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2014 Predictions by Jessica Murray

Seeing Beyond

The world is now under the influence of the epochal Uranus-Pluto square: the longest arm of the cardinal cross. Halfway through its peak period as 2014 begins, this transit has been putting the world through tumultuous changes since 2008. Its cosmic function is to bring toxic human patterns to the fore, in order that they be recognized and return the world to balance.

Uranus, now in Aries, is said to govern the relatively abrupt social changes that push groups into the future at a faster clip than they feel ready to go. This is the planet of revolution, in all senses of the word: radical ideas in science, politics, art, social policy and spiritual consciousness. Uranus’ geometrical relationship in the sky, right now, with the even-more-distant Pluto is symbolic of key issues coming to a head on planet Earth.

Pluto’s meaning is sometimes abbreviated to “the planet of death,” but it would be more accurate to call it the planet of death/rebirth. Plutonian Law dictates that the potential for destruction needs to be present in order for total transformation to occur.

As 2014 begins, the Uranus-Pluto square is waxing in strength, lining up with other planets to form complex configurations that signify relatively sudden breakthroughs (or, where these are resisted, breakdowns). In April and May the long-running square forms an exact grand cross with Mars in Libra and Jupiter in Cancer. This geometrical formation occurs around Earth Day, and represents one of the transit’s peaks.

Over the past six years Uranus, Pluto and their supporting transits have yanked out of humanity’s closet certain collective dysfunctions, whose repercussions will be keenly felt in 2014. Among these is the nature of global militarism (Pluto), whose postmillennial form is a mix of very old (e.g. ancient tribal/ religious quarrels) and very new (e.g. drones and digital surveillance).

The most noteworthy feature of today’s warfare is that it is becoming dictated by Earth’s diminishing finite resources. Although patriotic and racial themes will still be in play in the global conflicts ahead (e.g. Palestine, the Taliban), they are being replaced by a “scramble for what’s left” of the world’s resources in an age of climate change. The age-old tropes of national security and patriotic spirit will still be evoked by the world’s military establishments, but, increasingly, nationalism is eroding as a guiding idea.

Beneath the official narratives of the US and other wealthy powers, we will see increasingly bald power grabs for control over the minerals used in the electronics industry (e.g. in Africa, for columbite), over the last of the world’s oil (in the Middle East, where the Gulf states’ feudalistic petrocracies will continue to destabilize) and over access to clean water (e.g. the purchase by the petroleum industry of underground aquifers in the American plains). The age of oil wars is segueing into the age of water wars.

2014 will see increasingly strident competition between the ascendant Asian superpowers (China, India) and the financially chaotic NATO powers, and between the former Soviet states (e.g. the Ukraine) and the West. In the US and Europe, increasing numbers of the public will recognize the extent to which their taxes are funding undeclared military operations, as well as the burgeoning espionage and security networks. These disproportionate expenditures, combined with an increased awareness of income inequality, will radicalize many in the democracies of the West. At the same time, government-business forces will likely react with increasingly draconian measures to contain the threat of popular unrest, including the use of media (propaganda served up as entertainment/news) and domestic surveillance.

Along with a heightened polarization between the have and have-nots, the world will grapple with the dangers associated with climate change. Extreme weather events -- which, since the Uranus-Pluto square began, have come to be seen as the new normal -- will force a growing wave of concern over global pollution and fossil-fuel-based industrialization (China being the epitomical example), and ill-considered energy production (e.g. the Fukushima plant’s near-meltdown in Japan). We can expect the mass denial in the face of global warming to be increasingly undermined, and the benefic effects of such health-affirming trends as green energy, sustainable agriculture and locavorism to become more and more self-evident.

The grand cross of Spring 2014 will be especially intense for the USA, as the American chart’s own Sun-Saturn square fits tightly into the transits to emphasize the cardinal cross. The urgent issues of the times will exert tremendous pressure upon the old, decaying aspects of the American system, exposing its weak spots and rendering undeniable the need for deep-structure overhaul. It will be especially important for consciousness seekers to commit to their grounding exercises: whatever works to stay centered. Like lightning rods in a storm, certain individuals will experience a spike in aliveness and creativity in the midst of collective stress.

It is a premise of transpersonal astrology that dramatic events, even catastrophes, inspire surges of understanding. Disasters can be read as the writing on the wall where mass consciousness is concerned, and from the transits of 2014 we can infer that humanity will experience an enormous learning curve. The cardinal cross represents a chance for humanity to grow exponentially in spiritual maturity. The events that transpire during the year ahead will be no more or less intense than they have to be, to make that possible.

Ongoing transits are covered in detail on my website MotherSky.com. The blog discusses topical issues, and the Skywatch discusses personal and spiritual issues. My Facebook page, Jessica Murray - MotherSky Astrology, tracks transits on a day-to-day level. My column in DayKeeper Journal deals with changes in the USA.

About Jessica Murray

Jessica Murray has been an astrologer for more than 35 years. After studying psychology and linguistics at Brown University, Jessica moved to San Francisco in 1975. In addition to her private practice in astrology, she is the author of Soul-Sick Nation (Jessica Murray MotherSky Press, 2008) and At the Crossroads (2012), and a contributor to the anthology Transpersonal Astrology, edited by Armand Diaz, Eric Meyers, and Andrew Smith, Integral Transformation, LLC, 2013. Jessica offers lectures, a Skywatch, and a blog on her Web site MotherSky.com, as well as essays in The Mountain Astrologer and other publications.