That most overused word, apocalypse. Alluding in theory to the destruction of everything, the ending of time, cosmological violence. And yet commonly applied to any old scene of horror: a shooting, a mudslide, the boat capsized in a flood.
What if apocalypse doesn’t mean what we think it does. What if there is no end, only successive unveiling? Apocalypse is not ‘the end of the world’; it is the peeling back of the world’s veneer, to expose the raw stuff inside. It is another lens for our consciousness to pass through, a seal to break, an alchemic transformation from which there is no going back. The difficult things that come our way, things as great as a birth and as small as a breakdown on the side of the road. Things as simple as a song.
Today, as we journey towards an expensive Sagittarian full moon, all inner planets are direct and Mercury is about to cusp back into his home sign of Gemini. Venus, in her Taurean glory, is conjuncting Uranus to give us a new angle on luck and love. Mars, Jupiter, and Chiron all share the first half of Aries, a primal fire burning at the heart of the moment. Life is happening at pace.
But just beyond these warmer climes, the great lord of time Saturn stationed retrograde last week, and it is as if he is peeling back the roof of our house as we go about our busy lives, exposing us to the beauty and the terror of the vastness of sky. In his power in the latter third of Aquarius, we are witness to the full scope of the repercussions of the sins of the father, and the glint of a future that feels increasingly cold and inhuman, mechanistic and cruel. The economy is pulling back in many different ways, and so are relationships, movements, and, if you’re like me, automobiles. Be ready for these breakdowns that turn into breakthroughs if you have the courage to see them though.
Another world is possible - indeed it already exists, a turtle to the harebrained pace of so-called modern life. It’s invisible to most, save for those who have faced down internal apo-kalypso (lit. ‘to remove the covering’) and stepped through their personal portal on to the other side. But we can lean in to the love of life and nature, (expressed by Venus’ journey through Taurus), and it’s revolutionary capacity (her conjunction today with Uranus) as a counterpoint to the soulless shifts of Saturn and the encroaching reality of a silicon intelligence.
The greatest things in life are patient, growing, subtle. As Gemini comes to full bloom with tricksy Mercury rejoining the Sun, we can remember and reclaim the wildest part of the nature of magic: that any old being can do it. It belongs to us all, and we have the opportunity to be our own alchemist, transmuting pain and challenge into growth and peace.
Let the full moon of big dreams rise above. Let the mighty summer sun finally dawn.
With love
Samu