“Milestones of civilization are often first considered impossible utopias.”
-Albert Hirschmann, Economist
Time is a construct, when you try and find it in nature you find a mirage, a false image created by two interfering patterns. Humans on the other hand experience time as a one stream in which everything is moving towards an indefinite and undefinable future, and as such we have created the artificial construct called the future. It is an illusion that instills fear and confusion as well as wonderment and excitement in most of us, this is largely due to the inborn human psychological trait of resisting change which the future guarantees with certainty. Change is fundamental to the dynamism of the Universe and nothing ever stays stable for long whether it is an increase in complexity or some machination of entropy the second law of thermodynamics.
The other thing that allows many of us to regard the future with both anticipation and terror is the idea that fundamental assumptions we take for granted can suddenly be turned upside down in the strange light of the future (to borrow a line from the Neuroscientist and writer David Eagleman). It is the distinct idea that our consensus reality will change radically by changes we have little control over and converging issues are sure to make this a potent possibility. Changes in the geo-chemistry of the planet, and our draw down of non-renewable resources are that our future will have to adapt to the concept of a new normal. Everything from how cities are designed to how we grow our food will undergo radical change so that every one of our taken for granted assumptions about social reality will largely be overturned or experiencing a radical departure. What seems largely utopian now will become the next milestones of civilization and we ride the terrifying/exhilarating Aquarian paradox of balancing the social scales between utopian and dystopian social realities. As it stands by 2030 our world will be very different than it is now. Pervasive surveillance, eroding civil rights, intrusive government, rising costs of Healthcare, a stressed out population shaken by existential pressures, terrorism and scaremongering and a crisis of accelerating inequality are all features of the more dystopian side of the equation.
On the other hand we are also seeing increasing growth in social complexity, our cities have many more towers on the skyline but are also increasingly diverse and cosmopolitan, we are monitoring our energy and water usage using technologies that measure these use patterns in real time and adjust costs accordingly, a more elegant handling of congestion in the urban environment, more local and city based food production due to issues of food security and other energy shocks, and an explosion in more ecologically sensitive technologies, and finally a genuine embryological move towards a more sustainable global society. The choice remains ours and the future will certainly be a hodge-podge, then again the present is a mixture in any case.
It’s really a perfect lead in to what June looks like astrologically as the future is the over-riding theme. The ongoing Mercury Retrograde will certainly add that feature as built-in, followed by a midmonth retrograde of Neptune through Aquarius giving us pause to revision what the future could be; this activating the mutual reception of Uranus in Pisces which seeks innovative approaches that liberate all of humanity into a higher state of complexity and functioning, and lead to sudden new realities that turn all of our existing social frameworks upside down, spurring new avenues of human experience, perhaps we may even transcend our human limitations through technology and reimagined relationship to the biosphere.
June 2nd heralds a full moon in the high definition depth perception sign of Scorpio. It is symbolic of any workings coming to fruition that have to do with sex, transformation, death as metaphor for change, and exploring internal and external depths, it also allows for investigations and review of evidence. On a collective level it is the exaltation of collective will and the things that effect the body politic, everything from political corruption to new social arrangements to epidemiology fall under this energetic signature. This in addition to Venus egressing into the sign of life’s ultimate nurturance Cancer. This is a fertile place for Venus it gives ground for the erotic energies of this planetary cipher to fully express it opens the door for fertile creativity and creating an environment favorable for ideas to gestate .
June 5th: Mars sextile Jupiter: Humanity has never been as productive as it is now. We have reached a threshold where we are fast moving beyond economies of scarcity to ones of hyper-abundance and yet all around the world we experience growing inequality and a financial theft of our labors with stagnating wages and loss of job and financial security. This is a moment in time when the energies are right to begin to question this, why must we toil for the basics of existence when they can be provided by automation and human agency? Why is the world’s wealth being concentrated in only a few hands when it is built on our labor? Can we create a system that benefits as many as possible?
