June 2008: Reflecting of the Paradigm Shifts That Are Occurring

Over the last several years you experienced major paradigm shifts from the personal to the global. In some instances you welcomed these changes and in other instances you felt carried along by a tidal wave not of your making. While these paradigm shifts can’t be stopped, you will have an opportunity to slow down, reflect, and perhaps catch your breath over the next few months starting with the month of June 2008. The reason: Pluto, which entered Capricorn in January 2008 and heralded the imprint of major paradigm shifts turned retrograde in April 2008 and now, in the middle of June, Pluto will re-enter the sign of Sagittarius for the last time in 240 years. Before that occurs, however, there are several astrological events which help prepare you for this time of reflection..

Mercury in Gemini is still retrograde as the month begins and a new Moon (with Sun and Moon in Gemini) occurs on June 3rd. This new Moon creates a stellium in Gemini that includes Venus, Mercury retrograde, and Ceres. Gemini is a simple, yet complex energy. It represents the need for you to grasp as much information as you can without really placing any judgment on the information. For this reason, it is often seen as the trickster: The imp that wants to know all and gets great pleasure by sharing information without even knowing the importance of that knowledge. Rather what the imp does see are the constant changes that occur in life and the need to laugh as these changes occur.

As you gather information about your life right now, you really don’t know what to do with all this knowledge. You may not even know how to interpret the information. But it’s important for you to learn as much as you can and share this information with other people. Educating yourself is very important. Communicating with others is very important. You need their perspective as much as they need your perspective.

Some of the paradigm shifts have focused on changes in technology. Where you may have once used the internet for gaining information, now you can use the internet for sharing personal information. Where you may have once needed to be located at home or in an office to communicate with others, now you can communicate from any location via your cell phone or your computer.

Other paradigm shifts have occurred in the global marketplace. Where you once purchased goods from local retailers, you can now purchase goods from all over the world. Where you thought of investing in national corporations, you can now invest in bonds of other countries.

Some of these changes have made your life easier. Yet other changes have resulted in loss of privacy and increased economic instability. With everything going on right now, it’s easy to get sucked into feelings of uneasiness and loss. Yet, you can also find yourself experiencing feelings of joy because there’s a whole new world surrounding you.

This new Moon stresses the importance of reaching out and talking to other people about your thoughts and feelings. It stresses the need to find a spiritual approach to your life even as things are changing in your life. As you reach out to others and others reach out to you, you’ll find that there is a way to balance your personal needs in this changing world.

This need to reach out to others is emphasized on June 10th as Venus forms a trine to Chiron retrograde and a quincunx to Jupiter retrograde. This means that you can find ways to heal old wounds and take care of personal matters. It also means that you will understand where you need to make adjustments in your life. It could be an intense day because feelings are very emotional. You may even find that events around the world seem very intense as well. At times you may feel a little misunderstood just because you are changing your viewpoint on some matters.

As Ceres enters Cancer on June 11th, it becomes more important for you to take time and find ways to nurture yourself. You may want to treat yourself to a spa day. Or, you may want to spend time with family and friends. Do the best you can to relax on this day because Ceres, once it enters Cancer will also form an opposition to Pluto which is still in Capricorn but about to re-enter Sagittarius in the next few days.

You will find that this Ceres and Pluto opposition represents the myth of Demeter and her lose of her daughter Persephone to the underworld god Hades. And, the true lesson of this myth is that you can compromise without destroying your world: When Demeter lost her daughter, she plummeted the world into ice and darkness. Her promise was that the world would not return to light until her daughter was returned to her. She approached Zeus, the ruling god, for Persephone’s return. He stated Persephone could only be returned from the underworld if she had not consumed anything. Persephone did: the pomegranates. So, both Demeter and Zeus, great gods of the Graeco-Roman pantheon, struck a compromise. Persephone could return to the earth for six months and the world would once again be vital. The other six months, Persephone would return to Hades as his wife and the world would go into winter and cold. This compromise created the cycle of life and all were satisfied.

