the logos within.

This is the End?

Before you can spring forward into the light of the new season, it is important to pause for reflection. On March 7th, Saturn entered Pisces, initiating a two and a half year transit through the end of the zodiac. 

Saturn’s transit through Pisces represents the end of a 30-year cycle, the end of a story. In your personal life this can feel like a great culmination and release. 

But what’s coming to an end on the world stage?

At this moment in history, it’s become clear that the unipolar world of liberal democracy is rapidly declining. This was a world held together by mass media, military power and oil. Thoroughly corrupted and compromised by global imperialism, the pandemic left a disfiguring scar on an already failing social order in the west. And since then, U.S. control over international affairs has been revealed as weak and ineffectual. Last year, when Russia invaded Ukraine, neither US military threats nor economic sanctions did anything to stop the advance. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the United States has sent $76.8 billion to Ukraine in the last year, which has done nothing to end the conflict. 

The world is changing fast. The unipolar power of the United States is scattering into a multi-polar world, with many competing economic and cultural values.

The last time Saturn was in Pisces, in the mid-1990’s, the triumph of the Western liberal democracy was widely heralded as being “the end of history and the end of ideology.” A utopian political cult was born, promising global prosperity driven by free-market capitalism and democracy. According to the “end of history” thesis, all potential models for civilization and social order had already played themselves out. And “surprise!” liberal democracy was the only viable plan to build a healthy society.

The “end of history” ideology was classic hubris. And over the last 30 years, the endless wars to “spread democracy” have completely bankrupted economic stability and morality. 

Winston Churchill once stated that:

“democracy is the worst form of government —except for all the other forms that have been tried.”

His dry humor expresses how essential it is for humanity to stop resting on its laurels and continue the process of social innovation. No system of government or economics should go unquestioned and unchecked.

It’s not the end of history. It’s time to evolve.

The Season Ahead ~ Pluto Enters Aquarius

The most important event of Aries season is on March 23rd when Pluto enters Aquarius. This will be a tectonic shift in the collective psyche.

This will be the first time Pluto has changed signs since 2008 and the first time Pluto has been in Aquarius since the late-18th Century. In 2023, this transit will only last until June 11th. But early next year, Pluto’s 20-year transit through Aquarius will be fully underway.

When Pluto entered Capricorn back in 2008, there was a Global Financial Crisis that led to the Great Recession. 

Almost like clockwork, in early March with Pluto on the final degree of Capricorn, Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, forcing a government takeover. Two days later, on March 11th, Signature Bank closed its doors. Bank stocks plummeted in early trading the following Monday. 

These aren’t good signs. And everyone is afraid of what could happen. But fear leads nowhere fast. Fear is the mind-killer. 

If fear is slavery, then courage is the only way to be free. Global problems of the magnitude we are facing right now will not evaporate overnight. But the boldness of the Arian spirit can inspire you to find the courage and strength to not to allow fear to cloud your mind. 

Once upon a time, when the world was in crisis, President Franklin Delano Rosevelt used his position as a leader to inspire people to have courage, saying:

“The only thing to fear is fear itself.” 

When Pluto enters Aquarius, a revolutionary era will begin. The shadow that looms will be technological authoritarianism, the demand for conformity to the mass mind: total assimilation into the Borg.

But the light of this era will inspire new systems of government and economics that value the social, creative and spiritual needs of humanity. 

During the last Pluto in Aquarius transit between 1778 to 1798, the seeds of liberal democracy first flowered. It was an idea whose time had come and the American and French revolutions changed the political landscape forever. 

In the late 18th-Century, democracy was a dramatic improvement over tyrannical monarchy, proclaiming the rights of individuals as being written in divine law. In true Aquarian style, there was something ancient in its conception, an echo of Greco-Roman governments. And there was something futuristic in it, breaking from traditional monarchy to recognize the sovereignty of the individual.

The wisdom of Aquarius weaves the ancient past with dreams of the future. And it bridges the gap between spirit and matter, magic and science, orthodox and unorthodox. At the end of the zodiac, Aquarius sees the interdependent web that weaves everything in the universe together, revealing the value and purpose of all life.

What philosophical revolution will the next transit of Pluto through Aquarius invite?  What improvements can be made over the tyranny of this age?

Think For Yourself. Question Authority.

“Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly.

“one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”

It is always inspiring to observe the light of the Sun through the life of an historical figure who was born during this season. And the fires of Aries burned very bright in the life and work of Denmark’s most famous author, Hans Christian Andersen.

He’s famous all over the world for writing some of the most beloved fairy-tales including: The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, and The Ugly Duckling. And his life represents the fires of Aries at work, burning bright against all odds.

Born on April 2, 1805, in Odense, Denmark, Andersen was raised in abject poverty. His father, a shoemaker, was a literate man who actively cultivated his son’s imagination.

“On Sundays he made me panoramas, theatres, and transformation pictures, and he would read me pieces out of Holberg’s plays and stories from the ‘Thousand and One Nights,’”

Even with such a loving father, class systems were rigid in imperial Denmark. Peasants never become famous writers. And yet, in true Arian fashion, he pulled himself up from the “swamp of life” and found world fame as a writer.

Born with his Sun at 11 degrees Aries conjunct Mercury, Andersen had a fiercely independent mind and a fighting spirit. But after his father died in war, he chose to fight to be an artist. 

