Cycles of life

Everything happens in cycles, where each ending is also a new beginning.

by Michelle Karén — 

Our occidental world is regulated by linear time. With the past behind us, the present where we now stand and a future yet to be discovered, conceptually, time resembles an arrow. Indigenous people use circular time, also called sacred time. Everything happens in cycles, where each ending is also a new beginning.

In astrology, this is confirmed by the fact that each planet has its own cycle. The Moon is the fastest of all. She takes only 28 days to return to the same position. The Sun, Mercury and Venus swiftly move around the Zodiac in about one year. Mars takes two years, Jupiter 12 years and Saturn 28 years. The so-called “transpersonal planets” — Uranus, Neptune and Pluto — are so slow that they are considered to be generational planets. Uranus completes a full revolution in 84 years, while Neptune needs 165 years to go around the 12 signs, and Pluto takes 248 years to reach the same degree in the Zodiac.

The Saturn cycle occurs twice in a normal lifetime, once around the age of 28 and a second time when we are about 56. The last visible planet to the naked eye, Saturn represents limits, obligations, duties, ambition, time, wisdom and karma. When it returns to the position it occupied at our birth, the structures in our lives crumble. We are given the chance either to rebuild the same house, a different house or we have no house at all. We can become masters of our own destiny and recreate our lives at will.

If we consciously realize the existence of this cycle, we become free to manifest what will most support the next 28 years of our evolution. Usually, around the age of 28, we get married if we were single, or divorced if we were attached, and we manifest our first masterpiece. At 56, we retire and either lose our zest for life or start a whole new career, chosen less by necessity and more from the heart.

Saturn entered Virgo in September 2007 and is remaining in that sign until July 2010. The requirements of Earth are a very active concern. We are becoming conscious of the disastrous consequences of our destructive habits as consumers. Conscious of global warming, we do our share to recycle and eat foods that are organically grown, thus respecting Earth’s balance.

The cycle of Uranus is the cycle of individuation. In our Western world, which idealizes youth, 84 can seem very old. If we only knew! When we ride this cycle consciously, by our 84th birthday, we liberate ourselves from the demands of society and show others the way and we inspire them to have the courage of their own personal identity. We are given a chance to fully embody our own truth and radiate our uniqueness that, in turn, can remove us from the cycle of rebirth.

Uranus has been in Pisces since March 2003 and will remain in that sign until March 2011. Scientists and mystics are starting to speak the same language. The universe we can measure, also measures us. Our observations integrate our thoughts and reflect our inner emotional state. We no longer live in a three-dimensional reality, but in a complex, multi-dimensional living organism that we dream into being.

Neptune’s cycle is the cycle of mystical awareness. We become one with the universe; we commune with all the kingdoms: the realms of the rocks, the plants, the animals and the angels. Unless we were to die after the age of 164, no one in a normal lifetime gets to experience a full Neptune return (Neptune in the sky returning to the exact same position it occupied at our birth).

It is the planet of psychics and people who see beyond the veil. It is the cycle of universal compassion, unconditional love and connection to music and poetry. It is also the principle of oneness and a deep inner understanding that nothing and no one is separate.

Neptune entered Aquarius in November 1998 and will remain in that sign until February 2012. We are witnessing startling discoveries, experiencing powerful premonitory dreams and accessing our subconscious like never before. Our intuitive and psychic abilities are growing almost naturally and revealing worlds behind the purely physical.

The cycle of Pluto is the cycle of passion, power and the exploration of the depths. It represents darkness, the magical and the metaphysical. Pluto turns everything in ourselves and our lives inside out. It is the principle of volcanic eruptions that transmute what is outgrown through the intense alchemical fire of regeneration.

Pluto entered Capricorn in November 2008 and will remain in that sign until November 2024. All the structures of society are dissolving. The stock market is crashing; companies that were not based in integrity are going under, and businesses are closing. We are being asked to completely reconsider the basis of our lives and to reevaluate what is important. As we simplify our lives, we are forced to become resourceful. This gives us the chance to create a new society, based not on materialistic principles but on spiritual consciousness.

We are truly living in extraordinary times. The Mayan Calendar ends on December 21, 2012, indicating not the end of the world, but the end of one world: a world of greed, darkness and violence. If we consciously use the planetary cycles, there are no limits to the miracles we can each manifest in our own lives and, by extension, for society, overall.

Michelle Karén is an astrologer, writer and conference speaker with a master’s degree in philosophy and a diploma from the Faculty of Astrological Studies in London. She is the author of eight books, including Astrology for Enlightenment. www.michellekaren.com.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 28, Number 2, Apr/May 2009.