Four days ago, the explosions shaking our world came closer to home for those of us in the U.S.  It was exactly one week into a 21-day road trip through late Aries and early Taurus that Mars and the Sun are making.  These two are the fieriest planets in our solar system, and when they team up, what gets unleashed is firepower.

Venus and Neptune: Open the Heart, Heal the Wounds

Now, just past the mid-way point in this journey, the Cosmic Warrior and our Star are in the last degree of Aries.  Taurus, the ancient sign of the fertile, abundant earth, is just one degree away.  Venus is waiting there. In today’s early hours, as a massive manhunt swept through the locked-down city of Boston, the Cosmic Feminine created opportunity with Neptune the Mystic.  As Venus sextiled Neptune–himself aligned with the enchanted mystical energy of the great star Fomalhaut–she invited hearts and minds across the planet to open to the healing power of Love.

As a manhunt sweeps through a locked-down Boston at the end of a week of exploding fire, Venus and Neptune open our hearts to the healing energy of the Cosmic Heart. Green, the color of the fields of the Earth and her sign of Taurus, is also the color the heart chakra.

As a crowded Aries sky turned into a firestorm on the day of the Boston Marathon, two things happened.  One was that Mercury, the Cosmic Messenger, joined the Sun, Mars, Uranus, and Eris in Aries.  The other was that Venus and her energy of relatedness  left the fieriest sign in the sky and moved into Taurus.

In the U.S., two young men carrying duffel bags filled with bombs turned the Boston Marathon into a nightmare.  In multiple cities across Iraq, bombs killed hundreds and injured more.  A fertilizer plant exploded in Texas.  And as the Sun entered the last degree of Aries, evidence of Syria’s use of chemical weapons was presented to the U.N.

Mercury Conjunct Uranus:  A Breakthrough in Consciousness?

As Mars and the Sun move through the final minutes of the last degree of Aries, Mercury the Messenger moves into the same degree of Aries as Uranus, the Cosmic Awakener. Together, they signal the possibility of the  breakthrough in consciousness we desperately need.

In the last two months, we’ve been through an extraordinary energetic immersion.  From late February to mid-March, the most potent Pisces sky we’ve seen in centuries dislodged firmly rooted perceptions and certainties and brought long-forgotten memories floating to the surface.  Across this water-soaked world the firestorm of recent weeks has raged.

Now, all we’ve felt and seen is getting grounded.  The Sun, Mars, and Venus are now in Taurus, the sign of the fertile, abundant earth.  Venus sextiles Neptune, allowing us to gather information through a process much like psychic osmosis.  And Mercury the Messenger moves into the same degree as Uranus, the Cosmic Awakener. This meeting could have various outcomes.  We could have a disruptive, unsettling conversation. We could have an accident. And we could have a breakthrough in consciousness.

A Taurus Reunion

In Taurus, such a breakthrough would almost certainly include a heightened awareness of the Earth as the matrix of life.  This is the destination of the Sun and Mars.  The cosmic road trip that began in fiery Aries will end in earthy Taurus.  Anthropologist Alberto Villoldo writes of the link between our connection with the Earth and the out-of-control Mars energy that has scourged our planet not just for a few weeks, but for the last few millenia:    

“When the first chakra is disconnected from the feminine Earth, we can feel orphaned and motherless. The masculine principle predominates, and we look for security from material things. Individuality prevails over relationship, and selfish drives triumph over family, social and global responsibility. The more separated we become from the Earth, the more hostile we become to the feminine. We disown our passion, our creativity, and our sexuality. Eventually the Earth itself becomes a baneful place. I remember being told by a medicine woman in the Amazon, “Do you know why they are really cutting down the rain forest? Because it is wet and dark and tangled and feminine.”

Into the Eclipse Season

This possibility for breakthrough, as the Sun and Mars join Venus in the sign of the Earth, comes not a moment too soon.  We’re just days away from a lunar eclipse in Scorpio next Wednesday.  The first eclipse of 2013, on April 25, opens a power-packed eclipse season.  Instead of two eclipses, we’ll have three between April 25 and May 25–with the third of Uranus’ and Pluto’s world-changing squares coming on May 21.

Lunar eclipses bring things to conclusion and completion.  They bring the endings that need to occur before the new can begin.  In the month ahead, we’ll see many things come to an end—the things that need to conclude so that the new beginning can come, for each of us and for all of us.

The Flow of Grace Is Calling YOu

Because what’s just ahead is grace, a rushing river of abundance and blessing.  July brings a rare and auspicious grand trine in the water signs.  Jupiter will be in Cancer, the sign of his exaltaton. Neptune is in his own sign, for the first time in 165 years. Joining them in an unimpeded flow of energy will be Saturn, whose function is to draw energy from the forlmless into form.  Eleven days after this Grand Water Trine between the Blessing Giver, the Dreamer, and the Lord of Form perfects, a Star of David will form around it, with Venus, the Moon, and Pluto filling in the Earth signs.

This is a profound opportunity for creating the harmony, healing, and prosperity that we dream of.  We haven’t been taught that the Love that holds the Universe together can heal all that is broken and crazed in our world. We haven’t been taught that we have the ability to connect with the Universe and join in creating the good future for all that lives. We haven’t been taught that we are part of the Universe, that we carry the Universe within us.  What we haven’t been taught by our culture, though, is now being shown to us. Our part is to open our eyes, open our minds, and open our hearts.