I've got a new handle on X: @theXastrologer. Quite pleased to have got that one before anyone else took it. 😀 You can find me on threads and instagram as the_x_astrologer.
GENDER and THE SACRED
If something occurs that is unusual, then for indigenous people it is sacred, because it takes us out of the ordinary and the everyday. So lightning is sacred, dangerous animals and poisonous plants are sacred. And so are the Two Spirits, those unusual people who feel themselves to be both genders, though being of one biological sex. For Native Americans, it has always been accepted that some men want to live as women, and vice-versa. These people are looked to as leaders and healers, because they have both gender perspectives, each to a high degree.
It
seems to me like such a mess. We have taken a gift from Spirit and
turned it into a curse, and an epidemic amongst teenagers who do not yet
know who they are. And we have also reduced it to sexual orientation,
when it is about something much broader: 'gay' is a wholly inadequate
term for what I am talking about.
There is maybe a lesson here in what happens if you try to make the sacred ordinary.
There is a difference between a man living as a woman, and a man
claiming he has become a woman. The former has an element of the sacred,
the latter is a violation of nature, of what is possible, and people
are not necessarily prejudiced to feel repelled by it.
The
quest for the other gender is natural in both men and women in the
second half of life, if not earlier. I deal with it regularly in the
astrology readings I do. Men are seeking Venus: learning to listen, to
themselves and to others. And women are seeking Mars: no more
people-pleasing. It is a sterotype because it is so commonly the case.
And it is not just about adding on new pieces to the personality. It is a
soul journey to the divine feminine or masculine. Mars in a woman does
not look the same as in a man, it is not about becoming like a man, it
is about something different and bigger: there is an archetypal, sacred
dimension to it. And the same for Venus in a man. It is a compelling
journey of the Spirit. We find these opposites on the East-West of the
Medicine Wheel, the Blue Road, the road of Spirit, that is not under our
control. It is about gifts of Spirit that become our inner path.
People
for the most part need simple categories with which to understand the
world. The sacred moves us out of this black-and-whiteness, but it needs
to be approached with caution, or you'll frighten the horses. With our
transgenderism, we are trying to make the sacred normal, and it has
resulted in dogmatism on one side, and revulsion on the other.
I
am thinking out loud here, because I don't think there are any easy
answers. But I think there is a case for doing away with surgical
transitioning, which I think is the literalising of a spirit gift.
And for people who want to live as the opposite gender to be seen as
part of a sacred calling, as monks and nuns are. We have, by and large,
done away with the sacred, and that is perhaps a big part of the
problem.
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Saturn
is still getting used to not being the boss planet, since the advent of
Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. He keeps his job of providing form and
boundaries and making stuff happen, while the outer planets get on with
deeper alchemies. But Saturn frequently messes up by not yielding,
creating madness, addiction and terror respectively, or variants
thereof.
I am thinking of the current transit of Saturn through Pisces. This sign is ruled by Neptune, and the transit involves giving form to the formless. That is not easy, because Pisces is not tangible. If you can open yourself to channelling the whole universe - not my Will but Thine - then you are in with a chance. More than a chance: this is as powerful as it gets. But it probably takes many years to be an adequate vehicle for this kind of energy, and not attempt to appropriate it as one's own. It is great for divinatory astrology, and it is interesting that I changed the name of this group under this transit.
Boris
Johnson is a good example of natal Saturn in Pisces. He could win
elections, because he could communicate a collective vision, whether or
not you agreed with it. But on a personal level, he had little in the
way of discipline, and that was his downfall. With his second Saturn
return underway, he is experiencing the consequences of his actions, via
censure from Parliament. I think this illustrates quite well the 2 ways
this placement can go.
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Men
need to yield to Venus; women need to claim Mars. This can be catalysed
through relationship. It is the anima/animus journey that Jung writes
about.
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Ad break: I offer astrology (and tarot) readings on zoom, by donation. For a free reading, purchase my astrology book 'Surfing the Galactic Highways' and leave a genuine rating on Amazon. It has some great reviews, and is also suitable for relative beginners.
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As
astrologers, we are essentially helping people find their genius. And
to see Fate as a living, guiding thing, that enchants the universe by
showing us that it knows us: through the chart, all those gods with
their callings on us. And the difficult process of incarnating them:
Saturn.
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Astrology shows us that we belong to the universe, not to ourselves. As such it is a remedy for modern individualism. Politically, it would tend to lean us towards responsibilities (transpersonal) over rights (personal).
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