I hope you are enjoying today's Mercury trine Mars. Our communication and our actions are now working together. And Mars is finally stationary direct after 11 weeks of retrograde motion! Over these weeks we likely have been responding to the unresolved stuff that has been coming up from our past actions, and now we can start directing our actions forward again.
Mars is turning direct sextile Orcus, our karmic consciousness, at 16 degrees Virgo. This is an empowering aspect, encouraging self sufficiency and resilience in the actions we take, and an ability to transmute the shadow we encounter into light.
As we develop spiritually, we learn to accept our shadow side as well as our public persona, welcoming the shadow encounters as important life lessons. We learn to upcycle these shadow areas. Upcycling is a process which takes something old and not working and lifts it into something new and useful.
There are shadow parts to everything, so, at the spiritual level, everything presents the opportunity to transmute shadow and produce a new more spiritual light-filled whole. Orcus enables us to salvage the usable parts of the shadow and turn the rest into energy.
Let's look at a case study to see how this Mars sextile Orcus aspect played out in someone's life, so we can understand how best to use it in our own lives.
Donna Cunningham was a highly respected astrologer, known for her ability to blend astrology with self-help techniques and psychotherapy insights. She had Mars in the first house in Leo, sextile Orcus in the 11th house in Gemini. She had a significant influence on modern astrology through her extensive writing and counselling work.
The sextile enabled her to help many people navigate their personal challenges by offering insights into their lives through the lens of astrology. She is noted for integrated astrology with psychological principles and self-help techniques. She focused on understanding how planetary influences could affect an individual's behaviour and emotional state. This holistic approach allowed her clients to gain a more comprehensive understanding of their challenges.
Her work often emphasised healing and transformation. She encouraged clients to look at astrology as a tool for personal empowerment, helping them to see potential paths forward and areas of growth. She also conducted workshops and lectures, providing interactive ways for people to learn about astrology and its application to their personal challenges. Her compassionate and practical approach made her a beloved figure in the astrological community.
She also authored numerous books and articles that helped demystify astrology for the general public. Her writing provided practical advice on how to use astrological insights for personal growth and problem-solving, making astrology more accessible and useful for everyday challenges.
Orcus is Pluto's brother, because they share the same orbit and are both in gravitational resonance with Neptune. And one of Donna's best known books is Recognizing and Healing Pluto Problems, in which she provides guidance on addressing and managing the intense and transformative energies we know are associated with Pluto.
In addition to self-awareness, emotional release, and letting go, one of the key strategies she suggests for solving Pluto-related issues is addressing the shadow side of our personality. She explains that these are traits or behaviours that are hidden or denied and confronting these aspects squarely and integrating them into a balanced self is vital for healing Pluto problems.
We know that one of the central themes of Pluto is empowerment and in the book she encourages us to reclaim our power by setting boundaries, standing up for ourselves, and transforming negative patterns into positive growth. We see the Mars sextile Orcus clearly in this advice on working with Pluto, transmuting his shadow into empowerment.
So in these days, as Mars starts to move forward, cultivate your shamanic ability to upcycle the problems you encounter into opportunities and positive growth.
Orcus - Mars Direct Special
One way to do that is to join our Orcus course which starts after the upcoming Venus retrograde. So, if you are inspired to embrace the shamanic power of Orcus this month, we've got a special offer to bring the numbers up on our 7am GMT Orcus Zoom sessions which are starting on April 20. The Orcus - Mars Direct Special gives you this course for the best price we have ever offered at the Uni.
Unfortunately the 7am session won't work for most of our US students unless you are a night-owl and live on the Pacific coast, but for the rest, you can still get a Last-minute Scholarship on the 9pm GMT Orcus Zoom sessions starting on April 19. This gives you the course for a third of the full price.
And remember this course has our new Tutor support program, which provides small group tutorials to help those students who need assistance to complete the assignments. Wherever you are with your understanding of astrology, our tutors can help you participate.
Join us if you can on Orcus and thanks for your work embracing these new aspects of consciousness.
Love and laughter
Alan
"Melissa’s teaching is both complimentary to Alan’s content and unique, as her effervescent personality shines a light for all to see the various aspects of the class in a cohesive manner. I would happily take another class with her." Mary Anne Pitt, USA
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