June 6th: Venus Trine Saturn: Humanity faces an age where its long standing struggles for justice, fairness and the creation of a truly civil society have been amplified as never before as we can communicate with each other in an instant and know in the blink of an eye what is happening a world away from us. This makes the struggle for social and restorative justice all the more cogent, and this particular stasis symbolizes that striving. A moment emerges now for us to connect deeply with each other and hammer out the details of a new consensus reality, one that is beautiful and harmonious.
June 8th: Sun sextile Jupiter: It’s a metaphor to help explain what the 1% blithely does with no awareness of the privilege that allows them to act as if the world will bend for them and them alone. It is in essence those who claim to be royalty act with impunity and go to any excess and expect that there will always be someone to bail them out of the mess ala the Government bailing out Wall Street. That aside, it can also represent what happens when the rest of us say enough is enough and go to any measure needed and we win!! It is when will aligns with opportunity, and generosity brings victory.
June 9th: Mars sextile Uranus: similar to the Sun Mars conjunction occurring later in the month with a twist, this could signal important developments in conflicts around the world, the most cogent being the social justice struggles and debates around inequality which have been raging of late. An uptick in rebellion and conjecture could potentially be seen now, with fresh new concepts emerging that expand the reach of these struggles. A launch of pilot projects is indicated.
June 10th: Sun sextile Uranus: Course Correction: This is a salient metaphor for a much needed impulse in humanity to come to the fore in this case a willingness to embrace new ways of doing things. We need it now more than we ever have and here is a cosmic nudge.
June 11th: The continuing Mercury Retrograde will challenge us all to be mindful of the details (The devil is in the details) It will station direct on June 11th, and give us all a reprieve before going fully direct and transiting into Gemini. It has been spending time in Taurus and enjoying a sumptuous feast for the senses, mind and imagination. Mercury in retrograde reminds of the 5 R’s, Review, Revise, Reduce, Reuse (Re-purpose), and Recycle, with the focus in Taurus the symbology is primed on the fundamental parameters of life. We look at values and practical realities and the balance between security and freedom. Globally it represents a chance for humanity to assess its relationship to the natural world and seek to dissolve the illusory perception of the Culture/Nature split. There is an examination of our relationship to the common ground that unites us all (Earth). Are we creating a symbiotic merger with the biosphere that is our life support? Are we doing enough to prioritize Climate Change which stands as humanity’s greatest self-generated environmental/existential threat?
June 12th: Neptune Retrograde: Re-imagining the Future: Initiates a long cyclical transit Neptune retrograde which last until November 18th, 2015. Neptune retrogrades are intense times in that our receptivity and sensitivity to the subtle is very acute, more so than when Neptune is direct. Often the issue that arise during these transits are best dealt with before it stations direct or they can be amplified by the change in motion. In this case with Neptune transiting Aquarius. And in mutual reception to Pisces a very interesting theme emerges. It is the dance between technology and liberation. It is a warning to not become deluded and fixed around our attitudes to technology or to see it as our Savior, lest we become enslaved to it and the thing that was designed to serve us kills us instead. Technology is one of humanity’s greatest achievements it also has a dark side like any tool it depends on the intentions of the user, case in point nuclear energy can be used to power a city, or destroy it all based on intent. In this case it takes on collective scale and strong political elements in that it is a matter of how technology is collectively used, it could be used to liberate or enslave. In a word the perils of deifying technology and making it our God are immense, we must always remember it is a tool in service to the better angels of our nature.
June 14th: Saturn retrogrades into Libra and stays there until August 2nd. What was started during the Saturn conjunction of Libra goes up for review here. So what was happening in 2012? Plenty! Anonymous gave birth to Arab Spring and the first truly internet based activism, the Occupy movement deigned to bring awareness to economic inequality that was tearing the fabric of civilization to tatters, and many nations effected by the Great Recession of 2008 were living under austerity measures designed to get a sluggish economy back on track, during this period all of it comes up for review and like the Neptune retrograde we are asked to re-examine our social contracts and determine whether they are truly just and fair, or they are lopsided, the most obvious conclusion is the latter in a world with rising inequality and continuing social bifurcation, a new civility is clearly in order.