What this means to you is that this is not the time to battle to the end. This is not the time for ultimatums. Rather, this is the time to determine what goals are the best for all and do your best at achieving those goals.

This becomes more important on June 12th and 13th as Venus forms a square to Uranus on the first day and a trine to Neptune retrograde on the second day. Because Venus represents self worth, this really is a test of your value systems. If you could not come up with a good compromise on the 11th of June, you’ll find yourself in an ego battle where you have very little chance of winning. However, if you were able to find a compromise, you may need these next few days to review all the implications of that compromise. The days of June 11 – 13, 2008 will be very important for the Democratic Party because of these very energies. The party has an opportunity to heal and move forward at this time or to put itself on the path to destruction. The key is whether all key individuals involved in the Democratic will be able to find a compromise.

On June 14th a very important event occurs. Pluto, in its retrograde motion, leaves the sign of Capricorn and returns to the sign of Sagittarius for the last time in over 240 years. Pluto entered the sign of Capricorn on January 26, 2008. It takes approximately 248 years to complete its orbit around the Sun. Due to the nature of Pluto, its orbit is very erratic and the amount of time it spends in a particular sign can be anywhere from 12 years to 33 years. Once Pluto actually enters the sign of Capricorn on November 28, 2008 and stays there, it will be in that sign for approximately 16 years.

Since Pluto is slow moving, it tends to have a period of “relapse.” This means that Pluto enters its new sign for a few months, turns retrograde, and than re-enters the previous sign as if to say, “Hey! I want to make certain that I’ve completed all the energy of the last sign before I create and generate another major paradigm shift.”

When there are paradigm shifts, it doesn’t mean that things abruptly change, especially when Pluto is involved. Rather, it means that clues are surfacing all over the place and you need to pay attention. Just studying the past changes that occurred when Pluto entered the sign of Capricorn show you that governments shifted and either lost or gained global power. Economies focused on generating international trade and commerce, sometimes at the cost of local economic growth. Major upheavals occurred with various religions, in some cases bringing new orders into being while in other cases decreasing the power of other orders.

During Pluto’s 16 or so years in Sagittarius, many of the paradigm shifts focused on justice, hubris, and justification. Scandals in various sectors of society were rampant, from religious, political, corporate, and sporting sectors. There was this belief that you could do and achieve anything, just as long as you believed. The power of positive thinking is an important concept when it also has ethical support. However, the belief that you deserve anything, no matter what the cost to others, causes harm not only to yourself but to the other people in your life.

The need to expand your concept of the world was also important when Pluto was in Sagittarius. Globalization and all its promises became the war cry for not only corporations but also individuals. In your life this globalization took the form of the internet and all the doors that this technology opened in your life. You met and communicated with new people in other parts of the world. You found ways to conduct research from the comfort of your home. You even found that you could let everyone know you through various websites instead of personal contact. What you forgot was that through all this openness you also lost your privacy and those intimate aspects of your life which only those closest to you were privy to.

Globalization also had an impact on your life economically. At first the goods and products that you purchased cost less because manufacturing costs went down as more American jobs moved overseas. Economists were touting the value of this through their belief that the old economic models would continue to work. They believed that as the “blue collar” jobs moved overseas, new jobs with higher skill sets and greater salaries would open up to those who lost their jobs. However, that economic model proved false. As more developing countries understood the importance of providing jobs, they also understood that they too had people with high skill sets who could create new forms of commerce. So, suddenly you heard words like “medical vacations” where you could go to another country, find qualified doctors, and still after paying for all the travel expenses, come back with dental or other medical procedures completed at a lower cost than you would have had them done in the United States.

Soon a backlash began. And this backlash wasn’t just one that you experienced where you might call a company for service and find that you’re talking to someone who really can’t understand you or isn’t providing you the telephone back-up service you expected. This backlash also impacted people living in the various countries that offered that service. The employees started feeling pressure and, in some cases, the anger of others. Governments started experiencing more demands for equity from employees in developing countries who suddenly wanted the same goods and services which they saw other employees have. Consumerism increased as did energy consumption and suddenly the world began experiencing difficulties way beyond those of climate change.

