By David A. Wheatley
​​https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html

​Mars has been making a return to its natal place in the US natal chart, which is in a tense 90 degree relationship or aspect to where Neptune is in the nation’s natal chart. Because Mars began a prolonged retrograde late last year, this Mars return is magnified in importance because of the length of time it moves in a limited area compared to its relatively swifter movement when it isn’t retrograde. Transiting Mars first made the tense aspect to the US natal Neptune in October of last year. Now that it’s moving direct, and until early March 2023, it will repeat moving in and out of this transit aspect. 

​In the US natal chart, Neptune is in the 9th house, denoting perhaps ethical values/beliefs that are very high minded; perhaps a difficult reach at times to achieve and then maintain.  The natal Mars position that transiting Mars is meeting up with three times is in the 7th house, denoting an energetic engagement of important relationships with other nations. This is a role that America historically claims to feel paramount about and has grown into. (There’s also a faction that wishes the US leadership to shed this value and it could happen for a period of time, but never last.)  Altogether the importance of Neptune and Mars in the natal chart and in the transits to each other now suggests characteristics that other nations and individuals both within and without the USA identify with. This is probably more evident during wartimes - the provenance of Mars - supporting and nurturing alliances with other nations as well as being central in the conflict of values with others.

​Neptune conforms to the higher values of the 9th house, which resonates something similar to Sagittarius. It is cultivating features of the Sagittarian duality: non-material ethics or a complete surrender to narcissism. Neptune being the planet of high-spirited ideals is also capable of great deception masquerading as high ideals. 

​When one creates the shell of noble causes one then has to fill it with content. The thing about Neptune is it doesn’t relate as something alive in our daily lives. It doesn’t usually get attention in the front of the stage; it works constantly and quietly behind the curtain. If it wasn’t working constantly we might notice it more.  Neptune circulates where and when we resolve our intentions for action; it isn’t the action itself. Therefore it seems abstract, providing the platform and props for us to decide on how we will act to manifest our ideals. Mostly we don’t live in the abstract; we don’t have time for it. But Neptune with wile guides us into circumstances where we have to define and refine what we do believe in by our actions. 

​Mars is content to take action in a vacuum of intentions, scattering energy. In this case, Neptune provides some soul and shapes intentions and goals. The Mars/Neptune relationship in the natal US chart suggests part of the character of the nation is to hold high values, or at times pretend to hold high values with the intention of deception. Neptune can go both ways. Because the influence is coming from amoral Mars, the inclinations of Neptune can easily create the facade of idealism on the public face, but the masquerade obscures self-serving. It plays on high-minded values in people. If those values are not fully formed or subject to negative psychological experiences and emotions, the results can be abusive and hurtful. Every one of us has at times lied to ourselves and others in big and small ways and sold our values short. It may be necessary to reveal that this capability is there. 

​This transit of Mars to its place in the US natal chart, while in aspect to the US natal Neptune, is augmented now (in early 2023) by transiting Mars being in aspect to transiting Neptune, while at the same time Neptune is in opposition to the US natal Neptune. (Transiting Neptune in opposition to the US natal Neptune’s position.) Neptune has been in this dynamic relationship for a couple years.


​It’s confusing. As it always can do, Neptune muddies up what is real because everything is real to Neptune.
Looking at the Ukraine war in consideration of the Mars and Neptune transits to the US natal Mars and Neptune, clearly the US has circled the wagons with allies and drawn a few lines in the sand for others. The entire past year of war in Ukraine is linked to the relationships that the US has acted on pulling together. Another important feature of this time is that the US and the allies’ position has its own distinct version of reality from that of Russia. This is Neptune; both are real. Ultimately one will prevail over the other. As a guide to which one, I refer mention to the Jupiter transit last year in meeting up with Neptune in Pisces. Jupiter inflates everything and it resonates favorably with a 9th house Neptune as Jupiter is very strong in 9th house/Sagittarius. The two of them make whatever version of reality is subscribed to seem more real and more ethical. Jumping in with both feet without caution to upholds one’s sense of ethics. 

​The ruling faction in Russia feels threatened by the advancing Western culture into Ukraine. For the ruling class of Russia, the destruction of Ukraine is not so unethical as it seems in the West; they can kill there without feeling guilty because they own Ukraine as far as they are concerned. It’s similar to a bad vision with bad values displayed by white power racists in America who feel no shame in abusing nonwhite people because they are a sub class of human being. Russia feels Ukrainians are a sub class of Russia. They value Ukraine to serve Russia as a satellite colony insulating them from Europe. Here we see plainly the god of war, Mars, brutally destroying and at the same time saving life under the influence of Neptune. Both sides of this clash of values believes it is behaving in a necessary and acceptable way.
Neptune is at work, blurring the lines, screwing up what is reality and challenging human beings to define and refine. Neptune as an agent of the overall psyche uses both roles as an education for those where fertile ground is present. They feel this so deeply that they are willing to make painful costly sacrifices in a way that Mars naturally knows too well, in a war. It’s a kind of psychosis, a schism of reality where simply crossing a border results in the world - and the war taking place - looking completely different on the other side. 

​Now that Mars is moving forward and out of this dynamic, we can expect this Mars/Neptune clash to fade and give way to other Astrological factors. Transiting Neptune is moving much slower but eventually on to other things. It will remain interacting with the US natal Neptune without Mars well into 2024. It will be a continuing factor in the national motivation to define and refine its values into the next presidential election. 