This coincides with a Sun conjunct Mars: Radical departure and a force of nature combine in this hard aspect, if there was already selective pressure to innovate it now takes on an urgency and forcefulness, its change or die, to live is to dare.
June 16th:: A new moon in Taurus, the moon’s happiest place to be sees a continuation of themes wrought with the other planetary transits, namely the human/nature interface, albeit new forms emerge at this time as something is brought into being to gestate through the lunar cycle.
June 21st: The Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, it also marks the pagan holiday Litha or midsummer a time when biological systems reach their zenith of creativity and abundance.
June 22nd: Jupiter trine Uranus: If the day feels surreal in mindset, and has that futuristic strange light it is possibly because our perceptions are red-shifting into the event horizon of some completely new singularity in cultural mutation. More importantly it can portend that technological, futuristic or collective ventures with strong liberation themes, have the resources they need to establish themselves, revolutions can happen under these auspices, and with the pace accelerating at which social evolution is occurring revolutions go from taking centuries to hours and minutes.
June 23rd: The Sun enters the Mercurial sign of Gemini. This is followed three days later as Mars enters Gemini. Mars and the Sun now enter a sign that gives it the equivalent of fusion power, inexhaustible, and highly volatile. It can also symbolize forceful words, and argument in service to higher ideals, the war of ideologies, an ongoing backdrop in our world trajectory.
June 27th: Venus enters Leo, this is the urge to connect and merge at its most personal, playful and fiercely creative, the focus is placed on intimate one-on-one interfaces, and about feeling passion deeply and with exuberance, it is a lot like a cat pouncing on a subject of its desire. Venus will hang out in the eye of the tiger until August 2nd, and then enter Virgo.
June 29th: Venus sextile Uranus: Celebrate Diversity: There is an insidious problem in much of the discourse about minorities in most of the world and it is one of erasure. People will state they are colorblind, or that we are all just people, and while that is true what is vastly different is that categories such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and sexual identity are all deeply present factors which shape a persons experiences and perceptions. To say that one does not see that as valid by dismissing it through a “colorblindness” is part of the problem, it erases the oppressions these people experience and denies integral parts of their identities, I mention it only because this transit is an invitation to stop doing that. It is to take the blinders off and to actually see the diversities all around you and acknowledge them. Here’s a great quote that sums it up:
“People of color, women, and gays — who now have greater access to the centers of influence that ever before — are under pressure to be well-behaved when talking about their struggles. There is an expectation that we can talk about sins but no one must be identified as a sinner: newspapers love to describe words or deeds as “racially charged” even in those cases when it would be more honest to say “racist”; we agree that there is rampant misogyny, but misogynists are nowhere to be found; homophobia is a problem but no one is homophobic. One cumulative effect of this policed language is that when someone dares to point out something as obvious as white privilege, it is seen as unduly provocative. Marginalized voices in America have fewer and fewer avenues to speak plainly about what they suffer; the effect of this enforced civility is that those voices are falsified or blocked entirely from the discourse.”
-Teju Cole
June has entered hyper-space it seems, and may never resemble the Junes we have all been accustomed to or not, as the French proverb says, the more things change the more they stay the same, hopefully not.
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References:
“20 predictions for the next 25 years”, The Guardian, various authors, posted on Saturday, January 1st 2011, retrieved on Friday May 29th, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jan/02/25-predictions-25-years
“Why we should free money to Everyone”, Rutger Bregman posted Decemeber 23rd, 2013, retrieved on May 29th, 2015 , from: https://decorrespondent.nl/541/Why-we-should-give-free-money-to-everyone/20798745-cb9fbb39
Flying Punk Rock Unicorn Astrology 