While many people are familiar with the roles of the planets from the Sun through Saturn in providing insights into human behavior, the Outer Planets: Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, often remain enigmatic and misunderstood.

This is the first of a four-part series that aims to redefine the meaning and purpose of the Outer Planets, exploring their influence far beyond traditional interpretations.

Foundations for Reimagining the Outer Planets

It is important to recognize that the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, represent forces introduced into human consciousness long after the Sun through Saturn forces had been integrated into human mythology, including astrology. This suggests that it is necessary to be patient in developing concepts and descriptions for the outer planets and not assume we know all there is to know regarding these new archetypes. It will take time and patience for us to begin to understand the possible depths of understandings being presented to us.

New Processes for Humanity

These planets introduce new processes to humanity that have the potential to transform all our assumptions about who we are, why we are here, and what the nature of existence is. It is evident that everyone born into today’s form of astrology will have these outer planets in their horoscope, regardless of their readiness to understand the deeper meanings within them.

Therefore, we must accept that some people will be more prepared to grasp these deeper meanings than others. This possibility suggests that these three planets represent evolutionary processes that will ultimately affect all of humanity, but not all at once.

Universal Influence of Outer Planetary Forces

The forces of the outer planets will affect everyone in one way or another. This must be so because we are all born and have our existence here, and because we are all in this process together, whether we are ready or not.

Readiness does not seem relevant or important in terms of being affected by all the planetary forces. What now becomes important is how conscious we can become of these forces operating within us, because the more conscious we become, the more we can learn and grow from each life event we face.

Astrology has the potential of being an essential guide as it can help us understand these new concepts, especially when combined and integrated with related fields such as psychology, philosophy, and spirituality.

The Role of Traditional Planets

Sun through Saturn or personal planets rule the aspects of our everyday life as social beings living in a society. They help us build a positive ego so we can create a successful life according to our own personal abilities and nature.

These planets govern our place in society and the world, including the roles we play, the kind of partner we may select, our financial life, family, children if we have them, and how we develop a sense of purpose or meaning in life.

Establishing Ground in the World

This process represents how we establish our ground or base in the world in which we live. It defines not only how we can live successfully, but how success is defined. This must include all that we learn or absorb from our families, their traditions, as well as the history and culture of the larger society. It even includes our developing values and sense of worthiness.

This process is conformist by nature, as the absorption begins perhaps even before we are born, and certainly very shortly afterward. Rules of the game may be questioned, but at this point, only within an already existing framework or set of beliefs. Before the outer planets were discovered, the world was not ready for more than this. If a person posed serious issues outside the realm of the “normal and accepted,” they were often ostracized or killed. At best, they were regarded as being so strange that they would be easily dismissed.

The Nature of Programming

The ground of our emerging personality or ego is, for the most part, a kind of programming. Personality can be defined as the mental, emotional, and behavioral structure of a person living in a society, which acts as the primary lens through which one sees the world, and includes the belief systems that govern our present and future life, unless something new occurs.

Our personality also includes how we describe and explain the world to ourselves as we experience our life with its daily challenges. It often controls how we accept or reject new information when we receive feedback from others in our life and from life itself. But personality is limited by programming in that it tends to be regarded as true, simply because it has been true for so long by one’s limited circle of family, friends, and culture.

Limitation and Positive Aspects of Programming

Programming in this sense is a limitation as it acts as a cause for why we resist, or even fight against, new information even when it might be superior to the old viewpoints. Our resistance to receiving new information is a bias that is the natural outcome of programming. It is an automatic occurrence and usually develops without a person’s conscious awareness.

I still recall sitting in a graduate sociology class when the lecturer presented statistics to show that the most reliable way to know how a person will vote politically is by knowing how their parents voted. While this is hardly profound, it is a fundamental principle that both expands the nature of the ground of our existence and simultaneously introduces the nature of the outer planets.