​Anyone interested in Astrology will be aware that in March, Pluto leaves Capricorn where it’s been for nearly 20 years. It won’t stay long in Aquarius, the next sign. By June it’s moving retrograde back into Capricorn before finally leaving that sign (for another 265 years or so) to spend some time in Aquarius until 2044. We get some flavor of what the next two decades will be like during the next few months so far as Pluto is concerned. In March, Saturn also changes signs, leaving Aquarius and entering Pisces. March is a huge month in an astrological perspective.
My expectation is there will be much shifting or changing in our psyche in a short period of time. 

Our collective human psychology has a few dynamic years of big changes ahead. As these two powerful planets change signs, by April we could be stunned at how much change has rolled out. We will also see a less conflict-style picture of reality, because the Mars/Neptune transits will be pulling apart (with some drama). This will be true on all sides. People and nations will make definitive decisions. 

Saturn moving into Pisces is a contrast from how it was in Aquarius. Saturn was on its better behavior in Aquarius, contributing knowledge, learning, even if what we learned was very sobering. It was at least constructive in that air sign, helping find some points of clarity and making it clear how people who may not be the best friends but share some practical needs, can work together. Neptune and Jupiter both transited Pisces inflating hopes perhaps unrealistically.
Saturn’s advice is always the same:  keep it simple, get organized and do your work. Moving into Pisces from Aquarius, Saturn is going to reduce the expansiveness of Neptune. Saturn is going to narrow things down, more of a bottom-line approach. Pisces is a water sign - feelings, state of mind, psychological factors we can use or trip over. 

Many issues that Pluto stirred up while in Capricorn are not resolved. Yes, Pluto will return there by June and spend its time through the end of 2024 wrapping up a lot of loose ends.  Remember, Capricorn is structure in every way - government, military, corporate, school, neighborhood, your body’s structure, the structure of our society, the structure of ideas. It really wants things to work well, it just happens often enough that people become conflicted and confused following competing voices within themselves.
​Pluto continues to break down and reform established structure using buried tensions within the individual and collective psyche. This will change as it enters Aquarius in a way that reminds people how we need each other not so much in close relationships but as good neighbors. It’s the 11th house of “Others”, Community. Pluto in Aquarius will point out how we exist in our community and how we could do it better. Unfortunately, Pluto tends to enter a place and break things down to their atomic level, completely. It rebuilds them much later after we dwell in our stew a while.
I suspect Pluto will begin a lesson on how much we will need to rely on others. To me this implies that the way we do it now - through automation - is going to be hampered. Aquarius is the new age of technology and Pluto coming in could cut a few connections. 

​Contact David at davidfinearts@gmail.com for a personal astrological consultation.
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​Saturn has been in and out of a tense (square) relationship aspect to Uranus for almost two years. Saturn retrograded back for the third and final episode of the tango with Uranus peaking in September-October of this year. In the last week of October, Saturn began to move direct after slowly moving retrograde back into the square with Uranus over the prior months. 

​Saturn in Aquarius first approached and squared Uranus in Taurus around the time of the January 6th insurrection at the Capital building in 2021. The two major outer planets reached their first peak of three meetings during former president Trump's second impeachment. The tension between these two planets in such a relationship work according to their very different natures - seemingly opposite to each other.  Saturn likes structure.  Uranus likes to turn structure on its head or even blow it apart. 

​The third and final meeting in the square aspect came this Fall, at the time of this writing. At the same time, retrograde Mercury connected by aspect to the position of transiting Pluto, still not quite done with its work in Capricorn. Pluto begins a year or two of transition into Aquarius back and forth from Capricorn next year. This transition comes with other major planets also in aspect and changing signs, all amounting to two to three years of huge changes in our lives. 
​
​​Altogether Saturn, Uranus and Pluto completions this year into next conclude some themes and begin to move us into new chapters. They reveal and release hidden information and insight into the events that turned up during transiting aspects during these recent years.

​For example, the January 2021 insurrection happened at the first meeting of Uranus and Saturn. As we now are in the final months of that transit it is likely that the processes that unfolded because of it will lead to reforms that address the causes. It is likely we see Saturn in particular extract a price for them in terms of punishment. Saturn as Lord of Karma will execute its edicts that continue to play out in the years to come. Saturn also rewards the mature conduct of those who worked in a Saturnian way. That is, rewards for those who sought to restrict unrestrained behavior, behavior that undermined structure (Saturn) but at the same time refined it by adapting to the consequences. The Uranian component of this two-year transit was the energy that threatened and broke down existing order.  It still hasn't fully registered on either side of the conflict that underlying reasons producing the event point to problems with the structure (Saturn) of reality or the genius (Uranus) drowning within it. Time will have to pass before the value from it sinks in. 

​Saturn and Uranus will be pulling apart in the coming month and this aspect, while it continues to reverberate, will fade from the front of the stage. It will become a subplot and take a step back as other energies move to the front over the next couple of years.

Mars’ passage through Gemini is usually a short sprint, but because Mars turned retrograde it will spend a prolonged period in Gemini and grow in power because of its slower motion, taking on the weight of a larger outer planet during its retrograde period. A retrograde planet as the physics works out, is closer to Earth than when it's direct. This is one reason why the impact of retrograde planets feels stronger. Mars retrograding now happens between 7 and 26 degrees of Gemini. Anyone with a chart that has sensitive positions between these degrees will be impacted in overt ways. Mars is overt, not subtle. Similarly, anyone with planets in other signs at degrees in relation to Mars’ slow transit in Gemini (especially Sagittarius, Pisces and Virgo) will have to deal with this inflated Mars transit by aspect, as it retrogrades then moves direct early next year to complete this period by March of next year. Because this happens from Gemini, those affected can expect to give and take some strong words, inflammatory words. They will be expressed with emphasis inflated beyond what seems reasonable. Try to think twice before speaking if this astrologically applies to you. 

