NMR ISSUE 19

Astrological Forecast 19
Crystals
Earth, Air, Fire and Water
Editorial
Giraffe
Growing Through Joy
Hermes, Guide of Souls
Letters 19
Magic and the Western Mind
On Distillation
Public Rituals & Children
Solitary Talk
Solstice Song for Summer
The Oldest Magick
The Principles of Magick
The Purpose of Being a Magician
The Significator
The Spirit of Shamanism
The Turning of the Ages
Two to Get You Mad
Understaning Your Dreams

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The Turning of the Ages

A Commentary on the Millennium

By Terry Lamb, M.A.

I have spoken many times about the shift of balance between the masculine and feminine on the planet. While this takes place in many different forms, on a cultural level it has translated into interplay between a Blade (a dominance oriented, cultural pattern) and a Chalice (a nurturance oriented, cultural pattern). Up to about 10,000 years ago, to our knowledge, all human cultures were Chalice cultures. They were focused through a life-sustaining, Goddess-as-creatrix social structure that was aware of its connection with nature. Its basis was a linking structure, where no one person had more power than another.

Its very object, the desire to sustain life, spawned a shift to the opposite polarity. Because it was successful in learning how to sustain life, people were able to settle down in one place, create towns and cities and develop pastimes other than those that connected them directly with nature. Populations grew, and leadership became more and more centralized. Technological advances, such as the paving of roads, building of permanent structures, and domestication of animals took us away from our roots in nature. Ritual celebration of the seasons and lunations were partially designed to maintain that connection. Gradually people forgot the purpose of the rituals and large parts of the population were excluded from them or chose to stay away. Humanity lost its connection with its roots, began to feel overcrowded and threatened by the burgeoning population, and life sustenance became less important. Power began to pool in leaders remote from their people and nature. There was room for a misunderstood use of masculine aggressiveness to take hold. Territory and property became important, requiring defense of one's possessions against other humans, and nationalism and the warlike aspects of our nature were brought out. Identifying with a given piece of land interceded between our ability to identify with nature and ourselves.

The masculine began its ascent. In its pure form, it keeps us active, on edge, able to survive. But misused and misunderstood, it becomes self-destructive. Humanity turned on itself, lost touch with the feminine. The first evidence of this came with the invasions of hordes from the north into the Near East about 8000 BCE. Since then, the misused masculine has been running out of control until we could destroy the planet through means such as nuclear weapons/energy, burning of fossil fuels and the need to conquer nature.

Now we are ending this cycle of development of the masculine-feminine balance, one that has lasted nearly 26,000 years. We are directly confronting the need to shift consciously away from the ascent of the misused masculine to a balance of the polarities. We need the feminine to allow us to survive by creating life and re-connect us with our planet. We need the masculine to allow us to survive by taking from life and to set limits on how life should be sustained. Riane Eisler has a very coherent and balanced way of looking at this phenomenon in The Chalice and the Blade, a book which I highly recommend. Other sources on these phenomena include works by Barbara Hand-Clow and Jose Arguelles.

The Mayan calendar marks the turning of the ages in 2012. Other spiritual traditions and revealed sources report a dramatic shift in consciousness that may be pinpointed to the turn of this century. Although I cannot say with any personal certainty that the New Age begins at a specific time which will occur in our lifetime, it is undeniable that we face daunting challenges over the next 20 years if our planet is to survive with any organic life forms on it.

This turning will be profound and will manifest partially as a shift to a new paradigm for human consciousness. We cannot return to the feminine-oriented past and try to repeat it; we cannot remain with the masculine-oriented present.

Jose Arguelles, backed by the Mayan calendar, says that we entered a transition period in 1987 which will last until 2012. During that time, Arguelles and others suggest that we will make the paradigmatic shift as the new Great Cycle begins. We will become identified with our light bodies rather than the physical bodies we now attach our identity to. This does not mean that we give up the physical, only that we become conscious of the light body and begin to see its reality as our primary life story. Although the shift to this level of consciousness could happen quickly, learning to cope with and develop it will take 26,000 years.

Whether or not we see a shift in consciousness that everyone will experience and acknowledge, the pressure from our environment to make lifestyle changes is evident. During the next two years, a major planetary event will color our experience and characterize the crisis in consciousness that we now face. This is the conjunction of Uranus and Neptune. It is further focalized during 1992 by the square of Pluto to Transpluto and the solar eclipses in Cancer and Capricorn.

The Uranus-Neptune conjunction occurs only 2 years after Saturn conjoined these bodies, forming a triple conjunction over a 5-year period, part of a cycle totaling 1542 years. (See my article, Emergence of a New Age: The Conjunction of Saturn, Neptune and Uranus in the NCGR Member letter, April 1989; or in the Sylvan Song, Spring 1989. Or see Earth's Coronation in NMR 1:1.)

The Pluto-Transpluto square is part of a cycle lasting more than 1250 years and which began in about 1939. Although these cycles are much smaller than the Great Cycle, they are still of tremendous importance to us, since they signal shifts in cultural consciousness which provide the form for the larger shift in consciousness.

The planetary cycles of 1992 assume even greater importance by virtue of the fact that the eclipses, the great manifestors of earthly activity, fall upon the Uranus-Neptune conjunction. This means that the energies of the conjunction, as they are forming, will become evident in our world, rapid-fire and without contemplation. Some of the events we will share in enacting, others will happen to us.

