Last Saturday I logged onto a webinar offered by Kepler College of Astrological Arts & Sciences.  A panel of five mundane astrologers discussed politics, race relations, the economy, and other various hot topics.

They posted the charts they used online which made it quite easy to  follow the discussions. It was fascinating to see the variety of techniques and charts they used.  As always, the astrology of current events leads one to a much more comprehensive understanding of what is going on at any given time.  Astrology reveals the nuances and hidden subtleties that are often overlooked by the current herd-mind*  (*I refer you to the brilliant Jeffrey Wolf Green, one of my earliest teachers.)

Astrology, is a language of symbols, which creates a much broader, wider, context by which to understand & discuss events.  Dane Rudyar, another one of my most inspirational teachers,  writes, “…astrology is always symbolical when properly understood. All depends on what is meant by symbol. Algebra is also purely symbolical, and yet algebra and higher mathematics have made possible modern science and the age of machines. Astrology is fundamentally the algebra of life.” (AP p.18)

Anyway, each panelist mentioned the August 24, 2016 conjunction of Mars & Saturn in 10 Sag. as a notable upcoming transit.  They all agreed  that regardless of who gets elected,  the USA is in for a difficult time ahead.  The transits to the chart of the USA are nothing less than transformational.  That’s the bad news.   And, that’s the good news too.  (I published the chart of the USA in my previous post)

After the webinar I was inspired to spend some time on my own studying the algebra of this upcoming cycle and even before I write any commentary I want to go on record with the following dates which mark the more stressful moments.  Please allow a 2-3 day orb…..

• Aug 24 2016
• Nov 9 2016
• Jan 19 2017*
• Mar 27 2017
• May 29 2017*
• July 30 2017
• Oct 11 2017*
• Jan 5 2018
• Apr 2 2018*

What’s important is to think of this time period, 8/24/2016 – 4/2/2018 as one complete cycle of Mars/Saturn.  The dates represent  ‘hot’ spots. And those dates with an * are hotter than the others.  More on this later.  An important detail to note is that right now, these weeks leading up to Aug 24, are the balsamic (closing) phase of the current cycle which is coming to completion.  That cycles was birthed in Aug of 2014 at 17 Scorpio.  Masters and teachers alike have always asked us to move towards our conscious connection to spirit during balsamic times.  Solitude, contemplation, prayer, meditation, those are the preferred activities during the balsamic phase of any cycle.   If the Mars/Saturn cycle represents (among other things) our evolving/devolving/revolving relationship with: authority, police, military, power, the law, rules, aggression, violence, malevolence, and that sort of thing, we have much to process and heal from before Aug 24, 2016 otherwise,  whatever is unresolved gets dragged into the new making it not-so-new at all and complicating any efforts to really start anew.

What was not discussed during the webinar was how to move thru these difficult times.  That’s what I want to talk about……there’s much to discuss. It’s definitely time for another Salon for Astrological Discourse.  Stay tuned for date.