But my larger interest for upcoming astrological influences is the changing of signs by major planets beginning in March with Pluto finally crawling up to 30 degrees of Capricorn which is zero degrees of Aquarius, the next sign. All major planets change character emphasis in our psyche when they change signs. Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and can't be overlooked, but it doesn't carry the weight of the trans-Jupiter planets simply because Jupiter moves faster. 
 
Pluto changes signs by direct then retrograde and direct motion in over two years, a huge shift for all of us. Many of the themes for its time in Capricorn don't come to an end as much as get less attention, while other areas of life gain more. As new concerns come into view, we relegate many former priorities to the back burner. The major planets bring into our lives from remote areas of our consciousness things we must deal with and might have been too distracted to manage or prepare for.
​Thus, the shift of focus often arrives like an uninvited guest. We might greet that guest with joy or a long face, we might be grateful to be catapulted out of a rut. Or we might dread facing more problems to address. We can usually count on Pluto to drag the junk out of the basement that we ignored, stuffed away to deal with at a later date. That time has come.  Moving into Aquarius the emphasis will appear to many as problems humanity can solve with technology. Problems with technology. Maybe for a while, technology that doesn't work. Can't work. The planet discovered at the time humanity brought forth the atomic age, Pluto, will be upgraded while in Aquarius but maybe because it doesn't work and has to be rebuilt.
 
Why doesn't it work? Temporarily, there can be many reasons for this. I won't speculate here now but I am expecting a reboot of the atomic age. It probably starts out from a mess, dysfunctionally crippled because of humanity, but sometime down the road humanity arrives at something better, like fission reactors instead of fusion. 

Pluto arrives in Aquarius before Saturn leaves, barely, but as Saturn enters Pisces, we will immediately miss it having been in Aquarius. We got the better side of Saturn while it was in Aquarius. In Pisces, Saturn casts a shadow over dreams. Faith is replaced by duty. Choice is replaced by necessity. This will be a good time for hard work; trying to find self-definition won't come until Saturn enters Aries years from now. Pluto in Aquarius will ask us all to work together, and by necessity with Saturn in Pisces. Neptune will leave Pisces in a couple years to enter Aries and like Saturn in Pisces, Neptune leaving Pisces will be missed as its subtle power goes to sleep through the sign of Aries except by specific aspect, by inspiration.  Uranus will leave rigid Taurus and enter Gemini and fortunately for us all, while times may be topsy turvy, Uranus in air sign Gemini will make a happy aspect to Pluto in Aquarius, resulting in technological and scientific breakthrough ideas. These ideas will not restore lost fantasies of the past, they will reinvent the wheels of the future. 
 
This all plays out in the coming few years. 
David Wheatley, end October 2022

​David A. Wheatley has been a Fine Artist/painter since first exhibiting in Soho, New York during the 1970’s. David developed other talents first as a Tarot reader then extending into Astrological theory, a practice which lead to the development of ideas in his book, 2012 Before and After. Working occasionally as a full time Tarot and Astrological counselor, David grew familiar with many other related disciplines through the years that add great dimension to astrological traditions, including psychological perspectives and the development of quantum physics. David currently resides in Florida.

Contact David at davidfinearts@gmail.com for a personal astrological consultation.
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​There are two astrological events going on that interest me greatly; one is somewhat under the radar and one is going to cover the radar screen completely. 

​The under-rated under the radar aspect is where transiting Neptune is now in relation to where it is in the US natal chart (or where it was when the US was “born”.)
We are in a unique period where there is a Pluto return at the same time as a Neptune opposition to its natal position in the US chart. The Pluto return is opposite natal Mercury along the 2nd and 8th house axis. This clearly indicates a period of a couple years of major economic/financial challenges filtered through 9th house idealism. The most tangible manifestation of this is how supporting Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression is inflating the cost of living. That the causes are far away in another country is perfectly in keeping with the US 9th house position of Neptune. We remain in this moment into 2024. Are Americans willing to pay at the pump and more for everything else to help push back totalitarians in eastern Europe? This theme isn’t unique to the US but easy to see how this transit by Neptune is substantial in the US economy and therefore elsewhere. It doesn’t seem likely that western allies are going to back off this commitment however in America there are sympathetic voices to Vladimir Putin.
There’s also the darker side of Pluto in this. Being that Pluto’s return to its natal placement in the US chart is 2nd and 8th house, the 8th house hearkens back to investments made in the past and how well they serve us in the present. Investments of all kinds, not strictly financial investments. Diplomatic investments. Research investments. Emotional investments in our families and jobs.
Oil is something from the past, serving in the present. Oil is also involved in the powers that dominate corporate America (Pluto in Capricorn), and Russia.  These powers could ease the pain of inflation, however instead are reaping huge profits and not spending towards creating a more stable market in which prices for other goods could ease. This pressure will be undone as Pluto departs the return and departs Capricorn for Aquarius within the next two years. It will ultimately be up to the American voters to decide what their values are in the 2024 election after which these giant aspects diminish. They will vote based on their values to complete the transit of Neptune opposing the US natal Neptune.
The purpose of Pluto stirring up corporate conspiracies and exposing corruption in governments isn’t to make them become virtuous. Their purpose is to provide on an individual level the opportunity to examine and then act on what we believe in, to provide us and our electorate the opportunity to manifest their beliefs. Pluto can set up and expose corruption; it can create then undermine it.
The individual and national or collective will to establish values and then act on them is why we need to go through these stressful events. We have to prove what we say. The need to revisit and examine values is work that is never done. Since Pluto for example will move on into Aquarius doesn’t mean it leaves the government or political leaders it exposed as corrupt or corporations cheating, all neat and tidy, all repaired. It just means that the recent cycles of transits - which span decades and generations - are complete, and the next round of rebuilding will in time come due for another generation. We will do it all again probably, for other souls who need to face the same kind of decisions. This is a major overhaul questioning the founding principles of the US; it’s the first Pluto return in its history. Finding out that some things don’t work means we have to rewrite the rules. We definitely learned in the last five years that there are those who will operate outside the old established rules because they were not encoded law. But we probably need to face a crisis of dysfunction before some people will believe it. 