The Cancer-Capricorn axis (where one finds the eclipses, Uranus and Neptune) forms a matrix for a part of this change. Cancer and Capricorn are exactly opposite each other, one of the 6 polarities in astrology. Cancer represents the Mother—the nurturing, emotional side of our being that resides in our gut, comes from our past and is most evident in our homes. Gut feelings, instincts, protectiveness (as of a mother toward her young) and re-actions (repeated or habitual) are all part of the Cancer energy pattern. Cancer is mystical and magnetic, like the Moon (its ruling planet) which draws us out when it is full. On a personal level, Cancer has a strong motivation to find emotional security. Ultimately, security must be found on a higher level of Self. But for most people, this results in a drive for emotional comfort. This often means not wanting to look at the horrors of life because we feel emotional discomfort. It can create a desire to avoid personal responsibility as a response to this discomfort. We may want to remain insulated and isolated within one's safety zone (family)—to not look outside into the real world. At its worst, instead of personifying the Mother, we may remain infants in consciousness, never taking full responsibility for our beings.

Through Capricorn we are asked to take responsibility for ourselves, both on a personal scale and in terms of our role in civilization. Are we taking care of ourselves? Are we living up to our commitments, both immediate and long-term? Are we fulfilling our role as planetary citizens—are we fully responsible, non-destructive members of our species? Are we carpooling, or are we stubbornly sticking to old patterns of living that are flagrantly stupid and irresponsible? The positive manifestation of Capricorn is to take a global view and act responsibly on behalf of the whole. On the negative side, Capricorn can bring out the fear and retractive conservatism in us. Acting out the desire to protect one's share, excluding others from one's own bounty due to a fear of lack, or using others for personal gain are the weakest points of Capricorn.

Cancer and Capricorn present hard choices for those of us used to having what we want, lulled into a sense of false complacency during the Reagan era and in economic trouble during the Bush era. Well, no matter how metaphysical you are, you can't make the ozone hole magically disappear—we as a species must change our ways to reverse the destructive forces that have been unleashed.

Chances are, if you live in Western culture and are working with the spirit of the challenges of Cancer and Capricorn, you are facing the fact that Westerners live too high on the hog and have to tone down their lifestyle in dramatic ways. Everyone is cutting back, much to the dismay of the spin doctors and fluff merchants of our culture. How often have you been told that you absolutely need that 15th sweater, that pile of junk food or that gas-guzzling vehicle? Now we're learning to just say no to the rampant marketing ploys that foster material addiction and attempt to enslave us, instead spreading the wealth that we already have.

On the whole, I think that we as a species are responding correctly to the urgent issues, like the burning oil wells in Kuwait and the starving peoples of the Sahel. However, on the issues that require personal strength and foresight to prompt change, where free will is involved, we are weak. We will be strengthened, as loss hit closer to home, to make these changes over the next twenty years, I promise you. However, we can, by making the right choices now, head off many, if not all the problems facing us as planetary citizens today.

Slowly our priorities as a species and as individual nations are shifting. Concern for the essentials is never stronger than under Cancer-Capricorn.

Thus, the Cancer-Capricorn axis is founded upon the dilemma between support (Cancer) and control (Capricorn). Our challenge in the 90's is to learn self-control instead of other-control—power from within (immanence) rather than dominance. Power from within begets personal empowerment, love, truth and independence, and will bring about a masculine-feminine balance.

While 1991 through 1993 may prove to be difficult years for many people, they will provide us with a depth of wisdom and great rewards on a planetary level if we respond properly. Furthermore, we are, by working toward a positive outcome, creating the morphogenetic field for a more positive future—a fact that we cannot underestimate in its potential power. [See Morphogenetic Magick in NMR 2:1&2, and A New Science of Life, by Rupert Sheldrake, for information on morphic resonance.]

I would like to suggest that, with the eclipse on the conjunction of Uranus and Neptune in January 1992, the movement into the light body might have begun to occur for those who are ready to accept it.

If you are experiencing symptoms associated with spiritual awakening, such as becoming aware of unseen reality—experiencing energy shifts in the body, developing psychic awareness, seeing luminous or translucent energies and beings, increased susceptibility to drugs and other pollutants, occurrence of illnesses which resist standard medical treatment—then you may number yourself among those in metamorphosis.

Whether or not this will present a dramatic change doesn't matter to me. I will personally do what I can to grow spiritually and serve others in their growth. I am ready for any eventuality. I see many people pursuing this possible future, as if hoping to be rescued from the planet. Such escapism is understandable, but I don't think we'll be able to get away from our past so easily.

The reason I bring all this up (again) is to remind you (and myself) that no matter what else in going on in your chart, the issues associated with such long-term planetary events will provide a context for all other things we experience or enact. A good Jupiter transit is no match for a challenge to you as a member of the human species. But, if Uranus and Neptune hand you lemons, Jupiter may allow you to make lemonade.

The changes I speak of are of such significance that we are all engaged in them. We can't ignore them and hope they will go away. They are our birthright, our original sin or human karma, born of 26,000 years of learning. Incarnating as twentieth century humans, we have agreed to be vehicles for change. Let's try to keep our focus and assist the process both personally and globally; no matter what changes occur.