Now with Pluto re-entering Sagittarius for a few months it’s time to revisit what has occurred during the last 16 years when the world moved from internal to external. You can’t stop the changes that occurred. Rather, you need to see how these changes can be integrated into your life without continual or increased disruption to your life.

In some ways this has begun. More people are taking responsibility and trying to save natural resources. More people are looking at their loss of privacy and trying to take actions to reclaim that privacy. Still others are trying to increase their businesses through the use of information and other technology.

During the next few months, you’ll see two sets of people evolving: Those who look forward to the various changes and try to make something of their lives with these changes; and, those who try to go back to the past and recapture what is lost. What’s important now is to use the past as a scaffold for building a better future.

There is a lot of energy surrounding June 14th, not only because Pluto re-enters Sagittarius, but because Mars forms an opposition to the Moon’s North Node on that day and continues to generate more energy as it forms a quincunx to Jupiter retrograde on June 15th and an opposition to Chiron retrograde on June 16th. The energy of Mars could be one of frustration if you feel that your needs are not being met. You may be expecting too much from other people. Yet, this energy could be used in a meaningful way if you take time to appreciate the best your life has to offer.

With Venus forming an opposition to Pluto retrograde just before it enters Cancer, the full Moon (Sun in Gemini and Moon in Sagittarius) forming close contact with Pluto, Mars forming a quincunx to Uranus on June 18th, the potential for feeling frustrated increases. Again, this frustration surrounds the feeling that your needs are not being met. It’s very important not to get involved in any conflicts because there is a great potential for loss on all sides.

When there is this much tension occurring in the world, it can manifest economically with difficulties in the stock market. It can be a very erratic period. It also tends to indicate that weather patterns will be very difficult and unpredictable. Also, this same energy has an impact on the Democratic Party which must make decisions now if it wants to run a successful campaign after its national convention.

No matter who is making decisions right now, those decisions will be important to your future. Find ways to clean out the garbage in your life. This may literally mean that it’s time to clean out all those old things you were saving. Or, it may mean that you need to review your relationships with other people. If there are emotional obstacles that stand in your way, find tools that enable you to remove those obstacles. You may need to be brutally honest with yourself. But removing those emotional obstacles will help you find a path to happiness down the road.

Mercury in Gemini turns retrograde on June 19th and your thoughts seem to clear up. Communicating with others becomes easier. Due to the frustrations experienced the previous few days, many secrets are revealed. In other cases, stories surface that have questionable sources. Be very careful what you hear from other people. Also, be very careful with information gathered from various media outlets. Their sources may not be reliable, especially those focusing on various political matters.

The Summer Solstice occurs on June 20th and marks the second quarter of the astrological year. The Solstice emphasizes the theme of globalization. The polarization between those who embrace the changes and those who want to hold on to the past continues. Yet, there is also a strong feminine energy surfacing. When this occurs, you feel the need to find support from other people. Family and friends are more important. Nurturing your growth enables you to make the right changes in your life.

This need to nurture continues as Venus forms a sextile to Saturn and conjunction to Ceres on June 21st. There is a realization that you really can’t do things all alone: You need relationships with other people in order to find success. This realization may also penetrate global conscious as more people realize that they can’t go back to the past where isolation was one solution. The curtain that separated one culture from another is torn and thrown away. People from various communities and countries must find a way to live together.

As the month draws to a close, Uranus in Pisces turns retrograde on June 26th. Normally the change of direction with Uranus is not really felt. But globally there may be a sense that perhaps all the chaos is slowing down and reflection before taking action can be a good thing.

Mars forms a trine to Pluto retrograde at the end of the month on June 30th. While there are still many more months to pause and reflect on the paradigm changes that continue to occur, this trine gives energy to the fact that reflection is a good thing and that the paradigm changes will continue. The world has changed and these changes have impacted your life. Now take the time to understand what this means to you personally and how you’ll utilize the best these changes can offer you.