The middle of Aries is where the solar force awakens the seeds of the Earth, cracking them open so that new life can emerge. What flowered in Andersen were seeds of potent imagination and performative charisma. And throughout his career, he was recognized for his self-confidence, his drive to perform, his gift for telling stories, and his gigantic ego. 

He had to fight hard against all odds to become the patron saint of fairy tales. When he was 14, a wise woman told him he would become a great man and that he would bring honor to the village of Odense. Believing in magic and prophecy, he set off on his own path, leaving his childhood behind to begin his restless pursuit of glory. 

He was in the right place at the right time. The Romantic era had sparked a popular fascination with fairytales. Fairy-tales were a genre that gave voice to the common people and expressed deep wisdom of the past: seeds of light that the mechanistic Age of Reason had buried.  

The famous Grimm Brothers were wealthy literary scholars, collecting old stories to create an historical record of folklore. But Andersen was one of the folk, having been raised in a rural peasant village still fully immersed in animism, ghosts, witchcraft, and magic. He wasn’t an historian, but an original story-teller.

Andersen’s stories are so familiar that it’s hard to understand how unconventional and experimental he was in his day. His tales were refreshing: passionate; sorrowful, philosophical and sometimes wickedly funny. Above all, they spoke directly to children rather than condescending to them.

Choosing a favorite Andersen tale is hard. The sorrowful Little Mermaid is such a deep reflection on the nature of the soul. And nothing evokes the pain of loneliness and alienation like The Ugly Duckling. But in times like these, it may be The Emperor’s New Clothes that is his most enduring story. 

The Emperor’s New Clothes is wickedly funny and timeless because it’s so honest and insightful about human psychology. It perfectly describes the human ego’s tendency towards willful ignorance and self-deceit.

Once Upon a Time…

The story begins with an Emperor who is so vain that he ignores the needs of his subjects in favor of expanding his wardrobe. He is said to change his clothes every hour and spends a fortune on the finest and rarest fashions.

One day, a pair of con artists promise to make the Emperor a suit of clothes woven with a magical cloth. The catch is that only truly worthy and intelligent individuals will be able to see the cloth. The Emperor pays them a large sum of money, but when his magic clothes arrive he can’t see them.

Secretly ashamed of being found unworthy, everyone in his court pretends they can see the clothes. The Emperor ends up parading through the streets naked. The farce finally reaches its peak when an innocent child finally points out the obvious: the Emperor has no clothes. 

Everyone could see the Emperor was naked. But nobody except a child had the courage to speak. This is the honest truth about how the group mind of humanity works. 

And with Pluto entering Aquarius this season, the dynamics of the mass mind will become more powerful and dangerous.

The social innovation required to usher in a new era will require strength in numbers and strong communities. But when individuals are too afraid to speak the truth as best they see it, the world inevitably descends into madness.

In her essay, “Ideology and Propaganda” the philosopher Hannah Arendt said: 

“Men who no longer can make sure of the reality which they feel and experience through talking about it and sharing it with their fellow-men, live in the same nightmare of loneliness and uncertainty which is the terrible fate of insanity.”

The Information Age has been paradoxically defined by increasing loneliness and insanity precisely because the mass mind has become more tightly woven through communication technology. Increased connectivity increases the pressure to conform to consensus opinions, no matter how delusional or deceptive. Surveillance culture strips privacy and uses punishing censorship to demand conformity.

Most people incorrectly believe they are non-conformists. But the fact is that group minds breed conformity. Just as The Emperor’s New Clothes describes, most people will go along with anything to avoid rejection and ridicule. In the 1950’s, the psychology experiments of Solomon Asch demonstrated that most people ignore the truth under social pressure. His experiment gathered a group of people who were asked to answer one simple question.

It’s instantly clear that line A is the same length. But Ascher placed some assertive people in the group to spread misinformation, creating a consensus opinion that the answer was line B. 

Despite how obviously incorrect, the results of the study showed that approximately 75% of subjects would answer incorrectly to conform to consensus opinion. And they reported that they willingly gave the wrong answer to avoid being ridiculed. 

The Ascher line experiment is the soft side of conformity. Another psychologist, Stanley Milgram, found that most people are willing to inflict pain and injury on others, so long as an authority figure was giving the orders.

As you can see, Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes contains all the knowledge of human nature that psychology experiments in the 20th Century revealed. But unlike these clinical studies, his story lightens the heavy truth with humor and offers a remedy for this troubling human flaw. 

The honesty necessary to overcome conformity is found by embracing the innocence of the child within you. This is the part of you that is in this world, but not of it: the light of the logos within.

The controversial psychologist, Timothy Leary once described what it really requires to think for yourself, saying:

“To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness, chaotic, confused vulnerability to inform yourself…”

This “vulnerable open mindedness” is a return to innocence, to the child within that asks lots of questions out of natural curiosity and values their own thoughts and perceptions.

At the dawn of Pluto’s entrance into Aquarius, remember The Emperor’s New Clothes and consider what part you’d like to play in the world that’s unfolding. Would you rather be the honest child or the foolish sycophant?

Most importantly, Andersen’s story reveals that the Emperor has no power unless you compromise your integrity and conform to his delusions. The moment the truth is spoken, the Emperor becomes the fool.

The wisdom of Aries is born from the innocence of spring, which is bold, bright, and full of breakthroughs. Let the days ahead fire up your spirits, cracking open deeply buried seeds of creative inspiration and fearless self-confidence. 

As a divine child of heaven and earth, you’re always free to…

“Think for yourself. And question authority.”