Resistance to new information does have a positive aspect to it. It keeps society stable and allows people to take time to process new information. Programming is based on survival and is even part of the DNA of all homo sapiens. As adaptable as our species is capable of being, if necessary, it doesn’t mean that new paradigms of thought are going to be readily accepted, especially if they upset one’s sense of safety and survival. Yet, it can and does oftentimes hold us back from making the needed changes to our outworn beliefs and narrow ways of thinking.

Personal Experiences and Challenges

After earning my Master’s degree, I spent 12 years working in social service agencies before moving into a private practice that combined astrology and psychology. I hoped this shift would allow me to help people in a more meaningful way, but I quickly encountered a significant challenge: the deep resistance many people had to change. This resistance extended beyond behaviors to rigid belief systems and denial of the impact of their programming on their lives and relationships.

This experience led me to question why people struggle to see and address their own problems, even when they acknowledge them intellectually. I realized that this resistance, both in myself and others, was more profound than I initially understood. It drove me to explore how deeply ingrained beliefs and language shape our perceptions and block personal growth.

The outer planets challenge us to go deeper and broaden our perspectives, revealing just how layered and complex this process is. In the next article, we'll go further into each of these planets and redefine our understanding of their influence.

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ZODIAC 101

The Moon’s Evolution Through the Signs From a Transpersonal Perspective

By Carol Pilkington

In astrology, while the Sun sign often takes the spotlight, the Moon plays a crucial role in shaping our emotional world and instinctual reactions. As one of the "big three" in astrology alongside the Sun and Rising signs, the Moon governs the subconscious forces that drive our feelings, comfort zones, and survival instincts. Each zodiac sign influences the Moon's energy differently, affecting how we emotionally engage with the world. This article explores the Moon's placement across the zodiac, offering insights into the unique patterns and tendencies that shape our inner emotional landscape.

The Nature of the Moon: The Moon represents our automatic emotional and instinctive impulses and responses to the world based on programming and conditioning we absorbed throughout childhood. It is where our survival mechanisms get triggered as well as where our sense of comfort, emotional security, and safety are experienced. The Moon rules the changeability of one’s moods, feelings, and tendencies to react to external stimuli that are often primal and visceral. As one evolves, the knee-jerk proclivities to react are tamed, and one is able to respond with discernment.

Symbolism of Virgo – The Virgin

By Kimberly Maxwell

Virgo, which is Latin for maiden, is commonly known as The Virgin. In pre-Christian Greek culture “virgin” refers to “self-contained,” its root “vir” means strong. This representation of the virgin symbol suits the discerning Virgo better than simply “one who has not had sex.” As an earth sign ruled by Mercury, Virgo has as much appreciation for physical pursuits as it does for analysis and synthesis of information.

Various interpretations of the Virgo glyph correspond to the Virgo/virgin archetype. It resembles the letter M with a serif-like stroke turning inward on itself, invoking a stylized vagina and womb, symbol of cosmic generative powers and the emerging life force. The inward stroke further corresponds to the receptive, inwardly focused Virgo nature concerned with self-improvement, health and being of service. The M is said to represent the intestines, which Virgo rules, that govern how life energy is assimilated for optimum use.

In Transpersonal Astrology, Virgo holds a critical position as last of the “personal” signs related to self-development. At the threshold of the remaining signs representing self in relation to others, Virgo thrusts us into a crisis of transmutation wherein our very purpose must be re-oriented. Our conscious ego is called to be in a state of open-hearted readiness to participate in a greater whole and feel the impact of total relatedness.

The Virgo tendency is to recoil in fear or confusion or avoid being in this critical state by remaining distracted with constant busy-ness and mental analysis or smugly focusing on the imperfections of others. Yet, the one thing necessary for Virgo is the tolerance to allow this new reality to unfold, or as Dane Rudhyar wrote, “simply to be still and silently to bear the pressure of evolution, the inevitability of the metamorphosis.” What will occur, if we are willing, is the reconciliation of the opposites of self and other as the self-oriented ego is assimilated into the collective whole of Unity Consciousness for optimum use, without losing its distinctive gifts. This is the Great Work of the true Alchemist.

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