This is the first of a series of three articles looking at Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, galactic ambassadors of change, as they guide and urge us across the threshhold at the end of time. What awaits us through the gateway of the new Celestial Day? Something unthinkable, unimaginable, leading us on in our journey down river toward the ocean …

Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth

Like the creatures from  Bach’s river bed, we are reluctant to change. We cling to what is familiar – even holding on to pain, hurt, woundings and injustice. We strive to keep the status quo because to change requires a lot of energy and the need to overcome a fear of the unknown … and yes, it is true that our docility and disinclination to change suits the few whose priveleged station relies on it. Our collective awareness is captured moment to moment with fearful media stories, and damning new ‘research’ – all conveniently keeping us just about as free as the cows in the field.

But many things are ending, and the ending of things always releases great surges of energy that manifest in the creation of new paradigms for life, like new young stars following a supernova, or the birth of a new and hopeful culture out of the ashes of a fallen one - perhaps establishing more spiritualised economies, and a heightened connection to non-material awareness.

Three planetary alchemical energies have influenced us for more than two hundred and fifty years, leading us here. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are the gods of alchemy, inspiring us to revolution and freedom, gifting us with insight and altered states, and ultimately igniting our transmutation to a perfected state. And to my way of thinking, they come as a package, like three wise kings.

Three magi once pilgrimaged toward a newly born child who would grow up to be a symbol of Cadduceus, an alchemical transmutation from the lesser base metal of low human nature into the pure gold of human perfection. Christ was the literal representation of this symbol at the moment of crucifixion.

Associated with healing and evolution, the cadduceus is an emblem of transformation and transcendence to the highest level of existence, as symbolised by the wings. In Hinduism, the process of inner alchemy is called yoga, or union. Union with the higher self, the Master. The Hindu kundalini sleeps at the base of the body’s pole, the spine, and it is now time for this flaming serpent to be awakened and ascend the spine to eventually reach the crown of the head. Thus the nature will be transformed to its highest - pure and perfect as gold. All dross, base metal, is sloughed off and transmuted by the inner alchemical fire. After this, nothing will be impossible …

The magi brought gifts to the child who would bring a great message to the world - gold, frankincense and myrrh. In this context, gold was associated with royalty, a king. But gold was always an alchemical symbol for transmutation and transcendence - and the gold of the magi clearly represents the alchemical transmutation of  human base metal into spiritual gold, pure and perfect.

Uranus brings sudden change, triggering the moment of transformation. It’s natal placing indicates openness to change and revolutionary desire brought on by sudden flashes of insight and shifts in consciousness. Once changed, we can never go back to the old ways of the past. Uranian energy overthrows the outworn, and revolutionises our way of being. It is the split-second crack in the structure of cultural, established order that opens the floodgates of change. It is the voice of god, a flash of clarity, the tipping point, the awakening power that leads you across the great water to new landscapes filled with new possibilities, the outworn half-life of the old world left behind. The Uranian energy is instantaneous, novel, and irreversible.

A mood of universal destruction and renewal has set its mark on our age.  This mood makes itself felt everywhere… We are living in what the Greeks called the “Kairos” – the right moment for a metamorphosis of the gods, of the fundamental principles and symbols.  This peculiarity of our time, which is certainly not of our conscious choosing, is the expression of the unconscious man within us who is changing.

In these times many are living lives they want no part of. Parental expectations, societal pressure, and the need to fit in and belong drive us to stick with a job we hate, unfulfilling relationships, and friends who do not know us. But what really matters is that most are now acutely aware of their false and limiting circumstances, and the awareness is becoming intolerable.

Great energies now engulf us, breaking down the old forms and releasing imprisoned energy, enabling us to release ourselves from the tyranny of containment and a prescribed life, and to leave behind an old form that has run its course. We are challenged now to move beyond our physical, material existence. To become of finer stuff. In the great times ahead we may struggle to define ourselves in this new world, this new Earth, far from the familiar denseness and slowness of the old exstence. But we will be free.

The magi bring their energies and gifts to bear, urging the turning away, then the falling away and dissolution of the old forms. The final transformation, slipping out of the heavy old overcoat that is an outworn paradigm, is now imminent. Some will cling to the old and familiar – like one imprisoned for so long he clings to his cell even after his shackles have been removed and the door unlocked …

There are birth pains, cries at the end of time. What is  beyond no one can know – but still we must go on, face this new portal and walk through. It is in a moment, the briefest moment, that transformation occurs …

The river delighteth to lift us free, if only we dare to let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure

Part two of ‘The Gods of Alchemy’ will focus on the mystical, inspirational and visionary gifts of Neptune. In the meantime, I wish you all an inspiring and liberating week!

Photo Credits: madison river, wyoming (HD Wallpapers) : DNA-Cadduceus (Profy): Adoration of the Magi, Lorenzo Monaco: Cosmos & Psyche Woodcut, Unknown

Quotes: Illusions (1977), Richard Bach; Undiscovered Self (1958) Carl Gustav Jung

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