​Transiting Neptune opposite natal Neptune from Pisces to Virgo requires a brief bit of reflection on Neptune in Virgo’s character and as it is located in the US chart, in the 9th house. In Virgo, Neptune encourages belief in efficiency, establishing a reliable realistic base of optimism, not unrealistic pie in the sky ideas that lack planning. Writing down the Declaration of Independence and holding it up as something to follow for centuries is a Virgo kind of thing. With Virgo, on a soul level, is the acceptance that naivete is no excuse for failure. We have to begin to make concessions to the universe outside our personal bubble, finding the workable balance that is expected by the next sign, Libra. Virgo is the last sign of the first half of the zodiac where we begin to integrate more with everyone and everything else. The impetus that begins in Aries which was to have it our way acknowledges in steps sign by sign until in Virgo we arrive ready to lower the gate around our ego. This is the reality of the zodiacal virgin. She sacrifices some of her Self and in return the universe cultivates Itself within us.
 
In the 9th house is the possibility of noble well-informed intent with a religious sense of purpose, just as there is the possibility that these values are a load of croc. The problem in the 9th house is because we consider the belief to be sacred, we resist it ever evolving.

The burst of energy represented by the birth chart of the USA continues to be the chart of the lives being lived on this land at the moment, but it’s a very different set of circumstances. There is unfortunately a tremendous amount of tragic karma yet to be resolved that this country was built on. One of the things that helps to do that is recognition of the common interests of everyone living in it now to fulfill a shared variously defined idealism we agree to, and one of the realities of that is an economy that offers opportunities for its participants.
It’s a question of belief, not necessarily of reality.
Neptune thinks everything is real, it doesn’t separate fact from fiction. We have to sort it out and integrate what works down here on Earth because Neptune is far sighted and can’t see things individually up close isolated from each other. The expanse of Neptune’s perception is other worldly. It’s a valuable perspective to retain because we realize how silly some of our close-up obsessions are. But we live here on Earth to iron out some of the details, not spread ourselves thin across the seas of Neptune.
Neptune in transit opposing it’s US natal placement says hold on a minute, are we the majority in agreement of what we believe our valued goal to be? This is a period of confusion because not everyone agrees on what national value or ideals are, or what is fact or fiction. People don’t recognize how Neptune works or works in their lives because it is subtle, its impact seems vague. Neptune accepts everything one believes as fact, which is why people don’t recognize Neptune. It’s too obvious. Belief defines Neptune’s reality and we act on whatever it is.
 
The opposition from transiting Neptune in Pisces most of all dissolves the definitions of what is a valid belief or not valid. Belief was never fact; it was always a guess highly dependent on wishful thinking.

If we recognize that Neptune is a formless watery ocean that takes on whatever shape we pour it into, we also have to recognize that what we believe is going to look different depending on who’s looking at it. In that case we had better develop a common understanding of what we are looking at. Go from there. Up to now we had written and unwritten laws about what was a common national goal and standards of ethical behavior. But Neptune says, wait a minute, what happens when I remove that common belief? What happens when the doors swing open and anything goes? That’s about where we’re at. 

...​​Mars in transit catching up to Uranus, in Taurus. The Moon’s North Nodes, which are moving retrograde as they often do, will back up and meet Mars as it arrives to meet Uranus later in July, together into August.
Uranus moved into the earth sign Taurus a few years ago. As I and others have commented, Taurus, a literally down to earth grounded energy, is not a great place for Uranus. Uranus was the ancient sky god, not grounded, represented in the Tarot deck as the lightning bolt that knocked down the Tower of Babel. Uranus is the iconic ruler of the new age sign Aquarius, and was the first planet discovered because of the use of new technology at the time, the telescope. It wants unrestricted movement. Taurus is all about nailing things down, securing all the hatches, no loose ends. The combination of these two is that the potential energy of the Uranian lightning bolt is held in chains until something provokes a moment of release. At that time, potentially long held pent up energy is released. The release can be as a one-time thing or a series of expressions over the period of the provocation. In this instance Mars is the catalyst. Mars is also not at its best in Taurus; it also does not like being contained. Mars tends to react with a careless impatience when restrained. This is a combination suited well to any kind of breaking out of restraint:  breakthrough, eruption, breakdown, angry outburst, crash, breaking the rules without concern for the consequences good or bad, pushing through adversity, winning at all costs, frustration, earthquake, explosion.
If one has the ability to let this energy be expressed with discipline it can be used very constructively to achieve something long sought for, but this is no easy task. It’s drinking water from a fire hose.
The North Nodes add a little dimension to the events. They tell us that this is a hurdle that collectively and individually we have faced before and this time we have to make the step that’s been hard to do if we want to move forward in a healthy way. It’s an opportunity.
When late July comes around, and into early August, watch carefully not to lose your temper and if challenged to put the energy into finding resolution. Don’t throw something at the TV or break the Ming vase, although that would be better than taking it out on someone else or hurting yourself. Exercise but don’t try and set a record, unless you are a professional athlete in a competition. In that case you might win.  

By David A. Wheatley
​​https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html

​Still very much in the news internationally, there’s a lot of interest in the astrological charts of Vladimir Putin, Russia and the war on Ukraine. No one seems to have any doubts about the Ukrainian leader but those other charts stir endless speculation that fuel concerns for whole world. Each of those charts deserves an in-depth discussion but I won’t do that here and now, and will confine myself to an overview. 

Putin had conditions in his chart going into February that instilled confidence to make a major decision to launch a war, that confidence coming from Jupiter transiting through Pisces. Jupiter inflates or expands where ever it touches, and when it caught up with Neptune in Pisces the chemistry was truly historic. I say historic because the last time Jupiter was conjunct, or caught up, with Neptune in Pisces was the first Crimean War, ending in 1856. Russia wanted the Crimean peninsula to have authority over shipping lanes in the Black Sea.  Parts of Europe were against that, mostly France and Great Britain, as was the Ottoman Empire on the south side, Turkey.
Jupiter met up with Neptune again lately, this February through April. While together this time, they were joined by Venus, the Sun, Mercury and Mars. As I commented in an earlier review the expansive qualities of especially Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces are limitless insofar as the human psyche is concerned. Dreams and visions are very grand. But the reality came as soon as Jupiter departed.  Jupiter has now entered Aries, where patience is short for expecting reality to equal the vision. 

​It’s fine to envision a destiny ahead full of celebration and adoration. It’s good to create a path for success by imagining it, but if this singular self-serving vision clashes with much greater numbers and many other dreams, the shake-out can be a let down. 

Many people cultivate generating a positive attitude and envisioning their intentions as if that’s all they need to succeed. This would be true if one lived in a vacuum, where no one else and their intentions clashed with yours, as if the universe both seen and unseen is as pliable as a wet noodle waiting for our ego to shape it. There are innumerable intentions of living people, and those not living as well. The ongoing patterns in our societies established by our predecessors run on automatic pilot all around and through us. These are the customs, habits and expectations of a society. This is why doing charts for collectives - towns, cities and countries - can be informative. We can see currents flowing in the collective psyche that no one person has a handle on. We can see traditions and customs from the past run headlong into current trends and economic realities.
Pisces can be caught up in a universe of dreams that inspire bold moves.  Aries doesn’t wait for evolution, it wants results sooner.
I did a painting years ago of an individual surfing a surging cosmic tide in the human psyche. It was a kind of a Rorschach test; do you see the surfer leading the wave or is the wave taking the surfer?  We never have the full picture; it isn’t necessary, isn’t always helpful and is distracting. Our intellect often sees what we consider the full picture, but it is really only our picture. Our intellect dwells on itself, we are very subjective beings. Intuitive knowledge skips trying to intellectualize information in order to own it, to own all there is to know. Intuitive knowledge is knowing what you need to know without being held back by what you don’t know. 

In his moment of decision Putin believed what his intellect told him to believe. All his knowledge told him his purpose and his abilities were wedded to destiny, that he was making destiny. It’s going to turn out that destiny is using him, and his delusion will inadvertently serve humanity. 

Intuitively we accept in Astrological theory that in spite of what we do not know, there are innumerable patterns and repeating cycles that are reliable for grasping the outline of how our psyche works. The solar system is our psyche: an organic body filled with properties and value just as the human body is filled with organs and structure. For better and worse we are barely aware of how much the psyche knows.  It works mostly behind the scenes leading us from pillar to post. There’s too much to know while at the same time be finite beings in an Earth body. “All knowing” is incompatible with our conscious abilities; we are designed to have most of our knowing outside consciousness and then to seek it by experiencing life.  We rely on the imposition of limits and structure, embodied by Saturn, in order to build something constructive and useful with our small capacity Earth consciousness.

​Putin’s vision of his place in Russian history is naturally a subjective one within his ego. He probably envisioned that he was seeing everything as it really is, though to launch a war under the umbrella of the conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces is guaranteed to be at the height of self deception. He sees everything rotating around him. What we know of his advisors is they were not giving him accurate intelligence reports; they were protecting their employment and telling him what he wanted to hear, reinforcing his delusion. From a cosmic view much greater than Putin's, the collective psyche is fine with that. It will use his conviction to act, as he is one small actor in a larger play. The collective psyche uses everything towards its own ends, including the delusions of mortals. 

​The visionary expansion Jupiter promised when it entered Pisces' realm of dreams and then conjuncted with Neptune is deflated when it enters Aries, followed by Mars and Venus also entering and leaving Pisces, and entering Aries. Aries wants to be real. Aries isn’t interested in the full story or details; it just wants to get things done. 

​Another factor is the influence of Saturn which always seeks clarity of vision. Saturn pushes away the flowery distractions to focus on organizing lines of energy in order to be more efficient... over Time. The Jupiter Neptune conjunction in Pisces inspired Putin’s belief in the fantasy he harbored, but the air has gone out of that balloon. This is a huge shift in the forces around Putin penetrating his dream and forcing adjustments. Part of this adjustment pushing into his vision began last year when Saturn began to move into the square aspect to Uranus. It ebbed off with the retrograde motion of Saturn, and returns over the coming summer months to peak in October. The Jupiter Neptune party was an interlude in the weakest months of the Saturn Uranus aspect, but it has done its job. The inspiration Putin acted on isn’t doing Russia or anyone else any good short term, but longer term it will produce a wave of very positive results for the region and the world. 

​Saturn respects hard work more than big dreams. Saturn respects careful preparation in a well informed context. Saturn respects disciplined long term effort more than periodic flashes of inspired surges. Saturn rewards what it respects with results. It always yields consequences, both welcomed and not. Saturn can become overbearing and suffocating, and in those moments other planetary tendencies can break the overbearing structure, (Uranus). This year got a lot of attention for Jupiter in Pisces but really the main act is Saturn in Aquarius locked in a square with Uranus in Taurus. Once this relationship has played out, the stage will be set for a major shift when Pluto finishes its work in Capricorn and moves into Aquarius. For now though we stand at the crossroads between the agents of order and disorder:  Saturn and Uranus. The son and the father in mythology who while they see the world through completely different lenses and their conflicts create distress, ultimately will both make the next major steps in social evolution possible. 

As May folds into the summer months, Saturn continues to grow in tension in Putin’s natal chart, moving into a tighter opposition to his natal Pluto. By the fall of the year the aspects orchestrated by Saturn's climactic opposition will begin to fade, whether or not its lessons have been learned or by how much. Saturn doesn’t wait for the individual to “get it” - there’s a lot of moving parts and if the individual doesn’t get it they can have a whack at it again some other time.
Earlier this year Jupiter transited Putin’s natal chart in a favorable relationship/aspect from Pisces to both natal Venus and Jupiter. These aspects contributed heavily to making his decision to "liberate" Ukraine. Putin is a Libra. He has Mercury, Neptune and Saturn in Libra at birth along with the Sun, conveying a belief that he can charm others, that he believes in the illusion of control as a masterful manipulator. Jupiter, working for higher purposes, inflated his belief in being the hand of destiny.
However, Jupiter’s series of aspects to his natal cluster in Libra, while a brief flirtation with Putin’s impending immortality, pales in comparison to Saturn’s over-arching transit in Putin’s natal chart. Saturn is in a growing tighter opposition to his natal Pluto. In the bigger picture any grasp he imagined he had over others is itself part of greater forces that incidentally remind him that he is not immortal, he is like everyone else a flicker of a flame in the hand of destiny, not destiny itself. There are much greater forces at work than individual intentions. 

Putin’s natal Pluto is in his 10th house as Saturn transits from his 3rd house briefly and then into his 4th house, opposing his natal Pluto.  Putin will learn true perspective in a very public way with natal Pluto sitting in his 10th house. His Tower of Babel collapse will make a spectacular splash in front of the world. Pluto brings major transformations. As a tool of life, the transformations Pluto brings sometimes come with death. There are many kinds of death, of ideas, beliefs.
This transit from Saturn opposite his natal Pluto will wane by the end of the year, as Saturn leaves Aquarius early next year and moves into Pisces. That’s two major events with Saturn that are peaked now and wane by the end of the year. This should tell us something about the transitions ahead early next year.
Along the way, Saturn moves into Putin’s 4th house, a changing emphasis for his chart from strategy and planning to trauma in his personal sphere. It is bringing the specter of Saturn’s cosmic scythe into his personal home, shaking the foundations of his self image. Saturn arrived there on the cusp of his 4th House in April, and by retrograde motion will hit again over the summer. This is a harsh reality hitting home. Putin will face severe limits and restrictions in his personal life and may even be confined to it. In the western world, politicians sometimes tell the public they've decided to spend more time with their families when they have to duck out of leadership. Putin will be sticking close to home, insulating himself. 

​Fears harbored by others reading into Putin have reached the contemplation of whether he would feel forced to use nuclear weapons, since Pluto is the planet of the nuclear age. On the atomic level, life is transformed with Pluto, discovered in the solar system at the onset of the first use of the atomic bomb. These fears inhabit the darker areas of the psyche but never forget:  they are symbolic. There are many kinds of “death” where life continues, and many of them bring the positive side of Pluto which is regeneration into new life. The phoenix. However, Saturn is the major planet in the transits to his natal Pluto, and Saturn works with circumstances that impose limits, not rapid expansion which is what a nuclear bomb is.  This is not the kind of aspect that supports the use of nuclear weapons. 

What's happening to Putin over the summer is happening at home, his 4th house, and it's intensely personal.

Besides all this, Saturn is also transiting over Putin’s natal Moon’s North Nodes. The arrival of Saturn by transit stimulates a core belief he has held for a lifetime or even inherited from past lives: that he is important to the fate of his country. Pluto was on his South Nodes at birth. Saturn temporarily on the North Nodes tries to bring his perspective around to seeing in real terms what it is he can do with his life while he still has it. This is where we imagine our contribution to the society we owe allegiance to. A good student of history knows that if we don’t decide that, other people will. If Putin refuses to be conscious of or see the truth of it, life will use him anyway. He is being used by layers of intelligence within the collective psyche. For him this is a possible awakening that introduces added insights to what he had assumed to be his purpose. There’s still time to learn. He will be used as a force for positive evolution, though the method of the darker side of Pluto is extremely painful. He is incidental as all leaders are, though he imagined himself something greater as many do. Anyone born within several years of Putin has Pluto in Leo and can easily believe in their essential value to the world to an exaggerated level.  While we might ridicule this fantasy, it’s also the belief in it that fuels some individuals to achieve great things.  Who can say what the values are? 

​Jupiter by transit will oppose his natal Sun/Mercury/Neptune/Saturn early next year. If in the year that’s just passed he has gained realistic insights and perspectives, this transit could be very beneficial to us all. If not, then it’s likely he tries to do it all over again. But that would fail even faster. It will be a question for him of going out on a high note or repeating the past.  If he is up to it. 

There’s a belief in Astrological conversation that when Pluto finally departs Capricorn we will be done with autocrats, or even more ironically, plutocrats. Plutocrats are authority figures whose power stems from enormous wealth, generally acquired by disreputable means. For that to happen to all of them I think the world would have to change incredibly radically, in ways that drown the small fish as it swamps the big ones. There are autocrats in the public consciousness who may fall from power; Putin is certainly one of them. There are others with their necks in the noose now. Some of the countries neighboring Ukraine and Russia who still labor under autocrats pretending to be saviors will get caught in this wave when Pluto finishes up with Capricorn.
Often when a major planet changes signs, big things happen in the world and circumstances we grew accustomed to that are no more permanent than a flower bed disappear, and people seem amazed because they had grown accustomed to them. Pluto moving into Aquarius is an interesting subject for another day, it’s not done yet in Capricorn. 

​Zelensky continues to have a strong chart until a year or more from now when a threat or attempt on his life is in the air. 

​The astrological chart for Russia faces some interesting transits in the coming year but one in particular stands out to me. As Jupiter transits through Aries with a brief retrograde back into Pisces, it will move into Russia’s 9th house and oppose Russia’s natal Saturn, squaring both Mercury and Pluto, forming a grand cross. Jupiter’s move into the 9th house suggests a shift into admitting foreign influence from “others”, 11th house Pluto and 5th house Mercury. No doubt Russia will need some rebuilding after suffering the attrition of their ill-advised war on Ukraine. The only place it might come from is China and while I haven’t looked at the chart for China yet, most of us can easily imagine a growing investment in Russia from China. Several years ago China began building a gas pipeline jointly with Russia. It faces enormous obstacles and is not yet completed. Until this pipeline is completed the EU remains Russia’s best customer for its natural gas. Both China and India currently buy Russian gas which is shipped by tanker. Their interest in Russian gas is long term. Possibly this upcoming transit from Jupiter in Russia’s chart is in regards to an advanced state of investment with these countries and acceptance in Russia of foreign influence, particularly Chinese.  

​Jupiter definitely brings opportunities and opens the door for us to walk through. Sometimes we easily pass through and sometimes we need some help making steps. The difference between what Jupiter and Venus can do is that Venus (as one of the inner planets being inside the orbit of Jupiter and the asteroid belt) is more tangible and seeks more tangible experiences in our conscious lives, not hidden. Venus, like the other inner planets Mercury and Mars, seeks integration into our lives. Mars does it forcefully, Mercury does it with an abundance of thinking and talking. Venus attempts to do it by feeling it:  we experience, we taste what Jupiter brought to the table and our hopes are that it’s going to be almost intoxicating as we believed. It could be true; things can be intoxicating when Venus so immediately follows up Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces.  And as a separate matter, the experience is real. We feel it.  What we feel may not be the truth we held, but it is real.

​Some tangible examples are things like realizing that Covid is not only not gone but surging.  As of this writing there are a little less than 400 people per day still dying of Covid and over 42,000 cases reported daily in the US, with many cases not reported because of the purposefully deceptive reporting mechanisms of some States. Covid deaths are still happening. Like it or not these numbers will climb, Pluto has turned retrograde in Capricorn and isn’t done yet with its activities there in recent years, Covid being one of them. The darker side of a war between truth and belief in American politics is another example. 

​While the EU nations mostly felt inspired that Ukraine was going to survive the Russian assault and that the Russian assault was revealing important Russian military internal weaknesses, there are truths about both sides that will begin to force an acceptance of unwanted realities. Putin’s dreams of restoring a semblance of the former Soviet Union through brutal force will face unwanted realities that his vision can’t control or overcome. For a few months he believed he could defy gravity but gravity only took a holiday; it’s still on the job.
​For Ukraine and its supporters, the reality becomes measuring the costs of support and what is now required to make their visions more manifest. Actions speak louder than words and not all of them are in Piscean harmony because while in Ares, Jupiter and Mars are not as interested in the process of imagining. They are seeking resolution, pushing for a clash of realities in order to sort it out and get to what the stronger reality is. It’s not just a question of who has the stronger will, but of what can actually be done - that’s reality.  Support of Ukraine from other countries could move from standing by and supplying arms to something more confrontational, more Arian. While this play of nerves might unsettle a lot of people it could also be the shortest route to ending the clash of hopes that’s currently devastating Ukraine and the escalating costs from the Russian military, because it forces the participants and their supporters to deal with realities that in the past couple months they didn’t have to. Jupiter and Mars in Ares are a dramatic departure from their time in the previous few signs, especially when in Pisces.
The climax at the end of April into early May - the transition from Pisces owning center stage to then having to share it with Ares - is a clash of two very different actors in their roles brought out in the open. Jupiter and Mars moving into Ares symbolizes the desire to make the visions of recent months become realities and the willingness to raise the level of drama to whatever is required to make it happen…... because the costs of prolonging the recent state of success/failure are forcing an effort to impose an ending. Many of us will transition from accepting certain realities of recent months to wanting to shape them more.  Make things happen. 

​The Sun, Moon and Mercury are joining Uranus and the Moon’s North Nodes in Taurus. These are all factors in facing the costs or paying the bills of recent months. Uranus being the more potent planet in this group brings in the sudden upset, the lightning strike, of bypassing the fancy footwork to find a shortcut to success. It can also bring an ingenious solution which could be deliberate or accidental; either way it serves the over-arching design of evolution from the psyche. There’s an element of something happening out of control with Uranus, however this only applies in our conscious awareness. Unconsciously or from other levels of consciousness Uranus is bringing into manifestation something perfectly in step with who we really are. While we preferred not to deal with things so directly, we likely will ultimately find value in the post Piscean way.
Uranus can be the only way we get some things done because of restraints we placed upon ourselves. Remember though that this group are in Taurus. Uranus according to its nature wants freedom of expression anytime any place. Taurus tethers all energy to the ground, Mother Earth, and insists on any expression having value in supporting life. Taurus attempts to tie Uranus to the ground full time, and make it behave, and for much of its time in Taurus, Uranus will be restrained. When it has moments of occasional release due to the activation of other planets in aspect or simply passing over it, Uranus has a brief opportunity to send out one of its lightning bolts:  a sudden shaft of illumination that potentially changes the view of the landscape, changes how we perceive ourselves in the environment. Uranus has a reputation for being somewhere in between tricky and dangerous, because changes we may really want or need come about by a lightning bolt provocation we are not in control of.  

by David A. Wheatley
​https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html

​The Crimean War which began under the last Jupiter/Neptune meeting in Pisces in 1856 lasted over two years and resulted in Russia losing to the European powers of the day. It's not accidental that the Piscean dreams of Russia's current leader, with his quasi historically based self-defined Russian pride, would fall into the same pattern as happens when Jupiter inflates Neptune's dreamy aspirations in Pisces for Putin and everyone else.
 
Patterns are what human behavior is all about and so too with Astrology, mapping the patterns over centuries no less day to day. Patterns of behavior while usually not conscious get repeated, passed on to others, adopted from others, intermingled like instruments in a band. Planetary motions stimulate and modify them and we only become aware of them when they surface as events in our lives. Our narrow immediate focus moves on to other demands and distractions as the patterns continue to be vibrating frequencies in our psyche. So it is with major planetary aspects that can appear to be active for several months, a year or two, even several years or more. Just because we are not conscious of them doesn't mean they are done. 

​Putin's chart shows aspects bolstering his confidence late last year right up into the present day. Those feeling of confidence lead him to continue to shape his destiny at others’ expense. The Sun, Neptune, Saturn and Mercury in Putin's natal chart in Libra are being fortified by a favorable trine transit now from Saturn moving through Aquarius, moving over his North Nodes this year. This began to have influence last year, and wanes by the Fall of 2022. That doesn't imply that the war lasts that long, but it does imply this is how long it could take as he persists or resists learning what this means in reality - if he can. It means his ongoing attempts to sell his vision to the Russian population. 
Jupiter and Neptune conjunct by transit in Pisces is putting air in our balloons. This shifts quickly when Jupiter leaves Pisces and enters Aries, in several weeks. But at present Jupiter/Neptune is in an inconjunct aspect to the same natal Libra cluster in Putin's chart. This inconjunct aspect is going to force reality into the dream.  The time will then arrive for a decision compelled by various realities. 

After seeing the supporting aspects from the Libra cluster in his natal chart and the confidence that it conveys, the key thing most observers of Putin's chart fail to appreciate or factor in is that natal Pluto is on his South Moon's Nodes, opposite his North Nodes which is where Saturn is presently passing over. Saturn is transiting and opposing his natal Pluto in Leo in his 10th house. This has a paper shredder effect on his 10th house image of himself, and the world sees through the fog of his vision. Putin’s natal Pluto on his natal South Nodes is a deep obsession with regaining something perceived to be lost - lost wealth, power or prestige or a desire for god-like power to transform others - when really what's being called for is a transformation of himself, and that is what will be the end result.
 
It's fascinating that Putin resonates with his native land to the extent that on this anniversary of Jupiter and Neptune meeting in Pisces almost at the exact degree as they did in 1856, he's sowing the seeds and laying down the fertilizer for his undoing, with a “take out the garbage” Pluto accent, at a time when he feels the confidence of the inner planets propping his sense of destiny up. It's a major setup and he is his own fall guy. 

Meanwhile other important things are occurring for example in the US natal chart. We are in the midst of a Pluto return as I have commented before. This began to register in the national psyche several years ago, and will continue to until Pluto departs Capricorn. The exact day of the conjunction of transiting Pluto to the US natal Pluto is not that important because of the breadth of its influence. Pluto doesn't depart Capricorn for good until late 2024, just in time to monkey with the presidential election. When it enters Aquarius in 2025 it will come with a major shift of feeling in our lives. Whatever the circumstances will be for a major shift at that time, it favors the mainstream move into things like a digital currency. When Pluto last shifted from Capricorn into Aquarius the newborn USA nation created its own independent hard currency, its own dollar. We know the circumstances that lead to that. I expect a shift to an Aquarian contemporary currency this time. 
 
Another major event occurring now in the US chart is Neptune transiting in opposition to the US natal Neptune. As it evoked at the birth of the US, there's going to be a generational shift of social consciousness, civil rights, etc. The opposition implies a struggle; reconciling our founding ideals with our current realities. Neptune like Pluto has influence long before it arrives at a critical juncture.  Years before.  It also will be in effect through the 2024 election in the US due to retrograde motion extending the transit. 
 
Neptune was in the 9th house at the time of this county’s birth - this country was born with 9th house high minded ideals and an unavoidable knowing of the failures to meet these standards. The current Neptune transit's opposition is calling for a hard review of those standards. The transit comes from Neptune transiting in the 3rd house, implying that we are having and will have more out-in- the-open dialogue about the ideals. There's a wide divide in the US at present circulating in our social consciousness, and unfortunately as we enter into the over blown multiyear period of endless presidential election preparation, the factions will take their corners and come out swinging. Racial and religious arguments will be offered to sway opinions. The natal chart is calling out for the challenges to be aired and refreshed.  It's up to the people, as it was when the nation was born. 
 
There's also another aspect of Neptune I'd like to suggest we be aware of. Neptune has many key associations including with vast metaphorical and literal oceans and water. Probably in the next two years we become very involved with the world's oceans in a challenging way because it is an opposition aspect. Learning the hard way.